Congratulations to this Koch heir, who is going to become like $75 billion richer in the next few days. He's going to use it to make very innovative ugly shirts. https://t.co/0NDo5GYYRW
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) December 20, 2017
All hail Dave Roth, who first introduced Political Twitter to this remarkable member of the Lucky Sperm Club…
HO.LEE SHEE.IT.https://t.co/PyldlZwzCP
— Born With A Reindeer Tail (@bornwithatail_) December 20, 2017
Spin has some video:
The Post describes the Wyatt Ingraham signature aesthetic as “out-there patterns and colors” which is a charitable way of saying that these are the busy shirts a middle-manager who fancies himself the office comedian wears on casual Friday. The remarkable part of this vanity endeavor is the short video Koch produced to sell the brand, construct his own self-mythology, and peel the curtain back on his creative process. One of the video’s boldest choices entails a Koch heir sitting for his talking head interview wearing a shirt emblazoned with bags of money, as if that image alone couldn’t resurrect the guillotine.
“My father said to me, ‘Wyatt, you can do whatever you want to in life. Just make sure you do it well and do it with passion,” the designer said to the camera, without a hint of self-awareness. The sons of literal billionaires do typically get to do whatever they want in life. That’s the perk of being born into a Scrooge McDuck vault full of gold coins…
This guy so totally needed further protection from the estate tax. Hey, it’s not as though he were capable of surviving without a deep, deep cushion of daddy’s money…
Wyatt Ingraham Koch designs shirts. His design for this shirt is bags and bags of money. pic.twitter.com/iDuUGgglkH
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) December 20, 2017
I’m crying pic.twitter.com/2KJa9DJOXo
— bob (@atbobb) December 20, 2017
His taste for fashion began early. pic.twitter.com/w0xWHlMRvW
— Schooley (@Rschooley) December 20, 2017
What’s the lives and health of thousands of sick kids and poor people, compared to such visions of pure CLASS?
MomSense
Heads on pikes!
GOVCHRIS1988
I’ve always questioned how the French Revolution could have so many seemingly calm, hardworking people of the proletariat become so angry, vengeful and murderous toward the aristocracy, then you see a photo of a fatass rich trust funder with a tacky ass moneybag shirt he designed and a woman WAY out of his league whose only with him to pay her tuition bills off and you definitely get the pitchforks and guillotines.
oatler.
Guillotine grease! I can’t believe I ate the whole thing! Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti day!
WereBear
Wow, a feller who lets down his race and his class! So much win, there.
Betty Cracker
You couldn’t engineer a more contemptible plutocrat in a lab underwritten by profits from Charles Dickens novels.
germy
Look at the top photo, the one with his ex-fiancée. Look at her eyes.
They’re saying “Eeew”
TenguPhule
@MomSense:
Why hello there.
TenguPhule
@Betty Cracker:
Not taking that bet.
Barbara
For what it’s worth, from what I have read about focus groups of Trump voters, the one thing that gets them to reconsider their support is knowing that Trump is kowtowing to people like this fellow — basically, that he is a friend of plutocrats and that he only lied about being a friend to the working class.
West of the Rockies (been a while)
@WereBear:
He lets down his species. He lets down carbon-based life forms.
Yarrow
I was thinking that maybe the tumbrel should become the symbol for fighting these fuckers. Pictures of tumbrels on signs. Bring actual tumbrels to larger protests. Sell a few shirts with “Load ’em up!” and images of the Republican elephant in a tumbrel. That kind of thing.
Betty Cracker
@oatler.: Yes, this post rather does cry out for the “Grease the Guillotine With the Fat Of Billionaires” tag. I have a feeling we’ll be using that one a lot in the coming year.
SenyorDave
So basically the fiancee woke up one morning next to him, took a good long look and said to herself “No amount of money is worth having to look at that for the next 50 years”.
SFAW
I find myself thinking about tumbrels. Which is unusual for me, despite the neat-omnipresence of those fantasies on this site.
oatler.
From Camper Van’s “Jack Ruby”:
Grant us the luxury, ’cause all our heroes are bastards
Grant us the luxury, ’cause all our heroes are thieves
Of the innocence of the afternoons
Now we think it’s a virtue to simply survive
But it feels like this calm it’s decaying
It’s collapsing under it’s own weight
And I think it’s your friend the hangman coming
Choking back a laugh, a drunkard swaggering to your door
Now do you feel that cold, icy presence?
In the morning with coffee and with bread
Do you feel it in the movement of traffic
And days are terrible, simply forget
James E. Powell
This guy has got to be a TV ad for Democrats. This is who Republicans work for! Not you, economically anxious Midwestern white guy.
Hungry Joe
A Herblock cartoon from the early ’60s showed Barry Goldwater scolding a poor family huddled on a doorstep: “If You Had Any Initiative, You’d Go Out and Inherit a Department Store.” (Goldwater’s was a department-store chain in Arizona.)
These guys will never change.
Barbara
@WereBear: Try to imagine you were in his shoes and you could, literally, do whatever you wanted. Would you be Elon Musk or would you be this guy? Ideas are at the core of what makes people great. Being wealthy doesn’t guarantee you will have great ideas.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Jesus Christ, these political ads write themselves.
SFAW
@Barbara:
And then the moment passes, and they become Theodoric of York, Medieval Dumbfuck Voter
[If you’re too young to remember the sketch, the money quote is in the next-to-last paragraph.]
Ian G.
@Betty Cracker: Uh, have you SEEN our president and his contemptible family? With luck, Wyatt here will be too lazy/coked up to ever try his hand in politics.
MazeDancer
Millions of women across the nation – and possibly 7 continents – all having the same reaction to this guy: There is not enough money to get me to have dinner with him, let alone marry him. (Or have Kochs as inlaws)
Yarrow
His fiancee really looks like she’s saying, “I’m only here for the money,” and in the end even that wasn’t enough.
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
At least Bill Gates had enough taste to know what to steal from other people.
Ian G.
@Yarrow:
The money is never enough. It’s why the melting wax statue in the White House will be served divorce papers for the 3rd time within nanoseconds of President Gillibrand’s oath of office in January 2021.
donnah
Holy christ, what a turd!
He should be in prison just for the shirt alone.
SFAW
@Barbara:
And, according to some poll CNN quoted, when asked if they’d use the tax “windfall” to create jobs, something like 55 percent of the CEOs snorted, and said “Are you fucking stupid? Fuck NO!” Approximately 14 percent said they would use the money on infrastructure or capital projects — which, in theory, could lead to more jobs. Someday.
And: Thanks, Suzie Shillins! The only practical differences between you and Paul LePage is that (A) you’re not an obvious racist, and (B) 150 pounds. And please do let us know how those “iron-clad guarantees” work out for us, you cowardly piece of shit.
Betty Cracker
TaxScam is a done deal, or so my phone alerts say. That means I’ll be avoiding the news for the next few days since I cannot abide reading breathless accounts of Trump’s big “win” from vapid Beltway morons. Y’all let me know if Scheißegibbon strokes out or bombs North Korea, okay?
dmsilev
The word of the day is backpfeifengesicht, “a face which cries out for a fist in it”.
Kay
They’re really over the moon that they all got a giant tax cut so they’ll be more excessive and decadent now than they were before.
There will be those Enron-like stories, where they hold giant parties lauding one another. Drinking champagne out of golden slippers, that sort of thing. Ugh. I can’t believe I have to live thru the “Me Decade” more than once. It was repulsive enough the first time and now the same oligarchs are older and meaner and greedier.
Leto
@Barbara: Of course that group’s two functioning brain cells immediately stop rubbing together and it’s right back to HE CAN DO NO WRONG, JUST GIVE HIM A CHANCE!!! *argleblargleargleblargleargleblargle*
JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo
@SFAW: Maybe just getting those people to waiver in their support for shithead in the WH and the GOP is enough. If they don’t vote but Dems do, that’s how you get results like Alabama. 94% of Hillary 2016 voters came out, according to exit polling, but only 49% of DJT’s voters did.
NotMax
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Major Major Major Major
Wow.
When I first saw that description:
I got worried because I like loud shirts! Then I saw the pictures and realized that I at the very least at least have much better taste in loud shirts. (I wear them rarely, FWIW)
@dmsilev: That’s been the word of the day for at least a year
Betty Cracker
@Ian G.: That pair’s respective process servers will probably collide on the way to accost their targets before they board Marine 1 for the final time.
Mike in DC
@Barbara:
It was either designing tacky shirts or running a chain of topless chili joints.
The Dangerman
@Yarrow:
Hereafter to be known as “The Melania Modus”.
No Drought No More
The women not long ago cheered at an airport- an event which sent a tingle up the legs of far too many democrats, all of whom should damn well have known better- says she isn’t a vicious republican intent on the destruction of American democracy. No, according to her, she’s simply a innocent victim of sexist news coverage.
