Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
When discussing the state of the world these days, the word oligarch is regularly bandied about in all types of media and is generally preceded by one or more adjectives such as evil or Russian. In many cases it’s evil, Russian oligarch.
To establish some form of reference for a conversation about oligarchs, I checked my copy of Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, Copyright 2010, which provided me the following information:
Oligarch; 1. Any of the rulers of an oligarchy.
To clarify matters further, Webster’s provided: Oligarchy: 1. A form of government in which the ruling power belongs to a few persons. 2. A state governed in this way.
A search of the internet found (1st definition): noun, plural: oligarchs, 1. a ruler in an oligarchy.
2. (especially in Russia) a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence. Note the reference to “Russian” in the second definition.
Wikipedia further defines a “business” oligarch is generally a business magnate who controls sufficient resources to influence national politics.
In a recent news conference, the president announced his intention to confiscate the assets held by Russian oligarchs in this country. He also indicated that these assets that included their yachts and mansions were “ill-gotten.”
This raised several questions in my mind. It appears this seizure will be the result of the oligarchs in question being Russian. Should the government be able to establish the precedent of seizing assets from anybody without the benefit of court action? Who determines what makes the gains ill-gotten? Is Russia the only country that has oligarchs?
After reviewing the definitions above I thought of some rich business leaders who have a great deal of political influence. A few of them are: Elon Musk, who controls Tesla and Twitter, Mark Zuckerberg, at Facebook, Jeff Bezos, The Washington Post and Bill Gates, of Microsoft. Musk, Zuckerberg and Bezos, control major media platforms that have widespread political influence that can sway elections at the local, state and federal levels. Are they American oligarchs?
What would happen if some future administration decided Twitter was an “ill-gotten asset” that decided to de-platform the president of the United States? Could the government claim precedent and seize that asset?
If the president wishes to seize ill-gotten assets, he should first take a close look at the finances of one Robert Hunter Biden. When that investigation has run its course, he should focus on the U.S. Congress as a haven for elected officials who use their knowledge of pending legislation to invest in the stock market as a means to improve their financial position. I suspect this would be considered insider trading for any ordinary citizen, and would be deemed ill-gotten.
Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:
