"Money is all over the place." Really? Watch that video from Thursday's Chris Hayes' MSNBC show above. That's the ugly sound of Republican class war against American families. That's why there are children who don't have enough food to eat. That guy in the bow tie and the canary yellow cardigan could have been reading a script from the days that lead up to the French Revolution. Admit it, you'd secretly watch him being guillotined if it was televised. And the accursed Tom Perkins too. He wasn't on Chris' show last night. But you probably remember him from his whining about how the rich are mistreated in America last month. It was at it again at a Commonwealth Club forum-- titled "The War on the 1%"-- and hosted by Fortune last night. Rich people and the right-wing idiots who suck their asses hate democracy and have always hated democracy. When they get control, it always leads to morons like the teabaggers instituting a fascist regime. And the hateful Perkins and his own self-styled Marie Antoinette, Danielle Steel, want to end democracy in America.
Ultimately, the biggest issue Perkins claimed to have with the treatment of the 1% is taxes. "I wouldn't say taxation is a form of persecution," he said. "But the extreme progressivism of the tax system is." He cited statistics about the tax contributions that wealthy Americans make-- including that the top 1% pays more taxes than the bottom 90% combined-- and said that the top 1% is carrying the government. "Government is a giant beast that has to be fed, and it's fed with taxes," he said. "And taxes will go up and up and up."Perkins pegged the problem of the American taxation system on failures in social, fiscal, and monetary policy. The income gap has roots in the War on Poverty, Perkins said, which he wished "had not been such a fiasco." He blamed Lyndon B. Johnson's social programs for an increase in out-of-wedlock birthrates and low-income single parent households. Fiscally, Perkins said that the government spends too much money on entitlement programs, an issue highlighted by the debt that the U.S. accrues as a result. "We're on a knife edge with this incredible debt that can't be paid back," Perkins said."…When challenged to say, in 60 seconds, how he would change the world, Perkins made a playfully controversial response. He suggested that, in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson's voting land owners and Margaret Thatcher's idea of only allowing taxpayers to vote, "The Tom Perkins system is: You don't get the vote if you don't pay a dollar in taxes. But what I really think is it should be like a corporation. You pay a million dollars, you get a million votes. How's that?" To which the audience responded with laughter. Perkins later said offstage that what he meant was that, with 50% of registered U.S. voters not paying taxes, "we got ourselves into a mess."
These avatars of greed and selfishness-- these were the "money changers" Jesus went to the Temple to chastise-- are the enemies of humanity. They are Satan on earth. They like to say it is envy that propels their enemies. But they are the ones afflicted and driven mad with envy. I'm as rich as they are and so are many of my friends. But I would commit suicide if I ever turned into the kind of hateful scumbag and enemy of Jesus that Tom Perkins is.Now compare these millionaire assholes' idiocy with the relentless Republican (i.e., party of Greed and Selfishness) war against working families playing out in Chattanooga, Tennessee right now. Andy Sher of the Times Free Pess reports on the Republican threats against a unionization vote. This is what Republican Party class war against America looks like:
State House Democratic lawmakers and a labor union attorney this afternoon attacked comments from Republican officials threatening future economic incentive deals with Volkswagen if employees agree to allow unionization of the company's Chattanooga plant.Nashville attorney George Barrett warned in a news conference at the state Capitol that if state officials carry through with such threats, they could be sued in court."It gives labor lawyers an opportunity to come to court to have this type of threat declared unconstitutional," Barrett said.Barrett said retaliation could be seen as violating both the National Labor Relations Act and provisions in the U.S. Constitution.At an earlier news conference today in Chattanooga, Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Bo Watson, a Hixson Republican, warned that should workers vote for United Auto Workers union representation, “I believe any additional incentives from the citizens of the state of Tennessee for expansion or otherwise will have a very tough time passing the Tennessee Senate.”House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner of Nashville called Watson's remarks "an outrageous and unprecedented effort by state officials to violate the rights of employers and workers."Republicans "are basically threatening to kill jobs if workers exercise their federally protected rights to organize," Turner said."When the company says they don’t have a problem with it, what right does the state have to come in and say they can’t do it?” Turner said.