Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Richard Smith highlights how there's no general connection between the cost of health care and patient incomes across different models of funding and delivery, but an obvious connection between profit motives and increased expenses which don't produce improved outcomes. 

- Meanwhile, K.J. Aiello discusses how increased discussion about the importance of mental health has all too often excluded the people facing the most severe illnesses.

- Jason Warick reports that the Moe government has chosen a program with a 26% graduation rate as the basis for online instruction across the province, signaling once again that it's more interested in promoting cronies' failures than anybody's successes. Jeremy Simes reports on the reality that a provincial tax agency will create increased costs for businesses and the province alike, with little apparent purpose other than to ensure that giveaways to the fossil fuel sector aren't rolled back through federal action. And Martin Been writes about the folly of eliminating both jobs and profits from public liquor stores in the name of an ideological crusade against non-corporate economic activity.

- Marc Lee discusses how the combination of higher consumer prices and higher interest rates is creating devastating effects on household finances (while capital takes advantage of both phenomena to goose its own returns).

- Finally, Emily Leedham exposes how the Globe and Mail's "top employer" awards represent little other than pay-to-play self-promotion which overlooks workplace abuse and even death to reward corporate sponsors. And it should be no surprise that the most notorious examples are found in the fossil fuel sector given its pattern of disinformation and deception in the name of preserving profits.

Musical interlude

Andain - You Once Told Me

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Philip Aldrick reports on the UK's belated recognition that long COVID likely bears responsibility for a massive and sustained spike in inactive workers. And Nora Loreto discusses how provinces have stopped reporting on COVID-19 deaths in institutional settings, meaning that we have less information now than two years ago about the risks and harm caused by the ongoing pandemic. 

- Meanwhile, the UK's chief medical officer's annual report focuses on the importance of reducing air pollution - both outdoors and indoors - if we have any interest in keeping people healthy. 

- Al Jazeera reports on another spill from the Keystone XL pipeline, this time into a creek in Kansas. Natasha Bulowski reports on the federal government's plan to end oil and gas funding overseas - as well as the exceptions and baked into any concept of limiting fossil fuel subsidies. And Marco Chown Oved discusses how the level of industry capture has reached the point where the Libs have chosen to put the natural gas supplier Enbridge in charge of running a home efficiency grant intended to wean people off of its core product. 

- Finally, Daniel Denvir interviews Nancy Fraser about the spread of capitalism into every aspect of our lives. Moya Lothian-McLean highlights her imminent eviction by a "good" landlord as an example of the folly of relying on corporate largesse to meet people's needs rather than fighting for the interests of the population at large. And Adam King writes that the labour movement needs to work on new means of organizing to boost union density and bargaining power. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Angella MacEwen discusses how the Bank of Canada is fighting a class war on the side of the rich by pushing to reduce employment and wages while corporations continue to profiteer off the backs of the public. And Armine Yalnizyan interviews Tiff Macklem about the choice to do so. 

- Jason Warick interviews Tony Dagnone about the need for Saskatchewan Health Authority board members to stand up for medicare rather than running interference for the Moe government's destruction of health services, while Mickey Djuric reports on the severe understaffing issues facing the province. Kyra Markov reports on another deadly week of COVID-19 in Alberta - both as a direct cause of death, and as an intolerable strain on an already-overloaded health care system. And Tina Yazdani reports on the Ontario family doctors who are abandoning patients due to their own intolerable workloads. 

- John-Baptiste Oduor interviews Tommie Shelby about the case for abolishing prisons, including the connections between incarceration and other means of oppressing vulnerable groups. But Thom Hartmann writes that the U.S. Supreme Court is going out of its way to facilitate and stoke bigotry. 

- Finally, Noah Smith is right to recognize the value of public utilities to both ensure a reliable power supply and support large-scale research - though it's sad that he has to see the concept as "wacky" rather than self-evidently desirable. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Belinda Smith writes about the effect COVID-19 has on the immune system - including its making subsequent infections more severe. Karen Landman makes the point (which seemed obvious until COVID denialists started undercutting the very idea of public health) that there's no such thing as a good cold. Lidia Morawska and Guy Marks ask why we're still ignoring the potential to limit the harm from COVID-19 and all kinds of infectious diseases through improved ventilation. And Spencer Kimball reports on the CDC's belated restoration of a mask recommendation as multiple respiratory illnesses run wild in the U.S.  

- Meanwhile, Jennifer Lee reports on the dire circumstances facing Alberta's children's hospitals (like so many parts of our health care system). And Andrew MacLeod reports on the evidence showing that Telus Health has been capitalizing on the lack of medical care by engaging in extra-billing. 

- Luke Savage discusses the growing number of Canadians living in hunger - and the choice to promote and entrench food banks rather than working to make sure they're not necessary. And Nicola Seguin reports on juxtaposition of a large number of empty rental units in Nova Scotia with over 6,500 households in need of a home, while Susan McNeil reports on the Moe government's similar failure to provide available homes in Saskatchewan. 

- Finally, Nahlah Ayed interviews Anand Giridharadas about the importance of persuading people of the importance of democracy and social awareness even if there's too wide a gap to reach agreement on policy. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Benched cats.

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Beth Gardiner discusses how the oil industry has long understood how much fossil fuels would damage the Earth's climate (even while fighting tooth and nail to avoid mitigating the damage). And Norm Farrell points out that the U.S.' worsening water shortages pose significant risks to Canada's food supply. 

- Dr. Chinta Sidharthan discusses how new COVID variants are becoming more and more resistant to existing vaccines. 

- The ILO studies wage trends around the globe over the course of the COVID pandemic to date, with real wage growth falling into negative territory while inequality worsens. But Sara Jabakhani reports on the Ford PCs' rejection of every single recommendation to prevent reoccurrences of a construction worker's death in a trench collapse as a prime example of how right-wing governments couldn't be less interested in the safety or well-being of workers. 

- The Star's editorial board makes the case for warning labels on alcohol in light of its outsized contribution to social harms. 

- Finally, Aaron Wherry discusses how Danielle Smith's obsessions with "sovereignty" over substance represents at best a game of political chicken. 

Sunday Evening Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- The OECD issues a report on the importance of avoiding climate tipping points - and the reality that we're on pace to far overshoot them. Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood notes that lobbying on behalf of fossil gas is the latest version of climate denialism masquerading as pragmatism, while Stewart Phillip and others write that David Eby has to choose between responsible climate action and fossil fuel development. And Lylla Younes discusses the unusually high cost of extreme weather events and natural disasters which are becoming ever more common.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board points out how some conservative governments have lost their minds - though there are plenty more cringe-inducing policies across right-wing governments which presumably had to be cut for space. Althia Raj asks why any principled conservatives who may still exist aren't calling out the combination of heavy-handed intrusion and abject dishonesty underpinning Danielle Smith's power grab. Don Braid points out that Alberta itself fought against a far more limited version of sub-legislative decision-making at the federal level just last year. And Martin Regg Cohn thinks that Doug Ford will pay the price for overplaying his own hand in trampling on Charter rights and democratic structures - though the evidence to date suggests little reason for optimism.

- Russell Lansbury discusses how Australia has moved toward sectoral bargaining which figures to ensure gains are shared widely among workers. But Luke Savage calls out the U.S. Democrats for trampling collective bargaining rights while pretending to be allies of the labour movement. 

- The Economist discusses how the deliberate elimination of public testing for COVID-19 is leaving responsible people to look to indirect measures like reviews of scented candles to determine current levels of spread.

- Finally, Oliver Darcy reports on the dramatic increase in hate speech on Twitter in the wake of Elon Musk's takeover.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Olha Puhach, Benjamin Meyer and Isabella Eckerle examine what we've learned about viral shedding from the COVID pandemic so far, while Bhanvi Satija reports on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus' warning that we may face plenty more dangerous mutations if we keep pretending the pandemic is in the past. And British Columbia's lessons learned report (PDF) offers at least a somewhat substantial review of what governments need to be doing in order to be able to ensure public health during an emergency.