Make no mistake. Collins is a killer, as surely as Bush/Cheney proved to be when they sent Americans to war in 2003. Americans will die as a consequence of her vote, American children will die, and the sick wretch does not care.
Democrats that don’t hate Collins and the republican party as they would a cancer that strikes a child should wise up. Collins herself is scum, and those that support the republican party are both the domestic enemies of the American people, and the mortal enemies of humanity.
Merry Christmas, everyone, ho ho ho…
Just One More Canuck
@TenguPhule: Donald Trump says, “Hold my beer”
Koch, Jr is undeniable proof that the turd doesn’t fall far from the asshole
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
As LOLGOP says, read the story about the blown engagement while listening to this video.
All becomes quite clear…
A Ghost To Most
So many lampposts, so little time. Looks like we’re going to have to put in some overtime.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Remember, if you dose yourself with small amounts of arsenic and slowly build up your tolerance, you can taste your employer’s food and probably survive an otherwise lethal dose of arsenic.
Spanky
Somewhere out there, there’s a guy whose blood has run cold as he stares at that picture and mutters “that’s my girlfriend!”
ruemara
I guess she didn’t want to look at that corpulent turnip with zero decent personality for however long the sex & heirs contract was for.
Don’t look at me like that. Do you think she was with him for his stellar character and boyish charm?
Leto
@Kay:
You mean that they’ll finally be able to realize their dream of having a 100ft yacht dingy for their 400ft yacht? That they’ll be able to just outright buy Puerto Rico and rename it Richyrichstan? That they’ll finally be able to upgrade from a shabby Park Ave shanty to their own private Moon based villa?
Not only are they “older and meaner and greedier”, but they’ve spawned and version 2.0 is nastier. Of course if the golden rule about inherited wealth holds, by version 3.0 it’ll all be gone. Wyatt here is 3.0 and doing a fine job of testing that theory.
Barbara
@SFAW: If you read actual news coverage of businesses in places like Appalachia they talk about how hard it is to hire people because (a) they don’t want to be trained to provide the skills the employer needs or (b) they can’t pass a drug test, which whatever you think about drug testing in general, is usually a good idea when your employees are driving or working with machinery. Giving money to employers does diddly squat to help their prospective employees develop needed skills. You don’t hire unskilled workers no matter how desperately you need the additional help.
mad citizen
@oatler.: Camper Van Beethoven! Awesome reference, I’m going to go back and listen to this.
SFAW
@JoeyJoeJoe Junior Shabadoo:
No argument. I just think the idea that those still-Shitgibbon-ers would somehow become rational is, shall we say, unlikely.
An interesting experiment would be for a fake-Rethug PAC to run ads, in deep red states, showing how a black family benefited from TaxHeist17. It might make the Trumpistas’ heads a-splode. Literally, one would hope.
Who says only the GOTP can do the ratfucking?
bobbo
I am going to design a line of shirts covered with guillotines and chopped off heads. I mean, you’ve got to follow your passion in life
MJS
@Barbara: I pictured it more as him saying, “Gee, I can be anything I want to be? Then I’m going to dedicate my life to helping the poor and needy!” And then he and his father throwing their heads back and having a good, long laugh at his funny joke.
opiejeanne
My son, who is visiting this week, said “That guy needs to go to Galt Gulch ASAP. His artistic brilliance is wasted on the rest of us mortals.”
Kay
People may disagree, but I always felt suing to get a gift back is wrong-headed. Was it a gift or not? I don’t really understand the mindset that hangs onto a gift once it’s given. Call it something else- a payment in kind, a bribe, a lease, but a gift is a gift. Let it go.
Now I know why these people believe they still OWN retirement savings or health insurance after they pay it out as compensation. There’s some fundamental error in thinking going on here, among our plutocrats.
GOVCHRIS1988
@No Drought No More: Maine seriously needs to get its shit together. I mean, Maine is basically Canada, and yet it seems to have no trouble electing godawful Republicans like Paul LePage or stab in the back Republican shills like Collins. This state isn’t Kentucky or Kansas, so what gives?! Alabama put a Democrat into the U.S. Senate, but Maine can’t find ONE Democrat to represent itself as a U.S. Senator to be proud of?
Archon
That women deserved every carat of that ring.
NotMax
Oh joy, again. Second flash flood warning of the morning. Rains of up to 2 inches per hour moving in and out for the next 3½ hours. Some highways already closed due to landslides from the rains which hit fast and moved out several hours ago.
