Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Heidi Ledford discusses new research which is helping to identify genetic risk factors for long COVID - though the fact that new COVID-19 variants are being allowed to run wild while that work is in its infancy means that people will be exposed to readily-avoidable suffering. Jennifer La Grassa and Lauren Pelley reports on the National Advisory Committee on Immunization's recommendation that Canadians continue to be vaccinated. But the announcement that university-based wastewater monitoring is being abandoned - leaving any continued reporting to politically-controlled bodies which have shown they're more interested in normalizing transmission than protecting public health - makes it all too likely that Saskatchewan residents will fail to do what they can and should to protect their communities. 

- Patrick Rail interviews Armine Yalnizyan about the grim reality that the Bank of Canada is looking to raise interest rates for the sole purpose of causing pain to the general public. 

- Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin write about the oil companies laughing all the way to the bank while the world burns due to the use of their products. Melissa Rossi discusses the eminently-desirable principle underlying 15-minute cities which has been subjected to ritual denunciation as a fossil fuel propaganda point. And Rosa Saba reports on the work being done to turn the availability of outdoor patio space into a normal expectation rather than a perceived aberration. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow discusses how U.S. Democrats shut off their greatest grassroots operation in modern history in favour of governance by triangulating establishmentarians - and how the result has been predictably disastrous both in terms of electoral outcomes and policy effects. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Michael Marshall discusses the growing body of knowledge about the persistence of long COVID - with people still suffering symptoms after a year tending to suffer from it as a chronic condition thereafter, and no effective treatment available once long COVID sets in. And the UN points out new research indicating that 36 million people in Europe alone may have experienced long COVID, while Erin Durkin writes about the choice of New York (and many other jurisdictions) to effectively abandon the patients suffering from it.  

- Jing-Xin Li et al. find that a nasal vaccine is both safe and effective to boost COVID immunity. And Richa Naidu reports on the potential for air sanitizing spray to offer some defence against airborne pathogens - though as others have pointed out, that shouldn't be taken as an excuse for failing to work on improved ventilation and other air safety improvements. 

- Fabio Falchi and Salvador Bara study how light pollution has been continually worsening over the past dozen years.

- Jillian Ambrose reports on the Energy Institute's analysis showing that carbon pollution from fossil fuels continues to rise. Emily Wilmsen discusses the reality that even if we achieve a "net zero" emissions target, we'd still see temperatures continue to rise for a decade or more due to the damage already done to our planet. 

- Stefan Labbé reports on the grim reality that Canada has already experienced its worst year for wildfires in recorded history before the normal wildfire season even begins, while Drew Anderson examines the multiple causes of the fires. And Natasha White and Zahra Hirji report on the damage the fires have done to one British Columbia carbon offset project, wiping out what's supposed to be work to reverse the damage from carbon emissions and replacing it with further harm. 

- Clive Thompson notes that subsidizing e-bikes has proven to be a popular and effective way to rein in at least one source of greenhouse gas emissions. And Gaurab Basu and Jonathan Jay point out that "greening" efforts for cities also have the benefit of helping to remediate existing inequalities. 

- Finally, John Michael McGrath offers best wishes to Olivia Chow in winning Toronto's mayoralty - but also a warning that she may be pushed off a glass cliff due to the wreckage left behind by JOhn Tory and his Con co-conspirators. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- The Canadian Press reports that the Ford PCs' COVID negligence includes shutting down a rapid test program still distributing hundreds of thousands of tests each week.

- Denise Balkissoon writes about the need for Toronto (like other cities) to elect representatives who recognize the severity of the climate crisis, while lamenting that most of its mayoral candidates are barely paying lip service to the great challenge of our time. And Imperial College London warns that we can't meet our climate goals without all current net-zero pledges being met in full - even as 90% appear to be based on little more than wishcasting.

