My 6-year-old nephew asks, “Mommy how do I become a billionaire?”

“Invent something really cool “

“How do I do that?”

“Study engineering at the university.”

“Hmm, is there any way I can get someone else to do it and still get the money?”

And that’s how capitalism was invented.

If you see Johnny Depp’s verdict as a win for “us” and a rebate on college loans for some schmuck down the road as a loss, I’m sorry to inform you that you’ve been had. You’ve been recruited to side with the people who never side with you. They want you to believe that the schmuck with the loans is the enemy. They want us at each other’s throats while they are robbing us.

It’s funny to see how people even remembered the term “transfer of capital” once college loan forgiveness was mentioned. Buddy, you want to see a capital transfer? Look at what happened with Pfizer, Walmart, Netflix, etc as a result of COVID mitigation. That was a real capital transfer, and it’s still happening. Let’s get angry over that and not over a very modest break that a neighbor’s kid might get.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I never took out a cent of college loans and neither did my husband, so I’m not advocating for myself here.

And yes, Biden is doing this to bribe his voters. The real question is, why don’t our candidates do it for us? The answer is: because we accept symbolic Twitter victories instead of material ones.

In a functioning nation-state, the government looks out for the material well-being of the citizens. The idea that this is somehow shameful and that you are deficient if you haven’t performed endless feats of self-sacrifice and mental agility in the management of your life is a neoliberal brainwashing trick.

These poor people who post endless screeds about how they ate ketchup sandwiches for a decade and paid off their loans so nobody else should get a break are members of the neoliberal cult. They make the robbery we are all experiencing possible. They mean well and they are sincere, good people but they have adopted the faith that’s at the very root of our immiseration.

First of all, yes, Heard was absolutely abusive towards Depp. She’s a liar and a disgusting person. Yes, male victims of domestic abuse exist. My great-grandmother abused my great-grandfather in front of me, including physically. I loved him deeply, and this will never stop hurting.

The problem is, Depp didn’t win on abuse charges. He won on defamation charges over a couple of extremely nebulous phrases in an article. This is a dangerous precedent. For us. A very rich man won his battle, and we lost.

The idea that Depp’s win will somehow trickle down to the rest of abused men is exactly the idea behind #MeToo. And we all saw how that turned out. Nothing ever trickles down.

This is yet another feel-good moment that we will pay for in the future.

Class consciousness is a term that fell out of use, and what a shame. We keep identifying with these mega rich people who don’t give a hoot about us. We are emotionally attached to them, and they aren’t emotionally attached to us. Any relationship of this kind is unhealthy.

Toddlers in Russia are forced to sing a song that begins, “We are ready to go into our last battle with Uncle Vova.”

Vova is a diminutive of Vladimir. Uncle Vova is Putin. But forget Uncle Vova. Note the words “our last battle.” Why is it the last battle?

Look at these cute little faces. Look at the military uniforms. What are they being prepared for? And who is their enemy in that last battle? I’ll give you a hint. It starts with a “U” but it isn’t Ukraine.