Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Alexander Quon reports on the belated announcement that Saskatchewan adults will be able to get a second COVID booster vaccination. And Pratyush Dayal reports that the Saskatchewan Health Authority is finally warning people about the dangers of monkeypox and making some testing available. 

- Thomas Walkom discusses how privatization doesn't achieve any of its supposed goals, but instead serves only to direct money for essential services into corporate hands. And Alex MacIsaac reports on Catherine Smart's warning that vulnerable people will suffer the most as care is only available to those with the money and privilege to navigate a privatized system. 

- Meanwhile, Kate Aronoff reports on Jamaal Bowman's work to have inflation limited through price controls which keep necessities affordable for everybody, rather than wage crackdowns which harm workers while doing nothing to limit corporate profiteering. And Natasha Bulowski writes that calls for windfall profit taxes on oil giants aren't going away anytime soon. 

- Bill Curry reports on newly-released documents showing the cost of the Flu Trux Klan escalating into the billions of dollars. 

- Finally, Caitlin Dickerson reports on the U.S.' family separation policy which has deliberately traumatized children in an effort to punish immigrants. And Zak Vescera uncovers the control the Christian Centre Church and Academy have exercised over children and families who are only now seeing an opportunity to tell their stories and fight back. 

Musical interlude

Metric - All Comes Crashing

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Irini Osaeivi et al. study the effects of long COVID and find that it continues to result in vascular damage for 18 months (or more) after infection. 

- Carly Weeks discusses how the combination of COVID misinformation and increasingly untenable workloads is imposing intolerable burdens on health care workers. And Armine Yalnizyan discusses what employers and governments should be doing to ensure the availability of needed workers - particularly in the care sector.  But Matt Lundy reports that employers are predictably pushing to import foreign workers rather than offering a reasonable quality of life to the ones already available, while Jo Constantz highlights how the "nobody wants to work!" talking point generally reflects employers refusing to offer reasonable pay. 

- John Woodside calls out how the Libs are looking to push fossil fuel-based hydrogen rather than renewable alternatives in order to keep money flowing to existing oil and gas giants. And Al Jazeera reports on new research showing that the Arctic region is warming even faster than previously recognized as governments allow climate change to veer out of control in order to serve their corporate benefactors. 

- Finally, Caitlin Johnstone writes that the U.S.' systemic problems can be traced to the consistent incentivization of viciousness. And both Michael Harris and David Moscrop discuss how the importation of a similar set of values and assumptions has resulted in Pierre Poilivre's presumptive ascent to the leadership of the federal Cons. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Quammen writes about the ongoing race between scientific discovery and an evolving coronavirus. And Heidi Sheehan reports on new research showing a similarity between long COVID and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome based on the inability of receptors to properly receive calcium. 

- Meanwhile, Sean Amato reports on the collapse of health care services in dozens of Alberta communities (matching the situation in Saskatchewan). And Liam Casey reports that the Ford PCs are announcing their interest in using the damage they've inflicted on public health care as an excuse to privatize. 

- B A Basten-Olvera et al. study how the effects of a climate breakdown may be even worse than previously modeled as global warming harms the determinants of growth. Camilo Mora et al. find that climate change figures to exacerbate the majority of infectious diseases. Steve Gorman reports on research showing that the Antarctic ice shelf is disappearing faster than anticipated, while Oliver Milman reports on how forests are becoming less resilient and more disease-prone. And Laurenz Bush discusses a new study documenting how more severe wildfires in California pose a particularly severe risk for the people least able to afford it. 

- Denise Balkissoon writes about Toronto's attacks on cyclists through both infrastructure choices and police crackdowns - even as the dangers of pushing people into cars become painfully clear. 

- Finally, Emily Leedham reports on the connections between the Richardson dynasty and the anti-vax convoy. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Maggie Mills discusses how an antisocial public health policy in the midst of an ongoing pandemic is producing a disastrous human cost (particularly for vulnerable people), while Pamela Heaven reports on CIBC research showing that even the economy to which people are being sacrificed is suffering from the continued spread of COVID-19. The Washington Post's editorial board calls out anti-vaxxers for their contribution to the continuing death toll. And Amber St. Louis warns from experience that anybody counting on the effects of COVID to be mild or brief may be in for a rude awakening. 

- Richard Wolff writes about the dangers of promoting corporate power with the type of religious fervor which all too often dominates our policy discussions. 

- Elliott Smith reports that the Cons' chaotic right-wing government is stripping the UK of the fundamentals of a developed society and economy. And the new Enough is Enough campaign is looking to build a movement to ensure that the wealthy pay their fair share to ensure people's basic needs are met. 

- Meanwhile, Bryce Covert discusses how even a modicum of investment in a functional revenue agency figures to improve both the U.S.' finances and its level of social equality. 

- Finally, Newsweeks weighs in on the UCP's essay contest which saw anti-equality, nativist rhetoric rewarded with a cash prize. And Dan Taekema reports on the private army being assembled by the same radicals whose armed occupation paralyzed Ottawa earlier this year. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Curved cats.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- CBC reports that Ontario transit is the latest major public service being paralyzed by the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19. And Ishani Desai reports on research showing the exacerbating effect of air pollution on the severity of COVID infections. 

- Meanwhile, Angely Mercado discusses the unprecedented heat faced by the U.S. in July, while David Baker et al. examine the tens of millions of lives threatened by the loss of western U.S. snowpack and associated droughts. And Rosie Frost reports on research showing that ubiquitous "forever chemicals" have rendered rainwater unsafe for drinking around the globe. 

- Emma Thompson highlights how greenwashing serves as an obstacle to the steps we need to take to avert climate breakdown - and how government action is needed to prevent carbon polluters from controlling our political spaces. And Marc Lee offers a reminder that reduced fossil fuel production is a needed element of any effective transition to a clean energy economy. 

- Grace Blakeley is the latest to point out how the wealthiest few have seized on inflation as an excuse to inflict unemployment and artificially limited wages on workers, while rejecting any action which would limit or tax their own profiteering. 

- Finally, Jessie Anton reports that the abuses of power at the Christian Centre Academy (which the Saskatchewan Party government continues to fund and support) included mandatory student participation in right-wing politicians' campaigns. 

Monday Evening Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- CBS reports on the Walk to Remember intended to highlight the continued need for long COVID supports. And Elizabeth Thompson reports on the federal government workers who are rightly challenging the demand to return to offices for little apparent reason (and with no regard for their well-being).

- Salmaan Farooqi points out the epidemic of hospital and emergency room closures as an uncontrolled COVID wave slams into a health care system already set up to fail (to the point where nursing students are receiving specific instruction on the extreme stress of their future work environments). And Matt Gurney writes that the Ford PCs aren't willing to do more than issue self-aggrandizing press releases even as people in need of health care die from their neglect.

- Rosa Saba discusses how inflation is affecting people already struggling to get by on lower incomes - though it goes without saying that a round of wage and benefit suppression isn't any help. To the contrary, Samir Sonti recognizes that collective bargaining is one of the few means for workers to at least avoid falling further behind.

- Adam Johnson writes that a distinct increase in visible suffering is being used by the right as an excuse to promote state violence, rather than a reason to care for each other.

- Finally, Paul Dechene offers a reminder of the promise of housing which was used to sell public investment in Regina's football stadium - and which has apparently been fully discarded as opportunistic entertainment industries demand yet another round of shiny new buildings at the expense of people's basic needs.