Oligarchic Control from the Renaissance to the Information Age

[Henry Every]

https://open.substack.com/pub/thedukereport/p/oligarchic-control-from-the-renaissance?r=9tdsp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

[Buford.Justice]

The war on truth has nearly destroyed this nation. But we hace a chance now to put these people in their place. Maybe even Alex Jones can sue these evil people that have tried their best to destroy him, by any means possible. The left hates this man having a voice and exposing the rot. Heck they hate any citizen that dares to speak up and resist the cycle and hammer.

Great read Henry, so much info that every citizen needs to know.

[Morgs153]

People seem to think that an oligarch is a someone/something you only run across in Russia, Ukraine, or any of the former Soviet states.

No, we have our own oligarchs in this country. The tech sector, the political sector, the information and media sector all have some oligarch representation in this country. It could probably be argued that Barack Obama is our top political oligarch. Look at how he started as a community organizer just what, around 30-35 years ago. The guy used to talk about how he could barely rub two nickels together, how when he started in the Illinois legislature he drove a POS beater car from Chicago to Springfield to get to the statehouse. Today he's worth over $300 million by some estimates, he owns mansions in Chicago, Washington DC, Martha's Vineyard, and the Magnum PI villa in Hawaii. Hey how bout that, all on a government salary. His peak earning years as president would have been around $400k/year and since leaving office he might get about $5 million/year with about 40% dedicated to office space. He's done pretty well for himself as the 44th (and some would say 46th) president, who also would have probably been the behind the scenes boss as 47th had Kamala pulled it off.

Politics in this country is often referred to as - theater for the ugly. A lot of them act it up just like their Hollywood counterparts and politics can be quite lucrative as well. I'd bet more people get rich going into politics than going into acting. Not like insider trading is legal for actors but it is legal in Congress. Wouldn't any of us like to have Nancy Pelosi's portfolio? But that cesspool creates political oligarchs. Some are just more influential than others.

[Tyy7777]

Well this thread has become incredibly ironic. Did yall not see who sat front row at the inauguration? Lol.

Elon Musk is worth nearly $400B and he is fishing through government. If you really think he has your best interests at heart then you have another thing coming.

Obama is worth around $70M btw. It is estimated that around $60M of that came through his book deal. In 2016 it was estimated at $12M. That was again largely because of royalties.

[Morgs153]

I'm glad you brought up book deals. Book deals are one of the ways money is laundered in politics. You see, you can't directly pay yourself from campaign funds that you raise for your own campaigns. But, you can write books. So let's say both you and I are in Congress. I write a book and you buy a bulk load of my books. Then you write a book and I buy a bulk load of your books. Then the books are maybe given out to donors and people who show up at rallies. Oh sure, a few might get sold in book stores and to true believers but book deals for politicians are a huge money laundering scam to put money back in their pockets that they can't legally pay themselves from campaign funds. Now Obama was popular so there's probably a good bit of legitimate sales there but I'd be raising an eye brow over any politician's book deal.

The net worth of Obama is in debate. That $70 million number basically pays for a good chunk of those four properties and now there is the Netflix deal. So the number is going up. The New York Post estimated $135. Business Insider put it at potentially $242 million and some other sources went higher into the 300 range.

Wanna really look into something. Look into the net worth of Chelsea Clinton at $70 million. How about all that money the Clintons were raising for Haiti. Where did that go? Haiti is in pretty good shape, right? Chelsea Clinton had a free meal initiative program that she received USAID money for. Something like $11 million to give free meals in Africa, Bangladesh and some other third world location. The served about 11,800 meals at a cost of over $1400/ free meal. If the money really went there.

Political oligarchs. We got em.

[Tyy7777]

The $60M came in ADVANCE.

The book was released in 2020.

Obama has released books before that but as mentioned his net worth was low and was right throughout his presidency.

I don't disagree that the things you speak of do happen. I know the Republicans certainly do. https://archive.md/YGeZ2#selection-517.0-517.47

A republican committee with billionaire donors bulk buying books of republicans currently in office.


His net worth isn't really up for debate. Most sources agree on the $70m figure. Their property portfolio is only worth $27M, not sure why you believe $70M would only pay for part of it. You mentioned that the NYP (a right wing news source) believes its $135M. Can't imagine they have a reason to inflate that figure...lol. $242M was estimate in 2017 on what they could earn. No one knows how much the Netflix deal is worth so it probably is more than $70m. Maybe $85m. He also gets paid a lot for public appearances. He also has every right to.

Chelsea Clinton by most accounts is worth half of that. They only received $7m from USAID. I think they raised about $80M. If you think that's all it would take to fix Haiti then you have another thing coming. Significantly more money is needed.

The purpose of USAID is to help develop trade partners. It's not a pointless giveaway.


We do have an oligarchy. It's called the republican party. The richest man in the world is currently fishing through government with a group of 20 year olds gaining access to YOUR DATA. He is going after agencies which were looking into him. Elon's companies have received billions in funding themselves. Did you watch the inauguration? Sat FRONT ROW were a bunch of Billionaire Tech CEOs including the three richest men in the world who all made contributions to the Trump Fund. Peter Thiel is another hardcore billionaire donor. Rupert Murdoch is heavily driving the narrative in the media. Musk brought X to use as his propaganda platform.

The nerve to claim that the oligarchs reside in the blue is crazy. Why would they support the party who has actively worked to raise taxes on the wealthy and raise corporate taxes and raise capital gains tax? Why would they not support the party in favor of taxing the wealthy less and slashing corporate tax.

The way you people are oblivious to it is unbelievable.

[Morgs153]

20 year olds working for Elon is something terrible...

Coming from the side who thinks 5 year olds can pick their own gender and 16 year olds should be able to vote. Good one.

[Tyy7777]

Nothing to say for the rest of it, huh? Lol. Got em.

Good to see you are worried what such a very very small percentage of the population do with their bodies. Not sure why you don't get as concerned when Trump makes suggestive comments towards kids or ya know, hops on a plane with his good buddy Epstein.

A fair chunk of 16 year olds work and at the very worst they show the same level of critical thinking as MAGAts.

[Morgs153]

So, going back to the first post I said that we have oligarchs in all sectors. Political, media, tech sector and entertainment. I didn't point the finger at one group or party being the sole proprietorship of being oligarch types. I do for certain believe they exist on both sides of the coin. You inferred I only meant one side because I identified Obama as one example. Now the estimate I read and first went with might have estimated a little high but let's revisit what he's worth in a few more years. Point was, he's making bank in big way off a life in politics (like many others) and for sure his popularity made that possible. But I don't think there's any denying that with maintaining a home in Washington DC and having so many of his former staff being in the Biden admin, that his fingers of control weren't very active in actually being in the power and real decision making going on during the last four years. He's one of our political oligarchs. Just one, but probably one of the most influencial (or was until recently).

I never inferred that only one side makes bank from book deals. I know they both do. I pointed out that it's a racket. It's a racket just like art sales have become a rackets for some questionably talented "artists" who sell to political donors for some very high prices. Just another example of money laundering for politicians, or their family members.

Now when you point out Elon Musk and the money he's received from the federal govt in the form of contracts just please consider that a good bit of those contracts came in the last four years. Not during the last six weeks or so. SpaceX has been doing some remarkable things. When have you seen NASA land a rocket back on its pad? You don't think any admin interested in space exploration wouldn't be interested in that technology? The contract for electric vehicles for the military didn't come in the last six weeks. That was different admin as well. Isn't Tesla probably the most successful electric vehicle builder in this country? Starlink is pretty successful as well. Musk should be given accolades for taking tens of billions of his own money and buying Twitter and pulling the veil off the censorship and collusion which was happening, in the dirty little relationship between the government and social media. By laying the Twitter files bare and turning them over to independent journalists like; Shellenberger, Weiss, Taibbi and some others to report on it opened up some truths as to what was really going on. Now those three who I named all came from liberal pedigrees (I would include Glenn Greenwald as another who is objective) but have since gone independent.

