Musical interlude

Lane 8 - Watermelon Wormhole

 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Adrienne Tanner comments on how Canada has taken on unacceptable risks in accepting industry-funded "research" as a substitute for an accurate assessment of the dangers of pesticides. And Mark Carney's plans to defer to approvals from the U.S. and other foreign regulators only stands to make matters worse - particularly given Virgina Gewin's analysis of the devastating effects of the Trump regime's attacks on science in destroying careers and standards alike. 

- Paris Marx discusses how Elon Musk is showing exactly why conscience-free tech giants need to be regulated rather than allowed to do as much damage to people as they can get away with. 

- Marie Woolf reports on the recommendations of a Canadian task force to regulate artificial intelligence in particular. And Daniel Munro notes that while there are choices to be made as to what to do once the AI bubble inevitably pops, the guiding principle needs to be the public interest rather than the subsidization of ill-fated decisions. 

- Katie Pedersen et al. point out that property controls are just one more mechanism grocery giants use to stifle competition and gauge consumers. 

- Finally, Jeremy Wallace discusses how the renewable energy revolution is set to triumph no matter how much money and power is thrown at trying to subsidize fossil fuel profits. Alexandra White reports that U.S. gas producers are spewing far more methane (and thus doing far more climate damage) than they're willing to report publicly. And David Shephardson and Mike Scarcella report on Michigan's legal action against oil companies for conspiring to suppress electric vehicle development.

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Charlotte Clymer discusses Mark Carney's Davos speech as signaling a divorce from the U.S. But Justin Ling points out the need to match sporadic and selective words of independence and solidarity with meaningful action, while the Economist reports on the reality that Canadian soldiers are continuing to carry out U.S. orders even as the Trump regime threatens to take us over. 

- Dylan Dusseault discusses how the Davos agenda conspicuously avoids any consideration of having the wealthy pay a fair share of taxes - no matter overwhelmingly popular and positive that course of action would be. And Graeme Wearden reports on the numerous millionaires who are onside with contributing to the common good. 

- Blayne Haggart highlights the implausibility of promises from Microsoft and other U.S. tech giants that they'll respect Canadian data sovereignty - particularly when they've so pitifully prostrated themselves in front of the Trump regime at every opportunity.  

- Finally, John Michael McGrath asks whether 2026 will finally be the year Ontario starts making progress in answering its housing crisis - while noting that Doug Ford's track record strongly suggests the answer is again "no". 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Inae Oh weighs in on the neo-royalism fueling Trump's sense of divine right. Seva Grunitsky points out that a hubristic belief that might makes right has caused the downfall of empires before as it likely will for the U.S. And Ryan Cooper discusses the prospect of countering the Trump regime by punishing the uber-rich who have lent their wealth and power to him - though the difficulty in trying to do so speaks to the dangers of their accumulated wealth.

- Owen Jones calls out Trump's "Board of Peace" as combining rank neocolonialism with yet another grift. Daniel Beland and Klaus Petersen discuss why the people of Greenland (like those virtually everywhere) want nothing to do with Trump's rule. And Luke O'Neil notes that the fear of Trump arises precisely from his refusal to recognize anybody but his immediate circle as human and deserving of any respect or consideration. 

- Reuters reports on new U.N. research showing that most of humanity is already facing dangerous water supply limitations - with much worse to come. And David Thurton reports on Environment Canada's warning that 2026 is likely to be yet another of the hottest years on record. 

- Finally, Matt Simmons and Lauren Walsh report on LNG Canada's excessive flaring which has made an already-polluting operation into far more of a climate bomb than promised. And Maxine Joselow discusses the Trump administration's choice to value human lives at zero in order to facilitate industrial pollution. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Chin-up cat.

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. 

On high-level tracking

With the January 28th membership deadline approaching for voters in the NDP's federal leadership campaign, I'll offer a brief high-level look at the campaign so far - and how it fits into the wider political scene. 

For the most part (other than the exceptions I'll get to shortly), the campaign seems to be best explained as reflecting a party recognizing the need to build itself up in generally rather than fighting for existing territory. Litmus tests which would have been applied in previous races (including bilingualism and experience in office) have largely fallen by the wayside in light of the actual candidate pool, while the interactions between the lower-ranking candidates in particular have been marked by regular cooperation to keep people in the race rather than any sense of competition. 

The result has been the presence of candidates to meet most target NDP voters, without a great deal of clash between them. And the stature of the approved candidates has generally fit the relative strength of their prototype within the party.

The two most prominent candidates have been Heather McPherson, following the urban prairie model whose success at the provincial level has made it the default for the party as it stands, and Avi Lewis running as an urban environmentalist and champion of economic equality. Both have some measure of national profile (McPherson as a sitting and well-respected MP, Lewis based on his media experience and personal ties), and would have fit comfortably among the class of contenders in previous leadership campaigns. 

As for the rest of the candidate, Rob Ashton has been a consensus choice for much of the labour movement and seems to have gained the most profile from the campaign to date. And his challenge to Lewis seems to have been treated as the first major oppositional moment of the campaign - though I'm not sure the end result is a bad one for Lewis, as a willingness to challenge rip-and-ship resource extraction and the toxic politics it's funded would seem to be a mantle that will serve him well in the leadership campaign. 

Tanille Johnston has reflected both Indigenous inclusion and municipal political experience, and Tony McQuail has offered a rural-agricultural perspective. But each would figure to have been a distant also-ran in any other leadership campaign in recent memory, and it's difficult to see a path to victory for either of them absent some serious negative impressions around the front-runners. 

