Author Archives: Benjamin Moore

About Benjamin Moore

When someone asks who you are, give them your name. When they ask but, who are you really? Remain silent.

Taxation without Representation

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How Republicans Are Secretly Raising YOUR Taxes!

by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.

Back in 1776 this nation – to be – fought a little war. You might have heard about it. It was called “The Revolutionary War.” A little upstart Colony shed blood to separate and break away from the greatest “superpower” the world had seen at that time. Great Britain.

There were many reasons for this, but the prevailing expressed reason had to do with “taxation without representation.” On the surface, this is a slogan that is easily remembered and understood. Say it a few times. Notice how it rolls off the tongue. It is almost rhythmic like a chant. “Taxation Without Representation.”

When you actually consider things, representation doesn’t mean you get what you want or that things will go your way. Growing up, I was represented and present at many family decisions. I did NOT get my way.

Who does really get their way? As a child, I thought adults always got their way. I look back now and laugh. The point is, when you study history, you find that many of the “founding fathers” spent quite a bit of time in Europe representing the issues and concerns of our fledgling colony. Evidently, they did not get what they wanted. One might suspect the real issues that lead to the Revolutionary War had little to do with taxation, but taxation was a useful meme for galvanizing public sentiment against Britain.

This meme is still being used today to herd the unthinking in the direction beneficial to those who own the Republican party. The question? Is this any more accurate today than it was in 1776?

ALL governments, good or oppressive collect revenues from the citizens they rule over. This has been a fact since humans bought into the idea that having a person – tribal chieftain or king – rule over them and organize the collective effort, was a good idea. People have been complaining and seeking to avoid paying taxes ever since.

A tax is the taking of a portion of the wealth of the citizen. We’ve refined that process to the point we are now paying taxes we are not even aware we’re paying. Many taxes are simply passed along in the prices of the goods and services we purchase. Because they are a part of the price, we don’t perceive them as taxes, yet we pay them without a whimper. This phenomena has not gone unnoticed.

The Republicans have been raising your taxes at a staggering rate without your notice. They use two primary tools to accomplish their theft. They are, “Privatization” and “Deregulation.”

How does this work? Our government is not in the business of turning a profit. It is a “not-for-profit” institution. The taxes the government collects, whether you believe them to be mismanaged, depending on a certain administration, still go to support the collective common good. If you are old enough, when you went to school there were no textbook rental fees. Paper and pencils were supplied to each student. The only thing I paid for was my lunch on the few days I didn’t bring it with me. Teachers were respected and taught well in an environment conducive to learning. This was all paid for by taxes.

Over the years they’ve been defunding our educational system. We now see the goal was to move everyone to a charter school model where parents pay tuition. Notice, your taxes never went down. Now you’re being forced to totally shoulder the cost for educating your children. Is this a tax? You cannot simply opt out of sending your children to school. That’s against the law. So, yes you’re now being forced to pay more. Vouchers from the State do not cover the costs. So, the Republican attack on education is a hidden tax.

Do you have representation? Charter Schools are privately owned corporate entities. You really do not have representation. This is the definition of taxation without representation. I’ve given one example of how privatization affects many people.

Privatization is not limited to our educational system. Utility companies, hospitals, the TSA, privatization is happening all around us. Most people know something is terribly wrong with our country. What they fail to realize is that when patriotism was at it’s highest, when people felt the most optimistic about their opportunity to fulfill the “American Dream” was when our government was exercising control and collecting higher taxes, much higher than the tax rates of today.

The other poison pill of the Republican agenda is Deregulation. The theory goes, corporations are so loaded down with regulations and red tape they cannot be as profitable as their competitors around the globe. In order to make the moves and the profits they must get rid of regulations. In essence this is a race to the bottom. Our companies can easily make products as cheap as the Chinese.

There are rivers in China that are filled with toxic sludge. China has to purchase drinking water from other nations. The quality of their products are substandard. Some have been fatal. Remember our experience with dog food imported from China? How about the lead in children’s toys or that toxic toothpaste they were exporting? These are the results of a lack of regulation.

The BP oil spill was the result of a lack of regulation. All those people affected by that oil spill? The ones who lost their businesses or that saw their profits drop? That was a tax levied upon them by Republican policy. Wealth was forcibly transferred from them, their families and the futures of their children. Did they have representation?

Do you have a pension? Do you own a 401k? Have you checked it’s value lately? Chances are, it has taken quite a hit. This is the direct effect of the Republican policy of deregulating the Banks and the Stock Market. The money you and your family have lost is a tax. The wealth was transferred from you into the pockets of millionaires and billionaires. Did you have representation? That is a tax. Republicans won’t call these taxes. They want you to focus on money paid to our Government for the common good. This money is managed by people you get to vote in or out of office every two years.

