It's worth remembering.

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike" - Adolf Hitler, May 2, 1933

An epidemic of douchery.

I find it amazing that the revocation of collective bargaining rights (and the other nefarious proposals in the republican budget plan) have stirred such passions in normally moribund Americans that they've been protesting at the Statehouse for an entire month. This picture was taken two days ago, on Saturday. There were over 100,000 people on the square, which is amazing given that the entire Madison metro area has only about 561,000 residents.

The republican plan to divide-and-conquer by pitting struggling private sector workers against also-struggling public sector workers has been remarkably successful. It's tempting for people when republicans keep telling them to blame those greedy public-sector workers and their nefarious unions for the budget crisis in Wisconsin (if there even is one). Yeah, those teachers and doctors and cops and firefighters and snowplow drivers and prison guards and pothole-fillers and garbage collectors and social workers... greedy bitches with tons of cash who just go aroud flaunting those pensions in front of "real" Americans.

Never mind that the people who are to blame are the truly greedy bastards on Wall Street, as well as the general American public for their years of blithe ignorance. Yes, I said the American public is partly to blame. As long as the money was rolling in, no one cared how it was being made. But like sausage, if the process by which the product is made is flawed, one can get sick.

So now the republicans have passed, through devious parliamentary shenanigans which are still under legal question, a "budget repair bill" that has little to do with the budget and doesn't really repair anything. Up to 60% of Wisconsin residents oppose the de-certification of unions, but no one in the republican party seems to give a rat's ass. Walker keeps saying it's about the money... but the unions already capitulated to the financial aspects of the bill, and only wanted to keep their collective bargaining rights. No dice, say the repubs, right after passing a $130,000,000 tax cut for the wealthy and for corporations.

Here are some highlights from this stinker of a bill:

1. Public employees will take a 6% pay cut to contribute more to the pension system (which is fully funded at this time, and is one of the best-managed pension funds in the country).

2. Public employees will at least double their contributions to their health insurance plans, and the government will investigate offering high-deductible shitty insurance to the public workforce.

3. Public employee unions would be able to bargain only for wage increases up to the cost of inflation, and will not be able to collect dues through payroll deduction. Contracts would be limited to one year, and unions would require an annual re-certification process. Police and firefighter unions, who supported Walker's election campaign, are exempt. The prison guards, who supported the Democratic candidate, are not. Natch.

4. If the Governor declares a state of emergency, for whatever reason, that will empower him to fire any and all employees who have too many absences or take any work slowdown or strike action.

5. Home health care workers and family child care workers, thankless jobs if ever there were any, are no longer allowed to bargain collectively under the state Medicaid program.

6. UW Hospital employees have had their collective bargaining rights revoked, and UW faculty and academic staff are barred from forming any collective bargaining units.

7. Medicaid eligibility will be adjusted so that thousands will be thrown off the rolls. But when these uninsured people die, republicans have offered more money to the fund that pays for burial of destitute people.

8. $900 million will be slashed from the education budget for public schools, while more money will be diverted to private and charter schools. Because the teachers caused all this, of course.

9. The Governor will be empowered to sell state-owned utilities to the Koch brothers' corporation, with no-bid contracts, at pennies on the dollar.

There's more. Much, much, much more. The republican attack on education is revelatory, particularly given the fact that the current Governor was kicked out of Marquette university for cheating, had a 2.3 GPA, and never graduated. So much for preachers' kids being model students.

The republican ditto-heads also are sitting around droning on about how "elections have consequences". To a certain extent that's true, and should serve as a horrible warning against voting for a party full of corporate douchebags who don't care one whit about the best interest of the people. The republicans cite the passage of "Obamacare" as justification for passing this stinker of a bill despite overwhelming opposition. It should be noted that the passage of the health care act was done with a full quorum and in the light of day (unlike this bill's passage), and most importantly, at the end of the day, no one lost any rights. This is not at all comparable to the passage of the health care act. Not in the slightest. And the smug, idiotic, ginned-up derision and hatred being directed at the state's teachers is absolutely disgusting.

