FLASH!! Here’s a super-secret memo (admittedly it’s so secret that I made it up) I imagine I just received from a whistleblower — an internal communique circulating at Amazon:
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! We at Amazon have much to be thankful for this Turkey Day.
Speaking of blessings (and turkeys), with the latest California bill proposing to mandate double time wages for anyone “forced” to work on Thanksgiving Day, our useful idiots in the California legislature are laboring hard to further hobble our “brick and mortar” competitors in the Golden State. Driving up their labor costs will result in fewer retail stores open on Thanksgiving and/or higher prices — causing more folks to stay home and turn to the Internet to make purchases for the Holiday Season (don’t say “Christmas”!).
Even better, we don’t have to pay our legislator allies a dime in political contributions to get them to stifle our competitors — they are just doing what comes naturally.
Yeah, we’ll close down most of our distribution system in CA on Turkey Day, but our SALES are 100% automated, and so far, we don’t have to pay “Hal” a wage — let alone overtime!
NOTE TO STAFF: Remember to vote Democrat — those darn Republicans aren’t as reliable when it comes to crushing our competition.
Read more here:
http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article46330010.html#storylink=cpy
Comments 10
Richard,
Maybe just for today, you can find something to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Author
When you and your labor union buddies take a day off from your quest to reduce freedom in America, THAT’s the day I take a day off as well. But as I see it, your side is working 24/7 to destroy our liberty (and with a HUGE bankroll!).
Hence I owe it to my grandchildren (who I am VERY thankful for) to try — at least TRY — to keep your crowd from destroying America.
But I second your thought — Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Richard,
Thank you for giving me something to add to my list of things I am grateful for:
That I live in a country where two people can vehemently disagree over which side of the political aisle is more concerned about personal liberty and still be able to have a civil discussion about those differences.
As for organized labor having a huge political bankroll, I guess from an absolute point of view, you are correct. However from a relative point of view, their bankroll pales in comparison to that of the Koch Brothers and their friends.
Author
Oh my! HQ, here’s a newsflash for ya. Corporations give to BOTH SIDES. Billionaires give to BOTH sides.
Unions give to ONE side — the side that will give ’em the most of what they demand. They’ll even give to Republicans in districts that always elect Republicans — buying the highest Republican bidder in the unions auction for labor support.
Moreover, what you reference is FEDERAL campaign spending. You conveniently ignore union STATE and LOCAL campaign spending, which usually makes the unions the biggest player these races. The evil Koch brothers and their allies are small potatoes when it comes to such races.
Author
According to liberal Politifact, in 2014, billionaires were giving more to Democrats than Republicans. Here’s my blog item on this topic:
http://riderrants.blogspot.com/2014/09/in-2014-billionaires-are-giving-more-to.html
The left has zeroed in on the evil billionaire Koch brothers as the twin devils incarnate. It’s been a largely successful campaign, thanks largely to the complicity of the liberal media.
Progressives love to paint the Democrats vs. Republicans as a David-vs.-Goliath contest, with the [labor union] working man pitted against billionaires. Poor Democrat candidates can get any support from the uncaring rich. Waahhhh.
Riiggghhhhhtttttt.
Tell me, Mr. Progressive, aren’t there billionaires giving big bucks to Democrats? Obviously so. Indeed, according to this study by Politifact, a liberal “fact checking” outfit, more billionaires gave to Democrats [and their causes] than Republicans so far in 2014!
To quote from the article: “We cross-checked the Open Secrets list of the top 100 individuals donating to outside spending groups in the current election against the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires and found that, as of June 19, there were 22 individuals on the Open Secrets list who were billionaires. Of those 22 billionaires, 13 — or more than half [59% to be precise] — gave predominantly to liberal groups or groups affiliated with the Democratic Party. The other nine [41%] gave predominantly to conservative groups.”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2014/jun/23/do-many-billionaires-support-democratic-party/
Yes, which party gets more from billionaires can swing one way or the other — but the point is that BOTH sides get magabucks from the liberals’ hated billionaires.
