US Politics, February 2018: Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots

thirded

since a lot of people are replying asking why the strike is back on, this thread has a couple good articles from today explaining https://t.co/bgcd0YwkpV

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) March 1, 2018

OK, looks like workers are pissed at the union leaders for settling:

After Tuesday’s post-6 p.m. proposal by Gov. Jim Justice and union leaders to end the strike Thursday went over like a lead balloon with many school employees, it was clear by Wednesday evening that workers were not unified in believing they should return to work.

As of 8:30 p.m., announcements had come that public schools would continue to be closed Thursday in at least 34 counties. More were expected.

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/education/teachers-continue-protests-at-capitol-blast-proposal-to-end-strike/article_d824f764-2c6f-51ac-bf00-68f1873ca2a6.html

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/west-virginia-teacher-strike-might-not-be-over-yet_us_5a970a85e4b0e6a5230453f0

The arrangement Justice rolled out would give teachers and other school personnel a five percent raise, and workers employed by the state a three percent raise. Although it marked progress from the meager wage increases earlier proposed by Justice, the deal did not placate strikers’ bigger concerns over the state employee health care program.

Justice said the state would temporarily freeze employee costs under the program, known as the Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA), while a task force was set up to develop a long-term fix to rising premiums and co-pays. But many striking employees apparently don’t trust the issue will be resolved, and fear increased health costs could wipe away their raises.

well I'm temp-banned from Twitter now for telling a Trumpxtian they should have been aborted. bleh.

Is this story being covered anywhere, cable news, papers? Not a peep on the front page of the Times or WaPo.

Well the Twitter ban hardly seems to rise to the level of national important. Check the metro section tomorrow?

the VA strike merited only like 2 mins on MSNBC, apparently.

lol caek

other notable non-Russiagate news I'm not seeing much about

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/28/yemen-saudi-arabia-war-us-support-senator-push-to-end

I doubt Florida educators could even pull this off again because the current economic and political environment is very different but remembering this event in my state's history: http://www.tampabay.com/news/education/teachers/50-years-ago-Florida-teachers-walked-off-their-jobs-Today-s-union-leaders-are-inspired_165549681

my elementary/middle/high school teaching friends in FL are currently at their wit's end with the state of education in FL and the shooting has many of them rethinking their career.

while you’re here, this is an informative thread on what’s happening internally https://t.co/LzPOw7910g

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) March 1, 2018

(btw if you're not already following alex press for yr US labour organizing developments, you should be)

I watched the footage of the press conference on the Yemen resolution. I don't know what chance it has but I'm glad this is at least being brought to the Senate floor, and in a multi-party way.

all 55 counties closed, apparently

and jefferson's closed, per facebook. #55strong - these teachers deserve all your support and solidarity! media folks, cover this tyvm

— Alex Press (@alexnpress) March 1, 2018

wow that’s quite the media blackout.

i’m also surprised that as a member of the AFT i haven’t heard about it from them

it’s ~sO wEirD~ what the librul lamestream media determines is newsworthy

*is and is not

i do recall now seeing a cnn article about it but the headline (“these teachers packed a lunch for their students” or something like that) didn’t actually clue me in to what was going on

here’s the same story w much better headline

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2018/02/26/us/iyw-striking-teachers-feed-students-trnd/index.html

Trump is hopping mad tonight. In a bad place. I think when we do the tick tocks we’ll find this was a moment where he said “F it.” (Though I think this one is still very TBD, and I assume at *some point* tonight John Kelly will locate the steering wheel again.) https://t.co/FxiHlvh4t6

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) March 1, 2018

I'll be in my bunk-er

Even better!

Steel and aluminum tariffs could be announced by Trump on Thursday, but White House and industry sources still say there's a lot of back and forth on this. w/ @AndrewRestuccia https://t.co/htUoukO1qG

— Adam Behsudi (@ABehsudi) March 1, 2018

Lots of back and forth (mainly because senior White House officials were learning about it for the first time by reading the Washington Post.) https://t.co/NM0Hjk5Z8l

— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) March 1, 2018

I don't know why, but I'm not shocked by the Hicks resignation.

Would I be shocked to find out that Hicks is and always has been a mole inside the Trump organization/campaign/administration? I'm not sure I'd be shocked by that either.

what would it take to shock you, besides a cattle prod

A purportedly progressive individual's voice of support for acts in contravention of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_against_Torture?

I don't know that I'd be shocked by any resignation from the Trump administration. It may be triggered by a variety of circumstances depending on the person in question, but most will eventually heed the siren call of self-preservation.

https://i.pinimg.com/236x/24/5d/d2/245dd2b5469f46f2a822cbdf2ac9d087--renault-population.jpg

I guess everyone is otm and that no resignation should be surprising. At this point it seems pretty clear that no matter what a person is hired to do for Trump, if they stay long enough they will 1) be named Director of Communications and 2) be forced to lie about the collusions.

collusion? no collusion

51% of Americans now support Trump's tax cuts. The primary reason: the media mindlessly repeating GOP-allied corporations "000 Bonus!" stories for three months. https://t.co/Vb1gHGvoLi pic.twitter.com/QOmBsbjaxM

— Adam H. Johnson (@adamjohnsonNYC) March 1, 2018

Mnuchin: Well, you must seem to have a bias because you're using the words "engineered," so you obviously think that it was the policy the policies were created. Again, what I would say is we fundamentally believe that we will have economic growth and again, 35 basis points is the break even. And we're already seeing this. By the way, we're seeing companies give millions and millions of workers bonuses all as a result of this. And for people who are getting these thousand-dollar bonuses, these are not crumbs.

Ryssdal: Absolutely not, and I'm not going to imply that at all. You said 4 million workers in this economy?

Mnuchin: Four and a half million.

Ryssdal: Four and a half million have gotten one-time bonuses.

Mnuchin: Yes.

Ryssdal: So this is a labor pool of 155 million people, sir.

Mnuchin: So are you, tell me, are you, for those four and a half million workers —

Ryssdal: So my question is —

Mnuchin: in one month. That's a big deal. That's a big deal. Four and a half million workers have already seen this impact.

Ryssdal: By some estimates —

Mnuchin: I understand you're doing the math.

Ryssdal: No. So the Americans for Tax Reform say plus or minus, 86 companies have given wage increases, 250 companies have given one-time bonuses, and I guess the question is, what would you rather have? Would you rather have a one-time bonus or a consistent wage increase over the next couple of years?

Mnuchin: We fundamentally believe that there will be wage increases going through to the workers.

Ryssdal: Why do you believe that?

Because there are implied scare quotes around 'fundamentally believe'. Because they neither 'fundamentally believe' that nor do they care.

I've maintained a fundamental belief in trickle-down economics for decades. It's totally going to pay off one day, for sure.

i don't know who this ryssdal is but i like the cut of her (his?) jib

it just occurred to me that deep-learned AIs would be a vast improvement over pretty much every American broadcast journalist going - not even joking really

I always have such a hard time trying to figure out exactly what kind of lizard Mnuchin resembles.

https://www.marketplace.org/people/kai-ryssdal

xps

ah! duh

Time for a new thread, yes?

US Politics, March 2018: “Is it dirthole?” she asked. Close, but not quite.
US Politics, March 2018: That's a big deal. That's a big deal.
US Politics, March 2018: what would it take to shock you, besides a cattle prod
US Politics, March 2018: elderly, myopic and bumbling

suggested title: Why do people leave the White House for good?

haha love it

yes

Excellent.

I was gonna go with US Politics, March 2018: No Hope, but I like the why do people leave title.