While a Mitt Romney Presidency would be absolutely disastrous for the nation, it would be four years of comedy gold and easy fodder for bloggers. Here’s Mitt Romney, at his campaign rally relief event (has there ever been a more transparently phony man in politics?) in the eye of the storm in Dayton, Ohio:
Romney stood on a chair and spoke for less than five minutes. As throngs of supporters, reporters and TV cameras surrounded him, Romney made note of the items on the tables behind him.
“We’re going to box these things up in just a minute and put them on some trucks, and then we’re going to send them into, I think it’s New Jersey. There’s a site we’ve identified where we can take these goods and distribute them to people who need them,” he said.
Wow. They’ve “identified” New Jersey as a target for relief. I wonder how his crack squad of campaign flunkies managed to “identify” New Jersey?
Are these guys on the ball, or what?
Oh, and then there is this:
In other words, the last god damned thing New Jersey needs is your campaign lackeys pulling up in a couple rented U-Hauls full of creamed corn, Nilla Wafers, Marshmellow fluff, and whatever else is jam packed into those mobile diabetes starter kits that your Medicare scooter riding Ohio crowd of blue-haired wingnuts found in their cupboard and dumped off today. They need money, and you’ve got some of that, don’t you?
Regnad Kcin
but but but Fluff is delicious…
Raven
And McCain took the opportunity to slam Obama on Libya at this event.
Baud
God, I hope someone follows up on this. Why do I have a feeling a bunch of canned goods are going to wash up on the Jersey shore in a couple of weeks?
chopper
mitt: wait, there’s a new jersey?
Linda Featheringill
I haven’t seen how much they collected in the way of food but I sincerely doubt that it’s a truck load. It’s such a lot of noise for so little in the way of actually helping people.
Todd
Stale saltines that are two years old, rusted tins of sardines, cans with torn off or mildewed labels, shredded old mattresses.
Conservative Christian “charity” delivered with a sappy grin, a bible and great pride in their personal superiority.
Gordon, the Big Express Engine
Relief events are people my friend!
Cargo
Let’s see here. Cloves… Tom Collins mix… Liquid Smoke..
Baud
@Raven:
You have to cut him some slack. This was, after all, an event to help the victims of Sandy. McCain’s thoughts on Libya were apropos.
arguingwithsignposts
I understand Mitt’s church has a ready army of young men in white shirts who could help distribute these goods. They don’t even need cars to do so!
ploeg
Something passing odd about sending Campbell’s Soup to New Jersey….
dmsilev
@Raven: McCain is just a little slow off the mark, that’s all. By Thursday or so, he’ll have figured out that Libya is no longer the approved attack message of the day and will start to pivot to hurricane-related attacks. Expect him to start talking about GOTV as soon as November 10th.
noabsolutes
Shame on Mitt! Doesn’t he know New Jersey is Iran’s route to the sea?!
Xecky Gilchrist
I wonder how his crack squad of campaign flunkies managed to “identify” New Jersey?
Be fair, they probably can’t find the U.S. on a globe, and certainly not things like Iraq. They should get a cookie for figuring out about New Jersey.
Scotty
Nothing says good financial discipline like burning a few hundred bucks on gas to deliver something that isn’t being asked for.
arguingwithsignposts
I think New Jersey is Libya’s route to the sea.
Some Guy
Sweet Jesus this man cannot win. He is the lyingest liar in the history of liars. Everything about him is fraudulent but his cash. He is more phony than Ralph Reed’s spirituality. He is more phony than Karl Rove’s patriotism. He is more phony than Donald Trump’s hair. If only he had yawned while feigning concern.
barath
@Scotty:
Win.
JenJen
Oh, and then there’s Paul Ryan’s even more sucktastic phony photo op today in Wisconsin:
Ryan ‘Packs’ Hurricane Relief Donations During Wisconsin Photo-Op: Buzzfeed
Homer Simpson
Ummmmm…. Cloves… Uhhggggrrrrrrhhhhh….
dmsilev
For shame, John. Don’t you realize how precious his money is to Mitt Romney? Besides, he’s probably worried that he would need to pay some sort of entrance tariff if he brings his spare change back on shore.
dr. bloor
@Baud: @Baud:
More likely, I’d say.
