Why Labor Issues Are Political

What do you want the American workplace to be for yourself, your children and your grandchildren?

The enemies are corporations that pay no taxes and violate labor, environmental and public safety laws as much as they can get away with - NOT unions or government. Do you want this flag? http://tinyurl.com/4eezodl  (Watch The Grapes of Wrath to remind yourself of what life in the US was like before we had labor laws and other important regulations that DO protect us when they are complied with.) 

Please read this page on Labor History Everyone Should Learn: http://workplacecredibleactivist.wordpress.com/labor-history-everyone-should-learn/

Here are some past and present countries in the world in which labor unions were illegal:

China, Burma, North Korea, United Arab Emirates, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Russian, Mussolini’s Italy, Franco’s Spain, Hussain’s Iraq, Bremer’s Iraq.

The GOP wants to destroy and even outlaw labor unions in the US. Think about that.

Remain updated on how your elected officials vote on Labor and other issues: Sign up to see how your elected officials vote on various issues: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/ Make sure you tell them you want workers’ rights to be protected and improved – not gutted by the GOP who are destroying workers’ rights because they accept large campaign donations from the Koch Brothers and other corporations.

 Please Sign this Petition @change : Demand Legal Compliance in US Workplaces http://chn.ge/bO31L8

Here is a list of workplace protections and rights which Americans enjoy that many people do not realize were won by unions via violent struggles often resulting in grave injury and death.

8-Hour Workday

Health Insurance through work

Unemployment Insurance

Paid Sick Time

Workplace Safety Laws and Regulations

Laws and Regulations against Harassment, Discrimination and Retaliation

Child Labor Laws

Minimum Wage Laws

The right to form unions, collectively bargain, strike, and have union meetings

Overtime Pay

The Workers’ Compensation System

Paid Vacations

Paid Holidays

Whistleblower Protection Laws

Anti-Cronyism Laws

Weekends Off!

And MUCH MORE!

There is an old adage that one should not discuss politics or religion.

I say that’s out-dated.

Frankly, in most places in our world right now, everything is political. In the US, where freedom is touted as the cornerstone of our culture, we still have some military personnel and GOP congresspersons who want to keep LGBT persons out of the military. We still have domestic terrorist groups who murder medical providers of legal abortions. We still have homelessness, poverty, crime, unemployment, massive intentional mortgage fraud, corporate and government corruption and an epidemic of legal noncompliance with labor laws.

I say the reason all of this happens can be explained by looking at a lack of Whole Thinking (TM pending). Whole Thinking can be measured by examining:
Critical Thinking Skills
Emotional Intelligence Skills
Use of Psychological Defense Mechanisms
and Intellectual Honesty

Or not. Those who do not think wholly or who have or choose to have incomplete thinking, are not using these skills or do not have these skills.

When a human being is lacking in critical thinking skills, intellectual honesty, emotional intelligence skills, and/or critical thinking skills – depending on the extent of this condition, they are likely to have extremely diminished intelligence and/or have a mental illness or personality disorder. If you have a serious personality disorder or mental illness that prevents you from thinking critically, you probably shouldn’t be a government leader. You cannot have it both ways.

The world’s religions all have extremely similar messages: do not harm others, be good to others, do not take more than your share, etc. Yet there is incredible distortion of those messages all in the service of hatred, greed, violence and more intentional fraud. Again, you can’t have it both ways. You cannot say you’re a christian and yet choose to further enrich the wealthy while denying basic financial and healthcare rights to the poor. You cannot say your’re a christian and burn the holy books of other religious traditions.

The US is supposed to be built on a foundation of the separation of church and state, and yet there are vast numbers of politicians who “refudiate” this and insist, incorrectly, that the US is “a christian nation”. These are symptoms of a lack of critical reasoning skills and intellectual honesty in most cases. Christine O’Donnell revealed that she truly believed that there was nothing in the US Constitution that insisted on the separation of church and state, and in her case, she seemed to truly believe this out of stupidity and ignorance, which is different.

When factually incorrect statements are made, it is done either out of stupidity or for fraudulent purposes.

Christine O’Donnell and others who make factually incorrect statements about important things like the US Constitution are as  irresponsible as Islamic extremists who repeat factually incorrect statements about the Koran to illiterate young people in order to get them to join their cause.

Most GOP politicians, however, intentionally make factually incorrect statements in order to defraud voters. The GOP knows very well that the Bush Tax Cuts have been in place for the past ten years and have failed to create jobs or trickle down to the middle and working classes. There are multiple credible reports that are statistically valid and reliable which prove that tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of Americans do not create jobs, stimulate the economy, or trickle down.

In fact, the tax savings for the wealthiest 2% of Americans often winds up in offshore banking accounts or invested into yachts or the purchase of a 5th home – sometimes the money is re-invested into corporations, which also do not pay enough taxes – and which frequently pay no taxes at all.

When there is intentional deception, we call this fraud. In England, making false statements in campaigns is unlawful. We need that law here.

Ideally, all US citizens would be informed by credible news sources such as Democracy Now!, F.A.I.R., Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, The Nation, and the Daily Kos. Unfortunately, many Americans watch FOX, listen to Rush, or otherwise allow themselves to believe absolute untruths about important issues that affect all of our lives.

That is why everything is political. School funding, sexuality, birth control, medical care, what is in our food, housing issues, laws about workplaces, sick time at work for employees, water safety, protection from injury or death from or at work, protection to keep oceans clean, the price of gas, who gets sent to war, etc. It’s all political.

An old classmate from junior high had something on her facebook page that said, “not interested in politics”. Really? Seriously? If someone told her that she couldn’t sleep with or marry the person she loved, would she suddenly become interested in politics? Probably. If the water from her faucet was making her children sick or was flammable, might she suddenly care? Probably.

The question is, how can those of us who understand that everything is political, that the GOP intentionally lies to voters, and that we all need to be mobilized in solidarity to protect our very lives and those of our children – get through to these people?

It isn’t easy because we are often up against a lack of whole thinking. When a person truly believes that the GOP cares about them even though they earn less than $250k a year and do not own a corporation, there is something very wrong with that person’s ability to think clearly, understand facts, use crtical reasoning skills, stop using denial as a defense mechanism and there may be a lack of emotional intelligence skills, particularly in the empathy and social responsibility hubs.

When a person is stubbornly unwilling to listen to facts that discredit and debunk their strongly held opinions, this is a combination of intellectual dishonesty, a lack of critical reasoning skills, and a large number of defense mechanisms being used.

Persons who intentionally deceive others without regard for the harm they cause are considered sociopaths. Studies have shown that many corporate leaders and workplace bullies are sociopaths. I put forth that most GOP politicians are also sociopaths.

When journalists cannot get a politician or leader to answer a question directly, there is something wrong. That person is unwilling to be discovered for the fraud he or she is. There is a very unhealthy willingness to think that one can dodge direct questions and get away with it.

Luckily, more and more Americans are waking up to the fact that sociopathic, dishonest GOP (and other) politicians are defrauding them of their mortgages, their workplace rights, their voting rights and their rights to liberty and justice for all.

There should be absolutely zero injection of anything religious into politics or government other than protections for the freedom of religion and laws to address civil rights violations based on freedom of religion. Given that the US has so many leaders in the GOP who actively engage in incitment of violence towards persons based on their religion, we have a serious problem. In any ordinary workplace, such comments could result in termination. GOP candidates like Sharron Angle and Jan Brewer need to be similarly held accountable for their hate speech. This is also an example of a lack of whole thinking. Angle and Brewer need to learn critical reasoning skills, emotional intelligence skills and how they are using their defense mechanisms in a way that makes them more sociopathically mentally ill than qualified for public office.

When religion is used to violate others’ rights, campaign for the GOP in violation of IRS tax codes or incite hate and violence by violating others’ civil rights, something is very wrong. This is also an example of a lack of whole thinking. The GOP loves to quote the constitution and the bible selectively. This is intellectually dishonest as well as lacking in critical reasoning skills. This is probably driven by the use of defense mechanisms; there is such a thing as racism psychosis. Therefore, there are also such things as sexism psychosis, LGBT psychosis, ethnic psychosis, Islamaphobia psychosis, etc. Homophobes have sexuality psychosis. These are mental illnesses and those with these mental illnesses should not be in governmental leadership positions.

The fact that voters respond favorably to the epidemic of psychosis in GOP leaders is indeed disturbing. Those of us who recognize the GOP for the hate-mongers and fraudsters they are, must continue to tell this to all those who have been duped by the GOP.

Those who engage in intentional fraud via public office need to be called out as purveyors of fraud and prosecuted as in the UK. Those who try to impose religion into US government, need to be censured. Those who incite hatred and violence also need to be censured.

The US needs to look at what works in other nations and stop this delusion that “we are number one”, when in fact, we are not number one in the important categories of life expectancy, health care quality, health care per capita expense, lack of crime, college graduation rates, labor laws, whistleblower protections, environmental protections, etc.

It is a salient fact that many GOP politicians and religious leaders who have been vehemently against LGBT rights eventually are found to be self-hating homosexuals. This does make one wonder what is in John McCain’s closet.

We see the workings of defense mechanisms daily in our politics and in religion. Luckily more and more voters are seeing through this and are calling hypocrisy, fraud, lying, intellectual dishonesty and manipulation when they see them. We need much more of this.

I don’t quite understand anyone who votes for the GOP given what they stand for. They are no longer the party of Lincoln. They are the party of corporate greed, civil rights violations and creating a permanent US Hooverville over which they and their billionaire cronies will preside.

They want to defund education to keep the electorate ignorant and unquestioning so they remain in power. They want to erode labor laws, whistleblower protections and civil rights protections so they can do whatever they want in their lives and in their corporations and so workers have no recourse.

It is true that throughout history, oppressed peoples have found ways to rise up against the kind of tyranny that the GOP seeks to impose on the US. They will not say this is their goal, because they know that if they did, they would lose 98% of their votes. So, they count on ignorant and uneducated voters to believe them.

The GOP seems to have forgotten the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and the countless resistance movements in many other nations over the last thousand years. An oppressed people will not remain oppressed.

It is mind-blowing that many in the GOP consider themselves to be christians given that Jesus was a middle-eastern man who provided free healthcare, called on people to love one another and not judge each other, and was opposed to the economic oppression of anyone.

When you encounter a lack of whole thinking in yourself or others, think about it. When you see facts that are new to you; consider them and their source. Glenn Beck is on the air, but he does not speak facts. There are incorrect and untrue things on the internet. Not all news has journalistic integrity. Consider where you get your news.

A woman I knew when I was growing up considers all Muslims to be bad. She is a Jew and has a firm understanding of what bigotry is, when it comes to Jews, Blacks, LGBT persons, etc. But she does not see that her dislike of all Muslims makes her a bigot. We have had conversations about this a few time, and it appears that some progress is being made.

Progress. Progressives must do what they can when they can to break through the lack of whole thinking in the US. If that means pissing off family members, neighbors, classmates, friends, spouses, lovers, etc., so be it. It must be done.

Sign up to see how your elected officials vote on various issues: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/

“The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.” – Thomas Donahue

Here’s the printed text of “America is NOT Broke” (the speech in Madison by Michael Moore) http://j.mp/gNLnDF and here’s the YouTube of his Madison speech: http://mmflint.me/hMf5X3

1. Some Labor History http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/labor-unions-and-me/

2. “It’s not about the budget; it’s about the power.” Wisconsin Power Play – Paul Krugman http://nyti.ms/elf5Dx

3. Conservatism as Mental Illness: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/aug/13/usa.redbox

4. Bernie Sanders Calls for Surtax on Millionaires, Ending Breaks for Big Oil http://bit.ly/eX2ILE

5. Check out our latest episode of Whistle Where You Work on the future of the Whistleblower bill, & our food conference http://bit.ly/bnU6gc

6. Fox News lies so much that Canadian law bars them from broadcasting there http://t.co/9r5BMyj

7. Bills Republicans Have Blocked- http://www.addictinginfo.org/?p=284 This affects you, your children & your grandchildren at work.

8. LIST of liberal achievements that made the USA great. http://bit.ly/libsAchieve

THINK before you vote. Understand which candidates and which political parties support the rights of workers. Learn from history: the Democrats have always supported the rights of workers; the GOP has always opposed the rights of workers. Vote very carefully. Look at what is happening in WI, OH, IN, PA, and ID. Unions fight for the rights of ALL workers, not just their members.

Unions are NOT the cause of any problems in the US; the problem is that the GOP is in bed with wealthy corporations like the Koch Brothers and BP and allows them to pay little to no taxes while working people’s taxes increase. This is all because of the GOP. Vote Democrat unless you’re a billionaire. For more information, please visit: http://www.GrandOlePonzi.wordpress.com

 

 Top 10 Worst Things about the Republicans’ Immoral Budget

The Republican budget would:

1. Destroy 700,000 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis.

2. Zero out federal funding for National Public Radio and public television.

3. Cut $1.3 billion from community health centers–which will deprive more than three million low-income people of health care over the next few months.

4. Cut nearly a billion dollars in food and health care assistance to pregnant women, new moms, and children.

5. Kick more than 200,000 children out of pre-school by cutting funds for Head Start.

6. Force states to fire 65,000 teachers and aides, dramatically increasing class sizes, thanks to education cuts.

7. Cut some or all financial aid for 9.4 million low- and middle-income college students.

8. Slash $1.6 billion from the National Institutes of Health, a cut that experts say would “send shockwaves” through cancer research, likely result in cuts to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s research, and cause job losses.

9. End the only federal family planning program, including cutting all federal funding that goes to Planned Parenthood to support cancer screenings and other women’s health care.

10. Send 10,000 low-income veterans into homelessness by cutting in half the number of veterans who get housing vouchers this year.

Sources:

1. “GOP spending plan would cost 700,000 jobs, new report says,” The Washington Post, February 28, 2011
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/28/AR2011022802634.html

2. “GOP budget would cut funding for public broadcasting,” The Washington Independent, February 14, 2011
http://washingtonindependent.com/105534/gop-budget-would-cut-funding-for-public-broadcasting

3. “NACHC Statement in Response to the Budget from the House Appropriations Committee,” National Association of Community Health Centers website, accessed March 4, 2011
http://www.nachc.org/pressrelease-detail.cfm?PressReleaseID=644

4.”Bye Bye, Big Bird. Hello, E. Coli.,” The New Republic, February 12, 2011
http://www.tnr.com/blog/83387/house-republican-spending-cuts-pell-education-usda-pbs

House Republican Spending Cuts Target Programs For Children And Pregnant Women
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/02/09/gop-war-on-babies/

5. “Obama and the GOP’s Spending Cuts: Where’s the Outrage?” Mother Jones, February 18, 2011

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/02/obama-spending-cuts-gop

6. Ibid.

7. “Deficit Reduction on the Backs of the Most Vulnerable,” Center for American Progress, March 2011
http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2011/03/pdf/hit_budget_cuts.pdf (PDF)

8. “The GOP Budget and Cancer–Why New Research Is at Risk,” Politics Daily, February 27, 2011
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/02/27/the-gop-budget-and-cancer-why-new-research-is-at-risk/

“Republican Budget Cuts at Heart of Medical Research: Albert Hunt,” Bloomberg, February 20, 2011
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-20/republican-science-cuts-imperil-u-s-prominence-commentary-by-albert-hunt.html

“Durbin: Cuts to NIH put research jobs at risk,” Business Week, February 28, 2011
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9LLSCB00.htm

9. “GOP Spending Plan: X-ing Out Title X Family Planning Funds,” Wall Street Journal, February 9, 2011
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=206105

10. “House GOP Spending Cuts Would Prevent 10,000 Low-Income Veterans From Receiving Housing Assistance,” Think Progress, March 1, 2011
http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2011/03/01/homeless-vets-gop/

Copyright 2011 Denise A Romano – Reproduction allowed with copyright intact and inclusion of this blog address

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