Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Robert Hunzicker discusses the galling juxtaposition between unprecedented heat and a set of U.S. policy choices which could hardly have been designed to exacerbate matters more. 

- Brett Wilkins points out how major corporations have been able to leverage lobbying costs into avoiding any taxes which would result in their supporting the public interest. And Jake Johnson notes that the two businesses which have inflated Elon Musk's wealth into trillion-dollar territory are among those which loudly proclaim they're avoiding any tax contributions. 

- Robert Reich points out that Elon Musk's wealth accumulation model bears absolutely no resemblance to the theoretical ideal of being rewarded for delivering products to consumers - as it instead relies almost entirely on a combination of hype and public subsidies. And Claudie Moreau reports on the U.S.' blocking of two Anthropic AI models as showing the dangers of relying on the whims of a regime determined to enrich cronies and punish anybody who doesn't fall in line.  

- But in case anybody thought Canada was maintaining an "elbows up" stance toward the threat to our south, Todd Coyne reports on yet another example of Mark Carney tying us even more tightly to the Trump regime, this time by joining in a U.S. Pacific military exercise for the first time since Stephen Harper was in power. 

- Finally, Dougald Lamont discusses how the cottage industry around attacking internal "trade barriers" in the name of general deregulation is based entirely on laughably false assumptions. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Cathy Young and Cas Mudde each discuss how the Trump regime's "national security strategy" is based on pushing cronyism and bigotry over democracy and security - and seeking to impose that same prioritization on every country it can. 

- Meanwhile, Emmett MacFarlane writes that Trump has found an eager fellow traveler in Danielle Smith as she wields the notwithstanding clause at every opportunity to attack minority rights. And Saima Desai reports on the growing movement of unions and trans advocates fighting back against Scott Moe's discrimination against trans youth.

- Max Abelson et al. offer a detailed look at the documented connections between Jeffrey Epstein and numerous corporate and financial bigwigs. And Pema Levy discusses how Republicans are trying to give dark money even more power to manipulate American elections, while Phil Weiser and Javier Mabry note that it's possible to fight back through citizen intiatives at the state level. 

- Natasha Bulowski reports on Mark Carney's latest plan to hand power to the corporate class by allowing it to embed employees in the federal government, while Adrienne Tanner discusses how Carney has made a cynic out of her (and many more) in handing over climate policy to the fossil fuel sector. And Emma Arkell reports on Quebec's legislative attacks on the labour movement. 

- Rhoda Feng reviews Tim Wu's The Age of Extraction as a needed reminder of the rent-seeking business model behind the our tech overlords. And Judd Legum writes about the casino-fication of news as the next frontier of converting flows of information into profit centres. 

- Finally, James Hardwick writes about the reality of Canada's housing bubble - and the desperate need for large-scale social and not-for-profit housing to improve anything.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Katelyn Burns notes that U.S. Republicans have made clear that they're far more aligned with hard-right parties abroad than the balance of their fellow Americans, while Jason Beeferman and Emily Ngo expose the rank bigotry which has been unleashed as the Trump precedent leads racists to think they'll never face consequences for their hatred. Rachel Gilmore and Susan Delacourt each discuss how Pierre Poilievre is acting even more like a mini-Trump as he seeks to ingratiate himself with the extreme right in advance of a leadership review. And Euan Thomson points out that the Moe government is funneling money toward private and puritanical Alberta-based "recovery centres" rather than investing in the well-being of patients. 

- Niall McGee reports on Tim Hodgson's declaration that the Carney Libs are just fine with the U.S. taking over critical mineral supplies in Canada even as the Trump regime threatens to annex us. Xavi Richer Vis reports on the priority access being granted to energy and mining lobbyists while everybody else is kept out of Carney's orbit. And Linda McQuaig writes that Carney's plan to prioritize military spending that ties us even more tightly to the U.S. will do nothing but leave us poorer and more divided.

