GOP Economics: Failure Is Not An Option. It’s a Requirement.
Filed under: CEO's, Job Safety & Ecology, Society & Economy, U.S. Politics, Unions
Republicans are very good at confusing people about the economy. Our economic problems are variously blamed on immigrants, blacks, liberals, environmentalists, unions, China, Democrats, women, government regulation or whatever else is the GOP flavor of the week. Conspicuously absent from this are the very wealthy who actually dominate the US economy.
Republicans say that if we only stick to the tried and true policies of their dear departed Ronald Reagan, all will come up roses. But it’s the 1% who get the blooms, the rest of us get the thorns.
When it comes to Republican economics, failure is not an option. It’s a requirement. Republican economics means millions of Americans fail to get adequate health care, adequate housing, adequate education, adequate retirement, adequate recreation and adequate…well, you can finish the list if you have a few hours to spare.
On the trail of Smokey Bear
You see him on signs in our national forests and natural areas. He’s a cartoonish bare-chested bear with a wide-brimmed ranger hat and overalls, usually holding a spade. He’s Smokey Bear, one of the USA’s most widely recognized icons. Smokey is often seen in the company of forest creatures and small children. He’s the bear who says that only you can prevent forest fires and more recently, wildfires in general.
His friendly or sometimes stern patriarchal visage is designed to inculcate certain attitudes in children. Adults don’t need talking animals to instruct them about fire safety in the woods. But what was Smokey teaching us during those early years. Who wrote his lines? And why didn’t he explain how fire is essential to healthy forest and grassland eco-systems? Read more
Ask Herman Cain: Does Cancer Go Better With Koch?
Filed under: Job Safety & Ecology, Society & Economy, U.S. Healthcare, U.S. Politics, Unions
We know that Herman Cain is not really a happy man. He doesn’t like black people very much because he thinks they’ve been brainwashed into a plantation mentality by evil Democrats. Cain doesn’t like brown people very much either. He wants a moat full of alligators, a deadly electric fence and armed sharpshooters on the US-Mexican border. Even the Berlin Wall lacked alligators and high voltage. Women? Nope. He thinks women have no right to an abortion, even after rape or incest. Low income Americans? Nope again. He wants to raise their taxes.
Cain was head of Godfather Pizza and the National Restaurant Association. The former made him a rich man and the latter made him a powerhouse in politics. But he had open contempt for the majority of people in his industry. Food service workers are among the lowest paid employees in the USA. Cain blocked improvements in their wages and fought against allowing them health care. Sick, underpaid waiters and cooks sneezing on your food didn’t seem to bother him a bit. Read more
The Working Class Gets A Wake Up Call—-With Side Effects
Greg Jones has a job that is critical to human survival. He feeds us. Not literally of course. This New Jersey truck driver goes to work at 8 pm and driving by night until 4 am, brings us the food we eat. He has become a nocturnal (nighttime) mammal with a diurnal (daytime) body. He knows what this means. Many of his co-workers have persistent health issues that indicate body deterioration. He has a daily discipline of 2 hours of exercise that he hopes will keep his body going without constant pain and grim trips to the hospital.
Because you see, trying to be a nocturnal mammal in a diurnal body can mean a weakened immune system with a tendency toward diabetes, heart disease and perhaps even cancer. Humans are social mammals. Shift work means one’s family and social life are impaired. If they are parents, shift workers may drag themselves to important milestones in their children’s lives in a mist of fatigue, all the time pushing themselves to show enthusiasm in a way that a stage actor might. Read more
The South Will Rise Again
Filed under: Global Economy & Politics, Job Safety & Ecology, U.S. Politics, Unions, Workplace
On April 9, 1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia. It ended the Civil War. The surrender was actually a great victory for the American South because it was another nail in the coffin of slavery.
On July 27, 2011 Southern workers at Danville, Virginia’s Swedish-owned IKEA plant voted overwhelmingly for union recognition with the International Association of Machinists (IAM). This was another great victory for The South. Although both slavery and legal segregation are gone, the scourge of cheap labor & poor working conditions remains. These are not just material hardships for Southern workers, but an insult to their honor and self respect as human beings.