And the Stupid goes on

Not only do the workers in the VW plant in Tennessee vote down the union, they are now angry at union officials for calling out the politicians and their lies.  Never mind the fact that VW has said that if any new plants are built in the US, they won't be built in the South.  Never mind the fact that this VW plant is the only one in the world that has no employee representation.  They will listen to their politicians and buy their lies and cut off their noses to spite their faces.  The mayor says that they are in negotiations with VW to insure the continuance of VW in Tennessee.  What he is really saying is that he is trying to convince VW that the workers were right and they should remain in Tennessee and continue to build cars there.  He can't coerce VW.  The politicians have no hold over the car company.  If VW chooses to vacate the US, they will do so and it will be directly the fault of the politicians.  And the ensuing unemployment will also be the direct fault of the politicians.  Tennessee just shot themselves.  Time will tell if they have killed themselves or not.  My guess, with VW, they have.  Maybe they can get Ikea to locate there.  They are looking for slave labor.  Tennessee citizens seem to like being the new slaves.

Arizona's bigotry-Following on the heels of Texas

A federal judge struck down Texas's anti-gay law.  And well he should.  Either we have freedom for all or freedom for none.  And Jan Brewer showed some common sense when she vetoed the law making it legal for businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians.  This is religious bigotry any way you cut it and our Constitution guarantees freedom to all not just a select few as the religious zealots would have you believe.  We have our own version of the taliban and they also cloak themselves in religion.  They cherry pick the Bible to get what they want out of it.  Then throw it at the rest of us and try to force us to swallow it.  Not this Southerner.  I was raised with this kind of bigotry.  The good women in the church whisper and talk about the young girls.  Unless a young girls is  in the chosen group, then anything she does is considered by the religious nuts to be slutty.  If she smiles at a boy, then she is a slut.  They chose the ones they want to bully and jump on that with gusto.  And because they believe in their religion then they should be able to force it onto any and all.  Why?  Because they are God's chosen ones.  I call bs.  Not a one of them really respects God nor do they have faith that he can do his job.  To them, they have a right to treat whomever they want like dirt because they are religious.  I would like to see the hand of God come from the clouds and zap them.  Everyone has a right to believe in a God or not.  I do.  I do not believe in religion because religion is just an excuse to promote hate and bigotry. If they were truly God's children, they would be practicing tolerance and acceptance.  They don't have a clue what tolerance and acceptance is.

Politicians

My son made a very valid point today.  His take is that political parties should be illegal.  Anyone who runs should have to present his resume and we should elect on merits.  That is the ideal way to do things, but unfortunately it does not work that way.  Seems the fundies will suck up to anyone.  Our good Greg Abbot is using Ted Nugent in his campaign.  This freakizoid has admitted to molesting underage girls and Abbot says well he is not concerned with Nugent's background because he knows he if for the Constitution 100%.  Really?  He would suck up to a pervert just because he spouts the tea turd mantra.  We have some sick people running for office and the really scary part is that they may be elected.  Texas is already in the toilet and this bunch of tea turds is just waiting to flush that toilet.  Scary times.

Mexican plant

Mexico is locating a steel plant here in my community with a lot of taxpayer funded incentives.  In exchange, they are supposed to be hiring only Americans and provide over 300 good jobs with starting salary at $15/17 per hour.  Why would Mexico locate a plant in Texas, pay employees that kind of salary when they could get workers for a fraction of that in Mexico?  What will happen is that they will take the tax incentives, build the plant and bring in their own people.  And we, the taxpayer, will be stuck with the bill.  It has happened before here.  Decision ONe was supposed to bring in over 200 good jobs.  They never produced near that number and only paid $8/hr with crappy benefits.  When their tax incentives ran out so did Decision One.  Infact, Decision One disappeared overnight.  Then came West Communications.  Same tax incentives, same crappy pay.  Very few jobs.  When the city finally had enough and yanked their tax incentives, they closed up shop and left.  It will be the same with the Mexican plant.

American's stupidity about unions

The employees at the VW plant in Tennessee voted against the union.  They, like everyone else in the South, have bought into all the anti-union hype that the politicians and businesses have pumped into them.  I am from the South.  However, I had a very progressive father.  When I went to work for the Postal Service years ago, the first thing he said about the job was, "They have a union.  Make sure you join it." I did.  And I stayed a union member until I retired.  My union dues, and this is what most quote as not joining a union, were around $28/month.  Money well spent.  People have died to further the unions.  Everyone needs to research the Blair Mountain Massacre in West Virginia.  And that is not the only one.  Those men were murdered for trying to form a union.  The sheriff who tried to protect them was charged with treason and murdered.  How was it treason for doing his job?  And how could they send in the army to disarm the miners?  They did.

Fast forward to present time.  By voting down the union at the VW plant in Tennessee, these people have screwed themselves and every other southerner that has to work for a paycheck.  VW has a union that gives employees voice in the decisions of the company.  Every other VW plant in the world is unionized except Tennessee.  VW has stated that if another plant is located in the US, it will probably not be in the South.
Ikea.  Wonderful Swedish company.  Pays it's employees well.  Ikea located a plant in Danville, Virgiinia in about 2008.  They offered the employees a starting package of $9.75/hr with 12 paid days off, 8 of those days at the choice of management.  Sounds pretty good, right?  Until you look at what the employees get in Sweden.  Those employees are paid $19/hr with 5 weeks paid time off.  After the Virginia plant posted a huge profit in 2009, the home office rewarded the employees by dropping the starting salary to $8/hr and mandatory overtime.  Time off unless approved by management  was not allowed, ie, no family emergencies.  The machinist complained loud enough that they got the attention of the Swedish newsmedia.  The Swedish newsmedia sent reporters to Virginia to confirm these reports.  They were denied entry to the plant at first, then they were allowed to tour the plant but not allowed to talk to any of the employees.  The American media was not allowed in.  This got the attention of the international community and they were eventually allowed to form a union.  We have become Europe's Mexico.  We are a third world county and we are in that position with the full faith and cooperation of the stupid employees who swallow what they are told by the politician and business hook, line, and sinker.  Senator Bob Coker even threatened that if they unionized the VW plant in Tennessee then VW would be building no new products in that plant.  Even though VW denied this claim, the employees believed them.  Also, the city, county and state officials threatened that if they voted for the union then VW would lose incentives to have the plant there.  What in hell has happened to the Southerners that if you  tried to force them to do something, they dug in their heels and did just what the politicians were trying to keep them from doing. Oh, and Ikea was given $12million in TAXPAYER incentives, not business paid incentives, but taxpayer funded incentives.  Then those politicians and businessmen screwed the taxpayers.  We don't have a hope in hell if we don't wake up to what our politicians and businessmen are doing to us, the taxpayer.  And that will not happen.

Department of the Interior

To me, this federal agency has done more to hurt ordinary Americans than the IRS ever thought  of.  The DOI is responsible for the Department of Indian Affairs.  What have they done to protect those they are in charge of?  Nothing.  They have allowed companies to steal the reservations blind.  They have been responsible for taking land from people that has been in those families for generations.  Now they are at it again and doing it in secrecy.  They are on a roll to take all the water and land that is on the watershed of the White River in Arkansas and Missouri.  This is wrong.  They have not even notified the states involved.  This is just being done just the way they screwed the Indians.  The President needs to put a lid on the woman in charge of this agency.  Sally Jewell.  When this was done before in the 1960's, public hearings were held.  We still lost the land, but we had a say in how it was going to be used and it became a National Wilderness area.  We were supposed to have continued access to this river.  Not.  There is very limited access  so they changed the rules after the game closed.  The area where this is happening is rural.  This should not be allowed to play out.

I have stayed off

I have stayed off here because it makes my blood boil when I get concerned about politics.  If a politician is trying to do the right thing and protect the country, then he is screwed by his own party.  Mitch McConnell, whom I do not like, voted to raise the debt ceiling.  He stated that his job is to protect the country and that is what every senator and representative is in Washington to do.  However, I have watched it become a pissing match between fringe factions over the last 40 years.  It started with Nixon and has just gotten worse.  Do I approve of everything Obama has done? Oh, hell no.  But at least we have not been pushed into two wars without appropriating the funds to pay for them.  But he has not done a lot of things that are on my agenda as a voter either.  He has not deported all illegals.  He has not broken up the big banks.  He has not passed legislation to change the wording of the 14th amendment.  There is no rationale that allows a child to be an automatic citizen just because he or she is born in the United States.  They should take the nationality of their parents.  If the parents are legal aliens, then the parents should be allowed to choose the nationality of their child.  Illegals or citizens of other countries just flying in to have their kid should not be granted automatic citizenship.  And definitely those here illegally should have no form of citizenship given to them.  They are criminals.  I have heard the argument that they just want a better life.  Well, so do I, but if I rob a bank to get that better life, then I will go to prison.  To me, it is a greater crime to steal from the taxpayers than robbing a bank.  Many more are hurt financially when a an illegal steals from the taxpayer than would be financially hurt if I robbed a bank.  So, no, I do not advocate making ANY illegals citizens.  Nor do I see where it is right for someone to become a citizen then be allowed to bring in all their family.  Just not right.  And do not even get me started on business visas.

Girl Scouts

I bought Girl Scout cookies yesterday.  Don't even like them, but it really irritated me when I read the article about two fundies in Waco because "the Girl Scouts were promoting abortion."  Went to their website and could find nothing that would have given anyone this idea.  Seems they are boycotting because the Girl Scouts thought that Hillary Clinton and Wendy Davis were acomplished women.  I would never have believed that these nuts would get hold of our politics, but they have.  If we don't wake up and stop it, we may see them trample our Constitution. Scary thought.

Reduction in Force in the Military

The Air Force is doing a RIF in it's ranks.  Guess who is being mustered out?  Well, they are starting at the top.  Those who are close to retirement are the ones being targeted.  16 years in with three tours in Iraq and now being forced out with only 4 years to retirement.  And again, the country thanks the troops by kicking them in the ass after they have given most of their working lives.  Disgusting.

Ted Cruz

Notice that Ted Cruz has been really quite since his stupidity with shutting down the government.  When asked about it, he tried to rewrite history.  He voted to keep the government open.  It was the Democrats that shut down the government.  He is hoping that we will forget about the mess he helped create because believes that the White House is his because he is the chosen one.  I think we need to ship him and Daddy Cruz off to Cuba.  Daddy Cruz loved Castro so much, he was a domestic terrorist for him.  Daddy Cruz still believes in his Communist roots and now cloaks it in dominonism.  Watch the video clips of Daddy Cruz on YouTube.  It will scare the beJesus out of you.  What he is advocating is total destruction of our democracy.  He is promoting a theocracy cloaking Communism.  

Girls Scouts promote abortion?

This is a good one.  Two girls in Texas have called for a boycott on girl scout cookies because "the girl scouts promote abortion."  Huh?  Their reasoning is that they have been associated with Hillary Clinton and Wendy Davis.  And they have held discussion groups on contraceptives and they promote contraceptives.  Stupid has really gotten a good grip on Texas.  Makes me ashamed to be from Texas.  There are reasonable, intelligent people here, but the stupids have overshadowed them.  The religious right are no different than the Taliban.  They are intent on forcing their beliefs down the throats of every US citizen.  Their way or the highway.  They are scary.  And they seem to be multiplying like mice.  Would bet that those two sisters pushing this agenda against the girl scouts are banging every male they can find.  I grew up among these people.  They are mean.  They gossip, hurtful gossip about young people.  If they can do damage to the psyche of a young girl that they have targeted, they will do so and tell themselves it is for her own good.  That they are doing God's work.  Luckily I had a father that told me to tell them to kiss my ass.  To be in this crowd, you have to be a doormat to girls like this.  And the adults are no better.  Yep.  American Taliban.  And they would be killing people who disagree with them if they could just get away with it.  America had better wake up.  These people are dangerous.