Because if it weren't for Unions, and the hundreds of union members who have given their lives to ensure we have decent wages, an eight-hour day, a forty-hour week, weekends, safety regulations and workers' compensation, we'd all be getting pennies a day to suffer in some Trumpian sweatshop.
When Labor Day was originally conceived as a federal holiday, it was as a concession to the labor movement after bloody union unrest that left 30 striking workers dead. It was meant as a day to celebrate the efforts and sacrifices of unionized workers.
A
shrinking share of Americans are union members today. But the benefits
brought about by the union movement are still just as strong,
particularly when it comes to workers’ pay.
Being in a union is particularly helpful for marginalized groups that tend to be paid less than white men. A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research
found that black union workers earn wages that are, on average, 16.4
percent higher than black workers who aren’t in a union. The same is
true for women: a report from the Institute for Women’s Policy Research found that women in a union earn 30.9 percent more than women who aren’t unionized.
Unionization
also yields salary benefits for white men, who get a 20.1 percent boost
for being in a union. But the wage-boosting power of unions has been
hampered as the share of workers who belong to one has declined. In
1983, the earliest year the Bureau of Labor Statistics has data for, 20.1 percent of the workforce belonged to a union. Today that share has been cut nearly in half, down to 11.1 percent.
That’s
hurt everyone’s wages, not just unionized workers. The wage-boosting
power of unions usually spills out into other workplaces because they
set standards that everyone ends up adopting. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute found that for men working in the private sector who aren’t in a union,
their weekly wages would be about 5 percent higher if union membership
had stayed at the same rate as it was in 1979. That would mean an extra
$2,704 per year on average.
Non-union women would also benefit, but the
impact would be smaller — a 2 to 3 percent increase in wages — because
women have historically been a much smaller share of union workers.
The
drop in union membership, and the subsequent erosion of the wage
benefits for all workers, has played a role in widening wage inequality,
holding down pay at the bottom of the scale but less so at the top. In
fact, other researchers have found a strong correlation between the fall of union power and the rise of income inequality.
We created the National Labor Relations Board 80 years ago to help Unions fight criminal employers. But for decades, as repugs kept it neutered, NLRB has been less a friend to workers than our worst enemy.
In
their myriad ways to avoid not only unions but also responsibility for
their own employees, employers have come up with any number of ways to
control workers without having any legal obligation to them. One of the
most effective ways is to use temp agencies for long-term workers who
labor on the shop floor next to actual employees, doing the same work
with lower wages and fewer if any benefits. The Japanese auto industry’s
investment in American factories for instance has relied heavily on
this sort of arrangement. How can a factory unionize when the workers
are technically employees of different companies? This is of course half
the point of it, the other half being lowering employee compensation.
Before this week, the rule was that the temp company would have to grant
permission for their employees to be included in such a bargaining
unit, which is of course laughable that they would grant. But by a 3-1 vote, the NLRB overturned that rule this week.
The
National Labor Relations Board is reaffirming its view that labor law
must now address the brave new world of the fissured workplace—where
workers are often separated from their actual employer by layers of
subcontractors and staffing agencies. On Monday,
the board announced a decision on the case Miller & Anderson,
ruling that unions that want to represent bargaining units including
direct employees as well as “permatemps,” contract workers, and other
indirect workers that share a “community of interest” are no longer
required to get permission from the parent company.
The
old standard, established by George W. Bush’s NLRB in 2004, which
required unions to gain such parent-employer consent, allowed companies
to use staffing agencies and subcontractors as a barrier to organizing
drives. Under the new ruling, a nurses union, for example, can now more
readily expand bargaining units at a hospital to include registered
nurses who are directly employed by the hospital, as well as nurses who
work for staffing agencies hired by the hospital.
This is absolutely huge and another enormous advance in labor law by Tom Perez’s Department of Labor.
In
an increasingly fractured world of labor relations, it’s hard to
understate how big of a deal this is for easing union organizing
efforts. And coming less than a year after its Browning Ferris ruling
that established a bold new standard for defining when parent companies
are joint employers of subcontracted workers, the Miller & Anderson
decision is yet another important step that increases employer
accountability to their workers by expanding the responsibilities of
joint employers.
Not only does the decision
mark an emerging new jurisprudence on labor relations, it also serves to
burnish President Obama’s second-term record on labor and worker
rights, which includes a rash of bold new policies enacted through
executive power.
This
is why I have zero patience with anyone voting for Jill Stein. While
there’s no guarantee that Hillary Clinton will have as strong a DOL as
Obama has since naming Perez to his cabinet, there’s also no question
that her NLRB appointees will build on these sorts of decisions to
improve conditions for workers. I simply assume that most people who
refuse to “compromise their values” by voting for Hillary basically
don’t actually care about working class people.
Celebrate the huge Union victory at Verizon back in June. Why would you not want one of these for yourself? Unions are the only protection workers have. Oganize!
The
four-year contracts would give workers a nearly 11 percent increase in
pay over all, up from the 6.5 percent increase that Verizon had proposed
before the strike, as well as modest ratification bonuses and
profit-sharing.
SNIP
The unions managed to beat back
proposed pension cuts, including a cap on the accrual of pension
benefits after 30 years of service.
The
company also agreed to withdraw a proposal that would have allowed it to
relocate workers for up to two months anywhere in its geographic
coverage area, although it had already expressed an openness to
withdrawing the proposal before the strike.
Proposals
to change seniority rules and to make the company’s sickness and
disability policy more strict were also withdrawn, and the company
agreed to change a performance review program in New York City that many
workers considered abusive.
Significantly,
the new contracts also cover some 65 unionized workers at Verizon
Wireless stores, signaling the first time that retail wireless workers
at the company have been included in a union contract, a potentially
important precedent.
This is an
incredible contract. The workers win nearly twice as much money as they
originally asked for. They force Verizon to cave on all the benefits and
the relocation drive that infuriated workers. They make Verizon back
down on outsourcing jobs overseas. They force the company to create 1000
new union jobs and allow Verizon stores to become part of the
bargaining unit. In return, the workers give up basically nothing. They
allow individual workers to take a buy out if they want it. OK. And they
open up slightly on who precisely takes a given call, but maintaining
that the worker taking it is a union worker. Who cares. They also had to
do some givebacks on health care, but these are the compromises that
must be made sometimes. Overall, this is an outstanding contract and a
gigantic win for workers.
Strikes
work. Strikes have always worked. Strikes still work. Pro-business
forces like to deride unions as socialist parasites, but strikes are, in
a sense, one of the purest free market actions that workers can take:
the refusal to sell labor at a price that is deemed too low. This has
the effect of raising the price of labor.
Though “Economics 101″ idiots
like to pretend that the free market will always magically produce the
perfect wage for every job, the reality is that working people—people
with less money—are always at a disadvantage when it comes to asserting
the leverage necessary to raise their own wages, because they can’t
afford to stop working and lose a paycheck. This is the biggest hurdle
that strikes have to clear. It’s hard for working people to leave work,
demanding better wages and working conditions. It’s a gamble. But it
tends to pay off.
As much as workers need
wages, businesses need labor even more. The free market has not raised
your wages in decades. The government has not raised your wages in
decades. You need to raise your own wages. Organize. Then strike. It’s
always good to be reminded that it works.
I’m a bit less sanguine about this. After all, there certainly have been disastrous strikes. But he’s mostly right. If workers stand up and act upon their demands, their chances of living a dignified life are much higher.
For
me, the real lesson is that if you don’t support joining a union, you
are a fool because you are only hurting yourself. Almost all of us
should have unions. Even if you are a faculty member or public employee
in the South and live in a right-to-work state, you should still have a
union because it will serve as an organized voice and point of power,
even if you can’t win a contract. I know, because I helped one get off the ground.
Entry-level lawyers at big law firms should have unions. Workers at
every private factory or establishment should have unions. Starbucks and
McDonald’s workers should have unions. We should all have unions.
Organizing like the Verizon workers is not a throwback to the past. It
should be an entryway into the future.
This is from a "Daily Kos Classic" (which I get in my email --- you can subscribe too.) I thought it was apropos:
“If
I could conceive that the general government might ever be so
administered as to render the liberty of conscience insecure, I beg you
will be persuaded, that no one would be more zealous than myself to
establish effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny,
and every species of religious persecution.”
- George Washington, letter to the United Baptist Chamber of Virginia (1789)
“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there
be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, then that of
blindfolded fear.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr (1787)
"In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions
thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever
practiced, and both by precept and example inculcated on mankind.”
- Samuel Adams, The Rights of the Colonists (1771)
“Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is
always the strongly marked feature of all religions established by law.
Take away the law-establishment, and every religion re-assumes its
original benignity.”
- Thomas Paine, The Rights of Man (1791)
“Congress has no power to make any religious establishments.”
- Roger Sherman, Congress (1789)
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."
- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack (1758)
"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American
people build a wall of separation between Church & State."
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to the Danbury Baptists (1802)
"To argue with a man who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead."
- Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. V (1776)
“Our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry.”
- Thomas Jefferson, A Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom (1779)
"Christian establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption, all of
which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects."
- James Madison, letter to William Bradford, Jr. (1774)
"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the
promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the
surest basis of public happiness."
- George Washington, address to Congress (1790)
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of
Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in
all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility
in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
- James Madison, General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia (1785)
Agree with their sentiments or not, you simply cannot say that the
founders thought they were explicitly founding a Christian nation.
Such a coincidence that the fired person is the one who makes sure the public knows what its government is doing. (Yes, that kind of reprimand is firing.)
You're a coward and a bully, Andy, and now we all want to know just one thing: What are you hiding?
A longtime champion of Kentucky’s government transparency laws retired Wednesday from Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office after she was reprimanded for speaking with a journalist.
“I
came to this decision under considerable duress,” Assistant Attorney
General Amye L. Bensenhaver, 58, wrote last month to Beshear. “It is
clear to me I cannot survive, much less thrive, in the current office
climate, and I have similar concerns about the open records/meetings
laws.”
Bensenhaver was rebuked in a formal letter July 11 for giving an interview to retired editor John Nelson for a story he wrote in June on the 40th anniversary of the state’s Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act.
Nelson’s story, commissioned by the Kentucky Press Association, ran in
the Herald-Leader and other newspapers around the state. Bensenhaver had
spent 25 years writing open records and open meetings decisions on
behalf of the attorney general, whose word carries the weight of law on
those subjects.
“You were quoted and cited as
a representative of the Office of the Attorney General to the media,
activity that falls outside the scope of your job duties, and without
permission to do so,” La Tasha Buckner, executive director of the
attorney general’s Office of Civil and Environmental Law, wrote to
Bensenhaver. “Your actions in regards to Mr. Nelson’s article on the
Open Records/Open Meetings Act have severely damaged your credibility
and the trust that this office must have in you as an attorney.”
In an interview Thursday,
Bensenhaver said she had hoped to stay at the attorney general’s office
for another five years. But she felt pressured to leave because her
superiors under Beshear kept interfering in the open government
decisions for which she was responsible, ordering changes that did not
strengthen the transparency laws. The reprimand was the last straw, she
said
“I really did enjoy this work and I
felt fortunate to do it for 25 years — or at least, for most of the last
25 years,” she said. “But I didn’t want to be put in a position where I
was forced to make compromises in this important law that I helped to
build.”
SNIP
Under
Kentucky’s open government laws, most activities involving taxpayer
funds must be conducted in public. Reporters and other curious citizens
who are stonewalled by government officials routinely file appeals with
the attorney general asking for a legal opinion. More often than not, a
favorable ruling from the attorney general will pry loose the
information in question.
David Thompson, executive director of the Kentucky Press Association,
said Nelson called Bensenhaver for his story on the 40th anniversary of
the laws because she is considered one of the state’s leading experts.
Thompson said he occasionally had his own conversations with Bensenhaver
when he wanted clarification about what records or meetings should be
available to the public.
“Here she is,
someone who devotes herself day in and day out to open government, and
she literally gets in trouble for talking to a reporter about open
government,” Thompson said. “I hate to see her go.”
No amount of money for programs to deny painkilling drugs
to people in chronic pain is ever going to solve the problem of people
in chronic pain overdosing on heroin because of programs that deny
painkilling drugs to people in chronic pain.
This
beyond-stupid insanity is not just counter-productive; it is literally
murdering people who just want some relief from constant pain. And the
murderer is not a heroin dealer; it's the legislators who think
threatening doctors into denying painkilling drugs is going to solve
anything.
Meanwhile, the DEA is once again snatching a useful drug away and
falsely labeling it dangerous. This is the same agency, remember, that
labels marijuana as dangerous as heroin but thinks the alcohol and
nicotine that kill more than a million Americans every year - pot kills
exactly zero - are fucking health food.
Two dozen people in Louisville overdosed on drugs Tuesday, prompting an emergency room doctor to declare a public health emergency.
Two
weeks before, there were 26 overdoses in Huntington, W.Va. Then 50
overdoses in Cincinnati, followed by 12 in Mount Sterling.
On Wednesday,
Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, the Democratic challenger to U.S. Sen. Rand
Paul this fall, held a news conference in Louisville to chastise Paul
and Congress for failing to fund the recently passed Comprehensive
Addiction and Recovery Act.It calls for
improving prescription drug monitoring programs, expanding treatment for
addicted prison inmates and increasing the availability of a drug that
counters the effects of heroin and opioid overdoses.
“Legislation without funding is a failure,” Gray said. “You have to fund it and that hasn’t been done.”
Earlier
in the year, President Barack Obama asked Congress to provide $960
million with the act, but Congress didn’t include funding.
Gray criticized Paul, R-Bowling Green, for not voting for an amendment that would allocate about $600 million with the bill.
Threatening phone calls to legislators? Check.
Legislators considering impeachment? Check. Childishly defensive
accusations in the media? Check. Boorish behavior that would embarrass
a five-year-old? Check.
State Rep. Russ Meyer, D-Nicholasville, released a recording of a voicemail message Tuesday
that he received in December from Matt Bevin in which Meyer says the
Republican governor warned him of the “impacts” of not switching
political parties.
Meyer said in an interview Tuesday
morning that he received the call from Bevin on his cellphone at 8:40
a.m. Dec. 17 after he had informed Bevin’s chief of staff, Blake
Brickman, that he wasn’t going to switch parties.
Meyer said he had met with the governor and Brickman on Dec. 15 and talked to Brickman again Dec. 16.
"I
want to make sure you understand, uh, where, where things are in my
mind and the decisions I’m going to make, uh, in the days ahead, the
weeks ahead, the months ahead. I want you to be very aware of what the
impacts of those decisions will be as it relates to you, your seat, your
district, etc. — just so we have all the cards on the table,” Bevin
said.
Meyer said Tuesday
that he thinks a major road project in his district was postponed
recently because he decided to remain a Democrat. The Bevin
administration has denied that.
The $11
million project was an extension of East Brannon Road in Jessamine
County to Tates Creek Road near the Fayette County line. It had been
approved by Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, just before he left office
in December.
The Bevin administration delayed
the project, saying the Beshear administration didn’t secure a
necessary portion of land before the deadline to begin work. The state
was contractually obligated to pay The Allen Co. $625,000 in damages
because of the delay.
House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, told reporters Tuesday that state or federal officials should investigate the matter.
“I
would think that either state or federal authorities would look at this
and at least give it a look and see,” Stumbo said. “There’s certainly
very serious allegations about the abuse of the separation of powers.”
If the allegations are true, Stumbo said, the House would consider pursuing articles of impeachment against Bevin.
“If
they canceled that project to retaliate against a member that was duly
elected, then that’s a waste of taxpayer money and in my judgment,
that’s a theft,” Stumbo said.
Bevin’s director of communications, Jessica Ditto, said Stumbo has lost credibility with the people of Kentucky.
“Speaker
Stumbo’s erratic behavior and foolish comments are an embarrassment to
the commonwealth,” Ditto said in a statement. “Kentuckians deserve
better than such buffoonery from our leaders.”
On Saturday
night, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick remained seated
as the national anthem was played during the team’s preseason game
against the Green Bay Packers.
“I
am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that
oppresses black people and people of color,” the 28-year-old told reporters after the game.
His action — or, rather, inaction — sent shockwaves throughout the NFL community. In the past 48 hours, Kaepernick has been called “unappreciative” and “ignorant” by former NFL players; others, including a former teammate of his, have said that he was disrespecting the military and being downright unpatriotic.
And
in a league that has extremely close ties with the military and
nationalism, there are few things worse than being perceived as
anti-American.
But
while Kaepernick might not be displaying the one-size-fits-all
patriotism that the NFL likes to heavily promote, he is showing
patriotism nonetheless.
“I
have great respect for the men and women that have fought for this
country. I have family, I have friends that have gone and fought for
this country,” Kaepernick told reporters on Sunday. “And they fight for freedom, they fight for the people, they fight for liberty and justice, for everyone.”
Kaepernick’s
desire is for liberty and justice to be applied uniformly to all
American citizens. He is willing to lose his job and lose endorsements
in order to speak up for those that he does not feel are getting a fair
shake in his country. That is his version of patriotism.
Compare that to the NFL, which treats patriotism as a brand.
Last
year, it was revealed that the Department of Defense had paid NFL teams
$6.1 million between 2012–2015 for military tributes at games,
including the field-sized American flags, flyovers, and fireworks. (The
NFL announced in May that it was returning $724,000 of that.)
While the league stages and heavily promotes military family reunions without providing full context,
it also fines players, such as former Carolina Panther Josh Norman, for
wearing patriotic cleats that do not fit into the NFL’s very strict
uniform guidelines.
SNIP
All in all, Kaepernick fits the official definition
of patriot — “a person who regards himself or herself as a defender,
especially of individual rights, against presumed interference by the
federal government” — far more than than the NFL does.
“This
stand wasn’t for me. This stand wasn’t because I feel like I’m being
put down in any kind of way,” Kaepernick said. “This is because I’m
seeing things happen to people that don’t have a voice, people that
don’t have a platform to talk and have their voices heard, and effect
change. So I’m in the position where I can do that and I’m going to do
that for people that can’t.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean that Kaepernick hasn’t experienced racism. On Sunday
he spoke about helping a friend move, only to have cops come and point
guns at him and another black friend, assuming they were intruders. When
he was named the starting quarterback for the 49ers, there wasracially-charged criticism of his tattoos and leadership skills.
But Kaepernick knows that compared to most, he has it good. He sat during the national anthem because black Americans are 2.5 times as likely
as white Americans to be shot and killed by the police. Unarmed black
Americans are five times as likely as unarmed white Americans to be shot
and killed by police. And far too often, there is no punishment for police officers committing these murders.
Kaepernick
might not have a spot on an NFL roster for much longer — there are
rumors that the 49ers will release him for “football reasons” — but as
long as he has a platform, he plans to follow in the footsteps of
athlete activists before him, most notably Muhammad Ali.
SNIP
For his part, Kaepernick plans to continue to sit during the national anthem until he sees significant progress.
“This
country stands for freedom, liberty, justice for all, and it’s not
happening for all right now,” Kaepernick said. “To me this is something
that has to change, and when there’s significant change and I feels like
that flag represents what it’s supposed to represent and this country
is representing people the way it’s supposed to, I’ll stand.”
You know who is the most fanatic about making empty jingoistic gestures like standing for the anthem and saluting the flag? Traitors, that's who. Spies. Terrorists. Because they know that pretending patriotism is the easiest thing in the world, and will guarantee them a pass from suspicion.
No,
Mike Lux: Xian love of the Orange Menace is completely in keeping with
their political goals since they agreed to oppose abortion in return for
Catholic support of segregated schools forty years ago.
The
freakazoids don't give a shit about Donald Treason's utter lack of
morality, religious or otherwise, or his two divorces, or his probable
payment for a good couple of dozen abortions, or his sexual lust for his
own daughter, or his worship of Mammon, or his constant bearing false
witness, or his tolerance of gays.
All
the freakazoids care about is authoritarian control and dominance by
white, straight, xian men. Conveniently exactly the same thing that
Trump cares about.
Remember: Expanding Medicaid brings billions of dollars into Kentucky and saves our regional hospitals. Cutting Medicaid costs Kentucky taxpayers billions in lost revenue, lost jobs and lost lives.
Joe Sonka details the "changes" that Kentucky GOP Gov. Matt Bevin has made
to his planned waiver of Medicaid expansion, which the federal
government basically told him that he wasn't going to get approved.
Bevin apparently doesn't give a damn and is submitting it anyway, and
is daring the Department of Health and Human Services to tell him to
piss off so he can blame somebody else when Kentucky Republicans take
health coverage away from ten percent of the state.
Under the waiver proposal dubbed Kentucky HEALTH
and first unveiled in June, individuals with income up to 138 percent of
the federal poverty rate would still be eligible for expanded Medicaid,
though “able-bodied” persons would have to pay a monthly premium to
maintain coverage and could be locked out from coverage if payments are
missed. Such individuals also would no longer be automatically eligible
for benefits such as vision and dental, having to earn credits in their
My Rewards Account by having health risk assessments, volunteering,
taking smoking cessation classes, having a job or being in school.
Bevin reiterated in a press release announcing the submission of the 87-page waiver on Wednesday
that his plan would lead to better health outcomes, ensure the
long-term sustainability of the state’s Medicaid program — as Kentucky
must begin to kick in a small percentage of costs for covering the
expanded population next year — and “familiarize members with commercial
insurance and prepare them for self-sufficiency.”
“The
submission of this waiver is the result of many months of extensive
research, planning and time spent traveling the state listening to
Kentuckians,” said Bevin in his press release. “Kentucky HEALTH will
allow us to continue to provide expanded Medicaid coverage, but unlike
the current Medicaid expansion under Obamacare, it will do so in a
fiscally responsible manner that ensures better health outcomes for
recipients.”
The major scam here is the "My
Rewards Account", like any health savings account you put money into to
cover your medical expenses, but you lose all the money in it at the end
of the year. It's a tax on people who are bad at predicting exactly
how sick they'll get in the course of 12 months, underestimate it and
you lose your coverage for non-payment of premiums, overestimate it and
you pay the state extra tax money you really can't afford. It's a fun
guessing game, and the winner is Bevin, every time.
While
Bevin’s proposal had received wide praise from Republican officials in
Kentucky, health care advocacy groups have expressed concern that
requiring premiums and locking people out of coverage for failure to
make payments would serve as an obstacle to many low-income individuals
and families gaining Medicaid insurance. HHS also has emphasized that
states seeking a waiver to alter its Medicaid expansion may not limit
access to coverage or benefits by conditioning eligibility on work or
other activities, impose premiums or cost sharing at levels preventing
low-income individuals from accessing coverage, or penalize people for
needing Medicaid coverage for multiple years.
When
unveiling his proposal in June, Bevin warned that if HHS does not
approve the waiver, then “there will not be expanded Medicaid in the
state of Kentucky,” an indication that he would either repeal the
executive order of former Gov. Beshear to expand Medicaid — which
resulted in over 400,000 people receiving coverage — or decline to
reauthorize it next year. When asked what he would do if HHS only
approved of 90 percent of Kentucky’s waiver proposal, Bevin said at the
time that there is still a “negotiating process” going forward.
HHS
press secretary Marjorie Connolly released the following statement
after Gov. Bevin’s announcement, again praising the success of
Kentucky’s Medicaid expansion over the past few years and indicating
that the process going forward could still take considerable time.
“Kentucky’s
Medicaid expansion has been very successful in improving health
coverage, access to care, health outcomes, and financial security for
its citizens,” said Connolly. “HHS has been clear that, as we begin the
review of this application, we will assess it based on longstanding
Medicaid principles of access to coverage and affordability of care. As
in other states, we are prepared to continue dialogue for as long as it
takes to find a solution that maintains and builds on Kentucky’s
historic progress, and avoids moving backwards.”
Except backwards is exactly where Bevin is heading with this. He's
holding health insurance coverage for 400,000 plus Kentuckians hostage,
and either he gets what he wants or the people of the Bluegrass State
get it right between the eyes.
U.S.
Rep. John Yarmuth, D-Louisville, and 6th Congressional District
Democratic nominee Nancy Jo Kemper of Lexington joined about 40
protesters outside Thursday’s
Kentucky Farm Bureau Country Ham Breakfast at the Kentucky State Fair
to urge the Farm Bureau to change “discriminatory” practices.
The
protest was peaceful without any arrests. Last year, three protesters
were arrested by state police on misdemeanor charges that were later
dropped, and the three have a pending U.S. District Court lawsuit
against the state police.
Yarmuth, wearing an
an orange T-shirt that said, “No Hate in Our State; Kentucky Farm
Bureau Big on Discrimination,” said the Farm Bureau had policies against
gays, teachers, unions, pro-choice advocates and death penalty
opponents.
“Most people in that room don’t
know the Farm Bureau’s policies,” Yarmuth said while standing outside
the Kentucky Exposition Center, where more than 1,600 people, including a
lot of politicians, gathered for the Farm Bureau’s 53rd annual
breakfast.
SNIP
Kemper,
who is trying to unseat U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, in Central
Kentucky’s 6th District, said she always has been for equal rights of
all people.
She said she believes there are “gay kids in rural areas,” and the Farm Bureau should be concerned about them.
Chris
Hartman, director of the Fairness Campaign, said his organization and
the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, the Jefferson County
Teachers Association and Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice joined
in the protest.
You
only hear that from white, straightmen. The ones who have
nothing to fear from the violent hatred animating the repugs. Everybody
else has everything to fear from the trumpists.
Yeah, Governor Pants-Shitter really is an inexcusable piece of shit. This press release is nothing but a regurgitation of all the anti-trans lies and fear-mongering. Shame on him. Again.
Gov. Matt Bevin
today
joined a lawsuit against yet another Obama Administration regulatory
overreach (SIC) that affects Kentucky’s taxpayers (SIC) and violates the medical
judgment (SIC) and conscience rights (SIC) of doctors and health care professionals (SIC)
across the country.
“The
Obama Administration continues its attacks (SIC) on the constitutional rights (SIC)
and religious freedoms (SIC) of Kentuckians,” said Gov. Bevin. “It is both
appalling (SIC) and illegal
(SIC) for the federal government to force (SIC) Kentucky taxpayers to foot the bill
for sex-change operations (SIC). That is a ridiculous misuse (SIC) of power by the
Obama administration. I intend to fight this type of liberal foolishness (SIC)
at every turn and will stand firm (SIC) in protecting
the rights (SIC) and values (SIC) of Kentuckians."
Last
month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services implemented a
new rule “interpreting” the definition of “sex” (eeeeekkkk! scare quotes! Everybody run!) within the Affordable
Care Act. As the Obama
Administration has attempted to do in other instances, this new rule
interprets “sex” as a state of mind, not a biological fact. (SIC) When it
enacted the law, Congress used the term “sex” as a biological category.
(SIC) The Obama Administration is now trying to redefine
the law so that the term “sex” means ones’ “internal sense of gender
which may be male, female, neither, or a combination of male and
female.” But the President does not have the power to rewrite law. (SIC)
The
impact of this new rule on Kentucky and health care workers is
significant. (SIC) Not only does the rule require taxpayers to fund all
treatments designed to transition
to a different sex, it also forces health care workers, including
physicians, to provide controversial services. (SIC) Under the new rule, a
physician who believes that certain treatments are not in a patient’s
best medical interests may be in violation of federal
law. And a physician who, for religious or conscientious reasons cannot
perform a particular procedure, chooses to instead refer a patient to
another health care provider may also be determined to be in violation
of this new rule.
Kentucky taxpayer dollars will not fund this lawsuit.(SIC)
(SIC) is short for motherfucking liar lying about fucking mothers. Again.
Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, called the lawsuit "a thinly veiled attack on transgender people.
"The ACA rule does not mandate what kind of care doctors can and cannot give," Keisling said. "It bans discrimination. It's there to make sure that transgender people can get the treatment we need without facing harassment - or worse. Over a dozen federal courts have confirmed that the term "sex" in federal non-discrimination laws, including the ACA, applies to gender identity."
Keisling said the regulation not only ensures transition-related care for transgender people, but prohibits medical providers from discriminating against transgender people seeking care for other health issues "from colds to cancer."
"This regulation does not undermine medical judgment," Keisling added. "It simply requires that medical decisions be made based on medicine, not prejudice."
You'll be stunned to learn that the power behind this lawsuit is a bunch of freakazoids who think they're being eaten by lions if anyone dares to deny their babby-jeebus-given "right" to harass, humiliate, fire, attack and even kill LGBT people in the name of their precious "religious freedom."
Shame on you, Eastern. SHAME. Tell Governor Lying Coward and the austerity-loving motherfuckers in the General Assembly to give you the goddamn money you need to educate Kentuckians to survive in an ever-changing world.
A world that demands critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills that can only be learned from a broad liberal arts education. The kind of liberal arts education that Kentucky governors worked for decades to build in Bowling Green and Morehead and Murray and yes, Richmond.
The kind of liberal arts education that is a clear and present danger to the repugs who know they appeal only to mouth-breathing, slope-headed, know-nothing morons.
The kind of liberal arts education that must be destroyed.
Amid statewide budget cuts for the next two years, Eastern Kentucky University is deciding which academic majors and minors should be cut and which need more support.
French,
journalism, theater, horticulture and geography are recommended for
suspension in a preliminary report by the Academic Budget Review
Subcommittee of majors and minors that have had fewer students in recent
years.
SNIP
On the other hand, physics made the probationary list, with an average
of just seven majors in eight years. But, “as a STEM discipline, the
program should be supported,”
HA! STEM, of course. Only tech geeks will receive an education; everyone else will be indoctrinated into obeying their corporate overlords without question.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article97136502.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article97136502.html#storylink=cpy
This decision addresses only privately-run federal prisons, but the issue is of course far, far bigger. The problem with private prisons is not the prison part, it's the private part.
Giving tax dollars to for-profit companies to provide public services is worse that a mere horrific waste of money and an even more horrific abuse of helpless citizens. It's worse than incompetent, worse than counter-productive, worse than sabotaging the very idea of public services provided by public employees at public expense.
Privatization - which in most cases is invisible to the public - gives people the precisely wrong idea that government does not work and should be run like a business.
It's private companies making a profit off of the Common Wealth that always fails.
The
Justice Department plans to end its use of private prisons after
officials concluded the facilities are both less safe and less effective
at providing correctional services than those run by the government.
Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates announced the decision on Thursday
in a memo that instructs officials to either decline to renew the
contracts for private prison operators when they expire or
“substantially reduce” the contracts’ scope. The goal, Yates wrote, is
“reducing — and ultimately ending — our use of privately operated
prisons.”
“They simply do not provide the
same level of correctional services, programs, and resources; they do
not save substantially on costs; and as noted in a recent report by the
Department’s Office of Inspector General, they do not maintain the same
level of safety and security,” Yates wrote…
The
Justice Department’s inspector general last week released a critical
report concluding that privately operated facilities incurred more
safety and security incidents than those run by the federal Bureau of
Prisons. The private facilities, for example, had higher rates of
assaults — both by inmates on other inmates and by inmates on staff —
and had eight times as many contraband cellphones confiscated each year
on average, according to the report.
TPM took a deep look at private prisons here as part of a series on privatized government in general. And that's where this prison story needs to lead: the millions of government contracts worth tens of billions of tax dollars given to private companies to do everything from janitorial work to running schools to nursing patients to undermining public safety as cops and firefighters.
Only government can provide public services, because only government is accountable to the public.
Now that we have proof that private contracts always cost more than public employees and always fail to provide adequate services, it's time to put an end to companies sucking off the taxpayer tit.
An article in New Scientist
magazine recently cautioned parents and schools not to allow children to
visit a Noah’s Ark theme park in Kentucky, citing scientific errors and
an underlying message that praises the “obliteration of humans.”
In a column published by New Scientist
last week, evolutionary biologist Josh Rosenau of the U.S. National
Center for Science Education explained that parents should look beyond
the Ark Encounter’s petting zoo when deciding whether to allow children
to attend.
“It
is, in fact, a hard-core creationist extravaganza replete with
pseudoscience. It is no place for field trips,” Rosenau wrote. “Perhaps
because of disappointing visitor numbers so far, it is offering reduced
rates – $1 a student and free tickets for accompanying teachers – to
tempt schoolchildren through its doors. Schools and parents should know
that a visit wouldn’t educate or entertain, it would misinform and
browbeat.”
In addition to the constitutional prohibition against government promoting religion, Rosenau observed that the park’s message to students would undermine their education.
“[E]verything
in the park is designed to promote scientifically impossible ideas that
contradict everything that scientists know. From astrophysics to
zookeeping, the visitor is deluged with misinformation,” he said. “It
may be impossible to find a single sign in the park that is free of
scientific errors.”
But it was the Ark Encounter’s “subtler form of indoctrination” that really disturbed the evolutionary biologist.
“The
relentless message to visitors is that our world is as fallen and
wicked as Noah’s, and that the destruction of the flood – including the
obliteration of all humans other than a virtuous few – was not just
acceptable but praiseworthy,” Rosenau lamented. “Under the pretence of
illustrating a beloved tale shared by Jews, Christians, Muslims and
others, Ark Encounter presents a message as socially divisive as it is
scientifically inaccurate, instilling fear, hatred and hopelessness.”
“Those are lessons no school or parent should want their students or children to take on board.”
To
argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and
whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like
administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist
by scripture.
The
second Clinton is inaugurated, impeachment proceedings will begin
because that's what these GOP fuckers do. And every single one of them
will run like baby rats back to their rat mother's teats and join the
party in condemning Clinton for whatever made up shit they crap out this
time. Their support of Clinton is just fucking cover so that they can
say they turned away from Trump when he finally melts down and starts
calling for death squads (which, again, would make Negroponte fucking
hard). If
I were Clinton, I'd demand that each of these assholes scrambling to
get away from Trump join the Democratic Party. Don't make it easy on
this scum. Tell them they need abandon their party or tell them to go to
hell with Trump. Leave the GOP to the extremists and the racists and
the nutzoids. You know climate change is real. You know gun laws need to
be passed. You fucking know that the tax laws are tilted radically
towards the wealthy. You know that LGBT issues are done. You know that
unless you get down and dirty with the fundamentalists and nationalists
and the remnants of the Tea Party, you will be primaried. So fuck you
and your support. Show you mean it. Then we can fight about the identity
of the Democratic Party, which we're gonna have to do anyway.
Why
do factory workers make more in Michigan? In a word: unions. The
Midwest was, at least until recently, a bastion of union strength.
Southern states, by contrast, are mostly “right-to-work” states where
unions never gained a strong foothold. Private-sector unions have been
shrinking across the country for decades, but they are stronger in the
Midwest than in most other parts of the country. In Michigan, 23 percent
of manufacturing production workers were union members in 2015; in
South Carolina, less than 2 percent were.
Unions
also help explain why the middle class is healthier in the Midwest than
in the Southeast, where manufacturing jobs have been growing rapidly in
recent decades. A new analysis from the Pew Research Center this week
explored the state of the middle class in different parts of the country
by looking at the share of households making between two-thirds and
double the national median income, after controlling for the local cost
of living. In many Midwestern cities, 60 percent or more of households
are considered “middle-income” by this definition; in some Southern
cities, even those with large manufacturing bases, middle-income
households are now in the minority.
Even in
the Midwest, however, unions are weakening and the middle class is
shrinking. In the Indianapolis metro area, where the Carrier plant Trump
talks about is located, the share of households in the middle tier of
earners has shrunk to 54.8 percent in 2014 from 58.9 percent in 2000.
And unlike in some parts of the country, the decline in the middle class
there has been primarily driven by people falling into the lower tier
of earners, not moving up. The Carrier plant, where workers make more
than $20 an hour, is unionized.
But this much
is clear: For all of the glow that surrounds manufacturing jobs in
political rhetoric, there is nothing inherently special about them. Some
pay well; others don’t. They are not immune from the forces that have
led to slow wage growth in other sectors of the economy. When
politicians pledge to protect manufacturing jobs, they really mean a
certain kind of job: well-paid, long-lasting, with opportunities for
advancement. Those aren’t qualities associated with working on a factory
floor; they’re qualities associated with being a member of a union.
When
Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton or anyone call to
bring back manufacturing jobs per se, what they are saying is primarily
that they want good paying jobs for working class Americans again. And
where those good paying jobs exist, like at the Carrier plant, they need
to remain there. But the reason that we think that manufacturing jobs
pay well is because a century of union struggles. As we can see when
those manufacturing jobs go overseas, just because you work in
manufacturing doesn’t mean you have a good job. What you have is usually
a hot, dangerous, exploitative job where you have no rights and that
takes very little brain power. The workers of Bangladesh, Honduras, and
China could tell you that just because you have a manufacturing job does
not mean you have a good life. So could the workers in Lordstown in 1972.
What
made that palatable to American workers after 1935 was that they could
unionize those factories and thus give their lives dignity. That legacy
is still with us as manufacturing still usually pays better than fast
food. But there’s nothing inherently more dignified in working in a
timber mill than there is flipping burgers. The difference is that we
don’t see those jobs as jobs that should be paid well and should be
unionized. Popularly, they are seen as entry level jobs. But the woman
in the chain coffee shop where I am writing this post is in her 40s and
is probably making not much more than minimum wage, as are so many
service industry workers. Those jobs should be union jobs too. They
should make as much as steel workers made in 1965 or whatever.
Manufacturing is never coming back to the United States in 1965 numbers.
That’s for a number of reasons. Globalization is not going to put back
into a box. And what jobs do come back are going to be heavily
automated. This we know.
One
other critical point here, which is that manufacturing nostalgia is
also nostalgia for the age of the white male single breadwinner. And
while I support jobs that pay enough to support a family, there’s
definitely social and racial problems here and there’s no question that
these issues animate the nostalgia people feel for these jobs.
But
whatever the job, wherever it is, people live dignified lives if they
have unions. If they don’t have unions, their lives are worse. That’s
why companies are engaging in extreme capital mobility, creating
extralegal courts to protect their rights, using opaque supply chains,
putting long-term temp workers on the same workplace floors as unionized
workers, etc. The goal is to repeal workers’ gains of the last century.
Our
goal therefore needs to be to move the gains of the last century onto
the jobs of the new century while doing what we can to ensure that
wherever companies move their production that those gains will also be
achievable by the workers of the world. Until we do that, our dignity
will be under constant threat. But fundamentally, it doesn’t really
matter whether the jobs is in a steel mill, a hamburger joint, or
teaching. All workers must have good wages and unions.
Camp Nelson richly deserves to become a national park.
It's a scandal that it has been ignored by federal authorities for so
long.
I'm sure it's just a coincidence that Barr proposes this park
honoring black soldiers in the Union Army just as he is facing a strong challenge to his re-election and needs every black vote he can
scrounge.
An effort has begun to put a Jessamine County historic site into the National Park System.
U.S.
Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, has introduced a bill that would authorize
the Department of Interior to conduct a study that would be the first
step toward bringing Camp Nelson Civil War Heritage Park into the
National Park System.
The heritage park tells
the story of black soldiers who were recruited and trained to fight for
the Union. The park is off U.S. 27 about six miles south of
Nicholasville.
“This is a place of national historic value,” Barr said in a visit to the park Thursday.
SNIP
Camp Nelson was established by an order of President Abraham Lincoln. It was named for Maj. Gen. William “Bull” Nelson.
As
many as 10,000 black troops trained there. Eight regiments were founded
at Camp Nelson and five others were stationed there, making it the
third-largest such center in the nation.
Other
training centers for black troops in Philadelphia and New Orleans were
larger, but more archaeological resources were preserved at Camp Nelson
because it was in a rural area, said Stephen McBride, director of
interpretation and archaeology at the park.
Get out to vote on Nov. 8, you Sixth District Democrats. Nancy Jo Kemper will be a much stronger advocate for Camp Nelson than Candy Barr has any intention of being.
Gov.
Matt Bevin has urged the new University of Louisville Board of Trustees
to meet in apparent defiance of a judge’s order blocking them from
acting.
In an interview on WHAS-AM radioWednesday,
Bevin told host Terry Meiners that “the new board is not enjoined. The
new board has authority to meet and they should do exactly that.”
In a July 29 order,
Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ruled that the “governor's
appointment of replacement board members and their authority to act as
the duly constituted Board of Trustees of the University of Louisville”
was “temporarily enjoined,” pending a final resolution of Attorney
General Andy Beshear’s lawsuit contesting Bevin’s power to abolish the
old board and appoint a new one.
The
injunction also blocked Bevin, “his agents, employees and all other
persons acting at his direction from taking any actions to implement his
orders on U of L."
Beshear, who won the
temporary injunction, said in a statement that Bevin encouraging
defiance of a court order is a "serious matter that should concern all
Kentuckians. We live in a country governed by the rule of the law, which
must be respected.”
"Blue" in Blue in the Bluegrass refers to my politics, not my state of mind, although being progressive-democratic in Kentucky is not for the faint of heart.
The Bluegrass Region of Kentucky is Central Kentucky, the area around Lexington. It's also sometimes known as the Golden Triangle, the region formed by Louisville in the west, Cincinnati in the north and Lexington in the east-south corner. This is the most economically advanced, politically progressive and aesthically beautiful area of the state. Also the most overpopulated by annoying yuppies and the most endangered by urban sprawl.
A Yellow Dog Democrat is one who will vote for even a yellow dog if it is running as a Democrat. I can't claim to be quite that fanatically partisan, especially since quite a few candidates who run as Democrats in Kentucky are more Republican than a lot of Republicans I can name.
But I do love the story Kentucky House leader Rocky Adkins never tires of telling about the old-timer in Eastern Kentucky who was once accused of being willing to vote for Satan if Satan ran as a Democrat. Spat back the old-timer:
"Not in a primary, I wouldn't!"
Amen.
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