Musical interlude

Flight Facilities feat. Dustin Tebbutt - All Your Love

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Matthew Yglesias implores the business sector which is increasingly recognizing the danger of Donald Trump's trade policy to notice that the balance of his plans are equally ill-founded. Will Saletan discusses the Trump regime's selection of cabinet officials based entirely on their willingness to propagandize and flatter, rather than the possession of any knowledge or competence. Charlie Angus highlights how book burning and information suppression fits into the fascist playbook. And Greg Sargent talks to Jonathan Friedman about the weakness in strongarm tactics which depend entirely on a lack of coordinated resistance.

- Bryan Tau, Joshua Goodman, Garance Burke and Brian Slodysko report on the DOGE takeover of the U.S.' General Services Administration which has resulted in effectively all public property and information being turned into playthings for Elon Musk. And Corbin Trent worries that most resistance so far has been based on inspiration in the absence of infrastructure, even as a fascist regime entrenches itself in power based on the groundwork laid by external structures. 

- Paul Wells highlights Pierre Poilievre's bragging about never changing his mind, whileLinda McQuaig writes that Poilievre's attempt to rebrand and partially reorient the Cons' campaign is likely doomed because of his inability to do anything of the sort. 

- Emma Paling and Alex Cosh examine how Poilievre has been treated with kid gloves by the media even while treating them with nothing but hatred and contempt. And Luke LeBrun reports on the Cons' laughable attempt to treat their own astroturfed attempt at polling denialism as being the result of a conspiracy involving both the Libs and Doug Ford (along with presumably various Freemasons, Roswell aliens and fake birds). 

- Finally, David Coletto examines the factors which have resulted in a shift among left-wing voters - with the main reason for any shift from the NDP to the Libs being a matter of transactional politics rather than changes in underlying beliefs. And Will Shelling discusses the importance of identifying and supporting strong NDP candidates, rather than complying with Lib partisans' demands for a crushing majority which would enable Mark Carney to sideline progressives inside and outside his party.

Wednesday Night Cat Blogging

Attentive cat.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jared Yates Sexton writes about the unambiguous wrong embodied in the Trump regime's claim to be able to disappear anybody it chooses to. Timothy Snyder rightly categorizes that position as the deliberate use of state terror. Coral Davenport reports on Trump's plan to treat the law as inoperative to the extent it doesn't suit the interests of him or his cronies, including by ignoring regulations which are seen as inconvenient. And Jason Sattler discusses how Elon Musk is attempting to enshittify Social Security out of existence (as an alternative to the Republicans' repeated attempts to eliminate it as a matter of law).

- Amanda Marcotte points out the theocracy embedded in Marco Rubio's attempt to treat any differing views as "anti-Christian bias". Saketh Sundar discusses how hospitals stand to be hard hit by Trump's attempt at a hostile takeover of universities. And Taylor Noakes writes that the rest of the world (including Canada) will suffer from the fallout of RFK Jr.'s gutting of public health. 

- Sushan Singh writes about the connections between right-wing authoritarian regimes around the world, including through the Modi government's interference to promote Pierre Poilievre and the Cons. Taylor Owen talks to Aengus Bridgman and Nina Jankocwicz about the broader reality of foreign information manipulation. 

- Patrick McCurdy and Kaitlin Clarke offer a reminder as to who stands to suffer from Poilievre's war on "woke" (i.e. any attempt to identify and correct injustice). Mel Woods points out the anti-trans messages being injected into the election campaign by the Cons. And Jen St. Denis reports that Canada's alt-right techbros are desperately trying to distance themselves from Elon Musk's DOGE (with all the credibility of Donald Trump's bald-faced lies about his connections to Project 2025). 

- Finally, Nino Antadze writes that Canada can draw important lessons from Georgia as to how to defend its sovereignty against a hostile superpower. And Charles Smith discusses how the new strain of Canadian nationalism emerging in response to Trump's threat may chart a path for our future development. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Nesrine Malik writes about the need for the rest of the world to imagine - and then build - an international order which routes around the U.S. as an entirely unreliable partner. And the Economist discusses how the U.S. itself will lose out immensely by ending the use of the dollar as an international default currency. 

- Anne Applebaum writes about the systematic kleptocracy being installed at breakneck speed. Paul Krugman and Dan Moynihan each note that Trump has turned the IRS into a tool to allow the wealthy to avoid taxes, while punishing the working class in any way possible. And Jenna McLaughlin reports that the confidential information raided by DOGE for Elon Musk's personal enrichment includes sensitive labor data held by the National Labor Relations Board.  

- Chris Hatch rightly notes that the climate breakdown is in progress - and will continue absent a drastic change in course - whether Trump and his ilk govern in denial of it or not. Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado discuss the scourge of air pollution which kills millions of people every year. And Helena Horton reports on a study finding hundreds of dangerous pesticides in European homes, while Bartosz Brzezinski discusses Bas Bloem's research into the connection between glyphosate and Parkinson's disease. 

- Sumathi Reddy reports on the growing awareness among doctors that COVID-19 can produce cognitive difficulties which last for years. And Baran Erdik studies the effect of COVID on driving in particular, finding a significant association between infections and subsequent car crashes. 

