Showing posts with label Billionaires. Show all posts

Monday, November 9, 2026

"AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it."

Opinion AI (artificial intelligence)

The Guardian view on the AI backlash: Silicon Valley’s political power is cracking

Editorial

Tech stocks have lost trillions while voters have rejected the industry’s political champions. The billionaire-led boom is facing a democratic reckoning

This week’s midterms showed that the political bill for the AI boom is falling due. The Democratic sweep intensified fears over runaway spending, mounting debt and resistance to datacentres, sending tech shares tumbling. On Thursday Wall Street suffered its worst day since the pandemic as $3.2tn was wiped from markets. Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, is hoping to float within the next fortnight for $1.5tn (£1.1tn), but it may not now get even a trillion dollars. The dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia saw its value crash by more than $400bn. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, lost $113bn in two days.

While a few very rich people may be a little less wealthy, the sell-off may not be a bad thing. It brings a needed dose of reality to an industry whose spending plans and valuations depend on heroic expectations of future profits. That is a view held by many influential figures – from Goldman Sachs’ research boss to Nobel laureate Daron Acemoğlu. AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it....READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/nov/06/the-guardian-view-on-the-ai-backlash-american-voters-want-a-say-in-their-future

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Friday, September 4, 2026

POWER ... a 2026 Poem by Anne Selden Annab

POWER

Billionaires hoard wealth in part,

by deploying a small fraction

of their ginormous wealth to persuade-

persuading leaders to vote for data centers

and shape public policies

that build Billionaire wealth

and increasing political influence:

The VORTEX spins...

Erasing democracy.

Erasing equality.

Erasing justice.

Erasing security for most people,

excluding, of course, the Billionaires' own personal empires-

the influencers they train, the puppets they prop up,

the politicians they own,

the armies they build to bully US.

Massive Data Centers

hide Billionaire corruption

and cover up Billionaire greed

in a trillion different ways...

Human history online is rewritten

bit by bit, to empower

and reward Billionaires even further.

A bloodless coup d'état

to impoverish We The People

individually and collectively.

A global game of get get get

more wage slaves

to cook the food and clean the toilets

on the mega-yachts and in the McMansions

More wage slaves

for whatever whims and itches

the Billionaires and their

calculating Data Centers might feel.

Thursday, August 20, 2026

"The sad truth is that the income gap keeps widening between ordinary American families and the billionaires who make the decisions that affect our lives." Francine Prose

Has Trump no shame about all the money he has made since being in office?

By now we know that charity, generosity and compassion are virtues that the US president doesn’t seem to have even in trace amounts

Francine Prose

Thu 20 Aug 2026

"... How can you, in good conscience, continue to amass so much disposable wealth when so many everyday Americans are struggling to fill their gas tanks and avoid losing their homes?

By now we know that charity, generosity and compassion – and conscience – are virtues that our president doesn’t seem to have even in trace amounts.

It’s impossible to imagine him following the examples set by billionaires such as Melinda Gates and Mackenzie Scott, who have pledged and made huge contributions to good causes.

Closely related to the mystery of why one man thinks he deserves and needs so much is the question of how anyone who has ever returned a grocery item back to the shelves after some bad news at the checkout counter can support a man who flaunts his extreme wealth and ignores their worsening hardships.

The only answer I can see is that Trump’s fortune is aspirational. It’s an aspect of the American dream that, despite the evidence, people still hope to attain. If Trump amassed those billions, maybe we can, too.

The sad truth is that the income gap keeps widening between ordinary American families and the billionaires who make the decisions that affect our lives" ... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/20/trump-money-earnings-billionaires

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or watch videos) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Zohran Mamdani and Donald Trump at the White House. ‘Despite clashing, the leftwing mayor and the rightwing president continue to talk.’ Photograph: Reuters

The Guardian view on global inequality: extreme wealth threatens democracy

Editorial

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/18/the-guardian-view-on-global-inequality-extreme-wealth-threatens-democracy

Sunday, June 28, 2026

Super-rich’s assets cause outsized amount of climate harm, study says. Greenpeace calculates that wealthiest contribute nearly $1tn of damage a year with ownership-based emissions... "By contrast, the bottom half of the world by wealth accounts for just 3% of ownership-based emissions."

