Yes, I know we could write a book, but essentially what is wrong with the Internet is the way we use it. The public changed has the way it uses the Internet to the benefit of a few monopoly tech companies and those that want to spread disinformation because laziness
Continue readingTag: amazon
Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Leonie Thorne reports on new data showing that COVID-19 was Australia’s third-leading cause of death in 2022 even as conventional wisdom decreed that the pandemic in progress be ignored. And Christopher Waddell examines (PDF) the lessons Canada should have recognized for future health
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – David Wallace-Wells writes about the continued excess mortality in the U.S. beyond the million-plus deaths already attributed to COVID-19. Blair Williams calls out the “COVID hegemony” which has seen the wealthy and powerful downplay an ongoing pandemic in order to foist intolerable costs
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Whew! That was close—too close
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva won Brazil’s election on Sunday in a squeaker, defeating incumbent Jair Bolsonaro by a mere two points. It was a victory for more than Lula. In an election perhaps more important for all of us than the U.S. midterms, Lula’s victory improves the chances for survival of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Ed Yong writes about the need for people to keep caring for and protecting each other to make up for being abandoned by business-driven politicians in the middle of a deadly and debilitating pandemic. Olivia Bowden discusses the considerations surrounding booster vaccine
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Mary Ziegler and Scott Lemieux both warn of the many other rights in imminent danger due to both the fact of the elimination of abortion rights by the Republican-dominated U.S. Supreme Court, and the excuses made for it. – Dylan Scott discusses how the decision will lead
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Thomas Walkom points out that most Canadians have far more reason to fear an austerity-fuelled recession than any foreseeable level of inflation. J.W. Mason points out that the U.S. Fed is similarly looking to squeeze workers over inflation that has nothing to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Lauren Pelley reports on the strain Canada’s children’s hospitals in particular are facing in the midst of COVID-19’s sixth wave. David Axe discusses the most important risk factors in the potential emergence of new global waves, while Smitri Mallapaty offers a reminder
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Tim Requarth writes about the U.S.’ appalling number of COVID orphans who have lost caregivers due to failures in public health policy – and the fact that they’re now being left without alternative social supports as well. And the Decent Work &
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Smalls vs. Amazon as David vs. Goliath
The recent success of employees at Amazons’s New York fulfillment centre in forming a union might be the best example of David defeating Goliath since the biblical incident. The union, spearheaded by Christian Smalls, a former Amazon employee and now president of the union, is the first Amazon union in
Continue readingThings Are Good: How Smalls Won Big Against Amazon
Chris Smalls took on one of the richest people on the planet and won. Smalls worked at an Amazon warehouse where he led a walkout due to the poor working conditions and treatment from the company, he was fired the day he led the walkout. This only gave Smalls the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Stephanie Carvin, Kurt Phillips and Amarnath Amarasingam discuss how anti-vaxx themes in Canada are being pushed and used by the fascist right. Alex Boutilier and Rachel Gilmore highlight how the convoy supported by Scott Moe, Jason Kenney, and so many other right-wing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Eric Topol writes that we have the public health tools at our disposal to overcome the Omicron COVID variant if our leaders are responsible enough to use them, though Susan Delacourt notes that repeated messages about the pandemic being over have created avoidable
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Jill Filipovic discusses how the mounting toll in human lives and health from COVID should leave no room for controversy about modest responses such as vaccine mandates. Andre Picard writes that there’s no prospect of moving from a pandemic to an endemic state
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Billionaires 1, Unions 0
The richest man in the world wins again. Earlier this week, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, voted overwhelmingly against joining the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The rich person I refer to is of course Amazon’s founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. This is a big blow
Continue readingThings Are Good: People Share What They Changed Their Attitude to Unions
In America anti-union sentiment is strong due to the marketing efforts of large business owners that don’t like paying workers. Amazon’s anti-union efforts are a great example of this. In recent years the pro-union movement has been growing and the recent push by Amazon workers to get respect is an
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On priorities
For all the commentary Marco Rubio has managed to generate with his threat that Republicans may hate Amazon more than the workers seeking to organize it, nothing reflects the warped priorities of his party (and their Canadian cousins) than this passage: It is no fault of Amazon’s workers if they
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Andre Noel reports on the growing push among medical professionals for a COVID-zero strategy, while Zach Goudie points out how people can reduce their own contribution to potential spread with improved masking. And Avis Favaro and Elizabeth St. Philip report on research showing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Michael Fraiman discusses how far too many leaders have failed or refused to live up to the title when their authority was needed to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. And Canada News Central reports on the findings of Ontario’s Auditor-General about Doug Ford’s
Continue readingThings Are Good: Amazon VP Resigns to Protest Poor Working Conditions
Amazon has grown from an online book retailer to the seller of all things and destroyer of established businesses. It also treats humans like robots and gives them no respect while also dismissing human concerns like good working conditions and a breathable atmosphere. The lengths of which Amazon has gone
Continue reading