"Things gained through unjust fraud are never secure."
–Sophocles
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BY: Ben Folds5
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BY: Ben Folds5
IN: Weekend Open Thread
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With Wisconsin Governor Walker currently at the pole position in the Republican Presidential race, we had best take note of things going on in Wisconsin. The current issue: an expansive "right-to-work" bill making its way swiftly through the state legislature.
I'll start by stating right out that "right to work" is really "right to profit off of other's labor" – that workers who benefit from the fruits of union dues don't have to pay those dues if they don't want to. But the egregious part of the bill is that it repeals Wisconsin's "economic peace" clause, which in part states that workers deserve "regular and adequate income". (The rest of the "economic peace" clause notes that there are three interests in business: the business, the worker, and the public, and that each deserves some particular stability and benefit.) Wisconsin has a lot of these "peace" provisions, and this is not the first time this year that Republicans have attacked them; it appears that it will be the first one to fall, though.
If we as Democrats are to be more bold and simple about message, here's one: Republicans have taken sides in economic issues: laborers lost.
It's worth pointing out that all of the Republican top tier 2016 Presidential contenders are under investigation for fraud and corruption – Walker included. Someone find and post that link – I don't have time now.
Here's a link mamaj. Dana Milbank wrote this in October.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-the-gops-mug-shot-primary/2014/10/03/fe0ed66c-4b01-11e4-b72e-d60a9229cc10_story.html
This is the same guy who couldn't be bother to finish getting a college degree because he had other things to do? (Reminds me of the phrase Dick Cheney used when asked about why he ended up not going to Vietnam.)
I realize that the dumbing-down process that the GOP has been pursuing over the past 30 years is still a work in progress (i.e., Ronald Reagan led to Dan Quayle who led to G. W. Bush who led to Sarah Palin who led to creative design which led to global warming denial which led to measles vaccines) but you have the wonder where it will end.
I don't hold the lack of a college degree over anyone. I don't have one and am a successful software developer making an above-average salary working for a company that has the toughest screening process I've ever been through. Frankly, I'm not sure I should have gone to college at all given the time I wasted not doing software development as a physics major. College can be valuable, but for some people there really are better things to do.
Walker's record stands on its own. He's a weasel who looks out for the rich while cutting down the average worker, and who can't balance a budget.
I don't either, PR I was reading something the just the other day, that said a. $70,000 college debt might get one a 25,000 dollar job in this post-Great Recession economy. At that rate,l they'll be docking young people's social Security for college loans.
I disagree, PR. I have three degrees — a B.S. in journalism, an M.S. in economics, both from CU, and a late=life paralegal certificate from CCD. I was 65 when I got the latter and repositioning from the dead field of journalism to a profitable retirement side of paralegal and legal writing.
It's true that as a retired journalist, I don't make much money. But my poop smells like roses!
Seriously, I think true education is about more than money but about living an examined life. That doesn't take a degree but organized education does make a difference. As to degrees, Bill Gates famously doesn't have one. But, guys, three years at Harvard counts for something, degree or not.
Not so sure about the value of three years at Marqueet if Walker is the test of that.
I don't discount the value of higher education, and I do believe that it can provide life skills beyond the course material. I wasn't ready for those life skills when I went, was too stubborn to realize that my major was detracting from my ability to take in those concepts, and too stubborn (and deferential to my parents) to properly re-adjust when I should have.
And why would I go back now? The only reasons I can think of are to change careers, or to get a piece of paper so that people don't criticize me if I decide to run for office.
If you run for office, just critiicize those pointy headed librul professers. It works every time.
Seriously, youth is wasted on the young and I could have learned much more in college if I had gone into the Army first, then to college on the GI bill. But when I got out of high school in 63, there was no war, no draft, no GI bill. Ended up enlisting in 68, Was able to use GI bill to help get M.S. in 71-73 (while working full time) and found I was a lot more mature, wasted less time on booze, etc. I always thought the real value of my MS was that I finally had my credential and could at last look at education. I've taken about 60 credits post MS, including the 30 that earned my paralegal certificates, and read many books so I think the idea that education follows a degree has a lot of merit. Education and degrees should never been confused, though of course, degrees are external validators and shorthand that can substitute for education in terms of getting to a short list at hiring time.
Can I just point to all of the Republicans with PhDs and MDs and JDs who can't grasp science, point out basic bodily functions, or properly interpet the Constitution as proof that an education isn't all it's cracked up to be? Or maybe the professors at Liberty University?
I worked in state government for 25 years, in two different states, but belonged in a union only the first four years. Neither state; Colorado being the 2nd state; had collective bargaining for public employees.
The line: "that workers who benefit from the fruits of union dues don't have to pay those dues if they don't want to" is a "phony baloney" line. If the unions stuck to just negotiating for wages & benefits from the two state legislatures, I might have remained. Unfortunately, only the first union I belonged to actually did that. The others went off on lots of issue tangents relating to the typical left wing agenda of the union bosses. I didn't want to pay to support most of those issues, so I dropped out of unions. C.H.B.
But you can always opt out (or must opt in) to the portion of dues paid for advocacy outside of the workplace. All that you have to pay in a union shop is for those dues that go to contract negotiations and benefits provisioning – things that workers in "right-to-work" states get for free if they don't want to pay the union but are in a union shop.
Non-union workers working under union contracts (or clones of union contracts) are moochers, plain and simple.
Damn the snow and the cold . . .
. . . more evidence of Democratic governmental incompetence!!!
And that line out the door at Starbucks??? Obama's fault!!!
Did I mention Benghazi . . . ?!?
Sad that cartoons are the primary source of facts and argument for the Koch Bros. most prolific blog commenter. They trained him well.
Is Netanyahu pushing U.S. to war with Iran?
Netanyahu was wrong on Iraq, is wrong on Iran
Netanyahu lies about Iran nuclear capability disputed by Mossad
Netanyahu is a pompous blowhard and not much more. His record pales in the shadow of great Israeli P.M.s like Ariel Sharon and Golda Meir.
After the bribery and corruption scandals of his first premiership, his comeback was pretty astounding. Israelis should have known better. They got what they voted for and he's done irreparable damage to the future of the state of Israel. That's all he's ever done.
Perhaps Justice Alito will write that foreign contributions are just another form of speech in Sheiks United v. FEC.
It's Yertle to the rescue!
Looks like McConnell is the grown up in the Republican Congressional leadership with this solution to the funding for DHS. He even got Ted Cruz and Mike Lee to vote to open debate on the splitting of the funding from the condemnation of Obama's immigration policy.
Now to get it through the House, he needs to go to Boner office with a few bottles of Merlot, get the Speaker shit-faced, and then tell him that the split measure is a good thing.
I'm still waiting for the backstab; perhaps with Republicans making the bill a reconciliation bill that cannot be filibustered.
Democrats need to take note of Jon Stewart's assessment of our "friends" on the right.
Oh yeah, and the Pope isn't conservative enough for these freaks.
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