#crony capitalism

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[odinsblog]

Elon Musk is buying a potential U.S. president for cheap.

[weevil-mastermind]

There’s been a lot of talk lately about how tariffs raise prices, and that’s good, but there hasn’t been enough talk about how across-the-board tariffs create massive opportunities for corruption.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Executives at big real estate companies profiting off and even driving up high real estate prices across Canada are listed as donors to the federal Conservative Party, Elections Canada records show.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has been railing against high real estate prices and presenting himself as the solution to Canada’s housing affordability crisis, yet Poilievre’s party also appears to have received financial support from top executives at some of Canada’s biggest real estate investment trusts.

Housing experts and advocacy groups have blamed real estate investment trusts, or REITs, for the financialization of housing and skyrocketing rents across Canada. Property wealth is a massive source of inequality in BC and across the country.

The name of Richard Abboud, the CEO of an REIT called Forum Asset Management is listed as donating $7,875 to the federal Conservative party since 2017, according to Elections Canada records.

A Forum Asset Management property was recently criticized for a Vancouver viral video that showed a housing unit in a former single room occupancy hotel in the Downtown Eastside – that historically housed people at around shelter rates – was now a “micro suite” available for $2,000 a month. [...]

Continue Reading.

Note from the poster @el-shab-hussein: and how is this not considered lobbying? Because they're not elected? Because it's not the legislative branch of government? The law is a joke.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @vague-humanoid

[his-heart-hymns]

At the present time,I long only to sleep peacefully.I am sick of humanity.

[trump666traitor]

[jrlrc]

Economía mexicana: no entienden porque quieren creer

No se dice que todos sean tontos: es que muchos deciden por la comodidad de la creencia.

A quiénes me refiero? A quienes vuelven a su esperanza retorcida de que Sheinbaum sea la realizadora del México chavista. No sucedió con AMLO, como algunos siempre dijimos, y no sucederá con Sheinbaum. La economía chavista incluye expropiaciones generalizadas y empobrecimiento de ricos y clases medias (no sólo de los ya pobres). La economía obradorista no expropió nada realmente al capital y los ricos (los ricos-ricos, los verdaderos ricos, los más ricos) se volvieron más ricos, mientras a partes de clases medias y bajas les goteó un mínimo salarial que ellas mismas y los propagandistas oficiales han interpretado optimista y exageradamente. El México chavista que algunos antichavistas no quieren pero quieren que suceda no sucederá. Las recientes caídas del peso no significan eso.

Tampoco sucederá la profundización de la economía progresista. Porque esa economía -se dijo en el párrafo anterior- no existe en este país. Los obradoristas quieren creer que existe. Y sí: se les ha hecho creer que existe. Propagandistas nacionales y extranjeros se han empachado inventando una economía socialfantástica alrededor de los “programas sociales” y el salario mínimo, manipulando la palabra y concepto de pobreza y oscureciendo el problema de la desigualdad. Así se ha llegado no sólo a que un charlatán como Alfredo Serrano Mancilla engañe a medios de otros países hablando del “Estado de Bienestar de AMLO” sino a que Yannis Varoufakis crea y tuitee que Sheinbaum es radical en feminismo, ecología y economía. Es evidente que poca gente que habla sobre el México obradorista conoce la realidad de ese México: conocen la propaganda. Y la repiten. Es lo más exitoso que ha hecho López Obrador: hacerle creer a millones de mexicanos y a miles de periodistas e izquierdistas extranjeros que él ha producido un caso de éxito antineoliberal o hasta anticapitalista.

