A lot of the time major publications won’t print something like this unless it can be verified. They are probably trying to get confirmation it is real.

Oh I absolutely agree that the 4.1% figure doesn’t represent actual economic conditions. Wide swaths of the country are underemployed and undercompensated.

What it does capture is what portion of the country has a job, no matter how shitty, occupying their time. When people have nowhere to go and nothing to do during the day, THAT is when we see real protests. People will make it their job to yell at those in power to fix things when there is nothing else taking their time. We saw that during the Covid lockdowns.

Only spending cuts that cost more in the long run, like cuts to IRS personnel, cuts to environmental protection, and cuts to infrastructure maintenance.

The wealth disparity hasn’t been this high since just before the Great Depression where 34% of disposable income went to the richest 5% (not an apples to apples comparison but the closest I could find).

One of the major causes of the depression was the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act which imposed high tariffs on imported goods. Oh hey, look at those shiny new tariffs from Trump.

Another major factor was the Dust Bowl which was a widespread drought that dramatically impacted agriculture. Meanwhile 50% of the continental US has faced drought conditions since 2000.

The Stock Market Crash of 1929 was in large part due to overproduction of goods with people not having enough money to buy them. Look at all the companies throwing stock in the trash. Food, clothes, essentials all wasted while there are people who go without.

During the Depression, unemployment peaked at about 25%. (We are at 4.1% now.) Even during the height of COVID with factories and businesses shutting down, unemployment was only at 14.7%. That is the kind of suffering it takes for change and that is where our failures to learn from history are leading us.

The entire point of a government is controlled opposition. That’s the fucking point. It’s not some grand revelation. Change from within the system takes a lot of time and constant effort, but it is better than the alternative which takes blood and massive suffering.

I’m assuming he will just run as VP with Vance or one of his sons as President, but still functionally serve the same role.

That’s the rough part of where we are now. Capital isn’t on our side. If the economy tanks hard, maybe that will change.

That movement really started in 2014 with the killing of Michael Brown, but your point stands. Still, I can’t call that too much of a victory since the point of the protests was to stop violent racially biased policing, and all we got were cameras. Better than nothing I suppose.

I see what you are saying, but the issue of having billionaires funding and supporting the movement is something most protest movements can’t count on.

Historically if peaceful protests are ignored long enough, the protests cease to be peaceful. That almost always backfires against the protestors because it’s so easy for the media to turn public opinion against them. The average citizen isn’t willing to sacrifice their peace and security unless there is an immediate tangible benefit to them.

We need a new tactic. Something the powers that be don’t have an answer for already. I’m from Chicago and during the pandemic there was a phenomenon called flash mobs that the police struggled to address. Large groups of people would arrange online a time and location, commit crime, and flee before authorities could react. Sometimes they would show up, beat up and rob whoever was on the street, and disappear onto public transportation. Other times they would hit high value corporate targets like the Gucci or Prada stores. Dozens of people would rush in, seal everything not nailed down, and escape.

I have to wonder hypothetically what would happen if this tactic was applied to banks. The money is insured by the government, so the public wouldn’t be losing anything. But the public HATES the banks and wouldn’t offer them sympathy. It would be even better if some of the stolen money was redistributed to the needy. Just wishful thinking on my part.

AstroTurf project funded by the Koch brothers and other wealthy conservative groups. Not a real protest

If the news covers it, sure. But they aren’t covering the protests that are happening.

Has any protest made a damn bit of difference in the US for the last 20 years? 30? 40?

Time for some malicious compliance. Print the lists in yellow ink on slightly crumpled 11x14 pieces of paper. If possible, randomly switch font and text size between names. Oh, and don’t alphabetize or arrange anything in any way.

That situation is completely irrelevant to matters of immigration today. It’s frankly highly insulting to even say such a thing. It is literally a white supremacist talking point.

The money is being pissed away by tax cheats who are stealing from the American public.

Incorrect. By law that money is owed to the government as taxes. Doge hasn’t changed that. They have only ensured they don’t have the staff to collect.

Destroying is always easier than building.

You know that the first immigration law in the US was called?

The Asian Exclusion Act.

Immigration control was and always has been about maintaining white racial supremacy.

They have been doing this for years. They add a little bump and sell it as a belt buckle, or add a little notch and sell it as a bottle opener. Most insane is it is fine to put a knife blade on it and sell it as a knife.