I recently read this spellbinding book, which explains in detail how the Koch brothers and a handful of other radical rightwing billionaires pumped some of their wealth into a vast disinformation enterprise consisting of RW think tanks that crank out propaganda that enabled the takeover of the Senate, the federal courts, governorships and state legislatures, thereby consolidating power in the hands of the far right for the foreseeable future. This power takeover is currently at capturing the lowest rungs of politics--school boards, small town city councils and rural county commissions--to finish the job of privatizing everything, rescinding civil rights and criminalizing free speech and civil disobedience. Since the Clinton “New Democrat” era, the Democrats have sat around like deer in the headlights, unwilling or unable to counter the impacts of this tsunami of dark money washing over our democracy.
A sweeping and interesting overview... What is missing is the whole issue of patriarchy, of the men moving into roles of domination over women and the connected flow of Earthly life...
PS - I was going to "upgrade" my subscription - but when i pressed the subscribe button what came up was an old credit card # which I do not use for stuff like this anymore - couldn't change it there and if i sign up for a year is it automatically renewed? I really don't do automatic renewal stuff ...
When is Pt 4 coming out?
I recently read this spellbinding book, which explains in detail how the Koch brothers and a handful of other radical rightwing billionaires pumped some of their wealth into a vast disinformation enterprise consisting of RW think tanks that crank out propaganda that enabled the takeover of the Senate, the federal courts, governorships and state legislatures, thereby consolidating power in the hands of the far right for the foreseeable future. This power takeover is currently at capturing the lowest rungs of politics--school boards, small town city councils and rural county commissions--to finish the job of privatizing everything, rescinding civil rights and criminalizing free speech and civil disobedience. Since the Clinton “New Democrat” era, the Democrats have sat around like deer in the headlights, unwilling or unable to counter the impacts of this tsunami of dark money washing over our democracy.
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2017/03/20/book-review-dark-money-the-hidden-history-of-the-billionaires-behind-the-rise-of-the-radical-right-by-jane-mayer/
Really good stuff, as always.
One possible typo:
You said "Real structural employment far exceeds fraudulent official figures.? Did you mean to say 'unemployment'?
A sweeping and interesting overview... What is missing is the whole issue of patriarchy, of the men moving into roles of domination over women and the connected flow of Earthly life...
PS - I was going to "upgrade" my subscription - but when i pressed the subscribe button what came up was an old credit card # which I do not use for stuff like this anymore - couldn't change it there and if i sign up for a year is it automatically renewed? I really don't do automatic renewal stuff ...
On Commoning
a prolegomena to any future political philosophy
https://rword.substack.com/p/on-commoning