The Mellon family hasn't been on my mind for many years. Clearly, it should have been. As Bernie Sanders has said many times, the United States is as oligarchic as Russia. Huge fortunes, huge mega-corporations, massive campaign donations, all are out-of-control, and these American oligarchs are determined and convinced that they can buy the 2024 elections. Follow the money, always follow the money.
One could argue that the obscenely rich should '“manfully rid the world of their presence, and society of the expense and trouble of their trial and punishment" (for their greed and destruction of the common good and the environment).
Thank you, Professor Reich, Great column. This adulation of wealth is destroying America. Trickle down is fiction, under our present tax system wealth gushes up like an oil well. We need the House of REPRESENTATIVES to represent us - the 99% of Americans who actually contribute to the betterment of society. Frankly I'm tired of supporting great wealth.
Mellon is just following a family tradition. Until he died in 2014, Richard Mellon Scaife was the most prominent Mellon trickster and puppet master, majoring in character assassination., if not murder.
Scaife owed several newspapers, was a major backer of conservative causes; his political donations fueled the rise of the New Right and its moral crusade against Bill Clinton, making Scaife the central figure in Hillary Clinton’s “vast right-wing conspiracy.” In the 1990s, his gift of $1.8 million to The American Spectator funded investigations into Whitewater and Bill Clinton’s personal life, including “Troopergate” which led to Paula Jones’s sexual-harassment suit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mellon_Scaife
I watched an interview of Michael Hudson, an economist, who said we need a 99 percent inheritance tax on the wealthy. Each generation of inherited wealth is less intelligent than the one before.
Thank you! Real knowledge empowers all of us. Reminding us we the people if United are.not helpless. At a time when the world has lost a international courageous hero- Alexie Navalny- it is each one of us that carries the power united to defeat the injustices inflicted upon this world with the use of money, power & greed.
It appears that racism still applies even after Obama's eight years as President. We've so far witnessed Trump's first four years of spiteful Republican back-lash to the humane benefits delivered by the Democrats to the less fortunate. Republican intolerance, encouraged by the Mellon dynasty and of all people the Christian right, is spreading to the point where kindness and compassion are thoroughly demeaned, disparaged and daily overwhelmed by Trump's insatiable and visibly insane greed for wealth, power, and influence.
Oligarchy and democracy cannot coexist. Thank you, Professor Reich, for your assiduous efforts to make this crucial point, of which this column is such a great example. Inequality has soared since Reagan’s election in 1980, and fitful efforts to narrow it have effectively failed. Inherited dynastic wealth will always support right-wing politicians and tax reduction, if not elimination. Biden has tried very hard to help stop the upward accumulation of wealth, and debt penury for those lower down on the economic ladder, but without a Congress and judiciary to help him he has had limited success. Plus *Rump will wipe what little has been accomplished away in a heartbeat if he gets back in. All those dumb racist MAGAS who send him their nickels and dimes so he can pay his legal bills are the manifestation of what propaganda and the culture wars can do to destroy a country. A wealth tax would help, but avoiding a French 1789 moment is becoming harder. In our case it would produce fascism not freedom or equality.
One hundred sixty odd years these uber rich fuckers and their ilk have been buying presidents and governors who think like them and who will do their bidding. Over 160 years and THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME TODAY, DOING EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS. IN SOME CASES AS THE MELLONS, NOT EVEN THE NAME HAS CHANGED. 😡 #fucktherich
Affluence on steroids!
Communities working together made America the greatest country on earth.
Citizens United is tearing us apart!
It has to be repealed or our country will collapse!
The Mellon family hasn't been on my mind for many years. Clearly, it should have been. As Bernie Sanders has said many times, the United States is as oligarchic as Russia. Huge fortunes, huge mega-corporations, massive campaign donations, all are out-of-control, and these American oligarchs are determined and convinced that they can buy the 2024 elections. Follow the money, always follow the money.
One could argue that the obscenely rich should '“manfully rid the world of their presence, and society of the expense and trouble of their trial and punishment" (for their greed and destruction of the common good and the environment).
