byronius
byronius's JournalFor the overly wealthy, it's not just about having more -- it's about making you have less.
This is classic hoarding-frenzy behavior, goes back all the way to when we split off from reptiles. It was always a significant attribute of royalty, historically very common in the upper merchant classes, and it goes like this: having more than you could ever need is not stimulating enough unless you know for a fact that others are suffering from having less than they need.
It is a clear fact of the hoarding disease -- and it is a disease -- that the hoarder's peak enjoyment comes from the vicarious thrill and guilty pleasure of watching other people starve. For the hoarder, too much becomes ever so much more enjoyable when the difference between themselves and the starving or stress-ridden lower classes grows wider. For them, it's like being a timid person watching a scary movie -- but it's all real.
Wealth is poison. Enough is as good as a feast, and too much in this case is a ticket to disturbingly psychopathic behavior. We all know this, and unfortunately our laws have been warped to satisfy the dark urges of addicts, weakening the nation and casting doubt on the survival of the human species.
Think of it in tribal terms. Say an ancient island culture of perhaps 100 individuals creates a monetary system based on shells. One hoarding-obsessed individual spends their entire life focusing not on work, or building -- but on gaming the economy to get hold of all the shells. Once they have most of the shells, they will still scheme to get the remainder, even though the rest of the tribe will be forced into starvation. How long do you think the other 99 members will allow this to go on? Awhile, perhaps. It's the nature of systems. But when the markers become more important than their meaning, the tribe is doomed unless it acts. They will either seize the shells and cast out the hoarder, or simply disregard the markers and make new ones. It's difficult for larger and more complex cultures to take these steps, but the principles are the same. Money is just an agreement. It is not a thing of value in and of itself, shells or dollars.
First chance we get, let's solve this problem. A 99% confiscatory tax on all incomes over a million dollars per year would certainly help to begin correcting this extremely damaging habit. Simple, fair, clean -- and the hoarding class would still get some pleasure out of maximizing their remaining one percent.
The Best Revenge.
Ryan CooperWe now know there shall be no quarter from the ultra-rich in their quest to take as much of the national income and wealth for themselves as possible. So they should be given no quarter either.
At the earliest opportunity, a left-wing economic reform bill should deliberately destroy the power of the plutocrats: Break up their monopolist corporations, sharply increase taxation on their capital gains and dividends, levy a confiscatory tax rate on income over $1 million and a 100 percent inheritance tax on estates over $1 million, and kneecap finance with burdensome regulations. Then, strengthen the lower class: Ban "right-to-work" laws at a national level, increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation, beef up the welfare state, and spend to achieve full employment.
Some of the wealthiest and most privileged people who've ever existed are attempting to loot the pockets of penniless grad students so they can have even more money to spend on stuff like $450-million paintings. They've forfeited any right to deference or consideration.
Found this on Digby.
I think this is the best idea I've heard in a year. Let's end this class war forever.
Sea lions in the Sacramento River.
Hiking along the river near the I-80 bridge, my son and I saw a giant black head breach the water and snort in a deep bass whuff. Could not figure it out. Whales? Giant otters? We'd seen otters in a small wetlands area near the American River Parkway.
But these shapes -- massive. Broad backs, giant heads -- there were at least two near where we were sitting by the river's edge, and then we saw perhaps three more down near the railroad bridge on the way back.
My son googled 'seals in the Sacramento River', and came up with this --
http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2016/12/10/sea-lion-making-its-way-through-sacramento-river/
She was taking pictures by the river Friday morning when she saw it.
“I couldn’t tell what it was,” said Grear.
Scott Buhl, a Wildlife Response Specialist at UC Davis, knew immediately
“Oh that’s definitely a California sea lion,” said Buhl looking at some cell phone video I shot Friday morning.
Not a dolphin, porpoise or seal, but a sea lion in the Sacramento river.
“He was just hanging out enjoying the day and didn’t seem to be in any distress,” said Buhl.
Buhl, says the the sea lion appears to be a healthy male, weighing roughly 400 to 500 pounds.
“It could definitely surprise you and startle you to see a sea lion staring back at you,” said Buhl.
It’s not uncommon to see a sea lion once every year or two in the River explained Buhl.
And of course a few idiots immediately suggest killing them. Just -- you know, because.
Humans. Ugh.
