Monday Morning Links

Assorted content to start your week.

- Trenz Pruca examines how tax policy biased toward the wealthy has exacerbated the U.S.' already-toxic economic inequality. And Dean Baker interviews Joseph Stiglitz about the other policy levers, including bankruptcy and intellectual property, which have also been torqued to benefit the rich in the name of the freedom of the few to exploit the many:

- The Economist offers a warning about the U.S.' acceptance (and the Trump regime's encouragement) of corruption. Paul Krugman examines how institutional forces are making money off cryptocurrency while consumers see their assets drained by a deflating bubble. And Anand Giridharadas discusses the revelations in the Epstein e-mails as an example of general elite impunity. 

- Peter Brannen warns that existing climate policies have humanity on track for a calamitous 3 degrees of global warming, with a real risk that deliberate climate obstruction and subsidies for dirty fossil fuels will send us careening past even that level. Royce Kurmelovs and Fiona Harvey et al. each highlight the failures of the COP30 climate conference as oil lobbyists blocked any agreement on a transition to clean energy. And both David Roberts' interview with Kingsmill Bond and David Suzuki's commentary discuss how a few more decades of avoidable carbon dumping won't stop the ultimate trend toward clean electrification. 

- Jonathan Vanian reports on new court filings showing how Meta cancelled and cloesd its eyes to internal research demonstrating the harmful effects of social media. But Craig Lord reports that Mark Carney's attitude toward megalomaniacal techbros is to let them dictate policy, rather than allowing for any question as to whether their interests are the same as the public's. 

- Finally, Raywat Deonandan discusses how the resurgence of measles in Canada reflects a deeper social illness. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Brittany Hopkins rightly argues that parents with any interest in providing a worthwhile future for their children should be motivated to combat the climate breakdown. Steven Lam and Gloria Novovic write about the need for climate impacts to be included as a matter of course in analyzing all types of policies. And David Zipper discusses the need to transition away from highway megaprojects - and notes that anybody who actually believes in fiscally responsible government should be happy to join a coalition to that end. 

- David Suzuki calls out the glaring gap in treatment between climate activists facing constant police disruption and severe sentences for attempting to ensure a liveable future, and corporate polluters who face no meaningful consequences (and indeed receive massive subsidies) for polluting both the public discourse and the Earth. 

- Nicolas Graham examines how the U.S.' fossilized right wing is operating in Canada - often with public funds and/or the imprimatur of academic credibility. And in the wake of the sudden departure of BC United from this fall's election, Luke LeBrun and Rumneek Johal offer a reminder that the B.C. Conservatives are unabashedly running against science and reality.  

- Finally, the Economist reports that the crypto firms courted by Texas in the name of economic development are making their money exploiting the terms of power supply agreements. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Jamie Ducharme examines the realities of a COVID-19 surge in progress - as well as the reason to worry that avoidable illness and death is being treated as the new normal. Kailin Yin et al. highlight the harm caused by systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation in the course of infection, while Brian Imbiakha et al. find that mice without adaptive immune cells don't experience those effects. And Marti Catala et al. study the evidence showing that vaccination helps to prevent long COVID symptoms. 

- Oxfam's latest briefing paper on inequality highlights how wealth continues to concentrate in the hands of a privileged few - and will continue to do so unless we take drastic steps to challenge our corporate overlords. 

- Rachel Donald reports on new research documenting the human behavioral crisis underlying the climate breakdown. And Marc Fawcett-Atkinson discusses how the fossil gas sector is seeking to exacerbate that problem by locking us into decades of carbon pollution to come, while Stephen Stapczynski, Ruth Liao and Anna Shiryaevskaya point out the real-world effects of that propaganda. 

- Jorg Broschek discusses how reduced speed limits could significantly slash carbon pollution while also making communities far safer. 

- David Climenhaga writes that Danielle Smith's government which is fearmongering about federal policy leaving people to freeze in the dark has actually made that a real risk due to its own corruption and mismanagement. Yet even his list of examples omits the most jarring contrast between energy security as a goal and UCP policy, as it's actively pushed to bring in crypto miners to use as much energy as possible. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow writes about the need for solidarity among all kinds of workers - including tech and gig workers - to counter the accumulation and abuse of corporate power. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Ryan Meili discusses how a blinkered focus on austerian "efficiency" and exit strategies prevents the development of care systems capable of meeting long-term needs. And Dione Wearmouth reports on the fallout from the UCP's insistence on putting performative politics over even those restrictive policy goals. 

- David Climenhaga points out that Danielle Smith's reflexive Trudeau-bashing has reached the point of actively criticizing her own government's actions where they're approved of by a federal department. And Arno Kopecky offers a reminder that it's the greed of the Cons' corporate backers - not a carbon tax which is more than fully rebated for most people - that's made life ever less affordable for Canadians. But Alan Westwood, Manjulika Robertson and Samantha Chu discuss how the experts who could better inform the public about the urgency of the climate crisis and the viability of the available solutions are being muzzled. 

- Dan Zakreski reports that the Moe government's idea of investing in supportive housing is to take over and clear out a building with over a hundred tenants so it can be flipped (presumably for a friendly developer's profit).  

- A.R. Moxom discusses how fascists use denial and both-sidesing to play the victim while avoiding answering for their eliminationism. 

- Finally, Katie Baker rightly questions how a steady stream of prosecutions of previous crypto pitchmen has had little apparent effect on people's willingness to throw money at the concept. And Cory Doctorow notes that the key question in evaluating AI isn't whether it's a bubble at all, but what type of bubble it will prove to be. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Andrew Freedman examines how the climate breakdown is generating consequences far beyond those foreseen by previous projections. Seth Borenstein reports on the immense loss of Antarctic ice - and the danger it poses to coastal areas in particular. And Michael Mann points to the rise and fall of the Akkadian Empire as a precedent as to what can happen when heat and drought force people to migrate en masse. 

- The IEA offers a roadmap to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, with an emphasis on a rapid conversion to clean energy. And David Vetter notes that the arguments used by petropoliticians looking for excuses to block renewable power sources lack any basis in reality.

- But Sarah Munoz discusses how the oil industry is bent on spinning the climate crisis as a matter of individual responsibility rather than social organization in order to keep on spewing carbon pollution for decades to come. And Chris Tomlinson reports on the increased demands on energy systems (and resulting cost to consumers) from power-hogging crypto miners, while Victor Tangerman points out that the use of AI technology may produce a similar effect. 

- Devi Sridhar discusses how the UK Cons (like so many other right-wing parties) used the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to enrich cronies who lacked any ability to deliver what they were paid for. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow writes that we have every reason to be skeptical of corporate shows of progressivity - but that the appropriate response is for workers to organize and stand up to bosses on teir own terms, not to accept the reactionary position that nothing is worth improving. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Winnie Byanyima discusses the importance of cooperation and coordination in responding to a pandemic. But Michael Lee contrasts the consistent message from doctors against the recalcitrance of governments in refusing to implement any public health measures as COVID and other respiratory illnesses plunge health care systems into crisis. And Martin Regg Cohn calls out Doug Ford for prioritizing cheap gas over vital health care. 

- Peter Zimonjic and Catherine Cullen report on Lana Payne's call for monetary policy that doesn't reflect a thinly veiled class war against workers. And Sara Jabakhanji reports on a new study showing that more and more people with jobs are being forced to rely on food banks. 

- Ruth Michaelson reports on yet another cynical attempt by the fossil fuel lobby to lock in decades of carbon pollution from gas as a "transition". And Maya Menezes rightly questions why so much of Canada's delegation to COP27 consists of oil and gas promoters, rather than people with any interest in averting climate breakdown. 

- Meanwhile, John Clarke contrasts how Canada's security state chose to treat a violent occupation by white nationalists compared to Indigenous defense of unceded land. 

- Finally, David Climenhaga highlights how the UCP sought to tie Alberta into the FTX Ponzi scheme as a low-wage, easy-money alternative to building a care economy. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Rob Stein discusses the CDC's recognition that new, more evasive COVID strains are becoming dominant in the U.S. Megan Ogilvie and Kenyon Wallace report on the growing calls for a return to preventative masking in Ontario, while Aline Schnake-Mahl et al. examine the connection between sick leave and other stronger public health policies, and higher vaccination rates. And Arianna Spatola et al. study the causes of long COVID, with an immune response to multiple viruses representing a key risk factor. 

