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You are here: Home / Open Threads / The fire last time

The fire last time

by DougJ|  March 24, 20113:26 pm| 86 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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The Times has an interesting look at the politics behind the workplace reforms that took place after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that took place 100 years ago from tomorrow.

You’ll see something there you don’t see much of today: powerful people — politicians and wealthy socialites — who saw the working class as “us” not “them”, as the foundation of our country not as big-screen tv owning leeches.

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Reader Interactions

86Comments

  1. 1.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    I’m going to repost something on this very topic that I through out the other day:

    “Mbleh.

    It’s quite amazing, how with columns and remembrances of the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, that folks are using the time and the opportunity to tell us just how awful and soshulistic and ANti-American any and all business regulations are, and how anyone who wants to learn from the Fire is either Stuck In The Past or some kind of unionite thug who wants to DESTROY AMERICA FOR ALL TIME.

    And I look around, and I see that most of these trolls tend to be the only fucking people anyone in the government fucking listens to anymore, and I realize just how utterly fucking fucked we truly are now. At this point in history, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Congress pass a bill commemorating the anniversary by eliminating all federal workplace safety requirements considering fires. Yeah, if life were that fucking nutso, I know at least Obama would still veto it, but that’s small consolation compared to the total utter wingnuttification of the country wholesale.”

  2. 2.

    Jon

    March 24, 2011 at 3:33 pm

    Interesting coincidence. Was just reading about how the new BioShock Infinite’s game creators took a lot of inspiration directly from the Shirtwaist fire, the Tea Party and populism/nationalism in general. I cannot WAIT to play it.

  3. 3.

    beltane

    March 24, 2011 at 3:37 pm

    There was a good PBS documentary about the fire and the events which led up to it. In all honesty, the rich and powerful did not see the working class as us and not them until after the fire. The workers had been striking on and off for years, often being brutalized by the police and private security, with little or no attention from newspapers such as the NYT. A few socialites such as J.P. Morgan’s daughter supported better working conditions for the laborers, but were adamantly against these workers forming a union because that would be too much like soc1alism.

    Attitudes were no better then than they are now. If all those young women hadn’t burned to death their plight never would have gotten attention.

  4. 4.

    AliceBlue

    March 24, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    For anyone not familiar with the Triangle fire or the labor movement in early 20th century New York, I wholeheartedly recommend “Triangle – The Fire That Changed America” by David von Drehle.

  5. 5.

    PurpleGirl

    March 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    The PBS story watchable on line:

    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/triangle/

    It really is good. Watch it.

  6. 6.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    @beltane:

    At this rate, we’re backsliding to a point that even if we had another Triangle Fire moment, it’d probably end up with successful legislation repealing further Gov’t regulation. Since, you know, it’s all they’re fault that conditions were so bad, their bureaucracy preventing the godly private citizens from getting people to safety and all that.

  7. 7.

    Dan

    March 24, 2011 at 3:42 pm

    I know that people realize it, but I also think that for the most part people underestimate the poisoning effect of that fat fuck on the radio.

  8. 8.

    jl

    March 24, 2011 at 3:44 pm

    From the Wikipedia link:

    “Elevator operators Joseph Zito[14] and Gaspar Mortillalo saved many lives by traveling three times up to the ninth floor for passengers, but Mortillalo was eventually forced to give up when the rails of his elevator buckled under the heat. Some victims pried the elevator doors open and jumped down the empty shaft. The weight of these bodies made it impossible for Zito to make another attempt.”

  9. 9.

    Sad_Dem

    March 24, 2011 at 3:44 pm

    “For a time, Anne Morgan, the daughter of J. P. Morgan, broke with respectable society and gave the strikers money. This was America’s Progressive Age, so she wasn’t alone. But as strikers pressed their demand to have a union, Anne Morgan decided this smacked of socialism and withdrew her support.”

    http://glynholton.com/2011/03/triangle-shirtwaist-factory-fire/

  10. 10.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    @Dan:

    No, I think what’s more problematic is how said fat fuck’s bombast allows people to take seriously people with just as insidious proposals and policies, but state so in a ‘civil’ manner so as to be palatable. And then point out at the ‘incivility’ of their opponents to bolster their inherent rightness.

  11. 11.

    beltane

    March 24, 2011 at 3:47 pm

    @Kryptik: If only the workers had prayed to The Free Market the Invisible Hand would have rescued them. In any case, the workers were not as productive as the owners. Safety regulations might upset the productive people and force them to Go Galt.

  12. 12.

    beltane

    March 24, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    @Dan: Said fat fuck would mock the screams of the workers as they burned to death. They were mostly immigrants with accents whose death cries would have been most amusing to the fat fuck and his legions of impotent, man-boobed followers.

  13. 13.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 3:50 pm

    @beltane:

    It’s truly sad how, as snark-filled as this is, I can imagine it coming out of Larry Kudlow’s mouth (amongst others) in all earnestness and sincerity. We really have backslid into the new Gilded Age. I hope to god we don’t backslide further.

  14. 14.

    New Yorker

    March 24, 2011 at 3:51 pm

    You’ll see something there you don’t see much of today: powerful people—politicians and wealthy socialites—who saw the working class as “us” not “them”, as the foundation of our country not as big-screen tv owning leeches.

    Yeah, I had that thought also. Other than George Soros, what other rich/powerful people work hard for the benefit of the American working class these days?

    The other thought I had is “this is what the teabaggers want us to return to: the paradise that was 1911 America and the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire”.

  15. 15.

    gene108

    March 24, 2011 at 4:00 pm

    @Kryptik:

    At this rate, we’re backsliding to a point that even if we had another Triangle Fire moment, it’d probably end up with successful legislation repealing further Gov’t regulation. Since, you know, it’s all they’re fault that conditions were so bad, their bureaucracy preventing the godly private citizens from getting people to safety and all that.

    The argument, I think, was made in some corners after the Big Branch mine collapsed in W. Virginia, killing 29 people.

  16. 16.

    Eric k

    March 24, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    Quite the contrast:

    Today whenever there is some catasrophe or another (mine disaster, oil spill, Katrina, etc) all we hear is how it is unseemly to talk about how to prevent it, don’t play the blame game, no one could have foreseen etc.

    Then: a terrible tragedy happens they take the opportunity to prevent it happening again.

  17. 17.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 24, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    You’ll see something there you don’t see much of today: powerful people—politicians and wealthy socialites—who saw the working class as “us” not “them”, as the foundation of our country not as big-screen tv owning leeches.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

  18. 18.

    Punchy

    March 24, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    Does Sully own a big-screen TV? What about leeches?

  19. 19.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 4:02 pm

    I’m an Old Guy so take this with however many grains of salt seem appropriate to you. It appears to me that the painful lessons regarding organized labor, workplace safety and labor law have not only been forgotten, they are now actively being discredited by those with enough money to shout down and stifle the opposition. In many areas, we’ve gone from “A day’s work for a day’s pay,” to “A days work for whatever the fuck we feel like giving you.”

    Unless something remarkable happens, our current transition through the Gilded Age will seem like the Good Old Days in years to come.

  20. 20.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 4:02 pm

    @Eric k:

    We can’t have people going hysteric and overreacting to a crisis, you know.

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM:

    You heard about what Maine’s Gov. is doing, right? Tearing down murals at the state Dept. of Labor featuring strikes and labor rallies and such, as well as renaming several offices bearing names like Cesar Chavez and Frances Perkins? Because Business Leaders complained and Gov. LePage wanted a ‘fair and balanced’ depiction of history?

    They’re re-writing history on us as we speak.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 24, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    @Dan:

    The fat fuck needs to be on a tumbrel manifest.

  22. 22.

    Martin

    March 24, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    Maybe Maine should take inspiration from this for their replacement murals. A coal miner with black lung on their death bed. A child in a textile factory being sucked into the machinery. Women leaping to their death from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. You know – pro-business imagery.

    Surely there’s a public servant there planning on retiring soon who could take up this cause.

  23. 23.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    @Eric k:
    Have you noticed that when these things happen, the meme is “It’s too early to talk about it! We don’t want to be hasty and enact laws or regulations while emotions are running high.”

    Shortly after which, the people who just got done fucking us send us a bill for removing the semen stains from their silk underwear.

  24. 24.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM:

    And after the measured reflection of the incident, the betters inform us ‘Shut up and don’t ask questions, serf, now get back to the field’.

  25. 25.

    Redshirt

    March 24, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    Anyone heard what Maine’s new Teabagging governor is up to? Apropos of an anonymous email from a “Secret Admirer”, he wants to get rid of this huge mural depicting the Labor movement in Maine, from the Department of Labor building. Why? Cuz, that’s why. It’s causing a good bit of antipathy.

  26. 26.

    kay

    March 24, 2011 at 4:16 pm

    @Martin:

    What those murals do is glorify work.

    They always meant (to me) that people’s work, even work that is not prestigious or highly valued by society, has worth, and dignity.

    The big fucking irony of this whole thing is that conservatives, who pretend to be all about hard work, demean it unless it’s valued in a way they respect.

    I’m really to the point that I don’t want them around children. They don’t share “our” values :)

    They don’t value people’s work, in and of itself. They value money and prestige.

  27. 27.

    Redshirt

    March 24, 2011 at 4:17 pm

    Damn. I see I was beaten. But, these teabaggers are burning down their own support with these stupid, clumsy moves. Surprise!

  28. 28.

    mr. whipple

    March 24, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    I love how some people say, ‘well, yeah, unions were probably a good idea at the time,’ as if miserable corporate fucks wouldn’t lock people like animals into firetraps now if they could still get away with it.

  29. 29.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    @Martin:
    Aw, c’mon, the marketplace worked perfectly; not one of the dead ever came back to work for Triangle Shirtwaist.

  30. 30.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    OT: Breitbart pulled from HuffPo front page after Daily Caller publishes video of him railing against Van Jones.

    Sadly, he hasn’t been fired completely, just warned another incident would result in his dismissal entirely.

  31. 31.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 4:22 pm

    Back on topic, per Harold Meyerson:

    Businesses reacted as if the revolution had arrived. The changes to the fire code, said a spokesman for the Associated Industries of New York, would lead to “the wiping out of industry in this state.” The regulations, wrote George Olvany, special counsel to the Real Estate Board of New York City, would force expenditures on precautions that were “absolutely needless and useless.”
    __
    “The best government is the least possible government,” said Laurence McGuire, president of the Real Estate Board. “To my mind, this [the post-Triangle regulations] is all wrong.”
    __
    Such complaints, of course, are with us still. We hear them from mine operators after fatal explosions, from bankers after they’ve crashed the economy, from energy moguls after their rig explodes or their plant starts leaking radiation. We hear them from politicians who take their money. We hear them from Republican members of Congress and from some Democrats, too. A century after Triangle, greed encased in libertarianism remains a fixture of — and danger to — American life.

    It’s sad that we’re hearing echoes of this still today, but instead of shoving them into the wastebin of history, we have people scrambling to nod, agree, and find ways to essentially outlaw the kind of regulations and worker rights that were fought for following the fire.

  32. 32.

    geg6

    March 24, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    OT, but this seems a bit important to me:

    http://www.salon.com/news/libya/index.html?story=/news/feature/2011/03/24/turkey_libya_nato_air_strikes

  33. 33.

    trollhattan

    March 24, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    @Kryptik:

    For that matter, wasn’t the Upper Big Branch Mine a rerun of Triangle Shirt Waist? Deepwater Horizon?

  34. 34.

    Punchy

    March 24, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    Being we are approaching the 30th anniversary of the game, does the host then change his name to Dig Dug to honor the protagonist?

  35. 35.

    kdaug

    March 24, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    @kay:

    The big fucking irony of this whole thing is that conservatives, who pretend to be all about hard work, demean it unless it’s valued in a way they respect something they can profit off of.

    Fixed that for ya there.

    ETA: And they do honestly care about hard work. YOURS.

  36. 36.

    trollhattan

    March 24, 2011 at 4:27 pm

    @geg6:

    Saw that on the Beeb site, although still labeled “unconfirmed.” If so, I’ll take it as a positive development.

  37. 37.

    MikeJ

    March 24, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    @trollhattan:

    For that matter, wasn’t the Upper Big Branch Mine a rerun of Triangle Shirt Waist? Deepwater Horizon?

    Fukushima Daiichi?

  38. 38.

    R-Jud

    March 24, 2011 at 4:30 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Western allies and Turkey have reached a breakthrough deal to put the entire military campaign against Muammar Gaddafi under Nato command by next week, senior UK and French sources have told the Guardian.

  39. 39.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    @trollhattan:

    Not enough people died in those accidents to count, you know.

    Once we get a massive accident with at least 100 deaths (and sadly, I’m sure one is coming the rate we’re going), and the folks braying for less regulation win in its wake, then we’ll know we’ve rewound past the Gilded Age fully.

    @MikeJ:

    Nah, that don’t count, that’s Japanese, and they were dumb enough to build plants on FAULTLINES! We Americans are smart enough to avoid th-

    (stares at Diablo Canyon, California)

    Oh….um….heheheheheh….

  40. 40.

    mr. whipple

    March 24, 2011 at 4:31 pm

    @kdaug:

    Yeah. I always felt that ‘dignity of work’ stuff was bullshit propaganda to make the masses feel better while not earning shit. ‘Hey, we’re paying you crap, but yer sooooooo dignified and noble.’

  41. 41.

    MikeJ

    March 24, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    @Kryptik: We could also add Karen Silkwood’s employer, Kerr-McGee.

  42. 42.

    geg6

    March 24, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    @R-Jud:

    Beat me to it. I don’t know what I’d do without the Guardian.

  43. 43.

    trollhattan

    March 24, 2011 at 4:36 pm

    @Kryptik:

    Sadly, I suspect you’re right. This is how Massey’s Don Blankenship was punished for his many deadly misdeeds:

    Like a lot of executives, Blankenship’s pension is bigger than most, worth $5.7 million as of the company’s April 16 proxy filing. He’s also built up $27.2 million in his deferred-compensation account, a combination of pay he set aside and interest Massey has promised to pay him on those sums. And simply retiring lets Blankenship continue to cash in his options for as long as three years; performance-based restricted-stock units will pay out (or not) depending on the performance measures baked into them…
    __
    Then there’s his “salary continuation retirement benefit,” which will keep paying Blankenship $18,241 a month for 10 years after his retirement ($2.2 million, nominally) — or his heirs if he dies before the decade is up. Technically, this benefit kicks in on retirement at age 65, but, as the proxy puts it, the “agreement grants Mr. Blankenship a right to an approved early retirement that vests his retirement benefit, provided he actually severs from employment with us for reasons other than death prior to age 65.” If Blankenship prefers, he may be able to take $4 million in life-insurance coverage during retirement instead.
    __
    Meantime, Blankenship also gets free housing for his golden years, in the form of a $305,000 “company-owned residence and associated property in Sprigg, West Virginia,” as well as reimbursement for any income taxes he owes for getting the house. (Estimated total value: $517,168.) And if federal rules on deferred compensation get in the way of giving him the house immediately on his departure, Massey will effectively let him live there rent-free in the meantime (charging him rent and then reimbursing him for it).”

    http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2010/12/07/rolling_stone_don_blankenship

    No mention of whether the comfy pillows were next.

  44. 44.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 4:36 pm

    @geg6:
    I sure hope that the accompanying photo was wrong though. America is the only nation (To my knowledge) flying the Osprey at the moment. Other nations have expressed interest, but (Again, to my knowledge) we’re the only ones currently deploying the thing.

  45. 45.

    kay

    March 24, 2011 at 4:37 pm

    @kdaug:

    We have a tiled 1930’s era mural near where I live, and it’s a celebration of work and workers. They’re all joyously swinging hammers and such. Now, they’d tear it down, because it’s not fair to the investors and job creators.
    That’s the complaint in Maine, right? The “job creator” class felt left out, sad, and threatened?

  46. 46.

    Wolfdaughter

    March 24, 2011 at 4:38 pm

    A couple of years back I saw the play “The Triangle Factory Fire Project”. A young friend of mine was at that time a senior at Tucson Magnet High School, which staged the play.

    Although the kids were quite variable in their acting abilities, the play was nonetheless moving, informative, and frightening. If it is playing near you, I highly recommend going to see it.

  47. 47.

    geg6

    March 24, 2011 at 4:39 pm

    And now for something a bit more on topic:

    http://thinkprogress.org/2011/03/23/buried-provision-food-stamps/

    Tell me again that we aren’t in a class war.

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    March 24, 2011 at 4:40 pm

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM:

    I saw that photo and about choked. Ospreys landing in Libya?!? Hoping it’s ignoramus editors at play.

  49. 49.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 4:41 pm

    @kay:

    It’s amazing, isn’t it? Real, concrete, tangible shitballs rained down on worker and the unemployed, all to assuage the fee-fees of the “job creators” who feel underappreciated and haz a sad for making $20m instead of their agreed $25m.

  50. 50.

    Comrade DougJ

    March 24, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM:

    I’m an Old Guy so take this with however many grains of salt seem appropriate to you. It appears to me that the painful lessons regarding organized labor, workplace safety and labor law have not only been forgotten, they are now actively being discredited by those with enough money to shout down and stifle the opposition. In many areas, we’ve gone from “A day’s work for a day’s pay,” to “A days work for whatever the fuck we feel like giving you.”

    I agree with you.

  51. 51.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    @geg6:
    Besiege and then starve out. Everything old is new again.

  52. 52.

    geg6

    March 24, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM:

    I have no idea what the photo is about or whose Ospreys they are. Read the Guardian article R-Jud at #38 linked to. Sounds pretty good to me so far.

  53. 53.

    eemom

    March 24, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    @Kryptik:

    that was a great piece, especially that last sentence.

    Meyerson really doesn’t get enough credit for being one of the three or four remaining WaPo/NYT op-ed writers who consistently speaks the truth and eschews the bullshit. I would say he’s up there with Krugman.

  54. 54.

    R-Jud

    March 24, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    @geg6: I don’t love them as uncritically as I used to before I lived here. A lot of their columnists are as dim and annoying as those in the NYT.

    Still, they report when it counts. Rusbridger refuses to go to a paywall model, and it’s causing them to bleed cash. I buy their dead-tree version a few times a week to do my bit to save them.

  55. 55.

    Redshirt

    March 24, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    @kay: That’s the “reasoning”. But I suspect it’s far more petty, and inspired by an “anonymous” email.

    It’s LePage using the same playbook as the other new teatard governors. It don’t think it will work out for him.

  56. 56.

    Dave

    March 24, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    @trollhattan: The US uses the Ospreys for, among other things, delivering humanitarian supplies. That could be very well what is going on here.

  57. 57.

    Comrade Mary

    March 24, 2011 at 4:45 pm

    @jl: God DAMN it. Actually crying here.

  58. 58.

    Comrade DougJ

    March 24, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    @Punchy:

    You mean the Cal-Stanford 1982 game? Yeah, I’ll change my name for that.

  59. 59.

    James E Powell

    March 24, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    What may be the biggest surprise is how little things changed, legally and in practice, in the wake of the Triangle fire. For example, OSHA wasn’t created until 1970.

  60. 60.

    Kryptik

    March 24, 2011 at 4:48 pm

    @eemom:

    Which is why it was depressing to see the comments board for his post essentially 75% “SOSHULIZT!!! AMERICA HATER!!!” or “UNION THUG!!”

  61. 61.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 4:49 pm

    @trollhattan: @geg6:

    I just did some digging and found nothing to indicate that any of our NATO partners are yet deploying Ospreys. I’m going to believe that it was some editor shouting “Find me NATO hardware landing in Libya” until otherwise informed. The primary mission of the Osprey is inserting troops thus the WTF? reaction to seeing them purported to be currently landing in Libya.

  62. 62.

    Mark S.

    March 24, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    @geg6:

    With a record 42 million Americans on food stamps during these poor economic times

    Jesus, I didn’t know it was that high. That’s about 1 in 8.

    And it’s fucking stupid. Food stamps are the best stimulus for the economy, even better than giving tax cuts to billionaires.

  63. 63.

    kdaug

    March 24, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    @kay:

    Yurp. And I’m really, really starting to give fuck-all to the fee-fees(tm) of our Galtian Overlords(tm)

    But, again, the worm has turned, the zeitgeist has shifted, and change is in the air. Worldwide. The Arabs are full-scale, Japan is shattered, and I fear our maelstrom approaches.

    Interesting times, this class war brings.

  64. 64.

    kay

    March 24, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    @Kryptik:

    It’s amazing, isn’t it?

    I don’t know how to do it, exactly, but liberals and Democrats should pursue that idea. I noticed in the rallies in Ohio that there was a lot of talk about “pride in work”. I think some of the workers were offended, in the way you get when you work hard and some highly paid asshole says you don’t.
    It would be wonderful to take valuing “hard working” from conservatives, who don’t mean it and it don’t deserve to have it, and give it back to liberals.
    At base, they’re saying that some work is valued and respected, but other work is not. I don’t think they meant to do that, but they managed to.
    I am not the big picture person, so flesh this rambling thought out, okay? :)
    Conservatives don’t value people’s work. Is that too blunt?

  65. 65.

    artem1s

    March 24, 2011 at 4:57 pm

    FAA suspends air traffic controller caught sleeping

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42237593/ns/travel-news/

    cause busting unions is a time honored tradition started by St. Ronnie.

    How is it that only ONE traffic controller was working? I don’t care what time of the day it is. Al Quaida only works during business hours now? Somehow I think a strong union would demand more reasonable hours and back up staff but then again that’s probably why St. Ronnie busted them in the first place, for making demands that the ‘real’ workers don’t get on their job sites.

  66. 66.

    kdaug

    March 24, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    @kay:

    Conservatives don’t value people’s work. Is that too blunt?

    Not too blunt, but I would add “unless it profits them”.

    ETA: See below.

  67. 67.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    @kay:

    Conservatives don’t value people’s work. Is that too blunt?

    Conservatives don’t value work, they value cheap labor. They value interjecting themselves into the system so that the sweat on the face of every working man and woman results in a profit to them. They have a handful of “Gimme” and a mouthful of “Fuck you for letting me do this to you.”

  68. 68.

    jl

    March 24, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    A little off topic, but related to the problem of completely forgetting our history. Or not knowing anything about it in the first place.

    Bryan Fischer: Muslims Have No First Amendment Rights

    “Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy.”

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/03/bryan_fischer_muslims_have_no_first_amendment_righ.php?ref=fpblg

    Fischer is identified as a ‘top’ social conservative religious leader

    George Washington’s letter to Touro Synagogue:

    “All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent national gifts.”

    http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Letter_to_Touro_Synagogue

    Emphases added.

    I am assuming here that George Washington had some idea of what the First Amendment meant.

    And just now I see on TPM that John Stossel is saying that no group has had more government help than Native Americans. No link for that, it is just too silly.

  69. 69.

    Martin

    March 24, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    @Mark S.: Yes, but do food stamps help the real economy though? You know, the billionaire economy?

  70. 70.

    PurpleGirl

    March 24, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    @Mark S.: Just think, that doesn’t include everyone who needs them. Food support (EBT) is paid for by the feds but there are local eligibility rules. The rules cover things like if you’re a single, childless adult (many states won’t give you benefits), whether or not you’re disabled (and get either state benefits or SSDI), and what your income is (being unemployed does not instantly let you have benefits, you may still get too much in UI benefits). Republicans AND Democrats have for years played with funding levels and rules at the federal and local/state levels.

  71. 71.

    kdaug

    March 24, 2011 at 5:06 pm

    I think we get trapped into a false paradigm of “right/left”, “Democrat/Republican”, “Christian/Athiest” all the time. And I think it’s deliberate, propagated by the people who own the media and broadcast it.

    The real paradigm: rich/poor.

    And it’s always been the paradigm. In all cultures, in all countries, throughout history.

  72. 72.

    Sly

    March 24, 2011 at 5:08 pm

    Seeing the charred and disfigured remains of dozens of teenaged girls and young women laying broken on the sidewalk has a habit of demolishing social barriers.

    It didn’t last very long, however.

  73. 73.

    kay

    March 24, 2011 at 5:09 pm

    @kdaug:

    I don’t think they do, though, even if it profits them.

