*This book, "Virtue Hoarders," from UC Irvine professor, Catherine Liu, is must reading. It is only about 90 pages and is more of a footnoted, well reasoned manifesto regarding what Barbara (and her husband John) Ehrenreich, in the 1980s, called the professional-managerial class (PMC). Liu nails so many things here, as people should just start with her introduction, as most of the book is available online here. I am a class traitor to the PMC most of my adult life. Liu has never made me more proud of that singular fact. An interview with her at Jacobin's YouTube site is here if you don't want to read. Liu also makes the case how the professional class is falling behind the managerial class, starting with adjunct professors who won't have the economic stability of tenured full time professors. I would add lawyers who work for law firms, and doctors working for large medical groups, or hospitals, won't make what their predecessors-owners have made, and yet suffer from crippling student debt. It is why the argument against canceling all student debt, and only some, misses the point. Even that $200K salaried doctor has big student debt from medical school (lawyers tend to have at least $150K from three years of $50K tuition at law school). That has kept these millennials far behind the boomers in wealth accumulation. All that the means test people have left is meanness, which is "Hey, you shouldn't have gone to law school or medical school, sucker!" Never mind it would be good for the economy. Such people only think lowering rich people's taxes is good for the economy.
*When you leave such people behind economically, and leave them to television and radio presentation and reenforcement of cultural resentments, this, the January 6th Capitol insurrection, is where such people tend to end up. This result is not much different than the effect from US foreign policy, from the 1950s forward, that undermined and destroyed early to mid--20th Century secular and leftist Pan-Arabism, leaving only the Ayatollahs to express human pain in the Middle East region. And we see how that worked out.
*It is part of the metaphorical sickness of the Failed States of America that we not only can't get employees in this nation a few sick leave mandated under law, but a guy like this putz Republican in Pennsylvania can think it wise to introduce a bill that would say to states and cities, "No federal aid if you mandate sick pay leave." Anyone who tells you that if we mandated three days of sick pay leave, meaning at least three days as a minimum, their business will fail either deserve to fail because they don't know how to run a business anyway, or is simply a liar. Yes, anyone who wants to debate this, I did have to run a payroll for nearly nine years as a synagogue president--and I not only gave people employed with us generous sick pay leave, but also raised their salaries fairly significantly over that time. And what happened? Did this little synagogue go broke? No, it is going strong even in the pandemic, and even with the usual turnover, and some unusual turnover of a new rabbi. To think McD's (really franchisees) can't give its employees sick pay leave is beyond ridiculous. And please don't tell me sop stories about the little corner business. They can do it, too. Oh, and here's the funniest argument: "I give sick pay, but I am not going to force my competitors who don't to do so." Really, how kindhearted for your asshole competitors. You must be in a union of business people. What do you call yourselves? Asshole Union Local 666?
* Joe Biden to minimum wage workers: I am not your president. Sorry. I only listen to the rich people. No federal minimum wage steps to $15 an hour, even though many states have already implemented such things. So, you may ask yourself, which states have not? Well, more than a few are states with high African-American populations, but not sufficient to get the changes themselves. Glad to see Joe fighting for the African-Americans he used to win South Carolina's Democratic Primary, and vanquish the only true champion for aggrieved minorities, Bernie Sanders. Oh, wait. I'm sorry. Do some of you watch MSNBC or CNN? I forgot. You think Bernie is a racist enabler or maybe a racist himself. Yeah, you're not manipulated. Not in the least. Why don't you vote for Elizabeth Warren again? LOL.
* Nancy Plousy needs the Republican Party to survive so corporate rich people grifter politicians such as Plousy and Schumer can keep down workers in America, and leave the workers to seething cultural resentments against each other, courtesy of our corporate owned media news outlets. So, is it any surprise that Nancy Plousy is so worried the Republicans may implode as a party? If it does, it will cause progressives and good hearted people to finally consider leaving the husk known as the national Democratic Party. Good heavens!