When Jamie Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase announced a couple of weeks ago that Chase Bank had lost – now – 4 billion dollars on the same type of bet Banks and the Stock Market were making just prior to our near financial melt down of 2008, my portfolio took a 100 thousand dollar hit. Now that was one helluva tax! You may have fared better. However, chances are if you’ve got a 401k or a pension you have some Chase stock in it as well. You just paid taxes without representation.

Black Republican Delusion

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The Black Republican Delusion
by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.

The issue of Black Republicans is a controversy that has been simmering on the back burner/black burner for quite some time now. If one were to ask is there a problem with a person of color being a Republican, I would have to say, “that depends.” Black people identify with Republicans for a variety of reasons. Most often one’s party affiliation mirrors that of their parents and the environment in which they were raised. If you were raised in a Republican household, chances are, you identify as a Republican. This is true in particular for the two main political parties. Being an “Independent” has only become popular in relatively recent history.

Unfortunately what started Black people’s romance with the Republican party is the Myth that Abraham Lincoln freed the “Slaves.” I would suggest they go and actually READ the “Emancipation Proclamation” on-line. As they say, “Google It!” What you will find is that Abraham Lincoln only freed the Slaves in the States that were in Rebellion. These were the States over which whether or not he had any control was being disputed by the bloodiest war in the history of this Nation. It would be not unlike, President Obama raising the minimum wage laws in China or proclaiming that China had to abide by our OSHA standards in their workplaces. In short, not real meaningful.

Nevertheless, at the time when many Black people embraced the Republican Party, the “Party of Lincoln,” few could read or write and they believed what little they could grasp and understand about the life changing events happening around them. Once the South lost the war, there was a lot of Black migration to the North and other States. How could you know or prove that a Black person in Chicago was not from the South? You could not. So effectively all Black people were simply assumed to be free. All you had to do if you were a slave in one of the Northern States, was simply leave.

Make no mistake, Lincoln’s reason for freeing the Southern Slaves had little to do with moral reasons. He was fighting a protracted war with a body count that was unheard of at that time in human history. So long as the Slaves in the South continued to work the fields and supply the goods and services needed to resupply the Southern war efforts, the war could and would continue to drag on. Wars are fought and won on logistics. Why did the Roman Empire last nearly 1,000 years? The Romans built roads everywhere they went. Ever hear the phrase, “all roads lead to Rome?” They knew that with a good system of roads linking their Empire, they could rapidly move troops and supplies to anywhere within the Roman Empire. Yes, horses can go damn near anywhere. Marching men can go everywhere. However the supplies they need to feed them and replace and repair equipment, those things need to be carried on wagons. Wagons work best on roads. It was all about logistics.

Lincoln’s theory was, that when the word reached the Southern slaves that freedom awaited them in the North, they would simply up and head north. This would end food production as well as other crucial industries the South needed, in a state of collapse. The South would have to peel off manpower to return home, tend their fields and produce the goods and services they needed. This would effectively reduce the size of the Southern armies. The reality was, there were a lot of white people in both the North and South who disagreed with Slavery and found the practice objectionable. They seized the opportunity to support Black people being free and treated as full citizens. Prior to the Civil War, the pressures and the very real threats to their lives made it easy for them to remain silent. The “Underground Railroad” was run by white people of good conscience. John Brown so believed in the abolition of Slavery, he fought and gave his life trying to free Slaves. Most of these people identified themselves as Republican.

So what happened? Up until the early to mid 1960’s, the Republican Party was the Party of equality and opportunity for all Citizens of the United States. The big change began in 1948 with the formation of the “Dixiecrat” segregationist party. They were in the South which largely identified as Democratic. As you might imagine, there remained a lot of animosity against the “Party of Lincoln.” “Sherman’s March” through the South, laying waste and burning everything in sight, was still in the memories of many Southerners like a raw wound. It seems many white people found having to plow their own fields and actually work for a living objectionable. They longed for and idolized the “good old days” when they were waited on hand and foot by subservient slaves. Their mantra was that the North and the Federal Government in particular had ruined their way of life. So it was they were ripe for a party that promoted the notion of “protecting the Southern way of life.”

Franklin Roosevelt began the integration of the United States military. Made a lot of sense when you’re in the middle of a World War. The United States needed the resources of ALL it’s citizens to win. When Black soldiers who had fought to liberate Europe returned, Franklin Roosevelt made them eligible for the “New Deal” along with everyone else. Harry Truman continued in Roosevelt’s footsteps by creating a “Presidential Committee on Civil Rights” and ordered an end to discrimination. You can imagine how this went over in the “Jim Crow” South. In 1948 when the Northern Liberals led by Hubert Humphrey adopted an anti-discrimination plank at the Democratic National Convention, 35 Southerns walked out. They wanted to remove Harry Truman’s name from the ballot in the South. To do this they formed a short lived “State’s Rights Democratic Party” with Strom Thurmond as their Presidential nominee. The Dixiecrats held their convention in Alabama. When you hear Republican candidates referring to “State’s Rights” they’re paying homage to the segregationist platform of the old Dixiecrat party.

