Guess Which Two Countries Wanted Romney Elected?

Mitt Romney – Caricature (Photo credit: DonkeyHotey)

And yes, just two.  Israel and Pakistan.

International polls show that while Obama was favored as the leader of the free world, citizens of only two countries supported Romney’s candidacy: Israel and Pakistan.

That says a lot. But why?

The world seeks to forget the era of George W. Bush, which divided the global map into good and bad, “those with us” and “those against us;” the difficult conflicts relating to the war on terrorism; the undermining of the concept of multilateralism; the disregard of the United Nations and other international institutions; the attempt to divide Europe over the war in Iraq; and the controversy surrounding global warming. Listening to Mitt Romney, the world heard the voice of Ronald Reagan, and also, that of George W. Bush. This voice was heard when Romney promised to restore America’s past superpower glory; when he labeled Russia as the “great Satan” and placed China on the axis of evil; and mostly when he defined the UN as an “extraordinary failure” and when he let it be understood that he intends to solve the problems of the Muslim world by the use of force.

And that’s why. Had Romney won, the world would be in mourning- except in extremist-ville.

Mitt Romney Paid $0 in Taxes Between 1996 and 2009: Or, the Continuing Tale of Deceptive Politicians

Here are the facts-

Using a tax shelter called a CRUT (charitable remainder unitrust)   that was held by the Church of Latter Day Saints (Mormons),  Mitt Romney was able to pay zero taxes (legally) every single year from 1996 to 2009.  Why did he stop in 2009?  Because he would make public his 2010 tax return, that is why.

This tax loophole was  killed by Congress in 1997. However those including Romney that were already using it were allowed to continue it.   The way it works, is that Romney makes a “charitable” contribution to the Church of Latter Day Saints and it goes into a trust.  Since the trust is held by the church, the money is tax  deferred.  Any capital gains, are non taxed because of the charities status.  Like an annuity, the donor gets a charitable tax deduction and an stream of cash payments.  When Romney dies, the church accepts full ownership..

Bloomsberg’s attorneys estimate as the Romneys have received these payments, the money that will potentially be left for charity has declined from at least $750,000 in 2001 to $421,203 at the end of 2011…..

Romney has refused to answer any thing on this topic.  His campaign puts out that it was all legal….

Legal perhaps.  Ethical for the president of the United States?  Well, only if you want a crook running the country….   Imagine!   Legally stealing from your church!.

Politicians.  Curse the lot of them.  Deceivers and self servers in a class of their own, voted for by people for whom they have neither concern nor compassion.  Curse, curse to eternal torment the entire feckless lot of them.

Related Articles

• Breaking: Romney Paid Zero Taxes From 1996 To 2009 (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• OCTOBER SURPRISE: Mitt Romney Used Church Loophole To “Defer” Taxes Over 15 Years (newsone.com)
• Exclusive Documents: Romney’s Loophole Trust Tax Filing (buzzfeed.com)
• FOIA Report Shows How Mitt Romney Avoided Paying Taxes For 15 Years (freakoutnation.com)
• Romney’s Use of the CRUT Tax Shelter (lawprofessors.typepad.com)
• Mitt Romney Reportedly Avoids Taxes Through Mormon Church Trust (huffingtonpost.com)

When Christ Returns, He Will Reign in Jerusalem, and Missouri…

So says Mitt Romney- and the Mormon Church.

Via Barth’s Notes, which has many other details of this eschatological tale of weirdness. Oh Evangelicals… you’ll just vote for anyone who wears the Republican label, won’t you?

More Political Hypocrisy

A Republican asking for Federal money?  I thought Republicans, led by their Presidential nominee, saw Federal spending as the world’s greatest evil…  I guess it is when it feeds the genuinely hungry or houses the genuinely homeless or provides health care for the average guy and gal. But when it means aiding Republican politicians, it’s perfectly acceptable.

It’s just more political hypocrisy.

