Author: Blazingcatfur

$1 Trillion of Wealth Was Created for the 19 Richest U.S. Households Last Year

The wealthiest have gotten richer, and control a record share of America’s wealth. New data suggest $1 trillion of wealth was created for the 19 richest American households alone in 2024. That’s more than the value of Switzerland’s entire economy.

It took four decades for the top 0.00001% of Americans’ share of total U.S. household wealth to grow from 0.1% in 1982—when 11 households made up that rarefied group—to 1.2% in 2023, according to an analysis by Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Paris School of Economics.

In one year, by the end of 2024, the share of total U.S. household wealth for the modern 0.00001%—those 19 households—jumped to 1.8%, or about $2.6 trillion. That is the biggest one-year increase on record, according to Zucman.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

Tasha Kheiriddin: Poilievre’s platform a direct challenge to Carney’s boomer tome

With just days to go before election day and millions of Canadians already having voted, both the Liberal and Conservative parties have finally dropped their full platforms. And the two are as different in substance, structure and style as the two campaigns — for better and worse.

Substance-wise, the Liberals offer a slew of big-ticket items: a $5 billion Trade Diversification Corridors Fund, billions for Arctic sovereignty, major housing and health infrastructure, and — refreshingly — a serious uptick in defence spending to exceed current NATO commitments. They also promise to drop the deficit in the “operating budget” to $220 million by 2028-2029 (more on that math later).

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inConservative Party, Election 2025

Bug And Tug: WEF Investigates Klaus Schwab Over ‘In-Room Massages’ And Other Allegations

One day after it was reported that World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab, 88, resigned after Chairman after 55 years, the WSJ reports that Schwab is under investigation by the organization he created after a whistleblower alleged financial and ethical misconduct by Mr. “eat the bugs” and his wife.

h/t DS

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada's Corrupt Liberal Government, Election 2025, World Economic Forum

Military Advisor Confirms Reports Are ‘Credible’ That Directed Energy Weapon Attacks Have Happened on US Soil

h/t Mauser

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA, WTF?

Teenager dies after ‘exchange of gunfire’ with Toronto police: SIU

A 16-year-old boy from Toronto died in hospital Tuesday morning after being shot by police officers in North York during a gunfight on Sunday night, the province’s police watchdog says.

In a news release issued Tuesday, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) said a Toronto police officer stopped an Infiniti car over a Highway Traffic Act infraction in the area of Sheppard Avenue W. and Bathurst Street at around 11 p.m. that night.

“There was an exchange of gunfire during which two police officers discharged their firearms,” the SIU said in the release. “The male was struck and was taken to hospital where he passed away this morning.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCrime

Mob that lynched Briton in Ecuador ‘too much for police to handle’

Ecuadorian police said “everything humanly possible” was done to prevent a British man from being lynched and burnt alive by a village mob in the Amazon rainforest.

The Playas del Cuyabeno police claimed that “the mob exceeded the capacity of seven police officers” tasked with protecting the visitor, who was believed to have moved from the UK and was killed in a revenge attack on Sunday.

The man, who has not been officially identified, was being held in a police station in the Sucumbios province of Ecuador on suspicion of shooting dead a man named locally as Rodrigo Chavez.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inWTF?

Here’s the Status of Major EV Battery Plants and Projects in Canada

Electric vehicles were considered the way of the future just five short years ago. Today, the demand for electric vehicles (EVs) and EV battery plants is waning both in Canada and globally due to a wide range of factors.

Some of the issues cited in consumer surveys on purchasing EVs include the substantial cost disparity between EVs and gas-powered vehicles, worries about their driving range, reliability in cold weather, and the availability of charging facilities. Along with the repercussions of increased interest rates and inflation, all these factors have played a role in shaping consumer behaviour since 2020.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"EV's - Electric Vehicles", "Net-Zero Tyranny"

Al Gore draws parallels between Trump 2.0 and early Nazi Germany in speech

Al Gore said there were “important lessons” to be learned from similarities between the early rise of Nazi Germany and the recent actions of the Trump administration, in scathing comments made Monday during remarks about climate change.

During a speech at an event to mark the beginning of San Francisco’s Climate Week, the former vice-president and established climate advocate, said that the Trump administration was “trying to create their own preferred version of reality”, akin to the Nazi party during the 1930s in Germany, Politico reported.

“I understand very well why it is wrong to compare Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich to any other movement,” said Gore during his speech at the city’s Exploratorium museum.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inTrump Derangement Syndrome, WTF?

Incompatible cultures

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Societally Destructive Immigration Policy"

Alberta Called. I Shouldn’t Have Answered.

The “Alberta Is Calling” ads first caught my eye in the fall of 2022. They were splashed across Toronto’s transit system, and I was jammed into a crowded subway car on my way home from work. The Alberta government rolled out its $2.6-million campaign to lure big-city folk, fed up with high costs and congestion, to come out west for the promise of a better life.

The promise was alluring: move to a place where you can buy a house, take home a bigger paycheque and spend less time commuting. As a single person renting an overpriced shoebox condo in downtown Toronto, it was a compelling argument.

I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could “miss” Toronto.

h/t AL

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada