Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s finish the job.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Motown is Joe-Town!

Celebrate the fucking wins.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

The willow is too close to the house.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

People are weird.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

You are here: Home / Quote for the Day

Quote for the Day

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From the shit you can’t make up file:

Dr. Daniel E. Fass, another chairman of the event who lives surrounded by financiers in Greenwich, Conn., said: “The investment community feels very put-upon. They feel there is no reason why they shouldn’t earn $1 million to $200 million a year, and they don’t want to be held responsible for the global financial meltdown.”

Those poor babies.

Reader Interactions

100Comments

  6. 6.

    kid bitzer

    “they don’t want to be held responsible for the global financial meltdown”

    then maybe they shouldn’t have caused the global financial meltdown?

  9. 9.

    Leelee for Obama

    @PeakVT: This is the answer! They’ll feel greatly, unfairly, punished and no one on the angry side gets in trouble!

    Winny, win, win!

  10. 10.

    Jesse Ewiak

    Do these people truly not understand that in any other country in the world they’d be dealing with something between massive government intervention and investigation (most EU) and well…getting put up against the wall? (Many, many other countries.)

  12. 12.

    leinie

    I’ll just quote Taibbi here:

    To those of us who actually live here, however, the news is even worse. We’re in a place we haven’t been since the Depression: Our economy is so completely fucked, the rich are running out of things to steal.

    They feel there is no reason they shouldn’t “earn” that money, and I feel there is no reason they can’t be taxed at 90%, and fuck a bunch of exclusions for capital gains and loopholes and shit.

    Or the pitchfork and tar idea. That’s probably better.

  13. 13.

    Napoleon

    . . . and of course Obama’s response will be to have Geinther call them up and ask what more they can do for them. I am so glad Barney Frank has already thrown some of the most serious reforms under the bus.

  14. 14.

    Leelee for Obama

    @kid bitzer: Yeah, that would have been the smart move, wouldn’t it? Smartest guys on the planet, supposedly, with a innate sense of risk-aversion? Sure, since they knew they’d get bailed out by jobless schlubs with tanking mortgages.

    Much as the Eisenhower tax-rates are the civilized way to go, one longs for a real outbreak of tat, feathers and rails.

  16. 16.

    Shygetz

    I’m joining the call for Eisenhower tax structures. I mean, c’mon, aren’t the Republicans always bitching about wanting to return to the 50’s? Well, here’s their chance.

  18. 18.

    El Cid

    I would very much prefer to not have to work any more, and I would also prefer to be handed several billion dollars untaxable.

    These desires alone make me part of the “producer” class, unlike all you “parasites”.

  21. 21.

    Jack

    Used to be Poe’s Law had a fairly narrow field of application (fundamentalism).

    Now, not so much.

    Poe’s Law:

    Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to create a parody of Fundamentalism that SOMEONE won’t mistake for the real thing.

    http://rationalwiki.com/wiki/Poe%27s_Law

    Perhaps it begs updating, given the competition for inclusion offered by investment bankers, Beckian rant mongers, Laffercurvians, glibertarian economystics and the various McMs (McMegan, Megan McCain, McPalin) fouling up the intellectual commons.

  22. 22.

    El Cid

    @Legalize: What about a guillotine, but instead of a blade, there’s just a humongous, hardened pile of shit which crushes the skull?

  27. 27.

    TR

    Do they *want* us to storm their gated communities with the tar and feathers?

    Because they seem to be begging for it.

  28. 28.

    Patton

    Dear Dr. Fass:

    If you listen closely, you’ll hear the sound of the world’s tiniest violin. It’s playing just for you and your buddies.

    Sincerely,
    Middle-class college student who would be glad to earn $1,000 per year

  30. 30.

    Leelee for Obama

    @TR: Considering the post mcclaren put up the other day, they are likely thinking the law-and-order keepers will be sent in to protect them. Apparently, they didn’t get the memos about cuts at local, state and Federal levels to such S o c i a l i s t programs due to drops in tax revenue and their bailouts. Oh, to be a fly on the wall when that piece of info arrives to their risk-aversion brain center!

  31. 31.

