Why Mitt Romney May be Mentally Unstable. No, really.

Only a sadistic sociopath, who had  led a group of young men in an assault against a weaker person, would call it simply a "prank".

When Mitt Romney was 18 years old and a fit young man, just before dodging the draft during the Vietnam War in 1965, had led a charge against a gay man.

Today he claims 1) he doesn't remember the attack, but 2) he does remember that back then he didn't think of gay people in that way.

When Mitt Romney was asked about the assault, he shrugged it off and chuckled as though recalling a fond memory. But only a sadistic sociopath would answer," If anybody was hurt by that, or offended by it, obviously I apologize."

Mitt Romney is either an artificial imitation of a two-faced hypocrite, or he is a very mentally disturbed man.

I worked in the hotel and casino industry for 30 years, and I have personally served many rich and very famous and powerful people. I once served dinner to Rosalynn Carter (Jimmy's wife). The Secret Service had occupied every single room on hotel floor and inspected every nook and cranny of the service cart, before signing the check and having me leave the cart outside in the hotel hallway.

I used to bring the late Andy Gibb a bottle of Absolute vodka with a pitcher of orange juice every night to his hotel suite when he stayed at the Barclay Hotel in Philadelphia. I also waited on the Barclay Hotel's owner (the man who built the Pentagon).

I once served Vanna White (Wheel of Fortune) lunch to her hotel room when I worked in Room Service (she was in the shower and answered the door in just a towel). I also waited on Julia Roberts when she was playing blackjack at the Golden Nugget with her boyfriend.

I also pushed a cart of hor d'oeuvres up to Barbra Streisand's room, and it true, she doesn't like to make eye contact with the "peons" (or maybe she's just shy).

I served the infamous corporate raider Carl Icahn when he used to own the Las Vegas Stratosphere Tower (I later heard he had fired the president of his hotel for stealing!)

I witnessed a cocktail waitress I once worked with get fired because she hummed the Burger King theme song, and Joan Kroc (owner of McDonalds) was sitting in the high-limit pit and over-heard her, who then became terribly offended and had the poor girl fired.

From musicians to movie stars, from politicians to models, there are too many to mention. But I can tell you this: I know first hand that some of them are dirt cheap and mean as hell. Many are very nice, down to earth, and generous; but then there are those who look down their nose at you (if they even acknowledge you) as though you were some king of insignificant bug...a "thing"...an "it". That's what many in the top 1% really do think about us, the masses. I sometimes had to hold in my anger to keep from slapping their face or telling them to "fuck off".

I can look at Mitt Romney's smile on TV and hear him speak, and nobody has ever sounded more false, fake, plastic and phony to me than he. After 30 years in the "people business", I can spot a "working girl" on the far side of a room and I can usually spot a fake a mile away. Mitt Romney is both, a whore and an artificial imitation of a two-faced hypocrite.

But leaving my personal opinions aside, I'd like to mention a few observations I've made and what I've learned over these past three years -- and that is this: many of these rich elitists are also very addicted to money. Not all, but a great many. But it's not their fault, because just like any other addiction, it's also an illness. But while although they're only human, but for greed, they could still go to Hell...or to prison.

FLASHBACK - On October 19, 1999 Martha Stewart's Living Omnimedia went public on the New York Stock Exchange. The initial public offering was set at $18 per share and rallied to $38 by the end of trading day, making her a billionaire on paper.

Two years later on December 27, 2001 Martha Stewart avoided a loss of $45,673 by selling all of her shares of ImClone Systems stock due to insider trading information. After much public scrutiny, on October 3, 2002, Stewart resigned her position on the board of directors of the New York Stock Exchange.

In 2004 she was convicted of lying to investigators about the stock sale and served five months in a federal prison and paid a fine of $30,000 following a "deal" with prosecutors. After her release from prison in March 2005, Martha Stewart made a comeback, and Forbes now has her estimated net worth at close to $1 billion.

