If the Tea Party did not exist, we would have to invent it. Hey, waidaminute, that's what fucking happened. Fret all you like about a bunch of pasty Midwestern slobs in American-flag underpants overpaying for Goldline coins between ads for the strongest erectile dysfunction herbal remedy this side of true Scandinavian fish oil, these Chinamen are not the issue, man. The difference between tea party yahoos and progressive worriers is the difference between beagles and terriers, and if they just stopped for a moment to sniff each other's asshole, they'd realize that cosmetics aside, they're all just dogs. Poor, abused, unadoptable dogs awaiting the grimly pleasant vet tech and the numbing, pre-euthenasiac sting of the needle. The Tea Party held America hostage during "the debt debate"? No, you fool, you idiot; fucking rich people did it. The Tea Party is just some shit they cooked up to keep you busy, to keep you fuming at each other while they steal your tooth fairy money and grandma's dentures. Every policy that you abhor and mistakenly ascribe to the ersatz conservative revanchism of the so-called tea-party movement is a willful policy of oligarchic centralism with the end goal of extracting every last red cent from every last human being on the earth. You are both the miner and the mine. Strap the gaslight to your forehead, bub, and stick your head right back in where the sun don't shine.
Yea verily, I have returned unto you to put it straight to yinz: there is no tea party; there are no Democrats; there is no America. There is only global capital. There is no keeping American competitive for the future against the Chinese children of the math-science learning gap to win tomorrow today with the power of innovation. There is a single transnational elite whose allegiance is to itself. They would've fucked you on Saturday; they'll fuck you next Wednesday instead. There was no debt crisis. THERE IS NO DEBT CEILING. You are like prisoners in a concentration camp, tearing each other apart over crusts of bread. The guards check their rifles. The kommandant shtups his mistress. The carrion birds circle against the concrete sky.
You must destroy the rich.
56 comments:
A fine return, with a fine return to form.
IOZ is back and foaming at the mouth (and just in time for shark week). exciting.
would you believe that just yesterday i was wistfully flipping through the archives?
I'm saying, I see what you're getting at, Dude, he kept the money.
Welcome back. Yes Stockholm Syndrome did not go away in your absence.
Hooray! The internet is worth the trouble again!
Awesome.
funny, the first time I look at this blog in months and a few hours later you're in the rss feed
Welcome back. But seriously: destroy the rich? What the fuck are you talking about? The rich are not the problem here, Dude. Also, Dude, "destroy" is not the preferred nomenclature. "Pay their fair share", please.
It's not the rich that need destroyed. It's the powerful. Thanks to our wonderful progressivism, the rich and the powerful are more distinct classes than they've ever been, probably in all of history. It used to be that the poor/powerless paid taxes to the rich/powerful. Now the rich pay the taxes. The powerful eat the taxes.
Who are the powerful? Everyone getting a government check. The people that feared Aug 2. The bureaucracy. Organized labor. Organized old people. Organized welfare recipients. And let's throw in the military industrial complex and the state banking system too. They are the problem, not the tea party.
The thing that's different now is that the chumps in this sad game are finally loosely organized. That's what the tea party is: the pathetic half organization of the chumps. Sure, it will get them a little more than they had, or to put it more clearly, it will mean they lose at a slightly slower rate. And your whole "eat the rich" thing seems like it is ever more inevitable, since the tea party will ultimately sell them out. But that won't be a good thing.
Leonard,
How do you separate "rich" from "powerful"? Is there a heretofore undiscovered social mechanism which isolates economic accumulation from political mastery?
Who are the powerful? Everyone getting a government check.
Friend of mine lives in Gloucester, a North Shore town known primarily for its bed and breakfasts and its teen pregnancy scandals. Not much else to the neighborhood. Her husband's worker's comp ran out and she was between jobs with an infant at home, so she realized that, for the first time in her life, she qualified for EBT.
The first time she bought groceries with it, there was some complex process, because it's not as simple as just swiping a debit card despite what the ads on the bus tell you. Line starting to build up behind her. Tears burning in her eyes from embarrassment because, y'know, food stamps, and the checkout cashier's saying, "It's okay, sweetie," because it's the North Shore, she sees this every month, someone whose mill closed or whose plant is laying workers off and who grew up ragging on those welfare moms driving up our taxes, buying Cadillacs on the dole or some shit, and now here she is, just trying to buy the second-least terrible brand of diapers and some frozen OJ concentrate.
Next time I see her I'll congratulate her on joining the ruling class.
Outstanding, IOZ.
My bleacher seat view of the final gutting & rendering of OOOO ESSS AY wouldn't be as good without your commentary on the cutlery and technique.
