Oligarchy

United Serfs of America – Low Income Workers at Jimmy John’s Forced to Sign Noncompete Agreements

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Screen Shot 2014-10-14 at 2.29.52 PMWhile oligarchs and corrupt politicians continue to loot the world with impunity, low income workers and the middle class continue to be pushed into a life of misery and serfdom under a neo-feudal plutocracy. The latest example has manifested itself under ridiculous noncompete clauses that low wage workers are being forced to sign at Jimmy John’s.

The Huffington Post notes that:

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New York Times Admits Wages Haven’t Grown in 15 Years, Worst Since Great Depression

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The following article from the New York Times is actually pretty awful. However, the admission that wages have failed to grow in 15 years is important. Particularly in light of the fact that we are five years into the second so-called “recovery” since the turn of the century. These are recoveries that only Joseph Goebbels could love.

While the wage growth stagnation observation is helpful, what’s so sad about the article is that rather than dive into the underlying systemic issues driving this horrible statistic, the author spends most of the article explaining why we should be optimistic. It’s a nice try, but when systemic issues aren’t being addressed from a systemic standpoint, things don’t just magically get better.

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The Status Quo Playbook Beyond 2014: Corporate Regulations, Professional Politicians and the Strip Mining of Sovereign Assets

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Screen Shot 2014-09-26 at 11.48.29 AMIt’s not often that I come across a blog post that so interests and impresses me that I drop everything else and decide to highlight it. The post I am referring to is by David Malone of the Golem XIV blog. The pieces that caught my attention consist of a three part series titled The Next Crisis – A Manifesto for the Supremacy of the 1%. Two parts have been published thus far, with the third section forthcoming.

The reason I believe his work here is so important, is because I think the scenarios he outlines as the plan the global oligarchy intends to put into place during the next crisis are quite possible, if not probable. Knowing the tactics of those who wish to oppress you and lock you into perpetual serfdom is half the battle. We must get inside of the devious minds of these people so that we are prepared for their next assault, which without question, is coming our way.

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Welcome to the Oligarchy – United States Leads the Developed World in Share of Low Wage Jobs

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Screen Shot 2014-09-22 at 1.18.23 PMIn an apparent attempt to advise investors on how they can take advantage of America’s transformation into a neo-feudal oligarchy in a 50 page research report, Morgan Stanley has put together some very interesting charts that were highlighted earlier today by MarketWatch.

While I suggest taking a look through all of the charts, none of them is more telling and depressing than the one that shows how the U.S. leads the developed world in the share of low wage jobs. See below:

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Video of the Day: The Republic of Bill

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I saw this video a couple of weeks back, but never got around to posting it. The Republic of Bill sounds like a pretty great place. Where do I sign up? In Liberty, Michael Krieger Like this post? Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G Follow me on Twitter.

A “Ring of Steel” – The UK Spends $80 Million on a Massive Fence to Protect Politicians Ahead of NATO Summit

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Screen Shot 2014-08-29 at 12.07.54 PMMost of us woke up this morning to news that the UK had raised its terror threat level from “substantial” to “severe.” Considering the competence and trustworthiness of the nation’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, there must be some specific threat they’re concerned about to justify instilling fear in a population of 65 million. Nope.

Although the new threat level rates the risk of an attack on the UK to “highly likely,” Home Secretary Theresa May stated that “there was no evidence to suggest one was imminent.” Well then.

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Poverty Profiteering in 2014 – Introducing Private Probation Companies

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As N.P.R. reported in May, services that “were once free, including those that are constitutionally required,” are now frequently billed to offenders: the cost of a public defender, room and board when jailed, probation and parole supervision, electronic monitoring devices, arrest warrants, drug and alcohol testing, and D.N.A. sampling. This can go to extraordinary lengths: in Washington state, N.P.R. found, offenders even “get charged a fee for a jury trial — with a 12-person jury costing $250, twice the fee for a six-person jury.”

– From Tuesday’s New York Times op-ed, The Expanding World of Poverty Capitalism 

We’ve all heard about the private prison industry by now. An idea so insane and so rampant with perverse incentives that no civilized society would ever allow such a concept to take hold. Yet taken hold it has in the Banana Republic formally known as America.

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Monks and Martyrs: A Controversial Perspective on Dissent in 21st Century America

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Two months ago, I highlighted a powerful video from Warren Pollock in the post: Video of the Day – The Religion of Consumerism. Today, I am highlighting another one of his videos.

While this one is no less interesting, it’s likely to be quite a bit more controversial. He poses questions that philosophers have no doubt pondered from the very first moment human beings came together to organize into centralized political structures.

Namely, what is the responsibility of a citizen in a society in which the majority is ruled by a small minority? By living passively within this system has a citizen de facto given his or her consent to the minority? If so, is that citizen therefore ultimately responsible for the fate of the society as a whole?

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The Bailout of Robert Mugabe – How Wall Street Money Led to Intimidation, Torture and Death in Zimbabwe

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Four days later, Camec announced it was using the money it raised to purchase a joint venture with the Zimbabwe Mining Development Corp., or ZMDC, Mugabe’s state-owned mining company. The joint venture owned the platinum stakes on the Great Dyke that had been taken back just a few weeks earlier from Anglo American. The price included $5 million in cash; Camec issued shares to partners whose identities were shielded by a shell company based in the British Virgin Islands; and $100 million to Mugabe’s government. Camec said the $100 million was a cash loan “to comply with its contractual obligations to the government of Zimbabwe” for the platinum claims. It said the money would be repaid out of ZMDC’s share of future platinum earnings. Camec’s balance sheets for the period make clear that funding for the platinum rights came from the private transactions involving Och-Ziff.

– From the excellent Bloomberg article, The Hedge Fund and the Despot 

The $100 million figure mentioned above that flowed directly to Zimbabwe’s brutal dictator Robert Mugabe was more than just a cash infusion to a corrupt dictator. Rather, it was a veritable political lifeline to a desperate and vulnerable despot. Facing defeat in the initial round of elections to the opposition, and with the nation’s currency hyper-inflating, the only thing he had at his disposal were valuable platinum assets that were at the time held by Anglo American Platinum. So Mugabe did what any desperate tyrant would do. He expropriated the assets from Anglo-American and immediately put them on the market to raise money to crush his opposition. Enter Wall Street.

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How Senator Jay Rockefeller (Worth Over $100 Million) Shamelessly Wastes Taxpayer Money

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Screen Shot 2014-08-22 at 7.54.43 AMJust in case you still had any lingering doubt about how members of Congress see themselves, and the lack of any sort of respect they have for taxpayer dollars, you need to look no further than Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia.

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