McCain 2008 Campaign Manager and Strategist Renounces Republican Party, Resigns Membership

The systemic sacrifice of children has begun
as calls for feeding the young to MAGA are
heeded. The Flight of Moloch - by
William Blake
America über alles

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell singled out as indecent

Steve Schmidt, Republican Party strategist and an architect of two presidential campaigns, has publicly renounced the Republican Party, vowing to align with the Democratic Party to fight against the "the party of Trump."

Schmidt made his comments on social media Wednesday morning as the number of children taken from parents by the U.S. government has now exceeded 11,000.

Steve Schmidt said the Republican Party has become "corrupt, indecent, and immoral" and "filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders."

Singling out House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), Schmidt said former Republican Party standard bearer, President Ronald Reagan, would be "ashamed of McConnell and Ryan and all the rest ... ."

29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of The Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life. Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump.

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2018

It is corrupt, indecent and immoral. With the exception of a few Governors like Baker, Hogan and Kasich it is filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party’s greatest leaders. This child separation policy is connected to the worst abuses of

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2018

Humanity in our history. It is connected by the same evil that separated families during slavery and dislocated tribes and broke up Native American families. It is immoral and must be repudiated. Our country is in trouble. Our politics are badly broken. The first step to a

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2018

Season of renewal in our land is the absolute and utter repudiation of Trump and his vile enablers in the 2018 election by electing Democratic majorities. I do not say this as an advocate of a progressive agenda. I say it as someone who retains belief in DEMOCRACY and decency.

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2018

On Ronald Reagan’s grave are these words. “ I know in my heart that man is good. That what is right will always eventually triumph and there is purpose and worth to each and every life.” He would be ashamed of McConnell and Ryan and all the rest while this corrupt government

— Steve Schmidt (@SteveSchmidtSES) June 20, 2018

Meanwhile, intellectuals and writers continue to sound the alarm the United States is entering a period of domestic fascism and state violence formerly reserved for its black citizens and Native Americans.

"All mass crimes in history start with a justification, a necessity rationalization, a sick form of nationalism and racism," notes The Intercept.

Last night as the AP broke the story the Trump administration had erected special internment camps for infants and toddlers, Rachel Maddow broke into tears at the end of her news show as she handed over MSNBC coverage to the Lawrence O'Donnell Show.

MSNBC and NBC News have stationed dozens of reporters and producers in the American south as each day newscasts seem more like a bearing of witness as the U.S. government attempts to hide locations and operations of secret holding facilities housing the children taken from parents.

The Trump administration signals that its child-snatching regime is a complex that is built to last.

The number of children stolen from their parents by the United States government now exceeds 11,000.

Just heard from @HHSGov again:

Of the 11,786 minors currently in the unaccompanied alien children program, 3,280 are female and 8,506 are male.

We still don’t have photos of or acces to any girls or toddlers.

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 19, 2018

No need for Rachel Maddow to apologize as most of America is right behind her.
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Sacrificing our children as Moloch calls.

By Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)

Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars!
Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies!
Old men weeping in the parks!
Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch!
Moloch the loveless!
Mental Moloch!
Moloch the heavy judger of men!
Moloch the incomprehensible prison!
Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows!
---

When Moloch calls for the sacrifice of children, religious mania is ever-present in America's DNA. Those without character round up children in a ritual sacrifice requiring the ascent of 1,000s. No member of ICE has dissented and spoken out.
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"The religion of Moloch — as such creeds may be generically called — is in essence the cringing submission of the slave, who dare not, even in his heart, allow the thought that his master deserves no adulation. Since the independence of ideals is not yet acknowledged, Power may be freely worshipped, and receive an unlimited respect, despite its wanton infliction of pain."
— Bertrand Russell, A Free Man's Worship (1903)

Paul Ryan Never Grew up, Never Appreciated What Others Gave Him

Madison, Wisconsin—There was a report months ago unknown persons shot out the windows of a SUV while a family slept at night on the southwest side.

Asked around about it, the verdict was: Kids.

Kids didn't understand the results of actions, what they did to the family, neighbors, community, how something like this violence could traumatize a family, inflicting a home, the sanctuary, the scared foundation of America.

Thought about this wanton act on reading reports House Speaker Paul Ryan will not seek reelection.

From the time Paul Ryan was a college student paid for in part by Social Security survivor benefits, he took, and took, and then lived on the public dole for decades with his tax-payer-financed salary with benefits most any Wisconsin family would envy.

Why Paul Ryan would mutate into a zealous ideologue to destroy Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is inexplicable.