    Ash Can

    Apart from his blatant corruption, this guy just plain doesn’t know enough to come in out of the rain, does he? What the hell did he manage to get a doctorate in, anyway? TV sitcom watching? Or is that title made up, and just for show?

    In all seriousness, I’m sure that there are plenty of people in the financial industry who are decent and law-abiding. And fuckwits like Dr. Fass aren’t doing them any fucking favors whatsoever.

  33. 33.

    Incertus

    @Leelee for Obama: Oh no–they’ll be the only ones left with police protection, and they’ll supplement it with private security companies, and not the mall-cop variety either. It’ll be Escape from New York outside the walls.

  35. 35.

    Catherine F.

    Where do you even begin? I mean, other than with the pitchforks and torches and other fine suggestions up thread. Somebody please tell me this is just a really shitty joke.

  36. 36.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Incertus: Which is why I think the 90% tax rate is the way to go. The chance for the scenario you mention dissipates when there’s taxation of obscene profits. Worst case, they jump off a roof, though not likely, or, they Go Galt!, and good riddance. I’m sure there are some folks out of work who’d be glad to run the financial sector with integrity. With the obscenity factor removed, things might just get to a point where the economy works for most people.

  38. 38.

    The Bearded Blogger

    Graaargh!

    Apart from thoughts of skinning, boiling oil, impalement and that medieval spiky ball thingy, all I can think of is this: moral blindness. Blatant, amazing, moral blindness.

  42. 42.

    kid bitzer

    i’d like to endorse leelee’s suggestion in #14 that we ride them out of town on a rail, covered in tat and feathers.

    i mean, the worst tat we can find. the tattiest stuff around.

    like, costumes from old bonny tyler videos. plus the curtains your mom finally took out of the front room and then moved to the den where she thought no one would see them. those were some tatty-looking rags.

    tat and feathers! to the barricades! or the bat-cave! or the batticades! or something!

  43. 43.

    Keith G

    A problem inherent in living in a place that bills itself as the worlds greatest democracy as that you live among folks who think they deserve the life they are taking from others.

  46. 46.

    Legalize

    I am pretty unlearned in the ways of guillotining mother-fuckers. Whatever method you guys think will be the most painful, humiliating and inefficient sounds pretty good to me.

  47. 47.

    jrg

    As someone who works hard to design and build products for the companies that these tools buy and sell, all I can say is: “F*ck off. I actually produce something. Where’s my million?”

    What value do these people add? All they do is churn and burn.

    My conscience would be cleaner if I told some kid to set his head on fire that it would be if I encouraged him to become a productive member of society.

  48. 48.

    Luthe

    I’ll go for a 90% tax rate. Though maybe just on bonuses and fringe benefits. That’s where the real money is, after all. Or maybe just capital gains.

    I do think an argument could be made for exempting capital gains made over a ten year period. Anything made in a 401k, too. If us peasantry are going to have our fortunes forcibly invested for us, we should get a loophole. One that encourages long-term investment. For that matter, “vested” bonuses might be a good idea, too. Set up a bonus fund that gets paid into for every year of sustained growth, but doesn’t pay out for five or ten years. It’s a way to encourage long-term thinking while still allowing those poor, put-upon CEOs to make the big money that drives their John Galtish mastery of the universe. (that last half was snark).

    I also repeat my idea that proceeds from a tax on the rich should go toward a SBA fund that makes loans to small businesses. The loans only have to be paid back if the business succeeds. It’s the sort of idea that puts the GOP between a tax increase and opposing the free market, while having the side bonus of being basically the same deal the big banks got.

    EDIT: Oh! I had a question. If corporations are “people” why aren’t they taxed like people? And how comes we haven’t closed the stupid “headquarters” tax loophole? Relly, if you have more that one branch on American soil/employ than 50 Americans, you’re a fucking American company, pay up, motherfuckers.

  49. 49.