- Dean Baker writes that the artificial intelligence bubble is only getting more dangerous as the U.S.' economy increasingly consists of little more than a bet on counterfeit value. And Joe Wilkins notes that scientists are finding AI to be less reliable the more they use it. 

- Finally, Bhavini Gohel discusses how wildfires and other climate disasters result in intolerable pressures on health care systems. And Julia Doubleday points out the ongoing risks and costs being imposed by the continued circulation of COVID-19 - even as the smallest mitigation measures are treated as being unacceptable. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Naomi Klein discusses how Canada is failing the basic test of resistance to a fascist regime. 

 

- Meanwhile, Linda McQuaig recognizes that Canadians have every reason to be disappointed in Mark Carney's choice to veer to the right and into the U.S.' corporate orbit, rather than governing based on the "elbows up" message at the core of his campaign. And Dale Smith writes that it's long past time to stop pretending that there's any point in negotiating with Donald Trump.

- Mike Allen reports on the corporate loyalty ratings which have been developed to ensure that political favouritism is the defining principle in the Trump White House's decision-making. And Maximillian Alvarez warns that Trump and his corporate backers are turning the entire U.S. into a giant environmental sacrifice zone.

- Tammy Robert discusses how the Sask Party's standard operating procedure in dealing with agricultural approvals (among other choices) is similarly to hand favours out to cronies with no regard for the public interest.

- Finally, Steven Lewis notes that the choice to build the medical system around private physician practices has long limited the effectiveness of social-level health planning - and is at the heart of a failing primary care system today. And Kevin Jiang discusses how people facing long COVID rightly feel like they've been forgotten by the health care system (and by governments generally).

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Stephen Marche writes that Canada is finding its voice in response to the U.S.' threats and bad faith under the Trump regime - at least as long as our corporate overlords don't insist on acquiescing. And Katia Dmitrieva and Philip Heijmans discuss how Donald Trump is making pay-to-play his government's standard modus operandi even where it's flagrantly illegal. 

- Devi Sridhar notes that the U.S.' elimination of vaccine research poses immense risks for people around the globe. And Robinson Meyer highlights how Trump's favouritism toward dirty energy donors is effectively handing the future of energy development to China.

- Campbell Clark discusses how the Libs are letting their promise of a foreign interference registry lapse even as our largest trading partner is operating as a protection racket. And John Woodside reports on their concurrent failure to appoint a Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise to deal with abuses by resource companies operating internationally. 

- Finally, Steven Henke reports on yet another basic income pilot project showing how recipients benefit in terms of housing stability, mental health, education and overall well-being. But Georgie Smith reports that instead of acting on the overwhelming body of research showing that a basic income produces benefits far beyond its costs, we're continuing to force people to fend for themselves - including by sorting trash in order to scrape by. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Robert Rohde surveys yet another month of record-high temperatures from July 2024. And Richard Heinberg examines what a real energy transition would look like - including a meaningful effort to stop using energy unnecessarily as well as a shit to clean energy sources. 

- Jim Stanford points out that price controls can be one mechanism to ensure that corporate profiteering doesn't cut into the affordability of basic necessities. 

- But Jason Hickel writes about the main barrier to that effort, as our key economic decisions are made by capitalists acting unilaterally to keep up their resource profits rather than by any government or other structure with any meaningful capacity to determine and act in the public interest. And Prem Sikka likewise discusses how wealthy individuals and corporations have hijacked any democracy. 

- Linda McQuaig notes that Doug Ford is going far out of his way to ensure Ontarians don't know how factory farms are abusing animals. Jake Johnson discusses how the meat industry is yet another sector where corporate collusion and price-fixing are increasing the cost of living for consumers. And Sara Moniuszko and Meg Oliver report on new research showing that the majority of baby food sold in the U.S. falls short of WHO health standard. 

- Scott Martin discusses how Ford (and other premiers focused on harm maximization as policy) can only be seen as choosing a legacy of social murder. And David Climenhaga notes that Danielle Smith is adding gross cronyism to the mix, as anybody seeking addiction services in Alberta is required to disclose sensitive personal health information to a politically-connected provider. 

