Mitt Romney

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“We’re Experiencing The Best Year In Our History”

January 5, 2015 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

You get the feeling sometimes that people with money aren’t necessarily very good at economics, or perhaps their politics are more informed by ego and privilege than reality. The U.S. economy does not have to be a zero-sum game as some seem to think.

From death panels to massive layoffs to runaway inflation, many threats have been leveled at President Obama’s policies, particularly during the 2012 election, by the Romneys, Palins, Trumps, Fiorinas, Wynns and Welchs of the world. From a Hamilton Nolan Gawker post about Westgate Resorts CEO David Siegel, who said he’d be forced to fire all his employees if Obama was reelected:

“Siegel—also known for being the subject of the documentary The Queen of Versailles about his doomed attempt to build himself and his wife America’s largest house—did not end up firing everyone directly after Obama won the election. But what about now, two years later? The pernicious effects of Obama’s socialistic policies have had ample time to take hold. What horrible fate has now been visited upon Siegel’s employees after the Obama administration has see to it that he is thoroughly ‘taxed to death,’ as Siegel warned in his letter?

In October, Siegel raised his company’s minimum pay to $10 an hour. ‘We’re experiencing the best year in our history,’ Siegel said.”

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“Mrs. Clinton Will Begin The General Election With A Head Start”

December 31, 2014 in Excerpts, Politics | Permalink

If the overall American economy continues to brighten over the next two years, particularly employment and wage growth, a couple of very different potential candidates for the Presidency almost surely have no chance: Mitt Romney and Elizabeth Warren. The former’s greatest claim, valid or not, is that he’s a money man who can turn things around; the latter is seen as a populist who can dismantle and reorganize a failed system. Should another recession occur, however, particularly a second Great Recession, protest candidates of all sorts are back on the table.

In “FT Predictions: The World in 2015,” Edward Luce answers the most obvious question about the next U.S. national election:

“Will a serious rival emerge to Hillary Clinton in 2015?

No. We will not know the name of the Republican nominee until 2016. Even then, he — there are no female hopefuls among the 20 or so names doing the rounds — will be so bruised that Mrs Clinton will begin the general election with a head start.

In the Democratic field, she will be challenged by one or two second-tier candidates, such as James Webb, the former Virginia senator, and Martin O’Malley, the outgoing governor of Maryland. But Mrs Clinton will keep her grip on the primaries. Her only real threat, Elizabeth Warren, the populist senator from Massachusetts, will decline to run in spite of strong urging from the liberal left. When it comes to it, Ms Warren will not want to stand in the path of the election of America’s first female president.”

 

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“Any Remaining Balance That’s There At The End Of 2017 We’ll Pay Off As A Balloon Payment”

March 12, 2013 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

During the first Presidential debate last year, the one where Mitt Romney was supposedly so brilliant, he asserted that half of the clean-tech companies President Obama had invested stimulus money in had gone belly up. Not even close. Tesla Motors was one of the businesses he was talking about. They’ve just announced they’re expediting their loan-repayment schedule. From Alan Ohnsman at Bloomberg:

“Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), which received $465 million in U.S. Energy Department loans to develop and build electric cars, will repay the funds five years ahead of schedule in a plan approved by the government.

The carmaker said in its annual report yesterday that the department approved amended terms of the loan agreements that enable it to complete repayment by December 2017. Starting in 2015, the Palo Alto, California-based company will make accelerated payments from excess free cash flow, Chief Financial Officer Deepak Ahuja said in a telephone interview.

‘Any remaining balance that’s there at the end of 2017 we’ll pay off as a balloon payment,’ Ahuja said yesterday.

The maker of battery-powered Model S sedans, led by billionaire Elon Musk, has a goal of becoming profitable this quarter, with deliveries of the vehicle forecast to rise to a record 20,000 units in 2013. Production snags in last year’s second half boosted operating expenses and triggered a wider fourth-quarter loss for Tesla than analysts anticipated.

The original terms required repayment of the loans by 2022, 10 years after the funds were drawn down. Tesla said on Sept. 25 that it was working with the Energy Department on a modified repayment schedule. Amended terms of the loan agreements were registered on Dec. 20 and March 1, the company said yesterday.”

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“She Has Been Crying In Private And Trying To Get Back To Riding Her Horses”

December 3, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech | Permalink

You can file Ann Romney being too distraught to ride her horses after her husband’s election loss  as the type of problem that well-fed, privileged people have, and you’d be right. But there’s something more at play neurologically, something that pertains to us all. We sometimes convince ourselves that life is going to be a certain way. It becomes our reality, even if it isn’t a reality yet. Perhaps it’s the repetition of chemical reactions, but we manage to hardwire our brain in a certain direction. Sometimes trauma can knock us out of this mindset in an instant. But usually it’s a slow mourning, a deliberate process.

