Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Francesco Pierri et al. study the roots of COVID-19 vaccine denialism, with misinformation becoming more and more prevalent as the pandemic continues. And David Climenhaga discusses how Alberta (and many other Canadian provinces) are taking a new step in pandemic denialism by planning to limit citizens' access to vaccine boosters.

- Meanwhile, Crawford Kilian points out that we should be doing far more to reduce the death toll and health issues caused by air pollution. But Sharon Lerner reports that the oil industry is instead being permitted to label the burning of toxic plastics as a "biofuel".

- Philippe Fournier notes that a majority of Canadians want to see stronger climate action, and are thus being ill served by a Lib-Con debate between not doing enough and doing even less (if anything). And the Globe and Mail's editorial board weighs in on the complete lack of justification for Danielle Smith's plans to hand tens of billions of dollars to the oil industry to comply with its legal obligations.

- Mitchell Thompson reports on polling showing that even the Fraser Institute can't load the dice enough to find popular support for capitalism over socialism. But Judy Rebick points out the need for popular action to replace pay-for-play politics with government that's remotely representative of people's interests.

- Finally, Justin Ling discusses the connections between the Cons and the global alt-right - including Christine Anderson who has been feted by Con MPs and the Western petropolitical powers that be for her bigotry.

Musical interlude

Gorgon City, DRAMA - Nobody

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Eric Anderson writes that capitalism has been developed to exploit psychological vulnerability for profit. And Ludvig Weir and Gabriel Zucman highlight how the corporate profits shifted between countries for the purpose of tax avoidance approached a trillion dollars in 2019 (and likely soared past that milestone since). 

- Bill Curry reports on the PBO's findings that the Libs are spending a record $21.4 billion to outsource public service functions. And Jennifer Carr discusses how the outsourcing of public sector capacity results in both high costs and severe consequences for government's ability to make decisions in the public interest. 

- Maximilian Alvarez talks to railroad workers who have long been warning of the potential for derailments and associated risks to public health and safety as regulatory standards have been slashed in the name of profits. And Chris Isidore reports on Norfolk Southern's continued plan to hand over a thousand times as much money to shareholders in buybacks than to victims of the East Palestine chemical spill and fire. 

- Lindsay Ellis discusses how noncompete clauses have been turned into a systematic attack on worker wages - and how the U.S.' plan to ban them can help. And Leland Glenna writes about the right-to-repair laws being developed to ensure purchasers aren't helpless in the face of arbitrary corporate controls on the use and repair of consumer goods.  

- Alex Hemingway and Simon Pek discuss the problem with housing land use hearings which tend to include only objectors rather than the people who would benefit from approvals. 

- Finally, Sarah Gordon points out how drug decriminalization will improve the well-being and treatment options for people who use them - while also noting that there's still far to go from the standpoint of harm reduction. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Kimberly Atkins Stohr discusses her experience with long COVID - along with the reality that others have suffered far worse when they've lost employment as a result of it. Jasleen Gosal writes about the "silent pandemic" on and around Stanford's campus. And CanCOVID examines (PDF) the communications used to inform people about COVID - including the effect of delay and uncertainty in official communication which enabled conspiracy theories to spread. 

- David Suzuki writes that the East Palestine rail disaster offers an important reminder of the risks of valuing profit over human lives and health. Branko Marcetic discusses the connection between corporate and executive windfalls and increased numbers of train derailments. And Topher Sanders and Dan Schwartz report on the Norfolk Southern corporate policy allowing desk workers to tell rail crews to disregard safety alerts. 

- Jenna Benchetrit reports on yet another quarter of blatant profiteering by Loblaws, while Dan Guadagnolo notes that the public isn't buying its attempts to cast blame elsewhere for its inflated prices. And Jon Keegan discusses how beyond price-gouging for the necessities of life, grocery stores are also turning into massive brokerages for personal information about consumers. 

- Greg Jericho highlights how wages are failing to keep up with price increases in Australia (like in many other countries). And Emmanuel Saez finds (PDF) that the income distribution in the U.S. is more top-heavy now than ever before.  

