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HughBeaumont

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Member since: Fri Aug 13, 2004, 03:12 PM
Number of posts: 24,461

About Me

If anyone's wondering why I haven't been here much lately, it's because I feel no one is learning anything from 2016. Neoliberalism is a thing and it doesn't win elections in the 21st Century. People want a candidate that's going to take strong, non-waffling stands on human rights the rest of the world enjoys. Enough living in the goddamned Reagan 1980s. Enough taking solar panels off the roof. Enough introducing more rightwingedness into American economics. Enough medical bankruptcies. Enough governing by mythology. Enough science denial. Enough of spitting on women, children, veterans and the LGBTQI community. Enough kicking the can. ENOUGH. America needs to move past it's "everything has to be about making a buck" bullshit. I'd prefer a candidate not born during the FDR/Truman administrations. No offense, but you had your time . . . and you got us Trump. Plus, I can't take another one of these still-Capitalist Boomer codgers yap on about "bootstraps" when college now costs a mortgage, necessity costs have been outpacing wage growth for 20 years and automation promises to kill more jobs than it creates. I don't want to hear what is or isn't "politically achievable". Kick-the-Can economics was never asked "How is it going to be paid for?". Tax Cuts for the rich were never given a spending limit. Folly wars were never asked "Why is this necessary?". Corporate Pork by the billions was and is always approved. America's safety net needs to be greatly expanded and retirement age needs to be drastically lowered. This country throws out far too many people that still have a decade or two of prime contribution left. If life doesn't get fairer for you or I pretty goddamned quickly, we aren't going to have much of one.

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It cannot be said enough:

NEVER. And that includes corporate empty-suit wanksters who follow the Bush economic platform on steroids.

"Stop blaming my brother" . . . Jeb, you stupid bastard,

a) thanks to Obama's congress being either Third Way Worthless to Republican Regressive, NOTHING'S CHANGED since "your brother" and

b) "Your brother" shat things up so bad, it's going to take at least 15 years of America having to make the absolute right move on every economic and electoral decision there is from here on out to correct it. "Your brother" left us with a debt BY CHOICE thanks to his tax cuts for the rich BY CHOICE and his wars OF CHOICE and corporate welfare BY CHOICE. He didn't have to do any of this, he just DID.

You're NEVER going to be president, Jeb. NEVER.

Posted by HughBeaumont | Fri Aug 31, 2012, 09:09 AM (3 replies)

Huntsman is looking pretty . . . Orange on CNBC.

I mean, dude. Been spending too much time at the Jersey Shore or Miami or something? DAMN.

Posted by HughBeaumont | Thu Aug 30, 2012, 08:06 AM (1 replies)

"Obama has doubled the National Debt" - Kat$hit (R - SlowHio)

How are these bastards allowed to outright lie like this without any counter from our complicit press? Did at least anyone from MSNBC call them on this lie?

Posted by HughBeaumont | Wed Aug 29, 2012, 08:43 AM (0 replies)

21st Century Corporate America (and Romney's Presidency) Summed Up in One Onion Article:

[font size="5"]My Great-Grandfather Started This Business With One Simple Mission That We Abandoned Decades Ago[/font]

http://www.theonion.com/articles/my-greatgrandfather-started-this-business-with-one,28423/

You see, Dietrich was adamant that Mueller Dry Goods be not just a company, but a symbol for what a company could become if it conducted itself honorably and wasn't constantly beholden to the bottom line. These ideas, along with the ridiculous crap he said about not treating your employees like commodities, were abandoned in the early 1980s and, to tell you the truth, we don't miss them.

snip

One could say this company was built on tradition—a set of values systematically phased out the second my great-grandfather died. Insisting on customer satisfaction and transparent, responsible business practices were the simple, homespun principles that Dietrich passed on to my grandfather, who in turn passed them on to my father, who told me that the family's "touchy-feely" style of business management was counterintuitive and that if we didn't start cooking the books soon, goodbye to corporate jets and massive year-end bonuses.

snip

Integrity, citizenship, and a commitment to future generations are just some of the basic human virtues that Dietrich stood for and that we discarded years ago in favor of maximizing profit while remaining within a hairsbreadth of the letter of the law. And that's when we're not dictating new legislation to the congressmen we've installed.

My great-grandfather was truly involved in every aspect of the business. He spent time on the factory floor talking to his employees, which I consider to be a total waste of time. First off, I don't know any of our employees' names, and even if I did, I'm certainly not flying out to China just to talk to them. Dietrich believed in his company's products and worked hard to ensure the highest level of craftsmanship. Personally, I don't even know what we make anymore. I actually have no idea what a dry good is; we mostly buy debt and acquire smaller companies to raid the employees' pension funds. Dietrich only used quality materials, even if that meant the cost of production remained high. Ha!

