Hark! The town cryer doth wail, loud and long - ere you miss hearing the tale. Over the land there was only one Chosen One, one who was born to Slay the Jobs, and save the world from scourge of Living Wages and Affordable Health Care. Listen to the sad and sorry tale of the Job Slayer. Mittance was his name, although some called him "Willard".
For ye who art Video Challenged, the report from anon was that Sir Romney as former Lord of Bain Manor did bankrupt and liquidate 22% of the companies they did squire. This was said, oddly enough, by ye olde Wall Street The Dread Pirate Murdoch's Journal of Ye 1%.
Amid anecdotal evidence on both sides, the full record has largely escaped a close look, because so many transactions are involved. The Wall Street Journal, aiming for a comprehensive assessment, examined 77 businesses Bain invested in while Mr. Romney led the firm from its 1984 start until early 1999, to see how they fared during Bain's involvement and shortly afterward.
Among the findings: 22% either filed for bankruptcy reorganization or closed their doors by the end of the eighth year after Bain first invested, sometimes with substantial job losses. An additional 8% ran into so much trouble that all of the money Bain invested was lost.
Another finding was that Bain produced stellar returns for its investors—yet the bulk of these came from just a small number of its investments. Ten deals produced more than 70% of the dollar gains.
Some of those companies, too, later ran into trouble. Of the 10 businesses on which Bain investors scored their biggest gains, four later landed in bankruptcy court.
And there are other voices as well...
Gingrich: They (Bain) apparently looted the companies, left people unemployed and walked off with millions of dollars. I'm for Capitalism, but when somebody comes in and takes all the money out of your company, leaves you bankrupt while they go off with Millions, that's not traditional capitalism
No, it's not - fair Sir - it's Extractionalism. Just like in all those Aliens Come to Earth to Suck Up all our Natural Resources and Leave it a Dry, Spinning, Lifeless, Husk Movies. ("War of the Worlds", "Independence Day", "Battle: Los Angeles", "V", "Falling Skies". Which I guess makes the GOP the Party of the Skitters, and the 99% Movement - the Rag-Tag Rebel Resistance)
And still, Sir Mittance didn't do himself any favors yesterday when he said...
Romney: I had a times when I was worried I might lose my job and get a pink slip.
...
I want individuals to have their own insurance. that means the insurance company will have an incentive to keep you healthy. It also means if you don't like what they do - you can fire them. I like being able to fire people
And lo, the yarn did spin...
Huntsman: Gov. Romney likes to Fire People - I like to create Jobs.
And Spin...
Perry: I'm sure Romney was worried about pink slips, he was worried he was going to run out
Completely out of control!
(OUCH! Time for Jon Stewart to get another job - Rick Perry just became a comedian.)
Yea, verily - a sad tale it is indeed.
But what's most interesting and devastating about this sad sad story, is just who had been crying about it the loudest. Namely, Newt Gingrich's Shiny New SuperPac with their 30 Minute Monster Mitt Mini-Movie. Guess who just got Swiftboated, only this time it's all True!
I have to say this is now an interesting view. This is exactly the argument of the 99% Movement about the Extractionalist system of the 1%, not about Capitalism. Those who've opposed Corporate Raiders like Romney have been attacked as being "Socialist" and "Anti-Capitalist", but that simply isn't the case.
This isn't the standard Republican line that it was the poor and blacks who didn't deserve to have houses, but through gaming of the government system were able get mortgages they didn't deserve and bring down our economy. NO!
This is the truth.
This is why with Conservatives, this attack seems to be backfiring:
Rush Limbaugh, the uber-Romney critic, pronounced himself “uncomfortable” with Gingrich using the rhetoric of the left. Politico reports that Gingrich managed to rally the conservative blogosphere — around Romney. “Conservative bloggers who are often critical of Mitt Romney were rallying to his aid Monday, arguing that criticisms of his time at Bain Capital are ineffective and out-of-bounds for those who value the free market.”
Michelle Malkin, no Romney fan and as hard-line as any conservative, wrote of both Gingrich and Texas Gov. Rick Perry (who picked up the anti-Bain mantra): “Instead of focusing on his long political record of expedience, incompetent non-Romneys have morphed into Michael Moore propagandists — throwing not just Bain Capital under the bus, but wealth creators of all kinds who take risks in the private marketplace.”
It's not the ones who takes risks that anyone has a problem with, it's the ones who instead of building a business - make most of their money by tearing them down and ripping them apart.
That's not Capitalism. It's more like what Genghis Khan did using lawyers and contracts instead of Scimitars.
Let me also make one last point about the "full context" of Romney's "I like firing people" comment. It's fair to note, as I included in my quote above, that Romney was actually talking about firing "companies that don't provide good service" and that it might backfire to attack him on that because he wasn't literally talking about firing individual people, but bad companies.
But then again, look further.
If you take his actual past history into account with Bain, one of the things they did was Cut off Health Care for some of the companies they owned. They didn't cancel them because there weren't provide good health care, they fired them and Made the Employees pay for their Care out of their own Pocket, or else use public care such as the Emergency Room. Y'know - Like WalMart Does.
Yeah, the Emergency Room is a great place to go when you're suffering from Stage-4 Liver Cancer - they'll hook that Chemo right up for ya. Sure they will. In a Jiffy. It's a great place to go when you've gone Diabetic - they'll take that atrophied foot or leg right off, or are suffering from a chronic inoperable compression fracture in your back compounded with arthritis (as my wife has over a decade - the final remedy for it the County Services gave her was an operation to burn the nerves in her back using radiation so she simply couldn't feel the pain anymore). Oh, and did you know they make Chewable Vicodin Now? Really, they even come in Fruit Flavors. Might as well make them taste like candy since that's how they expect you to eat 'em.
So the full and true context of Mittance comment about firing people actually is - "He likes to Fire People's Health Care Providers" -- and stick the savings in his own pocket.
Classic Extractionalism.
It doesn't matter that die-hard conservatives like Malkin and Limbaugh are pushing back against this attack - They've always been on the side of the Pirates and Bullies. What matters is the fact that Republicans - just about all of them including Ron Paul are making a 99% argument. And I don't hear a thing about what the "Tea Party Wants" coming from anyone. Some of their leaders aren't even sure they're going to the GOP Convention.
The ideas of the 99% have resonance with people who know in their bones that this is true. A few weeks ago this was called "Class Warfare", yet now we have one Millionaire (with a $250,000 Tiffany's Line of Credit, and $1.6 Million from Freddie Mac bulging in his pockets) attacking another Millionaire over how he made his Millions, because he left a trail of broken companies and jobless people in his wake. This dispute isn't about getting rich, it's about Destroying People's Live to get Rich(er).
Mittance may try to defend himself by claiming this is an "Obama-like attack on Free Enterprise" - but most of us who haven't been drinking the Gordon Gecko Brand Kool Aid, know better.
Circular Firing Squad - ye are Republicans.
Vyan