U.S.-based oligarch Jamie Dimon is glib and clueless in the way all plutocrats are, coasting along the upper strata with maximum arrogance and entitlement. But perhaps in a nod to egalitarianism, he’s glib and clueless in the common way too: (CNBC)
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon on Wednesday praised former President Donald Trump’s record and admonished Democrats to be “more respectful” of Trump’s supporters, or else risk hurting President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.
“I wish the Democrats would think a little more carefully when they talk about MAGA,” Dimon said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” referencing Trump’s supporters by the acronym of his “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.
Dimon argued that using the phrase “MAGA” incorrectly links Trump’s supporters to the former president’s personality and character.
Democrats “are basically scapegoating them, [saying] that you are like him,” Dimon said. “I don’t think they’re voting for Trump because of his family values,” he said.
That’s exactly why they’re voting for him, Jamie Dimon — because they aspire to be like him. The MAGA cult worships Trump’s transgressive style because they simultaneously lack character and are poor judges of it. That’s why the “fuck your feelings” ethos from the world’s whiniest snowflake delights even prim church ladies of a certain hue. The widespread adoption of that ethos is why public officials can no longer conduct the people’s business without death threats and swatting hoaxes.
We can be sure it’s Trump’s style that appeals rather than substance because MAGA dopes sure as hell aren’t lining up for more of Trump’s sole policy accomplishment, which was a tax cut that was actually unpopular because it benefited people like Dimon and his corporation. I didn’t even know it was possible for a tax cut to be unpopular in this country until that happened.
Upon reflection, there’s nothing egalitarian about Dimon’s scolding. As a true elitist who would be a target of a genuine populist rather than a fake one like Trump, Dimon misunderstands the people he’s infantilizing. His disapproval is a signal that the president is exactly right to call out the MAGA extremists. They are a threat to democracy and must be confronted, though folks like Dimon don’t perceive the threat since they figure they’ll be fine no matter what.
It’s an open question as to whether there are enough non-MAGA small-c conservatives left to form a bulwark with Democrats against the authoritarian tide that swept most Republicans away. Biden is betting that there are.
I don’t know if it’s the “smart” bet, but it’s the only bet. Dimon, who’s dogging Biden for telling the truth, doesn’t understand that because he’s a clueless elitist who thinks he’s immune. It’s another reason to thank merciful dog “smart” people like Dimon aren’t in charge. We’d already be lost if they were.
Open thread.
NYT Pitchbot Interviewed on Aaron Rupar’s Public Notice Substack
Baud
Has he come out in favor of Biden’s reelection? If not, why would we treat his advice as credible?
moonbat
@Baud: He’s a Master of the Universe, dontcha know! We should be grateful for the pearls of wisdom he throws before us plebeian swine.
UncleEbeneezer
Fuck your feelings, Jamie.
This really does highlight the eternal and universal truth among MAGA voters (yes, ALL of them): that what they want most is to be shitty human beings and pay no cost for it. I think this has always been the biggest appeal of Trump. A sadly large number of humans just want permission to be assholes and Trump gave them that in a way no other politician has in a very long time.
hoppie
Are they related to Dimon sheep?
Another Scott
Something something believe them the first time. NYMag.com (from April 2010):
Grr…,
Scott.
Chief Oshkosh
Another missed opportunity for Jamie to just shut the fuck up.
I’d agree with the “eat the rich” sentiment, but my New Year’s resolution is to lower my fat intake.
satby
Dimon has always been a jerk, and he’d be just dandy if tfg won.
I’m sure you don’t subscribe to the never-tfg Bulwark (I don’t now either, but still get the freebies) and this featured, unpaywalled article today speaks to how it has to be all hands on deck to defeat him.
Poe Larity
Inflation must really be bad if Jamie is hanging out at the Olive Garden salad bar.
PaulWartenberg
The recent Democratic election of a state representative in central Florida demonstrated a larger-than-usual turnout by Non-Party indy voters in favor of the Dems. It is highly likely – and something Dems at the local and national level should campaign towards – that the moderate voters are annoying by the Far Right and will team with Dems to vote the crooks out.
Old School
MAGA links people who didn’t like Obama being president. I doubt the economy was their biggest complaint.
TriassicSands
Do the Masters of the Universe ever “just shut the fuck up?” Of course, we don’t know if one of them refrains from “instructing” the rest of us about what we should and must do, because if they did, that would mean they wouldn’t have anything to say, which raises the question is there ever a time when they don’t have anything to say other than when they are taking the Fifth?
moonbat
@UncleEbeneezer: I agree. Aside from the shameless money grab another Trump tax cut would give Dimon, MAGA folks, rich and poor alike, want the freedom to yell the n-word and suffer zero consequences for it. The same base insecurity infects both MAGA classes: I can’t have it good if I’m not standing on someone else’s neck.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Legitimate small c conservatives have been part of the D coalition my whole life. They’re baked in.
Hoodie
There was a discussion of this idiocy yesterday on LGM. My observation at that time was that people like Dimon remind me of the rich dipshits fawning over Chance the Gardner in Being There. Dimon is clueless, yes, but it’s a type of motivated cluelessness. In a way, he’s the other side of the MAGA coin; cynical elites who talk themselves into this sort of nonsense because it just happens to offer a potential benefit for them if they cultivate certain fascist impulses. Of course, with Trump, it’s probably the prospect of even more tax breaks and less regulation so that assholes like Dimon can haul in even more loot. During the time he’s been the head of Chase, they’ve been fined something on the order of $40 billion. The guy is basically as much a crook as Trump.
Ken
Is Dimon’s position that Republicans can cover their bodies, vehicles, and houses with “MAGA”, but Democrats can’t use the word when referring to them? Sounds like cancel culture to me.
Baud
I can only assume he has also asked MAGA to be nicer to Dems.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Baud: Democrats show far too little respect to those who demonize their values, legally attack their voters, and refuse to acknowledge the reality we all share.
Baud
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
God, we’re such assholes.
Ksmiami
@Old School: ugh, why AM I getting Ferretti yacht ads on my YouTube feed? So annoying… and right after I read about Dimon’s Davos Ditherings
p.a.
If they shoved the microphone up his ass instead of putting it in his face his “message” would actually have contained less shit.
Ksmiami
@Hoodie: No banker should be worth more than a billion dollars. Ffs, they’re supposed to be stodgy money holders..not taking the types of risks that bring in that kind of money.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Baud: I’m actually a Masshole.
Ksmiami
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: and we love you for it.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Every time I think that the first two residences I visit when The Revolution comes are The Turd Yglesias and Larry Summers, somebody like Dimon opens their pie hole.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
No person should have that kind of money. I don’t care. No matter how productive you were in life, it shouldn’t create an opportunity for your family to be idly rich until the the sun goes boom.
