Musical interlude

Florrie - Never Far From Paradise

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Allison Gill offers a reminder that every aspect of the U.S.' descent into fascism can be traced back to the increasing power of an insatiable oligarchy. Jason Sattler highlights how a PR blitz to dissociate himself from the consequences of his actions doesn't mean Elon Musk is absolved of contuining responsibility. And Paul Starr calls out the Trump regime's plan to impose artificially high taxes on university endowments to punish the role of universities in building knowledge. 

- Paul Krugman discusses the U.S. Court of International Trade's ruling invalidating most of Trump's arbitrary tariffs. But James Downie notes that Trump has refused to accept repeated messages from all kinds of parties as to the harm being caused by his tariff obsession. 

- Colette Delawalla et al. warn that Trump's politicization of science figures to destroy the U.S.' position as a source of research and discovery. David Cutler and Edward Glaeser examine the multi-trillion-dollar health calamity which can be traced back to Trump's cuts to health research. And Cornelia Schneider and Martha Walls point out the eugenic attitudes which result in Trump and RFK Jr. being perfectly happy to sacrifice human lives. 

- Dhruv Mehrotra reports on the U.S.' collection of DNA samples of children as young as 4 in order to allow for the operation of a future surveillance state. And Marisa Kabas reports on Marco Rubio's launch of an office dedicated to white supremacist immigration policy. 

- More and Better Housing Canada offers a report card on housing policy - finding that not a single province in the country is doing more than a middling job dealing with the failure to provide for basic needs. Hallee Mandryk reports on the skyrocketing rates of homelessness (including among children) in Saskatoon. And Victoria Gibson reports on Doug Ford's choice to favour wealthy landlords in scrapping any affordable housing requirements. 

- Finally, Alex Himelfarb discusses why we have no choice but to keep working for better no matter how grim matters appear today. 

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Moscrop writes that "inequality" is a far too mild word for the extreme concentration of wealth and power in the U.S. (coupled with increasing deprivation and disempowerment of large numbers of people). David Sirota argues that the resistance to the Trump administration needs to directly oppose corporate control rather than hoping that some general claim of abundance will be seen as sufficient, while Hans Nicols reports on polling showing that the general public agrees. And YouGov finds that in the UK, there's far more public appetite for improved services than for austerity and tax slashing. 

- Meanwhile, Anna Merlan discusses what the U.S. stands to lose from the Trump regime's deliberate destruction of knowledge. 

- The Associated Press reports on Louisiana's draconian crackdown against sharing information about the pollution that's threatening public health. And Emily Schwing reports on the limitations of adapting to environmental catastrophes after the fact as evidenced by the crumbling new community of Mertarvik, Alaska. 

- Elyse Hauser discusses her own blood test for microplastics in the context of their spread throughout our living environment. And EcoWatch points out a new study documenting a particularly severe concentration of microplastics in agricultural soil. 

- Finally, Ophélie Dénommée-Marchand rightly argues that Canada needs to be providing a safe haven for trans people and others facing grave risks under the Trump regime. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jon Milton et al. discuss how the first speech from the throne under Mark Carney was based on Donald Trump's wish list rather than the priorities of Canadians. David Moscrop notes that while Carney is breaking his promise of patriotically standing up to U.S. threats and pressure, businesses are actively exploiting nationalism into a profit centre. Sonali Karnick interviews Nora Loreto about the corporate roots of the housing shortage and affordability crisis. And Simon Enoch warns that the privatization of Canada Post (which is a looming possibility only due to the federal government's refusal to allow it to expand its delivery of public services) would have immense costs for Canada as a whole. 

- Pat Rich offers a reminder (with reference to a speech from Dr. Andrew Boozary) that the most important building blocks of health are its social determinants including income, housing, and food security. And Mary Hudetz reports on the Trump regime's slashing of a program which provided Indigenous communities with access to healthy, locally-sourced food as another stark example of its destructive approach.

- Meanwhile, Andrew Nikiforuk laments how Danielle Smith and the UCP have chosen to give measles the advantage over Albertans.

- Finally, Michelle Gamage reports on the call for workplace temperature limits to protect British Columbia workers from extreme heat. And Ashley Cowburn reports on an Autonomy Institute report calling for the same in the UK. 

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Curled-up cat.

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Doug Cuthand offers a reminder that the need for forward-thinking climate action hasn't been reduced just because any discussion of the possibility has been eliminated from Canada's political conversation. The Rude Pundit highlights how the Trump regime is actively making the threat of a climate breakdown even worse. And Mitch Anderson notes that even the Macdonald Laurier Institute can't pretend there's an economic case for more dirty energy pipelines - even as Pierre Poilievre, Danielle Smith and Scott Moe continue to obsess over locking in more fossil infrastructure.

- Meanwhile, Lisa Young discusses how Trump's disregard for Canadian sovereignty has fed into the separatist sentiment being stoked by Smith and Moe. And Jim Stanford writes that while Albertans have reason to be angry, the object of their ire should be exactly the greedy capitalists already getting rich off of public resources while general standards of living erode. 

- Matthew Renfrew reports on the strong majority of Canadians boycotting American products and looking to strengthen our own self-sufficiency - even as the two largest parties in Parliament are fixated on locking us into further ties with the regime that's trying to take Canada by force.

- Finally, Jessie Stein and Sophie O'Monique point out that the housing crisis can't be fixed without the migrant construction workers who are wrongly being blamed and punished for it.