Comments

1
If you didn't assume this was what was going on in this pic before this story was posted you are stupid or being intentionally and disingenuously thick. Usa corp. makes people do unpleasant shit to keep their jobs for no pay? Knock me over w/ a feather!
3
How many people lost a half day or full days wage thanks to Occupy Seattle's may day protest? At 8 months pregnant, my wife refused to walk though that mess to get to work, which was a block from Westlake.

Naturally it sucks to be these coal miners, because they have no choice but to go to the rally. But losing a half day or full days wage seems like acceptable collateral damage for the Occupy movement.
4
@3:

While I certainly sympathize, your wife made that decision on her own not to try to get to her job; she's wasn't told by her employer not to come in to work, and I'm guessing most of her fellow employees somehow managed it, despite the protests.

So, unless you have something to add to that, I'm calling "false equivalency".
5
The difference being that your wife chose to feel threatened to the point where she wouldn't transit a public plaza (and I don't recall any reports of random violence on people passing by) rather than being told she had to forego a days pay and attend to an event at Westlake.

So, completely bullshit comparison.
6
Anti-union people always proclaim that Unions are obsolete. There's no more need for them now that we have good working conditions and workers aren't bullied by their bosses.

Once unions are gone, Big Corporations will go right back to fucking their employees. Weekend hours standard. No vacations. No sick leave. Extra hours but no overtime. Anyone who thinks otherwise, anyone who thinks Big Corporations will happily go along with the things unions fought tooth and nail for, have their heads in the sand.
7
There's an old man called the Mississippi
that's an old man I wants to be.
What does he care if the world's got troubles
what does he care if the land ain't free?

@3 - your logic is utterly deranged, and beneath contempt.
8
@3 As COMTE so handily points out, it ain't the same thing.

If you choose not to go to work, and lose a day's pay, for personal reasons, that's nice. I'd say your wife is fortunate she had the choice. These coal miners didn't have a choice. It was a mandatory unpaid event.

(As an aside, I actually pity you two if your lives are really so infested with paranoia and fear. Try not treating everything as a grave threat and you'll find life is richer and more rewarding.)
9
Urgutha, unless one makes it a habit of transporting large amounts of sand in one's rectum, I don't think "in the sand" is where their heads will be.
10
@4

There were dozens of workers who were sent home early, or told not to come into work. My wife was one of many who were affected that day. Remember the outrage when people found out Jennifer Fox was pregnant and hit with pepper spray? Nobody forced her to block the street. Yes we later know her story was full of holes, but for almost 2 weeks, there was non-stop outrage. But when my wife decides she doesnt want to get hit with a cloud of pepper spray, suddenly "Nobody is forcing her to do anything", seriously, go screw yourself.

@8

Yes, not the same thing, clearly Occupy has cost working people far more than a days wage. Ask the organizers at the Art Walk in LA how much money they lost when Occupy LA hijacked their event? Ask the businesses and farmers market at Pershing Square how much money they're losing thanks to the Occupy LA moving to that location?

What Mittens is doing is peanuts compared to how much money Occupy is costing various cities in lost wages or sales. Im sorry, I cannot feel the outrage that others are feeling when a presidential rally is forcing dozens of coal miners to lose a days wage when the damage from Occupy protests is far greater.
11
@10: Serious question, is it OK to be outraged by both, or do I have to chose one or the other?
12
@10,

They didn't just lose a day's pay; they were illegally forced to attend a campaign event without pay or GET FIRED.

Just fuck off.
13
Well...given the lack of safety measures taken by the mine (I mean look who the owners are supporting) this did get the miners out of an environment where they could have been killed. *Cato the YY..Looking for the Bright Side of Corporate Fascism*
14
God bless the Free Market system - and @3 with his false equivalency B.S.
15
@3 Man that was dumb.

If your BOSS makes you go to Occupy, then you have an apt comparison.

Remember how during the first half of the GW Bush administration the Republicans controlled pretty much all three branches of government?

And THEN remember how that uber-majority implemented policy that pretty much got the US stale-mated for over six years in a pointless lie-based war against unemployed muslim teenagers (TRILLION dollar wars, that is), then alienated all our allies, blew up our economy, gave away ka-jillions of public dollars to super-rich people, AND let Osama Bin Laden get away.

Remember that?

Ok. When you remember that think, about #3 up there. It all makes sense now doesn't it.

Because it's morons like that who make up about 70% of the modern conservative movement.
16
@10
Let me help you a bit with this.

Just because you don't like A and you don't like B and someone else says that they don't like C does not mean that A and B and C are equivalent.

Yes, they might sound like they're the same in your mind.
But they aren't the same.

Being told not to come into work
is not the same as
Being told to be at a specific place at a specific time.

I hope that helps! :)
No need to thank me.
17
Isn't it ironic that the people who are branding Obama a socialist are manipulating the working class to advance their own political agenda?
19
@2, looming layoffs are an excuse for any corporate excess these days. Threatening employees who are supporting families so that they will go to a rally to elect a guy worth $250 million for the benefit of his ego. The guy isn't even paying taxes or collecting salary.

It's almost as ridiculous as a giving tax deductions to churches who are bundling donations to an anti-gay campaign PAC. If Mittensmoneybags wants to eliminate deductions so that billionaires can have a 0% tax rate, he can fucking start with the deduction for donations to the Mormon church.
20
@10 Please! Being blocked from going to work because there's a riot, or an earthquake, or a space alien on the streets is NOT the same thing as your employer telling you to show up somewhere AND NOT PAYING YOU!! It's bad enough if they pay you to attend their political rally. That's unethical enough. But not to pay you? That's like a power rape. That's their way of exercising their full degree of power upon you. That's them telling you that they have full control over your life and then showing you. That's a day of your life! That's your time! Isn't your time worth anything? You know what it's called when your master tells you to do something for free? It's called slave labor. It's called being treated as something less than human. And the fact that it's all done in order to support someone who represents the corporate interests to widen the income and power gap - to make the lives of these blue collar workers more miserable - makes it more despicable. It amazes my how much people like you can get lost in the flag waving and the "USA!" chants.

And yes, as Urgutha pointed out, this is why we will always need labor unions.
21
"Moore told Blomquist that managers 'communicated to our workforce that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend.'"

My blood pressure just shot up by several ticks due to the stupidity of that statement.

Also, Kinison, sometimes you're actually reasonable. This is not one of those times. You presented a false equivalency, then presented another false equivalency to cover that first false equivalency. I can't tell if you're that confused or if you're trolling just to troll.
22
@Kinison. You're not gonna win this one. As explained over and over apples are not oranges not matter how much you complain. It's sad that you were so scared of something you openly mocked time and time again. Pretty silly.
23
@20: "You know what it's called when your master tells you to do something for free? It's called slave labor."

I thought the modern accepted euphemism was "internship."
24
Hundreds of miners forced to forgo a day's pay to stage a photo op for their employer's candidate, and not one of them managed to sneak in a pickaxe?
25
If this is true at all, and the AFLCIO is investigating it, I guess it's not much different than what happened here in Westport, CT when the Westport police were not paid for protecting the President during a posh $35,800 per head fundraiser here in Connecticut, Aug 6th at the residence of film mogul Weinstein at his Beachside Avenue home. Why should Republicans in the Town of Westport have to foot the bill with their tax dollars ???????

"Joseloff, a Democrat who did not attend the $35,800 per head Weinstein fundraiser, said he has not received a response from Obama for America or Weinstein. “I didn’t expect that we would get repayment, but it was worthwhile to ask,” he said."

See :http://www.westportnow.com/index.php?/v2…


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