Trump, Musk, Sacks, and the other billionaires taking over in three weeks and one day want to do something quite different from what the previous generation of conservatives sought.
absolutely the resounding question I am asking myself every day, and watching for ideas from other people's posts - one small thing that I am going to start doing is emailing and calling my reps and others I am following, in hopes that repetition will get passed along through an intern here and there
Yes, Juli. Call repeatedly. The interns log the calls daily, so your comment will count as a new one each day. I recommend Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood and Carry Water for specific actions and tactics.
The real problem is that the political system is controlled by corporate money. I think they read our letters and laugh as they look at their profits. I also think this is about power more than money. They will never be able to spend what they have, but power, that's a serious drug.
Thank you will check this out. Also celebrate MLK Holiday on Jan. 20 instead of paying any attention to the inauguration, no matter now negatively seductive.
agreed - as pro-democracy folks are the true free thinkers, we have varying passions and that make
it difficult to organize, as compared to MAGA (where XXXX is the one passion) - I read somewhere today that organizing is going to require that we coalesce around perhaps 3 core points (some potential ones: cap on individual and pac spending to a limited amount, end the electoral college, create judicial oversight committee with true enforcement powers, and so on - seems we must fix core systemic problems - separation of powers, fair and equal representation - before we can accomplish any of the pressing social and environmental challenges that we each care about so deeply -
Really, my belief about how this comes out will be determined by the folks that voted for Trump. Tell them they were obviously lied to and the government is now a bunch of billionaires. They are already to fight. If they think the economic problems coming from Trump and the billionaires are really caused by leftist elites as they have been told by the right wing media machine, it's going to be a bloody mess when it explodes. If they realize that the problem is the oligarchs, no republican will ever be elected again and maybe we can make this nation for its Citizen Democracy instead of Corporate Welfare.
"Tell them they were obviously lied to..." But they have already been told this over, and over, and over again. They didn't hear it then, why do you think they can hear it now?
No (misled election commissions and election workers in red states are working, often with good intentions, to make them less efficient and reliable) so the opposition has to win by large margins. We have to pay attention to every imaginably winnable race, and GOTV!
I have been concerned about this as well - I will be learning all I can about Starlink, how Musk may have rigged the election, and what we need to demand, if anything, to prevent that from happening - a new layer of monitoring? I hope we will make a great noise starting now about these concerns - MAGA sure did in 2020
Thiel no longer has anything to do with PayPal. It went public in 2002, then was totally bought out by eBay. They subsequently sold it, and it's now a public company, major shareholders all the usual suspects of investment funds (BlackRock etc.).
I agree"where ever possible" but it's a challenge in this hyperconnected, monopolised world.....unless you want to go back to living in a cave.
As Robert puts it so eloquently (and badly replayed by me) - it's about understanding and looking behind the curtain..
Imagine trying to boycott Amazon, OK no kindle and no Alexa but then you'd have to close your bank-account (and your paypal account) cause they use AWS; you would have to stop using government services (in fact probably renounce your citizenship and move to Kraplakistan) as all the federal services run on AWS). Hell you'd have to disconnect from the 21st century to try and limit your money going to Bezos et al.
Perhaps in addition to boycotting things the more effective solution is also advocating for more trust/monopoly busting.
such good points - while my gestures of boycott make me feel better, I am just now learning how many very big companies are owned by bigger companies which are owned by a very few huge companies! it. is daunting and hard to know where to begin...
I realized about halfway through this remarkable essay that I was holding my breath and my chest began to feel restricted. Thank you, Mr Reich, for the most illuminating breakdown of what we are facing. It feels tangibly, terrifyingly different than 2016. I feel like I'm walking blindfolded into a new reality for which I'm ill-equipped, even though I've spent my life following the rules of good citizenship and being an educated, well-read, deeply serious person in my efforts to understand my world. I will look to your brilliance, experience and your stellar humanity as one of my guides leading into this dark night.
Er, not seeking to quarrel, but I use PayPal, and love them: They're trustworthy, efficient, user-friendly, dependable, plus, if I use them and not my credit card directly, I can't get scammed or burned by unscrupulous vendors or with a computer hack later. If I can't use PayPal, I won't buy the product or service. If a vendor doesn't offer it, I worry that it might be a phishing expedition. I've never lost money using PayPal; I have using Visa and MasterCard. Online purchases are too risky without PayPal.
I get weekly emails and sometimes phone calls from phishing outfits representing PayPal. I got on that list somehow...I believe from a regular charitable donation auto pay. I contacted PayPal by turning those contact numbers in and it still keeps going on. SO, I won't be using them again. I think they have been hacked a number of times.
I use Apple products because of the security, and many other reasons.
I guess, it's good to know that it works for some people...not for me.
I agree/ I don't have to whip out my wallet when purchasing on line. Paypal is automatic and so easy. Only thing I don't like is the frequent scammers who pretend to be Paypal. I sent these over to "spoof@paypal.com". and then delete them.
I used to use PayPal mainly for political contributions. But I got spammed with an official enough looking PayPal attachment. I tried multiple ways to contact PayPal directly. All I got from PayPal links was machine instructions that didn't answer the problem or lead anywhere. The scammer ended up taking over my computer after I used the phone number on the attachment. Another clue was the mention of bit coin in the attachment, and on PayPal.
Considering the origins of PayPal, it is hard to imagine that the founders don't have any remaining shares. And if they don't, that is a warning as well.
One of the worst companies there is. If you have them, use them for your benefit only and avoid fee based transactions or they will use you. Sadly everyone thinks you are legit if you use paypal and thinks you are weird if you do not
More ; More Money , More Power , More Status, More Trophy 🏆 sexual Partners, More Fame.
The More People Feed Their need to Be Important. There is no end to their wants and there is No limitations to The Institutions , People , or Traditions that they will Destroy in pursuit of MORE !!!
The DEA wanted to outlaw it so they could get bigger bribes to offset the money bribes they lost to legalization of marijuana. DEA agents were counting on that to finance their retirement …
nor did I - I did an online search Pierre Poilievre and pulled up a great YouTube of him really going after Trudeau and the dysfunctional government - also failure to stand up to Trump - loved it
For years, Robert has been pointing out that one of the main functions of government is to hold the very rich accountable to the workers who substantiate their great wealth. The system of federal laws and regulations upon finance and labor were somewhat successful at achieving this goal until about 45 years ago, when the power of capital overreached into government during the Reagan Administration employing the myth of "supply side economics", a glib buzz phrase to show how much benefit that tax cuts for the super-rich would bring to the working class. That turned out to be the 'big lie of the century' which is still being promoted by the oligarchs like Thiel, Bezos, and 'Muskrat'. Be sure that they will never be satisfied until they have rendered the mass of productive citizens into universal peonage. Historically, government by oligarchy has resulted in the death of those governments (Europe and Asia, 1945 and many others throughout history).
I think it's important to recognize some benefits have trickled down--most of us would be unhappy to lose our high tech advantages. On the other hand, I'd be quite happy to trade them for a much kinder, less domination-oriented world.
I can't think of a single "high tech advantage" that wasn't forced on me and that I haven't tried to evade. I was old enough when all this started to have functioned as an adult in a less ominous world offering much more privacy, mundane honesty, and thoughtfulness.
I have LOVED access through the web to the thoughts of great thinkers and all sorts of information. It has also made it much easier to communicate with loved ones and students. That is one high-tech advantage that changed my life for the better. Granted, I’ve watched people all around me and close to me suffer from that same high tech.
You're right--I was already a scholar and loved the forms of access I had. But now many more people have access to more information, knowledge, even coursework. I stand corrected. But we seriously need to support the public schools, and teach kids not only civics and economics but how to get good information on the internet, and why.
Agree 100%. I would add to our traditional civics the importance of democratic institutions for sustainability, recognizing disinformation (I guess this falls under accessing good information), and understanding the authoritarian playbook. But none of this will prevail if most of us prefer instant gratification and ease over civic duty. Perhaps humans have always been this way.
I agree that my world has opened up tremendously by being able to learn almost instantly about so many new things, and am grateful to have that resource - I can also see a growing awareness around unhealthy impacts of being online constantly, and lack of discernment in what we take in - there actually is the place for much better regulation around social media sites (Zuckerberg and other web moguls) - but in addition, the inevitably growing realization of the importance of engage with real people and nature, parental limits on social media for kids until a certain age (to limit bullying and obsession with 'likes' and 'influencers', as opposed to approved sites for fun learning and school assignments - perhaps a fantasy, but that's how I roll
I wish more parents were aware and engaged—my students seem to be well-informed of these downsides and the need for in-person engagement. There are ways to regulate social media sites, but I don’t see that coming any time soon.
High Tech has brought a sinister and destructive agenda to everyone from children to the very old of all ethnicities. I agree I rather have a kinder, GOD fearing, and less dominated by hatefilled humans -oriented world.
On the other hand, the difficult but handy cell phone offers answers to nearly any question one may have. Trouble is, finding the right answer. If only the answers were always complete and truthful and well organized.
People need to look up the name Curtis Yarvin. Shocked Reich didn't mention him. Thiel and Musk are the money men of the anti-democracy silicon valley billionaires but Yarvin is the intellectual mastermind behind it. They want to return the world to feudalism with them at the top of the pyramid. Trump is just a puppet, Reich is correct that a cabal of evil billionaires just couped the country and they are going to gut the government and give themselves all the power instead. The country is so fucked.
- The techbroligarchs and coup d'etat planners had four years, essentially unlimited money, and inside help from red and swing state elections apparatuses to subvert the election. they did this by stealing the coding for the voting machines in states where they're used and rewriting the code to perform whatever functions (many ways to do it) they wanted it to. they did this by bribing, extorting, and enlisting willing elections workers in red and swing states, they did this by essentially, and incrementally over time, replacing the election infrastructure in the states with their own. this is why dumpster said "you (we) won't need to vote anymore" or in another case, in extremely bored tone, "i don't need your votes". there were other similar statements. Remember how demented and bored and idiotic he was on the campaign trail this past summer? that was all deflection, distracting everyone from the astonishing sleight of hand going on. note his demeanor and presence now. it's completely different, isn't it. Remember also that the states conduct elections, not the federal gov't. this makes every election theoretically subject to systemic manipulation and fraud. Which is why we used to have the voting rights act before the corrupt6 court emasculated it. because, y'know states' rights to conduct fraudulent elections and voter suppression. Finally, any expectation that this can be righted at the next "election" is seriously delusional. the techbroligarchs won. AI will only solidify it all.