From a really good Washington Post piece by Philip Rucker about the new normal facing the Romneys post-campaign:

“The defeated Republican nominee has practically disappeared from public view since his loss, exhibiting the same detachment that made it so difficult for him to connect with the body politic through six years of running for president. He has made no public comments since his concession speech in the early hours of Nov. 7 and avoided the press last week during a private lunch with President Obama at the White House. Through an aide, Romney declined an interview request for this story.

After Romney told his wealthy donors that he blamed his loss on ‘gifts’ Obama gave to minority groups, his functionaries were unrepentant and Republican luminaries effectively cast him out. Few of the policy ideas he promoted are even being discussed in Washington.

‘Nothing so unbecame his campaign as his manner of leaving it,’ said Robert Shrum, a senior strategist on Democratic presidential campaigns. ‘I don’t think he’ll ever be a significant figure in public life again.’

Yet friends insist Romney is not bitter. Bitterness, said one member of the family, ‘is not in the Romney genetic code.’

One longtime counselor contrasted Romney with former vice president Al Gore, whose weight gain and beard became a symbol of grievance over his 2000 loss. ‘You won’t see heavyset, haggard Mitt,’ he said. Friends say a snapshot-gone-viral showing a disheveled Romney pumping gas is just how he looks without a suit on his frame or gel in his hair.

‘He’s not a poor loser,’ said John Miller, a meatpacking magnate who co-chaired Romney’s finance committee and owns the beach house next door. ‘He’s not crying on anybody’s shoulders. He’s not blaming anybody. . . . He’s doing a lot of personal introspection about the whole process — and I’m not even sure that’s healthy. There’s nothing you can do about it now.’

By all accounts, the past month has been most difficult on Romney’s wife, Ann, who friends said believed up until the end that ascending to the White House was their destiny. They said she has been crying in private and trying to get back to riding her horses.”

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Thoughts About The Final Presidential Debate

October 23, 2012 in Politics | Permalink

The last one. Thank you, Sweet Baby Jesus. I love politics but hate debates. I won’t go into that again.

  • Obviously a good night for President Obama. Any sitting President should have an advantage in the foreign-policy debate due to daily briefings and constant decision-making. But this is a particular weak spot for Governor Romney, so the gap was wider than usual. Segments of the debate felt like they were scripted by the Obama team. And I just don’t mean Obama’s parts. It wasn’t pretty for Romney.
  • Romney has maintained a strategy from the start he can run for President while running away from myself. He wants the election to be a referendum of the President while keeping himself hidden in an account in the Caymans. He backed off that stance when choosing Paul Ryan for a running mate and it looked for a moment like the race would be a battle of ideologies. But returned Ryan was quickly stifled, and Romney returned to the safer course. He only went for broke in the first debate because he had no other choice. Last night he was inordinately safe and deferential to the President, hoping once again that a weak economy will lift him.
  • Why did Romney change course in the final debate? There could be several reasons. •He was trying to run out the clock on a topic he’s uncomfortable with. •He thinks foreign policy won’t matter at all in this race (and perhaps he’s right). •He was told that his aggression and disrespectful tone was causing the gender gap to grow to unacceptable levels (which it has). But he’s kidding himself if he thinks that female voters are turned off by the GOP merely because of style. It’s really the content that’s the problem. •The criticism about his disrespectful attitude got to him. Romney isn’t the kind of person who wants to think of himself that way. •Or maybe just maybe, he had a bad night, like the President did during the first debate. The candidates have a travel and speaking schedule that is brutal. (And the incumbent is also running the country in the meanwhile.) I couldn’t handle a fraction of their schedule. I’d get fussy. I’d have to be put down for a nap.
  • Never in my lifetime has there been a candidate for either party at the Presidential level who’s morphed and changed so frequently and so dramatically as Romney. Usually they’re a little more to the left or the right during the primaries to appeal to the base and then move to the middle. But there are strong convictions within. Romney is the Oakland of political candidates: There is no there there. For a candidate to completely change course on major issues two weeks before the election is unheard of. It’s unprecedented as well as un-Presidential.
  • The Presidential debate moderator position has during this election cycle become equivalent to Oscar hosting chores–no one wants to do it but someone always will because it’s prestigious. The expectations of what can actually be accomplished in 90 minutes has to be tempered. If we don’t already know the two candidates by the time of the debates the fault lies with us.
  • With two weeks to go, Obama has a clear if not huge edge. Romney won’t have much of a chance to change the game going forward, so his campaign organization will have to be superior if he’s going to win.

