Shame, Come Back, Shame!
Imagine a real case of the irresistible force versus the immovable object. That describes what is happening in Wisconsin, as the governor attempts to cut government spending, and public sector unions, supported by the Democrat allies, are flatly refusing — and by any means necessary.
A group of Democratic Wisconsin lawmakers blocked passage of a sweeping anti-union bill Thursday, refusing to show up for a vote and then abruptly leaving the state in an effort to force Republicans to the negotiating table. … “The plan is to try and slow this down because it’s an extreme piece of legislation that’s tearing this state apart,” Sen. Jon Erpenbach said in a telephone interview. He refused to say where he was.
Rumor has it the Democratic lawmakers are holed up in a Best Western in Rockford, Illinois. The plan is probably not just to slow it down, but kill it, because it’s make or break time. Union jobs are on the line in a big way. Some news reports say Wisconsin’s Capitol is filled with “protesters,” while others say they are just union members out to protect jobs which the taxpayers can no longer afford. Either way, something’s got to give.
The same confrontation was being re-enacted on the federal level as Democrats (or Republicans depending on who you choose to blame) threatened to shut down the government if spending was cut/increased. The threats have flown thick and fast: Congress would not be paid; Social Security checks would not be sent out; the president would veto any cuts he did not approve of. Sparks were flying everywhere as the Deficit Express raced to smash on the Cliff of Bankruptcy.
President Obama directly entered the Wisconsin fray, accusing Scott Walker, the Republican governor, “of unleashing an ‘assault’ on unions in pushing emergency legislation that would nullify collective-bargaining agreements that affect most public employees, including teachers.”
“Some of what I’ve heard coming out of Wisconsin, where they’re just making it harder for public employees to collectively bargain generally, seems like more of an assault on unions,” Obama told a Milwaukee television reporter, taking the unusual step of inviting a local station into the White House for a sit-down interview. “I think everybody’s got to make some adjustments, but I think it’s also important to recognize that public employees make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens.”
George Savage thinks the Democrats are betting that the clash will play out like 1995 all over again, with Obama as Clinton and Boehner as Gingrich, and there’ll be one more payoff, one more party, one last time. Except that they can’t this time because the credit’s run out. No more beer deliveries, not for a long time. “In 1995, federal red ink totaled $164 billion, exactly one-tenth President Obama’s planned 2012 shortfall of $1.65 trillion.” It ain’t 1995 nor Kansas any more.
President Obama is institutionalizing the “stimulus”—supposedly a one-off $862 billion splurge on “shovel ready” projects, but actually a payoff to assorted liberal constituencies. He is borrowing money at a record pace, not to finance a war or meet some other national security emergency but to sustain his political priorities.
The trouble with one more time is that finally it gets to be the last one. For the unions, the problem with giving an inch is the admission that retreat is possible. And once the unions start going back, who knows where it may end? Even in the midst of this budget crisis, the Milwaukee teachers have held out for Viagra coverage, according to the Associated Press. “The union has asked a judge to order the school board to again include Pfizer Inc.’s erectile dysfunction drug and similar pills in its health insurance plans.”
In Wisconsin, the clash has already moved in interesting ways. The “government shutdown” is abstract for a whole lot of people not already on the take–what’s it to them? A beautiful vacation in Yellowstone ruined, say.
But that’s not what they shut down in Wisconsin. They closed the schools — by WHAT authority, I’ve no idea, nor have I read ANYthing explaining it — and made this abstraction into harsh reality. They will strike at you and your children and your daily life if you take this away–”you will not be able to have your kids educated, you will not be able to go to work today because you have no childcare. You need us, and you can’t live without us.”
It may be true. But it may ignite a hatred big enough to capsize the need.
Godspeed to the Governor of WI. If he concedes, it’s over for all of us.
Can you say, Ἀνάβασις? Unions are in retreat, but fighting at every step … Will they make it to a place of safety (permanently encysted in the public sector like Europe) or will taxpaying citizens cut off their retreat? Stay tuned!
–tv just interviewed one of the WI protesters. This was a teacher, about 55 yrs old, very sedate and proper-looking. The interview was calm, she stated her case, that she was not averse to ‘losing some money’ and that ‘our kids will make up the lost time’ and that the collective bargaining is the thing she can’t lose, because ‘without a contract there’ll be chaos in the classrooms’. Then as the interviewer was closing down the spot, she leaned into the mike and exclaimed “This is just another attempt by the GOP to destroy the middle class!”
Are these people reading the newspapers? Is there no one in the WI K12 system who has looked at the charts coming out of the US Treasury?
Each side will see it as an act of — or bordering on — coercion. In the past it was drama. But this time it might be real if only because there’s no room to cut a deal. It’s ruin me or ruin you. The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast.
“Any means necessary” includes the usual threats of personal violence against Republican legislators: according to Jay Nordlinger,
“[Randy] Hopper has received threatening phone calls and e-mails. These are threats of a physical nature. ‘We are working with law enforcement in my district. They are watching my home and my business.’ Other Republicans have had their homes and businesses threatened, too. The unionists have demonstrated outside those homes and businesses.
A menacing old phrase comes to mind (and has been used by others, in talking about events in Wisconsin): We know where you live. . . .
I ask whether he is going home tonight, to sleep. He says, ‘We’re not disclosing that. My colleagues and I are not talking about that. We’re working with law enforcement’ on the matter.”
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/260040/be-republican-lawmaker-madison-jay-nordlinger
So how does it go? First grief, then anger, then ….
If Walker has any stones he has easy and good comebacks.
1. Issue a proclamation declaring that any senators who are not back in their chambers by sundown have abandoned their offices, which will thereupon be deemed to be vacated.
2. If they don’t show up, issue writs of election for their vacant seats.
3. Fire their staffs, move their stuff out of the capitol, change the keys to their offices, and void their parking passes.
4. Pull his proposed legislation and replace it with a bill that bans unionization for public employees, voids any collective bargaining agreements with public employee unions, and terminates the employment of any public employee who goes on strike for cause and with a loss of benefits and seniority.
5. Smoke a big cigar.
Latest nickname for the AWOL Wisconsin Dems: Flee baggers.
PA Cat, lol
I’m just as revolted as you all. What a bunch of crybabies. I’m lucky to have a job these days with zero benefits. Unmitigated gall. I seethe.
Wow, my state senator is one of the runaways. This just keeps escalating – first the revocation of collective bargaining, then the Capitol protests, then the school shutdowns, now the AWOL Senators.
Madison is a big-time lefty town, but more than a few of my co-workers have had to take unpaid leave or sick time of their own to watch children unexpectedly home from school for three straight days and are getting angry. Governor Walker has both houses of the Legislature and is showing no signs of backing down – I don’t see this ending any other way than the bill passing, and then what happens? I think the union protestors will go home and seethe, but who knows? Estimates were of about 30,000 protestors in and around the Capitol, in a city of just over 200,000 people.
Walter @ #7: totally agree. There are things that Walker can and should do to assert control over the situation, both with the strikers and the fleeing legislators; and particularly with the public. He needs to drive them in the desired direction, i.e. make them appear selfish and ridiculous in their current course, and let them choose a facially dignified surrender or else oblivion. This is the critical moment. He cannot flinch. Indeed, he cannot merely proceed at, forgive me, a Walking pace. He needs to accelerate, get inside their OODA loop, break their momentum and more importantly their entire concept of the battlespace.
If he doesn’t succeed, this will get very ugly indeed. And, by the way, if the strikers go after legislators at home? Or their families? Shoot first, ask questions later.
I look back at how Reagan handled the PATCO (air traffic controllers) and I just marvel at how they walked right into his trap; and how his prompt, clearcut and resolute action generated enormous capital for him in other policy fights.
Hard times; but we will see leaders emerge, and quickly too. Let’s hope they’re more worthy than the current lot.
Unions of state employees have de facto power to tax their fellow citizens.
Yes the state government agrees to increased pay, pensions, etc., but since
all states must balance their budgets the taxpayers eventually must dance to the tune of union leaders.
They should be banned. Across the board.
–some radio jock was just on OReilly, saying it was not a spending problem, it was a revenue problem, because ‘they keep shipping all the jobs out of state’.
This is a media guy –you know he’s not ignorant of the basics –why is he pretending there is no connection between the cost of doing business and doing business? A four year old can make this connection, but a communist of any age will not –he will want the government to tell those businesses no, they cannot move, they will stay where they are and if they go broke, no problem, just apply for government aid.
The radio guy is talking up the man with the stash, tho he almost certainly knows better.
Breitbart has posted a (short) video of a Dem legislator being flushed out of his Illinois hidey-hole:
http://www.breitbart.tv/tea-party-drives-senate-dems-back-to-madison/
Clinton on Bahrain from the Vancouver Sun:
It is now locked down, according to the VOA.
In a previous post, I argued that the system’s “engagement queue” was full. It is in overload. Just now, Tennessee voted to copy Wisconsin’s move. “The Senate Education Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to abolish collective bargaining between teachers unions and school boards across the state.” When a system is in real trouble the status board lights up like a Christmas tree.
The problem for the Teachers Union is that if alternate educational facilites are set up by the governors executive orders quikly enough, the majority of the voters could end up saying, “Who needs you!” to both the union and the state senators who fled.
Can’t tell from this far away, but it seems like the reaction in Wisconsin is not going well for the unionistas, and now Ohio is also talking about dispensing with public sector unions. I’m all in favor of it. Whatever you think about private sector unions, public sector empoloyees don’t need ‘em – they get to vote for their bosses.
And this is a bad thing why? The state and fed governments shutting down is a net positive AFAIAC.
love the teachers for their service
detest the unions for their depravity
From Ed Driscoll; “To be fair, based on this photo of a waitress at the “Tilted Kilt” restaurant found by Jim Geraghty, there are worse places to hold yourself hostage.”
Quick, hide me.
US Constitution Art. IV, section 2, clause iii; “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.”
