ABC's Brian Ross does what he does best in the coverage below. Ross reveals the rot of corporate money and corruption that feeds the Republican Party's attempted to take the country back from the people, and hand it over to the new Robber Barons. Not only does Ross' story have a grimy feel to it, but it also gives a whole new meaning to filthy rich and corporate opulence.
In researching the age of the Robber Barons, and what history could tell us about our future, I came across this Amazon review by Keith Wheelock regarding the revisionist book, The Myth of the Robber Barons. He wrote:
(The book does) not acknowledge the brutal labor strife that included the Railroads Strikes of 1877, the Haymarket Massacre, the Homestead Strike, and the Pullman fracas. Instead, he focuses on six `uplifting' success stories. I introduced my students to the Gilded Age in 2009 with:
An era in which:
* The courts and the federal administration gave corporations a free hand to do almost anything they wished;
* Banks, through ineptness, greed, and criminal actions, came close to destroying the U. S. financial system;
* Bribery at the federal, state, and local level was so prevalent that it seemed difficult to find an honest politician;
* The federal and state administration, as well as Congress and the Supreme Court, showed scant respect for the rights (and, often, lives) of the common people;
* Some of the largest businesses engaged in massive fraud and deception that continued for years without any significant government intervention;
* Some of the new rich became rich beyond one's wildest imagination--a few achieved this with `relatively clean hands;' others bought politicians and others as if they were commodities in the market place.
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