Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Cole is on a roll !

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

I was promised a recession.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

This blog will pay for itself.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Accountability, motherfuckers.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Let there be snark.

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

People are complicated. Love is not.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Ah, the different things are different argument.

No one could have predicted…

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Banana Republicans Open Thread: The War Between the Snakes

Banana Republicans Open Thread: The War Between the Snakes

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I’ve been reading about this Oligarch Feud for the past few days, wondering just where the levers were…

Most of the media coverage of the “ugly public feud,” as the New York Times called it, between President Trump and the Koch brothers has taken the Kochs at their word that they may have to give up on the Republican Party of Trump and start backing Democrats, so disgusted are they with the President’s protectionist trade policies. But history suggests that the Kochs’ threat is about as believable as that of a parent threatening to “just plain leave” if a balky toddler doesn’t behave.

Despite the brothers’ record as among the country’s largest and most consistently partisan financial sponsors, the Kochs’ pique at their own party is nothing new. For decades they have complained bitterly about Republican politicians whose fealty to their libertarian agenda has rarely, in their view, been absolute enough. This dissatisfaction with the Grand Old Party was evident as far back as 1980…

… In fact, it was the Kochs’ disappointment with George W. Bush’s expansion of prescription-drug benefits, among other issues, that inspired them, in 2003, to form their political-fund-raising network with like-minded conservatives. Since then, the group has grown into a private political machine that arguably rivals, and by some estimates overpowers, the Republican Party itself. Earlier this year, the network announced that it planned to spend four hundred million dollars in the coming midterm-election cycle, to help preserve the Republican majority in both houses of Congress. But last weekend, somewhat unexpectedly, at a meeting in Colorado Springs, of some five hundred members of this group, all of whom have pledged to contribute at least a hundred thousand dollars annually to the cause, Koch officials attacked Trump, in all but name, as “divisive,” and threatened to start backing Democrats in some midterm races….

On the surface, the cause of the rift is their opposition to Trump’s protectionist trade and immigration policies, which clash with their free-market preferences—and Koch Industries’ bottom line. The policy fight runs deep, reflecting a larger rift in the Republican Party on these issues. Exacerbating tensions, Trump and Charles Koch are both headstrong billionaires who are accustomed to buying, and then getting, their ways. Both were sent to military schools by their parents, after having disciplinary problems at home, and both have high regard for themselves as self-made men, despite both inheriting vast fortunes from their fathers.

Beyond this, both appear to think that the Republican Party in particular, and American politics in general, should be theirs to dominate. Yet, if you parse last weekend’s complaint from Charles Koch carefully, what you see is that his ire wasn’t so much directed at Trump, whom he didn’t name, as at the Republicans in Congress for having fallen in line with the President instead of with him….

As Stephen Bannon, Trump’s former chief political strategist and an architect of the nationalist and nativist policies that the Kochs oppose, put it, “the donor class controlled the Republican Party—that is, until the rise of Trump.” Now, the Kochs’ real problem, he said, was that they “see that being ripped away.”…

Of course Steve Bannon is ‘standing up’ for his former boss; since he got cut off the GOP teat, he’s been zigzagging around Europe looking for a new source of income, garnering media attention but not much financial success. What I wonder most about, though: What of the oligarchs who paid Bannon’s way into the Trump campaign in the first place?

Both Rebekah Mercer, Bannon’s original sugar momma, and Peter Thiel, his political soulmate, have been relatively quiet in recent months, with good reason. But they’re at least a generation younger than Charles Koch (who’s already pushed his brother out of political partnership due to ‘failing health’) or fellow GOP macher Sheldon Adelson.

It *could* be that Mercer, or Thiel, have decided that modern American politics are not the best place for them to harvest the attention and power they so desperately want. It could also be that I’ll wake up tomorrow and discover I’ve lost my appetite for potato chips and chocolate… but the odds are against that, too.

