It’s been a little more than 24 hours since Bill de Blasio became mayor of New York and, as far as I can tell, the city's still standing, despite the snowstorm bearing down on it. But to listen to Fox’s Charles Payne and Charles Gasparino on New Year’s Eve afternoon, it’s only a matter of time until capitalism – and then the city and country fall apart. Oh, and while he was at it, Gasparino gave an unintentionally hilarious description of his life as a "card-carrying" Catholic.
As the substitute host for Your World on Tuesday, Payne introduced Gasparino, a Fox Business correspondent, by saying that with de Blasio’s swearing in the next day, “You may pay the price no matter what city you live in.”
“If you’re a New Yorker, you have to be scared,” Gasparino warned. "Because the bottom line is this: Bill De Blasio was elected. He won… allegedly a big mandate. Yet, yet he won with 17% of the electorate. This is a very complacent electorate. These kids that move here from Iowa and Illinois and wherever, don’t remember what it was like living here in the 70’s. That’s all I can tell you.”
Payne pressed for more details about the terrifying prospects. He asked Gasparino, “What is (de Blasio) going to do to wreck New York City?”
Gasparino went on an extended diatribe. But the short answer seems to be that Gasparino is upset his taxes will go up in order to give more money to the have nots:
(De Blasio’s) going to raise your taxes, he’s gonna have a less aggressive police force…. Guess what his big thing coming out of the gate is going to be? Getting rid of those horse-drawn carriages. We have an unemployment problem in New York. This guy is talking about penalizing the people, the people that create the jobs.
The alleged Tale of Two Cities – that other half of the city which gives all the money, which pays most of the taxes, to the other half.
And I will say this. Here’s what I’m most worried about Bill De Blasio. He ran on a lie. New York City is one of the most generous cities in the world. Look at your paycheck, ladies and gentlemen. If you work in this town, you pay a lot of taxes. You pay a lot of taxes to create a social safety net. And guess what? That is not Dickinson (sic).
…Look who he appointed as schools chancellor; another far lefty who’s …gonna reverse what Joel Klein and Mayor Bloomberg did, basically in creating charter schools.
Payne interrupted Gasparino’s horror story (for the one percent) to suggest that this is part of a wave of socialism that is spreading around the world:
Why in this amazing, successful city a rejection of capitalism? Why in Chile – probably one of the best economies in South America, a rejection of capitalism? Why is the pope coming out, why is he saying capitalism is mean spirited? Where is this coming from and could it spread across this country?
Yes, Gasparino thought it quite possible, if not likely. And it’s largely the media’s fault.
In the past, you would have an aggressive media. When you take (Fox News and Fox Business) out of it and a few others, there’s not much aggressive media. …I mean, the media should not be taking this stuff so seriously.”
…When the pope talks about capitalism – listen, I’m a Catholic, but I’m telling you, the Catholic church has not done as much to spread wealth around the world and to create jobs and put food in people’s mouths as capitalism has.
Then Gasparino offered this jaw-dropping vision of his own Catholicism:
I’m a card-carrying Catholic, I believe in the good lord and I always say ‘Merry Christmas’ but no system in the world has put food in people’s mouths more than capitalism. Surely not the Catholic Church. Capitalism has done it.
Payne said he didn’t disagree with anything Gasparino said. Payne’s solution: “Capitalism needs a new PR strategy or, maybe to your earlier point, we’re all doomed, all doomed.”
Well, with a nod to R.E.M. (video below), it may be (almost) the end of the world as they know it but I feel fine!
mj - the same one commented
2014-01-04 00:26:46 -0500
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“I am sick to death of hearing the right blaming minorities and the gov’t solely on the housing bubble.”
I am, too — but, its like the rightwingnuts blaming the loss of jobs in the manufacturing sector on union workers instead of on Mitt Romney and the other corporate titans who actually shipped those jobs overseas: because they’re at the bottom, they’re the easiest to blame . . .
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mj - the same one commented
2014-01-04 00:15:39 -0500
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You’re right, Eileen — just not for the reasons you may have been thinking.
Since Obama “came along”:
- We’ve had one Fox News pundit (Liz Trotta) “joke” about his assassination
- We’ve had another (Michael Scheuer) call for both his assassination and that of David Cameron’s
- We’ve had school shootings by mentally unbalanced nutjobs at Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, and elsewhere
- We’ve had politically-motivated attacks by rightwingnuts both in the US (Byron Williams, Scott Roeder, Jared Lee Loughner) and elsewhere (Anders Behring Brevik)
- And we’ve even had one self-appointed neighborhood vigilante (George Zimmerman) kill an unarmed teenager because he “felt threatened” and had to “stand his ground”
America has always had an obsession about guns. It just took the election to high office of a Black guy with a funny name to bring that obsession out into the open . . .
