Meet The American Oligarchs!

I've never been on the board of directors for a major corporation, or smaller ones.

Just sayin'

Nor have I ever been elected to higher office or had a job as a high profile media pundit with high name recognition; nor have any of my relatives ever been on major boards elected to higher office or worked as celebrity media people; nor do I recall any of my friends or neighbors past or present ever having any of these jobs.

Just sayin'

However it doesn't take a lot of research to realize that people who do get on the board of directors of one major corporation often get elected to at least two or three more, often much more; and they often get jobs working at high profile administrations as government appointees or the coverage they need to get name recognition to get elected to public office before breaking the promises to the public to keep promises to campaign donors.



According to a study that came out forty years ago, Huge U.S. Firms Found Linked by Board Members 04/23/1978, "Among the nation's 130 largest corporations - which control $1 trillion in assets, about a quarter of all corporate holdings - the study found 530 direct interlocks, where a director of one company sat on another's board, and 12,193 indirect interlocks." They found additional problems for antitrust violations and one of the recommendations they came up with was "that any officer or director of a company with $1 billion or more in sales or assets be prohibited 'from being an officer or director of any other company of a similar size,' whether or not the companies are in the same line of business."

To the best of my knowledge, these recommendations were never implemented, nor was the majority of the public even informed about this study; instead there was a massive consolidation of many of the largest corporations into much fewer hands since then. There have been a few more studies on this since then; however they're not reported widely at all either, and the details of them are often not disclosed to the public, unless they pay to read it; and even then the summations strongly imply that they don't cover half the conflicts of interests. Furthermore these studies are financed by academic institutions that are often part of the oligarchy, which gives them incentive to spin it.

No doubt that if they paid attention to my review, which they won't unless a lot more people pay attention first, then they would disagree and try to spin it in their favor, as they usually do. However there are some basic principles that can be easily understood and confirmed without much if any research. The first one as I already mentioned is that the vast majority of people from the working classes aren't involved in high positions of power, either on boards of directors, as politicians, media pundits, or any other supporting positions that also have access to power.

As I've reported previously many of the abandoned inner cities with the highest murder rates also have lower income, higher concentrations of both megachurches and Charter Schools; however it's virtually guaranteed that they have much fewer people living in them that are controlling powerful institution, and in most cases when they do have some powerful people living in these cities with high murder rates they're almost always in the wealthier and less violent parts of large cities. This essentially means that the people making the decision are much wealthier but the people with much less say in the decisions are much more likely to pay the price are the ones not involved in the decisions and that often don't have the educational background to decide many of the most important policy questions anyway, although if they have good intentions they can often figure out many simple things that wealthier people simply don't want to know.

Once you start looking at the conflicting financial incentives and the basic principles of many powerful industries, including military manufacturers, private prisons, oil industries, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and many more the evidence of an oligarchy not a free market continues to grow assuming you want to fact check them accurately.

After a relatively brief look of my own into Interlocking Boards of Directors, that starts with about ten of the biggest military contractors and at least six of the largest media corporations that control over ninety percent of the news reported to the public along with a few more boards including Walmart, one of two private prison corporations and perhaps at least two or three times that after I add a few more, it's clear that almost all, if not all of the biggest corporations have interlocking board members with major financial institutions and a revolving door with government officials that are often either elected or appointed. This study, if you want to call it that, isn't as comprehensive as the ones cited below and it hasn't been peer reviewed, at least not yet; however I have shown my sources so if there's any doubt you can check the facts yourself.

Also these financial ties should be considered a minimum and it's virtually guaranteed that there's many more conflicts of interests, since they often don't provide complete information in any one source, and the more you look the more financial ties can be found, virtually guaranteeing that no one can keep track of them all.



There are at least two and a half dozen political appointees and half a dozen former elected officials sitting on the boards of directors for the ten biggest military contractors; almost all of them, if not all, have at least one former government employee working in a higher office. At least eight members of the Council on Foreign Relations work for these military contractors; and they also have close financial ties to the oil industry with plenty of interlocking board members with the. There are numerous ties to media institutions as well, including Kelly Ayotte, who recently lost a reelection to the Senate and was quickly appointed to several corporate boards including one military and one media board. She also has ties to health care and insurance corporations. Clearly a large portion of the people that make many of the most important decisions about starting wars, that are routinely based on lies, like the weapons of mass destruction that didn't exist have financial ties to the weapons industry.

