#plutocracy — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #plutocracy, aggregated by home.social.
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Why did a $154 billion CEO just endorse stripping most Americans of voting rights—and taking us back to the 19th century?
Just another idiot billionaire oligarch. So much vanity and belief that they are so smart and must have more control.
#Plutocracy
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/why-did-154-billion-ceo-160000582.html -
Why did a $154 billion CEO just endorse stripping most Americans of voting rights—and taking us back to the 19th century?
Just another idiot billionaire oligarch. So much vanity and belief that they are so smart and must have more control.
#Plutocracy
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/why-did-154-billion-ceo-160000582.html -
#Measles Cases Hit New Record in #US, as #Vaccination Rates Wane
The #Trump admin under #RFKJr’s #HHS has sent “mixed messages” on vaccinations against measles as cases have continued to climb. [RFKJr says don’t vax, while actual scientists & doctors attempt to counter his crazy]
#PublicHealth #Health #vaccines #science #medicine #policy #USpol #ConspiracyTheories #AntiVax #eugenics #disinformation #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #SocialCleansing #plutocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/well/measles-record-united-states-numbers.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share -
#Measles Cases Hit New Record in #US, as #Vaccination Rates Wane
The #Trump admin under #RFKJr’s #HHS has sent “mixed messages” on vaccinations against measles as cases have continued to climb. [RFKJr says don’t vax, while actual scientists & doctors attempt to counter his crazy]
#PublicHealth #Health #vaccines #science #medicine #policy #USpol #ConspiracyTheories #AntiVax #eugenics #disinformation #HealthyIfYoureWealthy #SocialCleansing #plutocracy
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/24/well/measles-record-united-states-numbers.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share -
The administration having just put medical care out of reach for tens of thousands of US families, Don Trump now plans 100% tariffs to double prescription costs on generic drugs in 2028
#healthcare #health #pharma #healthNews #affordability #redistribution #plunder #insurance #plutocracy #feudalism #shithole
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/22/trump-generic-drugs-tariffs-medicine-trade-.html
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The administration having just put medical care out of reach for tens of thousands of US families, Don Trump now plans 100% tariffs to double prescription costs on generic drugs in 2028
#healthcare #health #pharma #healthNews #affordability #redistribution #plunder #insurance #plutocracy #feudalism #shithole
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/22/trump-generic-drugs-tariffs-medicine-trade-.html
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Musk owns 40% of SpaceX stock but controls 80% of shareholder votes. He rigged it so he's unfireable — unless he fires himself.
Read the full commentary: https://jimhightower.substack.com/p/beware-of-billionaires
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Musk owns 40% of SpaceX stock but controls 80% of shareholder votes. He rigged it so he's unfireable — unless he fires himself.
Read the full commentary: https://jimhightower.substack.com/p/beware-of-billionaires
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Wanted: AI that does not merely confirm biases. Not Wanted: The same.
By @ahoyuniverse
HT mstdn @ladyteruki
#oligarchy #plutocracy #broligarchy #kakistocracy #HalfHeartedFanatic
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Wanted: AI that does not merely confirm biases. Not Wanted: The same.
By @ahoyuniverse
HT mstdn @ladyteruki
#oligarchy #plutocracy #broligarchy #kakistocracy #HalfHeartedFanatic
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i would say that the rich use the bigots to get in power and stay in power, and the bigots use the rich to abuse minorities
the transaction is:
1. i, the #bigot, don't mind being robbed, as long as you abuse minorities
2. i, the #plutocrat, don't mind abusing minorities, as long as i keep my rent seeking parasite existence
the plutocrat-bigot political axis is real
not *all* of them, you're right about that. but enough of them
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i would say that the rich use the bigots to get in power and stay in power, and the bigots use the rich to abuse minorities
the transaction is:
1. i, the #bigot, don't mind being robbed, as long as you abuse minorities
2. i, the #plutocrat, don't mind abusing minorities, as long as i keep my rent seeking parasite existence
the plutocrat-bigot political axis is real
not *all* of them, you're right about that. but enough of them
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"An up-to-date tally of Trump followers turned crypto investors is in. And for them, the overall results are remarkably bad.
Nearly 1 million people who bought President Trump’s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion.
The analytics firm’s assessment was calculated this week after Mr. Trump signed an annual financial disclosure showing that he walked away with a $636 million payout on the same crypto bet, part of a haul of at least $2.2 billion from all of his business ventures in 2025.
(...)Most crypto transactions are publicly visible, recorded on a digital ledger called the blockchain. That allows analysts to trace purchases of digital coins from individual crypto accounts, known as wallets. Nansen’s data shows that, as of the end of June, 988,905 buyers of the $TRUMP memecoin have lost money, representing roughly two out of every three buyers.
Cumulatively, these 988,905 wallets have lost a total of $3.81 billion, including buyers who have held on to their stash and recorded paper losses, according to Nansen. The coin was trading at $1.76 as of Friday, down 97 percent from its peak price of $75.35."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/us/politics/trump-coin-crypto-investors-loss.html
#Crypto #Cryptocurrencies #USA #Trump #Kleptocracy #Plutocracy #PonziScheme
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"An up-to-date tally of Trump followers turned crypto investors is in. And for them, the overall results are remarkably bad.
Nearly 1 million people who bought President Trump’s memecoin have lost money through the end of June, according to a report by the cryptocurrency analytics firm Nansen. Their losses total $3.81 billion.
The analytics firm’s assessment was calculated this week after Mr. Trump signed an annual financial disclosure showing that he walked away with a $636 million payout on the same crypto bet, part of a haul of at least $2.2 billion from all of his business ventures in 2025.