Nylund
How hard is this for him to eff up? Donate some money. Heck, I’ll even forgive him if he does it just for the tax write off.
But he won’t donate money because that might remind voters he’s stinkin’ rich and if it comes down to helping out after a disaster, or winning the presidency, he’ll choose the latter every time.
Raven
@dmsilev: My birthday!
Odie Hugh Manatee
Anyone with a lick of sense knows that Sandy is a liberal conspiracy to assist Obama and his campaign. How can I prove this? Because Sandy took a sharp turn to the left, came on shore and made Obama look Presidential just when he needed it!
If Sandy was there to help Republicans then she would have stayed on a rightward course.
rickstershierpa
On Peter Dorman’s Econospeak, he references a commentator on his blog who noticed that the faux alternative GM/Chrysler bailout Mittster and Portman and surrogates are flogging was a true Bain/crony capitalist proposal.
“…Its actually slightly worse than you (Dorman) say. Towards the end of the op-ed, Governor Romney almost in passing proposes government loan guarantees. That is, it would have been a pure privatized- gain, socialized-loss transaction. A Bain type entity would have bought the company with very little equity. A huge new government guaranteed debt would have been undertaken for the company. The old debt would be subordinated to the new debt through the bankruptcy process. The new debt would be very low interest rate, since it would be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. So, to this extent, the idea that no funding would have been available for the company is, strictly speaking, false. The Bain type entity would have set about repudiating pension obligations and otherwise cutting costs. If it works, the new owners who bought the company with very little of their own money at risk get very rich. If it fails, well, hey, there are the government loan guarantees. Note that there is absolutely no upside for the taxpayer guaranteeing the new debt. The gains are strictly for the job-creating superhero private equity guys.” Its actually slightly worse than you say. Towards the end of the op-ed, Governor Romney almost in passing proposes government loan guarantees. That is, it would have been a pure privatized- gain, socialized-loss transaction. A Bain type entity would have bought the company with very little equity. A huge new government guaranteed debt would have been undertaken for the company. The old debt would be subordinated to the new debt through the bankruptcy process. The new debt would be very low interest rate, since it would be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. So, to this extent, the idea that no funding would have been available for the company is, strictly speaking, false. The Bain type entity would have set about repudiating pension obligations and otherwise cutting costs. If it works, the new owners who bought the company with very little of their own money at risk get very rich. If it fails, well, hey, there are the government loan guarantees. Note that there is absolutely no upside for the taxpayer guaranteeing the new debt. The gains are strictly for the job-creating superhero private equity guys.
http://econospeak.blogspot.com/2012/10/romneys-lemon-socialism-for-detroit.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+espeak+%28EconoSpeak%29
Romney is an epitome of the society that Kurt Vonnegut describes in “God Bless you Mr. Rosewater:”
“Thus did a handful of rapacious citizens come to control all that was worth controlling in America. Thus was the savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system created. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. And they saw that praise was reserved henceforth for those who devised means of getting paid enormously for committing crimes against which no laws had been passed. Thus the American dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
dmsilev
@JenJen:
Derelict
@Scotty: Nothing says good financial discipline like burning a few hundred bucks on gas to deliver something that isn’t being asked for.
How about spending a few hundred billion on weapons that are not being asked for?
scav
Next, he’ll organize a bake sale for filling in gaps in Ryans budget. Stuff from 7-11 welcome.
Shit, I remember writing something similar for W. NOT AGAIN!
Elizabelle
From the link about Romney’s canned goods event:
Roger Moore
Nope, Mitt doesn’t have a penny to his name. It’s all in a blind trust or an IRA or some complex financial instrument that requires 2 PhDs in economics to understand. It’s not in a form that the Red Cross can actually use. And don’t even think about asking Romneytron2000 for blood.
Maude
On a serious note about this. How offensive.
Did Christie speak about Romney after this event?
Could we send the canned goods back C.O.D.?
someguy
Private charity is a crackpot gimmick. The government’s got New Jersey covered. No thanks to program-slashing Chris Christie.
JenJen
@dmsilev: True that. Maybe I’m a little too tough on Lyin’ Ryan? Naaaaaaaaw.
Comrade Mary
Apparently the first set of supplies were to go to — you guessed it — swing states in the East. At some point during the day, a Red Cross office in NJ was quoted as being ready to accept the supplies, while reiterating that they really need money and blood donations instead.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
Really? “these things”, “some trucks” “..into, I think it’s New Jersey.” He thinks? He doesn’t know? He’s guessing?
Sweet mother of FSM, this has gotta be one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. The man has no head at all for specifics, for concrete action. His language gives him away.
Arclite
Yeah, actually the way for Mitt to stay in the news while the Prez rides his bully pulpit to re-election simply by doing his job well (and getting the New Jersey Jabba to shill for him), is to make a huge donation to the Red Cross, like $1m or something. Fox would play it off as:
Mitt gave $1m to the Sandy relief effort, and the Prez gave nothing. Why does the Prez hate America?
I’m surprised they haven’t thought of this.
Calming Influence
It will be a two-pronged assault. Ryan and his team will storm a soup kitchen and unload the trucks, and begin heating the marshmallow fluff and creamed corn in huge pots. Romney’s crew will then use the now-empty U-Hauls to round up The Needy® and herd them into the soup kitchen. Extra camera crews and equipment will be poached from live Weather Channel remotes to document this miracle of free market disaster relief.
Robin G.
When is WordPress going to start allowing animated GIFs in the comment threads? Because I’ve got a few that properly convey my opinion of this crap.
Alison
I HATE THIS SHIT. Every damn time there’s a disaster, the Red Cross and all the other groups all say DON’T GIVE US CANS OF FOOD FFS. And yet assholes like Romney do this anyway. It’s not just that it’s not the best thing to do, it’s specifically like the worst thing to do. WTF are they supposed to do with all of it? People can’t get anywhere, how are they supposed to make their way to some smelly gymnasium to pick up cans of soup? And how are they supposed to cook with no power? UGH.
What he should have done was set up some special donation thingie where the money would go to the RC and he’d match all donations made for the next few days or whatever. You can afford it, you rich fuck.
Baud
I wonder what Romney’s commission will be.
The Bobs
Not so much,the 1%(actual member of the Forbes 400)took my money, or at least took the value of my work which was worth on the order of $10^7 to him, but I got bupkus.
Still gave money though John.
Warren Terra
Mitt is doubtlessly familiar with Jersey, a channel island affiliated with the UK famous as a tax haven and for apparently having been quite comfortable with Nazi occupation in WWII. It’s easy to see why he’d need help locating New Jersey.
PS I donated to the Red Cross, who I think will do much more good than will a vanload of marshmallow fluff.
ETA: here is the Red Cross link, which really ought to be connected to the “Donate To The Red Cross” graphic in the main post.
lacp
Maybe he’ll offer the Red Cross a charitable remainder trust.
PreservedKillick
New Jersey. I think.
That says it all.
Bort
Day two without power. We’ve been burning wads of Romney/Ryan t-shirts in the fireplace and choking down expired cans of Cream of Mushroom soup and Lima beans….
Maude
@Alison:
They have to check the dates on all those cans.
Why is the Red Cross accepting them? That’s nuts.
NASA rover finds Mars soil like that of Hawaii.
lacp
@efgoldman: No, it’s his Florida volunteers who are packing those.
dead existentialist
And 1,000 telephones that do not ring.
Take ’em all out to Highway 61.
Elisabeth
@Raven:
While Mrs. McCain tweeted about how lovely San Diego weather is right now.
Linda Featheringill
I gather that New Jersey sustained the most property damage but NYC might actually have more people problems. I believe folks living on Manhattan are VERY dependent on the City working in a predictable way. And if it’s not working, they may suffer.
Raven
@Elisabeth: swell
Disco
So many visions of C Montgomery Burns come to mind. At least he was funny.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@dead existentialist: Do you know where I can get rid of these things?
Good ear, I caught a whisper of Highway 61 in his statement but didn’t stop to listen closer to it.
Calming Influence
@efgoldman: And who will speak of the plight of the shredded old manatees?!?
beltane
This is how Republicans do disaster relief. When they see people drowning they throw old cans of lima beans to them and tell them to swim to shore.
