From: fedora@fea.st   
      
   On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 18:29:50 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
      
   >On 2/12/2026 3:06 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >> On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 14:26:02 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> On 2/12/2026 1:35 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >>>> On Thu, 12 Feb 2026 13:06:13 -0800, Dude  wrote:   
   >>>>   
   >>>>> On 2/11/2026 12:20 PM, Noah Sombrero wrote:   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> February 11, 2026   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> Class war is the future of American politics   
   >>>>>> By David Wallace-Wells   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> The San Francisco Bay Area is home to at least one-third of the value   
   >>>>>> of the entire U.S. stock market. Late last year, you couldn’t escape a   
   >>>>>> chilling billboard campaign, meant to be cheeky, from an artificial   
   >>>>>> intelligence start-up: “Stop Hiring Humans.” And on Saturday, somebody   
   >>>>>> tried to AstroTurf a trollish Billionaires March through the city in   
   >>>>>> defense of Silicon Valley’s 21st-century robber barons. Only a few   
   >>>>>> dozen people showed up, heckled along the way by passers-by.   
   >>>>>> The billionaires themselves also seem to be on the move. In recent   
   >>>>>> months, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page and Sergey Brin have all purchased   
   >>>>>> homes outside California, potentially bringing their hundreds of   
   >>>>>> billions of dollars with them. Others have spent the past few months   
   >>>>>> raging about the injustice of the state’s new politics of class   
   >>>>>> warfare.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> Why? A proposal — supported by the local congressman Ro Khanna but not   
   >>>>>> the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and currently floating in limbo as   
   >>>>>> a potential ballot initiative tentatively scheduled for the fall —   
   >>>>>> that would impose a one-time 5 percent wealth tax on the state’s   
   >>>>>> billionaires, whose wealth has soared since the pandemic.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>> This makes sense - California faces a projected budget deficit for the   
   >>>>> 2026-27 fiscal year, with estimates ranging from a $2.9 billion   
   shortfall.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> However, California Governor Gavin Newsom is not in favor of the   
   >>>>> proposed California wealth tax. Why?   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> It could damage the state's economy, drive away top earners, and reduce   
   >>>>> funding for public services by reducing overall tax investments.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> He has consistently opposed such measures, stating years ago that wealth   
   >>>>> tax proposals were "going nowhere in California".   
   >>>>   
   >>>> A citizen's ballot initiative might change his mind.   
   >>>>   
   >>> Apparently, the Governor is not in favor of special taxes for wealthy   
   >>> people, to pay off the state deficit. In the US, it would probably be   
   >>> unconstitutional. Everyone is equal under the law. It's in the US   
   >>> Constitution.   
   >>   
   >> A graduated income tax would still be legal.  A 5% tax on only the   
   >> wealthy could be challenged as not fair.  I'm sure the wealthy would   
   >> not hesitate a minit to bring that case.   
   >>   
   >Under the US system, higher-income households pay a larger percentage of   
   >their income in federal taxes compared to lower-income households.   
   >   
   >Apparently, a flat rate of around 24% on personal income was estimated   
   >to be revenue-neutral, meaning it would cover the then-current federal   
   >outlays. YMMV.   
      
   It would however be unsupportable for low income families.   
      
   >   
   >>>   
   >>>>>> This isn’t exactly pitchforks in the streets, the nightmare   
   >>>>>> entertained by every generation of aristocrats and oligarchs as a   
   >>>>>> supremely flattering form of status paranoia. But about the symbolism,   
   >>>>>> at least, the horrified billionaires and would-be billionaires are   
   >>>>>> basically right. There has never been a tax of this kind so seriously   
   >>>>>> considered in the United States before, and the policy would mark a   
   >>>>>> genuinely new era of the politics of extreme wealth in this country.   
   >>>>>> Or is that new era already here? Politicians now casually invoke “the   
   >>>>>> Epstein class” and more routinely name-check affordability than they   
   >>>>>> ever campaigned on its close cousin inequality. Prominent plutocrats   
   >>>>>> talk much more openly about their right to great fortunes and their   
   >>>>>> hostility toward oversight and interference from the government, and   
   >>>>>> leftists talk more openly about their hostility toward extreme wealth.   
   >>>>>> Last year was marked by class-warfare bookends: In January, as the   
   >>>>>> tech right joined the president’s MAGA army for his inauguration in   
   >>>>>> Washington, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man was handed close to   
   >>>>>> unilateral control of the machinery of government, partly as a   
   >>>>>> thank-you for political contributions of nearly $300 million. And in   
   >>>>>> November a democratic socialist was elected mayor of the world’s   
   >>>>>> financial capital, relying on public matching funds against the many   
   >>>>>> millions spent opposing him and almost universal hostility from the   
   >>>>>> banking class.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> One big question is whether this backlash will go beyond lip service —   
   >>>>>> whether the country’s partisan coalitions, which have seemed so   
   >>>>>> unshakable in the time of President Trump, will be reshaped by   
   >>>>>> antagonism for billionaires, and the response of those billionaires,   
   >>>>>> as the sunset of Trump’s long reign comes slowly into view.   
   >>>>>> “Masks off — that’s the right way to put it,” says Gabriel Zucman, an   
   >>>>>> economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who has helped   
   >>>>>> craft wealth-tax proposals like the one in California and similar ones   
   >>>>>> being considered internationally.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> One year in, Trump’s second term is transparently and by many orders   
   >>>>>> of magnitude the most brazenly corrupt administration in American   
   >>>>>> history, with crypto meme coins and the president’s personal lawsuit   
   >>>>>> against his own I.R.S. The outward deference of tech oligarchs to   
   >>>>>> Trump seems to have outlasted the so-called vibe shift of young, Black   
   >>>>>> and brown voters, many of whom have since abandoned him. And the   
   >>>>>> billionaires’ apparent comfort with transactional, acquisitive MAGA   
   >>>>>> politics seems to illustrate what Khanna — who represents parts of the   
   >>>>>> Bay Area and many of those billionaires — has called Silicon Valley’s   
   >>>>>> broken social contract.   
   >>>>>>   
   >>>>>> Musk’s purchase of Twitter more than three years ago looks even more   
   >>>>>> politically consequential both in retrospect and because of how widely   
   >>>>>> it is now being imitated by others who share his desire to shape the   
   >>>>>> country’s information diet from above. Larry Ellison’s Oracle now   
   >>>>>> holds an ownership stake in TikTok, and his son, David, owns CBS News   
   >>>>>> and is vying for control of CNN. Jeff Bezos just neutered what was   
      
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