help a dumb guy out, is payroll tax social security and medicare?

Yes

So Romney doesn't believe in taxes, but he's pissed at the people not paying taxes?

jerseyhoya wrote:

mozartpc27 wrote:

pacino wrote:

JFLNYC wrote:

traderdave wrote:

pacino wrote:i'm literally speechless about what he took away from his dealings with a chinese factory.

Yeah, I was listening to it thinking, "Is he going to get to his point sometime soon?". And then his big point ends up being that we have it great in America? A two-minute story to remind people who paid $50,000 each for lunch how lucky they are to be in America? Thanks, Captain Obvious.

He wasn't reminding them about how lucky they are to be American. He was reminding his fellow rich folks that they have every right to be disdainful of the ungrateful, unwashed 47% who should shut up, get off the dole, pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and not expect any help. Making minorities into scapegoats unfortunately still has political resonance.

he was longing for the days of a chinese economy where workers are crushed. destroying unions has two quality outcomes: 1. cuts off democratic party money and 2. decreases worker's rights and incomes.

HE CAN'T WAIT

jersey neither.

Damn straight

He was making the point that working conditions in China are awful compared to what we're used to in America and people were tripping over themselves to fill the rare openings because the work/pay were still better than anything else they could get. People in the US have a massive advantage over the rest of the world just by virtue of being born here and not in a country where those conditions were the norm. What an asshole, right?

hey jerz: those fences are to keep people IN. And the nets are to stop them from committing suicide.

And it does not follow from "we are lucky to be born in America" that we should roll back workers' rights and break the unions that got workers to where they are.

We are lucky to be born in America BECAUSE this country recognized the need to empower workers and protect unionization. If the Mitt Romneys of the world had their way, we'd STILL have most workers packed like sardines into tenament houses, 5, 6, 7 to a room, laboring 12 hours a day 6 days a week and shopping at the company store.

That's what "the free market" is all about.

Linda McMahon, Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut, is distancing herself from Romney because of his remarks. Hilarious.

Bill Kristol evidently encouraging Mitt Romney to step down...

Doll Is Mine wrote:Bill Kristol evidently encouraging Mitt Romney to step down...

Step down? That's stupid.

Doll Is Mine wrote:Bill Kristol evidently encouraging Mitt Romney to step down...

I don't see dis

Mother Jones ‏@MotherJones
#BREAKING: Mother Jones will be publishing the full Romney donor video in two parts, 49.5 minutes total, at 2:30 EDT.

CalvinBall wrote:Linda McMahon, Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut, is distancing herself from Romney because of his remarks. Hilarious.

LOTS OF TAKERS IN CONNECTICUT

The Nightman Cometh wrote:

Doll Is Mine wrote:Bill Kristol evidently encouraging Mitt Romney to step down...

I don't see dis

I read the full quote, and Kristol jokingly suggests that Romney might step down so that the ticket "we deserve" - Ryan/Rubio - can take his place (which I suppose says something about his enthusiasm for Romney), but he does call it "important" that Romney wins in November. So no, I don't think he is calling for Romney to step down.

mozartpc27 wrote:

The Nightman Cometh wrote:

Doll Is Mine wrote:Bill Kristol evidently encouraging Mitt Romney to step down...

I don't see dis

I read the full quote, and Kristol jokingly suggests that Romney might step down so that the ticket "we deserve" - Ryan/Rubio - can take his place (which I suppose says something about his enthusiasm for Romney), but he does call it "important" that Romney wins in November. So no, I don't think he is calling for Romney to step down.

Of course he's not. But the mere fact that he's joking about a dream ticket is quite telling.

Andrea Mitchell ‏@mitchellreports
Gov #Sununu on our show today: if Pres Jimmy Carter's grandson hadn't snuck this stuff out we wouldnt be talking about this #mitchellreports

mozartpc27 wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:Damn straight

He was making the point that working conditions in China are awful compared to what we're used to in America and people were tripping over themselves to fill the rare openings because the work/pay were still better than anything else they could get. People in the US have a massive advantage over the rest of the world just by virtue of being born here and not in a country where those conditions were the norm. What an asshole, right?

hey jerz: those fences are to keep people IN. And the nets are to stop them from committing suicide.

And it does not follow from "we are lucky to be born in America" that we should roll back workers' rights and break the unions that got workers to where they are.

We are lucky to be born in America BECAUSE this country recognized the need to empower workers and protect unionization. If the Mitt Romneys of the world had their way, we'd STILL have most workers packed like sardines into tenament houses, 5, 6, 7 to a room, laboring 12 hours a day 6 days a week and shopping at the company store.

That's what "the free market" is all about.

I imagine the fences are both to keep people in and keep people out. If his statement about there being a strong demand for the jobs was accurate, then his overall point holds up fine.

About 7% of private sector workers are unionized today. The labor movement has made tons of important contributions to American society, but for the most part these contributions are baked into the status quo at this point.

Public sector unions are not about trying to make sure workers get a deserved slice of the profit generated by their labor. They're political interest groups which lobby the state for an increasing share of local, state and federal tax dollars. Taxpayers take on the financial burden of management/shareholders in negotiations with public sector unions without having a seat at the table.

Also I'm pretty sure that's not what 'the free market' is all about.

THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO EVERY FENCE, AMERICA. BUT THEY'RE ALL MADE IN CHINA

Man, you can't throw out the entitlement term when you've been born into massive wealth like that...it just comes off as severely disconnected and delusional.

Why can't some people just accept that they've been dealt a pretty good hand in life?

HE GAVE AWAY HIS INHERITANCE SO HE WAS GIVEN NOTHING DONTCHAKNOW

pacino wrote:mitt praised a factory in china where women sleep four to a bed and are only allowed to go home around after the chinese new year. and he believed the bosses who said 'the fences we have around the facility are to keep people OUT from trying to work and then ask for compensation!!!'

worker's paradise, rural china

This reminds me of those republican trips to the Marshall Islands (I think that was the place). Horrible factory conditions, horrible pay, and the republican officials thought we could learn something from them.

They want to turn the clock way back to a time before unions when people worked in terribly unsafe conditions for little pay and no future or chance for advancement. Zero upward mobility would give Mitt an eternal boner. Heck, maybe they can even put kids back to work.

Monkeyboy wrote:

pacino wrote:mitt praised a factory in china where women sleep four to a bed and are only allowed to go home around after the chinese new year. and he believed the bosses who said 'the fences we have around the facility are to keep people OUT from trying to work and then ask for compensation!!!'

worker's paradise, rural china

This reminds me of those republican trips to the Marshall Islands (I think that was the place). Horrible factory conditions, horrible pay, and the republican officials thought we could learn something from them.

They want to turn the clock way back to a time before unions when people worked in terribly unsafe conditions for little pay and no future or chance for advancement. Zero upward mobility would give Mitt an eternal boner. Heck, maybe they can even put kids back to work.

The entire point of the story was that being in America was good because we don't have working conditions like those in China