Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- John Donne Potter discusses how an increase in reinfections is exacerbating the risk of long COVID. And Mark Kekatos reports that numerous U.S. cities are looking at reimplementing mask mandates as their case loads spiral out of control in the course of the BA.5 COVID wave. 

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera reports that the Saskatchewan Party is once again focused on turning health care into a profit centre for its donors rather than a vital service for people, this time by doubling down on their failed attempt to address surgical backlogs with private clinics. 

- Alistair Steele reports on the labour shortage arising out of the demographic shift which has been foreseeable for decades, but never dealt with meaningful plans for succession. And Sarah O'Connor discusses how the UK is choosing to exploit migrant labour to fill care positions rather than creating viable working conditions for its own workforce - which is of course a familiar phenomenon in Saskatchewan as well. 

- Umair Irfan discusses how the EU's devastating heat wave is merely a hint of what's to come. And Umair Haque writes that our political leaders have no plan other than to tell people to learn for themselves to live with an apocalypse. 

- Finally, Wayne Poole notes that the end of the combustion engine vehicle is in sight - but that's not stopping the car industry from looking to push the largest polluters they can in the meantime. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Sasha Warren reports on new research showing that people suffering from long COVID may not be fully clearing the coronavirus from their systems even after being treated as having recovered. Steven Findlay writes about the need for public health protections based on the increasing recognition of the harms of long COVID. And Matthew Herper and Lev Facher report on the Biden administration's plans to push for a new generation of vaccines which do more to protect against infection - though it's not clear what resources will be available for the effort. 

- Dean Baker warns against allowing the U.S. Federal Reserve (and other central banks) to be bullied into inflicting an avoidable recession on workers in the name of stifling already-stagnant wages. And Umair Haque writes that part of the increase in sticker prices is the result of the bill coming due for unsustainable practices. 

- Kaija Jussinoja reports on the introduction of armed police into grocery stores to protect the profits of the same tycoons who have enriched themselves through systematic price-fixing. 

- Aaron Wherry highlights how leaders who care in the slightest about public well-being can't afford to ignore the climate breakdown to focus on short-term complaints. But Elise von Scheel reports that the same Trudeau Libs portrayed as Wherry's comparative climate heroes are in fact musing about granting the oil industry yet another delay in addressing carbon pollution. Naomi Oreskes discusses how far too many mitigation plans rely on fictitious large-scale carbon capture and sequestration. And Jane McMullen reports on new revelations about the fossil fuel sector's PR campaign to deliberately sow doubt about scientific fact in order to keep polluting with impunity. 

- Finally, Conor Dougherty and Ben Casselman point out that a downturn in private home building and sales (which is inevitable based on interest rate hikes) is the perfect time for governments to invest in building social housing. 

Light blogging ahead

 Don't expect much from this space for the next week-plus. Enjoy your summer in the meantime!

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your Saturday reading.

- Jennifer Lee reports on the newly-released documents confirming that Alberta's lifting of COVID protections was purely a matter of political oneupmanship rather than reflecting any expectation that people's health wouldn't be harmed. And Andrew Dansby writes about Peter Hotez' recognition that the fallout from COVID-19 will be felt for years even after the ongoing pandemic finally recedes, while Emily Elpert Reyes discusses warnings from health providers about the dangers of working through COVID.  

- Andre Picard writes about the British Columbia Court of Appeal's affirmation of the validity of a universal public medical care system, while noting that we have plenty of work to do to ensure we have one that keeps us healthy.

- Ian James writes about the depletion of the Colorado River as a painful example of people's refusal to take even modest precautions in the face of readily-foreseeable catastrophe. And David Cooper makes what's all too likely to be a futile case for a dirty oil industry swimming in windfall profits to take responsibility for cleaning up its own environmental destruction.

- Drew Anderson examines the realities of a Lake Diefenbaker irrigation expansion scheme - including the risks which have been ignored as the Moe government barges ahead with plans from half a century ago. And Easton Hamm reports on the increasing wildfire risk in Saskatchewan due to the climate breakdown which the Sask Party is so determined to fuel.

- Finally, Christopher Nardi reports on the embarrassment of federal Environment Minister Stephen Guilbeault trying to use passenger rail for a promotional tour, only to learn that service is no longer available for much of the country.

Musical interlude

Kalax feat. Pyxis, Jay Diggs - Out of Time

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Ricardo Duque Gabriel et al. examine how the costs of austerity extend beyond the human toll of diminished well-being to include the undermining of trust in democracy.

- In case we needed to see the breakdown of trust in action, Dayne Patterson reports on the Kamsack protest against the Saskatchewan Party's shutdown of the local acute care beds (among other rural health facilities). And Colin Butler reports on a pateint left for days in a temporary hallway space with a shattered leg as the Ford government continues to focus on privatizing health services rather than keeping them functional. 

- The WHO and UNICEF offer a warning that there are tens of millions of childhood vaccinations left undone over the past two years which need to be completed to avoid illness and death from other preventable diseases.

- Finally, Zoe Tidman reports that the UK is facing its first-ever Level 4 heat emergency. CBC News reports that Lytton, B.C. is once again facing evacuations in the face of an uncontrolled wildfire. And Umair Haque discusses how we're sleepwalking into a climate catastrophe despite the flashing red indicators all around us.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Glenn McConnell reports on New Zealand's continued leadership in acknowledging and fighting the avoidable spread of COVID-19. Arwa Mahdawi discusses why nobody should be bragging about continuing to work through a disease which requires rest to maximize one's recovery. 

- Peter Zimonjic reports on Statistics Canada's temporary drop in inequality when COVID benefits were relatively widely available - which surely explains the determination of the Cons and their provincial cousins to make sure nothing of the sort is ever put in place again. 

- Lijing Cheng et al. study historical trends in ocean heat content and find that our planet is in fact warming faster than previously known. Andres Picon writes about the deadly combination of heat and air pollution. And John Woodside discusses the connection between the oil and banking sectors which continues to result in money being funneled toward climate breakdown.

- David Dayen weighs in on the harm being done to the public by profiteering railroad operators. And Robin Shaban and Yunuz Emre Bozkurt discuss the importance of more public ownership - in substance as well as form - to ensure people's telecommunications needs are met. 

- Finally, Andrew Coyne writes that premiers can't expect to be handed gobs of new health care money without some commitment to ensure it gets put to its intended use. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- SBS News reports on the WHO's warning that not only is the COVID-19 pandemic far from over, but cases are spiking globally. And Mike Lapointe reports on the work of at least some political leaders - notably including NDP MP Don Davies - to push the federal government to both take preventative action to limit spread and address the growing crisis of long COVID. 

- Gabriela Calugay-Castilla writes that the lack of paid sick days forces people to choose between necessities in trying to provide the necessities of life without making themselves and others sick. And Katherine Scott discusses how women continue to bear the brunt of the effects of the pandemic. 

- Doreen Nicoll writes about the need to measure public policy generally based on social health outcomes rather than GDP and profit levels. 

- Isabella O'Malley reports on the revelation of a large hole in the ozone layer over tropical regions of the Earth. Carey Gillam reports on research finding that 80% of Americans tested have detectable levels of the weedkiller glyphosate in their systems. And Tom Perkins explains how EPA tests likely severely underestimate the pollutants found in U.S. water.

- Finally, Liam O'Connor discusses the increasing concentration in ownership of Saskatchewan farms, as the economics of a corporatized sector leave no room for people to operate smaller farms even as a few wealthy people look to farmland as an investment. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Snuggly cats.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Yasmine Ghania reports on the wastewater analyses showing that Saskatchewan is facing a new COVID-19 wave. Ed Yong discusses how the BA.5 wave looks to be the first one dominated by reinfections. Elliot Aronson and Carol Tavris highlight the cognitive dissonance which has undercut any reasonable evaluation of risk through an evolving pandemic. And Hannah Kuchler writes that more than a billion vaccine doses may have been wasted since they were developed, with the donation of expiring doses to lower-income countries looming as a major culprit. 

- Meanwhile, Andre Picard writes that Canada's shortage of family doctors won't be fixed with one-time cash incentives.

- James Dyke points out the need to recognize that we're on a trajectory to severely overshoot the 1.5 degree threshold of climate breakdown, and do everything we can to reduce our dirty energy use accordingly. But Helena Horton reports on the abysmal MP turnout for a special UK Parliamentary briefing which was seen by activists and party leaders alike as a profoundly important opportunity to build consensus on climate action. 

- Finally, Mel Buer notes that railroads are just another example of corporate-controlled logistical infrastructure being used to extract windfall profits at the expense of both workers' well-being and consumers' access to needed goods. And Joan Baxter reports on how Northern Pulp and its owners are using creditor protection to avoid meeting their own liabilities while simultaneously litigating to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Nova Scotia. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Farah Hancock offers an informative look at the circumstances where people are most likely to share air in ways that results in COVID transmission. And Nam Kiwanuka highlights the need for messaging about the ongoing pandemic which is both internally consistent, and paired with action to enable people to protect themselves and others. 

- David Moscrop is optimistic about some gains being made by the labour movement in Canada and the U.S. in both achieving certification, and winning public policy improvements. And Sara Mojtehedzadeh exposes more of Uber's tactics to avoid employment standards and exploit its drivers, even while cynically claiming to be offering them opportunities. 

