Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jessica Wildfire writes about the desperation to return to some past normal (stoked of course by the people who profit from it) which is leading far too many to take obviously reckless risks with their health in the midst of a pandemic. And Kevin Jiang points out that it isn't only people's lungs being harmed by wildfire smoke, as "smoke brain" is also resulting in devastating health impacts. 

- John Timmer discusses the contradiction between the U.S. public's general desire for action to avert a climate breakdown, and its disapproval of many of the steps needed to get there. And Ryan Cooper points out that the car culture which dominates development patterns in the U.S. and Canada can only be seen as a death cult. 

- Matt Stoller and David Dayen comment on the urgent need to move past neoliberalism as its harm to the bulk of the population becomes inescapable. And Chris capper Liebenthal writes that the destruction of the Titan submersible (and the deaths of its occupants) can be traced entirely to laissez-faire capitalism run amok. 

- Finally, Phil Paine discusses how an educated and active populace is vital to democratic governance. Which should mean it's little surprise that the right is pushing to expand the use of child labour - both to undermine the bargaining power of workers, and to reduce the prospect that citizens will be sufficiently informed and engaged to exercise their franchise effectively. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The John Snow Project calls out the dangers of labeling COVID-19 infection as an immune-boosting mechanism, rather than an unequivocal harm to individual health. Jake Miller discusses new research on the groups at particular risk of long COVID. And Remember Rebuild SK has developed an online memorial to ensure we recognize the lives lost to the preventable spread of disease, rather than focusing only on numbers. 

- UNITE examines how profiteering has been soaring in Britain (as it has elsewhere) as corporations use the excuse of inflation to extract more profits from the public. And David Dayen writes that the bailouts handed out to Silicon Valley Bank and other failed financial institutions are the direct result of deregulation premised on the claim that public oversight wouldn't be needed to prevent exactly that consequence.  

- Timothy Noah writes about Mark Robert Rank and Matthew Desmond's recognition that poverty is the result of policy choices and imbalances of power - including the ability of landlords to wring higher profits out of poorer neighbourhoods. And Brittany Freeman reports on the plight of residents who are blocked from making payments demanded by homeowners' associations, then forced to fund obstructionist litigation against themselves in order to resist foreclosure. 

- Finally, Fiona Harvey reports on the IPCC's latest report - including its "final warning" that we need to act now in order to limit the damage to 1.5 degrees. Laura Thomas-Walters argues that climate activism needs to focus on challenging the power structures which have entrenched the fossil fuel economy, rather than appeals to the general public. Emma Shemko writes about the deep connections between the climate crisis and environmental racism. And June Sekera highlights how carbon capture and storage represents a delay and distraction tactic rather than an antidote to a climate breakdown. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Glenn McConnell reports on New Zealand's continued leadership in acknowledging and fighting the avoidable spread of COVID-19. Arwa Mahdawi discusses why nobody should be bragging about continuing to work through a disease which requires rest to maximize one's recovery. 

- Peter Zimonjic reports on Statistics Canada's temporary drop in inequality when COVID benefits were relatively widely available - which surely explains the determination of the Cons and their provincial cousins to make sure nothing of the sort is ever put in place again. 

- Lijing Cheng et al. study historical trends in ocean heat content and find that our planet is in fact warming faster than previously known. Andres Picon writes about the deadly combination of heat and air pollution. And John Woodside discusses the connection between the oil and banking sectors which continues to result in money being funneled toward climate breakdown.

- David Dayen weighs in on the harm being done to the public by profiteering railroad operators. And Robin Shaban and Yunuz Emre Bozkurt discuss the importance of more public ownership - in substance as well as form - to ensure people's telecommunications needs are met. 

- Finally, Andrew Coyne writes that premiers can't expect to be handed gobs of new health care money without some commitment to ensure it gets put to its intended use. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- David Dayen discusses how manufacturing monopolies have produced the U.S.' shortage of baby formula. And Alyssa Rosenberg recognizes that any reasonably-governed country would be moving heaven and earth to ensure infants don't suffer due to corporate greed. 

