Shares of the Week: Take Your Shot Edition
The Fun Stuff
Microsoft Coffee - As was only just revealed last week, some Microsoft employees pulled off an elaborate prank 25 years ago that managed to show both the creativity and dedication of the tech giant's employees, and the complete lack of humour in their bosses.
Bald eagle shows fishing, flying abilities on Wascana Lake, delighting local photographer Regina - This may be an unpopular opinion, but I kind of wish the eagle would have instead fed on some of the Canadian geese that overpopulate the park every year. Besides, a goose would probably be more nutritious to an eagle than the fish it found in Wascana Lake.
Shots, Shots, Shots, Shots
Canada must make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory - As someone who is staunchly against authoritarianism, the idea of mandatory vaccines creates for me an ethical dilemma that I’m not sure I will ever be able to reconcile with. The fact is, however, that our society cannot continue on with the instability and uncertainty that Covid-19 creates, and people must be shown that safe and effective vaccines is the only way forward.
Exploiting Workers
Uber's proposed revamp of provincial labour laws would cement the notion that gig workers are not employees Canada - Because of course they would. Laws need to be written for the people who the government is supposed to represent, and not the global corporations that can bypass democracy with their ability to lobby and influence government with almost unlimited supplies of money. It is time that our laws catch up to these companies who are exploiting the fact that government moves at a glacial pace compared to technology.
Dave Ramsey's Company Fired 12 Employees for Premarital Sex USA Right to Work - “They freaking work for me. This is an employment-at-will state, which means if I decide I don't like people with green eyes, I don't have to hire you. I don't have to keep you anymore.” This is what right to work laws really mean: giving bosses the right to discriminate against and exploit workers however they see fit.
Amazon’s Twitter Army Was Handpicked for “Great Sense of Humor,” Leaked Document Reveals - This is the modern, high-tech version of union-busting and it should not be legal. The most revealing thing is that warehouse employees are strongly encouraged to use their breaks to use the bathrooms. Every self-respecting worker knows that you use the bathroom on company time and that’s the way it should be because people shouldn’t be punished for being human. What next, are they going to make you clock out to go to the water cooler? Fuck that.
Bonus: Amazon offers rare apology, says it will look for solutions to drivers peeing in bottles - This is the Twitter equivalent of pissing into the wind.
The Cult of Ignorance
The Conservative pitch for more union votes doesn’t scare the NDP. Should it? - As both a socially- and an economically-progressive person, I am concerned about the federal NDP distancing themselves further and further away from their labour and farmer roots with their adoption of woke identity politics in an attempt to court suburban voters. On the other hand, the other two main federal parties will never have the interests of workers in the front of their mind. The challenge for the NDP is the fact that they have to go up against disingenuous messaging from both Conservatives and Liberals without stooping to their lows, because us on the left will always be unfairly held to a higher standard.
Alberta’s draft curriculum will make the province a laughingstock - The UCP is whitewashing their primary education system in their ongoing effort to own the libs, but all they are 'owning' is their own province's potential by creating an under-educated population that is ill-prepared for the world outside of what is already the laughingstock of Canada thanks to Jason Kenney and his UCP's culture wars.
Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century USA - When discussing a bill to stop billionaires from buying elections, “a senior Koch operative said that opponents would be better off ignoring the will of American voters and trying to kill the bill in Congress.” These are the people who are funding much of the right in America today in their pursuit of ultimate power and unfettered profits.
The Anti-‘Cancel Culture’ Republican Party Is Trying to Cancel OnlyFans - The world is burning from climate change and a growing chasm between the rich and the rest of us, yet self-righteous, anti-'cancel culture' conservatives cannot help but pathetically continue their outright assault on the supposed-immorality of others. The Left wants to punish those who exploit and abuse others, but the right just wants to destroy anyone and anything that threatens their power, including women and minorities who manage to find a way to take some for themselves.
Church membership is in a freefall, and the Christian right has only themselves to blame - While many Christians will blame a rise of immorality as the cause of dropping membership rates, they only have to look at themselves and their own hypocrisy and irrelevance as a reason for people preferring to seek more egalitarian, more authentic, and frankly, more effective ways of obtaining spirituality and community-belonging.
