Discussion
  • Read More
    burner2020Hamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 11:39am

    Maybe we need to actually, you know, fight it:

    1. Social Security tax on income beyond the $118,500 cut-off point.
    2. “Robin Hood” tax on all currency transactions.
    3. Revive Glass-Steagall and break up big banks.
    4. End the war on drugs.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      toothpetardburner2020
      10/09/15 11:41am

      ‘globalization’ of environmental & labor laws.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      NoOnesPostburner2020
      10/09/15 12:04pm

      All things that are sure to get through the House.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    benjaminalloverHamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 12:03pm

    So we still have some very strong unions in Canada and still a significant membership as a proportion of population. While some private sector unions are having pension disputes, public sector unions have strengthened our services (health and education specifically) and stabilized our economy, while keeping working conditions to a high standard. We’re certainly not being bankrupted by well-paid teachers or nurses who have real bargaining power in their negotiations; that’s ultimately better for students and patients, which is better for taxpayers in the longest run. The anti-union propaganda I hear from the U.S. really has no relation to the reality I see up here.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      JAM27benjaminallover
      10/09/15 12:11pm

      Harper has passed a couple of bills in the past few years aiming to bust the unions. Try talking to any of the right wing posters (nutters) on the Toronto Sun site, they all feel teachers should all be fired and new ones hired at lower wages, they feel the same way about the postal union.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      benjaminalloverJAM27
      10/09/15 12:22pm

      Harper is evil and wrong about everything, and The Sun is for people who don’t read good. You wouldn’t believe how many absolute idiots in the industrial unions around here read it (well, look at the pictures) swallowing every self-sabotaging idea. Fuckin’ morons. Luckily, the majority of unions are voting against him in Ontario which may help turn the tide in this election. The liberals are surging so I’m even going to switch parties for the best chance to get our country back from Harper, the worst politician in Canadian history by a very wide margin.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    dothedewHamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 11:39am

    “We feel like we’re ready to give birth!” said Valerie Jarrett, the adviser who helped orchestrate the event.

    Probably bc everyone there was in labor.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      Hamilton Nolandothedew
      10/09/15 11:46am

      nice.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Hthdothedew
      10/09/15 11:53am

      God help me, I laughed.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    EvanrudeJohnsonHamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 11:43am

    he was either dealing with a Russian missile attack in Syria, or apologizing to Doctors Without Borders for blowing up a hospital.

    Actually, Obama was probably calling up Senators to get them to support his Pacific free trade pact. The one Hillary was for, before she was against it.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      benjaminalloverEvanrudeJohnson
      10/09/15 11:54am

      The one Hillary was for, before she was against it.

      Either the wind changed direction, or she’s paying attention to Sanders’ campaign.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      FrederickDouglassbenjaminallover
      10/09/15 12:05pm

      You bet your ass it was due to the Sander campaign. With the momentum he has right now he could really upset her again for the primaries. Only way she is gonna build up the kind of energy she needs is if she doubles down on some of the more populist liberal platforms.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    BerkeleyBear91Hamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 11:42am

    Glad to hear you got the message loud and clear. He’s only been saying it ever since before he got elected President. Meaningful change is not ever going to come top down in America - never has. Even FDR had to have a) massive majorities and b) a perceived existential threat to a weakened upper class to pull off the New Deal. And even then several of its biggest pieces were shot down by the patrician Supreme Court, conservative Dems fought to make sure he did as little as possible about racial issues, and after the 1936 elections blocked most new reforms and prolonged the Great Depression until WWII helped the economy boom.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      sui_generisBerkeleyBear91
      10/09/15 12:41pm

      >> Glad to hear you got the message loud and clear. He’s only been saying it ever since before he got elected President. Meaningful change is not ever going to come top down in America - never has. <<

      .

      That’s true, it’s not like he didn’t warn us. But to this day there are still idiots wondering why he hasn’t fixed everything with the magic wand he was issued when he became Wizard King.

      Often the people saying this are the same so-called “liberals” who couldn’t be bothered to vote in the 2010 Congressional elections. Our country is politically illiterate, but loves to piously complain.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      The Ghost of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ AKA BabyStepssui_generis
      10/09/15 12:56pm

      I like you very much!

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Bull MooseHamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 11:47am

    Politically, we are stuck in a situation in which one party pays lip service to labor unions while doing nothing and the other party which actively seeks to destroy labor unions.

    Hooray for the two party system!

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      emfish55Bull Moose
      10/09/15 1:28pm

      Don’t underestimate the ability of the Republican party to pay lip service to the working class while trying to dismantle organized labor. I can’t wait to spend the year watching all the GOP presidential candidates claim to care about income inequality and the stagnation of working class income while also pledging to never, ever do anything about it. Theatre of the absurd.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Frankenbike666Bull Moose
      10/09/15 2:04pm

      This is not entirely true. One party proposes labor reform, while the other party either doesn’t allow it to come to the floor, or when the Democrats are in power, filibuster all of it.

      Until Democrats own a filibuster proof majority in the Senate, nothing significant will happen. Don’t blame them for failures created by the right wing extremists who want our working class to come with a third world price tag.

      Also, as long as Republicans hold the state legislatures, and can turn their states into “right to work” states, not much can be done for labor. To help labor, Republicans at all government levels, must be voted out of office.

      Low voter turnout, puts Republicans in office.

      Have you missed voting in any national or state elections?

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    Kenhe LoginHamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 11:40am
    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      How many assholes have we got on this ship anyhow?Kenhe Login
      10/09/15 1:21pm

      Kinda by definition they have the time, they have the money, and they know the right people.

      I like Buffett OK but generally it's hard to picket with two jobs and two kids and a car payment and a rent payment and bosses (like that guy) and a bank (owned by that guy), and no safety net (removed by that guys friends), etc.

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      DressagesWithWolvesKenhe Login
      10/09/15 2:33pm

      It kind of seems like a no-brainer that when I wonder who has taken away my money and power, I should probably sharpen my knives for the guys with the money and power.

      Anybody who blames the people with no money and no power would have to be pretty, uh.. “simple”.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    dirtfarmerHamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 12:06pm

    White House visits are nice, but real changes starts on the street by organizers and activists. Boring and tedious, but absolutely true. Abolitionists, suffragettes, labor unions, civil rights leaders—-all of them pushed and pushed person by person. You want change, get off your ass.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      ABD2021dirtfarmer
      10/09/15 12:23pm

      Or just tweet about it #activism #changingtheworld

      Reply
      <
    • Read More
      Slay.douché - (dreams to be a puppy)dirtfarmer
      10/09/15 3:07pm

      Also, every time one of the intolerant, bigoted, uneducated pulls out the “obummer is a _______ and he was born in outer space” or whatever new falsehood they’re peddling that day, Set them straight, talk up the facts and don’t let their vitriol and propaganda stink up one more molecule of this earth. Their illiterate horse sh*t needs to be debunked *each and everytime*.

      Not that it will convince the bigots and idiots - just to get something else in he media. They dominate it because everyone’s being way too polite to them.

      Reply
      <
  • Read More
    GeorgeGeoffersonLivesHamilton Nolan
    10/09/15 11:43am

    The White House Can’t Win the Class War

    I really, really, really hope you were under no illusions that the way our government is structured that any presidential administration could. The executive can lead a fight, but if you really want real change, you’ve got to shepherd in a package of bills through our FUBAR legislature, and then you have to do it at the state level, too. People have fooled themselves - or simply don’t know the workings of government - into overthinking the power of the presidency in a lot of sectors of our society.

    Reply
    <
    • Read More
      toothpetardHamilton Nolan
      10/09/15 11:39am

      Were our chinese and indian and other overseas labor forces represented at all?

      Reply
      <
      • Read More
        Satin, not cotton, not chintztoothpetard
        10/09/15 11:51am

        Very difficult for arthritic 12 year olds to get visas. Very difficult.

        Reply
        <