______________________
In the FYI department, I don't just post memes on this stuff. I am also honored to serve as CSU Bakersfield's Faculty Union representative. Unions matter.
- Mark
Friday, August 30, 2019
WHY WE HAVE LABOR DAY WEEKEND ... AND WHY YOU SHOULD THANK A UNION WORKER
In the FYI department, I don't just post memes on this stuff. I am also honored to serve as CSU Bakersfield's Faculty Union representative. Unions matter.
- Mark
THIS IS NOT HOW TRADE POLICIES ARE SUPPOSED TO WORK
This is not how trade wars are supposed to work. Our country is not supposed to bribe (or pay off) those at home who are adversely affected by stupid trade policies with "subsidies" that we ultimately pay for with our taxes.
____________________
____________________
Just to be clear, trade is not about a country "winning" or coming out on top during every commercial exchange. This is numerically impossible. Not every country can "win" or come out on top numerically.
As with kids, some need special attention, while others don't require hand-holding or much guidance after a certain stage. The goal is not stringent "fair" trade codes - where tariffs and other barriers are always applied equally across the board (though this would be nice in a perfect world) - but "fairer" trade, where a balance is struck by informed leadership that understands how tariffs and barriers must be movable frameworks, rather than inflexible walls.
Put another way, in the name of "winning" you don't pursue commercial policies like this ...
____________________
____________________
- Mark
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
THE 'CHOSEN ONE' SPEAKS ON POLICY, AND IT'S NOT PRETTY
Via Rolling Stone ...
With the world watching his news conference on Monday, President Trump blamed former President Barack Obama for Vladimir Putin’s 2014 invasion of Crimea. “President Obama was pure and simply outsmarted,” Trump said from the G7 summit in Biarritz, France. “They took Crimea during his term. That was not a good thing. It could have been stopped, it could have been stopped with the right, whatever. It could have been stopped, but President Obama was unable to stop it, and it’s too bad.”
So, according to Trump's logic, the trade war he started with China could be stopped "with the right, whatever ...".
According to Trump's logic, the missiles Kim Jong Un is now launching could be stopped "with the right, whatever ...".
Climate change could be addressed "with the right, whatever ...".
Greenland could have been bought "with the right, whatever ...".
And, of course, we all know hurricanes can be stopped with ... nuclear weapons, right?
Sigh ...
- Mark
Friday, August 23, 2019
Monday, August 19, 2019
TRUMP'S RHETORIC AND VIOLENCE IN AMERICA
Because the Nazis and White Supremacists in America have been emboldened by Trump's violence-laced rhetoric it's important we understand that it's not new. From YouTube we get "The Good old Days" ...
And, yes, I've posted this before, but it definitely deserves re-posting.
- Mark
And, yes, I've posted this before, but it definitely deserves re-posting.
- Mark
Sunday, August 18, 2019
REPUBLICANS DON'T CARE ABOUT DEFICITS, OR OUR NATIONAL DEBT
With no major wars and no economic recession to speak of, Donald Trump is deficit spending America into a hole. It's almost as if he's driven things into the financial ground before. Here's the worst part. The vast majority of the money is going to the rich in the form of massive tax cuts ...
Oh, and in case you haven't heard, after the Federal Reserve announced that they are lowering interest rates (in spite of no economic recession or war to fix or fund), Senate Republicans just passed a bill that raises spending by $320 billion, in the process insuring that we will have another trillion dollar deficit this year.
So, no, the Republican Party could care less about budget deficits, or our national debt.
- Mark
Oh, and in case you haven't heard, after the Federal Reserve announced that they are lowering interest rates (in spite of no economic recession or war to fix or fund), Senate Republicans just passed a bill that raises spending by $320 billion, in the process insuring that we will have another trillion dollar deficit this year.
So, no, the Republican Party could care less about budget deficits, or our national debt.
- Mark
Thursday, August 15, 2019
THE ONLY THING TRUMP AND HIS SUPPORTERS WORK HARD AT ...
Don't like what the election results tell you? Work hard at imposing voter ID laws, then embrace Russian interference.
Don't like what you hear in the media? Work 24/7 calling it "fake news", then wait for the idiots in your base to parrot your talking points.
Don't like what science and real evidence tell the world? Work at shutting it down.
Yeah, that's what Trump is doing. He's trying to shut science down. Read this.
Sigh ...
- Mark
Might as well remind everyone of this too ...
_____________________
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
NFL PLAYERS HELP FREE BAKERSFIELD ACTIVIST AND COLLEGE STUDENT FROM ICE DETENTION
Two NFL players, the Redskins' Josh Norman and the Saints' Demario Davis, teamed up to provide bail for Jose Bello, a 22-year old Bakersfield College student, who had been detained by ICE for effectively exercising his 1st amendment rights.
