As America slides into recession, this is a struggle over who owns America’s future: a broad middle class—or a locked-in economy run by the richest few…
Whereas the government has about $3 trillion in value, private individuals control about $13 trillion.
Ray Madoff has been making the rounds concerning her book, The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy. The Second Estate refers to the French royalty, who paid no taxes. “While the American tax system was designed to serve as a counter to inequality, imposing its greatest burdens on those with the greatest capacity to pay,” Madoff explained, “today, it does just the opposite: imposing its greatest burdens on earners at all income levels, while those with high wealth, get a free pass.” In this way, America’s wealthy today are much like the aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France—formally called the Second Estate—a group who were given special privileges including the right to not pay taxes.
Many of the individuals who control the government pay little or no taxes. The biggest dodge is that in many cases they take a minimum or no salary -- because salaries are subject to income taxes. Instead, they borrow against the equity value of their investments.
As Madoff says if you and I find a $100 bill on the street, we have to report it to the IRS and pay tax on it. Morbidly wealthy Individuals do not have to report when they borrow against themselves. They can receive $millions in estates without having to report a dime.
We know who Trump and his gang are working for. The French aristocrats and churches didn't want to pay taxes, so they didn't because they had the power; until they didn't. We're approaching the tipping point.
According to AI, since the 2024 election, the Trump family's wealth has significantly increased, with estimates ranging from nearly doubling to accumulating billions, largely driven by booming crypto ventures (like Truth Social/TMTG), significant real estate deals (like the D.C. hotel sale), and lucrative partnerships and licensing, with sources like Forbes and The New Yorker pointing to figures suggesting billions in gains, with reports highlighting over $1.8 billion in cash/gifts from leveraging the presidency and potential paper gains exceeding $11 billion from crypto.
Many of his allies have also made huge sums. I reported about the Witcoff connection last week. The Trump family's involvement is primarily through their own private ventures and companies:
World Liberty Financial (WLF): A corporate entity owned by the Trump family, DT Marks DEFI LLC, holds a 60% stake in WLF Holdco, the parent company of the WLF crypto platform. The family is also entitled to 75% of net revenues from the platform's token sales and holds billions of dollars worth of the associated $WLFI tokens on paper. World Liberty Financial (WLF) is a U.S.-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol and company with close ties to President Donald Trump and his family. The company operates a stablecoin called USD1, pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, and a native governance token, WLFI.
Key Details
Founders & Key Personnel: Launched in 2024 by Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, Zach Witkoff, and members of the Trump family. Donald Trump is listed as "chief crypto advocate," and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are "Web3 ambassadors," with Barron Trump as the project's "DeFi visionary".
Mission: To bridge traditional finance with the world of blockchain, promote the global use of the U.S. dollar in digital finance, and offer accessible lending, borrowing, and investment services.
Products:
USD1 Stablecoin: A stablecoin fully backed by U.S. treasuries and cash equivalents, designed for fast, low-cost global transactions on various blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain.
WLFI Token: The native governance and utility token. Holders can vote on protocol upgrades, partnerships, and other key decisions.
Upcoming Services: The platform plans to launch lending and borrowing platforms, mobile applications, and a debit card that integrates with services like Apple Pay.
Business Model: A Trump business entity owns 60% of World Liberty Financial and is entitled to 75% of all revenue from token sales. The company has attracted significant institutional investment and has been involved in major deals, including a $2 billion investment using the USD1 stablecoin by an Abu Dhabi-state backed firm.
Controversy
The venture has faced significant scrutiny and has been criticized by government ethics experts over potential conflicts of interest due to its direct link to the U.S. President and favorable policy changes that followed its launch and investments from foreign entities. The company denies any wrongdoing and emphasizes its rigorous compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.
American Bitcoin: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are involved in launching a new Bitcoin mining company, "American Bitcoin," through a merger with Hut 8. The brothers are expected to take a 20% stake in this new venture.
Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT): The parent company of Truth Social, in which the former president holds a majority stake, is exploring expansion into crypto services and has filed trademarks for "Truth.fi Bitcoin Plus ETF" products
Thanks for some details. Max at UNFTR explains that they want the digital money system to be privatized rather than a digital money system like China has so they profit on every transaction.
It is impressive how Thom hits the nail on the head with every post. Being reminded that the billionaire techbros, as they are called these days, are turning America into a 19th-century monarchy where the techno'd gentry live royally off the labors of their self-indentured workforce. The only difference between the 18th and 21st Centuries is that instead of mostly agriculture, the dominant source of wealth in the Techbro economy is now digital. The only purpose they see for humans is to build, operate, and maintain robots that will farm, erect buildings, and produce and operate robots and other machines. Or, at least that is their vision.
Already today, America has but two dominant economic classes: the "have2muches" and the self-indenturing "wanna-have-mores." Only a lucky minority of "have-enufs" discovered that having too much does not make one happier, just more powerful.
While the Techbros have created a stereotype as inventive geniuses, nearly all, from Bill Gates on, are merely vulture capitalists who buy up technical patents until they have a monopoly on a product line or service. In fact, few techbros even graduated college, much less have PhDs. They are not deep-thinking creators. They just buy the patents and inventive talents they need from the college grads and PhDs. A dangerous consequence is that the techbros have no way of knowing what unintended negative consequences await them as their wealth and visions evolve. Neither do any of us.
The TechBros used the research We the People paid for, then drove the real geniuses and experts to near madness to get the products they wanted. Now they are exploiting workers overseas, communities here and the environment to get even richer.
AI is not ready for prime-time, but they don't CARE because they are rotten to the core. What a bunch of psychos.
A great example, back in the early 80s, my San Diego lab bought a bunch of mini computers (alas, I cannot recall the name). It had a word processing system that blew the doors of MS Word. Bill Gates bought the software patent and all, and the next year MS came out with a superior word program. However, Word did not have all the functions Gates bought. He held back some tools and then charged owners for "upgrades" over the next several years. That is ruthlessly greedy.
That was his exact MO. He did NOTHING for the rest of the world till Melinda steered him in that direction.
He gets 10 points for heeding his wake-up call. The Gates Foundation bought the computers that I used to use at our local library.
I also think he is a prime example of a rich guy that others think is a genius about EVERY damn thing. I saw an interview where where HE gave off the vibe that concept is bogus.
Gates is in the new trove of Epstein pics released today, but they show nothing illegal. "The last known direct personal meeting between Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates was in 2013. However, some of Gates's team members at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation maintained contact with Epstein as late as 2017."-AI Overview
Very poor judgement. Still wonder if it had anything to do with the end of his marriage.
