"And who will be there to help corporate America enact its plainly monstrous anti-human agenda? Well, Christian nationalists and racists, of course."
let's not forget about the Mormons, with their billions of dollars in real estate and equity holdings, who are *not* Christians (they're racist cultists who basically believe in aliens), who've captured the FBI, and literally refer to their magical "clean" holy utopia as Zion. huh! what a weird weird coincidence!
it's so interesting to me that every analysis about what's happening in the US right now conveniently forgets to include these guys. they've infiltrated social media (the tradwife trend, to name one example), every branch of government, and don't have to pay a single dollar in taxes on their massive pile of hoarded wealth. failing to include them by name when we're describing the mechanisms behind the downfall of American society into this uber-capitalist hellscape might be one of the best branding campaigns i've witnessed in modern history.
"In recent weeks, an ongoing procession of companies—Trader Joe’s, Amazon, Starbucks, SpaceX—have begun to argue in court that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional, and should, presumably, be wiped off the face of the earth."
I am wondering what would happen if one embraced their arguments and then applied some of those same arguments to show that corporations (corporate personhood, limited liability) are unconstitutional.
Limited liability runs against all libertarian principles.
Jesus and Ayn Rand....they have to be kidding. Where was that match made? By Reverend Sun Myung Moon at one of his mass weddings in Madison Square Garden?
Business interests vigorously opposed the passage of the NLRA in 1935. As labor law prof Karl Klare pointed out long ago, this "massive employer resistance was met by one of the most dramatic strike waves in the annals of labor, culminating in the 'sit-down' movement and the rise of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)." The 1935 law was the Wagner Act, and it has been so profoundly declawed over the decades by Congress and the federal courts that one wonders what would happen if the NLRB disappeared. Our labor laws protect worker interests just enough to keep overheated passions on the back burner. The truth is, the NLRB has protected employer interests for decades. If it goes, then what? What makes Trader Joe's think its angry employees won't still demand to be recognized as a union? Who needs an NLRB-run election? Who needs an NLRB to tell you what you can and can't demand to bargain over? Who needs an NLRB to tell you when you can go on strike and when you can't? This isn't what I hope for. I am not radical or optimistic enough for that. But there IS a history of the laboring classes saying "Enough!" (Here's the Klare piece: https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:332779/fulltext.pdf)
Absolutely. I hope that you'll someday cover your thoughts on WHY people vote to support this garbage. And what to do about it. It baffles me that people whose loved ones died fighting the fascists are now drooling over the swastikas and pretending that Trump is God.
Very true. I would add that with the number of counter-majoritarian institutions in the US, Republicans don't always need 51% to enact their will. The book Tyranny of the Minority gives a good overview of these institutions and their effects
"Capital is more radical than any protesters in the street will ever be, because it is not burdened by having a heart.": But don't lose sight of the fact that capital, in this context, means the people who control these corporations, people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Howard Schultz. These people don't have to behave this way. They choose it freely (and, I suspect, maliciously, bolstered by a preposterous presumption that they're our natural superiors).
Homo sapiens is failing as a social species, in that it's failing to suppress such selfish dominators. Prehistorically, it seems likely that such people were effectively suppressed by shaming, shunning, and, as a last resort, execution. (See anthropologist Christopher Boehm's book "Moral origins" for an introduction to the evidence for this claim.) However, these mechanisms are much less effective in modern populations. Unless more effective mechanisms are implemented quickly and widely - which seems very unlikely - disastrous consequences for all of humanity are practically inevitable. Indeed, such consequences may already be unavoidable via climate change, a phenomenon largely driven by the selfish dominators who control the fossil-fuels industry.
The documentary THE CORPORATION made the point about the sociopathic nature of corporations 20 years ago, but I agree that the alliance with the rest of the contemporary right wing really seems to drive it home. https://thecorporation.com/
Go to _Tablet_ and read the essay "Krugman v. Krugman" published yesterday (2/20) comparing his opinions on the economy of immigration 2006 v. 2024. And then tell me which Krugman is right.
