Andy Kroll at Rolling Stone reports on "How Joe Manchin Knifed the Democrats -- and Bailed on Saving Democracy," and even though I'm tempted to say we did kinda see all this happening in real time, it's still good to have the whole story of how Joe Manchin prevented Democrats from passing voting rights reforms in one place. Long story short: Democrats gave him everything he wanted, had every reason to believe they had a deal with him -- and he still betrayed them and, more pertinently, us. I've said this before and I'll say it again: whereas the story of 2009-10 had the entire party as the villain, the story of 2021-22 has Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as the villains, and that fact will help Democrats at the polls this November.
OSHA data tells us that Amazon warehouses employed 33 percent of all warehouse workers in 2021, but was responsible for nearly half of all warehouse injuries. Also, warehouse injuries jumped 20% at Amazon from 2020 (when they were trying to appear to be on their best behavior, for obvious reasons) to 2021. Also, their serious injury rate is about double that of other warehouses, all because they all think they're engineers and their underlings are mere tools. No wonder they're starting to have some success in unionizing! Regardless of what right-wingers try to tell you, this is the kind of shit people are really tired of. Also too, do we really need that Doctor Who DVD the day after we order it?
Big clothing corporations garner a sizable part of their revenue from credit cards, and "revenue" too often means "usurious late fees and interest rates. Aside from the experience most folks have -- that credit cards are, in the end, usually a burden rather than a boon -- retail workers in this field hate being forced to push credit cards upon customers, sometimes at the rate of one every four customers (at American Eagle). The "rewards" for getting more credit card applications than your co-workers range from a gift card to a stick of gum -- not, you know, health care benefits or comp time or higher pay! All this so that big corporate executives can continue to make a crap-ton of money for doing as little work as possible.
I think too many of us are misconstruing Sen. Charles Grassley's remarks at a Waukon, IA town hall earlier this week -- he didn't actually say he'd vote against repealing the Affordable Care Act; he's probably just saying Republicans won't have a two-thirds majority in House and Senate in 2023, which is the only way Republicans could get a repeal done (since President Biden would veto a repeal effort). Sen. Grassley may well regret actually meeting voters if he's going to get questions like that, though. I mean, "voted to repeal Obamacare 16 times" sure sounds like an attack ad. That's a suggestion, Admiral Franken.
Amanda Carpenter at The Bulwark laments that Pennsylvania Republicans will nominate an election conspiracist for Governor in 2022. And that is profoundly disappointing; I'd hoped Dan Laughlin would at least make me feel bad for voting against him. Instead, we have the guy who bussed people to the January 6 attempted coup, the former U.S. Attorney who's tried to have the stolen election myth both ways, the hanger-on who became an "alternate elector" and demanded a "full forensic audit," and the state Senator who has let the Trumpholes completely cow him. Oh, and Dave White, he of the ad that compares Democrats who criticize his election conspiracy-mongering to crying babies. Of course people like Dave White are the real crybabies, but any of them could win if Josh Shapiro gets complacent the way Democrats do.
Finally, when I hear that "conservatives feel blamed, shamed and ostracized by the media," I'm tempted to say good! It's finally working! Of course, I don't think any of the folks quoted in the article are "conservatives"; I think they're reactionary rageheads. But after 20 years of you hate America and you're a traitor and you're with the terrorists and you're a socialist and you're a Communist and you're the real racist and you're a groomer, they should get down on their knees and thank the Lord that "I’m just done with dealing with people like you" is the worst they get from their friends and co-workers. And their attitude toward our media is worse! Our "liberal" media patronized these fools for decades until Donald Trump finally made doing that toxic, and right-wingers complained about media "bias" "against" them the whole time! And seriously, if right-wingers think they have it bad in America because they can't "be themselves" in the break room, they should try being an anti-war protestor in Russia.
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