mendelmatt.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

As a four-decade veteran of the daily journalism business, let me tell you: Every competent political reporter in this country knows that Trump is trying to establish a dictatorship. The industry's shame is that so few journalists will say so, and the ones who do lose their jobs.

submitted 14 hours ago • 61 comments

This should be celebrated. Lena Diab is a new minister and not fully staffed up. Things can fall through the cracks. Good programs can die because no one feels confident to make a decision. Great to see the Minister and the department got this extension done. www.talentlift.ca/canada-exten...

submitted 12 hours ago • 0 comments

This is exactly the kind of thing we should do more of.

submitted 14 hours ago • 0 comments

We should not presume that the wealthy want to avoid tax or pay less tax. There are many with wealth who would be happy to pay their fair share. Extreme wealth inequality -- and tax systems that exacerbate it -- leads to civic and democratic collapse. youtu.be/dXM4UdGTbOY?...

submitted 20 hours ago • 0 comments

Hot pickled pepper of the day.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Good.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Ed Zitron being right again. www.wheresyoured.at/never-forget...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

Canadians should not be investing in the rise of fascism. Pension funds and foundations should get out of the US. If we need to diversify our investments, the world is a big place. I've heard South Korea is nice. Germany too.

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

www.cp24.com/news/canada/...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

If you had any possible temptation to downplay how bad it is, stop immediately. Thread (add your own in replies, please) of things we can do to melt ICE and support immigrants here.

submitted 3 days ago • 20 comments

Yo Canadians -- bring your investments home! Invest in our communities, people and companies. So many good advisors can help you invest in social impact and clean transition if you want. Your wealth is safest when invested in stable democracies. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The outcome of this battle against fascism is not yet decided, but a reminder to Canadians: Remember which of our leaders were calling for closer integration with the US just a few months ago. They have poor judgement and should not be listened to. They cannot see what is obvious.

submitted 4 days ago • 6 comments

Jake is not happy! If policy makers really care about the affordability crisis, of course we should regulate fees. But policy makers mostly prefer oerformative tax cuts rather than confronting consolidated economic power. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

I’m delighted to see this initiative. Every day that you have influence, use it to reinforce our democratic institutions, our independent press, and our civil society organizations. Our democracy is under attack. We will win tomorrow if we use whatever tools we have today. ruleoflawproject.ca

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

For anybody concerned about US universities going down the Hungarian path: the (public) Budapest University of Technology and Economics appears to have sold a major stake in itself to the country's biggest oil/gas company. www.msn.com/en-us/money/...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Canada's GDP per capita is still behind the US so they are clearly a much more successful model of democratic capitalism than we are. So much for us to learn and emulate!

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

I was talking about this with my students yesterday—throughout Western Europe, Nazism is treated in public spaces and memorials as a nightmare, as horror that must never be repeated. If slavery and Jim Crow received the same commemoration in the US, we'd be a very different country.

submitted 7 days ago • 43 comments

The idea of tenants unions, with rights to negotiate collectively, makes lots of sense. I know here in Toronto there have been some amazing activists doing this work and they've helped keep people from becoming unhoused. theconversation.com/why-canada-s...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

torontolife.com/food/the-sad...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

"So one lesson for U.S. Democrats, and others struggling to return their country to normal, is not to wait until the conditions are perfectly right to act, because they never will be." When those who believe in democracy have power, they need to use it to reinforce democratic institutions.

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

If you came down from Mars and were told there is "an economic growth and productivity problem" in Canada, and then you looked around and talked to people, you would likely conclude: Canada screwed up housing. Fix that and many of the other problems disappear. theconversation.com/subsidized-s...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

"In another world, it would be employees and communities, not financiers, buying up distressed firms, revitalizing them, and sharing in their rewards. But that’s not yet our world." I like that David uses the expression "corporate raiders" rather than sanitizing what is going on.

submitted 10 days ago • 2 comments

Good to see this study getting some coverage. Financialized landlords brag about increasing rent in their corporate documents, raise rents more steeply than comparators, and are acquiring properties. Financialization of housing is a thing, and it is bad. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

According to AP, the typical pay package for S&P 500 CEOs rose to $17M last year — an increase of 9.7%. At half of the companies surveyed, it would take the median worker 192 years to make what the CEO did in one year. This is what I mean when I say the system is rigged.

submitted 10 days ago • 308 comments

Will just leave this clip here of Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings talking about what’s wrong with America from a 1991 interview and it’s still all very true today

submitted 61 days ago • 96 comments

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/scien...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

So many smart people quoted in this piece. It is also a good summary of some of he worst predatory, extractive behaviour from Loblaws over the past few years and some of the hardships they cause working Canadians. thewalrus.ca/loblaw-has-b...

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Love this!

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Canadians need to do a much better job protecting and building an independent local news media. We can't continue to have our media owned by a toxic mix of hedge funds, billionaires, authoritarians and con men.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

When governments do stupid or evil things, it isn't the job of journalists to minimize the harm and highlight that there is some other real problem that could be addressed if the policy was designed completely differently for different purposes.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Paul Simon at Massey Hall was incredibly lovely. Quite moving actually. I was lucky to have been invited.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

more and more these days, I find myself thinking that you can accept the discipline of your political goals or you can accept the discipline of your resentments.

submitted 115 days ago • 68 comments

Ding ding ding!!!

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Accessible rail that connects big cities with smaller communities in the region will boost productivity. These services are nation-building. I remember when the Ontario government ended funding for the Northlander. I'm glad to see the train is now coming back. www.blogto.com/travel/2025/...

submitted 11 days ago • 3 comments

Yes indeed!

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Realistically, Europe and Canada are not going to be able to replace all this work and expertise. But we have to try.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Trust is necessary for democratic capitalism to survive.

submitted 12 days ago • 0 comments

Yes, build baby build. But don't leave consumers and those who are buying homes unprotected. thelogic.co/news/crumbli...

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Some Canadians who "hope for the best" have become less vigilant over the past month as Trump has seemed distracted. It is more likely that the Trump Administration will accelerate its fascist and imperialist project rather than abandon it. History doesn't travel in a straight line.

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

"Ontario again tables smallest per-capita budget in Canada". The stories our hedge fund media tell about how our economy works are consistently misleading. And don't get me started about the operation of fiscal federalism. tl;dr: Alberta is not disadvantaged. www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

More of this please.

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

I'm really looking forward to reading this study. Simple policy recommendations that will bring down the cost of housing. Dealing with supply alone is not enough. We have to make it less financially attractive for investors to buy up existing houses. www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/pe...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

This is a really smart list of practical things that are doable. www.theglobeandmail.com/business/com...

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

A high GDP per capita doesn't translate into economic well being for working people if it is driven by wealth extraction and wealth accumulation. www.thestar.com/business/opi...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments