In Wisconsin this week, Republican hack politicians in the same class as Chris Christie, Nikki Haley and Haley Barbour are under siege by crowds of union workers who learned something from Cairo. They learned that you don’t just cave because the Republican party and their Republican governor along with virtually every Republican politician in America wants to destroy American unions.
Related Posts
September 14, 2012 -- Papantonio: Republican War Hawks Salivating Over Libya
April 10, 2013 -- Papantonio: Standing With American Labor (VIDEO)
October 26, 2012 -- The Anti-Union Platform of the Republican Party
June 15, 2013 -- Papantonio: The Republican Economic Reign of Terror (VIDEO)
(Visited 2 times, 1 visits today)
Keith Olbermann reported in last 2 weeks of December, I don’t know exact date, on WI Gov Walker plans for taking away collective bargaining rights except salaries except for 3 unions that supported him. Link still works from my bookmarks. Policy that Walker, Kasich and Christie following from conservative group American Legislative Exchange Council ALEC. Keith refers to alecwatch . org in the video clip for more background about ALEC and a NY Times article the same day as Keith’s clip about Repub governors blaming unions for their budget problems. NY Times too compromised by ALEC donors advertising their core businesses I guess. The ‘wall of separation’ between editorial and advertising in journalism (including between donor and editorial content in NPR/PBS) has gotten lower as dependence on ad sales or corporate donations has grown. That’s what House of Reps made worse by eliminating NPR/PBS funding again on Fri Feb 18. Rpbs in 1995 tried the same budget cut.
I recorded a copy of the clip myself in case the link stops working from my bookmark.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/#40917627
I recalled Mike and Bobby talking about how Corporate America uses their employees to send emails to Congress anytime there are bills that corporations are against. These employees are told to sent the emails or lose their jobs. Unfortunately, if you receive an email from your “constituent”, you don’t know if the person is a real concerned citizen or an employee of the corportation who is against you. You want have to have an intel center like the police intelligence center or the Air Force as you have pointed out and in the article you gave to find out about that person.
Sadly, the technology that we devise to track terroists and solve crime is being used against us.
Chris, I know what the reality is now thanks to Reagan and Bush, Jr. have done not to mention the Barry Goldwater has been planning for conservatives to take back America in 1964 and continue by his future leaders like Lee Atwater, Dick Cheney, and Karl Rove.
want to know how bad this gets, G:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/02/guest-post-you-know-those-obnoxious-posters-who-almost-seem-like-alter-egos-of-the-same-person-they-actually-might-be.html
..G,
what has been done in C.A.F.T.A. and South America is how I learned poly-sci..it is horrendous, and as Naomi Klein has elucidated, it IS coming here-by the same Milton Friedman neocons-”Project For A New American Century” fundamentalists
who did South and Central America, just as G is noting..
..and then there’s a “democratic” president so corporate bought and sold he won’t take a proper stand with the American people…(and didn’t with Egyptians either)
G,
what you are describing is important, BUT it won’t change things..I have been defining CLASS WARFARE for nearly 35 years. That’s where we are-we don’t know our history, as you note-it is full of anti-union violence, claims union people are commies-which fundamentatlists are doing yet again.
Look folks, this IS DISASTER CAPITALISM-Rethugli$$K$$ans CREATE a disaster..they KEEP ON creating them-that’s what Wisconsin really is..and what was it before-Tuscon, shooting
of legislator, before that immigrants, before that..look folks, THIS IS CLASS WARFARE as Rethugli$$K$$ans are playing it under the direction of their corporate masters today..and it will get a LOT uglier..
The police depts in the U.S. ARE more “authoritarian”, and are being hooked up to satellite surveillance systems my Dad was integral in creating and instituting…you can be seen and heard from outer space, even through walls…this system is going national…workforces are being monitored more and more frequently-why? During 20′s workers who stood together
were thrown out of work-SCABS crossed lines to do the work, SOOOO, workers BURNED railroad cars, buildings, destroyed rails, etc.
Folks, THAT’S CLASS WARFARE, and that’s where things are going, but it’s a LOT different this time, and corporate masters know it..better get your reality on…
There was a movie title The Prince of the City starting Treat Williams which was based on a true story of corruption in the NYPD 77th Precint. Of course, we all know the Scepio story.
I’ve never much liked electricity. Even static cling upsets me….(okay, I’m a wimp, but STILL)….
G, very interesting comments!!!
As far as I am concerned, the police need to be policed, themselves, and then we can trust them more.
That said, I wouldn’t want a world w/o cops. We Need them. That doesn’t mean they should have the arrogance that many do. For good cops, it’s extremely noble, because they are in a profession where arrogance can easily go to one’s head.
And we’ve seen, on RoF the abuses of stun guns. They scare me a lot. I HATE that cops have them. A cop might hesitate – one would hope – much more carefully, before he draws his regular gun, Only using it in the most dire of emergencies.
