Billionaire bewildered that American voters are angry

[kristopher]

Billionaire bewildered that American voters are angry
By gjohnsit
Friday Jan 22, 2016 · 12:54 PM EST

It's easy to forget sometimes just how cut off from reality that the super-rich can be. Nowhere is this more true than at a meeting of the wealthy elite.

DAVOS, Switzerland -- As income inequality and healthcare costs rise in the United States and as an economic slowdown may be on the horizon, one of the world’s richest men expressed surprise that U.S. voters seem so angry in advance of the 2016 presidential election. Speaking at a gathering of corporate and government leaders in Switzerland, Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman told Bloomberg Television that he is bewildered about why Americans seem so discontented.
“I find the whole thing astonishing and what’s remarkable is the amount of anger whether it’s on the Republican side or the Democratic side,” the Wall Street mogul said at the World Economic Forum in Davos. “Bernie Sanders, to me, is almost more stunning than some of what’s going on in the Republican side. How is that happening, why is that happening?”

Yes, why would average Americans be upset when everything is going so good for me? My butler's servant says the poor are happy to toil in the sweatshops.

Schwarzman’s private equity firm, Blackstone, manages — and makes fees from — billions of dollars of pensioners’ assets, and was recently fined by federal regulators for not properly disclosing fee terms to its investors. The investors harmed by Blackstone’s conduct included public retirement systems in California, Florida and New Jersey...
Schwarzman has made national headlines likening tax increases on the wealthy to the Nazi invasion of Poland.

Those poor, oppressed billionaires. I'm sure when ...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/22/1473651/-Billionaire-bewildered-that-American-voters-are-angry

[drm604]

1. Poor baby. He's soooo persecuted.

We're all so misguided!

I wonder how much of his "bewilderment" is calculated faux bewilderment such as we see on Fox News?

[brush]

32. Yeah, those rich fu_kers have never had to worry about paying for the power not to . . .

be shut off, or the rent, or daycare, or a car repair bill and on and on.

Makes you want to go all French revolution on their asses.

[hifiguy]

48. It's about time to sharpen the National Razor

for shitheels like that guy. And I am rather serious.

[wilsonbooks]

2. File this under, You can't make this shit up.

Go Bernie.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. I love that Bernie has them shaking in their Testonis. Just wait 'til he's president! nt

[sarge43]

13. Sounds like an Onion snark. Wish it were.

Bern 'em up and GOTV

[tk2kewl]

3. Blackstone and Pete Peterson have been big players in the push to destroy Social Security

[Hoppy]

5. Hillary will straighten out their sorry asses.

After she collects her next check for her next speech telling them how grateful we should be to have them in our lives.

[840high]

15. ..+1

[tblue37]

16. "Cut it out!" she will say. nt

[Jacoby365]

6. This is rich

Billionaire Schwarzman's Blackstone and it's subsidiary, Invitation Homes, purchased the house I'm renting. He bought the house 2-1/2 years ago, and has jacked up my rent by 30%, or $300 per month already. My rent goes up, my income stays the same. I can't buy the things I need... We all know the story... This is what's wrong with America right now - a direct flow of money from the bottom to the top.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

36. Yep, its a rigged game,

From Wikipedia

"After the subprime mortgage crisis, Blackstone Group LP has bought more than $5.5 billion single-family homes for rent, to be sold when the prices rise."

[awoke_in_2003]

7. A rising tide

lifts all yachts.

[Volaris]

23. Yeah..

If you HAVE a yacht. The rest of us get to tread water until we drown.

[awoke_in_2003]

41. That is why I used yacht...

Reagan's said "a rising tide lifts all boats". Some pundit replaced "boats" with "yachts" to drive home the point that the only people that were rising were the types of people who could afford yachts.

[Volaris]

46. It wouldn't matter; some of us wouldn't have boats either.

I guess they think whatever, the more of us peons drown the more ocean there will be for them.
I know I just hate it when I can see swimming people instead of just endless horizon with nothing in between.

[spooky3]

31. LOL!

[Doremus]

44. I think that tide might be turning.

[bklyncowgirl]

8. "But the people love us". Marie Antionette

[Festivito]

9. Symptom of affluenza. Take temperature of cold cash. Haul in more by moring. eom

[SoLeftIAmRight]

10. We need Hillary...

to tell them to "cut it out"

[SammyWinstonJack]

11. So he's part of the problem and none of the solution.

[scottie55]

12. He doesn't think there is a problem

It must all be in our minds.

[packman]

14. How is that happening, why is that happening?”

s

What the elite thought one time in France as they were led off to Madame Guillotine.

Man needs to read his history.

[paleotn]

19. My thought exactly. (nt)

[FlatBaroque]

21. beat me to it

but in 2016 you can not have enough of them

[Spitfire of ATJ]

30. Yup....

[smirkymonkey]

43. +1000

[hifiguy]

17. This assklown should keep in mind the fact

that neither tumbrels nor guillotines are very hard to build. What a Colossal Dick.

[PADemD]

27. Replace the Wall Street Bull

I always thought the Wall Street Bull should be replaced by a guillotine.

[The_Commonist]

37. I was just going to post the exact same thing...

It will happen eventually.

[onecaliberal]

18. Why are we mad. Is he under a fucking rock? 62 people own more wealth than 3 billion.

Are they really that stupid?

[laundry_queen]

33. Apparently. nt

[Arugula Latte]

38. Yabbut, everyone he knows is doing just fine!

I mean, sure, some of them haven't bought a new Lear jet in a couple years, but overall they're hanging in there!

[onecaliberal]

42. That's the thing that bothers me most.

The attitude that those in power have more than they'll need in 100 lifetimes so fuck all those who can't afford food and a roof, those who choose between eating and buying meds. Veterans that fought in their illegal wars.

[FlatBaroque]

20. A picture is worth a thousand words

[kath]

57. Awww, shucks, ya beat me to it.

I had similar thoughts in post 56 below (hadn't read the whole thread at that point)

[KoKo]

22. According to Jean Mayer's new book on the Koch Bros....

Steve Schwartzman is a big buddy of the Kochs and accepts their ideology. So, of course he's bewildered.

"Democracy Now" did a full hour on the Koch Bros. and their influence where Schwartzman is mentioned..

[closeupready]

24. Keep in mind, this is what he's willing to say on the record.

he's speaking to a reporter from Bloomberg Television.

These people at the very top are are always angling to manipulate, in their public statements, interviews, and such.

[Kip Humphrey]

25. because we the people are fed up with people like him who skim off the top while contributing

NOTHING!!!

[paleotn]

26. Typical human reaction, really....

....completely insulated from the real world, they have no idea what's coming down. Like Louis XVI, they never see it coming.

[RKP5637]

28. Another case of "Head up their Ass" syndrome! n/t

[oberliner]

29. Blackstone’s profits, it should be said, are flattered by a minuscule tax rate of 4.3 percent.

Blackstone’s profits, it should be said, are flattered by a minuscule tax rate of 4.3 percent. That is because the bulk of these performance fees is so-called carried-interest gains, which — with much political controversy — are taxed at a much lower rate than standard corporate profits.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/business/dealbook/stephen-schwarzman-of-blackstone-feels-the-agony-of-victory.html

[Hotler]

34. I bet he would understand real quick if he saw and heard....

tens of thousand people out side his office shouting "A la lanterne".
People like him are now more than ever our enemy and need to be remove from this world.
How much more are we going to take before we get fighting mad and give people like him a French style close shave or a long drop at the end of a short rope. The days of playing nice with these shit stains are over

[grntuscarora]

35. They only say what they really think when they're amongst their own.

In mixed company, they toss out meaningless sops intended to pacify.

[Sherman A1]

39. Well,

just because you are a Hedge Fund Manager, don't make ya Smart..........

[Octafish]

40. They're always the last to know.

These are the richest times in human history, squandered on the likes of Schwarzman. As they own Wall Street-on-the-Potomac and most every place and body else, as well as the means of disseminating information about that; they get to enjoy the benefits of welfare for the wealthy, while most everyone else enjoys austerity, along with the privilege of paying for the protection of the rich, of course.

[Utopian Leftist]

45. I wonder whatever happened to "Billionaires for Bush"?

Perhaps they should change it now to "Billionaires for Trump" or something. Billionaires will be the only fools who will still want to vote for him come November.

[Babel_17]

47. "The people are revolting"

[Rex]

49. I have no doubt a lot of wealthy assholes acted and asked the same questions

all while being led to the gallows. I guess the real answer is mega-wealthy makes you stupid to reality. Not yours, of course, but the real one the other 99.99% of the population lives in.

Money does not equal smarts.

[mhatrw]

50. Michael Bloomberg is just as shocked & ready defend the top 0.01% from the storming of their gates.

[colsohlibgal]

51. Tone Deafness On Parade

21st century version of "let them eat cake". I wonder what is wrong with these folks full of pure greed.

Too bad there are more of them like the Waltons, fewer like Alan Grayson, RFK, the owners of Costco, etc.

Is not greed one of the original sins?

[liberalfromaustin21]

52. This is par for the course for the members of the 1%

They are truly out of touch with the rest of this country. It's time we taxed these gluttons to oblivion. Maybe then we'll be able to provide healthcare for everyone in America.

[PatrickforO]

53. Perhaps the reason Schwarzman finds the amount of anger astonishing is

because as part of the top 1/10 of 1%, he has probably been told of the systematic propaganda campaign which has been waged by the power elite on the American middle class until that class is nearly dead.

We're supposed to be so stupid that we blame each other instead of economic parasites like Schwarzman for the misery and malaise we feel in this capitalist utopia that is rigged so against us. Guys like Schwarzman get to be socialists but WE must be rugged individualists, don't you know - hating and mistrusting one another so that we bear our misery alone instead of banding together and trying to achieve a better life for EVERYONE not just the few.

So of course he's surprised. He's downright astonished. Because he thinks that his ilk have complete control of the message. But no matter how strong he is financially, how powerful he is in his ability to get the corporate owned media to spew his propaganda and to corrupt those who are supposed to be serving US...

well, the plain truth is that when we band together and demand better lives, WE are stronger.

After all we have two major things we haven't had in decades:
- We have Bernie, who has educated us and awakened the sleeping giant to its own power, and
- the social media, whereby we can debunk the bullshit and take control of the message.

I'm optimistic because finally enough people are angry where maybe we'll make a difference.

[Wounded Bear]

54. Typical. It's the same thing in foreign policy...

They (we) go to foreign countries, destroy their economies, undermine and corrupt their governments, destroy their environments exploiting resources, impoverish their people, and then wonder why they attack (actually counter-attack) us.

Zero empathy.

[cui bono]

55. "How is that happening, why is that happening?"

FEEL THE BERN!!!


.

[kath]

56. "Made national headlines likening tax increases on the wealthy to the Nazi invasion of Poland"

Jeebus H. Christ.
I vote for this guy to be at the front of the line for the guillotine.