Republicans Are Just Servants, The Root of Our Danger In America Is The Oligarchs 💸

[appalachiablue]

- Daily Kos, by Peter Olandt, Jan. 18, 2024.- Ed. (430 Recs, 264 Comments).

(Photo: Trump and Rupert Murdoch, Fox News, News Corp media mogul hug at formal event).

Trump may have tapped into a large well-spring of racist, ignorant, rage but he neither created it nor is he essential to it. Getting rid of Trump does not rid ourselves of the people who are ultimately behind the January 6th, 2021 insurrection. I feel the need to point this out because article after article I read on Daily Kos focuses on Trump like he IS the problem. I also say this because too many articles act surprised every time media organizations “fall for” some lame Republican spin.

Both Trump and corporate media are tools of American oligarchs. The Murdochs, Kochs, and Crows of the world are the real power, menace, and conspirators out to destroy America.

Ever since FDR and the New Deal implemented aggressive Progressive taxation (70% top tax rate or higher) to fund social programs in the US, the conservative oligarchs have been waging a political war to reduce taxes on the wealthy. While they had some early successes, it was the Reagan “Revolution” which began in earnest the decoupling of elite wealth with that of the rest of us. And the myth of trickle-down-economics was pushed by corporate media at every step of the game.

The Reagan mantra of “Government is the Problem” and the only solution to our problems was to shrink the government is the Oligarchs’ core message.

If people were dissatisfied with how the government was run, Oligarchs could convince them to vote for “Fiscal conservatives” by pointing at dysfunctional government and promising that by getting rid of it things would get better. The elected Republicans needn’t have solutions to make government better, they could just muck things up worse and use that as justification that even more government needed to be eliminated. Republicans are anarchists and nihilists. So over the years we have privatized some parts of government, downsized much of it, and in Red States essentially removed much of it all while oligarchs got richer on it.

When the initial results came in and most of us saw no benefit to the downsizing of government, the oligarchs needed to up their game to keep the momentum in their favor. The oligarchs tied themselves to racism, guns, and abortion as the polarizing topics to keep getting their servants elected while weakening anti-trust statutes allowing for media consolidation to push their message. With Citizens United, they legalized bribery making the process more streamlined for themselves...
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/18/2218076/-Republicans-are-just-servants-the-root-of-our-danger-in-America-is-the-oligarchs
------------

- Keith Rupert Murdoch AC KCSG (b. 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate, investor, and media proprietor. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including in the UK (The Sun and The Times), in Australia (The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, and The Australian),

in the US (The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post), book publisher HarperCollins, and the television broadcasting channels Sky News Australia and Fox News (through the Fox Corporation). He was also the owner of Sky (until 2018), 21st Century Fox (until 2019), and the now-defunct News of the World.
With a net worth of US$21.7 billion as of 2 March 2022, Murdoch is the 31st richest person in the United States and the 71st richest in the world according to Forbes magazine.

.. According to The New York Times, Ronald Reagan's campaign team credited Murdoch and the Post for his victory in New York in the 1980 United States presidential election. Reagan later "waived a prohibition against owning a television station and a newspaper in the same market," allowing Murdoch to continue to control The New York Post and The Boston Herald while expanding into television...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch

[Wicked Blue]

1. Don't forget the overseas oligarchs

Russian, Saudi, etc.

[appalachiablue]

3. For sure, add the influence of powerful global oligarchs.**SEE ALSO...

Last edited Fri Jan 19, 2024, 03:43 PM - Edit history (1)

From today, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, Daily Kos:

- 'Super Rich CEOs: 'It won't be the end of the world if Trump Wins.' Daily Kos, Jan. 19, 2024.

- Photo: Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO of JPMorgan Chase, arrives to testify at a Senate Banking Committee hearing at the Hart Senate Office Bldg. Dec. 06, 2023, Wash., DC. The committee heard testimony from the largest financial institutions during an oversight hearing on Wall Street firms.
--------
The richest people in the world are enjoying the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This year’s annual get-together began with an Oxfam report detailing how the 5 richest men in the word have more than doubled their wealth in the last 3 years. NBC reports that the 2024 presidential election has been one of the topics of conversation at the conference.

It turns out that while European elites are leery of another disastrous Trump administration, their wealthy counterparts in America seem unaffected, and in some cases supportive, of the possibility of a real-life fascist coming back into power. One anonymous “prominent U.S. business executive” told NBC, “I’m not sure Europeans understand how weak executive orders are. We have a justice system. Congress will probably be divided. It’s right to be cautious, but it won’t be the end of the world.”...

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/19/2218238/-Super-rich-CEOs-say-they-aren-t-concerned-for-democracy-if-Trump-wins

[orthoclad]

5. The oligarch class has no country

Putin, MBS, Murdoch, Koch all belong to the same club. They have intramural squabbles like the mafias do, but they have common interests: power and control.

Nation-states are convenient for them as mercenary military forces.
The fact that the US spends more on mil than the next ten countries combined makes it a partucularly valuable property for the oligarchs.

[Irish_Dem]

9. These are the enemy oligarchs. And they have a great deal of power in United States.

We have corrupt politicians who just go to the highest bidder.

[barbaraann]

2. IMHO, that includes the anti-Trump Republicans.

Others my disagree, but I include people like Liz Cheney and Michael Steele as servants of the oligarchs.

[Doc Sportello]

4. K&R

From "think tanks" that promote rationalizations like Friedmanomics to justify their endless greed to the Federalist Society seating judges to ALEC creating mimeographed "bills" for subservient legislators, the oligarchs are solidfying their power like never before. And it's the expense of the middle and lower classes.

[rubbersole]

13. A 30+ year project coming home to roost.

[orthoclad]

6. Wealth is power.

[MadameButterfly]

7. But alas it isn't happiness

When will they ever learn?

[orthoclad]

10. When will we learn

to stop ceding them power?
Ask the homeless families living in tents what "happiness" is.

Better yet, ask Elon Musk. He'll whine about something, all the way to the bank.

To me, a simple life is a happy one, but first you need food, shelter, and clothing.

[MadameButterfly]

17. Yes, you need stuff for happiness but

stuff alone doesn't get you happiness.

Something is broken in the people who think they need endless wealth they can't even spend and will take it from starving people. There's some hole they are trying to fill and money and power won't fill it. There's a deep insecurity and fear in people who think they need their gender and race to be supreme to be OK. And gaining that supremacy won't quell the fear.

Trump has never experienced love or the joy of giving. Imagine living like that.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended

Thanks for the thread appalachiablue

[Bernardo de La Paz]

11. Republicon oligarchs have used race, abortion, & LGBT+ for distraction & deflection. . . . nt

[wiggs]

12. ...including corporations. Most of the world's top economies are not countries...they are corporations. nt

[Mr.Bill]

14. When Trump dies,

I think many of his followers will swear that he is not really dead for decades to come.

[soldierant]

15. "Ever since FDR...

the conservative oligarchs have been waging a political war to reduce taxes on the wealthy."

They have indeed, but that was only because the kidnapping of FDR and the violent takeover of government failed.

Now they have apparently discovered that Trump** will gladly do what Smedley D. Butler would not. And so will others like Trump**

It definitely is not Reump** alone - you are correct. But ut still scares me that the oligarchs have so clearly learned whom to recruit for these missions and how to reach so many people with their platform.

[Dustlawyer]

16. Oligarchs control our politicians with donations and

the media with advertising dollars. They manipulate us to do what they want. Until we get rid of the current campaign finance system and go to publicity funded elections and require truth in journalism we will continue to circle the drain.