- Kate Bueckert reports on the continued expansion of food banks which were supposed to be a temporary relief measure, not a long-term alternative to an adequate standard of living. 

- Pratyush Dayal discusses the wave of Saskatchewan residents being evicted from housing due to cost pressures far beyond their control. And Jen St. Denis writes about the supports needed to keep people from falling into homelessness.

- Doug Cuthand writes that we should be funding safe consumption sites to reduce the harm from drug use - and not lending any credence to the politically-motivated messages of the anti-social parties bent on attacking them. And Euan Thompson, Ginetta Salvalaggio and Petra Schulz add supportive housing and safe supply to the list of policies which can end the drug fatality crisis.

- Finally, Simon Enoch offers a reminder that the Moe government's plans to shutter Saskatchewan's SLGA liquor stores represents the continuation of a longstanding policy of undermining public institutions, not a result of market forces. 

Musical interlude

Elderbrook - Beautiful Morning

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Umair Haque discusses why the 2020s are turning into a particularly bleak decade as people are buried under a perpetually larger mountain of debt to try to fund a reasonable standard of living while corporate predators privatize and exploit every available source of revenue. And Julia Davis and Winsome Hill discuss the unfairness of a tax system that's set up to enrich millionaires at the expense of working people, while calling for a wealth tax to set things right. 

- Rosa Saba reports on Jim Stanford's research showing that inflation is largely the result of soaring profits in a few opportunistic sectors including oil and gas. And Katrina Miller makes the case for a windfall profits tax to ensure that profiteering by fossil fuel companies doesn't lead to a wholesale transfer of wealth from the general public to executives and shareholders. 

- Oliver Milman warns of a flood of climate misinformation on Twitter while scientists and experts flee the site. And Emma McIntosh and Fatima Syed report on the findings of Ontario's Auditor General that the Ford government was already grossly underfunding its environment ministry before moving to gut legal protections. 

- Josh Lynn reports that the Moe government's response to the lack of family doctors taking patients has been to eliminate the public source of information which would allow people to contact them if they existed. And CBC News reports that New Brunswick's PC government has offered guidance on long COVID after being shamed into it by revelations of how it was concealing basic information from the people it was instructing to evaluate their own risk. 

- Finally, Emily Blake reports on the welcome news that Nunavut has reached the target of $10-a-day child care far in advance of the rest of Canada. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Rong-Gong Lin Il and Luke Money report on CDC findings showing that U.S. infants under 6 months had hospitalization rates as high as seniors during the summer 2022 wave of COVID. And Emer O'Toole writes about her nightmare with an asthmatic child at a backlogged children's emergency room, while Padraig Maron discusses the pattern of cancelled children's surgeries as health care facilities try to manage intolerable acute care loads. 

- Meanwhile, Amudalat Ajasa reports on new findings showing how breathing polluted air can harm children's academic development (even after controlling for the other aspects of environmental inequality). And Marc Lee and Ben Parfitt highlight the massive cost of failing to deal with carbon pollution in British Columbia. 

- Sophie Aubrey writes that a focus on the number of jobs held may mask the obvious stresses people face when required to hold more than one job to make a living. And Brett Wilkins discusses the needed push to rein in corporate profiteering at the expense of workers and consumers alike. 

- Lauren Boothby reports on Edmonton's needed - if belated - approval of a project to ensure that shelter is available for people who need it through the winter. Adam Toy writes about the work being done in Calgary among non-profits who haven't been supported with a similar investment. And Stefanie Davis reports that Regina will be relying on federal funding to keep one additional shelter open as both the city and province try to avoid taking responsibility for people's welfare. 

- The list of commentators pointing out the absurdity of Danielle Smith's plan to shift law-making authority to the unaccountable whims of cabinet includes Emmett Macfarlane, Lisa Young, Dennis Buchanan, Andrew Coyne and Graham Thomson. 

- Finally, Maurice Mitchell discusses how to build resilient movements (particularly in a time of perpetual crisis). 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Greg Iacurci discusses how long COVID is set to cause trillions of dollars of damage to the U.S.' economy (to say nothing of the toll in human suffering and death). Constance Sommer writes about the difficulty in distinguishing between "brain fog" caused by long COVID and that which signals the onset of dementia. And John Daley and Paolo Zialcita offer their recommendations on how to think like an aerosol scientist in reducing the risks of an infectious disease.

- Meanwhile, Alessia Passafiume points out the dangers of Twitter's decision to enable the spread of COVID misinformation. And Robert Mackey and Micah Lee highlight the effects of its decision to put content moderation and account regulation in the hands of the fascist right, while Graham Gallagher writes about the utterly bizarre worldviews that are being normalized in the Republican party. 

- Max Fawcett discusses how the anti-democratic #FluTruxKlan is continuing to organize even as an inquiry highlights why the federal government had to use emergency powers to end its occupation of Ottawa. And Eric Adams and Jason Markusoff both write about Danielle Smith's plan to end accountable government in Alberta in order to speed up the process of picking fights with the feds. 

- Linda Qiu reports on the rise of farmland values as an investment in the U.S. which is pricing actual residents out of the market. And Yasmine Ghania and Sam Samson discuss how the same hollowing out of rural areas is playing out in Saskatchewan. 

- Finally, the Economist discusses new research showing how air pollution can lead to harms including increased suicide rates, while Damian Carrington writes about a study showing pollution to be the cause of almost a million stillbirths around the globe every year. And Crawford Kilian points out why it's foolish to gamble the future of humanity on the remote hope of being able to make another planet habitable, rather than working on keeping the Earth liveable. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Aligned cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Emily Crane reports on a new report commissioned by the U.S.' Department of Health and Human Services finding that masking policies are needed just to deal with the known dangers of long COVID. And Abdullah Shihipar, William Goedel and Abigail Cartus point out that masking is particularly valuable (and necessary) when there are multiple respiratory viruses all causing intolerable stress on health care systems.  

- Meanwhile, Stephanie Murray discusses how the COVID pandemic has exposed glaring inequalities in the resources available to parents (among so many other facets of life). Katherine Scott notes that women are looking to new career paths to attempt to avoid systemic wage discrimination. And Tom Sandborn writes that Canada can't claim to be standing up for workers while allowing (or outright encouraging) exploitative practices in its foreign policy. 

- Oliver Moore and Jill Mahoney expose the connections between the Ford PCs and the wealthy developers who stand to profit by paving over Ontario's Greenbelt. And Matt Gurney writes that Ford's actions both at the time of the #FluTruxKlan and in the recent inquiry demonstrate utter disregard for the interest of his province's citizens. 

- Finally, Lisa Young points out how Danielle Smith's tenure in office has been marked by refusing to take legislative steps which could be subject to debate and review, and instead using direct intimidation to push an anti-vax position on anybody daring to try to keep people healthy in their workplaces and venues. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Cate Swannell discusses how research showing the multitude of harms which can result from COVID-19 infection. Calixto Machado-Curbelo, Joel Gutiérrez-Gil and Alina González-Quevedo study how new variants are entering the brain in different ways than prior versions - easing the respiratory damage associated with the coronavirus initially while also causing different symptoms. And Bryce Covert points out how long COVID is affecting the workforce - resulting in labour shortages for exactly the employers who are demanding that employees be forced back to in-person work.  

- Emily Blake reports on the billions of dollars in remediation costs being dumped on the public as large mine operators have left contaminated sites to be cleaned up on the public dime. And Drew Anderson exposes new information as to how Imperial Oil concealed its knowledge about contamination while claiming innocence when people have observed direct damage from their sites. 

- Annie Lowrey discusses how misogyny in the field of economics results in a distorted set of interests and assumptions behind economic research and decision-making. 

- Finally, John Bell calls out Danielle Smith's smash-and-grab UCP government. And Katha Pollitt writes that democratic socialism offers reason for hope in some alternative to a capitalist system where greed is the primary consideration in all kinds of decision-making. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Benjamin Veness writes that the best way to address the dangers of long COVID is to prevent spread of the underlying viruses. And Daniel Bierstone and Monika Dutt write that it's never been important to make sure workers have sick leave available than at a point where health care systems are crumbling under the weight of multiple infectious diseases. 

