Just by way of reminder, let's celebrate, as "Word of the Day" the word

[Stinky The Clown]

Kleptocracy

from Wikipedia:

Kleptocracy (sometimes Cleptocracy) (root: Klepto+cracy = rule by thieves) is a pejorative, informal term for a government that is corrupt in its management of public funds in the sense that its management is designed to primarily sustain the personal wealth and political power of government officials and their cronies (collectively, kleptocrats).

Kleptocracies are often dictatorships or some other form of autocratic government, since democracy makes outright thievery for direct personal gain more difficult to sustain in the long term and still remain in power.

Kleptocratic governance means that the economy is subordinated to the interests of the kleptocrats. Distributive states that derive their wealth from the extraction of natural resources (e.g. diamonds and oil in a few prominent cases) can be particularly prone to kleptocracy. Redistributive economies that derive their wealth through taxation have a natural limitation on how far they can extend the kleptocratic policies on their population without destabilizing their government through extending their grab to their own supporters or driving the income producers away from the country or making them withdraw their labor or capital. When redistributive economies do exhibit kleptoctatic tendencies, they do so through using taxes collected from the general public to curry favor with the government's supporters. Examples of common groups that attract favour are the armed forces, welfare recipients, students, civil servants, farmers, retirees etc.

The creation of a kleptocracy powered by dictatorship typically results in many years of general hardship and suffering for the vast majority of citizens as civil society and the rule of law disintegrate. In addition, kleptocrats routinely ignore economic and social problems in their quest to amass ever more wealth and power.

Some observers use the term 'kleptocracy' to disparage political processes which permit corporations to influence political policy. Ralph Nader called the United States a kleptocracy in this sense of the word during the 2000 presidential campaign. A more accurate term for this influence over a state is plutocracy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy

This was shown to be true just the other day with the dastardly
MinimumWage/FuckYou,We'reRichAndWantToKeepItWhenWeDie
bill that passed the House and is now in the Senate.

Today's Bonus Word (a phrase, actually) is

Class Warfare

Wage it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. There is a difference between plutocracy and kleptocracy

Plutocrats employ government to preserve their wealth. Kleptocrats employ government to greatly increase their wealth.

The Current Regime is a kleptocracy.

[ninkasi]

2. These years under Bush

have intensified class warfare, but his cronies have been so egregious in their actions, that more of us have woken up and are starting to fight back. Kleptocracy is a perfect description of the neocon governing style. There needs to be a huge change in the way taxes are collected, with the wealthy paying much more. They would still be wealthy, and it would help restore some of the social services to those who need them.