People Died Making Your iPhone? (Yawn)

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There have been several recent articles about the onerous conditions for workers who assemble Apple’s iPhone (as well as other electronics stuff).

Some ask if consumers might boycott Apple.

A few may, but most probably won’t care.
We can relate to a touching photo of, and story about, one person (or a few) — for example, a child trapped in a well, or a dozen miners trapped underground. But when it involves a large group of people, with whom we’re not connected, it all becomes more abstract.

And most people won’t care — especially conservatives, who will likely think, “If they don’t like it, let them go find a job somewhere else”.

Others have written that although these workers work and live in terrible conditions, it’s still a better life for them than pre-industrialized days, when they worked on a farm or in rice fields.

What I think about: This is what has destroyed American manufacturing and transferred money from the workers to Big Business. Using Asian labor, it might cost Apple $200 or so to manufacture an iPhone that it sells for $500. Were it manufactured in America, it would cost more to manufacture and Apple would make less money. But American workers would have jobs and income — and would be better able to afford Apple’s expensive phones.

It’s always about money, and maximizing it, for Corporate America.

Mitt Romney Exposes The Republican Propaganda About “Job Creators”

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The Republicans are masters of perverting words and phrases. “Americans For Prosperity”, for example is really not about prosperity for everyone but for the plutocrats (the Kochs created “Americans For Prosperity”). It should more appropriately be called “Americans For Plutocrats”.

“Job Creators” is another Republican phrase which has been used ad nauseum to defend low tax rates for the rich.

Mitt Romney, by virtue of his wealth and low tax rate, exemplifies the Republican’s “Job Creator” definition.

$42 million income over two years, and a tax rate of about 13.9%.

Jobs created: None.

But Republicans (both rich and poor) will defend to the death their belief that people like Romney should not pay more in taxes, because the right-wing mind now correlates “rich” with “job creator”.

This is how the political propaganda machine works. And, unfortunately, it really does work.

Biting The Hand That Helps You Promote Yourself

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Have you considered the irony of Gingrich bashing the media, when he was asked about his ex-wife’s revelation about Newt requesting and open marriage?  Yes, Newt embarked on an explosive tirade condemning the media.  And yes, the right-wing audience loved it, giving him a standing ovation.

Here’s the irony, and what you didn’t see:
Hundreds of member of the media assembled to rebroadcast whatever the Republican candidates said.

The Media Newt Professes To Hate

This is politics, and corporate media, personified.
The Republican candidate engaging in the media-bashing the right-wing loves.
The corporate media assembled and dutifully reporting Newt’s bashing.

They deserve each other.

The Fractured And Balkanized Republican Party

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Three states, three winners of Republican primaries: It shows how fractured the Republican party has become.

The Republican party has only itself to thank. For decades, it has attracted party adherents by appealing to their fears and hate. Southern states turned Republican after LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and Nixon sealed the deal with his “Southern strategy”. The GOP sucked in the evangelicals by trumpeting their “family values” and “Christian faith” propaganda. And, of course, they’ve rounded up the hate-filled: Gay-bashers, the anti-immigrant crowd, and the anti-government crowd.

A political party built on a smorgasbord of fear and hate has nowhere to go but down, and that’s where the Republican party has gone.

In Iowa, the uber-religious candidate won. In New Hampshire, the shape-shifter who tries to present himself as “reasonable” won. In South Carolina, the hateful screamer won, even though he represents anti-family values.

I recall a newscast in which a female South Carolina teabagger was interviewed. She stressed the importance of a candidate who would “never compromise and never surrender” (Newt was her pick).  She typifies the radical right, the tail which has been wagging the dog, the teabaggers.

The question: What impact will the Republicans’ final choice have on Republican voter turnout? Will any remaining sane and rational Republicans simply not vote? Or is there enough widespread Obama-hate in the Republicans to inspire a high voter turnout, no matter how worthless their candidate?

The Republican turnout will be critical, because I believe many who might vote for the Democrat will stay at home on election day. Once avid supporters of the inspirational Obama, they feel they were lied to; they won’t be going to the polls to vote for an Obama who abandoned them.

I believe the ball will be in the Republican court on election day: The size of the Republican turnout will decide the winner. Watch for a lot of hate-stoking between now and Nov. 6.

Arizona “Border Trash”

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Arizona has found another reason to hate people crossing the border: They leave trash behind. Trash like clothing, backpacks, bicycles, cars, and dirty diapers. They’ve even established a website about it: ArizonaBorderTrash.gov.

How stupid is humanity?
Pretty damned dumb.
Women weren’t allowed to vote — until they finally took concerted action.
Booze was outlawed, and bootleggers (including the Kennedy family) got rich.
Slaves were denied basic human rights but were counted as 3/5 of a person for the purpose of congressional representation and government spending–in a country founded on the rights of man to “liberty”.

U.S. factories moved to northern Mexico for cheap labor. Then the factories were moved to Asian countries where the labor was cheaper still, leaving thousands of people stranded — they had moved to northern Mexico for the jobs. The jobs left; they stayed, and many of them crossed the now-nearby border to look for work.  Then NAFTA allowed U.S. agribusiness giants to sell grain in Mexico at cheap prices, putting many Mexican farmers out of business.

For decades, Mexicans crossed the border to find temporary work. Then, after a few months or so, they returned home. But border crossing was tightened up and the trips became increasingly dangerous. So the temporary workers decided to bring their families to where they were — and they stayed. What was once a transient labor force became permanent, and greater in number thanks to the spouses and children they now brought with them.

We’ve built more fences, hired more border patrol agents, dispatched the National Guard, spent millions on an electronic detection system that didn’t work, and we fly drones as eyes in the sky. All of this in response to the right-wing demands to “seal the border”. It will NEVER be sealed. But the right-wingers will never stop demanding it be sealed.

Border crossers now pay exorbitant sums to coyotes (smugglers). They now have to cross in more-remote areas. And, naturally, they have to bring more stuff with them to try to survive the journey.

Think about some of that “border trash”: Clothing and backpacks, for example. Why would they dispose of it? Maybe they’re exhausted and can’t carry it anymore. Dirty diapers? Imagine crossing the desert with a baby. What are they supposed to do with the dirty diapers? Look for an infant changing station?

Every action taken to thwart impoverished, hungry, people coming here to look for work has increased the hardship and danger they face in trying to get here. Yet, despite it, they continue to try. It demonstrates the depth of their desperation as well as their resolve to improve their plight.

Here, in America, where Republicans say they value hard work, determination, and “family values”, people who demonstrate it by risking death to improve their condition are portrayed as evil “law-breakers” and used as straw men by Republican politicians and hacks to use the tool they’re fond of using to energize right-wing voters: Hate.

Only in America can we hate people who, while risking death, demonstrate they possess the values most of us only give lip-service to.

And we bitch about the dirty diapers left by parents struggling mightily, who hope to provide a better life for the sake of their children.

Only in America.

Why Fracking Was Exempted From The Clean Water Act

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Fracking is exempt from the Clean Water Act.
Oil companies with money and lobbyists ensured it would be so.

The same applies to the Safe Water Drinking Act: Exempt. (Thanks, Shrub.)

After numerous reports of drinking water sources being contaminated by fracking, it appears the EPA is finally going to do some investigating. And the EPA is providing clean drinking water to some people in Pennsylvania.

As the Republicans bitch about “entitlements” and “welfare”, why isn’t anybody asking them about the corporate welfare queens. E.g., water polluters who aren’t held responsible as taxpayers foot the bill to provide clean drinking water to people whose water is polluted?

France: Glaciers Are Shrinking

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"What Climate Warming?"


Republican morons chant, in unison, “What climate warming?” and ignore proof such as this:

Around the globe, in all latitudes, at all altitudes, glaciers are receding and disappearing at a rapid pace. At a speed that often exceeds even the most alarmist previsions made a few years ago. This tendency has been recently confirmed by a study of the French Alps carried out by researchers of the University of Savoie, located near Chambery.

When we talk about melting glaciers and global warming we often think of faraway polar regions. But here we are in the heart of Europe, close to Mont Blanc, and the surface area of glaciers is shrinking remarkably.

The story

Wisconsin: 1 Million Signatures Obtained To Recall Scott Walker

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They needed 540,208 signatures on the recall Scott Walker petition, they got 1 million.

In addition, 845,000 signatures were submitted to force the recall of Republican Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch

Petitions were also filed to recall four Republican state senators: Terry Moulton in northwest Wisconsin, Pam Galloway in north-central Wisconsin, Van Wangaard in southeast Wisconsin and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, Walker’s legislative pointman in the struggle last year over the governor’s move last year to strip collective bargaining rights from state, county and municipal employees and teachers. If just one of the four senators is recalled and removed, control of the chamber will shift from the Republicans to the Democrats — who picked up two seats in recall elections last summer.

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Watch for the Kochsters to spend a bundle trying to keep their boy in office.

The Economic Bleakness Continues

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An article from Reuters reports that it appears Americans are dipping into savings, borrowing more on credit cards, and borrowing from retirement accounts, to pay bills. That’s a bad sign.

Forget the rosy comments about “improving economy”. We’re struggling to stay afloat, and more of us are going to sink.

As Republicans continue to serve and protect Big Business, the Plutocrats and the rich, nothing’s going to change. The rich will continue to get richer.

America’s working class has been screwed by free trade agreements, the decline of labor unions, and politicians doing the bidding of the rich. It won’t improve given the status quo.

One course of action: Vote out all incumbents.
Continue to do so every election, until the politicians get the message and serve the voters, not their campaign contributors. And vote for third-party candidates.

We must destroy the political machinery that’s destroying us.