How was everyone’s May Day? Did you go out and join one of the many actions across the country? Did you make it seem like you participated by re-posting May Day news items to your Facebook wall? That’s nice, but did you notice that the world economic order had not shifted by the time you got up today? CNN did! TRAGIC FAIL, DEMONSTRATORS: “Some even talked about bringing down capitalism. But the small demonstrations in many American cities and in other cities across the world had little effect.” So that’s it for all you poor slobs! But why didn’t they just hold some direct talks with Barack Obama’s top people, to more directly address their concerns? This is how wealthy political donors get their ideas out there. One of these donors has an excellent idea for Obama, to dry all those acid tears over the nation’s growing income inequality: how about he give one of his famous healing speeches explaining to the slobs that it is not polite to be mad at Wall Street. That’ll do it.
From the New York Times Magazine:
For the next hour, [a group of more than 20] donors relayed to [Obama campaign manager Jim] Messina what their friends had been saying. They felt unfairly demonized for being wealthy. They felt scapegoated for the recession. It was a few weeks into the Occupy Wall Street movement, with mass protests against the 1 percent springing up all around the country, and they blamed the president and his party for the public’s nasty mood. The administration, some suggested, had created a hostile environment for job creators.
Messina politely pushed back. It’s not the president’s fault that Americans are still upset with Wall Street, he told them, and given the public’s mood, the administration’s rhetoric had been notably restrained.
One of the guests raised his hand; he knew how to solve the problem. The president had won plaudits for his speech on race during the last campaign, the guest noted. It was a soaring address that acknowledged white resentment and urged national unity. What if Obama gave a similarly healing speech about class and inequality? What if he urged an end to attacks on the rich? Around the table, some people shook their heads in disbelief.
“Most people in the financial world,” a top Obama donor later told me, “do not understand how most of America feels about them.” But they think they understand how the president’s inner circle feels about them. “This administration has a more contemptuous view of big money and of Wall Street than any administration in 40 years,” the donor said. “And it shows.”
That is a lovely idea, this speech. Just look at how Obama’s speech on race and white resentment ended racism forever, after all. [NYT]
{ 289 comments }
Yes, Obama could give a healing speech about class and inequality. Then Romney will speak and undo everything with his blatant "classism" and piss us all off again.
Maybe Obama could bring these 20+ donors into a room around a fancy table, give a nice little healing speech about the American team, and then pull out a baseball bat and beat one of them to death in front of the others. I know that would make me feel a lot better.
I wouldn't want that nice Barack Obama to have a murder on his conscience.
Maybe he could get Rahm Emmanuel to do it.
Ooooooooo, shades of Robert DeNiro in The Untouchables. Except that Capone's speech was on teamwork and I don't think the rich want to do any teamwork with the poors.
There was also a similar scene in "New Jack City":
Big Crime Boss [played by, possibly, Wesley Snipes]: Now, remember, you guys, we're a team. All for one, and one for all.
Henchman: So how are we going to split up the profits?
*boss stabs henchman*
Henchman: What the fuck! You stabbed me! What about "all for one, and one for all"?
Boss [bored]: I didn't like what you said.
"how about he give one of his famous healing speeches explaining to the slobs that it is not polite to be mad at Wall Street."
Hey rich guys, maybe you haven't been paying attention to current events, or didn't get the memo, but this is a Democratic administration, not Republican.
Hahaha!!
That's right, this Administration's role is to pretend to be mad at Wall Street.
Obama can't give a speech like that unless his boss, Jamie Dimon, gives the o.k.
~
Moreover, wealth is not a virtue to be praised. Accomplishment certainly is worthy of praise, in some cases, and I would not begrudge Obama praising the accomplishments of some people. However, he SHOULD NOT give a speech saying rich people deserve a break for being rich. Those people, rich, poor, and otherwise, who give back to their communities should be praised for their work, but there must never be a presidential address saying, "To get rich is glorious."
Or, greed is good.
Americans feel about the wealthy the same way they feel about rude tourists. They hate you but they wish they could be you.
Good grief why is it the people with the absolute least grounds for complaint are such fucking WATBs?
Pardon my ignorance, but what's a WATB? All I can come up with is Whiny-Ass Turd Baby.
Works for me – I was wondering the same thing.
White Asshole That Bitches?s
today we are all WATB
I'm no linguist, but I understand that it's a Whiny-Ass Titty Baby.
But I thought you were cunning?!
That's the one!
Urban Dictionary has some fun ideas:
Whiny Ass Titty-Baby
We Are The Brits
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=WA…
The second pretty much does not apply, the first one is closer, I like yours better, but I think Geminisunmars' is the winner.
Close, but Chichikovovich has it.
Barry should give them all cake and short rides in tumbrels to
Madame DefargeZuccotti Park.They can spend a night on the marge of lake Defarge.
where I cremated Sam McGee.
"It’s fine in here, but I greatly fear you’ll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Wall Stree', down in NYC, it’s the first time I’ve been warm.”
Cheer up, oligarchs, it'll be warm in Hell.
Agree … for values of "Zuccotti Park" that = "Darfur."
"What if he urged an end to attacks on the rich?"
=
"What if he just said Mitt Rmoney should be preznit?"
And he could give that speech at the Oligarchs & Plutocrats Club.
When the rich stop attacking us, maybe we'll consider.
They'll stop attacking you just as soon as you agree to put on the shiny new leg shackles they bought 'specially for you.
How about a speech entitled, "Rich People Are Great…At Collecting Money!"
"Around the table, some people shook their heads in disbelief. The rest, instead, continued eating their pan-seared whale steaks and speaking to their brokers about child-slave futures."
Sometimes, I upfist comments while at work and then upfist them again when I get home because they are awesome. This is one of those times.