Following his nomination in 1980 Ronald Reagan’s first speech was delivered at the Neshoba County Fair just a few miles from Philadelphia Mississippi where Civil Rights workers were murdered in 1964. In his speech he said:

“I believe in states’ rights…. I believe we have distorted the balance of our government today by giving powers that were never intended to be given in the Constitution to that federal establishment.”

Whenever political candidates blow the “dog whistle” of “State’s Rights” what their target audience hears is, “I believe that the South had the right to secede. I believe the South has the right to discriminate against Black people. I believe the South has the right to own slaves.”  The Dixiecrats began reaching out to conservative Northern Republicans and bit by bit their ideology began infecting the Republican party. The final straw came in 1964 when President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Several Dixiecrats simply left the Democratic party and joined the Republican party, but the bottom line was, the Republican party became the place for those whom believed in the ideologies espoused by the Dixiecrats. No, there was no massive defection of Dixiecrats who took over the Republican party. That was not necessary. An idea is like a virus. It can infect and spread. What happened to the Republican party is not unlike the story of the Farmer’s daughter who in a moment of extreme passion was told by her date, “I’ll only put the tip in.”

The “tip” begins with the notion that smaller government is good. Fact is, most people philosophically agree with this premise. Paying lower taxes is good. Who wouldn’t agree with this? The Government would be smaller if it got out of the business of the States. Getting a bit nervous now. Back in the 60’s some States didn’t recognize interracial marriages. Some States in the South had a “poll tax” for Black voters. Some States practiced “Jim Crow” and flagrant segregation. It was the Federal Government that ended these practices. Thus when you join a group you really need to know about more than just the *TIP* of what they believe in. Sooner or later you’re going to get the *SHAFT.*

When it comes to Black Republicans, you have those whom identify as Republican merely because that is their family tradition. Then you have those who are Republican because the espoused tax policies of the Republican party are in their interests. Professional athletes who are worth millions, successful businessmen and woman who again are worth millions, entertainers, actors and others, who have accumulated substantial wealth, are voting their own self-interests when they vote Republican. I’m not mad at them. These are not the people I’m calling deluded. I disagree with their selfishness, but I understand it.

The Black Republicans whom I’m calling deluded are the ones usually who are solidly in the “Middle Class” but identify as Republican for reasons that have nothing to do with what is actually in their interests. Financially, I am pretty close to the Republican Party representing my own personal interests. I pay easily over $100 thousand a year in taxes. Thus, if it were just my wife and myself, I could hold my nose and vote Republican… If they ran a candidate with a brain! The problem for me is, I have family and friends whom have yet to be as fortunate. Some of them cannot afford health insurance. Some of them have been through foreclosure. Do I turn my back on them? Personally, I cannot.

These Republicans have bought into the “tip” or wedge issues that the Republican party promotes to specifically target them. For years now, the Republican Party has marketed it’s self to “Blue Collar” workers. I have a relative who *thought* he was a Republican because he had started his own business. I asked him how much he was netting from his business. Proudly he said, $40 thousand a year. I pointed out, “that’s a job!” He was working 12 hour days, 7 days a week and barely scraping by. He wasn’t making enough, to pay enough in taxes for Republican policies to benefit him. If his wife didn’t have good insurance from her job, he’d of been completely screwed having to buy his own health insurance. Good thing too. He recently had a heart attack and had to have 6 stints installed. Without his wife’s insurance he’d be bankrupt today.

Then you have those who are seduced by the poison pills crafted for religious people. Abortion and Marriage equality. Let’s deal with abortion first. The problem with this issue is, *IF* you are truly pro-life, you are pro ALL life. This means you are also against the death penalty. Why shouldn’t you be? With the advances in DNA technology, hundreds of people have been moved from “death row” and released. What nobody wants to talk about is, based on these statistics, the State has murdered innocent people who were not guilty of the crimes of which they were convicted. Yet, many so called “pro-life” Republicans fully support the death penalty. If you’re pro-life, by definition you have to be against war and military conflict. Let’s be clear, whenever we go to war there is ALWAYS what we euphemistically refer to as “collateral damage.” That is a tidy way of saying innocent civilians get killed. When civilians are killed in our foreign wars, we call it collateral damage. When they brought down the “Twin Towers” over here, we called that terrorism. Yet, many “pro-life” Republicans have no problem with and support an expansion in military spending and have no problem with our government turning to the “military option” without exhausting all methods of diplomacy and sanctions.

