Yes, Mittens, Government Can And Does Create Jobs

By Manifesto Joe

Mitt Scumney lost Tuesday night's encounter with President Obama on points, and Obama showed more fire than he did in their lackluster first debate. Scumney, though, seemed prepared for a more spirited show from Obama and didn't do badly, on the whole. But one "point" he emphasized stuck in my mind because of how dead wrong he is on it.

"Government doesn't create jobs," Scumney said repeatedly, with passion and emphasis.

Scumney didn't live through World War II, nor did I. But if that war effort wasn't powerful, compelling proof that government can and does create jobs, there couldn't be anything more to demonstrate that. Suggesting otherwise has become part of the mindless nonhistory of contemporary America.

A mantra of Republicans in my younger days was that "The New Deal didn't get us out of the Depression; World War II did."

Yes, exactly. And here's why.

The New Deal was a bid to mobilize the U.S. against the Great Depression, but it was often blocked, with a reactionary Supreme Court striking down two of its centerpiece programs, the NRA in 1935 and the first AAA in 1936. Southern Democrats often sided with the Republican minority against the more far-reaching measures, and a double-dip in the business downturn followed FDR's moves toward austerity during 1937-38.

It wasn't until Dec. 7, 1941, when U.S. military forces suffered a direct and devastating attack, that the national government finally got a free hand. Defense industries flourished as direct recipients of government contracts. The Detroit auto industry was literally commandeered for national defense. No new civilian automobiles were built for four years, and the assembly lines became the source of tanks, Jeeps, and other military vehicles. Commodities such as meat and sugar were rationed.

And soon, the U.S. had full employment, with a jobless rate of about 3% in comparison to nearly 25% during the 1932-33 depths of the Depression.

It's a valid point that government isn't a long-term solution to joblessness. The Soviet Union and its imitators were proof of that. But World War II was vivid proof that it can work in the short term as a way of jolting an economy back into motion. The Obama stimulus plan didn't profoundly affect the American workforce, mainly because a stubborn right wing would never have let it go far enough.

Obama can't afford to contest that point too much, because the job-creation myth has become one of economics' sacred cows. He responded to Romney with his own soliloquy about the so-called free enterprise system. Since he's already being labeled a "socialist" by ignorant right-wingers who don't know what that word means, he's got to play it cool.

And the consensus was that he won Debate No. 2. Too bad he's still having to play the game according to "rules" that history belies.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

America The Stupid, Part 4

63% of Americans think Mitt Romney's business background would make him more able to manage the economy.

By Manifesto Joe

Yep, that's according to a recent poll conducted by USA Today/Gallup. Here's a link to the story.

That's in spite of Bain Capital's reputation as a predatory, job-destroying, job-exporting entity, and all the attendant publicity thereof.

And that's in spite of the fact that, according to another poll, 44% of Americans think that Slick Willard isn't releasing his tax returns because there's something damaging there that he wants to hide.

That poll was taken just a few days earlier, by the same organization. Here's a link to that story.

What this means is that a significant number of Americans think that although Romney did something on his taxes that would be politically very damaging, their eyes still glaze over when somebody shows them a rich MF who was the CEO of a big corporation.

Must be smarter than I is, they thinks.

Well, sadly, I fear that this may be so. But just barely.

"Mitt the Twit" Scumney just got through making a ludicrous fool of himself at the Summer Olympic Games in London, so we're pretty sure he's no diplomat. And managing a sleazy enterprise like Bain Capital doesn't make him any economic wizard, either.

A sad feature of the American "mentality" is the equation of intelligence with wealth. "If you's so smart, why ain't you rich?" is an old quotation that sticks in my mind. I have no doubt about the nationality of its origin.

And charlatans have parted many an American from his or her money along the way. One of the most visible nowadays is the contemptible Robert Kiyosaki, "author" of a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad.

This pompous ass apparently did well being a parasite in the real estate market, and is now separating people from their money with classes telling how they, too, can do this.

His biological father was a highly educated man who became superintendent of the Hawaii State Department of Education, but was "poor." In contrast, his alleged mentor (some critics question whether such a person ever existed) was a high school dropout with lesser income who put his money into passive-income investments, such as real estate, and became the "richest" man in Hawaii.

Sounds to me like Kiyosaki's biological father was a stalwart person who actually devoted his life to doing something for the betterment of society as a whole. His "mentor," if such a person does exist, was a parasite who amassed a fortune being some kind of slumlord.

Now back to Slick Willard Scumney. He's spent all summer on the defensive, and I suspect that more gaffes and missteps are on the way.

But in a society stupid enough to fork this much cash over to a mountebank like Robert Kiyosaki, one worries that Scumney might be able to pull in more than, say, 49% of the electorate. The rest of us must fight to ensure that he does not.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

With Slick Willard, Republicans Are About To Nominate Thurston Howell The Third For President

By Manifesto Joe

I confess to being a little stunned when I read what Slick Willard Romney's advice was for young Americans struggling with the job market: Take risks, and don't be shy about borrowing money from your parents.

Um, it's a great big world out there, Willard, and not everybody has a trust fund. What if your parents are dead, or what if they are actually worse off than you are?

The slick one's example was Jimmy John of the renowned sandwich chain, who he said borrowed $20,000 from his parents and started a swell new business that's now a multimillion-dollar enterprise. Like wow, Willard! If my parents had ever had $20,000 to lend me, I could have gone to an Ivy League school and become part of the elite, too! Forget about the entrepreneurship, let's go with what's tried and tested and proven. One of those Harvard or Yale degrees can get you a pretty far piece, from what I've seen.

Another example, one that Slick Willard's wife was supposed to have brought up in an old interview, was that Slick sold some stocks that Daddsy bought for him so that he and wifey could live while they were college students.

Man, too bad I couldn't have sold my stock and traded it in for a meal ticket at the college cafeteria! But, man does not live by Frito pie alone.

To turn more serious, what keeps coming up here is Slick Willard's total disengagement from how the vast majority of people, even reasonably affluent Americans, have to live. From what I've read, Daddsy George had his ups and downs as a youth, and had to do a bit of his share of ass-busting to get ahead in life. But it doesn't appear that he communicated any of this to Sonny Mitt.

I'm not completely confident about this situation, because the American people were stupid enough to "elect" Il Doofus, and his daddy, too. But Romney seems to have a total disconnect with life as it has to be lived by us commoners. The Republicans will nominate him at their own peril.

Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.

Geekus Doesn't Get Why Dogs Have Become A Big Campaign Issue

By G.M.

Dudes and dude-ettes, don't get me wrong. It's not like I don't love dogs. I have one for breakfast every day! (Just kidding, PETA fanatics!)

But like, now, all of a sudden, dogs are a big deal in this presidential campaign. Mitt Romney apparently strapped one in on the roof of his car when he was on vacation, then freaked out when brown seep started coming down on his windshield. Like, you couldn't have figured on that happening, after 14 hours?

And then, the Republicans found something in Obama's book about his younger life in which he says he ate stuff like dog and grasshoppers and such, at the urging of his Indonesian stepdad. Dog was sort of tough, and he reported that the grasshoppers are a little crunchy.

Please, please, people, get a life. An 8-year-old kid is going to eat anything that Daddy puts in front of him. As for Mitt Romney, that didn't sound too good, but a common thing among rednecks (yes, they have them in the North, too) is that they don't regard animals as similar to people in any way. You know, like, they're just these idiot things with absolutely no feelings. But, it's not like Mitt would be the first presidential hopeful who ever had that attitude about stuff. There must have been plenty of others. How else could you get elected? -- GM