Reader Interactions

110Comments

  4. 4.

    piratedan

    so what we have here is a race to determine which group has bragging rights over the most heinous platform. Can we just put ’em all in a room with their NRA and evangelical friends and let them sort it out like that church scene from Kingsmen?

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    AWKWARD!!!!!

  6. 6.

    Platonailedit

    Hopefully in the creepy custody battle between even creepier corrupt old thugs, their corrupt progeny gets bumped off.

  8. 8.

    Gex

    The wealthy love to utilize nativism for their own ends and then quickly learn they cannot control those forces. Welp. At least they too are now on the receiving end of what they unleashed.

  9. 9.

    BruceFromOhio

    In a way, it seems almost prophetic – the two parasitic organisms (billionaires, ideologues) formed a temporary symbiosis, got the ideologues into power to give the billionaires their tax cut. Now that both have achieved their life goals, each sets out on a new parasitic mission: searching for a new host to feed on. The ideologues decide to feed on .. the billionaires? OK, wait, that page seems to be missing from this book.

    If the ideologues start using the “We Will Grease the Guillotines with the Fat of Billionaires” rotating tag, I’m so out. These enemies of my enemies are just SO not my friends.

  12. 12.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gex:

    As my spouse has been saying for years, Republicans think they can control the crazy, but the crazy is driving the car now.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    @BruceFromOhio:

    Now that both have achieved their life goals, each sets out on a new parasitic mission: searching for a new host to feed on.

    The Kochs are eyeing the Democrats. As a host. No thanks. That’s all we need, right? A far Right insane Party and then a far Right plutocrat Party. Pick one!

    It’s never enough. They got their tax buy-off – Trump paid them off for keeping their mouths shut- and now they’re back for more. TWe’ll be paying plutocrats with taxes collected on wages. The Unearned Income Tax Credit.

  16. 16.

    hells littlest angel

    Jennifer Rubin.
    Okay, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
    George Will.
    Okay, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
    Richard Painter.
    Okay, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
    The Koch Brothers.
    Oh, for fuck’s sake, I give up.

  17. 17.

    The Dangerman

    @Mnemosyne:

    …but the crazy is driving the car now.

    Crazy may be in the drivers seat, but I’m not sure about the driving; beeping the horns, playing with the radio, grooming with the mirror … but driving, I’m not so sure.

    ETA: I’m entirely unfamiliar with the Kingsmen movie reference, so does Reservoir Dogs work here?

  20. 20.

    Mnemosyne

    In non-political news, this is the time of year when motherfucking ants start weaseling their way into our apartment and we can’t get rid of the little fuckers. Plus the pet-safe ant spray gives me migraines. Ugh.

  21. 21.

    stinger

    Is it just me, or can other people hardly tell Bannon and Manafort apart? They’re both these fleshy, rid-hard-and-put-away-wet soulless guys with a FOR SALE TO HIGHEST BIDDER sign on their foreheads. Actually, most of Trump’s people are like that, I guess.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @stinger: Manafort, even in prison scrubs, looks like he’s showered recently. Bannon, even cleaned up, looks like he’s not seen a bar of soap for well over a decade.

  25. 25.

    Kay

    @stinger:

    Manafort has a weird, frozen slight smile. Maybe that’s the face you use when you’re accepting huge payments from dangerous people- terrified and hoping you never end up their bad side.

  26. 26.

    BruceFromOhio

    @Kay:

    The Kochs are eyeing the Democrats. As a host.

    Right? The only sane ones remaining. Everyone else has gone batshit crazy! Case in point, Bannon, Stephen. See also Giuliani, Rudy. It’s like the punch got spiked with LSD, these fools are tripping.

    No thanks.

    This, this, this. Grassroots all the way. Stick to the issues. More candidates, better candidates. Chase every vote, while we can still vote. Etc, etc, etc.

  27. 27.

