Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – David Adams examines the evidence that COVID-19 remains infectious far longer than assumed by politicized public health messaging. And Ted Raymond reports that…
Patronage
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Katherine Wu warns that the worst of the Omicron COVID wave may happen even after case counts have peaked as continued spread…
Patronage and pork #nlpoli
Think of it as classic political news in Newfoundland and Labrador. VOCM headline: “Premier commits to fixing patronage issues in government”. At the same time, some people in Western Labrador…
Saturday Morning Links
This and that for your weekend reading. – Kate Aronoff interviews Mariana Mazzucato about The Value of Everything, including some important discussion about the relationship between governments and markets: Aronoff:…
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Rachel Bunker writes that Equifax represents the worst of an out-of-control capitalist system, as a poorly-regulated and unreliable credit reporting operation is…
Utter contempt at council
Utter contempt. That’s what The Block showed for process at council, on Monday night. And for ethics. And for you, the residents. Utter contempt. But when they want to give…
On selective sacrifice
Brad Wall’s definition of shared sacrifice: Public service workers are expected to do their jobs plus more to cover for a hiring freeze, while also getting hit with a 3.5%…
Deep thought
Some people are concerned about the Senate’s self-definition as a council of owls seeking to keep less-privileged citizens from governing in their own interests. But have they considered this might…
Appearance #nlpoli
What you know of the world outside your immediate physical sensation – what you can touch, taste, feel and so on – is a mental construction. It is a fiction.…
Good-bye John #nlpoli
In their last year in office, the provincial Conservatives went on a patronage bend on top of the patronage bender they started in 2003. They came into office promising reform…
Pressure #nlpoli
A curious thing happens in societies where a huge amount of the collective income derives from outside the local economy and the local tax base.They do not see a connection…
On common values
There's reason to be wary about the Libs' handling of the Senate, as Thomas Walkom writes in his latest column. But it's also worth noting that contrary to Walkom's conflation…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Dani Rodrik discusses the evolution of work, and notes that future development and sharing of wealth may need to follow a different model…
Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading.- David MacDonald offers some alternative suggestions that can do far more to reduce inequality and boost Canada's economy than the Libs' upper-class tax…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.- David Ball talks to Joseph Stiglitz about inequality and its causes - including the spread of corporate control through trade agreements:What would you say…
How To Blow Up Stephen Harper’s Patronage Appointments
In the last desperate weeks before he was crushed and humiliated, Stephen Harper, must have thought it was a brilliant move. One that would ensure his insane policies of Total…
Breaking: Stephen Harper’s Monstrous Patronage Scandal.
He was the the most disgusting leader of the worst criminal regime this country has ever known.They lied, they cheated, they muzzled their opponents.And now they're trying to cripple the…
Chainsaw Earle keeps austerity on the table #nlpoli
NDP leader Earle McCurdy called the province’s major open line show on Thursday and by the sounds of things he hasn’t backed off the position that the size of the…
As Karl’s mom would say… #nlpoli
The Conservatives came to power in 2003 promising to do things a new way. People thought that meant the Tories would do away with the practice of stuffing people into…