    The Bearded Blogger

    Theres no bread, let them eat cake
    Theres no end to what theyll take
    Flaunt the fruits of noble birth
    Wash the salt into the earth

    But theyre marching to bastille day la guillotine will claim
    Her bloody prize free the dungeons of the innocent the king
    Will kneel, and let his kingdom rise

    Bloodstained velvet, dirty lace
    Naked fear on every face
    See them bow their heads to die
    As we would bow as they rode by

    And were marching to bastille day la guillotine will claim
    Her bloody prize sing, o choirs of cacophony the king has
    Kneeled, to let his kingdom rise

    Lessons taught but never learned
    All around us anger burns
    Guide the future by the past
    Long ago the mould was cast

    For they marched up to bastille day la guillotine — claimed
    Her bloody prize hear the echoes of the centuries power isnt
    All that money buys

  50. 50.

    ChrisB

    From the Metropolitan Diary in yesterday’s New York Times:

    Dear Diary:

    I was at the Metro-North station in Greenwich after dropping my car off for servicing. As a commuter to Manhattan from Scarsdale, I had to pay the $3 differential on my monthly ticket to Grand Central, but I had only a big bill.

    “Can you handle a 50?” I asked at the ticket booth.

    In a light, not haughty, vein, the clerk answered: “This is Greenwich. That’s chump change.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/19/nyregion/19diary.html?_r=1

  53. 53.

    FormerSwingVoter

    Fuck these guys.

    I am seriously fucking sick of this shit. They destroy the mortgage market with ninja loans and unpayable balloon mortgages. They destroy the largest investment banks in the country (and countless small companies) with naked short sales. They destroy the middle class with top-heavy tax cuts and continued layoffs so that the board members can make millions more on top of their tens of millions from their stock options. They completely screw up the whole point of the bailouts by using the money to place bigger and bigger bets instead of lending to people and businesses like they were supposed to. The make sure that nothing in any of the above changes or becomes illegal, or even require some nominal fine. And then… And then they have the fucking gall to bitch that people are being mean to them by expecting them to make 180 million instead of 200 million.

    Fuck ’em. Burn ’em all. I am sick and fucking tired of these worthless shit-eating parasites getting their way on every fucking thing ever and then having the chutzpah to blame everyone else for complaining while they burn the fucking world. We don’t need to just regulate and tax the shit out of these fuckers – we need to ensure that these assholes go to jail. Forever.

  56. 56.

    Poopyman

    In 1929, the bankers at least had the decency to jump out of windows. Now these assholes are going to make us do the defenestration for them. Assholes.

    I said when this whole thing started to go down that we’d be seeing bankers strung from lightpoles. If this shit keeps up, that could still come about.

    Oh, and as far as risk mitigation, whoever coined “too big to fail” and drove it into common use was a frickin’ genius, ‘cuz that paradigm has saved these mofos’ asses.

    So far.

  58. 58.

    IndieTarheel

    I’m thinking honey, stakes, and those big ass ants you see eating everything in sight on the Discovery channel.Also this:
    And simply what this means is
    He didnt know that every dog had his day
    Until he seen his

  59. 59.

    Comrade Darkness

    @Luthe: I was thinking on EXACTLY these lines the other day. American citizens are taxed no matter where in the world they live. I’d be happier of corporations were not citizens but if they have to be, they should pay taxes like they are. Seems rather straightforward.

    Oh, and the class warfare has been going on since Reagan, it’s just been guerilla warfare by the financial class against the working class. The incredulous reactions of the guilty to the accusations against them in this mess demonstrates we are a peak * something *, and we’re going to be coming down the next slope steep and fast. These bastards better hope the slide down is only a change in the tax code.

  60. 60.

    shortstop

    Guillotining is out. Way too humane. A 90 percent tax rate combined with a requirement to fly coach, clean their own bathrooms and stand in line at stores should send these candyasses over the edge nicely.

  63. 63.

    Comrade Darkness

    @Poopyman:

    Phil Gramm. That’s your guy. Signed, sealed and delivered the blank check these guys have been cashing since 1999 with the commodity futures modernization act. And while we’re at it fuck Bill Clinton for signing half the shit he signed. WE needed a mofo liberal at that point to counter twelve years of crap Reaganomics and what did we get? We got a giant slathering puppydog who was only too happy to take approval from anyone, including those trying advancing the front in turning the U.S. into a banana republic.