- Diane Abbott rightly argues that the UK Cons as a whole need to answer for the gross dereliction of duty which has led to Boris Johnson's departure - a point which applies equally to the conservative parties in Canada who believe that shedding a single leader entitles them to a clean slate for decades of disastrous choices.

- Finally, Bill Gillies writes about the need for change from an electoral system which allows minorities of voters to stake a party to absolute power. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- The Economist reports on new research estimating that COVID-19 vaccines saved 20 million lives in their first year of availability - though that reality makes it all the more galling that there's been so little progress both in ensuring greater availability of existing vaccines for lower-income people, and developing new versions to address the flood of variants. Alice Park discusses why it's important to vaccinate the young children whose doses have only recently been approved. And Rick Howe writes that the elimination of any public health measures in the midst of a raging pandemic leaves the inescapable impression that we don't value the lives of immunocompromised people.

- Stephen Wentzel reports on Niki Ashton's push to ensure that the Canada Revenue Agency uses its resources to crack down on tax avoidance by the wealthy, not to add injury to insult for CERB recipients. 

- Sam Pizzigati offers a reminder that obscene wealth is invariably the result of a combination of luck and ruthlessness. And Michael Grabell reports on a stark example of both being torqued to extreme levels, as shipping and transportation magnates are extracting massive windfall profits from their own refusal to cooperate with customers. 

- Qingchen Chao and Wang Yang estimate China' viable renewable energy production at four times the amount of power needed to meet all current global electricity demand. And Simon Evans reports on the latest UK wind power contract which has produced prices a fraction of the cost of fossil fuel gas generation.

- Finally, Umair Haque discusses how the U.S.'s obsession with constant self-reliance and competition leads to ambient stress for everybody.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder discusses the imminent prospect of a majority of Americans suffering from long COVID as more and more dangerous variants are allowed to run rampant. And Courtney Greenberg reports on a new finding that half of Canada's population was infected over a period of only five months at the start of 2022.

- Marco Chown Oved examines how grocery stores have been hiking prices, and finds it to be a matter of profiteering rather than merely passing along costs. And David Macdonald warns that sharp increases in interest rates are virtually guaranteed to cause a recession while doing little to help curb the inflation most people are facing.

- David Wallace-Wells rightly questions why we accept (and largely ignore) the eight-figure annual death toll from air pollution. And Sonia Furstenau makes the case for a windfall profit tax on the energy giants who are simultaneously gouging customers and overheating our planet.

- Charles Rusnell reports on the UCP's attempt to conceal the concentration of drug poisonings in Edmonton and elsewhere. 

- Finally, Rachel Gilmore examines the deep links between Con MPs and open racists and white supremacists. And Max Fawcett rightly labels the party as a whole as the Convoy Party of Canada.

Musical interlude

Lost Synths - Don't Mind

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Benjamin Mazer writes that of all the other public health analogies, COVID-19 may prove most similar to smoking in the systematic failure of governments to take readily-available steps to prevent widespread harm. Beth Mole reports on research showing that COVID was the leading cause of death of Americans aged 45 to 54 in the first three quarters of 2021. And Benjamin Shingler reports on the new wave cresting due to the BA.5 subvariant, while Katie Anthony and Andrea Michelson discuss the danger of repeated infections at short intervals. 

- Meanwhile, Zak Vescera reports on the glaring gap between the messaging conveyed to the public about Saskatchewan's public health measures in 2021, and the recognition by Dr. Shahab and others that it was grossly insufficient. And Patrick Collison writes that the prospect of universal COVID vaccines is running into a lack of interest in developing new versions which could be more easily administered and more effective against variants.  

- Carolyn Ferns discusses how Ontario's private child care operators have proven they can't be trusted with the task of building an effective system for families. Tom Conway highlights how unions are having to take the lead in pushing for safety in all kinds of workplaces. And Christine Saulnier points out the continued need for paid sick days for the sake of everybody's health. 

- Damian Carrington reports on new research showing that investment in plant-based proteins is the most effective use of carbon mitigation funding. And Geoff Dembicki discusses how the oil industry's history of deception includes pushing carbon capture and storage which it has known for decades to be ineffective. 