The bulletins breaking in on all channels is a good thing. That the audio in them is distorted to near complete unintelligibility is not.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW: Elon Musk will use the tax cuts to keep bashing public transportation and building private subways with public money.
sixthdoctor
Well, ol’ Wyatt’s definitely on the People I’d Like To Smack With A Sack of Sea Urchins list, but he’s no Paul Ryan…
Barbara
@bobbo: Imani the angry black lady (I think that’s her — she has a different gig now) wears a shirt in the picture of her twitter account that says “In memory of when I used to give a fuck.” “I oppose p**sy grabbers” might be another good one. How can someone claim offense if they voted for Trump?
GOVCHRIS1988
@ruemara: I’ll say this, that is a face made for doggystyle. Just bend over, wait 3.2 seconds, then steal his charge card and buy you a Bentley.
mad citizen
I just hope that like French Fries became American Fries briefly last decade, we can rename the guillotine into something appropriately ‘Merican. I also hope the new ones will be made with American steel.
zhena gogolia
I AM Blanche Yurka.
Just sent Swing Left a contribution. It’s the only thing that’s calming me down a tiny bit.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Cheaper, faster and easier to forge their new wills and poison them yourself.
/Don’t look at me like that!
chris
@MomSense: Heads on pikes? Soon, but maybe start here. TP the mansions and egg the limos.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so skimming over the original post, Laura Ingram married a Koch brother and they adopted Blake Farenthold and dyed his hair ginger so he could escape authorities…. do I have that right?
Seriously, I think the elder Kochs are gonna really fucking hate all this attention. Won’t change anything in our world, but I hope in increases the bile and sleeplessness in theirs.
Hungry Joe
A key scene in “Key Largo”: Gangster Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson) is asked what it is he wants (from life). “He wants more,” Humphrey Bogart’s character says.
“Yeah, that’s it!” Rocco says. “I want more!”
“And you won’t ever have enough, will you?” says the old man (Lionel Barrymore).
The question seems to surprise Rocco. He thinks for a few seconds, then says, “No … no, I don’t believe I ever will.”
TenguPhule
@mad citizen:
Occam’s Razor.
Barbara
@GOVCHRIS1988: What gives about Maine? What gives is that neither of the two liberals who were running against LePage could bring themselves to drop out and they split the vote. Collins is a longtime Maine pol, a true moderate back in the day who gained and kept the allegiance of many older female voters even though the party as a whole has been dragged so far right it is all but unrecognizable to most people in New England who used to call themselves Republican. That’s why she played the sexist card — to appeal to her base that the mean media is picking on their feminist hero. It’s utterly galling, but I think the jig is up for her. My assumption is that she will not run in 2020. She was going to run for governor but she probably read the tea leaves well enough to know that whatever she runs for next she will likely lose, so she will stick around as long as she can and then call it a day. She also has health issues.
germy
@Hungry Joe:
SFAW
@Barbara:
The “can’t find skilled workers” has a flip side: companies don’t want to pay the going rate, so they “offshore” some jobs, or fund a bunch of visas. And when the job market is tight — meaning for job seekers, not employers — companies create laundry lists of qualifications, and then reject persons who only meet 90 percent of the desired skills. Not all companies, of course.
So, I don’t have a lot of compassion for those pore CEOs and hiring departments. Most of the time, they hold most, if not all, of the cards, and they make sure you know it.
NotMax
@TenguPhule
Carnegie’s razor. (small r)
zhena gogolia
@zhena gogolia:
Explanatory video, unfortunately dubbed into Italian. The great Blanche Yurka on the left. Although I identify with the other gal too.
msdc
That last picture just cries out for the return of the sans-culottes, doesn’t it?
Kay
Team Trump are loudly crowing and also contradicting everything Senator Collins told her poor, deceived constituents.
She should come clean. She’s caught in this big web of lies she told anyway. God almighty but she must have been desperate to give rich people a giant tax cut. She threw away 30 years of credibility to give this ridiculous Koch heir more money to spend on rings.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@Kay: I always associate the Enron scam with paying off our mortgage. As you recall, not only was Enron scamming but their auditors at Arthur Anderson were covering for them. It all came out at the same time Mr DAW’s brother died and left us some money. We decided that if the auditors couldn’t even be trusted, the value of a stock was a gamble. So we paid off our mortgage instead.
catclub
@TenguPhule: The Liberals LGBTQ revenge, Razor.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Whatever. He’s still done more for non-wealthy Americans than 100 Jamie Dimons.
Jack the Second
Whenever I see when of these heirs to the captains of industry, I really, really don’t understand why the Koch brothers aren’t lobbying for a 100% estate tax out to spite their worthless get.
