Taiibi has most important summary of this election

[kpete]

SUN SEP 02, 2012 AT 09:58 PM PDT
Taiibi has most important summary of this election
by NBBooks

Romney . . . is a perfect representative of one side of the ominous cultural divide that will define the next generation, not just here in America but all over the world. Forget about the Southern strategy, blue versus red, swing states and swing voters – all of those political clichés are quaint relics of a less threatening era that is now part of our past, or soon will be. The next conflict defining us all is much more unnerving.

That conflict will be between people who live somewhere, and people who live nowhere. It will be between people who consider themselves citizens of actual countries, to which they have patriotic allegiance, and people to whom nations are meaningless, who live in a stateless global archipelago of privilege – a collection of private schools, tax havens and gated residential communities with little or no connection to the outside world....

Obama ran on "change" in 2008, but Mitt Romney represents a far more real and seismic shift in the American landscape. Romney is the frontman and apostle of an economic revolution, in which transactions are manufactured instead of products, wealth is generated without accompanying prosperity, and Cayman Islands partnerships are lovingly erected and nurtured while American communities fall apart. The entire purpose of the business model that Romney helped pioneer is to move money into the archipelago from the places outside it, using massive amounts of taxpayer-subsidized debt to enrich a handful of billionaires. It's a vision of society that's crazy, vicious and almost unbelievably selfish, yet it's running for president, and it has a chance of winning. Perhaps that change is coming whether we like it or not. Perhaps Mitt Romney is the best man to manage the transition. But it seems a little early to vote for that kind of wholesale surrender.

-- Matt Taibbi, Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital, Rolling Stone, August 29, 2012.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829#ixzz25NGCx1QW
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/03/1127144/-Taiibi-has-most-important-summary-of-this-election

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. As usual, he nails it. nt

[Raster]

2. K&R! This is FAR TOO IMPORTANT to let simply slip away.

"Romney is the frontman and apostle of an economic revolution, in which transactions are manufactured instead of products, wealth is generated without accompanying prosperity, and Cayman Islands partnerships are lovingly erected and nurtured while American communities fall apart."

[rhett o rick]

3. r&k

[annabanana]

4. I have thought this for a few years now. Kudos to Taiibi for putting

it into words.

The real rulers have MUCH more in common with each other than any of them do with the citizens of the Country of their families.

[plethoro]

5. That was excellent and right on. I just hope at that point the people get

mad enough to break out the shovels and rakes they are not so monitored they will be unable to do anything. Will a real no-holds-barred protest group meet in a middle class community only to be bombed to bits and pieces by a public drone?

[nashville_brook]

6. k and r

[CrispyQ]

7. He nails it here:

Romney is the frontman and apostle of an economic revolution, in which transactions are manufactured instead of products, wealth is generated without accompanying prosperity, and Cayman Islands partnerships are lovingly erected and nurtured while American communities fall apart.

k&r

[freshwest]

31. +1

[JDPriestly]

8. I like these sentences:

. But what most voters don't know is the way Mitt Romney actually made his fortune: by borrowing vast sums of money that other people were forced to pay back. This is the plain, stark reality that has somehow eluded America's top political journalists for two consecutive presidential campaigns: Mitt Romney is one of the greatest and most irresponsible debt creators of all time. In the past few decades, in fact, Romney has piled more debt onto more unsuspecting companies, written more gigantic checks that other people have to cover, than perhaps all but a handful of people on planet Earth.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/greed-and-debt-the-true-story-of-mitt-romney-and-bain-capital-20120829#ixzz25NGCx1QW

That is precisely what bothers me about Romney's "business model." It's mostly, maybe only about placing others in debt that they have no means to repay. In fact, that was the model of the banks and the mortgage companies in the early 2000s. It's sick. These people who harp on how America has to repay its debts made their fortunes putting other people in debt. Horrendous!

[ananda]

22. If Romney wins, the future is here.

We would be so fucked.

[freshwest]

32. +1

[avebury]

43. Agreed. nt

[lin_e65]

9. And also...

The cultural shift is moving and can't be stopped. The once white male establishment is slowly getting chipped away by women and minorities. The glass ceiling isn't broken yet but that's not because women aren't trying. THey just keep raising the ceiling! That's why you have the anti- contraception and abortion push and the voter suppression-so that the almighty white man can keep his power. Keep 'em barefoot and pregnant and shackled in the ghetto where they belong. Look at the GOP convention. Is that the true face of America? You'll see the true face of America this week on TV.

[mountain grammy]

10. On one hand, I'm happy to be in agreement with Matt Taibbi

and on the other I'm distressed that so many people aren't getting this message; "Shock Doctrine!"

[amuse bouche]

11. It's scary that middle class and poor righties

fall for the Repub bull

[BlueinOhio]

12. As long

As they are taught to do at church and they believe that they can be a billionaire. Truth the cards are stacked against them and until they experience it they are going to believe the lies. Much easier to be in a dream state and just go along than to be awake and make a difference.

[alfredo]

13. If they have no sense of patriotism, no love for this country, we should pull all services

they might use for their self protection. Let the Cayman Islands protect them. If they move to an island to escape, sink the fucking island.

[gateley]

14. K&R -- big Taibbi admirer.

[DavidL]

17. You are not alone, my Dem Underground friend!

Required reading, anything he puts out there. The best in-depth reporter around. Mike is a champion of the written word in in-depth reporting.

[jonthebru]

15. A "multi-national" corporation...

by definition is not loyal to any nation.

[colorado_ufo]

16. Blame Madonna.

Just kidding, of course, but yet with a nod to the truth: The idolization of "The Material Girl," who would literally do any outrageous thing to gain more fame and money, outwardly symbolizes the shift toward rampant greed and materialism being praiseworthy, desirable, and something to aspire to. When people in positions of power such as Greenspan practically worship Ayn Rand, and her psychotic books are still required reading in many schools (as they have been for decades), we should not be surprised at this sea change.

The shift from the America of the Great Depression and of the World Wars, where the entire populace had to pull together so that we could survive as a people and a nation, to the America of today's view of "I've got mind who cares about you" is stunning. It has happened in my lifespan. If such catastrophies occurred today, I am not confident that we would regain our national soul and pull together. We might instead suffer the consequences of unbridled greed and lose ourselves entirely and forever.

[freshwest]

29. +1

[ananda]

18. Right on, Taiibi!

It's been on my mind over the past couple of years
that rich people and corporations can live and work
anywhere. They don't have to hold national allegiance
to either their birth country or the one they happen
to be living in for the moment.

If they don't like the economics of one place, they can
just move out or move their money out or both.

I keep thinking that that's a large part of the reason why
governments kowtow to these people and companies, to
keep them here... but it's a self-defeating process because
to do that a government and its larger population have to
give up so much. So much.

[tomm2thumbs]

19. wow, he really placed that one right between the uprights

Greed. I think Republicans AND Democrats can agree that is what is going on here.

If for one second they were honest with themselves.

[xxenderwigginxx]

20. Yes..

And while we face such a threat, our fearless leaders decide contraception needs the spotlight at our convention. It's going to be difficult to move forward on LGBT and womens issues once we are all JUST TRYING NOT TO STARVE TO DEATH!!

[pberq]

47. You are so right

The reason is they are controlled by the same people that control Romney, it's just that the Dems are not as brutal about it.

[xxqqqzme]

21. "...between people who live

somewhere, and people who live nowhere. It will be between people who consider themselves citizens of actual countries, to which they have patriotic allegiance, and people to whom nations are meaningless, who live in a stateless global archipelago of privilege – a collection of private schools, tax havens and gated residential communities with little or no connection to the outside world...."

For a while some thoughts, observances and ponderings have been wandering around my brain. This gives cohesion and clarity to them.

A number of years ago, at least 10, I saw a brochure for a super luxury liner. You would purchase a suite of rooms and live on board the floating complex. All your daily requirements - meals, laundry, maid service - were included. You just cruised from country to country, disembarked when & wherever you wanted; stayed wherever as long as you wanted; then rejoined the ship when you wanted a change of scenery (you could rent out your apartment while you were on land). I don't know if this ever moved beyond conception. I thought at the time, was perfect for the idle rich, the ultimate gated community w/ nothing from the outside to interfere or interrupt.

[xtraxritical]

23. Kicked and recommended.

Gotta love Matt

[JDPriestly]

24. Best article so far!

[Cleita]

25. He's right. I've been thinking about this a lot.

I was wondering how to get our stuff back from these global parasites. We would need laws passed that put these entities and the people they represent outside of our borders. I would start by nationalizing all our natural resources, oil, minerals, ores, lumber. They belong to the people of a nation and should benefit the people of that same nation, not some private family or foreign corporation. We need to stop foreign enterprises from buy property and business assets in this country. It only serves to funnel money and tax dollars out of our country not to mention jobs. We need to make banks local. Go back to the days when banks were chartered by state and couldn't set up shop in another state after being chartered in a state.

[TahitiNut]

26. "using massive amounts of taxpayer-subsidized debt to enrich a handful of billionaires"

THAT is the Bain business model AND it's the GOP political economic model! Drive the working class into massive DEBT while the BENEFICIARIES of that debt are relieved of any responsibility for the enterprise so burdened. It's an abomination that those who benefit the most are those who pay the least in either blood or treasure.

[font size=4]This IS America's Ruling Class![/font]

[hue]

27. Perfect!! K&R!!

[Populist_Prole]

28. This is the most detailed info on that viper I've ever read

Other than a die-hard racists or one percenters, there's just no way anybody could vote for this man after reading this. I just don't see how.

[On the Road]

30. *This* is How You Write This Kind of Article

Instead of leading off with name calling, Taibbi explains clearly and succinctly the criticism of Bain:

A man makes a $250 million fortune loading up companies with debt and then extracting million-dollar fees from those same companies, in exchange for the generous service of telling them who needs to be fired in order to finance the debt payments he saddled them with in the first place.

That is what voters need to understand before going to the polling places.

[donqpublic]

33. Please bear with me while I explain

The republicans/conservatives are all about the hypocrisy, and yes I know this is nothing surprising. Given that, if conservatives believed that Democrats were hiding something/anything on an island country in the Caribbean, you would hear the calls for invasion from your front porch.

The island would be blockaded, the airport seized and communication channels disrupted. Then troops would be sent in followed by an army of GOP lawyers.

I know this is a silly analogy but it started with the question, Do the activities in the Cayman's represent a threat to US (economic infrastructure) as much as Cuban/Russian geo-political influence with Grenada in 1983? The key here is the perception of threat be it communist from Cuba and Russia (Reagan's March 1983 Grenada references to "Soviet-Cuban militarization" of the Caribbean) versus un-patriotic greed of US corporations and executives.

I am in no way legitimaizing the reasons given for the invasion of Grenada. I was just thinking through the idea of preception of threat and the reponse to a percieved threat and how they contrast between republicans/conservatives and Democrats.

For reference I have always been a liberal, because I just don't automatically hate someone different from me. I do seem to be developing an unhealthy hatred for greedy people. I think I am going to regret posting this.

[riverbendviewgal]

40. IMHO Romney is not very American, especially for a person who wants to be the country's president

to be putting his money all over the world to NO BENEFIT for his country except to increase his own personal wealth, and by finding as many legal loopholes to KEEP his money that is not really hard earned as it just is made by investing in a bank or a company. He has no idea what it is to sweat for his country.

And another thing....He remembers his best time in France, while he did not serve in Viet Nam with his wife visiting him....

Soldiers who served in Viet Nam were not able to have their wives visit them.....

Naah, Romney is not really American....He is a greedy, selfish person who does not have American values..

[LongTomH]

34. K&R & shared!

To my Facebook page and my email list!

[daybranch]

35. tactics and truth

Obviously Mitt Romney is not a nice guy, who simply disagrees about politics. Matt says it- why doesn't Obama. They should have Matt speak at the dem convention.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

36. I'm glad there. will be Bain employees speaking to the Democratic Convention.

[WillyT]

37. K & R !!!

[AzDar]

38. K & R

[Octafish]

39. A stateless global gulag of privilege.

Taibbi pegs what's going on.

[SpankMe]

41. Amazingly intelligent and wholly true.

And yet, Obama and Romney are polling even.

As a nation: We. Are Doomed.

[secondwind]

42. K&R - and sharing!

[redgreenandblue]

44. Huh? So nationalism is a good thing now?

What I get from the article is that it smears anyone who does not believe in nations as a "privileged snob".

Sorry, I have no "patriotic allegiance" to a country. And I'm not rich either.

[newspeak]

48. globalization is not a good thing

when a corporation can shite in anyone's backyard and exploit labor and usually not even get a hand slap. Where laws of any country mean nothing, only profit trumps. And yet, they are more than willing to use other country's money and resources; sometimes making a cesspool out of the country.

yes, "my country right and if it's wrong, I'll do everything in my power to make it right." So, little boots lied us into a war with iraq, who has profited big time and who has lost? It's our money and lives that are given to these sociopaths while they pull the patriotism card. I am an american, I care about our infrastructure and our people; however, I also care about what these greedheads are doing to other parts of the world.

I don't believe in the fekkin fairy tale that we need to level wages around the world so we can all be third world countries, while a group of greedy arseholes get even richer and garner more power in the world.

this isn't star trek where we become a one world government and we are ruled by some selfless, benevolent government. You better hope it's not that scenario, because the ones who want the power aren't for the rest of humankind. The more global, the less rules and laws are adhered to by these cretins; and the more lives they destroy.

[Grammy23]

45. And this is the reason

That the subject of Bain needs to be visited again, dissected and shown over and over to the American people. The Republicans have spent a lot of time and money to convince the electorate that if they say anything (or even think about this subject) that results in their having doubts about Romney it is because they are "envious" of him. They say you're just jealous because you want what he has. No, we do not. I think most of us who have enough to eat, a decent place to live and live in a safe neighborhood do not sit around thinking of how much we wished we lived like the Romneys do.

Yes, we aspire to a nicer house, (maybe one that has a few more creature comforts) but most of us are NOT wanting or even thinking we want to live like a king. What we do want is honesty from our elected officials, we want opportunity to have a decent way of life and for our children and grandchildren to do the same. Class warfare is what happens when the people in the lower classes finally get the message that they are being screwed over by those in the upper classes. Once in a while the peasants take up pitchforks and torches and storm the castle and with good reason.

Mitt Romney is the ultimate example of someone who has exploited a business model at the expense of people he will never have to see again or give a rationale for his model. He hurts people and communities, extracts what he wants (money) and then moves on with no regrets and no guilt.

If the voting public is ever allowed and encouraged to THINK about how he made his money (instead of looking at it with awe and admiration), they will be disgusted and repulsed by the greed and ruthlessness of Mitt Romney. As for Ryan, he is looking up to Romney. He adores the fact that he has succeeded and would happily join him on that special island reserved for those who have made it.

The LOVE Of MONEY REALLY, REALLY IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL.

[Grammy23]

46. And something else I forgot to mention

I am sick and tired of the way the Republicans have hijacked religion, patriotism, our flag, Mom and apple pie for their own devious reasons. They tell us their lies, wrap it all up with a flag and any other symbol that they can think of and then present that to the American people. They act like we are all stupid and shallow enough to fall for that. And sadly, there ARE a lot of folks who go for their simplistic answers to very, very complex questions.

They twist and manipulate the issues to fit in their narrow view of the world, then use all of that to manipulate the voters. Their platform is not in line with what the American people want. Their candidates are out of step with the majority of us. And yet, they are running a close race. (If you believe the polls, which I do not always do, but it's the way we measure how things are going.) If the majority of American voters were really thinking about the issues, about Romney's Bain experience, about Ryan's record in Congress and his own words, the outcome of the election would be clear. Obama and Biden could coast to the finish line. But with manipulation and loaded terms like Patriotism, American Exceptionalism, the FLAG and of course, God and the Bible, they are making it much harder for Americans who don't or can't think critically to figure it out. Voter suppression is to assure that the ones who will be loyal to Obama won't get a chance to have their choice counted.

The message needs to be simplified and presented over and over.

Romney got rich screwing people and if he makes it to the highest elected office in our land, he will screw you, too. P.S. Ryan is his disciple and will aid and abet Romney accomplish his goals. His record proves that.

[happyslug]

49. And the only Person in any position of power that is opposing this, is Putin

Thus the MASSIVE attacks on Putin. The Pope also opposes this move, but the present Pope is not the type of person to activity oppose it, he prefers to work within the system, not against it.

Putin has JAILED some of the members of the Class of people who are technically Russians, but are of the no citizen of any country class, unlike the rest of the world (Yes, the US Jailed Bernie Madoff, but only after it was clear he had committed so many crimes that they US had no real choice in the matter, the same thing when it came to Enron management).

I have been wondering why the excessive attacks on Putin, he has done nothing that others have not done, till to accept that he has done what no one else has done, attack members of this class.

The new President of Egypt has been attacked by the Media but they have to be careful, he was the product of a popular revolt, that was popular even among people living in the West. The key to effective propaganda is NEVER to do an attack that people will dismiss or not listen to, thus any attack on the Revolution in Egypt will be dismissed so it is NOT done. The attacks on the new President is more how he will undo the revolution, even when he is carrying out what the majority of Egyptians want him to do. I have seen the same type of attack on Chavez in Venezuela, upholding the revolution, while attacking what the people who did the revolution do and want.

To make a long story short, we are seeing what Karl Marx predicted would occur, if the capitalist class were left unchecked. Karl Marx dismissed the possibility of a check on the movement of more money to this class, but that what happened in responds to the Communist revolutions of 1917-1921 (The Russians Revolution of 1917, the German Revolution of 1918-1919, various other "revolts" among workers, including the West Virginia Coal War of 1921).

To prevent a communist revolution, Fascism was born in 1922, it spread to all countries (Just most extensive in Japan, Germany and Italy, through Mussolini called the Soviet Union Under Stalin the Greatest Fascist country of the late 1930s, but only after the Show Trials of 1938, prior to that the Soviet Union was feared as the center of world wide Communism).

Now, while the Soviet Union fell into what the Trotskites call "State Capitalism" under Stalin, in the west it was still something to be feared and contained. To do so the Western Countries needed the assistance of its own working class, thus the strong move to control the upper classes in the effort to give more to the working class. Yes, fear of the Soviet Union made the Upper Class so fearful that they gave up some of their wealth in exchange for the security to secure the rest.

The problem was the Soviet Union ran across its own problems starting in the 1960s. Stalin had managed to keep the Soviet Union running, but to do so he was so ruthless that no one near him was capable of taking over when he died. Khrushchev thus maneuvered to take over, and was heading the Soviet Union in a new direction, when the new bureaucrats Stalin has installed overthrew him in 1964. These Bureaucrats problem with Khrushchev was his plans would reduce their power within the Soviet Union, and the bureaucrats opposed that. The problem was the inherent problems within the Soviet System was slowly coming to a head in the 1960s, Khrushchev's plan would have addressed those problems, but at the cost of the bureaucrat's power, thus NOT acceptable (For example average life span started to DROP in the 1960s, something the Soviet's classified for fear it would have to be addresses).

By the time Gorbachev was in charge, the Soviet Union was in bad shape. The Soviet Union needed a massive cut back on Military spending, which meant abandoning the rest of the Warsaw Pact AND ending the jobs of most of the most connected bureaucrats in the Soviet Union. The Bureaucrats had enough of the reforms and tried a revolt to undo them, but no one supported the revolt, thus it was suppressed, but it killed off the Soviet Union. Russian and the rest of the Former Soviet States were on their own, and under Yeltsin Russia underwent the massive cuts needed, but at the cost of transferring most of the wealth of Russia to its own elite. Finally the Russian people had enough and elected an Ex-KGB agent (Putin) to straighten out the country (Which he has done). No more transfer of assets to its rich, instead increase controls on those assets. The old communist bureaucracy is long gone, but the spirit of Communists is still quite strong. In the west we hear of the Opposition to Putin, but only of the pro-western opposition, NOT the larger opposition represented by the Old Communist Party. In fact if Putin would lose an election, it would be to the Communists NOT the people pushed in the West as Putin's opposition.

I bring this up, for starting in the 1960s, it slowly became clear in the west that the Soviet Union was NOT going to go to war to spread communism. Thus the need for support from the working class in the west slowly came to an end. Labor held its own in the 1970s (When they was still some question as to Soviet's plans) but by the 1980s it was clear that the Soviet Union had to do one of two things, make massive cut backs (Which it ended up doing) or finding itself bankrupt (Which it also find itself). Thus by the 1980s the Soviet Union was no longer the threat it had been in the 1920s or 1950s and with it the Upper Class no longer were willing to share "its" wealth with the Working Class. Thus from the 1970s onward the Working class found itself more and more on the outside, Labor saw itself more and more isolated from the rest of the political system. This was magnified with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

Thus, till Putin took over Russia, the Upper class (The Class belonging to no nation) had no opposition anywhere in the world. With the rise of Putin, his opposition to the Upper Class is clear. He is NOT a Communist, he is a Nationalist, and as such it is Russia First and foremost, which is something the Upper Class hates. The Upper Class wants ITS concerns addressed, not the concerns of anyone else. Lower classes can argue over things that does not affect the upper class (i.e. gay marriage, other social items) but NOT anything to do with economics (i.e. we can NOT argue over who should get what, it all should go to the upper class).

Thus Nationalists are as feared by the Upper Class as are Communists and as such must be destroyed except when needed to attack Communists or Islamists or anyone else who rejects rule by the Upper Class.