Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- A.R. Moxon writes about the desperate need for a radical reshaping of both stories and substantive policy when even the most modest challenge to the impunity of villainous elites is treated as impossible. And Prem Sikka notes that the UK's real economy is being hollowed out in service to the dogma that financial interests matter more than people. 

- Victor Tangermann reports on the corrosive effect of AI at an organizational level as actual knowledge is replaced with a pale imitation. And Mariana Lenharo points out similar findings among individual professionals whose skills are degrading when artificial supports are unavailable. Which means it's readily understandable that university students are despairing - as noted by Frank Landymore - at being pressured to use it. 

- Mitchell Beer discusses how dependency on fossil fuel extraction is now a lose-lose proposition, as the windfall profits that follow temporarily from supply crises only drive people toward cheaper and readily available clean alternatives. Fiona Harvey points out the message emerging in advance of the Bonn climate conference that electrification results in far more efficient energy production and use than the outdated technology it replaces. Jan Rosenow highlights how Europe has benefited from its investments in energy efficiency by limiting the rise in energy prices. And Abby Hughes reports on the surge in electric vehicle adoption in Canada.  

- Finally, Leyland Cecco reports on the humanitarian costs of Mark Carney's refusal to acknowledge the realities of Donald Trump's regime, as asylum claimants continue to be told they have to pretend the U.S. is a safe third country even under a government which refuses to acknowledge their humanity. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Judd Legum discusses how Donald Trump's corruption includes such blatant market manipulation as buying stocks then using speeches to promote the companies involved. 

- Meanwhile, Samantha Michaels reports on the Trump regime's "full-blown occupation" of Memphis - as well as the lack of attention it's received due to a compliant state government and a difference in spin as to the purposes for militarizing a major city.  

- Sarah Cox reports on the warnings of environmentalists that Mark Carney is going far beyond anything proposed by Stephen Harper in treating species' extinction as an acceptable price for extractive development. Harry Glasbeck writes that if anything, Carney is demonstrating just how predatory capitalism tends to be. And Rishika Paridkar points out the denial, misinformation and spin around dirty energy in India - including the attempt to create an identity out of being uniquely adapted to the harms of polluted air. 

- Barry Saxifrage highlights how Canada has made little progress in transitioning away from fossil fuel dependency (and is actively going backwards under the Carney Libs). And Leonard Hyman and William Tilles report that utilities are starting to recognize the folly of pouring money into fossil gas as renewable energy and storage become far more affordable as well as healthier. 

- Finally, Luke Savage discusses how the proliferation of gambling as the primary lens for analyzing sports is now giving way to the commodification and gamification of everything. 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Jeff Masters points out how the climate breakdown is making hurricanes and other severe weather far worse than would otherwise be the case. And Gary Fuller reports on new research showing how air pollution contributes to multiple health issues. 

- Paul Kershaw writes that the Iran war and resulting oil supply shock is finally convincing many countries to shift to renewable energy as a matter of security even if they'd never bothered for environmental purposes or cost savings. And Susan O'Donnell and M.V. Ramana point out the absence of any rational case to forego a transition to renewable power in favour of nuclear plants which are both vastly more expensive and take far longer to put into operation. 

- Ed Zitron examines the comically-irresponsible world of private equity - and the systemic risks involved in allowing it to dictate economic decisions without meaningful oversight or regulation. And Eric Platt, Jill Shah and Euan Healy report on the bets major banks are making against the viability of consumer debt. 

- Sharon Zhang reports that Palantir paid precisely zero dollars in U.S. federal income taxes in 2025, even as it racks up publicly-funded contracts to invade people's privacy. 

- Finally, Lindsay Tedds examines how Mark Carney is implementing Stephen Harper's fiscal framework - yet being adulated for it by a Lib cult of personality.

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Mike Gaworecki reports on new research showing how the climate breakdown is affecting everyday life. Aliyah Marko-Omene reports on warnings that Saskatchewan may be in store for another brutal season of wildfires. And P.W.J. Glover et al. study the risks of melting permafrost, finding that a melt cycle can result in significantly more releases of methane and other gases than is generally accounted for. 

- Amelia Pollard and Eric Platt discuss the threat of mass consumer debt defaults - as well as the vulture capitalists who already have a plan to exploit people's misery. And Michael Spence writes about the large number of choke points in the global economy - which in turn are under increasing threat due to both the climate breakdown and wanton violence. 

- Nehal Johri discusses how the Iran war in particular makes an especially compelling case to switch to renewable energy. But Jake Johnson notes that the oil tycoons behind the Trump regime (among other political formations) are making a killing from the price shock afflicting consumers. 

- Finally, Lindsay Tedds and Gillian Petit unveil a new tool to examine the value of public investment and counter the right's constant calls for austerity. But Facts Matter points out how right-wing governments manipulate public awareness to get away with a consistent pattern of worse services at higher costs. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Paul Krugman notes that Donald Trump has upended the theory that presidential influence on the economy is overstated, as every new difficulty facing the U.S. can be traced to his deliberate choices. And Richard Bookstaber discusses how the global economy may be headed toward much worse than the 2008 crisis, even as Alexis Lapp reports on Trump's plans to reverse the few public protections put in place after that occurred. 

- Meanwhile, Owen Jones writes that the Iran war has destroyed any pretense that the U.S.' is a global leader rather than a bully. And Jan Dehn discusses the prospect that the Iran war will serve as the death knell for fossil fuel dependency, while George Monbiot reminds us that our current reliance on dirty energy has only fuelled the rise of dictators. 

- Eric Dolan writes about new research on the effect of electronic interruptions - with constant notifications serving as a more problematic disruption than screen time alone. The Associated Press reports on Canada's descent in the Wellbeing Research Centre's global happiness rankings, with the effects of heavy social media media use among young people identified as a major cause. And James Densley and Jillian Peterson discuss how the profile of mass shooters increasingly reflects younger people radicalized by an online culture of performative violence.

-  Finally, Meghan Bartels examines new research showing that the death toll from COVID-19 in the U.S. has likely been severely underestimated due to a reluctance to test for the disease. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Samantha Hancox-Li writes about the need for the U.S.' citizenry to retake power from a militarized surveillance state through nonviolent organized resistance. And Philip Bump points out how Minnesota has already provided a model for other communities to follow. 

- Oren Cass discusses the need to treat the financial sector as a grift rather than a source of investment or productivity. And Cory Doctorow calls out stock buybacks and other swindles that are being used to transfer wealth from the working class to the corrupt few. 

- Meanwhile, Isaac Phan Nay reports on Tim Li's recognition that even full-time workers are facing an inability to pay for food and other necessities as wages fall behind inflation. 

- Ajit Niranjan reports on a new study showing that increasingly dangerous and ecologically harmful pesticides are being used in far too many countries (including the U.S.). And Dylan Baddour and Peter Aldhous report on Texas' massive-scale venting of pollutants during a bout of winter weather as regulators give gas power plants free rein to dump their waste in the air. 

-  Finally, Don Newman weighs in on how Danielle Smith is plying with fire by stoking separatism, while Andrew Coyne notes that the portions of the separatist group actively seeking a Trump takeover are veering into treasonous territory. And Emmett Macfarlane warns Mark Carney against indulging Smith's attempt to take provincial control over federal judicial appointments (among other incursions into federal jurisdiction). 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Sujeet Indap and Akila Quinio report on the accumulation of consumer debt by private credit groups, making people's inability to meet their needs into a factor being exploited by more and more capital interests. And Robert Reich highlights the need for a more fair distribution of wealth and income for the economy to be able to function:

   

- Meanwhile, Roshni Sahoo et al. model the cost of ending extreme poverty around the world, and find the price of ending severe deprivation would amount to a rounding error of .3% of global GDP. 

- Huilin Luo et al. examine (PDF) the effect of different greenhouse gas emission policies, and find that it's impossible to subsidize our way out of a climate breakdown without also regulating carbon pollution. Umair Irfan writes that we can't afford to give up the climate fight even as fossil fuel forces are already pushing us past dangerous thresholds. And Cloe Logan reports on Laura Tozer's lament that Mark Carney is doing nothing but undermining an already-insufficient set of federal climate policies. 

- Finally, Emma Graney reports that Carney is also laying the groundwork to open up the export of single-use plastics as another means of favouring the oil sector at the expense of public and environmental health. And Juno Rylee Schultz discusses how laissez-faire theory which lets businesses decide how much pollution to emit has consistently led to people being poisoned and exploited. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Connie Loizos warns that the growth of "buy now, pay later" financing for the essentials of life parallels the wider use of unsustainable debt as a substitute for improvements in standards of living. And Umair Irfan discusses how the Trump regime's hostility to electric vehicles is making all kinds of car ownership even more expensive. 

- Carole Cadwalladr weighs in on the glaringly obvious artificial intelligence bubble, while Ketan Joshi discusses how Meta is polluting our physical and information environments alike with its AI garbage. And Laura Rodriguez Salamanca points out how Microsoft and Google data centre projects (which normally proceed only due to massive public subsidies) predictably produce far fewer jobs than promised.  

- Geoffrey Johnston highlights the urgent need to rein in a worsening climate crisis, while Donna Lu reports on a new simulation suggesting that the damage carbon pollution has already done to our planet  in the form of extreme heat waves will be felt for a millenium. Anupreeta Das reports on the devastating general effects of heat stress on women in India, while Anuradha Nagaraj tells the story of one worker in particular about the realities of living in temperatures up to 50 degrees Celsius. Andn John Harris discusses how the UK is building large amounts of new housing in areas which will soon be flooded due to the climate breakdown. 

- Harrison Samphir discusses how Canada's civil service is bracing for the effects of a Carney austerity budget, while Nancy Wilson points out that one of the anticipated effects of slashing public jobs is to prevent women from receiving pay equity payments. And Aaron Wherry notes that Carney's choices can plausibly be seen as those of a small-c progressive conservative. 

- Finally, Charles Rusnell examines how Alberta's obsession with privatized surgery continues to enrich donors while underming the public health care system and its patients. And Eva Uguen-Csenge, Shelley Ayres and Steven D'Souza report on Health Canada's rejection of expert advice about the effectiveness of safe supply programs (and the carnage which is resulting from their elimination). 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Thomas Zimmer writes about the importance of drawing principled lines as to what's compatible with democracy rather than presuming that whatever's currently happening must be within bounds. A.R. Moxon discusses the glaring contrast between minority groups being told they need to be respectful toward their oppressors, and the legitimacy being conferred on those oppressors to engage in violent eradication. Dharna Noor reports that U.S. climate activists are engaging in the fight against authoritarianism based on their recognition that it's not going to be possible to agitate for change in a system that eliminates any responsiveness to public demands. And David Dayen highlights the futility of any U.S. budget deal that doesn't rein in Trump's arbitrary exercise of power, while theorizing there may be some opportunity to win meaningful restraints as part of a deal to fund farm bailouts.

- Chuck Collins and Omar Ocampo discuss how the concentration of wealth and power over the past few decades has been even worse than we generally assume. Rachel Funk Fordham highlights the impact of Citizens United on American politics, while Dean Baker explains why CEOs have been entirely willing to play along with the Trump regime. And William Murphy writes about the combination of debt and financialization that prevents people from fighting back against a rigged system. 

- Meanwhile, Melissa Naschek interviews Vivek Chibber about the continued importance of class politics. And Helen Quinn reports on new research showing both that a growing number of UK children are growing up in poverty, and that the cost of that deprivation manifests itself in all kinds of health and social outcomes. 

- Finally, Michael Barnard discusses why small modular reactors do nothing to avoid the problems of cost and waste that make nuclear power a poor option compared to readily-available renewable alternatives. And Drew Anderson examines a new report showing that the UCP's hostility to clean energy has driven away investment which would otherwise have resulted in substantial developent. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jamelle Bouie offers a reminder that Donald Trump's assertion of the power of a dictator-for-life is based on his winning an election by electoral margins then embarking on a constant stream of reviled plans. Greg Sargent discusses polling showing that challenges to Trump's supposed economic prowess are proving particularly effective, while Gabe Ortiz points out that MAGA attacks on immigrants are a major cause of rising food prices. And Brian Beutler notes that for Democrats in the U.S. as for governments around the world, there's no point in trying to strike deals with a regime which considers itself entitled to thumb its nose at them. 

- James Hardwick highlights how financial speculators have set up a debt bomb which will eventually be blamed on (and directed toward) Canadian consumers. And John Anderson offers a reminder that postal banking has historically been a crucial part of the national infrastructure which has allowed Canada to develop - and is only being ruled out now due to the Libs' insistence that Canada Post not look for ways to better serve the public. 

- John Woodside writes that Mark Carney's attempt to address climate change through the morality and decency of the financial sector has proven as comically ineffective as one would expect, while Elizabeth May notes that Carney has abandoned climate policy altogether now that he holds power. Jocelyn Timperley discusses some of the most effective actions which are possible at the individual level, but Isaac Callan and Colin D'Mello report on on Doug Ford's dirty transportation policies as a prime example of governments sabotaging their already-insufficent climate plans. And Markham Hislop discusses yet another example of the oil sector slashing jobs while still demanding public policy concessions in order to extract massive profits: 

- Finally, Simon Enoch rightly calls out arsonists like Danielle Smith and Scott Moe for pushing separatism as a distraction from their working against their citizens. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jonathan Watts highlights how the global right is pushing extremes in both climate damage and reactonary politics. Jamelle Bouie discusses how the Trump regime is looking to destroy any principle of deliberative government. Robert Reich notes that Disney's about-face in returning Jimmy Kimmel to the airwaves shows that people do have some power to keep corporations from collaboration with fascists - but Luke Savage writes that we can't count on corporate self-interest to protect democracy and human rights. 

