Rise of the oligarchs.....

This is gonna be an omnibus post of sorts. There have been a lot of things going on the past couple of weeks.

A couple of articles and topics have absolutely consumed my attention recently.

This piece by Roger Simon has to be the prototype of elite reaction to the current economic situation the country finds itself in.

Don't like the way wealth is distributed? Then you can join congressional Democrats and grump about it, or you can get some wealth for yourself.

This has to be the most tone deaf thing I have read in some time. The utter lack self-consciousness and dripping condescension is awe-inspiring.

I think the folks at Huffington Post really hit the nail on the head:

There was second hypothesis: Maybe a good chunk of the political class is just so insulated from the realities in the report that they don't feel the same sense of urgency that most Americans do. Things are terrible on Main Street, but on Wall Street, Pennsylvania Avenue, and K Street, they don't look so gloomy. How else can we explain why everyone in Washington was talking about deficit reduction (at least until they decided to blow another hole in the budget), even while polls show that Americans ranked it way, way below fixing the economy?

It's not clear which is scarier -- that our leaders don't think they can lead, or that they don't want to.

Either way, the middle-class economy keeps falling, and no one is there to hear it.

Pretty much.


Also, Fox news makes you dumb.

• Most economists estimate the stimulus caused job losses (12 points more likely)


• Most economists have estimated the health care law will worsen the deficit (31 points)


• The economy is getting worse (26 points)


• Most scientists do not agree that climate change is occurring (30 points)


• The stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts (14 points)


• Their own income taxes have gone up (14 points)


• The auto bailout only occurred under Obama (13 points)


• When TARP came up for a vote most Republicans opposed it (12 points)


• And that it is not clear that Obama was born in the United States (31 points)

But the other news orgs didn't exactly cover themselves with glory:

Daily consumers of MSNBC and public broadcasting (NPR and PBS) were higher (34 points and 25 points respectively) in believing that it was proven that the US Chamber of Commerce was spending money raised from foreign sources to support Republican candidates. Daily watchers of network TV news broadcasts were 12 points higher in believing that TARP was signed into law by President Obama, and 11 points higher in believing that most Republicans oppose TARP.

We are so screwed.

-Cheers