The Elite: It's a Big Club and You're Not in it

[Grand Potentate]

17 L.A. gangs have sent out crews to follow and rob city's wealthiest, LAPD says

L.A. gangs are sending out crews to prey on the mega-rich, targeting people leaving luxury boutiques, restaurants, and nightclubs, the LAPD said.

www.latimes.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

Wealthiest Americans pay just 3.4% of income in taxes, investigation reveals

Tax records from 2014 to 2018, analysed by ProPublica, show 25 Americans collectively earned $401bn but paid just $13.6bn

www.theguardian.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

 

[Pimpernel Smith]

Best placed here, methinks:

Phil Collins's ex Orianne married an escort she found online

Divorce papers claim that Orianne Collins married an escort. Orianne, 48, moved Tom Bates, 32, into the mansion she shared with Collins while he was away on tour.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Money for screwing and your Rolex Daytona's for being a good boy, but you can't go out the house unescorted and Phil Collins ex-wife is a Black Belt and not afraid to cut your balls off.

This is a good biopic in the making.

 

[Grand Potentate]

Elon Musk Isn’t a Threat to Society’s Health. All Billionaires Are

The most dangerous thing about Elon Musk buying Twitter is the notion that his controlling an influential social media platform is dangerous. It is, but not for any of the reasons his critics assert.

www.mintpressnews.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

Talk of doing good rings hollow among global elite

Despite all the chatter at Davos about stakeholder capitalism, the forum has been a sign of lack of progress

www.ft.com

Talk of doing good rings hollow among global elite​

Despite all the chatter at Davos about stakeholder capitalism, the forum has been a sign of lack of progress

 

[Grand Potentate]

This story is wild. The Tom cruise part especially.

Larry Ellison’s Lanai Isn’t for You—or the People Who Live There

The wealth gap on Lanai is growing.

www.bloomberg.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

Chicago planted trees at a higher rate in wealthier, whiter neighborhoods over the past decade, Tribune investigation finds

Trees can soak up water dumped during intense storms, which already disproportionately affect communities on the South and West sides with basement flooding. And they can lower neighborhood temperatures.

www.chicagotribune.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

 

[Grand Potentate]

 

[Grand Potentate]

Private Charity Has Become Just Another Scam for the 1 Percent

We were told that the generosity of the rich would make up for cuts to government services. But those at the top are increasingly using dubious “charitable” ventures as vehicles for profit and influence.

jacobin.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

Vast New Study Shows a Key to Reducing Poverty: More Friendships Between Rich and Poor (Published 2022)

An analysis of 21 billion Facebook friendships, covering 84 percent of U.S. adults aged 25 to 44, puts cross-class relationships at the heart of income mobility.

www.nytimes.com

start being friends with the poors, guys.

 

[Fwiffo]

Vast New Study Shows a Key to Reducing Poverty: More Friendships Between Rich and Poor (Published 2022)

An analysis of 21 billion Facebook friendships, covering 84 percent of U.S. adults aged 25 to 44, puts cross-class relationships at the heart of income mobility.

www.nytimes.com

start being friends with the poors, guys.

But I am already poor. I am the son of immigrants who crawled into US and Canada and worked as groundskeeper or waitress. Is anyone affluent willing to associate themselves with me?

 

[Grand Potentate]

Number of Ultrarich Hits All-Time High as Someone Dies From Hunger Every 4 Seconds

As a new analysis reveals that the global ranks of the superrich soared to a record number, a coalition of charity groups reports that hundreds of millions of people around the world are hungry—and that someone starves to death every four seconds.

www.commondreams.org

 

[Grand Potentate]

Billionaire Monopolist Jeff Bezos Is Buying Up Single-Family Homes to Rent-Trap Humanity Forever

 

[Grand Potentate]

 

[Grand Potentate]

US officials made lucrative stock trades while preparing for Covid-19, WSJ reports | CNN Business

Dozens of federal officials made lucrative stock and mutual fund trades in early 2020 as the government was preparing for the onslaught of Covid-19, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.

www.cnn.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

Profits at world’s seven biggest oil firms soar to almost £150bn this year

Bumper earnings prompt calls for overhaul of UK windfall tax after Shell admission it will not pay any this year

www.theguardian.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

interesting thread if you want to dive into the numbers. the gist is that the bottom 10% of educated people have been dying at a MUCH higher rate in the past decade or so.

 

[Fwiffo]

My vote is for addiction to narcotics being the key mortality driver. I'm not sure the workplace for high school dropouts is getting unsafer compared to the early 20th century.

 

[Grand Potentate]

My vote is for addiction to narcotics being the key mortality driver. I'm not sure the workplace for high school dropouts is getting unsafer compared to the early 20th century.

Opioid crisis definitely a big factor.

 

[Grand Potentate]

Stop complaining, says billionaire investor Charlie Munger: 'Everybody's five times better off than they used to be'

The billionaire investor can't understand why people today aren't more content with what they have, especially after the struggles of previous generations.

www.cnbc.com

Quit bitching peasants

 

[Dropbear]

Jeffery Epstein Meetings and Contacts Revealed: CIA Director, Goldman Sachs Lawyer, Chomsky, CEOs, Bankers, Politicians and More

In a recent Wall Street Journal article it was revealed that a number of high-profile figures had contact, were associates, or met with convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein, years after his crime…

theatlasnews.co

 

[Grand Potentate]

U.S. Billionaire Wealth Is Up 88% Since the Pandemic—Now Topping $5.5 Trillion

Can we please just tax the rich?

inthesetimes.com

 

[Dropbear]

 

[Grand Potentate]

 

[The Shooman]

^^^
some of those guys have massive collar gaps.

 

[Grand Potentate]

 

[Grand Potentate]

Cartier's $7.5bn owner says fear of poor rising up 'keeps him awake at night'

Says he is concerned about robots creating 'structural unemployment'

www.independent.co.uk

 

[Grand Potentate]

Jeff Bezos to marry fiancée Lauren Sanchez in lavish $600M Aspen wedding next weekend: report

Bezos, 60, and his fiancé, 54, have remained mum on their wedding plans and have not yet publicly confirmed their wedding date.

nypost.com

Mario, be like your brother Luigi and save us from this.

 

[Grand Potentate]

America in Two Headlines

Doesn't this pair of headlines capture 2024 perfectly?

www.kenklippenstein.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and 8 other tycoons got $500 billion richer in 2024 — and are now worth more than $2 trillion

Figures including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg became even wealthier over the past 12 months amid AI buzz, rate cuts, and Trump's win.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[Grand Potentate]

World's billionaires have seen combined wealth double to $14 TRILLION

Swiss bank UBS, which is among the world's largest wealth managers, said the number of dollar billionaires increased from 1,757 to 2,682 over the past 10 years.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Grand Potentate]

 

[Fwiffo]

Bill Gates says he has given away billions, but has more to give

The Microsoft co-founder says he enjoys giving away his fortune and it won't leave his kids poor.

www.bbc.com

God forbid he gave too much away.

 

[Grand Potentate]

https://archive.ph/RAUQq

We’re Headed Toward a Landlord-Friendly Era. Expect Higher Rent Prices.​

Prospect of rising apartment rents could further stoke inflation and give the Fed another reason to pause​

Maoism when?