This was not as commonly believed actually repealed by the XIIIth Amendment which reads, “Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
The Wisconsin State Legislators are not subject to involuntary servitude but have committed voluntarily to be held to Service or Labour under their state constitution. The Governor should invoke the modern equivalent of Fugitive Slave Act and have them returned by the US Marshals or Illinois State Police.
wretchard,
Regarding Bahrain, did I hear clearly that Ms Hillary Clinton just endorsed the stable government of our good friend? Oh No, the kiss of death. She can do for them what she did for Mubarak. Soon we will be able to threaten to unleash her to smile at a map of China and wring concessions from them.
Regarding unions, just as no one should be a judge in their own case no one should vote for their salary. The problem isn’t that they have a union, the problem is that they are public employees who are allowed to make campaign contributions and vote.
If teachers would organize and demonstrate against their students not doing their homework, maybe taxpayers would not feel like such suckers for the pay packages.
If one of these “teachers” pulled my child from class to go protest at the state house, I would call the local sheriff and report a kidnapping. I hope the Governor stands firm.
Remember back in ’08 when the donks were telling us “Elections have consequences” (yes, I know that’s not a real word. Work with me here. It was a politician that first said it). Well, they still do. That was the big result from this past November. Republicans now control a majority of the state legislatures. The Donks now have to figure out if they go quietly into the night, or just go. With 23 of the 33 Senate seats up in 2012 democrats, Liberals have not even began to suspect how much trouble they are in. The left has misread their hand AND they are playing it badly.
They have a old, slow pony’s chance of avoiding the glue pot next year and if they think closing down the government will help, I say go for it! Make my day!
13,000 people protesting, lets say they get paid $100. per day, that equals
$1,300,000. that was pissed away today. We know they make more than that.
Just think of what you could have done with that money in your school district. Multiply this by 5 days. Tell the workers to get back to work, stop whining. If we have to fire the teachers, workers, etc., there are more grauduating in May, so we can have some fresh blood in the classroom.
From Ed Driscoll; “To be fair, based on this photo of a waitress at the “Tilted Kilt” restaurant found by Jim Geraghty, there are worse places to hold yourself hostage.”
I hope that the Wisconsin Dems made sure that the waitstaff at the Tilted Kilt includes hunky guys (for the benefit of the female legislators) and persons of non-Caledonian heritage (to meet diversity quotas).
This bill is called “sweeping” in the press, and it would seem so from the reaction, but take a look at it and you’ll find it’s timid. Nobody gets fired in this bill, or faces a base pay reduction. The union employees would have to contribute more to their underfunded pensions, and pick up 12.6% of their currently gratis health insurance deal. The major sticking point is that the unions would lose their collective bargaining power. What would remain is still a better deal, with tons more job security and old-school defined benefits than you’ll ever find in the private sector.
Every single one of those protesters are bullying pigs. They demand that taxpayers pay generously and they demand to retain the ability to keep milking them for more indefinitely. They turn a blind eye to the fiscal straits in public finance these days.
Worse, those teachers are not only harming the kids and their families by disupting their education, they are teaching the kids harmful lessons on diligence and work place ethics. They are teaching them that when you can’t get what you want in the workplace, it’s okay to call in sick and carry on with a defiant, self-righteous attitude that you are owed. Obama, reliably perverse, is backing up this negative lesson with the White House. Every single one of those teachers who cannot produce a doctor’s note (as required by state law for unexcused absences by teachers) is guilty of fraud and malpractice. They should not only be fired but have their teaching certification revoked.
The fugitive lawmakers are also backing up these negative lessons by calling in sick, in effect, as well. What a good job by these private citizens who have been chasing their sorry tails all over Illinois and keeping heat on them. I wish the Governor could proclaim, “You’ve got 12 hours to report for duty, or be considered either derelict or missing-in-action, subjecting your seat to an emergency appointment.”
The bullying pigs went hardball. Go hardball back. The Governor got here by being nice, with what’s really a modest bill that never went far enough in the first place if you ask me. Being nice gets you nowhere with this crowd. He should have demanded far worse, and should raise the ante now. Demand a mile for that inch.
Seems as if some Pelosi “Through them, around them, tunnel under them, parachute over them” diplomacy is in order here.
The class warfare heats up. It is not your historical versions of “class.” In the modern Western world there are really only two classes: those who subsist on a check from the government and those who do not.
The class divisions in traditional Marxist theory didn’t really in practice constitute a zero sum game, despite the theory. It was possible for the rich, the middle, and the poor to gain in material standards of living at the same time. Although the model said it couldn’t happen, it did.
But with the two class model, it is indeed a zero sum game. Those who make their living from the public sector must necessarily base their livelihoods upon taking away from those who make their livings in the private sector.
In the original Marxist model Capitalism would result in the immiseration of the workers who actually provided the actual goods needed for human survival and the workers would finally rise up and throw the Capitalists down as a matter of pure survival. How ironic it is that the present dynamic seems to be that the workers who actually provide the goods and services needed for survival seem poised to rise up against a class of people whose rationale for existence was, for the most part, to protect them from the evils of pure Capitalism.
But now they seem to exist primarily for the purpose of perpetuating their own existence regardless of what little if any social utility they provide. Its all about them, and screw everybody else. If that’s an acceptable attitude, I can embrace it and send it back to them as well. The government workers want to go on strike? Fine. Fire them and make sure all benefits, future and present, are forfeited, and forbid them from ever holding government employment again.
Down with them. Down with them all.
Bahrain is a major base for the 5th Fleet–therefore we have a strategic interest–what ever the strategy is–the Ferguson question ?.
The political solution for MENA is to have a parliamentary /British system rather than the US Presidential system.
In a British parliamentary system you cannot elect yourself president for life–good
In the British system you have contentious debate–jaw jaw jaw rather than war war war–or tyranny
The Iranian theocracy is doomed–look at the demographics
Turkey can help us reach a deal with Iran and that is the Petraeus plan.
Re the Teachers Union
1/ they are the major impediment to US competitiveness because they promote PC rather than excellence in math and science
2/ the employees are not accountable for adaptive results and they oppose pay for performance
3/ the reality of child sexual abuse by teachers, which is very much worse than that by the RC Church–is hidden by the Teachers Union nation wide.
4/ Give parents tax deductible vouchers –that will correct the system
I spoke to a union leader in Wisconsin a moment ago, and this is what he said:
I’m telling you we’ll hold the fort
We’re keeping what we did extort
From Democrats who looked to us for votes
Why should we kneel and give it back
To this elected Repub hack
He wants a fight and you can hold our coats
We know the State is broke and poor
We know bankruptcy is in store
We know taxpayers are all out of jobs
But we have earned what we have gained
And though you see me hurt and pained
We’re union and we’re better than those slobs
We’ll close the schools and fight no fires
We’ll bust your nose and slash your tires
We’ll do what all it takes to keep our stash
We don’t care that you’re in a hole
It’s Repubs out, that is our goal
The Dems will keep it coming, checks or cash
From the Washington Examiner, via Ace:
‘Even President Franklin Roosevelt, a friend of private-sector unionism, drew a line when it came to government workers: “Meticulous attention,” the president insisted in 1937, “should be paid to the special relations and obligations of public servants to the public itself and to the Government….The process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.” The reason? F.D.R. believed that “[a] strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to obstruct the operations of government until their demands are satisfied. Such action looking toward the paralysis of government by those who have sworn to support it is unthinkable and intolerable.”‘
Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/worth-recalling-fdr-was-no-fan-public-employee-unions#ixzz1EHqBe3am
#7 Walter Sobchak
A good plan, if the statutes in Wisconsin governing abandoning offices so allow. I have no idea what their definitions are. Right now, when everything is lining up against the enemies of freedom; we dare do nothing extra-legal that they can use to change the subject.
There are a couple of other things that can be done, if they have the cojones [is there a word in "Cheesehead" for cojones? Kaukauna balls?]. The problem now is the lack of a quorum in the state senate. They are one short of the number that they need for a budget bill … as specified in Article VIII Section 8 [Finance] of the Wisconsin State Constitution. It requires a 3/5 quorum. Budget bills are the only bills that require a 3/5 quorum. All other business is governed by Article V Section 7 which specifies a quorum for each House of the Legislature to be 50%+1.
Hold the Budget Repair Bill in abeyance until they have an Article VIII quorum. In parallel, start passing a simple one page bill that a) ends all collective bargaining for all government employees in Wisconsin, b) decertifies all public employee unions, and c) creates a joint House-Senate STUDY commission to determine how pay and benefits will be set for state employees. With no Democrats in the Senate, committee hearings should be somewhat quicker than usual. If they stay out of the Capitol, the bill can be passed handily. If any one of them shows up; they get grabbed, cuffed, and stuffed in their chair in chambers [perhaps not literally, but it is a wonderful thought], and the Budget Repair Bill is brought up for a vote.
Indeed, there are a number of bills that are not budgetary in nature that can be started and run through the Senate if they do not show up; bills that Patriots will love and which will make Democrat heads explode. How about proof of citizenship and residence to register to vote? State issued picture ID to cast a ballot? Requiring all candidates for Federal office to file notarized copies of original documents in advance to prove that they meet Constitutional requirements of the office to get on the ballot? How about closing party primaries, if they allow crossover voting now? How about the proposed Federal Constitutional Amendment that would allow 2/3 of the states to void any Federal statute or regulation? This could be fun.
Wisconsin does not have a Wisconsin Bureau of Investigation. Instead, they have a Criminal Investigation Division of the Department of Justice. Turn them loose on the fugitives, and see if any part of the cross-border hegira violated any fiscal statutes. Criminal charges would be lovely down the line.
It is time to hit them as hard as they have hit us for the last two years. And use this to build. I understand that Ohio has a bill coming up next month to end public employee collective bargaining. A victory here, will add momentum. And if nothing else, it will eat up public employee union resources there and everywhere defending their place at the trough instead of funding the Democrats in 2012. We are fighting to restore our country. Each battle prepares the field for the next.
Subotai Bahadur
What the government can give, the government can take. It’s almost funny how shocked takers are.
