As IF Times

link Wisconsin unions threaten to boycott businesses that dont display their signs | Philip Klein | Beltway Confidential | Washington Examiner.

Observing the antics of the public sector unions in Wisconsin has gone from amusing to sublime.  A little over a month ago, the new incoming governor of that state, Scott Walker,  embarked on a necessary program to rescue that state’s dire financial condition.  The state was over 3 billion dollars short of funds and drastic action was needed to stem the red ink.  At the behest of the voting public, who put Walker in office specifically to address  the fiscal malaise, he proposed cutting back the power and influence of public sector unions in the wage bargaining process.

What resulted was the comical abdication of duty of  the Democratic members of their legislature who en masse fled the state to avoid voting on the contentious bill as if they were 4 year olds avoiding cough medicine.  They became a group mug shot on milk cartons in the Midwest.  Shame and ridicule did not bring them back to do their jobs, but the threat of legally compelling them to return,  did.  Consequently, they were forced to participate in the voting process and predictably, they lost.  The curtailing of public union powers was enacted, at least by vote.

The rescission of public union rights drew condemnation from the usual and expected entitlement groupies; organized labor, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, the delusional Michael Moore and of course, the President himself.  From the bleating and wailing eminating from these champions of the people, you would think Walker was trying to impose modern slavery upon oppressed and unwashed factory workers.  In fact, one of the key proposals by Walker was that public sector unions be compelled to contribute as much to their pension funds as anyone else in the private sector.   Was there no reasoning with this man?   What next, make teachers work 6 hour days?

Unhappy with the legally enacted legislation that neutered the public unions’ longtime extravagances, the most recent union tactic is the default reversion to thuggery.  Ah back to union roots.   As the article describes, non supporters of the union position will be ostracized as far as business patronage.  Apart from the obviously  juvenile tantrum this type of extortion represents, the tactic makes no sense in real life.  The biggest effect will be of creating very obvious divisions within their own community.  It’s pretty hard to depict this in any other way than as selfish and puerile pouting.

It’ll be amusing to see how long this campaign lasts.   It’ll be fun to have them try to buy milk and cheese that is sourced only from non-union cows.  This  is no small issue if you’ve ever seen a resident of Wisconsin.  Will they make their own bread instead of frequenting non union bakeries?  Will all restaurants go out of business because of lack of union patronage?  Will they give up their likely non union gardeners?  Obviously shopping at Wal Mart is out because that’s a non union operation.  In a very short time, it’ll be obvious that what they propose is the equivalent of holding their breath until they get their way.  I think the public will wait them out.  It’ll become obvious that the people they seek to distance themselves from are the ones that pay their wages through taxes.  At the very least, the unions should change their description from serving the public, to doing the public.

link RealClearPolitics – Video – Moore On Wealthy Peoples Money: “Thats Not Theirs, Thats A National Resource, Its Ours”.

It’s pretty clear that news conduits are publishing Moore’s comments for comic relief on a slow news day.   It’s obvious that at core, he harbors strong communist values despite his curious success in the capitalist world.  The appearance is even a giveaway.  The unkempt hair, the hat, the scruffy beard.  He looks like a Fidel Castro but much better fed.  Some may recall that just recently, he was suing the Weinstein brothers for monies allegedly owed to him from his recent celluloid delusion.  If he believes everyone’s money belongs in the collective socialist pool, why bother fighting for it? 

There is no more remarkable testament to America’s freedom of expression than the fact that Moore is able to spread his deranged gospel …and people will pay for it!  He reminds me of the precocious but annoying kid at family gatherings who always wishes to be the centre of attention by doing goofy things such as pulling spaghetti from one nostril through to the other.  As he gets older, he becomes a social pariah and thus behaves more bizarrely to get attention from increasingly aloof peers.  Somehow, kindred spirits to Moore find him and they glom onto each other like so many globules of mercury.  Unfortunately for us, some of those kindred spirits own media outlets and so Moore’s warped views reach the mainstream without his parents around to tell him to go to his room. 

What our hero is advocating in the linked video is outright socialism.  Someone should drop a note in his breakfast barrel to remind him that he lives in a country that happens to be ground zero of capitalism in the world, though admittedly many are trying to change that.   It’s as if he had filled himself at the buffet table and then preached to the people after him not to eat there.  Why don’t people get tired of hypocrites like Moore?  Why don’t they tie him up in the dead of night, throw him in a rucksack and ship him one way to Cuba?  His opinion of things may change when he’s in a place where the access to Big Macs is not as easy as he has obviously become accustomed to.   It will dawn upon him as to why there are no fat communists, except the leaders.   He may be surprised to find that in a society which shares the wealth, there isn’t any. It’s easy to share nothing.  All those with brains and drive have left…to the U.S.  But maybe he’ll find a more willing audience for his opinions there…if they let him speak at all.  I’m sure there would be many Cubans willing to swap places with him.

Moore mistakes his limited commercial success to genius.  In America, they’ll buy anything.  Even William Hung of American Idol fame sold albums.  He should confine his voracious appetite to restaurants instead of the hand that feeds him.