Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Max Stier discusses how Elon Musk's all-out assault on the U.S.' public service is contrary to every principle of competent management, while Pamela Herd and Don Moynihan point out the idiocy of treating every program and contract that doesn't meet with a single uninformed individual's approval as "fraud". Sarah Kendzior points out that the new Donald Trump regime is only a highly-compromised piece of a transnational organized crime network, rather than operating as a power centre of its own. And Dasha Burns and Myah Ward report on the plans of longtime war crime enthusiasts to operate a private military and concentration camp system with Trump's blessing. 

- George Monbiot's questions about how the UK needs to think about defending itself from a hostile U.S. are obviously equally applicable to Canada. And Phillippe Lagasse examines a few of the scenarios we should be preparing for. 

- Meanwhile, Renee Sylvestre-Williams warns that we shouldn't let a justified boycott against U.S. products fizzle out. And John Clarke discusses how the Bank of Canada is positioning the working class to bear the brunt of any U.S. action, while Deena Ladd argues that we should instead focus our efforts on true solidarity where nobody is left behind. 

- Finally, Desmond Cole discusses how Ontario's rent allowance is a poverty trap rather than a meaningful support, while John Michael McGrath notes that Doug Ford's choice to make housing even less affordable is shutting out the very workers the province supposedly wants to recruit. Nick Tsergas observes that paid sick leave would be another key benefit for businesses and the health care system alike - but that it's not on the radar due to Ford's determination that workers are on their own. And Catherine MacNeil writes that the corporate-friendly plan to address the crisis in the availability of primary care represents pure politics rather than a viable solution