I grew up in Madison during the 60′s protests, went to the UW and visited family often in the years. I believe much of what you’re seeing is play-acting of those that were too young then plus those that never grew up, all trying to re-create legends and stories of the Golden Era of Madison Protests. Too bad they also seem to be recreating the civil disruption, violence and hate of 1968 as well. Just like ’68, lots of outside agitators and thrill seakers like the Univ. of Wisc. students filling out the ranks of protesters but have no stake in the game. Its “all about them” – not the kids nor the taxpaers. Why here when NY is announcing layoffs of public employees, NJ stood up to the Unions, etc. Madison is a liberal / socialist bubble – unfazed by reality and economics – just like Berkley and Boulder.
But that’s not the best part of Disalvo’s article in National Journal. This is: (from http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-trouble-with-public-sector-unions)
“Courts across the nation also generally held that collective bargaining by government workers should be forbidden on the legal grounds of sovereign immunity and unconstitutional delegation of government powers. In 1943, a New York Supreme Court judge held:
To tolerate or recognize any combination of civil service employees of the government as a labor organization or union is not only incompatible with the spirit of democracy, but inconsistent with every principle upon which our government is founded. Nothing is more dangerous to public welfare than to admit that hired servants of the State can dictate to the government the hours, the wages and conditions under which they will carry on essential services vital to the welfare, safety, and security of the citizen. To admit as true that government employees have power to halt or check the functions of government unless their demands are satisfied, is to transfer to them all legislative, executive and judicial power. Nothing would be more ridiculous.”
Don’t be fooled into thinking there’s a first amendment right to collective bargaining.
Still, I’d sure like to see the teachers fired for striking. My guess is that’s not allowed. Does anyone from WI know what action can be taken against the teachers, or even the school districts for closing?
In 2003 Texas Democrats hid across state lines to avoid arrest by Texas Rangers.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,86820,00.html
5. PA Cat
I ask whether he is going home tonight, to sleep. He says, ‘We’re not disclosing that. My colleagues and I are not talking about that. We’re working with law enforcement’ on the matter.”
Trouble is, law enforcement is also unionized. That needs to be addressed. By which I mean “abolished”.
#38 rickl
Agreed. Meanwhile John Boehner’s house has also been targeted:
“Nearly two dozen activists from DC Vote swarmed House Speaker John Boehner’s Capitol Hill residence at 7:30 Thursday morning, chanting ‘Don’t tread on D.C.’ and ‘No taxation without representation’ to protest congressional “meddling” in the District’s local affairs, in particular a House continuing budget resolution that would cut $80 million in federal payments and prohibit the city from using local funds to pay for needle exchange programs and abortions.
‘Speaker Boehner is coming to our home telling us how to spend our money,’ Ilir Zherka, the group’s executive director, told his followers. ‘We decided to come to his house to tell him to leave D.C. alone.’
After Capitol Police officers blocked their way by using bikes to erect a makeshift barricade, the protestors remained outside Boehner’s home for more than an hour.”
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/02/group-targets-speaker-boehner-s-small-h-house
Maybe the Capitol Police aren’t unionized? [I don't know; just asking.]
…so many “Walker = Hitler” placards –i’d feel better if among schoolteachers there were a few “Walker = Talleyrand”, or “Walker = Metternich”, or “Walker = Savonarola” placards, or something.
Then, if Governor Walker were to start rounding them up and murdering them with poison gas, they’d still have “Hitler” free for the placards.
As is, they’ve already used up Hitler, and if Walker began to = Hitler in actual fact, the poor dears would have to get out the magic markers and overwrite all those = signs with “worser then”.
Dear Dr. Bones,
¿Is Cheesestán, of all places, to be new metropolis of the Whight Civilisation of the Western Race?
¡Obviously we shall have to read up on conditions north of the border! Perhaps ’tis no accident that His Smirkiness, Ronpaulrayn I, Archpontiff of Janesville _in partibus supervolandis_, has been neofunded so far above his competence. [*]
Meanwhile, though, and speaking of borders, sorta, I find myself wondering how likely a Don Ricardito de Fernández y Podhòrertz is to know much more than I about WI.
The pajamaclads should be exposed to somebooby with serious Big Management credentials, at least once in a while, credentials like these:
Go look for yourself, sir, for ¡EYE am not going to give away how that sentence comes out!
Happy days.
____
[*] Parkinson’s Law was, I believe, inspired by the U.K. Native Management Service having many, many more employees once there were many, many fewer places for the sun to neverset upon. Strictly a brainwave about the Evil Public Sector, then.
However it applies well enough to the bureaucracies of heroic secret-sector business corporations. As I recall, the honourable and gallant Lawgiver went on to make that sort of application in follow-ups to the original potboiler.
To get at His Neoëminence of the Wisconsin First, a second extension is necessary, but I find it a very easy and natural one Taking both epicycles on board at once, I have arrived at Postparkison’s Neolaw:
His Holeyness, then, is, for neolegal purposes, an overinflated secret-sector consultant.
The smirkster’s day job as as a Representative in Fedguv Congress is not completely irrelevant — I betcha his neofunders would lose interest in him in a flash if he gave it up — but it would be silly to analyze the neocomrade whizkiddie primarily from that angle. .
It’s probably a fool’s game to pick moments in history, but it’s looking ever more likely that Barack Obama will mark the apogee of the 100 year run of liberal statism.
That Rahm Emmanuel is taking on the public sector unions in Chicago is an ill wind for unionistas everywhere.
The image of the WI Dems fleeing the State Capitol to a resort hotel to avoid a vote is precious. I hope the WI voters are picking up on the way that the unionistas are trashing the public spaces after their cry fests. Hard to believe that the taxpayers are sympathetic to a bunch of hooligans who already have it better than most of them.
I hope the trend is true and that every public sector union in the country gets busted.
It somehow seems fitting that they ran to the state where A. Lincoln pioneered quorum evasion with his “Long Nine” pals in the Ill. legislature. Hope for massive change in 2012! GBUSA
“Er, Dr. Lundstromberger,” I asked, my voice quavering ever so slightly while my teeth chewed nervously on the disinterested yet somehow tubular Magic Marker in my hand, “…is it ‘Walker much worser then Hitler’ or ‘Walker worser then Hitler’?”
“Whaddaya,” thundered the small, graying, bespectacled Vise Principle, “…think I haul down FOUR hunnerd grand or somethin’?”
Subotai @33 Truly great post. May I add just one more thing. Tell the teachers that any teacher that doesn’t show up for work tomorrow without a well substantiated reason, will be considered to be on strike.
And as such will be fired, immediately.
It’s a grim thread, but just to remind you that there is hope, here’s a 7-year old girl singing the National Anthem like you’ve never heard it before.
Put on your headphones, turn up the volume, and believe.
ADE
Whatever else might get a rerun on the Left, shame, properly defined, will not. Shame requires a set of standards to which one has openly pledged oneself. The Left has none…which is why “hypocrisy” is the only sin they recognize.
Busting public sector unions is a fine thing. As I have noted many times, the very concept of a public sector union is treason: organizing and acting against the taxpaying citizens can be little else. I do hope this governor and others stand firm a la Reagan’s PATCO moves thirty years ago.
But as important as this is, don’t let it distract us from the day to day deeper problem of the Gramscian termite in the education industry. If we bust the unions we have only mitigated one problem with education. We have not fixed the curriculum deficiencies. Removing the union control is necessary but other things need to change in order to justify increases to education funding on the local or state level.
A couple of years ago I was at a gathering with some friends and one of their kids was there with his girlfriend. They had just graduated from a nearby public school noted as being a good one as far as public schools go.
Somehow the conversation got onto how religion was the “cause of wars” and such. So I asked these kids – both having graduated near the top of their class and having taken the highest level of history – which religious bent was responsible for most of the death and suffering – and with grins (literally grins) on their faces the chanted “Christianity!” in unison. When I informed them that atheism was the correct answer, and backed it up with information regarding the gulag, Cultural Revolution, and Hitler’s penchant for pre-Christian Teutonic ritual, they were dumbfounded. They had never even heard of those things. I’m not sure if they thought I was lying. One of them pouted something about the Crusades, and when I told them they weren’t some random European attack but was a response to the Muslim conquest of North Africa and the Middle East and the Christian and Jewish communites there, they said they’d never even heard of that, either.
Now, I know their parents, who, while not particularly religous, certainly have no particular animus against religion. I conclude, therefore, that their teachers are the ones who imbued them with this prejudice, and who “forgot” to teach them the whole truth about history and the motivations of the bad guys.
This same high school the following summer posted “Nickeled and Dimed” on its marquee (why do high schools need marquees?) as required summer reading. Never did I see another book posted to give an alternative view (“Scratch Beginnings”, Federalist #10, or some equivalent). Are these kids being given positive views of non-collectivist economics? Are they even being taught about them at all?
Go to the library in you local high school and you’ll find all sorts of texts supporting leftist ideals and a paucity of them supporting center right notions. Most kids now will hear (rightfully) about the Nazi atrocities dozens of times from their teachers, but will literally never hear about those of the USSR or Red China or the Khmer Rouge even once in their entire school experience.
Remember all the You-Tube vidoes of public school kids being made to sing propaganda praises to Obama? How many public school teachers are making vidoes of their kids that look like outtakes of “Triumph of the Will” in support of Republicans?
Fixing the union part of the demise of public education is necessary, but not sufficient, to fix education overall. Not until:
-Christianity is no longer attacked and demonized
-The statistics regarding atheist regimes and violent death toll are taught to all students
-Atrocities of both right and left leaning regimes are taught in amounts proportional to their brutality
-The Crusades are taught to be a response to the Muslim conquest of the Middle East and North Africa rather than a stand-alone act of aggression by the West
should any of us even consider supporting increases to education funding at ANY level.
Let the teachers and administrators fix these glaring attempts at politicizing the curriculum and indoctrinating kids to hate the center/right policitally, and to be anti-Christian bigots. De-unionize the educators. And then we can talk. Otherwise, no more more money, period.
