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Please add sustainability to my statement. I made an omission. None of whom you mention ever had to be concerned with sustainability. In 1950 there were only 2 billion people and now 7 billion with technological advancements that allow us to act as if we are, just a guess, 20 billion people. Certainly some multiple of 7 billion. Those that you mention who are acting today are the small number that I mentioned who are not making a big enough impact to reverse the rape of the planet. Agriculture destroying the soil. Fisheries fishing out the oceans. Forestry harvesting ever smaller diameter trees. Ever increasing water, soil and air pollution. Is there any sector of consequence that is not in decline? Even though solar and wind power is increasing, we will gobble up that energy and STILL consume oil & gas as long as a profit can be made. And if most of us would like to live in balance with nature, we would. But we aren't because the vast majority do not care beyond themselves. It would be great if we did care but that's just wishful thinking. And you know what that is worth.
Some radio talk show hosts poked fun at global warming just because a research vessel got stuck in some ice. Such is the mentality you're dealing with.
Oh that's that thing for your backside, eh what? This is an item of luxury. But if you can't afford actual TP, you have a point- one can always back up to the bathtub faucet, or if still in the Middle Class, utilize the shower massage...
I wish you had posted what that person was talking about TODAY on your show about the pipeline and that great guest—so clear and lucid— she had on and that website where we can learn more and that I forget now because I was in the car when I heard it!!
Actually, it's always darkest before it gets completely black. Disappearance of species has no exception for humankind.
So then, ou812 is, no doubt, a man, that's a man's ribaldry. For sure, he's a white, male, misogynist, racist, homophobic suck ass to the 1% and their wannabes.
Bob Hearns ~ Actually there is quite a lot of human history about our concern with the environment. Starting with cave men, explorers, all agricultural societies, all hunters and gatherers, Nomads, Vikings, American Indians, and Eskimos were all tremendously concerned about their environment to name but a few. Even if you look at today, you have people chaining themselves to trees, risking their lives with Greenpeace, being called "environmental terrorists," and commenting on blogs like this. Actually, what we have before us is a small group of industrialists in a Capitalistic society that have no choice because of the economic structure but to abandon common sense for profit because they must compete with other producers in order to survive. We must be careful about whom we connect this problem too. I feel that most of us would prefer to live in balance with nature. It is easiest, safest, cheapest, and the most secure way of life for us all.
http://www.bidetratings.com/
There is nothing in human history that indicates that our actions have ever shown concern about the environment. Today, only a small number of us do and not enough to make an impact. Even in the face of Kyoto, Copenhagen and the rest of the promises to reign in carbon emissions, globally, they have steadily increased year after year. Years ago someone wrote - 'After all is said and done, much is said and little done.' How true this is concerning our environment. Taken as a whole, humanity is not mature enough to put the environment ahead of self interest. We will continue down this road until natural disasters, probably through pandemics, reduce our numbers or, worst case, wipe us out. This is not a prediction. It is a certainty.
It might be a good thing that we are not prepared for climate change. If we were, it wouldn't be the same disaster that it will be, would it? If we were prepared, it might not even happen. Only through a disaster of Biblical proportions will mankind be motivated to doing anything about preventing this scenario in the future. I believe we--as a race--will survive. Maybe, not all of us; but, enough--hopefully stronger, smarter, and wiser. Maybe tribulation like this is what is supposed to trigger evolution?
It's always darkest before the dawn...
"The AP said that the report warned that "starvation, poverty, flooding, heat waves, droughts, war, and disease [are] likely to worsen as the world warms from man-made climate change."
With or without climate change, the following edit still holds true:
"starvation, poverty, .... war, and disease [are] likely to worsen... from man-made...change."
Speaking of change, has anyone a square to spare?
P.S. Mark, "Ou812's" avatar is definitely an image of Michelle Bachmann. Sometime within the last week or two, when he/she/it first appeared, ole Palin the bloodhound availed me a link showing how widely used this photo has been. So it's made the rounds! By the way, I hope Ms. B choked on that dildo.... You are what you eat! (tsk tsk) - AIW
You're always welcome, Mark.
It would not surprise me a bit if that Bachmann clone was a liar-for-hire. That shit ain't gonna fly here; not on our watch!
By the way, I clicked on your link to that University of Illinois article, "Undermining The Right To Organize", and read a good part of it. I intend to finish reading it when I have time. It disgusts me no end how toothless the National Labor Relations Board has been in enforcing laws meant to protect workers' right to organize. It has undermined the financial security of families all over this country. The ones who need to "update their offerings" are the employers themselves!
Employers' methods of sabotaging union membership are so predictable. Laws are only as good as the enforcement backing them, without which they are worthless. I think the NLRB needs a major overhaul, to say the least. Without democracy in the workplace, we're screwed. - Aliceinwonderland
I think the tipping point has been passed and there is nothing we can do to prevent worldwide, ecological catastrophe. Methane released from its hydrate matrix is part of a positive feedback loop. (Look up the characteristics of such a structure.) No one has suggested an intervention which would be both financially feasible and likely to be effective. Say goodbye to the human race. We had fun while it lasted. Looking back we will have learned that we cannot rape Mother Earth without limit. Unfortunately, no one will be left to remember that lesson.
Don't worry...! Climate change denying plutocratic corporate communist pseudo libertarian fascist believe the world is only relevant while they are in it...they are "God" after all. Remember the important thing is we all need a job and must consume mass quantities to be HARD WORKING AMERICAN's....What A Mind Frug!
Anyway, I'd like to know what Michelle means, she "found out the truth". What exactly would be to "update their offerings".
Wait a minute! Ou812, you mean you really are so pliable as to think low union membership is because people just don't want a union, don't want any power in the work place, no protection or security or any chance of gettig a good deal?
Alice, I think you're right, it's Michelle. Look at that picture, swallowing the big one! Fraudster joke, "Oh, you ate one too!".
Thanks Alice! Unions are not out of date! They want 'em to be but they're not.
You think Ou812 is a "liar for hire", a shill? Sure is just about the talking points.
Try those links I posted, they're real good, especially that last one, the study report.
Ou812, you do better without a union? I suppose you can negotiate a good contract all by yourself, huh? I find it hard to believe you ever worked for anybody other than maybe your mom or dad. Or, I Imagine you're a middle or upper class college kid who hadn't had a job other than in your chosen profession upon getting your degree and after spending a rather merry youth at school.
And this is not to attack you, many people are born lucky like that and just don't know this stuff. It was once quite common in the U.S. to be a middle class brat and have your "happy days" like Richie Cunningham. I'm just telling you all this stuff because I know it's true, I can tell you, I've lived it. When I was a labor organizer I was a volunteer organizing outsourced temporaries like myself in my own work place and others like it in something similar to the Our Walmart model of organizing.
I am also aware of the problems with unions, I got my start in organizing in the Teamster reform movement as a UPS dock worker in the1970s. The historic corruption of the Teamsters probably did more to lower the general esteem of labor unions in the United States than anything else. But even as we fought the thugs and crooks in the union and fought to get them to earn the dues having their representation was still a lot better than having none and none of us would've ever thought we'd be better off without any union at all. The predations of UPS were always there, like a hungry beast snarling and baring its fangs, and the union, even our union, was like a thin screen just strong enough to separate us from it. We knew what'd happen if the screen were to disappear - and the corrupt thugs would make sure you didn't forget it using their selective representation of us as a weapon.
We eventually won our fight against Teamster corruption - long after I had quit working for UPS - thanks, in no small part to the Clinton Administration. Working people need to take their unions back but not having them is not an alternative. I mean, that's what the employers really would like and what they were really after when they corrupted unions in the first place with their payola.
Oooooh Mark, are you sure you want to take on this heavyweight?! (tsk) The Bachmann clone's gettin' nasty now, accusing you of "peddling BS"... the ultimate sin on this blog! Has me shakin' in mah boots.
To the contrary, dearie, figures very often don't speak for themselves. There's way more to an issue like this than can be condensed down to a few dry numbers. If unions are "out of touch" or "out of date" it's because workers need to bring them up to date. Unlike the companies these people work for, unions are democratic organizations, which makes them much more pliable than the companies. "Out of luck"? Hardly. If you look back through history, they've been "out of luck" before and still made a comeback. It will happen again. There are limits to how much abuse workers will tolerate before they start to push back. Unions remain the only means by which this can be accomplished. - AIW
The EPI said in part,"Either America must accept that the American Dream of widespread economic mobility is dead, or new policies must emerge that will begin to restore broadly shared prosperity.”
It's not too hard to pick which way lawmakers will turn. Just ask yourself, Which would be easiest for them; to accept that economic mobility is dead, but for them to keep feeding from the milk teat of the rich and corporations OR do something about economic inequality and suffer the wroth of their financial benefactors? This is a decision that will take politicians about 3 microseconds to decide and the outcome doesn't bode well for those of us who work for our living.
we DO have the power to move politics, but only if we operate cohesively. The masses of propaganda peddaled by corporations and the wealthy are designed and intended to convince us to "stay in our rightful place" and that the fruits of our labors Rightfully belong to them, to be doled out to us as THEY choose. It troubles me to hear so many working people parrot the lies of the rich because those working people cannot trouble themselves to think critcally about what they're told.
Moses said it.
"Let my people go."
I don't know why the public continues to accept lies, cover-ups, half-baked explanations, fairy tales, and excuses, from one caper to the next. We are so burdened with surviving and trying to be happy in a decaying world spinning out of our control, who has time to think?
We are just a bunch of pack animals, too tired to kick up mud in the faces of our oppressors. They know who they are.
<p>Peddle your BS somewhere else Saulys. The figures speak for themselves. I was a Union member until I found out the truth. Unions are out of touch, out of date and out of luck. Until unions update their offerings, membership will continue to dwindle. Check back here in 12 months to see how much more membership diminishes in 2014.</p>
Peddle your BS somewhere else Saulys. The figures speak for themselves. I was a Union member until I found out the truth. Unions are out of touch, out of date and out of luck. Until unions update their offerings, membership will continue to dwindle. Check back here in 12 months to see how much more membership diminishes in 2014.