    Ocean dude

    Robert Mercer, I suspect, has Aspergers. High functioning, socially awkward, restricted range of interests. Doesnt make eye contact. Robert’s was obsessed with defeating Clinton. – The Mercers are the ones that have been bank rolling Bannon for years. They started Breitbart with 10 million. Believes the conspiracy theories about the Clintons- as in they murdered their opponents. From Jane Mayer’s interview with Dave Davies/NPR:(JM speaking about Robert Mercers political philosophy) He said that Mercer wanted to shrink the government to the size of a pinhead and that he doesn’t think that – he basically has a philosophy, according to Magerman, that values people on the basis of what they earn. He doesn’t think human beings have intrinsic value. He thinks that if you are a schoolteacher and you earn 2 million times less than Mercer earns, then you’re 2 million times less valuable than Mercer is. And he believes that if you are on welfare, you have negative value. And what Magerman said was, and he’s not talking about economically. He means as a human being. ( Magerman referred to here is David Magerman- worked at Renaissance Technologies for 20 yrs. David is Jewish. He didnt appreciate the anti semetic/white supremacist views on Breitbart. There was piece on David in the WSJ)

  28. 28.

    SiubhanDuinne

    O/T? Was just prowling around on Facebook and came across this great story in a friend-of-a-friend’s feed. I have no idea where it took place, assuming the story is even accurate. True or not, it’s LOL-worthy.

    There’s this 24-hour sandwich kiosk near my job run by a Muslim guy and during prayers, the Central American dude working at the pretzel cart next to him will step in and take over for a bit to help him out. When the pretzel guy can’t, regular customers respectfully wait in line until they can be attended.

    This morning some tourists wearing fanny packs and crucifixes were bitching about having to wait three minutes (he was almost done) and a freaking nun in the queue turned around and said “my brother is praying, show some respect” and before the mouthiest of the tourists could respond, this ENORMOUS Armenian construction worker who is the absolute nicest man and says good morning to everyone every single day turns around and says “Are you gonna fuckin’ argue with a fuckin’ nun? Fuck outta here! Yo, Sister, ‘scuse my language, but Christ. Oh shit, I didn’t mean that. I’ll stop tawkin’ now.”

    AND the Sister gave him a very sly fist bump and now I have coffee in my nasal passages.

    I. Seriously. Love. This. City. Sometimes.

  31. 31.

    Mike J

    Mike J ?? ?? @emmeyekayeee 3h
    Bill Koch getting smacked in the head with the running backstay in an America’s cup race will always be the best clip on Youtube.

  35. 35.

    debbie

    O/T: Is there anything lower than a Buckeye fan? A local poll found that 89% of respondents think Urban Meyer should remain as head coach. Unbelievable.

  36. 36.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks, Adam! Because of the “friend” connection, I was kind of assuming it was somewhere in the Antipodes (the mutual friend lives in NZ).

    Thanks for tracking down the original.

  38. 38.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Another Scott: Wow, that was a wonderful thing. Made me think of so many things, not suitable for discussion on the open internet, albeit completely suitable for discussion with you lovely, lovely jackals. Sigh.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    ???

    It was just that my friend who shared it is a Kiwi, and I figure they can hold their own when it comes to f-bomzz.

  50. 50.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jay:

    I love how real Americans are running out of fucks to give on so many levels.

    I know, RITE? Does my heart good.

  51. 51.

    Gravenstone

    @Ocean dude:

    Believes the conspiracy theories about the Clintons- as in they murdered their opponents.

    It amazes me that people capable of believing this garbage manage not to make the intuitive leap that if they killed their opponents, and you make yourself their opponent, then you’re lining yourself up to be killed. Or maybe it just amuses me, in a morbid sort of way.

  52. 52.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ocean dude: I’m -sure- you’re a decent dude and co-resister. But: *Mercer*? Asperger’s? FUCK THAT. NOBODY gets to be at the FUCKING TOP of a FUCKING HEDGE FUND without being a VIRTUOSO at reading other people’s emotions. Mercer did that. He’s not a fucking Aspie. He’s an ASSHOLE.