The secret behind Gates success, His father Bill Sr was the most prominent lawyer in Seattle. He guided his sons early business success, and had him license his software, and drew up the licensing which has become the industry standard.
When Bill Sr felt it was time t retire, he approached the sisters of St Joseph, who have a recluse/nunnery on Shaw Island in the San Juan Islands, Salish Sea, and bought a good chunk of the island to build his majestic recluse.
Paul Alan, BG partner, has bought the Sperry Peninsula on nearby Lopez Island, and build his on mansion. His estate (family) now owns the property.
The program was Word Perfect, I still have the 5 inch floppy install disks, in 1983, it upgraded to 3.5 disks I built a fleet management program using SuperCalc. Microsoft bought or stole them both, included them in their office program as MS Word and Excel.
I run Office 2007 on a Windows 7 machine, and it opens my old word Perfect files without reformatting.
I will not downgrade my system to a newer version of Windows, as each new version takes more control of the system away from the user and gives it to MS, Also my expensive peripherals, printers and scanners won't work on new versions.
I have 75 lb paperweight, a Sharpe ALS all in one, that cost me 3 or 400 dollars, it ran on Win 98, Win 2000, but no drivers for Windows 7. I lost a lot when they went from 32 bit Win 95 to 64 bit Win 98. I am not giving them anymore money.
Detroit had planned obsolesce by reshaping the sheet metal every year, and producing cars that required a gasoline alley in every neighborhood.
Now all they have to do is rewrite a few lines of code.
Yes! We know most of Thom's points but to see it nicely listed and in black in white is quite stunning. We've been so screwed and we have three years to go. i'm begging everyone I know to get out of debt ASAP....
I have no debts, no mortgage,no car payment and living large because of it, alas most of America can't, They are addicted to debt. I still use a credit card, a necessity for online purchases but I pay the bill in full when due. I haven't made an interest payment in since I paid off my mortgage.
Bill, you just defined "rich." At a minimum, it is not living P2P. Most of my adult life, I programmed my financial institutions to autopay my bills, including our credit cards. I am lucky to be able to pay cash for everything, which minimizes Swords of Damocles. The reason I rarely use cash is that credit cards nicely detail where my money is going, which makes it easier to spot reckless spending, and stop it.
Heck, once you are over 70, about the only thing you need to pay for besides food and shelter is medicine and doctor visits. Okay, we do spend summers in our house in Europe, and I did fly up to Chgo in Oct. to spend the weekend at my 60th HS reunion. 80 couples showed up. The rest told me they were not mobile enough to travel. It is quite a blessing to have that many friends who have known you for 74 years. That is rich, but in a whole nutha dimension.
LOL. My HS reunion is a class of 1. I earned my GED in Dec 58, two days later my AA GED as well.
I've learned that wealth is that which makes you happy. Being surrounded by love, not having any worries, and all of your needs fulfilled as well as your wants is wealth, Of course you keep your wants, within reason, which is what Thiel, Musk, Trump, Zuckerberg don't do, they are wells of infinite need and impossible to satiate, such is addiction.
I'm at a stage in life, and have been, for I have no need or desire to travel, and travel is hard on me. While in the service, my life was on of constant bag drags, my aviators kit bag was kept by the front door. It gets old, real quick, when I was lucky we would stage out of a hotel or motel, some time out of a BOQ, most times out of an airplane or helicopter and spent the night wrapped around a tree in a poncho, or if lucky in a tent.
I've seen enough of the world, and the US to satisfy my curiosity, about the only thing I haven't seen and would like is the Grand Canyon, and not on a tourist trip. But the only sight seeing I can do these days is vicarious, via National Geographic or PBS,
I've Seen Thrace, Istanbul, Ankara, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Mexico, Canada, all of Central America down to Panama, Argentina, Guyana, England, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and 40 of the 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska, and in Hawaii Lanai and Oahu.in Alaska, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Kenai Peninsula, Denali National Park and Clear Lake.. all on Sam's dime. I am kind of Jaded. My poor wife on the other hand has cabin fever, I encourage her to travel, and I'll stay home and tend the kitties.
Something to think about: It was painful, but I liquidated my investments and moved my entire IRA to T-Bills the day after Trump's stupid tariffs were announced. As it stands today, the move cost me about $80K in profits so far this year (ouch!). But if the market does crater, as 90% of the economists I know or read like Krugman, Baker, and Pollack, predict, I can make it up quickly by buying back more shares of the same stocks at bargain prices. Had I left the shares alone, and the market implodes, I will have lost a heckova lot more than $80K.
Good for you! It takes courage to take action. I freaked out and sold all our stocks except for $42k in garbage gold mining stocks and put it all in a 5% yield money market. Sleeping peacefully at night is worth it rather than risking everything for big gains. I too will be buying back if the predicted crash happens. On the other hand, the mining stocks are now worth $120K and the $10,200 I invested in physical gold and silver in 2007 is now worth over $500k. Maybe gold may currently be a bit out of reach, but owning some silver is good insurance, especially if the dollar becomes worthless....
The world is heating up and they are to blame, they can't help themselves, but are building alternative realities to hedge against a problem that they caused.
The greatest transfer of wealth in our nation's history.....
It's the first theme of the TRump Administration. The second is proving our laws are meaningless by abusing his pardon power. To make sure that we UNDERSTAND we're powerless, he gave our information to the TechBros, but that also EXPOSED them for who they are and what they want. A Technocracy.
This stupid, dementia-ridden psychopath is a loser. His Cabinet are incompetent criminals. Congress is coming for them too. This week Governor Newsom used AI to depict Donold, Miller, and Hegseth in cuffs. It was a beautiful thing.
COP30 was held on November 10th in Brazil, and the first vessel off the coast of Venezuela was bombed on September 2nd. Brazil is a signatory to the International Criminal Court. I'm guessing they have a secret warrant. TRump COULDN'T go to COP30 or G20. Watch where he does or doesn't travel---that shitty casino "rally" was a good metaphor for what is in store.
No Kings. TRump belongs in prison here or in the Hague. See you in the streets.
He's a psychopath that doesn't care if he falls asleep in a critical setting, but what you are convinced of may also be true, Sophia.
Dr. Gartner (Shrinking Trump podcast) says his dementia will result in good and bad days, but he is doomed to get steadily worse. Both things involve genetics. If Junior keeps f-ing around with drugs, I'm guessing he will find out about early onset.