- Finally, Schmutzie offers a survey of the Cons' most recent policy declaration - and notes in particular the similarities to Project 2025 which Donald Trump falsely disclaimed before making it the basis for his regime. Dougald Lamont writes that no government in Canada should be pushing austerity in the face of a teade war which makes it all the more laughable to preach a doctrine of self-sufficiency. And Seth Klein offers his take as to what a genuinely strategic vote would look like. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor write about the rise of end-times fascism - and its connection to the long-standing project among the wealthiest few to survive environmental and social destruction from gated communities. Sam Freedman discusses the authoritarisn bent of self-professed "libertarians" who want the vast majority of people to be stripped of any agency to maximize their freedom to exploit the general public. Noah Berlatsky writes that the Trump regime's constant lying and gaslighting serves as an end in itself by making it difficult to combat abuses with facts. And Greg Sargent talks to Leah Litman about the public threat of politically-motivated prosecutions of elected officials who represent their constituents rather than allowing themselves to be used as tools of an autocrat. 

- Paul Krugman examines how Donald Trump's perpetually-shifting tariffs could hardly have been designed to avoid accomplishing any of their theoretical goals - particularly in light of Hafiz Rashid's report that nobody's actually collecting them. And Jessica Wildfire discusses the difference between progressive development based on ingenuinty and hard work, and the capitalist idea of "success" based on variance and leverage. 

- Angella MacEwen offers a warning about the dangers of "polite austerity" as Mark Carney's plans for cuts in real social funding for receive little attention. And Luca Caruso-Moro reports on new Statistics Canada data showing that investors cleaned up in 2024 while wages dropped. 

- Adam King writes about the need for the Canadian left to rebuild electoral power. Armine Yalnizyan writes that the "Canada is not for sale" movement needs to reckon with the important institutions which are already under the control of foreign capital. And Max Fawcett points out that any Con posturing about standing up to the Trump regime is utterly implausible when their plans involve being tied even more tightly to the U.S. 

- Finally, Will Adams offers a peek at the concentrated racism and hatred at the core of the Cons' public events. Olivia Bowden examines how the younger manosphere has become the one significant addition to the Cons' electoral coalition. And Deirdre Mitchell-Maclean points out that the separatists being encouraged by Danielle Smith and the UCP are just as much a threat to Alberta as they are to Canada.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jason Sattler rightly notes that by the time Donald Trump is removed from power in the U.S., there's going to be no meaningful amount of pre-existing "normal" government to return to. Jerusalem Demsas writes that the same principle applies to economic relationships as trade partners have little choice but to route their plans around an entirely unreliable partner. And Will Hutton points out that Europe (like Canada) can treat the destruction of U.S. hegemony as an opportunity to shape a new international order.

- Bruce Arthur highlights why nobody can feel safe traveling to the U.S. under Trump. Daisy Dumas reports on the detention and deportation of an Australian worker with a valid visa - along with the gleeful cruelty of the border officers given the responsiblity to round up and eject immigrants. And Sherrilyn Ifill writes about the importance of fighting for the rights of the prisoners being rendered to offshore gulags.

- Stephen Maher discusses how Pierre Poilievre's involvement with the Flu Trux Klan has made him unpalatable to far more voters than he can afford. And Brian Owens notes that Poilievre's plan to silence science which doesn't fit his regressive worldview is indistinguishable from Trump's.

- Geoff Girvitz discusses how health and well-being should be central goals of public policy - and how only the NDP is offering any prospect of improving Canada's performance in those areas.

- Finally, George Monbiot writes that the only truly effective means of challenging right-wing discriminatory populism is to reduce the inequality that fuels it.

Musical interlude

Hayla - Alone (John Young Edit)

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Amanda Marcotte discusses how the Trump regime's war on empathy reflects its underlying misogyny, while Andrea Woo reports that Canadian researchers are scrubbing their work of gender-inclusive terminology based on the theory that they're subject to Trump's discriminatory executive orders. Timothy Snyder writes that Trump's personal sense of victimhood and vulnerability is behind his drive to punish anybody who does business with the U.S., while Stephen Robinson offers a reminder that the people who voted for Trump out of greed and/or a sense of entitlement had ample warning that he was more interested in his own petty grievances than anybody's best interests. David Rothkopf discusses Trump's use of every lever of public authority to set up a protection racket. And Anne Applebaum notes that the well-known dangers of everybody being at the whims of one irrational actor are exactly why the U.S. constitution was set up to prevent the concentration of power Trump has claimed. 

- Jillian Ambrose writes about the risk that Trump's anti-science policy will affect the clean energy transition on a global scale. And Dharna Noor reports on the Trump regime's attacks on climate action at the state and local level across the U.S., while Sharon Lerner reports on his plans to stop collecting data on carbon pollution to ensure the purveyors of dirty energy don't face any accountability. 

- But Trump's regressive action doesn't mean the rest of the world is required to follow suit. On that front, Rebecca Ann Hughes reports on new research showing that the advantages of renewable energy include improving energy security for most countries, while David Toke discusses how renewables now make up over 90 per cent of new generation capacity. And Rachel Doran comments on the promise of clean energy for Canada in particular compared to the risks of clinging to outdated energy sources. 

- Frank Graves points out that the grim reality of the Trump regime has rightly turned Canadian voters off of any interest in the brand of nihilistic populism shared with the Poilievre Cons. And Dale Smith examines the perils of a Canadian version of Trump's war against anything "woke". 

- Finally, Marc Lee discusses the better uses for federal fiscal capacity than the tax baubles being offered by the federal parties. And Mark Bulgutch writes about the corrosive effect of Pierre Poilievre's reflexive hostility against the very concept of public revenue.