U.S. Politics - wages haven't moved edition...

[The Marquis de Leech]

The only thing that doesn't get me excited is the fact that Americans elected Bush Jr not once, but twice,

*cough*Supreme Court.*cough*

[Jon Sprunk]

*cough*Supreme Court.*cough*

Aye, but it shouldn't have been that close to begin with.

[Shryke]

:lol: Bad timing boys:

http://boingboing.net/2012/08/13/bain-capital-buys-profitable-a.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/aug/10/illinois-workers-bain-outsourcing

In the Guardian, Paul Harris reports from Freeport, IL, where a profitable, competitive auto-parts plant has been bought out by Bain Capital, who have literally shipped the factory to China, and who have extended the "kindness" to the American workers who will lose their jobs of a few extra weeks' worth of work training their Chinese replacements. Mitt Romney owns millions of dollars' worth of equity in the Bain fund that is shipping good jobs overseas, and stands to make a tidy profit from this.

[Merentha]

http://www.theonion....f-you-do,29160/

t’s okay to admit it. You’re frightened to death of me. It might actually be healthy for you to face your fears now rather than later, when Mitt and I are leading by a few points in the polls and it looks like this thing might end badly for you. Face it: I’m not some catastrophe waiting to happen, like a Sarah Palin or a Dan Quayle. On the contrary, you have the exact opposite fear. I’m a solid, competent, some might say exceptional, politician.

Did you get nervous when you read that last sentence? Is it because you know in your heart of hearts that it’s 100 percent true? Is it because, even if you strongly disagree with my beliefs on Medicare, Social Security, women’s rights, and marriage equality, you know my talent as a speaker and my well-thought-out approach to these issues—no matter how radical and convoluted you find them—might just be enough to win over independent voters?

Do you get chills just thinking about how strong my appeal actually is?

I have another question for you: How scared are you that I can convince people I’m right? Because I’m good at it. No, I’m really good at it. You see, I know how to turn up the charm and charisma without putting people off. Then I back up what I’m saying with arguments that, when they come out of my mouth, sound completely accurate and well-reasoned. And I do it with such passion that people automatically recognize me as a man with deep convictions he will stand up for, no matter what.

The American people love that shit. They love it.

The Onion stopped being parody a while ago. :P

[lokisnow]

:lol: Bad timing boys:

http://boingboing.ne...ofitable-a.html

http://www.guardian....ain-outsourcing

I foresee a national boycott on the horizon.

The sad thing is that it will still be profitable for Bain even if the company fails in its move to china venture, because Bain rapes and pillages companies and then burns them to the ground and sifts the ashes for any gold fillings that might have come free from the bodies. They leave behind a brutal and bloody wake.

man, 'Boycott Bain, Buy American' has a beautiful ring to it.

[tzanth]

:lol: Bad timing boys:

http://boingboing.ne...ofitable-a.html

http://www.guardian....ain-outsourcing

You've gotta be kidding me...

[Ser Greguh]

You've gotta be kidding me...

Welcome to the world of how these vultures think: people are just expenses on a balance sheet, and no amount of human suffering is too great to prevent a business deal if that business deal allows them to transition from owning every conceivable human luxury 8.073 times over to owning every conceivable human luxury 8.098 times over. They would enable the rape of grandmothers if there was a profit and limited criminal risk involved, and they would joke about that set of values to one another. They understand that another person being willing to cause a harm that they are not is a weakness, and so they build their entire values system around glorifying exactly that trait: uninhibited, 99.97% pure greed that makes the blue meth from Breaking Bad look like the work of a rank amateur. Wherever the line is, they will lean as far over it as they can and still not risk financial ruin through legal retribution (or pound-me-in-the-ass prison, though they can almost always avoid that no matter what the wrongdoing), and when they are in power, they believe it is a virtue to push those lines farther and farther so as to give their friends (and often themselves) all sorts of new angles to abuse and lines to lean over, and lessen their punishment when they are caught leaning too far.

