Coming on top of the latest foreign policy screwup, where Mittens blamed an ambassador for getting himself killed, this latest video leak would, in a sane world, signal the end. Mittens should just give up, right now, before he screws up even worse. Or before his own people throw him out of the building. The disdain, the disgusting level of contempt in this man, for half of the population he intends to govern is breathtaking.
It’s also a continuation of a theme that’s been present all along. Mittens is a mean, vicious and petty person. Can’t get half the people to vote for you? Lash out at them. And that’s what this was. Just as other examples have cropped up about what a mean, vindictive person Mittens is, make no mistake, he’d gladly take out that viciousness on half the population, at least. Think about that when you vote.
Now, onto the numbers and the facts. That 47% and taxes and entitlements and so on. Do 47% pay no income tax? That’s likely and, if that were the only sort of taxes people in the US paid, maybe that would be an issue. But people do pay all sorts of taxes – sales taxes and property taxes and all sorts of other taxes. Then there’s the reason why this many people don’t pay income taxes – it’s because they don’t have a hell of a lot of income. They’re elderly, or disabled, or make almost nothing. All the while, they still have to pay all those other sorts of taxes, right? So. They’re not moochers. They’re hard working people that have either worked all their lives previously or they’re working hard and not getting paid much.
As far as taxes go, that’s probably somewhere Mittens should avoid going, considering that he won’t release his own taxes. We already know he pays a lower tax rate than a lot of the people he’s calling parasites. For all we know, he’s paid nothing in income tax either, for some of those years. Not that we’ll find out because he’s not going to pony up those tax returns.
Now, onto entitlements. Some people receive entitlements because they are, in fact, entitled. People that have worked all their lives and now are elderly and should get the benefit of what they’ve paid into for years. Veterans, who put their lives literally on the line for the country and are owed. That’s right, owed. There’s medical care and making sure kids aren’t starving and all sorts of other things that – in the Christian nation a lot of the right wing likes to say they are – should be a no brainer.
But that’s not the only sort of entitlements. There’s also the incredible good fortunes that government largesse makes possible for people like Romney and his cohorts. Time after time, the right wing brought out people for their silly “you didn’t build that” parade only for everyone to find out that, not surprisingly, a good deal of what those people made had a hand up from the very government they were deriding. That’s entitlements too, as are the numerous tax breaks that make it possible for Mittens to make enough money that he can look down his nose at everyone else. So if he’s going to rail about entitlements, he better be including himself in there, which we all know he’s never going to do.
It’s the contempt that’s sticking with me for the moment. This is a guy that has to be the leader for everybody, not just the select few. Having contempt for half the nation? How would he treat you? Hell, if he has that kind of contempt for people in his own country, what kind of contempt would he have for people in countries that aren’t as fortunate as the US?
This has gone far beyond mere #RomneyShambles. This is dangerous.
Keep that in mind come voting day.
Shorter Question Everything
• SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters – “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”
• I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a presidential candidate with more contempt for the American people than Mitt Romney. It’s one thing for a candidate to attack his opponent, but to attack half the country as a bunch of losers you don’t have to care about is just unprecedented. He’s obviously as much a believer in twisted Randroid tropes as his chosen VP.
I believe one or two posts so far have dealt with the Wit and Wisdom of W. Mitt Romney, Man Of The People™. I’ve got nothing to add to the general hilarity, except to marvel at the fact that he is an allegedly sentient being who has spent seven years of the scant few we are all given on this planet to pursuing one job, and one job only—and that he remains so utterly unaware of self and others as to speak such words, the utterance of which by W. Mitt Romney will forever be remembered.*
Oh, and one thing more: Mitt “Punch-Me-In-The-Googly-Bits” Romney can talk about moochers and dependency when he pays the same tax rate as yours truly—or that of any number of folks who make up this good community.
Until then, he should shut his festering gob, slink back into his vampire-capitalist den and thank all the pasta that’s holy that we cannot impose a retroactive asshole levy on his dressage horses, his car elevator, and the millions he’s squeezed from his exercises in vulture capitalism.
[balloon-juice.com]
• Coming Soon – Romney’s outsourced race to the gutter? At BuzzFeed, McKay Coppins says that the Romney campaign is tacking more to the right. Over at The Wall Street Journal, we’re told that Joe Ricketts is about to launch a huge independent ad campaign for Mitt Romney. Am I wrong to suspect that there’s a link between these two stories? Am I wrong to wonder whether this is the moment when Romney — or, rather, allies who technically aren’t supposed to coordinate with him — really start heading for the gutter?
• A billionaire investor whose family owns the Chicago Cubs is pressing ahead with a multimillion-dollar pro-Republican political campaign, bucking a political furor that emerged when the effort first become public. Joe Ricketts, the founder of what became online brokerage TD Ameritrade Inc., plans to spend $10 million airing ads supporting GOP nominee Mitt Romney and another $2 million to help Republicans running for Congress. The ads will begin airing this week.
