The Dollar is down 10% since Trump took office.....
According to Business Insider on 1/10/24:
-The richest Americans own the vast majority of the US stock market, according to Fed data.
-The top 10% of Americans held 93% of all stocks, the highest level ever recorded.
-Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of Americans held just 1% of all stocks in the third quarter of 2023.
This is where the greedy bastards want you to compete to build a retirement fund. Republicans, TRump, the Cult, and the oligarchs make everything a competition favoring the richest 1% of this country. Meanwhile they expect the rest of this country to do all the work.
Now the Commie Pink-o Rat in the White House wants to OWN the markets too?! Maybe the psycho is showing his oligarchs who owns THEM. That's the game Putin plays. See you in the streets.
Howerver many of us are tied to the markets via our pensions. Most of our family income is via government annuities, which may/may not be vulnerable given the Republican control of everything. They've tried to undermine the Social Secuirity trust funds and tried to borrow from federal employees' pension funds.
Google. Institutional investors control a substantial majority of U.S. stocks, with estimates often placing their share at over 80% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500 and U.S. equities. That includes entities like state retirement funds and wiodely held 401 K type funds.
Thanks Daniel. Why the conflict in information? Hedge funds are included in your figure but only 7% of the market. So that's not it.
Bernie keeps using the figures as well, although he usually is talking about "wealth", but isn't that where their wealth is? Something is very wrong concerning who owns what shares or what BI (they said stocks) and Bernie are talking about.
I have a different perspective. "Income" is relatively meaningless in terms of "wealth." Infdividuals like Musk don't generate income. PeterThiel, for example has most of his income from a Roth Ira -- not taxed.
As of mid-2025, California's two largest pension funds—the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS)—have a combined total of over $900 billion in assets. If they want to change the corporate culture of industries like Big Oil, they have more than one way to do it.
Shareholding states, such as California, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, have filed lawsuits against major fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP, alleging decades of public deception about the impacts of their products on climate change. These lawsuits seek to hold companies accountable for climate-related damages and costs, with some states establishing "climate superfund" laws to recover funds for resilience projects. The Trump administration has opposed these efforts, even filing counter-lawsuits against states like Hawaii and New York in an attempt to halt their climate lawsuits against oil companies.
Meanwhile, Exxon shareholders filed derivative lawsuits alleging board and officer misconduct, specifically misrepresenting climate change costs and risks, and failing to incorporate climate costs into asset valuation. A separate, high-profile lawsuit involved Exxon suing activist investors Arjuna Capital and Follow This to block a shareholder proposal, which was eventually dismissed as moot after the investors agreed to stop submitting climate proposals.
The largest institutional owners vary by stock, but typically include asset managers like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street, as well as index funds, pension funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the Invesco QQQ Trust.
When we allowed corporate influence into government, through campaign donations and professionalized lobbying, we created a fourth branch of government bent on taking over the other three. So here we are. Capitalism without constraints is the actual road to serfdom.
Thom: "This is today’s Trump-grift 101, whether it’s his brand-new $5 billion crypto fortune (with government support) or his recent real estate deals around the world cut based on his power in DC."
It's extortion -- plain and simple. I saw this in Batista's Cuba, when he and his cronies set up a system that gave them a cut in everything. Batista's regime also fostered relationships with the American Mafia, which controlled parts of Havana's drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses. He encouraged tourism development and profited from casinos, even offering incentives like matching investments for hotels that included a casino license.
I've said previously that IMHO many of the corporations that bend the knee will eventually be his marks. "He’s now had the federal government buy or otherwise acquire stock in multiple companies, including Intel, MP Materials, Lithium Americas, Trilogy Metals, and the US Steel Corporation." Consider the manipulation of his cryptocurrency. Consider that In May 2025, a UAE-backed venture capital firm, MGX, bought $2 billion worth of USD1, a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial (WLF). World Liberty Financial is a crypto company co-founded by the Trump family and advisor Steve Witkoff. Although the WLF stablecoin USD1 is separate from the $TRUMP meme coin, the transaction significantly benefits the Trump family's crypto ventures.
AI: As of October 2025, the circulating supply of the OFFICIAL TRUMP (TRUMP) meme coin is approximately 200 million. This represents about 20% of the maximum total supply, which is 1 billion TRUMP coins. Meanwhile, Trump asks his followers for funding as if he is running for office, and may/may not be getting a cut from all of his transactions.
Batista's corruption, coupled with other factors like political repression and economic inequality, contributed to widespread public discontent that ultimately fueled the Cuban Revolution and Batista's overthrow in 1959. In Cuba, parking had historically been free. When the meters were installed in the capital, they immediately generated widespread resentment among the public. In the aftermath of Batista's flight from Cuba on January 1, 1959, angry mobs took to the streets and destroyed the meters and slot machines from casinos. To many Cubans, the meters were not just a nuisance but a symbol of the greed and corruption of Batista and his cronies. Their destruction was a major, highly symbolic moment during the revolution.