- Finally, Shane Wright discusses how Australia's Labour government is ensuring that its budget is assessed based on public well-being, not merely on GDP or profits. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Chas Danner writes about the arrival of the BA.5 COVID-19 surge in the U.S. Nora Loreto writes about the thousands of Canadians who died of COVID acquired in hospitals - and the many people who continue to get sick from it. Kenyon Wallace and Megan Ogilvie report on new research showing the disproportionate concentration of COVID deaths among lower-income Ontarians. And Sophie Mellor reports on the belated recognition by federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos that it's impossible to stay fully immunized against COVID without regular boosters - even as doctors in both Ontario and Saskatchewan are desperately trying to prod negligent provincial governments to lift a finger to make additional vaccination doses available to people who need them. 

- Meanwhile, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke discusses research showing how the body's immune response to COVID may damage the brain. And Aron Emmi et al. find an immune response to COVID which extends to the brain stem. 

- Robert Reich calls out the attempt by Jeff Bezos and other corporate tycoons to use inflation as a pretense to redistribute the product of price increases away from workers. And David Milstead reports that CEOs took massive pay increases in 2021 without anybody complaining about any impact on prices. 

- Meanwhile, David Moscrop rightly points out that the inflation excuse is merely the latest example of how a capitalist system is designed to extract wealth from the working class to benefit the privileged few. And Stephanie Brobbey offers some suggestions for change from the perspective of somebody who has been employed enabling the wealthy to abuse the current system. 

- Finally, George Monbiot writes that we may be reaching the conclusion of the contest between democracy and plutocracy, with our future as a species hanging in the balance. And Umair Haque discusses how the U.S. is in the final stages of a collapse. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Cats at home.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Eric Topol discusses the ominous rise of the Omicron BA.5 COVID-19 subvariant. Katelyn Thomas reports that Quebec has joined the jurisdictions demanding that people manage their own risk while depriving them of the information needed to properly evaluate it. Nick Natale, John Lukens and William Petri Jr. review the effects of COVID on the nervous system. Andre Picard writes about the imminent rollout of another round of vaccines. And for those inclined to pretend there's nothing that can be done to stop the spread, Shane Landry et al. find that the combination of fit-tested N95 masks and air filtration is sufficient to protect even against high viral loads over prolonged periods at close range. 

- Sharon Eubanks writes that oil and gas giants can rightly expect to face the same fate as tobacco companies in having to make reparations for their prolonged dishonesty and harm to the public, while Camilla Hodgson reports on litigation in Peru which is leading the way. And Kate Ravilious highlights how the effect of methane in contributing to climate breakdown is even worse than previously anticipated. 

- Owen Jones discusses how the sudden and vicious attacks on LGBTQ rights in the name of a violent patriarchy represent a threat to women as well. 

- Finally, James Hutt reports from the Labor Notes conference, including a surge in organizing which offers hope for the future of organized labour and workers generally. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Andrew Nikiforuk writes that the decision to stop doing anything to limit the spread of COVID-19 is opening the door for a forever plague. Olivia Bowden and Kenyon Wallace report on the start of a summer COVID-19 wave in Ontario, while Cindy Harnett discusses how one is also cresting in British Columbia. And Erin Prater examines the groups of people (covering a large proportion of the population) who are most likely to be vulnerable to long COVID, while Megan Leonhardt reports on the failure of far too many employers to support workers who suffer from it. 

- Fawziah Rabiah-Mohammed, Abe Oudshoorn, Cindy Brown and Luc Theriault discuss the need for Canada to build more housing for immigrants and migrants. And Holly Funk writes that Saskatchewan's minimum wage continues to fall far short of what people need to live. 

- Lori Fox discusses British Columbia's climate refugees pushed out of their homes by unprecedented fires and smoke. And Thomson Reuters reports that glaciers are becoming increasingly unstable as our planet keeps overheating. 

- Finally, Dayne Patterson reports on the revelation that the RCMP spied on advocates for Medicare. And Dennis Gruending rightly treats that as an example of Canada's police state being used to push the wrong side of history. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jim Stanford laments the likelihood that we're headed for a self-inflicted recession in the name of an arbitrary inflation target. 

- Acey Rowe talks to about the Craig Desson about the mechanisms used to perpetuate old wealth. And Rupert Neate writes about Gary Stevenson's story as someone who made large amounts of money in financial trading - but only through intolerable betting on needless suffering and growing inequality.

- Meanwhile, Mitchell Thompson calls out the Canada Infrastructure Bank's demand to turn essential public water supplies into sources of profits and management fees. 

- Ayurella Horn-Muller reports on some of the global responses to SCOTUS' decision to condemn humanity to a climate breakdown. And the Council of Canadians has released new Abacus polling data showing that Canadians recognize the need for strong climate action even when weighed against immediate economic interests.

- The Ottawa Citizen's editorial board weighs in on the need to combat intimate-partner violence.

- Finally, Umair Haque writes that we're all too likely to look back on the summer of 2022 as the start of an age of crisis.