#Presidential Wealth

[deadpresidents]

Have there been any modern presidents who grew up poor or have they all come from well off families since the 1800s?

There have been several modern Presidents (and I usually define "modern Presidents" as everyone since FDR) who came from pretty humble beginnings. LBJ and Nixon grew up very poor. Reagan and Clinton didn't experience the depths of poverty that Johnson and Nixon did, but they were raised in unstable households and certainly struggled economically. Gerald Ford's biological father was a physically and emotionally abusive alcoholic who threatened to kill him and his mother when he was a week-old baby, but they were fortunate enough to get away from him and find some stability when his mother married his stepfather and adoptive namesake.

So, there aren't a ton of log cabins when it comes to modern Presidents (and, if we're being honest, there weren't actually very many log cabins when it came to their predecessors either), but they haven't all shared silver spoons with the Kennedys, Bushes, and Trumps, either.

[evilminji]

If ghosts are declared legally neither sentient nor sapient >.>

Then? LEGALLY? Anything they do? They can't be held responsible for. After all, they don't know any better.

Danny should start a harrassment campaign. Clear Activist actions. Publicly. Loudly. And with the world watching. Wear it on a tee-shirt. Keep repeating it.

"I'm not legally sentient or sapient. Not MY decision, this is what YOU decided."

Openly steal from the rich. Like, OPENLY and on a petty level. Sweep wall street. Hit major companies for food and water and give it too people. Kick presidential candidates in the balls. Cause expensive but not life treating inconvenience to the world.

You can't be a criminal, after all.

It's literally the Jesus approach. "Turn the other cheek". If you strike me AGAIN, you are acknowledging me as an equal. So which is it, oppressors? Am I less then you and free to rebel, or am I equal and capable of being held accountable?

Charm campaign with his enemies money. End world hunger. Take their wealth. Chaos and Discord. No, sorry, you CAN NOT negotiate with me! I'm INCAPABLE remember?

Neither sentient nor sapient!

Shame. Better fix that! Hey? Who's yacht was this? YEET! Guess it doesn't matter now! It's in ORBIT! Have a GREAT daaaay~☆

[wh0reforcoriolanussnow]

Hey I have a request!!

Capitol!Reader is from a rich and wealthy family which makes her an eligible wife for Snow who is in his second year as president which makes him 24. Reader is just about to turn 18 and she’s still in the academy. She’s being forced into a marriage the moment she is of age (18) but she very much dislikes Coriolanus. She is forced to hang out with him but she is sometimes a brat to him because she loathes him, she does not love him. The day she turns 18, Snow waits outside of the academy for her with white roses but she gets furious that he’s at her school infront of everyone and everyone now knows that they sale courting each other. She causes a scene (up to you what happens) and snow becomes incredibly mad at her. Honestly would love to see dark!coriolanus.

Thank you! Btw I love your fics sm 😭 I’ve been here since you started writing house of the dragon fics!

Fallen Roses || Young President! Coriolanus Snow x Capitol!Reader

A/n: Thank you so much for this request! And thank you for sticking with me through my changes 😂

Warnings: possessive snow?

Wc:

Coriolanus Snow Masterlist

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

“He’s in his second year as President, and he needs a wife. You are perfect for it, y/n.” Your mothers whispers harshly to you as you sat there, arms crossed, looking to the side. You had been called out of High Biology and into Dr. Gaul's office.

"I don't want to be his wife! I don't even know him!" You argue back to your mother as her face stiffens and her eyes darken. You gulp. "Listen here, daughter. When you turn 18 in a couple of days, you will marry President Snow whether you like it or not. You will have the honor of becoming the First Lady of Panem. Be grateful that you have this opportunity. Do not ruin this for us!" Your mother fires back.

Dr. Gaul sits across the desk from the two of you, watching as mother and daughter fight. "There is something you must understand Miss Y/L/N, Coriolanus Snow picked you himself to be his wife. That is the most highest honour he could ever give. You will live in the Presidential Mansion with him, not lift a single finger, and bask in your riches-" You loudly scoff.

"Hell sounds better than that," You spat in annoyance as you could see your mother shooting daggers your way from your peripheral vision. That was not the life that you wanted to have for yourself in the future. Your life right now was worse. You hated being the centre of attention; although that could never be avoided due to your high status, your parents, and your enormous wealth.

You were grateful without a doubt, but you'd rather give away your riches to people who actually needed it. You hated being forced into events, wearing outfits that were far too uncomfortable, making conversation about the weather and whatnot. It was not your cup of tea even though you were brought up with this kind of lifestyle your entire life. The thought of doing that all over again but as the second most important person in all of Panem? That would be absolute torture.

Dr. Gaul sighs, looking at your mother before closing her mouth again. You liked to argue and shut people up, and you were pretty darn good at it. "President Snow will be here shortly to meet you. I hope you show him the respect that he well deserves." She gives you a knowing look as you roll your eyes.

"Great," You mutter under your breath. The three of your all sat in his office in silence for a few minutes before the door opened behind you. Your mother and Dr. Gaul stand up to greet the President as you stayed sitting, staring at the wall behind Dr. Gaul.

"President Snow," Your mother greets him in her sickly fake voice that you hear every time you are at social events. "Coraline, lovely to see you again," You hear him say as you feel him move closer to you and your mother as he kisses her cheek.

"Dr. Gaul, always lovely to see you," He shakes her hand, "As to you Mr. Snow," She chuckles. Then it was silent. You were still sat in your seat. You could tell Snow was staring at you. "Y/n, it's lovely to finally meet you. I have heard so much about you." You lightly chuckle, turning your head to look up at him.

"Wish I could say the same," You remark, "Now can I leave? I really don't want to be missing out on the lesson," Your eyes move to your mother and Dr. Gaul. "Your schedule has been cleared for the whole day Miss Y/l/n, you will instead, accompany President Snow to his home," Dr. Gaul exaplains.

"What?" You sit up in your seat, hands gripping the arms tightly as they turn white. "You want me to be alone with him?" "You're going to have to get used to it, sweetheart." Snow chuckles behind you as you grip the arms even tighter, your knuckles turning white. "Y/n." Your mother sternly says as you let out a sigh from your nose.

"This is ridiculous, you can't force me into this!" You yell at your mother, "She can't. But I most certainly can. Now shall we?" Snow offers his arm as you stare at him in disbelief. You abruptly stand up making the chair screech against the floor and sling your bag over your shoulder.

Your heals click on the marble floor as you quickly leave the room. "I knew I would like her," Snow comments making your mother turn a slight colour of red from embarrassment. Students were still in their classrooms. The last thing you wanted was even more attention from everyone when they see you and the President together.

You make a sharp turn from the usual route to outside. "Where are you going?" Snow calls out as you turn to him, "Like hell I'm letting other people see me with you, alone." You cross your arms and narrow your eyes at him. He stands there, hands tucked into his jacket as he looks down, chuckling.

"Like I said, sweetheart, you're going to have to get used to it. You will be Panem's First Lady after all." He tilts his head at you. You kiss your teeth, letting your arms fall to your sides. "Yeah well I want to savour the final last moments of my freedom, so let me, yeah?" And with that you turn around disappearing from sight.

~

For the next couple of days, you had been forced into hanging out with Coriolanus. Whether it be having a meal with him in the presidential mansion, or him accompanying you as you are forced to go shopping for even more clothes. You had slightly warmed up to him, he could tell. But your disapproval of the whole situation was still there. Your attitude towards him was a clear give away.

