Your analysis is spot on. Four years ago I might not have agreed with everything you said. My disagreement would have been related to US foreign policy. I have known for a long time that corporate greed was destroying American workers. I watched KKR buy up businesses that employed people throughout the industrial heartland only to break them up and sell off the pieces for huge profits.
Hedge funds now do most of the dirty work. They buy up businesses and leverage them with debt. Once they are in charge, they milk the businesses until they are empty hulks and run them through chapter 11 bankruptcies. The remnants are then sold for peanuts to some newly formed shell owned by insiders. Good examples are Sears and Red Lobster. Blaming “all you can eat shrimp” for Red Lobster’s demise made me laugh out loud.
Hedge funds are now in real estate, jacking up the rents. The abuse is staggering. The only person consistently talking about it is Elizabeth Warren. Democrats have mostly been complicit. Barack Obama appointed Eric Holder as AG. He did absolutely nothing to punish the Wall Street bankers who lead us into the 2008 financial crisis. The crisis was caused by glaringly obvious fraudulent financial scams. But the democrats were funded by Wall Street so they averted their eyes and played golf with the tycoons.
I now clearly see the effects of our malevolent foreign policy. The most glaring example is Gaza. There is so much wrong with it I wouldn’t know where to begin.
You are absolutely correct in your observation that Trump has dropped the curtain on the rackets and scams. The question now is what do we do. I see a few, what I hope, are temporary road blocks. Full awareness of what is happening has not dawned on the vast majority of the public. It hasn’t even dawned on the Democratic Party. Schumer and his gang are fully in on the rackets. I am afraid that awareness will not arrive until the real pain sets in. People won’t notice until their healthcare is gone, and Trump’s circus clowns screw up natural disasters and pandemics.
I am afraid that by then Musk will have migrated all our systems to his servers and the oligarchs will have won. In the meantime I have severed my connections to Amazon, meta, google and am in the process with Apple. I think it is now time to grab the pitchforks and torches.
I experienced this in the 80s when T. Boone Pickens tried to take over the Union Oil Company to "increase shareholder value" while people were fired, bonuses took over and retirement was up to us in our 401k's.
With advent of technology, musk and the other oilgarchs, good luck! i hope my social security and medicare survive since I paid into these for over 40 years.
Fuck those assholes. I am afraid that the oligarchs have constructed an impenetrable barrier that may be impossible to remove.
For me, it started with Korea and Vietnam, then led to South America and the Middle East. The wars that made no sense to supporting the regimes that controlled and tortured their people. It was like there were two USs. One that fought for human rights and the other that destroyed human rights. We know which one is winning now, but the resistance exists.
I am Canadian, proudly Canadian. I am thankful that the majority of our citizens are coming together in solidarity against the horrible talk coming from Trump and others. However, there’s a segment of the population, especially in my home province of Alberta that are pro Trump and are celebrating the idea of becoming the 51st state. It turns my stomach and boils my blood. I am not surprised though. This sentiment has existed in Alberta all of my life. It is a minority view but it is a loud minority. Sadly, this loud minority makes up a good chunk of the base of our provincial government. Our dear leader is gutting our provincial democratic institutions, using the republican/maga playbook, and enjoying photo-ops with Trump in Mar-a-Lago.
Back when I was in high school (late ‘80’s/ ‘90’s) the cowboys in my class (literal cowboys, I grew up on a ranch and went to a rural high school) would proudly fly confederate flags in the back windows of their trucks, carry firearms under their seats, and speak of the day when we would become Americans. I remember getting into huge arguments with them and them laughing and telling me wait and see….I hope they won’t get the last laugh.
The leaders and beltway pundits never consider the boomerang effect: what happens when other countries and other powers are the ones eyeing American territory and resources to carve up and grab? Are we OK with that? The more the idea is put out in the world, the more normalized and everyday it becomes...
"Collective action is the only way forward. And that collective action is going to have to be built on a rejection of this zero-sum political game."
Jared, I feel like each time you mention collective action you have something particular in mind. What kind of collective action do you believe will stop this? Or if we cannot stop it, what kind of collective action will rescue us from the authoritarian state we are hurtling toward becoming?
