Romney gets rich off torturing kids

Well, well, well, what do we have here?

Salon reports that Bain Capital owns the embattled Aspen Education Group - which runs for-profit residential "treatment" programs for teens and others. Programs like those of Aspen are based on a long-discredited, cult-like model - and there have been at least 6 preventable deaths in Aspen programs during the time Bain has owned it. One of the deaths involved a teenager with a form of high-functioning autism who became ill from a bowel disorder but received no attention from staffers until it was too late.

Salon's investigation has found new allegations of abuse in at least 10 of Bain's youth facilities.

Bain only purchased Aspen after Mitt Romney retired as Bain's CEO. But Romney remains a limited partner in Bain and gets a share of its profits.

Of course, I was informed a long time ago that Romney was making money off abusive programs. Even years before then, I was trying to expose programs like this. The response from the media was usually the same each time: deafening silence. On the other hand, one of the most effective tactics I've seen to get places like this shut down is public protests. Just ask Pathway Family Center what this did to them.

Why is this story so important in the long run? It's because the residential "treatment" racket is largely based on the same authoritarian right-wing ideology as the campaigns of Republicans like Romney. This ideology is a rootkit that has been installed on the American landscape and must be extracted.

(Source: http://www.salon.com/2012/07/18/dark_side_of_a_bain_success/singleton)