Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Carl Meyer explains how the Carney Libs are looking to push resource extraction at the expense of social and environmental realities to an extent beyond even the Harper Cons. And Corporate Europe Observatory criticizes the European Commission for likewise trashing needed regulations and subsidizing fossil fuels. 

- Meanwhile, Keith Brooks calls Mark Carney out for managing to turn even an electrification strategy into a means of prolonging fossil fuel dependency. And Alex Ballingall reports that after scrapping nearly every other means of limiting carbon pollution other than the industrial carbon price, Carney is now allowing Danielle Smith to undermine that.

- And in case anybody was under the illusion that there aren't superior alternatives to fossil fuels already available, Ben Feshbach, Ellie Garland and Julia Meisel highlight how the U.S. (like Canada) has immense geothermal power potential which is going unused due to the policy choice to favour dirty energy. 

- Elizabeth Elder and Neal O'Brien study the polarization of health outcomes in the U.S., as the anti-science ideology of Republicans is systematically resulting in shorter and sicker lives. And Joe Vipond, Dick Zoutman and Kashif Pirzada warn that the scattered response to the ongoing hantavirus outbreak signals that we've utterly failed to learn necessary lessons from previous contagions. 

- Finally, Maximillian Alvarez discusses how the wealthiest few are using their riches to try to untether us from reality. And Atrios rightly notes that in the case of Donald Trump and his ilk, the only responsible media response is to preface any coverage with a warning about their history of lying. 

#ndpldr - Notes from the Aftermath

Assorted links and materials on Avi Lewis' leadership victory and what it means for the NDP.

- Steven High discusses how Lewis is offering big ideas to meet the scope and severity of the challenges we face. Susan Delacourt highlights why nobody should underestimate Lewis and the party. And David Doel offers some strong reviews of Lewis' start as leader in comparison to the laughable response of the corporate media:

 

- Luke Savage likewise calls out the meltdown which immediately followed Lewis' election. And Erica Ifill argues that Lewis is offending and alarming exactly the establishment figures whose opprobrium we should welcome.

- Scott Martain discusses the antisemitic tropes being wielded (however implausibly) against Lewis.   

- Jeremy Appel traces how Lewis won the leadership. And Appel, Cam Welch and Rob Rousseau discuss what comes next for the NDP:

 

- Finally, Susan Riley notes that Lewis' messages which are now being criticized as "radical" were seen as nothing of the sort when they were espoused by Mark Carney and others in recent memory. Gerard Di Trolio points out the massive opening for left populism as the Libs veer even further to the corporate right. And Diary Marif highlights Lewis' plans to reverse Carney's cuts to immigration as the Libs chase nationalist and exclusionary votes.  

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Zohra Ahmed warns that the Trump regime is now looking to impose guilt by solidarity on anybody with the slightest connection to social justice causes, while Ken Klippenstein characterizes the scheme as bringing to life the prospect of severe punishment for pre-crime. And Sarah Mautner-Mazlen observes that misogyny is the entire point of the MAGA obsession with domination, while Silvaria Lysandra Zemaitis points out how that fascist tendency has been building in Republican circles since long before Trump took power.

- Brian Merchant discusses how more and more U.S. communities are successfully fighting off environmentally dangerous data centres and other manifestations of artificial intelligence. But Natasha Bulowski reports on the Libs' highly selective AI engagement, as environmental groups are being frozen out of consultations while extractivists get the red carpet treatment.  

- Ximena Gonzalez highlights how Danielle Smith's cynical immigrant-bashing is based on a complete inversion of reality. 

- Finally, Matt Pearce writes about the Grossman-Stiglitz paradox under which nobody is incentivized to create and spread information which serves the public good. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Adam King discusses several new studies showing that wealth inequality is only continuing to balloon in Canada. And Jared Walker and Silas Xuereb rightly question why Canadian corporate giants which extracted two-thirds of a trillion dollars in profits in 2025 are still being granted massive public handouts. 

