Can you imagine having to pull your three kids out of public school because you can’t afford to replace the shoes they’ve grown out of, and they aren’t allowed to attend barefoot?

Can you imagine telling your kids they can’t have a second helping of dinner because there isn’t any?

Yeah, yeah, we get used to spending what we’ve been spending.
Lots of folks (lots and lots, like millions!) had to do something very similar, oh, about three years ago, when their bonuses, and oh, yeah, their jobs disappeared completely because the BANKERS CRASHED THE WHOLE DAMN ECONOMY!!1

(Yeah, I know, I really need to stop reading the internets)

Exactly!!!!!

That, by the way, if my most favorite sign ever.

Note the magnificent projection in the “don’t understand” whine. Those people are insane.

I got off the boat. I’m glad I did. However, I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry. This reads like something out of The Onion. If you choose to stay on the boat, here’s a sample of what you’re missing. Mmmm… mangoes…

Earlier this month, a friend invited him on a trip to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. The friend was going to be a judge in a wet T-shirt contest, Kullberg said. He turned down the offer.

and

Wall Street headhunter Daniel Arbeeny said his “income has gone down tremendously.” On a recent Sunday, he drove to Fairway Market in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn to buy discounted salmon for $5.99 a pound.

“They have a circular that they leave in front of the buildings in our neighborhood,” said Arbeeny, 49, who lives in nearby Cobble Hill, namesake for a line of pebbled-leather Kate Spade handbags. “We sit there, and I look through all of them to find out where it’s worth going.”

The horror… The horror…

Aw, poor widdle sociopaths. Bless their hearts.

The comments at Balloon-Juice are priceless, too. Much better than my off-the-cuff initial response above. They’re combining this with McMegan’s “latest”.

btw, anybody know what Berluti’s are? I suppose I should infer that they are shoes, or something.

You people just don’t understand. When making your child’s lunch before they head off to prep school, have you ever had to look in their eyes as you pour Morton’s salt into their thermos of vichysoisse istead of pink himalayan? It’s heartbreaking.

I believe Marie Antoinette (or was it George Carlin?) said it best:

Let them eat bechamel.

Oh, the humanity!

The rich, if a little oily, smell of entitlement…

But the fact that we have an economy that provides for the likes of “Alan Dlugash, a partner at accounting firm Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York who specializes in financial planning for the wealthy” should give us pause. This is my measure of whether or not you have made it in 21st century America. If it makes sense for you to use a service like he provides, where the tax savings more than cover his fees, you’re in good shape. For the rest of us, there’s TurboTax.

OT: Shakira’s on the BBC’s 80th Anniversary show, rocking the celebrity with a moral sense thing, but it was only on radio, as far as I know.

Private class envy, Tom? Buffy and Muffy and Mitzi won’t forget this. No more eyelash-batting for you.

It’s the Bonfire of the Vanities come to life.

The economy is doing better and they are doing worse….hmmmmm…a correlation?

Speaking of the BBC, they showed this documentary on actual poor people in America a fortnight ago. You know, the ones who aren’t pained by casual incivility, or mortified by the mutilation of a compliment.

Why did this ‘financial planner’ get a bonus? He obviously can’t plan his own financial future, or the yuppie larva would be funded through to their graduations, and beyond. Simply fucking amazing!

And I feel some measure of guilt about using the Army settlement money to make my house nicer….

NOT!

When little Junior Esquire is pulled out of Andover and has to submit to the humilation of going to Scarsdale public High School, he will be further humiliated by having to park an American-made car amongst the BMWs and Porsches in the student lot. It’s terrible to witness the suffering of your own child!

Jeez, the comments at the WSJ are pretty uniform in their lack of sympathy for these high rolling losers. That makes me feel better about mankind.

I remember it well…”Goddamn auto workers, those greedy bastards working on a factory floor, don’t they realize they have to take a 50% pay cut to be competitive in the global economy? Market forces drive compensation, that’s why we get paid the way we do! The market says we’re worth it!”

And market forces now say you’re not worth what you thought you were worth, and you can’t spend money you don’t have to maintain your lifestyle and that of little Chip and Heather, and it’s not right, and it’s just awful the way you’re having to adjust to meet changing economic conditions. Tough decisions and sacrifices coming right up, weren’t you listening to that Randian asshole Paul Ryan?

They’re talking about shorter vacations and less prestigious schools, not losing homes or wondering whether they’re going to buy groceries or pay for heart medications this month. I can understand the butthurt, but sympathize with them? Not so much…

Why? Because fuck them, that’s why.

This is a confession: I’m hardly one of the 1% but I do have a swimming pool which is shared by my sister and I (long story). Anyway, I read awhile ago about the insensitivity of some jackass who said the high price of natural gas meant they could no longer afford to turn on the pool heater. It was an OMG moment…I’ve said that.
The point is that what these people need is some serious sensitivity training. Either that or they need to jump.

Hey, re: pink Himalayan Salt. I was at the fancy grocery store the other day, passing the bulk foods section, and noticed a bunch of containers of “named” salt. Pink Himalayan was one of them, but…it was the cheapest one! $8.99 for mere pink Himalayan, some of the other were $29.99.

Just sayin’.

“Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?”

Clan Duggar would gladly home school those little cuties.

It’s a shame they had to go to school in the first place. Obviously dad’s a failure, not stealing earning enough to provide a school-free lifestyle….

Have we no tumbrels? No Pitchforks and torches? At long last, have we no guillotines?

Ummm, see comments on the topic at Balloon-juice link in our host’s post…I was just wonderin’ if it was time to build a factory to make some of those implements…

Could you imagine what it’s like to say I got three kids in private school, I have to think about pulling them out? How do you do that?

It’s pretty simple, actually. You think, “Hmmmm, eat, pay mortgage, or write the check to Little Miss Sunshine Privateer Academy?” I’m pretty sure the right answer will occur to you eventually.

Before you know it, Aiden and Sophia and Mason are contracting STD’s and stealing shit just like the rest of the suburban white trash kids. C’mon, man, where’s your patriotism?

Jumping is too good for them. I want to see them pushed.

A-fucking-men! Jump and save us all the next crash I’m sure you’re already working on. Assholes.

This is why I love you Tbogg!

I’m too PO’d at the “let them eat cake” crowd, so let’s dissect McM’s showpiece quote:

“Another factor I’ve noticed with my bankruptcy clients is that a very rich person whose income takes a sudden precipitous drop to a still-pretty-good income can actually wind up in more financial trouble, faster, than a very poor person whose income drops to zero. If you were making $300k a year and spending $200k of it on fixed expenses, and your household income drops to $125k a year, . . .you’re going to wind up in bankruptcy in a fairly short space of time.”

I suppose that whole “fresh start” concept eluded this commenter when he Googled this nugget. Let’s just say that nothing crams down your debt faster than a Bankruptcy Trustee who wants to conclude your case before the statutory deadline. Yes, the boat, the vacation home, and some of your other toys must go; and Biff and Buffy will have to attend public school. On the other hand, the Faustus Latin Preparatory School will most likely not be able to pursue you for those back tuition payments. And if you can make the payments, you get to keep the condo in the City.

“A person who was making $18k a year and suddenly finds themselves making nothing, as a practical matter, can often break their lease and move in with mom and get on food stamps until a new job materializes and wind up with only a couple thousand dollars in debt.”

I love this myth. The kids who glom off mom & dad, are one of the biggest reasons that senior citizens comprise the fastest-growing class of Chapter 7 bankruptcies in this country. Social Security payments that barely cover 2 people aren’t going to cover 2 people plus the divorced, unemployed mom with 2.5 kids as well. Life gets even more interesting when the seniors attempt to qualify for Medicaid, and find out there’s a 60 month look-back period for unapproved asset-transfers–which include “gifts” to children.

Blenderella addresses that by saying that she moved back with her parents when she was 30, with $100k in student loan debt from her U. Chi. Master of Bugger All, so she knows exactly what it’s like to be a boomerang kid.

(Except not really at all.)

Poor little Biff has got the blues, NOT.

A few snippets from my .“HOW TO SING THE BLUES: A PRIMER”

5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broke-down trucks. The Blues don’t travel in Volvos, BMW’s, or Sport Utility Vehicles.

9. You can’t have no Blues in a office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.

10(b) Bad places for the Blues:
a. Nordstrom’s
b. gallery openings
c. Ivy League institutions
d. golf courses

12. Do you have the right to sing the Blues?
No, if:
a. you have all your teeth
b. you once were blind but now can see
c. the man in Memphis lived
d. you have a 401K or trust fund

15. If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it’s a Blues death.
Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So are:
the electric chair, wood alcohol poisoning, and dying lonely on a broke-down cot. You can’t have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction

18. Women with names like Amber, Tiffany, Brooke, Brittany or Heather can’t sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.

First against the wall.

Tuning up the world’s smallest violin……

Has anyone said “boo fucking hoo” yet?

Or you could have been laid off in the Bush41 recession, gotten a lower paying job, been laid off again in the Bush43 recession, and gone bankrupt because now you’re over 50 and no company wants to hire you, even at minimum wage. And you lose your house as well.

