A collection of the best links gathered around the net on a wide variety of engaging substances. I hope you all enjoy! All links are found up on The People's Party Of Planet Earth on Facebook for discussion. Feel free to join in, and submit your own articles for discussion as well:
All links are collected by theProphet, founder of The Infidel Netwerk, and songwriter performer behind Jenova Project & M-Fap. Keep up to date with his latest happening on his official Facebook:
Economy & Sociology
30 million Americans are unemployed. Here’s how to employ them. by Vox
Commentary: A really amazing discussion with an interview that's not afraid to grill the lady's ideas, and she's got an answer for every question he asks. Truly one of the most comprehensive solutions to the current American unemployment crisis, one that doesn't just involve doling out a bunch of free money in the form of a cheap UBI. The idea is to create a government-run job bank with public sector jobs starting at $17, with benefits and paid leave. It's an excellent solution to deal with mass unemployment. It'll stop the spiral of further unemployment as it keeps money flowing in the economy so the remaining business can stay afloat. It also starts a trend of higher-paid jobs with benefits being the norm, which will radically shift the quality of life of the American population for the better.
Coronavirus shows why Canada must reduce its dependence on the U.S. by The Conversation
Commentary: Diversify partnerships and putting more reliance on domestic production is something Canada should have been doing for years (actually the Bank of Canada has called for this happen multiple times prior to the crisis) and now with the COVID crisis showing the fragility of the global market these sort of ideas are more important then ever.
Employing youth during the coronavirus pandemic is a good investment by The Conversation
Commentary: Investing in our future, and heavily, is the only way we are going to make it through this turmoil. A simple start would be maintaining employment. Not only does it make sure that they have essential life skills during key development areas, but it keeps the economy going as young people need disposable income to be key spenders that the economy needs them to be.
Meet the Economist Behind the One Percent’s Stealth Takeover of America by Institute for New Economic Thinking
Commentary: Well this totally makes sense of the Western's descent into a fascist-tinged Neoliberal Dystopia. The ultimate Oligarch conspiracy to take over the West and dismantle it's Democracy seems to be well working to plan!
My Retirement Plan Is You by The New York Times
Commentary: A bit of an irony considering all the boomers who consider millennial to have poor fiscal responsibility (which studies have proven to be a myth, and the opposite to be the truth). But in reality, it really shows just how fragile the American dream really is. A couple rough goes in your life and you may end up a severe dependent on your loved ones in your old age. And considering my generation's economic plight isn't the great, the strain of caring for a loved one is sometimes an economic burden that prevents your own growth. Or flat out in many people's cases they have to deny their parents help simply because they don't have it themselves. Scary times for many elderly.
SMAK CEO predicts onslaught of evictions without solution to young adults' sharply growing debt crisis by The Georgia Straight
Commentary: 100% agree nobody should be paying more than 30% of their income on rent. A renter subsidy or rent bank would desperately help a lot of people and reinvigorate the economy as people would have more disposable income to spend.
Video Shows Cop Beating Unarmed Man After Alleged Social Distancing Violation by The Free Thought Project
Commentary: Another day and another unwanted beating. At least nobody died this time... Ughhhh...
Environmental
Big Oil Fears Keystone XL Ruling Means End of Easy Pipeline Permits by Desmog
Commentary: It's amazing how much anti-progressive work the Obama administration did. I was well aware of his pro-war, pro-stock market attitudes, and I knew he certainly wasn't an enemy of the oil industry, but to know he set up basically the biggest loophole to allow oil companies to circumnavigate meaningful environmental assessments or political review is shocking simply because it's amazing how much damage one administration can do!
Covid-19 Reignites a Contentious Debate Over Bats and Disease by Undark
Commentary: Between being an essential part of the world's ecosystems and a perfect study subject do to their remarkable immune system, there are more then enough reasons beyond them being cute to preserve this unique and dynamic mammal. Really instead of mass killing bats like some places/people have suggested, we should maybe you know just stop eating them? And if COVID did by chance come from a bio-weapons lab, either through intentional or accidental leak, that just reinforces my view that they shouldn't exist in the first place.
