Oligarchy

“More than 200 of the world’s elites registered for a retreat whose agenda runs from panels on cult-building and sex to prepping for World War III. An associated app offers matchmaking.”

Changes in rules for index funds mean our “safe” investments may soon be dependent on Musk hype … and crashes as he pulls out.

“The sponsors for this year’s event include Big Pharma’s main lobbying arm: the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), which fought against lowering prescription drug costs and lobbied to repeal the Affordable Care Act, along with drug company Johnson & Johnson.

“Collins’ senate office has employed nearly 90 staffers that previously were or later became lobbyists, including multiple staffers who lobbied for PhRMA.

“Susan Collins has taken more than $1.2 million from lobbyists during her time in the Senate. Since 2010, Collins has failed seven times to cosponsor legislation to impose a lifetime ban on members of congress becoming lobbyists.”

“THE NEARLY FOUR-DECADE-LONG political career of Viktor Orbán, culminating in a fifteen-year premiership, may come to a sudden end in two weeks—assuming that Hungary holds clean elections on April 12.”

“Sen. Susan Collins violated the disclosure provisions of a federal financial transparency law she helped write by failing to properly disclose her husband’s purchase of a pharmaceutical company corporate bond, a NOTUS review of congressional financial disclosures indicates.”

Not the first time?

Palantir CEO Alex Karp thinks his AI technology will lessen the power of “highly educated, often female voters, who vote mostly Democrat” while increasing the power of working-class men.

“This technology disrupts humanities-trained—largely Democratic—voters, and makes their economic power less. And increases the economic power of vocationally trained, working-class, often male, working-class voters,” Karp said.

“Democratic survival in the face of threats like Trump is determined in large part by how obvious the threat to democracy is. The more people recognize that an elected leader is trying to destroy democracy from within, the less likely it is that said leader will succeed.

“Evidence from Brazil, South Korea, and Poland — all democracies that defeated a would-be authoritarian government — show that the legibility of threat to key segments of society was critical in mobilizing the pushback that decided democracy’s survival.

“This has important implications for the United States going forward. Instead of sidelining the issue of democracy, as some political pollsters suggest, those concerned about the issue should foreground it — working hard to illustrate how Trump’s behaviors threaten core freedoms people cherish.”

“MLK Jr: ‘Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.’

“According to a recent scorecard, Collins has voted with Trump 96% of the time — the same rate as Mitch McConnell and two points above conservative Rand Paul. This is hardly the profile of someone looking to chart her own path.

“In fact, when it comes to free and fair elections, Collins is as conservative and anti-voting rights as they come. Not only is she supporting the SAVE Act, but during the Biden administration she opposed the For the People Act and the Joe Manchin compromise bill — the Freedom to Vote Act.”