-- sglover
You do that, Coldheart. However, given the way you describe her, she really isn't. As you tell it, she evinces shame at the idea of accepting welfare. This is, if I may speak frankly, Republican thinking. Outer-party thinking. I bet your friend even believes in fiscal responsibility! A good Democrat knows that it is her God-given right to be supported by "society", according to her need. And she would be no more ashamed of relying on welfare than you or I would be to, say, demand our right to free speech.
Your friend will be off of welfare soon enough. And she'll be back in the taxpaying class, not the taxeaters.
Crow: that "social mechanism" is called "democracy". It is a strange tribal practice of the barbaric Anglo-Saxon tribe.
You separate "rich" and "powerful" by seeing who pays the taxes, and who gets the taxes. It's simple stuff: Who? Whom? Again: the two classes used to be one. The poor and powerless paid the taxes. The rich and powerful took the taxes. These days, the two classes are quite distinct, though there is of course still some overlap.
I really enjoyed this but I don't think it's very nice of you to pick on Joe Nocera like that. He's doing the best he can, don't you know?
Are you suggesting that those who get the taxes (corporations, through spending and contracts, or through outright fire sales of public property, or through leasing) are significantly the powerful but not also the rich, Leonard?
Because all of the taxes "paid" by those corporations are passed onto to citizen-consumers, who also pay directly their tax burdens, but with no one upon whom to shift the costs, no?
Leonard, you're a fucking idiot. Why don't you try looking at real facts & figures sometime, instead of regurgitating tea party bullshit.
OH NO WAIT, you're right, the root of all America's problems is the single mother on WIC--because it couldn't be the rich bastards who run everything.
Follow the money.
W00T! i liked it when you called everyone a fool and an idiot. bunch a fuckin' amateurs.
You separate "rich" and "powerful" by seeing who pays the taxes, and who gets the taxes.
Humoring this as a legit premise: the more money you have, the more options you have to defer taxes. For instance, as a member of the creditor class, I can pull off the "short-term capital losses write off long-term capital gains" trick to reduce my tax burden. If I had enough money sunk into stocks, I could live off this and pay taxes comparable to, if not lower than, someone my age who keeps sinking their money into fripperies like "baby food" and "knee braces."
And that's just one example. And that's just off the top of my head. And I'm not even a professional.
Please identify this mythical "poor little rich girl" in situ, this member of the creditor class who has TOO MUCH MONEY to have any sort of power. Just one example, please. I'd actually prefer it if you used yourself as an example, since if you point to someone richer than you as a "victim," that's sorta the QED on a platter.
I'm really glad Leonard is here. It's good to be reminded that there are Good rich and bad rich people. But the worst people of all are the bad poor. God knows they wouldn't be in that situation if they weren't so fucking lazy.
And you don't have to be a Marxist to recognize that the rich don't get rich by shitting money into their pampers.
Oh thank god. Do you have any idea what its been like taking care of Mr. Fun alone??!!
The return of IOZ is such a glorious morning.
Indeed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Rni9Cwoe6g
Historical allusions aside...still pretty relevant. The Koch Brothers do kind of resemble Charles Laughton.
It didn't happen then, and it won't happen now. But it could...Howard Dean and Anita Hill in 2012
In a building of gold, with riches untold,
lived the families on which the country was founded.
And the merchants of style, with their red velvet smiles,
were there, for they also were hounded.
And the soft middle class crowded in to the last,
for the building was fully surrounded.
And the noise outside was the ringing of revolution.
Sadly they stared and sank in their chairs
and searched for a comforting notion.
And the rich silver walls looked ready to fall
As they shook in doubtful devotion.
The ice cubes would clink as they freshened their drinks,
wet their minds in bitter emotion.
And they talked about the ringing of revolution.
We were hardly aware of the hardships they beared,
for our time was taken with treasure.
Oh, life was a game, and work was a shame,
And pain was prevented by pleasure.
The world, cold and grey, was so far away
In the distance only money could measure.
But their thoughts were broken by the ringing of revolution.
The clouds filled the room in darkening doom
as the crooked smoke rings were rising.
How long will it take, how can we escape
Someone asks, but no one's advising.
And the quivering floor responds to the roar,
In a shake no longer surprising.
As closer and closer comes the ringing of revolution.
Softly they moan, please leave us alone
As back and forth they are pacing.
And they cover their ears and try not to hear
With pillows of silk they're embracing.
And the crackling crowd is laughing out loud,
peeking in at the target they're chasing.
Now trembling inside the ringing of revolution.
With compromise sway we give in half way
When we saw that rebellion was growing.
Now everything's lost as they kneel by the cross
Where the blood of christ is still flowing.
