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October 31, 2012
VOTING Gangnam Style!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:11 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Real Estate Idea
How about everyone who understands what climate change is sell their coastal property to people who believe it is a hoax! You can still get good prices ...
... and maybe the oil companies will even subsidize their purchases!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:42 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 30, 2012
I Upgraded To Windows 8 And Love It
First, the excuses... We have Macs and PCs at home. I mostly use a PC laptop for legacy reasons. (Had to migrate from Mac to PC a long time ago for work, now everything is on the PC... Oh, and Macs cost 2-3 times as much for the same thing, and Apple just rips you off with no mercy. They overcharge for everything, even simple $2 connector cords can be $30. Apple is an aggressively predatory company.) (Oh, and there is no excuse for not making things in the USA, and no excuse for their aggressive tax avoidance schemes which deny the American public good schools, etc. Apple is an aggressively unpatriotic company.)
So anyway, I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 8, and I love it. I "get" it. I feel like I have been freed from the PC in the ways that the Mac made me feel that I was free to just work instead of dealing with the computer and its setting all the time.
Before you upgrade, you need to understand some things. It is not what you expect, and it is too early for most of you to do it.
Windows 8 is not really an "upgrade" to the Windows you know and understand, it is an entirely different paradigm. It will feel like you need to learn everything from scratch. Maybe, maybe not but after you have learned how to use Windows 8 it is much better. It makes the computer easy to use and gets the system out of your way.
It is going to take a while for enough people to learn Windows 8, and for the ecosystem of apps (it heavily follows an app design, like a smartphone) and programs that integrate all of Windows 8's features. So most people should just wait. Also installation can have quirks that only computer-literate people can overcome at this point. So wait.
But it's great.
And by the way, I know a few things about computers and operating systems.
Update - here's what's missing in Windows 8: a clock. On most screens you don't see the time, the way you did on older versions of Windows. Maybe there's a setting or something but not having the time visible screws me up.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:14 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Is Hurricane Sandy God's Punishment For Ignoring Global Warming In Debates?
Conservatives and the Christian Right regularly blame hurricanes on abortion, liberals, government and "teh gay." But Hurricane Sandy actually is an "unprecedented." This "Frankenstorm," with a gale-force wind diameter of 1040 miles, is the largest hurricane in Atlantic history, with the lowest barometric pressure. So we really should ask the question: is Hurricane Sandy actually God's punishment for not bringing up climate change in the presidential debates?
RWNJs
Here are just a few samples of what a few of the many right-wing nut jobs (RWNJs) ("the base") have had to say about hurricanes:
Michelle Bachman said that Hurricane Irene was God's punishment for our having a government that provides services to our people, (seriously, she said it):
"I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?' Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we've got to rein in the spending."
The Rev. Pat Robertson told us that Hurricane Katrina was God's retribution for legalized abortion.
The Pope made Gerhard Wagner a bishop after he blamed Hurricane Katrina on teh gay.
Another Unprecedented Storm
So here we have another "freak," "once in a hundred years," "unprecedented," "no one has seen this before" storms that we are experiencing all the time now.
The Washington Post the other day, Hurricane Sandy may be unprecedented in East Coast storm history,
With computer models locked in on the eventuality of a punishing blow for East Coast from Hurricane Sandy (with the latest model runs favoring the northern mid-Atlantic), analyses suggest this storm may be unlike anything the region has ever experienced.
Etc. Please read Climate Progress, CNN Bans Term ‘Frankenstorm’, But It’s A Good Metaphor For Warming-Driven Monster: ‘Largest Hurricane In Atlantic History’.
Why Attribute Hurricane Sandy To Global Warming?
The term "climate change" is used to refer to the fact that the ... uh ...climate is ... uh ... changing. This is a result of the warming of the atmosphere that results from putting massive amounts of CO2 into the air, primarily by burning coal and oil as an energy source. The CO2 acts like a layer of glass to trap heat in the atmosphere that would previously have bounced off the earth and into space. This trapping effect acts just like the way the glass in a greenhouse traps heat inside. This is why CO2 is called "greenhouse gas."
The trapped heat eventually changes the patterns of the weather, and melts ice that then causes the oceans levels to rise. This change in weather patterns is what we are beginning -- just beginning -- to experience. Flood, massive "freak storms, terrible heat waves that go on and on with higher temperatures, increased severity of hurricanes, droughts, huge regional fires, and all the rest of the "weird weather" people are talking about...
The scientifically predicted changes in the climate include:
Severity: The increased heat from global warming puts more energy into storms, so they are stronger.
Rain and snowfall: Storms, including hurricanes, will be loaded with extra moisture, so higher rainfall will make flooding more frequent and worse.
Rising seas: melting ice slowly increases sea levels, so storm surges, etc., will be worse.
The Campaign Mostly Silent On Climate Change
Climate change was not much of an issue in the Presidential debates, except in the extent to which the candidates promoted more drilling for oil and more mining of coal, hence increasing the problem. In the first debate Mitt Romney actually mocked people who are warning about climate change and sea-level rise, and criticized President Obama for investing $90 billion in wind and solar -- and just lied, saying that half of the investments had gone bankrupt.
However, in an interview on MTV President Obama was asked about climate change, and said (TPM),
"We're not moving as fast as we need to," Obama said. "This is an issue that future generations, MTV viewers, are going to have to be dealing with even more than the older generation is. So this is a critical issue -- and there's a huge contrast in this campaign between myself and Governor Romney. I'm surprised it didn't come up in the debates."Obama said Romney "says he believes in climate change....but he says he's not sure that man-made causes are the reason" As for his own views, "I believe scientists who say we're putting too much carbon emissions into the atmosphere and it's heating the planet and its going to have a severe effect."
Possibly related: NY Times, Fossil Fuel Industry Ads Dominate TV Campaign,
The American Petroleum Institute, backed by the nation’s largest oil and gas companies, is the top energy spender this year with its “I’m an energy voter” campaign. Although the ads avoid explicitly endorsing any candidate, they clearly echo policy stands taken by Mr. Romney and the Republicans: opposing regulations that might slow down drilling and denouncing Mr. Obama’s proposal to eliminate oil industry subsidies.
The Terrifying Math Of Global Warming
Here is the climate problem in a nutshell. As Bill McKibben explained in Global Warming's Terrifying New Math:
1) We have to try to hold warming to 2 degrees Celsius, we're at .8 of that now with huge storms, drought, floods and all kinds of effects. It gets dramatically worse from here - heading towards crop failure, famine, running out of water, rising seas, mass extinctions ...
2) To hold at 2 degrees we can put no more than 565 gigatons CO2 into atmosphere.
3) Current proven coal, oil and gas reserves is 2,795 gigatons even if we discover no more. That is 5 times what we can burn and stay at 2 degrees. But that is worth $20 trillion in oil company assets, they will fight to the death to be able to burn that carbon.
God's Punishment
No matter what you consider "God" to mean, clearly this "unprecedented" hurricane, arriving just before the election is a signal to all of us that we must stop ignoring this problem. Things might be "unprecedented" now, but are projected to get much, much worse.
Here is Grist's David Roberts explaining that "Climate change is simple: We do something or we’re screwed,"
Please click through to see the accompanying slide show.
Also, Democracy Now: Bill McKibben on Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change: "If There Was Ever a Wake-up Call, This Is It"
"The last time we saw anything like this was never."
