Here’s evidence that it’s a plutocracy — ruled by a wealthy elite.
For a quick overview, you can just read the quotes from the 4-star links. For more depth, click on links:
| Priority | Date | Author | Title or Main Point & Link | Format | Min- utes | Tags | Quotes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 1935-03-15 | General Smedley Butler | War Is a Racket | book | 30 | empire, military | “I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer; a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902–1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 1961-01-17 | President Dwight Eisenhower | The Military-Industrial Complex | video | 2 | military, plutocracy | “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 1963-06-10 | President John F. Kennedy | Achieving Peace and Disarmament | video | 27 | JFK, military | “Some say that it is useless to speak of peace or world law or world disarmament, and that it will be useless until the leaders of the Soviet Union adopt a more enlightened attitude. I hope they do. I believe we can help them do it. But I also believe that we must reexamine our own attitudes, as individuals and as a Nation, for our attitude is as essential as theirs.” “Our primary long range interest in Geneva, however, is general and complete disarmament, designed to take place by stages, permitting parallel political developments to build the new institutions of peace which would take the place of arms.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 1963-12-22 | President Harry Truman | Limit CIA Role To Intelligence | article | 3 | CIA, JFK | [1 month after JFK assassination]: “I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President,… and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere. … There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2018-05-23 | Ralph Nader | Audit the Outlaw Military Budget | blog | 4 | military | “The Pentagon has been in violation of that Congressional directive since 1992 but keeps promising that an audit is coming, to Congress’s Government Accountability Office (GAO).” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2018-12-10 | Caitlin Johnstone | How Plutocratic Media Keep Staff Aligned | blog | 11 | journalism, plutocracy | “Reporters might not always be consciously aware of all the pro-establishment guidelines they’re expected to follow in order to advance their careers, but they know how the reporters who’ve ascended to the top of the media ladder conduct themselves, and they see how the journalists who win the accolades behave. With the help of editors and peers you quickly learn where all the third rails and sacred cows are, and when to shut your mouth about the elephant in the room.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2023-01-04 | Glenn Greenwald | Media Blackout on New Twitter Files | video | 74 | censorship, journalism | “… the FBI and other Security State agencies were bombarding Twitter with censorship demands of dissidents, journalists, and critics almost on a daily basis. Taibbi also published highly incriminating documents on how Democratic Congressman, Adam Schiff, abused his power as chair of the House Intelligence Committee to try to have journalists he disliked banned from Twitter and other platforms.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2023-03-27 | Chris Hedges | The Donald Trump Problem | blog | 9 | Trump, plutocracy | “Donald Trump is not being targeted for the misdemeanors and serious felonies he appears to have committed, but for discrediting and undermining the entrenched power of the ruling duopoly.” “He has to go, not because he is a criminal, but because he is not trusted by the ruling crime syndicate to manage the firm.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2024-01-13 | Caitlin Johnstone | If You’ve Just Started Paying Attention To US Foreign Policy | blog | 3 | empire, military, journalism | “If you just keep in mind what I said and start watching the patterns for yourself while seeking out the truth day by day, you will see it for yourself. … Over and over again you will see the US and the states that are aligned with it acting with extreme aggression toward non-US-aligned powers in ways that benefit the US-centralized power structure, and you will see the western press deceiving the world about what’s happening.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2005-12-27 | John Perkins | Confessions of an Economic Hit Man | book | 400 | empire, military | “From the U.S. military in Iraq to infrastructure development in Indonesia, from Peace Corps volunteers in Africa to jackals in Venezuela, Perkins exposes a conspiracy of corruption that has fueled instability and anti-Americanism around the globe, with consequences reflected in our daily headlines.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2015-10-13 | David Talbot | The Devil’s Chessboard | book | 1000 | CIA, JFK, military | “[Allen] Dulles’s decade as the director of the CIA … were dark times in American politics. … Dulles saw himself as above the elected law, manipulating and subverting American presidents in the pursuit of his personal interests and those of the wealthy elite he counted as his friends and clients … Targeting foreign leaders for assassination and overthrowing nationalist governments not in line with his political aims, Dulles employed those same tactics to further his goals at home, Talbot charges, offering shocking new evidence in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2024-03-15 | Glenn Greenwald | TikTok Ban to Suppress Dissent | video | 24 | censorship | “The last time I checked the American Constitution and the current Supreme