• Romney working closely with ‘hate group’ Family Research Council, according to its leader. “I would actually say that communications with him and responsiveness to the issues we care about has actually been better than any other candidate I’ve worked with” during his 10 years at the FRC helm, Perkins said. “I’ve been communicating regularly with the campaign. I have met with the candidate,” Perkins said. Romney met with Perkins in Baton Rouge, just a day after FRC hired retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin as its vice president, and, just weeks later, met with Boykin himself in Denver.
• “Yet in an odd contrast, before the ceremony [for Ambassador Stevens] had even ended, Mitt Romney took to the stage in Ohio to bash the very people who were paying tribute to the fallen,” Lemon recalled. “And from my perch here at the anchor desk and to many of you watching at home, you wrote me and told me it felt weird, uncomfortable and sad.” “How can a man in a campaign that throws around the word ‘patriot’ so often get this one so wrong.” – CNN host Don Lemon
• There has been no “Apology Tour”, no matter what your crazy right wing relatives may have told you, but what’s wrong with an apology? What’s wrong with saying sorry? Are manners and decency something that’s to be thrown out along with good sense? After war and black sites and desecration and torture and, and, and.., an apology is warranted. Not likely to happen, but it’s warranted.
• Rep. Peter King (R-NY) found himself being grilled by CNN host Soledad O’Brien on Monday about the claim President Barack Obama had gone on an “apology tour” — and the congressman was unable to name a single instance in which the president had apologized for the United States.
• FOR SEVERAL weeks, we’ve been asking Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to explain how he can cut taxes, as promised, without adding to the nation’s debt, as also promised. Now he’s effectively let the cat out of the bag: He can’t.
Middle East
• Having been rebuffed privately by President Obama last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took to the airwaves in the United States on Sunday to warn that Iran was only six or seven months from having “90 percent” of what it needed to make an atomic bomb. Mr. Netanyahu received sharp criticism at home and abroad for similar remarks last week, which were widely seen as an effort to put pressure on Mr. Obama to act more forcefully against Iran.
1995: “The best estimates at this time place Iran between three and five years away from possessing the prerequisites required for the independent production of nuclear weapons.”
Source: Benjamin Netanyahu, in hisbook“Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network”
[poisonyourmind]
• How many times is it necessary to say something is underinvestigation before the MSM will get it? The attack in Benghazi is UNDER INVESTIGATION. Stop trying to judge the thing before all the facts are out. [PDF]
Still looking for a message that resonates, Mitt Romney has taken a greater interest in China in recent days, including a new attack ad that blames President Obama for the growth in Chinese manufacturing capacity. As Jamelle Bouie noted, “[T]here’s an obvious problem with this line of attack; it’s completely false.”
That’s right, but there are less-obvious problems, too. The Boston Globereported over the weekend, for example, that Romney invested in Chinese manufacturing companies, at least one of which was surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers, and packed with 12 women per dormitory room.
China’s official Xinhua news agency published a strongly worded English-language commentary on Friday, noting in reference to Romney, “It is rather ironic that a considerable portion of this China-battering politician’s wealth was actually obtained by doing business with Chinese companies before he entered politics.”
F.D.Brightly
It’s gone beyond a shambles
Coming on top of the latest foreign policy screwup, where Mittens blamed an ambassador for getting himself killed, this latest video leak would, in a sane world, signal the end. Mittens should just give up, right now, before he screws up even worse. Or before his own people throw him out of the building. The disdain, the disgusting level of contempt in this man, for half of the population he intends to govern is breathtaking.
It’s also a continuation of a theme that’s been present all along. Mittens is a mean, vicious and petty person. Can’t get half the people to vote for you? Lash out at them. And that’s what this was. Just as other examples have cropped up about what a mean, vindictive person Mittens is, make no mistake, he’d gladly take out that viciousness on half the population, at least. Think about that when you vote.
Now, onto the numbers and the facts. That 47% and taxes and entitlements and so on. Do 47% pay no income tax? That’s likely and, if that were the only sort of taxes people in the US paid, maybe that would be an issue. But people do pay all sorts of taxes – sales taxes and property taxes and all sorts of other taxes. Then there’s the reason why this many people don’t pay income taxes – it’s because they don’t have a hell of a lot of income. They’re elderly, or disabled, or make almost nothing. All the while, they still have to pay all those other sorts of taxes, right? So. They’re not moochers. They’re hard working people that have either worked all their lives previously or they’re working hard and not getting paid much.
As far as taxes go, that’s probably somewhere Mittens should avoid going, considering that he won’t release his own taxes. We already know he pays a lower tax rate than a lot of the people he’s calling parasites. For all we know, he’s paid nothing in income tax either, for some of those years. Not that we’ll find out because he’s not going to pony up those tax returns.
Now, onto entitlements. Some people receive entitlements because they are, in fact, entitled. People that have worked all their lives and now are elderly and should get the benefit of what they’ve paid into for years. Veterans, who put their lives literally on the line for the country and are owed. That’s right, owed. There’s medical care and making sure kids aren’t starving and all sorts of other things that – in the Christian nation a lot of the right wing likes to say they are – should be a no brainer.
But that’s not the only sort of entitlements. There’s also the incredible good fortunes that government largesse makes possible for people like Romney and his cohorts. Time after time, the right wing brought out people for their silly “you didn’t build that” parade only for everyone to find out that, not surprisingly, a good deal of what those people made had a hand up from the very government they were deriding. That’s entitlements too, as are the numerous tax breaks that make it possible for Mittens to make enough money that he can look down his nose at everyone else. So if he’s going to rail about entitlements, he better be including himself in there, which we all know he’s never going to do.
It’s the contempt that’s sticking with me for the moment. This is a guy that has to be the leader for everybody, not just the select few. Having contempt for half the nation? How would he treat you? Hell, if he has that kind of contempt for people in his own country, what kind of contempt would he have for people in countries that aren’t as fortunate as the US?
This has gone far beyond mere #RomneyShambles. This is dangerous.
Keep that in mind come voting day.
Shorter Question Everything
• SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters – “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. That that’s an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what…These are people who pay no income tax.”
• I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a presidential candidate with more contempt for the American people than Mitt Romney. It’s one thing for a candidate to attack his opponent, but to attack half the country as a bunch of losers you don’t have to care about is just unprecedented. He’s obviously as much a believer in twisted Randroid tropes as his chosen VP.
• On the Subject of Moochers and Grifters:
• FLASHBACK: Half of US social program recipients believe they “have not used a government social program”. In Romney-ville, this would make them moochers and parasites, even if they don’t think they are. [8 July 2011]
• Coming Soon – Romney’s outsourced race to the gutter? At BuzzFeed, McKay Coppins says that the Romney campaign is tacking more to the right. Over at The Wall Street Journal, we’re told that Joe Ricketts is about to launch a huge independent ad campaign for Mitt Romney. Am I wrong to suspect that there’s a link between these two stories? Am I wrong to wonder whether this is the moment when Romney — or, rather, allies who technically aren’t supposed to coordinate with him — really start heading for the gutter?
• A billionaire investor whose family owns the Chicago Cubs is pressing ahead with a multimillion-dollar pro-Republican political campaign, bucking a political furor that emerged when the effort first become public. Joe Ricketts, the founder of what became online brokerage TD Ameritrade Inc., plans to spend $10 million airing ads supporting GOP nominee Mitt Romney and another $2 million to help Republicans running for Congress. The ads will begin airing this week.
• Romney working closely with ‘hate group’ Family Research Council, according to its leader. “I would actually say that communications with him and responsiveness to the issues we care about has actually been better than any other candidate I’ve worked with” during his 10 years at the FRC helm, Perkins said. “I’ve been communicating regularly with the campaign. I have met with the candidate,” Perkins said. Romney met with Perkins in Baton Rouge, just a day after FRC hired retired Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin as its vice president, and, just weeks later, met with Boykin himself in Denver.
• “Yet in an odd contrast, before the ceremony [for Ambassador Stevens] had even ended, Mitt Romney took to the stage in Ohio to bash the very people who were paying tribute to the fallen,” Lemon recalled. “And from my perch here at the anchor desk and to many of you watching at home, you wrote me and told me it felt weird, uncomfortable and sad.” “How can a man in a campaign that throws around the word ‘patriot’ so often get this one so wrong.” – CNN host Don Lemon
• There has been no “Apology Tour”, no matter what your crazy right wing relatives may have told you, but what’s wrong with an apology? What’s wrong with saying sorry? Are manners and decency something that’s to be thrown out along with good sense? After war and black sites and desecration and torture and, and, and.., an apology is warranted. Not likely to happen, but it’s warranted.
• Rep. Peter King (R-NY) found himself being grilled by CNN host Soledad O’Brien on Monday about the claim President Barack Obama had gone on an “apology tour” — and the congressman was unable to name a single instance in which the president had apologized for the United States.
• FOR SEVERAL weeks, we’ve been asking Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to explain how he can cut taxes, as promised, without adding to the nation’s debt, as also promised. Now he’s effectively let the cat out of the bag: He can’t.
Middle East
• Having been rebuffed privately by President Obama last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took to the airwaves in the United States on Sunday to warn that Iran was only six or seven months from having “90 percent” of what it needed to make an atomic bomb. Mr. Netanyahu received sharp criticism at home and abroad for similar remarks last week, which were widely seen as an effort to put pressure on Mr. Obama to act more forcefully against Iran.
• Fear Itself:
• How many times is it necessary to say something is underinvestigation before the MSM will get it? The attack in Benghazi is UNDER INVESTIGATION. Stop trying to judge the thing before all the facts are out. [PDF]
Voter Suppression
• The ‘vote fraud bus’ doesn’t exist. It’s just another figment out of the right wing fever swamps.
China
• China takes center stage in Romney campaign: