Owning up

After 8000 votes to repeal Obamacare (slight exaggeration for the sarcasm challenged), it was really rich to hear republicans whine today about Democrat's holding a "political vote" on the Paycheck Fairness Act.  Because our Senate is so dysfunctional (and to a degree, because Democrats lack a strong enough spine), the Paycheck Fairness Act failed today despite having 54 votes for to 43 against.  Remember, this is an Act that the American public supports overwhelmingly.

You'd be hard pressed to come up with any significant legislation the modern republican party has enacted which benefitted ordinary Americans.  The plain truth of the matter is that the Paycheck Fairness Act, and likewise, votes to raise the minimum wage, are core Democratic Party values, and that republicans lack the guts to tell the American people what they really feel--that they're fine with women making less than men for doing the same job, and that they don't care if people can work full-time hours and still make little enough to live below the poverty level, as long as their corporate backers keep sending the checks.

It's not about politics--it's about our core values versus their core values.  It's not our fault if the the majority of Americans think the republican party's core values suck.

Peace,
emaycee

Not so equal pay day

To celebrate Equal Pay Day, republicans chose to once again fellate the powers that be in corporate America and continue to do all they can to make sure that women do not make as much money as men.  Their fearful Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, went so far as to claim that equal pay was "...the left's latest bizarre obsession."  (One would hope, that between this crackbrained comment and McConnell's equally dotty earlier remark about Obamacare being a catastrophe that Sen. McConnell would sign up for Obamacare so he can get some psychiatric help.)

Just to make sure that everyone knows that they're not just discriminating against women, House republicans today noted that despite the Senate passing an emergency unemployment aid package, House republicans felt it was time for the program to come to an end.  So, considering there are three applicants for every job opening, republicans in essence have told those two unlucky applicants that they, and their children, are now free to starve to death.

I'd say it was rare to see this level of political incompetence, but hell, this is the modern republican party we're talking about.

And they're doing their damndest to make sure we Democrats stay competitive in the 2014 mid-terms.

Peace,
emaycee

Trickle down sociopathy

So I'm reading this really long article on the sociopathological tendencies of the 1% and it dawns on me how far down the corporate ladder these tendencies have reached.  From the vastly inflated sense of self worth, to the lack of caring for others, to the catering to individual wants (executive level management loves to talk about teamwork as long as it deals with the piss ants below them and not themselves) it's amazing how far down  it reaches...right about to those of us who live paycheck to paycheck, or even worse, try to survive on poverty wages.

The only thing scarier was the realization I also had of how many sociopathic traits apply to republicans as well....

Peace,
emaycee

Feeding the rich while we bury the poor

There were two reports in the past couple of weeks that have really stood out for me:

• In a big surprise, corporate profits rose to an all-time high of almost $1.7 trillion (that number looks like this:  $1,700,000,000,000) in 2013.  In another big surprise, despite a 25% increase in productivity, wages are growing at the slowest pace since the 1960s.
• Over 50 million Americans, or 18.9% of us, were food insecure last year.

The incongruity between the two reports is striking, don't you think?

It also reminded me of this from a recent article from Thomas Frank, of What's the Matter with Kansas? fame:

“Inequality” is the most basic issue of them all, the very reason for liberalism’s existence. It is about who we are and how we live. Virtually every other liberal cause pales by comparison. This is the World War II of political subjects, and if we are going to win it must be a people’s war...."

Who we are and how we live...from his pen to the Liberal Gods' ears.

Peace,
emaycee

The noose gets a little tighter

The five conservative judges on the Supreme Court today made it easier and more likely that people who have a shitload more money than folks like us can donate even larger sums than Citizen's United begat to, let's face it, mostly republican candidates.  Much hand-wringing has begun among the good guys--rightfully so--as working class America has had another impediment thrown in the path of trying to feed, clothe, house, and educate its families.

McCutcheon v. FEC  will cost Democrats some seats in Congress and the rest of us some financial security--in the short term.  If there's anything we've learned since the monied elite caused our economy to crash resulting in the Great Recession, it's that the wealthy really aren't that bright and their inflated sense of self-worth will eventually lead them astray.  The Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson threw countless millions of dolars into the 2012 elections, and exactly how well did that turn out for them?

One of two things will happen eventually--as voting demographics turn more and more our way, enough Progressives will get elected to turn the tide of the Reagan Devolution and enact campaign finance laws that will actually serve our democracy (with a left-leaning SCOTUS to back it up), or the wealthy will overplay their hand and end up a bunch of castrati, a la the French Revolution.

Either way, in the end, we win.

Peace,
emaycee

Come on now...celebration

Despite several thousand repeal votes, unprecedented republican threats to shut down the government, zillions of Koch brothers dollars, misinformation on an historic scale from Faux News, and the best efforts of professional nutjobs like Michelle Bachman, Sarah Palin, and Ted Cruz, enrollments for Obamacare reached the projected goal of 7 million before yesterday's cutoff date.

The President and many congressional Democrats rightfully took a victory lap today.  As it's not likely to be much of a year for celebrating Democratic victories (hoping against hope, though), might as well put on your dancing shoes tonight:

Peace,
emaycee

Just give me money

Andy Puzder, CEO of the parent company for Hardee's and Carl Jr.'s fast food restaurants whines in The Wall Street Journal about President Obama's executive action to increase the the number of those eligible for overtime pay, and declares that salaried managers prefer stature to overtime pay.

I have worked in retail for thirty years now, and I can honestly say that Mr. Puzder is completely and totally full of shit.  I don't know of a manager I ever worked with that would take stature over overtime pay, yours truly included.  In fact, if they'd given me overtime pay, they could have given me the title Pinhead In Charge--and I would have laughed all the way to the bank.

Mr. Puzder's claims are the very definition of fucking obtuse.

Peace,
emaycee