Court interpretation of it, as an American citizen, you are actually allowed to be pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel if you want to be. One of your rights as an American citizen is to take sides in a particular foreign conflict or to not take sides at all, and people on TikTok were taking sides and they were taking the side of Palestine more than they were taking the side of Israel. That is not a surprise … because polling data has shown for a long time that young Americans, including young American Jews, are becoming increasingly critical of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.” |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2024-05-28 | Jeffrey Sachs | Interviewed by Tucker Carlson | video | 144 | military, empire, CIA | (20:17) Why did America push for Ukraine to Join NATO? (58:34) What is a Neocon? (1:25:28) Regime Change Never Works (1:36:27) Who Blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline? (2:01:45) COVID Origins |
| ⭐️⭐️⭐️ | 2024-06-27 | Matt Taibbi | Interviewed by Tucker Carlson | video | 138 | journalism, censorship, plutocracy | (0:00:00) Matt Taibbi (0:18:10) Putin’s Rise to Power (0:52:15) The Twitter Files (1:26:00) The Most Shocking Story Taibbi Has Worked On (1:37:53) Intel Agencies, Censorship, Upcoming Election (2:03:00) Donald Trump vs. The Elites (2:10:50) Will They Jail Matt Taibbi? |
| ⭐️⭐️ | 1991-12-20 | Oliver Stone | JFK | film | 189 | CIA, JFK | “An investigation concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone in their respective crimes, but Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison is skeptical. Assembling a trusted group of people, Garrison conducts his own investigation, bringing about backlash from powerful government and political figures.—Cole Matthews” |
| ⭐️⭐️ | 2021-10-18 | Glenn Greenwald | How Authoritarian Democrats Have Become | video | 36 | censorship, FBI | 02:38: Pew Research Center survey question: “The U.S. government should take steps to restrict false info online, even if it limits freedom of info.” Republicans who agree went from 37% in 2018 to 28% in 2021. Democrats who agree went from 40% in 2018 to 65% in 2021. 06:05: Pew Research Center survey on opinions about the FBI: Republicans went from 71% favorable and 10% unfavorable in 2010, to 55% favorable and 36% unfavorable in 2018. Democrats went from 68% favorable and 16% unfavorable in 2010, to 78% favorable and 12% unfavorable in 2018. 10:40: Greenwald: “In the past 15 years, we’ve had countless pieces of evidence showing that the abuses by the FBI of our basic political rights and of the law, is not [only] something of the distant past, but continues…” |
| ⭐️⭐️ | 2022-01-04 | Glenn Greenwald | Why Trump Didn’t Pardon Snowden Nor Release JFK Files | video | 27 | JFK, Trump, journalism | 24:01: Greenwald: “They were making clear to [Trump], explicitly clear, Republican senators like Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio, and Mitch McConnell, that if you do any of those things that you are considering doing — pardoning Assange and Snowden, declassifying JFK files [etc] — we will vote to impeach you.” |
| ⭐️⭐️ | 2023-05-11 | Aaron Maté & Katie Halpern | Ex-CIA Agent Reveals the Truth about JFK | video | 60 | CIA, JFK | 12:25: Maté: “Ray McGovern, thanks so much for joining us. I want to ask you about some comments from Robert F. Kennedy Jr that are getting a lot of attention. He is accusing the CIA of having a direct role in the muder of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, who you served under as an analyst at the CIA.” 13:55: Maté: “What are your thoughts on what RFK is saying here?” McGovern: “Unfortunately, I think he has it quite right. I admire his courage in saying it so blatantly.” 45:40 McGovern: “I hope that he [RFKJr] has really good security…” |
| ⭐️⭐️ | 2023-06-14 | Glenn Greenwald | Fox News vs Tucker Carlson | video | 65 | journalism | “By threatening to sue Tucker Carlson if he speaks anywhere, they [Fox] are clearly seeking to silence the single most influential anti-establishment, anti-war, and anti-corporatist voice in Republican politics, if not in the country.” |
| ⭐️⭐️ | 2023-09-27 | Seymour Hersh | A year of lying about Nord Stream | blog | 7 | CIA, empire | “The Biden administration blew up the pipelines but the action had little to do with winning or stopping the war in Ukraine. It resulted from fears in the White House that Germany would waver and turn on the flow of Russia gas — and that Germany and then NATO, for economic reasons, would fall under the sway of Russia and its extensive and inexpensive natural resources.” |
| ⭐️⭐️ | 2023-11-03 | Glenn Greenwald | Did the CIA Kill JFK? Leading Expert David Talbot | video | 56 | CIA, JFK | “I think his more significant contribution is the fact that he is the author of “The Devil’s Chessboard,” which for me, as I’ve said many times, is the definitive account of the history of the CIA and the history of the U.S. security state…” “The Devil’s Chessboard covers not only history in a very compelling way but also talks a lot about the role that the CIA may have played in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the hatred that Allen Dulles harbored for JFK, particularly, after JFK fired him in the wake of the Bay of Pigs. What’s so amazing is that even though the CIA was always a suspect in the assassination of JFK, Allen Dulles wormed his way onto the Warren Commission, which is what ended up issuing the definitive official story, that it was Lee Harvey Oswald and only Lee Harvey Oswald who acted alone in killing the American president.” |
I welcome advice for improving this table: mark at votermedia.org