Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Duncan Cameron writes about the fundamental choice between austerity and full employment in developing the 2021 federal budget. And Noah Smith points out that while pipeline cancellations signal the imminent end of fossil fuels, they don't need to have any impact on job numbers if they're paired with appropriate transition plans.

- Luke Savage calls out corporate liberals for prioritizing the convenience provided by precarious workers over secure livelihoods for the workers themselves. And Brett Nelson discusses how Indigo is one more employer seeing a wave of unionization as workers join together to defend their rights and interests in the workplace.

- Christian Paas-Lang talks to Miles Corak about the need to be far more ambitious than the Trudeau Libs in combating poverty and inequality. 

- Sharif El-Defrawy and Bob Bell warn about the problems with Ontario's choice to privatize eye surgery as yet another step toward corporate health care. And Amitabh Chandra, Evan Flack, and Ziad Obermeyer study (PDF) how even small cost-sharing requirements for prescription drugs result in significant harm to patient outcomes.

- Finally, Claire Porter Robbins discusses the need to take action against growing racism in Alberta, while Dan Collen points out how far too many Canadian media outlets are giving positive coverage to racists and/or conspiracy theorists. And Christopher Curtis discusses how journalism is being trashed in the name of slightly increased corporate profits.

Musical interlude

 Tame Impala - Lost in Yesterday

Here we are now, going to the bothsides

Shorter Murray Mandryk:

Who can really say whether we should want to have more or less spread of a deadly disease? What we should focus on is compromising on a moderately disastrous pandemic that we can all be somewhat dissatisfied with. 

Update: And it gets better. Having declared the previous day that it's unfairly divisive to suggest we should do what's necessary to eradicate COVID-19, Mandryk's next missive tells us that it's not fair to hold Scott Moe accountable for failures in vaccine distribution due to...the presence of the virus he's refusing to rein in.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Joe Vipond, Malgorzata Gasperowicz and Christine Gibson discuss how it's entirely feasible for Alberta (or any other province) to be COVID-free if its leadership bothers to pursue that goal. And Alex Ballingall and Tonda MacCharles look into the history behind our inability to produce vaccines in Canada - though to be clear, the answer isn't to shower massive amounts of money on corporations looking to cash in on the need.

- Brendan Kennedy exposes how the Ford PCs have been pocketing funding intended to provide pandemic relief for Ontario's residents. And Paul Taylor discusses how charitable food donations are a poor substitute for equity in income and employment.

- Richard Wolff reminds us that the growing concentration of wealth at the top is the result of a concerted effort to warp our economic system toward that end. And Dean Baker highlights how restrictive intellectual property rules are a major driver of increasing inequality.

- Meanwhile, the Canadian Press reports on a new PBO estimate showing that even a modest tax on online services could bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each year. 

- Finally, Matthew Brockett notes that New Zealand's examples for the world include a crackdown on property speculators to ensure that housing serves primarily to provide homes rather than investment opportunities. And Hannah Aldridge and Ricardo Tranjan point out that rents have increased in the midst of the COVID pandemic in Canada.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Steven Lewis examines how Canada can and should learn from Australia's success in controlling the coronavirus, while Robert Danich writes that conservative governments need to learn that they have responsibility for social health and well-being rather than pointing the finger at individuals. And Richard Matern observes that COVID-19 represents one of many dangers where none of us are truly safe unless everybody is protected.

- Derek Thompson takes note of the amount of effort being wasted on "hygiene theatre" rather than steps which meaningfully reduce COVID transmission. Martin Regg Cohn offers a reminder that masks rather than vaccines are the key new measure available to reduce individual exposure to COVID-19 (though of course social distancing remains the most important factor in reducing community spread). Cory Stieg examines the California jobs which are facing the greatest increase in mortality risk as a result of COVID-19 - with line workers and labourers bearing the brunt of the virus. And Wallis Snowden reports on what doctors were able to learn from the Edmonton curling bonspiel which turned into a superspreader event.

- Meanwhile, Peter Zimonjic and Vassy Kapelos report on the millions of rapid tests which are being wasted by provinces who demanded them in the first place (with Saskatchewan standing out as not even bothering to report on their use). And Stephanie Taylor reports on modeling showing nearly 19,000 asymptomatic COVID cases in Saskatchewan.

