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Christmas Message from America's Rich

by NCD 12/23/2011 - 1:10 pm

Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, Christmas message from the rich, excerpts:

....Home Depot co-founder Bernard Marcus, for instance, is not worried about OWS:“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?”....

...Blackstone Group LP CEO Stephen Schwarzman spoke about lower-income U.S. families who pay no income tax. “You have to have skin in the game,” said Schwarzman, 64. “I’m not saying how much people should do. But we should all be part of the system.”......But it seems to me that if you’re broke enough that you’re not paying any income tax, you’ve got nothing but skin in the game.....The very rich on today’s Wall Street are now so rich that they buy their own social infrastructure. They hire private security, they live on gated mansions on islands and other tax havens, and most notably, they buy their own justice and their own government....

Be sure to tell the next protestor, unemployed or homeless person you meet in the streets to get some 'skin in the game'.  To people like Schwarzman, it's all a game, and gaming the system is how they get rich.

Quotes Taibbi used were from Bloomberg Businessweek 23 December article: Bankers Join Billionaires to Debunk ‘Imbecile’ Attack on Top 1%

Obama may be up against more than many here at Dag believe when you look at the mindset of these folks, an observation by Martin Weiss, a contributor at the NYT:

There are words Republicans avoid like the proverbial plague. 'Common Good','community', 'common interest', even the title of state government in Massachusetts: 'Commonwealth'. To the money power, democracy and common good are anathema....

Merry Christmas to all fellow imbeciles at Dagblog!

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Well first of all there is a reason that people do not call me Rich. ha

Anyway, Merry Christmas from all of us Dicks!

by Richard Day 12/23/2011 - 5:08 pm

You are richly appreciated around here, Dick, Merry Christmas.

by NCD 12/23/2011 - 9:40 pm (re: Richard Day)

I'm not quite sure what it is that you see Obama is up against in their mindset that others here don't see.  In a general election, the "fact" that they avoid such terms as Common Good and Community is a benefit to Obama, given the 50% plus 1 approach.  Most Americans regardless of their political stripes have a positive view of such terms, although they may have different understandings regarding those terms.  As long as Obama keeps to a frame of the Middle Class community, and the common good is that which benefits the Middle Class, he is standing in a good place.  While most voters are definitely driven by self-interest and what benefits their personal pocket book (when looking through the economic prism), they do like to believe they are basically unselfish and good stewards.  Democracy as a buzz word resonates with them, even if in reality they resist policies and approaches that facilitate greater democracy.

by Another Trope 12/23/2011 - 6:06 pm

FYI: your link goes to Krugman's op-ed The Post-Truth Campaign.

by Another Trope 12/23/2011 - 6:07 pm

yeah, the comment on the use of 'common' is somewhere near the most recommended in the comment section, which as of now has 577 comments.

by NCD 12/23/2011 - 9:32 pm (re: Another Trope)

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