Frankly, if you have a billion dollars, it damn near certain came from the productivity of a lot of people with less than you have. But you own them.
schrodingers_cat
Perhaps he prefers basket of deplorables.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@schrodingers_cat: Hillary’s mistake was trying to draw a line around a few of the worst Republicans. The rest of them got mad they weren’t included. And Dems are supposed to be good about inclusivity.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
She was ahead of her time.
prostratedragon
@TriassicSands: I think Dimon is more fidgity than most. For instance, can’t recall hearing any random chirpings from Lloyd Blankfein in quite a while.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Baud: I prefer the older remark about a vast Right-wing conspiracy. That conspiracy is international and currently being led from Russia. We can’t ask Hillary to face it alone.
gwangung
@TriassicSands: Dimon and Ackman are two of a kind. Assholes who haven’t a clue as to when to keep their yap shut.
Miss Bianca
@p.a.: LOL!
JPL
trump promised more tax cuts and Billionaires rejoiced. Hell with the deficit.
UncleEbeneezer
@Old School: When asked what they love about Trump, they literally tell us that it is his shitty personality, boorishness, willingness to “tell it like it is” etc. They love him BECAUSE he’s an asshole. But people like Dimon (and sadly a lot of NYTimes writers) just can’t believe that about their MAGA friends/co-workers, so they have to do mental gymnastics to find something, anything else that can explain it. But the truth has always been plain as day from the moment he rode down that escalator or started chasing Obama around
questioning his birth certificatedemanding to see his papers.trollhattan
I recall him vociferously demanding his minions all return to the office 100% after lockdown, the babies, presumably so he can return to walking around and calling them “loser” at his whim.
In sum, fuck you, Jamie, you can shove those billions upward until they reach the small intestine. You’re no better than the guy bundling cardboard behind Walmart.
Baud
As Trump sews up the nomination, I expect we’ll see many more “respectable captains of industry” come out with reassurances that Trump 2.0 won’t be that bad.
They know what a threat Biden is.
Ksmiami
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: if our tax system was effective, we could have billionaires but they’d be forced to adequately give back to the system that enabled their wealth. As Scott Galloway recently opined, those who have gained the most from America are often the least patriotic among us.
UncleEbeneezer
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: It wasn’t a mistake though. Even though they all end up supporting Trump, there are different levels of support within Republicans and she wanted to acknowledge that and extend an olive branch to try and get some of the less toxic Republicans to vote for her. Her approach made sense even if it’s easy for us to mock.
Matt McIrvin
I know I always offer respect for the beliefs of people who want me shot.
Jeffro
These people think we have room to play games here…that we can afford to gamble with our (m#%&erf@*&ing 248-year-old) democracy and our children’s futures…by pretending that offending MAGA voters is the issue here.
unnnnnreal
Ksmiami
@Baud: those Captains of industry should check Putin’s inner circle of business cronies’ mysterious death list.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@UncleEbeneezer: Problem there is that the media works really hard to ensure less toxic R voters don’t see how toxic their party really is, while stretching reality to make Ds look toxic.
3Sice
Dimon, Ackman, both sounding like Bourbon Dems during the New Deal.
These piss fights are not about policy, but about (loss of) prestige.
For sure
Al SmithDean Phillips will return the world of my youth….prostratedragon
Just recently I was wondering where Armstrong Williams had gone off to.
matt
With Dimon’s wealth, the absolute worst thing that can happen to him is taking a small haircut on his wealth because of market timing, and having to emigrate to someplace better
As they sometimes put it, he does not have any skin in the game.
TriassicSands
He just wanted to hang out with some “real Americans,” but he doesn’t realize they’re all across town in Joe’s Diner.
ETA: He should have called the NY Times. They know where all the diners are. They sense the pulse of the real American.
UncleEbeneezer
@moonbat: I should have clarified too: they don’t all want to be racist, misogynist, transphobic assholes themselves, but they want that permission/right for their friends, family, co-workers etc. I know several people like this. They don’t go around being overt assholes, but they will immediately circle to defend anyone they like who is. They don’t go full-Nazi, but they spend a lot of their time defending full-Nazis. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the people I’m referring to actually make up the majority of MAGA voters.
RandomMonster
Inspired post title, Ms. Cracker.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Many, perhaps most of them want to be one of those things. And they’ve formed a mutual support network with the others.
Old Man Shadow
“I mean, sure, Nazi Scum have stolen all of the land and property you Jews owned and imprisoned you in death camps, but have you thought about trying to understand their point of view?”
Dimon can go fuck himself.
Jeffro
That would have been a great follow-up!
“Mr. Dimon, as I’m sure you’re aware, MAGA voters have been interviewed and made horrendous and insulting comments like X, Y, and Z about Democratic voters. Should MAGA voters also be careful what they say about Democrats, especially given that their candidate was beaten in the last election? Do MAGA voters have an obligation to be sensitive about the language they use when talking about Democrats?”
<JD’s head explodes>
UncleEbeneezer
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Exactly. And they know if they split they are toast, politically.
smith
@UncleEbeneezer: They are no less morally crippled than the ones who shoot their mouths off. The latter serve as spokespersons for the former, at the same time giving the former what they hope is plausible deniability. It lets them masquerade as non-haters and non-fascists, and escape the condemnation they deserve.
artem1s
Of course not, he’s only scolding Biden because the Dems are letting the cat out of the bag. That Wall Street types like Dimon (and RMoney) are dependent on the dumb MAGAt and Teahaddist minions voting for the ‘right’ party so they can continue to get those fat corporate
subsidieswelfare checks and tax breaks. The deplorables are slowly waking up to the fact that they are sucker at the trickle down poker table.Brachiator
Then why the hell are they voting for Trump? I suspect that Dimon shares MAGA values. And that’s not good at all for someone with his influence.
In the Iowa Caucus, Nikki Hayley did well in Johnson County, where there is a university and voters who acknowledge that Biden won in 2020. At one point, she and Trump both had about 35.5 percent of the vote and Hayley led by a single vote.
There are more of these Republicans in other states, and it might be possible to peel some of these people away from voting for the GOP at all.
Cheryl from Maryland
@prostratedragon: Ugh, Sinclair taking over the Baltimore Sun. David Simon is promoting the Baltimore Banner, a non-profit online news site, and I signed up today for six months at $1.00.
Citizen Alan
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I will go further than that. I don’t believe it’s possible to become a billionaire without either engaging In grossly unethical, if not criminal, conduct or else being the first or second generation heir of someone who did.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, out on my walk this morning I met a kindly old neighbor with her dog. She said, in an off-hand way, that she’s going to be dogsitting her daughter’s dog because her daughter is a bigwig with the March to Life [sic!!] rally tomorrow.
Ack!!
She’s a sweet woman, but she lives in a different world… :-(
[ sigh ]
They won’t give up. We have to keep fighting them every single day, even when they’re sweet little old ladies.
Cheers,
Scott.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: Hillary was so polite and restrained when she called them deplorable and said it was only a percentage of them. Deplorable affords them far more dignity than any of them deserve.
