This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. The author is a senior editor at Worth magazine.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1236668
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1236668
A seriously unpleasant headline to contemplate over coffee.
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Thank you.
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I don’t think the author has plumbed the depths of Trump’s affinity for public nudity. Trump’s success carries with it this silver lining, that he lets us plumb the depths by example, and thus at a relatively safe distance.
Maybe Trump at the end, with his non-billionaire status exposed for all to see, isn’t backed into any sort of corner in which only pride keeps him from acknowledging what everyone can now see. Imposing his nudity on those around him was always the point.
It’s like his hair. Maybe originally the toupee or implants or hair-styling, or whatever the horror might be that is what he does with his hair, was designed to fool people into imagining that he still had his own hair. But it has long since reached a point where the tout ensemble does not even begin to present any image of anything remotely real or natural. It now calls attention to the fact that he is going bald. At this point what Trump is saying with his hair is that he doesn’t have to care WTF lesser beings think of him, because he’s powerful, we’re not, and we have to pretend that he is a stable genius with perfectly normal and even stylish hair – no matter how far he goes in purposefully rubbing it in our faces that he is the opposite of all of these things.
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“Centimillionaire Donald Trump” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.
And it would imply that he is worth tens of thousands of dollars. So am I.
I think what was meant is “Hectomillionaire”, which has an appropriately disgusting sound to it. Or perhaps “decibillionaire”. Oh well…
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They lie because the accounting of wealth is a form of score keeping. Billionaires are better than Centimillionaries, who are better than Decimillionaires.
In a Puritan way they believe it is a form of moral superiority. The fact that we don’t start with a level playing field and many inherited the basis of their wealth is irrelevant.
One of the reasons for the incessant push for tax cuts. To increase the score and show moral superiority over the poors.
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We’ve pretty much reached the stage of Tsarist Russia or Bourbon France in this country. God willing, we’ll see firing squads and guillotines for these vicious parasites.
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The orange pustule might’ve started out as a malignant narcissist but he’s way, way beyond that now re mental illness & depravity. “They say nobody’s ever seen anything as damaged as me, maybe in all history.”
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I’ll settle for the bowels of the Bastille.
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Hey! I’m a centimillionaire, and no billionaire is better than me!
Suggested 2020 campaign slogan: Stop Coddling the Rich.
Raise their taxes. They’ll still be rich, and be more than fine.
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Splendid and helpful.
Many thanks.
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Thank you for that. The article made them look like victims of their malfunctions. I think they work in a social strata that exhibits exactly that attitude. The only reason they maintain artifice is just keep deluding the rest of us so they can merrily continue to cavort as they do. Epstein and Trump exhibit extreme personality malfunctions, but to them it is a feature and not debilitating at all. We can look at the specific segments that are affected by that strata, but in the end of the day it is amoral, perverse and bound to only making sure their pleasure is served. After that, they do not care.
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Not to change the subject, but if it truly is that difficult to get an estimate of the “wealth” of the very rich, any proposed “wealth tax” which is based on assets, property, corporate ownership, etc. is most likely doomed to fall short, if not fail totally.
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Meet The Naked Billionaires
I’ll pass, thank you.
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I see what you did there…
Yes, there are always loop-holes, and new ones are written into law every year.
As long as billionaires write the laws, nothing will change.
(Obviously, I am generalizing. Not all billionaires are sociopaths.)
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Meet The Naked Billionaires
EWWWWWWWW! Do I really have to?
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Here’s an fascinating/infuriating article about how donnie manipulated the media back in the 80s
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Well, I think this article made a point that actually determining “wealth” is not only difficult, it’s easily gamed. And this unfortunate fact doesn’t depend in any way on the income level of the folks writing the laws. Do I favor taxes on overall wealth? Sure. Just show me a way that doesn’t let off the people with “complicated” assets. Are you poor enough to handle this problem? (sorry)
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