Unions And Compassion

A couple of years ago, I worked at the polls.  As you might imagine for an off-year, local-stuff-only contest, turnout was thin.  Almost the only folks present were poll workers – us Democrats, and our Republican colleagues.

I got into a discussion about unions with one of the latter; the conversation centered on public employee unions.  The exchange came to a screeching halt when the gentleman in question responded to my statement that unions aren’t selfish, but rather simply being reasonable in looking out for their members’ interests, by declaring that the two are one and the same. 

How can we contest this?  Let us count the ways. 

Semantically, this opinion holds not so much as a drop of water.  According to Merriam-Webster, synonyms for selfish include: egoistic, egomaniacal, egotistic, narcissistic, self-absorbed,  self-obsessed, self-oriented, and our personal favorite,  solipsistic.  Protecting the interests of workers cannot be considered any of these.  Rather, the conduct of unions can be better described  by a synonym for reasonable, such as commonsense, firm, informed, justified, sensible, sober, solid, valid, and well-founded.  

Today, in his latest tweet storm, Donald Trump outdid those locals by light-years.  In what Josh Marshall of talkingpointsmemo.com called the primary text of Trumpism, and a true moment of national disgrace, Trump said:

The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump. Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job. 

I only hope that the Republican poll-worker who thought unions selfish sees that groups like the Teamsters are doing as much if not more than the Trump administration to help the victims of Hurricane Maria.

Big Brother Is Alive and Well

The Trump Justice Department has issued three warrants against Facebook.  Those documents seek to gain possession of the private account information of a truckload of Facebook users.

Why is this info being sought?  The accounts being monitored most closely are those of individuals described as anti-administration activists.

This would all sound familiar to George Orwell ...

Who Needs a Soap-Opera?

After implying that Puerto Rico might not be granted adequate disaster recovery funds, Donald Trump went back to his favorite milieu - television.

In accepting and commenting on the resignation of Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, Mr. Trump spoke as if from a script for the soap opera Days of Our Lives.  He said I certainly don’t like the optics.  I’m not happy, I can tell you that. I’m not happy.

As the several months of the Trump administration have demonstrated, optics (AKA appearances), not real crises like the two noted above, are what matter most to the current occupant of the White House.

SCOTUS on Janus

The American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Workers, along with three other of the United States' largest public sector unions, spoke out today against a case that's about to come before the Supreme Court.

That case involves an effort by right-wing activists to, in their own words, defund and defang public sector representation.  If, like me, you very much appreciate the working class and unions, be concerned.  Be very concerned.

A Bullseye for Target

Just this past Monday, the retail chain Target announced that it will raise the minimum hourly wage it pays all its workers, including the  more than 100,000 hourly workers it will hire for the holidays, to $11.00 an hour.  At the same time, Target committed to a minimum wage of $15.00 per hour by 2020.

The company deserves comendation; it has steadily raised its minimum wage for several years.  At the moment, the amount sits at $10 an hour; it will go to $11.00 in October.  That rate is higher than the minimum wage in 48 states, and matches minimum wage amounts in the states of Massachusetts and Washington.

$11.00 per hour is also much higher than the current federal minimum wage of $7.25.

Tax Breaks for the 99%?

This afternoon and with his usual braggadocio, Donald Trump announced what he called a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lower taxes on the middle class.

Also this afternoon, Republican leaders proposed slashing tax rates for the wealthy and businesses while preserving popular tax deductions that encourage buying homes and giving to charity.  But the document outlining their proposal, called Unified Framework for Fixing Our Broken Tax Code, leaves important questions unanswered.  For instance, nowhere does the document identify the tax breaks they say will be done away with in order to offset the trillions of dollars in revenue lost by cutting tax rates.

IMHO the question then becomes cuts for the middle class, or for the 1%?

Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor ... Not

Today, Secretary of State Tillerson briefed Congress on Donald Trump's decision to slash the United States' refugee admissions quota to an all-time low of 45,000 annually.

Of that number, 19,000 could be resettled from Africa, as well as 5,000 from East Africa, 2,000 from each of Europe and Central Asia, 1,500 from Latin America plus the Caribbean, and 17,000 from the Near East and South Asia.

Under such stringent guidelines, none of my grandparents would have made it into this country, let alone become citizens.  More importantly, today more than 65 million people annually are displaced worldwide.

WTF?

The Trump administration today declined to waive restrictions on shipping, that have prevented relief supplies from reaching Puerto Rico.

Ungrateful As the New Uppity

Delaware County, like Allegheny County where I grew up, is racially and ethnically diverse. Here in Delco (which I still consider the easternmost suburb of North Braddock), we are about 71.1% White non-Hispanic, 19.7% Black or African American, 4.7% Asian,  3.0% Hispanic or Latino, and 2.0% of two or more races.  Western PA has similar demographics - 82.87% White non-Hispanic, 14.39% Black or African American, 2.94% Asian, 1.40% of two or more races, and about 1.31% Hispanic or Latino.

Given the ethnic mix at both ends of the Commonwealth, one would expect most folks to agree with essayist Jelani Cobb.  I've used, as the title of this post, the quote below from his piece this past Sunday in the New Yorker magazine .

           Ungrateful is the new uppity.

Cobb's work deserves a full and careful read.

Do Freedom of Speech on Your Own Time

That's how stunningly ignorant of the First Amendment and our Constitution Steve Minuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury under Donald Trump, proved himself to be today.

In a grumbling, caviling attempt to admonish Colin Kaepernick and other professional athletes who chose not to stand during the playing of the National Anthem, Minuchin demonstrated his complete lack of understanding of the principle of freedom of speech (and, some might say, of the English language itself).

I have a well-worn copy of the Constitution on my kitchen table.  At all times.  Day and night,  24/7/365.    And I've not only committed the First Amendment to memory, but have dug into its intrinsic semantics.  Here's a quote from the Amendment, and my thoughts on the meaning of that quote.

                 Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech ...

Got that, Steve (and Donald)?  It's not just that Congress, or, by extension members of other branches of government, can't deny individuals freedom of speech, they cannot, in any way, impinge upon or restrict that freedom.  Unless, of course, using the freedom might cause harm.

Don't believe me?  Here is a small list of synonyms for abridge:

• compress
• constrict
• contract
• cut down
• decrease
• diminish
• lessen
• reduce

Don't know about you folks.  But it strikes me that setting the kinds of limits Messrs. Minuchin and Trump might like on freedom of speech are antithetical to the idea.  And Mr. Secretary, you might also want to review that portion of the First Amendment that refers to peaceably assembling and petitioning for the redress of grievances ...