Republicans Hate America 8: UAW, the Belvidere Illinois Assembly plant and revived Union Strength

In Union there is strength and Labor is prior to and independent of Capital.  - Abraham Lincoln or Karl Marx?

Republicans are furious they believed they had functionally killed Unions reducing them to a shell of their former selves via their Right-to-Work (For Less) Legislation and big Court rulings.

Here in Illinois for example, in the 2018 Janus Ruling, Republicans thought they had severed the roots of Union member solidarity and ushered in the slow withering of Unions.  It was only a matter of time before every worker would "choose" to not pay Union dues and Unions would slowly die.

TraitorTrump was a fan of the Janus Ruling as he's famous for not paying people who do work for him.

But, then the President Biden had to go and walk the picket line with the striking UAW members, and the stunned Corporate Media quickly tried to ham-handedly proclaim Actually BothSides love Union workers.

Well, the striking UAW has just won 3 successive victories for their members over the automakers, Ford, GM, and Stellantis.

Mr. Belvidere, site of the new Dodge Dakota

I drive past the Belvidere plant just south of Rockford occasionally and recall when the demonstration vehicles were removed from their little display hills in front.  Well now it's going to be a powerhouse for EV in Illinois;

“Eight months ago, Stellantis idled Belvidere Assembly Plant, putting 1,200 of our members on the street. From the strength of our strike, we are bringing back those jobs and more,” stated UAW Vice President Rich Boyer. “Stellantis is reopening the plant, and the company will also be adding over a thousand jobs at a new battery plant in Belvidere.”

According to the UAW, the new product at the plant will be a new mid-sized pickup truck. While many believed it would be a variant of the Brazilian-built compact Ram Rampage pickup, our sources have indicated that it could be a true successor to the popular Dodge Dakota.

UAW President Shawn Fain indicated that the new pickup would offer electrified and internal combustion engine (ICE) power. “We are bringing both combustion vehicle and battery jobs to Belvidere,” said Fain.

Shawn Fain is the type of Union leader we haven't seen in a while.  Every time he's been interviewed he stays on message and doesn't allow Corporate Media to interject their pro-plutocrat talking points into his interviews or get him to concede to their anti-Union stance. 

And this deal besides again showing President Biden's solidarity with Labor also highlights Governor J.B. Prtizker's continued leadership and investment in the people and state of Illinois,

With the announcement that United Auto Workers and Stellantis have reached a tentative agreement that’s good for workers and good for the state of Illinois, auto workers can get back on the job with higher wages, expanded benefits, and new and valuable opportunities in a growing industry.  

For over two years, I have been laser-focused on working toward a permanent solution in Belvidere that retains and grows good-paying jobs, while supporting economic development in the surrounding region. Since the plant was idled in February, we’ve provided support to furloughed auto workers, while concurrently leading a collaborative effort with local officials and legislators to craft aggressive incentives that position Illinois at the forefront of the EV manufacturing industry. Thanks to that collaboration and the passage of the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act and the Reimagining Energy and Vehicles Act, we are on the verge of significantly advancing that effort. 

I’ve been in constant contact with auto workers, Stellantis executives, UAW representatives, and the White House as the bargaining has unfolded, and I am delighted we are now on the verge of getting this done. I look forward to finalizing the state’s economic package and not only reopening the shuttered assembly plant in Belvidere to manufacture electric vehicles, but also co-locating a new battery production facility. This will be thousands of jobs, billions in investment, and a huge win for Illinois.

Once more Governor J.B. is everything the Corporate Media has tried to force us to believe Shrimpy Boots DeSantis is but, DeSantis is a Republican he hates America, his every policy has been to impoverish, harm, and kill people, while feeding his hateful degenerate base a steady diet of lies, bigotry, hatred, and racism.

The choice is clear; the Democratic Party and Leadership is for the American people and for a better standard of living while the Republican Party hates America; viscerally, intractability

Lazy Millenials, unreciprocated work ethic, and the right-wing race-to-the-bottom

Listening to Mighty House on WCPT-820 Saturday morning, the discussion turned to how the millenials entering the workforce expect a good job and benefits to be handed to them and are unwilling to pay their dues. Callers and Hosts lamented the lazy, entitled attitude of the younger generation.

This feeling about how the modern American worker is unwilling to do the menial tasks, or expects to much, or doesn't work hard enough is nothing new. Plato expressed dismay at how the young greeks weren't as industrious or studious as the young egyptians.

But, why should any American Worker exhibit unquestioning loyalty to Corporations? Why should a young worker bust his ass, put in his dues with the expectation of reward after achieving a level of seniority? Why would any worker give his time and life over to an American Company? Long ago Employers and Companies broke their end of the deal. Over the last 45 years, "American" Companies have turned their backs on the American Worker and actively sought to undermine the standard of living for every American.

Over at Fortune, Gene Marks tells employers what to do with a long-time, loyal, hard-working, dedicated, 20-year employee; Fire his Ass! Why You're Not a Jerk for Firing a Longtime Employee

So why should millenials or any American Worker break their backs, work overtime, miss holidays, weekends, family get-togethers, when it is incontrovertible that companies will dump that worker, raid their 401k, and off-shore their job as soon as a "Free Trade Deal" allows them too?

This false nostalgia and back-in-my-day bullshit of how American workers used to have can-do spirit and were willing to work-your-way-up-the-ladder should go the way of the private union. When Labor had a more equal footing with business in the mid-20th century, after bloody battles in the 19th and the efforts of America's Greatest President FDR, workers knew their sacrifice and hard work meant they would be rewarded. But, since then the Republican Party allowed itself to become the lapdog guardians of the 1% and began to crush Labor laws and protections.

Before his ousting for being insufficiently orthodox, Republican Eric Cantor was leading the effort by Republicans to ensure Companies could work employees hundreds of overtime hours and then never pay them for that work. Fortunately, that scheme failed and under Obama's NLRB and Department of Labor, other Conservative machinations, like Wage Theft and classifying hourly employees as management, have been severely punished.

This is why Republicans are furious with President Obama. For years the right-wing efforts to get Americans used to less benefits, lower pay, longer hours, and less employment security, while abolishing Unions and worker's rights had been progressing nicely under the direction of the Republican Party. And here comes Obama, ensuring employees get paid for overtime, expanding SSI coverage, increasing wages, and undercutting the right-wing dream of reducing the American worker to mercenary status pitting their time against any other worker in the world in a worldwide race to the bottom.

The Conservative Coup to turn The United States into The Neo-Confederacy

"Are you going to pull those pistols or whistle Dixie?"

America has been undergoing a rapdily accelerating Coup by Conservatives. After their military defeat during the Civil War, the conservatives of this Nation began a campaign of low-grade guerilla warfare against America targeting Women, Liberals, Unionists, Minorities, and Immigrants; all groups oppossed to the creation of the Southern White Man's Utopia the Neo-Confederacy.

Since the Era of Ronald Reagan, who opened up his white resentment campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, with "I believe in state's rights. I’m going to devote myself to trying to reorder those priorities and to restore to the states and local communities those functions which properly belong there." Conservatives have inflitrated enough areas of local, state, and federal government to alter, undermine and neuter protections for the American People and re-establish the Era when the 1% Ruled and White Conservatives acted as Whip Holders and Attack Dogs keeping everyone else in line.

But, in the last 15 years, they've accelearated their efforts, with major strikes at the heart of Democracy.

• The impeachment of President Bill Clinton.
• Convicted Criminal Tom DeLay and other Republicans redistricting Congressional Districts to devalue Democratic Votes. 
• The Stolen 2000 Presidential Election, in which Al Gore won the Popular Vote by almost a million votes and won more votes in Florida.
• The SCOTUS rulings especially Bush v. Gore and Citizen's United and Shelby County v. Holder.
• The Congressional Obstruction during Barack Obama's Presidency.

Recall that beginning in 2009 Republicans declared their number one goal was to ensure President Obama was a one-term President, not to help American struggling with the Republican Recession, not to deal with the Global War on Terror which conservatives by and large avoided, nope their goal was to get back to undercutting the American Middle Class and impoverishing the American Worker in order to create the Neo-Confederate Corporate dominated Wage Slave State.

Eliminating paid sick leave, another front in the Right-Wing War on Americans

As I posted about Paul Ryan's plagiarized fact-free CPAC speech, an overlooked element lost amongst Ryan's another aspect of the Right-Wing's insatiable quest to reduce Americans to wage slaves shackled in Corporate Bondage.

Ryan told the overwhelmingly crowd Obamacare's implementation will cost jobs. But, the Jobs Hosannahs Paul Ryan was signing are not the panacea for America's woes. The Rich are creating jobs, it's just they are creating jobs in which the worker has little rights, for less pay and no benefits. The Plutocracy would no doubt have 100% in America if they could pay us nothing.

Starting in Ryan's backyard of Wisconsin in 2011, right-wingers pushed through State Legislation prohibiting local governments from adopting Sick Leave Legislation. Wisconsin became the second state in the Nation behind Georgia. Following Scott Walker's lead 9 other States adopted similar legislation in 2013 and now nearly 40 million private sector workers can look forward to zero paid sick days

Of course, every state which has adopted this legislation is a so-called Right-to-Work State. Right-to-Work is more accurately known as Right-to-Work-for-Less and it gives Businesses inordinate power over workers and employees. Which, of course, is exactly what Business want and what Republicans time-and-again seek to provide them.

Time and again we are confronted by the fact that Republicans love Big Government intrusion into people's lives.

But, when Republicans attempt these maneuvers on the National Stage, using the Federal Government, they receive pushback, so they have perfected the art of Oppression in the so-called "Laboratories of Democracy", the States. The States are regressing quickly, far from being beacons of Democracy and Freedom, Republicans are turning State Government's into bastions of Tyranny and melting-pots of Bigotry.

But, pointing out Republican hypocrisy isn't the main point here. Republicans love to use the awesome power of the government to restrict and control people it's just they use and put the emphasis on State Power, where they can get away with their Ultra-Reactionary goals enslaving the American Worker into unending Corporate Bondage.

"How did we do it in Wisconsin? The simplest way I can tell you is we had total and complete unity between the state party, quite frankly, Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party groups, the Grandsons of Liberty. The 9/12ers were involved. It was a total and complete agreement that nobody cared who got the credit, that everyone was going to run down the tracks together." - Reince Priebus lays bare the Republican Agenda of Wage Slavery and a return to Feudalism.

The Modern Republican Party's message to 99% of Americans is; You have No Friend in Government. 

Have you ever seen a map of the Holy Roman Empire in the High Middle Ages? It's a mash-up of Imperial free Cities, minor Baronies, tiny Principalities, Bishoprics and conglomerations of disjointed Duchies. Each of these tiny Fiefdoms was dominated by a noble or bishop or headman.

That is what the Plutocracy wants in the United States. The Koch Brothers, the DeVos family, Duke Energy, the Wall Street Wealth "Managers" want to bust up the current Nation-State and replace it surreptitiously with little fiefdoms controlled by the modern Nobility, the Capitalists. 

While they claim to support the United States, they merely want the shell of the Nation to exist while in these small enclaves the Rich rule; resting comfortably knowing the Republican Party and Pro-Business Democrats fight to ensure their campaign of Rape (of the Natural World), Theft (of People's Lives) and Murder (of the American Dream) is protected under the auspices of the Federal Government

Update:
I forgot to add in the other historical oddity of the Holy Roman Empire, which the Plutocrats want to emulate, the Electors.

The Koch Brothers, Paul E. Singer, Stephen A. Schwarzman, Tom Perkins, Sam Zell and the other despicable Plutocrats aren't going to be satiatied with merely dominating their small piece of the country, they also want the power to choose the Next President as the electors of the Empire had the power to choose the Emperor.

Office Depot Capitalists demand Illinois Taxpayers pay them or else

Corporate Tax Subsides should be relabeled The Pleasure of Working For Us Tax. Office Depot and OfficeMax merged earlier this year and since that business announcement have been playing Illinois and Florida off against each other in the never ending Race-to-the-Bottom.

This has been a standard tactic of Corporations. They learned long ago workers are interchangeable and that by going to legislatures they could get State Governments to provide them with legally constructed tax havens and public assistance.

On December 10th, Office Depot announced their newly merged company will put its headquarters in Boca Raton, not at the existing OfficeMax offices in Naperville, Illinois. This despite a promise by the Illinois Government to pay them $53 million in welfare over 15 years.

And all Office Depot would have had to do would be to promise to keep 2000 clerical jobs in Illinois for that welfare. The vast majority of products sold in these stores are not made in Illinois or Florida, but China. Some paper products are produced by the Illinois company North American Paper.

So, while the Office Depot Corporate Welfare deal fell through, Sears Inc and CME Group still received millions of Illinois Tax Payer Dollars in the last 2 years and are promised hundreds of millions more over the next decade and a half.

Meanwhile, 80,000 Illinois residents are set to lose Federal Unemployment benefits in January, while 109,000 Illinois residents collecting State benefits would be unaffected at first.

"While today’s job growth allows most newly unemployed individuals to find work after a several weeks, the long-term unemployed face additional hurdles," Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) Director Jay Rowell said in a prepared statement." Ending this modest program based on a calendar date rather than economic principles and job skills could slow economic growth."

That's because benefits paid to Illinois residents are often immediately are pumped back into the economy in terms of purchases or rent, while money given to Corporations is funneled away from the state. After Sears received their Illinois Welfare in December 2011 they closed 2 Sears and 3 K-Mart stores in the State, 3 months later. They got their money from the State and left.

"I'm a Wealth of Nations guy," Republican Congressman So and So stated on MSNBC during the Republican Government Shutdown.

I seriously doubt that Republican So and So has actually read The Wealth of Nations. It's one of those books people place on their mantle to look smart and a phrase that right-wingers trot out as way of an argument instead of actually defending their positions. 

It's allows the Republican or Right-Winger to merely say the words, 'Bible. Wealth of Nations. Freedom. Flag. Founding Fathers. Ronald Reagan.' They don't actually say anything when confronted on the actual failings of their sick and twisted ideology.

Similarly, when Republicans want to attack they say, 'Liberalism. Marxism. Entitlements. Mainstream Media.' and so forth.

It's not an actual argument to make vague allusions to phrases or concepts but it is a good stimulus-response mechanism. It's all designed to invoke emotional r-brain responses in their duped and unthinking conservatives dronez.

What we are seeing in Illinois with Sears, CME Group and Office Depot and with thousands of Corporations across the Nation is Capitalism in action. Capitalism is the Privatizing of Profits and the Subsidizing of Losses.

No Austerity! No Fix-the-Debt. No more Too-Big-To-Fail! The Rich are naught but Fire-Breathing Wryms.

Smaug the Magnificent was listed as the Richest Fictional Character in History in 2012.

J. R.R. Tolkien wrote of Smaug that when Bilbo Baggins took a small chalice from of "his" hoard Smaug's Rage was the kind which "is only seen when rich folk that have more than they can enjoy lose something they have long had but never before used or wanted."

Plutocrats are fire-breathing Wyrms, destructive nearly invincible forces which don't create but destroy and steal hordes of Capital which they proclaim to be theirs. They are destroying people's lives and livelihoods in pursuit of profits.

The Plutocracy believe the Government should exist for One Purpose with Two Basic Powers; To Protect their Property by 1) Quelling Domestic Dissent and 2) Opening up Foreign Markets for their Use.

Of course, everything else is "Unconstitutional" or "Socialism".

The SEC needs to adopt a Financial Transaction Tax, such as the one the U.S. Government had the federal level from 1914 to 1966. And the state of New York, in conjunction with the New York City from 1905 to 1981.

Such a fee won't hurt Grandmas stocks or minor investors. But what it will do is curb the rapacious behavior of Wall Street and the Banking Criminals who conduct billions of trades a second to manipulate the Stock Exchange.

Did you ever wonder why, in the midst of the Computer Age, the center of the American Financial World is still Wall Street? It's because large Banking Giants have located untold numbers of Terrabyte sized Massive Server in Warehouses geographically close to the NYSE in order to gain a pico-second advantage over other Financial Monsters.

Banking Criminals are not limiting their thievery to merely electronic wizardry but are still engaging in the time-honored traditions of Currency Manipulation and Money Laundering for Criminal Gangs, Terrorist Organizations, Rogue Nations as well as American Plutocratic Cheats.

Just 3 years ago UBS agreed to pay a $780 Million dollar fine to avoid `criminal prosecution and to keep the names of 52,000 American criminals, who illegally sheltered monies in Switzerland, secret. 

Now UBS has been ordered to pay other $700 million to $1.5 Billion for it's criminal involvement in the LIBOR currency manipulation.

HSBC was convicted of LIBOR currency manipulation and was fined $1.9 Billion in December 2012. HSBC was one of 7 Banks which routinely laundered money for International Drug Lords, FARC terrorists and Al Qaeda and Iran.

The second oldest Bank of Switzerland, Wegelin founded in 1741, has agreed to pay $58 Million in fines to the US Government because,

The bank had admitted to allowing more than 100 American citizens to hide $1.2bn from the Internal Revenue Service for almost 10 years.

However,

Otto Bruderer, a managing partner at the bank, admitted that Wegelin had sheltered US clients from tax between 2002 and 2010, and said it was aware that its conduct had been "wrong". 

Mr Burderer's further admission that assisting tax evasion was common practice in Switzerland has caused huge concern among the Swiss banking community, according to the BBC's Switzerland correspondent, Imogen Foulkes. 

The Rich are Rich because, like Dragons, they've stolen Billions from poor working people across the planet for Generations. Banks, like UBS, HSBC or the defunct Wegelin merely made the theivery easier by providing the paperwork and structural apparatus. But, when it comes down to it, the Rich are Fire-Breathing Wyrms willing to burn everything to enjoy the fruits of others labors.

Back here in US there exists a ripe plum which the Rich Wyrms have been salivating over for decades. 

Social Security is one of the last depositories of easily accessible capital waiting for the Capitalists to swindle it into their private bank accounts. If George W. Bush and the Republican Congress had succeeded in 2005 of "privatizing" Social Security, $2.5 Trillion would have vanished in 2007 and 2008. Poof. Manipulated away. Gone just like the equity in your homes thousands of pensions and retirement investments swindled via criminally toxic Goldman Sachs assets. 

Like Smaug The Rich! Want! That! Horde!

Rich Wyrms hope people are foolish enough to believe that cutting their own meager earned-benefits is the way to help the Nation.

However, the Rich don't recognize National Interests. They are pan-National. All they want from America is lower and lower tax rates on Capital (with higher tax rates on Labor) and lax financial laws which give them the ability to move money quickly from one Nation to another.

A big component of their plan was revealed in the Fiscal Cliff Rigamarole. The Republicans and Fix-the-Debt wanted the ability to move Hundreds of Billions of off-shore profits made via wage slave labor into the US without any taxes. Calling it a Territorial Tax System. Once here they could realize Billions in profits from merely moving money around. It would have been a windfall for those who make money by the manipulation of figures not from creating jobs, building factories or inventing new products. But from Legerdemain.

And Fix-the-Debt is merely the latest in the effort of Corporate Moochers to fool the country once again. 

Corporations and Plutocrats are the biggest Moochers in World History. They've been hiding their stolen loot in off-shore tax havens and manipulating Stock prices and currency and engaging in sickening criminal acts all the while revealing in their Power and Magnificence. Believing they are Too-Big-To-Fail, just like Smaug.

The Reason Conservatives love Corporation like Hostess

Because it allows them to be as racist and criminal as they want to be.

"I believe in free enterprise. I don't think the government should be telling people what you pay and what you don't pay. I think it's about freedom. If someone wants to hire somebody and they agree on a salary, that's fine, however it wants to work. So, the government sticking its nose into all kinds of things has gotten us into huge trouble." - Todd Akin (Loser- MO) stated in a vile comment less well known than his Pro-Rape positions.

Hostess Brands Inc. filed for Bankruptcy (again for they did in 2004 when Conservatives claim Bush was leading an Awesome Economic Boom) citing employees refusal to accept further reductions in pay and further company raiding of their pensions.

If Hostess wanted to use slaves chained to their ding dong machines or have children stuff the gooey nutritious filling into twinkies with their tiny fingers or pay their employees in Company Scrip while the monies set aside for pensions are raided to provide the CEO and Upper Managment with a Golden Parachute I ask you!!! Who is Government to interfere? That's the Free Market!

Certainly, Senator Mike Lee of Utah a Guard Dog of the Plutocracy believes Child Labor Laws are Unconstitutional.

Here is the final offer Hostess made to its' employees before declaring Bankruptcy,

1) 8% hourly pay cut in year 1 with additional cuts totaling 27% over 5 years. Currently, I make $16.12 an hour at TOP rate of pay in the bakery. I would drop to $11.26 in 5 years. 

2) They get to keep our $3+ an hour forever. 

3) Doubling of weekly insurance premium. 

4) Lowering of overall quality of insurance plan. 

5) TOTAL withdrawal from ALL pensions. If you don't have it now then you never will.

Government puts up all these fake rules like "hostile work environment" and "minimum wage" and "taxes" and "discrimination" and "Maternity Leave" and "criminal sexual assault" which hamper the aspirations of conservatives and Private Business.

The Government and the Public Sector enforces rules on behavior. Conservatives are racist and sexist and as natural pig-people are incensed that they can't grab women's asses and yell Barack Obama is a Ni-[Clang] all day long.

This is also why conservatives hate Unions. Unions also help enforce rules of behavior, help employees bargain for better pay, benefits and working conditions and provide workers with avenues to address Corporate malfeasance and Bosses misbehavior.

Corporations want Unions eliminated. This is why Republican Dogs and Conservative Stooges blame Unions for all of Americas problems. 

Mary Matalin, whose never been right about any issue, defended Vulture Capitalist Mitt Romney and blamed Unions and the Minimum Wage,

The greatest impediment to upward mobility for women and minorities are liberal policies such as the teachers unions, which secure teachers jobs, they don't educate our youth, such as African- American youth locked out of entry level jobs because the insistence on minimum wage, such as poverty programs that have dismantled the families.

See... If Companies could pay Black Youths Nothing for their labor then that's Right and Just. Vice President Biden was absolutely correct when he stated Republicans want to "put y'all back in Chains."

But, Wage Slavery is a profitable business model in America.

Chipotle is facing a Class Action lawsuit because it's taken to renaming some employees as "apprentices" and paying them as managerial employees who don't qualify for overtime. Want to know how a Company is using slave labor in America today? Classify an employee as "salaried" then work them 40 hours extra a week and pay them Nothing for the extra work.

The reason Stench Romney wanted to "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" is because Bain Capital would have swooped in, canabalized the remnants, jettisoned the UAW contracts, sold the factories off to China and skimmed the profits from the bones of GM and Chrysler while perched waiting for Ford to go belly up as well.

So, when a conservative tells you how awesome the Free Market is he's telling you he's a racist corporatist who wants to grind up on the ass of that hot secretary without the fear of some bogus "harassment" complaint, while he and upper management scheme on how to swindle the average worker out of his pension and repeal laws which keep Corporations from scooping up children from the playgrounds and shoving them down into MSHA free death-trap mines.

It's all part of the Rapacious Vulture Capitalist Model which has taken control of the Nation.

A Romney/Ryan Presidency would be an Implacable Foe of the Working Man

The Only Americans who will Vote for Romney and Ryan are the Rich, the Racists and the Lazy Wingnut Welfare recipients.

Mitt Romney spent some time in Iowa after his disasterous trip to Europe. I'm not really certain why Mitt went to Britian and Poland anyway, after all every conservative hack here slams President Obama for his "European Socialism". Maybe lizard brain right-wingers think London and Warsaw aren't in Europe.

But, over the weekend Romney made news by his statments in Iowa and his choice of a Vice-Presidential Condidate Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.

Romney's buffoonish trip to Iowa put the state firmly in play for President Obama. Romney as a Vulture Capitalist doesn't know shit about farms. Mitt spent his Iowa trip playing to the Washington DC wingnuts with his calls to end subsidies for Wind Farms.

As Mitt doesn't prepare meals or purchase produce he doesn't know that America is in the worst drought in 70 years and crops everywhere are failing. (Don't say Global Warming!) So Mitt is unaware that farmers in Iowa whose corn crops are not going to succeed this year have also invested in Wind Farms. Those wind farms are going to be the only thing which let the small farmers keep their farms.

But the small farmer isn't who Mitt cares about. Sure Romney knows he can slit the throat of the working farmer and some will vote for him because President Obama is black, but Mitt is playing to the Koch Brothers and Big Oil Conglomerates.

So, it's no surprise that the salt of the earth farmer Mitt Romney met with last week was Lemar Koethe, a multi-millionaire, owner of 54 different farms, primarily soybean and corn, who blames the crop shortages of this year on government regulations. (Don't say Global Warming!)

As for Paul Ryan, he is a quintesstienal conservative. He never worked a day in his life. He never served a day in uniform. He's never had a real job as he immediately went to work for Republican bureaucrats after he graduated. Ryan has spent his whole adult life in DC, enjoying his government funded healthcare, his government funded pension, and his generous taxpayer funded salary.

His families fortune and business where not built by their hard work, but by graft and government contracts. Ryan's father tragically died when Paul was a teenager. Paul Ryan made it through school on SSI benefits. Ryan's Path to Penury and Deathcare Budget are designed to permanently pull up the ladder he used to get an education and enjoy a comfortable life. See My Post:The Paul Ryan and Republican Budget is a Trojan Horse by a Flaccid Party.

Romney and Ryan only care about the 'Job Creators'. If you work for a living you know that Romney and Ryan will do everything in their power to make things harder for you.

However, if you're a poisonous scribe, like Jonah Goldberg or Brent The Bigot Bozell, who "earns" a living by sitting around on your expansive derriere writing despicable lies and slanderous hit pieces you're going to vote Romney & Ryan.

But, if you're a Rich Plutocrat who despises the high cost of American Labor and wants the working man and middle class ground down into dust and perpetual servitude you'll stencil in Romney.

For Romney and Ryan are explicitly promising to cement the widing gulf of income inequality between the 1% and America while they cradle their Plutocratic Brethern in the bosom of the Federal Government.

Caterpillar Inc, Bain Capital, Banks, LIBOR and Mitt Romney: How Capitalism is just the new name for Imperalism

Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Abraham Lincoln

Mitt Romney wants to replace Presdient Obama as well as Abraham Lincoln, whose bust he wishes to remove from the Oval Office as a nod & a wink to his "Special Relationship" to the "Anglo-Saxon Heritage". What Mitt has been doing his entire life, through off-shoring and out-sourcing American Jobs and dismantling American Companies is to make Capital superior to Labor.

Caterpillar Inc. announced record-smashing quarterly earnings Wednesday, trouncing 2011 figures and previous projections by market analysts, even as a strike at its Joliet plant is nearing the three-month mark.

The industrial manufacturing giant posted sales and revenues of $17.37 billion – a 22 percent increase over the previous year – including a quarterly profit of nearly $1.7 billion. The company also raised its profit outlook to $9.60 per share.

That sure is great but while Caterpillar is posting back-to-back-to-back-to-back record quarterly profits they are working to lower the wages and pensions of their workers. Why isn't Caterpillar's CEO compensation and worker's salaries tied together?

Why would Caterpillar Inc. be focused on freezing workers pay and pensions? Because Capitalists see high labor prices as an unnecessary evil. Why pay American workers high salaries when with the help of Republican Party and Pro-Business Democrats you can off-shore jobs to slave wage nations and (via Mitt Romney's proposed plan) repatriate overseas profits as tax breaks.

In 2004, the Swiss Banking Giant UBS began approaching affluent Americans (in Banking terms affluent means net worth of $50 Million plus) with the idea of setting up dummy off-shore Corporations. By early 2009 at least 52,000 Americans had hid at least $20 Billion in those off-shore tax havens. UBS paid the IRS a $780 million fine for aiding these Rich Criminals in defrauding tax payments.

But, as Senator Jon Kyl pointed out those Rich Criminals are just better than you,

"President Barack Obama should stop talking about the middle class because it turns people against rich Americans, who should be embraced as the Michael Jordans of the U.S. economy," Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)

"Here's Jordan for three... Yes!!! Did you see that look? Michael, he can't believe it." - Marv Albert recalls Michael Jordan's retroactive shrug following his invocation by Senator Not Intended to be a Factual Statement Kyl.

As the right-wing universe spearheaded by Faux News tries to rebrand Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital we see the old ploy of relabelling of concepts which Humanity correctly considers odious into fresh new terms. Hence the word Imperalism is no longer used by Imperalists, what they talk about today is Free Market Capitalism.

Free Market Capitalism and what Mitt Romney did at Bain Capital is nothing more than the new name for an old idea. Which is too steal labor, resources and lives of 99% of the world to enrich a very small cadre of Plutocrats, or Class Warfare.

Mitt Romney did the same thing as a "Venture" Capitalist. Buying up companies, loading them with debt to inflate their worth and selling them off to make a profit. Mitt did not invent the practice nor is he the worst example of it. But, his legacy of sending American Jobs overseas is alive and well at Bain Capital.

Sensata is owned by Bain Capital, the private equity investment firm that the Republican presidential candidate once led and that has been the subject of a campaign debate about jobs and outsourcing. Romney had long since left his leadership position at Bain when Sensata bought the plant in 2010, but the Freeport City Council recently passed a unanimous 8-0 resolution calling on him to come visit and help keep the jobs in town. The workers have written him directly.

And even while Mitt Romney, boating enthusiast, laughingly jets around Lake Winnipesaukee he ignores the pleas of the victims of his evil crimes.

And this doesn't even go into the giant LIBOR manipulation scandal of Barclay's and dozens of British and American banks. Or the evil, corrupt Bankers at HSBC who while gouging every decent hard-working person who might be late on a payment was busy laundering millions of dollars from Mexican Drug Cartels, FARC guerrillas and Al Qaida Terrorists. Barclay's LIBOR rate rigging is nothing new.

Imperialists have always sought new methods and tools to extract the wealth from the poor and transfer it to themselves. It's all legerdemain. A shell game designed to Steal.

But, when dealing with Theft of this magnitude. Theft of Generations. Theft of Lives. Theft of the Wealth of Nations. You can't call it what it is.

If you want to Know what your job would be like without Unions, Ask a Concussed NFL Player

On 01/28/12 Chicago Tribune ran a story on former Bears Linebacker Hunter Hillenmeyer and his struggles upon suffering his career-ending concussion during the 2010 NFL Season.

On August 28 2010, Hillenmeyer suffered a concussion during a pre-season game. He was placed on injured reserve before the season and has never played again. The Bears terminated his contract Feb. 28, 2011, one month after the team's concussion consultant, Dr. Elizabeth Pieroth, a board certified clinical neuropsychologist, examined him and recommended he no longer play. The Bears cut him with one year and $1.8 million remaining on his contract. According to the union, Article 45 of the collective bargaining agreement stipulates Hillenmeyer is eligible for an injury protection benefit of 50 percent of his base salary up to $1 million, meaning he should be able to collect $900,000.

If you want to know what it's like to be a non-unioned employee, look at what the NFL Teams do to their players. Oh got hurt? Can't play anymore? Gone. NFL players have short careers, averaging roughly 3.5 years. They have a famously powerful Union. Hunter Hillenmeyer had a contract. The Bears aren't honoring it.

This is what we have to look forward to as the 1% continues their drive in the Right to Work for Less laws. RTW doesn't actually secure you a job what it secures is your employers' right to fuck you over. And fucking over workers is what American Capitalism is designed to do.

Don't want to come in on the weekend? You're Fired!
Don't want to work Thanksgiving? You're Fired!
Got hurt on the job? Well, the Company says you didn't. Now, try and get benefits. Oh and the Republicans eliminated Medicare and stole Social Security.

The Indiana Republican controlled Legislature pushed through Right-to-Work-For-Less and Governor Mitch Daniels signed the bill into law on 2/1/12.

Quickly upon the heels of this success the Republican controlled State Legislature of Minnesota and Arizona are trying to pass through Union-busting and anti-worker agendas. Minnesota Republicans want to amend their state constitution to outlaw Unions.

2011 saw Republicans in Wisconsin, Ohio and Michigan push through heinous anti-worker legislation in direct opposition to the will of their constituents. The current Republican attempts at fucking over the 99% are always done on the strength of We're a Representative Democracy. But, what it shows is Republicans are the equivalent of governmental suicide bombers. Once they get elected they never ever represent their people but engage in a political campaign of doing the most damage possible without worrying about the electoral consequences.

Because even if the Republican scumbags are voted out or recalled, they've done the explosive damage they sought to do and they've assured themselves of Right-Wing Paradise being lavished with hundreds of thousands in speaking fees from Conservative Think Tanks or jobs as rhetorical bomb-throwers on Faux News.

Non-Union workers demonstrably receive less in wages and benefits. Non-Union workers are at whim workers. This is precisely what the 1% wants, the ability to reduce pay and eliminate pensions and have every worker afraid, one wrong step, one breath away from termination.

And do you think you're going to be able to fight and win a lawsuit against a Criminal Corporate Conglomerate? Look at the former Bears player Hillenmeyer. He earned millions in his career but it's coming up on one year since his release. Think you can hold out for a year trying to win a legal battle against Corporate Criminals? They will drag court procedures out for decades because they never die, but the victims of Vulture Capitalists, the 99% do...

Indiana and the March Back in Time

There's More than Corn in Indiana! There's also Ignorant Religious Fanatics and Slave Masters!

An Indiana Republican-controlled Senate Education Committee voted 8-2 to send legislation endorsing the teaching creationism in public schools, to the super majority (37-13) Republican controlled Indiana State Senate. Senate Bill 89 allows school corporations to authorize "the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life" and specifically mentions "creation science" as one such theory.

State Sen. Scott Schneider, R-Indianapolis, who voted for the measure, said if there are many theories about life's origins, students should be taught all of them.

Ah! I can't wait for Norse-Creationism to be taught in Biology class! YMIR was the father of six-headed son that was nourished by a cosmic cow called AUDUMLA. Audumla fed herself by licking the salty rime-stone, until that stone was licked into a shape of man. Ye, but verily did WOTAN slay the Mighty Frost Giant Ymir and from his bones made the earth and from his blood made the seas and rivers and his skull became the Vault of the Heavens! ODIN!!!!!!!

But, wait there is more! Not to be outdone on the March Back in Time, the Indiana House voted 54-44 to pass one of the Right-To-Fuck-Over-Workers Bills. The Indiana Legislature has 3 bills (2 House and 1 Senate) which contain language making it illegal to be part of a Union or Labor Organization. These bills are so bad that even the NFL Players Association condemned the right-to-work bills in a Jan. 6 statement, calling it “a political ploy designed to destroy basic workers’ rights.”

And you thought the train had pulled away from the Pullman Shanty Towns forever! This is how Corporate evil works, little by little they undermine hard-fought gains until the you wake up and your Rights as a worker are gone.

You really think you're going to negotiate paid-sick leave and a salary increase? You think your complaints about unsafe working conditions are going to stop the Company from putting you in harms way? Just ask the 29 dead workers at the Msssey Energy Upper Big Branch Mine or the 11 dead Oil Rig workers on the BP Deepwater Horizion Off-Shore Rig?

Once Corporations get the power to pay you slave wages that's exactly what you are going to get. Don't like it? You're fired! Combine this with Republicons working to steal Social Security, unfund Medicaid, eliminate Medicare, and roll-back Obama Cares the vast majority of Americans are looking at being chained as Serfs and Wage Slaves to the 1% Neo-Feudal Industrial Machine.

The XLVI Super Bowl brought to you by Non-Union Labor

The New England Patriots and the New York Giants will be playing in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis on 02/05/12. The spectacle of the highest paid Union Members in the world playing in a state fighting to destroy Unions by adopting Right-To-Work-For-Less laws is a disgusting measure of the dirty lengths Republicons will delve to in their fight to service their Moneyed Masters.

I'm glad football players make as much as they do. We see as people get stronger, larger, faster and maintain a higher level of conditioning, the toll on these men's bodies and brains is horrendous. The average career is 3.5 years. As Derrick Mason stated at his retirement announcement this year,

"I leave it healthy and able to run and walk and not take a half-hour or 45 minutes to get out of bed."

But, while Indiana enjoys the financial fruits of the Patriots and Giants labor, Governor Mitch Daniels wants to restrict the rights, lower the wages and slash the benefits of workers in Indiana. Right-to-Work laws are nothing short of the 1% finding a way to get Government to outlaw Unions and enforce the 1% schemes of paying less and less for labor and avoiding deferred compensation or healthcare for their retired workers under the power of law. Information on the 3 Right-to-Fuck-Over-Workers Bills, Indiana HB 1028 and HB 1043 and Indiana Senate Bill SB 0395, proposed by the Indiana Legislature can be found at BadforIndiana.Org

In fact, if the 1% had their way, American Workers would have to ply their labor against Workers from around the world with the Plutocrats picking the lowest price, least benefits and ease of eliminating any worker who dared question his Neo-Feudal Lord. While we Wage Slaves gawk in awe as, Vulture Capitalists Stephen "Fuck Her" Schwarzman and Leon D. Black congratulate themselves for their "ingenuity" and "job creation skills" with Multi-Million Dollar Birthday Parties. It's the Global Race to the Bottom.

This has been the goal since the end of World War II when the Industrialists and their Multi-National Conglomerates saw an opportunity to get Governments to finance the construction of plants and factories in other Nations while they get to steal all the profits. They front no risk and reap all the rewards. And if the Nation the Corporate Monster invades gets uppity, say like Ecuador, then the Corporation takes to the IMF or WTO and sues them demanding Billions of dollars in blood money be forcibly extracted from the people.

But, it's not limited to foreign shores, the Vultures are more than willing to descend on your local town or use America's Favorite pass time to steal wealth. Lowe's got the Village of Schaumburg, Illinois to front the costs for laying the foundation, running the wires and plumbing to their store, got millions in "tax breaks" and when their store wasn't making as much money as they'd like, they simply up and left. Billionaire Hank Steinbrenner, extracted $1,200,000,000 Billion dollars in Taxpayer money to finance his baseball stadium while stating,

“Socialism, communism, whatever you want to call it, is never the answer.“

Of course, it works. If you're Rich.

It's the Goal of the Plutocracy. Push the burden of business onto the people while keeping the benefits for themselves. Socialize their Losses and Costs and Privatize the Profits.