Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Brian Beutler makes the effort to classify the crises created by the new Trump administration as well as the available responses. Jeet Heer discusses Elon Musk's coup against crucial parts of the U.S. state., while Nathan Tankus goes into detail about the dangers of his control over payments and financial information through the Treasury. And David Dayen reports on the shutdown of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for the offence of giving people a fighting chance against corporate abuses. 

- A.R. Moxon writes that any organized response will need to start at the popular level as the government apparatus is rendered incapable of responding to anything other than Donald Trump's fascist diktats, while the opposition in Congress refuses to meaningfully oppose an authoritarian regime. Jonathan Last points out the role money can play in forcing Trump's hand at times - with his reversal on tariffs against Canada in the wake of financial upheaval looking like an important example. 

- Seth Klein notes that any further threats against Canada will demand a response based on the U.S.' reliance on fossil fuels. And Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood and Marc Lee offer some additional creative suggestions.  

- Alex Himelfarb discusses how the conflation of austerity with "common sense" results in a meaner and less responsive form of politics. And Emma Paling examines the programs which are at the most risk if Pierre Poilievre ever gets the chance to impose his version on Canada. 

- Finally, Jen St. Denis talks to Avi Lewis about the prospect of a government that serves the interests of the general public - including by ending the sense of powerlessness that comes from leaving the availability of housing and basic necessities to corporate interests.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Ajit Niranjan reports on new data from the World Meterological Organization showing that multiple greenhouse gases are accumulating to unprecedented levels in our atmosphere (primarily due to a continuing fossil fuel addiction). Sophie Kevany reports on new research finding that industrial fishing is undermining the effect of oceans as carbon sinks.

- Anna Bawden notes that the human-level effects of the climate breakdown include record numbers of heat-related deaths and widespread droughts. The University of Michigan points out that some of the areas of the U.S. facing the greatest environmental disasters are the ones where fossil-fueled climate denial is the most prevalent. And Saul Elbein reports on new research from the Lancet as to the health impacts of the climate crisis. 

- Alex Himelfarb offers a warning against allowing right-wing populists to use ritual invocations of "common sense!" as a substitute for any evidence or rational support for their regressive policies.

- Finally, Will Snell points out that the UK's already-appalling wealth gap has been getting worse over time - and that it will take a massive shift to equality-based policy to move in the right direction.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Ian Welsh discusses how austerity doesn't offer a roadmap to economic development, but instead serves as a means of ensuring that the burden of economic failure is borne by the working class in the form of service and wage reductions, rather than the ownership class through the devaluation of capital. And Tannara Yelland highlights how it's investors rather than immigrants who are responsible for Canada's housing crisis. 

- Alex Himelfarb writes that the only defence against authoritarian demagoguery is a plausible path to ensure our public institutions actually work for people's benefit. 

- Keith Stewart juxtaposes Pierre Poilievre's anti-lobbyist rhetoric with his eagerness to convert oil industry donations into even more extreme forms of petropolitics. And Andrew Nikiforuk notes that British Columbia's election may have produced the only result which doesn't result in a full term of absolute capture by the fossil gas industry.

- Drew Anderson examines the respective platforms of the Saskatchewan NDP and Sask Party on the environment - again with little indication that either is prepared to wrestle with the scope of the climate crisis, but with the former recognizing the need to build clean energy and maintain healthy land and water where the latter offers nothing but destruction. 

- Finally, Saniya Ghaledhar writes about the dangers of bigoted populism focused on punishing minority groups. Aastha Shetty reports on sentencing submissions indicating that a stabbing rampage at the University of Waterloo was based on a deliberate intention to instil fear which right-wing purveyors of "tough on crime" spin seem to have no interest in counteracting. And Peter Smith warns that post-truth conspiracism no longer seems to be even a hindrance - let alone a disqualifying factor - for conservative political leaders in Canada. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Lauren Rosenthal, Brian Sullivan and Christopher Cannon examine how the prospect of extreme weather and associated disasters is a reality everywhere in the U.S. Helena Horton reports on a World Meteorological Organization report showing how rivers are drying up, resulting in a grave threat to fresh water supplies. And Andrew Nikiforuk writes about the devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in particular, while Kate Aronoff discusses the importance of putting climate safety at the forefront of all kinds of policy decisions due to its foundational impact across borders and policy areas. 

