The oligarchs’ election

[Octafish]

I know, wsws...Truth is this is the Situation and is not really discussed on tee vee...ever. And it should be, especially if you believe in democracy.



The oligarchs’ election

World Socialist Web Site, 3 August 2015

Reports filed earlier this month with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) confirm that the US political system is completely dominated by the super-rich. The figures are so staggering, and so at odds with the conventional claims that the United States is a democracy, that even the corporate-controlled media has been compelled to take notice.
Below are some representative headlines that appeared over the weekend:

Small Pool of Rich Donors Dominates Election Giving—New York Times

Million-dollar donors pump huge sums into 2016 White House race—Washington Post

Data: Nearly 5 dozen give a third of all ’16 campaign cash—Associated Press

67 donors and gusher of cash change 2016 race—Politico.com

Each of these reports relies on the figures from the FEC to document the role of a tiny group of extraordinarily wealthy contributors in shaping the course of the 2016 presidential campaign in both the Democratic and Republican parties. The bulk of this money has been channeled through so-called super PACs, the nominally independent political action committees called into existence by the Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United case, which legalized unlimited political contributions by millionaires and billionaires.
A few of the most important figures are worth citing:

* Fewer than 400 families account for nearly half of the $388 million raised by June 30 for the 2016 campaign.

* Just 130 families provide more than half of the super PAC money raised for Republican candidates.

* Some 67 donors have kicked in more than $1 million apiece, nearly half of them in the camp of Jeb Bush, who leads the fundraising race with $119 million.

* Super PAC fundraising has shot up ten-fold since the last presidential campaign, from $26 million at this point in 2011 to $258 million this year, nearly two-thirds of the total campaign cash that has been raised.

Perhaps the most naked expression of the dominant role of big money is the weekend event held by the billionaire brothers Charles and Edward Koch. They invited five of the Republican hopefuls to audition before an audience of 450 like-minded reactionary money men. [font color="green"]The Koch brothers alone have pledged to pump $900 million into electing a Republican president and Congress. Republican strategist Mark McKinnon told the New York Times, “For that kind of money you could buy a president. Oh right. That’s the point.”[/font color]

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/08/03/pers-a03.html

[Blus4u]

1. Direct, to the point...

Another well researched post by Octafish

Peace

[Octafish]

5. Koch Brothers wealth grew 33 billion in 3 years...

That was reported in 2013 by Pam Martens:

http://wallstreetonparade.com/2013/04/koch-brothers-wealth-grew-by-33-billion-in-3-years-as-americas-schools-report-1-million-homeless-kids/

I bet the latest reports would continue that trend, showing how an investment of millions can return billions.

Most importantly: Thank you for the kind words, Blus4u.

[7wo7rees]

26. This book is for you Octafish ----

The Rich and The Super-Rich by Ferdinand Lundberg.

1st printing, June 1968, 13,500
.
Our copy is the 6th, October 1968, 13,500.

We found it window shopping a antique store on a Sunday afternoon, 2002, in Dallas.

Enlightening!

[Octafish]

34. Thank you, 7wo7rees!

Found it online in PDF:

http://www.pdfarchive.info/pdf/L/Lu/Lundberg_Ferdinand_-_The_rich_and_the_super-rich.pdf

I understand it also is recommended by Jacques Fresco, the futurist who thinks we just may survive Them.

[rhett o rick]

37. Thanks very much for the link. nm

[olddots]

2. I am also very afraid of what some other very rich old facists are up too

The Kochs are very much out in the open while others are lurking .

[Octafish]

6. FDR knew the type...

"Government by Organized Money is Just as Dangerous as Government by Organized Mob." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, upon his 1936 nomination.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=15219

The Kochs and the rest of Organized Money have done all they can to undo the New Deal.

[Hydra]

3. Nobody believed me when I said this would happen

Over a billion dollars was spent in the last presidential election. We'll see 4x that or better- whoever wins the WH will be $2 Billion in debt to whoever sponsored them.

