Unions Tag

Remember when Michigan union members collapsed a tent on attendees at an Americans for Prosperity event supporting changes to Michigan union rules? We do, Most chilling Michigan video — “There are people under there, oh my God”:

As the union members attacked the Americans For Prosperity tent, a woman cried out “there are people under there, oh my God” (at 1:20). At 1:40, as union members start walking on top of the collapsed tent, a man shouted “hey, there are people in there” but again the crowd didn’t stop, and the union members continued walking on the collapsed tent defiantly as the crowd shouted obscenities and cheered. At 1:57 the woman cried out again “there’s people in there,” but to no avail. You can then see various people probing at large lumps under the tent, presumably checking if anyone was trapped. Yet the crowd continued with its profane taunts, as others lifted the edges of the tent and looked underneath, again presumably to see if anyone was trapped. Someone shouts “go home you bunch of parasites” as the crowd chanted “Go Home.” At 3:30 someone asks, “does someone want to help me lift this? I wonder if there are any people in there.” Then another person said, “there was, there was a bunch of women and older people.” Then another person yelled, “fuck these people.” Another yelled, “they want a war, they got it.”

(language warning) Now the proverbial tent has collapsed on one aspect of Michigan unions, the previously compelled unionization of home care workers. As The Wall Street Journal reports, when the law was changed to free up home care workers to choose, they overwhelmingly rejected unionization, Michigan Union Collapse:

Recent fundraising figures show the RNC faring better than its DNC counterpart in just about all areas. Notably, the RNC has no debt and nearly $10 Million in cash on hand. The same, however, cannot be said for the DNC, thanks in part to some clever money shuffling among kindred spirits. In the final two months of the 2012 election cycle, the DNC was strapped for cash, and opted to take out two low interest loans totaling $15 Million. The loans were provided by Amalgamated Bank, which uses the tagline, “America’s Labor Bank” and promises to continue “the progressive traditions of its founders as the only majority owned union bank in the United States." [Emphasis Added] Established in 1923, Amalgamated Bank nearly went under following the 2009 housing crisis, but was bailed out by a $100 Million investment from two billionaires (irony?). The two billionaires together received 40% ownership in the bank following their timely contributions. That stake, however, wasn’t enough to unseat the majority owner, Workers United. Workers United is affiliated with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the well known 2 million member labor union. As membership has declined of late, unions are increasingly looking to find other ways to exercise prominent influence over the political process, apart from traditional contributions. The SEIU and Workers United may have found such a way through low interest loans from their financial institution, Amalgamated Bank. To date, the DNC has yet to pay back even half of the short-term loan, which is due in full by the end of June this year, according to the Federal Election Commission. Of course, loans aren’t the only way unions keep the DNC afloat.

The DNC’s special relationship with the SEIU goes beyond the loans. The union is also one of the largest financial backers of the Democratic Party. The SEIU has given at least $200 million to Democratic candidates and committees since 1990. The SEIU spent over $30 million on elections in the 2012 election alone, spending about $16 million to attack Republican candidates and about $18 million to express advocacy for Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

So, not only do a large contingent of Democrats owe their political careers to unions, their national committee also owes them more cash than they actually have on hand. And let's not forget the President's words, "[the SEIU's] agenda has been my agenda..."

Upworthy is the wildly popular low-information-by-design website which has fine-tuned the ability to turn 2-3 sentence (at most) liberal memes viral.  Often, the meme consists entirely of the title, with some seemingly obvious liberal talking point that is only superficially obvious, but actually cannot withstand scrutiny. Which is why no scrutiny is given in the posts. You may recall my posts:

• Upworthy — or, How we are losing the internet to lowest of low information young liberals
• This Future Map Of The United States Is Way Cooler Than Any Current Map Of The United States

Upworthy has turned a section of its website over the the AFL-CIO, presumably for a hefty payment.  The section is called Workonomics. This post and the video have been around for a while, but just came to my attention, 2 Monkeys Were Paid Unequally; See What Happens Next.  There is no text after that, just a note to watch starting at the 1:34 mark. Spoiler Alert:  One monkey gets grapes after giving lab technician a rock, other monkey gets slices of cucumber.  Monkey which gets cucumbers is jealous and throws cucumber at lab technician.  Therefore?