American Parasite: Mitt Romney

[The Blue Flower]

From The Seattle Weekly: http://www.seattleweekly.com/2012-04-18/news/mitt-romney-american-parasite/

Great read. Sorry I'm not able to copy and paste at the moment. Maybe someone else can.

[HughBeaumont]

1. K & R. READ IT.

Right, America . . . and you think this scion FUCKER is going to make things better? You're going to sit there and tell me things are really SO goddamned bad that you're willing to put in this slash-and-burn parasite capitalist to make things better? Does anyone laughably think this country would be better off run as a business??

2000-2008. For the history challenged, look it up. I'm pretty sure it's documented somewhere.

[Democrats_win]

2. How rotten is this monster? Worse than satan!

[geckosfeet]

3. Glad to post an excerpt - but the whole article is a must read!

One story about a profitable and prosperous steel mill that Bain took over...

Mitt Romney, American Parasite

His specialty was flipping companies—or what he often calls "creative destruction." It's the age-old theory that the new must constantly attack the old to bring efficiency to the economy, even if some are destroyed along the way. In other words, people like Romney are wolves, culling the herd of the weak and infirm.

The result was that previously profitable companies were now burdened with debt. But much like the Enron boys, Romney's battery of MBAs fancied themselves the smartest guys in the room. It didn't matter if a company manufactured bicycles or contact lenses; they were certain they could run it better than anyone else.

.../...

When Bain purchased the mill, Sanderson says, change was immediate. Equipment upgrades stopped. Maintenance became an afterthought. Managers were replaced by people who knew nothing of steel. The union's profit-sharing plan was sliced twice in the first year—then whacked altogether.

"When Bain Capital took over, it seemed like everything was being neglected in our plant," says Sanderson. "Nothing was being invested in our plant. We didn't have the necessary time to maintain our equipment. They had people here that didn't know what they were doing. It was like they were taking money from us and putting it somewhere else."

Mitt Romney, American Parasite

[hifiguy]

4. Must reading.

This should be reprinted, circulated and screamed about at the top of our lungs. Rmoney is a shitstain in the national underwear, a cruel, vicious, greedy asshat. In other words, a perfect representative of the 1%.

[PearliePoo2]

5. Great read indeed.

This guy is an unfeeling monster. What a piece of shit!

snip:
One of Romney's companies, American Pad & Paper, bought a plant in Marion, Indiana. At the time, it was prosperous enough to be running three shifts.
Bain's first move was to fire all 258 workers, then invite them to reapply for their jobs at lower wages and a 50 percent cut in health-care benefits.

"They came in and said, 'You're all fired,' " employee Randy Johnson told the Los Angeles Times. "'If you want to work for us, here's an application.' We had insurance until the end of the week. That was it. It was brutal."

But instead of reapplying, the workers went on strike.
The Marion plant closed just six months after Bain's purchase. The jobs were shipped to Mexico.

[Ganja Ninja]

6. Here's a few choice bits.

His specialty was flipping companies—or what he often calls "creative destruction." It's the age-old theory that the new must constantly attack the old to bring efficiency to the economy, even if some are destroyed along the way. In other words, people like Romney are wolves, culling the herd of the weak and infirm.

His formula was simple: Bain would purchase a firm with little money down, then begin extracting huge management fees and paying Romney and his investors enormous dividends.

The result was that previously profitable companies were now burdened with debt. But much like the Enron boys, Romney's battery of MBAs fancied themselves the smartest guys in the room. It didn't matter if a company manufactured bicycles or contact lenses; they were certain they could run it better than anyone else.

(Snip)

But the beauty of Romney's thesis was that it really didn't matter if the company succeeded. Since he was yanking out cash early and often, he would profit even if his targets collapsed.

Which was precisely the fate awaiting Georgetown Steel.