[daredtowork]

4. Big money is pouring into local elections

At least it is in some places. The housing crunch, and the opportunity to install a whole new electorate en masse via building housing that particularly caters to that "voting demographic" is an insidious form of red-mapping. Cities are changing zoning laws and gerrymandering to to exploit opportunities for Real Estate Industry funding, but this money ultimately has a red price tag on it.

There needs to be a way to deflect outside money from local elections and, better yet, extract outside money (absentee/foreign landlordism and property speculation) from neighborhoods as well.

[Octafish]

7. As long as you know it's true, that's what really counts.

People who don't believe what I tell them about money's corrupting influence often are awaiting confirmation from the television. Seeing how tee vee collects most of that money in each election cycle's "Ad Buys," they won't be hearing it from the trusted talking head any time soon. And the people who run the talking heads likely work for people beholden to Koch.

EXCLUSIVE: The Restrictions Journalists Agreed To In Order To Attend The Koch Brothers’ Conference

Free Press, by their definition, cost them money. So like the people who paid the piper, they better damn play what they want.

[passiveporcupine]

20. Yeah, but we need that

because, you know, Bernie can't win.

[jalan48]

8. The sad part is they have bought both parties.

The Democrats used to stand with labor to counter the capitalists. Now, leading Democrats stand with the "too big to fail Wall St. crowd". The media hypes the election like a sporting event with both sides rooting on their teams, everyone gets so caught up in winning they lose track of the big issue you have pointed out. How many elections has it been now that we have been told "the other side is worse so we need to vote for the Democrat?" Instead of American's voting for their ideals they vote in a negative manner, out of fear. But then, fear seems to be the motivating force for most Americans these days.

[99th_Monkey]

9. Or they don't vote at all, and just give up trying

And it is THIS ^ that makes Sanders dangerous to the Oligarchs, because
Bernie is tapping deeply into this demographic and that's scaring the
bejesus out of the Oligarchs and their M$M.

Trump may be running to vacuum-up as much of this as possible on the
Right end of the spectrum, so they don't re-register as Democrats just
to vote for Bernie.

[billhicks76]

13. Don't Worry...They Will 9-11 Us Again

If we threaten their grip. They are evil and have vanquished any care or conscience.

[Juicy_Bellows]

18. "Good answer. Good answer. I like the way you think. I'm gonna be watching you. "

Cheers!

[99th_Monkey]

23. Yes, not to worry

Worrying only makes it worse.

Energy better spent on planning & organizing for a far-better future
than the Oligarchs have planned for us.

[MisterP]

29. Sanders's movement goes for all three sectors: to reverse the Dems being a machine that uses our

votes to pass the laws the donors want and block those that we Americans need, to show pocketbook and small-C-conservative Pubs how far from reality the GOP's drifted, and to give the nonvoters something more than empty vitriol between two fatcat-owned factions pursuing many of the same economic and even social policies

[99th_Monkey]

35. Well said Mr. P

It's a beautiful thing to track the many strands of positive influence Bernie
is having on the political process. Thanks for that one.

[MisterP]

36. it's an entirely different type of politics than people have been getting since Reagan

we're used to the old politics where the Dem goes "Main Street media bias obstruction abortion Republican LIARS troops bunting" and we accept it because the Pub goes "troops Main Street gays gays abortion media bias DemocRAT taxes and ANTICHRIST INDOCTRINATION CAMPS bunting" and they both chase each other rightwards while living off corporate money

Obama ran against this setup but even then many lefties knew he'd break every economic promise (which he then did): he needed a big coalition to buy time and forgiveness from --and to make it about personality rather than policy (sorta rooted in the 90s' deification of Reagan and Clinton's "cool" campaigning)

having a presidential candidate who plumps up his polls not by holding babies but by siding with 70-90% of the country, presenting a problem, analyzing it, and proposing solutions that have worked before/elsewhere is such a complete shock that just his campaign style brings note from even the barflies: they're not called "populists" for nothing

the RW has been able to scream "socialist" at everyone from Carter to Lieberman to Reagan for so long that they're just speechless when he shrugs and lays out WHY people prefer his workable lefty policies--especially when he attracts those Pub voters who aren't barking maniacs (low taxes don't do much when the billionaires' are so low they're throttling the economy)

[Octafish]

10. RFK, Jr. spoke at Wayne State University in Detroit in 2007...

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. called George W Bush "that sonofabitch" and said the guy was a crook, turning over the government to the lobbyists and gangsters who've emptied our Treasury, polluted our water, land, air and children, and used humanity as cannon fodder and slave labor.