- Finally, Matt Motta and Kathryn Haglin find that the benefits of Alaska's basic income include greater use of primary and preventative health services. 

On harm exacerbation

Ryan Meili offers an important values-based critique of the Sask Party's "do more harm" policy on addictions treatment. But it's worth taking a closer look at who stands to benefit from the pursuit of harm maximization and treatment-for-profit.

A single private business, ROSC Solutions Group, has been trotted out by the Moe government at various points as an adviser and author of a report, an "expert" validator and a source of rebuttals against the people calling to continue work on harm reduction. 

Presumably that combination of consulting and PR work hasn't been carried out for free. And it's telling that the primary party apparently willing to say anything supporting the Sask Party's position is the one which has been hand-selected and paid to support the government's line. 

Meanwhile, it's abundantly clear who stands to receive ongoing public funding as a result of the plan.

As part of the incomplete list of spaces to date, EHN Canada is listed as being funded for both virtual and in-treatment care. (The inclusion of virtual programs as part of the government's promised number of spaces is left as a degradation of health services for another day.)

And in case there's any doubt about its goal of using public funds to build a private care system, EHN's own intake page for online services lists Saskatchewan's funding alongside a general assumption of patient-paid treatment:

Worried About Paying For Treatment? 

We know not everyone has the same financial situation. There are options when it comes to covering the cost of treatment, give us a call to discuss the possibilities. 

We are proud to have partnered with the Saskatchewan Health Authority to provide funded treatment for our online substance use disorder program to residents of Saskatchewan. Click here to learn more.

Not surprisingly, both of those actors seeking to profit from attacking harm reduction and emphasizing unregulated, for-profit "recovery" are tied into similar movements in B.C. and Alberta - as documented by Rumneek Johal last year. (ROSC is listed as having done similar work for Alberta, while EHN has a dubious and controversial history of work in both B.C. and Alberta.)

To be sure, there's also a moralistic "war on some people using some drugs" at play as well. But while the cruelty may be the point for parts of the Sask Party's base, the overarching purpose again looks to be the funneling of public money into connected businesses - no matter how much harm is done as a result.  

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Qiulu Ding and HanJun Zhao study the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the brain, including lasting effects on function and memory. Ida Mogensen et al. find that the younger people who were so frequently declared to be "low-risk" are entirely vulnerable to long COVID. And Thomas Graham, Amrit Dhillon and Caroline Kimeu discuss the devastating effects of COVID-19 on the global South which have been almost entirely neglected by wealthier countries. 

- Aarhus University studies the accumulation of "forever chemicals" even in some of the most remote populations in Europe. 

- Tony Keller points out that Canada is one of the worst climate offenders in the world in terms of both inefficient personal vehicles, and a transportation system designed to require their use. And Markham Hislop highlights how the demand of fossil fuel tycoons and their puppet governments to the public on the hook for site remediation reflects an attempt to break a decades-old deal to have the oil industry clean up at least one aspect of its own mess. 

- Linda McQuaig contrasts Doug Ford's endless supply of free money for developers and donors against his brutal austerity when it comes to social needs. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow points out the selective security in the U.S.' welfare system which makes strict demands of recipients, while providing no security against fraud and abuse aimed at them.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Maura Hohman discusses how COVID-19 has been found to cause increased heart problems in young people (among other harm to health) - even as it's being allowed to inflict that damage population-wide. And Lidia Morawska et al. examine how warnings about the airborne transmission of COVID were ignored by the people responsible for assessing the threat and protecting the public.

- David Sirota, Julia Rock, Rebecca Burns and Matthew Cunningham-Cook report that the East Palestine, OH train derailment (with associated fires, explosions and toxic chemical releases) was traceable directly to corporate lobbying for deregulation of safety standards. And Tom Perkins writes that the disaster should be a wake-up call as to the need for protection - though there were obvious recent precedents which would have alerted any halfway competent regulator as to the dangers of undermining rail safety.

