Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Some clarification on the remarks of Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.

Jimmy Hoffa Jr., made a big fuss during an Obamessiah campaign event.  (That's Jimmy Hoffa the current Teamsters Union president, not the elder Jimmy Hoffa who was convicted of fraud, jury tampering, and bribery.)

He told his union audience:

That’s what we are going to tell America…..When he sees what we are doing here, he will be inspired, but he needs help. And you know what? Everybody here has got a vote. If we go back, we keep the eye on the prize, lets take these sons-of-bitches out and give America back to America where we belong.


There was an earlier reference in his speech to The Tea Party, and if you're willing to skip about 4 paragraphs of other stuff, Jimmy Jr can be interpreted as saying that it's time to take The Tea Party sons-of-bitches out. 

(You can already buy T-shirts.)



I believe Hoffa meant that it is time to take generic sons-of-bitches out, not necessarily Tea Party sons-of-bitches.  And who are these generic sons-of-bitches?  Anyone who opposes Hoffa, the unions, or The Teleprompter Jesus, perhaps.  Here's some clarification:

Hoffa describes the combatants in his “war” as “workers” on the one hand and “the Tea Party” on the other. But of course he isn’t interested in workers in general, only those who belong to unions–a group that, after decades of private-sector union decline, largely consists of employees of government, government contractors and government bailout beneficiaries such as General Motors and Chrysler. “The Tea Party,” meanwhile, is a dysphemism for taxpayers.


A dysphemism, in case you're wondering, is a substitution of a more offensive or disparaging word or phrase for one considered less offensive.  For instance, my preferred phrase "Fascist Union Thug" instead of "Teamsters President" is a dysphemism. 

Hoffa was not calling Tea Party members "sons-of-bitches" as far as I can tell.  He was calling taxpayers "sons-of-bitches". 

I hope this clears up the matter, and that we can all move forward. 

BTW, for everyone who works in shipping, freight, warehousing and logistics....  Did you know that UPS is a Teamsters Union outfit and that FedEx is not?  And that part of every dollar you spend with UPS goes to Jimmy Hoffa, and part of that money goes to support The Teleprompter Jesus and all his works? 



Remember, you have choices.  Money spent with FedEx doesn't go to Jimmy Hoffa, Jr.  Let your UPS sales rep know what you think about being called a son-of-a-bitch.   

2 comments:

Sam Duncan said...

“Hoffa describes the combatants in his “war” as “workers” on the one hand and “the Tea Party” on the other.”

Which is insane. The whole point of the Tea Party is that it's ordinary Americans who want to keep the money they've earned - by working - instead of it being taken from them and handed, in subsidy and “stimulus”, to the likes of... Hoffa. They're the workers, Jim; you're the idle aristocrat, “living off their backs”.

As you say, of course, he doesn't mean “workers”, and he doesn't really mean “the Tea Party”. In truth, it's coded language for exactly what I just said, but he can't because it would give the game away. That kind of nonsensical looking-glass rhetoric might work on this side of the Atlantic - where everyone's so used to it that it's never challenged any more - but I hope Americans have a bit more sense.

CenTexTim said...

I didn't know that about UPS and FedEx. Now that I know what Brown can do for me (to me?), I'll turn to FedEx when it absolutely positively has to be there overnight.

Thanks for the info.