What a surprise--another day, another puff piece on Gov. Snyder's failed efforts to turn the state around in the Free Press.
Seems the state has an extra $130 million to put in its rainy day fund. And this does exactly fucking what to create jobs or improve our standard of living?
I could mention how Tom Walsh's op-ed touts Snyder's first initiative with the extra money--falling upon an old republican standard--by telling us how bad crime is in Michigan (ooh, scary) so it will be spent on extra police, etc. I could mention how the Governor plans to up education spending by 2-3%, which is a bit like trying to douse a wildfire with a squirt gun.
But what I'd like to concentrate on is this statement from John Nixon, the Governor's budget director:
"The notice we're getting nationally," Nixon said, "for having a balanced budget, for adding to the rainy day fund, maybe (emphasis mine) that makes more businesses and entrepreneurs want to move to Michigan."
Maybe? You have absolutely got to be fucking kidding me. For all the shit the working class has eaten because of Governor Numb Nuts, "maybe" is the best they can do? I don't recall "maybe" being in their vocabulary last year when they were shoving their agenda of taxing old folks so corporations could get a tax break down our throats. Or attacking teacher's unions. Or gutting unemployment benefits.
It's good to know the republican party has become as big of a joke in Michigan as it has nationwide.
Peace,
emaycee
Showing posts with label Tom Walsh. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tom Walsh. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
The right to work for less
Thanks to the fine folks in that shithole known as Indiana, business writer (?) Tom Walsh and Mackinac Center apologist for the 1% Michael LaFaive think the republican controlled legislature here in Michigan should begin debating Right to Work for a Lot Less laws--and hell, the middle class hasn't been decimated enough in our fine state so let's pass the mother fucker, too. Because, you know, what every state should desire is to be like, um, fucking Indiana.
And, of course, noted union busters The Detroit Free Press runs another of their brutal "At Issue" pieces in the business section--little depth, fairness over facts, reliant upon far too few sources--which claims that the jury is still out on whether or not Right to Work for a Lot Less laws work or not in creating jobs.
Horseshit on all counts.
The jury is not out on any of it--the unemployment rate in Right to Work for a Lot Less states is statistically insignificant in its difference between the unemployment rate of union states. And as I've shown before, when membership in labor unions declines, so do wages. And Indiana? Really? As someone who's lived in both states can attest, there is no compare. Indiana is a backwoods, redneck, armpit of a state. For all its problems, Michigan is considerably better than that--from our great lakes to the home of the auto industry to our great universities to our four sports franchises (in fairness, I'm a fan of none of them) to Motown...Indiana fails in comparison--as Gertrude Stein once noted, there's no there there.
And I think it's very telling that those on the right think we should reach for the lowest common denominator rather than be the state that can pay its citizens a decent wage and have a good standard of living. What's next? Let's shoot for the barrenness of the Dakotas?
Peace,
emaycee
And, of course, noted union busters The Detroit Free Press runs another of their brutal "At Issue" pieces in the business section--little depth, fairness over facts, reliant upon far too few sources--which claims that the jury is still out on whether or not Right to Work for a Lot Less laws work or not in creating jobs.
Horseshit on all counts.
The jury is not out on any of it--the unemployment rate in Right to Work for a Lot Less states is statistically insignificant in its difference between the unemployment rate of union states. And as I've shown before, when membership in labor unions declines, so do wages. And Indiana? Really? As someone who's lived in both states can attest, there is no compare. Indiana is a backwoods, redneck, armpit of a state. For all its problems, Michigan is considerably better than that--from our great lakes to the home of the auto industry to our great universities to our four sports franchises (in fairness, I'm a fan of none of them) to Motown...Indiana fails in comparison--as Gertrude Stein once noted, there's no there there.
And I think it's very telling that those on the right think we should reach for the lowest common denominator rather than be the state that can pay its citizens a decent wage and have a good standard of living. What's next? Let's shoot for the barrenness of the Dakotas?
Peace,
emaycee
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Why do I still subscribe to a newspaper?
It's really rare in the pages of the Detroit Free Press to find a columnist more ignorant than the Detroit News' Nolan Finley (who, thankfully, we're only tortured with once a week). Step up on the stage....Tom Walsh! You've won the coveted "I'm Even More Ignorant than Nolan Finley" award for the month of August!
Really--according to Mr. Walsh, to fix our economy we merely need to fix our culture. It's simple--our freedom to divorce has brokered an "easy come, easy go" attitude that has undermined our commitment to living up to our obligations. Needless to say, the best Mr. Walsh can come up with to lend credence to his theory is a chat he had over coffee with an old friend.
Thank God he cleared that up for all of us....
I appreciate that Mr. Walsh is a business columnist and thus tends to see everything in black and white, in its simplest terms (trust me, I've been in business for almost thirty years and there aren't a lot of brainiacs in corporate America--and the higher up the corporate ladder you go, the worse it gets), but this is a new low in moronic rants. It's one thing to know someone's peeing in your coffee, it's another thing to drink it anyway. Bottoms up, Mr. Walsh!
If anything, I'd say the cause of American's economic downturn...just off the top of my head...would be, oh, I don't know...horrendous decisions by America's banking leaders, the fact that none of them are in jail for having mislead the American people and crashing our economy, unfettered greed, the growing income disparity between America's welathy elite and the rest of us, the merewordscannotdescribe horrendous leadership of President Bush the lesser, weak regulations against businesses, republicans in the House and their actions to do absolutely fucking nothing to create jobs despite campaigning on it in 2010, the disastrous and un-American tea party...you get the gist.
One thing is for certain though: the ease with which one can get a divoce had absolutely fucking nothing to do with it.
Peace,
emaycee
Really--according to Mr. Walsh, to fix our economy we merely need to fix our culture. It's simple--our freedom to divorce has brokered an "easy come, easy go" attitude that has undermined our commitment to living up to our obligations. Needless to say, the best Mr. Walsh can come up with to lend credence to his theory is a chat he had over coffee with an old friend.
Thank God he cleared that up for all of us....
I appreciate that Mr. Walsh is a business columnist and thus tends to see everything in black and white, in its simplest terms (trust me, I've been in business for almost thirty years and there aren't a lot of brainiacs in corporate America--and the higher up the corporate ladder you go, the worse it gets), but this is a new low in moronic rants. It's one thing to know someone's peeing in your coffee, it's another thing to drink it anyway. Bottoms up, Mr. Walsh!
If anything, I'd say the cause of American's economic downturn...just off the top of my head...would be, oh, I don't know...horrendous decisions by America's banking leaders, the fact that none of them are in jail for having mislead the American people and crashing our economy, unfettered greed, the growing income disparity between America's welathy elite and the rest of us, the merewordscannotdescribe horrendous leadership of President Bush the lesser, weak regulations against businesses, republicans in the House and their actions to do absolutely fucking nothing to create jobs despite campaigning on it in 2010, the disastrous and un-American tea party...you get the gist.
One thing is for certain though: the ease with which one can get a divoce had absolutely fucking nothing to do with it.
Peace,
emaycee
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Sleeping with the enemy
As you read this post, the word I most want to be in your mind is "naivete."
I'll give Tom Walsh credit--he didn't laugh in Bob King's (President of the UAW) face after his speech at the Mackinac Policy Conference. He noted that King's speech was well-received by the conservative leaning crowd--take that with a grain of salt, as no one in that crowd isn't hoping that King doesn't end up flipping burgers at McDonald's. Note to King: if you're serious about improving the lives of the people you represent, skip functions such as these. It was a complete and total waste of time and did nothing now and never will to help the members of your union. The people you spoke to just don't give a fuck about you or the working class. They--as well as Gov. Snyder--are not your friends. They are the enemy.
To a certain extent, the Free Press has cautioned about the direction in which Gov. Snyder is leading the state (editorials here and here), especially with regard to the poor. I'm not sure if the sentiments are heartfelt or a precursor to pivoting away from its endorsement of Snyder if his plan doesn't work, but as is usually the case with editorials, they had the same effect as a can of air freshener does on an elephant fart: none.
This piece by Stephen Henderson is probably the piece over the past few weeks that has bothered me the most. Henderson starts out with a good premise--paraphrased, is Snyder full of shit? (Good, God, man, of course he is.) And then proceeds to basically fall all over himself about how great Snyder is: agreeing with 80% of what Snyder is doing (if that's liberal media we're all fucked), praising Snyder's positive energy (hate to break it to you but fucking wishing won't make it so), and claiming how much Snyder has changed the state's culture (Snyder has merely copied Reagan--shaking your hand with a smile on his face while sticking a knife in your back). Sure, Henderson claims he's concerned as to whether all Snyder's bullshit will show the results we need in Michigan, but frankly, as I noted above, I think he, like the Free Press, is just covering his ass for when Snyder falls flat on his face.
Remember that word at the beginning? This is why you should think about it: all of the above are sadly mistaken in believing that somehow we're all going to work together to solve our problems. The plain truth is that the powers that be do not give a rat's ass about our economic problems, and frankly, those are the only problems that matter to those of us who live paycheck to paycheck (at least for now). There will be no Kumbaya moment until we convince those that have the gold that they won't have the gold much longer if we don't get our share.
Or to quote a very special man: Power to the people, right on!
Peace,
emaycee
I'll give Tom Walsh credit--he didn't laugh in Bob King's (President of the UAW) face after his speech at the Mackinac Policy Conference. He noted that King's speech was well-received by the conservative leaning crowd--take that with a grain of salt, as no one in that crowd isn't hoping that King doesn't end up flipping burgers at McDonald's. Note to King: if you're serious about improving the lives of the people you represent, skip functions such as these. It was a complete and total waste of time and did nothing now and never will to help the members of your union. The people you spoke to just don't give a fuck about you or the working class. They--as well as Gov. Snyder--are not your friends. They are the enemy.
To a certain extent, the Free Press has cautioned about the direction in which Gov. Snyder is leading the state (editorials here and here), especially with regard to the poor. I'm not sure if the sentiments are heartfelt or a precursor to pivoting away from its endorsement of Snyder if his plan doesn't work, but as is usually the case with editorials, they had the same effect as a can of air freshener does on an elephant fart: none.
This piece by Stephen Henderson is probably the piece over the past few weeks that has bothered me the most. Henderson starts out with a good premise--paraphrased, is Snyder full of shit? (Good, God, man, of course he is.) And then proceeds to basically fall all over himself about how great Snyder is: agreeing with 80% of what Snyder is doing (if that's liberal media we're all fucked), praising Snyder's positive energy (hate to break it to you but fucking wishing won't make it so), and claiming how much Snyder has changed the state's culture (Snyder has merely copied Reagan--shaking your hand with a smile on his face while sticking a knife in your back). Sure, Henderson claims he's concerned as to whether all Snyder's bullshit will show the results we need in Michigan, but frankly, as I noted above, I think he, like the Free Press, is just covering his ass for when Snyder falls flat on his face.
Remember that word at the beginning? This is why you should think about it: all of the above are sadly mistaken in believing that somehow we're all going to work together to solve our problems. The plain truth is that the powers that be do not give a rat's ass about our economic problems, and frankly, those are the only problems that matter to those of us who live paycheck to paycheck (at least for now). There will be no Kumbaya moment until we convince those that have the gold that they won't have the gold much longer if we don't get our share.
Or to quote a very special man: Power to the people, right on!
Peace,
emaycee
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Letting the fox guard the henhouse
So Michigan has tumbled in income from wages (as has the rest of the country) and income from government programs has skyrocketed--and Tom Walsh thinks the best way to handle this is to turn to radical ideas like Gov. Snyder's just passed proposal to cut $1.8 billion in taxes from corporations and make the poor and middle class pay more in taxes.
Question 1: Isn't this basically giving more money to the bozos who got us into this mess? Question 2: Aren't these same bozos the ones who are currently reaping record profits but not hiring? Question 3: Isn't it more likely that giving less money to those who spend it, and giving more to those who don't, is going to increase even greater the amount of income in Michigan that comes from government programs? Question 4: What the motherfucking fuck?
You cannot make this shit up--swear to God, I'm beginning to believe the Gov. Snyder has put the "journalists" that work for the Free Press on the payroll of the state of Michigan. Either that or they are the simplest bastards this side of Pluto.
Peace,
emaycee
Question 1: Isn't this basically giving more money to the bozos who got us into this mess? Question 2: Aren't these same bozos the ones who are currently reaping record profits but not hiring? Question 3: Isn't it more likely that giving less money to those who spend it, and giving more to those who don't, is going to increase even greater the amount of income in Michigan that comes from government programs? Question 4: What the motherfucking fuck?
You cannot make this shit up--swear to God, I'm beginning to believe the Gov. Snyder has put the "journalists" that work for the Free Press on the payroll of the state of Michigan. Either that or they are the simplest bastards this side of Pluto.
Peace,
emaycee
Monday, June 7, 2010
That's the sound of the men, working on the chain gang
This, my friends, is really rich. Newt Gingrich, a man who has lived off the public trough, as well as that of corporate benefactors for most of his career, thinks we need a better work ethic. Two words, Newt: fuck you. Why is it that it's always the working man who is supposed to sacrifice? Why don't these numb nuts ever suggest that perhaps the private sector needs leaders whose sole talents are much more than just cutting jobs and begging for corporate welfare? Further, what the fuck is up with this: "'Poor people respond to money,' and will turn to illegal activities if it's not available through other means, he said, as an example of how the free enterprise can lift people." Really? I'd be willing to bet there is a shitload of poor people who do not turn to illegal activities and keep trying to raise themselves and their families through legitimate means--otherwise, approximately 20% of our population would be in prison (or else we have a hellaciously talented bunch of criminals out there) instead of the 1-2% currently residing in prisons.
Thank, God, though, for one Heaster Wheeler of the NAACP who summed Gingrich (and the Republican party as a whole) up perfectly" "Newt Gingrich is less than a joke. If he understood the needs of the urban centers of America where was he when he had the authority to do something about it as speaker of the House?" Preach it, brother! The only accomplishment that would come from Gingrich's ideas for urban centers would be for us to do all the work while the private sector buys low and sells high, i.e. the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. Next fucking idiot, please!
Tom Walsh is one of the few Free Press pundits that I can occasionally stomach (he's hardly a liberal, but he once predicted that by the year 2100 we'd have National Health Insurance a la Canada and wonder what the fuck we were thinking before we did), but this is sick. Channeling Bob Dylan as the background music for some radical right winger's pipe dream of making Michigan a right to work state? Uh...I'm pretty sure that as a musician Dylan is a member of the Musician's Union, and considering that they've helped him make a pretty penny, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be too thrilled with making union membership even harder to attain. And why the fuck is it always the union's fault (because the right to work states are in such good shape--always in the bottom five for highest poverty levels like Mississippi)? Why does the working man always have to take the hit for the idiocy of industry leaders who have guaranteed contracts and golden parachutes to counter their failing? I've got a great idea for turning around the economy--end welfare for corporate leaders and give them what the working man gets if they fail: a few months of unemployment (about $350 a week here in Michigan). I bet that'd light a fire up their asses. As it stands now, there's no incentive for not failing--they get paid whether they're successful or not.
A quick answer to a stupid question: Fuck no. It's a slippery slope when you start singling out people to question for any reason. Who's next? Catholics? Bald-headed men? The only outcome of any such law is to move America one step closer to totalitarianism.
Leave it to the political reporters (so-called) of the Free Press to key on some meaningless sniping between two lame ass candidates (Republicans Mike Cox and Rick Snyder) and just give a passing mention to Virg Bernero who "stood up loudly for unions and decried corporate abandonment of the middle class." I mean because their petty sniping over some piddly bullshit is so much more important than the working men and women of Michigan making a decent living. The editorial board of the Free Press wasn't much better: their sole response toward Bernero was to call him out for "ranting on behalf of union positions." For those not familiar, here's how the "liberal" Free Press deals with unions.
Another bullshit poll on healthcare reform: the results show 51% oppose and 43% in favor, but the poll fails to note how many of those opposed are opposed because the bill isn't liberal enough. Or how many will base their vote on it. American media fail indeed....
Peace,
emaycee
Thank, God, though, for one Heaster Wheeler of the NAACP who summed Gingrich (and the Republican party as a whole) up perfectly" "Newt Gingrich is less than a joke. If he understood the needs of the urban centers of America where was he when he had the authority to do something about it as speaker of the House?" Preach it, brother! The only accomplishment that would come from Gingrich's ideas for urban centers would be for us to do all the work while the private sector buys low and sells high, i.e. the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. Next fucking idiot, please!
Tom Walsh is one of the few Free Press pundits that I can occasionally stomach (he's hardly a liberal, but he once predicted that by the year 2100 we'd have National Health Insurance a la Canada and wonder what the fuck we were thinking before we did), but this is sick. Channeling Bob Dylan as the background music for some radical right winger's pipe dream of making Michigan a right to work state? Uh...I'm pretty sure that as a musician Dylan is a member of the Musician's Union, and considering that they've helped him make a pretty penny, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be too thrilled with making union membership even harder to attain. And why the fuck is it always the union's fault (because the right to work states are in such good shape--always in the bottom five for highest poverty levels like Mississippi)? Why does the working man always have to take the hit for the idiocy of industry leaders who have guaranteed contracts and golden parachutes to counter their failing? I've got a great idea for turning around the economy--end welfare for corporate leaders and give them what the working man gets if they fail: a few months of unemployment (about $350 a week here in Michigan). I bet that'd light a fire up their asses. As it stands now, there's no incentive for not failing--they get paid whether they're successful or not.
A quick answer to a stupid question: Fuck no. It's a slippery slope when you start singling out people to question for any reason. Who's next? Catholics? Bald-headed men? The only outcome of any such law is to move America one step closer to totalitarianism.
Leave it to the political reporters (so-called) of the Free Press to key on some meaningless sniping between two lame ass candidates (Republicans Mike Cox and Rick Snyder) and just give a passing mention to Virg Bernero who "stood up loudly for unions and decried corporate abandonment of the middle class." I mean because their petty sniping over some piddly bullshit is so much more important than the working men and women of Michigan making a decent living. The editorial board of the Free Press wasn't much better: their sole response toward Bernero was to call him out for "ranting on behalf of union positions." For those not familiar, here's how the "liberal" Free Press deals with unions.
Another bullshit poll on healthcare reform: the results show 51% oppose and 43% in favor, but the poll fails to note how many of those opposed are opposed because the bill isn't liberal enough. Or how many will base their vote on it. American media fail indeed....
Peace,
emaycee
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
