Does President Obama support any core Democratic Values? Commerce nominee is Anti-Union Bankster

by: Zappatero

Tue May 07, 2013 at 11:26:54 AM MST

Michael Bennet and Mark Udall are still in its thralls.

They should ask Betsy Markey and John Salazar if triangulation is the foolproof method they were sold on.

Barack Obama, similarly to Markey, Salazar, Udall and Bennet, is also taking triangulation way too far.

Against all evidence that says Republicans will oppose any such move, he continues to go more than halfway in an attempt to appease their political hatred by nominating the anti-union, fraudulent-banking Billionaire, Penny Pritzker, to be Secretary of Commerce:

For those who've been waiting for Barack Obama, unfettered from the constraints of re-election, to emerge from his chrysalis and take wing as the true liberal they have always known he was, well, here we are: a proposal to cut Social Security benefits via a cost-of-living adjustments (candidate Obama in 2008 said John McCain suggests "the best answer for the growing pressures on Social Security might be cost-of-living adjustments or raise the retirement age. Let me be clear: I will not do either.") And now this.

In December of 2008, Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce, Chicago-based business tycoon Penny Pritzker, withdrew her name from consideration in the face of a triple-barreled onslaught. First, there was her position on the board of Superior Bank, which her family bought with the help of $645 million in tax credits for the federal government. In 2001, Superior collapsed after pioneering the bottom-feeding trade in subprime mortgages. In In These Times, David Moberg called it a "mini-Enron scandal"; 1,406 uninsured depositors lost their savings.

Here was what one of the victims had to say: "The Pritzkers are crooks. They don't care anything about people who spent their whole lives trying to save." And here is how Penny responded: "We had seven years of clean audits and then the auditors said, 'Well, maybe we'll change the way we calculate.' " Exquisite humanity, that. The family coughed up $435 million in settlement money in exchange for not having to admit any wrongdoing. But why, Penny was asked, would they pay half a billion dollars to clean up a mess she said was none of their fault? Because, she answered, "My family is not going to litigate with the federal government at a time like this"-a reference to the September 11 attacks; classy.

Obama should stop negotiating with those who are determined to cause him to fail. He should start standing up for some core Democratic principles, support the Middle Class who put him in office for two terms, set a base level of support for critical Democratic policies, and he should do it post haste.

It's not triangulation, but it'll work. I guarantee it.

Ding Dongs: Hostess TRIPLED pay of CEO intent on breaking union and extracting wealth

by: Zappatero

Fri Nov 16, 2012 at 14:49:00 PM MST

The ripple effects of Hostess Brands Inc.'s decision to shut down will be felt in Colorado far beyond the 160 people employed at its Denver-area bread-making plant.

The company, which makes Twinkies, Dolly Madison cakes and pastries, Wonder Bread and other iconic products (like Ding Dongs!), also operates a chain of retail stores in the state.

Hostess Brands has stores in Arvada and Colorado Springs, and a combination store/depot in Loveland, Colorado Springs and Pueblo that each employ three people.

What the Denver Business Journal doesn't tell you FireDogLake does:

This is the second Hostess bankruptcy since 2004. The the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) union took multiple concessions in the first bankruptcy, and offered multiple concessions (I'd tell you exactly what they are but apparently they're having bandwidth issues at their site today) on wages and benefits this time around. But the contract the company tried to unilaterally impose was so bad, with a 27-32% wage cut and benefit slashes and the elimination of the eight-hour workday, that 92% of workers rejected it.

And after the strike initiated, Hostess moved right to shutting down the company rather than working with the union on a resolution.

In fact, Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms own Hostess brands, and they took massive bonuses and payouts over the past eight years or so.

They dumped the company pensions, unilaterally stopped making pension payments that would have totaled $160 million, and plan to pay themselves with the sale of the liquidated assets of the company.

Their current CEO's main credential for the job is his "expertise in corporate liquidations," according to the union (he's also seen his pay triple).

The Bain Model: unilaterally punish workers, cripple the pension plan, extract all the wealth and transfer it to the CEO and other high level managers within the company. Then decalre Mission Accomplished!  

UPDATE: Hey Broncos fans: it's not the Refs, it's the Cheap, Billionaire Owners

by: Zappatero

Tue Sep 25, 2012 at 07:35:00 AM MST

Most, if not all, NFL owners are Billionaires just by virtue of owning a team, let alone how they made the money to buy the team in the first place. The Green Bay Packers are public-owned.

The lockout of referees by NFL owners (this is not a strike by refs, though I wouldn't blame them if they did) is their strategy to inhibit refs' pay and pensions and working conditions.

Sound familiar?

The amount of money and benefits involved is miniscule in comparison to the profits of the NFL and the vast wealth of its individual owners:

It's also bewildering. Consider the multibillion-dollar entity that is the National Football League. Then consider that NFL referees are 119 part-time employees who make $8,000 a week. As Jeff MacGregor calculated at espn.com, at a cost of $50 million a year-less than one percent of total revenue-NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell could hire 200 full-time officials at $250,000 a year.

Conversely, if Goodell gets everything he wants from the referees union and he doesn't have to spend too much in legal fees, it works out to league-wide savings of just $62,000 per team.

Got that?

Billionaires don't want an expense increase of $62,000 per team. That's $3,500 per regular season game. And for this they've locked out the referees, put the results of many games in doubt, and, if they continue to lockout the refs, will most likely throw into question the champions and end of season records of each and every player and team.

Can there be any doubt that money most certainly does not buy happiness and that greed has become a sickness carried by a bunch of amoral, ignorant, whiny, petulant egomaniacs that is festering at the heart of our democracy?

UPDATE: Big-time Republicans become Union supporters ... but only in the case of NFL Refs. The rest of the time they hate unions and union members.

On Doing Better Than 50%, Or, Could More "Made In USA" Mean More Jobs?

by: fake consultant

Mon Aug 15, 2011 at 18:53:41 PM MST

They are also going to have to come up with ideas that are pretty much "bulletproof", meaning that they are so hard to object to that even Allen West and Louie Gohmert will not want to be on record saying "no no no!"; alternatively, solutions that work around the legislative process entirely could represent the other form of "bulletproof-ery".

Well, I have one of those "maybe bulletproof" ideas for you today, and it has to do with how "Made in USA" the things are that our Government buys.

On Redistribution, Or, "Afghanistan Peace Dividend Stimulus Lotto? OK!"

by: fake consultant

Thu May 12, 2011 at 06:22:59 AM MST

I mean, we're over here talking about how we're so broke that we have no choice but to cut a couple of billion from heat assistance for the poor, and a billion-and-a-half from the Social Security operations budget, and money from food stamps and childcare assistance and tornado forecasting in Alabama...but every single month, just as regular as clockwork, we seem to be able to find another $10 billion to spend in Afghanistan, even as we have an economy that could badly use another round of truly productive stimulus.

And I don't think y'all even realize just how much money $10 billion really is - but today we're gonna see if we can't fix that with a bit of a thought exercise.

Imagine if we set up a program that took that Afghanistan money and spent it right here at home for a year or two - and it was spent in the form of a lottery, where we stimulate the larger economy, help fix the mortgage crisis, and create a more energy-independent nation, all at the same time.

I got all we need except a catchy name; with that in mind let's move on to the description of how the Happy Super Fun Day Peace Lotto Stimulus Thingy works.  

When Apple Computers were made in Colorado

by: Zappatero

Tue May 10, 2011 at 11:03:30 AM MST

The facility in Fountain, Colorado, made APPLE PowerBooks and desktop computers for Canada and the U.S and employed about 1,100.

Yeah, I know, it's amazing to think of a large U.S. based, high-profit company putting so many to work. It seems impossible now and unfortunately the life of that factory was ended shortly thereafter.

Now Apple subcontracts manufacturing far away from Fountain, Colorado:

Taiwanese-based manufacturing giant Foxconn [...] is notorious for the poor conditions at its factories and the wave of suicides at its plants.

What are the conditions these slackers can't handle? And couldn't Apple make a profit right here in the good ol' USA by importing that work?

Dying For Grid Iron Glory, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy And Dave Duerson

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Wed May 04, 2011 at 06:47:54 AM MST

We talk about sports figures as heroes, but generally I don't find them to be that heroic. Sure the big stars make a lot of money, all of them make considerably more than the median income in this country, and yeah they are on the TV machine a lot but does that make then heroic? Not usually.

However there is one ex-player that I can say without reservation was heroic and heroic in the extreme. Dave Duerson killed himself on the 17th of February this year. He shot himself in the chest to and in his suicide note said "Please, see that my brain is given to the N.F.L.'s brain bank."

You see Mr. Duerson was pretty sure that he had what is called Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. It is a brain condition that has been mostly associated with boxers but is becoming more and more common in ex-NFL players as well.

CTE is a degenerative brain condition with loss of memory, head aches and a general slide into dementia. Mr. Duerson knew a lot about this condition as he had spent the last several years advocating about to Congress and working to help ex-players who had the condition. One of the biggest challenges with CTE is diagnosis, as there is no test short of looking at the actual brain to confirm it. The study of Mr. Duerson's brain showed that he did indeed have CTE.  

When What You Study Makes You A Political Target, Labor Edition

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Wed Mar 30, 2011 at 06:36:19 AM MST

At what point does your work make you a target for political harassment? As a blogger I get a small amount of hate mail and a moderate amount of harassing mail (the two are different, one you can see the person foaming at the mouth, the other you can see their grin at wasting your time), but that is kind of par for the course.

However a troubling trend has started from the Right with regards to State University professors. They are nominally State employees, so the Right as begun to use Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to look at all of the e-mails of professors.

It all started with Ken "the Cooch" Cuccinelli, the Attorney General of Virginia, talking about going after a climate science researcher in the totally discredited "climate gate" incident. Since then there have been FOIA requests of a William Cronon of University of Wisconsin in connection with the illegal and unethical actions of the Republicans and Gov. Walker in that state.

Now it is spreading.
Talking Points Memo first reported and now the
New York Times is picking up the story of several conservative groups in Michigan who are asking for a wide swath of e-mails from three professors from the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.  

Letter to Scott Walker

by: peacemonger

Fri Mar 25, 2011 at 14:22:08 PM MST

Thank you for your assistance in bringing together workers from every walk of life: teachers, firefighters, police officers, government employees, nurses, union members, people of faith, civil rights activists, environmentalists and many others. Thank you for giving us a reason, and a renewed commitment, to publicly declare that we stand together in solidarity to protect the middle class, and to ensure justice for workers. Thank you for helping us find our voice for democracy, and our passion for equal opportunity to the American Dream.

Don't let these 'Democrats' get away with it either

by: wade norris

Sun Mar 20, 2011 at 12:55:14 PM MST

On Taking It Back, Or, Wisconsin Recalls, Explained

by: fake consultant

Mon Mar 14, 2011 at 00:22:10 AM MST

Unfortunately, other important news has forced itself to the front of the line, and it's going to demand that we break schedule, whether we like it or not.

That's why today we're going to be talking about Wisconsin, and how workers there are fighting back against the State's Republican legislators and Governor, who seem to have gone out of their way this past three weeks to govern without the consent of the governed.

It's kind of chilly today in Wisconsin...but I can assure you, things are heating up fast-and it ain't because of spring.

Social Security: If You Can't Kill The Program, Screw The People

by: fake consultant

Sat Mar 05, 2011 at 09:46:42 AM MST

They're going to sell it to you, if they can, as a way to "lower the deficit", or words similar...but what this is really about is making the actual Social Security program work less well-because, after all, if a program is popular today, the best way to make it less so is to apply a bit of "treat 'em like their cars were impounded" to every interaction customers have with the system.

And what better way to make sure that happens...then to aggressively demoralize everyone who works down at the ol' Social Security office?

It's Not Just Union Busting, Its Failing To Honor Contracts

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Thu Mar 03, 2011 at 07:47:00 AM MST

The reason they like this is that most contracts are made with a vast difference in power and that it lets the party with the most money and power put limits on the party with less. Take cell phone agreements. You probably know (or maybe you don't) that when you sign up with a phone company you're generally giving up the right to sue them over any complaint you might have.  

SCFL Calls For General Strike If Walker Plan Is Passed!

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Mon Feb 28, 2011 at 07:40:45 AM MST

As the protests in Madison have continued and even grown in the face of an obdurate Governor and even a major winter storm they have not been alone. This weekend there were rallies in all 50 states in support of the public employees unions.

That first-term Governor Scott Walker has overreached in this labor dispute. It is one thing to want to get concessions out of Labor when times are tight (though maybe he should have not given away massive tax cuts in the first place) but to try to end the right of workers to bargain collectively is a bridge too far.

With public sentiment firmly on the side of Labor, and protests growing not shrinking it is hard to see what the Governor can do other than back down. But that is not preventing one union from both planning for the future and turning up the heat.

The Capital Times is reporting that the South Central Federation of Labor, which has 45,000 members, is endorsing the idea of a general strike if and when Gov. Walker's union busting plan is passed. This is a pretty big step but it is one that I am glad to see.

Without the right to collectively bargain, you are not a union. At that point there is not a lot left to do but deny management the fruit of your labor if they will not agree to recognize your right of collective barging. It is how Labor initially established their rights in the first place. Since that was more than an entire working life time ago, it is probably time to remind folks like Gov. Walker what it looks like when you can't run your schools or state offices because all the qualified and trained people are gone.

We know that Walker, who fancies himself the new Reagan, has given some thought to what he would do if there were a strike. He has had his National Guard commanders preparing to have troops do some of the work at the state level, but it is really unclear if they would be able to keep the State going.  

President Obama, we are oh-so-patiently waiting

by: Zappatero

Thu Feb 24, 2011 at 14:04:25 PM MST

"And understand this: If American workers are being denied their right to organize and collectively bargain when I'm in the White House I will put on a comfortable pair of shoes myself.

I will walk on that picket line with you as President of the United States of America.

Because workers deserve to know that somebody is standing in their corner."

Obsessive Outsorcing Is Expensive, Just Ask Boeing

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Thu Feb 17, 2011 at 07:37:57 AM MST

The theory behind the high C level salaries in corporate America are that these gals and guys are so good at the big picture, developing series of strategies to address the needs of the company that they should be paid out the nose. Having worked in those jungles as a process improvement guy, I have come to see that this is really not the case. In general they don't have a massively well rounded set of skill, it is more that they are one trick ponies. There is the "turd-in-the-punch-bowl" guy who nitpicks projects to death under the guise of caution. There is the gal who wants to take profit out of the workers instead of the customers and then there is the guy who wants to outsource everything.

These techniques do have their efficacy in the right situations, but they are not the solution for every problem. When they are taken too far they all cause problems, and increase cost. Which is the very expensive lesson that Boeing is learning right now.  

On Online Brainstorming, Or, "Hey, Unions...Wanna Grow?"

by: fake consultant

Tue Aug 17, 2010 at 01:14:40 AM MST

In an exchange of comments on the Blue Hampshire site, I proposed an idea that could be of real value to unions, workers...and surprisingly, employers.

If things worked out correctly, not only would lots of people feel a real desire to have unions represent them, but employers would potentially be coming to unions looking to forge relationships, and, just to make it better, this plan bypasses virtually all of the tools and techniques employers use to shut out union organizers.

Since I just thought this up myself, I'm really not sure exactly how practical the whole thing is, and the last part of the discussion today will be provided by you, as I ask you to sound off on whether this plan could work, and if so, how it could be made better.

It's a new week...so let's all put our heads together and rebuild the labor movement, shall we?

Dying For A Work, Literally

by: Bill Egnor AKA Something The Dog Said

Thu Apr 29, 2010 at 06:51:26 AM MST

Mine workers have a 34.8 per 100,000 fatality rate in the United States (in 2008 the last year that statistics are available) with a serious injury rate of 6.5 per 100 workers per year. Those are really high numbers (though mining is only the fourth most dangerous job behind logging, commercial fishing and strangely enough farming), but they do not tell the real story.