Musical interlude

Royksopp feat. Beki Mari - This Time, This Place

Friday Morning Links

 Assorted content to end your week.

- Carly Weeks examines why so many Canadian children still haven't been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. John Loeppky asks that we not eliminate the digital solutions which have allowed people with disabilities to participate on somewhat more equal ground. Zak Vescera reports on Saskatchewan's ballooning waitlists for surgery and other medical treatment as the Moe government piles more and more COVID cases on the health care system. And Sean Amato reports on the Kenney UCP's plans for privatized surgeries in Alberta - and the fact that Saskatchewan is already serving as a cautionary tale.   

- Abacus Data examines the widespread burnout among Canadian workers. And Quentin Fottrell writes that the large number of resignations in the U.S. can be traced to an attempt to regain some agency and time. 

- Cameron Fenton makes the case for a just transition to undercut the rage machine funded in part by and for the fossil fuel sector. And Harvey Kaye and Alan Minsky call for an economic bill of rights to ensure everybody has a base level of economic security. 

- But Mark Melnychuk reports on changes to CRA requirements which are making it needlessly difficult for homeless people and people living in poverty to file their taxes - creating a gratuitous obstacle to the receipt of benefits which depend on tax returns being filed.

- Paul Krugman suggests that money laundered overseas may be a crucial weakness for Vladimir Putin and his cadre of oligarchs. But Julia Rock and David Sirota note that sanctions won't be effective as long as corporate lobbyists undermine them with carve-outs for the schemes and sectors which benefit the wealthy the most. 

- Finally, the Associated Press reports on the International Energy Agency's recognition that methane emissions from fossil fuel production are far more severe than admitted by the fossil fuel industry or the governments who are supposed to be regulating it. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jacques Poitras talks to some of the at-risk people whose freedom will be undermined by the scrapping of public health protections. Phil Tank calls out Scott Moe for refusing to report on child COVID deaths (among other essential information even from the standpoint of making personal decisions, to say nothing of evaluating the Sask Party's policy choices). And Tasnim Ahmed reports on the latest research on the long-term harm caused by COVID infection. 

- The Maple examines what would be needed to compensate and support the people who lost weeks of their lives to the #FluTruxKlan. Armine Yalnizyan takes a look at the widespread costs in Ottawa and beyond. And Yvette Brend reports on the fragility caused by our reliance on a single, privately-owned bridge (among other limited border crossings) for so much of our international trade. 

- Umair Haque discusses the vicious circle created by the combination of wilfully ignorant people and capitalists looking to exploit them. And Joe Roberts writes about the need for global institutions to deal with problems that go far beyond the borders and interests of any single nation-state. 

- Alex Cosh examines the Libs' corporative-executive-heavy cabinet and its disconnect from the economic realities facing most Canadians. And Greg Jericho reports on Australia's plummeting real wages - and the desperate attempts of a right-wing government and its corporate cronies to paper over them.

- Jerusalem Demsas examines the causes and implications of the U.S.' increasing lack of mobility.  Matthew Yglesias discusses why people who own homes should welcome new and dense home construction. And Sara Birrell starts a must-listen series of podcasts with a discussion of the economy of land in Saskatchewan. 

- Finally, CBC News reports on the warning from Saskatchewan's treaty commissioner that the province is falling far short of meeting its obligations to First Nations and Indigenous peoples. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Andrew Romano reports on Denmark's explosion of COVID cases after it prematurely lifted public health protections. Ariana Eunjung Cha reports on the cardiac issues continuing to affect COVID patients long after their infection, while Rafael Heiss et al. study (PDF) the stark long-term effects on children's lungs. And Leah Hamilton and Pallavi Banerjee discuss the harm the pandemic has done to refugees in Canada. 

- Meanwhile, Melody Schrieber examines one of the shadowy groups seeking to slash U.S. public health protections. In a pattern that's been repeated in the COVID response, Greg Rosalsky traces the U.S.' gross underinvestment in children's well-being to an ideological refusal to recognize real benefits of social programs as compared to imaginary costs. And Devah Pager et al. study how court fees serve only to ensure that the people with the least face even more burdens. 

- David Williams writes that it's possible to avoid further global warming if we act to cut carbon emissions immediately, though Mia Hunt reports on the global recognition that governments are falling far short of the mark. Graham Redfern and Adam Morton report on new record lows in Antarctic ice, while Umair Irfan discusses the developing awareness that massive ice sheets in both polar regions may soon melt. And Phoebe Weston writes about new research anticipating a dangerous increase in the number and severity of wildfires in the years to come. 

