Displaying 331 To 360 Of 955 Comments Invite For Collaboration Part 2: Yes, but she changes the rules of the game in the leadership-approved manner (moving the goal posts, accusing others of being for what she was for before it became against the platform, etc.). I suspect AH changes the board to fit her own schemes. I’d like to hear what Michael Moore says about what is going on, just out of curiosity. EDIT: schlepping error » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 2:05 pm Local #6969 Federated Fellowship of Gigolos, Cabana Boys and Grifters They are based in Palm Springs California. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 2:03 pm There’s a difference between being an uneducated (or deliberately ignoring education) blather-box and being someone who uses their education to further divide the issues (if that is what Arianna is doing). In some ways, though, they are similar. The only difference is, Arianna has to promote herself almost exclusively, while Palin has plenty of people (including Arianna) promoting her. I’m trying to find a way to describe the differences I see, but it is very hard to do so. But which one is more “noble” is going to be purely subjective. One could argue that, even is she is playing the system against itself, Arianna is helping to do good (even if that is sometimes by accident). Can we argue that Palin has caused anything good, *even* by accident? (no, I am not counting things she may have caused by stirring up the left to counter her – that is a slippery slope I am staying off of, thank you) To me, Palin exemplifies the kind of person who believes they have a right to succeed because they are doing everything the way that their leaders tell them to. She ignores science, social science, history, economics, etc., in favor of a (deformed) party line. She’s done as she was told to do, and therefore deserves her reward. Arianna, if what is being said is true, is a different animal. Far more calculating, far more insidious. Does she think she can get ahead by doing as she is told? If you all are right, then no. She’s manipulating the system that gave us Palin, to do as she pleases. Picture the two of them playing a simple board game. Palin is playing according to rules given to her by somebody else. Arianna is chopping up the board, to make it look the way she wants it to. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 12:56 pm In answer to your point about how we came to Huffington Post… I have a few news alerts set up through Google, for subjects I keep an eye on. Very often, the featured article on some subjects were Huffington Post. Google may weight this towards articles that get read more often, I am not sure. When reading one article, I noticed some of the comments, and there were a couple I felt strongly compelled to answer. I had information on the subject to contribute, and from what I saw, the people there were interested in learning about the subject. I’ll admit, I probably had rose-colored glasses on. It’s been a while since I was a member of a site where I could discuss the news and issues with rational adults, and I wanted that again. I had several followers within a few hours (one of the first, I believe, was AbbyRose). I was overwhelmed by that. I also got followed by a few trolls. They were sorely disappointed though: I am not a Facebook person. I do not “friend” anyone just because they request it. I check out the person, look at what they are posting about, what they are reading, etc. If that person does not look like a “friend”, they get declined. Which is not to say that I only have progressive/liberal “friends”. I have fanned conservatives who seemed interested in actual discussion, discussing the facts, looking at all sides of the issue, exchanging ideas. I refused to join Facebook, by the way, despite the constant hype of it and the not-so-subtle emphasis on Facebook on HP. I was disgruntled that I was blocked from getting certain badges recognizing the amount I was posting and so on, unless I had Facebook or Twitter. Finally I broke down and created a Twitter account. It has been almost worthless to me, and I get spammed on Twitter with friend requests from people who shouldn’t have bothered. There is a severe problem with cognitive dissonance on the site, and I am not just talking about some of the posters. HP posts a lot of items that mock or denounce Facebook, but they promote it as well. They mock and denigrate Twitter… but everybody *has* to have Twitter account, and use it – continuously! Arianna talks about third world America, but gushes about her five Blackberries, and floods the site with ads for luxury, high-ticket products. The Jon Stewart rally really confused me. HP was publishing blogs and articles talking about how he was ruining the dialogue and so on, yet Arianna is on his show, gives him buses to transport people, sends people there to report (live!), etc. Now, a cynical person might say that the dichotomy here is a product of trying to have the best of both worlds and suck in as much traffic as possible. Maybe. I have to say though, it looks to me like what happens when a nerdy, geeky weirdo decides he wants to hang out with the cool kids. He tries to adopt their behaviors, their habits, their clothing styles, their interests, in order to fit in, but doesn’t let go of his old attitudes, behaviors, style, etc. The new stuff is just taped on over the old stuff. It’s kind of like seeing a kid wearing Tommy Hilfiger jeans, with a slide rule sticking out of the back pocket. Or dumps her favorite soy-and-tofu sesame snacks into the Versacci purse. Or wearing a pocket protector in the pocket of a high-end silk shirt. But it looks like it’s paying off for Arianna. She gets to hang with the cool kids on both sides of the aisle now. She gets to keep her money, and scold others for not giving it away. But that is not the way it usually works out. The way it usually goes, your old friends shun you for selling out (or just for rejecting them) and your new friends are laughing at you for being pathetic. Arianna thinks she’s managed to escape this, but it’s just a matter of time. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 12:41 pm Wisconsin, what does it really mean? Good job with your school system. Out of respect for your efforts, I will keep my smart-ass cynical comments on society to myself. For now. 😀 » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 5:20 pm Yeah, the formaldehyde gives it that extra kick. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 5:16 pm That’s weird. I stood up a Badger once, and he got upset. How times change. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 5:13 pm “what the fuck? you meant I was going to have to suffer? I thought you were going after THOSE people” The Rolling Stone article on the Tea Party made it pretty clear that those calling for the end of Medicare and Medicaid did not think it would affect their own Medicare and Medicaid. I’ve been calling it “selfish reality”, but only until someone comes up with a better term (one not found in the DSM, please). » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 2:45 pm Gods, I would love to live in such a society. I’ve tried to script out how such a society would work, but I don’t think I’m good enough to do it right. I’d give up my left testicle, but my partner disagrees with that. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 2:42 pm The definition the pseudo-cons use involves how taxes are paid. If the taxes are paid directly by the owners/directors/investors, they define it as a small business (the S Corporation model). The traditional definition is based on how many owners, how many employees, how much income (gross income is usually used, as it represents how much business they actually are doing). However, one of the valid arguments the conservatives have pointed out is gross income can be misleading. If a company manufactures luxury items, only a few items can mean getting priced out of the “small business” definition. I would prefer to see a model that weighs number of units as well as gross income (so that someone who manufactures, say, paperclips doesn’t get forced out of the definition as well). » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 2:40 pm A lesson in companies being run by people with no experience or interest in the product is the motorcycle company, BSA. At one point, directors, executives and upper management were replaced by “business” people. None had any experience or interest in motorcycles. In fact, motorcycle enthusiasts were often derided and denigrated at board meetings. The president of the company made public remarks sneering at anyone who drove a motorcycle. BSA went from a company making some of the top-ranked motorcycles in the world (several US track records were set on BSA motorcycles, some of which still stand, if I recall correctly) to… well, try ordering a new BSA motorcycle these days. Yep. They’re gone. People who say “we’re in business to make a profit” make me laugh. Derisively. The only reason to go into business is to provide a service or product, that you know can be made less expensive, higher quality, or works better. And other reason, you are there for the wrong reason. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 1:52 pm I am not sure anyone who used that phrase is specifically calling for a replacement of unions. WinCo is a grocery store that is “employee owned and operated”. A little over a year ago, they announced they were cutting employee hours back. Those employees may go without health insurance if their hours drop below a certain amount. It’s not that the employees are overpaid. It’s not that insurance and other benefits have risen that much. Food prices, utility bills, transportation costs, have all gone up, despite the claims to the contrary. I like unions. I like employee-owned-and-operated. But neither of them is end-all-be-all solution to our problems. There is no “one great solution”. And that is the real problem. I write science fiction and fantasy, and have had the nagging attitude in the back of my mind since childhood that magic is real and attainable. But my rational mind knows better. The real problem is the number of people out there who want to find the magic wand that makes everything better. The ONE magic wand, in fact. I am unemployed, currently on 131 weeks unemployed. My partner and I just spent several weeks homeless, sleeping in my van. My partner went without health care long enough that we had to rush him to the hospital for dangerously high blood pressure, and then, because he was “indigent” was shuttled off to a stress unit for a week (it was the only way to ensure that he was not on the streets without medication). But I know there is no ONE GREAT CURE. Yeah. I’ll get to work on that right away. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 1:42 pm Walmart was a good idea that went terribly wrong. It’s not just the way they treat employees, or the way they force suppliers to lower prices in an endless cycle of cutting price and cutting costs and off-shoring production. It’s also the way they treat customers. It’s also the way they create new company policy in response to lawsuits. Spiteful and petty are terms that come to mind. Walmart was sued once for requiring employees to do work off the clock. This was unpaid work, and employees were hard-pressed to prove that they had done the work or that they had been forced to clock out. But they won the case anyway. As a result, management will now refuse to even speak to an employee who is off the clock. I needed to talk to personnel one day, but the only time I had to do so was after my shift. Personnel refused to talk to me, because I was off the clock. But I couldn’t talk to personnel when I was on the clock, because I was required to be working on the floor of the store. I finally asked the personnel officer if I needed to clock back in to have the five-minute conversation with her. She snapped at me that if I did that I would be fired, because I was not scheduled to work at that time. I have been told, by friends who still work for Walmart, that the response to the lawsuits over unequal promotion based on gender, that the response has been just as petty. Several stores, from the reports, are promoting women who are not qualified for management. One person told me the women being promoted suddenly are among the *least* qualified. This is what happens when nobody negotiates. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 12:02 pm Glad to see you made it, Sekhmet! 😉 » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 11:41 am Well, I regret that you did not see my argument for what it was. I will not discuss this further. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 1:21 am Actually, his experience highlights one of the the reasons a lot of people are upset with unions. Imagine a young person, suddenly working a good job with good pay and benefits. They are read off the union’s latest cheerleading script. Here are some of the things I have heard from some of the people that some unions send out to sign up the new kids (these are paraphrases): “The union is here to help you, through thick and thin.” Now, that young person gets laid off, and goes to the union, and gets the same treatment that ghostrider got. He’s paid his dues, now he’s waiting for the union to back up their claims. But what was claimed is not what the union is for. I’ve seen a number of unions spin things so that it seems like they are there for every individual. They are not. They are there for the group of employees, to represent the needs and concerns of the group as a whole. They aren’t social workers. They are not a bank handing out short-term loans (strike funds not withstanding). They are not the Social Security office, the Food Stamp office, or the Worker’s Compensation office. But there are unions who represent themselves as if they were. And this has gotten so bad, that I have seen people attempt to game this system. “I’ll just get a union job, wait a couple months, claim to have hurt my back, and the union will get me Worker’s Comp and Disability.” A union is supposed to negotiate a contract between the member employees and the employer. However, some unions have negotiated contracts that puts union personnel into the position of mediators for personnel issues (like termination). This is not the union’s purpose. The union can negotiate what constitutes reasonable cause for termination, and they should. A union should not be defending an individual teacher terminated due to inappropriate sexual conduct or due to child abuse. But that is what we are seeing. Because the mediators for the dispute are now union representatives. What practical purpose does this serve? None. But it does serve to put management on notice that the next negotiation is going to be difficult. The union is showing management how mean and nasty they can be, all the while crying about how the accused teacher is being targeted blah blah blah. These are just a few of the issues that work against unions. I am not even going to get into the whole Hoffa image. But change has to come from the union membership. The membership has more control over the unions than the government. And only the members can make the union stronger, while reducing the abuses. The government can only make the unions weaker. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 12:32 am Don’t apologize. What you wrote was just fine. True experiences of real people show what is happening more than statistics marketing reports. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 11:54 pm One place I worked gave away gift cards to Target, Walmart, and Best Buy as incentives for sales. They did not tell us they were doing this beforehand. We found out when the first of them were handed out. We were somewhat pleased. Some of us put work into achieving those cards, when we found out the criteria (about half a week after the first ones were handed out). A month later, enthusiasm tapered off as the taxes on those cards were deducted from our paychecks. We were less than impressed when we found out those $25 and $50 cards were being taxed at 33%. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 9:35 pm Just remember, an incentive program should not be the reason for the employee to do a better job, it should also make the employee feel great about doing a great job. http://positivesharing.com/2006/12/why-motivation-by-pizza-doesnt-work/ » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 9:05 pm On the subject of incentives, “The Chief Happiness Officer”, who consults with companies on improving employee morale and satisfaction, as well as improving customer service, has tried for years to stop companies from using pizza as an incentive for their “production level” employees (in other words, the ones that do the work of the company – like the people who answer the phones at a call center or the people who build the speedometers at assembly lines). http://positivesharing.com/2006/12/why-motivation-by-pizza-doesnt-work/ You may like the points about diminishing returns. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 9:03 pm I hope your computer is working better soon, so you can posts these blogs yourself, instead of making AdLib doing it for you. You realize the Eastern seaboard lost Internet, and he was unavailable to fix it, right? » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 8:32 pm I am the proud originator of a comeback to use on supposed Christians who yell and scream and swear and denigrate my mother (I’m pretty sure that my mother has never had a chance to offend most of them, so I do not understand their issue with her. Maybe they’re envious of being offended by her?): “Do you pray to God with that mouth? Do you think of Heaven with that mind? Do you lick Bibles with that forked tongue?” Oddly enough, this doesn’t change their minds or remind them of their sacred duty to love one another. However, it does provide some entertainment as they try to continue the same (or worse) rhetoric while simultaneously trying to swallow each and every word. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 8:30 pm Employment at Will…what does it mean? I saw a contract customer service company, who had a call center director who, through a series of WTF moments, negotiated her own contract. This was a company (A) that was hired by other companies (B) to provide customer service to the customers of company B. Just for clarification. The call center director had it written into her 6 figure salary that she received a $1000 bonus for each new employee she hired (or rather, that HR hired for her). The kicker? She also got paid $1000 for each employee she fired… er, “forced to resign”. That call center director later (after I left the company) got raided by the state labor department *and* Federal Marshals. She had attempted to lock employees into the building for mandatory overtime, and had directed managers not to allow any breaks. And yes, she used temp agencies a lot. Not only were employees disposable and interchangeable, but they were also inimical to business. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 12:39 pm Abby, how do you see the temporary employment agencies, corporate recruiters (headhunters), and similar enterprises contributing to this? I seriously think that these enterprises have contributed to the attitude of employers that most employees are disposable and interchangeable (“butts in a chair” is how one supervisor referred to it). I can almost envision a “roach coach” pulling up in front of companies one day, displaying the various temporary workers they have to “rent” to the employers. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 11:37 am In the private sector, a contract can only be re-negotiated within the term of the contract with the approval of both parties. Both parties must agree to do so, or it is an attempt to violate the terms of the contract. So that is a non-argument. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 11:29 am When is an appropriate time for workers to organize and bargain for equitable pay and benefits? A poster in HuffPo was quick to point out that during WWII, trolley drivers went on strike. The implication was that it is somehow disloyal to strike during war time. I had to wonder, if the trolley drivers were on strike, how did the soldiers get around the battlefield? (he never answered that one) It’s bad to negotiate through unions during a recession “obviously”. How many recessions have we had in the past thirty years? How many “threat[s] of recession” have we had? Do the “gas crisis”, the “housing crisis”, the “dot com bust”, etc., all count as well? I think I can reasonably assume that, if the pseudo-cons were allowed to list all the qualifications for times when it is “reprehensible” or “heinous” for unions to bargain for just wages and work conditions, we would find out that unions could have been allowed to have something to say for about five minutes in 1953. Unless that was close to Reagan’s birthday. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 11:26 am The only time I ever had a real contract was when I was a subcontracting door-to-door salesman… and found out fast the people the contract favored was not me. I did not know about the employee handbook as an implied contract. That is probably the only reason Nevada provided unemployment benefits after I was fired by Wells Fargo. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 18, 2011 @ 11:55 pm Kudos, Abby. Very well-written. It still amazes me that while the GOP seems hell-bent on making it mandatory for every citizen to take any job, no matter how inappropriate or low-paying, they also keep in place statutes that make it more worthwhile for employers to fire employees at will. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 18, 2011 @ 11:43 pm Sarah Palin Watch: The Death of Death Panels Because it is more important to get rid of “socialist” programs than to save lives. There does seem to be some sort of priority for wedge issues, but I would hate to have to make a flow-chart of that decision process. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 19, 2011 @ 12:12 pm Writing Responsibly for Other Universes The story by Dickson was written before Watson and Crick described the structure of DNA. I should have worded that sentence better. However, Dickson did describe a single helix, and did not explicitly link the helix to DNA’s structure. A lawyer later remarked to Dickson that if he had patented the concept, as written, he still would have gotten credit. I think it is interesting that imagination can sometimes describe things before they are discovered. » Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit On February 20, 2011 @ 12:09 pmComments Posted By 2ndClassCitizenPundit
Extending unumployment would help. It won’t cure the recession.
Forcing corporations to pay their taxes would help. It won’t cure the recession.
Bringing jobs back to the US would help. It wouldn’t cure our political system.
Stopping Wall Street from gambling our economy away would help. It won’t cure everything.
Having magical powers won’t cure everything either (if it cured anything, which is doubtful). Unless I cast a geas on all elected and appointed officials, forcing them to adhere to strict ethics and forcing them to only take actions that benefit all of their constituents and to forego any action that benefits only a small number of contributors or voters.
“If something happens that threatens your job, the union is here to protect you.”
“If you ever need help, come to the union. We’ve got your back.”
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