You'd think that corporation CEOs faced with Trump government interference, government repression of selected businesses based on faulty logic, irrational tariffs etc. whould be just as irate as Cubans were about Batista's parking meters.
Corporations, their CEO's and Boards live quarter to quarter, everything depends on the quarterly price/earnings. You would think that the quarterly profit and loss P&E would be more important, but the real money for the investors is the P/E the value of the stock, because the real money is made on the stock market, not in production and sales.
The Tech-Bros crawled into bed with him willingly. They want some version of that Technate of America. When he's long-gone they will be in charge from Canada and Greenland all the way into Venezuela and Columbia.
Their satellites are the key. New tech is right around the corner to use them as cell towers and for internet service. Already doing some of that, but this is to ramp it up to be affordable. All those ugly unnecessary cell towers gone. Phone/internet services that keep merging. Give it a couple decades, if you don't "obey", work and and pay-up, off the system you go.
No further explanation needed---several someones already wrote the books.
Alis,great post. I have been suggesting on this substack and Thom Hartmann that big Tech is our worst enemy,Google,Meta,Amazon,Microsoft,Nvdia(perhaps the worst) and any other company involved with AI. There have been many articles written recently about the massive job losses that will occur in the next 2 yrs as result of AI.The response by these cos is that new jobs will be developed,when pushed to name just one,they cannot. Big Tech is not concerned that 6-20 millions jobs could be lost,they are all so wealthy,they have their islands to retreat to.They all support the "Nazi" Trump and will continue.
There was an app developed that was able to track "ice".It was in the Apple store,Trump and Co heard about is,called Tim Cook ( #1 Suckup to Trump) demanding he remove the app. Of course Tim Cook gladly obliged.
Here's the problem, Dear William, this is the same damn psycho as before. His signs come and go; it's called "fluctuating dementia".
I'm watching his cabinet meeting, and he looks and sounds fine. Wide awake. He's reading his notes and speaking off the cuff.
As for heart failure, five years sometimes. He's going to the hospital tomorrow. At least they told us this time, but I doubt it is routine as they said. Still wondering if he has a pacemaker or maybe a chest port for injections or other treatments (no more bruised hands). Relatives and friends have had all those things---that's why I know a bit about them.
He is a tool, a tool with dementia and read Thom's latest The Last President,
he is a pschopath, a sociopath, his needs are simple, all he wants and needs is approval, complements, validation, ostenatious display of wealth, and he hires people that will get him those things, but he also hires people who care clever enough to take advantage of him.
Just like Howard Hughes
As regards his heart, well Cheney doesn't have one, literally, he has no pulse, just a whirring sound from a pump, that is powered by his bodies own electricity.;
I am 86 and I bruise easily. I woke up four days ago with a broken blood vessel in the outer corner of my right eyes. no idea what happened.
If Anything I think that Trump is get IV's of blood from children because they have high leveld of growth hormones, and that accounts for the bruise on his hand, maybe his veins are not accessible, it happens in old age and obesity. I am not obese, in fact my arms are skinnier than they were when I was 50, but they can't draw blood out of my right arm, only my left
Yesterday I had a Positron Emission Tomography (P.E.T.) Scan and they injected fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), which is a radioactive form of glucose (sugar). and they used the back of my hand, however it is not bruised.
Speaking as a psychologist - bullseye. I spent last weekend in Chgo - class of '65's 60th reunion. A number of my classmates are also colleagues. We all concurred that Trump shows evidence of advancing dementia. Our guess is that he gets his energy from narcissistic rage and stimulants like Adderall from his old toady MD, now congressman, Jackson - a known drug pusher during Trump 1.0. The combo increases. Longtime stimulant use can also create attention deficit (Why he hates to read? Why he always babbles off script?).
In any honorable government, both Biden and Trump would have been Article 25'd. In Trump's case, he should have been impeached as well by Congress over his almost hourly violations of public law.
That Tump wasn't removed by the Senate after impeachment, that he was re elected and kept viable by the corporate media. ix proof that there he has proven to be a useful tool, by a "cabal" who is unaffected by his shenanigans,
But here is what gets me. He has staffed his cabinet ant the Offal Orfice with mostly Fox News personalities, and apparently they have free reign to pursue a hive like agenda. like the Borg of Startrek, he may not know what they are doing but endorses anything they have done.
Think about this, He actually believed Portland was in uproar because he saw it on TV. On Fox specifically, and that ran clips from 2020.
Fox knows that he watches them almost exclusively, and they certainly knows the hours that he watches, so they program accordingly.
Who is directing Fox programming and why.
I don't watch Fox, but I suspect that this whole Venezuela drug trafficking thing is coming from Fox. His crusade against windmills, the same.
His crusade against wind generators is just one aspect of his crusade against green energy, which benefits Exxon Mobil, OPEC, BP, Shell the oil cabal.
