At the risk of giving the mods even more work, I've resurrected this thread as a more appropriate place to discuss some of the things that were staring to be talked about in the Trump and EU threads.
I'm not a great fan when conspiracy theorists start talking about the Rothschild's etc as I believe it is often thinly disguised anti Semitism (which I abhor).
That said I do believe there is some sort of global hedgemony that perpetuates the neo-liberal economic system well described in this article
http://gu.com/p/5bfzp that
@The Esk also linked to today.
The Bilderberg Group from what I have read in reliable sources such as The Guardian etc, holds meetings in secret at which new up and coming people (politicians, writers, opinion formers) are invited. People of different political persuasions are apparently invited and - as far as I can deduce from what I have read - attempts are made (not in an obviously sinister fashion but by flattery and persuasion) to draw them into this global hedgemonic thinking.
Apparently Dennis Healy was a founder member of the Bilderberg Group.
Now, I can also see this happening (whether through the Bilderberg Group or not) with US presidents or British or European political leaders. The pressure to conform to the global hedgemony is immense and if a president or British or European leader does conform they will have a relatively safe run as leader whereas if they don't they will potentially find themselves being destabilised.
I believe there are considerable vested interests in this country and globally wanting the continuation of the EU as it has been an excellent guarantee of the continuation of the neo-liberal political-economic system that acts for their benefit.
That said I recognise that there might also be vested interests in the dismantling of the EU - certainly among a few of the newspaper proprietors.
So, it will be interesting to see if Trump conforms to these vested interests in a similar way to what I believe Obama was drawn into doing.
In short - anyone with any radicalism that threatens the global interests of the powerful will be destabilised.
Why do you think the media are so strong against any labour leader (Kinnock, Foot, Corbyn) who appears to threaten this, whereas with a safe Bilderberg type of leader like Healey (even though he wasn't ever labour leader) or Blair weren't?
Hilary Clinton was and would have been a part of this global hedgemony . Trump (whose seeming intolerance to other racial groups I abhor) is not yet obviously part of it but will be under great implicit pressure to become so.
I think we are 20 or so years away from the collapse of the current global economic system but the cracks in it are starting with the frustration of the people and the rise of the left and right