Rubbish is piling up and recycling has stalled – waste systems must adapt by The Conversation
Commentary: Our waste management and recycling services are essential aspects of us transitioning to a greener future. By making more robust and dynamic systems, instead of centralizing things to a few key access points, is gonna be essential to dealing with this crisis, and ones of the future.
This Thai Supermarket Replaced Plastic Packaging With Banana Leaves To Reduce Unnecessary Plastic Waste by TruthTheory
Commentary: Innovative packaging solutions that are eco-friendly and make use of excessive food production waste are exactly what the world needs right now. Kudos Thailand!
Health
Coronavirus: Why so many US nurses are out of work by BBC
Commentary: This is peak Capitalism right here. There's a demand for a profession, and the people of the profession are called heroes, but our institutions can't afford to pay them or keep them around as they're investing trillions of dollars into the stock market. Absolutely madness, especially considering it's been proven more so than ever since 2008 that money is just an artificially created and inflated set of value markers that bear no real relation to reality any longer.
The Hospital CEOs Keeping Seven-Figure Salaries as Frontline Workers Go Without Pay by Daily Beast
Commentary: CEOs and administration raking in top cash, while workers who are desperately needed are going without pay or simply not working is peak capitalism. The fact that it's being allowed during a crisis is absolutely abhorrent!
Politics
'A New Low': Betsy DeVos Sued for Garnishing Wages of Nearly 300,000 Student Loan Borrowers During Pandemic by Common Dreams
Commentary: Hopefully, this ends her political career. It really shows the ineptness of the administration. Making laws and blatantly not following them to a very obvious and hopefully prosecutable extent.
A Rosa Parks Moment For Animal Welfare by The American Conservative
Commentary: Animal welfare is something everyone seems to care about, but factory farming in the Western world goes all but unquestioned by the most rabid of activists, with Draconian laws in many places even preventing exposures of such cruelty. We claim to care about what the Chinese do to their animals in wet markets, probably due to the exotic and often cute nature of these animals, but turn a blind eye to the far more systematic cruelty present in our own backyard. Hypocritical, and I think with all the focus on wet markets and animal cruelty, there's no time better the now to bring up the very real concerns about animal welfare at home.
Amazon Won't Say Why It Lobbied Prime Minster's Office Before Winning Pandemic Supply Contract by Press Progress
Commentary: Another key example of crisis capitalism in full swing, privatizing essential services and goods into a significantly more unaccountable and more profit-driven private sector.
Corporations Don’t Need Another Bailout — Schools Do by Truthout
Commentary: A massive investment in education could be exactly this upcoming generation needs to train themselves for an uncertain future. We're gonna need logical forward thinking individuals to navigate what's to come
European Commission Promises to Champion Corporate Accountability by Human Rights Watch
Link: https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/04/european-commission-promises-champion-corporate-accountability
Commentary: This is an extremely promising development, one to be watched closely, and something I predict will get fierce corporate pushback (though what justification to opposing improved accountability and human rights other than efficiency, and that don't look good for the PR).
How Long Can Biden Stay In His Basement? by The American Conservative
Commentary: Biden is a massive liability for the Democrats. Between his stumbling poor response at debates, aggressive reactions to supporters who questioned his policies, rumors of age-old decline, no solid vice president choice that will help unify the party, and to ice the cake an increasingly more substantial sexual assault allegation. Ditching Biden may be the best thing for the Party, but holy crap, the fallout from that won't help their replacement candidate's electability much!
More Thoughts on Wealth and Tax Alternatives by Counterpunch
Commentary: I've always found Copyright to be Draconian and anti-intellectual. If something truly is a good idea and contribution to humanity it should be built upon and improved collectively by the human species. Every idea should be free to expand upon and innovate with, and such practices have in history been functionally put in practice before and always lead to massive intellectual renaissance. Also, the lack of antitrust pursuit in the digital realm as companies like Google, Amazon, and Facebook literally dominate the entire internet's traffic, how that hasn't been dealt with is beyond mindboggling and increasingly frustrating considering the amount of censorship that has happened, and the increased difficulty organic traffic is having in reaching it's targeted audience. Everything is pay to play now in the virtual realm, and any competition to the major service providers is always neutered. Not good for democracy or the economy. And how is this all allowed? Massive influence of Corporations in the Political sphere. Lobbying should be banned, and the whole political realm needs a massive accountability overhaul.