The most obvious exclusion from the current mix has been any Quebecois or other francophone candidate. Yves Engler and then Bianca Mugyenyi have lurked around the race as informal candidates, and on paper would appear to add to the inclusiveness of the campaign as a whole. But unfortunately their efforts seem to have been aimed more at sniping from the sidelines than participating in the actual campaign - and while I would have preferred to see Engler's candidacy approved, there's significant reason to doubt the campaign is much worse off for his being rejected. 

For now, there's plenty of reason for people interested in the future of the NDP to at least ensure they're able to vote, while planning to take a critical look at the candidates as the campaign progresses. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Heba Gowayed and Victor Ray discuss the need to go beyond merely calling to abolish ICE and other human rights abuses, and instead center the humanity of the people being singled out for collective punishment. Theresa MacPhail writes about the need to maintain hope and community to counter the dark times we're facing. And Charlie Angus calls for us to stop the spread of hate now, rather than hoping for future generations to clean up our messes. 

- James Plunkett highlights how it's possible to restore power to the people, while noting the dangers of instead hoping for a technocratic state to defend itself against populist threats. And The Citizens point out the need to stop relying on monopolistic corporate platforms for our information and communication as part of the effort to regain control. 

- David French identifies the "dual state" in which Donald Trump and his cronies are able to act with impunity - while most people continue on with business as usual until state overreach affects them directly. And Sarah Kendzior discusses what Minnesota is facing as Trump invades it with agents of violence and chaos, while Don Moynihan offers his take as a resident of occupied territory. 

- Kathryn Jezer-Morton comments on the need to create friction against bad actors who are counting on silent compliance to avoid answering for a lack of strength or justification. And Robert Rubin calls out business "leaders" for meekly and knowingly falling in line behind Trump's abuses. 

- Finally, Moul Dey reports on the connection between ultraprocessed foods and exacerbated aging processes. 

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- George Monbiot recognizes that all of the major problems now confronting us derive from the political class' willing subservience to the filthy rich. And Casey Michel notes that the Trump regime's obsession with Greenland reflects the world domination plans of particularly anti-social plutocrats. 

- Paris Marx discusses the need to decouple Canada from any dependence on U.S. tech giants - due to both their own destructive practices, and their fealty to Donald Trump. Timothy Garton Ash writes that Trump's threats to NATO allies will inevitably force the development of a new international order. And Stuart Trew points out the limitations on a strategy of merely replacing the U.S. with China as a dominant source of capital and export market. 

- Ambrosia Wohjan reports on new research showing that the microplastics released from synthetic fabrics may post a particular risk to agriculture. 

- Finally, Jamelle Bouie writes that one of the most important points of distinction between Trump and previous presidents is his mindset that the U.S. exists only as his property and for his benefit. And Doug Firby discusses how the UCP has made dirty politics the norm in Alberta in an effort to lock in permanent power for itself - and how only public rejection can reverse the tide. 

Musical interlude

French 79 - Hometown

 

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Matt Simon writes that Donald Trump's plans to kill off clean energy are futile in the face of its inexorable progress in price and reliability compared to reliance on fossil fuels. And Mark Gongloff likewise notes that the smart money is on investment in renewable power. 

- The CP's report on Canada's lifting of some tariffs on electric vehicles from China offers a rare indication that Mark Carney isn't entirely averse to being on the right side of the divide. But Maxwell Cameron argues that we have much further to go in opposing Trump's regime as it claims the entitlement to exercise complete and arbitrary control over the Western hemisphere.

- Meanwhile, Sammy Roth discusses how precarious manhood plays a role in fueling opposition to responsible climate policy (among other obviously desirable policy choices).  

- Davis Legree highlights Cory Doctorow's warning that Canada should be protecting itself against the impending collapse of the AI bubble rather than buying into implausible hype. 

- Finally, Eric Dolan reports on new research showing that the lasting effects of COVID-19 may include brain microstructure alterations even in people who otherwise appear to have fully recovered. And Massimo Nunes et al. examine how long COVID and other post-virus diseases may result from endothelial cell dysfunction.

Wednesday Night Cat Blogging

 Braced cat. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Thomas Seal and Derek DeCloet warn about the threat the U.S. poses to Canada - including the risk of becoming even more of a vassal state. And Emmett MacFarlane laments that we're lacking moral leadership at precisely the moment when it's most needed. 

- Meanwhile, Franklin Foer writes that the Trump regime is trashing both the U.S.' public sector capacity, and the very idea that an impartial civil service can use its expertise to support the public interest. And Maxine Joselow reports that air pollution regulation is the latest area in which the Republican regime is absolutely devaluing human life and public health in order to cater to destructive corporate interests - even as Jerome Smail points out new research showing that air pollution can undermine the health benefits of exercise. 

- But in the "better things are possible" department, Adam Bonica notes that much of what is wrong with the U.S. could be fixed simply by having it emulate its international peers (as long as its model is the median OECD country rather than Russia and North Korea). And A.R. Moxon rightly suggests that rather than being handed absolute immunity to abuse the public, armed state agents should be held to a higher standard in justifying the use of force.

- Joseph Cox reports on a new tracking tool being used by ICE to monitor phones and their owners without a warrant. 

- Finally, Heather Vognell and Agnel Phillip report on SpaceX's unregulated space debris - and the near-misses it has already caused as parts of exploded rockets have intersected with air traffic. 

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.

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.