August, 30 2024, 02:25pm EDT

Billionaire Roosters Concerned Sun Won’t Rise Without Them
In wake of absurd billionaire tax dodging justification, Patriotic Millionaires rewrites NYT headline to more accurately reflect reality
Recent reporting from the New York Times highlighted efforts by Wall Street executives and Silicon Valley donors to convince Vice President Harris to drop taxation of the ultra-wealthy from her agenda. In response, Morris Pearl, Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement: “I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you that Wall Street billionaires and Silicon Valley tech bros are trying to convince a presidential candidate to abandon her commitment to tax them, and using their own alleged brilliance to justify it. I admire their chutzpah in claiming that taxing unrealized capital gains will stifle innovation!
Claiming that making a billionaire pay taxes on their second billion will reduce innovation is as absurd as the rooster claiming the sun won’t rise without his crowing. The billionaires I know were all highly motivated to earn their first billion. The only thing at stake here is the remarkably fragile egos of billionaires who are on the verge of realizing they might not be saving civilization for anyone, including themselves.
In light of their silliness, the Patriotic Millionaires have taken the opportunity to rewrite the recent NYT headline (both for our own amusement and to more accurately reflect reality):
Some (Silly/Misinformed) Donors Quietly(although not actually all that quietly; it was reported on the front page of the NYT after all)Push Harris to Drop(Modest Compared to What it Should Be)Tax on Ultra WealthyWhile Other (Much More Sensible and, yes, More Patriotic) Donors Loudly Push Billionaires to Drop Opposition to Common Sense.
The Patriotic Millionaires is a group of high-net worth Americans who share a profound concern about the destabilizing level of inequality in America. Our work centers on the two things that matter most in a capitalist democracy: power and money. Our goal is to ensure that the country's political economy is structured to meet the needs of regular Americans, rather than just millionaires. We focus on three "first" principles: a highly progressive tax system, a livable minimum wage, and equal political representation for all citizens.
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Gaza Mourns Beloved Child Singer Hassan Ayyad, Killed in Israeli Airstrike
The 14-year-old boy was one of numerous children slain by Israeli bombing since Monday in what UNICEF has called "the most dangerous place in the world to be a child."
May 06, 2025
A famed 14-year-old singer was among scores of Palestinians killed by Israel Defense Forces airstrikes across the Gaza Strip since Monday as bombing and starvation fueled by Israel's ongoing siege continued to ravage the coastal enclave.
Hassan Ayyad—who was known for his songs about life and death in Gaza during Israel's genocidal assault and siege—was killed in an IDF airstrike on the Nuseirat refugee camp. Video shared widely on social media showed Ayyad singing in a haunting voice, sometimes accompanied by his father, Alaa Ayyad.
"The child who sang of death has now joined those he mourned."
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Reacting to the boy's killing, Alaa Ayyad told Palestinian journalist Essa Syam that "Hassan was my heat, my soul, my son... my only son."
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Responding to Ayyad's killing, Gaza journalist Mahmoud Bassam wrote Monday on the social media site X that "Hassan was martyred moments ago in an Israeli airstrike, raising the death toll to over 60 since dawn."
"The child who sang of death has now joined those he mourned—his farewell was as noble as his words," Bassam added.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday that at least 22 people including numerous children were killed and more than 50 others wounded when Israeli airstrikes targeted a school-turned-shelter, this one in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.n
"The Bureij massacre is a heinous war crime that requires the prosecution of the occupation's leaders in international courts as war criminals," Hamas, which rules Gaza and led the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, said in a statement.
More than 185,000 Palestinians have been killed, wounded, or left missing by Israel's 578-day assault and siege on Gaza. Most of the territory's more than 2 million inhabitants have also been forcibly displaced, often multiple times, while mass starvation is rampant due to Israel's tightened blockade.
Israeli officials said Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump does not object to Operation Gideon's Chariots, a full-scale invasion, conquest, and ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip that Israel is expected to launch after Trump visits the Middle East later this month.
On Tuesday, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he envisions Gaza "entirely destroyed" and ethnically cleansed of its more than 2 million inhabitants.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Monday that Israeli forces have killed at least 16,278 children in Gaza since October 2023—a rate of one child killed every 40 minutes. The ministry said it has recorded 57 children who have died from malnutrition amid Israel's "complete siege" of Gaza, which has fueled mass starvation and illness and is part of an International Court of Justice genocide case against Israel led by South Africa.
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As the Republican Senate majority leader plows ahead with a plan to hold a vote on a cryptocurrency bill, Sen. Bernie Sanders is planning a Wednesday conversation with industry experts regarding the proposed legislation, which his office warns would "enrich Trump and his billionaire backers."
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act would create a regulatory framework for a type of cryptocurrency called stablecoins. Sanders' (I-Vt.) office said in a Tuesday statement that the bill "threatens the stability of our financial system" and "makes it easier for President [Donald] Trump and his family to continue to engage in corrupt dealmaking enabled through their cryptocurrency, to the great benefit of themselves and their tech oligarch backers."
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), another critic of the GENIUS Act, has argued it could facilitate illicit activity and provide little protection for consumer funds.
In February, the advocacy group Consumer Reports warned that the bill lacked consumer protections and could inadvertently allow large tech companies to enter the banking space, as in create currencies, without being subject to the same scrutiny that is applied to traditional banks.
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The latest revelations regarding Trump and cryptocurrency appear to have diminished the GENIUS Act's chances of passage, according to The American Prospect.
The GENIUS Act had enjoyed support from a handful of Democratic senators, but a number of them backed off from supporting the bill in its current form over the weekend, writing in a statement that they wanted to see stronger provisions on anti-money laundering, national security, and other issues. "But reading between the lines, it was clearly the Trump corruption that soured them," the Prospect reported.
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"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," said a spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general.
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This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
Pakistan retaliated after Indian missile strikes killed at least three people, including a child, and wounded a dozen others early Wednesday local time—further escalating tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations that have risen since last month's Kashmir massacre.
Karachi-based Geo Newsreported that "Pakistan shot down two Indian Air Force (IAF) jets early Wednesday in retaliatory strikes following Indian missile attacks on cities in Punjab and Azad Kashmir," which is administered by Pakistan.
Citing security sources, the outlet added that Pakistan's military also "destroyed an Indian Army brigade headquarters" and launched a missile strike that "wiped out an enemy post in the Dhundial sector of the Line of Control" in Kashmir.
Pakistan's Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, director general of Inter-Services Public Relations, said that "Pakistani armed forces are giving a befitting response to Indian aggression."
Before the retaliation, the Indian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that "India has launched Operation Sindoor, a precise and restrained response to the barbaric Pahalgam terror attack that claimed 26 lives, including one Nepali citizen."
India has blamed Pakistan for the April 22 attack in which armed militants killed tourists in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, while the Pakistani government has called for a "neutral" probe.
The Indian ministry claimed Wednesday that "focused strikes were carried out on nine terrorist infrastructure sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, targeting the roots of cross-border terror planning."
"Importantly, no Pakistani military facilities were hit, reflecting India's calibrated and nonescalatory approach," the ministry added. "This operation underscores India's resolve to hold perpetrators accountable while avoiding unnecessary provocation."
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"The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan," the spokesperson added, according toReuters.
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