This is the demise of a civilization

Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill

Three days after receiving $25 billion in federal bailout funds, Bank of America Corp. hosted a conference call with conservative activists and business officials to organize opposition to the U.S. labor community's top legislative priority.

READ AND CHECK OUT THE AUDIO LEAK HERE:
www.huffingtonpost.com...




"Participants on the October 17 call -- including at least one representative from another bailout recipient, AIG -- were urged to persuade their clients to send "large contributions" to groups working against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans, who could help block passage of the bill."

"Bernie Marcus, the charismatic co-founder of Home Depot, led the call along with Rick Berman, an aggressive EFCA opponent and founder of the Center for Union Facts. Over the course of an hour, the two framed the legislation as an existential threat to American capitalism, or worse."

"This is the demise of a civilization," said Marcus. "This is how a civilization disappears. I am sitting here as an elder statesman and I'm watching this happen and I don't believe it."



Barack Obama on the Employee Free Choice Act
uk.youtube.com...

"The legislation -- which would allow workers to form a union either by holding a traditional election or having a majority of employees sign written forms -- is virtually certain to face a Republican filibuster. Obama and Senate Democrats have stated their commitment to the bill, though the timing of the vote remains a topic of heated debate."

[edit on 29-1-2009 by Daniem]

Anti-union call between Bank of America, Bernie Marcus, et al. and Rick Berman, 17 Oct 2008

http://__._/wiki/Anti-union_call_between_Bank_of_America%2C_Bernie_Marcus%2C_et_al._and_Rick_Berman%2C_17_Oct_2008
(Here you can dowload and listen to the entire leak)


On 27 Jan 2008, the Huffington Post ran a story by Sam Stein titled "Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill". The story inclded around five minutes of an hour long recording between federal bailout funds recipiets. The call shows the firms to be involved in lobbying, effectively, with public money. The file released here is the full hour long recording.

I'm not sure this is the fall of a civilization. I think we're seeing hard times ahead for the next 30 years which will affect my generation rather badly. Unlike our parents we will have smaller homes, less luxurious living and generally harder times. However i think maybe this is a good thing! People have become so obsessed by money and possessions. Seems a little pointless to me, maybe they'll get back to the important things in life, like friends and family.

reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984


You make a very good point. How much excess do you really need? Consumerism has been the driving force in business advertisement for decades.Telling people that they need that luxury boat,second home, and two or three Lexus in the garage.
One must ask themselves seriously,what do I really NEED to live? I would venture to speculate that 90% of nonsecured debt has been incurred by spending on luxury items and not necessities.
WE all need to change our spending habits.More on need and less on want.

If the American oligarchs could roll back the bulk of the population to a condition of medieval serfdom, they would do it.

Events have recently shown that the top rungs of the American corporate ladder are populated by looters and freebooters who are devoid of any sense of social responsibility. For decades they have been exporting jobs by the hundreds of thousands, destroying the economy of the society that made their riches possible. They have no loyalty to the United States whatsoever and would be happy to turn it into a dry husk of what it was as long as cheaper labour can be found elsewhere.

Look at Mexico, America. You are looking at your future unless you start to do something about it. Make the effort to support businesses that support American workers. Work for a new social contract in the US.

Unbridled capitalism is a poker game in which, eventually, one guy walks away with all the chips.

[edit on 4-2-2009 by ipsedixit]

Originally posted by ipsedixit
If the American oligarchs could roll back the bulk of the population to a condition of medieval serfdom, they would do it.

Events have recently shown that the top rungs of the American corporate ladder are populated by looters and freebooters who are devoid of any sense of social responsibility. For decades they have been exporting jobs by the hundreds of thousands, destroying the economy of the society that made their riches possible.

Look at Mexico, America. You are looking at your future unless you start to do something about it. Make the effort to support businesses that support American workers. Work for a new social contract in the US.

Unbridled capitalism is a poker game in which, eventually, one guy walks away with all the chips.

[edit on 4-2-2009 by ipsedixit]

Good post, Star for you.

The will not be happy til the country is in a shambles.

Globalization is going to make the world equal, the problem is
we will all be like Darfur.

The greedy vampires will end up having no customers and it
will start all over again just like it did after 1929.

It just took us this long to get back to the same spot.

Warren Buffett explains how he saw this mess coming years ago.

&print=true&dist=pr intTop]Warren Buffett warns of derivatives disaster 7 yrs ago.

The Marketwatch article warned about it almost a year ago.

Good Luck to you all !

reply to post by Ex_MislTech

There is so much bafflegab involved in any discussion of the economy. It truly is very simple, in essence. People at the upper end of the economy are taking too much off the table. If this process continues as it has, there will be great suffering.

America needs a new social and economic ethos. There is no need for an endless cycle of boom and bust, unless it's a preference of course, and it is a preference for the high rollers. They get a charge out of it.

This stuff could be mitigated by means of intelligent government refereeing of economic activity. Instead, in the US you get sly interventions in the money supply by the Federal Reserve Bank, which basically amount to an orderly and continual devaluation of American currency.

Hundreds of thousands of people slip into poverty unnoticed.

People in the middle class indulge in a suicidal danse macabre in which they actually cooperate in the destruction of lower levels of their own class shedding crocodile tears for their downsized friends until, horror of horrors, it is their turn to be downsized. The Titanic finally sinks and the last rat swims away in circles.

This is your paradigm America. Have another Twinkie and turn on the TeeVee.