Musical interlude

TWO LANES - No Feeling Is Final

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Daniel Ziblatt writes about the dismal history of past efforts to collaborate and negotiate with authoritarians. And Stuart Benson discusses how Mark Carney's lack of respect for workers at home has combined with his appeasance of Donald Trump to undermine public confidence. 

- Paris Marx warns against giving in to Trump's demands to allow tech giants to run roughshod over people's privacy and civil rights. And David Reevely examines how the AI being presented by the Carney Libs as a substitute for actual economc strategy is unfit for purpose, while Chris Lang discusses how former Microsoft employees are calling out the use of AI to exacerbate climate damage. 

- Calvin Trottier points out how stronger climate policy would allow Canada to better engage with countries around the world aside from Trump's band of environmental vandals. But Carl Meyer reports on the lobbying being carried out by oil insiders to undermine what little climate plan we still have on the books. 

- Meanwhile, Max Fawcett discusses how any increased oil sands production is being designed to avoid any benefit to workers. And Kyle Bakx reports on the skyrocketing orphan well liabilities being dumped on the Alberta public by oil barons who have extracted their profits and fled the scene. 

- Dean Blundell responds to the news of the U.S.' covert influence in Greenland by noting that its efforts to poison Canadian politics to have been far less subtle. 

- Finally, Daniel Currell discusses how worsening inequality and concentration of wealth have made the financial well-being of working-class Americans irrelevant to many major industries. Isaac Phan Nay reports on Statistics Canada's latest data showing Canada's wealth gap getting worse. Hana Kiros reports on the destruction of value and rank profiteering flowing from the Trump regime's gutting of USAID. And Gareth Hughes questions whether our current economic edifice can remain standing while insurance becomes unaffordable or unavailable due to the climate crisis. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Don Moynihan concludes that the U.S. has lost any pretense to being a functioning democracy. And Zachary Beau discusses how Donald Trump is being allowed to undermine any institutions which would provide a check on an out-of-control executive. 

- David Dayen writes about the need to judge Trump based on his actual policies and their consequences rather than some convoluted effort to validate them, while Paul Krugman warns that the apparent willingness of markets to tolerate Trump's arbitrary actions in the short term doesn't mean the eventual consequences won't be dire. Jason Koebler examines the U.S. impact of Trump's attack on small international trade, while Campbell McDiarmid reports on the Canadian retailers looking to route their business elsewhere. And Jon Henley reports on the numerous postal services which have simply decided to stop making parcel shipments to the U.S. 

- Meghan Bartels discusses the limited availability of COVID-19 vaccines this fall even as a new wave is set to surge. And Charlie McGill points out that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s priority seems to be to turn all citizens into data collection devices for corporate use, rather than paying any attention to the policies which would keep people healthy. 

- Nitasha Tiku, Will Oremus, Elizabeth Dwoskin report on the nine-figure propaganda campaign being assembled to avoid any meaningful regulation of AI in the U.S. And Joey Grostern discusses how AI is contributing to the generation of climate denialist slop.  

- World Weather Attribution examines how the climate breakdown is exacerbating wildfires in Turkiye, Cyprus and Greece even in the face of mitigation measures, while Nicole Mortillaro reports on new research showing that wildfires are resulting in worsening air pollution in Canada. And Dale Smith notes that increased droughts represent another key reason to pursue immediate climate action, while Rosa Galvez points out that any government with an iota of respect for the rule of law may soon have little choice. 

- But needless to say, the Trump regime is no such government - and Lisa Friedman reports on its attempts to bully the rest of the world into extending the use of dirty fossil fuels. And while Linda McQuaig points out that reliance on market forces has been a major problem in our climate policy to date, Tom Parkin highlights the absurdity of talking about additional oil export pipelines when the previous emission-increasing boondoggle is still far from full capacity. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. 

- Freddy Brewster reports on a new study finding that the corporate media has refused to mention the business class' greed and profit-taking as a major cause of increased consumer prices. And Sam Freedman discusses how many of the disastrous decisions of the past decade can be traced back to the 2008 financial crash caused by deregulation and financialization. 