If you’re pro-life and want women to have their babies, there is a cost associated with this. Children require care, opportunity and education. Many of these needed essentials are provided by publicly funded clinics and programs. Yet, Republicans are all for cutting funding for WIC, food stamps, Head Start, inner city schools, etc. The message is, we care about the fetus, but once it’s born, you’re on your own. If the child grows up, we’re all for sending him or her into our military where often they do not come back. Many who do return bear the marks of war in their bodies and guess what! We are cutting the funding to the programs designed to help them deal with their wounds and reintegrate into society. Pro-life? Not really. Yet, it makes for a great wedge issue to seduce the uninformed.

Marriage equality is another good one. This one comes wrapped in a sugary “family values” coating. The irony is, many of the most stalwart defenders of family values and marriage equality are people who are on their 3rd, 4th and in some cases 5th wives. They’ve had numerous affairs. Have children that span multiple marriages, yet the words “family values” doesn’t seem to split their lips when it spews from their hypocritical mouths. The United States of America is a secular society. Freedom of religion and freedom *FROM* religion is something we enjoy and heretofore have been extremely proud of. This is *NOT* a Christian nation any more than it is a Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or Jewish nation. So strongly did the founders believe in this principle, they encoded it into our Constitution. Once we penetrate the veil of the separation of Church and State, where do we stop? Should working on the Sabbath be declared illegal? Should eating pork be banned? How about banning the eating of meat period? There are religious groups here who pay taxes just like everyone else who teach that eating meat is to be avoided. There are many books with many people believing in those books. In point of fact, amongst those who identify as Christians, there are disputes. Yet they’re claiming to read from the same book. This is why you have all the different “Christian denominations.” Each can prove that all the others are in error.

What is marriage? Is it a sacred covenant between a couple and God? Is it a status recognized by the State? It is both. From the religious perspective, you go to your religious institution and have your marriage solemnized by a cleric from your faith. However, you also get a marriage *license* from the State. Why? If it were purely a religious institution, you would neither need nor want recognition from the State. Why do you want State recognition? Because there are benefits granted by the State to married couples. According to law, all citizens are equal. This is why the statue of “Lady Justice” wears a blindfold. Thus the State should not discriminate against any two adults of contractual age wanting to enter into a marriage arrangement. Your marriage is unaffected by my behavior. I lived with my wife for 10 years before getting married. During that 10 years, quite a few people simply assumed we were married. Most simply didn’t give a damn and NOBODY went and filed for divorce upon learning that we were not married. When we did finally get married – had more to do with the IRS and the beating we were taking on taxes – nobody’s marriage was affected.

Thus the notion that two people of the same sex, who call themselves married, and are receiving benefits from the State, somehow wreck havoc on the marriages of others, is purely specious. The issue is a non-issue created and promoted by people who do not believe in it themselves. It is designed to trick, deceive and bring the Churches on board. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard quasi literate preachers thumping their Bibles with great conviction, telling their mentally malleable congregations that “they cannot vote for a candidate who supports Gay marriage or Abortion.” They of course have no problem rolling over in bed right into the arms of a Party that takes food from the mouths of children, believes in putting innocent people to death and profits from unnecessary wars in which children are called “collateral damage.”

There is another type of Black Republican. This one is the worst. This Black Republican suffers from self-loathing feelings of inadequacy. These are often the most vocal. They are also the ones you’ll see appearing in the media commenting on various media outlets. His or her delusion comes in basically two flavors. The first, manifests in this time when we happen to have a Black President and stems from their inability to conceptualize that there exists a Black person who is literally light years beyond their capabilities. Because they cannot conceive of this reality, they are quick to look for ANYTHING that points to conspiracy or a rigged system. After all, they worked hard. They went to school. They’ve applied themselves… but they haven’t met with the success they believe they deserve. Thus, they look at President Obama with suspicion and mistrust. How could he truly be all the things they are not? Black preachers envy his oratory skills. Republican Black professionals can’t conceive his organizational abilities. Thus it must be a fluke! Some trick played on them and they hate him.

To these wights I would remind them of his visit to the Republican Caucus early into his term. the Republicans were laying in ambush for him. They were going to teach him a lesson. They invited the cameras in because they wanted his defeat and unmasking preserved on tape for posterity. They were going to put this young upstart Black President in his place. President Obama walked into that den of lions without a teleprompter. Without a laptop. Without a staff to aid him and defanged and whipped every last Republican single handedly. So severe was their beating, their first response was “Never Again would they have him come to their caucus!” Then they caught themselves and amended that to, never again with cameras rolling. My question to them is simple: Could any of them have walked into such a hostile environment and fared even half as well? The answer is no.

