pathology of the wealthy

Tom Toles/Washington Post (source)by Gaius PubliusJust one more note on the Senate "health care" bill, to add to the information you're already reading.

The "Seneca Cliff" is the point at which a system that grew large slowly, starts to collapse rapidly. This is the way the 1929 stock market and 2008 banking assets collapsed (image source). Any complex system can go over the Seneca Cliff, says climate scientist Ugo Bardi.

Getting rich on "black gold" and moving into the mansion. It really is just about the money, isn't it, plus the expectation of dying before the consequences show up.

Blacklists, that is.by Gaius PubliusRussia is an enemy of freedom, as is China. So too is the globalized wealth regime, which wants every dime on the planet for its own.

Maryann Price singing "I'm an Old Cowhand" with Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks. She knows all the songs that the cowboys know, 'bout the big corral where the dogies go, 'cause she learned them all on the radio, yippee-i-o-ki-ay. There are fake cowboy visitors in HBO's new series Westworld too, but they're not so nice.by Gaius PubliusI'm a fan of science fiction, especially when it reflects and comments on the state of our national affairs — and our national affairs are definitely in a state. Which brings me to the new HBO series Westworld.Westworld is derivative in some ways.

Is that Trump flying home, or Clinton heading off to give a speech? Hard to tell from this angle (source).by Gaius PubliusA tale of two links. In the first, Clinton pivots to the general election and plays the populist vs. Donald Trump and his "lavish lifestyle," according to CNN (my emphasis):

One of the other species, besides man, which preys on itself (source; click to enlarge)by Gaius PubliusI want to elevate this from the comments to this piece because it's so appropriate.

"Those who are despoiling the earth do so for personal gain, believing they can use their privilege to escape their fate" –Chris Hedges (full-size image; source).by Gaius PubliusShameful. If the these reports are true, the U.S.

Analysis you'll never hear on MSNBCby Gaius PubliusI don't know what to make of this news — in the sense that I don't know for sure what it augurs — so I'll just present it. I do know what to make of MSNBC — it's the Party-first equivalent of the Movement-first Fox News (note the difference) — though that varies from host to host. That is, some hosts will be more aggressive in criticizing Democrats than others, but only on narrowly selected topics.

by Gaius Publius I've been writing about the "billionaire class" lately, trying to characterize them, give them names, faces and wealth numbers. For example, we know that the Top 20% owns 85% of American wealth, as of 2009.