Like a malignant child, Paul Ryan never understood the work generations of American families accomplished to create Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, so Ryan has no compunction about destroying social insurance.

Paul Ryan just took, born into privilege, growing "up in a big Colonial house on a wooded lot, and his extended clan includ(ing) investment managers, corporate executives and owners of major construction companies," (Los Angeles Times).

Paul Ryan is the Koch brothers representative, and Ryan needed a gerrymandered congressional seat to stave off Wisconsin voters.

Ryan's biggest accomplishment: Bequeathing future generations with a $ trillion deficit, purposely imperiling social insurance from which he took.

Lawrence O'Donnell gamed out Paul Ryan's scenarios in December 2017, and guessed a future presidential run is likely.

As Paul Ryan lives on his tax-payer-financed pension, a presidential run is not necessary.

A simple thank you to the Americans whom Paul Ryan betrays will do.

Everything about you is a fraud. Your fake earnestness, your pseudo policy chops, your smart-for-a-country-boy act, your hostility for the poor masquerading as patriotic. EVERYTHING. You are a coward, a liar, a stooge and a hack. That is all. Carry on… https://t.co/2JuUhRhEiT

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) February 4, 2018

BREAKING: WE JUST REPEALED PAUL RYAN

Now it's time to replace him. Chip in to help us build this campaign and give #WI01, for the first time in 20 years, some real representation.https://t.co/SgSfzooZOR

— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) April 11, 2018

Lying Paul Ryan in Dec 2017: 'Not quitting anytime soon'.

Republicans and Tax Scam to Face the Nation in 2018

House Speaker Paul Ryan looks to
destroy Social Security, Medicare
and Medicaid in 2018.

From Bloomberg:

Now, Pelosi and her party will try to turn the tables, targeting the GOP’s main achievement of 2017: tax legislation that, so far, rates poorly with the public. Republicans are pitching its middle-class benefits and potential economic growth to win over wary voters, but Democrats have united in labeling it a "tax scam" that benefits the wealthy and corporations.

"The American people will see through what this is, which is a scam," said Representative Ben Ray Luján, who chairs the House Democrats’ campaign arm. "This bill is terribly unpopular across America," he said, adding that the party’s internal polling shows it to be unpopular "especially in swing states."

House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, says he’s utterly untroubled by Democrats’ threats.
"No concerns, whatsoever," Ryan said Tuesday during a news conference. He added: "Results are going to make this popular."

Once American wage earners see their paychecks in February 2018 -- after employers have adjusted withholding -- they’ll start to appreciate what a boon they’ve received, he said. He and other GOP leaders also cite what they say will be a major boost to the economy, pushing annual growth to 3 percent.
---
After Republicans engineered their latest tax scam, Dana Duncan, an attorney in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, writes:

The Republican tax is corporate welfare. I don't hire because I have more money. I hire when I can make more money.

— Dana W. Duncan (@danawduncan) December 20, 2017

Meanwhile, a campaign fight beckons in 2018, and Republicans are off to a lying start.

Paul Ryan was asked how the tax scam would affect the deficit, and lying Ryan said he didn't know the answer to that question because "that’s in the future."

"Are you living in a fantasy world?" - @SavannahGuthrie asks House Speaker Paul Ryan the morning after the Senate passed the GOP tax bill. pic.twitter.com/uu8frcPNdC

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 20, 2017

Republican Tax Scam Would Devastate Universities

"Advocates for colleges and universities came out swinging"
against Republican anti-education/tax scam, (Leonor, Politico).

Madison, Wisconsin—Republicans and only Republicans are pushing their massive anti-people initiative that transfers wealth from people to corporations and billionaires.

The Republican and only-Republican tax scam, H.R.1 - Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, is a disaster to Americans, and a dose of plutonium to America's colleges and universities, long a Republican Party target, (H.R. 1: Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Gov Track).

Critical reporting in the Wisocnsin State Journal this morning by Mark Sommerhauser highlighting what this Republican atrocity would do to Wisconsin higher education:

"Our concern from the start has been that the tax bill that was being rushed through Congress would make it more difficult for low- and middle-income families to finance a post-secondary education, and at the same time, undermine the financial stability of ... colleges and universities," said the bloodless Terry Hartle, a spokesman for the American Council on Education, who does not seem to realize what the sweeping Republican measure means for public education.

