If Scott Walker survives tomorrow’s election, there will be plenty of reasons. Many people will point to his huge cash advantage, for good reason. But no factor will have been more important than the decades of decline in U.S. union membership.

“Unions had their place,” a woman named Jerri told me soon after I arrived in Wisconsin last week. “They did their part back in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and then they got too big, and are abusing their power.”  Jerri and her husband, Tim (both declined to give last names), were eating at a bar in Wauwatosa, the purple Milwaukee suburb that’s home to Scott Walker. They both work in sales: She’s in retail at the mall; he’s in wholesale, selling caskets. Tim said Walker’s union “reforms” were necessary because local politicians had been “looking out for the union” instead of “people like me.” He said unions are for people who don’t “feel they should have to work very hard.”  Jerri complained that unions “are sucking off my teat.”  Public workers’ benefits, she said, “should be the same as anybody in any kind of private job.”

I absolutely cannot understand the people holding thoughts like this - if they are not millionaires.   They are against other citizens like themselves joining together in order to have some leverage when negotiating their wages and benefits with their employers.  If they are not part of a union, they disparage those who are instead of trying to figure out how to join or create one for their industry.

Yet these same individuals think that a single CEO taking multi-millions in compensation for a single year is no big deal - and they probably have no problem with a ball player, who is a member of a union of sorts, taking a million dollar salary.  

Only the guys and gals they think of as equals or slightly beneath them should have no right to a decent wage and a less stressful life that comes with a living wage and health benefits. 

I can’t tell you how much this depresses me.

underthemountainbunker:

Fox News and Mitt Romney, as representatives for the one percent, rely on the Republican base voters to be not only dumb and uninformed, but self-hating as well. How else do you explain support (by people who aren’t wealthy) for the idea that fair wages and benefits for working Americans is “greed”? This morning, Ed Gillespie, an adviser to Mitt Romney, told Fox News host Chris Wallace that Scott Walker winning in Wisconsin would mean:

“I think the statement to big labor and to big government employee unions, government worker unions is that you can’t be too greedy,” Gillespie explained. “You need to understand that times are tough and a lot of these legacy costs that you imposed are due for some reforms and some restructuring.”

It’s interesting that Romney’s adviser calls it ‘greed’ when unions and workers want to preserve their wages and benefits. Especially when you consider the tactics ofvulture capitalism, practiced by Mitt Romney during his time at Bain Capital, on long-term employees of companies acquired by Bain (fire them, hire some back at lower wages). Support for this kind of thinking will turn us into a third-world economy yet. Here’s proof: the WSJ reported this week that flat wages in the US are helping a manufacturing rebound:

The wage lag is a key factor contributing to the rebounding competitiveness of U.S. industry. A recent uptick in factory employment and the return of some production to U.S. shores from abroad both added jobs that probably otherwise wouldn’t exist. But sluggish wages also are squeezing workers’ incomes and spending. That, in turn, hurts retailers who target middle-income earners and restrains the vigor of the economic recovery. “The U.S. has held manufacturing wages in check while there has been strong wage growth in China and moderate wage growth in Mexico,” says economist Gordon Hanson of the University of California, San Diego, referring to two of the U.S.’s biggest lower-wage competitors.

China and Mexico’s wages are growing while U.S. wages are shrinking. Apparently that’s the only way corporations who got rich on American soil are willing to bring jobs back to American soil. Soon everyone will have a job, if they’re not too “greedy” and are willing to work for $1.00 a day.

Oh, and of course this is not greed.

Florida will defy a federal warning to stop purging people the state suspects aren’t U.S. citizens from voter registration rolls.

Despite a Justice Department letter, objections from county elections officials and evidence that a disproportionate number are voters of color, Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner’s office planned to continue scrubbing the election rolls, a spokesman said Friday. Gov. Rick Scott (R) ordered the search for potentially ineligible voters.

The reason for these staggering numbers — and for the growing imbalance between the parties — is that the vast financial power of the business world has been loosed as a political tool by the federal courts. In pursuit of lower taxes and less regulation, businesses, led by the United States Chamber of Commerce, are determined to remove President Obama from office and return full control of Congress to the Republican Party. Executives and companies are the principal source of the unlimited checks that are fueling the rise of these outside groups.

Many of the executives are giving money to “super PACs,” which have to disclose their names. But because businesses usually don’t want the public to know of their political activity, they prefer to launder their political contributions through the Chamber or through “social welfare organizations,” which can keep the names a secret.

The law that permits these undisclosed contributions also puts explicit limits on these organizations’ activities. Tax-exempt social welfare groups, known by their Internal Revenue Code section number as 501(c)(4)’s, cannot be organized for the “primary” purpose of political activity. So far, the I.R.S. is looking the other way.

But if not political activity, what is the primary purpose of a group like Crossroads GPS, the 501(c)(4) organized by Karl Rove, which plans to spend more than $100 million this year? It has already run at least a dozen ads this year, 11 of which accuse President Obama of breaking promises or committing serious policy errors.“Obama added almost $16,000 in debt for every American,” says the latest, a classic in misleading political hyperbole.

As Jeremy Peters recently reported in The Times, that ad is part of a $25 million campaign that was based on 18 focus groups and field tests conducted by Crossroads, all to determine the most effective attack lines against the president.Is that the action of a tax-exempt social welfare group not primarily active in politics?

The I.R.S. generally makes that kind of assessment by examining a 501(c)(4)’s activity over a calendar year, so a full reckoning of this year’s campaign finance travesty won’t happen before 2013. But some of these groups, including Crossroads, have been operating with the tax agency’s implicit consent since 2010. Even a cursory audit would show how little they deserve to call themselves a “social welfare group” and claim a tax exemption.

Removing the 501(c)(4) exemption would be serious: it would force Crossroads to either retain its tax exemption by converting to a super PAC and disclosing its donors, or pay taxes on its tens of millions in donations. American voters would win either way: they might learn who is behind those millions, and the disclosure and tax requirements would reduce the shadowy money pouring into the campaign

If the I.R.S.had stood up to this farce last year, it would have had a hugely beneficial effect on this year’s campaign.Though it needs more resources and better legal tools, it mostly requires the will to enforce the law.

Maybe it is time for Commissioner Douglas Shulman to hear from more citizens.  From the IRS website:

How Do You Report Suspected Tax Fraud Activity?

If you suspect or know of an individual or company that is not complying with the tax laws, you may report this activity by completing Form 3949-A. You may fill out Form 3949-A online, print it and mail it to:

Internal Revenue Service
Fresno, CA 93888

If you do not wish to use Form 3949-A, you may send a letter to the address above. Please include the following information, if available:

• Name and address of the person you are reporting
• The taxpayer identification number (social security number for an individual or employer identification number for a business)
• A brief description of the alleged violation, including how you became aware of or obtained the information
• The years involved
• The estimated dollar amount of any unreported income
• Your name, address and daytime telephone number

Although you are not required to identify yourself, it is helpful to do so. Your identity can be kept confidential.

Frequently Asked Questions - 1.13 IRS Procedures: Reporting Fraud

How to Report:

• Abusive Tax Promotions and/or Promoters:
  Complete the referral form which documents the information necessary to report an abusive tax avoidance scheme. The form can be mailed or faxed to the IRS address and fax number on the form.

via Fox’s Kilmeade: Some Of Holder’s Critics Say “He’s Trying To Boost Minority Turnout” By “Inciting Racism”

thepeoplesrecord:

Women’s clinics under physical attack across US
June 2, 2012

Women’s health clinics have been under a siege of anti-choice attacks recently throughout the United States. Cases of arson and burglary of essential sex education and medical materials have victimized not only pro-women organizations, but the recipients of their services.

Attacks have become increasingly common throughout the years as anti-choice legislation has threatened women’s access to healthcare. Fear-mongering tactics among conservative groups has disseminated anti-abortion propaganda, set clinics ablaze, assassinated practitioners and detonated bombs in clinics. However, abortion providers aren’t the only places being threatened; women’s advocacy and sex education groups have also become prey of right-wing anti-choice terrorism.

The pattern of violence comes in wake of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller earlier this week. The late-term abortion provider was gunned down at his church and had previously survived several murder attempts.

The most recent cases of attacks on women’s health clinics include:

Atlanta Gynecology and Obstetrics in Atlanta: The healthcare facility was lit on fire in the early morning of May 20. Suspects also broke into the building stealing classified medical information of its patients.

Alpha OB/GYN in Marietta, Georga: On May 23, a suspect burned down the third floor and areas of the second floor of the local clinic. Nobody was hurt, but the clinic is unable to continue its health services at this time.

Women with a Vision in New Orleans: Women with a Vision, a non-profit clinic that provides health and life services for women of color, transgender women, women with addiction and poor women, was a victim to an arson and burglary attack on May 28. The offenders targeted rooms with sex education literature, self-examination breast models, condoms and HIV and STD materials.

Planned Parenthood in Austin: Anti-choice group Live Action set up a failed sting operation to falsely accuse Planned Parenthood of conducting sex-selective abortions with undercover actors and cameras.

- G. Razo

quickhits:

Milwaukee’s newspaper of record astonished to learn that Gov. ‘Divide and Conquer’ is being divisive.

It’s keen political insights like this that explain why the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board makes the big bucks. They find this all so very, very disappointing.

But not disappointing enough to recind their endorsement of this tool.

pleasestartgivingashit:

Recalling Scott Walker should be any progressive’s top priority right now.