We need a leader to bring us into a general labor strike. I know this is not popular but our dispersed strategy isn’t working. Who can this be? Can we have this conversation?
Yes, I am signed up with General Strike but they too suffer from a lack of a charismatic leader. I am also involved in every way you could imagine on a local level. But it isn't working. So many of us believe that we need a labor strike, no more need to convince. Now we need someone to take charge. Perhaps one of the union presidents, I don't really know. This is not my expertise but I know enough to know we need less talk and more coordinated action.
"This administration is motivated by the inverse of the Robin Hood spirit, they believe that government ought to be used to steal from the poor and give to the rich."
To be fair, that's been the motivation for every single administration from Reagan onward. The only difference is that this administration seems to think it no longer needs to hide it.
Putin was following Reagan's model. As I said, this has been going on for 40 years. Putin didn't come into power until later.
Maybe, instead of parroting DNC talking points, you should stop believing Democratic Party propaganda. BOTH Republicans and Democrats are complicit in the wholesale selling-out of the American people, and Putin is merely the latest in a long list of manufactured villains the US State Department chooses to distract the American public.
I disagree. Putin simply handed his buddies the actual goods: Everything was privatized in short order, since so much of Russia was owned by the government and given to his buddies. Reagan didn't go that far. He started stealing from the people and union busting but small in comparison to Putin's theft. Reagan got the Powell Memo ball rolling. This bunch want to privatize public services completely and traumatically just like Putin did. I didn't say the dems were perfect. I am Green Party affiliated.
You're bickering over degrees of corruption to support Ronald Fricken REAGAN! And why should I care what Putin did. He lives in RUSSIA FFS! Reagan was here in the US!
And I don't care if you're Green Party affiliated - you're defending Reagan and parroting Democratic Party talking points! You seem like the type of "leftist" who voted in November for Kamala Harris's kinder gentler genocide.
It really seems to me like the "Putin/Russia is pulling the strings" narrative some of us seem to be stuck on is not at all useful or accurate. I am almost certain continuing to make such assertions hurts our cause more than it helps.
'What do they want? What started out as America First Isolationism branded by Nationalism now bleeds quickly towards Imperialism. In reacting to the daily Shock & Awe Doctrine we fall prey to the plan, if there is one, and we’d be foolish on many levels to not assume that behind the Muppet like Grandstander In-Chief are a bunch of very bad dudes and dudettes, with some very scary ideations and a short window before the U.S. Midterm elections to get them done.' https://trkingston.substack.com/p/what-do-they-want
The mechanisms to adjust the status quo already exist, but they remain unused or underdeveloped because the very people benefiting from the looting control the levers of power. If governments and institutions were serious about stopping economic looting and corporate-state corruption, they could:
- Impose economic sanctions directly on oligarchs, CEOs, executives, board members, investors, politicians, and media figures. The same tools used to sanction entire nations for economic warfare could be surgically applied to the financial networks of the ultra-rich who profit from economic extraction and exploitation.
- Expand whistleblower protections through the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute economic crimes as crimes against humanity when they result in mass immiseration, infrastructure collapse, and state capture. If individuals can be held accountable for war crimes, why not for economic devastation that leads to unnecessary death and suffering?
- Reclaim monopolistic private infrastructure for the public good. Some entities are too large to be contested through capitalism alone. When corporations like Amazon, AWS, SpaceX, or Alphabet dominate markets to the point of unchallenged monopoly, they should be shifted into the public trust—not nationalized, but structured as global public infrastructure serving all of humanity rather than corporate shareholders.
Amazon Logistics could become a global public postal and logistics network to ensure essential goods move efficiently without exploitative labor practices.
AWS could transition into a publicly managed cloud infrastructure that prevents a single entity from controlling the backbone of the internet.
SpaceX and other space infrastructure could be integrated into a non-profit global space consortium to prevent the privatization of off-world expansion.
The goal isn’t just nationalization—that would still allow individual governments to wield these systems for power. These systems must be restructured beyond capitalism entirely, designed to offset the escalating harm and unchecked risk presented by the ultra-wealthy.
This isn’t just a policy shift; it’s an entirely new model for global infrastructure—one that acknowledges that the power hoarded by oligarchs is already beyond the scope of nations. We either confront that reality and build systems that work for humanity as a whole, or we continue pretending capitalism will "self-correct" while the looting continues.
I LOVE how you think 🤔. A new global society, but the religious will struggle with this, but the only way to make it through national disasters coming soon with no FEMA. it's either that, a global thinking or we revert to walls around the wealthy and all the poor around the outside of the walls.