(...)Most crypto transactions are publicly visible, recorded on a digital ledger called the blockchain. That allows analysts to trace purchases of digital coins from individual crypto accounts, known as wallets. Nansen’s data shows that, as of the end of June, 988,905 buyers of the $TRUMP memecoin have lost money, representing roughly two out of every three buyers.
Cumulatively, these 988,905 wallets have lost a total of $3.81 billion, including buyers who have held on to their stash and recorded paper losses, according to Nansen. The coin was trading at $1.76 as of Friday, down 97 percent from its peak price of $75.35."
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/04/us/politics/trump-coin-crypto-investors-loss.html
#Crypto #Cryptocurrencies #USA #Trump #Kleptocracy #Plutocracy #PonziScheme
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I don't see much difference between a corrupt authorian country in Africa and the US.
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I don't see much difference between a corrupt authorian country in Africa and the US.
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“President Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure reveals that he earned more than $1.4 billion in income from his cryptocurrency businesses alone last year. These crypto-related ventures account for more than half of the $2.2 billion in income Trump reported overall, through an unprecedented self-enrichment scheme that has made him and members of his family fabulously wealthy while investors who bought into his projects have lost money hand over fist. Forbes most recently estimated Trump’s personal net worth at $6.5 billion, a staggering increase from his estimated $2.3 billion valuation as a private citizen in 2024.
The bulk of the crypto windfall came from Trump’s two primary crypto ventures. He brought in $635 million thanks to a licensing agreement with “Celebration Coins” — likely an erroneous reference to Celebration Cards LLC, one of the firms in the web of companies responsible for the $TRUMP memecoins. Another $529 million came via sales of World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI token, whose buyers are not named in the disclosure but include crypto billionaire Justin Sun.
The filing also reports more than $260 million from equity sales in Stablecoin Holdco LLC and WLF Holdco LLC, both entities in the World Liberty Financial tangle of companies.”
https://www.citationneeded.news/trumps-crypto-disclosure/
#USA #Trump #Crypto #Cryptocurrencies #Kleptocracy #Plutocracy
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“President Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosure reveals that he earned more than $1.4 billion in income from his cryptocurrency businesses alone last year. These crypto-related ventures account for more than half of the $2.2 billion in income Trump reported overall, through an unprecedented self-enrichment scheme that has made him and members of his family fabulously wealthy while investors who bought into his projects have lost money hand over fist. Forbes most recently estimated Trump’s personal net worth at $6.5 billion, a staggering increase from his estimated $2.3 billion valuation as a private citizen in 2024.
The bulk of the crypto windfall came from Trump’s two primary crypto ventures. He brought in $635 million thanks to a licensing agreement with “Celebration Coins” — likely an erroneous reference to Celebration Cards LLC, one of the firms in the web of companies responsible for the $TRUMP memecoins. Another $529 million came via sales of World Liberty Financial’s $WLFI token, whose buyers are not named in the disclosure but include crypto billionaire Justin Sun.
The filing also reports more than $260 million from equity sales in Stablecoin Holdco LLC and WLF Holdco LLC, both entities in the World Liberty Financial tangle of companies.”
https://www.citationneeded.news/trumps-crypto-disclosure/
#USA #Trump #Crypto #Cryptocurrencies #Kleptocracy #Plutocracy
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Alt Title: How to legally bribe Trump: Crypto
Trump raked in more than $1bn from crypto businesses in 2025, filing shows
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/30/trump-1bn-crypto-businesses-2025?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other#Trump #NoMandate #AntiTrump #AntiGOP #AntiMAGA #Republicans #fascism #plutocracy #corruption #patrimonialism #HalfHeartedFanatic
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#SCOTUS’ 2010 #CitizensUnited decision opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal #elections.
The limits on party spending stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the #money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.
The #SupremeCourt had previously upheld the limits in 2001.
#law #plutocracy #aristocracy #wealth #Republicans #influence
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#SCOTUS’ 2010 #CitizensUnited decision opened the door to unlimited independent spending in federal #elections.
The limits on party spending stem from a desire to prevent large donors from skirting caps on individual contributions to a candidate by directing unlimited sums to the party, with the understanding that the #money will be spent on behalf of the candidate.
The #SupremeCourt had previously upheld the limits in 2001.
#law #plutocracy #aristocracy #wealth #Republicans #influence
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Professional Politics Is Intrinsically Corrupt, Go For Direct Democracy Instead
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactly why there are professional politicians: so that they, and individuals gravitating around them, can get absolutely corrupt (I have seen the process at the closest distance; little difference with Nero’s court).
What we are submitted to is not true democracy, but OLIGARCHIC REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY (ORD): power (kratia) of the people (demos) from the rule (archeon) of the few (oligos).
In a real democracy -that is, in a direct democracy- there are no professional politicians (because when there are, they are more powerful than We The People). In a real democracy, politics belongs to We The People: We The People rule, not just a few individuals.
There are ways to ensure this, including by distributing offices by drawing lots (“SORTITION”). If anybody can suddenly become the most important decision maker, for, say, a year, and subject to prosecution after leaving office, it will be impossible for an elite of power to become encrusted into a volume of corrupt barnacles so thick that the ship of state completely disappears in it… It will also motivate even janitors and farmers to know what is going on.
It is known how to do without professional politicians, because several Greek states and the Roman Republic, long succeeded to do so when they were as democratic as possible.
