by Datechguy | October 2nd, 2011
Cause: via Mark Steyn :
Effect via firedoglake: (emphasis mine)
Is the English rock band Radiohead responsible for the three to five thousand demonstrators that marched on NYPD headquarters yesterday evening? A rumor spread that the band was going to be playing for the activists in Liberty Park. Then, the band’s spokesperson denied they were playing. It was reported the band had intended to play but wanted to only play for the activists. Hundreds if not more than a thousand people showed up to the park for the band. The band never showed up but hundreds were now there for a march.
What is probably more responsible for the growth in numbers is the increased support from big unions, which the action is achieving.
In case that’s unclear let me give you a more familiar example of the same paradigm:
Cause: (emphasis mine)
Jack Woltz: All right, start talking!
Tom Hagen: I come from a personal friend of Mr Johnny Fontane. That friend promises his undying friendship if you would do him a small favour.
Jack Woltz: What’s that?
Tom Hagen: Give Johnny a part in that war movie you’re starting next week.
Jack Woltz: And what favours does this friend promise in exchange for giving Johnny the part?
Tom Hagen: You’ve got some labour trouble coming up. My client promises to make that trouble disappear. You have a top star who makes a lot of money, but he just graduated from marijuana to heroin…
Jack Woltz: Are you trying to muscle me?
Tom Hagen: Absolutely not. I’ve come to ask a service for a friend…
Effect:
Update: Instalance and a great line: A Sicilian explains what’s really going on.
Update 2: Double Instalanche, Sorry Stacy.
Update 3: Triple Instalance nearly a month later, The Democrats really need someone to play Admiral Akbar or Sheldon for them:
I think the endgame is some big democratic money people end up paying a lot to these groups to go away.
Update 4: 1/13/12 Quadruple Instalance. this must be the post of mine Glenn Loves best, by an odd coincidence I met and interviewed multiple Occupiers in NH during my primary coverage. Exit question: Although we got along well and they seemed like nice enough people, doesn’t it seem odd to have a dozen occupiers at the table next to me in a Radison bar paying hotel rates for beer?
Teacher’s unions (NEA and AFT) are huge Democratic contributors.
(AFSCME) as well.
Powerful organizations. Ruthless in their dishonesty.
The Unions true colors are really showing through now: Commie Red. Personally I’m glad they tipped their hand, now even the True Believers can’t deny the traitorous bass-turds for what they really are: Un-American.
Datechguy is on to the way Dems and unions think.
Thanks for the pity-link, Pete. Every little bit counts.
“Some unions (ILWU) can throw a tantrum, they can all turn out to vote, but isn’t that about it?”
Ask Jimmy Hoffa.
Obama’s policies help no one but himself and others who are more interested in moral preening than in prosperity.
Now, we both know that worrying about money is a nightmare. But here in America, we generally have healthy, clean food, clean water, heat, a roof over our heads, running water, a bed to sleep in, vaccinations, etc. It is wealth beyond which most people who are on this Earth or who have ever walked it can imagine. I don’t care if someone has his own Lear Jet; good for him. That Lear Jet provides lots of blue-collar jobs (building, maintenance, housing, etc.) and lots of little kids get food on the table because their daddies are servicing someone’s Lear Jet.
Which is to say – at the root of this is envy. Yes, we are all suffering economically right now, but we are so fortunate compared to most everyone else. The average annual income worldwide is something like $850 a year. These protestors are more than welcome to live in a country without Wall Street – in a mud hut, in the desert, five miles from the nearest well and two days from the nearest doctor.
Wait, I don’t get it. Who’s the Sicilian here? It wasn’t Tom Hagen; Michael later fires him for exactly that reason.
And it certainly isn’t the labor unions… SEIU is about as Sicilian as a bunch of self-centered nanny-statists can be. Some unions (ILWU) can throw a tantrum, they can all turn out to vote, but isn’t that about it?
FR, The Sicilian is me
Really, and I thought you were a proper Italian …
Cheers