Anyway
@UncleEbeneezer:
For me it was when he took that full page ad in FTFNYT about the murder of the Central park jogger. He did not believe DNA results exonerated the five wrongly arrested men.
smith
Aw, shit. TFG just won a small judicial ruling. Chutkan just ruled that neither side can file substantive briefs while the trial is stayed. Jack Smith has been tormenting TFG by doing just that — filing briefs with damaging new evidence that the other side can’t respond to (because they had already stamped their feet and declared they won’t do it and you can’t make them).
Bill Arnold
That OP is the sort of criticism that Mr. Jamie Dimon should read, then slowly re-read 9 more times, or until it starts making sense to him.
trollhattan
@Bill Arnold: Doesn’t he have people for that?
JCJ
@Citizen Alan:
LeBron? What do you think he did?
JoyceH
They are calling for us to be killed, but we’re the ones who are supposed to be more polite and understanding?!
frosty
@Cheryl from Maryland:
I signed up for the Banner too. One buck to check it out for half a year seemed like a good deal. Gotta unclick all the alerts though!
cain
Jamie Mammon is an asshole. Scolding us despite being pilloried and threatened by the MAGA crowd along with their right wing influencers. Yet somehow we are the ones that are churlish.
Fuck your feelings, Jamie – may someone shove one of Trump’s diapers in your mouth.
Another Scott
@Anyway: There was a Frontline or similar show about the case a few years ago that has stuck with me.
The print and TV reporting at the time was breathless and over the top about “wilding” and out of control kids going around attacking people for fun. The guys actually said that they were out “wiling” – as in “wiling away the hours”, just wandering around doing stuff. Things that every young person does. (It looks like it was a Ken Burns show.)
The reporting was yet another example of old white guys having no understanding or interest in other people not in their insular group and misinterpreting stuff (often intentionally to drive panic and ratings) rather than actually taking an interest and listening to what people say. And then, TIFG jumped in with both feet, hoping to make everything worse.
Grr…,
Scott.
cain
ikr??! It’s always been this way – especially from the national press. Relentless scolding. Never mind that Dem politicians get asked questions that is always about why we don’t coddle the MAGA people but the reverse is not true.
So sick of people treating MAGA like they are the real Americans and the rest of us are poseurs.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Capitalist employment is unethical as it necessarily occurs under duress.
Brachiator
Most individuals got a tax cut, especially people in red states without a state income tax. And conservatives either don’t care that corporations got a tax cut or falsely believe that corporations and individuals got the same amount of tax relief.
And while the GOP tax cuts were permanent for corporations, the individual tax cuts will expire in 2025.
One point that pundits refuse to emphasize is that the GOP lied (as usual) that the tax cuts would grow the economy and greatly increase federal revenue. But as every honest economist predicted, the cuts increased the deficit.
catclub
Peter Thiel is still available.
Manyakitty
@Matt McIrvin: exactly this.
catclub
Bill Gates, Warren Buffett. I don’t consider the sharp business dealings of Microsoft unethical.
Marmot
@cain: And why won’t Obama appoint Republicans to his cabinet?
Brachiator
@Citizen Alan:
Why draw the line at billionaires?
And isn’t any economic system at best amoral and often unethical? This is why we have laws and regulations.
Adam Lang
A vivid image.
RandomMonster
@frosty
@Cheryl from Maryland
RandomMrs signed up, too, and added me as a guest. A bargain for two people.
WaterGirl
@Chief Oshkosh: I couldn’t resist adding this as a rotating tag.
How I hate that man!
beckya57
Bowie would approve of your appropriation in the service of calling out this greedy creep
Soprano2
Yep, this is why they like him and the thing that outfits like the New York Times can never say, thus their never-ending efforts to understand the TFG voters. They CAN’T understand them, because they cannot write this in their paper. These people want to be able to mock women, gay people, trans people, minorities, the disabled, pretty much everyone who isn’t like them and not be held to account for it by anyone. It’s why so many middle-aged white comics hate liberals now, they think we’ve ruined comedy by taking away all of their lazy jokes.
Chris
@Another Scott:
Something about being rich just breaks your fucking brain.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: Banks are now fee-gathering institutions who just happen to have bank accounts and make loans. They make millions of dollars on bank and credit card fees every year.
Villago Delenda Est
Dimon has been due for a tumbrel ride for at least two decades now.
Villago Delenda Est
@Soprano2: Billions.
Anyway
What does Dimon have against NATO? He agreed with Dolt45’s attempts to kneecap it…
Anyway
@Soprano2:
ETA Everyone wants to be a rentier. Wages are for proles
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
He’s trying to get into the lucratively corrupt Russian market…
Anyway
Deleted
Chris
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
To be honest, part of me wouldn’t mind bringing back idle richness. Make it respectable again for rich clueless failsons to spend their entire life yachting from beach to beach drinking rum and dating supermodels. Better than having them “earn” their wealth by “working” in politics, in business, and in other places where their shittiness and cluelessness has the potential to really fuck up the world for millions of people, as opposed to just their immediate surroundings.
I mean, nobody likes the Kardashians, but nobody worries about them buying and tanking the world’s largest social media platform, or gambling with the nation’s wealth until they cause a recession, or buying a presidential administration that can start a war with the first oil-rich country they can find on a map, either.
mrmoshpotato
Jamie can go fuck himself into the Sun, and take Dump and his Soviet shitpile mobster crime family with him.
Brachiator
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Unfortunate. I hope the Banner success. It’s tough for all news media, no matter what model they use.
Here in Southern California, the LA Times is struggling, even though a billionaire with deep pockets bought them.
Soprano2
@Marmot: Oh yeah *rolleyes* You notice none of them asked why TFG wouldn’t appoint Democrats to his cabinet. They really do believe Republicans are the stoic, serious “daddies” who need to be there to keep the frivolous, air-headed “mommy” Democrats in line.
Terraformer
I’m not convinced people like Dimon *aren’t* in charge
mrmoshpotato
@p.a.:
LMAO! Well said!
prostratedragon
@Cheryl from Maryland: Huh, I’m in Chicago but will look into that.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Chris: As long as the Kardashian kids continue inheriting money, that will be a threat. Money is the last major democratically unaccountable source of power.
Ruckus
@Poe Larity:
Naw, he just doesn’t have any taste……
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
Chance of snow in DC tomorrow morning, they want to get out before then.
The bomb throwers are upset that they don’t get their bombs.
Cheers,
Scott.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Villago Delenda Est:
Every Billionaire Is A Policy Failure.
Kay
I think it’s really calculated. They all believe Trump is going to win, they all want Trump to win because he’ll cut their taxes and gut regulation of their industries so they’re working in concert to convince voters he’s not a threat.
Same old, same old. They’re nothing if not predictable.
Some of the other Davos lemmings are saying Trump isn’t a threat because Democrats in Congress will mitigate the damage. They want it both ways- they want a functioning country but they don’t want to pay taxes or follow laws. They think they can have both. Again- same as it ever was. Coddled privileged people want everything and they demand you give it to them.
