Musical interlude

Glass Animals - It's All So Incredibly Loud

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board highlights the folly of declaring victory in the race to vaccinate Canadians against COVID-19 when we're far short of anything remotely resembling a conclusion. Sarah Rieger reports that Alberta is seeing unprecedented spread as its fourth wave begins to crash into the general public. And Rob Vanstone rightly questions why the Saskatchewan Roughriders are prepared to let COVID into packed football games. 

- The Angus Reid Institute examines public attitudes toward improving our system of long-term care - and as for so many other issues, there are far more people who believe change is needed than who expect it to actually happen. And Janet French reports on the UCP's moves to turn Alberta's health sector into a profit centre at the expense of workers in both surgical centres and laundry facilities. 

- Camille Bains reports on the damage being inflicted on Canadian agriculture by extreme heat and drought conditions. 

- David Gray-Donald discusses two new books on how the fossil fuel industry has manipulated both public information and political choices to block action to ameliorate climate breakdown. And Emily Eaton, Andrew Stevens and Sean Tucker comment on the Co-Op refinery's attack on workers as an example of how a transition will be entirely unjust if corporate interests dictate its terms. 

- Finally, Gillian Steward rightly argues that a federal election is the last thing Canada needs in the midst of a pandemic and summer of climate chaos. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Stepped-up cats.

 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Apoorva Mandavilli reports on the CDC's return to recommending that people wear masks indoors to try to avoid another COVID wave. Matt Elliott asks why nobody is taking the lead on proof of vaccinations when it represents another necessary step to control spread. Jean-Paul Soucy pieces together a full picture of Saskatchewan's COVID timeline which the Moe government had conspicuously avoided making available. 

- Richard Paddock and Muktita Suhartono report on the growing number of children dying of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Adam Hampshire et al. study (PDF) the effects of long COVID. And Wency Leung reports on how the pandemic has aged people prematurely. 

- Mitchell Thompson discusses how the Trudeau Libs are barging ahead with a plan to put workers back on the path to increasing precarity by slashing or withdrawing supports even as the pandemic continues. And Aaron Wherry notes that the push toward austerity comes even as all major parties seem to have accepted the public's willingness to run deficits to tend to people's well-being. 

- Barry Saxifrage reports that the spread of wildfires in British Columbia is resulting in more carbon pollution than the province's burning of fossil fuels. And Fraser Thomson rightly argues that Canada can't claim to be anything but a climate villain as long as we refuse responsibility for emissions from our oil and gas exports. 

- Finally, Steven Chase reports on the Libs' decision to approve a $74 million sale of explosives to Saudi Arabia, once again prioritizing the military-industrial complex over the lives at risk at the hands of an warmongering regime. 

Monday Afternoon Links

 Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- CBC News reports on the research which is just starting to systematically identify and treat the worrisome symptoms of long COVID. Gabriel Scally weighs in on the dangers of the UK's choice to end any public health response to COVID-19 even as the Delta variant is starting to run rampant, while Amanda Holpuch reports that the U.S. is looking at guidance which may include reinstating mask mandates. And Apoorva Mandavilli discusses the broader dangers of the U.S.' environment of vaccine refusal. 

- Doug Gordon writes that a shift toward increasing car traffic represents just one more example of the lack of learning from a pandemic which exposed it as unnecessary. And Emma Arkell points out that young women in particular have borne the brunt of the economic damage from COVID-19. 

- Patrick Brethour highlights the likelihood that the rich in Canada are only getting richer while the Libs do nothing to address income or wealth inequality. And David Moscrop calls out the space race between billionaires as reflecting our complete failure to harness extreme wealth toward any useful end. 

- Meanwhile, Torsten Bell reports on new research showing how public and political corruption spreads into everyday activity. 

- Jonica Newby describes her climate grief - and highlights how it should be an important factor in pushing us to needed action. And Ruth MacLean writes about the oil industry's plan to abandon the mess it's made in Nigeria now that there are no easy profits to be extracted. 

- Finally, Max Fawcett discusses the attempt by the UCP's anti-environment inquiry to throw a report together at the last minute. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board recognizes that any responsible government would be continuing to apply public health rules to prevent a fourth wave of COVID, rather than hyping partial vaccination as a cure-all. Zeynep Tufecki discusses how the U.S.' political dysfunction is limiting its ability to mount a full public health defence - though it's well worth noting that Canada and other countries are facing similar difficulties without the exact political barriers south of the border. avid Connett reports on the justified backlash against the UK Cons' attempt to portray responsible risk management as cowardice. Shondipon Laha writes that our growing level of experience in responding to COVID-19 doesn't mean it's getting any easier to ask ICU staff to deal with new waves. Rob Stein and Selina Simmons-Duffin report on new modeling showing how the Delta variant is set to cause a new wave of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.

- Blake Murdoch and Lorian Hardcastle point out that there's no reason why a vaccine passport can't be designed to protect privacy while also achieving the public health goals of encouraging vaccination and protecting against community spread.

- Arthur White-Crummey reports that the Saskatchewan Party's attack on the solar industry has achieved its goal of destroying an immediate renewable alternative to fossil fuels - as well as the jobs that went with it. And if we needed to be reminded as to how corporate-friendly regimes have worked to tie the hands of anybody trying to implement effective climate policy, Josephine Moulds reports on a UK oil company's use of ISDS provisions to try to force Italy to approve offshore drilling or hand it hundreds of millions of dollars of free money.

- Meagan Day interviews Carol Burris about the use of "nonprofit" charter schools to transfer education funding into the hands of the corporate sector.

- Finally, Paul Krugman calls out the corporatist politicians in then U.S. who are insisting that tax laws should only be enforced against the working class.