- Linda McQuaig highlights the unfairness that results when publicly-funded vaccine research turns into production and distribution designed to maximize corporate profits. And Joel Lexchin offers a historical reminder as to why Canada has been scrambling to find private vaccine supplies, rather than having meaningful public capacity available. 

- Kate Korte points out that free post-secondary education would be particularly valuable in the wake of the pandemic. But Ian Froese reports on the Pallister government's plans to instead force Manitoba students to systematically pay tuition in order to perform work for private employers. 

- Finally, Bruce Campbell writes about the prospect that 2021 could be a decisive turning point on climate action - but that it's still far from certain whether we'll end up shifting in the right direction. And PA Media points out how many lives strong climate action would save in terms of other factors including healthier lifestyles and reduced air pollution.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Caroline Chen discusses why opening restaurants and other indoor venues which involve prolonged contact is the worst possible choice if one wants to contain the spread of COVID-19.

- Michal Rozworski argues that we shouldn't see the relief efforts needed in the wake of a pandemic as an reason to focus on basic incomes at the expense of basic services and economic planning.

- Tiffany Crawford reports on what may be the most damning research yet into the disparity of opportunity by gender, showing that men with failing grades in high school receive as much of an opportunity in leadership roles as women with straight-A marks. Bethany Lindsey reports on Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond's findings as to the disparity in health care between Indigenous people and other British Columbia residents. And Zak Vescera reports on the doubling of Saskatchewan's overdose death rate in 2020 even as the Moe government pretended to be concerned about addictions and harm reduction only to the extent it served their goal of keeping corporate profits flowing.

- Sharanjit Leyl reports on Mark Carney's recognition that the climate crisis will ultimately prove even more damaging than the coronavirus pandemic if we don't built the capacity for collective action needed to fight it, while Matthew Green reports on the massive death toll already caused by dirty fuels. Michael Patrick Smith writes about the need to kick our fossil fuel habit (from the viewpoint of somebody who has depended on it for his own job). And Andrew McWhinney discusses the need to talk about our climate breakdown in a way that appropriately calls out the role of capital in pushing for continued harm to people and the natural environment.

- Finally, Sharon Riley exposes the UCP's attempt to divert essential water supplies to coal mining in the face of fierce public opposition. And Scott Schmidt writes that Jason Kenney's gaslighting is no longer having the same effect as Albertans realize they don't have to accept his disinformation, while Bruce Livesey documents Kenney's fall from inevitable premier to cause and recipient of mass anger within his own chosen province.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Elevated cats.

 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Angela Stewart interviews Malgorzata Gasperowicz about the potential for Alberta to eradicate COVID-19 with a seven-week shutdown, rather than letting new and more dangerous variants run rampant in the months before vaccines can be widely distributed. Jillian Horton observes that premiers who have been unable to recognize the sunk cost fallacy as it applies to their past decision-making are endangering large numbers of lives in the process. Martin Regg Cohn writes that there aren't many easy answers in determining how to handle schools - though funding proper ventilation and reducing community spread would seem to be obvious means of reducing the risk that exists.

- Jeannie Stiglic, Jenny Cowley, Charlsie Agro expose how payday lenders are exploiting Canadians desperate for short-term loans due to a lack of ongoing public supports. And Richard Partington writes about the massive debt being taken on by UK businesses who have been told they need to try to stay open regardless of the harm to public health and their own sustainability.

- Stefanie Marotta points out how workers are caught in the middle of jurisdictional finger-pointing between the Ford PCs and Trudeau Libs when it comes to being able to avoid going to work while sick. And Jeremy Appel writes about the investigation into last year's uncontained outbreak at Cargill's High River meatpacking plant - while Joel Dryden and Sarah Rieger report that there's another one underway. 

- Dharna Noor examines the massive financial costs of putting off a just transition to decarbonized energy, while the Guardian notes that major oil companies are already dealing with the reality that their past windfall profits aren't materializing anymore. And Ben Geman reports on Ford's announcement of a massive investment in shifting to electric vehicles (as a response to GM's loud publicity campaign to the same effect).

