Everything we ever needed to know about collective unions we learned in Kindergarten. Why run around gathering up all the Easter Eggs – if they are just going to be reassembled in a big pile at the end of the hunt and equal amounts given to each ?

PENNSYLVANIA – Few workers would turn down a raise. Union members, however, can have raises turned down on their behalf.

Employees of a Pennsylvania grocery store learned this the hard way.

Managers at the Giant Eagle grocery in Edinboro, Pa., wanted to reward hard work. So they boosted the wages of two dozen high-performing employees above their union rates. But United Food and Commercial Workers Local 23 was not pleased. The union argued the pay increases violated their contract, took Giant Eagle to court and forced it to rescind the raises.

Why did Local 23 oppose higher pay for its members? Because it upended their seniority system, allowing junior employees to make more those with more seniority. Local 23 wanted uniform pay scales—even if that meant cutting some of their members’ wages. (more…)

Good summary of Michelle Obama’s speech ideology to the graduating class of Topeka Kansas from Truth Revolt:   

For Michelle Obama, the world is black and white. But not about good and evil, right and wrong. Her black and white is all about skin color.

She talks about it often, incessantly, even, injecting race and racism into speeches and events in which they have no business. And she did so again on Friday, when she traveled to Topeka, Kansas, to deliver a speech to graduating high school seniors.

First, a background note: Her speech was moved up a day after parents complained that her visit to a school district — just blocks from the historic schoolhouse central to the Brown v. Education Supreme Court decision that outlawed segregation — would focus on race, not their children’s accomplishments.

And that, in fact, is exactly what the first lady did.  (more…)

Sevastopol, Crimea (CNN) — Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Crimea on Friday to take part in Victory Day celebrations in Sevastopol, in what is his first visit to the disputed territory since Russia annexed it from Ukraine.

The President arrived in the port of Sevastopol by sea, in an event televised by Russian state TV, and watched while flanked by senior officers as Russian warships took part in a naval display in the Black Sea.

The military parades, held each year to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany, come amid soaring tensions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists are planning a weekend referendum on autonomy.  (continue reading)

  Independent journalist Jack Cashill discusses his examination of the Trayvon Martin shooting/George Zimmerman case (“If I had a son: Race, Guns and the railroading of George Zimmerman”) at a forum held at the Platte County Resource Center in Kansas City, Missouri and televised on C-Span’s “Book TV”.
The entire discussion is about 1 hr  and 15 minutes long.  He opens up the discussion of his book about the Trayvon Martin shooting by laying down the foundation for the Progressive/Communist Agitprop history of politicizing non-political criminal cases for the advancement of the Socialist agenda, starting with the Sacco/Vanzetti case in the 1920’s.  It is a worthwhile listen for those who don’t have a full appreciation that the techniques used by the Progressives in the Trayvon Martin drama were from an old, old playbook.

For some reason this continuing saga of socialist oppression seems to have escaped the mainstream media…. Sean Penn unavailable for comment (?) 

(From PanAm Post Via WeaselZippers) Peaceful protests in Venezuela will from now on require express authorization from the mayor or the governor of the jurisdiction where they are carried out. The Supreme Court (TSJ) made this decision yesterday, declaring that the right to protest “is not an absolute right.”
https://twitter.com/DefendWallSt/statuses/460131943276085248
Police forces will now be legally allowed to disperse people who shut down a street to voice their complaints. Also, the attorney General will be allowed to prosecute unauthorized protestors for disobedience.
The TSJ considered it is imperative to “guarantee the right to free movement,” which would justify dispersing any unauthorized congregation. According to the ruling, written by Judge Arcadio Delgado, local police forces have “an obligation to cooperate with the rest of the security forces in maintaining public order during the illegal exercise of the right to protest.” (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – Secretary of State John Kerry warned Russia that the “window to change course is closing” in what appeared to be a final warning to Moscow that the U.S. was readying severe economic sanctions over the situation in Ukraine.
“Let me be clear,” Kerry said. “If Russia continues in this direction, it will not just be a grave mistake, it will be an expensive mistake.”
Speaking at the State Department one week after foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, the U.S. and European Union penned an agreement designed to de-escalate the crisis there, Kerry accused the Kremlin of “a full-throated effort to actively sabotage the democratic effort” in Ukraine. (more…)

Boy Howdy, these left-wing activists are sure feeling empowered now with their victory over the Mozilla CEO.   The San Francisco activists now demand Google pay $3,000,000,000 (billion) as compensatory indulgence fees for their services and environmental impacts. The extortion demand is requested to be paid to the Anarchist Movement for distribution in/around the Bay Area to affected fellow leftists.

Quite odd, but then again – this is “San Francisco”.

(Via Huffington Post) San Francisco is no stranger to raucous anti-tech demonstrations, but a protest outside of Google Ventures partner Kevin Rose’s home yesterday took a turn for the personal.
Protesters held up banners and dispersed fliers (pictured left) outside Rose’s San Francisco home reading “KEVIN ROSE: PARASITE,” and blaming the Google Ventures partner and Digg founder for having a hand in San Francisco’s escalating affordability crisis.
The protest appears to have been staged by a group called The Counterforce, which took credit for the protest on the activist website IndyBay and on the blog kevinroseisaterribleperson.wordpress.com, where they requested Google pay a ransom for its effect on the city’s soaring rents. (more…)

Russia invading Ukraine;  North and South Korea exchanging missile fire;  Hey, it’s like we’re back in the 1950’s.

(Via CNN) — A day after raising the possibility of further nuclear tests, North Korea has engaged in provocative live-fire exercises near the South Korean maritime border, leading to an exchange of fire between the two neighbors.

Semi-official South Korean news agency Yonhap reported Monday that the North had begun the drill just after noon (local time). The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed that some North Korean ordnance landed in South Korean waters, and that the South responded with fire.

The JCS confirmed that the North Korean offshore military exercise began around 12:15 pm (local time) Monday, and said that “a part of North Korea’s shelling reached South Korean side of the NLL (Northern Limit Line) and we (South Korea) responded with K-9 self-propelled guns into the North Korean waters above NLL.” (more…)

*tap*tap*tap,… *ahem*… Not to be all Captain Obvious, but what was the CIA Benghazi mission about again ?

The dots are all brutally obvious.   Team Putin (Iran/Russia) squishing Team Bam-Bam in EU and Syria.   In retort, Team Bam-Bam (Saudi Arabia/USA) poke eye of Assad.   Bam-Bam’s BFF Erdogan (Turkey) openly planning false flag operation against Assad.  …. and Who was Ambassador Stephens meeting with on 9/11/12 ?   Uh huh. 

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — (<– Huffington Post ) The Obama administration is considering allowing shipments of new air defense systems to Syrian rebels, a U.S. official said Friday.
President Barack Obama’s possible shift would likely be welcomed by Saudi Arabia, which has been pressing the White House to allow the man-portable air-defense systems, known as “manpads,” into Syria. Obama arrived in Saudi Arabia on Friday evening for meetings with King Abdullah.
Allowing manpads to be delivered to Syrian rebels would mark a shift in strategy for the U.S., which until this point has limited its lethal assistance to small weapons and ammunition, as well as humanitarian aid. The U.S. has been grappling for ways to boost the rebels, who have lost ground in recent months, allowing Syrian President Bashar Assad to regain a tighter grip on the war-torn nation. (more…)

WASHINGTON DC – Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Barack Obama of dramatically weakening the United States’ position in the world, drawing a straight line between Obama’s ever-yielding foreign policy and the increasing troubles around the world.
“Right now, there’s a vacuum,” she told a crowd of more than two thousand attending the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual dinner last night in Washington, D.C. “There’s a vacuum because we’ve decided to lower our voice. We’ve decided to step back. We’ve decided that if we step back and lower our voice, others will lead, other things will fill that vacuum.” Citing Bashar al Assad’s slaughter in Syria, Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, al Qaeda’s triumphant return to Fallujah, Iraq, and China’s nationalist fervor, she concluded: “When America steps back and there is a vacuum, trouble will fill that vacuum.”
(more…)