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“Of The Many Secret Post-Victory Plans Floating Around…The Least Secret Is Romney’s Intention To Implement Paul Ryan’s Budget”

October 15, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics | Permalink

Two quick excerpts from Jonathan Chait’s just-published New York piece about the post-election agendas of Mitt Romney and President Obama:

Romney’s plan:

“Let’s first imagine that, on January 20, Romney takes the oath of office. Of the many secret post-victory plans floating around in the inner circles of the campaigns, the least secret is Romney’s intention to implement Paul Ryan’s budget. The Ryan budget has come to be almost synonymous with the Republican Party agenda, and Romney has embraced it with only slight variations. It would repeal Obamacare, cut income-tax rates, turn Medicare for people under 55 years old into subsidized private insurance, increase defense spending, and cut domestic spending, with especially large cuts for Medicaid, food stamps, and other programs targeted to the very poor.

Few voters understand just how rapidly Romney could achieve this, rewriting the American social compact in one swift stroke. Ryan’s plan has never attracted Democratic support, but it is not designed for bipartisanship. Ryan deliberately built it to circumvent a Senate filibuster, stocking the plan with budget legislation that is allowed, under Senate ‘budget reconciliation’ procedures, to pass with a simple majority. Republicans have been planning the mechanics of the vote for many months, and Republican insiders expect Romney to use reconciliation to pass the bill. Republicans would still need to control 50 votes in the Senate (Ryan, as vice-president, would cast the tiebreaking vote), but if Romney wins the presidency, he’ll likely precipitate a partywide tail wind that would extend to the GOP’s Senate slate.”

Obama’s plan:

“On the morning of November 7, a reelected President Obama will do … nothing. For the next 53 days, nothing. And then, on January 1, 2013, we will all awake to a different, substantially more liberal country. The Bush tax cuts will have disappeared, restoring Clinton-era tax rates and flooding government coffers with revenue to fund its current operations for years to come. The military will be facing dire budget cuts that shake the military-industrial complex to its core. It will be a real-world approximation of the old liberal bumper-sticker fantasy in which schools have all the money they require and the Pentagon needs to hold a bake sale.

All this can come to pass because, while Obama has spent the last two years surrendering short-term policy concessions, he has been quietly hoarding a fortune in the equivalent of a political trust fund that comes due on the first of the year. At that point, he will reside in a political world he finds at most mildly uncomfortable and the Republicans consider a hellish dystopia. Then he’ll be ready to make a deal.”

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“The American Dream Has Become A Myth”

October 5, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

The best and brightest people I’ve met in my life haven’t been the most successful ones. America doesn’t work that way now. It probably never did, but it seems to be getting worse. What people believe to be a promise has become, at best, a lottery ticket.

I watched Carly Fiorina on TV the other day extolling Mitt Romney’s great command of facts and figures at the first Presidential debate. Like, say, his assertion that half of the clean tech companies that the President invested stimulus money in had gone belly up. Except that isn’t close to the truth. From what I can gather, more than 90% of those companies have thus far been successful. That’s an amazing rate. Far better than Romney’s record at Bain and far, far better than Fiorina’s lousy tenure at Hewlett-Packard. I’m all for inventors and creators and builders making good, but you have to question a system that so richly rewards an executive like Fiorina, who contributes little, or Romney, who doesn’t acknowledge he had a huge advantage in a very uneven playing field because of family money and connections. The disconnect between such people and most Americans is enormous.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz has been calling bullshit on the situation for some time now. From a recent Q&A with him at Spiegel: 

“Spiegel: 

The US has always thought of itself as a land of opportunity where people can go from rags to riches. What has become of the American dream?

Stiglitz:

This belief is still powerful, but the American dream has become a myth. The life chances of a young US citizen are more dependent on the income and education of his parents than in any other advanced industrial country for which there is data. The belief in the American dream is reinforced by anecdotes, by dramatic examples of individuals who have made it from the bottom to the top — but what matters most are an individual’s life chances. The belief in the American dream is not supported by the data.

Spiegel: 

What do the numbers suggest?

Stiglitz:

There has been no improvement in well-being for the typical American family for 20 years. On the other side, the top one percent of the population gets 40 percent more in one week than the bottom fifth receive in a full year. In short, we have become a divided society. America has created a marvelous economic machine, but most of the benefits have gone to the top.”

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“We Expect Tesla To Become Cash Flow Positive At The End Of Next Month”

October 4, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

For a guy who grew up in Michigan, Mitt Romney sure hates auto manufacturers. He would have killed off Detroit, and now he uses Elon’s Musk’s Tesla Motors as a curse word. Anyone who is rooting against Tesla for political or other reasons–an American company that provides really good jobs and a cleaner future–is dead wrong. I assumed Musk would push back after last night’s debate and recent negative news stories about his electric car company. From his new release:

“Most importantly, what did not come across well was that we raised the funds simply for risk reduction. Barring any disasters internally or with suppliers, Tesla is actually on the verge of becoming cash flow positive and will not have to spend any of the money raised, at least until we embark upon a major new vehicle program. In the public call with investors, I tried to make this point, but perhaps should have emphasized it more: we expect Tesla to become cash flow positive at the end of next month.

