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New: Keith Olbermann Tallies Up Trump's Accomplishments in His First 100 Days

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Blind Frog Belly White4/28/2017 2:06:07 pm PDT

re: #109 HappyWarrior

And he probably would have lived more comfortably if the presidential pension which was established because HST left the presidency in massive debt. I don’t care how Obama chooses to live his post-presidential life as long as he follows the law. As for elitist and 1%er? Can’t get anymore elitist than Trump and his gaudy gold house and acting like a million dollar loan in the 70’s was no big deal. Obama meanwhile paid off his student loans debts while he was in the Senate. This kind of “populism” really pisses me off. There’s nothing wrong with Obama being able to enjoy a nice post-presidential life.

The other thing? I’m really not cool with the idea of demonizing rich people, because that’s just the flip side of the coin of worshiping them.

We need to stop thinking of whole swaths of people as EVIL!!!!!! It’s what I was getting at with my post about the financial crisis of 2008. So many people want to see folks in jail because it was such a huge thing, but instead of imagining villains, it’s easier to understand if you look at it as everyone thinking SOMEBODY would stop them if it were a bad idea.

If we think of rich people as EVIL!!!!, we’re inclined to think in terms of punishment for being EVIL!!!!. Instead, we should think of them as people who, like all other people, pursue their own self interest, but who have WAY more power in achieving that than everyone else. Viewed that way, the goal becomes not to punish them, but just to limit their ability to make the system work for theeir benefit at everyone else’s expense.