First Published 9-8-10

In observing the international corporate mafia’s propaganda machine (mainstream media) over this past weekend leading up to Labor Day I noticed a push coming out of right field wherein I heard some propagandists suggesting that America should put an end to labor unions.  I decided yesterday on Labor Day to address the issue of Labor Unions in my next article.  Today is September 7th, the day after Labor Day and sure enough on Varney and Company, Fox Business News Network whose slogan is fair and balanced (yeah right), a story aired headlined “Are Unions Necessary?”  The common assertion that seems to be emerging is that as we have instituted so many labor laws to protect workers, unions have not only become obsolete but a detriment to our ability to compete in the world market.  I tried to look at the question objectively from all angles.

My grandfather on my mother’s side went to work in 1927 in the coal mines of West Virginia at the age of twelve, six years prior to the enactment in 1933 of the National Industrial Recovery Act which protected the rights of the unions and allowed for the rapid organization of the southern coal fields.  In forcing the government to enact the Industrial Recovery Act many coal miners sacrificed their lives in what would become known as “The Mine Wars”.

“The United Mine Workers of America formed in Columbus, Ohio in 1890.  In its first ten years the UMWA successfully organized miners in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.
Attempts to organize West Virginia failed in 1892, 1894, and 1897.

“In 1902 the UMWA finally achieved some recognition in the Kanawha – New River coal field, its first success in West Virginia.  Following the union successes coal operators had formed the Kanawha County Coal Operators Association, the first such organization in the state.  It hired private detectives from the Baldwin-FELTS Detective Agency in Bluefield as mine guards to harass union organizers.  Due to these threats the UMWA discouraged organizers from working in southern West Virginia.”

(Source: West Virginia’s Mine Wars, compiled by the West Virginia State Archives)

It would seem that Baldwin-FELTS Detective Agency would have to be considered the Blackwater of its day.  Many bloody conflicts would ensue and many a man would lose his life in the struggle which would continue for the next thirty-one years.

What were the miners fighting for?  The right to organize, recognition of their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly, an end to blacklisting union organizers, alternatives to company stores (the miners were paid in company script which could only be spent in company stores, so if they were able to force an increase in wages, the company stores simply raised their prices), an end to the practice of using mine guards, a prohibition of cribbing (Miners were paid based on tons of coal mined.  Each car brought from the mine held a specific amount of coal.  However cars were altered to hold more coal.), installation of scales at all mines for accurately weighing coal (obviously to counter the practice of cribbing), and that unions be allowed to hire their  own check weight men to make sure the companies check weight men were not cheating the miners.  How unreasonable can you get?

My grandfather worked 65 years in the coal mines before retiring.  At the end of his work tenure he owned a nice house on the banks of the Kanawha River and his retirement was enough for him to live comfortably on for the rest of his days.  He was also awarded $10,000 for the black lung which was inevitable for every miner who worked during those times, $10,000 back when my grandfather retired being equivalent to approximately $100,000 in today’s currency.  My grandfather was a card carrying United Mine Workers of America member and I have no doubt in that he would have died a pauper in a company house had he not been so.

On the other hand, the Teamsters, Dock Workers, United Autoworkers, and many other big unions have over the years to my distaste become cliquish to the point that they’re members are either grandfathered in from father to son or brought in through marriage.  The corrupt practices and connection to organized crime by many union leaders like Jimmy Hoffa cannot be denied.  By the way if anyone’s still looking for him my wife is convinced that he along with Amelia Earhart and everything we have lost in our house that cannot be found is somewhere in our couch.

After looking at the situation from both of these angles my opinion was still in limbo.  Shortly thereafter the phone rang.  It was my son, Chris, on the line.  He does computer drafting and fabricating at a non-union shop.  I explained to him what I was pondering and his response gave me the answer.  He said, “Though I am not a member of any union I am glad they exist.”  He further stated, “The reason I am being paid $25 per hour at my current job and being treated well by my employer is because the person doing my job at the union shop makes $50 per hour.  If my employer was not treating me decently and paying a living wage he knows that the union shop is just around the corner.”

Everything became perfectly clear to me at that moment.  I realized that I was not looking at the big picture.  I know it is the intent of the international corporate mafia to break our country and put us in such dire straits that we are forced to become the slave laborers they desire us to be.  We will then willingly extract and manufacture the last of our resources for them with our only compensation being wages equating to slave labor, thus saving them the expense of sending the raw materials to China to be manufactured.   Destroying our labor unions would be a logical step towards that goal.

Admittedly there is a degree of rot associated with the big labor unions but considering our present economic situation it would be suicide to even think of getting rid of them.

My son’s phone call was a godsend at just the right time.  Ironically the shop he works for had given him Labor Day off with pay.  Towards the end of our conversation, he inquired, “What is Labor Day?” to which I had to admit I didn’t know.  It has always been a practice in our home that if anyone brought up a question that none could answer; it’s straight to the encyclopedia and later the internet to investigate.  Wikipedia explains Labor Day in part as follows:

“The first Labor Day in the United States was observed on September 5, 1882 in New York City, by the Central Labor Union of New York, the nation’s first integrated major trade union. It became a federal holiday in 1894, when, following the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, President Grover Cleveland put reconciliation with the labor movement as a top political priority. Fearing further conflict, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law a mere six days after the end of the strike.”

(Source: Wikipedia – Labor Day)

Now who would be so sadistic as to launch a campaign over the Labor Day weekend to end labor unions?  That’s right; you guessed it, the international corporate mafia banksters.

First Published 9-7-10

On the Sunday edition of the CNN program Your Money, the host Ali Velshi, opened the program with the following statement,

“This past week we got the job numbers for August. There is no green in August numbers. In fact the jobs are down; we lost 54,000 jobs in August. But the private sector, private businesses, companies actually added 67,000 jobs that is the Holy Grail. We want companies growing. We don’t need government growing. Companies growing mean that the emphasis on economic growth has fallen where it is supposed to.”

(Source: CNN.com – Transcripts)

Now did he say that only 54,000 jobs were lost in August or did he say that we gained 13,000 jobs, and if so why did the unemployment percentage gain one tenth of one percent?  He goes on to say,

Stephen Moore is an editorial writer with the “Wall Street Journal, he is a respected sparring partner and a good friend of this show. Last time you and I talked about jobs Stephen, I described it as a glass one quarter full. I stick with that assessment given today’s news. You?

(Source: CNN.com – Transcripts)

Ali was then joined by Stephen Moore, Editorial Writer for the Wall Street Journal, the conversation continued as follows,

” Yes, Ali, I generally agree with what you just said. The really good news in this report s we got some private sector job growth which you are right that is the mother’s milk of the economy. And so I was encouraged by that and by the way this report was a lot better than a lot of economists were forecasting. Most of the job losses as you said were the layoff of census workers. Those were part-time workers, but you know the thing we have to focus on Ali, we need to generate about 125,000 jobs a month just to keep the unemployment rate where it is because we have natural growth in the labor force. So we have got to do a lot better.”

(Source: CNN.com – Transcripts)

I guess that old saying; “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullpoo” applies more today and to this issue than it ever has.  According to the Department of Labor’s press release dated September 2, 2010, the week ending August 28, 2010’s advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims was 472,000, however the jobless rate only rose one tenth of a percentile.  Now is that because there are that many new jobs or because that many more workers have become 99er?   The fact is as I see it; the actual numbers cannot be discerned from the gobbely gook we are being fed by the mainstream media.  Why can’t they for once just tell us the truth, it’s just three little words, “You are screwed.”

Are you confused yet?  If you are it’s because you are supposed to be, as the so-called “expert economists” are throwing out truths, half truths, and out in out lies, so that when you finally turn your television off because nothing they are saying to you makes sense, you are left thinking, “well it’s just too complicated for anyone but an expert to understand”, and all you know is that you only feel more helpless than ever.

We are not helpless. We the 99ers have at our disposal an awesome weapon that we have yet to turn on our enemies.  It is the grey matter located between our ears.  Would you like to strike back at the one world corporate mafia scumbags?  Well let me show you how simple that can be.  When I became a 99er back in May of this year, I did not cease filing my weekly claim to the unemployment office and have not to date.  After about a month of getting a letter every week telling me my claim had expired, I finally got a letter telling me not to report any more.  I continued to report.  Then one week I discovered I had been blocked from reporting online, so I reported by phone.  Last month I received a call from the unemployment department.  The gentleman on the other end of the line stated that I no longer need to report as my benefits had expired.  I told him that I was still unemployed, still actively seeking work, and that as the reporting of said by the unemployed is how the unemployment percentage figure is arrived at.  I will continue to report as I have a right to be counted.  I’m still reporting every week and will continue to do so.

Now I wonder what would happen if every 99er keeps reporting.  What if every 99er whose claim was closed and cannot report starts calling the unemployment office and states that they are still unemployed, actively seeking employment, and demands to be counted in the unemployment figures. If the unemployment office refuses, start an online petition drive directed at the Department of Labor and force them to capitulate.  Let’s go a step further and use that grey matter a little more, what if every 99er reading this article takes an hour or two a day and goes to as many 99er sites and blogs as they can find and refer their fellow 99ers to this website and article so that they might join in.

Whoa, with the most menial of effort, expense, and determination a movement can be established.  Then how cool will it be to see the liars posing as our government have to admit and report that the true number of unemployed workers still desperately seeking work to be between 20 and 30%?  How long do you think it would take them to get up off their lying arses and pass a Tier 5 extension?   Or even better, to be a fly on the wall when the undeniable statistic is handed to President Obama sending him mumbling down the hall, “The elections are coming up, the elections are coming up.”  Do you think he would pause in signing the bill into law?

I hear all too frequently, somebody needs to do something.  Well, you are somebody, we all are somebody.  So let’s do something.  Let the apathy cease and let your grey matter go to work.

First Published 9-6-10

President Andrew Jackson was the first president of these United States to challenge the power structure of the international corporate mafia (international bankers) and did put an end to their control over our currency by ending the reign of the Second Bank of United States in 1833.  After which he survived an assassination attempt on January 30, 1835.  He died in 1845 and it is said that among his final words were, “I got the bankers.”

In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln enacted his monetary policy in an attempt to break the stranglehold that the international corporate mafia had regained over our monetary system since the death of President Jackson.  Shortly thereafter he was murdered via a bullet through his head.

On January 20, 1961 at his inaugural speech, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy put forth the assertion, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”.   I would be born approximately 5 months later.  President Kennedy was in my opinion the last true president who was of and for his people and his country.  He told us we had a great nation but asserted that we could do better and be even greater.  The American people rolled up their sleeves and went to work.   On June 4, 1963, President Kennedy stripped the Federal Reserve Bank of its power to loan money to the government at interest via Executive Order 11110.  Once again the U.S. Treasury was issuing U.S. money via its constitutional authority to do so.  Nearly $4.3 billion was issued.  Five months later, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy was murdered, shot through the head.   Though Executive Order 11110 was never rescinded and indeed stands in affect to this day the international corporate mafia, the Federal Reserve banksters went right back to business as usual after his death.  President Kennedy enacted the executive order to see to it that the people that he had called on to go above and beyond would enjoy the fruits of their labor rather than have them stolen by what he knew to be international criminals.

When I was twelve years old, I asked my mother for a motorcycle.  She told me that if I wanted a motorcycle I would have to get a job and earn the money to buy it.  I reminded her of all the work I did in helping take care of our property and helping my dad work on his many projects.  She replied, “Your dad supports you that is why you are bound to your chores.  Now if you want a motorcycle, you will get a job and earn the money to buy it.”  She further stated, “You had better realize the world does not owe you a living.”  I found a job and it was hard work, helping on old man who had moved into the area build a pump house and put in an orchard.  I earned the money, bought the motorcycle, and words cannot describe the pride I felt in doing so.

I find myself now an unemployed member of a group known as the 99ers and when I hear any person in any venue trying to assert that the 99ers just want more benefits so they can kick back and enjoy life like they were on vacation I am enraged to my soul.  I mean it’s not like we just decided to quit working one day.  I doubt there is one 99er who did not work every hour that he or she could up until they were pushed out the door.  It is unbelievably arrogant and stupid for any person to contend that any worker who was making a living wage would willingly be thrust into a situation where the unemployment benefits they receive won’t even cover their bills and basic necessities.  The fact is we are desperate to work in order to allow us to keep some of what we have not lost already and maybe gain a little back.

However this is being made impossible by the very same international corporate mafia banksters who spent billions of dollars to create NAFTA, CAFTA, and GATT, ship our jobs overseas, and destroy our industrial base while they were purposefully creating a financial disaster through their derivative Ponzi schemes.  They created a crisis, blamed it on the American people, and then ordered the politicians they own to borrow $28 trillion from them to give to them. Now we the people have to pay those moneys back to them with interest, and as for the people seeking the Tier 5 unemployment extension, let them eat dirt.

People be advised, the creature that President Jackson, President Lincoln, and President Kennedy sought to destroy is become a diabolical monster of unimaginable proportions and we are left to deal with it.  We will, because we have to, we have no choice.  Do not fear them.  Whether you know it or not, they are the ones who are scared.  They have overextended themselves in their actions and the American people are not responding as they had expected.  We have not rioted in the cities and given them an excuse to institute martial law, activate NORCOM, and attempt to confiscate our weapons.  In fact instead of losing our cool they see in us a quiet calm, hate in our eyes, and determination on our faces.  They know we outnumber them a thousand to one.  There are 300 million of us and enough guns and ammunitions to arm every man, woman, and child.  We, the American people, are the largest army to ever exist on this planet.   All the other armies in all the other countries of the world pale in comparison and when the fight comes, our army and our law enforcement will stand with us.  We are as an unbelievably huge herd of cattle at the edge of town, in an eerie state of calm, wherein the smallest incident, like the snap of a twig, is going to cause a stampede like nothing this world has ever seen.   They know this.  They know they are going to be utterly destroyed.  That is why the propaganda you see in the mainstream media is changing so radically from day to day.  They are desperate to stop what they have put into motion, but their cause is hopeless.  So prepare yourselves and don’t dread it because once it is done we will rebuild our country in that image President Kennedy dreamed of and the international corporate mafia banksters will learn once and for all that the words my mother spoke those many years ago also apply to them.  The world does not owe you a living.