- Shawn McCarthy writes that we should be able to treat adaptation to a changing climate as a non-partisan priority - though that assumes away the conscious strategy of denial on the part of far too many of our political leaders. And Crawford Kilian discusses Thomas Piketty's recognition that any viable climate plan needs to rein in inequality and excess - which is precisely why the people flaunting obscene wealth and power refuse to accept any meaningful action. 

- And in case there was any doubt that antisocial action is rewarded among our corporate elites, Max Fawcett discusses how oil operators who have dumped massive amounts of environmental liability on the public (after previously extracting profits without setting aside the cost of cleanup) are being celebrated by the business class as representing everything they aspire to achieve. 

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb highlights the importance of collective action as the only viable response to both an economy grossly skewed in favour of the wealthy few, and the message that there is no alternative which serves as the substitute for any justification for that reality. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Paul Abela writes that the continual concentration of wealth is patently unsustainable. Alex Himelfarb discusses how neoliberalism has laid the groundwork for the violent authoritarianism of Donald Trump and his fascist fellow travelers. And Karen Landmand examines how private equity's takeover of health care in the U.S. is endangering patients' lives while driving health care workers out of their professions. 

- Josh Pringle reports on a new survey showing Canadian workers see substantial benefits from remote work (even as many employers have sought to put an end to it). And Cory Doctorow juxtaposes the impetus toward in-person control and extensive supervision with Wells Fargo's complete neglect of well-being to the point of leaving a dead employee rot for days. 

- Katia Lo Innes and Tannara Yelland take a look at the double-dipped donations from the corporate elite which are funding the Saskatchewan Party's election campaign. And Ricardo Acuna discusses how the UCP is determine to avoid anything resembling fair taxation. 

- Finally, Stephen Magusiak exposes the hasty scrubbing of the BC Cons' platform, while Andrew MacLeod points out a few questions which should be directed at John Rustad if he deigned to interact with actual journalists. And Rumneek Johal notes that even the sanitized version of the party's plans includes using the notwithstanding clause to lock up people dealing with substance addiction. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Eric Topol examines the latest research showing COVID-19's effect on the brain, while David Robson takes note of the prospect that the brain has its own microbiome whose disruption is responsible for neuro degenerative disorders. And Erica Sloan discusses COVID-19's wider effects on the body. 

- Lois Parshley discusses the insurance apocalypse developing as insurers decline to cover the effects of a climate breakdown. And Jake Johnson reports on a new study from Oil Change International showing that there are plenty of resources to help reduce the damage from climate change if we take even the bare minimum steps of ending fossil fuel subsidies and cracking down on tax evasion by the wealthy. 

- Meanwhile, Silas Zuereb examines how tax giveaways to wealthy investors are exacerbating Canada's housing crisis. 

- Democracy Watch points out how the current Parliamentary study into foreign political interference is designed to miss crucial weaknesses in Canada's laws and enforcement systems.  

- Dougald Lamont walks through the connections between the Cons, the institutional right and the Flu Trux Klan which violently occupied Ottawa and other sites.  

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb discusses the importance of maintaining optimism and determination even in the face of a polycrisis - particularly where one of the root causes is the loss of a sense of potential for collective action to create meaningful improvement. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Alex Himelfarb reviews Quinn Slobodian's Crack-Up Capitalism as a valuable account of the myths and rationalizations underlying the propagation of inequality to serve the uber-rich. Cory Doctorow highlights how the attack on Social Security by Republicans and their donors represents a form of class war. And Justin Chandler reports on the immense benefits resulting from an Ontario basic income pilot project which was promptly shredded by Doug Ford so he could focus solely on funneling public money to his cronies. 

- Michael Mann examines where we now stand in the fight to rein in catastrophic climate change - while noting that while we likely have the technical means to prevent dangerous levels of climate breakdown, we're showing few signs of the political will to get there. And Jenni Reid reports on yet another quarter of obscene profits and climate delay for Shell. 

- Casey Feindt reports on the FDA's action to ban the use of brominated vegetable oil as a drink additive after its widespread use has been found to cause thyroid damage and memory loss. And University College London highlights new research showing that up to one in seven Americans has suffered from long COVID already - with the number only figuring to escalate as new waves are allowed to spread unchecked. 