- Paris Marx writes that a series of developments in artificial intelligence don't figure to eliminate the need for human labour - though they do figure to be used as an excuse to make work more precarious. And Marietje Schaake rightly notes that large-scale layoffs in the tech sector should be treated as an opportunity to recruit well-trained workers into the public service.

- Finally, Rumneek Johal reports on the connections between the puritanical and for-profit "recovery" sector trumpeted as an alternative to harm reduction and concern for people's health, and the right-wing politicians pouring public money into the former over the latter.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Paula Span discusses how older Americans (and their peers elsewhere) have been left to navigate the pandemic with no consideration for their health and safety. Kailin Yin et al. examine the ways in which long COVID can affect immune system function. And Linda Geddes highlights the risk that COVID-19 is making people more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal threats.

- Jim Stanford writes about the problems with treating human beings as mere commodities in building economic policy around employers' desire for access to cheap labour. And the Canadian Press reports that even RBC Economics' analysis which is being cited as an excuse to hike interest rates shows that wages have fallen short of keeping up with inflation.

- Grace Blakeley rightly argues that the consistent pattern of oil companies abandoning their climate commitments even while swimming in windfall profits shows that free market will never solve climate change. And needless to say, the petropolitical choice to funnel money to fossil fuel corporations only makes matters worse - with David Climenhaga and Dean Bennett each exploring how the UCP's RStar scandal represents a particularly egregious example of polluter-paid governance.

- Meanwhile, Roshan Abraham reports on the laughable attempt by the oil-allied alt-right to turn walkable cities into an object of conspiracy theory and hate.

- Finally, Cory Doctorow discusses the regressive "time tax" resulting from wealth translating into constant service and convenience while people of less means face far greater time impositions trying to navigate the necessities of life.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Zaina Hamza discusses new research showing how COVID-19 fatalities hit younger people and caused more loss of expected years of life in the second year of the pandemic than the first. Kenyon Wallace discusses why 2022 was the deadliest year of the pandemic yet in Canada, while Carrie Tait reports on the tripling of the number of Canadians hospitalized with COVID since this time last year. Erin Prater writes about the recognition that a COVID infection may allow dormant viruses to reactivate in one's body. And David Climenhaga comments on Danielle Smith's determination to ensure nothing is done to limit the spread of respiratory diseases on her watch, while David Parsley reports on John Drury's observation that the UK Cons are failing to protect people from long COVID. 

- Meanwhile, the Good Law Project exposes what the UK Cons have been more interested in: funneling billions of pounds of public money to a few well-connected VIPs. 

- Amy Westervelt discusses how the the documents released as a result of the U.S. House's investigation into climate disinformation show a fossil fuel sector determined to stay in a polluting past and prevent anybody from progressing past it. And Adam Aron writes about the importance of local climate organizing to overcome the industry's obstruction. 

- Meanwhile, David Berman points out the massive special dividends doled out by corporate conglomerates who claim not to have profiteered off of price increases. 

- Thomas Zimmer discusses the threat Elon Musk and other alt-right tech bros pose to any open discussion on the platforms they control. And Gal Beckerman examines contemporary accounts from the 1930s to discuss what the descent into fascism feels like in real time. 

- Finally, Ted Rutland exposes how the Trudeau Libs conspired with the RCMP and other law enforcement interests to carry out push polling and manufacture opposition to defunding the police. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your long weekend reading.

- Umair Haque theorizes that the relatively benign outcome of the U.S.' recent election reflects a public that's finally rejecting Trumpism. But Krystal Ball notes that some of the most important Democratic success stories (notably including John Fetterman) included a message based on the recognition that government can use its power to help people, rather than a weary position that elections can't accomplish more than minimizing the damage inflicted by the other side.

- Ryan Patrick Jones and Nicole Brockbank list the well-connected landowners who stand to be enriched by Doug Ford's plan to turn protected greenbelt land into developers' profits. And Dale Smith points out that Ford's gratuitous use of the notwithstanding clause to attack workers out of sheer impatience and stubbornness signals that all human rights are at risk.

