Plenty of attention is rightly getting paid to the unabashed evil that is the Republicans’ insistence on holding previously-scheduled elections at a time when it was certain to make. But how much worse is it then for a politician to actually treat the spread of COVID-19 as an excuse to
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Accidental Deliberations: On private interests
So far, the COVID-19 crisis has offered plenty of lessons about the limitations of delivering public goods through self-interested banks. Any relief has flowed only slowly, while the crisis has been turned into a profiteering opportunity both in the form of fine print imposing higher long-term costs on people who
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Saturday reading. – Henry Giroux discusses how the greatest risks arising out of the coronavirus pandemic can be traced back to neoliberal political assumptions. And Patrick Sharkey notes that the effect of the pandemic has been to reveal the U.S.’ glaring inability to address collective action
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
Labi Siffre – I Got The…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your long weekend reading. – Andrej Markovcic discusses how the pursuit of profit above all else has contributed to the coronavirus pandemic and its devastating effects on people – while warning that we’ll only make matters worse by keeping the same warped priorities now. And Ian Welsh
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Damian Carrington reports on the connection between air pollution and more severe death rates caused by the coronavirus. Clyde Russell writes that there’s every reason to expect clean energy to win out over fossil fuels as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Brendan Kennedy discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic is proving to be the last straw for far too many workers already facing precarious finances. And Theodore Schleifer warns of the dangers of counting on billionaires to save us from breakdowns in public capacity which
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Night Cat Blogging
Surrounded cat.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Duncan Cameron writes that while the COVID-19 pandemic has been catastrophic, we shouldn’t pretend that it’s at all surprising – or that the necessary responses are in doubt: Though it has taken the world by surprise, the COVID-19 pandemic is a white
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Mariana Mazzucato comments on the triple crisis facing our current economic system, and the importance of addressing health, environmental and economic disasters alike. – Shannon Daub writes that it’s entirely counterproductive to withhold coronavirus relief from charities and non-profits until their resources have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jim Stanford writes about the need for a new Marshall Plan to rebuild once we’ve won the fight against COVID-19: For many years to come, Canada’s economy will rely on public service, public investment and public entrepreneurship as the main drivers of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On stitches in time
It’s no secret that Canadians’ individual finances have been getting perpetually more precarious, with most people lacking the ability to fund even a single urgent expense. But the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed what happens when the fragile finances of large numbers of individuals shatter all at once. And while our
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Grace Blakeley points out the importance of putting our relief and recovery funding toward public investments, rather than the further enrichment of people with already-appalling concentrations of wealth: We cannot rely on this crisis to undermine the ideology of shareholder value, which has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Musical interlude
Texas King – Drifter
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Paul Wells highlights the futility in telling people to stay home when they lack a home to stay in. And Robyn Urback discusses the simple test of character involved in the choice of some leaders to abandon people at sea. – Megan Linton
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jeet Heer writes about the class war already emerging in competing responses to the coronavirus epidemic. Ricardo Tranjan makes the case for rent forgiveness as part of COVID-19 relief based on the reality as to who owns the bulk of Canada’s private
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Michael Valpy and Frank Graves take a look at public opinion in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, and conclude that Canadians are rightly eager to see our leaders do whatever is necessary to ensure our survival and health. And Laila Yuile notes
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: FEEL THE COMPASSION!!!
Finally, a provincial announcement about how Saskatchewan’s most vulnerable can meet their basic needs in a public health emergency which is depriving thousands upon thousands of people of income… Individuals who have, or are suspected of having, COVID-19 and lack money to meet their basic needs should apply for any
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Anton Jager and Steven Klein discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a particularly strong clash in rhetoric between people advocating for human lives and capital interests, while Siva Vaidhyanathan notes that the choice is a false one in any event
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