Coriolanus quite enjoys your witty remarks. It entices him. Part of the reason as to why he picked you was that you hated your lifestyle and knew you had quite the tongue. He figured you were entertaining to tease. And of course, he found you the prettiest out of all the girls at the academy.

The dreadful day had finally come. You turned 18. Which meant that you could kiss your last ounces of freedom and happiness goodbye the minute Snow slips a ring on your finger. You had school that day. You figured you would be pulled out from your first class to meet with Snow but that was not the case.

Throughout the day you grew anxious by the second. You had yet to be pulled out. The bell rang indicating the school day was over and nothing happened. Did Snow pull out? Did he change his mind? You hoped it was the latter.

You pack up your things and wave goodbye to your friends as they all start to pour out of the main doors of the Academy. From afar you could see a small crowd forming. You make your way towards the crowd and was horrified to see Snow leaned up against a car, a bouquet of white roses in one hand.

"Mrs. Snow," He smirks the second he sets eyes on you as the crowd around you gasp in shock. You felt pure rage and hatred towards the man standing in front of you. You storm closer to him, yanking the flowers from his hands and throwing it on the floor. "Do not call me that," You spat, venom laced in your tone as Snow's eyes darken. He grips your upper arm as the peacekeepers open the car door.

Snow roughly pushes you inside the car as he slams the door. "You have been acting like an ungrateful little brat. Show some fucking respect to your husband." He grips your chin as your eyes begin to water. "You are not my husband." You say as he grips your chin even tighter making you wince. "I will be, whether you like it or not, darling." He smirks at you, all you wanted to do was wipe that stupid smirk off his lips.

You push him off of you as you sit furthest away from him. A tear rolls down your cheek. This was going to be your life from now on. "First thing you should now about being Panem's First Lady." Snow turns his head towards you, his hands roll up his sleeves, "Do not. Refuse. My flowers. Clear?" You don't say anything.

"I said, do I make myself clear!" He yells as you flinch. You tore your eyes away from the window. "Crystal clear." You choke out as he grins in satisfaction. "Good."

[moyalucom]

Creating Wealth With Small Business Ideas

Creating Wealth With Small Business Ideas

Entrepreneurs are exceptionally good at a few things, and one of those is creating wealth. They understand the basics of what wealth really is, and what it is not, and they understand that to create wealth today they must be masters at developing small business ideas. What Wealth Really Is An important aspect of creating wealth is understanding wealth. Now most people think they know what wealth…

[kp777]

By Jake Johnson

Common Dreams

Jan. 6, 2024

"Billionaires attempting to influence politics from the shadows should not be rewarded with taxpayer subsidies," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

Legislation introduced Tuesday by a pair of Democratic lawmakers would close a loophole that lets billionaires donate assets to dark money organizations without paying any taxes.

The U.S. tax code allows write-offs when appreciated assets such as shares of stock are donated to a charity, but the tax break doesn't apply when the assets are given to political groups.

However, donations to 501(c)(4) organizations—which are allowed to engage in some political activity as long as it's not their primary purpose—are exempt from capital gains taxes, a loophole that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) are looking to shutter with their End Tax Breaks for Dark Money Act.

Whitehouse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee who has focused extensively on the corrupting effects of dark money, said the need for the bill was made clear by what ProPublica and The Lever described as "the largest known donation to a political advocacy group in U.S. history."

The investigative outlets reported in 2022 that billionaire manufacturing magnate Barre Seid donated his 100% ownership stake in Tripp Lite, a maker of electrical equipment, to Marble Freedom Trust, a group controlled by Federalist Society co-chairman Leonard Leo.

The donation, completed in 2021, was worth $1.6 billion. According to ProPublica and The Lever, the structure of the gift allowed Seid to avoid up to $400 million in taxes.

"It's a clear sign of a broken tax code when a single donor can transfer assets worth $1.6 billion to a dark money political group without paying a penny in taxes," Whitehouse said in a statement Tuesday. "Billionaires attempting to influence politics from the shadows should not be rewarded with taxpayer subsidies."

"We cannot allow millionaires and billionaires to run roughshod over our democracy and then reward them for it with a tax break."

If passed, the End Tax Breaks for Dark Money Act would ensure that donations of appreciated assets to 501(c)(4) organizations are subjected to the same rules as gifts to political action committees (PACs) and parties.

"Thanks to the far-right Supreme Court, billionaires already have outsized influence to decide our nation's politics; through a loophole in the tax code, they can even secure massive public subsidies for lobbying and campaigning when they secretly donate their wealth to certain nonprofits instead of traditional political organizations," said Chu. "We can decrease the impact the wealthy have on our politics by applying capital gains taxes to donations of appreciated property to nonprofits that engage in lobbying and political activity—the same way they are already treated when made to traditional political organizations like PACs."

The new bill comes amid an election season that is already flooded with outside spending.

The watchdog OpenSecrets reported last month that super PACs and other groups "have already poured nearly $318 million into spending on presidential and congressional races as of January 14—more than six times as much as had been spent at this point in 2020."

Thanks to the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United ruling, super PACs can raise and spend unlimited sums on federal elections—often without being fully transparent about their donors.

Morris Pearl, chairman of the Patriotic Millionaires, said Tuesday that "there is no justifiable reason why wealthy people like me should be allowed to dominate our political system by donating an entire $1.6 billion company to a dark money political group."

"But perhaps more egregious is the $400 million tax break that comes from doing so," said Pearl. "It's a perfect example of how this provision in the tax code is used by the ultrawealthy to manipulate the levers of government while simultaneously dodging their obligation to pay taxes. We cannot allow millionaires and billionaires to run roughshod over our democracy and then reward them for it with a tax break."

[mostlysignssomeportents]

What Americans want

Tomorrow (Oct 19), I'm in Charleston, WV to give the 41st annual McCreight Lecture in the Humanities. And on Friday (Oct 20), I'm at Charleston's Taylor Books from 12h-14h.

If you aspire to be a Very Serious Person (and whomst amongst us doesn't?) then you know why we can't have nice things. The American people won't stand for court packing, Congressional term limits, the abolition of the Electoral College, or campaign finance limits. Politics is the art of the possible, and these just aren't possible.

Friends, you've been lied to.

The latest Pew Research mega-report investigates Americans' attitudes towards politics, and honestly, the title says it all: "Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics":

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-dismal-views-of-the-nations-politics/

The American people hate Congress. They hate the parties. They hate the president. They hate the 2024 presidential candidates. They loathe the Supreme Court. Approval for America's bedrock institutions are at historic lows. Disapprovals are at historic highs.

The report's subtitle speaks volumes: "65% say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics." Who can blame them? After all: "63% express not too much or no confidence at all in the future of the U.S. political system."

"Just 4% of U.S. adults say the political system is working extremely or very well": that is to say, there are more Americans who think Elvis is alive than who think US politics are working well.

There are differences, of course. Young people have less hope than older people. Republicans are more reactionary than Democrats. Racialized people trust institutions less than white people.

But there are also broad, bipartisan, cross-demographic, intergenerational agreements, and these may surprise you:

Take Congressional term-limits. 87% of US adults support these. Only 12% oppose them.