However, given that we do have a global supply chain and that floods, fires, hurricanes or earthquakes can cause supply chain interruptions and halt production, we thought it would make sense to raise capital to protect against such an event. In fact, an important consideration in doing this financing round was that we went through just such a crisis recently with a supplier that had a flood in their factory. This caused a shortfall in shipments and delayed production until we could find another solution.

As for the reduced vehicle delivery guidance in Q3 and Q4 of this year, it is unfortunate that we are at the steepest portion of our production ramp. This gives the appearance of being much further behind than we actually are. Our production rate in the last week of September was roughly 100 vehicles, four times greater than our production in the first week of September as we overcame supply constraints. If the calendar were simply shifted a few weeks to the right, Tesla would have exceeded the 500 vehicle delivery target for the third quarter. In fact, I am pleased to report that we completed production of 359 vehicles last quarter (delivering over 250 of those to customers) and have already made our 500th vehicle body. While we are indeed a few weeks later than we would like, this is perhaps not a terrible outcome for a product as advanced and complex as the Model S, particularly given that Tesla is doing manufacturing of full vehicles for the first time with a new team and new suppliers.”

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Thoughts About Last Night’s Presidential Debate

October 4, 2012 in Politics | Permalink

Am I the only one who doesn’t give a shit about Presidential debates?

Mitt Romney lied aggressively last night and tried to disappear all of his draconian promises to the far right in regards to minorities, seniors, women and the impoverished. The President looked listless early on and didn’t mention “47%.” So now I’m supposed to change my vote? Other people are supposed to change their votes? The decision should be based on Obama’s four years in the White House and Romney’s record as governor and his performance during the last two election cycles. Some of the same TV jugheads who handed the election to Obama after the DNC were inaugurating Romney last night. Pundits are largely reactionary stooges who crave drama more than anything else. It gets them to their next paycheck.

Some other stuff:

  • Romney talked about caring about poor people, something that would have been brave if he’d done it during the Republican primary or behind closed doors to wealthy donors. But he didn’t. He’s the same opportunist and moral coward as ever.
  • Romney spoke about the U.S. Constitution as if it were a divine document, which is ridiculous. He is hardly alone in this bullshit. Politicians of all stripes feel the need to behave this way. Pointing out that our forefathers were brilliant but deeply flawed has become sacrilege. But allowing slavery wasn’t exactly an inspired or “perfect” idea.
  • I’m sure Obama wanted to play defense, especially considering he has more female support and some research shows that confrontational debating can be a turnoff to a good part of that section of the electorate. But I think you’ll see a much more forceful performance next time.
  • Jim Lehrer has eyes like an owl. They give me nightmares.

“Hoot hoot.”

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“It May Also Bring His Opposition, The GOP, Back To The Center”

September 24, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech | Permalink

I’m still unconvinced that an Obama victory in November, even a deep one, will move the GOP back toward the center. I don’t believe that the Republican stalwarts (William Kristol, Peggy Noonan, Charles Krauthammer, etc.) realize that it’s not only the messenger who’s flawed but the message. Tax cuts for the wealthy, causing racial division, supply-side economics and voter suppression may seem like good ideas in conservative think-tanks, but the people aren’t buying it anymore. The Gingrich-Rove playbook, the one that says you can sell Americans anything provided you use the exact right phrasing, is dead. In a time of unfettered media, there are too many fact-checkers. And nostalgia for an America that never existed isn’t appealing to a changing population. It really is morning in America now, not because of the past but because of the future. And a lot of GOP bigwigs are trying to turn back a broken clock. From Andrew Sullivan in Newsweek:

“If Obama wins, to put it bluntly, he will become the Democrats’ Reagan. The narrative writes itself. He will emerge as an iconic figure who struggled through a recession and a terrorized world, reshaping the economy within it, passing universal health care, strafing the ranks of al -Qaeda, presiding over a civil-rights revolution, and then enjoying the fruits of the recovery. To be sure, the Obama recovery isn’t likely to have the same oomph as the one associated with Reagan—who benefited from a once-in-a-century cut of top income tax rates (from 70 percent to, at first, 50 percent, and then to 28 percent) as well as a huge jump in defense spending at a time when the national debt was much, much less of a burden. But Obama’s potential for Reagan status (maybe minus the airport-naming) is real. Yes, Bill Clinton won two terms and is a brilliant pol bar none, as he showed in Charlotte in the best speech of both conventions. But the crisis Obama faced on his first day—like the one Reagan faced—was far deeper than anything Clinton confronted, and the future upside therefore is much greater. And unlike Clinton’s constant triangulating improvisation, Obama has been playing a long, strategic game from the very start—a long game that will only truly pay off if he gets eight full years to see it through. That game is not only changing America. It may also bring his opposition, the GOP, back to the center, just as Reagan indelibly moved the Democrats away from the far left.”