Great idea. The speech should remind everyone that Wal-Mart is this lost nation's #1 employer, and the minimum wage is $7.50 an hour. Now THAT'S contemptuous.
Aa, this is just another pissant setup from these dirtmoney bags – act like it's his fault people hate them, and label him anti-capitalist….send them all down to Florida for the Republican Convention and light that firecracker….
It could be a really short speech: Poor people… stop… being jealous… of rich people.
I added dramatic pauses like the POTUS.
Needsmoar….SHATner
Or Christopher. Walken.
COWBELL LIBEL!
William Shatner, Christopher Walken, and Adam West should have a monotone-off.
But the poor people didn't hear him because they were busy gathering up shopping carts in the Walmart parking lot. Except the ones who saw it on FOX News while they were sitting in the ER waiting room for twelve hours trying to get sutures on their kid's head wound.
I thought you were waiting for the teleprompter to load.
When do we vote? Soon?
I haven't been itching to vote this badly in a very long time. I wish I could vote Chicago-deep-dish-style, even: early and often.
Da Polls!
Not soon enough.
How about this deal? You stop being greedy assholes and we'll stop "unfairly" demonizing you.
As much as I like to pretend otherwise, Obama isn't Jesus. He can't make you rich people see why us slobs are mad if you insist on being blind to it.
Somehow I doubt Jesus would be giving speeches on the theme of leave the rich aloooooooooooooone, either.
I remember when Obama told the banksters, "I'm the only thing standing between you and the pitchforks." Think I'll break out my old copy of a "Tale of Two Cities" to get in the mood for OWS.
Seriously. If I didn't have a smoove black preznit, I would've murdered a half dozen of those mutherfuckers myself by now.
What's it gonna take, assholes? Clock is ticking.
“This administration has a more contemptuous view of big money and of Wall Street than any administration in 40 years,” the donor said. “And it shows.”
Yes, all $780 billion ways…
According to Frontlines numbers last night, the Fed actually loaned them 7.7 trillion.
Yes, but they weren't *smiling* when they did it.
Smell the glove.
It's YOU! Hurrah!
Hi Z!!!!
At least Andrew Carnegie bought the poorz libraries. Today's plutocrats are doing their level best to dismantle the education system, save the Ivy League universities they endow so their children will have somewhere to go to school. And we should praise them for it?
And we should praise them for it?
And we should braze them for it!
/ fixed, put a little something on the bar bee…
Keep them, sick,.stupid and scared is the Wall Street mantra for the masses.
Seriously–our public universities are dying by 10 million cuts so that they can keep their tax cuts and/or get even more. And I'll bet these are the same people who complain that they can't get good employees because of a lack of education.
Assholes.
BILL GATES LIBEL!!!!
Seriously, dude is doing good work. http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx
I dunno. Rich guys mostly benefited from the last 20 years' wage increases. Cut our jobs and moved them to 3rd world shit holes. Fucked us over by pumping up an overheated housing market with loans that guaranteed our kids and grandkids indentured slavery to pay it off. Watched the housing market implode and the world credit markets seize up because you fucks wanted 8% return not 6%. Eat up our pensions (through mismanagement, stupidity or by sucking up money through selling out your excessive stock options–seriously, that's where the CEO fucks dip into PROLES pension money which is why so many pension plans are under funded) and then fuck us over by trying to kill any sort of revenue increases for gubbiment (ie raise taxes.)
Yeah, we 99% dumbshits just might have some reason to hate you 1%er mutherfuckers.
ETA: We don't hate that you made money, assholes. We hate that you ruined many of us in the process of doing it and without building something worthwhile.
It's not the ladder climbing that we hate. It's that part where you kick over everybody else's ladder that we hate.
Fuck that. I hate the ladder climbing too.
I hate the LADDER itself.
I'd probably hate it less if they hadn't nailed my feet to the floor.
Sorry, but I just can't fault the desire to improve. Being annoyed at things gives us the impetus to solve problems, annoying as it is. However, far too many MBA's view the climb not so much as an exercise in climbing faster, period, but see a way to cheat by making other seekers of progress proceed more slowly. Another analogy to use would be "How do you outrun a lion? Trip the other guy running." That's evil.
I see what you're saying, bom, but it depends what you mean by "improve". If you want to send your kids to college, or own you own home, have at it. But ladder climbing for the purpose of accumulating money, or supporting an environmentally unsustainable lifestyle at the expense of people in the third world, that I take issue with.
Bravo, Manchu, Bravo.
As succinct a summary as I've read. Huzzah!
Hey Rich Fucks, if you feel bad about being called on your bullshit, and your fucking up the country, just go shopping. The POTUS is not a black maid whose job is to tell you how kind, smart and important you is.
And your succinct summary ain't so bad either!
Thank you, M'Lady!
You mean (GASP!) He's NOT The Magic KneeGrow?
(reaches for smelling salts, faints)
Although if he made them a shit pie, and they ate it, I'd just laugh and laugh.
Since I'm a vegetarian, I'm morally opposed to eating the rich. However, I don't have the same qualms about just cooking them and then throwing them away.
You could also just Beat the Rich.
I think that's how I'm going to make a million: I'm going to start churning out "Beat The Rich" rods and selling them at county fairs.
just Beat the Rich
The way they've become confused as to who stands on which side of the oppression machine — I think they've just handed you your very own Mixmaster® for extra thorough beating efficiency.
Can I at least have a femur for my dog?
Sure, why not — but the bones in the forearm, being thinner, are easier to split open to get at the marrow.
Dude, if you want marrow in a simian biped, the femur is where it's at. You can also use it as a sweet ass club! Did you not watch 2001?
Throw them my way, please. I have some outstanding recipes.
