Car Elevators and Costco: Ann Romney Antoinette Is a Real Renaissance Woman

Ann Romney must have gotten briefed by her husband’s campaign managing team that Costco can be used for something else beside raiding and a hostile take over or some some shit, because in an attempt to appeal to the common man – or woman –  so everyone thinks she is one of us and not a plutocratic elitist bigot with $55,000 elevators for her cars and a $ 77,000 race horse she tax deducted, Ann Romney Antoinette condescended to our level  by revealing her Costco shopping list when visiting the “Rachael Ray Show” on Thursday.  There, she said she can spend a mere $137.50 when cooking for 30 people, totaling just $4.50 per person. Right, because multi-millionaires who own six mansions and car elevators need to worry about staying within the food budget.

“I always start at Costco”, Antoinette said as she took Ray’s film crew on a Costco trip, picking up spinach, berries, frozen cream puffs and rotisserie chicken.  Romney gave some shopping tips, like buying the pre-cooked chicken last so as to not heat up the other food in the cart, the New York Daily News reported.

Isn’t that brilliant? The thought process that must have gone into this: buy the hot food item last so as to not melt the frozen foods. Amazing. Next stop, rocket science, Ann. She really is first wife material just based on that fact alone if you ask me.

Ann Romney is a real renaissance woman see.  She is not just an unemployed parasite sitting pretty with a team of chefs, housekeepers, nannies, groundskeepers and custodial staff on a quarter a billion of dollars of money her husband cheated people, and this nation, out of, she is just a regular Joe, or Josephine. I mean this woman even  knows how to maneuver the Costco aisles all on her own and without a staff.  In an interview, she explained: “I know how to shop Costco. You go in the door — I don’t want everyone to learn this trick — you take a sharp right and you go way down to the back of the store and just shop the outside of the aisles.” Isn’t that amazing? Her publicist team did do a good job briefing her on proper common man etiquette and protocol of how to enter a grocery store and navigate the aisles.

How truly earthen and common man-ish of Ann:  condescending to the level of the common man to show that the silver spoon that’s been shoved down her openings in all these years does not define her plutocratic self at all.

Nothing makes 99% of Americans feels more understood and cared for than a bunch of obscenely wealthy 1%ers slumming it for show. Who are they kidding. Not even Oprah cooks her own food. Assholes

This is almost as good as the lie she told during the RNC when she said that she and Mitt lived in a basement apartment in Boston eating their food on an ironing board they used as table. Poor things, it must have been so awkward when the maid interrupted their dinner to iron.

Anyway, sitting on quarter a billion with countless nannies, chefs and housekeepers, I bet this hands on menial work must be a whole new adventure for Ms. A.R. Antoinette, becasue, see folks, the fact that “little Annie who loves little Willard” is doing some food shopping and food cooking and all those other womanly things,  makes us common folk, and especially women, feel all warm and fuzzy and understood.

Moreover, such a calculated gesture which they were told was going to be politically expedient, also totally shows that her husband is qualified to be the leader of this nation. Becasue see if Ann Romney can cook food for the common man and actually cook it herself no less, instead of sending her houskeeping staff to Whole Foods and Gelson’s to do the shopping and cooking for her, it means that her husband would make the perfect POTUS.

In fact, nothing screams “qualified to hold the office of president” more than a man whose wife can navigate the aisles at Costco and the kitchen.

And as we all know, semi billionaires totally send their wives to push carts at grocery stores, buying pre-packed $ 7.99 rotisserie chicken and frozen, processed foods at whole sale prices for the dinner table, or 137 people as the need may be next time they have a get together with the Koch Brothers and all those people owning football teams.

That $4.50 a person/head budget is totally realistic and am sure comes handy for such high society events.  In fact, the Romneys are just a regular American family who just happen to be part of the 1% with a diabolic plan to remain on top while feeding on the lifeline of everyone else.

Now if this revelation doesn’t convince the independent voters and especially women, I don’t know what will. I mean this is so convincing and as a woman the very issue I care about: how to stretch my food dollars while my man goes out there being a man and doing all the things men do.

Thank you Ann. You are the personification of class and humility indeed. How mighty white of you. And while I think you are nothing but a full of shit, overprivileged plutocrat and doormat of a woman who doesn’t know a thing about how to do anything around a house but buy it and decorate it and whose only exposure to Costco probably was when your husband took you on a tour in case he plans on doing one of those Bain hostile takeovers (also known as working hard and the American Dream),  I applaud you for having the balls to go to Rachael Ray and all over the country, telling lies and being a phony asshole who pretends that she does not have a deep contempt for the american people whom you condescendingly referred to as “you people” when asked about your husband’s refusal to release more than two lousy years of doctored tax returns.

It is so refreshing of you to not pretend that you seem to think of the American people as this nuisance; as this inevitable, annoying, pestering entity you and your fiber coif husband have to unfortunately go through to get to what you really want to do, namely fulfill Mitt’s “destiny” to be President.  Like when you and your husband told the Obamas to “start packing,” because in your words, “It’s Mitt’s time. It’s our turn now,” to live in the White House. As if the Obamas were troublesome tenants who’d overstayed their welcome in the home that rightly belongs to the Romneys.

Thank you Ann. Gee I cannot wait to not vote for your husband.

The War Mongering That Was the Final Presidential Debate

Monday’s presidential debate exemplified everything that is wrong with U.S. foreign policy. Moreover, it has become apparent since the very first presidential debate that the substance of the debate is irrelevant when one of its participants just lies. I mean really, how do you debate with a liar? With a dishonest crook?

Mitt Romney has been exposed as an empty suit with dubious foreign policy credentials trying hard to look presidential by agreeing (or pretending to agree) with the President. In fact, he has been lying so much, he contradicts himself in the same speech with such ease it is as if he practices incompetence.  During the debate he first said that  ”we can’t kill our way out of this.” Two minutes later he said that his strategy was “to go after the bad guys and kill them.”

Romney’s lies and contradictions (which ultimately have their roots in lies) have become so commonplace that people almost don’t notice it anymore it seems.  Or they do but they don’t point it out because then they would never get to do anything else.  

I have nothing but contempt for Mitt Romney and his policies. He is an opportunistic liar with truly disturbing and contemptible policy objectives disguised in lofty speeches about love for one’s motherland, hard work and the American Dream, undoubtedly to appeal to the uninformed, simple minded voter.  Don’t for one second be fooled with his grandiose talks about helping the middle class – a term he and his supporters didn’t even know existed up until six months ago when they were briefed that using such a term would be politically expedient.

Romney doesn’t care about the middle class and he most certainly does not care about the poor, the elderly, and the less fortunate. In fact, he doesn’t even care about the 95% of the people he addresses and lies to in those rallies and who support his plutocratic agenda.  He is someone who made it his life’s work destroying the American Dream for countless people by decimating companies, sucking up their money, laying off their employees, stealing their retirements and taking away their health insurance while offering absolutely nothing to anyone but tons of money to line his own pockets.

The real Romney we saw, which may have been the only time we saw the real Romney, was during the infamous 47% speech, when he didn’t know the cameras were rolling as he was addressing his own kind – the out of touch millionaires and hedgefund holders – cracking jokes about the plight of most Americans and dismissing them by stating that 47% of them are nothing  but parasitic mooches who don’t work hard or know responsibility. After the video leaked he didn’t even try to deny it but instead stated that his comment was not “elegantly stated“. Yeah, cause that is the issue, that it wasn’t elegantly stated.

Mitt Romney’s dishonesty is only superseded by his callous indifference for not only 47% of Americans he and his plutocratic wife spit on, but also pretty much toward everyone who isn’t a wealthy white man.

War Mongering as a Foreign Policy Objective

The debate Wednesday was especially hard to watch because these men stood there dividing the world between them, talking about how they will essentially selectively meddle in other countries’s internal affairs when there is a vested, corporate interest, including the projection of military power. They were talking about the world as if it was theirs for the taking, making casual statements about what countries to militarily occupy and attack.  As if these weren’t people being killed in those wars but just push pins on the map to move around for our own political gain.

It must have been a chilling sight for foreign countries listening to both Obama’s and Romney’s warmongering and how they plan on taking down countries whose leaders and policies they do not approve of and thus impose more death to people around the world. And then their talk about nation building and how we must create civil society in those countries. It was paternalistic and condescending.

We live in a world in which a lot of suffering is taking place; unnecessary preventable suffering: from human rights violations to environmental destruction that is always a hindrance to economic development and human health, gender inequalities with life and death consequences and famines and food shortages resulting in tens of thousands of children dying each day. Yet all these two dido heads could talk about on the foreign policy front was war: when to start it and how much. The idea of not being engaged in any war at all did neither cross their or that of the “focus group’s” minds. It wasn’t even a question of whether to go to war or not, it was a question of when and for how long and to what extent.

Their fear and warmongering was further exemplified in their foolish attempts at outdoing each other in how loud they can shout out the words “sanctions against Iran“. As if what they proposed was an admirable thing and the only solution; as if at the other end of those sanctions there weren’t human beings suffering.

Mitt Romney made absolutely no distinction between the Iranian government and the Iranian people. President Obama, on the other hand,  tried to make a distinction, using  non-othering language to talk about how there are many Iranian people who have the same dreams people in the US do. Yet somehow all that went under in Romney’s feverish demands for more and more crippling sanctions. “Crippling sanctions do work! It’s the right thing to do to have crippling sanctions.” Romney’s disregard for anyone else but his own self interest is appalling. And this man calls himself a Christian.

It was also sickening to watch Romney advocate cutting programs that help people in this country access food, healthcare, and education in order to spend even more money on the military and with it war and destruction  It became apparent to me last night that Mitt Romney is not just offensive to America, he is offensive to humanity.

During the debate Romney bulled and disrespected the president and unloaded ridiculous, hyperbolic and unfounded lies onto the American people.  I definitely think Romney practices being condescending every day

Obama did not do much better either. While both were engaged in a bloodthirsty shouting match about tougher and harder sanctions on Iran, they added fuel to the warmongering by reaffirming America’s undying allegiance to Israel - which undoubtedly means military involvement from the U.S.  Obama prefaced his decision to “stand by Israel no matter what” by citing his visit to a Holocaust museum in Israel. As if him visiting a Holocaust museum had anything to do with US support of Israel or even was a perfectly sound justification for formulating U.S. foreign policy, obligating American tax payer dollars and lives.

To add insult to injury and as if the $ 70 million we do not have and which we had to borrow from China at high interest rate just a few months ago wasn’t enough, now we are also swearing allegiance to Israel by promising to charge to their rescue and wage another devastating war for the apartheid Zionist regime. In fact, Israel’s security was debated more than American security in the form of jobs or health care or mortgage foreclosures or fair elections.

Both candidates made it very clear that they will rub Israel’s back whenever it requests it while  everyone else gets crippling sanctions.

Memo to both candidates: going to war with everyone is not a foreign policy objective.

How Romney is to pay for any of this remains as elusive as his ten years worth of tax returns. The “man” wants a tax cut for everyone, including and most importantly the rich, he wants the DoD to remain severely overfunded building more Navy ships we do not need;  he is championing all sorts of wars – from Libya to Syria to Iran  - as well as our undying support of Israel – all without explaining how he is planning to pay for any of  that. Maybe he thinks he can poof it into existence much like Joseph Smith poofed the tablets from god into existence calling himself the second coming.

The truth, of course, is that Romney plans on paying for all those things by going after the poor and unfortunate or just the regular middle class wage earners. That has always been the plan of this corporate raider without a conscience. Everything else is just stiff he tells people to get their vote.

Going After Vulnerable Populations to Pay for Deficit

Corporate and individual greed in an unregulated economy and banking system created by the same kind of policies that Romney and Ryan are pushing have caused the recession, yet those issues cannot be touched when it comes to trying to find ways to reduce our debt. That is true for both Republicans and Democrats – even though Democrats are more inclined to go after private enterprise to protect workers and consumers.

What is up for discussion, however, are seniors and food stamp recipients and vulnerable populations -  such as hard working middle class wage earners, welfare recipients, seniors and college students.

During the debate Romney stated that the number of food stamp recipients has risen under Obama, demonizing and scapegoating those people as if they created the recession or were even part of the problem. Romney actually managed to turn something so basic as feeding people into a bad thing; a liability.

These entities have somehow become the fall guys, the target when it comes to our domestic policy objectives in terms of reducing the deficit. God forbid we make millionaires pay their fair share in taxes; as everyone knows it has been food stamp recipients and college students responsbile for the demise of our economy.

I’m waiting for the day that a politician stands up and says that even if food-stamps were just for people without jobs, that it is okay because letting people starve to death is not okay.

Syria and Iran Do Not Share Borders, Mr. Harvard Alum 

I am also shocked that not more people are pointing out the fact that Romney is unaware that Syria is not Iran’s sea port and that there is a whole country between them.  This means that Romney doesn’t even know where these countries are on a map.  How could he possibly be placed in charge of foreign policy as our commander in chief? He stood up there talking about what he wants to do with each and every single one of them, snugly deciding fates and he doesn’t even know anything about their geography. And he wants to lead this nation. Shit that’s scary guys  (to be fair, I doubt most Americans are aware where those two countries are located on a map either).

That Mitt and his policies are contemptible is obvious. But the fact that nearly half of Americans who are going to cast a ballot this election actually buy that garbage is even more troubling. I understand why that greedy bastard Romney is trying to get his filthy and plutocraticpaws into the White House but why do all these poor schmucks who would definitely not benefit from even one piece of legislation proposed by Romney? Remember this is going to be a close race.

The US as the “Hope of the Earth”

After spending the last hour talking about the various ways with which he plans on dividing and conquering the world and killing people, Romney actually had the audacity to conclude his closing statement by stating that the United States is “the hope of the earth” and a “torch for the world to see.“

The truth is that our problems as humanity are not going to be solved through wars and military confrontation  but through diplomacy and cooperation. War mongering and paternalizing our neighbors, exploiting and threatening them, arming warring entities and adding fuel to century’s old rivalries resulting in military confrontation are not what render a nation the “hope of the Earth“, they render it its nightmare and demise. The person holding the highest position of leadership  in this country has to truly understand this. Mitt Romney is not that person.

(Oh and memo to Romney: you are running as this country’s president, not prophet, so tone it down with the light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel and shelter-from-the-storm bullshit. )

The United States Congress is a Millionaire’s Club at the Expense of the American Tax Payer

According to a study by the Center for Responsive Politics, 238 of the 535 “public servants” (Congressmen), are millionaires. That is 44% of all members of Congress are rich beyond the wildest dreams, and possibilities, of most Americans they govern. In fact, your chances of running into a millionaire in the state’s capital are four times higher than in the rest of the nation.

And this is just the reported wealth. No one knows how many undisclosed assets members of Congress possess. The numbers would likely be even higher if personal residences, government salaries, and pensions were included. Yes, you read right.  They are millionaires without even counting their already bloated salaries and perks and that awesome health insurance that you and I pay for.

Half of Congress is basically part of the 1% and we are expecting that they enact legislation that would in any shape hurt their position in society? Increase their taxes? Is this a joke? 

One reason for why half the people running this country are millionaires  is that members of Congress are not subject to any of the ethics and conflict-of-interest laws that most public servants are. Congressmen can own stocks and investments unhindered and in any company while at the same time being often in charge of drafting legislation that might affect said company.

This leads to a fundamental conflict of interest because these Congressman are not likely to enact legislation that might hurt the cash value of any of the companies they and their spouses have personal investments in.

Joe Lieberman, for example, who has been opposing any and all health care reform has close ties to the insurance industry as his wife worked for a health care lobbying firm whose clients benefited from the senator’s legislation.

Oil companies, pharmaceutical companies, banks and the likes of Koch Brothers own Congress and they have spread the golden parachute so wide that these Congressmen and women don’t see anything else but dollar signs and thus rarely, if ever, enact legislation to benefit the majority of this society that isn’t part of the millionaires’ club.; the average citizen. All they care about is pandering to the causes of the wealthy to ultimately line their own pockets.

To make matters worse, not only are Congress members not subject to any kind of ethics standards while in office (except for those of the sexual kind because we all know how bad sex is. See Anthony Weiner), but most Congressmen go working for some of the companies they “failed” (read: refused) to properly regulate while in office.

In secret, pre-arranged deals they are promised millions of dollars or more in pay if they come to work for them after they leave office. Once a public official makes a deal to go to work for a lobbying firm or corporation after leaving office, he or she becomes loyal to the future employer. And since those deals are done in secret, legislators are largely free to pass laws, special tax cuts, or earmarks that benefit their future employer with little or no accountability to the public. While campaign contributions and super PACS are a big problem, the everyday bribery of the revolving door may be the most pernicious form of corruption today.

Unlike some other forms of money in politics, politicians never have to disclose job negotiations while in office, and never have to disclose how much they’re paid after leaving office. In many cases, these types of revolving door arrangements drastically shape the laws we all live under. For example, former Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) spent his last year in office fighting reforms to bring greater transparency to the derivatives marketplace. Almost as soon as he left office, he joined the board of a derivatives trading company and became an “advisor” to Goldman Sachs. Risky derivative trading exacerbated the financial crisis of 2008, yet we’re stuck under the laws written in part by Gregg. How much has he made from the deal? Were his actions in office influenced by relationships with his future employers? Does anyone care? Do most of the middle class, or poor chest thumping idiots who fight for the causes of the rich, even know this?

Former Congressman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) made $19,359,927 as a lobbyist for pharmaceutical companies between 2006 and 2010. Tauzin retired from Congress in 2005, shortly after leading the passage of President Bush’s prescription drug expansion. He was recruited to lead PhRMA, a lobbying association for Pfizer, Bayer, and other top drug companies. During the health reform debate, the former congressman helped his association block a proposal to allow Medicare to negotiate for drug prices, a major concession that extended the policies enacted in Tauzin’s original Medicare drug-purchasing scheme. Tauzin left PhRMA in late 2010. He was paid over $11 million in his last year at the trade group. Comparing Tauzin’s salary during his last year as congressman and his last year as head of PhRMA, his salary went up 7110 percent.

An important thing to note is that political affiliation doesn’t appear to matter when it comes to wealth as both Democrats and Republicans seem to be rolling in money. Even Nancy Pelosi owns vineyards in Napa Valley and Barack Obama’s wealth as of 2010 is estimated at $ 11.8 million. And these are the good guys. Although frankly I doubt that Obama or Pelosi amassed the wealth by selling out to big money.  Most of Obama’s money comes from book sales and he has spent most of his life being a community organizer. Pelosi seems to have married rich.

It is certainly no coincidence that Congress has been repeatedly favoring the wealthy and the corporations that keep them wealthy at the expense of the middle class and middle class causes and thus the overwhelming majority of the people who elect them into office and on whose behalf they are to act. The reason we are this money-loving, greed-is-good society that doesn’t give a damn about the greater good, is because of legislation that has been favoring the wealthy and corporations that, in turn, keep members of Congress wealthy and cushioned so they continue creating the kind of legislation and with it society conducive to their paradigm of greed and exploitation in the name of Jesus and capitalism and the Founding Fathers.

Rich politicians without accountability to anyone is a serious problem. And nothing gets done with respect to the occupy Wall street movement because the 1% are in charge. 

That is the theme in America and these corrupt congress members have convinced millions of minions, which make up the base of the Republican party, that it is in their very interest to vote for people like them, making referneces to Jesus, god and love for one’s motherland because those tactics always work.

I am not advocating for our leaders to be poor but based on the aforementioned and the non-existence of laws restricting Congress from behaving in such a manner and pretty much next to zero accountability on their part, I do have to question the extent to which those laws truly benefit the public that elected those officials.

When looking at a piece of legislation or law we take for granted and accept in this society as a given through the social contract, we often forget that those laws were drafted by a Congress member who, most likely than not,  is primarily looking out for his own interest. Yet we often don’t question those laws – from tax law to anything that is regulated by Congress really. W just obey them, no questions asked.

Remember laws aren’t written in a vacuum or by divine, infallible beings. Behind every law that you see, on the local, state or federal level,  sits a human being who has an interest and altruism and the greater good usually aren’t  part of those interests

A congress member’s primary irresponsibility  is to its constituents. Instead, it seems like Congress members are using their position as elected officials to line their own pockets.

I also have to wonder about the extent to which someone whose earnings and assets are orders of magnitude higher than those of the masses, can actually relate to the people governed. When you are that far removed from the people you make decisions for, like some sort of a royal in his ivory tower, how effective of a leader can you be? How much of their causes are you going to fight for ? How much of their struggles do you truly comprehend?

Rich people also tend to suffer from amnesia. Just because someone grew up poor, doesn’t mean that once they do make it they will relate or be charitable. Look at John Boehner. The man grew up poor, apparently twelve people in his house sharing one bathroom, and he is worse than Mitt Romney – repeatedly blocking legislation that would benefit the middle class in favor of legislation that only furthers rich people – and thus indirectly his pockets.

The Culture of Greed is the New American Dream

But isn’t that whole pandering to rich people and that wanna-be millionaire mentality exactly the problem in the US?  What everyone is encouraged to do? Not being rich has become a liability. And the get-rich-or-die-trying mentality has become the American Dream unbeknownst to most of those who dream it.

We don’t like non-rich people. Forget about the poor. They are a non-issue. We definitely can’t stand those. Just look at the streets in the US where the poor, who are often mentally ill, have been abandoned and discarded by society, roaming the streets like stray dogs, eating out of garbage and sleeping under bridges. We treat stray dogs better than these human beings.

But even middle class folks are not favored upon. Middle class seems to have become a mere transition stage for most people on their way to this elusive millionaire thing. John Steinbeck’s quote about why socialism never took root in American comes to mind, because “the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.” 

