Jay's Politics Blog

WHERE ARE THE JOBS for the %47 *Have you ever been in a store that seemed to be run on a skeleton crew, *can't find anyone to ask a question, *long lines at the cash register? Not to mention the value of experienced, helpful, motivated staff, rather than minimum wage kids. *Have you been put on hold, while a recording said "we are experiencing an unusually high level of call volume"? Bullshit. If it were truthful, that recording would say:  "we are experiencing an unusually high level of executive compensation and consequently are not hiring enough people to run the business properly". --------- There are thousands of businesses across America that need more sales people, customer service reps, technical people, clerks, etc. but instead of hiring enough people to staff the counters and floors, the execs are choosing to pad their own pockets and raise their own pay, give themselves perks and bonuses, and run the companies on a skeleton crew. *there...

The immediate, obvious cause is Donald Trump and the Republican Party. There are no excuses for their unpatriotic willingness to  put party and politics above America. For those willing to see more deeply than partisanship, it is obvious that one of the deeper causes is the long-term failure of the Democratic Party to make its case to the white working-class Americans who provide the base of support to Republicans and Donald Trump, to speak to them in terms they can understand about just why so many conservative ideas are wrong. Not to give up core principles or move to the right but to talk with them in Redspeak not Bluespeak. Instead Democrats and progressives are content to just simply write off that whole side of the country as enemies without taking responsibility for their own failure to communicate. As I often do, I again cite the work of George Lakoff.

For anyone concerned about people getting food stamps or social benefits what do you think of this?

Simple economics 1 technology has increasingly made hiring people less profitable than machines. 2 Of the jobs that are left cheap transportation has made it more profitable to offshore manufacturing to countries where the labor can be hired dirt cheap and ship it to countries with the money to buy the products 3 in the United States and in other countries housing has become an investment strategy for non-local owners. Every time a profit is made by the wealthy investors the  profit comes from from  those buying and renting the houses paying the costs in higher rents and mortgages leading to a variety of problems in their life including stress leading to health issues. 4 climate change and other environmental issues are in the process of causing great disruption to the economy --- So the question becomes: is it the goal of our society that all should have a chance to prosper or are we accepting of a society with a built-in large number of people who will at best str...

Here in the United States of America or rather the disunited states at the moment we are living through a historical change of power. We are coming out of a very long period of power being held by for the most part older white Christian men and societal structures that systematically disempowered, oppressed and often abused women, minorities, gays, non-christians, etc., a racist, sexist, patriarchal society. That is historical fact. There have been centuries, even millennia of suppressed anger and all that is coming out now that people feel free to speak. That is understandable. Many groups and movements, most recently #metoo being notable, have been organized to work for equality and justice. This was necessary and deserving of support. Having said that, I am totally sick of seeing endless Facebook posts and other places telling me that I am the enemy because I am an older white male. Prejudice plain and simple. When I say that to people they say it's justified. Okay. ---- ...

Democrats play good cop. Republicans play bad cop. Both serve the interests of the super rich. Dems will let a few more crumbs fall off the tables of the wealthy and give lip service to various issues while doing their best to block any substantive changes. Republicans make no bones about despising the poor. Essentially a one party state. One huge improvement that is starting to be talked about is giving 3rd parties a real chance through ranked preference or multiple choice voting so that people can vote for who they really want to vote for rather than the lesser of two evils.