#hungergames — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hungergames, aggregated by home.social.
-
Les livres audio, c'est toute une histoire de narrateur ! 🗣 L'exemple des Hunger Games avec la voix française de Katniss m'a direct plongée dedans mais ce n'est le cas de tous 👀
-
HUTCHERSON QUESTIONS BLOCKBUSTER REALITY
Actor Josh Hutcherson speaks about his doubts regarding the realism of Peeta's rock camouflage in The Hunger Games, a detail fans still discuss.
#JoshHutcherson, #HungerGames, #PeetaMellark, #MovieRealism, #FilmDebate
https://newsletter.tf/josh-hutcherson-hunger-games-rock-camouflage-realism/
-
Actor Josh Hutcherson revealed he questioned the realism of a specific camouflage scene in The Hunger Games during filming. This scene involved Peeta blending into rocks.
#JoshHutcherson, #HungerGames, #PeetaMellark, #MovieRealism, #FilmDebate
https://newsletter.tf/josh-hutcherson-hunger-games-rock-camouflage-realism/ -
Eligible men will soon be automatically registered for #MilitaryDraft
by Melina Khan
Updated April 9, 2026,"Most male U.S. citizens ages 18-25 are required to register with SSS, though there has not been an active military draft since 1973, according to the agency's website.
"Now, the agency is moving to an automatic registration process, rather than requiring eligible men to sign up manually.
"The amendment to the Military Selective Service Act implementing automatic registration is set to take effect one year after the #NDAA was enacted into law, according to the bill text.
"On March 30, #SSS formally submitted automatic registration as proposed rule to OIRA, which will now review and finalize the regulatory action.
According to the SSS website, the change 'transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources.' "Archived version:
https://archive.ph/6ap8j#EndlessWars #USPol #NoWar #WarOnIran #Authoritarianism #HungerGames #Panem
-
#Maine among dozens of states suing #Trump administration over #SNAP funding
by Russ Reed, October 30, 2025
AUGUSTA, Maine — "Maine's attorney general is part of a coalition that sued the Trump administration for suspending the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program due to the ongoing federal government shutdown.
"In their lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Office of Management and Budget and their respective secretaries, 23 attorneys general and three governors claim the USDA does not have the authority to suspend SNAP.
" 'Forty-two million Americans, including 169,000 Mainers, are going to go hungry this Thanksgiving because the Administration is simply refusing to use the billions available to prevent this,' Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said in a statement. 'It is unconscionably cruel and unlawful.'
"The coalition suing the Trump administration said that on Oct. 10, the USDA sent a letter to state SNAP agencies saying there will be insufficient funds to pay full November SNAP benefits if the government shutdown continues.
"According to the coalition, the USDA has access to billions of dollars in SNAP-specific contingency funds appropriated by Congress in the event of a government shutdown. The coalition also claims the USDA has funded other programs with emergency funds during the shutdown, but has refused to fund SNAP.
"The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (#DHHS) announced on Oct. 21 it would not receive November's SNAP funding.
"According to Maine DHHS, nearly 12.5% of the state's population receives SNAP benefits. State health officials also said the rate approaches or surpasses 20% in five of Maine's 16 counties: #Androscoggin, #Aroostook, #Piscataquis, #Somerset and #Washington.
"Maine DHHS also said nearly 75% of the state's SNAP households include at least one working adult, more than half include a person with a disability, 43% include an older adult and more than one-third include children. The average monthly SNAP benefit for a family of four in Maine is $572, according to DHHS.
"Maine DHHS shared the following information for the state's SNAP recipients:
- November's federal SNAP benefits cannot be issued until the government shutdown ends or until new guidance is provided by the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.
- At this time, SNAP benefits already loaded onto EBT cards remain available for use to purchase food.
- Applications, renewals and other updates continue to be accepted and processed by Maine DHHS during the federal government shutdown.
- SNAP recipients are encouraged to sign up for e-noticing through My Maine Connection, which provides the fastest access to updates and notifications.
- Recipients should ensure that contact information, such as their phone number and mailing address, remains current with Maine DHHS.
"For help finding information on other available resources, call 211 or text your ZIP code to 898-211. You can also visit 211Maine.org. When the government shutdown ends, more information will be available about the future of federal SNAP benefits.
