I know we’ve written about this a lot already, but did you evah?
Peter Cohen, the former Shearson Lehman Bros. chief, told the Associated Press — while chewing on a cigar — that Romney is a “plain-talking guy.”
Ted Conklin, who owns the American Hotel in Sag Harbor, told the New York Times that Obama is a “socialist.”
“His idea is find a problem that doesn’t exist and get government to intervene,” Conklin added, his wife, Carol Simmons, nodding beside him in their gold Mercedes.
Ms. Simmons paused to highlight what she said was her husband’s generous spirit: “Tell them who’s on your yacht this weekend! Tell him!”
Over Mr. Conklin’s objections, Ms. Simmons disclosed that a major executive from Miramax, the movie company, was on the 75-foot yacht, because, she said, there were no rooms left at the hotel.
After the way these assholes went after John Kerry for wind-surfing, if we don’t nail their feed to the ground and shove this stuff down their throat, then we may as well just suffocate ourselves with tote-bags.
Brian R.
AHOY, POLLOI!
BGinCHI
I agree Doug, let’s nail their feed to the ground.
Where the fuck are my caviar nails!
mpbruss
Does the Romney campaign have an official theme song yet?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8F3UE9qFsg
the Conster
Did everyone of these rich dicks miss class the day that soc1al1sm was discussed? Bailing out private companies with taxpayer money is the opposite of soc1al1sm. Privatizing profits and socializing losses is not soc1al1sm. When Exxon or Apple or GE gets their profits socialized and their losses privatized, I’ll start paying attention to what these amoral morons have to say.
Valdivia
@BGinCHI:
Best me to it and in a clever way as always.
Feed of clay! :)
cathyx
I always thought it was nail feet to the ground.
danimal
Kerry’s wind-surfing was self-evidently elitist, just like opposition to continuing the Bush Tax Theft rates for job-creators. Duh. Sometimes the real salt-of-the-earth types just happen to have seven figure IRAs. Deal with it, libtards.
/trying to sound conservative
Bob2
Remember, this is the class that only cares about whether they’re embarrassed or being kowtowed to enough.
It’s about social status at this point remember!
The only way to get to them is to publicly shame and embarrass them so they stop thinking that Obama isn’t being sufficiently deferential.
redshirt
“It’s easy to grin
when your ship comes in
and you’ve got the stock market beat.
But the man worthwhile
is the man who can smile
when his shorts are too tight in the seat”.
gex
So Obama’s f’ed up the economy so bad his hotel is literally overflowing with guests? I guess I don’t see the problem.
NCSteve
That seven percent of the growth in national income that went to the bottom 99% in 2010 is rightfully ours! And the tyrannical class warring vote buyer Obama is keeping us from it! To the barricades! (Darling, darling, what are you doing? One doesn’t drive a Mercedes to the barricades. Tacky, darling, tacky. The Land Rover, darling. Take the Land Rover.)
rikyrah
You all have been killing it with the post titles lately
BWA HA HA HA HA HA HAH A AHA
trollhattan
@cathyx:
We nail meters to the ground in our advanced times. Better, we screw them in.
Bulworth
And an example of that would be….?
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@BGinCHI:
And you thought that Jello(tm) was hard to nail to the wall…
trollhattan
@NCSteve:
Land Rovers are for sissies–take the Unimog.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Who is this collective “We”? I could scream it from the roof of my house, and I doubt my neighbors would hear it over Hannity talking about how Obama wants to tax the wealthy and therefore all of America.
Henry Bayer
The hotel was full (or the only hotel that was good enough was full). Kinda like turning away Joseph and Mary in Bethlehem. Thank god the yacht owners could take in a homeless person! Such an act of charity. How will they write it off?
trollhattan
@danimal:
Hell’s bells, I even recall the “librul” press favorably comparing Bush’s mountain bike to Kerry’s road bike. Assholes worked hard to keep Dubya in office.
beltane
@gex: Yes, but the vulgar trash who stay at the hotel are not being sufficiently brown-nosed by the President and that is a terrible thing.
trollhattan
@Henry Bayer:
The straw they slept on in the Bethlehem Cabin was spun by Rumpelstiltskin.
NCSteve
@Bulworth:
Oh, you know, the idea that income inequality isn’t a good thing, the supposedly vanishing middle class, the so-called uninsured, the idea that unemployment is caused by something other than moral inferiority and laziness, hunger. That sort of thing.
NotMax
Business was so bad and times so uncertain that — that —
the hotel was FULL.