That is who what Mitt Romney is and that's the culture he thrived in, and the vision he has for the country is quite simply the embodiment of this vampiric set of hyper-Darwinian values. It's why he jokes about "not having paid a cent more than legally required" in taxes and even went so far as to say as believing that his having done so would probably disqualify him from being president. Because anything that doesn't maximize his own personal fortune doesn't fit with the very simple algorithms he's used to live his life, and under his values system they would constitute failure. That one off-the-cuff remark provides a remarkable window into how these motherfuckers think. They don't have morals, only algorithms.

In theory, democratic impulses should curb those instincts into a workable mix of allowing capitalism's natural filters reward success and innovation while limiting the damage to be done by its sharper teeth. You can still tell who the best fighters are when the weapons are blunted. Still, saying that runs contrary to their principles, and so you see the push of the modern GOP, now more or less in lockstep with its Tea Party extremists, to undermine and buy out democracy wherever possible, justifying what should be a hang-the-motherfuckers-on-the-white-house-lawn treason-level event like voter suppression and seeing it as business as usual, and glorifying the unlimited injection of money into the process so as to manipulate the sentiments of whatever gullible old white voters still have the 15 documents required to participate in the democratic process.

How can anyone look at Romney (and Ryan, who is for all the world his mini-me) and not see a laughable caricature of a soulless slickster? Can people not see right through that forced affability and fake smile? I could destroy either one of these motherfuckers at the poker table without even looking at my cards. They're not even fucking trying.

[Jaxtile]

My father, who cares not one whit for US politics, saw Ryan and Romney waving together on a stage.

'Who're they?' he asked, with a look over his shoulder towards me.

"Thats Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, Republican presidential contenders." I replied with a grimace.

"They look like slimy assholes." He glanced back at the tv. "Change it to CTV I want the news"

[Sci-2]

For now I'm still saying Romney realized that even if he became POTUS he'd have to release his taxes.

So he figured he'd double down for conservatives while realizing he's all but throwing in the towel. Fuck, maybe Bain's outsourcing is intentional as well, a way to fuck over Romney's campaign and the American worker all at the same time.

Because apparently Romney releasing his taxes would destroy their company?

[Commodore]

Romney up 3 in Rasmussen today, tied in Gallup. But Nate Silver's black box algorithm says he has no chance, so throw in the towel I guess.

nice analysis of Gallup's party ID predictions over the last few elections (which are pretty good)

Paul Ryan explains his Medicare reforms, scary stuff truly

[Shryke]

Romney up 3 in Rasmussen today, tied in Gallup. But Nate Silver's black box algorithm says he has no chance, so throw in the towel I guess.

Nate Silver actually looks at where polling happens and which states candidates will carry and such. Along with the reliability of pollsters themselves and other such stuff.

It don't matter how popular you are in the nation as a whole if you aren't popular enough in 270+ worth of Electoral College votes.

Paul Ryan explains his Medicare reforms, scary stuff truly

Ooh, ooh, does he explain the part where he does nothing to control the actual costs of procedures while also cutting the amount given to former medicare recipients both now and overtime by indexing it below rising medical costs, thus offloading more of their own medical costs on to themselves while simultaneously throwing them into the individual market for insurance coverage (the most expensive part of the market) when they are old (the most expensive type of individual to be in the medical insurance market)?

And does he mention the part where he does this to finance tax cuts on the rich and then doesn't even cover all of them?

[Jon Sprunk]

Paul Ryan explains his Medicare reforms, scary stuff truly

Just because Mr. Ryan is a charismatic guy who can talk in complete sentences (I know, that's way above average for a GOP politician) doesn't mean his plan isn't truly awful. Because it is. The repubs are going to try to sell this snake oil to the American voter. I understand rooting for your "team," even in politics. But when your team is putting forth plans that will put great strain on most of the people of this country, and they're doing it so that they can further increase the wealth and luxury of the uber-wealthy, I have to ask if you understand what you're advocating.

[awesome possum]

How can anyone look at Romney (and Ryan, who is for all the world his mini-me) and not see a laughable caricature of a soulless slickster? Can people not see right through that forced affability and fake smile?

I'm sure many of them can. But Obama!!