The revolving door between the government and military contractors has been going on for decades; and there's also a long list of corruption scandals which few people keep track of including Darleen Druyun was investigated for speeding up payments for McDonnell Douglas and kept her job anyway, while others were charged or fired, only to get involved in another scandal with Boeing, which she wound up being convicted of.



Darleen Druyun didn't do anything unusual at her government job; although it's very rare to actually prosecute them especially when those involved, like Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld and many other higher officials have more political conections

Previously in Deadly Monopolies and Medical Slavery? I reported about how Harriet Washington exposed how pharmaceutical companies are using public funds to develop drugs then getting patents they use to gouge consumers; she also exposed how they often used the public as research subjects, especially those that weren't in a position to resist, including veterans and prisoners. Both military contractors and private prison industries have numerous financial connections to pharmaceutical or health care industries, which might be circumstantial evidence of motive for some of the unethical research activities conducted on prisoners and veterans that Harriet Washington exposed; and they both also have plenty of connections to the government in their revolving door.



It should go without saying that the prison industry is not one that society would want to be a growing industry; and the objective should be to rehabilitate inmates in the most effective manner possible so they won't be threat to society when they're released. However the financial incentive for profitable prison corporations wants the maximum amount of business that they can get in order to increase their business, which clearly contradicts this basic and simple principle and creates a major conflict of interest.

However the prison industrial complex has been expanding for decades; and a lot of the people profiting from it have close ties to government, which is enabling this growth. Whether or not they have interlocking boards or directors with other major corporations or not they do an enormous amount of business with many of the largest corporations in the country that are taking advantage of cheap labor allowed in an exception to the thirteenth amendment which continues to allow for slavery of people that have been convicted of a crime. Industries that are profiting from prison labor include many of the same defense contractors, who often do have interlocking board members with prison companies and manufacturers or retailers including Walmart which has an enormous crime problem of their own; and as I have reported in numerous articles including Walmart’s “Restorative Justice” Endangers Public Without Reducing Crime a large part of the reason they have worse crime problems than any other store is their policies cutting corners creating a virtual invitation to shoplifters and angering many customers and workers who often retaliate against them for their outrageous policies, although the vast majority of them don't.

Many major corporations also have a lot of ties that are harder to detect including BlackRock which finances many military contractors, although I probably wouldn't even suspect that if not for the divestment movement in the internet, and Vanguard Group which is a leading stock owner of CoreCivic the leading private prison corporation, which received some of their initial funding from Goldman Sachs. There are interlocking board members of most if not all of these major corporations with the finance, banking or insurance industries which create many more ties that are much more difficult to detect, although many of them are disclosed in a low profile manner.

But even without a more thorough search there are close to a dozen board members of the six largest media companies with direct ties to the insurance industry; and they collect an enormous amount of money in advertising from this industry as well which creates a massive conflict of interest.



Both insurance and gambling operate on the same basic principles, which the media never mentions to the public, since it would expose them both as obvious scams. They both pool money from customers then return it to the winners, or people with claims after subtracting expenses and profits. In both cases they spend an enormous amount of money on both lobbying and advertising so both politicians and the media have a major financial incentive not to explain these basics and spin it in favor of the corporations they serve, while pretending to defend the public.

In both these industries the more they spend on advertising the less they have to return to consumers; which means that competing with each other can't possibly benefit consumers, since they can't possibly change the basic math. However deceptive advertising is essentially theft by deception, in practice, with virtually no regulation to require a reasonable degree of honesty. The entire advertising industry is designed to scam consumers, one way or another; you simply don't maximize profits with honesty! Advertising executives consult with psychologists and other so-called experts to find out which deceptive advertisements work the best, like using fashion models and celebrities to make disposable expensive, but torn jeans look cool, even though the workers that make it are often being oppressed in sweatshops, which media companies profiting off of advertisements have an incentive not to report!