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Bob Roberts commented
2014-01-03 19:11:39 -0500
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It was not. That is the line that has been repeated ad nauseum by Faux and talk-radio and then picked up by the right and conservatives. A gov’t program to help minorities buy houses and stop renting did not cause the housing bubble. Derivatives and mortgage-trading caused the housing bubble. Fly-by-night mortgage companies that handed out money right and left to unqualified buyers were the main culprit. Do you have any idea how many non-minorities were taking out home equity loans on their properties, buying another property, taking out an equity loan on that new property and buying another with the hopes of flipping those houses. Plenty. More than plenty. Cheap loans with banks giving money away so they could sell these new loans on Wall Street for their own profit. No down payment mortgages with people securing loans with little or no assets. There are probably a hell of a lot more people who ending up owning three or four properties that caused the bubble than a handful of new minority owners that couldn’t keep up with payments with adjustable mortgage rates. 99% of people offered the chance to purchase a house after renting for twenty years will sign a contract that tells them they will pay $800 in mortgage payments for 24 months and then their rate goes up to $1400. They will worry about it later and sign. Of course many of those people couldn’t afford the higher rate. But what about those, and there were tons of them, who bought multiple properties, taking loans out of each, and were unable to flip them. They bear tons of the responsibility too. And the stupid, greedy financial institutions that gave them loans so they could make immediate sales commissions and sell them to bigger institutions.
I am sick to death of hearing the right blaming minorities and the gov’t solely on the housing bubble. Plenty of white people took advantage of the lax regulation and are just, if not more, responsible.
Bob Roberts commented
2014-01-03 15:10:12 -0500
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Well, maybe freedom of religion helps but capitalism surely doesn’t. Churches and religion work best in poor countries, where people are scared, have little opportunities for work, go hungry, because those people have nothing else to turn to but religion and the Church. The Church promises them salvation and heaven after they die if they just believe. It doesn’t do much to better their lives here on earth, like provide them good paying jobs, running water, decent housing, fresh food not processed crap. Look at the “happiest” countries on Earth with survey after survey. The top of every list is usually dominated with secular nations, most of whom practice some form of socialism. These people don’t need prayer, they have universal health care, good retirement pensions, generous vacations and the same freedoms that Americans have. They also don’t have a huge gap between the upper, middle and lower classes that is present here in the U.S. They have some rich, some poor and a huge “middle-class”. What they don’t have is a good portion of their countries screaming that every law passed or discussed is an abomination against the Bible and God. When the President said that in bad economic times, some in this country turn to “guns and religion” he was spot on. You don’t see in Sweden or Singapore cars with bumper stickers saying “God, Guns and Country” in that order.
I am a recovering Catholic. Unlike Mr. Gasparino, the “card-carrying Catholic” who believes dog eat dog supercedes the teaching of the good Lord, who he claims to believe in.
Agent 86 commented
2014-01-03 12:58:04 -0500
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Thx4 Fish commented
2014-01-03 11:56:59 -0500
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But I’m sure you will find this explanation somehow just doesn’t do it for you, amiright?
mj - the same one commented
2014-01-03 02:01:40 -0500
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Of course you don’t — because there’s no such thing as an “ad-valorium tax” . . . its AD-VALOREM . . .
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Agent 86 commented
2014-01-02 23:54:20 -0500
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You claim Conservatives donate more to charity but I call BS and challenge you to back it up with multiple references not including Fox News, Breitbart, Blaze, Red State or that ilk. I submit that Conservatives and Liberals probably donate close to the same, just the targets differ – Conservatives more religious, Liberals more secular..in generality.
You made several other claims that are nothing more than parrots of Fox News talking point with no backup from any credible source: i.e. food stamps for drugs, etc. I’m sure there are isolated cases but like your argument for voter fraud the facts aren’t commensurate with the level of crisis you purport.
I would however loooooove to see Conservatives get their way and the border get locked down, no illegals coming in and those here deported then watch those very same people complain about $4 lettuce, $2 oranges and inability to get their McDonalds, Taco Bell or Walmart fix because no one is available to work for the shit wages. Yeah I know, you probably don’t eat fast food or shop at Walmart.
mlp ! commented
2014-01-02 23:26:00 -0500
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We certainly don’t know your background or education. We can only surmise from what you’ve posted.
And since most of what you posted is pure horseshit, you’re not looking too good right now, buddy. Fortunately, though, we don’t really care about your background, education or even you, for that matter.
Just go away.
Joseph West commented
2014-01-02 22:31:51 -0500
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Dude, if you want your State legislators to choose one of their own to send to the Senate, that’s fine with me, but I prefer knowing that our US Senators have to answer to THE PEOPLE. It’s funny how, when the Senate is a bunch of right-wing (tools), right-wingers are happy—even ecstatic—that THEY got to vote for their Senators but when the Senate is a bunch of (more or less) sensible people, then right-wingers start calling for LESS democracy in their own country.
