The Almighty Unions

[Coito ergo sum]

Morticia - would you mind terribly providing a response to a question? I've provided answers to all your questions, but you just ignore mine. That's not cricket.

[.Morticia.]

you aren't under any obligation to respond to me

further, i mostly post questions and statements to provoke thought and general discussion

[Warren Dew]

Moreover, everywhere communism has been tried, it results in the most authoritarian regimes you could find. It seems that there hasn't been one communist attempt that got past capitalism and went through statist socialism straight into a stateless/classless communism. Has there? Every one stops at the authoritarian regime stage.

Well, China went through statist socialism and straight into free market capitalism. Does that count?

[Warren Dew]

In the context of previous discussions here what is typically called communism by the resident nut is Stalinism/statism and totalitarianism.

Clarify, please: by "resident nut" are we talking about you or sandinista?

[Coito ergo sum]

you aren't under any obligation to respond to me

further, i mostly post questions and statements to provoke thought and general discussion

Very true. And, based on that, I won't.

[JimC]

The idea that the USA had a "John Wayne" political theory is a bunch of crap, anyway. It's no more realistic for you to suggest the US is either libertarian or "John Wayne" style than it is for Seth to suggest that western European socialism is the same as Marxist Communism.

And that was my intended little bit of humour!

[sandinista]

In the context of previous discussions here what is typically called communism by the resident nut is Stalinism/statism and totalitarianism.

Clarify, please: by "resident nut" are we talking about you or sandinista?

I think the reference is to Warren Drew and/or coito.

[JimC]

In the context of previous discussions here what is typically called communism by the resident nut is Stalinism/statism and totalitarianism.

Clarify, please: by "resident nut" are we talking about you or sandinista?

I think the reference is to Warren Drew and/or coito.

A little further to the right than that, I suspect...

[sandinista]

This post was made by Seth who is currently on your ignore list. Display this post.

See, what you don't understand is that I'm not talking TO you, I'm using you as a foil in a debate aimed at the lurkers.

haha, you and the "lurkers"...who are these mysterious "lurkers" and do you really think, if they exist, they actually do anything but have a good laugh at your posts?

[sandinista]

In the context of previous discussions here what is typically called communism by the resident nut is Stalinism/statism and totalitarianism.

Clarify, please: by "resident nut" are we talking about you or sandinista?

I think the reference is to Warren Drew and/or coito.

A little further to the right than that, I suspect...

to the right? never considered myself or Morticia the "right" More right than coito? Drew? ...hmmmm resident nuts, there's so many to choose from. 'zilla? JimC? Ian? Shit, it's a whole bag of mixed nuts around here.

[egbert]

Anyway, to hell with sterile academic debate as to whether there ought to be unions...

They're fucking here to stay, so deal with it, bloated plutocrats!

See you at the other side of the barricades!

Yeaaahhhh...not so much. Ohio just passed anti-public-sector-union laws. It's going to snowball.

Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions

As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here.

Mother Jones is reporting that much of the funding behind the Walker for Governor campaign came from none other than uber-conservatives, the infamous Koch Brothers.

What’s more, the plan to kill the unions is right out of the Koch Brothers play book.

Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. Several of these groups have urged the eradication of these unions. The Kochs also invited Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union outfit, to a June 2010 confab in Aspen, Colorado;

Via Mother Jones

If you are reluctant to believe that this is a coordinated attack, consider this-

This afternoon, Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin Public Workers Union, sent a message to the Governor’s office agreeing to the cuts to pension & welfare benefits sought by Walker in his bill. The governor’s response was “nothing doing.” He wants the whole kit and kaboodle – the end of the collective bargaining rights of the public unions.

http://blogs.forbes.com/rickungar/2011/ ... ic-unions/

[Seth]

Anyway, to hell with sterile academic debate as to whether there ought to be unions...

They're fucking here to stay, so deal with it, bloated plutocrats!

See you at the other side of the barricades!

Yeaaahhhh...not so much. Ohio just passed anti-public-sector-union laws. It's going to snowball.

Koch Brothers Behind Wisconsin Effort To Kill Public Unions

As the nation focuses on the efforts of Governor Scott Walker to take away collective bargaining rights from public employees in Wisconsin, new information is coming to light that reveals what is truly going on here.

Mother Jones is reporting that much of the funding behind the Walker for Governor campaign came from none other than uber-conservatives, the infamous Koch Brothers.

What’s more, the plan to kill the unions is right out of the Koch Brothers play book.

Koch-backed groups like Americans for Prosperity, the Cato Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Reason Foundation have long taken a very antagonistic view toward public-sector unions. Several of these groups have urged the eradication of these unions. The Kochs also invited Mark Mix, president of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union outfit, to a June 2010 confab in Aspen, Colorado;

Via Mother Jones

If you are reluctant to believe that this is a coordinated attack, consider this-

This afternoon, Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin Public Workers Union, sent a message to the Governor’s office agreeing to the cuts to pension & welfare benefits sought by Walker in his bill. The governor’s response was “nothing doing.” He wants the whole kit and kaboodle – the end of the collective bargaining rights of the public unions.

Of course its a coordinated attack on public sector unions. So what? The very existence of unions was a "coordinated attack" on taxpayers.

The implication that it's somehow unsavory for anti-public-sector-union forces to get together to petition for redress of grievances and change the law is hilarious, and a typical example of Saul Alinsky propaganda argumentation.

Guess what... conservatives and Libertarians have rights too, including the right to take over the state houses and enact laws that comport with those political ideals, even if they do annoy Marxists and union bosses.

Live by the democratic vote, die by the democratic vote. The worm has turned, you see, and Marxist/Progressives are on the ropes. Hopefully we can destroy them root and branch this time.

That's politics. Get used to it.

[egbert]

Anyway, to hell with sterile academic debate as to whether there ought to be unions...

They're fucking here to stay, so deal with it, bloated plutocrats!

See you at the other side of the barricades!

Yeaaahhhh...not so much. Ohio just passed anti-public-sector-union laws. It's going to snowball.

There is a world outside Merka...

Who cares? I'm fine with socialists driving their economies into the ground and trying to steal people's property, because capital flows away from taxes and confiscations. So long as the US can remain a haven for investment by destroying socialism, I'll be perfectly happy watching the rest of the planet descend into proletarian egalitarianism.

A systematic plan to create the illusion of stability and provide no-risk profits to the mega-Wall Street banks was implemented in early 2009 and continues today. The plan was developed by Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner and the CEOs of the criminal Wall Street banking syndicate. The plan has been enabled by the FASB, SEC, IRS, FDIC and corrupt politicians in Washington D.C. This master plan has funneled hundreds of billions from taxpayers to the banks that created the greatest financial collapse in world history. The authorities had a choice. This country has bankruptcy laws. The criminally negligent Wall Street banks could have been liquidated in an orderly bankruptcy. Their good assets could have been sold off to banks that did not take their extreme greed based risks. Bond holders and stockholders would have been wiped out. Today, we would have a balanced banking system, with no Too Big To Fail institutions. Instead, the years of placing their cronies within governmental agencies and buying off politicians paid big dividends for Wall Street. Their return on investment has been fantastic. The plan has been as follows: In April 2009 the FASB caved in to pressure from the Federal Reserve, Treasury, and Wall Street to suspend mark to market rules, allowing the Wall Street banks to value their loans and derivatives as if they were worth 100% of their book value. The Federal Reserve balance sheet consistently totaled about $900 billion until September 2008. By December 2008, the balance sheet had swollen to $2.2 trillion as the Federal Reserve bought $1.3 trillion of toxic assets from the Wall Street banks, paying 100 cents on the dollar for assets worth 50% of that value. In November 2009 the Federal Reserve and IRS loosened the rules for restructuring commercial loans without triggering tax consequences. Banks were urged to extend loans on properties that had fallen 40% in value as if they were still worth 100% of the loan value. By December 2008 the Federal Reserve had moved their discount rate to 0%. For the last two years, the Wall Street banks have been able to borrow from the Federal Reserve for free and earn a risk free return of 2%. The Federal Reserve has essentially handed billions of dollars to Wall Street. When it became clear in October 2010 that after almost two years of unlimited liquidity being injected into the veins of zombie banks was failing, Ben Bernanke announced QE2. He has expanded the Fed balance sheet to $2.6 trillion by injecting $3.5 billion per day into the stock market by buying US Treasury bonds. Bernanke’s stated goal has been to pump up the stock market. While taking credit for driving stock prices higher, he denies any responsibility for the energy and food inflation that is spurring unrest around the world. The Federal Reserve has increased the monetary base by $500 billion in the last three months in a desperate attempt to give the appearance of recovery to a floundering economy.

http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/News/086 ... friend.htm

[Seth]

A systematic plan to create the illusion of stability and provide no-risk profits to the mega-Wall Street banks was implemented in early 2009 and continues today. The plan was developed by Ben Bernanke, Hank Paulson, Tim Geithner and the CEOs of the criminal Wall Street banking syndicate.

You might want to make note of the fact that the Fed, and Bernanke, and everybody else you're pointing out here are products of left-wing Progressive politics. The Federal Reserve was put in place by Woodrow Wilson and the Progressives, and conservatives and Libertarians have been attempting to wrest power back from the Fed ever since. We may be on the cusp of doing so, thanks to the malfeasance of Obama, Bernanke and the other Progressive criminals who are conspiring to destroy the US economy in order to erect socialism in its place.

[egbert]

Live by the democratic vote, die by the democratic vote. The worm has turned, you see, and Marxist/Progressives are on the ropes. Hopefully we can destroy them root and branch this time.

That's politics. Get used to it.