Mammon category archive
The Waste Land 0
No, not the poem by T. S. Elliot, though it is indeed an excellent poem.
Our environment, once Donald Trump finishes ravaging and ravishing it.
Electric Bugaboo 0
Apparently, Tesla reckons that what you don’t know can’t hurt them.
The Greased Palm, a Notion of Immigrants Dept. 0
Trump decrees that they can pay to play.
The Art of the Con 0
Methinks my old Philly DL friend Noz makes an excellent point.
The Crypto Con Artists 0
Emma talks with Molly White, crypto and tech industry researcher, about the Trump family’s participation in the crypto con and about the larger con that is crypto.
You can visit Molly White’s website.
Aside:
Emma uses the phrase “cryto industry.” I guess, if an industry can be based on thin air and maintained by wishful thinking, that might be a valid phras–oh, never mind.
Suffer the Children 0
As we know, that’s not scripture. That’s a Republican family value. To illustrate:
Former USAID staffer Karen Van Roekel, writing at the Des Moines Register, is dismayed at the mean for the sake of mean in the Trump maladministration’s decision to shut down that agency. A snippet (emphasis added):
The Key to the Club 0
In the course of a longer article about Donald Trump’s plan fever dream to evict Palestinians from Gaza so at to turn it into a Trump resort–and the cruelty, avarice, and cold-heartedness inherent in said play–Tom Moran mentions, almost in passing, the lesson that Trump’s dupes, symps, and fellow travelers have learned. It’s quite simple, really.
Flatter Trump, and you’re in the club. Challenge him, and you’re dead meat.
This New Gilded Age 0
Via Truthout, Sarah Anderson runs the numbers. Here’s just one number:
The gap between CEO compensation and median worker pay at Starbucks hit 6,666 to 1 last year.
In other words, to make as much money as their CEO made in 2024, typical baristas would’ve had to start brewing macchiatos around the time humans first invented the wheel.
More numbers at the link.
The Reverse Robin Hood Party, Reprise 0
David notes that Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” seems to be somewhat unpopular with the populace.
The Reverse Robin Hood Party 0
Michael in Norfolk makes the case that Reagan’s trickle-on economics is still exacting its toll, as Republican policies make the rich richer and the poor more desperate.
Stray Thought 0
As I watch the ads for sports gambling on my telly vision, I can’t help but wonder whether the prospect of a new Black Sox scandal might be more than a mere farfetched fantasy.
Emoluments 0
Farron runs the numbers.
The Privatization Scam 0
Emma talks with Whitney Wimbish about how private prisons are profiteering from Donald Trump’s campaign against brown people immigrants.
Facebook Frolics 0
At SFGate, Stephen Council reports on the Zuckerborg’s turn to AI in its quest for assimilation. Council is not sanguine.
Here’s a tiny bit from his piece.
His point that people need more friends gels with recent research into the ill-health effects of isolation. But Zuckerberg’s idea of patching over loneliness with algorithmic avatars is an ugly vision of the world: a purposeful unraveling of the social fabric that gives us community, culture, accountability and love. We need to refuse this vision. The solution to not having enough friends is — needs to be — making more friends. More care and responsibility for our neighbors, not bubbles of solitude.
This New Gilded Age 0
In addition to all the other stupid, petty, and destructive things this is, how is this not also theft of labor?