The other manifestation of the deluded Black Republican takes the form of a Black person who has been so culturally conditioned by the institutionalized racism in our society, they’ve come to accept and believe the myth that white people are simply superior to Black people. My grandfather who had his own business back in the early 1920’s called it, “the white man’s ice is always colder” mentality. Back then you really had an “Ice Box.” You would purchase ice for your ice box from ice vendors who went around with large blocks of ice on the back of wagons and would sell ice to people in the neighborhood. This was how you kept your perishables cold. There were actual Black people who wouldn’t buy from a Black ice vendor because they simply believed that what the white man was selling was superior. Sadly this mentality still exists in some Black people today. They will go on the air and attack President Obama and his policies, often armed with nothing more than Fox News talking points. When you ask a couple of more questions, they are embarrassed. They will defend the polices of George Bush in abject defiance of historical fact and they will support Mitt Romney who from childhood to adulthood was immersed in a religion that taught that Black people were inferior and cursed with Black skin. I’m sorry, but there are some bye-gones that cannot be allowed to remain as bye-gones.

Both of these types of deluded Black Republicans can be recognized by the vituperativeness of their attacks. A lack of logic and their inability to substantiate their positions with facts. I too can disagree and often do with a great many people on a great many issues. However, I always have a rational reason for my disagreement. I can present my reasons on demand. For instance, don’t tell me that your objection to President Obama is his tax policy when he’s cut taxes for small businesses and the middle class. Don’t tell me you disagree with President Obama over his foreign policy when his administration has had success after success. Bin Laden is dead and GM is not. Don’t tell me your problem with President Obama is his refusal to unilaterally change the Constitution and our legislative process, declaring by Presidential fiat abortions illegal. He swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. That also covers protecting full equality for all citizens even in their marital decisions.

If you are a multi-millionaire and you are a Black Republican, I’m not mad at you for voting in your own self-interests. If you are a Black Republican because that is your family tradition, I can understand that as well. Just don’t give me the boiler plate reasons which now have no basis in truth. Fiscal responsibility is no longer the hallmark of the Republican party. The national debt has gone through the roof under Republican administrations. Don’t tell me it’s because of smaller government. The Constitution shredding “Patriot Act” was passed and enacted under a Republican administration. Don’t tell me it’s because you believe that Republicans are better on security and national defense. The attacks on September 11, 2001 occurred on a Republican administration that had advance warning. Once you accept the “Tip” you will invariably get the “Shaft.”

Republican Propaganda Fail!

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Republican Propaganda

by Benjamin T. Moore, Jr.

REPUBLICAN PROPAGANDA FAIL!

Came across this photograph while visiting one of the “Liberal Forums” I frequent. From time to time, Republicans want to crash the party. We don’t mind them, because their presence suggests two things. The first is, if you’re not attracting Republican “Trolls” you’re not being effective at getting the message out. The second is, every now and again, you get a rational Republican who realizes he’s only being spoon fed one side of the issues and is truly interested in hearing the other side. They usually pose intelligent questions and give intelligent responses. Do we convince or convert all of these people? Of course not. However, they go away with a slightly different perspective and usually have much to think about they had not previously considered.

It was in this vein I came upon this picture with a comment indicating that the picture was from one of Mitt Romney’s Ohio campaign stops. The size of the crowd was used as an indication of how popular Gov. Romney is in Ohio. The poster further went on to say, “don’t tell me *Mr* – not President – Obama is leading in Ohio!” Well, of course it should be obvious, if Mitt Romney got that size of crowd… ANYWHERE it would be all over all the news stations. Fox News would be using it as “B-roll” for almost all of it’s lead-ins. That crowd is larger than the crowd at this years Republican National Convention. However, let us do our due diligence and actually examine this picture.

Upon closer inspection you notice some very unusual – dare I say impossible – things. The first thing you notice are the shadows. On a sunny day there is only one light source. Thus all shadows cast will fall in the same direction depending on the time of day, time of year and position of the Sun. This is governed by well established laws of physics. Anytime you see shadows going in multiple directions, you know immediately there has to be an additional light source. Since we only have one Sun, all shadows MUST fall in the same direction. When examining this photograph, you can count at least four different directions shadows are being cast. We could stop right here because this proves the photograph is a composite of several photographs assembled to create an illusion.

The next thing you notice is the composition of the crowd. Look at the colors in the crowd on the far left of the photograph. they seem natural. As the crowd swells to the right and into the distance, everything becomes purplish and red in hue. Again, this is not natural. Distance or size doesn’t change color. Next, pay attention to the podium or stage. Notice the banners in apparent disarray? Why are they on the back of the podium and not the side facing the crowd? Why are they in disarray? Doesn’t the banner on the far right actually look like an Obama banner? What’s an Obama banner doing at a Romney rally?

Then there is the small “Press Stage” in the immediate foreground. Which way are the people on that stage looking? They’re not looking at the stage. They’re looking almost directly to their right. They’re not looking at the crowd. What are they doing? Bottom line? This is a carefully crafted, composite photograph that some with limited knowledge put together to create a false impression. Actually it makes me smile. When they go to these lengths, you know you’ve got them on the run.