"And who will be there to help corporate America enact its plainly monstrous anti-human agenda? Well, Christian nationalists and racists, of course."
let's not forget about the Mormons, with their billions of dollars in real estate and equity holdings, who are *not* Christians (they're racist cultists who basically believe in aliens), who've captured the FBI, and literally refer to their magical "clean" holy utopia as Zion. huh! what a weird weird coincidence!
it's so interesting to me that every analysis about what's happening in the US right now conveniently forgets to include these guys. they've infiltrated social media (the tradwife trend, to name one example), every branch of government, and don't have to pay a single dollar in taxes on their massive pile of hoarded wealth. failing to include them by name when we're describing the mechanisms behind the downfall of American society into this uber-capitalist hellscape might be one of the best branding campaigns i've witnessed in modern history.
"In recent weeks, an ongoing procession of companies—Trader Joe’s, Amazon, Starbucks, SpaceX—have begun to argue in court that the National Labor Relations Board is unconstitutional, and should, presumably, be wiped off the face of the earth."
I am wondering what would happen if one embraced their arguments and then applied some of those same arguments to show that corporations (corporate personhood, limited liability) are unconstitutional.
Limited liability runs against all libertarian principles.
Jesus and Ayn Rand....they have to be kidding. Where was that match made? By Reverend Sun Myung Moon at one of his mass weddings in Madison Square Garden?
Business interests vigorously opposed the passage of the NLRA in 1935. As labor law prof Karl Klare pointed out long ago, this "massive employer resistance was met by one of the most dramatic strike waves in the annals of labor, culminating in the 'sit-down' movement and the rise of the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)." The 1935 law was the Wagner Act, and it has been so profoundly declawed over the decades by Congress and the federal courts that one wonders what would happen if the NLRB disappeared. Our labor laws protect worker interests just enough to keep overheated passions on the back burner. The truth is, the NLRB has protected employer interests for decades. If it goes, then what? What makes Trader Joe's think its angry employees won't still demand to be recognized as a union? Who needs an NLRB-run election? Who needs an NLRB to tell you what you can and can't demand to bargain over? Who needs an NLRB to tell you when you can go on strike and when you can't? This isn't what I hope for. I am not radical or optimistic enough for that. But there IS a history of the laboring classes saying "Enough!" (Here's the Klare piece: https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/files/neu:332779/fulltext.pdf)
Absolutely. I hope that you'll someday cover your thoughts on WHY people vote to support this garbage. And what to do about it. It baffles me that people whose loved ones died fighting the fascists are now drooling over the swastikas and pretending that Trump is God.
Very true. I would add that with the number of counter-majoritarian institutions in the US, Republicans don't always need 51% to enact their will. The book Tyranny of the Minority gives a good overview of these institutions and their effects
RE: Musk and farm workers. Farm workers do not have any recourse to the NLRB. Musk or no Musk, they are pre-fucked.
"Capital is more radical than any protesters in the street will ever be, because it is not burdened by having a heart.": But don't lose sight of the fact that capital, in this context, means the people who control these corporations, people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Howard Schultz. These people don't have to behave this way. They choose it freely (and, I suspect, maliciously, bolstered by a preposterous presumption that they're our natural superiors).
Homo sapiens is failing as a social species, in that it's failing to suppress such selfish dominators. Prehistorically, it seems likely that such people were effectively suppressed by shaming, shunning, and, as a last resort, execution. (See anthropologist Christopher Boehm's book "Moral origins" for an introduction to the evidence for this claim.) However, these mechanisms are much less effective in modern populations. Unless more effective mechanisms are implemented quickly and widely - which seems very unlikely - disastrous consequences for all of humanity are practically inevitable. Indeed, such consequences may already be unavoidable via climate change, a phenomenon largely driven by the selfish dominators who control the fossil-fuels industry.
Bummer that Xians don’t believe in “tikkun olam “…
Vote Trump
The documentary THE CORPORATION made the point about the sociopathic nature of corporations 20 years ago, but I agree that the alliance with the rest of the contemporary right wing really seems to drive it home. https://thecorporation.com/
Go to _Tablet_ and read the essay "Krugman v. Krugman" published yesterday (2/20) comparing his opinions on the economy of immigration 2006 v. 2024. And then tell me which Krugman is right.