patrick.net

And which candidate do these Oligarchs support most with dollars? Who flies to Nantucket and Beverley Hills and raises $270,000 per hour ?

I'm thinking Hillary, then Michelle? and of course Chelsea!
Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Clinton, Obama, Clinton.
Mby Jeb could slide in there if he gets his shit together.
What oligarchy?

Yup make America great again!

thunderlips11 says

And which candidate do these Oligarchs support most with dollars? Who flies to Nantucket and Beverley Hills and raises $270,000 per hour ?

That just strikes me as a sign of how bad your candidate is that even many of those naturally inclined to support the Republican party think he would be bad for the country despite the fact his tax policies would enrich them even further.

They needed a whole study to conclude this??

thunderlips11 says

And which candidate do these Oligarchs support most with dollars? Who flies to Nantucket and Beverley Hills and raises $270,000 per hour ?

Doesn't matter, Trump is sensible but insensitive! We have gotten used to the opposite. Cuck nation.

Rashomon says

That just strikes me as a sign of how bad your candidate is that even many of those naturally inclined to support the Republican party think he would be bad for the country despite the fact his tax policies would enrich them even further.

Nothing at all to do with the question. Oligarchs support the proven, vetted stooge.

tovarichpeter says

Princeton and Northwestern Universities concluded that the U.S. government represents not the interests of the majority of citizens but those of the rich and powerful.

I could have told you than when I was 10.

America has always only paid lip service to democracy and liberty.

The report consoles that “Americans do enjoy many features central to democratic governance, such as regular elections, freedom of speech and association” but goes on to warn that “we believe that if policymaking is dominated by powerful business organizations and a small number of affluent Americans, then America’s claims to being a democratic society are seriously threatened.”

Having elections does not make a government a democracy. It makes it a republic. Learn the difference.

Furthermore, elections are not an end to themselves. The entire purpose of elections is to place representatives in government who actually represent your interests. If the representatives don't represent the people then elections serve no purpose.

America has been masquerading as a republic for over two centuries giving the people token elections to placate the masses. That does not make America a republic, nonetheless a democracy.

thunderlips11 says

Oligarchs support the proven, vetted stooge.

You mean those with the most to lose support the most stable and known of the two candidates? I'm amazed.

Wouldn't a tax cut end the oligarchy, since all billionaires are liberal elites or something?

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

There is nothing so bad that politics cannot make it worse.

Why do we have to hear this from Putin and not from our own corporate media?

Oh right, the corporate media is entirely owned by those same elites.

Patrick says

Why do we have to hear this from Putin and not from our own corporate media?

Oh right, the corporate media is entirely owned by those same elites.

Jesus - why do people not post fucking links?

IF Putin is ACTUALLY addressing the public in the United States, it sure as fuck would be interesting to know what he said. But there's no FUCKING LINK.

https://resulthunter.com/search?engine=1&q=%22I+want+ordinary+citizens+of+the+Western+states+to+hear+me%22&source=patrick.net
https://you.com/search?q=%22I+want+ordinary+citizens+of+the+Western+states+to+hear+me%22&fromSearchBar=true&source=patrick.net
https://swisscows.com/web?query=%22I+want+ordinary+citizens+of+the+Western+states+to+hear+me%22&source=patrick.net
https://yandex.com/search/?text=%22I+want+ordinary+citizens+of+the+Western+states+to+hear+me%22&lr=102749&source=patrick.net

FINALLY. After going through a few pages, I found it here:

https://thesaker.is/fm-lavrov-presser-after-talks-with-fm-hossein-amir-abdollahian-iran/?source=patrick.net

In the comment section, in an un-related article which takes me to here:

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1504108825841913867?cxt=HHwWlsCyvcHA1d8pAAAA&source=patrick.net

If you're going to repeat something IMPORTANT please provide the ability of people to verify what was said.

Drives me up the wall!

"Here's this super interesting thing that could have been easily faked and may not actually exist. Good luck verifying it!!".

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/the-limits-of-populist-resistance?publication_id=268621&post_id=129231613&isFreemail=true

By controlling who has access to information, those in power can centralize their power successfully, often with little accountability, due to the apathy, indifference and non-participation most rank-and-file members have in relation to their organization's decision-making processes. ...

At all levels of policy, Western democracies act with near-total independence of the popular will. Mass immigration, lockdowns, the massive expansion of taxation and the welfare state, nearly all foreign policy interventions, climate change mitigations and the entire apparatus of intrusive regulations in social and economic life, all happened well in advance of popular demand. Plainly, our governments just do whatever they want. At best, in select cases, they work afterwards to establish some basis of support for their actions. The will of the people is neither necessary nor sufficient, but it makes the execution of certain policies a great deal simpler and cheaper.

It’s a real problem, how political systems founded to express the popular will have come to operate with almost perfect independence of this will. A lot has been written on this phenomenon, and here and there on this blog I’ve tried to introduce readers to some of the ideas in this body of thought. A key thesis is Robert Michels’s iron law of oligarchy, which holds that organisational pressures force any political arrangement to function sooner or later as an oligarchic system broadly independent of the masses.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy

Michels stressed several factors that underlie the iron law of oligarchy. Darcy K. Leach summarized them briefly as: "Bureaucracy happens. If bureaucracy happens, power rises. Power corrupts."[6] Any large organization, Michels pointed out, has to create a bureaucracy in order to maintain its efficiency as it becomes larger—many decisions have to be made daily that cannot be made by large numbers of disorganized people. For the organization to function effectively, centralization has to occur and power will end up in the hands of a few. Those few—the oligarchy—will use all means necessary to preserve and further increase their power.[6]

Three antidotes to this tendency could be:

1. A strong continuous focus on minimizing all bureaucracy
2. Completely unfettered flow of information
3. Zeal for public participation among the masses

#2 is now close to reality as the internet allows us to have this very conversation in spite of oligarchic desire to suppress free speech.

#3 was greatly increased when all of our lives were threatened by mandatory toxic injections.

.tovarichpeter says

Study concludes U.S. is oligarchy not democracy

Kleptocracy. Criminal syndicate works too.

it became very obvious last election. the snobbishness, the disdain for working class, the not giving a shit what voters think, the ruling behavior. it definitely opened up my eyes to a lot of what George Carlin used to gripe about.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/06/28/let-them-drink-water-alcohol-ban-at-paris-olympics-for-all-but-vip-elites/

Alcohol consumption at the 2024 Paris Olympics will be restricted to special VIP areas only, a report Tuesday confirmed, meaning the elites can happily quaff Champagne while those in the cheap seats will be forced to look on and sip water.

Thanks to an edict called Elvin’s Law which began in 1991, alcohol sales have long been banned to the general public in France’s sports stadiums. ...

Fans in VIP sections, however, will be allowed to imbibe as much and as often as they please. ...

Le Parisien reports VIPs in some sections will be greeted with a champagne service on arrival and provided access to bars serving wine and beer for the duration.