As someone said, Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean you’re not being persecuted. I wouldn’t put it past them. Perhaps the closeness of the vote reflects care on the part of the coup planners to not attract suspicion. Or just ignorance and malice among so many voters.
I've had this guy feeling that this was happening during the election and the results only confirmed my suspicions. They had been telling us this for 8 years, but no one believed they could really pull it off. Surprise!
I really think it was made much easier by the willingness of so many in the red states to be able to "rationalize" their behavior by the "well they did it first" or, "payback" or some such nonsense.
The thing is, we don't live in a feudal kind of world anymore. If these villains were to carry out such plans, they would crash the economy -- probably the global economy. People wouldn't be able to afford much of anything, which means that mortgage lenders/companies would go under, the travel industry would go under, retail businesses would go under, the airlines would go under, hospitals and clinics would go under... you get my drift, I'm sure. The world we live in cannot survive unless people have enough money to spend on the basic necessities and some non-necessities as well.
People don't like to hear this, but we are a few decades away from civilizational collapse. Humanity is in overshoot and on borrowed time. The rich know this very well and have already built their bunkers. The rise in fascism they are funding worldwide is explicitly because they want to lock down the population under their thumbs now while they still can because once shit starts falling apart in earnest they know we will eat them all otherwise once the majority of people realize how fucked we are. The rich arent planning for the future of humanity because they know there isn't one. They are just trying to get as much for themselves and cement their position at the top as much as they can before the music stops.
Actually, I think the old economy, dollar and all, is crashing. Exchange of money for shelter became distorted in the pandemic. Real Estate is where money traditionally has been parked to keep it safe. Suddenly, the selling prices are too high for other investment buyers to park their money, too high for people trying to buy a place to live, and too high for renters. Suddenly there are homeless populations exploding in every city and town. It is a depression.
Looking back at the post-Roman Empire slide into Feudalism provides some interesting insights. That was also the time of the rise of Christianity. The reason that this religion became appealing over the pagan varieties in Northern Europe was that it recognized the sovereignty of the feudal kingdoms while paganism did not. We now have the odd situation that the Thiel movement of destroying the state has no backstop that the resulting warlord world will respect boundaries or borders. It may well be the end of Christianity just as the collapse of the Roman Empire as the end of the Roman state religion.
However; that level of vulnerability allows other Oligarch ran countries to come in and take over what these Oligarchs have left as remnants of America...a once Great Nation🎯
Not sure we don’t live in a faux feudal society. Workers are at the beck and call of their masters. They are required to respond to calls, emails and texts at all hours. Also, here in Australia, you can be made to sign a contract that inhibits you leaving and joining another company or even setting yourself up as self employed if your new employment uses any intellectual skills used either your previous employer.
Without production, there no goods and certainly no goodies. Rich guys can have all the money they might desire, but they would quickly find that there is nothing to buy with it.
CLS, they'd import and give citizenship to well-off people who could purchase their goods and services, and be investors in their existing and new ventures. Problem solved for the fuedal lords.
It was abandoned because of the industrial revolution. People make things, other people buy things. If people don't buy things, the makers take a loss. I'm not an expert in this, but I expect that feudalism works best mainly in closed, agrarian societies.
Agree the industrial revolution signalled a major societal change.
But theres a reason Theil refers to the 1920s as a watershed decade.
After that, due to the vast suffering during the depression and the loss of wealth by oligarchs and capitalists, Roosevelt enacted the New Deal etc. This comprised a welfare network and regulations aimed at protecting society from corporate excesses. Progressive taxation and other regulations slowly increased the proportion of government revenue that could then be spent on an expanded safety net and platform for equal opportunities in education and employment etc.
Rot started with the Kennedy assassination as he was wary of the US war machines expansion and other pro corporate power grabs. Financialisation of the economy in the 1980s signalled the beginning of the end of equality as financiers became enmeshed in an increasingly corrupt political system.
So here we are now - back to a fuedal future. But with weapons of mass destruction and mass surveillance. Cant see platforms like substack lasting for long if they offer well researched contrarian views. Will probably get bought out X style or simply cancelled.
Always nice to see someone else who knows history and what is going on here. Thiels goal is to undo everything that happened during FDR's presidency. The corporate class has been robbing the people since the Reagan 80s and they are about to deliver the killing blow to any program that helps the lower class at all. We are serfs to them. You work for the corporations or you are made homeless, which is illegal, then thrown in jail and turned into a slave for corporations. You protest, you are arrested and thrown in jail and turned into a slave for corporations. With mass surveillance nobody will be able to fight a fascist US military. There may be a civil war, but I expect the people will lose. This election was the most important in American history and the people chose their own destruction. Nothing to do now but sit back and watch it all come crashing down.
it is good to express the fears I and and possibly many others have about the worst outcome, but to also remember if that really happens everything will crash - but it won't, because a majority of Americans are freedom loving by nurture and nature, and will continue to choose creative action toward the good - we are dismayed by the Gordian knot we find ourselves in at the moment, but we brought it into this world, and we will catch up and take it back out
Well there wasn't just one big thing called "feudalism." There were many arrangements whereby workers of the land and sea (95+% of everyone) accepted the power and protection in times of famine of a ladder of richer though not always wealthy land-holders or leaders (dux-->duke), sometimes elected, joined together by promises (when breaking your word was social death) and mutual obligation--in a world where wealth was control of land and money a minor feature of economies. There were things to be said for it, as Marx pointed out. It was not a world of chattel slavery, mass surveillance and boughten rule. Women were freer in many ways than they would be again until the 20th century. Not advocating a return to it, though climate change may simply recreate it. But there are worse systems. Late capitalism for instance...
Muskrat = apartheid = slavery. He was weaned on it. His uber wealthy parents schooled him in apartheid values from a babe and funded his exploits in the US.
I used to think it was just people in the former Confederate states that wanted to bring back slavery. For non-whites. Now I realize it’s slavery for anyone who is not approved for protection by Thiel and his ilk.
Yes Katharine, the same Peter Thiel who gained citizenship in my country, New Zealand, (after only being here for 12 days!) so he could build a bunker near the Southern Alps, overlooking beautiful Lake Wanaka, to escape the world if mayhem broke out. The Queenstown District Council refused planning permission, so at least they had spine.
Yes, I’m often thrilled to learn of a connection that is new to me. It feels like finding a missing piece of a puzzle and it explains a bigger picture. Thank you!
Thank you, Daniel. I joined 14th Now at https://nowmarch.org/about/. I'm telling my friends and calling my Members of Congress to honor their oath to the US Constitution and refuse to certify insurrectionist, DJT for POTUS on January 6.
Thank you, Daniel! Please keep putting that out, even the link to now march.org ! I just wrote to my Colorado Democratic legislators, urging them to reject the electoral vote.
Billionaires will invest heavily in the prison industrial complex and force the government to imprison more people allowing them to sell that prison labor to replace the low skilled immigrant labor decimated by mass deportation.
Musk was raised in apartheid South Africa and that racist upbringing remains with him. He practices the same racism in the United States albeit quietly but his endorsement of the MAGA movement and its racist orientation makes his position clear.
How much money does Trump owe him?
Musk is a full-on fascist and people have to start calling him such. In the legacy media. ALL THE TIME! He is not "brilliant." He is a fascist.
And I enjoy wearing these kinds of shirts in front of fascists 👇
the French kingdom once owed the Knights Templar a fortune. Solved that problem by declaring war on them and wiping them out. Owing money isnt an issue when you have an army at ur disposal.
He came here, got contracts to build his businesses, on taxpayers dime. These people who get fifty rich off of our money need to pay it back, with interest. No more corporate welfare. It cheats everyday working folks who keep the wheels turning here.
Wearing those t-shirts throws gasoline on a raging bonfire. We need to find some way to unify Americans again. As long as hate reigns, ears and minds are closed. We need all Americans to understand what is going on, to be given ways to correct our problems, and to become motivated to work together for a better nation, one that is finally fair, democratic, and generates prosperity for all citizens. FDR showed us that it can be done. Let's work together. Government is our friend, our only ally against great personal wealth and power, so let's show all Americans how government can work to their advantage.
You? I? Anyone?....will never change the minds of WILLFULLY ignorant people....Maggats are cult members to begin with. They celebrate their refusal to think critically....to reject reality, facts, science. A badge of honor to the fascist horde...
The trouble is it seems to me that the people who voted for them did so for emotional reasons, can’t have a woman president, oh god no!, and the men bought into the ‘strong man’ idea of trump. It’s sickening how stupid you can get when you think you don’t have to be responsible for your actions. I am old so I probably won’t be around much longer…but I have had a great life out in nature, listening to great music, and making gardens with people who had great ideas of how to live!
Why do you think the rabid greedy will devour each other? They help & support each other to become greedier & greedier. They back politicians & bills that support their greed. Prof Reich's most recent post & countless others are all about what needs to be done, measures that the rabid greedy will NOT do voluntarily. So "we the people" have to wake up and act to stop them with effective & properly enforceable legislation that will limit their greed. Leaving it up to the greedy to end their greed somehow is like saying "cancer will be eat itself instead of its host OR cancer will be kind & go away all by itself".
Our prison system will be privatized in order to gain more control and profit from the system? It will enlarge daily even with vast killings from life sentences.
Bringing back the chain gangs! They will also probably work to change almost all criminal laws to match our drug laws. Get convicted anything and they will confiscate all of your money and property. Your family will be on the street if not in jail along side you just because they are related to you.
The Nazis figured this out early on. Find someone you don't like; a college professor say, get him fired, get him blackballed from working anywhere, no income, can't pay his taxes, re-arrest him as a deadbeat, take his home, any money he may have, he is now on the street, arrest him again for vagrancy, charge him with Un-American activities and lifestyle, send him to prison.
If the MAGA hoards think they won't subject to this treatment... good luck.
The USA has the largest raw number of prisoners of any country and the highest percentage of the population in prison. So much for “the land of the free.”
They’re looking for a new “aristocracy.” The owners and the peons. Kings and Dukes of old morph into Oligarchs of today. They own it all, and we take what they offer in return for our labor, or we starve. Those are our choices, if the billionaires succeed in Putinizing our culture and our politics.
