Let’s get this out of the way:

Marie Antoinette probably never said “Let them eat cake.” It was Rousseau putting words in an aristocrat’s mouth because it made great “anti-aristocracy” propaganda. And yeah, that quote still pisses me off every time I hear it.

But you know why the line stuck?

Because elites acting like rules don’t apply to them is a timeless feature of decay. It was true in 1789. It’s true in 2025.

And today’s court has a new Versailles: a billionaire pageant that floats on super-yachts and tax breaks while the rest of us price out insulin and car insurance.

Oh, and let’s not forget the new ballroom that Marie Antoinette would have loved! How often do you think you’ll be invited to The People’s House to enjoy caviar and cocktails?

The new Versailles: Bezos in Venice, protests in the streets

This summer, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez threw a multi-day spectacle in Venice — fireworks of money over a city literally sinking.

Locals didn’t clap; they marched.

Banners read “No space for Bezos.” Activists called it what it was: a billionaire’s victory lap in a place struggling with over-tourism, housing costs, and climate stress.

That’s not a fairy tale; that’s 2025.

Meanwhile, on the shop floor and the farm

While the elite cut cake, Trump’s tariff circus has been whiplashing the real economy. In April, the White House invoked emergency powers to slap a 10% across-the-board tariff, (which I’ll admit, seemed reasonable at the time. Of course, maybe not to the penguins).

Then the orangutan in chief shoved the economy right off the end of the pier.

Markets hate yo-yo policy; farmers hate watching their crops rot in the field.

China largely halted U.S. soybean purchases for most of the year — and only just bought its first cargoes of the season at the end of October. Translation: months of uncertainty for growers, followed by a grudging trickle once Republicans needed a headline to distract from The Epstein Files.

Your premiums aren’t “mysteriously” going up — they’re being engineered to

If Congress lets the enhanced ACA premium tax credits expire on December 31, 2025, average 2026 premium payments could more than double for many enrollees. Insurers are already filing big increases; net costs spike if those subsidies vanish.

That’s not “market forces.” That’s a policy choice — from the same crowd that sneers “if you can’t afford it, you don’t deserve it.”

And now they’re coming for voting by mail — because turnout is kryptonite

On Tuesday, November 4, 2025, Maine voters face Question 1, a package that crams voter-ID into state law and guts popular absentee voting: fewer days, no more phone/family requests, ends ongoing absentee status for seniors and people with disabilities, and limits drop boxes to one per town.

In 2024, roughly 45% of Mainers voted absentee — this is a surgical strike on exactly the tool ordinary people use. Don’t let anyone sell you “commonsense.” It’s suppression in a Sunday suit. Vote NO.

By the way, you do understand why the Republicans need to stop people from voting, right?

Because their policies are so damned unpopular that only an idiot (or a billionaire) would vote for them.

When was the last time you heard a Democrat try to keep you from voting?

“But what can we do?” — We already are

New York City, September: more than 70 people — including elected officials — were arrested at 26 Federal Plaza after staging sit-ins to expose ICE’s conditions. That’s textbook nonviolent escalation: show up, hold the line, take the arrest, force daylight.

The photos weren’t from a history book; they were from this fall. Chicago and other cities are seeing the same courage.

This is how power notices.

Leaders light the fuse, but the people move the mountain

Historian Heather Cox Richardson has been pounding the table: stop doom-scrolling 2026 and win the tens of thousands of local races next week. School boards. City councils. County attorneys. Ballot measures like Maine’s Question 1.

That’s where authoritarianism gets blocked — or green-lit.

That’s where budgets, policing priorities, libraries, and ballot access live. That’s where we practice being a self-governing people.

Revolutions are from the bottom up…not the top down. The privileged and entitled never seem to figure that out. That’s why eventually, they always lose.

No Kings. No “chosen ones.” No more cake.

Trump is their president — a concierge for the rich who treats government like a private club.

The message from the yacht deck to the grocery aisle is the same: rules for thee, loopholes for me.

The response isn’t guillotines. It’s Gandhi-level noncooperation and MLK-level discipline — plus a turnout machine that buries them where it hurts: local.

And yes, when they try to muzzle us, the correct response is John Oliver’s immortal doctrine: “Fuck you, make me!”

What we do in the next 7 days

• Vote on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. Bring two friends. Fill the whole ballot. In Maine, vote NO on Question 1. Everywhere, reject anyone scheming to make voting harder or health care pricier.
• Show up. March peacefully. Sit-in. Document everything. Coordinate with legal observers. Clergy and veterans up front. Discipline wins; chaos loses. Bring your phone!
• Organize your backyard. City council, school board, county board, library trustees. We win when we own the ground game.

Let’s make the bastards choke on their cake. – Wolverines