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Gibson Guitars still faces no charges, months after raid


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article.php?id=49715Human Events:

Back in August, the federal government’s raid on Gibson Guitars made huge news. The raid by armed agents was ostensibly conducted because Gibson was illegally using rare, restricted woods from India and Madagascar to make its guitars… even though nobody in India or Madagascar filed any complaints against them. This was justified on the grounds that the Lacey Act allows the United States government to prosecute importers for violating foreign laws, whether or not the foreign government in question believes a violation has occurred.

Gibson employees were told by the invading federal agents that they could be looking at up to five years of jail time for whatever the hell they were supposedly guilty of. (The agents in question, clad in body armor and lugging heavy weapons, were from the Fish and Wildlife Service.) The befuddled CEO of the company, Henry Juszkiewicz, was a committed conservationist who once sat upon the board of the Rainforest Alliance, although he resigned after a previous raid in 2009, because he said he didn’t want to cause trouble for the group.

Juszkiewicz initially thought the raid might have been a mix-up due to improperly completed shipping documents, but later said his company was being deliberately targeted by the Obama Administration, which “wants us to just shut our doors and go away.” Fun Fact #1: many of Gibson’s competitors use the same kind of wood in their instruments, but none were assaulted by federal agents. Fun Fact #2: those competitors are not located in a right-to-work states, while Gibson headquarters is in Tennessee.

A Republican congresswoman from Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn, acting in concert with several powerful House committee heads, demanded answers from Obama Administration officials, including Attorney General Eric “Stonewall” Holder. They got about as far as any student of the Most Transparent Administration In History would expect. There are limits to what Congress can do, given that an active “investigation” is still in progress.Scissors-32x32.png

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Fun Fact #1: many of Gibson’s competitors use the same kind of wood in their instruments, but none were assaulted by federal agents. Fun Fact #2: those competitors are not located in a right-to-work states, while Gibson headquarters is in Tennessee.

 

Follow the money.

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It's interesting, because the Union tried to assault Apple awhile back for this sort of thing. And Walmart gets nailed constantly, but Kmart does not treat their employees any better and they are not unionized.

 

It is all about the push to unionize. Period.

 

In a previous position, We used FedEx freight because they were significantly better than UPS in their delivery times, costs and customer service. However the trade shows we shipped to were managed by Freeman, which is heavily unionized. If I did not go out to the hotel dock and stand with the freight to let the FedEx guys come in and pick it up, the Freeman employees would "loose" it, or accidentally put it on a different truck. Ticked me off. I'd be standing out there protecting our stuff from a bunch of thugs and coordinating with the very helpful and slightly put off FedEx folks. STILL ticks me off, now that I'm thinking about it again. Freeman had an absolute stranglehold on that whole shabang.

 

The concept of unions is fine. The reality sucks.

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It's interesting, because the Union tried to assault Apple awhile back for this sort of thing.

 

 

Do you have any more on this? 1st I've heard of it.

 

 

The concept of unions is fine. The reality sucks.

 

The problem is once in they are pretty much unaccountable to the membership.

I was watching a PBS show on unions (this is back in the 80's(?), they were interviewing the president of the steel workers and he said "there are union men and union workers, must of our membership are union workers, the only reason they are in the union is they want the job." This why unions fight Right To Work/open shop laws so hard, they know they would lose their membership and the money/power that comes with it.

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@Valin

 

A couple of links, but there is quite a bit out there on the interwebs

 

Washington Examiner

 

From the AFL-CIO Website (This is an example of the rhetoric.)

 

 

 

As a Mac/Apple products user since the 80s, I've watched the company closely. About a year ago, I started seeing these attacks on Apple, when before that they were sort of the defacto "cool kids" liberal company. I was trying to figure out why and started coming across this stuff all over.

 

At the same time, I started noticing the media attacking Walmart incessantly, while Kmart seemed to get a pass in the press. I researched connections and the only thing I could come up with pattern-wise is Unionization.

 

Big business that is getting attacked in the MSM is almost always non-union. Period.

 

 

Edited to add: Whole Foods is another example. I believe you will start seeing liberal bastions such as Trader Joes and Non-unionized Costco locations start getting picketed in the near future.

 

Watch for the unions to put the most pressure on companies perceived to cater to hip, young liberals. Clearly GOP leaning companies will just be attacked for supporting whacko causes. AKA the Komen foundation.

 

American business is under extreme attack right now from the top.

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@Valin

 

A couple of links, but there is quite a bit out there on the interwebs

 

Washington Examiner

 

From the AFL-CIO Website (This is an example of the rhetoric.)

 

 

 

As a Mac/Apple products user since the 80s, I've watched the company closely. About a year ago, I started seeing these attacks on Apple, when before that they were sort of the defacto "cool kids" liberal company. I was trying to figure out why and started coming across this stuff all over.

 

At the same time, I started noticing the media attacking Walmart incessantly, while Kmart seemed to get a pass in the press. I researched connections and the only thing I could come up with pattern-wise is Unionization.

 

Big business that is getting attacked in the MSM is almost always non-union. Period.

 

 

Edited to add: Whole Foods is another example. I believe you will start seeing liberal bastions such as Trader Joes and Non-unionized Costco locations start getting picketed in the near future.

 

Watch for the unions to put the most pressure on companies perceived to cater to hip, young liberals. Clearly GOP leaning companies will just be attacked for supporting whacko causes. AKA the Komen foundation.

 

American business is under extreme attack right now from the top.

 

Thanks. You know of course that non union corporations are bastions of evil.

 

Who controls the British Crown?

 

Who Keeps The Metric System Down?

We Do, We Do...

Who keeps Atlantis off the maps?

Who keeps the Martians under wraps?

We Do, We Do...

Who holds back the electric car?

Who makes Steve Gutenberg, a star!

We Do, We Do...

Who robs kegfish of their sight?

Who rigs every Oscar night?

We Do... We Doooo!

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@Valin.

 

Yes, yes I do.

 

I think our postal carrier is probably very confused. We get tons of GOP mail, and then tons of SECU mail because of where my husband works. I feel like we're being subversive and they're going to come attack our house someday. Oy.

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