A Mormon Speaks Out

Thank you for an honest assessment and insider’s insights that offer notes of caution without blame or attack. The balance and examples you offer help support the case you make. [/wr]

From the NYTimes comments:
~As the direct descendant of two prominent Mormon lineages (Smith and Draper), I feel compelled to set the record straight and say that support for Mr. Romney is not universal amongst this group, nor is the benign view of Mormon interaction with Native Americans (think Mountain Meadows massacre), Mormon interaction with the Federal government, or Mormons brutal treatment of any one within their midst who dares to question their beliefs (Sons of Perdition and “banishment to outer darkness” that begins with a community wide shunning here on earth).
     It is just as important to look closely at what Mitt (and the Mormons) are not saying; temple rituals, financial dealings, secret hand shakes and phrases, dividing the world into “members” and all others as “non-members.”
     Recently it was announced in Mormon sacrament meetings that “The Church” wanted members to attend the Republican caucuses. Meetings across Utah were instantly filled with first time attendees who knew that they were there to prevent the Tea Party candidate from displacing Senator Hatch, in the the same was that the Tea Party had displaced Sen. Bob Bennett four years ago.
     I’m all for political involvement but this was not a sudden upwelling of civic duty, this was deference to marching orders from church leaders. A very wealthy non-profit church with vast commercial and real estate holdings.
     Think hard about what Mitt Romney is trying very hard not to tell you about his beliefs and his financial dealings.

Retroactive Greed

Free market guys have values not vision. The market is blind, a technical onslaught driven by demand, ever widening, ever grasping and integrating technology, comfort, ease, perks, products. Vision? Please.

There is one exception: a pervasive, all-encompassing sense of entitlement, a right-of-wealth, a celebration we call greed, parsed as “I-did-not-run-that-company-whose-filings-I-signed-off-on-except-retroactively”–although I was paid $100K a year for less work than a day laborer. That vision has put billionaires in the Russian senate, the Saudi Royal family paying itself billions in salary monthly, and is the raison d’etre for Mitt’s offshoring 23 accounts.

So on a bad trading day, JPMorganChase loses $6 billion (and climbing!); HBSC launders $1 billion or more for drug cartels and scrubs cash for terrorists; a drug company pays a $3 billion fine for pushing dangerous and untested usages; financial firms settle mortgage improprieties for $26 billion. The top 100 federal contractors received $276 billion in contractors last year–and paid $25.3 billion in penalties.

Have lunch with a banker, David. Ask not about a vision, but about the numbers. Peek at the GOP-driven vision of the balance sheet. See record profits and record unemployment? I see a vision of a government and an economy made smaller, by growing corruption and greed.

In Hawaii, A Child Was Born

Critics claim Barack is only promoting himself. As well he should! It’s his name on the ballot in 50 states! Elections are not policy reviews, CSPAN panels from the auditoriums of think tanks, or ill-informed discussions of bringing “Obama-to-Jesus.” The proposed Chicago-financed attack ads (with a well spoken Negro!) were not aimed at trade missions, privacy violations, excessive deportations, preventing young women from receiving an important vaccination, the use of drones as international killing machines or the other policy issues which challenge Obama’s base–but you and others never revisit, Why? Because those who challenge Obama will never admit they support these actions. So without applause and the common sense of the middle, the comparisons move further away from the sublime to the ridiculous: felon and birther are not logically similar in attributes or cause or act–in fact the felon and the birthers are on the same side! They both go to the extreme, defy reason, override common sense to engage in make-believe.

Mitt’s fanasty of “I-signed-those-filings-for-companies-I-owed-but-did-not-manage” (so who’s in charge, who? who?), shows the need for strained belief in exactly the same way as “around the world on Pan Am bypassing Kansas to get to Kenya for a child to be born.”

Add in hanging out with the abuser of bankruptcies, the failure to make thoughtful reflectiions on race–or connect to black Republicans–and the differences in character reveal strength in one, greed and evasiveness and whining in the other.

Palovian Triggers

Romney surogates in this video talking about “money” or the “donor class” creates a Palovian trigger that simply remains me of Romney’s issues of wealth and governance–super PACs, tax policy and tax cuts for the .01% (the billionaire class!), his own issues with 23 offshore accounts, including. the Caymans; his “I-signed-the-filing-but-did-not-run-that-firm-I-owed” issue with Bain, his $77K deduction for a dressage horse, and so much more.

Besides, it’s hard to associate Al Green, even sung by Barack Obama, with anything sinister and unpleasant.

This commerical boomerangs.

Ali and Obama

The Muslim that Obama has the most in common with is America’s most beloved, Muhammad Ali. Like Ali, Obama lures opponents in, lets them punch wildly and gain false confidence, then Obama “ropes-a-dope,” springs out the clutch with a barrage that his opponent didn’t see coming. a flurry of well timed, well delivered blows that build power rather then expend it.

I saw Ali in the ring. In the bloodsport of boxing, no one was better. In the mental contest of national politics, few have the cold steel of Obama, who like Archie Moore, knows how to cut off the ring and bring the fight into close quarters at a pace few political opponents can match. Romney’s not crying “no mas,” but he’s complaining to the referees about low blows and hoping for the bell. Golden goose meet the golden gloves!