Sunday Open Thread [5.29.2016]
Despite public defiance, Bernie told top Ds he expects convention process to be legit: https://t.co/EGTg8aHBBj pic.twitter.com/fQKPT5urQG
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 29, 2016
Susia Cagle looks at the big problem with the story of Peter Thiel’s secret day in court and how the 0.1% are redefining the rules.
Last week Mr. Thiel revealed that he had funneled “in the ballpark” of $10 million to legal support for plaintiffs suing Gawker Media, most notably Terry Bollea, a.k.a. Hulk Hogan, who recently won a $140 million judgment against the company for defamation. Mr. Thiel made no secret of his grudge against Gawker, since the company’s Valleywag blog revealed his homosexuality in a 2007 post that lampooned the straight male culture of Silicon Valley more than Mr. Thiel himself. (Mr. Thiel is, notably, an investor in the tech site Pando, a media property that regularly insults him in more direct terms.) …
Portraying a $10 million investment in crushing one’s enemy as a charitable act of justice that will make the world a better place is galling. But students of history can hardly be shocked. Tech’s elite, lauded for their originality, are influencing media, politics and society at large with a kind of venture philanthropy, much as their industrial predecessors did more than 100 years ago.
Donald Trump claimed that California is not facing a drought, USA Today reports. “Trump said state officials were simply denying water to Central Valley farmers to prioritize the Delta smelt, a native California fish nearing extinction — or as Trump called it, ‘a certain kind of three-inch fish.’”
Said Trump: “If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water.”
Open up the water. From where?
Despite public defiance, Bernie told top Ds he expects convention process to be legit: https://t.co/EGTg8aHBBj pic.twitter.com/fQKPT5urQG
— Greg Sargent (@ThePlumLineGS) May 29, 2016
“In one of his most personal attacks against an apolitical figure since becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump delivered an extended tirade about the federal judge overseeing the civil litigation against his defunct education program,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Trump’s attack on U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel was extraordinary not just in its scope and intensity but for its location: Before a crowd packed into a convention center here that had been primed for the New York billionaire with a warm-up speech from former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.”
After the audience chanted the Republican standard-bearer’s signature ‘build that wall’ mantra, Trump told them that Judge Curiel is “Mexican.”
“For the past two months, Donald Trump has presided over a political team riddled with turf wars, staff reshuffling and dueling power centers,” the Washington Post reports.
“But the tensions are more than typical campaign chaos: They illustrate how Trump likes to run an organization, whether it’s a real estate venture or his presidential bid. Interviews with current and former Trump associates reveal an executive who is fond of promoting rivalries among subordinates, wary of delegating major decisions, scornful of convention and fiercely insistent on a culture of loyalty around him.”
A striking correlation.
(Source: https://t.co/Di43HLn3X0) @LarryMishel pic.twitter.com/VaBP97HSee— Justin Wolfers (@JustinWolfers) May 26, 2016
Trade and immigration are, in a way, exceptions to all these things. Trump appears to legitimately favor protective tariffs. But while Trump is speaking to legitimate grievances in this area, his promises are empty ones. He does not talk about spending money to retrain workers or mitigate the pain of globalization. What he’s really vowing to do is kick the asses of other countries, especially China, in order to make trade deals better for America, even if it risks trade wars. As Trump put it: “Who the hell cares about a trade war?” He is offering attitude more than anything else.
Meanwhile, Trump launched his candidacy while vowing mass deportations and a Great Trumpian Wall on the southern border, all the while telling American workers that elites were screwing them by helping give their jobs to parasites and criminals. But here, too, he is offering American workers a scapegoat, not real solutions, since mass deportations and forcing Mexico to pay for that wall are fantasies.
NEWSFLASH: 29% of Louisiana Republicans blame President Obama for the poor response in 2005 to Hurricane Katrina. #DumberThanDogShit #dumfux
— Think Gooder (@StillJohnCA) May 29, 2016
It appears that Hillary Clinton is on solid political ground in calling for stricter gun control. “A New York Times/CBS News poll in January found that 57 percent of respondents wanted stricter laws governing gun sales, and 88 percent favored background checks for all purchases.”
In her campaign swing west to Latino-rich CA and NV, Hillary continues to make immigration “reform” a top priority, but unfortunately still with no mention of e-Verify, exit tracking technology, or sanctions on illegal employers. Instead, she has started running that tearjerker ad. Just like with the trade treaties, Hillary refuses to acknowledge the devastation the ongoing illegal hiring inflicts on American in the legal labor market and on their familes. But apparently she sees this an electoral benefit in certain states.
“the devastation the ongoing illegal hiring inflicts on American in the legal labor market and on their familes.”
Devastation? You think illegal immigration does more to lower wages than offshoring jobs? Than passing anti-union laws? I think you’re riding your hobby horse a little hard.
“You think illegal immigration does more to lower wages than offshoring jobs? Than passing anti-union laws?”
All of the above. Hillary doesn’t seem to have solutions for those either. I guess her solution to raise wages consists mostly of the $275B infrastructure plan, poured into the already damaged labor market.
That’s just gibberish. It’s the usual gibberish, but gibberish. Back of the napkin job creation number is somewhere between 10K and 13k jobs per billion spent. The labor market is damaged to the extent that skilled labor is till having a hard time finding good employment. You start healing that market by employing those folks with the kind of jobs suitable to their skills and paying them for it.
“Back of the napkin job creation number is somewhere between 10K and 13k jobs per billion spent.”
That’s the annual number for highway spending, and it includes induced jobs, which is the guesstimated employment from increased economic activity.
“The labor market is damaged to the extent that skilled labor is till having a hard time finding good employment.”
I’m not sure what you mean by “damaged.” Too many workers, not enough jobs seems like the problem.
My take, from talking to people who hire, is that there’s a disconnect on the skills front. They complain that they can’t fill job openings because the employees lack the needed skills, but they also admit they are unwilling to spend time and money training people to do the jobs, a decision made above their pay grade.
The “good” employment part is a different problem, isn’t it? That’s partly a general ratcheting down of pay scales, often drastically, in the wake of ’08. The stats say wages were stagnant, but some folks took 40% cuts to keep their jobs.
The baby boom generation should be retiring en masse in the short-term future, but I don’t know many people approaching 65 who feel comfortable leaving the job market, even if they have to join the gig economy to do it.
“You start healing that market by employing those folks with the kind of jobs suitable to their skills and paying them for it.”
Who are the employers in that scenario?
@p ” Hillary refuses to acknowledge the devastation the ongoing illegal hiring inflicts on American in the legal labor market and on their familes.”
That effect is demonstrably negative. If all that stopped, our economy would tank, and tank rather quickly.
@a “That’s partly a general ratcheting down of pay scales, often drastically, in the wake of ’08.”
Don’t blame ’08. That’s much to do with the persistent attack on unions.
Thanks Fox news… you’ve done a great job making your viewers want to screw themselves over.
@a “Who are the employers in that scenario?”
Not I. I’m still hiring 75% foreigners. It’s all about education and working hard… The foreigners I hire are simply better educated and better trained and work harder than the Americans who apply. It’s like the American work ethos of the ’60s and ’70s is gone… you know… like the guys that got us to the moon and back. Where are guys like them today???
…oh.. They’re on wall street trying to skim a buck. Just great.
To fix the labor market, make employers bid up wages. What caused them to bid wages down? There’s a list:
Decline of unions
Widespread toleration of illegal employment at the low end
New legal sources of skilled imported labor
Lack of tax disincentives for offshoring jobs and entire companies
None of this is a priority for Hillary, and she’s even on the wrong side of some of it.
“My take, from talking to people who hire, is that there’s a disconnect on the skills front. They complain that they can’t fill job openings because the employees lack the needed skills, but they also admit they are unwilling to spend time and money training people to do the jobs, a decision made above their pay grade.”
Absolutely right. And often it doesn’t even take that much time or money; most professionals will quickly self-educate on the job. At least in the IT world, it’s usually not about skills but about some relatively uncommon tool. It’s called waiting for the purple squirrel. I’ve seen jobs stay unfilled for months, when someone with related skills could have become productive in less than a month.
“The foreigners I hire are simply better educated and better trained and work harder than the Americans who apply.”
I’m not buying this load of crap.
The moonshot guys were working for a great American enterprise with committed management. Now we are asking them to work for a bunch of playboy billionaires who would just as soon shut the whole thing down if they could make a buck off it somewhere else.
To fix the labor market, make employers bid up wages.
For most Federal infrastructure projects, first tier construction labor hires and a good many second tier construction hires are going to get a minimum of local Davis Bacon wage rates.
Hillary’s infrastructure proposal is a good start. at least while the money lasts. But while you are pouring water in the bucket it make sense to patch the holes where it is running out.
“Don’t blame ’08. That’s much to do with the persistent attack on unions.”
But ’08 had the effect of resetting the wage clock. It’s not “blaming” the recession to point that out. It’s not an attack on unions to tell unionized workers they can either take a 40% pay cut or the jobs will go to Mexico. It’s an attack on wages.
Or do you claim that companies that moved labor to Mexico did so not to save money but to harm unions? It has that effect, but it was not the motivation.
“Where are guys like them today??? …oh.. They’re on wall street trying to skim a buck. Just great.”
Hillary’s issues page lists something about a tax on high-frequency trading, which would be welcome, but I haven’t heard her campaign on it, and it definitely did not make the cut for her “first 100 days” priorities. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the SEC could slow down this type of trading without congressional action, if it wanted to.
The system is seriously flawed. You go into a Dunkin Donuts, they change hands consistently, so they don’t have to pay taxes. It just looked like they sold the business.
Why does it keep happening? Why give “a new business” a tax break, like that.
“You go into a Dunkin Donuts, they change hands consistently, so they don’t have to pay taxes.”
You don’t pay taxes, you go to jail. Try again.
I just don’t get what creates a lower middle class right wing scab who shills for the people working against his own kids