PLUTOCRATS

DARWIN HOLMSTROM—In his first brush with the law, Epstein had the varsity squad of servants of the rich protecting him, heavy hitters such as Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz, Palm Beach county state attorney Barry Krischer, and the Miami office U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta. They came close to getting Epstein off completely, but ultimately had to settle for his serving a little time in what amounted to a state-funded bed and breakfast retreat. Epstein’s initial lenient sentence began to make a bit more sense after the public learned that Acosta had arranged for Epstein to avoid the same punishment a mere peasant would face because Epstein “belonged to intelligence.”

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—If I could strike one word from the English language, “philanthropist” would be it. That word’s sole meaning these days is a label that gets attached to parasitic plutocrats who donate a very small percentage of their wealth to tax-exempt charities so that people won’t notice they’re living in a plutocracy and roll out the guillotines.

ERIC ZUESSE—THE ESSENTIAL ROLE OF BIGOTRY IN PATRONIZING, SPONSORING, & WAGING WARS —At the lower levels of such operations, lots of hatred is usually needed. For people at the top, it’s merely part of the business-plan. It’s a very effective business-plan, but a very toxic political plan. Actually, it’s toxic to publics everywhere — not just externally, but also internally. It is toxic to everyone but the empire’s billionaires.

CLARE O’CONNOR—The central finding of this report is simple: Our analysis of 23 years’ worth of the Walton Family Foundation’s tax returns shows that Rob, Jim, Alice and Christy Walton—the second generation Walmart heirs—have contributed almost none of their personal fortune to the foundation which bears their family name.

OSCAR GRENFELL—Risen claimed CNN had demonstrated that “Assange met with Russians and world-class hackers at critical moments, frequently for hours at a time.” In reality, the “Russians” that Assange is alleged to have met were prominent reporters and producers from the well-known RT news network. Contrary to the impression cultivated by CNN and Risen, the “world-class hackers” had nothing to do with Russia. They were two German citizens and computer experts, Andy Müller-Maguhn and Bernd Fix, who have been publicly associated with Assange and WikiLeaks for the best part of a decade.