Torch and Pitchfork Time Again

Yesterday, in Wilmington, CA, a working-class town near the L.A. ports, a man who had lost his job killed his wife and children, and then himself. Also yesterday, Peabody Coal reported record profits — from a business that, left unchecked, will help make the Earth unliveable except for cockroaches. What better time to try to smash what’s left of the U.S. labor movement?

I have zero faith in the passage of EFCA. I mean, everybody is going to war on this one, and the whole idea of a “secret ballot” is intrinsically appealing to people. Not that anybody gets what forcing a secret ballot means in practice (e.g., your common WalMartesque unionbusting mandatory staff meetings, just before the vote).

And I get this creeping sense that union membership ain’t going to rise that much even with card check.

@Dodgerblue: We’re nearing a situation that Roosevelt experienced: putting the New Deal in gear was a way to try to mollify an angry, frustrated, desperate public which might have turned to real (not the fake the GOP accuses Dems of going toward) socialism, communism, or fascism had things not changed — or if there had not been something that appeared to be addressing the problems. Ultimately, World War II ended the Depression and the memory of it kept Keynes at the forefront of economic thinking until Friedman’s bunch got put into play.

One hopes that there is not an attempted business coup like the one Prescott Bush collaborated in. The Unicorn is in eternal peril.

rptrcub: We know this much: no matter what he does, he’s going to get accused of socialism — even if his course is positively Clintonian, and even though the government has been in the business of business since forever.

He might as well step on the gas and just do it. No half-measures — full speed ahead. We got the votes in the House, and the Senate will eventually come around. We try it for a few years, and if it works, the shift from center-right to center-left is actually real and the Reagan era takes the burial it has truly earned.

/TJ/ Liberal leader up there in Canada says “mebbie” to PM Blimpie’s Budget of Crack. Point is to not overthrow Blimpie but to get something he wants. Who’s a good opposition leader? You are! Yesyouareyesyouareyesyouare!

@chicago bureau:

The most hee-larious thing about the Harper budget is that now the Conservatives are shamelessly 100% in favor of everything they adamantly opposed six weeks ago. Ha!

Then there’s the story of Lehman Bros. ex-CEO Dick Fuld who managed that company into extinction. He recently sold his Florida home valued at about $14 million to his wife for $100, presumably to keep it from being sold to pay for the lawsuits arising from his spectacularly bad management. I’m sure that kind of stunt isn’t going to offend Mr. Marcus – and probably not ex-Senator Coleman.

Maybe it’s time we shed these pretexts of republics and dictatorships and monarchies and make the oligarchs the official rulers of the world. They certainly act as if it was already true.

@chicago bureau:
Ignatowski better be fucking with them or else. Is it too soon to actually miss Dion?

@chicago bureau: I agree. Black Eagle should let out just enough line to see how bipartisan the bill will be (and to hang those Rethugs like Geezer who think this is an early Waterloo for Hopey), then go before the public, remind them we are shit-canned as a nation, and tell the Dems to “get to work so America can work”.

@Dave H: ” He recently sold his Florida home valued at about $14 million to his wife for $100, presumably to keep it from being sold to pay for the lawsuits arising from his spectacularly bad management.”

Known as a “fraudulent conveyance” in every English common law jurisdiction. Would take about 10 minutes for a creditor to unwind. He’s a moron.

On a 350 foot boat in the Mediterranean. I am completely sick of these greedy fucks. This story has to be picked up by the MSM – we have to force it down their throats. This asshole needs to be run out of his gated community. He needs to be beaten with his 1 iron. Enough.

Someone tell this shitbag to calm down. It would take a lot more than EFCA to turn the US into France. Unfortunately. BTW, notice where he goes on his 350 foot yacht? France. Douchetard.

I emailed my congressman (Nadler) and am about to either email or call the Shume and Kristin Whatserface. All of you – please forward the link to this post (or Huffington, wev) to anyone you think will raise a stinque with their representatives. I am really fucking angry about this shit.

blogenfreude: I got Durbin, Junior Senator From The State Of Illinois Roland Senator Burris, and Schakowsky. I may mail them for the sake of mailing them, but all three are Chicago types. They be down with the EFCA — I know that right now. Word.

@chicago bureau: I’ll facebook the New Mexico congressmen from Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

The guy from SF may ask “what’s a yot?” “It’s a big fancy boat, congressman. ” “I like big fancy boats. Can I get a ride?” “No congressman. They’re the bad guys.” “I like big fancy boats. Does the union have a big fancy boat?” “Not really, congressman. It’s a little one that smells like fish and it’s usually a one way ride.”

I don’t get why the wrong-wingers are all pissing their pants over this Employee Free Choice thingy.

I mean sure, there are certain correlations between the decline in union membership, the rise of the super-rich and the crash of the American middle class (now known as Bitter Nouveau Poors) that you don’t need a PhD in Statistics to understand, but even people who are two paychecks away from bankruptcy and homelessness are so brainwashed that they’ll gnash their teeth and scream about how much they hate unions without prompting.

What gives?

@ManchuCandidate:

Next up: Harper marries ideological soulmate and long-time love Stockwell Day in a state wedding filled with so much pomp and ceremony that it makes Princess Di’s wedding look like a hillbilly cookout.

They then retire to the honeymoon suite to consumate their sexxy sexxy L U V. A white-knuckled public clamors for the next day’s hanging of the royal bedsheets.

(aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh! I’m so sorry. Pass the brain bleach please).

There is already a certain threshold at which the secret ballot process is bypassed anyway, and EFCA only lowers the point at which that kicks in, right? Like, this isn’t some completely radical change, and it only lowers that threshold to where it was at some prior point in time, yes? That’s my plebeian understanding of it, anyway.

@rptrcub:

Oddly enough, the Unicorn’s peril is exactly why I’ve been giving him a pass on a lot of issues- for example, Mr. Saddleback at the inauguration. I really do think he’s trying to do the impossible: run an administration based on a pragmatic measure of that is right and what will benefit the largest number of people, rather than relying on ideology. This, to me, is brilliant, because arguably it is reliance on pure ideology (on both sides of the aisle, frankly) that got us where we are today.

As for unions, they are suffering in this country for one reason alone: the size of corporations. Because companies are so big, it forces Unions to organize at that size to have an effective power base. And size, both in companies and in unions, breeds mediocrity. Our economy (and our society) would be served much better by smaller, more nimble, more competitive entities, which would allow local union chapters much more latitude in constructing agreements that serve their specific membership.

Oh, and pig bukkake from Home Depot? Fuck him. Fuck him right in the ear.

And from the racist pigfuker NW corner of my fair state:

Defendant had been accused of forcing his wife to have sex with his stepson for three years.

“A state District Court jury deliberated more than two hours Tuesday before finding 39-year-old Mark Lyon not guilty of four counts of criminal sexual penetration for allegedly forcing his wife to have sex with her son over a three-year period, beginning when the boy was 12, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

“Jurors, however, convicted Lyon of one count of third-degree child abuse following testimony that he hit the boy, the Daily Times said.

“Lyon had been accused of forcing his wife to perform sexual acts on the boy and threatening to choke her if she refused, the paper reported.

“Lyon’s attorney Terry Walker said the allegations of sexual abuse stemmed from a pending divorce and that his client ‘didn’t have anything to do with what was going on,’ the Daily Times said.”

@redmanlaw:

gah, disgusting.

@ManchuCandidate: Sorry but the only person with that name who registers is the great Reverend Jim Ignatowski from “Taxi”. Did he relocate to the Great White North?
Actually that would seem to be a good fit for all parties.

What the fuck is going on these days?

“A California appeals court ruled Monday that a Christian high school can expel students perceived to be lesbians, upholding a 2008 lower court ruling that there were “no triable” elements to the case.”

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Court_Christian_school_can_expel_lesbian_0128.html

When we break out the pitchforks and torches let’s not forget about the executives at Citigroup who were planning to go ahead with the delivery of their brand new $50 million private jet from Dassault (from FRANCE!!!). The day after this news broke Citigroup, which has taken about $45 to 50 billion in federal bailout money so far, decided not to go ahead with the deal. These Wall Street types are so smart and so in touch with public opinion it’s scary.

@Dave H:
Sorry. The main Canada Opposition Party Leader (the Liberals) is Mike Ignatiff, but if he goes along with current Prime Minister Stephen (Fatty McGoo) Harper’s budget then he is Mike Ignatowski.

And Dion is Stephane Dion, the well meaning and incredibly ineffectual former Liberal Leader.

@redmanlaw: It’s from one of the pigfucking counties. Won’t last long.

@chicago bureau: Hope (TM) comes to Canada for the Unicorn’s first international trip as prezdint.

@rptrcub: Of far greater interest was the article on the side about what frequencies women like. Manchu, are you a Nortel Man?

TJ: Hey Rabbit Angstrom fans, a moment of silence for the late, great John Updike. Even if he was kind of misogynistic.

@nabisco:
LOL.

I still am for now… but I don’t know the frequency, Nabisco.

@ManchuCandidate: Apparently long drives help.

@Mistress Cynica: Yep. He was one of my dad’s favorite writers, so I always had a soft spot for him, but the StinqueLiterati came down hard on him some time ago. PA boy dontcha know – prolly a Steeler fan (oops!).

@nabisco: The side stories to the side story were ever more interesting. Gotta work now. Hasta la vista, stinquers!

Totally off-topic, but from my neck of the woods: this is what I call a stinquey lawyer. Be careful out there my dear legal eagles!

Further off-topic – and apparently covered over on Brand Dubya – but there is this brilliant Bush in Pictures piece over on the Times. Dude cried after his final farewell.

@nabisco: A sorta self-centered sentimentality is the only human emotion most psychopaths show.

@Pedonator:
Pedonator, you’re back!