dagblog - Comments for "Wall street greed is illuminated."

Thanks, Artsy. Great article.

Oxy Mora — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:33:42 +0000

Thanks, Artsy. Great article. It seems to me that the surrogates are making the "we're clearing the decks now, that's good" argument to insure that Romney still looks "electable" after the Bain attacks and the tea folks and the anti-R's are so divided in S.C. that the argument will probably work.

The way I look at the effect of the Bain attacks is that they don't close off avenues of attacks but generate them. More options, not less.

But overall, Romney has been defined by his own party in a way he didn't want, particularly in relationship to the working class core of the party. There is also a distinction between the Main St. Business wing of the Republican party and the Wall St. Wing. Romney has now been firmly identified as a Wall St. guy, and more specifically a buy out specialist---not by Democrats, but by his very own party. This is not the side of fence he wanted to be on. Certainly not in a General election. A Wall St. guy is not a job creator. He is neither Mr. Main St., business guy nor Mr. Working Class.

Also, I think the process of parsing what Bain is and what it isn't adds uncertainly to the veracity of a guy who is already a roaring flip flopper. Sarah Palin did a great service. Where are the 100K jobs, prove it. And by the way, where are those tax returns---does anyone think those returns will not show a lower tax rate than the rest of us, and most likely reveal off shore accounts?

Now what was Nate saying about the "heuristic" methods of voters and the "counterfactuals"? Probably negates all of my comments. Crap, I thought "heuristic" went out years ago along with "didactic" and "paradigm".

The surrogates are out in

artappraiser — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 08:33:10 +0000

In reply to Thanks, Artsy. The surrogates

The surrogates are out in force trying to spin how Bain Capital is the bedrock of capitalism.

Nate Silver made an important point which reminded me why that kind of thing may not work as well as it once did, in the conclusion of his late-night Thursday post:

Welcome to the strange world of “super PACs” and the undisciplined messaging that they can facilitate.

Thanks, Artsy. The surrogates

Oxy Mora — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:18:00 +0000

In reply to A glance at Google News's

Thanks, Artsy. The surrogates are out in force trying to spin how Bain Capital is the bedrock of capitalism. It seems that they are doing a better job than Romney himself who puts his foot in his mouth every time he tries to explain the benefits of Bain Capital. The guy is just proving how elitist he really is---the $10K bet, all of it.

I just realized that Blackstone, one of the other Private Equity funds, mentioned above, headed by Steve Swartzman, is one of Romney's big funding sources.

I love Romney's comment that talking about "wealth inequality" and taxes should be reserved for "quiet rooms".

A glance at Google News's

artappraiser — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 23:10:35 +0000

In reply to Wall street greed is illuminated.

A glance at Google News's home page, where at upper right it currently says

Popular Video: Romney Lashes Back on Bain

The Wall Street Journal Digital Network

reminded me that it (duh!) might be wise to follow The Wall Street Journal on this story (of Republicans arguing about what good capitalism is,) rather than just the standard political sources--it does, after all, concern their "main beat."

Not that the WSJ campaign reporter interviewed on that video says anything that we don't already know, it's just seeing how they will be informing their audience about it. After all, their main mission has always been to give investors the knowledge tools regarding how/when/where to invest. He basically says Gingrich & Perry are the only renegades not going along with the traditional Republican party talking points on this, and gets into other particulars about the campaigns in South Carolina.

The ending interchange was interesting, here's my transcription of it:

Anchor: Now I know there's a documentary going to be released, King of Bain, When Mitt Romney Came to Town. We've seen trailers for it showing a lot of sad, laid-off people. Has that been released yet or is there still much anticipation around that and the impact that will have?

Reporter: No, if you go to www.kingofbain.com, you can watch all 28 minutes of it. It's a pretty well done, interesting video, but very much in the style of Michael Moore (laughs a little.) As we point out in our story, it was made by Republicans, is now being aired by Republicans, but is not exactly the kind of thing you would normally see being produced by Republicans.

Civil War, still can learn

NCD — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 22:29:51 +0000

In reply to sotto voce: Um, don't bring

Civil War, still can learn from it. Generations go by, yet some people never change. Sherman is bearing down, and the politicians of the south were...what else, arguing about taxes!

Southern Storm, excerpt from the Augusta Daily Chronicle and Sentinel, Nov. 15, 1864, from the Georgia State capitol at Milledgeville:

There is a tiresome amount of debate in the House. Petty issues often consume hours in running discussion, and it is a little notable that some of the poorest speakers are those who are oftenest on the floor. The most predominant feature of the session is the introduction of bills to change the lines between counties.....A man becomes dissatisfied with some action of his county, or with the rate of local tax, and runs to the Legislature to be cut off into a different county.....Several bills for changing lines were passed today, but none of which wold interest your readers...

fancied himself in the

jollyroger — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:10:42 +0000

In reply to Nah, if you're talking about

fancied himself in the radical role,

somehow he has scrubbed that picture of him with the long hair and beard from the tubez...pity...

Right. Unfortunately this

Dan Kervick — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 18:51:53 +0000

In reply to Nah, if you're talking about

Right. Unfortunately this radical laissez faire Ron Paul view of the world is taking hold among many, and Gingrich is just jumping on the bandwagon. "If only we had really, really, really pure, true perfect free market capitalism and competition, without all of those evil governments propping up their cronies, making all those regulations, imposing all those taxes and redistributing all that wealth, we would have a wonderful world."

Thanks for that. I guess I

Oxy Mora — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:46:55 +0000

In reply to Well, keep in mind that he

Thanks for that.

I guess I was more focused on Matthias' cuckoo clock on the pine paneled wall behind him. Now if he wants to send me some of that old growth pine lumber from Germany I might be a buyer.

Well, keep in mind that he

Verified Atheist — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:11:53 +0000

In reply to Thanks, Matthias. With all

Well, keep in mind that he does appear to be European, and the British did end slavery without a war (and paid slave owners for their "loss").

That said, I'm not sure Matthias was saying we could have ended slavery without a war in our country. In fact, at face value, he's saying just the opposite. That we were so in love with it that it took a war to stop it. I think that might be about right.

Thanks, Matthias. With all

Oxy Mora — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:04:38 +0000

In reply to Let's face the dire truth.

Thanks, Matthias. With all respect, your views are so far outside the essential truths of our Constitution and my own convictions that we should not govern from the Bible that I really don't think we can have a conversation about the particulars of Capitalism.

I am curious though, since it seems to keep coming up, when did you develop the notion that slavery could have been ended in America without a war? Also, have you been sending contributions to Ron Paul?