Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Brendan Crabbe and Mike Toole discuss how COVID-19 has been able to spread and evolve due to people's willingness to live dangerously, while Marisa Eisenberg and Emily Toth Martin offer a reminder of the continued value of masks in reducing spread. And Dawn Brotherton weighs in on how widespread long COVID is placing massive burdens on workers and employers alike.  

- Pat Armstrong and Majorie Griffen Cohen remind us that privatization of long-term care only undermines service while turning people into profit centres. And Taylor Noakes makes the case for the direct provision of health services by the federal government to overcome the unmistakable pattern of provincial neglect. 

- David Macdonald finds that CEO pay has once again hit new highs - both in absolute terms and in comparison to the pay received by other workers. 

- Finally, Zeynep Tufecki points out that Southwest Airlines' service failure is a direct result of corporate concentration and a blinkered focus on paying out shareholders even as workers fought to keep a business functional. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- A panel of experts has offered a set of recommendations to deal with the current COVID-19 reality, including a particular focus on the need for whole-of-society action rather than leaving a global pandemic to individual choices. And David Berger highlights how the facts starkly contradict the claim that we've beaten COVID rather than surrendering to it.  

- Jon Milton offers a primer on the Ford PCs' unilateral negation of collective bargaining and striking in order to avoid sharing money which the province has in hand with education workers. David Moscrop writes that the use of the notwithstanding clause in particular is indefensible from the standpoint of remotely competent governance. And Adam King highlights the importance of solidarity in pushing back against Ford's abuse of power to attack workers. 

- Meanwhile, Laura Glowacki reports on the soaring costs of healthy food which is being pushed further out of reach by wage suppression. 

- Jennifer Ludden reports on Cincinnati's smart move to take over housing from absentee landlords to ensure it's available for residents. And that makes for a stark contrast against what's happening in Regina, as Gillian Massie reports on the plight of homeless people as winter weather arrives without the city doing anything but threatening them. 

- Finally, Zeynep Tufecki writes that we shouldn't let the absurdity of Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter distract from the problems with allowing our main social media connections to be operated to primarily serve the interests of corporate advertisers rather than users.