- Finally, Gwladys Fouche reports that in addition to participating in the movement away from funding dirty fuels, Norway's sovereign wealth fund is also pulling any support from corporations engaged in tax evasion. And Ashley Cowburn reports that even the UK Cons are going further than federal Libs in examining the prospect of a windfall profit tax so that the world's largest companies don't further add to their wealth and power as a result of a pandemic.

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.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board laments the choice of far too many provincial governments to sacrifice tens of thousands of lives rather than treating a pandemic with the seriousness and focus it deserves. Philip Pizzo, David Spiegel and Michelle Mello examine how governments which have taken science seriously rather than bending medical decisions to political ends have been far more successful in limiting the harm from COVID-19. Murray Mandryk takes note of the deadly wager the Saskatchewan Party is making on vaccines as a magic bullet. And Helen Rosner writes that there's no rational argument in favour of in-restaurant dining at this point - no matter how much public money the Regina Chamber of Commerce spends encouraging people to be irresponsible.

- Phil Tank reports on Scott Moe's choice not to use 98% of the rapid COVID tests provided to Saskatchewan by the federal government - which looks particularly dubious given that the province has promoted a pay-to-play testing option instead of actually using the tests on hand. Marc Smith reports that Saskatchewan's standard testing system is also operating far beyond its supposed capacity despite large amounts of federal funding. And Lauren Pelley notes that a responsible provincial government would be using a lull in vaccine shipments to build capacity for the foreseeable surge in availability, rather than spending all of its time whinging about the feds.

- Julia Peterson reports that Saskatoon is looking at filling the vacuum in support for solar energy left by the Sask Party (and matching the success that's been seen elsewhere). And Danton Unger reports on Winnipeg's study of fare-free transit as another example of cities showing leadership due to a right-wing provincial government's failures.

- Finally, Dave Cournoyer writes about the nearly universal opposition against Jason Kenney's plan to strip-mine mountaintops and endanger major water sources for a vanishingly small amount of coal profits while slashing regulation generally. But it should come as no surprise that the only exception is the Saskatchewan Party, which is too obsessed with cheerleading for resource extraction generally to show even the slightest concern for the impact on Saskatchewan's water and environment.

Musical interlude

glimmers - Don't Tell Me

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Andrew Nikiforuk takes a look at two proposals to get to COVID Zero - including one from Canada and one from Germany.

- Mickey Djuric reports on Saskatchewan's deceptive COVID-19 reporting - which results in a public announcement that people have "recovered" no matter how severe their ongoing symptoms (or even when they die of the disease).

- Patrick White and Molly Hayes report on the increased number of calls to police and health providers raising mental health issues during the course of a poorly-managed pandemic. Zak Vescera reports on how COVID-19 is affecting people living in poverty. And Doug Cuthand discusses how COVID-19 has resulted in disproportionate harm to Indigenous people and people of colour.

- Meanwhile, in case there was any doubt that overt prejudice remains just as much an issue as systemic inequality, Jason Warick reports on the interference of a group of racists in a memorial service being held by Muslim students at the University of Saskatchewan. And Laura Sciarpelletti reports on the racist tirade of an anti-masker against workers at a Vietnamese restaurant. 

- But on the bright side, Megan Squire discusses the promising evidence suggesting the deplatforming purveyors of hate can significantly limit the harm done by the people seeking to push it. 

- Finally, Kim Siever writes about the glaring flaws in Jack Mintz' attempt to treat the COVID crash and stagnant incomes as symptoms of insufficient giveaways to the corporate sector. Dan Darrah interviews Greg Meeker about the Kenney UCP's hijacking of workers' pension funds to be used to prop up the fossil fuel sector. And Scott Schmidt discusses how Albertans are paying the price for buying the claim that it doesn't matter if they're governed by monkeys as long as they're from the party preferred by the business class.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Damien Cave writes about the lessons Australia's successful containment of COVID-19 offer to any other jurisdiction willing to listen and learn rather than recklessly endangering public health, while the Globe and Mail's editorial board questions why Canada doesn't fit that bill. And Tristin Hopper notes that mandatory quarantine has been one of the important factors in New Zealand's similar control over the coronavirus.

- Alex Nguyen highlights how the recognition of the risks workers face in coffee shops may be leading to a pattern of organizing and unionization. 

