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Demeter

(85,373 posts)

18. If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog

Mon Sep 15, 2014, 12:46 PM

Sep 2014

--Harry S. Truman

Despite being quoted as a remark of Truman by both George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, this apparently originates from a line in the portrayal of Truman in the play Give ‘Em Hell, Harry (1975) by Samuel Gallu : "You want a friend in life, get a dog!" This was later paraphrased by Maureen Dowd (10 March 1989): "If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog." But prior to Gallu's play there is no actual indication Truman ever said this, according to investigations by David Rothman In "Google Book Search, Harry S. Truman and the get-a-dog quote: Presidential library unable to confirm it" (28 June 2008)

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Meet the 25 Billionaires Who Control Everything (per Brookings Institution) [View all] Octafish Sep 2014 OP

It's great to be very rich in the U.S. NT Trillo Sep 2014 #1

Everybody's your friend when you're rich. Octafish Sep 2014 #20

USA is number one! For billionaires and mega-millionaires. nt valerief Sep 2014 #2

Some believe it's our duty to make the world safe for them. Octafish Sep 2014 #21

And almost all of them are republicans bigdarryl Sep 2014 #3

or libertarian - which to me is the crazy wing of the crazy party rurallib Sep 2014 #5

ironically enough, there used to be a moderate wing to that party hfojvt Sep 2014 #12

I often wonder if many of those became blue-dog dems or rurallib Sep 2014 #13

Hillary was a Rockefeller Republican Laughing Mirror Sep 2014 #37

she worked for Goldwater IIRC rurallib Sep 2014 #41

Ha! Alice Walton big-time supporter of Hillary Clinton. closeupready Sep 2014 #4

That begs the question I haven't considered before: ChisolmTrailDem Sep 2014 #7

If you want a friend in Washington, buy a dog Demeter Sep 2014 #18

Those people don't frequent the same places I do. JEB Sep 2014 #6

Almost all are old, white men. chervilant Sep 2014 #8

Neither did the Koch Bros or Donald Trump geardaddy Sep 2014 #9

Except here's a news flash: Sam Walton sucked also. HughBeaumont Sep 2014 #35

Not initially... chervilant Sep 2014 #36

Billionaires ought to be taxed out of existence. hunter Sep 2014 #10

+several brazillion Demeter Sep 2014 #17

^^This!^^ BrotherIvan Sep 2014 #30

A perfect analogy. hifiguy Sep 2014 #34

"control everything" hfojvt Sep 2014 #11

Lenin declared that �A few hundred multi-millionaires and millionaires OnyxCollie Sep 2014 #14

that must have been hfojvt Sep 2014 #15

You mentioned Pete Peterson, OnyxCollie Sep 2014 #23

I'm halfway between you and the OP. It definitely is not 'control' but there is heavy influence stevenleser Sep 2014 #19

That's a reasonable number of targets Demeter Sep 2014 #16

vs. the police forces they've militarized? moondust Sep 2014 #28

Oh, they did. It's just that they were outnumbered Demeter Sep 2014 #38

Donald Trump is a Billionaire? Says who ?? flying-skeleton Sep 2014 #22

A number of those persons support some progressive causes JPZenger Sep 2014 #24

You need a better example. OnyxCollie Sep 2014 #25

serving as a neolib in a neolib's neolib Cabinet is not "progressive" nor "giving something back" MisterP Sep 2014 #33

Penny gave herself back all the cash she put into Obama's campaign Demeter Sep 2014 #39

K&R Cleita Sep 2014 #26

Kochs probably spend more than all others COMBINED. ErikJ Sep 2014 #27

What amazes me the Koch money is an outright personal buy for influence in the Political Elite. gordianot Sep 2014 #29

Most of Koch spending is on negative attack ads. ErikJ Sep 2014 #31

Brookings can't convince me those other billionaires aren't also buying senators valerief Sep 2014 #32

Marc Andreessen is one of the biggest pigs walking. HughBeaumont Sep 2014 #40

George Carlin was right. It's a big club and we're not in it. Initech Sep 2014 #42