Tag: News Flash!

News Flash! January 6 Passes Uneventfully!

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

     January 6th and the certification of the American 2024 election passed yesterday without incident. The proceedings were completely normal and routine.

     There were no transgender women and childless cat ladies storming the capitol. There were no pro-abortion activists breaking windows. There were no feminists wearing combat gear attacking security guards. There were no Black Lives Matter protesters using their flag poles as lances against the Capitol Police. There were no woke climate change advocates roaming the hallways of the legislative building searching for the Republican speaker of the House. There were no radical, leftist DEI trainers shouting slogans while wearing buffalo robes, blue paint, and horned helmets. There were no wild-eyed Bernie Sanders followers tearing around the building looking for legislators to assault. There were no calls from within the Democratic membership for the hanging of Kamala Harris. President Biden did not exhort insurrectionists to violence in order to “stop the steal.” There were no deaths. Democracy was not imperiled.

     No, it all went off as it should: a civil process done with civility and dignity.

     I think this tells you most of what you need to know about Biden versus Trump, about the Democratic party and about the Republican party as it is now constituted, and the adherents of each.

     I realize that saying this is not in the spirit of reconciliation. Nelson Mandela I am not, it appears. Angry is what I am.(1)

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 1.  I acknowledge and am grateful to Mike Pence for his courage and his adherence to duty and decency four years ago. That can be taken as a sign that all is not lost.

NEWS FLASH II!!

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

The Guardian reports that American CEO compensation has risen to 351 times the pay for workers in recent decades. Said compensation has gone up by 1,322% since 1978. One-thousand, three-hundred and twenty-two percent, that is. i

     The rise in worker’s pay for the same period: 18.9%.

     CEO compensation has even outdistanced the rest of the top 0.1% by six times (note: not the “One Percent,” that we talk about, but rather the point one percent).

     At the same time, right now CEO’s and other pundits are decrying the so-called “labour shortage,” and are blaming the Covid-related unemployment benefits for people not returning to work. Although all labour is of course honourable, it could be that in addition to benefits, the pandemic has resulted in people reconsidering their crap jobs and despotic bosses, the same jobs that pay starvation wages, and so they are understandably resisting the return.

     The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which translates to a whopping $290 a week before taxes. Good luck trying to live on $290 a week in the U.S. in 2021. It is a little-recognized fact, obscured by right-wing ideology and propaganda, that the majority of officially poor households in North America have at least one member working full-time, full-year.ii

     Another fact: had the minimum wage kept pace with inflation and worker productivity since the late seventies, we would have a $24 per hour minimum wage, rather than fighting over a paltry $15/hour. It would not be hard to get to $24/hour – just take it out of the CEO compensation, and also have us, the consumers, pay what – a dollar more? – for our poison-burgers and side of death-fries at McDonald’s.

     There is an upside. As compensation for this ongoing trickle-up (or torrent?) of wealth from the lower to the highest economic classes, we can at least be entertained by watching billionaires using the fruit of their workers’ labour to race into space in their phallus-shaped rockets.

iOliver, Indigo. “American CEOs Make 351 Times More than Workers. In 1965 It was 15 to One.” The Guardian, August 22, 2021.

iiCarl, John D., and Marc Bélanger. Think Sociology. 2nd Canadian ed., Pearson, 2015.

 

NEWS FLASH!!

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

Republican-led States Move to Limit Public Health Measures in the Name of Freedom!

At least nine Republican-governed states in the U.S. have passed laws, or are in the process of passing laws, that limit the ability of public health departments to impose measures to limit the spread of contagious diseases like Covid-19 in health emergencies, such as a pandemic. Currently, six other Republican states are considering such limitations.

It appears that they are taking the motto on New Hampshire’s licence plates – Live Free or Die – quite literally.

No state governed by the Democratic Party is imposing or considering such laws. If you are planning to move, this could be used as a handy way to discern which state to consider moving to, depending on which side of the continuum you come down on: Live free and die from Coronavirus and other epidemics, vs. Temporarily give up a little freedom for the good of the community and to live another day.

Montana has barred quarantines by local health authorities for anyone “exposed to or infected by a contagious disease.” Thus, an extremely effective public health practice used since plague times, specifically the “Black Death” of the fourteenth century, is now illegal. Remind me not to visit Montana again.

North Dakota has banned health authorities from “requiring a face covering for any reason.” Remind me…oh, yea, said that already.

Florida has given the governor the power invalidate any local health emergency order. That means the person who can decide what is in the public interest in the case of a major outbreak or other public health emergency, is, ah…Ron DeSantis. Uh, oh.

Perhaps, though, we should not be concerned about this; after all, this could be a textbook example of Darwinian selection at work. But no, please allow me to take that back: that notion is without human compassion, especially for all the poorer or disenfranchised people in those states who lack the resources to protect themselves.

Please! Remind me!

Source: Glenza, Jessica. “Republicans Bid to Limit Health Officials Could Cause ‘Preventable Tragedies’ – Experts.” The Guardian, July 23, 2021.

It Makes Ya Stop and Think, Don’t It

Posted on by Peter Scott Cameron

The Great Barrier Reef

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has agreed to delay placing the Great Barrier Reef on its list of “in danger” sites after heavy lobbying from the Australian government.

The reef is the world’s largest coral reef. Like many of these reefs the world over, it is in imminent danger from the effects of climate change. Other kinds of water pollution (plastic etc.) and human over-use may also be factors in the die-off of the coral.

However, the Australian government was concerned that officially designating it as “in danger” would result in a decline in tourism, especially for snorkelling.

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Source:

Readfearn, Graham. “World Heritage Committee Agrees not to Place Great Barrier Reef on ‘In Danger’ List.” The Guardian, July 23, 2021.