And Venezuela is a little country that has the worlds largest oil reserves, that were once the monopoly of Exxon mobil,until Chavez naturalized them.
Immigration, trans, fodder for his ignorant base, whom they exploit. It keeps them distracted while their pockets are picked and they are enslaved.
And the threat to their power, none other than those with high function pre frontal vortexes, like Blue states, especially ones with black mayors.
They are a distraction and a threat, and if anyone thinks that the Epstein files will solve the Trump problem, I have another thought for them. Bondi has had them long enough to scrub them of anything that would hurt Trump and powerful men.
"He" won't be around, and all he cares about is his latest extortion that makes him think he's winning. Rope A Dope.
I do not think the Tech-Bros will succeed. Creepy, crazy, out of touch. They have all been exposed, but we need to know there is a plan. We have read the books and seen the movies.
I shared you a link above. Apparently Trump is being used as a sock puppet, and is happy so long as he can grift, feel important, have people slobber over him and he gets revenge..
If he gets those things, whatever is done in his name is just fine., not to excuse Trump, he is a bonafide felon and war criminal and should be tried by the ICC.
Read it, thanks. Learned something new about the ICC, they can issue secret or sealed arrest warrants. SOME people need to watch where they visit or fly over. Payback can be a bitch, especially if you get a kick out of snatching people off the street.
I hope that they have a secret warrant for Trump, that business of blowing boats out of the water should do it.
Then again Reagan should have had one for Grenada, an invasion of a small island under falseor spurious pretenses, and George H W Bush for invading Panama, again under false pretenses just to arrest a CIA bag man. Notice that the trialof Noriega has never been publicized and nobody. no journalist has ever investigated.
The invasion of Panama would be illegal under international law, except Panama is not really a Sovereign country.
The Bank of Panama is an offshore branch of Citigroup, created under the authority of the Edge Act. In fact the official currency of Panama is the American dollar, and it's coins are minted in the Philadelphia Mint, of the same stock, (size and weight) as American coins, the only difference being the designs on the obverse and reverse. Same is true of Liberia
When the Bank of Panama needs US Dollars to meet demand, they get them from the US. Federal Reserve Inc., just like your local bank.
Democratic leadership would do well to take charge of the conversation rather than defensively responding to the fascist’s lies. Enthusiastic support of Zorhan Mamdani would be a great place to start. and far more desirable than wishing he’d go away.
It seems to me that whether you call your country communist, socialist, fascist, a democracy, a republic or anything else, there is always a risk that someone will come along who wants total control of the people and the wealth, and he gathers people around him who want a share of the spoils who do their best to help him succeed. Civis cave!
Yes, Sue, check out Paulson’s presidential fundraising for Trump, which, as a large percentage holder of Trilogy, secured them a huge contract and big bucks for Paulson.
I am in a situation where one person wants it all. I never asked for honor just that I am not erased - to only share responsibility in my late husband’s foundation honor. She wants it all! The long term abuse by this group has included stalking, surveillance 24/7, and menacing me using my mentally ill son which recently includes his new wife who also suffers from the same disease schizophrenia.
At the least I thought as many who have been involved promised, financial reparations for the destruction of our family.
Red state governors keep their people in poverty and without health care, Yet like Greg Abbot they get elected and re elected. What does that tell you about the mentality of the people and more importantly their priorities.
Apparently the culture war, the war against sexual, ethnic and racial minorities and the the needs of the patriarchy are more important than their own health and financial needs.
Trump is a fascist not a communist. He is instituting the "terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary section of big capital," to paraphrase the antifascist Georgi Dimitrov.
I agree with Thom. The brand of capitalism that is being played by billionaires is a very old one. Human greed has always been present and will no doubt remain part of our story until humanity as a whole starts identifying with a consensus of commonalities instead of identification with power, control, and amassing (and hoarding) wealth.
We must and need a new way of viewing our wealth and resources that takes commonality into consideration. We are all human beings with basic needs. Any system that blocks and traps people or that puts segments of the population in a position of non-mobility and reduces their ability to choose will only bring out desperation, animosity, and war of ideas that eventually develops into war of form.
Competition to a certain extent is fun but when it’s built into every aspect of society, evolution is no longer healthy adaptation, it becomes a predatory dog-eat-dog environment that is not in any way healthy for the economy or the human psyche.
Superb column, but I fear we will not do what should be done, Thom. The morbidly rich have succeeded in dumbing down the electorate to such an extent that the average American lacks the intelligence, skills or attention span to understand any of what you wrote. Worse yet, the morbidly rich and our foreign enemies, especially Russia and China, have also worked to maximize the polarization and anger surrounding "culture war" issues in this country to make us all suspicious of and angry at each other, rendering productive, common sense compromise in the American traditions of pragmatism and realism impossible.
