Seriously, Romney has been trying to be president for how long now?
I’m not really knocking the desire – lots of Americans have sought, multiple times, to be pres. What I’m knocking is that he doesn’t seem to have taken it seriously, not in the way so many others have done. He hasn’t seemed to do his homework. He hasn’t worked over the years to develop a voice, a particular stance that’s recognizable as his own. He hasn’t established himself as an open candidate in the sense that we don’t see his “resume”.
What he HAS seemed to do is feel entitled of course, but there’s more than that. He’s viewed it as him simply being able to declare that he’s CEO material and everyone is supposed to buy that, without question. He’s viewed it as something that, if he threw enough money at it, he could just buy it.
We’ll have to see how true that is, of course, but underneath it all, there’s this weird dark thought that he’s doing it for something else, that there’s some other goal behind the whole thing, and that the reason he’s able to secure so much money from so many shady characters is that they see it too. I think they’re giving to Romney because they know it will pay off for them, not just politically, but that there’s a real back-deal going on here.
We’re about to see the Baining of the US, a wholesale shoveling of money off the back of the truck that will put previous money laundering schemes, such as the S&L’s, and mercenary ops during war, to shame. I think Romney has made these deals with all these dark money guys to – much like he did with so many companies – swoop in and gut the US. I suppose that, using that model, there’s a slim chance it could be “successful” for the regular guy but what are the odds that it will end up with Romney et al even more obscenely wealthy than they are now, at the expense – the terrible, terrible expense – of the people? I think this is why he wants it so bad, and why those dark money types want it so bad for him.
I can only hope that, in his supreme arrogance of believing he was simply entitled to it, that he can be stopped, but what about the next time? And the next, and the next guy?
Dark, dirty money:
• His Man in Macau: Inside the Investigation Into Sheldon Adelson’s Empire
• In 2001, Adelson allegedly helped derail House Republican measure opposing Beijing’s Olympic bid due to human rights issues. “The bill will never see the light day, Mr. Mayor. Don’t worry about it,” he reportedly told Beijing’s mayor after phoning then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay. Sands went on to receive its lucrative casino license from China.
• Dark Money: Sometime after January of this year, the Federal Election Commission deleted a whole set of contributions totaling millions of dollars made during the 2007-2008 election cycle. The most important of these files concern what is now called “dark money” – funds donated to ostensible charities or public interest groups rather parties, candidates or conventional political action committees (PACs). These non-profit groups – which Washington insiders often refer to generically as 501(c)s, after the section of the federal tax code regulating them.
• Senate Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act: Two years after filibustering the DISCLOSE Act of 2010 to death and blocking any disclosure for who is funding the the independent expenditures enabled by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United ruling, Republicans have again blocked transparency.
• Mitt Romney tried to deflect continued demands that he release more tax returns onto a peculiar target Monday: Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry. Kerry actually released 20 years of returns when he challenged President George W. Bush in 2004.
• Mitt Romney isn’t against showing his tax return to Republicans. He just has a problem showing his tax return to the rest of us. Remember, Romney handed over 23 years of returns to the McCain campaign when he was being considered as a possible vice presidential choice in 2008.
• Mitt Romney has insisted that he gave up all control of Bain Capital in February of 1999, right before the company invested in firms that sent jobs overseas and laid off thousands of workers. But on Monday, Romney’s senior adviser couldn’t say who was running the company in his absence.
• Romney really showed us something in his luridly self-congratulating N.A.A.C.P. gambit, followed by the awesomely disgusting “free stuff” post-mortem speech he delivered the next night in front of friendlier audiences. The twin appearances revealed the candidate to be not merely unlikable, and not merely a fatuous, unoriginal hack of a politician, but also a genuinely repugnant human being, a grasping corporate hypocrite with so little feel for how to get along with people that he has to dream up elaborate schemes just to try to pander to the mob.
US Politics:
• What Obama actually said, at a campaign event in Roanoke, Virginia:
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me — because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t — look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
• Facepalm: Addressing 300 contributors at a Jackson, Miss., fundraiser who paid $2,500, $10,000 or $50,000 to hear him speak, Romney acknowledged that the people in the room were well-off compared to many Americans. It was the middle class that had been let down by Obama, Romney said, and he pointed to the wait staff serving finger foods as an example.
• The President of the United States notices that the welfare regulations are preventing a lot of impoverished people from getting help during this prolonged recession and, using the discretion at his command, approves some administrative changes that would allow a lot more people to be eligible. This is upsetting a lot of asshats, like Orin Hatch and Mickey Kaus.
• Real Americans hate cheques, right? – Quite a few Americans are going to go to their mailbox this week and next, open it, and find something unexpected: a check from their insurance company. It’s another side benefit from the Affordable Care Act that most Americans mistakenly thinks they don’t like.
Bring the crazy:
• Just how much Stargate did this guy watch? Apparently, via “jump room” (aka “Stargate”) Obama went to Mars. Yes, Mars. Ugh, these people.
• Bachmann defends her witch hunt, offers “evidence” of Islamic infiltration of the U.S. government in a 16-page letter explaining and expanding on her initial charges against Huma Abedin and others of being terrorist sympathizers.
• Romney camp’s response to ad “Firms” taken down over copyright infringement – This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BMG_Rights_Management.
Drugwar:
• In South Texas, gas companies are building hundreds of miles of uncharted private backroads that inadvertently provide a “pipeline to America for drug traffickers.” The Houston Chronicle reports that previously inaccessible ranchlands are now traversable, allowing drug-stocked vehicles to pass Border Patrol checkpoints that “have long been the last line of defense for stopping all traffic headed farther into the United States.”
International:
• The director of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the Laghman province of eastern Afghanistan, Hanifa Safi, was assassinated on Friday. A magnetic bomb, attached to her car, exploded as she left her home with her husband and daughter, both of whom were critically injured.
• A US vessel has opened fire on a boat off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, killing at least one person and injuring three others. It was not immediately clear why the USNS Rappahannock attacked a small motor boat near the Dubai port of Jebel Ali on Monday. Why the boat approached the U.S. refuel ling ship, the USNS Rappahannock, was still unclear, U.S. officials said. But the U.S. Navy said the small motor boat ignored repeated warnings to halt its approach before a security team fired rounds from a .50-caliber machine gun.
• North Korea said Tuesday that it had promoted a little-known general to a key military rank, a day after it announced that it had relieved its army chief of all his government posts. The secretive state’s top two military commissions have decided to give the title of vice marshal to Hyon Yong Chol, according to a report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The KCNA report did not say whether Hyon will replace Ri Yong Ho, the departed army chief. Ri held the title of vice marshal along with other military and party posts before his removal.
F.D.Brightly
We’re about to see the BAINing of the US [Shorter Question Everything]
Seriously, Romney has been trying to be president for how long now?
I’m not really knocking the desire – lots of Americans have sought, multiple times, to be pres. What I’m knocking is that he doesn’t seem to have taken it seriously, not in the way so many others have done. He hasn’t seemed to do his homework. He hasn’t worked over the years to develop a voice, a particular stance that’s recognizable as his own. He hasn’t established himself as an open candidate in the sense that we don’t see his “resume”.
What he HAS seemed to do is feel entitled of course, but there’s more than that. He’s viewed it as him simply being able to declare that he’s CEO material and everyone is supposed to buy that, without question. He’s viewed it as something that, if he threw enough money at it, he could just buy it.
We’ll have to see how true that is, of course, but underneath it all, there’s this weird dark thought that he’s doing it for something else, that there’s some other goal behind the whole thing, and that the reason he’s able to secure so much money from so many shady characters is that they see it too. I think they’re giving to Romney because they know it will pay off for them, not just politically, but that there’s a real back-deal going on here.
We’re about to see the Baining of the US, a wholesale shoveling of money off the back of the truck that will put previous money laundering schemes, such as the S&L’s, and mercenary ops during war, to shame. I think Romney has made these deals with all these dark money guys to – much like he did with so many companies – swoop in and gut the US. I suppose that, using that model, there’s a slim chance it could be “successful” for the regular guy but what are the odds that it will end up with Romney et al even more obscenely wealthy than they are now, at the expense – the terrible, terrible expense – of the people? I think this is why he wants it so bad, and why those dark money types want it so bad for him.
I can only hope that, in his supreme arrogance of believing he was simply entitled to it, that he can be stopped, but what about the next time? And the next, and the next guy?
Dark, dirty money:
• His Man in Macau: Inside the Investigation Into Sheldon Adelson’s Empire
• In 2001, Adelson allegedly helped derail House Republican measure opposing Beijing’s Olympic bid due to human rights issues. “The bill will never see the light day, Mr. Mayor. Don’t worry about it,” he reportedly told Beijing’s mayor after phoning then-House Majority Whip Tom Delay. Sands went on to receive its lucrative casino license from China.
• Dark Money: Sometime after January of this year, the Federal Election Commission deleted a whole set of contributions totaling millions of dollars made during the 2007-2008 election cycle. The most important of these files concern what is now called “dark money” – funds donated to ostensible charities or public interest groups rather parties, candidates or conventional political action committees (PACs). These non-profit groups – which Washington insiders often refer to generically as 501(c)s, after the section of the federal tax code regulating them.
• Senate Republicans Filibuster DISCLOSE Act: Two years after filibustering the DISCLOSE Act of 2010 to death and blocking any disclosure for who is funding the the independent expenditures enabled by the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United ruling, Republicans have again blocked transparency.
• Mitt Romney tried to deflect continued demands that he release more tax returns onto a peculiar target Monday: Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Sen. John Kerry. Kerry actually released 20 years of returns when he challenged President George W. Bush in 2004.
• Mitt Romney isn’t against showing his tax return to Republicans. He just has a problem showing his tax return to the rest of us. Remember, Romney handed over 23 years of returns to the McCain campaign when he was being considered as a possible vice presidential choice in 2008.
• Mitt Romney has insisted that he gave up all control of Bain Capital in February of 1999, right before the company invested in firms that sent jobs overseas and laid off thousands of workers. But on Monday, Romney’s senior adviser couldn’t say who was running the company in his absence.
• Romney really showed us something in his luridly self-congratulating N.A.A.C.P. gambit, followed by the awesomely disgusting “free stuff” post-mortem speech he delivered the next night in front of friendlier audiences. The twin appearances revealed the candidate to be not merely unlikable, and not merely a fatuous, unoriginal hack of a politician, but also a genuinely repugnant human being, a grasping corporate hypocrite with so little feel for how to get along with people that he has to dream up elaborate schemes just to try to pander to the mob.
US Politics:
• What Obama actually said, at a campaign event in Roanoke, Virginia:
• Facepalm: Addressing 300 contributors at a Jackson, Miss., fundraiser who paid $2,500, $10,000 or $50,000 to hear him speak, Romney acknowledged that the people in the room were well-off compared to many Americans. It was the middle class that had been let down by Obama, Romney said, and he pointed to the wait staff serving finger foods as an example.
• The President of the United States notices that the welfare regulations are preventing a lot of impoverished people from getting help during this prolonged recession and, using the discretion at his command, approves some administrative changes that would allow a lot more people to be eligible. This is upsetting a lot of asshats, like Orin Hatch and Mickey Kaus.
• Real Americans hate cheques, right? – Quite a few Americans are going to go to their mailbox this week and next, open it, and find something unexpected: a check from their insurance company. It’s another side benefit from the Affordable Care Act that most Americans mistakenly thinks they don’t like.
Bring the crazy:
• Just how much Stargate did this guy watch? Apparently, via “jump room” (aka “Stargate”) Obama went to Mars. Yes, Mars. Ugh, these people.
• Bachmann defends her witch hunt, offers “evidence” of Islamic infiltration of the U.S. government in a 16-page letter explaining and expanding on her initial charges against Huma Abedin and others of being terrorist sympathizers.
• Romney camp’s response to ad “Firms” taken down over copyright infringement – This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by BMG_Rights_Management.
Drugwar:
• In South Texas, gas companies are building hundreds of miles of uncharted private backroads that inadvertently provide a “pipeline to America for drug traffickers.” The Houston Chronicle reports that previously inaccessible ranchlands are now traversable, allowing drug-stocked vehicles to pass Border Patrol checkpoints that “have long been the last line of defense for stopping all traffic headed farther into the United States.”
International:
• The director of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the Laghman province of eastern Afghanistan, Hanifa Safi, was assassinated on Friday. A magnetic bomb, attached to her car, exploded as she left her home with her husband and daughter, both of whom were critically injured.
• A US vessel has opened fire on a boat off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Persian Gulf, killing at least one person and injuring three others. It was not immediately clear why the USNS Rappahannock attacked a small motor boat near the Dubai port of Jebel Ali on Monday. Why the boat approached the U.S. refuel ling ship, the USNS Rappahannock, was still unclear, U.S. officials said. But the U.S. Navy said the small motor boat ignored repeated warnings to halt its approach before a security team fired rounds from a .50-caliber machine gun.
• North Korea said Tuesday that it had promoted a little-known general to a key military rank, a day after it announced that it had relieved its army chief of all his government posts. The secretive state’s top two military commissions have decided to give the title of vice marshal to Hyon Yong Chol, according to a report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The KCNA report did not say whether Hyon will replace Ri Yong Ho, the departed army chief. Ri held the title of vice marshal along with other military and party posts before his removal.