Is America an Oligarchy?

Gaslit Nation

Trump, Politics, Left, Democracy, Resistance, News, Society & Culture, Progressive, Liberal, Kendzior, Chalupa, Resist

4.8 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2024

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is America an oligarchy? This debate between Andrea and Felix Salmon, author of The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal, took place over the summer, but was delayed due to Biden dropping out of the election and Kamala Harris taking his place. We're revisiting it this week to assess how well it has aged.

America’s twelve richest men are now worth a combined $2 trillion. One of them, Jeff Bezos, reportedly interfered with the independence of the Washington Post, triggering a mass exodus after he blocked the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Another, Elon Musk, is threatening Republicans in Congress—one of the last remaining checks on our political system—warning that they must submit to Trump’s White House or face his warchest in the GOP primaries. Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars on Trump’s election and has been rewarded by being a sidekick President, meeting with world leaders, including Trump’s recent call with Zelensky.

A report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office this year revealed that “the top 10% of wealthy Americans now control 60% of the nation’s wealth, while the poorer half of the country holds only 6%.” America braces for the impact of a second Trump White House, packed with billionaires and a PayPal mafia shadow presidency. Deregulation, monopolies, and tax cuts for the rich will exacerbate America’s income inequality crisis and fuel further political unrest.

Luigi Mangione, also known as the alleged Claims Adjuster assassin, sparked a national conversation this week in America. For a brief moment, Americans across the political spectrum set aside their differences and united around horror stories of insurance company greed. If we resist getting drawn into Republican-driven culture wars, we have the potential to unite with people from all sides of the political divide against a common enemy.

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Show Notes:

The Phoenix Economy: Work, Life, and Money in the New Not Normal by Felix Salmon https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-phoenix-economy-work-life-and-money-in-the-new-not-normal-felix-salmon/19257986?ean=9780063076280

Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris, paper reports https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/business/money-report/jeff-bezos-killed-washington-post-endorsement-of-kamala-harris-paper-reports/4009739/

Trump selling deregulation https://x.com/samstein/status/1866574253534876026

Elon Musk warns Republicans against standing in Trump’s way — or his https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-politics-trump-7e26c829af224a1f9d67c27cea085e68

America's 12 Richest Men Now Worth a Combined $2 Trillion https://www.newsweek.com/americas-12-richest-men-worth-combined-2-trillion-1995950#:~:text=An%20analysis%20by%20Forbes%20showed,of%20more%20than%20%242%20trillion.

Elon Musk spends $277 million to back Trump and Republican candidates https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-277-million-trump-republican-candidates-donations/

Wall Street continues to roll higher in wake of Trump victory https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-11-11/stock-market-today-wall-street-rolls-higher-as-bitcoin-bursts-above-87-000

America's top 10% controls 60% of the wealth. The bottom half holds 6%. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/10/24/americas-richest-10-percent-controls-60-percent-of-wealth/75790850007/

Trump’s Truth Social is now a public company. Experts warn its multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic https://www.newsweek.com/americas-12-richest-men-worth-combined-2-trillion-1995950#:~:text=An%20analysis%20by%20Forbes%20showed,of%20more%20than%20%242%20trillion.

Slain UnitedHealth CEO faced ongoing court battles, threats Common complaints against insurer denials were written on bullet casings found where Brian Thompson was killed. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/12/06/unitedhealthcare-ceo-brian-thompson-threats-court-battles/

Exclusive: Luigi's Manifesto Read the manifesto the media refused to publish https://www.kenklippenstein.com/p/luigis-manifesto

Transcript

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0:00.0	Gaslit Nation is more than a podcast. If you believe, like we do, that another world is possible,
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0:19.5	the independent journalism that the
0:21.2	world needs now more than ever. Join us at patreon.com forward slash gaslit. We can't wait to
0:26.6	welcome you.
0:43.3	Hey. Hey everyone, welcome to Gaslit Nation.
0:47.5	I am Andrea Chalupa, a journalist and filmmaker and the writer and producer of the journalistic thriller Mr. Jones about Stalin's genocide, famine, and Ukraine.
0:51.4	And today we have a special debate.
0:57.0	Is the U.S. an oligarchy? Spoiler alert,
1:02.4	yes it is. I will be going up against Felix Salmon, author of the Phoenix economy, work, life,
1:09.4	and money, and the new not normal. This conversation was recorded during the election during the summer. So much was happening then, obviously, with Biden dropping out and Kamala replacing him.
1:13.8	So this conversation got pushed, but I think now is a perfect time to run it.
1:17.8	Why?
1:18.8	Because Americans across the political spectrum have been united in a love affair of a young assassin nicknamed the claims adjuster.
1:33.5	And this is a phenomenon, so this Robin Hood type folk hero. And yes, there's all these
1:38.8	TikTok videos of folk songs in tribute to the claims adjuster that are online. Some of them are being taken down.
1:46.2	And I'm sharing all this with you to remind you all that what we're witnessing happened in the 1920s,
1:54.9	1930s during the Great Depression, another time like today with historic levels of income inequality, with rising threats of
2:04.4	fascism, because remember, what are the three main ingredients that produce fascism?
2:10.7	Income inequality, huge historic levels of income inequality, political instability, like January
	...

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