Tuesday, April 30, 2024
Texas Voters Oppose Vouchers & Support Legal Abortion
The charts above are from the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation Poll -- done between April 5th and 10th of a nationwide sample of 1,600 likely Texas voters, with a 2.45 point margin of error.
Monday, April 29, 2024
No One Seems To Like The Current Congress
The chart above reflects the ratings on the YouGov Poll on April 22nd. They question 1,500 respondents each day, and the margin of error is about 4 points.
Thoughts On The Campus Protests
From Robert Reich:
Let’s be clear about a few things.
Antisemitism should have no place in America — not on college campuses or anywhere else.
But there is nothing inherently antisemitic about condemning the ongoing bloodshed in Gaza that has so far killed at least 34,000 people, mostly women and children.
Protesting this slaughter is not hate speech. It is what should be done on a college campus — taking a stand against a perceived wrong, at least provoking discussion and debate.
The mission of a university is to coach students how to learn, not tell them what to think. Peaceful demonstrations should be encouraged, not shut down. And having armed police arrest peaceful student demonstrators is never acceptable.
Sunday, April 28, 2024
Saturday, April 27, 2024
Public Opinion Of The Charges Against Donald Trump
The charts above are from the most recent CNN / SSRS Poll -- done between April 18th and 23rd of a nationwide sample of 1,212 adults, with a 3.4 point margin of error.
Has American Labor Really Turned A Corner?
The following is just part of an excellent post by Paul Krugman in The New York Times:
Why did unions decline? It’s tempting to assume that their diminishment was inevitable in the face of global competition and the falling share of manufacturing, their traditional stronghold, in employment. But other advanced economies are still strongly unionized — in Denmark and Sweden, for example, about two-thirds of workers are union members.
So what happened in America? The most plausible explanation is that beginning in the 1970s, employers became very aggressive in fighting unionization efforts and were empowered to do so by a political climate, especially after the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan, in which Republicans were hostile to organized labor while Democrats were at best weakly in support.
Some existing unions — most famously the air traffic controllers — were broken. More important, unionization didn’t spread as America increasingly became a service economy. There was and is no fundamental economic reason giant employers like Walmart or Amazon couldn’t be mostly unionized. But they became giants in an era when employers were effectively free to pull out all the stops in blocking and, in some cases, persecuting union organizers.
Which brings us to the current moment, which may be an inflection point.
Right now there are two forces bolstering workers’ bargaining position. One is a tight labor market: We’ve just experienced the longest stretch of unemployment below 4 percent since the 1960s. This tight labor market is probably the main reason we’ve seen an “unexpected compression” of wages in recent years, with earnings rising much faster at the bottom than at the top.
The other is a shift in the political climate. President Biden, who joined a U.A.W. picket line in Michigan last September, is arguably the most pro-labor president since Harry Truman. This involves more than gestures. On Tuesday, for example, the Federal Trade Commission issued a ban on most noncompete clauses, which prevent a company’s employees from taking jobs with rival businesses; such clauses currently cover, roughly, an astonishing 30 million workers and have been a major force reducing labor market competition.
There’s a reason, then, that Biden has been getting early and enthusiastic endorsements from major unions, including the U.A.W. in January and, this week, the Building Trades Unions, which represents about three million workers in the United States and Canada.
But has American labor really turned a corner? Unfortunately, it’s easy to see how recent progress could be reversed. For one thing, that tight labor market might not persist. So far, the Biden economy has shrugged off all those confident predictions of recession, but that won’t always be the case.
And Biden could, of course, lose in November — and although Donald Trump portrays himself as a populist, his record shows that he’s anti-union.
So we won’t know for a while whether things are actually looking up for American workers.
Friday, April 26, 2024
About 207,000 Workers Filed For Unemployment Last Week
The Labor Department released its weekly unemployment report on Thursday. It showed that about 207,000 workers filed for unemployment benefits in the week ending on April 20th. Here is the official Labor Department statement:
In the week ending April 20, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 207,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 212,000. The 4-week moving average was 213,250, a decrease of 1,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 214,500.
Government Is Violating First Amendment Rights
A couple of days ago, police in New York arrested peaceful demonstrators opposing Israel genocidal war on Gaza. Their only "crime" was sitting up tents with pro-Gaza signs. Yesterday, the Austin police did the same. They arrested over 50 people for demonstrating on the University of Texas campus in support of Gaza. Other cities have also arrested peaceful demonstrators.
These demonstrators were not rioting or threatening. They were simply trying to make their views known on a political situation. Isn't that guaranteed by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? The Constitution guarantees both free speech and the right to peacefully assemble. The arrests are a governmental denial of both of these rights.
Sadly, members of Congress are supporting this behavior (members of both parties). Their excuse is the claim they are fighting antisemitism. There are two things wrong with that argument.
First, opposing the actions of the government of Israel is not antisemitism. Real antisemitism is the threatening or intimidation of a person simply for being Jewish. It can be, and is, being fought. But these demonstrations are opposing the actions of a government and does not involve an attack on the people of the country. We don't see opposing the actions of the Russian government makes a person anti-Russian, or opposing the actions of the Chinese or North Korean government makes a person anti-Chinese or anti-Korean.
Second, even if a person or movement is anti-semitic, as long as they are not attacking or threatening a Jewish person, it should not be stopped by the government. It is offensive, but free speech often is. Our government allows racial hate speech from Ku Klux Klars and white militias, it allows anti homosexual and misogynist speech from evangelicals and others. Those are also offensive, but protected by the free speech part of the Constitution.
We are getting into dangerous territory when federal, state, or local governments act to stifle speech or the right to peacefully assemble. When it happens, it puts our democracy in danger. If one type of speech and assembly can be outlawed, then so can others.It is important that even offensive speech is protected. Citizens can oppose such offensive speech, but the government must never do so.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
Percentage Viewing Parties Favorably In Congress
The chart above reflects the results of the Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between April 21st and 23rd of a nationwide sample of 1,651 adults (including 1,470 registered voters). The margin of error was 3.3 points for adults and 3.2 points for registered voters.
Our Economy Is Unfair Because We Are Ruled By The Rich
Why do millions of Americans work full-time jobs for a wage that keeps them in poverty?
Why do working and middle class families struggle to keep up with inflation?
Why do over 50 major corporations make billions in profits, but pay no income taxes?
Why do the super-rich pay a smaller income tax rate than many middle class families?
Why are giant corporations allowed to control so much of the market that they can raise prices at will (regardless of already record-breaking profits)?
The answer to these, and other inequities, is really very simple? We are being ruled by the rich.
Most of the elected officials in Congress are millionaires (and a great many are multi-millionaires). They make the laws that govern our society. And as one would expect, millionaires make laws that benefit millionaires. And none-elected millionaires have the money to fund propaganda to support the laws made by elected millionaires.
This could be fixed, but it would be difficult. An overwhelming number of voters would have to demand that change. Anything less could be ignored by the ruling rich.
Anyone can run for Congress, but not anyone can afford to run for Congress. It takes a good deal of money to get a person known by the voting public, and more money to get their views know. And it takes money to be able to raise money. This puts a working or middle class person at a serious disadvantage, since a rich opponent can simply outspend them with their own money (or easily fund a money-raising campaign).
The answer is public funding of federal campaigns. All candidates should receive a certain amount of funding from the government to run, and no candidate should be allowed to spend more than that amount. And MAGA-donors or other outside groups should not be allowed to spend money campaigning for any candidate. This would put all candidate on an equal footing, and probably results in more working and middle class candidates being elected to Congress.
Also, the Citizens United decision by the Supreme Court must be overturned. That decision said money was speech, and allowed the rich to have more speech than anyone else.
We must have fair elections before we can have a fair economy. That will not be easy to accomplish. It will only happen when the voters demand it, and will only vote for those who will reform our election funding laws and support Supreme Court nominees who will overturn Citizens United.
Until this happens, we are destined to be ruled by the rich - to the detriment of everyone else.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Colleges Should Protect Free Speech And Academic Freedom
Here is Robert Reich's take on the situation (which I wholeheartedly agree with):
The most important thing I teach my students is to seek out people who disagree with them.
That’s because the essence of learning is testing one’s ideas, assumptions, and values. And what better place to test ideas, assumptions, and values than at a university?
Apparently, Columbia University’s president, Nemat Shafik, does not share my view. Last week she prostrated herself before House Republicans, promising that she would discipline professors and students for protesting the ongoing slaughter in Gaza in which some 34,000 people have died, most of them women and children.
The following day she summoned the New York City Police Department to arrest more than 100 students who were engaging in a peaceful protest against it.
Can we be clear about a few things? Protesting this slaughter is not expressing antisemitism. It is not engaging in hate speech. It is not endangering Jewish students. It is doing what should be done on a college campus — taking a stand against a perceived wrong, at least provoking discussion and debate.
Education is all about provocation. Without being provoked — stirred, unsettled, goaded — even young minds can remain stuck in old tracks.
Israel’s war on Hamas is horrifying. The atrocities committed by both sides illustrate the capacities of human beings for inhumanity and show the vile consequences of hate. For these reasons, it presents an opportunity for students to reexamine their preconceptions and learn from one another.
If Columbia, Yale, or any other university now roiled by student protests were doing what it should be doing, it would be a hotbed of discussion and debate about the war. Disagreement would be welcome; demonstrations, accepted; argument, invited; differences, examined and probed.
The mission of a university is to coach students how to learn, not tell them what to think. It is to invite debate, not suppress it. Truth is a process and method — more verb than noun.
I love it when my students take issue with something that I or another student has said, starting with “I disagree!” and then explaining why. Disagreeing is not being disagreeable. Disagreement engenders thought and discussion. It challenges students to reconsider their positions and probe more deeply.
Which is why universities should encourage it. Why they should protect unpopular views. Why they should invite and welcome speakers with views that rile many students. To be riled up is to be attentive, open to new ideas.
And why peaceful demonstrations should be encouraged, not shut down. It is never appropriate to call in armed police to arrest peaceful student demonstrators.
Finally, it’s why universities should go out of their way to tolerate expression that may make some people uncomfortable. To tar all offensive speech “hate speech” and ban it removes a central pillar of education. Of course it’s offensive. It is designed to offend.
There is a limit, of course. Expression that targets specific students, “doxes” them, or otherwise aims to hurt them as individuals doesn’t invite learning. It is a form of intimidation. It should not be allowed.
I’m old enough, and have been a professor long enough, to have seen campuses explode in rage — at bigots like George Wallace when he ran for president, at the horrors of the Vietnam War, at university investments in South Africa, and at efforts to prevent free speech.
Some of these protests were loud. Some caused inconvenience. Some protesters took over university buildings. But most were not violent. Nor did they seek to harm or intimidate individual students.
Whenever university presidents have brought in the police, and students have been arrested and suspended, all learning has stopped.
Which brings me to the central role of university faculties in protecting free expression on campus.
This role is especially critical now, when the jobs of university presidents and trustees have degenerated mainly into fundraising — often from wealthy alumni who have their own myopic views about what sorts of speech should be allowed and what should be barred.
The faculty of Columbia University has every right — and, in my view a duty — to protect peaceful free expression at Columbia with a vote of no confidence in Shafik’s leadership, and seek to end her presidency.
The Columbia faculty along with those of Yale, NYU, and other campuses now engulfed in protests against what is occurring in Gaza should do everything in their power to use the resulting provocations, inconveniences, and discomforts as occasions for learning rather than repression.
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Polls Are Still Trending Toward Biden - Away From Trump
The charts above reflect the results of the latest Marist Poll -- done between April 16th and 18th of a nationwide sample of 1,047 registered voters. The margin of error is 3.6 points.
Note that when the full field is polled, Kennedy takes more support from Trump than from Biden.
Democrats Should Not Join MTG's Effort To Oust The Speaker
There is a small extremist element in the Republican caucus in the House of Representatives who seem to enjoy creating chaos and using trouble. Although far from a majority in the GOP caucus, they were able to oust their own Speaker. They were able to do that because the Republicans have only a slim majority in the House, and knowing that Democrats would naturally vote against a GOP Speaker, they only needed a few GOP votes.
The result was weeks of chaos as Republicans could not agree on who the new Speaker should be. They finally settled on right-winger Mike Johnson. The extremists thought Johnson would go along with them. For the most part, he did. But to avoid a government shutdown, he negotiated a deal with Democrats. Now he has negotiated with Democrats again - this time to provide aid to Ukraine.
The extremists, led by Marjorie Taylor Greene (MTG), are not happy. They did not want Ukraine to get any new aid, and have been parroting Russian propaganda. Now MTG has filed a motion to vacate the Speakership, and is threatening to ask for a floor vote.
Democrats should not participate in this latest bit of crazy political theater.
I'm not saying the Democrats should vote for Speaker Johnson. He's not a good Speaker, and should not be celebrated for negotiating with Dems on a government shutdown avoidance or on aid to Ukraine. He was forced into doing both.
But Democrats shouldn't vote against him either. This is a Republican problem, and they should make the Republicans handle it.
Kicking the Speaker out would just result in more chaos, and it could be weeks before the House could do any business.
Democrats should just vote "present". If they do that, I expect most Republicans would vote against ousting the Speaker, and business could continue. It would also show the extremist wing of the GOP just how little power they actually have, and that would be good for both parties.
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