To late for their sorrow they've reached their tomorrow
and reaped the seed they were sowing.
Now harvested by the ringing of revolution.
In tattered tuxedos they faced the new heroes
and crawled about in confusion.
And they sheepishly grinned for their memoroes were dim
of the decades of dark execution.
Hollow hands were raised; they stood there amazed
in the shattering of their illusions.
As the windows were smashed by the ringing of revolution.
Down on our knees we're begging you please,
We're sorry for the way you were driven.
There's no need to taunt just take what you want,
and we'll make amends, if we're living.
But away from the grounds the flames told the town
that only the dead are forgiven.
As they crumbled inside the ringing of revolution.
The CIA Killed Phil Ochs! ( Of course, if they didn't they should have...)
WTF?
Jack, I did not say the two classes were disjoint sets. They overlap, as your example (corporate welfare) shows. Incidentally, you are incorrect in guessing that consumers pay the tax burden of corporations. Economists differ, but my take on it is that they put owners first, workers second, and consumers third.
Nony, if you have some "real facts & figures" that you think are pertinent, post a fucking link or shut the fuck up. And no, the root of America's problems is not "the single mother on WIC" -- that is a symptom, not a cause. You are right about "follow the money", though -- that is exactly what I meant when I said "you separate rich and powerful by seeing who pays the taxes, and who gets the taxes."
Coldheart, you are correct that having more wealth of various forms can be helpful in lowering your tax burden -- but that is in terms of rates, not amount. As I am sure a well-read guy like you is aware, the top percentiles in America pay most of the taxes.
I am not a poor little rich girl, and nobody has too much money to wield (some) power. Money can always buy at least a bit. However, you must actually make the buy. Money on its own is not power, and is a huge target to those with power, unless actively defended.
But you want an example. Consider Microsoft of the nineties to early oughts. Having not figured out the power game, filthy-rich Microsoft was taken to the cleaners by the powers that were. The Justice department determined MS had committed the crime of attempted monopolization (1998), and ordered it broken up (later rescinded). Then the shakedowns started. AOL Time Warner got $750 million (2003). The EU fined MS $613 million (2004), later boosted another 357m (2006). Sun got $1.6 billion (2004). IBM got $775 million (2005). RealNetworks got $761 million (2005). Etc. Rich, but not powerful.
Well, I think MS by now has seen the light and entered the power game. Consider the Gates foundation -- why did Bill found it (1994) and boost its funding dramatically (2000)? Ah yes, the goodness of his heart, right. We can be sure that by now, MS has many of the best lobbyists and lawyers in Washington, DC on its payroll. There will be no further justice department harassment. From now on both money and power will flow via Redmond.
Abonilox, the problems of the poor are, sadly, much worse that you make out. It's not that they are lazy (though many are); it is that they are dependents in a scheme in which their dependence ensures their reliable votes for the inner party. As such, there is strong incentive for all that benefit from the scheme, including the poor themselves, to keep it going as is. We see this, of course, any time those fool Republicans make the slightest noise about reforming any major entitlement.
Good day Monsieur. :)
I'm a bit late to the festivities, but Welcome Back!
Leonard,
The hyphen in citizen-consumers had some significance, which you appear to have overlooked.
I suppose spelling out that the forward shifting is not entirely lateral might have appealed to your economizing sensibilities, but my larger point was that wherever elasticity allows, the owner shifts the burdens of taxes elsewhere.
The larger point holding completely true, the idea that the rich are distinguishable from the powerful, or as Prof. Coldheart elucidates, that the rich are victims of the powerful, is useful to conservatarians invested in the sale of the Compleat Compendium and Record of the New Dolchstoss.
As I am sure a well-read guy like you is aware, the top percentiles in America pay most of the taxes.
... are you equivocating between "pay most of the taxes" and "pays the most in taxes," or is this unforeseen hilarity? Yes, most tax revenue comes from the top quintile. That's because the top quintile has the most income to, wow, can't believe it's come to this.
Consider Microsoft of the nineties to early oughts. Having not figured out the power game, filthy-rich Microsoft was taken to the cleaners by the powers that were.
By welfare queens? By the NAACP? By the "real power" in this country, as you asserted a few comments above?
AOL Time Warner got $750 million (2003). The EU fined MS $613 million (2004), later boosted another 357m (2006). Sun got $1.6 billion (2004). IBM got $775 million (2005). RealNetworks got $761 million (2005).
Ah. So one publicly traded corporation lost a suit filed by a giant bureaucracy, itself staffed by former members of publicly traded corporations, and wrote some checks to other publicly traded corporations. If only there were a way rich people could protect themselves against these outcomes, like maybe holding a broad portfolio of ownership across several publicly traded corporations.
