Romney's Subliminal Marketing

In a subtle marketing ploy, Mittens has begun comparing himself to Jesus Christ. He has begun describing himself as the son of an uneducated carpenter. Not only that but a magical carpenter who could spit nails into wood.

Mitt and George Romney, the early years.

When Mittens was born, George Romney was an auto industry lobbyist, he hadn't swung a hammer for pay in two decades. Early in Mitten's childhood, his dad became head of a now defunct automaker, American Motors.

The Rambler was his claim to fame.

George was a Rockefeller Republican who nearly tripled state government spending during his six years as governor of Michigan. He was a gaffe prone politician (like father, like son) who most famously said that he had been "brainwashed" over the Vietnam War (To which Gene McCarthy quipped, "a light rinse would have been sufficient.").

This is not to denigrate George Romney. George was ten times the man his son will ever be. But the semi-deific image Mittens is trying to paint is a bald-faced lie, an insult to his father, and an insult to the intelligence of the American people.

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The Santorum Hat-trick

What conclusions can we draw from Rick's frothy sweep of three meaningless caucuses?

• Romney loses on an even playing field. Yesterday's votes were the first where Mittens didn't grossly outspent everyone else. The result: two seconds and a third(!). To have even a chance at winning, Romney has to drown the media with attack ads. Even Mitten's isn't that rich.
• Mitten's got half as many votes in Colorado as he did four years ago and one-third the votes he got in Minnesota and Missouri in 2008.
• Turnouts were dreadful again. Missouri down 50%, Minnesota down 20%, and Colorado down 10%. So much for the myth that Republicans are fired up about ousting Obama.

Best news? There is not another vote until the end of the month. Peace be upon us all.

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Modern Ghost Towns

In the old west a town bypassed by the railroads or that saw its silver veins peter out would just dry up. In the 21st century the causes are different but the effect is the same.

Racism

Cairo, Illinois

A hundred and fifty years ago Cairo was a mildly prosperous town of 13,000. Today less than 3,000 people live there. While the fortunes of this town on the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers suffered as railroads and automobiles lessen the flow of traffic on the rivers, the real death of the town is a matter of race. The controlling white population was dominated by the KKK. Lynchings were common. In the 1960's the town was racked by race riots and the flight, of both whites and blacks, began.

Economic Collapse

Humberstone, Chile

There is still room in this old world for the old fashioned way of ghost towning. Humberstone was built in the 19th century for mining saltpeter. But there are cheaper, more popular ways to manufacture fertilizer than digging for nitrates so the mines shut down and there was no other reason to live in that God forsaken desert. By 1970 the town was empty. I could have gone with Detroit or any of a number of Rust Belt towns.

Pollution

Picher, Oklahoma

Another mining town, this one extracted lead and zinc and as you can see by the picture the mine owners didn't much care where they dumped the waste. Children loved to sled down the chat piles like they were snow drifts. Only problem was piles contained a fine dust of poisonous lead that was contaminating the groundwater as well as poisoning the children. The EPA shut down the whole town. In ten years the population dropped from 1,500 to 20. Also Centralia (coal mine fire) and Love Canal (chemical plant waste).

Stupidity

Kangbashi New Area, Ordos, China

In 2003, the Chinese government built a major city in Inner Mongolia, ready to house a million people. It has a massive art gallery, the world's largest shopping mall, and a state of the art sports facility. The only problem is a decided lack of actual people. The whole project has cost over $160 billion and yet only about 20,000 residents.

Disasters

Pripyat, Ukraine

Twenty-six years ago the Chernobyl nuclear power plant had a catastrophic meltdown. The entire city of Pripyat, population 50,000, had to be evacuated. It is still to dangerous to live there but the Pripyat ghost town has a thriving tourism trade.

NOTE: The Fukushima disaster has been ranked by experts as the equal of Chernobyl but the Japanese government is intending on sending its citizens back into the exclusion zone to live this years. The nuclear industry is important to the Japanese economy and who can complain about a little patriotic thyroid cancer?

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Mitt Money

No further comment needed.

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Mitt In Nevada

Mittens continues to win unimpressively.

• He won the Nevada caucus with 50% of the vote, a slightly lower percentage than Mitt won the 2008 Nevada caucus.
• He won fewer counties than 2008.
• His total vote was a whopping 27% lower than in 2008.

Typical Romney supporter in victory.

 

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Romney and Trump (& other tidbits)

Mitt and Donald
The effect of The Donald's endorsement was most elegantly expressed by Andrew Malcolm, quoted in full below.

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Now that "Your Fired!' has married "I like firing people" I wonder what their children will look like.

Way to Reenforce the Meme
Romney drove home the "don't care about the poor" storyline by tying himself to the most arrogant ultra-rich jerk in the country. Romney proved that while he doesn't care about "the poor" he does care about The Donald.

Scott Brown and Mitt
Mitten's home state Republican senator is so impressed by the Romney machine that he has all but endorsed Barack Obama's reelection.

Romney Didn't Win Florida
He just didn't lose. His incessant, insensate negative campaigning so depressed the turnout that 300,000 fewer people voted than did in the 2008 Republican primary. He won by driving people away from the polls.

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The Wisdom of Mitt Romney

Oft times the words a man speaks are a window into his soul.

• I'm running for office for Pete's sake, we can't have illegals.
• Corporations are people, my friend.
• I like being able to fire people.
• I'm not concerned about the very poor.
• I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter.
• I'm a normal person. I have emotions. (How many people do you know who feel its necessary to say that?)
•  I get speakers fees from time to time but not very much. ($347,000 in speakers fees.)
• Maybe I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed. (Except he's was paid $347,000 to talk. Sounds like a job to me.)
• If you look at the literature or look at the dictionary, the term 'saw' includes being aware of in the sense I've described. I'm an English literature major as well. When we say I saw the Patriots win the World Series, it doesn't necessarily mean you were there -- excuse me, the Super Bowl. I saw my dad become president of American Motors. Did that mean you were there for the ceremony? No, its a figure of speech. (Romney explanation when he got caught lying about his father marching with Martin Luther King.)
• Keep America American. (A Ku Klux Klan slogan.)

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