Oligarchs Revel In Their Triumph

Cocooned within the warmth of the U.S. Capitol, the Four Horsemen basked in glory. In dramatic lore, they are known as famine, pestilence, destruction and death. These are only aliases.

“Their real names” are Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and Ramaswamy, billionaire oligarchs who “formed the crest” of a cyclone of corporate power which surreptitiously supplanted the American republic with rule by the richest by financially and vocally [or in deliberate silence ala Bezos] promoted the election of felon Donald Trump to a second term [and only two are permitted!] as president of these United States.

Those four had been granted the sweetest warm seats in the land – right behind former presidents and vice presidents and in front of cabinet nominees – while the expendable minions who enabled their takeover froze outside in the raw January weather of Washington, DC, a foretaste of their future fate under a regime dedicated to eliminating all safeguards and protections for Americans in the name corporate profits.

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones reported that Trump’s cabinet choices were worth “roughly $10 billion. But that’s chump change compared to the sieg heiling Elon Musk [$449 billion], Jeff Bezos [$245 billion] and Mark Zuckerberg [$217 billion]. These are the three richest people in the world.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the fourth horseman of the oligarchy, is worth “only” about a billion dollars, but was loud and proud to endorse the racist who thinks there might be a place in politics – besides assaulting Trump political foes with impunity – for the Proud Boys, which the Anti-defamation League describes as, “a tent for misogynistic, anti-immigrant, Islamophobic and anti-LGBTQ+ ideologies and other forms of hate – including antisemitism and white supremacy.”

But the floor of the people belonged to the oligarchs, including Frenchman Bernard Arnault, [$188 billion], the fifth richest guy in the world; Google co-founder Sergey Brin [$163 billion – seventh], and such a collection of wealthy people that Murphy estimated a total worth of “a little more than $1.3 trillion.”

And many of them – Musk, $277 million – contributed heavily to Trump’s campaign. Their expectations of being rewarded have sound footing.

Alex Witt of Climate Power reported last week that “Big Oil's total financial influence this election cycle amounts to an astounding $445 million. Importantly, however, the oil and gas industry also routes undisclosed funds through dark money groups that do not have to reveal their donors, making it nearly impossible to understand the full scope of their impact.”

Ninety-six million of those dollars went directly to Trump, whose “Drill, baby, drill” campaign mantra led to a Day One phony declaration of a national energy emergency to gut environmental standards on behalf of Big Oil.

Yes, that serial liar Trump kept his word when he promised such a free hand to fossil fuelers at a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser last year if they would just write him a check. He redeemed his IOU to sell us out.

Witt reported: “Oil billionaires like Continental Resources’ Harold Hamm, Energy Transfer Partners’ Kelcy Warren, and Hilcorp Energy Co.’s Jeffrey Hildebrand gave millions to his campaign and affiliated PACs.”

Prior to his declaring open season on global warming safeguards – yeah, Trump pulled us out of the Paris Climate Accords again – Elizabeth Bast of Oil Change International said, “As Trump returns to office, we’re witnessing the deadly price tag of fossil fuel industry control over our democracy.

“From the still-burning wildfires in Los Angeles to the destruction left by Hurricane Helene in Asheville, to the unprecedented droughts and floods devastating Southern Africa, the climate crisis is accelerating,” Bast said. “These deadly disasters are driven by fossil fuel executives who put their profits ahead of our future.”

Yes, it was a cozy Inauguration Day inside the Capitol. A greed gang of billionaires gathered to celebrate one of their own, whose track record forecasts that he will do everything possible to increase their already obscene wealth – at the expense of everyone else in the world. And at the expense of the world itself.