Here is what I don’t understand. Clearly the bill that passed the Senate is not the same bill as the one that passed the other chamber in Wisconsin. How is that legal?
How?
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class, IOKIYAR
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class, IOKIYAR
Here is what I don’t understand. Clearly the bill that passed the Senate is not the same bill as the one that passed the other chamber in Wisconsin. How is that legal?
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 131 Comments
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor, Assholes, Fucked-up-edness, General Stupidity
Let’s face it. Kids are a drain on our society. What good are they? They just take up space, eat all the food, breathe all the air, and contribute nothing of value to society.
Well, comrades, this is a problem that the GOP plans to fix. No more handouts for these little crumbsnatching welfare queens. The Missouri GOP (Jane Cunningham, to be precise) is leading the way by trying, like, actually trying to repeal child labor laws.
Enter SB222, a bill that would result in (among other things)1:
Here is the bill’s official summary:
SB 222 – This act modifies the child labor laws. It eliminates the prohibition on employment of children under age fourteen. Restrictions on the number of hours and restrictions on when a child may work during the day are also removed. It also repeals the requirement that a child ages fourteen or fifteen obtain a work certificate or work permit in order to be employed. Children under sixteen will also be allowed to work in any capacity in a motel, resort or hotel where sleeping accommodations are furnished. It also removes the authority of the director of the Division of Labor Standards to inspect employers who employ children and to require them to keep certain records for children they employ. It also repeals the presumption that the presence of a child in a workplace is evidence of employment.
So, what — I ask you — the fuck? Well obviously, given that the GOP and Teabillies think that teachers are living the good life and barely working, and when they do deign to work, they do such a shitty job anyway, so why not just put kids to work? Yank ’em out of school, slap a miner’s cap on their head, and toss them down a well. They are freeloaders and we’re sick of ’em.
Here’s a BBC report from 2006 about worldwide child labor issues:
The GOP is employing an “all hands on deck” assault on this country. It’s fucking bananas.
You can bet your sweet ass that the repeal of minimum wage laws is next on the list.
Oh, and by the way? I think we have our answer to the eternal question: “Where are the jobs, Mr. Boehner?”
And, the race to the bottom continues.
1 The Alternet piece was published almost a month ago, and I only heard about it because a reader tipped me off. That’s what I’m finding so incredible right now. There is SO MUCH FUCKING CRAZY GOING ON that I can’t even keep up. I need a nap.
(H/T Lauren!)
[via Alternet]
[cross-posted here at ABLC]
Repealing child labor laws? It’s just common sense. Kids are useless anyway.Post + Comments (131)
This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor, Assholes, Looks Like I Picked the Wrong Week to Stop Sniffing Glue, Teabagger Stupidity
The new teahadist Governor of PA has released his budget, and it basically decimates the Pitt and Penn State budget, cuts funding for poison control, environmental regulation, “regional cancer institutes, poison control centers and programs for people with diabetes, lupus and epilepsy.” It includes this gem:
And in his speech, Mr. Corbett reiterated his opposition to taxing the gas that comes from the Marcellus Shale, saying the state should try to make itself the center of the drilling boom for Marcellus and the underlying Utica Shale.
That is how John Galt would want it. Let the producers produce without penalty, and those with cancer, diabetes, lupus, and epilepsy will just have to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.
Later on, long after Mr. Corbett is a well paid member of the board for one of the gas conglomerates, some other poor bastard can try to figure out how to come up with a way to clean up the poisoned watershed and the billions of dollars in unfunded clean-up that will no doubt be necessary after the natural gas firms drill for a decade with no one enforcing any environmental regulations (and that isn’t hyperbole, btw). And then we can all shrug our shoulders and say no one could have predicted.
On the other hand, I’m sure Reason magazine will have an awesome free market solution for the clean-up by then. Maybe they will even have a snazzy youtube video with the Fonz!
by Imani Gandy (ABL)| 51 Comments
This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor
This infographic is circling the web. I know exactly jack and shit about budgets and deficits and free markets and tax breaks and 10 year costs versus yearly costs and wow — my head already hurts. Economics and I don’t get along, you see. But you are an intelligent lot, so I’m hoping to learn something from you, or at least, get some insight into what I should be reading in order to learn about this stuff. I don’t even know if this chart is accurate.
Help me, help you, help me learn some shit, won’t you please?
[via Center for American Progress]by DougJ| 52 Comments
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class
The Wall Street Journal editorial page and Scott Rasmussen are both concern trolling the hell out of Scott Walker.
The Wisconsin ActBlue for funding the recall of Republican State Senators page raised nearly 25K over the past day.
I thought all along that brazen union-busting would backfire but I didn’t think it would happen this fast.
by DougJ| 140 Comments
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Fuck The Middle-Class
I just read a few very good rebuttals to Chris Hayes’ claim that DC elites in both parties are so ensconced in their comfortable world of low local unemployment and newly opened sushi bars that they don’t care about jobs for the middle-class. Booman:
[T]he reason that Washington DC doesn’t care about jobs is that the Republicans have too much power.The Democrats aren’t blameless, but they don’t like to waste time. After a few days, it gets really boring trying to reason with Republicans. Then you just figure out what you can muscle through and you go for that. The Democrats know that they can’t close the unemployment rate because anything expensive enough to work is just going to get voted down in the House or filibustered in the Senate. So, they move on. They focus on other things that they can make progress on rather than sitting around moping and feeling impotent.
That’s it. That’s the whole explanation. The unemployment rate could by 90% in Northern Virginia and it wouldn’t change the basic dynamics.
The difference now is simply that one party has gotten so tied up in its own rhetoric and ideology that it’s managed to convince just enough people that government is the sole problem, and any major attempt it makes to create jobs or improve conditions will fail. This wasn’t the case in the early ‘80s recession. Washington, despite being better off than the rest of the country then too, was scared shitless about 10% unemployment every waking morning and its electoral repercussions for both parties.
[….]It’s a shame. I felt so sorry for the lifetime health care policy researchers, those who moved here to work on this as a career, who finally got their chance after decades to implement their life’s work, but watched as meaningful provision after meaningful provision was stripped out over a retarded Sarah Palin facebook shart about “death panels.” I met the person who wrote that language for end-of-life counseling reimbursements in the bill, and it’s hard to explain how frustrating it was for her, and the experts who worked with her staff for years, to see it taken out over this kind of temporal cable news bullshit.
I think there are unquestionably certain ways in which DC Democrats have failed to stand up for the middle-class. But I sometimes also wonder if “both sides screw the middle-class” (and I write this as someone who says that a lot) is just Broderism for hippies.
by $8 blue check mistermix| 159 Comments
This post is in: Fuck The Middle-Class, Fuck The Poor, Assholes, Teabagger Stupidity
The New York Times is having a hard time figuring out why the right wing is making teachers scapegoats. I’m sure ED has a nuanced take on this at his new blog, but I’ll blunder in and take a crack at it.
If you have a political movement that energizes some of the most ignorant members of society by telling them tall tales, I’m just going to guess that those ignoramuses don’t know enough to give a shit about the quality of teachers. And, if they’re anything like the snowbilly grifter they worship, they also resent the teachers in their past who tried to tell them they’re wrong.
Add into the mix a group of elites who will educate their children at private schools or “centers of excellence” in their walled burboclaves, and you’ve got a movement that’s more than happy to throw teachers under the bus. The majority of them can’t appreciate a good education, and the rest of them don’t expect the public school system to provide one to their children.