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
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Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:27 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 28, 2012
A Fresh Idea
Up With Chris Hayes should have John McCain on as a guest.
And George Will.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:30 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 27, 2012
How Romney Will Do Business As President
Remember how the Bush administration made cronies rich? Here is how Romney will run things. Mitt Romney spends big on firms tied to aides,
Mitt Romney's campaign has directed $134.2 million to political firms with business ties to his senior staff, spotlighting the tightknit nature of his second presidential bid and the staggering sums being spent in this election.Nine firms that are run by, or recently employed, top Romney aides have received almost a third of the $435.8 million that Romney's campaign and a related fundraising committee have spent on operating expenses through Oct. 17, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of federal election finance reports.
$134.2 million steered to cronies. Contrast this with Obama:
President Obama's reelection campaign and a joint fundraising committee have paid about $5.8 million in consulting fees to companies with business ties to senior strategists, according to the finance reports.
A Romney administration will be entirely a pay-to-play corruption racket run for insider profit. They will start where Bush left off.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:43 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
October 26, 2012
Just Lie and Lie
The last Romney on economy: Obama 'made the problem worse'
In the last month of the Bush Presidency the country lost 815,000 jobs. Do I really have to describe what else was going on in the economy when Obama took office?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:29 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Don't Forget bout The Hood - Jasiri X
Directed by Emmai Alaquiva, "Don't Forget About The Hood" illustrates how the issues of the poor and urban communities have been all but forgotten in this current election season, and wonders what happened to all of the energy and organizing that took place in the wake of the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin."Don't Forget About the Hood" was produced in collaboration with http://hoodievote.org with Da Ricanstrukta providing the powerful soundtrack
LYRICS
See cause we broke they forget about the hood
So when you vote don't forget about the hood
I ain't telling folks don't get up out the hood
just when you living good don't forget about the hoodLet's say we did it for the hood
Put on your fitted and you hoodI'm talking to the those you know that's living in the hood
that ain't getting what they should
we won't forget the hoodWe the lost and forgotten called rotten so we tossed to the bottom
Let em tell it we the source of the problem
They call us gangbangers and illegals
Cane slangers of da evil
Like we the main danger to the people
So our issues don't get the same anger or treated equal
if you not one of them change raisers they don't see you
So the hood every week is ignored
Before these politicians speak to the poor they reach for the door
now voter ID is the norm
Police brutality's not reformed poverty's even more
Tens of thousands of human beings they still deport
And they made it a felony if you come back and get caught
We need to stop cheering for sides like its a sport
Vote for your self and your own hood time is short
Cause doing nothing ain't a option
Do something get it poppin
Real action over talking
The whole world is watchingSo when you vote don't forget about the hood
Get out and vote but don't forget about the hood
I ain't telling folks don't get up out the hood
just when you living good don't forget about the hoodLet's say we did it for the hood
Put on your fitted and you hoodI'm talking to the those you know that's living in the hood
that ain't getting what they should
we won't forget the hoodDo we remember Trayvon or is the pain gone
Do we remain strong or did we move way on
Remember when we all had pictures in our hoods
Did we forget about the hood
Zimmerman's still free I don't know about you but it kills me
This murderer could be found not guilty
Remember how we organized fortified for the ride
Polarized but mobilized I thought it was so divine
What happened to that energy we need it now more than ever
Many people kept working I will not ignore their effort
Give voice to the voiceless that's why I record this message If you really for the hood for who or for what you reppin
That the million dollar question
Millionaires is who we follow but they hollow in they lessons
What's the point of a weapon pointed in the wrong the direction
If your hood is what you reppin how strong is your connection
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:25 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Why Voters Need To Know About #Sensata
Right now a company named Sensata is moving equipment out of a factory in Freeport, Ill. and shipping it to a factory in China. Sensata will be laying off all of the American workers, but first they are making the workers train their Chinese replacements. The workers' last day is the day before our election. Here's the thing: this company is owned by Bain Capital, and Mitt Romney -- who says he is against shipping jobs to China -- will make a fortune from the move to China.
The Sensata employees have set up a camp outside the factory that they call Bainport and are trying to stop the Bain trucks that are moving the equipment out for shipment to China. These soon-to-be-jobless workers have asked Romney to come help them.
This is a tremendous opportunity for Mitt Romney. As the former head of Bain Capital and with all the visibility of a presidential campaign, he could step in and help these workers. It offers him the chance to demonstrate to voters that he means the things he says on the campaign trail, and is not just saying these things to get votes. But Romney has refused.
Mitt Romney says on the campaign trail that he will crack down on China and is against companies shipping jobs to China. These are very popular positions to take -- the public overwhelmingly wants to see things made in America again, and understands that China's trade cheating is costing us dearly. So a candidate for president would certainly say he is for doing this. But when it comes time to show that he will actually means it and will do something about it, it looks as though Romney is not doing it. These workers have asked for his help, but he won't do it. Voters should know about this, and make up their own minds about whether Mitt Romney means what he says, or just says what he needs to say to win.
Bain Capital And Sensata
Mitt Romney started the "private equity" firm Bain Capital. Bain's business model is to purchase companies using "leveraged buyouts" that borrow huge sums using the purchased company's own assets as collateral, uses the borrowed money to immediately pay itself, then cuts costs by doing things like sending jobs to China, cutting wages and manipulating tax rules to cut taxes owed, along with standard big-business practices like consolidating business units, taking advantage of economies of scale not available to smaller competitors, squeezing distribution channels for price cuts, and other practices that bring competitive advantages. (See So DID Mitt Romney Really "Create Jobs" At Staples? and Truthout: Romney & Company Shipped Every Single Delphi UAW Job to China.) After reorganizing the purchased companies and cutting costs -- namely: you -- Bain then "harvests" them for profit.
One company that Bain Capital purchased -- after Romney's time as CEO -- is Sensata, a sensor manufacturer that makes key components for our automobile supply chain. Sensata then announced it is closing the factory in Freeport, Ill., and sending all of the manufacturing and jobs to China. This is significant because China is engaged in an effort to capture the automobile manufacturing supply chain, and sensors are a key strategic chokepoint. China built a factory for Sensata, and offers other incentives to the company to move manufacturing there.
So Bain is currently moving all of the equipment out of the Freeport factory, preparing to shut it down and lay off all of the American workers. Bain/Sensata brought in Chinese workers and made the Freeport workers train them. Bain/Sensata is moving the equipment out of the Freeport factory and shipping it to China right now.
The Sensata employees heard Romney on the campaign trail, and somehow got the idea that he opposes sending our jobs to China just because he says that he opposes sending our jobs to China. So the Sensata workers asked him to come to Freeport/Bainport and help them. Read on to learn about Romney's response to the Sensata workers, and how Romney is actually making big money right now from shipping their jobs to China.
"The week before they came they took the American flag down outside the plant. The week after they left they put it back up."
Romney Making A Fortune From Sensata Sending Jobs To China
While Mitt Romney no longer manages Bain Capital, he still has millions of dollars in Bain funds and will personally make a fortune from this company moving to China - both from profits and from tax breaks. (What you and I consider a fortune, Romney might consider a drop in the bucket.)
