Working Life

First things first: I am not at all shocked or surprised by the stupidity flowing from the White House. If you are, you have not been paying attention for the past 5-6 years, or you’ve engaged in willful denial. But, the moronic, and immoral, proposals on Social Security do give us a wonderful moment of clarity about politics and the press.

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Yesterday, I wrote that the president’s proposal to hike the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 was a meek proposal. And that it was pure rubbish to argue, as he did, that that hike would help people get ahead. Just to add today a bit more.

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Well, bravo for the president for going to fight for a rise in the minimum wage. But, let’s be clear — this isn’t going to do much to raise people out of poverty.

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I’m not a big fan of organized religion — a topic for another day perhaps — and I’m not even from the flock of the New Testament (as on old friend, activist and Rev Dyson, used to whisper in faux sotto voce when introducing me, “he’s from the other testament”). But, forgiving is a human quality. And, when you have the power to really forgive, you would think people would jump at it. Some politicians do, some don’t.

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I wish this phony debate about the debt and deficit “crisis” would be over because, truthfully, I’m running out of clever new ways to call this bi-partisan exercise the stupidity it truly is. So, sigh, here we go again — but I can leave it to others to call it by its true name.

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To make the point again, this is a very, very simple equation: eliminate the scourge of the NRA, drain the swamp of its blood money and you stop the murder of children. Period. And so the question that must be asked of at least the Democratic Party: what is the party going to do to destroy the NRA’s ability to keep advancing an agenda that promotes gun mayhem in the streets and the murder of children and other innocent people?

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Some days, I find the whole thing ludicrous and immoral. Some days, I laugh. And sometimes it’s a little of both. As in today’s installment of fiscal Kabuki Theater.

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This is no great shakes, which I will point out in an upcoming post. But, ok, it’s better than nothing.

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Barack Obama will be re-elected president Tuesday night, and probably by a relatively comfortable electoral vote margin. The question for workers in the US, and around the world, is: does it matter who wins?

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This is a simple straightforward post. I have argued that the election was over in the Spring. But, how much was that picture Obama had with Chris Christie worth? I reckon a 300-plus electoral vote win.

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The fun part of an election is not listening to the idiots on television or obsessing about polling — those are not things that win elections. It’s the knocking on doors that matters. And that’s why, personally, I don’t worry much about Election Day.

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I had a piece in today’s The Australian. Mainly geared to an Australian audience, it made one basic point: not much has changed in the presidential race.

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Kind of funny but here’s a simple question: have any of the progressive pundits wringing their hands over the president’s lackluster debate showing ever actually worked on the grassroots part of a campaign? I think the answer is clear.

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It’s not surprising that a growing number of workers around the globe are losing faith in political leaders. After all, the economic debate often seems completely divorced from the realities of workers’ lives, whether it’s blaming workers for national budget squeezes actually caused by bankers or CEOs imposing mass layoffs to cover up obscene executive compensation at the heart of bottom-line revenue shortfalls. The debate in the United States is a good example.

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Right after the now-infamous debate (or, exchange of sounds bites), I wrote a bit about the fallacy of the exchange on taxes. Just a quick clean up here to underscore an important point — both candidates support, in one form or another, extending some or all of the Bush tax cuts. And that is sheer lunacy.

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I guess it’s a function of inflation and/or a numbness to reality but the rhetoric about money isn’t what is used to be. Back in the day, Republican Senator Everett Dirksen (whose name probably means nothing to the shallow commentators who think political history started with Ronald Reagan) is alleged to have said, ” A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money”. Dirksen, who served in the 1950s and 1960s (and probably could never win a Republican primary in today’s wing-nut world), would have been a piker by today’s standards of throwing around figures without regard to reality. Which brings me to the Romney lie about taxes–which the president got right, admittedly, in a clumsy way, but most liberal-progressive pundits are getting wrong.

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