Originally published at: A Labor Day Call for Action From the States
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. Last week the White House staged a pre-Labor Day Cabinet meeting to celebrate the administration’s supposed victories for American workers. Cabinet members took turns offering fawning, sycophantic praise of their boss in a display of precisely the workplace dynamics the labor movement…
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I’m in a Red State, Ohio, I just signed a petition yesterday to keep home rule in my blue city, Columbus, so that the legislature can’t override the protections our city makes for its citizens. People are finally seeing that everything IS in fact local and we need to protect that or lose even more than we have already.
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The only time CF-DJT has ever complimented a worker: “Young lady, Jeff is great guy, you are lucky to be working for him.”
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This sounds good, and I will pass it along to the state’s AG! Ever since Trump returned to the White House and began turning it into the Tasteless Gilt House, the Democratic AGs have been meeting (weekly, I thnk) to coordinate their responses to his latest dictatorial nonsense.
They could help coordinate a labor protection program as described!
The Congressional representatives, state legislators, and even city councilors ought to get in on this, too. Thanks!
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I just wish Trump and the GOP would admit what they really want. To bring back slavery.
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“Like alcoholism, sycophancy is an addiction. An alcoholic looks for booze to drink. A ‘bootlicker’ looks for ‘boots’ to ‘lick’.” – Vikram Karve
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Imagine if a dozen states simultaneously introduced bills to enact workplace heat protections, ban non-compete agreements, guarantee unemployment benefits to striking workers, or make wage theft a felony.
- Imagine if a dozen states, in harmony, sang a bar of Alice’s Restaurant.
- Hell yes, wage theft oughta be a felony.
- If the Bible-thumper types can actually open up the thing and read it, they’ll discover that the Lord has definite opinions on the topic of depriving the worker of his just wage.
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Maybe they plan to redo the Smithsonian history exhibits to promote that message: Slavery! You’ll Love It! It’s Great for Everybody!
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And deny women the vote.
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They are focused on creating a sort of “no-fault” slavery … actually a no-blame for the “owner” … and all blame goes on the enslaved individual for getting themselves in the situation.
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you came here “illegally” … or you were living here under a program with a path to citizenship - but that got suddenly canceled - so not we call you “criminal”
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you get embroiled in a minor / questionable case - hit with some exorbitant bail - perked around in some for- profit detention hell & “rented out” as cheap labor.
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It is far sicker than that - it is all about the sheer madness of absolutist total opposition to anything- anything - that in any way might encumber the easy and swift acquisition of any and all firearms !
The maniacally volatile gun lobby / cult has dialed itself up to maximum irrational in their hair trigger reaction to even the most reasonable and commonsense firearms safety steps. Simple, basic rational precautions are attacked viciously and treated as some sort of conspiracy.
And that is the massively repugnant wretchedness of this situation - the strident gun cultists will tolerate NO - not even commonsense- steps / precautions that might inconvenience them - might in any way add any checks or steps into their unfettered access to weapons.
That is the aspect that should induce vomiting - that people are getting killed - because the gun industry / cultists just irrationally cannot tolerate anything that might present an “inconvenience” … REGARDLESS of the merits - - because make no mistake about this - they simply DO NOT consider the merit or the facts - it is simply an emphatic, blind loyalty to guns - NO!
It isn’t about “banning” guns - it is that they won’t even discuss “precautions” !
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Isn’t that the case now, with the roundup of “illegals” at businesses? The workers get arrested, but nothing happens to the business owner?
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Certainly someone is pondering adding additional charges to the workers… then putting them in orange jumpsuits and putting them back in a laboring setting - to work to make repayments for their “crimes”… and to apologize to those poor business owners for deceiving them into using “illegals”
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How will you pass it on? I’m all for you and I’m sure most readers on. Share you plan!
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This is one of the best ideas I have heard and I’m sorry I didn’t think of it myself…in such granularity. Thank you guys. To carry that idea forward, the blue state governors should be meeting weekly to divine a plan they will use to roll it out to the media…all at once for max coverage and then a plan for keeping it above the fold.
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Any evidence of the big rally/protest march that was nationally planned for today? The store was mobbed, so those folks definitely didn’t attend.
If there were any major anti-Trump rallies today, they didn’t break through to CNN or NYT coverage.