 

When Is Redistribution Not Redistribution?

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When is REDISTRIBUTION not REDISTRIBUTION?

I have watched with some irony the Republicans vainly attempting to throw monkey dust into the air to turn the conversation away from Mitt Romney’s big night of truthfulness. Make no mistake. The Republicans running around with their hair on fire over “Mitt – Caught On Tape!” are not upset with what he said. Actually they’re in total agreement. What they’re upset about is, what they truly believe is now out in the public and being discussed and examined by everyone. In a panic they’ve made a mad dash – as Eugene Robinson said – grabbed their fire ax and swung hard where it said, “In Case of Emergency, BREAK GLASS!”

They’ve brought out a 1998 tape of a young Senator Barack Obama saying that he agreed with – oh my gosh! – *SOME* “redistribution,” presumably of wealth. Their hope is that this will drive their base and any people on the fence into a panic. Here’s a little secret about human nature. When you try to scare someone, the first thing that pops into your mind is what *YOU* find terrifying. Want to know what terrifies rich people more than death it’s self? Even more than going to prison, ask Bernie Madoff? What terrifies rich people more than anything else is the thought of becoming poor! Yes, what terrifies them more than anything else is having to live what 99% of the rest of us call, EVERYDAY LIFE! You never know how brave you were now did you?

Let’s explore this whole “redistribution” question. Simple fact. The *ONLY* way to become rich is by transferring the wealth of the people around you – usually the poor – into your bank account. You have to sell them something, provide some service they *believe* to be indispensable or like Wall Street, rob them blind! The irony is, so long as wealth is being redistributed up to the rich, we call that Capitalism. When that exact same wealth is being redistributed back down to the poor, we call that Communism. Capitalism, GOOD! Communism, BAD! The only difference is the direction in which the wealth is moving. This is the big lie our American Society, Western Civilization has been based on. You have to convince the unwashed masses that one day, they too, by pure luck may become rich. Thus, they must preserve the system in the *hope* that one day they will benefit from it. This is a lot like buying a Powerball ticket. How does the “Pot” become so large? It’s because of all the suckers buying tickets.

When then Senator Barack Obama talked about wealth “redistribution” he was talking about using it to fund schools, programs to benefit children, teacher, police and firefighter’s salaries, improve neighborhoods etc. You know? All those things that make America the place you want to live? Contrast this to the philosophy of MItt Romney and Bain Capital. Their business model was to buy distressed companies and either make them profitable by outsourcing jobs and production to China – a Communist nation – or breaking them apart and selling them off in pieces. They redistributed jobs overseas, redistributed production overseas, redistributed the wealth into their offshore bank accounts. They do not however call that redistribution. They call that Capitalism. When anyone dares to take issue with it, they call it “Class Warfare.” Funny how it’s only “Class Warfare” when we fight back?

BAFFLE THEM WITH BULLS#@$!!!

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IF YOU CAN’T DAZZLE THEM WITH BRILLIANCE… BAFFLE THEM WITH BULLS#@$!!!

Whenever you listen to Republican spokesmen present the espoused political philosophies and ideologies of the Republican party, they always seem so reasonable. After all, they’re competing in the “Marketplace of Ideas.” Among reasonable people, the strength of one’s ideas should prevail and win the day. For example, if I’m dragging a heavy sled up a hill and you come along and show me the “Wheel,” you and I are not going to have an argument. The only thing I want to know is where can I get a set of four?

If I’m breaking a sweat, trying to make a fire rubbing two sticks together and you show up with a BIC lighter, I’m going to want to borrow it or buy it. You’ve got a better idea and I’m all in! When Republicans talk about a smaller government, it sounds reasonable… on the surface. You’ve got my attention. Tell me more! You lay out how if government were smaller, I could keep more of the hard earned money I make. Sounding good! Here comes the sticky part. In order to make government smaller, we have to cut back somewhere. Okay, I understand that. We cannot make government smaller without cutting something. That’s perfectly logical. What do you propose we cut?

You give me your list and suddenly I turn ashen white… no easy feat for a person of color! On your list I find the following:

• Education.
• What you call “Entitlement Programs.” (Odd choice of words – more later)
• EPA. – Environmental Protection Administration.
• FDA.
• Banking restrictions.
• Corporate tax rates.
• Infrastructure maintenance.
• Federal salaries – not congressmen, but other government workers.
• Collective bargaining – Unions.

As I catch my breath from the staggering implications of your plan, I point out that you left “military spending” off your list. Being that the United States spends more on it’s military than the next 6 closest nations… COMBINED! Why no cutbacks there? You respond that we need a strong military to keep us safe. Okay, but safe from what? Safe from whom? Technology has come along way since WWII. Even marginal nations can so blanket a battlefield with bombs and munitions, it would be suicidal to have tank battalions amassed for a shootout. Certainly any nations who presumably could pose a threat, all have nuclear capabilities. It doesn’t take 1,000 nukes to send us all back to the stone age.

