labor unions Archives - Where Is The Outrage?

Sunday Afternoon News Roundup

The rich are simply getting richer. When you look at data from 1979 through 2007, the vast majority of the income gains are reaped by the top. Consider the combination of tax cuts, which go mostly to the rich, and the weakness of labor unions, which used to be able to demand higher wages for workers. This would conversely lower CEO salaries. Oh, I should mention for the social Darwinists that there is no evidence that CEOs are working harder and putting in longer hours to justify their larger salaries.

Former Michigan Assistant Attorney General is ordered by a Detroit federal court to pay $4.5 million to an openly gay student whom he stalked and defamed.

The Republicans have opened a new attack by questioning Vice President Joe Biden’s mental capacity. The attack was levied by none other than former New York Mayor and former presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with Joe Biden’s mental capacity. He has shown over his last 40 years in politics that he has the capacity to put his foot in his mouth and chew vigorously.

Representative Todd Akin stated that women who are “legitimately” raped don’t get pregnant. This may be the stupidest thing that I’ve read in the last three or four years. Representative Akin believes that the female body has some defense mechanism that doesn’t allow them to get pregnant when they don’t want to be pregnant. Now, I have taken more than my share of biology classes and it may simply be that I haven’t taken a biology class in the last two or three decades, but I don’t remember women having such a mechanism.

Remember when Microsoft was the coolest? Remember when they were the baddest on Wall Street? That was a long time ago. Over the last decade, they have failed spectacularly.

By ecthompsonmd|2013-11-03T18:13:05-04:00August 19th, 2012|Economy, Elections|Comments Off

Unions Are Under Siege, Again

Republicans, in a thoughtful and coordinated attack, have opened up another front in their war on labor unions. Remember that unions are a source of money and organization for liberal causes and the Democratic Party. As such, Republicans hate unions. They hate them above and beyond the union’s ability to negotiate wages and safe working conditions. The first battlefront was in Wisconsin. Consequences of the anti-union legislation continue to reverberate today as signatures for Scott Walker’s recall election were turned in just a couple weeks ago. Then the battlefront moved to Ohio. The Republicans passed anti-union legislation. The unions organized and won a referendum to kill the flawed legislation at the ballot. Now, attention turns to Arizona.

This attack on unions is particularly well-timed. The legislation is extremely anti-union. It goes further than Scott Walker ever thought he could. Fighting this legislation will require unions to divert their attention away from the national election and local elections. They will have to focus almost entirely on this assault on their very existence. Thus, this assault will probably deprive Democrats of much-needed money and organizational strength. I look at this as a last and desperate effort to crush progressive causes.

Grab Bag – Tuesday Evening

I don’t know how other bloggers like Steve or Markos come up with their ideas of what to talk about. I don’t know if they sit down in front of the computer, like I do, and scan multiple news sites before they find something that clicks. Sometimes, I can spend more than an hour just looking for the right thing to write about. Anyway, I threw a few ideas together in tonight’s grab bag.

I’m not sure what went wrong when Israel decided to stop a flotilla in international waters. The flotilla was heading for Gaza. They suspected weapons or terrorists or both. Several people are dead. Turkey and Israel are pointing fingers at each other and we’re in the middle.
The guys over at Crooks and Liars have written a new book called Over the Cliff: How Obama’s Election Drove the American Right Insane. I’m buying a copy and I hope you are too.
Labor unions are pulling out all the stops against Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, who has consistently sided with big business over labor.
If you and I and all of our friends in the progressive blogosphere donate $50 to help strengthen financial reform, could we change Congress? Could we change the bill? I doubt it. The financial sector is simply awash in truckloads of money.
The teeth in the financial reform bill was an amendment named after Sherrod Brown and Ted Kaufman. The Brown-Kaufman amendment would’ve limited the size of banks and held the amount of risk that they could take. How did 27 Democrats vote against this amendment? How did this amendment go up in flames so quickly? It is clearly a testament to the power of Wall Street.
I know that people are clamoring for president Obama to do something with this oil spill but for the life of me I can’t think of what it is he would need to do. Send in the Navy? And do what? How would the Navy stop the oil spill? By the way, how come we’ve been drilling off the coasts of the United States for over 30 years and we don’t have a viable plan of how to fix it if something goes wrong?
The Prince of Persia is really a good movie. My wife and I just saw it and we both enjoyed it. It is a little clichéd at times but still very enjoyable.
Finally, I feel sorry for Al Gore and Tipper Gore. They should be able to suffer through their divorce in private.

By ecthompsonmd|2010-06-01T22:49:35-04:00June 1st, 2010|Big Oil, Economy, Israel|Comments Off