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5 Things About Mitt Romney’s RNC Speech

August 31, 2012 in Politics | Permalink

Mitt Romney: Face smooth like baby’s ass.

  • Although the final night of the RNC was most notable for saving us all admission on The Expendables 14, and, perhaps, the last gasp of fake tough guys convincing Americans they know best, Mitt Romney tried to show his feminine side. He romanced the ladies in the audience with tales of his parents’ loving relationship. He said it all with honey in his voice. It was like watching Neil Diamond in 1978 (though Neil never wanted women to put an aspirin between their knees). And then he blew his cover at the end with his asinine mocking of attempts at reversing “rising oceans” and “healing the Earth” as if female voters–and most voters, actually–think the health of the planet is grist for an obnoxious punchline.
  • The line about Obama raising taxes on the middle class was patently false and there were other doozies, though Romney’s speech was nowhere close to Paul Ryan’s in terms of mendacity.
  • However, Romney’s idea that everyone in the country rallied around Obama after he became President was absurd. There is proof that the GOP gathered before he was inaugurated to plan obstructionist action. 
  • Romney spent far too much time polishing this speech to have not intended a double meaning with his “you need an American” line. It was another Birther jab. Sad stuff from a guy who claims to have pulled over to the side of the road and wept when Mormons undid their racist beliefs about African-Americans.
  • Not incredibly important, just an observation about double standards: Occasionally male politicians are called out for the cosmetic nature of their looks–Ronald Reagan’s hair color, John Kerry’s Botox–but women are always called out on such things. And even about their clothes. Can you imagine if a 65-year-old woman at the top of a ticket had a smoother face than her VP candidate, who was 42 and a health-and-fitness devotee? I’m assuming a few things would be said whether they’re true or not.

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About Governor Chris Christie’s Keynote Address

August 29, 2012 in Politics | Permalink

Chris Christie: 2% doesn’t taste the same. (Image by Luigi Novi.)

The most ridiculous moment from Chris Christie’s tone-deaf, masturbatory Keynote Address last night was his assertion that Mitt Romney will tell America “hard truths.” Romney has done absolutely the opposite during this campaign, pledging tax cuts for the wealthiest, a return to a Cold War military budget and yet a reduction in the budget. 

What Christie really is saying is the usual right-wing, supply-side nonsense: Unions, working-class people, seniors and poor people have to sacrifice more while the wealthiest will get larger tax breaks. The pain will not be evenly distributed. I would put aside the unfairness of such an arrangement if it actually worked, but it doesn’t. Nothing trickles down.

If you truly want to help impoverished people, there’s a blueprint. Don’t take away their Medicaid and food stamps. Don’t treat them like they’re evil. Start to replicate in other locations what Geoffrey Canada has done with the Harlem Children’s Zone and make a real investment in those born to poverty. The program works, but it requires work and money across generations. That’s the hard truth.

But it’s easier to be a fake tough guy spouting lies, asking the vulnerable to tighten their belts. And this coming from a guy who won’t even give up whole milk.•

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Quick Thoughts About The Paul Ryan VP Selection

August 13, 2012 in Politics | Permalink

Paul Ryan: P90X + social engineering. (Image by Gage Skidmore.)

  • A very poor choice by Mitt Romney. It was clear he was trailing and the gulf was widening, so I can understand the need for a bold stroke (though Americans have yet to vote for the bottom of any Presidential ticket.) But nearly every fear about Romney’s callousness (real or imagined) has been heightened with Ryan by his side, lugging along his magic numbers which soak the poor. Romney gets his stated wish now and becomes a “severe conservative.”
  • No matter what happens on planet Earth between now and the election, there’s a clear path to victory for President Obama. (Vote for me and avoid another supply-side juggernaut.) The final jobs reports become almost an afterthought. The onus is no longer on the President, but on Romney-Ryan to explain how their draconian economics wouldn’t devastate our most vulnerable.
  • Even though this is largely an election about our economy, it’s pretty much a slam dunk for Team Obama on international issues. The American people largely approve of the way the President has handled things abroad. On the other side, you have essentially no experience or vision. Read every word that has been uttered by Romney and Ryan since the announcement, and see how many times they’ve mentioned the world beyond our borders. Romney no longer has to run for President by running away from himself, but he and Ryan will both have to scramble from their lack of foreign-policy credentials.
  • Romney immediately tried to paint Ryan as someone who can work across the aisle and get results. Big mistake. In 13 years, Ryan has accomplished almost nothing of practical value–just two meaningless bills. It would be better for Romney to depict his running mate as a Moynihan-ish big-picture wonk who is light on real-world results because he’s been busy crafting something visionary.
  • When I posted a few days ago about people exhibiting self-delusion, I could have easily added Ryan to the mix. He has to be intelligent enough to know that his policies would cause real damage to our most vulnerable. How does he disassociate himself from that and think himself a decent person? If he really believes that his numbers add up, he is a lousy mathematician.
  • The GOP can point out that Obama has already taken money from Medicare as Ryan plans to, but taking money from Medicare to provide universal health care is not the same thing as taking money from Medicare to provide Romney with 10,000 more square feet on his new house. That’s the Ryan plan.
  • The media has rightly said that the election has now shifted from one of referendum to one of mandate, but just because it’s an ideological contest doesn’t mean post-election America will be any less marked by obstructionism. I don’t see that going away in the near future.
  • The biggest non-story of the weekend was how Romney was able to fool everyone and keep his veep pick a secret. Everybody knew about the choice before he made the announcement, so I wouldn’t say that’s accurate. But even if he had kept it completely quiet, who the fuck cares? It changes not one vote, one opinion, moves nothing. Brian Williams, a consummate entertainer, might be interested in this kind of nonsense, but the air time could have been better used.•