Bush’s response to Katrina was no fluke, that’s just how Republicans roll. I did see that some multi-million dollar waterfront homes in Old Greenwich were destroyed. If Romney has any compassion in him he’ll be feeling it for those people unless being a disaster victim marks you as an automatic moocher in his mind.
Words can’t describe the disgust I feel for this creature right now.
dmsilev
@Elisabeth: First Cindy McCain and now Ann Romney. Were they soulless harpies before they married their respective husbands, or was it the sociopathy that drew John and Mitt to them?
MoeLarryAndJesus
When Repiglicans are alone with themselves and feeling frisky, I wonder how they pronounce that phrase.
Joel
Good news: NBA is back.
Bad news: Heat look unbeatable.
Keith G
@Some Guy:
And yet he is dangerously, and pathetically, close to being my next president. I hope someday to understand just how it came to this.
edit…But please, I do not think it is a good thing to mock the folks of Ohio who are contributing. You may do it differently, but they are doing something.
beltane
@Linda Featheringill: People are walking two miles to charge their phones so they can communicate with the outside world. Power, cable, and internet are down and will probably be down for a long time. At least the buses are working now.
pseudonymous in nc
But they can weld those cans of year-old creamed corn into new levees, surely? As I said elsethread, these are the people who think that you can pay for cancer treatment with a tray of Debbie Crocker muffins.
@Keith G:
Because America has always been a land of opportunity for bullshit artists, con tricksters, grifters, snake-oil peddlers and shysters.
Baud
@Keith G:
ODS
Spatula
Cole trolling his Bots for cheap thrills.
The probability that a Romney administration would be a disaster for the country but likely a boon to center/right blogs like Balloon Juice does have me wondering who John is REALLY pulling for…
…after all, rather than GOTV like Dennis G’s self righteous ass, he’s been holed up in a den of iniquity with some shameless hussy for days now doing nothing to ensure the re election of PBO.
Priorities?
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
If they ever remake Buckaroo Banzai, I want them to cast Mitt Romney as President.
Spatula
@Keith G:
Surely you have not forgotten, that just 12 years ago, this moronic country allowed GWB to seize power for the first time. And then four years later did it again.
The U.S. is neck deep in maroons. This surprises you?
mo
Ugh. My dad is on the board of a homeless shelter. When a church flakes out on cooking dinner, (not to name names but *cough* Baptist *cough* and not that your Baptist church is at all a loser one) I will end up having to go in and put a meal together out of donated cans and frozen food. Let’s have Mitt (or Ann if she’s willing) pull that off. It’s not easy.
Schlemizel
I used to do a little volunteer work for the local food shelf. For 5-6 years every Monday the kids and I would sort through the food donations that came in from the local churches. It didn’t take long to realize there were obvious differences in the quality and quantity of donations between the churches. The wealthier the congregation the worse the donations. It got to be a game where I would hide the name & the kids would guess the church. They were right about 7 out of 10 times & the other 3 times they simply were off by one.
The rich suburban evangelical one was 80& Krap Mac-n-Cheez with occasional rice-a-roni or boxed rice & beans. The rich Catholic church was lighter on MnC but heavy on off brand peanut butter and boxed cake mixes. They would also have the occasional really bad can of long past expired crud. One can of refried beans was bulging out the ends so badly I was afraid it was going to explode & injure one of my kids.
The poor, mostly immigrant Catholic church was much more generous, often having much more expensive even brand named food in their donation.
I never understood why people with money treat people without so badly. Its universal here in the US, the more you make the less you are likely to donate
some guy
older brother just emailed pixs of his beach house. Sandy lifted his Suburban (parked behind house in driveway) and sent it and a few tons of sand across the street. the beach is gone, his first floor was 100%flooded and sand everywhere. most of first floor front is gone.
yeah, hurricane freaking central. sucks, he just had it built 2 years ago.
Elmo
Don’t be silly, giving money to the Red Cross is just wasteful. Private charity is much more effic-
Oh, wait.
Violet
@Scotty:
Mitt also wants to build submarines the navy didn’t ask for. He’s big on spending money on things people don’t want.
Cacti
Nate Silver doing his best to flog the horse race:
On the Rasmussen poll showing Romney +2 in Ohio, the first poll showing Romney in the lead since…an October 15 Rasmussen poll:
Sigh.
