The Origins of the Overclass

[Clara T]

The Origins of the Overclass

By Steve Kangas

The wealthy have always used many methods to accumulate wealth, but it was not until the mid-1970s that these methods coalesced into a superbly organized, cohesive and efficient machine. After 1975, it became greater than the sum of its parts, a smooth flowing organization of advocacy groups, lobbyists, think tanks, conservative foundations, and PR firms that hurtled the richest 1 percent into the stratosphere.

The origins of this machine, interestingly enough, can be traced back to the CIA. This is not to say the machine is a formal CIA operation, complete with code name and signed documents. (Although such evidence may yet surface — and previously unthinkable domestic operations such as MK-ULTRA, CHAOS and MOCKINGBIRD show this to be a distinct possibility.) But what we do know already indicts the CIA strongly enough. Its principle creators were Irving Kristol, Paul Weyrich, William Simon, Richard Mellon Scaife, Frank Shakespeare, William F. Buckley, Jr., the Rockefeller family, and more. Almost all the machine's creators had CIA backgrounds.

During the 1970s, these men would take the propaganda and operational techniques they had learned in the Cold War and apply them to the Class War. Therefore it is no surprise that the American version of the machine bears an uncanny resemblance to the foreign versions designed to fight communism. The CIA's expert and comprehensive organization of the business class would succeed beyond their wildest dreams. In 1975, the richest 1 percent owned 22 percent of America’s wealth. By 1992, they would nearly double that, to 42 percent — the highest level of inequality in the 20th century.

How did this alliance start? The CIA has always recruited the nation’s elite: millionaire businessmen, Wall Street brokers, members of the national news media, and Ivy League scholars. During World War II, General "Wild Bill" Donovan became chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. Donovan recruited so exclusively from the nation’s rich and powerful that members eventually came to joke that "OSS" stood for "Oh, so social!"

http://www.aliveness.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html

[Sammy Pepys]

1. Great read...

thanks!

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Steve Kangas RIP

One of the usenet legends, one of the great ones.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. RIP? No longer with us? nt

[Warren Stupidity]

4. Steve died a few years ago

under mysterious circumstances.


Kangas incident
An unusual incident regarding Scaife occurred at his Pittsburgh office building in 1999. Steve Kangas, operator of a political website that promoted liberal causes and conspiracy theories about Scaife's campaign against Bill Clinton, travelled to Pittsburgh and entered Scaife's office building with a handgun in his backpack. Kangas went immediately to the 39th floor of the building where he apparently attempted to locate Scaife. Kangas locked himself in a bathroom stall outside of Scaife's office and was later observed by a security guard making incoherent statements in the restroom. Shortly after encountering the guard, according to the official narrative, Kangas committed suicide with the handgun he was carrying.

One Oxford Center videotape showed Kangas had been in the building nine hours before his body was discovered. According to the Washington Post, Pittsburgh police found a pistol Kangas had bought only two weeks earlier in Las Vegas. He had $14.63 in his pockets and his backpack contained 47 bullets and a copy of Hitler's "Mein Kampf." His blood alcohol level was 0.14 percent -- legally drunk in Pennsylvania. <5>

This odd incident has given rise to much speculation, including the possibility that it was an aborted attempt to assassinate Scaife. <6>

Kangas defender and Scaife conspiracy website operator Doug Bashford suggest that Kangas himself may have been the victim of a Scaife-directed conspiracy.<7><8>

The Allegheny County Coroner's office and Pittsburgh police detectives insist, however, that Kangas killed himself and likely had journeyed from Nevada to murder Scaife <9> <10>.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mellon_Scaife

[RaleighNCDUer]

5. Whoa.

It's astonishing how often the fascists try to smear liberals by connecting them with the man who created their movement.

[phantom power]

6. You know, it's funny...

There's a whole laundry list of liberal politicians and activists who have either been outright assassinated, or "died under suspicious circumstances."

But I can't think of a single prominent conservative politician or activist that fits the same description. Can anybody else?

Just sayin. :tinfoilhat:

[yurbud]

8. George Wallace attempt, but that was because he was outflanking Nixon

on his right.

Wallace wasn't on the team.

[400Years]

7. I think Scaife killed him