This and that for your Thursday reading.
- John Ganz discusses how a number of tech tycoons chose to support Donald Trump as part of a broader distaste for democracy and popular empowerment. And Oliver Darcy discusses how the Los Angeles Times (like other major media outlets) has been converted into a propaganda arm of the business oligopoly after falling under billionaire control.
- Jesse Drucker examines how the U.S.' estate tax has been undermined, resulting in stagnant public revenues even in the face of systematic concentration of wealth. And Margit Schratzenstaller examines how the rich respond to inheritance taxes - finding far more evidence of evasion and avoidance than of any real moves to avoid paying a fair share.
- Marcela Garcia reports on the takeover of veterinary medicine by private capital, resulting in corporate control over both consumers and veterinarians.
- Anna Merlan reports on the rise of one prominent climate denial account on X thanks to active support from numerous members of the Trump regime. And Adamo Anthony Donovan writes about the misinformation campaign against bike infrastructure.
- Joel Bourne discusses the climate and environmental effects of a global food system based on fragile monocultures in stressed ecosystems. And Kiley Price examines how the climate breakdown is both increasing the need for vaccines, and interfering with their availability.
- Finally, Lise Courteau points out the need to recognize and value unpaid work in order to promote equality and safety for women - even as dangerous political forces are attempting to push in the opposite direction.