But tell me, why would a women who is worth millions of dollars, flaunt the law and lie to the feds about a measly $46k? And people who usually engage in nefarious activities aren't detected until they're finally caught, rarely are they found out the very first time. How many times did she cheat the system before she was caught? And is Martha Stewart just a compulsive liar, or did she feel a need to cheat the system because she feared not having enough?

(Below) A contrite and remorseful Martha Stewart leaves court ;)

Mitt Romney is both a sociopath and a compulsive liar, and when he's called out on his disingenuous remarks, he dodges the questions the way he dodged the draft during the Vietnam War. Various fact-checking sites have pounced on Romney for several of his prevarications.

About 2.2 million American have some form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). That's almost 2% of the population. 1% of the total population is 3.1 million, so of the wealthiest Americans, we can estimate that about 2% of 3.1 million is 64,000 people controlling our political and economic system that have some form of sociopathic symptoms. That's a lot of crazy millionaires and billionaires.

But because they are so wealthy, they can go undetected by isolating themselves and putting themselves in controlled environments and when making public appearances. Often their own spouse is unaware of their neurosis. The serial killer Dennis "BTK" Rader's wife had no clue what he was doing for decades.

Ted Bundy was attractive and smart, and had a great future in politics. He worked on the re-election campaign of Washington's Republican Governor Dan Evans. Evans was elected and he appointed Bundy to the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Committee. Bundy's political future seemed secure, when in 1973 he became assistant to Ross Davis, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. Ted Bundy was also one of the most prolific serial killers in U.S. history.

Serial killers are the most successful kind of killer. They frequently stay on the loose for months, years or even decades. John Douglas, a former chief of the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and author of Mind Hunter says, "A very conservative estimate is that there are between 35 and 50 active serial killers in the United States at any given time". As Ted Bundy said, “We serial killers are your sons, we are your husbands, we are everywhere.”

(He could have added, "We are the 1%.)

It's easier for wealthy people to go undetected, flee the country, or put up a good defense if they're ever caught for their evil deeds. Look at this list of the 1% in my post Murder and Betrayal of the Rich and Famous.

They have wealth, power, and privilege, and can often cover up their misdeeds with their vast network of connections. Ted Kennedy got away with DUI manslaughter; and some think Alice Walton (Wal-Mart) also did. But she did get cited for DUI on other occasions. During one of her DUI arrests she contemptuously asked the police officer," Do you know who I am?" Wealth, power, and privilege.

I'm not saying the top 1% are all murderers and/or thieves, just that the top 1% has just as much a likelihood of being psychotic as anybody else, but getting away with it.

Have you seen the TV show Hoarders? It's a documentary series that airs on A&E and depicts the real-life struggles and treatment of people who suffer from compulsive hoarding. Many of our wealthiest citizens have this condition, but instead of junk, they hoard their money. They live in a constant state of neurotic fear of never having enough.

But this doesn't always explain away their raw greed. Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher who lived from 1788 to 1860, was known for his pessimism and philosophical clarity. Schopenhauer's most influential work was The World as Will and Representation, in which his analysis of human will led him to the conclusion that emotional, physical, and sexual desires can never be fully satisfied. He is attributed to the quote: "Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame".

One example of this was made in an article titled Think you're not obsessed with money? Think again. How much money is ever enough? Cherie Blair, the wife of the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Tony Blair, is a multi-millionaire and still calls herself a socialist. But she said in an interview: "It's nice to be comfortable, but I'll probably never stop worrying that I've got enough" -- so it's easy to sneer at their neurotic insecurities, but why do so many rich people feel like this?

Money is important, but it does seem that the more you have, the more you believe you need. How else can the stubborn demands of the bankers be explained? For years they have justified their huge bonuses by insisting they are enriching the whole nation through their efforts (Trickle-Down Economics: The Cruel 30-Year Hoax). Yet now we know that their efforts are clearly impoverishing whole nations, and they still crave beyond any reason those material pats on the back. Look no further than Donald Trump, who truly believes he deserves credit for almost everything. (The word "humble" is definitely not in his lexicon.)

A recent example of this "we-deserve-more-respect" phenomena from the top 1% came from Edward Conard, the former director of Bain Capital and a contributor to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, who believes that the rich should be idolized like gods, because they mass produced things such as paper clips and iPhones, making "our lives easier". He actually advocates that "the wealth concentrated at the top should be twice as large." I suppose he and Mitt Romney never though they ever had enough. (Also see my post: "Are the Rich Worth a Damn?")

The top 1%'s desires are put down to greed, and they are resented for them. There is talk of "class war", in which the real needs of "the poor" are pitted against the illusory needs of "the rich". But maybe, as a "thought experiment", it is time to consider the wise adage which counsels that "resentment is like drinking poison, then waiting for the other person to die."

What if these "comfortable" people like Mrs. Blair (and Mitt Romney, etc) seek more wealth, not out of a perceived material need, but out of a real psychological need? Why not, out of intellectual curiosity, visualize what it must be like to be Mrs. Blair or Ann Romney, endlessly stuffing the black hole of their want with cash and finding they can never fill it. This is the repulsive, pitiful image of a psychological displacement activity. It speaks of a kind of mental instability, a terrible sickness that overtakes a person, leading them to erroneously believe their human worth can be measured in money, and then maybe torturing themselves by wondering why there is never enough money to do the job of filling that big empty hole.

It is hardly new, that the idea that wealth can be a curse, especially when it becomes an end in itself. But for a very long time, our political leaders have bent over backwards to fight this perception. They want us all (the "have-nots") to believe that their wealth is to be celebrated and admired, however nefariously it might have been obtained or used (such as in political elections). Anyone who questions the "right" of the wealthy to enjoy the fruits of their labors or their good fortune is indulging in "the politics of envy" or "class warfare". Just ask Mitt Romney.

"Both greed and fear makes one more money-centric, and in recent years, it has become more socially acceptable to be greedy and increasingly commonplace to be financially insecure." - Dr. Bruce E. Levine , clinical psychologist

Three decades ago, Bruce Levine's clients, who worked for major corporations such as Procter and Gamble, felt secure in their employment, but that security began disappearing. Nowadays, nearly everybody, even teachers and postal workers, lack job security.

Today, Levine sees money worries, more than anything else, triggering panic attacks, depression, and alcohol abuse. Money discussions have even come to dominate family counseling sessions, where high school students increasingly talk about their fear of becoming financial losers, and parents fear their children will ruin their lives by accumulating student-loan debt while pursuing fields where there are few decent-paying jobs. Younger generations are increasingly told they won’t have job security in their working years or Social Security later on. So many young people now feel pressure early on to accumulate a large pile of cash now.

Money has always been a big deal in America, but through much of history, the money-centrism of the greedy has not had the social acceptability that it has recently gained for the past 30 years (not since Gordon Gekko). For us, the non-elite, greed was seen as the practice of villains such as Charles Dickens’ money-obsessed Scrooge, a psychologically and spiritually sick man in need of conversion.

As late as 1936, a sitting president of the United States running for reelection knew that it was quite popular to blast the greedy and selfish elite:

"We know now that Government, by organized money, is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred. I should like to have it said of my first Administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power met their match. I should like to have it said of my second Administration that in it these forces met their master." - Franklin D. Roosevelt on Oct. 31, 1936.

Ayn Rand (Paul Ryan's heroine before he suddenly denounced her) in the last half of the 20th century, was the dissemination and legitimization of money-centrism and greed. Rand ends her novel Atlas Shrugged with this image of its hero John Galt: “He raised his hand and over the desolate earth he traced in space the sign of the dollar.”

Rand exhorted her followers to believe in what she called “radical capitalism,” and she lived—and even died—in radical money-centrism. At Ayn Rand’s funeral, in accordance with her specified arrangements, a six-foot floral arrangement in the shape of a dollar sign was placed near her casket.

We may become obsessed with persons, places, goals, subjects, or money (like we obsess with celebrities, movies stars, and athletics)-- but obsession amounts to the same thing in all cases: addiction. At first, like all addictions, obsession is intoxicating. It fills us up, and what a relief that feeling is (especially if we felt empty before). But even if we didn't feel empty, obsession makes us feel potent, capable, and purposeful.

But also, like all addictions, with time obsession unbalances us, allowing it to become too all-consuming. Obsession causes us to devalue the most important dimensions of society and human beings, and tolerate their atrophy, and even their eventual collapse. (Read the Republican economic strategy: Starve the Beast)

• And that might help explain why a study for a publication of the Research Foundation of CFA Institute found that 10% of CEOs on Wall Street are psychopaths.
• And why Eli Roth's re-creation of the Milgram Experiment from the 60's showed many Wall Street CEOs are actually evil.
• And why the documentary "Corporation" shows that these CEOs have a callous disregard for the feelings of other people, the incapacity to maintain human relationships, have a reckless disregard for the safety of others, are deceitful, have an incapacity to experience guilt and the failure to conform to social norms and respect for the law. (See my post: Murder and Betrayal of the Rich and Famous for examples)
• And that might also help explain why multi-billionaires like the Waltons (Wal-Mart) pay their employees so little and don't offer them benefits. The Waltons must not think they already have enough.
• And that might also help explain why CEOs (making record multi-million-dollar annual salaries already) insist on paying low wages to their domestic help and continue to outsource so many jobs overseas for slave labor wages...because they don't think they already have enough.
• And that might also help explain why congress (whom half are millionaires themselves and get paid $174,000+ and while engaging in insider trading on the stock market) is because, they don't think they already have enough.

And that might also help explain why large corporations and wealthy families* have been hoarding most the wealth, leaving so little in the economy by having it concentrated at the top. That would also explain income disparities and economic inequality. Selfishness, greed, addiction to money, and no conscious or empathy for the masses (no matter how hard Mitt Romney may try to appear to be just a "regular guy".) (*See my post: Wealthy Heirs for Higher Taxes)

Diane Hendricks ranks #163 on the Forbes list of richest Americans. When asked in an interview, "What are the unforeseen downsides to success?" She replied, "There's a sense that no matter where you are, you still have further to go. Perhaps that's a key to success, though, always wanting to prove and reach for more, never being satisfied."

Besides all the billionaires like her on The Forbes 400 List, there's about another 500 more U.S. billionaires who are too poor to even be included on the list. Mitt Romney, with his measly $250 million (even with his low tax rate), doesn't even come close to making the grade. But I'll bet you $10,000 he and his wife don't think they have enough. (See my post: Inequality and the Billionaire's Club and Wall Street Cry Babies.

And finally, that might also explain why the most wealthy among us lacks empathy for the masses, such as Mitt Romney, who recently began using Obama's strategy, and began campaigning with a faux pas concern for the poor.

The National Institute of Mental Health defines antisocial personality disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual on Mental Disorders as “...a pervasive pattern of disregard for, and violation of, the rights of others that begins in childhood or early adolescence and continues into adulthood. People with an antisocial personality disorder may disregard social norms and laws, repeatedly lie, place others at risk for their own benefit, and demonstrate a profound lack of remorse. It is sometimes referred to as sociopathic personality disorder, or sociopathy."

From Psychology Today: Looking at Greed as an Addictive Dysfunction -"The saga of the Bernard Madoff debacle, the AIG bonuses and the host of other repugnant behaviors, actually reveals a terrible dysfunction in our culture, which has now come to our screeching attention. We are a society that is addicted and ultimately maddened by our obsession with profligate abundance and extravagance. How inconceivable is it that a man who has attained so much success and wealth and earned the rewards of privilege and prestige, feels compelled to ruin himself and his investors in his vainglorious attempt to have yet more? When is enough yet enough? When one is an addict, the answer is never."

