With the Romney/Ryan campaign now fully underway and with the excitement for campaign politics renewed in the press, I just want to note once again how many are forgetting about the issue of Mitts tax returns and how much of his money he is hiding in the Caymans. Luckily my good followers on Twitter as well as many others have not forgotten to press him on the returns, lest he gets away with shifting the focus away from his most likely absurdly low tax rates and the possibility that he received amnesty for illegally hiding his money in Switzerland.
This whole campaign shift just serves to remind me of how much politicians in general hide from public scrutiny. These days we know so little about the people in power or who want to be in power. We have super-pacs that are not required to disclose donors leading to unlimited dark money going to campaigns from who knows where. Eccentric & often shady billionaires like the Koch's sinking millions of dollars into right wing causes, think tanks and bribing foreign governments.
Not to mention the huge amount of Koch money that went to Scott Walker in Wisconsin.
What we live in today is an era of dark money, shady billionaires, and bought politicians. A blip in the news cycle last week showed just how much influence Goldman Sachs has on even the Obama administration. Goldman testified before the Michigan senator Carl Levin about how the emails showing that Goldman execs knew they selling toxic crap securities to customers that were packaged as good deals. Yet Goldman denies wrongdoing for its role in the 2008 housing bubble crash. Though Goldman denies any wrongdoing for its role in selling a "shitty deal" to investors they still paid a $550 Million fine for it.
Who the fuck pays a fine if they didn't do anything wrong?
Eric Holder, the AG for the Obama Administration denied finding what they did to be wrong and therefore will not prosecute Goldman Sachs, so according to Holder, lying to investors, packaging bad securities, and helping to crash the economy is perfectly legal so long as you pay a token fine (They can easily afford it, since they made billions off it and through free money from the Fed) I should note that Goldman Sachs was one the largest contributors to the Obama campaign in '08, but has jumped ship to support Romney and Ryan.
This is an example of how another veil thrown onto those who have the money and power to placate the people. Thing is, the people aren't stupid, we're catching on to how things really work, and we're going to try and put a stop to it.
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Sunday, August 12, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Let the Medicare attack ads begin
Now that the Ryan pick has been confirmed, like I said last night Liberal pundits are high-fiving each other all over the country. Ushering in a direction to this campaign with Romney saying that his campaign will be focused“American aspirations and American ideals.”
It's a big change from talking about Bain and the economy, or hiding from his tax returns. It's no secret the Obama campaign has been hitting him on his time at Bain over and over, like the Joe Soptic ad that talked about his wife dying from cancer because they didn't have health insurance, as well the many good paying middle class jobs that were lost while Romney and Bain walked away with millions.
The Ryan pick in my opinion is the result of a desperate need to change the narrative in the media, to Medicare, where they can hit Obama back for his supposed $500 Billion in cuts to Medicare in the ACA which is crap that easily debunked the non-partisan CBO. It does make for some good politics though, going after the Tea Party "get your gubmint hands off my Medicare" crowd, which is ironic at its best.
Another reason I think for the Ryan pick is that it shifts the focus off of Romneys tax returns, after today few people will be talking about what is in his returns because they will be so focused on this VP pick.
That's not to say this isn't important, choosing Ryan like I mentioned will change the narrative, whether it works in Romneys favor is yet to be seen, but Ryan like Romney has a bunch of baggage that can and will be scrutinized.
Lets start with the fact that Paul Ryan used Social Security to help him get through college, and now he wants to privatize it so that Wall st. can get richer. Wow, big surprise. He wants to turn Medicare into a coupon that does not automatically change in value if healthcare prices increase, that's not saving Medicare that is shifting the cost the seniors while giving them lip service. We'll continue that Paul is Ayn Randian follower who gave out copies of Atlas Shrugged on Christmas. (Thank goodness I'm not on his Christmas card) Ayn Rand is famous for being a staunch libertarian but not so well known for taking Social Security and Medicare benefits near the end of her life. How fucking hypocritical are these assholes? Talk about burning bridges.
The Ryan plan cuts government spending, by a lot. It also repeals the Affordable Care Act, which has been gaining popularity since the supreme court decision upheld its constitutionality. Like I mentioned it changes Medicare into a coupon, privatizes Social Security, lowers corporate taxes, and promotes drill baby drill.
The plan is awful, it takes from the poor, and the elderly, and gives it to oil companies and corporations.
Lastly I think the Ryan pick is there to excite the conservative Tea Party base. Ryan has been a rising Tea Party star in the House and is the perfect person to unite the Teabangelical base with the moneyed establishment. It also gives the Romney campaign some help overcoming the trust issues conservatives have with Romney. Before the Ryan pick conservative voters only backed Mitt because he was the anti-Obama, they never trusted the one who implemented Romneycare in Massachusetts which then became the model for Obamacare. They never trusted the "I will be to the left of Ted Kennedy on LGBT issues" Mitt Romney, and the Romney who was in favor of not overturning Roe v Wade, combine that with the fact that 68% of independents polled say that Mitt Romney represents the rich.
This is why both sides are thrilled about the Romney/Ryan ticket, it gives the Obama team ammunition to use (and lots of it) while giving Romney a chance to change the narrative as well as excite the base and help ensure high turnout on Nov. 6th
It's a big change from talking about Bain and the economy, or hiding from his tax returns. It's no secret the Obama campaign has been hitting him on his time at Bain over and over, like the Joe Soptic ad that talked about his wife dying from cancer because they didn't have health insurance, as well the many good paying middle class jobs that were lost while Romney and Bain walked away with millions.
The Ryan pick in my opinion is the result of a desperate need to change the narrative in the media, to Medicare, where they can hit Obama back for his supposed $500 Billion in cuts to Medicare in the ACA which is crap that easily debunked the non-partisan CBO. It does make for some good politics though, going after the Tea Party "get your gubmint hands off my Medicare" crowd, which is ironic at its best.
Another reason I think for the Ryan pick is that it shifts the focus off of Romneys tax returns, after today few people will be talking about what is in his returns because they will be so focused on this VP pick.
That's not to say this isn't important, choosing Ryan like I mentioned will change the narrative, whether it works in Romneys favor is yet to be seen, but Ryan like Romney has a bunch of baggage that can and will be scrutinized.
Lets start with the fact that Paul Ryan used Social Security to help him get through college, and now he wants to privatize it so that Wall st. can get richer. Wow, big surprise. He wants to turn Medicare into a coupon that does not automatically change in value if healthcare prices increase, that's not saving Medicare that is shifting the cost the seniors while giving them lip service. We'll continue that Paul is Ayn Randian follower who gave out copies of Atlas Shrugged on Christmas. (Thank goodness I'm not on his Christmas card) Ayn Rand is famous for being a staunch libertarian but not so well known for taking Social Security and Medicare benefits near the end of her life. How fucking hypocritical are these assholes? Talk about burning bridges.
The Ryan plan cuts government spending, by a lot. It also repeals the Affordable Care Act, which has been gaining popularity since the supreme court decision upheld its constitutionality. Like I mentioned it changes Medicare into a coupon, privatizes Social Security, lowers corporate taxes, and promotes drill baby drill.
The plan is awful, it takes from the poor, and the elderly, and gives it to oil companies and corporations.
Lastly I think the Ryan pick is there to excite the conservative Tea Party base. Ryan has been a rising Tea Party star in the House and is the perfect person to unite the Teabangelical base with the moneyed establishment. It also gives the Romney campaign some help overcoming the trust issues conservatives have with Romney. Before the Ryan pick conservative voters only backed Mitt because he was the anti-Obama, they never trusted the one who implemented Romneycare in Massachusetts which then became the model for Obamacare. They never trusted the "I will be to the left of Ted Kennedy on LGBT issues" Mitt Romney, and the Romney who was in favor of not overturning Roe v Wade, combine that with the fact that 68% of independents polled say that Mitt Romney represents the rich.
