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The Corporate/GOP Attack on America's Middle Class
The most revealing comments by politicians are rarely revealed. This is because they're made in unrecorded conversations, when politicos let their guard down.
However, in a recent sting, blogger Ian Murphy recorded a revealing phone call he made to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Murphy pretended to be David Koch, the far-right-wing billionaire who pumped more than a million dollars into Walker's election last year. The governor is very busy, but he spent 20 minutes regaling the fake David Koch with details of his effort to kill the collective bargaining rights of state workers.
For example, Walker's power play was being blocked by 14 Democratic senators, who have left the state to prevent any Senate action. Walker giddily told "Koch" that his legislative troops were ramming through a rule to require all senators to pick up their paychecks in person, apparently assuming the 14 absentees would care as much about money as he does and rush back.
The governor was especially excited about his scheme to use state workers as political pawns: "I've got layoff notices ready (for five or six thousand employees)," he exulted, delighted to sacrifice them as pressure on the senators to return.
"Beautiful," responded the Koch masquerader, who then suggested "planting some troublemakers" among the crowds protesting the governor's union-busting.
"We thought about that," Walker assured him, but dropped the idea because "the public is not really fond of this." Besides, he said, the public's protesting is "not going to affect us."
"Well, good," said the billionaire imitator, adding, "Once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out (to California) and really show you a good time."
Now this offer from his super-rich corporate co-conspirator really excited the guv.
"All right," he replied, "that would be outstanding. Thanks a million!"
Actually, Scott, Koch is into you for more than a million, which explains why Walker's autocratic attempt to abrogate the democratic right of public employees to bargain with their governmental bosses is not wearing well with the public.
Recent polls show that a mere one-third of Wisconsinites favor his blatantly political power play and that if he had told voters in the last year's election that he intended to do this, he would've lost.
After only one month in office, Walker's approval rating has plummeted, and he's become a national poster boy for right-wing anti-union extremism — indeed, he's so out of step that he's even being jeered by democracy fighters in Egypt!
Yet, Walker is but one of a flock of far-right, corporate-crested Republican governors and congress-critters who're waging an all-out class war on unionized workers. It's a shameful effort to bust the wage structure and legal protections that support America's already endangered middle class.
In Washington, for example, loopy GOP leaders are out to abolish the legal mechanism through which workers can form a union and have their bargaining rights protected. Meanwhile, war-whooping Republican governors in Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana and elsewhere are slashing the health care and pension benefits owed to public employees, blaming these middle-class workers for their states' fiscal messes.
But state budgets have been depleted by the economic crash caused by Wall Street greed and massive tax giveaways to wealthy elites — not by a firefighter's pension or a teacher's health plan.
And check out Nevada, where the Chamber of Commerce is even pushing to eliminate the minimum wage. This corporate-funded Republican assault is not about fiscal responsibility. The corporate powers intend nothing less than to dismantle the entire framework of America's economic democracy and return us to the dark days of Robber Baron plutocracy.
To the barricades, people!
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Show AllNaomi Klein is on Democracy Now this morning talking about the Shock Doctrine and how the Republicans are using it to ram through their repressive, repugnant policies. I highly recommend everyone here take some time to watch it.
Scary stuff.
NC-Tom
I watched DN every 5:00 am Pacific time on LiveStation. Excellent show today. I came away, thinking aloud, it's time to raise up now. Everyone calls in sick Just ONE DAY, takes a paid sick leave, or vacation. If more than 40% of the working class committed to it, they can't fire if more than 40% participate it?
Just thinking aloud!
Pay your taxes by credit card on the last filing date.
And don't overlook the other regressive items in Walker's "budget repair bill";
Medicaid cuts
Selling off Wisconsin's public power generation plants to Walker's cronies (no competitive bidding required either).
Abolishing child labor laws
The list goes on...
If Walker's budget repair bill" succeeds, his next action will be to sell off municipal water rights and water systems to his cronies.
raydelcamino, bogi666, brothers and sisters
I just receive an email from Timothy Karr Campaign Director Free Press Action Fund. I keep on pounding, Obama is worst than Dubya. Bit by bit our freedom and right were striped away on the pretext "just a start", or "as a starting point". Like Obamacare, Social Security and more.
When will you all wake up to realize The Democrats and Obama are really worst. The Repug are no better. We need the Democrats on the other side, rallying everyone, create hell and a mass demonstration never seen before in the USA.
It's hard to take the BOLD move and vote again Obama and the Democrats. I would love to see a strong 3rd party.
"Dear XXXXX,
Minutes ago, members of the key House technology subcommittee voted
to give phone and cable companies absolute, unrestricted power over the Internet.."
http://techdailydose.nationaljournal.com/2011/03
/markup-scheduled-witnesses-ann.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/07/opinion/
07mon3.html?_r=1
Pay your taxes by credit card on the last filing date.
Pay your taxes by credit card on the last filing date.
The following are my paraphrasing of Mr. Hightower.
DO NOT look at the role of the federal government and the democrats in destroying your future.
Focus on the individual GOP state's egregious behavior.
The GOP did all of this by themselves.
Our only hope is to maintain the illusion.
I love kissing ass.
Can't argue. Jim does well at writing informative articles, but still has that fatal flaw; he is a proud democrat.
It is hard to overcome, I find myself doing it all the time even though I've been an independent an green and just switch to dem so could vote in Oregon Primary in 2008. Just blaming the republicans when a good majority of dems are complicit. Please forgive me for my past and future mistakes.
birdbrain: bang on bro. you hit the nail on the head
both parties are owned by the oligarchs, financed by them as well and we have seen what these low lifes will do for some campaign capital - anything. they'd sell their mothers for a contribution
because we see the same old shit in so many states right now - the attack on the unions and public workers - we can assume that this is a co-ordinated effort of the cokehead brothers and a few others
as long as we put up with it - they will continue to do it
they must sit back at dinner and laugh their asses off over how stupid amerikans are
the amerikan sheeple wouldn't know what's in their best interest if it came up to them and kicked them in the ass with a steel toed muckluck
For some reason it just popped into my head that the democrats and the republicans are just playing the good cop/bad cop game on us in the name of the oligarchs. Both work for the same boss and both are out to screw the little guy whenever they can in the name of those oligarchs. Their styles are different, that's all.
Didn't you know? It's all part of a vast political conspiracy. Every odd month of the year, on the full moon, at 2am, they gather in secret session, to lay out their routine for the next 2 months. They're smart. They don't trust e-mail and hackers. The fact that they have never been exposed in this, allows us to see how ruthless and powerful their operation has become. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
I would be very interested in hearing this conversation. Does anyone know if/where it is available?
Here it is if anyone wants to listen: http://www.pissedonpolitics.com/?p=3804
People can start their trip to the barricades by stopping first in the election office and changing their voter registration to something other than dempublicans.
Find the Green Party in your state or town.
Jim Hightower has been a loyal member of the Texas Democratic Party for his whole career, and has even been an elected official (Agriculture Commissioner, or something like that). Even though he concentrates on attacking the Republicans, he's good at it and is a communicator whose ideas deserve to be heard even if he won't include the Obamanations in his attacks.
I once saw Molly Ivins and Ann Richards talk in a theater about the absurdity and challenge of being a Texas Liberal. Like Hightower, both were funny and that made their communication valuable.
I've overheard people say that if Hightower were to somehow (due to some sort of weird miracle) become the Democratic Candidate for President, they'd vote for him. I might be among that set. I might, under those circumstances, violate my pledge never to vote for or support another Democrat as long as I live and longer. I'd be willing to make an exception for Hightower.
"But state budgets have been depleted by the economic crash caused by Wall Street greed and massive tax giveaways to wealthy elites — not by a firefighter's pension or a teacher's health plan."
Amen!
What early risers Birdbrain Alley... , Buck, and Paranoid Pessimist said.