It is a bit intricate, as many types of assemblies and offices have to institute various checks and balances…. Including some drawn by lots … so everybody had to get ready to become a top politician, at least for a while. Pericles, according to Thucydides, characterized the Athenians as politically literate:
We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all
Many of Democracy’s contemporaries whose work is part of historiography were highly critical of Democracy, but that is likely coming from more than a millennium of dictatorial filtering. Plato and Aristotle were intimate, in love and in business, with actual kings, tyrants and autocratic generals (such as Antipater for Aristotle; Antipater went to war against Athenian democracy, defeated it, established it as a plutocracy and was the executor of Aristotle’s testament in more ways than one…) As Democracy was followed by two millennia of dictatorship, there was a self-selective effect: a monk from the European Middle Ages would reproduce a manuscript friendly to the idea of having a local prince instead of reproducing a book calling people such as the local prince “tyrants”…. Which they were. Making the local tyrant unhappy could often be only alleviated by long tortures of the miscreant…
One valid critique from Socrates is that Democracy sometimes put ignorant individuals in power where experts were needed. This can be corrected with guilds and orders, MERITOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS when one reaches positions of authority through merit and experience. The Middle Ages built such a system over more than a millennia, ending with orders for doctors, lawyers, engineers, masons, etc.
Politics is too important to be left to politicians who are adept at hiding their most important decisions, because that is where the real power lies.
Here is a crucial, even fatal, example of the present lack of true democracy:
NOBODY DEBATES INTELLIGENTLY THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE:
The official nuclear strategy of France for example is completely insane and nonsensical (and the unexpressed US nuclear strategy, or that of NATO, are similar, and just as inappropriate… Differently from the French, though, they have been smart enough to not talk of what they do not understand…). I will write a specific essay on it. I am not per se opposed to nukes (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however atrocious, were better than any potential alternative, as it turned out). What I am opposed to is the specifics of the French nuclear doctrine, as both extremely ineffective and hyper dangerous (a bit like the Chernobyl reactor).
However, this, the fate of humanity, no less, is not debated anywhere except probably in the Kremlin. As it is, individuals without knowledge of even physics, sitting in their hidden recesses like cockroaches, agitating their homicidal antennas, have elaborated secret doctrine to end humanity. And they present their conclusion with gravitas, heavily applauded by the other cockroaches they paid and honored, and who pretend to know stuff as they jet around the world.
Instead the fate of the universe ought to be the object of a cogent, loud and fierce public debate (with the aim to reduce the insanity).
***
Direct democracy will prevent, as much as possible, the emergence of informal elites (e.g., charismatic orators, wealthy influencers) to manipulate public opinion better than any alternative. Isonomia and Parheisia, already perceived in antiquity as pillars of democracy enabling really free speech by all to all, should be enforced as much as possible. That super thinkers would have more influence is to be hoped for, and no sin, just the opposite.
AI assemblies, deliberating from various biases or viewpoints, to be used as advisers will help further.
If one of the woke AI we have today had been able to advise the Athenians, they would not have genocidized the city-island-state of Milo, and they would not have attacked and invaded Syracuse. Nor would they have left their entire fleet on a beach (that’s how they lost the last battle; Alcibiades had told them not to, and why, but he was no AI and they ignored him… once again and for the last time…
***
With the Internet, it should be easier to institute a MUCH MORE DEMOCRATIC system than in antiquity, though… By TWEAKING the existing democracies (the referendum system already exists on a large scale in California; Brexit was a referendum, true, and a disastrous one, but it was applied in a country not used to taking decisions by itself, without any remedy, and when PM Cameron decided it, he thought he would win… Thus it originated as an authoritative trick, not a genuine consultation.)
Consulting with We The People could be done lightly, as in Switzerland: any “votation” of We The People has to go through the conventional Oligarchic Democratic Process (ODP), with all its checks and balances, to become law… Working through ODP avoids the notorious hysteria of Athenian democracy… By the way, Rome had the opposite problem: so many checks and balances that reforms, even when voted, could not be effected, thanks to the Optimates in the Senate… Julius Caesar had understood this perfectly and rammed necessary reforms… But he should have remembered that this was an unforgivable crime…
***
Let’s go back to the question of Mob Rule, the old objection made against democracy as early as Plato. The Melian Dialogue shows its ruthlessness:”the strong do what they can, the weak do what they must”. It finished in complete idiocy. Athenian democracy executed generals not just after a failed battle. After a crucial and belated victory on the Persian financed) Spartan fleet, Athenian democracy executed the nine victorious admirals. The atrocious defeat of Athenian civilization with about half of the population killed promptly followed a s aresult… How to prevent hysteria or tyranny of the majority? Let me repeat: I propose an EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION: use a combination of Direct Democracy, debate, helped by AI assemblies (AI will be there, make it official and transparent…) Use them to IMPROVE the present Representative Oligarchic Democracy… By progressively forcing us to consult with intelligence.
***
Athens had three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6,000), the council of 500 (boule), and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, on some occasions up to 6,000).
A citizen could sit twice, non consecutively, in the Boule, for a year in his lifetime.
***
The traditional objection to augmenting Direct Democracy is to point out that Athens had at most 80,000 voters. Yes. But it was not easy: major laws required 6000 votes, and farmers had to travel more than a day to come and vote (hungry Athens was surrounded by the crucial arable land of Attica, full of voting Athenian farmers). After a while, it was found necessary to pay voters to travel, come and reach a quorum. With modern communications, people can just talk to their phone.
On top of this, the Roman Republic had several million voters, and could have survived, had the Optimates not been so stubborn and stupid, generation after generation, or had they not assassinated Caesar (long story). As it was, after the utterly chaotic civil war which followed Caesar’s assassination, a military dictatorship was established and Augustus made himself Tribune for life.
The Roman Republic was three centuries old when it started to fall to a plutocratic exponentiation (very long story). It could have been avoided with much more sagacity after the defeat of Carthage and its Hellenistic Allies in the Second Punic war (surviving in good intelligence and trade with a subordinated Carthage would have been part of it).
As it was, it was one war after another. Distant wars made the generals and the traders accommodating them, immensely wealthy; tax avoidance schemes, globalization, etc. followed… In the chaos, the ROMAN ABSOLUTE WEALTH LIMIT became less than a memory (I have computed it to be around 22 millions in 2022 $). When Tiberius Gracchus tried to reestablish it, the Optimates engaged in a process which broke the Republic in the 100 years which led to Caesar’s assassination.
***
Both Athenian and Roman Direct Democracies were mostly defeated and ruined by plutocrats (even in the Peloponnesian War, the main shock to Athens, the Persian plutocratic superpower played the crucial role, by paying for everything, using Sparta as a telerobotic terminator)
***
Rome’s Direct Democracy had similar limitations for its various institutions (Consul for one year, and could not be re-elected for a decade). However in emergencies, Rome could elect a dictator with the powers of an absolute king. Cincinatus was elected to the highest offices several times, including dictator twenty years apart, because Rome was being invaded by foreign armies… But still he was a farmer…. The first time, having defeated the enemy in a spectacular battle thanks to a massive mobilization and innovative methods which involved all of Rome making hundreds of thousands of stakes in a couple of days. Cincinatus returned to his plow within two weeks…
Democracy was not invented just because it is the natural state of human beings as created by millions of years of evolution. The interest civilization has in democracy is that democracy makes civilization more intelligent. This is why greater democracy tends to win wars.
Want democracy?
Want more intelligence in saving civilization from destruction?
Proscribe professional politicians!
Patrice Ayme
Note: The thoroughly corrupt present US political system seems very far from Direct Democracy. Systems in other oligarchic representative democracies are not as bad, but it is still the same general problem. Timid steps have been taken, such as term limits. The US went overboard with an amendment preventing more than two presidential terms. France forbids two consecutive terms, and that is wiser: the only reason California governor Newson, a Getty creature, has a chance to run for president is that Obama can’t be a candidate again… It is likely that Obama would become a much better president if he was reelected. California’s governor Brown was better in his second 8 year passage.
In any case the California mandatory referendums (1856 CE) and initiative system (1911 CE) has worked very well, and intensely, for more than a century, and is compatible with ORD … And the first start to do for other nation-states would be to imitate it if they want to augment the Democratic Index.
That little light is a giant harvester working the fields. Enough fields to feed the two million people who call the area home, surrounded by mountains centered around Western Europe’s largest lake. The Swiss and the French have been careful to maintain self-sufficiency in food production… Which would be necessary if world trade collapsed as it did when the Roman state disnitegrated. By the way, Caesar defended Geneva successfally against the Helvetiae…
#AncientGreece #Athens #Caesar #Corruption #democracy #DirectDemocracy #history #Intelligence #Optimates #Philosophy #plutocracy #Politicians #politics #Referendum #Republic #Rome -
Professional Politics Is Intrinsically Corrupt, Go For Direct Democracy Instead
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and this is exactly why there are professional politicians: so that they, and individuals gravitating around them, can get absolutely corrupt (I have seen the process at the closest distance; little difference with Nero’s court).
What we are submitted to is not true democracy, but OLIGARCHIC REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY (ORD): power (kratia) of the people (demos) from the rule (archeon) of the few (oligos).
In a real democracy -that is, in a direct democracy- there are no professional politicians (because when there are, they are more powerful than We The People). In a real democracy, politics belongs to We The People: We The People rule, not just a few individuals.
There are ways to ensure this, including by distributing offices by drawing lots (“SORTITION”). If anybody can suddenly become the most important decision maker, for, say, a year, and subject to prosecution after leaving office, it will be impossible for an elite of power to become encrusted into a volume of corrupt barnacles so thick that the ship of state completely disappears in it… It will also motivate even janitors and farmers to know what is going on.
It is known how to do without professional politicians, because several Greek states and the Roman Republic, long succeeded to do so when they were as democratic as possible.
It is a bit intricate, as many types of assemblies and offices have to institute various checks and balances…. Including some drawn by lots … so everybody had to get ready to become a top politician, at least for a while. Pericles, according to Thucydides, characterized the Athenians as politically literate:
We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all
Many of Democracy’s contemporaries whose work is part of historiography were highly critical of Democracy, but that is likely coming from more than a millennium of dictatorial filtering. Plato and Aristotle were intimate, in love and in business, with actual kings, tyrants and autocratic generals (such as Antipater for Aristotle; Antipater went to war against Athenian democracy, defeated it, established it as a plutocracy and was the executor of Aristotle’s testament in more ways than one…) As Democracy was followed by two millennia of dictatorship, there was a self-selective effect: a monk from the European Middle Ages would reproduce a manuscript friendly to the idea of having a local prince instead of reproducing a book calling people such as the local prince “tyrants”…. Which they were. Making the local tyrant unhappy could often be only alleviated by long tortures of the miscreant…
One valid critique from Socrates is that Democracy sometimes put ignorant individuals in power where experts were needed. This can be corrected with guilds and orders, MERITOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS when one reaches positions of authority through merit and experience. The Middle Ages built such a system over more than a millennia, ending with orders for doctors, lawyers, engineers, masons, etc.
Politics is too important to be left to politicians who are adept at hiding their most important decisions, because that is where the real power lies.