This is why both sides are thrilled about the Romney/Ryan ticket, it gives the Obama team ammunition to use (and lots of it) while giving Romney a chance to change the narrative as well as excite the base and help ensure high turnout on Nov. 6th
Friday, August 10, 2012
Romney/Ryan...really?
We'll see if it's true when Mitt officially picks his VP tomorrow at 9am. I of course will be asleep, because it's Saturday and I'm lazy. There is a lot of speculation that it is going to be Paul Ryan. Let me tell you how much of a disaster this would be. We'll start with the extremely unpopular Ryan budget that turns medicare into a coupon, that doesn't change in value even if prices go up, causing seniors to pay more out of their social security checks that he also wants to take away. Guess grandma is SOL if these two get in office. The plan also cuts taxes on...*drumroll* the rich, wow who didn't see that one coming? It's also a budget buster, exploding the debt and deficit while causing massive cuts to be made into food stamps and other social programs. All to give massive tax cuts to people like him and Mitt Romney. No wonder he wants to choose Ryan.
These two have more baggage together than a Kardashian on vacation. One of them would have to ride on the roof of their campaign bus with all the baggage stuffed inside. Let's call this VP pick for what it is. A distraction, plain and simple. Mitt is supposedly picking a young Tea Party "Young Guns" let's go get that government and take away your food stamps distraction. So many Tea Party people and Fox News pundits have a weird conservative man crush on Paul Ryan and they can't wait to gush at all hours over him on the Sunday shows and beyond. What topic will get left behind? The tax returns, bravo Mitt, you might actually deflect from the tax return controversy but I think you're getting out of the frying pan and into the fire if this is your choice. Hey no problem with me, hell if it's true I'll be opening a bottle of my best (cheapest) champagne.
Still if it's true I wonder how the voters are going to see this selection of someone who wants to kill grandmas medicare benefits? The Fox spin machine will be in full swing I think. Romney has been getting his ass kicked in the polls lately and if this is his idea of getting a boost I'm not sure its going to help. In most polls Obama is up by 7%. We'll just have to see.
These two have more baggage together than a Kardashian on vacation. One of them would have to ride on the roof of their campaign bus with all the baggage stuffed inside. Let's call this VP pick for what it is. A distraction, plain and simple. Mitt is supposedly picking a young Tea Party "Young Guns" let's go get that government and take away your food stamps distraction. So many Tea Party people and Fox News pundits have a weird conservative man crush on Paul Ryan and they can't wait to gush at all hours over him on the Sunday shows and beyond. What topic will get left behind? The tax returns, bravo Mitt, you might actually deflect from the tax return controversy but I think you're getting out of the frying pan and into the fire if this is your choice. Hey no problem with me, hell if it's true I'll be opening a bottle of my best (cheapest) champagne.
Still if it's true I wonder how the voters are going to see this selection of someone who wants to kill grandmas medicare benefits? The Fox spin machine will be in full swing I think. Romney has been getting his ass kicked in the polls lately and if this is his idea of getting a boost I'm not sure its going to help. In most polls Obama is up by 7%. We'll just have to see.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Romneys' are people my friend.
All right, now this should be a fun post. Mitt Romney, presumptive nominee and candidate will not be releasing his desperately coveted tax returns. Why? Because according to an interview in Bloomberg Business week Romney stated that he will not release more than two years because "I am not a business." Wow, really? I know that sometimes Romney blurs the line between actual humans and corporations in his own view but I never actually thought he considered the public dumb enough to confuse the two. Then again anyone stupid enough to agree that corporations are people too need this type of clarification, and perhaps a helmet, and not for the eventual "trickle-down." It troubles me that Mitt will not even continue the proud tradition of transparency started by his own father during his run. So this really begs the question of why, what is he hiding? Amnesty? A super low tax rate? The only one who knows is probably right now chuckling uncomfortably somewhere on a campaign bus.
