News & Articles

If you think the Koch Klub of Plutocratic Billionaires couldn’t get any more self-centered and whiney – meet Doug and Holly Deason of Dallas.
The Deasons, along with 10 other Dallas members of KKPB, recently co-signed an op-ed in that city’s Morning News. The privileged coterie expressed dismay at the widespread criticism of the Koch brothers’ January conclave of über-rich right-wingers who pledged about a billion bucks to try buying the 2016 elections. The dozen Dallasites were at that meeting, joined the pledge, and want us commoners to know that the Kochites are flooding the elections with so much money merely because they want to install a national government that is “impartial” and “accountable.”
Really? No – a truly-impartial government would place toxic waste, pipelines, factories, and fracking wells in everyone’s zip codes – including theirs. They don’t want that! Also, these notorious tax dodgers certainly don’t want to have every dollar of their income taxed – just as, say, schoolteachers do. And doesn’t “impartial” mean that their children would have to go fight in America’s endless wars, too, rather than leaving that unpleasant task to the non-privileged?
They really want to install an “impartial” government that’s partial to them, letting them run roughshod over the rest of us in their avaricious accumulation of greater wealth, power, and privilege. And what a hoot for the 1-percent-of-the-1-percent to demand that government be “accountable,” when they’re running dark-money political campaigns that hide their identities and use front-groups to keep voters from knowing that the KKPB is out to buy America’s democratic process.
Any government that would be installed by the money and deceit of such self-righteous, narcissistic cowards would not be worthy of America’s name, its democratic ideals, or its people.
“Koch-Supporting Texas Billionaires Explain What Richest Americans Are After,” www.alternet.org, February 4, 2015.
“Holly and Doug Deason: What do the Koch brothers want? To defend the American dream,” www.dallasnews.com, February 2, 2015.

“The Donald Show”

“Wow,” exclaimed a beaming Donald Trump as he stepped onstage, basking in the cheers of a throng attending his launch into the 2016 presidential race. “That is some group of people,” he gushed. “Thousands.”
It was a showbiz extravaganza. Literally. The crowd was cheering the self-promoting hypester who wants to be president – but not necessarily supporting him. That’s because some of these over-the-top enthusiasts were actors! Yes, hired at $50 a pop to do a three-hour gig as Donnie’s “crowd.” Extra Mile Casting had been retained to puff-up the audience: “We are looking to cast people for the event to wear t-shirts and carry signs and help cheer him,” said Extra Mile in an email to its list of actors who work as extras in films, TV shows, etc. When The Donald Show was over, the extras dumped their signs in the trash and went to their next acting gig.
For his part, Trump delivered a rambling, almost-incoherent 40-minute rant. Citing his chief qualification for the highest office in our land, he said: “I’m really rich... And by the way, I’m not even saying that to brag... That’s the kind of thinking you need for this country.” And his immigration policy is simply… well, simplistic: “I would build a great wall. And nobody builds walls better than me, believe me.” Wow, apparently he intends to build the wall himself! Then he added a jingoistic gringosim to this Good Neighbor policy, declaring: “And I’ll have Mexico pay for that wall.” And what’s his economic policy, you ask? It’s a whopper: “I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created,” he bellowed.
No, no, Donnie – don’t even try to blame God for creating you or you’re nuttiness. You truly are a self-made man, spawned from the fumes of your own gaseous ego. Yet, you’re a godsend for those of us seeking comic relief in politics.
“Donald Trump Campaign Offered Actors $50 to Cheer for Him at Presidential Announcement,” www.hollywoodreporter.com, June 17, 2015.
“Here’s Donald Trump’s Presidential Announcement Speech,” www.time.com, June 16, 2015.

The isolated splendor of the superrich

Rich people tend to live behind high walls with guarded gates. Then there are the über-rich. They don’t need walls and gates, for they isolate themselves from us riff-raff the natural way – by buying their very own private islands.
But holding the masses at bay is not the real reason that the swells lay out up to $30 million for these watery enclaves. Rather, says one luxury real estate expert, “It’s the ultimate ‘I’ve arrived’ statement.” Yes, but I would add that it’s also a way for an overachieving super-richie to shout to other richies: “See, mine’s bigger than yours!”
These days, there’s been a surge in sales of private islands, thanks to the convergence of two economic forces. First came rising inequality, with the privileged few at the top taking ever more of the world’s wealth. Second, according to a luxury property firm with the perfect name of Candy & Candy, prices for quality islands fell during the global financial collapse. Thus a $50-million, 43-acre island in the Lesser Antilles – with a plantation house, two cottages, a protected bay for your yacht, and a landing pad for your helicopter – can now be had for only half that.
Before you grab your checkbook to purchase such a bargain, however, note that the price tag is hardly the total tab – annual upkeep on your paradise can easily run $300,000. All that for a getaway you might only get away to for a few weeks a year. Yet, with the income gap continuing to widen into a chasm, the number of those with the money to splurge on such ego-boosting baubles is expected to grow from 200,000 to about 250,000 in the next two years.
Instead of frittering away so much on so few, what say we find one isolated tropical island, build a big fence around it, and make all of those narcissistic egos live there in isolated splendor with each other?
“The Draw of a Spit of Land Surrounded by Blue,” The New York Times, February 10, 2015.