Also he was up for 6 hours after midnite on his "throne" tweeting all kind of stream of consciousness madness for 6 hours.
I had a conversation with my plebolgist, as he was drawing blood for a lipied panel, we know each other well, by nick names. I asked him about the bruise on the back of Trumps hand, and he pointed out that they contain veins that are easiest to access when other veins ae too deep, and are used for injecting serum.
I mentioned that there were rumors that he receives infusions of children's blood as they contain high amounts of human growth hormone. He agreed that it was quite possible, but he doesn't have to recieve infusions as the hormone can be extracted
Nov 23, I had a PET Scan, they introduce uranium into my blood stream via a glucose inject, the radiologist injected the serum into a vein on the back of my hand., That is why Trump has a bruise on the back of the hand, of this I am certain. He also receives injections to keep him energized, like that comedic performance in front of Pennsylvania coal miners.
IMHO most of the CEOs are competitors, and most want to be king of the hill, and we should be ble to take advantage of that fact.
Musk may have been able to extricate himself from liability as a government contractor, but this government is hostile to his sources of income, alternative energy and EVs.
Trump is inserting himself in many businesses. I.e. Hollywood. Netflix and Paramount are wrangling over buying Warner Discovery. Both CEOs have paid homage to Trump. NYT: Shortly after “60 Minutes” aired an interview with newly minted Trump critic Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday, Trump telegraphed to David Ellison, CEO of Paramount/CBS that he wanted some changes. “Since they bought it,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social of Ellison’s Skydance, “60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” Mr. Ellison has yet to act. But such clear broadsides raise even further questions about what a CNN- and HBO-owning Ellison might be asked to do.
The same kind of double dealing exists in energy, computer chips, etc. Surely one of these guys has seen Shakespear.
TRump is disintegrating in front of our eyes. It's fascinating, only because he is a psychopath and President. He truly has had it all, and it was never enough. Pitiful.
The TechBros were reading science fiction and TRump was reading Hitler.
Maybe the internet is "Brutus" and "Judas" all rolled into one.
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,.....".-Wm S
alis-Technocracy,I prefer " Technonazis" . Consumers who are concerned should fight back against these disgusting,greedy,pigs.Find a way to make their life very uncomfortable. Start with Wall Street,CNBC who has supported the " Technonazis" fora long time.
Notice at the bottom of the map, only Ecuador,Colombia, and Venezuela are in red.
And what countries are he threatening and boats he is bombing. That is an 8 decades old map, yet it was very prophetic. Mexico and Central America are almost actualy satrapies today.
Persia was, at a time, the largest empire on earth, but it didn't rule by incorporating them into Persia, with Persian governors and Persian police, it ruled by Satraps.
TODAY somebody from Congress validated what we say. He has the hemisphere part of the plot. Now I hope he gets that in order to control the land/resources, they must control the people. That's where the TechBros come in.
You might be familiar, it is Representative Adam Smith, District 9, Washington State, Armed Services Committee. He was on Pod Save America (the last half if you want to scroll):
Trump FLAILS To Turn Around His BOTCHED Presidency
This is a five alarm fire, a hair on fire moment, and the corporate media, even MSNOW and sadly our favorite substackers are barely paying attention to it.
It is not just words, the proof is unveiling in front of our eyes, in the Caribbean, in Europe, in the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
And his plans for Gaza are a real estate development.Also for Ukraine.
I researched Elon's family to see if his name came from the scifi book about Mars---it didn't. Went on to his Nazi grandfather and The Technate. NO ONE who sees the map and reads it's notes can deny what TRump and the TechBros are doing.
After he helps kill democracy and the rule of law, they fill the vacuum. "We", addicted to their products, will obey or they shut us down.
This is the story of the 21st Century, and whoever breaks it worldwide will become famous. It will take somebody who is ready to die for it, literally. Maybe their family members too. Taking on the President and the richest men in the world is exactly what it involves.
We are two old veterans with one foot on a banana peel. Younger me might have been afraid too. I wrote to Maddow--she is the 1930's expert. I wrote to Spotlight at the Boston Globe--they blew the lid off the Catholics. Tried at least 3 podcasters. Kyle Kulinski and Krystal Ball are mentioning it. The IHIP ladies get it.
Maybe it's better this way, William, this dribble dribble from many sources. Congressional hearings are an answer, but you are right, this is f-ing crazy.
Haldeman was a member of Western Canada’s “populist,” anti-Semitic a d extremely right wing Social Credit party. Social Credit has a small and no diminished following. The late public school teacher James Keegstra was a member of the Social Credit party and was fired after the community learned he was teaching anti-Semitism along with his history lessons. Keegstra was fired, he took the matter to court with Doug Christie as his counsel, but Keegstra lost his case for reinstatement.
Muskrat’s grandfather Joshua Haldeman moved himself, his wife and their daughter Maye to South Africa as he felt Canada was insufficiently racist. His daughter Maye married Errol Musk and had two sons with him, Elon and Kimber. Elon reportedly detests his father. He has unfortunately adopted his grandfather’s racism.
I agree, but I think Trump has advancing frontotemporal dementia which may make him him mentally incompetent to be prosecuted. At least one writer has suggested that Trump may be exaggerating them in much the way an organized crime boss may make claims of impaired mental or physical health to avoid trial, but what I have seen of Trump I’m genuine, unaltered videos show his vocabulary and mental acuity have declined. One neurologist with a specialty in diagnosis and treatment OD various dementia gave a. Interview to Times Radio in London, and the specialist noticed Trump has increased instances of phonemic paraphrasia, which is a form of aphasia found in patients with either Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia. Phonemic paraphrasia occurs someone with frontotemporal dementia or Alzheimer’s disease forgets a word, and substitutes a word that is incorrect, but appears to be correct to the person using the word. One example of this would be to use the word “wishdasher” when the person intends to say “dishwasher.”
In Donald Trump’s case, I think many of the people around him want to accomplish their own goals, and that Stephen Miller and Russell Vought are currently using Trump to sign their orders.
Dr. Gartner gave the exact same assessment. He is risking everything to get the word out. In fact, I wonder if that is who you were listening to on Times Radio, Kathy.
He is on The Daily Beast from time to time. His partner on Shrinking Trump and he decided to quit their podcast for fear of a lawsuit that neither of them could afford.
The international organization CIVICUS, which tracks the health of civil society worldwide, has downgraded the United States to “obstructed” civic space in its 2025 State of Civil Society Report.
