Marcus
John McCallIt's quite hard to look at the current situations with Musk and Twitter, Bezos and the WaPo, and the LA Times as anything other than evidence that the extreme consolidation of wealth is itself a grave and direct threat to society
Louis Cyphre@rjmccall Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him?
Geeden_Of_Arden
Matt Massicotte
Shaman@rjmccall Absolutely that's why #WeThePeople need to make sure we no longer endorse those, who refuse to take a #StandForDemocracy and cancel all subscriptions, stop quoting, linking, or using these #MSM businesses and elect a government that works for #UsThePeople and not the #billionaires. #BanBILLIONAIRES #TaxFoundations #TaxChurches #TaxTheRich #WealthTaxNow #VoteBlueToSaveDemocracy
LukefromDC@RulesBuster @rjmccall Except for one thing: the right-wing Dems of recent years seem to have broken all the forward gears.
To go forward you have to get out and push. This is done with street activism and direct action.
To stop "R" we may need to find a way to drain the gas tank.
ferricoxide@rjmccall
Time to invest in guillotine stock.
Time to invest in guillotine stock.
Darwin Woodka
Oliver Hunt@rjmccall I mean this is just the libertarian dream, and always has been. What's most bizarre to me is how many libertarian fantasy novels seem to be them getting to together and overthrowing the society that they literally vote for and promote at every opportunity.
floydgump@rjmccall Almost everything is now controlled by the greed tyrants.Mostly all news is untrustworthy greed driven propaganda at best.
Violet MadderAnd the rest is muddied by an infinite flood of mindless machine-generated drivel.
Colin from Edinburgh.The #US is an #Oligarchy, a state owned entirely by its ultra-rich.
It slowly ceased to be a #Democracy, whilst retaining the outer appearance of a democracy.
Nobody noticed.
It didn't need to transform.
Only white landowning males could vote, from the start. Oligarchy is baked in.
Godfrey642@violetmadder @photoncollector @rjmccall
The problem has been baked in since post WW2 Bretton Woods. Arguably since start of C20th.
●USA lending $$ to order countries and locking them into unrepayable debt.
●USA taking mineral/ agricultural resources etc in return for supposed "benefits" of alliance and protection, then selling them back for profit.
●USA locking the world into US$ as baseline global currency so we are all beholden to US markets.
Check out "The Racket" by Matt Kennard. It's all there.
As countries collapse, inflation rises, governments fall, ppl move for a chance elsewhere.
USA never loses. It takes in the profits of other nations misery.
Globally we all need to unhook from USA trade and finance in whatever way we can.
Here in Australia we are told we have to jettison cheap drugs on our PBS bc America is telling us we have to charge ridiculous prices for any drugs coming from America. To boost USPharmas profits of course.
And if we don't? More tariffs, of course.
@Godfrey642 @photoncollector @rjmccall
Layers upon layers of oligarch-stuffing, people-draining crap at every stage, with some noise about civil rights or labor sprinkled on top from time to time to keep us trusting.
@violetmadder @photoncollector @rjmccall
Correct
We've all been played for fools.
Theyre laughing at Americans as well as us non Americans around the world who are in America pocket.
They (the RW oligarchs and cronies) took away Americans' rights to fair pay, fair leave, fair health care, fair pensions, fair conditions of work by killing unions and saying that anything (either unions-driven or "social" aka provided by government) was automatically Communist...
They instilled a raw fear of anything they deemed "leftist" just bc it was publicly owned and for the greater good to help citizens ( ie. common sense for social well-being).
Even now Trump bashes on about radical LW commie leftie marxist ... and yet his bestie is Putin. Work that out !!!
They want evthg to be private. Kill govt funding as wasteful. And bleed the average working American dry.
The turkeys really did vote for Xmas.
CyAnd if we don't? More tariffs, of course.
"Stop outpricing us, or we'll raise our prices even more!"
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
"Stop outpricing us, or we'll raise our prices even more!"
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
@cy @violetmadder @photoncollector @rjmccall
Exactly.
It's a horrible way to manipulate other nations.
Theres nothing kind or benevolent or mature about that kind of behaviour to other nations.
It's mean and exploitative - is that the true side of America ???
@cy @Godfrey642 @violetmadder @rjmccall
It's an economic prison.
It's different things to different people, at different times...
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
CC: @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
@cy @Godfrey642 @violetmadder @rjmccall
This is what it is for most Americans:
https://medium.com/@colingajewski/the-usa-a-maximum-security-prison-no-escape-b18c1fca8189
Yeah like "Gee, I think I'll go walk to Canada. What are Canada's requirements for that these days, anyway?"
Canada: You can't come here unless a private corporation stealing our land and exploiting us wants you to.
