RANT: Bunga Bunga Berlusconi

Yesterday I heard a shocking statistic and revelation whilst watching the Keiser Report on Russia Today (RT). Nearly every time I watch the inimitable and brilliant Max and Stacy and guests on his show I hear things that amaze/ offend/ stun/ outrage me, but this was one worth blogging about, so outrageous it was.

Turns out that forensic auditing of Silvio Berlusconi's private accounts whilst Emperor, I mean Prime Minister, of Italy show that the man spent unbelievable amounts of public money on 'entertainment.'

His private secretary (a man, unbelievably) readily admits most of this fun and play money was to pay high-class female 'companions' (read: hookers) to live the high life (and entertain Berlusconi, of course) at various villas throughout Italy.

Berlusconi is known to have dubbed these sex parties 'Bunga Bunga' parties. Such wit.

This is hardly shocking given that Emperor Silvio is a known womaniser with an insatiable predilection for copious amounts of sex, especially with very young women. And, quite frankly, rather the Borgia antics of Italian and French leaders than all that tiresome puritanical holier-than-thou nonsense of Anglo-Saxon politicians. At least all that sex and mayhem is fun and far less hypocritical.

Some of the world's vilest leaders were also highly monogamous men faithful to their partners - Hitler, Hoxha and Ceausescu to name just a few.

No, what was shocking was the amount of money that Berlusconi splurged on these fair lasses. In just two years he squandered 20-million euros on these lovely ladies alone.


Cartoon courtesy of www.cartoonmovement.com


20-million euros!!!

Cartoon courtesy of www.caricaturez.blogspot.com

Jeepers creepers! Just how much screwing can any one man get up to? And I mean up to. I want whatever that man's having - I mean, where did he get all the energy?! Berlusconi makes the sex-addicted character played by Michael Fassbender in the film Shame look like a Trappist monk.

The fact that this mafioso billionaire Energizer bunny was squandering huge amounts of public money by banging away whilst Italy sank deeper and deeper into debt is of course beyond the pale. The total lack of any ethics by this most self-interested and diabolical little man is no surprise, but the numbers are still shocking.

The sheer mendacity of the super rich elites continues to be breathtaking.

The Borgias would indeed have been proud.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Branson Should Be Iced

Just when you think you've seen it all when it comes to the sheer self-indulgence of the super rich and super stupid, along comes that mega prat, Richard Branson.

I was innocently wending my way through Yahoo News this morning, and thought I was having a serious allergy-induced hallucination when I read the headline:

"Sir Richard Branson ice cubes take off on Virgin"

What could that headline possibly mean, I thought?

Did he design ice cubes for his airline?

Did they capitalize the word 'virgin' by mistake and it's actually some kinky British sex play I've never heard of?

Oh no, don't tell me...surely not...

Oh, yes, he did...just take a look:

Yip, ice cubes with Richard Branson's visage, cheesy, horsey grin and all, are offered on board Virgin Atlantic flights.

Oh, and only to 'Upper Class' passengers, of course. Heaven forbid the hoi polloi on Virgin flights should have their beverages graced with those ice cubes. Branson may parade around as the dashing, iconoclastic 'people's billionaire,' but he's still an elitist schmuck at heart.

The Yahoo articles goes on to say that, "Virgin claims that the creation of the cubes required a team of four designers a "painstaking" six weeks to craft, using "laser scanning technology" to match the likeness of his face."

Uh huh.

Who are these fricking people?!

I wonder who'll be the first to choke to death on one of these Bransoned ice cubes as they stand at the Upper Class bar twirling their Johnnie Walker in their hand? And will their family sue Branson himself? I'm sure there would be an American attorney who would find just cause.

And just in case you thought the above pic was some grim piece of Photoshopping, here's another pic showing a Virgin stewardess grinning inanely as she holds up one of these little cubes:

Makes you want to smack her face.

It's the sheer chutzpah of this man that defies all logic.

I have no doubt that Branson thought he was being deliciously ironic when he agreed to these ice cubes, when all he was being was vintage Branson - a super rich, super vain, total twat and nincompoop.

Do you get my point?



RANT: Robin Hood Would've Wept

I came across another article on Yahoo News, once again linking to an article in the New York Post, which annoyed me even more than the one about Will Smith's super-size trailer (see previous post). This one had to do with a charity benefit in which Lady GaGa performed in front of a room full of Wall Street's 'best' (ahem...) and 'finest' (again, ahem...).