General Stuck
The Romneybots are emitting the signature stank of desperation, so manifested in the state of Ohio with the auto industry lies unbound. If the swing state polls weren’t baked in before Sandy, they will be well done now. There is the very strange reality that really started with Bush’s second term, of an almost ossification in our elections and polling since then. With very little movement across the board, with a few exceptions like after the first debate. Which I think demonstrated the need for some GOP voters to see Romney get through that and seem presidential, and to close the door on his hideous behavior in the GOP Primary.
I don’t think Obama’s performance would have been much different if he had done as well as he did in debates 2 and 3. The good news is the final settling is leaving Obama still up a solid two or three points.
We are becoming a very ideological hardened country spinning toward a catastrophe or an awakening. Or, first the one, then the other. Independents have shifted to Romney, but dems are picking up more minorities with their increasing numbers.
pseudonymous in nc
@Spatula: don’t take the brown acid. Oh, too late.
Calming Influence
@Spatula:
Well, I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t sung Kumbaya or put a daisy in the barrel of a National Guard rifle as often as I should, but seriously?
Tractarian
Mitt’s coffin was sealed today.
The optics of Mitt smarmily packing up cans of creamed corn in the face of a national crisis… at a thinly-veiled campaign rally posing as disaster relief… while ignoring reporters barking questions about whether he’d eliminate FEMA… all just devastating.
Meanwhile, you have Christie the reasonable Republican praising the commander-in-chief and Brownie turning up to remind everyone of what happened during the last superstorm, when the GOP was in charge….
A perfect storm, indeed.
RSA
@ploeg:
Good one. Coals to Newcastle.
Elizabelle
Jon Karl tweet from Romney event. I am ashamed for these two white women.
They think they are clever.
Fax Paladin
@Maude:
Because even though it’s a hassle to accept them, it’d be far more of a hassle to deal with the RW backlash for not accepting them — even if they are mostly useless. Right now they’ve got other things to do.
Chris T.
If Romney is worth $250 million as speculated, he could donate $250,000 and it would be just 0.1% of his money. That’s roughly equivalent to the mythical average family (worth about $80k) donating $80.
catclub
@Schlemizel: “Its universal here in the US, the more you make the less you are likely to donate”
The people who stick to money best are least likely to become un-sticky. Why is that so surprising?
PeakVT
Against my better instincts, here’s some campaign advice for Mitt: write a check for $10,000,000 to somebody east of the Delaware. Any charity will do. Your kids will never miss the money, and it might just win you a state or two.
He’s the worst presidential candidate ever.
beltane
@Schlemizel: Poor people can easily envision themselves eating that food so they donate accordingly. Rich people assume the poor are like pigs who are lucky to eat whatever slop you throw their way.
My kids’ elementary school does a food drive every November and my children put a surprising amount of thought into what they donate, looking for items that are nutritious, appealing and easy to prepare.
Another Halocene Human
@Robin G.: When is WordPress going to start allowing animated GIFs in the comment threads? Because I’ve got a few that properly convey my opinion of this crap.
Animated GIFs?
By golly, for once I must Thank You WordPress. Hallelujah!
hells littlest angel
Thanks to Romney, the people of New Jersey will have the pumpkin pie filling they’ll so desperately need for Thanksgiving dinner.
Bill Arnold
@beltane:
I’ve had an inverter of some sort plugged into the cigarette lighter for at least a decade. There are also adapters and inverters available with USB power ports (sometimes sold at drug stores). The little ones will do 80 watts or so, the larger ones 200-300 (but they have a cooling fan).
I’m kicking myself for not making sure my father has one. His cell phone battery was running out after a day without power, and roads to his house were blocked with trees and power lines. (Northern Westchester north of NYC.)
pseudonymous in nc
@Cacti:
Not exactly. Next graf:
Today’s polls were both O48-R45, which is bang on the 538 polling average.
Keith G
@Spatula: Eh, sometimes it seems you may type a tad more than you reason.
Having watched Texas politics from the front row, by ’98 I was rather certain that W would make it to DC. His rise was certainly not incomprehensible. And Gore was….well he was Gore.