SiubhanDuinne
@Major Major Major Major:
I watched the video. He says something like “I wanted to create something fun, something outside the box, something you could wear in the boardroom or on a yacht or at the discotheque.”
Is there still such a thing as “the discotheque”?
TenguPhule
@Archon:
No she doesn’t, she consented.
Kay
Imagine the New Years Party at Mar a Lago. They’ll reach new heights of gross self-congratulation and excess.
TenguPhule
@Jack the Second:
Their Genes must not be denied the chance to spread like all other diseases.
Mnemosyne
@Kay:
I’m assuming she will personally benefit from the tax cuts for millions of dollars. It’s the only explanation that makes any damn sense.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
Then imagine something less enraging, like them all being locked in the club buildings after they’ve been set on fire.(*)
*As for who or what “they” are, whichever makes you happiest.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
I consent to work at my job every day. That doesn’t mean I don’t deserve to get my paycheck.
Sab
Totally OT: I just learned that my step-granddaughters half sisters are going into the Cleveland Ohio winter without winter coats. Yes my family can afford to buy them coats. Yes they can get coats without groveling, but their mother was embarrassed to ask. I understand everyone’s point of view from all sides but Sweet Jesus these junior high school girls are going into a northern Ohio winter without coats because of various people’s pride.
laura
@MomSense: I’ll see your head’s on a pike and raise you a red hot poker up the ass.
TenguPhule
@Kay:
To be fair, she didn’t have thirty years of credibilty. Her voters have just been guillable saps for most of that time.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mnemosyne:
Heh. I just finished re-reading (for the umpteenth time) Strong Poison.
Kay
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
I’m probably telling my grown children to be more conservative with money than I should- they’re younger and can take more risk- but I don’t trust any of these sleazy assholes as far as I can throw them, so I have no choice.
I don’t want them robbed by these people. That would kill me.
Citizen_X
“He is…the least interesting man in the world.”
TenguPhule
@Mnemosyne: Human Trafficking is also a job but you would never choose to work there.
Mike R
@James E. Powell: Perfect, would contribute to a campaign that used that slugs picture to mock Trump and the Koch brothers.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
so trump had Reincy over for lunch today…
Meuller don’t fuck around, I wonder if Reincy will get (can be?) subpoenaed over this, send a message to other “guests”
NotMax
@SiubhanDuinne
Monaco, Biarritz, Gstaad, etc., etc. all have ’em.
trollhattan
Things unrelated but open thread fodder.
Idiot couple reduce their idiot count by one.
Heaven forfend we ask who needs access to a 50 caliber gun. Ever.
Also, too, I want to kick lying liar FCC Chair Pai in his brass nuts.
Major Major Major Major
@SFAW:
Like such as? I mean, it’s a low bar and space exploration is cool but it doesn’t help the poor.
@trollhattan: They were surprised that a hand cannon went through a book?
JR
They should just run the “Rich Dicks” sketches from Kroll show, or possibly Jamie Johnson’s documentary.
AnotherBruce
She probably had a psychosomatic allergic reaction to him. I’m having one now, I don’t think I’ll be able to hold food down today.
Mnemosyne
@TenguPhule:
I don’t choose to work there, but I’m not going to look down on the brave women who try and keep guys like this out of the dating pool in exchange for a steady income. There’s a reason it’s called the world’s oldest profession.
zhena gogolia
@Mnemosyne:
Krugman nailed it yesterday. We’ve gone from ideology to corruption. They’re just nakedly enriching themselves, not just their donors.
NotMax
@Kay
Signage: “You must be this
tallwealthy to proceed.”Jim, Foolish Literalist
IIRC polls showed she would’ve had to run as an Indy to win, and she would’ve won handily, but a trump/Page state GOP wouldn’t have her
I think she’s coasted for a long time on a romantic image as the last, flinty north eastern moderate, though she’s about as flinty as a sac of wet laundry. I’ll say again, what really baffles me is, she could exercise real power if she chose to. I thought most politicians want to do that just for the sheer pleasure of it.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
I feel kind of sorry for her. She doesn’t seem very bright, and now she and their child have to live with what she did.
sukabi
@germy: so’s her body language…he’s leaning in and she’s “ewwww, not so close revolting toad” leaning out.
Kay
Poor Susan Collins– desperately putting off the inevitable discovery that she made promises to her constituents that she can’t keep, and never intended to keep.
The Collins check is in the mail, Mainers. Look for it after January 1. Or the spring. Or never.
