The Pitchforks Are (Still) Coming

[FA_Q2]

While it's correct to recognize that pitchforks are being dusted off, the mistake is in imagining that those pitchforks will be used on the wealthy. Every indication is that those pitchforks will be used on you, by your neighbor.

Based on what empirical evidence?

Baltimore. Ferguson.

The people no longer attack the rich - they have moved out. Now they are busy burning down their own neighborhoods and wondering why it gets worse.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

really. Have you discussed your "Fair share" once the descendants of history greatest mass murderers are in power?

When are you expecting Charles and David to take power? The greatest mass murderers in history have all been Rich. Why do you swallow their propaganda? Hoping for a big house someday?

Progressives like Mao, Stalin and Hitler are history's greatest mass murderers

 

[georgephillip]

Baltimore. Ferguson.

The people no longer attack the rich - they have moved out. Now they are busy burning down their own neighborhoods and wondering why it gets worse.

It gets worse because the gap between the rich and the rest of America continues to widen. I don't know when the rich left Ferguson, but they are busy getting richer with gentrification in Baltimore as we speak. In fact, the land beneath the projects Freddy Gray lived on is more valuable to the rich in Baltimore than all the human beings currently residing there. Maybe that explains why some police officers regard the urban poor as a superfluous population?

 

[georgephillip]

Progressives like Mao, Stalin and Hitler are history's greatest mass murderers

All three were devote conservatives; WWI and WWI were instigated by capitalist bankers in New York, London, and Berlin. Anyone ignorant enough to believe Hitler was a socialist probably would believe progressives are to blame for capitalism's record of mass murder in the 20th century.

 

[Kondor3]

"Psssssttt... hey... Karl... put another Proletariat on the fire, will ya?"

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Progressives like Mao, Stalin and Hitler are history's greatest mass murderers

All three were devote conservatives; WWI and WWI were instigated by capitalist bankers in New York, London, and Berlin. Anyone ignorant enough to believe Hitler was a socialist probably would believe progressives are to blame for capitalism's record of mass murder in the 20th century.

They supported individual liberty and limited government?

Lolz

 

[georgephillip]

"Psssssttt... hey... Karl... put another Proletariat on the fire, will ya?"

How about roasting a few Rockefellers?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

"Psssssttt... hey... Karl... put another Proletariat on the fire, will ya?"

How about roasting a few Rockefellers?

Kill the kulaks, how original

 

[georgephillip]

They supported individual liberty and limited government?

Lolz

^^^Did they?

 

[georgephillip]

Kill the kulaks, how original

Divine Right of Rich Kings, I'm not surprised.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Kill the kulaks, how original

Divine Right of Rich Kings, I'm not surprised.

Oh OK. You're thinking of some other country besides the USA

 

[georgephillip]

"The war should be a tremendous opportunity for America.”
—J.P. Morgan, personal letter to President Woodrow Wilson, September 4, 1914

"Just days after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, nearly a month before the start of WWI, and long before all the combatants had taken sides, President Woodrow Wilson invited J.P. Morgan to a luncheon at the White House."

How Wall Street bankers got the U.S. into WWI

 

[georgephillip]

Oh OK. You're thinking of some other country besides the USA

Conservatives never change their allegiances to power, from the time of Kings to the time of Kochs.

 

[BlackSand]

How about roasting a few Rockefellers?

.

 

[occupied]

This is a very good article, thanks for posting it. I glad at least someone in the 1% can foresee the future.

 

[TemplarKormac]

So mean that votes would be the pitchforks?

Votes are one prong of the pitchfork.

Perhaps instead of paying attention to the pitchfork, you should be shoveling the hay.

 

[whitehall]

Last summer billionaire Nick Hanauer sent his fellow plutocrats a message they would rather ignore:

"The oldest and most important conflict in human societies is the battle over the concentration of wealth and power. The folks like us at the top have always told those at the bottom that our respective positions are righteous and good for all.

"Historically, we called that divine right.

"Today we have trickle-down economics.

"What nonsense this is. Am I really such a superior person?

"Do I belong at the center of the moral as well as economic universe?

"Do you?

"My family, the Hanauers, started in Germany selling feathers and pillows. They got chased out of Germany by Hitler and ended up in Seattle owning another pillow company.

"Three generations later, I benefited from that.

"Then I got as lucky as a person could possibly get in the Internet age by having a buddy in Seattle named Bezos. I look at the average Joe on the street, and I say, 'There but for the grace of Jeff go I.' Even the best of us, in the worst of circumstances, are barefoot, standing by a dirt road, selling fruit.

"We should never forget that, or forget that the United States of America and its middle class made us, rather than the other way around.

Read more: The Pitchforks Are Coming For Us Plutocrats - Nick Hanauer - POLITICO Magazine

Nobody but ignorant kids who were educated by video games ever made the claim that in the greatest Country in the world wealth was a "divine right". As a matter of fact the Founding Fathers risked their lives and fortunes to make sure that only "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" was a divine right. People crawl across the desert to get to the greatest Country in the world and Asians literally get off the boat with a couple of bucks in their pocket and achieve the dream of the Bill of Rights that sissie lefties take for granted. Here's the deal lefties, try to get Hollywood unions to have the technicians get the same pay as the actors and let us know how you make out.

 

[occupied]

Last summer billionaire Nick Hanauer sent his fellow plutocrats a message they would rather ignore:

"The oldest and most important conflict in human societies is the battle over the concentration of wealth and power. The folks like us at the top have always told those at the bottom that our respective positions are righteous and good for all.

"Historically, we called that divine right.

"Today we have trickle-down economics.

"What nonsense this is. Am I really such a superior person?

"Do I belong at the center of the moral as well as economic universe?

"Do you?

"My family, the Hanauers, started in Germany selling feathers and pillows. They got chased out of Germany by Hitler and ended up in Seattle owning another pillow company.

"Three generations later, I benefited from that.

"Then I got as lucky as a person could possibly get in the Internet age by having a buddy in Seattle named Bezos. I look at the average Joe on the street, and I say, 'There but for the grace of Jeff go I.' Even the best of us, in the worst of circumstances, are barefoot, standing by a dirt road, selling fruit.

"We should never forget that, or forget that the United States of America and its middle class made us, rather than the other way around.

Read more: The Pitchforks Are Coming For Us Plutocrats - Nick Hanauer - POLITICO Magazine

Nobody but ignorant kids who were educated by video games ever made the claim that in the greatest Country in the world wealth was a "divine right". As a matter of fact the Founding Fathers risked their lives and fortunes to make sure that only "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness" was a divine right. People crawl across the desert to get to the greatest Country in the world and Asians literally get off the boat with a couple of bucks in their pocket and achieve the dream of the Bill of Rights that sissie lefties take for granted. Here's the deal lefties, try to get Hollywood unions to have the technicians get the same pay as the actors and let us know how you make out.

If you think that the inheritors and holders of great wealth have any appreciation for upward economic mobility then you have not been paying any attention to them at all. They do feel, if not divine, a right to all their wealth, no matter how obtained, and the power it can buy.

 

[Dragonlady]

No one expects that workers get the same pay as CEO's or that actors get the same pay as technicians, but if the CEO is making 200 times what he made 20 years ago, it's not unreasonable to think that the workers' pay should have at least doubled. This is especially true given increases in hours worked, productivity increases and increased profits.

A high tide lifts all ships, it doesn't lift the yachts and swamp the row boats.

 

[BlackSand]

If you think that the inheritors and holders of great wealth have any appreciation for upward economic mobility then you have not been paying any attention to them at all. They do feel, if not divine, a right to all their wealth, no matter how obtained, and the power it can buy.

How did you get to know that ... You wait their tables at the country club or something?

Why would they be concerned with upward economic mobility?
How exactly do They not have a right to Their money ... You certainly don't have a right to it?
How can rich people buy power if the crooks you elect aren't selling it?

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