Go figure.
beltane
@Bulworth: Hey, what does she know. The innkeeper’s wife is just another whore with a
heartMercedes of gold, every bit of which was paid for by her husband’s servicing the needs of his wealthy clientele.Violet
These people are like the mythical Marie Antoinette. “Let them eat Costco caviar!”
Comrade Dread
Did some geneticist create a bunch of Thurston Howell III clones and breed out the empathy genes, because that’s what I’ve seeing every time these folks open their mouths.
maya
Poor Peter is reduced to chewing on them since Treasury doesn’t print $10,000 bills to light them with anymore.
NotMax
@Comrade Dread
Shades of Leona (“Only the little people pay taxes”) Helmsley.
cathyx
What I want to know is what he means by Romney being a plain-talking guy.
beltane
@Violet: I think these people are worse than both the real and the mythical Marie Antoinette. MA was just clueless and did not realize that those who could not afford bread could also not afford cake; these people actively seek the further impoverishment and suffering of the poor. We need someone of Charles Dickens’ caliber to skewer and mock these horrible, horrible people.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Bob2:
I was thinking more along the lines of standing them up against a wall, shooting them all in the head, and then throwing their bloody, bullet-riddled corpses into the streets to be eaten by feral dogs. But if we can get your kindler, gentler version to work, so much the better.
dmsilev
The inexplicable absence of a well-targeted meteor or lightning bolt proves that either God doesn’t exist or that He is an asshole.
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
…oddly enough, this is virtually identical to Rick Perry’s de facto health care plan for Texas.
beltane
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Perhaps we can look into reviving a form of this quaint custom.
Violet
@beltane: I’m not sure there’s that much difference. Perhaps some of them are sociopathic in wanting others to suffer, but I get the impression most of them are clueless and really do think they themselves got where they are because they were smarter, worked harder, etc. As for wanting to fix the tax code and other things to benefit themselves, they just think of it as keeping what they’ve earned rather than hurting anyone. I really do think a significant percentage of them don’t understand that people really, truly cannot afford to do basic things like keep a roof over their heads. And if said people can’t, it must be because they’re lazy and not working hard enough.
So although they don’t have to be as remote as Marie Antoinette was from real people (in her era it was pretty much required), they choose to be, locking themselves in gated communities and expecting and mostly getting VIP treatment. They’re just as removed from the masses as MA was in her day.
Rafer Janders
Funnily enough, I, ah, spend a lot of time in the Hamptons, and out there windsurfing is pretty much a blue-collar sport. Windsurfers are usually carpenters, contractors, plumbers, farmers, etc., guys who like to go out on the water but don’t have enough money to keep a boat. I never understood how Kerry windsurfing was supposed to be some mark of elitism.
Not, of course, that it’s a solid American manly man’s sport like equestrian ballet or whatever it is that Romney’s fancy dancing horse does, but still.
Heliopause
Don’t worry, Doug, every Dem shill on the Sunday shows, every MSNBC talking head, every lib blogger is shouting this stuff from the hilltops. It doesn’t take brains and it doesn’t take coordination, this is fish-in-a-barrel stuff. Put the totebag back in the dresser drawer.
Omnes Omnibus
At this point, I am almost as bothered by the appalling crassness of these people as I am by their lack of empathy.
Violet
@Rafer Janders: Most people can’t afford a windsurfer and can’t afford to go to a lake or beach where they can windsurf. It’s elitist for most people, even if at the ultra rich Hamptons it’s working class.
gex
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ: Your’s, we’ll call Plan B. But keep working out the details, because Plan A doesn’t seem to be working.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m glad their appalling crassness and lack of empathy is being put on full view. Let’s show who they really are.
Rafer Janders
At least now I know not to spend any money in the American Hotel when I’m in Sag Harbor this weekend. I appreciate Conklin airing his opinions, I really do, so that I can direct my money to more deserving small tradespeople.
gex
@Violet: As the dogwhistles fade away and their true beliefs come out raw, more and more people who allow themselves the delusion of not being one of the “moochers” will realize that they are in fact considered to be. Maybe even some of them will realize that maybe it was the same for many of the “moochers” they railed against too.
Rafer Janders
They are clueless, yes, but on the other hand, they work hard to keep themselves that way. I know very many rich people — the ones who want to know, do, while the ones who don’t, don’t. It’s not like the information isn’t right at hand.
LAC
Oh, dear… I hope that Miramax executive didn’t step on the ball. My dear, we will dine on this for days…har, har.
I bet if you had Thurston and Lovey stand side by side, you could see the harbor through their ears.
Origuy
@Violet: I don’t windsurf, but a used rig on Craigslist runs about $400. Toss that in the back of your pickup and head down to the lake on the weekend. A lot cheaper that the bass boat taking up space in lots of Texas backyards.
beltane
@Omnes Omnibus: Our oligarchs are very bit as sleazy, smarmy, and vulgar as their Russian counterparts. While I am not a fan of either the old landed nobility or the robber barons of the 19th century, at least both those groups possessed some virtues that are completely lacking in this crop of wealthy sociopaths, all of whom have an air of illegitimacy about them.
Rafer Janders
@Violet:
Eh, you can pick up a used windsurfer for less than $500, which while not nothing, is also not prohibitive for most families. It’s no more expensive than a decent bicyle, and I’m not sure we’ve gotten to the point where we have to argue that owning a bike is not elitist. And the vast majority of most Americans actually do live within an easy drive of a beach, lake or other shoreline.
I disagree that it’s elitist for most people — that’s purely a Republican 2004 invention.
Hypatia's Momma
LSD/jalapeño enemas. Tell them it’s an ancient and secret Incan cleansing ritual. Very secret, available only to a few, and very expensive because one has to use golden implements.
Violet
@Origuy: Yeah, but bass boats have motors, therefore they’re Real Murkin vehicles. And you can catch fish and boast about how big they were and maybe even feed yourself. Windsurfing is what you do when don’t do those other manly things.
MCA1
I keep thinking this election could be over tomorrow if someone would just create a PAC ad splicing together some of Rmoney’s more prominent “Help the job creators” bullshit with the rapturous reactions of a fake audience made up of Thurston and Lovie Howell III, Judge and Pooky Smails, Randolph and Mortimer Duke, Gordon Gekko, Stan Gable, J.R. Ewing, and Shooter McGavin. Cuts to the chase of who’s pulling the strings on Mitt’s side. They’re already squeeling class warfare. Let’s show them some.
Rafer Janders
@Origuy:
Yep. Windsurfing’s a heck of a lot cheaper and more accessible than hunting or many types of fishing can be.
Violet
@Rafer Janders: Maybe it’s because I live in a different part of the country? I don’t see many “manly men” windsurfing. They fish, hunt, and if they have $500 to spare and wanted it to go toward some kind of vehicle or fun transportation, they’d put towards an old 4-wheeler or boat with a motor or something for their truck. I’ve spent plenty of time at an area where people put in their various ocean-related entertainment things and/or fish. Don’t see a lot of windsurfers, but do see kite surfers. I think that’s much more expensive, though.
NonyNony
@beltane:
Be careful. That’s probably more the rose-tinted glasses of history than any real legitimacy there.
The old nobility were for the most part as corrupt, deluded and self-serving as our current group of wealthy over-entitled fools. And the old robber barons were some truly awful inhuman people – at least the equal of the Russian oligarchs and our own wealthy fools.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that times were better in the past, but they really weren’t.
Violet
@MCA1: That’s an excellent idea. I wonder if someone could put it together and maybe it would develop legs.
Violet
@MCA1: That’s an excellent idea. I wonder if someone could put it together and maybe it would develop legs.
Violet
@MCA1: That’s an excellent idea. I wonder if someone could put it together and maybe it would develop legs.
Violet
@MCA1: That’s an excellent idea. I wonder if someone could put it together and maybe it would develop legs.
Rafer Janders
@Violet:
So it actually has nothing to do with cost — if they fish or hunt, then they easily have enough money to windsurf.
Gex
@Rafer Janders: We have to argue this because we established in the health care debate that having a HOUSE is elitist. Countertop inspections anyone?
Violet
Wow! I know I thought it was a great idea, but three comments on it is a bit much. No idea how that happened.
MCA1
@NonyNony: I generally agree, although there seems to be one difference in today’s barons: they don’t realize, or don’t care, that at a certain point the rabble will turn on them if they don’t pass out enough crumbs. In industrial times, it was easier for most of the rich to see the direct relationship between that poor schlep’s labor (at his factory) and his personal wealth. Nowadays, a significantly high percentage of the very wealthy got there through financial engineering and services. The criticism of them getting rich despite not actually “making anything” has two edges: in addition to the parasitical connotation, it indicates an insulation and detachment from the fortunes of the rest of the world. That’s completely evident in some of the comments coming from the attendees at this Romney event. I live in a heavily R, fabulously wealthy area (in which I don’t fit on either count), and I hear these sorts of comments from people who should know better all. the. time.
MCA1
@Violet: Four, actually! I’m flattered. WP having a slow day, I guess, needed something to keep it active.
