THE topic of my article this week is borrowed from a book by investigative journalist, Greg Palast.
The book exposes corporate corruption, global capitalism, environmental destruction, third world exploitation, freedom of speech and political corruption, and the United States presidential election of 2000.
Palast, an American who has written for The Guardian and The Observer of London, and reported for BBC has the uncanny knack of turning up at the wrong place at the right time.
His showcase essay has to do with the 2000 US presidential election in Florida, and how Governor Jeb Bush and his team shamelessly contrived the removal of thousands of voters’ names from the election rolls; voters who were in large measure black (read Democratic voters).
The result was nothing less than placing in the White House Jeb’s brother, George.
This is by now a well-known story, thanks to Palast, who adds a lot of details to it in the book.
What I found most disturbing, albeit not terribly surprising, is that when he approached mainstream media in the US to give the story the play it deserved, their reaction was to call Jeb Bush’s office for confirmation.
Jeb Bush’s office denied it.
And that was good enough for the mainstream media.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the rest of the international financial mafia are a favourite target in the book.
Palast details the onerous conditions imposed upon poor countries by the IMF.
Some of the details he says derive directly from confidential IMF documents that came into his hands. 
The United States presidential election of 2016 is expected to be held on Tuesday, November 8 2016.
Voters in the election will select presidential electors who in turn will elect a new President and Vice-President of the United States. 
As of July 20 2015, a whopping 21 candidates have formally entered the 2016 presidential race.
Still to come is an early August announcement by Republican Jim Gilmore, and a decision by Vice-President Joe Biden on the Democratic side.
The top tier of the Republican party features two Floridians, Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio, whose relationship is evolving from mentor-protégé to rivals.
Bush was governor while Rubio served in the State House and mentored him during his rise to prominence.
Interestingly we have an African-American brother also fighting to nomination on a Republican ticket, Ben Carson.
He is a retired Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon and was the first surgeon to successfully separate conjoined twins joined at the head.
Senator Ted Cruz became the first one character expected to make this race interesting because of his outlandish behaviour, is a real estate developer and a reality TV host.
The man has filed four times for bankruptcy and no one has seen his hairline in years.
On the Democrats side we have Senator Hilary Clinton who has again thrown in her hat after losing to President Barack Obama in 2008.
Senator Lincoln Chafee, a former Republican who in 2002 was the only Republican to vote against the resolution authorising the war in Iraq, an issue he may use against Hilary Clinton, who supported the measure as a senator.
Money in American politics was already an elephant in the room, but ever since a 2010 supreme court ruling allowing unlimited campaign contributions by corporations and unions, money has become the determining factor in US elections.
Moreover, the contributors can remain anonymous.
The organisations that are taking advantage of this new law are known as ‘Super Pacs’.
Even at this early stage of the presidential cycle, their potential for framing the race is clear.
In the whole of 2008, individuals, parties and other groups spent US$168,8 million independently on the presidential election. 
In 2008, election spending doubled compared with 2004. 
Analysts believe the money spent just on television adverts leapt by almost 80 percent in the 2012 election in comparison to the 2008 elections.
In the USA, money is considered speech, and corporations are people, the real people.
The Toms, Harrys and Dirks are losing out and their voices are downed by corporations.
People get a vote; but only once money has decided whom they can vote for and what the agenda should be.
The result is a plutocracy that operates according to the golden rule: That those who have the gold make the rules.
In his book Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America, Princeton professor, Martin Gilens illustrates how the political class does the bidding of the rich.
“Across multiple presidential administrations and a wide range of political conditions, two patterns remain constant,” he writes.
“First, the poor never have as much influence as the middle class and the middle class never has as much influence as the affluent.
“Second, over the last four decades, responsiveness to the affluent has steadily increased, while responsiveness to the middle class and the poor has depended entirely on the existence of (specific) circumstances.”
No wonder why black folk continue to be the ones whose sons, fathers, brothers and uncles are gunned down by police on the streets and no one bothers to call for reforms.
They lack the dollar power.
Less than one percent of Americans contribute 68 percent of all election funding.
These big funders use their influence to lobby for policies and laws that benefit themselves.
In 2014 on the debate of whether there should be stricter laws regulating gun-ownership, Congress received US$240 000 to support gun control and received US$5,6 million from those opposing more gun control.
On the issue to do with restricting food marketed to children in schools, Congress received US$2,2 million to support more restricting and US$51 million to open the floodgates.
Roughly 30 percent of diplomatic posts in Barack Obama’s administration have gone to friends and donors.
In 2014, a segment called ‘Diplomat Buyers Club’, of comedian Jon Stewart’s show indicated that Obama’s pick for ambassadors to Argentina, Iceland and Norway (all donors) had never been to those countries.
There are lots of areas of American society that could do with more money: preschools, infrastructure, mental health clinics, and homeless shelters.