Also from Psychology Today: "One in 25 people will have the disorders associated with 'no conscience' which includes antisocial personality disorder, sociopath, and psychopath. 312 million divided by 25 = 12.5 million Americans have no conscience. As large as these statistics are, sadly, they do not include other forms of pathology related to "Cluster B" personality disorders. These disorders also negatively impact others, such as Narcissistic Personality Disorder (e.g. Newt Gingrich, Donald Trump and Herman Cain, etc.) or other disorders within Cluster B. Current stats say narcissism affects approximately 1% of the population; Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) affects approximately 2%.

Those with the most wealth among us have the greater capacity to negatively affect others, as does those in the media because, both of them have undo influence in shaping public consensus and opinion.

John Stossel, who hosts a weekly show on Fox Business Network, argues "Taxes discourages wealth creation." But he admits that, "Before 1963 every single dollar after $400,000 (in today’s dollars) was taxed at more than 90 percent. Then the top rate was lowered to 70 percent, then to 50 percent, and then to as low as 35 percent." (Capital gains, the "rich man's" primary source income, saw capital gains taxes go down from 40% to the current low of 15% -- the lowest since 1921 when the U.S. population was 108 million (My post on historical tax rates).

Did ANY tax rate in U.S. history ever discourage anyone from investing or creating wealth? No, because there is always the human drive to obtain wealth, whether they "need" it or not. And if you're very wealthy, you could be addicted in its pursuit.

We know that people like John Stossel and Fox News will never think that the rich can pay too little in taxes. They don't think the rich have enough. We know that almost all of the Republican and Tea Party millionaires and billionaires will never think the rich already have enough, but they do think that social programs, for those that really don't have anything at all, should be slashed to the bare bones.

What do all these Republicans, Tea Partiers, and top 1%ers all have in common?

Mitt Romney, Bill O'Reilly, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Sean Hannity, Eric Cantor, Glenn Beck, Rick Santorum, Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, David and Charles Koch, Paul Rand, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Karl Rove, Jim DeMint, Scott Walker, Kevin McCarthy, Pete Sessions, Chris Christie, Rick Scott, Joe Walsh, John Kasich, Rick Synder, Nikki Haley, Grover Norquist, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Herman Cain and Darrell Issa.

They're all mentally ill. They all want to cut programs for the poor while cutting taxes for the rich. They all want to further redistribute the wealth to the top 1%. Maybe "capitalism" isn't really broken, but just the leaders of capitalism are broken (mentally ill). Our "captains of industry" (the CEOs) and our "pillars of the community" (the politicians) certainly seem to be broken (pathological), while that rest of us are just plain going broke.

And you don't have to be crazy to see that.

Why the rich might go to Hell: [1 Timothy 6:9.] "Letting money and wealth control us is an example of human weakness. Wealth in itself is not bad. It is how we think about it and what we do with it. Humans are weak when it comes to money and wealth. It is so easy to get caught up in lusting after money. When this happens, we are basically letting money control us. We become obsessed and will do anything to get rich to include breaking any of God's commandments. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition”.

My related posts on Mitt Romney:

• Corporate Raiders like Mitt Romney Lowered Median Household Incomes
• Can I call Mitt Romney's pal Edward Conard an @sshole?
• Woman Fired from Bain for Bad Credit Score
• How many jobs did Mitt Romney create last year?
• Mitt Romney's Offshore Bank Accounts
• Obama Tax Plan vs. Mitt Romney's
• Mitt Romney: Lobbyists, Special Tax Rates & Tax Evasion
• Mitt and Ann Romney are Full of Horse Manure!
• Ann Romney Needs to get a REAL Job!
• Mitt Romney Comes Clean
• Mitt Romney, the Forbes Fortune 400, and Taxes
• How Mitt Romney & the 1% Evades Taxes
• Mitt Romney - Mister 15% and Platinum Parachutes
• Efficiency expert Mitt Romney: "You're expendable."
• Mitt Romney Knows Envy Better than Anyone
• Mitt Romney Connected to $8.5 billion Ponzi Scheme
• For Mitt Romney, the Joke's on Us
• Mitt Romney was the real-life Gordon Gekko