Defund the Oligarchy

When you look at history, it’s pretty striking. When the wealth concentrates in a tiny group, things get ugly.

For a while it looks good for the super-rich. Most people are still doing all right, even though a big portion of the value they create is diverted to make someone else rich. It’s even possible to think that if the super-wealthy showed any sort of restraint, that they could go on being super-wealthy without too much friction.

But a person doesn’t become a billionaire thinking like that. To become one of these atmospheric elites you must be incapable of that sort of idea.

There is an honestly insane idea perpetuated by media and folklore that to be a billionaire you must be a super-smart person. That is demonstrably preposterous. They all, without exception, made their money off the labor of others. Elon Musk is a drug-addled nepobaby. Peter Theil is a thin-skinned bigot. Name a billionaire, and I can tell you why they suck, and who made their fortune for them.

Tax those fuckers. Take the value created by the people who work for them and distribute it. No one deserves that wealth less than the people enjoying it.

And quit handing them my money! Peter Theil is bathing in my tax dollars, and even more in the dollars borrowed in my name. If you want to be fiscally conservative, stop giving these assholes free money.

Tax the rich. Take the media away from them. Then tax them more.

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Prop 50

Tit-for-tat redistricting is no way to run a country. But here we are. I voted in favor, even as I felt sick about disenfranchising voters. But I did not vote for prop 50 to recover the house seats that Texas is stealing. I voted that way to force the Supremes to quit weaseling around.

The Supreme Court has been dodging Texas, but they will not be able to dodge California. Their wealthy keepers will demand it, and the justices will face a choice: openly declare that they are in the thrall of wealthy donors, or stop all the nonsense in all the states, and require states to conform to standards that ensure equal representation.

I hope the Supreme Court declares Prop 50 unconstitutional.

BUT – if they stop California gerrymandering without addressing Texas, then we know the judicial branch has been bought, the three branches of government are now one, and the revolution is at hand.

And yes, I know what the word “revolution” means in this context.

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