Socialism and union control; On the Waterfront

Here is a three (3) minute clip from the movie, "On the Waterfront." This clip is 55 years old, but it shows our future.

In this clip, the union boss hands out small chips to the dockworkers. Having a chip allows the worker to work for that day and collect a paycheck. Those workers who have an "in" with the union leadership get a chip. The others either receive nothing or must fight each other for the remaining chips while the union bosses watch and laugh.

Either give kickbacks to the union bosses or don't work. A classic example of "pay to play."

The priest observes the situation with the sister of a dockworker who was recently murdered by the union/mob so he could not testify about union/mob activity on the docks. At one point, she intervenes to help her father obtain a chip.



This is how health care, automobile jobs and other perks of socialism will soon be handed out. These conditions will prevail in any industry that is dominated by government/unions. It is already beginning to happen. Note the Chrysler dealers that were terminated solely because they had not donated money to Obama.

Imagine being seriously ill and having to fight this way for the few health resources that might remain in our soon-to-be socialized medical system.
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Michelle Malkin posts a more specific video about the future of socialized health care.

Chrysler; UAW; FIAT; Walter and Victor Reuther; Ricardo Montalban; Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Hill Street Blues; Walter Chrysler; Stephen King;

Last week, I posted photo and video tributes to Pontiac on the occasion of the announcement of Pontiac's discontinuation. This week's announcement of a Chrysler/UAW/Fiat/Obama deal/bankruptcy is not an official discontinuation, but the end of the storied carmaker is all but official.

Chrysler will now be effectively controlled by a combination of the UAW and the federal government, with a foreign automaker thrown in for window dressing. Private ownership is dead at Chrysler. While UAW control may seem preferable to government control because the UAW appears to be a private entity, UAW exercises many of the powers of the government, including the right to use force to obtain favorable contracts. The UAW is a de facto arm of the government. It was Walter Reuther and Victor Reuther, the UAW founders, that wrote to an ally in the labor movement in 1934, "Carry on the fight for a Soviet America." [Congressional testimony, 75th Congress, vol. II pp. 1659]. It appears that they have succeeded.

The last trace of the profit motive is gone from Chrysler and it is taking with it the last remnants of individual initiative and any need to please the consumer. From now on, MSM/DNC news reports about Chrysler will de-emphasize sales and "numbers" and will focus, instead, on glowing reports of worker satisfaction and benefits, the environment, dubious references to Chrysler's history, the need to "buy American," community outreach and revitalization and other non-business oriented items.

Chrysler will now be the politically correct car to buy. When you buy a Chrysler, your money will go first to the UAW where it will then be diverted to Democrat candidates for public office. If and when the other carmakers are laid low in this or similar fashion, Chrysler can fulfill the left's vision of making cars similar to the Euro-socialist models:

Yugoslovian car

Polish car

Russian car


In order to understand what we have lost, here is a tribute to the Chrysler that was euthanized this week. As I wrote last week about Pontiac:

The point is that our civilization and our culture are composed of many interwoven elements. Even something as seemingly mundane as a line of cars can have an impact on our education and our entertainment. As our civilization is destroyed by the barbarians from within and without - as each strand that comprises our culture disappears, the impact will be felt far beyond the loss of any one particular item. Only when we see how far something like Pontiac had become ingrained in our society can we truly appreciate what we are now losing.

I include a very few of the Chrysler cultural references over the decades:

1960



1941 Plymouth


Christine - 1957 Chrysler

From the Stephen King movie, Christine.

Christine giving chase under fire

1972 Dart

The Darts from the early 1970's lasted for years. It was not unusual to see these and similar Dart models in traffic well into the 1990's.


Chrysler always seemed to provide the vehicles for TV cop shows (with some exceptions like The Andy Griffith Show, which used Fords).

Here is the opening theme from Adam-12, featuring the 1968 Plymouth Satellite:




In 1981, Hill Street Blues debutted on NBC, with opening credits featuring mid-1970's Plymouths.


I believe these are 1974 Plymouth Gran Furies, but I could be off by a year or two. The show continued to use this opening sequence until the end of the series in 1987.

There were other police shows featuring Chrysler vehicles (e.g. The Rookies).

One of the most well-known examples of Chrysler police cars appeared in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World in 1963, which featured many car chase scenes and numerous police cars.

The photo below is of a Chrysler taxi from the final chase sequence.

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World


In the film clip below, the police cars are early 60's Chryslers (probably a 1962 Dodge Polara and a 1962 Plymouth) and the red convertible is probably a 1962 Dodge Polara. [The blue car is a 1961 Chevy.] You can also catch a glimpse of a 1961 Plymouth Valiant being run off the road at one point.


Someone has uploaded a Youtube clip containing only those portions of the movie featuring a 1962 Chrysler Imperial Crown convertible.


Chrysler produced its share of concept cars over the years.

1963 Chrysler Ghia turbine concept car


Only 50 of the Ghia turbine concept cars were produced. The idea of a turbine operated engine had potential, but mechanical difficulties prevented the concept from being successful. The design resembled a prior version of the Ford Thunderbird because the designer had recently left Ford to join Chrysler.

1958 Ghia coupe concept car

General Lee - Dukes of Hazzard - Dodge Charger


Of course, everyone remembers "soft corinthian leather" from Ricardo Montalban and the 1975 Cordoba:


Montalban later commented on this term and the marketing behind it:


Chrysler was saved from bankruptcy the first time (in 1980) by the K car (and a government backed bailout).

1981 Reliant K

In the mid-1980's, Chrysler pioneered the minivan that has become a staple of American transportation.

1984 Plymouth Voyager

And last, but not least, George Costanza's "Jon Voigt car" from Seinfeld.
Jon Voigt car - mid 1980's LeBaron


As I said earlier, these references only barely scratch the surface. Like all of the car makers, Chrysler has enjoyed many cultural references over the decades. These cultural items will not disappear. We still have copies of the old movies and pictures of the old cars, but we can only wonder what kind of culture we will be left with, not to mention what will be left of our industry now that Chrysler is a government operated shell. I cannot imagine the Euro-socialist cars pictured above forming the basis of classic movies or classic themes from TV shows. As the left destroys our economy piece-by-piece, the left also takes away our history and our culture.

Khartoum; Charlton Heston; Mahdi; Laurence Olivier

While I have much to say on the death of Charlton Heston yesterday, this post will focus on what I consider to be his best movie.

Watching the video montages on network television this morning, I noted that little attention was paid to Heston's 1966 movie "Khartoum." The mini-bios focused mainly on Ben-Hur and the Ten Commandments.



For those that have never seen "Khartoum," buy or rent it. I won't provide a full review here, but the movie provides insight into Islam and the nature of the enemy that we face. The action takes place in the 1870's (generations before George W. Bush would illegally seize office, turn the entire Muslim world against the U.S. and destroy New Orleans with a hurricane). The most important part of the plot focuses on Laurence Olivier's portrayal of the "Mahdi" - the mythic Shia moslem figure that will one day appear and wreak vengeance ("justice") upon the non-moslem world.

Olivier's Mahdi

















As the climax approached, Olivier's Mahdi discussed his plans with Heston's General Gordon. The Mahdi revealed his desire to wreak havoc throughout the mideast and beyond. The Mahdi's desire to sack, pillage and dominate Khartoum was only a stepping stone. It was truly chilling to hear the Mahdi discuss this as he guided General Gordon's hand into buckets of water containing the severed heads of Gordon's allies. [While the movie is as violent as any mid-1960's war movie, the movie is tastefully done and does not contain gore. It is far less violent than your average modern Jihadi beheading video from Al Jazeera.]

Any movie with a serious discussion of the concept of the Mahdi is worth seeing - especially in light of the influence that this concept holds over the Iranian government and its plans to use the nuclear arsenal that it now prepares to build.

For the moonbats who might be reading this, Khartoum is a city in Sudan. Sudan is the country that also contains Darfur - where muslims have killed millions of Christians in modern years. Darfur is the place that you want Bush to send our troops after they have been withdrawn from Iraq.

If nothing else, the movie should remind audiences that the trouble with Islam began long before the U.S. led coalition invaded Iraq.

1966

Michelle Malkin has more on Charlton Heston's life and work.

I am John Doe; Spartacus; Peg Noonan

Check out the Spartacus PSA.

H/T Michelle Malkin. Here are the most important parts of the manifesto:

I will never forget the example of the passengers of American Airlines Flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be murdered in the name of Islam without a fight.
I will never forget the passengers and crew members who tackled al Qaeda shoe-bomber Richard Reid on American Airlines Flight 63 before he had a chance to blow up the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.

I will never forget the alertness of actor James Woods, who notified a stewardess that several Arab men sitting in his first-class cabin on an August 2001 flight were behaving strangely. The men turned out to be 9/11 hijackers on a test run. . . .
I will not be cowed by your Beltway lobbying groups in moderate clothing. I will not cringe when you shriek about “profiling” or “Islamophobia.”

I will put my family’s safety above sensitivity. I will put my country above multiculturalism.

For those who don't understand the Spartacus reference, check out the movie:


Remember this manifesto the next time you fly or otherwise face a situation in which Muslims act suspiciously. Remember also that the people in skyscrapers won't have a choice as to whether to fight or not. If you back down or cower because you are afraid of being sued by Muslims, you may be allowing terrorists to take over a plane and attack a building. Your backing down may well leave not only your own children fatherless, but you will leave the people in buildings vulnerable. You will prove Michael Moore correct when he blamed "stupid white people" for failing to overcome the hijackers on 9-11.

Those who sue "John Doe" are laying the groundwork for more of this.





In October 2001, Peg Noonan wrote of her regrets at not being more aggressive with individuals that she saw videotaping St. Patrick's Cathedral and Rockefeller Center:

Suddenly to our right, on the sidewalk, we saw two "Mideastern looking men," as we all now say. They were 25 or 30 years old, dressed in jeans and windbreakers, and they were doing something odd. They were standing together silently videotaping the outside of St. Pat's, top to bottom. We watched them, trying to put what we were seeing together. Tourists? It was a funny time of day for tourists to be videotaping a landmark--especially when the tourists looked like the guys who'd just a few days before blown up a landmark.

We watched them. After a minute or so they finished taping St. Pat's and turned toward where we were. We were about 20 feet away from them, and we eyeballed them hard. They stared back at us in what I thought an aggressive manner: a deadeye stare, cold, no nod, no upturned-chin hello.

They stared at us staring at them for a few seconds, and then they began to videotape Rockefeller Center. We continued watching, and I surveyed the street for a policeman or patrol car. I looked over at the men again. They were watching me. The one with the camera puts it down for a moment. We stared, they stared. And then they left. They walked away and disappeared down a side street. . . . .

. . . and I continue to regret not confronting them, questioning them and, if I had to, tackling them and screaming for help. I could have gotten us all arrested. If they had been innocent tourists I would have apologized, begged their forgiveness and offered to buy them a very nice dinner. If they had not been innocent, I would have helped stop some bad guys.

In the past month I have evolved from polite tip-line caller to watchful potential warrior. And I gather that is going on with pretty much everyone else, and I'm glad of it. I was relieved at the story of the plane passengers a few weeks ago who refused to board if some Mideastern looking guys were allowed to board. I was encouraged just last night when an esteemed journalist told me of a story she'd been told: Two Mideastern-looking gentlemen, seated together on a plane, were eyeballed by a U.S. air marshal who was aboard. The air marshal told the men they were not going to sit together on this flight. They protested. The marshal said, move or you're not on this flight. They moved. Plane took off.

Good news: Everything went safely and calmly. Bad news: The two men were probably Ph.D.'s from Yale on their way to a bioethics convention. They made it clear they resented being split up, and I understand their resentment, and would feel real sympathy if they told me about it. You would, too.

But you know what? I think we're in the fight of our lives, and I think we're going to need their patience. And I think those who have not yet developed patience are going to have to grow up and get some.

emphasis added

But they will never grow up unless they have to - unless each of us stands up and says, "I am John Doe."
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Visit counter added on March 28, 2007

The Great Raid

I just got back from seeing it. I'm trying to be genteel over here on Salt's blog, so I'll just provide this link to my thoughts about the movie published on my own blog.