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Been Spending Most Their Lives, Living In The Workers' Paradox
In the 'I need to read that again to make sure I am not totally nuts' headline of the day, Reuters is reporting that 100 Sardinian miners have gone totally M.A.D. over the potential closure of the mine they work at. Barricading themselves 400 meters underground with 350 kilograms of explosives and threatening to "stay [there] indefinitely."
From Reuters:
The miners from a 460-strong workforce seized 350 kilos of company explosives and locked themselves inside the Carbosulcis mine west of Cagliari overnight on Monday, one of them said, ahead of a government meeting this week to discuss the pit's future.
"We are worried that the mine may close. We are afraid for our jobs," said Sandro Mereu, 54, a miner who has worked there for 28 years.
"We are prepared to stay here until we hear a response from the government that secures the future of the mine. We will stay here indefinitely," Mereu told Reuters by telephone.
The miners want the mine to be diversified into a combined mining and carbon capture site to protect its future. Carbon capture is the storing of polluting emissions underground to mitigate global warming.
Carbosulcis was estimated to have 600 million metric tons of coal reserves in 2006 but has struggled to stay productive. It was previously occupied in 1984, 1993 and 1995, when protesting workers stayed in a tunnel for 100 days.
While one certainly sympathizes with anyone who is unable to adapt to the New Abnormal Normal, one question does remain - is the 'blowing up the mine to protect their jobs' concept a Keynesian 'broken-window-fallacy' joke? or do they (like their forefathers who also occupied the mine in 1984, 1993, and 1995) hope the Italian politicians will simply back-down, collateralize the explosives with the ECB, and bail the whole mine out.
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The world is becoming more and more unstable. Oh well, who is John Galt?
Send the NYC cops over to 'rescue' them. That would bring it to a dramatic conclusion.
Tyler, this thread (based on title)... Needs a soundtrack... Here's the best MOCK-UP
~~~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgdQSKahtQw
This ditty can be easily adapted to the thread title:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RW1V5cds5WU
Crockett ~ you don't get it... NOBODY here 'get's it' (cept prolly Tyler)...
~~~
"Been Spending Most Their Lives, Living In The Workers' Paradox" .... is a play on words for:
"Been spending most my life livin' in a gangsters paradise" ~ (a rap song by Coolio)... Which was also remixed into the you tube link I gave...
Whatever... nevermind peeps... carry on...
I liked the part where they talk about Gorebal Warming and the Government having to pay for it. That was my fav part.
Someone needs to link to a YouTube of Hank William's "Mine your own business" ... LOL!
I would also note all the CO2 from the "carbon economy" is slated for tertiary recovery in older oil fields ... so the miners are shit out of luck. Maybe they should come work for Pebble up here when it opens ...
Sometimes I wonder what the world is really going to look like when energy constraints start to squeeze billions of people ... we are all so very fucked ...
Regards,
CrazyCooter
I feely punny today. This looks like a grave situation.
Is a plot a 6-foot hole or a plan?
I read that as Goebbels Warning.
I thought it was Stevie Wonder's "Pastime Paradise":
They've been spending most their lives
Living in a pastime paradise
They've been wasting most their lives
Glorifying days long gone behind
Galt's were gold mines.
The City Council of Portland, Oregon, the last metro city in the country not to fluoridate the water supply, is moving to vote on water fluoridation. The vote is 3 - 2 in favor because our idiot mayor decided to jump on the bandwagon. I would really appreciate anyone who could spare a minute to write the Mayor and tell him how stupid this decision would be.
Here is an article with contact info for the city council and Mayor. Thank you for your help.
http://www.naturalnews.com/036965_Portland_water_fluoridation_toxic_chemicals.html
I would write but water fluoridation has rendered me a passive non thinking easy to control zombie. Probably the type of citizen your mayor is looking for.
huh?... what did you sez there?... I was tweeting sumthin & didn't really catch it...
Take meds, sleep, eat HFCS, buy stuff - the tune of a fruitful life.