(Snip)

"When Bain Capital took over, it seemed like everything was being neglected in our plant," says Sanderson. "Nothing was being invested in our plant. We didn't have the necessary time to maintain our equipment. They had people here that didn't know what they were doing. It was like they were taking money from us and putting it somewhere else.

"History would prove him correct. While Georgetown was beginning its descent to bankruptcy, Romney was helping himself to the company's treasury.

[scott 12]

7. Rich but extremely puritanical Romney

All the democrats must fight to stop this puritanical jerk from getting into the white house. He is anti anti anxiety drugs, anti contraception, drinking. We do not want a Mormon in the White House.

[MaineDem]

19. "We do not want a Mormon in the White House."

Seriously???

There are many things wrong with Mitt Romney but his religion is not one of them, AFAIC.

People said the same thing about Kennedy and Catholicism.

Welcome to DU, I think.

[Bohunk68]

28. I would usually agree with you

since I believe that religion is a matter of your own beliefs. Let me share something with you. I am with Lutheran Disaster Response and am the Team Leader for the Schoharie Basin, which is the county most severely affected by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee last year in Upstate New York. I have also been instrumental in putting together the LTRG (Long Term Recovery Group) SALT. www.SALTrecovery.org Within the last two months, I have reached out to the local LDS congregation for them to be represented in the recovery effort. I was turned flatly down and told that the LDS takes care of its own. Now, many other faith-based and non-faith-based groups are working together in the recovery effort, but not the Mormons. I just spoke with one of their parishoners last night and passed on that while LDS has a great reputation of taking care of their own, they do not have a reputation of working with others. I had tried to give them an opportunity to change that around and they had said, NO. All of the other faith-based groups have no problems with providing help to others not of their denomination or faith. So, make of those facts what you will.

[enough]

8. A very important story, well told. Thanks for posting this. (nt)

[The Blue Flower]

9. His winning the presidency is a nightmarish scenario

I'm sure we can't even imagine how that would end.

[coalition_unwilling]

10. If Romney is inaugurated in January, 2013, I predict

15% U2 unemployment by December 31, 2013 and 20-25% U2 unemployment by December 31, 2014.

[GoCubsGo]

30. And, it will all be blamed on Obama and the Democrats.

[liberal N proud]

11. There has to be a toon somewhere showing Mitts head on the body of a parasite

A tick or some other blood sucking creature.

[trusty elf]

26. ........

[IMG][/IMG]

[liberal N proud]

27. ++++++

[smirkymonkey]

32. Touche

[polly7]

34. LOL! nt.

[PearliePoo2]

12. I hope the Obama team will do something with this.

There's a "wealth" of campaign ads in here.
Do lots of interviews with the employees who had their lives destroyed by Mittens and his parasitic Bain thugs.

[hfojvt]

13. these stories of Bain capital should get more press

[siligut]

14. I hope this spreads far and wide

For the people who think, because Mitt is a business man, he is qualified to run the country.

[SalviaBlue]

15. Highly recommended reading.

[KamaAina]

16. Wllard and his ilk are among the reasons nothing is made here anymore

[DippyDem]

17. I repeat after the others above.... It's highly recommended reading!!

Damn if Rmoney takes the White House, he will close departments, lay off thousands of federal workers, beef up the military to police angry US citizens and rape the US Treasury, Obamacare, Social Security and reward his buddies with trillions of $$$. That is what I learn from the story. A parasite coming to the Federal government if we ever allow him to.

[Scuba]

18. Worth the read, thanks for posting.

[ProSense]

20. This part

sums up Romney perfectly:

Yet Romney didn't learn his lesson. He seemed incapable of noticing that his brand of "creative destruction" left a lot of human wreckage in its wake. Or that voters might see him as more scumbag than saint.

<...>

There's no question that Romney had a gift for minting money. In 1986, he bought medical-equipment manufacturer Calumet Coach for just $1 million, later flipping it for $34 million. He made 16 times his initial investment in the Gartner Group, a technology research firm. And in what was perhaps his crowning achievement, he bought a money-losing Wesley Jessen VisionCare for $6 million in 1994. Seven years later, it was sold for a dazzling $300 million.