Baud
@Another Scott:
It’s going to be harder and harder for them to shut down the government as we get closer to election day.
TBone
@satby:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XMQSVsDHGD8
Baud
@Kay:
Reminds me of how they turned against Obama because of Dodd Frank.
Ruckus
@p.a.:
If they shoved the microphone up his ass instead of putting it in his face his “message” would actually have contained less shit.
This is crying out to be repeated.
Kay
I’m amused they’re all so confident their boy Trump will win. Did they learn nothing from incorrectly predicting a recession for the last 4 years?
It’s also amusing that it’s 100% Trump backers. Such original thinkers! Such diversity of debate!
Lol. They’re the most conventional, dull thinkers on the planet.
Ruckus
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Frankly, if you have a billion dollars, it damn near certain came from the productivity of a lot of people with a lot less than you have. But you own them.
FIXITFY
Geminid
@Anyway: As in other things, Dimon is giving Trump the benefit of the doubt. Trump complained that NATO countries hadn’t met their commitment to increased defense spending. I believe there was a goal of spending 2% of GDP. Here, Trump’s criticism was correct although insincere and overstated.
I guess it’s possible that Dimon believes in a stronger NATO, but Trump clearly does not. He showed that in his last weeks when he tried to pull US troops out of Germany. Trump’s presidency proved that he is an isolationist, and likely worse– a traitor.
Dimon is overlooking this. I can think of several reasons he might, but none are good.
Ruckus
@gwangung:
They are the Masters, they never think they have to keep their mouths shut.
3Sice
A dust bunny might give the appearance of, if not sentience, then animation, but it is just blowing around in the air currents.
Kay
@Baud:
I think this may become clearer as the election gets closer, that 90% of the opposition to Biden is because he’s the most liberal president economically in the last 50 years. They don’t oppose the Woke Mind Virus. They oppose a pro labor NLRB.
They oppose him on economic policy. These mediocre millionaires and billionaires did really, really well with Reaganomics. All the rest is bullshit- it’s the money. They want Trump for the tax cuts and the anti worker policy.
prostratedragon
@smith: She says they have to ask first, with justifications of course. And the motion to hold SC in contempt was denied.
Ksmiami
@Another Scott: tell her I’m making a donation to planned parenthood on behalf of her daughter… cheers.
JWR
@Anyway:
He said that he thought Trump was “kind of right about NATO”, which I would take to mean that he thought Trump was “kind of right” that NATO countries should up the percentage of their economies dedicated to the organization, but who knows?
TBone
@Another Scott: I was remarking to hubby about the price of a can of soup one day at the market, little old lady shouts “Thank everyone who voted for Biden for these prices!” I shouted back “GET A GRIP LADY, HE’S GOT NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!” First time I ever yelled at a little old lady.
Baud
@TBone: 👍
Chris
@Kay:
Honestly, this feels like the whole dynamic of the last couple decades. Virtually every other institution in America has abdicated any responsibility for their part of society in the confidence that the national maid, i.e. the Democratic Party, will do their job for them. The rich don’t need to do anything to keep the economy of even their own companies running properly, because when the economy collapses the Democrats will fix it again. The FBI doesn’t need to do anything about Russian interference in elections or support for American politicians, because the Democrats will beat them in the election anyway. The media doesn’t need to worry if the politicians they root for will stamp on their liberties, because if they try the Democrats will stop them. And far too many voters, honestly, have this issue too: they don’t need to vote and if they do they don’t need to vote responsibly, because the Democrats will stop the fun politicians they elect from breaking anything really important.
I have no idea how this year’s election or the next few election cycles will ultimately turn out, but if American democracy does ultimately come crashing down like some people fear, it’ll be because of this dynamic. All of society deciding to simply pass off their jobs onto the one institution that’s even trying to do theirs, until they one day find out that no, the maid can’t actually do the job of every single person in the house, and if you try things are going to break eventually.
Chris
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
I’d rather have no billionaires at all, obviously. But as long as we do, I’d rather society orient them towards slacking off and doing useless shit with their lives.
Baud
@Chris:
👍
The term is free rider, and it is the bane of our current politics.
Kay
Here’s Jamie Dimon a couple of months ago, before he felt he needed to tell the public that everything is fine and they can safely vote for his candidate, Donald Trump:
Just a completely unreliable, wholly self interested liar. God almighty, what these people will do for a tax cut. How many fucking yachts can one person use?
Untrustworthy, dishonest people.
Betty Cracker
Pathetic loser DeSantis is questioning Nikki Haley’s viability in her home state, not acknowledging that his own home state problem is worse:
The FL Politics article cites several polls that show Trump crushing DeSantis in Florida by close to a 40% margin. The primary here is 3/19.
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
Yeah. Intellectually, they are herd animals.
(You used lemmings; that works too.)
mrmoshpotato
@JoyceH:
Umm, yeah. Don’t you know it’s ok if you’re a Rethuglican?
Kay
@Chris:
Democrats can keep the trains running on time while the Right wing loonies shower huge wads of cash on people like Jamie Dimon. Works out great for him!
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker: Maybe Meatball Ron needs a different style of Fuck Me boots.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Haley seems to genuinely believe she would beat Biden by 17. Delusional.
TBone
@TBone: @satby that vid was my response to the Orange Cloaca talking about bad apples. The article is awesome and correct. “Again and again, until every voter has heard their voices.”
Bill Arnold
@TBone:
She shouted first.
Old School
IANAL, but lawyers on Twitter seem to think this exchange from the E. Jean Carroll trial is hilarious, so I’ll post for the lawyers here:
geg6
Fuck that guy. Just fuck him with a rusty chainsaw.
Brachiator
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Despite their fame, I don’t know that much about these “celebrities.” I know that Robert Kardashian was an OJ Simpson attorney. He was also a successful businessman, but I didn’t think that he was fabulously wealthy. Don’t know anything about the mother or her family.
I think that Kim has earned her own pile by taking advantage of her celebrity status in the age of social media.
mrmoshpotato
@TBone: Does she think we’re living under communism?
(I love these idiots who think “the government” sent their jobs overseas. No, idiots. The greedy bastards who fired you sent your job overseas so they could cut costs and puff up their bank accounts.)
Brachiator
@Old School:
I’m not a lawyer, but this stuff seems … amateurish?
Chris
@TBone:
I would also have accepted “IT’S CALLED CAPITALISM YOU TWIT.”
JWR
From NPR:
And NBC TV described it as scathing. Good!
TBone
@Betty Cracker: may be of interest, maybe not.
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/so-god-made-a-meme?publication_id=2037691&post_id=140803037&isFreemail=true&r=229wz
Jeffro
This is 110% true and it’s horrifying that the blessed 1% think that they can ‘ride the trump train’ and nothing bad will happen, to them or the country as a whole (and in that order too, of course).
hoppie
@Citizen Alan:
“Then each time Fleetwood would be not so much overcome by remorse as bedazzled at having been shown the secret backlands of wealth, and how sooner or later it depended on some act of murder, seldom limited to once.”
