The rich and powerful don’t want to pay any more taxes. In fact they think they should  pay less. And if it means that the streets fill with even more pain and suffering…and protesters… too bad. They’ll just build a bigger moat.

Do you believe that? I don’t. At least I don’t want to. Yet that’s what their lackeys in Washington would have us think. That all rich people are Scrooge McDuck or like mean Mr. Potter beating up on Jimmy Stewart.

But it’s hard to know who they are. The super rich don’t show themselves much. We only know that the likes of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell would throw the 99 percent under a limo to protect the one percent. And that the Newt Gingrich/Mitt Romney chorus line likes the rich better than the rest of us.

There have been a few who dared to come out and say they’d be willing to donate a few more bucks to the common good. Investor Warren Buffet took a heroic stand this summer when he wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times urging lawmakers to raise taxes on millionaires so that they pay the same or higher rate as middle class people.

Microsoft king Bill Gates has said he’s “generally in favor of the idea that the rich pay somewhat more than everyone else.” Earlier this month a small group calling themselves Patriotic Millionaires went to Capitol Hill not with their hands out, but, amazingly, with their wallets open, offering to pay more taxes. And while we don’t hear much about it, they are apparently not alone. In fact, 68 percent of millionaires say they support a tax increase for those earning $1 million or more, according to a survey by the Spectrum Group.

But the Republican leadership says no, no, no, we must spare the rich. When the non-rich complain about the rich the Republicans say we’re all simply jealous. They insist the rich need even more tax loopholes. They make it sound like the rich are the downtrodden Americans.

Yet, by their silence we can only assume that the very richest of the rich are fine with their fat-cat image. And with the desperation of all the stray dogs.

That’s a nasty picture.  But if the rich don’t like their portrait why aren’t they standing up to change it? They don’t even have to do the Warren Buffet thing. Maybe they have a good explanation for why they can’t make it on their bazillions alone. I don’t hate the rich, but I would feel a lot kinder toward them if I knew they were willing to help balance this grotesque inequality so many of their brethren have exploited. They behave like they own this country. When in fact they owe this country.

As the wise Elizabeth Warren points out, “There is no one in this country who got rich on his own.”

Michael Moore is plenty rich. He made his personal fortune pointing out the inequities in our system and was recently called on by Piers Morgan to defend his wealth and his sympathies for Occupy Wall Street. Moore told Morgan that having money and caring about poor people is not mutually exclusive. No more than being white and marching with Martin Luther King or being straight and voting for gay marriage. It’d be nice to see a few more super rich celebrities show us who they’re marching with.

Can you imagine this? Rich people declaring, “I am wealthy and I do not approve of this image.” Rich people standing up to Republicans. Republicans standing up to Republicans. Heck, Obama could sell tickets to that and pay off the deficit.

The morning before I talked to Shirley MacLaine I saw a bumper sticker in my neighborhood that said “Multi-dimensional and loving it.” It all seemed so synchronistic, so meant to be. Of course I live in Northern California and the famous actress/author/channeler lives in Santa Fe. Places that are comfortable with the woo-woo.

But Shirley said, oh no. It’s everywhere. In fact as she does her one woman show around the country, performing in Santa Rosa last weekend, the audience asks her more about mystical stuff than the movies. “I show them film clips of the Rat Pack and talk about Dean and Frank. And what do they want to ask me about? About the things in my books. They want to know what does this memory mean? Why am I here?

“You know why? Because the world’s in a terrible mess. The civilization is faltering. Everyone’s looking for answers.”

I like Shirley. I like that she says she’s never going to stop asking why. And that while many scoffed at her claims of reincarnation and books on psychic searching she did a lot to help nudge the mainstream into considering what else is out there.

I also love that she’s 77 and vibrant. With those long legs and that delighted laugh that goes with the grinning twinkling face.  As a friend said, “That woman had cute down pat.”

At her age, however, cute is not big enough. More like nicely seasoned. Now she’s written a book called I’m Over All That.. and Other Confessions. It’s her 13th book. The woman has sold  20 million books.

She’s made 63 films including the new Bernie with Jack Black. It’s about a funeral director in Texas. “I play the town bitch,” she bragged.

She also just won the Legion of Honor in France, that country’s most prestigious cultural award. For those looking for role models on how to stay passionate, relevant and visible Shirley MacLaine is a good one.

She’s adamant about daily exercise – yoga, tai chi, stretching exercises for her hips -“you have to take care of your hips.” She lives alone with her dog,  prefers hanging out with friends to Hollywood parties, had a face lift at 50 and colors her hair red to match her spirit which is one of the best rationalizations I’ve ever heard for covering the gray.

Another beauty tip: “No overhead lights. They make you look like Grandma Moses.”

Her role as Aurora, the controlling mother in Terms of Endearment, is the one she best relates to personally. “Impossible at times, all over the map with her emotions, funny, judgmental, loving.” We talked about the scene where her hospitalized daughter needs pain meds and no one brings her any until Aurora rages after them. They’re delivered and she quietly says, “Thank you.”

“We did that in one take,” she said. “I don’t know if that was pure Aurora or pure Shirely MacLaine.”

About the men she’s bedded, it felt so People Magazine-y to ask. But of course I checked them out in her book.  Yes on Robert Mitchum and Yves Montand. No on Jack Lemmon. Too nice. And Jack Nicholson, too dangerous. I told her that my husband lovingly recalls the shot of her in Irma le Douce walking up the stairs in her green tights. He says it is forever etched in his mind.

That brought the famous laugh.

Outside the New York courthouse where the rich and powerful French politician was being arraigned on charges he attempted to rape a hotel maid, uniformed hotel workers lined up and chanted, “Shame on you.”

Meanwhile in France women activists declared they’ve had it with the cultural sexist norm and the sexual harassment that is a pattern for some French men. No more winks for men who think any woman is up for grabs.

Meanwhile, California’s former first lady pursued a possible $100 million divorce from former Governor Groper who snuck around with their housekeeper and fathered a son.

Meanwhile the daughter of a man who wanted to become president stood rigidly next to her father as he insisted he didn’t use campaign money to cover up his affair and the child he fathered while his wife was dying of cancer.

Meanwhile Nancy Pelosi said to Anthony Weiner – “stupid, stupid, stupid.” Actually, I’m only guessing what Pelosi said to Weiner in addition to the reported part about her being “deeply disappointed and saddened” and then calling for an ethics investigation into his conduct.

You read about one more guy accused of some slimy sexual stunt or worse and you want to slap them on the head and say, “What were you thinking?” Some reporter did yell out that question to the remorseful Weiner at the press inquisition this week. And the congressman answered he didn’t know what he was thinking. But he was ashamed and he was sorry and he loved his wife.. and all that.

I know what I was thinking. What a jerk.

The same thing I thought with Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Edwards and the mighty who fell before them. You would throw away your career, your reputation, your family, your leadership talents and the positive things you might have done for your country because you suddenly had this irresistible urging?

Are you so turned on by yourself that you think every woman is, too? Empowered by the public revulsion over the Strauss-Kahn incident, French women have called for an end to French machismo. To which I say “bonne chance.” We’ve been hoping for an end to American macho madness for as long as the idea of “God’s gift to women” has been around.

Years ago, during the Bill Clinton sex mess, I interviewed people who consider themselves sexaholics. One member of a 12-step sex addict group explained that sex-a-holics feel they’re special.

“We are the ones who walk into the room and everyone looks,” said the sex addict. “We have chemistry. And we think we can have anyone who takes our fancy.”

Another said he was so obsessed by sex he thought about it all the time. He took sexual risks on a regular basis and would do or say whatever was needed to not to get caught.

Is this something in the DNA or, in the case of politicos, a possible affliction that sets in with public office? Perhaps they come to believe in their own chemistry. And then become arrogant, greedy and reckless. And then lie and try to squirm out of it when busted.

What a big waste. I was talking to a friend about Anthony Weiner, who I’ve been calling Tweedle-Dumb. I told her he was a real scrapper for liberal causes, pushing for health care reform and becoming the champion of New York firefighters, the first responders on 911, so they could get their medical benefits.

“Hmm,” she said. “I never heard of him before this. But I don’t like him.”