- Meanwhile, Martin Lukacs talks to several movement organizers working on pushing back against Mark Carney's insistence on further entrenching corporate power. 

- Julia Simon notes that countries which have invested in solar energy and electrified transportation are far better positioned to deal with the oil shocks caused by Donald Trump's irrational attack on Iran. James Murray observes that European businesses are pushing to be freed from reliance on fossil fuels whose supply can be so easily disrupted, while David Fickling discusses how the plummeting price of battery storage (along with renewable power) is making dependence on oil and gas into a sucker's bet even from an immediate cost standpoint alone. But Drew Anderson's review of the state of clean energy development in Alberta highlights how the UCP has destroyed massive amounts of value and blocked needed investment as a sacrifice to the dirty oil gods. 

- Finally, Dave Levitan comments on the dangers of gambling on prediction markets. And Emanuel Fabian offers a personal account of the threats directed at a journalist for reporting accurate information rather than being pressured into assisting people who bet on the opposite outcome. 

Leadership 2026 Candidate Profile - Avi Lewis

What We Knew

While Lewis’ campaign narrative has normally been framed in terms of his family history in the NDP, the aspect of his track record that strikes me as more significant is his time as a journalist. While it’s been some time since I found political panel and interview shows to be worth much attention, Lewis’ intelligence and insight on CounterSpin both made for worthwhile watching, and earned him credibility with all kinds of political actors.

It’s always a challenge for an NDP leader to both earn attention and be taken seriously within the broader political scene - and Lewis’ track record gives him a major head start on that front, even as he also laps the field in progressive movement credibility. 

The challenge for Lewis has been to translate those traits within the membership, particularly when they haven’t yet resulted in riding-level electoral success, and when much of the party establishment seems fairly determined to stop him.

What We’ve Learned

In another field of candidates, Lewis might have been vulnerable to being beaten out in personability or French language skills. In this one, he’s been the standout in both communications and organizational strength - while also giving NDP members plenty of intriguing ideas to work with. And while he’s taken the few barbs that have been launched during the course of the campaign, he’s responded with messages of unity without sacrificing principle in the process.

What He’s Proposing

Maybe most ambitiously - if also most optimistically - Lewis’ plan to turn constituency associations into community organizing hubs on a systematic basis looks to be an ideal fit for the political moment. We can count on the next few years featuring plenty more abuses from the Trump regime as well as inspiring responses at the community level; the path toward rebuilding involves turning increases outrage and awareness into lasting involvement.

What to Watch For

While it’s rightly been pointed out that Lewis’ fund-raising prowess (in both donors and dollars) likely signals a lead in the campaign, it’s also worth noting that he doesn’t seem to have an advantage on the same scale as Jack Layton or Jagmeet Singh in the campaigns where they cruised to victory. 

At this point, the race seems likely to take more than one ballot to decide, which would require Lewis to earn down-ballot support to come out ahead. And if the next candidates in line end up seeing their support go to each other, Lewis may need to count on a push from Johnston and McQuail supporters to put him over the top.

[Edit: corrected name of Lewis’ show.]

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Ana Marie Cox discusses how Jeffrey Epstein was able to amass influence and commit atrocities by sharing the discriminatory and dehumanizing values with his targets. Solani Kolakhtar notes that the Epstein class consists entirely of wealthy and privileged people using anti-elite messaging to distract from their own contempt for and exploitation of the general public. And Jamelle Bouie talks to Andrea Pitzer about the nature of concentration camps as means of treating disfavoured people into things to be warehoused. 

- Sam Freedman highlights the challenges for governments in trying to reach any meaningful proportion of the public in a media environment which is both fragmented into numerous technical channels, yet still largely controlled by the wealthy few. And John Herrman weighs in on Elon Musk's deliberate choice to use X to breed hatred and bigotry, while Justin Hendrix talks to Jose Marichal about the importance of challenging the implicit algorithmic contract underlying our interaction with major social media sites.

- Joseph Stiglitz, Monica Geingos and Michael Marmot warn that inequality will make the next pandemic worse (even as the right's attacks on science and public health mean it will likely happen sooner). And McKenzie Beard offers a summary of how various communicable diseases spread, as well as how best to mitigate risk at the individual level. 

- Finally, Phillip Inman reports on a new study showing how the arbitrary elimination of remote work options has a disproportionate effect on people with disabilities as well as people relied upon to perform care work. 

 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Victor Pickard writes about the multiple layers of media capture which have collectively undermined access to accurate information across U.S. sources. 

- Ajit Niranian highlights how the EU is stifling any attention to the climate crisis (and indeed pushing a deregulatory agenda) even as the climate breakdown causes increasingly frequent disasters. 

- Gita Jackson offers an important distinction between being opposed to technological progress, and criticizing its use as a means of exploitation. And Jurgen Geuter comments on the challenge of trying to live ethically when the world is largely set up to preclude action other than through problematic means.  

- Meanwhile, Georgia Wells reports on OpenAI's awareness that the Tumbler Ridge shooter was plotting out violence dating back to last year - and its decision not to alert law enforcement or take any other steps to protect the public. And Victor Tangermann examines the alarm bells sounding among investors who are recognizing the implausibility that massive AI-related expenses will produce any returns.

- Finally, Frank Landymore reports on Stanford's development of a "universal vaccine formula" which could protect against multiple respiratory diseases - if it's not blocked by RFJ Jr. and his anti-vaxxers. 

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Brian Beutler writes that the events of Super Bowl weekend show how Donald Trump - even with the support of most of the country's plutocrats and their media outlets - has absolutely failed to take over U.S. culture. But A.R. Moxon writes about the need to avoid normalizing or legitimizing MAGA's culture of hate. 

- Garrett Graff discusses how the Trump security state's masks and secrecy are all about impunity rather than legitimate safety concerns, as immigrant enforcement officers are at less risk of a violent death than a U.S. elementary school student. And Hanna Zlady reports on Transparency International's new corruption perception index - showing the U.S. predictably falling to unprecedented lows even as the Trump regime looks to drive it down further. 

- Alex Clark points out how a continuing obsession with GDP (detached from human well-being) remains one of the most significant obstacles to averting a climate breakdown.

- Meanwhile, Cory Doctorow highlights how the Epstein class is determined to turn ruin for everybody else into an opportunity to extract even more undeserved wealth for itself. And Alexander Hertel-Fernandez and Alix Gould-Werth discuss the perverse incentives around employers blocking worker access to employment benefits. 

- Finally, Nora Loreto rightly argues that Mark Carney's rhetoric about building an international system based on mutual support will be entirely empty if Canada fails to step up and assist Cuba as the U.S. seeks to starve its population. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Gaby Hinsliff highlights the need for the UK (and the rest of the world) to cut ties with an entirely unerliable U.S., while John Crace discusses the futility of any action based on Keir Starmer's apparent assumption that Trump is sufficiently sentient to be calmed down and reasoned with. And Paul Krugman implores American businesses to end their Faustian bargains with the Trump regime. 

- Kaamil Ahmed reports on Oxfam's latest research on the continued concentration of global wealth in the hands of a few billionaires - and how that's both a cause and effect of policy skewed to further enrich the wealthy. Harold Meyerson examines how the labour share of U.S. income is at an all-time low. And Julian Hinz et al. confirm (PDF) that the working class is bearing the brunt of Trump's tariffs out of its declining resources. 

- Lest anybody wrongly assume that Trump is the only North American leader looking to eliminate any consequences for corporate malfeasance (particularly for preferred donors and cronies), Sophie Elias-Pinsonnault and Silas Xuereb examine Mark Carney's plan to make the application of nearly all laws to corporations a matter of ministerial discretion. 

- Finally, Charles Ferguson warns that artificial intelligence is on the verge of taking over media as we know it. 

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 Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Thomas Zimmer discusses how the Trump regime is attacking concept of treating people as equals, while Greg Sargent highlights Stephen Miller's role in trying to connect white nationalism to an oppressive police state. Jojo points out the importance of continuing to call out bigotry even as it's implemented as policy. And Garrett Graff offers reason for hope that Donald Trump is losing in his attempt to consolidate power. 

- Jake Johnson reports on the World Inequality Lab's latest study on the extreme concentration of wealth in the top .001% of wealth hoarders. And Michael Hirschorn writes that their ability to buy sycophancy is leading the uber-rich to Louis XV levels of hubris. 

- Jim Stanford writes that the only genuine risk to jobs from AI is the danger of a stock market crash as increasingly implausible valuations are based on little but hype and wishful thinking. M.J. Crockett discusses the crucial distinction between the "thick empathy" possible between people, and the pale imitation served up by performative artifical intelligence. And Derek Kravitz reports on the use of AI by unscrupulous business to extract higher prices from consumers. 

- Zion Lights discusses Finland's work in teaching students how to think critically as an antidote to disinformation. But Arwa Mahdawi laments how the corporate media has embraced being a tool of the rich, famous and connected rather than a counterbalance against elite abuses. 

- Finally, Adam King reports on another area where the Carney Libs seem determined to emulate the Trump regime, as they've removed publicly available labour relations data with no apparent explanation. And Mary Chevreau reports on yet another nasty surprise in the Libs' budget, as its cuts to Canada Post operations include the elimination of a library postage rate which allows for the exchange of library materials. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Cathy Young and Cas Mudde each discuss how the Trump regime's "national security strategy" is based on pushing cronyism and bigotry over democracy and security - and seeking to impose that same prioritization on every country it can. 

- Meanwhile, Emmett MacFarlane writes that Trump has found an eager fellow traveler in Danielle Smith as she wields the notwithstanding clause at every opportunity to attack minority rights. And Saima Desai reports on the growing movement of unions and trans advocates fighting back against Scott Moe's discrimination against trans youth.

- Max Abelson et al. offer a detailed look at the documented connections between Jeffrey Epstein and numerous corporate and financial bigwigs. And Pema Levy discusses how Republicans are trying to give dark money even more power to manipulate American elections, while Phil Weiser and Javier Mabry note that it's possible to fight back through citizen intiatives at the state level. 

- Natasha Bulowski reports on Mark Carney's latest plan to hand power to the corporate class by allowing it to embed employees in the federal government, while Adrienne Tanner discusses how Carney has made a cynic out of her (and many more) in handing over climate policy to the fossil fuel sector. And Emma Arkell reports on Quebec's legislative attacks on the labour movement. 

- Rhoda Feng reviews Tim Wu's The Age of Extraction as a needed reminder of the rent-seeking business model behind the our tech overlords. And Judd Legum writes about the casino-fication of news as the next frontier of converting flows of information into profit centres. 

- Finally, James Hardwick writes about the reality of Canada's housing bubble - and the desperate need for large-scale social and not-for-profit housing to improve anything.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading. 

- Jonathan Last discusses how the Trump regime is carrying out campaigns of murder based on known lies with both the purpose and effect of destroying any social order, while Matt Gurney writes about the participants at the Halifax International Security Forum who have quite rightly concluded the U.S. can never be trusted again. Daniele Renwick talks to activists from authoritarian regimes about the lessons they've learned, while Kimberly Prost discusses the effects of the U.S.' imposition of sanctions against people who dare to enforce international criminal and humanitarian law. And Charlie Angus writes about Trump's gangster regime, while Richard Goode discusses the alt-right forces seeking to impose similar lawless violence in Canada. 

- Hannah Murphy writes about the development of privately-owned cities to further entrench the power of the wealthy. And Alan MacLeod writes about the obvious distortion of our information environment when then most obscenely wealthy tycoons on the planet are all taking over major media outlets to turn them into personal megaphones, while Alexander Smith et al. study the dangers posed by politicised threats to science. 

