Spore by Project Mushroom

William“ And while there’s no justification for violence against car dealers, peacefully not buying stuff is the safest form of protest imaginable for anyone fearful of retaliation by this regime. You don’t have to risk getting arrested, fired or deported; you don’t even have to wave a placard.” <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/resistance" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#resistance</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/TeslaBoycott" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TeslaBoycott</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/AntiFascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#AntiFascism</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/14/trump-musk-white-house-tesla-boycott?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/mar/14/trump-musk-white-house-tesla-boycott?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other</a>

WilliamOpenAI declares AI race “over” if training on copyrighted works isn’t fair use<a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/art" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#art</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#writing</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/books" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#books</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/ai" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#ai</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/kleptocracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#kleptocracy</a> <a href="https://mast.wmclark.com/tags/TechnoFascism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#TechnoFascism</a> <a href="https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/openai-urges-trump-either-settle-ai-copyright-debate-or-lose-ai-race-to-china/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/openai-urges-trump-either-settle-ai-copyright-debate-or-lose-ai-race-to-china/</a>

janhoglundBecause the United States lacks a functional public health system, inequality has brought a health crisis, which in turn has accelerated and reinforced inequality. It was in counties where public health collapsed in the 2010s that Trump gained the votes that won him the election. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018) <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#trump</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a>

janhoglundThere’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning. —Warren Buffett <a class="hashtag" href="https://pleroma.microblog.se/tag/oligarchy" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a>

janhoglundOligarchy works as a patronage system that dissolves democracy… American and Russian oligarchs have far more in common with one another than they do with their own populations. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/democracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#democracy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#putin</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#trump</a>

janhoglundJust as Russians used American capitalism to consolidate their own power, Americans cooperated with the Russian oligarchy with the same purpose—in the 2016 Trump presidential campaign, for example. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018) <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#capitalism</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#trump</a>

janhoglundIn the 2010s, the United States approached the Russian standard of inequality. Although no American oligarchical clan has as yet captured the state, the emergence of such groups in the 2010s (Kochs, Mercers, Trumps, Murdochs) was hard to miss. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018) <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/koch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#koch</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/mercer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#mercer</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#trump</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/murdoch" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#murdoch</a>

janhoglundInequality of income and wealth grew drastically from the 1980s through the 2010s. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#capitalism</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a>

janhoglundWhereas workers paid an increasing tax burden through payroll taxes, corporations and wealthy families saw theirs drop by half or more. Even as the percentage of income and wealth at the top of the American distribution increased, the percentage of tax expected from the most fortunate decreased. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#capitalism</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/tax" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#tax</a>

janhoglundAt the same time, the United States was very weak on the basic policies that stabilized middle classes elsewhere: retirement pensions, public education, public transport, health care, paid vacation, and parental leave. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#capitalism</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a>

janhoglundIn the 1980s, the federal government weakened the position of trade unions. … The productivity of the American workforce grew…at about 2% a year, but the wages of traditional workers increased more slowly, if at all. Over the same period, the pay of executives increased, sometimes drastically. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/capitalism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#capitalism</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a>

janhoglundIn the 1990s, Trump Tower was one of only two buildings in New York City to allow anonymous purchases of apartment units, an opportunity that the Russian mob quickly exploited. Wherever anonymous real estate purchases were allowed, Russians bought and sold apartments… These practices…consolidated the Russian oligarchy…and allowed Donald Trump to claim to be a “a VERY successful businessman.” —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#putin</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#trump</a>

janhoglundRussians used shell companies to purchase American real estate, often anonymously. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a>

janhoglundIn June 2016, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., and Paul Manafort met with Russians in Trump Tower to consider Russian offers to hurt the Clinton campaign. One of the intermediaries was Ike Kaveladze… Kaveladze set up anonymous companies in Delaware (at least two thousand). … In Delaware, 285,000 distinct entities were registered at a single physical address. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018) <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/kushner" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#kushner</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#trump</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/manafort" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#manafort</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/kaveladze" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#kaveladze</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a>

Dave RahardjaFuck Louis DeJoy.I can’t believe Biden let him keep his job.“USPS strikes deal with Elon Musk's DOGE team for reform help”<a href="https://sfba.social/tags/kakistocracy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#kakistocracy</a> <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://sfba.social/tags/badDOGE" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#badDOGE</a><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/usps-signs-agreement-with-elon-musks-doge-team-assistance-2025-03-13/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank">https://www.reuters.com/world/us/usps-signs-agreement-with-elon-musks-doge-team-assistance-2025-03-13/</a>

janhoglundMoney gravitates towards where it cannot be seen, which in the 2010s was in various offshore tax havens. … The United States was an especially permissive environment for Russians who wished to steal and then launder money. Much of the Russian national wealth that was supposed to be building the Russian state in the 2000s and 2010s found its way to shell corporations in offshore havens. Many of these were in America. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018) <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/money" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#money</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a>

janhoglundTyrants first hide and launder their money, then use it to enforce authoritarianism at home—or export it abroad. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018) <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/money" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#money</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/authoritarianism" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#authoritarianism</a>

janhoglundAt the very top of Russia’s grotesque upside-down wealth pyramid were Vladimir Putin and his personal friends. Most often they gained wealth from Russia’s sale of natural gas and oil, without any effort on their part. One of Putin’s friends, a cellist, became a billionaire for no reason that he could provide. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#putin</a>

janhoglund…in 2016 the top decile of the Russian population owned 89% of the total household wealth. …the United States had a comparable figure: 76%, and rising. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom (2018) <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/usa" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#usa</a>

janhoglundRussian oligarchy emerged in the 1990s, but was consolidated as the kleptocratic control of the state by a single oligarchical clan under Putin in the 2000s. —Timothy Snyder, The Road To Unfreedom <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/oligarchy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#oligarchy</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#russia</a> <a href="https://mastodon.nu/tags/putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#putin</a>

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