re: "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons-of-bitches..." edit request

[drokhole]

Hi, I was curious about the recent request for my post to be edited due to "copyright material." I was trying to find a way to contact a moderator on the site, but was unallowed to due to having the pending edit. So I made the edit (and sent an email, which hasn't been responded to), and the post has subsequently been deleted.

I'm not sure where the infringement stemmed from, because I didn't copy/paste any copyrighted material (unless quotes from the time period from public figures are considered copyrighted material). Further, no clarifying instructions/recommendations were made in the edit request. Otherwise, I'm not sure how to relay a story from the past without it being regarded as copyrighted. I did link to an article I found after constructing the post (which took a few hours) because I thought it would give people a little further background on the subject (it was the first hit on google after I searched "Steel Crisis 1962"). I wasn't sure what I could remove from the post, since I actually wrote it myself (from what I saw, the quotes from Thomas Merton, Robert Kennedy and General Douglas MacArthur didn't appear in the Steel Crisis article), and the commentary in and after were of my own unique perspective, and, according to some responses, was engaging and enjoyable. If there was another issue, please let me know. I spent a lot of time on that post, and was dismayed to see it deleted because of the time spent, and the fact that it seemed quite popular and provided a healthy discussion. Thanks.

[EarlG]

1. It looks like there was a mix-up here.

Just to make sure I've got this straight: you wrote a piece which included some excerpts from other material -- quotes by historical figures. At the end of the piece, you included a link to a related article which contained some of those quotes. But the piece that you posted on DU was your own original piece of writing.

It appears that the mods determined that you had taken more material from other sources than is permitted under our rules -- but since you were creating your own piece, merely salting it with quotes from other sources to back up your own original writing, what you did is actually okay. In my reply below I have provided the original text of your post in case you want to repost it. My apologies for the inconvenience.

On edit: the post below contains the original formatting of your post so you can copy-and-paste it directly into a new post, but I'm afraid you'll have to fix the spacing. Sorry about that.

[EarlG]

2. "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons-of-bitches...

...but I never believed it until now." - JFK

The story goes like this -

Prior to the Steel Crisis of 1962, JFK was involved in
brokering a deal between the United States Steel Company and
the United Steelworkers union, with the understanding that the
company would help keep inflation down by not raising steel
prices. According to Kennedy - after he got off the phone with
each side individually - the union members (who had agreed to
no wage increases and a modest increase in benefits)
"cheered and applauded their own sacrifice," while
company reps were "ice-cold" (gee, fancy fucking
that).

Four days later, Roger Blough (chairman of U.S. Steel)
requested to meet with Kennedy, wherein Blough handed him a
four page press release that was at the same time being
disseminated to the media. It stated that U.S. Steel,
"effective at 12:01 A.M tomorrow, will raise the price of
the company's steel products by an average of about
3.5%..."

Kennedy was righteously pissed at this blatant back-stabbing,
flat-out telling Blough, "you've made a terrible
mistake." After Blough left, and before he got
steelworkers union president David McDonald on the horn to
break the news ("Dave, you've been screwed and I've been
screwed"), is when he uttered the gem from the subject
line. The next day, U.S. Steel was joined in its price
increase by the other major steel manufacturers (including
Bethlehem Steel). Dick. Move.

Kennedy thought so too - and he went full throttle on these
conniving fucks. He immediately orders Defense Secretary
Robert McNamara to review all steel defense contracts (the
price hike would've tacked $1 billion on to the existing
contracts), with the intent to move them to the smaller
companies who hadn't raised their prices. He also has his
stone-cold bad-ass ninja brother Robert (Attorney General
extraordinaire...pay attention, Eric Holder) bring the hammer
down on these dickweeds from the financial angle. Robert would
later go on to say:

[i]"We were going for broke: their expense accounts and
where they'd been and what they were doing. I picked up all
their records and I told the FBI to interview them all - march
into their offices the next day. We weren't going to go
slowly, I said to have them done all over the country. All of
them were hit with meetings the next morning by agents. All of
them were subpoenaed for their personal records. All of them
were subpoenaed for their company records."[/i]

Then, and this is (in my mind) the most important part,
Kennedy [u]went[/u] [u]to[/u] [u]the[/u] [u]people[/u]. And
not in a "tough times for all/shared sacrifice" kind
of way, but in a "can you believe what these fucks are
trying to pull?" kind of way:

[i]"Simultaneous and identical actions of United States
Steel and other leading steel corporations [b]increasing steel
prices by some $6 a ton constitute a wholly unjustifiable and
irresponsible defiance of the public interest...the American
people will find it hard, as I do, to accept a situation in
which a tiny handful of steel executives, [u]whose pursuit of
private power and profit exceeds their sense of public
responsibility[/u], can show such utter contempt for the
interests of 185 million Americans.[/b]"[/i]

While the reporters heads were spinning from Kennedy's
"attack on Big Steel" (it was said they
"gasped" at its intensity), he smacked those loopy
dipshits with this closer:

[b][i]"Some time ago I asked each American to consider
what he would do for his country, and I asked the steel
companies...in the last 24 hours we had their
answer."[/i][/b]

Someone wasn't "sharing" in "the
sacrifice," and Kennedy, in no uncertain terms, called
them out on it. Now, with mounting pressure from the greater
public (in addition to the legal/financial implications), you
could practically hear assholes collectively pucker at U.S.
Steel headquarters. They tried mediating an offer through
Kennedy's lawyer Clark Clifford, who relayed to Kennedy:

[i]"Blough and his people want to know what you would say
if they announce a partial rollback of the price increases,
say 50 percent?"[/i]

Kennedy shot back, [i]"I wouldn't say a damn thing. It's
the whole way."[/i]

Three days later, the steel companies surrendered. Here's the
thing - what eventually got them wasn't Kennedy himself, but
the [b]OVERWHELMING PUBLIC SUPPORT[/b] thanks to Kennedy's
actions. JFK later pulled back a bit from his
"sons-of-bitches" charge, explaining the context of
his father's quote, and saying he had "found it
appropriate that evening." He even became gracious
towards Roger Blough, inviting him often to the White House
for consultation - but it didn't matter, since big business
had officially regarded him as an enemy (they, of course,
claimed it was "a sustained attack on the free enterprise
system. It may be all all-out war"). Whatever, fuck those
guys.

My long-winded and bloviating point is this - I'd like to see
more JFK and less Ronald Fuckface Reagan out of President
Obama (he can start by leaving Ronnie's biography in the trash
where it belongs...unless he needs something to wipe his ass
with). And I know a common complaint is that people like me
"expect way too much out of Obama," and that has it
merits - but I tend to agree with Trappist monk Thomas Merton,
who, during the height of the Cold War, once wrote,
[b]"the President can do a tremendous amount to get
people to see the facts, more than any single
person."[/b]

Their similarities extend far beyond the pressures from big
business, most notably in the area of military engagement.
Retired General Douglas MacArthur once told Kennedy (as
recounted by Kennedy):

[i]"The 'chickens are coming home to roost' from
Eisenhower's years and I live in the chicken coop."[/i]

The key difference being Bush was running a factory farm, and
Obama has an even bigger mess to deal with (with festering
shit stacked 6 feet high). But that's fodder for another day.
On that note, here's one more piece of parting wisdom from
JFK:

[i]"I understand better every day why Roosevelt, who
started out such a mild fellow, ended up as ferociously
anti-business. [b]It is hard as hell to be friendly with
people who keep trying to cut your legs off.[/b]"[/i]

(additional details about the Steel Crisis can be read here:
http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/JFK_and_Steel,_Bush_and_Oil#The_Steel_Crisis_of_1962)

[drokhole]

3. You nailed it.

And did a way better job summing it up than me. :)

I sincerely appreciate the understanding and rule clarification. As of now, I don't plan on reposting it - the original had quite a number of hits, recs and replies, and several discussions/insights were added from other members. It's hard to explain, but I wouldn't want to put off/confuse anyone who had already read it (who might be wondering why it was reposted cleanly, or what happened to all the replies), and I'm not sure that the liveliness of the original thread could be recaptured (in a "window of opportunity" has passed, kind of way). I may be thinking too deeply into this, but I think I'll let it sit for the time being.

Thanks again, EarlG!