I saw the original post and for some reason, didn’t see the union part. I saw a message that said both parties support corporations. An hour or so later, I was reading back through and kicked myself for not reading more carefully. I interact with this site on my phone and it’s not very 60 year-old reader friendly.
It was too late to edit. I thought about making a new post to correct my error, but decided not to.
This is a good opportunity to clarify that I support unions. They’re definitely imperfect, but in this current corporate climate, they’re necessary.
I definitely support labor unions and thanks for clarifying that you also support labor unions.
So do I, but that's a recent development. Something to do with companies like Amazon, Walmart, etc.
0 Replies
edgarblythe
-1
Reply
Wed 9 Feb, 2022 09:57 pm
@Real Music,
That's what I figured, but was waiting for clarification.
Real Music wrote:
Quote:
I saw the original post and for some reason, didn’t see the union part. I saw a message that said both parties support corporations. An hour or so later, I was reading back through and kicked myself for not reading more carefully. I interact with this site on my phone and it’s not very 60 year-old reader friendly.
It was too late to edit. I thought about making a new post to correct my error, but decided not to.
This is a good opportunity to clarify that I support unions. They’re definitely imperfect, but in this current corporate climate, they’re necessary.
I definitely support labor unions and thanks for clarifying that you also support labor unions.
0 Replies
Real Music
-1
Reply
Tue 15 Feb, 2022 02:13 pm
Published: February 1, 2022
Quote:
Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan is trying to flip a Senate seat in a state that's turned more Republican in recent years. He's aiming to win over working-class voters that Trump himself relied on.
Transcript:
TAMARA KEITH, HOST:
There's a key Senate race in Ohio this year. The GOP field is crowded with candidates in the mold of former President Trump. On the Democratic side, the leading candidate is Congressman Tim Ryan, who's aiming to win over working-class voters that Trump himself relied on. But Ryan faces an uphill battle in a state that's become more Republican. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.
DON GONYEA, BYLINE: It's 9 in the morning, 22 degrees. I'm following Congressman Tim Ryan. He's got a busy day ahead - five stops. The first one here, just outside Columbus, is at the Carpenters Union Hall. Let's go inside.
(SOUNDBITE OF HAMMERS POUNDING)
GONYEA: Tim Ryan grew up in the Youngstown area, so union halls are a second home to him, but he can't take support in a place like this for granted. Ryan chats up a group of carpenter apprentices, first about jobs. But almost immediately, the conversation turns to football. That's because Joe Burrow, who played high school ball about an hour from here, is the quarterback for the Super Bowl-bound Cincinnati Bengals.
TIM RYAN: Long way to go. The thing about him, though - he can get sacked five times, and he's still standing.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: He can still win a game. Jesus.
RYAN: It's unbelievable. Where are you guys working?
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: I'm out there at Facebook.
GONYEA: The talk goes back and forth, football and jobs.
RYAN: Well, I'll let you guys get back - appreciate it. You guys take care. Thank you.
GONYEA: Thirty-three-year-old carpenter Jamel Kendrick was in the group. He admits he doesn't know much about Ryan.
JAMEL KENDRICK: We're getting plenty of work. I just want to make sure that the work just stays. Columbus is doing a lot of growing right now. Maybe with Mr. - I'm sorry. What was his name?
GONYEA: Ryan.
KENDRICK: Mr. Ryan. Hopefully, he can go ahead and push some of that things (ph) forward and keep us working and, you know, keep us happy.
GONYEA: Kendrick is an independent voter. He backed Joe Biden but says he did consider voting Trump for economic reasons. It's voters like this that Ryan needs, and it's why he spends so much time talking about jobs.
Ryan travels in a maroon GMC pickup truck with a few aides. Next stop is a company that makes clay roof tiles, then to the river town of McConnelsville for a small meet-and-greet and late lunch at the Chatterbox Tavern.
RYAN: This is a mushroom burger with hot peppers on it. Well, they're not hot. They're banana peppers. Mushroom, provolone - oh, my.
GONYEA: There was talk here of how stretched basic city services are and how getting broadband would give this town a boost. Next, another 60-mile trek to the city of Marietta and the offices of the local Democratic Party. It was packed as Ryan spoke.
RYAN: And we've had a lot of economic policy decisions that have been made for the last 30 or 40 years that have wrecked the middle class - the trade deals, the outsourcing, then automation, all of these things. And nobody cared. Nobody cared.
GONYEA: And he said politicians of both parties were to blame. A union equipment operator named Heath Stevens was in the back nodding in agreement. A Democrat, he said he wished his Republican coworkers would hear what Ryan's got to say. It's frustrating, he says.
HEATH STEVENS: It's hard for me to see why some people wouldn't vote for him. But, you know, some guys I work with will never hear his name and will never get to hear him talk to a crowd.
GONYEA: Ryan said that's why he's in places where Democrats don't usually go. There is a template for the kind of jobs-focused campaign Ryan is running. Three-term Senator Sherrod Brown is a Democrat who's found continued success in Ohio even as the state turns more red.
RYAN: Sherrod Brown is an economic Ohio Democrat, and so am I.
GONYEA: Ryan stresses he's ready to pick fights with anyone, even Democrats. There is evidence in his longshot bid to challenge Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader back in 2016. He also makes it clear that despite his strong support for President Biden's economic agenda, he won't be seeking Biden's help campaigning.
RYAN: I don't need proxies. I don't need anyone to help me. I don't need, you know, someone to come campaign for me. I can handle this myself.
GONYEA: The next morning, Ryan walked into a coffee shop on the Ohio River in Meigs County. The center tables were already filled with local citizens, all Democrats in a county Trump carried 3 to 1. The talk was familiar.
RYAN: It always gets back to broadband infrastructure, skills, education, you know?
GONYEA: Ryan has a long chat with a woman seated over in the corner. Her name is Lynsi McKinney, a stay-at-home mom with three kids. She told me they talked about the economy, and she liked what she heard. She says she's a Republican, but...
LYNSI MCKINNEY: I am going to vote for whoever I believe is going to do right by my family and my friends.
GONYEA: She did vote for Donald Trump, but she says she does not like Trump's obsession with the 2020 result, nor does she believe the election was stolen.
MCKINNEY: Going back and counting the votes, I think that everybody did their best to make sure that it was fair and all of the votes were counted correctly. So I don't know.
GONYEA: But she still likes Trump, and if he endorses one of the Republicans running for Senate in Ohio, that would be a plus for her. It's a reminder of how big a task Tim Ryan has in trying to win votes in these Trump strongholds.
Dan Balz, Robert Gibbes, and Victoria DeFrancesco Soto join Andrea Mitchell to discuss the Democratic party's struggle to reach voters in rural areas.
“You can’t just show up a couple of weeks before an election and expect to get that group's support. You need to be there in the long term, you need to connect with them, engage with them, listen to them, not just tell them what they should do and what is good for them, but be there consistently and that’s how you win the vote,” says DeFrancesco Soto.
Published: Nov 8, 2021
0 Replies
Real Music
2
Reply
Wed 16 Feb, 2022 11:27 pm
Published: November 1, 2018
Transcript:
Interviewer: Welcome Columbus and Clipper stay in at Huntington Stadium. Give me your number one moment as a player and your number one moment as a fan.
Senator Sherrod Brown: Pitching two no-hitters in a row in little league. As a fan, it had to be the 2016 World Series with Connie and my children and my daughters. When Rajai Davis hit a two-run homer and then the rain delay came and the world went to hell. The Indians lost to next earnings and Hillary lost the election but of the same week. Oh well.
Interviewer: Several of your colleagues in states that President Trump won comfortably are in trouble this election year. You're in one of those states but you're not in trouble. Explain that.
Senator Sherrod Brown: I don't look at voters as Trump voters or Clinton voters. I don't look at workers or white, black, white workers or black workers. I talk about workers and I think in the end, it's whose side are you on? And I urge my colleagues always, and I hope if there's there are Democratic majorities whenever there are next year or beyond, that we really do focus on the dignity of work. And that is that it's making sure that people who work get up every day, work hard, play by the rules, have a decent standard of living. That their that their wages go up, that their health care benefits are adequate, that they have some retirement, and that we have to at the same time make sure we keep healthcare costs down. And we're not there's no interest in doing that in Washington. Now their interest is more tax cuts for the rich. More cuts in Medicare. That's morally reprehensible and it's bad economics and they all should be ashamed of themselves for that.
Interviewer: Now one thing that distinguishes you from your Democratic colleagues is that you have affirmatively worked with Trump on a major policy issue. I'm talking about trade. Every recent president in both parties and every economist that I talked to have said that for example, tariff policies make no sense economically. That they cost more jobs then they save. Why are you with him on that issue?