Sommerhauser offers specifics. The Republican House and/or Senate bills contain measures that would, among other anti-education aims:

-  hike taxes for grad students, treating graduate school tuition waivers as taxable income

- blow up student debt by eliminating the popular student loan interest deduction

- eliminate the federal deduction for state and local income and sales taxes for individual taxpayers that socks the middle class and pressures state government to again slash support for public higher education

Don't expect Sen. Ron Johnson, (R, Wisconsin), to anything that sounds the alarm on this threat.  Rep. Paul Ryan and every Wisconsin Republican is on board the effort to take money from anyone daring to attend college.

This monstrosity is brewing in a Congressional conference committee.

The Wisconsin Republican congressional delegation supports these anti-education measures to ensure public higher education is starved.

Effective opposition must come from the Democratic Party which has a less-than-impressive record.

To see a record of the carnage congressional Republicans are inflicting on America, tune in to Bernie Sanders on social media.

And by the way, Hillary Clinton, thanks again for refusing to step aside in 2016 and sticking us with Donald Trump, appreciate this.

Buried in the Republican tax plan are hidden provisions designed to stick it to the poor and working class while the rich and corporations get billions of dollars in breaks. pic.twitter.com/b5vvNogzBZ

— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) December 8, 2017

Trump and Republican Threat to Democracy Is Grave and Growing

Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties lead voter
decrease in Wisconsin, 2016, (Charles Franklin)

The verdict explaining why Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump is in: Many Democratic-leaning voters didn't vote (538.com), (Charles Franklin).

This explanation is not a tautology.

Republicans spent a lot of time and effort on blocking voters and it paid off, especially among those "urban" voters at whom Paul "I-cannot-and- will-not give-up-my-family-time" Ryan likes to cast aspersions in southeastern Wisconsin where most of the urban types live. Statewide, the 2016 vote is down 3 percent from 2012 (Charles Franklin).

Note the Wisconsin counties map at right and the deep-purple and light-purple counties at lower-right in the image. Those counties in southeastern Wisconsin are Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties, and the 2016 vote dropped off precipitously in this region.

Wouldn't it be a bad idea to work for more Democratic-leaning voters casting votes? But in Wisconsin, the Democratic Party does not employ the best and brightest.

This Friday night, Matt Rothschild, will be offering a talk in Oregon, Wisconsin, about the "risks Trump poses to our democracy."

Firefly Cafe in Oregon, Wisconsin
Friday, Jan 6, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

We should be listening to Rothschild. The 3-percent voter suppression in Wisconsin is coming to the nation as a whole.

Republican Party's War on Voting to Reap Wisconsin Casualties on April 5

On April 5, the Republican Party of Wisconsin will get a glimpse of how well its voter suppression objectives have been achieved in the first Wisconsin statewide, presidential election that conditions the right to vote on possessing and presenting a Republican-approved photo ID, (Pierce, Esquire).

Wisconsin will hold its Spring Election and Presidential Preference Primary on April 5.

Suppressing the number of communities of color, disabled, early in-person absentee voters, low-income voters, young people, and the elderly will yield high dividends in the Fall General Election on November 8, Republicans hope.

"It's going to be much worse this November, and probably worse every other November after that until we decide that none of these things is merely accidental, and that none of these episodes is merely a clerical or administrative error. They are the result of a deliberate national campaign to restrict the franchise in new and different ways, all of which devalue our democracy, and all of them a shame to our national honor," notes Charlie Pierce.

That Wisconsin Republicans failed to fund a mandated-by-law public education campaign is just a happy coincidence for the GOP, (Smith, ProPublica). 

A long-time Election Inspector in Fitchburg, Wisconsin (Dane County) told me he would not "perpetuate a fraud" on voters by collaborating with the Republican-passed Photo Voter ID law regime which will obstruct and prevent targeted voters from casting their preference on Election Day.

The polling worker has worked elections for decades, but is finished working the polls, what he sees as a solemn, civic duty. "In-person voter-impersonation fraud is the fraud," he said.

In the 2014 federal court decision and order that halted (temporarily) implementation of Wisconsin's photo voter ID law, Republicans in the Attorney General's office, Judge Lynn Adelman notes, "could not point to a single instance of known voter impersonation occurring in Wisconsin at any time in the recent past," (p. 12).

Wisconsin typically has been near the top in voter turn-outs in general presidential elections, (2008 at 72.8) (2012 at 72.9 percent).

Scott Walker and Wisconsin Republicans are aware of these facts, and have worked diligently to lower turn-out, especially that 'urban' vote.