    I keep thinking of Christie sneering at “babysitters”.

    Even if it were true that pre-k teachers were babysitters, babysitting (private sector, of course) is (actually) hard, essential work.
    I don’t know if it’s just me, but this new thing of conservative governors sneering at low-level workers seems unwise, and like it could be used for political gain. I think they used to give speeches expounding on the dignity of work. They love workers, liberals love welfare recipients, was the general idea they were trying to get across.
    Turns out, they like certain workers. Not many. A few.

  74. 74.

    Mark S.

    March 24, 2011 at 5:10 pm

    @Martin:

    Maybe if there were some way to turn them into derivatives.

  75. 75.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 5:12 pm

    @kay:

    Turns out, they like certain workers. Not many. A few.

    They really like the ones who are packing heat and keeping them from being tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail.

  76. 76.

    Martin

    March 24, 2011 at 5:15 pm

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM: Only the US uses the Osprey, and the MV-22 is specifically the US Marines variant. Two MV-22s were used to rescue the downed F-15 pilots the other day, which is presumably what they are referencing.

    I’m almost positive that’s file footage of the V-22, not an actual picture from Libya. I have no idea how Salon of all people would have a shot that nobody else seems to have. If it’s a recent AP shot, I’d expect to see it everywhere.

  77. 77.

    Martin

    March 24, 2011 at 5:17 pm

    @Mark S.: Already done. Dead peasant insurance is effectively a derivative.

  78. 78.

    kdaug

    March 24, 2011 at 5:18 pm

    @kay: Ah, now here’s the rub: the one’s they’re coming out against are teachers, cops, and firefighters. What professions did you see in your 2nd grade schoolbooks? The cognitive dissonance is a real, damned, hard, sell.

    And all this to give the fat guy in the tophat on the Monopoly board a get out of jail free card?

    I’m telling you, the ground is shaking from where I sit.

    They overplayed their hand.

  79. 79.

    piratedan

    March 24, 2011 at 5:19 pm

    @Incoherent Dennis SGMM: goes hand in hand with the bill that never even made it to the floor in the AZ Lege regarding limiting the size of clips that were sold for semi-automatic weapons post the Giffords shooting…. “we don’t want to politicize this issue, so we’re we’re going to ignore it until you forget about it”.

  80. 80.

    Incoherent Dennis SGMM

    March 24, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    @Martin:
    That’s what I figured. “Get me a picture!” won the race against journalism.

    ETA: The pics were probably taken during Operation Operation some years back.

  81. 81.

    kay

    March 24, 2011 at 5:31 pm

    @kdaug:

    And all this to give the fat guy in the tophat on the Monopoly board a get out of jail free card?

    That is very funny.

  82. 82.

    Elliecat

    March 24, 2011 at 5:50 pm

    On Majority Report Radio, Sam Seder interviewed Kevin Baker, who is coming out with a new book about the Triangle Factory fire. Baker has a lot of interesting things to say about labor back then, about the enormous number of people who died in workplaces, the bloody battles waged against organizing workers, and how the immigrant experience was less often “worked hard, got ahead” than “worked to death.”

    Not to mention that the Triangle owners actually made money off the fire. No wonder Republicans want to go back to those days!

  83. 83.

    Bill Murray

    March 24, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    The natural follow up of the Triangle Fire got outsourced, like many jobs, to Thailand for the Kader Toy Factory Fire, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Kader_Toy_Factory_Fire. Don McGlashan, after the great NZ band, The Mutton Birds, called it quits, wrote a song about the Toy Factory Fire on his album Warm Hand.

  84. 84.

    mclaren

    March 24, 2011 at 8:56 pm

    The reason the rich in America thought of working people in America as “us” rather than “them” is that back in the early part of the 20th century, most of the stuff rich people in America bought was made by working people in America.

    Today, essentially everything a rich person in America buys is made by people in China or Taiwan or Singapore or Senegal or Haiti.

    Rich people in America don’t need working Americans anymore, except as sex slaves and maids.

  85. 85.

    sparky

    March 26, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    interesting that no one here said anything about why there were workplace improvements after the fire. well, here’s a three word explanation:
    Alfred Emanuel Smith

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