I picked up a newspaper today and read about some "cataclysmic" news. It was on TV, too... and on the Internet. It seems that "on top of everything else", their big "Court" has said that it is now OK for corporations to "completely control" American politics.

Ummm....

Errr....

And we were so close to a progressive, populist government. Just a few more election cycles, and we would return America to greatness. Damn, Supremes! Guess we'll just have to keep Dems in the executive, so we get some new judges to get those corporations out of politics, like it's always been up to now.

Oh noes!

A rubber stamping of current reality. Pay no attention to that missing horse, close the barn door.

I hear tell that there's gonna be an INdependent INvestigation INto the whole matter. I do believe we's gonna git a Mr. Fitz or a Mr. Spitz to hound dog these rascals and git 'em outta Dodge. Then the town's gonna be safe agin' and only the sheriff can tell us how it's gonna be.

http://photos-c.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sctm/v98/160/64/610331122/n610331122_142610_3205.jpg

dissented and said it went against "the common sense of the American people" (it was JP Stevens)

I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would thing common sense has anything to do with this. Common sense would've dictated we tear the whole rotten decrepit structure down long ago

... in one's cultural perspective. I've never heard of Hans Moleman. On the other hand, J.P. Stevens does not refer to some ancient "Justice", but to a textile company - one of the biggest at the time - and a substantial struggle for real Justice a few decades ago, to which the company involuntarily lent its name. The company was the focus of an attempt to restart the unionization of the South. Ultimately, the attempt failed... for reasons you can guess.

Since then, J.P. Stevens got bought up (1988), got taken "private" (2000) and today survives only as a "brand" (and no longer as "irony").

But, we've told that story before.

http://aroundthesphere.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/fe_da_080128recount.jpg

http://images.spaces.covers.com/Upload/UserImages/HansMoleman.jpg

They had a perfectly cowed work force, I don't know if a battalion of 'Fosterites' could turn this place around, it is a given that union activity puts ya out of a job. Not good enough, gotta compete. They could carpet bomb the South and not devastate the working class as much.

and its probably more than half true

They could carpet bomb the South and not devastate the working class as much.

about what's already been happening on this front? Now it's officially sanctioned by the courts?

I mean, it's already happening. In reality very little has changed, right? Am I just totally numb? Should I be reacting? I have no reaction.

Same shit different day.

I think part of my brain is broken. I know this is monumental in some way but it's not clicking.

eta: having re-read the whole thread for the first time since earlier, I'm glad to see bp's post #2. I feel better knowing I'm not alone :)

I never organized in the South but I knew many people who did. They reported overall conditions which were not all that different. The old Civil Rights Movement gave an impetus to Southern Unionizing in a way not too different from what it did for Hospital workers in NYC.

The worst impacts were genuinely political... Right-To-Work being by far the worst. The nature of the industries also hurt. People who think that if you have nothin', you have nothin' to loose, are most often wrong. You have more to lose. The lowest paying sweat-shops are the hardest to organize.

Add in the "new" industrial ideology ("associates", union-busting law firms, the willingness to simply ignore the NLRB, etc.)and it got really tough.

'Course, the out-migration made it decisive. Just as an illustration, not one of the industrial shops that moved South (NC, SC, Al, Fl) that I personally knew about in New England, survives in the South today. It was a way-station to off-shoring.

move operations across the border to Mexico at the first hint of trouble. Or use the threat as a bludgeon

'Course, the out-migration made it decisive. Just as an illustration, not one of the industrial shops that moved South (NC, SC, Al, Fl) that I personally knew about in New England, survives in the South today. It was a way-station to off-shoring.

I think we're all agreeing that this don't mean much. Just a little more visible to those who had to be blind not to have already noticed. The monument had been erected long ago.

I think I spent too much time this morning browsing around DU and all the outrage, it's getting to me :p

Been hearing that a lot of the West Coast workers are gonna follow the jobs here, people bitching about that. If they do they will be in for a rude awakening.

Within the 'system' I guess there is nothing to be done around here, given 'right to work', short of the Supremes tossing the whole idea out or Congress repealing Taft Hartley. Fat fucking chance of that....looks like Plan B.

No more politics for me. I tried being a liberal and what did it get me? It's hopeless. The sheeple are too sheepy, and the Democrats are too whimpy and the Republicans don't smile while they throw you in jail anymore...

So I'm going back to my macro-organic sustainable big screen TV and calm down a bit...

Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... hiss... crackle... hisss... pop.

Somehow, being able to "quit" politics kinda stamps ya... dontcha think?

eom.

I mean, I guess we could write in Nader in 2012 but I'm still mad at him for helping Bush win in 2000 - that's when this all 'started' dontcha know..

'Quit' politics. Yeah, it'd be nice to have that luxury, LOL.

I should go get myself a big screen TV...then I could get cable and watch the Australian Open without suffering through these crappy bootleg live streams on my laptop (Chlamor, if you're out there, got any good links?).

it's ancient history ;)

the locals are given to fundamentalism and really, what could be more fundamental?

... several times.

http://www.daveandthomas.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/stalin-iconicphoto.jpg

I'll have to revise my opinion of Joe.

He was many things, but a cut-up?

Tell me he was looking at Churchill.

Its good to read this thread, I thought I was just too cynical...thanks...

:banana:

:woohoo:

;)

http://www.channelsurfing.net

Scroll down and click the Australian Open links until one of them gives you the match you want. Try them all as usually a few of them are roads to nowhere.

Federer-Tsongas in the wee hours.