Reactionaries and when rich enough just contrarians. Being against everything is setting yourself above everything. Its the same dumbass monkey psychology the world is drowning in, now that the rich are voluntarily careless.
We got this far on noblesse oblige. The Dems still run on it.
As prophesied years ago by Les Moonves, “It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS. … [T]he money’s rolling in … [T]his is going to be a very good year for us.”
Met the younger one a few times back in the late '80s in my capacity as an employee of a non-profit. I had no idea who he was or what he represented at the time. Looking back, it still gives me the chills.
No, they hired a psychologist to find the most maladjusted, hostile, resentful, unsocial persons imaginable and then appoint them to critical government positions.
“Settlement” = bribe? Effectively, yes, a bribe with a manufactured lawsuit serving to legitimize the bribe. We may never know, but the lawsuit might have been prearranged with a wink and a nod. If Sullivan is still the law, it would have been almost impossible for rump to get a decision or verdict in his favor.
I am not a big fan of the U Chicago-style conservative economic idea of tariffs since it will affect American consumers directly and lead to tit-for-tat retaliation. It will be far better to stop payments on the debt held by enemy nations such as China, Russia, and those that fund jihadi terrorism. This action alone could save the treasury over $800 billon a year and could be used to give every Americans citizen a $2500 per year tax break.
I think the comparisons to Vichy France and what’s happening now are at least interesting, if not off the mark. Vichy France was a rump state of occupied France in WWII.
Europeans are surprised, because Vichy is a brand of sparkling mineral water. Now they have to talk about “American Vichy.”
The ability to service one’s sovereign debt is essential for stability of the domestic economy. The US in late-Biden had an excellent credit score, e.g. Fitch AA+, even if it was not the pre-pandemic perfect AAA rating. China’s Fitch score on its long-term sovereign bonds is A+, but that is shaky. The country has an ongoing property sector crisis, now in its fourth year, with no end in sight. Growth of the Chinese economy has also slowed. The US and Chinese economies, the world’s two biggest economies, are about the same size when adjusted for purchasing power. The problem is that China’s debt-to-GDP ratio is about the same as the US, about 130% for government debt, and 330-350% for the economy overall. Destabilizing debt servicing of either the US or China would create a global crisis. In contrast, Russia is a small economy, and confiscating their government assets abroad (e.g. held by central banks) would provide $300 billion that Ukraine could really use and not shake up things much otherwise.
When Louis XIV became king at age 5 with the death of his father, and his mother, Anne of Austria, became Regent. Her advisor was Cardinal Mazarin, who was rather forward thinking and from whom Louis XIV learned statecraft.
There had been two serious attempts by nobles to usurp the throne when Louis was a child - the Regent Queen was Austrian, for one thing, and for another, Cardinal Mazarin was beginning to dismantle the feudal system, taking away their power.
Louis built Versailles for a few reasons (international prestige, for one), but the main reason was to “keep his enemies closer”; the Court (and the nobility) moved from Paris out to the countryside.
Meanwhile, Louis ended their role in tax collecting and managing their fiefdoms and replaced them with civil servants under his employ - they were paid by the Crown rather than taking cuts of the money the nobles had collected.
There is a general consensus that L XIV was rather well-liked by the people. His son, though, had spent his years cavorting instead of learning. His reign was short-lived, and then of course – the infamous Louis XVI became king and the monarchy was ended. (Except for Napoleon, of course, but that’s another story.)
I’d be content if the Orangeman, like L XIV, saw the value in a professional civil service.