Poverty or virus? Lebanon’s uprising continues despite the pandemic by Open Democracy
Commentary: Something we can learn from countries protesting oppression during this crisis is that a welfare check now to cover your basic needs, isn't worth starving, getting imprisoned ,or killed later on as the powers at be solidify their tyranny further.
States Made It Harder to Get Jobless Benefits. Now That’s Hard to Undo. by The New York Times
Commentary: The dramatic decrease in worker claims between 2007 and 2019 due to an extreme tightening of a system is most likely not caused by an increased clamping down on fraudulent behavior, but more likely a making the system too stringent to benefit the people that it should. It's frightening to think how many people post-2008 crash lost out on benefits due to a Draconian system during what was our previously most devastating economic crash of modern times.
The Coming New World Disorder by Counterpunch
Commentary: Progressive causes thrown away in the face of economic recovery, yet still increased economic division and disparity between the have's and have-not's, a refugee crisis that will be exasperated by closed or increased security borders, and a fall of democratic principles to fear-mongering and and authoritarian power grabs. Not a pretty series of very real possibilities coming to a future near us.
The Quarantine is Failing because Our Institutions Weren’t Built For It by Benjamin Studenbaker
Commentary: So basically the world leaders play political coy with each other as the world burns and people die and our world economy implodes...
This Week in the Guardian #6 by Off-Guardian
Commentary: An important selection of media exposes' which really show how the media enjoys sensationalizing important subjects with baseless claims. To sell copies or push an agenda? Probably somewhere in between.
Virus of Mass Destruction by Off Guardian
Commentary: Sadly much of the reaction to this virus by the Government and Corporate elite of the world shrieks of crisis opportunism. It's really frustrating to live in a world where a narrative can be so confusing due to media distortions, and where science itself can be bought off making everything and nothing credible all at the same time depending on how gullible you are.
Why Canadians should fight tooth and nail against proof-of-immunity cards by CBC
Commentary: If anything like this is even remotely considered (which it shouldn't be considering there is no scientific evidence backing it up at the moment) then there'd be no option but to implement a Universal Basic Income because we can't have people not able to work, but also not able to pay rent. We'd also need to see a stronger investment in subsidized housing as I highly doubt whatever UBI is gonna come around it'll be enough to afford rent in any major cities with the $1500-3000 starting rate for basic places (depending on how rich the city is).
Technology
3D Metal Printing Revolutionized With New Technology by SciTechDaily
Commentary: Advances in 3D printing like this are gonna be invaluable to reducing our manufacturing dependency on third world countries, not to mention the immediate practical benefits we'll be receiving.
Robots Help Some Firms Thrive, While Workers Across Industries Struggle by SciTechDaily
Link: https://scitechdaily.com/robots-help-some-firms-thrive-while-workers-across-industries-struggle/
Commentary: Technology equals more growth, growth equals more opportunity which means hiring more people and paying better wages because robots can't keep up with continually growing new industries and specializations. Essentially effective automation implementation replaces low-paying jobs with high-paying jobs.
This New Upgrade Could Make Robots More Human Than Ever by Inverse
Commentary: Itching our way closer and closer to hypersensitive thinking machines. This tech is pretty revolutionary though beyond the android applications. Machines with near-touch like sensations can have a lot more natural responses in manufacturing. More responsive machines equals more efficient & dynamic machines. Good for the automation takeover, which is essential to a successful Universal Basic Income.
Water-Splitting “Artificial Leaf” Module a Source of Perpetual Energy by SciTechDaily
Commentary: An extremely promising design that has the potential to radically reduce the entry-level cost to making these sorts of devices, which will be essential to the continued growth of the renewable energy sector.