Greenpeace said a large share of emissions was associated with the ownership of carbon-intensive assets and investments such as property developments. Photograph: A Amsel/Alamy

Fiona Harvey in Bonn

Wed 10 Jun 2026

Ultra-wealthy people zooming across the world on their private jets, lounging on yachts and conspicuous by their Instagrammable consumption are among the most easily identified individual culprits when it comes to the climate crisis – but new research argues that it is not just their heady lifestyles to blame, but also their bank accounts.

Through their ownership of companies and private financial and physical assets, from oil producers to property developments, the super-rich are responsible for an outsized slice of the greenhouse gases that are overheating the planet. The top 1% of people by wealth, through their shareholdings and investments, control about a quarter of global annual emissions in total.

Greenpeace has calculated the “climate debt” of these high net worth individuals, by attributing to them their share of the damage done to the climate by the assets they own. By this reckoning, the world’s richest cause nearly $1tn a year of damage to the climate.

Clara Thompson, the global lead campaigner on socioeconomic systems at Greenpeace International, said: “At a time when people are facing rising energy bills, rising living costs, and growing climate impacts, many are asking why ordinary households should shoulder so much of the burden, while some of the world’s wealthiest people continue to profit from the industries driving the crisis.”

Greenpeace estimates that the top 1% by wealth are responsible for about 40% of all “ownership”-based emissions – that is, the emissions produced by businesses and associated with privately owned financial and physical assets – which themselves make up 60% of global carbon output. Within that group, the top 0.1% account for about 17% of ownership-based emissions, and the top 0.01% about 9%. The top 1% is made up of people with wealth above about $2m, the top 0.1% people with wealth above about $7m, and the top 0.01% is people with wealth above about $38m.

By contrast, the bottom half of the world by wealth accounts for just 3% of ownership-based emissions.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jun/10/super-rich-assets-outsized-amount-climate-harm-study

Sunday, June 21, 2026

"It more than a little ironic that these experts at tax avoidance are at the helm of a technological revolution that could drive inequality to new, unprecedented heights." Eduardo Porter in The Guardian

Analysis

by Eduardo Porter

Condemned to plutocracy? The relentless rise of US inequality

Elon Musk is a beneficiary of America’s lopsided prosperity – does the country have any appetite for redistribution?

People protest against the SpaceX IPO in New York. Photograph: Sarah Yenesel/EPA

As Barack Obama’s presidency was coming to a close, Jason Furman, then chairman of the president’s council of economic advisers, laid out the strides his administration had made to curb the nation’s exorbitant income inequality in “the largest investments in reducing inequality since the Great Society”.

Indeed, by the end of 2016, taxes and transfers cut the share of income accruing to the richest 1% of households by just over a fifth, according to estimates from the congressional budget office (CBO), more than under any government since at least Jimmy Carter’s. They raised the slice of income going to the poorest fifth from 3.9% to 7.9%, the highest share since at least 1979.

Those were the days.

As Elon Musk is anointed the world’s first trillionaire, following the public offering of shares of his internet to AI conglomerate SpaceX, that moment, just 10 years ago, when the government bragged about its efforts to curb America’s lopsided distribution of prosperity, might give us some hope that we are not condemned to plutocracy; social and political forces can stop inequality’s relentless rise.

Benjamin Franklin liked to talk of America’s “happy mediocrity” – a country with “few … so miserable as the poor of Europe … few that in Europe would be called rich”. And yet, America’s history of combating inequality is rather grim. Obama’s track record as the United States’s most committed equalizer in over half a century underscores the ultimate lack of interest of the nation’s political coalitions in bringing about a more equitable distribution of the fruits of prosperity.