This is not about who wins and who loses. It's not even about the budget. It's about the rights of workers to have a voice in the workplace. It's about being able to bargain collectively for wages, retirement, health insurance, working conditions, unsafe or unfair labor practices. and a mechanism for the redress of grievances. Do you think that any corporate or governmental employer would have provided a retirement pension, decent wages, or health care had the labor movement not been as strong as it was? No, of course it wouldn't have. The labor movement was born in Wisconsin almost a century ago. It's part of the culture and heritage of this state. And the middle class is part of what makes this country strong and prosperous. But of course, out of a spirit of greed and malice, comes a republican party that seeks to reduce the middle class to near-poverty while enriching their corporate benefactors and wealthy donors, all while demonizing the people whose work is essential to our communities.

And people vote for these asshats... why?

On Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is embroiled in some of the most shameful politically-driven attacks on the working class of America that this country has ever seen. Republicans, through their public and private statements, have shown that they only care about one thing: ensuring that the middle class is destroyed through the redistribution of wealth to benefit the rich. The Democrats, hardly the historic champions of honesty and virtue, have shown that if they're given enough public support they can indeed grow a spine. And Republicans have the gall to call these protests shameful.

There is only one thing that is shameful in this whole mess, and that's the revocation of workers' rights... workers' rights that were born in this state and for which people fought and died in this state at the beginning of the 20th century... not so very long ago. This is what it looks like when Democrats grow a spine, and it's about time someone fought vigorously for someone who didn't donate a million dollars to this politician or that. After what happened in the "debates" over health care reform, are we to take seriously these faux concerns from Republicans about civil discourse? Really? They don't get to complain about that ever again.

The senators who are in Illinois right now are doing exactly the right thing, and should be commended for protecting the rights of people who can't afford to open lobbying offices in Madison (as the Koch brothers did today). Having a simple majority does not mean that that majority should be able to strip rights away from the minority. Isn't that what we talk about all the time with respect to GLBT issues? Why wouldn't we feel the same way when it comes to the rights of workers to bargain collectively for benefits and working conditions?

I am not a union member, but I also know that unions exist for very good reasons... before they existed, employers (including the government) exploited their workers shamefully. Without public employee unions, what's to stop this or future governors from stripping employees of their pensions? Or cutting off all health benefits? Or legislating a 75% wage cut? Seriously, what's left to stop them, if not the political and financial muscle of the unions? This is quite clearly the direction that the right wing in this country is heading... elimination of dissent by cutting off the funding sources. (Thanks to the Citizens United case, Republican funding has never been more vigorous.)

I said it before and I'll say it again...

Ignore Wisconsin at your peril.

Intercession.

How hard the year dies: no frost yet.

On drifts of yellow sand Midas reclines,

Fearless of moaning reed or sullen wave.

Firm and fragrant still the brambleberries.

On ivy-bloom butterflies wag.

Spare him a little longer, Crone,

For his clean hands and love-submissive heart.

-Robert Graves

Squish squish, squeak squeak

One of the weirdest things about living in Wisconsin is the widespread cheese fetish. On the one hand, there are lots of artisan cheeses that are so superbly crafted that one taste on a cracker will make your head explode. On the other end of the spectrum are cheese curds, seen at left.

Cheese curds are just that... freshly-made curds of cheddar cheese. They're not broken-up pieces of a larger hunk of cheese... they come out of the cheese-making process that way. Fresh curds are hard to find outside of the upper midwest, because one of the fun things about them is that they squeak against your teeth while you're eating them. The squeak tends to diminish considerably within days of manufacture, so the curds have to be really fresh for you to experience that.

Up here, most cheese curds are eaten either plain or battered and fried. The frying process destroys the "squeak", but it does create a little hunk of fried cheese that is pretty satisfying on a cold day. In Quebec, the cheese curds are more white-ish in color, and are used in a dish called poutine (an ambrosia-like extravaganza of comfort food involving french fries, cheese curds, and gravy).

It must suck to live here and be lactose-intolerant.