- Gaby Galvin offers a reminder that publicly-funded stadiums seldom accomplish anything other than to funnel money to a city's best-connected business figures. And Paul Dechene discusses how a push to put an arena downtown is leading Regina into another round of discarding social benefits in favour of corporate playthings. 

- Finally, Yasmine Ghania reports on the John Howard Society's push for the provincial government to invest in the social issues at the root of crime. But Adam Hunter reports that the Moe government is instead bent on establishing more - and more politically-controlled - police and security forces even when all available evidence points to an absence of benefit for the cost.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Ewen Callaway discusses the COVID-19 "variant soup" which we'll be drowning in this winter due to the deliberate elimination of any public health protections as politicians value denial over people's lives. And Tyler Cheese reports that Ontario hospitals are going to be forced to issue alerts about emergency rooms with no capacity to help patients.

- Umair Haque writes about the transition from late-stage capitalism to end-stage capitalism, as both the concentration of wealth and its social harms continue growing unchecked. And Katharine Mach and Galen Treuer discuss the need for climate adaptation plans to deal with substantial changes to everyday life, not only responding to disasters as they arise. 

- Nicole Stillger reports that most of the revenue from soaring oil production and prices is being sucked out of Alberta, while Andrew Leach calls out Danielle Smith's plan to hand even more free money to the oil industry under the guise of cleaning up some of its messes.

- Joshua Freeman reports on the response to Doug Ford's plan to turn flood-prone conservation lands into a source of short-term profit for his developer buddies with no regard for the harm to everybody else.

- Finally, Theresa Kliem reports on the growing number of people in Saskatchewan who have been forced to turn to food banks - along with the Moe government's complete lack of interest in doing anything to help.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Zak Vescera reports that the Moe government's push toward privatizing COVID testing has turned into such a fiasco that even the for-profit operators are calling for somebody to apply regulations to protect the public. Ninan Abraham et al. call out a Globe and Mail opinion column for feeding anti-vaxx narratives in the absence of any evidence. And Doug Saunders discusses how Europe's latest wave can be traced to politicians catering to science denialists. 

- Bruce Arthur argues that while we may need to live with anti-vaxxers, we should at least expect our leaders to have the sense not to lend them support. And the Canadian Anti-Hate Network documents how the Flu Trux Klan convoy has turned into little but a show of fascist hate on wheels. 

- George Monbiot highlights how carbon offsetting is only encouraging the continued use of fossil fuels by allowing people to treat them as climate solutions rather than the continuation of a problem. Data For Progress examines both the health impacts of poor air quality, and the public's desire to see political action to remedy it. 

- Colin D'Mello reports on Doug Ford's grant of a sole-source private vaccine clinic contract after a flurry of donations from board members and their families. And Kim Siever reports on the UCP's decision to put the son of private ambulance magnate in charge of a review of emergency services. 

- Finally, Luke Savage writes about the essential role unions play in protecting and advancing democracy far beyond the workplace. 

On unearned compensation

One of the most striking recent developments in Saskatchewan's COVID response has been the disconnect between Scott Moe's government telling people not to get PCR tests due to their utter failure to provide them, and the Workers' Compensation Board declaring that nobody will be able to make a claim for workplace illness without one.

But let's set aside any doubt as to who figures to benefit from that policy by remembering what happens when the Workers' Compensation system finds itself with a surplus under the Saskatchewan Party .

To wit: employers get a windfall to the exclusion of workers. But there is one exception: public employers, who see any reward for safe workplaces siphoned off into the province's general revenue. 

So if Moe is successful in preventing people from being able to establish that COVID-related disabilities arose at work, the likely result is...for the funding intended to support workers in exactly these types of situations to be diverted to the Saskatchewan Party's corporate donors. 