Anyhow, you make a decent argument about the vicissitudes of one corporation - a legal instrument, an entangling alliance of the sort that would make von Bismarck turn pinko - as an example of the fickle nature of power.
But then you cite Bill Gates and undo your whole argument. Microsoft may rise and fall. Bill Gates will never miss a meal in his life. Microsoft is an instrument; Gates and the Microsoft shareholders are people.
P.S. I don't want to imply that bad things don't happen to rich people. Lots of folks living on stock portfolios and trust funds got hosed by Bernie Madoff. (like this guy) This is why Madoff is in jail.
Meanwhile, lots of folks working fifty hours a week to put the kids through school got hosed by Washington Mutual, Bank of America, HSBC, Goldman Sachs, etc. Plot the trajectory of a Goldman Sachs commodities executive from 2006 to 2011. Is he more likely to be in a federal prison or the Treasury Department?
You know who fleeced MS: a giant bureaucracy, aka, the U.S. government. The fleecing was directly in the interests of particular other companies and entities (follow the money). Indirectly, it was in the interests of power generally. An event like that does not go unnoticed; it asserts that USG has the will and the power to take down anyone who doesn't play the game.
You seem to want this thing to hurt rich people generally or you won't admit it as an instance of a "rich but not powerful". I don't see it. Perhaps many of the people losing their share of billions of dollars gained some of it back via ownership of one of the other corps who gained. However, it is practically certain that not all owners of MS owned all those other companies. And no rich man got any of the ~1b taken by the EU.
I don't see how the fact that Bill Gates will ever be anything less than filthy rich has anything to do with this. MS was owned by him, among a wide class of stockholders. When MS lost billions in the game of power, Gates personally lost perhaps tens of millions as his share (I don't know offhard what fraction of MS he owns). So, although I used MS as a shorthand, we agree it is an instrument of a class of people. Corporations are instruments of their owners, their stockholders.
Those rich fucks! This whole fucking thing!
Oh, and welcome back.
Jack, be nice to Leonard. I think he is a new species, a Team Democrat concern troll, who scolds lefties who aren't team democrats, or are thinking of straying. They haven't finished coding his DNA, so there are still some bugs to work out.
IOZ! You've come back to us at a time of great need! I knew it!
awesome guy,
You do realize Leonard is a neocameralist moldbugger, right?
Apologies Leonard if I mischaracterized you. Has anyone called MM a Donk shill before?
The best thing I've seen today is "Who Is IOZ? (5)" boldfaced in my google reader feed.
Methinks ergo has it. IIRC, Leonard is a student of Mencius Mold.
Bonjour.
the return brings a smile to my grumpy face, Monsieur. thank you.
It's about time.
Leonard's got the Robert Reich schtick down cold. Like zero Kelvin cold.
Welcome back mofo, welcome back.
I missed your frothy poetry.
Oh so happy. I kept you in my reader out of fondness and look at that...
All wind and piss like a tanyard cat
Oh, thank jeebus. Our long national nightmare is over. Thanks for coming back.
Holy. Fucking. Shit. You're back!
Thank you.
Thank you.
Leonard, you are one twisted sack of embittered paranoid rapture ready dogshit.
Sweet baby Jesus, Leonard! Even if 'the rich' had a subset that was not 'powerful', they still have the ability to contribute a scant amount of their resources to a cause/politician supporting their interests. This in and of itself outstrips anything the 'middleclass' can drum up. Not to mention the fact they can contribute much more leisure time to their pet-projects.
That same cause/politician was, no doubt, created by those who you say are the distinct 'powerful' entity. But shit rolls down hill, motherfucker.
So why are we arguing about the contours of the peak from our position at the bottom?
Welcome back IOZ!
Of course, while I'm thinking about just-desserting the hated rich from my little cracker cube here, I'm going to hope that the dusky and junior citizens that've been herded away from even this ungratifying perch don't get the same idea. To say nothing of the foreign serfs that have thoughtfully kept me numbed with gadgets and cheap, cheap food....
swoon.
About fucking time! Who gave you permission to leave?
THERE IS STUCCO ON MY DEBT CEILING!
Comebacks.
All glory to you, monsieur. Long may you shriek, rant and bitterly mutter.
IOZ my life has meaning again. Welcome back.
Tax recipients you say? Well, let's have a look:
1. LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION 25,907,821,485
2. THE BOEING COMPANY $13,654,907,338
3. GENERAL DYNAMICS CORPORATION $8,637,016,002
4. RAYTHEON COMPANY $7,988,757,033
5. UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION $4,954,216,569
and so on and fucking so forth
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