A room full of fatcat scheisters so grossly rich that they make Will Smith look like an impoverished Ethiopian.

The article was a showcase of one example after another of just how ironically screwed up the United States and its super-rich thieves have truly become.

Take Lady GaGa. She the modern temptress of ironic kitsch and wit. She performs in front of these super-rich twats, no doubt picking up a huge pay cheque for her one night's work, and what's her grand gesture of 'irony and wit' at this crowd? She supposedly 'breaks a nail' and shows the fatcats the broken nail, thereby "showing them the middle finger" as she giggled, according to the article. Oh, what wit, Ms GaGa!

That may have been her (lame) attempt at poking fun at the assembled fatcats, but she's still a big sell-out.

Then there's the assembled fatcats. According to the Post, "The generous bigwigs coughed up $11 million in donations via credit card machines on each table to help Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans and fight poverty while the night took in more than $47 million. Bidding on a recording session with the Black Eyed Peas reached $400,000."

The mind boggles (and the stomach turns) at that statement. Consider it:

• "Credit card machines on each table"?! The sheer vulgarity of that image belies description. And how does Wall Street give so 'generously' to these charities? By paying with...wait for it...credit! Oh, what sweet irony.
• "To help Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans"? Really? Shouldn't the government be doing that? Oh, that's right - your government is bankrupt, all because it decided to sell its soul to Lucifer and spend all those billions bailing your Wall Street fatcat asses out, you greedy, conniving bastards!
• "Fight poverty"? Would that be the poverty that you, Wall Street, caused more than anything else in your country in the last few years?! Is it that poverty you're wanting to 'fight'?
• "$47-million"? Is that all?
• "Black Eyed Peas"? Another bunch of sell-outs. Big surprise.

But the biggest irony at an event dripping with irony? The name of the charity - the Robin Hood Foundation. That's right - the biggest thieves in the modern era, the robber barons of Wall Street, were wining and dining and living it up and being warbled at by Lady GaGa for a charity called the Robin Hood Foundation. 

Except these rich scheisters on Wall Street got it all confused - Robin Hood was about stealing from the rich to give to the poor, not the other way around, you gormless, amoral turds!

Robin Hood would've wept, not to mention Jesus.

Where are those blood-baying crowds of the French Revolution when you need them, huh?



Do you get my point?

RANT: Robin Hood Would've Wept

I came across another article on Yahoo News, once again linking to an article in the New York Post, which annoyed me even more than the one about Will Smith's super-size trailer (see previous post). This one had to do with a charity benefit in which Lady GaGa performed in front of a room full of Wall Street's 'best' (ahem...) and 'finest' (again, ahem...).

A room full of fatcat scheisters so grossly rich that they make Will Smith look like an impoverished Ethiopian.

The article was a showcase of one example after another of just how ironically screwed up the United States and its super-rich thieves have truly become.

Take Lady GaGa. She the modern temptress of ironic kitsch and wit. She performs in front of these super-rich twats, no doubt picking up a huge pay cheque for her one night's work, and what's her grand gesture of 'irony and wit' at this crowd? She supposedly 'breaks a nail' and shows the fatcats the broken nail, thereby "showing them the middle finger" as she giggled, according to the article. Oh, what wit, Ms GaGa!

That may have been her (lame) attempt at poking fun at the assembled fatcats, but she's still a big sell-out.

Then there's the assembled fatcats. According to the Post, "The generous bigwigs coughed up $11 million in donations via credit card machines on each table to help Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans and fight poverty while the night took in more than $47 million. Bidding on a recording session with the Black Eyed Peas reached $400,000."

The mind boggles (and the stomach turns) at that statement. Consider it:

• "Credit card machines on each table"?! The sheer vulgarity of that image belies description. And how does Wall Street give so 'generously' to these charities? By paying with...wait for it...credit! Oh, what sweet irony.
• "To help Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans"? Really? Shouldn't the government be doing that? Oh, that's right - your government is bankrupt, all because it decided to sell its soul to Lucifer and spend all those billions bailing your Wall Street fatcat asses out, you greedy, conniving bastards!
• "Fight poverty"? Would that be the poverty that you, Wall Street, caused more than anything else in your country in the last few years?! Is it that poverty you're wanting to 'fight'?
• "$47-million"? Is that all?
• "Black Eyed Peas"? Another bunch of sell-outs. Big surprise.

But the biggest irony at an event dripping with irony? The name of the charity - the Robin Hood Foundation. That's right - the biggest thieves in the modern era, the robber barons of Wall Street, were wining and dining and living it up and being warbled at by Lady GaGa for a charity called the Robin Hood Foundation. 

Except these rich scheisters on Wall Street got it all confused - Robin Hood was about stealing from the rich to give to the poor, not the other way around, you gormless, amoral turds!

Robin Hood would've wept, not to mention Jesus.

Where are those blood-baying crowds of the French Revolution when you need them, huh?

Do you get my point?

RANT: Vulgar Wealth Blocks SoHo

I read a silly little piece on Yahoo News this morning which had the ability to irk me. It was regarding Will Smith and a movie trailer the size of the Battlestar Galactica. Turns out that the residents of a certain neighbourhood in SoHo were up in arms because of the ginormous personal trailer that Will Smith had parked in the street.

The actor is in NYC doing shooting for the latest "Men in Black" instalment. You know, just another reason for the overrated actor to make another few tens of millions of dollars.

The New York Post reported how his 53-foot double decker trailer had so blocked the street that businesses were losing money and traffic was affected. That's roughly 28 metres long for those of us in the rest of the world who use the metric system. Residents in the area, true to Noo Yawk form, were furious and very vocal about it. He finally had to move his $9000 a week trailer (that's right, $9000 a week just for a lousy freaking trailer) up the street to a parking lot where it will now be docked.

A local public official made the hilarious comment that, "Hardworking New Yorkers have a right to wake up in the morning and not find a cruise ship parked out in front of their house."Too true! Not to mention a Hollywood star with clearly an ego the size of Manhattan to boot strutting about.
The poor little thing with his goofy grin and cauliflower ears now has to walk a full mile between his trailer and the set. Poor little munchkins.

Oh, and he also has his own $25000 a month apartment just a mile away. You know, as we all do when we're in these where-the-hell-do-I-park-my-53-foot-personal-trailer issues in life.

Who the fackula are these people?

Who are these twerps who prance around sets and make (some of) us laugh and be entertained for a couple of hours and JUST FOR THAT become these multi-multi-multi-millionaires who behave as if they were born this way and that their behaviour is simply so utterly normal and so, you know, earned, dude, you know, like.

It is this obscene, vulgar display of such conspicuous wealth, inevitably shoved in our 'plebian' faces with utter brattish contempt, that makes me so bloody angry. Not to mention want to smack a useless turd like Will Smith to within an inch of his life. Or get the Mafia to do it for me.

It is not cute, it is not funny and it is not just 'a little thing' to be shrugged off. It is symptomatic of just how warped our times have become when a Hollywood star sees fit to park a 53-foot trailer in the middle of SoHo.

Does this gormless idiot not realize there is still a recession going on in America? Of course he doesn't - he lives in the stratosphere, pissing down on the rest of us with his opulent and charmed-beyond-belief life. It's rather fitting, then, that he's shooting a film about aliens.

Does he care? Clearly not a damn. Thing is, neither would I if the masses were to one day get hold of super-rich f***ers like this and show them a thing or two about mob justice. Or just call in the Mafia.

Do you get my point?

It Says It All...

As a follow up to my last post regarding the rich, I thought the 'cat' chart showing American wealth distribution below was rather fitting:




Imagine - the fatcat gets even more of the pie in most other countries...

RANT: The Rich Get...More Vile

It's churlish to bash on the rich. It seems a case of sour grapes, even somehow self-defeating. After all, it would be stupid to deny that money can be very seductive in what it can do for one's life. It buys you independence and gives you more options in life. Money gives you choices, no doubt about it.

Why the hell do you think I play the lottery every chance I get?!

I refuse to play the hypocrite and pretend that being wealthy wouldn't make my life better in more ways than one. Of course it would. I consider myself genuinely fortunate in that I'm not motivated by huge homes and fancy cars and private jets and wardrobes the size of small Central American countries. I never have been.

I don't want the billions. Or all the flash of conspicuous, gaudy, yucky wealth. But to have enough money to have have a home fully paid for, know that my mother will never again have to work a day in her life, have NO DEBT at all and never have to worry about money again - bliss.



But in this recession on the back of so much profligate stealing by uber-rich bankers and Wall Street types, the rich have only become more tasteless. A reminder of how flawed our money systems are and how so very much is for the benefit of so very few.

And so I come across an article today on Yahoo regarding a survey of rich Americans done by Fidelity Investments. According to the findings, most of the rich surveyed declare that one needs a minimum of $7-million in order to be 'rich'. Yip, six million bucks and you ain't yet 'rich'. Jeepers, talk about inflation!

And, the survey found, the rich continue to fret about money - the poor (rich) things. AND it seems the older they get, the more money they believe is necessary to be comfortably 'rich'! It seems the itch to be rich only gets worse with age.

So, yes, it seems the rich do get richer - not to mention more vile.

After all, who goes around pondering what it is to be 'rich' and frets about staying so obviously rich? And who feels comfortable enough to answer such ludicrous surveys about wealth in this day and age? Who are these people?

They are the cocooned, the pampered, the powerful 'other' who influence governments and make sure that governments bail them out when they get too greedy. Okay, that's mostly the super-rich to whom $7-million is really chump change, but you get my drift.

The words of Thomas Jefferson seem so pertinent here:

Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.



Harsh words perhaps, but somehow strangely relevant when one reads surveys like this.

Do you get my point?

SITE OF THE DAY: Little Sis

My recommended site for today is Little Sis. Once again, I have Max Keiser and his show on Russia Today (RT), the Keiser Report, to thank (bow to Max, yet again) for bringing my attention to this website last night - and what is a terrific initiative.

Basically, if my understanding is correct, Little Sis is a loose group of people online who track, analyze, cross-reference, corroborate and, above all else, expose the ongoing financial shenanigans (read: financial and economic terrorism) of the richest and most financially powerful people in America. This they accomplish by having everyone doing their own analysis, adding content, etc. It appears to me like a hybrid cross between Wikipedia (which I love and respect, with all its flaws) and Facebook (which I hate on many levels - more on that another time) - except its focus is very singular and very expressly stated: as the byline in the website's banner states, "Profiling the powers that be".

As the introduction to their (very young and obviously very dedicated) team states: LittleSis is a project of Public Accountability Initiative, a 501(c)3 organization focused on corporate and government accountability. Our mission is to facilitate and produce investigative research that promotes transparent and accountable governance. PAI was founded in early 2008 by a group of activists, public interest lawyers, and academics associated with leading universities and major social change organizations.

It's the whole accountability part of the Little Sis project that is especially appealing to me. And the fact that their emphasis is so markedly on the very rich and the very financially powerful, i.e. the bunch of lying, greedy weasels that got us into this worldwide financial crisis in the first place - yet still keep getting away with it!

A further direct, italicized quote from their site: LittleSis features interlinked profiles of powerful individuals and organizations in the public and private sectors. Profiles detail a wealth of information vital to any investigation of the ways power and money guide the formulation of public policy, from board memberships to campaign contributions, old school ties to government contracts. I have added the bold for added emphasis, because how very, very true. This simple yet innovative follow-the-money-and-power-paper-trail approach is precisely exactly the type of online initiatives that are so badly needed and that all concerned and outraged people worldwide should be a part of or support, one way or another.

Am I fazed by the fact that the Little Sis emphasis is on the American stinking rich? Not all all. For one thing, the rich and powerful of today have their putrid and money-grabbing tentacles all over the world. Just take all the speculating that is coming to light of late with the entire Greek default crisis - lots of American and other foreign dirty hands in that pie. For another, the influence of the mega-wealthy and the uber-capitalists in America continue to have huge impacts on the global financial and money markets. To deny the importance these American billionaires have in playing with one's own country's economy, sickening and perverse as that idea might be, just because one does not live in the United States is naive folly. Nor does it recognize just how globalized (and, thus, horribly dangerous) international finance has become.

For those reasons and, hopefully, many more to come, I immediately signed up with them today. And, hopefully, as a member I may yet add content to their posted lists, as any member of Little Sis is able to do.

So, if you wish to know more about just how powerful and all-pervasive the likes of Warren Buffet or Bill Gates or that evil incarnation du jour, Goldman Sachs, really are and where they come from and how they possibly get their money, then this is the site for you. Please become a member. As I hope for myself, you may even yet become a content contributor.

Visit www.littlesis.org - and be part of the growing groundswell movement of people worldwide who want to empower themselves by exposing the truth about the wealth of the super-rich and their distorted power. We need to expose them for the mega-greedy, manipulative and economically destructive pack of bastards that they really are.