Definition of #Authoritarianism (via #Wikipedia) :
"Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political #StatusQuo, and reductions in #democracy, #SeparationOfPowers, civil liberties, and the rule of law. #Authoritarian regimes may be either #autocratic or #oligarchic and may be based upon the rule of a party, the military, or the concentration of power in a single person."
#Ukrainian #farmers are often vilified as #oligarchic agri-barons who pose a threat to the #EU. The real picture is far more complex.
https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-farm-giants-kyiv-volodymyr-zelenskyy/
#Capitalism and the #oligarchic #overlords in a nutshell
#Billionaires and #gigacorps be like y'all, 'I #drink your #milkshake!' #yt
#Check out : #Israel is a #democracy, perhaps in the way that all our so-called democracies evolve, more #authoritarian, more #oppressive, more #oligarchic, more #differential and #unequal - anyway #Israel is an #occidental #invention
« The next morning I left the festival and made my way from Ramallah to Jerusalem. I had to wait an extra hour or so for a taxi with the right color license plate, yellow, and so be allowed to cross through a checkpoint in Israel’s wall and onto the road to Jerusalem on the other side. I made small talk with my driver, then retreated back into my thoughts of the journey so far. It was my sixth day in Palestine, but I felt like I had been here for months. The days were filled with tours, the nights with talks—even the meals felt like seminars. Some of this is just being abroad somewhere far from home. But most of it was the specificity of this place—how much it seemed to embody the West and its contradictions, its claims of democracy, its foundations in exploitation. Of all the worlds I have ever explored, I don’t think any shone so bright, so intense, so immediately as Palestine.
But when the light cleared I had new eyes, and I could see my own words in new ways—and the words from which they were derived—the stories, columns, speeches, and talks presented by “willing intellectuals.” So much seemed obvious. I now noted a symmetry in the bromides—that those who claimed Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East were just as likely to claim that America was the oldest democracy in the world. And both claims relied on excluding whole swaths of the population living under the rule of the state. Riding in that taxi toward Jerusalem, the truth of this struck me as undeniable. I’d spent most of my time in the Occupied Territories, a world of minority rule. But even in the state proper, caste reigned. Palestinians living in Israel have shorter lives, are poorer, and live in more violent neighborhoods. Certain neighborhoods in Israel are allowed to discriminate legally against Palestinian citizens by setting “admission committees.” The committees, operating in 41 percent of all Israeli localities, are free to bar anyone lacking “social suitability” or “compatibility with the social and cultural fabric.” Openly racist appeals are the norm, as when Benjamin Netanyahu warned in 2015 that “the right-wing government is in danger. Arab voters are heading to the polling stations in droves.” For all my talk of being fooled by the language of “Jewish democracy,” it had been right there the whole time. The phrase means what it says—a democracy for the Jewish people and the Jewish people alone. »
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Message
‘#Revolution With Joy’: #Bernie and #AOC Draw Massive Crowd in Los Angeles
Sanders appeared to draw his largest crowd ever as he warned supporters that “we are living today in an #oligarchic form of society”
by Naomi LaChance, April 12, 2025
"Sanders noted that Musk had posted a video to X on Friday showing that Sanders has been warning that America is becoming an oligarchy for decades. 'Well, Elon, you’re damn right, that’s what I’ve been talking about,' Sanders said.
" 'The difference is I’m no longer talking about how we’re moving to oligarchy. I’m talking about how we are living today in an oligarchic form of society. Three months ago, when Trump was inaugurated, standing right behind him during his inauguration, were the three wealthiest people in this country, Mr. #Musk, Mr. [Jeff] #Bezos and Mr. [Mark] #Zuckerberg. And right behind them, were 13 other #billionaires who Trump had nominated to head up major federal agencies. And that, brothers and sisters, is what #oligarchy is all about.' "
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/V0grp
Thousands in #Midwestern #GOP Districts Attend #Sanders' First Stops on Tour to Fight #Oligarchy
"It's like there's only one person who is actually able to sidestep the demoralization and frustration," said one observer.
