Anand talks to Ben and Brett Meiselas of MeidasTouch about fraidy-cat billionaires and how you — yes, you — can build a pro-democracy movement to take back power from them
I live in Berkeley, California and I have met no one who likes Musk, Trump or the Republicans party—not my Mexican cleaning lady or her children or my Honduran gardener nor all of the academics I know nor my neighbors, nor ANYONE! We are all terrified and looking for ways to stop the shredding of our government.
Hi Anand, I have started two actions that I can already see a lot of moment with in our neighborhood.
1. FREEDOM FRIDAYS : at 5pm every Friday we go out to a local intersection for just 20 minutes (inspired by (BLM) with signs that say things like “PEOPLE OVER BILLIONAIRES” “A BWTTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE” “UNITE” and “FABULOUSLY FIGHTING FASCISM” this is so easy and has rippe effects across the neighborhood. People are joining! We have a Google group. We hope this will be duplicated across every block in the US.
2. GIVE A DAMN (Sundays) : neighbors meet for one hour every week with the goal of building community and sharing information and actions. 20 min intros, 30 min teach-in, 20 min people announce actions, things to read, etc… we have a slack where people can expand on the info.
I hope people will duplicate these actions across the city and the country. Please help amplify.
Oops! That’s more than one hour! 20 min teach-ins :) sometimes the meeting takes a bit longer but we try to have a predictable format so it feels doable. AND if in the morning we have coffee / bagels, at night fun drinks ! We rotate whose place it’s at.
Excellent discussion! Throughout the oligarchs talk, I kept hearing the refrain from Ry Cooder's song The Very Thing That Makes You Rich Will Make Me Poor (directed at oligarchs rather than a lover of course)
I think we are coalescing somehow but there is fear and concern and doubt about what will work to bring about change. We helped bring about a cultural revolution in the ‘60s and ‘70s and there is a lot of blowback as a result. The right-wing is playing to people’s fears about how even the tiny number of kids and others who are trans or gender fluid will wreak havoc on their own lives for example. Also the fear of immigrants is an old American standby that creates fear and loathing of “the other” that politicians use to galvanize their constituents.
We need to offer some kind of compromise that feels safe! And I think the shredding of our economy and the move to a warlike stance against our Western allies will only lead to greater impoverishment and loss of liberties.
Musk’s demotion is to have the Federal cabinet leader liable for future Federal employee firings. Musk has thousands of civil lawsuits coming his way for fired-employee damages. There is a fraud by Trump and Musk. Americans are being played. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. We are being distracted by hundreds of line item veto “ex post facto” savings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by Federal employee firings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by thousands of cancellations of grants and contracts, all of which are illegal. The courts are intervening now. The Fraud on America: Trump, Musk, and Speaker Johnson are trying to ram through the tax cuts, before: • the courts cite them with civil contempt and levy huge financial penalties • the impact of their illegal actions are reversed, and their “savings” flip back to $0.00. I call for immediate full disclosures of what currently is in douchebag Musk’s DOGE bag of findings. He is hiding that at the moment since the courts have stifled his efforts. Let us make him certify his cost and pricing data, so that it comes under the Truth in Negotiations Act, now the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Act (Title 41 U.S.C., Chapter 35). That must be required. I also call for Musk’s testimony under oath before Congress. I call for Musk to divulge the truth of what he found, after he deletes what the courts say he cannot do. He cannot fire. He cannot cancel a single contract or grant. He cannot impound funds. Johnson intends to use Musk’s currently bogus data in his CR bid. Crook. Spare me the BS braggadocio about saving billions and billions. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. I don’t buy crap when we are talking about a $4.5 trillion tax cut. I say Trump and Musk’s ploy is all a fraud founded on a bag of smoke and mirrors, now a hidden accounting not corrected by current court edicts, and a “bury you in paper” con job. Let us see it. Empty the douchebag’s DOGE bag. Transparency now! Don’t let the douchebag hide it another day. We cannot shoot any line item down until the residual data is displayed. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/empty-doges-bag?r=3m1bs
Brussels, Belgium calling. I read Anand's brilliant book "Winners Take All", and so agree with the tenet of this book: the überwealthy do NOT want to change a system that benefits them. So they think they get away with this by engaging in philanthropy. Even a Bill Gates, who is by far not one of the "worse" billionaires, did not agree with Elisabeth Warren when, as a candidate for the presidency, she proposed extra taxing them. Look at where the US are now.
I love your self-deprecating references to your books warning of the dangers ahead and that no one was persuaded. Your cassandra predictions have become realities.. nonetheless. I AM DEVOTED TO YOUR SUBSTACK , and will not miss any one of them. Anand surprised that you drink PEPSICOLA, not good for you.
Are they afraid? Or do they just really like everything their 'Don' (mafia don) is doing because guess what? Those things benefit them. The Don's tariffs that affect Musks companies have been lifted, or were written into the order as exempt. Not pansies.
Thank you for this discussion that added depth to the previous conversation with Anat Shenker-Osorio. It helps my understanding of the whole picture.
I wanted to pick up on the portion which mentions Anat’s recommendations. The outcome of the “social proof” is, she said, to create a “permission structure” for others to do the same.
To me, with these actions, we are weaving a fabric of community, communication, solidarity, and opposition. Her big push to make it visible feels essential.
One of my many actions is to become a billboard. I wear conversation starter t-shirts “Dems Make Life Better,” from the org of the same name and T-shirt from Field Team 6 that has a QR code on the back that sends you to Voter Registration site. My Swing Left group is considering other ways to be visible, like letters to the editor, photos from the various demonstrations sent to papers as a press release, we are collaborating with other progressive groups and more.
Point is, once you let your imagination go, there are many VERY accessible things that can be done to blast out messages of “social proof” that the opposition exists and it is BIG.
We need to face the fact that our national situation is ancestral karma. This country was built on the blood of Native Americans and the bodies of African negroes. This country started out as a kleptocracy with our white ancestors' stealing of Native Americans' land and resources and lives in genocidal attempts to get these pesky savages out of our way. Our white ancestors bought the stolen living bodies of African negroes and shackled their lives to forced labor. All for money. This has continued to this day outside of the United States in Third World countries. We have been in denial about our own savage criminality and greed for two-and-a-half centuries.
Our past has come back to haunt us and we must face and own it. It's tough love time.
Fiat currency dictates the strength of our economy! Please understand the power of macro economics as you’re f’n missing the foundational argument…markets don’t rule the economy, our Congress does through fiscal policy!!!!! Deficit remains a bs myth…consult Stephanie Kelton for the entire scope.
I live in Berkeley, California and I have met no one who likes Musk, Trump or the Republicans party—not my Mexican cleaning lady or her children or my Honduran gardener nor all of the academics I know nor my neighbors, nor ANYONE! We are all terrified and looking for ways to stop the shredding of our government.
Curtis Yarvin! Not to be discounted. In the eyes of Peter Thiel and JD Vance, he is gospel — damaged goods.
This is so interesting and helps in understanding the billionaire oligarchs
Hi Anand, I have started two actions that I can already see a lot of moment with in our neighborhood.
1. FREEDOM FRIDAYS : at 5pm every Friday we go out to a local intersection for just 20 minutes (inspired by (BLM) with signs that say things like “PEOPLE OVER BILLIONAIRES” “A BWTTER WORLD IS POSSIBLE” “UNITE” and “FABULOUSLY FIGHTING FASCISM” this is so easy and has rippe effects across the neighborhood. People are joining! We have a Google group. We hope this will be duplicated across every block in the US.
2. GIVE A DAMN (Sundays) : neighbors meet for one hour every week with the goal of building community and sharing information and actions. 20 min intros, 30 min teach-in, 20 min people announce actions, things to read, etc… we have a slack where people can expand on the info.
I hope people will duplicate these actions across the city and the country. Please help amplify.
Oops! That’s more than one hour! 20 min teach-ins :) sometimes the meeting takes a bit longer but we try to have a predictable format so it feels doable. AND if in the morning we have coffee / bagels, at night fun drinks ! We rotate whose place it’s at.
Excellent discussion! Throughout the oligarchs talk, I kept hearing the refrain from Ry Cooder's song The Very Thing That Makes You Rich Will Make Me Poor (directed at oligarchs rather than a lover of course)
https://youtu.be/OTJ3RQSa1PU?si=9lLix0LNLuDfXNlz
I think we are coalescing somehow but there is fear and concern and doubt about what will work to bring about change. We helped bring about a cultural revolution in the ‘60s and ‘70s and there is a lot of blowback as a result. The right-wing is playing to people’s fears about how even the tiny number of kids and others who are trans or gender fluid will wreak havoc on their own lives for example. Also the fear of immigrants is an old American standby that creates fear and loathing of “the other” that politicians use to galvanize their constituents.
We need to offer some kind of compromise that feels safe! And I think the shredding of our economy and the move to a warlike stance against our Western allies will only lead to greater impoverishment and loss of liberties.
1% of the population is trans.