Here is a crucial, even fatal, example of the present lack of true democracy:
NOBODY DEBATES INTELLIGENTLY THE WORLD’S MOST IMPORTANT ISSUE:
The official nuclear strategy of France for example is completely insane and nonsensical (and the unexpressed US nuclear strategy, or that of NATO, are similar, and just as inappropriate… Differently from the French, though, they have been smart enough to not talk of what they do not understand…). I will write a specific essay on it. I am not per se opposed to nukes (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, however atrocious, were better than any potential alternative, as it turned out). What I am opposed to is the specifics of the French nuclear doctrine, as both extremely ineffective and hyper dangerous (a bit like the Chernobyl reactor).
However, this, the fate of humanity, no less, is not debated anywhere except probably in the Kremlin. As it is, individuals without knowledge of even physics, sitting in their hidden recesses like cockroaches, agitating their homicidal antennas, have elaborated secret doctrine to end humanity. And they present their conclusion with gravitas, heavily applauded by the other cockroaches they paid and honored, and who pretend to know stuff as they jet around the world.
Instead the fate of the universe ought to be the object of a cogent, loud and fierce public debate (with the aim to reduce the insanity).
***
Direct democracy will prevent, as much as possible, the emergence of informal elites (e.g., charismatic orators, wealthy influencers) to manipulate public opinion better than any alternative. Isonomia and Parheisia, already perceived in antiquity as pillars of democracy enabling really free speech by all to all, should be enforced as much as possible. That super thinkers would have more influence is to be hoped for, and no sin, just the opposite.
AI assemblies, deliberating from various biases or viewpoints, to be used as advisers will help further.
If one of the woke AI we have today had been able to advise the Athenians, they would not have genocidized the city-island-state of Milo, and they would not have attacked and invaded Syracuse. Nor would they have left their entire fleet on a beach (that’s how they lost the last battle; Alcibiades had told them not to, and why, but he was no AI and they ignored him… once again and for the last time…
***
With the Internet, it should be easier to institute a MUCH MORE DEMOCRATIC system than in antiquity, though… By TWEAKING the existing democracies (the referendum system already exists on a large scale in California; Brexit was a referendum, true, and a disastrous one, but it was applied in a country not used to taking decisions by itself, without any remedy, and when PM Cameron decided it, he thought he would win… Thus it originated as an authoritative trick, not a genuine consultation.)
Consulting with We The People could be done lightly, as in Switzerland: any “votation” of We The People has to go through the conventional Oligarchic Democratic Process (ODP), with all its checks and balances, to become law… Working through ODP avoids the notorious hysteria of Athenian democracy… By the way, Rome had the opposite problem: so many checks and balances that reforms, even when voted, could not be effected, thanks to the Optimates in the Senate… Julius Caesar had understood this perfectly and rammed necessary reforms… But he should have remembered that this was an unforgivable crime…
***
Let’s go back to the question of Mob Rule, the old objection made against democracy as early as Plato. The Melian Dialogue shows its ruthlessness:”the strong do what they can, the weak do what they must”. It finished in complete idiocy. Athenian democracy executed generals not just after a failed battle. After a crucial and belated victory on the Persian financed) Spartan fleet, Athenian democracy executed the nine victorious admirals. The atrocious defeat of Athenian civilization with about half of the population killed promptly followed a s aresult… How to prevent hysteria or tyranny of the majority? Let me repeat: I propose an EVOLUTION, NOT A REVOLUTION: use a combination of Direct Democracy, debate, helped by AI assemblies (AI will be there, make it official and transparent…) Use them to IMPROVE the present Representative Oligarchic Democracy… By progressively forcing us to consult with intelligence.
***
Athens had three political bodies where citizens gathered in numbers running into the hundreds or thousands. These are the assembly (in some cases with a quorum of 6,000), the council of 500 (boule), and the courts (a minimum of 200 people, on some occasions up to 6,000).
A citizen could sit twice, non consecutively, in the Boule, for a year in his lifetime.
***
The traditional objection to augmenting Direct Democracy is to point out that Athens had at most 80,000 voters. Yes. But it was not easy: major laws required 6000 votes, and farmers had to travel more than a day to come and vote (hungry Athens was surrounded by the crucial arable land of Attica, full of voting Athenian farmers). After a while, it was found necessary to pay voters to travel, come and reach a quorum. With modern communications, people can just talk to their phone.
On top of this, the Roman Republic had several million voters, and could have survived, had the Optimates not been so stubborn and stupid, generation after generation, or had they not assassinated Caesar (long story). As it was, after the utterly chaotic civil war which followed Caesar’s assassination, a military dictatorship was established and Augustus made himself Tribune for life.
The Roman Republic was three centuries old when it started to fall to a plutocratic exponentiation (very long story). It could have been avoided with much more sagacity after the defeat of Carthage and its Hellenistic Allies in the Second Punic war (surviving in good intelligence and trade with a subordinated Carthage would have been part of it).
As it was, it was one war after another. Distant wars made the generals and the traders accommodating them, immensely wealthy; tax avoidance schemes, globalization, etc. followed… In the chaos, the ROMAN ABSOLUTE WEALTH LIMIT became less than a memory (I have computed it to be around 22 millions in 2022 $). When Tiberius Gracchus tried to reestablish it, the Optimates engaged in a process which broke the Republic in the 100 years which led to Caesar’s assassination.
***
Both Athenian and Roman Direct Democracies were mostly defeated and ruined by plutocrats (even in the Peloponnesian War, the main shock to Athens, the Persian plutocratic superpower played the crucial role, by paying for everything, using Sparta as a telerobotic terminator)
***
Rome’s Direct Democracy had similar limitations for its various institutions (Consul for one year, and could not be re-elected for a decade). However in emergencies, Rome could elect a dictator with the powers of an absolute king. Cincinatus was elected to the highest offices several times, including dictator twenty years apart, because Rome was being invaded by foreign armies… But still he was a farmer…. The first time, having defeated the enemy in a spectacular battle thanks to a massive mobilization and innovative methods which involved all of Rome making hundreds of thousands of stakes in a couple of days. Cincinatus returned to his plow within two weeks…
Democracy was not invented just because it is the natural state of human beings as created by millions of years of evolution. The interest civilization has in democracy is that democracy makes civilization more intelligent. This is why greater democracy tends to win wars.
