By Michael Woyton
The outgoing president of the United States took clear aim in his final address to the nation at the likes of uber-wealthy Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.
President Joe Biden told the country what it may already know — but hasn’t connected the dots yet — that an oligarchy is taking over our U.S. and, in turn, our rights and our freedoms.
“We see the consequences all across America, and we’ve seen it before more than a century ago,” he said. “But the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts. They didn’t punish the wealthy; they just made the wealthy play by the rules everybody else had to.”
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Biden said that people should be able to make as much money as they can but they should have to pay their fair share of taxes.
That is not going to happen during the second administration of adjudicated convicted felon and adjudicated rapist Donald Trump.
He will put the oligarchy on display at his inauguration right there on the dais in full view of what will be, likely according to the former liar in chief, the largest crowd ever to watch anyone sworn in as president.
Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos are expected to be sitting together, according to the Washington Post, near former presidents, Trump’s spawn, Cabinet picks and maga toadies from Congress.
The inauguration guest list will also likely include TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Fox News reported, with Trump now considering an executive order to get rid of the law that requires TikTok to divest itself from its Chinese owners for be banned in the United States for up to 90 days.
Trump of course was against TikTok until he found he was trending on it, so that made the app okie-dokey.
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, and Apple’s CEO Tim Cook are also expected to be in or around the inauguration festivities.
In his farewell speech, Biden emphasized that the oligarchs “want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we’ve taken to tackle the climate crisis, to serve their own interests for power and profit.
“We must not be bullied into sacrificing the future, the future of our children and our grandchildren,” Biden said. “We must keep pushing forward and push fast.”
He compared the current situation with President Dwight Eisenhower who talked about the dangers of the military industrial complex.
“[S]ix decades later, I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well,” Biden said.
While the president could have just taken a verbal victory lap in his final address, he also called out for reforming the tax code, enacting an 18-year term limit and ethics reforms on the Supreme Court, making artificial intelligence safe and trustworthy and banning members of Congress from trading stocks while in office.
“After 50 years of public service, I give you my word, I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure,” Biden said.
“Now it’s your turn to stand guard,” he said. “May you all be the keeper of the flame.”
Hopefully, next time, more of us will keep in mind that it is up to us to keep our democracy.
Read a transcript of Biden’s address via Roll Call here.
The entire speech can be viewed below or at YouTube.
Lead art: Screen grab from ABC News on YouTube.
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