- Taylor Noakes points out that Mark Carney is dutifully parroting fossil fuel billionaires' talking points rather than working on any climate policy, while Tzeporah Berman discusses how utter capitulation is being framed as "realism". And Jim Stanford and Kathy Bennett examine (PDF) how a just transition remains entirely possible as long as government isn't beholden to the oil sector. 

- Finally, Tianyuan Huang et al. study how inequalities are exacerbated by environmental disasters as rebuilding is carried out to suit those who have more resources to pay for it. And Lara Jauregui et al. find that price shocks similarly have a disparate impact on the people who can least afford to absorb them. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Lane Brown examines how key elements of cognitive ability may be degrading - including due to constant exposure to personalities selected for their vociferous ignorance. Bruce Bartlett writes about his experience at the Heritage Foundation as it learned to exploit the news cycle to plant conservative propaganda in opposition to actual research. Nicholas Hune-Brown investigates how AI is being used to generate scam articles for major publications. And Carl Meyer reports on the Carney Libs' plans to facilitate misinformation from fossil fuel purveyors. 

- Shannon Gibson discusses how past "climate finance" commitments have ranged from the frivolous to the thoroughly counterproductive - making it all the more worrisome that the apparent reality is that the COP30 climate summit is operating with wording that allows petrostates to provide equally toothless commitments in exchange for a lack of any agreement to transition away from fossil fuels. 

- Kathryn Harrison and Simon Donner highlight how Mark Carney's plans for increased reliance on dirty energy are as senseless economically as they are environmentally. And Gerald Butts, Peter Nicholson and Rick Smith warn against locking ourselves into a dying fossil fuel economy, while Sam Butler-Sloss and Kingsmill Bond discuss how solar power in particular is set to dominate global energy production over fossil gas. 

- Cara Buckley reports on the massive success of Iowa City's decision to make public transit free. And Jake Thomas reports on the drastic decline in homelessness (and ultimate cost savings) from an Oregon pilot program to give unhoused youths a small secure income. 

- Finally, Julian Richer discusses how we'd all be better off if people with privilege acknowledged our own good fortune, rather than presuming any advantages to be the result of merit (and demanding all the more special treatment as a result). 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Marisa Kabas discusses the moral rot in corporate, access-based media - which in turn looks to be a contributor to the decline of human decency in the political and social realms. And Perry Bacon talks to Adam Bonica about the obvious opportunity for leaders and movements who pick up on the public demand to combat corruption.

- Jonathan Cohn interviews Atul Gawande about the cruelty of the Trump regime's obliteration of foreign aid programs which kept hundreds of thousands of people alive. Nat Lash reports on the potential for a bird flu pandemic as a result of the Republicans' anti-vaccine ideology and destruction of the U.S. public health system. Freddy Brewster and Luke Goldstein report on the U.S. Senate's gutting of regulations around food contamination as part of the price of reopening government is to ensure it doesn't protect people from corporate damage. 

- Meanwhile, both Andrew Gregory and Amina Zafar report on new studies showing the harm that ultra-processed food can do to the human body. 

- Lest anybody think Mark Carney isn't fully onside with destructive deregulation and corporate control, Marc Fawcett-Atkinson reports on the Libs' choice to eliminate protections around pesticides. Marc Lee discusses how the Libs' economic plans are limited to corporate handouts rather than any vision for future development. And Jim Thomas implores Carney not to let an already-worrisome obsession with artificial intelligence as a panacea turn into a bailout for tech sector tycoons. 

- Finally, Shanna Hanbury reports on Colombia's warning that corporate-biased trade agreements act as a dangerous barrier to needed climate action. 

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Oliver Milman and Damian Carrington report on Climate Action Tracker's recognition that we're headed toward 2.6 degrees of global warming without major policy changes - and that dirty fossil fuel emissions are continuing to increase. Nina Lakhani reports on a study showing that fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber every non-host delegation at the COP30 conference. And Ian Urquhart notes that the Mark Carney Libs are are among far too many governments serving as fossil fuel lobbyists rather than good faith actors - meaning that there's little reason for hope that Carney will take up the mantle of climate leadership as pitched by Shawn McCarthy. 

