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Mirror Universe: The Ebola Crisis Under the Romney Administration
President Romney has come under criticism from some liberal groups for declining an invitation from the United Nations to discuss the ebola crisis in Africa at an upcoming summit. Speaking from the President's winter palace in the Bahamas, the White House spokesman said "The President wants to remain laser-focused on the issues affecting Americans most deeply - lowering capital gains tax rates, removing regulatory hurdles to stock transactions, and expanding the recently-passed tax credit for dressage horses. The free market will sort out the situation in Africa, one way or another."---
"At the Geneva summit, President Romney called for the world community to lower import tariffs on yachts and luxury jewelry, noting that it might very well lead to someone somewhere having a job who might otherwise not have one. However, the President appeared flustered when a reporter for the Washington Post asked about the recent outbreak of ebola in a Texas hospital - the first ever ebola infections on US soil. "Umm, well, look - we have plenty of nurses in this country.," said President Romney. "I doubt losing a few would have any major impact on the stock market. So let's not go overboard and disrupt the great economy they've got down there in Texas with any kind of federal interference."
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"With the announcement yesterday of additional confirmed cases of ebola in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Florida, concern is rising among Americans of a possible epidemic. Speaking from his recently-constructed solid gold 200-story palace constructed on the demolished remains of a children's hospital, President Romney tried to reassure the nation:
'Look, folks, people die every day. Ebola, e-coli, whatever other e words you want to use, it's not a big deal. But I recognize that this might turn into a problem, so I've ordered the immediate signing of a $50 billion no-bid contract with a firm that I own (so I can keep an eye on it and make sure it does the job right) to supply the CDC with everything it needs. Now my administration is committed to fiscal conservatism, so that money will be made up for by closing a number of schools and hospitals in poor neighborhoods, since let's face it - poor people would only be made unhappy by education and physical health.'"
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"Despite the signing of a $50 billion contract with the CDC, whistleblowers within the federal government - most of whom have since mysteriously disappeared - say that the CDC has not received a single shipment from the contractor other than boxes of broken, outdated equipment stamped with North Korean flags, in quantities far below those stipulated in the orders. Asked to comment, the Romney appointee in charge of the President's ebola initiative referred reporters to a taped recording of a voice actor reciting an Ayn Rand lecture. As thousands of new cases are announced daily, pressure is mounting on the White House to take additional action, but the President continues to insist that the stock market could not bear any overzealous action."
---
"Speaking from his epidemic emergency headquarters on the International Space Station, President Romney - with his Emergency Commitee (the US Chamber of Commerce, the board of directors of ALEC, and his select concubines) floating beside him - vowed to expand the program of nuclear sterilization that had already wiped Michigan and Minnesota off the map, but cautioned that 'important' states like those that had voted for him in the last election six years ago (the one scheduled for two years ago had to be postponed indefinitely) remain vital to American prosperity."
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The more I read about this slithering slimy prick, the larger the sigh of relief I breathe that we dodged this really stupid bullet.
http://swampland.time.com/2013/06/02/mitt-romney-inc-the-white-house-that-never-was/
The non-profit R2P, Inc., chaired by former Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt and run by former General Motors chief financial officer Christopher Liddell, benefited from free rent and other federal support, and drew heavily from the business and consulting community Romney, a former consultant and private equity executive, knew so well.
Among the recommendations for the Romney administration:
•Corporate-style training seminars were planned for appointees and nominees before the inauguration to teach management skills.
•A plan to restructure White House operations to suit Romney’s corporate management style, with clear deliverables.
•Detailed flow charts delineating how information and decisions were disseminated through the administration to achieve “unity.”
•Plans to evaluate Cabinet secretaries’s performance by “systematically assessing the efforts of their departments in contributing to [Romney's] priorities and objectives, perhaps by a newly created “deputy chief of staff for Cabinet oversight.”
More than 100 detailed one-page project management sheets were in circulation at R2P headquarters by Election Day, charting the organization’s progress and preparing for the run-up to inauguration. Movements for Romney, his wife Ann, and Vice President-elect Paul Ryan were heavily choreographed for the days following the election, and many campaign staffers were told to prepare to assume roles on the transition immediately following a victory. (All were guaranteed a job on either the transition or the inaugural committee.) A painstakingly prepared seating chart and floor plan was developed for Romney, his aides, and transition staff across three floors of the Mary E. Switzer Building in downtown Washington, ready for the rapid post-election expansion.
Among the recommendations for the Romney administration:
•Corporate-style training seminars were planned for appointees and nominees before the inauguration to teach management skills.
•A plan to restructure White House operations to suit Romney’s corporate management style, with clear deliverables.
•Detailed flow charts delineating how information and decisions were disseminated through the administration to achieve “unity.”
•Plans to evaluate Cabinet secretaries’s performance by “systematically assessing the efforts of their departments in contributing to [Romney's] priorities and objectives, perhaps by a newly created “deputy chief of staff for Cabinet oversight.”
More than 100 detailed one-page project management sheets were in circulation at R2P headquarters by Election Day, charting the organization’s progress and preparing for the run-up to inauguration. Movements for Romney, his wife Ann, and Vice President-elect Paul Ryan were heavily choreographed for the days following the election, and many campaign staffers were told to prepare to assume roles on the transition immediately following a victory. (All were guaranteed a job on either the transition or the inaugural committee.) A painstakingly prepared seating chart and floor plan was developed for Romney, his aides, and transition staff across three floors of the Mary E. Switzer Building in downtown Washington, ready for the rapid post-election expansion.