"Maine DHHS will share updates as soon as additional information becomes available."Joining Frey in the lawsuit are the attorneys general of #Arizona, #California, #Colorado, #Connecticut, #Delaware, the #DistrictOfColumbia, #Hawaii, #Illinois, #Maryland, #Massachusetts, #Michigan, #Minnesota, #Nevada, #NewJersey, #NewMexico, #NewYork, #NorthCarolina, #Oregon, #RhodeIsland, #Vermont, #WashingtonState and #Wisconsin. The governors of #Kansas, #Kentucky and #Pennsylvania are also part of the lawsuit."
Source:
https://www.wmtw.com/article/maine-sues-trump-administration-snap-benefits/69180395#USPol #MaineResists #Resistance #ResistTrump #TrumpSucks #TrumpIsABully #TrumpIsAFascist #USPol #SNAPCuts #USDACuts #HungerGames #KillThePoor #FoodStamps #FoodInsecurity
-
#LaborDay: Children at Work
"Muckraking journalists and photographers were some of the most helpful in exposing the conditions in which children worked. Among the most famous was #LewisHine, photographer for the National #ChildLabor Committee."
September 3, 2018 by Jessie Kratz,
"Today’s post comes from Megan Huang, an intern in the National Archives History Office.
"The Federal holiday Labor Day honors the American worker. When considering the accomplishments and contributions of the our workers throughout history, one category—the child laborer—doesn’t always come to mind. However, child labor was a significant part of the American labor story."
Read more [CW - contains graphic descriptions of work-related accidents]:
https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2018/09/03/labor-day-children-at-work/Archived version ['cuz, in case it disappears]:
https://archive.ph/TroFn/#Project2025 #ChildLaborLaws #ImmigrantsFeedUs #ICERaids #HungerGames #KillThePoor #EatTheRich #USPol #USHistory
-
When The U.S. Government Tried To Replace #Migrant #Farmworkers With #HighSchoolers
August 23, 201810:41 AM ET
By Gustavo ArellanoExcerpt: "He remembers the first day vividly. Work started before dawn, the better to avoid the unforgiving desert sun to come. 'The wind is in your hair, and you don't think it's bad,' Carter says. 'Then you go out in the field, and the first ray of sun comes over the horizon. The first ray. Everyone looked at each other, and said, 'What did we do?' The thermometer went up like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. By 9 a.m., it was 110 degrees.'
"Garden gloves that the farmers gave the students to help them harvest lasted only four hours, because the cantaloupe's fine hairs made grabbing them feel like 'picking up sandpaper.' They got paid minimum wage — $1.40 an hour back then — plus 5 cents for every crate filled with about 30 to 36 fruits. Breakfast was 'out of the Navy,' Carter says — beans and eggs and bologna sandwiches that literally toasted in the heat, even in the shade.
"The University High crew worked six days a week, with Sundays off, and they were not allowed to return home during their stint. The farmers sheltered them in 'any kind of defunct housing,' according to Carter — old Army barracks, rooms made from discarded wood, and even buildings used to intern Japanese-Americans during World War II.
"Problems arose immediately for the #ATEAM nationwide. In California's #SalinasValley, 200 teenagers from #NewMexico, #Kansas and #Wyoming quit after just two weeks on the job. 'We worked three days and all of us are broke,' the Associated Press quoted one teen as saying. Students elsewhere staged strikes. At the end, the A-TEAM was considered a giant failure and was never tried again." [Until today, apparently...]
#immigrants #ImmigrantsFeedUs #Farmworkers #ResistICE
#Authoritarianism #ImmigrationCrackdown
#ICERaids #HungerGames #EatTheRich
#ThisIsFascism #Project2025 -
And who will work in the fields? Children?Folks who have just lost #FoodAssistance and #Medicare?#Protestors who piss off Trump?
#Trump’s Immigration #Crackdown Hits #CaliforniaFarms
#Farmworkers hid in fields on Tuesday as word spread that ICE agents were conducting raids in California’s breadbasket, an activist said.
By Bernard Mokam and Pooja Salhotra
June 11, 2025, 9:08 p.m. ETExcerpt: " 'The #Trump administration is ramping up its immigration crackdown, with a focus on workplaces with undocumented #laborers, such as #farms, #restaurants and #construction sites. Estimates show more than eight million undocumented #immigrants work in the United States.