Most people, even middle-class folks, don’t like middle-class. And being filthy rich, not just rich, is what has become the new American Dream.

In fact, the entire platform Romney is running on is that he is rich ipso facto he is entitled to the presidency.

Romney doesn’t actually like the United States and he certainly is not a patriot. Because a patriot pays his taxes, a patriot does not spend most of his life working against the United States by betting against the American dollar or siphoning his wealth off to offshore accounts to evade paying his fair share of taxes to the government that has provided him with the groundwork and infrastructure  necessary to be the man he is today.  In fact, he has worked so hard against America, that he doesn’t dare to release his tax records because they show a man who spent his entire life ruining the American dream for everyone – which was the creation of the middle class after WWII, not the creation of vacuous vulchers like him.

Yet Romney and that god awful callously ignorant wife of his feel entitled to this country as leaders  because he has money. He treats running for president like a hostile corporate takeover or a promotion – from CEO of a company to CEO of the United States. He doesn’t have any concrete policy proposals other than undo everything Obama did and that “being successful” ought not to be punished. As if capitalism was about stealing, which is how he got rich.

The Love of Money – A pillar Next to Jesus and Jingoism

There is a theme to be found here folks and that theme is called the unconditional love of money. This country is a lot about the love of money and every policy out there, or not out there, is because of this love for money and this wanna-be millionaire mentality.

As Marina Keegan – the late Yale student who tragically died in a car accident this past May wrote in her essay on the sad lives of Ivy League graduates that blindly chase corporate jobs even though they really have many other wonderful things in mind  when they first enter college as hopeful freshmen: “When I arrived at Yale as an eager 18-year-old, I had never even heard of consulting or I-banking. And to be honest, I still didn’t totally understand the function of a hedge fund. But what I do understand is that students here have passion. Passion for public service and education policy and painting and engineering and entrepreneurialism. Standing outside a freshman dorm, I couldn’t find a single student aspiring to be a banker – but at commencement this May, there’s a 50 percent chance I’ll be sitting next to one. This strikes me as incredibly sad .” 

It is indeed very sad. But the reason those kids feel the need to do exactly that is because we have created a culture of greed and money-above-all. Charity is not rewarded. Working for a non-profit to better society for everyone is not rewarded. Being an engineers to build bridges is not rewarded or lucrative. What is rewarded is greed and selling out: Kim Kuntrashian does it, and so does the US Congress. There is no difference. So of course those kids, after four year, end up with shattered dreams and then resign to it and follow the money.

When you live in a society in which every action is measured by the financial bottom line, from medical research to environmental protection, you create a culture of greed filled with narcissists thinking they have to get rich or die trying and that in fact doing so is a virtue. A  lot of people think that the American dream is about getting rich.

That is why in Mitt Romney’s universe people who aren’t millionaires are nothing but losers to spit on. That is also why his wife condescendingly referred to the voter base as “you people.“ Ann Romney is too well-bred to call African-Americans “you people” in public, of course, especially after what happened to Ross Perot. But she obviously has no problem referring to other folks she holds in contempt that way. And she holds them in contempt because they aren’t rich – which is her criteria for success in and worthiness to life.

So with millionaires in charge of our country and the ongoing, all-encompassing corruption of elected officials – corruption that has become so widespread it is invisible at this point – is it any surprise that the United States is going down fast? Is it any surprise that the world looks at us in astonishment when they see our people show up to public hearings with assault rifles to oppose access to health care? Is it any surprise that unemployment is high? And the economy a mess? Or that some elitist, Mormon nut-job who nets a quarter of a billion dollars but who has never done a hard day’s work in his life, is running as the leader of this country?

Corporate raiding, mass-layoffs and tax evasion are not hallmarks of either a patriot, a person of integirty or a successful man who earned his riches. The operative word here being earned. And they most certainly are not the hallmarks of a man who wants to represent us.

We are no longer the subjects of our leaders as was the case hundreds of years ago – at least not in the way we used to be. We are slaves to money in a very high tech fashion – but we are still  enslaved. Nearly every politician is a multimillionaire while the overwhelming majority of those they represent lead very modest, wage earning, middle-class lives, about two paychecks away from destitution and definitely several lifetimes and dreams away from being millionaires.

Tax Evasion is Unpatriotic, Mr. and Mrs. Romney

Republicans, but Americans in general, are big on patriotism. The platform that Romney is running on for president is steeped in classic Americana  of the “Leave it to Beaver” kind: mom and apple pie, the flag, guns, Christian values, and a lot of other things that evoke pride in and ask for devotion to the United States of America.

But devotion to one’s country also requires personal sacrifice for the larger good, including paying your taxes. For Romney to preach the Republican gospel from the top of a mountain while privately amassing a fortune by evading taxes is deeply hypocritical and unpatriotic.

Based on his track record, the only use Mitt Romney has ever seen in the government apparently is the extent to which it can be manipulated and molded to cater to the needs of corporations and the wealthy, at the expense of everyone else. Outsourcing jobs, which effectively means paying very little for labor overseas while at the same time depriving Americans of the opportunity to earn a living, is completely in line with the aforementioned credo.

Mitt Romeny’s past with respect to Bain Capital are at the forefront of the debate in this upcoming presidential election and campaign, seriously questioning his fitness to be the President, not CEO as he seems to think, of the United States. Swiss bank accounts and offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda for the purposes of tax evasion as well as his refusal to release his financial statements and tax documents seriously bring into question Mitt Romney’s integrity and most importantly fitness for the office of the presidency. They also seriously bring into question Romney’s alleged patriotism.

Furthermore, questions about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital and the fortune he earned there have dogged the former Massachusetts governor as Obama and his allies have said the Boston-based firm shipped jobs overseas. Romney insists he left the company in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but documents suggest he was still in charge as late as 2001.

“He actually retired retroactively at that point,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said. “He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.”

Yet there are documents that show his signature past the date he allegedly left Bain. A second adviser, Kevin Madden, said Romney had no choice but to have his name listed on Security and Exchange Commission documents as he sought to transfer the company’s leadership to partners.

“The reason that there is a document that had … his signature is because, during that transition from 1999 to 2002 … there was a duty to sign those documents,” Madden said.

The exact role Romney played at the firm between 1999 and 2001 is important not only because critics have raised questions about his truthfulness, but also because Bain was sending jobs overseas during that period. For someone who is running as President of this country and who has been accusing Obama of outsourcing, the question as to his role in Bain capital, especially pertaining to sending jobs overseas while he was in charge, are completely and totally relevant just as questions about his personal fiances that show a man who has been working hard to doge paying taxes in the country that houses and supports him and his activities, are relevant.

No one is questioning Romney’s right to create wealth through private equity or by putting his money into offshore bank accounts. What is in question here are his personal beliefs and judgment and thus ultimately his goals. If Romney is going to stand on a platform of patriotism and love of country, siphoning off his wealth from American shores to save on taxes which the United States desperately needs is no way to do that.

It is disturbing to think that a potential president of the United States would consider it acceptable to direct money into offshore bank accounts in order to shield that money from taxes. Taxation, unpleasant as it might be, is the primary funding mechanism for our nation; without it we would be reduced to a wasteland of crumbling infrastructure, non-existent public services, and anarchy. Taxes fund most of our crucial public functions from road repair and public transport, food inspection,  to the police force, welfare, and even trash collection. Why then would a highly educated, politically conscious, and ostensibly patriotic Romney go out of his way to minimize his own share of taxes?

At best it shows a greedy mentality, and at worst demonstrates a disregard for the welfare of his country. According to a 2011 report from the California Public Interest Research Group, offshore tax havens cost the US government roughly $100 billion every year.

Romney’s general unwillingness to take responsibility for his actions and much less own them further creates a chasm bringing into question his already-withered-down-to-a-toothpick ethics and sincerity. Gillespie said Romney may have been listed as “part-time” in Bain after 1999, but that he had no role in the firm’s day-to-day affairs, a point the campaign has attempted to make repeatedly in order to separate him from Bain’s activity related to outsourcing during that period. Romney has said he left the company completely in 1999 when he started working to plan the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Romney: Dishonest and Unpatriotic

A couple of months ago I reported on the groundbreaking levels of dishonesty Mitt Romney had crossed. That was right after he took credit for the automobile industry bail out, even though he had been caught on record asking for Detroit to go bankrupt already:

“If General Motors, Ford and Chryslesr get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye,” Romney wrote. “In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.”

I didn’t think it was possible for Romney to be any more dishonest than he already is, but what do you know: there is always room for more lies, shameless accusations that have no basis in reality and the kind of insincerity that makes politicians who have the ethics a notch underneath that of child molester, seem like a fountain of integrity.

So you understand that it is beyond hypocritical of Romney to be calling Obama out on alleged dishonesty when campaigning, accusing him of saying anything to win a second term and demanding he apologize for attacks on the Republican’s successful career at a private equity firm.

“No, we will not apologize,” the president responded, adding that if Romney wants credit for his business leadership, he also needs to take responsibility – a word which apparently is not in Romney’s vocabulary.

Furthermore, if Romney has really nothing to hide and is in fact the person he portrays to everyone, then why not release his taxes? Why not disclose those financial documents?

The truth is that Romney has, in fact, a lot to hide. And he knows it. He knows that those tax records, unlike him, don’t lie and show a side of him he has been working hard to gaslight everyone into believing is not true.

Finally,  Romney should be the last person to accuse anyone of dishonesty when not only his entire campaign but in fact his entire life is based on deception and dishonest practices to accumulate riches. He is a liar and dishonest man who got wealthy taking over companies, loading them up with debt, driving them into bankruptcy and laying people off.  He changes his “mind” depending on who he is talking to and what he thinks they want to hear and he took undue credit for the car bailout – that turned out to be a success – even though he is seen on record opposing it. He is not a successful businessman, unless you call stealing from and bankrupting others while taking jobs overseas being a successful businessman.

That he has the audacity to accuse Obama of dishonesty or foul play is just another testament to this man’s not only minuscule mind but just sheer insincerity and greedy disposition.

No one is saying that you cannot be successful and wealthy in the US. What people are angry about is Romney’s complete lack of forth-right behavior and air of superiority. It is as though no one can question him. He  is running for President of this country – that runs on taxes – yet he evaded paying taxes for decades.  And every time someone shows evidence of a problem that seriously questions his fitness to be president, he says it is not true and that people should should just believe him. In fact, “take my word for it” has become Romney’s response to a lot of this nation’s problems.

He was the CEO, chairman and president of Bain yet he insists that he was not responsbile for what Bain did. And everytime anyone asks these relevant questions, he goes on the defense accusing the other side of begrudging him his business success.

It is apparent that Mitt Romney will will say and do anything to get the highest office in the land – even if it means demeaning the highest office in the land. And to add insult to injury, he and his useless mere figure-head of a wife pretend to relate to people who have to work for a living, trying to spin how the garbage policies they propose and which are aimed at redistributing wealth upwards, are in any way going to make their lives better.

Stealing and Bankrupting Others, Tax Evasion Are Not Hallmarks of Success

Mitt Romney is proud of Bain Capital’s “success” and feels that he and Americans in general should not be ashamed of  said success. However, if “success” means putting people out of jobs and outsourcing and forcing companies into bankruptcy for personal gain, as well as evading paying taxes, then yes, we all should be ashamed of that kind of “success.”  Amassing wealth through theft (of the white collar kind) and dishonest practices is not success or anything anyone in this country should emulate. The fact that a lot of Romney’s supporters, especially the middle and working class ones, think it is, is the truly disconcerting part.

Since Mitt Romney claims to be such a pious man of god who holds himself and everyone else to the highest moral standards,  I conclude this post by citing a verse from his very own holy book – which he apparently failed to take into account when making those “successful” decisions at Bain and then later as Governor of Massachusetts:

“To him whom much is given, much is expected.” - Luke 12:48

Why Mitt Romney Has Crossed Into Groundbreaking Levels of Dishonesty

Mitt Romney is not the most honest guy. In fact, he has been accused, and rightly so, of having crossed into groundbreaking levels of dishonesty during this election year.

Aside from his blatant dishonesty in political matters, there is also something very insincere about him as a person. Whenever he is talking to a crowd, it feels awkward and forced, like he was citing rehearsed lines and catch phrases that he personally doesn’t understand or believe but which his campaign manager told him to say anyway because they are relevant and would score political points.  It is like he is forcing himself hard to say those things but because he doesn’t ultimately understand them, much less mean them, it feels insincere.

The man cannot even keep a coherent thought within the same sentence, much less the same campaign or specific policy. During a speech last month he stated that “we may make mistakes as a nation from time to time, and step on other’s toes and we’ll say we’re sorry for that, but apologizing for America is something I will never, ever do.”

Naturally, his audience of gullible sheep and uneducated religious morons wrapped in the US flag, holding a gun and cross, applauded at what he said.

But is that really something we should applaud and strive for in our leader and our nation for that matter? Is not apologizing for and acknowledging your mistakes a virtue? A desirable quality in a leader? Or anyone for that matter?

Do we want someone in the White House who is just too damn arrogant and self-absorbed to ever acknowledge any mistakes made and apologize for them?  Or do we want someone with integrity who does apologize and acknowledge mistakes made when the situation warrants it. Jingoists applaud him thinking it is really great to be a nation that bullies others around, disregards international law and institutions, causes war and havoc all over the world without never, ever apologizing for it.

Not only that but Romney lacks any situational awareness or any clue as to how the outlandish things he says have little basis in reality.  During a tele-town hall meeting with Wisconsin voters last month, Romney told what he thought was a “humorous” story about how his father once shut down a factory in Michigan and moved production to Wisconsin. This little, supposedly humorous anecdote, was no doubt meant to appeal to the voters of Wisconsin, who were the beneficiaries of the factory shutdown, but in his zeal to appear like he actually does have a clue what it means to have to do a hard day’s work in your life and be a man of the people, he missed the entire second half of his “joke”, namely that his daddy’s heroic attempt at opening a factory in Wisconsin cost 5000+ people in Michigan, where his father was Governor no less, their jobs. That is not funny. But Romney thinks it is because he doesn’t truly understand the consequences of his father’s actions.

He thinks like a businessman and not like a leader or humanitarian.  Hence missing the point entirely and thinking his daddy’s deed was hilarious.

And speaking of groundbreaking dishonesty: Paul Ryan wants to end Medicare, forcing seniors to go buy health insurance in the open market – since, you know, insurance companies are dying to insure seniors. Thirty three such seniors being thrown to the den of the insurance industry would help pay for the $200,000 tax break Ryan wants to give to the average millionaire.  But Mitt Romney, who supports the “bipartisan group of leaders” on Medicare (i.e. Ryan’s plan) accuses Obama of wanting to get rid of Medicare.

Romney’s presidential campaign is overflowing with such unembarrassed lies and acts of hypocrisy. In fact, he reached an even newer low on dishonesty when he, despite his 2008 call to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” said jus ta few weeks ago during an interview with WEWS-TV in Cleveland that he would “take a lot of credit” for his impact on the U.S. automobile industry’s comeback since his views helped save the industry..

“I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy,” Romney said. “And finally, when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet. So I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back.”

The reality looks different, however. Romney’s stance on and opposition to the bailouts and his infamous 2008 New York Times op-ed “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” in support of those assertions, have come up throughout the campaign, especially ahead of February’s primary in Michigan. In that editorial, Romney argued that a government bailout for ailing auto giants Chrysler and General Motors would do more harm than good.

“If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye,” Romney wrote. “In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.”

It is, of course, quite hypocritical of him to be against government bail outs when he received a $10 million bailout from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in 1991. The taxpayers provided the backstop for the FDIC, and even though Bain & Co. went on to make millions more in profits, the fund was never replenished. A small detail that Romney and his supporters conveniently ignore when repeatedly speaking out against the auto industry bail out or any kind of government “interference”.

In this case, Mitt Romney, much like any opportunist,  saw the polls about the unpopularity of bailouts and lumped the auto industry in with the bank industry  - the auto industry, where his father and so many of his family members had worked – and called for them to go down. He never looked into the eyes of autoworkers getting laid off as factory after factory closed. The auto industry was heading over the cliff, begging for help, and Romney were coolly standing behind, giving his home state a shove over the ledge. And now he has the audacity to claim credit for the auto industry’s rebound.

 

Mitt Romney Demeans the intelligence of the American People with His Lies

it is important to point out that there is a real reason for why Romney always makes such comments with this dead-pan expression and without a twitch. There is a reason he and his wife – with their five houses, two Cadillacs with elevators and close friends who own football and baseball teams – think that sitting on $250 million of wealth, raising two shiny, life-like sons puts Ann Romney en par with 95% of mothers in this country who don’t enjoy any of those obscene luxuries and it is the reason why Romney says he is unemployed, comparing his quarter of a billion dollar wealth to the $ 7.50 an hour a laid off worker used to make. There is a reason Romney exhibits all the clichés we unfairly assign to used car salesmen, and the reason for that, aside from cold hard ignorance brought on by too much of someone else’s money and greed, is that Romney is genuinely and ridiculously out of touch with not only the citizens of this country but human beings residing on planet Earth in general.

In fact, he is so out of touch with them that any attempts at socializing with them or addressing them in a speech end up in such embarrassing, foot-in-mouth, bozo moments. He is trying hard to appear sincere but because there really is no subsistence and sincerity behind his vacant smile and lofty speeches, it just backfires and he just ends up looking like an asshole.

Mitt Romney is dishonest and his dishonesty just shines through, no matter what he does or how many catch-phrases and talking points he throws at you.  He is insincere and fake and a liar and most people (well most intelligent people, which a lot of Americans aren’t unfortunately) realize that.

Romney is one of those people who – in a very Twilight Zone fashion – deserves to be stripped off his wealth, fame and fortune and be rendered a pauper or maybe just an employee at one of the companies Bain Capital bankrupted to see for himself just what life feels like for people who actually have to earn a living instead of just having everything handed to them through theft and exploitation of others.

And make no mistake about it: a thief is exactly what Mitt Romney is. Someone who doesn’t pay his taxes or tries to avoid having to pay them but enjoys the benefits that a government that is paid for by taxes provides to him, is a thief.  People accuse him of flip flopping, but that is really not true because Romney has been pretty consistent throughout his political career with one thing and one thing only, namely amassing power and wealth for the few at the expense of the middle class.

He also did not get rich by creating products people wanted, he got rich by taking over companies, loading them up with debt, pushing them into bankruptcy, then laying people off and canceling their health benefits. As governor of Massachusetts he did the same thing: his party ruined the economy, he cut education, raised fees on the middle class to benefit the wealthy and his state  ranked 47 in job creation. So there is a consistent narrative there.

A lot of people argue that this is just nothing but begrudging someone of their wealth; jealousy. But such responses usually come from people who have a very narrow understanding of the mechanisms that have allowed people like Romney to become rich in the first place. Because let’s face it, no one becomes that obscenely rich without having stepped on people. It is the law of nature. Zero sum.

In order for one person to own more than other people combined, he has to take it away from them. Back in the day that was done directly, now it is in the form of low wages, high taxes (for middle class wage earners and poor people) and other structural means of exploitation.

Therefore telling people who criticize Mitt Romney and the 1% that they are begrudging them their wealth and “success” is like telling a burglary victim that their demands for justice to get their things back constitute begrudging thieves of their well earned riches.  It is absurd.

Mitt Romney is a corporate raider who made money bankrupting companies and with it the people that worked for them. So is criticism warranted? Is questioning his wealth, his motives and priorities as well as wanting to see ten years of tax returns,  an important question to ask when considering him for the office of the presidency?

You bet that it is.

If there is any kinds of questions one ought to ask potential future leaders then they are exactly of this nature. Someone who has no clue how 99% of the people in the world, much less the United States, live; someone who – in his heart of hearts – cannot relate to wage earners and people who don’t own sports teams no matter how hard he tries, is not fit to be the President. He is not fit to be a leader.

Mitt Romney wants to run this country like a business. In fact, his only claim for the presidency is that he is a great businessman and that he can apply those business principles that enriched Bain to this country. But the point of government is that it is not a business. In fact, a government cannot and ought not to be run like a business because by definition, the role of the government is governance and not a profit making, which is the goal of business.

Ultimately, America is not a corporation. America is an idea, a vision and someone like Mitt Romney would destroy that vision.

The only way a government can function as an effective, unbiased entity and governing body is when it does not have a profit motive. Imagine if the EPA was run by Koch industries or the FDA by Monstanto. Think cancer is an epidemic now? Wait for he pandemic levels it will reach when Koch and Monstanto are in charge.

Mitt Romney, while a rich man, is free of the ravages of intelligence and I must say that I do find it degrading for Obama to even have to stoop so low and debate someone so intellectually and emotionally challenged and inferior as Mitt Romney. Someone with such a fundamental weakness of character.

Romney does not have the class, etiquette or even level of Obama. He has little integrity, in fact he is a proven liar, he lacks empathy and his flip flopping, while subject to a lot of good jokes, really is just dangerous.

An opportunist is worse than someone who actually takes a stand on something, be it on the Left or Right.

Romney has no integrity, neither does his wife and neither does the entire cause of Republicans in this election; causes that are aimed at destroying everything this country was founded on and which made it what it is today.

Don’t think for one second that being born with a silver spoon in your mouth and robbing people, as Romney did, gives you class, integrity or renders you a capable leader. We don’t need anyone in The White House who only caters to the needs of the few rich at the expense of everyone else and who views women as second class citizens. We need men of honor and integrity and while I personally have not been very happy with a lot of Obama’s policy decisions, such as extending tax breaks to the rich and how he handled BP and health care, he has proven to have more integrity and honor than any of these GOP candidates could ever dream of having, especially Mitt Romney.

I would hope that people care enough to remember these things when casting a vote this fall.