conspiracy bak

NEW not vetted
<div><a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?458812-2/republic-lies">https://www.c-span.org/video/?458812-2/republic-lies</a></div><div>
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<time>April 6, 2019</time>

<h1 class="video-page-title" itemprop="name">Republic of Lies</h1>

Journalist Anna Merlan looked at how conspiracy theories take root in society.

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</div><div>=</div> ==== promoted primary 6/17 on fake news bots 2016 electionsomewhat neglected cat until 2016
 see also fake newscapt 1/17
 just tin foil hatters, or has affected presidential election, trump? soros bus? the other related problem i have to be concerned with is guilt by associationsee SCIENCE as in war on/suppression
 also gop on conservative psychology
 fuels rw blogosphere??=NEW 3/19=<div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/trump-loving-conspiracy-nuts-once-again-blow-a-prediction-about-the-mass-arrest-of-the-presidents-foes/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/trump-loving-conspiracy-nuts-once-again-blow-a-prediction-about-the-mass-arrest-of-the-presidents-foes/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Another week, another missed prediction of the mass arrest of President Donald Trump’s political enemies.</div><div class="p1_7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/pro-trump-conspiracy-qanon-keeps-missing-deadlines" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Daily Beast reports</a> that followers of the “QAnon” conspiracy theory had predicted that Trump would round up prominent Democrats for their supposed participation in a global pedophile ring on March 19th.<div class="p2_7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">March 19th has come and gone, however, and the mass arrests never occurred.<div class="p3_7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">As the report notes, this isn’t the first time that QAnon followers have made a false prediction about these arrests, which they refer to as “The Storm” that will sweep away all opposition to the president.<div class="p4_7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The first failed prediction came in 2017, when followers believed that longtime Clinton loyalists John Podesta and Huma Abedin would be arrested for their role in running a child human trafficking syndicate. Since then, QAnon followers have also predicted that Trump would bring the hammer down on his enemies during the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush — a prediction that also failed spectacularly.<div class="p5_7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">None of this has phased QAnon’s core base, however.<div class="p6_7" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">“Unlike earlier failed predictions, which saw some followers leave the movement or express discouragement, this latest failure appears to have already vanished down the movement’s memory hole,” reports the Daily Beast. “QAnon’s failures are so numerous they’ve become an ambient white noise that true believers can tune out.”<div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>DEEP STATE<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lewandowski-and-bossie-target-trumps-deep-state-enemies/">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lewandowski-and-bossie-target-trumps-deep-state-enemies/</a>Former Trump advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie are releasing a book on Tuesday that promotes far-right conspiracy theories about “embedded enemies of President Trump” in the “deep state.” The book names specific Trump appointees they describe as part of a “resistance” within the government. The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-book-by-trump-advisers-calls-out-the-presidents-embedded-enemies/2018/11/24/afcbd0fc-ede3-11e8-baac-2a674e91502b_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1e07d740aeee" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">got an early look at the book</a>—“Trump’s Enemies”—and began reporting on it over the weekend. Bossie and Lewandowski previously co-authored “Let Trump be Trump,” a memoir of their time on the campaign.<div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">According to the Post’s Philip Rucker, the new book “paints a dark and at times conspiratorial portrait of Trump’s Washington.” Rucker says the book “reads in part like Trump’s Twitter grievances in book form.” It portrays FBI and Justice Department officials as wanting to “nullify the election and bring down the president.”<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">Lewandowski and Bossie write that these officials “attack the administration with a thousand cuts. They do this in complete disregard to the millions of Americans who voted for Donald Trump. They do it only for their own ends. There are far too many people in the deep reaches of the federal government who harbor as deep a hatred of Trump as does anyone from the Clinton/Obama cabal. The thing is, they get away with it when no one is looking.”</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Bossie and Lewandowski’s book, and its demonization of law enforcement and intelligence officials, fits into an aggressive strategy by Trump and his supporters to delegitimize Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign—and justify whatever kind of firings or other forms of obstruction Trump and his supporters marshal in response to Mueller’s probe or investigations likely to begin when Democrats assume control of the House of Representatives in January.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Bossie and Lewandowski <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/corey-lewandowski-and-alex-marlow-demand-to-be-taken-seriously-on-this-deep-state-stuff/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">appeared</a> on “Fox News Sunday” yesterday to promote the book.Bossie insisted, “There’s a vast left-wing conspiracy going on that has been going on since the president won this election.” Lewandowski said that their book outlines “how the intelligence community went after the president” because they “disagreed with his political philosophy.” Lewandowski <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/corey-lewandowski-and-alex-marlow-demand-to-be-taken-seriously-on-this-deep-state-stuff/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">promoted</a> the book earlier this month on Breitbart News Daily, where he complimented Breitbart for reminding people that “the deep state is very real.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">“Trump’s Enemies” seems designed to give credence to far-right conspiracy theories about the “deep state” trying to overturn Trump’s election and carry out a slow-moving “coup d’etat.” Regarding the Russia investigation, the book says, “The upper echelons of the intelligence community and federal law enforcement have waged a full on war against the president.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Right-wing Trump supporters like <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/judicial-watch-mueller-probe-a-zombie-investigation-but-deep-state-conspiracy-against-trump-is-real-and-scary/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton</a> have been banging this drum for a long time. Conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi, author of “Killing the Deep State: The Right to Save President Trump,” has <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/charisma-helps-corsi-promote-deep-state-conspiracy-theory/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">promoted</a> the need to “destroy this dangerous shadow government for good.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Religious Right leaders have been key to this strategy, promoting conspiracy theories about the “deep state” setting out to undermine the current administration—with many Religious Right figures describing the deep state as a <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/dave-daubenmire-the-deep-state-is-the-arm-of-the-devil/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">satanic</a> and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/steve-strang-and-ray-moore-ask-god-to-protect-trump-from-demonic-deep-state/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">demonic</a> movement engaged in <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/carl-gallups-the-deeply-demonic-deep-state-is-working-to-destroy-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">spiritual warfare</a> against the God-anointed Trump. This summer, for example, Gary Bauer <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/gary-bauer-fire-rod-rosenstein-and-break-the-deep-state-resistance/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">called</a> for the firing of Rod Rosenstein and breaking deep state resistance. Rick Joyner <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/rick-joyner-treason-charges-coming-against-those-who-try-to-overthrow-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> that “To try to overthrow a duly elected president is treason.” Today, Jerry Falwell, Jr. <a href="https://twitter.com/JerryFalwellJr/status/1067065616174104582" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">tweeted</a> a link to a recent Emma Greene <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/11/trumps-evangelical-allies-hated-jeff-sessions/575254/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">article</a> in the Atlantic quoting Falwell describing Jeff Sessions as “part of the deep state” and noting that Falwell had once said that Sessions, Hillary Clinton, Rosenstein, and former FBI Director James Comey should all “rot in the same jail.”<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Earlier this year, a group of pro-Trump “apostles” and “prophets” gathered 1,300 supporters at Trump International Hotel in D.C. where they <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/prophets-gather-at-trumps-washington-hotel-to-unleash-angel-armies-on-his-deep-state-enemies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">prayed</a> for God to send his angel armies to destroy Trump’s deep state enemies in the FBI and Justice Department. In September, Intercessors for America <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/intercessors-for-americas-deep-state-prayer-guide-asks-god-to-clean-house-in-government/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">released an “Intercessory Intel Report” on the deep state</a> that urged people:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">Pray that any plan to undermine, harm, derail and subvert elected officials would be uncovered. Pray that any conspiracy plans would be revealed and any illegal acts prosecuted. Ask God to clean house in our government!</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">As RWW’s Jared Holt <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-sean-hannity-news-is-already-being-folded-into-deep-state-conspiracy-theories/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">noted</a> in April, Fox News personalities are also playing their part:<blockquote style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Last December, Hannity <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/sean-hannity-and-steve-bannon-fear-the-deep-state-will-arrest-them-for-supporting-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">told</a> former White House strategist and Breitbart executive Steve Bannon that he feared that he “may end up in jail” for defending Trump against a deep-state effort to remove Trump from office. “By the way, people like us may end up in jail,” he told Bannon. “Let me tell you. They will stop at nothing. This is what I’m trying to get across to people. This is serious. This is the rule of law in this country now.”<p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">Since then, conspiracy theorists like Hannity have ramped up the rhetoric they’ve used to discuss what they believed to be <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/jerome-corsi-says-sean-hannity-was-sending-out-a-coded-message-before-the-deep-state-took-down-his-twitter-account/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">direct opposition</a> from the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/alex-jones-warns-the-deep-state-may-soon-nuke-washington-d-c/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">deep state</a>. Conservatives across right-wing media have been repeatedly warning voters that <a href="https://www.facebook.com/josh.bernstein.104/posts/891714297664924" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">government agencies</a>, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/mike-cernovich-says-social-media-censorship-is-a-warm-up-for-christian-persecution/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">technology companies</a>, and <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/mat-staver-media-is-waging-satanic-psychological-warfare-against-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">satanic forces</a> have been working in tandem to undo people who support Trump.<p style="background-color: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">...</blockquote></div></div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/conspiratorial-way-viewing-world-how-christian-news-media-shaped-american-politics">https://www.alternet.org/conspiratorial-way-viewing-world-how-christian-news-media-shaped-american-politics</a>...<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> growth of Christian media</h2>American Christians have historically used <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/selling-god-9780195098389?cc=us&lang=en&" style="text-decoration-line: none;">new media to spread the gospel</a>. In the 19th century, evangelicals used pamphlets and advertising techniques. The early 20th century produced a religious radio subculture that is still thriving in programs like the ones offered by <a href="https://www.focusonthefamily.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Focus on the Family</a> or <a href="https://www.moodyradio.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Moody Radio</a>.By the early 1950s, preachers like <a href="https://www.fultonsheen.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Fulton Sheen</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/03/us/rev-robert-h-schuller-hour-of-power-evangelist-dies-at-88.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Robert Schuller</a> or <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-billy-grahams-legacy-lives-on-in-american-life-92229" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Billy Graham</a> took to television.While there was occasionally a political overtone to these programs, most of them refrained from explicit commentary. This changed beginning in the 1970s, in large part, because of two related political trends:One, since the late 1970s, largely fundamentalist Protestant organizations like the Moral Majority took to popularizing Christian conservatism. These organizations rallied national support to influence politicians to <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/divided-we-stand-9781632863140/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">oppose abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment</a>, among other causes.Two, around the same time, beginning with <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Invisible-Bridge/Rick-Perlstein/9781476782423" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Ronald Reagan’s presidency</a>, conservative politicians started to harness <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-future-of-evangelicalism-in-america/9780231176118" style="text-decoration-line: none;">evangelicals as a voting bloc</a>. As a result, many of these politicians began paying closer attention to Christian media for indications of this bloc’s concerns. This gave Christian media further influence in the political world.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
The above political changes were reflected in the rapid growth of Christian shows on cable television.The televangelists</h2>Pat Robertson’s longstanding talk show <a href="https://www1.cbn.com/700club" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“The 700 Club,”</a> the end-times prophecy show <a href="https://www.jvim.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“Jack Van Impe Presents”</a> and others began to address what was happening in the news from a Biblical perspective. They claimed they were providing viewers with “real” explanations that <a href="https://www.cjr.org/special_report/right-wing-media-breitbart-fox-bannon-carlson-hannity-coulter-trump.php" style="text-decoration-line: none;">media and liberal politicians covered up</a>. These shows also reinforced conservative talking points as objective facts.<figure class="align-center " style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</figure>It is true that during this period, American “televangelists” experienced several withering scandals. Evangelist <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40232583?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Jimmy Swaggart</a>, for example, was discovered with a prostitute, and televangelist <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/ptl-9780199379712?cc=us&lang=en&" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Jim Bakker</a> was convicted of fraud. This led <a href="https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A4124C" style="text-decoration-line: none;">some scholars</a> to suggest that religious television “went underground” because of this disrepute.For example, from the mid-1990s, popular films and novels like <a href="https://leftbehind.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“Left Behind”</a> suggested that viewers with the “wrong” religious or political beliefs would suffer damnation. Such films and literature attracted tens of millions of viewers and <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/religion/article/71026-lahaye-co-author-of-left-behind-series-leaves-a-lasting-impact.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">readers</a>.On the contrary, as the data shows, religious broadcasting <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/21940/air_jesus" style="text-decoration-line: none;">grew hugely in the 1990s and 2000s</a>. Christian media <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/understanding-evangelical-media" style="text-decoration-line: none;">increasingly commented on current events.</a> And, critically, it began to have <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/religion-of-fear-9780195340815?q=bivins&lang=en&cc=us" style="text-decoration-line: none;">an influence</a> on the wider culture.Furthermore, Christian media was used to advance conservative biases. Authors and advocates of textbooks and curricula, for example, downplayed the women’s movement in American history or referred to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/publisher-promises-revisions-after-textbook-refers-to-african-slaves-as-workers.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">slavery</a> as “involuntary immigration.” Such changes were adopted in some <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807854686/the-fracture-of-good-order/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Christian schools</a> and their authors were often featured in Christian media. Even when the influence was indirect, the media, schools and entertainment mutually reinforced each others’ ideas.There is considerable evidence, then, of the connections between evangelical media broadly speaking, Christian news specifically, and a conservative Republican base that sought steady support and advocacy from it.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Why this matters</h2>The power of these programs is more than simply the stories covered or guests interviewed – it is their social impact on religious beliefs.Christian news is effective in conveying its views because it repeats claims that viewers already believe, and provides them with particular emotional experiences that are described as facts. This way of viewing the world has moved closer to the center of conservative politics since the 1980s, a period of time when the Christian right acquired more influence in American politics.The themes central to Christian television were more consistently those of the Republican Party. Consider how in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan began to be depicted as <a href="https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780230603028?utm_campaign=3_pier05_buy_print&utm_content=en_08082017&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=google_books#otherversion=9780230616196" style="text-decoration-line: none;">God’s agent on Earth</a>. In the 1990s, the growth of multinational corporations and trade deals was decried as part of a <a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1995/02/02/rev-robertsons-grand-international-conspiracy-theo/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">demonic “new world order.”</a> And today, when Islamophobia is on the rise, Christian television channels depict and celebrate President Trump as the fighter-in-chief, who defends Christians despite his personal fault...hese attitudes are reflected in the contemporary news programs themselves.For example, Robert Jeffress of Dallas’ First Baptist Church has called Islam a “false religion” that is demonically inspired. Such claims have been widespread since September 11, 2001, but on Jeffress’ <a href="https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/pathway-to-victory/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">“Pathway to Victory”</a> program, with an audience estimated in the millions, they are given a vast reach without the facts of Islam ever being addressed.Further, <a href="https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Christian Broadcasting Network news</a> regularly features stories about Christians persecuted in <a href="https://www.cbn.com/tv/1568989250001?mobile=false" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Turkey</a> or <a href="https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2018/january/persecution-is-rising-in-india-but-christianity-standing-strong" style="text-decoration-line: none;">India</a>. While such persecution clearly does <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviaenos/2018/03/28/growing-religious-persecution-in-china-a-symptom-of-xis-consolidation-of-power/#31045cdd3b8c" style="text-decoration-line: none;">occur</a> in places across the world, it is often cited by CBN and other outlets to support the idea that American Christians are censored or otherwise embattled by liberalism or secularism.<h2 style="font-weight: normal; margin-top: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Amplifying one view?</h2>The growing regularity of such examples has significant implications for American politics.First, assertions that religious liberty is being violated around the world are put out endlessly in what I call “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/religion-of-fear-9780195340815?cc=us&lang=en&" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the resonance chamber of American public life</a>,” in which repetition, aided by social media, helps claims to achieve legitimacy. Second, stories on the Christian news channels are constantly tailored to the idea that viewers are being <a href="https://usreligion.blogspot.com/2012/11/embattled-majority-religion-and-its.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">persecuted</a>.By presenting itself as authoritative, trustworthy journalism, Christian news reassures viewers that they do not need to consult mainstream media in order to be informed. More dangerously, it authorizes a particular, often conspiratorial way of viewing the world. It denounces neutrality or accountability to multiple constituencies as burdensome or even hostile to Christian faith.<img src="/b0b1ae01-13f7-5833-91be-f0d7426b9328.jpg"/></div><div class="headline"><h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title">Meet the Elite Business and Think-Tank Community That's Doing Its Best to Control the World</h1></div><div class="the_body body_story clearfix"><div class="story-date">June 19, 2013  |  </div>Read more at <a href="http://www.occupy.com/">Occupy.com</a> [3]."The corporate-policy network is highly centralized, at both the level of individuals and that of organizations. Its inner circle is a tightly interwoven ensemble of politically active business leaders..." -- Academics <a href="http://iss.sagepub.com/content/25/4/501">William K. Carroll and Jean Philippe Sapinski</a> [4]In <a href="http://www.sagepub.com/dicken6/Sage%20articles/Chap%203/chap%203%20-%20Carroll.pdf" target="blank">an article</a> [5] titled "The Global Corporate Elite" in the journal International Sociology, William K. Carroll and Jean Philippe Sapinski examined the relationship between the corporate elite and the emergence of a “transnational policy-planning network,” beginning with its formation in the decades following World War II and speeding up in the 1970s with the creation of “global policy groups” and think tanks such as the World Economic Forum, in 1971, and the Trilateral Commission, in 1973, among many others.The function of such institutions was to help mobilize and integrate the corporate elite beyond national borders, constructing a politically “organized minority.” These policy-planning organizations came to exist as “venues for discussion, strategic planning, discourse production and consensus formation on specific issues,” as well as “places where responses to crises of legitimacy are crafted,” such as managing economic, political, or environmental crises where elite interests might be threatened. These groups also often acted as “advocates for specific projects of integration, often on a regional basis.” Perhaps most importantly, the organizations “provide bridges connecting business elites to political actors (heads of states, politicians, high-ranking public servants) and elites and organic intellectuals in other fields (international organizations, military, media, academia).”One important industry association, according to researchers Carroll and Carson in the journal Global Networks (Vol. 3, No. 1, 2003), is the International Chamber of Commerce. Launched by investment bankers in 1919, immediately following WWI, the Paris-based Chamber groups roughly 7,000 member corporations together across 130 countries, adhering to largely conservative, “free market” ideology. The “primary function” of the ICC, write Carroll and Carson, “is to institutionalize an international business perspective by providing a forum where capitalists and related professionals... can assemble and forge a common international policy framework.”Another policy group with outsized global influence is the Bilderberg group, founded between 1952 and 1954, which provided “a context for more comprehensive international capitalist coordination and planning.” Bringing together roughly 130 elites from Western Europe and North America at annual closed meetings, “Bilderberg conferences have furnished a confidential platform for corporate, political, intellectual, military and even trade-union elites from the North Atlantic heartland to reach mutual understanding.”As Valerie Aubourg examined in an article for the journal Intelligence and National Security (Vol. 18, No. 2, 2003), the Bilderberg meetings were organized largely at the initiative of a handful of European elites, with heavy financial backing from select American institutions including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation and the CIA. The meetings incorporate leadership from the most prominent national think tanks, such as the Council on Foreign Relations, Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment and others from across the North Atlantic ‘community.’Hugh Wilford, writing in the journal Diplomacy & Statecraft (Vol. 14, No. 3, 2003), identified major philanthropic foundations such as the Rockefeller, Ford, and Carnegie foundations as not only major sources of funding but also providers for much of the leadership of the Bilderberg meetings, which saw the participation of major industrial and financial firms in line with those foundations (David Rockefeller of Chase Manhattan is a good example). Bilderberg was a major force in helping to create the political, economic and strategic consensus behind constructing a common European market.With the support of these major foundations and their leadership, the Bilderberg meetings became a powerful global tool of the elites, not only in creating the European Union but in designing the process of globalization itself. Will Hutton, a former Bilderberg member, once referred to the group as “the high priests of globalization,” and a former Bilderberg steering committee member, Denis Healey,<a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/07/15/bilderberg-2011-the-rockefeller-world-order-and-the-high-priests-of-globalization/" target="blank">once noted</a> [6]: “To say we were striving for a one-world government is exaggerated, but not wholly unfair...we felt that a single community throughout the world would be a good thing.”The large industrial foundations have played a truly profound – and largely overlooked – role in the shaping of modern society. The ‘Robber Baron’ industrial fortunes of the late 19th century – those of Morgan, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman, Vanderbilt, etc. – sought to shape a new order in which they would maintain a dominant influence throughout society. They founded major American universities (often named after themselves) such as Vanderbilt, or the University of Chicago which was founded by John D. Rockefeller.It was through their institutions that they sought to produce new elites to manage a new society, atop of which they sat. These universities became the harbingers of modern social sciences, seeking to "reform" society to fit the needs of those who dominated it; to engage in social engineering with the purpose of social control. It was in this context that the Carnegie Corporation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and later the Ford Foundation and others were founded: as engines of social engineering. One of their principal aims was to shape the development of the social sciences – and their exportation around the world to other industrial and imperial powers like Great Britain, and beyond. The social sciences were to facilitate the “scientific management” of society, and the foundations were the patrons of "<a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/04/08/the-purpose-of-education-social-uplift-or-social-control/" target="blank">social control</a> [7]."The Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford foundations were instrumental in providing funding, organization and personnel for the development of major American and international think tanks such as the Council on Foreign Relations, which became essential to the emergence of a dominant and entrenched U.S. business class linking academia, political, strategic, corporate and financial elites. The Rockefeller and Ford foundations in particular constructed the field of modern political science and "Area Studies" with a view to educating a <a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/10/18/an-education-for-empire-the-rockefeller-carnegie-and-ford-foundations-in-the-construction-of-knowledge/" target="blank">class of people</a> [8] who would be prepared to help manage a global empire.They were also prominent in developing the educational system for black Americans designed to keep them relegated to labor and “vocational” training. They helped found many prominent universities in Africa, Asia and Latin America to train indigenous elites with a "Western" education in the social sciences, to <a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/10/21/education-or-domination-the-rockefeller-carnegie-and-ford-foundations-developing-knowledge-for-the-developing-world/" target="blank">ensure continuity</a> [9] between a domestic and international elite, between core and periphery, empire and protectorate.Another major policy planning group is the Trilateral Commission, created out of the Bilderberg meetings as a separate transnational think tank and founded by Chase Manhattan CEO (and Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations) David Rockefeller along with academic-turned-policymaker Zbigniew Brzezinski in 1973. The Trilateral Commission linked the elites from Western Europe, North America and Japan (hence “trilateral”), and it now also includes members from China, India and a range of other Pacific-East Asian countries.Consisting of a membership of roughly 350 individuals from finance, corporations, media, think tanks, foundations, academia and political circles, the Trilateral Commission (TC) has been immensely influential as a forum facilitating the development and integration of a "transnational elite." The aim of the TC was “to <a href="http://www.trilateral.org/go.cfm?do=Page.View&pid=5" target="blank">foster closer cooperation</a> [10] among these core industrialized areas of the world with shared leadership responsibilities in the wider international system.”The most famous report issued by the Trilateral Commission in the mid-1970s suggested that due to the popular activism of the 1960s, there was a “crisis of democracy” that it defined as an “<a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/04/02/class-war-and-the-college-crisis-the-crisis-of-democracy-and-the-attack-on-education/" target="blank">excess of democracy</a> [11],” which needed to be reduced in order for “democracy to function effectively.” According to the Trilateral Commission, what was needed was increased “apathy and noninvolvement on the part of some individuals and groups” to counter the “crisis” being caused by “a highly educated, mobilized, and participant society.”Moving elsewhere, the World Economic Forum, founded in 1971, convenes annually in Davos, Switzerland and was originally designed “to secure the patronage of the Commission of European Communities, as well as the encouragement of Europe’s industry associations” and “to discuss European strategy in an international marketplace.” The WEF has since expanded its membership and mandate, as Carroll and Carson noted, “organized around a highly elite core of transnational capitalists (the 'Foundation Membership') – which it currently limits to '1000 of the foremost global enterprises’.” The meetings include prominent individuals from the scientific community, academics, the media, NGOs and many other policy groups.Another major policy planning group emerged in the mid-1990s with an increased focus on environmental issues, called the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), which “instantly became the pre-eminent business voice on the environment” with a 1997 membership of 123 top corporate executives, tasked with bringing the “voice” of big business to the process of international efforts to address environmental concerns (and thus, to secure their own interests).Among other prominent think tanks and policy-planning boards helping to facilitate and integrate a transnational network of elites are many nation-based organizations, particularly in the United States, such as with the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institution and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), among many others. The advisory boards to these organizations provide an important forum through which transnational elites may help to influence the policies of many separate nations, and most importantly, the world’s most powerful nation: the United States.The Council on Foreign Relations, founded in 1921, refers to itself as “an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and publisher,” with roughly 4,700 members. It is largely based in New York with affiliate offices in Washington D.C. and elsewhere. The CFR is, and has been, at the heart of the American foreign policy establishment, bringing together elites from academia, government, the media, intelligence, military, financial and corporate institutions.The CFR worked in close cooperation with the U.S. government during World War II to design the post-War world over which America would reign supreme. The Council was active in establishing the “<a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/12/13/the-council-on-foreign-relations-and-the-grand-area-of-the-american-empire/" target="blank">Grand Areas</a> [12]” of the American Empire, and in <a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/11/30/sneak-peak-at-my-book-the-rockefeller-world-council-on-foreign-relations-and-the-trilateral-commission/" target="blank">maintaining extensive influence</a> [13] over the foreign policy of the United States.As Carroll and Carson noted, there is a prominent relationship between those individuals who sit on multiple corporate boards and those who sit on the boards of prominent national and transnational policy-planning groups, “suggesting a highly centralized corporate-policy network.”Studying 622 corporate directors and 302 organizations (five of which were the major policy-planning groups: ICC, Bilderberg, Trilateral Commission, World Economic Forum and World Business Council for Sustainable Development), Carroll and Carson assessed this network of transnational elites with data leading up to 1996, and concluded: “The international network is primarily a configuration of national corporate networks, integrated for the most part through the affiliations of a few dozen individuals who either hold transnational corporate directorships or serve on two or more policy boards.”Out of the sample of 622 individuals, they found roughly 105 individuals (94 “transnational corporate linkers” and 11 others “whose corporate affiliations are not transnational but who sit on multiple global policy boards”) making up “the most immediate structural contributions to transnational class formation.” At the “core” of this network were 17 corporate directors, primarily European and North American, largely linked by the transnational policy groups, with the Trilateral Commission as “the most centrally positioned.” This network, they noted, “is highly centralized in terms of the individuals and organizations that participate in it.”In undertaking a follow-up study of data between 1996 and 2006, published in the journal International Sociology (Vol. 25, No. 4, 2010), Carroll and Sapinski expanded the number of policy-planning groups from five to 11, including the original five (ICC, Bilderberg, TC, WEF, and WBCSD), but adding to them the Council on Foreign Relations (through its International Advisory Board), the UN Global Compact (through its advisory board), the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), founded in 1983, the EU-Japan Business Round Table, the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, and the North American Competitiveness Council.The results of their research found that among the corporate directors, “policy-board membership has shifted towards the transnationalists, who come to comprise a larger segment of the global corporate elite,” and that there was a growing group of elites “made up of individuals with one or more transnational policy-board affiliations.” As Carroll and Sapinski concluded:"The corporate-policy network is highly centralized, at both the level of individuals and that of organizations. Its inner circle is a tightly interwoven ensemble of politically active business leaders; its organizational core includes the Trilateral Commission, the Bilderberg Conference, the European Round Table of Industrialists and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, surrounded by other policy boards and by the directorates of leading industrial corporations and financial institutions based in capitalism’s core regions."Organizations like the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT) are not think tanks, but rather, industry organizations (exclusively representing the interests and individuals of major corporations), wielding significant influence over political and social elites. As Bastiaan van Apeldoorn wrote in the journal New Political Economy (Vol. 5, No. 2, 2000), the ERT “developed into an elite platform for an emergent European transnational capitalist class from which it can formulate a common strategy and – on the basis of that strategy – seek to shape European socioeconomic governance through its privileged access to the European institutions.”In 1983, the ERT was formed as an organization of 17 major European industrialists (which has since expanded to several dozen members), with the proclaimed objective being “to revitalize European industry and make it competitive again, and to speed up the process of unification of the European common market.” Wisse Dekker, former Chairman of the ERT, once stated: “I would consider the Round Table to be more than a lobby group as it helps to shape policies. The Round Table’s relationship with Brussels [the EU] is one of strong co-operation. It is a dialogue which often begins at a very early stage in the development of policies and directives.”The ERT was a central institution in the re-launching of European integration from the 1980s onward, and as former European Commissioner (and former ERT member) Peter Sutherland stated, “one can argue that the whole completion of the internal market project was initiated not by governments but by the Round Table, and by members of it... And I think it played a fairly consistent role subsequently in dialoguing with the Commission on practical steps to implement market liberalization.” Sutherland also explained that the ERT and its members “have to be at the highest levels of companies and virtually all of them have unimpeded access to government leaders because of the position of their companies... So, by definition, each member of the ERT has access at the highest level to government.”Other notable industry associations include the <a href="http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/04/24/canadas-economic-collapse-and-social-crisis-class-war-and-the-college-crisis-part-5/" target="blank">Canadian Council of Chief Executives</a> [14] (CCCE), formerly called the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI), a group comprised of Canada’s top 150 CEOs who were a major force for the promotion and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The CCCE remains one of the most influential “interest groups” in Canada.In the United States there are prominent industry associations like the Business Council, the Business Roundtable, and the Financial Services Forum. The Business Council describes itself as “a voluntary association of business leaders whose members meet several times a year for the free exchange of ideas both among themselves and with thought leaders from many sectors.”Likewise, the <a href="http://businessroundtable.org/about-us/" target="blank">Business Roundtable</a> [15] describes itself as “an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $7.3 trillion in annual revenues,” which believes that “businesses should play an active and effective role in the formation of public policy.”Finally, the <a href="http://www.financialservicesforum.org/index.php/about-the-forum/forum-mission" target="blank">Financial Services Forum</a> [16] proclaims itself to be “a non-partisan financial and economic policy organization” which aims “to pursue policies that encourage savings and investment, promote an open and competitive global marketplace, and ensure the opportunity of people everywhere to participate fully and productively in the 21st-century global economy.”</div><div class="big_story_tools_bottom_container"><div class="talk_box"><div class="story_tools_bottom"><div class="text-size"><div class="story_tools_email"><div class="story_tools_print"><div class="story_tools_share"><div class="story_tools_social_buttons"><div class="tags">See more stories tagged with:<div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/africa-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">africa</a> [17],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/america" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">america</a> [18],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/american-competitiveness-council" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">American Competitiveness 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href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/carnegie-corporation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Carnegie Corporation</a> [31],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/carnegie-endowment-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Carnegie Endowment</a> [32],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/carson" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">carson</a> [33],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/center-strategic-and-international-studies" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Center for Strategic and International Studies</a> [34],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/central-intelligence-agency" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Central Intelligence Agency</a> [35],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/chairman-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">chairman</a> [36],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/chase-manhattan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Chase Manhattan</a> [37],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/china-turkey-relations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">China</a> [38],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/commissioner" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">commissioner</a> [39],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/company-founded" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Company Founded</a> [40],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/council-foreign-relations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Council on Foreign Relations</a> [41],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/david-rockefeller" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">David Rockefeller</a> [42],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/davos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">davos</a> [43],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/denis-healey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Denis Healey</a> [44],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/europe-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">europe</a> [45],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/european-round-table-industrialists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">European Round Table of Industrialists</a> [46],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/european-union" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">european union</a> [47],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/ford-foundation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Ford Foundation</a> [48],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/ford-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">ford</a> [49],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/globalization" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">globalization</a> [50],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/hugh-wilford" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Hugh Wilford</a> [51],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/india-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">india</a> [52],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/industrialists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Industrialists</a> [53],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/international-advisory-board" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">International Advisory Board</a> [54],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/international-chamber-commerce" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">International Chamber of Commerce</a> [55],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/international-business" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">International business</a> [56],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/japan-korea-relations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Japan</a> [57],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/jean-philippe-sapinski" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Jean Philippe Sapinski</a> [58],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/john-d-rockefeller" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">John D. Rockefeller</a> [59],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/latin-america" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">latin america</a> [60],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/new-york" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">new york</a> [61],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/north-america" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">north america</a> [62],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/north-american-free-trade-agreement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">North American Free Trade Agreement</a> [63],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/north-atlantic" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">North Atlantic</a> [64],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/paris" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">paris</a> [65],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-career" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Person Career</a> [66],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-location" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Person Location</a> [67],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/peter-sutherland" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Peter Sutherland</a> [68],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/quotation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Quotation</a> [69],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/rockefeller-foundation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Rockefeller Foundation</a> [70],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/rockefeller-family" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Rockefeller family</a> [71],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/switzerland-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">switzerland</a> [72],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/tc" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">TC</a> [73],</div><div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/round-table" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">The Round Table</a> [74],</div><div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/think-t" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Think t</a> [75]</div></div></div></div><div class="comment_button"><div class="print-footer" style="text-align: center;"><hr class="print-hr" style="text-align: left; border-width: 0px; border-style: none; border-image: initial; height: 1px; width: 1047.2px; background-color: rgb(158, 158, 158);" /><div class="print-source_url" style="text-align: left;">Source URL: <a href="http://www.alternet.org/occupy-wall-street/elite-business-and-think-tank-attempts-control-world">http://www.alternet.org/occupy-wall-street/elite-business-and-think-tank-attempts-control-world</a></div><div class="print-links"> <div style="text-align: left;">Links:</div><div style="text-align: left;">[1] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com</div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/andrew-gavin-marshall</div><div style="text-align: left;">[3] http://www.occupy.com/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[4] http://iss.sagepub.com/content/25/4/501</div><div style="text-align: left;">[5] http://www.sagepub.com/dicken6/Sage%20articles/Chap%203/chap%203%20-%20Carroll.pdf</div><div style="text-align: left;">[6] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/07/15/bilderberg-2011-the-rockefeller-world-order-and-the-high-priests-of-globalization/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[7] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/04/08/the-purpose-of-education-social-uplift-or-social-control/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[8] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/10/18/an-education-for-empire-the-rockefeller-carnegie-and-ford-foundations-in-the-construction-of-knowledge/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[9] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/10/21/education-or-domination-the-rockefeller-carnegie-and-ford-foundations-developing-knowledge-for-the-developing-world/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[10] http://www.trilateral.org/go.cfm?do=Page.View&pid=5</div><div style="text-align: left;">[11] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/04/02/class-war-and-the-college-crisis-the-crisis-of-democracy-and-the-attack-on-education/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[12] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/12/13/the-council-on-foreign-relations-and-the-grand-area-of-the-american-empire/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[13] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2011/11/30/sneak-peak-at-my-book-the-rockefeller-world-council-on-foreign-relations-and-the-trilateral-commission/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[14] http://andrewgavinmarshall.com/2012/04/24/canadas-economic-collapse-and-social-crisis-class-war-and-the-college-crisis-part-5/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[15] http://businessroundtable.org/about-us/</div><div style="text-align: left;">[16] http://www.financialservicesforum.org/index.php/about-the-forum/forum-mission</div><div style="text-align: left;">[17] http://www.alternet.org/tags/africa-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[18] http://www.alternet.org/tags/america</div><div style="text-align: left;">[19] http://www.alternet.org/tags/american-competitiveness-council</div><div style="text-align: left;">[20] http://www.alternet.org/tags/asia-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[21] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bilderberg-group</div><div style="text-align: left;">[22] http://www.alternet.org/tags/bilderberg</div><div style="text-align: left;">[23] http://www.alternet.org/tags/brookings-institution-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[24] http://www.alternet.org/tags/brussels-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[25] http://www.alternet.org/tags/business-council-national-issues</div><div style="text-align: left;">[26] http://www.alternet.org/tags/business-council</div><div style="text-align: left;">[27] http://www.alternet.org/tags/business-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[28] http://www.alternet.org/tags/ceo</div><div style="text-align: left;">[29] http://www.alternet.org/tags/canada-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[30] http://www.alternet.org/tags/canadian-council-chief-executives</div><div style="text-align: left;">[31] http://www.alternet.org/tags/carnegie-corporation</div><div style="text-align: left;">[32] http://www.alternet.org/tags/carnegie-endowment-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[33] http://www.alternet.org/tags/carson</div><div style="text-align: left;">[34] http://www.alternet.org/tags/center-strategic-and-international-studies</div><div style="text-align: left;">[35] http://www.alternet.org/tags/central-intelligence-agency</div><div style="text-align: left;">[36] http://www.alternet.org/tags/chairman-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[37] http://www.alternet.org/tags/chase-manhattan</div><div style="text-align: left;">[38] http://www.alternet.org/tags/china-turkey-relations</div><div style="text-align: left;">[39] http://www.alternet.org/tags/commissioner</div><div style="text-align: left;">[40] http://www.alternet.org/tags/company-founded</div><div style="text-align: left;">[41] http://www.alternet.org/tags/council-foreign-relations</div><div style="text-align: left;">[42] http://www.alternet.org/tags/david-rockefeller</div><div style="text-align: left;">[43] http://www.alternet.org/tags/davos</div><div style="text-align: left;">[44] http://www.alternet.org/tags/denis-healey</div><div style="text-align: left;">[45] http://www.alternet.org/tags/europe-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[46] http://www.alternet.org/tags/european-round-table-industrialists</div><div style="text-align: left;">[47] http://www.alternet.org/tags/european-union</div><div style="text-align: left;">[48] http://www.alternet.org/tags/ford-foundation</div><div style="text-align: left;">[49] http://www.alternet.org/tags/ford-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[50] http://www.alternet.org/tags/globalization</div><div style="text-align: left;">[51] http://www.alternet.org/tags/hugh-wilford</div><div style="text-align: left;">[52] http://www.alternet.org/tags/india-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[53] http://www.alternet.org/tags/industrialists</div><div style="text-align: left;">[54] http://www.alternet.org/tags/international-advisory-board</div><div style="text-align: left;">[55] http://www.alternet.org/tags/international-chamber-commerce</div><div style="text-align: left;">[56] http://www.alternet.org/tags/international-business</div><div style="text-align: left;">[57] http://www.alternet.org/tags/japan-korea-relations</div><div style="text-align: left;">[58] http://www.alternet.org/tags/jean-philippe-sapinski</div><div style="text-align: left;">[59] http://www.alternet.org/tags/john-d-rockefeller</div><div style="text-align: left;">[60] http://www.alternet.org/tags/latin-america</div><div style="text-align: left;">[61] http://www.alternet.org/tags/new-york</div><div style="text-align: left;">[62] http://www.alternet.org/tags/north-america</div><div style="text-align: left;">[63] http://www.alternet.org/tags/north-american-free-trade-agreement</div><div style="text-align: left;">[64] http://www.alternet.org/tags/north-atlantic</div><div style="text-align: left;">[65] http://www.alternet.org/tags/paris</div><div style="text-align: left;">[66] http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-career</div><div style="text-align: left;">[67] http://www.alternet.org/tags/person-location</div><div style="text-align: left;">[68] http://www.alternet.org/tags/peter-sutherland</div><div style="text-align: left;">[69] http://www.alternet.org/tags/quotation</div><div style="text-align: left;">[70] http://www.alternet.org/tags/rockefeller-foundation</div><div style="text-align: left;">[71] http://www.alternet.org/tags/rockefeller-family</div><div style="text-align: left;">[72] http://www.alternet.org/tags/switzerland-0</div><div style="text-align: left;">[73] http://www.alternet.org/tags/tc</div><div style="text-align: left;">[74] http://www.alternet.org/tags/round-table</div><div style="text-align: left;">[75] http://www.alternet.org/tags/think-t</div><div style="text-align: left;">[76] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</div> <div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div>=#5 The Global Corporate Elite and the Transnational Policy-Planning Network, 1996–2006A Structural AnalysisWilliam K. Carroll and Jean Philippe Sapinski University of Victoriaabstract: This article presents a network analysis of elite interlocks among the world’s 500 largest corporations and a purposive sample of transnational policy planning boards. The analysis compares the situation in 1996 with 2006 and reveals a process of transnational capitalist class formation that is regionally uneven. Network analysis points to a process of structural consolidation through  which policy boards have become more integrative nodes, brokering elite relations between firms from different regions, especially Europe and North America. As national corporate networks have thinned, the global corporate-policy network’s centre of gravity has shifted towards Europe, both at the level of individuals and organizations. Although this study finds a modest increase in participation of corporate elites from the Global South, a North Atlantic ruling class remains at the centre of the process of transnational capitalist class formation....In a study of the elite network of five global policy groups and 350 corporations as of 1996, Carroll and Carson (2003) do provide an analysis of interlocks between corporations and global policy groups. They report that:• The network is primarily carried by a few dozen cosmopolitan corporate directors, some of whom serve on multiple policy boards;• The policy boards are heavily interlocked with each other and with large corporations domiciled mainly in Europe and North America; and• Corporate-policy board interlocks make a dramatic contribution to global corporate-elite integration, pulling the corporate directorates  closer together and integrating the lifeworlds of leading directors.... <div style="text-align: left;">
</div><div style="text-align: left;"> </div>he seven global policy groups differ in priorities and practices, and in the policy and media networks they access. They thus bring a division of labour to the task of global policy formation. The WEF, WBCSD, ICC and TC are large and complex organizations that address not only their constituents but transnational publics, via publications, press releases and websites. Bilderberg Conferences, in contrast, are held in camera to encourage frank discussion, and no public statement is issued at their close. These five groups (including Bilderberg) have pursued wide agendas for global neoliberal governance. The CFRIAB’s project is more focused. It advises the Council on Foreign Relations about US foreign policy issues; hence its global vision is US-centred and its voice carries only within the CFR, a major American think tank with extensive ties both to US corporate capital and to Washington’s policy elite (Dye, 1978; Paretsky, 2004). Finally, the UNGC’s project is one of moral reform. A ‘public–private partnership’ between the UN and corporations, it promotes 10 ethical principles concerning human rights, labour standards, environmentalism and anti-corruption. The least neoliberal of the seven, the UNGC represents a tendency, since the mid-1990s, for global policy groups to incorporate ‘civil society’ into their processes and visions (Carroll and Carson, 2003; Soederberg, 2007).The four transnational business councils are, with the exception of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), quite recent inventions (see Table 1, part 2). These organizations transpose, onto a transnational field, the highly successful model of national business councils, which in the 1970s and 1980s spearheaded neoliberal transformation in the AngloAmerican countries (Langille, 1987; Useem, 1984). Each is composed of a few dozen CEOs or chairs of leading corporations domiciled in the given zone. Two of the councils promote the economic integration of Europe (ERT) and North America (the North American Competitiveness Council, NACC), respectively. The other two promote the transregional integration of the North Atlantic (the TransAtlantic Business Dialogue, TABD) and of Europe and Japan (EU–Japan Business Round Table, EJBRT).4 As with nationally based business councils, these boards are less involved in reaching out to ‘civil society’ and more strategically focused on specific state agencies and policies that directly affect the interests of corporations. They pursue an agenda of ‘free trade’ that presses for deregulated markets and investor rights, but add to this a focal concern with transnational policy harmonization as a means of reducing frictions to the circulation of  commodities and capital (Beder, 2006).... <h1 class="page__title title" id="page-title" style="line-height: 1.2em; margin: 0px; text-align: start;">Monckton, global warming, UFO's and time travelIt seems that British Aristocrat and self-appointed global warming expert, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/deniers-cock-a-hoop-over-latest-junk-science" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Christopher Monckton</a>, has found a publication worthy of his theories. Tim Lambert, who runs the ever-great <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2007/01/monckton_in_nexus.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Deltoid blog</a>, is reporting that Monckton's global warming junk science has been <a href="http://nexusmagazine.com/backissues/current.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">published</a> in<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexus_magazine" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Nexus</a> magazine, alongside an article about the “Shadow government'sUFO agenda” and one on the “Anglo-American-Zionist” 9/11 terrorist pl</h1></div></div></div></div></div>= <div>
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