Though to be fair, anybody who can't wait a full day for one of the insufficient number of tests available through the public health care system always has another option: paying another Saskatchewan Party donor to get one. Because we're all in this together.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Mark Armstrong reports on the G20's agreement on a painfully-unambitious vaccination target for poor countries which is still unlikely to be reached. And Tahir Amin draws a connection between the dystopia of Squid Game and the reality of vaccine exclusion. 

- Jennifer Schuessler discusses David Graeber and David Wengrow's The Dawn of Everything as signaling the evolution of social structures far earlier and more broadly than we usually assume. And Wengrow takes that history as a basis for optimism about our current challenges - including the need to join forces to protect our living environment in the face of imminent climate breakdown.  

- David Wallace-Wells makes the compelling case for climate reparations - including the need for wealthier countries to both bear our share of the loan in mitigating the damage we're doing to our planet, and ensure that the people we've exploited along the way have opportunities to adapt and develop. And Laurie Macfarlane writes that we can't address the climate crisis without also addressing economic and social injustices. 

- Umair Haque discusses why the U.S. looks to be just beginning a full-on societal collapse. 

- Adam Lachacz reports on the frustration of Alberta municipalities with the UCP's blinkered devotion to promoting a costly and unnecessary provincial police force, rather than doing anything to actually improve people's lives. And Sheila Wong and Emma McIntosh explore just how corrupt and counterproductive the Ford PCs' push for another major bypass actually is. 

- Finally, John Clarke calls out the absurdity of Justin Trudeau's effort to equate left-wing activism toward equality and justice with right-wing bigotry. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Bruce Arthur calls out Doug Ford for choosing (like other conservative premiers) to prioritize the "freedom" of uninformed anti-vaxxers to endanger everybody over the health of the population at large. The Economist charts how vaccinated people have not only been better protected from COVID-19, but also less likely to die of other causes - which, while not subject to a causal analysis, would make sense from the standpoint of a dividing line as to the recognition and calculation of risk. [Update: Yes, this would seem related too.] Pat McKay tells the story of a family facing limited care for prematurely-born twins due to Scott Moe's choice to flood the health care system with COVID patients. And Theresa Kliem reports on the health care workers who no longer see a future in a province which places so little value on them or their patients - exacerbating what was already a shortage of care workers. 

- David Coletto unveils new polling data showing that a large majority of Canadians - including a plurality even among the most recalcitrant provinces and political parties - want to see far more action to protect our climate. 

- But Oliver Milman reports on a new study by Systems Change Lab showing that not a single industry is pulling its weight to pull us back from reaching and exceeding 1.5 degrees of warming. Oil Change International points out how countries are continuing to subsidize carbon pollution by throwing money at oil and gas operators, while Bob Weber reports on Canada's place as the worst offender of the lot in funding the entrenchment of dirty energy rather than a transition to cleaner options. And Geoffrey Morgan reports on the giant windfalls being pocketed by oil companies even as governments go out of their way to avoid having them post security for their environmental damage. 

- Georgia Wright, Liat Olenick and Amy Westervelt point out the U.S.' worst climate villains. Belen Balanya, Lala Hakuma Dadci, and Myriam Douo discuss how dirty energy interests have blocked climate action in Europe. And Tim Gray and Devon Page highlight how the UCP's inquiry attacking environmental activists represented an unconscionable abuse of power - even if its results proved to be a damp squib. 

- Finally, Colleen Silverthorn reports on the grossly inadequate benefit amounts under Saskatchewan's income support system, while Yasmine Ghania reports on yesterday's rally to at least reverse the Sask Party scheme which has pushed dozens of people out of their homes and into tent cities. And PressProgress exposes how the Ford government is not only slashing assistance to people, but ensuring that Republican cronies reap profits as a result. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Gary Mason writes that our leaders appear to have learned nothing as we face a third wave of COVID-19. Hasan Sheikh and Munir Sheikh point out how the insistence of right-wing governments in taking ineffective half-measures rather than action which could actually provide some hope to limit the spread of the virus reflects a complete misunderstanding of human behaviour. And Bruce Arthur discusses the consistent toggling back and forth between magical thinking and panic resulting from the initial failure to control the coronavirus.

