Category Archives: The State

UPDATE II: Tug Of War In Wisconsin Over (Rust-Belt Revolt?)

Elections, IlanaMercer.com, Labor, The State, Welfare

Citing a January poll, George Will observed that policy differences, not criminal behavior, drove the recall campaign against Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin.

“In the tug of war witnessed in Wisconsin, I wrote in February, of 2011, “the ‘Takers’ (tax consumers), organized by the likes of the AFL-CIO, Andy Stern’s Service Employees International Union, and the national and local teachers unions, want the ‘Makers’ (the so-called rich who fund their existence) to support overgenerous pay and pensions in perpetuity. To grant them their wish, these organized interests are accustomed to turning to the Über-parasites: politicians. This time, a politician in the person of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has refused to facilitate the smooth transfer of wealth from those who create it to those who consume it with no thought for the morrow. (“Public Enemy No. 1: Government Unions”)

Rejoices Guy Benson of TownHall.com: “For the second time in two years, the people of Wisconsin have elected Scott Walker. He is, and will remain, the state’s governor. This outcome is a triumph for Badger State conservatives, the Tea Party movement, and fiscal sanity generally. Though the Left will spin this defeat furiously, make no mistake: They are crestfallen tonight. Their bete noir has prevailed.”

“NBC, CNN, and Fox News have all called this race,” he confirms.

In “The Whine From Wisconsin,” George Will provides the backdrop to what has become a “socialist sandbox of childish pleasure”:

This state, the first to let government employees unionize, was an incubator of progressivism and gave birth (in 1932 in Madison, the precursor of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) to its emblematic institution, the government employees union — government organized as a special interest to lobby itself to expand itself. But Wisconsin progressivism is in a dark Peter Pan phase; it is childish without being winsome.

UPDATE (June 6): RUST-BELT REVOLT? National Journal pinpoints the Walker victory as “a sign of the cultural divide between national Democrats and blue-collar whites.” Especially telling is the fact that the governor “carried 38 percent of union households.” From “Red Flags All Over for Obama in Wisconsin”:

President Obama wasn’t on the ballot in Wisconsin, but Gov. Scott Walker’s decisive victory in last night’s gubernatorial recall is a stinging blow to his prospects for a second term. The re-election was a telltale sign that the conservative base is as energized as ever, that the Democratic GOTV efforts may not be as stellar as advertised, and that the Democratic-leaning “blue wall” Rust Belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania will be very much in play this November.
Walker won by a bigger margin than he did in 2010, and with more overall votes. He carried 38 percent of union households – a slight improvement from his 2010 midterm tally — a strikingly strong number given how he’s been cast as the villain of labor. It’s a sign of the cultural divide between national Democrats and blue-collar whites, one that is particularly acute for the president.
Obama’s team is taking consolation in the fact that exit polling showed him leading Mitt Romney, 51 to 44 percent. But that’s hardly good news: with near-presidential level turnout (and notably higher level of union turnout), Obama is running five points behind his 2008 performance. Replicate that dropoff across the board, and all the key swing states flip to Mitt Romney.

MORE.

Personal Notice: The Mercer Articles Archive is out of whack, missing enormous sections, as a result, probably, of a server data-base error. A ticket has been submitted. I hope to have the problem resolved as soon as possible. If you want to read the latest Mercer Articles, or search the articles database, go to the Return to Reason archives on WND.

RESOLVED.

UPDATE II: I don’t know whether, as Ann Coulter puts it, “Walker’s victory Tuesday night was an amazing, miraculous, transformative event in the history of the nation.” But she makes a point previously made in this space too, (minus the respectful references to FDR):

“There’s a reason both FDR and labor leader George Meany said it would be insane to ever allow government employees to unionize. People who work for the government don’t have a hard-driving capitalist boss on the other side of the bargaining table demanding more work for less pay.
No one is worried about the profit margin because there is no profit – it’s government! Rather, the only people on the other side of the table are the unions’ co-conspirators: Democratic politicians willing to spend the public treasury on union members, who will repay the politicians by mobilizing voters.”

Gladiators in the Emperor’s Colosseum: Memorial Weekend Message

Homeland Security, Middle East, Military, Neoconservatism, Propaganda, Russia, The State, War

It is customary, on Memorial Day weekend, to thank uniformed men for their sacrifice. I thank the likes of Sheriffs Paul Babeu (Pinal County, Arizona), and Joe Arpaio (Maricopa County, Arizona) of this nation, who stand on this country’s soil and defend their countrymen from the detritus of mankind.

My sympathies go out to Americans who fight phantoms in far-flung destinations. I’m sorry they’ve been snookered into living, dying and killing for a lie. But it’s inappropriate for me to honor that lie, or those who give their lives for it, and take the lives of others in America’s many recreational wars. I mourn for them, as I have from day one, but I can’t honor them.

I am sorry for those who’ve enlisted thinking they’d fight for their countrymen and were subjected to one backdoor draft after another in the cause of illegal, unjust wars. My heart hurts for you, but I won’t worship at Moloch’s feet just to lessen that sense of loss and disillusionment.

I honor those sad, sad draftees to Vietnam and to WW II. The first valiant batch had no option; the same goes for the last, which fought a just war. I grew up in Israel, so I honor those men who stopped Arab armies from overrunning our homes. In 1973, we came especially close to annihilation.

“What I learned growing up in a war-torn region is that a brave nation fights because it must; a cowardly one fights because it can.”

It is appropriate on this Memorial Day, to watch a documentary RT put together: “Fallujah, a Lost Generation?”

In 2004, Fallujah in Iraq became the theater of a major showdown between the American soldiers and the Iraqi insurgents. But even though the sounds of this harsh battle have died down a long time ago the consequences are only showing now. And they are of the toxic kind. Babies are born with malformations, kids are affected with leukemia and cancer has multiplied tenfold. The situation reminds the one of 1945 post atomic Hiroshima.
Meanwhile, in the USA, the marines who took part in the battle are developing strange diseases.
What really happened in Fallujah?
Which weapons were used? White phosphorus? Depleted uranium?
Has a generation of Iraqis been sacrificed?

America’s military men are penned like gladiators—condemned criminals, slaves and wild animals—in the Colosseum, destined to murder or die for the benefit of the craven Emperor and his comitatus.

One Giant Step For SpaceX

Barack Obama, Private Property, Science, Technology, The State

Oh the contradictions of being a Republican! Republicans, the ostensible party for market forces, were furious when Barack Obama and his posse privatized aspects in the operation of NASA, the National Aeronautic Space Administration, perhaps the only good move BHO has ever made as president (although he should have privatized the whole thing).

Hungry to sustain the National Greatness Agenda in whatever statist way possible, conservatives slammed BHO on the NASA front.

Now, a private company based in California, called SpaceX, has launched a spacecraft to the International Space Stationbuilt. This via BBCNews:

The head of Nasa has hailed a “new era” in exploration after the launch of the first cargo delivery to the space station by a private company.
The Falcon rocket, topped by an unmanned Dragon freight capsule, lifted clear of its Florida pad at 03:44 EDT (07:44 GMT; 08:44 BST).
The launch system has been built by California-based firm SpaceX.
The initial climb to an altitude some 340km above the Earth lasted a little under 10 minutes.
Within moments of being ejected, Dragon opened its solar panels.
It also unpacked its navigation equipment.
Nasa’s administrator Charles Bolden said: “Today marks the beginning of a new era in exploration… The significance of this day cannot be overstated …

Uncle Sam Turns Tricks (& Stiffs Sex Workers)

Affirmative Action, Ethics, Etiquette, Feminism, Government, Military, Morality, Politics, Sex, The State

In “Uncle Sam Turns Tricks (& Stiffs Sex Workers),” the latest weekly column, I make a Modest Proposal. Here’s an excerpt:

“They seemed like complete stupid idiots. I was surprised that every time he [the Secret Service agent] danced with me, he lifted up his sweater so I could see [his ripped abs].”

Beefcake unburdened by brains is how Colombian call girl Dania Suárez described the Special Forces agents who solicited her services at the Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, prior to President Obama’s arrival in that country for the April, 2012, Summit of the Americas.

The “morons,” said the sassy Suárez, “drank liberally and acted boisterously, one of them jumping onto the bar.” Nor were they shy about petitioning Suárez and her sex-worker colleagues for favors.

Our boys abroad were clearly practiced pros.

Slightly more uplifting was the news that one of the married Secret Service agents who serves the president at the pleasure of the American taxpayer likes “normal sex.”

Kinky carnality, however, is preferable to a man who does not honor a contract. The agent refused to pay Suárez the $800 dollars he owed her, which is why this tempest in a C-Cup blew up in the first place.

Fortunately for the errant agent, “paid sex is legal in Cartagena.” Rather than call on a pimp, the prostitute petitioned local law enforcement for redress. A pimp would have likely worked the agent over good and proper.

All in all, a million here and there for a good time is nothing in the grand scheme of the tricks turned by the Empire’s foot-soldiers and stooges—and the toll these tricks take.

Come to think of it, if regular visits with prostitutes kept the political class from launching trillion-dollar war- and welfare programs, and financing Fanny, Freddy and the Fed—I would personally contribute to a prostitution fund for Washington whores.

The prostitutes would be the patriots. …”

Read the complete column, “Uncle Sam Turns Tricks (& Stiffs Sex Workers).”

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