Jose Bello had initially been detained by ICE and then released after he had secured representation and bail from local attorneys and activists in Bakersfield, California. He was then detained again almost three months ago after he spoke out about ICE detention at a Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting (click here to access the 2 minute speech).
This time his bail was hiked from an original $10,000 payment to $50,000.
With the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Farm Worker Foundation's Amber Tovar, Jose Bello's story reached the NFL's Player Coalition, which includes Josh Norman and Demario Davis. Together with the New York Immigration Freedom Fund and the National Bail Fund Network, they were able to secure funding for Bello's release from ICE's detention center in Bakersfield.
This is not the first time that Norman and Davis have advocated and spoke with their wallets on issues tied to social justice (click here). You can read the Washington Post's coverage of the Jose Bello story here, while NFL.com covers the Norman-Davis story here.
- Mark
Jose Bello had initially been detained by ICE and then released after he had secured representation and bail from local attorneys and activists in Bakersfield, California. He was then detained again almost three months ago after he spoke out about ICE detention at a Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting (click here to access the 2 minute speech).
This time his bail was hiked from an original $10,000 payment to $50,000.
With the aid of the American Civil Liberties Union and the United Farm Worker Foundation's Amber Tovar, Jose Bello's story reached the NFL's Player Coalition, which includes Josh Norman and Demario Davis. Together with the New York Immigration Freedom Fund and the National Bail Fund Network, they were able to secure funding for Bello's release from ICE's detention center in Bakersfield.
________________________
______________________
This is not the first time that Norman and Davis have advocated and spoke with their wallets on issues tied to social justice (click here). You can read the Washington Post's coverage of the Jose Bello story here, while NFL.com covers the Norman-Davis story here.
- Mark
Monday, August 12, 2019
Friday, August 9, 2019
Thursday, August 8, 2019
JUST A FRIENDLY REMINDER ...
**********************
- Mark
FYI: The average union worker makes about 27% more (since 2000; but sometimes more), but I like the meme - and it's my blog - so I posted it.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
BAKERSFIELD CALIFORNIAN TUTORS KEVIN McCARTHY ON GUN MASSACRES IN AMERICA
Robert Price, the CEO of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's hometown paper - the Bakersfield Californian - just penned a powerful piece on America's gun problem. At its root, America's gun problem is really a political problem which, because of his position in Washington, makes it Kevin's problem.
Read the piece, which I've copied below. You'll be glad you did.
- Mark
Read the piece, which I've copied below. You'll be glad you did.
_______________________
ROBERT PRICE: McCarthy's tired gun-violence talking points
Three years ago, in the wake of yet another mass shooting, a reader submitted an op-ed commentary to The Californian that laid out his thoughts on this national scourge.
The queue of reader submissions was long and our Opinion section didn't get to his essay right away. In the meantime others wrote pieces that expressed similar sentiments. His essay now seemed redundant, I told him. But never fear, I said, another mass shooting will come along soon.
He was taken aback by my cavalier certainty.
"But isn't that the point of your commentary?" I responded. "That these happen with predictable regularity and nothing changes?"
A month later, we updated his essay with the name of the latest shattered city and published it.
I could fish out that reader's essay from our archive and publish it again and, as long as I changed the location to Gilroy, El Paso or Dayton, no one would be the wiser.
I could fish out the same flawed evaluations of the causes, too.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, in a Sunday appearance on "Fox and Friends," pinned this kind of gun violence on "video games that dehumanize individuals."
President Trump, in remarks from the White House the next morning, said much the same thing. "We must stop the glorification of violence in our society (that) ... includes the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace."
Except the data show no such link.
“Scant evidence has emerged that makes any causal or correlational connection between playing violent video games and actually committing violent activities,” the American Psychological Association maintains.
“The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive” as data on video games leading to real-world violence, Chris Ferguson, a psychology professor at Stetson University who helped develop that policy statement, told the New York Times. "Literally. The numbers work out about the same. "
Even the Supreme Court came to that conclusion. Studies "do not prove that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively,” Antonin Scalia wrote in a 2011 majority opinion striking down a California ban.
McCarthy, the Bakersfield Republican who leads the House's minority caucus, dredged up another largely discredited factor in explaining this insane succession of mass shootings.
"What we've found as a common denominator here is it comes to mental health," he told The Californian in an interview days after the Gilroy attack. "... We've found time and again, in some of these shootings, that the information (about mental health concerns) was not provided" to law enforcement beforehand.
(I asked McCarthy's office about his statement regarding mental health issues and screening — is he proposing some specific legislation? — and to clarify his stance on the enhanced regulation of so-called assault weapons proposed by many, but I received no reply.)
McCarthy is right about this: The red-flag reporting chain is flawed.
But mental health experts, Arthur Evans, chief executive officer of the American Psychological Association among them, say people with mental illness are generally not violent and in fact are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators.
A country's rate of gun ownership is a far better predictor of mass shootings than mental illness data, Adam Lankford, a University of Alabama criminologist, told CBS News.
We're living a rerun. A horrible, nauseating rerun. Disaffected, angry young white man (in most cases) outfits himself in black (in most cases) and goes on a rampage.
Initial news reports, quoting confused, terrified witnesses, get half the facts wrong. CNN and Fox show us interviews with people who made it out alive. The police chief holds a press conference with the mayor, Republicans ask for thoughts and prayers, and then come the victim profiles and the funerals. In between there is hand-wringing, speculation, vilification and an increase in gun sales.
Always followed by this: Flawed claims that video games and mental illness are primary causative factors.
Here's a possible correlation McCarthy might consider: America has by far the most guns in civilian hands of any nation and by far the most gun deaths. Pretty simple.
Are other factors at work? Of course. But until McCarthy, the man perhaps in the best position to meaningfully broach the subject in Congress, has the courage to set aside those same, tired talking points, readers will be submitting the same anguished commentaries.
And we'll try to publish them. If not this time, then next time.
Contact The Californian’s Robert Price at 661-395-7399, rprice@bakersfield.com or on Twitter: @stubblebuzz. His column appears on Sundays, Wednesdays and Saturdays; the views expressed are his own.
_______________________
- Mark
Tuesday, August 6, 2019
NO, IT'S NOT THE FAULT OF VIDEO GAMES
The next time some idiot - like my congressional representative, Kevin McCarthy - says video games are to blame for America's gun problems show this chart ...
While we're on the topic ...
- Mark
___________________
While we're on the topic ...
___________________
- Mark
Monday, August 5, 2019
AMERICA'S DISTURBING REALITY, 2.0
* El Paso suspect reportedly a Trump supporter who wrote racist, anti-immigrant manifesto (Slate).
* Trump blames "fake news" for shootings in El Paso and Dayton" (Rolling Stone).
* Ohio GOP lawmaker blames mass shootings on trans people, gay marriage and more" (HuffPost).
* Top House Republican [Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy] says violent video games could be linked to mass shootings (USA Today).
* Trump characterizes mass shootings as "a mental illness problem" (Slate).
* DHS disbands domestic terror intel unit (MSNBC).
* Attorneys for convicted mail bomber Cesar Sayoc claim he watched Fox News 'religiously' and was influenced by Sean Hannity's rhetoric (Business Insider).
* Research predicted this wave of right-wing domestic terrorism. Republicans tanked the report (Think Progress).
* FBI agents are reluctant to pursue white nationalist extremists because they don't want to disturb his base, former counterterrorism official says" (Insider).
- Mark
Saturday, August 3, 2019
TRUMP'S ECONOMY BUILT AROUND DEBT, SUBSIDIES AND ARTIFICIALLY LOW INTEREST RATES ... AND IT'S STARTING TO SHOW
_______________________
What we are experiencing under Donald Trump is akin to market socialism, at best. In effect, we're paying rural farmers to cover for Trump's mistakes, and giving away our markets to Russia in the process. In layman terms, these farm subsidies are both handouts and the essence of vote buying.
_______________________
On a broader level, and for those of you keeping score at home, we now have: (1) annual trillion dollar budget deficits with no economic recession, (2) billions in farm subsidies to cover for idiotic trade wars, and (3) artificially low Fed interest rates.
Oh, and let's not forget that the U.S. just slipped from first to third place in global competitiveness rankings because of Trump's handling of the nation's economy.
Yeah, this is not the free market at work ... and it may get worse.
- Mark
Thursday, August 1, 2019
IT APPEARS THAT GERRYMANDERING IN AMERICA IS AS SIMPLE AS "ABC"
According to The Hill, some creative soul decided to create a new alphabet font out of some of the most "gerrymandered" districts in America. I don't know whether to tell you if it's funny, or sad ... truth is, it's probably a little bit of both.
Click here for a ginormous layout of the new gerrymandered font.
- Mark
Click here for a ginormous layout of the new gerrymandered font.
- Mark
KENTUCKY DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOW SELLING "MOSCOW MITCH" MERCHANDISE ...
________________________
It appears that the Kentucky Democratic Party is now selling "Moscow Mitch" merchandise on their website. Get them while they're still stocked up ...
________________________
________________________
Click here to order.
Next up ... merchandise for "Kremlin Kevin"?
- Mark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)