I truly strive not to be too caustic or bitterly dismissive of pundits like Hightower.
My sense is that persons whose careers keep them out in the political pasture studying the livestock's day-to-day antics, and occasionally doing a little wrangling of their own, don't cultivate much appreciation of, or facility for, detached theoretical, ideological, or idealistic analysis.
I'm forever sneering and snarling at political pop culture's modern mania for amoral, pseudo-pragmatic "realpolitik". But even I recognize that some people acquire an honest mind-set, or grounding, in "practical politics" that limits their perspective.
As I recall, the late, great Molly Ivins had this orientation; she pretty much accepted the political terrain and rogues' gallery of politicians at face value, and didn't truck much with observations about duopolies, overarching capitalism, or deep politics.
When that's who you are, it just seems foolish or futile to waste time wishing for, or arguing over, what ought to be-- or even what needs to be to establish a more perfect union. It's an instinctive lesser-evil, incrementalist perspective that sticks to working with what you've got and making modest improvements where you can.
To mix a metaphor: one can sometimes refrain from tossing out the baby with the bathwater, but still take the baby with a healthy dose of salt.
"....but still take the baby with a healthy dose of salt."
You're not going Swift on us, are ya?
Well, I WAS politely implying that even well-meaning partisans like Hightower need a Swift kick in the ass once in a while.
Were the 2010 elections really a referendum on spending? Really? To listen to the right-wing politicians right after the election, it was a referendum about Obamacare and Obama policies. However since the economy is improving, unemployment is down, jobs are up, and some of the new health care initiatives are coming to fruition, the GOP had to find something else they could hang their hat on. The sad fact is that the “spending” rhetoric of Republican Politicians is an old and worn out one. They drag it out whenever they can’t come up with something better.
The deepest spending cuts proposed by Republicans ($200 million and up) fall into 3 main categories, environmental, law enforcement, and low-income, targeting EPA, USDA, and COPS (funding for law enforcement in tribal communities which also includes programs for violence against women.
These spending cuts proposed by the Republican leaders are not about cutting spending, they are about cutting vital programs for the poor, various non-white ethnic groups, women, children, and independent farmers.
Here is the test of where allegiances lie: Does the extension of the Bush tax cuts promote the well-being of those who are in need? Does it support sustainable environmental practices? Has it created jobs? Has it helped the economy? Does it do anything to make our country better at all?
I would like to share a couple of articles that further expand on the madness (as least financially if not political) of the points Jim raises.
This one explains the assault on the unions and the working class:
"The Real News on Jobs"
http://robertreich.org/post/3638565075
And this other one explains why:
"We Can (And Must) Make Wall Street Pay"
http://makewallstreetpay.org/news/2011_0307b.html
I intended to post excerpts from each article but can't due to the asinine 1,000 word limit. I realize that everyone here knows these things but it's always good to see them all in one tidy space and with figures so that it can be measured quantitatively rather than abstractly.
More cud-chewing.
Z-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-------z...
I think it's important to face the fact that the point man in the ongoing assault on the middle class is The President of Wall Street.
The good-cop-bad-cop kabuki is relentlessly staged, but the man who is doing the real damage is the President. Barack Obama, that model of Orwellian reverse-speak, is the current shill for the dark forces of corporatism, militarism, and financial criminal enterprise. The myth that there are two political parties in this country should be forever put to rest.
I hope to live long enough to see the people of this country out in the street with pitchforks, looking for savvy suits and Cole-Haans.
The title of this piece should be:
'The Continued Corporate/GOP Attack on the Middle and Poor Classes'
Not that anyone gives a hoot about our 50 million strong Poor Class anymore.
Either we decide those suffering from the mental illness called Uncontrollable Greedism may no longer be permitted to allow their sickness to destroy the lives of millions, or not.
Would you feel safe if serial killers were permitted to be police officers?
"Poor Class" -- good term. As more and more of the so-called Middle Class, who are actually part of the Working Class, get foreclosed and evicted down into that Poor Class, we might see concern for them increase.