Musical interlude

Lest anybody worry there wouldn't be a definitive song of summer 2025...

Tame Impala - End Of Summer

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Ed Burmilla highlights Donald Trump's appeal to bored and self-indulgent people who are prepared to change their identities and voting patterns based on the pettiest grievances possible. And Paul Krugman discusses how Trump's attempt to control the global economy through tariffs and threats is doomed to fail (even if he may never realize that fact), while Ian Welsh notes that Canada is as well equipped as nearly anybody to stand up to Trump's bluster. 

- Jonathan Last writes about the moral monstrosity involved in DOGE's responsibility for tens of millions of deaths, while Stephen Brager points out a U.S. Senate report confirming that Elon Musk's chainsaw brigade failed even on its own blinkered mandate of austerity.  

- Felipe de la Hoz highlights how Trump has normalized and expanded the concept of indefinite detention without cause. And Nicole For and McKenzie Funk report on his implementation of smash-and-grab immigration policy. 

- Simon Evans discusses the IEA's new forecasts showing that renewable energy will overtake coal power to become the world's foremost source of electricity by next year at the latest. And Jeet Heer discusses how Trump's dirty fossil fuel obsession is ceding the future to China, while Gerald Butts, Peter Nicholson and Rick Smith point out Canada's golden opportunity to become North America's economic leader as a result. 

- Amanda Seitz reports on the Trump regime's plans to centralize personal health information in the hands of tech giants (where it will then be available for the use of the surveillance state). And Alison Northcott reports on the risk of Canadian data being commandeered through U.S. service providers - offering yet another reason to avoid letting any corporation under Trump's thumb have any ability to undermine the interests of Canadians. 

- Finally, Katherine Scott offers a reminder of the devastating long-term effects of the Chretien Libs' choice to impose austerity rather than investing in Canadian society. And Kim Siever makes the case for free public transit as a means of ensuring everybody has access to a crucial public service.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thusday reading.

- Ross Andersen discusses how the Trump regime's combination of funding cuts and anti-knowledge ideology is destroying the U.S.' position as a scientific and technological power. Heather Cox Richardson points out how Trump is implementing Project 2025 (or worse) to use every possible form of power for political purposes after feigning offense at the prospect he planned to follow it. Paul Krugman notes the media's unwillingness to treat Trump's regime as the bad faith actor it's proven to be at every turn. And Bill McKibben discusses how Trump's claims of gains for his fossil fuel donors surrounding the U.S.-EU trade deal aren't much more credible than any of his other promises. 

- Meanwhile, Julie Buckner Armstrong and Thomas Hallock write about the undiluted evil of Trump's concentration camps. And Juliana Vandermark reports on the combination of cruelty and corruption as a company without so much as an office has been handed over a billion dollars to slap up a detention centre. 

- CBC reports on the stark reality that Miner's Marsh in Nove Scotia is now a patch of parched dirt. And Jody MacPherson discusses the absurdity of the Alberta district of Greenview pushing plans for a water-guzzling data centre project even as it's already declared a state of agricultural disaster due to drought. 

- Finally, Natalie Stechyson reports on the increasing cost of food in restaurants. And Marc Fawcett-Atkinson discusses how the federal Libs are allowing agricultural employers to brutally exploit workers.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Leana Hosea and Sarij Pathirana report on new data showing that tens of thousands of oil slicks every year are going unreported and doing immense damage to the oceans. And Abrahm Lustgarten discusses new research showing how the climate breakdown and poorly-regulated resource extraction are destroying vital groundwater reserves. 

- Fiona Harvey reports on Antonio Gutierres' pointed observation that renewable energy is vastly (and increasingly) more affordable than fossil fuel energy even without accounting for the environmental harms of the latter. Adrienne Tanner weighs in on China's leading role in transitioning to clean energy - and the choice facing Canada and other countries as to whether to cling to the past or build for the future. 

- Meanwhile, Natasha Bulowski reports on new research showing that electric vehicles have substantial public health benefits even beyond their reduction of carbon pollution compared to dirty energy alternatives. Bill McKibben examines how the Trump regime is trying to stifle the development of renewable energy, while also discussing the options to counter that thumb on the scale. Drew Anderson compiles a thorough list of the subsidies currently keeping Canada addicted to fossil fuels both for our own energy use, and for export purposes. And Mitch Anderson points out that production increases in the Alberta tar sands haven't done anything to help either workers or the province's finances. 

- Greg Sargent talks to Paul Krugman about the reality that the Trump regime's trade deal announcements bear very little resemblance to the reality - as they make everybody worse off, but particularly his own base. And Nathaniel Denaro calls for Canada to approach any negotiations of its own based on the reality that the U.S. is an entirely unreliable trading partner. 

- Andrew Coyne discusses how the Cons' tough-on-crime posturing has given way to advocating for crime without punishment in the case of the Flu Trux Klan. Betsy Powell reports on the response of the Ontario Crown Attorneys Association calling out the demand that prosecutorial discretion in the public interest give way to naked political bias. And Fakiha Baig reports that the UCP is fueling violent racism with its attacks on immigrants.  

- Finally, Kelly Hayes writes that the long-overdue revelations about Donald Trump's close connections to Jeffrey Epstein are crucial in examining the U.S.' culture of elite impunity. And Kate Manne points out the implausibility that dozens of similar but distinct reports of sexual abuse are somehow all to be disbelieved as compared to Trump's ever-changing and farcical denials and evasions.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Handy cat.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Robert Reich discusses the challenge of trying to live ethically and morally under circumstances where bullying and cruelty are being systematically normalized. And V discusses some of the options available to resist the tide and strengthen a sense of purpose. 

- Shawn Donnan writes that Donald Trump's erratic tariffs are causing real damage to the global economy while being shrugged off by markets. And Alan Beattie is rightly perplexed at the EU's willingness to sign off on a worthless deal at the expense of validating Trump's tariff policy. 

- Paris Marx comments on Mark Carney's choice to give the U.S. tech giants who have bent the knee to Trump everything they want in deciding not to regulate artificial intelligence. And Joe Mullin discusses how Carney's surveillance legislation is everything the Trump regime could have asked for in allowing people's online activity to be monitored and used against them. 

- Stephen Magusiak reports on the direct connections between the Trump regime and the Alberta separatist being promoted by Danielle Smith and the UCP.

- Finaly, Carbon Brief looks in detail at the significance of the International Court of Justice's decision holding that governments can be held responsible for climate damage, while Michael Byers highlights how the ICJ's conclusion is incompatible with Canada's insistence on subsidizing the extraction of dirty fossil fuels (including Alberta's choice to stick the public with cost of reclamation to make sure oil operators don't pay for the messes they've made). Zoe Daniel writes about the "intergenerational bastardry" involved in pushing for continued carbon pollution at the expense of the future of humanity. And Tim Sahay and Kate McKenzie note that China is well on its way to fostering a transition to clean energy - meaning that the countries who drag their heels figure to be left behind in short order. 

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Adam King discusses how the income gap in Canada has reached more extreme levels than ever before. And Henry Farrell writes about the reality that the uber-rich live in an entirely different world than most of humanity - including in their ability to have their worst and most ill-informed whims turned into government policy through compliant politicians. 

- On that front, Adam Gabbatt reports on the Trump regime's plan to let a glorified chatbot destroy the U.S.' regulatory state - even though it's already well known that AI isn't suited to making government decisions. John Cole's review of Sam Freedman's Failed State discusses how the UK's privatization has proven disastrous - even as the Labour government elected due to public dissatisfaction follows in the footsteps of its Conservative predecessor.

- Doug Saunders highlights how complaints about political polarization inevitably ignore the reality that it's only the right that's veered far outside of reality. Judd Legum notes that Axios is among the media outlets that has exacerbated the problem by treating conservative spin as objective truth. David Pressman discusses how the Trump regime is following Viktor Orban's playbook in entrenching power at the expense of any rational view of the puoblic interest. And Joan Smith points out the connection between domestic abuse and public violence - which unfortunately is more relevant for its explanatory power than any sense that the powers that be will act in response to the former for the purpose of averting the latter. 

- Maalvika writes about the dangers of "compression culture" which imposes uniformity, oversimplification and brittleness in the name of efficiency. And Andrew Nikiforuk laments the triumph of stupidity in the face of the apt warnings of Kurt Vonnegut and others. 

- John Michael McGrath highlights CivicAction's new report on how workers are being priced out of Toronto. Cy Neff reports on the rise of investor-owned homes as an element of the housing crisis in California and elsewhere. And Lauren Scott reports on the status of Manitoba's work to find homes for unhoused people - along with the reality that private market-rate units in particular haven't proven to be part of the solution. 

- Finally, Jeet Heer writes about Zohran Mamdani's success offering hope-based politics in the face of a system set up ito deny anything of the sort, while Greg Sargent points out that Mamdani has also succeeded with outreach that actually earns voters' attention rather than serving merely as placeholding pablum. And David Gulliver discusses some of the lessons the NDP and its leadership contestants can draw from Mamdani's campaign.