- Irina Ivanova reports on new research showing how a climate breakdown is driving up the cost of food. Michelle Gamage discusses how wildfire smoke is making people sick. And the University of Reading explores how climate change is also causing increased airplane turbulence - in case mild inconvenience for the wealthy is a better driver of motivation to change than loss of the necessities of life for everybody else.

- P.E. Moskovitz discusses how the suburbanization of the U.S. has proven to be a breeding ground for fascism in taking away community venues while encouraging messages about excluding outsiders from isolated communities.

- Finally, Beth Mole reports on new research estimating the death count from just three of the U.S. Supreme Court's more antisocial decisions - with a conservative estimate suggesting that the partisan actions of half a dozen Republican hacks will personally cause 6,000 deaths over the next decade.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Robert Reich discusses how the concentration of power in the hands of the U.S.' capitalist class has reached levels not see since the gilded age - and how improvements in general access to consumer goods (driven in part by increased work participation and debt) doesn't justify or ameliorate the harm from that top-down control. And Josh Rubin reports on the abuse of the CEWS "blank cheque" by major corporations who used public pandemic funding to inflate profits and share prices. 

- David Macdonald highlights the track record showing that no-strings-attached money demanded by the provinces for health care is highly likely to be diverted toward tax giveaways and other ends. And Annie Waldman reports on the evidence of how the world's largest medical device company Medtronic has pushed for the overuse of its products with little regard for anybody's health. 

- Emma McIntosh offers an explainer on induced demand in pointing out the folly of building more highways rather than developing transit plans which actually help people get where they need to go. And Oliver Wainwright discusses how anybody outside of the alt-right fever swamps should see 15-minute cities as an eminently reasonable planning principle. 

- Finally, Robin Abcarian writes that the bigoted attack on pronouns (and other simple elements of basic recognition for trans people) are the result of the deliberate sacrifice of human dignity to political opportunism. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Madhukar Pai and Manu Prakash discuss how artificially limited vaccination is allowing COVID variants to get the jump on any attempt to protect public health, while Felicia Ceban et al. find that widespread fatigue and cognitive impairment are among the prices of letting the coronavirus run rampant. An open letter calls out Francois Legault for again using ineffective curfews as a substitute for effective public health measures in workplaces and commercial environments, while Bruce Arthur notes that Ontario's delayed reaction may come too late to have any discernible impact. And David Leonhardt discusses how far too many political leaders have prioritized profit-making and adult convenience and entertainment over children's well-being and development, while Maggie Astor writes about the agonizing choices parents face where governments haven't left any tolerable options. 

- Meanwhile, Kate Pickett et al. study the social determinants of children's health, along with the causes of health inequity. And Jeremy Appel reports on the National Advisory Council on Poverty's latest report showing the path out of poverty for marginalized people in the wake of the pandemic.

- Rebecca Altman highlights how plastic production is both worse for the climate than we're generally led to assume, and mostly avoidable if we don't allow the fossil fuel industry's manufactured demand to dictate our economic choices. 

- Rick Smith is hopeful that we can make a path toward climate progress into a normal and boring aspect of life. Ashley Kulkarni writes about a few of the options for more urban design and planning that better mitigates against the effects of climate change. And Julius Melnitzer highlights how energy workers are transitioning away from fossil fuels on their own.

- Finally, Dyanoosh Youssefi points out the need to stop over-incarcerating Indigenous people. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Jonathan Howard writes that the recognition of higher COVID-19 risks in adults has been used as a means of misleadingly minimizing the risks of death and long-term effects in children. And Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz offers the receipts as to how the dangers of COVID itself are far more severe than any effect of public health measures intended to reduce its spread.

- Ahmed Mushfiq Moborak and Saad Moer recognize that we should be sending vaccines to the countries where they're most needed, rather than allowing them to expire in the midst of populations unwilling to receive them. And Sasa Petricic discusses how glaring failures in the face of the pandemic are leading to the unraveling of longstanding governance structures around the globe. 

