tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50371908765713806962024-03-18T21:04:23.637-05:00On Today's PageDenis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.comBlogger601125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-2838958257219238222024-01-07T17:09:00.013-06:002024-02-06T19:48:38.258-06:00 Jimmy Hoffa’s wet dream – Jimmy Hoffa's worst nightmare<p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">First: Jimmy Hoffa’s medical labor market wet dream:<br /> a) cannot stop technical employees from organizing,<br /> b) demand is everywhere and ever growing<br /> c) bills paid automatically by insurance or government,<br /> d) bonus: once trained, employees can change location.<br /><br />Jimmy Hoffa’s labor worst labor market nightmare – gouging physician residents:<br /> a) half the pay of physician assistants (PAs),<br /> b) full four years in medical school versus only three for PAs,<br /> c) perform more complicated diagnosing and procedures than PAs,<br /> d) 100 hour work week versus 40 for PAs,<br /> e) median pay $65,000 a year versus $75,000 for nurses!<br /> <br />I’m not trying to make a big pitch for PAs today. I am just using their extreme plight as an example of remuneration lost when labor has no wherewithal to defend itself with. Even trained medical doctors can be (will be) duped on payday if they lack bargaining punch. What can the rest of we unorganized expect?<br /><br />(I'm not sure why residents have no means to fight back – possibly feel trapped because that they suspend their education the moment they suspend their work – or perhaps stuck in the “social/cultural" calculus that they are in school and lucky to be getting paid any amount at all. When confronted with such deep “social/philosophical” questions ask myself: What would Jimmy Hoffa say? :-)<br /><br />Labor unions effectively couple employees to paying customers in free market bargaining-- allowing them to calibrate their wage demands according to how much they think they can squeeze out of paying customers. Walmart labor costs are 7% -- Imagine what the Teamsters Union could do with that. Add 7% to the price of merchandise – even if sales dropped 7%, most employees would be far better off.<br /><br />Walmart’s sales might go up if its pay raises were part of a nation wide movement to up lower wages, sending more dollars to retailers who serve lower income shoppers.<br /><br />Quick and easy path to across-the-board unionization of America: federal legislation mandating regularly scheduled union cert/recert/decert elections at every private (non-gov) work place: <a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a> <br /><br />Fifty percent of American workers say they want to be in a union. <br /><br />Only 6% of non-government workers are union members. The only thing standing in the way of starting a political wild fire of support for regularly scheduled union elections seems to me nobody thinks it possible to turn the labor market around that much, that quickly -- too good to be true – grandiosity insufficiency? :-)<br /><br />This essay seeks to make it seem impossible to work without a union.</span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-82776860411417444522023-12-19T15:07:00.006-06:002023-12-19T15:08:35.046-06:00Medical residents getting the very short end of the stick<p><span style="font-size: large;"> I've been passing around some thoughts I've had on (especially males) becoming nurses. Seems median nurses pay in Illinois is $75,000 -- in New York is $100,000. <br /><br />Finally occurred to me that medical residents with four years of medical school and who work 100 hours a week get only $65,000. Physicians assistants in Illinois average $135,000 a year. Residents do more complicated procedures than PAs -- for 100 hours (!) a week compared to 40 hours. If the excuse is that residents are getting an free education (as it were) -- I remember a PA in an urgent care clinic telling me that PAs get their residency on the job.<br /><br />Nothing could be easier to sell to the public that inherent unfairness here -- wildly so. Physicians pretax earnings are only 10% of the medical costs so paying residents what they are worth should hardly cause any strain.<br /><br />Cite articles like these:<br />"Officials say the 5 1/2-year contract gives nurses an immediate $16,000 raise in the first year and over $5,500 in the second year. The increase will bring salaries for nurses up to par with those at private facilities."<br /><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjT7KroqIuDAxWqtokEHWWBDsUQFnoECA0QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbronx.news12.com%2Fnyc-health-hospitals-nurses-to-receive-major-pay-bump-following-new-contract&usg=AOvVaw2wDtggAOn8m4FMDxfZdOSd&opi=89978449">https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjT7KroqIuDAxWqtokEHWWBDsUQFnoECA0QAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbronx.news12.com%2Fnyc-health-hospitals-nurses-to-receive-major-pay-bump-following-new-contract&usg=AOvVaw2wDtggAOn8m4FMDxfZdOSd&opi=89978449</a><br /><br />"The Teamsters union reached an agreement with UPS that secured a total compensation package of $170,000 for UPS drivers ..."<br /><a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/ups-drivers-video-breaking-down-185543274.html">https://www.yahoo.com/news/ups-drivers-video-breaking-down-185543274.html</a><br /><br />What I've been passing around:<br /><a href="https://ontodayspage.blogspot.com/2023/08/jimmy-hoffas-wet-dream-strong-squaws.html">https://ontodayspage.blogspot.com/2023/08/jimmy-hoffas-wet-dream-strong-squaws.html</a><br /><br />(I was in Teamster 804 back in 1970 when it was Gimble's furniture warehouse.)<br /><br /><br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-73483264843764299082023-10-31T16:07:00.004-05:002023-12-19T15:34:03.538-06:00How to sell mandatory union elections -- to progressives<p><span style="font-size: large;">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/<br /><br />When I was 16 (1960), I got more new customers than any other NY Post paper delivery boy (out of 700) by getting past a "psychological quirk."<br /><br />I wanted to offer a free week to everybody on my paper route -- there were several reasons to believe a third might take the paper permanently -- did pay for itself. But I knew nobody would want to get involved with some kid at the front door.<br /><br />So I brain stormed it (learned from Reader Digest). I came up with printing coupons. Now, when you opened the door (nobody was afraid to open their door in those days) I slapped a coupon in your hand, saying "This coupon entitles you to one free week of the NY Post delivered."<br /><br />Now you had a different psychology -- now you had money to spend, and only one place to spend it. Doubled my route temporarily -- one-third stayed.<br /> * * * * * *<br />The only reason I get from progressives for not going after regularly scheduled, cert-recert-decert elections is that it "must" be impossible to turn the whole country around just like that. Can't be done.<br /><br />So, let's reformulate the pitch:<br />Unions couple labor directly to the paying customer. Not face to face, setting product prices; but having the power to set wage demands based on what we think the consumer will tolerate. Without that, ownership will be in effect, selling labor for the deepest discount possible. <br /><br />Setting up a three way tug-of-war -- instead of today's two way.