- Jordan Leichnitz discusses the home-grown extremism which is one of the core elements of the #FluTruxKlan, while the Anti-Defamation League finds substantial overlap in donors between the trucker convoy and the U.S.' January 6 insurrection. And Aaron Wherry comments on need to respond with both compassion and conviction.

- Seth Ackerman points out the self-serving falsehood that inflation affects real wages - particularly when it's wielded by the people seeking to cut off growth just as it's about to reach workers.

- Finally, Jeremy Appel calls out the Kenney UCP's push to import U.S.-style corporate health care to Canada. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Dozing cats.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- BBC reports on the justified fears of medically vulnerable people that they're being left behind by the UK Cons' decision to eliminate all COVID protections, while Kendall Latimer takes note of the similar situation facing Saskatchewan's seniors. Rohan Smith reports on the emerging evidence that the Omicron BA.2 variant - which is being allowed to spread freely as governments abandon any interest in public health - may be the most dangerous one yet. And Apoorva Mandavilli reports on the hope that a single booster vaccination may prime a body's immune system to respond to existing and future variants for some time to come. 

- Michael Harris writes that we shouldn't understate or euphemize the threat posed by the #FluTruxKlan - particularly by treating its hostile occupation of a civilian population as being comparable to legitimate protest. And Andrew Nikiforuk points out the foreign propaganda machine which was activated to exacerbate the insurrection. 

- Pete Evans examines some of the structural causes behind higher food prices. But Ellen Ioanes reminds us that corporations are positively bragging about their extraction of higher profits under the cover of "inflation". 

- Finally, CBC News reports on the recommendations of Newfoundland and Labrador's Health Accord panel - which include familiar themes about ensuring a basic income and better addressing the social determinants of health. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Alexandra Hutzler reports that even a majority of Americans seeing mask mandates lifted aren't prepared to buy the line that it's safe to stop taking basic precautions - particularly given the likelihood that the amount of one's initial exposure has a substantial impact on both immediate symptoms and the risk of developing long COVID. 

- Devi Sridhar writes that self-isolation is still a must for people who test positive for COVID - though the lack of social supports has been calculated to take that socially responsible choice away from people who don't have the means to self-fund the protection of others. And Steven Lewis offers a reminder that the failure to provide the basic building blocks of a functional society isn't for lack of resources. 

- Meanwhile, Colleen Fuller laments that we're going backwards in providing supplies of basic medications such as insulin which were once deliberately made affordable, rather than exploited to maximize profit at the expense of human health.

- Wenonah Hauter discusses how the fossil fuel sector is a job killer (as well as a planet poisoner and magnet for the obscene concentration of wealth). And Nick Pearce writes that the Moe government is entirely secretive about the amount of public money being used to keep the industry rolling in subsidies. 

- Jesse Drucker and Ben Hubbard report on the Credit Suisse data leak which has provided a new peek into the world of offshored and concealed wealth which benefits strongmen and spies at the expense of everybody else.

- Finally, Christine Mitchell writes about the role of white Christian nationalism in the #FluTruxKlan. Mitchell Thompson reports on the connection between Randy Hillier and the heavily-armed "Diagolon" group. And Jennifer Wolowic discusses the need to invest in rebuilding our democracy - particularly in light of the reality that massive sums of money can be marshaled both from within Canada and abroad to try to overthrow it.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Umair Haque writes about the reasons why the COVID pandemic is far from over - and indeed the worst may be yet to come if we abandon the public health measures needed to reduce foreseeable harms. Smriti Mappalaty discusses the increasing proponderance of reinfections and breakthrough infections due to the Omicron variant. And Phil Tank calls out the conspiracy theorists looking to undermine what are already likely significant undercounts of the harm caused by COVID.

- Josh Keller offers a visual take on how long COVID wears out the human body. And David Mercer talks to Kelly Fearnley about her personal battle with the coronavirus as her government moves to "let 'er rip" among the general public.

- Meanwhile, CBC Radio discusses how single mothers have faced a particularly large and exhausting set of new burdens in the course of the pandemic.

- Ryan Broderick writes about Facebook's role in spreading propaganda on the part of the #FluTruxKlan, while Daniel Dale fact-checks the glaringly false claims that the occupation has more than fringe popular support. Todd Gordon notes that far-right uprisings are far from new or unusual in Canada's history. And Amnesty International weighs in on both the damage done by the convoy itself, and the authorities' conspicuously gentle response to an insurrection led by white supremacists.

- Finally, Eliza Strickland and Mark Harris report on the obsolescence of eye implants as an egregious example of the dangers of relying on private corporations to provide and support medically necessary aids.