That is the headline. It should not be buried.
“Obstructed” is not a rhetorical insult or a partisan label. It is a specific classification in a global framework used to assess whether people in a given country can meaningfully exercise basic civic freedoms—speech, association, peaceful assembly—without undue interference by the state. More on what it means below. But the simple fact that the United States has crossed that line, according to a long-running global monitor, is significant in itself.
Morbidly fat Krasnov is playing dumb about the economy. He thought by getting rid of the reporting agency reports he could say whatever lies he wants and nobody would be able to say he was wrong. Sadly for him people know what it cost them to buy food month to month and so were not fooled by claims that prices were down. Wall Street might be up as it usually this time of the year but job numbers are harder to hide because you can either get a job or not. Nothing hard to figure out when the result tells you all you need to know. The administrations paperless office has not hidden where the economy is going and farmers and unemployed know it. Meanwhile the grift keeps on going non stop as the bottom 90% find it harder and harder to buy a house and food even with two workers and the administration is trying to make it easier to add a third worker by getting the rules on child labor more lax. The welfare for the advantaged keep on getting higher and higher while the rules on the minimum wages in the work place on purchasing power keeps going downwards. 1968 minimum wage would be over $25 an hour. Tie a living wage to the purchasing power would make a single worker in the family possible again. You could then buy a house. Let us make the American dream possible again.
There are a couple of notorious entities missing from this list, but I understand the reluctance in naming them.
One of them is directly cited in the attached link - so are things for the Democratic party not to do - ever again - if they are indeed fundamentally different from the GOP in who they ultimately serve. I don't enjoy this emerging view of mine where the Democratic party is simply the left hand of a very right-handed beast. I'd love nothing more than to be completely wrong.
If the billionaires make the vast majority of us poorer will that not reduce their income in the long run? We have to buy their goods and services for them to get richer. Notice how they are shoving AI down our throats to recoup their huge investment in massive data centers.
Thom we might as well nickname you Hillary Clinton as you've become such a propagandist for the establishment you contradict yourself at every turn. You ask who the Trump and the GOP really work for, then you proceed to bemoan that they are not sending as many weapons to Ukraine. Who do you think Biden and his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who made millions as a board member at war profiteer Raytheon, were working for when they sent $100 billion of our tax dollars to Ukraine, most of which went to our war contractors? Who was Biden working for when he sent Boris Johnson to stop peace talks between Zelensky and Putin in March of 2022? Who was Biden working for when he sent $35 billion in munitions to help Israel slaughter 100,000 innocent Palestinians in Gaza and thousands more in Lebanon? Trump did indeed exacerbate the upward transfer of wealth with his tax cuts for the wealthy, but under Biden the oligarchs gained over $1.5 trillion in wealth, the biggest winner being Elon Musk. Most of your points are either anti-Russia or Anti-China, parroting the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, the former who claimed pro-Palestinian protestors were funded by Russia and China and the latter who is on a tour decrying Putin and how ignorant young pro-Palestinian protestors are. Almost every one of your points applies to Democrats as much as Republicans, or is establishment propaganda meant to whitewash the horrors inflicted upon us and the world by these dueling cancer capitalist mafias. The most telling point of all Thom is that you don't even MENTION Gaza. That says everything we need to know about your brand of "progressive" talk.
In Ancien Régime France, members of the royal family and nobility were exempt from paying taxes. There was a growing middle class who were understandably resentful at having to pay taxes on their growing incomes. They were also ineligible to be admitted to the military academies like St. Cyr, which were open only to men from noble families.
Louis XV of France had incurred the wrath of his nobility by the plans he developed to reform the French tax system, as his reforms would require members of the formerly exempt nobility to pay some taxes. He had not been able to institute these reforms by the time he contracted smallpox and died at the age of 64. Louis XVi was opposed to these reforms, and declined to adopt the reforms. France started to experience severe economic problems. Some of the problems did stem from court extravagance, although both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette did make efforts to curb court expenses. The biggest cause of France’s economic woes was France’s failure to reform its tax system in the wake of the substantial expenses France incurred in providing military and logistical assistance to the Continental Army in their successful efforts to gain independence from Britain. We owe France our eternal gratitude for its assistance in securing our independence from Britain, but it helped contribute to then French Revolution due to France’s failure to change its tax policies which favored the nobility.
Whereas the government has about $3 trillion in value, private individuals control about $13 trillion.
Ray Madoff has been making the rounds concerning her book, The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy. The Second Estate refers to the French royalty, who paid no taxes. “While the American tax system was designed to serve as a counter to inequality, imposing its greatest burdens on those with the greatest capacity to pay,” Madoff explained, “today, it does just the opposite: imposing its greatest burdens on earners at all income levels, while those with high wealth, get a free pass.” In this way, America’s wealthy today are much like the aristocracy of pre-revolutionary France—formally called the Second Estate—a group who were given special privileges including the right to not pay taxes.
Many of the individuals who control the government pay little or no taxes. The biggest dodge is that in many cases they take a minimum or no salary -- because salaries are subject to income taxes. Instead, they borrow against the equity value of their investments.
As Madoff says if you and I find a $100 bill on the street, we have to report it to the IRS and pay tax on it. Morbidly wealthy Individuals do not have to report when they borrow against themselves. They can receive $millions in estates without having to report a dime.
It ain't fair.
Daniel,excellent points,it should really piss all of us off and motivate us to do something.
We know who Trump and his gang are working for. The French aristocrats and churches didn't want to pay taxes, so they didn't because they had the power; until they didn't. We're approaching the tipping point.
According to AI, since the 2024 election, the Trump family's wealth has significantly increased, with estimates ranging from nearly doubling to accumulating billions, largely driven by booming crypto ventures (like Truth Social/TMTG), significant real estate deals (like the D.C. hotel sale), and lucrative partnerships and licensing, with sources like Forbes and The New Yorker pointing to figures suggesting billions in gains, with reports highlighting over $1.8 billion in cash/gifts from leveraging the presidency and potential paper gains exceeding $11 billion from crypto.
Many of his allies have also made huge sums. I reported about the Witcoff connection last week. The Trump family's involvement is primarily through their own private ventures and companies:
World Liberty Financial (WLF): A corporate entity owned by the Trump family, DT Marks DEFI LLC, holds a 60% stake in WLF Holdco, the parent company of the WLF crypto platform. The family is also entitled to 75% of net revenues from the platform's token sales and holds billions of dollars worth of the associated $WLFI tokens on paper. World Liberty Financial (WLF) is a U.S.-based decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol and company with close ties to President Donald Trump and his family. The company operates a stablecoin called USD1, pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, and a native governance token, WLFI.
