Suppose it's not difficult to figure out why we have such strong bipartisan consensus amongst our government and media types on the need to punish the poor and cut our job creators' tax rates since, basically, it's their government---and their media---not ours:
The two biggest after-dinner events, one hosted by Vanity Fair and Bloomberg Media and another hosted by MSNBC, will fete 400 and 750 people, respectively, in rented embassies (France and Italy, respectively). The Vanity Fair-Bloomberg party is so chichi that guests have been asked to send digital headshots of themselves in advance in order to discourage gate-crashers.At least a dozen other media companies, including People magazine, the Hill newspaper, Yahoo, Reuters, Politico, the New Yorker and the co-owned Atlantic and National Journal will do up their own parties (The Washington Post is hosting a pre-dinner reception at the Hilton).
The schmooze-a-palooza has grown so elaborate that news organizations have offloaded some of their costs. Not only have some hosts teamed up (Bloomberg and Vanity Fair, Yahoo and Reuters), but most events are “sponsored” by other companies that pay the host, in cash or in kind, for the privilege of piggybacking on the party.
Some of the victuals at MSNBC’s bash, for example, will be brought to guests by Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, Smartwater and Bacardi. One party-giver, Capitol File magazine, lists a “presenter” (the Bipartisan Policy Center) and five corporate sponsors on its invitation, including Mercedes-Benz and Corona Light [...]
The most unusual arrangement may be Atlantic Publisher David Bradley’s exclusive “welcome” dinner party at his home Friday night. Bradley plans to treat a select crowd of 150 to a “festive” dinner previewing the “Ballets Russes” exhibit that will open to the public at the National Gallery of Art on May 12. The underwriters of Friday’s dinner include Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Siemens and Altria . . . But Politico has a much longer guest list of corporate figures for the dinner the night before, including top executives from AT&T, Bank of America, the Business Roundtable, Coca-Cola, Chevron, GE Transportation, Goldman Sachs, Google, MGM Resorts, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman, Qualcomm and Siemens. (We know this because Politico is among several media organizations that have issued news releases bragging about their guests.)
Absent armed rebellion, this is the reason why we are all doomed to suffer endless wars, financial crises, environmental disasters, terror attacks, etc.: Because we are governed by people who are profiting handsomely off a social order that fosters wars, financial crises, environmental disasters, terror attacks, etc., and lavishing themselves with praise for their good works. Since elections don't seem to matter much anymore, I'm not sure how we can ever free ourselves from the grip of these awful people without blood running in the streets of every major American city---but as a hedge against civil war, your humble blogger is making his own future plans.
---Baron V