Ou812, don't imagine for a second that those figures represent working peoples' desire to join a union. The choice of union membership or not is a no brainer and survey research bears this out (http://www.sharedprosperity.org/bp182.html). I mean, the stereotype of a union protected job that most people, including and, perhaps especially, working people have is like the one that Kend has of the Canadian postal workers. Who wouldn't want that?
There is, however, a tremendous amount of threatening, intimidation and illegal firing of workers by employers during workplace organizing campaigns and discrimination against workers who engage in organizing campaigns by employers. The VW campaign is fairly typical. Union organizing is legally protected activity, but in 2007 study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that 31% oworkplace organizingcampaigns result in an illegal firing of one or more of the workers engaging in the campaign. In 2000 Human Rights Watch announced a quadrupling of the instances of discrimination practiced by employers of employees who bengaged in workplace organizing campaigns since the '60s. Employers involved in workplace organizing campaigns use many methods to undermine it, including:
•
Threatening employees with loss of jobs or benefits if they join or vote for a union orengage in protected activity.• Threatening to close the plant if employees select a union to represent them.• Questioning employees about their union sympathiesor activities in circumstances that tendto interfere with, restrain, or coerce employeesin the exercise of their rights under theNLRA.• Promising benefits to employees to discourage their union support.• Transferring, laying off, terminating, or assigning more difficult work tasks to employeesbecause they engaged in union or protected activity.
In 80% of workplace organizing campaigns employers use outside consultants who have union busting down to a science. Here are a couple of excerpts from report of an extensive study conducted by the University of Illinois at Chicago from 2000-2005 (one of whose authors I know from my organizing days - as I participated in the study as a subject). I recommend reading the report http://web.wm.edu/so/tlsc/orgmaterials/Busting.pdf it's a great read, real enlightening and engrossing.
Organizers and workers reported that consultants are effective in helping employers erode theunion’s majority position within voting units because of the considerable time and expertise theydedicate to an anti-union campaign. Consultants provide employers with experience using the mosteffective anti-union tactics. They know how bestto sequence the use of these tactics during theelection process and how to avoid violating thelaw while achieving maximum impact. ArthurMendelson, a leading consultant in the field, explained, “Management can do so much within theconfines of the law to combat unionism that they need not and should not break the law.” (Logan2002: 208) The following example illustrates howquickly support for unionization can erode whena management consultant is involved: As soon as the employer found out the union was involved, they flew in their consultants. They hadthe consultant working in the nursing home for five straight weeks. We had 35 workers out of 43who signed cards when we filed foran election. In the last week before the election, we had only 28workers. Then, on the Monday night before the election, we had a meeting and no one showed up.We lost the election two days later by alandslide, 29 to 12. [Interview Russow 2004] Consultants help their clients overcome a range ofobstacles encountered in the weeks leading up toan election. One worker explained the role of a consultant at his workplace: [The employer’s] biggest problem was communication with the workforce. About 80 percent didn’tspeak English. So he hired a guy out of California to come in at $500 per hour to run his campaign.He was slamming these guys. Just for this election alone, [the employer] took out a $100,000 loanjust to make sure workersdidn’t vote with the union. [Interview Worker #1 2005]
And one more,
Employer Interference Undermines Majority Support Employers have become adept at using concerted and comprehensive anti-union campaigns tosystematically undermine workers’ right to organize. The impact of comprehensive anti-unioncampaigns on the rate of unionization in the Chicagometropolitan area has been substantial. In2002, labor unions filed 179 petitions with the NLRB to represent previously unorganized workersat private-sector workplaces in the Chicago metropolitan area. (NLRB 2004b) Unions werevictorious in only 31 percent of those campaigns. That unions were not more successful in theirefforts to represent workers using the NLRB election process (see Appendix B) is remarkableconsidering that, in most cases, the majorityof workers indicated they supported unionizationbefore the election process began. At some pointbetween when unions petitioned for an electionand when the election was actually held, unions lost their majority status. In many cases, an election was never even held.The NLRB held an election in only 69 percent ofthe 179 petitions filed (124 campaigns). In allbut one of the cases where an election was not held,unions withdrew their petitions because support for the union eroded to a point where they believedthey could not win the election. Of the 124 campaigns where an election was held, the union wassuccessful in only 45 percent. Even more soberingare the statistics on total workers organized. Ofthe approximate 8,000 workers petitioned for, unions eventually represented just 2,250 (28 percent)of them (authors’ calculations based on NLRB 2004b).1 Unions were unable to maintain worker support throughout the course of representation campaignsbecause employer interference undermined that support. Nearly all of the unions had achievedmajority support at the time they petitioned the NLRBfor an election. In 91 percent of the cases inthe CRC Survey, unions filed with at least 50 percent of workers signing cards or a petition in favorof unionization. In several cases, unions demonstrated more than 80 percent support. Nevertheless,unions lost elections in nearly half of the campaigns where the majority of workers indicated theysupported the union at the time the un
ion filed its petition with the NLRB