"By God, they are sapping our energy by poisoning our precious bodily fluids!"
- Gen. Jack D. Ripper
I spent my childhood in a town with flouridated water, my sister drank well water. My teeth are nice and strong, she's had 2 root canals thus far. Just my 2 cents, there's plenty to worry about, flouridation is not one of those things.
Nothing like a well documented scientifici study. This should settle the issue once and for all.
No idea. But Fracisco d'Anconia told me those mines are worth lots and lots, so I'm sure a bailout is incoming.
The new normal
<-- bail out the mine
<-- bail out the banks
<-- vote Red and bail out the banks
<-- vote Blue and bail out the banks
Sardine workers....ummm
Sardinian miners? I thought sardines came from the sea.
In Italy, sardinians pack themselves into cans.
These miners are confused. They are supposed to throw the mine owners and their families, along with a few politicians down the mine first, then load it with explosives, then start the negotiations. But hey, incoherent stupidity has become the norm these days.
Maybe their water is flouridated?
Exactly. The ones closing the mine, don't mind those workers there. As long as they don't haul up any coal. That would be the best strategy.
edit: I see Peter Pan came up with that idea as well.
MINER: ( pointing gun at own head ) Un passo e il minatore si ottiene!
( One step and the miner gets it! )
Un passo e il minatore si ottiene."many young Chinese are growing disillusioned as they struggle to find jobs. "
So does this mean that the whole job and security it's supposed to provide is just an illusion anyway?
Face it, this whole paradigm is done. Everywhere. Hell, even most posters here don't get it yet.
Real estate agents in Australia who assured everyone for years there was no housing bubble and home prices would only ever go up because there was a "shortage of houses" are now telling everyone who is stuck in a house they cannot afford that they have prices too high.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2012/08/home-sellers-get-real...
As China continues to slow, Australia will continue to correct with collpase of their Housing Bubble and mine slowdowns.
[quote] The post-80s generation, the first to come of age in this era of opportunity, has been raised on a belief that if one can do well in school, graduate from a good university and work hard on his or her career, one can enjoy a measure of success. [/quote]
Hmm, seems I've heard that story before...
It seems to me that there is a more appropriate use of those explosives and it doesn't involve using it on themselves.
Metals are fighting the good fight. The "smart" money is keeping treasuries somewhat bid but if it was that smart I would think yields would be dropping more. It would be really interesting to see metals and yields climb for a change.
I know I know....never happen
I'm quite happy with metals and their slow creep up. It is good if they stay out of the headlines and out of the weak hands of the speculators.
With seven generations being sold forward into debt slavery,
this is far worse than the Mayan virgin thing . Back to the
jungle, let nature take care of the temples.
this shit makes me wanna sing the famous Risk Astley song...
"Never Gonna Give You Up",
"Together Forever"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Astley_discography#Singles
the old: "this is a stick up, give me your money or I'll shoot you!"
the new: "this is a stick up, give me your money or I'll shoot myself!"
It worked in Blazing Saddles.
"Prepare to die, Earth scum! I'm gonna make sure they write that on yer tombstone!"
sandyyadav.com/2012/08/27/ .. It seems like world is becoming more and more unstable.
Here's hoping that it's Goldman Sachs and JPM senior staff that employ the same tactic in a few months. Wouldn't that be fitting?
That's exactly what they've been doing for years, hence TBTF.
....livin' in 'a gangsta's paradise!
'Bail out Goldman Sachs, or we'll jump off this ledge!'
Shoot the hostage!
The solution is easy. Offer the workers to take on the mine at their own expense and under their own control and management. If they can make a go of it and keep their jobs and make a profit then good luck to them. If not, then let them lose their own money.
That, my friend, is called free market capitalism (albeit with a bit of extortion on the front end), that economic theory has long been washed away.