    FUCK HIM. And I’m a CS PhD in this biz since 1990. I’ve -seen- Aspies. NOBODY should go besmirching the reputation of Aspies with these ASSHOLES.

    [And again, I’m SURE you’re a good person, and that you’re just -interpreting-.]

  55. 55.

    Gravenstone

    @debbie: Remember that Meyer has that double dip of Ohio goodness, having made his name initially at BGSU (before he destroyed Florida). College football fans in general seem willing to overlook a lot of evil.

  56. 56.

    stinger

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s pretty much how I separate them in my mind, now. The one who looks like he just got off the license plate production line ISN’T the one who’s behind bars.

  57. 57.

    Ocean dude

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Its rather insane to me that this family has poured in at least 100 million dollars into PACs and alternate media in the last ten years, and yet the man at the head of family sees ppl as objects. Incapable of emotionally connecting to ppl. He has never given an interview. If he is assigning people a “negative value”, well, what is the next logical step. I think back to what John wrote a few weeks back- something like-these billionaires watch the dystopian Blade Runner movie and think- that’s about right. I get to live in a giant pristine pyramid with every want and desire filled bc I am me, and the rest of humanity can try to eke out a life on a barren, polluted hell-scape. Nothing dystopian about it.

  59. 59.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Chetan Murthy: Actually I’ve seen that speculated on in a lot of places. Apparently he was brought into Renaissance’s leadership because of his quantitative and computational work. They wanted his learning algorithms to front run trades. Every profile I’ve seen of him reports the same thing: he’s not good with/around people and prefers to be with computers and cats. As a result many people have read those profiles and concluded he’s on the spectrum. I think it is more likely that he’s a natural psychopath and is now rich enough where he doesn’t have to fake interest in other people as subjects and just treats everyone as an object to be manipulated or ignored.

  61. 61.

    justawriter

    Surprised nobody has cited Matthew 6-24 yet. Although in this case it is Mammon vs. More Mammon so I put my money on the latter. We are talking about Republicans after all.

  64. 64.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Chetan Murthy:

    He’s not a fucking Aspie. He’s an ASSHOLE.

    FUCK HIM.

    While I applaud your zeal, as a (likely) Aspie and (certain) asshole, and father of an Aspie, the two are not mutually exclusive.

  66. 66.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Chetan Murthy: I feel I need to add some more. YES an Aspie can end up getting well-paid. But the job of RUNNING a hedge fund involves social and emotional IQ at a level that No Aspie could manage. That’s almost the DEFINITION of an Aspie. — lack of socia/emotional IQ. So sure, an Aspie can get well-paid. Really well-paid. First real knife-fight? He’s bleeding-out in the corner.

    Unless somehow he’s literally Albert FUCKING Einstein, and EVERYBODY wants him to work for them. In which case he NEVER ends up as the *head* of a hedge fund. He ends up in some remote farm, with attendants to care for his every need. Gosh, we’ve never heard of such a thing. Which means either it doesn’t exist (don’t believe in the existence of Fucking Superman until you see him with the whites of your eyes!) or THE CONSPIRACY IS DEEP, BROTHERS!

    P.S. Why am I so exercised? B/c I’m on the spectrum. How did I find out? When a friend noted that I was unable to read faces, PERIOD. And he’s right. Faces are ciphers.

  67. 67.

    Adam L Silverman

    @A Ghost To Most: He’s legit.

    I don’t think Senator Sanders is really the issue. The question is going to be what Turner does with Our Revolution. She’s building her own cult of personality and I fully expect her to shiv Sanders in the back sometime next year to achieve her goals. I’m not 100% sure what they are, but I can see her running for President using Our Revolution as her organizational support, and then claiming that all the actual women and women of color that might run in the Democratic primary are really sell outs and corporate shills and conservatives and traitors, etc. Our Revolution is already attacking Democratic candidates that have taken money and/or been endorsed by Emily’s List as selling out to big money. That’s all Turner’s doing. She’s megalomaniacal.

  70. 70.

    Yarrow

    @Gex: It’s like the leopards eating faces party, but with lots and lots of money.

    @Mnemosyne: Have had good luck with Terro liquid ant baits. Just put them in the path of the ants.

  71. 71.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Adam L Silverman: Adam, he might be brilliant. But think it thru: Aspies are weak when it comes to emotional and social perception; Someone like that would be be stabbed in the back in -seconds- in a high-stakes negotiation. YES, he might rise a good bit. YES, he could get paid well. But we all know that people get paid BILLIONS only b/c they know how to maneuver other people. And an Aspie is NOT that.

    But whatever. I don’t -really- care if he’s an Aspie or not, b/c he’s an asshole.

  72. 72.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Chetan Murthy: Sorry, another 2c: EVERY negotiation at the top of a hedge fund is a high-stakes negotation. How long is our Aspie supposed to last? It beggars belief.

    Maybe the story here is that he’s a “mild Aspie”. Sure sure, I can believe that. And I’m a “mild white man”.

  76. 76.

    Chetan Murthy

    @danielx: Oh, haha. Sure, If you mean “Sociopath AND Aspie”, oh heck why not. I’m 100% good with that. Just noting that the standard definitions of Aspie exclude the kind of real-world success that Mercer has attained.

    If he’d been a guy who wrote code and never did anything else, why sure, sure, SURE, I’d buy that. But that’s not him.

    He’s just a garden-variety ASSHOLE. Hell, House, MD had entire story arcs devoted to this very argument. And I LIKE House, MD. -quote- House, MD to explain to others why I’m a bit messed-up.

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Chetan Murthy: He doesn’t front the business. He doesn’t negotiate. That’s his business partner’s/co-owner’s job. He just oversees the quantitative side of the house, which is what he was hired for. That’s been reported on in several places. That said, I personally think he’s a psychopath, not on the spectrum.

  78. 78.

    Jay

    @Yarrow:

    Wilson Ant Out spray along the perimeter, toxic, kills on contact, leaves a 3-4 month barrier.

    Keeps the annual carpenter ant migration at bay.

  80. 80.

    danielx

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Sure, If you mean “Sociopath AND Aspie”, oh heck why not.

    .Not at all, that’s an invidious comparison – that thought never occurred to me. There’s nothing saying a sociopathic person is on the Asperger’s scale at all, nor yet that a sociopath can’t be a math/business genius who’s good at reading people.

    My thought is that being a successful hedge fund manager does require a certain ability to view other people as objects, and to be able to ignore the impact of one’s actions upon others.

  81. 81.

    Jay

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He’d still have to manage the Quants and Contracts.

    Even a high functioning Asburger’s would get eaten alive, especially by people who put in the time to establish trust and a relationship.

    It’s much more probable that rather than being an Asburger’s who’s created a numeric system of value for people,

    He’s a sociopath who’s reduced the value of a persons life to a number.

  82. 82.

    Ocean dude

    @Chetan Murthy: You are right just – total guess on my part. But what fits is his seeing ppl as objects. His strange fixation on the Clintons, reading numerous right wing journals, I mean, who does that? Reads everything they can on how evil they are. He is a math wiz, again very hi functioning in one area. However he is routinely described as socially awkward, to the point that he makes other ppl in the room uncomfortable. Actually he has never given an interview. His hedge fund makes several hundred million dollars a year using algorithms that predict fluctuations in the stock market. As far as I know he is a virtuoso mathematician, wrote the computer programs, became extreme wealthy over night. It had zero to do with reading people. Not my intention to denigrate Aspergers, the great hero of WWII, Alan Turing was suspected of having Aspergers. So are a slew of other great mathematicians throughout hx. Lewis Carroll as well.