I see little ahead but increasing social disturbances, perhaps rising to the level of an undeclared civil war, which will likely end with that horrific society so common in human history--a vast peonage and a tiny ruling class. Call it fascist or communist but it's the same. What you said about communism is true--it only works with small groups sharing common goals, interests, and a desire for mutual well being, which is also why true Christianity will never work in large, diverse societies--human nature isn't good enough for either.
As a Navy brat whose active life was entirely in the last half of the 20th century, I got to enjoy the benefits of the mixed capitalist-socialist system we had from FDR forward. Its destruction has been the greatest crime against our country and average Americans. We will not get it back, and if we get anything close to it, we will only get it after what will likely be a very violent upheaval. That makes me wish that our grandson, the absolute center of our later life and someone with whom I am eternally bonded, had never been born. Because I fear his future and that of his generation is so bleak.
We need a strong economy but everybody forgets that all need a living income. Trying to have both without the frame of taxes to pay for it is what is missing. Before WWII taxing wages was a sin and only the need for a war tax changed that. We must drop the taxes on wages and do as before to raise taxes on unearned income (money made by money). No tax can be other than 50% or more and the top tax rate has to be 94% to change the behavior of big business so they will raise wages in order to not pay tax.
Unfortunately we have a very weak democratic leadership, they are afraid to call Trump and Miller liars, Trump is more than half way through Project 2025. The extreme Right controls the Supreme Court, the entire government and the media. It is the weakness of the Dems that have brought us to this. Biden/Harris had the best economy in the world but had ni idea how to sell it to the public. Inflation was worldwide (not created by the Dems). The USA did better than any other country in the world. Ofcourse the Dems were too beholden to the rich to tax them, there attempts were again very weak.
All the lies, the hate and fear mongering by Trump are the introduction to "The insurrection act".
ICE is the Gestapo/Brown shirts, they are encouraged by Miller to be as cruel and sadistic as possible to created a rebellion. Russell Vought/Herritage foundation are winning after decades of trying to turn this country into a White "Christian" Nation.
Yo are correct Marjo, we have very weak leadership and we need fresh leadership with a spine, and they don't call out Trump and Miller as liars, nor do they expose SCOTUS for what it is,
As regards inflation, there are two types, short term or temporary and long term inflation.
Short term inflation is caused by an increase in the money supply, and the money supply is increase and decreased by the propensity for debt (public, corporate, private), and the propensity for debt is subject to interest ratess, because all money is created out of debt (public, corporate,private)
Decrease Interest rates and you increase the demand for debt, increase the demand for debt, and you get more debts , thus money , thus inflation.
But credit cards are immune to interest rates, beause of minimum payments
Long term interest rates, which also affect current interest rates and things like big purchases (mortgages, cars, boats, airplanes and even appliances) are caysed by the interest on the debt.
When you pay off a debt, the principal is wiped off the books (the money goes out of existence), but not the interest on the debt.
When you borrow money or use your credit card, the financial institution actually creates money, on the basis of a fraction of the reserve they hold, but they don't create money to pay the interest that you owe. That interest contributes to long term inflation.
We know that they are spineless, like Jeffries and Schumer, who a day late and adollar short have stiffened their spines, a bit, only a bit though
We know that they spend as much energy and resources in squashing progressives,and protecting or advancing "conservatives" like Nancy using the DCCC funds to support a conservative Joseph Kenney Jr in his run against a proven progressive Senator, Markey of Mass. And backing a homophobe against a an out gay. Or refusing to bring a Single Payor bill to the floor, holding it open for the disaster of the ACA Yes the ACA does good, but Single Payor would have more, it would have been "perfect" not good, but Rahm and Nancy were it's enmies, because it would have hurt AHIP, and AHIP is major contributor to the party and would have used their money to punish the democrats, but at least would have had single payor.
Nope facts, which you have not disputed point by point. I have heard a MAGAt calling Jeffries and Schumer spineless, I haven't heard a MAGAt argue for single payor.
could you PLEASE give a daily understandable definition of the Progressive, Democracy and Socialism that the USA maybe loosing. Thank you!!!
People have forgotten that 75 Mil. voted Dem's, 77 Mil. voted Rep's, BUT 90,000,000 did not vote!!! People please understand the DIVERSITY of our Country.
Seriously well written and concise explanation of capitalism/socialism/communism as it exists in the US today.
The Orange Pedo [OP] is treating the economy the way the character Jim [Jason Biggs] treated that warm apple pie in the 1999 movie "American Pie."
Or the way OP treated random, sexy-to-OP, Epstein-curated teens older than, perhaps, 12.
The Dollar is down 10% since Trump took office.....
According to Business Insider on 1/10/24:
-The richest Americans own the vast majority of the US stock market, according to Fed data.
-The top 10% of Americans held 93% of all stocks, the highest level ever recorded.
-Meanwhile, the bottom 50% of Americans held just 1% of all stocks in the third quarter of 2023.
This is where the greedy bastards want you to compete to build a retirement fund. Republicans, TRump, the Cult, and the oligarchs make everything a competition favoring the richest 1% of this country. Meanwhile they expect the rest of this country to do all the work.