Do you really want to suggest that the richest (possibly) man in the world is interested in yours and my Social Security? Seriously?

Sourcing the NY Post bothered you. It is one of the oldest newspapers in this country. Though they may tilt right of center they were absolutely right about the Hunter Biden laptop story and that has since been proven. It is has also been proven there was a collusion of censorship against them when they launched the story. I really don't want to rehash the Bidens. I just want to ask you, in your personal life and finances how many shell company LLCs did you ever need to move money from one "company" to another? 21? 22? It was creative way of enriching his family and setting himself up for retirement. Something a political oligarch would do in some second or third world nation. But you might as well do it here because there are so many examples of others doing it as well.

Yup, I checked back and some stories have Chelsea in 30s and some say 70 million. USAID money was 3.9/year (x 3 years that was over 11). The Clinton Foundation is said to have received something like 20 million.

"The purpose of USAID is to help develop trade partners. It's not a pointless giveaway."

Sure, that was the purpose of USAID when it was first started. But as the many recent examples have shown it has turned into a pointless giveaway in many examples. What's the point of funding a trans comic book in Peru? A trans opera in Columbia? Sesame Street in Iraq? That's developing trade partners? It deserves the scrutiny it is receiving. If there are those legit fostering democracy and developing trade partner programs they will exist in the State Dept. but there will, and should, be a more critical vetting process with yours and my tax dollars.

You know, I really want to have the Epstein stuff see the light of day. Trump was said to have hitched one ride on Epstein's jet which was a US flight. Wanna talk about Bill Clinton's 27 plane rides? The ones that actually went to the island? I wanna see this probably as bad as you do. That little black book info that Ghislaine is holding, let's have it.

[Tyy7777]

Dude, he was president of the United States for two terms. Not only that, he is incredibly charismatic and a role model for millions and achieved one of the highest final approval ratings in history. Of course he is going to have money. How and why is that a problem to you?

If he had any real control he would not of let Biden drop out. Simple. From all accounts I can see he stayed on the sidelines in the 2020 primaries. He's not as involved as you think. He's also not an oligarch. Oligarchs a incredibly rich businessman who can obtain through their wealth, great political influence. Obama is not that. Stop that narrative.

Glad we can agree on the book deals and yes it's a dodgy thing but it was irrelevant to Obama.

The point is not about whether Musk deserved said grants, it's about that he's tearing to shreds the government and it's spending when he receives so much himself just because he thinks its helpful and what everyone else gets is not.

X is a (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)hole full of right wing propaganda. Literally full of fake news. He bought it purely to use a propaganda platform. He goes after left wing influencers. It's not uncensored just because all the right wing (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) is given free reign.

Do you understand the amount of greed it takes to get to $400B. Seriously. This dude wants to rort the system for himself. This dude is not letting the value of his companies tank for no reason. He's not doing this out of good will.

Shell companies are not illegal. Besides virtually every one of those 'shell companies' the House oversight committee found all had legitimate business interests. Only $7.5M ever got to Hunter Biden and none was traced directly to Joe. Besides this is not a oligarch thing.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/no-chelsea-clinton-did-not-235832349.html?guccounter=1

They only got around $7.5M. Not sure what your sources are but I'd love to have a look.

Want to know how I know your a MAGAt? You eat up their false bull(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) like it's nothing. The trans comic book in Peru, guess what? False claim. Trans opera in Columbia, guess what? False Claim. Sesame Street in Iraq? Partially false. The money went towards Sesame Workshop which is an early childhood development program. You help educate a struggling nation and you help build a trade partner.

As for Bill Clinton and the flights, yeh I'd love to see it. I don't care for Clinton for anyway. I wasn't a fan of him as president and I'm not too this day. He's a sleeze.

Trump was on that island buddy, pretty sure more than once but there's conflicting info. Trump is a paedo dude. Trump and Epstein were good friends. Trump said he 'was a lot of fun' to be around. He also said "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side." Trump has also called a literal 10 year old beautfiul and said that he would be dating her in ten years. He also feels up his own daughter.