- Finally, Kelly Crowe exposes how the Libs have given in to lobbying by the pharmaceutical sector and put off a process to develop more fair pricing for the medication people need. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Liam Mannix examines how the scientists with the deepest knowledge of the risks of COVID-19 are protecting themselves from the ongoing pandemic. And Robson Fletcher writes about the attempts of Calgary parents to gather data on how to keep schools safe (in the face of school board choices to prohibit either filters or any measurement of the effect of their absence). 

- Christina Frangou discusses how for-profit online providers are looking to cash in on the underfunding of primary care, while Mike Crawley reports on the use of nurse practitioners as a loophole to allow for pay-for-play access to medical care. Nora Loreto highlights how public-sector wage freezes are designed to push workers into privatized systems. And Gregg Gonsalves writes about the battle for even worse standards of health care in the U.S. - offering an obvious reply to the attempt to privatizers to claim that the development of profit-based systems has nothing to do with the decay of access to public health care. 

- Meanwhile, Mary Catt writes about the increased level of strike activity in the U.S. as workers stand up for themselves - particularly in the food and hospitality industry. And Stephanie Vozza discusses how people are more productive in "non-linear" work structures - rather than the heavily-monitored, employer-driven schedules which seek to control every second of a worker's day. 

- Alex Nurse, Alessia Calafiore and Richard Dunning contrast the anti-fact right's contrived panic over 15-minutes cities against the reality of navigable communities. And Jonathan Green interviews Brent Toderian about how basic liveability was turned into a conspiracy theory. 

- Finally, Rachel Aiello points out a few conclusions of the Public Order Emergency Commission's report which deserve more attention - including the #FluTruxKlan's connection to right-wing petropolitics, and the massive amounts of money which were dumped into its coffers based on that link. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Drowsy cats.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- David Moscrop discusses how the Trudeau Libs have chosen to funnel money to cutthroat corporate consultants rather than building a functional public service. Alex Kerner follows up by pointing out how that choice reflects the class politics of a neoliberal state. And Kenan Malik writes that a focus on diversity in elite roles alone misses the deliberate effort to exacerbate inequality and stratify people by class. 

- Lawrence Scanlan comments on the glaring indifference toward the harm caused by avoidable poverty. And Pratyush Dayal reports on the rising homelessness in Saskatoon as the Moe government goes out of its way to avoid providing for the needs of the people stranded in the cold. 

- Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood examines the first version of the Libs' Sustainable Jobs Plan (aka just transition plan) and finds very little of substance in transitioning to a clean economy.  

- Henry Grabar traces the coordinated rise of the alt-right crusade against walkable cities. And Yves Engler points out that the ultimate complaint is the prospect that the needs of people might be prioritized over obeisance to combustion-based car culture. 

- Meanwhile, Marc Fawcett-Atkinson both offers a primer on climate disinformation, and reports on Trans Mountain's purchase of carbon credits from a non-operational seaweed-additive supplier as a supposed offset against real carbon pollution. 

- Fred Lewsey discusses new research from the showing that a four-day work week results in immense benefits for workers at no real cost to employers. 

- Finally, Jack Mirkinson writes that the New York Times (among other media outlets) is repeating the horrific mistakes in its coverage of the gay rights movement and the AIDS crisis by choosing to platform and promote anti-trans messages. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Mark Jacobson writes that we already have the technology needed to make a full transition to a clean energy economy - as long as we don't allow fossil fuel interests to keep delaying the necessary and inevitable. James Price and Steve Pye discuss why countries reliant on oil and gas need to phase our their use faster in order to allow for the developing world to transition away from coal. Max Fawcett discusses the folly of Danielle Smith's plan to hand a free $20 billion to oil tycoons in order to fulfill their existing obligation to clean up well sites. And Sam Biddle reports on Google's attempt to greenwash its use to boost carbon pollution.