- Meanwhile, Nina Lakhani exposes how meat packing giants and the Trump administration sacrificed workers' lives rather than allowing any health and safety protections to be applied even in the face of a deadly virus. And Nora Loreto asks why we still don't have anything remotely approaching an accounting of the lives lost to workplace-spread COVID in Canada. 

- thwap points out how anti-inflation rhetoric is being used as yet another excuse for class war against workers. 

- Alexander Furnas et al. study how lobbying leads to changes in policy - finding donations to be less of a direct influence than ideological sorting. 

- On the bright side (and in a prime example of policy we should be looking to emulate) Sam Jones reports on Spain's plans to provide menstrual leave among other additional measures to ensure improved gender equity.

- Finally, Stephen Maher discusses the increasing threats and harassment facing people seeking to run for office - though it's well worth noting the asymmetry based on ideological orientation as fascist groups primed to treat others as subhuman apply that theory to the political sphere. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- William Haseltine writes about the long-lasting and severe cognitive effects of long COVID, while Danny Altmann discusses the urgency of developing effective treatment given the reality that vaccines do little to prevent it. Katherine Wu warns that the U.S. is rapidly losing any window to set up a relatively safe summer, while Yasmine Ghania reports on the prospect that Saskatchewan could be in for months of high transmission to come. And Phil Tank rightly criticizes Scott Moe's choice to deprive people of any current information about the spread of COVID-19 in Saskatchewan even as he claims he wants them to manage their own risks. 

- Brigitte Pellerin points out the Libs' failure to live up to their promise of a disability benefit for Canadians even as provincial governments eliminate any pandemic supports or protections. 

- Naveena Sadisavam writes about the IPCC's conclusion that it's not too late to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius if countries live up to their climate commitments immediately. And Mia Rabson discusses the problem with a climate change policy which is designed to allow the largest emitters to pay the least for their carbon pollution. 

- Qi Yang, Mohsen Mosleh, Tauhid Zaman and David Rand study the familiar gripe that Twitter content management is biased against conservatives, and finds instead that content moderation is consistently based on the level of misinformation being shared by users of any political leaning.  

- Meanwhile, Stephen Magusiak discusses how Jason Kenney is trying to import Republican culture wars - including an attack on any recognition of historical or systemic discrimination - into Alberta's curriculum and education system. 

- Finally, David Dayen writes about the risks of making global trade dependent on China's monopoly in shipping container manufacturing. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Alexander Quon reports on the politicization of Saskatchewan's COVID policy in the summer of 2021, with political staffers and commercial interests winning out over public health recommendations surrounding Saskatchewan Roughrider games. Zak Vescera reports on Scott Moe's deliberate dishonesty as an excuse to scrap what few protections remain in place. And Hilary Brown, Yona Lunsky, Sandi Bell, Fahad Razak and Amol Verma highlight the need to start taking into account the people with disabilities who are being told they should self-isolate without supports in order to allow those in power to avoid the slightest inconvenience. 

- Brandi Morin discusses how the #FluTruxKlan is based entirely in white supremacy, while Max Fawcett calls out the double standard involved in allowing a mob of bigots who had expressly threatened violence far more leeway than any other type of protest. And Ariel Troster points out how that choice resulted in residents of Ottawa being held captive at the behest of the extremists.  

- David Dayen and Rakeen Mabud examine how the U.S.' corporatist policy laid the groundwork for its current supply chain failures. And Rebecca Graff-McRae points out the dangers of the UCP's plans to turn labs and other parts of Alberta's health care system into corporate profit centres rather than public services. 

- Unifor makes the case for Canada to reinvest in national passenger rail service.

- Finally, Emily Chung reports on the emergence of new oil and gas heating bans in jurisdictions with even a modicum of foresight - while also recognizing how fossil fuel interests are lobbying to stand in te way.  

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Matt Gurney writes about what continues to be a woeful response to COVID in Ontario among other provinces, while Jason Herring reports on Alberta's collapsing emergency medical services. And Claire Pomeroy recognizes the tsunami of disability which will need to be addressed arising out of long COVID. 

- Umair Haque writes that our social system is collapsing due to the capitalist imperative to concentrate perpetually more wealth into fewer and fewer hands. And David Dayen highlights why so many workers have decided after facing the trauma of a pandemic that they're not willing to tolerate exploitative jobs. 

- Elaine Power, Paul Taylor and Valerie Tarasuk remind us that charities and food banks shouldn't be accepted as a response to poverty and hunger. 

- Scott Schmidt points out the obvious unsustainability of an economic system which relies on people taking on unmanageable debt to provide both jobs and profits. And Dan Darrah reports on the record profits being reaped and bonuses being paid out by Canada's big banks as they extract a growing share of our country's wealth. 

- Finally, Morgan Meaker writes that the U.S.' rejection of Meta's attempt to buy out Giphy may reflect a noteworthy first step in reversing the concentration of wealth and power through antitrust law.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Emily Anthes highlights what the people paying attention to COVID-19 (and particularly the Delta variant) have learned about the risks of transmission in schools - including the need for ongoing mitigation measures to avoid outbreaks. Simon Rella et al. study the spread of vaccine-resistant strains and find a continuing need for public health protections. Antonio Regalado and Casey Crownhart discuss the numerous outbreak clusters among vaccinated people around the globe. And Megan Molteni writes about the reality that the fight against an ongoing pandemic is a long war, not a one-time skirmish which can be left behind us. 

- Ubako Ogbogu and Lorian Hardcastle write that the UCP is playing Russian roulette with the health of Albertans by eliminating public health measures, while the same criticism would of course apply equally to the Saskatchewan Party. Brad Reed reports that Louisiana has been forced to reinstate a mandatory masking policy due to the disastrous results of reopening without protections. And Akiko Okamoto, Linda Sieg and Kiyoshi Takenaka report that Japan's choice to prioritize large-scale sports over public health have led to its health care system having to turn away COVID patients and hope they can survive at home. 

- Rebecca Hersher writes about new research showing that a rapid transition to clean energy could save tens of millions of lives. Rebecca Leber discusses how a clean power grid is an absolute must as part of any climate change plan. Julia Peterson reports that Saskatoon is doing its part to shift toward solar energy even as the provincial government tries to stifle its development. And Mitchell Beer weighs in on the large number of fossil fuel workers eager to transition to more sustainable industries. 

- Meanwhile, Amy Harder points out the importance of addressing the demand side of our energy equation to enable a transition to a clean economy. 

- But Emily Atkin notes that for all the public support for a shift to renewables, advocates for a just transition are being prevented from advertising due to the refusal of media properties to serve as anything but shills for dirty energy tycoons. 

- Finally, David Dayen provides an inside look at employer union-busting efforts. And Sara Ashley O'Brien reports on the recommendation for a new vote after Amazon went all-out to intimidate employees against unionizing. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Michael Smart compares Canada's fiscal response to the COVID crisis to the reaction to previous recessions - finding that benefits for people are being cut back to normal levels in the midst of an ongoing pandemic, while corporate profits continue to soar. And David Dayen writes that while employers bleat about labour shortages based on their refusal to offer more than starvation wages, what's actually proven scarce in the U.S. attention to the needs of people.

- Meanwhile, Corrie Schneider discusses the importance of having sufficient support to avoid forcing women to choose between abuse and poverty. 

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board asks whether Canada's provincial governments have learned any lessons from removing public health restrictions too soon - though it's difficult to be optimistic at this point. And Chris Kai and P R Sanjai examine India's stark example of the human cost of prematurely declaring victory over COVID-19.

- Luke Malpass reports on New Zealand's introduction of Fair Pay Agreements to ensure that wage floors can be bargained on an industry-wide basis.

