The Warrior of the Week is Doc Thompson. I could have made him that for any week prior to this week, because his work is exhaustive. For those of you that don’t know him, he’s the radio personality at 700 WLW from 9 to noon. He also still does his radio show in Richmond Virginia on 1140 WRVA from 3 to 6 PM. That’s two 3 hour radio programs which requires at least 6 to 7 hours of show prep each, reading newspapers, interviewing people, watching the news and taking notes and running things together with the program director, so just those two shows are big deals by themselves. But Doc doesn’t stop there.
During last week Doc had on a protestor from the University of Cincinnati to speak against S.B.5. He was a student at the school who organized a rally against S.B.5 prior to the vote. The reason it is a significant interview is that Doc was very kind and fair to the young man, but after asking a number of tough questions, the protestor revealed on the air around the 16:30 minute mark that he was a socialist.
Doc could have taken the easy road, and just asked surface questions like the TV News would do, or newspaper interviews. But Doc let Ohio hear the truth behind the mobs from the lips of an organizer.
It is a pleasure to have Doc Thompson in Cincinnati. He is just getting started in this market, and if this is just a preview of what’s to come, I shudder to consider the implications of future influence as he continues to bring truth, justice and the American way to 700 WLW.
Q: What is the difference between a lockout and a strike? A: The owners lock out the players. The players go on strike. The players went on strike in 1982 and 1987. Q: What are the primary issues behind a lockout? A: The NFL generates approximately $9 billion a year. The owners take $1 billion off the top for expenses. The players get 59.6 percent of the remaining revenue. The owners believe that’s too much. The owners want to take another $1 billion off the top. The owners also want an 18-game schedule and a rookie wage scale that would cap salaries for draft choices. No top pick would be guaranteed $50 million, as St. Louis quarterback Sam Bradford was last year. Q: What happens when the lockout begins? A: There can be no contact between players and their teams. They’re not supposed to communicate. No players will be signed, including rookies, and no trades can be made. Q: What about players who are undergoing treatment for injuries? A: Players are on their own, but teams were able to set up a place for players to undergo rehabilitation. Q: What about players working out, lifting weights and doing what would have been organized team activities? A: Players are on their own as far as finding a place to lift and work out. Eventually, they’ll practice on their own. When the lock-out ends, those in the best shape should start faster. Q: How long is the lockout likely to last and could we miss games? A: The NFL lost seven games in 1982 and four in 1987 because of player strikes. This time, both sides would lose a lot of money. Some owners are determined to get back a large portion of revenue that goes to players. The players will have to give something back. Q: Will there be a draft in April? A: Yes. Players aren’t union members until they sign and pay dues. Q: Can drafted players sign? A: No. Q: Can other players sign? A: No. Q: When do players start losing money? A: Those with roster bonuses in March won’t be paid. That’s more than $200 million. Players draw game checks over 17 weeks, starting when the regular season begins in September. Q: Won’t the 500 players who’d be free agents and those who would have gotten the $200 million in roster bonuses force the union to make a deal? A: They might try to, but they’ve been warned for two years to save their money. The union will do a deal when it believes it has the best one possible. Q: What about the ruling this week that the owners can’t spend the television network money they’re getting? A: A special master ruled in favor of the owners. The players filed an appeal. Federal Judge David Doty ruled in favor of the players, saying the owners can’t spend the money. For instance, owners need money to make payments on their stadiums, practice facilities, etc. They’ll have to find other revenue. The owners will appeal Doty’s ruling, which could take months. Q: Will it help for the union to decertify? A: Every team gave the union the right to decertify. Unions can’t sue their bosses. If there’s no union, the players can sue the owners and hope they win in court. That’s a risky business for both sides. If players decertify, they can always reform as a union. Q: Is there any individual in the NFL who has the power and respect to influence both sides and help get a deal done? A: In 1982 and 1987, Pittsburgh owner Dan Rooney played an instrumental role in helping settle the player strikes. But he’s older, and he’s the ambassador to Ireland and may not have another fight in him. Rooney said during the playoffs he was against the 18-game schedule because the players don’t want it, and he’d rather make less money than force it down the players’ throats. No wonder the players respect him so much. As it stands now, commissioner Roger Goodell is the most likely candidate because he’s respected by both sides.
My advice to the players is to take what the owners offer and get on the practice field and start playing football, because the fans want their football. Give it to them!
Where many people have arrived at in their view of public education is that they believe that the money they are spending currently is a waste of money. The kids don’t seem to be learning anything significant, and the costs just keep increasing. Many people like me want to see some new options. I’m not shy about it. I don’t like the results of public education. I’m happy to pay my fair share for the sake of the rest of the community, but I make a living saving companies money, so it is impossible for me not to sniff out extreme waste when it is so very obvious. And the only reason I get involved is because these wasteful public education organizations are asking me for money, money that comes from my property value, which to me is the same as attempting to rob me while at the same time telling me it’s for my own good.
Skipping school can land students, parents in court
Kids learn hard way, with truancy comes consequences
By Eric Schwartzberg, Staff Writer Updated 10:36 AM Friday, March 4, 2011
WARREN COUNTY — A growing number of students in Warren County are making up time missed in the classroom with time spent in the courtroom. Truancy rates in the county continue to climb as school districts become more vigilant about reporting unexcused absences. Last school year, more than 5,254 individuals were part of the Warren County Truancy Intervention Program, up from 5,215 in 2008-09 and 5,099 in 2007-08. Bethany Cole, 16, of Lebanon, started skipping assigned online lessons in 2007. “I got on virtual (school) in seventh grade and took it for a free-for-all,” she said. “The work was hard and I just didn’t want to do it. I wanted to play with my friends and have fun.”
Translation is this, if you are a working parent and you think your kid can take online courses to get through school, you as a parent may find yourself in trouble with your country Truancy Intervention division, and may have to go to court. It’s a fear tactic to keep people from considering reforms. In the article, it is implied that young Bethany Cole needs a teacher to keep her in line. That’s the intent of the article.
I read the paper every week, and I haven’t seen much on this topic until S.B.5 passed the senate this past week. I know that one of the reforms that will benefit from S.B.5 is coming from State Rep Bill Coley’s online class bill passed during 2010, moving away from brick and mortar class rooms.
Those reforms will happen; it’s already in the works and is signed into law. This reform happened under Governor Strickland. The unions know it, so they will attempt to plant fears in parents from attempting any school reform. So there will be many more fear tactics attempted by the union to attempt futilely in keeping the world as it’s always been for those unions, but to no avail. The old games will not work any more.
Now there will be those that will accuse me of reading too much into the timing of the above article by Eric. All I’ll say to you is that you are naive and don’t understand the process if you think the timing of that article is not intentional. Such games are no longer going to occur with impunity. I’m not the only one looking at things like this now. School district budgets are going to have to change and adapt because competitive options are going to be implemented in education.
All districts should demand that the unions come to the table and reduce their wages proportionally taking a pay cut to bring their costs to the budget revenue supplied by the community. At Lakota I proposed a 30% cut that would instantly generate 27 million dollars. No further levy would be required, and no lay-off of teachers. All courses could still be offered as they always have. The only thing that would change is teachers would be paid less, something more in line with everyone else in the community. They are paid right now 62K per year. A 30% across the board reduction would make the average 43K per year. The median income in West Chester, which is within the Lakota School District, is $97,971. If you don’t know what median means, median income is the amount which divides the income distribution into two equal groups, half having income above that amount, and half having income below that amount. Mean income (average) is the amount obtained by dividing the total aggregate income of a group by the number of units in that group. The means and medians for households and families are based on all households and families. Means and medians for people are based on people 15 years old and over with income. In short for the purpose of statistics in this case it is a husband and a wife working making $48,985.50 each. In Liberty Twp, which is the other Twp in the Lakota District the median income is $88,105 which divided by two is $44,052.50 per working resident. Many of the people working in the Lakota School District have college degrees and advanced degrees. Such measures do not guarantee automatic pay increases of 70K to 90K per year as the teaching profession believes. School boards, asking teachers to live within the wages of the community are not unreasonable and needs to be implemented immediately. I hate to use teachers in this example, but they do make up a majority of the labor costs. Administrators, many of which are well over the 80K wage range must be looked at for their usefulness. Do they contribute directly to the education of children or are they just cruising through the system? School boards are well aware of who adds value and who doesn’t, and needs to act on that information to bring costs in line. There will of course be employees that will threaten to leave if they are asked to take a pay cut. Well, let them go, because where they are going will have to do the same, and if they are dumb enough to leave a good school district for another just because of money, then they aren’t worth the money to begin with because they are not in the profession for all the right reasons.
