Fraser Sherman's Blog

Right-wingers have been sneering at elites for years. The “pointy-headed intellectuals” who had the ridiculous idea Jim Crow segregation wasn’t righteous. The conviction that small town and rural Americans are the real Americans, not the decadent cosmopolitan immigrant scum living in cities. That the simple, honest view of a common man who knows nothing is better than someone with an education. It’s a variation of the Imaginary Republican fantasy: all small towns are sweet and decent like Mayberry, all cities are the same crime-ridden hellholes as in Dirty Harry. The uneducated man sees the simple common-sense truth that blacks are inferior, women belong in the kitchen, rape is an attack on men; the elites are out to deny all that with their … facts.

While this is bullshit, they got one thing right: many of our “elite” don’t amount to much. They’re rich because chasing money is an end in itself, no matter what damage it does. Rather than risk any fractional loss of prestige or money, they kiss the Toddler’s ass. Those elites the right-wing is fine with because they end up supporting the social hierarchy instead of challenging it. Rupert Murdoch’s elite but he’s not going to topple white men off their position as apex predator. That said, let’s looks at some of our odious elites in action:

Centimillionaire Flock CEO Garrett Langley insists that restricting Flock cameras from intruding into people’s privacy puts safety at risk. Regulating or refusing to use Flock would be bad! Of course, the topic he was discussing was cops using Flock to stalk women, the loss of privacy isn’t increasing safety, it’s putting people in danger. Police tracking someone with Flock to create a pretext for a search doesn’t seem like a safety vs. privacy issue either.

The Toddler is letting Wall Street know, for a price, what he’ll be tweeting about on Truth Social, an obvious business advantage. Business woman and Toddler supporter Carla Sands insists it’s all Democrats fault.

“President Donald Trump’s longtime teleprompter operator is believed to have made tens of thousands of dollars by placing bets on more than a dozen of Trump’s speeches on the prediction market Kalshi, federal investigators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission found, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.” Prediction markets are also arguing that betting on the survival of individuals with cancer isn’t at all objectionable (no handy link, sorry).

Turn over an accused murderer to Minnesota? Not on Greg Abbott’s watch!

Treasury Secretary Luke Bessent is planning to revoke the non-profit status of left-wing groups such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Someone should explain to him that the corrupt tax man working for the evil tyrant is never the good guy. Oh, and they’ve also arrested a former SPLC employee for fraud. Guess it really hurts right-wing fee-fees when SPLC labels hatemongers as hatemongers.

Corporate elites? Looking at the way some drug stores now lock up even trivial items, Danny Katch concludes “the great lotion lockup was a corporate moral panic, which has been a disaster for their profits and for the rest of us a degrading enshittification of running basic errands.”

SCOTUS continues putting the one before the many, and using the shadow docket to avoid explaining.

Okay, Sean Duffy ain’t much of an elite as far as accomplishments, but he is a Toddler cabinet member. So let’s remember a couple of months back when he announced he’s fighting DEI by defunding bike lanes.

How private equity bled Red Lobster dry to line their own pockets.

BMW is a luxury car brand. Owners are less than thrilled that when they start a new car up, they have to endure ads.

Republican Rep. John McGuire revives the old bullshit about human baby parts in covid vaccines “when they could just have used ivermectin.”

The entire Republican caucus voted for RFK Jr. as head of federal health policy, even though they knew he was anti-vax. They knew his views but when he lied about his track record, they pretended to believe him. Now kids are dying of measles. But hey, there’s money in quack medicine — there always has been.

“If we ask why is this outrage, this fundamental tax cheating permitted to continue, the answer is very clearly, it is the power of people with money who want to be able to avoid taxes. And their ability to avoid taxes leads them having even more money, which reinforces that power.” Small wonder that one billionaire CEO suggests we make it official: give him extra votes for being rich.

And of course, there’s the least competent, most dim-witted member of the elite, our Toddler president.