It captures the gist of the article. Rmoney's entire MO is one of a lying, ruthless predator who is in it for the money.

It's not genius, it's taking advantage of people at their most vulnerable and going in for the kill.

For Rmoney on the campaign trail: lying is a business plan.

[jsmirman]

23. You grabbed the wrong part

those were referenced as buy-ins that were legitimate successes.

They don't match the classic Bain/Romney model, which is described as the following:

1) buy into a healthy company/a company with the cash-flow to support significant debt

2) pile massive debt onto the company's books

3) pay yourself and your investors extravagantly with the proceeds of that debt

4) don't give a damn if the company goes bankrupt, because someone else is holding that debt, and it's not your problem

5) definitely don't give a damn about the actual people who work at that company, because in your version of the world, they don't exist

6) watch the company go bankrupt, move on to the next company to destroy

And if I had to pick a four paragraph excerpt about the destruction Bain/Romney left in their wake, it would be this one:

Kosman calls it standard Romney operating procedure. To pump short-term earnings, he would essentially "starve a company," whacking not just employees, but customer service and research-and-development funding—the very ingredients of long-term prosperity.

"I think they're one of the worst, at least during Romney's time," Kosman says. "They were very aggressive about dividends. They were very aggressive about borrowing the most money they could. He's very driven to be the best he could be, and that was to be as cutthroat as he could be. But in the process, he hurt a lot of companies and cost a lot of jobs, maybe tens of thousands of jobs."

Kosman says it's telling that Romney never cites companies he actually managed as evidence of his job-building skills.

"If Romney had some stories to tell, he'd use those stories," he says. "I think it's very interesting that he's not telling those stories, because I think they don't exist."

[NNN0LHI]

21. mark to read later

[jsmirman]

22. I remember a guy I know telling me this is what he did

he was so excited, explaining the whole thing about how they bought into cash-flow friendly businesses, looted them by piling debt on the companies, and won no matter what happened to the company in the end.

He clearly thought I should be impressed.

He was dumbfounded when after listening to his whole spiel I responded, "that's just wrong." When he asked why, I explained that any business model that relied on the ability to leave someone else holding the bag was a shitty business model. And I asked him how indefinitely he thought lenders were going to pile on in if their track record was consistently shitty.

But the world never wises up in time.

Still, that sure as hell doesn't match with any set of business ethics I was taught.

Only a fucking asshole would do business this way.

[trusty elf]

24. a pic for this thread....

[IMG][/IMG]

[HughBeaumont]

40. Cash-italism?

[Hubert Flottz]

25. Look at how the Bush blood suckers served us...

Blood suckers suck blood.

[NNN0LHI]

29. Great article. Thanks for posting

[jsmirman]

31. Kick - seriously, people need to understand this stuff

I've laid out exactly what Romney and his soulless ilk do in six easy steps, as well as excerpted a few of the important paragraphs in the piece here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002583298#post23

This should stay near the top of the board.

It's a nasty game they play/played, and it is a strategy that entirely depends on being comfortable with leaving someone else holding the bag. That's not the kind of leader we need.

This should almost be pinned.

[NNN0LHI]

41. I fear we can talk about this until we are blue in the face and it won't get much traction on DU

DU is not representative of the real world.

If it were this thread would have had hundreds of Recommendations.

Instead it keeps dying.

Not very many blue collar workers post at DU.

Don

[hedda_foil]

33. For God's sake. retweet the article.. tweets on last page.

This info has to be spread as far and fast as possible. FB too.

[gateley]

35. K&R a MUST read! nt

[jsmirman]

36. Kick - should be pinned

nm

[DippyDem]

37. K&R a MUST read! nt

[malaise]

38. Must read indeed

Rec

[spanone]

39. k&r...