"Firms"

by: HappyinVT

Sat Jul 14, 2012 at 20:34:28 PM EDT



If you haven't seen it, heard about it, and/or noticed the rapturous reviews from most of the Left you've been hiding under a rock this fine Saturday:

HappyinVT :: "Firms"
I love the end myself.  I've seen tweets from Bill Maher, John Fugelsang, Jim Newell and others call it "devastating," "brilliant," and "maybe the best political ad ever."  And it is only July.

As Wonkette notes, this is not the apology Mitt was looking for while the Romney campaign calls it "an insult to America."  And I couldn't be happier.

Oh and "The Villages, FL" is just pure icing on the cake.
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"Firms" | 29 comments
Awesome. (2.00 / 5)
Dems have been collecting oppo on Willard since forever. That's how long he's been running for POTUS. I'm sure there is a lot more where that came from. Obama is running a brilliant campaign. It's different than last time around and he seems to be guns blazing all the time. Like they say, if you are explaining you are losing.  

Just because they are posting on a progressive site doesn't make them progressives. - John Allen
Subtle. (2.00 / 4)
Always the best. Speak softly. Imply the presence of big sticks.

Our almost-past landlord is a lawyer. A lawyer who took his ethics oath while building an illegal rental unit, and lying to his retired neighbors about it ("it's for our elderly parents, you understand..."). After more than two years I despise them as much as the retired chief of police and his wife next door, who have their retirement infringed on by a duplicitous pair of crooks who believe that all is fair in money and, well, money.

They don't say thank you, people like that. That's a liability, it's expressing value received and implying value owed in return.

We've been landlords, and in two case had good tenants fall on hard times. We took the losses rather than add hardship to their lives and ours, in one case years later we were repaid unexpectedly. These assholes got all their dimes and increased the capital value of their property at no cost to them, but every step and until the end search and scheme for a way to get one more dime to squeeze, always a false smile and words made into levers.

As you've seen on these pages, my natural inclination to fidget had me renovate this office I sit in out of a rat-infested shed. Cleanup four acres of neglected mountainside, build a 1,000 square foot wysteria bower out of bricks and redwood salvaged from around the property. Dig a mile of trails into the hillside and cover them all with sand. Clean up after the devastating windstorm in December, clear the fallen trees, repair the damaged plumbing.

Never, ever, a thank you. That would be risky.

It's nice, at the end of a relationship with such people. The Truth can be told, and I said my fair share of it today. We let them show the house to prospective tenants today and, when they said they would like to stay much of the day...

Well, we like this place. This is our last Saturday here. Our children have friends over, and Donna is entirely too honest to mask her distaste for them.

So I took the opportunity to tell them exactly why they are horrible people, and to get the hell out before I have the gendarmes remove them. As I sit here I am more than inclined to call the building inspector and have their illegal building (the garage with a "granny unit" upstairs) torn down. Steve served his community for twenty years so he could retire to his half of our tiny valley, Sandy designed the drive system of the USS Enterprise. They have tolerated 18 years of ungrateful neighbors and the five years since they turned their house into a multi-family dwelling.

I'm as strong a believer in American capitalism as one can get without throwing a flywheel. But the sort of dishonest, manipulative, cynical and paranoid bent that those who think little of their fellow human take to the races is not just personally and ethically offensive, it flies in the face of actual American capitalism. It clogs the gears of Enterprise, it sours the fuel of commerce.

In this case these are pointedly San Francisco Liberal grasping bastards, full of the pompous paranoia that too often typifies that stereotype. The endless visits to sort through their stuff stored under the illegal garage gave me a window into the books they were steeped in, as I sorted their cast-offs into categories of Impending Doom no better than what a Tea Partier's cinderblock bookshelf holds in his deep bunker.

The banks and the Madoff's and all the grubbing weasles we all encounter have, I believe, set a tone that Romney will find hard to overcome from his ivory throne. I know I've had it with the whole point of view, and I don't think I am alone.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

[ Parent ]
This blog will be 4 years old soon. (2.00 / 6)
Not bad at all.  

Just because they are posting on a progressive site doesn't make them progressives. - John Allen
I *know*! (2.00 / 4)
Any venture that survives this long is significant. I've waxed enough about it recently, so I will save the metadive, but I just love the old quadruped.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon
[ Parent ]
Four years on (2.00 / 7)
The Moose is pretty moderate. We believe in competition, a social safety net, and the kind of American capitalism that meant, postwar, most people could get ahead.

Bain Capital is not that kind of open market capitalism. It's monpoly capitalism - more for those who already have plenty, the kind of Gilded Era globalisation which outsources and plays international arbitrage with taxation and regulation

This Ad nails the malaise

The p***artist formerly known as 'Brit'

It does. (2.00 / 5)
As I said above, it is more than Bain, VCs, Private Equity or bank bailouts. It's all of it, together.

At another time Romney might benefit strongly from his litany of financial successes. In the surplus-happy days of 2000 he might have been able to win more readily than Bush had stars aligned. But in battle-worn 2012 I think there are fewer voters on Jetskis dreaming of yachts than there are voters who sold their Jetskis three years ago and now just thankful for calm.

Obviously I am happy with the moderate stance the Moose maintains. Certainly otherw among the Founding and expanded Herd would not entirely agree. But I do very strongly believe that the opinions projected on this hide more closely represent actual American thoughts that the vast majority of media punditry.

Like the results of a voluntary web survey, the results expressed by the Media in all its forms are known to be skewed. Those who find the time to write extensive blogs and comments have a hobby, an interest, some specific reason for doing so. Liberal and Conservative pundits - paid and volunteer - should be expected to express thoughts which are more Ideologically Pure than average.

Michael Moore wrote a very good piece about the Supreme Court ACA decision and the liberal win it represents... and still could not pull back from peppering in pointed offenses at The Opposition. We won't bother to get into the Conservative examples, who are both too number and too cartoonish to bear repeating, but suffice to say I don't think they represent more than a sliver of that half of the American Pie any more acutely.

"Media" is an entertainment mechanism. "News" in the media survives on entertainment value alone. Our recent conversation (btw, what did you mean: "you sound younger than I thought you would"? I watched your bloody videos... ;~) reflected that reality the same as every other in my career.

The Moose actually is the America I know. Examples to the contrary aside, the vast majority of the copious conversations I have with my fellow Yanks are more closely reflected in Moosings than in the tirades and extremes of the Vegas Strip of 'popular media'.  

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

[ Parent ]
I think the "moderateness" of the Moose is more in tone than politics. (2.00 / 5)
I've found myself headed more Left in the last few years but I'm willing :) to entertain other ideas and thoughts when presented with an eye toward discussion.  I asked someone on Twitter to prove something and was instead insulted.  I left the conversation; can't engage someone who is reflexively defensive.

I think the difference here is that we're less interested in being right than in learning why we might be wrong.

(And, thank you Detroit, for Curtis Granderson.)

"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette

[ Parent ]
with you on Grandy (2.00 / 2)
but Austin Jackson is emerging big time.  We may be owed a bigger debt of gratitude in the long run.

But I root for both players and love both teams.  Maybe A-Jax helps the Tiggers win a title in a few years, then comes back to the Yanks as a free agent.

The future is unwritten

[ Parent ]
I've headed to the left... (2.00 / 3)
...because the right have headed way off in their direction, and meanwhile it becomes more and more apparent each day that high finance is corrupt and broken, the key markets rigged, and there's been a massive transfer of capital from the middle classes to the debt owners. 40 years ago, labour used to produce 60 per cent of the GDP of both our nations. Now it has precisely reversed with inherited and acquired capital now producing 60 per cent, and Labour 40 per cent.

In other words, people are not making money so much any more. Money is making money.  

The p***artist formerly known as 'Brit'

[ Parent ]
Not sure reacting is the best policy. (2.00 / 1)
No reason to climb trees because people jump off cliffs.

Inasmuch as systems are out of whack they should be addressed, but that doesn't change my principles. Though your example sounds damning - and we generally agree that there is a pooling going on that is not desirable - each metric by itself is only a group of questions. I know you know (I know you know, ad infinitum...) a lot of answers to questions in that stack, but it is those stacks that all of the discourse that I find compelling lies.

What is the definition of "labor" and "inherited or acquired capital", for example? What are the current and trending demographics of both? How much of that maps to long-term trends like pre-industrial > industrial > post-industrial? Is there a trending increase or decrease in invested capital owned by average citizens?

And many more.

I don't find myself moving left or right, either under my own volition or due to the actions of others. It still appears to me that the "net-net" of modern American culture follows the main channel that seems most promising, including the eddies and backtracks and the experience they bring.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

[ Parent ]
I likey (2.00 / 3)

In engineering terms, we cal things like this (2.00 / 3)
"sweet".

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon
[ Parent ]
ouch (2.00 / 3)
that's gonna leave a mark.

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 
The squealing from the Right is delicious. (2.00 / 3)


"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette
[ Parent ]
Caught a bit of SeeNN this morning. (2.00 / 3)
The twisting of the GOP representative was instructive. Even with my bias it was clear to be a desperate and rear-guard attempt. Planners there know what I am talking about regarding the weak flank Romney's Thurston Howell The Third impersonation presents.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon
[ Parent ]
#retroactively was (is?) trending in the US. (2.00 / 3)
And the calls to release his tax returns are growing from the Right.

I listen to the Yankees on a local talk radio station; even the excerpts of Rush losing his shit are hysterical!

"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette

[ Parent ]
Heh (2.00 / 2)
There's a "VP Sarah Palin?" ad to the right.  I'm going to go vote.

"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette
heh (2.00 / 5)
Photobucket

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 
That picture never gets old. (2.00 / 3)


"When Fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in teh stupid and waving a gun" ~ Esteev on Wonkette
[ Parent ]
oh hohohohohohhoohho (2.00 / 4)
That is perfect.

If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done subjunctively.
[ Parent ]
Frum agrees with Marshall, labeling Romney as fundamentally "weak" (2.00 / 5)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/a...

His damming peroratio:

But at every point, Romney has surrendered to the fringe of his party. Weak. And now in his first tough encounter with Barack Obama, Romney is being shoved around again. This is not what a president looks like - anyway, not a successful president.


The future is unwritten
You say Barack Obama can be ruthless (2.00 / 3)
No shit, signed Osama Bin Laden.


"I honor the place in you where Spirit lives
I honor the place in you which is
of Love, of Truth, of Light, of Peace,
when you are in that place in you,
and I am in that place in me,
then we are One."  Namaste Friends!
LOL (2.00 / 1)
Swim, little fishy.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon
[ Parent ]
stolen from some dude i don't know on facebook: (2.00 / 2)
...Republicans like to call regulations "job killing". I admit the phrase is heart breaking and disparagingly clever, but the fact of the matter is that regulations create jobs and ultimately support the general welfare of all the people of our country.

Look at it this way: If you have Social Security, Medicare, the right to vote, the right to an education, a clean park or a lake near you or an FDIC insured place to put your money. If you were given a disability check or a wheel chair ramp into the store you buy your food, if you like safe bridges, clean drinking water, clean air and a nontoxic environment, if you feel safe when you fly, or eat out, or give your child a toy, then it's time you give liberals and "regulations" the credit they deserve.

i thought it worth stealing.  and sharing.  i don't know if it's original or what, sound familiar to anyone?

Earth is the best vacation place for advanced clowns. --Gary Busey
 

I even got the Chair of the Libertarian Party to agree with that. (2.00 / 1)
He doesn't want as many - and after fighting my way out of the sign-covered California landscape I agree, to a point. Only the most dogmatic and uneducated Tea Partier really doesn't believe in regulations at all.

The beauty of America is exactly the balance we strike. If either political extreme ever wins the tug of war we will either become Canada or Somalia, which is like choosing between execution by suffocation or bludgeoning.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

[ Parent ]
Oh, yes (2.00 / 2)
Those poor, poor people people in Canada. How can they possibly stand living under the suffocating yoke of Socialism? I know they must yearn for the liberties of Americans. Why, I just bet they'd jump at the chance of having the United States take them over.

/snark

I hope you were pointing out the absurdity of the "both sides do it" meme that's so prevalent in discussions of U.S. politics.

This is not a recession. It's a robbery.

[ Parent ]
No. Both Sides Do It. (2.00 / 1)
The

the suffocating yoke of Socialism

as you so blithely hyperbolize is a kinder and gentler punishment for abdicating responsibility than its righthanded counterfailure, but no more a mark of successful culture building.

But you cannot ever talk about these things if your approach is to sneer and throw around insults and simplistic memes. "Socialism" exists to some extent in every single culture except Somali-like non-state disasters, "Democracy" exists to some extent in all but the most cartoonish failed states like North Korea. If the only conversation to be had with either side - you or your right-handed mirror image - is to sneer and snark and disparage then there is no point in talking, at all.

The flinch-cry of "False equivalencey" from the Left at any comparison to the failures of the Right is an incredibly boring ritual. "Of course all the failures of the Right are absolute and incomparable, of course no failure of the Left has anything whatsoever to do with such idiocy".

Good god, John, spare me the parody of a fool when you are definitively not one.

It is sad that after four years of expressing my thoughts here that I am so quickly pounced on by someone who has heard all I have to say. If you were a Tea Party plant sent here to prove my point about the snide pomposity of liberal elitism it would be safer to say that you have overplayed your part to the point of exposing your duplicity. Let me just play the fool, then, and buy into the condescending decent into non-conversation as if you were actually serious and attempt to respond.

In the past two months as we have let our intention to move to Tennessee be known we have been inundated with commentary of varying degree but consistent intent from our liberal friends: "We cannot believe you would so harm your family as to live near those Horrible People, who are All Racist, Homophobe, Hypocritical Christian Zealots Carelessly Waving Firearms in Drunken Stupors around Defenseless Babies". Paired with - and this is the best part - "They are All So Judgmental Down There and Will Not Accept You Unless You Agree with Everything They Say."

God, please give me enough "Danger, Excessive Irony In Use" signs to last.

Those who say it in words, those who say it in expressions, those who say it by walking away in disgust that I could Be So Naive.

The social forces to conform when society swings too far Left are no less - and in many cases certainly more - than when society swings the same distance Right. There is no demonstrative increase in "tolerance" on the Left over the Right, just a change in the focus of intolerance. The Left certainly has no greater hesitation to offer insult than the Right, and in my personal experience rather places a premium on the ability to offend "those judged to deserve it".

If you or anyone reading this need an insight into my political beliefs it is perhaps simplest to understand that I despise those views that lead individuals to cast unfounded judgement on others. My support for issues of the Left continues unabated not because the Left is devoid of such tendencies to cast harsh and harmful judgment without cause or consideration, but rather despite the fact that casting such judgments is one of the more clear and defining characteristics of groups who actively align with lefthanded ideals.

The constant sneering harping of the Port Bow of the ship of culture about the Starboard Bow's constant sneering harping is to delicious an irony to take seriously. Your comment, you are more than bright enough to recognize, is one such example.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

[ Parent ]
You must be pulling my leg. (0.00 / 0)
Right? You can't possibly believe there is some equivalency between Canada's way of life and that in Somalia. That alone opens your comment up for ridicule. Why didn't you say North Korea and Somalia? That would have made sense.

If either political extreme ever wins the tug of war we will either become Canada or Somalia, which is like choosing between execution by suffocation or bludgeoning.



This is not a recession. It's a robbery.
[ Parent ]
True enough, (2.00 / 1)
but this is blogging. Not like I was Composing a Great Tome.

It is the same side of the hill, though. The West Face is a more gradual slope, with everything from Canada just below the peak to the EU just above or below that, China much further down the mountain and North Korea in the rubble at the base.

The East Face falls off precipitously beyond the US. It isn't much of a reduction in social systems from where we are to disasters like Somalia (having a hard time coming up with others not just about as bad, which may be the point).

We maintain a fine balance in America, IMO. The safe and gradual retreat leftward into less and less personal responsibility is the insidious death of a thousand cuts, with each barely hurting at all and most being that kind of pain that is kind of appealing.

This is why our political debate needs to be so active and the voices so often need to be so strident. Tiny steps back from the edge are cloying and tempting and sweet, one step too far to the right is a drop over the cliff to the rocks below. This is also the reason the US has - so far - maintained a unique position sociologically:

It is so much easier to retreat to safety or fall to your death.

"Conway, whom experience had taught that rudeness was by no means a guarantee of good faith, was even less inclined to regard a well-turned phrase as a proof of insincerity."  James Hilton, Lost Horizon

[ Parent ]
"Firms" | 29 comments
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