Everyone knows American gerontocracy is a problem. I mean, for one thing, it's destabilizing. There's a significant chance that neither of the presumptive US presidential candidates will be alive on inauguration day:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/01/designated-survivors/

But beyond the inexorable logic of actuarial science, there's the problem that our Congress of septuagenarians have served for decades, and are palpably out-of-touch with their constituents' lives. And those constituents know it, which is why 79% of Americans favor age limits for elected officials and Supreme Court justices:

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/how-americans-view-proposals-to-change-the-political-system/

Not all of this bipartisan agreement is positive. 76% of Americans have been duped into favoring a voter ID requirement to solve the nonexistent problem of voter fraud by imposing a racialized, wealth-based poll-tax. But even here, there's a silver lining: 62% of American support automatically registering every eligible voter.

Threats to pack the Supreme Court have a long and honorable tradition in this country. It's how Lincoln got his antislavery agenda, and how FDR got the New Deal:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/25/consequentialism/#dotards-in-robes

The majority of Americans don't want to pack the court…yet. The race is currently neck-and-neck – 51% opposed, 46% in favor, and with approval for the Supreme Court at lows not seen since the 2400 baud era, court-packing is an idea with serious momentum:

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/21/favorable-views-of-supreme-court-fall-to-historic-low/

66% of Democrats want the court packed. 58% of under 30s – of every affiliation – favor the proposal.

And two thirds (65%) of Americans want to abolish the Electoral College and award the presidency to the candidate with the most votes. That includes nearly half (47%) of Republicans, and two thirds of independents.

Americans believe – correctly – that their elected representatives are more beholden to monied interests than to a sense of duty towards their constituents. Or, as a pair of political scientists put it in their widely cited 2014 paper:

Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/testing-theories-of-american-politics-elites-interest-groups-and-average-citizens/62327F513959D0A304D4893B382B992B

So yeah, no surprise that 70% of Americans believe that voters have too little influence over their elected lawmakers. 83% of Republicans say big campaign donors call the shots. 80% of Democrats agree.

Which is why 72% of Americans want to limit political spending (76% for Democrats, 71% for Republicans). The majority of Americans – 58% – believe that it is possible to get money out of politics with well-crafted laws.

Americans truly do have a "dismal view of the nation's politics," and who can blame them? But if you "feel exhausted thinking about the nation's politics," consider this – the majority of Americans, including Republicans, want to:

abolish the electoral college;

impose campaign spending limits;

put term limits on elected officials and Supreme Court justices;

put age limits on elected officials and Supreme Court justices; and

automatically register every eligible American to vote.

What's more, packing the Supreme Court is a coin-toss, and it's growing more popular day by day.

Which is all to say, yes, things are really screwed up, but everyone knows it and everyone agrees on the commonsense measures that would fix it.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/18/the-people-no/#tell-ya-what-i-want-what-i-really-really-want

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

[phoward89]

Based on this ask

Reader x Young!Plutarch Heavensbee, Reader is the daughter of President Coriolanus Snow and First Lady Livia Cardew.

WARNING ⚠️ Coriolanus Snow is his own warning in and of itself. Cursing, family secrets, mentions of death/murder, paranoia, um think that's it

You're the youngest of the 3 Snow siblings. The children of President Coriolanus Snow, a man as cold and beautiful as his name, and First Lady Livia Snow nee Cardew, a shrewd woman whose golden looks hide her abhorrent nature. Like your older brothers, Kronos and Leonidas, you grew up spoiled with wealth and riches in the presidential palace.

But unlike you, your older brothers couldn't stand your parents. It was so bad that once they graduated from the Academy they had opted to move out. Of course your father got your brothers, first Kronos and then a couple of years later Leonidas, their own penthouses in the best buildings that money could buy.

Only the best for the sons of President Snow.

If only Kronos and Leonidas lived up to the expectations of the Snow name.

Yea… Your brothers were both disappointments to your cold, stoic, stern, and calculating father. He felt that they're foolish, selfish, little bastards. Reincarnates of your mother. And talk about your mother, well, she felt that your brothers lacked social charm and grace- what was needed to succeed in the Capitol's games of politics.

You on the other hand was the apple of your father's eye. He viewed you as the one and only good thing to come out of his horrible, hate filled marriage with your mother.

It was no secret to you and your siblings that your parents couldn't stand each other. The only time President Snow and his First Lady are seen together is at events and galas. Other then that they're never together.

Not even at meals.

No, there's no such thing as family dinners in the presidential palace. Your mother eats by herself in her solar while your father eats in either his study, the large dining room, or the sunroom. More times than naught he's taking his meals in the sunroom.

You split your meals between them. Alternating who you eat with. But, since you're a total daddy's girl, you share more meals with your father than your mother. Which delites Coriolanus and pisses off Livia.

Coriolanus doesn't give a shit if Livia gets pissed. He's loathed her since the day he said I do. Livia disliked him, but didn't straight up hate him until a few months into the marriage. But being compared to his dear little dove; his heart's true desire, day in and day out, will make a wife despise her husband.

Truthfully, the only reason you and your older brothers were born was because your father needed heirs to carry on the mighty Snow name. Your mother had to pop some valiums and xanaxes to handle your father's dominant nature in bed. Hell, around the time your brother Leonidas was conceived your mother had taken a secret lover in the afternoons while your father was having power lunches at a high end gentlemen’s club, so who knows who your brother's daddy really is.

But, despite their horrible marriage, at least your parents love you.

Well, Coriolanus loves you, but truthfully it's up in the air when it comes to Livia. She's been hurt so badly by your father's callous words and actions that the poor thing is a shell of a woman that knows how to say lovely things, but is mostly just all about appearances.

And appearances is what prompts her to bring up a potential match with you and Seneca Crane despite the fact that you already have a boyfriend.

One Plutarch Heavensbee.

“But, mother, I've been seeing Plutarch since last year. Why would I dump him for Seneca Crane?” You asked, sipping on your breakfast tea while your mother nursed a bloody Mary.

Despite it being 7 in the morning, Livia's face was caked in 5 pounds of makeup. Makeup that covered up the bruises your father's hands left when he repeatedly smacked your mother around last night when she requested him not to see his beloved little dove because she knew that he'd be paying her a visit today.

But that didn't pertain to you.

“Because, Y/N, Senaca’s the heir to the Crane assets and hotel line in District 10, which is a very popular and prosperous vacation destination due to the Dude Ranch craze.” Your mother told you, putting her glass down only to pick up her smoking case. Opening it and pulling out a cigarillo, she said, “You'll be graduating from the Academy soon; it's time that you secure yourself a husband that's worthy of being a part of the First family.”

“I need to go have breakfast with dad, but thanks for the morning tea, mother.” You told your mother, setting down your teacup while she lit up her cigarillo.

While you rose from the table, your mother took a long drag of her smoke and told you in a tart tone, “He's your father, Y/N. I don't know why he lets you call him dad, but he shouldn't.”

You didn't say a word, just left your mother's private solar to go have breakfast with your father in the sunroom.

“Morning darling.” Your father greeted you with a smile while peeling the shell off his hard boiled egg. He looked perfectly regal, not a platinum hair out of place or a wrinkle in his crimson three piece suit.

As you made your way to your seat at the table, the President complimented you with, “Why, don't you look beautiful? I bet Plutarch’s going to be speechless when he comes to pick you up for school.”

“Dad, I'm wearing the same Academy uniform I do every day.” You shook your head, deflecting his comment.

“But you've done something different with your hair. That boy of yours is sure to notice that, darling.” You father said while fixing you a cup of coffee.

“I don't think it matters, dad. Mother wants me to end things with Plutarch.” You sighed as the president placed your cup of coffee in front of you.

Going back to his hard boiled egg, your father asked, “Why?”