Let’s explore the whole entitlement program thing. What exactly do you mean by entitlements? Social Security? Medicare? Welfare? Veteran’s benefits? I’m really not feeling you on this one. I started working when I was 14. I was stunned when my first paycheck did not reflect the money from all the hours I’d worked. My father sat me down and explained the facts of life. I learned that FICA – who the hell is he??? – was money the Government took out of my check for Social Security and Medicare and other programs that I didn’t need at 14, but I would need when I got older. How much older I asked? At that time it was 62. Hell! That was an eternity away! I’ll be 55 in a couple of months, and suddenly the prospect of receiving all that money the Government borrowed from me for a lifetime of work, seems within reach. What do you mean by dismissing it as an “Entitlement Program?” Entitled to it? No! It’s mine. I own it! I paid for it!

You know? Come to think of it, I’m rather fond of breathing clean air and drinking clean water. While we’re on this subject I find comfort in knowing – believing – that someone is monitoring our food supply and making sure the drugs my doctor prescribes have been checked and tested. Don’t get me started on the banks! Those bastards on the executive boards of banks all need to be rounded up and put in prison for grand larceny! I suppose you’ve never ran a tight balance in your checking account and had the bank take their fee first and bounce 3 checks! NSF fees of $30.00 each for a $6 dollar miscalculation. How about this one. Ever had a Credit Card with the payment scheduled on the first of the month? Ever have the bank change the payment date to the 15th without telling you? Then hit you with a late fee? Report to the credit reporting agencies that you were late? We need more banking restrictions!

Education? We’ve got far too many dummies running around now! Most of them claiming to be Republicans. The stupidity level in this country has been on the rise as the money we spend on education decreases. We need more teachers. They need to be paid more. Schools need to be better equipped. At this point my Republican friend walks off in a huff! However, this is not the end! This is the most critical thing to watch.

I’ve been paying attention. Republicans have been busy redrawing districts to their political advantage. They’ve been funding groups – True The Vote – who’s masthead says they’re a non-profit organization. The reality is they’re a *for profit* business! What is their business? There sole purpose for existence is to block perceived democrats from voting by any means necessary. Republican controlled States have been busily putting in place new voter restrictions – a poll tax – that now causes citizens to have to pay for new types of ID just to vote.

The problem is clear! Republican ideas are NOT winning in the marketplace of ideas, so they’re trying to rig the market! This past week has been one disaster after the other for Mitt Romney. First he steps in it big time over the embassy attacks. Before he can breach the surface for air, a tape is released where he’s talking to some donors who paid $50,000 a plate. I’m sure he felt comfortable. He admits that he doesn’t really give a damn about 47% of our fellow citizens. To him and those present, the 47% are the unwashed masses who are living off the government and costing taxpayers. The irony is, if you’ve got $50,000 to blow on a dinner with poor entertainment? Featuring the world’s worst stand up comedian? You’ve probably got an armada of accountants and you’re not paying any taxes.

During Mitt’s stand up bit, the subject of the Latino vote came up. Mitt jokes that his father was born in Mexico and that if he had been born a Latino he might do better with the Latino vote and have an easier time running for office! NOT FUNNY! Not funny at all! Now Mitt is on his “apology tour.” He made an appearance on the Spanish speaking network “Univision.” His problem? He appeared in “BROWN FACE!” Really Mitt??? Do you think the Hispanic community is that stupid? How insulting! I’m just thankful you didn’t try  to appear in Black Face at the NAACP Convention!

The Bain Method

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The Romney Campaign has devolved to the point where we now must ask, could they REALLY be this bad? I am beginning to suspect intentionality. Let us not forget that Mitt Romney attended the best schools money could afford. He has a law degree from Harvard and an MBA from Harvard. He was the Governor of a State. He was/is the CEO of a very successful business enterprise. Certainly he has the resources to hire the very best people available to run his campaign. Yet what we’ve seen over this past month looks more like an old black and white episode of “The Keystone Cops.”

Put another way, I’m 55 years old, overweight and out of shape. If I were silly enough to challenge, let’s say Kobe Bryant to a game of one on one, at what point would you begin to suspect something was amiss? When the score was 14 to 12? Even if it were in his favor? Suppose it were 18 to 20, still in his favor? At some point you would simply KNOW that Kobe was shaving points and showing extreme kindness to an old man. Particularly since I can’t shoot a basketball worth a damn!

