(Photo courtesy/very special thanks to Jersey Cynic at BlondeSense)
It’s Time for “HilBama” to Step up to the Plate on China
Democrats? Are you awake yet?
Still think corporate welfare candidates are the “way to go”? Hmm. Depends on what is meant by “way to go”…the expression in this instance is looking more like “final nail in the coffin for the middle class” since these two Democratic candidates who are pro-NAFTA, pro-handing off your jobs to cheap ‘laborers’ both blue and white collar, and fattening up the portfolios of their tight, inner circle of elites.
Today’s Huffington Post features a timely article by Scott Paul entitled “It’s Time forObama and Clinton to Step up to the Plate on China.” Given McCain’s admitted lack ofunderstanding on the economy he won’t -- and the best that any Democrat could ever hope for is that the two-headed corporate welfare candidate, HilBama, would tell Congress, The State Department, BigPharma and don’t forget the Tech Lobby to shove it. HA! One can dream…
In the article, Mr. Paul raises the same questions millions of Americans facing record, rising unemployment/underemployment rates with no access to healthcare want to know:
Why are we sending the "butchers of Beijing" our manufacturing jobs, consumer dollars, and technological know-how to China when all we have to show for it are low-cost, under-inspected, and, all too often, unsafe and deadly consumer products like poisonous food, lead-tainted toys and medicine from China?
I have written about the Chinese laughing their asses off at the United States before here and here, and I can’t say I’m surprised that the Democrats have done nothing to unite and hold the candidates accountable.
Can the fallout of a lack of oversight over consumer tainted consumer products and services happen to anyone? “Yes!” assures actor Dennis Quaid, who recounted in this exclusive 60 Minutes interview the harrowing ordeal he and his wife, Kimberly endured while their newborn twins fought for their lives after being given a a near-fatal drug overdose of heparin. Note at the end of the interview, although this specific incident was ruled as an overdose caused by human error, 60 Minutes quickly revealed at the very end of the interview the following:
“Since the Quaid incident, Baxter International has voluntarily recalled all supplies of Heparin from the market. It had nothing to do with the Quaids, but with possible contamination at a Chinese manufacturing facility that may have contributed to at least 19 deaths.”
Watching Dennis and Kimberly Quaid describe their complete helplessness in this nightmarish account of how their infants suffered was enough to render anyone who watched this interview “helpless” in the knowledge that we have no control over a few greedy Congressmen, State Department officials, BigPharma executives and hospital administrators who are protected by corporate welfare backed politicians. Why are our taxpayer dollars not going to sufficiently staff the FDA with competent officials to safely regulate U.S. imports? Have these jobs, too, been outsourced to China and India?
To this extent, who can blame the greedy Republicans or even the ruthless Chinese who have flipped the bird at human rights standards for thousands of years when American citizens won't rise up against our own corrupt government? Why, I still even have my salmonella tainted jar of Peter Pan Peanut Butter duct-taped in the pantry -- and that was an American processing plant “error.”
We can all thank the self-absorbed, panty-waisted so-called “progressives” (a label I used to be proud of) and the corporate media gatekeepers who are smart enough to know better but so greedy and arrogant and desperate to be first in line at the trough, they will parrot the party line of the “me-too” faux Democratic candidates before ever uniting and holding them accountable.
(AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson reaches to grabburnt fries)
Hat tip to Joel David @ blog.newsok.com for offering this ingenious solution to AT&T's alleged and mythical skilled worker shortage in his post “LET’S ALL HELP RANDY"
Let's All Help Randy
-by Joel David
Reuters reported yesterday Oklahoma City born AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson as saying he just can’t seem to find skilled workers in the United States to do jobs the company has exported to India. “We’re having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs,” said Randy. The corporate goal was to have 5000 jobs returned to the United States from India. To date only 1400 have been returned. That means AT&T only needs 3600 skilled people and the problem is solved. This is just the opportunity I need to advance within the company!
Some would see Randy’s comments as offensive because in a not so subtle way he’s not only stating the American workforce is subpar, but he’s also justifying sending jobs to another country over giving those jobs to people he’s laid off. I don’t see it that way because just like Randy I see opportunity where others see something abhorrent. Since Randy is having such a tough time finding work I figure I’d help him, and you, the unskilled American worker. If you, or someone like you, needs a job, go ahead and e-mail your resume to randall.stephenson@att.com. If you don’t have a computer go ahead and mail your information to
CEO Randall Stephensonc/o AT&T Corporate Headquarters
32 Avenue of the AmericansNew York, N.Y. 10013-2412
The company is now based in San Antonio but I’m pretty sure they forwarded their mail. All we need is 3600 people to apply as skilled workers and we’re doing the company a great service. Tell your friends who are looking for a job.I’m just trying to help.
- Joel Also, I didn’t get his e-mail address from my office. I found it on Yahoo! Calm down corporate security.
