Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Cory Doctorow highlights how Thomas Piketty's work on the effects of capital concentration shows that both the "national" and "capitalism" parts of the Trump economic plan are ultimately self-defeating. John Ronquillo discusses how spin about efficiency is being used as an excuse for extreme unaccountable control over government operations (which will inevitably lead to far less effective services). And Dave Jamieson points out that the obviously-false boilerplate wording treating every new or newly-promoted employee in the U.S. civil service as having performance issues virtually ensures that the associated firings can't be defended in any functional legal system. 

- Anand Giridharadas calls out the people with power - including elected Democrats - who are choosing to collaborate with Trump's abuses. David Zirin writes that the same politicians who have chosen to be pushovers in the face of fascism still seem determined to fight against any progressive voices. And Joe Demanuelle-Hall notes that federal workers are starting to organize against the billionaire takeover of the U.S. 

- Akela Lacy reports on Trump's admission that the cruelty of prison conditions is entirely deliberate. Amanda Marcotte reports on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s plans to eliminate access to medication for mental health conditions, and instead round people with psychological conditions up into labour camps. And Euan Thomson notes that Alberta's treatment of children being pushed into forced abstinence from substance use is little different - with the UCP going out of its way not to track outcomes which would show how harmful its ideology is. 

- Jen St. Denis reports on the American political operatives using X to advocate for the violent invasion of Canada. Steve Burgess offers his account of what happened when he dared to defend Canada on Elon Musk's toxic platform - serving only to raise the question of why anybody would want to remain there. Allison Hantschel discusses how it's entirely healthy to leave social media platforms which have been systematically turned into amplifiers for hatred and bigotry. And Luke LeBrun reports on Pierre Poilievre's plans to defund actual journalism while shoveling public money to fascist fever swamps. 

- Taylor Noakes reports on the fossil fuel funding behind "grassroots" groups pushing in tandem with the UCP and Sask Party us to keep relying on dirty energy. Jackie McKay reports on the judicial funding that the RCMP used excessive force and breached the Charter rights of Indigenous activists who dared to protest against the Coastal GasLink pipeline. 

- Finally, Carey Gillam, Margot Gibbs and Elena DeBre expose a corporate-funded database used to track environmental health advocates who dared to point out that pesticides could be harmful. And Reuters reports on the reality that Canadian farmers are largely at the mercy of corporate conglomerates which can't be trusted either to keep inputs affordable, or to pay for the food that's been produced.