- Finally, Cathy Holtslander highlights how the updated NAFTA has sold out some of what little scope Canada had to protect agriculture - and how the U.S. is pressing its advantage to try to deregulate the seed market to ensure both lesser consumer protections and the ability to squeeze farmers on price.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your Boxing Day reading.

- Kyle Hanniman and Trevor Tombe examine the relative fiscal positions of Canada's federal and provincial governments - concluding that while there isn't a need for austerity anywhere, there's a lot more room to maneuver at the federal level than in most provinces (though Saskatchewan is a noteworthy exception). And Richard Murphy points out the absurdity of obsessing over deficits as an excuse not to spend on public goods.

- David Dayen is hopeful that the U.S. is seeing a much-needed antitrust revolution against the consolidation of corporate power - particularly in the hands of tech behemoths. But Umair Haque warns tha its foolish devotion to neoliberal economics is needlessly converting a rich country into a poor one. And Branko Milanovic discusses his concern that the Biden administration will do little more than return (to the extent possible) to a status quo ante whose inequality gave rise to Donald Trump's election. 

- Meanwhile, Nick Bano discusses how the UK's housing crisis was the result of deliberate choices to privilege the profits of landlords over people's right to a home. 

- Kenyon Wallace, Ed Tubb and Marco Chown Oved report on the privatized long-term care corporations which have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in dividends - even as they've cried poor in failing to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic which has killed countless people under their care. And Moira Welsh takes note of the conditions found by a doctor asked to pitch in to save lives where corporate owners wouldn't.

- Badvertising examines the role of ads in pushing us toward needless and environmentally-destructive consumption.

- Finally, Carl Meyer reports on the Cons' determination to gift another set of handouts to the oil patch - this time by turning climate change policy into a subsidy scheme. But Chiara Eisner discusses how existing emissions tracking has grossly underestimated the damage done by leaking methane. And Bob Yirka highlights how Brazil's forest are being turned into net emitters rather than carbon sinks.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Dean Russell and Jamie Smith Hopkins write about the mental health consequences of the disasters the world is wrestling with at the moment.

- Milan Polk surveys doctors about the need to revise our current reliance on six feet of social distancing as being sufficient. And John Michael McGrath points out how public health is suffering due to the delayed approval of self-testing for COVID-19.

- Jesse Winter reports on British Columbia's tragic number of drug overdoses and deaths, while Alicia Bridges reports on soaring rates in Regina as well. And Tracy Giesz-Ramsey discusses how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the existing overdose crisis - which makes it all the more galling to see Justin Trudeau declare that he isn't interested in decriminalization as a means of reducing harm if it isn't a silver bullet for all possible concerns. 

- Igor Derysh reports on the pharmaceutical executives who turned pandemic contracts from the Trump administration into windfall share sales. PressProgress reports on a push by medical groups to ensure that critical care drugs are available. And Andrew Richter's criticism of the Libs' lack of concrete steps to secure access to COVID-19 vaccines likewise highlights how much we'd stand to gain from a public pharmaceutical manufacturer.

- Josh Eidelson writes about the employers who are endangering everybody by imposing COVID-19 gag orders on their workers, while the Star's editorial board makes the seemingly obvious case to have Ontario's government warn people about workplace outbreaks. Kate Aronoff exposes Tesla's stunning assertion that it can avoid employment standards by labeling its mistreatment of workers as "trade secrets". And Eidelson and Spencer Soper report on Amazon's job posting specifically aimed at trying to impose SLAPP suits on labour organizers, while Lauren Kaori Gurley and Joseph Cox report on its spying on closed Facebook groups.

- Finally, Asher Schechter interviews David Dayen about the harm monopoly corporate power inflicts on the public.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Dan Gardner writes that the COVID-19 pandemic is exactly the type of rare but severe event which should be the subject of thorough public preparation. And Eric Neudorf explains why so many governments failed to appreciate and act on the severity of the coronavirus even after its dangers were publicly known.

- Adam Almeida notes that Canada's universal public health care has allowed us to fare far better than other countries who rely on private providers. But Kara Grace Hounsell, Marcella Jones, Melanie Spence, Nisha Kansal and Thrmiga Sathiyamoorthy write that COVID-19 also the need to fight to fill in the gaps in Canada's system.

- Robert Green writes about privatization as a pre-existing condition which has created intolerable dangers for people in long-term care. Bruce Arthur points out how COVID-19 was positioned to exploit our current nursing home structure, while Jonathon Gatehouse reminds us that there have been plenty of warnings which have gone unaddressed (or indeed been met with deregulation and declining standards). Andre Picard calls out the ageism involved in the appalling willingness of operators - and a growing number of right-wing politicians - to sacrifice the lives of older residents. And David Climenhaga discusses the need for improved pay and working conditions for long-term care workers both during and after the pandemic, while Scott Gilmore makes a similar case for all of the essential workers risking their own health to keep us supplied with necessities. 

- Jim Stanford discusses how the Bank of Canada could offer far more effective quantitative easing by investing directly in government bonds, rather than relying on bank-shot secondary funding through private financiers to produce desirable public outcomes. And Frances Bula highlights the difficulties faced by municipalities confronted simultaneously with reduced tax revenue and provincially-imposed obligations to balance their budgets.

- Finally, David Dayen points out that the U.S. is allowing banks to seize relief funding to individuals, meaning that the already-meager assistance on offer might never make it to recipients. And Ricardo Tranjan studies how payday lenders are positioned to exploit the dire straits facing Canadian workers to pad their profits. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Noam Scheiber, Nelson Schwartz and Tiffany Hsu point out how the social isolation required in response to COVID-19 is only confirming and exacerbating the U.S.' class divide. And Shawn Micallef highlights the vast difference between social isolation in a large home as opposed to a confined living space.

- David Naylor and Tim Evans offer their suggestions for a path back to normalcy. CBC News reports on the wake-up call the pandemic represents for Canada's prescription drug supply. Danyaal Raza and Hasan Sheikh discuss the importance of strengthening our health care system as part of our rescue from the coronavirus pandemic. And Miles Corak argues that the delay in responding to COVID-19 should push us to maintain more government capacity at all times - rather than relying on a "just in time" relief apparatus to assemble only once a crisis is already underway.

- Sara Birrell takes note of the extremely limited help for workers on offer from Scott Moe's Saskatchewan Party government. And David Macdonald examines the all-too-gradually-improving federal relief package.

- David Dayen exposes a few of the U.S. lobbyists looking to turn a public emergency into a windfall for their well-connected corporate clients. Reuven Avi-Yonah makes the case for a war effort to include excess profit taxes of the type applied during World War II. And George Turner is rightly concerned about tax avoiders who have callously refused to contribute to society now cutting to the front of the line in the midst of a crisis. 

- Finally, Jonathan Watts looks at the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic which apply equally to our climate crisis.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan write about the U.S.' choice between health care for all, or the spread of disease as people can't afford to seek medical treatment.

- David Dayen highlights how the coronavirus is likely to expose the weaknesses of an economy build on debt and precarity. Mandy Pipher reminds us that far too many workers can't afford to stay home even when containment is essential at a social level. And Liz Alderman points out how Europe's comparatively strong social safety net offers far more capacity for people to avoid making a pandemic worse, while Dan Taekema reports on the health benefits of Ontario's basic income pilot project.

- John Harris writes that the UK's social breakdown has gone well past mere inequality, to the point of actively harming the health of people living in deprivation. And Jon Stone notes that ending and reversing privatization is an essential step in ensuring that public services actually serve the people who need them.

- Bas van Beek, Alexander Beunder, Jilles Mast and Merel de Buck trace how corporations including Shell and Bayer have funded climate denial while knowing it to be false. And PressProgress exposes some of big pharma's lobbying to deprive Canada of universal pharmacare.

