oligarchy

Chris Hedges: The Treason Of The Ruling Class

June 1, 2020 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. Educate! Democracy, oligarchy, Poverty, Ruling Class

The ruling elites no longer have legitimacy. They have destroyed our capitalist democracy and replaced it with a mafia state. What the Roman philosopher Cicero called a commonwealth, a res publica, a “public thing” or the “property of a people,” has been transformed into an instrument of naked pillage and repression on behalf of a global corporate oligarchy. We are serfs ruled by obscenely rich, omnipotent masters who loot the U.S. Treasury, pay little or no taxes and have perverted the judiciary, the media and the legislative branches of government to strip us of civil liberties and give them the freedom to commit financial fraud and theft. The loss of control over our system of rulership, the misuse of all democratic institutions, the electoral process and laws to funnel money upwards into to a handful of oligarchs while stripping us of power, ominously means that the ruling elites can no longer claim the right to have a monopoly on violence.

The US Is Not ‘Losing’ Its Democracy, It’s Already Long Gone

November 24, 2019 Richard Enos, Collective Revolution. Educate! Democracy, Inequality, oligarchy

The notion that citizens of the United States don’t actually live in a democracy has been picking up steam for decades, with scars from economic, social and political decay inflicting themselves ever more deeply into our psyches as the years move on. You would think that, with the rise of science and technology, we would have been able to build a far more prosperous nation. Instead, we have seen a vast reduction in our standard of living, and are being forced to work longer and harder in increasingly menial and unfulfilling jobs across the board. We are ever more being subjected to the control-hungry vicissitudes of mega-corporations that are swallowing up American entrepreneurship and prosperous self-employment.

Death By Oligarchy

November 13, 2019 Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Educate! oligarchy, Revisionism, Ruling Class Splits

Oligarchs are blinded by hubris, wealth and power. Their cloying sense of entitlement sees them outraged by even the most tepid reforms or mildest of criticisms. They lack empathy and compassion, along with remorse or guilt, for what is done to those outside of their tiny, elitist circles. Privilege does strange and unpleasant things to human beings. I saw these distortions among my rich classmates as a scholarship student at prep school and at Harvard University, an institution designed, like all elite schools, to perpetuate the plutocracy.

Just Like The “Money Trust” Before It, Wall Street Is A Threat To Democracy

October 20, 2019 Carter Daugherty, Take On Wall Street. Educate! Big Finance, oligarchy, Wall Street

We don’t speak of the “Money Trust” in the 21st century. But perhaps we should. These two words had a powerful resonance in the early decades of the 20th century as a label for the tiny number of rich Americans who used their dominance of finance to seize control of vast swaths of industry like railroads, metals, petroleum, to name but a few. Today, their names – the Morgans, the Mellons – can possess a certain ageless, almost noble echo thanks to the passage of time and decades of strategic philanthropy. But back then, their critics, and they were numerous, verily spit out their names in disgust. The address of J. Pierpont Morgan’s bank, on New York’s famous road of finance, loomed large enough in the public mind that no less than Franklin Delano Roosevelt could promise in 1933 that his cabinet would include “no one in it who knows the way to 23 Wall Street.

Billionaires Plan Escape From Apocalypse

September 9, 2018 By Robert Hunziker, Counterpunch Educate! Finance and the Economy, Inequality, oligarchy

What’s with capitalism/capitalists? As soon as things turn sour, they turn south with tails between their legs and hightail it out of Dodge. However, they feast on and love steady, easy, orderly avenues (markets) to riches, but as soon as things heat up a bit, they turn tail and run. History proves it time and again, for example, FDR rescued capitalism, literally rescued it, from certain demise by instituting social welfare programs for all of the citizens as capitalists fled and/or jumped off buildings. Then during the 2008 financial meltdown capitalists were found curled up in the corners of rooms as all hell broke lose.

People Living In Democracies Think Government Does Not Represent Them

June 24, 2018 Staff, Alliance of Democracies Educate! Democracy, oligarchy

The largest single global study measuring citizens’ trust in government indicates democracies are facing a severe crisis of faith in the eyes of the public. The Democracy Perception Index 2018 (DPI) finds that a majority of people living in democracies are disillusioned with the idea that their government is formed “by the people” and works “for the people.” The DPI, conducted by Dalia Research in collaboration with the Alliance of Democracies and Rasmussen Global, is based on nationally representative interviews with over 125,000 respondents in 50 countries worldwide. This represents over 75% of the world’s population and 75% of the world’s GDP. DPI survey data ranks countries on how effectively they are perceived to be delivering core democratic benefits in the eyes of their citizens.

Do U.S. Oligarchs Exist? Not in Mainstream Media

April 12, 2018 Jeff Cohen, Popular Resistance Educate! Media, oligarchy

I hear the anchors on CNN and MSNBC getting us riled up about the schemes of this or that “Russian oligarch with links to the Kremlin.” I’ve heard that phrase incessantly in recent weeks And plenty of others have heard the “Russian oligarch” phrase. Merriam-Webster.com reported that “oligarch” was one of its most searched-for words on April 5th “following reports that Robert Mueller had questioned Russian businessmen to whom this descriptor applies. But here’s a phrase I haven’t heard from any of the purportedly progressive hosts on MSNBC: “A U.S. oligarch with links to Washington.” That avoidance is revealing when one considers an indisputable fact: U.S. oligarchs have done far more to undermine U.S. democracy than any Russian.

The Oligarchs’ ‘Guaranteed Basic Income’ Scam

April 3, 2018 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Educate! Guaranteed basic income, Inequality, oligarchy

A number of the reigning oligarchs—among them Mark Zuckerberg (net worth $64.1 billion), Elon Musk (net worth $20.8 billion), Richard Branson (net worth $5.1 billion) and Stewart Butterfield (net worth $1.6 billion)—are calling for a guaranteed basic income. It looks progressive. They couch their proposals in the moral language of caring for the destitute and the less fortunate. But behind this is the stark awareness, especially in Silicon Valley, that the world these oligarchs have helped create is so lopsided that future consumers, plagued by job insecurity, substandard wages, automation and crippling debt peonage, will be unable to pay for the products and services offered by the big corporations. The oligarchs do not propose structural change. They do not want businesses and the marketplace regulated.

The Deadly Rule Of The Oligarchs

February 12, 2018 By Chris Hedges, Truthdig.com Educate! Class Struggle, oligarchy, Ruling Class

Oligarchic rule, as Aristotle pointed out, is a deviant form of government. Oligarchs care nothing for competency, intelligence, honesty, rationality, self-sacrifice or the common good. They pervert, deform and dismantle systems of power to serve their immediate interests, squandering the future for short-term personal gain. “The true forms of government, therefore, are those in which the one, or the few, or the many, govern with a view to the common interest; but governments that rule with a view to the private interest, whether of the one, of the few or of the many, are perversions,” Aristotle wrote. The classicist Peter L.P. Simpson calls these perversions the “sophistry of oligarchs,” meaning that once oligarchs take power, rational, prudent and thoughtful responses to social, economic and political problems are ignored to feed insatiable greed.

Big Oil Praises Gov. Brown’s State Of The State Address

January 30, 2018 Dan Bacher, Indybay.org Resist! California, oligarchy, Protests

"Jerry Brown has refused to start turning off the oil spigot as donations and lobbying dollars continue to flowfrom Big Oil,” said Liza Tucker, Consumer Advocate for Consumer Watchdog. “It’s time for his actions to match his words decrying the existential threat of climate change. Politicians should say no to money from Big Oil and Brown should say no to any new permits for Big Oil drilling and other infrastructure.” Amidst predictably fawning media coverage, California Governor Jerry Brown delivered his sixteenth and final State of the State address at the State Capitol in Sacramento on January 25. Brown proclaimed that the "bolder path is still our way forward" on climate change, cap-and-trade and infrastructure investment, including the implementation of the water bond of 2014 and the construction of his Delta Tunnels, and an array of other issues.

Government Structure—Not Just Personnel—Needs to Change

December 25, 2017 Paul Street, Truthdig.com Strategize! Barack Obama, Donald Trump, oligarchy

We need a “change of structure,” not merely a “change of spirit” or a change of party identity and personnel at the nominal top of the corporate totalitarian state. A nominal Democrat was elected president along with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress in 2008. What followed under Obama (as under his Democratic presidential predecessors Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton) was the standard “elite” neoliberal manipulation of campaign populism and identity politics in service to the reigning big-money bankrollers and their global empire. Wall Street’s control of Washington and the related imperial agenda of the “Pentagon System” were advanced more effectively by the nation’s first black president than they could have been by stiff and wealthy white-male Republicans like John McCain or Mitt Romney.