Lots of workers did that in Argentina after the 2001 crash.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%27_self-management
called worker self management, examples include the Paris Commune, the Russian revolution, the Spanish Revolution,Titoist Yugoslavia,Algeria under Ben Bella, the fabricas recuperadas movement in Argentina, etc. Orwell was very impressed with the one during the Spanish Civil War, see his work, Homage to Catalonia
attempted in Chicago area in 2008 during strike at Republic Windows and Doors factory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Windows_and_Doors
funny but the tone of your comment is that the workers dont deserve to get bailed out...the miners can put their own money to risk blah blah blah. whats funny is that they are just demanding what the bankers get without even asking....
Because 2 wrongs make a right.
find me one news story that shows that the bank bailouts are 'wrong'....the miners are stupid and lazy for demanding a bailout using their own taxes by the way while the bankers are shrude players that demand the miners taxes be given to their failed enterprises.
miners demanding BACK their own TAXES doesnt seem to be a wrong.....
"the workers to take on the mine"
not again, another hundred years of socialist experiments ?
These folks are pretty good in running things to the ground,
if I were a bloody miner who only sees sunshine on Sundays
I might be drawn to revolutionary socialism too...
Don't they read the news? BHP just nixed billions in development CAPEX, and these schmucks want a bailout?
What makes you think they took the explosives down the mine?
Wouldn't it make much more sense to stash it away above ground ... if they don't get their way?
They may be coal miners, but let's not presume they are dumb, suicidal simpletons, eh?
Imagine all welfare recipients retreat to the enormous salt caverns of the strategic petroleum depository in east Texas (?) and threaten to immolate themselves if their benefits are cut ? I'd say throw in a couple of used tires and call it a national necklacing holiday ! Monedas 1929 Comedy Jihad Zuma/Mugabe Demographic Metrix
That rocker you fell off of- someone just found it on top of the cliffs of Moher.
.. we'll kill this mine
http://tinyurl.com/9dqsyfd
This is a very scary trend, because if you substitute nukes for TNT you have more than a coal mine imploding. The solution: Planned parenthood and source enough jobs for people to sustain a decent lifestyle. When people get pushed enough, they don't care anymore if thy get hurt in the process of smashing the status quo, they just want to destroy it.
You can't have future liabilities in a society with a declining birth rate. That's a small part of what's causing all this crap.
p.s. please note I said small part, before you give me a red.
Step 1: Fill a mine that's going to be closed with explosives. Step 2: Lock all those pesky rioting miners in the mine, away from the police with guns and the media. Step 3: Tell the media they are holding themselves hostage. Step 4: Faulty wiring causes premature explosion before negotiations could finish.
All problems solved.
wait until it's you in a similar plight you idiot
Forgot my /sarc tag.
The fuckers have TNT. This is not occupy Wallstreet. If they get blown up their trade union buddies top side are going to something about it. Take a look at that the showdown thats going in northern Spain. This shit is why we have gun control in Europe. With people like this around you can't take the risk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Rs-_Lo1M4
Those may be one of the few kind of workers in Italy who really bust their asses for low paychecks.
Respect.
BTW .... those 34 miners shot at the Marakana (sp?) mine were the tip of the spear .... they were the ones who necklaced and machetied (slash with machete) 10 fellow miners and/or police a day before .... who else ? The docile ones ? Zuma was conveniently nearby visiting Mugabe when the new miner union thugs stirred the pot ! Just a normal work action .... eh ? WTFU (wake up) or BSYA (bitch slap yourself awake) !
Waking up and see you been had with everything one huge lie is a bitch!
Going "out" with a big bang is the ultimate form of protest and expression of "free will".
Yeah that will show them take yourself out and become a statistic. I can think of better expressions of free will.
Maybe those 350kg of explosives aren't really in the mine...
Do you want to live forever Dr. Engali? Going out with a band rather than dying on the dole is the closest they are going to get to it.
The "Blazing Saddles" fallacy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_JOGmXpe5I
Keynesian 'broken-window-fallacy' joke?
do only economists read this gibberish ?
Chicken of the Sea sardines .... only prime fillet ! Chicken of the Sea Anchovy Paste .... made with explosives at the bottom of sea caves .... peanuts and wheat products also processed using same equipment !
