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Open thread August 2, 2019

Dan Crawford | August 2, 2019 7:40 pm

Tags: open thread Comments (5) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
5 Comments
  • Denis Drew says:
    August 2, 2019 at 10:00 pm

    MY TWO NOTES TO Alexia Fernández Campbell on her rare (for some reason) understanding article — Jul 31, 2019:
    Democrats tried to win over working-class voters. But they ignored their biggest worry.

    Democrats tried to win over working-class voters. But they ignored their biggest worry

    (8/1)
    “When you take inflation into account, workers’ real wages only grew about 1.3 percent over the past year.”

    Just a reminder: we don’t need 3% raises — we realistically need more like 100% raises (on average). If fast food can pay $15/hr with 25% labor costs, then, Walgreen’s and Target can pay $20/hr with 15% labor costs, and, Walmart can pay $15/hr ($1,000/wk!) with 7% labor costs.

    And don’t forget centralized bargaining, a.k.a., sector wide labor agreements — widely used in continental Europe, French Canada and, I believe, even in Argentina and Indonesia (once we get the unions in).

    Now if the rest of the supposed (well meaning anyway) progressive class would just catch on. 😉
    ********************************************************
    ********************************************************

    (8/2)
    More on doubling (on average) the pay of the lower 40%.

    Just as with minimum wage, people auto associate hiking lower 40% wages with job loss — predicting lessening of (what-I-call) 59% demand. But, doubling lower 40% income share (at loss of 14% of mid-59% income) doubles 40% demand. Upshot: no loss of overall demand. Examples: higher end restaurant businesses may suffer when lower wage labor gets large raises — but IHOP parking lot should get more crowded.
    * * * * * *

    More on centralized bargaining.

    Before I lucked into Andrew Strom’s regularly scheduled cert/recert/decert proposal [*] the “magic bullet” I was pushing was sector wide labor agreements. The big idea was that Congress could impose on whole industries any labor contract negotiated where the few unions already existed. Of course, it might have been a stretch to impose agreements from 7% private (non gov) unions to the other 93% of firms.

    Centralized will be a great clean up hitter if we got 25% certified unions. Sector wide agreements would be the icing on the cake if we got 50-75% certified.
    * https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/

    • run75441 says:
      August 2, 2019 at 11:43 pm

      Denis:

      There is nothing you have said here, I would have a problem with today.

  • EMichael says:
    August 4, 2019 at 9:15 am

    “The Wages of Shelby County

    It’s not exactly news that Shelby County v. Holder not only did not have “legal reasoning” in any meaningful sense but was based on absurd empirical assumptions. But it’s still worth pointing out:

    ‘Using data released by the federal Election Assistance Commission (EAC) in June, a new Brennan Center analysis has found that between 2016 and 2018, counties with a history of voter discrimination have continued purging people from the rolls at much higher rates than other counties.

    This phenomenon began after the Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, a decision that severely weakened the protections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Brennan Center first identified this troubling voter purge trend in a major report released in July 2018.’

    The holding in Shelby County was that it was literally irrational for Congress to conclude that jurisdictions with a history of vote suppression were more likely to discriminate going forward. As the late Robert Cover once said about Warren Burger, there is no possible reason to have the slightest interest in what any of the five ridiculous hacks responsible for this atrocity have to say about the Constitution except that they have the power of life and death over people.”

    http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/08/the-wages-of-shelby-county

    2016 was the first Presidential election since the “five ridiculous hacks” made this ruling. And we now have different “five ridiculous hacks” that made a similar judgement about voting rights in RUCHO ET AL. v. COMMON CAUSE ET AL. We are losing our democracy and turning it into a fascist state. And people trying to stop that cannot seem to stop bickering at each other.

    ” The Supreme Court will not end extreme partisan gerrymandering. In a 5-4 decision along ideological lines, the court ruled Thursday that partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts cannot be limited by federal courts. Chief Justice John Roberts authored the majority opinion, writing that “what the appellees and dissent seek is an unprecedented expansion of judicial power.”

    Justice Elena Kagan’s dissent was scathing. “For the first time ever, this Court refuses to remedy a constitutional violation because it thinks the task beyond judicial capabilities,” she wrote in her opening sentence. She argued that imposing limits on gerrymandered districts is not beyond the scope of the court: “The partisan gerrymanders here debased and dishonored our democracy, turning upside-down the core American idea that all governmental power derives from the people.”

    https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/partisan-gerrymandering-isnt-the-supreme-courts-problem-anymore/

    And a hat tip to Susan Sarandon for her contribution to the latest ruling.

  • Amateur Socialist says:
    August 4, 2019 at 9:16 am

    Another day another White Nationalist Domestic Terror attack. https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1157832979240108032

    Maybe people will start wondering why LEO at all levels seem so unable to detect and prevent these plots. Maybe.

  • EMichael says:
    August 4, 2019 at 9:36 am

    AS,

    The 2016 election saw more first time voters than any election prior to that. Almost twice as many first time voters as in 2012.

    Personally, I think these white nationalists made up a large part of that increase. They were not smart enough to hear the Reps Racist Dog Whistles.

    Trump made it clear.

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