This guy's picture (Randall Stephenson, above) deserves a huge bull's eye over it on your website, don't you think?Where is this asshole recruiting from when he says 50 percent of high school students drop out, cities like Gary, Indiana? And why doesn’t he recruit from towns like Munster, for example? Because he would have to pay them too much.
End the BULLSHIT that America does not have qualified workers. America has plenty of qualified workers with college degrees from great universities but they cannot work for the starvation wages AT&T (and others) pay its slaves in India.
American White Collar Professional (L) and Bill Gates (R)
Meet the Work Bully
“The playground bully has grown up and gotten a job. Workplace bullying, which can include everything from belittling comments to excluding someone from an important meeting, may be tougher on employees than sexual harassment, according to new research.” –Tara Parker-Pope
On behalf of the Tech Lobbyand Compete America , Bill Gates went to Congress this month demanding more H-1B visas to further displace American white collar professionals for cheap, foreign labor.
In her “21 Gun Salute for H-1B Visas"Citizen Carrie provides an excellent chronicle of the highly organized great labor shortage myth/propaganda that is setting us up for a fall come April 1. Does billionaire Gates (and ilk) care at all about the millions of educated, unemployed white collar workers whose lives have been and will be ruined by their greedy desire to kick their neighbors to the curb? No. What prompts a human being to treat their neighbors with such contempt and disdain for another person’s well being? For the millions of working Americans (fortunate enough to even have a job these days) subjected to a laundry list of hateful, aggressive and abusive behavior by workplace bullies, is it any wonder why it is so rampant in this country when the “thought leaders” of corporations are incivil, greedy bullies themselves and set the standard?
Speaking of worker abuses, doesCohen & Grigsbygate come to mind? When a country full of lawyers team up with corporate executives to take away white collar jobs from citizens and hand them over to foreign workers for a lucrative fee, where are the people of this country to rise up and just say “no”? Where are the journalists and authors and celebs and PETA people to speak out against these unspeakable acts of aggression?
Can we create a Department of Labor-like Humane Society for people just like we do for animals? A true oversight organization specifically designed to manage hiring practices and treatment of workers? In her telling March 11th New York Times article entitled “Meet theWork Bully”,Tara Parker-Pope reveals the astonishing truth behind the perfectly legal, abusive treatment that workers have no legal recourse to protect themselves from. Pope cites recent findings presented at the Seventh International Conference on Work, Stress and Health, which highlight the difficult problem of workplace aggression. While most workplaces are sensitive to complaints of sexual harassment and employees have avenues to seek help, “workplace aggression, however, isn’t illegal and victims often must fend for themselves,” said lead author M. Sandy Hershcovis of the University of Manitoba. There is such an abiding sense of anti-community in the workplace that every citizen ought to be asking themselves “why do we allow this? Why do we have laws against leaving our dogs in the car on a hot day but none whatsoever when it comes to our own welfare?”
The study looked at worker stress and anxiety, job turnover and worker satisfaction, among other things. The outcome of such abusive behavior not only has severe consequences for the worker but also on the company’s bottom line. So why is it so prevalent? Two short answers: When the boss is a mindless sociopath anything goes AND most decent people don’t want to sound like cry babies:
“The problem with work bullying is that it is insidious and difficult to complain about, note the authors. For instance, if one employee consistently ignores the requests of another worker, it can make it difficult to do the job. But employees often are reluctant to raise such an issue with their bosses, because saying “He’s ignoring me,'’ makes the victim sound petty.”
Pope’s article drew such an enormous response that she wrote a follow-up article this week which includes over 300 comments from people struggling to survive the workplace. But if Gates gets and the Tech Lobby get their way, many of these commenters will no longer have job stresses to worry about. Oh well.
Not only is he a left hander like yours truly, but Barack Obama is undeniably an amazing orator. He is so smooth and convincing in his delivery that his speech writers could have him say ANYTHING and the masses would go right along with him. Don’t believe me? Try this: Let’s close our eyes and imagine Barry’s mesmerizing voice giving the following convincing, thought provoking speech:
“As a youth, growing up half-black and half-white on the dangerous streets of an exotic Hawaiian island, my highly-leveraged, white grandma gave me an enema. (Pause. Voice lowers.) We do the American people — and the enema manufacturers — no favors when we turn a blind eye to the excessive and dangerous risks of ALL enemas because "pain trickles up." As president, I will make it my first priority to ban the use of all enemas nationwide and to form a committee to round up all of those college educated hookers and undercover cops who are taking down the nation’s best connected governors, former presidents and gay senators. In Illinois, the police will say “you’re under arrest” if you tell hooker jokes but I say (in thunderous voice like Pastor Wright) “Hi Ho Silver, while theGlass Steagall Actwas repealed in 1999 -- the $300 million lobbying effort that drove deregulation of all kinds of sh*t --- was MORE about facilitating mergers than creating an efficient enema regulatory framework and my opponent’s husband signed that repeal!” (Cheers and loud applause.)
I returned late last night from Toledo, Spain just in time for the Easter feast at 2Truthy’s, where I have a place at the table (thank goodness at it and not ON it.)
After completing my twelve week Espanol immersion course, my two wonderful hosts, Armando and his partner, Dieter, provided me with fabulous meals and a room with my own private entry, ensuring I had every creature comfort of home. They were especially enthusiastic when I insisted on dressing up like a matador each morning before I headed off to class, saying “Oh Quincy, you don’t have to pull out all the stops, they’lll love you just the way you are.” Ole! Even on the third day of class when my instructor hurt my feelings when she said “Oh Quincy, put a fork in it” for wearing my matador costume, my hosts were so supportive. That night at dinner, they made so many terrible, disgusting jokes about that old windbag that I couldn’t even remember why I had my tail in a twist in the first place!
Oh, and let me tell you about my dwellings! First of all, Armando’s grandmother died last year and so he inherited her lovely, multicolored bougainvillea covered residence downtown, just a short stroll to some of their favorite tapas restaurants, sandwich joints, churches and a couple of mosques. The location was perfect.
While traveling around Spain, it was great to see how much the people there -- just like in other mildly exotic places like Turkey or Poland --- get along well without Americans, who just have this sense that the most advanced and civilized place on earth is the United States and it’s simply just not true. For instance, right before Armando’s grandmother died, she had one of those advanced toilets from Japan installed that has three different ways of aiming the water jets depending on what you want cleaned!
Anyway, not only did I learn to roll my “rrr’s” and to affect the Castilian “t” lisp, but I really enjoyed watching cable news at night with Armando and Dieter, which was a whole lot of fun because every time Hillary or Barack would be on, they would laugh and laugh. In Spain, everybody laughs their heads off about the election here and don’t understand why anybody would seriously take Hillary OR Barack for president. The Spanish say they are both “banditos” who only care about their donors and not the people. They call them “El Laurelo y La Hardy” with mucho gusto, laughing and laughing…(Guess which one is Laurel and which one is Hardy?) HAHA!
I’ve got to go now and help with the brown sugar sauce for the ham and make a few phone calls before dinner. Don’t worry, I’ll be having a specially prepared, vegetarian roulade in solidarity with my agrarian “Pigs for Peace” conservation movement. If anyone would care to donate, just write to 2Truthy and she will tell you her address where to send money.
"They laugh alike they walk alike at times they even talk alike...you could lose your mind... with HilBama, they're two of a kind!"
"Why do working class people vote Republican? Isn't that like the chickens voting for Colonel Sanders?" -Roseanne Barr
Obama's Philadelphia "landmark" speech on race was very moving and compassionate as he articulated the pain of racial inequality and how the nation must transcend racial prejudice. And then he lost me, not by what he said but what he didn’t say. Ah, the sins of omission…Throughout his compelling “world” this and “global” that laced calls for “unity” to bridge racial “divisiveness, where was the “meat”? Where was the part about how we must unite right here at home against the corporate blowhards and politicians responsible for (what should be the criminal) the growing lack of ACCESS citizens of all colors are increasingly facing in this race to the bottom? Listening to his speech, I was struck by how much Obama blew his golden moment to truly distance himself from Hillary.
Despite what was undeniably a personal moment of upscale “hey muthafuckas, we’re all in this thing together”, Obama did little to change his steadfast persona of a joined at the hip follower of Hillary and their corporate welfare masters. And all we wound up with was more of the same. Obama’s now retired pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright not only nailed the whole ROWG oppressive theme to a fault, but raised the question the media dare not raise: WHO exactly are all these elites who are selling out our jobs, making it increasingly difficult to get access to healthcare, healthy food, decent schools and living conditions? I was born in Chicago and lived in the Hyde Park neighborhood where Obama lives.
Although Hyde Park is indeed an upscale neighborhood, there is extreme poverty within a matter of a few blocks surrounding it that makes all but a hardened bigot not cringe when you see the gross inequity/inequality in how black citizens are living. Backroom deals between Chicago's wealthy real estate developers and crooked politicians committed to gaming the system to keep a growing class of Americans down has left Pastor Wright and his congregation with the right to be pissed off and mad as hell. Could the Pastor’s speech have come off as "hey, let's hate whitey?" Sure. But let's be clear: if the message was "let's hate whitey", its roots are in mired in "let's hate the greedy bastards who were related to those other murderous bastards who, in the past, hung our ancestors, denied us our dignity, humanity and civil rights, and now prevent us from getting ACCESS to jobs and healthcare as they draft our kids for cannon fodder in their illegal wars for personal profiteering" which I believe are all plausible. But the Illinois Senator and presidential candidate Obama is disingenuous; like Hillary, his backers (Businessman and Google board member Al Gore to name one of many) are the very same elite and wealthy players who are lobbying Congress to raise or eliminate the H-1b visa cap which harms educated middle class Americans.
While Obama grandstanded about race in Philadelphia, he was oddly silent about the growing lack of access for educated middle class Americans – black, white, yellow, red, brown, blue and pink --- who are increasingly being discriminated against by an elitist class that is hell-bent on turning this country into a third world nation. How long will this presidential race divide Democrats into 'Pink and Black' before the whole Party implodes? I really find all of this faux sincerity and posturing horribly boring, when BOTH candidates have pledged to stick it to the non-portfolio class or the cadre of white collar Americans who love Obama's latte sotto voce and will charge their AMEX cards to purchase a row of seats to go hear Caroline Kennedy speak at the San Jose Performing Arts Center next month about Kool-Aid stories from outer space in a renewed effort to resurrect Michael Jackson’s 1980’s rendition of "We are the World"… In other words, the twins, HilBama are so alike when it comes to their elitist backers and their pledge to get rid of our middle class at the behest of their corporate, one world masters that neither one deserves the media spotlight they will keep receiving. Both know that aside from growing international tensions, the real issues affecting Americans are the economy and disappearing jobs and healthcare. They know it and you, dear reader, know it.
BOTH are backed by Tech and Wall Street money whose vested interests are to flood Corporate America with cheap labor from the third world at the expense of our middle/upper middle class citizen taxpayers while they ditch the dollar. As the transparent Clinton supporter, Taylor Marsh says in her blog post entitled “Obama’sGrandmother ‘Typical White Person’, I completely agree with her that Hillary could never get away with uttering the phrase "typical black person" as did Obama. Taylor cuts straight to the point about Obama having his cake and eating it, too. But when it comes to pledging to triple or eliminate the H-1B visa cap responsible for the massive numbers of unemployed white collar professionals and reduced wages, devoting an entire speech to the concept of racial divide without pledging to stand up for Americans first and not the corporate welfare backers was Obama’s great sin during his speech at the pulpit in Philadelphia.
Barack Obama is very cozy with the GOOGLE crew (Businessman Gore on the board) where BOTH candidates pledged at their Mountain View, CA HQ to further lynch American white collar prospects for cheaper imported labor by increasing H-1b's. Just like Hillary. No difference.
When bloggers go along with the same old same old “I’ll follow the money just like the candidates do” style of football politics by making arguments in support of corporate welfare candidates devoid of issues affecting the livelihoods of the majority of the country, little is done other than to promote the viral marketing brand of Kool-Aid progressive politics that differs little from Republican lite, if at all. Everybody will be blue collar workers…The ONLY reason Hillary is eeking by as a 'champion of the blue collar worker' is because she has had years of experience doing backroom deals with unions and is the co-chair of the Senate India Caucus (I guess you could call that a “union”) responsible for REDUCING wages for educated American graduates by replacing them with third world students/workers ala Alan Greenspan's"INCOME EQUALITY" formula for turning this country into a caste system nation of have and have nots.
At the rate these two are going, blue collar paydays will be de rigeur. With very little exception, the corporate lobbyist sponsored blueprint for looting middle class Americans of jobs and pensions in favor of cheap imported labor is on a roll. Hillary and Barack are candidates working for elitist backers who BOTH have only said how they will FURTHER kick down middle class Americans by supporting the elitist corporate welfare backed H-1B visa cap increase instead of stopping the flood of cheap imported "skilled" workers.
Obama’s speech paid lip service to ROWG resentment being not unlike black resentment:
"In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience--as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor."
The above quote is important in that Obama (while indicating the cheap imported labor problem harms both blue collar and white collar Americans) does not take a stand against it.
I can only hope that after hearing Obama’s speech, the rest of America (at least the Democrats) will wake up and see that American citizens need a leader who cares about the lives of both the poor and educated middle class Americans whose jobs are being handed away to cheap and "best and brightest" (HA) imported labor. as I've said over and over again:
"It's Not the Economy, Stupid. It's YOUR JOB!"
-2Truthy
If you're not wearing green today, you must be a big POLLOCK!Get back in there and find something green to put on...After work, go find an Irish pub, sacrfice your livers, and start singing!
On St. Patrick's Day, if we weren't wearing something green before departing to our Catholic grade school overrun by Polish nuns and priests, my dear Irish mother wouldn't let us out of the house on St. Patrick's Day, the most seriously fun holiday next to Christmas of the year! (My mom would start speaking and singing in Gaelic and cook something for dinner really smelly known as "smoked butt" which my brothers and I could not stand, much preferring to order out Chinese, opting for the Peking Duck with plenty of plum sauce...)
Click on "Roisin Dubh" above and listen to a beautiful Gaelic traditional Irish song. (Here's to you, Bridie and Nan.)
"Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all." Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations
Do the so-called “progressive” media think they’re all Rothschilds?
As Bill Gates stormed Washington this week to strong-arm Congress to sell out an unprecedented number of American white collar jobs, you’d never know that the supposed party of labor, the Democrats, and their media enablers had a pulse. In fact, the media trend for bashing anyone who dares to question “why” during this economic crisis with disappearing jobs has plummeted along with the DOW to such new lows that it's becoming harder and harder to distinguish the incivility of FAUX NEWS voices from the self-described progressives. How could this happen?
Patrick Thibodeau has written a compelling article this week in his COMPUTERWORLD blog entitled “Five Reasons Why the H-1B Visa Cap Will Increase.” Why Americans aren’t up in arms against the 3rd wealthiest planetoid, Bill Gates’ whose solo visit to Washington this week to force Congress to reinstitute corporate tax breaks and to triple the amount of H-1B’s in this "war against white collar workers” is the million dollar question Thibodau sets out to answer.
All five reasons are sound, but there two others which 2Truthy dubs #6: Who is this cabal of board members and paid off Congressional whores behind the curtain? And #7: What does co-chair ofthe Senate India Caucus Hillary get in exchange for pimping millions of white collar jobs to India during this election cycle?
Where exactly are the media, the “progressive” blogosphere, the pro-outsourcing two-headed Democratic frontunner(s), HilBama, and Joe Sixpack to ask only this question: Why is it that during this recession when Hank Paulson visibly hedges about bailing out Bear Stearns and stammers “I’m as aware as anyone about moral hazard” (clickhere for Wolf Blitzer's interview with Paulson) disappearing jobs, plummeting wages, denial of access to healthcare and a complicit Beltway, “Why should Bill Gates and the Tech Lobby he represents be allowed to conduct its war on this country’s own citizens?”
It’s one thing to think that the GOP is behind this race to wipe out America’s white collar working class, but quite another when the Democrats line up side by side with them at the trough. While the economy tanks, what IS it about Americans that makes them feel Bill Gates and the HP/Oracle/Cisco/Google cabal have their best interests at heart? Ironically, during this election season, if there were ever hope to strengthen workers’ rights and eliminate the H-1B program and others like it that legalize the destruction of white collar jobs for Americans, the only people sitting on the popular vote to throw out the two-headed monster HilBama, are either co-opted by corporate and media elites and/or are too brainwashed and/or too stupid to know better.
It is predictable that the free-trade zealots of the GOP are on-board with this neo-American white collar ‘genocide’ class war as are the Faux News media on the Right. The lack of strong Democratic opposition to killing off American jobs is proof that the Democratic Party is a sorry joke of a GOP imitation. To say the Democratic Party is over would be an understatement, as corporate elites of both parties have taken a page from the Industrial Military Complex that uses tactics toamass wealth by destroying people and infrastructures of citizens of foreign countries by turning the same propaganda machine (media and Kool-Aid blogosphere) on its own citizens. It is amazing how anti-war Democrats protest labor exploitation, looting and plundering everywhere else around the world but at home, supporting the very so-called progressive politicians and organizations with expressed goals to support the same elites responsible for this country’s economic and social demise. What are the characteristics of such a person who would allow this to happen in their communities? Short of having a “financial pact” with the neighborhood devils, the psychological phenomenon of "identification with theaggressor" combined with a “me-too” arrogant disposition are the personal attributes defining so-called progressive anti-action in this war on the white collar middle/upper classes.
Thanks to a fawning progressive media seeking personal profit from the same corporate welfare sponsors leading this war on the middle class who fail to headline news of domestic oppression, can look forward to more of the same, and worse? This electoral political system is little more than an elaborate scam that, at best, deludes voters into believing their vote counts in a two-party system designed to work AGAINST their interests. In the present police state, our voting “rights” keep us energized and yet astonishingly passive in taking effective action against the very capitalist predators who put up the corporate welfare candidates for us to “choose” from.
Uniting around a common goal can only be created by an active, intentional affirmation of common goals and values that reinforce and restore our sense of community and civility in a country hijacked by corporate elites like Bazillionairre Gates & Co., their political enablers and the ruling class, colonialist wannabe news hacks knocking themselves out to be the Rothschilds of the media circuit.
"For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as 'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it."
Unless your name is “Rockefeller” or you’re not kissing someone’s big, fat corporate ass, don’t count on Bill Gates or corporate America to brighten up your darkest nights anytime soon…And if Gates gets his way, expect those north winds to begin blowin’ BIGTIME. Bill Gates' nose is growing. Again.
The third wealthiest person in the known universe, Citizen Bill Gates, who swings into Washington about once a year was BACK this week to meet privately with policy makers, said Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft Corp.'s managing director for government affairs. Krumholtz declined to identify them, because he doesn’t have to. And guess what else? Nobody else got an invitation to go and rebut Gates! Wow! I’ll bet most people also don’t even know that corporations actually get their very own “managing directors for government affairs.”
And what could Gates have possibly meant by his response in this cryptic exchange below:
When asked about taxes, Gates jokingly pointed out that he has written checks to the federal government for billions of dollars. "I don't begrudge it at all," he said. "I'm glad you're all working hard to see it's well spent."
Hmmmm…Will all of those billions pay off this time around?
Taking advantage of more relaxed immigration laws in Canada, Gates wasn’t even expected to talk about the Richmond, B.C. site he set up as a “Canadian Refugee Camp" to import cheap foreign workers at the expense of American professionals. Some legislators believe Microsoft is using the Canadian center to export jobs they say should be given to U.S. workers and fear that the third richest man in the known universe is setting a very bad example for a host of sociopathic, Richie-Rich wannabes to follow in this war on America’s professionals. Never mind the whole patriotism or community thing: Does this guy have no shame? Cue up the neo-patriotic song that describes this war on the professional middle class: The Star Strangled Banner and salute the fearless leader, General Bill Gates who can’t seem to satiate himself with enough cheap labor.
Gates was back to urge Congress to reinstitute the R&D tax credit that expired last year and to plead for an increase in H-1B visas and/or any alternative to keep the supply of cheap, foreign labor coming into the country on behalf of Microsoft, Cisco, Oracle, Google and a host of other industry executives and government officials who personally profit by excluding American professionals from jobs in favor of cheaper foreign labor through tightly woven agreements between the United States State Department, Corporate America and American universities. Most people don’t know that “it is not against the law for companies to bypass qualified and willing Americans for H-1Bs. That's why companies like Microsoft continue to do it without fear of prosecution” explains Rob Sanchez in his newsletter “Job Destruction News.”
In her recent post “Michigan Workers are not Qualified to Work for Companies that Offer Products that Don’t Exist” Citizen Carrie reveals how universities work in tandem with corporations and government officials to educate, train and employ foreign workers to put the United States at a competitive disadvantage by competing against U.S. R&D operations and businesses. In this must watch video, veteran Detroit TV news reporter Vince Wade explains in "Shaft Our Nation" how universities and corporations in complicity with State Department officials force the American taxpayer to subsidize the educations of foreign students who then go on to take the jobs American students could have otherwise studied for if their parents were not sent into the poor house because THEIR jobs are being increasingly outsourced. If this isn’t an act of treason, I don’t know what is. If ever there were a GRAND SCAM to manufacture a shortage of American students to discourage them from studying engineering while simultaneously fleecing their parents at the same time, Wade’s video gives you the recipe.
Now that Gates has hit up Washington to further displace American professionals, not everyone sees the climate warming up to the Gates & Corporate Welfare, Inc. position. Roger Kay, atechnology analyst with Endpoint Technologies said
“an election year may be a difficult time to advance the issue, as it could be labeled a threat to American jobs. Democrats, relying on support from labor groups, might not want to push for legislation” that would displace yet even more American professionals jobs to be taken by foreign workers despite a slow down in technology innovation and economic recession.
Gates wound up getting a good reception from the committee, which held the hearing to mark the 50th anniversary of the panel's founding following the Soviet Union's launch of the Sputnik satellite in 1957.
"We are on the cusp of another Sputnik moment," said committee chairman Rep. Bart Gordon,D-Tenn. "I fear that our country has coasted on the investment made in the last 50 years." Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who has pressed for changes to the H-1B program, on Wednesday wrote Gates, saying "I'm concerned that some companies are more concerned about their bottom line than about the dire need to better educate and train American students and workers. The solution is not, in my opinion, importing more foreign workers." He said he was offering legislation requiring companies to make a good-faith effort to hire Americans before employing an H-1B visa holder.
Where are all the Democrats? Are citizen labor rights not supposed to be the cornerstone of what distinguishes the otherwise blurry line between the Republican and Democratic parties? Unlike most EU governments with laws in place to protect the welfare of their citizens, the United States of America is run by corporations whose sole purpose is to take money from other people’s pockets via heavy taxation on the poor and middle classes while buying tax loopholes from corrupt Congressmen and bribing foreign countries to set up shops and enrich their inner cabal of elites who are creating a rabid “hate Americans” culture faster than you can say “Vista Sucks!”
Don’t count on MSM outlets and blogs to get front page news on this new Cold War, either. Predictably HuffPo had Gates’ Washington visit all but buried, but here is what two commenters had to say (among others) that describes the cultural decline that Gates and the sociopathic Tech Lobby take credit for:
These "brown-nosing fast talkers"; the influence of that kind of culture is beginning to show up in the MS operating systems, too.... They're all beginning to reflect the influence of political and bureaucratic minds, instead of being nimble, quick-reacting, and efficient...” and
“Like the rest of the corporations, Bill is looking for cheap labor, there are plenty of intelligent, creative, skilled people in the US that are begging for jobs, and it is unfair to give those jobs to foreigners. It also hurts other countries because US corporations steal their best and brightest, people needed in their home countries to raise standards of living there. Like always, people all over the world are competing in a race to the bottom.”
As Nancy Pelosi, friend of Tech Net guarantees, “Americans get the government they deserve.”
For anyone interested in writing their Senators, visit WashTech/CWA. (I’d write mine, but Barbara Boxer is a 'friend' of the Tech Lobby.)
-2Truthy nominates Jennifer Anniston and Ashton Kutcher to star in the Spitzer Saga-
In the above photo, Silda Spitzer stands by her former prosecutor-turned governor-turned ex-John turned –ex-governorschmuck who paid big time Howard Huges bucks for diamond studded prostitution services from the Emperors Club for what looks like the very last time.
