CELEBRITY CHEF MARIO BATALI TYPIFIES LEFTIST HYPOCRISY

11/8/11: Celebrity Chef Mario Batali Says Bankers As Bad As Hitler, Stalin

Really. 

Batali voiced that very interesting sentiment at the Time magazine Person of the Year debate I mentioned earlier, where he was a panelist, along with NBC’s Brian Williams and anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, among others. Here’s what he said, verbatim, according to Time’s own transcript. 

I would have to say that who has had the largest effect on the whole planet without us really paying attention across the board and everywhere is the entire banking industry and their disregard for the people that  they’re supposed to be working for….So the ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys…They’re not heroes, but they are people that had a really huge effect on the way the world is operating.* 

After the debate concluded, I asked Batali if he could elaborate on his belief in moral equivalence between the guys whose greed caused the mortgage crisis and the tyrants who slaughtered millions and reduced Europe to rubble. “Oh, that was just a metaphor,” he said. But, offered the opportunity to back down from his pronouncement, he stood firm. “The way people change lives, I do think bankers change lives as much as a repressive [inaudible] autocrat. But, that said, it was more direct.” (“It” presumably meaning the Hitler/Stalin form of evil.) 

... Update 2: Bankers are boycotting Batali’s restaurants over his remarks, which could mean a substantial loss in business, considering how heavily they rely on expense-account diners. More about that here, along with audio of my interview with Batali.

WHAT KIND OF PERSON IS THIS BATALI? THIS IS BATALI:

Mario Batali and a business partner have agreed to pay $5.25 million to resolve a lawsuit filed on behalf of waiters, captains and other employees who claimed that his restaurants had illegally confiscated part of their tips to supplement their profits. 

 Celebrity chef Mario Batali and his business partner have agreed to pay $5.25 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged they confiscated a portion of their restaurant workers' tips. 

According to court papers filed in Manhattan federal court, the settlement may compensate as many as 1,100 waiters, captains and other staffers.

BATALI: HYPOCRITICAL SCUM. TYPICAL OF TODAY'S LEFT.

HE ACCUSED THE RICH BANKERS OF BEING GREEDY SCUMBAGS WHILE BEING A GREEDY SCUMBAG HIMSELF - ONE WHO GOT RICH CATERING TO THE GREEDY SCUMBAGS.

LIKE GORE LIVING IN A HUMONGOUS MANSION IN CALIFORNIA THAT MUST COST A MONTH TO AIR CONDITION, AND LIKE HIM AND ALL THE OTHER LEAR JET LIBS WHO HARASSMENT US ABOUT OUR CARBON FOOTPRINTS WHILE PUTTING DOWN SASQUATCHIAN PRINTS THEMSELVES.

LIKE OBAMA WHO HARANGUES US ABOUT THE GREEDY WALL STREETERS WHILE HOLDING FUNDRAISERS WITH THEM AT 40,000 PER HEAD.

LIKE THE LEFT WHO DOLES OUT HUMONGOUS $500 BILLION CORPORATE WELFARE TO THEIR CRONIES IN THE SO-CALLED GREEN ECONOMY WHILE DERIDING THE OIL COMPANIES FOR RECEIVING A $4BILLION REBATE ON THE HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF TAXES THEY PAY ANNUALLY.

IF FOLKS ON THE LEFT DIDN'T LIE AND FALSELY ACCUSE OTHERS OF COMMITTING THE CRIMES THEY THEMSELVES ACTUALLY COMMIT, THEN THEY'D HAVE NOTHING TO SAY AT ALL.