Breaking news: the only way to get the media to report self incriminating facts like this is to put it on a meme and attribute it to them, since they would never report it themselves; unless perhaps they accidentally said it on a hot mic!

A few years ago when there was a scandal about insider betting at fantasy football corporations, which are virtually unregulated, there were a few low profile disclosures about their financial ties to several media companies, including Comcast which owns MSNBC. I was unable to find sources for these times when searching for them; however I did find new ties that have developed since then, which I listed below, including one joint venture with Comcast, CBC and Fantasy Football companies. Not only does that provide a conflict of interest for reporting on problems with the gambling industry; but it's also one of many joint ventures from corporations that claim they're competing against each other. Most of these are reported in a very low profile manner; but in a couple of his books Robert McChesney has reported that there are many more where that came from.

But the ties between these six corporations don't end there; two of them, Viacom and CBS are involved in merger talks with each other and they already have interlocking board members, with two members of the Redstone family sitting on both boards, which supposedly isn't supposed to happen with corporations supposedly competing against each other; so for all practical purposes, it's actually only five conglomerates controlling over ninety percent of the media industry. One of the other leading media companies, is also involved in merger talks with AT&T, which they're trying to claim is being stopped for political reasons, even though the media and telecommunications industries have already merged so much they've turned into oligarchies not a free market system competing against each other.

If that isn't what it's become it's way to damn close, though; with each industry dominated by a small number of oligarchies and all of them having ties to financial institutions and government regulators.

Another common tie between media companies are reporters that constantly move from one company to another, but only those going along with their agenda are eligible at all. A few good reporters like Chris Hedges and Robert Parry have been in the mainstream media; but once they start doing too good a job they're forced out one way or another and can't get any coverage again except through alternative sources like their lower profile outlets, Consortium News and TruthDig. Others work at all three networks at one time or another; and Anderson Cooper, who has ties to the CIA even works at both CNN and supposedly competing 60 Minutes on CBS.

These media companies also have interlocking board members with many of their advertisers as well, which gives them a financial incentive to help them consolidate other industries as well; and the largest retailers have interlocking board members with their suppliers, which gives both an incentive to help each other consolidate wiping out small business almost turning the entire economic system into one big oligarchy or monopoly. These interlocking board members often include politicians from both parties; even when a media company like CNN, which is supposed to be liberal has conservative board members or high level management from the Republican Party; and News Corp has directors or management from Democratic administrations including the Clinton campaign and administration, who they're supposed to hate.

Almost all major corporations have ties to both political parties and they answer to these corporations while consulting with them to come up with propaganda to convince the majority of the public they're at least trying to look out for their best interests; or if they can't do that keep the public divided so they can't unite to stand up to the oligarchy!

If we ever had a free market system where these corporations had to compete with each other for their customers that was eliminated decades ago and as Dwayne Andreas a former Archer Daniels Midland executive was caught saying "The competitor is our friend, and the customer is our enemy,"



Dwayne Andreas also said "There isn't one grain of anything in the world that is sold in a free market. The only place you see a free market is in the speeches of politicians," decades ago but you'll never hear the media say this, even though the more you research it the more you'll find out it's true!

The media is colluding with other wall street corporations to ensure that you only hear from candidates that support their agenda, even if they do have to pretend to support the views of the public for the duration of the campaign and find some more rhetoric to blame others when they fail to follow through on their campaign promises!





