Month: January 2016

Avenging angel
by Tom Sullivan

We called him “Rumor Control.” He was the guy in the office who periodically ducked into your cubical to say with a conspiratorial whisper, “Keep your head down and look busy. They’re talking about a layoff.” Oh, and if you ever needed a good deal on a used Camaro, he could fix you up. (I never tested that.)

One other signal that you’d better update your résumé is when the phrase “shareholder value” is heard in the hallway or in a meeting. When shareholders get restless, employees become even more than normally disposable. Making employees disposable never appears in the mission statement. It’s implied.

Shannon Liss-Riordan has an ear for those euphemisms too. From her Boston law office, the “avenging angel for workers” dubbed “Sledgehammer Shannon” brings class-action lawsuits on behalf of bartenders, cashiers, truck drivers, and baristas against firms pursuing creative ways to enhance shareholder value by disposing of employees altogether. Liss-Riordan is taking on Uber, Lyft and several other on-demand services who make their money by classifying employees as independent contractors or micro-entrepreneurs. Mother Jones has a profile worth reading:

In August 2013, Liss-Riordan filed a class-action lawsuit in a federal court in San Francisco, where Uber is based. Her argument hinged on California law, which classifies workers as employees if their tasks are central to a business and are substantially controlled by their employer. Under that principle, the lawsuit says, Uber drivers are clearly employees, not contractors. “Uber is in the business of providing car service to customers,” notes the complaint. “Without the drivers, Uber’s business would not exist.” The suit also alleges that Uber manipulates the prices of rides by telling customers that tips are included—but then keeps a chunk of the built-in tips rather than remitting them fully to drivers. The case calls for Uber to pay back its drivers for their lost tips and expenses, plus interest.

Uber jumped into gear, bringing on lawyer Ted Boutrous, who had successfully represented Walmart before the Supreme Court in the largest employment class action in US history. Uber tried to get the case thrown out, arguing that its business is technology, not transportation. The drivers, the company contended, were independent businesses, and the Uber app was simply a “lead generation platform” for connecting them with customers.

Techspeak aside, Liss-Riordan has heard all this before. When she litigated similar cases on behalf of cleaning workers, the cleaning companies claimed they were simply connecting broom-pushing “independent franchises” with customers. When she won several landmark cases brought by exotic dancers who had been misclassified as contractors, the strip clubs argued that they were “bars where you happen to have naked women dancing,” Liss-Riordan recounts with a wry smile. “The court said, ‘No. People come to your bar because of that entertainment. Adult entertainment. That’s your business.'”

From the corporations’ perspective, they are the exploiter. You are the exploitee. There’s a place for everyone in the new gig economy. Know your place.

Lead generation platform. That’s a euphemism worthy of Washington.

*This post will remain at the top of the page for a while. Please scroll down for newer material.

A cup of kindness

by digby

Just wanted to give a final thank you to all of my wonderful readers who donated to the annual holiday fundraiser. I can’t tell you how grateful I am to all of you.

Just remember, for every dollar you contribute, a right winger gets his wings clipped …

Happy New Year everyone!

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Kids today …

by digby

Because you need this:

Carving one’s own path in life is never as easy as staying in one place, but even the least motivated of kids must move on eventually.

That’s a harsh truth one particularly lazy young penguin , named Snow Chick, is having a hard time accepting. Despite being far too large to fit comfortably in his father’s pouch, where he was kept warm after hatching, he still refuses to leave — burdening his parent like a fluffy feathered freeloader.

A list of books that would make Stephen King run for cover

by digby

Here they are.  Don’t read them when you’re alone in the dark:

‘Crippled America: How to Make America Great Again’ by Donald J. Trump

Donald Trump sets out his vision for the country in slightly more detail than he has revealed, perhaps, at his numerous campaign events. Trump tackles topics such as job creation, education, Obamacare, and domestic infrastructure. As the GOP candidate himself writes in the introduction, “This book is designed to give the reader a better understanding of me and my ideas for our future.”

‘Stealing America: What My Experience with Criminal Gangs Taught Me about Obama, Hillary, and the Democratic Party’by Dinesh D’Souza

In 2014, conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza was sentenced to 8 months in a state-run confinement center. While incarcerated, he was given a first-hand education in the ways of America’s criminal underclass; after his release, D’Souza realized that liberals and the Democratic party operate in much the same way as criminal gangs. In “Stealing America,” D’Souza exposes the thuggish con that is modern liberalism.

‘Plunder and Deceit’ by Mark Levin

This book spent 8 weeks on the NYT best-sellers list and was at the number-one spot for 5 of those weeks, and this will come as no surprise when reading it. Levin’s latest book is a rousing call to action for young people in America to resist the rise of the Big Brother state, and to reaffirm the small government principles inherent to the Constitution.

‘Government Zero: No Borders, No Language, No Culture’ by Michael Savage

In “Government Zero,” Michael Savage sounds the alarm over the unholy, albeit unintentional, alliance between progressives and radical Islamists, both of whom are working to undermine Western civilization as we know it. Progressives and radical Islamists have different reasons for their full frontal assaults on our border, language, and culture, but the result is the same. Government Zero: absolute government and zero representation.

‘Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country into a Third World Hellhole’ by Ann Coulter

Coulter’s “Adios, America” spent 11 weeks on the NYT best-sellers list and is a sobering wake-up call about the issue of immigration, the one issue Coulter explains is more important than all others. She not only shows how, since the 1965 Immigration Act, the Democrats have viewed immigration reform as their means to a permanent majority (and how with amnesty they’d get that majority), but also how Republican consultants and businessmen make a killing from the mass immigration they claim to be against.

A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America by Ted Cruz

One part biography, one part indictment of the corruption within the Washington Cartel — that evil axis of Democrats, establishment Republicans, and lobbyists — “A Time for Truth” is 100 percent Ted Cruz. With intelligence, humor, and honesty, Cruz details his life story, from kid to Congress, and lifts the lid on the backroom deals and dubious handshakes that fuel business-as-usual in Washington.

‘Last Act: The Final Years and Emerging Legacy of Ronald Reagan’ by Craig Shirley

Craig Shirley’s “Last Act” tells the story of Reagan’s final years and cements the author’s place as today’s foremost Reagan biographer. Extensive, affectionate, and at times very moving, the book shines a much-needed light on the last few chapters of Reagan’s life story, and is an eloquent tribute and testament to one of the most beloved presidents in American history.

‘Unlikeable: The Problem with Hillary’ by Edward Klein

Investigative reporter Edward Klein offers a powerful and damning expose of Hillary Clinton. Drawing on extensive interviews with close associates of the Clintons as well as the Obamas, Klein paints a disconcerting portrait of a desperately power-hungry woman whose biggest barrier to that power has been her own unlikeability. With details about the horrendous way she treats her staff, a swear word-laden screaming match with Obama, and the hilariously awkward instance in which she underwent “charm training” with Steven Spielberg, “Unlikeable” will be loved by those looking for a more honest portrait of the woman who wants to be our next president.

‘Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires & Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America’s Best & Brightest Workers’ by Michelle Malkin and John Miano

Michelle Malkin exposes common media myths surrounding immigration and reveals the ways in which high-skilled American workers are being pushed out of jobs by foreign labor. Malkin shows how — with a nod and a wink from their pals in Washington — high-tech billionaires use things like the H-1B visa to replace more expensive American workers with cheaper, foreign alternatives.

The Silencing: How the Left is Killing Free Speech in America’ by Kirsten Powers

Kirsten Powers is no conservative, but even she’s had enough of the Left’s war on free speech in America. In “The Silencing,” lifelong liberal Powers examines the various ways in which the Left silences the speech of those with which it disagrees, and asks when exactly did the self-proclaimed champions of free speech and tolerance become so intolerant of other people’s free speech.

‘Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich’ by Peter Schweitzer

Forget Whitewater, Benghazi, and private email servers. In the best-selling “Clinton Cash,” Peter Schweitzer details what appears to be a troubling pattern by the Clintons of peddling influence for financial gain. One large contribution to the Clinton Foundation followed by a favorable political outcome for the contributor may be coincidence, but for this to happen again and again sounds like corruption plain and simple. Schweitzer uncovers a series of incidents in which the then-secretary of state appeared to use her power and influence to help Clinton friends and donors.

These “reviews” were compiled by someone at Laura Ingraham’s site Lifezette. You can look it up if you really care…

Someone should alert the media

by digby

Not that the wingnuts would believe this. As far as they’re concerned the only good Mexican is a deported Mexican so they want to round up everyone and drop them off in the Sonoran desert to die of thirst.

But it might make a few independents rethink some assumptions:

More Mexican immigrants have returned to Mexico from the U.S. than have migrated here since the end of the Great Recession, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from both countries. The same data sources also show the overall flow of Mexican immigrants between the two countries is at its smallest since the 1990s, mostly due to a drop in the number of Mexican immigrants coming to the U.S.

From 2009 to 2014, 1 million Mexicans and their families (including U.S.-born children) left the U.S. for Mexico, according to data from the 2014 Mexican National Survey of Demographic Dynamics (ENADID). U.S. census data for the same period show an estimated 870,000 Mexican nationals left Mexico to come to the U.S., a smaller number than the flow of families from the U.S. to Mexico.

Measuring migration flows between Mexico and the U.S. is challenging because there are no official counts of how many Mexican immigrants enter and leave the U.S. each year. This report uses the best available government data from both countries to estimate the size of these flows. The Mexican data sources — a national household survey, and two national censuses — asked comparable questions about household members’ migration to and from Mexico over the five years previous to each survey or census date. In addition, estimates of Mexican migration to the U.S. come from U.S. Census Bureau data, adjusted for undercount, on the number of Mexican immigrants who live in the U.S.

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QOTD: The quintessential Fox viewer

by digby

The 90 year old Jerry Lewis:

Jerry Lewis: You gotta remember something. ISIS has attacked the world, OK? And all of a sudden I’m wondering, where are all of our NATO allies? Why don’t I have Germany, and Italy, and Great Britain? Why don’t I have all of them, including Spain, doing something? Get all of your military together, bring that military to our military, and wipe ’em out. They’re asking to be stopped. And we’re not stopping them, we’re just reporting what they’re doing. That’s ridiculous.

RA: And what do you think about the refugees?

Lewis: The refugees should stay where the hell they are.

RA: They say there’s a humanitarian crisis. They’re fleeing —

Lewis: Hey, nobody has worked harder for the human condition than I have. But they’re not part of the human condition, if 11 guys in that group of 10,000 are ISIS. How can I take the chance? I don’t want to lose another Frenchman or another Englishman. That bothers me. You can’t really knock the president per se because he was never given to understand that’s out there. He was never ready, never prepared for it. And what I’m watching in him is uncertainty. And you don’t have uncertainty in a leader. A leader doesn’t give a s— what he does, but he gets it done.

RA: Politics: I know you watch it. I see you watching news every minute of the day. What do you think of Donald Trump?

Lewis: I think he’s great.

RA: Why?

Lewis: Because he’s a showman. And we’ve never had a showman in the president’s chair.
RA: Well, we had Ronald Reagan. He was a bit of a showman.

Lewis: Well, that’s different. You can’t make a comparison with Ronald Reagan, because I can do three hours on him with just praise, he was so good.

Sigh. Don’t hold it against him. He’s a Fox viewer. Roger Ailes has a deep insight into the older, white American male and delivers the world to them in exactly the way they are most comfortable getting it.

There’s a full video of the interview at the link. It’s depressing.

Buddy Love was a Frank Sinatra impression, but many people say it was much more the real him than the kooky doofus he usually played. Ring-a-ding-ding…

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LA ain’t Trump country

by digby

Six planes flew above the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena this morning and spelled

out :

“America is great. Trump is disgusting. Anybody but Trump.”

I don’t know about that last part. Ted Cruz is not an improvement and the way Christie and Rubio are sounding these days, it’s hard to see how they’d be any better either.

Still … it’s a nice sentiment for New Year’s morning. I’m sure Trump will have some pithy comments soon …

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Marco, Marco, Marco

by digby

Watch his latest ad:

It’s true that Rubio has attended more classified intelligence committee briefings than any other candidate. That would be because he’s the only candidate on the Intelligence Committee.

God he’s bad. I’m am gaining huge respect for the scary-clown show of Trump and Cruz, I have to admit. They are scary proto-fascist demagogues who would make America the greatest threat on the planet, and probably initiate an arms race among every industrialized nation trying to protect themselves from us. But I’m not sure this guy wouldn’t do the same thing by mistake.

Check out this idiocy:

Mr. Rubio efficiently, almost mechanically, ticked through his three-point plan to allow students to use work experience for class credit (in his words, “competency-based learning”), let private investors pay for tuition and make colleges divulge which majors yield the best-paying jobs. He concluded with a dark assessment of liberal arts colleges as “indoctrination camps” protected by the political left “because all their friends work there.”

No wonder he’s not making any headway. He’s Jeb Bush without the personality.

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First admitting there is a problem
by Tom Sullivan

Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal wrote yesterday about the crisis of confidence in the American system of justice, one that seems organized around denying and covering up its own corruption:

I’ve heard some comparisons lately to another recent movie – Spotlight – about the journalists who were responsible for uncovering Boston’s sex abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. The parallel that has been drawn is about the lengths the journalists at the Boston Globe had to go to in order to get the Church (and community) to admit that it had a problem. Simple proof wasn’t enough. The evidence had to be overwhelmingly conclusive. In the process, the Church invited it’s own crisis of confidence.

LeTourneau was dead on with her comparison of the Catholic church’s denial of its sex abuse problem and the police failure “to correct mistakes and hold members of that system accountable.” The company line among police is, at best, that bad actors within the ranks represent just a few “bad apples.” Police departments should remember the last part of that proverb is something about spoiling the whole bunch.

The last couple of years have been particularly bad for American law enforcement’s image. The highly publicized deaths of unarmed black people in police custody gave rise to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and drew what has to be unwanted attention to police methods and culture. Not just from major news outlets, but from presidential candidates. A caller to Thom Hartmann’s national radio show observed recently that black people in this country are not worried in the least about being killed by ISIS terrorists; they are worried about being killed by the police. With justification.

After my Thursday morning post on just a few days’ worth of police violence, I had to talk myself back from the ledge. But not off it.

A scene from the film Jack Reacher (2012) came to mind. The former Military Police investigator talks about a suspect’s background:

Jack Reacher: There are four types of people who join the military. For some, it’s family trade. Others are patriots, eager to serve. Next you have those who just need a job. Then there’s the kind who want a legal means of killing other people.

That formulation might apply equally well to those who join the police. The problem is the code of silence prevents righteous officers from holding accountable fellow officers of the fourth kind, or even the simply incompetent. For excessive use of force. For torture. Or even murder.

The Cleveland police officer who shot Tamir Rice “could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” according to his previous department. Yet this did not prevent him from serving in another, larger police department. Catholic priests with a histories of sexual abuse simply got reassigned to different parishes.

NPR spoke with former LAPD deputy chief of police, Lou Reiter. The police trainer and consultant spoke about breaking down the culture of silence:

LOU REITER: The real issue here is you have to have officers who feel comfortable that they will come forth with testimony that might get another officer into trouble. If they step forward, if they do the right thing, they will inevitably end up being retaliated out by other officers. And we have to say that retaliation is real. It’s sinister. It normally hurts an officer so badly that he or she cannot stay with the agency anymore.

MONTAGNE: Recognizing it as a problem is a good start, and fixing it is, of course, an ideal. But specifically, how do you make that happen? Do you have an example of another police force that has done this?

REITER: You know, I really don’t. I wish I could say so, but I think there is a way that you could begin to break this. The mayor and all of the chief administrators have to stand up and say, we will protect you. And they need to go down and handpick a select group of officers who they know the field respects and have them come front and say, you know what? It’s time for us to stop this code of silence. It’s time for us to speak up and root these people who tarnish our star out of the agency.

That’s not terribly reassuring. First of all, because we don’t see any large moves nationally among police departments to admit there is even an accountability problem. Admitting a problem is a sign of weakness in a certain American subculture, and we can’t have that. Any more than Americans can admit to having a problem with guns..

The low point

by digby

MSNBC just doxed Rafia Farook, mother of a terrorist, on live television. I’ve blurred the important bits. pic.twitter.com/VqPwT60yVY

— David Boles (@DavidBoles) December 4, 2015

That’s from a great Mother Jones “year-end” article about the worst moments of cable news in 2015.

Here’s another one:

When protests erupted in Baltimore over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old Baltimore resident who died from a spinal cord injury while in police custody, CNN chose to ignore the demonstrations in favor of covering every second of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.

If you were seeking coverage of the rallies, contributor Errol Louis suggested viewers could “find a live feed” somewhere else.

I would add that the overwrought coverage of the Pope’s visit was a bit much too. The first 37 hours of footage of the tarmac waiting for the plane to land or take off was very exciting, I’ll admit. But after that it got a little bit dull. And for those who aren’t Catholic, which is the majority of Americans, it might have been slight overkill on the religion coverage.

Happy New Year everyone!

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