The Other Shoe HIts the Floor - What the WI struggle is about

1. 60

   Doug Hughesposted 12 years ago

   "As always this has to do with money, and the union "compromise" coming down the pipe was set up to be the "booby" prize while the Koch Brothers get their "booty" prize. This is all being well-orchestrated with an end game that has absolutely nothing to do with unions.
   
   As I said in comments before, to much bewilderment, this is about power plants and a vertical monopoly the Koch Brothers have their eye on in Wisconsin.
   
   So in short:
   
       1) Koch Brothers get their puppet Governor Walker in power
       2) Governor Walker gins up a crisis
       3) Democrats and Progressives take the bait and counter-protest on collective bargaining
       4) Governor Walker will compromise on collective bargaining if the rest of the budget is passed as is
       5) Bill passes, with trojan horse give-a-way to the Koch Brothers nested in
       6) Koch Brothers will buy Wisconsin state-owned power plants for pennies on the dollar in closed unsolicitated bids for which there will be no oversight
       7) Koch Brothers get the best vertical monopoly in a generation"
   
   http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/2 … -Wisconsin
   
   A blogger on Mahablog (hat tip to Moonbat) sums it up.
   
   "..there also a provision in his “budget repair bill” to sell off Wisconsin’s public utilities WITHOUT any competitive bidding. In other words, the governor gets to sell off public assets to whoever he wants, at whatever price he wants.."
   
   Sweet swindle.

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      DTR0005posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Nice work Doug

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      lady_love158posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Indeed that maybe an issue worth further investigation but to tie it to the teacher thing is absurd!!

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      Huntgoddessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for this, Doug. Great post.
      
      But, to be honest, it's not at whatEVER price he wants.
      
      There's a one dollar ($1) minimum.
      
      <Laughing with tears in my eyes.>

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   Rafiniposted 12 years ago

   I can't comment on all of your post, only that I've heard GOV Walker say he wont negotiate on the CBR.

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      Doug Hughesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      But I hope you watch if the Koch bros get a huge slice of the swag.

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         tony0724posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         And I am sure the Koch Bros. are hiding secrets about UFOs and Bigfoot.

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            Doug Hughesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            So you are wearing those dark shades to blind yourself if the Koch bros wind up playing 'let's make a deal' with the governor.

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               DTR0005posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Doug - looks like you right on the money - I am sure you have listened to that embarassingly painful 20 minute phone call by now...

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            DTR0005posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Tony, in all seriousness, the Koch boys are into some pretty shifty business. There are very credible sources, both on the Right and on the Left, that detail it .

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               Ron Montgomeryposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Your assertions have just been confirmed.
               
               http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110223/ap_ … get_unions
               
               Bad news for the suckers who believe teabagging is just everyday patriotic Americans expressing their heart felt views.
               
               I guess even billionaires need their useful idiots.

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         Rafiniposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I will be watching and listening, yes.

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3. 71

   Rafiniposted 12 years ago

   Oh, wow.  A pizza place just off the capital square has been receiving - get this! - donations from all 50 states and at least 12 different countries to provide pizza for the protesters!  Countries like, Taiwan, New Zealand, Korea (those were the only ones I saw on the news).  Yeah, on Saturday alone they fulfilled 2500 orders for pizza, and have gone through 3 tons of flour in the past week. W.o.W.

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      lovemychrisposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Told you...the whole world has had enough.

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4. 65

   Ralph Deedsposted 12 years ago

   Priorities? GOP Governors Shift Burden To Poor, Middle Class To Pay For Tax Breaks For Rich, Corporations
   by Josh Dorner
   
   State budgets across the country are in disarray as a weak economy, the end of tens of billions in Recovery Act funds, and a GOP-led House that is pushing for deep cuts to many programs that benefit state and local governments set the stage for massive in shortfalls over the next two years. Instead of making the tough choices necessary to help their states weather the current crisis with some semblance of the social safety net and basic government services intact, Republican governors are instead using it as an opportunity to advance several longtime GOP projects: union busting, draconian cuts to social programs, and massive corporate tax breaks. These misplaced priorities mean that the poor and middle class will shoulder the burden of fiscal austerity, even as the rich and corporations are asked to contribute even less. Here’s a detailed look at how the GOP’s war on the poor and middle class is playing out at the state level:http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/02/22-11

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5. 73

   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   Yes....RECALL the nasty gvr!!!He's a tool of big money.
   After all, he was thinking of sending in agents to start trouble...like they already HAVE! Check any nasty sign....it's one of "them".
   
   Did you hear him say "he's not one of us"? WOW!
   And he said "Joe (Scarborough)is one of us."....
   
   Remember that movie "They Live"?
   Guess who "they" (bad guys) were?
   Free Enterprisers.
   Guess how they manipulated people and got their orders?
   A TV station.(Fox)
   
   It's a prophetic/pre-scient movie!
   
   google it, you can watch it in total. "They Live".....
   
   Oh yes, they do.

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      BillyDRitchieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You're basing your argument on a John Carpenter B-movie?  Really?

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   recommend1posted 12 years ago

   I don't see what the fuss is about - The whole country is sold off to the fiscal buddy of somebody YOU all voted for, and the army is fighting wars to enable the politicians YOU voted for to sell the country weapons - why worry about a few power plants and public utilities now ?

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      Will Apseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Politics is not meant to involve anyone with less than a few billion to their name.

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   BobbiRantposted 12 years ago

   I have an entire hub devoted to the Koch brothers and you are correct about them.  They own and control a good share of American businesses and want to further their agenda which covers, crush all unions, get rid of the clean air and water restrictions and all other environmental restrictions.  so others, like Lady whomever, don't know of course unless they are just sucking up whatever they are told, which is typical of today's news readers.

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8. 88

   Will Apseposted 12 years ago

   I notice Warren Buffet- one of the richest men in the world- recently began a campaign to increase inheritance tax because he fears the rise of an entrenched plutocracy. http://www.economist.com/node/17959590
   
   He might be too late.
   
   The richer the rich become, the more power they have to influence politics- bringing in new tax cuts for themselves and crushing opposition as you say.

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9. 73

   lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

   Makes me wonder why Christie turned down the money to build that train tunnel, and Scott in Florida nixed the high-speed rail...maybe they too, will give it away to their rich corporate friends.
   They already let the jobs go...with tax-cuts to help them.
   
   Now it's America herself that's for sale.
   
   Better watch every state that elected a bagger.....their bags are full of cash and bad intentions.
   
   Perry in Texas, has been trying to sell off the highways for years.
   
   Recall?? How about restraint! As in jail-time.

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    lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

    Of course, all these infrastucture ideas come from Obama, so they get a 2-fer.
    Sell America, and destroy Obama's vision.
    .....Which we elected him to do.
    
    bagger bagger everywhere
    For this country
    They don't care
    Lift them up and you will find
    "Republicorp" on their behind

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    lady_love158posted 12 years ago

    First off this isn't a done deal by any stretch! Indeed Koch may not even be interested! These are mainly small plants serving colleges and prisons around the state. Besides the cost to buy them they come with a host of environmental problems that any buyer will have to address. In any case any sale is subject to a review by the joint finance committee and wont be approved unless there's a benefit to the tax payers. By the way previous democrat governor Doyle let a no bid contract for a train manufacturer. Bottom line this is just the unions trying to dredge up dirt on Walker and it's not going to work!

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    lovemychrisposted 12 years ago

    Just came across this, and it immediately reminded me of Koch and what he/they are doing:
    
    "This whole General Electric PATENTED disaster makes me very very curious about something. General Electric has been STEALING our rivers in British Columbia Canada, over the last 3 years... my back yard.
    
    General Electric was the largest campaign contributor to our corrupt tin-pot Zio-ogre-totem up the ass straddling Premiere, Gordon Campbell, back in 2008. The Canadian government secretly passed legislation, Bill-30, privatising our public utilities, and approving the sell off over 1,000 of our most pristine and rivers to multinational corporations around the world, the biggest bidder being GE. They are literally GIVING AWAY our rivers to build hydro electric dams to produce electricity that we don't even need, and then sell it to California. They have GIVEN away OUR rivers to foreign shareholders with 40 YEAR LEASES, which so happens to be around the half-life of the cesium 137 isotope. They then sell the electricity back to us at 20x what we used to pay for it... selling to us when the rivers are low, and selling to Cali during the spring run-off.
    
    It is the biggest theft of public resources in the history of Canada. They are tearing up our rivers, killing our fish, wildlife, and destroying our forests in order to line the pockets of General Electric and Warren Buffet and his corporate cronies."
    
    Don't know of ti's true, but it sounds eerily familiar. "The Argentina Collapse" is where I first heard of things like this: Koch doing the same? Hell, that was Reagan! Privitize, and give the country's wealth to your friends.
    
    http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/05/11/Ge … icBCPower/
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgKtu0nk3Kc

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