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About Recent Examples Of Delusional Behavior

July 31, 2012 in Misc. | Permalink

Dick Cheney: Unqualified, unprofessional, unrepentant.

Ego is blinding, and none of us are immune. But life allows some examples to be writ large.

  • Dick Cheney said this weekend that Sarah Palin wasn’t qualified to be Vice President, and who can argue? A few people in powerful positions in the media seem to think they can still make a buck off her obnoxious idiocy, though they’re pretty much alone at this point. But you know who else wasn’t prepared for the job? Dick Cheney. Because of his arrogant incompetence, thousands of our soldiers and tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of Iraqi civilians died. Yet he goes around smugly believing he’s an incredibly accomplished person, free to judge the qualifications of others. Cheney is still the textbook example of why you hire a person, not a résumé.
  • Mayor Mike Bloomberg wants to keep New Yorkers from drinking extra-large sodas, but he has said little or nothing about declaring war on toxic Wall Street products. He would probably assert that he is capable of legislating against the former but not the latter, but that argument doesn’t wash. As owner of Bloomberg News and mayor of America’s finance center, he should have been a relentless advocate for cleaning up Wall Street. Since the financial sector cratered our economy, he’s been largely silent about white-collar criminals, reducing himself to a highly selective technocrat who is oblivious to things that make him personally uncomfortable. I guess you can’t expect much more from someone who circumvented the free vote of the people and made a handshake deal with another billionaire behind closed doors to enable a third term for himself.
  • Mitt Romney thinks himself a good and moral person, but how can someone believe that while working to take health insurance away from more than 30 millions at-risk Americans? It doesn’t add up. If he gets his way, people who wouldn’t have died will die.
  • Sad to hear about Jonah Lehrer’s complete unraveling at the New Yorker. He’s obviously a bright and gifted person, but one with deep flaws of a seemingly pathological nature. I hope he figures out the bad stuff and can proceed with the good, though he needs to permanently step away from journalism. I always pause when people are lavishly rewarded at a young age, before they’ve had a chance to fail and struggle. The praise can freeze still-developing people in time, encouraging their gifts but also their flaws. Why change and grow when their behavior has led them to great heights so quickly? It seems dangerous to grant approval before time has been able to complete the growth (and vetting) process.•

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“I’m Curious If Everyone Is Really Just Fretting About What Amounts To Overkill”

June 8, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

I can’t find it now, but I read a study at one point about the diminishing returns of high-payroll baseball teams that decided to spend even more money. It was a convincing case that past a certain point, you were going to get very little bang for your buck, that you wouldn’t really see any more wins for that final splurge or two. I wonder, if this is true, if it applies to politics as well. I know the DNC fears that Mitt Romney will have more money to spend than President Obama (and he most certainly will), but since they’ll both be running “high-payroll teams,” since they’ll both be funded very well, will this disparity really be the difference? It’s not like one will be outspending the other 2 to 1 let alone 10 to 1. I suppose a quarter or a half of a percent can be a big deal in a close election, but I’m curious if everyone is really just fretting about what amounts to overkill.•

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Other Hate Crimes Mitt Romney Can Commit, In Addition To Forcibly Barbering Gay Teens

May 14, 2012 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

Mitt Romney: Because towel-snapping just wasn't erotic enough. (Image by Jessica Rinaldi.)

