Musical interlude

Orbital - Nothing Left 1-2

Friday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Michael Harris offers some lessons about the U.S.' values based on this week's election results. Rebecca Solnit opines that the largest failing of American progressives was to presume that the U.S. is a better country than it actually is, while Geoffrey Deihl writes that Donald Trump's election represents a descent into madness. Harrison Mooney discusses what it means about the dangers of majority rule - though it's worth a reminder that the U.S.' political system is warped so as to allow his party to exercise unchecked power even with minority levels of support. And Michael Mann notes that the U.S. figures to become even more of a petrostate under Trump.

- Meanwhile, Martin Lukacs, Lucy Uprichard, Tannara Yelland and Amanda Siino highlight some of the threats that Trump's ascent will pose to progressive politics in Canada. 

- Gabriela Calugay-Casuga discusses how the Bank of Canada's undue obsession with inflation resulted in an increasingly glaring wealth gap. And Alex Hemingway warns that tax giveaways are just as corrosive to public services when they originate with the NDP as when they're offered by the right. 

- Carl Meyer offers some takeaways from the long-delayed proposal for a federal oil and gas emission cap - with the predictable result being that a modest policy is being met with shrieks of contrived outrage by those who believe the only purpose of government is to ensure fossil fuel giants can rake in profits with no regard for our planet. And the Canadian Press reports on the Parliamentary Budget Office's finding that the Trans Mountain pipeline (which was bought and completed by the Trudeau Libs while emission regulations were held not to be a priority) isn't worth its cost of construction, leaving the public to take a loss on it. 

- Finally, Meyer parallels the current spin from the oil sector against its precedent from tobacco companies who likewise denied and buried their own scientific knowledge in order to maximize the harm their products inflicted on the public. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Martha Gill offers a reminder that the stakes of any climate change policy are nothing less than our ultimate survival. And Julia Musto discusses the warnings from climate scientists as to what a deliberately destructive U.S. climate policy may mean around the globe. 

- Meanwhile, George Monbiot makes the case for a progressive revolution to save a habitable Earth from an increasingly powerful array of forces bent on destroying it. And Teen Vogue offers some thoughts of empowerment and encouragement in light of the challenges to come.  

- Aditya Chakrabortty writes that the ultimate failure of U.S. Democrats was the lack of any apparent escape from the trap of a corporate-controlled economy and society - even as Donald Trump intends to make matters far worse. And Jeet Heer points out how a choice to act as the party of establishmentarianism left the Democrats with little to say to voters who wanted change.

- Emmett MacFarlane discusses what a Trump administration acting with absolute impunity will mean for Canada - while noting that at least some of our critical institutions haven't yet been undermined like their American counterparts. And Owen Schalk recognizes that Canada has too often served as a lackey to American imperial power - though it's hard to imagine a more important time to work on breaking that pattern.  

- Finally, Daniel Kudla discusses what has made Housing First an effective plan for eliminating homelessness - while noting that the typical neoliberal obsession with tying it to market mechanisms and punitive screening criteria undermines its value.

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Oliver Willis writes about the dangers of a second Donald Trump presidency - and the importance of not conceding core values out of deference or convenience in the face of an abusive state. Daniel Hunter discusses the importance of resisting the autocratic impulse to isolate and exhaust any opposition. And Hamilton Nolan rightly suggests that the labour movement should be a vital centre for organization. 

- Tim Rauf examines the source of the UCP's promotion of carbon pollution and other absurd statements of public policy. Crawford Kilian discusses how distrust and division produce direct damage to health and well-being. And Sander van der Linden and David Robert Grimes model how misinformation is passed between people - suggesting that it's similar to the spread of viruses, with the implication that prevention can limit both the spread and resulting damage. 

- But then, Kevin Quigley notes that public health is one of the areas where Trump is determined to inflict as much damage as possible - meaning that it will fall to Canada and other countries to develop our own capacity to monitor and manage risks. 

- Finally, James Wilt interviews Brett Christophers about the proliferation of asset managers who control many of the necessities of life - and are constantly extracting more out of the citizenry in order to boost owners' returns. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Dreamland cat.

Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

-  Pep Canadell and Gustaf Hegelius examine the carbon emissions from melting Arctic permafrost - finding that the near-term effects based on the release of methane figure to exacerbate the climate crisis. Mari Yamaguchi reports on the first time in 130 years that Mount Fuji has lacked a snow cap in November. And Monique Keiran reports on new research showing that exported fossil gas is even worse for the climate than coal.

- Rodielon Putol discusses a new study showing how microplastics are becoming increasingly concentrated in fresh water. And Elizabeth Whitten reports on the less-than-surprising news that previously-unidentified blobs on the east coast of Newfoundland appear to be an industrial adhesive dumped in the ocean.

- Ruth Talbot, Asia Fields, Nicole Santa Cruz and Maya Miller highlight how "sweeps" against homeless people are nothing but destructive and punitive toward the people who already have the least. Which means that it's especially cruel for right-wing politicians to be lining up to use the notwithstanding clause to trample homeless people's rights. 

- Oliver Heath and Laura Serra write that the main class divide in British politics isn't so much between party supporters as between voters and non-voters.

- Finally, Andrew Nikiforuk attempts to answer the question of how to define fascism - on a day when the world is holding its breath as to the danger the U.S. will become a laboratory for it.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Mark Harris examines the competing pressures which will determine how a climate breakdown in progress affects our food supply, while Fiona Harvey discusses how European farm policy has provided subsidies to big agriculture while failing to achieve environmental goals. Friedereke Otto comments on climate denialism as a major cause of deaths and destruction in Spain, while Kelsey Lahr writes that Asheville, North Carolina is still months away from having potable water after the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene. And Michael Harris points out how Canada will soon be under major pressure to export water to increasingly parched areas of North America - even as our own supplies are under threat from global warming and industrial pollution.  

- Patrick Greenfield and Phoebe Weston report on the seeming recognition by governments at this week's Colombia biodiversity conference that the climate and our natural environment are inextricably linked - but follow up by noting the absence of meaningful action as a result. 

- James Danckert and John Eastwood discuss how car-centric cities are boring as well as isolating. And Adam King highlights how the prioritization of house-based wealth over income security undermines social solidarity. 

- Finally, Dominique Charron and Cate Dewey write that a One Health plan would provide Canada with a needed knowledge network to address risks to our health and well-being. But it seems far too likely that the attitude of the powers that be will continue to be to demand that people "pretend to be well" - no matter how destructive that expectation provides to be.