  85. 85.

    divF

    @Adam L Silverman:
    And that business partner (and founder of Rennaissance) is James Simons, a brilliant pure mathematician who has used his fortune to fund Democratic politicians and (mainly) philanthropy in the sciences. Mercer came on board in 1993, 11 years after the company was founded. It is entirely credible that Mercer has less than optimal social skills, while still making billions.

    ETA: I saw Simons speak at a UC Berkeley College of Engineering graduation a couple of years ago, in which he made an impassioned pitch for scientists and engineers participating in politics. A truly public-spirited person.

  86. 86.

    Ocean dude

    Hey CM- just read your other posts. I understand now. I am thinking about my “seeing ppl as objects” comment, that was a leap on my part. Part of personality disorders, not necessarily Aspergers. Or as you say, just being an asshole. Agreed. Google Michael Burry. Michael Lewis wrote about him in the “big short”. He dx himself with Aspergers, started his own hedge fund. Made billions on the crash in ’08. Realized the crash was coming bc he read the end of the year reports from banks, something bizarre like that. He added the numbers up and realized they didnt add up. Perhaps the only man to read the end of year reports from banks

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    @Jay:

    We have cats and live in an apartment, so we have to use the pet-friendly spray indoors. No perimeter available.

    @Yarrow:

    G is at the store trying to buy more ant traps, but the shelves are almost empty. Summer heat sends the ants indoors so everyone is trying to get rid of them right now.

  90. 90.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ocean dude: Two thoughts:

    (1) again, nobody with that level of math, and with the purported inability to deal with people, *survives* contact with “Alec Baldwin in GlenGarry GlenRoss”. They end up in some back room. Sure, making $$, but nobody hears their name.

    (2) I am reminded of Larry (fuck him) Summers’ speech at Harvard. He was talking about how women are less “outliers” than men are, so less Fields medals [also, less nutjobs]. Turns out, he hadn’t actually consulted the MIT Full Professors who’d been asked just a year-or-two before, to investigate why women weren’t rising up in academia. Turned out, it wasn’t b/c “women are “safe betters”, and much more b/c (who knew?) MEN ARE RAPIST ASSHOLES and women gotta fight that from day ZERO”.

    I spent >15yr cleaning up messes at IT shops all over Wall Street. I only got called-in when the usual suspects were unable to fix the damn problem. Next to me were (invariably) salesmen/women — consummate professionals, but also, sharks who would EAT ME ALIVE if I weren’t on their side. And I’ve watched these Wall Street types do their thing, safe in my knowledge that my salesmen would protect me (b/c I was their ticket). The IDEA that some QUANT could end up as the guy RUNNING (or even co-RUNNING) a major hedge fund, when he’s an Aspie in any significant way? ….. THUD

    I fell off my chair, hit my head, and need to go to the ER. Back in a bit. Or not.

    Back to Summers. He failed to understand that MOST of success in business is about assholes and emotional intelligence. You gotta know what the other guy’s fears are, dammit. I remember my friend B who went to work for AMEX financial services. We’d go to dinner, and he’d try to sell me stuff off the menu. When I’d say “yes, I want that”, he’d insist that I should say “no” so he could practice his “objection blockers”. That is: “patter to convince the mark to say yes when they wanted to say no”. Years later at McKinsey, he told me that the same stuff worked there, too.

    We (plebes) make the MISTAKE of thinking that these Hedgies are brilliant. We HAVE NO IDEA what they do, and so, we imagine that they’re doing HARD THINGS. But, but turns out, they’re mostly going to lunch with guys who know something valuable, and trading on that. We IMAGINE that they’re actually BRILLIANT. And wiith NO EVIDENCE that that’s the case.

    OK. I’ll stop. I’m BSEE Rice 86, PhD Cornell 1990, NSF postgrad, ONR postdoc, NSF/NATO postdoc, Chateaubriand postdoc. I won an ACM award in 2013 for software I wrote in 1994. I know these fuckers.

