Tag: corporations

Eat the rich? As CEO salaries explode, worker pay continues to stagnate

Top global CEO pay increased 20 times faster than workers’ pay in 2025, while at least four CEOs of major corporations each pocketed over $100 million in pay and bonuses last year.

At a time when the global workforce is concerned about keeping up with the challenges imposed by artificial intelligence in the workplace, corporate top executives are hoarding the lion’s share of the profits. As they have done for centuries, the rich are not investing in their workforce, opting instead to fatten their wallets.

CEOs of the world’s biggest corporations enjoyed an 11 percent real-terms pay increase last year, while the average global employee saw real wages increase by just 0.5 percent, new analysis by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and Oxfam reveals. To put it another way, top global CEO pay increased 20 times faster than global workers’ pay in 2025.

In the United States, chief executive salaries surged 20.4 times faster than workers’ wages in the last year. For the 384 CEOs in the S&P 500 where data was available, pay increased by 25.6 percent between 2024 and 2025. Meanwhile, average hourly earnings for private sector workers increased by just 1.3 percent from 2024 to 2025 in real terms.

Consider these disturbing facts the study revealed:

  • Global real wages for workers have fallen by 12 percent since 2019. This means they have effectively worked 108 days without pay between 2019 and 2025 (31 days for free last year alone).
  • The gender pay gap for the workforce across 1,500 corporations averages 16 percent, meaning that their women workers effectively work for free after November 4 each year.
  • The average CEO pocketed $8.4 million in pay and bonuses last year, up from $7.6 million in 2024. It would take the average global worker 490 years to earn the same amount.
  • Nearly 1,000 billionaires whose investment portfolios were identified collectively received $79 billion in dividends in 2025 —equivalent to $2,500 per second. The average billionaire made more in dividends in less than two hours than the average worker earned in pay in an entire year.
  • So far, four corporations, including Blackstone, Broadcom and Goldman Sachs, have reported paying their CEO more than $100 million in 2025. The top 10 highest-paid CEOs collectively made over $1 billion.

Billionaires are also using their vast wealth to purchase clout on the political stage, which amounts to the rich buying elections around the world. It should therefore come as no surprise that billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to hold political office than ordinary people. Once in office, the rich work to push through legislation that serves to help them and their cronies. This has led to the erosion of workers’ rights, cutbacks on public services, and steep tax cuts to the richest.

Corporations and their CEOs cannot resist the temptation to use their wealth and clout to consolidate power and ownership in ways that can destabilize democracy and workers’ rights.

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The War Department Announces Agreements With Leading AI Companies To Deploy Capabilities On Classified Networks

The War Department has entered into agreements with seven of the world’s leading frontier artificial intelligence companies, SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services, to deploy their advanced AI capabilities on the Department’s classified networks for lawful operational use.

These agreements accelerate the transformation toward establishing the United States military as an AI-first fighting force and will strengthen our warfighters’ ability to maintain decision superiority across all domains of warfare.

Integrating secure frontier AI capabilities into the Department’s Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Impact Level 7 (IL7) network environments will streamline data synthesis, elevate situational understanding, and augment warfighter decision-making in complex operational environments. SpaceX, OpenAI, Google, NVIDIA, Reflection, Microsoft, and Amazon Web Services will provide resources to deploy their capabilities on both IL6 and IL7 environments.

This effort supports the Department’s AI Acceleration Strategy by enabling new capabilities across its three core tenets of warfighting, intelligence, and enterprise operations.

GenAI.mil, the War Department’s official AI platform, is already demonstrating the scale and impact of this acceleration. Over 1.3 million Department personnel have used the platform, generating tens of millions of prompts and deploying hundreds of thousands of agents in only five months. Warfighters, civilians, and contractors are putting these capabilities to practical use right now, cutting many tasks from months to days.

The Department will continue to build an architecture that prevents AI vendor lock and ensures long-term flexibility for the Joint Force. Access to a diverse suite of AI capabilities from across the resilient American technology stack will give warfighters the tools they need to act with confidence and safeguard the nation against any threat.

Together, the War Department and these strategic partners share the conviction that American leadership in AI is indispensable to national security. This leadership depends on a thriving domestic ecosystem of capable model developers that enable the full and effective use of their capabilities in support of Department missions.

As mandated by President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, the Department will continue to envelop our warfighters with advanced AI to meet the unprecedented emerging threats of tomorrow and to strengthen our Arsenal of Freedom.

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UnitedHealthcare Learns You Can’t Fix Stupid, Fires Social Media Manager Over Trump Post

When my kids were very young, one of the first words that we banned was “stupid.” No one is stupid, I would tell them; some people just don’t think things through. Well, to borrow from that explanation, I probably didn’t think that all the way through.

