John Baumann

Father, husband, teacher, b 313 ppm. The #ClimateEmergency matters. Gonna do what good I can as long as I can. After that, I’m tapping out.

[Robert Reich @RBReich]

DoorDash spent $1.4M trying to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor.

This week's historic $131.5M enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying NYC delivery workers shows why.

Yet another reminder that the only thing that can beat organized money is organized people. https://t.co/hed5bdvdp4

[Astra Taylor @astradisastra]

Forget grandiose talk of curing cancer - this is what AI is actually doing to healthcare.

In the words of one cardiologist: “it’s bots fighting bots, agents fighting agents, a horrible dystopic future nobody wants to live in.”

[Raghu Venugopal MD @raghu_venugopal]

Just maybe:
-$2.2 billion on an Austrian spa was a bad idea
-$1 billion on a new Science Centre was a bad idea
-$1.4 billion on early alcohol sales was a bad idea
-$3.2 billion on pre-election bribe cheques was a bad idea
-MPPs Bethlenfalvy and Surma are out of touch

[Mike Schreiner @MikeSchreiner]

Ford can spin and blame the feds all he wants, numbers don't lie.

Ontario's staring down a $13B deficit, record unemployment, costs skyrocketing, public services starving. From farmers to teachers to small businesses, everyone's trying to get by with less. Meanwhile this government does favours for their biggest donors, paid for by us.

We deserve a government that works for the many, not the money.

[Independent Jewish Voices @IndJewishVoices]

For the first time, the Canadian government has explicitly defined anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism. This is an appalling capitulation to pro-Israel actors like CIJA and anti-Palestinian racism.

Zionism forms the ideological backbone of Israel's state-sanctioned violence against Palestinians. Our government quietly redefining it as a form of bigoted hate against Jews as a group is both offensive and inaccurate, and it endangers all Canadians' right to freedom of expression.

We call for an immediate retraction, acknowledgement of the incredible harm this mischaracterization does to Palestinian and Jewish communities, and a recognition of anti-Zionism as a legitimate political viewpoint grounded in social justice.

[John Baumann @JBaumann55]

This is obscene. Israeli destruction of olive groves. Instead of planting trees, tearing them frim the earth where many have grown and nourished communities for generations. Shame on everyone playing a part in this horrible, colonial crime against nature and against Palestinians.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

*Uprooting trees to uproot the people*
Weeks before the olive harvest, Israel orders uprooting Palestinian olive trees across the occupied West Bank. Thousands have already been destroyed since October 2023.
Environment destruction is part of the accelerated ethnic cleansing.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

*Uprooting trees to uproot the people*
Weeks before the olive harvest, Israel orders uprooting Palestinian olive trees across the occupied West Bank. Thousands have already been destroyed since October 2023.
Environment destruction is part of the accelerated ethnic cleansing.

[Dr Tom Montgomery @DrTOMontgomery]

Fascinating new study:

African elephants have more diverse and complex medicinal repertoires than previously recognized.

Observed behavior includes mothers feeding calves with prepared medicinal plants.

All the more reason to urgently preserve the biodiversity of their habitat.

1/2

[Avi Lewis @avilewis]

This would have been an excellent time for the Prime Minister aspiring to lead a coalition of middle powers to say:

“Canada does not believe that threats of annihilation are acceptable. Period.”

[Rachel Gilmore @atRachelGilmore]

The changes in this new bill are “without precedent in Canadian law and they’re without precedent even amongst our trading partners in the G7.”

“It provides the complete and unlimited discretion to the federal minister to decide who gets to go on strike and who does not.”

[Gabe Blanc @Gabe_Blanc]

In Ward 4 Parkdale—High Park, @DianaCMcNally has the experience to make a compassionate approach to ending homelessness actionable. I’m proud to support her run for city council 💜

[Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research PIK @PIK_Climate]

🆕7 of 9 Planetary Boundaries are now transgressed; all 7 at their highest recorded levels: Planetary Health Check 2026 finds Earth’s interconnected life-support systems under increasing strain.
Report👉️ https://t.co/DbFREPjYJ3
Video👉️ https://t.co/uQh549173a

[Rutger Bregman @rutgerbregman]

Really great to see this: six Nobel Prize-winning economists (Duflo, Krugman, Diamond, Banerjee, Acemoglu and Stiglitz) just came out in favor of the California billionaire tax.