A must-read news report by Sharon LaFraniere and Mike McIntire in The New York Times explains. As Romney Repeats Trade Message, Bain Maintains China Ties (emphasis added, for emphasis),
Mr. Romney also has millions invested in a series of Bain funds that have a controlling stake in Sensata Technologies, a manufacturer of sensors and controls for vehicles, aircraft and electric motors that employs 4,000 workers in China. Since Bain took over the operation in 2006, its investment has quadrupled in value. Bain continues to own $2.6 billion worth of Sensata’s shares.Two years ago, Sensata bought an operation that made automobile sensors in Freeport, Ill. At the first meeting with the plant’s 170 workers, Sensata managers announced that by the end of 2012 all the equipment and jobs would be relocated, mostly to Jiangsu Province. Workers have staged demonstrations, pleading for Mr. Romney to intervene on their behalf.
Chinese engineers, flown to Freeport for training on the equipment, described their salaries as a pittance compared with Freeport wages. Tom Gaulrapp, who has operated machines at the factory for 33 years, said he fears he will go bankrupt after he loses his job on Nov. 5.
“This goes to show the unbelievable hypocrisy of this man,” he said of Mr. Romney. “He talks about how we need to get tough on China and stop China from taking our jobs, and then he is making money off shipping our jobs there.”
Please read the entire New York Times report, As Romney Repeats Trade Message, Bain Maintains China Ties. There is much more there about Romney, China, Bain and the huge gap between what Romney says on the campaign trail, and how Romney made his current $400,000/week income and how Bain Capital still makes its money.
Also see this Huffington Post report, Mitt Romney Gets Tax Break Off Firm Sending Jobs To China,
According to his recently released 2011 tax returns, Romney transferred $701,703 worth of Sensata stock to the Tyler Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt nonprofit controlled by Romney. The gift is listed on page 323 of the pdf, on form 8283 (below).Moving the stock to his nonprofit brings Romney twin benefits. First, he gets to deduct the full value of the stock. At a 35 percent tax rate, that's nearly a $250,000 benefit. At 15 percent, it's just over $100,000.
Second, Romney is able to avoid paying capital gains taxes on the stock price increase. Romney's returns list no cost for the stock, and indicate he obtained them as part of a partnership interest in Bain. Avoiding capital gains taxes on the full increase would save an additional $100,000. In 2010, Romney gifted $170,000 worth of Sensata stock to his charity, saving $25,000 in capital gains taxes that year.
Cheryl Randecker, a Sensata worker facing an imminent layoff, said, "I could pay off my house with that [$25,000], and he doesn't need it anyway."
So there you have it. Mitt Romney says he opposes sending jobs to China, and says he will "crack down" on China. But he refuses to do things that he could do right now that would make an actual difference right now. And it turns out that right now he is making big money from Sensata and other companies that are sending people's jobs to China right now.
Laying off American workers – usually shipping the jobs to China – and pocketing their wages for themselves is the story of the rise of the wealth of the 1%, and the decline of the American middle class. It is the Romney/Bain/Sensata business model. And the remaining workers have to do the jobs of the laid-off workers, often for lower pay, and are threatened with losing their jobs, too, if they don't like it.
Economic Traitor?
This is an advertisement titled "Economic Traitor," that is being aired by superPACs Workers' Voice and Patriot Majority, based on Sensata:
Click here to see all of CAF's coverage of Sensata.
Bain Of Our Existence - The Go-To place for stories and info about Bain Capital.
For more information, photos and stories from the Sensata workers, please visit bainport.com.
For Fun
From UnitedNY, if Bain Capital was your psychologist:
PATIENT (LYING DOWN on couch): I think he’s depressed. I mean, he is a good kid but he just keeps to himself. I can’t get him to talk or spend time with the family and barely does any chores.
BAIN: Have you consider outsourcing? (hold shot of PATIENT)
PATIENT (confusion) You want me to outsource my son? (TURNS HEAD towards BAIN in surprise)
CUT to Bain face
BAIN: Yes, you can find some very obedient children in China or Bangladesh, even the Philippines.
(P.S. The reason I use #Sensata in the titles is because on Twitter the "hashtag" helps get the word out.)
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
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Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:00 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 25, 2012
What Do Republicans Say About Romney?
See for yourself:
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:01 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Retirement Age And Unemployment
I understand that approx. 3,650,000 reach age 65 each year. So doesn't raising the retirement age by one year add 3,650,000 people to unemployment roles, because the jobs don't open up?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:35 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 23, 2012
Obama Responsible For Bush Job Loss? FactCheck.org Says Yes
When Obama took office we were losing more than 800,000 jobs a MONTH -- and according to FactCheck.org that is Obama's doing, not Bush's.
From Obama’s Inflated Jobs Claim,
In a new TV ad, President Obama makes an inflated claim to have added 5.2 million new jobs. The total added during his time in office is actually about 325,000.In the ad, the president says “over 5 million new jobs” while the figure “5.2 million” appears on screen. But that’s a doubly misleading figure.
* Viewers would need to pay close attention to the on-screen graphic to know that the ad refers only to employment gains starting in March 2010, omitting the 4.3 million jobs that were lost in the first year of Obama’s term.
* And there’s no way a viewer would know that the total counts only private-sector jobs, omitting continuing losses in government employment.
Here is the reality:
The red lines on the left are the Bush months. The blue lines are Obama months. The DOWNward-heading lines on the left side of that huge V shows what was happening before the stimulus turned things around. The right side of that V, where things start getting better, is what happened after the stimulus kicked in.
ALL the job losses that Romney -- with FactCheck.org's backing -- claims occurred because of Obama were in that V. Yes, even after the stimulus turned things around we were still losing jobs, but losing fewer each month, and then breaking into positive territory and staying there.
As for public/private -sector jobs, yes Obama did try to save public-sector jobs and did a good job of that with the stimulus, but Republicans blocked further efforts, and in the state were able to lay off many, many teachers, police, etc.
And according to FactCheck.org, that's Obama's fault, too.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:46 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
Change.org Turns Right
Here is a pretty big story: Change.org Changing: Site To Work With Corporate, Anti-Abortion, GOP Campaigns, Say Internal Documents. Yep, another "progressive" org is selling out to the corporates for money.
And please sign SignOn.org petition: Change.org: Reinstate the person you fired for letting your users know that you're going to work with corporations and the far-right
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:36 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Mitt Romney's Pitch For President
"I swear this was only driven by a little old lady who took it to the store and back once a week."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:14 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 22, 2012
Debate - Obama Won
Obama clearly won. Clearly.
Romney got of several lies that were not refuted, but several that did get refuted. After a while Romney was left just repeating his memorized script -- 4 times? Am I right that it was 4 times?
I wonder, is that ALL Romney has - just lying?
I saw Van Jones on CNN holding up an Etch-a-Sketch.
FYI - Obama never said that unemployment would be 5.4% by now. Romney repeated that lie ... how many time?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:44 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Talking China on Fairness Radio
Here is my Fairness Radio show today, talking about China trade as a foreign policy issue.
I don't start until 34:29, you have to scroll the slider to get there by clicking where the text is scrolling by:
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:39 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
test
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:33 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
I'm On Fairness Radio In A Few Min
At half past the hour. Listen live here: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-fairness-doctrine/2012/10/22/the-fairness-doctrine
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:06 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 21, 2012
Oh Now What?
Just go watch it. Video of Mormon temple using a hidden camera going viral. Over 75,000 views in the last 14 hours. Welcome to the age of information Mitt Romney.