“She wants to match me up with Seneca Crane; she thinks it'd be beneficial to my future to arrange an engagement between Seneca and I because he's the heir to the Crane hotel empire in 10.” You explained while grabbing a few things from the platters set up on the table and putting them on the white china plate that was laid out for you at your place setting.

“Do you want to end things with Plutarch for Seneca?” You dad asked in between eating a bite of his hard boiled egg.

“No, but mother-” You began, only for the president to hold his hand up and silence you with, “You stay with Plutarch and let me deal with your mother.” Reaching for his cup of coffee, your dad gave you the advice of, “Y/N, I know that you care about your mother and want to see the best in her, but you shouldn't. In fact, you need to keep her at arm's length; she can't be trusted.” sipping on his coffee, he sighed, “I’d hate to see you get hurt; I don't trust Livia not to hurt you.”

You gave your dad an incredulous look. Did he really think that your mother would intentionally hurt you? Why, what would she gain from it? You're her only daughter, she'd never hurt you. The thought alone is absurd.

Right now, you think your regal platinum father's a bit paranoid.

But unknown to you, he has reason to be. Everyone has a past and he never lets a piece of his lie. Once a week like clockwork he visits a part of his past with a bouquet of roses. That fact drives your mother up the wall mad. But the president believes that your mother crossed a line, one that was costly to him in the past.

So, your dad has valid reason to believe that your mother would hurt you, whether that be emotionally, physically, or mentally, to further her agenda and to cut him down.

When President Coriolanus Snow was a young man, serving as the Head Gamemaker and running for a Senate seat, he underestimated Livia Cardew's shrewd hatefulness and cunning ways. She didn't come across as somebody to blatantly destroy somebody who she felt got in her way or was a threat to what she wanted: money, power, glory, but she was.

President Coriolanus Snow is older, wiser, and even more paranoid than he was in his youth. These characteristics are the reason why he'll be in office until the day he dies from complications of his alchemy hobby. And he'll be damned if anything or anyone, especially your mother, hurts you while he's still alive and breathing.

After breakfast, you went upstairs to your room while your father went to talk to your mother. Since your mother's solar wasn't far from your room, you walked upstairs with your dad until you had to part ways.

After putting on your pristine white coat and double checking your hairbow in your mirror, you left your room. While passing your mother's solar, you heard the raised voices of your parents echoing from the other side of the door. You should've just walked away, but curiosity got the better of you and you decided to press your ear against the door to listen to what your parents were fighting about.

You hope that they weren't fighting over your relationship with Plutarch.

But, sadly, they are.

“Of course you support Y/N’s relationship with that spaz Plutarch. Considering your own past with your former campaign manager, I'm not surprised that you're encouraging our daughter to sow wild oats.”

“Do not bring Juniper up to me, Livia.” President Snow ordered in a loud roar. “You did it last night and got your face rearranged; you wouldn't want a reason to have to get another nose job, now would you.” President Snow threatened his wife, only to snap, “You stay away from my daughter. I won't let you hurt her.”

“You really think that I'd stoop so low as to hurt our daughter, Coriolanus?” Livia asked, her raspy smoker’s voice full of disbelief.

“I underestimated you 25 years ago when I ended our first engagement and it cost me dearly; I won't underestimate you ever again, wife. And I'll do everything in my power to protect Y/N from you.” The President answered, his baritone loud, but tight. As if he was trying to control his emotions. Emotions that were already filled with rage.

“You're so overprotective of her, but you don't give a shit about our sons! Why, Coriolanus? Why is that?”

“Y/N’s the one good thing to come out of this hateful farce of a marriage, but those boys are your sons through and through. Hateful, greedy, little demons- just like you.”

Livia Cardew tilted her head at her husband, only to twist her lips up in a sneer. “I hope you cut your damn fingers off while pruning those ugly white roses for a bouquet to bring your beloved Juniper.”

“You fucking bitch, I told you not to say her name in front of me.” The President roared, only to launch himself and his wife and backhand her so hard that she flew to the ground.

Hearing a loud thud inside of the room, you decided to back away from the door and rush downstairs. Plutarch should be arriving soon. And only God knows that you need to tell him about everything you overheard your parents fighting about.

As soon as you were in Plutarch's car, you unloaded on him. Plutarch, being a devoted boyfriend, listened to every word that you said. And when you were done, he simply asked, “Do you want to spy on your dad? See where he goes today?”

“Yea, but we can't. We have classes.” You told your boyfriend as he turned down a road that was in the opposite direction of the way to the Academy.

“I know a guy from 3 that can hack the school attendance records; have us marked as attending classes today.” Plutarch told you while grabbing his phone from his dash.

“How do you know somebody from 3?” You asked, a bit bewildered that your boyfriend has friends outside of the Capitol.

“Met him while on that student exchange trip to 3 to learn some tech stuff last year.”

“Oh.” You simply nodded. “I went to 2, stayed with the Plinths.”

“Of course your dad sent you there, he owns Plinth Munitions and is close to the Plinths.” Plutarch muttered under his breath.

Honestly, Plutarch couldn't stand your father. He thought that President Coriolanus Snow had a few screws loose. But, he pretended to like your dad for your sake.

“I can send my contact a quick text telling him to hack our attendance records, then double back to your place and park behind a bush so we can spy on your dad; see where he goes today.” Plutarch offered while pulling into the drive thru of a high end coffee shop.

“Okay.” You simply nodded.

It feels like you and Plutarch have been hiding out in his car, behind large shrubbery near the gate of the Presidential Palace’s driveway whenever it opens and your father's sleek black sedan rolls thru the gates.

“Plutarch, he's by himself.” You pointed out to your boyfriend, who’s waiting for your father to get far enough so that you won’t be caught following him.

“Wonder why. The President doesn't seem like someone to drive himself around.” Plutarch remarked while pulling away from the shrubbery and following the path your father did.

“I know, but maybe he doesn't want Bentley to know about his mistress.”

“Drivers don't care about whether or not their clients have mistresses, princess.” Plutarch told you while making the same turn he saw your father make. “He's driving himself for another reason.”

“Don't lose him, Pluto!” You ordered in a loud shriek, pointing at your dad’s car as it weaved in and out of traffic up ahead.

“Your dad drives worse than a blind 80 year old grandma from District 4. How the hell did he get a license?” Plutarch asked while doing some risky driving maneuvers in order to keep tailing the president.

“I dunno.” You shrugged. “Just don't lose him. I'm curious to know why my mother seems so jealous of this Juniper lady and why my dad flips his shit when my mother says her name.”

“Do you know anything about her?” Plutarch asked, watching your father cut somebody off before taking a turn.

“No.” You shook your head. “Just that she used to be my dad's campaign manager and that my parents were engaged twice.”

“Hmm…interesting…” Your strawberry blonde boyfriend hummed while turning down the road your father did.

After a few more minutes of driving, you ended up following your father to, of all places, the graveyard. “Are you sure he's meeting his girlfriend, Y/N?"

“That's what my mother said.” You told Plutarch, watching your father as he trudged along the graveyard until he reached the Snow Family mausoleum- which was a large building with roses crawling up and down it- in the back of the graveyard.

“Do you want to follow him? See if he's meeting her inside?” Plutarch asked, putting his car in park.

“Yea.” You nodded.

Since Plutarch parked far enough away from your father's car, you weren't afraid of getting caught. You and Plutarch carefully made your way to the Snow Family mausoleum. Not wanting to be caught, Plutarch has the two of you pressed against the back wall of the large building. There's a small stained glass window that you can peek into, if you want to.

