The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

I just wrote and recorded the Trump parody, "If I Lost a $1,000,000,000" (to the tune of the Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had a $1,000,000)." Lyrics can be read here: http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2016/10/parody-if-i-lost-1000000000-to-tune-of.html The song can be heard here: https://sites.google.com/site/roznieckiparodies/home?pli=1 (about halfway down the page)

"If I Lost a $1,000,000,000" If I lost a $1,000,000,000 (If I lost a $1,000,000,000) I'd be a genius (I'd be a genius) If I lost a $1,000,000,000 (If I lost a $1,000,000,000) I'd brilliantly talk about my genius (maybe at a KKK rally like usual) If I lost a $1,000,000,000 (If I lost a $1,000,000,000) I'd smile very bigly (or is that big league? I'm not quite sure) If I lost a $1,000,000,000 I'd blame Clinton If I lost a $1,000,000,000 I'd ask daddy for billions more If I lost a $1,000,000,000 I'd go to the million dollar store If I lost a $1,000,000,000 Maybe I could run for president and be a total asshole If I lost a $1,000,000,000 (If I lost a $1,000,000,000) I'd provide an amazing smirk (the ugly one you see in memes) If I lost a $1,000,000,000 (If I lost a $1,000,000,000) I'd shrug like it was nothing (full shrug, nothing half-assed) If I lost a $1,000,000,000 (If I lost a $1,000,000,000) I'd release all m...

On Friday, Mitt Romney released his 2011 "effective tax rate," which was said to be at 14.1%. Yeah, you know it's been an awful week for the Romney campaign when they divert attention to the one area they tried to avoid said attention for so long - Romney's tax returns. At the end of the day, the released information led to more questions than answers and may wind up hurting the Romney campaign in the end, due to them bringing the story back up front and center. Republican strategist Alex Castellanos had this to say following this bit of news: "At first I thought this was an April Fool's Joke. But it isn't April. I can't imagine that David Axelrod will now say, I'm glad Mitt put this issue behind him. This will drag Mitt's taxes back into the debate. And there's not many days left. I just can't imagine why they would do this. There are 40 days left and you have now made more of them about Mitt's taxes....you don't serve ...

Word came forth today, which confirmed earlier rumors that Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, required his running-mate shortlisters to provide him with a full 10 years of their tax returns. As many know, he's come forward by saying he'll only release a maximum of two years worth of his tax returns. This included the person who eventually won the job - Paul Ryan. After Romney selected Ryan as his vice presidential candidate, the two men were interviewed together and Ryan declared that like Romney, he too would release two years of his tax returns. While this appeared to be a smart and sensible decision to most unaware of the rumors regarding how Romney vetted his potential running mates, it may wind up backfiring on the Republican ticket before the election rolls around. Once this bit of news becomes more widespread, what are voters supposed to think? "Mr. Romney - you required that all of your possible running mates release 10 years of their tax returns t...

While due to the two conventions and the ensuing bounce for President Barack Obama we haven't heard a great deal about Mitt Romney's tax returns, I still hear from many conservatives the words, "Why do you care about them?" I've also heard, "Obama just wants to punish success" or "Obama's a socialist". I've even heard Romney's tax returns being compared to Obama's birth certificate. All I'll say about those claims is Obama has shown his birth certificate (multiple times), members of the socialist party have laughed at the notion that the president is at all like them and it'd make absolutely no sense for a presidential nominee in a capitalist society want to "punish" success. With that out of the way, I don't understand what the big deal is for Romney to release such information and for some conservatives to understand why many liberals and moderates want to see his returns. His father voluntarily relea...

In what I find to be a wise move by the Obama team, the president tried making a deal with the Republican Presidential Nominee, Mitt Romney, today. His campaign manager, Jim Messina, wrote the following: "Dear Matt: I am writing to ask again that the Governor release multiple years of tax returns, but also to make an offer that should address his concerns about the additional disclosures. Governor Romney apparently fears that the more he offers, the more our campaign will demand he provide. So I am prepared to provide assurances on just that point: if the Governor will release five years of returns, I commit in turn that we will not criticize him for not releasing more -- neither in ads nor in other public communications or commentary for the rest of the campaign. This request for the release of five years, covering the complete returns for 2007-2012, is surely not unreasonable. Other presidential candidates have released more, including the Governor's father who provide...

Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, really is backing himself into a corner with this tax return issue. Does he really think the Democratic Party will start playing nice if he doesn't release more than two years of his tax information? Nice, in an election year? Yeah, best of luck with that one, Mittens. Since the onset of the Democratic attacks on Romney not releasing his taxes, the Republican nominee has seen his approval ratings either standing still or dropping and his disapproval ratings rising. The wise thing for him to do would be to release the information now while there's still 3 months to explain the situation and potentially make up with the American people. The more he holds this information off, the more people will begin to suspect there's something he's hiding which he'd rather the American public not see. So what does he do? It's being reported that when vetting his potential running mates, he made it mandatory that the candidates r...

I've heard and read some people in recent days make the claim that Mitt Romney's tax returns are this years "birth certificate" (of Barack Obama). At first glance or listen, I kind of chuckled, but after thinking about it more, believe the comparison isn't great after all. The thing is, President Obama has released his birth certificate. This happened a long time ago, on multiple occasions in fact. Before he became a nominee for president, when was a candidate's birth certificate really questioned? On the other side of things, Mitt Romney has released unto the public quite the minimal amount of information regarding his tax returns and unlike the birth certificate, many times throughout history have candidates released their tax returns in full. Also, while some people were spreading conspiracy theories about President Obama being born in Kenya, he (and others) disproved these theories through solid evidence. Democratic Senator Harry Reid has made the claim ...

In light of Mitt Romney's tax returns being released and Jon Stewart presenting a segment on "The Daily Show" regarding this bit of news, I read many conservatives talk about how much of a hypocrite Stewart is, because he is a millionaire and is just like Romney in that regard. While it's true that Stewart does make a lot of money, he also pays 35% taxes as opposed to Romney's 13.9%. Stewart also has stated he agrees with the proposed tax hike on the wealthiest in this country from 35% to 39.6%. In addition to this, Stewart is not running for president. Romney is currently unemployed, raked in $47 million only to pay 13.9% in taxes and is running for the highest office in the land. Stewart is a comedian who makes a great deal of money, pays 35% in taxes and is not running for political office of any kind. There's quite a difference there... Nice try, though...

I appreciate apologies if they're sincere and genuine. I don't much care for them if I know the person is just doing it to please another person as opposed to actually meaning what they say. I got into a political debate with an owner of a bar on Friday night and after he angrily called me a socialist, I kind of laughed and left. He sent a couple half-hearted apologies via e-mail shortly after the situation. His wife sent a more sincere apology on his behalf via text. He then sent another e-mail yesterday and I think this one bugged me more than anything. I'll explain why after posting the e-mail: "Craig, I apologize that I offended you. I thought we were friendly enough to disagree. I do get worked up about politics especially when drinking. I concede your point about Reagan although it is here nor there. We have a president who campaigned talking about redistribution of wealth, he is openly hostile to successful people. And chastises people for being wealthy. I hav...

Yeah, so that was fun. On Friday night, I went to a pub I frequent. It's a neighborhood dive bar. Pretty much everyone there knows each other. I kind of like that, as opposed to a meat-market bar. Toward the very end of the evening, one of the two owners there seemed insistent on talking about politics. He's tried engaging me in such discussions before and while I will listen and give feedback, I don't make my opinions known. I know he and I don't see eye-to-eye on much and I know he can lose his cool very quickly if another's opinion conflicts with his own. So, I've steered clear of doing that in the past, by just trying to play the peace-keeper, let all viewpoints be known without letting my own opinion be known. This was again the case on Friday night. He talked about the Republican field and started with Newt Gingrich. I gave my opinion that I felt (and polls backed me up on this) that he was the less electable of the two, between he and Mitt Romney. I the...

Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, released his tax returns today. It was revealed that he paid a 13.9% tax rate in 2010 and expect that to be 15.4% for 2011. As this rate is lower than most wage-earning Americans, I'm not thinking this is going to help Romney's chances. Now, it should be noted that Romney contributed $7 million in charity over those two years, which represents more than 15% of his income. However, the majority of that money went to the Mormon church, which won't help him with the Evangelicals. I think this was a double-whammy for Romney. No wonder he didn't want to release his tax returns. The 13.9 and 15.4% won't help him with the middle- and lower-classes, regardless of their party affiliation. Then the hefty donations to the Mormon church won't aid him with the religious right. I've long said that Mitt Romney is the Republicans' best chance at winning back the White House in this year's coming election, but even ...