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News from the Front, Redux

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Here we go again.  As opposed to Reagan's, "There you go again!"

Dave Johnson, of Campaign for America's Future, writes:

Romney says he opposes sending jobs to China, and says he will "crack down" on China.  But it turns out that right now he is making big money from Sensata, a manufacturer that makes key components for our automobile supply chain, and other companies that are offshoring people's jobs right now. 
Mr. Johnson goes on to point out that, a must-read article "explains how part of Romney's $450,000/week income comes from ... get this ... shipping jobs to China!"
"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, ... "
"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." 

Explain this to us, please.  If Romney makes a statement that he is going to make China toe the line, does that mean he will forego his off-shore interests in the work he has sent to China, and bring all of that manufacturing back to the USA?

How can that be?

Mr. Johnson went on to report, "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 week before they came they took the American flag down outside the plant.  The week after they left they put it back up." i

This is one of the five-point plans Mitt Romney is fond of; plans without details.

Jim Hightower and Phillip Frasier, on Hightower's web site, wrote an article called, "The Big Three Myths fabricated by right wing fabulists to frame America's elections" in which they said:

"During the past several years, a mess of plutocratic myths has been growing like kudzu across our political landscape.  This aggressive ideological vine has crept from place to place, incrementally covering over the vital spirit of egalitarianism that defines us as Americans and unites us as a society.  Deliberately planted and nurtured by various Koch-funded front groups, these invasive myths (let's dare call them lies) have been spread by assorted Ayn-Randian acolytes, advancing the anti-democratic notion that corporations and the wealthy are America's most able, virtuous, and deserving citizens.
Now, with the presidency and total control of Congress up for grabs in this election year, the Koch-Randians are going all out to entangle the national policy debate in their lies, the essence of which comes down to this overriding whopper: Government is an immoral, blundering menace that must be shoved aside so a virtuous society run by gifted, self-reliant "strivers" and efficient corporations can flourish.  If you swallow that bucket of Kool-Aid, you might then be able to accept all sorts of the right-wing's current phantasmagoric policy proposals:
 " Medicare must be replaced with a privatized "VoucherCare" (or, more accurately, "WeDon'tCare") medical system;
 " All poverty programs must be slashed or eliminated to "free" poor people from a crippling and shameful dependency on public aid;
 " The government framework that sustains a middle class (from student loans to Social Security) must be turned over to Wall Street so individuals are free to "manage" their own fates through marketplace choice;
 " Such worker protections as collective bargaining, minimum wage, and unemployment payments must be stripped away to remove artificial impediments to the "natural rationality" of free market forces;
 " The corporate and moneyed elites (forgive a bit of redundancy there) must be freed from tax and regulatory burdens that impede their entrepreneurial creativity;
 " The First Amendment must be interpreted to mean that unlimited political spending of corporate cash equals free speech; and
 " Etcetera, ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
The whopperites are trying to pass this stuff off as some sort of deep political "philosophy" rather than confessing that it is what it is: Shameless kleptocratic doggerel intended to disempower the many and enthrone the privileged few." ii 

Please read the rest of their article on their web site; see the endnotes for address.

Bain-Bird
Bain-Bird
(Image by Rolling Stone)
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Over on Rolling Stone's site, Tim Dickerson asks how can a private-equity kingpin, like Mitt Romney, pay less of a tax percentage than firefighters and teachers, and most of the middle class?

"By exploiting tax loopholes that favor the rich and hiding his money in the world's most notorious havens for tax cheats.  That's what Mitt Romney has done, according to his 2010 and 2011 tax returns, a trove of secret Bain Capital documents unearthed by Gawker, and exposà ©s by Bloomberg and Vanity Fair.  "The bottom line," says Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel at Citizens for Tax Justice, "is that these are ways to reduce your taxes that are only available to rich people." iii

 Yes, it is refreshing to see that Bloomberg -- owned by the New York City Mayor - does not stop its people from reporting the truth.  Mr. Dickerson goes on to write:
"Are Romney's tax dodges legal?  It's impossible to say for sure, given how little he has disclosed.  But tax experts note that there are plenty of red flags, including an investigation by New York prosecutors into tax abuses at Bain Capital that began on Romney's watch." 

What is cause for amazement is that when Romney was searching for a running mate, he required all those he considered, to provide 10 years of tax returns, while he refuses to provide the public with more than two years of his own.

There is still more to see, more to report, but it is the hope that anyone " everyone reading this will go out and look for themselves.  Clearly, if people can see this article, they have access to the Internet and can dig deeper for themselves.  It is so very important to arm yourself with facts, when going into the voting booth, now less than one month away.

Vote as if your life depends upon it.  It does!

 

http://truth-out.org/news/item/12099-is-this-why-romney-wont-talk-to-sensata-workers-whose-jobs-are-being-shipped-to-china
ii  http://www.hightowerlowdown.org/node/3121
iii  http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/mitt-romney-s-tax-dodge-20121012#ixzz29OpvNyyc

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Alex Howard Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

I am a systems analyst ... a computer professional; also I have been an actor and musician. I still enjoy jamming with friends, as I get to play drums, a form of aerobics. I have a great love for our country. When I see anyone lying to "We The (more...)
 
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