-  Andrea Pitzer discusses the need to work on building a post-Trump world rather than focusing solely on reacting to the fire hose of immediate abuses. And Gina McCarthy implores us not to let Trump and other petropoliticians undermine the work of building a clean energy future. 

- Bloomberg notes that the U.S.' screeching halt to renewable development hasn't come close to turning the tide globally. And CBC News reports on the work being done to replace dirty and unreliable diesel fuel with solar energy in Canada's Arctic region. 

- Jonathan Watts reports on research showing that deforestation and associated temperature increases have been responsible for half a million deaths just over the past 20 years. And Freda Kreier examines how repeated exposure to heat waves can do as much damage to one's health as smoking or drinking, while Andre Picard writes that access to air conditioning may need to be treated as an essential medical intervention. 

- Finally, Taylor Noakes calls out Mark Carney for his appeasement toward the Trump regime. And Davis Legree reports on the work being done by progressive activists to build a movement to step in where Carney's promise of resistance has proven false.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Beached cat.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Garrett Graff writes that the U.S. has fully tipped over into authoritarianism, even as far too many media and political voices cling to the pretense of normality. Robert Reich discusses how Donald Trump's invariable promotion of incompetent sycophants fits into the fascist project, while Arthur Delaney reports on a warning from remaining FEMA staff that the U.S. will be unable to respond to disasters as a result of its focus on politics over the public interest. And Paul Krugman writes that Trump's illegal pretense of firing Federal Reserve board member Lisa Cook represents a crucial test of one of the few limits on arbitrary and unauthorized presidential power that hasn't been bulldozed by John Roberts. 

- James Pethokoukis notes that Trump's latest gambit of demanding corporate stock in exchange for policy action is one without any natural endpoint. And Oliver Darcy interviews Katie Drummond about the choice of tech giants to tie their future to the manipulation of government regulation and procurement rather than offering any services to the public. 

- But then, Henry Larweh, Rachana Pradhan and Rae Ellen Bichell examine how the red states which have rolled over in the face of Trump's manipulations have ended up worse off than blue states who have fought back. And Nia Law and Lindsay Owens note that there's no reason to buy the threat that wealthy people and corporations will follow through on threats to leave if they have to pay a fair share of taxes. 

- David Moscrop notes that while Canadian people are ready to fight for our identity and sovereignty, those in charge of our capital are still throwing money at the U.S. under Trump. And Tom Parkin points out that Mark Carney is letting Trump get away with violating terms of the CUSMA with auto, steel, aluminum and copper tariffs - even as the result is direct damage to Canada's auto industry. 

- Finally, Emma Graney reports on the fully captured Alberta Energy Regulator's decision to cancel public hearings if they could possibly result in anything but a cheerleading session for dirty coal, while the Energy Mix points out that the oil industry's increasing automation is ensuring that workers don't share in any further fossil fuel development. Andn Ian Verrender writes that Australia too faces a revolving door of fossil fuel lobbyists dictating policy. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Jason Sattler writes about the importance of working together to oppose fascism rather than acquiescing to its ends. Juse Joffe-Block and Shannon Bond examine the racist roots of the Trump regime's anti-immigrant memes. And Hamilton Nolan notes that Trump's imposition of white supremacy at the government level has turned commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion into a crucial indicator as to businesses' loyalties.  

- Tom McDowell discusses how Canada's federal and provincial governments alike are using the threat of U.S. fascism to eliminate consultation and democratic decision-making in favour of top-down corporate service. David Pugliese reports on the imposition of new secrecy rules against Canadian defence workers. And Juan Sebastian Pinto discusses how Palantir - which is being welcomed into Canada by Mark Carney while collaborating with the Trump regime - poses broad-based dangers to human rights around the globe. 

- University College London finds that air pollution caused by oil and gas is responsible for 91,000 deaths each year in the U.S. alone. Mitch Anderson points out that any assessment not funded shows that dirty energy is headed for a decline within the next few years at the latest, even as our petropoliticians insist on perpetual expansion with no regard for either economic viability or environmental consequences. And Isobel Farquharson reports on the work by private actors to build an EV charging network in Canada. 

- Finally, Ken Chapman writes about the goals of the Forever Canadian movement which is providing a needed response to the UCP's separatist posturing.