I'd put

icons, but I can't really laugh when I'm seething with anger at how . . . tragically unsatirical this Onion piece is. It's also pretty reflective of how Dubya Mitt and Boy Galt would work hand in hand with their Corporate American fellows to economically terrorize this nation until it resembled a big Detroit, Lorain or Youngstown.

Posted by HughBeaumont | Thu Aug 16, 2012, 05:02 PM (0 replies)

Ken Langone on CNBC . . . .my GOD, where are these people HATCHED from?

"If Romney and Ryan Win, the market will have a honeymoon for 3-6 months"

"Romney/Ryan in the White House will get this economy going quick."

"The more people find out about the Romney/Ryan ticket, the more they'll get excited."

"Obama has no background to understand how business works."

GET EXCITED FUCKERS!!! ROMNEY/RYAN!!! GET EXCITED!! SMELL THE POVERTY!! KEN LANGONE HAS SPOKEN!!!

Hey Kenny, when you and that other rotted fossil Bernie Marcus were steamrolling Mom and Pop stores in the 80s and 90s with Home Depot, is that the kind of example of how business "works"?

Posted by HughBeaumont | Wed Aug 15, 2012, 04:34 PM (3 replies)

"Bye Bye Bain?" Not on your Repub-loving LIVES, Yahoo.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/paul-ryan-help-mitt-romney-change-conversation-081857178.html

Romney has spent much of the last two months playing defense against attacks on his days at Bain Capital, his refusal to release his tax returns, the foreign locations where he houses some of his wealth, and his job creation record in Massachusetts. He also garnered less than stellar news coverage of his trip overseas and continues to struggle to find a way to break out of the 'out of touch millionaire who doesn't understand the problems of the average American' narrative frame Team Obama has built.

By putting Ryan and his deficit cutting plans, largely aimed at significantly altering some very popular entitlement programs such as Medicare, front and center, Romney seems to be demanding a new phase of the 2012 debate. It is an effort to turn the page from stories about car elevators, the Cayman Islands, and dancing horses and welcome a sharp ideological contrast with President Obama about America's fiscal future and the governing philosophies behind it.

Romney's senior advisers have argued for months that they needed to do little more than talk about the economy and unemployment each day in order to beat the president in November. The selection of Ryan as running mate makes it far more likely that Medicare, Social Security, and dramatic spending cuts will be as central to the campaign conversation this fall as jobs and the economy. Adding some of those famed political third rails into the mix is not just a potential risk Romney is willing to take, it is also clearly a potential risk he felt he had to take.

Of course, Romney won't portray it as much of a risk at all. He had already embraced Ryan's budget and is well aware that Democrats are poised to use it as a political weapon irrespective of his vice presidential pick.

You even think we're going to slack off the Massengil/Summer's Eve Ticket on their pasts, you can FORGET IT. This isn't the milquetoast party of 2000 you're dealing with, bastards.

Ryan Ratings:
Rated 13% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
Rated 36% by NAACP, indicating a mixed record on affirmative-action. (Dec ...2006)
Rated 8% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
Rated 30% by CURE, indicating anti-rehabilitation crime votes. (Dec 2000)
Rated 0% by the CAF, indicating opposition to energy independence. (Dec 2006)
Rated -3 by AAI, indicating a anti-Arab anti-Palestine voting record. (May 2012)
Rated 11% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 0% by the AU, indicating opposition to church-state separation. (Dec 2006)
Rated 10% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)

Great choice, if you like kicking poor people, gay people and seniors in the groin.

Posted by HughBeaumont | Sat Aug 11, 2012, 10:01 AM (0 replies)

Nice. This is where my kid goes to see movies (man arrested with weapons in Ohio theater).

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/08/north_ridgeville_man_arrested.html#incart_river_default

WESTLAKE, Ohio -- A 37-year-old North Ridgeville man is being held without bail in the Westlake jail after an off-duty police officer found a loaded gun, extra ammunition clips and four knives in a satchel he carried into a Saturday night showing of "The Dark Knight Rises."

Lt. Ray Arcuri said police have no idea why Scott A. Smith carried the weapons into the theater, but are taking no chances. With the memory fresh of the July 20 shooting spree at a "Dark Knight" movie showing in Colorado that left 12 people dead and 58 wounded, police and theater security are vigilant.

Arcuri said Westlake Officer Jeremiah Bullins was off duty and working security at the Regal Cinema in the Crocker Park shopping center around 10 p.m. Saturday when he saw the theater manager talking to a man carrying a satchel. The manager did not ask to look inside the satchel.

Bullins followed the man when he walked into the theater showing the Batman movie and sat down.

"He entered the theater a half-hour early and was the only one in there," said Arcuri. "Bullins talked to the man and asked if he could see inside his bag. It was a consensual encounter.