The GOP stops enough 'urban' people voting, and its candidates may win in November, though the Republican brand has become some so tainted by misconduct and incompetence, winning a statewide race is a presidential year is a difficult proposition, no matter how many election law changes Republicans have enacted to give Republicans an advantage against the Wisconsin citizenry.

No Mandate for Scott Walker

When President Obama won 52 percent (to 45 percent for Romney) of Wisconsin voters in 2012 with a 73 percent turnout (Washington Post), Republicans complained about the surprising "urban" vote.

Urban means black in Republican lexicon, hence Obama garnered no mandate.

In 2014, Scott Walker has discerned a mandate from the fact that he won 52 percent of the 57 percent turnout of voters, or roughly 28.5 of the Wisconsin electorate (compared to Obama's 36 percent).

Moreover, that Wisconsin Republicans kept their majorities in the gerrymandered legislative districts demands Scott Walker be "even more aggressive" (Spicuzza, Wisconsin State Journal) in pursuing an agenda that 72 percent of the Wisconsin electorate rejected.

This is more than spin from Walker. This is a continuation of the con game that Walker is running on Wisconsin, backed by a corrupt U.S. District judge (Rudolph Randa) who never learned (or doesn't care) what abuse of discretion means.

It is also more confirmation that most people think government is run in the interests of a few, anti-social special interests who want to rig democracy.

Scott Walker doesn't believe he has a mandate any more than he thinks he could mount a credible run for president.

What he can do is run Wisconsin into the ground in the service of special interests, and leave behind a polluted environment and a diminished public education system, among other targets of the GOP's sociopathic wrecking ball.

Wisconsin's Suicide Caucus—Ron Johnson, Four Wisc GOP Reps Vote for Gov Default

Paul Ryan leads Wisconsin Suicide Caucus; Now Looking to Slash
Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as Their Next Crusade

Update - China's credit rating agency Dagong has downgraded the U.S. rating from A to A-, reports the Business Insider.

Five out of six members of the Wisconsin Republican congressional delegation voted not to open government, and avert an unprecedented financial default in a vote late last night.

This manner of Tea Party campaign is incredibly reckless action that has world economists wondering if Republican Party extremism will destroy the United States Dollar as the world's reserve currency.

Wisconsin Republicans did their worst.

U.S. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is one of only 18 senators to oppose the Senate bill opening government, and avoiding a government default that economists say would have thrown the United States back into a recession.

Reps. Sean Duffy (R-Ashland), Tom Petri (R-Fond du Lac), Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), James Sensenbrenner (R-Wauwatosa) all voted "No" in joining Sen. Johnson.

Rep. Reid Ribble (R- Green Bay) is the only Wisconsin Republican in Congress to vote Yes to opening the government and avoiding default.

The Republican-engineered shutdown is estimated to have cost the U.S. domestic economy and American families $Billions is lost income and economic production.

The House voted 285-144, with all 144 No votes coming from Republican members of Congress.

The Senate voted 81 to 18, with all 18 No votes coming from Republican members of Congress.

The shutdown, perilous to the American economy, is also seen as a political body blow to the Tea Party or suicide caucus to which most Wisconsin Republicans have attached themselves.

Around the world, there is relief as well as disbelief that Republicans would perpetrate the 16-day shutdown bringing the United States of America close to default and financial catastrophe.

James Meikle, Paul Lewis and Dan Roberts report in The Guardian:

Stock markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea initially reflected relief after the Republicans finally capitulated in their failed attempt to undermine Obama's healthcare reforms. But in Asia and Europe stock markets overall displayed a muted reaction with traders apparently expecting another battle in Washington early in 2014.

The shutdown is estimated to have cost the US $24bn – £1.5bn a day – according to ratings agency Standard and Poor. China's official Xinhua news agency had accused Washington of jeopardising other countries' dollar assets. China is the US government's largest creditor.

Obama signed the necessary legislation to fend off a default shortly after midnight on Thursday after a Republican split in the House of Representatives. The bill had passed easily with broad bipartisan support in the Senate, where Democratic and Republican leaders forged the agreement. It offers a temporary fix, funding the government until 15 January and raising the debt ceiling until 7 February.

Stopping that 'Urban' Vote

Update: Here we are, March 2014. The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act a year ago; Republican attacks on early voting in cities continue; Republicans enact obstructive voter ID laws in state where they have power; and Paul Ryan keeps sounding the racist dog whistles about the "inner cities." In Wisconsin, Right Wisconsin, a new Tea Bagger website, is known among political writers as White Wisconsin. Thousands of Scott Walker and his aides' emails are ordered released, and racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic jokes are found to circulate freely in Scott Walker land.