"Last Friday, federal immigration agents swept through the garment district of Los Angeles, setting off protests that have rattled sections of downtown L.A. and have spread to a number of cities across the country.
"For #farmworkers — about 42 percent of whom are undocumented, according to the Agriculture Department — the escalation in arrests has created widespread fear." 'Children are terrified,' Ms. Romero said. 'They don’t want to go to school because they don’t know if their parents will be home when they come back.'
"Local leaders have rebuked the escalation, which could bring hardship to one of California’s agricultural corridors. The #CentralValley — which grows #almonds, #grapes, #walnuts and #cherries, among other crops — produces a quarter of the nation’s food, worth an estimated $17 billion a year, according to federal data.
" 'These actions are completely unjustified and harmful,' said Mayor Luis McArthur of Oxnard. 'They create chaos in our city without contributing much to public safety. Furthermore these actions undermine the very principles of #DueProcess.'
"The raids this week represent the first organized immigration enforcement from the new Trump administration to hit California’s agricultural region, which covers about 40 percent of the state, Ms. Romero said. A handful of federal operations have been conducted in other rural communities in recent weeks. Last month, federal agents pulled over a bus in #AlbionN., and detained 14 immigrants who worked at a nearby farm. In April, three children and their mother were detained at an upstate New York dairy.
"Rural migrants are particularly vulnerable to immigration enforcement because they stand out in towns that are often racially homogenous, said Will Lambek of Migrant Justice, an advocacy organization for farmworkers in #Vermont, where eight dairy workers were detained in April.
"In California, Ms. Davalos said the agents could have made more arrests had the community been less prepared. Once a volunteer spotted officers in the area, an alert was sent through a network of support.
"Federal agents were denied entry to at least nine farms in the Central Coast, Ms. Davalos said. Some growers parked their vehicles in front of their gates. Employees also obscured their cars.
'We demonstrated the power of brave, nonviolent #resistance to #ICE’s tactics of #terror,' Ms. Davalos said, lamenting what she described as politically driven attempts to reach a deportation quota. 'At the end of the day, they’re seizing our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers.'"If federal immigration enforcement activities continue, #FoodProduction will become increasingly difficult, and food prices could rise, warned Bryan Little, senior director of policy advocacy at the California Farm Bureau."
Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/11/us/trump-ice-raids-california-farms.htmlArchived version:
https://archive.ph/NFWuO#ResistICE #Authoritarianism #ImmigrationCrackdown #ICERaids #TrumpIsANazi #AuthoritarianRule #ImmigrantsFeedUs #NoHumanIsIllegalOnStolenLand #HungerGames #EatTheRich #ThisIsFascism #Project2025
-
Bloomington, Indiana doesn’t have #HungerGames but we do have the Little 500, where cycling teams ride full-steam in tight packs around a cinder track with only coaster brakes to the cheers of inebriated fans.
As featured in the film Breaking Away.
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2025/04/womens-little-500-race-wsr-results-iu-bloomington
-
Ummm... #Florida considers easing #ChildLabor laws after pushing out #immigrants
A new law under consideration in the state Legislature would roll back child labor laws to make up for a dwindling labor pool.
By Ja'han Jones, March 27, 2025
Excerpt: "Florida Gov. #RonDeSantis backs the law and has defended the idea of teenagers and college students working these jobs. DeSantis also explicitly linked the effort to the loss of immigrant labor. Speaking about the consequences of state verification laws at an event with border czar #TomHoman, the governor said, 'Yes, we had people that left because of those rules, but you’ve also been able to hire other people. And what’s wrong with expecting our young people to be working part-time now?'
"In recent years, several states — many of them led by #Republican governors — have rolled back child labor laws. This map from the Economic Policy Institute illustrates the spike in states rolling back these laws from 2021 to 2024. Back in 2023, for example, #Arkansas Gov. #SarahHuckabeeSanders signed a bill that made it easier for companies to hire children without getting consent from their parents. One month earlier, The New York Times published a bombshell report about the #exploitation of immigrant children in #factories operated by some of the most well-known companies in the U.S.
"That story should have spurred a nationwide push to strengthen child labor laws. Instead, states like Florida are going in the opposite direction, weakening such laws in part to deal with the fallout from the conservative movement’s demonization of immigrants. They’re essentially using child labor to paper over the gaps left by their draconian immigration policies.
