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Thom said the law should make financial companies answer "Are you a banker or a brokerage house?"
So maybe the banksters should be called brokesters. Seems appropriate, since they made (and make) a lot of people broke.
Gerrymandering could not have affected the gubernatorial race in Florida, but I had been unaware that Rick Scott didn't get a majority and beat Charlie Crist 48.1%-47.1%. Who knows how it would have turned out if Florida required a run-off when there's no majority?
I can't get it down to five words either, but here's my best: Democratic socialism is strong governmental protection of the middle class.
Alice has been looking for a replacement for capitalism. We could include mandatory co-op structuring of businesses, and I'd throw in forbidding non-dividend stock.
So, Bernie has been on the cutting edge on so many issues. I'm wondering: Has he (and has Thom) seen Cowspiracy, & would he be willing to endorse veganism as the most efficient route to restoring the planet?
ulTRAX, limited liability isn't a service provided by the government, it's a condition of incorporation. In the end, it's the investors that pay for it, because they don't get a return on their investment if the corporation fails. But that's how investment works--there's always a risk of not making money. It's up to them to weigh the risks and make an informed decision on whether any particular investment is a good idea.
@ Willie W; Reagan was also a Democrat and Screen Actors Guild Union President in his early years. Somebody obviously made him an offer that he couldn't refuse, not an uncommon practice in Washington !
The Democrats who have always been credited with supporting collective bargaining have actually done little to combat various political actions that have severely limited the union's activities over the years. For Instance, the Taft Hartley Act was passed in 1948 by the Right and the Democrats, who are always glad to see union members flocking to the polls on election day, have done virtually nothing in 69 years to weaken or eliminate this legislation ! It's a given that organized labor will eventually receive a final death blow if the T.P.P. is signed in to law. However the final blow won't come from politicians in Washington, instead it will come in the form of a claimed violation of the terms of the T.P.P. lodged by one or more of those foreign T.P.P. signatories who have long maintained sweatshop pay and working standards in their own country that exclusively benefit wealthy owners and investors, local and foreign !
AMEN, Sunnyvale! Not one single statement you've made here that I can disagree with. Not one! Lucid, down-to-earth comments, and very refreshing. I hope you stick around; I'd love to read more of your take on things.
I sure hope the court rules in favor of the union on this case. People who work for union negotiated wages and benefits should not complain about paying dues. They would only be making half of what they are making if they hadn't had the union negotiating on their behalf. Union workers are not just pro-union. They are pro-worker and pro-workers rights. Sometimes I think that if the republican party has their way unions will go extinct. What would happen then? The economy would tank, and the government would go bankrupt because wages would be much lower and lower wages means less spending and less taxes owed. The next thing that would happen is workers would rise up and form unions and elect people to office that represent them.
Some people just don't want anything deducted from their check, not even Medicare or taxes or stuff that benefits them like retirement or medical insurance. That's just the way some people are, even some union members are like that.
I've heard a lot of lies and miss-conceptions about unions over the years. All I can say is I've been a member of Plumbers Local 17, Memphis, for 43 years and I've got no complaints.
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" George Santayana
What with more and more states going right-to-work-for-less resulting in the decline of the middle class, the country needs a good documentary series on labor history in the U.S..
Schools are not teaching labor history and students are not learning the names MARY HARRIS "MOTHER" JONES, GEORGE MEANY, and the RUETHER BROTHERS. They are not learning events like the LUDLOW MASSACRE, the TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE, and the 1937 FLINT SIT DOWN STRIKE.
I believe that many unions are not teaching labor history to their own memberships. I am a union member, and I did not know of the LUDLOW MASSACRE until I retired and moved 40 miles south of Ludlow Colorado. Maybe if more unions taught labor history to their memberships - they would happily pay their union dues.
It doesn't require a union to facilitate work stoppage, it simply takes a majority of pissed off employees willing to fight the workplace injustice.
The billionaires sure have their own union representation, it's called a republican controlled congress. Maybe non union workers should stop paying federal income tax.....isn't that like unwillingly paying union dues too?
I think it's time to go on a counterattack and challenge the idea that CORPORATIONS and shareholders should get free limited liability protections from government. Let them buy these protections from the private market.
Eric Schechter -- Regulated capitalism means the New Deal. The FDR policies dealt with points 2) and 3). Maybe now Facebook can take care of 1).
Furthermore, what is your alternative plan? One guess would be replace humans with another species.
AIW -- I mean a replacement for an economic policy.
Truth 2010 -- You should have also mentioned there were more than twice as many abolitionists in the South as in the North.
First, I never end the plege of allegiance with "...liberty and justice for all" because I do not like lying. I end it with "...liberty and justice for those who can afford it."
It angers some people that hear me say that but after they THINK about it for a few moments, they agree.
Now let's talk about our next president, Senator Bernie Sanders. Despite what the naysayers are trying to say about his chances--Example: Bernie Sanders will raise taxes to 90% for everyone--it smells like Faux Snooze who desperately do not want him to win. I never watch Faux because I have had one stroke and don't need another.
They never seem to understand that people can read body language to know when they are being lied to and with Faux they almost never tell the truth. Their people are either totally convinced of their lies or they have to race to the nearest rest room to vomit.
