Romney tied to death squads

[barts]

Mitt Romney Started Bain Capital With Money From Families Tied To Death Squads

Bain executive Harry Strachan suggested that Romney meet with a group of Central American oligarchs who were looking for new investment vehicles as turmoil engulfed their region. Romney was worried that the oligarchs might be tied to "illegal drug money, right-wing death squads, or left-wing terrorism," Strachan later told a Boston Globe reporter, as quoted in the 2012 book "The Real Romney." But, pressed for capital, Romney pushed his concerns aside and flew to Miami in mid-1984 to meet with the Salvadorans at a local bank.

It was a lucrative trip. The Central Americans provided roughly $9 million -- 40 percent -- of Bain Capital's initial outside funding, the Los Angeles Times reported recently. And they became valued clients.

When The Huffington Post asked the Romney campaign about Bain Capital accepting funds from families tied to death squads, a spokeswoman forwarded a 1999 Salt Lake Tribune article to explain the campaign's position on the matter. She declined to comment further.

"Romney confirms Bain had investors in El Salvador. But, as was Bain's policy with any big investor, they had the families checked out as diligently as possible," the Tribune wrote. "They uncovered no unsavory links to drugs or other criminal activity."

Nobody with a basic understanding of the region's history could believe that assertion.

Avoiding or evading taxes is one thing, making common cause with oligarchs who fund death squads is quite another. The notion that Romney didn't know who he was doing business with is absurd.

It is irrational that anyone who has any appreciation for human rights or, indeed, common decency could vote for this man.

[Trojan_Ripper]

Avoiding or evading taxes is one thing, making common cause with oligarchs who fund death squads is quite another. The notion that Romney didn't know who he was doing business with is absurd.

It is irrational that anyone who has any appreciation for human rights or, indeed, common decency could vote for this man.

Is this story true? Because I also heard he is responsible for people getting cancer and I find that one hard to swallow.
I'm waiting on the good headlines like "Romney is found to actually be Lucifer" or "Romney responsible for earthquakes, floods, and fires" good stuff like that.

[Yarn]

Anyone who buys anything made in China is just as guilty of doing their part to aid to scumbags. So that means just about everyone is.

[barts]

Anyone who buys anything made in China is just as guilty of doing their part to aid to scumbags. So that means just about everyone is.

"Just as guilty"?, I don't think so. There is no moral equivalency between buying an iPad and knowingly enriching oneself by providing investment services to people who fund death squads.

In defense of Romney, Rush Limbaugh said,

“So they say now in the Huffington Puffington Post that Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital way way back when it was originally founded was seeded with money from Latin American death squads. Let me ask you a question. What the difference in that that and the Democrats being funded and underwritten by Planned Parenthood and NARAL? If they’re not death squads, I don’t know what is. How many abortions every year? 1.73 million or something. Is the kind of stuff they are talking about Sneardly, the way we fight back. Okay so you say Romney’s Bain Capital founded by death squads, although that’s a dubious claim. What do you call Planned Parenthood, if that’s not a death squad? Who could disagree?”

In other words, no one is denying that Romney did business with death squad enablers, all they're doing is saying, basically, "Well, everyone is doing it. So what?"

So, it seems that for some having a President who is essentially an accessory to murder in order to enrich himself is acceptable.

[barts]

Is this story true?

Romney is not denying it. So, yes, it is true.

[Yarn]

"Just as guilty"?, I don't think so. There is no moral equivalency between buying an iPad and knowingly enriching oneself by providing investment services to people who fund death squads.

In order to buy into that premise, you would have to argue that the Chinese government is not morally equivalent to these death squads.

[barts]

In order to buy into that premise, you would have to argue that the Chinese government is not morally equivalent to these death squads.

In the interest of clarification, are you suggesting that a mom buying T-shirt made in China for a kid is as morally reprehensible as Romney enriching himself on investments from oligarchs running right wing death squads in Central America?

And, if that is your position, are you suggesting that the mom buying the shirt implicitly exonerates Romney?

[barts]

In order to buy into that premise, you would have to argue that the Chinese government is not morally equivalent to these death squads.

I'm at a loss as to the basis for this view. Can you expand?

[Yarn]

The moral point made about taking money from these investors is that he enriched them by giving them a fantastic return. People who were related to these investors were in death squads. Maybe this money helped them.

Buying products from China increases Chinese tax revenue, and hence funds the Chinese government and all of the bad stuff it does. In neither case is it necessarily clear that the money did more bad than good, but the argument that it did bad definitely applies to the Chinese example.

[barts]

Buying products from China increases Chinese tax revenue, and hence funds the Chinese government and all of the bad stuff it does. In neither case is it necessarily clear that the money did more bad than good, but the argument that it did bad definitely applies to the Chinese example.

Indeed. Doing business with China, including buying a T-shirt, enriches people and nations involved in nefarious behavior. That being said, given the sell out to China, it's difficult for a mom to buy a T-shirt made anywhere else but China or in other nations that, in order to serve the American and other rich nation's markets, is involved in what would be crimes in the US.

Romney, on the other hand, could have chosen not to accept investments from oligarchs involved with death squads. He took the money.

A mom buying a Made in China T-shirt doesn't give moral cover to Romney making common cause with death squads. At least, that's my view.

[Yarn]

Most people can afford to buy from ethical suppliers if they are willing to do extensive research and forgo many luxories.

[barts]

Most people can afford to buy from ethical suppliers if they are willing to do extensive research and forgo many luxories.

Indeed. As well, few people get to do business with death squads operators, and they too could forgo luxuries to avoid them.