"#Project2025, the far-right playbook for Trump’s second term, specifically calls for rolling back 'hazard' regulations around child labor. The text claims, 'Some young adults show an interest in inherently dangerous jobs' and argues that 'with parental consent and proper training, certain young adults should be allowed to learn and work in more dangerous occupations.'
"Even as child labor laws are being rolled back, the Trump administration is working to gut #SocialServices, including funds that help provide #SchoolLunches to children and programs, like the supplemental nutrition assistance program [#SNAP], that help feed poor families. And if those cuts stay in place, they may leave American families with few alternatives to sending their children to work to keep food on the table."
Full article:
https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/florida-child-labor-law-sb-918-rcna198275
#SB918 #FloridaPol #USPol #Scrooge #ICERaids #ChildLabor #HungerGames -
A list of the #SocialSecurity offices across the US expected to close this year
By MEG KINNARD
Updated 12:59 PM EDT, March 19, 2025WASHINGTON (AP) — "Dozens of Social Security Administration [#SSA] offices across the country are slated to close this year due to actions taken by #ElonMusk’s Department of Government Efficiency as part of the #Trump administration’s unprecedented effort to shrink the size of government.
"#DOGE has published a list of nearly 800 federal real estate leases that it is seeking to cancel. The Associated Press has obtained an internal planning document from the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, which shows when nearly two-thirds of those cancellations are expected to go into effect.
"The offices are closing despite a new requirement that tighter identity-proofing measures be put in place to prevent fraud and abuse. These steps will require millions of recipients and applicants to visit agency field offices rather than interact with agency employees over the phone.
"The AP also obtained more information about each lease on DOGE’s list through other publicly available datasets, including their addresses, the dates the leases had started and were originally expected to expire, and the landlords who own the properties."
Read more (includes a list of offices that will be closing):
https://apnews.com/article/social-security-offices-closures-doge-trump-b2b1a5b2ba4fb968abc3379bf90715ff
#ResistDOGE #TakeToTheStreets #KillThePoor #USPol #KillTheElderly #HungerGames #Authoritarianism #Oligarchy #DisabilityRights #ElderRights #TakeCareOfThePoor #SocialSecurityPayments #SocialSecurityAdministration -
#Trump Admin Threatens to Stop #SocialSecurity If #DOGE Can’t Have #PersonalData
Trump’s interim Social Security chief says he wants to turn off the program if Musk and DOGE can’t access Americans’ most sensitive data
by Andrew Perez, March 21, 2025
"Donald Trump’s interim Social Security chief suggested Thursday night he will effectively turn off the agency that manages the essential safety net program for seniors and the disabled, if Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) can’t access the non-anonymized sensitive personal information and data of hundreds of millions of Americans, based on a judge’s order.
"'My anti-fraud team would be DOGE affiliates. My IT staff would be DOGE affiliates,' said #LeeDudek, acting Social Security Administration (#SSA) commissioner, arguing the order was too broad, according to Bloomberg News. 'As it stands, I will follow it exactly and terminate access by all SSA employees to our IT systems,' he said, adding: 'Really, I want to turn it off and let the courts figure out how they want to run a federal agency.'
"Dudek’s threat to block SSA employees from using the agency’s IT systems — a move that could halt #SocialSecurityPayments — came in response to a judge’s temporary restraining order in a case brought by the #AFLCIO #LaborUnion. The order bars Social Security Administration officials from allowing DOGE, including Musk, and the SSA’s DOGE team to access personally identifiable information. It also directs Musk and DOGE to delete from their possession all non-anonymized personal data, and bars them from having access to SSA computers or code.
"Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander wrote that the SSA had likely violated administrative and privacy laws when it gave DOGE 'unbridled access to the personal and private data of millions of Americans, including but not limited to Social Security numbers, medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, drivers’ license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates, and home and work addresses.'
"She added that the 'defendants, with so-called experts on the DOGE Team, never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems, thereby exposing personal, confidential, sensitive, and private information that millions of Americans entrusted to their government.'"
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/vvgMF
#ResistDOGE #TakeToTheStreets #KillThePoor #USPol #KillTheElderly #HungerGames #Authoritarianism #Oligarchy #DisabilityRights #ElderRights #TakeCareOfThePoor -
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘇𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗲 𝗛𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘀-𝗳𝗶𝗹𝗺: 𝘄𝗲 𝘇𝗶𝗷𝗻 𝗮𝗹 𝗵𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝘃𝗲𝗿
De makers van de zesde Hunger Games-film, Sunrise on the Reaping, zijn "al heel ver" met het maakproces. Dat zegt producent Nina Jacobson in gesprek met filmvakblad Variety.
https://www.rtl.nl/boulevard/artikel/5500344/producent-zesde-hunger-games-film-we-zijn-al-heel-ver
-
Not just #Maine -- all of #NewEngland is being targeted! And don't get me started about #ProBirth types! They don't give a SHIT about feeding children after they are born!!!
New England schools and food programs take ‘devastating’ hit after #USDAFundingCuts
The more than $1 billion in federal funding helped #schools, #ChildCare programs, and #FoodPantries in 40 states to buy produce and other items from local farmers.
By Amanda Gokee and John Hilliard Globe Staff, Updated March 12, 2025, 3:03 p.m.
"In October, the USDA announced $1.7 billion for states and #tribal governments to purchase #locally and #regionally produced foods for #EmergencyFoodAssistance, including free meals for schools and child-care programs.
"That funding included $1.2 billion to support local food purchases with schools, child-care facilities, food banks, and other institutions, according to the USDA. School meal programs would get $500 million to make food purchases, and states, territories, and #TribalNations would receive another $500 million. Child-care facilities were supposed to get $200 million, the USDA said.
"The money earmarked for food banks, schools, and child-care facilities was meant to help them meet the needs of their recipients and help ensure they had access to healthy foods, according to the USDA at the time."
Original article:
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/03/12/metro/new-england-food-program-usda-federal-funding-cut-ri-nh-ma-vt-me-ct/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/AvN3n#selection-2481.0-2499.213
#USPol #FundingCuts #BadDOGE #Hunger #HungerGames #KillThePoor -
[Updated!] Which new #books are you most looking forward to in 2025? 📚Here are some of mine (in publication order):
* The Sinners All Bow by #KateWinklerDawson (history/true crime)
* The Mask of Fear by #AlexanderFreed (#StarWars/media tie-in)
* Broken Fields by #MarcieRendon (mystery/Indigenous) #CashBlackbear series
* Oathbound by #TracyDeonn (YA fantasy) #Legendborn series
* Sunrise on the Reaping by #SuzanneCollins (YA dystopia/science fiction) #HungerGames series
* School of Shards by #SergeyDyachenko & #MarinaDyachenko (dark academia/SFF in translation) #VitaNostra trilogy
* All That We See or Seem by #KenLiu (science fiction/techno-thriller)
** Also, This Book Will Bury Me by #AshleyWinstead (crime fiction/mystery) would be on this list, but I had the good fortune to read an ARC this year. 👍👍
-
A good argument for #Polyculture instead of #monoculture! Of course, it takes time to establish, and doesn't happen overnight.
#Climate takes its toll on the ‘#cherry capital of the world’
The erratic weather adding to the troubles of Michigan's cherry growers is impacting #farmers everywhere.
Ayurella Horn-Muller & Izzy Ross
December 17, 2024"Everyone who works the land knows they’re at the mercy of the weather, but even by that measure this was a challenging year for Michigan’s cherry farmers. Growers throughout the state, which produces one-fifth of the nation’s sweet cherries and about 75 percent of its tart cherries, have struggled with mounting losses. By the time the season came to a close over the summer, as much as 75 percent of the state’s sweet cherry crop was lost. Although tart cherry production for northwest Michigan was up almost 40 percent over last year, the quality of the fruit declined.
"Many growers are adapting to the difficult market and changing climate, planting different varieties or embracing high-density orchards with trees packed more closely together, an approach that makes them easier to harvest while lowering costs and improving quality. For Isaiah Wunsch, CEO of the farm that bears his name, the key to survival is 'not putting all of our eggs into one basket.'"
-
#BernieSanders Says There Is No Choice: 'We Must Defeat the #Oligarchs'
The U.S. Senator from Vermont is asking big questions about how to achieve—even in the face of #Trump's return—an "economy and government that works for all, not just the few."
by Jon Queally, Nov 30, 2024"With the progressive movement in the United States still grappling with how best to respond to president-elect Donald Trump's victory earlier this month, Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement Saturday clarifying his belief that confronting the ruling oligarchy over the 'coming months and years' will be the key battle for anyone who wants to build an economy and political system that puts the interests of everyday #WorkingPeople ahead of those of #SuperWealthy elites.
"The Independent U.S. Senator from Vermont suggested Trump's victory was the direct result of a political economy largely controlled by the nation's richest individuals and powerful #corporations and a situation in which massive wealth inequality has also created an incredible power imbalance.
"'This is what Oligarchy looks like,' Sanders said. 'Today, while 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, three multi-billionaires own more wealth than the bottom half of American society.'
"With a 'greater concentration of ownership than we have seen since the #GildedAge,' Sanders continued, from healthcare and financial services to the food, transportation, and housing sectors—'fewer and fewer giant corporations control what is produced and the prices we pay.'
"Sanders slammed a corporate media system in which corporate consolidation has led to an information and entertainment ecosystem in which an estimated '90% of U.S. media is controlled by just six huge global conglomerates,' and a political system 'increasingly controlled by the #BillionaireClass' that is allowed to inject nearly limitless amounts of money into elections, most of it secretly and without accountability.
"'In the recent elections,' Sanders bemoaned, 'just 150 billionaire families spent nearly $2 billion to get their candidates elected.' Such a reality, he said, must be challenged.
"'Our job in the coming months and years is clear. We must defeat the oligarchs and create an economy and government that works for all, not just the few.'
"How can such a defeat of these powerful forces be achieved? Sanders' latest statement did not reveal a prescription, but in a series of recent missives, social media posts, and interviews over the last week, the two-time presidential candidate has said that focusing on building working-class power is the key.
"In a letter to supporters last week, Sanders said the question of 'where do we go from here?' is a 'very serious' one that demands deep scrutiny in the coming weeks and months. And he asked a series of more specific questions that he said must be addressed, including:
• How do we expand our efforts to build a multi-racial, multi-generational working-class movement?
• How do we create a 50 state movement, not politics based on the electoral college and 'battleground' states?
• How do we deal with #CitizensUnited and the ability of billionaires to buy elections?
• How do we recruit more working-class candidates for office at all levels of government?
• Should we be supporting Independent candidates who are prepared to take on both parties?
• How do we better support union organizing?
• How do we put together listening sessions around the country that intentionally seek input from people who did not vote for Democrats in the last election?
• How do we best use social media to build our movement and combat the lies and disinformation coming from the billionaire class and right-wing media?"In a subsequent interview with The Nation, Sanders it is 'absolutely' necessary to find ways to challenge both the #DemocraticParty and the #RepublicanParty, both of which are dominated by #CorporateInterests and #WealthyDonors.
"'We just cannot sit back and accept candidates who are not prepared to stand up to #BigMoney interests and fight for the working class,' Sanders said. 'We cannot continue to do that. So, in one way or another, we have got to bring forth candidates who [will stand up to Big Money].'"
https://www.commondreams.org/news/bernie-sanders-oligarchy
#USPol #Oligarchy #Oligarchs #GlobalOligarchy #USPol #Corporatocracy #Oligarchs #CorporateFascism #HungerGames #StillSanders #Duopoly #EndCitizensUnited #WealthInequality
-
From 2017: #BernieSanders: We must end #GlobalOligarchy
"Greed is their religion."
By Bernie Sanders, November 13, 2017
"One of the major, untold stories of our time is the rapid movement toward global #oligarchy, in which just a handful of# billionaires now own and control a significant part of the world economy [and the US government in January 2025].
"Here in the United States, the top one-tenth of 1% owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Incredibly, according to a recent report from the Institute for Policy Studies, three of the richest people in America – #BillGates, #JeffBezos and #WarrenBuffett – now own more wealth than bottom 160 million people in our country.
"But this is clearly not just an American issue. It is a global issue. While millions of people throughout the world live in dire poverty, without clean drinking water, adequate health care, decent housing, or education for their kids, the six wealthiest people in the world as ranked by Forbes Magazine own more wealth, according to Oxfam, than the bottom half of the world’s population, 3.6 billion people.
"This massive level of wealth and income inequality, and the political power associated with that wealth, is an issue that cannot continue be ignored. We must fight back.
"Thanks to the so-called #ParadisePapers, a trove of millions of documents analyzed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (#ICIJ) and its collaborating news outlets, we now have a better understanding of how the largest corporations and wealthiest people in the world avoid paying their taxes and hide ownership of assets. Needless to say, these billionaires are all strong supporters of our military, our veterans, our infrastructure, our schools and other government services. They would just prefer that you pay for those activities, not them.
"According to the ICIJ’s investigative reporting, the Americans listed as having offshore accounts in the Paradise Papers, (which have not been independently reviewed by CNN), are a who’s who of billionaires, some of whom are the very same officials who have led the effort to promote the Republican tax plan, which would provide even more tax-avoiding opportunities to the very rich.
"Even before these revelations, we knew that #TaxDodging by the #wealthy and large #corporations, not just in the US but globally, was taking place on a massive scale. In 2012, the Tax Justice Network, a British advocacy group, estimated that at least $21 trillion was stashed in offshore tax havens around the world. In other words, while governments enact austerity budgets, which lower the standard of living of working people, the super-rich avoid their taxes.
"According to Berkeley economist Gabriel Zucman, individuals in the US are avoiding $36 billion through offshore tax schemes and US corporations are avoiding more than $130 billion through these schemes. The situation has become so absurd that one five-story office building in the #Caymans is now the 'home' of nearly 20,000 corporations – and that is just one of many tax havens operating across the globe.
"The essence of oligarchy is that the #BillionaireClass is never satisfied with what they have. They want more, more and more – no matter what impact their efforts have on working people, the elderly, children, the sick and the poor. Greed is their religion. While the oligarchs are avoiding their taxes, Trump and his Republican colleagues, ostensibly in order to save federal dollars, have been trying to throw tens of millions of Americans off of their health insurance, and make massive cuts in education, nutrition assistance and affordable housing.
"As a candidate for president, Trump promised that he would stand up for the working class of this country. Needless to say, that was a lie. Almost half of the benefits in the Trump/Republican tax plan would go to the top 1%, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. Additionally, they want to lower the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%, even though in 2012 one out of every five large, profitable corporations in the US paid no federal income taxes at all and between 2008 and 2015, 18 corporations had a tax rate lower than 0%.
"Republicans also want to make it easier for companies to shelter their profits overseas and pay zero taxes. The 'territorial tax system' they are proposing, which means companies would be taxed only on income earned within our country’s borders, would exempt the offshore profits of American corporations from US taxes and allow for a one-time 12% tax on their offshore cash profits when brought back into the United States.
Get our free weekly newsletter"Meanwhile, while the wealthy and large corporations are receiving huge tax breaks, nearly half of middle-class families would actually see their taxes go up by the end of the decade by eliminating deductions for medical expenses, student loan interest rates, state and local income and sales taxes, and the cost of health insurance for the self-employed.
"The Paradise Papers make it clearer than ever that we need, in the United States and throughout the world, a tax system which is fair, progressive and transparent.
"Now is the time, in the United States and internationally, for people to come together to take on the greed of the oligarchs. We can and must create a global economy that works for all, not just a handful of billionaires."
https://www.cnn.com/2017/11/13/opinions/oligarchy-paradise-papers-bernie-sanders-opinion/index.html
#USPol #GlobalPol #Corporatocracy #Oligarchy #Oligarchs #Trump #CorporateFascism #HungerGames #StillSanders
-
Which new #books are you most looking forward to in 2025? 📚Here are some of mine (in chronological order of publication):
* The Sinners All Bow by #KateWinklerDawson (history/true crime)
* Broken Fields by #MarcieRendon (mystery/Indigenous) #CashBlackbear series
* Oathbound by #TracyDeonn (YA fantasy) #Legendborn series
* Sunrise on the Reaping by #SuzanneCollins (YA dystopia/science fiction) #HungerGames series
* School of Shards by #SergeyDyachenko & #MarinaDyachenko (dark academia/SFF in translation) #VitaNostra trilogy
** Also, This Book Will Bury Me by #AshleyWinstead (crime fiction/mystery) would be on this list, but I had the good fortune to read an ARC this year. 👍👍
-
#HungerGames est malheureusement du plagiat de l'inhumanité...
Ce qui a formé les Nazis pour la Shoah ... puis #Holodomor ... puis ...
Journée du Drapeau rouge.
Journée des Herero.
Journée des Witbooi.
Heroes Acre.+ inspiration #Boers Afrikaners UK (cf Musk Donald) + réserves colonies UK/USA.
#herero #nama #genocide #racisme #nazi #afrique #haine #bluebook #namibie #Damara