<br /><br />Now, it looks impossible NOT to have a union -- switching "impossibilities."</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> P.S. Mandatory, periodic union elections would be the perfect issue – really the only issue – that can bring back Obama-Trump voters to the political fold where they belong, in droves. <br /><br />“[P]inning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)”<br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html</a><br /><br />What argument could Republicans possibly foist to oppose re-raising American workers to their should-have-been-accustomed-to level of economic – and political – power?! Hillary lost because Democrats didn’t do enough for our lost souls during their span in the White House; not so they could see their lot seriously improving. <br /><br />Welcome back to the Democratic Party, working America. <br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-18741085689451898112023-10-22T21:25:00.018-05:002023-10-23T11:40:09.502-05:00Unions couple labor directly to consumers in the free market<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Labor unions effectively couple employees directly to paying customers – bargaining for the maximum amount consumers are willing to part with. In the same light, non-union businesses sell the labor component of their products at the cheapest possible discount.<br /><br />Both union and management are busy racing after the same customers’ pocketbooks. What American labor needs is to regain equality at the starting blocks.<br /> <br />Fifty percent of American workers reportedly want to join a union. Only 6%of private sector workers have been able to -- thanks to ownership’s overwhelming, illegal resistance. Stepped up law enforcement –- no matter how determined –- is never going to deliver truly free market starting blocks to the majority of workers. <br /><br />Only practicable way to guarantee that all workers, who want to organize, can organize: federally mandated, regularly scheduled, labor union cert/recert/decert elections at every private workplace. <br /><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a> <br /><br />Mandatory, periodic union elections would be the perfect issue – really is the only issue – that can bring back Obama-Trump voters to the political fold where they belong, in droves. <br /><br />“[P]inning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)”<br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html</a><br /><br />What argument could Republicans possibly foist to oppose re-raising American workers to their should-have-been-accustomed-to level of economic – and political – power?! Hillary lost because Democrats didn’t do enough for our lost souls during their span in the White House; not so they could see their lot seriously improving. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Welcome back to the Democratic Party, working America. <br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-50204410475342237612023-09-18T12:40:00.067-05:002023-09-28T20:40:54.270-05:00Unionize America sea to shining sea -- do away with the biggest threat to democracy -- with one easy federal labor law stroke<p><span style="font-size: large;">Let’s conjure up a labor market where all businesses are family owned and family operated -- where no outside labor is hired and where prices of goods and services are set at the highest amount families (producers) can squeeze out of other families (consumers).<br /><br />Let’s say that that the incomes of all families are twice what it would take to live at the merely subsistence level (leaves out a lot of complication for the simple math point made here).<br /><br />With 0%, outside (non-family) labor supply – only family workers -- let's say every family worker earns 20 dollars an hour.<br /><br />Then, let’s say 10% outside workers are brought in to replace family workers who emigrated, which outside workers are paid subsistence incomes (half what family workers earn).<br /><br />Let’s say for every 100 workers, 10 outsiders earn only 10 dollars an hour – and the left over 100 dollars are distributed among the 90 family workers -- yielding (approx) 1.1 extra dollars an hour (100/90) for the family laborers.<br /><br />For every 20 outside (non family) workers: 200 dollars are divided among 80 family workers = yielding 2.5 more dollars an hour for each family laborer.<br />30 outside: 300 divided among 70 = 4.2.<br />40 outside: 400 divided among 60 = 6.6.<br />50 outside: 500 divided among 50 = 10.<br />60 outside: 600 divided among 40 = 15.<br />70 outside: 700 divided among 30 = 23.<br />80 outside: 800 divided among 20 = 40.<br />90 outside: 900 divided among 10 = 90.<br /><br />Ninety-four percent is the number that represents the labor union desert in the private (non gov) American labor market -- 6% labor union density, though “density” seems hardly the word.<br /><br />Fifty percent of American workers say they want to be unionized. 6% are unionized (and going down). SEIU council Andrew Strom has dreamed up a way that could spring American labor into more like universal bargaining coverage: legally mandated, periodic, cert-recert-decert union elections. <br />https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/<br /><br />Union bargaining power makes for a more moral market because the consumer can be forced to pay the producer as much as the consumer judges the product is really worth. <br /><br />Walmart (an admittedly extreme example) has 7% labor costs (most businesses run more like 12-15% costs – fast food, 25%). Imagine what the Teamsters Union could do with 7% (double-triple paychecks?). But, employees have to have a way to bring unionization to a vote.<br /><br />Mandatory cert-recert-decert union elections would be the perfect issue to bring back Obama-Trump voters. <br /><br />“But pinning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)”<br />https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html<br /><br />So what are we waiting for? Let’s return the American labor movement to its former, effective place – while guarding democracy against the MAGA-man – all in one federal labor law stroke.<br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-73696455084945866552023-08-04T17:05:00.085-05:002023-08-09T15:10:10.421-05:00Jimmy Hoffa's wet dream -- strong squaws <p><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;"> I encourage young guys to go into nursing.<br />
<br />
I tell them that the medical labor market is Jimmy Hoffa's wet dream (hopefully some of them know who Jimmy was).<br />
<br />
I tell them that nobody can stop nurses from organizing because they are
they are technical. Can't go out on the street and hire 100
replacement nurses. Can't even go out on the street and hire 100 high
school teachers -- or management would have done so a very long time
ago.<br />
<br />
The demand for medical care is everywhere and always growing.<br />
<br />
The bills are paid automatically by government or insurance.<br />
<br />
As an extra bonus you can work anywhere -- this year in Florida; next year in Portland (or Montreal) if you wish.<br />
<br />
It's perfect.<br />
* * * * * *<br />
<br />
I just spent three days in the hospital. You know how the American
Indian wanted a strong squaw? I just spent three days watching strong
squaws run all over the place, from demanding task to demanding task.<br />
<br />
Working in hospitals you might end up hooking up with your favorite strong squaw.<br />
<br />
How will they feel if they are making $40,000-$50,000 for a 40 hour week,
or $75,000 for a 70 hour week -- and their strong squaw is earning
$75,000 a year for 40 hours a week -- because that's the median (not
average) nurse's salary in Chicago; $100,000 in New York City?<br /> </span></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> * * * * * *</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: monospace;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: times;">[late note]
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.nysna.org/press/2023/nyc-public-hospital-nurses-win-historic-contract-pay-parity-and-safe-staffing">https://www.nysna.org/press/2023/nyc-public-hospital-nurses-win-historic-contract-pay-parity-and-safe-staffing</a><br />
<br />
"</span><span style="font-family: times;">Two years
of pay parity wage increases, effective 7/31/23. The awarded
payments of $16,006 in year one and $5,551 in year two bring
public-sector salaries up to par with NYC private-sector nurse
salaries."</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"> [late note] <a href="https://bronx.news12.com/nyc-health-hospitals-nurses-to-receive-major-pay-bump-following-new-contract">https://bronx.news12.com/nyc-health-hospitals-nurses-to-receive-major-pay-bump-following-new-contract</a> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>"</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">The increase will bring salaries for nurses up to par with those at private facilities."</span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">[very happy -- late notes] <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66445496">https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66445496</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"><span>"</span></span><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">UPS driver pay and benefits deal in US to be worth $170,000 a year, firm says"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://fortune.com/2023/08/08/ups-drivers-170000-union-agreement-teamsters-middle-class-bidenomics/">https://fortune.com/2023/08/08/ups-drivers-170000-union-agreement-teamsters-middle-class-bidenomics/</a> </span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">"UPS drivers’ new $170k per year deal shows that unions (and Joe Biden) may just save the middle class after all"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"> IT'S ALL ABOUT UNIONS.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;">THE ONLY REALISTIC IDEA I HAVE EVER SEEN FOR RE-UNIONIZING AMERICA OVERNIGHT: </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/<br /></a></span></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-84588283605947745222023-07-21T12:14:00.009-05:002023-08-08T18:49:28.624-05:00SS Trust Fund worries? -- just a matter of flip-flopping income streams<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"> Isn't the Trust Fund question just a matter of flip-flopping income streams?
My understanding is that TF bonds are cashed with income tax.<br />
<br />
When the TF runs out, FICA can be raised while income tax is
cut -- not exactly the same payers for both taxes; but for
most payers no giant burden. <br />
<br />
Raising, or eliminating, the FICA cap comes to mind.
Rebuilding labor union density even comes to mind -- flooding
FICA income.<br />
<br />
Something like a five year, projected outgo, fund could insure
Congress never takes too long getting around to resetting FICA
tax level.</span></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-6959381159252738102023-07-19T11:18:00.007-05:002023-07-23T17:02:15.714-05:00Trans women and innate behavior in the locker room<p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">However women (and men) relate to natal
males is baked in by age six -- end of the sex
identification period -- innate behavior.<br />
<br />
Caitlin Jenner can partake of all the procedures and
hormones she wants to -- she will never become a woman to
other women in the locker room or bathroom -- innate
behavior. Same privacy damage wrought.<br />
<br />
If we point out to trans folks (being helpful; not being
catty) that they don't seem bothered too much when
everybody else stays out of the locker room -- maybe they
can find some equivalence there that can make feel that
the single shower or stall are not so bad after all. <br />
<br />
I'm not worried about who uses the men's room.<br />
<br />
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://time.com/4324687/even-in-liberal-communities-transgender-bathroom-laws-worry-parents/">https://time.com/4324687/even-in-liberal-communities-transgender-bathroom-laws-worry-parents/</a><br />
* * * * * *<br />
<br />
As for all these state legislatures outlawing different
trans therapies for children: come back in 20 years, after
the medical profession has sorted out what combinations of
therapies produce -- what different choices and outcomes.
Way too tricky and complicated.</span><span style="font-family: times;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-24251550608102690682023-07-19T11:14:00.005-05:002023-07-19T11:16:18.956-05:00Share US inventory of 65,000 Maverick, fighter launched anti-tank missiles<p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: times;"> Back in the eighties, <i>Armed Forces
Journal</i> reported we had procured
65,000 Maverick, fighter plane launched
anti-tank missiles -- 500 pounds, 130 pound
shaped charge warhead, 4 mile range, imaging
infrared sighting, fire and forget. <br /></span></span></p><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-unicode"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: large;">
I wonder how much Mavericks might help
Ukraine, while barely putting a dent in our
inventory?<br />
<br />
Give them some A-10s. 100 A-10s (out of 700
built) and 10,000 Mavericks and nobody will
give Ukraine a dirty look again.<br />
</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-86779639589318064672022-11-29T12:12:00.005-06:002022-11-29T12:59:59.218-06:00Elections, elections: that labor can't lose<p><span style="font-size: large;">Why go through all the ups and downs and in and outs -- yada, yada, yada -- and rounds and rounds of labor organizing?<br /><br />Let your elected legislators do all the hard work for you. <br /><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a> <br /><br />All you have to do is show up on election days and vote.<br /> * * * * * *<br /><br />When are progressives going to wake up to the political possibilities federally mandated cert/recert/decert votes, maybe every four years?<br /><br />Pushing this issue takes no huge financing -- the central impact on most people's lives comparing to the impact of 1960s anti-segregation impact on minorities alone.<br /><br />All we need do is talk up the proposal in venues we usually inhabit and watch the political wild fire cross the country.<br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-18878683862648343412022-11-15T18:52:00.022-06:002022-11-17T18:22:39.884-06:00Should prescribing Zolpidem/Ambien be moved mostly to the realm of psychiatrists?<p><span style="font-size: large;">I have come to believe that prescribing Zolpidem/Ambien ought to be reallocated mostly to the realm of psychiatrists -- because psychiatrists have the training -- and the inclination -- to do the necessary work up and careful follow up -- and primary doctors, more and more clearly in my hearing, definitely do not.