Thursday, September 20, 2012

Back From Charlotte, Romney's Third Mistake: The 47% and The Real Mitt






  
   I laughed my ass off when I first came across the picture at the top of this post which came from "The Other 98%." Now I got no ass.
   The only kind of poetry I am able to write on occasion is Haiku, which is is a very short form of Japanese poetry that doesn't have to rhyme. That's why I'm able to write them, they don't have to rhyme. The poems usually consists of just three lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, then 5 again. Very succinct and to the point in a lyrical and mystical sort of way. I'm not very good at it but I keep trying. Here's one example of my crappy Haiku writing:

My ass laughed off
When I heard Mitt diss people
Who he really needs

   The photo reminds me of a Haiku, the caption that is. It's succinct and to the point, and tells a world of a story.
   Only ten syllables though.
   I liked the photo so much that I Emailed it to some of my friends over the Internet Machine. One of my friends replied "??"
   I checked to see if the attached photo had gone through, and I thought it had, so I Emailed this friend again and asked him if he had received the picture. He replied that he had.
   Then I realized he did not understand the subtext that made the photo meaningful. I suddenly remembered that most other people, which include my friends, actually have lives and don't spend their days monitoring cable news channels, and that my friend had no idea why I had sent him this photo with an offensive word on it. So I wrote and sent this explanation:
"I see. Romney was caught on video speaking at a $50,000 a plate dinner last May stating 47% of Americans are government dependent and too lazy to take responsibility for their own lives, and pay no income tax. Unfortunately for him that 47% includes the elderly, deployed military, students, those receiving Child and Working Poor tax credits and 7000 millionaires. Most of these people don't pay income tax because they don't make enough money to pay income tax, however they pay payroll tax, sales tax, local tax, etc.
Gov Romney is basically insulting those he is hoping will vote for him."
   I didn't receive any further messages from my friend regarding this Email, which I thought a little strange... until I remembered he was a Republican.
   I sent my explanation to the others I had sent the photo to, just in case they were Current Events Deficient as well, and I did get this reply from my lovely friend Jennifer:
   "Thank you for this, Rick! I want to tell Governor Romney: I am not dependent on the government, I take full responsibility for myself, I pay a ton of taxes…and you still never had a shot at getting my vote!"
   To which I replied: "Good for you Jennifer!"
   Isn't she wonderful!
   Okay, we might as well look at the video that has created quite a stir, just for the pure sweet hell of it. Here's an ancillary clip in which Michael Isikoff of NBC News explains where Romney's clip originated and how it's made it's way to the forefront of the national stage:
http://firstread.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/18/13938614-how-the-romney-video-leaked-for-carters-it-was-personal?lite
   And for you purists here's the whole unedited clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mUEHpc6JKw8
   So let's review, shall we?
   Mitt (Mitt) Romney attended a $50,000 a plate fund raiser in Boca Raton, Florida, last May 17th at the home of sex crazed billionaire Marc Leder. An attendee smuggled in a small video and audio recording device and recorded Romney's talk. That person put it on You Tube under the name of Rachel Maddow. Our lovely friend Rachel knew it was not she who had placed this on the Internet because she hadn't been drinking that month, and had a good idea of what she had and had not been doing. She contacted the good folks at You Tube and let them know that the clip was not hers, and You Tube took it down.
   Rachel tried to authenticate the clip because it was obviously exceptionally news worthy... if it was genuine. But her efforts failed.
   This month whoever it was who made the clip got in touch with James Carter IV, President Jimmy Carter's grandson, who subsequently got in touch with David Corn of the progressive magazine Mother Jones, who put it back on the old Internet Machine, the difference now being the clip had some authority behind it, Carter and Corn verified the clips validity, and the rest is history. David Corn appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show the other night and apologized to her on behalf of the person who made the clip for using her name. She accepted the apology, so now everything is hunky dory.
   Except for Mitt.