– Thomas Pynchon Against the Day
TBone
@Bill Arnold: Fox News Barbie 😆
Jeffro
OT but this is rich: Nancy Mace’s ex-chief-of-staff is considering challenging her in a primary.
LOL
(kind of like a former president’s ex-ambassador to the UN challenging him in a primary, come to think of it…)
Brachiator
@Kay:
Democrats can’t mitigate anything if they are not in power. The Republicans were solely responsible for the 2017 tax cuts. The Democrats were completely frozen out of any consultation.
The super rich think that they can isolate themselves from any economic decline. They can hide away in well stocked gated communities or move to a more stable foreign country if things get too bad at home.
Soprano2
@Baud: I think there will be continuing resolutions until after the election. The R’s cannot get their shit together to vote on anything, and anything they did vote on couldn’t pass in the Senate. I hope Democrats run hard on the fact that the R’s can’t govern worth a damn. They can’t even do the basic things a government is supposed to do. ETA – plus, the Speaker has publicly admitted that they don’t want to do anything about the border (which they all claim is a five-alarm fire emergency) as long as Biden is president.
Ken
I haven’t seen any online lawyers call it amateurish, but they have said it falls well short of what’s expected of second-year law students in their first mock trial.
TBone
@Old School: ♾️😆
Bill Arnold
@Kay:
The team he is now rooting for mostly believes that nuclear proliferation is not a worry (except for Iran), that climate change is a hoax, or way over-hyped (check the polling), and that the COVID-19 pandemic was either not real, or at least that the measures taken against it were order-of-magnitude excessive. With smaller subgroups within the team holding considerably more delusional positions.
Curiously, the first two are my top two concerns as well (in the same order). (The third, well, back-to-back pandemics are always a possibility.)
West of the Rockies
We need to stop treating wilfully ignorant, bigoted rubes like wilfully ignorant, bigoted rubes. Okay, I guess.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I think they don’t realize that a second TFG presidency wouldn’t be anything like the first. They think there will be guard rails to hold off the worst things TFG wants to do, like there were the first time. What they don’t understand is that most of the guard rails will either be removed, or not be there at all. TFG will be out for revenge against anyone he thinks has wronged him, and he’ll have a puppet at DOJ to do whatever he wants. It won’t be Jeff Sessions who at least understood what the DOJ can and cannot do. And so on, at every agency and every Cabinet department.
TBone
Day started badly with chainsaws out my bedroom window, neighbor destroying a perfectly good shade tree for what reason. But I come here and can smile through the sound of chainsaws and chippers. Thanks errybuddy.
Brachiator
@JWR:
This drives me crazy. The report explodes the fantasy that law enforcement will always be hyper competent heroes who arrive in the nick of time.
But it won’t change anything. The right will fight against any reasonable gun laws.
cckids
He did not care that the DNA didn’t match. I remember him saying that even if they didn’t commit this particular crime they “weren’t angels”, so . . . it didn’t matter that they spent years in jail.
I’d love for someone to bring that attitude to every one of Trump’s current trials. “Even if we can’t prove he did this, he’s no angel, am I right? Lock him up anyway!”
Marmot
@Geminid:
Not really. TFG more than once complained that other NATO countries weren’t “paying their dues,” which has been a common GOP complaint for years, often stated just like that.
But of course, NATO doesn’t run on dues like some dumb golfing club, and TFG was just lazily repeating complaints he’d heard elsewhere. That his complaint resembled reality a little bit, that was coincidental.
different-church-lady
“I want Trump to win, so Biden needs to take my advice” is really quite a take.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
Baud
@different-church-lady:
I think it’s commonplace, and not just among the super wealthy.
HeleninEire
What a wanker. This asshole, and all of his buddies, should have been sent to jail in 2008. And rather than putting his tail between his legs, thanking the Goddess that he got away with it, and disappearing into his bubble, he thinks it’s a good idea to open his piehole and tell me what I should think, and how I should be kind to my enemies.
Fucking Wanker.
different-church-lady
@Hoodie: Everyone thinks they can ride the tiger.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: If the US becomes a one-party dictatorship, there’s no Mr. Fixit coming to take over and repair everything when the dictator screws up. That’s kind of the whole problem with dictatorship.
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
zhena gogolia
@Matt McIrvin: Look at Russia.
Miss Bianca
@Soprano2: Whereas in reality, the GOP are the alcoholic, abusive “daddies” who smack the shit out of you and expect you to be grateful for it, while the Democratic “mommies” are the ones cleaning up the daddies’ messes and trying to scrape up enough do-re-mi to bust the kids out of the dysfunctional household.
If we really want to go the whole none yards with that analogy…
frosty
Who mans the gates? They’re going to need security. How long will it take for their security team to look up at the big house and ask themselves “Why are we risking our lives for this dweeb when we could kill him and take his money.”
In the Middle Ages the Noblemen started out as the worst cutthroats and kept their armies in line the same way. When things descend to areas run by warlords? Money won’t mean nuthin’.
Brachiator
@Geminid:
Trump turned this into spiteful revenge, which the MAGA crowd love. Steve Bannon gave an interview in the UK in which he bluntly claimed that the prosperity of European countries came at America’s expense. He went on to use this to justify Trump’s hard America First position and probable exit from NATO.
Strangely Bannon claimed that this would also make Europe meekly fall in behind American dominance.
Bill Arnold
@different-church-lady:
True, but at least JPMorgan Chase (if not Mr. Dimon personally) has a considerable and high-powered team devoted to tiger-riding-safety (risk assessment).
Chris
@Brachiator:
One of the commenters at LGM makes an interesting dichotomy between plutocrats (people who have money and use it to gain power) and kleptocrats (people who have power and use it to gain money). His point being that the former are the natural prey of the latter. (Putin’s expropriation of oligarchs that wouldn’t bend the knee to him being the ur-example).
For plutocrats to thrive, you need a society that’s at least minimally rules-based enough that the leader of the country can’t wake up one day, decide that he’s going to claim all your money, and drop you out of a window if you object. The more the rich do to destroy government and regulation, the more they expose themselves to that happening. And even bending the knee and deciding that you’re going to be one of the kleptocrat’s stooges might not save you: the number of people who thought they were Trump’s BFFs only to see him hang them out to dry the moment he felt like it is not small.
Marmot
@different-church-lady:
Isn’t it? I know this lady who sees herself as a real thinker and doer, a mainstream Repub who wants to run for governor, doles out business and lifestyle advice. You understand.
One of her 2018 LinkedIn thought-leader pieces was on how Democrats needed to stop doing something or other — otherwise she’d vote Republican.
It reminded me of Spy‘s “Buy this magazine or we’ll shoot this dog.”