- Finally, Canadians for Tax Fairness highlights how more progressive fiscal policy can ameliorate Canada's continued gender inequality. And Anne Karpf points out how everybody is better off when we close our persistent gender gap.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Damian Carrington reports on the large amount of microplastics raining down on residents of the world's cities. Geoffrey Morgan notes that Alberta's farmers are starting to realize that they're going to be left with the mess left behind - including orphaned wells - as the oil industry disappears. And John Meiners discusses the complete lack of corporate accountability in the wake of hundreds of oil spills arising out of Hurricane Katrina.

- Meanwhile, Aaron Wherry and the Globe and Mail's editorial board each express cautious optimism about Canada's role in combating the climate crisis - though both seem far too willing to ascribe ambition for far stronger action to the likes of the Trudeau Libs who have demonstrated nothing of the sort.

- Laura Funk writes about the problems with social support systems which are designed to avoid paying benefits to people who have trouble navigating them, rather than to ensure people can get the help they need.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board points out how young Canadians are getting left out of the federal government's new plans and programs.

- Finally, Paul Krugman writes about the grossly outsized influenced of the wealthiest few in U.S. politics. And David Dayen discusses how the corporate judge pipeline set up by and for the Republican party is putting people at risk by attacking necessary regulations.

Thursday Evening Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Dayen highlights a rare moment of honesty from the payday loan sharks in their recognition that fair wages would reduce the consumer desperation underpinning their business model. And Brendan Greeley discusses the wealth tax - the merits of which are only proven by the theatrical outrage coming from the people exploiting the public and the planet to add to their own useless hoards of money.

- Lisa Friedman reports on the Trump administration's plan to avoid having industry-led environmental destruction derailed by accurate science.

- William Rees offers his suggestions for the elements needed in an effective Green New Deal. And Kirsten Patrick notes that Canada's twin voter priorities of improving health and ameliorating the climate crisis go hand in hand.

- Finally, Robin Sears argues that we need to plug the loophole enabling large-scale anonymous political advertising in Canada. And Gary Dale offers a reminder of the problems with an electoral system in which most votes are wasted.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- CBC News highlights how cost-of-living issues look to play a key role in Canada's federal election. And Jerry-Lynn Scofield points out that current asset valuations and economic assumptions are based on an entirely unsustainable combination of public, private and corporate debt loads.

- Adam Ramsay calls attention to Boris Johnson's government of lobbyists looking to ensure Brexit serves the interests of their wealthy clients. Christian Paas-Lang examines the well-connected donors serving up maximum contributions to both the Libs and Cons. And David Dayen discusses the need for progressive parties to highlight the corruption at the core of gross imbalances of wealth and power.

- Meanwhile, Douglas Belkin reports that the schemes rich Americans are using to game the education financing system include assigning guardianship of children to less wealthy relatives to position them to access financial aid.

- Douglas Todd reports on the employer-driven importation of temporary foreign workers in order to suppress wages and working standards. And PressProgress exposes the federal government's active promotion of pay as low as $3 per hour in the agri-food sector as part of an attempt to woo particularly exploitative employers.

- Finally, the Star-Phoenix and Leader-Post editorial boards discuss the importance of fighting poverty in order to prevent crime.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellanous material for your mid-week reading.

- David Dayen interviews Elizabeth Warren about the role of government in ensuring that the needs of people take precedence over the power of corporations. And Press Progress duly challenges the claim that corporate directors are overworked in putting in five to seven hours a week to carry out their duties, while Marco Chown Oved and Robert Cribb report on the tens of billions of dollars in taxes left unpaid by Canada's largest businesses.

- Michael Kwet examines how retailers track customers' movement without permission or accountability, while David Beer discusses the importance of regulating who's able to analyze personal information online.