- Liz Walker and Shanice Regis-Wilkins talk to Jim Stanford about the prospect of increasing the use of sectoral bargaining to increase the bargaining power of Canadian workers.

- John Woodside reports on the difference between the Libs and the NDP as to whether new infrastructure necessitated by a climate breakdown should primarily be built with public money for public benefit, or whether (as the Libs prefer) any planning is going to bake in private profit-taking.

- Finally, Paul Dechene discusses the downside of increased sprawl which seems to be under consideration by Regina's City Council. And Katelyn Duncan highlights how the Moe government has gone out of its way to make it difficult for Saskatchewan residents to mitigate some of the effects of car and truck-focused cities by switching to electric vehicles.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Peter Beaumont reports on the World Health Organization's warning that the premature lifting of COVID-19 restrictions does nothing but put people at unnecessary risk, while a group of experts is pressing the UK's government not to throw caution to the wind by eliminating public health measures. David Fisman and Ashleigh Tuite study the increased virulence of the Delta variant and its implications for public health, while Kevin Griffin talks to Sarah Otto about her concerns as to the dangers of eliminating protections in British Columbia. Lauren Pelley and Michelle Meiklejohn report on the arrival and spread of the Lambda variant in Canada. 

- Iglika Ivanova discusses the need to address the uneven effects of the pandemic, including its disproportionate effect on service workers and members of racialized communities. 

- Audrey Carleton writes about the emerging research into humans' ability to survive temperatures which are only being experienced as a result of climate breakdown. And Ran Boydell discusses the reality that many buildings haven't been designed or constructed to withstand the climate they'll actually face. 

- Jason Allen writes about the immense cost of unconstrained urban sprawl, and Calgary's success in ensuring that the city as a whole doesn't subsidize that cost to put money in developers' pockets. 

- Finally, Keith Stewart calls out the UCP's anti-environment inquisition as an affront to democratic debate. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- John Michael McGrath highlights how the COVID-19 B.1.617 variant represents a serious threat to the prospect of safely relaxing restrictions over the summer. And Morgan Modjeski reports on the COVID outbreak at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre.

- D.T. Cochrane highlights a few of the major Canadian corporations which have seen massive windfalls as a result of the pandemic. And Grace Blakeley warns that we can't expect the temporary response to the coronavirus to represent the end of neoliberalism.

- Michael Geist has been reviewing some of the problems with the Libs' C-10 regulating online broadcasting - including its application to individual users as well as the tech giants, and its incompatibility with net neutrality. And Nikolas Barry-Shaw makes the case for nationalized telecommunications as an alternative to the cartel which controls communications infrastruction across most of the country.

- T. Cameron Wild et al. find strong support among the Canadian public for harm reduction sites. But Alanna Smith reports on the UCP's latest decision to slash life-saving services first and maybe consider developing an alternative later.

- Finally, Angela Wright discusses the lingering effect of discriminatory urban planning in the U.S. and Canada.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Katrina vanden Heuvel discusses how the Trump tax giveaway to the rich will exacerbate class and race inequality in the U.S. And David Climenhaga offers a reminder that Alberta's budget crunch remains a product of its failure to collect a reasonable level of revenue from sustainable sources to fund public services.

- Jordan Press reports on the recognition by the UN special rapporteur on the right to housing that the Libs are going out of their way to that right into an easily-discarded aspirational goal.

- Meanwhile, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis reviews the massive price tag on Justin Trudeau's Trans Mountain takeover. And Dean Beeby reports that the Libs' free money for large corporations isn't limited to pipelines, as they've decided to forgive a "loan" which formed part of the Cons' auto bailout while cloaking the details in total secrecy.   

- Sally Davies writes about the folly of holding children responsible to make healthy nutritional choices in a corporate-dominated environment which pushes junk food at every turn. And Peter Walker points out that municipal planning focused on liveable neighbourhoods can produce a drastic increase in cycling and walking among other healthy activities.