- Mitchell Thompson points out how the Ford PCs are measuring the results of privatized social programs solely by how many people they force back to work, not by anybody's welfare or escape from poverty. And Simon Woodside observes that the developer-led sprawl being put forward as Ford's excuse for a housing policy will ultimately impose both weaker communities and higher property taxes on the public.

- Emily Baron Cadloff discusses the potential for a retailer code of conduct in response to rising food prices - though the prospect of an unenforceable, industry-led deal among businesses known to have colluded to fix prices for their own benefit hardly inspires confidence.

- Jake Johnson writes about the growing amounts of dark money flooding the American political system.

- Finally, Max Fawcett offers a warning about Pierre Poilievre's simplistic and demonstrably counterproductive "solutions" to problems which deserve to be taken seriously - with his insistence on a drug policy of harm exacerbation once again ranking as a prime example.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Dr. Christopher Applewhaite, Kerri Coombs, Dr. Susan Kuo and Protect Our Province BC respond to the reckless attempt to declare "back to normal" in the midst of an ongoing pandemic (with other severe illnesses also circulating at dangerous levels). And Lori Culbert reports on the difficulty health providers are having in trying to treat patients' long COVID symptoms, while Qiangru Huang et al. find that long COVID symptoms tend to become an ongoing issue after the first month rather than getting better with time.

- Katherine Scott discusses the crisis in a care economy where workers are facing increasing demands, constant illness and government-imposed wage cuts from what was already a starting point of austerity.  And Peter Friedrichsen writes about the ongoing collapse of Saskatchewan's health care system under a government operating in deliberate ignorance of people's suffering.

- Gregory Beatty discusses how Scott Moe and Danielle Smith are insisting on driving their respective provinces off a cliff. And Don Braid notes that Smith in particular has made it alarmingly clear how she intends to abuse power based on the positions she's promoted when given the platform of a radio show. 

- Finally, Clare Watson writes about the difficulty of calling out greenwashing in a country where giveaways and excuses for fossil fuel barons are taken as normal by those in power.

Musical interlude

Emma Hewitt - Collide

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Jessica Wildfire sets out the realities of COVID which are apparent to people on top of the flow of scientific news - even if they're not being reflected in public policy or government messaging. Larissa Kruz reports on the strain being placed on Saskatchewan family doctors who lack the capacity to make up for overflowing emergency rooms. And Sonia Aslam reports on British Columbia's alarming rate of student and staff illness in schools, while Janet French reports on Danielle Smith's appalling decision to prohibit Alberta school divisions from taking even the most basic precautionary steps to limit the spread of COVID and other diseases. 

- Marc Lamont Hill talks to David Suzuki about the parties who bear responsibility for the climate crisis. Nicholas Gottlieb calls out the Libs' prioritization of keeping fossil fuels in production to the last possible moment no matter how much harm it does to our living environment. And Terrence McCoy reports that even the Amazon rainforest is seeing droughts and water shortages based on the damage we've done to the climate so far. 

- Meanwhile, Martin Wolf points out that we can't expect corporate decision-making to lead us toward the clean energy transition we need. And Richard Denniss writes that ill-advised power privatization schemes in Australia provided a massive windfall to well-connected businesses while taking control out of the hands of democratically-elected governments.  

- Kim Perrotta and John Atkinson highlight how sprawl and car dependence are harmful for everybody's health. And Fatima Syed reports that the Ford PCs are walking back a few of the elements of their plan to flatten any environmental protection including allowing for green building standards - though the fact they hadn't bothered to consider what rules were necessary should signal how ill-thought-out their legislation is. 

- Finally, Rumneek Johal discusses the dangerous ignorance and deception behind Pierre Poilievre's attacks on harm reduction and safe substance supply. And the Globe and Mail's editorial board cites that same position among other Poilievre talking points as prime examples of a lack of reality-based leadership.