   Well what's the big deal? What did he do that was so wrong? At least that's what some Republican pundits are asking, like Steve Doocy of "Fox and Friends," and radio host and Fox so-called News contributor Laura Ingraham. They just don't understand what all the brouhaha is  about, bless their little conservative pea-picking brains.
   Well I don't know, maybe it was how Romney dismissed nearly half of the electorate as shiftless, lazy, selfish, government dependent morons. That might have something to do with it.
   But he was telling the truth, Romney's supporters say. 47% of Americans are dependent on the government and pay no income tax.
   That's been a Republican talking point for quite a while now, that 47% of Americans pay no income tax, so why should the wealthiest among us be asked to pay higher taxes until those 47% pay their fair share?
   For once I agree with our Republican brothers and sisters. Let the 7,000 people that made more than $1 million but paid no income tax (according to the Tax Policy Center) pay their fair share. Let the  22,000 people that made between $500,000 and $1 million but paid no income tax pay their fair share. Let the 81,000 people that made between $200,000 and $500,000 but paid no income tax pay their fair share. Let the 381,000 people that made between $100,000 and $200,000 but paid no income tax pay their fair share.
   "Oh hell no! Not those people!" Our Republican friends shout. "We're talking about all of the other low life scum that aren't paying income tax."
   Oh those. Well let's say that Romney's figure is correct, that 47% of Americans pay no income tax at all, disregarding the high income earners above and corporations like Exxon Mobil, Bank of America, General Electric, Chevron, Boeing, Valero Energy, Citigroup, and ConocoPhillips that not only pay no income tax and make billions in profits, yet receive tax refunds from the government. And let's not forget Mitt Romney himself, because for all we know, he has paid no income tax himself since he's refused to show us more than a couple of years of tax returns. Disregarding all of these we've got let's see... we've got 61% of the so-called working poor who simply don't make enough income to be able to pay income tax, that coupled with the legal tax deductions they are entitled to (a family of four earning $26,400 a year will pay no taxes because the $11,600 standard deduction plus four exemptions of $3,700 each will lower their taxable income to zero). We've got 22% who are elderly, the lazy government dependent bastards! So freaking what if they had paid into social security all of their working lives, they should be ashamed of themselves for sucking at the government teat! Grandma get your ass out of bed and go to work!
   And the rest... so-called disabled people, or students, or newly unemployed.
   Most of these people Romney was speaking about seem to live in states like Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida, you know, the states Romney needs to win the election.
   None of these people pay income taxes so they must be worthless, shiftless, good for nothing, welfare queen, wheelchair bound neerdowells. So what if they all pay regressive sales taxes that affect lower income folks disproportionately, and payroll and local taxes. Who cares?!
   "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what," Romney says in this video. "All right — there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent on government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing."
   "My job is is not to worry about those people," Romney asserted. "I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."
   Yes, Romney's right! I refuse to take responsibility for my life and want the government to take care of me for the rest of it. That's why I live in this freaking box! I'm a victim. I think I should have food for God's sake!
   I have a friend on Facebook from Indiana who agrees with Gov Romney. He posted this Tuesday, which I've left unedited:
   My Facebook friend from Indiana: "whats the proplem with telling the truth,47% of people in the US are getting intitlements and of corse they are going to vote for Mr Obama,because he has put more on and made it eaiser,the proplem with that is the more people we have eating at the troff the less we have putting it in the troff,i say if you are getting welfare or intitlements you should have to do something for it even if its picking up garbage along side the road,or cleaning up graffitte on our city buildings and bridges,anything to improve our country,because when theres more people eating outta the government troff than putting in we have the socialist form of government,is that what we want because thats where we are headed"
   Who can argue with this kind of logic?
   His Facebook friend: "The majority of that 47% is the elderly that worked their whole life paying taxes but are now on Social Security & Medicare. Then you have the working poor that don't make enough to pay income taxes but pay payroll taxes, the rich that use tax deductions so they don't have to pay taxes and the military that's over seas fighting in the wars."