This is a very well done, well researched, timely article that makes an important point. Thank you.
Thank you, Professor Reich, Great column. This adulation of wealth is destroying America. Trickle down is fiction, under our present tax system wealth gushes up like an oil well. We need the House of REPRESENTATIVES to represent us - the 99% of Americans who actually contribute to the betterment of society. Frankly I'm tired of supporting great wealth.
Great wealth breeds great evil, and deep racism, in this case. Disgusting.
The only reason they’re supporting Trump is to keep their wealth alive, through low (zero) tax rates, tax loopholes, and zero regulations.
This is sickening beyond. How do ordinary Americans get these silver spoon folks out of our hair? and politics?
Greg Abbott is a disgrace to Texas!
Mellon is just following a family tradition. Until he died in 2014, Richard Mellon Scaife was the most prominent Mellon trickster and puppet master, majoring in character assassination., if not murder.
Scaife owed several newspapers, was a major backer of conservative causes; his political donations fueled the rise of the New Right and its moral crusade against Bill Clinton, making Scaife the central figure in Hillary Clinton’s “vast right-wing conspiracy.” In the 1990s, his gift of $1.8 million to The American Spectator funded investigations into Whitewater and Bill Clinton’s personal life, including “Troopergate” which led to Paula Jones’s sexual-harassment suit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mellon_Scaife
Attached is a 1999 WAPO article that lays out some of Scaife's personal vendettas. In some circles, he was accused of involvement in the death of former Allegheny County DA Robert Duggan, who was married to Scaife's sister. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1999/05/03/an-enigmatic-heirs-paradoxical-world/0f097eb0-140d-4f4a-b81f-6da5a91038bb/
It is more important than we realize to know who is supporting what and whom. Wealth can be insidious.
I watched an interview of Michael Hudson, an economist, who said we need a 99 percent inheritance tax on the wealthy. Each generation of inherited wealth is less intelligent than the one before.
Thank you! Real knowledge empowers all of us. Reminding us we the people if United are.not helpless. At a time when the world has lost a international courageous hero- Alexie Navalny- it is each one of us that carries the power united to defeat the injustices inflicted upon this world with the use of money, power & greed.
It appears that racism still applies even after Obama's eight years as President. We've so far witnessed Trump's first four years of spiteful Republican back-lash to the humane benefits delivered by the Democrats to the less fortunate. Republican intolerance, encouraged by the Mellon dynasty and of all people the Christian right, is spreading to the point where kindness and compassion are thoroughly demeaned, disparaged and daily overwhelmed by Trump's insatiable and visibly insane greed for wealth, power, and influence.
Oligarchy and democracy cannot coexist. Thank you, Professor Reich, for your assiduous efforts to make this crucial point, of which this column is such a great example. Inequality has soared since Reagan’s election in 1980, and fitful efforts to narrow it have effectively failed. Inherited dynastic wealth will always support right-wing politicians and tax reduction, if not elimination. Biden has tried very hard to help stop the upward accumulation of wealth, and debt penury for those lower down on the economic ladder, but without a Congress and judiciary to help him he has had limited success. Plus *Rump will wipe what little has been accomplished away in a heartbeat if he gets back in. All those dumb racist MAGAS who send him their nickels and dimes so he can pay his legal bills are the manifestation of what propaganda and the culture wars can do to destroy a country. A wealth tax would help, but avoiding a French 1789 moment is becoming harder. In our case it would produce fascism not freedom or equality.
One hundred sixty odd years these uber rich fuckers and their ilk have been buying presidents and governors who think like them and who will do their bidding. Over 160 years and THEY ARE EXACTLY THE SAME TODAY, DOING EXACTLY THE SAME THINGS. IN SOME CASES AS THE MELLONS, NOT EVEN THE NAME HAS CHANGED. 😡 #fucktherich
When asked about how to get to heaven, Jesus of Nazareth said, "Sell all you have and give to the poor." How many "Christians" follow that advice?
Jefferson was right.