The perennial desire of the weak and marginalized to believe that the extremely powerful see and care for them continues to amaze me.
I’m a long way short of ruling class, but I’m also solidly petit-bourgeois. It’s real obvious to me that the top <5% (= me) will be gutted to favor the top 0.001%.
Why do the bottom ~50% think they’ll be winners?
Damn - I’m an idiot!
Just layers of stupidity. It wasn’t measles, so the vaccine couldn’t have helped. It was pneumonia, which couldn’t be prevented… nevermind that it could, the prevention is also a vaccine…they wouldn’t have taken it either.
Just anything to avoid any responsibility for the idiotic decisions that lead to the death of that child.
As Bob would say, “When you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose”. The bottom ~50% do have something to lose of course, but it’s how they feel.
Also, AIUI much MAGA support comes not from people who think they will win but from people who want to see the petit-bourgeois lose. That’s why the orange-one’s “I am your vengence!” schtick goes down so well.
The Waltons must be feeling rather nouveaux sans-visage of late, because Sam’s daughter-in-law ran a full-page ad in newspapers around the country today;
Wasn’t the D-I-L a contributor to anti-Trump campaigns before this anyway?
Pneumonia isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom. It means the lungs are full of fluid. Pneumonia can be caused by viral illnesses and by bacterial illnesses and by mechanical damage (like getting oil in the lungs). And yes, it can be caused by measles.
Yeah, that - not that I care about Walmart. I do care about the 40+million people who use SNAP to feed their families.
This has always been my hope, that when these fuckwits start threatening to cut SNAP, or limit what items you can buy with it, then the folks that actually get the money from SNAP, Big Supermarket and Big Brand Names, might have something to say about seeing their profits disappear.
(It’s amazing that current Republicans have forgotten exactly why Bob Dole championed Food Stamps . . . and it wasn’t so the poors wouldn’t go hungry.)
Which ones are the ones with calves like cantaloupes?
Perfectly put! This is brilliant.
I’m glad to see the Titans of Commerce standing up to champion the downtrodden.
The trick with Capitalism is to appreciate that Titans of Commerce will always work to maximize their profit, and arrange things so that this work benefits the downtrodden as well as the rich.
Walmart doesn’t want poor folks to starve, because they absolutely make bank when poor people have some money to buy high margin products instead of just buying rice, beans and peanut butter.
Valid, but mild cynicism I would say. They don’t seem to be even standing up for their own interests.
I do not understand power dynamics on such scales, but the major genuflecting and capitulation to Trump both pre and post election is staggering. The recent nonsense with this law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison is absolutely shameful.
I don’t know how much Americans are aware of the concept of red conservatism, but it is the idea that the economy and the interests of big business and capitalism is dependent on a large and healthy middle class, and social programs are not only necessary but beneficial to corporate and wealthy interests. Not a thing anymore I guess.
Far too many of them either never had, or have lost, the ability to think about anything more complicated than “If X then Y”. They can’t project to Z, let alone A, B, or C.
This is why all of their “solutions” are so simplistic, and why they don’t make the connections between things like deporting immigrants, and the disappearance of agricultural workers. It’s literally too complicated for them to figure out.
I think they do get that.
But I suspect decades of peace and prosperity have led these people to think a large and healthy middle class will always exist, because it always has - at least for the entire adult lifetime of the ones running these companies. There’s an assumption that somebody is going to take care of it. The idea they have to contribute themselves is a mindblowing concept. Tragedy of the Commons on an unprecedented scale.
They think it’s like the sun rising each morning. They know intellectually that things aren’t guaranteed, but it really won’t hit home that the golden goose is on life support until they watch it expire.
Others have discussed this elsewhere, but they’re starting to remember the difference between the power you get from money, and the power you get from control of the State.
The State lets them have fun with their money, just so long as they keep it within certain limits, because the State knows it can utterly crush them any time they want. Nationalize their companies, confiscate their wealth, toss them in prison, whatever. Sure, the State is “limited” by the Constitution, but in modern society, there’s always a way they can find to toss someone in jail, and manufacture the reasons they need to confiscate wealth. We’re seeing it happen in real-time, as Trump uses just the threat of State Power to bring so many of them to heel.
Japanese auto manufacturers and their domestic dealers figured they would do well under Trump. Less regulation, less emphasis on electric cars. Understandable, as their future looks grim: electric cars are cheap and popular in China.
Now they are looking down the throat of 25% tariffs, erratic policy, probable economic turmoil. Fascism (aka opposing democracy while putting scapegoating at the dead center of your platform) isn’t nice. Gifted.
Toyota donated $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration in January, and attendees at the company’s dealership meeting in Dallas that month said it was brimming with Trump cheer.
But as Mr. Trump’s agenda has taken shape, much of that optimism has turned to alarm.
Toyota makes cars a lot of cars in Mexico and Canada. Reciprocal tariffs on cars made in Japan could hit the country very hard.
Lee Auto Malls just had its worst month since 2009. And Trump is just getting started.
This part is interesting though not unexpected:
Three people involved in the lobbying efforts, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations, say they are repeatedly asked: Are there any new investments they can commit to or ones in the pipeline they can repackage as inspired by the new president?
Trump wants wins: he doesn’t care whether they are real or not.
Building new factories implies decade long commitments. That’s crazy when Presidents create policy environments that change month to month. Far better to wait and see, just like private decision makers did in 1930 after the 1929 stock market crash. Bad expectations can kill investment but so can postponed plans when the economic environment is unclear.
Chaos is very, very, strong recession / depression fuel. Even if the chaos is sold as being in the service of growth.