He also pegged ABCNNBCBSFoxNoiseNutwork for what they are, quislings. Among other things, he called Antonin Scalia the son of a Nazi and explained why. He also said that almost all the current GOP on the political stage are corrupt and about 2/3 of Democrats. At the time, I thought he was about right. Today, things have gotten toward the 7/8.

He was asked who he was supporting, Obama or Hillary. He said his family was divided, but like both candidates. He also said they were not sure about Schwarzenegger and said his cousin was the one to ask about him. I would've taken notes, but I wanted to hear everything the guy said.

[hifiguy]

32. The Clintons and DLCers sold the party piecemeal to Wall Street

back in the 1990s. When the rest of the careerists saw how lavishly those traitors were rewarded they jumped on the same gravy train. Who needs principles when there are personal fortunes to be made?

Bernie is the last train out of town. Another corporatist or two, and their party label matters not a whit or scintilla if they are a corporatist at heart, may be able to keep the lid on for another ten years or so at most. But the building pressure will blow at some point, as history teaches us it always hasand inevitably does. And when a polity blows up things are just as likely to turn extremely ugly, extremely quickly, as not.

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy

[daleanime]

11. K&R....

[Ed Suspicious]

12. My question is, how do you get someone to care about it all? We have people on

this board who will find your act of even posting this to be annoying. How to we get rich and even upper middle class people, $100,000 + / year people, to care? I mean, really there are so many people out there who appear to feel they have the government they want - now just downsize it.

[billhicks76]

14. Google "Cremation Of Care"

Care is their enemy.

[Ed Suspicious]

15. I went there. I return only with word from Alex Jones and . . .

this.



I'm not sure I follow you.

[billhicks76]

16. Lol

The actual Bohemian Grove elites gathering outside of the conspiracy theories has a segment recited each year called The Cremation Of Care. It's sort of a Shakespearean skit where everyone attends wearing hooded robes around a fake human sacrifice where an effigy of a young person is burned alive with fake screams on a P.A. system. The words to the cremation of care are basically about leaving ones conscience behind for all the bad things that they did over the year. It's an anti-spiritual cleansing to absolve guilt and is conducted during a time during the summer associated with rebirth. Watch one of the videos. Definitely weird.

[Juicy_Bellows]

22. I heard rumor that Edie Brickell & New Bohemians was originally going to be:

Halliburton Bechtel & Bohemian Groves but it just sounded too obvious.

Cheers!

[passiveporcupine]

21. Oh so true.

It makes me want to vomit when I read this, yet some people are just fine with the status Quo...because Bernie can't win.

[valerief]

17. Oligarch teevee doesn't talk about oligarch pillaging. nt

[99th_Monkey]

24. Well, Ed tried, and was axed. .. only proving your point. nt

[Juicy_Bellows]

19. Kick!

[99th_Monkey]

25. K&R nt

[Gothmog]

27. The top one tenth of one percent are calling the shots

[malaise]

28. I love that website

Thanks for this

[Blue_Tires]

30. And who didn't see this coming after Citizens United?

Which the ACLU carried a lot of water for, sadly...

[hifiguy]

31. And here is the choice they want to give us.

Whether Hillary is the wolf and Heb the lion or vice versa I leave to the individual viewer. Same shit, different pile however you look at it: maintain the status quo and accelerate the plutocratic fascist agenda either way.

[Zorra]

33. Oligarchy 101: Establishing Global Oligarchy Through Buying Media and Government. nt

[raouldukelives]

38. And there are still those who invest and support them.

That consider themselves friends to democracy.