Urgent Protests To Stop Tax Theft

December 17, 2017 #StopTheGOPTaxScam Coalition, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! Donald Trump, Healthcare, Mitch McConnell, oligarchy, Paul Ryan, Tax Reform

Starting Monday, Dec 18, and continuing through Tuesday, Dec 19, doctors, nurses and medical students are joining with patients to STOP the VOTE on the GOP's tax cut that takes away health care from millions of Americans and raises insurance premiums on millions more. The action is organized by the Center for Popular Democracy, Housing Works, the Women's March, ACT UP, CPD's Ady Barkan and a national network of birddoggers who have been fighting all year to#protectpatients. They’re going to try to vote on this bill Monday or Tuesday. We are going to stop them. The tax bill will decimate health care. Congress has been ignoring renewing funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), community health centers, and safety net hospitals that serve large numbers of uninsured patients.

Second Gilded Age, Rigged System Not Being Challenged

November 25, 2017 Larry Elliott, www.theguardian.com Educate! oligarchy, Wealth Divide

By Larry Elliott for the Guardian. If revulsion at the concentration of wealth and the exploitation of market power becomes strong enough there is nothing to stop governments smashing monopolies and raising taxes. This, after all, is what happened last time, with the first Gilded Age followed in the US by two waves of reforms, the pre-first world war Progressive era and during the New Deal of the 1930s. In his book Capital in the 21st Century, Thomas Piketty notes that in the early 20th century, the US led the way on tackling wealth disparities, proving intellectually more prepared than other advanced countries to accept a steeply progressive income tax. In an article for American Prospect, Paul Starr notes that limiting the power of concentrated wealth in the US is a cause with deep roots. None of this is on his agenda . . .

An American Oligarch‘s Dirty Tale Of Corruption

September 21, 2017 F. William Engdahl, www.journal-neo.org Educate! Corruption, oligarchy

By F. William Engdahl for NEO - What the three hacked documents reveal is a degree of behind-the-scene manipulation of the most minute details of the Kiev regime by the New York billionaire. In the longest memo, dated March 15, 2015 and marked “Confidential” Soros outlines a detailed map of actions for the Ukraine regime. Titled, “A short and medium term comprehensive strategy for the new Ukraine,” the memo from Soros calls for steps to “restore the fighting capacity of Ukraine without violating the Minsk agreement.” To do the restoring, Soros blithely notes that “General Wesley Clark, Polish General Skrzypczak and a few specialists under the auspices of the Atlantic Council[emphasis added—f.w.e.] will advise President Poroshenko how to restore the fighting capacity of Ukraine without violating the Minsk agreement.” Soros also calls for supplying lethal arms to Ukraine and secretly training Ukrainian army personnel in Romania to avoid direct NATO presence in Ukraine. The Atlantic Council is a leading Washington pro-NATO think tank. Notably, Wesley Clark is also a business associate of Soros in BNK Petroleum which does business in Poland. Clark, some might recall, was the mentally-unstable NATO General in charge of the 1999 bombing of Serbia who ordered NATO soldiers to fire on Russian soldiers guarding the Pristina International Airport.

Jimmy Carter: America More An ‘Oligarchy Than Democracy’

September 19, 2017 Staff, www.nydailynews.com Educate! Jimmy Carter, Money in Politics, oligarchy

By Staff of The Associated Press - ATLANTA — Former President Jimmy Carter offered a damning indictment of U.S. foreign policy and domestic affairs Tuesday, saying money in politics makes the nation more like an “oligarchy than a democracy” and casting President Donald Trump as a disappointment on the world stage. Carter’s criticisms, offered at his annual presentation to backers of his post-presidency Carter Center in Atlanta, went beyond Trump, but he was particularly critical of the nation’s direction under the Republican president’s leadership. The 39th president, a Democrat, offered this advice to the 45th: “Keep the peace, promote human rights and tell the truth.” Carter, 92, did not mention explicitly Trump’s threatening exchanges this summer with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, but the former president said the U.S. should engage directly with the insular leader and discuss a peace treaty to replace the cease fire that ended the Korean War in 1953. “I would send my top person to Pyongyang immediately, if I didn’t go myself,” Carter said, noting that he’s been three times to the country, even as successive U.S. administrations have refused to deal with the regime. The North Koreans, Carter said, want a treaty that guarantees the U.S. will not attack unless North Korea attacks the U.S. or an ally, particularly South Korea.

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