- Finally, Amanda Marcotte explores the compelling evidence that toxic masculinity doesn't keep anybody safe - though such inconvenient reality doesn't figure to stop the right from demanding that it be applied as the answer to everything. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Richard Murphy points out the stark contrast between the UK Cons' attempt to pretend that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, and the tens of thousands of excess deaths still resulting from it. Mary Van Beusekom discusses a new study showing that Ontario's infection levels were likely 19 times higher than reported at the peak of the Omicron wave. And Kai Kupferschmidt interviews new WHO chief scientist Jeremy Farrar about the multiple global public health challenges which demand action (even if governments prefer to ignore and minimize them). 

- Alex Himelfarb warns against prematurely declaring the death of neoliberalism when it still serves as the default ideology underlying our society despite its unpopularity. And Brooke Kruger reports on the Saskatoon Food Bank's observation that people are increasingly reliant on it to ensure a source of food (even as Scott Moe continues to pretend that everyone's doing just fine). 

- Niels-Jakob Hansen, Frederik Toscani and Jing Zhou discuss how corporate profiteering is the main driver of ongoing inflation in Europe. And Isaac Callan and Colin D'Mello report on the flood of corporate lobbying as businesses look to take over health care services in Ontario. 

- Robin McKie discusses Bill McGuire's conclusion that we're past the point of averting some level of climate breakdown - though it's still vital to do what we can to reverse the damage. And Moran Cerf, Sandra Matz and Malcolm MacIver find that people who participate in prediction markets (and thus have a reason to pay close attention to climate issues) are more concerned about the climate. But Carbon Brief reports on the Climate Change Committee's recognition that the UK government is falling ever further behind its climate commitments, while Reuters reports on CDP's research showing the same to be predictably true for fossil fuel giants. And Taylor Noakes offers a reminder that hydrogen fuels and carbon capture and storage serve more as delay tactics for carbon polluters than as remotely useful solutions. 

- Finally, Kelly Kimball discusses how existing wildfire models are being overtaken by the reality of far more severe fires. And news.com.au reports on the immense tracts of tropical forest being lost both to fire and to deforestation.  

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- The University of Denver examines how prior infection with COVID-19 produces effects comparable to a traumatic brain injury in worsening the effects of long COVID. And Laise Conde reports on the efforts of Protect Out Province BC (among others) to keep people protected even as the motivation to normalize continued spread is used as an excuse to slash any public health measures, while Meg Duff reports that access to Paxlovid is being restricted even as its function in reducing the severity of long COVID becomes better known. 

- Meanwhile, Mariana Mazzucato discusses the need for our system of drug research and manufacturing to be oriented toward keeping people healthy rather than locking in corporate profit streams. 

- Adam King writes about British Columbia's example in showing how reducing employer interference in organizing can help workers to pursue their collective bargaining rights. 

- Luke Savage discusses how Elon Musk has become a test case in demonstrating that amassing money under a capitalist system has nothing to do with merit. And Nik Popli highlights how food companies have made groceries more expensive through blatant profiteering. 

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb writes that there's nothing prudent about budgetary choices which fall far short of meeting the needs of people and the planet. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Andrew Nikiforuk discusses the looming prospect that COVID-19 infections will cause ongoing damage by exhausting people's immunity, while Betsy Ladyzhets writes about the lack of benefits for people who are disabled as a result of long COVID. Andre Picard highlights how children have been affected by COVID in ways not readily anticipated or apparent. And Nili Kaplan-Myrth offers some reassurance that people who are still masking aren't alone in their efforts to protect themselves and others.  

- Moira Wyton reports on the continued death toll of toxic drugs in British Columbia.

- Emma McIntosh discusses Doug Ford's plan to turn part of Ontario's greenbelt into a profit centre for his developer buddies. 

- Edward Keenan writes that the success of CUPE and other unions in pushing back against Ford's use of the notwithstanding clause to end collective bargaining and the right to strike is far from the end of the fight. 

- Finally, Sophie Tanno reports on a new study showing the disproportionate damage billionaires are doing to our planet. And Alex Himelfarb points out that we shouldn't accept the claim that economic laws require public policy to be biased in favour of corporations at the expense of people. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jasmine Kerrissy and Judith Stepan-Noris examine the state of the U.S. labour movement for Labour Day. And Gil McGowan points out the many basic freedoms which are lacking for Canadian workers and their unions.