Key Details
Founders & Key Personnel: Launched in 2024 by Zachary Folkman, Chase Herro, Zach Witkoff, and members of the Trump family. Donald Trump is listed as "chief crypto advocate," and his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are "Web3 ambassadors," with Barron Trump as the project's "DeFi visionary".
Mission: To bridge traditional finance with the world of blockchain, promote the global use of the U.S. dollar in digital finance, and offer accessible lending, borrowing, and investment services.
Products:
USD1 Stablecoin: A stablecoin fully backed by U.S. treasuries and cash equivalents, designed for fast, low-cost global transactions on various blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and BNB Chain.
WLFI Token: The native governance and utility token. Holders can vote on protocol upgrades, partnerships, and other key decisions.
Upcoming Services: The platform plans to launch lending and borrowing platforms, mobile applications, and a debit card that integrates with services like Apple Pay.
Business Model: A Trump business entity owns 60% of World Liberty Financial and is entitled to 75% of all revenue from token sales. The company has attracted significant institutional investment and has been involved in major deals, including a $2 billion investment using the USD1 stablecoin by an Abu Dhabi-state backed firm.
Controversy
The venture has faced significant scrutiny and has been criticized by government ethics experts over potential conflicts of interest due to its direct link to the U.S. President and favorable policy changes that followed its launch and investments from foreign entities. The company denies any wrongdoing and emphasizes its rigorous compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations.
American Bitcoin: Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are involved in launching a new Bitcoin mining company, "American Bitcoin," through a merger with Hut 8. The brothers are expected to take a 20% stake in this new venture.
Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT): The parent company of Truth Social, in which the former president holds a majority stake, is exploring expansion into crypto services and has filed trademarks for "Truth.fi Bitcoin Plus ETF" products
Thanks for some details. Max at UNFTR explains that they want the digital money system to be privatized rather than a digital money system like China has so they profit on every transaction.
It is impressive how Thom hits the nail on the head with every post. Being reminded that the billionaire techbros, as they are called these days, are turning America into a 19th-century monarchy where the techno'd gentry live royally off the labors of their self-indentured workforce. The only difference between the 18th and 21st Centuries is that instead of mostly agriculture, the dominant source of wealth in the Techbro economy is now digital. The only purpose they see for humans is to build, operate, and maintain robots that will farm, erect buildings, and produce and operate robots and other machines. Or, at least that is their vision.
Already today, America has but two dominant economic classes: the "have2muches" and the self-indenturing "wanna-have-mores." Only a lucky minority of "have-enufs" discovered that having too much does not make one happier, just more powerful.
While the Techbros have created a stereotype as inventive geniuses, nearly all, from Bill Gates on, are merely vulture capitalists who buy up technical patents until they have a monopoly on a product line or service. In fact, few techbros even graduated college, much less have PhDs. They are not deep-thinking creators. They just buy the patents and inventive talents they need from the college grads and PhDs. A dangerous consequence is that the techbros have no way of knowing what unintended negative consequences await them as their wealth and visions evolve. Neither do any of us.
BRAVO, Tom!
We have found the plot.
The TechBros used the research We the People paid for, then drove the real geniuses and experts to near madness to get the products they wanted. Now they are exploiting workers overseas, communities here and the environment to get even richer.
AI is not ready for prime-time, but they don't CARE because they are rotten to the core. What a bunch of psychos.
A great example, back in the early 80s, my San Diego lab bought a bunch of mini computers (alas, I cannot recall the name). It had a word processing system that blew the doors of MS Word. Bill Gates bought the software patent and all, and the next year MS came out with a superior word program. However, Word did not have all the functions Gates bought. He held back some tools and then charged owners for "upgrades" over the next several years. That is ruthlessly greedy.
That was his exact MO. He did NOTHING for the rest of the world till Melinda steered him in that direction.
He gets 10 points for heeding his wake-up call. The Gates Foundation bought the computers that I used to use at our local library.
I also think he is a prime example of a rich guy that others think is a genius about EVERY damn thing. I saw an interview where where HE gave off the vibe that concept is bogus.
Gates is in the new trove of Epstein pics released today, but they show nothing illegal. "The last known direct personal meeting between Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates was in 2013. However, some of Gates's team members at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation maintained contact with Epstein as late as 2017."-AI Overview
Very poor judgement. Still wonder if it had anything to do with the end of his marriage.
The secret behind Gates success, His father Bill Sr was the most prominent lawyer in Seattle. He guided his sons early business success, and had him license his software, and drew up the licensing which has become the industry standard.
When Bill Sr felt it was time t retire, he approached the sisters of St Joseph, who have a recluse/nunnery on Shaw Island in the San Juan Islands, Salish Sea, and bought a good chunk of the island to build his majestic recluse.
Paul Alan, BG partner, has bought the Sperry Peninsula on nearby Lopez Island, and build his on mansion. His estate (family) now owns the property.
The program was Word Perfect, I still have the 5 inch floppy install disks, in 1983, it upgraded to 3.5 disks I built a fleet management program using SuperCalc. Microsoft bought or stole them both, included them in their office program as MS Word and Excel.
I run Office 2007 on a Windows 7 machine, and it opens my old word Perfect files without reformatting.
I will not downgrade my system to a newer version of Windows, as each new version takes more control of the system away from the user and gives it to MS, Also my expensive peripherals, printers and scanners won't work on new versions.
I have 75 lb paperweight, a Sharpe ALS all in one, that cost me 3 or 400 dollars, it ran on Win 98, Win 2000, but no drivers for Windows 7. I lost a lot when they went from 32 bit Win 95 to 64 bit Win 98. I am not giving them anymore money.
Detroit had planned obsolesce by reshaping the sheet metal every year, and producing cars that required a gasoline alley in every neighborhood.
Now all they have to do is rewrite a few lines of code.
When I was with the Microsoft lawyers at the ABA, I'd remind them about "reveal codes" in WordPerfect.
