Postal banking once made Canada Post profitable — and could again #canlab @lindamcquaig.bsky.social rabble.ca/columnists/p...

Jane Goodall was the best of us

If any of you were interested in Economic Growth, e-bikes are the enabler if cities and towns build dedicated lanes, storage and provide maintenance year-round.

Federal workers are about to have their livelihoods upended because of this shutdown. We'll hear talk about "sacrifices" that the American people need to make. Meanwhile, Trump is bailing out Argentina with $20 billion worth of taxpayer dollars.

Just yesterday Trump promised to spend a record $1 trillion on the military — roughly half of which will go to private defense contractors that price-gouge the government. Remember this when Trump or Republicans talk about "sacrifices" that need to be made during a shutdown.

Folks — this is not a normal government shutdown. Let me explain the stakes and how we got here.

Remember: Undocumented immigrants pay billions of dollars in taxes every year. They pay into government funded healthcare programs, but can't access them except in case of emergency. Emergency Medicaid spending accounted for less than 1% of total Medicaid spending in 2023.

The battle of our day is no longer about Democrats versus Republicans or left versus right. The choice right now is democracy or dictatorship. And we're sliding faster than I ever thought possible into the latter. Everyone must choose which side they’re on.

Trump's deal to sell TikTok won't just enrich his billionaire pal Larry Ellison. It also gives UAE investment firm MGX — a key business partner of the Trump family's crypto company — a major ownership stake and board seat at TikTok. Everything is for sale.

Healthcare providers have to mask up for the safety of their patients. Most are not. I don't understand why doctors and nurses are so careless with their patients lives.

It’s not just “don’t comply.” It’s deliberately doing the exact opposite. They want us too sick to resist. Refuse. Mask up in public. They want us isolated and in competition with each other. Refuse. Build community. They want us dependent on their systems. Refuse. Create mutual aid networks.

The South Korean Ministry of Defense has awarded medals of merit to 11 officers for disobeying direct orders of superiors during the martial law fiasco, orders that they deemed to be contrary to the constitution and endangerment to democracy. www.chosun.com/english/nati...

the world is upside down, the appropriate response to deafening silence in the wake of mass-disabling of our children is to scream at the top of your lungs. That's what Violet was doing on Tuesday. That's not anxiety, that's humanity. /end

Five corporations control 90% of the US media market. Airlines merged from 12 major carriers in 1980 to 4 today. Four giants control 80% of meat processing. A handful of companies control the pharmaceutical industry. The evidence of corporate concentration is everywhere.

The largest group in ICE detention is now immigrants with no criminal record, with more than 16,500 currently being held. Don’t fall for Trump’s lies about going after the “worst of the worst.” This was never about legal immigration. It was always about cruelty.

Why do headlines say "norms shattered" when what is meant is "laws broken" or "Constitution violated"?

Medicare for All - "That's socialism!" Social Security - "That's socialism!" Debt free education - "That's socialism!" Universal childcare - "That's socialism!" Bailing out a failed libertarian austerity agenda in Argentina... "That's just how it is."

The financial economy is immersed in the kind of wild gambling we saw leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. We’re seeing it all over again — this time with crypto, meme stocks, junk bonds, and investors pumping up shares of AI stocks without knowing what it is. Be warned.

CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1965: 20-1 CEO-to-worker pay ratio in 1990: 75-1 CEO-to-worker pay ratio today: 280-to-1 Trickle-down economics was always a sham. Nothing has ever trickled down.

If you were concerned about Kimmel, here's another for you… Journalist Mario Guevara has been detained for 100+ days, ironically arrested as he reported on a "No Kings" protest. The Trump-Vance admin just issued an order of final removal, to send him to El Salvador—where he fled from 21 years ago.

Trump's second term has been filled with chaos and dysfunction. But none of it is random. It's part of a plot to spread cynicism and get you to check out. Oligarchs don't want you to keep paying attention. That's how they win. Don't tune out. Don't let them win.

The disappearance of America’s leadership class at a time like this means that the rest of us have to be leaders. We can no longer wait to be led by those with the power and authority to lead. You must lead, I must lead, all of us must lead. We are the leaders we’ve been waiting for.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." -Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953

How fortunate it is that we can laugh at those who believe that the world will end tomorrow, for it spares us from having to admit that the world as we know it ended long before today.