- Meanwhile, Jillian Ambrose and Fiona Harvey report on the IEA's recognition that a clean energy transition is inevitable - meaning that the people shilling for fossil fuel interests are only exacerbating both the climate breakdown, and the severity of an eventual economic crash. And Jameson Dow discusses how a corporate media narrative of electric vehicle denialism bears no relationship to reality. 

- George Monbiot discusses how the control of media by the ultra-rich is fueling an epistemic crisis. Timothy Caulfield notes that the normalizing of anti-vaccine ideology (which is resulting in the reemergence of diseases like measles which had previously been contained) is a direct result of political calculation by right-wing actors looking to undermine the concept of the public good at every turn. Jon Cohen examines how the Trump regime is actively destroying humanity's capacity to respond to the next pandemic. And Grey Moran exposes how Tyson Foods used Palantir surveillance to develop plans for the known results of the uncontrolled spread of COVID-19 - but not to actually lift a finger to keep its workers healthy. 

- Cora Lewis writes about the spread of online sports betting, as well as the obvious risks which have been foisted on the people least capable of managing them. And John Herrman points out how both gambling and resulting patterns of media coverage are spreading into the political sphere.

- John Stapleton points out the absurdity of the Libs trying to claim "inefficiency" as a reason for ending taxes on the wealthy while it pursues grossly disproportionate litigation to recover tiny amounts of social benefits. 

- Finally, David Moscrop joins the group of voices recognizing that it's absolutely futile for Canada to pursue a trade deal with a U.S. which is utterly incapable of being trusted either to accurately portray what's being negotiated, or to honour any deal which might be announced. And Dan Gardner writes that it's long past time for Canada to move past the "safe" position of deferring to the U.S., and instead take a leadership role in shaping the world we want. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The UN Environmental Programme's Emissions Gap Report examines the painfully slow progress toward reining in global warming even as the technology to eliminate emissions has become cheaper than dirty energy. And Nick Hedley notes that over a dozen countries are on a path toward 100% renewable electricity even as our petropoliticians insist such a thing isn't possible. 

- Caroline Preston discusses the gains made by U.S. teachers' unions to show how it's possible to use collective bargaining as a means to secure climate action. Adam King calls out Danielle Smith for summarily obliterating the Charter rights of Alberta teachers to bargain for the best interests of their students. And Sanya Burgess' investigation into massive numbers of injuries at UK Amazon warehouses offers a reminder as to how workers suffer when employers are able to impose their disregard for health and safety without collective pushback.  

- Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood and Davis Legree each note that Mark Carney has chosen to go in exactly the wrong direction in his first federal budget, underming already-insufficient climate plans while catering to oil tycoons. Marc Fawcett-Atkinson notes that Carney's decision to facilitate oil companies' climate denial and false greenwashing is as unpopular as it is indefensible. And David Macdonald and Mertins-Kirkwood rightly question more generally why any opposition party would support the Libs' corporatist budget. 

- Anita Balakrishnan reports on the push from university leaders for support to find places for the scientists who are being driven out of the U.S. by the Trump regime. 

- Finally, Jason Linkins calls out the U.S. media for sanitizing Donald Trump's shredding of the rule of law as well as individual rights - making for a particularly galling contrast compared to Hamilton Nolan's observation that the corporate media has treated Zohran Mamdani's simple suggestion of helping people as grounds to declare him unfit for office. But the repudiation of that party line by voters offers reason for hope that the oligarchy isn't going to go unopposed. 

Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Chris Mowles discusses how growing uncertainty requires our public institutions to develop redundancies and alternate means of providing services, rather than focusing on the false "efficiency" of austerity. Emiliano Brancaccio reports on France's "block everything" movement against austerity as an example for citizens elsewhere. And Miiki Ilomaki notes that other countries should be following Finland's lead in ensuring stockpiles of food and needed supplies to deal with foreseeable geopolitical shocks.