A light, dry red for deglazing the pans and making the sauces, I should think. Or a medium-bodied rose, maybe.
There's some nice Napa Chiantis these days.
And we can't forget the Fava beans.
Poor little risk takers and jerb creators….you prolly ought to count yourselves lucky that the 99% haven't decided to rush you enmasse and take your monies and your lives. That's kinda what ol' Stevie King might be stone cold hinting at.
I like that part that Stephen King said about the rick fuks prefer dipping their dicks in lighter fluid, torching it and dancing to Disco Inferno than paying taxes. I would pay to see that.
Money is a consensus of peace between a job creator and a job provider. Ask any stripper.
"Short-sighted, gentlemen. Very short-sighted. If this situation isn’t fairly addressed, last year’s protests will just be the beginning. Scrooge changed his tune after the ghosts visited him. Marie Antoinette, on the other hand, lost her head."
–Stephen King
The Rich better be good to us Poors. Where the fuck do they think they are going to buy their replacement parts?
That brings to mind a yiddish (IIRC) proverb — "If the rich could pay people to die for them, the poor could make a wonderful living."
How much ice does the typical Mexican bathtub hold and how do you write "Go to a hospital" in Spanish?
They'll eventually just start cloning each other. Eventually, the process will go horribly wrong, but until then, we will eventually be replaced.
Two questions: where will this speech be and can I bring my pitchfork?
Well, didn't a previous Wonkette post say they wanted everybody to be packin'.
Pitchforks only allowed if accompanied by a competent torch.
Needz moar tax cuts!
Capital idea!
Ooooh! Ooooh! *raises hand and waves it frantically* I know exactly what kind of healing words Barry should say. Shit, I'll even write the damn speech for him.
"Dear plutocratic assholes. On behalf of all working Americans, eat a super-sized platter of deep-fried rat dicks, you motherfuckers. And don't you ever presume to tell me how to do my job, or I'll regulate you bastards back to the Stone Age. Thank you, and God Bless America."
*wild applause*
Yeah, what Radiotherapy said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M1c7itPy3Y
I found that amazingly easy to masturbate to.
That sounds really good in Obama's voice in my head.
I have no idea why a wage earner subject to a top tax rate of %35 would be pissed off at a billionaire investment banker who pays at most %15.
Hellooo, they are not the rich. They are job creators, or "successful people."
"What if Obama gave a similarly healing speech about class and inequality? What if he urged an end to attacks on the rich?"
Yes. Indeed. And , oh, maybe, what if you JOINED THE FUCKING HUMAN RACE, RICHY RICH? What if you evolved into a compassionate human being? What if you realized that all those "things" scurrying around you to make your lunch an enjoyable experience were sentient persons with feelings and needs and dreams? What if, what if? What if you understood that "what if" thoughts are a privilege you fuckwad. You earn them with your life's karma quotient. And you, my undeserving insignificant nanoturd, have a glaringly negative balance.
What if my ass. The unmitigated GALL.
*points to OldWhiteLies with thumb*
Who's the new kid?
I like the cut of his jib.
And the personal description, too.
He says that like it was a bad thing.
This will work if Obama wears a top hat and monocle.
None of these guys were named Romanov by any chance were they?
Am wading through Why Nations Fail and have just gotten to the part about the absolutist Romanovs and the serfs. I have to keep checking the dates and pinching myself to keep from hallucinating that I'm reading the news.
Or maybe I shouldn't be doing vodka and pomegranate juice while reading this chapter.
"I have to keep checking the dates and pinching myself to keep from hallucinating that I'm reading the news."
Grandpa Simpson: Oh, look, they did a historical re-enactment of the Great Depression, with homeless camps and boarded-up buildings.
Tour Guide: No, those are real.
Anyone see the Frontline – Money, Power and Wall Street last night? It sounds like Obama was in a position to demand all types of reforms and safeguards but in an attempt to be a nice guy he let it all slide.
Yes, in order to stabilize things. And then once the economy was on a somewhat stable footing, he said, "Okay, now let's introduce some reforms to make sure this never happens again" and the Wall Street types were all like, "What? I couldn't hear you over the sound of my money."
I watched it twice. Couldn't fucking believe what I was seeing. Also too, fuck Tim Geitner up and down and sideways.
Yeah, but the alternative was Larry Summers. Not saying he was wrong or right, but I DO know that he was a huge part of the problem (an unregulated derivatives market that eventually grew to half of one quadrillion dollars in contracts) that eventually exploded and destroyed the global economy. Since he's been so wrong in the past, it's hard to think we'd be better off with his recommendations over Tim Geithner's.
I can only stomach it small portions (not that it isn't well done, it is). Paulson is particularly odious.
PBS is just completely gay now.
penguin libel!
Great documentary. I imagine most people who followed the crises 2008-2009 knew most or all of the "facts" that it covered but the entire chaotic situation was presented in a very powerful way.
Ohhhh, poor Richie Rich, all butt-hurt because 'mericans by the scores want to eat more than Hobo Beans and work less than three shitty minimum wage jerbs to pay for their mattress under the overpass. Fucker is fortunate that we haven't risen up and….wait, did Kim Kardashian just tweet something???!!!???11?
(Link stolen merrily from HistoriCat in the Stephen King thread)
Perhaps he could just have them meet with Lemony Snicket, who could remind them of a couple things:
People gathering in the streets feeling wronged tend to be loud, as it is difficult to make oneself heard on the other side of an impressive edifice.
It is not always the job of people shouting outside impressive buildings to solve problems. It is often the job of the people inside, who have paper, pens, desks, and an impressive view.
Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
That's not stealing – that's sharing. Thanks Dok!
♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫
I know it's been said
♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫
Many times
♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫ ♪ ♫
Many wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys
FUCK YOU !!!! YOU FUCKING FUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!
You're Breakin' My Heart.
snif, that was beautiful
I love a nice romantic song.
My Heart is Bleeding for them
Hey bass player dude – I fukkin' love that song. Harry Nilsson is an unsung (no pun intended) hero.
Nilson Schmilson!
"♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫
I know it's been said
♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫
Many times
♪ ♫♪ ♫♪ ♫ ♪ ♫
Many wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyys"
Why come you skipped the first line:
"Bankers roasting on an open fire"
Hengh?
Excellent.
K'na!
Lucky Ducky wins again!
Ah yes, these people who grow rich managing our (ok someone else's) retirement accounts? How exactly does that Ponzi scheme work again? Do they print the money, or does someone else lose money?
Well, golly. I'd like to get all these wealthy High-Financiers in one place and give them a little speech myself. I'd even be nice, serve them Cocktails.
I make a dandy Molotov.
And if they don't like Molotov's I'd be willing to serve them some tasty bin Ladens.
Can't we do both?
"Please have some of this delicious and non-poisonous CAKE"
"Why, yes – it does smell just like Almonds!"
They need to STFU and stop whining about being scapegoated. They're lucky no one has suggested rounding up the lot of them and guillotining them in Central Park. Yet.
I've said it.
weejee suggested Zuccotti park in this very thread.
Hold up, we can do that? Long bus ride to NYC for me, but worth it
Road trip! I'll bring snacks.
If you can borrow twenty large from your parents maybe we can set up a concession business? I have $10 to chip in so you only need $19,990.
Yes, Obama should give a speech about how Wall Street is useful, and that we should not envy the rich. And, at the same time, he should announce a tax of 30% on every dollar made above a million, showing that the rich are willing to give back and thank the country for having their assess saved time and time again by the government and the taxpayers.
There, its not that hard, is it?
Sure, Barry, get all bold on behalf of bankers like you have on behalf of, um, help me, anyone?
Women needing contraception?
Shit! I just realized the economic meltdown was MY fault. Sorry, folks.
It's all right, I've been responsible for cancer for the last couple of decades.
I did 9/11.
I gave Murdock the go-ahead.
I created Norovirus.
Hey, It was an office prank, and I was really drunk at the time.
Does that commenter "GherkinCthulhu" or whatever know?!
That's nothing: I recorded Nickelback's first THREE albums.
Hee, hee. I'm 71 years old, I don't even know what that means.
Be glad. Be very glad.
Oddly, I am.
that's all you got? I gave Justin Bieber his first guitar and what I thought was a really funny haircut.
My real name is Yoko.
I introduced the Kardashian family to a TV producer.
In my defense, I thought it would be funny when they were laughed out of the office…
Oh-No!
Thereby disassociating himself from the angry masses? Maybe he should hand out rifles and dynamite while he's at it.
Depressingly true.
I think that guy may have misunderstood Barry's speech on race. He was not trying to get people to love the racists.
Oh THIS!
Thank you. You nailed it like College Barack's Brut sarong!
Here's another idea: we'll end the attacks on the rich when they end the attacks on the poor.
Or he could y'know, prosecute all of these fuckers like he should have while he was bailing their greedy asses out. Since he's so hostile towards them. Frontline on PBS just did 2 hours on this last night.
You people are just racist against corporations.
Perhaps, but you're the real racist for pointing it out.
I got another idea, if money no longer equaled speech, maybe there wouldn't be such a problem?
What if Wall Street bankers gave similarly healing speeches about class and inequality? What if they urged an end to attacks on the poor?
/fixed
+100
Can I have some of what you're smoking? Besides, they couldn't do it with 10 Teleprompters and a cattle prod shoved up their butts.
This subject sure brings out the snark-free hate.
Quite deservedly of course.
"My fellow Americans, income inequality is important. It is the engine which drives our economy. It is the foundation of American democracy and of our way of life. The rich need the poor, but just as importantly, the poor need the rich. And no one understands this better than the richest 1%. Thus, today, I am asking the richest 1% to exchange places with the poorest 1%."
It should happen.
I despair at the notion that it is all but impossible to become really wealthy without a massive, obnoxious ego that inevitably turns you into an asshole.
"What if Wall Street bankers gave similarly healing speeches about class and inequality?"
Shut Up, Shut Up! BLOODY PEASANT!
" They felt unfairly demonized for being wealthy. "
Me too. Well, not for being wealthy, but I could use a healing speech all the same. Maybe something with a little hope and change, just for old times sake.
Nobody gets demonized for being wealthy. People get demonized for being fucking dicks.
Like Foster and Kimberly Gamble, who were born insanely rich (Proctor and Gamble) and wasted every cunt's time with some stupid movie which involves every goddamn stupid conspiracy theory you've ever even heard about. Rothschilds, aliens, you name it.
This is insultingly idiotic, especially with its "whoa, yeah, our money isn't our fault" bullshit without any kind of self-awareness of how anyone else lives and that they're incredibly fucking lucky to spend all their time reading shit on the internet and then making a stupid fucking movie about it.
These people are dicks. However, these people aren't nearly as bad as most of these fucking plutocrat motherfuckers who just maliciously don't give a shit about anyone else and in fact hope for their crushing lives to decrease in value (cf Koch Brothers) because Darwin.
What the fuck is that? I'm afraid to click on anything.
It's a page for a movie created by the idle rich trust fund kids who live in Santa Cruz CA, smoke dope, and waste fucktons of movie money on a set of paranoid fantasies usually the domain of basement-dwellers.
When did our rich turn into such delicate pansies? You know, in the old days – say, back when the top tax rate was nearing 90% – the rich were a much tougher breed.