Seriosly, after you see the video go read the comments for a while, go down a ways, where many ex-Mormons start to weigh in.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:23 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Why You Should Worry That Romney Associates Bought Company That Controls Ohio's Election Voting
I just have to say again that it just blows my mind learning that Romney associates bought the company that makes the voting machines that will be used to vote and count the votes in Ohio, Colorado and other states. This is very serious, and a lot of non-tech people just don't get it. (I had one person say to me that it doesn't matter because computers don't make mistakes.)
Take this seriously, people -- the timing and the people involved tell us this is fishy. This isn't radical conspiracy stuff, talk to computer professionals, many of them really worry about electronic voting machines and the reporting systems in use these days.
Here are some links to stories about this. And please, please click through for links, and expanded details:
Brad Friedman, who has been on the voting machines issue all along, posted About that Voting Machine Company Tied to Mitt Romney and Bain Capital...
Late last month, Gerry Bello and Bob Fitrakis at FreePress.org broke the story of the Mitt Romney/Bain Capital investment team involved in H.I.G. Capital which, in July of 2011, completed a "strategic investment" to take over a fair share of the Austin-based e-voting machine company Hart Intercivic.... Lee Fang at The Nation recently confirmed the FreePress reporting in a story of his own on the "crony capitalism" of Tagg Romney, whose father's money and high-profile connections present a number of troubling corporate conflicts of interest should Mitt Romney become President. The Daily Dolt also followed up with a very well-documented article on the H.I.G. group, their connections to Bain, and their takeover of Hart Intercivic.
... Also this week, in a video that has gone a bit viral, The David Pakman Show expressed understandable concerns about Romney's close business partners having this type of corporate control over a large e-voting company whose, extremely vulnerable and insecure [PDF] --- and often 100% unverifiable --- voting and tabulation systems are now used, according to VerifiedVoting.org's database, in all or parts of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
Rick Ungar at Forbes: Romney Family Investment Ties To Voting Machine Company That Could Decide The Election Causing Concern,
And while I am not suggesting conspiracies or that anyone would get involved in any foul play here, most particularly the GOP candidate for President, how is it possible that so many people could exercise so much bad judgment?The sanctity of voting in America is supposed to be one of our most important virtues. So concerned are we with a ‘clean’ process that James O’Keefe has made a career entrapping, video taping and destroying those sympathetic to Democratic Party candidates and causes who cross the line when it comes to the voting process. And that’s just fine. If Mr. O’Keefe can legitimately expose someone engaging in voter fraud, he most certainly should call them out.
So, why would these individuals who serve on the board of directors of Hart Intercivic go out of their way to make a contribution to any political candidate given the critical importance of their company remaining above reproach when it comes to the political process? And why would those who run the company that owns Hart Intercivic be giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to a political candidate? And why would a political candidate and his family have a financial relationship with a company that owns a chunk of the voting machine company that will be counting the actual votes given to that political candidate or his opponent?
This is one story that Friedman refers to traces Romney connections to the company buying the voting machines company, Romney, Bain Tied To Voting Machine Company To Be Used in Swing States,
Hart InterCivic is a national provider of election voting systems that are used in swing-states Ohio and Colorado, as well as in states we don’t really care about so much because we already know how they’ll turn out (e.g., Texas, Oklahoma, and Hawaii). Private equity firm H.I.G. Capital, LLC bought out a “significant” portion of Hart in July of 2011, and now the majority of Hart’s board directors are employees of H.I.G. (It’s not entirely clear how much of the voting machine company H.I.G. owns, but the financial advisors responsible for the transaction state that “Hart Intercivic was acquired by HIG Capital.”)H.I.G., in turn, has ties to Bain & Co. and Mitt Romney directly:
H.I.G. was founded by Tony Tamer, a former Bain employee and bundler for Mitt Romney’s campaign. Of H.I.G.’s 22 American directors, 21 donated to Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. ... Of these 22 American directors, seven of them (nearly one-third) are former Bain employees. ... Four of H.I.G.’s directors, Tony Tamer, John Bolduc, Douglas Berman, and Brian D. Schwartz, are Romney bundlers along with former Bain and H.I.G. manager Brian Shortsleeve. Two of H.I.G.’s managing directors, Douglas F. Berman and Brian D. Schwartz, were present at the $50,000 per plate fundraiser where Mitt Romney made his notorious ”47%” comments. H.I.G. employees currently make up the majority of the Hart InterCivic’s five-member board of directors. Two of these three directors of the voting machine company, Neil Tuch and Jeff Bohl, have donated directly to Mitt Romney’s campaign. H.I.G. is the 11th largest donor to Mitt Romney’s campaign. H.I.G. employees have given $338,000 to the Romney campaign, outpacing even Bain Capital itself, which gave $268,000.
(Sidenote: Are we the only ones to notice that every single one of H.I.G.’s 22 American directors is white and male? Not related to the Mitt Romney issue, but sheesh.)
PLEASE click through. (Note there is a difference between Bain Capital and Bain&Co. The former is a spin-off from the latter. I also don't like the term "has ties to," that's very Glenn-Beckian, but these are strong and real ties. Also they give the appearance of a problem whether they are actually a problem or not -- major supporters of a candidate buying the voting and counting machines that will decide if that candidate wins... and this hurts the public's -- to use Romney's economy word -- confidence.)
Here is Lee Fang on The David Pakman Show:
My Thoughts:
We have to insist that there is sufficient random checking of the paper records in the machines against what the machines report, and of precinct results against what gets reported, esp in Ohio. (Of course it is better if every precinct is checked against reporting, but that is a big job that will be hard to get.) And seriously, if a single precinct result is different from what is reported, we have a potential tampering problem and should demand that all precincts are checked against what is reported.
Also, if more than a few voters in a precinct are reporting that they see something different on the paper from what they thought they voted, that also indicates a potential tampering problem.
Anyway it is possible to have secure systems. We certainly knew how to do that -- and knew the REASONS we had to do that -- back when we all used paper ballots and ballot boxes. "Ballot stuffing" happened all the time, so they came up with checks and balances.
Now there is much more at stake, but we no longer seem to worry about these things. But obviously if you think about it, there will be even more reason to "stuff ballots" because there is so much money involved!
History tells us election tampering WILL be a problem! So we should be demanding that the right checks and balances are in place to make it harder to tamper with elections, and I don't see it happening.
Once again, back when we had paper ballots and ballot boxes people came up with all kinds of schemes to tamper with elections, and we developed more and more checks and balances to make it hard to do that. It happened all the time. History says people will always be trying to tamper with our elections. Now that we use computers we seem to have less security, fewer checks and balances at the same time as the stakes are SO much higher!
And of course, there is also the cost in people's faith in our elections. Never mind if there actually is any tampering, etc, when people hear that Tag Romney and a bunch of Bain partners are involved in buying a voting machine company before an election in which Bain Capital's Mitt Romney is running for chief plutocrat -- and in which one strategy of his party is keeping people from voting ... well just for the reason of giving people faith in the choices the voters make, we should demand that every single precinct is carefully double-checked!
Barriers
There are barriers to fixing this problem. One is that this privatization of elections is a corporate effort, and they have salespeople and lobbyists wining and dining local election officials around the country, offering to "solve" their resource problems through automation. They have put serious money into selling this. There's money in selling this hardware and maintenance contracts.
The technology is not complex, but securing the results and making them transparent is resource-intensive. Actually checking those paper rolls in those machines that at least have them means people sitting there and checking and comparing from each machine. And then checking the reported precinct results against the actual precinct counts is also a major effort. The whole idea of the machines was to save money. And double-checking to be sure thecomputers did it right and were not tampered with costs money.
But here is the biggest barrier: if you try to say anything about this, this is what happens -- typical elite hatred of the citizens and their concerns:
https://twitter.com/chucktodd/status/260027262877974528
Update - and of course the great Brad Friedman is on this, too: NBC News Election Expert Chuck Todd: Voting Machine Concerns are 'Conspiracy Garbage'.
Update - I should have included this one: The Free Press, Will H.I.G.-owned e-voting machines give Romney the White House?
Ohio's very Republican Secretary of State is John Husted, currently suing in the US Supreme Court to prevent the public from voting on the weekend prior to election day. As did Blackwell and Governor Robert Taft in 2004, Husted and Kasich will control Ohio's electronic vote count on election night free of meaningful public checks or balancesHart Intercivic, on whose machines the key votes will be cast in Hamilton County, which includes Cincinnati, was taken over last year by H.I.G. Capital. Prominent partners and directors on the H.I.G. board hail from Bain Company or Bain Capital, both connected to Mitt Romney. H.I.G. employees have contributed at least $338,000 to Romney's campaign. H.I.G. Directors John P. Bolduk and Douglas Berman are major Romney fundraisers, as is former Bain and H.I.G. manager Brian Shortsleeve.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:18 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
October 20, 2012
Dependent
Corporate conservatives say government makes people dependent.
Government is We, the People, protecting and enabling each other. To any extent that we are dependent on government, that means we are depending on each other and taking care of each other.
Something to think about: what is the alternative? If we don't have each other watching out for each other, we are on our own - at the mercy of predatory corporations -- depending on them for handouts of enough pay to even eat, and then only if we work to the bone for them, making the billionaires even richer.
So we are either depending on each other, or depending on the billionaires.
If We, the People, through our government, have minimum wage laws and unemployment benefits, it means that we don't have to take some terrible low-paying job that might at best pay enough to feed ourselves, never mind a family. (And we can just live in a cardboard box.)
THAT is why they say government makes us dependent -- it's the old "if you feed them they will breed" way of looking at people, as pests, in the way, useful if you need work done... toss away when not needed.
We can depend on government -- each other -- or we can depend on the billionaires. That's the choice we have. Don't let the propaganda turn you against government -- each other.
If you watched Up With Chris Hayes today, you saw this quote from Ed Conard, a Bain Capital partner, describing why they outsource jobs:
“Let’s not kid ourselves about just how cheap offshore labor really is. We not only pay substantially less per hour, we also avoid the costs we would incur if these workers immigrated here. We don’t pay for their medical expenses when they show up in the emergency room without insurance. We don’t pay for their pension costs if they don’t save for retirement. We don’t pay for their children’s public education. Nor do we pay for their out-of-wedlock children, their unemployment benefits and workers’ compensation, their slip and fall torts, their wear and tear on our public infrastructure, and the cost of their drunk driving, drug use and other crimes. We outsource pollution, its adverse effects on our health, and its clean-up costs. Neither the employees nor their employers are here to vote and seek political handouts.”
That is what We, the People are to them: costs. In China people have no say, no We, the People, so they can pay the Chinese worker less, don't have to deal with their medical needs, pensions costs, unemployment, workers' comp ... "Slip and fall torts" means that the don't have to cover anything if the person is harmed by things they do... They don't have to pay for any public infrastructure, they can freely pollute and have no responsibility for the consequences...
And he makes it very clear that they don't have to worry about them voting.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
What Does "Less Government" Mean?
In America, government is We, the People making the decisions.
When they say they want "less government" or "get government out of the way" they are saying they want less decision-making by We, the People. So who do you think they want making the decisions instead?
When they they want less government, they are saying they want less decision-making by We, the People. So who do you think they want making the decisions instead?
Anyway, here is a video from OMBWatch, The Invisible Helping Hand of Government:
Public investments are essential to the success of our society, the strength of our economy, and our quality of life. From highways to communications systems, from guaranteeing student loans and mortgages to reducing unfair credit card fees, from keeping our food safe to keeping our water supply clean, we all rely on government-funded systems in our daily lives. We take these things for granted so much that they have become "invisible" to most of us. But they are a critical guarantee for our quality of life in America. http://www.investinamerica.org
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:22 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Here Is A Short Segment On #Sensata
from my Virtually Speaking hour with Jay Ackroyd last week. Only 6 min, go ahead and listen to it:
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:00 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 19, 2012
Here Is "The Young Turks" Segment On Sensata Today - With Me
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:33 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
I'll Be Talking About #Sensata On The Young Turks Tonite
The Young Turks with Cenk Uygur // Current TV
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:06 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
TheMiddleClass.org's Voter Guide and Ad Campaign
This is from Campaign for America's Future:
In the last Congress:
· Who thought seniors would be better off with a coupon than Medicare? (H.R. 112)?
· Who voted to give millionaires a $160,000 tax cut? (H.R. 8)
· Who tried to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by the back door? (H.R. 1315)
Do your legislators stand with the middle class – or do they stand with the special interests? Are they on your side or on your neck?
That's why we created the TheMiddleClass.org Voter Guide. Elected officials need to know that voting against the middle class is a danger to their political health.
In less than a week over 300,000 people heard about this tool through Google Adwords. Our click-through rate was many times industry average. In an election year, this is an exceptional result.
Twelve "Middle Class Zeros" are in “tossup” races according to the Cook Political Report. TheMiddleClass.org Voter Guide provides crucial information for voters before they go to the polls.
· For $20 we can reach 6,000 people with search engine ads.
· For $50 we can reach up to 20,000 with banner ads.
· For $200 we can place large visual ads on major online news sites.*
The “Middle Class Zeros” in contested races need to know that someone is watching. With your help, we can all hold them accountable.
Thanks for all you do,
Isaiah J. Poole
Director of Online Communications
Campaign for America's Future
P.S.: Those twelve "Middle Class Zeros" are:
Judy Biggert
Brian Bilbray
Daniel Lungren
Mike Coffman
Jeff Denham
Allen West
Dan Benishek
Chip Cravaack
Joe Heck
Frank Guinta
Nan Hayworth
Francisco Canseco
* This is the ad we ran in Politico!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:44 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
I Just Don't Get The Right's Libya Obscession
If there was a terror attack in the Bush years the administration would have been hysterically whipping it up, promoting it, terrifying people and using it to get votes.
The Obama people are not doing this -- so the right wingers are upset?
I just don't get it.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:57 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 18, 2012
Don't Forget The Other Part Of Romney's Libya Lie
Let's not forget the other part of Romney's Libya lie.
In the debate Romney had just said Obama ignored his duties and flew to Las Vegas for a fundraiser, and a minute later we find out Obama was giving an address out the tragedy in Libya from the Rose Garden - NOT Las Vegas - in which he called it an act of terror.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:55 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
WHY Did Romney Associates Buy A Big Voting Machine Company?
OK I have to ask this. WHY would a bunch of Romney associates buy up a voting machine company?
The story has been circulating in the background for a couple of weeks.
Last year Hart Intercivic was bought by H.I.G. Capital. From The Free Press, Will H.I.G.-owned e-voting machines give Romney the White House? by Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman, (and please read the whole thing, about all the voter suppression going on, the importance of Ohio, and what happened in Ohio in 2008.)
Prominent partners and directors on the H.I.G. board hail from Bain Company or Bain Capital, both connected to Mitt Romney. H.I.G. employees have contributed at least $338,000 to Romney's campaign. H.I.G. Directors John P. Bolduk and Douglas Berman are major Romney fundraisers, as is former Bain and H.I.G. manager Brian Shortsleeve.
Why could this matter?
US courts have consistently ruled that the software in electronic voting machines is proprietary to the manufacturer, even though individual election boards may own the actual machines. Thus there will be no vote count transparency on election night in Ohio. The tally will be conducted by Hart Intercivic and controlled by Husted and Kasich, with no public recourse or accountability. As federal testimony from the deceased Michael Connell made clear in 2008, electronically flipping an election is relatively cheap and easy to do, especially if you or your compatriots programmed the machines.
Brad Friedman writes in, About That Voting Machine Company Tied To Mitt Romney And Bain Capital…, (this quote is full of links, so go to the original.)
Once again, we’re reminded of the dangers of the privatization of our once-public electoral system. The company’s ties to Romney aren’t the only disturbing ones we’ve seen with similar companies over the years. The fact is, that nobody other than the public should have any sort of control of our elections. The proprietary voting systems now in use in all 50 states, whether owned by Romney associates, a George W. Bush associate (as with Diebold in 2004) or even a company tied to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez (as with Sequoia Voting Systems, which blatantly lied about that tie to public officials, and the Canadian firm Dominion which purchased Sequoia and also immediately lied about the fact that Intellectual Property of their voting systems used all across the U.S. is still owned by the Venezuelan firm), continue to be a grave threat to American democracy and confidence in U.S. elections.
This is likely to be a close election. We are going to see \states reporting for one or the other candidate after possibly hundreds of thousands of people being denied the right to vote. And some counties will pull machines out of key precincts, in an attempt to cause long line -- like Ohio did last time -- to keep people from voting.
That is a prescription of serious problems with people accepting the election results as legitimate.
So along with those problems now we have a bunch of Wall Street types -- people directly tied to Romney -- controlling the voting and counting in many areas!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:37 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 17, 2012
Must-Read To Understand Why Austerity So Wrong
The wrecking society: Economics today
As the evidence keeps telling us, the basic story is about as simple as it gets. The housing bubbles were driving demand prior to the collapse both directly through building booms and indirectly from the consumption generated by bubble generated housing equity. When the bubbles burst the construction booms went bust. And when the bubble generated housing equity vanished so did the consumption for which it provided a basis."The economists are instead steering the world toward more years of stagnation and rising unemployment and poverty."
The basic economic problem in this context was finding a way to replace the lost demand. The right-wing politicians and their allied economists can repeat all the nonsense the like about promoting business confidence and tax breaks for job creators, but there is no remotely plausible story in which it would be possible to generate enough demand from investment to make up for the demand lost from the collapse of the bubbles.
This means that in the short-term the only way to make up the demand is from the government budget deficits. This is not even economic theory, it is simply accounting.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:58 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 16, 2012
Romney, Tobacco and Kids
Somehow no surprise: Mitt Romney's Bain Helped Philip Morris Get U.S. High Schoolers Hooked On Cigarettes,
When Mitt Romney served as CEO of Bain & Co., his consulting firm helped tobacco giant Philip Morris develop a groundbreaking sales strategy that researchers say has been linked to an unprecedented spike in youth smoking.... Philip Morris stunned Wall Street and tobacco experts by the slashing price on its flagship Marlboro brand by 40 cents a pack, to $1.80. It was a landmark day for the tobacco industry, one that became known as "Marlboro Friday" to public health experts.
... A year later, Philip Morris stock had fully recovered, and continued to make steady gains over the coming four years. Marlboro Friday ultimately proved to be the tobacco industry's most successful effort to increase domestic profit in the face of heavier regulations.
The profit was the result of soaring sales that coincided with an unprecedented jump in smoking among high school- aged youth. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, found that the portion of young people who had smoked at least one cigarette in the previous month rose nearly 20 percent from 1993 to 1997. Youth smoking increased in all categories from that occasional user to the regular user.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:08 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Wonderful, Funny
Go see: For all the details on Mitt Romney's 5 trillion dollar tax plan visit ROMNEYTAXPLAN.COM
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:38 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 15, 2012
Here Is Why Google Doesn't Work Anymore
Impersonal Google Search Results Are Few And Far Between, DuckDuckGo Says | TPM Idea Lab
You are what you search. That’s definitely the case on Google, where any search query turns up a personalized set of results based upon your prior Google search history data, even if you’re completely logged out of your Google account.
They had the best product and they just had to fuck with it. Too clever by half.
For one thing, now when I search for something I have to sort through a hundred news stories about exactly the same thing...
They have figured out how to better sell ads. Like Facebook, YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. The advertiser is the customer.
Update - I have switched to DuckDuckGo and am getting good results so far...
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:10 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Here Is What Is Happening With #Sensata
If you are hearing about a company names Sensata, here is the story. Right now this company is moving equipment out of a factory in Freeport, Il. and shipping it to China. They are making the workers there train their Chinese replacements. And the end of the year they are laying off the American workers. The workers have set up a camp across from the factory and have named it Bainport. (please click!) Supporters are trying to block the trucks, and some have been arrested. This is all happening right now, even as Mitt Romney says he wants to "get tough on China." So the workers have asked Romney to come to Freeport and help them.
"The week before they came they took the American flag down outside the plant. The week after they left they put it back up."
See Wendi Kent's moving photos of the Bainport camp, where workers are asking Romney to hep them:
Bainport, Illinois Pt.2- Profits Over People
What's Going On?
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney started the "private equity" firm Bain Capital. Bain Capital makes its money by purchasing companies using "leveraged buyouts" that borrow huge sums using the purchased company's own assets as collateral. They often use part of the borrowed money to immediately pay itself. Bain then cuts costs by doing things like sending jobs to China, cutting wages and manipulating tax rules to cut taxes owed, along with standard big-business practices like consolidating business units, taking advantage of economies of scale not available to smaller competitors, squeezing distribution channels for price cuts, and other practices that bring competitive advantages. (Please see So DID Mitt Romney Really "Create Jobs" At Staples? for a look at how this works.) Then, after reorganizing the purchased companies Bain "harvests" them for profit. ("Harvest" is Romney's word, watch the linked video.)
Bain Capital purchased a sensor manufacturer that makes key components for our automobile supply chain, and named it Sensata. They immediately announced they closing a factory in Freeport, Ill., and sending the manufacturing and jobs to China to save money. (This is significant because China is engaged in efforts to dominate American auto supplies. See China Cheating Costs 400K Auto Parts Jobs and Why The Latest Trade Complaint Against China Matters. )
Bain/Sensata brought in Chinese workers and made the Freeport workers train them. Bain/Sensata is moving the equipment out of the Freeport factory and shipping it to China right now. The Freeport employees have set up a camp outside the factory that they call Bainport and are trying to stop the Bain trucks that are moving the equipment out for shipment to China. Supporters were arrested this week, trying to stop those trucks.
