Mellon felt that every generation needed to earn its own money, not just live on the accumulated wealth of the previous generations, but that is exactly what our tax code is designed to do – create a small group of idle rich with no talent and minimal skills – the American aristocracy.

The people who made the money tended to spread it around [noblesse oblige], but their children are just greedy little sods.

The most effective change we could make to the tax code would be to treat all income the same, subjected to the same rates. Do that and watch the deficit drop. If you think Social Security and Medicare have a problem, lift the cap.

The easiest solution would be to get people back to work, which reduces expenses and increases tax revenue. There are easy answers to our problems, but no one wants to consider them.

Of the 10% who *weren’t* born rich, most of them are essentially scam artists. Look at Larry Ellison, for example. He basically scammed the CIA out of a database they’d written, then packaged it and scammed lots of other people into buying it. Those who know him say he’s never done an honest day’s work of creating anything personally, he just talks talks talks. But he’s a billionaire and most of his employees, the people who actually create his product… aren’t. Steve Jobs… yeah. He got to know Woz by scamming Woz into doing his work for him at Atari, and his whole later career at Apple was basically one big scam job where he scammed lots of people into buying (admittedly nice) products that they didn’t really need. Now, here’s the thing about being a scam artist. The ability to think and reason isn’t required to be a good scam artist. The ability to lie with complete and convincing sincerity is what makes you a good scam artist. Some scam artists are, of course, capable of thinking and reasoning, but merely being a good scam artist is no guarantee of such.

But wait, now I’m talking reality, vs. the works of a Russian writer of bad fiction. Clearly the Russian writer of bad fiction trumps reality, right? 😈

My main point, Kryten, is that the Republicans you see in the media are actually the ‘intellectual elite’ of the party. The 90% you don’t see are even worse. Many of the ‘media stars’ are playing a role for their ‘base’, which is about as base as humanity can get, and almost all of them are funded by the oligarchs like Koch and Adelson.

There is a basic misconception that if you are rich, you must be smart, so great wealth must equal high intelligence. The reality is that great wealth is usually the result of luck or amoral ruthless behavior. Further, inherited wealth indicates nothing except the financial status of your parents.

Here’s an interesting update about Lavabit (via Kashmir Hill @ Forbes):

GoDaddy Pulls Lavabit’s Security Creds Because The FBI Got Ahold Of Its Encryption Keys

Hopefully, this will strengthen Lavabit’s case against the FBI in court. Though, we are talking about the US Courts & Justices (who apparently are scared to death of touching any of these cases, rights and legalities be damned!) Of course, if Levison had a few million $ to pay Lawyers (and Justices), he wouldn’t have a problem. *shrug*

Also this:
How Obamacare’s Exchanges Turned Into A ‘Third World Experience’

Which shows that the boogeyman that the GOP are screaming in terror about is a load of BS! It doesn’t work, and probably never will.

And, then this is this:
Beware, Tech Abandoners. People Without Facebook Accounts Are ‘Suspicious.’

The World according to US Paranoia and the generally unsane*! Yes indeed.

*Unsane

adj.
1. Acting as if having an unsoundness of mind, persistent mental disorder or derangement.
2.
a. Choosing to act mentally deranged; crazy
b. (as collective noun; preceded by the) the unsane
3. Characteristic of a person acting as if they are of unsound mind; an insane stare
4. irresponsible; very foolish; stupid behavior

I find being utterly unsane a very useful thing.

I’m unsane. I have a full grasp of sanity, I just choose to ignore it for my own amusement.

Yes, Malala deserves it, and deserves the attention she has received. She wants to learn. Too bad she can’t run for Congress, because we need some people in this country who value education as much as she does. We have foes of education who are nearly as bad as the Taliban.

You mentioned that Malala Yousafzai is up for a Nobel Peace Prize. After watching this young lady on TDS, if she doesn’t get the Prize, then the Nobel committee will be forever worthless in my eyes. It would, at the least, redeem their previous insane selections!

Also, the other segments in TDS are quite good. Just watch the whole thing! Really (even the “Moment of Zen” at the end was too funny (but sadly real).

TDS: Tue Oct 8 – Malala Yousafzai

“Republicans deny responsibility for the shutdown, Chemical Weapons Inspectors in Syria, Jason Jones and GOP Hostage Takers, Malala Yousafzai talks fighting the Taliban”

I have met some truly incredible people in my life, including some like Malala while in Cambodia. And they are part of the reason I keep going. Sadly, so many of them become Martyr’s, mainly because they are seriously outnumbered by the evil, the apathetic, the selfish, the thoughtless and the ignorant. I truly wish her a safe, happy and long life!

Yeah, right. And the Easter Bunny and Tooth Faery are alive and well! Bachmann’s brain is smooth as glass and she can see her reflection in it when she takes it out to stroke and polish it! If she died tomorrow (but we are not that lucky), the average IQ of the USA would increase.