As for your rant about “illegals,” don’t forget that YOUR last couple of governors WANT those “illegals” and have done NOTHING AT ALL to stop them. Dubya AND Perry both have actually supported policies that would essentially make ALL the “illegals” become legal citizens. Of course, all those “illegals” who are holding down those minimum-wage jobs just happen to be paying TAXES (called “payroll taxes” you right-wing schlub) AND they pay into Social Security and Medicare—neither of which they’re eligible to receive as long as they’re “illegal.” Also your little rant shows you are so incredibly stupid that you don’t realize you’re talking out of both sides of your mouth.
As for that “fraud” you’re peddling, prove it. And without relying on unproven right-wing sites. No FoxNoise. No Breitbart. No WorldNetDaily. I want LEGITIMATE NEWS SOURCES.
And the “buying” deal? Buddy, that’s all the right-wing knows. Newt Gingrich ALONE got more than $150 MILLION in “campaign donations” from ONE MAN. You right-wingers love to project. Just because YOU people are committing voter fraud (like Ann Coulter or James O’Keefe) and are spending money to buy politicians (like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson) doesn’t mean that the left does it. And let’s not forget that in the last 15 years, less than a dozen REAL cases of voter fraud have actually been documented.
Oh, and that whole “Socialism” crap. Get over it, you jerk. You might want to reread the Preamble to the Constitution (if you can actually read—based on your spelling of words of more than two syllables, I doubt you really can). There’s a little bit in there about “promote the general welfare.” But again, you right-wingers would just prefer the poor to be happy with what little scraps and crumbs you give them and if they’re not, then they should just die.
Joseph West commented
2014-01-02 20:14:10 -0500
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Now, I know how right-wing trolls hate facts but here are some (from that obviously left-wing paper, The Washington Post—only “left-wing” when compared to FoxNoise): (source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/fact-checker-biography-rick-perrys-record-on-texas-job-creation/2011/11/11/gIQAKk4iCN_blog.html )
“Perry mentioned June 2009 in his cameo because the National Bureau of Economic Research marked that date as the end of the last recession. And he appears to get his data from the president and chief executive of the the Federal Reserve’s Dallas branch, Richard W. Fisher, who delivered a speech comparing Texas to all 50 states, as well as those that have shown a net gain since the recession.
Fisher found that Texas accounted for 49.9 percent of net new jobs in the nation when including all states, but only 29.2 percent among the states that showed net growth. He used BLS data for his national figures, and findings from the Federal Reserve of Dallas for the Texas numbers, according to PolitiFact.
Perry clearly relied on the comparison with all 50 states rather than those that experienced net growth.”
“Our colleagues at PolitiFact examined the issue in September, finding that government jobs represented 27 percent of all employment growth from January 2001 to July 2011, which at that time spanned Perry’s time in office.” (Yeah, “E A.” GOVERNMENT JOBS. Not “private sector.”)
“Texas, it ends up, has the 24th highest unemployment rate in the U.S. at 8.5 percent. That’s greater than 7.4 percent for Utah, where Jon Huntsman governed, as well as 7.3 for Massachusetts, the state where Mitt Romney served as governor from 2003 to 2007. But it’s better than the national average of 9.1 percent.” (You’d think that the unemployment rate would be MUCH lower if “working is favored over welfare” and that businesses are allowed “to creat [sic] jobs and products at a competitive rate.”)
“Overall, 9.5 percent of Texans make minimum wage or below, versus six percent nationwide, according to the BLS. The state isn’t faring so well in that regard.
It’s worth noting that the number of Texans making at or below the federal minimum wage has skyrocketed since 2008, climbing from a little less than 5 percent that year to 9.5 percent in 2010.” (Did you read that second bit carefully?)
“As for benefits, data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that Texas, with a quarter of its workers uninsured, had the highest percentage of uninsured residents from 2008 through 2010. Its mark of 25 percent was well above the national average of 15.8 percent.” (I’ll bet that the heads of those “businesses” aren’t going without benefits or insurance.)
Of course, you do have to wonder how many people in Texas like the UNREGULATED growth when it leads to things like the West Fertilizer Company explosion (from last April)? When you have such dangerous industries allowed near schools and nursing homes? I know right-wingers (such as “E A”) don’t really care (since they advocate that Dickensian notion of shipping the poor off to workhouses as well as wishing the old and infirmed would just hurry up and die). But that’s what differentiates right-wingers from the rest of us. They like to complain about the horrors of “death panels” while ignoring the “death panels” already being used by insurance companies.
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