As for the hussy part of you commentary….crude and unnecessarily personal. What kind of guy, or being are you? That is a chicken-shit way to go about pretending to be an adult.
Gwangung
@Chris T.:
Actually, all he needs to do is to get six or seven friends to kick in $500k each, and that’d make a real dent in the problem.
Oh. Wait. I think I see the problem…
LD50
@Spatula:
Let me guess: you have your own blog that no one visits.
Schlemizel
@Calming Influence:
In the kitchen tools defense BJ really is only left by todays warped standards. I’m a raging commie compared to what I find here mostly.
The difference between the tool & me is that I have come to understand that the country will never move as far left as I want it to in my lifetime, that I understand the people here are good people who really want to do whats right, care about the country and its citizens and are doing the best we can given the world in which we live.
Complaining about BJ not being left enough is as removed from the reality of the real world we live in as anything the teatards believe.
dead existentialist
@Elizabelle: That’s a pair of natural disasters, that is.
Spatula
@Keith G:
Oh fuck off and take your fake propriety with you.
It was written in jest. I kid the Cole and his ladyfriend. If I was a BJ Kool Kid you’d be chuckling along.
Keith G
@Cacti: Maybe he is just reporting what he feels is accurate.
But anyway, its likely time to unplug from the polls. I think there is a lot of noise that make firm conclusions very iffy.
Schlemizel
@Schlemizel:
I still think the kitchen tool is a GOP plant who hopes to sew discord and despair on the left. Nothing else explains the behavior it displays
Elizabelle
@General Stuck:
Independents have shifted to Romney?
Assume we’re talking white people who were ashamed to identify as Republicans after W ruined the brand? Or low information types who think 2-4 years was plenty of time for Magic Obama to clean up the mess left for him?
Did you all look at the photos of the Romney canned goods event, and Ryan’s “Slow down and pack goods” event.
All white people.
It’s appalling.
Keith G
@Spatula: Sorry I misread you. I am glad you aren’t the ass you have been claimed to be.
General Stuck
@Elizabelle:
I was specifically talking about people who identify themselves as independent voters to pollsters when asked. I don’t think most of them are that independent, especially if they are white in this election.
Romney has upped his numbers with these people, for the purpose of understanding polls, but obviously, Obama has upped his numbers somewhere else, as well. Hispanics and other minorities, I would guess.
kay
It would be so perfect if the soup came on a truck from New Jersey and they’re sending it back there.
Hold onto it for us and send it back to Ohio when we need it, okay?
Baud
@kay:
Canned soup – it is to disasters what fruitcakes are to Christmas.
Another Halocene Human
@Spatula: …after all, rather than GOTV like Dennis G’s self righteous ass, he’s been holed up in a den of iniquity with some shameless hussy for days now doing nothing to ensure the re election of PBO.
Gasp! Just think, right now, Cole is very possibly sharing a roof with a woman. And he might be contemplating very icky opposite ickiness with their ickily opposite wiggly bits. Ugh, I think I just vomited in my mouth a little.
It’s enough to make a dog-fearing, right-thinking gay like you or me cry dans la bière, si tu me sentis.
Warren Terra
@Chris T.:
Heck, I just donated about 0.1% of my annual income to the Red Cross, which wasn’t saying a very great deal. That would be about $20,000 from him, or the equivalent of two joke bets.
Ruviana
@Schlemizel: And science backs it up too:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-44441416/studies-rich-people-are-meaner-stingier-and-less-trusting/
(still haven’t figured out that linky thing)
ding dong
@Linda Featheringill:we are going to see if we can do without wall street.
Jay in Oregon
@PeakVT:
Better yet, tell your supporters that you will match every dollar that they collect and donate to the Red Cross between now and Nov. 7, up to that maximum.
His followers and volunteers would be motivated, acting as a last-minute informal GOTV strategy both for them and the people they’d be canvassing.
Plus, you’d have the Villagers jizzing in their pants.
Anoniminous
As an Emergency Logistic Manager I HATE these kinds of things.
First, the stuff is either useless or crap.
Second, it is a major waste of resources to unpack, inventory, and stock.
