Koch brothers' attempts to buy up major media.

It looks like the oil billionaire Koch brothers are allegedly trying to buy-up newspapers and such in major markets to, I would speculate, make them all right-wing, free-market, and supply-side economics propaganda machines.  I think this is something that Rupert Murdoch has been doing with Fox for quite some time now.

We are somewhat lucky that people get their news from so many different sources today, not just newspapers, radio and television, but also Internet sources like search engines, Facebook, and even blogs...

Say....if the Koch brothers wanted me to stop writing this blog, all they would have to do is pay me $300,000, chump change for them.  I could change it from "Middle Class Massacre" to something like "Plutocrat's Party."  And say things like,  "What we really need is more tax-breaks for the wealthy individuals, and large corporations, yeah, and have an open door to immigrants to keep labor costs down, and deregulating banks and letting Wall Street do whatever it wants is best for the economy, yeah that sounds good."    Or perhaps just stop writing it altogether.   I'll be waiting for my check...

Hopefully, the right-wing won't be able to buy up every possible media venue, but it is amazing what you can do with a lot cash and determination. 

Wisconsin: They don't call them cheeseheads for nothing...

I have only met one person from Wisconsin in my entire life. And he left there because he thought it was a good-for-nothing state. How these people could allow Scott Walker to remain as their governor is beyond me.

Well, I know a couple of reasons. The Republicans outspent the Democrats greatly. Thanks Koch brothers (who have allegedly supported causes like this one). Also do you think President Obama could have paid a visit to Wisconsin in support of the Democratic candidate, Tom Barrett? Of course he couldn't. Perhaps the Koch brothers have him in their pocket as well.

The wealthy are winning their never ending battle to eliminate the American middle class. By off-shoring jobs and moving manufacturing to Asia they have all but eliminated unions from private industry. The new target is now is local government jobs, because they cannot be easily off-shored. It is now necessary to break government unions by passing legislation that takes away their rights. Wisconsin is only the beginning.

Their sights are now set on New York where a movement to eliminate a piece of legislation called the Triborough Amendment of the Taylor Law is now underway. The Triborough Amendment allows the regulations of expired contracts to stand until new contracts are negotiated. Therefore, salaries that have a negotiated salary step schedules will remain on schedule until a new contract is negotiated. They want to have the right to freeze contracts altogether and not allow contracts to advance in salary steps until a new contract is negotiated.

The wealthy know that the off-shoring of jobs was a great union buster, and the private sector can no longer afford to offer its workers decent wages and benefits. They desperately want to make sure that the public sector follows suit.

Labor unions and individual citizens must stand-up and defend this last bastion of the working class in the public sector, as well as try restoring it to the private sector, if the middle class is to survive. Scott Walker's victory in Wisconsin will probably be remembered as the beginning of the end of  middle class America if we continue to allow things like this to happen.