For sources or additional information on this subject see the following articles:

The Significance of Board Interlocks for Corporate Governance July 1996

Board Interlocks On Antitrust Enforcement Hot Seat: A Must-Read Guide for Board Members and Officers 08/17/2016

Politicians on the Board of Directors: Do Connections Affect the Bottom Line? June 2005 at journals.sagepub

Social Justice Advocates Reap Karmic Rewards with $7.17 M. Acquisition of Walker Tower Condo 01/29/2014

Jeff Bezos moves to top spot on Forbes' annual billionaires list 03/06/2018

It’s Not Just Navy Admirals Being Naughty—The Pentagon’s Got a Major Behavior Problem 11/18/2013 The ‘Fat Leonard’ scandal is symptomatic ..... The forceful management and negotiation tactics earned her the nickname “Dragonlady.” After leaving the Air Force, she accepted a position at Boeing with a six-figure income. A year later, she was charged with corruption, plead guilty, paid a $5,000 fine and began a nine-month prison sentence.. It turns out that Druyun was negotiating acquisition contracts with Boeing at the same time she was negotiating her own contract with the Chicago plane-maker.

Wikipedia: List of American federal politicians convicted of crimes

Wikipedia: List of American state and local politicians convicted of crimes

Wikipedia: Darleen Druyun McDonnell Douglas investigation and Druyun pleaded guilty to inflating the price of the contract to favor her future employer and to passing information on the competing Airbus A330 MRTT bid (from EADS).

The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery? 05/05/2018 At least 37 states have legalized the contracting of prison labor by private corporations that mount their operations inside state prisons. The list of such companies contains the cream of U.S. corporate society: IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Wireless, Texas Instrument, Dell, Compaq, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Nortel, Lucent Technologies, 3Com, Intel, Northern Telecom, TWA, Nordstrom’s, Revlon, Macy’s, Pierre Cardin, Target Stores, and many more. All of these businesses are excited about the economic boom generation by prison labor. Just between 1980 and 1994, profits went up from $392 million to $1.31 billion. Inmates in state penitentiaries generally receive the minimum wage for their work, but not all; in Colorado, they get about $2 per hour, well under the minimum. And in privately-run prisons, they receive as little as 17 cents per hour for a maximum of six hours a day, the equivalent of $20 per month.

Stop Supporting Prison Slavery By Avoiding These 7 Companies 02/18/2018 Whole Foods; McDonalds; Wal-Mart; Victoria’s Secret; BP; AT&T; Aramark

Martori Farms: Abusive Conditions at a Key Wal-Mart Supplier 06/24/2011

Comcast Business’ Fantasy Sports Play 09/22/2015

COMCAST AND CBS SPORTS DIGITAL PARTNER TO LAUNCH FANTASY FOOTBALL EXPERIENCE ON XFINITY X1 09/07/2017 Comcast announced a new partnership with CBS Sports Digital that will put fantasy football scores and stats on the same screen as the games themselves, offering Xfinity X1 customers a new way to experience live sports on the television.

Scandal Erupts in Unregulated World of Fantasy Sports 10/05/2015

Fired from MSNBC for Anti-War Views, Phil Donahue Speaks Out on Republicans and Journalism, While Campaigning for Norman Solomon in California 01/16/2012

Jimmy Carter Tells Oprah America Is No Longer a Democracy, Now an Oligarchy 09/24/2015

Jimmy Carter: The U.S. Is an “Oligarchy With Unlimited Political Bribery” 07/30/2015 CARTER: It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members. So now we’ve just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election’s over.



For my past articles about how media and government has consolidated into an oligarchy creating the illusions of a democracy, and articles exposing insurance fraud or other contributing causes of crime, see the following:

Tracking the elite ruling class

The existence of a ruling class is undeniable!

Millionaires And Billionaires Control The Truth According To MSM!

Alternative Media is an Absolute Necessity!!

Election Reform

Saving Project Vote Smart and improving it or replacing it

The media isn’t reporting it but Grass Roots candidates are winning some local elections

We’re All Paying A Semi-Hidden Propaganda Tax

Is Feudalistic Media Only Covering Crooks and Thugs?

Memes 8 Consolidated Media Control

Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation Should Become a Priority Again!

For profit insurance has an incentive to betray people after disasters!

For-Profit Insurance is Government Authorized Crime Syndicate

Democrats do a bad job on crime; Republicans and the Media are worse!!

Politicians increase crime; Grass roots efforts reduce crime; Politicians steal the credit

Life Insurance and media companies are encouraging lots of murders

Corporate Media Rigging Elections By Rigging Coverage