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Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital
Rolling Stone Magazine ^ | September 13, 2012 | Matt Taibbi

Posted on 09/02/2012 10:29:39 AM PDT by tired&retired

How the GOP presidential candidate and his private equity firm staged an epic wealth grab, destroyed jobs – and stuck others with the bill.

The great criticism of Mitt Romney, from both sides of the aisle, has always been that he doesn't stand for anything. He's a flip-flopper, they say, a lightweight, a cardboard opportunist who'll say anything to get elected.

The critics couldn't be more wrong. Mitt Romney is no tissue-paper man. He's closer to being a revolutionary, a backward-world version of Che or Trotsky, with tweezed nostrils instead of a beard, a half-Windsor instead of a leather jerkin. His legendary flip-flops aren't the lies of a bumbling opportunist – they're the confident prevarications of a man untroubled by misleading the nonbeliever in pursuit of a single, all-consuming goal. Romney has a vision, and he's trying for something big: We've just been too slow to sort out what it is, just as we've been slow to grasp the roots of the radical economic changes that have swept the country in the last generation.

The incredible untold story of the 2012 election so far is that Romney's run has been a shimmering pearl of perfect political hypocrisy, which he's somehow managed to keep hidden, even with thousands of cameras following his every move. And the drama of this rhetorical high-wire act was ratcheted up even further when Romney chose his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin – like himself, a self-righteously anal, thin-lipped, Whitest Kids U Know penny pincher who'd be honored to tell Oliver Twist there's no more soup left. By selecting Ryan, Romney, the hard-charging, chameleonic champion of a disgraced-yet-defiant Wall Street, officially succeeded in moving the battle lines in the 2012 presidential race.

(Excerpt) Read more at rollingstone.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bain; rolling; romney; stone
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To: tired&retired
It's jolting and probably extremely deceptive for him to write about essentially the same dynamic that Ayn Rand did in Atlas Shrugged as though it were something new, right down to Lenny Patnode, a latter day Eddie Willers. For someone who demands a rigorous intellectual spread sheet from his readers, he fails on the big ideas and the small details as well; for instance, Obama's big bundler Jonathan Lavine actually was hands-on at Ampad http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/05/top-obama-donor-tied-to-bain-layoffs/
21 posted on 09/02/2012 11:28:18 AM PDT by gusopol3
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To: tired&retired

What are you doing with leftie friends who read this rag?

You’re known by the company you keep, you know.


22 posted on 09/02/2012 11:33:28 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine (I need a good stiff drink. How 'bout you?)
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To: jjotto

Morally acceptable?

What has Bain done that’s morally unacceptable? Or are you one of these idiot “Christian Socialists” like Huckabee and his ilk who secretly hate capitalism?

They’re a great company. Period.

Who’s side are you on?


23 posted on 09/02/2012 11:36:39 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine (I need a good stiff drink. How 'bout you?)
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To: Thrownatbirth

SOMEBODY needs to go on a diet.......


24 posted on 09/02/2012 11:42:03 AM PDT by Emperor Palpatine (I need a good stiff drink. How 'bout you?)
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To: tired&retired; Kozy

Bwaah, I am an institutional investor who bought out Bain and lost money. I need Rolling Stone to speak up for me. I thought Bain was guara teeing my investment for life.


25 posted on 09/02/2012 11:54:07 AM PDT by kenavi (Obama doesn't hate private equity. He wants to be it with our money.)
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To: Emperor Palpatine

I am not on the side of devil-take-the-hindmost might-makes-right. Defending the morally indefensible ALWAYS leads to disaster.


26 posted on 09/02/2012 11:57:21 AM PDT by jjotto ("Ya could look it up!")
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To: tired&retired

Bain ripped Ampad to shreds and dumped the workers out of the street to find new jobs or die, while sucking up all their pension money. That’s just a fact. It’s what corporate raiders do. Not looking at WHY Ampad was vulnerable in the first place, however, is the giant cricket in this story. Outsourcing and giving all sorts of tax breaks to importers while jacking up an ocean of regulations and taxes within the US is what REALLY killed Ampad - Bain was just the scavenger tailing the end of the pack to attack the crippled.

Without the Rat & RINO wholesale sabotage of American business, companies like Bain would be far fewer, have to work far more ethically, or roam elsewhere in the world to stay alive.


27 posted on 09/02/2012 12:56:08 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: tired&retired
My friends are passing this Future Rolling Stone article around as anti-Romney progaganda. I need to tear this apart. You folks are great at analysis and I have used your comments successfully in debates/discussions many times in the past. Thanks for your thoughts.

P.S. - I forgot to end my Post #27 by advising you to - therefore - ask your friends why Ampad was vulnerable to Bain in the first place.

28 posted on 09/02/2012 12:58:26 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: tired&retired

This is the bastard that said he was glad Andrew Brietbart had died.....telll your liberal friends to take it bend over and.........!!!!!


29 posted on 09/02/2012 12:59:43 PM PDT by ontap
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To: Talisker

dumped the workers out of the street to find new jobs or die, while sucking up all their pension money...

....I’ll call BS on that! Fed regs fully protect all VESTED pension benefits, and NO money reverts to owners unless there is a surplus after the purchase of all earned pension benefits. Can’t happen any other way and hasn’t in my 30 years in the business.

ymmv


30 posted on 09/02/2012 1:21:53 PM PDT by ElectionInspector (Molon Labe...)
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To: tired&retired

A bump for later, as I can’t get through all this tripe in one meal!


31 posted on 09/02/2012 1:36:54 PM PDT by Noob1999 (Loose Lips, Sink Ships)
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To: Talisker
Meanwhile Staples is an American success story which created thousands of jobs, shareholder wealth and good & services needed by local businesses.

The successes far outweigh any failures.

32 posted on 09/02/2012 2:07:02 PM PDT by what's up
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To: tired&retired
So PRIVATE capital expended on the part of a company to take risks and incur debt is the same as mandating that EVERY TAXPAYER go into debt?

Uh...don't think so!

33 posted on 09/02/2012 2:13:25 PM PDT by what's up
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To: Noob1999
Don't neglect to read the first thread that was posted, by someone who found it "enlightening."
34 posted on 09/02/2012 3:35:04 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
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To: ElectionInspector

Another lie put out is about putting money in overseas accounts to avoid taxes. A U.S. Citizen or resident must pay U.S. income tax on foreign earnings as well, unless he already paid equal or greater tax overseas.


35 posted on 09/02/2012 4:17:27 PM PDT by kenavi (Obama doesn't hate private equity. He wants to be it with our money.)
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To: Talisker

Most people don’t know that Hillary Clinton was on the Board of Directors of WalMart for several years and exported more jobs than any other company in the USA. That’s why Charlie Trie and all the other illegal campaign contributors came in from China and then returned prior to being prosecuted.

That’s why WalMart flew Bill around to the primaries in their aircraft!

There is the biggest culprit.


36 posted on 09/02/2012 4:41:27 PM PDT by tired&retired
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To: 1rudeboy

Thanks for the link. I did three searches and it did not come up before I posted this.

I noticed in the other link that they were lambasting the poster for posting this article. I think that debunking the liberal propaganda is very important and welcome the input of the excellent minds here at FR, especially on days when I am feeling out of sorts and need to get my mind back on the track of thinking clearly.

I learn a lot here at FR and welcome the stimulating thoughts..... and even the sarcastic humor!


37 posted on 09/02/2012 9:17:09 PM PDT by tired&retired
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