The disgusting display in Wisconsin only shows how greedy union workers are. Sorry, folks, but in the private sector, where I come from, we ALWAYS were asked to help pay for our insurance, nobody just GAVE us a retirement fund (we always had to pay a lot into it), there were years when we did NOT get a pay raise when times were tough (although public workers now get AUTOMATIC pay raises), and my benefits stopped when I left my job (unlike government workers, who, if they work for the state long enough, can take their benefits to their graves). It’s insulting that, in these economic times, a state union worker would rather see real estate taxes rise for everyone rather than just kick in for some of their own benefits. And, don’t forget, higher real estate taxes affect everyone, even those people who are unemployed and who have lost their jobs due to the bad economy. Yep, that sure is being neighborly, letting other unemployed people suffer so that YOU can have full health benefits, full retirement benefits, and constant pay raises.
What makes you people better than anybody else? I’m sorry, but union workers were hired to do a job and if they don’t like that job they can join the rest of us happy campers in the private sector and get a job there, assuming they can find one. So stop your whining and start dealing with life like the rest of us, ESPECIALLY you teachers out there. The vast majority of the working public out there makes just as much as you do and do NOT get the benefits you enjoy. So I’m sorry if you’re not getting any sympathy from me, especially during these harsh economic times. Nobody said your union had the right to bankrupt either my state OR the country. Deal with it.
Ive never been part of a union.But i do know folks who have.In a nutshell im glad i was never part of one.All my life i made an honest living without the unions.The states maybe different than Canada, but here in Canada workers are protected by provincial law (province is the same as a state).Therefore the teeth of the unions has been removed.As a matter of fact the provincial labour board is a speedier process than the union process if i have a grievance.
A union worker on the auto assembly line makes over $20 /hr.You cant live off of that?I can live of of $14/hr for two adults AND save money for a retirement plan.I live within my means and dont cha ching a credit card.
Where is the authority here with these air contr…… ahh..teachers?
As a native Wisconsinite, I have several relatives whose pensions are vastly larger than mine, a full-disability pension from Amoco because of near-fatal food poisoning which caused permanent damage to my circulatory system. I was in the private sector and paid a lot for that disability, while the WI teachers pay nothing for pensions and disability that are far larger than mine. They make trips to Europe and all over the world while I’m spending all my money putting my kid through a private school here in Florida.
To see them whine and to watch their historically-illiterate signs and photoshops makes me wonder how in the world things came to such a pass. Teachers who are ignorant selfish children thinking nothing of taking off from their jobs to demonstrate and sit-in the State Capitol. I hope the National Guard clears them out after a decent interval.
Of course, the corrupt lamestream media says nothing of the signs concerning Hitler, while at Tea Party gatherings, every facial tic was noted to demonstrate some sort of extremist bent. Unless, of course, you bought Nancy Pee-loser’s astroturf argument.
Wisconsin is approaching Greece and California as a govt-worker’s slacker’s paradise. Maybe medical marijuana will succeed if Walker backs down and lets these layabouts buffalo him…!
Union workers get confused with the words, “Rights and Wants”. What are unions but another form of government with the same type of structure. Pres., VP, Sec., Tres., and other offices down the line to the stewards on the job. All paid with a salary and other benefits. Same, same.
There is a saying that says “a fish stinks from the head on down”. While I’m not sure I have the saying correct, I do know that when we have a defiant president who is openly acting in contempt of not one, but two federal court judges, I don’t know what else you can expect from the minions on down the line. It’s clear that when these socialists get backed into a corner and are soundly beaten, they pretend that it didn’t happen, (2010 election), they whine like the immature, puerile waifs they are, (Reid and Boxer yesterday) or they run like cowards, (Texas and Wisconsin state legislators when defeat is imminent). That is what these teachers espouse in many cases, and that is what liberalism is all about. And that is why liberalism, if not checked, always leads to fascism. That, my friends, is the road we have gone way too far down at this point, and any pullback is going to be ugly; whether it be fiscal, social or political in nature.
I say we have to get someone to enforce the stay issued on Obamacare by Judge Vinson, and then work our way down the line, firing the teachers if necessary. This is serious business. If I ran away every time there was something unpleasant where I work, I wouldnt last more than a day or two. I’d say that is good time frame for these cowards as well. Gov. Walker, we are praying for you!!!
#33 Subotai. I have always appreciated your comments and hope you don’t mind that I forwarded this one on the Gov. Walker’s office. Though he seems like too much of a gentleman to go for the jugular.
This will be the ultimate determination of who works for whom.
It is unfortunate indeed that many Americans have forgotten what regimes where the private sector works for the public really look like.
HEY
what keeps the govenor from assigning the guard or reserve forces from providing teachers to carry the load. what can be so tough about teaching 4th grade geography when they teach kids how to operate a tank ???
just a thought.
Re government shutdown
At the federal level it doesn’t mean what you the administration wants you to think. Not at all.
The SS checks keep coming. Once the paperwork is done, they are automatic. Food stamps keep working, they work on a debit card that is automatically refilled from accounts that are automatically refilled (where that money comes from is a different story).
What does shut down is the offices that process new payees. So if someone becomes eligible for SS while the government is “shutdown”, they won’t get their check until after the offices open again. Of course they will get paid retroactively for that delay, so they don’t lose any money.
The only savings is not paying the “nonessential” federal workers. Oh wait, in 1995 they also got paid retroactively. And there are lots and lots of “essential” federal employees who will keep things running. The only savings is, perhaps, electricity bills for the few offices that actually close.
The whole threat is a mirage with almost no effect on the bottom line or citizenry, but a useful political stick to beat people who would dare cut spending.
With Barry Soetero’s comments, we can clearly see what is in store for the 2012 elections.
Where are the New Black Panthers to aide the protesters in their security?
Soetero’s loving this turmoil. It plays into his master plan of creating as much chaos in America as he can. And this justifies his plan to use martial law. And it will even be ‘unionized martial law’.
America is on the brink of a coup that will tear it apart and leave it vulnerable to external attack.
And with the turmoil and international security provocations going unabated in the Middle East, and growing in intensity, we may be on the brink of another world war.
With the most juvenile, incompetent, ignorant administration, to ever occupy the highest levels of United States government, ‘We The People’ are in for some serious remedial action.
48. no mo uro:
The Crusades are taught to be a response to the Muslim conquest of the Middle East and North Africa rather than a stand-alone act of aggression by the West
On the contrary, it is written (Luke 6:29) And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.
I answer that, it takes two to tussle. Jesus once asked, rhetorically, “Why do you say to me, ‘Lord, Lord’ but do not do the things which I commanded you?” To Christians there is no Holy Land on earth, but in Heaven. But man is a rationalizing, rather than a rational, animal. When the leaders of the crusades, and their defenders, stand before the Lord on the Last Day, they will say, “It was a response to the Muslim conquest of North Africa and the Middle East and the Christian and Jewish communities there,” and Jesus, himself a Jew, will reply, “Concern for the Jewish communities, eh? Is that why you took some Jews as prisoners of war after the seige of Jerusalem and deported them to Italy, beheading or drowning many of them on the way (Goitein, S.D. “Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders.” Journal of Jewish Studies 3 (1952), pp. 162-177, pg 163)? Is that why you ransomed the ones that survived the sea-voyage, and converted or murdered the ones who were not ransomed? (Goitein, “Contemporary Letters on the Capture of Jerusalem by the Crusaders”, pg. 166)”
Make sure that part is in the curriculum as well.
The Wisconsin situation is interesting. But step back & look at it in perspective.
The union crowd (and Big Government Leftists generally) are like the people down at the levee as the river rises. Dump a few sand bags here. Quick! Run down and build up the bank there! But the river keeps on rising, and sooner or later they get flooded out.
It will be nice if the public unions lose in Wisconsin, but if they don’t …. there is always Tennessee and Illinois and California and New York and all the other States that have hit “Peak Government”.
And if the politicians don’t listen to the voters, eventually they will have to listen to the bond market. The long-term outcome is certain & inevitable.
Remember:
“It’s for the children…”
ha. not.
tom
I apologize in advance if any of the following has already been mentioned in previous posts. But I am just about out the door and don’t have time to properly review what has already been written in this thread.
1. To the best of my knowledge, Gov. Scott Walker is the “real deal” – a cross between Mitch Daniels and Chris Christie. (BTW – if you haven’t seen Gov. Daniels’ speech at CPAC, you should.)
2. I believe the core issue that has caused the unions to take to the streets is that the proposed law would stop union dues from being automatically deducted from the paychecks of state workers. A significant % of these workers will NOT voluntarily pay the dues. Many millions are at stake. As V.P. Biden would say, “This is a big effing deal”.
3. In 2009-10, Tea Partiers took to the streets to protest government acting against the will of the people. Today, unions are taking to the streets to protest government acting according to the will of the people.
#60
Truth should always be part of the curriculum. Are the letters an accurate portrayal of actual facts? Could be but we don’t know.
On balance, the First Crusade was the most noble communal effort in human history. The army that walked from France to Jerusalem was financed entirely by individuals who sold or mortgaged their property to rescue the Holy Land from the desecration of the Muslims. The deeds and indentures, by the thousands, have been preserved and are available for anyone to see.
Did individuals commit some acts that offend modern sensibilities? Undoubtedly. It is equally certain that there are some among us who cannot handle that Christians should defend themselves or make any effort to preserve what is Holy to them.
I regret only that the 2nd and 3rd Crusades were not more successful in removing the Muslims from Egypt and permanently extirpating that vile creed from the entire region. The world would be a much better place today.
I don’t see that anyone argued that the Christian counter attack against Islamic incursions and conquests of formerly Christian lands was devoid of brutality or any of the usual horrors that are a part of war. What was argued was that it WAS a counter attack and not a war of aggession instigated by Christian Europe without any provocation.
And I am sick and tired of non believers citing selectively from scripture in an effort to somehow silence or discredit believers. I assume they do this because they can find no suitable or credible arguments within their own belief system. Or maybe they are just Alinsky acolytes.