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• Republican Hypocrisy (zwingliusredivivus.wordpress.com)

First Romney Signed a Pledge to Push A Marriage Amendment…

Here’s the proof–

And now he’s going to leave it up to the States…

A top Romney aide appeared last week to reverse the campaign’s support of the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would bar states from allowing same-sex couples to marry.  In a little-noted comment in the spin room following this past week’s presidential debate in New York, Romney campaign senior adviser Bay Buchanan laid out what appears to be an about-face for the Republican presidential nominee on the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment. Buchanan said that Romney is a “strong advocate for the Tenth Amendment” — which protects states’ rights — and believes that marriage decisions are “a state issue.”  …  In the closing month of the presidential race, the Romney campaign has pushed forward with a focus on an image of their candidate as a moderate, including discussion of his time as governor of Massachusetts and running television advertisements highlighting his support for exceptions allowing for abortion in the case of rape or incest or for the health of the mother.

More Romney wishy-washiness.  Or less charitably- more Romney trying to appeal to more voters just so he can be elected.

Mr Romney Needs To Visit Sesame Street, For Some Basic Math

Well I Really Don’t Know What to Say About This Photo of Romney… and the Girl…

Via Andrew

Will You Be Invited to the Romney’s For Thanksgiving?

I’m hoping I will be.  I know one thing, they’re going to have ONE BIG BIRD!   😉

via the goodly Mark Elliott

Romney’s War on Big Bird

via Facebook

R. Joseph Hoffmann: ‘Mormons Are the Best Liars in the World’

And that’s the mildest thing Hoffmann has to say about Mitt Romney.  In his viciousness, there’s an awful lot of truth.

A lot has been made about Romney’s lies, and his commitment to post-truth politics. But they are not really lies–at least not the sort of whoppers that Ben Franklin alluded to in Poor Richard’s when he said the truth stands on two legs, a lie on one.

In the image-is-everything world we live in, propagating your version of the reality you want the world to see is the real goal. Mitt Romney is good at it. But he is not good at it because he a a good lawyer, or a good businessman, or a good guy.

He is a good at is because he is a Mormon–and not just a Mormon but a really good Mormon. And really good Mormons are the best liars in the world.

Read every word.  It’s quite good.  It very much reminds me of something that Stephen Colbert said yesterday when interviewed by Terri Gross for All Things Considered.  He said that he couldn’t understand how Evangelicals, who constantly say that the Bible should be the guide for our national life, could support a man who believes something that is SO contrary to the teaching of that very Bible.  Mormonism, in spite of what some would like us to believe, is NOT Christianity.   Colbert is correct.

It is passing odd that Evangelicals will claim out of one side of their mouths that the Bible is God’s Word and guide for life and out of the other side proclaim their support for leader of the free world a man who is, theologically, not at all like them.

Predicting The Outcome of the Election

I’m going to go way out on a limb and go ahead and predict the winner of the US election (and if I’m wrong feel justified in calling me a false prophet) –

The winner will be…..

Big business.  Lobbyists.  The Oil Industry.  Wall Street Bankers.  The Military/ Industrial complex.  Deceptive politicians who lie to get elected and then turn their backs on the people who foolishly and stupidly vote to perpetuate a system designed to benefit power and to ignore normal people.

In short, the winner will not be the American people.

If I Were Forced Today at Gunpoint to Vote…

And there were ONLY two choices: I would vote for Sarah Palin before I would vote for Mitt Romney.  I would vote for George Bush before I would vote for Mitt.  I would vote for Silvio Berlusconi before I would vote for Mitt.  I would vote for Vladimir Putin before I would vote for Mitt.  And I’d get pretty close to voting for Bashar al Asaad before I’d vote for Mitt.

That is, if it were Mitt v. just about anyone (short of Satan) I would be forced to vote for anyone but Mitt.  Indeed, I would eve vote for Bibi Netanyahu before I would vote for Romney.  That should indicate – in some small measure – how inept I am convinced Romney is.  The Republicans have given us NO ONE to vote for on their side of the ledger. NO ONE.

We have no choice.  It’s either the failed policies of the present administration (and, please, let’s not kid ourselves, they are failed) or the miserable excuse the other party has offered. These are sad days for America.  Never before in my lifetime have the candidates from both parties been so uniformly abysmal.

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• Young Ron Paul supporters express support for Gary Johnson, say Romney, Obama the same (redalertpolitics.com)

Mitt Romney’s Foreign Policy Explained, By Mitt Romney

Romney, on Mideast peace: “Kick the ball down the field and hope that ultimately, somehow, something will happen and resolve it.”  –  Steve Inskeep, of NPR (on the twitter).

Makes you’re skin tingle doesn’t it…

[That sound you keep hearing every time Mitt talks is Repub commissars all around the country face-palming themselves]

Ezra Klein On Romney’s Real Ideology

In a fine essay, Klein concludes

Republicans have become outraged over the predictable effect of tax cuts they passed and are using that outrage as the justification for an agenda that further cuts taxes on the rich and pays for it by cutting social services for the non-rich.  That’s why Romney’s theory here is more than merely impolitic. It’s actually core to his economic agenda.

Romney really does want the rich to get richer off the backs of the poorer.  And he really doesn’t care if anyone likes it or not.  He is cynicism enfleshed.  He is self-interest writ large.  He is America, in short.  Perhaps he really will win- since a people always get the government they deserve.

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• Ezra Klein: Tax Cuts And Wars Account For Half Our Debt By 2019 (alan.com)

Do The Repubs Really Want Someone in Office Who Constantly Exhibits Horrible Judgment?

Mitt Romney on Monday said his controversial statements caught on tape were “off the cuff” and “not elegantly stated,” but he defended the main message of his remarks. Romney took three questions in a brief press conference with pool reporters late Monday night in California, scheduled at the last minute in response to the release of secretly recorded video of the candidate speaking at a private fund-raiser in May.

What did he say???

In the footage, taped with a hidden camera, Romney argued nearly half of Americans will vote for President Barack Obama because they rely on government support, made apparent jokes about wishing he had Latino heritage, and talks about a Chinese factory his former firm purchased. “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what,” Romney says in one clip. “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.”

So, to recap- anyone – according to Mitt – who doesn’t support him is a welfare bum. Nice. And stupid. And yet another exhibition of the sort of bad judgment no one, honestly, in their right mind, can support. Or to say it differently, do you want, do you really want, this guy managing the Country, with his ‘hand on the button’?

I bet Karl Rove is apoplectic.

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I Thought I Was Doing Pretty Well, Till Mitt Romney Told Me I Was a Loser…

Apparently, so far as Mitt the Multi-Millionaire is concerned, middle income is in the $250,000 range…  Well.  So much for feeling like I belonged to the Middle Class.  I’m obviously extremely poor because our combined income is WELL below that…

So thanks, Mitt, for making me feel like a loser.

Mitt Romney is promising to reduce taxes on middle-income Americans.  But how does he define “middle-income”? The Republican presidential nominee defined it Friday as income of $200,000 to $250,000 a year and less.  The definition of “middle income” or the “middle class” is politically charged as Romney and President Barack Obama fight to win over working-class voters. Romney would be among the wealthiest presidents, if elected, and Democrats have repeatedly painted him as out of touch with average people.  Obama also has set his definition for “middle class” as families with income of up to $250,000 a year.  Romney’s comments came an interview broadcast Friday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”  “No one can say my plan is going to raise taxes on middle-income people, because principle number one is (to) keep the burden down on middle-income taxpayers,” Romney told host George Stephanopoulos.  “Is $100,000 middle income?” Stephanopoulos asked.  “No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less,” Romney responded.

Geesh.  Talk about out of touch…

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I’ll Go Further Than Joel

Not only do I blame Terry Jones and the feckless ‘Israeli-Jewish’ filmmaker for what happened in Libya, I think that, by rights, they should be forced to live up to their bold words, be taken by the CIA via helicopter, and dropped in the middle of Mecca.

