Heh-heh-hehPresidents, prime ministers and other government officials are gathering for five days of discussions with captains of industry, bank bosses and heads of non-governmental organisations.
So the streets of this Swiss ski resort have been effectively cordoned off by a series of roadblocks and there is airport-style security checks all over the place.
To many, perhaps most, this is understandable. Many of the leaders here have dangerous enemies.
But the way this rarefied gathering of global leaders has decided to create large gaps between themselves and the outside world is also symbolic, perhaps even symptomatic, of deep distrust.
The BBC article is accompanied by pictures of the heighten security around these so-called “leaders”.
So, to recap, the Smaug Elite* deregulate the world, blow up economies all over the place, ruin innocent peoples’ lives, act like making obscene gobs of cash is the loftiest pinnacle of human endeavor to which we can aspire, treat everyone else like lazy parasitical scum who don’t deserve to get paid to eat and live, and as a result, they have to hire small armies to huddle behind when they take to tiny Swiss ski towns to talk about how hard it is to find good help anymore.
I’d say this experiment with the unregulated free market system is racing towards its inevitable conclusion quite well. Party on, Ayn Rand!
* Hat tip Hamfast Ruddyneck for the term Smaug Elite to refer to the uber wealthy and their financier class allies.
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Something about this situation felt eerily familiar. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Where else had I seen a bunch of super wealthy, arrogant, self-centered sociopaths with a maniacal impulse to rule the world as our leaders, but who also felt obliged to hire battalions of jack booted thugs to provide security against intruders? Then it hit me:
Filed under: General | Tagged: Davos, security, Smaug Elite |
The Confluence 
Getting my gallbladder removed next Wednesday! Yeah!! {{snoopy dance}}
Can’t wait to be able to eat ice cream and fried chicken again and wash it all down with a growler of Triumph coffee and cream stout.
It will be soooo good.
I thought you couldn’t eat that stuff without a gall bladder to help digest it. ??
Nah, the gall bladder is just a reservoir for the bile that your bile ducts produce. Once it’s gone, you’ll still produce bile. It’ll just proceed directly into the intestines. I’ll have to stay on a low fat diet for a few weeks and then I should be fine.
But how can a political blogger function without a reservoir of bile?
!!
I hadn’t thought of that. I might be completely sidelined by this operation.
Wishing you a speedy and complete recovery.
Ditto. Maybe this guy could help.
Sometimes I am surprised at my complete inability to mistake common objects for sex toys.
Would be sorta neat if some prankster protesters were to remote-fly some little hobby drones around Davos sending pictures back.
Like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBRdNIom6ZY
(I wanted to post a better one but I can’t find it now).
I think something like this would be more useful:
Go big or go home, as my mama used to say.
Oh . . . I had just thought of how fun it would be to irritate them a little. I often think small that way.