Welcome to the American oligarchy

The MoJo Daily newsletter, Monday through Friday. [View in browser]( [Mother Jones Daily Newsletter](     January 22, 2024 Tim Murphy here, senior reporter at Mother Jones. When Russia invaded Ukraine almost two years ago, [I couldn't stop reading about the yachts](. The gleaming ships of Russia’s "oligarch" class were floating avatars of elite impunity and the decadent and corrupt world that had produced and enabled Vladimir Putin. They were also just completely bonkers—often hundreds of feet long, with helipads, submarines, anti–missile systems, retractable dance floors, and all manner of high-end gadgets and overpriced art. The biggest of the bunch were even accompanied by their own support yachts; one yacht simply wouldn’t do. Thanks to publicly accessible marine traffic data, I could follow these giant ships in real-time as they fled en masse from European Union ports to safe harbors in Vladivostok, Dubai, or the Turkish Riviera. Some boats never made it out of port. But as I wrote in an essay for our [January+February 2024 issue](, the spectacle of gawking at the ultra-rich from afar also hits a little close to home: If these opulent ships were symbols of a deeply broken society, what did that say about all of our superyachts and their enigmatic owners? All you had to do was look around—there was Jeff Bezos, asking the city of Rotterdam to dismantle a bridge so his giant schooner could more easily take to the city. There was a certain Texas real-estate billionaire, ushering a Supreme Court justice through the islands of Indonesia as a token of lasting friendship. There was the CEO of Disney, kvetching about the cost-of-living demands of screenwriters while building a new superyacht to replace the one he’d recently taken to Fiji. Our yachts told a story, too, and it wasn’t flattering. It was time, we thought, for a good long look in the mirror. For our [January+February issue](, Mother Jones explored the rise and power of the emerging class of billionaires fueled by the monopolistic growth of Big Tech, who are [remaking America in their own decadent and extractive image](. Their bored whims and futuristic fantasies shape how and where we live and work, even as their own worlds are increasingly isolated from the rest of us—on island retreats, or, yes, 500-foot megayachts. Welcome to the [American Oligarchy](. —Tim Murphy Advertisement [House Subscriptions Ad]( [Top Story] [Top Story]( [In New Hampshire, Trump Isn’t the Only Candidate Keeping Reporters Out]( His rivals have adopted his rhetoric and tactics. BY ABBY VESOULIS SPONSORED CONTENT BY HEIFER INTERNATIONAL   Start the New Year with Hope (and Heifer) Give a family around the world the helping hand they need going into the new year. When you give to Heifer International, you provide families the resources, education, and opportunity to thrive — ensuring they leave hunger and poverty in 2023. [Give today and make a difference for a lifetime.]( [Trending] [Ron DeSantis quits presidential race and endorses Trump]( BY DAN FRIEDMAN   [How the US became the world’s refuge for dirty money]( BY CASEY MICHEL   [Biden challenger Dean Phillips signals he might not leave the race quietly]( BY DAN FRIEDMAN   [In GOP primary bubble, nobody gives a damn about climate change]( BY OLIVER MILMAN Advertisement [House Bookshop Ad]( [Special Feature] [Special Feature]( [The rise of the American oligarchy]( What targeting Russia’s wayward billionaires revealed about our own. BY TIM MURPHY [Fiercely Independent] Support from readers allows Mother Jones to do journalism that doesn't just follow the pack. [Donate]( Did you enjoy this newsletter? Help us out by [forwarding]( it to a friend or sharing it on [Facebook]( and [Twitter](. [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755