- Bob Weber reports on new assessments showing that Canada is emitting far more methane pollution than it's bothering to document and regulate, while Peter Milne writes about the continuing waste of time and resources that is carbon capture and storage. Greg Jericho discusses how Australian gas companies are raking in windfall profits while contributing nothing more back to public coffers. And Ruth Michaelson reports on the influx of fossil fuel lobbyists at #COP27 attempting to stall meaningful climate action. 

- Meanwhile, Jacques Poitras and Frederic Zalac report on the revelations from the Paradise Papers showing that Irving Oil raked in a quarter of a billion dollars in profit while securing provincial and municipal tax handouts. 

- Alan Drummond writes about the crisis in Canada's emergency rooms. And Jeremy Corbyn makes the case for a national care service, even as the UK Cons instead plan to hand over the existing public health care system (including the private medical records of unconsenting patients) to the sketchiest corporate operators they can enrich. 

- Finally, Max Fawcett discusses how Canadians have already suffered from the right's obsession with cryptocurrency over any activity which would actually benefit people. 

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 do with wages. And Jason Del Rey reports on leaked internal Amazon research finding that one of the most notorious abusers of labour may run out of workers to exploit as soon as 2024. 

- Edward Helmore reviews Bob Keefe's Climatenomics, including its analysis of how the climate breakdown is causing the supply chain disruptions which (along with corporate profiteering) represent the actual reasons for soaring prices. Matthew Rosza offers a warning as to how the 1930s dust bowl caused by a familiar disregard for sustainable development may offer a look at our future. And Fiona Harvey, Ashifa Kassam, Nina Lakhani and Amrit Dhillon discuss why extreme heat is only getting more severe.

- Emma McIntosh reports that Doug Ford's planned Highway 413 will do far more environmental damage than he has been prepared to admit. And Jesse Cnockaert reports on the warning from renewable energy experts at that the small nuclear reactors being pushed by petropoliticians as an alternative to wind and solar represent a delay tactic with dubious supposed benefits. 

- But then, Max Fawcett observes (with reference to Pierre Poilievre's attempt to hawk cryptocurrency) that the arsonist right is perfectly happy to be wrong - and indeed to cause massive damage to anybody foolish enough to believe them - as long as it serves their political ends.

- Finally, Lucette Cysique et al. study the ongoing cognitive impairment being discovered even in people who have only mild to moderate cases of COVID-19.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Pam Belluck reports on a new study showing that people who weren't initially hospitalized for COVID make up over three-quarters of the U.S.' long COVID cases, while Andrew Romano discusses the likelihood that people will face constant infection absent better vaccine protection than we have now. And Jennifer Rigby reports on the lamentable conclusion of a World Health Organization panel that we're no better equipped to respond to a pandemic than we were before the ongoing one struck.  

- Meanwhile, Emily Leedham exposes the Ford PCs' place among the right-wing governments who went out of their way to hand pandemic supply contracts to people linked into the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church. Mitchell Thompson calls out Doug Ford's responsibility for anti-LGBTQ candidates including Will Bouma. And Environmental Defence examines how the Ford government has destroyed climate policy in Ontario.

- Ricardo Tranjan examines what Ontario's parties have on offer for people who rent homes, while Bailey Martens reports on the story of a family which has spent eight years trying to find a wheelchair-accessible house suitable for their son. And David Shield reports on a projection that Saskatchewan needs to build 100,000 new housing units in only 8 years - when leaving building to the provide sector has resulted in fewer than that over the past 22 years including multiple boom periods. 

- Damian Carrington reports on new research showing that pollution, including toxic air and contaminated soil and water, is responsible for one in six deaths globally. And Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood reminds us that Canadian mining firms are using trade deals to bully governments into allowing them to keep poisoning people and destroying natural environments without consequence.

- Finally, Mark Bou Mansour and Jake Johnson each discuss a new edition of the Tax Justice Network's Financial Secrecy Index that shows the U.S. emerging as the worst offender in allowing wealth to be concealed. And Jemima Kelly points out the moral case against cryptocurrency which is only strengthened by its role in evading taxes and social responsibility.