Now that Bernie is starting to showing in the polls, the Hillary camp is paying attention to him. The New York Times is joining in on the bash Bernie brigade. They still do not know how to differentiate between money raised and voter awareness. People two months ago that did not know what a Bernie Sanders was are now chomping at the bit so they can watch him destroy the Democratic Party's desire to get Hillary in the Oval Office.
I've been following the Senator for almost a decade. The first time I heard him talk I was hooked. He said what I wanted to hear in a manner I loved.
Hillary is owned by Wall Street and the banks. She is spending money that under normal circumstances would shoo her into POTUShood. But this time around money doesn't mean what it used to.
I just discovered this site from an acquaintance I met on Facebook. I owe him a big thank you.
I am glad that Thom pointed out that Bill Clinton was key player in creating the 2008 crash.
I say take a lesson from the Republican cheat rule book. I see two simple solutions. #1) Change the name of the fee. Republicans have been getting around the law for decades by changing one or two letters, words, dates, and names of the laws to suit their needs. Public unions can use the same trick. #2) Change the rules of union membership. Require that anyone holding a position in the field carry a union card. Therefore, non-member fees no longer apply. Fine anyone who works without being a member and in either case, unions collect their fees.
AIW -- As I tell Loren B, you need more details of your alternative plan.
Thom has a strong argument for regulated capitalism. That argument is that the New Deal and Great Society provided a plan which resulted in the most beneficial economy to the lower and middle classes that has happened in the 7000 years of western civilization.
Bernie's plan so far has what I think are the most critical parts of the New Deal. Those pieces are a 91% top tax rate and the elimination of all trade agreements we have made,
While support the protection of private sector worker rights with the German model,
(1/2 of board of directors must be workers)
public sector unions have no place in government. Here is someone who says it better than I:
From Wiki:
" Roosevelt, "an ardent supporter of collective bargaining in the private sector, was opposed to it in the public sector".
In 1937 he explained his view:
All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with government employee organizations. The employer is the whole people, who speak by means of laws enacted by their representatives in Congress. Accordingly, administrative officials and employees alike are governed and guided, and in many instances restricted, by laws which establish policies, procedures, or rules in personnel matters. Particularly, I want to emphasize my conviction that militant tactics have no place in the functions of any organization of government employees. Upon employees in the Federal service rests the obligation to serve the whole people, whose interests and welfare require orderliness and continuity in the conduct of government activities. This obligation is paramount. Since their own services have to do with the functioning of the Government, a strike of public employees manifests nothing less than an intent on their part to prevent or obstruct the operations of Government until their demands are satisfied. Such action, looking toward the paralysis of Government by those who have sworn to support it, is unthinkable and intolerable.[12]
ct
I don't understand their reasoning. Our polititicians don't bother to represent us in what we want because we can't afford the "dues" required for them to take notice. And yet they think it's perfectly OK to demand that unions offer representation to any low life that doesn't want to pay. Do as I say. Not as I do. In this case, Regan was right when he said "government is the problem."
A local small business should join the Chamber of Commerce and refuse to pay dues on the grounds of freedom of speech. Same principle.
I spent my entire working career in and around unions. Did we always agree with each other ? Of course not. Could union representatives be unreasonable at times ? Certainly. (For that matter, we could be just as unreasonable at times.) But there's one unbreakable rule: "If you're going to enjoy the benefits and the protections of a union, you gotta PAY. You don't get to ride for free. Period."
I have not fully vaccinated my child. Not yet.
Japan has banned the MMR shot. Caused too many fatalities.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-17509/Why-Japan-banned-MMR-vac...
When mass vaccinations were begun in the U.S., the incidence of disease decreased. Problem was, it also decreased in Europe where they DID NOT start mass vaccination. So what caused disease to spontaneously ebb in Europe? We do not know,..... but it was not vaccinations.
Why did they offer my 2-day-old son a Hepatitis B vaccination? Risk factors for Hep B include being an IV drug user or a prostitute. As far as I know my son was neither at the age of two days.
Why do they inject kids with vaccinations at all? Even doctors will concede that a child's immune system is not even functional until they are at least 1 year old. Look it up. So why seek to stimulate an immune system that isn't even operational?
I think it was the thimerisol that caused some kids to have a reaction. I think some kids are sensitive. Also the multi-shot cocktail should not be used as that multi shot is probably preserved with thimerisol (Hg derivative). Get a single dose shot for a single disease.
Wait about a month or two between shots, and have your child mega dose vitamin C a week both before and after the shot.
Personally, I am getting my son the meningitis and polio shots. Maybe measles later.
That ought to handle the life threatening diseases.
Judge me all you want, but the fact is that my now 14-year old son went through school missing only 4 days or so from 1st grade onward. My kid is healthier than your kid because he gets innoculated for disease the way you were meant to be: through natural exposure, and natural routes of exposure. He was daily immersed in the same germ soup as the other kids. The vaccinated kids got sick. He didn't.
Fact.
Instant runoff -- Very impressive.
What are the chances that anyone will listen to Yanis' idea of a parallel currency?