  67. 67.

    Leelee for Obama

    @slippy: Yeah, they did wind up with Napoleon, after all. But, Madame DeFarge was a happy woman for awhile, as I recall. I don’t think being blood-thirsty in fact is good or even necessary. Take their fucking money and they will feel like their throats have been cut. That’s their lifeblood, and if they have to give it back, they may go semi-Galt and there will be a little more revenue left to the serfs…all in all, a good outcome.

  68. 68.

    Chad N Freude

    @Patton: Not for Dr. Fass. He’s one of the organizers of the Dem fundraiser. In the article, he is essentially making a complaint.

    This also from the article:

    “There is some failure in the finance industry to appreciate the level of public antagonism toward whatever Wall Street symbolizes,” said Orin Kramer, a partner in an investment firm who is a Democratic fund-raiser and one of the event’s chairmen. “But in order to save the capitalist system, the administration has to be responsive to the public mood, and that is a nuance which can get lost on Wall Street.”

    But they have this to soothe their feelings, poor dears.

  69. 69.

    kay

    I don’t believe they care about public perception, at all. I think the whining is just more marketing.

    “On average, the chief executives at 29 of the largest public financial companies that have taken bailout funds received perks and benefits worth more than $380,000 in 2008, according to compensation figures included in annual proxy statements and supplied by Equilar, a compensation data services firm. Individually, about half the banks increased their fringe benefits to the top executives. The figures do not include relocation costs and related taxes, typically one-time fees that can skew year-over-year comparisons.

    In contrast to the 4 percent average increase in perks and benefits at these companies, the average awarded to top executives at non-financial companies in the Fortune 100 declined by more than 7 percent over the same period, according to Equilar. ”

    Financial entities took a 4% increase in perks, non-financials took a 7% decrease in perks.

    They really, really could have foregone the 200,000 company-paid country club membership this year. They chose not to.

  70. 70.

    Leelee for Obama

    @IndieTarheel: Here in Florida, we have absolutely wonderful fire-ants! Not only painful, but they raise welts, and there’s an option for allergic shock. A truly Inquisitional insect! (and completely natural)

    I also don’t believe you’d need to waste any honey or syrup-they are fairly ravenous without it.

  71. 71.

    Fwiffo

    They just have no fucking idea. Obama’s their only friend they’ve got in the world right now; he’s the only thing between them and the various suggestions in this thread.

  73. 73.

    Terri

    Put them up against the wall, then render them down to bio fuel.
    At least then, they’ll be useful.

  74. 74.

    Ash Can

    @Chad N Freude: I’m obviously guilty too. That’s what I get for not reading the link. Mea culpa.

    Doesn’t make me any less honked off at the real entitlement whores, though.

  76. 76.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Chad N Freude: I read it-Fass wasn’t my focus-anyone who gets it is OK-it’s the assholes who don’t get it, don’t want to and feel entitled to their ill-gotten profits.

  77. 77.

    Ash Can

    @Chad N Freude: LOL. Seriously, though, I’m quick to throw epithets in the direction of assholes too lazy to do their homework, and then, whaddya know, I’m one myself. Shame on me.

  80. 80.

    Leelee for Obama

    @ricky: And, lo, there was a sort of Peaceful Kingdom, for about a hour and a half. After awaking the sleeping giant, Bin Laden got exactly what he hoped for-we turned on each other over the Politics and refused to acknowledge that killing innocent people usually leads their survivors to increase the level of nihilism in their philosophy.

  81. 81.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @Fwiffo:

    They just have no fucking idea. Obama’s their only friend they’ve got in the world right now; he’s the only thing between them and the various suggestions in this thread.

    I hope Obama is playing them to increase his leverage over them, so the next time he “suggests” they change their ways, they will have no choice but to listen.

    A guy can dream, right?

  82. 82.

    different church-lady

    They feel there is no reason why they shouldn’t earn $1 million to $200 million a year…

    There’s also no reason they should. But, you know…

  83. 83.

    jcricket

    Sweet jesus. These people have zero shame. Less than zero. And frankly, since there are 1 of them for every 99 of us, I say we simply:

    1) Enforce the regulations we have and add a few (like clawbacks) to at least attempt to reign in the shenanigans of the worst offenders

    2) Ignore their whining and start taxing them a bunch more.

    At least then we’d have the money to address the insanely long list of high-priority stuff the rest of us poor shlubs need. I guarantee you there will be no bad consequences.

    When do we start understanding this? Never?

  84. 84.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    I say we go for a sort of Hegelian synthesis of the various suggestions above – reinstitute the Eisenhower era tax rates, and impose the death penalty on tax cheating for amounts over $100k. Pay up or die muthafukas.

  85. 85.

    Evinfuilt

    Look i know i planted the bomb in the orphanage, heck I designed it and set it off. that doesn’t mean I’m responsible for all the orphans being there when I set it off.

    Sheesh, cut me some slack, without homicidal psychopaths like me you’d be out on the street without orphan nuggets for dinner.

  87. 87.

    Nutella

    I’ve never understood ‘too big to fail’. I would say the second thing to do if we really want to bail out a company that’s too big is cut it in at least two pieces and bail out the parts we think are worth saving. The first thing to do is make sure the president and chairman of the board of the original company are fired for cause (no parachutes) since obviously they are incompetent at running a company.

    I expect this would cut down on the number of companies with their hands out. But this assumes that the federal government and Goldman Sachs aren’t two halves of the one ‘too big’ organization now.

    So those pitchforks may be required.

  88. 88.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Nutella: I think, but am not sure, that what you describe is the essence of the re-regulation push. It’s supposed to give the Government the authority to unwind this kind of too big and save what’s salvageable.

    The second thing goes without saying. Trust, but verify! May be the only thing Reagan ever said worth remembering.

  89. 89.

    asiangrrlMN

    Where in hell is my tire iron?

    It bothers me how much rage I have towards the asshats (not Dr. Fass) who created this situation and are now whining about being sooooo deprived. I am a fucking pacifist, for god’s sake. OK. I am a very angry one, but I am. Still, if I were to meet one of these financial types, I might have to punch him in the neck, a la John Cole.

  90. 90.

    Calouste

    And the mainstream media is going to be shocked, shocked I tell you, when a poor schmuck who lost his job and his house and everything else is going to take it out on these entitled bastards and shoot a few of them up.

  91. 91.

    Midnight Marauder

    @asiangrrlMN:

    It bothers me how much rage I have towards the asshats (not Dr. Fass) who created this situation and are now whining about being sooooo deprived. I am a fucking pacifist, for god’s sake. OK. I am a very angry one, but I am. Still, if I were to meet one of these financial types, I might have to punch him in the neck, a la John Cole.

    Well, you can punch them in the neck to your heart’s content. But much like I’m saving one for Howie Kurtz, one day, I will punch all of those sons of bitches in the soul.

    (Yes, yes, assuming they have one.)
    /obligatory.

  92. 92.

    Leelee for Obama

    @Midnight Marauder:

    (Yes, yes, assuming they have one.)
    /obligatory.

    This is why I refrained from posting this same thing-not at all sure they have any-probably sold to Old Nick ages ago.

  93. 93.

    jean

    Fine. In fact great. Tax ’em, Dano. At least 60%. Make all the bucks you want. Close all the loopholes, tax shelters, etc.
    I’m not a fan of salary caps. Taxes now, that is a win-um win? situation.

  94. 94.

    Anne Laurie

    @Napoleon:

    And while we are at it guillotine them by the method that was saved for only Robespierre, face up.

    So they’ll be able to see it coming… for the first time in their lives!

  98. 98.

    mai naem

    Personally I say do it the Chinese way. Execute them and send the family the bill for the bullet. That’s what they did to the guy who was the head of their FDA after the melamine fiasco.

  100. 100.

    ko

    They don’t seem to realize that most of America would do pay-per-view at their execution. My personal view is that no one is worth over $250,00/year. 95% tax rate when you exceed that. A person can have a pretty good lifestyle for $250,00/year. Concerns about college debt? Keep up the GPA and we can afford to put you through school as long as we’re not worried about keeping the rich, rich.

    KO

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