- Meanwhile, Hamilton Nolan rightly argues that there's nothing an individual can buy for a billion dollars that should be available for individual purchase in the first place - making the accumulation of further wealth little more than a direct assault on society as a whole. And Jean-Paul Bureaud calls out Canada's provinces other than Quebec for failing to create financial fraud compensation funds to protect individuals from corporate malfeasance. 

- Charlie Angus discusses the meaning of "elbows up" as a statement of collective determination and defence (which isn't about to end no matter how much MAGA complains that other countries should bow to its king). 

- Finally, there's plenty of good news as to new medical breakthroughs to the extent they reach people - with Kat Lay reporting on the potential for an HIV vaccine to end the global epidemic, Amber Carlson reporting on a more stable rabies vaccine which could reduce a death toll of tens of thousands of people each year, and James Gallagher reporting on the first successful treatment for Huntington's disease through gene therapy. But Olivia Bowden writes about the Libs' stalled implementation of pharmacare, particularly as Mark Carney has chosen not to bother following through with ensuring people have the medicine they need. 

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.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The Lever examines new research showing how private equity is systematically funnelling risk and underperformance to less wealthy investors. And Charlie Warzel discusses how the AI investment fad is based on mass delusion, while Rick Morton notes that it's also predicated entirely on the retroactive validation of systematic illegality. 

- Ned Resnikoff discusses how the Trump regime is determined to turn American cities into war zones - even as they were previously safer than they'd been in decades - as a pretext for his plan to exert military control over them. Adam Tranter notes that anybody actually concerned with people's lives and well-being would be pushing for low traffic neighbourhoods and people-friendly communities. And Trevor Melanson discusses how Chinese EV imports could give Canadians far more and better options for cleaner and safer transportation. 

- William Foege discusses how public health needs to fight back against the cynical misinformation of antisocial populists and scammers. And Nick Tsergas studies the growing body of evidence that COVID-19 has long-term effects on people's bodies whether or not they've been diagnosed with long COVID - making any avoidable transmission a wilful choice to make people sicker. 

- Finally, Jeremy Appel highlights how Air Canada's flight attendants were able to fight back against the exploitation of unpaid labour. Dale Smith examines the rise of Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code which the Libs have taken to using reflexively to squelch strikes and allow employers to run roughshod in collective bargaining, while Verity Stevenson points out how workers' determination to stand up for themselves in the face of that interference should lead to questions as to whether it should be allowed in the first place. And Kim Siever offers a warning that surface friendliness from an employer is no guarantee of respect or job security. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Paul Krugman writes that the combination of anti-fascism protests and Donald Trump's crackdown on them could be crucial in determining whether the U.S. sees an end to even the pretense of democracy. G. Elliott Morris notes that Saturday's "No Kings Day" protests were attended by millions of people. And both Toby Buckle and A.R. Moxon discuss how the contrast between the widespread and energetic anti-regime protests and the desultory Trump birthday parade shows the power of popular outrage and dissent. 

- Shawn Micallef notes that this year's Pride events are particularly important as a means of protest. And Dale Smith discusses how book-banning and online age verification - both of which are being pushed as part of an anti-LGBTQ agenda - each serve as tools of authoritarianism.  

- Desmond Cole is the latest to highlight how Mark Carney is adopting Trump's mass surveillance and hostility toward immigration even while pretending to defend Canada against them. Karl Nerenberg  notes that Carney is using the U.S. threat as an excuse to bypass democracy on behalf of corporate interests, while David Thurton reports on the justified backlash against the flattening of Indigenous rights and environmental protection in the name of megaprojects. And Mitchell Beer reports on Simon Donner's warning that Carney's theory about "decarbonized" fossil fuels is patently absurd to anyone with so much as a grade-school understanding of chemistry. 

- David Dayen writes about the damage Trump's signature economic bill will do to the U.S. - exacerbating inequality, stifling productivity and worsening public health - if it passes. And Ryan Ermey reports on new research showing that Americans are already seeing declining spending power and quality of life. 

- Issie Lapowsky interviews Megan Greenwell about the harm done by private equity as it undermines functional businesses in the name of short-term wealth extraction. And Jason Hickel makes the case for economic democracy as a necessary system to ensure that human survival and well-being are given any weight in political decision-making.

- Finally, Yei Ling Ma reports on the choice by Wal-Mart and other major companies to pull out of an agreement on reducing plastic contamination before it takes a penny out of their immediate profits. And Kaylie Tiessen warns that sellers' inflation figures to be making a return to Canada soon as corporate retailers turn confusion about inflation and tariffs into windfall profits. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Edward Zitron writes about the idiotic results of purging all considerations from business decision-making other than goosing short-term share prices. And EuropeanPowell examines the connection between deregulated "free zones" (of the type the Cons are actively seeking to impose in Canada) and the broader hijacking of public resources and services by greedy corporations.  

- Simon Kuper reports on the push for a global wealth tax in order to ensure the richest few can't hide their obscene wealth offshore. Dean Baker makes the case for a financial transactions tax to disincentivize shell games as a substitute for productivity. And Rick Szostak discusses the need for everybody to be willing to contribute to the common good. 

- Noah Berlatsky writes about the dangers of the Trump administration's attacks on vaccines, while Reuters reports on Moderna's decision not to seek approval of a more effective hybrid COVID/flu vaccine under an anti-science regime. Susan Mashiyam highlights a new study into vaccine disinformation as expressed at public meetings. And Bingyu Zhang et al. find that the consequences of COVID-19 include severe cardiovascular outcomes in children.

- Finally, Sam Freedman points out the inherent fragility of hard-right political alignments which rely on uniting the corporate sector and conspiracy theorists against professionals. Matthew Hays notes that Pierre Poilievre's attempts to send different messages to different sides of the conspiracist divide resulted in nobody having any basis to trust him. Crawford Kilian writes that the Trumpists and separatists being boosted by Danielle Smith's UCP are likely to make the Cons even less electable. And Don Braid notes that the immediate purpose of Smith's promotion of separatism is to undermine national values and standards, while Taylor Noakes offers a reminder that the separatist push is being bankrolled and directed by and for the dirty energy sector. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Mike Palecek discusses how the Trump regime's tariff chaos isn't aimed merely at conducting trade wars against other countries, but also serves to destabilize economic activity for other ends (including the desire to seize control of Canada). And Anne Kauranen reports that several European countries are setting up alternate payment systems in case Trump decides to commandeer the infrastructure of Visa and Mastercard for his own ends. 

- But in case we were under the impression that Mark Carney was following trhough on his campaign theme of holding tough against Trump, Bloomberg News reports that he's dropped nearly all of Canada's defensive tariffs, while Mike Le Couteur reports that he has Canada in talks to tie us even more tightly into the U.S.' military by participating in an expensive and unworkable Golden Dome scheme. Which is to say that Carney seems to be following Danielle Smith's agenda of legitimizing a surrender to Trump for the benefit of fascists and oil tycoons. 

- Meanwhile, Julie Fine et al. find that even in the U.S. there's a strong majority desire to see more effort to protect people from the harms of a climate breakdown. And Cristen Hemingway Jaynes reports on a new study showing that it's entirely possible to pair a transition to a clean economy with the availability of a decent standard of living for everybody. 

- Manuela Vega reports on new research confirming that financialized landlords tend to impose higher housing costs, while Andrew Willis reports on the capital sharks circling around a major apartment holder. And both John Michael McGrath and David Moscrop highlight the seemingly obvious point that the Libs' insistence on treating housing primarily as capital stock is absolutely contrary to any attempt to make it more affordable and available for people who need it. 

- Finally, the Canadian Press reports on the continued rise of food and grocery prices far in excess of inflation as corporate grocers put the screws to Canadians. And Aaron Vansintjan notes that a solution to our food crisis will require promoting local production.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Tarique Niazi discusses some of the geopolitical implications of the intensifying climate crisis. Aaron Whetty offers a reminder that the joint effort by the Libs and Cons to treat a consumer carbon tax as the sole point of climate policy worth discussing missed the much bigger picture. And Nick Hedley notes that a rapid and successful transition to renewable energy in China stands to reduce global demand for fossil fuels far faster than previously projected.

- John Lavis and Mathieu Ouimet highlight how decision-makers would be expected to apply scientific knowledge to deal with a global polycrisis if they had any interest in acknowledging and responding to it. And the University of Plymouth takes note of the scientific consensus on the need to tackle the dispersion of microplastics.

