The PCTC Blog

To Improve the Economy, We Need More Unions, Not Fewer

For those of you who think the current incarnation of the Republican Party, including those in Congress, has even the slightest clue when it comes to handling money and deficits, let me disabuse you of that concept right this minute. They don't know squat. I've talked about their asinine approach to deficits and debt in a previous post.

Another example can be seen in their attitude toward unions.

Do you have any idea why there are no jobs in many places, unless you want to bust your ass for minimum wage and no benefits? It's because the right has run the show for a while now, and they've convinced too many people that, in order for our economy to hum along, we have to give rich folks as much as possible, so that they'll do nice things for us and create jobs.

Well, guys, the right's been in charge for 30 years now; where are the nice fricking jobs? Oh yeah; they're in China and India; I forgot. 

Wake the hell up, people!

Cutting More Right Wing Crap: Right Boob Annie Coulter on Unions

What is with the right wing’s obsession with making a differentiation between “private” employees and public ones, and using that as a rationale for the union busting the Republican Party is engaging in at the moment? Yes, in theory, public employees unions shouldn't work. How can people essentially "collectively bargain" with themselves, right? Oh, wait; the right wing also differentiates between "public employees" and "taxpayers," as if one isn't a subset of the other. 

Unfortunately for Republicans, we figured out a way to unionize public employees, and the meme that collective bargaining just doesn't work has been proven wrong. 

Besides, their arguments on this are disingenuous, at best. Republicans hadn’t been key in trying to bust “private” unions for the last half century or so. But probably not, because the idea is asinine. The latest to peddle this crap is Little Annie Coulter. I’ll leave out the invective, which takes up most of her article (Annie, Honey; Wisconsin students have some of the best test scores in the country, and the fourth-highest graduation rate in the country. Just sayin’…) Let’s get to her “logic” on univast majority of statesons.

Breitbart Whines, Says Buffalo Beast Walker "Punk" same as his Frauds on ACORN, Sherrod. Nope, Andy, It’s not.

Once again, the idiots on the right just don’t get it. They’re just not smart enough.

In case you haven’t heard, Wisconsin Governor Walker was punked recently by Ian Murphy, a reporter from the Buffalo Beast. Mr. Murphy called the governor and pretended to be David Koch, one of two brothers who head one of the richest and most dangerous players in right wing politics. The Kochs hate unions, and they do whatever they can to bust them.

Well, the far right, led by little Andy Breitbart, is apoplectic over this. How DARE anyone “prank call” a governor like this, right? But being Breitbart, he either hasn’t a clue, or he considers his lapdogs to be too stupid to have a clue (I think it’s the latter; he really can’t be as stupid as he acts.), and he likens this “prank,” with his O’Keefe videos and the video he’s currently being sued over, in which he implied that Shirley Sherrod was racist.

Obviously, it’s not the same at all, which I will explain after you listen to this phone call, in two parts:

 

 

I would call this funny, but it  really isn't. Here you have the governor of a state pretty much acquiescing to a plot to bring in outside agitators to interfere with the right of citizens of his state to peaceably assemble. It’s telling that he’s bragging about his making the Right Wing Fart Machine rounds, but bitching about Obama saying anything about this at all. I laughed out loud when he mentioned that Obama’s budget deficit was a lot larger. Funny thing; he had a surplus when he took office. What can you say about an asshole who plans to announce layoffs of state employees just to bring political pressure on the other party. And really; busting the PATCO union led to the fall of the Soviet Union? This guy’s a loon.

Coming After Breitbart and the RW Fart Machine a Lie at a Time

It has become my quest to honor the title of this blog by simply revealing the bullshit perpetrated by the Right Wing Fart Machine. My Twitter feeds are full of RW bullshit, and I’m getting sick of it going without a response. I will take a bunch of these concepts and reveal the truth behind the bullshit. The concentration will be on the bullshit moreso than the people peddling it.

Case in point; Andrew Breitbart (again) is trying to push his Pigford lies and trying to smear the teachers in Wisconsin who are trying to keep their right to bargain with their employer. (Just as an aside, I am NOT going to help this asshole’s cause by providing links. If you want to find him, Google the exact quotes.)

I’ll start with the union busting in Wisconsin. His blog contains two interesting items on this.

Over the weekend, on Twitter and all over his blog, he kept pushing this idea that the doctors who were giving out “doctor’s notes” were somehow violating some unstated “ethical rules” in doing so. (He’s not alone, Michelle Malkin and pretty much everyone at Fox News was doing the same.)

The very concept is absurd.

Our Economic Past and Future is Reliant on Unions

Let’s be clear; the fight in Wisconsin is NOT about balancing the budget, no matter how many gullible saps on the right believe it is.  

When new Republican Governor Walker took office less than two months ago, there was a projected budget surplus; a small one, but a surplus nonetheless. He and the newly-Republican state legislature passed a $140 million “trickle-down” package of tax breaks and subsidies for the richest folks in Wisconsin, and he canceled the construction of a high speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison that would have spurred growth in both places and which would have employed thousands of construction workers in the process. Since almost all of the money for that project was coming from the federal government, the amount the state would have had to put into that budget would have been more than offset by the taxes paid by all of the contractors and workers on the rail project. A company that relocated to the state to make rail cars for the project, for example, is threatening to pull out and go to whichever state will be buying rail cars.  (As an aside, the same bullshit arguments were offered when I was a kid, and they were planning to build out the Washington DC metro subway system. Ask the people living there now whether they like it.)

So now, suddenly, because of Republicans’ gross incompetence on the economy – AGAIN! – the state suddenly faces a $137 million budget shortfall.  

So, what do these jackasses do, but turn to teachers and ask them to give up some of the pittance they work for. Since the budget wasn’t a problem until they screwed with it, isn’t that like asking your mom for another allowance because you bought a cool guy a cool baseball cap?

The State of "Journalism" is Pathetic

When I was a senior in high school, in 1975-1976, I was involved in a program wherein once a week (sometimes more), I would head downtown to the offices of the Baltimore News-American, where I would write copy and feature stories for a tabloid insert that appeared every Sunday, called “Young World.” I was the worst typist in the world at the time, but I love to write, and I worked my ass off. 

The News-American ceased to exist ten years after I left. I suspect it wasn’t my fault. Even the building is gone now; I often pass by the parking lot where I used to work and sigh. It was a good time. 

But I want to stress that, having worked for a newspaper 35 years ago doesn't make me a journalist. I simply don't have the time to do it right. Most bloggers are not journalists. If all you do is Google shit and write what you find, you are not a journalist. 

Cutting the Breitbart on Andrew... What a Pig(ford Liar)

You know, I don't hate anyone. I don't hate right wingers, for example; I just don't appreciate what they stand for, and I despise hypocrisy. 

But more than that, I despise professional liars. The average right winger is largely a prick because of the professional liars who tell them what they want to hear, whether it's true or not, in return for handsome compensation. If you're a right wing pundit, all you have to do is dictate some lies, have some schmuck type it up and put it into book form, and a couple of million ignorant souls will buy it up and call you their god. 

The only frustrating part of the situation is that the legitimate news media doesn't seem to want to call these idiots out and completely discredit them, so that they can't do it again. 

Case in point; Andrew Breitbart. 

For those of you who don’t know, Lil Andy Breitbart was served with a lawsuit last weekend, as he gave another hate-filled speech at the CPAC convention, in which he referred to liberals with whom he disagreed as "animals."  The suit was brought by former USDA employee Shirley Sherrod. As you’ll recall, Ms. Sherrod, whose civil rights pedigree actually goes back pretty far, was summarily fired when the Obama Administration’s Department of Agriculture, with an able assist from the NAACP, gave far too much credence to a video presented by the piece of shit  Breitbart, who was attempting to portray her as racist. Unfortunately for everyone concerned, the original video popped up, and demonstrated that the video he had presented as fact, was in fact heavily edited.

To Reduce the Deficit, Increase Spending (Cue RW Head Explosions)

It’s amazing, isn’t it? For eight long years, Republicans simply didn’t care about the deficit. In mean, they were handed a huge surplus when they were “selected” and took over the government in 2001. Surpluses were predicted for at least the next ten years. First thing they did was cut revenues, and sink the country into deficit spending that hadn’t been seen since Bush 41 was in office. They simply didn’t give a shit. In fact, in 2002 Darth Cheney was asked about the deficit, and he said famously, “Deficits don’t matter.” That was at a time when they were crowing about how great the economy was.

There is absolutely no reason to run huge deficits while the economy is doing well. Yet, for most of the last 30 years, Republican Neocons have been in charge, and they have overseen an unmatched debt explosion, most of it during times when they were claiming that economy was going gangbusters. And now, after they wrecked the economy with their “Wild West” approach to financial regulation, and threw us into the worst recession in 75 years (by the way, the only thing that saved us was regulations put into place during the New Deal that they were unable to unravel), they have suddenly decided that deficits do matter, and they’re whining and crying about it incessantly.

And that’s fine. Pretty much all they do is whine and cry about everything anyway. I stopped listening to them a long time ago, except to correct the record. But there is one concept that I will simply not let pass without comment, because it’s one of those things that sounds logical, unless you think about it.

More on "Small Government" Republicans (Hmmm... is More on a homophone?)

When push comes to shove, which side of the political debate is REALLY in favor of “small government”?

I think that depends on your definition of "small government." This lefty prefers a government that is big enough to watch over the economy and the marketplace and keep it safe and secure, but that leaves individuals alone, for the most part, to do whatever we want, as long as it doesn't hurt other people. 

The right wing's definition seems to be something close to the opposite of that. They want a government that leaves the marketplace alone, so that crooks can rip us off at will, and has a hell of a lot more control over individuals, to make sure they don't do anything they find "icky." 

We keep hearing about how the Republican Party is all about “small government,” but it's all bullshit. Here's what they want; they want lower taxes for the rich; they want fewer regulations on the rich and on corporations; and they want the government to stop spending our money to help the poor move up the societal ladder and become productive. On the other hand, they don't want us to have art that isn't "pretty," they want the rest of us to kowtow to their preferred religious beliefs; they want the government to have the power to make medical decisions for women; they want to incarcerate anyone whose "lifestyle" doesn't fit within a narrow norm that they have deluded themselves into thinking ever existed. And they want the "small government" to enforce their vision. 

Debunking Myths About Ronald Reagan -- A PCTC Special Comment

I can’t begin to tell you how disgusted I am by the “Reagasm” that seemed to go on all weekend, in honor of his 100^th birthday. Yes, I know, lefties; his policies would be seen as “too liberal” by the teabaggers spewing forth these days, and yes, he had the veneer of a “nice guy,” which makes him “better,” on some level, than Caribou Barbie. But frankly, I would be a better president than either Palin or Reagan, and I in no way feel qualified for the position. 

Can we get real here? Three of the last four presidencies before President Obama were absolute disasters, and if being the best of a bad lot redeems Reagan somehow, then I suggest we need new standards. Yes, he was slightly more competent than either of the two Bushes, in some ways. But without Ronald Reagan, the combination of the Taft wing of the Republican Party and the old Dixiecrats would never have taken over one of our two political parties, and created the nightmare that has resulted from thirty years of neocon rule. Reagan was a disaster, and it's time we exploded some myths. If you want some ammo to throw at the Ronnie worshippers, well, here you go...