    You all should trust them no further than you can throw them.

  91. 91.

    boatboy_srq

    @Adam L Silverman: Isn’t it odd how tRump is exactly what the GOTea wanted (soulless, amoral, manipulable and then conveniently forgetful), and now they decide this isn’t what they actually wanted? They got their ideal pResident, and now they are deciding that their Permanent Republican Majority isn’t all its cracked up to be and they were happier being in the minority and hating Dems for doing the governing they can’t accomplish.

  93. 93.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Ocean dude:

    He added the numbers up and realized they didnt add up. Perhaps the only man to read the end of year reports from banks

    I won’t dispute that this guy Burry figured it out. But lots of others did too. I remember Mark A.R. Kleiman -very- -publicly- announcing that he was selling his house and renting (IIRC, it was even written-up in the WaPo) before the crash. Lots of (reputable) economists predicted the crash. Here’s the thing: we remember the guys who bet big $$ and made fortunes. Not the ones who were a little too early, eh?

    Months before the peak of the 2000 Internet boom, both George Soros and Julian Robertson basicaly threw in the towel, saying “we’ve been losing money for months; we think this is all fucked-up,, but we can’t figure how when it ends, so we’re DONE”. LITERALLY 2-3 months before the market top.

    Yes, SOROS. Yes, JULIAN ROBERTSON.

    Don’t read so much into the fact that some trader made out like a bandit. Remember “survivorship bias”.

  94. 94.

    burnspbesq

    @debbie:

    Is there anything lower than a Buckeye fan

    There are many things lower than a Buckeyes fan. Yankee fans, Tar Heel fans, Cowboys fans, Real Madrid fans.

  96. 96.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @debbie:
    Doncha know that football is more important than holding powerful people accountable?

  97. 97.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    I have never tried this, but have read/heard that ants will not cross a barrier of cinnamon. If you have a can or jar of ground cinnamon kicking around in your spice rack, you might try sprinkling it in their path. At worst, it’ll smell a lot better than bug spray. (I’d use normal supermarket French’s/McCormick-type stuff, though, not the good Penzey’s.)

  98. 98.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Major Major Major Major:

    I have never heard this stereotype that aspies think of other people as objects. Indeed that is a definition of sociopathy.

    QFT. I’ve worked at a BIG IT company -full- of Aspies (or, uh, as I saw it). And hell, I think I’m a bit of an Aspie, b/c I can’t read faces. Notwithstanding, being an Aspie has *nothing* to do with being an evil fucking toad. Sure sure sure, Aspies might be more *abrasive* than normies. But HELL, I’d go so far as to argue that the REASON they’re more abrasive, is that they’re less fucking DUPLICITOUS than normies.

    So ….. the fact that this Mercer bitch is a duplicitious toad, argues STRONGLY that he’s not an Aspie.

  99. 99.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    I was just talking about that in the thread above — cheap cinnamon does work surprisingly well as a barrier, but you have to identify the exact spot that you’re blocking.

  101. 101.

    Ruckus

    @Mnemosyne:
    It’s not just that they are driving the car it’s that they are one eyed blind morons with the keys to expensive fast cars and all the control of a runaway train. Shit gonna hit the fan sooner than later. Probably when the superrich have left us with not much to steal and only each other to steal it from.

  106. 106.

    Nicole

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for posting; that was hilarious. I guessed it had to have happened in the Big Apple; the construction worker’s choice of words was pure Nu Yawkese.

  107. 107.

    lethargytartare

    @burnspbesq:

    There are many things lower than a Buckeyes fan. Yankee fans, Tar Heel fans, Cowboys fans, Real Madrid fans.

    Penn State fans

  110. 110.

    Mary S

    A quibble: Trump is a billionaire? Where’s the evidence of that? I tend to believe the arguments that Trump is in financial trouble and that’s why he’s so entangled with Russians.

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