Senator Sherrod Brown: Well respectfully you need to talk to a wider swath of economists. I think you got a you got a spool back and economists don't do this. Because economists have often have a pretty cloistered existence in their lives. If you drive through the industrial Midwest and in you know Central Valley of California too, you will see example after example of how a company shut down production in Mansfield, my hometown. Or, or Toledo. Or Dayton. Moved overseas, build a plant there and collected a tax break to do it because our tax and trade policy has played into that for decades. And no president was willing to address it. Tariffs are a temporary enforcement tool. They're not a long-term trade policy. I would've done it differently from the president. I would not have called it a trade war. I would have explained to the American public what in fact he was doing for the end outcome to deal with Chinese cheating basically. I would have aimed our tariffs not at our allies, Canada in Western Europe.
Interviewer: Isn't the lesson of the modern world that is continuously in one direction that is toward the freer movement of people and capital and aren't you basically trying to make water flow uphill?
Senator Sherrod Brown: The laws of economics haven't worked for much of this country in terms of industrial jobs, in terms of working class people, regardless of race. It's easy for a professor to preach that. It's maybe even a little fun for the media to echo that. But the fact is that...
Interviewer: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama share your values.
Senator Sherrod Brown: They were wrong. They were, They've share my values. I share their values. They were wrong on trade.
Interviewer: When you have presidents of both parties, one party that's more fundamentally close to business the other close to labor, it tells me that when those Democratic presidents get in and have responsibility for the nation, they see that for the nation as a whole expanded trade is good.
Senator Sherrod Brown: Well if both presidents of each party are in the same place, does that justify the Vietnam War? I mean I don't think because presidents in both parties were in the same place that makes a good policy. You think trade has nothing to do with the fact that the one-percent are getting richer, and richer, and richer? In this country you're seeing, you're seeing profits go up. You're seeing executive compensation can go up sharply. You're seeing productivity go up and wages are flat. A big part of the reason wages are flat is because we have not done globalization well. We've, we've not taken care of people who have lost their jobs. We have not fought for labor rights and environmental rights. In this country, we... I wear this pen. It's a depiction of canary in a birdcage. It was given to me to workers Memorial Day. It symbolizes the mine worker and the canary. But it symbolizes the role of government to help middle-class people and to build and to create and build a middle-class.
Interviewer: White House just put out a report the other day attacking socialism and linking Democrats and Democratic proposals to socialism. Is it a dirty word?
Senator Sherrod Brown: It's a political calculation that's poll tested by Karl Rove and whoever is the new Karl Rove in the Republican Party. It's pretty meaningless in terms of the way we do our jobs. I mean I want government on the side of the public. I want, I want to government to respect the dignity of work and advocate for workers. I don't really care about labels. I never look left to right.
Interviewer: You're not scare of that world?
Senator Sherrod Brown: No, I'm not. I don't, I don't think voters think about that stuff. You stand for workers. You stand. It's who's back do you have. It's who whom do you fight for and what you fight against.
Interviewer: Is a medicare-for-all socialism?
Senator Sherrod Brown: No. I mean Medicare. I think the better the better way to do health care is to allow, and I've worked on this for years, to allow Medicare buy-in at 55. Look who's most hurt by and who is most vulnerable health car. It's a 58 or a 61 year old man or woman in Dayton, who has lost her job because her plant closed. She's 58. She can't find insurance and it's a point in her life when her health is getting bad, especially she worked construction, or in a factory, or worked in a diner, or worked in a hair salon and was on her feet all day. And you, um, that's when they need Medicare.
Interviewer: Is that still what you're for?
Senator Sherrod Brown: Absolutely.
Interviewer: Buying in at 55?
Senator Sherrod Brown: Absolutely.
Interviewer: Not Medicare for all?
Senator Sherrod Brown: I have not all co-sponsor. I don't oppose Medicare for all. But, I don't think we get there now. I think what we do is we do Medicare at 55. Allow, it's voluntary. It's a buy-in. You can do it fiscally responsible and give that 58 year old laid off woman in Zanesville, Ohio a chance to buy into Medicare at a reasonable price at that age.
