Tag Archives: invisible-hands

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post Twisting Words of Julian Assange’s Son Daniel Assange

Looks like producers for Dr. Phil and Montel might be waiting awhile if they think they have a celebrity dad-hating story in the making. Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post seemed to have obtained a scoop yesterday rising to the level of Dr. Evil/Scott Evil proportions, excerpting a FaceBook quote from Daniel Assange, 20, that appeared on its face to fuel the growing personal attacks against his father, embattled WikiLeaks founder and director, Julian Assange: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s own son thinks he’s a nightmare when it comes to women. “That man does have a way of making a lot of female enemies,” Daniel Assange, 21, said about his embattled dad. Daniel made the Facebook posting after two Swedish women came forward with allegations that led to rape and molestation charges against his dad. Daniel also wondered about his father’s claim that the accusations were part of a Pentagon “smear campaign.” “Interesting to see whether this is the result of a government plot or personal grudges,” he wrote. But later on Friday, Daniel, under the moniker Somnidea on a website called The Sleepy Lammata lashed out at the newspaper, calling the story “godawful sensational tripe”: I’d just like to note here that the comments in question were very tongue-in-cheek and never intended to be made public like this, much less support the conclusions of the article. The NYP did not interview me or otherwise attain my consent in any way for their publication. I have much respect for my father and his cause, and these ridiculously ill-handled allegations of sexual abuse serve only to distract from the audacious awesomeness that he has actually done. added by: toyotabedzrock

The Billionaires Bankrolling the Tea Party

There’s just one element missing from these snapshots of America’s ostensibly spontaneous and leaderless populist uprising: the sugar daddies who are bankrolling it, and have been doing so since well before the “death panel” warm-up acts of last summer. Three heavy hitters rule. You’ve heard of one of them, Rupert Murdoch. The other two, the brothers David and Charles Koch, are even richer, with a combined wealth exceeded only by that of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett among Americans. But even those carrying the Kochs’ banner may not know who these brothers are. Their self-interested and at times radical agendas, like Murdoch’s, go well beyond, and sometimes counter to, the interests of those who serve as spear carriers in the political pageants hawked on Fox News. The country will be in for quite a ride should these potentates gain power, and given the recession-battered electorate’s unchecked anger and the Obama White House’s unfocused political strategy, they might. All three tycoons are the latest incarnation of what the historian Kim Phillips-Fein labeled “Invisible Hands” in her prescient 2009 book of that title: those corporate players who have financed the far right ever since the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down F.D.R. You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal “socialism” of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on J.F.K. and Medicare to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our “socialist” president. added by: Conniepae