- John Michael McGrath discusses how developer-focused housing policies are resulting in Canada falling far behind the pace needed to provide people with homes. And Jesse Gourevitch et al. study the climate risk which is deliberately being excluded from the cost of housing in flood-prone areas.

- Taylor Lambert points out the predictable connection between the UCP's ideological aversion to harm reduction, and the soaring death rate from drug poisonings.

- Katherine Denkinson calls out Elon Musk for turning Twitter into the ultimate recruitment tool for the bigoted alt-right. And Anna Merlan discusses how even after getting their way as a matter of government policy, anti-vaxxers are bent on vengeance against anybody who cared for others' well-being in the midst of a preventable pandemic.

- Finally, Anand Giridharadas talks to Roger Cohen about his hope for the future of democracy even in the face of well-resourced actors determined to end it.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- John Launer offers his thoughts on how public health messaging around COVID-19 could have encouraged people to address risk management at both the personal and social level. And Clark Russell, Nazir Lone and J. Kenneth Baillie study the current evidence showing the dangers of combining COVID with co-morbidities. 

- Miranda Bryant and Jon Ungoed-Thomas report on a new study showing UK food bank use is at a record high. Mathew Silver interviews Jim Stanford about the direct responsibility Galen Weston and other grocery tycoons hold for soaring food prices (which are mirrored in record profits). And Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports on the dubious employment practices of Fiera Foods as it seeks to benefit from people's work while refusing to take responsibility for their livelihood or safety.

- Thom Hartmann discusses how the U.S. Supreme Court has undermined any prospect of democratic governance by treating political corruption as free speech. Tim Adams talks to Bernie Sanders about the oligopoly which has seized control of public policy debates as a result. And Bela Devaan writes that rich people's philanthropic whims can't be seen as an acceptable substitute for a paying a fair share of their excess wealth in taxes.

- Giorgios Gouzoulis points out the connection between escalating personal debt and a decline in labour's willingness to protect workers' interests through strike action. And Gleb Tsipursky writes that management edicts to return to office work by default correlate with a decrease in productivity.

- Finally, Susan Delacourt writes that one of the most important outputs from the Public Order Emergency Commission was its recognition that "freedom" shouldn't be defined in the terms of people looking to violently impose their prejudices on society at large. And Caroline Orr points out how Russian proxy sites played a major role in boosting the most destructive messages of the #FluTruxKlan (which remain staples of Pierre Poilievre's Con rhetoric to this day).

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- E. Wesley Ely discusses the developing - and worrisome - body of knowledge of how COVID-19 affects the brain, while Korin Miller reports on the link between COVID and diabetes. William Brangham and Dorothy Hastings talk to people living with long COVID about the devastation it's caused with little public attention. And Brianne Foley reports on the latest after-the-fact data dump showing that the Moe government's consistent minimization of an ongoing pandemic has pushed people to stop taking the most basic precautions including getting updated vaccines.

- Megan Ogilvie and Kate Allen survey experts as to the most immediate priorities for investments in health care. And Armine Yalnizyan and Pat Armstrong write about the dangers of the profitization of care - and the need for protections against the level of corporate ownership that's permitted as Canada's health care system is currently structured.

- Eugene Robinson writes that the East Palestine toxic release shows the dangers of prioritizing a quick buck over people's health and well-being.

- Arielle Samuelson and Emily Atkin call out some of the propaganda tactics being used by the fossil gas industry to try to lock us into decades of carbon pollution. And Markham Hislop points out how Danielle Smith is predictably treating fossil fuels as her only priority by setting up a panel with zero representatives connected to any other energy source.

- Finally, Justin Ling and Catherine Tunney each report on the findings of the Public Order Emergency Commission that a declaration of emergency was warranted to respond to the threat of the #FluTruxKlan (due particularly to the combination of fecklessness and outright sedition from right-wing forces). And Robert Libman discusses how Pierre Poilievre's rhetoric about freedom is absolutely hollow given his eagerness to support prejudice-based crackdowns on the rights which are actually under threat.