Now the Commie Pink-o Rat in the White House wants to OWN the markets too?! Maybe the psycho is showing his oligarchs who owns THEM. That's the game Putin plays. See you in the streets.
See my comments above.
Howerver many of us are tied to the markets via our pensions. Most of our family income is via government annuities, which may/may not be vulnerable given the Republican control of everything. They've tried to undermine the Social Secuirity trust funds and tried to borrow from federal employees' pension funds.
Google. Institutional investors control a substantial majority of U.S. stocks, with estimates often placing their share at over 80% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500 and U.S. equities. That includes entities like state retirement funds and wiodely held 401 K type funds.
In my paranoia, I watch this stuff daily.
Thanks Daniel. Why the conflict in information? Hedge funds are included in your figure but only 7% of the market. So that's not it.
Bernie keeps using the figures as well, although he usually is talking about "wealth", but isn't that where their wealth is? Something is very wrong concerning who owns what shares or what BI (they said stocks) and Bernie are talking about.
I have a different perspective. "Income" is relatively meaningless in terms of "wealth." Infdividuals like Musk don't generate income. PeterThiel, for example has most of his income from a Roth Ira -- not taxed.
As of mid-2025, California's two largest pension funds—the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS)—have a combined total of over $900 billion in assets. If they want to change the corporate culture of industries like Big Oil, they have more than one way to do it.
Shareholding states, such as California, Minnesota, and Rhode Island, have filed lawsuits against major fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP, alleging decades of public deception about the impacts of their products on climate change. These lawsuits seek to hold companies accountable for climate-related damages and costs, with some states establishing "climate superfund" laws to recover funds for resilience projects. The Trump administration has opposed these efforts, even filing counter-lawsuits against states like Hawaii and New York in an attempt to halt their climate lawsuits against oil companies.
Meanwhile, Exxon shareholders filed derivative lawsuits alleging board and officer misconduct, specifically misrepresenting climate change costs and risks, and failing to incorporate climate costs into asset valuation. A separate, high-profile lawsuit involved Exxon suing activist investors Arjuna Capital and Follow This to block a shareholder proposal, which was eventually dismissed as moot after the investors agreed to stop submitting climate proposals.
The largest institutional owners vary by stock, but typically include asset managers like Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street, as well as index funds, pension funds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) like the Invesco QQQ Trust.
Yet the people he is screwing over are his most loyal base, that sure tells you a lot about the human condition.
When we allowed corporate influence into government, through campaign donations and professionalized lobbying, we created a fourth branch of government bent on taking over the other three. So here we are. Capitalism without constraints is the actual road to serfdom.
Thom: "This is today’s Trump-grift 101, whether it’s his brand-new $5 billion crypto fortune (with government support) or his recent real estate deals around the world cut based on his power in DC."
It's extortion -- plain and simple. I saw this in Batista's Cuba, when he and his cronies set up a system that gave them a cut in everything. Batista's regime also fostered relationships with the American Mafia, which controlled parts of Havana's drug, gambling, and prostitution businesses. He encouraged tourism development and profited from casinos, even offering incentives like matching investments for hotels that included a casino license.
I've said previously that IMHO many of the corporations that bend the knee will eventually be his marks. "He’s now had the federal government buy or otherwise acquire stock in multiple companies, including Intel, MP Materials, Lithium Americas, Trilogy Metals, and the US Steel Corporation." Consider the manipulation of his cryptocurrency. Consider that In May 2025, a UAE-backed venture capital firm, MGX, bought $2 billion worth of USD1, a stablecoin created by World Liberty Financial (WLF). World Liberty Financial is a crypto company co-founded by the Trump family and advisor Steve Witkoff. Although the WLF stablecoin USD1 is separate from the $TRUMP meme coin, the transaction significantly benefits the Trump family's crypto ventures.
AI: As of October 2025, the circulating supply of the OFFICIAL TRUMP (TRUMP) meme coin is approximately 200 million. This represents about 20% of the maximum total supply, which is 1 billion TRUMP coins. Meanwhile, Trump asks his followers for funding as if he is running for office, and may/may not be getting a cut from all of his transactions.
Batista's corruption, coupled with other factors like political repression and economic inequality, contributed to widespread public discontent that ultimately fueled the Cuban Revolution and Batista's overthrow in 1959. In Cuba, parking had historically been free. When the meters were installed in the capital, they immediately generated widespread resentment among the public. In the aftermath of Batista's flight from Cuba on January 1, 1959, angry mobs took to the streets and destroyed the meters and slot machines from casinos. To many Cubans, the meters were not just a nuisance but a symbol of the greed and corruption of Batista and his cronies. Their destruction was a major, highly symbolic moment during the revolution.
You'd think that corporation CEOs faced with Trump government interference, government repression of selected businesses based on faulty logic, irrational tariffs etc. whould be just as irate as Cubans were about Batista's parking meters.
