«The multiracial American working class had shouldered deindustrialization, deunionization, the financial crisis, and the squeeze of unaffordable housing and healthcare. At a time of record corporate profits, these service workers had become the driving force of the American economy, working underpaid jobs that couldn’t be outsourced and that required human touch, voice, and judgment.»
21% through “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” by Heather McGhee.
https://apnews.com/article/irs-direct-file-tax-returns-free-trump-4bb0bca02fab9b3d06ae6f45ac67b7ab
Hey, non-voters… You chose this over a qualified Black woman.
Via Wonkette (go, Wonkette!):
«The wellness industry doesn’t spread misinformation by accident — it’s their business model. It convinces people that “mainstream” medicine, veterinary science, and public health experts are untrustworthy. It manufactures fear of “toxins,” “Big Pharma,” and “Big Pet Food,” then sells alternative solutions — raw diets, homeopathic remedies, and “natural” immune boosters — that have no scientific basis.
The claims aren’t supported by data. There is no evidence that raw diets provide health benefits to pets — but overwhelming evidence that they increase the risk of infections and illness. There is no evidence that “natural immunity” can protect against H5N1 — but plenty of evidence that the virus has a 50% mortality rate in infected cats. There is no evidence that raw milk is superior to pasteurized milk — but abundant evidence that raw dairy spreads deadly pathogens.»
…
«The FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine monitors zoonotic diseases like H5N1, regulates pet food safety, and responds to veterinary public health crises, but it was hit hard by recent layoffs.
…
RFK Jr.’s proposal of letting H5N1 spread unchecked through birds will have the opposite effect. Pasteurization requirements and food safety laws must be strengthened — raw milk and dairy is a known vector for many viral and bacterial pathogens, including H5N1.»
…
«The real threat isn’t just the virus, it’s the anti-science movement enabling its spread.»
https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/16/homeland_security_funding_for_cve/
I know everybody knows about this already; I just need to put a kakistocracy post in my blog.
«The multihued group of activists, supported by the local SEIU and Seattle-area community groups, won a ballot initiative in the airport town, Sea-Tac, to raise airport worker wages to $15. The margin of victory was just 77 votes.
Sensing momentum, however, the coalition of supporters made a wild bet that they could win in an even bigger fight, in Seattle itself. By that time, in the spring of 2013, Seattle fast-food workers of every color were walking out in one-day strikes and organizing across the city. By August 29, on a national day of action that coincided with the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington, the streets of sixty cities teemed with fast-food workers demanding higher wages. But they weren’t alone: retail workers from department stores like Macy’s and chains like Victoria’s Secret also joined in. A year later, the demonstrations would include adjunct professors with graduate degrees. By May 2014, the Seattle City Council voted to make theirs the first American city to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour.»
I remember this (Seattle raising the minimum wage to $15). Predictions of disaster seem to have failed to materialize.
Just remember: good news is possible. This is Solnit’s “hope”.
(Those aren’t scare quotes.)
20% through “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” by Heather McGhee.
«But it was a pivotal moment in realizing that Jon Stewart was more David Brooks than any sort of progressive.»
https://www.wonkette.com/p/jon-stewart-very-sorry-he-believed
OUCH.
Really quick post, but: does this sound familiar to anyone?
«Now, reports Gera, that tussle over national identity has bled over into the museum itself. Government officials have accused museum leaders of presenting a story that is “not Polish enough,” withheld funds, and resisted its focus on other nations and civilian experiences. With the Polish court siding in the government’s favor, the museum’s fate is up in the air.»
Article from 2017, but something drove me to look this up. Maybe I’ll post on that later.
«When liberalism was firmly entrenched, its discontents could treat authoritarian ideas as interesting avant-garde provocations. Authoritarianism in power, however, was always going to be crude and stupid.»
…
«For all her [Alex Kaschuta’s] mounting disgust, however, the tariffs seemed to push her over the edge. When she looks back on the milieu she was once a part of, she said, she sees no solid ideas for a post-liberal society — it was all just aesthetics, resentments and vibes. “And now the vibes have knocked into reality,” she said. “And it is so jarring to see that none of the vibes stand up to scrutiny. None of the vibes actually fit onto the 21st century. None of the vibes, if implemented, would lead to anything but immiseration and war.”»
I’m trying to reduce the amount of NYT in my diet, but this is pretty good.
«It was in these years of cross-racial organizing that unions experienced a Solidarity Dividend, with membership climbing to levels that let unions set wages across large sectors of the economy. More and more of the country’s workforce joined a union on the job, with membership reaching a high-water mark of one out of every three workers in the 1950s. The victories these unions won reshaped work for us all. The forty-hour workweek, overtime pay, employer health insurance and retirement benefits, worker compensation—all these components of a “good job” came from collective bargaining and union advocacy with governments in the late 1930s and ’40s. And the power to win these benefits came from solidarity—black, white, and brown, men and women, immigrant and native-born.»
Finally, finally, FINALLY getting back to this, after way too long reading bad science fiction and rereading good sci-fi.
17% through “The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together (One World Essentials)” by Heather McGhee.
I wonder if the “good manufacturing jobs” Trump and the right are so nostalgic for were only made possible by interracial unions (and therefore won’t pay as well if we go back to whites-only unions (if any unions)).
Well, I actually managed to make contact with a human at Tillis’s office and I asked what the Senator is doing about Trump denying the Supreme Court on the matter of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the guy deported to El Salvador by mistake.
The guy said it’s an Executive vs. Judicial branch matter and the Senator couldn’t do anything about it. In the middle of me saying I didn’t believe that was possible, he switched over to “hello? hello? I can’t hear you.” and then HUNG UP ON ME.
I get that it’s probably some new intern stuck answering phones but WOW his skills were minimal. For some very low definition of “minimal”. I’ll be interested to learn whether the interns’ people skills improve over time.
(I called back to ask my 2nd question: what is the Senator doing about tariffs, over and above co-sponsoring a bill guaranteed not to pass? Guess who got routed straight to voicemail?)
Here, Read This 