Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jacques Poitras talks to some of the at-risk people whose freedom will be undermined by the scrapping of public health protections. Phil Tank calls out Scott Moe for refusing to report on child COVID deaths (among other essential information even from the standpoint of making personal decisions, to say nothing of evaluating the Sask Party's policy choices). And Tasnim Ahmed reports on the latest research on the long-term harm caused by COVID infection. 

- The Maple examines what would be needed to compensate and support the people who lost weeks of their lives to the #FluTruxKlan. Armine Yalnizyan takes a look at the widespread costs in Ottawa and beyond. And Yvette Brend reports on the fragility caused by our reliance on a single, privately-owned bridge (among other limited border crossings) for so much of our international trade. 

- Umair Haque discusses the vicious circle created by the combination of wilfully ignorant people and capitalists looking to exploit them. And Joe Roberts writes about the need for global institutions to deal with problems that go far beyond the borders and interests of any single nation-state. 

- Alex Cosh examines the Libs' corporative-executive-heavy cabinet and its disconnect from the economic realities facing most Canadians. And Greg Jericho reports on Australia's plummeting real wages - and the desperate attempts of a right-wing government and its corporate cronies to paper over them.

- Jerusalem Demsas examines the causes and implications of the U.S.' increasing lack of mobility.  Matthew Yglesias discusses why people who own homes should welcome new and dense home construction. And Sara Birrell starts a must-listen series of podcasts with a discussion of the economy of land in Saskatchewan. 

- Finally, CBC News reports on the warning from Saskatchewan's treaty commissioner that the province is falling far short of meeting its obligations to First Nations and Indigenous peoples. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Bill Blaikie discusses how our growing inequality and precarity is the direct result of harmful policy choices:

By 1985 we were five years into the neo-liberal era brought on by the election of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the U.S.  They advocated policies like cutting taxes for the rich, cutting social assistance for the poor and the working poor, reducing the role of government in providing for the common good, reducing the power of unions to advocate for adequate wages, and basically letting the "market" decide.

Over the next forty years the " market" decided that the rich would get richer, the middle class would struggle, and the poor would get poorer. The current rate of economic inequality makes the seventies look like an egalitarian dream. CEOs that only made $500,000 back then might make 5 million or a lot more today.

Cutting taxes for the rich did not lead to economic investment that would cause economic benefits to " trickle-down". The only thing that trickled down was you know what, while power and income trickled up, and up, and the adequacy of wages shrunk, and shrunk.
Hence the fact that many who need and use food banks, and even some of the homeless are. people with jobs.

...

All this by way of explaining, in an obviously limited way, to younger people who surely must wonder why there are encampments of the homeless in their city, and in bus shelters, that it didn't have to be so, and it doesn't have to be so in the future. The current situation is a choice.  Our common responsibility, young or older, is to make our politicians make the right choices, and to support those who already advocate such choices.

- Thomas Walkom highlights how compulsory licensing would ensure that Canadians have access to COVID-19 vaccines (and other desperately-needed medical products), while Karl Nerenberg highlights how the NDP is looking to prioritize people over profits in both pharmaceutical production and long-term care. And John Miller notes in the wake of Bell's mental health whitewashing that the telecommunication sector represents another area where public needs and resources have been turned into a source of private profiteering.

- Ben Parfitt examines how British Columbia offer dirty industry the chance to use massive amounts of water at cut-rate prices. 

- Pam Palmater writes about Jason Kenney's litany of failures since taking power in Alberta. And Sara Birrell discusses the embarrassment that was Regina City Council's exercise in oil-worshipping self-flagellation.

- Finally, Brian Platt examines what an effective response to COVID-19 would look like - in stark contrast to the murderous insistence on doing as little as possible (particularly among right-wing premiers). And Kirby Bourne reports that independent restauranteurs are among the people begging for a COVID-zero strategy to replace the expectation that businesses will stay open regardless of the cost to public health.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Kelly Grant and Andrea Woo write that soaring infection numbers show how Canada's response to COVID-19 has fallen far short of the mark. Andre Picard makes the point - which seems obvious to everybody other than right-wing premiers - that loosening restrictions on social activity will do nothing but exacerbate the spread of the virus. Bartley Kives traces Manitoba's descent from being a model for other Canadian provinces, to being a hot zone due to reckless reopening, while David Climenhaga is rightly frustrated by Jason Kenney's refusal to do anything but complain about the failure of voluntary measures. And the Washington Post highlights how Australia has been able to get control of the coronavirus through a massive investment in public health and a willingness to regulate dangerous behaviour.

- Jeremy Klaszus discusses the myth of right-wing fiscal responsibility (with particular reference to the UCP's combination of tax giveaways to the corporate sector and slashing of services for people). And Paul Haber reports on the Alberta municipalities which look to be saddled with environmental liabilities as the oil sector skips town without paying its bills.

- Joel Dryden speculates that Joe Biden's presidential victory may find an echo in Alberta politics in 2023. But Thomas Frank warns that nobody can afford to get complacent about the continued threat of fascism - particularly if most people don't see their nominally more progressive option as creating positive change.

- Finally, Sara Birrell offers a reminder of the benefits of Crown corporations - including the ability to ensure that economic development serves ends such as service expansion and environmental progress, rather than being limited to focusing on shareholder profits.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- James Bradley writes about the range of responses to an increasingly threatening climate. And Emma Morris offers some suggestions as to how to become part of the solution to the climate crisis.

- Adrienne Buller discusses why the popular and necessary prospect of a Green New Deal didn't get anything approaching a fair hearing in the UK's general election. And Malcolm Turnbull writes that Australia's catastrophic bushfires should have provided the impetus for a transition - though part of the lesson to be taken from Scott Morrison's response is that we can't afford to have fossil fuel lackeys in power to obstruct vital progress.

- PressProgress rounds up a few of the Jason Kenney UCP's holiday disasters, while Scott Schmidt rightly criticizes the UCP's pattern of trying to point fingers at newly-declared enemies rather than answering even simple questions about its actions in government.

- Sara Birrell highlights just a few of the examples of how Saskatchewan has suffered as a result of P3 schemes.

- Finally, Birrell also discusses the clash of values underlying the Co-op refinery lockout. And Jim Keohane and David Colletto note that Canadians generally would prefer a far more secure pension system than is currently available to most.