Gotta keep out the riff-raff!
Canada: You can't come here unless a private corporation stealing our land and exploiting us wants you to.
Gotta keep out the riff-raff!
The US is very hard to escape from.
Even if you do, you're liable to pay taxes to the US.
(also my implication is that the USA are shooting themselves in the foot, and failing at exploiting Australia with their temper tantrums)
@photoncollector @rjmccall We may now see a formal Republic to Empire transition
There will be no Empire; just growing irrelevance.
"Requiem For A World Power."
https://medium.com/@colingajewski/requiem-for-a-world-power-4a7cd0b6e43c
@photoncollector @rjmccall There has been a de facto empire for probably close to a century
@LukefromDC @rjmccall
The word "Katabasis" in Kohine Greek means a sudden, rapid descent.
There never was such an Empire, de facto, or otherwise.
Nice fantasy, though.
"An empire is a large territory or group of territories controlled by a single authority, often expanded through conquest, uniting diverse regions under one rule."
@photoncollector @rjmccall Large parts of Central America have a history of governments that are US Puppets. Cuba and Nicaragua overthrew such rulers, El Salvador fought them to a standstill, then voted them out.
@LukefromDC @rjmccall
Doesn't meet the definition of an Empire.
You could just as easily say Cuba had an Empire using your "understanding" of the word.
Doesn't meet the definition of an Empire.
You could just as easily say Cuba had an Empire using your "understanding" of the word.
@photoncollector @rjmccall I don't recall any Cuban puppet states being directly ordered around from Havana.
By comparison the US was known for staging coups when their control over a puppet state started slipping away. Until Jan 2, 2021 it used to be joked that no coup was possible in the US for lack of a US Embassy in Washington DC.
@LukefromDC @rjmccall
I love your dogged pursuit of an original point that was in itself wholly nonsensical.
I love your dogged pursuit of an original point that was in itself wholly nonsensical.
sOlOw-NHThe irony of citizens united
BobseePlease watch this vid and boost
https://substack.com/@ohhthatsrich/note/c-102336670?r=4up5ys
Ohh that’s RICH on Substack
Masculinity in the United States is in a state of crisis. A new poll from NBC confirms the impact of this crisis is deeper than I ever could’ve imagined. The overwhelming support for Trump, MAGA, and DOGE among white men without a college education is at a level that would terrify the American men I considered to be heroes as a child. Men who fought and defeated the worst of us. Men who believed in working hard and protecting their community. Men like my grandfathers. We must reclaim our identity. For everyone’s sake.
Listened to it. He's absolutely right.
This a comment on the US economy, written in Orwell-inspired Newspeak.
They've turned the economy into an open prison.
https://medium.com/@colingajewski/americawork-debt-chain-proleconomy-d85a016c8465
Im currently reading Matt Kennard "The Racket" written in 2016 but updated and highly relevant to today.
Im in the chapter on Bretton Woods after WW2 and it seems that that is when this whole nightmare began. US basically holding the world to ransom with loans, unrepayable debts, seizure of other nations' assets and locking world governments into the US dollar as global currency.
We all sleepwalked into this believing America was the good guy who had our backs, when in reality America had us by the balls.
Now Americas 1% aka the oligarchs have got their compatriots by the balls as well. And they just don't care.
Lynn McAlister UE 
@photoncollector @rjmccall I noticed. So did Jimmy Carter and Bernie Sanders.
The program has been ongoing for at least 60 years.
@photoncollector @rjmccall Yes. Reagan has a lot to answer for. (As does Thatcher, though not in the US.)
They play the long game.
NashvilleGuy@photoncollector @rjmccall What role has Citizens United had in this process? Seems significant. #Oligarchy #US
Highly significant.
Golden Bunny of Destiny 🕯
cowboybanjobiker 🤠🪕🚴A movement towards authoritarianism.
6x6@rjmccall Every day another step closer to Elysium. Mars is too far, too cold, too dry. But these people regard a nation state of billionaires ruling a world in chaos below as a great idea.
Pamela@rjmccall It isn't and the only answer that makes sense is to tax them back into normality. Billionaires are the new tyranny! It isn't normal.
Tom Bellin 
@rjmccall For the life of me I don't understand how these rich and powerful men can be so oblivious to the lessons of history for what happens to rich and powerful men.
The imbalance of power of the billionaire class will resolve in one of two ways.
1) Society will move towards a more democratic distribution of wealth.
2) The wealth will be ripped from their cold, dead hands by fascist autocrats and/or the mobs of angry people deposing the fascist autocrats.
Those are your options. Choose.
zendao42@rjmccall
Money gives power & corruption
Money gives power & corruption
Bruno Nicoletti@rjmccall Always has been, always will be.