You and Plutarch were expecting the President to meet with his secret lover inside of the building, but that's not what you saw when you looked into that stained glass window. To your shock, your father was removing old, dried up and withered white roses from the brass flower holder on one of the wall grave markers.

“I brought you and the little one fresh flowers, my darling rose.” You heard your father say as he placed the bouquet of fresh roses he brought into the brass vase welded onto the grave marker. “I wish you were here. It's been 25 years and I still miss you.”

You and Plutarch looked at each other wide-eyed. He wasn't meeting his mistress, the President was bringing fresh flowers to somebody he loved and had lost. But he said little one. Who's that?

“Livia wants to ruin my daughter's life. Thinks she needs to dump Plutarch and get into an arrangement with Seneca Crane. But I won't allow it.”

“I never liked your mother. Stupid drunk whore.” Plutarch whispered in your ear.

“Be nice.” You whispered, lightly smacking your boyfriend.

“I won't let that evil bitch ruin my daughter's life. She ruined mine by having you killed. And I know she was behind it, even if I can't prove it. Damnit, it was an Avox in her brother's employ that shot you, but it seems like the Peacekeepers just shoved it under the rug. Even your own brother didn't want a long investigation.”

You and Plutarch shared another wide-eyed look. Oh boy…If your father truly felt that the Cardews (your mother's family) had paid off the Peacekeepers to keep the truth of the shooting (a murder?) of his lover under wraps then no wonder he was afraid for your safety when you're around your mother.

“I wish I could stay longer, but I've got presidential duties to get back to. I'll visit you and our little one again. Same day, same time.” The President said before exiting the mausoleum.

Once he was gone, Plutarch turned to you and asked, “Do you want to go inside? See who still has such a strong hold on your father after all these years?”

“Yea.” You nodded.

After making sure the coast was clear, you and Plutarch entered the Snow Family mausoleum. It wasn't hard to spot the section with the fresh white roses. You and your boyfriend walked over to it, only to read a plaque on the wall.

Juniper Marie Halvir & Unborn Baby Snow

Death: July 1st 15ADD

“I think maybe you should take your dad's advice and keep your distance from your mother.” Plutarch told you while rushing you out of the mausoleum.

You just nodded. Your head's spinning at the secret you found out. The President’s secret that he's kept hidden for so long. No wonder he's the way he is. And now you can understand why your parents are always at each other's throats.

Now you understand why your dad's so protective of you; doesn’t like you around your mother too much.

In a way, you wish that you never uncovered your father's past. It would've kept you naive to your mother's true nature. But maybe you needed to know.

“Do you think that's why he's so cold? You know, losing them?”

“It most likely is.” Plutarch told you while leading you over to his car. “I've seen a picture of Juniper with the President in my dad's old Academy yearbook. They seemed to be close friends, sweethearts even.”

“I don't want to talk about this anymore, Pluto. Can we just go get ice cream or something?”

“Anything for you, princess.” Plutarch smiled as you reached his car.

There's a reason why your Uncle Livinius Cardew died before you were ever born. Why your grandparents died before you were born too. Your father got revenge on the Cardews after marrying your mother, Livia. He poisoned them; made it look like food poisoning. He made sure that he killed the Cardews and took over their bank, all because they took the most precious thing in the world away from him.

The only reason he kept your mother alive was because he needed heirs. But now, well, he's highly considering having your mother drop dead from a bad case of food poisoning. He needs to plan it perfectly, so maybe he'll do it during a dinner that your mother has to attend with him. One of those should be coming up soon.

Or he could just poison her and make it look like a suicide.

Either way, you'll be burying your mother before the games and before your graduation from the Academy.

But your dad, President Coriolanus Snow, just wants what's best for you. He has to protect you from your mother, so you don't get hurt. The only way to do that is to permanently get rid of her. You're grown now, so Livia's has outgrown her usefulness to President Snow.

Tags: @kuroosbby001 @purriteen @poppyflower-22 @meetmeatyourworst @whipwhoops @bxtchopolis @readingthingsonhere @savagenctzen @ryswritingrecord @erikasurfer @tulips2715 @universal-s1ut @thesmutconnoisseur @squidscottjeans @sudek4l @wearemadeofstardust0 @mashiromochi @gracieroxzy @belcalis9503 @shari-berri @aoi-targaryen @whiteoakoak @spear-bearing-bi-witch @gisellesprettylies @loverandqueenofdragons @qoopeeya @mfnqueen1 @permanentlyexhaustedpigeon88 @v-love @swiftieblyth @joyfulyouthlover @harvey-malfoy @tian-monique @chxrrybomb22 @marvel-hiddles-stark @xjinnix @devils-blackrose @zombicupcake3 @jacesvelaryons

[trickricksblog08]

Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said that climate-related issues are being “exploited” by wealthy individuals in a bid to enact “totalitarian controls” over society.

“Climate issues and pollution issues are being exploited by … mega billionaires” like Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Kennedy told radio host Kim Iversen over the past weekend. “The same way that COVID was exploited to use it as an excuse to clamp down top-down totalitarian controls on society and then to give us engineering solutions.”

“And if you look closely, as it turns out, the guys who are promoting those engineering solutions are the people who own … the patents for those solutions,” Kennedy said during Iversen’s show.

“It’s a way they’ve given climate chaos a bad name because people now see that it’s just another crisis that’s being used to strip mine the wealth of the poor and to enrich billionaires.”

[robertreich]

The GOP’s Attack on LGBTQ Americans, Revealed 

Republicans don’t seem to care that Ronald Reagan once starred in a film that featured a prominent drag scene or that Rudy Giuliani did a skit in drag with Donald Trump.

Suddenly, they’re trying to ban or restrict drag performances in at least 15 states, with bills so broadly worded that advocates warn they could be used not only to prosecute drag performers, but also transgender people who dare to simply exist in public.

These bans are part of a cynical campaign to demonize the LGBTQ+ community. MAGA politicians are stoking fear over imaginary dangers to distract from how their policies only help themselves and their wealthy donors.

In the first half of 2023 alone, Republicans across the nation introduced a record number of bills to strip away freedoms and civil rights from LGBTQ+ Americans, largely targeting transgender and gender-nonconforming people.

By banning gender affirming care for minors, GOP lawmakers are effectively practicing medicine without a license — overruling the guidance of doctors, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. And they’re lying about what gender affirming care even is.

Genital surgery, for instance, is rarely, if ever, done under the age of 18. It’s not even all that common for adults. Politicians like Ron DeSantis are lying about it to scare people.

And the Republican presidential frontrunner has made it clear that trans people have no place in his vision of America.

MAGA lawmakers and pundits falsely claim trans people and drag performers are a danger to children and the public at large, when there is no evidence at all to support that. None. Trans people are in fact four times more likely to be the victims of violent crime.

These scare tactics are dangerous. Recent analysis found a 70% increase in hate crimes against LGBTQ+ Americans between 2020 and 2021, as the surge of these bills began. And that’s only counting hate crimes that get reported. 2020 and 2021 each set a new record for the number of trans people murdered in America.

The cruelest irony is that these Republican bills pretending to protect children actually put some of the most vulnerable children at greater risk. LGBTQ+ kids are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide, especially transgender children. Gender-affirming care reduces that risk. That is why it is life-saving.

Don’t Say Gay laws strip away potentially life-saving support. A teacher discussing sexual orientation and gender identity won’t turn a straight kid gay. But it will make an LGBTQ+ student 23% less likely to attempt suicide.

The tragic truth is that Don’t Say Gay Laws and health care bans will cause more young lives to be needlessly lost.

