JHB
JHB's JournalThe whole analogy is based on the rich guy being the guy who really runs the show...
...the whole "engine of the economy" thing.
The financial guys aren't they engine, they're the lube system. When functioning properly, they are the oil and grease that lets all the parts move freely to do what they are supposed to without excessive wear and tear. A really good system also regularly clears away old oil and grease so that it doesn't gunk up, but still, it's not the engine.
What we have is a dysfunctional system that thinks it is successful if collects as much oil and grease as possible in one spot; that's what its incentives are. And to do that, it strips as much as it can from every other place, and is ever more stingy at parceling out any. So all the parts wear more and break down faster.
And the lube system that thinks it's an engine does nothing but complain about how run down the other parts are and they need to work harder if they want any oil & grease.
Blast of crazy from the past: Gulag America
Next time your e-mail-forwarding or Facebook nut-post-liking relative or acquaintance wails about the doom this country faces from Obama's "radical socialist agenda", try asking them how many blue-helmeted Chinese Red Army troops are patrolling their street today.
Behold a sample of some RW tinfoil-hat nuttery from 1997: "Gulag America". I won't link to any of the many copies of it on the Internets (including Teabagger sites), but it's only a Google away. Boldface parts are my emphasis, but kind of random because it's hard to pick the nuttier or more ironic parts. Without further ado:
In 1997, there were already 43 concentrations camps ready to imprison Christians and other patriotic people, who want to be governed by the Constitution. If the Clintons' hatred for Christians and other constitutionalists seems incredible to you, then ask yourself why the White House instructed the FBI this year to regard us as terrorists. Under this guise, Comrade Clinton can raid the homes of innocent saints and patriots, take them away to never be seen again as in Nazi Germany, and the media will make everyone think they were criminals. In 1997, 20 more concentration camps were under construction. Their locations are revealed on the link above, as excerpted from Jim Keith's book, Black Helicopters II:
***
"If you notice, they often do things on the 13th of the month. Mr. Clinton does a lot of things on the 13th. On September 13, 1993, the brokered Israeli-PLO peace accord was signed. He waited 14 days, until September 13, 1994 to sign the Crime Bill. On June 13, 1995, he stated he'd veto the national debt authorization ceiling. On November 13, he did veto it. On January 13, 1996, he made a speech to Bosnia. "There will be an interim of probably just days from the time they launch the RED List, to the declaration of martial law when they'll start coming after those on the BLUE List. It'll work the same way it did with the Nazis who had a list of people to pick up, on June 30, 1934, before they declared their "mobilization." "It's the same blueprint being used because it's the same spirit leading the Fourth Reich as led the Third Reich. In Germany, they used trains, here it will be helicopters and 747s. "When Hitler was villainizing the Jews, he hired thugs and dressed them in black uniforms. He was building concentration camps and setting up a transport system. In this country, they're now in the process of villainizing Christians, Patriots, Constitutionalists, and outspoken talk-show hosts, etc.
"Who will be doing the actual picking up? Foreign "cops" (United Nations Internal Security Forces). Over 30 foreign military bases under the United Nations flag are already set up in the US., all with the approval of special appointees in high Federal positions. These bases are already manned with over ONE MILLION troops from Russia, Poland, Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Great Britain, Nicaragua, and Asian countries. "Why are they here? Because unlike our own troops--many of which along with the Guard and Reserve of 24 states are being deployed overseas--will have no qualms about firing on U.S. citizens when the time comes. "There are more than 2,000 Russian tanks, military trucks and chemical warfare vehicles just outside Gulfport, Mississippi. They began arriving in January of 1994. "There are 180 foreign troops at Fort Reilly which was confirmed to me by a Brigadier General. There are 300 who came into the Birmingham, Alabama airport on a big white Russian cargo plane on December 13, 1995. "As of 1995, there were 10,000 plus foreign troops at Fort Chafee, Arkansas reportedly making preparations for 20,000 "detainees." "Also in 1995 at Fort Polk, Louisiana (U.S. Army Post), Russian and Eastern European troops were deployed under the U.N. flag. (When questioned about this, the legislative aide of the congressman who resides over Fort Polk, stated, "Yes, they were there undertaking broad, joint training exercises. And, yes, the U.N. flag was flying. There may still be some there today."
"At the Aberdeen Proving Grounds, there are many Russian tanks. One of the NCOs told his father that he'd been maintaining them.
"This is going on all over the country. German troops are known to be at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, and Fort Hood, Texas. Chinese troops are known to be at the Long Beach Naval Station in California. "There's not going to be some future event when the invading troops are going to show up. They're already here! When martial law is implemented, these foreign U.N. troops will be policing our country, carrying out the plans of the New World Order."
Gosh, comrades, I have to dash off and report to my local political officer, and I need to practice my Mandarin for the proper greeting.
Neocon Chickenhawks For Romney 2012
"Our next war for you to fight will go swell! Pinkie promise!"
"Because in the next war our chain of iffy assumptions will work! We're due!"
"War? Chaaaaaarrrrrgggge it!"
"Neocon Chickenhawks: Making half-assed plans for wars other people will fight since 1997!"
Add your own.
Mitt Romney's Neocon War Cabinet
Considering the op-ed in the NYTimes about Bush's negligence in the lead up to 9/11, Good Read-ers may want to look at this article in The Nation from back in May:
http://www.thenation.com/article/167683/mitt-romneys-neocon-war-cabinet
Ari Berman
May 2, 2012 | This article appeared in the May 21, 2012 edition of The Nation.
Romney’s team is notable for including Bush aides tarnished by the Iraq fiasco: Robert Joseph, the National Security Council official who inserted the infamous “sixteen words” in Bush’s 2003 State of the Union message claiming that Iraq had tried to buy enriched uranium from Niger; Dan Senor, former spokesman for the hapless Coalition Provisional Authority under Paul Bremer in Iraq; and Eric Edelman, a top official at the Pentagon under Bush. “I can’t name a single Romney foreign policy adviser who believes the Iraq War was a mistake,” says Cato’s Preble. “Two-thirds of the American people do believe the Iraq War was a mistake. So he has willingly chosen to align himself with that one-third of the population right out of the gate.”
Shortly after McCain’s 2008 defeat, Kagan, Edelman, Senor and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol launched the Foreign Policy Initiative, a neocon successor to PNAC. FPI’s mission has been to keep the Bush doctrine alive in the Obama era—supporting a troop increase in Afghanistan and opposing a 2014 withdrawal; advocating a 20,000-troop residual force in Iraq; backing a military strike and/or regime change in Iran; promoting military intervention in Syria; urging a more confrontational posture toward Russia; and opposing cuts in military spending. Three of FPI’s four board members are advising Romney.
Edelman, having worked for Dick Cheney in both Bush administrations, is Romney’s link to Cheneyworld. (Edelman suggested to Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, the idea of leaking the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame to undermine former ambassador Joe Wilson for his New York Times op-ed detailing the Bush administration’s falsified Iraq-Niger connection.) As ambassador to Turkey in 2003, Edelman failed to persuade Ankara to support the Iraq War. Turkish columnist Ibrahim Karagul called him “probably the least-liked and trusted American ambassador in Turkish history.” Edelman later moved to the Defense Department, where in 2007 he became infamous for scolding Hillary Clinton when she asked how the Pentagon was planning its withdrawal from Iraq. He’s one of nearly a dozen of Romney advisers who have urged that the United States consider an attack Iran.
Senor is best known for his disastrous stint in Iraq under Bremer, when the United States disbanded the Iraqi Army and tried to privatize the economy. In his book on Iraq, Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post wrote of Senor, “His efforts to spin failures into successes sometimes reached the point of absurdity.” Senor is particularly close to the Israeli right, co-writing the 2009 book Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle, which reads like an extended investment brochure. He now serves as a conduit between Romney and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Mitt-Bibi will be the new Reagan-Thatcher,” Senor tweeted after the New York Times ran a story about the close friendship of the two men, which dates to the late 1970s.
Damn, it's the same kind of morning in the NYC area...
...clear blue sky, bit of coolness but not cold.
If a man who builds his house upon the sand is a fool...
What do you call men who build a house on a mountain of horse dump?
The GOP.
Making fools look wise, 2012.
Romney discusses Bain outsourcing and Chinese working conditions
A video of Mitt at an unspecified event (wait-staffers can be seen bustling about around the small seated audience). Place, time, and audience are not identified, but it's clearly Mitt Romney talking.
Some thoughts:
1) The guard towers and fence were "to keep people out": And you just took the salesman's word on that? Mr. I'm-a-successful-businessman-look-at-how-much-money-I-made-but-don't-look-too-closely?
2) After Bain bought the factory, did you still work them for long hours at a pittance? Because you could have employed more people at better pay under better working conditions and still made a profit on the lower labor costs than the US jobs you said you weren't involved in outsourcing. Think of how many more people could have fulfilled their dreams of a marriage nest-egg that way! (It was a nest egg, not a dowry imposed on them, right?) But Bain would made slightly less profit that way. Do we even need to ask which route you chose?
3) As touched on above, I thought you said you weren't involved in outsourcing decisions? That those all came after you left?
4) Let me tell you, Mitt, 95% of your life and your Bain peoples' lives may seem "95% settled", but that sure as hell wasn't the case for the people whose livelihoods you took away and moved elsewhere so that you could make even more money. But oh, you're such nice people for wanting to help those young Chinese women, which not-so-coincidentally lined your pockets ever thicker, but barely hand-waved what that would do to the American work force. They and their interests were inconsequential to you.
And you used that as a sales point to your audience (at one of those private fundraisers?).
The Professional Left podcast with Driftglass & Bluegal (Aug 24, 2012)
Not mine, just passing the info along
Download the MP3
Date: August 24, 2012
By: Driftglass and Blue Gal
Description: We discuss the Akin Abortion A-hole-ery and recommend three old movies that help explain the current political extremeism, even though they’re from the sixties. More at ProfessionalLeft.blogspot.com
Another Fat Cat threatens to 'Go Galt'
There's a full-page ad in the New York Times today (on page A5, no less) titled "Why this fat cat likes Obama's tax plan". Signed by one Norman Lizt of La Jolla CA (PO Box 1423 - right there in the ad), it's six paragraphs of "boastful humility" (he "certainly doesn't qualify for the Forbes 400 Richest Americans, but has had "income averaging close to eight figures annually for the past seven years" .
(It's a print ad, and I can't find a link to an electronic version, but I'm sure someone will scan or transcribe it soon enough. I'm only going to type out so much right now.)
"Assuming Barack Obama wins reelection and successfully achieves his redistributionist tax agenda (with 39+% marginal rates plus a 3.8% tax on investment income plus substantially higher dividend and capital gains rates), I will find myself, when my high California taxes are added in, at a marginal rate of taxation well over 50%. This represents the crossing of an invisible threshold to me and is entirely unacceptable."
The rest is saying how he would then shutter his private equity firm, buy short-term treasuries which currently have low interest and thus would create little income for him to tax, how his poor, poor highly-paid employees would be let go, cut his charitable giving, and basically take his marbles and go home, so there!
I say, let him! If his business is really doing so well, someone will go after that money, even if it isn't quite so lucrative as "close eight figures annually". That's still multiple millions. I'm sure someone will pursue those opportunities. That's a little thing we call capitalism.
Unless there is more than one highly successful private equity firm in La Jolla run by a man named Norman Lizt, he's around 70 years old and has been in this business for a long time, long enough that he was in his 40s before Federal income taxes fell to levels he now calls "redistributionist", before Bush pushed through his budget-breaking cuts.
So Go Galt, Mr. Lizt! If you're getting into a snit because it becomes a little harder to redistribute wealth into your pockets, then by all means do so. You've gouged enough.
On edit: corrected the part regarding what "nearly eight figures" meant. Doesn't change my point in any significant way.
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