Musical interlude

Emma Hewitt X Orjan Nilsen - Warrior

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Rebecca Leber highlights how drilling in the Arctic and other high-cost fossil fuel extraction plans are based on a sociopathic bet against any prospect of limiting the harm from a climate breakdown. Carl Meyer reports on new research showing that 90% of Saskatchewan's heavy oil sites aren't bothering to measure methane emissions, instead taking license to spew as much carbon pollution as they can get away with while launching vicious attacks on anybody who suggests they might have some responsibility to humanity at large. And Nina Lakhani discusses how private equity is seeking to extracts profits both from dirty energy, and from cleaning up the damage it causes. 

- Meanwhile, Martin Bush discusses why we need to be focused on renewable energy and power storage, rather than buying into the high cost and massive delay involved in nuclear power. 

- Tatiana Walk-Morris writes about the latest financial industry scam of "earned wage access", in which employers team up with corporations to force people to pay to receive the wages they've earned. 

- Martin Regg Cohn notes that the Greenbelt scandal represents a new low even for a Ford government steeped in corruption and cronyism.

- Finally, Jonathan Sas offers a warning about the politics of resentment and abandonment being pushed by Pierre Poilievre and his party. And Nick Seebruch points out how the Cons are taking a brief break from claiming to be free speech warriors to threaten journalists with jail time for daring to report on their convention. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Tess Finch Lee writes about the importance of doing everything we can to protect children (and indeed the general population) from COVID-19. But Thomas Piggott laments that instead of taking a lesson in interdependence and the need for social care, we've been pushed to avoid learning anything from the pandemic. 

-  Meanwhile, Isaac Callan and Colin D'Mello report on the Ontario health care facilities which are being left to crumble while the Ford government focuses on handing out riches to developers. 

- Erika Shaker points out how the cruel and coordinated conservative attacks on trans students also serve as an assault on public education generally. And Michael Harris discusses Mike Roman's place in the importation of Republican fascist politics and anti-democratic activity into Canada's right-wing parties. 

- Tyler Austin Harper and Leif Weatherby highlight how billionaires determined to sacrifice a liveable environment to the pursuit of short-term wealth hoarding are the ultimate existential threat to human survival. And The Juice Media offers a an Honest Government Ad from the government of Canada on its complete subserviance to fossil fuel tycoons in particular:

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- Finally, Yvette D'Etremont reports that half of Nova Scotia's working-age population is strugging to get by on less than a living wage. And Cory Doctorow writes about the prospects of the U.S. labour movement being strengthened by a restored precedent from the National Labor Relations Board which ensures that employers can't cheat their way to union avoidance. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jamey Keaten and Seth Borenstein report on the World Meteorological Association's finding that we've just had the hottest summer in recorded history. And Chelsey Harvey highlights how the combination of extreme heat and other climate calamities looks to be a harbinger of worse to come rather than an outlier. 

- Which naturally means that the UCP is echoing Steve Bannon's talking points in order to promote carbon pollution, while also pouring tens of millions more public dollars into the unaccountable war room for advertising campaigns to peddle dirty energy. 

- Matthew Black reports on Alberta's continued pattern of losing hundreds of residents to drug poisoning deaths every month. 

- Nicholas Keung reports on the Moe government's decision to prioritize primarily-white source countries for immigration as part of the Saskatchewan Party's idea of sovereignty. 

- Finally, Kathleen Hilchey writes about the need for trans students to find care and support rather than  systematic bigotry in schools. And John Ibbitson calls out Scott Moe, Blaine Higgs and other right-wing governments for fomenting hate rather than ensuring children have a safe educational experience. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Angular cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Dawn Bowdish and Andrew Costa provide a reminder as to how to stay as safe as possible from COVID-19 (even as governments have abandoned any attempt to limit the spread of a dangerous disease). 

- Ryan Meili writes about the connection between the climate breakdown and increasing risks to health. Charles Stanier, Gregory Carmichael and Peter Thorne discuss how the severe wildfires and stifling smoke we've seen in 2023 is just the beginning of what's to come, while Ben Nesbit talks to experts about how this year's wildfires may be followed by flooding and other disasters. And Paula Duhatschek and Dan McGarvey discuss what the melting of glaciers in the Rocky Mountains means for the long-term water supply of much of Western Canada.  

- Stewart Lansley writes about the inescapable connection between worsening poverty in the UK and increasing wealth concentration among the most privileged few. Robert Reich offers a reminder of the deliberate effort of corporate tyrants to ensure that decision-making is based on no considerations other than short-term profits for capitalist. And Jason Linkins points out the propaganda campaign around shoplifting which serves to distract from the far more widespread scourge of wage theft. 

- Finally, Justin Ling and Public Policy Forum examine what they view as polarization in Canadian politics - though it's worth noting the inevitable determination to bothsides what's largely an issue of right-wing cult formation.