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Ruling Class

Yes, The Democratic Party Is Not For The Working Class

By Jake Johnson for Common Dreams - It's not as if the Democratic Party was ever "the party of the people" — at least not in the mystical sense depicted by both party loyalists and some on the left who are nostalgic for the liberal tradition established by Franklin Roosevelt and carried forward by Lyndon Johnson. But the party was, at one point, quite responsive to democratic pressure from below — and systemic change has always been prompted by movements, not party leaders.

Why Targeting Corporate Democrats Is Part Of Fight Against Trump

By Mark Engler for Nation of Change - On November 14, six days after the election of Donald Trump, some 40 young people walked into the office of New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, calling on the senior lawmaker to step aside in his bid to be Senate minority leader. Carrying a banner that read “Wall St. Democrats Failed Us,” they argued that Schumer, who has received more than $3 million in campaign contributions from the securities and investment industry in the last five years, was exactly the wrong figure to lead the opposition to Donald Trump.

Trump Picks Staunch Opponents Of Net Neutrality To Oversee FCC

By Aaron Pressman for Fortune - President-elect Donald Trump formally named two staunch opponents of net neutrality to oversee his policies for the agency that created the rules to prevent discrimination against Internet sites and online services. Jeff Eisenach, an economist who has been on Verizon’s payroll, and Mark Jamison, who formerly worked on Sprint’s lobbying team and now heads the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center, on Monday were named to Trump’s “agency landing team” for the Federal Communications Commission.

Breaking Through Power: It’s Easier Than We Think

By Staff of The Nather Page - When I was a student at Princeton University I learned from my anthropology studies that the concentration of power in the hands of the few is common to all cultures, societies, nations, tribes, cities, towns, and villages. Even where the thirst for self-governance and democracy is strong (as was the case in New England towns before the American Revolution against King George III) wealthy Tories were there too.

The 1 Percent Under Siege?

By Brooke Harrington for ROAR Magazine - Years before the Panama Papers broke, many of the world’s richest people felt unappreciated and under attack. In 2014, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins compared the position of the rich to that of the Jews in 1930s Germany, warning of a “progressive Kristallnacht” and “a rising tide of hatred of the successful 1 percent.” Though a few of his fellow billionaires distanced themselves from these remarks, several jumped vigorously to his defense, expressing their agreement that the rich were being “pummeled” and “picked on.”

The World Bank And IMF Won’t Admit Their Policies Are The Problem

By Larry Elliott for The Guardian - We hear you, poor people. That was the message that blared out from Washington last week. It came from Christine Lagarde of the International Monetary Fund. It came from Jim Kim of the World Bank. It came from Roberto Azevêdo of the World Trade Organisation. It came from every finance minister and central bank governor. The people who run the global economy wanted the world to know that they understood what had caused the Brexit vote and given Donald Trump a shot at the White House.

The One Tax Idea That Would Be Fair To All Americans

By Brett Arends for Market Watch - Americans, when are we going to get our heads back where the sun shines and implement a wealth tax? How many tax outrages by the super rich do we have to witness before we actually pass the only reasonable measure that would end them? How much longer are we going to moan about Congress and special interests and banks in Panama and various other scapegoats before we actually start taking more responsibility as a nation for our own affairs?

Let’s Make Them Poorer, And We’ll Get Rich

By Chris Hamby for Buzz Feed News - In 2006, near the height of Wall Street’s disastrous speculative frenzy, some of the world’s biggest banks smelled an opportunity. They saw a way to turn the soaring price of oil into hefty profits. And it involved the tiny island nation of Sri Lanka. The bankers presented officials who ran the state oil venture there with a way to hedge against further price hikes.

CEO Of Giant Corporation Tells US Government He’s The Boss Of Them

By Dave Johnson for Campaign for America's Future - Imagine, if you will, going to the IRS and saying, “I don’t think the tax rate is fair so I’m not going to pay it.” Regular Americans can’t do that. But Apple just did. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook was interviewed by The Washington Post early this month. He was asked about the vast sums of profits that Apple has shifted into overseas tax havens thanks to a loophole in US tax law that lets them “defer” paying taxes on those profits as long as the money technically stays outside the country.

Free People From ‘Dictatorship’ Of 0.01%

By Vandana Shiva for The Asian Age - The only way to counter globalisation just a plot of land in some central place, keep it covered in grass, let there be a single tree, even a wild tree.” This is how dear friend and eminent writer Mahasweta Devi, who passed away on July 28, at the age of 90, quietly laid out her imagination for freedom in our times of corporate globalisation in one of her last talks. Our freedoms, she reminds us, are with grass and trees, with wildness and self-organisation (swaraj), when the dominant economic systems would tear down every tree and round up the last blade of grass.

Top Bank Execs Saw Crash Coming And Sold Off Shares In Their Own Institutions

By Cory Doctorow for BB - In a new working paper from the Center for Economic Policy Research, scholars look at the trading records of shareholders, directors and top executives of major financial institutions in the runup to the crash of 2007, and find that the sell-offs by the top five executives at a bank strongly correlated with that bank's losses in the crash, but that other stakeholders' trading do not correlate: in other words, the very top brass of banks knew that they were sitting on piles of worthless paper and sold before anyone else knew about it, and kept their shareholders, direct reports, and the board of directors in the dark.

Wetiko: The Pathology Of Greed

By Staff of The Rules - Wetiko is an Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit or thought-form driven by greed, excess and selfish consumption. It deludes it host into believing that consuming the life force of others for self-aggrandizement or profit is a logical and morally upright way to live. Wetiko hides in darkness. Conscious awareness brings it into the light. Once we see it, in ourselves and the world around us we can know it, and tame it. Here, artists, writers, film makers, poets and performers from around the world are seeing wetiko in their lives. Join us – see it for yourself.

The Growing Case For Massive Taxes On The Rich

By Paul Buchheit for Nation of Change - While candidates bicker and Congress stagnates and the rest of us dwell on the latest shooting tragedy, the super-rich enjoy the absence of attention paid to one of our nation’s most destructive issues. The richest Americans are takers of social benefits. Yet they complain about paying 12%to 20% in taxes, even as respected researchers estimate an optimal revenue-producing rate of 80% to 90%, and even with the near-certainty that higher marginal tax rates will have no adverse effects on GDP growth.

We Must Understand Corporate Power To Fight It

By Chris Hedges for Truth Dig - In the winter of 1941, a Jewish gravedigger from Chelmo, the western province of Poland, appeared in Warsaw and desperately sought a meeting with Jewish leaders. He told them the Nazis were rounding up Jews, including the old, women and children, and forcing them into what looked like tightly sealed buses. The buses had the exhaust pipes redirected into the cabins. The Jews were killed with carbon monoxide. He had helped dig the mass graves for thousands of corpses until he escaped.

What Happens At Secretive Gathering Of Global Elites

By Adam Lusher for Independent - No minutes will be taken. No reporters will be allowed in. There will be no opening press conference, no closing statement, and participants will be asked not to quote each other. Welcome to the 64th Bilderberg Conference. Rich and powerful bankers, prime ministers and former heads of the CIA and MI6 are about to join other members of the global elite for arguably the world’s most high-powered but secretive annual meeting which this year is being held in Dresden.

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Due to the attacks on our fiscal sponsor, we were unable to raise funds online for nearly two years.  As the bills pile up, your help is needed now to cover the monthly costs of operating Popular Resistance.

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