Julia Conley, Feb 22, 2025
"After addressing more than 3,400 #Nebraska residents in Omaha Friday evening, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday made his second stop on his National Tour to Fight Oligarchy—telling Iowa City, #Iowa residents that '#Trumpism will not be defeated by politicians inside the #DCBeltway.'
"'For better or worse, that is not going to happen,' said the Vermont Independent senator, whose broadly popular policy proposals have long been dismissed by Democratic leaders as unrealistic and radical while President Donald Trump has increasingly captured the attention of the #WorkingClass Americans who would benefit most from Sanders' ideas.
"'It will only be defeated by millions of Americans in Iowa, in #Vermont, in Nebraska, in every state in this country, who come together in a strong #grassroots movement and say no to oligarchy, no to #authoritarianism, no to #kleptocracy, no to massive cuts to programs that #LowIncome and working Americans desperately need, no to huge #TaxBreaks for the #wealthiest people in this country,' said Sanders.
"The senator announced his tour earlier this month as #ElonMusk, the head of the Trump-created Department of Government Efficiency ( #DOGE) who poured $277 million on the president's campaign, swept through numerous agencies, with DOGE staffers setting up illegal servers, seizing control of data, shutting federal employees out of offices, and working to shut down operations across the government.
"Since Trump took office for his second term just over a month ago, roughly 30,000 federal employees have been fired or laid off—part of Musk's push to cut $2 trillion in federal spending in order to fill the $4.6 trillion hole that Trump's extension of the 2017 tax cuts would blow in the deficit.
"#Republican lawmakers have also pushed to include cuts to #Medicaid, and Trump this week signaled he would back #Medicare cuts after repeatedly insisting he would not slash the popular healthcare program used by more than 65 million Americans, in order to save money while handing out tax cuts to the same #corporations and #ultrawealthy households that benefited from the 2017 tax law.
"'Today in America we are rapidly moving toward an #oligarchic form of society where a handful of #multibillionaires not only have extraordinary wealth, but unprecedented economic, media, and political power,' said Sanders in Iowa City, which like Omaha is represented by a Republican U.S. House member who narrowly won reelection last November and has faced pressure to reject the GOP budget plan. 'Brothers and sisters, that is not the democracy that men and women fought and died to defend.'"
Read more:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-donald-trump
#Oligarchy #OligarchyTour #StillSanders #BernieSanders #USPol #CorporateInterests #Corporatocracy #CorporateColonialism
Senator Bernie Sanders is on a mission to fight oligarchy and empower the people. With a powerful message against Trumpism and billionaire influence, he's rallying Americans to stand up for democracy. #FightOligarchy
Raawwrrrr! #BernieSanders, 83, started the video by saying he's not typically "in the habit of thanking #ElonMusk."
"'But I must confess that he's done an exceptional job of demonstrating a point that a few of us have been making for years, and that is the reality that we live in an #oligarchic society in which #billionaires dominate not only our politics and the information we consume from media but our government and economic lives as well,' Sanders said."
https://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-elon-musk-tour-oligarchy-2030615#slideshow/2587724
#Sanders2028 #SandersForSenate2030 #StillSanders #Oligarchy
How The #US Became So #Dysfunctional, #Oligarchic, And #Corrupt – #OpEd
#DomesticPolitics in the #US is, superficially, dominated by incessant #public #fights between different #factions of the two ostensibly rival #PoliticalParties, thanks to the #collaboration of #establishment #media and many #socialnetworks.
DARLENE RYAN 🇨🇦
DoomsdaysCW
The Ukrainian Tribune
Don Curren 🇨🇦🇺🇦
🐦🔥nemo™🐦⬛ 🇺🇦🍉
Marty
Susan Larson ♀️🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🌈