Of course, the same can’t be said about the hapless members of labor unions who MUST pay dues (or lose their jobs) to benefit almost exclusively Democrats and liberal causes. No diversity here! And no choice for the “donors.”
The attempt to claim this is a David-vs.-Goliath class warfare matter evaporates upon inspection. But few look past the Democrat Party glib, hate-filled talking points.
Great stuff, Richard, to snuff another progressive illusion.
Today’s very rich are, as so many books and articles make clear, abundantly on the left; and, with the exceptions of big oil an pharma, that holds for Wall St., too.
Should hasten to add that, ironically, many brick ‘n morter storefront businesses, like mine, are among the leading contributors to their own demise.
Too many people now shop online to make selling online optional. It is mandatory. Fully fifty percent of my total sales take place there and, since I am no less compelled to sell on those sights with the greatest volume, I must sell on Amazon.
Shoppers used to look for books at, naturally enough, bookstores. Now they look on Amazon, so we must sell there, too. Hard to see it as anything but slow suicide.
Craig,
If you are claiming that the majority of very financially successful people are Democrats, you will get no argument from me. However, that was not Richard Rider’s claim. He actually claimed that “billionaires are giving more to Democrats than Republicans” and he used (or misused) a Politifact article to make his point. For your benefit Craig since I am sure Richard already knows how misleading his claim is, I suggest you read the entire article. When you do, you will read that:
1. Of America’s 492 billionaires, they found 22 that gave to political causes and of those 13 gave predominantly to left-leaning or Democratic causes. Note, the article never stated that those 13 gave more money than the nine who gave predominantly to right-leaning or Republican causes.
2. More importantly, what about the other 470 billionaires? Are we to assume they were not at all politically active? Thank you for asking Craig. Read on and you will see the following:
“These lists aren’t complete due to the disclosure rules protecting donors’ identities. ”
“Certain types of political nonprofits are not required to disclose all their funders… For example, brothers David and Charles Koch do not appear as donors on any of the campaign finance information we reviewed.”
“Republicans tend to donate to and use non-disclosing groups more than Democrats do,”
Back to my dollars are more important than the number of donors argument, again from the article:
“The top (disclosed) donor from either party so far this cycle is pro-Democratic — California billionaire Tom Steyer, who has given more than $11 million and has pledged to spend at last $50 million.”
How does that top Democrat compare with the hundreds of millions spent and the billions pledged by the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson and the others on the right?
Author
HQ, your Koch brothers bogeyman strategy is right out of your union playbook — attempting do distract readers from the truth — unions own the Democrat Party because of their massive funding of Democrats at EVERY level of government.
Where’s your source that billionaires give most of their contributions to the GOP? Even if true, what’s the “delta” — how much MORE do Republicans get than Democrats? All you can say is that “we don’t know.” But then you go on to make sweeping assertions unsubstantiated by anything but conjecture.
You are inferring that Republicans billionaires make ‘hidden’ contributions, but Democrat billionaires are too dumb to use this strategy. Interesting.
You cite ONE Democrat billionaire’s California contributions, and claim all the Republican billionaires together give more. Gosh, what an insight!
Richard,
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/27/us/politics/kochs-plan-to-spend-900-million-on-2016-campaign.html?_r=0
I think your math skills will show you that the above, even divided by two, is much larger than the leading Democrat in the article you cited.
I think you know that it is a losing argument to claim that Democratic candidates receive as much support from business interests as Republicans do so I will indulge you and switch to the topic you obviously want to discuss:
It is true, as you claim, that Organized Labor gives almost exclusively to Democrats while Big Business gives to both Republicans and Democrats (albeit much less than they give to Republicans). The question is why?
My supposition is that neither Organized Labor nor Big Business interests are stupid and each will give only to candidates of whom they expect some support. This tells me that elected Democrats understand that our economy depends on the success of business and in labor’s sharing in that success. That is why both sides of the business/labor divide support them. On the other hand, elected Republicans believe that the economy is solely dependent on the success of business and that labor need not have any say since their role is irrelevant. With this being the case, Organized Labor sees no advantage in supporting Republicans.