While I don’t regret teaching the kids not to use “the S word,” as we used to call it, the older I’ve gotten, I’ve had to face the reality that, yes, some people who otherwise are of sound mind are just stupid. Nowhere is this more evident than on social media. The latest example is a social media manager, of all things, who used to work for UnitedHealthcare. That was until the brass at her employer saw this post of hers, where she gave her take on the most recent assassination attempt on the President of the United States.

Keep in mind, this is a person who gets paid to work as a “professional” in social media, and she’s lacking the good judgment to know you shouldn’t go online to wish harm to someone who’s now had three assassination attempts on his life, and the Secret Service and the FBI both report up to him. Now, that’s stupid. There is no other way to say it.

This dunce’s name is Alison King, and according to Fox News, she was “identified as a social media manager for UnitedHealthcare.” Apparently, she was fired for making a TikTok video where she expressed regret that the president survived this latest attempt on his life, when a shooter targeted President Donald Trump and his administration at the recent White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner.

In the video, King says, “We’re cooked as a country when my first reaction to hearing the news about Trump’s (with a hand motion of a slit throat) attempt was, ‘It was probably fake’…Like, immediately I was like, ‘Oh, that wasn’t real, probably fake.’” She then added sarcastically, “And the second was ‘Aww, they missed? So happy they missed.’ Yeah, that’s sad.’”

Fox News Digital reported that a spokesperson for UnitedHealthcare responded to inquiries about King’s post, saying, “Violence is never acceptable and any comments that suggest otherwise are in no way consistent with our mission and values. The person who made comments online about Saturday night’s incident at a Washington event where President Trump and many other political leaders were gathered is no longer employed by the company.”

Keep in mind, this is a company that on Dec. 4, 2024, lost its own CEO to a successful assassination attempt. That was when Luigi Mangione allegedly pulled a gun and ambushed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson at point-blank range just outside a hotel where Thompson was to attend a business meeting.

You’d think that a social media manager who worked for that company would know that things like assassination attempts, and online chatter about them, are taken quite seriously by the government, by lawyers, by law enforcement agencies —and, oh, by the way, by your own dang employer.

Do you think she might have learned her lesson? You be the judge. 

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OOPS: Elizabeth Warren’s Arrogant X/Twitter Post Comes Back to Haunt Her as the Notorious Spirit Airlines Shuts Down For Good After 34 Years In Service

An old X/Twitter Post of Senator Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren (D-MA) has come back to bite her after America’s most infamous airline ceased operations on Saturday.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Spirit Airlines was preparing to shut down after a $500 million government rescue deal put together by the Trump Administration fell apart.

The Daily Mail later confirmed Spirit Airlines had shut down its operations for good after 34 years in service.

Trump said he was willing to save Spirit Airlines but did not want to use taxpayer dollars.

While Spirit Airlines has long offered some of the cheapest flights available, it has become more famous for wild brawls that have broken out on regular basis amongst passengers. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

But Spirit Airline’s apparent demise could have been avoided two years ago had the Biden regime not blocked a proposed merger between JetBlue and Spirit. Biden’s cronies argued that the merger would lead to decreased flights and higher expenses for flyers.

A judge agreed with Team Biden and blocked the merger, thus seemingly sealing Spirit’s fate.

But when the merger was blocked, Warren, who pleaded with Biden, crowed on X that the decision was “a Biden win for flyers.”

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Trump: There Could Be a Future Where U.S. Energy Companies Operate in Iran

President Donald Trump said there “could be” a future where American energy companies are operating inside of Iran in response to a question from Breitbart News on Saturday.

Trump spoke to reporters for just over three minutes on the tarmac of Palm Beach International Airport before boarding Air Force One and departing for Miami.

When Breitbart News asked if he envisions a future where American energy companies are operating inside of Iran, much like Venezuela, he said, “Could be.”

“Could be. It could be. I’ll tell you what, we have a lot of ships coming up to Texas and Louisiana. It’s a line of ships,” he said. “You saw the satellite. We have a line of ships; big ones. Two million barrels, and they’re coming up. I mean, literally hundreds of ships are in line to go to Texas. I mean, they’re already started, but we’re selling a lot of oil. A lot of oil.”

Before taking any questions, Trump said that Iran desires a deal.

“[We’re] doing very well with regard to Iran. Again, they want to make a deal. They’re decimated. They’re having a hard time figuring out who their leader is. They don’t know who their leader is because their leader is gone…their former leader,” he told reporters, referring to Ali Khamenei, who was killed at the beginning of Operation Epic Fury.

The president’s gaggle with reporters came soon after reports surfaced from Iranian state media that Iran had countered a 9-point U.S. proposal for a deal to end the war with their own 14-point plan.

Trump said he had not yet read the proposal but would do so aboard the short flight on Air Force One to Miami.

“I’ll let you know about it later,” he said.