- Kiran Stacey reports on a new study showing that a corporate tax giveaway in the UK is costing three times as much in revenue as it stands to produce in investment. And Sharon Graham asks what a Labour party is for if the UK's version is bent on starving the public while serving the interests of the corporate class.

- Wing Li rightly argues that the UCP shouldn't be using Alberta's public money to build private schools - particularly when it's responsible for failing to maintain public educational infrastructure. 

- Finally, Richard Murphy discusses the need to re-re-brand private equity with its previous title of "asset stripping" - and match that more accurate description with public policy aimed at limiting the harm it can do to functional economic vehicles.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Michael Savage points out the billions of pounds worth of pay and benefits being stolen from workers by UK employers every year. And The Breach reports that the same app being used to fix housing prices and gouge renters on the behalf of landlords in the U.S. is also being used by familiar landlords in Canada. 

- John Lanchester discusses the absurd amount of activity and nominal wealth based purely on financial speculation rather than the production or delivery of anything real or useful. Robert Reich notes that billionaires are looking to fund the end of democracy in the U.S. and elsewhere as they recognize that their continued accumulation of wealth and power will never stand if people have any say in the matter. And David Moscrop points out how learned helplessness from current governments has opened the door for fascist politicians to claim they can solve problems which other politicians won't. 

- On that front, Hayley Juhl writes that decades after Canada's Parliament agreed unanimously to end child poverty, its persistence and growth is leading to understandable skepticism among younger generations that the federal government is interested in their needs.

- Finally, Chris Lehmann discusses how Russian funding and direction is behind prominent MAGA influencers in the U.S. And Luke LeBrun highlights the Canadian connections (and in some cases roots) of Vladimir Putin's right-wing mouthpieces in North America.

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Ian Urquhart writes that while it's well and good to insist that the oil and gas industry stop attempting to greenwash its contribution to climate destruction, Canada also needs to reckon with its own unsupported claims to climate progress. Alienor Rougeot and Stephen Thomas discuss how Canada is falling behind the rest of the world in building clean energy capacity (while subsidizing continued fossil fuel emissions). And Marc Lee offers a reminder that British Columbia's carbon tax system is set up to favour polluting businesses over the public.  

- Gabriel Zucman writes that it's both feasible and necessary to make sure the rich pay their fair share. And Linda McQuaig calls out how the Fraser Institute and the Cons are teaming up to misrepresent how Canada's tax system works to ensure that never happens.  

- Gaby Hinsliff discusses how shrunken public services only end up imposing ever-more-unmanageable burdens on people to provide health and social care for relatives and loved ones. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow points out that when private equity sets out to extract wealth from an existing business, its marks include the people who invest their money based on the false promise that there's any plan to operate more efficiently (or at all) in the long term. Danyaal Raza and Karen Palmer write about the particular dangers of letting private equity take over health care services. And Audrey Guay highlights just a few examples of how privatization has undermined the public health care system while doing nothing to sustainably reduce waiting lists. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Gillian Steward asks how many communities need to be destroyed for the UCP and other climate denialists to start even pretending to care - though I'm not optimistic there's any level of real-world destruction that would dislodge a well-funded and deeply-ingrained culture of fossil fuel zealotry. Doug Cuthand writes that Canada's increase in wildfire activity is one of the many harms caused by climate change. And Erin Martin-Jones discusses how the same phenomenon has been observed around the globe, while Brian Owens points out the increase in "fire clouds" as a particularly severe form of fire activity.

- The University of Amsterdam examines how scientists are responding to the climate breakdown, and finds that the people who know the consequences of carbon pollution best are doing far more to try to avert it. And The University of the Basque Country finds that the oil industry's fraud on the public isn't limited to denying its longstanding knowledge of the climate crisis, but includes suppressing research into damage to biodiversity.

- Michelle Gamage offers a reminder that the COVID pandemic remains an ongoing crisis - even if British Columbia has joined other jurisdictions in treating it as less than an emergency. And Craig Brierly discusses new research showing that COVID-19 vaccines have helped people to avoid heart attacks and strokes.

- Cory Doctorow rightly questions why we allow the finance sector to loot the productive economy.

- Finally, Sarah Krichel discusses how Mark Zuckerberg's selective ban on Canadian news (allowing the right-wing pseudo-news echo chamber to reverberate while suppressing any journalism with standards of accuracy) is poisoning the flow of public information.