What the fuck happened

[mrmpa]

I'm on EDT, not feeling well and slept from 6:30 to 11:15. I turn on the TV to Lawrence O'Donnell repeat of his 8 o'clock show and see a ticker that says Walker used a nuclear option. Start reading DU, my in box has news from the Washington Post and now I'm watching Rachel's. I'll see how things pan out over the next week and make my way there next week-end.

This reminds me of the stories my mom has told me. She's a few weeks short of 81 and a proud retired union member. Her oldest sister if alive would be 95. When my mom was 5 and 6, her sister's husband would come home bloody and bruised from run ins with the law and scabs at steel mills. He was fighting for the rights of the United Steel Workers. He retired from a local mill and was union rep for all of his career.

Back in 1985, when myself and 3 co-workers were organizing a union at our work place, he's the man I went to for answers on contract negotiating terms. He told me that salary was always high on the agenda, but to also ask for things that didn't cost the company money, but would make the work place safe and union members safer. As our work place was a University Police Department, we asked for safety equipment in our vehicles, haz mat gear, training sessions, and oh yes better wages, we got it all.

Negotiating as my uncle taught me isn't always about the money, but to make the work place safe and sane.

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Walker and 18 republicans cancelled the 20th century

[kath]

2. Perhaps your aunt's husband knew one or both of my grandfathers -

both were union organizers in the mills around Pgh, lived in a small mill town along the Allegheny. My dad's dad was born around the turn of the century - probably a few years after. Not sure when my mom's dad was born.

[mrmpa]

4. And their legacy led us to DU, their work wasn't finished, it

continues. BTW, my uncle was at a mill in the City of Pittsburgh, but him and your grandfathers probably attended the same meetings.

[kath]

8. They very likely did attend the same meetings.

My paternal grandfather lived in downtown Pgh originally, where he met my grandmother. They moved upriver when they married and had kids. He was blacklisted for a time because of his union activities.
My dad has a journal that his dad kept that gives fascinating details of a big labor convention in Cincinnati (or perhaps Columbus) which was attended by Helen Gahagan Douglas. There was a sit-in at the convention hotel when the hotel reneged on its promise that black attendees would be accomodated. IIRC, Helen Gahagan Douglas participated in the sit-in. The hotel did eventually back down. I think this convention may have been during the time when unions were fighting hard against the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act (although that might have been from another part of the journal - it's been probably 4-5 years since I read it, and my brain is fuzzy!). Dad's dad died in 1948, IIRC.

[jemelanson]

3. It is time for All working Americans to stand against this

unlawful act by the governor and the state of Wisconsin Senate.
What has happened there will be repeated over and over again.
It is time to lace up our shoes and join together and put a stop to this War on the Unions, the Middle Class, and the Republic that we hold dear.
Stand up and stand together. Dig out your protest signs and protest like it was the 60's, if we do not then not only will we pay for it, but so will our Children and Grand-Children.
This is class warfare.
This is about dismantling our Constitution and our way of life.
This is not about Budgets it is about having a ruling class of the uber rich and Government by Corporations.
Just look at what the governor in Michigan is doing.
This is NOT ABOUT THE BUDGET.
It setting up the groundwork to let Corporations run the city, county, state and eventually the Federal Government.
Then you can forget about any safety nets or social programs.
It will all be Corporate decisions and you will have no voice, no choice, and no vote.
They used to call this Feudalism.
We will be the serfs/drones/worker bees and they, the corporations will be the Masters.

[Newest Reality]

5. + 1000

[Kablooie]

6. The conservatives have done it AGAIN! They keep winning and we keep whining.

What does it take for Americans to actually DO something about this?

[Cattledog]

7. Liberals will do nothing!

A little complaining but they will soon forget, put their tails between their legs, and move on. The so called "Liberal Media" will spin this as a gutsy move by the Republicans.

[Wisconsin_2_Nation]

9. Diebold. Democracy thrives(and dies) with fair elections

We are not stupid. We did not elect Bush. Wisconsin did not throw out Feingold and elect Walker. Floridians did not really throw out Grayson and elect their asshole gov. Give me a break!

They use the media to tell us we are stupid,then they steal the elections and tell us we like it.

[RagAss]

10. They Won like they always do. That's what happened.

[felix_numinous]

11. When you write the news, buy the votes,

manufacture consent, you can create an illusion. That is what they have done, but the more people see through this illusion, the truth will come busting through. People have had enough.

The will of the people has to trump all of that money, cooperation of the majority has to trump the selfishness of the few.

[Shandris]

12. That's great in principle.

But 81% of the nation is calling for raising the taxes on the wealthy and not cutting social programs. A vast majority of WI stood behind the workers. The 'truth' WAS out.

It made no difference.

Egypt was the exception, not the rule.

[felix_numinous]

13. You know I have such a hard time believing people are this stupid

I have to hang on my last thread of hope, that people are misguided. Please don't destroy my illusions, have a heart :)

Seriously what if most of this 'consent' was artificially manufactured? The news itself is manufactured, so why not the numbers in the polls? Reality is being created by these bastards if their sources of information were disrupted with enough of the truth, then what?

I have spoken to many hard core conservatives, and explained clearly about consolidated power, and their divide and conquer techniques and they always hesitate, like they are recalculating something. THEN they go back to being reprogrammed by Fauxnews and they are back to square one.