Racism and misogyny are the theme songs for a political party that has become detestable.
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"Well, I could call my good friend, Lenny Kravitz. He's only half-urban," said (in disgust) the fictional talk show producer, Artie, in the hilarious Larry Sanders Show (HBO. 1992-1998).

Artie refers to the fictional network's concern that the guest rap group, Wu-Tang Clan, is too black and scary for small-town white America.

The relevancy to today's politics is that the Republican Party and the Tea Party will not halt their voter obstruction program aimed at 'urban' voters, and use the same euphemism, urban for black.

The difference between elections and comedy is depriving Americans of the right to vote is not a funny matter, outside of Tea Party and GOP circles where a sitting GOP member of Congress feels free to make "wet back" jokes on the radio.

Without racism, the GOP and Tea Party (the white parties) are dead.

In Wisconsin, urban means Milwaukee, Kenosha and Racine counties. Along with Dane County, these four counties comprise some one-third of Wisconsin's 2012 presidential election voting total.

The GOP stops enough 'urban' people voting, and they win.

The current national GOP chair is Wisconsin GOP's voter obstruction operative, Reince Priebus, so look for this contemptible voter obstruction program to continue regardless of wins the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

As Paul Ryan said after the 2012 presidential election, "The surprise was some of the turnout, some of the turnout especially in urban areas, which gave President Obama the big margin to win this race." (Shear, Steinhauer. NYT. Nov. 13, 2012)

Those "urban" voters—almost a half century after the civil rights movement's legislative accomplishments like the Voting Rights Act, they still don't know their place.

Maybe the five Republicans on the U.S. Supreme Court (and the four Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court) can take care of this "urban" problem. http://www.rightwisconsin.com/

Paul Ryan and the Tea Party's Unreality

In 2016, don't be surprised if a Ryan-Walker GOP ticket is seriously discussed.

If after reading Paul Ryan latest flight from reality, you wonder if there is something wrong with the U.S. House Budget Committee Chair, you are correct to wonder.

Ryan is a con man.

His budgets are cons, and the budgets [if they were to be enacted] would assault working families.

On the state level, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, an ally of Ryan's, is another con man with similar aspirations to Ryan's.

Both politicians spent their adult lives lapping up money from American taxpayers (a practice other GOP officeholders are following now), while attacking American taxpayers.

And of course both politicians have raked in $millions from the billionaires and extremists for whom they work.

In 2016, don't be surprised if a Ryan-Walker GOP ticket is seriously discussed for president.

I wonders if in history during the rise of say Nixon or Joe McCarthy, there could be found commentary warning of what is to come.

Paul Ryan Championed Sequester Since 2004, Now Calls His Own Idea Not Good Government

Sarah Jones has the story.

Krugman on Paul Ryan: Con Goes On

Paul Krugman this morning:

I wondered recently whether Paul Ryan, who is a con man pure and simple, would be able to step right back into his role as Washington’s favorite Honest, Serious Conservative.

Well, Alec MacGillis appears to have the answer: Foreign Policy Magazine has named Ryan one of its top 10 global thinkers.

And people wonder why I’m so caustic about the Very Serious People.

Press Barred from Paul Ryan Event with Wingnut Birther Donald Trump

Donald Trump

Donald Trump is doing a Mitt Romney campaign event tonight in New York, at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, with Romney running mate Rep. Paul Ryan. And it is completely closed to the press.

The fact that it is closed to the press seems to indicate that the Romney campaign doesn’t want to draw attention to the fact that a beloved and renowned businessman like Donald Trump is endorsing their campaign, for some strange reason.

- By Alex Pareene

Paul Ryan: An American Taker

Update: Ryan family business benefits from government spending. BusinessWeek illuminates lucrative government contracts that Ryan doesn't support (at least in theory)
The 14 scariest words in American politics: 'We're from the Republican Party, and we're here to save Social Security and Medicare.'

Paul Ryan, still dedicated to the 1950s whack Ayn Rand, likes to split Americans into the makers and the takers—takers being veterans, seniors, and the working class who pay state, local, sales, and payroll taxes but owe no federal income taxes every January 31.

But Ryan knows a lot about the benefits of federal taxes. Ryan since the early 1990s and continuing today has received his salary, accrued pension and health care benefits courtesy of the American tax payer.

In return, Ryan presents an extremist plan that promises to dismantle Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while blowing up the deficit even more than Bush and Cheney did.

The question now is will President Obama vow to defend Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid from Romney, Ryan and Republicans in Congress.

