Fifty years later, on The Warning’s anniversary, President Eisenhower’s own granddaughter Susan documented how the military industrial complex had grown. She wrote: ‘In less than ten years our military and security expenditures have increased by 119%’. Who Rules America? III
Years earlier an auto executive turned defense secretary, Charles Wilson, said, What’s good for General Motors is good for America. He saw no distinction between an elected government and an unelected corporation. ibid.
‘We’ve undergone coup d’etat. We live in a corporate state.’ ibid. Chris Hedges
From the earliest days freedom of press was what defined America … Today our newspapers seem to be fading in importance in a multimedia world that is largely owned and controlled by a handful of large media corporations. Who Rules America? IV
US-based media became a transnational force. The US media companies are themselves owned in large part by hedge funds, mutual funds and finance companies. ibid.
Media attention still tends to revolve around a political elite with authority. ibid.
‘Where does the money come from? … One per cent of the donors are giving 64% of the money. This is a tiny elite.’ Who Rules America? V Sheila Krumholz
‘The largest contributors to political campaigns in America are the financial institutions.’ ibid. Michael Hudson
We on the left have forgotten that the question is not how do you get good people to rule, most people who rule are mediocre at best and usually venal. The question is how do we make those in power frightened of us and not be seduced by formal political processes. Chris Hedges, interview Thom Hartmann December 2009
He wants to rule alone. No-one else around him. Not even his son. Gomorrah s2e8: Divide et impara Ciro of Pietro, Sky Atlantic 2016
Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances. Herodotus