- Greg Rosalsky discusses how the poverty treated as the norm for so many service sector workers ultimately harms productivity at work as well as overall well-being. And Rosa Saba points out the needed movement to have the federal government avoid piling on CERB recipients in the midst of another pandemic wave.

- Zak Vescera reports on the danger homeless people in Saskatchewan are facing due to a combination of limited resources and extreme weather. 

- Duncan Cameron writes about the opportunity to reduce inequality and raise public revenue through taxes on financial transactions. And Kristy Koehler reports on the problems with using credit checks as a precondition to employment - particularly in public service work.

- Finally, Adam Serwer rebuts the theory that the Capitol insurrection (and the Trump movement generally) was the product of deprivation rather than an attempt to preserve unequal privilege.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jim Stanford reminds us that a focus on protecting health is the best strategy to ensure a functioning economy. And Gary Mason writes about the increasing fatigue Canadians have with the feckless responses of all levels of government - aside from the Atlantic provinces which have been largely successful in suppressing the spread of COVID-19. 

- Meanwhile, Gillian Petit and Lindsay Tedds study (PDF) how instead of looking to help people or keep them safe, right-wing governments have used emergency COVID supports as an opportunity to cut people off from provincial benefits.

- Rita Trichur discusses how paid sick leave in particular is a must as a matter of economic policy alone (even leaving aside the social and health implications of incentivizing people to work while sick). And Sara Mojtehedzadeh and Andrew Bailey report on the immense number of workers treated as essential for the purpose of being kept at work, while Bill Kaufmann reports on the care home workers who are being told to keep reporting for work even while testing positive for COVID-19 (and who want to see more responsible management in charge). 

- Nature highlights how after over a year of experience with the coronavirus, we're still far too focused on rare surface transmission rather than air transmission. And Carl Zimmer notes that the new UK strain may be able to resist the vaccines that have been developed so far - making control of community spread all the more important.

- Finally, Karl Nerenberg reports that while the Libs make a show out of trying to cut belated deals with the private sector, the NDP is leading the charge to have medicine and long-term care treated as public services rather than sources of corporate profit. And Kevin Barry argues that there's no reasonable explanation for allowing public goods like vaccines to be manufactured and distributed with profit-seeking in mind.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Elevated cats.

 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Gabrielle Drolet discusses how essential workers have been left to bear the physical and emotional burdens of workplaces designed to prioritize the interests of bosses and customers first. And Bruce Western and Jake Rosenfeld study (PDF) the effect unions have in pushing for equity - and the associated lack thereof as governments and businesses have spent decades in an all-out war against labour. 

- Meanwhile, Dylan Matthews reports on the Biden administration's moves to make meatpacking work at least somewhat less abusive.

- The Guardian's editorial board comments on the need for speed in taking action to avert a climate breakdown. Peter Oldridge writes that the prairie premiers should start recognizing that the future will be powered by renewable energy. And Alex Ballingall rightly challenges Justin Trudeau's attempt to treat perpetual fossil fuel development and responsible climate policy as being remotely compatible with each other.

- Sharon Riley exposes how Alberta has undercut the protection of birds put at risk by tar sands tailings ponds. And Brian Cross notes that Alberta's farmers will be far worse off due to the UCP's choice to eliminate any credit for emission offsets.

 - Andrew Nikiforuk points out how the UCP tipped off foreign investors about their plans to push coal mining long before providing any notice to the communities which will bear the brunt of the resulting environmental damage. 

- Finally, Emma Gilchrist calls out Jason Kenney's attacks on journalists and environmental activists as a poor distraction from their own failings. And Jeremy Appel weighs in on the use of public money to fund conspiracy theories.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Linda Geddes discusses the problem with people approaching COVID-19 restrictions based on the question of what's permitted (or worse yet what they can get away with), rather than what choices are most likely to limit the spread of the virus.

- Richard Horton writes about the growing expert push for a no-COVID strategy, while Michael Baker and Martin McKee offer 16 reasons for any country to pursue that goal. Lynsey Chutel and Marc Santora point out the need to fight the pandemic everywhere for anybody to be safe from future spread and newer, more dangerous variants. May Warren wonders what ever happened to contact tracing as part of the plan to control community spread in far too much of Canada, while the Globe and Mail's editorial board laments the failure to use rapid testing as one means of identifying potential sources of transmission before symptoms have appeared. And Winnie Byanyima argues that it's unconscionable for vaccines developed largely at public expense to be turned into corporate profit centres at the expense of universal availability as a public good, while Reshma Ramachandran and Zoey Thill take note of the rhetorical sleight of hand involved in associating vaccines with pharmaceutical companies rather than public sources of research and support.