They were gorgeous. Beautiful. Heart-tugging. Awesome. Amazing experience on a Sunday afternoon.
herstory writes
in the end it was itinerant old pot farmers
green grocers and pot smoking clerks
T.A.'s with things in the closet
typecast kid stars and their momentous assistants
painfully awkward shyboys
sisters of no mercy
tripe mongers and vishnu programmers
secret keepers
pawn shop sweepers
ted behind the safeway
the critical mothers worried about the sun
superstitious wand waving sage burners
little short thinkers
super tall drinkers
the worst and the best
types and offtypes and notypes
persectured songsmiths
fancy little rich snobs who read
and every member of democraticunderground
who saved the human race
from the soviet ghost invasion of two thousand and sixteen
let us drink to them tonight
tell the stories of their mild and scattershot bravery
their hopeless losses
their impossible contraindications
their savaging and their comforting and their sweet wisdom
that lifted the species and sent it out
to the infinite
where it belongs.
One wonders, as an American --
If a foreign government secretly invaded and controlled the highest levels of our government, are we bound to policy enacted by the foreign agents while the invasion was active?
Asking for a friend. Name of Gorusch.
42.
Netflix is showing this film; I'm having trouble watching it.
Why? It's just too damn powerful.
Why?
Because Jackie Robinson is probably the finest American story there is.
Maybe Martin Luther King, just maybe -- but Jackie Robinson...
There you go, there's the test --
True Americans love Jackie Robinson.
It's the best story ever told in this nation.
Period.
Met my first Trump voter the other night.
Late twenties, ex-military, ex-MP. Half African-American, half Italian. Works at the facility across the street. We were both leaving late, so I introduced myself in the parking lot. I made a political comment that drew the admission from him that he had voted for Donald Trump. This was difficult for me to hear -- but I kept my temper in check and sought out an actual discussion.
'Why?', of course, was my first question. The young man tried to explain that he gets his news from 'all over', that he had examined both candidates, and chose Trump. Trump has disappointed him, however, and he wishes he could take it back.
I wanted to know more. For an hour we stood in that dark parking lot talking; it only got heated once, and I backed off. Clearly he was feeling guilt about it. 'Why would you vote for such a man?'
1) Because Hillary was going to spend all sorts of money on prisons, he had read. 'Replacing private prisons, you mean?' He didn't know what that was. Horrified when I explained it.
2) Because Barack Obama was a tool of the 'white elitists'. 'Why would you say that?' 'They'll never let a black man be president for real', he answered, as if that was an absolute fact. Evidence? 'He legalized gay marriage.'
WTF? 'Are you a homophobe?' 'No, my brother is gay.' 'So you support gay marriage, but because Obama legalized it, he's a tool of white elitists?'
Yep.
Aaaaand that was about it. A lot of feeling and mushy logic, no facts. But now he feels stupid because Donald isn't doing anything like what he promised.
I let him know how I felt about his falling for and enabling a Russian sneak attack on our nation, and how the ever-increasing body count will be kinda on his karmic record.
'If Mueller indicts him, I'll have to spend the rest of my life repairing the damage I've done.'
Not your typical Trumpling. Still --
'Have you ever heard of Citizens United?'
No. And he's horrified when I explain it. 'Republicans did that? That should be totally illegal!'
Yep.
You know, it was good that I kept the rage in check. But it was dismaying for me to realize just how f%#@ing stupid people can be. Nice guy, young fellow with a future, may have condemned his nation to the flames because he could not think critically.
The conversation ended well. Maybe I made an impact. Hope so.
We live in the heart of the beast.
"I envy you. You North Americans are very lucky. You are fighting the most important fight of all - you live in the heart of the beast."
-- Che Guevara (1964)
Every sentient, honest American knows we are living through an Event. I post this to suggest that we all take care of ourselves -- re-resolve to stay as physically and mentally healthy as possible, to stay in communication with loved ones and our support network, and to rededicate ourselves to growth and the acquisition of wisdom and skills. Times like these are guaranteed to magnify our personal flaws, but we don't have to help that along. It's never too late to adapt, rise up to and conquer these times, not until we're all face down in the dirt, and that is an important fact human beings tend to forget in the face of the Overwhelming.
I don't think any of us living have been though any experience remotely similar to this one, but our ancestors certainly have. Consider an early tribe of humans or even pre-humans betrayed and given over to a competing tribe by a member seeking more power. Such betrayal has always depended on sowing demoralization and despair to succeed. The individual resolution of the remaining loyal members to regain and recommit to a cohesive social order is the bane of the betrayer, and the measure of the true strength of the tribe.
Mueller notwithstanding, this is going to be tough. Destructive self-medication, withdrawal and isolation, storing stress in the body, and allowing anxiety-driven certainties of doom to take hold serve only the betrayer. We're not the Greatest Generation; we're probably going to have to be better than that, because the lines aren't clear, the enemy is inside the gates, the task does not present itself, and that's what's going to make it all the more difficult to overcome.
Still we Resist. Democratic Underground embodies and strengthens the myths and rituals of my tribe. I hug you all.
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