☀️ NEW: New Mexico is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, and dirty industries have treated the state like a sacrifice zone.
Fresh findings expose those industries' false climate claims and outline a #JustTransition to a healthy future:
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Since 1963, the Institute for Policy Studies has challenged inequality, corporate power, polluters, and militarism.
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Congress passed 3 stimulus bills totaling over $1.6 trillion in public investment. How do we make sure that money is not drained off by Wall Street?
Register to hear and others speak on the importance of the next 2 years for our economy.
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Our latest report looks at New Mexico as a case study in debunking false climate solutions and uplifting real answers.
Learn about the Indigenous and frontline-led efforts now leading the way to a #JustTransition:
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As polluting industries are threatened by communities resisting their poison, they’re desperately pushing false “solutions” that will allow them to keep polluting.
CCS, hydrogen fuel, and nuclear energy aren’t the answer.
We need a #JustTransition away from fossil fuels.
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3. Finally, CCS *hasn’t even been proven to work.*
The only power plant in the U.S. with CCS captured only 7% of its emissions while operational.
Relying on an unproven, experimental technology with a record of failure to address the climate crisis is a reckless gamble.
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2. CCS is inordinately expensive.
Even CCS proponents acknowledge this fact, and argue for public subsidies for CCS on the basis that it’s too expensive and risky for private investment.
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1. Even if CCS *did* actually capture all CO2, it would then be transported through CO2 pipelines that, like all pipelines, risk disastrous leaks.
It also wouldn’t do anything to capture other greenhouse gases like methane, water contamination from fracking, or other pollutants.
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Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) won’t save us.
Here are just three major reasons why: 🧵
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We're seeing more and more wealth concentrate into the hands of the ultra-rich and out of the reach of most of the world.
We need to address this inequality. A #WealthTax is a straightforward, increasingly popular way to do that.
More :
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An annual U.S. #WealthTax of:
2% on wealth >$5 million,
3% on wealth >$50 million, and
5% on wealth >$1 billion
would raise $583.5 billion/year.
That tax wouldn't touch the lives of the ultra-rich—but, if invested in human needs, could make a world of difference to millions.
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When one man can lose over $100 billion and still remain one of the richest people on Earth, yet millions don't have enough to eat, there's a problem.
For the good of us all, we need a #WealthTax.
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To Zuckerbergs and Musks, losing a few billion is like losing pocket change.
"Taxing those billions to support the common good, on the other hand," says , "could make an immeasurable difference in the lives of millions—and our democracy."
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Despite huge billionaire losses last year, luxury car and real estate firms still saw booming sales. How?
Because, even after losing wealth equivalent to the GDP of entire countries, billionaires *still* have way too much money.
We should tax them more.
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Happy birthday to trailblazing organizer, abolitionist, and scholar Angela Davis ❤️🔥
“We are where we are today precisely because of large and small acts of resistance…
I believe we need organized resistance and the forms of resistance that become practices in our daily lives.”
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"In spite of the huge public attention to police violence since 2020, police are actually killing more people than before," writes this week.
"We all want safer communities. To get them, we need to put our money toward people’s needs."
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Police killed more people last year than any other on record.
None of us should simply accept that police will continue to kill more and more people each year. We should begin by making sure our local budgets invest in real safety, not just deadly force.
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In the U.S., households with more than $50 million have seen their wealth increase 53.9% since 2012.
"The only reasonable way to fix our extreme wealth problem is by taxing that wealth directly," says . "We need a national #WealthTax."
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In the past few days, Spotify, Salesforce, and more tech companies all joined in ruthless mass layoffs. As tens of thousands lost their livelihoods, their former employers' stock prices rose.
: "Wall Street loves layoffs."
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Don't want your tax $$ going to union-busters and overpaid CEOs?
Join this discussion with our colleague +
REGISTER: bit.ly/PublicMoneyfor
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One example:
In Guatemala, U.S. mining firm KCA relied on state & private repression to end local resistance to a gold mine.
When the community halted the mine, KCA filed a case in local courts. It was thrown out.
KCA turned to ISDS and filed to sue Guatemala for $400 million.
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Investor-State Dispute Settlements allow companies (often in the Global North) to bypass domestic courts and sue governments (often in the Global South) before private tribunals of highly paid corporate lawyers who have no obligation to local communities.
They should not exist.
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Insane that investor-state dispute settlements exist
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The debt ceiling is "an arbitrary, purely political limit on federal borrowing," points out .
Instead of letting the GOP weaponize it to slash Medicare and Social Security, let's mint a bazillion-dollar coin and put the whole thing to bed.
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NEW: Key House Republicans are willing to threaten a global economic collapse just so they can cut people's social security benefits.
In today, underscores the absurd lengths of their malice with a fittingly absurd solution:
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Protests and violence in Peru following congressional turmoil and a removed president have killed 55 people so far.
This crisis is a cautionary tale about democracies that fail to deliver for ordinary people.
of in :
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Join , , , , and for an event on what the Biden Administration can do to ensure public dollars support good jobs instead of enriching Wall Street.
Register today: bit.ly/PublicMoneyfor
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The Gettys aren't alone—we're living through the “golden age of tax avoidance.”
Our team estimates that $30 trillion+ globally is sequestered by the world's wealthiest people.
illuminates how we got here, and where we go now:
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Wealth advisor Marlena Sonn worked for Getty family members for years. But she was troubled by the family’s use of Nevada-based trusts to pretend they didn't live in higher-tax California.
When she suggested they pay the CA taxes they owed, she was fired.
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Much of what we know about the global hidden wealth system comes from leaks from those who run it.
A new blockbuster investigation traces the decision of a whistleblower to expose how the oil-rich Getty family use Nevada trusts to avoid California taxes:
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The ways billionaires evade taxes are designed to be complex to the point of boredom.
In reality, famous family scandals exposing the money-stuffed underbelly of the U.S. trust system isn't that complex—and it is fascinating. :
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A U.S. wealth tax could raise $583 billion/yr, our new report with , , and found.
This could fund urgent needs—and dent the inequality that even millionaires agree is "eating our world alive."
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One hell of a political poster, I’d say the best in Presidential history.
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Chisholm's campaign was underfunded, ignored by the Democratic political establishment, and blocked from participation in almost all debates.
Despite this discrimination, she gained a loyal following, a notable number of votes, and a legacy of radical people-powered progress.
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Chisholm's campaign was underfunded, ignored by the Democratic political establishment, and blocked from participation in almost all debates.
Despite this discrimination, she gained a loyal following, a notable number of votes, and a legacy of radical people-powered progress.
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#OTD in 1972, Rep. Shirley Chisholm announced her historic run for president.
She ran on "freedom from violence and war at home and abroad," "freedom from poverty and discrimination," and "ensuring for everyone medical care and employment and decent housing."
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Pouring endlessly more of our resources into the Pentagon budget doesn't just come at the cost of dire human needs and the planet.
The waste and strategic chaos that it enables undermine the department's own strategy. :
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Lithium is a key component in EV batteries. Extracting it can have devastating environmental and social effects.
But we can decarbonize transit by 2050 without the mining boom, a new report from led by says. Here's how:
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The US military-industrial complex produces more greenhouse gasses than 167 countries and has higher per capita emissions than *all* countries.
New from me: stephensemler.substack.com/p/calculating-
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Chevron, Goldman Sachs, AT&T, and Home Depot are among the giants paying millions of dollars to the Supreme Court Historical Society, gaining the notice and appreciation of the justices.
#SCOTUS has become pay-to-play, and it shows. :
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