"'We are prepared to stay here until we hear a response from the government that secures the future of the mine. We will stay here indefinitely,' Mereu told Reuters by telephone."
You have to admire the skill and extent to which the governments of the world have so thoroughly trained their populations into complete dependency. But what the master giveth, he soon taketh away.
It is a perfect example of the "give me X or I'll hold my breath until I turn blue and then you'll be sorry!" rhetoric employed by those who know only welfare-state economics. Of course it's a Ponzi scheme - the financial and military industrial sectors got in first - now everyone else is jealous and wants a cut of that gub'mint cheddah.
It is a breathtakingly stupid ploy. They could have put the explosives to far better use aboveground (...), but as you say, they have been trained, shockingly well, to be capable only of destroying themselves.
There is something inherently wrong with the "If you don't give me what I want, I'll blow myself up." stance...
They are about to become unshackled from a life of hard labor and they threaten to blow themselves up?
Wow!
Hey, they're miners .... not Acorn operatives ?
Wait until you see what the politicians, pensioners, teachers and police are willing to do to keep their incomes intact.
they already have shown use...thats what the one billion round order of ammo was for.....
They have to kill themselves to save themselves.
Remember the rescued Chilean miners .... they were feted with a trip to New York by the media handlers ! They didn't have the decency to take a one hour side trip to the Pennsylvania company of 76 employees that made the miracle drill bit that saved their stupid asses ! That's called Socialist ingratitude !
Probably their handlers in the US didn't took them there.
Did you expect that a bunch of chilean miners would be highly educated, well-informed, mullti-lingual citizens of the world controlling where they went on a propaganda trip to another country!?
Illiterate, badly educated, poor, ill-informed and speaking only Spanish is more likelly.
I don't know were you come from, but I have poor countryside folk in my ancestry two generations ago and that people can't even read or write, much less use the Internet or speak anything other than Portuguese. I can imagine just how dazzled and totally dependent on their hosts they would've been if taken on a tour like those Chilean miners.
You, my friend, need to learn more about other kinds of people ...
I didn't mean to sound mean to the miners (I did use the word stupid) .... my bitch as usual is with the media and the handlers whoever they were ! It would have been a maravelous moment to see the miners hugging and smiling with the Pennsylvania workers ! A tour of the factory with the miners posing with the drill bit .... they were now familiar with ! It was such a missed opportunity .... it begs the question why it wasn't done .... people in the media (I heard it from Rush) were aware of the connection ! Ask the miners if they were asked if they would like to meet their comrade saviors .... I'm sure they would have been delighted with the possibility ! Estoy seguro que los mineros, una vez informados de la oportunidad perdida de dar las gracias, serian indignados por el mal menejo del asunto ! No crees ?
These miners remind me of that sene in Blazing Saddles wher the sheriff holds a gun to his head and says STAND BACK OR THE NIGGER GETS IT.
This about sums up the situation. (it would be nice if someone with a better voice for the refrai and better at lyrics did a version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N14x6kyGYKU
Although Socialism has failed everywhere .... America must never been seen as the winner .... we must destroy America with Socialism, too .... freedom must be contained .... it's a dangerous concept that could animate the peasants !
that's right - let's make the most authoritarian, bloated and expensive central government ever so we can thwart those despicable Socialists!!!
Wouldn't that be the Socialism I'm referring to ?
A telling statement on the conditions in Sardinia ..... :)
Rock and roll, coochie koo. Light my fuse!
Its propoganda of the deed. As far as they are concerned their lives are over if the mine closes and cuts of the income for their community. They are pretty clearly stating to the powers that be "if you shut the mine you had better come kill us". It doesn't make economic sense, they don't give a shit about economics they want to show that they will fight to the death to continue their way of life.
Besides they got fucking dynamite and this is Italy. I think they are being very diplomatic but only holding themselves and the mine hostage.
It might look stupid - but if they set off thee xplosives .. well, revolutions have started for less. Ya - I'd say this 'prank' has got somebodies attention.