We are incredibly fortunate to have Robert Reich, with his wealth of knowledge, experience, intelligence and integrity, to educate, guide and encourage us during these dangerous times.

RFK Jr just said research on vaccines and autism has been suppressed by the scientific community. This is a lie. Here is a PubMed search I just did for “vaccines and autism,” yielding over 1,200 results. The first one is a meta-analysis!

Trump donor Larry Ellison’s Oracle will oversee TikTok’s algorithm. His media company owns CBS News and is plotting a bid for Warner Bros., which owns CNN. When billionaires take control of communication platforms, it’s not a win for free speech. It’s a win for oligarchy.

A handful of billionaires now have unprecedented control over banking, the food we eat, our healthcare, and the information we receive. Many are now currying favor with Trump to avoid accountability and maintain their power. This is what oligarchy looks like.

Senior White House officials tell CNN re: TikTok that Trump wanted “patriotic” investors. The algorithm will be “retrained” in the US, reviewed by Oracle, meaning it’ll be full-on MAGA propaganda or TwitterX 2.

I know, my friends, that in this moment we have other things to worry about than this ongoing pandemic, and yet, my friends, that in this moment we have other things to worry about does not mean that we need not worry about this ongoing pandemic.

Remember: If we allow ourselves to fall into fatalism, or wallow in disappointment, or become resigned to what is rather than what should be, we will lose the long game. The greatest enemy of positive social change is cynicism about what can be changed.

#ShowMeYourKnits this week is autumn knits. I'm 2/3 of the way through the cabled yoke of the Eirwen cardigan, by Susanna IC, knit in Drops Nepal. (The pattern was published in @knitty.com. It isn't a fast knit, but it is very much fun! It will be a cozy, autumn sweater when it's done.

“Genuinely care and act for a better world.” @aoc.bsky.social

While the scale is different, we have the same problem in Canada.

Increase in productivity since 1979: 87% Increase in hourly pay since 1979: 32% Just so happens that ~25% of workers were unionized in 1979. Today? 10%. As unions declined, the super-rich have taken a larger share of wealth generated by labor. We must build back union power.

It’s Friday. We will get back to health topics but we will lose everything if we lose a free press.

I shouldn't be shocked by this, but I am.

As long as media keep going along transmitting lies for liars, and never making the liars the story, then liars will keep being rewarded for lying. Too often without any fact checking at all, and more often with fact checking coming far too late. Make the liars the story.

It took far too long to fact-check this baseless and deliberate lie. And that’s what the liars count on.

I’m old enough to remember when that CBC comedian teased Pierre Poilievre on the campaign trail and Poilievre said when he was Prime Minister that comedian would be out of a job.

Twenty years after the comedy went silent, Russia is a sadistic, warmongering fascist regime run by a mad centibillionaire. That’s a future that could be ours — whole argument of "Road to Unfreedom" — but also one we can stop — see "On Tyranny" and "On Freedom." www.nytimes.com/2000/06/18/w...

The ONLY way:

Mark Carney should pursue renewable energy as a national project #canpoli @lindamcquaig.bsky.social rabble.ca/columnists/m...

This is one of the most important posts of the day.

Want to show your opposition to <waves hands at all the things>? Wear a respirator mask in any situation of potential contagion of SARS-coV-2. Do it for yourself. Do it for others. Do it to stick it - in a nonviolent way - to those who mock everything that is good in the world. We can do better.

Just like traffic violence, death from climate-fuelled wildfire smoke will become normalized, if we let it. Both are preventable with political will.

Don't quit.

Smart cities know that, as hot as they already are, they’re just going to keep getting hotter. Greening the city not only cools it down, it cleans the air, quiets the noise, improves mental health & happiness, saves public money, & more. Strand Aldwych, London. 2021 vs. 2025. Via @modacitylife.com

Antifa is not an organization, it's just an abbreviation for anti-fascist. According to Trump's edict, the young men who saved the world from fascism are now domestic terrorists. 😳👇