dagblog - Comments for "Trump Budget Rewards Rich Shafts Working Poor"

The Growing Red-State

artappraiser — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 17:13:02 +0000

In reply to Trump Budget Rewards Rich Shafts Working Poor

The Growing Red-State Backlash to Donald Trump

Republican governors are pushing back on the White House budget proposal, which would disproportionately harm many G.O.P. voters

By Abigail Tracy @ The Hive @ Vanity Fair, March 22

I did read BotV a long long

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 17:51:05 +0000

In reply to No I haven't read it, thanks,

I did read BotV a long long time ago, but also know that feeling of being around a hugely rich clique that I wasn't born into, so I would never be accepted into (and hugely didn't want to be) and how easy it is to be shunned and discarded or simply say the wrong minor thing and all eyes would roll and the disapproval cycles begin. Somehow Manhattan seemed to have more substance though, more staying power, but I guess staying 200 years or so was good enough. Maybe Poughkeepsie is the future, or someplace even less expected. I used to think of LA as people all hidden in their cars who wouldn't be half as obnoxious if they walked. Guess NY's locked in its highrise apts, and it's only the little people who populate the streets. When Robert Fripp moved to NY in the 70's, he made a promise to himself to always take public transport to keep himself from succumbing to the elitism, the bubble. Not everyone was so foresighted.

No I haven't read it, thanks,

artappraiser — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 16:08:22 +0000

In reply to Though I'm limited in my

No I haven't read it, thanks, I think I will.

Did you know the Waldorf Astoria was sold to the Chinese, the infamous Anbang specifically and therefore the Secret Service would no longer let Obama stay there and UN diplomatic people also have a problem with that? Fear of wiretapping, yessiree.

I said remnants of the class system remain. It is getting smaller and disappearing. Just like Palm Beach high society. Even moviemaker Whit Stillman realized this, he moved on from movies about the preppie Manhattan youngsters in the 90's to more of Eurotrash world. (Wealthy kids are still interesting otherworldy space cadets!) What Manhattan is really becoming is a bunch of pied a terres for foreigners, yes, money laundering basically. And more towers of luxury apts. are being built all the time. May be one of the things that has irked Trump into thinking America is not great anymore, Americans don't own the old Manhattan skyscrapers anymore and don't build the new ones. I can't tell you how many times I have heard someone say "who is going to live in all these expensive condos and apts. they keep building?" The answer is: just occasional transients.

Which makes me think big picture about Trump's attitudes: it is also nouveau riche to believe in a class system that you have to work to get into even though it's disappearing. Everything he thought he knew about America is disappearing.

By the way, I loathe the remnants of upper East Side people, and those who are replacing them, just loathe it and them now. Especially after I was forced to spend more time interacting with them the last three years than I ever had to in the past.They are rich that are different not just from you and me but from other rich all over the country, have a sense of entitlement and small town cliquish behavior like quadruple of any other weathly worlds, like say, Beverly Hills. I once needed to have a key made and went to their locksmith shop of 40 years. The guy was retiring and we had a very long chat about how he loathed the people in the neighborhood, too and couldn't wait until he was outta there. The sense of entitlement is yuge. The isolated quality is well described in "Bonfire of the Vanities", where if you get in trouble you won't find any friendlies, it's all about appearances and is built upon having lots and lots of servants.

Though I'm limited in my

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 19 Mar 2017 12:34:00 +0000

In reply to Is Barron in public

Though I'm limited in my immersion into Tom Wolfe's world (at least the NY side), aside from his light-hearted NY tome and the much more weighty but dated "Recognitions", and some amusing old-school gala at the good ol' Waldorf-Astoria, you may comfortably assume that this was what can be affectionately called "a yoke". And whether one slips into the Upper East Side milieu, I'm sure the denizens thereof recognize cheap faux ripoffs and over-the-top wannabees - 2 consistent trip-ups for the nouveau riche after all these years (one that M. Gaddis addresses obliquely throughout). I do assume you've read this due to your vocation & calling, but if not, it's a treat.

Is Barron in public

artappraiser — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 20:35:54 +0000

In reply to Compare it to the budget for

Is Barron in public

oh heavens no for goodness sake there are still the remnants of a class system here in NYC, and Mr. Trump has always wanted to make clear he climbed it long time ago, Barron goes to a Manhattan prep school and mom, quite skilled at climbing herself, even makes sure he always appears dressed 100% preppie. I suspect that is because, even though it is $45K a year, it's still the lowly Upper West Side and not the Upper East Side or Riverdale, so they hadn't really crossed the final divide to the world of Jackie Auchincloss Kennedy before she went Onassis. Those who don't get this need to revisit "Bonfire of The Vanities." and see my recent comment elsewhere about elsewhere about defining "bourgeois".

Compare it to the budget for

PeraclesPlease — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 19:59:10 +0000

In reply to Annual taxpayer cost of

Compare it to the budget for the New York school system. Is Barron in public, or do they have a voucher school somewhere in Trump Tower?

Annual taxpayer cost of

artappraiser — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 15:20:25 +0000

In reply to Trump Budget Rewards Rich Shafts Working Poor

Annual taxpayer cost of keeping Melania and Barron in NYC vs. Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NEA and Legal Services for Poor:

Source article Center for Economic and Policy Research, Feb. 18,

Paying for Legal Services or Keeping Melania Trump in NYC: Choices for Taxpayers

Congressional Republicans

artappraiser — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 02:33:10 +0000

In reply to Trump Budget Rewards Rich Shafts Working Poor

Congressional Republicans sharply criticize Trump budget

Washington Post, 45 mins. ago

Defense hawks, rural conservatives and even some of Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters in Congress pushed back on the huge potential hike in defense spending as insufficient and decrying some other cuts to federal agencies and programs. Several of his closest allies have said the plan has virtually no chance in Congress.

NPR goes over his foreign

artappraiser — Fri, 17 Mar 2017 02:00:13 +0000

In reply to Trump Budget Rewards Rich Shafts Working Poor

NPR goes over his foreign budget:

Trump Foreign Budget: HIV Prevention Spared, U.N. And Others Lose Big

TRUMP POPULISM means killing

NCD — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 21:24:55 +0000

In reply to I am not surprised to see

TRUMP POPULISM means killing programs that exist to fulfill the health, legal, financial and housing needs of the poor and then using the money saved not to fix the programs, but to give tax cut windfalls to the super rich.