But for the most part Unions don't do well at all in the South.

Volkswagen isn't going to lose a minutes sleep over this.

Oh look boys and girls, Captian Obviously Stupid is back with more inanity! As Danforth already rubbed in your face, you didn't post about Unions not doing well, you said that they don't "work" which is a demonstrable lie and an admission that you don't begin to understand how unions "work" or why the "don't do well" is a meaningless statement as it regards their legal existence in Southern states. Unions "do very well" in most every place they exist because their root goals stay the same and no state as yet has legislated them into ineffectiveness. But, as I've stated before, any union's effectiveness is rooted in their members' engagement in jointly achieving their goals vis-a-vis their employment contracts. It's the same in the North, East, South, Midwest, or West.

The South's history and government have always been against worker organization as a means to lift wages and benefits. Their pitch to companies looking at moving there is based on those companies paying workers less than they'd make in more economically progressive or wage competitive cities and states.

But again, this has zero to do with any union either not working or not doing well in the South. You can rightly say that Southern states and many of their employers are typically hostile to unions and especially unionization efforts directed towards auto manufacturers, but that has nothing to do with unions themselves.

And of course VW isn't losing any sleep over the Chattanooga vote, but not for any reason you've identified in your anti-union burpings. Every single VW plant around the world is unionized EXCEPT Chattanooga until now. VW itself mandates union representation of their workers because their employment model is based on worker interaction with their ultimate business decisions.

Forgot about that option. My brain was thinking about statesmanship for a moment, so forgive me.

Let me retune my TDS filters so it won't happen again.

Wonderful quote Lamplighter, thank you.

I may have to take back my word though after reading this:

Many Republicans dismissed what the intelligence showed or refused to attend briefings, causing alarmed Republicans to say that misinformation and Russian propaganda has seeped into the Republican Party. Evangelical Christians tried to bend Johnson's and his staff's ear, pointing to the influence of propaganda from the Russian Orthodox Church. Johnson met with Pavlo Unguryan, a Ukrainian evangelical leader, who had been pushing for U.S. support.

Johnson is a devout Southern Baptist and his faith "guides him in every major decision he makes," one Republican member said.

Johnson was given polling from the American Action Network, the policy arm of the Republican affiliated super PAC, that found a large majority of voters favor aid to Ukraine in battleground districts and that favoring Ukraine aid was not a principle deciding factor for Republican primary voters. The polling reassured Johnson there was little political risk to funding Ukraine, an important data point when working to persuade his GOP colleagues.

A steady stream of European leaders and ministers have knocked on Johnson's door in recent months, telling the congressman from Louisiana that his place among global statesmen is assured if he got this done.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron applied some debonair wit. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, one of Ukraine's sharpest backers, told Johnson what it was like to live in a nation that borders Russia. Just last week, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala met with Johnson and told him that the world's eyes were on him.

"I really do believe the intel and in the briefings that we've gotten," Johnson said last week. "I believe [Chinese President] Xi [Jinping] and Vladimir Putin and Iran really are an axis of evil. I think they're in coordination.

"Look, history judges us for what we do," said an emotional Johnson, holding back tears and with a quivering lip at a news conference last week in response to a question from The Washington Post. "This is a critical time right now, critical time on the world stage. I could make a selfish decision and do something that's different, but I'm doing here what I believe to be the right thing."

Johnson's son will be headed to the U.S. Naval Academy in the fall. "To put it bluntly, I would rather send bullets to Ukraine, than American boys," he said. "This is a live-fire exercise for me and for so many American families."

He had never had a high-level intelligence briefing, had never met President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) or Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). He had no meaningful relationship with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.)

In a matter of moments, Johnson became second in line to the presidency. The day after he was elected speaker last October, he met with Biden and the three House national security panel chairs - Reps. Michael R. Turner (R-Ohio), Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) and Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) - who brought him to the White House for a worldwide threats briefing heavy on Ukraine. Former CIA director and ex-secretary of state Mike Pompeo became an informal adviser.

The new speaker heard from evangelical Christians in the United States and Ukraine about the persecution of Ukrainian Christians by Russia. Over the next months, the other congressional leaders twice brought him to the White House to meet with Biden, where he got an earful about the importance of this moment in history from the president, McConnell and Schumer.

It was eye opening.

One Republican House member recalls: "I'll never forget Johnson one time said, 'I've gone from representing my district only to representing the entire [House] and the country.' For someone to go from where he was to where he is now as quickly as he did ... is remarkable."

And to make clear, RTW gave individual workers employed in a position represented by a union to opt out of paying dues while they're still mandated by law to receive the same compensation and representation as dues paying members.

As usual, retrograde Republicans and their billionaire ownership/donor class thought that by giving people the option of getting something of great value for nothing would end up bankrupting the unions. It didn't happen. While varying percentages of workers do opt out in order to put more union-negotiated contract money in their pockets, most unions are still thriving and growing, especially after the pandemic.