Third, it sits there in my warehouse or cluttering up my distribution channel(s,) taking up space I could be using for useful stuff, because nobody wants it so they don’t order it. Example, if a food service center is feeding 250 people three squares a day eight twelve ounce cans of Pork-N-Beans doesn’t cut it.
Ripley
Because it’s New Jersey?
Smiling Mortician
@Anoniminous: eight twelve ounce cans of Pork-N-Beans doesn’t cut it
Pretty sure there’s a really juvenile joke in there somewhere.
Forum Transmitted Disease
@LD50: Worse than that. He’s got a website flogging some of the most pedestrian art you’ve ever seen in your life. County-fair caliber portrait/caricatures. Cole bought one, front paged it. I thought I was going to puke from laughing so hard.
The Golux
@rickstershierpa: Wow, Vonnegut was prescient.
Genine
@rickstershierpa:
Good find and nice quote!
John Cole
@Forum Transmitted Disease: Actually, it’s very nice, everyone who has seen it has loved it, and you are just wrong. If you can do better, show me a mock up and maybe I will buy one.
PurpleGirl
@beltane: …being a disaster victim marks you as an automatic moocher…
Oh, absolutely. The who lost their homes in Breezy Point may not be able to rebuild even if they had FEDERAL flood insurance but you just know that the owners of those old mansions have FEDERAL flood insurance. (Because the private insurance sector can’t be bothered to underwrite it.)
PurpleGirl
@dmsilev: Cindy McCain is the one who had the money in that pairing. Her father had a very successful beer distributorship and left it to her.
SFAW
@John Cole:
John –
When did you post it? I realize my memory has gotten suckier as time goes by, but I don’t remember seeing it, figured I’d go back through the archives, take a look, etc.
LD50
@Forum Transmitted Disease: I am very sorry I missed that. Did that incident make his narcissism more or less severe? And is there a link?
charles pierce
Don’t be knockin’ the Fluff, Cole.
Them’s fightin’ words in my house.
Calming Influence
@Forum Transmitted Disease:
This is stale, and below even the questionable standards of this center/right blog. You should apologize. Seriously.
dude
Wow…what a dark place you folks live in.
halfcynic
@ploeg: Coals to Newcastle! I’m surprised they haven’t yet tried to send actual coal. It’s getting close to Christmas, after all.
halfcynic
@dude: Especially the ones currently without power, on account of enormous storm and say, Mitt Romney could just whip out his checkbook; I imagine he has a few dollars to spare.
halfcynic
@dude: Especially the ones currently without power, on account of enormous storm and say, Mitt Romney could just whip out his checkbook; I imagine he has a few dollars to spare.
halfcynic
@Jay in Oregon: That doesn’t occur to them. Even the part about how it would at least make them look good to the MSM and by extension the voters, much more so than this silly bollocks. That;s why I have at least some props for Christie even if he’s being completely cynical (and I don’t think it’s all of it, he was too pissed off sounding): if you’re going to do shit just to make yourself look good, at least have the brains and, I don’t know, work ethic? do make a decent job of it ffs.
halfcynic
@General Stuck: Tangentially: has anyone polled Asian Americans as a separate demographic? I haven’t seen any information anywhere in this election, at least.
sharl
@LD50: Go to this post, and scroll about half way down in the OP. Spatula has linked to it directly himself (e.g.), usually (AFAICT) in those posts where artistically inclined commenters are invited to link to their own work.
Joy
OMG! This is priceless: “mobile diabetes starter kits that your Medicare scooter riding Ohio crowd of blue-haired wingnuts found in their cupboard and dumped off today.”
LD50
@sharl: DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD
Ivy vann
As a person who cooks a community supper for 75 to 100 people every week I can tell you random food is the last thing we need. I spend a remarkable amount of time explaining to people that “no, I can’t really use your half-eaten thanksgiving turkey. Or that tray of a dozen fluorescently iced doughnuts.” The rule is I don’t serve anything I wouldn’t put on my own table — this dinner is not a yard sale.
Food drives are a stupid way to address hunger in any community. You pay retail for something I can’t use, when if you had donated the buck I could use it to buy something wholesale that my diners could actually eat. Same story for food pantries. Matt Yglesiais had a piece about it in Slate last year in early December which laid out the economics of food drives.