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Car giant brags about huge profit margins on new money grab drivers cannot avoid 

Remember when buying a car meant paying once, grabbing the keys, and driving off into the sunset?

That era may be fading fast. Automakers are quietly transforming the way drivers pay for their vehicles – and your next car could come with a growing list of monthly charges long after you’ve left

General Motors is leading the charge, betting that subscriptions for features like navigation, safety systems, and hands-free driving will soon become a major profit engine – potentially generating billions of dollars a year and, in some cases, even more than selling the cars themselves.

GM says its software arm keeps about 70 cents of every dollar it makes – a staggering level of profitability in an industry where selling a car typically brings in just 4 to 10 cents on the dollar. 

Instead of paying upfront for everything, drivers now get certain features included for a limited time – often just a few years – before being asked to pay monthly or annually to keep them.

In its latest earnings update on Tuesday, GM said it expects to generate $3.1 billion from digital subscriptions this year.

‘We think there’s a growth opportunity there with very attractive margins,’ CEO Mary Barra told investors.

GM already has around 13 million subscribers paying for various in-car services, and that number is expected to climb rapidly as more vehicles come equipped with built-in technology.

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Target worker ruined innocent customer’s life with fake story about seeing naked girls on his iPhone, stress of being ‘labeled’ led to cardiac arrest: Family

A Target employee in Oregon “ruined” an innocent customer’s life with a fake story about seeing photos of naked girls on his iPhone, with the stress of being “labeled a demon” who liked child sexual abuse images aggravating a heart condition he had and killing him, his family said after filing a lawsuit. A jury ordered the retail giant to pay up last week.

“Defendants intentionally instigated the FBI to detain plaintiff and to search plaintiff’s home based on false information defendants provided to law enforcement,” a 2019 civil complaint filed by Jeffrey Buckmeyer’s estate and obtained by Law&Crime alleged.

Last week, a Multnomah County Circuit Court jury ordered Target to pay $150,000 for the “intentional infliction of emotional harm” and distress, which will be going to Buckmeyer’s daughter, according to his girlfriend and mother of the child, Patty Anselmo, who took over the case after Buckmeyer died in April 2019 of cardiac arrest.

“He was labeled a demon,” Anselmo told The Oregonian. “I certainly think this pressed the ‘fast forward’ button for Jeff,” she said about his heart condition.

Anselmo and her lawyer, Michael Fuller, believe the stress of the allegations hurled at Buckmeyer made his heart condition worse and played a role in his death. They accused Target and the employee at the store in Tigard who randomly targeted Buckmeyer, who had no criminal history, of “intentionally” instigating the FBI to detain the Portland father and search his home “based on false information” provided to law enforcement.

“Specifically, defendants intentionally, knowingly, and falsely reported to law enforcement that defendants saw child abuse or child pornography materials on plaintiff’s mobile phone,” the complaint said. “Plaintiff never had child abuse or child pornography materials on his mobile phone.”

According to the complaint, the Target worker — described as a cellphone technician in the electronics section — claimed Buckmeyer came to the store in July 2018 and asked for help deleting a large folder of photos from his phone of items that he sold on eBay.

The employee said he opened a file on the phone and saw photos of naked underage girls, some of whom were tied up. They claimed Buckmeyer was visible in some of the photos, and that he had an erection. He notified Target management who then called law enforcement.

The FBI launched an investigation after receiving the report from Target and “seized various electronics” from Buckmeyer, which were probed and examined over the course of several months.

“[Buckmeyer’s] neighbors were made aware of the search warrant and plaintiff was limited in his ability to spend time with his own child while the FBI completed its investigation,” the complaint alleged. “Ultimately the FBI concluded that plaintiff did not have any child abuse or child pornography materials and returned plaintiff’s electronics.”

Buckmeyer’s case was dropped and he was never arrested or charged in relation to the accusation, according to court records. An independent forensics expert reviewed his mobile phone and determined that he did not have any child abuse or child pornography materials on it, with the expert and two others testifying during a five-day trial earlier this month.

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MAHA Advocates Rally Against Pesticide Makers, Question Federal Agriculture Policies

As the Supreme Court heard opening arguments on Monsanto v. Darnell, a case which could prevent people harmed by pesticides from suing manufacturers, hundreds of Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) proponents, farmers, and environmental activists gathered near the steps of the building outside for the People Vs. Poison rally on April 27.

The event cut across traditional political party lines and highlighted tensions surrounding federal agriculture policies. Speakers expressed frustration with what they deem inconsistencies in federal approaches to “real food” and chemical company protections.

Kelly Ryerson, known as the Glyphosate Girl, is cofounder of American Regeneration and an outspoken critic of Monsanto, which is now a subsidiary of Bayer. Her comments reflected the sentiments of many attendees.

“If your product is safe, then you don’t need immunity. And if your business depends on immunity, the problem is not the lawsuits. The problem is the product,” Ryerson said.