Want democracy?
Want more intelligence in saving civilization from destruction?
Proscribe professional politicians!
Patrice Ayme
Note: The thoroughly corrupt present US political system seems very far from Direct Democracy. Systems in other oligarchic representative democracies are not as bad, but it is still the same general problem. Timid steps have been taken, such as term limits. The US went overboard with an amendment preventing more than two presidential terms. France forbids two consecutive terms, and that is wiser: the only reason California governor Newson, a Getty creature, has a chance to run for president is that Obama can’t be a candidate again… It is likely that Obama would become a much better president if he was reelected. California’s governor Brown was better in his second 8 year passage.
In any case the California mandatory referendums (1856 CE) and initiative system (1911 CE) has worked very well, and intensely, for more than a century, and is compatible with ORD … And the first start to do for other nation-states would be to imitate it if they want to augment the Democratic Index.
That little light is a giant harvester working the fields. Enough fields to feed the two million people who call the area home, surrounded by mountains centered around Western Europe’s largest lake. The Swiss and the French have been careful to maintain self-sufficiency in food production… Which would be necessary if world trade collapsed as it did when the Roman state disnitegrated. By the way, Caesar defended Geneva successfally against the Helvetiae…
#AncientGreece #Athens #Caesar #Corruption #democracy #DirectDemocracy #history #Intelligence #Optimates #Philosophy #plutocracy #Politicians #politics #Referendum #Republic #Rome -
"In feeding USAID into the wood chipper, Elon Musk is responsible for the deaths of anywhere from hundreds of thousands of people to millions of them. "
#InternationalDevelopment #HumanitarianAid #USAID #ElonMusk #DOGE #DOGEBags #HerrPlugs #oligarchy #plutocracy #broligarchy #kakistocracy #corruption #ChrisHayes #HalfHeartedFanatic
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"In feeding USAID into the wood chipper, Elon Musk is responsible for the deaths of anywhere from hundreds of thousands of people to millions of them. "
#InternationalDevelopment #HumanitarianAid #USAID #ElonMusk #DOGE #DOGEBags #HerrPlugs #oligarchy #plutocracy #broligarchy #kakistocracy #corruption #ChrisHayes #HalfHeartedFanatic
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Anti-Prime Day is underway until June 26. Support bookstores over billionaries and balllrooms
bsky @bookshop.org
https://bookshop.org/info/anti-prime-day
#Books #PrimeDay #boycottamazon #boycott_amazon #oligarchy #plutocracy #broligarchy #patrimonialism #HalfHeartedFanatic
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Anti-Prime Day is underway until June 26. Support bookstores over billionaries and balllrooms
bsky @bookshop.org
https://bookshop.org/info/anti-prime-day
#Books #PrimeDay #boycottamazon #boycott_amazon #oligarchy #plutocracy #broligarchy #patrimonialism #HalfHeartedFanatic
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When the Joker is the hero of our story
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8sT3cgJ/
#governmentfailure #politics #plutocracy #duopoly #corporatocracy #inequity #usa #batman #joker
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Musk has become an “avatar of chaos, cruelty, and death.” #usa #elonmusk #trump #inequality #plutocracy #oligarchy #christofascism #whitesupremacy #racism #eattherich
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/19/elon-musk-and-the-politics-of-trillionaire-fascism/ -
Musk has become an “avatar of chaos, cruelty, and death.” #usa #elonmusk #trump #inequality #plutocracy #oligarchy #christofascism #whitesupremacy #racism #eattherich
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/06/19/elon-musk-and-the-politics-of-trillionaire-fascism/ -
hi, american here
with my country in the toilet of #plutocracy and #bigotry, i look nowadays to #europe as the beacon of civilization and the free world
but this... this #W thing is #techBro shit in all the ways we despise
this is...
american
if you have an american, calling something american, in terms of the most grotesque of stereotypes as a european would consider, well then you done fucked up
fuck "W"
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hi, american here
with my country in the toilet of #plutocracy and #bigotry, i look nowadays to #europe as the beacon of civilization and the free world
but this... this #W thing is #techBro shit in all the ways we despise
this is...
american
if you have an american, calling something american, in terms of the most grotesque of stereotypes as a european would consider, well then you done fucked up
fuck "W"
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>> ...we need a paradigm shift when it comes to thinking about the negative effects of extreme wealth concentration. <<
Image: REUTERS/Nathan Howard
#ElonMusk #IngridRobeyns #ExtremeWealth #Limitarianism #IngridRobeyns #Plutocracy #Oligarchy #DistributiveJustice #Politics
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What I've discerned about the glitterati is that they are shrill, obnoxious and generally pathetic people, who use wealth and notoriety to manipulate and discipline others. I have yet to meet a single person of wealth & power, excluding Arnold Schwarzenegger, that would stand a barage of physical strikes. They have no real power, other than the ability to make others act on their behalf. When that ends, they become prey.
#Epstein #corruption #legal #Trump #plutocracy https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/06/16/magazine/jeffrey-epstein-death-final-days.html -
74 per cent of the world's population (6 billion people) now lives in autocracies and only 7 per cent of the world's population (600 million) lives in liberal democracies.