.
Corporations, their CEO's and Boards live quarter to quarter, everything depends on the quarterly price/earnings. You would think that the quarterly profit and loss P&E would be more important, but the real money for the investors is the P/E the value of the stock, because the real money is made on the stock market, not in production and sales.
Depends on the corportate philosphy.
The Tech-Bros crawled into bed with him willingly. They want some version of that Technate of America. When he's long-gone they will be in charge from Canada and Greenland all the way into Venezuela and Columbia.
Their satellites are the key. New tech is right around the corner to use them as cell towers and for internet service. Already doing some of that, but this is to ramp it up to be affordable. All those ugly unnecessary cell towers gone. Phone/internet services that keep merging. Give it a couple decades, if you don't "obey", work and and pay-up, off the system you go.
No further explanation needed---several someones already wrote the books.
Alis,great post. I have been suggesting on this substack and Thom Hartmann that big Tech is our worst enemy,Google,Meta,Amazon,Microsoft,Nvdia(perhaps the worst) and any other company involved with AI. There have been many articles written recently about the massive job losses that will occur in the next 2 yrs as result of AI.The response by these cos is that new jobs will be developed,when pushed to name just one,they cannot. Big Tech is not concerned that 6-20 millions jobs could be lost,they are all so wealthy,they have their islands to retreat to.They all support the "Nazi" Trump and will continue.
There was an app developed that was able to track "ice".It was in the Apple store,Trump and Co heard about is,called Tim Cook ( #1 Suckup to Trump) demanding he remove the app. Of course Tim Cook gladly obliged.
Read this, it is alarming. Trump has signs of dementia, and decisions are being made in his name. https://www.signorile.com/p/pritzker-zeroed-in-on-trumps-mental
Here's the problem, Dear William, this is the same damn psycho as before. His signs come and go; it's called "fluctuating dementia".
I'm watching his cabinet meeting, and he looks and sounds fine. Wide awake. He's reading his notes and speaking off the cuff.
As for heart failure, five years sometimes. He's going to the hospital tomorrow. At least they told us this time, but I doubt it is routine as they said. Still wondering if he has a pacemaker or maybe a chest port for injections or other treatments (no more bruised hands). Relatives and friends have had all those things---that's why I know a bit about them.
Trump is not a deep thinker, he is not a strategist, read this article https://www.signorile.com/p/pritzker-zeroed-in-on-trumps-mental.
He is a tool, a tool with dementia and read Thom's latest The Last President,
he is a pschopath, a sociopath, his needs are simple, all he wants and needs is approval, complements, validation, ostenatious display of wealth, and he hires people that will get him those things, but he also hires people who care clever enough to take advantage of him.
Just like Howard Hughes
As regards his heart, well Cheney doesn't have one, literally, he has no pulse, just a whirring sound from a pump, that is powered by his bodies own electricity.;
I am 86 and I bruise easily. I woke up four days ago with a broken blood vessel in the outer corner of my right eyes. no idea what happened.
If Anything I think that Trump is get IV's of blood from children because they have high leveld of growth hormones, and that accounts for the bruise on his hand, maybe his veins are not accessible, it happens in old age and obesity. I am not obese, in fact my arms are skinnier than they were when I was 50, but they can't draw blood out of my right arm, only my left
Yesterday I had a Positron Emission Tomography (P.E.T.) Scan and they injected fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), which is a radioactive form of glucose (sugar). and they used the back of my hand, however it is not bruised.
Alis, all of that is true, but also check out my reply to Bill's comment.
Speaking as a psychologist - bullseye. I spent last weekend in Chgo - class of '65's 60th reunion. A number of my classmates are also colleagues. We all concurred that Trump shows evidence of advancing dementia. Our guess is that he gets his energy from narcissistic rage and stimulants like Adderall from his old toady MD, now congressman, Jackson - a known drug pusher during Trump 1.0. The combo increases. Longtime stimulant use can also create attention deficit (Why he hates to read? Why he always babbles off script?).
In any honorable government, both Biden and Trump would have been Article 25'd. In Trump's case, he should have been impeached as well by Congress over his almost hourly violations of public law.
That Tump wasn't removed by the Senate after impeachment, that he was re elected and kept viable by the corporate media. ix proof that there he has proven to be a useful tool, by a "cabal" who is unaffected by his shenanigans,
But here is what gets me. He has staffed his cabinet ant the Offal Orfice with mostly Fox News personalities, and apparently they have free reign to pursue a hive like agenda. like the Borg of Startrek, he may not know what they are doing but endorses anything they have done.
Think about this, He actually believed Portland was in uproar because he saw it on TV. On Fox specifically, and that ran clips from 2020.
Fox knows that he watches them almost exclusively, and they certainly knows the hours that he watches, so they program accordingly.
Who is directing Fox programming and why.
I don't watch Fox, but I suspect that this whole Venezuela drug trafficking thing is coming from Fox. His crusade against windmills, the same.
His crusade against wind generators is just one aspect of his crusade against green energy, which benefits Exxon Mobil, OPEC, BP, Shell the oil cabal.
And Venezuela is a little country that has the worlds largest oil reserves, that were once the monopoly of Exxon mobil,until Chavez naturalized them.
Immigration, trans, fodder for his ignorant base, whom they exploit. It keeps them distracted while their pockets are picked and they are enslaved.
And the threat to their power, none other than those with high function pre frontal vortexes, like Blue states, especially ones with black mayors.
They are a distraction and a threat, and if anyone thinks that the Epstein files will solve the Trump problem, I have another thought for them. Bondi has had them long enough to scrub them of anything that would hurt Trump and powerful men.
He can make their currency worthless and/or nationalize them.
"He" won't be around, and all he cares about is his latest extortion that makes him think he's winning. Rope A Dope.
I do not think the Tech-Bros will succeed. Creepy, crazy, out of touch. They have all been exposed, but we need to know there is a plan. We have read the books and seen the movies.
I shared you a link above. Apparently Trump is being used as a sock puppet, and is happy so long as he can grift, feel important, have people slobber over him and he gets revenge..
If he gets those things, whatever is done in his name is just fine., not to excuse Trump, he is a bonafide felon and war criminal and should be tried by the ICC.
Read it, thanks. Learned something new about the ICC, they can issue secret or sealed arrest warrants. SOME people need to watch where they visit or fly over. Payback can be a bitch, especially if you get a kick out of snatching people off the street.
I hope that they have a secret warrant for Trump, that business of blowing boats out of the water should do it.
Then again Reagan should have had one for Grenada, an invasion of a small island under falseor spurious pretenses, and George H W Bush for invading Panama, again under false pretenses just to arrest a CIA bag man. Notice that the trialof Noriega has never been publicized and nobody. no journalist has ever investigated.
The invasion of Panama would be illegal under international law, except Panama is not really a Sovereign country.
The Bank of Panama is an offshore branch of Citigroup, created under the authority of the Edge Act. In fact the official currency of Panama is the American dollar, and it's coins are minted in the Philadelphia Mint, of the same stock, (size and weight) as American coins, the only difference being the designs on the obverse and reverse. Same is true of Liberia
When the Bank of Panama needs US Dollars to meet demand, they get them from the US. Federal Reserve Inc., just like your local bank.
Democratic leadership would do well to take charge of the conversation rather than defensively responding to the fascist’s lies. Enthusiastic support of Zorhan Mamdani would be a great place to start. and far more desirable than wishing he’d go away.
Thanks Thom for another timely and thought provoking read.
It seems to me that whether you call your country communist, socialist, fascist, a democracy, a republic or anything else, there is always a risk that someone will come along who wants total control of the people and the wealth, and he gathers people around him who want a share of the spoils who do their best to help him succeed. Civis cave!
Yes, Sue, check out Paulson’s presidential fundraising for Trump, which, as a large percentage holder of Trilogy, secured them a huge contract and big bucks for Paulson.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hanktucker/2025/10/07/billionaire-trump-donor-paulson-scores-windfall-thanks-to-governments-investment-in-trilogy-metals/
I am in a situation where one person wants it all. I never asked for honor just that I am not erased - to only share responsibility in my late husband’s foundation honor. She wants it all! The long term abuse by this group has included stalking, surveillance 24/7, and menacing me using my mentally ill son which recently includes his new wife who also suffers from the same disease schizophrenia.
At the least I thought as many who have been involved promised, financial reparations for the destruction of our family.
Red state governors keep their people in poverty and without health care, Yet like Greg Abbot they get elected and re elected. What does that tell you about the mentality of the people and more importantly their priorities.
Apparently the culture war, the war against sexual, ethnic and racial minorities and the the needs of the patriarchy are more important than their own health and financial needs.
Trump is a fascist not a communist. He is instituting the "terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary section of big capital," to paraphrase the antifascist Georgi Dimitrov.
A rose by any other name.. is a totalitarian.
I agree with Thom. The brand of capitalism that is being played by billionaires is a very old one. Human greed has always been present and will no doubt remain part of our story until humanity as a whole starts identifying with a consensus of commonalities instead of identification with power, control, and amassing (and hoarding) wealth.
We must and need a new way of viewing our wealth and resources that takes commonality into consideration. We are all human beings with basic needs. Any system that blocks and traps people or that puts segments of the population in a position of non-mobility and reduces their ability to choose will only bring out desperation, animosity, and war of ideas that eventually develops into war of form.
Competition to a certain extent is fun but when it’s built into every aspect of society, evolution is no longer healthy adaptation, it becomes a predatory dog-eat-dog environment that is not in any way healthy for the economy or the human psyche.
Mussolini once said that fascism was the merger of corporatism with government.
Superb column, but I fear we will not do what should be done, Thom. The morbidly rich have succeeded in dumbing down the electorate to such an extent that the average American lacks the intelligence, skills or attention span to understand any of what you wrote. Worse yet, the morbidly rich and our foreign enemies, especially Russia and China, have also worked to maximize the polarization and anger surrounding "culture war" issues in this country to make us all suspicious of and angry at each other, rendering productive, common sense compromise in the American traditions of pragmatism and realism impossible.
I see little ahead but increasing social disturbances, perhaps rising to the level of an undeclared civil war, which will likely end with that horrific society so common in human history--a vast peonage and a tiny ruling class. Call it fascist or communist but it's the same. What you said about communism is true--it only works with small groups sharing common goals, interests, and a desire for mutual well being, which is also why true Christianity will never work in large, diverse societies--human nature isn't good enough for either.
As a Navy brat whose active life was entirely in the last half of the 20th century, I got to enjoy the benefits of the mixed capitalist-socialist system we had from FDR forward. Its destruction has been the greatest crime against our country and average Americans. We will not get it back, and if we get anything close to it, we will only get it after what will likely be a very violent upheaval. That makes me wish that our grandson, the absolute center of our later life and someone with whom I am eternally bonded, had never been born. Because I fear his future and that of his generation is so bleak.
We need a strong economy but everybody forgets that all need a living income. Trying to have both without the frame of taxes to pay for it is what is missing. Before WWII taxing wages was a sin and only the need for a war tax changed that. We must drop the taxes on wages and do as before to raise taxes on unearned income (money made by money). No tax can be other than 50% or more and the top tax rate has to be 94% to change the behavior of big business so they will raise wages in order to not pay tax.
Unfortunately we have a very weak democratic leadership, they are afraid to call Trump and Miller liars, Trump is more than half way through Project 2025. The extreme Right controls the Supreme Court, the entire government and the media. It is the weakness of the Dems that have brought us to this. Biden/Harris had the best economy in the world but had ni idea how to sell it to the public. Inflation was worldwide (not created by the Dems). The USA did better than any other country in the world. Ofcourse the Dems were too beholden to the rich to tax them, there attempts were again very weak.
All the lies, the hate and fear mongering by Trump are the introduction to "The insurrection act".
ICE is the Gestapo/Brown shirts, they are encouraged by Miller to be as cruel and sadistic as possible to created a rebellion. Russell Vought/Herritage foundation are winning after decades of trying to turn this country into a White "Christian" Nation.
Yo are correct Marjo, we have very weak leadership and we need fresh leadership with a spine, and they don't call out Trump and Miller as liars, nor do they expose SCOTUS for what it is,
As regards inflation, there are two types, short term or temporary and long term inflation.
Short term inflation is caused by an increase in the money supply, and the money supply is increase and decreased by the propensity for debt (public, corporate, private), and the propensity for debt is subject to interest ratess, because all money is created out of debt (public, corporate,private)
Decrease Interest rates and you increase the demand for debt, increase the demand for debt, and you get more debts , thus money , thus inflation.
But credit cards are immune to interest rates, beause of minimum payments
Long term interest rates, which also affect current interest rates and things like big purchases (mortgages, cars, boats, airplanes and even appliances) are caysed by the interest on the debt.
When you pay off a debt, the principal is wiped off the books (the money goes out of existence), but not the interest on the debt.
When you borrow money or use your credit card, the financial institution actually creates money, on the basis of a fraction of the reserve they hold, but they don't create money to pay the interest that you owe. That interest contributes to long term inflation.
You don't know jack about Dem leaders. https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/10/no-f-ing-way-dem-leader-rages-at-trump-republicans-in-scathing-video.html
We know that they are spineless, like Jeffries and Schumer, who a day late and adollar short have stiffened their spines, a bit, only a bit though
We know that they spend as much energy and resources in squashing progressives,and protecting or advancing "conservatives" like Nancy using the DCCC funds to support a conservative Joseph Kenney Jr in his run against a proven progressive Senator, Markey of Mass. And backing a homophobe against a an out gay. Or refusing to bring a Single Payor bill to the floor, holding it open for the disaster of the ACA Yes the ACA does good, but Single Payor would have more, it would have been "perfect" not good, but Rahm and Nancy were it's enmies, because it would have hurt AHIP, and AHIP is major contributor to the party and would have used their money to punish the democrats, but at least would have had single payor.
Dispute point by point
MAGAT propagnda.
Nope facts, which you have not disputed point by point. I have heard a MAGAt calling Jeffries and Schumer spineless, I haven't heard a MAGAt argue for single payor.
Do better Daniel.
Morning Thom,
could you PLEASE give a daily understandable definition of the Progressive, Democracy and Socialism that the USA maybe loosing. Thank you!!!
People have forgotten that 75 Mil. voted Dem's, 77 Mil. voted Rep's, BUT 90,000,000 did not vote!!! People please understand the DIVERSITY of our Country.