I would rather be governed by the first five hundred people in the telephone book than by the CEOs of the Fortune 500.
Deep thought
by DougJ| 68 Comments
This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute, Fuck The Middle-Class
by DougJ| 68 Comments
This post is in: David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute, Fuck The Middle-Class
I would rather be governed by the first five hundred people in the telephone book than by the CEOs of the Fortune 500.
by DougJ| 77 Comments
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class
I don’t know whether to be revolted that Matt Bai is slobbering all over Chris Christie or happy that he’s honest about conservative political games:
Yet it’s hard to see Christie getting so much traction if he were out there castigating, say, immigrants or Wall Street bankers. What makes Christie compelling to so many people isn’t simply plain talk or swagger, but also the fact that he has found the ideal adversary for this moment of economic vertigo. Ronald Reagan had his “welfare queens,” Rudy Giuliani had his criminals and “squeegee men,” and now Chris Christie has his sprawling and powerful public-sector unions — teachers, cops and firefighters who Christie says are driving up local taxes beyond what the citizenry can afford, while also demanding the kind of lifetime security that most private-sector workers have already lost.
The trick won’t work as well this time because unlike mythical “welfare queens” and “squeegee men”, mythical teat-sucking public union members are often white. So, no, public union members are not the ideal adversary here. It will take years of propaganda to make bitching about public sector unions as effective as bitching about teh black and teh brown.
Republicans jumped the gun this time.
Also too, it is stunning how much the media loves a governor who uses “plain talk” to fuck over the middle-class.
by DougJ| 41 Comments
This post is in: Excellent Links, Fuck The Middle-Class
In the immortal words of Michael Irvin, don’t lose the intensity.
Give to Wisconsin State Senate Democrats.
Order pizza for protesters here.
Solidarity rallies here (Does anyone know of an up-to-date link for solidarity rallies?)
General food/organization supply fund for Madison protesters here.
Let us know what’s going on in your area. I just learned there will be a solidarity rally here in Rochester next week so this stuff is spreading.
Update. Here’s a site where you can find solidarity rallies near you. (h/t Violet)
by DougJ| 35 Comments
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class
I stopped reading Kevin Drum a while ago because he was always writing about what thoughtful points “Megan” had made recently, but this article about Wisconsin (via) is worth a read.
Andy Kroll’s reports on the ground are worth reading too.
Mother Jones has been tearing it up on Wisconsin. They’re worth donating to/subscribing to (I don’t like hard copies so I just donate).
by Kay| 45 Comments
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Enhanced Protest Techniques, Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Daydream Believers
I’ve been getting emails from people who went to the Ohio statehouse in Columbus to oppose SB 5, the Ohio bill that strips collective bargaining rights.
I wrote yesterday how Ohio Governor Kasich’s public safety director locked out the opposition. This is a first-hand account sent by a Balloon Juice reader:
Yesterday I was in Columbus to join in the rally against SB 5, the Ohio GOP’s implementation of the assault on collective bargaining. Even before we got there it was clear Republicans were trying to discourage attendance: as the bus approached Columbus we were told the doors to the Senate building had been locked.
The trooper presence was overwhelming; far beyond what public safety required. There was a riot truck, canine, and a couple troopers were actually wearing full riot gear.
Since our trip was sponsored by the county Democratic party our trip coordinator was in contact with a few of the state senators. Getting inside from the front was not going to happen, so we were directed to the parking garage. Once we got there we were turned away by state troopers. Phone calls ensued; we were told to go to the rear of the building for admittance.
We slowly started up the stairs, and as the first of our group got to the top we were greeted by security. This was in an outdoor area; it was on the way from the parking garage to the outdoor entrance of the building. Yet we were stopped on a single flight of outdoor concrete steps and told we would have to turn back. When we got to the top of the stairs there was another delay as troopers told us no one was allowed to go in. More phone calls, this time around fifteen minutes.
Finally State Representative Teresa Fedor, the most fabulous person in the world, showed up, opened the doors, and told the troopers “This is the people’s house. Lobbyists use this door. Arrest me if you want.”
One other note. Here’s Governor Walker in Wisconsin issuing directives on Ohio:
“I talk to Kasich every day. John’s going to stand firm in Ohio.”
Governor Kasich seems to be avoiding us:
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — The Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s luncheon Thursday featuring Gov. John Kasich has been relocated to Youngstown-Warren Regional airport — apparently in reaction to widespread calls for labor protests at the event.
The sold-out luncheon, originally scheduled to take place at Leo’s Ristorante in Howland, was relocated to the Vienna Township airport at the request of the Kasich administration, according to news reports. An official announcement about the change of venue is expected today.
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 50 Comments
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor, Glibertarianism, Assholes, Fucked-up-edness, General Stupidity, Going Galt
The solution to the Wisconsin woes is to just fire the teachers and burn down the schools, at least to according some dipshit (John Terry) from the Media Research Center.
And he’s right, right?
We don’t need no education! We don’t need no stinkin’ teachers! What have they done for me lately? Those rat bastards are doing exactly jack and squat to educate our youth! Our childrens isn’t learning! Just send everyone to Catholic School and teach them about The Lord and stuff:
With the entire nation watching, Wisconsinites are now debating whether the state’s public school teachers ought to be required to pay 5.8 percent of their wages to support their own retirement plans and 12.6 percent of their own health-insurance premiums, and also whether their union ought to be able to negotiate a pay increase on their behalf that exceeds the rate of inflation without letting voters approve or disapprove that raise in a referendum.
What Wisconsin ought to be debating is whether these public school teachers should keep their jobs at all.
Then every state ought to follow Wisconsin in the same debate.
It is time to drive public schools out of business by driving them into an open marketplace where they must directly compete with schools not run by the government or staffed by members of parasitic public employees’ unions.
The well-documented incompetence of America’s public schools — including Wisconsin’s — is damaging our nation. Their educational product is simply not good enough for our children. In some cases, it is toxic.
According to data collected and published by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Wisconsin’s public schools have been consuming more and more tax dollars over the years while doing a consistently miserable job educating children in the basics of reading and math.
…As bad as they are, Wisconsin’s tests scores are slightly better than the national average for public-school students.
In 1998, American public school eighth-graders averaged 261 out of 500 on the NAEP reading test. In 2009, they averaged 262 out of 500. In 1996, they averaged 271 out of 500 on the NAEP math test. In 2009, they averaged 282.
In 2009, only 30 percent of American public school eighth-graders earned a rating of “proficient” or better in reading. Only 32 percent earned a rating of “proficient” or better in math.
This ignorance did not come cheap. Nationwide, according to the NCES, public schools spent $10,297 per pupil in fiscal 2008.
Does anybody do better with less money? Yes.
In 2009, the eighth-graders in Catholic schools averaged 281 out of 500 on the NAEP reading test — 19 points higher than the average American public school eighth-grader and 15 points higher than the average eighth-grader in a Wisconsin public schools. On the math test, eighth-graders in Catholic schools averaged 297 out of 500, compared to an average of 282 for eighth-graders in public schools nationwide and 288 for public school eighth-graders in Wisconsin.
In the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, as noted on the archdiocese’s website, Catholic elementary school tuitions range from $900 per child at St. Adalberts in Milwaukee to the $5,105 for a non-parishioner child at St. Alphonsus in Greenhdale.
In addition to being less expensive and better than public schools at teaching math and reading, Catholic schools — like any private schools — can also teach students that there is a God, that the Ten Commandments are true and must be followed, that the Founding Fathers believed in both and that, ultimately, American freedom depends on fidelity to our Judeo-Christian heritage even more than it depends on proficiency in reading and math.
Jesus F. Croutons.
The mind, she bottles.
Looky here: The debate is NOT about whether to teachers should be required to take a pay cut. The union already agreed to that! let me repeat. THE UNION. ALREADY. AGREED. TO. DARTH WALKER’S. CUTS.
This is about union-busting. This is about pitting the private and public sectors against one another. Wisconsinites are holding out for one thing and one thing only – collective bargaining rights. For you assmonkeys out there whining about Johnny Schoolteacher makes this and why don’t I make what Jane Transitworker does, you should fucking ORGANIZE AND FIND A WAY TO GET WHAT JOHN AND JANE HAVE. Why is “race to the bottom” the default Teabilly position? Why are they trying to make us all as stupid as they are?
These free market fuckers are really starting to piss me off with their Galtian logic and idiocracization. How the hell are poor and middle-class folks supposed to afford to send their kids to private school?
Oh yeah, Fuck Them.
I swear to Bieber, I’m about to start setting small fires.
Is this the real life?!
How did I get in this nutshell?!
[via Media Matters]
[cross-posted here at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]
We don’t need no education; we don’t need no thought control.Post + Comments (50)
by DougJ| 18 Comments
This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Going Galt
Reader A sent me this classic, which is more timely now than ever:
“No one predicted the disappearance of the middle class,” said Dr. Bradford Elsby, a history professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “The danger of eliminating workers’ unions, which had protected the middle class from its natural predators for years, was severely underestimated. We believe that removal of the social safety net, combined with rapid political-climate changes, made life very difficult for the middle class, and eventually eradicated it altogether.”
One of the 15 permanent exhibits, titled “Working For ‘The Weekend,'” examines the routines of middle-class wage-earners, who labored for roughly eight hours a day, five days a week. In return, they were afforded leisure time on Saturdays and Sundays. According to many anthropologists, these “weekends” were often spent taking “day trips,”eating at chain family restaurants, or watching “baseball” with the nuclear family.
[…..]Others among the 99 percent of U.S. citizens who make less than $28,000 per year shared Chavez’s sense of disbelief.
“Frankly, I think they’re selling us a load of baloney,” said laid-off textile worker Elsie Johnson, who visited the museum Tuesday with her five asthmatic children. “They expect us to believe the government used to help pay for college? Come on. The funniest exhibit I saw was ‘Visiting The Family Doctor.’ Imagine being able to choose your own doctor and see him without a four-hour wait in the emergency room. Gimme a friggin’ break!”
I just hope this museum wasn’t funded with gubmint money.