Your analysis is spot on. Four years ago I might not have agreed with everything you said. My disagreement would have been related to US foreign policy. I have known for a long time that corporate greed was destroying American workers. I watched KKR buy up businesses that employed people throughout the industrial heartland only to break them up and sell off the pieces for huge profits.
Hedge funds now do most of the dirty work. They buy up businesses and leverage them with debt. Once they are in charge, they milk the businesses until they are empty hulks and run them through chapter 11 bankruptcies. The remnants are then sold for peanuts to some newly formed shell owned by insiders. Good examples are Sears and Red Lobster. Blaming “all you can eat shrimp” for Red Lobster’s demise made me laugh out loud.
Hedge funds are now in real estate, jacking up the rents. The abuse is staggering. The only person consistently talking about it is Elizabeth Warren. Democrats have mostly been complicit. Barack Obama appointed Eric Holder as AG. He did absolutely nothing to punish the Wall Street bankers who lead us into the 2008 financial crisis. The crisis was caused by glaringly obvious fraudulent financial scams. But the democrats were funded by Wall Street so they averted their eyes and played golf with the tycoons.
I now clearly see the effects of our malevolent foreign policy. The most glaring example is Gaza. There is so much wrong with it I wouldn’t know where to begin.
You are absolutely correct in your observation that Trump has dropped the curtain on the rackets and scams. The question now is what do we do. I see a few, what I hope, are temporary road blocks. Full awareness of what is happening has not dawned on the vast majority of the public. It hasn’t even dawned on the Democratic Party. Schumer and his gang are fully in on the rackets. I am afraid that awareness will not arrive until the real pain sets in. People won’t notice until their healthcare is gone, and Trump’s circus clowns screw up natural disasters and pandemics.
I am afraid that by then Musk will have migrated all our systems to his servers and the oligarchs will have won. In the meantime I have severed my connections to Amazon, meta, google and am in the process with Apple. I think it is now time to grab the pitchforks and torches.
I experienced this in the 80s when T. Boone Pickens tried to take over the Union Oil Company to "increase shareholder value" while people were fired, bonuses took over and retirement was up to us in our 401k's.
With advent of technology, musk and the other oilgarchs, good luck! i hope my social security and medicare survive since I paid into these for over 40 years.
Fuck those assholes. I am afraid that the oligarchs have constructed an impenetrable barrier that may be impossible to remove.
Thanks for the list of resources.
For me, it started with Korea and Vietnam, then led to South America and the Middle East. The wars that made no sense to supporting the regimes that controlled and tortured their people. It was like there were two USs. One that fought for human rights and the other that destroyed human rights. We know which one is winning now, but the resistance exists.
Excellent piece, Jared. Thank you.
I am Canadian, proudly Canadian. I am thankful that the majority of our citizens are coming together in solidarity against the horrible talk coming from Trump and others. However, there’s a segment of the population, especially in my home province of Alberta that are pro Trump and are celebrating the idea of becoming the 51st state. It turns my stomach and boils my blood. I am not surprised though. This sentiment has existed in Alberta all of my life. It is a minority view but it is a loud minority. Sadly, this loud minority makes up a good chunk of the base of our provincial government. Our dear leader is gutting our provincial democratic institutions, using the republican/maga playbook, and enjoying photo-ops with Trump in Mar-a-Lago.
Back when I was in high school (late ‘80’s/ ‘90’s) the cowboys in my class (literal cowboys, I grew up on a ranch and went to a rural high school) would proudly fly confederate flags in the back windows of their trucks, carry firearms under their seats, and speak of the day when we would become Americans. I remember getting into huge arguments with them and them laughing and telling me wait and see….I hope they won’t get the last laugh.
The leaders and beltway pundits never consider the boomerang effect: what happens when other countries and other powers are the ones eyeing American territory and resources to carve up and grab? Are we OK with that? The more the idea is put out in the world, the more normalized and everyday it becomes...
Alaska? Virgin Islands? Guam? Hawaii? Bye bye!
Putin has commented on Alaska more than once in recent years.
"Collective action is the only way forward. And that collective action is going to have to be built on a rejection of this zero-sum political game."
Jared, I feel like each time you mention collective action you have something particular in mind. What kind of collective action do you believe will stop this? Or if we cannot stop it, what kind of collective action will rescue us from the authoritarian state we are hurtling toward becoming?