An entitlement mindset, attached to corruptly obtained pay and benefits meets reality.
Public employee unions must be banned or at the very least be stripped of their ability to put in power the people who use taxpayer funds to feather the unions beds. It is a travesty we have allowed this to go on so long.
I wonder if it weren’t for the union activism, would Obama be voting “present” from the oval office?
The Tea Party in Wisconsin should be mobilizing a counter protest to support Gov. Walker and the Republican legislators. As a former Badger and graduate of the UW Madison, I can categorically say that the University is a complete cesspool of liberal thinking. Most of the demonstrators are college kids whose working class parents are footing the bill for them to get educated, noy to occupy the state capitol building and play at being the anti war demonstrators of the 60′s. I pray the Gov. Walker and the Republicans hold their course as the “whole world is watching”!
The Gov. has a few good tools at his disposal. For teachers who brought their classes to the demonstrations there are laws like those against kidnapping, indentured servitude, child abuse, and the child labor laws.
Also, he could fire all of the teachers, a la the air traffic controllers. He would have to go into heavy rehire and substitute-teacher mode, but he could rewrite the salary and benefits regulations for the new hires. There are probably a lot of laid off and retired college graduates in WI who could do the job from just about day one.
Yeah, unions want their medical coverage to cover the cost of Viagra so that they can maintain themselves in a condition in which they can continue to screw us!!!
This is delightful. I look forward to these follies being taken forward to Ohio and New York. Maybe the demonstrators will trash downtown Madison. Hearts and minds, baby, hearts and minds. The next WI Legislature could be 80% Repub.
The most interesting reaction will be from the 25% of the workforce who are out of work or on short hours and without health insurance. Im sure they would be delighted to get somebody to cover 87% of the cost of theirs.
I really dont think it would take much for the Gov to destroy the public sector unions in WI. These riots will surely put the wind at his back.
67. SIGINTEL
The Tea Party in Wisconsin should be mobilizing a counter protest to support Gov. Walker and the Republican legislators. …
I believe that would be a mistake. If the Tea Party inserts themselves into this it will enable the left and the media to shift the focus to them rather than the teachers unions. As the adage goes, when your enemy is digging himself into a hole, don’t interrupt him.
Your comment is awaiting moderation. yeah,yeah
I want all doubters to go back and note the number of times I said that printing fiat money and the concomitiant inflation leads to war.
In the last six months, food prices have risen by over 27%. At that rate items will have tripled in three years. The size of the beef herds in America is at a fifty year low and the impact upon consumers will, inevitably, be sharp. Fuel costs, medical, you name it. Soon it won’t be hamburger helper it’ll be hamburger/dustbunnny helper.
Soon I’ll be headed back to Montana to get my garden in shape. Corn , tomatoes, squash,carrots,chickens ,pigs, and a deer on occasioin. Been stockpiling rice for over a year. Installing a new modern windmill w/ solar.
Good luck folks.
I have room for one ranch helper…female 23-30, 34B, blonde. Light housekeeping. Must be able to ride….a horse and shoot a gun. Some medical training helpful….Write HABU , Townsend, MT…..include pic
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W, you’re killing me. It use to be that when a new thread was publishd it showed up..now I find myself posting to a shopworn post, dated and moldy thread only to find out a new one has been out for 70 or 80 posts…..hey dude if you want me off your site just say the word and I’ll be an echo, but this having to check “home” to see whats what blows. Now if it’s systemic ok but if I’m being targeted , as I said just say the word and it’ll be adios.
Habu
Was This Predictable?
………….
Africa
Egypt protest hero Wael Ghonim barred from stage
Agence France-Presse
Cairo, February 18, 2011
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Egypt-protest-hero-Wael-Ghonim-barred-from-stage/Article1-663996.aspx
Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt’s uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square on Friday by security guards, an AFP photographer said. Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, the epicentre of anti-regime protests that toppled President Hosni Mubarak, b
ut men who appeared to be guarding influential Muslim cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi barred him from doing so.
Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.
Qaradawi gave a Friday sermon in the square, where hundreds of thousands of people gathered a week after Mubarak’s fall, in which he called for Arab leaders to listen to their people.
Ghonim, Google’s head of marketing for the Middle East and North Africa, administered a Facebook page that helped spark the uprising that toppled Mubarak’s regime.
Tharkun…you may be right. The government of Wisconsin has been cowtowing to the State Teachers Union for way to long, and this is the first governor and legislature who is unafraid to gore this sacred cow. The State is BROKE and the liberals and lefties in Mad-town are afraid to look at the math. They have had a free ride on the backs of the highly taxed citizens ever since the late 60′s when the State went from Red to Blue. I hope their demonstrations show what dunces they really are. Now that WISC is a Red state again, the unions are going to do what ever they can to thwart the will of the voters. The defacto shut down of the schools should not be tolerated.
The party of NO! We need to balance the budget. NO!! We need to get this system manageable. NO NO NO!!! In WI we are seeing two great liberal failures in coincidence. Public sector unions are being demonstrated as the conflict of interest they are and a detriment to those allegedly served, as in teachers in a union and the disregard for their pupils! The other is the Democrats being derelict in their duty. Of course this is their modus operandi.
It would be appropriate for the governor to a) demand a Dr’s note for the sick-out teachers, b) that the union insure that the teachers are at their assigned posts come Tuesday, or those teachers will be fires and the union certified. This is not a blanket attack on teachers. Those that deserve the title went to their classrooms to perform their sacred obligation. These teachers deserve the support that a union does not provide. Unions only protect the duds. We saw the same thing in NYC when those whos duty it was to clear the streets so emergency vehicles could attend to those in distress refused. Not honestly, but by just not doing what they were supposed to.
From the Art of War: If you can not win, then run away! It seems that the gang of 14 have already conceeded defeat in what Wretchard describes as a pivotal point in history. The next step may be about what reinforcements the union can supply, including Mr. President.
Fire them all? What a novel idea! Then the remaining legislators constitute a 100% quorum. The business of government can continue, and the legislation… with suitable additional ammendments.. can be passed and moved to the govenor’s desk for signature! Crisis resolved — Dare I say it? – in the manner suggested by Rahm Emmanuel.
it’s time to push for school vouchers again! get kids out of public schools where the union can use them as political pawns and put them in private schools of their parents’ choice. School children should be used in political protest marches…but we’re talking about democrats here, they’re the same as the othere extremists that uses women and children as shields!
I find it extremely difficult to quell my anger watching the “protesters” in televised reports. I’ve got one question for Barry, Democrats, the unions, and their MSM enablers: Who the *hell* do you think you are?
The ride’s, over guys. The voting public, I hope, is waking up to your privileged status and nation-wrecking spending priorities, and in 2012 will steamroll you and put you in your place. It’s comeuppance time, and it will be oh so satisfying to watch.
“Why would anyone believe, even for a moment, that any Western state could “pre-emptively” nuke the Muslim world when it cannot muster the will to secure its borders, balance its budget, get Pakistan to release a diplomat or get Argentina to release a C-17′s cargo load of equipment? That would be like thinking that man who can’t run 50 yards can run the 100 meter dash in 9.5 seconds.”
The problem of radical Islam is the problem of Western weakness.
Seems so self evident.
What’s really stupid about this is that I am sure that the Govt Employee protesters in Wisconsion – and in Greece, for that matter – see themselves as allied in spirit with the protestors in Egypt.
But in reality it’s the other way around.
In fact I think it was Jerry Pournelle that pointed out that the counter-protesters that attacked the ones in Egypt were pretty obviously government employees, including the ones who work for the tourism industry. That is why there were camels and horses evident – that is who has camels and horses, not John Q. Egyptian.
I see a big difference this time, compared to when Pres Reagan shut down the air traffic controllers and eliminated their union by the simple method of firing all of them. You saw people stuck in airports – and I was one – saying “Just give the controllers what they want and and let me get on with my trip. Now people are not saying that. In the midst of the worst recession for 70 years, with a jobless non-recovery, people say “There are others who will take those jobs. Kick the bums out!”
I do think the next step beyond the Tea Parties is forming local groups who will be able to fill in for missing government workers. We know about the NYC snowplow operators who went on partial strike and this morning there is news that a Tucson firefighter refused to respond to the call for help when Rep Giffords was shot.
Thuggishness is nothing knew in the union repertoire. Back in the ’50′s, my grandfather was Industrial Relations Manager for a now defunct major manufacturer. During one union protest, his car was rolled with him in it and he was beaten as he tried to enter the factory grounds to go to work.
My cousin worked for this same company 15 years later and was a skilled craft apprentice. His production was too high and he was making the slugs look bad, so the union boss took him outside and explained the system to him. This is commonplace in union practice.
The crusaders from europe were exactly one branch of one sort of christianity. they were defending their co-religionists across the sea- Outremer. FWIW, the other Christian churches, the ones to the east, thought the Muslims were loathesome predators as well. The ones to the south, the Abyssinians, were not fans, either. They were, however, weakened by being sold into slavery. While I’m at it, the pagans of the steppes- alans, cumans, mongols, all of them- held muslims in contempt for being violent, lying, grifting, dishonest with treaties, weasels who ought be wiped out. So.
It was pretty much a universal loathing, amongst all other people, against a predatorial group of arrogant liars, plunderers, lords of mismanagement… you know, the headlines today, written back then.
If you want to cite documents- there are treaties and letters between the mongol khan’s envoys, and papal legations and crusaders.
So let’s not universally pick on the brave young men who went off into the wild unknowns, offering their service to Christendom.
Indiana’s Teamster Local 414 is sending out the message on their Facebook page to show up and protest House Bill 1468 next week, sponsored by Republicans so get ready for more of the same.
Maybe they can have an exchange program where Dems hide in each others state.
Massacre of Jews during First Crusade
“It is estimated that upwards of 10,000 Jews were murdered in Europe during the first Crusade, constituting a third to a quarter of the Jewish population. (Flannery, Edward, The Anguish of the Jews, Paulist Press, 2004 pp 93-94). This is likely to be an underestimate, since genetic studies indicate a “bottleneck” in the Jewish population of Europe at this time.”