One hopes the president sees the folly in rationally engaging the brand of extremists who now dominate the the Republican Party: Takers from the American people with Romney along for the ride.

Retracted—Ryan Calls Mitt Romney "The Stench"

Update: Not sure what Simon was thinking amid the GOP free fall and serious speculation aimed at some combination of the party, Romney and Ryan. "Editor’s note: Some readers were confused that this Roger Simon column was satire," reads the Simon update. Simon's explanation at the end of his piece is lame. I'll be sure not to take Simon seriously again as a political journalist.
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Roger Simon's report in the Politico leads with "Paul Ryan has gone rogue. He is unleashed, unchained, off the hook."

Simon writes:

• Though Ryan had already decided to distance himself from the floundering Romney campaign, he now feels totally uninhibited. Reportedly, he has been marching around his campaign bus, saying things like, “If Stench [Romney]calls, take a message” and “Tell Stench I’m having finger sandwiches with Peggy Noonan and will text him later.”
• Dan Senor, one of Romney’s closest advisers, has kept a tight grip on Ryan, traveling with him everywhere and making sure he hews to the directions of the Romney “brain trust” in Boston. (A brain trust, rumor has it, that refers to Ryan as “Gilligan.”)

Simon doesn't explore the reasons behind Ryan's dissatisfaction with Romney.

Drawing from reports, it appears Ryan and his desires to privatize Social Security and destroy Medicare are threatened by the less-than-artful Romney—Ryan as destroyer of social insurance may soon seem like far-away dreams in the land of Ayn Rand.

In Washington Paul Ryan Is Considered a Serious Thinker

The Philosophy Prince: How Paul Ryan
convinced Washington of his genius
- by Alec MacGillis

"Let me not be alone in the back of the crowd," wrote Richard W. Rahn, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's chief economist, on the Wall Street Journal editorial page, "as I tip my hat to my longtime colleagues on the economic barricades: Thank you, Mr. Gilder, Mr. Kemp, Me Laffer, Mr, Mundell, Mr. Roberts, Mr. Ture, Mr. Wanniski and all the others who helped invent this economic miracle."

One week later the country in the great crash of 1987 "'came within an hour' of the disintegration of the stock market," as noted by Felix Rohatyn, a partner of Lazard Freres and Company. (Johnson. Sleepwalking Through History, America in the Reagan Years; W.W. Norton Company, 1991. p. 381)

The massive deregulation advocated by the likes of Jude Wanniski and George Gilder led directly to the crash of 1987.

Another round of deregulation begun a decade later and accelerated by George W. Bush led to the crash of 2008 and the worst recession since the Great Depression.

Today, Congressman Paul Ryan (who has spent his entire adult career insulated in Washington) and Mitt Romney (a leverage buy-out artist) advocate still more deregulation.

They appear not to have learned anything from recent history and the last 90 years of macroeconomics, or at least nothing can pierce their extremist ideology.

Early in his career as a congressional aide, "[Paul Ryan] nagged Cesar Conda, now Marco Rubio’s chief of staff and a Ryan admirer, so often with questions about supply-side economics that Conda lent him two books to keep him busy—Jude Wanniski’s The Way the World Works and George Gilder’s Wealth and Poverty, both foundational tracts for trickle-down Reaganomics," reports Alec MacGillis in the current issue of The New Republic.

Ryan of course is the same creature of Washington who called for ending Social Security in a speech to fans of Ayn Rand, another rightwing whack the coddled Ryan champions and whom Ryan has said is "the reason I got involved in public service."

Ryan and Romney are "preaching the same empty conservative sermon" that has brought us disaster before and will again if we elect these two phonies, as noted by David A. Stockman, who was the director of the Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1985.   End Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, increase defense spending, attack Iran, lower taxes on the one percent and in the words of Richard W. Rahn, we can expect another "economic miracle."

This career Washington ideologue and leverage buy-out artist are the perfect front-men for today's GOP and Tea Party—deluded, dangerous and ahistorical.

The fact the Romney was caught on tape saying he doesn't care about working people is a lucky break.

As for Congressman Ryan, his insular background and hostility to social insurance will out to a wide audience as the campaign nears a 45-day sprint to election day as Congress maintains its 11 percent approval rating and the GOP ticket appears in free fall.

Even Scott Walker is running from it.

GOP Candidates Faced with Decision to Stand with Conniving Romney Exposed; What Will Paul Ryan Do?

