Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor write about the rise of end-times fascism - and its connection to the long-standing project among the wealthiest few to survive environmental and social destruction from gated communities. Sam Freedman discusses the authoritarisn bent of self-professed "libertarians" who want the vast majority of people to be stripped of any agency to maximize their freedom to exploit the general public. Noah Berlatsky writes that the Trump regime's constant lying and gaslighting serves as an end in itself by making it difficult to combat abuses with facts. And Greg Sargent talks to Leah Litman about the public threat of politically-motivated prosecutions of elected officials who represent their constituents rather than allowing themselves to be used as tools of an autocrat. 

- Paul Krugman examines how Donald Trump's perpetually-shifting tariffs could hardly have been designed to avoid accomplishing any of their theoretical goals - particularly in light of Hafiz Rashid's report that nobody's actually collecting them. And Jessica Wildfire discusses the difference between progressive development based on ingenuinty and hard work, and the capitalist idea of "success" based on variance and leverage. 

- Angella MacEwen offers a warning about the dangers of "polite austerity" as Mark Carney's plans for cuts in real social funding for receive little attention. And Luca Caruso-Moro reports on new Statistics Canada data showing that investors cleaned up in 2024 while wages dropped. 

- Adam King writes about the need for the Canadian left to rebuild electoral power. Armine Yalnizyan writes that the "Canada is not for sale" movement needs to reckon with the important institutions which are already under the control of foreign capital. And Max Fawcett points out that any Con posturing about standing up to the Trump regime is utterly implausible when their plans involve being tied even more tightly to the U.S. 

- Finally, Will Adams offers a peek at the concentrated racism and hatred at the core of the Cons' public events. Olivia Bowden examines how the younger manosphere has become the one significant addition to the Cons' electoral coalition. And Deirdre Mitchell-Maclean points out that the separatists being encouraged by Danielle Smith and the UCP are just as much a threat to Alberta as they are to Canada.