It was reported last week that when Mitt Romney was eighteen (or close to it) he arranged the gang humiliation of a fellow student. The boy had longish blond hair and appeared to perhaps be gay. So Mitt Romney got some friends together and they pinned this boy down on the ground and cut his hair against his will. A lot of media people are dismissing the act, as if this square-headed robot from the 1950s pushed someone when he was 12 or called someone a bad name. HE COMMITTED A HATE CRIME! It was a criminal assault. You know those well-intentioned but misguided “It Gets Better” ads? The ones aimed at gay kids, promising them that eventually other people will stop punching them, instead of, say, being aimed at parents who are raising vicious creeps? Mitt Romney is the unseen thug in those ads beating up the kids for being different. Mitt Romney is very lucky he didn’t attack someone in a similar fashion today in Florida. They have this Stand Your Ground law which allows those being attacked to defend themselves with firearms. People in Florida are shot for doing much less than 18-year-old Romney did. Some of them are shot for no reason at all.

I’m sure other people who’ve became President committed hate crimes in their youths. Perhaps Millard Fillmore strangled a tranny prostitute for giving him tuberculosis. But at least we didn’t know about those histories. We know for sure that Mitt Romney, who could become our President, is a huge, bullying asshole.

But why should Mitt Romney’s hate crimes be limited to his youth? Here are some other ones he can commit now:

Murder the Entire City of Detroit: Oh wait, he already did that.

Converting a Guy to a Religion Against His Will: Oh wait, he already did that.

Not Giving a Crap About Very Poor People: Oh wait, he already did that.

Vice President Joe Biden: Accidentally outed an entire nation.

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Other posts labeled “Humor” that seemed funny at the time:

  • Lady Gaga urinates on home plate at Yankee Stadium.

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One More Thing About Arianna Huffington’s “Despicable” Comment

May 2, 2012 in Politics | Permalink

"The Huffington Post": A few good journalists, many posts about tits. (Image by David Shankbone.)

In regards to my post yesterday that criticized Arianna Huffington calling President Obama’s campaign ad about the killing of bin Laden “despicable”: You can always tell when someone has a weak argument when they create a straw man to defeat. From Huffington:

“There are many legitimate and important policy differences between Governor Romney and President Obama — but the depth of Mitt Romney’s patriotism is not one of them.”

What nonsense. The ad in no way questions Mitt Romney’s patriotism, just his judgement. And that question is valid considering the Governor’s 2007 comments on the matter. If you can’t defeat the truth, stack the deck and defeat a fiction.

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Some Thoughts About The Furor Surrounding President Obama’s Campaign Ad About Bin Laden

May 1, 2012 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Swims with the fishes.

•In regards Obama questioning whether Mitt Romney would have made the call to enter Pakistan and kill Osama bin Laden, it’s based on factual statements that Romney made which were not taken out of context.

•We need to stop acting like the murder of bin Laden was a sacred event. It was a political and military decision to eliminate a mass murderer. Save the sacred feelings for the victims of 9/11.

•If the decision had gone badly, it would have been politicized to the hilt by the GOP, including Romney. The Democrats would have been branded weak on defense as they have been for more than 40 years.

•It’s not like the GOP didn’t do its own–and very undeserved–victory lap over bin Laden’s killing. Members of the Bush Administration (Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice) came out of the woodwork to try to claim credit.

•You could argue that Obama is hanging his “Mission Accomplished” banner with the ad, except that the mission actually was accomplished. Maybe it seems boastful, but it is accurate.

•It’s hilarious that draft-dodging members of a party that Swiftboated an Army veteran like John Kerry are now crying foul over being called out on being less forceful on military matters.

•If Arianna Huffington wants to better understand the definition of “despicable,” she should recall how she allowed Jenny McCarthy to use the Huffington Post as a platform to repeatedly frighten parents about immunizing their children. And even after it was proven that those charges were linked to junk science, there was still no retraction or apology. Now that’s despicable.•

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“As Soon As President Obama Releases His Grades And Birth Certificate…”

January 1, 2012 in Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

There was a brouhaha last Friday when Mitt Romney’s son, Matt, used some Birther vernacular while campaigning on behalf of his father in New Hampshire, but it really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who’s followed the former Massachusetts Governor’s strategy. Playing to the idea that Obama is “Other” has been a tacit but clear part of the Romney strategy. The younger Romney’s only real deviation was being explicit instead of implicit.

When Romney says that “Obama doesn’t have a clue about the economy,” that’s obviously fair game. But when he states that Obama “doesn’t get America,” he’s labeling the President as less than adequately American or not a real American. When Romney says Obama is trying to turn “America into Europe,” he may as well be using “Kenya” in the comparison.

Trying to pander to people who want to see Obama as alien is sad, especially for someone who’s likely been treated to same way because of his own religion. That kind of faux patriotism is often the last refuge of a lout, but it in Romney’s case, it’s been present from the first.

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“After Wrapping Up His Speech, He Moved Briskly Through The Crowd”

December 1, 2011 in Excerpts, Politics, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

"The footage would capture the candidate seeming engaged in the kind of heart-to-heart dialogues with working-class Americans that the campaign had otherwise left off his schedule that day." (Image by Gage Skidmore .)

The source of the considerable reservoir of rage beneath Mitt Romney’s well-polished exterior is as mysterious as President Obama’s ever-present sense of calm–though it’s obviously more concerning. Robert Draper’s new New York Times Magazine article about the likely GOP Presidential nominee suggests that Romney is unflappable–I’m not buying it–but makes good points about the guy you’d least like to have a beer with competing for the country’s highest office. An excerpt;

“It’s very unlikely that we’ll ever hear Mitt Romney and Barack Obama openly discuss the things they have in common. Nonetheless, we may well see in the general election a contest between two dispassionate and accommodating pragmatists and skilled debaters who relish intellectual give-and-take, and whose willingness to compromise has infuriated the party faithful. Both have promised change. Each will frame the other as being not up to the task.

How ably Romney the nominee will defend himself, given the kid-gloves treatment by his current competition and the campaign’s avoidance of large segments of his own life story, is difficult to say just yet. In early November I watched Romney return to Iowa for only the fourth time. He stopped in Dubuque and Davenport and, before decent-size crowds, essentially regurgitated his address on the economy from the week before. In both cases he spoke for less than 20 minutes and did not take questions from the audience. Far more of his ground time was devoted to filming promotional material in a Dubuque sheet-metal factory, where the footage would capture the candidate seeming engaged in the kind of heart-to-heart dialogues with working-class Americans that the campaign had otherwise left off his schedule that day.

Near the end of his talk in Davenport, he said to the 275 east Iowans in attendance, ‘I want you to get to know me a little better.’ After wrapping up his speech, he moved briskly through the crowd, pausing now and then to take photos and sign autographs, before flying out of Iowa with Stuart Stevens and a couple of other staff members.”

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“Did you hear what I said?”

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“They March Onward To Their Own Deepening Impoverishment”

November 16, 2011 in Excerpts, Politics, Urban Studies | Permalink

In what is ostensibly a New York Times op-ed piece about Mitt Romney bringing Mormonism to the U.S. political mainstream, but is actually a condemnation of the widespread worship of greed, Harold Bloom crystallizes some truly perplexing things about American voting patterns. An excerpt:

“A dark truth of American politics in what is still the era of Reagan and the Bushes is that so many do not vote their own economic interests. Rather than living in reality they yield to what oddly are termed ‘cultural’ considerations: moral and spiritual, or so their leaders urge them to believe. Under the banners of flag, cross, fetus, exclusive marriage between men and women, they march onward to their own deepening impoverishment. Much of the Tea Party fervor merely repeats this gladsome frolic.”

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Decoder: Mitt Romney’s Recent Remarks On “Larry King Live”

March 25, 2010 in Humor, Politics | Permalink

Larry King: I forgot my suspenders at Duke Zeibert's.

Mitt Romney:
Some elements in the bill are good and many are bad. And the Democrats want to talk about the couple of maraschino cherries that are on top of the pile of dirt. But let’s talk, also, about the pile of dirt.

Decoder: Every time I look at you, Larry, I think of a pile of dirt. Usually it is being shoveled on top of a coffin.

Mitt Romney: Health care is no longer going to be the purview of states and individuals and families.

Decoder: Or the blood-sucking, money-grubbing health-care industry.

Mitt Romney: What I am is a defender of the truth.

Decoder: Like a Mormon Superman.

Mitt Romney: [Sarah Palin] is an energetic, positive force in the Republican party, a leader in our party, and having a positive impact on bringing out a lot of folks that were in the silent majority.

Decoder: They’re actually an annoyingly loud minority. But I like her because she isn’t actually going to run for President because then she’d be exposed as a fringe candidate, a Ron Paul in a dress.

Mitt Romney: I think [the Tea Party] is a good thing. I think it’s a good thing to see people becoming more involved in the political process.

Mitt Romney: Great hair and fungible politics.

Decoder: I used to be a basically decent guy if no rocket scientist. But I am now prepared to say anything and pander to anyone to become President. I’ve flipped my opinions on abortion and health-care reform with the casual ease of someone with no integrity.

Mitt Romney: But overall, the Tea Party movement is about reasonable men and women who are very concerned about the excessive growth of government.

Decoder: Yes, they’re the reasonable bigots.

Mitt Romney: I think my party’s basic core philosophy is much more attuned to [the Tea Party] than that of the Democratic party.

Decoder: We don’t have any non-white members, either.

Mitt Romney: [John McCain] is one of those guys that’s able to move things and make things happen.

Decoder: Except if you need someone to produce a steady stream of urine. He can’t make that happen.

Mitt Romney: I know some people say, gee, your Massachusetts health care plan isn’t conservative. I say oh, yes it is.

Decoder: Oh, no it isn’t.

Mitt Romney: [Running for President in 2012] is not a decision I have made yet.

Decoder: Of course I’m running. Do your think I’d be willing to stare at your reptilian face without a payoff?

Read other Decoders.

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