Call a waahmbulance for them. And notify their guardians that they’ve gotten out of the playroom again.

And those food stamps and other safety nets are the ones that people like them are systematically dismantling. Or demanding drug testing to qualify for.

And Andrew Breibart is apparently dead.

Re: Breibart. Usually its the good who die young

“A riot is an ugly thing. And I think it is just about time we had one!”

– Young Frankenstein

Hmm….so-called natural causes.

Drowned in his own bile.

Yeah, wondered about that, too — “natural causes” at 43? I mean, if there was a God and he at long last smoted him, I could see it being “supernatural causes”, but, really? So, did he at least get dibs on bigegointhesky.com before he went?

“Natural causes” in this context just means there was no reason to expect accident or foul play, which would be “unnatural causes”.

So, yes, “karmic payback” would be considered a “natural” cause for someone like Not-So-Bright Bart.

He’s republican, natural just might mean wet suit rather than duct taped.

So Breitbart’s documentary-forging stooge will have to find a new patron? Well, he’s a Gop, so that’ll take about 45 seconds of sashaying down K street in a sandwich board with his prices on it. (O’Keefe. Had to google on Breitbart Documentary Hoax to find the name.)

Cause of death: apoplexy.

Entitled, much?

After that meltdown at CPAC, I figured Breitbart was due to stroke out at any time.

Apparently Obama offed Breitbart because he had college film of Obama.

Given how easy it would be to make fake video which could have Obama doing any number of heinous things, one has to wonder why they waited this long.

So the transfats finally caught up with Breitbart. Or the shamwow did it!

I am loathe to be gracious. When a slandering, pathologically lying bully like Breitblather departs this earth, it’s cause for celebration. If there is an afterlife, he’s sharing it with Atwater.

I will not be attending the funeral, but I will send a nice note saying I approve.

At least Atwater expressed some remorse before he shuffled off the mortal coil. Breitbart? Not so much…

I refuse to follow in Breitbart’s bullying footsteps and speak ill of the dead – as Breitbart did when Ted Kennedy died.

However, no tears on my part that this bullying liar has died. Condolences to his family, but imo, the world’s a bit better place now.

You and Mark Twain!

From the AP story:

After Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts died in 2009, Breitbart tweeted “Rest in Chappaquiddick” and called him “a special pile of human excrement.” When critics questioned his tone, he tweeted they “missed my best ones!”

Andrew Breitbart deserves no sympathy. His life was an utter waste, caused much harm to innocent people, and he reveled in the sewer that were his web sites. He added nothing valuable to society at large. Whatever loss his family feels is drowned out by the untold suffering of people who lost their jobs, had their lives shattered, and were subjected to unnecessary harassment because this asshole couldn’t accomplish anything else but shit on others so that no one would notice his own stench of failure and hatred.

I welcome the opportunity to dance upon his grave with joy and abandon.

I was shocked to find out he was just 43; he looked much older but a life spent in the service of hate will do that I guess.

I hope this doesn’t scuttle Ms. Sherrod’s case; justice still needs to be done there. If it destroys all the “bigs”, then oh well; too bad, so sad, etc.

I believe his passing is a net gain for humanity and planet earth, but I do feel sympathy for his children. Then again, I’ve always had sympathy for his children.

“At least Atwater expressed some remorse before he shuffled off the mortal coil. Breitbart? Not so much…”

Unlike Atwater who was terminally ill for a long period, Breitbart was taken suddenly. He didn’t have time to “feel sorry” for himself.

I will never be persuaded Atwater was sincere about his remorse. Like Abramoff, he was self-serving to the very end.

I’ve had similar thoughts, myself. That said, somehow I simply cannot see Breitbart even going as far as Atwater did. But it’s all idle speculation.

We are all better off without either Atwater or Breitbart on the planet, albeit, sad to say, some other nasty craven pillaging bullying sociopathic psycopathic jerkwad will just step up to take their places. There’s no end to them, more’s the pity.

As a fellow sociopath, I actually owe Dlugash some props. Because we have no ability to empathize with humans, now that he has framed this a choice between “continuing paying $37,000 a year for prep school” and “putting off a remodel on our brownstone for the season” I finally, finally understand just exactly how Sophie felt!

However, I can no longer understand why Meryl Streep won an award when her character didn’t spend all her time whining like an ass-bitch like we do, but whatevs!

~ Harry R. Sohl

I was shocked to find out he was just 43; he looked much older but a life spent in the service of hate will do that I guess.

Another loyal alumnus of Faustus Latin Prep!

re: “JUMP!”

You know they won’t do it unless they’re sure they’ll land on some poor people.