We are capable of both great good and great evil – sometimes synchronistically.
Wretchard,
Upthread it was noted that there is uncertainty as to when a new thread starts. It should be possible to add to the template links to the neighboring threads, both preceding and following. That way when a new thread starts it will be seen when the current thread is refreshed. It is possible to have that notice auto-refresh and even to have that turn on or off at the user’s discretion.
The Crusaders acted under in a reasonable cause under the standards of their times. Their conduct, murdering Jews enroute across Hungary and the Balkans, butchering and kidnapping innocents, violating treaties to raid caravans, and betraying Constantinople, often proved reprehensible and self defeating. My suspicion is that many of the worst aspects of Medieval Christendom may have been seen as being in conflict with core Christian values and might even have been absorbed by contact with invading pagan Hun or Norse and Islamic enemies. Shepherds may become like their sheep over time but they also may begin to resemble the wolves.
7. Walter Sobchak
Walter, Walter you are my new hero. I’ll smoke that cigar with you. Ewww.
In this country we have inherited from heaven knows who, it has become absent of heroes. Our history has been destroyed and our Constitution gutted. Every day I search to find heros to replace the ones taken
down by the politcal discourse in this country. Some days I find real people like Walter who speaks a language I can understand. Welcome to my herodom Walter #7. Hope those are not Lewenski cigars.
80. tanstaafl said…
Seems so self evident.
It certainly is; and that is why they will never admit it, no matter how many 9/11s nor how much innocent blood is shed.
You see, as long as they deny the reality of an advancing Islam, they do not have to live with the shame of cowardice. A cowardice so great that they will abandon their offspring to a terrible fate.
These are the kind of wonkish folk who would argue, from the comfort of home – of course, that Truman made the wrong call with the bombs.
These people are facing a daunting enemy: Arithmetic.
And no amount of politics or ideology is going to change the fact that the fiscal well is running dry.
It’s going to get worse before it’s going to get better.
#72 Habu. I’m having similar problems. I see it as PJM, not Wretchard. BC is about the only bud on the PJM tree that looks to blossom.
It was just a while back the Simon showed his a$$ here. Liberals are snaeky and when they lose a direct confrontation, they then come at you sideways. Not sure who has censorship privileges but it doesn’t make sense for a higher level to be unable to over ride a lower level.
I’m to old to deal with the BS but on the other hand I don’t want to abandon the field to an incompetent opponent.
What do they fear so that they use censorship and petty management tactics instead of open, honest debate?
All: Re schools, unions, vouchers, etc consider supporting the KIPP program (Knowledge Is Power Program). In my location they have several primary and middle schools and will eventually have more plus a high school. My wife and I now donate money in each other’s names instead of Christmas presents and I’m also giving separately, taking advantage of the tax provision regarding my required withdrawals from my SEP-IRA.
These kids learn, got to school more hours and in the summer, parents have to chip in, and the teachers make home visits. This is one of the only ways out of our current educational mudpit. Consider supporting KIPP in your area or see if you can help get it started there. You can look ‘em up on the web.
“I ain’t sayin’ you treated me unkind. You could have done better but I don’t mind. You just kinda wasted my precious time.
Wisconsin state employees don’t currently pay into their pensions and health insurance? Federal workers do. Go PATCO on these insolent cretins.
Some state employees in a number of states make incomes well in excess of top federal pay; it’s insane. It’s looting and “busting out” and should be subject to the RICO statutes. Incidentally, supposedly a majority of states receive more than half their budget revenues from the Feds, so all Americans are affected by state-level excesses.
So, Obama is supporting the hunion thugs in Wisconsin? I think it’s only a matter of time before he buys camels for these thugs, so they look more like the Egyptian government funded protesters.
nmu@48: Busting public sector unions is a fine thing.
In the “nobody had to say it” category, isolating private sector from public sector unions might be a distinction with a difference. Private sector organizational structures, however, appear to be moving towards a ‘third way’ of employee ownership. Seems to be an optimal level between the flat and the pyramidal architecture that relates to size, and probably a few other variables.
Part II of the “nobody had to say it” category, while I concede the imbalances in the compensation structures of unionized employees – public and private – structural imbalances that require remediation, while I concede that point, it is not sufficient to refocus my outrage from the brazenly corrupt behavior of Wall St financial services malefactors (rhymes with mother…) whose legacy to the world is an estimated $600 trillion derivatives portfolio, $200 trillion of which is parked in stateside liabilities, which compares how to the total unfunded pension liabilities of public unions?
H@72: Your comment is awaiting moderation. yeah,yeah
In the “somebody had to say it” category: It’s hard to believe you’re still single.
(I kid. I kid.)
While you’re reading up on KIPP, read up on Kahn Academy.
Liberate Learning from Lenin!
Enable Education to Escape Entropy!
Readin’ ‘Ritin’ ‘Rithmetic Revolution!
American education is become a great stone statue of a braying donkey, gray and coarse and heavy. Under a gray sky full of fine falling ash ugly to the eye and bitter to the taste, it wants worship.
***
PS, that’s “Kahn” Academy. If you accidentally enroll at “Khan Academy” all you learn is how to shoot Hungarian pikemen with a bow and arrow galloping bareback
James May @84,
If the brothers and sisters of Local 414 have a brain in their heads, they’ll stay home. Yeah, “if.” They’ll probably learn the opposite lesson and come out in steel-toed boots with pictures of Satan instead of Hitler.
Anyone know if WI has an open meetings law? Nevada does, and if a group of politicians congregated in a hotel, bar, wherever, they would have to prove they did NOT discuss policy. Now what’s the chance these WI senators holed up in a motel in IL did not discuss policy? Care to take a bet on that? I think these guys should be charged with violation of the open meetings law. F
Way back in grad school, I became interested in the subject of concession bargaining between the various levels of government and public employee unions. More specifically, the question was, under what circumstances and with what frequency do public sector labor unions (if ever they do) take a step back relative to their seemingly unbroken march of two steps forward?
At that time, research revealed that with the exception of New York City in the mid-1970s, the literature did not contain any examples of concession bargaining by public sector labor organizations.
Moreover, examples of concession bargaining in the private sector were exceedingly rare. What was learned is that unions would not engage in meaningful concession bargaining unless and until they recognized that the alternative was the possible loss of the employer or the industry in which they represented workers. But that was not all. The more significant finding was that, even when the unions were convinced that the employer in question was facing financial collapse, they would not engage in concession bargaining unless they convinced themselves (rightly or wrongly) that by doing so the employer would survive.
Viewed another way, the unions preferred to pick the last flesh off the bones of the employer in demise–one last feeding frenzy–rather than work with the employer to preserve something of common interest. Nothing I’ve seen in the decades since then suggests to me a change in that attitude.
One wonders, then, whether the Wisconsin and other public employee unions today simply don’t believe that there are limits to what their “industry” can and will provide them, and that government is immune to economic collapse, or whether they have concluded that economic collapse is inevitable and are now simply engorging themselves on the carcass. Either way, a line must be drawn in defense of the public interest.
Tcobb @ 29:
I the original Marxist they are called ‘wage slaves’. Slavery by any other name is still slavery. THAT is what they wish for the productive. There are two classes right now – the productive & the others – capitalist workers & government drones.
To hell with the leeches.
Deep Blue #97:
I recall that after Eastern Airlines went under the pilots picked the closed, bankrupt airline.
I also recall that when we had the Desert Storm Victory Parade in DC a group of Vietnam veterans held a protest because they never got one. By the way, for the Desert Storm Parade they put all of the Vietnam Vets who had fought in Iraq at the front of the parade.
For some people, even reasonable, intellgent people, picketing, strikes, and lawsuits is recreational in nature. Or as Obama would say, “It’s not about the money; it’s about fairness.”
I found it astonishing to read somewhere last night that the Wisconsin teachers’ union withholds the union dues from the rank and file paychecks. This can’t be true. If so, no wonder the DNC, Obama’s Organizing for America, and Richard Trumka (scheduled to speak at the WI statehouse any minute) are all taking such an active orchestrating hand. And it explains, in his backwards upside down meaning way, why Obama would say, “It’s not about the money, it’s about fairness” –meaning, of course, the opposite.
RWE@99: Or as Obama would say, “It’s not about the money; it’s about fairness.”
Very good point, IMO.
The public debate will center on the two faces of equity – financial and social.
The next ten years are going to be miserable. The only good news being that we somehow manage to contain the period of adjustment to one decade and not two.
Bearing in mind that the heaviest penalties will be shouldered by what remains of the middle class.
97. Deep Blue
One sees that phenomena in the case of the steel industry. At every turn the USW let employment crater rather than fade their benefits.
There is something that the average employee is not aware: these ultra-unions have whacko medical benefits.
By that I mean that for years the coverage provided for 100% — on everything! No co-pays of any kind existed.
What this meant for the UAW was that post-natal expenses went in orbit as each birth triggered astounding use of medical talent and capital. Today we’d call them ‘Well Baby Visits” — back then they were destroying the profits of the Big Three.
After great travail the UAW finally conceded a $5 co-pay per admission/visit. The ‘visits’ fell drastically. Billions had been wasted on unnecessary ‘health care’ that was nothing more than a social call!
Similar free-riding exists in all of the public union contracts. If that wastage were trimmed medical inflation would abate!
Viewed another way, the unions preferred to pick the last flesh off the bones of the employer in demise–one last feeding frenzy–rather than work with the employer to preserve something of common interest. Nothing I’ve seen in the decades since then suggests to me a change in that attitude.
What in the organized crime world is know as “busting out the joint.”
The link between the mob and unions is well known, as they often think alike.
YBR…
It is an illusion that the middle class will pay the most.
On current trends the Zero is busting out the currency.
The folks who take it on the chin the worst are the blue collar. They have the absolute worst bargaining position. They typically can’t even benefit by the cancellation of a mortgage by hyperinflation. And this is the labor pool most impacted by unrestrained immigration.
