2,000 Protesters March On Koch Industries' D.C. Office

reply to post by adifferentbreed


The difference between "left" and "right" is most apparent in Canada, a country that never separated from the monarchy, never pretended not to be a colony, and always made it clear that it's a corporate-government partnership.

In Canada:

The Conservative Right - makes no bones about grabbing wealth and resources for the already wealthy, on the backs of the poor and middle class, and runs HUGE deficits to boot.

The Liberal Left - pieces off the poor and middle class just enough to keep them quiet, prevent revolution and revolt, and balances the budget.

Which is better? You tell me.

it is great to see people protesting the more secretive influences on the Amerikan fascist state...it is a sign that more and more people are waking up to the fact that politicians are powerless, and only serve as the public face to a massive conspiracy designed to enslave and kill us all...once the world wakes up to who really calls the shots and people identify the real enemy, we may have a fighting chance...

reply to post by lunatux

First you kill the union

Didn't kill any union, brought taxpayer funded employee unions under control.

then you lay off the teachers.

No more teachers have been laid off than usual.
They were being laid off under Doyle as well.

How's that for Walker=Daniels=Snyder=Kasich=Boehner=PaulRyan deserting not only kids but all of the people they were elected to serve.

Regarding Walker and Ryan, they did not desert me, nor my kids, nor my wife.
Matter of fact, he's doing pretty much what we voted him in to do.
Fix our mess.

Originally posted by Oaktree
reply to post by NoHierarchy

 

Huckster? Hardly.
Perhaps if you got your information from sites other than thinkprogress and democratic underground you'd have a more balanced view of reality.

Until then, keep fighting the power, brother!!!

Please take your small mind elsewhere.

Those sites were reporting a protest. When 2000 people protest in DC, that's news... it's not slant.

Originally posted by firepilot

Originally posted by NoHierarchy

Seriously?? Have you read anything that the Kochs are involved in? They're hardly your friendly local entrepreneur investing money in causes they believe in. Anybody with half a brain can read about the Koch brothers and their dealings and realize that they're some of the most vile, slimy, and quasi-Fascist corporatists on the planet. Stop trying to turn the focus away from the elephant in the room towards a mouse in the corner. I mean... whose side are you on?? Common workers who bust their asses making more/less the same money as anybody else does? Or those pooooor innocennnnt rich corporatists who are just sooo sick and tired of their money being "stolllennnn" from them. It's a rigged game and the Kochs (and their little puppets) are using double-speak propaganda to commit unprecedented class warfare against those below them on the totem pole. Just because you have some childish and misguided hate for liberals/hippies, DOESN'T MEAN that the Kochs are your friends.

Liberals and hippies are not the same thing whatsoever. Most liberals I know are for big government, most true hippies are more social libertarians who want to be left alone. Any hippy who is in favor of big government, is no hippy.

The left would have had more credibility with me if they had been against someone like George Soros, who much of what you typed in your paragraph would apply to just fine. He is is as sleazy as it comes, and likes to bankroll groups on the downlow. Why was there no outcry from the left about him?

Oh it was because he was bankrolling them.

Do you have any actual idea who George Soros is? You seem to have bought into the ridiculous conspiracy about him... but he plays very MINOR parts in funding liberal think-tanks. Even MOVE-ON gets very little of its contributions from Soros. There certainly ISN'T a conspiracy surrounding Soros as there is with the Kochs. In fact... it looks more like the right-wing needed a boogey-man like the Koch Brothers... so they took a rich progressive (Soros) and started spewing the lies/propaganda in order to create a tit-for-tat that doesn't actually come anywhere near the level of dirt/blood on the Kochs hands.

Originally posted by boondock-saint
while I am no fan of the Koch boys

I do however wonder if these rallies
did the same thing they did last month
and hire the protestors out for a day's work
and paid them to picket like they did before.

I believe there is another thread here on
ATS where this was addressed.

If I'm not mistaken, I think the going rate
for hire-a-protestor is around $100.00 each
with a free meal (lunch).

Do you really think you'd need to PAY people to protest the Kochs? I think it'd be pretty damn easy to round up people who are already opposed to them.

If you have evidence, present it.

Originally posted by NoHierarchy


Do you have any actual idea who George Soros is? You seem to have bought into the ridiculous conspiracy about him... but he plays very MINOR parts in funding liberal think-tanks. Even MOVE-ON gets very little of its contributions from Soros. There certainly ISN'T a conspiracy surrounding Soros as there is with the Kochs. In fact... it looks more like the right-wing needed a boogey-man like the Koch Brothers... so they took a rich progressive (Soros) and started spewing the lies/propaganda in order to create a tit-for-tat that doesn't actually come anywhere near the level of dirt/blood on the Kochs hands.

And you bought into every Koch conspiracy there is. And the left wanted a boogeyman, so they went after the Kochs.

George Soros does what the Kochs are accused of, bankrolling behind the scenes organizations to do his bidding. Its just that he bankrolls your side behind the scenes, so therefore its okay. He gives larges amounts of money, but its okay, because its your causes. Your billionare is fine, others are not fine.

And the Kochs are not even all that right wing, since they are for gay marraige, smaller defense, drug legalization efforts. Oh and here is something interesting - the United Steelworkers would not honor a boycott against Koch owned Georgia Pacific, why would that be?

And they seem to be good employers, judging by a piece last week by United Steelworkers Vice President Jon Geenen, who opposed plans for a boycott of Koch products. The Kochs own Georgia Pacific, and according to Geenen its plants use advanced manufacturing technology, its workers are well-paid and the Kochs have “positive and productive collective bargaining relationships with its unions.”

reply to post by firepilot


Strange that you quote from E. THOMAS McCLANAHAN.

www.fresnostatenews.com...

Five-year grant totals exceed $168 million
The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) announced total grant awards of more than $168 million over the past five fiscal years. Fresno State now increasingly receives grants from federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and others. It also competes favorably for funding from state agencies, local municipalities and foundations. Talented and dedicated faculty, administrators and support staff are the collective key to the university’s success at securing grants as is the university’s growing commitment to providing high-quality educational opportunities that require faculty and student involvement beyond the classroom. Last year’s grant funding totaled $34 million, and the university is on track to reach or exceed that mark in the current year. “These awards come from an ever-widening spectrum of funding agencies,” says Thomas McClanahan, associate vice president for Research and Sponsored Programs.

voices.kansascity.com...

E. Thomas McClanahan
816-234-4480

E. Thomas McClanahan writes a weekly column and editorials on a variety of topics, including national defense, labor, international trade, Russia, the Asia-Pacific region and transportation. He has been with The Star since 1984 and a member of the Editorial Board since 1987.

Prior to that, McClanahan worked for United Press International in Cheyenne, Dallas and Denver, and the Colorado Springs Sun. McClanahan graduated from the University of Colorado with degrees in history and journalism. He is a 1988 Jefferson Fellow and has traveled extensively in Asia. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1966 to 1969.

This guy is a fundraiser from the crooks you are trying to defend.

Originally posted by JBA2848
reply to post by firepilot

 

Strange that you quote from E. THOMAS McCLANAHAN.

No, the quote is of Jon Geenan, the person who you are listing, did not write it, they just included it an article. are you insinuating that because he included the quote, that it was made up?

Well here you go, straight from the United Steelworkers website, and Jon Geenans personal blog.
blog.usw.org...

The Koch brothers own Georgia Pacific. It is an American consumer goods company that makes everyday products like facial tissue, napkins, paper towels, paper cups and the like. Their plants are great examples of American advanced manufacturing. Incidentally,

GP makes most of its products here in America. The company’s workforce is highly unionized. In fact, 80 percent of its mills are under contract with one or more labor union. It is not inaccurate to say that these are among the best-paid manufacturing jobs in America.

This presents a dilemma and a paradox. While the Koch brothers are credited with advocating an agenda and groups that are clearly hostile to labor and labor’s agenda, the brothers’ company in practice and in general has positive and productive collective bargaining relationships with its unions.

reply to post by firepilot


Well the president of that union sounds a little different.

blog.usw.org...

Wisconsin Subterfuge Violates American Democratic Values
By Leo W. Gerard
USW International President

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his crew of country club conservatives this week brutalized the nation’s democratic traditions to secure legislation demanded by big corporations and billionaire conservative financiers like the Koch brothers – legislation stripping workers of collective bargaining rights.

Walker & Crew succeeded in terminating workers’ rights – but they achieved that only by violating traditional American democratic values. They positioned themselves with dictators who act against the will of the people, deny free speech rights and suppress protests.

They violated the state’s open meetings law, breached the right of Wisconsin residents to rally in their own state capitol building, and contravened conventional standards of fairness by voting to deny workers their rights without assembling a quorum of senators.

Free speech and free access to government protect America’s democracy. Walker & Crew disregarded First Amendment rights repeatedly.

Just this week, Walker & Crew locked protesters out of their own capitol building in Madison. They locked the few protesters already in the building out of the meeting rooms where senate and house members voted. They denied access even to progressive Wisconsin Assembly members, one of whom climbed through a colleague’s window to gain access to his workplace.

March to Stop the Freeloaders

By Leo W. Gerard
USW International President

The nation’s greedy corporations and insatiable wealthy are fattening themselves on workers. There’s no trickle down. It’s the opposite; the rich have been sucking the economic lifeblood from the middle class for decades.

When reckless Wall Street banksters get taxpayer-funded bailouts, billionaires get tax breaks and gigantic corporations like GE and Bank of America pay absolutely no federal income taxes, they’re getting for free the very public services that enable them to make massive profits in this country – the courts, the roads, the trade regulators, the patent enforcement.

The middle class doesn’t get those big time special deals and loopholes. Workers pay their taxes. As a result, it’s workers footing the bill for the government services that enrich the rich. Greedy corporations, their CEOs and the right-wing politicians they buy with tens of millions in campaign cash are freeloaders.

It’s time workers stood up to the freeloaders. Join Monday’s We Are One rallies. These demonstrations across the country by religious groups, social justice organizations and labor unions will illustrate that the middle class is mad as hell and not going to take trickster economics anymore.

It’s time for greedy corporations and the insatiable rich to pay their fair share. It’s time to stop cuts to the government programs most treasured by and vital to the middle class and the vulnerable in this country – education, public transportation, Social Security. It’s time to stop right-wing attempts to terminate democratic rights like collective bargaining and voting without harassment. It’s time for the middle class to stop paying for everything and for the insatiable rich and greedy corporations to start sharing the sacrifice required to recover from the economic crisis caused by reckless gambling by Wall Street bankster corporations.

Both of those were not entirely germaine, the first one was about the Wisconsin government, and the 2nd was about private sector unions.

And apparently from the USW own website, the Kochs treat their workers well and have good labor relations with them, and try to keep as much manufacturing in the US as possible. So that second paragraph would not apply

If public sector unions are such an important deal, then why arent the Democrats and Obama pushing for all federal employees to be unionized? Why are there no marches on the DC to unionize the rest of the government?

It was not all that long ago, that even the AFL-CIO thought that unions and the public sector was not compatible. FDR was not for public unions either.

reply to post by firepilot


jgeenen.tumblr.com...

To be sure, I personally have grave concerns about the agenda and influence being wielded by private wealth into our political system. Who doesn’t? I too agree that the Koch brothers are an ideal example of a very broken system. They undoubtedly know that many see them as pariahs, and undoubtedly they don’t care — no more than I care if someone attaches a label to me for my political views.

So the question is: Can you hurt the Koch brothers through this kind of boycott? Or are you inadvertently just kicking the Koch dog. There is no doubt that the events in my home state of Wisconsin and elsewhere have become an ignition point for action, and thank God that they have.

Arguably we have been rescued from the social hospice overseeing our demise. It is fair to keep the Koch brothers at the center of the debate. There have been fewer clear examples in our lifetime of the corruption of our system. If “Citizens United” gave corporations First Amendment rights, then too it gives them First Amendment responsibility and accountability. It is fair to find a way to make the Koch brothers responsible for promoting an agenda that ultimately hurts workers, but we should not make union workers collateral damage in this contest with Koch.

Jon Greenen even calls himself a Koch dog. Pretty bad when you know your the lap dog to protect evil people.

Interesting huh, that boycotts against the various Koch businesses, are only going to hurt well paid unionzed workers the most.

reply to post by firepilot


I still say sleep with a dog and you get fleas. I don't really care what deal Jon Greenen got on March 28th in his Global Union for Paper Mills discussion. No body should over look anything because he got a bone. Enjoy your bone but playing lap dog and trying to say don't hurt my masters is a joke. And everybody else in his union seem to be saying the same thing even the president of his union.

Originally posted by JBA2848
reply to post by firepilot

 

I still say sleep with a dog and you get fleas. I don't really care what deal Jon Greenen got on March 28th in his Global Union for Paper Mills discussion. No body should over look anything because he got a bone. Enjoy your bone but playing lap dog and trying to say don't hurt my masters is a joke. And everybody else in his union seem to be saying the same thing even the president of his union.

Then why not call for every union worker at all the different Koch companies, to quit their jobs en masse.
Wouldnt that be consistent with your theme?

Originally posted by NoHierarchy

Originally posted by Oaktree
reply to post by NoHierarchy

 

Huckster? Hardly.
Perhaps if you got your information from sites other than thinkprogress and democratic underground you'd have a more balanced view of reality.

Until then, keep fighting the power, brother!!!

Please take your small mind elsewhere.

Great.
My small mind ran out of the house last night, and I haven’t seen him since.
He has small mind complex, you see.
He swears he’s average sized, and that it’s not the size of the mind that matters, but how you use it.

Of course, us large-minded people know better.

Anyway, since you can’t see the issue with one billionaire-funded, politically-biased website smearing other billionaires for their political bias, I did some sleuthing for you.

First of all, think progress had nothing to do with this event.
This event was organized by the AFL-CIO, and nowhere were the Koch Brothers mentioned.

Those sites were reporting a protest. When 2000 people protest in DC, that's news... it's not slant.

Yes, when 2000 people protest, that's a protest. You are correct.

Regarding the slant, however.

The AFL-CIO, the ones who organized this rally, claimed right around 1000 people attended.

n Washington, D.C., more than 1,000 marched in solidarity with workers under attack in Wisconsin, Ohio and across the country.

AFL-CIO Blog site

And the photos of the event seem to corroborate that.



But wait, of the three photos, two were taken nowhere near the Koch Bros. offices, and strangely, the one that does resemble the evil doers offices is cropped way in.

Why, oh why would that be?
Because if you look at a photo of the actual Koch Bros. "event", it appears different.
Much different.


By the way, the sidewalk is closed and under repair, not full of unseen protesters.

It seems Think Progress put out a request for people on their way to the actual protest, organized by the AFL-CIO and having absolutely nothing to do with the Koch Bros. to stop by the office on their way to the real protest.
They then attached photos from a much larger, unrelated protest to their own story about their supposed protest, doubled the figures from the protest that had nothing to do with their agenda, and packaged it as a success.

So yes, those sites (think progress, etc) were reporting a protest, just not theirs.
It was news, and think progress more than slanted it, they usurped the entire event and called it their own.

For anyone still needing more proof, here is a video of the actual, AFL-CIO event.


Seems no one was quite sure who the Koch Bros. even were.

reply to post by NoHierarchy

Do you really think you'd need to PAY people to protest the Kochs?

I think it'd be pretty damn easy to round up people who are already opposed to them.

If you have evidence, present it.

My small mind returned.
He suggested this as evidence:

To Protest Hiring of Nonunion Help, Union Hires Nonunion Pickets

Billy Raye, a 51-year-old unemployed bike courier, is looking for work.
Fortunately for him, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters is seeking paid demonstrators to march and chant in its current picket line.... where the council says work is being done with nonunion labor.

"For a lot of our members, it's really difficult to have them come out, either because of parking or something else," explains Vincente Garcia, a union representative who is supervising the picketing.

So instead, the union hires unemployed people at the minimum wage—$8.25 an hour—to walk picket lines. Mr. Raye says he's grateful for the work, even though he's not sure why he's doing it.

"I could care less," he says. "I am being paid to march around and sound off."

Wall St. Journal, notice the source?

And, to reiterate, no one actually protested the Kochs.

A picture worth a thousand words.



www.facebook.com...#!/photo.php?fbid=10150150307128123&set=a.10150150306913123.293414.175886458122&theater
Notice the sign at the protest scene at 50 seconds. Same sign. And it was about Koch brothers there name is on the sign.

reply to post by JBA2848


That is not the 2000 people protest scene.
That is the 100 to 200 people protest scene.



And just because the sign appears among the signs demanding an end to all wars, to support the NEA, and every other cause that melded together that day,
does not mean that this rally had anything to do with Koch, even if think progress says otherwise.

In other breaking news, it seems the People of Wisconsin just clarified their stance,
by giving State Supreme Court seat to Republican Justice David Prosser.
Huff Post