@stux

The legal & illegal immigrants within the GOP:

1. Peter Thiel - born in Germany
2. Elon Musk - fraudulent immigrant
3. Melania - fraudulent immigrant

@Atticus1956 @GottaLaff

The tech industry has wanted to sidestep banking oversight & financial regulations for a long time. Tax evasion is part of it.

Cryptocurrency is a vehicle for foreign money in elections, straw donor schemes, & malign influence campaigns. AI helps hide the money laundering.

https://www.exus.co.uk/blog/facebook-and-libra-how-social-media-companies-are-getting-into-banking-and-what-banks-can-do-about-it

Meta's Zuckerberg is visibly panting over access to user's banking.
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/banks-data-sharing-facebook,37556.html

https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/18-11-2024/banks-are-grappling-with-a-scam-crisis-while-facebook-profits-from-it

https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/facebook-banking/23797/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-to-banks-give-us-your-data-well-give-you-our-users-1533564049

@cdarwin

Cryotocurrency is faerie gold with national security implications.

@amydiehl

The nations with the highest sexism also have the most rapidly declining birth rates.

Russia. Korea. Japan. USA. Afghanistan.

All societies poisoned by toxic attitudes of male supremacy blameshift to women's rights for their demographic decline.

Consequences.

Why have children in a nation where the next generation has no hope of improving conditions?

Why form a marriage when it means a lifetime of exploitation & mistreatment?

Why have a family when MAGA oppose all ...
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@w7voa

Ellison wants an AI surveillance state.

https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-ai-surveillance-keep-citizens-on-their-best-behavior-2024-9

@w7voa

#TranslatedFromTheRepublican

"The GOP despises Christians who act like Christians.

Republicans want a state religion that excludes the words of Jesus Christ, that commie."

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2023/11/10/republicans-jesus-less-christianity/

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/christian-nationalism-trump-republicans/

@briankrebs

Converting real gold into faerie gold is an enormous heist.
https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/-enormous-heist-hayes-on-the-audacious-scheme-to-reward-big-donors-226432069961

Public corruption to reward billionaire donors...

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/this-is-an-enormous-heist-chris-hayes-sounds-the-alarm-on-republican-bill-that-would-transfer-100-billion-to-bitcoin-owners/

@pluralistic

Monopsonies also suppress wages across entire industries
https://www.epi.org/unequalpower/publications/pervasive-monopsony-power-and-freedom-in-the-labor-market/

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2018/4/6/17204808/wages-employers-workers-monopsony-growth-stagnation-inequality

https://samhillman.substack.com/p/wage-determination-and-labour-market?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

AI algorithms are already being used like Harlan Crow's RealPage -- to manipulate the market in favor of monopolies

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/06/18/artificial-intelligence-has-caused--50-to-70-decrease-in-wages-creating-income-inequality-and-threatening-millions-of-jobs/

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230718-ai-artificial-intelligence-worker-wages-salaries

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-uber-driver-pay-algorithm-ontario/

Amazon sets wages in stone for warehouses, IT, & distribution systems in several countries.

@lowqualityfacts

The USA, along with China & Russia, use the prison system for slave labor.

https://www.epi.org/publication/rooted-racism-prison-labor/

https://apnews.com/article/prison-to-plate-inmate-labor-investigation-injuries-deaths-takeaways-445053c55ad0f50fdc38234842600023

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-05-11/us-prison-labor-powers-billions-in-corporate-government-revenue

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/they-slave-us-prison-workers-on-life-behind-bars.html

https://www.walkfree.org/news/2024/november-5-vote-could-mark-a-turning-point-in-ending-forced-labour-in-us-prisons/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States

https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/captive-labor-exploitation-of-incarcerated-workers

Especially in hazardous jobs...
https://theweek.com/politics/prop-6-inmate-firefighters-prison-labor

The USA wants its own gulag system for dissidents. It fits with GOP policies of immiseration.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/immiseration

https://www.academia.edu/11511951/Immiseration_and_the_Economics_of_Prison_Planet

@lowqualityfacts

The USA is one of the few countries that makes mass incarceration into a voter suppression scheme & a profit centre for GOP megadonors.

Felony disenfranchisement:

https://www.brennancenter.org/issues/ensure-every-american-can-vote/voting-rights-restoration/disenfranchisement-laws

https://www.sentencingproject.org/policy-brief/voting-rights-in-the-era-of-mass-incarceration-a-primer/

https://www.vera.org/news/how-mass-incarceration-shapes-our-elections

https://www.epi.org/publication/rooted-racism-voter-suppression/

Donor maintenence & public corruption:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2025/01/21/bureau-of-prisons-director-colette-peters-out-on-trumps-first-day/

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/trump-reverses-biden-order-eliminated-doj-contracts-private-prisons

https://www.commondreams.org/news/aoc-on-private-prisons

https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/01/22/trump-private-prisons-executive-order

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/private-prison-behemoth-is-first-corporation-to-max-out-to-trump/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/the-other-big-election-winners-private-prisons/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/corecivic-geo-group-stocks-rise-as-trump-revokes-biden-orders/ar-AA1xAOLN

@GottaLaff

They should also implement @pluralistic 's idea of a competing app store...
https://pluralistic.net/2025/01/15/beauty-eh/

https://doctorow.medium.com/canada-shouldnt-retaliate-with-us-tariffs-a0e32042fec8

https://doctorow.medium.com/https-pluralistic-net-2024-08-15-private-law-thirty-percent-vig-9013b8531a6b

IT organizations already relocate to Canada because health care for women isn't restricted by misogynists nor businesses burdened by murderous health insurers...
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/womens-health/texas-abortion-ban-deaths-pregnant-women-sb8-analysis-rcna171631
https://www.newsweek.com/doctor-says-unitedhealthcare-stopped-cancer-surgery-ask-if-necessary-2012069

Canada has lower liability insurance rates because it has real gun safety laws & a high vaccination acceptance.

@dangillmor

It's not just freedom of expression at risk...

It sets a precedent that megadonors get first pick on the pillaging of private companies that fall out of favor with a dictator.

Forced sales to cronies...
Jeff Yass
https://fortune.com/2024/12/09/trump-jeff-yass-tiktok-avoid-ban/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2024/03/18/billionaire-jeff-yass-may-be-the-donor-behind-trumps-tiktok-flipflop-heres-what-to-know/

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/how-tiktok-funder-jeffrey-yass-can-clean-up-on-the-apps-forced-sale/

Larry Ellison
https://www.wsj.com/articles/larry-ellisons-tiktok-bid-puts-oracle-chairman-back-in-the-spotlight-11601733600

https://qz.com/1906677/the-tiktok-deals-real-winner-is-oracles-larry-ellison

Mark Zuckerberg
https://www.thewrap.com/tiktok-ceo-to-attend-trump-inauguration/

Steve Mnuchin
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-allys-tiktok-plan-sparks-new-theory-1879409

https://nypost.com/2024/04/25/business/wall-street-and-tech-billionaires-race-to-buy-banned-tiktok/

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@knittingknots2

Billionaires created a frying world where the young are deliberately endebted early, and kept in debt for their entire lives.

Credit cards. Car loans. Student loans. Medical debt. Mortgages. High rents. Stagnant wages.

And we're surprised they can't afford children?!?

@Crispius @TCatInReality @GottaLaff

The last time the US Federal government had to rely on consumption taxes & survive without an income tax, it couldn't afford a military effort for WW1.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/historical-highlights-of-the-irs

Income taxes fund the US military. The biggest on the planet.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures

It spent a century turning citizens into alcoholics for the excise tax revenues on spirits.
https://www.pbs.org/video/prohibition-episode-one-a-nation-of-drunkards/

Putin couldn't be happier with Musk's efforts at tax cuts for the rich, ...

1/2

@GhostOnTheHalfShell @TCatInReality @Crispius @GottaLaff

The USA's debt isn't entirely sovereign.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States

Saudi Arabia & China buy a lot of Treasury bills.
https://theconversation.com/u-s-national-debt-is-its-achilles-heel-but-china-sees-it-as-an-opportunity-239712

What happens if those overseas lenders sit out a single bond sale? Or use it to push their weight around?

As S.C.M. Paine points out, the US brought about WW2 by playing "half court tennis" that beggared their trading partners with isolationist monetary policies.

A populist policy.

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2/2

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/040115/reasons-why-china-buys-us-treasury-bonds.asp

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beggar_thy_neighbour

Failing to tax billionaires is a recipe for disaster. The world wars triggered by the Gilded Age provide ample proof.

Income taxes (progressive) vs consumption taxes (regressive)

Taxation has international implications as much as a failure to tax appropriately.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wars_for_Asia,_1911%E2%80%931949

@QasimRashid

We need to pay attention to how foreign oil influence operations insert themselves into democracies.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/business/saudi-arabia-dazn-sports.html

https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/elon-musk-sec-sued-twitter-stock-purchases-1235235999/

https://www.reuters.com/business/emirati-billionaire-trump-ally-sees-more-gulf-investments-into-us-under-new-2025-01-10/

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-private-credit-firm-golub-capital-set-up-base-abu-dhabi-2024-12-09/

https://www.reuters.com/technology/crypto-firm-tether-its-founders-finalising-move-el-salvador-2025-01-13/

@knittingknots2

Who knows how many marbles Trump has left, rolling around between his ears.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-jean-chretien-canadian-leaders-donald-trump-plan/

https://www.wionews.com/world/give-your-head-a-shake-canadas-former-pm-chretien-offers-blunt-advice-to-trump-8612717

@ProPublica

Like "Return to the Office" mandates & businesses deliberately relocating to an anti-abortion state where health care for women does not exist to goose "voluntary attrition", the constraints on daycares force women with children out of the workforce.

The Politics & Policies of Immiseration.
https://jacobin.com/2020/09/capitalism-isnt-about-freedom-its-about-subjugation

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/billionaire-global-wealth-tax-proposal-brazil

@mrbadger42

Climate gentrification by private equity hedge funds:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/wall-street-buying-houses

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2022/05/private-equity-brooklyn-park-slope-greenbrook-nw1-mcnam-schumer/

Katrina
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/27/opinion/new-orleans.html

https://scalawagmagazine.org/2024/08/after-the-aftermath-disaster-gentrification-in-louisianas-bayous/

New York
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/18/hurricane-sandy-new-york-far-rockaway-climate-gentrification-hit

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2019/10/03/hurricane-sandy-gentrification-nyc/

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/the-recast/2022/10/25/hurricane-sandy-climate-change-10-years-later-00063374

Hawaii
https://apnews.com/article/maui-hawaii-fire-climate-gentrification-housing-displacement-aa827eabef48d2764aa58d01f7a6969c

Florida
https://www.wlrn.org/arts-culture/2024-01-24/razing-liberty-square-film-climate-gentrification-south-florida

Carolinas
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07072024/south-carolina-ten-mile-black-community-faces-climate-gentrification/

https://blavity.com/climate-gentrification-charleston

Texas
https://www.texasobserver.org/austin-book-gentrification-rainey-street/

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.3c10797

Georgia
https://www.greenamerica.org/communities-frontlines-climate-crisis/rising-seas-rising-rents-and-struggle-against-climate-gentrification