By the time the full damage is done everyone is a billionaire — and broke.
The only survivors end up being those with gold, silver, critical services ( doctors ), farmers, the oil patch, utilities ( electric / water ) and such.
——-
Habu — and others — predict war upon hyperinflation. There is no historical reason to believe that. Weimar Germany flat-lined and there was no war. Argentina blew up ten years ago. There was no war. Zimbabwe smoked her currency but did not trigger a war. ( Civil/tribal war has been chronic though and a direct trigger for the hyperinflation. )
However — a collapse in Pax Americana would obviously trigger rapacious activities by the despotic strong against the weak. China would simply conquer the adjacent resources as completely as military conditions permitted.
Singapore gets it.
Fred Beloit, #68:
Also, he could fire all of the teachers, a la the air traffic controllers. He would have to go into heavy rehire and substitute-teacher mode, but he could rewrite the salary and benefits regulations for the new hires. There are probably a lot of laid off and retired college graduates in WI who could do the job from just about day one.
My dad, who is 83 now, grew up during the depression, and went to a high school that had many Ph.D. chemists as high school instructors. These highly qualified individuals couldn’t get jobs in industry because of the depression, so they taught high school and played a significant part in producing “the greatest generation.” We need to always remember that the greatest generation is the one that grew up during the great depression, because we are facing just such a juncture in our history again.
I guess one could say this is Wisconsin’s Fuggediboutit Moment.
(I extend half an apology for the jokes, but:
Rumor has it the Democratic lawmakers are holed up in a Best Western in Rockford, Illinois.
Sounds like the opening line of a bad (or possibly very good) film noir script.
These folks need their own reality show.
It’s a tough laugh-cry moment.)
Boys and girls, can you say Cloward-Piven?
#108 YBR
These folks need their own reality show.
The official Wisconsin Democrat Escape Vehicle is right here:
http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2011/02/wisconsin-democ.html
db @ 97: Viewed another way, the unions preferred to pick the last flesh off the bones of the employer in demise–one last feeding frenzy–rather than work with the employer to preserve something of common interest. Nothing I’ve seen in the decades since then suggests to me a change in that attitude.
I don’t read your story as quite supporting this summary, you say they will negotiate if they are certain it will allow the “host” to survive. That is only rational, after all. Of course, the problem with government employee unions is that they cannot imagine ever killing the host, so why should they give back?
Well of course, that’s very one-sided. But your points are good in this regards – ask the union bosses, what do they suggest? Put them on the spot. Their first answer will be bluster, “Don’t balance it on the back of the working people, eat the rich, cut wastefraudandabuse.” But that don’t cut it against the current situation, where public employees are being compensated better than the taxpayers. So, get them involved in some positive way.
The thing is, the unions have all the faults of both corporations and government, and none of the virtues, and that’s why they have fallen off, and yet they serve a purpose. The outsourcing of jobs might best be fought by unions – and where are they on those issues? Slightly active, but not very, and that’s a shame, it would seem their natural fodder, and they have been just as fatheaded, lazy, and stupid about it as corporations and government. But that’s an opportunity, if they would just wake up and take it.
So, regarding the topic – they should be coopted, or crushed. Probably some of both, that being what game theory calls for. If they play well, it can be more of one and less of the other.
RWE@99: Or as Obama would say, “It’s not about the money; it’s about fairness.”
Very good point, IMO.
The public debate will center on the two faces of equity – financial and social.
The next ten years are going to be miserable. The only good news being that we somehow mange to contain the period of adjustment to one decade and not two.
b@106:
It is an illusion that the middle class will pay the most.
On current trends the Zero is busting out the currency.
The folks who take it on the chin the worst are the blue collar.
Looks like we have a failure to … synchronize our semantics.
Blue collar used to be middle class. One might argue that is no longer true. (Also, one ‘pays’ by losing ground. Incrementally, the middle class stands to lose much more than the wealthy – or the poor.)
My working definition of middle class is a household where income from wages exceeds income from capital, the two income streams receiving differential treatment from the tax code, creating further imbalance, not to even get into the subject of wage stagnation.
It’s hard to see how the shake-up (shake-down??) will occur in the absence of significant class tension.
Maybe it is time for Gov. Walker to invite all the teacher’s union protester’s to the Hippodrome and let General Belasarius address their concerns.
PA@110: The official Wisconsin Democrat Escape Vehicle is right here
Oh no. I fear another O.J. Moment.
Obama condemns violence in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen
…and not to be forgotten, Wisconsin…Which, as I recall, is a sovreign state.
I am convinced that if a tree falls in any forest, “The Mouth” will hear it. Worse, “Mr. Uni-dactyl” will feel compelled to make some b-anal statement, day or night. Does this guy ever give it a break?
Even if public employees do “make enormous contributions to our states and our citizens” (and that is arguable for a sizable percentage of them), what does that have to do with the issue at hand?
I’m with Subotai Bahadur. Start passing legislation opposed by the Democrats that doesn’t require a 3/5 quorum.
OK – I’ve now arrived at my temporary destination and will try to provide another Wisc. update:
1. as mentioned in my previous post (#63), I believe the real issue driving the protests is the clause that will stop the automatic deduction of union dues from the paychecks of state workers. A significant % of these workers will NOT voluntarily pay union dues. The stakes for Democrats and unions are enormous. AFSCME alone made $87 million in 2010 campaign contributions. No doubt, NEA and SEIU were also huge players. Democrats now have 2 major structural problems for 2012 – redistricting (gerrymandering) and diminishing union cash.
2. There is talk of a Tea Party demonstration in Madison tomorrow (Saturday). Don’t know if this is a good or bad idea or if anything will come of it.
3. Wretchard, you’ll like this one regarding “On Wisconsin!” the state rallying cry and UW fight song.
Per Wikipedia:
“At the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863 during the Chattanooga Campaign, the 18-year-old [Arthur] MacArthur inspired his regiment by seizing and planting the regimental flag on the crest of Missionary Ridge at a particularly critical moment, shouting “On Wisconsin.” For these actions, he was recommended for the Medal of Honor.”
This young officer became the father of Douglas MacArthur.
On Wisconsin!
YBR @ 95
In the “somebody had to say it” category: It’s hard to believe you’re still single.
ROFLMAO!
Blert #104:
The state of South Carolina tried that “free” approach, too. But only for a while.
My Mom worked for them at the time and she recalls one of the men she worked with saying “My wife is always going to the doctor now, for herself or taking the kids. She goes every week!”
In six months the SC State Employee medical program was broke.
#7 SOBCHAK
I’ll pass on the cigar. The remainder of ur offered solution seems abt
right and sensible. Should there be a national solution of similar
depth? Be well.
jl
Our number one near term problem is economic parasitism.
The Money Trust is at the top of a long list of economic parasites.
The government labor force — at all levels — is hugely parasitic.
One example out of many: cops being perverted into revenuers.
Further, the Democrat Party has perverted itself fulsomely so as to be embedded in the government labor force.
Their parasitism is much more damaging than welfare moms — not that they are any kind of blessing.
——
A great deal of these troubles have been induced by agents of a foreign power: Moscow.
Even though it failed with plan A, Central is still invested in plan F.
It would appear that Moscow has been entirely effective at ruining the Democrat Party.
Their machinations over in Britain have finally been exposed — and we can bet the same methods unfolded here.
Moscow simply spread the money around — promoting every young man on the make suitable to Central. They funded Tony Blair’s early entry into Leftist politics w a a y back when. Ditto for Gordon Brown. Without Moscow these boys would have had to get real jobs. Instead they were lifted up while more conservative Labor noobs were stiffed.
The Clenis fits this template perfectly. By all appearances he was a joint asset of China & Russia. JFK obviously fits the template.
Leo often mentions Primaries. Central is way ahead. They skew the field Left across the board, and have done so for decades.
The reverse is not permitted. Limited government oriented Russian politicians were beaten, man-handled, and threatened until the voting outcomes met Russian Mafia standards. ( BTW, the correct term of office for Putin is ‘Don’, not Premier.)
——-
Moscow has been copied by Riyahd. Thusly we have fanatic, radical muslims operating ( like Harry Hopkins ) right at the elbow of the Secretary of State. We have Chris Cristie promoting fanatic, radical imams with government posts. We have fanatic, radical muslims crawling all over CPAC and conservatives and libertarians are unconcerned. We’ve got a slew of muslim imams in our Army that were vetted by the traitor ensconced in Yemen.
And, more generally, we’ve got KSA fifth-columnists/ wahhabist imams from coast to coast: more than 4 out of 5 are such radicals.
Our ‘top’ defenders of the nation will not peek under the hood of the muslim brotherhood. They’re such a nice bunch of fellas that they assassinated Sadat. ( They used a cut-out opfor, of course. Why do you think Mubarak had such a hatred of them? They almost killed him, too! )
And we have idjits like Carter assuring us that the mb is not a problem. ( Nor was the Ayatollah ! )
Sweet. I can stop worrying. The Great Carter: sees all; knows nothing!
I suspect one of the things public employee unions fear most is what an end of collective bargaining would reveal about their members’ actual opinions of their unions. I’m a state employee and union member (AFSCME). To my chagrin, I had a hand in the formation of our local, when I was 26 years old and didn’t know any better. Many of my colleagues complain bitterly about having to pay dues involuntarily to what we see as ineffective union leaders. And this says nothing about political contributions with which we might disagree. If the actual strength of union “discipline” were put to a test, I believe the unions would be shaken, if not blown away by their own supposed constituency. Bring it on, guvnah!
another thought from Wisconsin:
Regarding those 14 Democrat State Senators who have fled Wisc. – how ironic that they have chosen to hang out in Illinois. And I wonder if we can deploy the National Guard to the Illinois border to stop them from coming back.
re: patco.
Mr. R. had a fallback that most did not appreciate (including, surprisingly, the patco union leadership). Turns out the military had its own (air defense mission) assets for completely observing (and managing) U.S. airspace. If whatever remained on duty on the civilian side wasn’t capable of deconflicting everything the DoD was there to “help.”
