This week, I have been mostly reading:

• Antitrust as Economic Stimulus — Hal Singer and Marshall Steinbaum at Pro Market: Consider the following experiment: Under the current antitrust regime, which places coordination rights in the hands of corporations and punishes atomistic suppliers from coordinating in their dealings against dominant platforms, Uber captures about a third of the revenues from each ride in the form of commissions. Suppose a policy intervention—whether a reform to antitrust, labor, or some other law—altered the workplace power imbalance, such that drivers captured an additional 10 percentage points of the fares, reducing Uber’s commissions from 33 to 23 percent. New research on the stimulus checks from the 2020 CARES Act shows lower-income households spent a greater share of the checks than did middle-income households. To the extent that lower-income drivers would spend a greater portion of every incremental dollar than do Uber’s higher-income shareholders, this redistribution of fares towards drivers would mean a greater multiplier effect for the economy every time a passenger takes a ride.
• Driving the 2021 Cadillac Escalade was one of the most stressful experiences of my life — Andrew J. Hawkins in the Verge:
  I don’t consider myself a timid driver, but being behind the wheel of this 6,000-lb behemoth gave me high-grade, flop-sweat-inducing anxiety. I’ve never ridden on the back of an elephant before, but driving the 2021 Escalade may be as close as I’ll get. […] Sitting in the driver’s seat, it’s easy to feel disconnected from the outside world — mostly because you can’t see a lot of it. The grille was like a sheer cliffside, obstructing my view several feet out in front of the wheels. An entire kindergarten class could be lined up in front of this vehicle and I wouldn’t see them. […] When you need a suite of high-definition cameras and other expensive sensors to safely drive to the grocery store, there might be something inherently wrong with your design. Manufacturers know that these types of vehicles are more dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists, but they keep making them because people keep buying them. Cadillac says it is responding to customer demands for more interior space and cargo room. Super-sizing its vehicles helps it sell more SUVs to more people.
• Eyewitness to the Agony of Julian Assange — John Pilger interviewed by Timothy Erik Ström for Arena: The prevailing atmosphere has been shocking. I say that without hesitation; I have sat in many courts and seldom known such a corruption of due process; this is due revenge. Putting aside the ritual associated with ‘British justice’, at times it has been evocative of a Stalinist show trial. One difference is that in the show trials, the defendant stood in the court proper. In the Assange trial, the defendant was caged behind thick glass, and had to crawl on his knees to a slit in the glass, overseen by his guard, to make contact with his lawyers. His message, whispered barely audibly through face masks, was then passed by post-it the length of the court to where his barristers were arguing the case against his extradition to an American hellhole.
• America Has No Allies, Only Hostages — Caitlin Johnstone on Medium: We saw the dynamics of the imperial blob explained quite vividly last year by American political analyst John Mearsheimer at a debate hosted by the Australian think tank Center for Independent Studies. […] “You’re either with us or against us,” he continued. “And if you’re trading extensively with China, and you’re friendly with China, you’re undermining the United States in this security competition. You’re feeding the beast, from our perspective. And that is not going to make us happy. And when we are not happy you do not want to underestimate how nasty we can be. Just ask Fidel Castro.” Nervous laughter from the Australian think tank audience punctuated Mearsheimer’s more incendiary observations. The CIA is known to have made numerous attempts to assassinate Castro. If you’ve ever wondered how the U.S. is so successful in getting other nations around the world to align with its interests, this is how. It’s not that the U.S. is a good actor on the world stage or a kind friend to its allies, it’s that it will destroy you if you disobey it. Australia is not aligned with the U.S. to protect itself from China. Australia is aligned with the U.S. to protect itself from the U.S..
• Trump’s Turn From Immigration to the Enemy Within — Ryan Devereaux at the Intercept: This widening of the threat aperture is straight out of the authoritarian playbook, said Jason Stanley, a professor of philosophy at Yale University and author of “How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them.” “You begin with something that separates citizens from noncitizens,” Stanley told The Intercept, explaining how fascistic power grabs often take place. “You have your colonial war, your war on terror, your imperialist war that focuses on distinguishing between citizens and noncitizens, and then you direct that force inwards against your political opponents.” “He’s been wooing the security forces his entire term,” Stanley said. As Tuesday night’s debate wrapped up, Trump explicitly encouraged his supporters to head to election polls and be on the lookout for suspicious activity in what he predicted would be “a fraud like you’ve never seen.” Courting paramilitary groups and loyal security services, calling the integrity of the election into question, and urging his supporters to take it upon themselves to respond are “classic fascist tactics,” Stanley argued. “He’s been using fascist tactics, unquestionably, and he’s already transformed many of these things into policy, particularly around immigration,” he said. “Now he’s turning to his political opponents, so now we’re really facing the concern about transformation into a fascist regime.”