If you’re going to say something, back it up with your life.  YOUR life, not the lives of others, while you cower in you secret hiding place and watch folk die because you don’t have the good sense to either keep your mouth shut or your vile and disgusting ideas to yourself.

Joel writes

Oh? Am I blaming Terry Jones for the murder for four Americans in Libya? Not really, but he allows his hate to become fuel for the fire smoldering already.  See, after years of burning Qurans, Terry has taken to making propaganda pieces about Islam with the intent to insight and inflame:

That’s also because it’s associated with Florida Pastor Terry Jones (yes, the ******* who burnt the Koran despite Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’ pleas) and two Egyptians living in the U.S., according to Egyptian press accounts.* The Egyptians are allegedly Coptic, the Christian minority that makes up about a tenth of Egypt.

Growing up in south Louisiana, I knew about the red ants. These fire ants, these tools of satan, rested easily in their dirty, dusty, sandy piles attacking no one, but always in rage. However, if you go and stick something into the pile, disturb it – kick it over, they are going to get you. Radical extremists are the same way. Terry Jones is doing his level best to cause these things so that he can point and say, “See, they aren’t a religion of peace.” How ironic that Christian fundamentalist is inciting Islamic fundamentalism… that someone who professes to follow the “Truth,” Jesus, is lying and provoking murder.  And the new darling of the Christian Right, Mitt Romney, has responded in a way similar to Terry Jones – with lies and provocation.  At this moment, we pray for the family of Chris Stevens and the other American diplomats murdered last night.

Those who incite hatred should be handed over to those they incite and the innocent left alone.  The radical Muslims are just as guilty as Terry Jones for fulminating hatred and they should be handed over to the families of those they’ve killed.

When people learn that they will reap what THEY sow, maybe they’ll sow a little less hatred.

If Sheldon Adelson Wants War with Iran, Let Him Go Fight in It

And if Romney wants Israel to attack Iran, let him, and his 5 sons, hop on the first plane to Tel Aviv and jump in an APC and drive across the desert and attack Iran themselves.  They can be the ‘tip of the sword’.

These maniacal war lovers are always happy to send someone else to die in a foolish and pointless war, so they should shut up and man up and go.  Let them die for their precious cause if it means all that to them.

Those of us who aren’t insane will denounce the bloodlust, and those bent by hell itself to destruction, death, and murder.

Romney’s Running Mate

Paul Ryan.  He may well cause the right to coalesce around Romney which will be bad news for the left – which has shot itself not in the foot but in the head because the short sighted Dems in Congress the first two years of Obama’s administration accomplished nothing.

Nevertheless, to borrow and adjust a phrase from Kierkegaard- whether you vote for the Republicans or the Democrats, you will regret it.  However you vote, you will regret it.  And if you refuse to vote, you will also regret it.  Whatever you do, you will regret it.

Related articles

• Mitt Romney picks Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as running mate (jacksonville.com)

The Mormonizing of America

In the mail this morning there was a new book titled The Mormonizing of America sent for review.  It looks pretty interesting so I’m going to give it a read and see what it’s about.

“If a man’s faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him and it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life.” –Stephen Mansfield
 
Mormons and Mormonism are moving into the spotlight in pop culture, politics, sports, and entertainment: including presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Mormonism has now emerged as one of the fastest-growing religions and a high-impact mainstream influence. Stephen Mansfield, the acclaimed New York Times bestseller, writes this important story at a pivotal moment in American history.

The Mormonizing of America is critical to understanding our times, our culture–and our future as a country. Backed by up-to-date research, personal anecdotes, and a 16-page photo section, Mansfield examines the influence of the LDS church–past, present, and future. He debunks common myths, expounds on the Church’s beliefs, and unveils many of the mysteries surrounding this influential religion and its loyal members.

I hope he says something about the magic underwear.  My review, when done, will appear here.