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Moneypolitics

Moneypolitics:  Noun. A political system created in the United States by the Supreme Court circa 2010, whereby wealth has nearly the entirety of the political power.  The system is characterized by large numbers of television ads which mislead the people into believing that the candidates who are best for wealthy interests are actually best for the people.  This political system only survives as long as the people are distracted, uninformed and inactive.
Ken Gordon

Union

Hey, They Split Out My Route

       I came to work the one day and my route had been split out. I was told that I could run the trash truck that was being loaded but I wouldn’t like it, or I could go home without pay. I thought this all sounded kind of heavy handed, so I went straight to the authority on such matters: my contract book. I sat down with my steward and we read through Article 3, sec. 9, parts a and b of the Central States Supplement. This article addresses Temporary Route Changes.
I see a problem here       I discovered that I had rights. I had the right to follow my work. If 50% or more went to a lower seniority driver, I could bump that driver and he would work as directed that day. If the work went every which way but loose, I had the right to follow any part of it that went to a lower seniority driver and that driver would have to work as directed that day instead of me. Maybe they wanted to go home that day and I didn’t. A lot of drivers jump at the chance to go home, I needed to work and my seniority guaranteed me that right.
        If I had not gotten my steward involved and had we not had a Teamster contract in place, I would have been at the mercy of the whims of management.
        I have power, I have a contract.

Uncategorized

Randi Rhode’s Take on Wisconsin


In the battle of Wisconsin, Democrats have beaten a strategic retreat. Democratic legislators have fled to Illinois in order to deny the Wisconsin Senate the necessary quorum to conduct its dirty business. Think of it as a filibuster conducted with your feet. Police in Illinois, or for that matter in Wisconsin, have no authority to bring the fugitive lawmakers in. There is no crime being committed—this is an action intended to prevent a crime from being committed. You know, if these fugitive lawmakers really want to rub Governor Scott Walker’s face in it, they should submit invoices for travel per diems for the time they’re out of state.

Governor Walker says the state of Wisconsin is in a crisis. He should know—he put it there. Intentionally. Just last month, Walker gave away $140 million in tax breaks—which accounts for all of the budget shortfall Wisconsin is now facing. If Wisconsin has no money, it’s because Walker has been giving it away. Walker created an economic crisis, and now he’s trying to exploit it. It’s a smaller-scale version of what Republicans are doing by using massive tax cuts for the wealthy to say we need to slash entitlements. In reality—not a place a lot of conservatives are familiar with—Wisconsin is in better shape than most states… except for the fact that Scott Walker is the governor.

It could be worse—look at Florida, where Governor Rick Scott has rejected $2.4 billion in federal money for a high-speed rail line, essentially throwing Florida’s economic recovery off the rails. Now both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are trying to bypass Rick Scott, like they’re laying a railroad line and Rick Scott is some sort of Florida swamp that they have to find a way to cross. Hey, if America could build a Transcontinental Railroad over the Rocky Mountains, we should be able to figure out a way to build a railroad over Rick Scott’s stupid intransigence. There is already talk of a recall swirling around Rick Scott—and Florida doesn’t even have a law for recall elections… yet. Nobody ever envisioned the voters in Florida making a mistake as big as Rick Scott. Yeesh. Wouldn’t it just be easier if progressives bothered to vote in off-year elections? 

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