Equality and its Enemies

 On this day:

180
Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians. This is the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world.
1762
Catherine II becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia.
1791
Members of the French National Guard under the command of General Lafayette open fire on a crowd of radical Jacobins at the Champ de Mars, Paris, during the French Revolution, killing as many as 50 people.
1794
The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne are executed 10 days prior to the end of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror.
1918
On the orders of the Bolshevik Party carried out by Cheka, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia.
1918
The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SMU U-55; 5 lives are lost.
1936
Spanish Civil War: An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain starts the civil war.
1938
Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the “wrong way” to Ireland and becomes known as “Wrong Way” Corrigan.
1989
First flight of the B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber.
1996
TWA Flight 800: Off the coast of Long Island, New York, a Paris-bound TWA Boeing 747 explodes, killing all 230 on board.
1998
A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. 

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“Those who dislike AI have essentially refused their own evolution. Those who condemn AI are themselves spitting upwards.”--Masayoshi Son

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The Democratic Socialists of America are calling to scrap the U.S. executive branch, the Senate and the Electoral College in a radical manifesto aiming to end “the two-party system.”

The “Workers Deserve More” declaration would expand the House of Representatives, which would select the president and members of the Supreme Court — tearing up the Constitution and switching to a European-style parliamentary system.

Think of it as replacing Jefferson, Madison, and Hamilton with Mamdani, AOC, Ilhan Omar, and the consultants who came up with Platner.

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The creation of the ICC (above), lauded by many for its supposed good intentions, is a genuine, Old World artifact.

In this particularly non-American event, self-appointed people appointed unelected bureaucrats to exert power over others. Like colonizers.

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This is the anniversary of the murder of the Romanovs. It must be remembered that these child-killers were only fulfilling the Marxist vision of caste warfare. Exterminating a genetic enemy, root and branch. Of course, babies would have been easier....

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Equality and its Enemies

Apparently, income inequality--or yacht inequality or good looks inequality-- continues to stalk this great land, and we will meet it with relentless cosmetic intervention. But who really is the great threat to the average guy? Here's a refreshing and clarifying take:

"While discussions around income inequality often target billionaires — and now a trillionaire — it is crucial to recognize that the most profound economic control lies not in the hands of a few rich Americans such as Musk, but rather within the halls of government.

Consider Congress. This joint assembly of just 535 individuals — less than 0.00016% of the U.S. population — spends approximately $7 trillion every year, accounting for about 23% of the more than $31 trillion U.S. economy. This Congress leaves just 77% of the income for the remaining 99.99984% of us. The 535 members exert economic influence that dwarfs that of the wealthiest individuals.

Based on the latest Forbes 400 list, along with reasonable estimates for the next wealthiest 135 people, an estimate of the combined net worth of the wealthiest 535 individuals in the United States, the same number as members of Congress, is about $7.2 trillion, which translates roughly to around $400 billion in annual income.

Thus, the 535 members of Congress spend 17.5 times more annually than the richest Americans. But wait. It gets worse. While the richest Americans spend their time running their businesses and vacationing on their luxury yachts, they mostly leave the rest of us alone to live as we please.

These rich Americans mostly don’t even know each other, don’t have meetings to coordinate their actions and don’t meddle in our lives on a daily basis. In contrast, Congress meets regularly not only to decide how to spend those trillions but also to conspire to regulate so many facets of our lives: what drugs we can take, what health insurance we can buy and even what light bulbs we are allowed to use in our homes.

Everyone who thinks the rich should do more to solve our social and economic problems should instead be asking why Congress, with 17.5 times as much money to spend every single year, hasn’t yet solved any of these problems.

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If we are genuinely concerned about the concentration of wealth and power, our focus must shift — from the billionaires and trillionaire among us to our elected officials in Washington. They are the real oligarchs."--from Lawson