Open Thread - 12-27-24 - Billionaire Planet
It's inarguable that the world is in flux. What is arguable is what it will look like when it's all said and done. Will the 195 recognized countries remain the same as they are now, in the same continental configuration, or will the land mass be reformed into new man-made models? Like the breakdown in the dystopian novel, 1984.
There's a lot of different ideas floating about with a lot of different competing allegiances at play. Will it be a one world order with a centralized power structure or a federation of state entities?
One thing is certain, IMHO, that whatever may become of this world wide upheaval, it will most probably be a New World Order.
There is a certain component of the nascent order that's becoming obvious to me, and perhaps to you as well, and that is the role of billionaires in this theoretical world realignment. The new administration that is about to take power here in the US is loaded with billionaires and near billionaires. As is the world, writ large.
It's as though money is a prerequisite to power, yes I know that's always been the case, but nowadays statesmanship and real political and people skills take a back seat to the influence of big money. As if being filthy rich makes one more adept at governing. As if rich people are that much more in tune with the wants and needs of the common folk.
Well, that's the attitude we've been indoctrinated with for our whole capitalistic lives anyway.
Actually, to just be mildly sarcastic, since the world is trending to government by billionaire, let's just cut to the chase and name the new world regions after the billionaires that rule them, the US would need to be broken up into regions like Gatesland or Muskovia or Trumpistan. It's not that far of a step when you realize that a few individuals already have more wealth that many countries, and those few individuals are on track to become even more wealthy in the very near future, I'm talking trillionaires.
Let's just get to the nitty-gritty and give them their due and split the world up into fabulously wealthy oligarchies and cut the democracy facade. Let's all genuflect to the ill gotten gains that have made them our betters and give then their new found countries to rule over, they do that by proxy anyway. By the way, that was dripping sarcasm that time.
In a related matter, I have a theory about the recent killing of health insurance CEO, Brian Thompson.
The Richie Riches of the world have to be very concerned for the potential violence that may be coming their way when their final coup d'état, a CBDC, is implemented upon the common folk. I would imagine that they have nightmares about the repercussions of their greed and avarice. History is certainly full of such repercussions.
Could this murder be a ploy to enact new preemptive laws to protect themselves and take away more rights from the citizens? I don't really know, I'm just guessing, but isn't that how rights have been restricted in the past, for instance, the Patriot Act? The whole episode is so bizarre that I can't help but wonder.
Comments
Good morning Free Rangers...
the internet is really wonky here today, I'm lucky to get this up.
The billionaires tool:
Hey, good day
.
Interesting theme you brought today.
there still exists two strong states not in
the grips of the oligarchs: RUS and CHI.
The public / private partnerships being marketed in western states
is a thinly veiled power steal from the people. No holds barred.
Thanks for the OT.
Cheers!
question everything
China and Russia...
have their own oligarchs, Putin and Xi are oligarchs themselves. But I think what you mean, and I agree, is they are not under the control of globalists oligarchs. That's probably why they are both under attack by the West. I've seen it stated time after time that the US and NATO are the military arm of the globalist oligarchs, which makes sense since they're leading the charge against those two countries.
Thanks for stopping by, Cap.
LOL
Who writes the script, Edgar Bernays?
Catapult the propaganda. Met some new young people in their twenties in the last couple of days. Disappointing that although they have spent some time abroad, they have no idea really what is going on in terms of international relations.
語必忠信 行必正直
It's amazing...
how the mainstream media all think and speak exactly alike, great minds and all that! [Insert eyeroll here]
Sometimes I shudder when I think about what's going to happen when we old timers die off and the youngsters take over. Most have no idea of the way this country and the world once was. Then again, maybe it's time for some new ideas.
Rich people.
Next time around, I intend to pick my parents better.
So I opened the mail yesterday, and there was one envelope from United Healthcare, who is my health insurance provider.
It was an explanation of benefits, denying coverage for my recent emergency hospital visit. "You didn't have a stroke", it said, "so there is no coverage for hospitalization for a mere headache, which is apparently what you did have".
Well, there you go. Just ignore the loss of vision in your left eye- you didn't actually need that, really. While it is certainly true that I didn't have a brain stroke, at least *this* time, I very definitely did have an ocular stroke. But that wasn't diagnosed by the hospital (it was diagnosed by my opthalmologist, post-release), so they want to leave me holding the bag for them not diagnosing it.
So, here we go. My first call was to a friend who is an attorney, who will do some of the initial legwork for the inevitable lawsuit, pro bono. And I now know what I will be doing with all the money I can earn for the remaining portion of my life- and it ain't living on it.