La realidad es otra, pero tanto unos como otros no quieren ni siquiera empezar a entenderlo: es el mismo capitalismo de cuates, en el que se conserva gran parte del neoliberalismo, con más clientelismo y más “goteo”. Además de peor autoritarismo político y peor militarización. Como esto es así, tanto AMLO como Sheinbaum han tenido y siguen teniendo relación con BlackRock, el fondo capitalista más grande del mundo que no opera sólo en democracias, que los Varoufakis denuncian y que ve bien (BlackRock) a Javier Milei. Ayer mismo se reunió su gerente mexicano con la próxima presidenta obradorista, no sólo para demostrar su relación sino para ayudarla ante las caídas del peso. Se ayudan porque se han ayudado y para seguir ayudándose.

No vamos a ser Venezuela, tampoco un ejemplo de éxito en progreso de la izquierda democrática. Vamos a ser, con toques y retoques del siglo XXI, lo que fuimos entre los años cuarenta y setenta del XX. Esa es la mezcla que está en “nuestro” futuro.

[dieletztepanzerhexe]

christianity listed as number one even befire judaism lol

[asagi-asagiri]

Imagine being dumb enough to blame the government for shrinkflation/inflation/other problems caused by shareholder greed.

[irreplaceable-spark]

Jordan Peterson Interviews Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy | EP 341

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson and Vivek Ramaswamy discuss ESG investing, the culture wars, the upcoming US presidential election, and Vivek’s recently announced candidacy. 

Vivek is an American business leader and New York Times bestselling author of “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam,” along with his second book, “Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence.” 

Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, he often recounts the sage advice from his father: “If you’re going to stand out, then you might as well be outstanding.” This set the course for his life: a nationally ranked tennis player, and the valedictorian of his high school, St. Xavier. He went on to graduate summa cum laude in Biology from Harvard and received his J.D. from Yale Law School while working at a hedge fund, then started a biotech company, Roivant Sciences, where he oversaw the development of five drugs that went on to become FDA-approved. 

In 2022, he founded Strive, an Ohio-based asset management firm that directly competes with asset managers like BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard, and others, who use the money of everyday citizens to advance environmental and social agendas that many citizens and capital owners disagree with.

[n0thingiscool]

Bobby Hill may have been misquoted here but I'd like to believe he truly said this...

[odinsblog]

Almost none of Trump’s picks are qualified. “Qualifications” only matter to racists when it’s Black & non-white people, LGBTQ people, non-European immigrants, women, and poor people (or any intersection of those marginalized groups) being considered for jobs.

Anyway, all Republicans and Libertarians want to do is put shit ass people billionaires in charge of the government (that they hate) so that they can deregulate everything + destroy government + privatize the commons, and turn America into little fiefdoms where only the wealthiest white men control everything.

[breadcrumbstoons]

Politicians hug cows in public with pride, why can’t we do the same? 

[jrlrc]

De la realidad mexicana:

Hay que insistir contra el engaño de AMLO y su partido y contra el autoengaño de tantos mexicanos y latinoamericanos.

[once-in-a-blue-moon2021]

INDIA WOUNDED: A BIRD’S EYE VIEW

Compiled By Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay Posted on 12/02/2021 Updated on 01/11/2023 (GMT 15:45 hrs) “If thou cannot save me, why unfurl such deafening arrangements then?” Do you know what is Matsya Nyaya? The Sanskrit word Matsya Nyaya (Sanskrit: मत्स्यन्याय; mātsyanyāya) refers to the principle of the Law of Fish. It is the fundamental law of nature in which the big fish devours the smaller…

[odinsblog]

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday walked back a planned vote to subpoena two megadonors connected to Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito. The reason? Republicans threw a fit.

Democrats on the Judiciary Committee finally took the first step last week to address the high court’s ethics crisis and announced they would seek to subpoena Republican billionaire megadonor Harlan Crow and ultraconservative activist Leonard Leo. Both men feature prominently in the ethics scandal for their relationships with Thomas and Alito. The committee said it would also seek to subpoena wealthy GOP donor Robin Arkley II.

But Chair Dick Durbin appeared to put that all on hold on Thursday, when he abruptly ended a committee meeting after outraged Republicans threatened to retaliate if Crow and Leo were subpoenaed.

(continue reading)