Once upon a time I was a Paul Allen beta tester for Asymetrix Corportation's Open Script Software. https://www.google.com/search?q=ToolBook&oq=Asymetrix+Corportation%27s+Open+Script+Software.&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAEyBwgDECEYjwIyBwgEECEYjwLSAQgxOTUzajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&mstk=AUtExfBw1kpti37xV74J6XAtwj5rynBuVRTvIxCmEsZCh4wFDBUVDHbG_k2oftg3ujjfsL1PCPBZo0Dmbxi1BPzwNfN8a-LkcVY_YaVKcRW1nI5ksDfCyblRfJciKabF2gCAFWg-kjM4ABnJ3LBdqEm2TN-UZ-OgqnUGRmO5_0r_k6pNjxg&csui=3&ved=2ahUKEwid1uqY7LqRAxU3k2oFHZrpM0wQgK4QegQIARAC
Planned obsolecence was built into the IRS Code of 1952.
Given that Word is actually WordPerfect and Excel is Supercalc.
Did MS buy or steal the programs.
Gates is the original pirate,he stole DOS from a recluse and then had it copyrighted.
I don't think that MS developed anything on their own, they simply steal it or buy it. And buy it at bargain basement prices.
The strategy game Risk, was developed by an air traffic controller, he took it to Parker Brothers, they looked at and said, we will give you $5,000.
He told them I will take it to a competitor. There response was we've already seen the concept, and can make on our own. He took the $5,000.
Yes! We know most of Thom's points but to see it nicely listed and in black in white is quite stunning. We've been so screwed and we have three years to go. i'm begging everyone I know to get out of debt ASAP....
I have no debts, no mortgage,no car payment and living large because of it, alas most of America can't, They are addicted to debt. I still use a credit card, a necessity for online purchases but I pay the bill in full when due. I haven't made an interest payment in since I paid off my mortgage.
Same here, isn't it great!
Absolutely.
Bill, you just defined "rich." At a minimum, it is not living P2P. Most of my adult life, I programmed my financial institutions to autopay my bills, including our credit cards. I am lucky to be able to pay cash for everything, which minimizes Swords of Damocles. The reason I rarely use cash is that credit cards nicely detail where my money is going, which makes it easier to spot reckless spending, and stop it.
Heck, once you are over 70, about the only thing you need to pay for besides food and shelter is medicine and doctor visits. Okay, we do spend summers in our house in Europe, and I did fly up to Chgo in Oct. to spend the weekend at my 60th HS reunion. 80 couples showed up. The rest told me they were not mobile enough to travel. It is quite a blessing to have that many friends who have known you for 74 years. That is rich, but in a whole nutha dimension.
LOL. My HS reunion is a class of 1. I earned my GED in Dec 58, two days later my AA GED as well.
I've learned that wealth is that which makes you happy. Being surrounded by love, not having any worries, and all of your needs fulfilled as well as your wants is wealth, Of course you keep your wants, within reason, which is what Thiel, Musk, Trump, Zuckerberg don't do, they are wells of infinite need and impossible to satiate, such is addiction.
I'm at a stage in life, and have been, for I have no need or desire to travel, and travel is hard on me. While in the service, my life was on of constant bag drags, my aviators kit bag was kept by the front door. It gets old, real quick, when I was lucky we would stage out of a hotel or motel, some time out of a BOQ, most times out of an airplane or helicopter and spent the night wrapped around a tree in a poncho, or if lucky in a tent.
I've seen enough of the world, and the US to satisfy my curiosity, about the only thing I haven't seen and would like is the Grand Canyon, and not on a tourist trip. But the only sight seeing I can do these days is vicarious, via National Geographic or PBS,
I've Seen Thrace, Istanbul, Ankara, South Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Mexico, Canada, all of Central America down to Panama, Argentina, Guyana, England, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, and 40 of the 50 states including Hawaii and Alaska, and in Hawaii Lanai and Oahu.in Alaska, Fairbanks, Anchorage, Kenai Peninsula, Denali National Park and Clear Lake.. all on Sam's dime. I am kind of Jaded. My poor wife on the other hand has cabin fever, I encourage her to travel, and I'll stay home and tend the kitties.
Something to think about: It was painful, but I liquidated my investments and moved my entire IRA to T-Bills the day after Trump's stupid tariffs were announced. As it stands today, the move cost me about $80K in profits so far this year (ouch!). But if the market does crater, as 90% of the economists I know or read like Krugman, Baker, and Pollack, predict, I can make it up quickly by buying back more shares of the same stocks at bargain prices. Had I left the shares alone, and the market implodes, I will have lost a heckova lot more than $80K.
Good for you! It takes courage to take action. I freaked out and sold all our stocks except for $42k in garbage gold mining stocks and put it all in a 5% yield money market. Sleeping peacefully at night is worth it rather than risking everything for big gains. I too will be buying back if the predicted crash happens. On the other hand, the mining stocks are now worth $120K and the $10,200 I invested in physical gold and silver in 2007 is now worth over $500k. Maybe gold may currently be a bit out of reach, but owning some silver is good insurance, especially if the dollar becomes worthless....
Methinks that it is about a lot more than just grabbing the next dollar.Zuekerbergs 270 million dollar underground bunker is just one of hundreds
https://medium.com/@paanro2282/why-did-zuckerberg-spend-270-million-on-a-bunker-a3b4f3cfc46d
The world is heating up and they are to blame, they can't help themselves, but are building alternative realities to hedge against a problem that they caused.
The greatest transfer of wealth in our nation's history.....
It's the first theme of the TRump Administration. The second is proving our laws are meaningless by abusing his pardon power. To make sure that we UNDERSTAND we're powerless, he gave our information to the TechBros, but that also EXPOSED them for who they are and what they want. A Technocracy.
This stupid, dementia-ridden psychopath is a loser. His Cabinet are incompetent criminals. Congress is coming for them too. This week Governor Newsom used AI to depict Donold, Miller, and Hegseth in cuffs. It was a beautiful thing.
COP30 was held on November 10th in Brazil, and the first vessel off the coast of Venezuela was bombed on September 2nd. Brazil is a signatory to the International Criminal Court. I'm guessing they have a secret warrant. TRump COULDN'T go to COP30 or G20. Watch where he does or doesn't travel---that shitty casino "rally" was a good metaphor for what is in store.
No Kings. TRump belongs in prison here or in the Hague. See you in the streets.
As a mental health therapist I am convinced that trump's nodding off is a result of being drugged....
He's a psychopath that doesn't care if he falls asleep in a critical setting, but what you are convinced of may also be true, Sophia.
Dr. Gartner (Shrinking Trump podcast) says his dementia will result in good and bad days, but he is doomed to get steadily worse. Both things involve genetics. If Junior keeps f-ing around with drugs, I'm guessing he will find out about early onset.