The journey of a thousand bankruptcies begins with a single form. And I'm filling it out as we speak. Cry 'Havoc!', and let slip the dogs of war. No smiley.
On edit: prior to actually starting the destructively-expensive phase, we're going to go for the "paint-peeling letter from attorney" approach. If I can have learned counsel kick them hard enough without actually filing the suit to get satisfaction, I will do so, of course.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Sucks mucho, sorry to hear it. Good luck.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Oh, man...
you just can't catch a break. That's terrible, ufs. I'll repeat what's been said a billion time already, "What good is insurance if you're never allowed to use it". What a freaking racket!
Good luck, my friend.
got the 'out of system' excuse - no coverage
.
then followed up with a 'networked provider'
oops, none of the procedures are covered.
They call it dental insurance. Free roll of floss
and one check up per year. Maddening.
question everything
Didn’t you say that you had some clots
in your brain after further testing? They could have been the cause of your headache and the fact that they are there should help your case
This might cheer you up:
Link
I read somewhere that the CEOs put pressure on the government to charge Luigi with terrorism to send a message to us peons. Well messages go both ways right? Not that I’m advocating for more people taking out the parasite class….nope not at all.
The main reason you won't see a CBDC replacing the dollar
is that if you do it by having a currency, any currency, where the value is "fixed" in the usual way (by limiting government spending), you can't have the sort of grift you have now with the US Dollar, the grift made possible by "dollar hegemony." The US dollar is the ultimate grift, the Mount Everest of grifts. It is happening now. It has been happening in earnest since 1968, for reasons pointed out in Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism."
You can see this problem right now with the Euro, a currency with "fixed" value through spending limits placed upon EU member nations, currently supported by declining economies straining to meet MUCH higher energy costs while meeting Washington demands that said same economies "support Ukraine."
I really can't imagine a grift more profitable for its criminals at the top than the one permitted by the hegemonic status of the US Dollar. Though I suppose that, amplifying the dollar hegemony grift further, is the fact that for the past four years we've had a President here too senile to tell anyone in the country what to do in any serious sense.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
I hope you're right...
but have my doubts. Grifters are going to grift, and I think that a programmable CBDC would be the ultimate grift.
Some day the dollar will collapse, then what?
I'm imagining a conversation at a meeting:
REPRESENTATIVE OF THE US: Hey, everyone! Glad you could make it. Here's the deal. We have this CBDC. According to the rules of the CBDC, you have to accept it as legal tender for all debts, and we reserve the right to print as much of this stuff as we want. What's more, if we print a lot more, you will have to have some sort of arrangement for stashing the surplus in your central banks, so you don't devalue your remaining reserves.
Got it?
REST OF WORLD: No thanks. We'll pass.
***
This conversation couldn't have happened fifty years ago because of the process by which the Dollar became the world's reserve currency, which went as follows:
1968: US declares that it will no longer be able to honor the agreement by which Dollars were exchangeable for gold at $35/ ounce.
1971: Richard Nixon goes public: "We are going off the gold standard."
1973: US declares that it will never renew the gold standard. Rest of world blinks.
As for the question: what happens when the Dollar goes belly up? I'm guessing that the currency of choice at that point will be the Mexican Peso, if it isn't the Chinese Yuan.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
OK...
If the dollar goes belly up and the currency of choice becomes the Yuan or the Peso, then the dollar no longer has "dollar hegemony" as you put it. Since the dollar will no longer be the world currency and is no longer accepted as legal tender to satisfy "all debts", does that not make a US CBDC even more probable?
I'd say under those circumstances the US would be even more incentivized to implement a CDBC, especially a programmable one.
That would make your argument moot.
Oh, sure, the US will be quite incentivized to create a CBDC.
The question at hand is one of whether or not the rest of the world, never mind the hoi polloi here in the States, can be forced to accept it.
The ruling classes need an extra party to make the rest of us feel as if we participate in democracy. That's what the Democrats are for. They make the US more durable than the Soviet Union was.
The question at hand...
Your opening statement:
I simply applied a viable scenario in opposition to your statement.
a parallel economy
.
electronic money is one thing for the mega players
pocket change for the masses is another thing
once the attempt to blend the two is made
that's when the bonfires start IMO.
question everything
Greenbacks...
If I were a journalist
being told by Biden's keepers not to report on his mental decline, I would have immediately reported that Biden's keepers told me not to report on his mental decline.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning Johnny. If you're so smart, why aren't
you rich? I suspect most folks are familiar with that statement/query snd an awful lot of us know it to be a fallacy. Nonetheless, a chunk of the dominant culture implicitly posits that smarts beget wealth (the myth of meritocracy/social darwinism). Compounding that fallacy by converting implication into identity generates the even more ludicrous fallacy that wealth implies smarts and, hence, the wealthiest are the smartest and should govern in all things. This chain of illogic can and often does support some sort of knee-jerk presumption that it is ok for the ultra-wealthy to have political power.