SiubhanDuinne
I think I’ve figured out where Blake Farenthold buys his pajamas.
ruemara
@GOVCHRIS1988: Only if you’re pegging him. He’s disgusting. Having him touch you is like having living corrosion slather itself on you.
Calouste
@mad citizen: I’m sure Gillette is willing to pay for naming rights to the National Razor.
delk
I suspect Wyatt had far more time for colors and patterns than the ex-fiancee.
Mnemosyne
@zhena gogolia:
Yep. That’s why I agree with the people who say it’s a classic mafia-style bust-out. They know they’re all getting voted out next year, so they’re grabbing everything they can before they go. The new congresspeople are going to show up in January of 2019 and discover that the offices have been stripped completely bare.
prufrock
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): My mom and stepdad did the same thing with their mortgage after the dot-com boom.
NotMax
Gee, remember when it was all good-natured fun?
/days deader than the dodo
Kay
The health insurance they promised comes only after they secure the windfall to the richest Americans. Next month or next year or …never! How about “never”? Make no mistake. She knew it wasn’t true when she said it. She lied to them.
Cheryl Rofer
glory b
@Kay: Legally, it’s a conditional gift, not an outright gift. The condition is the marriage, if no marriage, you have to return the gift.
Even if HE broke it off, she’d still have to return it. I know this isn’t a good example, think of family heirlooms (great grandma’s ring) instead.
Calouste
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: 3. Shitgibbon lunching with someone who has already cut a deal with the prosecution.
AnotherBruce
If I had to classify his kind of ugly, I would put in the “Ugly as a brown paper bag full of smashed assholes.” category. And that has little to do with his actual physical looks.
Duane
Koch’s not unaware of what he is. He’s perfectly aware of his privilege. He lacks many things, but he knows what he is.
Him taking a tumbrel ride is the poster I want to see.
Ocotillo
The near term of this is going to be challenging. The worst of things doesn’t happen until further down the road.
A Democratic Senator (Blumenthal I think) was asked about how to run against the tax cut that middle class folks will see and referred to it as paltry (I forgot the exact phrase so I am paraphrasing). Later, the host was asking another guest about how Dems would be able to run against extra money in peoples pockets. The guest cited the original stimulus package while it was a tax cut, was perceived as a tax hike by most folks. He went on to say the GOP might have a hard time convincing people they really got a cut in light of that precedent.
What that does not take into account is the puke funnel drives the zeitgeist. Back in the day, over and over it was said Obama is raising your taxes and perception became reality. This go round, expect a full court press that taxes have been cut and ain’t that extra walkin’ around money great!
So, if unanswered, this could end up being perception and cooling some of the resistance.
Down the road, as more wealth moves to the top, people like Wyatt here will go to the Wall Street casinos and voila, it’s 1929 or 2008 all over again. Add the mix, healthcare is being sabotaged as well and all that goes with that.
Of course, Ryan may overplay his hand here even more going after S/S and Medicare/Medicaid in ’18.
Kay
@Cheryl Rofer:
The heirs of billionaires came first. They were the top priority.
Did you see how they’re framing it a “present”? They are. They say the poors might get a Valentines’ gift of basic health care if they’re very, very good boys and girls! Just repulsive. These ancient, wealthy senators are dangling promises of health care to children. They should all be ashamed of themselves.
catclub
@Calouste: How about Cold Glory? Paint it red white and blue.
catclub
@Kay: why the fuck couldn’t Lamar Alexander hold up his own fucking vote for the tax bill until they pass his bill in both houses?
That is leverage used to pass your bill.
afanasia
@TenguPhule: She earned her pay, like any sex worker. Don’t overcomplicate the situation.
NotMax
@Kay
Noblesse non-oblige is the new black.
SFAW
@Major Major Major Major:
Companies which hire people, maybe? Or do Teslas and SpaceX rockets get conjured directly from Musk’s brain?
And my comment was in reference to CEOs, and those that are going to take the money and not run. Not looking to CEOs to “help the poor,” other than through getting their companies to hire persons in addition to bean counters.
tybee
@catclub:
just paint it white and blue. the red will take care of itself.
Kay
@catclub:
Because they’re planning some sleazy underhanded tactic that involves holding health insurance subsidies and SCHIP hostage for more largess for billionaires?
You have to give Murkowski credit. She was smart enough to actually collect. Collins has an IOU and not even a particularly good one- she needs Democrats and now that she’s the poster child for this piece of shit tax bill I don’t know why Democrats would give her anything.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This is kind of a surprise, at least to me
Citizen Alan
@Barbara:
If someone gave me a billion dollars tomorrow, the first thing I would do would be to put about 10 million or so into a trust fund to pay my living expenses for the rest of my life. And then, I would spend the rest of my life trying to give away the rest of it to worthy causes.