YES, seeing what we are up against, with clarity … there’s the crux of it.
And making common cause with each other in solidarity — they are fragmenting us to keep us from doing that.
Messaging in a world of ubiquitous media, and even more ubiquitous disinformation, is going to be key!
We're seeing the efforts that began with the extremely rich faux-libertarian Fred Koch some 70 years ago and carried forward by Charles and David Koch and other ultra-conservative billionaires now bearing rich fruit. Those efforts gained much traction in 1980 with the election of Reagan and then got turbo-charged in 2010 with the Citizens United decision.
The fundamental objective has always been to deconstruct democracy and the regulatory state so as to leave Capital (or Business, or Corporations, if you prefer) absolutely unchecked and untaxed in its consumption of resources and pursuit of maximum profit in any manner fair or foul. Said differently: To create a permanent oligarchy.
The means to that end was the long (and expensive) game of controlling Congress and the White House; promulgating conservative ideology throughout society via the education system, especially law schools, and mass media; and ensuring a conservative bent to the judiciary, which many conservative lawyers from those same law schools would eventually join.
As Prof R explains, money and power are inextricably linked in a mutually reinforcing cycle. Money can buy power, which is then used to acquire more money, which in turn is used to support the power that facilitates the flow of money to the privileged few. And on and on.
Once upon a time there was some subtlety to the process. "Campaign contributions" were "regulated," the judiciary was "impartial," and so on. Now, it's all out in the open -- the anti-democratic neo-fascists Musk and Thiel (and others as well, though they're the two most flagrant examples) spend hundreds of millions of dollars to put their lackeys in office, viciously attack and smear anyone who dares object, and laugh derisively while working the puppet strings.
I've been thinking the exact same thing = 'debtors prisons. I've had to research public assistance to stay in my rental home here in Seattle and am finding one has to be absolutely impoverished (not on the verge ~) before any "real" public assistance kicks in. And getting the run-around about applications for such assistance I've become increasingly handicapped from strokes post knee surgery 4 years ago which medical bills et al have drained my resources, but still have 'too much $' or income to qualify for various programs that are offered The main thing these programs are not including is the level of my expenses vs. income, leaving me nearing destitution and homelessness. Only time will tell what happens next now that - the new aristocracy/oligarchy is soon to come into play.
I've had the thought that tRump has had his sight set on a form of 'kingship' since he named his 5th child Baron, a lesser noble title in past eras, along with Count and Earl.
True, and the reason why Koch was so successful was that he used his wealth to fund organizations--the "dark money" network. Money alone is not as effective.
Absolutely. Jane Mayer lays it all out in Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.
An excellent complementary work is Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America, by Nancy MacLean. She traces the roots of the oligarchy back to antebellum South Carolina and explains the establishment of the so-called public choice theory of economics as the ideological taproot of 20th-century far-rightism.
Ah, the notorious Kevin Phillips, he of Southern Strategy infamy and belated recognition of the horror he had a big hand in creating. Good citation -- it's on my reading list.
Well, Robert, that was a magnificent, succinct explanation/evaluation of “The Mess we Are In That Is Only Getting Worse.”
These principles should be the new curriculum for even high school , let alone college level educations. You are The Master and you are the great Teacher!
Question : Where were you before Nov. 5? That was when we need these clear-cut, albeit excruciatingly painful analyses of where we are/where we are heading.
This election was about bathrooms and immigrant bus kidnappings , pet eating rumors, and heritage(s) of kindness/struggle and political correctness- and smiling. Oh , and we will not go back……
Where was the steely cold truth then- voters did not need more “fairy tales” , more man-‘splaining. That was the time for the “fear of Musk [sic] tactic to be very valuable. “We will take your home, your kids ‘ futures, your retirement….” Before the election that was a valuable tool. Now these really scary facts/truths/echos of your warnings in your “Clinton-years” are a day late and a dollar short.
I don’t think you were scared of offending the average voter, but maybe just a bit apprehensive about offending the traitorous” Democratic machine that got us here in the first place. I think it was a risk you should have taken, I think the average “democratic” voter is smarter than the machine that has brought us all to this horrifying place of complete helplessness.
The Prof was raising many salient points prior to the election but those who needed to hear it were not paying attention or were willfully ignoring the warnings.
Willful ignorance and the absence of critical thinking skills among a sizeable portion of the 78 million who voted for Trump are hard to overcome. They will not blame him when his policies inevitably increase the wealth differential in this country. But to stick it to the Libs, that's what is important.
Yes. I know that you are right. I am just lashing out because I am just so angry at the Democratic Machine. Especially after what just happened over the House Leadership struggle last week.
Then aim your lashing at the ones who deserve it. Or do we have a troll in our midst?
That is going to be a real problem, and we must be careful about being clear with each other. The trolls WERE out this past year, and they haven’t gone away.
Communication is so important now — clear and concise and on point.
Thanks for all you do, Robert Reich and Heather and your whole crew! We are depending on you ever more now!
Yes, I absolutely agree. An average mentality just needs to hear facts to make reasonable choices.
This American “cult”-ure is composed of voters that need shock value. The “SKY IS FALLING” approach really works. It sure worked for them. It is a dichotomy that now the sky really is falling. I say scream it - scream it - SCREAM IT!
And that’s what Robert just did in today’s letter- finally!
I have been tracking Robert Reich prior to Nov 5th - he has not been widely circulated, but now that there are growing audiences for this info on Substack and Bluesky, his insights are being shared at a rapid pace.
speaking for myself, I have been too overwhelmed by big finance to think that I could have an impact on that realm; I now firmly believe this is possible.
I have been circulating Robert Reich’s Substack newsletter every chance I get; with people at the gym, where I bought my glasses, etc. Get the word out! HCR, Joyce Vance, Thom Hartmann and The Lever too.
Over the last 20 years I have observed the "Conservatives" creating new means of communication. Rush Limbaugh, for example, showed the power of talk radio and the "Conservatives" have created them nation wide. Unless you listen to them you would not know what their message is. There are also new News Organizations being created. Some are actual news papers and some are on-line sites. The "Conservatives" are winning the information competition. I doubt the MAGA supporters read or listen to Robert Reich so what he says has no effect on their beliefs.
Good point, John. Outside the big cities conservative media predominate, and they decide the outcome of the elections because of the federal structure of the Republic.
The course that Prof. Reich taught for many years, "Wealth and Poverty," addresses these issues. His lectures are available on YouTube. He also raised the issues many times in this Substack and on Inequality Media, also available on YouTube.
Thank you! And each and every one of Robert’s (we are on a “first name” basis😆) lectures are marvelously informative, factual and not even “Too -intellectual.”
But they may be just a little “too civilized”!!😳😳😳
Robert Reich has been working in this areafor decades and has been speaking about the threat to democracy nearly every day, many years prior to November 5th 2024.
Raabi’’s been writing this stuff for years, in the Grauniad. You should check it out. In fact, I came here through a link in one of his Grauniad columns, thought “nonsense!”, and here I am.
Btw, for you Americans still in thrall to your home-grown fake news/Lügenpresse, the Grauniad’s a far better paper than the imitation “Times” published in the ruins of Nieuw Amsterdam.
Excellent point! May I reference 1968 - “How to make the headlines “ -march (e.g, demonstrate),chant , scream, burn, pillage, “strike!”.
Admittedly, Not as severe as “The Bastille” but it made headlines and,even though we were subsequently “gaslit” for 6 years, we opened a lot of Americans eyes and we were taken seriously.
Wrong answer. We absolutely need those to get this country back on track. No more giving away our hard earned future. Not corporate, globie or any other.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Thanks Paul... the key words are.. "except as a punishment for crime". Unless you have the big bucks for big-time lawyers good luck getting today's Supreme Court to find in your favor!
Slavery was abolished by the 13th (1865) but also left it "legal" under the criminal code. Best wishes to everyone... GH
That's what Laura Loomer fears. She does not mind Thiel or Musk running the economy. What she is horrified of is the possibility of dark skinned Indians lording over whites.
That how things go now- Parents in Education- Home SCHOOLING ( oxymoron!)- Charter schools- religious schools- can they possibly present real, unbiased truth went they can’t even teach modern geography?
Trump and crew are nothing more than quiet jerks. They stand in favor of a 17% reduction in Social Security because they feel if the problems embedded in the system aren't faced now it will lead to its demise in less than a decade. They know the secret truth behind the real reason why Social Security is in trouble, why not just spit it out. Past administrations have used the SS coffer as a bottomless piggy bank. If our government would simply repay, interest free, the funds they stole from the American people our retirement program would intact into the next century. We don't want or need any form of a reduction; we need the jerks who stole from us to stand accountable. It wasn't their money they robbed from us and we want it back. Fix that --Stop making excuses for Donald Trump, that fool will only bring everyone associated with him to their knees begging for forgiveness. Stop lying to the American people. I understand it's the Republican way of doing business, but it isn't right.
There is a constant clamor for “user fees” to cover the costs of administering services like the national parks, yet no such fees for the wear and tear corporations put on our infrastructure and environment aside from taxes that are often riddled with loopholes drilled out by industry.
That’s your take? They could fix Social Security by raising the tax limit. Trump and his sort want to DESTROY Social Security. They want to DESTROY Medicare. They want to DESTROY Medicaid. They want to DESTROY SSI. They want to DESTROY Obamacare. They want DESTROY child labor laws and OSHA.
They want us to work until we are no longer able and then they want us to DIE as quickly as possible. In their world, children and old people are takers.
The best fix for Social Security would be to remove the cap on earnings for deductions. Right now, SS is only deducted from incomes up to $119K, I think. If everybody all the way up the income scale had to pay into SS, the shortfall would be covered.
Thanks Betsy... Current taxable max is $168,600.00. I agree it should be on all wages of any amount. In addition, it should be applied to interest from investments and inheritance. After all, these too are income, though not wage income.
It would also be great if congress, all government workers and the military were under the SS system. Maybe then they would be more likely to care for it. GH
"...If our government would simply repay, interest free, the funds they stole from the American people our retirement program would intact ..."
REPUBLICANS SEEM LIKELY TO LET THE US GOV'T DEFAULT. What makes anyone think they would "simply repay" anything?
"Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen informed Congress on Friday that if lawmakers do not act to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit as soon as Jan. 14 she would most likely need to begin using “extraordinary measures” to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt."
I'm reading a very good and eye-opening book by Kurt Anderson called "Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America", that ties in completely with what Mr. Reich is saying. Where we are now is the culmination of an effort begun all the way back in 1971 with a thing called the Powell Memo.
The hoped-for takeover, however, will be complicated. Trump's MAGA base hates Musk and Ramaswamy but probably doesn't even know who Peter Thiel is. Trump thinks he's "the guy", but he isn't. That award goes to JD Vance, who will take over the presidency and simply do what Peter Thiel tells him to do because that is what he has always done.
Any way the cake is sliced, we are in for a bad time.
My understanding is that Peter Thiel took a Stanford course on scagoating from a French Catholic. JD Vance converted to Catholicism when he ran for office.
I realize that I know more about Musk and Ramaswamy than I do about Thiel. I know he's gay, was "outed" by Gawker, and in revenge sued Gawker out of existence. I know he has stated that democracy is not compatible with capitalism. I know he completely bankrolled JD Vance both as a venture capitalist and in his Senate campaign. I surmise that he owns JD Vance.
I need to know more. What you posted is intriguing.
This is your best ever Robert. You really nailed it, especially don't separate race from class, that has been a big mistake in the past is that race has been separated from class. As Bernie would say race is a subset of class. In fact IMO all of this from woke to Wall Street is subsumed under class warfare.
I believe it was Warren Buffet who said, "there is class warfare and my class is winning"
I add my own two cents, that pain is the great teacher. When the people who have empowered MAGAt and Musk, feel pain, then things will start to change, unless of course this is 1933 and it is too late to change.
Everything accomplished by the New Deal must be thrown out, so that the uber-rich can own it ALL. Reagan & his supporters declared the end of the New Deal helping the middle and lower classes. They declared the Gordon Gekko "Greed is Good" era to redistribute our $$$ to them, and they ensnared the middle/lower classes by instituting culture wars to befog the truth of wealth distribution just to them. Now, the oligarchs who own social and legacy media have sewn shut any means by which the sleeping huddled sheep to hear what is truly going on, and I fear they will applaud all of the Bread and Circuses "MUMP" will put on to keep their attention away from the coming stranglehold on them and us for generations----SQUIRREL!!!
Steve, in answer to your question ........ When you don't have to be concerned about your personal wealth, you look to be further greedy and have power over people.
It was a rhetorical question. I don't pretend to understand others so confidently that I can make pronouncements about their motives, either as individuals or as part of a class. I am satirically suggesting that the mega-rich could go enjoy their resources, and let the rest of us scratch it out as we may. My limited understanding of humans leads me to believe that such a course is, while superficially rational, hardly to be expected.
The rich won't 'go away' until they have ALL the money and ALL the control so it won't happen. Anyway, it is a rhetorical question that is certainly eye opening.
I was thinking about that as I read of President Carters death. He was bashed as President so much, it was really sad. I didn’t realize why at the time. He was a wonderful man.
Many did, because he was an Actor, ‘acting’ like he was some kind of hero. He was NOT! He sold out America to the corporate CEO’s, and what do corps want? ALWAYS More and more Money.
There has always been class warfare from the begining of time. Who started it? The wealthy, they are the only ones with resources. We are now watching what the real entitled people(elitists) will do to the rest of humanity. Can we stop it? Stay tuned.
It’s all about power. We’re a bell curve of people ranging from Mother Teresa, who cared only about others, to Hitler who thrived on power. The range of people never changes. It was our schools that stopped balancing this range of souls and allowed it to tip toward the must have power side. Our schools taught citizenship and restraint. Now they’re treasure chests for the wannabe billionaires running our schools. Learn about it at WhiteChalkCrime.com where whistleblowing teachers teach you what happened. Then run for school
Mother Teresa wasn’t who you think she was either. Power hunger comes in many terrible disguises. She halved people’s food & meds - because “suffering is for God”.
My comment to you was meant to point out that she shouldn't be compared to the billionaires that were mentioned. If what you said was true, you can be sure that it stemmed from her religious beliefs, not from greed. I apologize, I should have worded it this way.
I think it stemmed from human narcissism. I do not believe in God. I see the creation of a patriarchal father figure as the first step towards oppression. Buddhists don’t “worship” Buddha. He died. Mono-theism is ugly.
Nobody said Mother Theresa lived high on the hog but she did withhold meds and food so people could "suffer for God" which were HER religious beliefs she imposed on others.
Actually I heard that. But what most people think is what counts to make a point. She’s become an icon for that like no one else.
I would say anyone who wants to teach belongs at that end! Bottom line is many of us couldn’t care less about power but the ones who do need to be taught restraint. Because that stopped, they are now going for it big time.
and, ironically, at its base all of this just described, from 'what do they want(?)' to its implementation as power through wealth, is all being fueled by our tax dollars.
One has only to look at Musk; 3+billion of grants and subsidies from the state of California to start Tesla. When the tap was shut off he went to suck the teat of the tax payers of Texas. Space X from concept to fulfillment is a tale of tax payer funding. Now he wants to fire government workers whose job it is to actually make the government more efficient, so he can grasp more billions, unhindered by oversight.
He just wrote an OpEd in support of the AfD in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Why? So when the 23 February election comes along, he will have the AfD politicians to guarantee the German text payer tap is never shut off.
The moral of this little tale is that we the tax payers are the real power behind all these shenanigans.
Little doughfaced Elon and Donny Diapers had their shorts pulled down around their ankles in the congress last week by the Democrats and 38 Republicans, tax payer representatives all…It wouldn't be the last time.
Thanks for your 10cent contribution to our understanding of the international automobile business, governmental contract procedure and the implied lesson in legislative method and impact.
They are obviously helpful tools to hasten the downfall of the old world system into the new, capitalist stakeholder controlled, neofeudalist, fascist, global, totalitarian, technocratic form of extreme governance by a small core group of psychopaths.
"Priceless values" are no longer priceless to millions of Americans voters. That's why they support Trump because ditching honesty, integrity and decency doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice, if any at all.
Thank you, Robert. I’m glad you called out Peter Thiel because he definitely has had outsize influence. Keep up the good work of educating us.
Part of the PayPal Mafia
I never use PayPal; boycott wherever possible!
Thank you for your on-going education of the American people. My question is what do WE for next to combat what is happening now?
absolutely the resounding question I am asking myself every day, and watching for ideas from other people's posts - one small thing that I am going to start doing is emailing and calling my reps and others I am following, in hopes that repetition will get passed along through an intern here and there
Yes, Juli. Call repeatedly. The interns log the calls daily, so your comment will count as a new one each day. I recommend Jessica Craven’s Chop Wood and Carry Water for specific actions and tactics.
The real problem is that the political system is controlled by corporate money. I think they read our letters and laugh as they look at their profits. I also think this is about power more than money. They will never be able to spend what they have, but power, that's a serious drug.
Thank you will check this out. Also celebrate MLK Holiday on Jan. 20 instead of paying any attention to the inauguration, no matter now negatively seductive.
Yes to Chop Wood and Carry Water.
excellent thanks
Yes, communication is of great importance, but keep in mind that power comes with organization.
agreed - as pro-democracy folks are the true free thinkers, we have varying passions and that make
it difficult to organize, as compared to MAGA (where XXXX is the one passion) - I read somewhere today that organizing is going to require that we coalesce around perhaps 3 core points (some potential ones: cap on individual and pac spending to a limited amount, end the electoral college, create judicial oversight committee with true enforcement powers, and so on - seems we must fix core systemic problems - separation of powers, fair and equal representation - before we can accomplish any of the pressing social and environmental challenges that we each care about so deeply -
Really, my belief about how this comes out will be determined by the folks that voted for Trump. Tell them they were obviously lied to and the government is now a bunch of billionaires. They are already to fight. If they think the economic problems coming from Trump and the billionaires are really caused by leftist elites as they have been told by the right wing media machine, it's going to be a bloody mess when it explodes. If they realize that the problem is the oligarchs, no republican will ever be elected again and maybe we can make this nation for its Citizen Democracy instead of Corporate Welfare.
"Tell them they were obviously lied to..." But they have already been told this over, and over, and over again. They didn't hear it then, why do you think they can hear it now?
No (misled election commissions and election workers in red states are working, often with good intentions, to make them less efficient and reliable) so the opposition has to win by large margins. We have to pay attention to every imaginably winnable race, and GOTV!
Will our elections be secure?
I have been concerned about this as well - I will be learning all I can about Starlink, how Musk may have rigged the election, and what we need to demand, if anything, to prevent that from happening - a new layer of monitoring? I hope we will make a great noise starting now about these concerns - MAGA sure did in 2020
These are links to email your senators courtesy of Scott Dworkin / Dworkin Report on Substack.
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-the-watchdog-coalition/
I also recommend Jessica Craven of Chop Wood Carry Water for specific actions and tactics.
Thiel no longer has anything to do with PayPal. It went public in 2002, then was totally bought out by eBay. They subsequently sold it, and it's now a public company, major shareholders all the usual suspects of investment funds (BlackRock etc.).
I agree"where ever possible" but it's a challenge in this hyperconnected, monopolised world.....unless you want to go back to living in a cave.
As Robert puts it so eloquently (and badly replayed by me) - it's about understanding and looking behind the curtain..
Imagine trying to boycott Amazon, OK no kindle and no Alexa but then you'd have to close your bank-account (and your paypal account) cause they use AWS; you would have to stop using government services (in fact probably renounce your citizenship and move to Kraplakistan) as all the federal services run on AWS). Hell you'd have to disconnect from the 21st century to try and limit your money going to Bezos et al.
Perhaps in addition to boycotting things the more effective solution is also advocating for more trust/monopoly busting.
such good points - while my gestures of boycott make me feel better, I am just now learning how many very big companies are owned by bigger companies which are owned by a very few huge companies! it. is daunting and hard to know where to begin...
I realized about halfway through this remarkable essay that I was holding my breath and my chest began to feel restricted. Thank you, Mr Reich, for the most illuminating breakdown of what we are facing. It feels tangibly, terrifyingly different than 2016. I feel like I'm walking blindfolded into a new reality for which I'm ill-equipped, even though I've spent my life following the rules of good citizenship and being an educated, well-read, deeply serious person in my efforts to understand my world. I will look to your brilliance, experience and your stellar humanity as one of my guides leading into this dark night.
this post speaks so eloquently to what I am feeling - I feel less alone and very encouraged when I read posts like this one
Mean neither. Customer service is shit.