"The gains of the 'third wave of democratisation', starting in 1974 in Portugal, are almost eradicated,"
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/democracy-cannot-survive-trillionaires-gabriel-zucman-elon-musk/106798842 -
How the growing chasm between haves and have nots is unravelling Canada's social fabric
> Amid skyrocketing costs, a recent Leger poll found two thirds of Canadian's already in dire straits report their financial situation having worsened, writes Heather Scoffield.
#plutocracy — rule by the rich — means that the system is increasingly biased towards making them richer and us poorer.
It's not the immigrants.
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"In the months that followed, public health models would indicate Musk was a killer, at a far greater scale than any Coen brothers villain. A tracker co-created by Boston University professor Brooke Nichols projected over 780,000 deaths — mostly of children, many of infants — due to the Trump administration’s early-2025 USAID cuts, caused by malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, and more. These deaths were widely predicted from the beginning, a direct, known, and undeniable consequence of DOGE’s actions. We don’t know the precise number of deaths, but multiple experts working on identifying the scale of the tragedy have generally agreed it’s in the hundreds of thousands. Global researchers, publishing in Nature, project that the cuts to USAID could result in 163,500 child deaths yearly. Another publication in The Lancet says there could be millions more to come. Musk showed no sign of caring.
During a televised cabinet meeting at the White House in 2025, Musk, wearing a murdered-out MAGA hat signed by his boss, had a giggle about “accidentally” canceling Ebola prevention. He said it was a mistake that would be fixed. USAID whistleblower Nicholas Enrich, testifying before Congress, said that fix never came. A little more than a year after Musk’s comments, Africa is facing what could become the worst Ebola outbreak ever. And DOGE’s cleaver to USAID goes well beyond the latest Ebola crisis. According to Enrich, the HIV rate among new babies being born was looking close to zero, until Musk intervened."
https://www.theverge.com/tech/949259/the-worlds-first-trillionaire-is-a-killer
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"A federal judge on Friday indefinitely blocked President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.8 billion payout fund, which is still being challenged in court despite Justice Department officials claiming the effort is dead.
At a hearing in Virginia federal court, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema issued a preliminary injunction blocking the fund, which the administration sought to create for those who claim they were improperly investigated by the government. She forcefully rejected the government’s arguments that the case was moot, citing Trump’s praising of the idea and acting attorney general Todd Blanche’s unwillingness to say under the penalty of perjury that the administration will not try to stand it up in the future.
She gave the government one week to enter a “clear, unambiguous” declaration in the court record that the fund is dead, at which time she will consider dismissing the case."
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All the while, it sets up #Musk’s rocket company to dominate the cosmos as entities across the globe vie for control of #space.
“#US space power is built on the back of #SpaceX. Period. Full stop. What does that mean?” asked Clayton Swope, deputy director of the #Aerospace #Security Project & senior fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies [#CSIS]. “It means SpaceX has incredible #leverage over the #government right now.”
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Racism is tool of Plutocracy
A racist pogrom in Belfast followed a violent crime by a person of colour against a white person. Same in Southampton last week. And all across England in August 2024. Each time, right-wing media and politicians have fanned the flames of hatred and sowed the seeds of violence. Yet they consistently ignore the far more common violent crimes that don't fit this pattern.
This is a deliberate program of social division, aided by much of the billionaire-owned media in order to facilitate the transformation of UK politics via the age-old strategy of divide and conquer. It is also a case-study of an approach that helped drive the rise and return of Trump, and a strategy being employed in many contexts around the world.
The Belfast protest/riot/pogrom was an actual 'hate march', yet those who have spent years decrying peaceful protest against genocide as hate marches have nothing to say.
A wise man once said: by their fruit shall you know them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mERePXFEUvk#racism #WhiteSupremacy #Media #MediaBias #UKpol #OwenJones #SocialCohesion #DivideAndConquer #plutocracy
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Pedocriminal “Justice” In France And Why
Abstract: The Epstein pedocriminal network’s French connections reveal systemic corruption in France’s justice system, where elite pedocriminality is shielded by institutional complicity. Historical ties between French intellectuals and pedocriminal advocacy—often under the guise of “progressive” thought—normalize such crimes, while judges and politicians prioritize suppressing dissent over protecting children. Recent cases, like the murder of 11-year-old Lyhanna, expose judicial negligence, as authorities ignore pedocriminal allegations while aggressively policing protesters. France’s legacy of Nazi-collaborating judges and unpunished war crimes underscores a culture of impunity for the powerful. The state’s focus on manufactured threats (e.g., “Black Blocks”) distracts from its failure to address systemic pedocriminality and plutocratic control.
Dysfunctional Justice, And Even Pedocriminality In France, Are Only The Tips Of A Deeper Rot
The three principals of the Epstein pedocriminal hydra were French. One is now in prison in the USA, another was hanged (“Suicided) in a French high security prison, and the third one fell off a cliff, several days after he died.
French “Justice”, observing that all were dead, decided the Epstein affair was closed. The head of the National Assembly, a Jewish woman, refused to reopen an inquiry, although Melania Trump had officially called for it from the White House (and the preceding two deaths seem to be murders). The fact that famous and powerful French politicians and French VIPs, including a former French PM were familiar with Epstein probably helped in burying inquiries.
A place like Paris exists in its power, because there plots and conspiracies can be elaborated, under the cover of social functions. So uncovering Epstein would risk uncovering Paris: socialist politicians, clients of Epstein?.
French pedocriminality is no accident: most topmost famous French intellectuals in the last sixty or seventy years were known pedocriminals or advocating for pedocriminality, for example by signing open letters about lowering the age of “consent”.