You don't have to be a radical leftist to see why it's a good idea. First, look at the numbers: ten years ago, the richest 0.001% of Californians were worth $700 billion. Today, that same group (about 250 people) is worth $2.3 trillion.

From 2019 to 2025, their wealth grew by $1.4 trillion. The California income tax they paid over that period was just 1.6% of that gain. A nurse or a plumber pays a higher state tax rate.

Yes, many of these people built great companies, and they've made a lot of money in the process. Good for them! The problem is that wealth on this scale stops being just money. It becomes extraordinary power.

In 2000, billionaires accounted for about 1% of all donations in federal elections. In 2024, it was 19%. The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the LA Times, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and the platform you're reading this on: all owned and controlled by billionaires.

Now add AI. If you think power is concentrated now, just wait five years. It's going to get much worse.

So, what does Prop 40 actually do? It's a one-time 5% tax on the wealth of California's billionaires. That would raise about $100 billion, enough to offset the federal Medicaid cuts.

"But they'll all leave!" the critics say. Nope, they can't. The tax applies to any billionaire who lived in California on January 1, 2026, and the initiative only became public about five weeks before that.

"But it'll kill Silicon Valley!" Uh no, that won't happen either. Since the tax was announced, California's share of all new US venture capital has gone up, from about 50% to 80%. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, who would be one of the biggest payers, said he would be "perfectly fine" with it and had "not even thought about it once".

Sure, some other billionaires can't stop thinking about it. Sergey Brin has already spent more than $100 million to defeat the proposal. At a holiday party in December he pulled Gavin Newson aside and said 'he could not stand the state’s proposed billionaire tax', because he thought the 5% tax would turn California into some kind of Soviet Union.

That is, of course, nonsense. This is not going to be some kind of socialist revolution. The proposal is about restoring balance to a mixed economy. You could even argue it's about saving capitalism itself from oligarchs like Sergey Brin. I think that's exactly why Nobel Prize-winning economists are coming out in favor of this tax.

If Prop 40 passes in November, it will be the first tax aimed specifically at billionaire wealth anywhere in the world. I think it could be the start of a global movement.

Anyway, read the whole letter here. It's really good 👇 https://t.co/cFUtgzfoLy

[Kimiko Shibata 🦋 @ESL_fairy]

"Slow down, give proper support and training to educators… Right now it's this presumption that [AI] will be pervasive and therefore everyone needs to be using it all the time."
https://t.co/nIj5BotAjs

[Andrey X @the_andrey_x]

I watched NAZA.

(Unlike 99% of people expressing their very strong opinions on this website).

🧵 So here are my takes, which will make a lot of you very angry:

[Mike J. 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🏳️‍🌈 @MikeJToronto]

Ontario now has a $6.5 billion school funding gap under Doug Ford.

Where has the money been redirected? Cheques, especially before the last election.

#onted #onpoli

[John Bowker @bowker_john]

The Ford government is spending more public money on for-profit, private MRI & surgical clinics, while letting publicly funded facilities sit idle for hours every day, says a new report from @OntarioHealthC https://t.co/r2gWqsoRcV #onpoli #ONhealth

[Catherine Fife @CFifeKW]

According to Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer, the Ford government has underfunded health, education & social services budgets by billions necessary to maintain existing service standards. Are more service cuts being planned? https://t.co/FqcyIz53ef… #onpoli

[Kimiko Shibata 🦋 @ESL_fairy]

Good times in #OntEd: one pack of paper almost $18 if you’re a teacher, but general public pays $4.98.

Could we please just cancel this ridiculous Staples deal already?!?

[Avi Lewis @avilewis]

Privatizing airports is a terrible deal for travellers, workers, and the public purse.

Around the world, it has led to higher travel costs, fewer jobs and worse working conditions.

Private equity moguls and fund managers love it! Once they’re in, they own a piece of a natural monopoly, and they print money for decades.

This is a mistake we do not need to make.

The alternative to privatizing our airports is to NOT DO IT.