Er, not seeking to quarrel, but I use PayPal, and love them: They're trustworthy, efficient, user-friendly, dependable, plus, if I use them and not my credit card directly, I can't get scammed or burned by unscrupulous vendors or with a computer hack later. If I can't use PayPal, I won't buy the product or service. If a vendor doesn't offer it, I worry that it might be a phishing expedition. I've never lost money using PayPal; I have using Visa and MasterCard. Online purchases are too risky without PayPal.
I get weekly emails and sometimes phone calls from phishing outfits representing PayPal. I got on that list somehow...I believe from a regular charitable donation auto pay. I contacted PayPal by turning those contact numbers in and it still keeps going on. SO, I won't be using them again. I think they have been hacked a number of times.
I use Apple products because of the security, and many other reasons.
I guess, it's good to know that it works for some people...not for me.
Don't pay, pal!
I get phishing stuff related to Apple too. It’s not unique to PayPal.
I agree/ I don't have to whip out my wallet when purchasing on line. Paypal is automatic and so easy. Only thing I don't like is the frequent scammers who pretend to be Paypal. I sent these over to "spoof@paypal.com". and then delete them.
Also block the phishing email address….
So do I, and have for years. Paypal is great. Evil people can do great things sometimes...
I used to use PayPal mainly for political contributions. But I got spammed with an official enough looking PayPal attachment. I tried multiple ways to contact PayPal directly. All I got from PayPal links was machine instructions that didn't answer the problem or lead anywhere. The scammer ended up taking over my computer after I used the phone number on the attachment. Another clue was the mention of bit coin in the attachment, and on PayPal.
Considering the origins of PayPal, it is hard to imagine that the founders don't have any remaining shares. And if they don't, that is a warning as well.
PayPal's customer service is NOT shit. I have received swift and excellent service from PayPal.
yes! and a false site attempted a fraud (unsuccessfully)
My next delete. Trying to find all the companies in this web of deceit and detach one by one.
One of the worst companies there is. If you have them, use them for your benefit only and avoid fee based transactions or they will use you. Sadly everyone thinks you are legit if you use paypal and thinks you are weird if you do not
More ; More Money , More Power , More Status, More Trophy 🏆 sexual Partners, More Fame.
The More People Feed Their need to Be Important. There is no end to their wants and there is No limitations to The Institutions , People , or Traditions that they will Destroy in pursuit of MORE !!!
He wants to legalize kratom in all the states to make billions off of weak, addicted families and steal their family wealth.
They lose their homes, land, and savings accounts. Same with all the cartel leaders.
Kratom is legal isn’t it.
The DEA wanted to outlaw it so they could get bigger bribes to offset the money bribes they lost to legalization of marijuana. DEA agents were counting on that to finance their retirement …
google it... it appears to be illegal in only 5-6 states.
Bingo! He has stated "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible."
Holy sh t!
I didn’t realize! Is there a more ethical substitute in Canada?
nor did I - I did an online search Pierre Poilievre and pulled up a great YouTube of him really going after Trudeau and the dysfunctional government - also failure to stand up to Trump - loved it
For years, Robert has been pointing out that one of the main functions of government is to hold the very rich accountable to the workers who substantiate their great wealth. The system of federal laws and regulations upon finance and labor were somewhat successful at achieving this goal until about 45 years ago, when the power of capital overreached into government during the Reagan Administration employing the myth of "supply side economics", a glib buzz phrase to show how much benefit that tax cuts for the super-rich would bring to the working class. That turned out to be the 'big lie of the century' which is still being promoted by the oligarchs like Thiel, Bezos, and 'Muskrat'. Be sure that they will never be satisfied until they have rendered the mass of productive citizens into universal peonage. Historically, government by oligarchy has resulted in the death of those governments (Europe and Asia, 1945 and many others throughout history).
I think it's important to recognize some benefits have trickled down--most of us would be unhappy to lose our high tech advantages. On the other hand, I'd be quite happy to trade them for a much kinder, less domination-oriented world.
I can't think of a single "high tech advantage" that wasn't forced on me and that I haven't tried to evade. I was old enough when all this started to have functioned as an adult in a less ominous world offering much more privacy, mundane honesty, and thoughtfulness.
I have LOVED access through the web to the thoughts of great thinkers and all sorts of information. It has also made it much easier to communicate with loved ones and students. That is one high-tech advantage that changed my life for the better. Granted, I’ve watched people all around me and close to me suffer from that same high tech.
You're right--I was already a scholar and loved the forms of access I had. But now many more people have access to more information, knowledge, even coursework. I stand corrected. But we seriously need to support the public schools, and teach kids not only civics and economics but how to get good information on the internet, and why.
Agree 100%. I would add to our traditional civics the importance of democratic institutions for sustainability, recognizing disinformation (I guess this falls under accessing good information), and understanding the authoritarian playbook. But none of this will prevail if most of us prefer instant gratification and ease over civic duty. Perhaps humans have always been this way.
I agree that my world has opened up tremendously by being able to learn almost instantly about so many new things, and am grateful to have that resource - I can also see a growing awareness around unhealthy impacts of being online constantly, and lack of discernment in what we take in - there actually is the place for much better regulation around social media sites (Zuckerberg and other web moguls) - but in addition, the inevitably growing realization of the importance of engage with real people and nature, parental limits on social media for kids until a certain age (to limit bullying and obsession with 'likes' and 'influencers', as opposed to approved sites for fun learning and school assignments - perhaps a fantasy, but that's how I roll
I wish more parents were aware and engaged—my students seem to be well-informed of these downsides and the need for in-person engagement. There are ways to regulate social media sites, but I don’t see that coming any time soon.
High Tech has brought a sinister and destructive agenda to everyone from children to the very old of all ethnicities. I agree I rather have a kinder, GOD fearing, and less dominated by hatefilled humans -oriented world.
On the other hand, the difficult but handy cell phone offers answers to nearly any question one may have. Trouble is, finding the right answer. If only the answers were always complete and truthful and well organized.
In a heartbeat.
Plato and Aristotle noted this.
People need to look up the name Curtis Yarvin. Shocked Reich didn't mention him. Thiel and Musk are the money men of the anti-democracy silicon valley billionaires but Yarvin is the intellectual mastermind behind it. They want to return the world to feudalism with them at the top of the pyramid. Trump is just a puppet, Reich is correct that a cabal of evil billionaires just couped the country and they are going to gut the government and give themselves all the power instead. The country is so fucked.
Andy -
- The techbroligarchs and coup d'etat planners had four years, essentially unlimited money, and inside help from red and swing state elections apparatuses to subvert the election. they did this by stealing the coding for the voting machines in states where they're used and rewriting the code to perform whatever functions (many ways to do it) they wanted it to. they did this by bribing, extorting, and enlisting willing elections workers in red and swing states, they did this by essentially, and incrementally over time, replacing the election infrastructure in the states with their own. this is why dumpster said "you (we) won't need to vote anymore" or in another case, in extremely bored tone, "i don't need your votes". there were other similar statements. Remember how demented and bored and idiotic he was on the campaign trail this past summer? that was all deflection, distracting everyone from the astonishing sleight of hand going on. note his demeanor and presence now. it's completely different, isn't it. Remember also that the states conduct elections, not the federal gov't. this makes every election theoretically subject to systemic manipulation and fraud. Which is why we used to have the voting rights act before the corrupt6 court emasculated it. because, y'know states' rights to conduct fraudulent elections and voter suppression. Finally, any expectation that this can be righted at the next "election" is seriously delusional. the techbroligarchs won. AI will only solidify it all.
As someone said, Just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean you’re not being persecuted. I wouldn’t put it past them. Perhaps the closeness of the vote reflects care on the part of the coup planners to not attract suspicion. Or just ignorance and malice among so many voters.
I've had this guy feeling that this was happening during the election and the results only confirmed my suspicions. They had been telling us this for 8 years, but no one believed they could really pull it off. Surprise!
I really think it was made much easier by the willingness of so many in the red states to be able to "rationalize" their behavior by the "well they did it first" or, "payback" or some such nonsense.
The thing is, we don't live in a feudal kind of world anymore. If these villains were to carry out such plans, they would crash the economy -- probably the global economy. People wouldn't be able to afford much of anything, which means that mortgage lenders/companies would go under, the travel industry would go under, retail businesses would go under, the airlines would go under, hospitals and clinics would go under... you get my drift, I'm sure. The world we live in cannot survive unless people have enough money to spend on the basic necessities and some non-necessities as well.
People don't like to hear this, but we are a few decades away from civilizational collapse. Humanity is in overshoot and on borrowed time. The rich know this very well and have already built their bunkers. The rise in fascism they are funding worldwide is explicitly because they want to lock down the population under their thumbs now while they still can because once shit starts falling apart in earnest they know we will eat them all otherwise once the majority of people realize how fucked we are. The rich arent planning for the future of humanity because they know there isn't one. They are just trying to get as much for themselves and cement their position at the top as much as they can before the music stops.
For Musk and his pals most people are just waste, a burden on the planet.
Actually, I think the old economy, dollar and all, is crashing. Exchange of money for shelter became distorted in the pandemic. Real Estate is where money traditionally has been parked to keep it safe. Suddenly, the selling prices are too high for other investment buyers to park their money, too high for people trying to buy a place to live, and too high for renters. Suddenly there are homeless populations exploding in every city and town. It is a depression.
Looking back at the post-Roman Empire slide into Feudalism provides some interesting insights. That was also the time of the rise of Christianity. The reason that this religion became appealing over the pagan varieties in Northern Europe was that it recognized the sovereignty of the feudal kingdoms while paganism did not. We now have the odd situation that the Thiel movement of destroying the state has no backstop that the resulting warlord world will respect boundaries or borders. It may well be the end of Christianity just as the collapse of the Roman Empire as the end of the Roman state religion.
Feudalism was the consequence of the economic, technological, infrastructural and and institutional crash of the Roman Empire.
However; that level of vulnerability allows other Oligarch ran countries to come in and take over what these Oligarchs have left as remnants of America...a once Great Nation🎯
Not sure we don’t live in a faux feudal society. Workers are at the beck and call of their masters. They are required to respond to calls, emails and texts at all hours. Also, here in Australia, you can be made to sign a contract that inhibits you leaving and joining another company or even setting yourself up as self employed if your new employment uses any intellectual skills used either your previous employer.
Without production, there no goods and certainly no goodies. Rich guys can have all the money they might desire, but they would quickly find that there is nothing to buy with it.
CLS, they'd import and give citizenship to well-off people who could purchase their goods and services, and be investors in their existing and new ventures. Problem solved for the fuedal lords.
Don’t limit your thinking to the USA. They are preparing to do the same in Uk, Germany and France.
Feudalism was just great, wasn’t it? Except for almost everyone. Why was feudalism ever (mostly?somewhat?) abandoned?
Your lord and master (Trump, perhaps?) would protect you from other people’s lords and masters, who were out to get you and steal your supremacy.
just like this country was great in the 1950s-if you were white and male-trump wants us there,or maybe the 1850s
It was abandoned because of the industrial revolution. People make things, other people buy things. If people don't buy things, the makers take a loss. I'm not an expert in this, but I expect that feudalism works best mainly in closed, agrarian societies.
Agree the industrial revolution signalled a major societal change.
But theres a reason Theil refers to the 1920s as a watershed decade.
After that, due to the vast suffering during the depression and the loss of wealth by oligarchs and capitalists, Roosevelt enacted the New Deal etc. This comprised a welfare network and regulations aimed at protecting society from corporate excesses. Progressive taxation and other regulations slowly increased the proportion of government revenue that could then be spent on an expanded safety net and platform for equal opportunities in education and employment etc.
Rot started with the Kennedy assassination as he was wary of the US war machines expansion and other pro corporate power grabs. Financialisation of the economy in the 1980s signalled the beginning of the end of equality as financiers became enmeshed in an increasingly corrupt political system.
So here we are now - back to a fuedal future. But with weapons of mass destruction and mass surveillance. Cant see platforms like substack lasting for long if they offer well researched contrarian views. Will probably get bought out X style or simply cancelled.
Always nice to see someone else who knows history and what is going on here. Thiels goal is to undo everything that happened during FDR's presidency. The corporate class has been robbing the people since the Reagan 80s and they are about to deliver the killing blow to any program that helps the lower class at all. We are serfs to them. You work for the corporations or you are made homeless, which is illegal, then thrown in jail and turned into a slave for corporations. You protest, you are arrested and thrown in jail and turned into a slave for corporations. With mass surveillance nobody will be able to fight a fascist US military. There may be a civil war, but I expect the people will lose. This election was the most important in American history and the people chose their own destruction. Nothing to do now but sit back and watch it all come crashing down.
it is good to express the fears I and and possibly many others have about the worst outcome, but to also remember if that really happens everything will crash - but it won't, because a majority of Americans are freedom loving by nurture and nature, and will continue to choose creative action toward the good - we are dismayed by the Gordian knot we find ourselves in at the moment, but we brought it into this world, and we will catch up and take it back out
Well there wasn't just one big thing called "feudalism." There were many arrangements whereby workers of the land and sea (95+% of everyone) accepted the power and protection in times of famine of a ladder of richer though not always wealthy land-holders or leaders (dux-->duke), sometimes elected, joined together by promises (when breaking your word was social death) and mutual obligation--in a world where wealth was control of land and money a minor feature of economies. There were things to be said for it, as Marx pointed out. It was not a world of chattel slavery, mass surveillance and boughten rule. Women were freer in many ways than they would be again until the 20th century. Not advocating a return to it, though climate change may simply recreate it. But there are worse systems. Late capitalism for instance...
Thanks for mentioning Curtis Yarvin. It is really shocking that people even read his postings and his other writings. The Guardian reviewed him here. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/21/curtis-yarvin-trump
Thanks! I just posted this article re Yarvin from the New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas?I must have posted it about a dozen times but I have not seen this one from the Guardian.
HI Marsha, Thanks for the link, I read the article in TNR. Good publication.
America voted for this🤷
Thanks for mentioning Yarvin! https://newrepublic.com/article/183971/jd-vance-weird-terrifying-techno-authoritarian-ideas?fbclid=IwY2xjawEgQc5leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHU4hp1uGYvVrQZSH5JKmHAmuNg2Bog1p00xfpxLJBUrF972PrmHy7QJNlw_aem_jw0j9EPWQex4a4xB3gWoJQ
And America voted for this💯‼️🎯
Theil = slavery
Muskrat = apartheid = slavery. He was weaned on it. His uber wealthy parents schooled him in apartheid values from a babe and funded his exploits in the US.
Soulless SOB
He’s a cancer.
I used to think it was just people in the former Confederate states that wanted to bring back slavery. For non-whites. Now I realize it’s slavery for anyone who is not approved for protection by Thiel and his ilk.
Slavery is mostly fine by most peoples standards until they realize they will be slaves as well and then oh boy the moral outrage.
Do they care whether you live or not! Probably not.
Textbook serfdom, the people are mere tools for the uber rich like Thiel to get what they want and squash people in the process, evil mother-F's
Yes Katharine, the same Peter Thiel who gained citizenship in my country, New Zealand, (after only being here for 12 days!) so he could build a bunker near the Southern Alps, overlooking beautiful Lake Wanaka, to escape the world if mayhem broke out. The Queenstown District Council refused planning permission, so at least they had spine.
He bought it (the citizenship).
Reich❤: "What are they seeking?"
Our Balls
Mr. Reich -- Your essays help me to "connect the dots"! Thank you for what you do!
Yes, I’m often thrilled to learn of a connection that is new to me. It feels like finding a missing piece of a puzzle and it explains a bigger picture. Thank you!
In the cartoon, do you know what’s under “Medicaid”? It says “Glass” something. Thanks.
Glass-Steagall [Banking Act of 1933]
Thank you. Yes, the FDIC.
That's been gone since 1992.
We have only one out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-puZlM-47o&t=1402s
Thank you, Daniel. I joined 14th Now at https://nowmarch.org/about/. I'm telling my friends and calling my Members of Congress to honor their oath to the US Constitution and refuse to certify insurrectionist, DJT for POTUS on January 6.
Thank you, Daniel! Please keep putting that out, even the link to now march.org ! I just wrote to my Colorado Democratic legislators, urging them to reject the electoral vote.
I got scammed by PayPal - never use them again.
They want to usher in a new era of slavery and the new slaves will be of varying skin color.
Billionaires will invest heavily in the prison industrial complex and force the government to imprison more people allowing them to sell that prison labor to replace the low skilled immigrant labor decimated by mass deportation.
Musk was raised in apartheid South Africa and that racist upbringing remains with him. He practices the same racism in the United States albeit quietly but his endorsement of the MAGA movement and its racist orientation makes his position clear.
How much money does Trump owe him?
Musk is a full-on fascist and people have to start calling him such. In the legacy media. ALL THE TIME! He is not "brilliant." He is a fascist.
And I enjoy wearing these kinds of shirts in front of fascists 👇
https://libtees-2.creator-spring.com
Putin has purchased the Trump debt, he owns both Musk and Trump, including Trump Corporation!
the French kingdom once owed the Knights Templar a fortune. Solved that problem by declaring war on them and wiping them out. Owing money isnt an issue when you have an army at ur disposal.
He came here, got contracts to build his businesses, on taxpayers dime. These people who get fifty rich off of our money need to pay it back, with interest. No more corporate welfare. It cheats everyday working folks who keep the wheels turning here.
Why the hell he was ever allowed to settle in the US is beyond me.
Wearing those t-shirts throws gasoline on a raging bonfire. We need to find some way to unify Americans again. As long as hate reigns, ears and minds are closed. We need all Americans to understand what is going on, to be given ways to correct our problems, and to become motivated to work together for a better nation, one that is finally fair, democratic, and generates prosperity for all citizens. FDR showed us that it can be done. Let's work together. Government is our friend, our only ally against great personal wealth and power, so let's show all Americans how government can work to their advantage.
You? I? Anyone?....will never change the minds of WILLFULLY ignorant people....Maggats are cult members to begin with. They celebrate their refusal to think critically....to reject reality, facts, science. A badge of honor to the fascist horde...
The trouble is it seems to me that the people who voted for them did so for emotional reasons, can’t have a woman president, oh god no!, and the men bought into the ‘strong man’ idea of trump. It’s sickening how stupid you can get when you think you don’t have to be responsible for your actions. I am old so I probably won’t be around much longer…but I have had a great life out in nature, listening to great music, and making gardens with people who had great ideas of how to live!
You can take the man out of apartheid but you can’t take apartheid out of the man.
Right, it won’t end, until the Rabid Greedy devour each other. Which they will
Why do you think the rabid greedy will devour each other? They help & support each other to become greedier & greedier. They back politicians & bills that support their greed. Prof Reich's most recent post & countless others are all about what needs to be done, measures that the rabid greedy will NOT do voluntarily. So "we the people" have to wake up and act to stop them with effective & properly enforceable legislation that will limit their greed. Leaving it up to the greedy to end their greed somehow is like saying "cancer will be eat itself instead of its host OR cancer will be kind & go away all by itself".
Poignant Liz!!
Absolutely!
Organize!
But not soon enough.
The competitive drive of these greedy White men will be rough! Let them fight it out, but it is at our expense! Starting now at MAL in Florida!
Do Sharks eventually eat each other, YUP.
Our prison system will be privatized in order to gain more control and profit from the system? It will enlarge daily even with vast killings from life sentences.
Bringing back the chain gangs! They will also probably work to change almost all criminal laws to match our drug laws. Get convicted anything and they will confiscate all of your money and property. Your family will be on the street if not in jail along side you just because they are related to you.
The Nazis figured this out early on. Find someone you don't like; a college professor say, get him fired, get him blackballed from working anywhere, no income, can't pay his taxes, re-arrest him as a deadbeat, take his home, any money he may have, he is now on the street, arrest him again for vagrancy, charge him with Un-American activities and lifestyle, send him to prison.
If the MAGA hoards think they won't subject to this treatment... good luck.
Happy New Year everyone... GH
Yikes.
The USA has the largest raw number of prisoners of any country and the highest percentage of the population in prison. So much for “the land of the free.”
They’re looking for a new “aristocracy.” The owners and the peons. Kings and Dukes of old morph into Oligarchs of today. They own it all, and we take what they offer in return for our labor, or we starve. Those are our choices, if the billionaires succeed in Putinizing our culture and our politics.
YES, seeing what we are up against, with clarity … there’s the crux of it.
And making common cause with each other in solidarity — they are fragmenting us to keep us from doing that.
Messaging in a world of ubiquitous media, and even more ubiquitous disinformation, is going to be key!
We're seeing the efforts that began with the extremely rich faux-libertarian Fred Koch some 70 years ago and carried forward by Charles and David Koch and other ultra-conservative billionaires now bearing rich fruit. Those efforts gained much traction in 1980 with the election of Reagan and then got turbo-charged in 2010 with the Citizens United decision.
The fundamental objective has always been to deconstruct democracy and the regulatory state so as to leave Capital (or Business, or Corporations, if you prefer) absolutely unchecked and untaxed in its consumption of resources and pursuit of maximum profit in any manner fair or foul. Said differently: To create a permanent oligarchy.
The means to that end was the long (and expensive) game of controlling Congress and the White House; promulgating conservative ideology throughout society via the education system, especially law schools, and mass media; and ensuring a conservative bent to the judiciary, which many conservative lawyers from those same law schools would eventually join.
As Prof R explains, money and power are inextricably linked in a mutually reinforcing cycle. Money can buy power, which is then used to acquire more money, which in turn is used to support the power that facilitates the flow of money to the privileged few. And on and on.
Once upon a time there was some subtlety to the process. "Campaign contributions" were "regulated," the judiciary was "impartial," and so on. Now, it's all out in the open -- the anti-democratic neo-fascists Musk and Thiel (and others as well, though they're the two most flagrant examples) spend hundreds of millions of dollars to put their lackeys in office, viciously attack and smear anyone who dares object, and laugh derisively while working the puppet strings.
The Koch-envisioned oligarchy is here.
Exactly and I firmly believe they will use the concept of debtor’s prisons and protester imprisonment to fill their quotas.
I've been thinking the exact same thing = 'debtors prisons. I've had to research public assistance to stay in my rental home here in Seattle and am finding one has to be absolutely impoverished (not on the verge ~) before any "real" public assistance kicks in. And getting the run-around about applications for such assistance I've become increasingly handicapped from strokes post knee surgery 4 years ago which medical bills et al have drained my resources, but still have 'too much $' or income to qualify for various programs that are offered The main thing these programs are not including is the level of my expenses vs. income, leaving me nearing destitution and homelessness. Only time will tell what happens next now that - the new aristocracy/oligarchy is soon to come into play.
I've had the thought that tRump has had his sight set on a form of 'kingship' since he named his 5th child Baron, a lesser noble title in past eras, along with Count and Earl.
True, and the reason why Koch was so successful was that he used his wealth to fund organizations--the "dark money" network. Money alone is not as effective.
Absolutely. Jane Mayer lays it all out in Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right.
An excellent complementary work is Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America, by Nancy MacLean. She traces the roots of the oligarchy back to antebellum South Carolina and explains the establishment of the so-called public choice theory of economics as the ideological taproot of 20th-century far-rightism.
Yes, both books are very informative and important. Kevin Phillips's American Theocracy complements MacNeal's book.
Ah, the notorious Kevin Phillips, he of Southern Strategy infamy and belated recognition of the horror he had a big hand in creating. Good citation -- it's on my reading list.
Beware Mencius Moldbug and his fellow travelers
Great post baba!!
Hello dear, how's your day going over there today?
Well, Robert, that was a magnificent, succinct explanation/evaluation of “The Mess we Are In That Is Only Getting Worse.”
These principles should be the new curriculum for even high school , let alone college level educations. You are The Master and you are the great Teacher!
Question : Where were you before Nov. 5? That was when we need these clear-cut, albeit excruciatingly painful analyses of where we are/where we are heading.
This election was about bathrooms and immigrant bus kidnappings , pet eating rumors, and heritage(s) of kindness/struggle and political correctness- and smiling. Oh , and we will not go back……
Where was the steely cold truth then- voters did not need more “fairy tales” , more man-‘splaining. That was the time for the “fear of Musk [sic] tactic to be very valuable. “We will take your home, your kids ‘ futures, your retirement….” Before the election that was a valuable tool. Now these really scary facts/truths/echos of your warnings in your “Clinton-years” are a day late and a dollar short.
I don’t think you were scared of offending the average voter, but maybe just a bit apprehensive about offending the traitorous” Democratic machine that got us here in the first place. I think it was a risk you should have taken, I think the average “democratic” voter is smarter than the machine that has brought us all to this horrifying place of complete helplessness.
YOU WERE JUST TOO NICE!
The Prof was raising many salient points prior to the election but those who needed to hear it were not paying attention or were willfully ignoring the warnings.
Willful ignorance and the absence of critical thinking skills among a sizeable portion of the 78 million who voted for Trump are hard to overcome. They will not blame him when his policies inevitably increase the wealth differential in this country. But to stick it to the Libs, that's what is important.
True, he had us all in his classroom Geoff!!
Robert HAS ALWAYS BEEN HERE! For all of US! All one had to do, WAS LISTEN!
Yes. I know that you are right. I am just lashing out because I am just so angry at the Democratic Machine. Especially after what just happened over the House Leadership struggle last week.
Then aim your lashing at the ones who deserve it. Or do we have a troll in our midst?
That is going to be a real problem, and we must be careful about being clear with each other. The trolls WERE out this past year, and they haven’t gone away.
Communication is so important now — clear and concise and on point.
Thanks for all you do, Robert Reich and Heather and your whole crew! We are depending on you ever more now!
Prof Reich wrote/spoke about these economic-political issues in length well before and up to Nov. 5.
Some of the culture war issues were fought for by Harris and the Dems, in others not forcefully enough or in the case of trans rights, not at all.
Yes, I absolutely agree. An average mentality just needs to hear facts to make reasonable choices.
This American “cult”-ure is composed of voters that need shock value. The “SKY IS FALLING” approach really works. It sure worked for them. It is a dichotomy that now the sky really is falling. I say scream it - scream it - SCREAM IT!
And that’s what Robert just did in today’s letter- finally!
I have been tracking Robert Reich prior to Nov 5th - he has not been widely circulated, but now that there are growing audiences for this info on Substack and Bluesky, his insights are being shared at a rapid pace.
speaking for myself, I have been too overwhelmed by big finance to think that I could have an impact on that realm; I now firmly believe this is possible.
I have been circulating Robert Reich’s Substack newsletter every chance I get; with people at the gym, where I bought my glasses, etc. Get the word out! HCR, Joyce Vance, Thom Hartmann and The Lever too.
I will check those out, thanks
Over the last 20 years I have observed the "Conservatives" creating new means of communication. Rush Limbaugh, for example, showed the power of talk radio and the "Conservatives" have created them nation wide. Unless you listen to them you would not know what their message is. There are also new News Organizations being created. Some are actual news papers and some are on-line sites. The "Conservatives" are winning the information competition. I doubt the MAGA supporters read or listen to Robert Reich so what he says has no effect on their beliefs.
Good point, John. Outside the big cities conservative media predominate, and they decide the outcome of the elections because of the federal structure of the Republic.
The course that Prof. Reich taught for many years, "Wealth and Poverty," addresses these issues. His lectures are available on YouTube. He also raised the issues many times in this Substack and on Inequality Media, also available on YouTube.
Thank you! And each and every one of Robert’s (we are on a “first name” basis😆) lectures are marvelously informative, factual and not even “Too -intellectual.”
But they may be just a little “too civilized”!!😳😳😳
Robert Reich has been working in this areafor decades and has been speaking about the threat to democracy nearly every day, many years prior to November 5th 2024.
“Where were you before Nov 5?”
Raabi’’s been writing this stuff for years, in the Grauniad. You should check it out. In fact, I came here through a link in one of his Grauniad columns, thought “nonsense!”, and here I am.
Btw, for you Americans still in thrall to your home-grown fake news/Lügenpresse, the Grauniad’s a far better paper than the imitation “Times” published in the ruins of Nieuw Amsterdam.
Excellent point! May I reference 1968 - “How to make the headlines “ -march (e.g, demonstrate),chant , scream, burn, pillage, “strike!”.
Admittedly, Not as severe as “The Bastille” but it made headlines and,even though we were subsequently “gaslit” for 6 years, we opened a lot of Americans eyes and we were taken seriously.
He WAS saying it, LaVelle … if you were not seeing it, that’s on you. Also, part of the problem of REACHING people when too many of us are siloed.
Make no mistake, the incoming admin is sp very much better than the alternative one we had thrust upon us.
Exactly this. The only government agencies we should be defunding are ICE and border patrol. They are fascists, not public servants: https://democracydefender2025.substack.com/p/abolish-ice-and-border-patrol-fascists
Wrong answer. We absolutely need those to get this country back on track. No more giving away our hard earned future. Not corporate, globie or any other.
If Musk isn't a globalist, the word has no meaning.
Musk, like Trump, is loyal only to himself.
100%
absolutely agreed. What I've also thought all along
Geoff - In its entirety:
Thirteenth Amendment
Section 1
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Thanks Paul... the key words are.. "except as a punishment for crime". Unless you have the big bucks for big-time lawyers good luck getting today's Supreme Court to find in your favor!
Slavery was abolished by the 13th (1865) but also left it "legal" under the criminal code. Best wishes to everyone... GH
That's what Laura Loomer fears. She does not mind Thiel or Musk running the economy. What she is horrified of is the possibility of dark skinned Indians lording over whites.
Well she’d better get used to it. That’s what she wished in.
We have “political” slavery now! It is going to get much worse!
I would argue that we have political tribalism enabled by a shockingly bad education system. That polarization only benefits the billionaires
That how things go now- Parents in Education- Home SCHOOLING ( oxymoron!)- Charter schools- religious schools- can they possibly present real, unbiased truth went they can’t even teach modern geography?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCo3qQMNdX8/?igsh=NWQ3ZTY4dXRkMmlw
Will they have a color chart to decide who gets what?
I’m sure they will. And there’ll be no one to protect the vulnerable
Something to think about - and fact check:
https://youtu.be/La0h1ec3lw4?si=UdWwMRfH7awpdrAO
Look at where it seems to be happening and draw your own conclusions.
Can you put a brief description of what this is before we click on it? Thanks.
Trump and crew are nothing more than quiet jerks. They stand in favor of a 17% reduction in Social Security because they feel if the problems embedded in the system aren't faced now it will lead to its demise in less than a decade. They know the secret truth behind the real reason why Social Security is in trouble, why not just spit it out. Past administrations have used the SS coffer as a bottomless piggy bank. If our government would simply repay, interest free, the funds they stole from the American people our retirement program would intact into the next century. We don't want or need any form of a reduction; we need the jerks who stole from us to stand accountable. It wasn't their money they robbed from us and we want it back. Fix that --Stop making excuses for Donald Trump, that fool will only bring everyone associated with him to their knees begging for forgiveness. Stop lying to the American people. I understand it's the Republican way of doing business, but it isn't right.
There is a constant clamor for “user fees” to cover the costs of administering services like the national parks, yet no such fees for the wear and tear corporations put on our infrastructure and environment aside from taxes that are often riddled with loopholes drilled out by industry.
That’s your take? They could fix Social Security by raising the tax limit. Trump and his sort want to DESTROY Social Security. They want to DESTROY Medicare. They want to DESTROY Medicaid. They want to DESTROY SSI. They want to DESTROY Obamacare. They want DESTROY child labor laws and OSHA.
They want us to work until we are no longer able and then they want us to DIE as quickly as possible. In their world, children and old people are takers.
The best fix for Social Security would be to remove the cap on earnings for deductions. Right now, SS is only deducted from incomes up to $119K, I think. If everybody all the way up the income scale had to pay into SS, the shortfall would be covered.
I think it tops out at $156K, but that doesn't change the fact that really rich people, who make their money in the markets, don't pay into it at all.
Thanks Betsy... Current taxable max is $168,600.00. I agree it should be on all wages of any amount. In addition, it should be applied to interest from investments and inheritance. After all, these too are income, though not wage income.
It would also be great if congress, all government workers and the military were under the SS system. Maybe then they would be more likely to care for it. GH
^^ This
Probably true Betsy, but I don’t think the incoming administration is interested in “fixing” SS sadly.
Exactly Donald!!
"...If our government would simply repay, interest free, the funds they stole from the American people our retirement program would intact ..."
REPUBLICANS SEEM LIKELY TO LET THE US GOV'T DEFAULT. What makes anyone think they would "simply repay" anything?
"Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen informed Congress on Friday that if lawmakers do not act to raise or suspend the nation’s debt limit as soon as Jan. 14 she would most likely need to begin using “extraordinary measures” to prevent the United States from defaulting on its debt."
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/business/economy/yellen-debt-limit-warning-congress.html
If Republicans do this, what will be done to the rest of the economy-- from millions of people's savings to foreign government investment?
I'm reading a very good and eye-opening book by Kurt Anderson called "Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America", that ties in completely with what Mr. Reich is saying. Where we are now is the culmination of an effort begun all the way back in 1971 with a thing called the Powell Memo.
The hoped-for takeover, however, will be complicated. Trump's MAGA base hates Musk and Ramaswamy but probably doesn't even know who Peter Thiel is. Trump thinks he's "the guy", but he isn't. That award goes to JD Vance, who will take over the presidency and simply do what Peter Thiel tells him to do because that is what he has always done.
Any way the cake is sliced, we are in for a bad time.
Yikes!
My understanding is that Peter Thiel took a Stanford course on scagoating from a French Catholic. JD Vance converted to Catholicism when he ran for office.
I realize that I know more about Musk and Ramaswamy than I do about Thiel. I know he's gay, was "outed" by Gawker, and in revenge sued Gawker out of existence. I know he has stated that democracy is not compatible with capitalism. I know he completely bankrolled JD Vance both as a venture capitalist and in his Senate campaign. I surmise that he owns JD Vance.
I need to know more. What you posted is intriguing.
Biden and Harris tried to play a clean game. They lost.
This is your best ever Robert. You really nailed it, especially don't separate race from class, that has been a big mistake in the past is that race has been separated from class. As Bernie would say race is a subset of class. In fact IMO all of this from woke to Wall Street is subsumed under class warfare.
I believe it was Warren Buffet who said, "there is class warfare and my class is winning"
I add my own two cents, that pain is the great teacher. When the people who have empowered MAGAt and Musk, feel pain, then things will start to change, unless of course this is 1933 and it is too late to change.
Buffet in 1999 also said that his administrative secretary was paying more in taxes than he was and that was NOT okay.
Yes, I know.
Everything accomplished by the New Deal must be thrown out, so that the uber-rich can own it ALL. Reagan & his supporters declared the end of the New Deal helping the middle and lower classes. They declared the Gordon Gekko "Greed is Good" era to redistribute our $$$ to them, and they ensnared the middle/lower classes by instituting culture wars to befog the truth of wealth distribution just to them. Now, the oligarchs who own social and legacy media have sewn shut any means by which the sleeping huddled sheep to hear what is truly going on, and I fear they will applaud all of the Bread and Circuses "MUMP" will put on to keep their attention away from the coming stranglehold on them and us for generations----SQUIRREL!!!
Everyone should know this NOW
Yes. It is a very concise description
I understand the problems. What do we do about it. I want to hear more about that.
So now What do we DO about it? How do we stop this runaway train?
These are links to email your senators courtesy of Scott Dworkin / Dworkin Report on Substack.
https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-up-for-the-watchdog-coalition/
I also recommend Jessica Craven of Chop Wood Carry Water for specific actions and tactics.
Why are they bothering us at all? They're set. They could just go away and leave us alone.
Steve, in answer to your question ........ When you don't have to be concerned about your personal wealth, you look to be further greedy and have power over people.
It was a rhetorical question. I don't pretend to understand others so confidently that I can make pronouncements about their motives, either as individuals or as part of a class. I am satirically suggesting that the mega-rich could go enjoy their resources, and let the rest of us scratch it out as we may. My limited understanding of humans leads me to believe that such a course is, while superficially rational, hardly to be expected.
The rich won't 'go away' until they have ALL the money and ALL the control so it won't happen. Anyway, it is a rhetorical question that is certainly eye opening.
If only Robert Reich had been our President instead of Reagan! America 🇺🇸 would be everything it was meant to be, and so much more!
We had the chance to re-elect "boring" Jimmy Carter. But we chose Reagan.
Often think of that Robert Frost poem "The Road Not Taken."
Carter was a kind and compassionate person. As was/is President Biden. Apparently this attribute is not desired in a US President.
I was thinking about that as I read of President Carters death. He was bashed as President so much, it was really sad. I didn’t realize why at the time. He was a wonderful man.
And ever since Reagan, they have continued to vote for republicans, who keep selling out > We the People, pure insanity!
Many did, because he was an Actor, ‘acting’ like he was some kind of hero. He was NOT! He sold out America to the corporate CEO’s, and what do corps want? ALWAYS More and more Money.
My post ^ was about 👺Reagan.
Jimmy Carter, was an Outstanding, Compassionate Human
Or Bernie.
PERFECT! 100% 🔝👏✅
Snort!
There has always been class warfare from the begining of time. Who started it? The wealthy, they are the only ones with resources. We are now watching what the real entitled people(elitists) will do to the rest of humanity. Can we stop it? Stay tuned.
It’s all about power. We’re a bell curve of people ranging from Mother Teresa, who cared only about others, to Hitler who thrived on power. The range of people never changes. It was our schools that stopped balancing this range of souls and allowed it to tip toward the must have power side. Our schools taught citizenship and restraint. Now they’re treasure chests for the wannabe billionaires running our schools. Learn about it at WhiteChalkCrime.com where whistleblowing teachers teach you what happened. Then run for school
Boards. That’s our way back to balance.
Mother Teresa wasn’t who you think she was either. Power hunger comes in many terrible disguises. She halved people’s food & meds - because “suffering is for God”.
Yeah, that Mother Teresa was such an oligarch, she lived high on the hog! (PAleeez)
Not what I said.
My comment to you was meant to point out that she shouldn't be compared to the billionaires that were mentioned. If what you said was true, you can be sure that it stemmed from her religious beliefs, not from greed. I apologize, I should have worded it this way.
I think it stemmed from human narcissism. I do not believe in God. I see the creation of a patriarchal father figure as the first step towards oppression. Buddhists don’t “worship” Buddha. He died. Mono-theism is ugly.
We'll have to agree to disagree then.
Nobody said Mother Theresa lived high on the hog but she did withhold meds and food so people could "suffer for God" which were HER religious beliefs she imposed on others.
Actually I heard that. But what most people think is what counts to make a point. She’s become an icon for that like no one else.
I would say anyone who wants to teach belongs at that end! Bottom line is many of us couldn’t care less about power but the ones who do need to be taught restraint. Because that stopped, they are now going for it big time.
U
🤣🤣
and, ironically, at its base all of this just described, from 'what do they want(?)' to its implementation as power through wealth, is all being fueled by our tax dollars.
One has only to look at Musk; 3+billion of grants and subsidies from the state of California to start Tesla. When the tap was shut off he went to suck the teat of the tax payers of Texas. Space X from concept to fulfillment is a tale of tax payer funding. Now he wants to fire government workers whose job it is to actually make the government more efficient, so he can grasp more billions, unhindered by oversight.
He just wrote an OpEd in support of the AfD in the Welt am Sonntag newspaper, Why? So when the 23 February election comes along, he will have the AfD politicians to guarantee the German text payer tap is never shut off.
The moral of this little tale is that we the tax payers are the real power behind all these shenanigans.
Little doughfaced Elon and Donny Diapers had their shorts pulled down around their ankles in the congress last week by the Democrats and 38 Republicans, tax payer representatives all…It wouldn't be the last time.
Elon got to keep his China relationships, the rest was pretty irrelevant to him; he actually won round 1 on the post election scorecard.
Thanks for your 10cent contribution to our understanding of the international automobile business, governmental contract procedure and the implied lesson in legislative method and impact.
They are obviously helpful tools to hasten the downfall of the old world system into the new, capitalist stakeholder controlled, neofeudalist, fascist, global, totalitarian, technocratic form of extreme governance by a small core group of psychopaths.
"Priceless values" are no longer priceless to millions of Americans voters. That's why they support Trump because ditching honesty, integrity and decency doesn't seem like much of a sacrifice, if any at all.
Timothy Snyder just wrote a good piece today on Substack about the new administration and its implications.