I like, less and less, thinking of the ‘elite’ as ‘individual actors’ when they’re ‘acting’ in favor of their shared interest.

But this can’t be denied. A lot of these guys, particularly at the highest levels, might have a shared class consciousness but they aren’t friends with one another. They routinely backstab and undermine each other for their positions.

There is a broad ideology that they all propagate, but when it comes time for a guy like Ted Cruz or Bob Menendez or Peter Thiel or Jamie Dimon to make a move, one will just as happily shiv the other to reach the next rung on the ladder. They aren’t loyal to their countries, as illustrated by how frequently they’ll sell everyone else out for a leg up. Nationalism is, at best, a defense mechanism behind which they can hide when they get caught doing something nakedly corrupt or socially destructive.

Are we arguing that a specific class of people are controlling* governments and propaganda, to control government celebrities (Trump and Putin) to sow chaos and enrich their combined interests?

Putin is, himself, under the thumb of a cadre of fellow plutocrats in his own home country. Guys like Lisin and Abramovich have at least as much impact on his decisions as the Ellen Chao’s Foremost Group and Lachlan Murdoch’s FOX Corp have on Trump’s. And these players are all in an endless struggle for market dominance in their own spheres of influence, with Murdoch feuding against Brian Roberts of Comcast and Chao pitted against the Møller family that owns Maersk.

Yes, they all hate any kind of labor organizing. They all profit from the endless demand on their baskets of natural resources created by escalating conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. And they all want to have some kind of toddy in office, rather than a proper populist divorced from the demands of the wealthiest families.

But which toddy? Who gets the lion’s share of the profits? Which batch of proles get to fill the ranks of middle managers at the expense of their regional neighbors? Those questions decide who actually commands the economy at large. And they are far from settled.

I think it’s a global cabal of Russo-aligned neo fascists.

Wouldn’t be the first time someone suggested the world’s problems could be laid at the feet of a secret cabal of evil foreigners. Hell, this was at the heart of the Red Scares of the 1910s, the 1930s, and 1950s.

The KGB turned Trump in the 80s.

More likely the reverse. Trump was laundering money for the plutocrats that would eventually take over the Russian state, most likely on behalf of American intelligence or some other domestic private interests. The 80s and 90s made a lot of bag men a lot of money, from Jeffery Epstein to John Gutfreund to Carl Ichan to George Soros. But Trump is notably shit at his job, so he never approached the heights of his NY peers.

The two likely knew one another, given Putin’s rapid climb from mayor to parliamentarian to president. But Trump’s absolutely fucking shameless. What would you do to compromise him that his political opponents haven’t already lobbed out on the campaign trail? Dude was certainly taking bribes, particularly through the Kushner family. But “turned”? Fucking please.