Dogma is the real challenge here, not religion itself. Plenty of religious traditions and their members would be entirely fine with this kind of global restructuring, especially those that already prioritize community, stewardship, and economic justice. The real opposition will come from those who are dogmatically attached to existing power structures—whether they call themselves religious, secular, capitalist, nationalist, or even "rationalist."
Some of the most rigid dogmas exist around irreligious concepts—faith in markets, the sanctity of private property, the inevitability of competition, or the unquestionable righteousness of nation-states. These ideas function just like religious fundamentalism, shutting down critical thought and making people resistant to necessary change. The challenge isn’t belief in a higher power; it’s belief in any system as unchangeable truth.
‘The Musk-Trump mission is to … take the wins that working people have fought for over more than a century and turn them into profit engines for people who already have more wealth than they’ll ever need.’
Otherwise expressed, the ruling class — both the GOP and Democratic Party sections — intend to reset socio-political and economic relations to where they were 165 years ago. US citizens will grasp the significance of that specific figure.
I might be crazy/naïve, but I have a hard time believing they're going to be successful in these attempts for much longer. It's only been like 40 days and already public opinion is shifting away from Trump and Musk's actions. Once inflation starts to rise thanks to tariffs, the economy stops growing, people lose their jobs, gas prices shoot up, etc etc...even the most loyal Trump supporters outside of his 1%er contingent are going to have concerns. Trump transferring wealth upward is a betrayal of a huge swath of his voter base, who are working class. Will they continue to stand by him as his policies increasingly diminish their quality of life? I tend to think no, and that common sense will rule out in relatively short order. I hope I'm right
Hannah Arendt once warned, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” That’s exactly what Musk, Trump, and their billionaire class are counting on—creating a world where everything is possible, but nothing is true.
They don’t need people to believe in their vision of the past—they just need enough people to believe in nothing at all. A population too cynical, too beaten down, too lost in conspiracy and culture wars to resist the dismantling of rights, labor protections, environmental regulations, and civil liberties. They are waging war on reality itself, muddying the waters so thoroughly that progress feels impossible and regression feels inevitable.
We need a leader to bring us into a general labor strike. I know this is not popular but our dispersed strategy isn’t working. Who can this be? Can we have this conversation?
I just signed up for free at https://generalstrikeus.com. I'm not sure if it's worth the effort, but it has to be better than doing nothing.
Yes, I am signed up with General Strike but they too suffer from a lack of a charismatic leader. I am also involved in every way you could imagine on a local level. But it isn't working. So many of us believe that we need a labor strike, no more need to convince. Now we need someone to take charge. Perhaps one of the union presidents, I don't really know. This is not my expertise but I know enough to know we need less talk and more coordinated action.
What we need is solidarity, not leaders to follow. We're not fascists.
"This administration is motivated by the inverse of the Robin Hood spirit, they believe that government ought to be used to steal from the poor and give to the rich."
To be fair, that's been the motivation for every single administration from Reagan onward. The only difference is that this administration seems to think it no longer needs to hide it.
No, this is on a whole different scale. They are following Putin's model.
Putin was following Reagan's model. As I said, this has been going on for 40 years. Putin didn't come into power until later.
Maybe, instead of parroting DNC talking points, you should stop believing Democratic Party propaganda. BOTH Republicans and Democrats are complicit in the wholesale selling-out of the American people, and Putin is merely the latest in a long list of manufactured villains the US State Department chooses to distract the American public.
I disagree. Putin simply handed his buddies the actual goods: Everything was privatized in short order, since so much of Russia was owned by the government and given to his buddies. Reagan didn't go that far. He started stealing from the people and union busting but small in comparison to Putin's theft. Reagan got the Powell Memo ball rolling. This bunch want to privatize public services completely and traumatically just like Putin did. I didn't say the dems were perfect. I am Green Party affiliated.
You're bickering over degrees of corruption to support Ronald Fricken REAGAN! And why should I care what Putin did. He lives in RUSSIA FFS! Reagan was here in the US!
And I don't care if you're Green Party affiliated - you're defending Reagan and parroting Democratic Party talking points! You seem like the type of "leftist" who voted in November for Kamala Harris's kinder gentler genocide.
It really seems to me like the "Putin/Russia is pulling the strings" narrative some of us seem to be stuck on is not at all useful or accurate. I am almost certain continuing to make such assertions hurts our cause more than it helps.
'What do they want? What started out as America First Isolationism branded by Nationalism now bleeds quickly towards Imperialism. In reacting to the daily Shock & Awe Doctrine we fall prey to the plan, if there is one, and we’d be foolish on many levels to not assume that behind the Muppet like Grandstander In-Chief are a bunch of very bad dudes and dudettes, with some very scary ideations and a short window before the U.S. Midterm elections to get them done.' https://trkingston.substack.com/p/what-do-they-want
They want the wealth US treasury and all the expertise held in government entities represent.