Remember the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” staring Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson? Great movie by the way. Woody Harrelson played a pretty damn good – but unknown – college basketball player. He would sit in the stands. Wesley Snipes would be “styling and profiling” on the court and talking much shizzle. The Con would go like this. Wesley would be running his mouth and finally say, he could beat any two-man team present with…  – then he’d look over at Woody Harrelson, usually the loan white guy sitting in the stands – with that white guy sitting over there! The betting would begin. Why? Because everybody – the black players – simply knew that white guys were no good at playing basketball.

Of course they’d win. It was a pretty successful racket. The “marks” only saw your average white guy. They didn’t know who Woody Harrelson was or what his skill level was. They simply assumed based on his skin color that he couldn’t play basketball. Sort of a lesson in reverse racism.

I suspect something similar may be going on with the Romney campaign. We look at Mitt Romney and we *assume* that his goal is really to be President of the United States. We never stop to ask, “why?” When you look at his record as governor of Massachusetts, it certainly wasn’t a stellar record. 47th in Job creation. He left Massachusetts with a budget deficit. About the only successful thing he did was *sign* a health care bill that the Affordable Care Act is modeled after. One would think that a man with an MBA from Harvard could have done better had he actually applied himself.

You cannot look at Mitt Romney’s record and say that he is so committed to public service and making things better, that he feels a true calling on his life to benefit our Nation and fix the problems that ail us. Perhaps we need to dig a little deeper and look a little further? Let’s examine his business experience. The first red flag that springs to my mind was his prescription for our Automotive Industry. He felt so passionately about the subject that he wrote an “Op-Ed” in the Wall Street Journal entitled, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

His philosophy can hardly be mitigated by the notion that bankruptcy as is the practice with much smaller corporations can ultimately turn into a positive thing. The theory that large corporations can be split apart and sold off piecemeal only works if there are entities present with the interest and resources to buy up these failed corporations. This was clearly not the case in 2008. The credit markets had dried up and there were simply no entities out there other than the federal government, with the resources or interests to do anything.

Although President Obama does not possess an MBA from Harvard, he saw this fact. Odd that Mitt missed this wouldn’t you say? So, what was Mitt calling on by way of experience? When you look at the Bain model, the cookie cutter formula was to find companies with exposure, load them up with debt which because of the assets of your consortium was easy to do, pocket the proceeds from those loans and then let the already struggling company try to pay off the debt you’d put on it. When the companies went bankrupt as they usually did, you then broke them apart and sold them off in pieces, making even more profits for your investors. You’d do it over and over and over again.

Was Mitt Romney a successful businessman? Yes he was. However, not in the sense you would normally think! The business he was successful at was that of a corporate raider. He was a vulture capitalist. He didn’t take businesses, turn them around and make them successful. If they survived Bain, it was because they had a solid core that Bain was unable to crack. They would ultimately have succeeded and done so quicker and easier had they never had any involvement with Bain.

When you look at the Romney campaign, you begin to get the whiff of the Bain cookie cutter model. Many of the elements are very similar. Mitt Romney has been running for President for what? Over 7 or 8 years now? He’s put together what appears to be an actual viable campaign. This is the “business” he’s going to ultimately blow apart. Based on appearances, he now goes to Republican donors and the money begins to flow into his campaign coffers. Just as he loaded up companies with debts before they ultimately failed and declared bankruptcy. He’s doing the same thing. Money is flowing into pro-Romney “Super-Pacs.” It is flowing directly into his campaign. Because things are being managed in such a slipshod manner, it is easy for millions to simply vanish.

Your next clues are his offshore accounts and his refusal to reveal his income taxes. If you were serious about becoming President, one of the very first things you’d do is clean up your tax filings. He’s had over 8 years to do this. The fact that he has not should tell you something. If you were *really* running for President, you would close your offshore accounts and move all your money Stateside. This would have been done long ago. How does it look when the person running for President doesn’t have enough faith in the United States to put his money here?

At some point you begin to realize, NOBODY could be that bad unless it were on purpose! I’ll give him being caught on tape. That may have been unforeseen. However, coming out at 10 pm and holding a – what the hell was that anyway? – a quasi press conference? Taking 3 questions and really not answering any of them. Why couldn’t that have waited until the next day? It was just going through the motions, to give the appearance of concern.

Going off half cocked on the burning of our embassies and the death of our Ambassador? Really Mitt? As a businessman one should know you don’t make statements or issue press releases until all the facts are in. Harvard Lawyer, Harvard MBA Mitt Romney never learned this? His Republican Convention was a complete mess! People look at how a candidate runs his campaign, runs his convention as an indication of his or her leadership skills. Could you imagine a Romney administration actually managing a national crisis? That is a frightening prospect to consider… certainly based on how he’s run his campaign.

The only thing that makes sense, the only thing that fits is, what if this entire campaign is a sham? What if this is just another way for Mitt to do the *ONLY* thing he truly is good at… and that is to redistribute the wealth from the deep pockets of billionaires into his offshore accounts? Something to think about.