redruddyred
redruddyred's Journaloped: minimum wages were first designed to keep women and minorities out of jobs
Progressive labor activists took a very different view 100 years ago, when 15 states established America's first minimum wages. Labor reformers then believed that a legal minimum would hand a raise to deserving white Anglo-Saxon men, and a pink slip to their undeserving competitors: “racially undesirable” immigrants, the mentally and physically disabled, and women. The original progressives hailed minimum-wage-caused job losses among these groups as a positive benefit to the U.S. economy and to Anglo-Saxon racial integrity.
In 1910, 22% of the U.S. workforce was foreign-born. A Who's Who of American economic reform warned that immigration was leading to “race suicide,” what President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907 called the “greatest problem of civilization.” This race suicide theory claimed that because non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants had low living standards, their competition in the labor market undercut the wages of the American workingman. The key assumption was that Anglo-Saxon natives were more productive, but that immigrants worked cheap. As Stanford sociologist and avowed nativist Edward A. Ross put it, “the coolie, though he cannot outdo the American, can underlive him.” Woodrow Wilson, echoing many others, said that Chinese immigrants could “live upon a handful of rice for a pittance.” Similar charges were made against Jews and Catholics arriving from southern and eastern Europe.
The American-born worker, who refused to lower his family's living standard to the immigrant's level, opted instead to have fewer children. Thus, concluded the theory, the inferior races would outbreed and displace their white Anglo-Saxon betters.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0405-leonard-minimum-wage-20160405-story.html
'bernie bro' has misandrist connotations
women have faced centuries of oppression, sure, but if you're going to call us 'sexists' at the drop of a hat, it's a cinch that you're not too concerned with women's rights.
she remarks wistfully as the clinton campaign destroys her credibility as a feminist
what's going on with all these voting purges in upcoming primary states?
the hartmann program was going on and on last week about how people have been taken off the voter rolls. i had problems, now a friend of mine is having problems. is this a trend?
NY Times: To make real change, Bernie Sanders needs his young revolutionaries to run for Congress.
Asked in Wednesday’s debate how he would address climate change, given opposition by Republicans in Congress, he answered: “I’m the only candidate who says no president, not Bernie Sanders, can do it all. You know what we need? We need a political revolution in this country.”
But, as he seemed to acknowledge, revolutions are typically bottom-up, not top-down, events. Mr. Sanders’s campaign is powered by $30 contributions and an army of young volunteers, but there are not enough elected office holders in Congress or in statehouses to carry out his revolution through new laws or policies. And that’s the big difference between running an inspiring campaign and actually governing.
read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/opinion/sunday/the-bernie-sanders-revolution.html?emc=eta1
srs
workers' rights are women's rights. raising the minimum wage is overwhelmingly a women's issue (although I guess minorities can lay claim as well).
i'm so pissed that letting mr sanders finish his effing sentence is considered "sexist". hillary hates me. she will not protect my social security and will not fight for me to get a decent paying job. what has she ever done to fight for the rights of women. her husband is a freaking sexual harrasser and all accounts point to the fact that she helped cover up his worst behavior. this primary is female class warfare: get behind our corporatist candidate, because women. lol no!
totally impressed by the caliber of democratic candidates this cycle
Sanders, Clinton, O'Malley: all top notch.
where were these people in 2000, 2004? these are exciting times we live in: I believe that we are undergoing a renaissance of liberal thought. very proud to support the party which fields all of these candidates.
I am not a Hillary supporter, but I did get to visit a townhall she hosted a few weeks back. very impressed: highly intelligent woman, appears to work to her ideals. I don't believe she is the best candidate but if she does win the nomination no tears shed here. my only disappointment will be that dems were not brave enough to choose the candidate they agree with but the one who is centrist enough to win (helpful hint: it doesn't matter, they hate us all. might as well take a stand).
hard to see democrats arguing amongst themselves. too many of the thread titles here are obvious baiting "why bernie won the debate", etc. give it a rest people. flinging poo is what the republicans do.
do we get the candidates we deserve?
considering the kind of time commitment I'll be making with the upcoming election -- the work that needs to be done to offset the interests of the capitalist class, and I wonder: is america worth it? do we get the candidates we deserve?
one of the field organizers I worked with was convinced that americans will vote for the guy they want to have a beer with.
well, I thought somewhat optimistically, that would rule out dick cheney.
but it didn't rule out ronald reagan or bush jr.
what I am NOT looking forward to this year is knocking on doors to get such responses as,
"voting is too much work"
"people forced to live on welfare are lazy and I'm going to make you listen to an vitriolic diatribe abt my problems with them which are really to do with my employer being a cheap bastard and not the fact that some people are sick or disabled and still need to eat"
or, the highly original doorslam
that said, the political fervor I find here, as well as the general commitment to leftist causes is quite inspiring. how do you guys avoid burnout? I wish I knew more irl activists, all the local politicos are careerists.
what's the scoop on psnh?
it sounds like our state government sold off our public service behind our backs. if so, where was the profit? why are they suddenly cutting services?
read in the union leader that following the sale, rates would increase in order to make up for losses incurred by selling the nh power plants. the deal that was cut charges residential customers (ie you and me) with a much higher 'stranded cost' rate than businesses, all of which reeks of political corruption.
I really want to do more research on this but I haven't had the time; so far every politically involved nhite I've contacted pleads ignorance.
I can't see any upside to privatizing,decentralizing the power grid; it seems like common sense that utilities, by design, are less expensive when it's a single public service whose cost is shared among stakeholders. as I remember thatcher tried something similar and the results were not good.
kelly ayotte tells off frank guinta, and more from this unfolding story of congressional corruption
Rep. Frank Guinta has certainly seen better days. Last Wednesday, the New Hampshire Republican paid a fine to the FEC over a mysterious (and illegal) $355,000 campaign loan from his parents, perhaps thinking that he could put this long-running story behind him. However, Guinta's move only led to more questions about his honesty, and his own party wants him out of this swing district.
Last week, Sen. Kelly Ayotte did little to defend the incumbent, but she ditched any subtlety on Monday and publicly told Guinta to get lost. State Senate President Chuck Morse and state House Speaker Shawn Jasper also called for his resignation, while state party chair Jennifer Horn called his situation "serious and extremely troubling." The hacks at the NRCC didn't exactly get Guinta's back either, saying only that they're "continuing to evaluate this very complex situation."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/18/1385722/-Frank-Guinta-s-situation-worsens-as-his-fellow-Republicans-stuff-him-in-the-woodchipper?detail=twitter_sf
I read guinta's interview in the union leader a week ago. it was supposed to be sympathetic, and still he came off as a lying liar.
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