Scott Walker is out:Damn
Continuing in my glorious tradition of my preferred Presidential hopeful since 2008 (Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain/Sarah Palin) and 2012(Herman Cain, Michelle Bachman,Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Gary Johnson, Mitt Romney) , Walker's candidacy has come to a crashing halt
It is an odd shift for the most likely Presidential hopefuls from competent governors to glib charismatic senators. From Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and GW Bush to Barack Obama. The latter being the only Senator since JFK to attain the White House. Last month saw the fledgling campaigns of not one two highly effective and resilient governer's come to a screeching halt. Rick Perry of Texas as well my preferred union buster Scott Walker. Scott Walker , perhaps a tad too Midwestern nice for the rest of the country also made various errors in judgement when it came to campaign finances.
While Rick Perry never really recovered from his bizarre run in 2012 where he couldn't name more than 2 federal agencies which he wished to eliminate despite prodding from his rival Dr. Ron Paul( a crank anti semite , therefore a favorite of our captain). Not to mention another odd performance when he was high on pain killers after back surgery. No matter he might as well be have ingested an 8 ball for all the good it did him.
If we have to go with yet another Harvard Law minority born of foreign fathers, I would go with Sen. Ted Cruz. The polar opposite of Obama in his adherence to the Constitution.
Viva La Cruz ..or knowing my endorsement history, maybe I should just shut up.
Frank Bruni takes Walker to task on his ignorance:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/opinion/frank-bruni-scott-walkers-cocktail-of-ignorance.html?_r=0
Apparently he wished his Jewish congruent 'molotov' instead of the more traditional mazel tov.
Is that the best they got? ROTFL. Talk about lame hit pieces. Frank Bruni and his vehicle NYT have been wrong and got caught with spiced up stories so many times not to mention their overt liberal bias, I really dont give a crap what they think
DeleteWell that is a sampling of Mr Walker's ignorance of so many things you would have to know if you want to become the POTUS don't you think? And in this case I don't think Bruni was exaggerating or spicing things up at all. Walker really did write that letter, among other gaffes mentioned in this article.
DeleteAre you serious, did you even read that article. This is how he starts off "? I feel certain that he was mere weeks away from a big speech advocating the deployment of ground troops to stamp out collective bargaining among the Sherpas in Nepal."
DeleteWhat an astute analysis?! Anyway I find it interesting that the NYT hate union busters like Scott Walker when dont allow unions within their own organization.
He gives no specifics besides the snarky molotov remark. He sounds more he mis spoke than anything else.
As for sealing the northern border, look it is really simple. It is just a throw away comment to deflect the social justice warriors who squeal racism at the notion that only the southern border needs fencing.
Obama was supposed to be highly intelligent and well informed( I doubt this but let us assume for a second).. how did that work out? Leadership is not winning a jeapordy championship but having good judgement, resolve and thinking on your feet. Pencil necked geeks are constantly frustrated that one of their own ends up screwing up entire countries and economies and then come up with all sorts of nonsensical explanations that the "country is not ready for their brilliance" or some such howlers Scott Walker proved his leadership chops in Wisconsin when he battled the powerful unions and prevailed and revived the economy. Limp wristed time server Obama didnt for whom Bruni was ecstatic over, didnt do anything remotely close when he was senator.
I notice that Bruni is trying the usual liberal dirty tricks of pushing a squishy moderate like John Kasich as the Republican nominee. We have seen this story play out before. I know he is not a fan of Hilary but when push comes to shove he will promote that ultra corrupt and shameless gerontocrat just because she has a D behind her name.
Forgot to mention that in the aftermath of a failed campaign, all the paid consultants come out with "I told you" so type justifications which Liz Mair has done. It is best taken with a pinch of salt
DeleteI agree that trade unions often end up becoming a menace, especially when they get into bed with politicians who are often liberal. I would like to know your opinion on whether unions need to be abolished totally. If yes, then what would protect the wage earners? What sort of incentive would a business owner have to provide his workers with a decent wage, especially during an economic recession ?
Delete@unions The problem is that topics both sides (pro union and pro corporate management) obfuscate the issue by imposing simplistic solutions that benefit their chosen party which in turn is based on a simplistic mythologizing of their histories.
ReplyDeleteThe unions believe that it is they who brought a proper wage and a 40 hour work week along with paid leave.There is some merit to this argument but their contribution is vastly exagerrated, new technologies played perhaps a greater role in the reduction of the work load.
Libertarian pro corporatists believe that many CEOs were responsible for the favorable condition of the worker due to them following the market and/or the goodness of their hearts. The market view has some substance but the good natured corporatist is for the most part a chimera.
Scott Walker and Chris Christie didnt squash unions as such but reduced their power by standing firm on the underlying mathematics of a public sector worker getting 80% of his annual salary as pension after retirement at age 55. This is simply non sustainable. And the unions behaved in a rather petulant manner when this was pointed out to them.
The best situation is where you have an effective management tempered by unions who have reasonable demands. As I see now, there doesnt seem to be any intermediaries between these two parties.Unlike most libertarians I dont hate unions. Unions came about due to genuine mistreatment and exploitation of workers in certain sectors , mostly dangerous blue collar work such as mining and construction. But it quickly got out of hand , drunk with their own power and embarked on exploitation and criminality of their own(their association with the mafia) fuelled by anti corporate populism in which atheist socialists and Catholic priests found a common cause as Irish,Italian, Hispanic and other Catholic communities were disproportionately represented among the working classes.
This is the reason why to this very day despite the Democrats pro abortion position and tolerance of gays etc , Catholics still vote for Democrats as most Catholics in U.S are cafeteria and cultural Catholics who vote for their wallet rather than their faith. That is their business of course.
But the Democrat coalition is a very odd one which is pro immigration(even illegal immigration) and pro union. These two logically dont go hand in hand. Indeed unions were at the forefront of anti immigrant sentiment at one point to the level of organizing racist attacks.
The best way IMO to ensure that workers get a good income is to
1) Restrict supply of labor ie immigration and ensure cheap land which is the Jeffersonian approach as typified by Joe Biden/Sarah Palin/Ronald Reagan as opposed to expensive land and cheap labor which is Hamiltonian of which George Bush I/II/ Bill Clinton/John McCain and Barack Obama are the most famous proponents.As you can see these ideologies often cross party lines.
2)Stop tinkering with the Fed interest rates which gives rise to inflation and depreciation of currency
3) Reduce capital gains taxes to encourage more investment and new industries
4) In order to 3) to happen there needs to be a creative destruction of the unions as they are set up now. There are many barriers to creation of new jobs because the unions pretty much dictate how much their members can make. And they are often very unreasonable which is why companies prefer to move to right to work states which are not dominated by unions.
The problem is you have former union lawyer like Obama who has numerous private meetings with Andy Stern, the head of SEIU(the largest union confederation in U.S) as per White House records. But then again he plans to legalize millions of low wage Mexican and Central Americans and perhaps then some more. I am not quite sure what is his world view.
Thank you for your detailed analysis. Legalizing millions of Mexican/Central American illegal immigrants is a forgone conclusion because kicking them out of US would need military intervention while maintaining their illegal status is favouring criminality. Of course further illegal immigration needs to be stopped ASAP.
DeleteI don't have a problem with cafeteria Catholicism since strict Catholicism is woefully out of touch with the modern world, which resulted in the child sex abuse scandal (requiring clergy to be celibate). There was a lot of hope that the current pope would fix this but he is just intent on improving the church's PR with his publicity stunts.
Atheists' support for unions may stem from them being pencil-necked geeks with no experience in leadership or people management as you had pointed out.