Though that is part of the psycho-social underpinnings of our society, we still somehow shy away from naming it. Politically powerful wealthy in non-favored nation-states are called oligarchs, but not our own, even though a close inspection of our history and our constitution and political system shows that we have been an oligarchy since day one. We were to be governed, at all levels, by those chosen by "electors" who generally had to be white, male, property owners.
Beyond the unmistakable fact that we are an oligarchy, there is another applicable identifier that we never apply to our government. One of my upcoming columns currently ontains the following verbiage:
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
Point well made...
and well taken. Billionaires Like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are good examples of your treatise by way of the government subsidies that catapulted their road to mind boggling wealth. It tickles me how Musk will be in co-charge with another billionaire to bring about cuts in government spending. Will they include themselves in that endeavour?
government spending cuts
.
helps the billionaires acquire more
less government = less constraint
question everything
What’s the difference between today’s oligarchs
and the oligarchs of the guilded age?
The guilded age oligarchs didn’t want to pay taxes and to be left alone.
Today’s oligarchs don’t want to pay taxes and they want to rule the rest of us.
Sounds...
about right to me.
One way the banking cartel / fed
.
.
can reel in the masses is to issue a UBI only payable in CBDC
otherwise, I don't see people wanting to give-up the greenbacks.
question everything
That's the crux of the issue...
If enough people refuse to comply then it wont work.
Morning, JtC
The CBDC will only encourage bartering and expand the black market to crush government revenues. Think of how a single product like a big box of Tide has become a popular target for burglaries or smash and grab thefts. Those boxes are selling for over $25 in store but will easily get $20 on the street.
Shoplifting will soar.
This is all my humble opinion. But I see an increase in this now, just due to the bad economy. It can get much worse real fast.
We will see bars on all windows and doors, in both businesses and homes like in Mexican cities and some American metros.
Thanks for the OT.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
I see that as well...
that's what it will take to stop it.
Thanks for stopping by, e1.
German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier
dissolves parliament. Elections in Feb.
guess they are fighting democracy?
https://www.rt.com/news/610078-german-president-dissolves-parliament/
Wonder how Olaf Scholz considers this.
question everything
Probably another ploy...
to thwart the AFD from taking power.
The Wealth Gap
Accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery, agony of toil, slavery, ignorance, brutality, and mental degradation, at the opposite pole
— Karl Marx
We already solved this problem in the 20th century. We corrected it with high estate taxes and a 90 percent tax on massive earnings. This closed the society-destroying Wealth Gap and provided the masses with modest prosperity, social mobility, and the liberty to pursue their aspirations.
Allowing billionaires to extract excessive wealth from the economy, where it was hoarded in private hands, was a danger to society and to the civilization. It led to the political brainwashing of the masses, who would then make decisions against their own best interests, and it resulted in uncontrollable corruption at the top. For the state, this private concentration of monumental wealth was economic poison. We learned that lesson from the Great Depression.
After state regulations recaptured the excessive profits of the billionaires, beginning in the 1940s, an economically secure middle class grew across the land. We built infrastructure and national parks for the masses. People shared a dream of a future that would get better and better for everyone. The state regulated risky business to prevent them from preying on the public, and captured the excessive private profits of the wealthy (which might be considered wage theft) before they could convert that wealth into political power and corrupt the People's legislature, to subvert the nation's laws and regulations to suit their power-hungry greed.
Since the 2024 election, people around the world are speaking openly about the intellectual and moral degradation of the American people. And the wide spread mental illness in the US. They are right, of course. People in the US do not have the intellectual capacity to recover this nation. It can never be reformed. If someone has a blue print of how they think reform of the US government would come about, I'd like to see it. Meanwhile, there' been an incredible attitude shift toward Usians, worldwide.
There's some joking, but mostly there is disgust. The Gaza atrocity put the nail in the coffin for the US. For the four generations alive today — Israel and the the Gaza Genocide is far more emotionally catastrophic than the Holocaust, which has now become irrelevant by comparison. That's because the Gaza Holocaust is televised, of course.
Not long ago, The UN voted on a resolution to stop the US from trying to destroy Cuba with trade embargos for the past 50 years. The US vetoed the resolution and Israel voted against it. It's pretty stark, and I do not think the US can ever recover from the global repulsion building up against it.
.
And, then there's this sort of stuff:
Great synopsis...
of our predicament. The question that dogs me is: how do we wrest control back from the greedheads?
