Wednesday Morning Links

 Assorted content for your Wednesday reading.

- Dharna Noor discusses how Zohran Mamdani is rightly connecting climate ambition to an affordability agenda. And Vass Bednar looks to Mamdani's push for public grocery stores as the type of government action which can provide tangible benefits to people who are chronically neglected by corporate forces.

- The Guardian's editorial board writes that leaders should be reminding the public why it's so important  to cut our carbon pollution (particularly as an extreme heat waves makes the stakes readily apparent) - though Sam Jones reports on Teresa Ribera's warning that political cowardice is already the primary barrier to climate action. And David Vetter reports on the call from U.K. ad agencies for a ban on fossil fuel advertising to stop the flood of propaganda for an immensely harmful industry. 

- Andrea Pitzer calls out the Republicans' plan to direct hundreds of billions of dollars toward ramping up a secret police and detention apparatus. And Robert Reich warns that Peter Thiel and other tycoons are looking to make an even more invasive surveillance state into a source of political control (as well as private wealth accumulation). 

- Paris Marx joins the many voices calling out Mark Carney's decision to rescind a digital services tax which would have set the slightest of limits on how big tech exploits Canadians. And Blaine Haggart writes that we now know enough to assess - and criticize - Carney's blinkered refusal to accept that the Trump regime will never enter into any trade agreement in good faith. 

- Meanwhile, Matteo Cimellaro reports that Carney's plans for Canada's public sector include the worst cuts to service in recent history, while David Macdonald highlights how there's no way to inflict those cuts without causing severe harm. And Geoff Mulgan writes about the lack of interest in plumbing which has made it impossible to turn promises or expectations into reality. 

- Finally, Bob Lord writes that income tax rates alone won't rein in worsening inequality based primarily on gross disparities in wealth whose products are given favourable treatment.