News bits: Wealth transfer watch; The Ukraine war bankrupted Russia

TruthOut writes about data from a Rand study showing massive wealth transfer to the top 1% since 1975:

Sanders: 1 Percent Has Sapped $79T in Wealth 

From Bottom 90 Percent Since 1975

In 2023 alone, $3.9 trillion was sapped from the bottom 90 percent— enough to give every worker a $32,000 raise

A new analysis has found that nearly $80 trillion in wealth has been redistributed from the bottom 90 percent of Americans to the richest 1 percent over the past 50 years, as neoliberal policies have come to roost and billionaires are poised to use their vast power to worsen wealth inequality in the coming years.

Five years ago, researchers for RAND found that roughly $47 trillion earned by the working class between 1975 and 2018 was instead given to the richest 1 percent, in 2018 dollars. This calculation was based on calculations of the growth of the bottom 90 percent in the decades after World War II, when income distribution held steady between groups.

In a new analysis published last month by RAND extending the analysis to 2023, RAND found that that figure is now $79 trillion in 2023 dollars, with inflation accounting for roughly $10 trillion of the growth.

And one wonders why so many voters were angry about the cost of everything. This mess is bipartisan. Democratic Party neoliberalism has failed the American people as a whole. The Republicans? They were pro-elites even before the Dems abandoned New Deal principles in the 1980s and 1990s. To a significant extent, the Dems backed away from defending worker's and consumer's rights and regulating capital markets and businesses to tamp down abusive excesses of unregulated capitalism. Instead, that mindset was replaced by a neoliberal or "free market" policy mindset.

Like the article says, neoliberal policy chickens came home to roost. Now they're seriously fouling the chicken coup.

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The Moscow Times, a reliable news source, reports that the Ukraine war has in essence bankrupted Russia, leaving it weak and open to negotiation demands:

Russia's Hidden War Debt Creates a Looming Credit Crisis

Moscow has been quietly pursuing a two-pronged strategy to finance its escalating war costs. In addition to the publicly scrutinized defense budget, it has set up a system of state-directed, off-budget soft loans where the Kremlin badgers banks into making easy credits to defense-sector companies to unofficially fund its war machine.

But with the soaring cost of borrowing that is now becoming a problem that could end in a debilitating crisis, according to a report from the Davis Center at Harvard University.

This lesser-known mechanism, instituted shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, has ballooned, with the volume of loans running into hundreds of billions of dollars. Companies that were forced to take out these loans are starting to squeal from the pain of servicing the rapidly rising interest payments after interest rates climbed into double digits.

After inflation took off, the Russian Central Bank had to reverse loosened monetary policy in the second quarter of 2023. Since then, prime interest rates have climbed to the current all-time high of 21%. That imposes crushing interest payments on Russian capitalists. TMT article also reports that since mid-2022, off-budget financing led to a record $415 billion surge in corporate borrowing. According to one analyst, about $210-250 billion (21-25 trillion rubles) was financed by compulsory loans to defense contractors. Russia's defense spending was somewhat over 10 trillion rubles in 2024. Informal state-directed lending to Russian defense companies is about double all the officially reported military spending.

Given its weak financial situation, djt, NATO and the Ukraine are in a strong negotiating position against Putin. However, since djt is now openly aligned with Putin and corrupt authoritarianism, it is almost certain that djt will refuse to use that leverage to force a reasonable peace deal with Russia. Instead, he will betray the US, and democracy. He will use his power to prop up Putin and corrupt authoritarianism while throwing the Ukraine under the Russian bus.

The anti-democratic moral rot of djt and MAGA elites is beyond outrageous. It is literally evil.

The new MAGA tactic: Block inconvenient facts and truths

There is another clear sign that our federal government has been taken from us and converted into some kind of an authoritarian MAGA hell. This thug MAGA tactic uses House committee chairmen to block inconvenient evidence from entry into the congressional record. That violates House rules. However, MAGA elites do not care about inconvenient rules if they get in the way of blocking inconvenient evidence.

In this 1:42 video, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) refuses to let Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) enter evidence into the record according to standard House rules. He keeps interrupting Pressley by blithering about entry by "unanimous consent" as if that entered the evidence into the record. That is a lie.

In this instance, Pressley is trying to present evidence related to rape statistics, specifically data that challenge MAGA narratives about immigrants and their alleged crimes. Comer say, "You can go with Mr. Frost and Mr. Green," which effectively dismisses her attempt to enter the evidence into the record. Throughout the exchange, Comer cites specific rules regarding unanimous consent, but his actions show his desire to avoid allowing Pressley to read the title and source of her evidence into the record. This evidence is significant because it exposes contradictions in the testimony provided by MAGA witnesses during the hearing. Comer's actions here show MAGA's intent to control MAGA narratives by limiting dissenting viewpoints in congressional proceedings. 

AM I CANADIAN?

 Most here know my history. Have lived in Canada half my life and will likely live here the rest of my life.

But, WHAT AM I?

Head on over to my forum (for some inspirational videos), maybe, in terms of attitude, political leaning, feeling kinship.................. I am Canadian?

Is this where we are heading? Where an entire generation of Americans will no longer feel proud of being American? 

Likely not, because displaying the American flag, chest beating, and standing tall are American traits well bred into us. 

However, would we RATHER BE Canadian? Or if you prefer, Canadianish? 

Food for thought. 

MAGA updates: Fudging the data; How the ABA sees MAGA; Any comments on the SOTU?

The NYT reports that the MAGA thug running the commerce department, Howard Lutnick, is planning to fudge the numbers on America's GDP to obscure evidence of an impending recession:

Comments from a member of President Trump’s cabinet over the weekend have renewed concerns that the new administration could seek to interfere with federal statistics — especially if they start to show that the economy is slipping into a recession.

In an interview on Fox News on Sunday, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, suggested that he planned to change the way the government reports data on gross domestic product in order to remove the impact of government spending.

Federal spending cuts and reducing the federal work force will be drag on economic growth in coming months. Removing federal spending from G.D.P. calculations obscures the impact of djt and MAGA policies.

Lutnick claims this will increase transparency. One can assume fudging the numbers will decrease transparency while increasing secrecy. The GDP is a measure of consumer spending, private-sector investment, net exports, and government investment and spending. That gives an approximation of all goods and services produced in a country. The definition of gross domestic product has been unchanged for decades. It is widely accepted by experts.

FWIW, Project 2025 suggests consolidating the Bureau of Economic Analysis, Census Bureau, and Bureau of Labor Statistics into a single agency. This consolidation will undermine the independence and data collection capabilities of these important agencies. They provide vital economic and demographic information. P2025 also recommends maximizing the hiring of political appointees in statistical analysis positions, which will lead to politically motivated data manipulation, i.e., lying affirmatively and by omission. djt's executive orders have already removed or manipulated over 8,000 web pages and approximately 3,000 datasets across multiple federal agencies. For MAGA seeking to hide inconvenient facts, truths and reasoning, data manipulation and secrecy are the primary go-to tactics. 

Rule of thumb: When a MAGA thug tells you something is good, e.g., more transparency, a reasonable default reaction is to believe it is bad and a lie, with the opposite goal (more secrecy) most likely intended. Let's face it, MAGA is going to lie to us over and over and over.

Lutnick

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Here's part of an open letter by the American Bar Association about how it sees the actions of djt and MAGA in terms of the rule of law, separation of powers and the role of the courts:

The ABA rejects efforts to undermine the courts and the legal profession

(well, duh!)

Three weeks ago, the American Bar Association spoke to you about values that guide us. We called upon every lawyer to insist that the government adhere to four major principles of law that have guided our country for over 200 years: Defending Judges and Courts, Acknowledging the Role of the Courts, Adhering to the Rule of Law, and Respecting the Separation of Powers and the three co-equal branches of government with distinct duties and responsibilities. These principles have been bedrocks of American democracy. The ABA does not shrink from standing in support of each of them.

Since that time, government actions evidence a clear and disconcerting pattern. If a court issues a decision this administration does not agree with, the judge is targeted. If a lawyer represents parties in a dispute with the administration, or if a lawyer represents parties the administration does not like, lawyers are targeted. We issued statements standing up for these four key principles, and a government official targeted us by instructing some of its lawyers not to attend ABA meetings or participate as speakers. These actions highlight escalating governmental efforts to interfere with fair and impartial courts, the right to counsel and due process, and the freedoms of speech and association in our country.

High-ranking government officials (appointed and elected) have made repeated calls for the impeachment of judges who issue opinions with which the government does not agree. There have been calls to impeach “corrupt judges” with no effort to produce evidence of the so called “corruption.” These have been directed only at judges who have ruled against the government position.

There have now been statements by officials criticizing judges for not following the will of the people. Judges swear oaths to follow the law, not public opinion polling or political chatter or what someone contends is the will of the people. (emphasis added)

An important point that MAGA demagoguery has successfully been poisoning the American public with is the distinction between duty to the rule of law and duty to the will of the people. In my opinion, when laws are made in good faith and in accord with existing law, the rule of law reflects the will of the people. When laws are made in bad faith, as is now the norm for djt and MAGA, I see it as anti-democratic. That is the case even if new MAGA laws are in the scope of existing law. I consider manipulation of public perceptions and laws by elites using MAGA demagoguery against us to be more authoritarian than democratic. 

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I didn't listen to any of djt's SOTU speech. The reporting about it was what I expected, lots of lies, slanders and divisiveness, not much substance. The Dems seemed to be in disarray, also as I expected.