Special Commentary by Big Dan: "Why are average people on the 'right' anti-union? I'm starting to believe they themselves don't even know why. They are just repeating what Republicans and rightwing media like Rush Limbaugh say, which is to be anti-union. But when you really think about it, being anti-union is for being for low wages unable to sustain a family. The only reason I can think of for people on the right being anti-union, average people (not millionaires or business owners), is that they think the companies will go to Mexico or overseas to China if they pay too much. So what they are fighting for are LOWER WAGES FOR THEMSELVES if they are anti-union. This does not make any sense to me. Further, the MINIMUM wage in this country is much higher than what they can pay in Mexico or China or overseas, SO COMPANIES WILL GO TO MEXICO OR OVERSEAS ANYWAY because paying Americans slave minimum wages, wages so low they can't sustain a family, are actually STILL too high for American companies. Why should American companies pay the minimum wage of around $7.50/hour, if they can pay someone in Mexico or China or some 3rd world country 25 cents an hour? So people on the right are fighting for lower wages because they think: "LOW PAYING JOBS ARE BETTER THAN NO JOBS", but THAT is also a false thing to fight for because: "JOBS IN MEXICO & CHINA & 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES PAY 25 CENTS AN HOUR" so you will lose your job anyway. But in the meantime, before you lose your job to someone in China or Mexico for 25 cents and hour...you'd rather make slave wages in the meantime, unable to sustain your family? Instead of fighting for a wage able to sustain your family? I posted on FaceBook, because I have many friends on the right: 'IF YOU'RE ON THE RIGHT AND YOU'RE ANTI-UNION, PLEASE POST WHY'. I can't wait to find out why. I haven't seen any responses yet. Maybe they don't know why. Or maybe they're just repeating what Rush Limbaugh says, and when someone like ME actually asks them why they're anti-union, they don't know why! WHO ARE YOU FOR: RUSH LIMBAUGH OR PEOPLE JUST LIKE YOU??? I have this message to my FRIENDS ON THE RIGHT, and I have many, and I can truly call them my friends: instead of getting on this rightwing media bandwagon of saying, 'Unions should be paid less like ME and have benefits cuts like ME', say: 'I SHOULD BE PAID MORE LIKE UNIONS AND HAVE GOOD BENEFITS LIKE THEM!!!' We should ALL get paid more and have better benefits and U.S. corporations should stop shipping jobs overseas and paying children 25 cents an hour!"
Two rightwing media LIES being pushed:
1. Wisconsin union wages are higher than private sector:
keep in mind while you're watching this, even if FOX WASN'T lying and private sector was making less than govt unions, FOX certainly wouldn't be encouraging the private sector to want to RAISE their wages up to union workers, they are egging on the private sector to say: "LOWER THEIR WAGES TO SHIT WAGES LIKE WE'RE MAKING!!!" and knock down the higher wages...NOT raise the lower wages. even though what FOX is saying below isn't true, does it look like they're saying: "PRIVATE SECTOR WAGES SHOULD BE HIGHER LIKE GOVT UNION WAGES", or does it look like they're saying: "GOVT UNION WAGES SHOULD BE KNOCKED DOWN TO THE LOWER PRIVATE SECTOR WAGES"? you watch this and decide for yourself, but FOX is pushing the LOWER WAGE WORKERS to get mad at the HIGHER WAGE WORKERS...isn't that form of "class warfare" (or let's call it "wage warfare") they're encouraging? FOX "news" and Rush Limbaugh encourage lower paid workers to attack higher paid workers, instead of encouraging lower paid workers to fight for higher pay:
Right-Wing Media Push Misleading Stat That WI Public Employees Make More Than Private Workers
2. Americans are against unions 2:1 -
USA Today poll: Americans are for Unions 2:1
FOX "news" LIES and tells their viewers that the same exact poll says Americans are AGAINST unions 2:1 and puts up the following FALSE graphic:
Is Fox's Distortion Of Gallup Poll Premeditated Lying Or Across-The-Board Incompetence?
This is why you can't argue with people who watch FOX "news": they think LIES are "news". How can you argue with someone who says, "I SAW IT ON FOX NEWS! AMERICANS HATE UNIONS 2:1!!!"???
From a CONSERVATIVE news site:
This is not about unions or teachers or public versus private. This is about a government and banking system that sees the solution to all their self-inflicted problems as taking away something from Americans. Taking away high-paying jobs, taking away homes, taking away credit, taking away education, taking away freedom of speech, taking away privacy, and now taking away collective bargaining. Always the mantra from government and the banks remains the same, "You must make do with less, so that we may have more!" And every time the American people make do with less, to give the bankers and government more, the bankers and government, encouraged by their success, simply demand more "sacrifice."
The people of Wisconsin have drawn a line in the sand not just for teachers and not just for public workers, but for all Americans who have watched the proceeds of a lifetime of work looted to pay for Wall Street excess, the war machine, and obeisance to Israel. The people of Wisconsin, as should the entire nation, are saying, "Enough is enough. We will surrender no more. We have been pushed to edge of starvation and poverty to where fighting back is the only option that makes any sense at all."
Watch: LIVE STREAM of what's going on in Wisconsin:
Video clips at Ustream
WATCH: 75,000+ protesters converge on Madison, Wisconsin
Watch live streaming video from theuptake at livestream.com
May 1933: Hitler Abolishes Unions
Independent Egyptian Unions Express Solidarity with Wisconsin Workers
TRANSLATION:
(The sign in the background shows faces of some of the recent young victims of the Mubarak government. The writing says they are among the martyrs of the 25 January Revolution.)
KAMAL ABBAS: I am speaking to you from a place very close to Tahrir Square in Cairo, "Liberation Square", which was the heart of the Revolution in Egypt. This is the place were many of our youth paid with their lives and blood in the struggle for our just rights.
From this place, I want you to know that we stand with you as you stood with us.
I want you to know that no power can challenge the will of the people when they believe in their rights. When they raise their voices loud and clear and struggle against exploitation.
No one believed that our revolution could succeed against the strongest dictatorship in the region. But in 18 days the revolution achieved the victory of the people. When the working class of Egypt joined the revolution on 9 and 10 February, the dictatorship was doomed and the victory of the people became inevitable.
We want you to know that we stand on your side. Stand firm and don't waiver. Don't give up on your rights. Victory always belongs to the people who stand firm and demand their just rights.
We and all the people of the world stand on your side and give you our full support.
As our just struggle for freedom, democracy and justice succeeded, your struggle will succeed. Victory belongs to you when you stand firm and remain steadfast in demanding your just rights.
We support you. we support the struggle of the peoples of Libya, Bahrain and Algeria, who are fighting for their just rights and falling martyrs in the face of the autocratic regimes. The peoples are determined to succeed no matter the sacrifices and they will be victorious.
Today is the day of the American workers. We salute you American workers! You will be victorious. Victory belongs to all the people of the world, who are fighting against exploitation, and for their just rights.
Don't Let Wisconsin Divide Us ... Conservatives and Liberals AGREE About the Important Things
Wis. unrest exposed GOP strategy to split lower classes, liberal author says
SURPRISE!!!!!!!! GOP Gov. Walker funded by billionaire rightwing Koch bros.
1) Koch Brothers get their puppet Governor Walker in power
2) Governor Walker gins up a crisis
3) Democrats and Progressives take the bait and counter-protest on collective bargaining
4) Governor Walker will compromise on collective bargaining if the rest of the budget is passed as is
5) Bill passes, with trojan horse give-a-way to the Koch Brothers nested in
6) Koch Brothers will buy Wisconsin state-owned power plants for pennies on the dollar in closed unsolicitated bids for which there will be no oversight
7) Koch Brothers get the best vertical monopoly in a generation
The Koch Brothers' End Game in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: Funded by the Koch Bros.
Dodd, Chomsky, Celente and Military Brass Warn of Revolution in America
‘The public matters!’: Wisc. State Rep’s fiery speech against Walker’s leadership:Wisconsin State Representative Gordon Hintz may be on the cusp of viral fame for this incredibly impassioned speech against the shady parliamentary procedures his statehouse had been engaging in since the election of Gov. Scott Walker.
Chomsky: Wisconsin may be ‘start’ of US revolt
What's Happening in Wisconsin Explained
Wisconsin: Tea Partiers, Breitbart Coming To Fight Unions
http://www.wearewisconsin.org/
Ohio’s turn to revolt: Thousands flood statehouse over anti-union bill
The Republican strategy is to split the vast middle and working class - pitting unionized workers against non-unionized, public-sector workers against non-public, older workers within sight of Medicare and Social Security against younger workers who don't believe these programs will be there for them, and the poor against the working middle class.