Jump in, the water's fine, say Lyin Paul Ryan and Mitt

Update II: Keeping Romney at arm's length, Part III (TRMS)

Update: Republican Candidates Across Country Signal Concern on Mitt Romney Video Comments -
Republican and Tea Baggers the nation-over now face a political terrain on which the Romney-Ryan ticket is on record ridiculing Americans receiving veterans' benefits, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as less-than individuals who "should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

How about Paul Ryan? Does Romney include him? He has been subsidized by American tax payers since he was a young legislative aide right up to now?

Ought Ryan, in Romney's universe, reject public assistance?

Ryan's bio reveals a career as an aide to Senators Robert Kasten, Sam Brownback and Rep. Jack Kemp, and a political career financed by special interests.

So, how about it Ryan, will you give up your entitlements? How about just your health care?

One thing is certain. Mike Lofgren, who retired in 2011 after 28 years as a Republican Congressional staffer, sure got it right when he said Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues like the presidential nominee are after your Social Security and Medicare.

On a related matter, Zach at Blogging Blue reports:

There’s been no word (at least not that I’ve seen) from Mitt Romney’s campaign as to whether or not Mitt Romney considers the 7,000 millionaires who paid no income taxes in 2011 to be among the 47 percent of Americans that he feels he could never convince to take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

Romney Goes Ron Paulie-Bananas on Bernanke and the Fed

I am severely crazy, and I approve this message.

Look up Mitt Romney and desperate in Google and you won't require Nate Silver to discern the probability of the winner of the 2012 presidential election in November.

Romney's desperation is clear by his abandonment of Etch-a-Sketching toward the right-center, in favor of:

• a full-blown, racist-right move to his low-information base
• incoherent attacks on Obama's foreign policy, in the face of murderous violence
• moving forward with long-term GOP project of phasing out Social Security and Medicare
• and his bizarre embrace of Ron Paul and the John Birch Society's scorn of the Federal Reserve System

Notes Paul Krugman:

Last week Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, announced a change in his institution’s recession-fighting strategies. In so doing he seemed to be responding to the arguments of critics who have said the Fed can and should be doing more. And Republicans went wild. ...

So last week we learned that Ben Bernanke is willing to listen to sensible critics and change course. But we also learned that on economic policy, as on foreign policy, Mitt Romney has abandoned any pose of moderation and taken up residence in the right’s intellectual fever swamps.

Ed Kilgore terms Romney's serpentine "econo-manic campaign" (nearly identical to the campaigns of W. Bush, McCain and the other great deregulaters) as demonstrating a movement "so locked down on tactical day-to-day maneuvering that it’s lost sight of any coherent strategy or rationale-for-candidacy."

So now, Romney wants (and openly advocates) the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 declared as creating a mere inflation-fighting tool, no matter the legislative and administrative history of the law and the function of the Federal Reserve System.

Honest money

Who needs monetary policy? We need "honest money," as Paul Ryan phrases it, whatever that would be in GOP land.

As Brad DeLong puts it in his Paul Ryan calls for fewer jobs and higher unemployment in America: "'Honest money' is a Ron Paul dog whistle: the good productive workers, the bad exploitative usurers, the necessity of a hard-money depression to cleanse the monetary colon--you know the drill."

Continues Kilgore: "Long-time if somewhat muted (at least outside the Ron Paul campaign) Republican muttering about stimulative monetary policies broke out into the open in the Romney campaign’s reaction to the Fed’s QE3 announcement [last week]."

This is the same Fed that saved the country in the great crash of 1987 when we "'came within an hour' of the disintegration of the stock market," as noted by Felix Rohatyn, a partner of Lazard Freres and Company. (Johnson. Sleepwalking Through History, America in the Reagan Years; W.W. Norton Company, 1991. p. 381) [A reviewer of Haynes Johnson's book writes, "A readable critique of the fatuous illusions foisted on a willing society by American leadership in the 1980s." (Hyland. Foreign Affairs; Summer 1991)

Fatuous illusions indeed.

Haynes Johnson also notes, "In that moment of maximum peril (in 1987) the Federal Reserve Board in Washington stepped in forcefully and dramatically, [announcing its 'readiness to serve as a source of liquidity to support the economic and financial system.'"]

Damn stimulative forces! I say, let 'em crash.

Not the first time the Fed has saved the system, though 2008 has evidently fallen into the black hole where facts and history no longer exist.

And 1929? Pay no nevermind.

Those 18th, 19th and 20th century recessions. God and the Magical Market made sure nothing bad happened to good, Christian Americans; though 1987 was a bit scary—Satan, no doubt.

Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman; they're just part of those liberal elitists calling for our country not to commit economic suicide: Trying to control our lives, just like them liberals!

Probably went to college too. (See Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson. The New York Review of Books)

What a couple of snobs, Rick Santorum might say.

Political journalists seriously ought to ask of Romney: Are you totally deranged?

To which Romney might reply, 'Look, I need my base, folks. It's my only shot at this thing.'

Reagan Budget Director: Romney-Ryan Plan Is "Fairy Tale"

Today's Republican party doesn't look much like it did in Ronald Reagan's day

One thing about the Tea Party-Republican extremists holding elected office now-a-days is their compulsion to follow partisan marching orders, no matter how dangerous and extreme.

This dynamic is worrying to some past Republicans such as Reagan budget director, David Stockman (1981–1985), who blasted the current GOP ticket's fiscal plan, such as it is, in a New York Times op-ed.

The Times column—likely not widely read among the rural, white working class sought by Romney and Ryan—ought to at least stimulate some thought before voters consider casting their votes for this most radical and least rational-minded presidential ticket in modern American history.

Writes Henry Blodget at Tech Ticker:

Stockman calls the budget an "empty conservative sermon" and "fairy tale" and says it will "do nothing to reverse the nation's economic decline and arrest its fiscal collapse."

Stockman's main complaint about the Ryan budget, which reflects his broader frustration with today's Republican party, is that it preserves massive and, in his view, unnecessary spending on Defense and other programs while screwing people who actually need help by cutting food stamps, Medicaid, and other efforts that lessen the pain of poverty.

Stockman also rails against the new "Wall Street-coddling" bailout Republicans like Ryan, who stand by and let the Federal Reserve fix interest rates, encourage speculators, crush savors, encourage overconsumption, and punish thrift.

Specifically, Stockman observes, Ryan's "phony" budget plan:

• Maintains Defense spending that is nearly twice the $400 billion (adjusted for today's dollars) that General Eisenhower spent in the 1960s
•  Shreds the safety net provided by $100 billion in food stamps and $300 billion in Medicaid
• Does not cut one dime from Medicare or Social Security for another decade
• Includes no serious plan to create jobs
• Radically cuts taxes on the richest Americans while eliminating tax breaks that mostly help the middle class
• Fails to even consider a "value-added sales tax," which is the only way the country can begin to climb out of its budget hole

In short, Stockman says, Ryan's plan is "devoid of credible math or hard policy choices." Harsh words coming from a fellow Republican. But, then, today's Republican party doesn't look much like it did in Stockman and Reagan's day.

Paul Ryan's Insider Trader Scandal May Blow Back onto Romney

Paul Ryan cashes in for $1,000s

This story is not just about Paul Ryan, Washington creature and pampered scion, caught downing two $350 bottles of wine with a hedge fund manager at a D.C restaurant.

This is a venal insider trading story that has the legs and potential to dominate the all-important news cycle for weeks moving past Labor Day.

"Over the weekend, the Richmonder blog broke what looked like a whopper of a story: that Republican vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan had lined his pockets from information he had obtained from a now-legendary meeting that took place on September 18, 2008," writes Lynn Parramore.

Parramore notes media avoidance of Ryan's many political problems thus far, as Paul Krugman notes this morning, likely won't persist.

Certainly this insider trading story is moving forward, no matter that some are buying the Romney campaign's knock down that Ryan's trades "were part of a Russell 1000 index fund that automatically traded stocks as part of a pre-set formula," as Benjy Sarlin asserts.

Brad DeLong, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, scoffs at Sarlin's explanation.

Writes DeLong:

There is no way in hell--if you are rebalancing to try to track the Russell 1000 index--you make only 58 trades in a year, that you make 27 of those 58 in large money-center banks, and that 10 of those trades involve shifting your money from Citi to Goldman and back five times.

No way in hell.

I don't know what was going on. But it appears that Ryan's flacks are--for some reason--simply making s@#& up.

Romney and Ryan lying? No.
---
By Lynn Parramore

On [September 18, 2008], Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson broke the news to congressional leaders that they would have to approve a bailout to avert a complete meltdown of the financial system.

America was lurching toward catastrophe. But some folks were apparently thinking about their stock portfolios. Checking through Ryan’s financial disclosure reports, the Richmonder discovered that Ryan had sold the stocks of several major banks that day, while purchasing – surprise! – stock in Paulson’s old firm Goldman.

Check out the rest of Parramore's piece, because no way this story gets buried.