Now our friends on the right are actually asking for college records, what do college records have to do with anything? Wanting to see tax records on the other hand actually makes sense because taxes are a civic duty. College not so much. Not only are taxes important because they are required but because of the rates, if Romney paid lower rates than people making $30-60,000 a year it's going to piss off a lot of people who may otherwise vote for him. Even worse if he got amnesty for hiding his money, that just looks bad, greedy, and tasteless. Something the billionaires bankrolling him can identify with but not regular people, even the Fox washing machine can't spin cycle this one in to his favor.
Speaking of failing to spin something, there was a Romney spokeswoman who may have just screwed his campaign until the media forgets about it in two days. Nonetheless it's an awesome screw up, because this spokeswoman named Andrea Saul, actually told the truth about Romneycare. Oh the humanity! This was in response to an Obama ad that followed the story of a former GST steel worker who lost his wife to cancer after they lost their job and healthcare due to a Bain capital buyout. Saul had said during an interview, “To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s health-care plan, they would have had health care.” Yes, the same healthcare Obama is putting into place. This made conservative heads explode. Like Obi-Wan feeling the voices of millions of people cry out in "OMG she didn't just tout Romneycare." agony. It was a magic moment. We'll see how much damage the Obama team can do with this one, Romney is the gift that keeps on giving, from dancing horses, to corporations are people my friend, to not knowing what a doughnut is, Mitt is like a one man show. Who knows if he loses he can have his own reality show, couldn't be worse than the Kardashians.
Now our friends on the right are actually asking for college records, what do college records have to do with anything? Wanting to see tax records on the other hand actually makes sense because taxes are a civic duty. College not so much. Not only are taxes important because they are required but because of the rates, if Romney paid lower rates than people making $30-60,000 a year it's going to piss off a lot of people who may otherwise vote for him. Even worse if he got amnesty for hiding his money, that just looks bad, greedy, and tasteless. Something the billionaires bankrolling him can identify with but not regular people, even the Fox washing machine can't spin cycle this one in to his favor.
Speaking of failing to spin something, there was a Romney spokeswoman who may have just screwed his campaign until the media forgets about it in two days. Nonetheless it's an awesome screw up, because this spokeswoman named Andrea Saul, actually told the truth about Romneycare. Oh the humanity! This was in response to an Obama ad that followed the story of a former GST steel worker who lost his wife to cancer after they lost their job and healthcare due to a Bain capital buyout. Saul had said during an interview, “To that point, if people had been in Massachusetts, under Governor Romney’s health-care plan, they would have had health care.” Yes, the same healthcare Obama is putting into place. This made conservative heads explode. Like Obi-Wan feeling the voices of millions of people cry out in "OMG she didn't just tout Romneycare." agony. It was a magic moment. We'll see how much damage the Obama team can do with this one, Romney is the gift that keeps on giving, from dancing horses, to corporations are people my friend, to not knowing what a doughnut is, Mitt is like a one man show. Who knows if he loses he can have his own reality show, couldn't be worse than the Kardashians.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Rafalca Rides on!
So the title is a little deceptive, this post will not actually be about Rafalca, Romney's $77,000 Olympic dressage horse, I just liked the title. No, today will be about one of my favorite topics. Money in politics.
But first, I just wanted to touch on a story I found on Twitter. Thinkprogress posted a story today about a Louisiana school that can force female students to take a pregnancy test if they have reason to believe that the student might be pregnant. If the test is positive or the student refuses they are immediately thrown out of school. This makes absolutely no sense.
First Louisiana has one of the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the United States. That little factoid is probably due to the insistence of abstinence only sex education in schools, such as this one. The argument I want to make here is about not throwing these soon to be mothers out. As we all know education is one of the biggest factors that determines income, standard of living and overall success, by denying this right to education, conservatives are guaranteeing that one bad mistake as a teen will effectively destroy their lives and ironically either force the teen into an abortion or onto welfare and food stamps, WIC and other government "entitlement" programs that conservatives hate!
