Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Miguel Xavier discusses the need for social democrats to stop limiting their goals to preserving the status quo, and instead make the case for transformative change of an unfair economic system. And Dale Smith comments on the need to build grassroots democracy as a necessary precondition to sustainable social and policy gains. 

- Patrick Lennox warns that the separatist movement being stoked by the UCP and the Sask Party represents a threat to Canada's national security. Matthew Mendelsohn writes about the changes Canada's public service needs to make to strengthen our defences against the U.S.' aggression, while Paris Marx highlights the need to ban X in particular as both a peddler of CSAM and a threat to democracy. And Paul Stewart points out how reliance on P3 schemes and outsourcing as a substitute for a dedicated civil service only makes the delivery of necessities more expensive and less effective. 

- IndustriALL examines how social dialogue mechanisms have led to improved wages and working conditions in Kyrgyzstan. 

- Finally, Laura Semenzato et al. study the effects of COVID-19 vaccines, and find a substantial reduction in COVID-related deaths without tradeoffs in all-cause mortality. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Paul Crider discusses how the Trump regime is setting up the U.S. for explosive internal violence - while planning to blame its victims in order to impose martial law. Ned Resnikoff observes that the devaluation of human life in the name of demanding obeisance to the exercise of arbitrary power is far from new - though some forms of privilege are no longer protecting people who once perceived themselves as immune. Jonathan Chait calls out the Republican dogma that the January 6 rioters were entitled to take over democratic institutions and defy police with as much violence and force as they wanted, while anybody not devoted to usurping power on Donald Trump's behalf is subject to summary murder for failing to defer to state actors. And Garrett Graff writes about the emotional weight imposed by Trumpism.

- Meanwhile, Jason Stanley highlights the need to recognize the threat posed by an aggressive expansionist U.S. rather than assuming we can operate based on business as usual. And John Woodside's report on the Trump cheerleading by Scotiabank's CEO should make clear that the corporate class is not on our side.  

- Lucy Dean Stockton and Helen Santoro note that the FDA's elimination of warnings against excessive alcohol consumption reflects just the latest example of the Trump regime letting destructive corporate interests dictate policy. But Cory Doctorow discusses how the connection between Trump and the U.S.' exploitative tech giants may actually offer a needed opportunity to disenshittify our economy. And Scharon Harding reports on the rare positive example of Bose making some of its systems open-source to allow consumers to continue using them after they're no longer directly supported.  

- Marc Lee points out the absurdity of treating the U.S.' coup in Venezuela as an excuse to push new oil pipelines in Canada. 

- Finally, Tom Sandborn writes that a rare example of a conviction against an employer for negligently causing a worker's death serves only to highlight how few consequences businesses face for endangering their own employees.

Musical interlude

TWO LANES feat. Kwesi - Another Time

 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Linda McQuaig writes about the need for international solidarity in responding to the corruption and aggression of Donald Trump. Stephen Maher notes that there are important lessons for Canada in Trump's Venezualan coup. And the Economist points out that Canada's military is necessarily planning to respond to U.S. hostility - even as the two largest parties in Parliament treat it as something to be minimized or welcomed. 

- Virginia Heffernan argues that the most important reality of the Epstein scandal is the culture of elite impunity which continues to mutate and spread. And Roger Hallam discusses how the capital class is choosing a death project over any sustainable alternative which might reduce its control over the general public. 

- Faine Greenwood discusses the increasing number of people who see reality itself as irrelevant compared to online slop and propaganda. And Peter Smith comments on the dangers of social isolation to health, well-being and community. 

- Finally, a new McGill study finds that any spin about crime being caused by supervised consumption sites is a myth - meaning that the attack against harm reduction has no effect other than to exacerbate the human toll of the drug crisis. 

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Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Cat among the pigeons.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Robert Reich discusses how Donald Trump is a threat to civilization (in the form of any social order other than one based on brute force and coercion) around the globe. And Marisa Kabas warns that much of the media is playing into Trump's hands by normalizing - if not outright siding with - his violence and dishonesty.

- Paris Marx discusses how the U.S.' tech giants serve its military ends - and how Canada and other countries are enabling their own domination by putting critical information in hostile hands. Kaylie Tiessen points out how trade deals have been used as an excuse to prevent Canada from exercising any digital sovereignty. And Heather Stewart notes that AI slop isn't worth the immense financial and environmental cost anywhere.

- Clare Fieseler comments on Trump's destruction of clean power development even as it becomes far more efficient and effective than the dirty energy sources that form his donor base. And Arnie Gundersen offers a reminder that spin about small nuclear reactors serves only as a delay tactic rather than a viable alternative to renewables.

-  Finally, Ed Cara reports on a new study showing that the ongoing toll of COVID-19 in the U.S. is in the range of a million hospitalizations and a hundred thousands deaths every year. And Maja Stojanovic et al. examine the vascular damage done by COVID-19.

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Stephen Beschloss writes that while the specifics may be unpredictable, the broad strokes of the Trump regime are entirely in keeping with a U.S. political system gone mad. And Hamilton Nolan confronts the reality that the U.S. is unmistakably the bad guy in its treatment of the rest of the world, while Will Bunch properly characterizes it as a rogue state. And Carol Calwalladr discusses the danger as seen from abroad.  

- The Guardian's editorial board makes the case for Europe to present a strong and united front against the U.S.' imperialism. And Thomas Homer-Dixon and Alex Gordon rightly argue that Canada needs to be planning to respond to American aggression - not tying ourselves even more tightly to a hostile and impetuous power. 

- A.R. Moxon examines the significance of the unapologetic racism and bigotry of white supremacists. 

- And finally, Adam King reviews the state of Canadian labour in 2025 - with unions succeeding in achieving wage gains, but having to fight against adverse conditions in the broader economy. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Aquatic cat.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Yanis Varoufakis rightly argues that the EU (and the international community generally) should be treating the U.S.' draconian sanctions against ICC judges as fully disqualifying it from being treated as anything but a bad actor. And James Ball writes about the challenges facing the war on disinformation as the few people who once worked on countering propaganda are likewise being treated as persona non grata, while Charles Ornstein discusses the Trump regime's intimidation tactics toward working reporters (including treating basic requests for comment as evidence of hostility). 

- Connie Loizis reports on the development of a private security state under the not-at-all-telling branding of Sauron. And Arian Campo-Flores discusses how the wealthy are buying privacy which has been made unavailable to anybody else. 

- Elizabeth Todd-Breland opines that there's no room for dispute that corporations need to pay more taxes to support a functional society. And Richard Partington writes about the need for UK Labour (and other governments) to recognize the human toll of increased automation. 

- Finally, Tina Swanson offers a handy categorization of climate policies based on their level of utility - with the corporate right's preferred delay tactics of nuclear reactors and carbon capture and storage serving as representative examples of what not to bank on. Marc Lee discusses what we've learned about Mark Carney's agenda, including his his prioritizing dirty energy over any considerations of well-being or long-term prosperity. And David Roberts interviews Saul Griffith about the success of Australia's rooftop solar program.