Musical interlude

Andain - Promises

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. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Charles Schmidt reports on new research findings showing that repeat infections with COVID-19 result in substantially elevated risks of death, hospitalization and long COVID. Stephani Sutherland discusses the emerging treatment of long COVID as a neurological disease. KACL reports on research connecting past COVID infection to increased risk of diabetes. And Blake Murdoch writes that treating children (or anybody else) as being invulnerable to COVID in the face of all available evidence represents a profound devaluation of their health and well-being. 

- Meanwhile, Ricardo Tranjan and Randy Robinson highlight how Ontario has the means to end poverty, with a sharp decrease in poverty rates in 2020 showing what could be accomplished if we cared enough to provide people with even a minimal standard of living. And Stephen Wentzell reports on the findings of the Ottawa People's Commission that authorities chose to prioritize accommodating an occupying #FluTruxKlan force over the basic necessities of life for residents. 

- Sarah Kendzior and Andrea Chalupa discuss the environmental disaster in East Palestine as reflecting the prioritization of corporate profits over human health. 

- Finally, Damian Carrington reports on the accelerating loss of Antarctic sea ice as just one example of the extreme climate trends which is showing the profound damage carbon pollution is doing to our planet. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Toying cats.

Tuesday Evening Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Henry Mance talks to Mariana Mazzucato about the big con by private consultants who have been treated as a substitute for a knowledgeable civil service without having any expertise in actually serving the public. And Cathy Taylor writes about the need to invest in non-profit rather than corporatized supports for people living in poverty. 

- Moira Welsh and Clare Pasieka each report on AdvantAge's report on exploitative practices by temp agencies who poach staff from the public sector, then charge exorbitant rates to now-desperate care homes. Joel Lexchin discusses how the pharmaceutical and insurance industries are standing in the way of universal prescription drug coverage in order to preserve their own profits off of people's need for medicine. And Sarah Rieger interviews Arshy Mann about Canada's grim status as three monopolies in a trenchcoat. 

- Meanwhile, Tim Redmond reports on draft plans indicating that San Francisco could afford to set up a public bank with as little as $20 million in startup capital - ensuring that all citizens have access to the financial services they need without being at the mercy of the corporate sector. 

- Finally, Madeleine de Trenquayle interviews Naomi Klein about the inextricable connection between economic inequality and climate injustice. Naveena Savidasam discusses how the East Palestine rail calamity underscores the needless dangers arising from our reliance on petrochemicals and plastics. And Carl Meyer highlights how the tar sands sector is engaged in another exercise in greenwashing - this time at the expense of tens of billions of public dollars - in order to run decades off the clock while avoiding any plan to build out cleaner energy alternatives. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Ann Mallen offers a personal account of the effect of the continued COVID threat on people who are already immunocompromised, while Richard Woodbury talks to Nova Scotia seniors at risk who are rightly concerned that pandemic denialism amounts to a loss of recognition of their humanity. Kelly Fearnly writes that there's no excuse for removing even the most basic protections like masking in health care facilities when we know of an immediate threat to public health. And Cara Murez reports on some good news, in the form of research showing the continuing effectiveness of Paxlovid against newer variants which have proven resistant to other treatments. 

- Meanwhile, Ian Sample reports on the conclusion of chief medical officer of England Chris Whitty that indoor air in public places needs to be monitored and improved. 

- Jean Swanson discusses the need for vacancy control to ensure that everybody can afford a home, rather than establishing protections limited to individuals in particular units which allow for systemic price gouging every time a unit becomes vacant.  

- Tom Wilson and Derek Brower weigh in on the reality that big oil is laughing all the way to the bank while tearing up its climate commitments - and being rewarded for doing so. And Brendan Boyd and Marielle Papin discuss how to ensure people see the benefit of a just transition - though it's also essential to keep an eye on actual public opinion, rather than allowing fossil fuel magnates and their fully-owned political subsidiaries to be the judge of climate action. 