Interviewer: One of the things, reasons I asked the question about socialism is, there does seem to have been a shift in the democratic debate. When Obama was president one of his aides told me one time, we weren't allowed to use the word redistribution. Even though things like Obamacare did redistribute money from people who pay taxes for it to people who got benefits. You, Senator Harris, and others have proposed major redistribution of money to people through the Earned Income Tax Credit or other vehicles. Is that something that you see is now politically salable? and why is that?
Senator Sherrod Brown: I always have. I, I mean the, the real masters of redistribution are Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, who redistribute income up. That's their mean.That's the what they do. They have they have taken a tax system.
Interviewer: Understood but it's proven easier to do that by cutting someone's taxes than by writing having government write a check to someone. That's just been the political reality.
Senator Sherrod Brown: That's, that's, their political reality. I'm surprised you buy into it, John.
Interviewer: Well no, no. That, what I'm saying is, that has proven politically, more politically achievable.
Senator Sherrod Brown: Well, it's politically achievable because of the people, that, I mean because Washington is rigged in the sense that you can always give a tax. Washington can always pass a tax cut for rich people because who are most members of Congress? Many, many, many of them are millionaires. Who are most who are most lobbyists? That, who, were, where is the lobbying. As, as you may know John, there aren't a lot of people walking around the halls of Congress that are advocating for workers in the local diner in Garfield Heights. They're advocating for the big cub, the big power companies, and the big, to the big drug companies and in Wall Street
Interviewer: But do you think the table is set politically for Democrats to embrace in a full-throated way that kind of my distribution?
Senator Sherrod Brown: My, I, don't think of it in terms of you used the word redistribution. To me, it's, it's fairness you know people, people that work in a diner, people that cut hair, or people that work construction, they work every bit as hard as you doing I do and they get so little to show for it. And they have a government that's not on their side so often. And I don't call that redistribution. I call it justice. I call it fairness. It's what our government should be.
Interviewer: Senator Warren has a proposal to do that more indirectly requiring as a condition of corporate charter, worker representation on corporate boards. Which would not require government outlays. What do you think of that idea.
Senator Sherrod Brown: That's fine. I, I, I support anything that gets us there. I also have a bill, that I didn't present to the president, called the Freeloader Fee Act and that says when a company—that's got not a not a diner, with 50, with 30 or 40 employees, but a big company of over X number of people— have when they pay so little that their workers are eligible for Medicaid, food stamps, housing vouchers and earned income tax credit, that they should pay a freeloader fee. They should reimburse taxpayers for their low wages. A company that, that is making a lot of money their executives are making six, eight, ten million dollars a year, their workers are paid so little that government subsidizes their workers. Those companies should have to pay a penalty for that.
1. Senator Sherrod Brown is another democrat that democrats can learn from.
2. Congressman Tim Ryan and Senator Sherrod Brown are two democrats who know how to talk to people, how to relate to people, how to campaign, and have a strong compelling winning message for this upcoming midterm election.
3. This can and should be duplicated by other democrats (all over) the nation.
4. That includes the US Senate, the House of Representative, Governor races, State legislator races, and city legislator races, in this upcoming midterm election.
I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place, for this thread, because Democrats are politically correct, due to their recognition of central government's symbiosis with capitalism, but, the link doesn't still warrant the ignorance of categorization.
To be a referencer - which is what I'm good at - I'm happy with this comment
0 Replies
Real Music
2
Reply
Sun 3 Apr, 2022 12:03 am
@Lash,
VICTORY FOR AMAZON WORKERS
For the very first time, workers of the Amazon Labor Union were successful in organizing a union at an
Amazon facility. I congratulate them on their extraordinary victory. I believe it's going to be a shot
in the arm for this country's labor movement.
Joe Biden speaks with union members from around the U.S.
about their experiences.
Published August 20, 2020
0 Replies
Lash
-2
Reply
Sun 3 Apr, 2022 04:47 am
@Real Music,
This was incredibly good news for the Amazon workers.
AOC had promised the guy who organized the union she’d show up at a few events, and support them on social media—and she totally ghosted him.
I wonder what they do to you to make you turn your back on your dignity and integrity once you get in Congress.