If Republicans really cared about protecting kids, they’d focus on gun violence, now the leading cause of death for American children. If they were really worried about children undergoing life-altering medical procedures, they wouldn’t pass abortion bans that force teens to give birth or risk back-alley procedures.

What the GOP’s vendetta against the LGBTQ+ community really is, is a classic authoritarian tactic to vilify already marginalized people. They’re trying to stoke so much paranoia and hatred that we don’t notice how they are consolidating power and wealth into the hands of a ruling few.

We need to see this attack on LGBTQ+ Americans for what it is: a threat to all of our human rights.

[sourcreammachine]

✨My Favourite Moments of 2024!✨

uk prime minister keir starmer resigns in disgrace after accidentally referring to a trans woman by her correct pronouns

elon musk attempts to prove the safety of the tesla truck by letting mitch mcconnell drive. both men die within seconds of entering the vehicle

in response to worldwide famine, the World Food Programme appoints taylor swift as its director-for-life

the IDF continues carpetbombing occupied gaza after the ghosts of hamas are spotted. all gazans are required to evacuate into a shallow grave

the conclave repeatedly fails to elect a new pope, causing a schism. one conclave elects some italian bishop you’ve never heard of while the other conclave elects agent Q

the IMF buys pakistan

donald trump wins the republican primary carrying 60 states, 14 countries, and 8 circles of hell. during his victory broadcast from prison he suffers what it clinically described as a MegaStroke, removing his ability to move and speak. he declares one of his busty nurses to be his running mate and leads biden by 30 points

following the death of musk twitter is divided by gavelkind amongst multiple rival warlords

joe biden finally finishes his 13th genocide, winning a bet he made with obama

after it retreats from ukraine and georgia, putin personally murders every single member of the russian army. he is reelected in a landslide

his holiness the ayatollah ali khamenei dies peacefully of old age surrounded by his loving family and a grieving nation. days later he is found in a disused oil pipeline hiding from protesters while off his tits on heroin, and is dragged through the streets and beaten to death

the largest war in human history erupts in africa, costing dozens of millions of lives. it is a slow news day at the UN

president millei attaches argentina to the dollar. the us economy immediately crashes and undergoes apocalyptic hyperinflation, the dollar becoming the first currency to have a negative value. the only surviving american industry is joe biden ‘i did that’ stickers

the PLA begins its amphibious invasion of taiwan. the war claims the lives of one million PLA soldiers, ending within 20 minutes when the generals learn that tanks can’t swim

donald trump wins the us presidential election carrying all 100 states. during his victory broadcast from the intensive care unit, he suffers what is clinically described as a Heart Apocalypse, rupturing every single artery in his body and leaving him as pile of blood and gore. the supreme court rules that despite being, quote, “the most dead person ever recorded”, he is still eligible to be president. he and vp-elect Busty Nurse will be inaugurated on 20 january

due to a weird loophole, elon musk’s trans daughter inherits his entire estate. she immediately uses all her wealth to found a mutually-owned food distribution network, ending world hunger

the switch 2 still doesn’t have fucking analogue triggers

[i-was-today-years-old-when]

i learned just how ruthless Pablo Escobar was.

Known as the "King of Cocaine," Pablo Escobar was a notorious Colombian drug lord who headed the Medellín Cartel. His ruthlessness and cunning tactics contributed to his rise as one of the wealthiest and most feared criminals in history. Throughout his reign, he showed no mercy to those who stood in his way, employing brutal tactics to maintain power and instill fear.

Escobar's rise to power began in the 1970s when he started smuggling cocaine into the United States. As his operations expanded, he eliminated rival drug traffickers and built alliances with powerful criminal organizations. He was responsible for a significant portion of the world's cocaine supply, which fueled his vast fortune and enabled him to construct an empire of terror.

One of the most ruthless aspects of Escobar's rule was his use of sicarios, or hitmen. These individuals were often recruited from poor neighborhoods and were fiercely loyal to him. They were responsible for carrying out assassinations, kidnappings, and acts of violence on behalf of the cartel. It's estimated that the Medellín Cartel was responsible for the deaths of thousands of people during its existence, including police officers, judges, politicians, and innocent civilians.

To maintain control and evade law enforcement, Escobar employed a strategy known as "plata o plomo," which translates to "silver or lead." This phrase meant that officials and others in positions of power were offered a choice: accept a bribe (silver) or face the consequences, usually in the form of violence or death (lead). Many who refused his bribes were brutally murdered, serving as a chilling reminder to others of the consequences of defiance.

One of the most significant displays of Escobar's ruthlessness occurred in the late 1980s when he waged war against the Colombian government. In an effort to avoid extradition to the United States, he unleashed a wave of terror that included bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings. The most notorious of these attacks was the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 in 1989, which killed all 107 passengers on board. The target was presidential candidate Cesar Gaviria, who was not on the flight, but the cartel showed no remorse for the loss of innocent lives.

Escobar was also known to hold lavish parties and indulge in extravagant displays of wealth. However, this opulence was built on the suffering of countless individuals who fell victim to the violence and addiction caused by his drug empire. Despite his brutal reputation, he was regarded as a Robin Hood figure by some in Colombia, as he provided housing and support for the poor in his hometown of Medellín.

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

I will be curious to read the vituperative denials of the validity of this article's analysis, which is pasted below the cutoff:

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” That question, first posed by Ronald Reagan in a 1980 presidential-campaign debate with Jimmy Carter, has become the quintessential political question about the economy. And most Americans today, it seems, would say their answer is no. In a new survey by Bankrate published on Wednesday, only 21 percent of those surveyed said their financial situation had improved since Joe Biden was elected president in 2020, against 50 percent who said it had gotten worse. That echoed the results of an ABC News/Washington Post poll from September, in which 44 percent of those surveyed said they were worse off financially since Biden’s election. And in a New York Times/Siena College poll released last week, 53 percent of registered voters said that Biden’s policies had hurt them personally.

As has been much commented on (including by me), this gloom is striking when contrasted with the actual performance of the U.S. economy, which grew at an annual rate of 4.9 percent in the most recent quarter, and which has seen unemployment holding below 4 percent for more than 18 months. But the downbeat mood is perhaps even more striking when contrasted with the picture offered by the Federal Reserve’s recently released Survey of Consumer

The survey provides an in-depth analysis of the financial condition of American households, conducted for the Fed by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. Published every three years, it’s the proverbial gold standard of household research. The latest survey looked at Americans’ net worth as of mid-to-late 2022 and Americans’ income in 2021, comparing them with equivalent data from three years earlier. It found that despite the severe disruption to the economy caused by the pandemic and the recovery from it, Americans across the spectrum saw their incomes and wealth rise over the survey period.

The rise in median household net worth was the most notable improvement: It jumped by 37 percent from 2019 to 2022, rising to $192,000. (All numbers are adjusted for inflation.) Americans in every income bracket saw substantial gains, with the biggest gains registered by people in the middle and upper-middle brackets, which suggests that a slight narrowing of wealth inequality occurred during this time. In particular, Black and Latino households saw their median net worth rise faster than white households did—though the racial wealth gap is so wide that it narrowed only slightly as a result of this change.

A big driver of this increase was the rising value of people’s homes—and a higher percentage of Americans owned homes in 2022 than did in 2019. But households’ financial position improved in other ways too. The amount of money that the median household had in bank accounts and retirement accounts rose substantially. The percentage of Americans owning stocks directly (that is, not in retirement accounts) jumped by more than a third, from about 15 to 21 percent. The percentage of Americans with retirement accounts went from 50.5 to 54.3 percent, a notable improvement. And a fifth of Americans reported owning a business, the highest proportion since the survey began in its current form (in 1989).