Granted, the schools are so bad now wrt 3Rs and coaching everyone to “better their best time” (applying athletics meme to mental and mechanical gymnastics) that we’d be better off with the able and older students teaching the younger and less-able, and using something like the http://www.khanacademy.org tools to gauge their progress and direct remediation. Those in the national guard could certainly keep order in such a classroom if not teach directly.
Hmm. We could (1) dissolve the current day-care centers masquerading as schools (let a few them remain daycare for those students unwilling and unable to learn, staffed with diaper changers and disciplinarians – until of an age they can be placed into the menial labor pool, they could also practice handling shovels and lifting correctly), (2) create an “educator” profession (like medical doctors), encourage those who apply to form doctor-like small (2-5) educator practices and deliver direct education both general and specialist (for parent (or state in tragic situations) paid fees less than current state education tax and subsidy which will enrich these educators far more (2x) than today). Plus they get to write off their business (and/or rooms in their home) as business expenses. The rest of the “features” of the existing school system should be spun off as voluntary civic organizations (sports, clubs, etc.).
We could also (3) establish a (private) system of bonding and credentialing individuals. Turns out employers have been litigated to death wrt personnel hiring practices (in the US). So the current credential system is corrupt to the point it has no value. No (meaningful) references. No examination of transcripts beyond total grade point, field-of-study and institution, often-times w/ big name institutions acknowledging they don’t test.
A private sector credentialing system could assure and insure that a student meets certain employer requirements (for a period of performance, say their first 18 months “or your money back”). Funded both by the students / applicants and a (voluntary) association of employers (that set standards, tests, (aural and practice) examination and certification panels, etc. Put this style of credential up against Podunk U and even Harvard and employers will vote with their wallets. The legacy institutions will claim guild privileges but the (education) bubble is upon us – not only because it costs so much and delivers so little but because it now does not work for the large middle and upper quartile of our population (few, if any students are driven (like they were 50 years ago) to the point they fail, and then coached to succeed beyond, over-and-over).
This is the real message behind tiger mothering and the like. And why we are getting our clocks cleaned by asian students entering our post-secondary education system (where far too many of our best students from our best ex-urban high schools find themselves a year behind in STEM (skills, not intelligence) – so they most often detour into a non-technical, non-science discipline. Which wouldn’t be bad, save we’re sending the brightest technical graduates home because of our immigration policies.. and the non-technical disciplines seldom invent/design/build anything. Aka jobs.
Some uncertain day in the 1990s the following enlightened me on the rise of the American government caste: In Lancaster, Ohio, the courthouse perches on a hill, next to St. Mary’s Church. You drove down an ally between them and parked in the new courthouse’s parking lot (the new building was a sort of annex next to the old, mid-19th century courthouse). It was quite convenient, and Fairfield County being what it was, there were always a few open spaces to park in. Sometime in the 1990s, then, I was going to the courthouse for something or other and low and behold, the parking lot was no longer open to the public. It had been made over to the county employees. Where to park? I drove on to the side street that intersected the ally, and it had only one way, to the left. It immediately dumps you onto Route 22, the main east-west drag through town. Well, I got to that intersection, and across 22 I beheld an old, vacant lot that had a sign ‘Public Parking for County Business’.
It was where the county employees used to park.
All incensed at having to both drive across and then walk back across 22, I wanted to begin a letter writing campaign to the local Beagle and raise cain about this change. It was a hassle for me to have to drive cross 22 and then walk back, but it would be more than a hassle for any old folks. Especially irksome, the parking lot next to the courthouse had the names of each county commissioner in their specific slots, and the bosses of each petty bureaucracy. It smacked of boasting their importance.
This was the beginning of my nirvana enlightenment: the tables had been not so subtly reversed. The county employees no longer worked for us, but we worked for them. I could only imagine what the state employees thought about themselves, or the Feds.
Saddled with real life, I didn’t get around to writing a single letter. I am still ashamed of myself for not doing so. The various people I knew locally to whom I spoke about it just shrugged. ‘You can’t fight city hall’ was apparently an old attitude. The animal farm pigs had realized the other varmits had no fight in them, so no wonder the swine oinked it up.
Another Wisconsin update:
It looks like the Tea Party is moving forward with plans for a rally tomorrow (Sat.)
Guest speakers so far (I am not familiar with all of them):
Andrew Breitbart, Jim Hoff, Ned Ryun, Herman Cain, Vicki McKenna.
They are still working on lining up additional speakers.
Just In From Ace- Half the House Republican Caucus and almost all the Leadership voted with….you guessed it … .. the Democrats to block an addition $22 billion in spending cuts that would have given them a measly $100 billion in cuts.
Wow, what squishes! It’s not like the economy is going over a cliff or anything. Oh but wait, it is!
Why vote Republican anymore? Are any of the leading Republican candidates for Pres opposing in any meaningful way the “economic parasites” as blert so nicely put it? Not on your life. The Republicans make me sick.
#60 Teresita
One passage. For one situation. The definition of spin is taking one small bit and trying to make it the whole. Congrats, you’ve nailed it. Or maybe your so into Taoism that you don’t really understand Christianity?
I could just as easily take the passage about Jesus beating up the moneylenders and make it universal. Would you agree with me doing that? Of course not. The intelligent, honest, mature thing to do is realize that there are times for turning the other cheek, and times for anger and action – and that Jesus told us that we must acquire the wisdom to know which is which.
Learn some history. Christendom tried “turning the other cheek” for centuries with the Norse pagans, and it did nothing. After suffering through years of rape, pillage, plunder, and murder, they turned to the “throw out the moneylenders with violence” way, and within 100 years the Vikings were Christianized and a part of Western Civilization. It was impossible that that could happen if they kept turning the cheek forever.
But enough about that small point. I’ll concede that the Crusaders did not always act like angels, and that should be mentioned in teaching. Should public schools teach that the Crusades – humanly flawed though they might be – were an unprovoked attack by Europe on the ummah, or should they teach that it was a response to a savage Muslim conquest of Christian and Jewish communities in North Africa and the Middle East?
Because they are NOT teaching it now. Or perhaps you’d prefer they continue to withold that information from students?
And to my even greater point – do you agree that there is a blackout in teaching our children about the atrocities of the left, particularly those done by the atheist regimes in the USSR and Red China?
Can you concede that collectivism is preached over free enterprise, all at taxpayer expense?
Can you at least admit that the education industry is rife with the promotion of bigotry against all but the most exsanguinated and emasculated forms of Christianity?
TD@123: If the actual strength of union “discipline” were put to a test, I believe the unions would be shaken, if not blown away by their own supposed constituency.
If the divide between constituency and union leadership is significant, then what we are watching is truly little more than staged theatrics – whipping up a Mad Max class warfare frenzy.
If it is not, then what we are watching, in response to “modest and reasonable” legislative proposals, strongly suggests that a large portion of the American middle class is a few gears short of a full paradigm shift.
I honestly don’t know, but the stench of artificiality is strong, either way.
On the scene today, thru the tube that is, the leadership optics went to Walker over Trumka by a very long shot. Walker at a presser calmly going through the issues and timelines systematically and thouroughly, without notes, without rancor, always returning every facet of every issue to the underlying principle. Trumka on the other hand, red-faced, angry, screaming stupid slogans into the mike and waving his arms around like the Bolshevik wind-up toy he is, said nothing text-wise but plenty otherwise: Just Be Angry and Extreme.
***
Lest blert in #122 sound like lonesome Tailgunner Joe, allow me to stand beside him.
The Corruption of the Middle Class.
Is what the Gramsci/Bezmenov thesis boils down to.
As opposed to The Corruption of the Elites (for lack of a better descriptor.)
Pure genius, if true.
Or one might pose the qualitative question of which is worse?
Gonna be fun sorting that one out.
But I agree. Gov Walker’s presentation has been impressive – so far. One would almost guess that he’s being groomed.
For something.
(RE: NJ Gov Christie’s Muslim judge appointee. There must be a back story. That was what? a matter of weeks for the fall from grace?)
Things are indeed happening very fast.
YBR @ 130: If the divide between constituency and union leadership is significant, then what we are watching is truly little more than staged theatrics.
I think that is at least part of the truth here. Many union members (not only in the public sector, but maybe especially there) are well aware that unions have their own interests which diverge significnantly from those of the membership. Why else have closed shops and compulsory “fees” even for people who take the trouble to state in writing they are not members?
I think if a showdown comes there will be many surprises across the board, and some of them very pleasant ones.
TD
TD@133: I think if a showdown comes there will be many surprises across the board, and some of them very pleasant ones.
I hope so. Demonizing the unions is tantamount to demonizing the middle class (or a large chunk of it.) Politics will not be decoupled from the labor force until the tax code treats income from wages as equivalent to income from capital. The current health care/pension benefits were intended to compensate for tax code imbalances between the two income streams.
Which is not to say that union compensation structures can’t be improved, as per the ‘modest and reasonable’ proposals of WI Gov Walker.
Seems to me that Wall St has a similar issue with compensation.
Of substantially different magnitude.
I’m not expecting any surprises there.
The senators should be encouraged to stay in Illinois. They will be able to read about their recall elections in the paper.
@29 Tcobb The class divisions in traditional Marxist theory didn’t really in practice constitute a zero sum game, despite the theory. It was possible for the rich, the middle, and the poor to gain in material standards of living at the same time. Although the model said it couldn’t happen, it did.
The theory didn’t say it was a zero-sum game. That was just the story line for the masses. The theory said that the working class would become progressively relatively more miserable; they’d get richer, but the rich would get richer faster.
I recommend Thomas Sowell’s book Marxism. It’s a very good explanation in a short volume.
Brian: 14 dollars an hour?
Where do you live? I have a family of four live in an apt. I make 40 and hour and barely get by, altho I do save 20% so that I can continue to live in my present grandeuer of going to pollo loco twice a month when i am older.