I’m “working” on a couple of more substantive posts (look for them sometime in the next Mayan long calendar) and I’m at least trying to work on what they actually pay me for, so blogging is a notional activity right now…
But by every pasta tendril undulating off the blessed FSM, how in the name of strozzapretti can one pass up this (via TPM):
“You have to ask the question, is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of people and then walk off with the money?”
Damn good question, actually, and even better when asked by one Newton Leroy Gingrich of the current GOP frontrunner-by-default, the Hon. (sic!) Willard Mitt Romney.
Combine that with the “documentary” Newt’s people are putting out there (well, a Super PAC that, of course, has no actual contact with the Gingrich campaign, but sure as hell knows what to do), and Rick Perry’s quotable quote from the campaign trail South Carolina — and what you have is our friends across the aisle working on their own damn circular firing squad for once.
Popcorn, aged tequila, and Republicans going all “we are the 99%” on each other. What more could this city boy desire?
(PS: Hey John. Consider this a get-well card. There are joys in life even after the Steelers stop playing. Really.)
Image: Nicolas Colombel Christ Expelling the Money-Changers From the Temple, 1682.
trollhattan
And the much-anticipated Tawd endorsement goes to….
Newton!
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/todd-palin-endorses-newt-gingrich-6635510
Leave it to the Palins to have their fingers on the pulse of everybody headed through the coroner’s “out” door.
dr. luba
Not really related, but anyone know what’s going on in Mississippi? Barbour pardoned two killers, and he families of the victims are really pissed off. It was on my Google News feed for a few seconds, now gone. This is the story about one, who was recently denied parole. White guys, of course.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
In other good news, the Gophers took over the #1 spot in this week’s USCHO Div 1 Women’s Hockey poll. Despite the most exciting tie and win this weekend, I’d still have put Wisconsin on top. We may have won the regular season series 2-1-1, but we also have too much of a tendency to take nights off against weaker teams for me to consider us the best. Regardless, it was a fabulous weekend, and I think that it’s going to be very hard for Cornell to take the #2 national seed from us by the end of the season.
It’s a pretty good day for the whole state4, even, since UMD was the unanimous #1 pick in the men’s poll.
scav
mmmmmm, the mark of bain.
Mitt’s bain (Bane of Bain?)
King of Bain!
bemused
I’m trying to process Newt and Perry jumping all over Mitt for being a vulture capitalist pink slipper. Fascinating.
reflectionephemeral
That’s bizarre– I just posted about this same thing a bit ago, & called it “Go Long On Popcorn Futures For The Niche Liberal Market”. Second time today you guys were on the same thing as me– and the other was mistermix on iPhone aps, rather than something big in the news.
Anyway, it sure is strange to see this rhetoric coming out of the GOP. It almost makes me wish the Dems would nominate a bunch of private equity types, just to see the right wing deem predatory capitalism unpatriotic.
Admittedly rather a circuitous route to social change, that.
kwAwk
You know if Tebow wins the Superbowl there will be a lot more people in church the following week.
Is he Catholic? He could even get sainthood…
dmsilev
Apparently, poor Mitt is upset that anyone would take his words about enjoying firing people out of context.
Sorry, Willard, but after your campaign released an ad taking Obama’s words completely out of context, and then gleefully defended that act under the little known “in political advertising, everything goes” doctrine, the world’s smallest violin is tuning up to play for you.
scav
@bemused: Those pink slippers are even more fun if you imagine them all sparkley on his feet: “I wish I’d never said that. I wish I’d never said that. I wish I’d never said that. . .”
redshirt
Jesus hates money changers, does He? Hmm. Wonder what that makes Him.
ChrisNYC
There’s a ring tone! “I like being able to fire people” endless loop.
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/3828
Sounds a bit Sesame Streetish.
gnomedad
@trollhattan:
Scooping Sarah? WTF?
scav
@ChrisNYC: Voicebox of a Ken doll can’t be that far behind. (Robot might do.)
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
I was a sophomore at Union when the hockey program started, and a senior when the academic scandal hit. The mere mention of Ned Darkness’ name makes me grind my teeth. Get thee behind me, Satan.
bemused
@scav:
As he is clicking his pink slippers together murmuring, “There’s no place like Bain, there’s no place like Bain….”
Jay C
BTW, TL: that’s an awesome picture attached: what’s up with the guy in the green cloak in the middle? Pointing at the foreground figure, probably yelling to Jesus:
“HIM! He’s the crook! Beat HIM! He sold us naked shorts against the denarius! Whip his ass! “
burnspbesq
@efgoldman:
“Yes, some things really have changed”
Indeed they have. The best player on this year’s Cornell lacrosse team is from San Francisco.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@kwAwk:
Are you kidding? He went on a mission to try to convert Filipinos to Christianity. Catholic Filipinos.
catclub
@trollhattan: Charles Pierce mentioned Bud McFarlane and the ‘fond’ memeories that those of us who remember Iran-Contra have for him, because Newt mentioned having the backing of patriotic Bud Mcfarlane.
I guess I will have to look up Kip Carter — which Doonesbury had as an old Newt scandal. Anyone know without looking?
flukebucket
@trollhattan:
Man. Couple this with the National Championship College Football game tonight and it is proof positive that God loves me more than I have ever deserved.
Villago Delenda Est
@redshirt:
A dirty fucking Marxist hippy. That’s what it makes him.
He’s probably Islamic, too.
slag
Hasn’t capitalism already answered that question?
dmsilev
Poor Willard has had a bad couple of days, hasn’t he? And mostly self-inflicted to boot. I wonder whether he’s getting enough bad press to make any sort of real difference in NH tomorrow. It’d be downright hilarious if he only barely edges out Paul and Huntsman.
pragmatism
sent newtron’s quote over to a job creator friend who has been on the newt train and the demonize OWS train. he now says that newtie “brings up a good question”. and he says that he didn’t realize that is what occupy was saying. i called him up and laughed until he hung up on me.
Cat Lady
I think you can draw a straight line from OWS to Newt and Perry turning into economic DFHs – who could’ve predicted that OWS could make the .01 percenters pissed off at the .001 percenters.
Villago Delenda Est
You know, if you do something really, really dangerous…like crack open The Wealth of Nations, that Adam Smith guy explains what the invisible hand is supposed to be doing.
That has nothing to do with the cloaked hand of the modern financial capitalist, though. The invisible hand is there to bring equity to transactions. The cloaked hand is there to bring profit to its controller at the expense of everyone else in the market. Smith actually alludes to the cloaked hand of the financial manipulator, and decries what it does.
Xecky Gilchrist
is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of people and then walk off with the money?
Well, yes.
Wasn’t our idea to consider criticizing it the same as treason.
Ed in NJ
I wish I could just enjoy the circular firing squad that is the Republican primary, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is all carefully choreographed theater designed to rally everyone around poor Mittens. First, you have Newt quoting the New York Times and now we are seeing more and more OWS terminology popping up in these attacks. When Michelle Malkin is criticizing Newt and the rest of the clown show, something seems amiss.
Cermet
Uh, when you ask:
When in history was that fact never true? Come on, really. Capitalism has always commanded this goldren rule and that is why it wil lalways screw 99.9% of all people always and all the time. Until it is done away with capitalism is the evil that all other evils are created from.
Suffern ACE
@trollhattan: Goodness. I could have sworn she was already in Santorum’s camp, since she has been using his “Family, Faith and Freedom” slogan. I think she used it to weigh in on the very important White House Christmas card on the day poor Bo could get no respect.
Villago Delenda Est
@catclub:
At least Admiral Poindexter had the decency not to pimp out the uniform like that sleazebag North did.
Jennifer
That would be a good question to ask of Newt himself.
Better yet, Obama could get in on the fun and point out that this is exactly what unregulated capitalism is all about, which in light of the rwing freak-out to the recess appointment, would be a two-fer.
Mark S.
I’m worried that Sarah’s going to get so desperate for attention she’ll make Piper get knocked up so they can be on “16 and Pregnant.”
Satanicpanic
Perry’s little joke about Romney running out of pink slips was actually pretty good, considering it came from the dumbest man in a crowded field of dumbass Republican primary candidates. Debbie Wasserman Schultz had the best though-
rlrr
@kwAwk:
Is he Catholic? He could even get sainthood
He’s not Catholic. Anyhow, one has to be dead to be declared a saint…
Davis X. Machina
I judged a round of foreign extemporaneous speaking at a Bush-I-era tournament where one of the speakers had a brain-fart and conflated Bud McFarlane and Spuds McKenzie.
I marked the kid up in the round — near as I could tell, the foreign policy of the United States was being cooked up by a beer-company spokesdog.
rlrr
@kwAwk:
My wife’s best friend from high school is in Greece as a Christian missionary (Southern Baptist). I like to point out the Greeks practically invented Christianity.
bemused
@efgoldman:
Yes, too late for them but not too late to tear into Mitt’s flesh and rip out chunks of it while they can. As I said, fascinating. Do they hate Mitt this much, would they be this vicious toward any of the others running?
bemused
@pragmatism:
Now that’s funny. What did he think the 99% has been steamed about?
Martin
Man, the general election ads are going to be an avalanche of riches for the Dems. They can run this as the question that Obama will answer. Labor can run the Mitt quote as the basis for the GOPs anti-union move across the country.
But this quote from Newt is just fantastic because it allows Obama and the Dems to shift the debate off of the bullshit framing of soçialism vs capitalism by the right to the proper argument of ‘what brand of capitalism is best for Americans?’ which rolls clean into the small business, entrepreneur, regulating/taxing the corporate giants for the benefit of the rest of us.
Newt just handed the Dems the campaign to be capitalism-for-all advocates vs the GOPs capitalism-for-the-rich. We’ll see if they’re smart enough to grab it.
pragmatism
@bemused: he plays the standard card: “I don’t know what they were so upset about”. then he went argumentum ad populum and added, “most people don’t”. then, “if that’s their message, its a good question to ask”. then a pivot to: “why do i have to pay to clean up after them”.
BO_Bill
There are three primary forces dominating modern American politics. The First is old Gentile money, represented by Bain Capital, and a portion of the Republican Party.
The Second is Jewish money, represented by the Obama Administration and his Treasury department (that would be the Tim Geithner who killed Lehman Brothers, formerly a vehicle of Force #1, and elevated Goldman Sachs, a leading vehicle of Force #2 to Wall Street Supremacy), also represented by the numerical majority of #OWS.
The Third is working Americans, represented by the TEA Party and an aware minority of #OWS. The leadership of Forces 1 and 2 have hated each other since the beginning of time and deeply fear Number 3.
When viewed through this lens of Truth, all politics pass the test of Logic.
azlib
Who is the marionetter? I suspect it is just Newt being venal and opportunistic. He is probably jealous he is only worth a few mill and does not have Mitt’s 100s of mill.
Villago Delenda Est
@bemused:
Probably thought it was envy.
Many of the 1% don’t get that wealth, per se, isn’t the issue. Wealth gained through devious means and harming others is.
Our entire system now seems to be based on systemic theft of the assets of others…be it their retirement savings, their homes, or even their labor itself.
Felinious Wench
You people have NO idea how much it hurts me to say this, how I have to grit my teeth to write these words, but damn it, I have to do it. For once in my long history of hatred for the man, I have to do it.
Good job, Gov. Goodhair.
I’m going to go throw up now.
Nellcote
Popcorn sales go up as corn (ethanol) subsidies are eliminated.
Coincidence?
Calouste
Seems BO_Bill is in need of some vacation time again.
bemused
@pragmatism:
It’s always easier to dismiss and demonize folks as dirty hippies.
Aardvark Cheeselog
The notion that Newt Gangrene was behind that trailer for an OWS documentary has me momentarily stupefied.
Mnemosyne
@rlrr:
Maybe next she can go convince the Coptic Christians in Egypt that they need to be real Christians.
Roger Moore
@Mark S.:
I suspect that all it will take to let any fertile member of the Palin crowd wind up with an unplanned pregnancy is lack of contraception. If Piper manages to graduate from highschool without having a baby, it’s a sign that either she’s getting condoms without her mom knowing, or Sarah is a hypocrite.
trollhattan
@Calouste:
I’ve got a Jewish dollar in my wallet (being cornered and picked on by some Alabama dollars in the small bill area) that says this might could do it.
pragmatism
@bemused: i have been going after the “no coherent message from OWS” meme quite a bit lately when i see it on FB, intertubes, etc. its pretty easy to peel back.
Roger Moore
@BO_Bill:
Can somebody get out the ban hammer for this crap?
Jennifer
@pragmatism: My stock answer to that is “I think the point they’re trying to make and what they’re upset about has to do with the whole ‘consent of the governed’ thing. We’re being governed by Goldman Sachs and Citibank and others like that, and I sure didn’t agree to that – did you?”
That’s nailed it down tight with everyone who’s brought it up to me.
Redshift
@Villago Delenda Est:
The thing that really pissed off my marine father-in-law was that North wore a winter uniform when testifying before Congress in the summer because it looked more impressive than the short-sleeve summer one. (And he cried on cue, when no real Marine would ever cry in public, period.)
joes527
@dmsilev: I’m annoyed by all the buzz about the out-of-context quote too. Because when you put it back in context you realize how profoundly stupid what he was _trying_ to say was.
Health insurance “choice” without some mechanism to keep the insurance companies from accepting well people and dumping sick people is nothing more than the freedom to go bankrupt and then die when you get ill.
Yes, I know, Rick Santorum would then double down and tell us that it is the sick folks fault for making bad choices. (He’s talking about the choice that they made to not be uber rich, I assume)
pragmatism
@Jennifer: well said. i have been asking people what they do know about OWS. some profess complete ignorance (which is easy to deal with–how can you have an opinion if you don’t know or are disincentivized to know?) most say, “they are the 99%”. its easy to get from there to your point about consent of the governed and that the 1% disproportionally benefit from policies over the past 11-12 years (and arguably before that).
Rommie
I think if there’s any sense of Mittens showing weakness, the wolfpack of his opponents will go full charge at him in South Carolina. If they can’t beat Mr. oozes Yankee there, then everyone will know he’s winning it all. If Romney is slowed down in SC, then Florida becomes a multi-contestant Thunderdome. That will pop the popcorn!
El Cid
Sinners and heathens think of capitalism as it actually is, here on the despoiled, immoral, and finite Earth; the holy faithful know it, in their hearts, as it is in Heaven, eternal, unending, unsubsidized, unprotected, meritocratic, efficient, and perfectly in tune with all opportunities and all needs.
SRW1
This John guy must be a really important person. I mean, Noot and The Mittens wouldn’t put on such a show to get him out of a funk if he weren’t, would they!
Svensker
@rlrr:
The Orthodox get very testy about Prots (and Catholics) trying to “convert” them. VERY testy.
Svensker
@Roger Moore:
fixered
The Golux
@scav:
There’s a rich man sleeping on a golden bed
There’s a skeleton choking on a crust of bread
King of Bain!
Jennifer
@The Golux: Dude, that rules!
Trakker
Hell yes! I’m amazed at how many people think capitalism is a system of morals. No, it’s an economic system that allows some to get rich, usually at the expense of others, many others. It’s cruel, it’s dog-eat-dog, and what Bain Capital did was EXACTLY what good capitalists are supposed to do if we let them: screw the many for the good of a few! Why is everyone so shocked?
We could pass laws and regulations and create watchdog agencies to prevent this, of course, but the good people of America drank the Reagan kool-aid, and so the hated “government schools” probably no longer teach economic theory any more, they just teach kids to genuflect before the god of capitalism.
Roger Moore
@The Golux:
And, sadly, Mittens will always be King of Bain Capital, since part of his agreement was that he’d continue to be rewarded for everything they did even after he left. Nice work if you can get it.
JGabriel
@dmsilev:
Romney’s words were not even taken out of context. He was talking about firing an insurance company, and extended it to service people in general.
You’re not going to find anything more “in” context unless you come across video of Dog On Car cackling gleefully as he stamps pink slips and shouts, “I LOVE DOWNSIZING!” — which, let’s face it, is probably not going to happen.
.
SRW1
@BO_Bill:
Given that there is the small factual problem of Lehmann Bros having been killed by a certain Treas Sec H. Paulson during the reigns of a certain Pres GW Bush of the GOP persuasion, there would appear to be somewhat of a problem with that ‘lens of Truth’ of yours.
Not that the test of wingnut logic couldn’t be passed by stranger things, though.
mdblanche
@Calouste:
Yes, being a Charles Coughlin impersonator is hard work.
Redshift
@joes527: I hate quotes being taken out of context for cheap misleading attacks, but I love quotes that, taken out of context, reveal a larger truth. This one is a beauty, because Romney’s record shows that he does love firing people as long as it pays well, and it puts him in the unenviable position of trying to ignore it when it’s calling attention to Bain, or trying to fight it (“when you’re explaining, you’re losing.”)
His campaign’s least-bad response to it is to complain about it being out of context, and they’ve already really aggressively said that they don’t give a damn about that.
It’s hard to conceive of a more perfect petard for Mitt.
gwangung
Moreover, they think that any legal means is inherently fair; any harm to others is self inflicted (since the 99% didn’t have the money to buy that protection).
gelfling545
@Jennifer: I had just that conversation with someone not many days ago with someone even less affluent than myself. His reply was that it’s been that way for a long time. I asked him if it was his opinion then that it should just continue that way. He looked honestly puzzled by that & had a hard time saying “Well, no, I guess not.” The idea that anything could be done was just so strange to him.
The Other Chuck
@BO_Bill:
You know, I normally have BO_Bill filtered, but because of the updates I was doing, I cleared out my filter.
Normally, I’d just click “block” and move on … but I really think this particular flavor of bullshit in this comment deserves a permanent ban-on-sight response. This is not something he’s going to “learn a lesson” from. If he’s _ever_ allowed back, this is who he’ll be.
Anyway, filtered now. Just putting that out there.
A Conservative Teacher
In response to your question regarding capitalism, I suggest that you spend some time becoming educated regarding it. This might actually serve you better than writing any further on this blog.
I suggest The Road to Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek. Start with that one. They might make a junior or little kiddie version of it, which would be right up your ally. Happy reading!
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@A Conservative Teacher:
This sort of insult works better if you don’t make any spelling errors.
trollhattan
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Could be he/she/it really means up the ally, in the Santorum sense. I don’t want to know, either way.
El Cid
@A Conservative Teacher: One, it was Newt Gingrich’s question, dumbass; two, Hayek was not a booster of unregulated, laissez-faire capitalism. There really is more to his thinking than the book title; you should read further than that.
TooManyJens
@A Conservative Teacher: How about if you read The Wealth of Nations and get back to us.
Chuck Butcher
@A Conservative Teacher:
It is quite possible that you are one of the best arguments for never letting a “conservative” anywhere near anything important.
Kyle
@El Cid:
Conservatives are seemingly incapable of comprehending anything beyond a shiny surface, requiring more than a soundbite or a paragraph.
Therefore, Hayek is just “unregulated capitalism”;
The Wealth of Nations is “invisible hand solves everything”;
Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA is a “patriotic anthem” if you only listen to the first line of the chorus;
and most of these irony-deaf idiots thought Stephen Colbert was a conservative until he verbally gutted The Chimp at that White House dinner.
No wonder they loved Reagan and Idiot Bush with their simpleton, comic-book-level drivel. It’s easier than thinking.