UAW loses, a warning to Connecticut

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I’ve two items for today’s post. In a sense, both are related, the failure of big government and big unions. Both entities are large, faceless organizations whose purpose is to force people to do something against their will.

In Tennessee, the UAW has been trying to unionize a VW plant for some time. Pet NLRB pols and administrative judges have been greasing the ways from the beginning using all the power of the federal government to force the UAW on the VW workers. The vote was taken and the UAW lost.

LIVE coverage: Chattanooga Volkswagen plant votes against UAW

published Friday, February 14th, 2014, by Staff Report

Volkswagen Chattanooga

Volkswagen Chattanooga

Volkswagen’s Chattanooga employees have spurned the United Auto Workers, rejecting two years of wooing by the Detroit-based union in a vote of 712 to 626.

The vote count came late Friday after three days of balloting by VW workers in the National Labor Relations Board-supervised election. Some experts said the result is a blow to the UAW and that the VW plant was its best chance to organize a foreign-owned auto factory in the South.

Jack Nerad, executive market analyst of Kelley Blue Book, said UAW put a lot of work into trying to organize VW’s Chattanooga operation. He termed it “a publicity setback for certain.”

“On behalf of Volkswagen Group of America, I want to thank all of our Chattanooga production and maintenance employees for their participation in this week’s vote. They have spoken, and Volkswagen will respect the decision of the majority,” said Frank Fischer, CEO and chairman of Volkswagen Chattanooga. “The election results remain to be certified by the NLRB,” Fischer, said.

“Our employees have not made a decision that they are against a works council. Throughout this process, we found great enthusiasm for the idea of an American-style works council both inside and outside our plant,” Fischer noted. “Our goal continues to be to determine the best method for establishing a works council in accordance with the requirements of U.S. labor law to meet VW America’s production needs and serve our employees’ interests. ”

Sebastian Patta, vice president for human resources, said, “While there was intense outside interest in this election, our managers and employees inside the plant maintained high quality production and continued to work together in a calm and respectful manner.”

“Our commitment to Tennessee is a long-term investment. We look forward to continuing to work with the state of Tennessee and the city of Chattanooga to support job creation, growth, and economic development today and into the future,” Fischer added.

The voting had numerous groups observing the process and all, grudgingly for some, agreed the vote was valid. After two years and millions spent by the UAW, the employees of the VW plant spoke. No Union!  Richard Trumka of the AFL/CIO blamed outside right-wing extremist, economic terrorist, for the loss. I suppose his left-wing extremist, economic terrorist, union agitators that created the issue were blameless.

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A situation is rising, one I’d hoped would not happen, in Connecticut. Connecticut passed a law requiring all gun owners to register their firearms.

Law-abiding Connecticut gun owners may face FELONY CHARGES for failing to register weapons

6:05 PM 02/13/2014

Connecticut’s gun control deadline requiring gun registration has come and gone — putting tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens at risk of felony charges, should officials decide to crack down on what one gun owner called a stand of “civil disobedience.” Last January after the Sandy Hook shooting, Connecticut passed a stringent new gun control laws, and in April, Gov. Dannel Mallory approved restrictions which redefined the definition of an “assault weapon” to ban 100 more types of semi-automatic weapons. The law’s grandfather clause allowed gun owners already possessing AR-15s and similar weapons to keep them, but they must submit their personal information to a statewide registry. A photo taken by George Roelofson depicting long lines of gun owners waiting to register their weapons and ammunition went viral in December as the law’s deadline approached:But that’s only a tiny fraction of the state’s gun owners.

Now, as Connecticut’s The Courant estimates, as many as 100,000 gun owners with 350,000 unregistered weapons have yet to come forward, making state officials uneasy. Furthermore, estimates concerning banned magazines holding more than ten rounds — which have no serial numbers and are impossible to track unless registered — show that only 36,932 have been entered into the state’s databases, while over two million remain on the market. “I honestly thought from my own standpoint that the vast majority would register. If you pass laws that people have no respect for and they don’t follow them, then you have a real problem,” Republican state Sen. Tony Guglielmo, ranking senator on the legislature’s public safety committee, told The Courant. Last week, a gun owner informed Guglielmo during a constituents’ meeting that he and fellow gun owners refused to submit to the law’s registration requirements. “He made the analogy to prohibition. I said, ‘You’re talking about civil disobedience, and he said ‘Yes,’ “ Guglielmo said. Mike Lawlor, undersecretary of Connecticut’s Office of Policy and Management, said that the state will not yet aggressively pursue unregistered gun owners — even sending out a reminder letter could spark tensions between gun owners and officials. Lawlor instead suggested first extending the deadline and holding an “outreach campaign” to encourage submissions. Lawlor added that the law, having technically rendered otherwise law-abiding citizens with no criminal history felons in one fell swoop, has partly succeeded in its goal to eliminate assault weapon ownership in the state. “Like anything else, people who violate the law face consequences,” he told The Courant, leaving open the possibility of future prosecutions. “That’s their decision. The consequences are pretty clear… There’s nothing unique about this. The goal is to have fewer of these types of weapons in circulation.” Meanwhile, Scott Wilson, president of Connecticut Citizens Defense League, Inc. (CCDL) has led the charge against Connecticut’s gun restrictions, suing the state in May for passing an unconstitutional law that violates the Second Amendment. “I think that the state would be better served using its resources going after violent criminals — ones that are perpetuating acts of violence in their community — instead of going after law-abiding citizens,” Wilson told The Daily Caller. Many Connecticut gun owners either remain unaware that the law requires registration, or don’t believe that their particular models fall under the law’s jurisdiction at all, Wilson added. He also noted that he had been contacted by many gun owners after the registration deadline passed who were afraid to come forward and get slapped with criminal charges. “My sincerest hope is that the state of Connecticut will come to [its] senses and the law that was passed Jan. 1 will one day be repealed by the state legislature,” Wilson said.

The article concludes with this statement. “Connecticut state police declined to comment, while the state’s firearm licensing department could not be reached.” There is great concern from a growing number of Connecticut citizens and others around the country that the Connecticut State Police would start confiscation raids on the homes of those who failed to register. When officials were contacted and asked that question, those same officials refused to answer.The seriousness of the situation has lead to gun-rights activists across the country to weigh in on the side of the state’s gunowners. Mike Vanderbeorgh, one of the bloggers who investigated the BATF’s Fast and Furious gun sales to Mexico’s drug cartels, wrote this open letter to the members of the Connecticut State Police. The email is long, too long to quote here. Instead, I’ll post portions of the email and ask that you follow the link in the article title and read the entire message yourself.

The following letter was sent via email to members of the Connecticut State Police, Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection. There are 1,212 email addresses on the list. There were 62 bounce-backs.15 February 2014To the men and women of the Connecticut State Police and the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection: My name is Mike Vanderboegh. Few of you will know who I am, or even will have heard of the Three Percent movement that I founded, though we have been denounced on the national stage by that paragon of moral virtue, Bill Clinton. Three Percenters are uncompromising firearm owners who have stated very plainly for years that we will obey no further encroachments on our Second Amendment rights. Some of you, if you read this carelessly, may feel that it is a threat. It is not. Three Percenters also believe that to take the first shot in a conflict over principle is to surrender the moral high ground to the enemy. We condemn so-called collateral damage and terrorism such as that represented by the Oklahoma City Bombing and the Waco massacre. We are very aware that if you seek to defeat evil it is vital not to become the evil you claim to oppose. Thus, though this letter is certainly intended to deal with an uncomfortable subject, it is not a threat to anyone. However, it is important for everyone to understand that while we promise not to take the first shot over principle, we make no such promise if attacked, whether by common criminals or by the designated representatives of a criminal government grown arrogant and tyrannical and acting out an unconstitutional agenda under color of law. If we have any model, it is that of the Founding generation. The threat to public order and safety, unfortunately, comes from the current leaders of your state government who unthinkingly determined to victimize hitherto law-abiding citizens with a tyrannical law. They are the ones who first promised violence on the part of the state if your citizens did not comply with their unconstitutional diktat. Now, having made the threat (and placed the bet that you folks of the Connecticut State Police will meekly and obediently carry it out) they can hardly complain that others take them seriously and try by every means, including this letter, to avoid conflict.……tyrannical politicians in your state have been writing checks with their mouths that they expect you to cash with your blood. We have moved, thanks to them, into a very dangerous undiscovered country. Connecticut is now in a state of cold civil war, one that can flash to bloody conflict in an instant if someone, anyone, does something stupid. So please pay attention, for Malloy and Co. have put all your asses on the line and are counting on your supine obedience to the enforcement of their unconstitutional diktat. I apparently first came to your attention with this speech on the steps of your state capitol on 20 April 2013. It was very well received by the audience but virtually ignored by the lapdog press of your state. If I may, I’d like to quote some of the more salient points of it that involve you.“An unconstitutional law is void.” It has no effect. So says American Jurisprudence, the standard legal text. And that’s been upheld by centuries of American law. An unconstitutional law is VOID. Now that is certainly true. But the tricky part is how do we make that point when the local, state and federal executive and legislative branches as well as the courts are in the hands of the domestic enemies of the Constitution. Everyone who is currently trying to take away your right to arms starts out by saying “I support the 2nd Amendment.” Let me tell you a home truth that we know down in Alabama — Barack Obama supports the 2nd Amendment just about as much as Adolf Hitler appreciated Jewish culture, or Joseph Stalin believed in individual liberty. Believe what politicians do, not what they say. Because the lie is the attendant of every evil. . .Before this year no one thought that other firearms and related items would ever be banned — but they were, they have been. No one thought that the authorities of your state would pass laws making criminals out of the previously law-abiding — but they did. If they catch you violating their unconstitutional laws, they will — when they please — send armed men to work their will upon you. And people — innocent of any crime save the one these tyrants created — will die resisting them.You begin to see, perhaps, how you fit into this. YOU are the “armed men” that Malloy and Company will send “to work their will” upon the previously law-abiding. In other words, this law takes men and women who are your natural allies in support of legitimate law enforcement and makes enemies of the state of them, and bully boy political police of you. …

Just like King George, such people will not care, nor modify their behavior, by what you say, no matter how loudly or in what numbers you say it. They will only pay attention to what you DO. So defy them. Resist their laws. Evade them. Smuggle in what they command you not to have. Only by our ACTS will they be impressed. Then, if they mean to have a civil war, they will at least have been informed of the unintended consequences of their tyrannical actions. Again I say — Defy. Resist. Evade. Smuggle. If you wish to stay free and to pass down that freedom to your children’s children you can do no less than to become the lawbreakers that they have unconstitutionally made of you. Accept that fact. Embrace it. And resolve to be the very best, most successful lawbreakers you can be.
Well, I guess at least some of my audience that day took my message to heart. As Connecticut newspapers have finally begun reporting – “Untold Thousands Flout Gun Registration Law” – and national commentators are at last noticing, my advice to defy, resist and evade this intolerable act is well on the way. The smuggling, as modest as it is, I can assure is also happening. This law is not only dangerous it is unenforceable by just about any standard you care to judge it by. Let’s just look at the numbers mentioned in the Courant story.

By the end of 2013, state police had received 47,916 applications for assault weapons certificates, Lt. Paul Vance said. An additional 2,100 that were incomplete could still come in.

That 50,000 figure could be as little as 15 percent of the rifles classified as assault weapons owned by Connecticut residents, according to estimates by people in the industry, including the Newtown-based National Shooting Sports Foundation. No one has anything close to definitive figures, but the most conservative estimates place the number of unregistered assault weapons well above 50,000, and perhaps as high as 350,000.

And that means as of Jan. 1, Connecticut has very likely created tens of thousands of newly minted criminals — perhaps 100,000 people, almost certainly at least 20,000 — who have broken no other laws. By owning unregistered guns defined as assault weapons, all of them are committing Class D felonies.

“I honestly thought from my own standpoint that the vast majority would register,” said Sen. Tony Guglielmo, R-Stafford, the ranking GOP senator on the legislature’s public safety committee. “If you pass laws that people have no respect for and they don’t follow them, then you have a real problem.”

This blithering idiot of a state senator is, as I warned Mike Lawlor the other day, extrapolating. It is a very dangerous thing, extrapolation, especially when you are trying to predict the actions of an enemy you made yourself whom you barely recognize let alone understand.

The email continues. Suffice to say, the situation in Connecticut has the potential to be very dangerous. Firearm confiscation led to the confrontation at Lexington in 1775 that led to the Revolution. If the government of Connecticut continues down the path like that of King George, no one knows what will happen. It the State Police follow the orders of the state government, sooner or later, there will be armed resistance.All of us around the country do not want that to happen.

The consequences are too dear. Public pressure can make those petty tyrants in the Connecticut state government reverse their path. It has happened before.In the end, the real issue is not about so-called ‘assault weapons.’ It is about the supremacy of government over the individual.

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