- Finally, Stephen Quinn interviews Helen Clark about the democratic benefits of proportional representation in New Zealand.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Ed Broadbent discusses how Bernie Sanders offers an example to emulate - and in some cases a source of ideas well beyond what Canada has implemented so far:

It was clear to everyone watching that Canadians, in fact,  have a few things to learn from Bernie Sanders. His speech was significant for two reasons.

First, he is an unapologetic social democrat who has inspired a whole new generation of voters with those values in a country where hyper-capitalism is king. The enthusiasm he has generated has carried over to young people here in Canada and around the world.

Second, Bernie urged us to keep on fighting, to maintain and improve our healthcare system. He knows Canadian healthcare is under constant threat not just from right-wing forces, but also from complacency. He told the audience to “speak loudly” about the virtues of universal healthcare, because our public system not only needs to be protected, but urgently needs to be expanded.  

...

Social democracy transformed politics in the post-World War II era. We provided a political framework based on the belief that markets should be regulated and put in the service of social aims, and that high levels of social and economic rights like pensions, healthcare, and employment insurance should be available to all. These policies and programs lifted tens of millions in Europe and North America out of poverty.

It was our generation of social democrats, and that of our parents, that fought for such government investments in the common good, the protection not only of political and civil rights, but also of social, and economic rights – these were the original Game Changers. Thanks to successful struggles here in Canada, crucial social programs are now at the heart of our identity - Medicare, the Canada Pension Plan, and accessible post-secondary education. All of these had their origin in the egalitarian philosophy of social democracy.

...

As a lifelong social democrat, I am deeply troubled by rising inequality and the emergence of far-right political extremism today. I came of age believing that such things were relics of the past. Sadly, we are witnessing their growth once again.  As in the 1920s, economic insecurity and severe income inequality are sowing the seeds of division and resentment.

It’s our responsibility to stand up to the right-wing politicians. We must show Canadians that we can solve our social and economic problems, not by the politics of division and exclusion, but by banding together and taking on directly the cause of our political and economic inequalities. 

- Nils Pratley comments on a shift toward the nationalization of services after people experience the inferior quality and higher cost of privatization, with a particular focus on the offshoring and environmental damage by Thames Water.

- Lana Payne highlights the fact that governments could build far more at a lower cost by financing projects directly rather than looking for excuses to enrich third parties. And Keith Schneider points out the failure of the megaproject model for infrastructure.

- Trevor Hancock writes that urban sprawl is an important public health issue, but one which is a long way from being meaningfully addressed.

- Finally, Andrew Nikiforuk examines British Columbia's massive methane emissions - and how they were covered up by the responsible regulator under the Clark Libs. And Sarah Cox notes that the province lacks many kinds of environmental data to make informed decisions about the risks to its water supplies.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Naomi Klein highlights how capital and power combine to turn disasters into profit-making opportunities - while noting that the Trump presidency is just such a disaster. And Linda McQuaig discusses why we should see the income tax and other collective funding mechanisms as an important step in nation-building.

- Don Pittis writes that a focus on raw job numbers misses the important question as to whether any particular job is actually livable. And Jason Moyer-Lee points out that many of the attempts to avoid employment regulations through "gig" arrangements or other contractual contortions should be expected to fail as soon as governments enforce the laws already on the books.

- Meanwhile, BlueGreen Canada points out that plenty of desirable jobs are at stake based on the federal government's choice as to whether to enforce methane regulations - but it's a failure to properly regulate dangerous greenhouse gases that would leave thousands out of work. 

- Bill Curry takes note of the Australian model which forms the basis for the Libs' privatized infrastructure plan - as well as the fact that Australia itself is backtracking after realizing the dangers of putting profits ahead of public service.

- Finally, Stephanie Taylor and Jacques Marcoux report that the City of Regina's idea of "revitalization" involves putting housing ten times closer to operational railway tracks than is recommended.