- PressProgress examines a few of the realities Brian Pallister is hoping to sweep under the rug with a snap election call - including his slashing of rental assistance programs. Arthur White-Crummey reports on the Saskatchewan Party's elimination of support for utility costs in favour of blather about self-sufficiency. Jinny Sims calls out the B.C. Libs' billion dollars in land sales which papered over the cost of tax cuts at the expense of sorely-needed common property. And the Parliamentary Budget Officer's report (PDF) on the Trudeau Libs' housing policy finds that it's served only to shuffle around even lower amounts of money than were available under the unabashedly-austerian Harper Cons.

- Julia Knope reports on a Toronto rally seeking full labour rights and fair immigration opportunities for migrant workers. And David Climenhaga discusses how Alberta's Kenney Conservatives are seeking to set workers up for further exploitation while avoiding answering for their plans until after the federal election.

- Finally, Alex Ballingall reports that the United National Human Rights Office has joined the voices demanding more serious evaluation of the genocide against Indigenous people identified in the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Dion Rabouin examines the U.S.' unprecedented level of inequality and wealth concentration. And Orsetta Causa, Anna Vindics and James Browne highlight how worsening inequality around the globe has been the result of avoidable policy choices.

- But David Dayen writes that Amazon's failed attempt to extract billions of dollars as the price of setting up a headquarters in New York represents needed pushback against corporate handouts. And Jamie Merchant is optimistic that communities elsewhere will follow the precedent:

The absurdities of the Amazon deal, which enraged New Yorkers and motivated them to fight back, are globalized absurdities present in every factory, every office, every farm, and every export-processing-zone across the planet in which people are treated like cattle, offered by their governments to Amazon and other world-striding corporations as a cheap resource to be exploited. This outward looking, supranational view is already implicit in New York’s anti-Amazon movement, which, much to the company’s displeasure, broadened its perspective to encompass Amazon’s general attitude toward unionization, corporate welfare, and immigration policy. In other words, the movement’s was a holistic critique: rejecting Amazon’s values for a wholly different idea of the kind of world we want. 

Labor rights, tax justice, and the free movement of people are issues that go far beyond not just Queens, but also beyond U.S. national borders, potentially linking together communities who are struggling for the same goals in similar conditions across the world. By tying the local fight against Amazon to bigger structural problems, the Queens activists opened a window onto a transnational, anti-corporate politics in which laborers everywhere recognize their shared stake in a common fight against the corporate domination and crushing inequality of the present order.

- Susan weighs in on Jason Kenney's attack on people of "modest human capital" and the standard of living they can apparently expect - while noting the irony that Kenney himself is lacking in what his party claims should justify a higher minimum wage.

- Finally, Megan Mayhew Bergman questions why so much money is being spent purchasing and developing property which will be underwater if climate change continues on its present course. Will Bunch comments on the folly of pouring public resources into fracking which destabilizes land while polluting our planet. Christof Ruhl writes that the reduced use of plastic only adds to the foreseeable economic trends which are making oil development generally into a sucker's bet. And John Funk notes that even conservative voters in the U.S. strongly support investing in renewable energy rather than fossil fuels.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Robyn Allan reports that the Trudeau Libs' set of Trans Mountain giveaways to the oil sector now includes billions to oil companies. And Sharmini Peries talks to Dimitri Lascaris about the Libs' willingness to enable SNC Lavalin's corruption, while Martin Patriquin notes the similarities between the latest corporate corruption and the Libs' sponsorship scandal. 

- The Center for Public Integrity examines the connection between the Republicans' tax giveaways to the rich, and payment for services rendered by major donors. And David Dayen points out how Donald Trump is continuing to attack the poor by making it easier for payday lenders to prey on the financially vulnerable.

- The CCPA's report card highlights how the Saskatchewan Party is failing families in need of accessible child care. And in case there was any doubt what we're losing as a result, Jenny Peng and Tessa Vikander examine the benefits for families from British Columbia's new provincial child care plan.

- Finally, Jay Pitter interviews Mirlo Liendo about the lasting effects of childhood poverty and precarity. And David Olive discusses how a basic income produces economic as well as social benefits.