Glyphosate, the world’s most widely used herbicide, is manufactured by Bayer. It is the main ingredient in RoundUp, which is produced by the company.

In February, President Donald Trump surprised some MAHA movement leaders when he issued an executive order invoking the Defense Production Act.

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DYSTOPIAN Truck Tech: AI Scans Faces, Reads Lips & Checks Police Database BEFORE You Can Drive

A video exposing Ford’s dystopian patents for new vehicles has gone viral on X, fueling outrage over the accelerating war on personal vehicle ownership and freedom of movement. 

The clip details in-cabin cameras, biometric scanners, lip-reading AI, emotion detection, and real-time criminal database queries – all deciding whether your truck will let you drive.

In the video, the narrator states “imagine there was an emergency outside the truck… An accident…I jump in this truck. But it won’t shift into drive. Why? Because cameras and sensors inside of my cab won’t let me shift.”

“It detects that my eyes are big. There’s some emotion. Some panic. And doesn’t feel like I’m fit to drive. That isn’t science fiction. This is happening. Ford just filed patents,” he explains.

He continues: “Ford actually has a series of patents down at the U.S. Patent and Trade Office that deal with sensors and cameras inside their cab. And if that sensor determines you’re not fit to drive, the truck won’t shift from park to drive.”

The patents extend deep into control. Biometric systems scan face, iris, and fingerprint, cross-referencing law enforcement databases before allowing movement. 

“You wake up one morning, walk out to the driveway, climb into a vehicle with your name on the title… Before you go anywhere, before you’ve done a single thing wrong, your truck has already run your face through a law enforcement database. Ford’s own patent language describes this as ‘potentially useful for police,’” the narrator further outlines.

Lip-reading tech uses interior cameras and machine learning on vast mouth-movement datasets, plus inaudible sound waves. This enables not just voice commands in noisy conditions but also monitoring for targeted ads based on conversations. 

Ford Pro Telematics also already feeds live driver video to fleet managers.

This corporate push dovetails perfectly with government efforts to restrict mobility. Just weeks ago, Massachusetts Democrats advanced Senate Bill S.2246, directing MassDOT to set binding goals for slashing statewide vehicle miles traveled (VMT) under “climate” pretexts. 

The bill creates a new council to shove residents onto public transit, hitting rural drivers hardest who rely on cars for work, family, and essentials.

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Trump Floats Taxpayer-Funded Takeover of Spirit Airlines, Selling for Profit

President Donald Trump said on April 23 that a taxpayer-funded takeover of Spirit Airlines could be an option, with the intention of reselling it when oil prices fall.

The Florida-based airline is undergoing restructuring after filing for bankruptcy protection in August 2025.

Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he was interested in the U.S. government bailing out Spirit, or buying it outright.

“We’d be getting it debt-free. They have some good aircraft and good assets, and when the prices of oil goes down, we’ll sell it for a profit,” Trump said.

“I’d love to be able to save those jobs. I’d love to be able to save an airline,” Trump said, adding that more airlines improves competition in the market.

Spirit said in March that it had been working to sell some planes and scale back operations to focus on its “strongest routes and markets,” including Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; and the New York metropolitan area.

Marshall Huebner, a lawyer with Davis Polk who is representing Spirit, told a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing in New York this week that government financing would make Spirit more competitive.

Creditors Notified of Deal

Huebner said details of a potential deal had been shared with all three of the company’s primary creditor groups.

The airline that became Spirit was launched in the 1980s, but rebranded in 1992.

“It all started with our launch as Charter One, flying Guests from Detroit to Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and the Bahamas,” the company says on its website. “When we rebranded as Spirit Airlines, we doubled down on our mission: bringing more guests to more places for more fun.”

Ultra-low-cost airlines have been under pressure for years as they traditionally attract budget-conscious travelers with low base fares, but the rise in oil prices is eroding margins and increasing losses.

Earlier this week, for example, German airline Lufthansa announced that 20,000 short-haul flights would be canceled this summer because of the ongoing fuel crisis sparked by the Iran war and subsequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil shipments.

On April 21, Trump urged for someone to buy Spirit and said federal assistance may be available.

“I’d love somebody to buy Spirit—it’s 14,000 jobs,“ he said. ”Maybe the federal government should help that one out.”

In 2024, the Biden administration, citing antitrust laws, prevented JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit for $3.8 billion.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CBS News this week he had concerns about a Spirit Airlines bailout.

“The question will be does the federal government step in and bail out an airline that for a very long time hasn’t been run well,” Duffy said.

He said he was unsure whether Spirit could be saved and “made viable” and was concerned that taxpayers’ money could end up in a company that would eventually be liquidated.

But Trump said he had “a smart person” in mind who could potentially run Spirit and get it back on solid a financial footing.

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