- Alex Himelfarb writes about the politics of inflation - and particularly the deliberate effort to allow profits to rise while suppressing any associated improvement in wages. And Ted Johnson discusses the significance of even modest student debt relief in making clear that working people can benefit from public policy choices.

- Jeremy Clifton and Nicholas Kerry study the values which best map to political ideology, and find that the most important dividing line is not based on fear (as often assumed) but the acceptance of hierarchy and inequality. And Ariel Kalil et al. find that welfare restrictions driven by both neoliberal and conservative politicians served to exacerbate those factors by preventing parents living in poverty from providing needed emotional support to their children.

- Kevin Rennert et al. find that our current estimates of the social cost of carbon - though far higher than the prices set by public policy - are themselves far short of sufficient to account for the damage wrought by carbon pollution. And Megan Rowling reports on the prospect of a rapid transition if only the money currently spent on fossil fuel subsidies is instead put into a clean economy. 

- Finally, Kate Aronoff writes about Mississippi's example of eco-apartheid, while the Economist's review of two new books points out the imminent reality of large number of climate refugees from around the globe.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Katherine Wu writes about the much-needed update to COVID-19 vaccines coming this fall - and the challenge getting people to receive them after months of false messaging about the pandemic being over. 

- Steven Lewis discusses how the privatization of health care (including surgical services) stands to undermine our universal Medicare system. And Andrew Gregory reports on a new study showing how the UK Cons' privatization was the direct case of avoidable deaths alongside other demonstrable harm to services. 

- Charles Pierce points out how the hard right has been getting what it's paid for in securing a stranglehold over the U.S. Supreme Court. And Brigette Bureau reports on the intimidation of judges in Canada by Flu Trux Klan terrorists, while Brett Forester reports that the RCMP remains far more interested in infiltrating peaceful land defenders than dealing with the actual violence in our midst. 

- Emily Leedham reports on WestJet's attempts to use scab labour to operate while refusing to provide acceptable wages and working conditions for check-in clerks.

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb makes the case for proportional representation as a means of guarding against anti-majoritarian control over public policy. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Eric Topol describes how COVID-19's infectiousness has been steadily increasing with time even as so many governments have gone out of their way to declare it to be over, while Reuters reports on new research showing that the Omicron variant is no less severe than its predecessors. Anna Edney writes about the children fighting the long-term effects of long COVID after being falsely reassured that they wouldn't be affected. And Eric Luellen discusses the prospect of a pan-coronavirus vaccine - which, like any other future possibility for prevention and treatment, seems rather hollow in light of current policy to encourage mass infection.  

- Alex Himelfarb writes that austerity is no cure for inflation - and that the proper answer to rising prices is to make sure people can weather them, not to abandon them to the whims of the market. And Heather Scoffield calls out the deliberate policy choice to let the corporate sector gorge itself on windfall profits while seeking to suppress wages the moment they had any prospect of catching up to price increases. 

- Alan Broadbent and Elizabeth McIsaac highlight how reliance on private-sector developers is a fatally flawed strategy to deal with the housing crisis. And Shaina Luck reports that one result of the NDP-Lib confidence and supply agreement is to ensure that funding intended for affordable housing actually provides it. 

- Leanna First-Arai discusses how the fossil fuel sector is trying to hold the U.S.' education system hostage. Geoff Dembicki points out that Canada's big banks are a major obstacle to an energy transition due to the money they've already sunk into dirty tar sands projects. And the Canadian Climate Institute studies how a rapid transition to renewable energy is both the most affordable and most environmentally responsible path forward in our power sector.  

- Matthew Cunningham-Cook writes about the systematic funneling of workers' pension funds into the hands of a few well-connected financial firms, turning the retirements of a large portion of the working class into a cash cow for a lucky few. 

- Finally, Alex Hemingway discusses the much-needed restoration of card check union certification in British Columbia in order to reduce the effect of employer interference and intimidation. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Zak Vescera reports on the combination of high rates of hospitalization and virtually nonexistent vaccination that's resulted from Scott Moe's surrender to COVID-19. And Nicholas Larsen et al. add autonomic dysfunction to the list of post-COVID symptoms which are common even among people fortunate enough to avoid a severe case. 

- Jonathan Josephs reports that the deliberate decisions of corporate vaccine manufacturers have resulted in a more severe pandemic due to a choice not to make supplies available more equitably. And Joel Lexchin discusses how the Libs have caved to big pharma in failing to keep their promise to rein in prescription drug prices. 

- Ed Yong writes that the systemic consequences of climate change include increasing the frequency and severity of infectious diseases. Oliver Milman reports that we're approaching a cataclysmic extinction of marine life. Shirin Ali reports on a new study finding that half of the U.S.' water is too polluted to be used for swimming, fishing or drinking. 

- Anders Fremstad and Mark Paul discuss how neoliberal ideology has been used to stifle meaningful action to protect our climate and planetary environment. And Jessica Scott-Reid reports on the obstruction by the meat industry seeking to stop the development of plant-based products. 

- Umair Haque discusses how the right in the U.S. has managed not only to shatter the Overton window with shifts not just off the political spectrum but outside objective reality, but also to convince itself that the exact opposite has happened. And David Sirota warns that an ineffectual and captured Democratic administration is only reinforcing that nihilistic sentiment. 

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb offers a message of hope and solidarity for collective action in a time which demands it. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Adam Miller highlights what we can do to limit the spread of COVID-19 over the winter to come. And Pratyush Dayal reports on the Saskatchewan cancer patients who are rightfully angry at Scott Moe for falsely declaring the pandemic over and endangering their life-saving treatment.

- William Moss, Lawrence Gostin and Jennifer Nuzzo summarize where pediatric vaccines stand as the U.S. rolls them out (and Canada hopefully prepares to do so soon). And Jonathan Howard points out the folly of using "underlying conditions" as an excuse to refuse to vaccination (or mandate vaccination).

- Alex Himelfarb suggests some reading on the big change we need as we work on responding to an ongoing pandemic and worsening climate crisis.

- Mark Hertsgaard discusses the importance of stronger news coverage in portraying what's at stake in a climate breakdown.

- George Monbiot writes that we should be treating climate funding for developing countries as reparations rather than aid. And Stuart Trew et al. point out that the same corporate investment treaties which have locked in the upward flow of wealth are tying the hands of governments trying to implement climate policy, while Manual Perez Rocha notes the complete absence of any effort to remove that barrier to climate action in Glasgow.

- Finally, Shaina Luck reports that the Libs' attempt to substitute inaccesible subsidies for an actual social housing policy is resulting in large amounts of announced money sitting unused while homelessness escalates.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Fahad Razak, David Naylor and Arthur Slutsky discuss how it's not too late to pull our health care system back from the brink of catastrophe. But Ryan Tumilty writes that we can't avoid a third wave merely by wishing for vaccines to be a magic cure-all.

- Robert Benzie offers a behind-the-scenes look at the utter mismanagement of the pandemic by Doug Ford and his caucus, while Bruce Arthur rightly points out that crocodile tears and unfocused apologies are no substitute for action to actually improve people's health and well-being. And Alexander Quon notes that Indigenous communities in Saskatchewan have been doing a far more effective job of controlling the spread of COVID-19 than the provincial government. 

- PressProgress highlights the push for sick leave in British Columbia (which sadly has gone unanswered by a government which should know better), as well as the broad support for paid sick leave across the country.

- Bill Henderson reports on a review which concludes that the Libs' climate change plan is more about checking boxes than actually reducing emissions to a level consistent with averting climate breakdown. Aaron Wherry's question as to whether the latest set of emission reduction targets can be taken seriously offers an implicit answer in the negative. And Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood and Clay Duncalfe examine how the supposed climate change funding in the Libs' budget includes far less than what's being advertised.

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb discusses what we'd expect to see in an actual transformational budget (as opposed to a cynical election platform by another name).

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Alex Himelfarb writes about the need to get past obsessing over deficits and taxes when they're necessary to fund the society we want.

- Olivia Stefanovich, Karina Roman and Ryan Patrick Jones report on the Auditor General's report placing responsibility for the continued lack of safe drinking water on First Nations squarely on the shoulders of the federal government.

- Justin Ling discusses Anthony Doob and Jane Sprott's report on the continued use of solitary confinement with no regard for its harm to the people locked away. And Robyn Urback points out how prisoners are the one group of people our governments consider themselves entitled to torture.

- Jag Bhalla highlights the desperate need for the world's wealthiest people to cut carbon emissions in order for there to be any prospect of averting a climate breakdown. But Robert Reich points out that people seeking to protect their concentrated wealth are instead using climate change to stoke class divisions. And Canada News Central notes that the Trudeau Libs are actually increasing federal subsidies for even more carbon pollution. 

- Finally, Christo Aivalis and Tom Parkin both call out Justin Trudeau and his party for voting against even a basic framework for pharmacare in the midst of a pandemic which is only highlighting the importance of access to medical care.

[Edit: fixed wording.]

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Steven Lewis writes about the Sask Party government's catastrophic refusal to act on the evidence that Saskatchewan needs to sharply curb the spread of COVID-19. Julia Peterson reports on the Saskatchewan doctors making it clear that we can't afford to let up over the holiday season. And Murray Mandryk notes that a throne speech focused on platform baubles and outdated talking points fell far short of meeting an increasingly dire current reality - though it should hardly come as a surprise that someone anointed by the media for re-election while campaigning on a theme of "no lockdowns!" has concluded he can get away with trading lives for corporate favour.

- Thiemo Fetzer and Thomas Graeber study (PDF) the damage done by a lack of contact tracing - even as any effort to test and trace falls apart across the prairie provinces. And Lucas Edmond discusses how Brian Pallister's austerity and corporatism in the midst of a pandemic is killing Manitobans. 

- Andre Picard rightly asks why we're seeing another wave of outbreaks in long-term care homes after having the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the spring. And Madeleine Ritts writes about the crisis of privatized, for-profit health care in Ontario.

- Finally, David Wastell reports on a push by economists to stop the media from reporting on the economy in terms of false analogies to household finances and credit card debts. And Alex Himelfarb highlights how spending during a pandemic and recovery period is absolutely necessary to build for what comes next:

For several months, as Canada’s governments were first taking on the pandemic and the economic shocks emanating from it, we witnessed something of a fiscal truce. Gone were the calls for restrained spending, small government, balanced budgets. Across the political spectrum governments were spending borrowed money. And across the political spectrum, observers of government—including many who had been lambasting the federal government for its pre-pandemic deficits and its lack of plan to get to balance—were for this brief moment welcoming or at least tolerating active government, deficit spending and increases to the public debt. 

...

Predictably, the deficit hawks have started to hover. Most headlines following the fiscal snapshot asked just how worried we should be about deficits and debt—and many pundits concluded plenty worried. “No way to put a shine on this,” said one; “Dire” said others; “Time to start winding down” said a few. And, following the age-old principles of “Misery loves company” and “What’s better than a race to the bottom?” some are calling for cuts to the public service and public service wages. Let the market do its thing as soon as possible, they’re saying, and start scaling government back down again. 

...

Disagreements about deficits and debt reflect more than differences among economists (of which there are aplenty); they highlight deeper ideological disagreements about what kind of country we want and the role of government in getting there. It’s important, then, to sort through the politics of deficits and debt. We need to explode the myths that have for decades stunted our political imagination, making us doubt whether we can afford what needs doing and convincing us that austerity, cutting spending and reining in government, is our only option. Austerity means squeezing essential services such as healthcare, education and welfare and foregoing or delaying public investment when all the evidence tells us that this is exactly the wrong way to go. 

...

We can expect—in fact we ought to have—serious debates about the shape of the post-pandemic recovery, about the future we want, about the role of government in building that future. We have an opportunity to learn from this pandemic, to address the inequities and cracks it revealed, to better prepare for the next crises. Important proposals for a feminist response, a “green new deal” and renewal consistent with reconciliation and Indigenous rights and racial justice show us what our future could be. We cannot afford to have those debates short-circuited by paranoia over deficits and debt. 

Monday Morning Links

 Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Alex Himelfarb, Andrew Jackson and Brian Topp write about the need for a tax system which collects a fair share from the wealthiest in order to fund the recovery and renewal we should be demanding. And Ben Steverman reports on Raj Chetty's work showing how the coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately hurt people who were already falling behind.

- Bruce Campbell writes about the positive ideas hinted at in the federal throne speech, while also warning of the Libs' propensity for deferring to elites who would rather see everybody else's lives get more precarious as long as it enhances their own wealth and power. And Scott Schmidt highlights W. Brett Wilson as a prime example of how the reactionary instinct is based on nothing more than trying to protect undeserved and unfair wealth and privilege based on the assumption that it's normal:

COVID presented a new way of looking at our society and oligarchs like Wilson desperately need you to forget the realities you’ve been presented with this year. Before the pandemic, it wouldn’t be hard for a man like Wilson to convince the public that the unemployed or down-on-their-luck were on their own, that they somehow contributed to their situation and the rest of us weren’t responsible for getting them back on their feet.

The pandemic should have shattered that mirage entirely the moment we hit lockdown and sent millions of our family, friends and neighbours into unemployment.

“Wait a minute,” we were supposed to say. “Could it be that people aren’t always at fault when they lose their job? Is it possible that circumstances beyond one’s control can thrust them into poverty? Maybe we should ensure these people have nothing to worry about financially in case this happens to me one day.”

Wilson wants you to forget that. Wilson wants you competing, blaming, fighting; he wants it because that’s how he’ll gain even more wealth. People like Wilson want society back to where it benefits them the most – one where individuals are in constant competition.

Wilson wants to own businesses where he can pay people low wages at part-time hours so he can maximize profits for his already massive bank account, all the while acting like he’s just another boot-strap go-getter who scraped and clawed his way toward that fortune. And now he’s claiming to be mad at the government for paying people to stay healthy and safe because that’s apparently more than he is willing to offer those same people to spend their days feeding his profits.

It’s been a long, trying year for everyone – especially those who lost their job – and it’s easy to see why people want to “get back to normal.” Just remember that the “normal” Wilson wants is the one where he gets rich off your labour and then sticks you with a bill when he’s done.

- Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood points out how the Libs aren't showing any of the needed urgency when it comes to abating a climate breakdown. David Suzuki draws a connection between carbon pricing and soap in a pandemic as a simple and necessary (if insufficient) part of an overall plan to improve outcomes. And Emily Eaton writes about the desperate need for a realistic appraisal of climate change in Saskatchewan to replace myths designed to excuse as much carbon pollution as the oil sector can spew.

- Finally, Indi Samarajiva writes that the U.S. is facing a decline familiar to people who have lived through descents into violence and war. And Scott Gilmore discusses the parallel sicknesses facing Donald Trump and the U.S. generally.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Linda McQuaig writes about the policies which were needed to sustain us through the COVID-19 crisis so far - but whose success can lay the groundwork for a fair and inclusive economy for the future:

For years, we’ve submitted to the economic orthodoxy dictated by Bay Street: that governments must deliver balanced budgets and low spending or economic disaster will follow — as surely as gravity will bring a heavy object plunging to the ground.

Then along came the pandemic. Suddenly the Bank of Canada is creating vast amounts of money, which the federal government is distributing to Canadians across the country. 

Nobody told us we could do that!

...

...Now that we see how it can be done, one is tempted to ask: could this be a way to pay for increased government spending on future things we truly need — like building hospitals and public transit and investing in renewable energy?

This is the sort of dangerous thinking that a phalanx of powerful interests — from the Fraser Institute to the financial press — are keen to crush, realizing it could spread more easily than coronavirus at a crowded, maskless beach party.

But, as economist Jim Stanford suggests, “the genie is out of the bottle.”

- Meanwhile, as part of Policy Response's comparison between the 2008 and 2020 crises, Angella MacEwen highlights the importance of investing in the care economy, David Macdonald emphasizes the work done to put money into people's pockets quickly, and Alex Himelfarb notes that we can deal with any fiscal impact by ensuring an increasingly wealthy elite pays its fair share.

- Joy Thomas writes that the pandemic offers a golden opportunity to ensure corporate transparency and crack down on money laundering.

- Sam Gindin points out the need to move beyond merely praising care workers to ensuring fair wages and working conditions, while CBC News reports on Scott Moe's continued failure to do anything of the sort. And Adam Carter reports on the mocking attitude of one private long-term care executive who carelessly let her contempt for residents and their families get heard by the people affected.

- Finally, Jim Storrie discusses how both the U.S. and Canada have been built on foundations of racial injustice. Peter Donolo calls out the Canadian leaders - including Justin Trudeau - who are unwilling to speak out against the U.S. deliberate violent repression of civil rights activists. And Rinaldo Walcott writes about the importance of fighting to abolish racial inequality once and for all.