Junior’s hyperactive vlogs certainly made it look as of Junior had used a couple lines of coke to prepare himself for filming his lies.
Also he was up for 6 hours after midnite on his "throne" tweeting all kind of stream of consciousness madness for 6 hours.
I had a conversation with my plebolgist, as he was drawing blood for a lipied panel, we know each other well, by nick names. I asked him about the bruise on the back of Trumps hand, and he pointed out that they contain veins that are easiest to access when other veins ae too deep, and are used for injecting serum.
I mentioned that there were rumors that he receives infusions of children's blood as they contain high amounts of human growth hormone. He agreed that it was quite possible, but he doesn't have to recieve infusions as the hormone can be extracted
Nov 23, I had a PET Scan, they introduce uranium into my blood stream via a glucose inject, the radiologist injected the serum into a vein on the back of my hand., That is why Trump has a bruise on the back of the hand, of this I am certain. He also receives injections to keep him energized, like that comedic performance in front of Pennsylvania coal miners.
Hitler did the same thing.
From what I have read, Hitler had Nazi pilots use amphetamines to make them ready to fly as soon as possible.
IMHO most of the CEOs are competitors, and most want to be king of the hill, and we should be ble to take advantage of that fact.
Musk may have been able to extricate himself from liability as a government contractor, but this government is hostile to his sources of income, alternative energy and EVs.
Trump is inserting himself in many businesses. I.e. Hollywood. Netflix and Paramount are wrangling over buying Warner Discovery. Both CEOs have paid homage to Trump. NYT: Shortly after “60 Minutes” aired an interview with newly minted Trump critic Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday, Trump telegraphed to David Ellison, CEO of Paramount/CBS that he wanted some changes. “Since they bought it,” Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social of Ellison’s Skydance, “60 Minutes has actually gotten WORSE!” Mr. Ellison has yet to act. But such clear broadsides raise even further questions about what a CNN- and HBO-owning Ellison might be asked to do.
The same kind of double dealing exists in energy, computer chips, etc. Surely one of these guys has seen Shakespear.
Will the first "Brute" please come forward.
TRump is disintegrating in front of our eyes. It's fascinating, only because he is a psychopath and President. He truly has had it all, and it was never enough. Pitiful.
The TechBros were reading science fiction and TRump was reading Hitler.
Maybe the internet is "Brutus" and "Judas" all rolled into one.
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts,.....".-Wm S
Trump to the Republican Indiana state senate today: "Et tu Brute?"
alis-Technocracy,I prefer " Technonazis" . Consumers who are concerned should fight back against these disgusting,greedy,pigs.Find a way to make their life very uncomfortable. Start with Wall Street,CNBC who has supported the " Technonazis" fora long time.
Apt description, David.
For those who have not, please go to WIKI and read the page on Musk's maternal grandfather: Joshua N. Haldeman
Then research The Technate of America in the notes of this map:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:34227574
Notice at the bottom of the map, only Ecuador,Colombia, and Venezuela are in red.
And what countries are he threatening and boats he is bombing. That is an 8 decades old map, yet it was very prophetic. Mexico and Central America are almost actualy satrapies today.
Persia was, at a time, the largest empire on earth, but it didn't rule by incorporating them into Persia, with Persian governors and Persian police, it ruled by Satraps.
TODAY somebody from Congress validated what we say. He has the hemisphere part of the plot. Now I hope he gets that in order to control the land/resources, they must control the people. That's where the TechBros come in.
You might be familiar, it is Representative Adam Smith, District 9, Washington State, Armed Services Committee. He was on Pod Save America (the last half if you want to scroll):
Trump FLAILS To Turn Around His BOTCHED Presidency
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DqHUXJj8Y4V0
It really gets me, the evidence is so strong, especially since he published the National Security Strategy in Nov , https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/following up on his NSPM-7 https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/countering-domestic-terrorism-and-organized-political-violence/
This is a five alarm fire, a hair on fire moment, and the corporate media, even MSNOW and sadly our favorite substackers are barely paying attention to it.
It is not just words, the proof is unveiling in front of our eyes, in the Caribbean, in Europe, in the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
And his plans for Gaza are a real estate development.Also for Ukraine.
Totally agree.
I researched Elon's family to see if his name came from the scifi book about Mars---it didn't. Went on to his Nazi grandfather and The Technate. NO ONE who sees the map and reads it's notes can deny what TRump and the TechBros are doing.
After he helps kill democracy and the rule of law, they fill the vacuum. "We", addicted to their products, will obey or they shut us down.
This is the story of the 21st Century, and whoever breaks it worldwide will become famous. It will take somebody who is ready to die for it, literally. Maybe their family members too. Taking on the President and the richest men in the world is exactly what it involves.
We are two old veterans with one foot on a banana peel. Younger me might have been afraid too. I wrote to Maddow--she is the 1930's expert. I wrote to Spotlight at the Boston Globe--they blew the lid off the Catholics. Tried at least 3 podcasters. Kyle Kulinski and Krystal Ball are mentioning it. The IHIP ladies get it.
Maybe it's better this way, William, this dribble dribble from many sources. Congressional hearings are an answer, but you are right, this is f-ing crazy.
Haldeman was a member of Western Canada’s “populist,” anti-Semitic a d extremely right wing Social Credit party. Social Credit has a small and no diminished following. The late public school teacher James Keegstra was a member of the Social Credit party and was fired after the community learned he was teaching anti-Semitism along with his history lessons. Keegstra was fired, he took the matter to court with Doug Christie as his counsel, but Keegstra lost his case for reinstatement.
Muskrat’s grandfather Joshua Haldeman moved himself, his wife and their daughter Maye to South Africa as he felt Canada was insufficiently racist. His daughter Maye married Errol Musk and had two sons with him, Elon and Kimber. Elon reportedly detests his father. He has unfortunately adopted his grandfather’s racism.
I agree, but I think Trump has advancing frontotemporal dementia which may make him him mentally incompetent to be prosecuted. At least one writer has suggested that Trump may be exaggerating them in much the way an organized crime boss may make claims of impaired mental or physical health to avoid trial, but what I have seen of Trump I’m genuine, unaltered videos show his vocabulary and mental acuity have declined. One neurologist with a specialty in diagnosis and treatment OD various dementia gave a. Interview to Times Radio in London, and the specialist noticed Trump has increased instances of phonemic paraphrasia, which is a form of aphasia found in patients with either Alzheimer’s disease or frontotemporal dementia. Phonemic paraphrasia occurs someone with frontotemporal dementia or Alzheimer’s disease forgets a word, and substitutes a word that is incorrect, but appears to be correct to the person using the word. One example of this would be to use the word “wishdasher” when the person intends to say “dishwasher.”