Then there is the awful double standard here. While the girls get punished by expulsion the guys who stuck it in are literally getting off scot free. It takes two to make a baby unlike what many evangelicals believe virgin births do not happen. So I tell you what, if this school can force pregnancy tests, they should also be forced to do paternity tests, and if the father also attends that school, he should be expelled, and forced into military school. That will straighten his ass up, give him the discipline and the responsibility to take care of the baby he helped create.
I suppose though the best course of action here is to stop the problem at the root. And that involves education, real sex education, or hell, just force all the kids to watch Teen Mom.
If you want to read the article about this just follow the link to http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/07/647221/louisiana-school-forces-students-to-take-pregnancy-tests-kicks-out-girls-who-refuse-or-test-positive/?mobile=nc
On to money in politics. We all keep hearing about how Romney continues to out raise Obama, it's not really all that surprising seeing how much money a few individual eccentric billionaires are pumping into this race. It's only August, we still have quite a ways to go until November and already the money that has spent could've helped create so many jobs, or fixed roads and bridges. Instead we get deluged in attacks ads that only serve to confuse the uninformed voter. I suppose that is the point.
So with so few billionaires spending so much money (most of them happen to be backing Mitt Romney) that pretty much says that this election could go very badly for President Obama. 94% of the time the candidate with the most money wins the election. Now the President has a couple advantages, first he's an incumbent, and usually the incumbent wins. Second Mitt Romney is a terrible campaigner, you know "corporations are people my friends" that didn't exactly sit well with the voters. Not to mention the stupid laugh when he's nervous, or the fact that he will not release his tax returns. Sure, Romney does have the anyone but Obama crowd, which is considerable, and Romney has the Fox news backing, as well as the money. It's gonna be close. The money is the biggest factor here, without the media powerhouse that is Fox news Romneys' talking points would not be drummed into peoples heads. Also the anti-Obama hatred, yes hatred, would not be so prevalent. There is so much money that is spent to call the President things like socialist, communist, nazi, dictator etc. Now these are of course not true, but if you repeat a lie often enough people will start to believe it, and many have, and those with the most money can buy the most airtime to spread those lies. It's going to be an interesting fall.
But first, I just wanted to touch on a story I found on Twitter. Thinkprogress posted a story today about a Louisiana school that can force female students to take a pregnancy test if they have reason to believe that the student might be pregnant. If the test is positive or the student refuses they are immediately thrown out of school. This makes absolutely no sense.
First Louisiana has one of the highest rate of teen pregnancies in the United States. That little factoid is probably due to the insistence of abstinence only sex education in schools, such as this one. The argument I want to make here is about not throwing these soon to be mothers out. As we all know education is one of the biggest factors that determines income, standard of living and overall success, by denying this right to education, conservatives are guaranteeing that one bad mistake as a teen will effectively destroy their lives and ironically either force the teen into an abortion or onto welfare and food stamps, WIC and other government "entitlement" programs that conservatives hate!
Then there is the awful double standard here. While the girls get punished by expulsion the guys who stuck it in are literally getting off scot free. It takes two to make a baby unlike what many evangelicals believe virgin births do not happen. So I tell you what, if this school can force pregnancy tests, they should also be forced to do paternity tests, and if the father also attends that school, he should be expelled, and forced into military school. That will straighten his ass up, give him the discipline and the responsibility to take care of the baby he helped create.
I suppose though the best course of action here is to stop the problem at the root. And that involves education, real sex education, or hell, just force all the kids to watch Teen Mom.
If you want to read the article about this just follow the link to http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/08/07/647221/louisiana-school-forces-students-to-take-pregnancy-tests-kicks-out-girls-who-refuse-or-test-positive/?mobile=nc
On to money in politics. We all keep hearing about how Romney continues to out raise Obama, it's not really all that surprising seeing how much money a few individual eccentric billionaires are pumping into this race. It's only August, we still have quite a ways to go until November and already the money that has spent could've helped create so many jobs, or fixed roads and bridges. Instead we get deluged in attacks ads that only serve to confuse the uninformed voter. I suppose that is the point.
So with so few billionaires spending so much money (most of them happen to be backing Mitt Romney) that pretty much says that this election could go very badly for President Obama. 94% of the time the candidate with the most money wins the election. Now the President has a couple advantages, first he's an incumbent, and usually the incumbent wins. Second Mitt Romney is a terrible campaigner, you know "corporations are people my friends" that didn't exactly sit well with the voters. Not to mention the stupid laugh when he's nervous, or the fact that he will not release his tax returns. Sure, Romney does have the anyone but Obama crowd, which is considerable, and Romney has the Fox news backing, as well as the money. It's gonna be close. The money is the biggest factor here, without the media powerhouse that is Fox news Romneys' talking points would not be drummed into peoples heads. Also the anti-Obama hatred, yes hatred, would not be so prevalent. There is so much money that is spent to call the President things like socialist, communist, nazi, dictator etc. Now these are of course not true, but if you repeat a lie often enough people will start to believe it, and many have, and those with the most money can buy the most airtime to spread those lies. It's going to be an interesting fall.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Feedback
Also I appreciate feedback, let me know what I'm doing right, or wrong. If I have my facts straight, if you agree or disagree, whatever. Also let me know what you want to see me write about, I have opinions on everything. Thanks for reading.
Back to work
All right. It's been a nice Independence Day holiday, but now it's back to work. Now that "Obamacare" has been upheld the nation is actually finding out what is actually in it. Finally the president is selling the good parts of the bill. Now I still think it's a giveaway to the health insurance industry, but is it pretty decent. Yeah. Do I want single payer? Hell yes, but I'll take what I can get.
Still I am quite disheartened by Florida Gov. Rick Scotts refusal to take federal money to expand Medicare, Really Rick, are you that dumb? Take the money and actually help your constituents! You know for a guy who has defrauded medicare he sure is shy about taking legitimate money, oh the irony.
So enough about the ACA, and on to well something else. As a Michigander it was fun to hear about Thaddeus Mccotter resigning from the house. Especially given how weird this guy was. According to the Huffingpost Mccotter had this write in campaign that was quite fraudulent. I find it hilarious that the GOP screams about fraud and somehow are usually the ones that are found doing the fraud. The shit we have going on in my state is absolutely crazy. Legislatures banned for using the word Vagina, like it's a curse word, and not to mention Rachel Maddows excellent coverage a few weeks ago about how the republican controlled congress in MI has been illegally doing immediate effect votes to enact legislation without having 73 members call for it as the republicans do not have that large of a majority. It's sad seeing my state sink so low.
I wanted to touch on some campaign news but I will get into it on my next post, as I think it's going to be quite long.
Still I am quite disheartened by Florida Gov. Rick Scotts refusal to take federal money to expand Medicare, Really Rick, are you that dumb? Take the money and actually help your constituents! You know for a guy who has defrauded medicare he sure is shy about taking legitimate money, oh the irony.
So enough about the ACA, and on to well something else. As a Michigander it was fun to hear about Thaddeus Mccotter resigning from the house. Especially given how weird this guy was. According to the Huffingpost Mccotter had this write in campaign that was quite fraudulent. I find it hilarious that the GOP screams about fraud and somehow are usually the ones that are found doing the fraud. The shit we have going on in my state is absolutely crazy. Legislatures banned for using the word Vagina, like it's a curse word, and not to mention Rachel Maddows excellent coverage a few weeks ago about how the republican controlled congress in MI has been illegally doing immediate effect votes to enact legislation without having 73 members call for it as the republicans do not have that large of a majority. It's sad seeing my state sink so low.
I wanted to touch on some campaign news but I will get into it on my next post, as I think it's going to be quite long.
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