Rafer Janders
@Gex:
Owning a house is elitist, unless you own so many that you lose track of how many there are, or if your house needs a car elevator. Then it’s not elitist at all, but merely a marker of Success (TM), which WHY ARE YOU ATTACKING SUCCESS?
Violet
@Rafer Janders: Maybe. I don’t know. Maybe it’s a cultural thing. I know people who don’t spend much to hunt. Have had their guns forever, stay on a dad’s or uncle’s land and hunt there. It’s a cheap weekend, once or twice a year. I know some folks who fish and do it a bit more than that, but they’ve got fishing gear that’s decades old and only spend a little here and there to buy hooks or flies or whatever as needed. Of course licenses each year for both, but those aren’t prohibitive.
The people I’m thinking of mostly don’t have cash for something like a windsurfer and would never put that at the top of their list anyway. They’d rather upgrade their truck somehow or buy something with a motor if they could.
Like I said, I think it’s largely cultural. I live in a red state.
Rafer Janders
@Violet:
And I’m in a blue, and agree it’s cultural. But the same cost analysis applies to windsurfing. Once you buy the board, it’s basically free, since your only cost is…air, really. I know guys who’ve had their same boards for 10, 15 plus years, so at this point they spend nothing, far less than hunters or fishermen since they don’t have to buy bullets or bait or licenses.
kd bart
This election is turning into Caddyshack with Mitt Romney as Judge Smails.
“Obama, how bout a Fresca?”
Violet
@Rafer Janders: So maybe the “windsurfing is elitist” thing worked really well in red states? I know it worked well here, even with people I know who vote Democrat. They cringed at the Kerry on the windsurfer photo, even though they voted for him. Not that that made any difference, being a red state and all.
Rafer Janders
But the bizarre thing is, I also know guys in deep-red states such as Oklahoma(with its plentiful lakes) who windsurf. They hunt and fish, too, but they windsurf all the time. It was never any kind of thing until the Republicans in 2004 decided to pretend it was, and everyone else went along.
And curiously, all those guys who cringed at the photo of Kerry on a board seemed to have no problem with his opponent Bush having been a male cheerleader, for god’s sakes. Could you imagine if it had been Kerry who was the male cheerleader and Bush the windsurfer? Which activity would everyone have suddenly and spontaneously decided was elitist then?
So maybe they didn’t actually have any real problem with the windsurfing, but just pretended they did so they could have an excuse to vote against a guy they’d already made up their mind about…?
Calouste
@MCA1:
Maybe more to do with the fact that most of the industrial era robber barons (Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt) came from poor backgrounds themselves (because the nobility and large landowners would rather be caught dead than actually working). The financial barons of our times on the other hand, and Romney is of course a prime example, are born on third base because to even get into their business your family has to have the wealth and connections to send you to the right (Ivy League, Oxbridge) finishing school.
David Koch
Peter Cohen is the dimwit who fucked up the RJR Nabisco deal in the 80s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarians_at_the_Gate_%28film%29
chrome agnomen
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
no, i really prefer your solution. feral dogs need to eat, too, also.
Chris T.
That’s using the New Republican Dictionary, of course, where the definition is: soc•ial•ist, n: black man in position of power
RedKitten
But Obama ate arugula, so he’s just as bad!
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Violet:
__
Personally I think the “windsurfing is elitist” thing worked because in the early days of windsurfing it was looked upon as a new sport adopted first by fitness fanatics, young people and assorted other outdoor-sport hipsters aka DFHs. And the label stuck with folks who never had reason to take up the sport. The economics of procuring equipment and finding a place to surf has nothing to do with it; the same label could just as easily be applied to playing a game of Ultimate Frisbee, which costs what, maybe 10-20 bucks tops, even assuming that you have to buy a new Frisbee every time (because the old one got eaten by a ill-termpered hedge of juniper bushes).
__
Yet another case of something arbitrary acting as a cultural marker in ways that make no other sense.
James K. Polk, Esq.
A thread about windsurfing on BJ?
I love this place…
Odie Hugh Manatee
Rmoney and his supporters are proud of the Greed On Parade and they just want us to know it. As they like to say, if you have it, flaunt it! One aspect of an Obama win this fall will be the fact that these rich fools feverishly parted with large sums of cash backing a loser.
The “system” has to be gamed in their favor because too many of them are too fucking stupid to have actually made their money honestly and still have some left.
SiubhanDuinne
Reads just like Luke 2:7.
Sly
Why didn’t Joseph and Mary just stay on their generous friend’s yacht when there was no room at the inn?
Class envy, I’d say.
DougJ
@Sly:
Win.