1. I totally agree that this is incredibly good news for the Amazon workers.
2. I fully support Unions.
3. I fully support Joe Biden.
4. I fully support democrat Senator Sherrod Brown.
5. I fully support democrat Congressman Tim Ryan.
6. I fully support AOC.
7. I fully support the Democratic party.
0 Replies
Real Music
1
Reply
Sun 3 Apr, 2022 09:42 am
Rep. AOC on Automation, Unionization, and Workplace Surveillance
On Wednesday, November 3, 2021, the Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in
Growth held a hearing entitled “Our Changing Economy: The Economic Effects of Technological
Innovation, Automation and the Future of Work.” Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez highlights how
several unions have proved that automation does not need to lead to elimination of positions. For
example, after the United States automated our manufacturing sector in response to Japanese
competition, the United Auto Workers Union negotiated higher wages and kept the same number of
workers — leading to skyrocketing productivity. Her questioning also reveals how workplace
surveillance, a byproduct of technological innovation, has allowed employers to exploit workers.
Published Nov 5, 2021
0 Replies
Real Music
2
Reply
Wed 6 Apr, 2022 11:17 pm
Joe Biden delivers pro-Labor message at Union Conference
Apr 6, 2022 On Wednesday, President Joe Biden addressed a packed meeting
of the North American Building Trades Union at a moment when organized labor
is on a roll: “Amazon, here we come. Watch.”
0 Replies
Real Music
3
Reply
Wed 6 Apr, 2022 11:27 pm
Gen Z is driving the Starbucks unionization movement.
Nearly 150 Starbucks stores nationwide have filed for a union election
since the first store in Buffalo filed last December.
Published Apr 1, 2022
0 Replies
Real Music
1
Reply
Sun 17 Apr, 2022 05:50 pm
Biden, Democrats trending in wrong direction among Hispanic Voters.
Steve Kornacki breaks down new polling that shows President Biden and
Democrats losing ground among Hispanic voters.
Published Apr 15, 2022
0 Replies
Real Music
1
Reply
Wed 4 May, 2022 10:44 pm
Democrat lands (upset victory) over controversial Republican for state House’s 74th District in Kent County.
Published: May 3, 2022
Quote:
WALKER, MI – For the first time in nearly three decades, a Democrat will represent the state House’s 74th District located in Kent County.
Democrat Carol Glanville won the seat during a special election Tuesday, May 3, taking 7,288 of 14,102 votes, or about 51.7%, according to the unofficial results from the Kent County Clerk’s Office.
“West Michigan values of integrity, decency, and care for the common good won tonight,” Glanville wrote on Facebook, declaring victory. “Our campaign has truly been inspired by the outpouring of support received from all walks of life and political beliefs. The people of the 74th District have spoken, and I hear you. We are united in fundamental ways, and I will take our values and concerns to the Capitol to affect positive change for the people of Michigan. Thank you, and let’s get to work!”
The partial term for the vacant 74th District seat soon held by Glanville ends Jan. 1, 2023.
Controversial Republican Robert Regan took 5,697 votes, or about 40.4% of the vote, and the write-in category saw 1,117 votes, or about 7.9% of the total.
Mike Milanowski, a Republican, was the only qualified write-in candidate. How many of the write-in votes went to him won’t be known until Kent County certifies the election results.
Republicans were favored to take the district, as Republicans have held the seat since 1993.
However, the Republican primary winner, Regan, drew controversy and national attention in March after drawing a comparison between accepting the 2020 presidential election results with enjoying unavoidable rape. Regan said he believes the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump.
Regan previously told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press the rape analogy was meant to highlight the need to fight back in a seemingly inevitable situation.
Those comments, as well as his stance on the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, drew condemnation across party lines. He said Ukraine shares blame and that he wasn’t ready to condemn Russia for the invasion.
Milanowski said Regan’s comments were a large part of why he decided to run as a write-in, as he couldn’t support either Regan or Glanville.
The state House’s 74th District was left open by state Sen. Mark Huizenga, R-Walker, who vacated the seat after winning the Nov. 3, 2021, special election to fill the vacant 28th state Senate District seat.
Glanville’s term in the state House will be short-lived, as she’ll finish out the remainder of Huizenga’s term, which ends Jan. 1, 2023.
Because of redistricting, new districts are in play for the August primary and November general election.
All three candidates are running in the August primary for the new 84th state House District.
The new 84th State House District includes Grand Rapids’ West Side and the northern portion of downtown as well as Walker and Grandville.
Biden poll numbers tick up, GOP loses lead in generic Congressional ballot
President Biden's approval numbers have ticked up from 37 to 42 percent in new
Washington Post/ABC News polling. Also, Republicans have lost ground in a generic
congressional ballot.