"Bullins looked inside and saw a loaded Glock 9 millimeter handgun; two fully loaded magazine clips; three knives in the bag and one on his person," Arcuri continued. "When Bullins asked why he carried the weapons into the theater, the man said, 'No problem. I'll put them in my car.' But it was too late for that."

Perfectly innocent intentions, I'm sure of it.

Posted by HughBeaumont | Tue Aug 7, 2012, 12:54 PM (24 replies)

Spotted the first "ROMNEY 2012" bumper sticker of the season . . .

. . . and I just laughed my ass off so hard, I almost swerved off the road.

My God, I just got to see what kind of human would go out of their way to display on their minivan their support of the absolute worst candidate for the highest office of the Washington Puppet Show in recent history.

You're PROUD to vote for Mom Jeans and his ramping up of Bewsh 43 Trickle Down? You support this Brylcreem bloodthirst and his Likud-fueled war-drum pounding? You WANT social services to be defunded and eliminated? You WANT Health Care (snicker) to be set back another 4 decades? You WANT a whole Supreme Court of Ninos and Alitos? You WANT a President Romney and a compliant Tea House rubberstamping every piece of horrid anti-human rights, pro-Corporate American regressive legislation that will nail progress shut for the next FIVE decades, a la 2001-2006?

You're into an empty suit who'll be nothing more than a signing hand for Grovel Nerdquest and His Magic Plutonomy?

You're DOWN with that? REALLY?

(siiiiigggghhh) . . . Better get some new shoes, peasant . . . them bullet holes will be awfully drafty in an Ohio winter . . .

Posted by HughBeaumont | Tue Aug 7, 2012, 09:46 AM (12 replies)

The next time someone says "most liberal" as a prefix to Washington, challenge them:

"I want you to name me 20 progressives, out of 535 members of the House and Senate.

TWENTY.

TWO. ZERO.

When I say "progressive", I mean "Bernie Sanders" or more leftward. Hell, let's say Al Franken and Sherrod Brown (both of whom support the odious SOPA and PIPA bills, BTW). NOT economic centrists/social liberals or vice-versa. I mean honest-to-goodness, old-Democratic-values-having, FDR, Democratic Socialism-favoring progressives.

20!!

Why do I ask this?

Well, because if your problem is with 'BIG GUBMINT', which anyone with a functioning brain stem knows is your cutesy little dog whistle for 'LIBRULS LIBRULS TAX N SPENDOCRATS!!', it stands to reason that the Gub'mint must be just chock LOADED with people who think just like me!

Here's the problem with that.

You're a TeaHadist Republican? You got representatives. IN DROVES.

You're a moderate Democrat slightly to the left of center who likes them some Laissez-fail? Hell, you got plenty of those.

Milquetoast sensible centrists? Come join us, it's beige in here!

You love guns? NRA Republicans are on your side, Rambo.

Hate taxes? You got your men by the hundreds.

Likes you some Jesus? Come to the US Cathed . . . er. . . Capital.

Free Trade? Over half the House and Senate LUUUUURVES it and thinks it's either 'protectionism lite' or 'pandering' to even suggest reform, let alone repeal!!!

Want to see corporations rule the world, Friedmanites? DC's THE GATEWAY DRUG TO THAT!!!

"One Man, One Woman"? Hell, there are WOMEN in Da House and Senate who are down with that.

Global Warming Hoaxers? Austerity-pushers? Anti-Europe? Birthers? Bible Literalists? Creationists? Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes and YES.

Now, here we go . . .

Strong enough support for universal health care to push forth legislation once and for all? A handful at best.

Stronger bankster/CEO regulation? Not seeing it. The Lloyd Bankfiends and CEO Industry are just as brazen with their lottery pay and corporate fuckery as ever.

Higher taxes than Clinton-era levels on the wealthy? Not in THIS House, chumpstain. It's gonna be gridlock, gridlock, gridlock until we get what we want!

TRULY, as in pull-the-hell-out-NOW ending these useless, purposeless, pointless, tax-wasting Bewsh 43 occupations? There's still a military presence in each one and Afghanistan still continues as the 10 year meatgrinder it's always been. These wars cost nearly 3 trillion . . . where's your outrage?

Not in the House. Not in the Senate. Not in the Executive, and especially not in the purchased Judicial.

You say you're 'anti-government'?

DITTOHEAD, PLEASE. You're more 'government' than I am. You got more regressive bastards in your government on your side than I have knowledgeable thinkers by a country mile.

20 progressives. All that you think's wrong with this country, suppressing your delicate ass.

NAME 'EM NOW.

I'll consume my left arm if you can."

Don't be surprised if you hear various night time insects.

Posted by HughBeaumont | Wed Aug 1, 2012, 01:16 PM (6 replies)