- Erik Strikwerda discusses how the UCP's regressive, plagiarized and useless curriculum is turning Alberta into a laughingstock. And Francois Biber reports that Scott Moe's punishment for electric vehicle owners - incentivizing air pollution while requiring the owners of cleaner vehicles to pick up the tab for costs being rebated to gas guzzlers - figures to do the same for Saskatchewan. 

- The Winnipeg Free Press reports on Brad Wall's comically biased and misleading report to try to turn Manitobans against public power and open it up to be sold off. And Steve Buist, Noor Javed and Emma McIntosh expose how Doug Ford is trying to ram through the construction of a new highway to directly benefit his donors, despite the obvious lack of any public interest justification.

- Alex Ballingall discusses the Cons' attempt to use the language of the working class to induce people to vote for corporate interests. But Tom Parkin notes that while that plan has worked for Republicans in a two-party state, it only figures to boost the NDP in a political system where voters are already well aware of a true labour option.

- Finally, Nora Loreto writes about the white supremacism behind the anti-public health movement in Canada - along with the utter failure of most of the media to connect the two.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Matt Karp writes about the connection between heavily polarized politics, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of people whose interests are served by voters rooting for laundry rather than holding meaningful input into policy choices.

- May Warren reports on the reality that the faster-spreading B.1.1.7 variant of the coronavirus is likely to become dominant in Canada over the next few weeks. Lauren Pelley reports that even if the COVID-19 pandemic is reined in, we can likely expect to see forms of the virus become a regular part of our lives for years to come. Sophia Harris notes that any new measures to identify and contain COVID-19 and its variants have been conspicuously designed to ignore the truckers who represents the largest source of cross-border contact between Canada and the U.S. And the Star's editorial board warns that Doug Ford is once again refusing to learn from history in refusing to apply appropriate public health measures in the face of a newer and more severe threat.

- Emma McIntosh exposes how Ford is trying to dole out fast-tracked project approvals without environmental assessments to deep-pocketed donors while the public is trapped inside by a pandemic. And the Globe and Mail's editorial board rightly slams Ford's plans for another superhighway as a "sprawl accelerator" rather than a solution to problems of housing affordability and transportation infrastructure.

- Finally, Kim Siever points out how the Kenney UCP is barrelling ahead with new coal mining while claiming to have responded to public outcry by temporarily reinstating the policy which barred it. Graham Thomson highlights how the secrecy, deception and cronyism behind the coal mining plans offer a perfect microcosm of the UCP's governing philosophy. And Bob Weber reports on Dennis Lemly's warning about the foreseeable harm that mining will do to the major water sources affected by it

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Oliver Moore reports on Greyhound's elimination of most of its Western Canadian bus service. Emily Riddle offers a reminder that the lack of transportation puts Indigenous women and other marginalized people at risk. And Simon Enoch highlights the obvious need for Saskatchewan to resume operating a public rural bus service.

- The Globe and Mail feigns shock at the revelation that Doug Ford is in fact Doug Ford, while Tom Parkin documents the fiscal crisis Ford is deliberately creating. And Andray Domise appropriately labels Ford's rule-by-antagonism - though it's worth noting that the under the typical right-wing faux-populist model, deliberate attacks on perceived enemies serve largely to distract from the greater goal of looting the public treasury for the benefit of cronies.

- Joel Lexchin examines the large amounts of money spent by big pharma to try to influence Canadian health care providers - and the lack of much means for the public to track the results of that investment.

- Scott Sinclair makes the case for Canada to protect its supply management system from the demands of U.S. agribusiness giants.

- Finally, Michelle Chen writes about a push for New York City to set up a public bank to ensure all of its residents have access to needed financial services. And Maddy Savage points out how Norway's responsible and socially-minded management of resource wealth has made it one of the few developed countries where younger workers are able to live comfortably.