tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post7919212820814602682..comments2024-03-29T05:00:41.967-05:00Comments on driftglass: David Brooks' Hoi Polloi Hegira, Day 37: One Medici at a Timedriftglasshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09379167083253389153noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-83341495200514203332016-05-19T22:10:55.925-05:002016-05-19T22:10:55.925-05:00Reminds me of Tolestoy's "War and Peace&q...Reminds me of Tolestoy's "War and Peace", somehowMarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10904549664984991709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-11957264877501313242016-05-18T09:34:41.499-05:002016-05-18T09:34:41.499-05:00Why how nice! DFB has friends on the dreaded Left...Why how nice! DFB has friends on the dreaded Left Coast who belong to the Three Comma Club! Lord & Lady Grantham, er, Resnick. And FuckCakes is <i>biased in their favor, eh?</i> How utterly surprising... not. <br /><br />I watched a coupla seasons of Downton Abbey before it got totally boring, and what I got out of it were: a) reminders that the British Aristocracy were pretty much all tapped out in the early 20th C and had to go - shudder! - to the colonies to marry daughters of the Nouveau Riche in the barbarian territories to shore up their crumbling wealth and holdings; b) that many of them, like Lord Grantham, didn't know what they were doing and lost piles of money and had to beg for more; and c) while the tv show portrayed these Aristos as benevolent dictators towards their lower orders, most of them weren't all that and a bag of chips.<br /><br />Maybe Fuckcakes watched hisself too many seasons of Downton and bought into the hoop-de-do. Should Lord & Lady Resnick start losing a quid or two, they'll be kicking down, kissing up and doing their damndest to rip off whatever they can from the US proles down to the bathroom fixtures if necessary.RUKiddinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14057702539722165035noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-79077200610466428062016-05-18T08:35:07.615-05:002016-05-18T08:35:07.615-05:00"The charge that sways juries and offends pub..."The charge that sways juries and offends public sensitivities … is that greedy corporations sacrifice human lives to increase their profits. Is this charge true? Of course it is. But this isn't a criticism of corporations; rather it is a reflection of the proper functioning of a market economy. Corporations routinely sacrifice the lives of some of their customers to increase profits, and we are all better off because they do. That's right, we are lucky to live in an economy that allows corporations to increase profits by intentionally selling products less safe than could be produced. The desirability of sacrificing lives for profits may not be as comforting as milk, cookies and a bedtime story, but it follows directly from a reality we cannot wish away."<br />- Actual unretouched quote from a Koch-sponsored course in "Common Sense Economics", courtesy Brother Charles Pierce<br /><br />"He crossed that line between everyday villainy and cartoonish super-villainy."<br />- Waylon Smithers on C. Montgomery Burns, "Who Shot Mr. Burns?"Neo Tuxedohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15455041641080873400noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-43893725265261581492016-05-18T01:43:38.048-05:002016-05-18T01:43:38.048-05:00You should know that I’m friends with Lynda and St...<i>You should know that I’m friends with Lynda and Stewart and am biased in their direction.</i><br /><br />So, basically, DFB's latest effort to find the real Murrica involves writing a puff piece for a couple of his billionaire friends. <br /><br />Beyond laughable.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08880308031096340258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-77695169414540521512016-05-17T21:11:32.578-05:002016-05-17T21:11:32.578-05:00Once again, Brook's history degree pays off. T...Once again, Brook's history degree pays off. The answer is same one oligarchs tried during the Gilded Age: Corporate Paternalism. <br /><br />Prior to the Great Depression we saw plenty of these billionaire attempts to create a work force just happy and compliant enough that it won't ask too many questions and would ignore all those union organizers/muckraking journalists/progressive politicians/etc. <br /><br />My guess is, like previous attempts, the Resnick's commitment will closely follow their "self made" fortune. Communities are expensive, very long term investments that, in and of themselves, never turn a profit. A few percent drop in Resnick's core wealth and all of those expenses will be axed from the books....or more likely dumped on nearest government entity along with a demand for another tax cut. <br /><br /> trgahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10830124404306531933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-72341723990293134822016-05-17T20:51:49.932-05:002016-05-17T20:51:49.932-05:00"having made some considerable fraction of th..."having made some considerable fraction of their vast fortune by gaming the loophole-riddled agricultural water rules in the drought-stricken state of California. "<br /><br />Only one question remains, is her daughter also her sister?Bruce.desertrathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10434042422376320562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-57728027692760159692016-05-17T18:07:58.195-05:002016-05-17T18:07:58.195-05:00Just what the US needs - more company towns like D...Just what the US needs - more company towns like Detroit, that instantly implode once the benevolent landlord decides it wants to move to Texas to get slightly better tax rates, or to Indonesia, to employ 12 year olds for 30 cents an hour, with no environmental regulations to prevent it from poisoning those same 12 year olds.<br /><br />Oligarchs always seeks to become aristocrats. Either they get pushed back, or they pull everyone else onto their private property and make everyone a serf. <br /><br />Cinesiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14996950964848333121noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-55746711618498417712016-05-17T18:02:41.521-05:002016-05-17T18:02:41.521-05:00DB's chums, Lynda and Stewart Reskin, are not ...DB's chums, Lynda and Stewart Reskin, are not just Lady Bountiful billionaires (doing what they can for the "people in the village") but also purveyors of the crap that is Fiji Water and Pom Juice (with touted "health benefits" that, alas, are not FDA approved).bowtiejackhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03269786110593961195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-64731044384174635932016-05-17T17:14:15.432-05:002016-05-17T17:14:15.432-05:00Are billionaires getting so plentiful that you can... Are billionaires getting so plentiful that you can't find anyone else to talk to? Also, as a Californian (by birth, by nature, and by choice), fuck those creeps. The river I used to fish for steelhead in when I was a kid is so depleted from the theft of northern water for central agriculture that you can't even navigate it in a flat-bottom jet boat any more.<br /><br />-Doug in Oakland dinthebeasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12941071534250216503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-40748817076302797622016-05-17T17:11:37.537-05:002016-05-17T17:11:37.537-05:00Boy, that 401st billionaire must feel just terribl...Boy, that 401st billionaire must feel just terrible!tony in san diegohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17610599999844228511noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11363027.post-63201872063804398562016-05-17T17:07:59.924-05:002016-05-17T17:07:59.924-05:00I imagine he believes fealty to be a good thing. ...I imagine he believes fealty to be a good thing. After all, he pledged his loyalty to the GOP DC bubble overlords years ago. He's admitted that. He's merely swapping out intellectual/policy fealty and swapped in robber-baron fealty. It's still about using wealth to buy political influence for the purpose of amassing more wealth.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02753739198386729717noreply@blogger.com