Republicans attack unions to hurt Democrats: analysts
Right-Wing Media Freak Out Over Union Protests In Wisconsin
Limbaugh Calls Union Workers "Freeloaders" As Opposed To "Real Working Non-Unionized People"
Rush Limbaugh: "We're either on the side of the Wisconsin protesters, or on the side of our country" -
Oops: Fox News Airs Chants Of "Fox Lies" From Protesters In Wisconsin
Fox Falsely Blames Public Unions For WI Budget Shortfall*
Ohio’s turn to revolt: Thousands flood statehouse over anti-union bill
Fox Slams WI Protests But Cheered Tea Party Protests
This afternoon on Fox News, Your World guest host Chris Cotter interviewed Dave Westlake about the massive protests over the legislative impasse in Wisconsin regarding government employees' collective bargaining rights. As you can see in the screenshots below, Westlake was identified by Fox News as a "Wisconsin parent" and the organizer of a pro-Gov. Scott Walker (R) rally this weekend. Not mentioned once during the segment was the fact that Westlake ran for the senate in Wisconsin in 2010 as a Republican, losing the GOP primary to now-Sen. Ron Johnson.
Fox News Interviews "Wisconsin Parent" Dave Westlake, Doesn't Mention 2010 GOP Senate Run
Don't think for a moment that the Koch Brothers were not directly responsible for urging the firing of Keith Olbermann - timed just prior to their planned assault on labor. Can you even imagine the broadcasts that Keith would be making right now to attack the Kochs and their direct role in the Wisconsin fiasco? Draw the direct line from one event to the next. They sure as hell did. - plunger
Don't think for a moment that Palin & Bachmann were not selected and groomed by the Rockefellers to serve in key FEMININE roles along with Newt, Rush, Beck and others ON THE MASCULINE SIDE to compel the middle class to change their thought process relative to entitlements, social security, health care and labor. - plunger
Ray McGovern: FOX LIED...there was no "heckler", I was SILENT while Hillary was speaking, and was roughed up and forcefully taken out while Hillary spoke about "freedom":
Ronald Reagan gave big tax cuts to the wealthy.
So it is dramatic that Reagan's director of Office of Management and Budget - David Stockman - calls the Bush tax cuts "the biggest fiscal mistake in history".
Specifically, Stockman told Dylan Ratigan that Bush's advisers forecast a $5 trillion surplus over 10 years. But "two unfunded wars and a Fed engineered housing bubble later", we're in a $ 5 trillion cumulative deficit. So Bush made a $10 trillion mistake.
Stockman said extending the Bush tax cuts won't stimulate the economy, the fact that the tax cut extensions will expire on the eve of the 2012 elections will panic politicians and force them to renew them yet again, and that "we're destroying the economy on Uncle Sam's credit card.
Ron Paul - who has very strong conservative credentials, and who won the Presidential straw poll at the Conservative Political Action Conference two years in a row - recently said in his CPAC speech:
We’re going to continue to bail out, we’re going to continue to spend the money, nobody wants to cut. I am sure that half the people in this room won’t cut one penny on the military, and the military is not equated to defense. Defense spending is one thing, military spending is what Eisenhower called the “military-industrial complex” and we have to go after that.
***
But let’s say government, as you all, I am sure would agree, is out of control, and it’s very hard for us to get a handle on it. So let’s say we even theoretically, and a miracle happens and we balance the budget where we are today, it would be still a disaster because we’re spending too much money. But it wouldn’t change a whole lot. When a crisis comes, guess what happens? Guess who does the bailing out? The Federal Reserve used $4 trillion to pass out without congressional approval and most people say “Oh, well that’s the Federal Reserve’s job to do that.” No, it is our job to check up and find what the Federal Reserve has done, audit them, and find out who their buddies are that they’re taking care of.
***
The Federal Reserve creates money out of thin air, they can loan to banks, central banks of the world, to other governments and international financial institutions and we’re not even allowed to know. They resent the fact that when I ask these questions, that they don’t have to give us information. That’s why the bill to audit the Fed is the first step to ending the Federal Reserve.
***
I think and I believe that we have had way too much bipartisanship for about 60 years. .... It’s the bipartisanship of the welfare system, the warfare system, the monetary system, the challenge to our civil liberties, it all goes through with support from both parties. So there’s way too much bipartisanship. This should be a challenge of the issue of philosophy – good philosophy versus bad philosophy.
***
But where I think we go astray on this exceptionalism is there are some people and sometimes they’re referred as neoconservatives and they’re sort of neo-Jacobins where they believe that we have this moral responsibility to use force to go around the world and say, “You will do it our way or else.” Well force doesn’t work, it never works.
