Biden Reminded Us What We Have Lost

"In his final address to the nation last night, President Joe Biden issued a warning that 'an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.'

"It is not exactly news that there is dramatic economic inequality in the United States. Economists call the period from 1933 to 1981 the 'Great Compression,' for it marked a time when business regulation, progressive taxation, strong unions, and a basic social safety net compressed both wealth and income levels in the United States. Every income group in the U.S. improved its economic standing.

"That period ended in 1981, when the U.S. entered a period economists have dubbed the 'Great Divergence.' Between 1981 and 2021, deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, the offshoring of manufacturing, and the weakening of unions moved $50 trillion from the bottom 90% of Americans to the top 1%.

"Biden tried to address this growing inequality by bringing back manufacturing, fostering competition, increasing oversight of business, and shoring up the safety net by getting Congress to pass a law—the Inflation Reduction Act—that enabled Medicare to negotiate drug prices for seniors with the pharmaceutical industry, capping insulin at $35 for seniors, for example. His policies worked, primarily by creating full employment which enabled those at the bottom of the economy to move to higher-paying jobs. During Biden’s term, the gap between the 90th income percentile and the 10th income percentile fell by 25%.

"But Donald Trump convinced voters hurt by the inflation that stalked the country after the coronavirus pandemic shutdown that he would bring prices down and protect ordinary Americans from the Democratic 'elite' that he said didn’t care about them. Then, as soon as he was elected, he turned for advice and support to one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk, who had invested more than $250 million in Trump’s campaign."

Click on the link below for :

A Summary of the History and Danger Ahead Regarding the USA

Can We Defeat Terrorism?

"Can we truly defeat terrorism or does the ideology always endure? Philip Mudd, a former CIA and FBI official, has spent his career working on counterterrorism efforts. He talks about the public perception of terrorism and the oversimplification of motives by the media, the distinction between eliminating a terror group’s leadership and combating its ideology, and extremism in the US military. Plus, how experts like him analyze attacks in real-time."

Click on the link below for a podcast presenting the details:

Extremists In Uniform

Tariffs, Populism, And Economic Nationalism

"Skeptoid's wheelhouse is science vs. pseudoscience, so some of you might be asking why are we talking about an issue of political policy? We're not. We're talking about a question rooted in science: economics. Economics is very much a science, though there's always debate on whether it's a hard science or a soft science. It's generally considered a soft science, because it studies human behavior and societal interactions, which are harder to quantify and control compared to, for example, chemistry. Some argue that economics should still be considered a hard science due to its heavy dependence on mathematics, including calculus, statistics, probability, game theory, differential equations, and so on. However, these remain difficult to apply; you can mathematically develop all the predictive theories you want, but they're really hard to test by observing human behavior. And so today we are going to look at some hard examples of economic nationalism having been tried in three famous recent cases. Was it a bounty for their economies, or a bust?"

Click on the link below for the details:

Economic Nationalism: Bounty or Bust?

Can Taxing The Rich Balance The Budget In The USA?

This question does have an answer if one is open-minded and is fact-based in thinking. Below are representative opinions. I have mine:

Progressive:

Why neoclassical economics has failed

Bipartisan:

Could tax increases alone close the long-run fiscal gap? Yes.

Taxing the rich could raise trillions but that alone won't fix our fiscal crisis

Conservative:

Biden’s Math of Just Taxing the Rich Doesn’t Add Up

The Limits of Taxing the Rich

Elon Musk Exposed

"Elon Musk repeatedly asserts, without evidence, that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer covered up the abuses of young girls by gangs comprised largely of British Pakistani men, in cases that date back to before 2010 when Starmer was head of Britain’s public prosecutions."

"Musk also calls Jess Phillips, the Labour government’s undersecretary for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, a 'rape genocide apologist' because she pushed back on calls for a national inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham, a town near Manchester.

"In fact, Phillips, who has long campaigned for women’s rights, has called for a local investigation by Oldham authorities rather than the central government. Women’s rights supporters say Musk’s labeling Phillips a 'rape genocide apologist' is threatening her safety."

"Musk’s lies about the left-wing British government and his support for far-right groups are parts of an emerging pattern. Musk is also:

• boosting the far-right party in Germany with neo-Nazi ties, known as Alternative for Germany (AfD), before elections early next month. Musk signaled his support for AfD in mid-December, writing in a post on X that 'only the AfD can save Germany.' He also penned an oped in a German newspaper recently, describing the party as the “last spark of hope” for the country. Musk is planning an online “discussion” on X with the AfD’s leader and candidate for chancellor, Alice Weidel, amplifying the party’s neo-Nazi ideology.

• attacking the Italian judiciary for curbing Italian Prime Giorgia Meloni’s hardline anti-asylum immigration policies. Musk has met regularly with Meloni, who has called him a friend, and appeared at a youth event for Meloni’s party.

• urging support for Britain’s far-right MP Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration Reform U.K. Party. Musk says he might donate upward of 100 million pounds ($127 million) to Farage’s group.

• demanding Britain 'free Tommy Robinson,' the far-right founder of the English Defence League — an Islamophobic, nationalist group and anti-immigrant agitator whom, Musk charges, is in jail for “telling the truth.” In fact, Robinson is in jail because he was found to have defamed a teenage Syrian refugee and then defied a British court order by repeating the false claims. (Robinson has been previously jailed for assault, mortgage fraud and traveling on a false passport to the United States, where he has sought to establish ties with right-wing groups.)

• allowing on X inflammatory lies of a kind that incited anti-immigrant riots in Britain last July, following the killing of three girls in a mass stabbing in the town of Southport. After Britain arrested more than 30 people, Musk condemned the government for what he called an attack on free speech.

• calling Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an 'insufferable tool' over comments Trudeau made in support of Kamala Harris, and predicted he “won’t be in power for much longer.” (Yesterday, Trudeau announced he will resign.)"

Where Musk is getting this power

As the richest person in the world, politicians everywhere now recognize his capacity to pour money into their parties and political campaigns, as he did by investing a quarter of a billion dollars to get Trump elected.

He also owns X, formerly Twitter, which (as of December 2024) has 619 million monthly active users. He has manipulated X’s algorithm to boost his own posts, which now reach 210 million.

But Musk’s real power these days comes from his proximity to and presumed influence over Donald Trump, soon to be President of the United States.

Musk has hardly left Trump’s side since the election, meaning that Musks’s opinions (amplified by his social media platform) cannot be ignored by politicians around the world who are trying to decipher Trump’s opinions.

One prominent member of Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party is asking that Germany determine 'whether [Musk’s] repeated disrespect, defamation and interference in the election campaign were also expressed in the name of the new U.S. government.'

This combination — the richest person in the world, owner and manipulator of the biggest political messaging platform in the world, with direct influence over Trump — puts Musk in the position of being able to move other nations toward the neo-fascist right.

Why Musk is doing this

Not for money. As it is, he has far more than any human can utilize.

Partly, it’s ideological. He calls himself a 'free speech absolutist,' which puts him at odds with Europe’s and Canada’s aggressive responses to hate speech online. (Britain, Musk says, 'is turning into a police state.')

But the roots of Musk’s neo-fascism probably go deeper.

I am no psychoanalyst but I imagine that as an immigrant from South Africa, Musk is especially triggered by poor people of color moving into white nations. His father smuggled raw emeralds and had them cut in Johannesburg.

Part of his shift to the radical right also comes from Musk’s transgender child. As Musk told conservative commentator Jordan Peterson, 'I lost my son, essentially,' claiming she was 'dead, killed by the woke mind virus. I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that.' (Musk’s daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson, now 20, told NBC News that Musk was an absent father who was cruel to her as a child for being queer and feminine.)

On X, Musk continuously criticizes transgender rights, including medical treatments for trans-identifying minors, and the use of pronouns if they are different from what would be used at birth. He has promoted anti-trans content and called for arresting people who provide trans care to minors. Last July, Musk said he was pulling his businesses out of California to protest a new state law that bars schools from requiring that trans kids be outed to their parents. After Musk bought X, then known as Twitter, in 2022, he rolled back the app’s protections for trans people, including a ban on using birth names (known as 'deadnames' for transgender people).

Perhaps the major reason for Musk’s recent effort to push other nations to the neo-fascist right is his newfound thirst for right-wing global politics. After effectively (at least in Musk’s mind) winning the presidency for Trump by spending more than $250 million and unleashing a maelstrom of pro-Trump and anti-Harris lies over X, he now seeks even more of an authoritarian rush.

It will not be the first time in history that someone is seduced by the thrill of unconstrained power, although it may be the first time that so much of it is concentrated in one unelected megalomaniac.

What should be done about Musk?

For the time being, particularly under Trump, there is little that we in America can do to constrain Musk except by boycotting Tesla and X. Canada. Britain, and other European nations, meanwhile, should, at the very least:

• enact laws and regulations to prohibit non-citizens (like Musk) from financing activities that could affect their elections.
• maintain, if not strengthen, laws and rules against hate speech, and ensure that they are applied to social media companies, such as Musk’s X.
• refuse to contract with Musk’s Space X and its Starlink satellite division, or with Musk’s other corporations (Tesla and the Boring Company).
• disengage from any joint ventures or technology transfers involving Musk, including xAI, his artificial intelligence company.

(link)

Crypto Is Not Currency

"Cryptocurrencies are nothing of that sort because almost none are ever used to facilitate trade – for which they are wholly unsuited because of their uncertain values. They might just be highly volatile assets. But they might best be seen as mechanisms to undermine the state."

Click on the link below for a video clarifying cryptos:

Whatever else is claimed about it, crypto is not a currency

"America First": A History

"Fareed Zakaria examines America's isolationist roots from the Founding Fathers to today. With the Republican Party's embrace of Donald Trump's "America First" policy, what shape might the world take under a second Trump presidency?"

Click on this link for a 45-minute video presenting all you need to know about the USA and its "America First" Achilles Heel.

Happiness: It's Not What Conservatives Think

"What does it take to be happy? Dr. Laurie Santos is the Chandrika and Ranjan Tandon Professor of Psychology and Head of Silliman College at Yale University, where she teaches 'Psychology and the Good Life.' She’s also host of the podcast, “The Happiness Lab.” Dr. Santos joins Preet to discuss: The definition of happiness and how to maximize it:

 
The parenting paradox

 
How job crafting can bring purpose to any career

Self-care vs caring for others
Practicing gratitude

 
The health effects of loneliness and the importance of social connection

The relationship between religion and happiness

Why negative emotions are necessary"

- - -

Click on the link below for the details:

The Formula for Happiness

The Key To Political Change: Educating Rural/Working Class Communities In Critical Thinking

"In this episode of the Outrage Overload Podcast, we challenge one of the most dominant narratives of our time: that polarization is the root cause of America’s divisions. But what if it’s not? What if our focus on polarization is actually obscuring deeper, more urgent problems—problems that are solvable?

"Join me as I sit down with Rich Harwood, founder of the Harwood Institute, to explore groundbreaking insights from the Institute’s 2022 report, Civic Virus: Why Polarization Is a Misdiagnosis. Rich shares stories and strategies from his decades of work with communities across the country, offering a fresh perspective on how we can rebuild trust, foster collaboration, and create real change."

Click on the link below for the details:

Fighting Polarization with Local Solutions That Work

Republicans Are Peeing On Your Leg And Calling It Water

"Conservative former representative Joe Walsh (R-IL) wrote: 'Trump is suing a pollster and calling for an investigation of [Liz Cheney]. Don’t you dare tell me he’s not an authoritarian. And don’t you dare look the other way. Donald Trump is un-American. The resistance to him from Americans must be steadfast & fierce.'”

Click on the link below for the details:

What an oligarchic dictatorship looks like 

The "Deep State" Is A Myth

Following are selected links to information debunking the lie from conservatives that the "Deep State" within the US government is the major problem to eradicate:

Wikipedia on the "Deep State"

NPR on the "Deep State

Just Security on the "Deep State"

The Democratic Party And Economic Inequality

Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's Secretary of Labor, is one of the most prolific communicators of the truth about the source of economic inequality in the USA. Click on the links below for a 2-part in-depth expose of such, and how the Democratic Party has not been aggressive enough in challenging the lies of Republicans regarding who is responsible for it:

America's Four Stories (Part 1)

America's Four Stories (Part 2)

A summary:

"The Democrats’ weakest story has been the Rot at the Top. Democrats have been reluctant to condemn economic elites who have grown richer than ever and who have used their affluence to corrupt the political system.

"This should not be surprising. Since the 1980s, Democrats have been drinking at the same funding troughs as Republicans — big corporations, Wall Street, and wealthy individuals. And as the Supreme Court opened the spigots of big money into politics, those troughs have become far larger, for both parties."

- - -

"Bernie Sanders told this story about the real Rot at the Top, but other leading Democrats have been reluctant to tell it.

"The Democrats’ failure to tell this story has enabled Republican cultural populism to fill the void, offering Americans who were growing distrustful of the system an explanation for what had gone wrong and a set of villains to blame — immigrants, '“coastal elites,' 'woke'ism, the 'deep state,' transgendered people, 'communists,' 'socialists,' the 'Left,' Critical Race Theory, 'cat ladies,' and other bogeymen.

"But none of these is the real explanation. The real explanation, the real Rot at the Top, has been a new record concentration of wealth and power at the top — enough to corrupt our system of self-government."

Authoritarianism: Two Podcast Episodes To Help In Better Understanding

"Authoritarianism and autocracies take many forms. So how do you know it when you see it? Our guide to the erosion of choice, rights, truth and power is Anne Applebaum, author of several books including, most recently, Autocracy, Inc."

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-is-authoritarianism/id1195657423?i=1000679860773

"We’re in strange times. In the U.S., we’re finding ourselves in a situation in which the possibility of genuine democratic retrenchment and some version of presidential authoritarian dictatorship is a real possibility. There’s a lot to consider as the liberal democracy we’ve become accustomed to could erode right before our eyes in the near future. Steve Levitsky is a professor of government at Harvard and serves as the director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies. Levitsky is also a New York Times bestselling author of numerous books including, “How Democracies Die” and “Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point,” which he co-authored with Daniel Ziblatt. He joins WITHpod to discuss entering into a new era, the uncertainty of this moment, the process by which a democracy might backslide into something that's less democratic and resisting the erosion."

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-democratic-backsliding-happens-with-steve-levitsky/id1382983397?i=1000679858361 

Eisenhower Was Right

"President Dwight David Eisenhower, perhaps the last real Republican, had a 90 percent tax rate for the super-rich during his administration.

"Eisenhower explained it this way: The super-rich could avoid the high taxes by investing their money in things that make America stronger. If they wanted to avoid high taxes, he said they could invest in business expansions and higher employee wages. They could give a million or two to tax-exempt non-profits that feed, house, and clothe poor people of America, among other things.

"They did some of that, but the Eisenhower years generated enough taxes to launch and complete the labyrinth of interstate highways, the largest road project America had ever seen and is needed again."

Eisenhower Proved That Higher Tax Rates Could Work

It's Not A New Story

The USA just experienced a brutal "assassination" of the CEO of a major healthcare insurance corporation and there is no lack of conflicting responses to such. Much of the comments from social media are making jokes, fueled by legitimate anger over corporate greed in this area of our economy. While I abhor such responses, I understand what is fueling it. 

Click on this link for an article by my favorite American historian, which places this event in the context of other events in US history that were also motivated by corporate greed.

An Expose of Elon Musk

"No one better illustrates the sinister consequences of great wealth turned into unaccountable power than Elon Musk.

"Musk, the richest person in the world, is not only claiming presidential authority to fire federal workers, but he’s posting the identities of those whose jobs he wants to eliminate — with the clear intention that his followers harass and threaten them so they quit.

"Musk is utterly unaccountable. He has never been elected to anything, but he spent $120 million helping Trump become the president-elect and is now acting as if he’s Trump’s co-president, calling himself Trump’s 'First Buddy.'

"After buying Twitter for $44 billion, Musk turned it into a cesspool of disinformation and conspiracy theories and manipulated its algorithm to give himself 205 million followers, to whom he is now distributing treacherous lies.

"In recent days, Musk boosted posts on his website singling out the names and job titles of four federal employees working in climate policy and regulation who have done nothing other than hold titles Musk dislikes. All four targets are women."

Click on the link below for more:

Musk’s dangerous bullying

A Look At The US's Historical Battle Regarding Liberalism

"When Movement Conservatives convinced followers to redefine 'liberal' as an epithet rather than a reflection of the nation’s quest to defend the rights of individuals—which was quite deliberate—they undermined the central principle of the United States of America. In its place, they resurrected the ideology of the world the American Founders rejected, a world in which an impoverished majority suffers under the rule of a powerful few."

Click here for a perspective from my favorite American historian, Heather Cox Richardson.

Beware The Billionaires

"This is an ideology gaining in popularity amongst tech billionaires that the world is inevitably heading toward a collapse, and that instead of trying to prevent that collapse, we should rip off the band-aid as fast as possible to get to the better world on the other side. While there’s a cold logic to it, it’s a dangerous philosophy that ignores the incalculable human suffering that such a collapse would create."

Click on the link below for more about this real sub-terranean movement that is visible through Elon Musk and most of Trump's support:

Why Some Billionaires Are Actively Trying To Destroy The World

A Summary Of Trump's Disasterous Financial Plan

"The economy was a key issue for American voters. Trump has promised to make incomes 'soar' and make the cost of living 'come tumbling down.' But economists — like Financial Times global business columnist Rana Foroohar — aren't convinced. Foroohar says that Trump's plans for deregulation, tax cuts, and tariffs will likely bring an economic downturn. She joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss the practicalities of the Trump agenda."

Click on the link below for what is ahead for the USA and the planet if Trump is true to his word:

What Will Trump's Economic Plan Mean For America's Wallets?

What Trump’s Win Says About American Society

"To make sense of the election, we must first understand the discontent that gave Donald Trump the victory. This is the theory of Harvard professor and political philosopher Michael Sandel. He joins the show to discuss the polarization that fueled Trump's campaign, and the failure of the Democrats to present themselves as the party of change."

Click this link for an interview with a philosopher/professor with an encompassing view of the overarching problem in US society today that has been simmering and growing for many decades.