Say, that suggest something …
Stephen King (scarry story author) just said that rich people (and he's one) would rather dip their dick in lighter fluid, light it on fire and dance to "Disco Inferno" than pay Uncle Sugar (the gummint) one red cent…or words to that effect. What an image, but he is a creative writer.
Now where did I read that????
I think it was on Fucker Carlson's Daily Bawler. Oh wait, no, it was here.
The cross the financial world has to carry is sooooo heavy. That's why they hire minimum wage workers to do it for them!
For some reason I had to look up this passage from Michael Grant's "The Fall of the Roman Empire":
"Indeed, the leading men had the whip-hand in every way. [...] This was part of their deal with the government, the deal which eventually placed most of the official posts at their disposal. And yet Valentinian III, in 450, still found it diplomatically advisable to express sympathy with the alleged hardships of the wealthy class as taxpayers. Even so, however, they did not move into patriotic obedience. On the contrary, they often remained hostile to the Emperor, and estranged from his advisers."
Word to today's wealthy: "Look out, you bastards. There are Visigoths and Vandals on the other side of the mountains, heading this way."
Oh, here here, good speaking-man! Could you hop onto your little soapbox thing and amaze the rabble into believing that us richies are the most excellent of all? There's a good President. We'll put in a good word for you at the country club, rest assured!
Being the President must rule SO HARD for ANY human being to not only want this job in the first place, but to work so hard for it a second time. PresO is pretty damn hot still, but compared to 3 yrs ago, he looks rough – I mean what is the number of years each President year equals? Like you age 10yrs for every year of being Pres? Crazy. I can't imagine having to listen to self important robber barrons like this asshole and NOT coming out haggard. I just don't understand wanting to do it AGAIN. What's the draw when you see that even when you play nice and give in and bailout these horrible criminals instead of arresting the lot of them – you STILL get shit all over and lied on JUST to perpetuate their personal desire for MORE gain – I just can't imagine wanting to continue on for 4 more minutes, much less 4 more years.
Poor bastard has to
- listen to people who are intellectual guppies compared to him go on FOX and say he's a socialist
- listen to attacks on his wife and daughters
- deal with all the shitty racism etc
- and wonder why fucktons of broke-ass dipfucks are going to vote against him even though he's trying to improve their lives
AND he has to do what must be a pretty damn stressful job. Dude has to really believe in what he's doing.
Haven't you heard? It's all about his overwhelming, pathological Narcissism! You are not a Wingnut Comment Shocktrooper on the Internets if you don't mention this in every comment!
It's as if eight years of that smirking, Patrician fuck (who really did think he deserved to be President by birthright) never happened.
Mittens hasn't won yet. Wait, what?
I've been thinking something very similar. I think more Americans than ever before recognized that things wouldn't be the same after 2008. It almost seems like whether people openly admit it or not, that it feels like the government is strying to wind down and unravel society as best they can instead of letting it fall bodily to the bottom. It feels like a managed decline.
The president now knows that the Congress is a dead-zone. He seemed to believe early on he could somehow unstick it — and in my opinion wasted too much time in trying to do that — but he painfully became aware that the machine was broken beyond repair, even when he had his own party in the thing. I just wonder how much longer this goes on? Seems to me that we've decided that the federal government can seize up and die, but the states are now starting to wither, even the "successful" ones. Once those are gone, society gets scary(ier).
It is not too late to swear fealty to Me! I have control of a Cabela's, and a Wal-Mart Distribution Center, so my loyalists can hold out indefinitely!
Hell, I'm about ready to dig a moat on our southern border and just decalre Michigan's indpendence, and pray that Canada swoops in, renames us Ontario, Jr., and calls it a day.
Obama saved capitalism, rescued the auto industry, and didn't prosecute the sociopaths behind this whole mess. These richer than they were before the crash assholes ought to be licking the Kenyan Socialist's boots.
One of the most destructive myths in the American psyche is also, unfortunately, one of the most deep-rooted especially among the right: the myth that we all get what we deserve, and deserve what we get – that the rich all deserve to be rich and the poor all deserve to be poor.
This is then drives the assumption that if you are rich, you must be a superior person, and if poor, a feckless loser (except me – the sole exception to the deserving poor is meeeeeee because I'm gonna strike it rich any moment now you'll see).
So, no matter what part we can see this administration's policies have played in securing the wealth of the rich, they'll always believe that's irrelevant and they're rich because they deserve to be. Once you understand this, it becomes easy to see why they're all butthurt that we're not swooning at their feet.
I read in Thomas Frank's intro to his book "Pity the billionaire" that the difference between this depression and the ones preceding it is a lack of pulling-together, and empathy, and sympathy. This time around, if people are worried about "the poor" at all, they're only worried that the poor people might escape being punished for being losers.
Not that many years ago I was employed in a business that dealt with investment bankers and their poorer cousins, securities lawyers. Some of them were one percenters–the Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley people especially.
One thing I realized is that every one of them thought he (occasionally she) not only earned but deserved their outsized compensation. Another is that they didn't care what anyone other than the boss thought. The boss decided how the bonus money was divided up.
I've worked for shitbags like this in more than one job. They really do think they're better than the rest of us.
I spent my May Day making May Day baskets and drawing pictures of Karl Marx with my grandsons. One of my little rascals wanted Trotski's picture on a flower he made.
Cute, cripes
What do you mean we can't buy respect? Just how much does that shit cost anyway?
Yeah, I certainly hope that's true. And fuck you out of touch self-important windbags for being you.
It's not exactly a high bar, is it?
I think a single instance of questioning for a moment whether those guys are, in fact, truly Gods would probably qualify.
I got your speech right here:
Jump, you fucks.
Rich Americans are faced with nearly identical challenges as Black Americans.