The mechanisms to adjust the status quo already exist, but they remain unused or underdeveloped because the very people benefiting from the looting control the levers of power. If governments and institutions were serious about stopping economic looting and corporate-state corruption, they could:
- Impose economic sanctions directly on oligarchs, CEOs, executives, board members, investors, politicians, and media figures. The same tools used to sanction entire nations for economic warfare could be surgically applied to the financial networks of the ultra-rich who profit from economic extraction and exploitation.
- Expand whistleblower protections through the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute economic crimes as crimes against humanity when they result in mass immiseration, infrastructure collapse, and state capture. If individuals can be held accountable for war crimes, why not for economic devastation that leads to unnecessary death and suffering?
- Reclaim monopolistic private infrastructure for the public good. Some entities are too large to be contested through capitalism alone. When corporations like Amazon, AWS, SpaceX, or Alphabet dominate markets to the point of unchallenged monopoly, they should be shifted into the public trust—not nationalized, but structured as global public infrastructure serving all of humanity rather than corporate shareholders.
Amazon Logistics could become a global public postal and logistics network to ensure essential goods move efficiently without exploitative labor practices.
AWS could transition into a publicly managed cloud infrastructure that prevents a single entity from controlling the backbone of the internet.
SpaceX and other space infrastructure could be integrated into a non-profit global space consortium to prevent the privatization of off-world expansion.
The goal isn’t just nationalization—that would still allow individual governments to wield these systems for power. These systems must be restructured beyond capitalism entirely, designed to offset the escalating harm and unchecked risk presented by the ultra-wealthy.
This isn’t just a policy shift; it’s an entirely new model for global infrastructure—one that acknowledges that the power hoarded by oligarchs is already beyond the scope of nations. We either confront that reality and build systems that work for humanity as a whole, or we continue pretending capitalism will "self-correct" while the looting continues.
I LOVE how you think 🤔. A new global society, but the religious will struggle with this, but the only way to make it through national disasters coming soon with no FEMA. it's either that, a global thinking or we revert to walls around the wealthy and all the poor around the outside of the walls.
Dogma is the real challenge here, not religion itself. Plenty of religious traditions and their members would be entirely fine with this kind of global restructuring, especially those that already prioritize community, stewardship, and economic justice. The real opposition will come from those who are dogmatically attached to existing power structures—whether they call themselves religious, secular, capitalist, nationalist, or even "rationalist."
Some of the most rigid dogmas exist around irreligious concepts—faith in markets, the sanctity of private property, the inevitability of competition, or the unquestionable righteousness of nation-states. These ideas function just like religious fundamentalism, shutting down critical thought and making people resistant to necessary change. The challenge isn’t belief in a higher power; it’s belief in any system as unchangeable truth.
Amazing article!
‘The Musk-Trump mission is to … take the wins that working people have fought for over more than a century and turn them into profit engines for people who already have more wealth than they’ll ever need.’
Otherwise expressed, the ruling class — both the GOP and Democratic Party sections — intend to reset socio-political and economic relations to where they were 165 years ago. US citizens will grasp the significance of that specific figure.
I might be crazy/naïve, but I have a hard time believing they're going to be successful in these attempts for much longer. It's only been like 40 days and already public opinion is shifting away from Trump and Musk's actions. Once inflation starts to rise thanks to tariffs, the economy stops growing, people lose their jobs, gas prices shoot up, etc etc...even the most loyal Trump supporters outside of his 1%er contingent are going to have concerns. Trump transferring wealth upward is a betrayal of a huge swath of his voter base, who are working class. Will they continue to stand by him as his policies increasingly diminish their quality of life? I tend to think no, and that common sense will rule out in relatively short order. I hope I'm right
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Hannah Arendt once warned, “The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.” That’s exactly what Musk, Trump, and their billionaire class are counting on—creating a world where everything is possible, but nothing is true.
They don’t need people to believe in their vision of the past—they just need enough people to believe in nothing at all. A population too cynical, too beaten down, too lost in conspiracy and culture wars to resist the dismantling of rights, labor protections, environmental regulations, and civil liberties. They are waging war on reality itself, muddying the waters so thoroughly that progress feels impossible and regression feels inevitable.
I wish I was 135 billion poorer.
Have you read on substacks Jess Piper on rural. Find it. It's worth the read.
Great article. I've been a teacher YELLING about this for years!!! Vouchers are part of this!!! Terrible.