Aides said he talked about Ivanka Trump’s breasts, her backside, and what it might be like to have sex with her,”.

Columnist Richard Cohen claimed in a draft for a Washington Post op-ed published in November 2016 that Donald Trump once allegedly asked him, “Is it wrong to be more sexually attracted to your own daughter than your wife?” Ivanka was 13 at the time. THIRTEEN.

This was on Wendy Williams show.
Wendy: Ivanka, what's the favorite thing you have in common with your father? Ivanka: Either real estate or golf. Wendy: Donald, with your daughter? Donald: I was going to say sex.

“Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father…,” Trump said.

When Dr. Oz said it was “nice to see a dad kiss his daughter,” Trump responded that he kisses Ivanka “every chance he gets.”

Oh and there's a whole host of (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) about when he owned Miss Universe.

Thoughts on that? This is just the (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) he says out loud, imagine what he's thinking.

[lurker]

Tyy777,

Know going in I'm not a fan of Elon Musk, Tesla, SpaceX, X, or anything related --- but I gotta ask, why does Elon Musk scare the living daylights out of you, politically or otherwise?

Now, going back as far to President Truman, President Eisenhower --- and more recently, President Obama, all have had private sector influencers in advisory roll capacities during said presidential administrations. it's not like this is something new since Trump was inaugurated.

[Tyy7777]

Musk is not comparable with everyone else you mentioned.

For example, everyone of the the advisors Obama brought in who had business interests were confined to a certain set of policies. They sat on councils. They were regulated and checked. They were not given free reign. Their job was transparent and specifically outlined. Penny Pritzker was forced to give up her business interests when becoming secretary of commerce.

Musk has completely free access (completely illegally) to our government. He is slashing thousands of federal workers. These are real people, with livelihoods and who doing important work despite what Fox News tells you. Their jobs, gone. He is cutting funding for important (again, despite what fox news will tell you) programs. Musk is not intelligent. Musk has a lot of money. Musk is a horrible person. Those three don't go together well.

Remember that salute he did. Yeh.

Musk just recently openly voiced support for the far right AfD party in Germany. A party that has strong connections to Nazi sympathizers.

He has openly subscribed to pro-apartheid accounts on X. If you don't know what that is, it was a system of institutionalized racial segregation that was used throughout much of the 20th century in South Africa.

He's an Afrikaner. African Nazi's basically. They strongly supported Nazi Germany. Afrikaner leadership consistently pushed white supremacy and racial segregation.

They formed The Ossewabrandwag in 1939, a paramilitary group mimicking that of Nazi Germany. They strongly opposed South Africa being on the Allied Side during WW2.

His grandparent were in the Canadian German Nazi Party and they moved to South Africa specifically because of the Afrikaner party.

But yeh I think the salute was enough. See why I don't want this unelected clown controlling our government?

[Morgs153]

Dude, you weren't a fan of Bill Clinton as president. Were you even at voting age or much less alive when Bill Clinton was president? Cause dude, you write like a kid.

[Tyy7777]

Yeh dude totally man. 3 sentences and you used dude twice.

Anyway, there's this really cool thing called history. I didn't have to be alive in the mid 19th century to know that Buchanan and Johnson were awful presidents. I also didn't need to be alive in the early 1900s to know that Teddy was a (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word) good president or in the 1930s to see know FDR was good, although I'm sure some of you will take issue with that.

I also didn't need to experience Nazi Germany to know it was bad.

I understand thinking critically and actually arguing the facts with logic is difficult but you also don't need to throw around baseless claims.

Ad hominem. Look it up.

[Henry Every]

Well this thread has become incredibly ironic. Did yall not see who sat front row at the inauguration? Lol.

Elon Musk is worth nearly $400B and he is fishing through government. If you really think he has your best interests at heart then you have another thing coming.

Obama is worth around $70M btw. It is estimated that around $60M of that came through his book deal. In 2016 it was estimated at $12M. That was again largely because of royalties.

Book deals are just backdoor payoff schemes, now who's being fooled?!