If Bernie's 5% annual wealth tax on billionaires had been enacted in 2012, Elon Musk would be worth less than $365 billion instead of the $1.2 trillion that he's worth today.
Elon would still be the wealthiest man alive & every family in America would have universal childcare.
Elon Musk may become the world’s first trillionaire while millions of workers are one medical bill, one rent hike, or one layoff away from disaster. Yet there are people who will defend Elon, turning on their own class.
If taxing unrealized gains is somehow “unfair” for billionaires holding stock, then why are middle class homeowners hit every year with rising property taxes based on the unrealized value of their home?
Most people haven’t sold their house. They haven’t “realized” anything. Yet the tax bill keeps going up anyway.
Today Australia cancelled its Inland Rail project, saying it was "too expensive".
Yet we're spending $368 billion on AUKUS submarines because the US convinced us that China - which has paid us trillions $ for our iron ore to turn into steel to build these railways - is a threat.
War in Iraq: $2.1 trillion
War in Afghanistan: $2.3 trillion
Projected cost of the war in Iran: $1 trillion
Somehow, there is always money for war, but never enough money for housing, education or the needs of working people. We must and will change our national priorities.
Continuing the blockade puts far more pressure on us than on Iran. Iran has proven it can endure economic pain—it has been doing so since 1979. The blockade will not force Iran to abandon uranium enrichment, ballistic missiles, or its proxy networks.
Instead, the blockade is hurting the American people and creating serious domestic pressure on POTUS:
Gas prices will continue to rise as we head into the midterms, harming the working class voters who overwhelmingly backed Trump and Republicans—putting GOP majorities in serious jeopardy.
Staging three carrier battle groups plus a massive build up of airpower in CENTCOM to enforce the blockade is unsustainable—it hands an emboldened IRGC ample opportunities to strike U.S. forces and drag America back into war on Iran’s terms.
The global fallout only increases the pressure on us, not Iran:
Beyond the oil and gas crisis, the blockade is now triggering a global fertilizer shortage that will cause major food security crises and potential famines in vulnerable regions.
The smarter path is clear: withdraw, declare victory, and use sanctions relief as our negotiating leverage with Iran. This resets the talks on our terms, avoids war, and prevents further escalation of the energy crisis at home and abroad.
"[One] reason that Australia's mining and energy corporations are not telling the government to back off: the strategic heights of these sectors are owned by US-based investors: BHP is widely known as the Big Australian but according to the Bloomberg Professional Terminal it is 71 per cent US owned. Riot Tinto is 77 per cent US owned. Woodside Petroleum is 63 per cent US owned. Newcrest Mining is 53 per cent US owned. South32, a diversified metals and mining company, is 47 per cent US owned. The only mining company that is not US majority-owned is Fortescue Metals, which Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest controls." — Subimperial Power: Australia in the National Arena (2022),Clinton Fernandes
آنچه در تصاویر برخی دوربینهای مدار بسته ثبت میشود تنها گوشه ناچیزی از جانفشانیها و فداکاریهای فرزندان عزیز ایران است.
دختر عزیزم ندا سلیمی از شما و همه آنان که جانانه پای کار ایران ایستادهاند تشکر میکنم.
When one tiny group of people have all the money - the game of monopoly is over. Tax the rich. Circulate the money. Or the game ends. And it's not pretty.
Every prev US pres accepted limits on support for Israel. Not this incipient fascist. As we see rising unemployment and inflation, swelling refugee flows, rampart populism undermining our politics, put the blame where it lies: the Netanyahu-Trump alliance, an actual axis of evil
Another day another worker sticking it to the CEO class after losing his job. Expect more of this. We’re living in the end stage of capitalism. A top-heavy system that funnels wealth to the 1% by exploiting the 99% was always going to collapse by the weight of its contradictions.
You know what’s the closest country to Israel in population? Papua New Guinea. Not joking. Nearly identical number of people. Imagine if our entire foreign policy was structured around Papua New Guinea.
If there were people who were Papua New Guinea First all over Congress and media. And we had given Papua New Guinea over $300 billion and people were saying it wasn’t enough! That we had spent $8 trillion on wars supporting Papua New Guinea and people said we needed one more war for them!
And if you ever criticized our ludicrous support for Papua New Guinea, everyone in media would call you an anti-Papua New Guineaist and said no one should ever talk to you again. Now, you’re beginning to see how absurd our support for Israel is.