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Hell, I may have to go to it, now! (Except it still costs a fair chunk of change).
Citizen Alan
@Kay:
Hopefully at midnight someone wearing The Masque of the Red Death will show up. Or perhaps the King in Yellow.
BC in Illinois
@Cheryl Rofer:
@Kay:
A present ? A CHRISTMAS PRESENT ?
These people speak of health insurance for children as a CHRISTMAS PRESENT? Something nice, but maybe will have to wait for next year ? ! ? I don’t have the words to speak of this.
Do these people have ANY IDEA [ quick answer–no, they don’t ] of what it means to be a parent of a child who has no health insurance? the uneasiness? the fear?
I was uneasy when my children — in their 20s, and healthy! — went without insurance for a number of months, during times of transitions. My mother was concerned about my daughter without insurance, and inquired whether she should help out. I had insurance through my work, and I greatly appreciated the ACA allowing my daughter to be covered by that insurance until she was 26. [Thanks, Obama!] All of the children (no longer young) have had insurance through work or the ACA exchanges.
But I dreaded the months when they did not.
I’ve seen too much – – one car wreck, one doctor’s report – – and everything can change.
And now people WHO HAVE THE POWER TO DO SOMETHING to keep health insurance for children, speak of it as something, “well, kids, we hoped that we could have this present for Christmas, but it didn’t work out.*** Maybe in a couple of months. Well, we have to go now. Stay well.”
*** insert explosion of anger at what they thought was a higher priority than the health of children, or the protection of young Americans (DACA) ***
There are no words.
Arclite
Have another doughnut you fat fuck.
Did I say that out loud?
schrodingers_cat
@BC in Illinois: Unless the plutocratic death cult suffers for it at the polls repeatedly they are not going to change.
laura
I’m in moderation for making a reasoned suggestion.
sukabi
@catclub: pretty sure you could go with white and blue…the red will take care of itself.
sukabi
@tybee: well you got there first ?
germy
d58826
@Ocotillo: Sad to say that the GOP could convince people to get back on board the Titanic. And the D’s could not convince people to get into the life boat.
germy
germy
mike in dc
@germy: It would be interesting to ask Rep. Nadler when he believes it would be appropriate to commence an impeachment inquiry.
artem1s
well, I was hoping the Koch spawn would be less odious than their parents. our only hope is that this generation resents having to spend any money on buying politicians. That they fervently believe they should get to inherit their parent’s slaves along with the plantation.
Jack the Second
CHIP is dead.
CHIP was the Clintons’ victory back when they couldn’t get comprehensive health reform passed. You think the Republicans are going to leave it standing?
Chyron HR
I don’t get why Fatty Dorkins is getting any Koch money. Isn’t the whole point that they want to be buried with their riches?
catclub
The Bundy clan got a mistrial on their case. So far it means another trial – not dismissal of charges.
The US DOJ has a terrible track record taking high profile cases to trial. I can think of the Malheur case, this one and Ted Stevens, where it sure looked like they were trying to sabotage their own case through pre-trial incompetence. Also the New Orleans US Atty and ‘anonymous’ web postings.
tomtofa
@Ocotillo:
Yeah, smarmy David Green of NPR. He also challenged Blumenthal: “People are going to get an average of $1600 in cuts – and you call that ‘crumbs’?”
More and more I’m listening to music on my commute; NPR really is Nice Polite Republicans these days…
catclub
@Ocotillo:
If you use the same growth projections that were used to sell this tax cut, to estimate SS and Medicare trust funds, they are GREAT SHAPE.
No looming SS deficit under those projections.
BC in Illinois
@schrodingers_cat:
I am beyond thinking that they will change. I want them to be rebuked, shamed, outcast, despised. I want to see them crushed, driven before us, and hear the lamentations of their donors. I want them to be voted out of office and then their names blotted out, or spoken only as one speaks of things that one wishes that no one speaks of.
“MUST we speak of them? We haven’t spoken of them today, and it has made it seem like a party.”
We have 10 1/2 months to fight them, and then two more years to fight them, and then a decade more to fight, and to rebuild, and to undo. [Mrs BC: “There’s so much to undo!”] But I am resigned to being a part of this fight for the rest of my life — 10 or 20 years max — so as to leave a habitable world and a livable society to grandchildren, whose children should not have to fight these fights again.
And a foul noise, such as Sen Alexander speaking of health care for children as a “present” — nice, but not really a necessity — will give me anger to feed on for a month. Even when words fail.
Bill Arnold
Just for those who want details on how the Republican hive mind voted:
H.R. 1: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (vote #699)
Basically the only deviations from hive mind positions were in high tax states, CA, NY, NJ, and even in those states some Rs voted for the wealth transfer from their state to Red States.. (Among other horrible things, it also means that some of their constituents will die, slowly, due to lack of health insurance, so that their lack of federal subsidies can partially offset tax cuts for the rich, including 48 billion (2019 estimated[1]) to non-US rich. Some of them may decide to do something about it. Cough, and sigh.)
[1] The most surprising winners from Trump’s ‘America First’ tax plan are not American. Linked mainly a comment about the “America First” Republican lie.
catclub
@BC in Illinois:
and he is the BEST of the GOP senate bunch, willing to work on a law to pay for SCHIP. Where are all the rest of them? Spitting on HIS effort.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Citizen Alan:
If somebody gave me a billion dollars tomorrow, I’d use it to crush my personal and political enemies.
catclub
@Bill Arnold:
I am not surprised. Are they Russian?
Jager
Wyatt’s daddy used to be the moderate Koch, he had to sue his brothers to get his chunk of their old man’s cash. Bill funded a women’s America’s Cup Challenge and he’s fathered more kids than chubby Wyatt.
From Wikipedia “In 1996, Koch had a daughter, Charlotte, with his girlfriend Marie Beard. Later this same year, he married Angela Browder Gauntt, with whom he had a son, William Jr., and a daughter, Robin. Koch and Gauntt divorced December 14, 2000.
In 2005, Koch married Bridget Rooney (b. 1962) at a ceremony in Colorado, and they have one daughter, Kaitlin. Bridget Rooney Koch is the granddaughter of the original owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers” The old bastard is 77 and has produced 4 kids since 1994.
Don
All I see when I look at Wyatt is one of the kids from the fat camp in Mr. Show’s “Camp Monk Academy” sketch.
“William van Landingham!”
“The Third, my dear boy.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtE1HnIU6q8
Ben Cisco
@West of the Rockies (been a while): He’s an ugly giant bag of mostly water.
Ocotillo
@tomtofa: Thanks for catching that in my poorly written post. It is sad but even with their funded by Koch Industries slant, they are still the best thing on terrestrial radio. (Especially in Texas)
Dupe70
Just remember: gingers don’t have souls!
Dupe70
@germy: Look at the body language. She is leaning away from him as his Baron Harkonnen bulbous frame leans into her.
Ohio Mom
@Sab: I can only imagine all the other things they are too proud to ask for.
I have an old friend like that (she really lost the thread a while ago). Makes me heartsick when I count up all the things her two lovely boys went without because she was too proud. One of them became partially deaf because she wouldn’t sign up for Chip and he didn’t get the medical care he needed. Grrr….
Ohio Mom
@SiubhanDuinne: LOL! They do demonstrate a similar sense of design.
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
No, well yes, some of them.
Slashing Corporate Taxes: Foreign Investors Are Surprise Winners
Especially if the windfall corporate tax giveaway is used for stock buybacks or paid out as dividends, the top 2 probable outcomes (IMO).
Bishop Bag
@Betty Cracker: Dickens
Bishop Bag
Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrils carry the day’s wine to La Guillotine. All the devouring and insatiate Monsters imagined since imagination could record itself, are fused in the one realisation, Guillotine. And yet there is not in France, with its rich variety of soil and climate, a blade, a leaf, a root, a sprig, a peppercorn, which will grow to maturity under conditions more certain than those that have produced this horror. Crush humanity out of shape once more, under similar hammers, and it will twist itself into the same tortured forms. Sow the same seed of rapacious license and oppression over again, and it will surely yield the same fruit according to its kind.
Betty Cracker
Submitted by request:
J R in WV
@TenguPhule:
Maybe… Roosevelt’s Razor?
Tom Paine’s Razor?
Alinsky’s Razor?
hmmm, one of those seems close.
JerryRich
Tokyokie
I actually design shirts (well, fabric that I plan to eventually turn into aloha shirts), and although I like my aloha shirts, shall we say, unsubtle, I haven’t harked up anything as awful as Wyatt has. (You can look here and decide.)
Shalimar
@Mike in DC: I would totally be in favor of topless chili joints if that phrase didn’t bring to mind a half-naked Alex Jones.