- Finally, Laure Brimbal discusses how adults tend to lay the groundwork for cultures of deception by judging children more harshly for telling blunt truths than for lying to get along. And Daniel Drache and Marc Froese point out how authoritarian politicians are using that prioritization of in-group belonging over general ethics to seize and wield power. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Maura Hohman discusses how COVID-19 has been found to cause increased heart problems in young people (among other harm to health) - even as it's being allowed to inflict that damage population-wide. And Lidia Morawska et al. examine how warnings about the airborne transmission of COVID were ignored by the people responsible for assessing the threat and protecting the public.

- David Sirota, Julia Rock, Rebecca Burns and Matthew Cunningham-Cook report that the East Palestine, OH train derailment (with associated fires, explosions and toxic chemical releases) was traceable directly to corporate lobbying for deregulation of safety standards. And Tom Perkins writes that the disaster should be a wake-up call as to the need for protection - though there were obvious recent precedents which would have alerted any halfway competent regulator as to the dangers of undermining rail safety.

- Paris Marx writes that a series of developments in artificial intelligence don't figure to eliminate the need for human labour - though they do figure to be used as an excuse to make work more precarious. And Marietje Schaake rightly notes that large-scale layoffs in the tech sector should be treated as an opportunity to recruit well-trained workers into the public service.

- Finally, Rumneek Johal reports on the connections between the puritanical and for-profit "recovery" sector trumpeted as an alternative to harm reduction and concern for people's health, and the right-wing politicians pouring public money into the former over the latter.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Paula Span discusses how older Americans (and their peers elsewhere) have been left to navigate the pandemic with no consideration for their health and safety. Kailin Yin et al. examine the ways in which long COVID can affect immune system function. And Linda Geddes highlights the risk that COVID-19 is making people more vulnerable to bacterial and fungal threats.

- Jim Stanford writes about the problems with treating human beings as mere commodities in building economic policy around employers' desire for access to cheap labour. And the Canadian Press reports that even RBC Economics' analysis which is being cited as an excuse to hike interest rates shows that wages have fallen short of keeping up with inflation.

- Grace Blakeley rightly argues that the consistent pattern of oil companies abandoning their climate commitments even while swimming in windfall profits shows that free market will never solve climate change. And needless to say, the petropolitical choice to funnel money to fossil fuel corporations only makes matters worse - with David Climenhaga and Dean Bennett each exploring how the UCP's RStar scandal represents a particularly egregious example of polluter-paid governance.

- Meanwhile, Roshan Abraham reports on the laughable attempt by the oil-allied alt-right to turn walkable cities into an object of conspiracy theory and hate.

- Finally, Cory Doctorow discusses the regressive "time tax" resulting from wealth translating into constant service and convenience while people of less means face far greater time impositions trying to navigate the necessities of life.

Musical interlude

Metric - I Will Never Settle

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Philip Ritchie writes about new research into natural receptors which may help limit infection by COVID-19 and other viruses, while Alice Klein reports on the development of an inhaled powder which could line the respiratory tract to provide an additional layer of protection. But Spencer Kimball's report on Pfizer's windfall profits (racked up as it inflates the cost of vaccines and treatments) serves as a warning as to why the means of protecting public health can't be put into corporate hands.  

- Meanwhile, David Moscrop weighs in on Loblaws' profiteering as it falsely blames others for inflated prices while bringing in obscene profits. 

- Robert Reich points out that the current corporate stranglehold on public policy is the result of the working class losing sight of the importance of class politics during the Keynesian consensus. And Canadians for Tax Fairness examines how corporations exploited that dynamic to turn massive COVID subsidies  into cash cows while public anger was selectively directed at individuals receiving money to survive. 

- Linda McQuaig discusses how private foundations serve to further the power and shelter the assets of the wealthy few while actual charities struggle to stay afloat. And Angella MacEwen offers a warning that the "employee ownership trust" system mentioned in yesterday's post is designed primarily to funnel money to departing capitalists rather than to give workers any meaningful benefit. 

- Finally, Umair Irfan reports on new research showing that even a relatively modest transition to electric vehicles can lead to substantial improvements in respiratory health.