Isn't there an organization named the National Association for the Advancement of Rich People?
Yes. Congress.
Bazinga!
National Association for Monied Bastards Laughing Animatedly
they saw the acronym might be unfortunate and still didn't care
Why just yesterday I saw a Plutocrat arrested on his own front porch (of his fourth mansion) while the driver removed his many Louis Vuitton suitcases from the trunk, because the butler was a little delayed coming to open the door on account of the car elevator being a little slow coming up from the sub-subbasement and heaven forfend that he have to perform the manual labor of operating a door handle himself.
It's OK though, he and the cop worked it out over a Dom Perignon '75 and some beluga caviar.
Obama's response: "Hey Guys, why don't you get one of your own to make the case for you? I hear your boy Romney still wants to be President. Only a man who has lived it can make people feel the healing." (The Plutocrats leave and Obama turns to his aids.) "Hahahahahaha!!!"
This administration has a more contemptuous view of big money and of Wall Street than any administration in 40 years,the donor said. And it shows.
Maybe that's because with the arrogance they've shown in recent years (for example in continuing to demand huge bonuses after crashing the economy and getting bailed out to the tune of trillions) big money and Wall Street are behaving even more contemptibly than they did in the 40 years prior to the current administration.
He sort of has a point; it must be tough being rich and stupid enough to buy a hilariously overpriced blouse with a weird picture of an eagle/trout on it.
I read she wore the matching pants too. If you think the nipple eating eagle shirt is bad- the whole outfit makes sure you know the "designer" was playing a big joke on rich people
Shorter pigs: The rabble should be seen, not heard. Scratch that, we don't even want to see them.
This makes it really hard for me to continue to argue that the two party's establishments aren't the same thing. That said, I'm glad that we're making them all a bit nervous. They don't need to worry about a race war; what they need to be worried about is that the side being ground down in the "class war" may actually start defending themselves, for once.
Good (if that actually happened to be true). These fuckers don't know how good they have it. They don't know or refuse to accept that Obama is the only thing between them and us. When the president calls his donors to a conference, and then beheads the motherfuckers on the White House lawn…then they can bitch and moan about "unfairness."
With Skrullfrucking?
Let's call it Skullfracking and claim tax credits.
Although there might be a few sperm whales lining up if that's grandfathered in.
Yes, iburl, all the skullfracking a body could want. Surely, there will be enough heads to go around. A guillotine in every driveway, and a skull in every pot!
Instead of tumbrels and the guillotine, how about ATVs hauling manure carts, depositing the One Percenter prisoners at Zuccotti Park [tip o' the hat to weejee].
Then, enlist a squadron of gun-totin' teabaggers to encircle the crowd of prisoners in order to "protect" them from the angry mob of art students. Followed by a second outer ring of police.
I figure it would take two gunshots at most to start a ring of crossfire that completely wipes out those in the center of the circle.
A circular firing squad–how totally 1%.
Demonized? meh. Unfairly? NO. Suck it up wimps, you rule the world!
This is why American won't have nice things. Classless, ungrateful, clueless, selfish, unhuman bastards, the lot of them.
Hey – wait a minute. I'm grateful.
Should have been more clear. I was talking about our "job-creating" "betters."
He missed his chance. Back during the BP oil spill he could have given a speech beginning, "The United States Government is taking possession of all BP assets in the United States…" and gone from there.
It's May?
Shit…..
Obama has pissed off Wall Street. Not for prosecuting their crimes. Not for dissolving their criminal enterprises. For refusing to hold press conferences to ask the 99% to STFU.
Sometimes I wish Newt Gingrich were a magical marshmallow man who could, by the sheer force of his hyper-fantastic scare-mongering, actually make it true that Obama would transform into an Anti-Capitalist Radical Progressive in his 2nd term.
But, alas, Newt is a non-magical marshmallow man. The End.
Bobby Hill: Is there an organization to help ladies with big boobies?
Peggy Hill: They don't need any more help.
"What if Obama gave a similarly healing speech about class and inequality? What if he urged an end to attacks on the rich?"
The people who are still butt-hurt that he won, *for reasons that have nothing to do with racism*, would label THAT socialism, too.
"They felt unfairly demonized for being wealthy."
And by "unfairly", they mean "fairly".
“This administration has a more contemptuous view of big money and of Wall Street than any administration in 40 years,”
Just a crazy wild-ass guess with nothing to back it up, here, but maybe that's because the gap between the very poor and the very rich is greater than it's been in 40 years.
Actually Obama has spoken to the fat cats before. I guess they didn't want to hear what he had to say. From Winner-Take-All Politics by Hacker & Pierson — which I cannot recommend enough to all free thinkers and my Wonketeer friends. Obama, for all his faults, knows what the deal is. From a campaign address march 27, 2008, entitled "Renewing the American Economy." And in front of these same Wall Street capitalist pig-dogs:
We've lost some of that sense of shared prosperity. Now, this loss has not happened by accident. It's because of decisions made in board-rooms, on trading floors and in Washington. Under Republican and Democratic administrations, we've failed to guard against practices that all to often rewarded financial manipulation instead of productivity and sound business practice. We let the special interests put their thumbs on the economic scales….
The American economy does not stand still and neither should the rules that govern it…Unfortunately, instead of establishing a twenty-first century regulatory framework, we simply dismantled the old one, aided by a legal but corrupt bargain in which campaign money all too often shaped policy and watered down oversight. In doing so we encouraged a winner-take-all, anything goes environment that helped foster devastating dislocations in our economy.
(My emphasis.)
Fuck these paranoid, greedy, babies.
That looks excellent and I've just ordered it from Amazon. Thank you.
In return, may I recommend Ali Soufan's book "The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al-Qaeda". He struck me on the Daily Show as a decent chap and the book is very very impressive indeed.
Thanks Fukui; I know you'll enjoy Winner-Take-All. The best political science book I think I've ever read. And will probably re-read. Just put in my order for Ali Soufan's book…but I thought .you did 9/11?
See if you can spot my Nation of Islam name!
Seriously, Soufan's book is excellent. Trained FBI interrogators getting results and being taken off "enemy combatant" interviews in favour of insane pseudoscientific bullshit psychological torture. Thanks GWB.
A little longer rant: Stress positions and so on worked when the KGB did it in Dzerzhinsky Square because those fuckers knew what they were doing. This was torture and it was, worse, amateur hour.
Solzhenitsyn said that sleep deprivation was the worst torture because a person loses their individuated sense of self. Bush/Cheney = war crimes.
Hold requested at local lie-berry.
So, folks, looks like we blew your 401k's on chinchilla-farm futures, & wow, lucky us – we got your school board to invest next year's budget on those babies too (which means DOUBLE our sales commission bonus! YESSSS!)… also it seems we kind of robosigned away your mortgage … oh yeah, plus as of June 1st we're going to be outsourcing all your jobs to New Delhi. Fiduciary responsibility is a bitch sometimes, you feelin' me?
Hey! What the – ?
WHY SO FURIOUS???
WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE STOCK HOLDERS????
(unless it's your 401k, in which case – har har)
"For the next hour, [a group of more than 20] donors relayed to [Obama campaign manager Jim] Messina what their friends had been saying."
Locked in a room for an entire hour, while 20 of those rich, lazy, entitled fucks whined about not being popular enough with their victims? I bet he's damn sorry he EVER split up with Kenny Loggins.
"They felt scapegoated for the recession."
Why, they could hardly stifle their sobs long enough to ass-rape us.
*GASP*
Given how most of the folks on the wealthiest lists got there by being born, I am not sure what accomplishment of theirs I am supposed to be all impressed about.
The "Lucky Sperm Club."
Professor Frank (an economist) at Cornell thinks that most people who are wealthy from poor beginnings get there through luck.
As I've always argued, there is no huge prize for hard work, and the stats agree.
From his wiki page:
In his "The Winner-Take-All Society", he discusses the contemporary trend toward concentration of wealth. He argues that more and more of the current economy and other institutions are moving toward a state where very few winners take very much, while the rest are left with little. He attributes this, in part, to the modern structure of markets and technology.
Further, from a fucking FOX interview reported in the WSJ
In a study by PNC Wealth Management of 1,500 Americans with $500,000 or more in investible assets, 37% of self-made wealthy agreed that “the money I have made so far has come from being at the right place at the right time.”
37% admit it. These are the self-made.
I have so much more of this stuff because I care about it, but I won't bore you fine people any more.
My mom told me I should try to be born to rich people next time(pretty sure she was being sarcastic)
WORSE. THAN. HITLER.
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?
My buds on my polo team.
I … I had no idea…
I was the one who introduced Kim Kardashian to the glorious game of basketball.
So many commenters just told me to go fuck myself, I guess I will go and do that, while my polo ponies watch in abject horror. But, really, rich people are just like everyone else. The only difference is they eat tiny vegetables. As Truman Capote observed in 1985, “… rich people serve such marvelous vegetables. Delicious little tiny vegetables. Little fresh-born things, scarcely out of the earth. Little baby corn, little baby peas, little lambs that have been ripped out of their mothers’ wombs. That’s the real difference. All of their vegetables are so incredibly fresh and unborn."
FETUS LIBEL!
Texas and California, them's mah roots too, you no-count commentin' sumbitch! I have half a mind to take you out behind the barn and jus' deal with you. But, bein' all Ivy League and all, I'll jus' challenge you to a game of court tennis at the NY Athletic Club. On acid. Nekkid.
Ivy League – you pauvre, pauvre parvenu.
Eat your heart out, state college boy!
So, student loans. 6.8% from 3.4%, eh? Let's have an argument in Congress about it.
But wait! I just had a look on B of A about loans. For a second-hand auto, without logging in, I see the rate is about 3.2%. For a boat over 150K the rate is 4.25%. A fucking boat.
Now, I understand these are (depreciating) asset-backed loans, but surely education is a far bigger asset than some motorcruiser? And it appreciates?
Fuck congress. "Slush fund" my arse – Luntz strikes again. Just fucking stop these loan rates going up, and preferably lower them.
Honestly, fuck Republicans. Wait, let me Luntz that: Eject the education destroyers.
Luntz needs to motor boat Ann Rmoney…for the lulz.
The other fucked up thing about these petty battles is that none of these fuckers, or their media/propaganda outlets is talking about the expiration of the bush/obama tax cuts. Post-election it is going to be a firestorm. ZOMG, families making $50 G are going to have their taxes raised $1 G! I say good, I'm for shared prosperity and shared sacrifice. because a 3-4% marginal tax restoration on the job creators is what is infinitely more important. They will fight tooth, luntz, grover and nail to prevent it.
The jiggly fat-sweat dripping down on the jerb creators doesn't work.
I see Ann Rmoney ordering Luntz to clean her Cadillacs and come up with a focus-grouped term for it – perhaps "social mobility cleansing" or something.
No, "cleansing" has overtones.
"job motion easment". Easement sounds elitist and too confusing.
"soap-job economy". Perfect. It's got innuendo, it's got jerbs, it's got the economy.
How about "American Maids?"
A good friend of mine, a lawyer, total lib, we share books, friend of alan grayson, studies language and linguistic performance to help his courtroom skills, and he said he read and very much liked luntz-fucks book. Put it this way, that is one book we didn't share. I won't even look it up at this late hour.
I have an awful lot of respect for Luntz as well. Your friend must use linguistic, hmm, streams to flow people towards a seemingly inevitable goal. That's good lawyering, right?
Luntz I do respect. I disagree with the cunt in that he always uses his talents for what I consider "evil", but it works. The bloody TV channels here in CA call the inheritance tax the "death tax" now, and that's Luntz.
It's not neurolinguistic programming, which I find a bit "woo", but there're definite aspects of it in being able to manipulate the, um, lesser-mentally-adept in what he does.
The other fucked up thing about these petty battles is that none of these fuckers, or their media/propaganda outlets is talking about the expiration of the bush/obama tax cuts. Post-election it is going to be a firestorm. ZOMG, families making $50 G are going to have their taxes raised $1 G! I say good, I'm for shared prosperity and shared sacrifice. because a 3-4% marginal tax restoration on the job creators is what is infinitely more important. They will fight tooth, luntz, grover and nail to prevent it.
You added this, and would that I could upfist you again.
I'm not sure on families making 50K can pay more in this economic situation, but 250K plus, or even 100K plus, can take the fucking pain of a little more fed tax.
Shared sacrifice is part of being American. American – we live here. This is where opportunity is (or not, but let's leave that).
The thing that pisses me off the most is the motherfuckers make no distinction between actual corporate income and personal income. This whole "job creators" thing is bullshit; job creation money comes from pre-tax corporate gross profit. Fuck, the "job creators" get paid from pre-tax gross. Then you pay corporation tax on real, company profits*.
Personal tax is utterly, utterly fucking disassociated with job creation and fuck anyone who says otherwise because they are lying to you.
Can you tell this annoys me?
* unless you dividend or whatever. Yes, I know too much about this shit.
Great points. And i agree totally. I remember Sept. '10 and when I first heard that job creator crap. I knew it would stick — is it a Luntzism? Because it could be. It was concurrent with Layne calling Bammer morally weak, or something. Likewise I called the Bush/Obama tax cuts would be extended, three months ahead of time. Same shit here, but I'm calling it seven months forward. Of course, it is the primary purpose of the Repubs and the Dino's.
Yeah, "job creators" is Luntz, as is "energy exploration" vs drilling the shit out of unspoiled wilderness, and "death tax" rather than inheritance tax.
It works. It works very well, which is why I respect the man.
The Bush/Obama tax cuts expire in the middle of Hopey's second go (touch wood) and should expire. At least the top brackets. There's no excuse for that shit.
Congress will, of course, shit caltrops at the attempt and it won't make 'em any more popular.
Here's a thing.
Let's say you own an S-corporation and are thus a "jerb creator" with some vague kind of relationship to personal tax rates.
As you very rightly point out, employee compensation comes out of pre-tax gross. The marginal cost to the owner, therefore, of hiring a new employee is reduced by increasing their marginal tax rate.
In other words, if there is any effect of tax rates on jobs, higher taxes = more jobs.
What, and stop motorboating Grover Norquist's ass?
Democrats/liberals aren't going to be able to deal with these and myriad other problems unless they develop a long-term strategy for gaining and holding majorities in the House and Senate. Point fucking blank. Grover Norquist has a strategy; Howard Dean was the last Democrat in power who had a strategy. We're going to re-elect Obama, but Congress is his magical unicorn-horn, and without it, he's just that cute, musky guy who writes deep letters while lounging in his sarong. The only Democrats who are organized are the Mediocre Middle, whose strategy is to make a virtue of surrendering to ("compromising with") Republicans at all times to keep their nominally Democratic seats in shitkicker districts.
"he's just that cute, musky guy who writes deep letters while lounging in his sarong"
Excuse me for just a moment, won't you?
And, uh…
You should probably ignore any sounds you hear for the next hour or so.
"Don't you share this ambivalence yourself, tessiee?"
Obama absolutely should give such a speech, and it should go something like this:
Dear Wall Street fatcats: fuck yo' momma.
"Listen you greedy fucks, corporate profits are at record highs, you assholes don't pay any taxes, you're not creating jerbs, nor investing in shit and you want the NYSE back down to 6,000 again, elect the fucking Republican." "Oh, and fuck off and grow a pair, or buy some". "Assholes".
Something, something, something…in Jesus's name, more tax cuts for Billionaires, amen?
Won't someone think of the millionaires? Won't anyone think of the millionaires?! But, lest we forget, Sarah Palin is the real victim in all of this, and don't you forget it.
The Mayans; they are feeling so close and so present, lately…
*cries on youtube*
LEAVE MITTNEY ALONE!!
Outstanding!
Nasty cut you've got there. Better get some Needle and Thread.
Soylent Green is ME.
Hah . Greatness.
re: F.C. We [here] have a running joke about everybody having played with them at one time.
I'm on Needles and Pins
Ramones. 'Nuff said!
The Chieftains are another band Who Will Sit In With Anybody.
Oh, yeah: The Needle and the Damage Done.
i gave birth to dick cheney
Too diverse!!!!
I considered Neil, but don't wanna mess with the
Darkness
Now thats just unforgivable.
It was actually me at the wheel of the Exxon Valdez. Plus I get bonus points for getting someone else blamed, right?
And my current post at BP is sweeterino! Now y'all get to eat Cajun-style blackened fish that hides the skin ulcers on the fish. You're welcome.
Nice. Still gives me chills when I hear that song.
Too much Diversity, eh?
Just Paint it Black.
Global warming, my bad.
Charlie looks older then than he does now.
(Hugs you mightily)
It sure is, baby. Back in teh world of teh InnerTubes. Tell me what I can do to help.
It's true! There's something weird going on with these guys.
Well, more than one weird thing.
Comments on this entry are closed.