This Is A Big F__KING Deal---This fight is for all of us!!!

[kpete]

February 22, 2011 08:00 AM
The Politics of Envy
By Mike Lux

http://crooksandliars.com/mike-lux/politics-envy



..........

This fight is for all of us; it is about preserving the American middle class and our ability to organize collectively. It is about human rights. It is about focusing the blame for the economic crisis where it belongs, on bankers and policy makers, not teachers and cops. And the fight isn’t just in Wisconsin: All over this country, the conservative movement is trying to take away our rights, and everywhere in America, we should be showing solidarity with our embattled brothers and sisters in Wisconsin.

Here is a list of rallies happening this week to show support for the protesters in Wisconsin. http://action.seiu.org/page/s/solidarityaction%E2%80%9C Go to the one closest to you, take your family, take your friends. This is a big deal.

Let me repeat that: This Is A Big Deal. Given the money and entrenched power of corporate conservatives, progressives are not going to win anything that matters in the coming years unless we do what the protesters in Wisconsin are doing and go far beyond the usual call-and-petition-your-member-of-Congress tactic. We are going to have to be creative, we are going to be bold, we are going to have to incredibly dogged and determined. Just like Wisconsin. Just like Egypt. And the powers that be in both political parties will have to listen if we are.; it is about preserving the American middle class and our ability to organize collectively. It is about human rights. It is about focusing the blame for the economic crisis where it belongs, on bankers and policy makers, not teachers and cops. And the fight isn’t just in Wisconsin: All over this country, the conservative movement is trying to take away our rights, and everywhere in America, we should be showing solidarity with our embattled brothers and sisters in Wisconsin.

http://crooksandliars.com/mike-lux/politics-envy

..............

(keep THESE handy!)

How screwing unions screws the entire middle class.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/income-inequality-labor-union-decline

.................

We live in a country where corporations can anonymously funnel billions of dollars to affect the outcome of elections that decide who their regulators are and who oversees them. But according to Brooks, we're supposed to see public worker unions, one of the few remaining institutions standing between American democracy and runaway oligarchy, as a singularly sinister influence on the body politic. It's not that Brooks is some hippie idealist who doesn't think money has any place in politics, he's merely wrinkling his nose at the idea of public workers having a say. Silly workers, democracy is for Wall Street.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/plum-line/2011/02/draft_4.html

................

Wisconsin Union Fight Is Really a 15-State GOP Power Grab
Gov. Scott Walker's fight with the unions isn't a simple Wisconsin issue, but a 15-state Republican campaign to strip workers of their rights, says former Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-20/wisconsin-union-fight-is-really-a-15-state-gop-power-grab/

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[polichick]

2. Speaking of a big fucking deal, when is the veep going to Madison? nt

[patrice]

3. +!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tansy_Gold]

4. Why I was/am

still furious about the Wisconsin union members "caving" to Wanker's demands for concessions:

I don't think most people -- including most people in Wisconsin, regardless which side they're on in this -- understand that a very strong comfort level is at work here. In Egypt, in Tunisia, in Libya, there is a huge and very visible portion of the country living in poverty. They have nothing, or very little, to lose by revolting. Americans, for the most part, have a LOT to lose. Even at 15% unemployment, 85% of those who want to work are employed. We have the legacy assets of a 50 years of a strong middle class to provide economic cushion. We have abundant consumer goods. While (too) many of us are on food stamps, there is abundant food available.

But I also think that if things don't change, there will come a point at which a very unwelcome change will be thrust upon us, and it will entail a cataclysmic collapse into true third-world economic status. Chinese ownership of natural resources (Texas oil fields, Canadian oil sands, etc.) and similar operations will turn the U.S. into essentially a colony to be exploited.

Not only would that destroy our comfortable American way of life, but it would perhaps effectively asl destroy the American political dream of social and economic equality.

Am I a doom and gloomer? Maybe. Or may just someone who CAN imagine the possibility of bad things happening and can prepare to meet them.


TG, TT

[snappyturtle]

31. I think we're already at a tipping point. Americans are awakening from

their complacent slumber. When you mention legacy assets I think about mine and those of my friends....these assests if not gone are quickly eroding. As for abundances of consumer goods and food, that may well be true, but if one can't afford them the abundance is not important.

Now that the WI unions have conceded higher costs of their health care and retirement programs, there will be less discretionary income to buy the 'abundances' and that has got to hurt the economy. In the meantime, the corps and banksters, who caused the shortfalls are being given carte blanche control of their employees lives. imho

[FreakinDJ]

5. average real wage less than it was in 1972

[Tippy]

6. This is a big deal....if we snooze we loose on this one....

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Initech]

19. No - if we snooze, we *permanently* lose on this one.

[BobbyBoring]

7. It's a hugh deal

and we have so much to fight. The RW blah blah radio is screaming about all the money unions give to Dems. Sorry, but it doesn't put a pimple on the ass of what the new invisocorps threw in last election.

Ask a right winger what Citizens United is and they've never heard of it. We have to stop the disinformation campaign too.

if not we're doomed~

[Name removed]

8. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Modern_Matthew]

9. We need to adopt the principle of necessity over luxury... n/t

[Matariki]

11. Charisma Cat sez all ur hartz r belong to me!

;-)

[mod mom]

12. Where is VP Biden using those exact words?

[TBF]

14. Right here -

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/23/a-big-fucking-deal-bidens_n_509927.html

So transparent.

[Jakes Progress]

13. What would be a big fucking deal would be if Biden

would put put a little action behind his potty mouth.

Let's see his ass outside the courthouse in Madison. That would be a big fucking deal.

[hay rick]

18. That would be like picking one side over the other.

Our side. Don't hold your breath while you're waiting for either Biden or Obama to show up.

[Jakes Progress]

20. A side would be nice. Hopefully ours.

I do get it that neither the pres nor the veep can really do something like show up and picket. i do. But there is no real sense that they care much. DU is full of those who say that it would be "unseemly" for them to pick a side. That is just an excuse. They pick sides all the time. Just not ones that show something meaningful. Too careful. Too timid.

[lonestarnot]

15. kick

[swilton]

16. BRING IT ON!

[girl gone mad]

17. k & r

:kick:

[Major Hogwash]

21. They will reduce ALL wages after they break the unions. And then we are just indentured servants.

Nothing more than that.

[upi402]

22. Like fighting NAFTA but with a hangover

"Don't FUSS with me" - Mrs Doubtfire

[ipaint]

23. No, it's about the middle class and a subset of workers collective bargaining rights..

It's about people who don't want to be "pushed into poverty" but does not in any way address poverty.

Win or lose until the middle class includes the poor and the working poor in their "revolution" nothing is going to change.

[Hubert Flottz]

24. Let's hope for a "NEW DEAL!"

America is tired of the raw deal.

[Le Taz Hot]

25. Most of the events in my state are over with; however,

I signed up for notifications as, according to the SEIU website, new information is being added regularly. I'm hoping there will be a LOCAL event this Saturday.

Edited to make sense.

[deacon]

26. They started a national war on workers in the middle of an employment crisis.

[4dsc]

27. This is what a true grassroots effort looks and feels like

compared to that fake shit put on by the teabaggers. Keep this up till the next elections.

[certainot]

28. there's a walker cheerleading

radio station near everyone to picket at. and their local sponsors need to be asked if they agree with team limbaugh's racism, sexism, lies, and global warming denial.

and do your state universities give credibility to those radio stations by broadcasting sports on them?

[disillusioned73]

29. " Silly workers, democracy is for Wall Street."

I like that... k&r:dem:

[steve2470]

30. k&r nt