Entries Tagged 'Reviews' ↓

In my last post, I used the word “global” in the title because dark money is not just an American phenomena—it’s now a world-wide phenomenon.

Dark money is not only used by billionaire scions in the U.S. but also by some oligarchs, sheiks, businessmen, political players, and government leaders around the world. These super-rich people are not libertarians or even ideologues. They make deals via private banks and back channels merely to enrich themselves further and gain power.

With money and mercenaries at their beck and call, these shadow figures are pulling strings to get what they want.

So, if you want to know more about how deep states and dark money work, I highly recommend Sean McFate’s fiction series featuring his American mercenary hero, Tom Locke. Continue reading →

James M. Buchanan’s Legacy

I may sound like a conspiracy theorist by titling this series, Dark Money and the Deep Anti-State, and by saying in my last post that if Brett Kavanaugh is put on the Supreme Court we may be seeing the end of our American democracy.

But I assure you there is ample documentation in two books, Jane Mayer’s Dark Money and Nancy MacLean’s Democracy in Chains, to back up my assertions. In particular, I recommend reading Chapter 10, “A Constitution with Locks and Bolts,” of MacLean’s book.

In Chapter 10, MacLean lays out in chilling details James’ Buchanan’s successful strategy to help dictator General Pinochet in Chile to destroy democracy in that country. Together Buchanan and the military junta who ousted Salvador Allende changed the Chilean Constitution to lock out the majority from ever changing their Constitution.

Following that coup, the wealthy were now in control of that country. Soon after Buchanan’s success, the number of Chileans living in poverty increased by over 100%. In 1970, the OECD ranked Chile lowest of developed economies when it came to decreasing wealth inequality. Continue reading →

Dark Money – the movie versus the book

When this movie began we wondered if we’d gone into the wrong theater. Beautiful shots of the state of Montana were shown in panoramic glory. But then the camera panned the ‘lake’ left behind by the Anaconda copper mining company when it left the state. 

At the ‘lake’ a guide is telling visitors that wild geese by the thousands have been killed by the acidity in this water that rises higher every year while the EPA has done nothing to remedy the situation.

I couldn’t help but think that Keats got it wrong in his “Ode on a Grecian Urn” when he wrote “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” – that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Wherever some human beings are involved we do need to know more—much more—to protect ourselves and the things we love.

Because for decades dark money, defined as massive secret funding by wealthy people to promote their libertarian goals in politics, has been radically changing the shape of our American governments.

Many voters in Montana feel deeply about the damage being done in their state, so deeply they have been the leading state in the U.S. to fight the 2010 law, “Citizen’s United” that allowed corporations to donate to state political campaigns. Continue reading →