Americans also reduced their debt loads during the pandemic. The median credit-card balance dropped by 14 percent, and the share of people with car loans fell. More significantly still, Americans’ median debt-to-asset, debt-to-income, and debt-payment-to-income ratios all fell, meaning that U.S. households had lower debt burdens, on average, in 2022 than they’d had three years earlier.

The gains in real income (in this case, measured from 2018 to 2021) were small—median household income rose 3 percent, with every income bracket seeing gains. But that was better than one might have expected, given that this period included a pandemic-induced recession and only a single year of recovery.

The picture the survey paints, then, is one of American households not only weathering the pandemic in surprisingly good shape, but ultimately also emerging from it in better financial shape than they were going in. And that, in turn, points to the effect of the U.S. policy response to the crisis: Stimulus payments, enhanced unemployment benefits, the child-care tax credit, and the moratorium on student-loan payments boosted household income and balance sheets, helping people pay down debt and increase their savings. In the process, these policies mildly narrowed inequality.

The U.S. government’s aggressive response to the pandemic, including Biden’s stimulus spending, also helped the job market recover all its pandemic-related losses—and add millions of jobs on top. The resulting tight labor market has been a huge boon to lower-wage workers. In fact, because the Fed survey’s income data end in 2021, it understates the income gains for the bottom half of the workforce, and the shrinking income inequality they’ve produced.

Hourly wages for production and nonsupervisory workers (who make up about 80 percent of the American workforce) rose 4.4 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2023, for instance, ahead of the pace of inflation. And this was not anomalous: Arindrajit Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, crunched the numbers and found that real wages for that same sector of workers are not just higher than they were in 2019, but are now roughly where they would have been if we’d continued on the upward pre-pandemic trend.

The reason for this is simple: Low unemployment has translated into higher wages. As a recent working paper by Dube, David Autor, and Annie McGrew shows, the tight labor markets of the past few years have given lower-wage workers more bargaining power than in the past, leading to a compression in the wage gap between higher-paid and lower-paid workers. Of course, that gap is still immense, but the three scholars found that the wage gains for lower-paid workers have rolled back about a quarter of the rise in inequality that has occurred since the 1980s.

So what should we take away from the Survey of Consumer Finances data, and from Dube, Autor, and McGrew’s work? Not that everything is fine, but that public policy and macroeconomic management matter a lot. Enhanced unemployment benefits, the child-care tax credit, the stimulus payments—these things materially improved the lives of Americans and helped set the economy up for a strong recovery. If the policy response had been less aggressive, the U.S. economy would be in worse shape now. This is something you can see by looking at Europe, where economies are growing far more slowly and unemployment is higher, while inflation is no lower.

Key to this story is the fact that lower-wage workers in particular would be worse off, because they have been among the chief beneficiaries of the low unemployment created by the robust recovery. It’s a useful reminder that stagnant wages are not an inevitable result of American capitalism: When labor markets are tight, and employers have to compete with one another for employees, workers get paid more.

So, even allowing for the high inflation we saw in 2022, no one could really look at the U.S. economy today and say that the policy choices of the past three years made us poorer. Yet that, of course, is precisely how many Americans feel.

Although that pessimism does not bode well for Biden’s reelection prospects, the real problem with it is even more far-reaching: If voters think that policies that helped them actually hurt them, that makes it much less likely that politicians will embrace similar policies in the future. The U.S. got a lot right in its macroeconomic approach over the past three years. Too bad that voters think it got so much wrong.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Swing-state voters are open to several ideas to keep Social Security benefits flowing for decades — as long as it’s the wealthy footing the bill, according to the latest Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll.

An overwhelming 77% of registered voters in the seven states that will decide the 2024 presidential election like the idea of a billionaires tax to bolster Social Security shortfalls, the poll found. More than half say they approve of trimming benefits for high-earners, and for taxing wages for Social Security beyond the first $168,600 in earnings as done under current policy.

The poll was conducted among registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin between April 8-15.

Across-the-board changes — raising the retirement age to 69 from 67 or introducing a new formula that results in less generous benefit payments — were less popular. Around one-fourth of poll respondents supported those policies, while about a third support increasing payroll taxes.

The poll demonstrates the difficult task Congress will face in the coming years as it grapples with how to shore up the social safety net program for aging Americans. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that starting in 2034 Social Security recipients will only receive about 75% of their promised payments if lawmakers don’t act.

“A lot of people want the government to take action, but they’re not really sure how,” Matt Monday, a senior manager for Morning Consult, said in an interview. “But the things that they do feel sure about is that someone else should do it,” he said, pointing to the wide popularity of the billionaires tax.

President Joe Biden’s billionaires tax would place a 25% levy on households worth more than $100 million. The plan taxes accumulated wealth, so it ends up hitting money that often goes untaxed under current laws. The president has also proposed higher payroll taxes on those making more than $400,000 as a way to strengthen the Social Security trust fund.

Conversations in Washington about large-scale plans to find new ways to fund Social Security have become more pressing with projections showing the program is becoming increasingly unsustainable. But changes to Social Security are politically risky because older Americans, who are directly benefitting from the payments, are an important voting bloc for both parties.

Benefit programs for elderly Americans are one of voters’ top priorities in November — only the economy, immigration, abortion and protecting democracy were chosen more often when respondents were asked what single issue was most important to their voting decision.

The poll also found that swing state voters trust Biden more than Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump to preserve Social Security and Medicare, with 45% trusting Biden and 39% trusting Trump.

Trump has not articulated a clear vision for the benefit programs. His campaign website says he will “always protect” Social Security without providing details. In a March interview, he said “there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting,” but later walked back that statement, saying he would never do anything to “jeopardize or hurt” the payments for older people.

Republicans in Congress have proposed raising the retirement age and using a new cost of living adjustment metric that would result in lower payments over time. Nikki Haley, who challenged Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, proposed scaling back Social Security benefits for future generations and higher income retirees.

METHODOLOGY

The Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll surveyed 4,969 registered voters in seven swing states: 801 registered voters in Arizona, 802 in Georgia, 708 in Michigan, 450 in Nevada, 703 in North Carolina, 803 in Pennsylvania and 702 in Wisconsin. The surveys were conducted online from April 8-15. The aggregated data across the seven swing states were weighted to approximate a target sample of swing-state registered voters based on gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, home ownership, 2020 presidential vote and state. State-level data were weighted to approximate a target sample of registered voters in the respective state based on gender, age, race/ethnicity, marital status, home ownership, and 2020 presidential vote. The margin of error is plus or minus 1 percentage point across the seven states; 3 percentage points in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania; 4 percentage points in Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin, and 5 percentage points in Nevada.

[odinsblog]

Billionaire fossil fuel mogul David Koch died August 23, 2019. Though he will rightfully be remembered for his role in the destruction of the earth, David Koch’s influence went far beyond climate denial. Ronald Reagan may have uttered the famous words, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” back in 1981—but it was David Koch, along with his elder brother Charles and a cabal of other ultrarich individuals, who truly reframed the popular view of government. Once a democratic tool used to shape the country’s future, government became seen as something intrusive and inefficient—indeed, something to be feared.

“While Charles was the mastermind of the social reengineering of the America he envisioned,” said Lisa Graves, co-director of the corporate watchdog group Documented, “David was an enthusiastic lieutenant.”