Thanks, P.
US foreign policy in a glance.
However! WE now have head choppers as our BFF
Someday...
the blowback will be epic.
Did you know that 5 courts have ruled against
.
the Patriot Act? And that the government hasn’t appealed the verdict because it doesn’t want other courts to uphold it.
Listen to Judge Nap talk about THE first amendment.
Starts 10 seconds in. I highly recommend listening to him.
the judge is hot in this clip
can not disagree with his reasoning
thanks for posting it!
question everything
Amazing isn’t it?
The generation that gave us the bill of rights with the ‘guarantee’ of freedom of speech also gave us the alien and sedition act that took freedom of speech away.
Hmmm...
interesting, I'll watch it later when I have more time.
Thanks snoops.
Judge Nap
was a judge on fire!
Excellent!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Agreed
I love listening to him talking about the constitution and how the government has shitted all over it. Sadly not enough people care about the government playing by its own rules just like it does with international law. And too many shitlibs think that the 1st amendment needs to be amended. Just can’t wrap my brain around that.
The brainwashing by the MSM goes into overdrive!
Of course it is the gospel truth.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/n-korean-troops-slaughtered-hopeless-17083593...
yeah, sounds totally reasonable
considering the source
guess they will bomb N. Korea next?
Light up the next front.
question everything
Good grief…
I can’t wait till Baghdad Bob is gone.
All week I’ve heard about the massive Russian attacks on Ukraine energy infrastructure, but not a damn word on the Ukraine attacks on civilians in Russia. The 9/11 like attack on the civilian apartment building or the attacks on civilians in Russia that actually killed people. How many people has Russia killed in their recent attacks?
Does anyone...
even believe that crap?
Yes
Take a look at Orange state sometime. They even still believe that Putin owns Trump and all of the GoP. And that Russia is losing to Ukraine and they are still using chips taken from washing machines. They will go to their graves thinking that Putin stole the election from the Hellabitch.
Propaganda and billionaires Korean style
JtC thanks for the OT.
South Korea's acting president Han Duck-Soo impeached as Yoon goes on trial
Reuters bullet points-
The very short video at the link, shows the characteristic improper and irrational behavior of the "ruling party" minority in the National Assembly. 192 votes for Han's impeachment, only 151 required. Han Deok-soo and the PPP party have been stonewalling the constitutional impeachment process. Han refused to appoint the three Constitutional Court judges nominated by the legislature to fill the vacancies on the court, technically rendering the currently six member court insufficient to meet a quorum. Han has vetoed basically all the legislation passed by the National Assembly.
But according to a later Reuters article on the subject, it's the impeachment of Han, rather than the obstruction of the constitutional impeachment process that has thrown South Korea into further turmoil. The articles themselves are behind a paywall.
Same exact line from CNBC. What a surprise!
South Korea impeaches acting President Han Duck-soo, deepening political turmoil
I heard one pundit claimed the Chairman of Shinsaegae Corporation (and Emart), Chung Yong-jin, one of the billionaire class paid a lobbyist to get an interview with president elect Trump.
정용진이 트럼프와 나눈 대화 TV Chosun News
TV Chosun didn't say anything about paying a lobbyist, some youtuber critic alleged that. Chairman Chung, is a cousin of Lee Jae-yong, Chairman of Samsung Group. Chung is known as a right wing figure in South Korea. Apparently, he met briefly with Elon in South Korea not too long ago. Chung said that Elon wasn't interested in South Korea. He then met with Trump junior in the US around the 16th at Mara lago. Supposedly this is his second visit, and he and junior are "almost as close as brothers." He reportedly extended his stay for chance to meet Trump briefly for all of 15 min. TV Chosun reported Chung was there at Mara Lago until Dec. 21.
Chung and Junior had met as early as 2015 but their relationship became more substantial five years ago. Junior has met Chung in South Korea several times. One of the things they have in common purportedly is their great Christian faith. Chung didn't want to disclose what he and the president elect discussed, the purpose of Chung's visit, etc. Chung would like to be a part of any future diplomatic missions to the US, and hopes to be invited to Trump's inauguration. He purportedly wishes to fill a gap in US-Korean relations caused by the current instability in SK.
This was a write up I did a year and half ago on social media photos promoted to support Chung's myeol gong campaign (destroy communists).
I'm sure Chung played lots of golf at Mara Lago. Chung is credited with originating the myeol kong messaging that went viral on social media not too long ago.
語必忠信 行必正直
color me confused
what does playing golf, owning vineyards
and S. Korean billionaires have in common?
My guess it has something to do with US interests.
In other words, kill the commies.
question everything