- Meanwhile, Scott Gilmore discusses how Canada's national response to the coronavirus ranks among the world's worst. Andre Picard notes that the latest federal announcements involving limitations on some type of travel figure to offer far more in terms of symbolism than substantial outcomes. Mike Blanchfield reports on the growing recognition that we need domestic vaccine production capacity. And Charles Shaver highlights the importance of paid sick leave, particularly for people working to keep the public healthy.

- AFP reports on Argentina's implementation of a wealth tax to help fund coronavirus relief. And Christian Paas-Laing interviews Miles Corak about the need to do more to rein in wealth inequality - including the fact that Chrystia Freeland earned much of her public reputation documenting and (at least implicitly) recognizing the need for greater equity which her government is choosing not to pursue.

- Finally, Zarah Sultana discusses how big money distorts the U.S.' political system beyond any reasonable definition of the term "democracy". And Umair Haque writes about the dangers of being satisfied with a return to the same normal which produced the rise of Trumpian fascism to begin with.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Jerusalem Demsas discusses the strong popular support for affordable social housing even as governments continually fail to provide it. Daphne Bramham rightly asks why we haven't seen far more of a move toward the Housing First models (including both secure housing and the availability of associated supports) which have consistently proven effective at assisting people facing addictions and homelessness. And Richard Warnica weighs in on the death toll from Ontario's reliance on for-profit long-term care homes. 

- Moira Wyton reports on the outcome of British Columbia's panel on a basic income - which found that more targeted income and basic services would represent a better use of public resources. And Heather Scoffield offers her take on why a basic income isn't the right option to try to eliminate poverty. 

- Timothy Bond, Jillian Carr, Analisa Packham and Jonathan Smith study how the timing of food benefits directly affects students' scores on tests which affect their future.

- Bill Blaikie puts some of the forces behind the U.S.' Trumpist insurrection into historical context. And Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan write about the needed push from social movements for change as the Biden/Harris administration begins its tenure.

- Meanwhile, Scott Harold Payne wonders whether the relentless flow of corruption and incompetence from the UCP will lead to the end of Alberta conservatism as we know it.

- Finally, Kendall Latimer reports on Saskatchewan's long-overdue end to the use of birth alerts - while also noting the need to make up for the damage they've done already.

Musical interlude

 Joywave - Doubt

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Andrew Nikiforuk writes about the even greater urgency to get to COVID zero as more dangerous strains of the virus spread in Canada. And Adam Miller reports on growing recommendations that we wear more effective masks, including while outdoors. 

-Truc Nguyen reports on some of the ways to deal with the anxiety arising out of the pandemic, while Natalie Grover reports on research showing that the coronavirus itself leads to mental illness and brain disorders. And James Wilt points out the public health implications of people drinking more in the course of the pandemic.

- Sarah Jaffe discusses the problem of burnout generally - including by recognizing that it's an inevitable outcome of economic and social systems designed to impose as many costs as possible on individuals for the benefit of businesses. Meghan Bell calls out the attempt by Bell (and so many politicians) to turn mental health into a single-day distraction while standing in the way of the support people need at all times. And Ray Fisman and Michael Luca point out how the effort to squeeze concessions out of workers - rather than providing a stable and secure livelihood - is ultimately a damaging one for employers.

- But in case anybody thought there was hope for consensus on a change in course, Tom Scocca writes that the Trump years have offered an appalling test of how much suffering the U.S. is prepared to inflict on people. And Mindy Isser discusses the need to ensure that organizing efforts include people who have been willing to support the likes of Donald Trump.

- Finally, Nana Ama Sarfo makes the case to end Canada's current status as a haven to hide the beneficial ownership of corporations. And Canadians for Tax Fairness argues that we shouldn't let Pfizer use COVID-19 as an excuse to claim yet another round of tax concessions and corporate giveaways.