David Rockefeller dynasty + Personal experience of the elite

[suraci]

I'll post this here, and apologies to the mods if it's in the wrong section.

I wonder what personal experience people have that woke them up or made them question, after all books and Internet research is fine but personal experience is more powerful for convincing us that all is not well and as it seems with the world.

For me I had a history lecturer once who was clearly a truther. He concentrated remarkably for main stream education on the Jewish control of the Bolsheviks, and the funding of Trotsky, Lenin etc by the Zionists. He was saying extraordinary things, and we students were almost dumbfounded in surprise. We had vibrant controversial discussions and he was clearly winning the argument. Half way through the course another student enrolled who did not fit the profile. He was guarded and secretive, not willing to socialize and would always walk in late and leave early. He spent a lot of time arguing with the lecturer while the rest of us listened, and clearly had extensive knowledge. He was I believe sent by the elite to challenge and check up on the lecturer. In one of the rare instances when this mystery student spoke about his personal life, I dragged from him that he was in some way involved with the Institute of International Affairs. It meant nothing to me them but now is more relevant. He may of course have been a fantasist, but I don't think so. He was odd somehow and we all felt the same way about him. He never took the exam but disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived. The lecturer was shortly after "let go" from the college and the last I heard was in New Zealand.

Another college lecturer of mine was a former Freemason, and in one lecture he went entirely off subject and spent the whole lesson talking about Janus the two headed god and secret societies who know everything that goes on and manipulate from above. At the end of my time in college his last words to me were a warning about the future course of the world, and what I should do to protect myself and my loved ones. I wasn't into any of this at his time, didn't even believe in secret societies so he was not responding to anything he'd seen in me, he was just exorcising his soul I suspect, compelled to let someone know what he knew.

I've met others over the years who I suspect were involved at higher levels, police officers and the like. What personal experience of the elite or their munchkins have people here had, if any?

[Alulim]

For me, I've always been on the outside looking in to a large extent. Nonetheless, I keep finding more and more that is false in the prevailing consensus reality. One thing that woke me up was a debate I was having with a friend who kept going on about Auschwitz. I decided to show him that Dachau had been the place where it all started.

Being the pedant that I am, I tried to find the definitive proof for my assertions before I presented my case. What I discovered is that everything I had learned as a child about Dachau was wrong. That made me wonder what else had been quietly revised or might be in need of revision.

It just kept getting curiouser and curiouser. Then someone sent me a link to a 9/11 video. Within minutes my phone (DSL) service was interrupted, and stayed that way for two days.

[Dallas]

It's not so much a face to face experience with the elite, but I wrote a story for a tech newsletter (what would now be called a blog, I guess) in 1999 about Echelon and Viisage (facial-recoginition solutions provider), and by the time I had done enough research to write a decent 800 word piece, my whole view of the world and the people running it had changed considerably.

I also grew up about 1/4 mi from the WTC and NY Financial District, so I have had the privilege of being surrounded by security guards, cops, feds, cameras, etc for much of my life... until about 2003, most people that heard my views on surveillance society thought I was just being highstrung and paranoid. It is far more often I find people willing to hear me out of late.

[Alulim]

I also worked on high-level contracts which brought me in direct contact with White House staff, and other high level people. I worked on top level IT infrastructure for the DoD, including the J8 meeting room, GCSS, GCSS, JWID, http://www.army.mil/ako/, NSA SPOCK, DOD PKI, etc.

[TonyGosling]

I met David Rockefeller once in the garden of the Palace of Versailles and he came across to me as rather a kind old Grandad character.
I transcribed the conversation here (click this link).
Of course I got a pic. (a geezer called Chris Bollyn is the photographer in the background)


David Rockefeller (right) and bodyguard James Ford - southern end of Petit Allee Saint-Antoine, Versailles - 17th May 2003
Notice the bodyguard's double barelled shotgun! (actually it's two umberellas, just in case it rains)

Mind you he didn't answer my questions about Bilderberg having press scrutiny. Neither did he seem all that rattled, just a little.

[TonyGosling]

How Rich Is the Rockefeller Family Today?
John D. Rockefeller created a dynasty that benefits his descendants to this day, but are they as rich as he was?
Sean O'Reilly
http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/01/how-rich-is-the-rockefeller-f amily-today.aspx

Sep 1, 2016 at 10:15AM
John D. Rockefeller. Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

The name John D. Rockefeller has long been associated with immense wealth. In his book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell estimated the value of Rockefeller's fortune at its peak, in today's dollars, at $318.3 billion. You read that right: John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, was over three times richer than Bill Gates is today.

The sheer size of his estate has also meant that the Rockefeller family, too, has long been associated with the upper echelons of American society and influence. For over 100 years, perhaps the largest private fortune in world history was passed on from one generation to the next. Which of course raises the question: What is the net worth of the Rockefeller family today?
Beginnings

To get a grasp on the wealth of one of America's wealthiest families, one needs to know where it all began. The Rockefellers' story, as with so many major business successes, has a humble beginning.

It starts in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1850s, where young John D. Rockefeller's family settled after moving from upstate New York, due to the wanderings of John D.'s traveling-salesman father. Young John had little professional schooling, but he did learn accounting, and eventually went into business as a commodities broker (focusing mostly on grains and other crops). He and his partners did quite well, thanks (in part) to the Civil War, which broke out just as Rockefeller was beginning his business career. Eventually, the profits from this venture were used to purchase -- you guessed it -- an oil refinery.

Rockefeller eventually brought his brother, William, as well as chemist Samuel Andrews and businessman Andrew Flagler, into the business. He and his compatriots then proceeded to slowly but surely take over the oil refining business. He wanted to avoid the speculative notion of actually finding the oil -- true businessmen refined the black gold.

Due to Rockefeller's shrewd management, cost-cutting measures, and conservative financial management, he and his Standard Oil proceeded to dominate the oil industry, so much so that Standard Oil attracted the attention of the United States government, which, in 1911, ordered that it be broken up.

This move did little to hurt Rockefeller's fortunes. Having actually retired from day-to-day operations in the late 1890s, he received an equal share in the 34 "Baby Standards" that were created.

So where are these "Baby Standards" today? Standard Oil of Ohio was bought out by BP (NYSE:BP); Standard Oil of California became Chevron (NYSE:CVX); Standard Oil of New York became Mobil; and, that's right, Standard Oil of New Jersey became Exxon. As you have no doubt concluded, the breakup did little to stop the Rockefeller family's influence on the American energy industry. The very idea that ExxonMobil (NYSE:XOM), which boasts a current market capitalization of over $360 billion, was just a piece of the Standard Oil empire is enough to tell the tale.

Ensuring a dynasty

You may know that upon his death, the majority of John D. Rockefeller's wealth went to his only son, John, Jr. But in reality, things are a bit more complicated. In fact, a trust was created, as well as several other entities designed to manage the family money, all to ensure that Rockefeller's descendants continue to live as only Rockefellers can.

The trusts are, to this day, controlled by the male heirs to the fortune, as well as other powerful trustees who dole out annual stipends to the many Rockefeller heirs. Today, much of this wealth is pooled and managed at Rockefeller & Co. (of which David Rockefeller, Jr. is the chairman). But don't be fooled into thinking this is where the buck stops: There are hundreds of trusts and corporations, many of which have JPMorgan Chase as a trustee (unsurprising, as David Rockefeller ran Chase Manhattan Bank for several decades).

Pegging the value of these holdings and trusts is tricky. Making matters even more difficult, it has been estimated that there are over 150 direct descendants of John D. Rockefeller and his brother William. In fact, when the Rockefeller family sought to petition ExxonMobil's current management to make some changes in how it operates beginning in 2004, 73 of 78 adult direct descendants of John D. Rockefeller led the charge.

These direct descendants are almost certainly wealthier than their cousins, as evidenced by the fact that David Rockefeller, the oldest living member of the family, and its founder's grandson, is the only Rockefeller still found on Forbes' list of the 400 richest Americans. Indeed, in his Wall Street Journal piece "Do the Rockefellers Still Matter?," Robert Frank writes, "With more than 150 living blood relatives of John D. Rockefeller Sr., many members of the latest generation of the family -- known as the 'fifth-sixth' generation -- aren't likely to be able to live off their dwindling family trusts, according to people close to the family."
If you know exactly how much you're worth, you're not rich

The sheer number of Rockefeller descendants clearly makes pegging the actual wealth of the family extremely difficult, if not impossible; with it mired in hundreds of trusts and real estate holdings (including, in the past, the World Trade Center and Rockefeller Center), we can merely guess. Forbes, the compiler with the longest record of wealth estimates for America's well-to-do, estimates patriarch David Rockefeller's net worth at $3.1 billion on the latest Forbes 400 list.

From there, for its "America's 25 Richest Families 2016" list, Forbes has to make some guesses about the value of those innumerable trusts that all the younger generations lay claim to. The result? The Rockefellers are worth $11 billion today. This may seem high, especially in light of the above Journal quote, but make no mistake: The Rockefeller family is still a force to be reckoned with.