Don’t believe me, I wrote it down here for all to see forever, so prove me wrong in the future? At Lakota in 2003 the average wage at Lakota was 48K per year. In 2011 it is as we said 62K. There was one levy approval and two strike threats for more money and benefits over an eight year period and the average wages went up by 14K per year.
And when that day comes, don’t say you weren’t warned and that people didn’t stand up and attempt to save it, because we did. And the unions stood in the way and caused their own demise, because they were too stupid and arrogant to see that they desperately need the operation.
The Tea Party has brought an element to the political landscape that is difficult for the establishment to understand. Greta Van Susteren of Fox News recently attempted to get her mind around the Tea Party ideal and interviewed several people who tried to understand how a movement as large as the Tea Party is, can function without a leader. The left, who can’t function without a leader, is perplexed as they reach for icons like Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. It’s not about them. If they were removed from the discussion there are hundreds of capable people waiting patiently if needed. The real heart behind the movement cannot be seen in such terms.
But there are other viruses and diseases that cannot be easily overcome by our immune system. Viruses like AIDS actually disguise themselves as healthy cells in the body till they are strong enough to attempt to take over the healthy cells in a body.
Cancer is the same kind of subversive disease that hides quietly in the body till it sees an opportunity to strike, and take over the surrounding tissue. We count on our White Blood Cells to identify a disease and to kill it, before it has an opportunity to take over and kill our body’s tissue.
Watch this video of a white blood cell chasing bacteria. Notice that the white blood Cell does not take time to watch TV, or eat at McDonalds. Such concerns are completely irrelevant to the life of a white blood cell. Yet, study the conscious movement of the cell, it is aware of the threat to the body and it is taking action to protect that body.
The United States of America, if looked at like a human body is plagued with many cancer cells attempting to destroy the tissue of the American body. To the cancer cell, this process is not a bad thing. The cancer cell just wants to live like any other cell. The quest for life is what all life shares. But the white blood cell is dedicated to protecting the body from such intrusions so a conflict is expected; we often refer to our immune systems as “fighting off a disease.” We expect it as a natural occurrence. But the cancers that we have in the American body have penetrated our education institutions, so they train the new cells of our body to duplicate the cancer cells. They have penetrated our political system, so as to infect all the cells there to become corrupt and distorted. They have penetrated our families, so the production of strong white blood cells cannot occur so there is no defense in the body to resist them.
Some white blood cells are aware of the cancer cells, and are attacking them directly now. And that is what you might call the Tea Party. The white blood cell is void of attention, concern for power, and greed. That is unless it has been corrupted by a cancer cell or other disease. We know many politicians on Capital Hill that have been corrupted in this way by the disease of “lobby influence.”
But most of the Tea Party people are as pure to a white blood cell in our society as we have to offer. They are selfless defenders of the body called America. They don’t expect financial compensation, powerful positions, or disproportionate amounts of wealth. They are unified by a common cause, and that is the preservation of the body America.
For that reason, the white blood cells called “The Tea Party” do not need a leader to tell them where to go or what to do. All they need to know is what the cancer cells look like, and to attack them the way America expects them to in order to restore the body to health.
The white blood cell is often out-numbered and must take on larger, much scarier cancer cells and bacteria, such as was seen in the video. They will often be outnumbered. But the white blood cell more often than not prevails and life continues for the healthy body. The body can only be measured by its health depending on the strength of its immune system, or otherwise, based on its ability of white blood cells to destroy attackers. This is important because a body is always under attack from foreign invaders.
In America, diseases that the white blood cells called The Tea Party are on the lookout for are socialism, which consumes healthy growth of the body’s tissue by cutting off the flow of blood in the body. Blood to America is its corporations. Other diseases are trickster cells that attempt to weaken the resolve of the white blood cell by disguising itself, such as AIDS. In America such comparisons are in the body’s lack of ability to embrace religion, social norms, and healthy living habits. Such trickster cells will attempt to kill off the white blood cell population with unhealthy pointless endeavors so the resistance is not in place for disease growth. Greed is a specific kind of disease that might be found in the union movement where those cells expect larger amounts of substance to maintain their own existence, tricked by diseased cells into behavior that puts their own lives at risk by overconsumption. This behavior takes away the body’s ability to furnish its other white blood cells with proper nourishment which inhibits healthy growth.
The Tea Party is doing the job expected by the Constitution. The spending habits of government now must be looked at as a disease. And all elements that are attempting to crush our American body must be dealt with. There is no longer time to have the type of compassion that allows cancer cells to live next to healthy cells because we now know with clarity that the cancer cells will 100% of the time attempt to take over the healthy cell.
That leaves just one question. Where do you fit in? Are you a cancer cell, or a white blood cell?
I know what I am. And I know many Tea Party people who are pure white blood cells. The goal of this site is to identify cancer cells and attack them so that we can return to a healthy body, because there is so much cancer in this body we are trusted to protect, that we need to relearn what the diseases are, and what the healthy cells look like, so that the epic battle to overcome our sickness can be resolved and our America can return to health.
Where do you stand?
That also brings up the logical question many have leveled at me. Am I a white blood cell Tea Party guy?
The best writers write what they know about. I’ve been doing this kind of thing for a long time, and I am relieved to see that there is now help which I welcome with enthusiasm.
If there is anything we’ve learned from our first 200 year history in the United States it’s that having checks and balances of elected representatives are not quite enough in this American experiment. Waiting from election to election to act is not enough. What is needed in the body of America are those interested in fighting off disease as soon as they show themselves and keeping those elected representatives honest with diligence, so those political representatives don’t buckle under the temptation of disease to become corrupt and work against the body of our nation. Such a thing should never happen again once America’s immune system kicks in and restores our health once again so the real American dream can be experienced by our descendents.
What these manipulators don’t tell people is that the real strategy is something else all together.
It is an easy target to point to the rich and proclaim with anger that they should pay more so those at the bottom can have more. For this reason, socialism will always be an attractive option for a certain percentage of the population that has a tendency toward laziness.
___________________________ Tax the rich and corporations Ohio corporations get away with paying one of the lowest tax rates in the country, while the people of Ohio suffer because state and local budgets lack funds to pay for needed services. The budget crisis could easily be solved by taxing the rich and the corporations.
GE is one of the largest employers in Ohio. It would have had to pay at a 22 percent tax rate in 2009, but it can deduct massive profits that they make overseas. GE has $84 billion in overseas income held outside the United States. So, it paid no federal income taxes that year and may have gotten over $1 billion as a refund.
While the right wing is trying to use the budget crisis as the excuse to batter the people providing essential services, the truth is that the working people did not cause the crisis. The budget deficits come from actions by banks and the money spent on wars for Big Oil.
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The problem with the whole Robin Hood Theory, “take from the rich, give to the poor, is that it is misleading.
It’s not about fairness, as it’s disguised. It is all about attempting to capitalize on a natural jealousy that exists between those that have, and those that don’t in favor of an entirely new political idea rooted in socialism.
It is ironic that such people have the audacity to point at the conservative right and blame the rich for all the worlds’ troubles. It is the communist rich that manipulates what they perceive to be the weak, mindless followers of their message, and attack their capitalist rivals, the conservatives.
Yet anybody that understands economics knows that taxing the rich and giving to the poor will only destroy the economy. Because by nature, the rich are not motivated to continue innovating and providing business expertise if there isn’t the promise of gain.
It is unfortunate that many people fall as such easy targets from the greedy shape shifters of public opinion and find themselves soldiers of an invisible army, because the intentions of those shape shifters are easy to see for anybody willing to look.
Those of you that chant, “workers rights,” and “tax the rich,” are only pawns to a game you are not motivated to play, so you’ll find yourselves “played” time and time again to the detriment of American civilization.
The following comment is from a reader of the Cincinnati Enquirer responding to an interview I gave.
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10:12 PM on February 28, 2011 More kids in the district, less state funding and no levies to go along with it – that’s the problem. I have no issue with Lakota doing pay to play. I agree with that.
Rich Hoffman – how about you provide some realistic solutions instead of merely stating “it’s the teachers.” Aside from further cuts to staff, what would you like to see? What would be sufficient for you to agree to a levy increase? When all of the kids are hearded back into a one room schoolhouse and the heat came in the form of a fireplace?
You see the above problem…increase number of kids in the district, less funding from the state. So what’s your solution if the levy isn’t the answer? Simply saying cutting staff won’t solve the problem as state minimums will still be required.
I’ve spent thousands and thousands of words spelling it out solutions. What has to happen is the school board needs some real teeth, the teachers union needs to have less power than management, and real education reforms need to be put in place. When those things happen, budgets can be managed, kids can get a better education, and the reality of the situation can be seen clearly.
Bill Cunningham had one several guests that provided potent information that every voter in Ohio should hear.
Given this large amount of information, where is the same information against the S.B.5 bill? Where is the compelling case as to why collective bargaining should continue? These radio broadcasts show all sides of the story yet where has the other side explained why it’s fair that tax payers continue to pay large amounts of tax and have virtually no control over how budgets are controlled because of collective bargaining?
This is how the OEA responds to S.B.5. This is how their lobby works. Study the words carefully and consider what they mean. This is how the OEA has done business for years, and this is why we have the financial implosion that we all suffer from.
Subject: Lobby Day March 2nd and growing momentum with the Educator >>> Connector >>> Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:04:14 -0600 (CST) >>> From: OEA ACE’s Action Center govtsrv@ohea.org> >>> Reply-To: OEA ACE’s Action Center govtsrv@ohea.org> >>> Organization: Ohio Education Association >>> To: ha@blanchester.k12.oh.us >>> >>> >>> >>> Dear C******E, >>> >>> Keeping the pressure on our elected officials means reaching them every >>> day in different ways. If you haven’t called or emailed this week, >>> please do so today; if you have, please reach out to your colleagues, >>> friends and neighbors to ask them to join you in standing up for our >>> communities and against Senate Bill 5. >>> >>> *Our key, upcoming actions to oppose Senate Bill 5 and make your voice >>> heard are:* >>> >>> 1. *Call and email your State Senator, using our Educator Connector >>> line (888-907-7309)* and ACEs email tool >>> <http://aces.ohea.org/site/R?i=e-zDZS9AVuStasiITpzQVg..>. If >>> you’ve already called and emailed this week, please ask 3 of your >>> colleagues and friends to join you. In the past two days, we’ve >>> had 6 times the calls as any previous 48 hours, and we need to >>> keep that advocacy growing. This is the fastest and easiest way to >>> make your voice heard directly to your State Senator. Senators are >>> reporting that they’ve noticed a marked increase in calls from >>> educators, and we need to keep the pressure up. >>> 2. *Join us for our Educator Lobby Day on Wednesday, March 2^nd , >>> *where you get a chance to meet and talk with your State Senators >>> and Representatives.**This is not a coalition rally but rather an >>> OEA event where you will get to hear from our Governmental >>> Services staff beginning at 9:00 a.m. before heading over to the >>> Statehouse. Our Educator Lobby Days are a great way to talk with >>> your elected officials about a range of issues, including Senate >>> Bill 5. RSVP here to let us know you are coming >>> <http://aces.ohea.org/site/R?i=O49lH3QTUpTvKWns1dq_4Q..> and so >>> that we can be prepared to help you make the most of your Lobby >>> Day. >>> 3. *Community Coalition Rally Against SB5 on Tuesday, March 1^st . >>> *The Insurance, Commerce & Labor committee has not yet released >>> official word if there will be a hearing or vote on Senate Bill 5 >>> on Tuesday, but our labor and community coalition has scheduled a >>> rally. Once we receive the official schedule from the committee, >>> we will be sure to send you an updated Action Alert with more >>> details. All members are encouraged to attend Wednesday’s OEA >>> Educator Lobby Day regardless of what happens Tuesday. The Rally >>> will begin at 10:00 a.m. and the OEA building will be open at 8:30 >>> a.m. >>> >>> Please continue reaching out to your colleagues, as well as your friends >>> and neighbors in the community. Some enterprising OEA members are even >>> talking with the owners and employees of the small businesses they >>> frequent, telling them about how Senate Bill 5 would harm the community >>> and asking them to take action, too. The more people you raise this >>> issue with and move to take action, the larger our movement grows.
The interview was very insightful. Of course the young man was nervous, and Doc was very nice to him, helping along through the interview. But what was unique about the interview as Doc continued to ask questions that the student couldn’t answer, was the arguments of the student broke down and he revealed his true political thoughts.
The kid came straight out and announced that he was a socialist.
We already know the answer. Many of the professors that will be marching on the University of Cincinnati will in private call themselves socialists as well. And I think it’s time to have the conversation that a large part of the United States voting population are self described socialists, and many of them hide that title behind the Democratic Party, and they are typically employed in the public sector, because it suits their view of the world.
It is important to understand what people truly are because it will explain the rationality behind their voting patterns. Now professional pundits in the political landscape are very clever in hiding their socialist love. So getting them to admit to it is difficult because they know that most Americans are weary of the term. However, young students who are being taught socialism as a real option while their minds are fertile ground for planting such thoughts are not so slick in hiding their intentions. And when pressed, the kid came out and professed to the world what he was and what he wanted.
So when we see these marches that are against, “union busting,” many of the people marching lean in the direction of socialism. They may not understand that is what their ideology is because they have been taught and have never questioned their thoughts against reality. For instance, a teacher that comes straight out of college might think like this young man in the interview. And then they are employed in a school system where the culture is controlled by a powerful union that philosophize about the same thing the teacher learned in college and that teacher never has to bounce their ideals off the real world.
China has been able to make it work for a time because we’ve helped feed their economy. But think about the land mass and total resources of the Soviet Union and China compared to everyone else, and both those countries using socialism as their fundamental political philosophy. They have not been able to flourish as an economy without the help of the United States. What does that say?
It is detrimental and actually childish to continue to listen to advocates within the United States on economic matters who lean in a socialist direction. If they want to think with socialist leanings they are more than welcome. They can work whatever job they have and think what they want. But they are not allowed to wreck our economy over idealism.
Listen to more from David Horowitz says on this issue. This is taken from one of his seminars.
While doing all this she has fulfilled a leadership role within the Lebanon Tea Party, worked to advance “School Choice” as a viable option in Ohio, and maintained very close relationships with key politicians to advance legislation key to much-needed education reforms in Ohio.
For all those reasons and more, Sharon Poe is a “warrior” that if others did half of what she does in her commitment to justice, this world would be a free and wonderful place.
I’ve said it many times, I read a lot. A whole lot. And over 2010 one of the books that most jumped out at me was Glenn Beck’s The Overton Window. My daughter had bought it for me for Father’s Day and I read it in one day.
I hear people like Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO talk about the “RIGHT WING” and you hear what comes out of his mouth and you have to wonder about his sanity. As far as a union leader, and a person close to the White House, which he says he speaks to daily, I would be ashamed if that guy where my boss or leader. He clearly doesn’t understand basic economics and its people like him that create the message that millions of union workers chant.
Here is Trumka speaking in March of 2009. He has no idea how the bill he’s speaking about will “expand” the middle class, and he doesn’t have any idea how this will drive up the labor costs. He just makes statements that people seem to blindly following without question. Something he accuses Beck and other people primarily on the political right of doing.
America is supposed to be a group of individuals, not a unified collective sum like Trumka speaks about. The Federalist Papers, which went on to become The Constitution were written to protect American from people like Trumka, and Obama. Those people and people like them taken by themselves are not bad people, but they have a dangerous ideology and they disguise it with a message the masses can understand. So it is not a far stretch to say that when I saw Trumka speak on February 26, 2011 that the best way to create jobs was to raise taxes, which I know from economics is false, yet people chant and cheer in approval, and I witnessed the union protests all across the country, it reminded me of Jim Jones, of the Jonestown massacre from 1978. Jones had several thousand supporters that followed him from Indianapolis Indiana, to San Francisco, then to Guyana South America. Jones was an admirer of Marx, Lenin, and Mao. That’s why they chanted this song at their church rallies in the early 70’s.
Jim Jones is a tough story to swallow. Because it is the extreme example of what collectivism can inflict on people. Jones was a proud socialist. What you are about to hear is the actual death tape from the Jonestown Massacre. Jones turned on a tape recorder and gave a final speech while his thousands of followers drank poisoned drink to their deaths. He calls it “revolutionary suicide” to an inhuman world. You will actually hear people perishing in the background, so if you have a soft stomach, don’t listen to this. This behavior is far from a joke. If you listen you will hear several people step forward and speak about the greatness of Jim Jones, their “Daddy,” and of the merits of socialism and communism.
The following clip is from the film The Guyana Tragedy and is a reenactment of what you will hear below.
Here is the actual death tapes. Now consider as you listen to this, these people speaking are just moments from their death. They know it. Listen to their thoughts and what they intend.
So what is the lesson here? Well, madmen have a way of lying to themselves and distorting the reality of the world around them. And such people are attracted to socialism, communism, progressivism and all those collective “ism’s.” At that point it no longer becomes a simple argument about economics and the best way to handle economic issues. It evolves into a struggle between good and evil.
That’s where I start seeing startling comparisons from people in the modern labor movement. What they are saying are simply the words their leaders speak. Richard Trumka is a powerful union leader and in this recent case involving these labor protests, what he says in public, over a microphone, ends up coming out of the mouths of his followers.
Trumka, like many people attracted to those “collective ideologies” are prone to climb for power. History shows that it happens in every case. I don’t know of a single instance of a collective society that survives outside of a tribal village. The individuality inherit in the human being seems to break down true collectivism, and social experiments to water this tendency down in our youth have failed with terrible results. This is the reason the Tea Party has risen as a permanent movement, because many people are just tired of the “social experiments.” Many want to return to the original blue print that paved the way for the greatest nation on earth.
Whether or not he is aware of it or not, Trumka’s actions show that he is power-hungry and idealistic, and is essentially no different from someone like Jim Jones. It is quite possible that if that congressman from California had not went to Jonestown and been killed, Jim Jones and his followers would have lived for years without a mass suicide. But the scary thing about it is that Jones had to retreat to South America to have his utopian society. And the congressman was doing in that society much of what the Tea Party is trying to do in American Society. They are intervening and attempting to break up the dangerous collectivism that is consuming the nation.
Progressives are insistent in the modern age to not leave the country for their utopian society. They instead are intent to change the country itself. Here Trumka reveals what he is all about, which concerns me a great deal. It concerns me because watching his followers on Saturday; they seem to think he truly believes in this whole “middle class” protection. Yet he states otherwise.
Watch and listen to these clips from the Saturday Protests. And compare the behavior to what you heard from Jim Jones’s Congregation.
This brings me back to the Overton window concept introduced in Beck’s book. People can say what they want about Glenn Beck, but from what I know about the guy, he genuinely wants to get at the truth. His agenda is the truth. And that’s why he wrote his book, The Overton Window.
The Overton window, in political theory, describes a “window” in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on a particular issue. It is named after its originator, Joseph P. Overton.
At any given moment, the “window” includes a range of policies considered to be politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too “extreme” or outside the mainstream to gain or keep public office. Overton arranged the spectrum on a vertical axis of “more free” and “less free” in regards to government intervention. When the window moves or expands, ideas can accordingly become more or less politically acceptable. The degrees of acceptance of public ideas can be described roughly as:
The Overton Window is a means of visualizing which ideas define that range of acceptance by where they fall in it. Proponents of policies outside the window seek to persuade or educate the public so that the window either “moves” or expands to encompass them. Opponents of current policies, or similar ones currently within the window, likewise seek to convince people who these should be considered unacceptable.
Other formulations of the process created after Overton’s death add the concept of moving the window, such as deliberately promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous “outer fringe” ideas, with the intention of making the current fringe ideas acceptable by comparison. __________________________________________________
What these extreme left groups have done over time is they pulled the Overton window radically to the left with key phrases like, “workers’ rights” and “tax the rich.” Or “all conservatives are Hitler.” 100 years ago at the start of the progressive movement these ideas were considered radical. But in the election of 1912, Eugene V.Debs had doubled the Socialist vote from 500,000 in 1908 to 1 million in 1912. This wasn’t some guy from Europe; he was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. In fact, the Socialists had their 1912 Convention in Indianapolis; the same place Jim Jones started his socialist church. Ronald Reagan toyed with joining the socialist party when he was a young man in Hollywood. It was after he traveled to England and witnessed what socialism had done to England through the Labor Party that he turned far to the right, out of fear for his country. But those people, those 1 million people who voted socialist in 1912 are out there, and they attached themselves to progressive ideas, they had children, raised families and found themselves drawn to the Labor Movement in America on the backs of the unions. Now many of those people aren’t bad people, but they are attracted to the collectivism of socialist concepts by their family culture and genetic make-up, because let’s face it, some people are more comfortable hiding in the masses and are not inclined to stand on their own.
Those poor, unfortunate souls are the people who end up following someone like Jim Jones in the extreme circumstance. And to a lesser degree, they find themselves repeating word for word what someone like Richard Trumka utters, without any care as to the relevance of his words. Trumka knows he can’t talk to an economist about how he represents the “middle class” or how “increasing taxes on the rich,” “creates jobs.” Those are just buzz words to stir up the followers. What Trumka is really after is moving the Overton window far to the left as was the trend during the entire 20th century. It happened because people weren’t aware of the threat and it just crept into our culture subtly. Trumka said it himself; he’s not in the labor movement for wages and benefits. He’s using the labor movement as a platform to change society, and that isn’t any different from Jim Jones who wanted to change the world through religion.
The real threat and real money being poured into politics isn’t coming from Rupert Murdoch, or the Koch Brothers. George Soros, and all the Hollywood left has poured far more money into political manipulation so there isn’t any room to talk. Yet if Trumka says “the conservative right is for the rich, and we are for the working man!” Look at all these contributors to the radical left! Yet all these people point to the right and say it’s “Wall Street, the rich, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Sarah Palin, all are blamed for manipulating the American people when in fact it is these people that have committed the act of their accusations.
“The working man” is another false premise captured by the labor movement and placed into the minds of Americans by the Overton window. In Ohio 655,000 people work for a union, both public and private. That’s only 13.7 percent of the 4,787,000 million people who are employed in the state. That leaves over 4 million people not represented by a union, and don’t particularly want to be represented by a union. And most of those people are not in management. Most of those people are the real workers, and is proof that such extreme rhetoric as exhibited by people like Trumka to an army of people built on entitlement. Yet, because of the Overton window, the media, and the regular everyday people accept that “workers’ rights” represents union work, because that’s how the term was marketed.