“Consent” is a big notion in France. The country has consented to be f*cked by its own plutocracy and called that “the Republican front”. Of course a child cannot “consent” to be raped by an adult…. Only a French “intellectual” of the fake sort can pretend to believe that… But such pedocriminal propagandists appear on French TV even in 2026.
The argument of pedocriminal intellectuals is simple: we are rebellious thinkers on the edge of thought, and we demonstrate it by releasing the children from the shackles of non-sex, boldly going where no thinkers had gone before, thus demonstrating what geniuses we are. Some loudly publicized their own sexual activities with children as young as nine (9).
Want names? It started innocuously enough. Simone De Beauvoir hunted and gathered teens for her enjoyment, or that of Sartre. She lost her prestigious professor job because of this, but no problem, Sartre, who was in the best terms with the Vichy Nazi government, found her a job at Radio Vichy, the propaganda arm in France of Nazism. On the Nazi Radio, Simone had one hour to expose Nazi friendly history, from 4 to 5. The star who followed her was such an efficient propagandist for Nazi Radio Vichy that in June 1944 (when it was clear that the allies would win even for the dumbest Nazis), the French Resistance executed him in a large commando action. So the guy immediately after her on the radio was a Nazi super star.
De Beauvoir and Sartre, pretending to be left by befriending and helping the worst dictators, became French icons, so naturally these icons dragged with themselves into pedocriminality the next generation of French intellectuals. Some of these pedocriminals, only known for their literary pedocriminality, were directly state supported (with expensive apartments in Paris, etc.)
The phenomenon became so extensive that the present French president was seduced when he was fourteen (14) by his professor of French who was then thirty-nine (married with children). The lady goes around, threatening everybody, in a pathetic search for her dignity.
The latest drama is that of Lyhanna, an 11-year-old girl who disappeared in late May 2026 in the Gers region, France.: Her body was found on June 4, 2026, after she was last seen (by surveillance cameras) with Jérôme Barella, a man with a history of pedocriminal allegations involving minors for nearly a decade. An accusation of rape of a 15 year old in 2022 was rejected as insufficiently proven. An accusation that a 10 year old girl had been several times raped was ignored around for 9 months: the suspect was not even interrogated, the judges, who were busy arresting peasants claimed they didn’t have the means!
The same judge who, because of his geographical situation, ought to have questioned the criminal Barella, months ago, instead arrested peasants, suspected of a rebellious attitude, some just walking around. While the judge was busy arresting and putting in jail potential protesters, he ignored all the pedocriminal complaints, because, for more than half a century, pedocriminality was identified in France as being a progressive activity by the same lunatics who brought French pseudo-socialism. This is why Epstein had three properties in France including a sumptuous multi story apartment in the most expensive spot in Paris… Where he received French potentates to further their plots and conspiracies…
In France judges are independent and above the law. Many if not most French judges collaborated with the Nazis. Even the outrageous cases of Nazi collaboration of judges, where judges condemned innocent people to death just to please Nazism, were not punished after 1944.
Pedocriminality has been a sacred cow because the real priority is to punish protesters even before they start protesting.
Lyhana. Assassinated, because French judges have been imprinted to not take pedocriminality seriously.
***
Think I am exaggerating? Three days ago I was walking around a mile from Geneva with my rainbow peace T shirt. I was suddenly surrounded by thirty police French officers or so, with a big black “G7” on a round white disk reminiscent of the Swastika.
Chief Police Officer with a white beard (translated): “Excuse me, were you taking pictures?”
Philosopher (a bit scared, I had no French papers on me only US ones): “Oui”
Chief Police Officer: “Could you show us those pictures?”
Me: “Sure”
Towering six foot + tall black dressed woman police officer facing me:”Why do you have a second phone?”
Me:”That’s my US phone.”
Chief Police Officer:”Can we see the pictures in that second phone?”
Me: “Sure…. That’s my dog in front of my car.”
Woman Officer:”What do you do in San Francisco?”
Me:”I live there. How do you know I am from San Francisco?”
Chief Officer:”We saw your T-shirt with the peace sign!”
Followed by a five minute interrogation….(and where do you live, and what do you do, and how come you have that car, doesn’t that car have low mileage, isn’t that strange for a pacifist? Oh, it has high mileage because it’s mostly electric, etc…)
I was highly cooperative as I knew they could lock me up for two days. The way they surrounded me coming from all directions meant that a plainclothe officer signaled me to his uniformed colleagues: US hippie with tie-died T shirt on apparent penetration mission towards G7…
… The G7, the world’s government, is meeting in Evian, 20 miles away. Everybody in the region is supposed to walk around with passports and the like, the border is blocked, freeways are privatized for the great lords of the G7, including the A1 in Switzerland, etc….etc…
***
This was rather comical. But I could relate two old personal grave stories. But I will not at this point.
The reason for the police deployment has been the “Black Blocks” individuals all dressed in black, face covered, who attack here and there in Europe against the establishment. It would have been the easiest thing to arrest them long ago and throw away the key.
However the Black Blocks” actually work for the establishment, whether they realize it or not, and this is why the establishment does not arrest them..
Just like pedocriminality, the Black Blocks are a distraction, they create a fake problem that the judicial system can then avoid to solve and everybody can talk about it. Go to see the boarded stores in Geneva to see the extent of worry,
Creating fake problems leaves no bandwidth for conceiving what the real problems could be . .
Patrice Ayme
Shortly before being interrogated by police because of peace T shirt 25 miles south of G7 . Much more were coming… “G7” patches can be guessed.
#Art #BalckBlocks #Distraction #Epstein #Evian #France #G7 #Geneva #history #Judges #Paris #Pedocriminality #plutocracy #politics #worldWar2