   My Facebook friend's response to his Facebook friend: "i know this i am on disability myself from an injury at work,but i worked for forty five years im talking about the people that are able to do something anything to help,give them a sence of pride and let them feel the are helping in some way"
   Another of his Facebook friends: "The point is that to reach that 47 percent number that Mr. Romney used - you would have to include yourself as well as the majority of your friends. Let's not forget that Mr. Romney believes a middle class family brings in from 200 to 250K annually."
   At this point my Facebook friend from Indiana got mad at his second Facebook friend and told her she was drinking "the Koolaid."
   It's always with the Kool Aid with these guys. When they can't come up with an argument they accuse the one they're arguing with of drinking Kool Aid.
   What's up with this freaking Kool Aid?! I want some!
   Not only did Mitt speak about the electorate during his talk last May, but he had advice for bomb makers in Iran as well:
   "If I were Iran, if I were Iran—a crazed fanatic, I'd say let's get a little fissile material to Hezbollah, have them carry it to Chicago or some other place, and then if anything goes wrong, or America starts acting up, we'll just say, "Guess what? Unless you stand down, why, we're going to let off a dirty bomb." I mean this is where we have—where America could be held up and blackmailed by Iran, by the mullahs, by crazy people. So we really don't have any option but to keep Iran from having a nuclear weapon."
   It's always nice to be helpful.
   This prompted Joe Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund to write this, "Anyone running for the highest office in the land simply must know the basics about dirty bombs, nuclear weapons, and the threat from Iran. This video does not help Gov. Romney prove that he does."
   Here's Mitt's solution to problems in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine:
   "I look at ... these thorny issues, and I say, 'There's just no way.' And so what you do is you say, 'You move things along the best way you can.' You hope for some degree of stability, but you recognize that this is going to remain an unsolved problem. We live with that in China and Taiwan. All right, we have a potentially volatile situation but we sort of live with it, and we kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it."
   I guess we can be thankful that Mitt wasn't advising Tony Blair on negotiating the Good Friday Agreement between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1998.
   Romney also said he doesn't trust Whoopie Goldberg.
   Well who does!? Look what she did to Capt. Picard!
   The Romney May 17th video also prompted this Special Comment from our good friend Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVyXbTn-YIo
   Oh my. That was completely uncalled for. I shouldn't have put that there. I could just kick myself.
   Personally what I take away from this video, and a few in the media I've heard agree with me, is how comfortable Romney seems to be when talking in front of all of these people who paid $50,000 to hear this crap. He's certainly within his element, at ease, open, and ready to spill his guts (as Democrat strategist Mudcat (Mudcat) Saunders aptly pointed out yesterday on MSNBC's Politics Nation , and I paraphrase, "Romney was speaking in front of 150 people who all had cell phones. Any experienced politician running for high office in this type of situation would know enough to be very careful about what he said."), a far cry from the stiff awkwardness he constantly displays when dealing or talking to ordinary (middle class) people.
   Mitt was with his people, the 1 to 5 to 10% of the highest income earners in the land, the only real Americans that are the only ones that really matter. He made it very clear that everyone else are pretty much beneath contempt and just there to be used, to be sucked up until dry.
   In other words Mitt Romney is a delusional asshole. As far as I know Mr. Romney eats just like the rest of us. He breathes air just like the rest of us. Sleeps, breeds, pays taxes (well, maybe not) puts one leg of his pants on at at time like the rest of us. Why he may occasionally take a crap every now and then. And one day he'll die, just like the rest of us, and on that day it won't matter how much money he's got or had.
   Right now though, as far as Mitt, and his rich buddies are concerned we might as well start to revive the eugenics programs of the early 20th century, and breed out all of the riff raff.
   Who knows, maybe he'll try that if he does become the President.
   Or we can send him back to wherever he came from in November.
   I vote for the later.

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