In Donald Trump’s case, I think many of the people around him want to accomplish their own goals, and that Stephen Miller and Russell Vought are currently using Trump to sign their orders.
Dr. Gartner gave the exact same assessment. He is risking everything to get the word out. In fact, I wonder if that is who you were listening to on Times Radio, Kathy.
He is on The Daily Beast from time to time. His partner on Shrinking Trump and he decided to quit their podcast for fear of a lawsuit that neither of them could afford.
It might have been. Times Radio had a YouTube video in which they had a British lady interviewing the specialist, who was American.
Thank you, Thom. Much appreciate how you synthesize across tons of facts to create the nuggets of truth.
No. One. Does. It. Better.
Good description of Thom's work, Julianne.
Maybe the "arc of justice" is more like a pendulum - and we are in a swing back/away from justice.
The international organization CIVICUS, which tracks the health of civil society worldwide, has downgraded the United States to “obstructed” civic space in its 2025 State of Civil Society Report.
That is the headline. It should not be buried.
“Obstructed” is not a rhetorical insult or a partisan label. It is a specific classification in a global framework used to assess whether people in a given country can meaningfully exercise basic civic freedoms—speech, association, peaceful assembly—without undue interference by the state. More on what it means below. But the simple fact that the United States has crossed that line, according to a long-running global monitor, is significant in itself.
Source:
https://michaeldsellers.substack.com/p/global-monitor-civicus-downgradesitvr
I saw this also, and it’s extremely ominous.
Morbidly fat Krasnov is playing dumb about the economy. He thought by getting rid of the reporting agency reports he could say whatever lies he wants and nobody would be able to say he was wrong. Sadly for him people know what it cost them to buy food month to month and so were not fooled by claims that prices were down. Wall Street might be up as it usually this time of the year but job numbers are harder to hide because you can either get a job or not. Nothing hard to figure out when the result tells you all you need to know. The administrations paperless office has not hidden where the economy is going and farmers and unemployed know it. Meanwhile the grift keeps on going non stop as the bottom 90% find it harder and harder to buy a house and food even with two workers and the administration is trying to make it easier to add a third worker by getting the rules on child labor more lax. The welfare for the advantaged keep on getting higher and higher while the rules on the minimum wages in the work place on purchasing power keeps going downwards. 1968 minimum wage would be over $25 an hour. Tie a living wage to the purchasing power would make a single worker in the family possible again. You could then buy a house. Let us make the American dream possible again.
They work for themselves, the oligarchs, and Russia. Maybe not exactly in that order.
Vote the F’ckers out .. get govt tracking while putting the bastards behind bars ..
There are a couple of notorious entities missing from this list, but I understand the reluctance in naming them.
One of them is directly cited in the attached link - so are things for the Democratic party not to do - ever again - if they are indeed fundamentally different from the GOP in who they ultimately serve. I don't enjoy this emerging view of mine where the Democratic party is simply the left hand of a very right-handed beast. I'd love nothing more than to be completely wrong.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/democratic-party-2024-autopsy
If the billionaires make the vast majority of us poorer will that not reduce their income in the long run? We have to buy their goods and services for them to get richer. Notice how they are shoving AI down our throats to recoup their huge investment in massive data centers.
It is all relative G2, the goal is to be the biggest fish in the pond. The pond could be the size of a bird path or a lake. Meanwhile they are building multi million dollar bunkers with all of that money they are squeezing out of us: https://medium.com/@paanro2282/why-did-zuckerberg-spend-270-million-on-a-bunker-a3b4f3cfc46d
Thom we might as well nickname you Hillary Clinton as you've become such a propagandist for the establishment you contradict yourself at every turn. You ask who the Trump and the GOP really work for, then you proceed to bemoan that they are not sending as many weapons to Ukraine. Who do you think Biden and his Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who made millions as a board member at war profiteer Raytheon, were working for when they sent $100 billion of our tax dollars to Ukraine, most of which went to our war contractors? Who was Biden working for when he sent Boris Johnson to stop peace talks between Zelensky and Putin in March of 2022? Who was Biden working for when he sent $35 billion in munitions to help Israel slaughter 100,000 innocent Palestinians in Gaza and thousands more in Lebanon? Trump did indeed exacerbate the upward transfer of wealth with his tax cuts for the wealthy, but under Biden the oligarchs gained over $1.5 trillion in wealth, the biggest winner being Elon Musk. Most of your points are either anti-Russia or Anti-China, parroting the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton, the former who claimed pro-Palestinian protestors were funded by Russia and China and the latter who is on a tour decrying Putin and how ignorant young pro-Palestinian protestors are. Almost every one of your points applies to Democrats as much as Republicans, or is establishment propaganda meant to whitewash the horrors inflicted upon us and the world by these dueling cancer capitalist mafias. The most telling point of all Thom is that you don't even MENTION Gaza. That says everything we need to know about your brand of "progressive" talk.
Putin's mouthpiece speaks.Why do you bother Boris, everyone, but Putin trolls, have your number.
In Ancien Régime France, members of the royal family and nobility were exempt from paying taxes. There was a growing middle class who were understandably resentful at having to pay taxes on their growing incomes. They were also ineligible to be admitted to the military academies like St. Cyr, which were open only to men from noble families.
Louis XV of France had incurred the wrath of his nobility by the plans he developed to reform the French tax system, as his reforms would require members of the formerly exempt nobility to pay some taxes. He had not been able to institute these reforms by the time he contracted smallpox and died at the age of 64. Louis XVi was opposed to these reforms, and declined to adopt the reforms. France started to experience severe economic problems. Some of the problems did stem from court extravagance, although both Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette did make efforts to curb court expenses. The biggest cause of France’s economic woes was France’s failure to reform its tax system in the wake of the substantial expenses France incurred in providing military and logistical assistance to the Continental Army in their successful efforts to gain independence from Britain. We owe France our eternal gratitude for its assistance in securing our independence from Britain, but it helped contribute to then French Revolution due to France’s failure to change its tax policies which favored the nobility.
".....failure to reform its tax system". You sure nailed that one, Kathy!
https://michaeldsellers.substack.com/p/global-monitor-civicus-downgrades
I suggest that the very notion of "a broad middle class," let alone its actual existence is obsolete.