-2Truthy
CLIENT NUMBER NINE
-2Truthy
I booked a hooker from the Emperors Club And after that I hit the Mayflower pub Three-diamond whore Kristen had a really good time Sellin’ pricey booty to CLIENT NUMBER NINE.
I’ve been the governor since 2006 That’s when I started boffin’ real hot chicks Completely paid for by the New York taxpayers dime “Wham-bam-thank you mam” shouted CLIENT NUMBER NINE.
I wire transferred the loot and said I was George Fox The FBI wiretapped me and they punched my clock I made her ride on Amtrack not the Acela rail For $4300 bucks excluding tip -- That’s when I got nailed!
I didn’t know if it was day or night Silda told me “go and fly a fucking kite” See, when I kissed ‘three-diamond whore’ the very last time My prison jumpsuit’s gonna read ‘CLIENT NUMBER NINE.’
CLIENT NUMBER NINE. CLIENT NUMBER NINE. CLIENT NUMBER NINE.
William F. Buckley died a couple of weeks ago and I’m now getting around to paying my respects. (I’ve been a bit busy but since the guy’s dead, he won‘t be going anywhere.)
I just can’t say enough about the ultimate Blowhard’s BLOWHARD.
Known for his kind and gentle brand of conservatism and a profound aura of affectation, William F. Buckley occasionally, yet unwittingly flirted with buffoonery -- butchering the English language by using words out of context with hilariously searing levels of confidence and superiority. Buckley could make the intolerable pitch of fingers on a blackboard seem like a day at the Canyon Ranch Spa. Whenever intellectualism is tainted and/or co-opted by the long-arm of corporate ruling elites, a token amount of what could have been genuine and progressive is lost to the degenerate camps of sycophants and wannabes, removing from society yet another step on the ladder to the rarified air of an inner circle club of elites who bastardize and mangle everything from our media to our election process.
Although it has been said that “Buckley may have been a conservative celebrity but there was a lot more to him than a bow tie and a sailboat”, he leaves the world with little for the plebes to feast on other than a gnawing glimpse at what the spirit of "community" must have looked liked during Czarist Russia.
Watching William F. Buckley prattle and waffle and shoot up his conservative talking points on Firing Line against Gore Vidal was entertaining and heads above Gunsmoke. Embracing conservatism, Buckley epitomized all that was comely for an intellectual who relished a good debate while he simultaneously served as a role model for what every aspiring oppressive opportunist could be, blazing the “I Got Mine” free-trade message that could be heard all the way from New Haven to New Delhi. (Admittedly, conservatives are not alone in delivering hubris and arrogant laced messages as liberals can all too often be found on this side of the gymnasium.)
Elitist William F. Buckley wore his wealth on his conservative, Hublot wrested sleeve. Sought after on the intellectual lecture circuit and TV talk shows to deliver subliminal messages of those mightier overlords, Buckley was the big words go-to-boy for his enablers who chased him to preach “The Cotton Mather Way” to the masses from his pulpit of conservatism.
As wealth has increasingly shifted up and away from the masses – even the educated ones --- the literary circuit media star Buckley ratified his colleagues and served his masters well. He left his carbon footprint so indelibly tracked into the mindsets of all aspiring frat boys and MBA’s who have hijacked what’s left of Corporate America, (where intellectualism is ironically discouraged) serving as a dubious role model for what success and “intellectualism” is supposed to look like. In our land of the free and home of the brave, one could do better than to be a “swinger of birches” like Buckley, who with intellectual zeal championed a “greed is good” free market economy while allowing himself to be co-opted by corporate anti-intellectuals and academics alike who perpetuate elitism.
So thanks a lot, William F. Buckley. You ‘could’ have been a contender, although you never would have made it to 2Truthy’s official “You’re Invited to my Party List” since you were anti-abortion and even questioned for one second the right for a black person to vote. Some say that in order for our fractured country to make progress there has to be a collective spirit of local community and humility as opposed to arrogance. You could have used your pulpit to bridge the divide. In these politically devolved and challenging times when the best that the global elite zeitgeist can offer on an election menu are corporate shills like Hillary, Obama and McCain, let’s “hope” that some divine intervention from above will trickle down from the heavens as our fast growing have andhave not society is going to need all the help it can get.
I have always wondered: what does the “F.” stand for?
- "FLOODED UPLIGHTS AND LINOLEUM: A PHOTOGRAPHER'S BEST FRIEND"-
-2Truthy
(Eternal thanks to Martha Reeves and the Vandellas)
Once in a while, everyone feels like they have nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. But if you're ever feeling a little dowdy, make this your desktop wallpaper and you'll be back to feeling like a million fucking bucks in no time...
I must admit, they ALL look positively smashing in the "after" shots but this old Madonna fan declares the former bad girl entertainer from the Motah Cit-ay leader of the pack!
All eyes are on this Tuesday as Hillary Clinton’s fate hangs in the balance for Texas and Ohio. In my previous post, Super Tuesday Voter Guide for Democrats I saluted my favorite actor, Jack Nicholson’s tribute to the Pink Lady in her turf battle against her nemesis, Barack Obama over who gets to take the credit for sealing the nation into the ultimate and inevitable Have and Have Not Society civilization has known since maybe the Stone Age. (Not to worry, as our media and blogger 'friends' keep telling us to have HOPE and all will be fine.)
I would also like to salute blogger Citizen Carrie for her fine body of work at Carrie’s Nation and for her BIG E AWARD to yours truly here at Losing the War on Humor. So here is my “Oscar” acceptance speech:
I was surprised to receive this honor, as my humble and often hopelessly irreverent, cynical blog sets out to do one thing only: dispel the myths and lies in an increasingly rabid world of media polluted me-tooism, blowhard-addled empty rhetoric, and an anti-intellectual, winner-take-all socio-political climate where media and their mindless blogger- wannabes subliminally reinforce tearing down the only pillar of progress that defines civilized society : love and respect for each other and community. In these times where sycophancy is the order of the day and most of the media/blog world is drowning in Kool-Aid, you can always count on Carrie’s insightful and well-researched posts to present the facts with a balanced blend of integrity, clarity, humanity and goodwill. The art of “REAL” is not lost on Carrie’s Nation.
Back to Jack…With a little help fromRob Reiner, Jack Nicholson, who is backing Hillary Rodham Clinton for president, took his endorsement to the tubes with a most persuasive “humorous collection of clips that put his support into the mouths of his most film famous characters” video entitled “Jack and Hill”.Click above to watch video.
The United States Air Force yesterday awarded Los Angeles based Northrop Grumman Corp.and A European partner, AIRBUS a $35 billion contract to build airborne refueling planes, delivering a major blow to Boeing Co., formerly the Seattle based now Chicago based aeronautics corporation that has been supplying refueling sky-tankers to the Air Force for nearly 50 years and had been widely expected to hang onto that monopoly.
So why did the Air Force nix Boeing? Something to do with size, despite the fact that, according to analyst Troy Lahr, Boeing offered the U.S. government comparable functionality with a significantly reduced tab:
Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst Troy Lahr said in a research note it was surprising the Northrop-EADS team won given the estimated $35 million per-plane savings offered by Boeing. Lahr estimated the Boeing aircraft would have cost $125 million apiece. "It appears the (Air Force) chose capabilities over cost," Lahr said.
OR maybe the new contract has more to do with former Boeing executive Michael Sears thatsent him to the slammer in 2003 that tarred Boeing and also sent a top Air Force acquisition official to prison for conflict of interest that led to the collapse of an earlier tanker contract with Boeing?
On another note, could this Michael Sears be related to the actual tower family in Chicago where the curious, hard-hatted 2Truthy, as a youth, spent a few Saturdays roaming around the construction site with her Dad while his structural engineering testing labs company drilled for and ensured the foundation’s massive caissons for the mighty 110 tall tower were good to go?
Does Congress “work” for the citizens who elect them or for corporations? During these trying times when the country is in a recession and jobs are scare, the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi goes on the Charlie Rose show and gleefully extols the virtues of outsourcing American jobs and wink-wink-nod-nod confirming that back room dealing is going on to ensure it (watch the whole video if you can stand it) that she does not care who suffers, the nation’s head corporate welfare cheerleader known as The Speaker of the House dispels any myths that a few bucks are always to be made at the expense of the country’s citizens.
Note that if Boeing had won the contract, the tankers would be built in Kansas. The Air Force’s selection has not only a few executives at Boeing major pissed but a curious mix of happy and sad Congressmen who stood to lose and gain as well:
"We should have an American tanker built by an American company with American workers," said Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., who represents the district in Wichita where Boeing would have done much of the tanker work."
What? No Rolls Royce engines? The state of Kansas and Rep. Tiahrt lost but Alabama and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and AIRBUS scored bigtime. But the EADS/Northrop Grumman team plans to perform its final assembly work in Mobile, Ala., although the underlying plane would mostly be built in Europe. And it would use General Electric engines built in North Carolina and Ohio. Northrop Grumman, which is based in Los Angeles, estimates a Northrop/EADS win would produce 2,000 new jobs in Mobile and support 25,000 jobs at suppliers nationwide.
"I've never seen anything excite the people of Mobile like this competition," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said. "We're talking about billions of dollars over many years so this is just a huge announcement."
Moral of the story? Maybe next time, Boeing executives and Air Force procurement personnel will keep it all under the radar? And why DID Boeing move to Chicago from Seattle? Needless to say, in the state of Washington, people are none too pleased:
In Everett, Wash., a few dozen Boeing workers protested outside a Machinists Union hall holding up signs saying "American workers equal best tankers," and "Our military deserves the best."
One of these days, maybe our “people” will start believing that they deserve the best again and start voting with their consciences to throw the bums (Congress) out.
(Photo courtesy/very special thanks to Jersey Cynic at BlondeSense)
