August 28, 2011

Wisconsin "Singalong" Protesters Confront Workers and Chant About Boycotting Their Employer.



Meade recorded this video at the 8/26/11 anti-Scott Walker singalong at the Wisconsin Capitol. Toward the end of what is their regular hour-long protest, workers from The Bruce Company, who were installing a new sprinkler system, began using their noisy equipment near the singalong.

A man jumps up and shouts "Boycott the Bruce Company," and a chant immediately breaks out with lots of people raising their fists and shouting "Boycott Bruce! Boycott Bruce!" — seemingly based solely on the assumption that the workers are deliberately disrupting their singalong. An older male protester directly confronts one of the workers. The police show up to observe and, seemingly, keep the peace. A young female protester wants to know what Meade is up to. What's his take on this? Her take is that the workers started working there for the purpose of drowning out the singers. Meade is heard saying "You don't think maybe you're being a little paranoid?"

If you care about workers — and that is the subject of the songs they sing and sing and sing — why are they harassing these guys? If they care about justice, why do they instantly — based on a paranoid impulse — chant for a boycott? If they care about jobs, why would they want to denounce and injure a local business?

93 comments:

chuck said...

I saw the same sort of thing in the 60's. These leftists sorts don't give a shit about workers, they can't relate, it's like different species. The words to the songs are as meaningless to them as reciting a poem in a language they didn't know.

Chip S. said...

Could it possibly be that they only care about themselves?

I'm Full of Soup said...

Why do you continue to wonder why libruls do illogical and stupid things?

Mary Beth said...

They care neither for the workers or for justice.

Don't you have to be doing business with a company before you can boycott it?

Anonymous said...

You're posing logical questions to illogical people. More telling would be the answer(s) you expect to hear from them in return.

Terry said...

Silly! Hating the boss is not the same thing as loving the workers.

Anonymous said...

GOP killing each other! What fun!

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62184.html

POTUS Obama wins by default. I love it.

Thanks to GOP for not considering Christie, Paul, Daniels. Romney will never make it (but he is the only one in current crop who could defeat Obama). GOP: We love ya!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joe said...

(The Uncredentialed, Crypto Jew)




Really, this isn't really difficult. These are the Intellectuals and they are in an “alliance” with the Workers.....but the Intellectuals really can't grasp workers. I saw this all the time at my alma mater The Socially Concerned Students always talked about workers, even if they really didn't know any workers.

traditionalguy said...

See mob chant.

See workers work.

See mob mentality knee jerk stupid thug acts.

They need a mental health team to intervene and save these chanter's minds.

Trooper York said...

These are the usual liberal elitists who wouldn't know a worker if one started a jackhammer right next them.

They are the type of liberal elitists who would shut the subway so workers couldn't get to work.

ndspinelli said...

Hell..the Bruce Company is probably one of the only landscaping companies to not employ illegal aliens..not that there's anything wrong w/ that.

Anonymous said...

It's not about children, workers or rights anymore (if it ever was). Hell, it is hardly about Walker. What is it?

It is about a bunch of sanctimonious, immature adults participating in an ongoing circle-jerk. It feels good to them to pretend that thay are making a difference in the lives of children, workers or rights. Or that they will take down Walker. But it may never end because they are impotent on all of those fronts.

As an aside, a relative told me yesterday that her check (state of WI) showed her deduction for insurance was up from $70 to $210. But she is also saving about $60 per month by not having to pay union dues. She is fine with the deal and is happy to have a steady job with excellent (still) benefits.

8/28/11 3:26 PM

Pettifogger said...

Because they're poseurs?

DADvocate said...

When are they going to change the name of Madison to Dumbshitville?

Trooper York said...

I bet they didn't know that the Bruce Company only employs gay workers.

Not that theres anything wrong with that.

Terry said...

I operate complex research equipment at high altitude for long hours. I am a worker.
My father worked in a factory testing welding equipment. He was a worker.
My father's father was a career non-com in the U.S. Army. He repaired the weapons used to kill fascists. He was a worker.
When I was in college I got to see education students in training. They were learning to play musical chairs.
Public school teachers are not workers.

rcocean said...

Seriously, when did Communists or the left ever Really care about the workers?

Marx and Lenin didn't - neither did the Fabian Socialists. It was all a means to an end.

Ah Pooh said...

These singalongers are just so silly. If all of them were first year college students I could see them finding this exciting and rebellious. But to see adults act like this is so ridiculous - what goofballs.

Fred4Pres said...

Everyone needs some beer, brats, and curds and just chill out.

ndspinelli said...

With a name like "Bruce"[said in a sissified way] you know they employ gay folks, and no..there is nothing wrong w/ that. Actually, I think I would prefer a gay gardener. But..one like the Julianne Moore character in the Kids Are Alright would be my first choice.

ricpic said...

They love to get their rocks off.

Writ Small said...

Paranoia strike deep.
Into your life it will creep.

wv: crewsdu Crewsdu work. Not sure what those protesters were duing.

Chef Mojo said...

Off topic, but it seems that in Wisconsin, some workers are more authentic than other workers: Labor for me, but not for thee
seems to be the rule in Wausau.

Seriously, the optics are not good on this sort of crap. The unions are digging their own graves apace.

MamaM said...

Wiconsin Witch Hunters Zero in on Ditch Witch!!!

Levi Starks said...

They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore.

Triangle Man said...

They care neither for the workers or for justice.

Don't you have to be doing business with a company before you can boycott it?


This. Bruce is too expensive for all but the wealthiest individuals to consider for home landscaping. Maybe they bought a shrub at Bruce's overpriced retail store.

Big Mike said...

They are the type of liberal elitists who would shut the subway so workers couldn't get to work.

Wait! You mean not everyone in New Yawk has their very own chauffeured limousine? Heck, I thought even the chauffeurs had their own chauffeurs at the end of the day.

You New Yawkas. You're always full of surprises.

Big Mike said...

So I guess I'll bite. Are there any protesters in Madison who know what it means to work for a living? Any at all???

Valentine Smith said...

Back then it was the rich kids Ayers, Rudd, the broad who blew herself up, etc, you know the competent concerned vanguard of the proletariat.

Same people now. Only superannuated and yearning for the glory days. Think it's pathetic at the sing-alongs just picture them passing around joints and playing grab-ass at their reconstructed dorm rooms in their basements.

Nothing is as vile as an old hippy. They all look like old lesbians.

Automatic_Wing said...

Are we sure this Bruce outfit isn't just a Koch Bros front?

I think I'll withold judgment until garage ans AlphaLib file their report.

Rob said...

This is a trick question of some sort, right? One of those Althouse final exams where the answer is so obvious the law students outsmart themselves and miss the answer.

Answer:

Many of the protesters are jerks.

Carol_Herman said...

Black nail polish! Even funnier if she pays someone else to paint this on!

I think the people who sell the cosmetics like this to women ought'a be "boycutted."

Where did this idiot think you get the grass to stay green come from?

Oh, yeah. Wasn't new sod put in at some point because the marchers destroyed some of the grass with their protests?

I love the reasoning!

Even better! WIthout being asked ... the cops showed up.

And, I I could think of ... was ... wow that man with the shovel had powerful shoulders.

If you were at Woodstock, you'd have seen the applause for the truckers who brought in replacement Port O' Potties.

In a more civil society ... the singers would have asked the working men ... if they had any musical preferences.

Cincinnatus said...

Hate, bile and paranoia. Its all they got left.

Trooper York said...

Actually the Bruce Company is not owned by the Koch brothers. Everyone knows that it is owned by Bruce Wayne and is a part of Bruce Wayne enterprises. They specialize in installing Bat Poles that you can teach your teen age ward to slide down. They have a sideline as well as they install stripper poles as well.

Everybody knows that.

gerry said...

Please, Meade and Ann, keep showing the protesters for what they are: unthinking herds of reactive nincompoops.

THEY ARE DEMOCRATS! THEY ARE DEMOCRATS! THEY ARE DEMOCRATS!

Terry said...

Chef Mojo wrote:
"The unions are digging their own graves . . ."
Union grave diggers are too expensive. Illegal Mexican laborers are digging their graves for them!

1775OGG said...

What will destroy Progressives is full and complete disclosure of their acts, make each one a public affair.

The yound woman quizzing Meade is one more example of how Progressive Socialists have shit for brains and total lack any idea of how things work.

They are total pond scum.

garage mahal said...

These Solidarity Singers are literally ripping the fabric of our society wide open.

STOP SINGING!

Jeff in Oklahoma said...

Crap - -I've got it figured out. Hit me like a blot of lightning.

As I was saying in the previous thread - - you never see anything of this sort in Red states - - at least I can't think of any off the top of my head.

Anyways, the protesters, almost exclusively in "blue states," are the product of the "nanny state."

Here it is - - but for the nanny state, those lot would have long ago be consumed by Darwin's theory.

Michael said...

Garage: No, just shut up and stop work while they sing, Comrade. Certainly you do not continue to work when they sing, do you Comrade? Certainly you know better than to interrupt with noise Comrade.

Chip S. said...

Everyone knows that it is owned by Bruce Wayne and is a part of Bruce Wayne enterprises.

Well, what I heard was that it's a subsidiary of Tammy Bruce Enterprises. Madisonians find her very confusing.

XWL said...

Thank Gaia that The Paranoid Style in American Politics only applies to right wing Bircher types...

Speaking of paranoid Bircher types, this speech from 1974 by Robert Welch has clearly been proven wrong...

Trooper York said...

I thought Tammy Bruce owned a diesel oil company?

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

edutcher said...

These are the people who will tell you they're for the working man.

Actually, they're for anyone who gets paid for not working and who gets to shift their cost of living onto the taxpayer.

Rabel said...

All those people.
One Black guy.
Guess who gets to operate the shovel.
It ain't right.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

Trooper York said...

I bet they didn't know that the Bruce Company only employs gay workers.

I thought that rule #1 was No Poofters

Paul said...

They are called Anarchist Ann.

Has it ever occurred to you most of these protesters will protest anything as long as it gives them air time?

They don't care about workers, or work, or anything cause it is so much easier to tear down than build up.

Maybe they will boycott themselves one day.

Joe said...

(The Crypto Jew)
These Solidarity Singers are literally ripping the fabric of our society wide open.

STOP SINGING!


Poor Garage, it must be tough seeing all you believe threatened…still read for comprehension, the people screaming “STOP” were the SINGERS!

The forces of “Good” were the ones objecting, not the forces of “evil.”

Chuck66 said...

Obviously there are exceptions (such as our blog host and hostess and some of those who post here), but way too many Madison people come across as a little dim witted.

Terry said...

The problem with the Left in a nutshell:
http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/08/26/michael_kazin_interview/

"The professionalization of the left was inevitable in some ways because the work of the 1960s was primarily anchored in colleges and college communities. It's not surprising that people like me became liberals instead of radicals after the revolution didn't happen. When we had to find a way to make a living, it made sense to become professionals. That is essentially what we were going to college to become, even though we took a detour for a while. To some degree, you need professionals to organize. The people who organized the labor movement in the 1930s were often skilled workers, but there were also professionals like lawyers and journalists. The problem, of course, is when the movement is perceived as a movement of the better-educated, wealthy, privileged elite who are simply self-interested. That image is a problem the left, including liberals, continues to have because it has been cut off from a lot of ordinary working people."

This idiot of a Georgetown professor does not realize what is obvious to any worker who reads this interview -- liberals like him identify much more with the bosses than with the workers.

damikesc said...

They could tell they weren't public union employees.

...you know, they were working and all...

The Dude said...

WORK? Those "protesters" are more allergic to work than Maynard G. Krebs!

WV: comel - will they be the strow that breaks the comel's back?

J Allen said...

My wife and I were up on the square on the 24th and it was much quieter that day. There were also people working on the lawn so, in an odd economic way, I guess there is a conspiracy by a company to hire workers for a wage to complete a task as agreed by a contract.

Anybody know if the Bruce Company guys are union?

Carol_Herman said...

Terry @ 4:19 PM

I heard a good pun, today. (It's from Stephen Fry). He said "if you showed him Karl Marx's grave, he'd show you a communist polot.)

Carol_Herman said...

Oops! Typo. PLOT.

The communist plot is where they've buried Karl Marx.

Carol_Herman said...

Oh, to think at one time folk went to the park to play chess. Or watch other people playing chess.

Politics takes all the fun out of it.

jacksonjay said...

Maybe protesters could use their Holy Sacred Drums to drown-out the evil corporate irrigation construction equipment!

Better yet, call on Holder DOJ to shut down Bruce for using equipment that violates Indian law.

Ban Bruce from the Labor Day Parade!

We don't have this kind of fun in Texas! What ya'll need is 100+ degree days!

Joanna said...

Some of the singalongers' best friends are workers.

I'm Full of Soup said...

if i was a capitol cop, i'd be filing a wokr comp claim for the daily abuse to my eardrums.

Karl said...

AJL said: if i was a capitol cop, i'd be filing a wokr comp claim for the daily abuse to my eardrums

If I was a Capitol Cop I would be thinking about using state funded methods to get my BMI below the endomorph level.
I would also be thinking about shaving off that stupid 1990's era goatee.

J Allen said...

@ Karl; it's Wisconsin, he's ahead of his time as long as he doesn't leave the state.

Carol_Herman said...

Actually, if people had more pocket money, they'd be out shopping!

The "sing along" is covering up the real drama, where customers have stopped going to the malls.

Curious George said...

"J Allen said...


Anybody know if the Bruce Company guys are union?"

None of them appeared drunk, and they were workin and not just leaning on the shovel. So I doubt it.

Monkeyboy said...

Another victory for government unions!
So far by my my tally they have absolutely crushed: Manual Laborers; Special Olympians; Janitors; School Children; Fransiscian Friars and 60 year old law professors.

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

Lefty protestors bothered by noise at the capitol? That's too funny.

Maybe Bruce should start issuing vuvuzelas to their workers.

bagoh20 said...

Was that Althouse from the 60s arguing with her future husband? Time travel is cool. It wouldn't even be possible if Madison wasn't the huge vortex it is allowing all kinds of strange nonsensical happenings. Madison is where the strings all come together in the mother of all quantum knots. It's the only explanation possible, and it's far out, man!

Karl said...

"I know that you're here for your W-I-I-F-E"
Heh! saying *wife* nearly made this bitch gag

So the snotty C-U-N-T in the black wife beater is upset that the WORKERS are *drowning out* the SINGERS????

Hasn't *drowning out* been the entire Modus Operandi of these assholes?

For Fucksake.

My kids are not going to use any of their *College Money* to go to Madison.

bagoh20 said...

The university does run an annual field trip to a factory to see actual workers, but attendance is not mandatory to pass, so a lot of people just skip it. They show slides of workers during class and discuss them though. Still, I don't think it gets enough coverage in most programs.

Michael Haz said...

Notice that none of the singers was bright enough to say to the others: "Let's go to the other corner where the Bruce guys aren't working"?

Michael Haz said...

And the Bruce guys were dressed better than the protestors. Having a job will do that for a man.

Jon Burack said...

From what I could hear of the singing, the protesters should thank Bruce for drowning them out. Good grief, "Solidarity Forever." On that the great awakening of the people depends? Wake me when it's over. Zzzzzzzzz...

Titus said...

Wisconsin is pathetic.

I am leaving in three days, thank God.

And the worst is no hotties.

Titus said...

My mom purchased a fab patio set for their cottage at Bruce Company.

Bruce Company is expensive but I love it.

Wally Kalbacken said...

You just can't make this shit up.

JAL said...

Glad to see Meadehouse is returning to the important theme which has marked this blog for years.

Breasts.

Nice shot Meade. ("No name? Well, here's to ya' toots ...")

Nice ending Professor.

Titus said...

I do enjoy the ending.

I nice shot of tits.

And Meade being referred to as Ann Althouse's husband.

Your work is done.

Madison, Wisconsin is gross.

Now, onto something else!

walter said...

Should have just told her to view the blog to find out.

I keep imagining some poor guy named Bruce encountering this.

One thing about the posted clip that bugs me though is there is editing that seems to remove some of the interaction between the worker advocate and the actual worker as well as the initial arrival of the police.

Joanna said...

Notice that none of the singers was bright enough to say to the others: "Let's go to the other corner where the Bruce guys aren't working"?

Whose corner? Our corner!

Ann Althouse said...

@Walter Meade didn't get that on tape. He was doing something else. I don't know exactly what happened. If you know, tell us.

walter said...

@Ann,
Ok..
But probably good to identify "tech difficulty" or something like that or else it looks like it's been edited. I wasn't there..probably a good thing for all involved.

Ann Althouse said...

It's edited to get the interesting things. No tech problem. Meade was just in an unrelated conversation at one point. If there is something he missed that sheds light on this idiocy, please tell me.

walter said...

Just saying..when there is what appears to be an edit, especially a dissolve, always makes me wonder what was removed. When recording an event in this fashion, worth keeping in mind.

Jamieson said...

One guy gets the whole group to start chanting "boycott Bruce!" within a few seconds. Ann Coulter nails it... these folks are the mob.

Charlie said...

2011 will be the year old fashioned American liberalism died. Thanks for videos like this one and thanks for Wisconsin in general for exposing these idiots.

MadisonMan said...

I am leaving in three days, thank God.

Way to leave before the snow flies, ya coward!

Of course, I'd do the same thing in February, for about 2 months, if I could.

J Allen said...

This version of 'mob mentality' was just the tip of the iceberg. Change the wording to 'shut down Bruce' or 'stop the noise' (any action oriented slogan) and before you know it protesters are grabbing shovels from workers and trying to jump onto equipment. The anarchists will agitate and slip on their bandanas to hide their faces.

Having been on the receiving end of molotovs, bottles, rocks, and other objects I don't think the local police are ready for that scenario. With school starting back up the lemming population will increase and become frustrated as 'The Man' restricts block parties (Mifflin St among those). So how soon will Kent State themed signs start appearing?

Known Unknown said...

In their world, no one would ever work and nothing would get done.

They wouldn't live very long.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

E.M. Davis said...
In their world, no one would ever work and nothing would get done.

They wouldn't live very long.


In the sweet old country
Where I come from
Nobody ever works
Nothing ever gets done
We hang fire,
We hang fire

You know marrying money
Is a full time job
I don't need the aggravation
I'm a lazy slob
We hang fire
A hang fire, hang fire, hang
Put It on the wire baby
Hang fire, hang fire
Put it on the wire baby
Hang
Hang fire

We got nothing to eat
We got nowhere to work
Nothing to drink
We just lost our shirts
I'm on the dole
We ain't for hire
Say what the hell
Say what the hell
Hang fire, hang fire
Hang fire, hang fire
Put it on the wire baby
Hang fire, hang fire hang fire
Hang fire, hang fire

Courtesy of Messers Jagger & Richards

raf said...

If they care about jobs, why would they want to denounce and injure a local business?

Because they care about real jobs, i.e., Government Jobs.

WV: sistin. I be 'sisten you do things my way.

raf said...

On second thought, maybe these were PAID protesters. Then they were probably concerned that they were being prevented from conscientiously fulfilling their contract.

WV: clechon. As in, "Take up a clechon to help the needy protesters."

ken in tx said...

Secondary boycotts and picketing are illegal under the National Labor Relations Act as amended. Secondary boycott means a boycott against an entity which does business with an entity against which a labor organization has a grievance. They are calling for an illegal act.

My first degree was in Industrial Relations.

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