Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Qasim Rashid offers a reminder that the U.S.' deficit and debt are the result of a political system controlled by and for the oligarch class. Paul Krugman writes that Donald Trump's use of punitive tariffs to try to interfere in the Brazilian criminal justice system for the benefit of his crony Jair Bolsonaro represents a new level of abuse of power. Brian Beutler rightly argues that an essential element of any Democratic plans for a post-Trump government will need to include a plan to hold people accountable for their criminal activity. And Toby Buckle warns that moderation and conflict aversion in the face of fascism serves only to exacerbate the danger. 

- Antonia Juhasz reports on Trump's giveaways to dirty energy - which are even larger than generally assumed. Seth Klein questions why governments can always find immense amounts of money for military spending, but won't invest anything close to what's needed to deal with the imminent security threat of climate change. And Sophie Hurwitz writes about the widespread support for carbon prices in affluent countries even as their governments shy away from defending anything of the sort. 

- Bill McKibben writes about the ongoing transformation of energy systems as solar power proves itself to be far more affordable and more stable than fossil-fuel based energy. And Zachary Shahan writes that past projections for oil production and use are grossly outdated as a result, while Max Fawcett points out that Alberta's insistence on trying to vastly increase production lacks any grounding in reality. 

- Carlo Dade writes about the folly of rushing into a trade agreement with a Trump regime which couldn't care less about holding up its end of any bargain, while Sophia Harris reports that Canadian consumers are still eager to boycott U.S. products (but are facing increased difficulty as the corporate class tries to normalize Trump's abuses). 

- Finally, Christo Aivalis calls out Mark Carney's plans to bring DOGE to Canada by another name. And Nora Loreto writes that Carney is following the Chretien-era Libs' legacy of austerity for its own sake even after we've seen the consequences of defunding necessary services.