GOP like Nordquist had this mapped out in 2012. We didn't let them do it then, but if DU is any sign, we'll do so this year. It's from the states they get their power. Thanksgiving, stick a fork in it, because America will be done:
All we have to do is replace Obama... We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don't need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget... We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don't need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate.
Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.
~ Grover Nordquist
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/13/grover-norquist-speech-cpac.html
Think of ALEC, all the legislation that has hurt us in every state. Already been prepared off the Koch boiler plate:
BERNIE SANDERS Uncovers 1980 Koch Agenda- "What Do the Koch Brothers Want?"
What else do the Koch brothers want?
In 1980, David Koch ran as the Libertarian Party’s vice-presidential candidate in 1980.
Let’s take a look at the 1980 Libertarian Party platform.
Here are just a few excerpts of the Libertarian Party platform that David Koch ran on in 1980:
“We urge the repeal of federal campaign finance laws, and the immediate abolition of the despotic Federal Election Commission.”
“We favor the abolition of Medicare and Medicaid programs.”
“We oppose any compulsory insurance or tax-supported plan to provide health services, including those which finance abortion services.”
“We also favor the deregulation of the medical insurance industry.”
“We favor the repeal of the fraudulent, virtually bankrupt, and increasingly oppressive Social Security system. Pending that repeal, participation in Social Security should be made voluntary.”
“We propose the abolition of the governmental Postal Service. The present system, in addition to being inefficient, encourages governmental surveillance of private correspondence. Pending abolition, we call for an end to the monopoly system and for allowing free competition in all aspects of postal service.”
“We oppose all personal and corporate income taxation, including capital gains taxes.”
“We support the eventual repeal of all taxation.”
“As an interim measure, all criminal and civil sanctions against tax evasion should be terminated immediately.”
“We support repeal of all law which impede the ability of any person to find employment, such as minimum wage laws.”
“We advocate the complete separation of education and State. Government schools lead to the indoctrination of children and interfere with the free choice of individuals. Government ownership, operation, regulation, and subsidy of schools and colleges should be ended.”
“We condemn compulsory education laws … and we call for the immediate repeal of such laws.”
“We support the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of private schools, whether profit or non-profit.”
“We support the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency.”
“We support abolition of the Department of Energy.”
“We call for the dissolution of all government agencies concerned with transportation, including the Department of Transportation.”
“We demand the return of America's railroad system to private ownership. We call for the privatization of the public roads and national highway system.”
“We specifically oppose laws requiring an individual to buy or use so-called "self-protection" equipment such as safety belts, air bags, or crash helmets.”
“We advocate the abolition of the Federal Aviation Administration.”
“We advocate the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration.”
“We support an end to all subsidies for child-bearing built into our present laws, including all welfare plans and the provision of tax-supported services for children.”
“We oppose all government welfare, relief projects, and ‘aid to the poor’ programs. All these government programs are privacy-invading, paternalistic, demeaning, and inefficient. The proper source of help for such persons is the voluntary efforts of private groups and individuals.”
“We call for the privatization of the inland waterways, and of the distribution system that brings water to industry, agriculture and households.”
“We call for the repeal of the Occupational Safety and Health Act.”
“We call for the abolition of the Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
“We support the repeal of all state usury laws.”
In other words, the agenda of the Koch brothers is not only to defund Obamacare. The agenda of the Koch brothers is to repeal every major piece of legislation that has been signed into law over the past 80 years that has protected the middle class, the elderly, the children, the sick, and the most vulnerable in this country...
Tomorrow it will be Social Security, ending Medicare as we know it, repealing the minimum wage. It seems to me that the Koch brothers will not be content until they get everything they believe they are entitled to.
Our great nation can no longer be hijacked by right-wing billionaires like the Koch brothers.
For the sake of our children and our grandchildren, for the sake of our economy, we have got to let democracy prevail.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/koch-brothers
http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a7980koch
to kpete:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024806298
Another explanation here:
How Freedom Became Tyranny
Rightwing libertarians have turned “freedom” into an excuse for greed and exploitation.
George Monbiot - December 19, 2011
Freedom: who could object? Yet this word is now used to justify a thousand forms of exploitation. Throughout the rightwing press and blogosphere, among thinktanks and governments, the word excuses every assault on the lives of the poor, every form of inequality and intrusion to which the 1% subject us. How did libertarianism, once a noble impulse, become synonymous with injustice?
In the name of freedom – freedom from regulation – the banks were permitted to wreck the economy. In the name of freedom, taxes for the super-rich are cut. In the name of freedom, companies lobby to drop the minimum wage and raise working hours. In the same cause, US insurers lobby Congress to thwart effective public healthcare; the government rips up our planning laws; big business trashes the biosphere. This is the freedom of the powerful to exploit the weak, the rich to exploit the poor.
Right-wing libertarianism recognises few legitimate constraints on the power to act, regardless of the impact on the lives of others. In the UK it is forcefully promoted by groups like the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the Adam Smith Institute, the Institute of Economic Affairs and Policy Exchange. Their conception of freedom looks to me like nothing but a justification for greed.
So why have we been been so slow to challenge this concept of liberty? I believe that one of the reasons is as follows. The great political conflict of our age – between neocons and the millionaires and corporations they support on one side and social justice campaigners and environmentalists on the other – has been mischaracterised as a clash between negative and positive freedoms.
More at the link:
http://www.monbiot.com/2011/12/19/how-freedom-became-tyranny/
They'll do it on a national scale it so there'll be no escape. All the better to extract the last drop of blood from Americans, and anyone who does not agree with them abroad.
The only bright spot will be that the White House will get a much needed remodel in 2016 for the GOP president. Who will not be living there, just as Romney wouldn't have. He had better homes in other places and it'd just be sold off to the Koch brothers or some foreign country as an oddity.