<br /><br />The clear trend in the "physical illness” medical field – I hear about it over and over – is of medical doctors zapping long running prescriptions for Zolpidem without so much as a five minute, intelligent discussion about how much the withdrawal of their sleeping crutch may upset and or even upend patients' whole ways of life.<br /><br />Logically, one would think that interruption of a long running, successful treatment for a seriously debilitating “condition" (we don’t use the word “illness" here) should necessitate a careful work up and follow up.<br /><br />It is not like there seems available any routine Zolpidem substitute, like switching from antibiotic to antibiotic. Therein lies the patients’ dreaded rub. Candidate substitutes all seem to introduce serious (yucky feeling) drug hangovers for maybe the first half of patients waking hours. Alternately, patients can spend all their waking hours in a sleep deprived haze (w/o drug).<br /><br />I mostly need help getting my last two hours of sleep. I take a 3-4mg dose cut from a Zolpidem tablet after the first five hours and wake up 2 hours later bright eyed and bushy tailed – zero, ZERO, drug hang over.<br /><br />Five minutes after I wake up I feel perfectly fit to drive a car. Logistically perfect. Doctors will fret that the “hypnotic” is still in your blood stream even if you cannot sense anything like that – causing you to make mistakes even if you feel perfect.<br /><br />After trying one Zolpidem “substitute" (Mirtazapine) I made one major driving error and had to concentrate hard to avoid two others -- two days after I downed it! But, <i>intellectually I had no problem knowing I was doing some things very wrong</i>. Ditto, if I drive on five hours sleep -- I am definitely aware that I am a bit short on patience and judgment. 12 years on Zolpidem; I have never received any “intellectual” message that I am driving incorrectly because of the drug.<br /><br />So a close look at me, anyway, would seem to obviate extra driving accident concerns. <br /><br />Even if Zolpidem doubled my accident risk – on the road or slipping and breaking my knee in the kitchen – I prefer that to enduring a drug hangover half the day (from a “substitute”) or to living in a sleep deprived daze all day – every day of my life in my case. I know; I recently did four miserable months alternating between all day sleepiness and half day gradually shedding the feeling of being hit by a truck. That half day was what I lived for. <br /><br />My OTC “substitute” was Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) – recently reported to bestow the maximum risk of developing dementia.<br /><a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/288546">https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/288546</a> <br /><br />But, this is the caliber of workup and follow up detail that psychiatrists are primed to ferret out.<br /><br />Memory loss? Zolpidem doesn’t make you forget anything you have learned already – or anything new about how things work together. Less than 1% of users have clinically significant memory loss (whatever that means).<br /><br />Somebody should do a study of 1000 insomnia patients who have been bumped off Zolpidem (most, probably without discussion) – and 1000 who had their dose halved (probably from 10mg to 5 mg) – to see how deep an effect this may have had on their lives, <i>up close and personal</i>.<br /><br />But, this is the caliber of follow up that psychiatrists are primed for. (Did I say that already?)<br /><br />In one internet conversation, a patient was panicking. He had previously been out of work for three years because he couldn’t sleep. Now, after a year and a half on Zolpidem, his doctor was leaving and he was afraid he couldn’t get his prescription renewed (I've been there). Do you think his doctors realized that they were denying him everything else in his life – job, ability to raise a family, pay for entertainment – to make him safer from slipping and breaking his knee in the kitchen? Did they think all that through?<br /><br />I have seen one chart (link below) that shows annual Zolpidem prescriptions have dropped from 45 million to 10 million from 2012 to 2020. Does that mean that 35 million Americans are now walking around in drug hangovers for hours, or in a sleep deprived hazes all day – in insomnia periods? Could that be? (The chart is at the end of a blog post mostly on another topic.)<br /><a href="https://jabberwocking.com/health-update-21/">https://jabberwocking.com/health-update-21/</a> <br /><br />I am nothing if not grandiose. I envision the day when everyone can go down a checklist that identifies whether or not they likely have what is known as insomnia – and 50 or 60 million patients are taking Zolpidem.</span><br /><br /></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-52640283713672266772022-10-09T11:29:00.021-05:002022-11-29T12:21:51.614-06:00 Zolpidem users: a debilitating surprise awaits at 65<p><span style="font-size: large;">I took Zolpidem (a.k.a., Ambien) for 12 years. Last spring my doctor cut off my prescription without discussion. Around the same time my brother's doctor cut his prescription from 10mg to 5mg without discussion. At same time a fellow employee of my brother had her prescription cut off – without discussion also, I believe. Same time frame, I was refused a prescription for Zolpidem by an online nurse practitioner.<br /><br />I cannot imagine a sufferer of, say, migraine headaches being treated in such a neglectful way -- in such an unscientific way -- to be left without treatment for a seriously debilitating condition (insomnia) without even a sit-down discussion.<br /><br />What’s apparently scaring the doctors off is stats building up about accidents (at home and on the road) for the elderly – reported memory problems (for the great majority, including me nothing especially severe) and reports of strange behaviors (e.g., sleep driving) on Zolpidem. Doctors seem to jump away from these daunting side effects with an almost Pavlovian response – without ever considering that for insomnia there is no other sleep aid that does not have a half or all day after drug cloud to live with.<br /><br />I DON’T WANT TO BE PROTECTED FROM FALLS IN THE KITCHEN AT THE EXPENSE OF LIVING MY LIFE IN SOME KIND OF HANGOVER MIASMA. That’s the issue our doctors somehow seem to miss wholeheartedly with UNIQUELY hangover free Zolpidem.<br /><br />I speculate that is because – what I call the physical doctors; as opposed to the psychiatric practitioners -- can't measure insomnia; can't weigh it, can't take its temperature, can't sew it up, wouldn’t know where to sew it back – insomnia doesn’t really exist for them.<br /><br />IOW, nobody’s knocking to ask them to open their motivational door – not nobody home; nobody even knocking – on a deep motivational level. So they don’t even get around to the purely scientific level that they are so deeply trained on.<br /><br />There are 38 million Americans on Zolpidem – 85% of all sleep aid prescriptions. [At around 2012 -- down to just above10 million by 2020 -- see post above.] Are we going to take all of them off their most practical (no hanging on-hangover) and effective sleep aid just when they need it most? For my part I am going to seek a prescription from a psychiatrist. I am very optimistic. I think that with a doctor for whom insomnia is a tangible, palpable, corporeal thing – the argument against being consigned to a life in the miasma to protect against falls in the kitchen – or just losing sleep every night -- will be very compelling.<br /><br />Notes: I can cut a 10mg tablet in three parts – and take one whatever time of night I can’t sleep. Only had five hours sleep? Take one piece: 25-45-50: 25 minutes to act-45 minute blank brain (unless I want to think about something)-50 minutes to waking, bright eyed and bushy tailed.<br /><br />If I drive without taking the drug (after five hours sleep) I can feel less concentration and patience. No such lack of clarity if I take the drug as little as two hours earlier. If I were making druggie “mistakes” I would intellectually know it.<br /><br />Note: My time-fitting (4 hours sleep to go) nights, OTC substitute -- Diphenhydramine: <a href="https://healthunlocked.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.medicalnewstoday.com%2Farticles%2F288546%23Taking-anticholinergics-for-more-than-3-years-linked-to-higher-dementia-risk">https://healthunlocked.com/redirect?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.medicalnewstoday.com%2Farticles%2F288546%23Taking-anticholinergics-for-more-than-3-years-linked-to-higher-dementia-risk</a></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">I also wake up from Diphenhydramine feeling like I’ve been hit by a truck. Great.</span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-39074118470719527262022-07-01T12:21:00.014-05:002022-08-16T21:32:59.086-05:00Insubstantial Due Process -- what Roe never said<p><span style="font-size: large;"> “One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgment on which it rests is nowhere to be found.” (HLR, Vol 87: 1, p 7 – Laurence Tribe)<br /><br />Roe enshrined bodily privacy in constitutional theory -- seemingly no one takes exception to that today. Roe went on to proclaim it takes a "compelling state interest" for a law to override fundamental privacy.<br /><br />Then Roe fudged.<br /><br />“One reads this passage several times before becoming convinced that nothing has been inadvertently omitted.”<br /><br />‘ … the compelling" point is at viability. This is so because the fetus then presumably has the capability of meaningful life outside the mother's womb. State regulation … after viability thus has both logical and biological justifications.’ </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">“Truly, this mistakes a 'definition for a syllogism' and offers no reason at all for what the Court has held." (Ibid. p 4 -- quoting John Hart Ely, YLJ 1973 April; 82: p 924)<br /><br />The Roe majority took upon itself what would correctly be be seen as a legislative job -- matching the compelling interest standard to the stages of prenatal development -- as opposed to interpreting words of law. There being no consensus on the worth or rights of fetuses "deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition" -- the Roe majority found itself out in substantive-sorting land all by its lonesome. <br /><br />But instead of coming back with a substantive delineation of prenatal life (v. privacy) -- Roe served up a fiat trimester policy that gave prochoice nearly everything it wanted.<br /><br />Roe disguised its baked-in substantive holdings on fetuses by not articulating any one in any part. <br /> <br />What will any future Supreme Court be able to say once medical technology enables extracting a fetus temporarily from the womb and then returning it to complete its gestation -- when the cosmic question is legal personhood in the womb?<br /><br />Coming soon?!</span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-57531818038162916442022-02-17T18:09:00.009-06:002022-04-07T17:01:33.204-05:00Putin's nostalgia for a past that never was <p><span style="font-size: large;">Putin — and many Russians I suppose — long for the days when Russia was considered a great power. Some great power. An all time crackpot economic system — an all time oversized police state (never forget J.S. Stalin at its worst) — and what little economic surplus they could eke out (compared to modern countries) wildly squandered on a military that looked ready for a Mars attack.<br /><br />180 armored divisions — 1st category, 75% active, 25% reserve, ready in a week, 2nd category, 50%/50%, ready in a month, 3rd category, 25%/75%, ready in three months. Components of 90 tank divisions (compared to central NATO's 30 armored, fully mobilized), active, ready to go any time (!) — could actually man 50,000 tanks in the field. Almost 10,000 jet fighters, 300 plus submarines (mostly conventional). <br /><br />All out of the pitiful economic base.<br /><br />Visions of communist Russia's military behemoth (more like a gigantic Arab army in quality) must be what feeds the historic mirage of “the great power” in Vladimir's mind. Forgetting the backwards, creaky foundation of that force, he remembers only its crazily over expanded muscle — in his autocratic ignorance.<br /><br /><br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-31585060447413036832022-01-16T14:19:00.034-06:002022-04-04T15:30:10.930-05:00An 800 pound guerrilla (USRA*) can liberate Afghanistan<p><span style="font-size: large;">Liberate twenty million Afghan women from house arrest and all Afghan adults and children from the threat of catastrophic starvation ...<br /><br />… possibly without taking a single Allied casualty.<br /><br />The Taliban military – if you want to call it that – does not possess a single tank, no more than a few abandoned Russian artillery barrels nor one attack helicopter. From the military prowess standpoint the Taliban clocks in as no better than a national crime gang. Their most powerful weapons are automatic personal weapons and shoulder fired rockets.<br /><br />Taliban non popular support: David Brooks said on PBS News Hour: “ ... one of the good things that has happened in the Middle East over the last several years is that people have taken a look at the Taliban, and they hate it. A survey of 11 countries, Muslim countries, only 13 percent of positive views about the Taliban.” I’m guessing back in Afghan home that might come in at more like 5 percent.<br /><a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-kabul-attack-jan-6-investigation-voting-rights">https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/brooks-and-capehart-on-kabul-attack-jan-6-investigation-voting-rights</a><br /> * * * * * *<br /><br />The thing is this: if our military moved back in there – with the promise to leave their so-called military alone as long as they leave ours alone – the Afghan government couldn't do much of anything about it. If they picked a fight with any regular army, they'd be smashed. They would have no incentive to militarily oppose our landings – as long as we did not land in downtown Kabul.<br /><br />If we can move 120,000 refugees out in two weeks, without planning, we can move 100,000 soldiers and aviators back in in a similar time frame. Say we take Bagram airbase back. Their fighters would be free to leave – they may take their weapons with them.<br /><br />Once, having set up a few bases the Taliban cannot attack without 100% casualties, we could get down to the business of deploying the “second government" – the knows-what-it's-doing, competent (and well funded) government. First priority, distribute the necessities of life (likely with international NGO and UN org help). What could the would-be Afghan military do but look on in envy?<br /><br />Next comes popular revolt? – in stages? The women especially – having been introduced to what I call “Zoom World”; and now demanding the same advantages, everyone everywhere else enjoys – were the first out of the box protesting the return of Taliban oppression and will now have their nerve reinforced.<br /><br />40,000,000 Afghans v. 100,000 very unpopular weirdos -- 40 to 1 modernizing population v. crackpot police state. 100,000 Allied troops just hanging around v. 100, 000 can’t-do-anything-about-us-hanging-around hated screwballs. Sprinkling 50 M-1 tanks around symbolically – no real use – could further depress and frustrate Taliban leadership. Sounds like an untenable social mixture for them – unstable politically to say the least – encouraging upheaval?<br /><br />Think about this the next time the media finds time to notice the bloated stomachs and prominent rib cages of Afghan children. Where does an 800 pound guerilla sit? Anywhere it wants to. <br /> <br />(*United States Regular Army)<br /><br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-15783701970414266812021-11-15T12:29:00.003-06:002021-11-15T12:30:46.830-06:00 What to teach about slavery, Jim Crow and (so-called) inequality?<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Most Americans of 1789 might as well have been living in 789 as far as their ability to do anything about slavery -- for most of recorded civilization the glue holding societies together on dry land was the horse. The rail road and the telegraph and 360,000 dead Union soldiers (appox. one in five military age males killed or severely wounded!) -- and post-industrial America brought an end to that.<br /><br />Came Jim Crow -- and waves of new Americans. Paddy and Giuseppe and Chan had their own problems. TV and MLK and LBJ were needed to finally put an end to that.<br /><br />Came so-called "inequality" (to most Americans this word sounds like a race problem from the 50s). When I explained our labor market to my late brother John, he came back with, "Martin Luther King got his people on the up escalator, just in time for it to start going down for everybody."<br /><br />At last, put all races on the same economic level:<br /><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a> <br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-62392336891535982572021-10-23T20:06:00.016-05:002021-10-28T00:55:28.101-05:00Who did COVID victims catch the virus from?<p><span style="font-size: large;"> Most all COVID patients in hospitals or on ventilators were put there by someone or someones who had not been vaccinated.<br /><br />Given that police officers are forced in their jobs to go into below average sanitary situations -- taking whatever they pick up with them into other less than optimum sanitary conditions -- could that make any police force into a"super-spreader force", if not vaccinated? Nothing snarky intended.<br /> *<br />Risk of taking the vaccine -- exact numbers unnecessary:<br />Let's just say half our population (cradle to grave) have gotten the vaccine -- 165 million -- at least one dose. How many died from those needles? Not even 100 died? Be a gigantic story, if they did!<br />Let's just say one-quarter of our population -- 80 million -- has been exposed to the virus to the point where their immune system reacted. 700,000+ died.<br />Best odds?<br /> *<br />Those who wait for "more research" to judge the vaccine by will likely out wait the pandemic by the time their curiosity is satisfied -- will essentially wait for every epidemic to pass by before they ever get vaccinated. Smart.<br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-72897490970770051782021-10-09T01:01:00.017-05:002021-12-06T18:33:38.909-06:00"Dark City" labor market<p><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Imagine a world where buying consumer goods takes place only on Mon-Tue-Wed-Thur-Fri — and — cashing pay checks done only on Sat-Sun. (I just viewed <i>Dark City</i>, so I am in the mood for such a model.)<br /><br />Typical employers like Target and Walgreens average 12.5% labor costs — outliers WalMart and fast food have 7% and 25% labor costs. Say, in <b>one-single </b>Mon-thru-Fri week, lower 40% pay employees double wages on average -- up 50% at fast food, up 2 1/2 X at Walmart.<br /><br />Consumer prices for goods produced by lower income workers have to rise about 12.5% across the board — demand falls 12.5% for lower pay produced goods …<br /><br />… <b>on that particular</b> Mon-thru-Fri.<br /><br />Sat comes; lower cost workers pick up their doubled pay — for producing possibly fewer goods — Mon-thru-Fri haven’t dawned yet.<br /><br />Mon comes; lower pay workers take the extra money squeezed from consumers to market to purchase goods and services — probably proportionately more on goods produced by lower wage workers. Demand for lower pay produced goods rises more than 12.5%. <br /><br /><br />Put this eight-grade, market math to work for everybody whose labor the consumer might agree is worth more:<br /><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a> <br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-5439203461273611102021-10-04T11:24:00.022-05:002022-08-18T12:30:38.273-05:00Joe Manchin's phoney trillion dollar trilogy.<p><span style="font-size: large;"> $5.4 trillion over six months -- compares to $3.5 trillion over ten years -- how? <br /><br />Even if we were leaving the bill for our grand kids -- GDP $20 trillion a year today -- 50% more population -- 50% more per capita income -- $45 trillion econ output 40 years from now (two generations). Meantime $3.5 trillion sinks to $1 trillion with inflation. Just saying.<br /><br />Can't pay for Social Security today, Joe? Trust Fund depleting? Wanna build another Trust Fund for future? Trust Funds make a lot of sense: you raise taxes decades earlier when the economy is less productive and the nation is less populous. Then, you keep taxes lower in the future when we are more productive and more over crowded. Smart.<br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-13041810387988994232021-10-01T12:29:00.020-05:002021-10-04T11:31:47.681-05:00 South Vietnam won the war – at first<p><span style="font-size: large;">(1) If we believe Richard Sorely’s 1999 book, <i>A Better War</i>, by mid-1972, the poor bedraggled South Vietnamese villagers, with about half the obsolescent American weapons they could have used, had so reduced their poor bedraggled Viet Cong counterparts that an American ambassador could travel the countryside without escort.<br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Better-War-Unexamined-Victories-Americas/dp/0156013096">https://www.amazon.com/Better-War-Unexamined-Victories-Americas/dp/0156013096</a><br /><br />(2) This in turn made it impossible for Northern main forces to conceal their caches of food, medicine and ammunition delivered down the Ho Chi Minh trail– their main force soldiers were eating grass. <br /><br />(3) Which in turn prodded North Vietnam to send every last soldier it had left at home – 200,000 – down south in an old fashioned conventional tank and artillery assault in a desperate attempt to relieve -- thrown back with 50% casualties.<br /><br />The defending infantry were exclusively Vietnamese -- aided by American logistical, air and intelligence support.<br /><br />Three years later North Vietnam blitzed its way through South Vietnam in three months. With three more years to shape up, the South should have been even more ready. What happened? No American logistical, air, intelligence and financial support. <br /><br />We had taken our bat and ball and gone home. After losing 60,000 American lives and spending hundreds of billions of dollars we wouldn’t even give South Vietnam the money to finish the job …<br /><br />… craziest thing I’ve seen in my life.<br /><br />Cannot fault Southern spirit:<br />“On the road to Saigon at Xuan Loc, an ordinary South Vietnamese unit, the 18th Division, fought battle-hardened North Vietnamese regulars backed by tanks, trucks, and artillery to a standstill for two full weeks. Not only did those South Vietnamese soldiers take heavy casualties, with more than a third of their men killed or wounded, but they held their positions through those long days of “meat-grinder” combat until the enemy had to circle around them to reach the capital.”<br /><a href="https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/09/the-winner-in-afghanistan-china.html">https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/09/the-winner-in-afghanistan-china.html</a><br /><br />According to Frank Snepp’s 1977 book, <i>Decent Interval</i>, we had someone on the North Vietnamese politburo and they had voted to throw in the towel (not sure the timeline here) – but when they in time caught on that the South was rationing artillery rounds, etc., they decided to start up again – with the well known result.<br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Decent-Interval-Frank-Snepp-dp-0394407431/dp/0394407431/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1633025165">https://www.amazon.com/Decent-Interval-Frank-Snepp-dp-0394407431/dp/0394407431/ref=mt_other?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1633025165</a> <br /><br />The decision year. In 1965, our knees were still knocking over two little countries almost taking over the world 20 years earlier. Now, the two biggest countries in the world were (very vocally) coming to get us (“We will bury you”). It may look 10 X more dangerous than it should when it’s coming at you, but at that time but we were plenty scared (think Korea).<br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-27541518608196129692021-09-26T18:32:00.022-05:002022-03-08T11:36:48.483-06:00How to handle flying Mt. Everest -- Att: Bruce Willis ;-)<p><span style="font-size: large;"> If you explode a fission device in the closed end of a 10 foot long cardboard tube, in about 20 nanoseconds the entire blast should have exited the open end.<br /><br />Kosta Tsipis weapons tutorial: <i>Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists</i>, early 80s: 99% of the energy of fission explosion is released in the last 8 nanoseconds. Photons, which are the main output of the device travel 10 feet in 10 nanoseconds. Hence, about 20 nanoseconds.<br /><br />Richard Rhodes' 1995 book <i>Dark Sun</i>, on first page behind first set of photos: diagram illustrating the successive stages of a thermonuclear explosion. The force of the fission blast at one end reflects off the walls down to the opposite end where it compresses another plutonium device to critical mass. Trapped between two fission explosions, tritium-deuterium atoms are heated fusion temperature -- whence they release left over protons from the t-d fusion into helium.<br /><br />This fusion reaction would peter out to less than a kiloton -- if the whole device were not wrapped in reactor grade uranium which explodes upon being bombarded with the left over protons -- which latter reaction feeds back and forth, back and forth until the process plays itself out.<br /><br />The idea is that cardboard or steel sides of a fission device cannot move 186,000 miles a second to get out of the way of a nuclear explosion. You could contain a nuclear explosion for several nanoseconds by wrapping it in toilet paper.<br /> * * * * * *<br /><br />While watching the movie <i>Armageddon</i> it occurred to me that the NASA characters might be able to rely upon the cardboard tube model to nudge the asteroid away (not one the size of Texas or course [!]; just the standard dinosaur wipe out-6 mile wide model).<br /><br />If a fission bomb embedded down a hole can release 99% of its energy without breaking up the asteroid the next question would be how much thrust will the fission exhaust alone create since it is not blowing out much of the asteroid mass. Multiply how much of matter in the bomb will be turned to energy and by the speed of light, squared; and that will give us our thrust -- I guess.<br /><br />Now, we just have to find somebody who knows what they are doing to answer that -- or tell us that the whole idea is bulloks. ??? :-O<br /><br />Noto bene: cannot use a hydrogen bomb for this purpose because the back and forth fusion/fission process is self contained -- and will get around to taking out part of the asteroid. <br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-32939217870702285212021-08-29T00:54:00.035-05:002021-08-29T13:04:15.286-05:0050% of Afghans horrified by Taliban -- not counting males<p><span style="font-size: large;"> 20 years gave "Zoom world" plenty of time to touch base in Afghanistan -- time to touch that deepest cord of innate behavior: equal social status -- which translates to having the same freedoms (e.g., democracy) as the rest of the world.<br /><br />David Brooks: "A survey of 11 countries, Muslim countries, only 13% have positive views about the Taliban." (PBS NewsHour, Fri, 8/27)<br /><br />50% of Afghans are horrified by the Taliban -- not counting males.<br /><br />David Brooks again: " ... and so at a time when liberal democracy is beginning to have a little momentum and theocracy is taking some blows ... "<br /><br />Could we be snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in front of the entire thug theocracy world?<br /><br />(See also: Adam Tooze, Don’t Abandon Afghanistan’s Economy Too, <a href="http://click1.crm.foreignpolicy.com/chtccnzmzhcftttgfghnqfkzsdfnnkmgqgtmdqlgmtcld_dhcrjdsjftmhgtsddgg.html?a=35816&b=Editors+Picks+OC&c=35816">http://click1.crm.foreignpolicy.com/chtccnzmzhcftttgfghnqfkzsdfnnkmgqgtmdqlgmtcld_dhcrjdsjftmhgtsddgg.html?a=35816&b=Editors+Picks+OC&c=35816</a> )</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">(See also: Mona Tajali, “Hear Our Cries”: What Terrifies an Afghan Women’s Rights Activist, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/world/interview-afghanistan-womens-rights/">https://www.thenation.com/article/world/interview-afghanistan-womens-rights/</a> ) </span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-27395571507723874632021-05-06T18:53:00.009-05:002021-05-19T13:27:24.182-05:00Take American labor -- and America -- off the road to serfdom<p><span style="font-size: large;">The PRO Act would add some teeth to the toothless NLRA ($50,000-100,000 fines for retaliating against union organizers) and pull some teeth from Taft-Hartley (take down right-to-work laws). Does anybody expect this would magically triple union density from today’s 6.5% in private (non-gov) economy to 20% — even while 50% want to join a union? When private union density was 20%, McDonald’s, Target, Walgreen’s and Walmart were not unionized. We want them all unionized this time around, don’t we? <br /><br />Half the Prime delivery drivers whose opinion I seek about federally mandated, regularly scheduled union elections (cert/recert/decert) at every private workplace have no idea in the world what I am talking about. I guess they are from the other 50%. They are intelligent; it seems they live in a time and place that has largely forgotten what a labor union even looks like.<br /><br />The 50% who remember would kill for regularly scheduled cert/recert/decert elections. <br /><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a><br /><br />Only the promise of mandated cert/recert/decert elections could claw back enough Obama/Trump voters to safely swamp any Republican efforts to steal the coming elections (by putting the dominant political party in charge of counting votes for instance: the real road to serfdom). <br /><br />New York Times numbers guru Nate Cohn:<br /><b>“But pinning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)”</b><br /><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html</a><br /><br />The PRO Act is not going to start an Obama/Trump voter stampede for Republican Party exits. But, federally obliged, labor union election cycles are just what today’s democracy deprived American workers would recognize they overwhelmingly need.<br /> * * * * * * * * * * * *<br /><br /><b>[cut-and-paste from: Which Side Are You on?: Trying to Be for Labor When It's Flat on Its Back by Thomas Geoghegan]<br />First, [Taft-Hartley] ended organizing on the grand, 1930s scale. It outlawed mass picketing, secondary strikes of neutral employers, sit downs: in short, everything [Congress of Industrial Organizations founder John L.] Lewis did in the 1930s.<br /> <br />And Taft-Hartley led to the “union-busting” that started in the late 1960s and continues today. It started when a new “profession” of labor consultants began to convince employers that they could violate the Wagner Act, fire workers at will, fire them deliberately for exercising their legal rights, and nothing would happen. The Wagner Act had never had any real sanctions. … So why hadn’t employers been violating the Wagner Act all along? Well, at first, in the 1930s and 1940s, they tried, and they got riots in the streets: mass picketing, secondary strikes, etc. But after Taft-Hartley, unions couldn’t retaliate like this, or they would end up with penalty fines and jail sentences.<br />[snip]</b><br /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1565848861?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1565848861">http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1565848861?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1565848861</a> <br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-77333152995635348502021-02-25T11:13:00.016-06:002021-03-12T00:04:18.938-06:00Higher min wage makes more (low wage) jobs? -- Cert/recert/decert as "you like"<p><span style="font-size: large;"> For states that already have $12.50 minimum wages, waiting out four years to reach a $15 federal minimum wage won't soften job impact – because not much to soften. A 20% pay raise for a firm with typical 10%-15% labor costs could add about 2.5% to products prices (20% X 12.5%). </span><span style="font-size: large;"><br /> <br />For $7.25 minimum wage states, doubling pay to $15 could force firms with 25% labor costs (e.g., fast food), to jump prices 25%. But even if that incurred 25% jobs losses, employees as a group would be only too happy to be 50% ahead in pay overall (200% X .75).<br /><br />If lower 40 percentile wage earners (all who below $15 an hour) sell less stuff to the upper 60%, but for more money overall, their accordingly greater spending will in effect employ more jobholders than before – while the 60% will in effect employ fewer jobholders. <br /><a href="http://fortune.com/2015/04/13/who-makes-15-per-hour/">http://fortune.com/2015/04/13/who-makes-15-per-hour/</a> (2015, pay wall)<br /> * * * * * * <br /><br />We have to go back seven decades to find a federal minimum wage that is albeit a dollar higher than today’s minimum: $8.35 in 1950 (inflation adjusted)!<br /><a href="https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=.75&year1=195001&year2=202101">https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=.75&year1=195001&year2=202101</a> <br /><br />We would have to go almost as far back – to the 50s and 60s -- to find a level of labor union density that could wring (as in extract) fair share for employees out of the labor (consumer) market. <br /><br />Meanwhile blue collar workers are running for the Democratic Party exits at a pace threatening to remake Republican demographics look more like Democratic demographics of the 50s and 60s. Blue collar voters switching to Republican, last ten years: White 45% to 57%, Hispanic 23% to 30%, Black 5% to 9%.<br />(Meet the Press, Data Download – 2/21/21, 39:07 to 41:14)<br /><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKm7Iry5brA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKm7Iry5brA</a> <br /><br />A healthy rich country labor market being so far in their (our) rear view mirrors that nobody even guesses (remembers) what’s critically missing anymore -- unions! Build back every bit as much labor union density as we “feel like" as quick as “we like":<br /><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a><br /><br />A union is a business. You should be able to open any union business you “feel like" as easily as any other business: just apply for a license for most businesses; just vote in regularly scheduled cert/recert/decert elections in all private workplaces for union businesses.<br /><br />Better act in a hurry to restore these folks' sense of their own power over their own existences -- before the next would be American Mussolini turns out to be less of a buffoonish fool (who nevertheless got 74 million votes). <br /> </span></p><p></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-10107579051546724822021-01-30T11:47:00.013-06:002021-01-30T11:53:51.836-06:00Fed min wage a dollar short of 1950! -- five dollars short of 1968!<p><span style="font-size: large;"> The trouble with expecting a whole lot of social progress from raising the minimum wage is that the hourly pay cannot be pegged above what the bottom of the barrel union contract would be – above organized labor's weakest bargaining point.<br /><br />Taking $15 an hour as that bottom peg for argument’s sake, that would meant almost 40% of American workers are earning less than the weakest union contract would yield them.<br />(<a href="http://fortune.com/2015/04/13/who-makes-15-per-hour/">http://fortune.com/2015/04/13/who-makes-15-per-hour/</a> -- 2015)<br /><br />Check these out:<br /><a href="https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=0.75&year1=195001&year2=202012">https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=0.75&year1=195001&year2=202012</a> .75 8.31<br /><a href="https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1.60&year1=196802&year2=202012">https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=1.60&year1=196802&year2=202012</a> 1.60 12.19<br /><br />Never mind any bottom of the barrel pact -- 2012’s federal minimum wage is a dollar an hour short of the 1950 federal minimum (!) – and five dollars short of the 1968 (!) -- <b>been something like tripled per capita income since 1950 – doubled since 1968</b>.<br /> * * * * * *<br /><br />Why can't people just join a union if they want to -- why can't they just vote for certification freely in regularly scheduled elections?<br /><a href="https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/">https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/</a><br /><br /></span></p>Denis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com0