Bernie may well be correct here:
Bernie Sanders: ‘Citizens United’ ruling led to the government shutdown

The Senate’s lone independent said Monday that a controversial Supreme Court ruling on campaign financing indirectly led to the government shutdown, which he said was engineered by an influential group of billionaires led by the Koch brothers.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said the 2010 ruling in the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission allowed the rich and powerful to threaten House members with well-funded campaign challengers unless they got their way on an agenda to roll back progressive legislation.

“So what democracy is today in the House of Representatives after Citizens United is about is a handful of billionaires can threaten any member of the House with defeat by pouring unlimited sums of money if they vote in a way that the Koch brothers do not like,” Sanders said.

Charles and David Koch inherited the manufacturing and petrochemical company Koch Industries from their father, and the brothers have contributed nearly $200 million to various conservative and libertarian political organizations.

And Jon, of course:
Jon Stewart chides John Boehner and Republicans: ‘The party of personal responsibility ain’t taking none’

Gee, I thought Abbott’s biggest problem was his expense account and being ‘one of the lads at the pub’ was a political plus at the election. It’s not like he has exactly hidden the fact that he is a misogynist pig – isn’t that part of his ‘religiousness’?

The Peace Prize is a toss up: Malala Yousafzai [the girl shot by the Taliban for supporting education] is on the list with Vladimir Putin for Syrian chemical weapons, and Edward Snowden for publicizing ‘Big Mother’ [NSA et al.]. They have been so embarrassed by Zero’s performance, that they will probably avoid politicians for a while.

Ragging on the US is the one thing that unites the Russians. The biggest problem with claiming to be exceptional is that you have to actually be good at things. When you are as FUBAR as the US currently is, even ‘friends’ are going to take the opportunity to join the crowd pointing and laughing.

I wasn’t aware of that derivation, Badtux. The local cattle ranchers still use ‘cracker’, although they no longer use whips. The Cracker Horse is a recovering endangered breed, and Cracker Cattle are really ‘zoo’ specimens, as they are too small and lean for commercial exploitation. The local ‘cracker ranches’ are too small to really need horses, they are more like dairy farms than cattle operations. The stock are docile and don’t wander off.

Republicans have another word for that group of people. Republicans call them their base :twisted:.

Yeah, this is one of the things you pick up from the staff when teaching at two different all-black schools with mostly-black staff…

I have to agree… Charlie does remind me somewhat of Sir T! 😀 Probably why I enjoy his column so much. 🙂

Think I’ll change posting a bit…

First, the *local* TeaParty wannabee:
Aussie PM Abbott could win country’s award for ‘most constant’ sexism

Second, Tbogg (I am sooo glad he’s back!!)
Good news for people who don’t understand bad news

A small snippet:

So, if we’re doing the math right: Republicans are losing the support of Republican voters at almost the same rate that they are losing the few Democrats who didn’t already think they were the type of people who like to sit on the roof and thin out the neighborhood kid population with a high-powered rifle. So this is bad, right?

Not so, says Admiral Erick “A Redundancy Of Ericks” Erickson of Red State

…

It’s like Voyage of the Damned meets Titanic, but with fewer laughs …

😆

And lastly ( ’cause I can only post three links! Lucky you!) 😛 A good news piece (from HuffPo via Raw Story)

Billionaire Texas couple donates $10 million to keep Head Start programs running

I had to read the headline alone twice! I mean… Texas Billionaire? *Helping?* Hmmm.
I am sure there is a catch (I could be wrong, but I am very jaded). 😉

I would normally have linked to the original @ HuffPo, but the comments @ RS are worth reading. 😉 Kinda… 😀

Anyway, other headlines @ RS:

“Jay Carney smacks down ABC’s Jon Karl: ‘I’m sure you’ll represent’ GOP talking points”

“Bill Moyers: Tea Partiers ‘have sucked the last bit of soul’ from the GOP”

“Stewart: Republicans can’t take advantage of Obamacare’s problems because ‘they’re f*cking nuts’”

“Pirate Party of Russia offers to host NASA’s website while U.S. government is on shutdown”

(PMSL over that one!) 😆

“Peter Higgs and Francois Englert win Nobel Physics Prize for ‘God particle’ discovery”

Ya know… for the first time, I feel somewhat sorry for the Nobel Prize Physics committee. They were damned no matter who they chose this year. But I am glad they recognized Higgs & Englert. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones who predicted the particle, or the ones who eventually discovered it. *shrug* Now, let’s see if they give the Peace Prize to Obama (or what the hell, why not Cruz? That’s about what the PP is worth now! They should change the prize name to “Political Piece Prize”. It would be more honest and accurate.)

And lastly (because I now have to run to the bathroom and throw up!)

“Bachmann: Obama funding Al-Qaeda proves ‘we are in God’s End Times’”

Dammit! here’s the money comment from that post:
“Pretty scary that someone who believes “the End is Nigh” is on the House Intelligence Committee.”

Yes. The least intelligent politician in the USA (arguable) is on the HIC! And people wonder why the USA is so screwed! It’s obvious to me.

Now, I must go barf! 😈