But many cops seem to think stun guns – I forget the proper name for them – are okay to use much more frequently.
Tasers! That’s it. What a horrific thing to give officers.
Back in the 1960s, the European protestors did beat up the cops in large numbers where in our country it was the reverse. It is too bad our people can’t be violent when necessary and send the cops to the hospitals, then the cops will get the message. I admire the people in Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Central and South America for their bravery in taking on both the military and the police. But when they have nothing to lose and everything to gain, they were willing to pay the price even at the cost of their lives.
I saw the Bolivians protest the privitazation of their water in the Canadian movie The Corporation. The Bolivian government with Betchel’s assistance told that people that they were not allowed to even collect rain water during the winter season. The massive protest lasted for 3 days and the army and police shot at the people and killed some; however, it seem after the 3rd day they lost their stomach for killing or the government carve in very quickly. I am surpise more people were not killed considering the police and army had carte blance to do anything they want to the protestors and not face reprecussions.
Even if cops know about their own history of corruption, they would denied it or say it is the work of a few cops. The trouble is that these few cops occupied too many key management slots that prevents any kind of having a clean, honest department. On that http://www.officer.com website, I read a story last year about the FBI taking down an entire Illniois or Indiana police department (18 officers including the chief) because they were all corrupt. Where was the state police and/or the sheriff department in cleaning up that department or where they were afraid of being ostrazied by other police departments in the rest of the state and country?
Many cops don’t know the history of corruption in their own department whether it was being pay off by organized crime, Corporate America, rich people, corrupt politicans, or running their own little racket. Furthermore, you turn in a cop, you might as well turn in your badge, because in America, we all have been raised of not being a snitch/rat rink/stool pigeon, etc.
I remember the 1930s Little Rascal comedy series where kids got pick on because they turn in their fellow kids to the teacher.
Yeah, Mara, it kind of like the cops years ago, where if you got rape, the cops would blame you for it unless it happens to be their own daughters.
Mara, the own reason why I talk back to the cops online is because it is the only way to fight back. On the streets, it is a different story. In Europe, I could get beaten by the cops; however, I know that my fellow protestors would not hestitate to beat the cops up, and they know I would do the same for them if they got beaten up by the police.
Chris, it is impossible to have empathy for cops when they do not have any empathy for you despite the fact that the cops and the civilians both want the same time in terms of salary and benefits; however. In addition, cops are alway saying that unless you walk the streets as a police officer, then you have no idea of what the police go through. I would tell the cops that unless they go through what a teacher goes through in their jobs, then they have no right to tell teachers how to do their jobs or what a teacher’s job is really like.
Besides, too many cops are too hard core conservatives, and as Mike pointed out repeatedly, it is impossible to talk and convince these people these days that they are wrong and they will not listen to you.
I work for an agency that contain many law enforcement people and they think that they are the only ones that should have good wages and benefits while the rest of us suffer and many of them shove that in our faces. Furthermore, many of them hate their uinon despite the fact that it was their uion that goth them their wages and benefits by supporting politicans in return for such items. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
“These are good people about to be placed in very bad circumstances by their corporate masters.”
Chris, what about the American people being place in bad circumstances by both Corporate America and our government? They did not have a say in the free market and/or political system nor were they ever going to be treated as equal partners in the business and government arena. I sorry Chris, but I can’t agree with you on your remarks. Cops have been getting away with murder, lying on the stand, and violating people’s rights in both bad and good circumstances for way too long of a time.
O.K., I train with some really fine police, including the psycologist for dept. These are good people about to be placed in very bad circumstances by their corporate masters.
This comes from one who grew up viewing them as “pigs” during Vietnam era. They are doing a job I wouldn’t do, and that is fact. But most especially, during such times, I wouldn’t do that job.
Everyone should have known 10 years ago this is where things would go-I told many..and here we are. These guys are still
my friends, as are those conservatives-ex-military, good people, who are in DENIAL..having no idea their own implication in making this all happen..
But folks, let’s all have empathy for those in uniform…and then convince them they are wrong…Gandhi..I’d rather walk into nightsticks yet again, looking them in the eyes, than
confront them with anger..
G, also,
I admire how you give these cops back some of their Own – I would not have courage for it, even online, but you have a right to your views and to express them.
I’m not anti-cop, but cops can easily get way too arrogant.
chris writes:
“People should be sick, sick, sick of fundamentalist Milton Friedman-University of Chicago free-market should regulate itself economic idealogues..”
“but of course many Americans have no idea of the actual historical context this implies…”
I Heartily Agree with both views!!!!!
G -
I went to the site and read the cop response – typical “blame-the-victim” – first he (I’m assuming it’s a he) tells you that it’s Your fault – All our faults – for voting in the Wrong type of politician!
THEN he says to vote Republican!
Jesus, Joseph & Mary!!!
At any rate, The Koch Bros Bought that Walker election, is My understanding of it.
The cops are para military so they tend to be Very conservative.
It’s a shame – they are working class, more or less, too.
And They vote Against their own best interests, ultimately, Too.
“The police – that is some battle to be in. They are sworn to uphold the law, and Walker is using them to uphold HIS LAW.”
http://www.officer.com/online/article.jsp?id=56673&siteSection=1&&cPage=2&OrderBy=InsertDate&Dir=ASC#post_msg
I put a comment on this story on officer.com and some smart aleck cop tried to put the blame on people like you and me for putting corrupt politican. I responded back to that idiot with two comments of my own.
Mara states the important-it was the Rethugli$$K$$an Governor
cutting business taxes, attempting to CREATE the lack of funding for his corporate contributors-THEN BLAMING union and
state employees-who CAUSED the entire public reactions..
This had better be a huge lesson to right-wing privatizer-business tax cutters, who have literally legislated taxbase,
which once stood at 23% of total U.S. taxbase, now down to 3 1/2%..these extremists are destroying civil society, just as “W” knowingly destroyed the middle-east, his own father stating HE wouldn’t do so…
People should be sick, sick, sick of fundamentalist Milton Friedman-University of Chicago free-market should regulate itself economic idealogues..
but of course many Americans have no idea of the actual historical context this implies…
NR,
Thanks for the petition! I signed.
G,
The police – that is some battle to be in. They are sworn to uphold the law, and Walker is using them to uphold HIS LAW.
Where are the right wing milita in supporting the protestors. How come they are so absent from providing support since they are so ant-government?
The Guardmen and the police officers better be prepare to face real beating and even death from normally law-biding citizens who can be driven to the point of violence if they are push too far. When this is all over, how many people will ever cooperate with the police to solve crime and how many people will be turn off by soldiering and they will not support any kind of benefits such as the GI Bill for the soldiers?
Here’s a petition letter for us all to sign in solidarity with the protesters in WI:
http://act.boldprogressives.org/sign/sign_wiunion/?source=auto-e&referring_akid=a6155700.27213.8khmAt
EXCELLENT PAP ATTACK!!!!
Taking to the streets is still a scary idea, but sometimes it’s the only way.
Very cleverly, Walker has not targeted the firefighter or police unions, as Sue wrote.
I just read a Fascinating article on how the Wis. budge is not even so bad off – quite the opposite, in fact – but Walk has decided to give 140 million for his pet projects which amount to lining the pockets of the rich:
“In its Jan. 31 memo to legislators on the condition of the state’s budget, the Fiscal Bureau determined that the state will end the year with a balance of $121.4 million.”
“To the extent that there is an imbalance — Walker claims there is a $137 million deficit — it is not because of a drop in revenues or increases in the cost of state employee contracts, benefits or pensions. It is because Walker and his allies pushed through $140 million in new spending for special-interest groups in January. If the Legislature were simply to rescind Walker’s new spending schemes — or delay their implementation until they are offset by fresh revenues — the “crisis” would not exist.”
The article is entitled: “Walker Gins Up “crisis” to Reward Cronies”
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/editorial/article_61064e9a-27b0-5f28-b6d1-a57c8b2aaaf6.html
Mike hits the nail on the head: when people can’t take it anymore, they take to the streets.
If people are not too badly beaten down, they take to the streets, where they may face very Real beatings and even death.
But the anger at what the Scott Walkers and Chris Christies are doing should Not be under-estimated!
NR writes:
“…but initially, this was sparked by a fallafel vendor in Tunisia who couldn’t take any more of the harassment by the Tunisian police – quite similar to how Rosa Parks sparked the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 50?s and 60?s.”
Great comments, NR!!!!
This was another great Pap Attack! I wonder if Gov. Walker will have the decency to listen to all those protesting against the passing of a REAL job killing bill. Otherwise, he could be recalled in about a year.
Also, lately I’ve been thinking that with the political arrogance that has gone on for the Bush/Cheney years, since Bush told America to go shopping shortly after 9/11, I wonder what would have happened if LBJ said that same thing shortly after JFK’s assassination and not have passed the Civil Rights Act (at least not right away at that time)…
As for my state that has a GOP gov., I may have to keep an eye on him should he start cutting benefits to state employees like my dad (my mom and I are county gov’t employees, which has some of its share in budgetary constraints).
I’ll view this video soon. From the head of it, it should be noted that it’s not just Egypt’s example Wisconsin is following, but initially, this was sparked by a fallafel vendor in Tunisia who couldn’t take any more of the harassment by the Tunisian police – quite similar to how Rosa Parks sparked the Civil Rights Movement in America in the 50′s and 60′s.