Supposedly a populist champion of the working stiff, Donald Trump’s priorities quickly turned elsewhere. His Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 offered massive tax cuts to Americans in the upper percentiles of income... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/21/us-inequality-plutocracy

Thursday, June 18, 2026

The space for freedom of expression is shrinking dramatically as governments use new technologies to suppress dissent and digital giants manipulate information online to enrich themselves, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Irene Khan, warned today. In her final report to the Human Rights Council, Khan highlighted the conflation of State and corporate interests to exploit vulnerabilities of the right to freedom of expression.

UN Special Procedures

@UN_SPExperts

Space for freedom of expression shrinking as govts use tech to suppress dissent & digital giants manipulate info for enrichment, warns @Irenekhan @UN_HRC.

“Freedom of expression has been privatised, monetised, manipulated & unlawfully restricted.

#UNHRC62

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/freedom-expression-must-not-be-treated-fodder-geopolitics-or-commodity-trade

https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session62/advance-versions/a-hrc-62-67-aev.pdf

Tuesday, June 2, 2026

"Tech billionaires are plowing hundreds of millions into political campaigns, to fend off attempts at regulation and evade accountability lest their endeavors go awry. They want to make sure nobody butts in as they work to reshape society. And they are largely succeeding – for now, no one with the power to stop them is butting in."

Our tech overlords are planning for conscious AI to conquer the cosmos. What could go wrong?

A new belief set is uniting some of the wealthiest men in the world around a ‘transhuman’ future – actual humanity be damned

Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, took to the Internet a few years ago to propose that homo sapiens would be the first species “to design our own descendants”. In his best case scenario, the “merge” between humans and artificial intelligence occurs at some point over the next 50 years. The alternative, where we remain simply human and the machines follow their own path, is more ominous. “If two different species both want the same thing and only one can have it – in this case, to be the dominant species on the planet and beyond – they are going to have conflict,” he wrote.

More recently, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who at one point last year was granted the power to reconfigure the US federal government, argued on his social media platform, X, that “it increasingly appears that humanity is a biological bootloader for digital superintelligence” – our role in the history of the cosmos reduced to that of the low level code that boots up a computer before you can run sophisticated programs on it.

And Musk is on the tame side of the evolutionary proposition. According to Silicon Valley lore, he once pushed back against Google co-founder Larry Page’s claim that our next manifestation, to follow in the steps of the meat-and-bone humans you see walking about today, would necessarily have digital form in order to spread throughout the galaxy. (In fact, he recently testified in court that it was those concerns that prompted him to found OpenAI with Altman.) Meat and bones do not make for efficient interstellar travelers.

It would be a mistake to understand these weird worldviews as an ultimately harmless take by techies who grew up on a diet of dystopian science fiction. The notion that we are approaching the end of the homo sapiens, as defined since Darwin’s day, is coalescing into a durable body of belief among the elites at the helm of our technological future.

Their dreams are not all perfectly aligned. But like the folk stories and superstitions that have for ever revolved around more established religious traditions, the collection of far-fetched scenarios valley oligarchs are writing into our future exhibits the hallmarks of a religion in the making, a body of belief to confer a sense of cosmic transcendence and inevitability to their hi-tech project.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/may/31/transhuman-silicon-valley-ai

Saturday, May 30, 2026

"Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm."

Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with bishops, members of the clergy and families whose members have been victims of environmental pollution at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in Acerra, Italy, on 23 May 2026. Photograph: Ciro De Luca/Reuters

Americans echo Pope Leo’s concerns about AI: ‘It threatens workers, privacy and human life’

Guardian readers in the US spoke of fears about unregulated AI in response to the pope’s encyclical warning about the risks of the technology

Maya Yang

Sat 30 May 2026 07.00 EDT

In his first major papal text since assuming leadership of the Catholic church last year, Pope Leo issued a stark warning about the rise of artificial intelligence this week, denouncing the “culture of power” driving the AI age.

Calling for the “most rigorous” ethical constraints on AI – which he described as one of the greatest threats facing humanity today – the first US-born pope also warned of “new forms of slavery” emerging through the digital economy.

Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope’s concerns, describing AI as an “unregulated” industry increasingly being used to the “detriment of too many people”, while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm.

For Linda Given, a 74-year-old resident of Boston, Massachusetts, who ran a small gift store in Cambridge for nearly 40 years, the pope’s warning resonated deeply.

“I think he’s right to emphasize the dignity of humans, and to warn that things in the AI field are moving both too fast, and without any significant oversight,” Given said, adding: “To use it as any kind of substitute for human interaction or human agency [is] awful … [and] the entirely likely possibility it could be manipulated to do destructive things.”

Stephen Sincoskie, a 55-year-old print shop supervisor from Howell, New Jersey, expressed similar concerns.

“Unregulated AI is a possible threat to workers, privacy and even human life. Unfortunately, the most corrupt family in politics … is making money to look the other way,” he said.

“I’m concerned the use of AI will replace workers and assist in the ushering in of a fascistic surveillance state. I do not believe for one second the 1% are interested in paying out guaranteed monthly salaries for everyone to relax and enjoy a career and ‘debt free’ life.”

Others focused on the effect AI is already having on education and critical thinking.

Debra, a 58-year-old college professor in Massachusetts, said she worries students are losing critical thinking skills.

“From my perspective, AI is robbing many students of the need to think critically, learn the ways of research and express themselves by writing,”... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/30/pope-leo-ai-reaction

Friday, February 20, 2026

Billionaires want Ballrooms. The rest of us want clean water; safe neighborhoods; good schools, libraries, & museums; National Parks; playgrounds; PBS; good job opportunities for ourselves and our children; affordable heath-care; AND PEACE.

Political cartoon from 1906, by artist William Balfour Ker

letter I just wrote & sent to my elected leaders

Dear America,

This month, so far, saw snow and bitter cold ending & Ramadan and Lent beginning & Aloka the Peace Dog arrive in Washington Dc with the Buddhist Monks walking for peace.

Winter is ending, flowers will soon start to bloom- will the flowers be blooming be on America's grave? I hope not.

This month, so far, also saw church leaders highlighting threats "to Christian heritage by Israeli authorities: financial pressure, municipal taxes, restrictions on freedom of movement for worshipers, settler violence, takeover of Church lands, hate crimes, and barriers for West Bank teachers reaching Christian schools in East Jerusalem."

Many Americans can't afford health care, home heating bills, or eating out, but our elected leaders keep opting to invest oodles of our hard earned tax dollars into a very foreign country called Israel and the military-industrial complex that has been aggressively polluting planet earth, exasperating racist hate & freely bombing babies and children in impoverished refugee camps.

PLUS the Trump Administration and its minions are doing all they can to undermine and destroy the United Nations, international law, and ICC International Criminal Court... Golly Gee I wonder why.

Meanwhile American battleships and troops are gearing up to bomb Iran.

American politicians and billionaire business owners (plus many a wanna be) have been borrowing vast sums of money to invest in building numerous land and energy gobbling data centers/hyperscalers that fuel AI delusions.

We need good jobs- real jobs- not AI... and certainly not war.

We need to be working with the international community before it shuts us out completely.

Billionaires want Ballrooms. The rest of us want clean water; safe neighborhoods; good schools, libraries, & museums; National Parks; playgrounds; PBS; good job opportunities for ourselves and our children; affordable heath-care; AND PEACE.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

'In Israel's eyes, we are terrorists' | In search of Palestine: episode 1 – video... In Search of Palestine

Saint Valentina was from Caesarea of Palestine... The ancient Latin name “Valentina” means “strong, vigorous and healthy.”

The Peace Walk “a powerful reminder that peace is practiced step by step. In a divided time, this is what it looks like to stand up for the best of who we are. Love demands endurance. Peace is strength.” MLKIII

Whether on a long road or a church stage, Aloka remains a steadfast support to the venerable monks, proving that peace is a journey shared by all beings...

Church leaders highlight threats to Christian heritage by Israeli authorities: financial pressure, municipal taxes (Arnona), restrictions on freedom of movement for worshippers, settler violence, takeover of Church lands, hate crimes, and barriers for West Bank teachers reaching Christian schools in East Jerusalem.

"Yesterday, I was honored to welcome the Buddhist monks to Washington National Cathedral, to learn from their example, and as Christians to recommit ourselves to the way of peace for all people. We are so grateful, so inspired, and so grateful that the monks are calling out the best in all of us as they make their pilgrimage among us. Their commitment to embody and bring peace to us all. Our response–across all that seems to divide us as a nation–reveals how united we are in our longing for peace, God willing, our readiness for peace. The monks, like all our spiritual masters of all faiths, including Jesus, remind us that true peace begins in the human heart, and in genuine peace offerings to those we love, the we struggle to love, and even those we would consider our adversaries." Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington DC, USA

Bishop Theodosios Atallah Hanna: Resolving the Palestinian issue is the key to peace....

Israel’s security cabinet has approved plans that pave the way for more settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory

Her father’s war grave in Gaza was bulldozed by Israel. Amid the grief and anger, she wants answers... " “They have no respect for the living, so why would they respect the dead?” Wilma says of the Israeli government."

Human Rights Watch researchers resign after report on Palestinian right of return blocked : The organization claims the report, which finds Israel’s denial of the right of return is a crime against humanity, is ‘paused pending further analysis and research’

‘A violation of our history’: Palestinian uproar over Israel’s plan to seize historic West Bank site- Residents of Sebastia say heritage project is pretext for massive land grab and expansion of Jewish settlements

US politics: After years spent documenting state terror, I know it when I see it. And I see it now in the US and Israel. It’s chilling to watch as Trump and Netanyahu adopt the methods of regimes their countries once condemned

"The true irony is, state terror does not make a state safer. When democratic states adopt the methods of tyrannies, they become weaker. Their global credibility frays. They sacrifice the legitimacy they once held that distinguishes them from the regimes they claim to oppose."

The Women Who Shaped the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026 "The genocide did not begin with concentration camps and gas chambers; it started with apathy and silence in the face of injustice, and with the corrosive dehumanization of the other. Today, and always, we need to remember this." Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

"We call on Israel to immediately cease such actions against UNRWA premises, respect the Agency’s mandate, lift all restrictions imposed on its activities, and fully comply with its obligations under international law, in line with the latest advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice of 22 October 2025 on the Obligations of Israel in relation to the Presence and Activities of the United Nations, other International Organizations and Third States in and in relation to the Occupied Palestinian territory. "

Dear America, Funding and arming terrorism and violence is evil and wrong: America should not be funding, arming, defending, or trusting today's Israel in any way, shape or form.

A barbaric new era has already begun as Americans are duped into being wage slaves for billionaires who have no respect for basic human rights and the rule of fair and just laws.

Golden Rule Thinking IS GOOD

Our land and resources are being gobbled up for AI data centers for what purpose? Is it for the greater good of tax paying citizens- or is it to feed the greed of corporations and companies that already use our data to charge us as much as they can at every turn.

Real freedom, justice, and democracy are being embezzled by corporate greed and political corruption to empower Israel and war.

"ISRAEL SAYS" is not God talking.

Israel has a right to exist, but Israel has no right to starve and displace the men, women and children of historic Palestine.

The vast majority of Americans are not wealthy & the taxes that We The People pay are being diverted into funding religious bigotry and terror via Israel's cruel war on the native non-Jewish men, women, and children of historic Palestine. HAMAS cruelty and stupidity echoes Zionist cruelty and stupidity and on and on it goes. Neither approach will build peace or security.

The weapons industry and a global war machine- AND INJUSTICE- burgeon with American tax payer funds.

Violence is a problem- not the answer.

"The United Nations is the only place on Earth where all the world's nations come together to discuss common problems and find shared solutions that benefit all of humanity. This intergovernmental organization born out of the ashes of the Second World War remains indispensable to the pursuit of world peace, justice, equality and sustainable development" https://www.un.org/en/

The right of refugees to return to homes and lands they were expelled from is an individual right and cannot be unilaterally abrogated by third parties. https://imeu.org/resources/resources/fact-sheet-palestinian-refugees-the-right-of-return-under-international-law/441

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights