Mitt Attacks Donald and For Naught

In case you missed that speech from this morning:

It's War

Mitt Romney has declared war on Donald Trump.

In other words, it is one entitled person with way too much money complaining about another entitled person with way too much money.

Romney will brand the billionaire businessman as "a phony, a fraud" whose "promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University" in a speech Thursday morning at the University of Utah on Thursday morning. The Associated Press obtained excerpts of his remarks in advance.

Trump, in turn, dismissed Romney as "a stiff" who "didn't know what he was doing" as the party's candidate in 2012 and blew a chance to beat President Barack Obama. "People are energized by what I'm saying" in the campaign and turning out in remarkable numbers to vote, Trump told NBC's "Today."

Tonight is the debate, so you know Trump will be asked about Romney.

On a related note, some 22 Republicans (and no doubt counting) have publicly refused to support Trump.

Will the GOP Establishment Become the "Third Party" This Election?

According to this near-hysterical editorial, some GOP party officials and activists are looking at the possibility of running Mitt Romney for a third-party run.

They think he could beat Trump in the fall. Not likely, however.

The only thing worrying me about the Trump run are the followers. I, however, don't think Trump can beat Hillary Clinton. After all, they are friends, and probably co-conspirators with Hillary's husband.

Sit back and enjoy the implosion.

Snip:

Yet as the dust settles, some Republicans were still in the throes of denial, holding on to dreams of a Hail Mary pass that saves Marco Rubio or John Kasich, or devising brokered-convention strategies that could still thwart Trump’s surging candidacy. It’d be nice if any of those scenarios seemed realistic. But in all likelihood, Republicans dithered too long to stop Trump within the Republican Party’s own nominating process, which was designed to produce a nominee quickly.

What still is very possible, though, is defeating Trump in November. If Republican grandees like Mitt Romney really believe that Trump is as unqualified as they’ve been saying, they need to make it clear they won’t support him in the general election. That would take a decisive show of spine, and a willingness to put country above party, that hasn’t been much in evidence so far.

From Mitt to Shit

Well, that mystery is out of the way.

Mitt is making way for a crook to be the GOP nominee.

It is astounding how, like a bad penny, the Bush family returns again.

Jeb is a million times worse than his addled brother George, who wasn't actually running the U.S. government anyway during the eight years he squatted in the Oval Office that really belonged to Al Gore. As we remember, Jeb, along with cronies like Katherine Harris, tried to steal Florida for his brother, but in the end, it was a bought-and-paid- for USSC that decided the election in 2000. Totally illegal, and the high court majority should have been impeached and run out of town, but nothing was done, of course.

Jeb Bush is a crook, pure and simple.

The United States of America is truly on the ropes and done for if he gets in the White House.

He can't be trusted to run a clean election.

Romney's Concession Speech

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It Reeks of Desperation

All politicians lie or say anything to get elected, but Mitt took this thing to a whole new level.

The Jeep operations aren't moving to China. Mitt is just projecting what HE would do if he owned the company.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is getting heat for wrongly claiming in an Ohio rally Thursday night that Chrysler may move all Jeep production to China.

He apparently was referring to a recent Bloomberg story about Fiat, Chrysler's majority owner, returning Jeep output to China for the first time in at least a few years.

Chrysler now builds all Jeep SUV models in Michigan, Ohio and Illinois, according to Bloomberg. In the story, the reporter wrote that Mike Manley, chief operating officer of Fiat and Chrysler in Asia, "referred to adding Jeep production sites rather than shifting output from North America to China."

Romney, however, told supporters in Defiance, Ohio, that he had read a story that Jeep "is thinking of moving all production to China" - prompting groans from the crowd. He may have been referencing conservative blogs or other stories that incorrectly concluded from the Bloomberg story that Jeep might close U.S. plants, the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press reported Friday.

Mitt's people really need to stay away from blogs as sources. That's what got him into trouble over his Libya remarks.

Somebody Send Mitt a Map

It has to be a bitch being a cartographer and having to keep track of new countries every day, borders changing, city names being changed, etc. It drives me up the damned wall to try and figure out what countries made up the old Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and where they are located.

But Mitt really did it last night when he got Iraq and Iran turned around geographically and thought Iran was the country that was landlocked. More than one observer noted there is a reason why there is a body of water called the Persian Gulf. Iran also borders on the Caspian Sea. Of course, Iraq isn't truly landlocked; there is an little part of it that borders on the Persian Gulf between Kuwait and Iran. Anyway, Mitt tried to sound authoritative on the Syrian situation and ended up making a gigantic gaffe on national television.

It isn't the first time he's done it, either:

Mitt Romney is not particularly new to gaffes but when it comes to one about the relationship between Syria and Iran, he has shown extraordinary courage in repeating it at least six times just in the past year.

During last night's foreign policy debate, Romney said: "Syria is Iran's only ally in the Arab world. It's their route to the sea."

In fact, Iran, a close ally of Bashar al-Assad's regime, has direct access to international waters through its large coastline on the Gulf and is not even a neighbour to Syria in order to rely on it as a route to the sea.

Instead, Syria gives Iran a physical access to Lebanon and its Hezbollah militia which is strategically important for Tehran leaders because of the group's geographical position in respect to Israel.

Map:

Call Me Unimpressed

I will believe it when I see it.

The fact is if there had been something to wreck Romney once and for all, it would have already come out, and there ARE things that have come out which have done damage to him and Ryan.

The problem is millions upon millions of people have already voted for any "scandal" to have much impact; early voting has started in many parts of the country. Oregon started mailing in ballots for mail-in return, as I noted yesterday on a blog post.

If there is a scandal, get on with it; otherwise, shut up about it.

Of Romneys and "Missions"

Great takedown of the Romneys and their lack of war service and of Mitt's son Taggart the braggart:

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And before Mitt went on his mission in France to convert others to the Mormon religion, he decided to picket in support of his inferiors going to war and risk getting killed so he wouldn't have to:

The Many Flubs of Mitt Romney

It wasn't just that Romney was grossly uninformed, it was that he was so fucking rude. His attitude reinforces the stereotype of the spoiled rich kid who thinks his inferiors should bow down to him, even if those inferiors are a veteran journalist and the President of the United States.

It was stunning. As I mentioned last night, I had to shut the sound off. I tuned in later only a little bit during the live telecast and just happened to catch the Libya question:

But not even I expected Romney to let his entitled, Lord-of-the-Manor freak flag fly as proudly as he did on Tuesday night. He got in the president's face. He got in Crowley's face. That moment when he was hectoring the president about the president's pension made him look like someone to whom the valet has brought the wrong Mercedes.

"You'll get your chance in a moment. I'm still speaking."

Wow. To me, this was a revelatory, epochal moment. It was a look at the real Willard Romney, the Bain cutthroat who could get rich ruining lives and not lose a moment's sleep. But those people are merely the anonymous Help. The guy he was speaking to on Tuesday night is a man of considerable international influence. Outside of street protestors, and that Iraqi guy who threw a shoe at George W. Bush, I have never seen a more lucid example of manifest public disrespect for a sitting president than the hair-curling contempt with which Romney invested those words. (I've certainly never seen one from another candidate.) He's lucky Barack Obama prizes cool over everything else. LBJ would have taken out his heart with a pair of salad tongs and Harry Truman would have bitten off his nose.

It was totally shocking. I think this is actually part of Mitt's real personality. He has absolutely no use for anybody who is not in his social class. Not even Obama's tendency to be an elitist snob is good enough for Mitt. Obama didn't play the snob last night and wouldn't have been a match for a real snob anyway.

I'd hate to work for Mitt.

Romney Lost the Election (?)

or, the second presidential debate:

The End

This may be the end of the line for Mitt Romney:

"Bainport"

The sad thing about all of this is "outsourcing" to China and other low-wage countries has been going on for years, but only now is anybody talking about it. That's because a presidential candidate who has made "his" fortune off of the misfortune of others is involved.

People like Romney never would have gotten filthy rich if Congress hadn't allowed it to happen.

But, in the midst of the 2012 presidential election, Freeport is different. For Sensata is majority-owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm once led by Mitt Romney, that has become a hugely controversial symbol of how the modern globalised American economy works. Indeed, Romney still owns millions of dollars of shares in the Bain funds that own Sensata.

So as Sensata strips out costs by sacking American workers in favour of Chinese ones, the value of Romney's own investments could rise, putting money into the pockets of a Republican challenger who has placed job creation in America at the heart of his bid for the White House.

It actually disqualifies him from public office, for there is an inherent conflict of interest. It would be as if Mitt had dual citizenship in both China and the United States.

Obama's Illinois pension has investments in Sensata, but that is hardly the same thing at all. Obama has no control over how that money is invested, unlike Mitt and his (former) company.

More Videos About "Bainport"

Since Mitt profits from the closing and offshoring, this should disqualify him from the presidency. I mean, which country is he loyal to: this country or China?




From August is a group of employees commenting on Mitt's notorious "47-percent" video:




Another reason I call him a "parasite" rather than a "successful businessman."

Some background info about the situation is here.

And this is the bigger picture:

But there is a twist to the Asimco story that would not fit neatly into a Romney stump speech: Since 2010, it has been owned by Bain Capital, the private equity firm founded by Mr. Romney, who has as much as $2.25 million invested in three Bain funds with large stakes in Asimco and at least seven other Chinese businesses, according to his 2012 candidate financial disclosure and other documents.

That and other China-related holdings by Bain funds in which Mr. Romney has invested are a reminder of how he inhabits two worlds that at times have come into conflict during his campaign for the White House.

As a candidate, Mr. Romney uses China as a punching bag. He accuses Beijing of unfairly subsidizing Chinese exports, artificially holding down the value of its currency to keep exports cheap, stealing American technology and hacking into corporate and government computers.

“How is it China’s been so successful in taking away our jobs?” he asked recently. “Well, let me tell you how: by cheating.”

But his private equity dealings, both while he headed Bain and since, complicate that message.

It's the conflict of interest that is so bad, the hypocrisy.

He should be automatically disqualified to be president.

"Bainport"

This should be the end of Mitt's presidential quest, but I doubt it would hurt him at all. Mitt apparently still benefits from this closing and offshoring:

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Why I Don't Trust Bloggers With "Breaking News"

It's more like breaking wind, especially when somebody decides to make shit up.

It's very obvious Mitt had a handkerchief at the very beginning of the debate. Here is a slo-mo of the "questionable" item he put on the podium after he shook hands with Obama:



Obama likely had one himself. It is hotter than hell under those lights.

Even if Mitt had notes, which of course he didn't, that doesn't account for Obama's brain-dead performance.

The blogger who came up with this "investigation" ought to be ashamed of herself.

Obama's Lackluster Performance

Although the brickbats from the media against Obama's blah performance in Wednesday night's "debate" have been toned down a bit, overall the pundits remain aghast Obama could be so invisible, so wimpy.

But, as the WSWS notes here, Obama has ALWAYS been this way. It's just the mainstream media, intoxicated with the Wall Street-backed Obama, painted him as the greatest orator and debater who ever walked the earth, somebody who was the second coming of MLK, Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and RFK all rolled into one. The man himself was hardly anything to write home about: he was and is an o.k. orator though not any Mario Cuomo and a middling debater who prefers the low-key lecture style to bombast. He doesn't promise to be any better in the next two debates, either. It's just not his style.

I expect more wringing of hands by his fan club.

Far worse, though, than the style was the content. Obama lied about what he intended to do about Social Security, didn't tell the truth about his catfood commission (aka Simpson-Bowles), and continued with his trashing of public education and the teaching profession. What is truly bizarre about the whole thing is that Mitt, for all of his Tea Party pandering, is actually to the LEFT of Obama when one factors in Mitt's record as governor of Massachusetts. Early in his career he said he considered himself a progressive, shocking coming from a Republican but he was actually coming from a long tradition of moderate-to-liberal northeastern and midwestern Republicans that mostly died out after Reagan became president in 1981. His own father was from that tradition and so were many other great Republican politicians. Unfortunately, the party was hijacked by the John Birch crazies, and the party has gone totally batshit crazy in the years since Reagan. I could have lived with Mitt as president if he hadn't put a lunatic ex-personal trainer on the ticket with him. Romney could have actually run to the LEFT of Obama and walked away with the presidency had he had a normal, intelligent running mate, for millions upon millions of people who are not Republicans are fed up with Obama's constant selling out to Wall Street and billionaire interests.

The tragedy is the Democratic Party is now a hollow shell of what it once was thanks to the infiltration of neolibs like Obama who do NOT belong in the party in the first place.

WSWS:

In the debate, however, the real Obama was on display: a man with no significant political background or career, much less independent ideas. An individual who had passed through no real struggles before he was picked up and promoted as the symbol of “change,” while remaining a loyal servant of the state.
No doubt, for someone whose meteoric political rise has depended on rich patrons, being roundly attacked by someone from that social layer was disconcerting.

It is impossible, however, to explain the performance witnessed by 70 million Americans by focusing solely on the political tactics devised by Democratic Party spin doctors or the personality traits of the nonentity in the White House. Like any significant political event, the course of the US presidential election can be grasped only through an analysis of the social forces at work. Only by considering the essential class role of the Democratic Party can Obama’s failure to take the offensive against Romney be understood.

The Democratic Party, like the Republican, is a political instrument of the financial aristocracy that rules America. It has not the slightest independence from the capitalist ruling elite. That does not, however, make the two parties identical. They play distinct, albeit complementary, political roles.

They do, however, have identical goals, just different ways of expressing them. The GOP will tell you right to your face that they plan to ruin your life to further enrich the leeches at the top, while the Democratic Party will knife you in the back for those same leeches in the name of "reform."

The solution is not a third party but a real SECOND PARTY. Someday I would like to see a unification of the various "left" third parties encouraging real Democratic politicians to join forces with them and become such a force that the neolibs poisoning the Democratic Party would be kicked out or the party marginalized altogether.

Election Etc.

The problem is Obama came across as too cautious, too wimpy.

We KNOW Mitt came across as a rude, arrogant, smirking shit, almost a Ted Bundy caricature. He lied his ass off, but Obama did nothing but sit there like a bump on a log. Obama also did his share of lying, especially about Social Security.

As I said before, the only winners of last night's debate were Stein and Anderson.

It remains to be seen whether Obama's almost invisible performance last night was a stroke of genius or hurts him in the polls. Already there is negative blowback against Romney's countless lies.

Why the Debate Was Better With the Sound Off

Many people are trying to explain why Obama seemed to just sit there like a bump on a log while Romney was lying his ass off. It's because Obama wasn't prepared to face a Romney who was willing to say anything, even contradicting himself in a number of places, to do much about it.

I have also heard the theory Obama was playing it safe since he is in the lead and wanted Mitt to hang himself so that Mitt's lies could be used in ads.

Whatever the reason, the debate was better with the sound off.

Because Democrats Are So Eager for Those Corporate Dollars,

they have been willing to sell their party--and by extension the American people--down the river in pursuit of those funds. And because the party's standardbearer, Obama, is all too willing to implement everything in the right-wing agenda, the party has alienated enough people that somebody like Mitt Romney, the very symbol of what has caused the world economy to melt down, could actually have a chance of winning the presidency:

The fact that Barack Obama needed a Himalayan mountain range of cash and some rather extreme last-minute incompetence on Romney's part to pull safely ahead in this race is what really speaks to the brokenness of this system. Bruni of the Times is right that the process scares away qualified candidates who could have given Obama a better run for all that money. But what he misses is that the brutal campaign process, with its two years of nearly constant media abuse and "gotcha" watch-dogging, serves mainly to select out any candidate who is considered anything like a threat to the corrupt political establishment – and that selection process is the only thing that has kept this race close.

Barack Obama is hardly a complete Wall Street stooge. The country's most powerful bankers seem genuinely to hate his guts, mainly because they're delusional and are sincerely offended by anyone who dares to even generally criticize them for being greedy or ethically suspect, as Obama has with his occasional broadsides against "fat cat bankers" and so on.

On the other hand, Obama's policy choices in the last four years have made it impossible for him to run aggressively against the corruption and greed and generally self-obsessed, almost cinematic douchiness that Romney represents.

With 300 million possible entrants in the race, how did we end up with two guys who would both refuse to bring a single case against a Wall Street bank during a period of epic corruption? How did we end up with two guys who refuse to repeal the carried-interest tax break? How did we end with two guys who supported a vast program of bailouts with virtually no conditions attached to them? Citigroup has had so many people running policy in the Obama White House, they should open a branch in the Roosevelt Room. It's not as bad as it would be in a Romney presidency, but it comes close.

How can I even argue with this? Our political system is completely broken, and I am not sure it can be salvaged anymore thanks to the legalized bribery of public officials.