{"id":33412,"date":"2018-04-15T09:02:29","date_gmt":"2018-04-15T14:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=33412"},"modified":"2018-04-15T09:02:29","modified_gmt":"2018-04-15T14:02:29","slug":"do-u-s-oligarchs-exist-not-in-mainstream-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=33412","title":{"rendered":"Do U.S. Oligarchs Exist? Not in Mainstream Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2018\/04\/13\/do-u-s-oligarchs-exist-not-in-mainstream-media\/\">Do U.S. Oligarchs Exist? Not in Mainstream Media<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p><strong>We hear incessantly about Russian oligarchs. But do they also exist in the United States? You wouldn\u2019t know it by watching cable news, says Jeff Cohen.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>TV news shows are good at getting viewers riled up. Day and night, I hear the anchors on CNN and MSNBC getting us in a frenzy about the schemes of this or that \u201cRussian oligarch with links to the Kremlin.\u201d I\u2019ve heard that phrase incessantly in recent weeks<\/p>\n<p>Plenty of others have heard the \u201cRussian oligarch\u201d phrase. Merriam-Webster.com\u00a0<span lang=\"zxx\"><u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/news-trend-watch\/mueller-questions-us-may-sanction-oligarchs-20180405\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a><\/u><\/span>\u00a0that \u201coligarch\u201d was one of its most searched-for words on April 5 \u201cfollowing reports that Robert Mueller had questioned Russian businessmen to whom this descriptor applies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Webster\u2019s defines oligarchy as a \u201cgovernment in which a small group exercises control especially for corrupt and selfish purposes.\u201d Dictionary.com calls it \u201ca\u00a0form\u00a0of\u00a0government\u00a0in\u00a0which\u00a0all\u00a0power\u00a0is\u00a0vested\u00a0in\u00a0a\u00a0few\u00a0persons\u00a0or in\u00a0a\u00a0dominant\u00a0class\u00a0or\u00a0clique;\u00a0government\u00a0by\u00a0the\u00a0few.\u201d So an oligarch is not just a rich person but one who has influence or control over government, rather than directly ruling, as in a <span lang=\"zxx\"><u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/plutocracy\">plutocracy.<\/a><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n<p>One phrase I haven\u2019t heard from any of the purportedly progressive hosts on MSNBC is: \u201c<i>A U.S. oligarch with links to Washington<\/i>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p align=\"LEFT\">That avoidance is revealing when one considers an indisputable fact: U.S. oligarchs have done far more to undermine U.S. democracy than any Russian.<\/p>\n<p align=\"LEFT\">When Vladimir Putin first became Russian president in the early 2000s he made a deal with the oligarchs: he would leave them alone if they kept their noses out of politics. Hence they would revert to just being filthy rich. The oligarchs who remained are presumably loyal to Putin, or at least don\u2019t try to dominate him, the way some powerfully rich Americans seek to influence the U.S. government away from what it might otherwise do.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do U.S. Oligarchs Exist? Not in Mainstream Media We hear incessantly about Russian oligarchs. But do they also exist in the United States? You wouldn\u2019t know it by watching cable news, says Jeff Cohen. TV news shows are good at getting viewers riled up. Day and night, I hear the anchors on CNN and MSNBC [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[145,6963,19803,8213,599,1092,2238,694,19804,827,19805,19802,857,865],"class_list":["post-33412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","tag-cnn","tag-consortium-news","tag-jeff-cohen","tag-msnbc","tag-oligarchs","tag-oligarchy","tag-plutocracy","tag-russia","tag-russian-oligarchs","tag-united-states","tag-us-democracy","tag-us-oligarchs","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33412"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33413,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33412\/revisions\/33413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}