And as shown by the just-completed UAW deal with the Big 3, unions announced a multi-million dollar effort to unionize American-based foreign car manufacturers and Tesla, their first vote was overwhelmingly positive as are signs at other plants still gathering cards in their attempts to hold union elections at those workplaces - almost if not ALL of them in RTW states.

Unions don't "work" in RTW states - especially southern states.

You insist on continually proving you're a moron. RTW laws affect unions but they in no way stop them from being effective for their members as it regards negotiating pay, benefits, and working conditions.

I should know. I belong to a union and I live in a RTW state. I work with 100s of union locals and all of them would laugh at your idiotic ignorance. As a matter of fact, 3 of the 10 states with the most union members are RTW states including the hub of the UAW, Michigan.

I don't know why you think RTW causes unions not to "work" in such states. They make organizing life and dues collection more difficult (depending on which state you're talking about), but they do not stop unions from working, period. So you can stop spamming multiple threads with disinformation. Thank you.

Of course, there is always this from Bishop Robert Gruss on Biden, 'I'm not angry at him, he's just stupid'.

#3

Do you mean the Facebook embed? First you have to find the original FB post you want to embed. (You can get to the original by clicking on the post's timestamp beneath the site heading on the top)

Click on the 3 dots in the upper righthand corner which opens a dropdown. Then click on 'embed'. Another tab will open, then click on 'copy code' and then paste it in the Extra Text box.

Buck, who left Congress last month after announcing that he wouldn't seek another term back in the fall, repeated his "Moscow Majorie" nickname for the Georgia Republican during an interview with CNN's Erica Hill.

"Well, 'Moscow Marjorie' has reached a new low," said Buck after Hill tossed to a clip of Russian TV personalities claiming Greene as "running Congress" and "believes Americans should help Putin win."

He continued, "You know, during the Russian Revolution, Lenin talked about American journalists who were writing glowing reports about Russia at the time as 'useful idiots' and I don't even think that Marjorie reaches that level of being a 'useful idiot' here."

Buck said Greene is mouthing Russian propaganda and added that she's "really hurting" U.S. foreign policy in the process.

"She's acting completely irresponsibly," Buck said.

If Democrats and Biden aren't constantly pointing to both her and Trump - and their outright disdain for Ukraine and their alignment with Putin and Russia - as the faces of today's GOP, they're simply not doing it right.

"The prime minister has asked us to withdraw U.S. troops, and we have agreed to do that," a senior State Department official told The Washington Post in an interview. The decision was sealed in a meeting earlier Friday between Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Niger's prime minister, Ali Lamine Zeine.

"We've agreed to begin conversations within days about how to develop a plan" to withdraw troops, said the senior State Department official. "They've agreed that we do it in an orderly and responsible way. And we will need to probably dispatch folks to Niamey to sit down and hash it out. And that of course will be a Defense Department project."

For years, the Pentagon has deployed a mix of mostly Air Force and Army personnel to Niger to support a mission scrutinizing militant groups in the region. Until the coup last year, the arrangement included counterterrorism drones flights and U.S. and Nigerien troops partnering on some patrols.

This is a huge deal, and 73% in favor sends a massive signal to other auto manufacturing workers in the South: Yes you can become unionized and have a greater say in your own working conditions.

Welcome into the family VW workers ... and leave the door open for Nissan, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Toyota, et_al. to join you later.

Didn't the Supreme Court just hold event organizers responsible for ANY damage caused by their protest?

Wow. I hadn't even thought to make that connection. Trump called these people to DC and he gave them their marching orders.

Pretty cut and dried, isn't it?

#81

You're not paying attention. Soccer is still a foreign sport trying to make inroads in the US. Basketball is quinessential heartland passion. It's popularity is not going to phase itself out anymore than our other seasonal sports do.

And CC is already becoming a national pitchman for products Americans already use and consume daily. When her shoe comes out, it will break all existing records possibly reaching Jordan status over time. EVERY kid can wear CC shoes. Women's soccer had/has no game related product to market other than jerseys and those are licensed to USWNT not the individual players themselves.

NBA rookie salary is $10M.

Only for the number 1 pick. No other rookie makes that amount.

My prediction is that by the next CBA we'll see the top players salaries between $500K - $1M.

The discrepancy exists not due to sexism. It exists because of the difference between revenues.

If the W's viewership numbers even reach 50% of what the NCAA tournament saw, the next W contract will also rise exponentially, probably into the low billions from today's around $60 million.

78 cont.

2 tickets 3 rows off the floor in front of the visitor's bench are going for $1900 apiece for a Fever game here in Indy.

2 floor tickets next to the bench in Brooklyn when the Fever play the NY Liberty on going for $7155 apiece. Tickets 4 rows back are $2355 apiece.

It would have boosted sales, attendance, interest even farther...

Almost all her games are nearing sellouts for the entire season as it is, and the average ticket price to see the Fever play is hundreds of dollars higher than with any other WNBA team. So how could the above be true?

If anything, people are going to start complaining of being priced out of being able to see her in person. Even here in Indianapolis with 21 upcoming games, the upper deck seats that were $5 are now $55, and on the resale market some are priced at $160+. Other cities ticket prices AVERAGE $500+ for Fever games and these are arenas with upwards of 20,000 seats.

What the W pays Clark is really irrelevant to those interested in seeing her and her team play.

It would have boosted sales, attendance, interest even farther...
it certainly would not have been 'out of line', for her projected impact.

As I showed you earlier, Clark will not make $75K from the WNBA this season, she'll make another $250K due to the league's Player Marketing Agreements.

I can't think of a single person who's NOT going to watch Clark because of the predetermined WNBA's salary structure. It's existed for 25 years under various iterations. No one can pay someone based on the future in the present. Not to mention the fact the other players would rightly revolt if the league decided to pay one player more than the others, especially veterans.

The earnings gap between W and NBA players will start to shrink as soon as the next WNBA player's CBA is negotiated at the end of the 2025 season. Simply demanding more for one person is not how union bargaining works.

Seems he really is just another despicable Republican.

He's a squish. He does believe in the Constitution, but he's still willing to give deference to GOP political orthodoxy if doing so doesn't clearly cross an inviolate line, especially when it's the Democrats on the other side.

I don't know how much of it was a wrongful assumption vs simply assigning that position

First, the writing was only the author's opinion, it does not represent a unified viewpoint from which all Democrats operate. Second, Speaker Johnson just stood side by side with Trump last weekend in public agreement that there were "issues" with the 2020 election which is nothing more than propagating Trump's big lie in service of extracting even more money from those who believe the same. That IS alignment with Trump.

And it's fact that Ukraine's faultering military condition has been front and center for many months, yet until this moment, Johnson hasn't acted as though its defense needs were of immediate concern. Doing nothing is a positive for Putin and Trump at this point in time, as both don't want Congress to authorize more aid.

There were many opportunities to forward Ukraine funding - as has been publicly raised by Biden and Democrats on a near daily basis.

"We the governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas are highly concerned about the unionization campaign driven by misinformation and scare tactics that the U.A.W. has brought into our states," their joint statement reads. "As governors, we have a responsibility to our constituents to speak up when we see special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by."

It is no shock to see conservative Republicans opposing organized labor. But it is difficult to observe this particular struggle, taking place as it is in the South, without being reminded of the region's entrenched hostility to unions - or any other institution or effort that might weaken the political and economic dominance of capital over the whole of Southern society.

The history of Southern political economy is to a great extent a history of the unbreakable addiction of Southern political and economic elites to no-wage and low-wage labor.

She wants Liv Golf money,

You don't even know what the issue is. CC doesn't WANT anything. It's about what she's bringing to the table and how she will be the economic tide to lift all boats - meaning both the WBNA and her fellow players.

and we definitely do not agree on fundamentals of tv ad sales.

It's not just about tv "sales", it's about global marketing potential on all platforms, not just tv. CC will bring eyeballs to WNBA games and she'll spur sales of the products she's paid to represent. Again, this isn't conjecture, it's reality.

Sitz, if you use Google you can find hundreds of stories in financial and popular media trying to speculate about all the things I've mentioned far beyond what's been posted. You literally have a trodlodytic view of what's about to happen as it regards the economics of CC than it already has over the last few years.

The Tiger Woods analogy is apt. CC will drive interest in her sport just like Tiger did for the PGA. More interest, means more advertisers and sponsors, higher tv ratings and ultimately much higher revenues than ever before. It's only a matter of days before this rocket takes off, so it's not going to be long for this to manifest itself.

Did you bother to note the ticket sales and prices she's driving? CC is a game changer and the other star female basketball players will also benefit from the focus she's bringing to herself and the game so many enjoy watching her play.

State Rep. Austin Smith (R) - who was senior director at Turning Point Action, the campaign arm of Charlie Kirk's Turning Point USA - was accused by a Democratic activist of submitting petition sheets with rows of voter names, addresses and signatures that "bear a striking resemblance" to Smith's handwriting, according to a complaint. Smith "personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures," the complaint said.

Smith submitted his resignation to Turning Point Action on Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about it publicly. Smith also publicly ended his reelection campaign.

In cases like this, I feel that charges involving intentional voter/election fraud should carry a lifetime voting ban if the person is found guilty by a jury of their peers.

#62 | POSTED BY TONYROMA AT 2024-04-18 10:11 AM | FLAG: (CHOOSE) | FUNNY: 1

I love it when I present people with accurate information and then they want to make that presentation about me. I'm not "invested" in anything but gathering and analyzing information as it's presented to me.