Musk’s demotion is to have the Federal cabinet leader liable for future Federal employee firings. Musk has thousands of civil lawsuits coming his way for fired-employee damages. There is a fraud by Trump and Musk. Americans are being played. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. We are being distracted by hundreds of line item veto “ex post facto” savings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by Federal employee firings, all of which are illegal. We are being distracted by thousands of cancellations of grants and contracts, all of which are illegal. The courts are intervening now. The Fraud on America: Trump, Musk, and Speaker Johnson are trying to ram through the tax cuts, before: • the courts cite them with civil contempt and levy huge financial penalties • the impact of their illegal actions are reversed, and their “savings” flip back to $0.00. I call for immediate full disclosures of what currently is in douchebag Musk’s DOGE bag of findings. He is hiding that at the moment since the courts have stifled his efforts. Let us make him certify his cost and pricing data, so that it comes under the Truth in Negotiations Act, now the Truthful Cost or Pricing Data Act (Title 41 U.S.C., Chapter 35). That must be required. I also call for Musk’s testimony under oath before Congress. I call for Musk to divulge the truth of what he found, after he deletes what the courts say he cannot do. He cannot fire. He cannot cancel a single contract or grant. He cannot impound funds. Johnson intends to use Musk’s currently bogus data in his CR bid. Crook. Spare me the BS braggadocio about saving billions and billions. Illegal actions are not savings, they’re crap. I don’t buy crap when we are talking about a $4.5 trillion tax cut. I say Trump and Musk’s ploy is all a fraud founded on a bag of smoke and mirrors, now a hidden accounting not corrected by current court edicts, and a “bury you in paper” con job. Let us see it. Empty the douchebag’s DOGE bag. Transparency now! Don’t let the douchebag hide it another day. We cannot shoot any line item down until the residual data is displayed. https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/empty-doges-bag?r=3m1bs
While Trump & Musk trash the economy & betray allies, Russia cheers the kleptocratic corruption & self dealing.
The Kremlin patted Trump on the head for betraying our democratic ally & aligning the U.S. with dictators & kleptocrats. #VladsPoodle https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/02/sec-fraud-prosecution-chinese-crypto-entrepreneur-justin-sun-donald-trump-world-liberty-financial-tokens/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-9tiGDuwCc Thanks Sen Merkley
Great discussion, especially about why they are afraid! Thanks for promoting “spinal development”. ♥️
Brussels, Belgium calling. I read Anand's brilliant book "Winners Take All", and so agree with the tenet of this book: the überwealthy do NOT want to change a system that benefits them. So they think they get away with this by engaging in philanthropy. Even a Bill Gates, who is by far not one of the "worse" billionaires, did not agree with Elisabeth Warren when, as a candidate for the presidency, she proposed extra taxing them. Look at where the US are now.
I love your self-deprecating references to your books warning of the dangers ahead and that no one was persuaded. Your cassandra predictions have become realities.. nonetheless. I AM DEVOTED TO YOUR SUBSTACK , and will not miss any one of them. Anand surprised that you drink PEPSICOLA, not good for you.
Are they afraid? Or do they just really like everything their 'Don' (mafia don) is doing because guess what? Those things benefit them. The Don's tariffs that affect Musks companies have been lifted, or were written into the order as exempt. Not pansies.
Thank you for this discussion that added depth to the previous conversation with Anat Shenker-Osorio. It helps my understanding of the whole picture.
I wanted to pick up on the portion which mentions Anat’s recommendations. The outcome of the “social proof” is, she said, to create a “permission structure” for others to do the same.
To me, with these actions, we are weaving a fabric of community, communication, solidarity, and opposition. Her big push to make it visible feels essential.
One of my many actions is to become a billboard. I wear conversation starter t-shirts “Dems Make Life Better,” from the org of the same name and T-shirt from Field Team 6 that has a QR code on the back that sends you to Voter Registration site. My Swing Left group is considering other ways to be visible, like letters to the editor, photos from the various demonstrations sent to papers as a press release, we are collaborating with other progressive groups and more.
Point is, once you let your imagination go, there are many VERY accessible things that can be done to blast out messages of “social proof” that the opposition exists and it is BIG.
We need to face the fact that our national situation is ancestral karma. This country was built on the blood of Native Americans and the bodies of African negroes. This country started out as a kleptocracy with our white ancestors' stealing of Native Americans' land and resources and lives in genocidal attempts to get these pesky savages out of our way. Our white ancestors bought the stolen living bodies of African negroes and shackled their lives to forced labor. All for money. This has continued to this day outside of the United States in Third World countries. We have been in denial about our own savage criminality and greed for two-and-a-half centuries.
Our past has come back to haunt us and we must face and own it. It's tough love time.
Really smart conversation. Thank you.
Fiat currency dictates the strength of our economy! Please understand the power of macro economics as you’re f’n missing the foundational argument…markets don’t rule the economy, our Congress does through fiscal policy!!!!! Deficit remains a bs myth…consult Stephanie Kelton for the entire scope.
What is a good source for info from Stephanie Kelton?
The Deficit Myth…I highly recommend her book. She also writes a Substack called The Lens. I subscribe to the MMT podcast.