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Meanwhile in NY, a Long Island CNM (Certified Nurse Midwife) is fined just $300,000 for falsifying vaccine records for 1500 schoolchildren. My question – why is she still a nurse…
Midwife falsified vaccine records
Jeannette Breen “supplied children with a series of homeopathic oral pellets instead of the required vaccinations, and then falsified their immunization records,” according to CNN.
Breen marketed the pellets as alternatives to vaccines for diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, polio, rubella and other diseases.
“Breen was found to have administered 12,449 fake immunizations to roughly 1,500 school-aged patients as pretext for submitting false information to the New York State Immunization Information System (NYSIIS),” the press release said.
Matt McIrvin
@Chris: Reminds me of how short the life expectancy was of people who were in Stalin’s inner circle.
Martin
Oh, no, they absolutely are. Not quite in the way he thinks, though. They 100% respect his rule-breaking and assertion that the law can only be used to protect him. They’re envious of that shit and want him to do that on their behalf.
Another Scott
@Soprano2: A year long CR would mean huge (tens of billions in) non-defense cuts, based on the budget agreement in the law signed a few months ago.
They’ve got to get a budget done.
Cheers,
Scott.
Chris
@Marmot:
Even more to the point, NATO is a tool that gives the United States a massive interest in the national security system of half the developed world, while turning their countries into the U.S. military’s largest forward-advanced-base/unsinkable-aircraft-carrier, and allowing them to reduce their own armaments to the point that they’re no longer the peer competitors that they were for us before World War Two.
The plain fact is that if every other NATO member contributed zero dollars to it and Uncle Sam really did foot the entire bill, it would still be a ridiculously good deal for us, and the idea that we were somehow being exploited would still be fucking ridiculous.
TBone
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: A lot of nurses here have bible quote tattoos. I try to steer clear. I hope she gets the measles the hard way.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Change that to Africa and the Caribbean’s expense and you’d be far closer to reality.
UncleEbeneezer
Ooh, I definitely want to read this (Elliott Williams on Twitter):
David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch
@zhena gogolia:
some people look at Russia from their house
Another Scott
@Marmot: Nit – National Lampoon.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who is probably the 10th quasi-old person to note this.)
frosty
@Marmot: National Lampoon
ETA Beaten by seconds by Another Scott!! Seconds I wasted trying to find a good link to an image of the cover and failing, unlike Another Scott.
Matt McIrvin
@frosty: I think it was Hobbes who made the interesting point that nobody ever rules any polity by fear alone, if it’s bigger than a household with a few people. Because even if you’re going to rule by fear, you need enforcers, and you need to be able to keep those guys in line, either by making sure it’s materially worth their while or because they like and respect you for some reason.
Reminds me of that.
Marmot
@Martin:
So true. Lately I’ve been surprised we don’t characterize MAGA — and Repubs — as simply unscrupulous.
All this deep consideration of their thoughts and feelings, motivations and personal values. That’s all bullshit. They’ll say or do anything to get their way. That’s why they love a con-man rapist.
Brachiator
@Chris:
Interesting distinction. China has more billionaires and a more stable economy than Russia. China has reined in, even “disappeared” some plutocrats who got out of hand or excessively corrupt by Chinese standards.
Even with Putin in control, Russia has a hard time keeping a lid on the kleptocrats.
Chris
@frosty:
If you ever think your opinion of rich people can’t sink any deeper, google some of these stories about nervous billionaires buying apocalypse-prepped bunkers.
One of the most oft-recurring questions is “but how do I prevent my security force and/or my servants from rising up and killing me?” And their consultants keep telling them, well, you need to do something to inspire and maintain their loyalty: there are, y’know, entire manuals advising newly minted officers on how to earn and keep the respect of their soldiers. But the billionaires invariably respond by wailing and gnashing their teeth, because they don’t want that, it’s so much work, and it sounds like touchy-feely woke bullshit anyway, don’t you have anything that would help me just be in charge no matter what? And then they start asking about increasingly cartoonish measures like shock collars and deadman switches.
Sure Lurkalot
@satby: Sarah Longwell via Charlie Fucking Sykes:
So funny I forgot to laugh.
As I recall, Bill Barr criticisms of Trump did not preclude him from stating that he would consider voting for him again.
Just as soon listen to Jamie Dimon as the Bulwark, the Lincoln Project dudes, the ever expanding cast of “reformed” Republicans on MSNBC and the political and op-ed desks of the FTFNYT.
Martin
Foggy drive up to NorCal this morning. The southwest is interesting that when the rest of the country is getting drab and colorless, California greens up and gets more vibrant.
I think I finally realized why my dislike for trucks is so intense. Growing up the assholes that would race up behind you were usually motorcycles and sports cars – small things that if they rear ended you with a 20mph closing rate would certainly do more damage to them than me. Pickup trucks were always in the slow lane puttering along with their load. But now it’s always trucks. Not only are they the biggest things on the road but also the fastest, and when a 5,000 lb Dodge Ram doing 85 tags you in the back, it’s going to really fuck you up. And these guys don’t realize they may have a big engine and 4WD, but their ability to stop is a function of their weight. They have the same contact patch as my Prius but a LOT more energy to scrub off.
Geminid
@Soprano2: Well, that certainly could be a problem for most of us. Maybe Dimon hopes fatcats like him can still make out okay if they spin the right line of bullshit at Davos.
Dimon really could be certain Trump will win. Maybe he’s not though, but wants to hedge his bets in case Trump does win, like a very corrupt version of Pascal’s Wager.
Another Scott
@Another Scott:
The House will be voting on the
Permanent Electronic Duck StampsCR in a few 10s of minutes. It’s expected to pass easily with Democratic support. The bomb-throwers haz a sad.Cheers,
Scott.
Marmot
@Another Scott: Holy shit! Thanks for posting that — it’s been awhile. I was told about it by some older folks. ;-P
wjca
A few years back, I was on a jury (an assault & battery case). One of the jurors, a fireman, said “I’ve worked with policemen. If they arrested him, he must be guilty of something.” Details like, was he guilty of what he was charged with, let alone had it been proven, apparently didn’t matter to him.
In the event, the defendant was found Not Guilty. How did we turn that juror around? He resented having to be there at all (he thought a plea bargin should have been made so he wouldn’t have to). Once we made clear that, if he held out for guilty, he would have to come back for another day of deliberations,he caved. Ah, our justice system in action.
Martin
@Chris: Given how much money the US had spent intervening in wars between European nations (and recovery efforts), if NATO had only served to keep Europe at peace with itself it was still a good deal. A century of peace is cheaper than a year of war.
Bill Arnold
@TBone:
Definitely of interest. They’re playing to the Christian Supremacist part of Trump’s base.
Many thanks for the link.
Marmot
@frosty: Bridesmaids unite!
frosty
@Chris: Good summary, I don’t think I need to dig deeper. For a funny corollary, think about the ones getting cryogenically frozen so they can be woken up in the future without dying.
Like yeah, who’s gonna want to wake up this asshole? Let’s pull the plug and take his stuff.
Chris
@Brachiator:
China’s also been regressing. There was a brief few decades in the late twentieth/early twenty-first century when they tried to make their system at least a little more orderly and rules-based and not just a one-man regime with a Sauron-figure at the top whose whims are law. Since Xi Jinping came to power, he’s been devolving it more and more into a one-man system where everything’s about him. I wouldn’t be surprised if it starts to look more and more like Russia in the future. (Heck, it already looks more like that than it did in 2014).
trollhattan
Kill me now. Just make it quick.
“I have feels about a thing. Elect me to one of your two senate seats.” must be my favorite campaign strategy.
geg6
@TBone:
I have no compunctions about telling these assholes off, especially the old ones (FYI, I’m old). I’m sick and tired of their bullshit and I intend to continue to tell them they’re assholes to their faces. Sick, sick, sick of them. They don’t frighten me and I don’t give a shit about “community” or “politeness” or “neighborliness” at all any more. I’m going to call them out every time. Did it with a student the other day. Fuck that little asshole. I’m eligible for SS now. I don’t care anymore.
Miss Bianca
@Chris: OMG. That sounds like a really fucking *great* bleak black comedy scenario right there.
Like, think Office Space with lethal weaponry. Lethal Office Space? Mike Judd, are you out there lurking? C’mon, man!
frosty
I had a similar experience on a civil case. The foreman figured out we didn’t have to look at all the documentation and figure out the damages if we held for the party being sued. We took a vote, 11 of us were in favor, it took us 10 minutes to convince the holdout and we were done. Our justice system in action!
But to be fair, the plaintiff’s case was BS.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@frosty: I read a story once about a wealthy man who used his money to freeze himself to cheat death.
He invested heavily in physical security of the facility and set his lawyers hard at work to ensure his body was safe and could only be used in the manner he wanted.
But rules change. And you don’t have a say after you die. Father time took this man to visit his future self. He visited a sad future with incredible technology and people who lived dead lives and felt nothing because there’s nothing new to accomplish.
Father time brought him to a theater, where he showed the wealthy man this society had appropriated his head to display his memories to the crowd. The only way they can experience a full life.
Miss Bianca
@wjca: Read the opening scenes of Dorothy L. Sayers’s Strong Poison (if you haven’t already) and you’ll see her variations on that particular theme. :)
Marmot
@Chris:
Oh, good point.
Well, I guess it looks like nationalism doesn’t quite turn out to benefit the actual nation, somehow.
Princess
Isn’t it interesting that yesterday Trump told billionaires that they’d better pay up and donate to his campaign if the expect any favours and today they all line up to wash his balls.
Frank Wilhoit
Long ago, in Columbus, Ohio, there was a local bank called Bank One. It expanded too fast (late 1980s), and consequently got into the expectable kinds of trouble, and was acquired by one of its competitors at a fire-sale price. Its CEO failed upwards until eventually he would up running the bank that had acquired [the bank that had acquired, etc.] Bank One. His name was Jamie Dimon. No one in the Columbus business community, back then, would have given you a nickel for him. He has always been a gaffe machine — as, for that matter, Joe Biden once was; but Biden not only had the explanation of brain-tumor surgery, but has spent decades training himself discipline, with results that hardly any other victim of a right-brain injury has ever been able to achieve. What’s Dimon’s excuse?
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator:
You know what, I don’t have a problem with this. I think the idea of people become rich solely because of nebulous “celebrity influencer” status is ridiculous, and I have never watched a single episode of any show she was on. But whatever money she’s made off of her celebrity status (ignoring for the moment that her being Robert Shapiro’s daughter gave her leg up) stems intrinsically from her as a person and how she’s skillfully managed to leverage the advantages given to her.
That’s why I think actors, authors and other creatives, and top-tier athletes are the only people in the country who genuinely deserve multi-million dollar salaries: they create value through their direct and unique contributions that otherwise would not exist. You could not take Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling out of Barbie and replace them with any random actor, but I’ll wager you could take literally anyone who graduated top of their class with an MBA and put them in charge of JPMorgan, and they’d do at least as good a job (or “job,” I should say) as Jamie Fucking Dimon.
NotMax
@Chris
Coming soon to penthouse home theaters everywhere — The Stepford Servants.
//
Scout211
@trollhattan:
”I don’t need to tell you what I would do to fix these horrible problems because I am Steve Fucking Garvey, famous Dodgers and Padres pitcher.”
Idiot.
NotMax
@Scout211
“Only the best people.”
;)
wjca
In our case, the testimony of the victim was simply not credible. It was a matter of simple physics. Unless you believe that someone can have a thrown hammer bounce off his ribs and end up 5-10 yards away (in the direction it came from, i.e. not a glancing blow), events simply could not have happened as he claimed.
satby
@TBone: I figured 😊. Glad you liked it.
Glidwrith
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I haven’t read the thread yet, but it’s dropped down the memory hole that JPMorgan, with Dimon at the helm, was one of the people/banks responsible for the Great Recession and he’s been fined multiple times for his financial transgressions.
He’s what the Shitgibbon wants to be.
TBone
@Chris: I pointed that out (shock collars) to my financial advisor once, when he told me about visiting his MIL’s gun bunker, oops “estate compound for the family.”
UncleEbeneezer
@frosty: Me three. Liability was already assumed and we just had to come up with the damages amount but it was a tricky scenario and there were solid arguments for both low and high-ball amounts. We couldn’t reach a consensus by quitting time on Friday (we didn’t even start to deliberate until Friday afternoon) and so we all had to come back in on Monday morning, which nobody was happy about. On Monday, we weren’t supposed to be thinking about our personal schedules, etc., but I know we all compromised more than we probably wanted to just to get out of there.
satby
@Sure Lurkalot: Well, she’s not talking to Democrats like you is she? That’s the point; and I posted it in response to this statement from Betty up top:
Another Scott
@Frank Wilhoit: Nit – two aneurisms.
I didn’t know that Dimon started in Ohio.
Fun fact, Jonathan Winters*’s family started Winters Bank, which became Bank One.
Cheers,
Scott.
(* – Youngsters – “Who??”)
TBone
@Bill Arnold: my pleasure!
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator: In my more paranoid moments, I worry that AI and robotic automation will soon advance to the point that robots will be effective and efficient servants for people rich enough to own them. At which point, the billionaires will send out AI-controlled and heavily armed drones to “reduce the surplus population.” I mean, do we all not agree that the only reason the billionaires haven’t already started outright culling the human race is because they’re afraid their own bodyguards and security forces will turn on them?
Brachiator
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone:
She seems like some kind of alternative medicine fanatic.
TBone
@geg6: I have also reached the IDGAF stage of my existence. Molotov!
Ken
Someday we may see a company address the apparent contradiction between having to pay huge salaries to the executive team to retain their unique skills and knowledge, with their ability to almost instantly replace any member of that team on retirement, death, arrest, SEC investigations, “leaving to spend more time with my family”….
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I can’t promise anything until a Senator because I, like the rest of us,don’t know what’s reeeaaaalllllyyyy true until I’m in the club.
Citizen Alan
@frosty:
My belief is that most MAGAts want to turn America into Somalia for White Christians precisely because they expect to be the regional warlords. Instead of, you know, the starving peasant who dances when the bandits shoot at his feet.
Brachiator
@Citizen Alan:
I think that the middle class and many others will come to depend on robots.
And in my more paranoid moments I think that AI and automated devices will look at all humans as surplus population.
Ksmiami
@Chris: this X 10000. The higher up the food chain you are in an authoritarian country, the more of a target you become for the Dictator.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Glidwrith: Exactly, Dimon has caused almost incalculable societal harm. He is a net negative producer. Yet he has billions and those who produce have nothing.
Time to start seizing the means of production.
Citizen Alan
@Another Scott: Can they not put some bullshit language in the CR that obviates those automatic cuts? Serious question, because I don’t actually know the extent to which CRs have the force of law, but I do know that, generally speaking, it is impossible for Present Congress to completely tie the hands of Future Congress.
Chris
@Citizen Alan:
The concept of surplus people is definitely already a thing (euphemistically referred to as “the problem of overpopulation”). Expect it to become more and more mainstream as the fallout from global warming unfolds.
I mean, not to put too fine a point on it, but the entire subtext (if you can even call it that) behind Elon Musk’s “what if colonies on Mars?” fantasy comes down to creating a new world, where no one but the rich, the white, and above all, the people pre-selected by Elon Musk and a handful of other billionaires as being worthy of continued existence, will be able to escape to when the shit hits the fan. While the rest of us are left to drown on the planet that they broke and then stuck us with.
It’s never actually going to happen, because colonization of other planets is an insanely stupid and unachievable goal given our current level of technology. But the fact that this is what people like Elon Musk fantasize about tells you everything you need to know about what they want to do with us.
wjca
I think that’s a fine idea, actually. Of course, none of them would stoop to writing software for those drones. And they could be programmed to make “net worth over 1 billion” a marker for “surplus”.
Unintended consequences, if you will. Or maybe just: That’s an oops!
Citizen Alan
@Geminid: That’s a valid point. For Dimon, there’s really no downside to sucking up to Shitgibbon. What’s the worst that can happen? If Biden wins, maybe Dimon’s taxes will go up and maybe there will be some more banking regulations that will cut into JPM’s profits (or not–SCOTUS is already teeing up a decision to destroy the regulatory state). But Joe Biden is not going to direct the Justice Department to go after Jamie Dimon personally for whatever bullshit they can make up. Shitgibbon probably will to literally anyone who “hasn’t treated him nicely” or whatever.
Chris
@Citizen Alan:
Another interesting point that I’ve heard made about this:
You always hear survivalists talk about the huge arsenals that they’ll need to protect themselves from looters after The Event. You never hear them talk about the crops, cattle, and other things that they’ll actually need to protect from the looters after The Event.
And that’s because they’re not, in fact, planning to protect themselves from looters. They’re planning on being the looters.
wjca
Assumes facts not in evidence. Specifically that they have thought this thru and actually have a plan to survive (beyond the moment that their stored food run out). Maybe they figure that, before that happens, some kind of government will reassert itself and take out whatever they think looters are? Who knows? I just can’t get my head around the mindset.
lowtechcyclist
@satby:
Well, she’s saying all the former Trump officials who’ve been critical of Trump need to go on a crusade against him. Would be great if it happened, but it’s not going to. They don’t think this is their battle; they undoubtedly think they’ve done enough by criticizing him at all. It’s up to us.
Here’s what she wants Bill Barr to do:
“Bill Barr speaking plainly” – isn’t that an oxymoron? Sheesh. I’d love to peek in on a timeline where that’s even possible.
Villago Delenda Est
@Citizen Alan: This is the most likely scenario of all those Randite glibertarians out there. They think they’ll be the new feudal lords. Silly wabbits.
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: Logistics are not their strong suit. Logistics never are for gun nuts.
Citizen Alan
@Brachiator:
Maybe, but I’m just saying that long before we get to the point of an actual Skynet, we’ll have AIs that are not truly self-aware but can efficiently handle instructions like “Shoot everyone manning the picket line.”
Villago Delenda Est
@Chris: The plot of Moonraker. Elno imagines himself as Hugo Drax.
Citizen Alan
@Scout211: What makes this particularly chilling to me is that, IIRC, Shitgibbon floated the idea sometime in 2019 or 2020 of fixing “the Homeless Problem” by rounding up all the unhoused people and putting them into internment camps.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: And let the tumbrels roll.
Villago Delenda Est
@Citizen Alan: Star Trek Deep Space Nine two parter: “Past Tense”
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
In the last ten years or so, I’ve developed so much more appreciation for the cartoonish, one-dimensional, performatively evil bad guys in entertainment like classic James Bond.
“Complex,” “nuanced,” and “sympathetic” villains make for great television, but that’s all it is. In real life, most bad guys are petty, shitty, malignant egomaniacs.
Marmot
@Villago Delenda Est: Thin strips of objectivist jerky, anyone?
Brachiator
@Citizen Alan:
We have this now with drones, I think.
Another Scott
@Citizen Alan: I kinda doubt it, but I don’t know.
This budget stuff is weird, especially when a large faction on one crazy side wants to keep breaking earlier agreements.
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@wjca
“Anyone have the number for
DoorBunker Dash?”Geminid
@Marmot: Yes, Nato does not run on dues like some dumb golf club. It is a military alliance whose website (http://www.nato.int) says:
This commitment was reaffirmed in 2014, after Russia”s invasion of Ukraine.
It wasn’t just Trump and Republicans complaining about NATO spending shortfalls. According to a February 27, 2017 Washington Post article about James Mattis’s complaints:
Late in his second term, President Obama spoke of the 2% target in Athens at a news conference with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras:
From Politico November 15, 2016..
Citizen Alan
@JCJ: A fair point. I did make the caveat elsewhere that I don’t begrudge athletes (and also creatives and actors) who make enormous salaries because their unique contributions literally create most of the value of whatever organization pays them. And as far as I can tell, James isn’t mixed up with sweatshop labor in SE Asia or invested in the oil industry or anything evil like that. He made half a billion from playing basketball incredibly well, and he made the other half basically just from being Lebron James and saying on camera “I, Lebron James, like this product I’m holding.” Nothing wrong with that.
Mind you, Lebron James is only 39. He still has plenty of time to be seduced by his own wealth and turn to the dark side.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t see DeathSanta ever doing very well because he keeps acting like he’s not from this planet. He’s either doing that or seemingly attempting to do that stepping on his member with golf spikes comedy bit. And he hasn’t seemingly learned that neither is doing him any good.