The Sensata employees have asked Romney to come to Freeport/Bainport and help them. Read on to learn about Romney's response to the Sensata workers, and how Romney is actually making big money right now from shipping their jobs to China.
Romney's Opportunity
Mitt Romney is not running Bain Capital anymore. While he still makes millions from the company, and gets checks from the profits made when they ship jobs to China), this is a tremendous opportunity for him. Can you imagine a better spokesman for the Bainport employees than the former head of Bain Capital, who now says he opposes the kinds of things that Bain Capital is doing here?
This is an opportunity for Romney to show the public that he actually means it when he says he wants to do something about companies sending jobs to China! Here is his former company, people who know him, sending jobs to China right now and there is no one in a better position to put pressure on them to stop this than the former head of the company, and on top of that a presidential candidate!
What an opportunity for Romney to show that he means what he says!
Will Romney Help?
Mitt Romney wants to be President, and polls show that the public overwhelmingly wants something done about jobs and factories moving to China and the resulting was pressure that puts on the rest of us and on our economy. So Romney says he will do something about it.
But Romney's current actions are opposite his current words. He complains about China currency manipulation, but refuses to ask the Republican House leadership to bring the China currency bill up for a vote, and refuses to ask more than 60 Republican co-sponsors of that bill to sign a "discharge petition" that would force a vote.
And Romney refuses to even meet with Sensata workers. When asked if Romney would help these workers the Romney campaign says Romney will not do it:
"Governor Romney has not worked at Bain Capital for over a decade, but for four years President Obama has been presiding over an economy that is creating too few jobs and sending more jobs overseas. Despite the President being invested in Sensata through his personal pension fund, and the government owning a major Sensata customer in GM, President Obama has not used his powers to help this situation in any way."— Curt Cashour, Romney Campaign Spokesman.
PS - SNL
Here is SNL addressing the disparity between how Chinese workers are treated (because they don't have a say) and American expectations:
For More On Sensata
Is This Why Romney Won't Talk To Sensata Workers Whose Jobs Are Being Shipped To China?
You Should Know About Sensata - It's What The Election Is About
Election Or Not, What Happens To Sensata-Style Workers?
Blocking Bain Trucks To Save Jobs In Freeport – This Is An IMPORTANT Story
Breaking – Arrests At Sensata "Bainport" Camp
Paul Harris at The Guardian: 'I'm sick to my stomach': anger grows in Illinois at Bain's latest outsourcing plan
Also, see:
Bain Of Our Existence - Go To place for stories and info about Bain Capital.
Laura Clawson at Daily Kos: Mitt Romney profits as Bain sends American jobs to China PLUS a Daily Kos campaign:
Send a message of support to the Sensata workers as they fight to keep their jobs and shine a light on what a Romney economy would look like.
Unraveling The Romney/Bain Tax Story,
Romney, Jobs And China – Let's Connect Dots
Rights Report Describes Romney-Owned "Brutal Chinese Sweatshop"
Romney, Republicans Again Side With China Over US Companies
Ohio And China – One Side Promises While The Other Delivers
China Is Very "Business-Friendly"
Will Conservatives Support American Companies ... Or Chinese?
Ohio And China -- One Side Promises While The Other Delivers
Here is a Democracy Now! report:
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
Sign up here for the CAF daily summary
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 14, 2012
Talking Sensata on Virtually Speaking Tonite
Virtually Speaking Sundays Dave Johnson & Jay Ackroyd LIVE 6p pdt p/9p edt @dcjohnson @JayAckroyd bit.ly/PvnE5a #Sensata #Union
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:35 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
What The Public Hears
In my local paper today
Above-fold front-page headline, story about how public employees are draining the state. They are not tasking vacations, and then getting all their vacation and sick pay when they retire... Getting their vacation pay is draining the state. "No vacations for taxpayers." "They're cashing in by retiring with whopping final paychecks worth, in some cases, more than $500,000 in unused time off."
Page 2, The Kochs' quest - a story about how the Koch brothers are fighting to save America from bankruptcy.
"The country was headed toward bankruptcy, they agreed. Fink told them bluntly that Obama's administration represented the worst of what Charles and David fear most: a bloated, regulation-heavy, free-spending government that could plunge the country into another deep recession. That day, Fink advised two of the richest men in the nation that it would be the fight of their lives to stop the government spending spree and to change the course of the country, starting with the 2012 election."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:01 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 13, 2012
Fool The Rubes With A Smile, A Story And A Scapegoat
Go read this and tell me how MANY politicians / business leaders / pundits etc. this describes today. Balloon Juice - Time to Find a New Set of Suckers
In fact, fooling the rubes with a smile and a scapebgoat is how things work now.
It's The Music Man again and again.
(h/t Atrios)
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:28 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 12, 2012
New Video - CEOs or Kids?
From Americans for Tax Fairness
A new web video unveiled today by the National Education Association and Americans for Tax Fairness vividly shows how extending the Bush tax cuts for CEOs and the richest 2 percent of Americans would be paid for by cutting education funding for kids.Click through to take action.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:30 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 10, 2012
The "freedom to obey"
I have decided that this is the greatest rock and roll song. (For now.)
"Born into Nixon, I was raised in hell"
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
"Armstrong has described the album as a "snapshot of the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us, whether it be the government, religion, media or frankly any form of authority""
Born into Nixon I was raised in hell
A welfare child where the teamsters dwelled
The last one born, and the first one to run
My town was blind from refinery sun
My generation is zero
I never made it as a working class hero
21st century breakdown
I once was lost but never was found
I think I am losing what's left of my mind
To the 20th century deadline
I was made of poison and blood
Condemnation is what I understood
Video games to the tower's fall
Homeland security could kill us all
My generation is zero
I never made it as a working class hero
21st century breakdown
I once was lost but never was found
I think I am losing what's left of my mind
To the 20th century deadline
We are the class of, the class of 13
Born in the era of humility
We are the desperate in the decline
Raised by the bastards of 1969
My name is no one
The long lost son
Born on the 4th of July
Raised in the era of heroes and cons
That left me for dead or alive
I am a nation
A worker of pride
My debt to the status quo
The scars on my hands
And the means to an end
Is all that I have to show
I swallowed my pride
And I choked on my faith
I've given my heart and my soul
I've broken my fingers
And lied through my teeth
The pillar of damage control
I've been to the edge
And I've thrown the bouquet
Of flowers left over from the grave
I sat in the waiting room
Wasting my time
And waiting for Judgment Day
I praise liberty
The "freedom to obey"
Is the song that strangles me
Well don't cross the line
Oh dream, America, dream
I can't even sleep
From the light's early dawn
Oh scream, America, scream
Believe what you see
From heroes and cons
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:11 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Is This Why Romney Won't Talk To Sensata Workers Whose Jobs Are Being Shipped To China?
On the campaign trail Romney says we shouldn't ship jobs to China and should "crack down" on China trade problems. But he refuses to help or even meet with the Sensata workers whose jobs are being shipped to China right now.
Why the refusal to line up his actions with his promises? A must-read, must-read, must-read news report explains how part of Romney's $400,000/week income comes from ... get this ... shipping jobs to China!
First, the background...
