PLUTOCRATS

Jimmy Dore and Dylan Ratigan discuss the state of America and the nefarious influence of the super rich on society and especially its politics and economic direction.

CHRIS HEDGES—It is essential to understand the pathologies of the uber-rich. They have seized total political power. These pathologies inform Donald Trump, his children, the Brett Kavanaughs, and the billionaires who run his administration. The uber-rich cannot see the world from anyone’s perspective but their own. People around them, including the women whom entitled men prey upon, are objects designed to gratify momentary lusts or be manipulated. The uber-rich are almost always amoral. Right. Wrong. Truth. Lies. Justice. Injustice. These concepts are beyond them. Whatever benefits or pleases them is good. What does not must be destroyed.

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.