Monday, August 11, 2014

BOBBY SCHILLING -- REGULAR GUY (AND NOT A GOP LACKEY!)

(Photo courtesy of WikiMedia.)
GOP ex-Rep. Bobby Schilling is seeking his old seat against Democratic Rep. Cheri Bustos in Illinois' 17th District. In a recent radio interview, Schilling said:

"These increases, these are on our working poor, our middle class, hardworking taxpayers here across the United States of America. And now these folks are going to have to decide am I going to pay this premium or am I going to go buy some milk and groceries for the house. It's really getting tough for everyone. Everyone that I talk to, I don't hear them saying 'Hey, I'm doing great!'
And the folks that are living paycheck-to-paycheck, which is most Americans, including myself, is that, you know, this is not something that you want to be putting out when you've got a kid that wants to play sports or you want to take a trip for vacation. Instead, you've got to funnel your money over to Obamacare, which is something you might never have to use."
Keep in mind that Schilling earned $174,000 per year when he was in Congress. He has made $100,000 annually since he left Congress, too. 
And Schilling's no slouch in the assets department, with listed assets amounting to between $245,000 and $660,000, according to financial disclosure forms submitted by him. According to income statistics for the district in which he lives, the median income earned by potential constituents is $42,500 per year.
Yet Schilling feels justified in complaining about "Obamacare" to people who will be voting for, or against him, as if he's just one of the regular folks who struggle to make ends meet on a daily basis. I'd venture a guess: most of the people Schilling hopes to represent just WISH they had his problems.
Most of his constituents don't debate the pros and cons of whether they can afford to "take a trip for vacation." Most of his constituents don't get to go on vacation, though some may enjoy a "stay-cation." Many of the people living in Illinois' 17th District actually DO know what it's like to be forced to decide whether to buy milk and groceries, or to pay the electric bill in full this month. For Schilling to associate himself with the "working poor" is an affront to people who really work their asses off and yet still fail to breathe easy about money, even for a little while.
And what really gets my goat is the way that Schilling breaks with a common GOP theme to benefit himself -- the GOP clearly believes that the "working poor, our middle class" are among those categorized as "TAKERS." The working poor who need the subsidy provided by the ACA, those who receive food-stamps, those who get a tax break for EIC and who get a tax refund that exceeds the amount of taxes paid during the tax year are all lumped together under the tag "TAKERS."
In addition, after researching the question of whether Schilling is bionic or immortal (the answer is no, he is not), I find no evidence suggesting that his claim that Obamacare is "something you might never have to use" has any validity. MOST OF US WILL, IN FACT, HAVE TO USE THE DREADED OBAMACARE TO RECEIVE HEALTH CARE AT VARIOUS TIMES IN OUR LIVES. MOST OF US ACTUALLY FILL PRESCRIPTIONS, NEED BIRTH CONTROL, GET PREGNANT, HAVE KIDS WHO GET SICK, OR DEVELOP CANCER OR ASTHMA OR DIABETES, OR... well, the list goes on.
In fact, Schilling's representation of himself as a regular guy with regular concerns is most certainly the kind of act one puts on to deceive the voters, as he surely will continue to beat the GOP drum if he is elected. If elected, WHO WILL SCHILLING SUPPORT? WHY, SCHILLING AND THE GOP AND THE CORPORATE INTERESTS THAT THE PARTY LOVES SO MUCH, OF COURSE!
Why would anyone expect him to become a man of the people, when being a GOP tool has been such a gift to him?

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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

WAGE THEFT "APPROVED" BY THE GOP ON 07/23/2014

(Photo courtesy of rocunited.org.)
WAGE THEFT IS ON THE RISE
IN AMERICA

According to a People’s World article posted 07/28/2014, wage theft is on the rise, but the GOP-run House Education and Workforce Committee chaired by Michigan Republican Tim Wahlberg is discouraging the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division from pursuing the claims made by workers and their lawyers. The GOP requested a report on the subject from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office, which indicates that the steep increase in claims results from more claims by lawyers.

The House Committee is urging the Wage and Hour Division to provide more in the way of “compliance assistance” to employers, rather than fining employers for their non-compliance with labor and wage laws.

The Wage and Hour Division enforces minimum wage laws, overtime pay laws and child labor laws. In 2009 an academic report on violations in the three largest cities in the U.S., New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, found a number of disturbing issues to be prevalent. A shocking 68% of the workers surveyed in the study reported having had their wages shorted in the week prior to the survey.
Other results included:

  • More than 25% of workers surveyed were paid less than the legal minimum wage.
  • 60% of those workers were paid at least $1.00 per hour less than the minimum wage.
  • Nearly 25% of the workers surveyed either arrived early or stayed late, and 70% of those workers received no compensation for the extra work they performed.
  • Among workers who earn the bulk of their pay in tips, 30% were paid less than the $2.13 per hour employers are required to pay them.
  • One in eight tipped workers also reported that their tips were skimmed by their employer or supervisor, further reducing their income.
  • The average worker who reported wage theft lost 18% of their pay, and most workers do not report the wage theft.
  • 43% of workers who do report wage theft are retaliated against by employers.
  • 75% of workers surveyed were shorted overtime pay.
  • Most of the workers who reported wage theft were women.

In the following 12 job types, more than half of the workers surveyed reported being paid no overtime wages:

  1. Child care, at 90.2%
  2. Stock and office clerks, at 86%
  3. Home health care workers, at 82.7%
  4. Beauty, dry cleaning and general repair workers, at 81.9%
  5. Car wash workers and parking attendants at 77.9%
  6. Waiters, cafeteria workers and bartenders, at 77.9%
  7. Retail salespeople, at 76.2%
  8. Janitors and grounds workers, at 71.2%
  9. Garment workers, at 69.9%
  10. Cooks and dishwashers, at 67.8%
  11. Construction workers, at 66.1%
  12. Cashiers, at 58.8%
The House Committee decided on 07/23/2014 to ignore the data, instead focusing on the increasing numbers of lawsuits. The Committee seems to identify with employers who steal from employees much more than they empathize with the workers being stolen from, and ruled against improved enforcement efforts in favor of having the Department of Labor provide more help and guidance to employers about their responsibilities. This reasoning is in line with the former Bush administration’s response to the issue of wage theft, which would seem to suggest that improving guidance to employers has done nothing to stem the instance of wage theft since that political era.

The findings reported suggest the total dollar value of stolen wages amounts to more than $56.4 million per week in the cities of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles alone. Logical reflection on the enormity of the problem tells us that the practice of offering guidance to employers about how to stop stealing pay from employees isn’t working, and that more serious enforcement against thieving employers is necessary.

And the GOP shows us yet again that they don’t care about the working poor at all.

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Saturday, June 21, 2014

Right Wing Conspiracy Theories, Pt 3


(Photo courtesy of WikiMedia.)
This is the third part of a series discussing right wing conspiracy theories. This article will discuss the issues of Common Core and education, as well as conclusions presented in Newsweek magazine's recent article, “The Plots to Destroy America,” written by Kurt Eichenwald.
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Common Core is the newest educational gimmick proposed and accepted by most states in the U.S.  Only Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, Nebraska and Virginia have not accepted the plan that was developed by the National Governor’s Association.
Typical right wing fear mongering meme.
Image Credit educationnews.org

Despite Common Core's very common beginnings as a brain-child of the nation's governors, that fact hasn't stopped conspiracy proponents from calling it “Obamacore.”  I’m not a huge fan of Common Core, but I do understand that it is meant to advance educational standards and to identify the math and literacy skills every student should possess based on their grade level.

Common Core is a topic that deserves debate, but such discussion has been destroyed by those who claim Common Core is a secret agenda to promote homosexuality brought to us by anti-religious groups.  Many Christian right-wing parents are railing against Common Core because they foolishly think it teaches anti-Christian, anti-Catholic and anti-American beliefs.

Terry Bratton, a Tea Party activist, is quoted as saying, “We don’t want our children to lose their innocence, beginning in pre-school or kindergarten, told that homosexuality is OK and should be experienced at an early age and that same-sex marriages are OK.”

Since Common Core required reading consists ONLY of the Preamble to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln’s Inaugural Address, it is difficult to understand why opponents are so worried about a homosexual agenda.  


image credit Eric Owens; govtslaves,info
Then again, with images like these going around on social media, it seems clear enough where the paranoia originates from. These images are designed to provoke an emotional response (fear). Once the emotional response is triggered, many people have difficulty thinking critically. This type of emotional exploitation is not accidental. It's purposeful, and it can be easily identified as psychological manipulation by those who aren't entirely susceptible to it. 

Right wing fear-mongering has taken a toll.  Common Core may be perfectly worthwhile (even though I’m not a fan so far), but because of the more than 200 bills about Common Core filed by legislators to slow or stop the adoption of Common Core, we may never know. 

This is the same tactic the right wing uses to advance other purely partisan political agendas in Washington, including phony scandals and carrying out their non-stop partisan investigations and hearings on everything from 'Fast and Furious' to Benghazi. Unfortunately GOP representatives abuse their positions, using the power of their elected positions to 'legitimize' all kinds of conspiracy theories such as those previously mentioned, like Agenda 21 and Obamacare death panels, as well as an entire spectrum of other fringe ideas. 

The obvious tactic here is that followers of these bogus conspiracy theories can then say 'Look there was an official hearing on this," or "See, there was a bill introduced on this in Washington." The sad thing is the bills introduced and the investigations carried out are no more based in reality than the memes on social media. 


The GOP has a long history of abusing the power of government to advance bogus conspiracy theories, from McCarthyism to the John Birch Society, to the modern day Tea Party: photo credit motherjones.com


Once again, fear trumps any rational debate of pros or cons.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has conducted research into where conspiracy theories come from.  In tracing the origins of the “Aztlan Conspiracy (which holds that Mexico plans to invade the U.S. and take back 7 southern states), it was determined that the theory started with a radical anti-immigration group consisting of about half a dozen Americans.  The idea was picked up by other groups and promoted until finally, Lou Dobbs mentioned it on CNN.

The SPLC says this is the typical life-cycle of a conspiracy theory.  A fringe group believes some farcical idea, which then spreads outward among other groups until it jumps into a more mainstream group’s awareness, circulating until it ends up being reported on national news programs.



image credit thelastofthemillenniums.com
Debunking Republican Conspiracy Theories
Once a theory appears on TV, it cloaks itself in legitimacy and upsets every attempt to discuss the real issues.  Because a conspiracy preempts logic, trying to debate an issue becomes all about trying to disprove something that isn’t real, to people who refuse to abandon their fantasies of plots and their fear of domination by shadowy overlords.

News outlets have proliferated, even as investigative journalism has declined.  But it is the impact of social media and the Internet that has caused conspiracies to spread like wildfire.  These crazy ideas are like contagions, infecting the brains of more and more people who find support in each other, and feel legitimized when the nutty conspiracy gets attention on national television.  They feel that all information that doesn’t support their theories are part of the plot against them or their ideas.

Research has shown that even intelligent people can get caught up in conspiracy theories.  While we used to write off such ideas as dumb, and those who believed in them as ignorant, it has been shown conclusively that even highly intelligent people can find confirmation of their thinking everywhere once it hits the airwaves.  At the root of this problem is that we are all prone to wanting proof of the things we want to believe in.  So even a Mensa level IQ can be swayed into belief of a theory once the theory is discussed on their news show of preference, whether or not the coverage supports the theory.

Researchers have found some very confusing things to be true about those who believe in conspiracies.  One study showed that people who believe Princess Diana was murdered in 1997 are also more likely to believe that she is still alive.  Another study showed that people who believe Osama bin Ladin was dead before Seal Team 6 raided his compound in 2011 are also more likely to believe he escaped.  The conclusion is that the ability to hold two conflicting thoughts goes to the nature of those who believe in conspiracy theories, as well as that of the theories themselves.


The only consistent way to predict who will believe in a conspiracy is whether that person believes in other conspiracies.



Let’s go back to Sarah Palin and her death panels.  A study conducted exposed participants to Palin’s allegations, then provided information showing Palin’s claim to be false.  People who dislike Palin, or who had little political knowledge, were able to conclude that her claims were false.  However, people who were politically knowledgeable and supported Palin could not be persuaded that death panels are a fantasy.  Such people grew more convinced that death panels exist the more facts were presented to the contrary.

This means some folks will just never be able to be convinced that their conspiracy of choice is false.  What to do about extreme conspiracy theorists is a matter under discussion.  In groups who might be mobilized to commit violence, it’s possible that “cognitive infiltration of extremist groups” could be effective in raising doubt among members.  The potential danger is, of course, that infiltrating such groups can backfire, adding to the legend of the conspiracy.

Kurt Eichenwald, author of the Newsweek article made light of the likelihood that, by publishing this article, Newsweek will be viewed as part of the conspiracy by those who succumb to such theories.

So, in an effort to ward off any similar accusations, I’d add the disclaimer that I am merely reporting on what is out there, and am neither promoting or mocking any specific theory.  However, I will go on record by saying, bollocks to all of them!

Read part 1 
Read part 2

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Friday, June 20, 2014

Right Wing Conspiracy Theories, Pt. 2


(Photo courtesy of WordPress.)
Conspiracism: "A form of scapegoating that portrays the enemy as part of a vast insidious plot against the common good. Conspiracism assigns tiny cabals of evildoers a superhuman power to control events, frames social conflict as part of a transcendent struggle between Good and Evil, and makes leaps of logic, such as guilt by association, in analyzing evidence. Often employs common fallacies of logic in analyzing factual evidence to assert connections, causality, and intent that are nonexistent. A distinct narrative form of scapegoating, conspiracism uses demonization to justify constructing the scapegoats as wholly evil while reconstructing the scapegoater as a hero. Sees secret plots by tiny cabals of evildoers as the major motor powering important historical events."
Part One of this series discussed Newsweek Magazine's recent article, “The Plots to Destroy America,” written by Kurt Eichenwald.  Part Two will also refer to this highly informative article, addressing "Death Panels" and autism.
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image credit thedailybeast.com
We all remember Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor, beauty pageant contestant and Wasilla mayor (who didn't serve out her elected term in office). Palin went on television in 2009 and coined the term "death panel," saying the ACA (or, with sneer-filled intonation, "Obamacare") would call for bureaucrats to decide whether Americans - kids with Downs, say, or the elderly - would be worthy of receiving medical care.


image credit NewsBusters
Palin pointed to Section 1233 of H.R. 3200, which would have allowed doctors to be paid for discussing such things as living wills, advance directives and end-of-life care options with their terminal patients, as support of her death panel plot. (Apparently, the idea of doctors providing comfort and information to their dying, aged patients was just too much for Palin to abide by.) The conspiracy theory's wide reach (almost 30% of Americans who'd heard the pitch believed it at the time) successfully resulted in this section of the bill being stricken. No longer would the ACA include a provision for paying doctors for their time spent offering information about pain management, resuscitation or religious support.


Have we benefited from this conspiracy theory? 
Not at all.

image credit vaccines.com
Even our children’s health is fair game for conspiracy theorists. Actress Jenny McCarthy’s son was born with autism. McCarthy, like any mom, wanted to know what could have caused her son’s autism and searched for answers. She must have scoured the internet in order to arrive at the conclusion that vaccinations were to blame, and has campaigned tirelessly against vaccinations since. She claims a causal relationship exists, even though the theory has been debunked.


The scientist who started this theory, Andrew Wakefield, has been thoroughly discredited, and his work has now been deemed an “elaborate fraud.”
image credit thinkstrangethoughts

Wakefield lost his medical license for a variety of acts, including paying kids at his son’s birthday party to donate blood for his experiments. Wakefield has gone so far over the edge that he headlined at a rally called “The Masterplan: The Hidden Agenda for a Global Scientific Dictatorship.” Presenting their theories were 9/11 Truthers, One World Government conspiracists, and anti-fluoridationists.

Additionally, other scientists who had jumped on the anti-vaccine bandwagon and who offered “cures” for autism have also now been outed as snake-oil salesmen.

While we do not yet know precisely what causes autism, we do know that there are several genes that are involved in autism spectrum disorder. Some cases are directly linked to some genetic disorders, in other cases genetic changes may make kids more susceptible to autism, or create environmental risk factors. Other genes may affect the way brain cells communicate, or they may determine the severity of symptoms. Some genetic problems are inherited, while others seem to happen spontaneously.

Environmental factors are thought to contribute, such as viral infections, complications during pregnancy, or air pollutants, but studies are still being conducted in the hope of finding verifiable results. Environmental factors are thought to act as triggers for the disorder. And though we don’t know with certainty THE cause of autism, scientists find no link whatsoever to vaccines.


image credit vaccinenews.net
Anti-Vaccine Body Count, a site dedicated to the effects of the anti-vaccine agenda, reports that, between June 3, 2007 and June 14, 2014, there have been  134,405 Americans who have suffered preventable illnesses, and 1,393 who have died, because they were not vaccinated. The site also reports that, thus far, there have been no cases of autism linked to vaccinations.


Add caption
Whooping cough was just declared epidemic in California, with the CA Dept of Public Health stating that 3,458 cases have been reported this year alone. The medical journal Pediatrics has determined that areas hit hard during the last state epidemic contained “statistically significant clusters” of parents who refused to vaccinate their children.

While McCarthy may think the lack of a definitive understanding of the causes of autism does not rule out vaccinations, NO cases of autism can be linked to vaccinations.  


So, has her campaign helped us? With the measles and whooping cough on the rise in the U.S., I’d say certainly not.


Please look for my next installment on the conspiracy theories America is struggling with currently...
More conspiracies will be discussed in Part Three of this series.


Sources:
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/05/23/plots-destroy-america-251123.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_panel
http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Anti-Vaccine_Body_Count/Home.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-mnookin/need-for-reliable-science-journalism_b_1183429.html
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/autism-spectrum-disorder/basics/causes/con-20021148
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/14/california-declares-whooping-cough-epidemic-after-staggering-increase-in-cases/

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