Summary
Progressives criticized the attendance of billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos at Donald Trump’s inauguration, labeling them “billionaires’ row” and emblematic of an administration prioritizing the wealthy.
Critics argue the inauguration, funded by over $200 million in corporate and lobbyist donations, signals a pro-billionaire agenda.
Trump’s proposed Cabinet includes 13 billionaires, with a combined net worth of over $460 billion, and aims to push tax cuts for the rich.
Bernie Sanders and other progressives warn against “government by the billionaires, for the billionaires.”
Everyone you ever met say “billionaires’ row” at inauguration ceremony shows true winners of Trump agenda
Imagine if a big bomb would go off at that event. Would that be the end of capitalism in America, or would others step up immediately?
I’m reminded of a story, I think it’s fiction just to get the point across, about a room full of monkeys, a banana hanging from the ceiling, and a ladder to get the banana. If any monkey tries climbing the ladder, someone comes in and hoses down all of the monkeys. Eventually the monkeys figure it out and actively stop other monkeys from trying to climb the ladder. Slowly, they introduce new monkeys and the new monkeys learn to not climb the ladder without ever having been hosed down themselves. Instead they will stop other monkeys from climbing it. Eventually you have a whole room of monkeys that won’t climb the ladder for the banana and have no idea why.
It’s a neat story and I guess what I’m trying to say is we would probably have to hose down the monkeys a few times
Kill the tsar they send another
Military doctrine is that decapitating leadership is generally ineffective. Dictators choose their subordinates for fanatical devotion, not rationality, so the next asshole is likely to be even worse. And if it creates a chaotic leadership vacuum, who do you get to agree to a ceasefire or the surrender?
I recall discussion about taking out competent second- or third-echelon underlings (like the recent Ukrainian assassination of the Russian general in charge of CBW) but I don’t recall any clear conclusion as to its long-term efficacy. I hypothesize that it can lead to a near-term tactical advantage, and it might have value as propaganda of the deed, but that’s about it.
Step up immediately. It is extremely unlikely that any one individual billionaire is that much more skilled than the executives immediately beneath them that the corporation would collapse with their death.
Amazon will continue even if Bezos were to pass.
Wouldn’t it be a better Amazon without the chief asshole?
Also the replacement would probably be a bit less exploitative, knowing death is around the corner otherwise
that’s not likely
Now I know for sure time travel never happens.
If time travel was ever real, what type of person do you think would be able to afford it?
It depends. It might be cheap once it’s been productionized, though the risk arising from it’s widespread use could be enormous.
Theoretically, if time travel is real in 2987, and it’s only for the 0.0001% of the rich, there’s nothing to say that in 3145 that some dude got a cheap mass market edition, shipped it back to our time, and from the technology is rapidly made across all space and time.
Once a time machine is invented in its worst state possible, and it works enough to send information backwards, the technology is basically instantly better and perfected, because some scientist from 1864 got the memo and worked on the math, some engineer from 2020 worked on the blueprints, and so on.
The information being send back is what allows the time machine itself to become instantly perfected, but probably the timeline where it was invented no longer exists, and creates a bootstrap paradox.
How do you know time travelers aren’t billionaires and this is the timeline they created?
“If my thought dreams could be seen, they’d prob’ly put my head in a guillotine.”
Have all these people been in one place like this before? Talk about a security uhhh, nightmare.
I’d bet that’s a good part of the reason they brought it inside.
That’s exactly the reason.
Low turnout is also more easily hidden inside.
No it was 12f/-9c with the wind chill. Fascism does not work if we see the leader as a feeble old man. If they keft Trump in the cold for 3-4 hours his inaugural speech would have been a shitshow. The organizers of the event weren’t going to do that.
The fight isn’t over yet. Too soon to say if they’re winners or not.
They don’t win by ruining the world they will always be stuck in, in exchange for getting money they cannot possibly utilize and have no use for.
Progressives can drag their smug conceited asses to the voting box or STFU
60 million registered voters did not vote. If you think we have even 30 million progressives right now you would be mistaken.
Progressives did not lose this election for the democrats. The democrats got into a bad situation with Biden and their refusal to actually adopt policies that help the working class in meaningful ways is what cost the race.
“Trump bad” and identity politics aren’t the biggest concern for someone who is deciding which parent eats two meals a day so the kid gets three isn’t going to care about anything other than getting the food costs down or their pay up. The democrats didn’t offer solutions to this while Trump lied and claimed he could do this. Stupid people believed Trump and he won.
The democrats didn’t offer solutions to this while Trump lied and claimed he could do this.
Worse than that: Democrats insisted that since the data said people weren’t hurting then they weren’t hurting.
That’s not entirely true. The economy is very strong which is determined by the amount if money flowing through the economy the catch is just because money is flowing it doesn’t mean it is coming your way. it’s good for upper middle class and above folks my age (45-55) and older it is bleak for everyone else which is not good for the long term.
Yes that’s a fantastic example of their attitude.
Sadly it describes most of my family and childhood friends who do not work for a living. Im in warehouses and retail gigs most of my life so I know a ton of twenty and thirty somethings that can’t conceive of affording having kids and are planning on retirement by suicide. Is the American dream real anymore?
244 million registered voters in 2024 75 million voted for Kamila 77 million voted for Trump
I full expect ~1/3 to vote republican every time. They never sit out a vote.
Who sat out the vote for the democrats? And for what bullshit reasons?
If you sat it out, it’s on you, and STFU
There’s a difference between not voting and not voting because you’re progressive. Progressives did not cost the DNC the election becaue there are not that many in the USA
7% of registered voters are progressive. Enough excuses, we all knew the stakes of this election.
And yet that does not in any way mean progressives are why Harris lost.
Please enlighten me. If it was not because the democrats were not progressive enough, and it was not because they were too progressive, than why didn’t you vote against MAGA?
When adults want answers to questions they don’t rudely antagonize the person they are questioning.
Harris lost because she refused to address the nuts and bolts economic issue. Nobody gives a fuck about $25k to buy your first home if you aten’t eating 3 meals a day so your kid can. People voted for the guy who claimed to make things cheaper even when that was a lie.
Progressives did not cost the DNC the election. There are not nearly enough if them for that to be the factor.
I’ve been dragging my progressive ass to vote for two and half decades and have fuck all to show for it
Centrists do not and have never cared about how you vote; they just don’t want any criticism as they move to the right.
It’s more likely that the person making that claim never stopped to realize there cannot be wnough progressives to blow the race for anyone. It wasn’t as if Trump won by a handful of votes. 60 million didnt show up to vote and I would be floored if 5% of the number would be progressives
You dont have fuck all. We have a nascent Nazi America finally out of the womb. Thats certainly… something…
Oh yes, I forgot about negative values.
Fascist, not Nazi as nobody is looking to create the ubermensch. We will be more like Spain or Italy than Nazi Germany.
Oh yeah? Is that what conservatives did when Trump lost? Or did they throw a temper tantrum and make a pathetic flaccid attempt at an insurrection?
Hell, most still won’t admit he lost.
Liberals literally have the most influence in the party and look where everyone is. Biden telling the orange fascist “Welcome home.” 😂
So are they just supposed to do nothing except for that one day every two years?
We have. It’s progressive policies that’ve been absent.
Well, they went with the second option exactly because of this attitude.
