It hasn't escaped notice that the folks at The Nation don't carry on so much anymore about how Nick Clegg once upon a time interned there.
It didn't take
$15.15 or Fight!
As with affordable health care (and countless other matters), the job of moderate Democrats is to release the build up of pressure for real change (such as universal affordable health care insurance aka single-payer aka Medicare for All) by promoting incremental improvements. The president tonight will call for raising the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Context: Sen. Elizabeth Warren recently cited a study that suggested the federal minimum wage would be nearly $22 an hour today if it had kept up with increased rates in worker productivity. Progressives should be chary of embracing the president's proposal, because, as with health care reform, we have one shot at getting it right. $10.10 will lock millions of American workers in poverty forever, even if, as is unlikely, future increases are tied to the cost of living. Restaurant workers were on the money in calling for a $15 minimum in actions this year, but that won't fly politically. The president's $10.10 needs to be answered with something more just. Instead of $10.10, how about $15.15?
The real state of the union:
From Business Insider:
1. New income generated since 2009 that has gone to the top 1 percent: 95 percent
2. Financial wealth controlled by the bottom 60 percent of all Americans: 2.3 percent
3. Record combined wealth of the top 400 richest Americans: $2,000,000,000,000
4. Real decline in median middle-class incomes since 1999: $5,000
5. Percentage of Hispanic and African-American children living in poverty, respectively: 33.8 percent; 36.7 percent
6. Amount that food stamps will be cut in 2014: $5 billion
7. Federal minimum wage: $7.25
8. What the minimum wage would be if it had kept pace with gains in worker productivity since 1968: $21.72
9. Number of U.S. workers laboring at or below minimum wage: 3.6 million – the near equivalent of the population of Los Angeles.
10.Stealth taxpayer subsidy to the fast-food industry, paid out as safety-net benefits to McWorkers earning poverty wages: $7 billion
11. Global carbon dioxide levels measured in parts per million: 397
12. Maximum concentration of the greenhouse gas that scientists deem sustainable: 350
13. Years since the turn of this century that have ranked among the warmest 15 on record: All 13
14. Rank of 2013 on that list of the warmest years on record: Number Four
15. U.S. defense spending as of 2012: $682 billion
16. Dollar amount by which that surpassed our nearest plausible military rival, China: $516 billion
17. Federal deficit last year: $680 billion
18. Number of Americans disenfranchised from voting for felony convictions: 5.9 million
19. Share of those disenfranchised voters who are African-American: 37 percent
20. Number of Americans arrested annually for marijuana possession: 658,000
21. Total incarcerated U.S. population: 2.3 million
22. Total population on probation/parole: 4.8 million
23. States that could be entirely filled by all of the Americans under correctional supervision: Nevada and Kentucky
24. Official unemployment rate: 6.7 percent
25. Alternate rate including Americans who've given up looking for work, or have only been able to secure part-time employment: 13.1 percent
26. Number of jobs the United States is still down from 2008 employment peak: 1.69 million
27. Number of Americans who were cut off from long-term unemployment benefits at the turn of the year: 1.3 million
1. New income generated since 2009 that has gone to the top 1 percent: 95 percent
2. Financial wealth controlled by the bottom 60 percent of all Americans: 2.3 percent
3. Record combined wealth of the top 400 richest Americans: $2,000,000,000,000
4. Real decline in median middle-class incomes since 1999: $5,000
5. Percentage of Hispanic and African-American children living in poverty, respectively: 33.8 percent; 36.7 percent
6. Amount that food stamps will be cut in 2014: $5 billion
7. Federal minimum wage: $7.25
8. What the minimum wage would be if it had kept pace with gains in worker productivity since 1968: $21.72
9. Number of U.S. workers laboring at or below minimum wage: 3.6 million – the near equivalent of the population of Los Angeles.
10.Stealth taxpayer subsidy to the fast-food industry, paid out as safety-net benefits to McWorkers earning poverty wages: $7 billion
11. Global carbon dioxide levels measured in parts per million: 397
12. Maximum concentration of the greenhouse gas that scientists deem sustainable: 350
13. Years since the turn of this century that have ranked among the warmest 15 on record: All 13
14. Rank of 2013 on that list of the warmest years on record: Number Four
15. U.S. defense spending as of 2012: $682 billion
16. Dollar amount by which that surpassed our nearest plausible military rival, China: $516 billion
17. Federal deficit last year: $680 billion
18. Number of Americans disenfranchised from voting for felony convictions: 5.9 million
19. Share of those disenfranchised voters who are African-American: 37 percent
20. Number of Americans arrested annually for marijuana possession: 658,000
21. Total incarcerated U.S. population: 2.3 million
22. Total population on probation/parole: 4.8 million
23. States that could be entirely filled by all of the Americans under correctional supervision: Nevada and Kentucky
24. Official unemployment rate: 6.7 percent
25. Alternate rate including Americans who've given up looking for work, or have only been able to secure part-time employment: 13.1 percent
26. Number of jobs the United States is still down from 2008 employment peak: 1.69 million
27. Number of Americans who were cut off from long-term unemployment benefits at the turn of the year: 1.3 million
Remember.
The mainstream obits for Pete Seeger are as irritating as the ones for Nelson Mandela and as the encomia for Martin Luther King on his feast day. These men were radicals. Anyone of them would have been happy to pull the plug on capitalism. Oligarchs try to control the future by controlling the past. Don't let them.
Search me
Google "Nuclear accidents?"
Nuclear accidents - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"war machine?"
war machine - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Hillary Clinton?"
Hillary Clinton - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Toe cheese?"
Toe Cheese - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better. Shop for Toe Cheese at Walmart.com and save. Buy great products at a great price.
Nuclear accidents - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"war machine?"
war machine - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Hillary Clinton?"
Hillary Clinton - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better.
"Toe cheese?"
Toe Cheese - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better. Shop for Toe Cheese at Walmart.com and save. Buy great products at a great price.
Anals of the 4th Estate
Here's how the media is handling the atomic wedgie murder according to TheWire):
Avoiding the issue:
Man Arrested In Murder Of Stepfather In McLoud -- News9
Murder arrest: Stepson jailed in death of stepfather in McLoud -- The Shawnee News-Star
Saying what happened, but being classy:
Authorities: Okla. Man Suffocated With Underwear -- Associated Press
Using passive voice:
Oklahoma man dies from atomic wedgie -- NY Daily News
Putting 'atomic wedgie' in 'quotes' for 'distance':
Police: 'Atomic wedgie' led to man's death -- KOCO
Police: Man Killed Stepfather With ‘Atomic Wedgie’ Days Before Christmas -- CBS Houston
Oklahoman given 'atomic wedgie' died from suffocation, trauma to head -- NewsOK
Oklahoma man charged with 'atomic wedgie' murder of stepfather -- Reuters
Talking it to death:
Atomic Wedgie Murder: Denver St. Clair Choked From Underwear Around His Head; Stepson Brad Lee Davis Charged In Killing [PHOTO] - International Business Times
Going for it:
'This was more than just a fight': Ex-Marine, 33, 'kills stepfather by ATOMIC WEDGIE' -- Daily Mail
En français:
Oklahoma: un homme meurt asphyxié par son propre sous-vêtement -- Le Journal de Québec
Avoiding the issue:
Man Arrested In Murder Of Stepfather In McLoud -- News9
Murder arrest: Stepson jailed in death of stepfather in McLoud -- The Shawnee News-Star
Saying what happened, but being classy:
Authorities: Okla. Man Suffocated With Underwear -- Associated Press
Using passive voice:
Oklahoma man dies from atomic wedgie -- NY Daily News
Putting 'atomic wedgie' in 'quotes' for 'distance':
Police: 'Atomic wedgie' led to man's death -- KOCO
Police: Man Killed Stepfather With ‘Atomic Wedgie’ Days Before Christmas -- CBS Houston
Oklahoman given 'atomic wedgie' died from suffocation, trauma to head -- NewsOK
Oklahoma man charged with 'atomic wedgie' murder of stepfather -- Reuters
Talking it to death:
Atomic Wedgie Murder: Denver St. Clair Choked From Underwear Around His Head; Stepson Brad Lee Davis Charged In Killing [PHOTO] - International Business Times
Going for it:
'This was more than just a fight': Ex-Marine, 33, 'kills stepfather by ATOMIC WEDGIE' -- Daily Mail
En français:
Oklahoma: un homme meurt asphyxié par son propre sous-vêtement -- Le Journal de Québec
All Mart
Search for almost anything today, and your likely to get a link to Wal-Mart. Nuclear accidents? "Nuclear accidents - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better." war machine? "war machine - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better." Hillary Clinton? "Hillary Clinton - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better." Toe cheese? "Toe Cheese - Walmart.com - Save Money. Live better. Shop for Toe Cheese at Walmart.com and save. Buy great products at a great price."
If Obama really wants to look tough, he should break a union.
Is Chris Matthews' mouth disconnected from his brain or is he just not a liberal?: "I think actions speak louder than words. And I got to tell you something. When Reagan broke the PATCO strike and fired them all for breaking their oaths, everybody in the world, including the people in Moscow, got the word…. It's one of the reasons we ended the Cold War, because they knew we had a strong president."
Parenthetically
Secretary of State John Kerry says the US will help Iraq with its Al-Qaeda problem, but not with "boots on the ground."
Because that would be a cliché.
What we don't get with pinpoint accuracy is reporting
When it looked like the US would carry out a military attack on Syria, CNN reporters stepped right into their roles as Pentagon flacks. Anchor Brooke Baldwin declared that US warships "can carry cruise missiles able to strike targets more than 1,000 miles away with pinpoint accuracy" (8/30/13). Correspondent Tom Foreman told viewers: "Cruise missiles are extraordinary weapons. They're very reliable. They have pinpoint accuracy" (9/2/13).
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