David Koch was particularly instrumental in legitimizing anti-government ideology—one the GOP now holds as gospel. In 1980, the younger Koch ran as the vice-presidential nominee for the nascent Libertarian Party. And a newly unearthed document shows Koch personally donated more than $2 million to the party—an astounding amount for the time—to promote the Ed Clark–David Koch ticket.

“Few people realize that the anti-American government antecedent to the Tea Party was fomented in the late ’70s with money from Charles and David Koch,” Graves continued. “The Libertarian Party, fueled in part with David’s wealth, pushed hard on the idea that government was the problem and the free market was the solution to everything.”

In fact, according to Graves, “The Koch-funded Libertarian Party helped spur on Ronald Reagan’s anti-government, free-market-solves-all agenda as president.”

Even by contemporary standards, the 1980 Libertarian Party platform was extreme. It called for the abolition of a wide swath of federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Bureau of Land Management, the Federal Election Commission, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the Federal Trade Commission, and “all government agencies concerned with transportation.” It railed against campaign finance and consumer protection laws, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, any regulations of the firearm industry (including tear gas), and government intervention in labor negotiations. And the platform demanded the repeal of all taxation, and sought amnesty for those convicted of tax “resistance.”

Koch and his libertarian allies moreover advocated for the repeal of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other social programs. They wanted to abolish federally mandated speed limits. They opposed occupational licensure, antitrust laws, labor laws protecting women and children, and “all controls on wages, prices, rents, profits, production, and interest rates.” And in true libertarian fashion, the platform urged the privatization of all schools (with an end to compulsory education laws), the railroad system, public roads and the national highway system, inland waterways, water distribution systems, public lands, and dam sites.

The Libertarian Party never made much of a splash in the election—though it did garner almost 12 percent of the vote in Alaska—but doing so was never the point. Rather, the Kochs were engaged in a long-term effort to normalize the aforementioned ideas and mainstream them into American politics.

(continue reading)

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 12, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 13, 2024

At 4:30 a.m. on April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort built on an artificial island in Charleston Harbor. 

Attacking the fort seemed a logical outcome of events that had been in play for at least four months. On December 20, 1860, as soon as it was clear Abraham Lincoln had won the 1860 presidential election, South Carolina lawmakers had taken their state out of the Union. “The whole town [of Charleston] was in an uproar,” Elizabeth Allston recalled. “Parades, shouting, firecrackers, bells ringing, cannon on the forts booming, flags waving, and excited people thronging the streets.” 

Mississippi had followed suit on January 9, 1861; Florida on January 10; Alabama on January 11; Georgia on January 19; Louisiana on January 26; and Texas on February 1. By the time Lincoln took the oath of office on March 4, 1861, seven southern states had left the Union and formed their own provisional government that protected human enslavement. 

Their move had come because the elite enslavers who controlled those southern states believed that Lincoln’s election to the presidency in 1860 itself marked the end of their way of life. Badly outnumbered by the northerners who insisted that the West must be reserved for free men, southern elites were afraid that northerners would bottle up enslavement in the South and gradually whittle away at it. Those boundaries would mean that white southerners would soon be outnumbered by the Black Americans they enslaved, putting not only their economy but also their very lives at risk.

To defend their system, elite southern enslavers rewrote American democracy. They insisted that the government of the United States of America envisioned by the Founders who wrote the Declaration of Independence had a fatal flaw: it declared that all men were created equal. In contrast, the southern enslavers were openly embracing the reality that some people were better than others and had the right to rule. 

They looked around at their great wealth—the European masters hanging in their parlors, the fine dresses in which they clothed their wives and daughters, and the imported olive oil on their tables—and concluded they were the ones who had figured out the true plan for human society. As South Carolina senator James Henry Hammond explained to his colleagues in March 1858, the “harmonious…and prosperous” system of the South worked precisely because a few wealthy men ruled over a larger class with “a low order of intellect and but little skill.” Hammond dismissed “as ridiculously absurd” the idea that “all men are born equal.” 

On March 21, 1861, Georgia’s Alexander Stephens, the newly-elected vice president of the Confederacy, explained to a crowd that the Confederate government rested on the “great truth” that the Black man “is not equal to the white man; that…subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.” Stephens told listeners that the Confederate government “is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.”

Not every white southerner thought secession from the United States was a good idea. Especially as the winter wore into spring and Lincoln made no effort to attack the South, conservative leaders urged their hot-headed neighbors to slow down. But for decades, southerners had marinated in rhetoric about their strength and independence from the federal government, and as Senator Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana later wrote, “[t]he prudent and conservative men South,” were not “able to stem the wild torrent of passion which is carrying everything before it…. It is a revolution...of the most intense character…and it can no more be checked by human effort, for the time, than a prairie fire by a gardener’s watering pot.”

Southern white elites celebrated the idea of a new nation, one they dominated, convinced that the despised Yankees would never fight. “So far as civil war is concerned,” one Atlanta newspaper wrote in January 1861, “we have no fears of that in Atlanta.” White southerners boasted that “a lady’s thimble will hold all the blood that will be shed” in establishing a new nation. Senator James Chesnut of South Carolina went so far as to vow that he would drink all the blood shed as a consequence of southern secession. 

Chesnut’s promise misread the situation. Northerners recognized that if Americans accepted the principle that some men were better than others, and permitted southern Democrats to spread that principle by destroying the United States, they had lost democracy. "I should like to know, if taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it stop?” Lincoln had asked in 1858.

Northerners rejected the white southerners’ radical attempt to destroy the principles of the Declaration of Independence. They understood that it was not just Black rights at stake. Arguments like that of Stephens, that some men were better than others, “are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world,” Lincoln said. “You will find that all the arguments in favor of king-craft were of this class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden…. Turn in whatever way you will—whether it come from the mouth of a King, an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for enslaving the men of another race, it is all the same old serpent….”

Northerners rejected the slaveholders’ unequal view of the world, seeing it as a radical reworking of the nation’s founding principles. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 to put down the rebellion against the government. He called for “loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity of popular government; and to redress wrongs already long enough endured.”

Like their southern counterparts, northerners also dismissed the idea that a civil war would be bloody. They were so convinced that a single battle would bring southerners to their senses that inhabitants of Washington, D.C., as well as congressmen and their wives packed picnics and took carriages out to Manassas, Virginia, to watch the Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. They decamped in panic as the battle turned against the United States army and soldiers bolted past them, flinging haversacks and rifles as they fled.

For their part, southerners were as shocked by the battle as the people of the North were. “Never have I conceived,” one South Carolina soldier wrote, “of such a continuous, rushing hailstorm of shot, shell, and musketry as fell around and among us for hours together. We who escaped are constantly wondering how we could possibly have come out of the action alive.” 

Over the next four years, the Civil War would take more than 620,000 lives and cost the United States more than $5 billion. By 1865, two-thirds of the assessed value of southern wealth had evaporated; two-fifths of the livestock— horses and draft animals for tilling fields as well as pigs and sheep for food— were dead. Over half the region's farm machinery had been destroyed, most factories were burned, and railroads were gone, either destroyed or worn out. But by the end of the conflagration, the institution of human enslavement as the central labor system for the American South was destroyed. 

On March 4, 1865, when a weary Lincoln took the oath of office for a second time, he reviewed the war’s history. “To strengthen, perpetuate and extend [slavery] was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it,” he said. “Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. 

“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered—that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”

“Both parties deprecated war but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish,” he said. 

“And the war came.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON