Who will stand up to the oligarchs?

At what point can we accurately call the US an oligarchy, a plutocracy, or a kleptocracy?

Who will stand up to them?

The Democrats’ disastrous defeat in November not only likely discredited the party’s old-guard leadership for years to come. The defeat has also, at least temporarily, taken the wind out of the sails of the Democratic left and demoralized the campus protest movement. I hope I’m wrong, but I see what I see.

Trump is calling for a huge MAGA rally on the eve of the inauguration. We’re less than three weeks away, and any thought of a repeat of the million-women march in D.C. that followed Trump’s 2017 inauguration has vanished.

Thank you, Ann Telnaes, for pointing the way.

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Former WaPo cartoon artist Ann Telnaes stood up to them.

Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Washington Post, resigned after its editorial page editor rejected a cartoon she created mocking media and tech titans bowing before Donald Trump.

Silicon Valley billionaires run to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ass.

Last month, Trump summoned Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Miami for a pre-inaugural tete-a-tete. A nervous Zuckerberg dropped everything and hopped on his private jet in time for lunch.

According to NYT senior reporter Maggie Haberman,

“It’s not clear whether Zuckerberg sought this meeting or Trump sought this meeting, but one person described it as Trump essentially saying hey … ‘why don’t you come over to Mar-a-Lago?'” she said Wednesday evening on CNN’s “AC360.”

According to Haberman, it's clear that in various industries, particularly in tech, many individuals are approaching Trump, rather than vice versa.

Trump has previously called Facebook “an enemy of the people,” and threatened to send “election fraudsters”—Mark Zuckerberg included—to prison.

So Zuckerberg donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee—a small price to pay for future gains.

Was it all worth it? You bet.

After applying a little ChapStick, Zuckerberg is making sweeping changes to the social internet, all in line with the desires of Trump and his supporters. It’s out with those bothersome fact-checkers that the MAGAs deride. He has also appointed three new members to Meta’s board of directors, including Trump crony Dana White.

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Through Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), Zuckerberg owns or has significant stakes in several social internet companies. Here are some of the key ones:

• Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook): The parent company of Zuckerberg's ventures, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

• Instagram: A popular photo and video-sharing app acquired by Facebook in 2012.

• WhatsApp: A widely-used messaging app acquired by Facebook in 2014 for $19 billion.

• Oculus VR: A virtual reality company acquired by Facebook in 2014, now integrated under the Meta brand.

• Threads: A new social networking platform launched in 2023, built by the Instagram team for sharing text.

Trump was thrown off Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram in 2021 for what the company called his "praise for people engaged in violence at the Capitol on January 6." But that suspension has now been lifted.

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Aside from munching on those shrimp and fresh oysters at Mar a Lago, Z did all right for himself.

According to a report from Business Insider, Zuckerberg and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang have jointly grown $28 billion richer in just the first three trading days of this year, meaning they're now worth $350 billion combined — more than Bank of America.

Of course, that sum pales compared to Elon Musk, already the world's richest person, whose net worth grew by a staggering $213 billion this year alone—primarily driven by his close ties to Trump.

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Paying to Pray

Trump’s transition team reportedly plans an interfaith prayer service called the "One America, One Light Sunday Service" and is requiring a $100,000 donation or $200,000 in fundraising to attend the service the day before his inauguration. Participants can worship alongside the oligarch and his wife Melania. But those who want to join need to pay to pray.

It seems like a fair price to me. After all, DT had to pay $130,000 to pray [sic] with Stormy Daniels.