Oddly, with Trump having come out against non-Anglo Saxons, Muslims, immigrants, people on welfare, foreign aid, government support of the Arts, environmentalists, ACA, media, civil rights groups, anti-nuke protesters, Meryl Streep, the progressive income tax, and Thomas Friedman, the neoliberals’ performing flea, he hasn’t attacked one of the Republicans’ favorite and time-worn whipping boys: organized labor.
On March 24, after two weeks of frustrating contract talks, negotiators for the WGA (Writers Guild of America) notified the AMPTP (Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers) that, because the talks were stalled, they had no choice but to ask their 12,000 members to give them strike authorization. It was a bold move.
The Trump Gang, hardly two weeks in the White House, is giving strong, petulant signals that it is hijacking the checks and balances of our democratic institutions. Coupling the Boss’s easily brusiable ego, marinated in infinite megalomania, with ideologues harboring objectives that would have frightened Nixonites and Reaganites alike, a runaway train is leaving the station.
In his latest piece, Paul Craig Roberts poses and answers his rhetorical question: What became of the left? His answer is that “the European and American left, which traditionally stood for the working class and peace (bread and peace) no longer exists.”
Most people who identify as left wing would agree that systems of governance that enable exploitation by the world’s most powerful corporations, governments and individuals should be changed. Most would also agree that militarism and military solutions are best avoided.
Why then do so many people ‘on the left’ support UN missions that claim to be about “peacekeeping” but often serve as little more than fig leafs to cover up imperialism?
-by Dorothy ReikI was on a tear on Labor Day-- no mention of workers or unions anywhere, except of course in the Labor Day Sale ads-- not in the NYTimes or the LATimes! Not on TV! And then I was told that today is about "workers not unions"! That is the problem I think! I was a union member once-- UTLA-- and I am proud to say my very first venture into "klng making" there resulted in Wayne Johnson's presidency.
MONTPELIER, Vermont — Anyone who grew up in New England or Quebec in the 1970s, any baseball fan really, knows tales of the Spaceman. Pitching for the Boston Red Sox from 1969-1978 and the Montreal Expos from 1979-1982, yarns of Bill sprinkling “marijuana dust” on his pancakes to help him cope with big city bus fumes abound.
My interest in the post-Bernie presidential election season is tempered by my dislike of both candidates left standing. Trump as a human being isn't even worth considering and Hillary is too much of a classic Republican to ever be my cup a tea. What does keep me interested however, is the fundamental partisan realignment that is ripping apart FDR's New Deal coalition.
Every election cycle I've been writing about how certain unions-- usually the building trades-- contribute a great deal to Republican candidates running against Democrats. I won't have to this cycle; ThinkProgress already did a good job at it. Despite the fact that 'Right-to-work' laws "have been proven to not only reduce the number of people who are part of a union, but also the average wages and benefits for workers in those states...