- Maia Mindel discusses how the dangers of inequality are manifesting themselves as the greediest, most power-hungry few systematically take over more decision-making power. And Iglika Ivanova notes that British Columbia is yet another example of a jurisdiction where revenue giveaways to the wealthy few are being treated as an excuse to cut services for everybody else. 

- Nicholas Grossman points out that Ezra Klein offers a lamentable example of how the corporate media has greased the skids for Donald Trump's fascist regime by simultaneously normalizing its cruelty and tone-policing anybody who dares to engage in principled criticism. Adam Bonica writes that abandoning minority groups to the predations of the Trump regime is no way to build a resistance movement or opposition party, while Katelyn Burns discusses the parallels in the treatment of anti-trans and anti-science disinformation. And Brian Beutler laments the prominent Democrats who are refusing to engage with a system increasingly stacked against them. 

- Finally, Gilbert Gaul notes that the climate breakdown is making home insurance increasingly unaffordable (or just plain unavailable). And Paul Krugman discusses how the Trump regime is planning to send health care insurance costs into the stratosphere in order to partially pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest few. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Noah Berlatsky discusses the Trump regime's policy of wanton violence and murder. And Choe Sang-Hun reports on the recognition by South Korean workers caught in a recent ICE raid that the U.S. is no safe place to work, while Wired tells the stories of federal workers who were caught in DOGE's purge of the public service. 

- Greg Sargent writes that ABC's about-face over Jimmy Kimmel has exposed the lack of public support for the Trump regime's culture war. And Paul Krugman expresses some hope that others facing similarly arbitary demands from the MAGA government will push back sooner and allow the U.S. to avoid the fate of states that lost all independent media to authoritarian regimes. 

- But then, Lord Foulkes notes that the UK's media is still treating its hard-right party with kid gloves and legitimizing its message of hate in the process. And Stephen Maher writes about the need for Canada to prevent alt-right grooming from turning into political violence. 

- Thor Benson discusses how China is taking what looks to be an insurmountable lead over the U.S. in developing and deploying clean energy. And Andrew Freedman reports on Climate TRACE's work allowing people to trace responsibility for air pollution (which confirms the disproportionate role of a few corporate super polluters in spewing harmful substances). 

- Finally, Melissa Heikkilä, Chris Cook and Clara Murray report on the glaring lack of substance behind most corporate spin about AI. But Anja Karadeglija reports that the Libs remain determined to bank on AI as a panacea.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Doug Cuthand writes about the desperate need to rein in the climate breakdown due to its impact in causing wildfires among other environmental catastrophes. And Zoe Schlanger warns that the U.S. is now living in an entirely different world from the rest of the planet as the Trump regime censors any mention of climate change or the science behind it.

- Dave Holmes notes that the Trump regime is generally ushering the age of "big stupid", as selective attacks on particular types of intellectualism give way to a general war against knowledge. Dorothy Woodend discusses how Trump is using culture to entrench social and political control, while noting that Canada can play a crucial role in ensuring people can access alternatives to his propaganda. And Gabriel Rojas Hruska points out the importance of maintaining our cultural sovereignty as a matter of policy, rather than signing onto trade agreements which make it subject to the whims of the same corporations who are bending the knee to Trump.

- Garrett Graff writes about the people fleeing the U.S. to get ahead of the tide of rapidly encroaching fascism. Cassandra Burke Robertson points out the elimination of any safeguards in an immigration system where both enforcement agents and state attorneys are operating in secret. And Rachel Gilmore reports on the role a Canadian company is playing in staffing the Trump regime's concentration camps (while also being on contract to perform work for Canada's federal government). 

- Finally, Victor Tangerman notes the manipulative use of artificial intelligence by realtors to present homes as being different than they actually are. And the Center for Countering Digital Hate warns that AI is providing dangerous advice to teens who are particularly vulnerable to suggestion by fake friends.