Sensata - Happening Today
Mitt Romney started the "private equity" firm Bain Capital. Bain purchases companies using "leveraged buyouts" that borrow huge sums using the purchased company's own assets as collateral, uses the borrowed money to immediately pay itself, then cuts costs by doing things like sending jobs to China, cutting wages and manipulating tax rules to cut taxes owed, along with standard big-business practices like consolidating business units, taking advantage of economies of scale not available to smaller competitors, squeezing distribution channels for price cuts, and other practices that bring competitive advantages. (See So DID Mitt Romney Really "Create Jobs" At Staples?) After reorganizing the purchased companies Bain then "harvests" them for profit.
One company Bain Capital purchased is Sensata, a sensor manufacturer that makes key components for our automobile supply chain. Sensata then announced it is closing a factory in Freeport, Ill., and sending the manufacturing and jobs to China. (China is engaged in efforts to dominate American auto supplies. See China Cheating Costs 400K Auto Parts Jobs and Why The Latest Trade Complaint Against China Matters.)
Bain/Sensata brought in Chinese workers and made the Freeport workers train them. Bain/Sensata is moving the equipment out of the Freeport factory and shipping it to China right now. The Freeport employees have set up a camp outside the factory that they call Bainport and are trying to stop the Bain trucks that are moving the equipment out for shipment to China. Supporters were arrested this week, trying to stop those trucks.
The Sensata employees heard Romney on the campaign trail, and somehow got the idea that he opposes sending our jobs to China. So they asked him to come to Freeport/Bainport and help them. Read on to learn about Romney's response to the Sensata workers, and how Romney is actually making big money right now from shipping their jobs to China.
"The week before they came they took the American flag down outside the plant. The week after they left they put it back up."
The China Problem – The Public Gets It
During the George W. Bush administration we lost more than 50,000 factories and at least 6 million manufacturing jobs directly to China. (Never mind the effect on the supply chains, the grocery and clothing stores where those people shopped, etc... The foreclosures, the bankruptcies, the misery...) Thanks, George!
This chart from Think Progress shows what happened to our manufacturing base immediately after Bush took office. Seriously, look at this chart and see if you can just guess why we have such a terrible economy today:
The public gets it – the problem is China. Polls show that the public overwhelmingly – by percentages in the 80s and 90s for Democrats and Republicans alike – understands that a huge part of our economic troubles come from the was we have been shipping jobs, factories and industries to China.
ABC News, from July: ‘Made In America’ Policies Hugely Popular, Survey Shows
Nearly 9 out of 10 Republicans and Independents and 91 percent of Democrats said they support “Buy America” preferences, according to the survey, which was conducted by the Democratic-leaning Mellman Group.
When it comes to trade with China, the poll found that voters emphatically support tough action on Beijing’s cheating on currency and other trade obligations.
Another, from a key state: New Zogby Poll: Ohio Voters Favor Boycott of China Over Unfair Trade.
Romney Can Read Polls
One thing the Romney campaign can do is read polls. So Mitt Romney sees the polls and says he wants to do something about China.
The Hill: Romney, campaigning in Ohio, vows to stop China's 'cheating' trade practices
Bloomberg: Romney Ad Says He Will `Stand Up to China': Video
The Hill: New Romney ad says Obama won’t ‘stand up to China’ on trade, jobs
So, on the campaign trail Romney says he will stand up to China's cheating, and opposes companies that send jobs and factories to China.
Romney Refuses To Help – Even Talk With – Sensata Workers
Romney wants to be President, and polls show that the public overwhelmingly wants something done about the problem of jobs and factories moving to China, and the resulting was pressure that puts on the rest of us and on our economy. So Romney says he will do something about it.
But Romney's current actions are opposite his current words. He complains about China currency manipulation, but refuses to ask the Republican House leadership to bring the China currency bill up for a vote, and refuses to ask more than 60 Republican co-sponsors of that bill to sign a "discharge petition" that would force a vote.
And Romney refuses to even meet with Sensata workers. When asked if Romney would help these workers the Romney campaign says Romney will not do it:
"Governor Romney has not worked at Bain Capital for over a decade, but for four years President Obama has been presiding over an economy that is creating too few jobs and sending more jobs overseas. Despite the President being invested in Sensata through his personal pension fund, and the government owning a major Sensata customer in GM, President Obama has not used his powers to help this situation in any way."— Curt Cashour, Romney Campaign Spokesman.
Why is Romney saying he wants to do something about the trade problem with China, but refusing to actually do anything about the trade problem with China? Here is one possible reason why.
Romney Making Big Money From Bain Sending Sensata Jobs To China
A must-read news report today by Sharon LaFraniere and Mike McIntire in The New York Times explains. As Romney Repeats Trade Message, Bain Maintains China Ties (emphasis added, for emphasis),
Mr. Romney also has millions invested in a series of Bain funds that have a controlling stake in Sensata Technologies, a manufacturer of sensors and controls for vehicles, aircraft and electric motors that employs 4,000 workers in China. Since Bain took over the operation in 2006, its investment has quadrupled in value. Bain continues to own $2.6 billion worth of Sensata’s shares.Two years ago, Sensata bought an operation that made automobile sensors in Freeport, Ill. At the first meeting with the plant’s 170 workers, Sensata managers announced that by the end of 2012 all the equipment and jobs would be relocated, mostly to Jiangsu Province. Workers have staged demonstrations, pleading for Mr. Romney to intervene on their behalf.
Chinese engineers, flown to Freeport for training on the equipment, described their salaries as a pittance compared with Freeport wages. Tom Gaulrapp, who has operated machines at the factory for 33 years, said he fears he will go bankrupt after he loses his job on Nov. 5.
“This goes to show the unbelievable hypocrisy of this man,” he said of Mr. Romney. “He talks about how we need to get tough on China and stop China from taking our jobs, and then he is making money off shipping our jobs there.”
So there you have it. Mitt Romney says he opposes sending jobs to China, and says he will "crack down" on China. But he refuses to do things that he could do right now that would make an actual difference right now. And it turns out that right now he is making big money from Sensata and other companies that are sending people's jobs to China right now.
Laying off American workers – usually shipping the jobs to China – and pocketing their wages for themselves is the story of the rise of the wealth of the 1%, and the decline of the American middle class. It is the Romney/Bain/Sensata business model. And the remaining workers have to do the jobs of the laid-off workers, often for lower pay, and are threatened with losing their jobs, too, if they don't like it.
Please read the entire New York Times report, As Romney Repeats Trade Message, Bain Maintains China Ties. There is much more there about Romney, China, Bain and the huge gap between what Romney says on the campaign trail, and how Romney made his current $400,000/week income and how Bain Capital still makes its money.
Visit the Bainport blog for pictures and details about the Sensata workers who are trying to stop the Bain trucks from shipping the equipment from the factory to China.
More on Sensata:
You Should Know About Sensata - It's What The Election Is About
Election Or Not, What Happens To Sensata-Style Workers?
Blocking Bain Trucks To Save Jobs In Freeport – This Is An IMPORTANT Story
Breaking – Arrests At Sensata "Bainport" Camp
Also, see:
Unraveling The Romney/Bain Tax Story,
Romney, Jobs And China – Let's Connect Dots
Rights Report Describes Romney-Owned "Brutal Chinese Sweatshop"
Romney, Republicans Again Side With China Over US Companies
Ohio And China – One Side Promises While The Other Delivers
Update: Here is a Democracy Now! report:
This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.
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Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:51 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Mst Watch! FDR: Let Me Warn You
Wow does this sound familiar! FDR:
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