Tag Archives: SEIU

Again, Leftist hypocrites in California

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Leftists In A GroupJust as Barack Hussein Obama demanded everyone have ObamaKare — and then exempted the Executive branch and its employees as well as his “good friends” (read: campaign donors) like GE and various labor unions — so Fornicalia Leftists want a $15 an hour “working wage” exemption for themselves.

From the UKGuardian.com:

LA unions call for exemption from $15 minimum wage they fought for

by Jana Kasperkevic

Union leaders say measure could allow for better deals between businesses and labor, with benefits making up for potential lower wages

Los Angeles city council will hear a proposal on Tuesday to exempt union members from a $15 an hour minimum wage that the unions themselves have spent years fighting for.

The proposal for the exemption was first introduced last year, after the Los Angeles city council passed a bill that would see the city’s minimum wage increase to $15 by 2020. After drawing criticism last year, the proposed amendment was put on hold but is now up for consideration once again.

Union leaders argue the amendment would give businesses and unions the freedom to negotiate better agreements, which might include lower wages but could make up the difference in other benefits such as healthcare. They argue that such exemptions might make businesses more open to unionization.

Did you focus in on that last sentence?  This is a Leftist move to increase the size of labor unions — which have been diminishing over the years and with that diminishment, their power and influence — and is nothing more than a naked power grab under the guise of being conciliatory to businesses.

Let us not forget that Fornicalia Leftist Governor Jerry Brown signed a $15 per hour minimum wage increase just this month, saying with rare clarity and candor that the increase is a stupid economic move.

Economically, minimum wages may not make sense. But morally, socially, and politically they make every sense because it binds the community together to make sure parents can take care of their kids.

Catch that word “politically”?  That’s BrownSpeak for “it’ll help me get re-elected and make me look good for future jobs.”

Was there a reaction to the exemption?  Of course there was.

“It’s pretty hypocritical for unions to push a $15 wage law and then exempt themselves from the policy,” Matt Haller, senior vice-president of communications and public affairs at the International Franchise Association, said.

Considering the outcry, Hicks issued another statement last year saying that issues were “in need of further review”. He also pointed out that other cities in California, including San Jose, Oakland, Richmond, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Long Beach have included similar clauses exempting unions in their wage bills.

You see the difference?  Everyone else must conform to the law but unions are exempt.

Also at issue are the expanding “right-to-work” laws, which say that no employee can be required to pay any portion of union dues if they do not want to.  Absent those laws, unions are otherwise “closed shops”

Further, the Leftist Paradise known as Seattle is currently dealing with its own minimum wage increase issues.  It loses jobs and employees whilst surrounding King County benefits by picking up businesses.  Its employment is rising just as Seattle’s is decreasing.

What?  American Leftists being hypocrites?

Perish the thought.

BZ

 

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A moment of clarity about the The Realist

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BZ Logo For BlogI’ve received a few emails from lost souls who actually follow my blog (they must be the ones who also religiously clean their fish tanks and balance check books), and are asking about the new header and its meaning.  Actually, I received more emails about the new header than I’ve ever received in the history of the blog.

They all asked: so, what does “I am The Realist” mean?

I decided it was time to explain and clarify.

Yes, I am still the Bloviating Zeppelin.  I have been so since this blog’s inception on Blogger in 2004.  I have kept this blog running for 11 years now.  These days that is unheard of.  Most blogs last a few weeks or a month, if that, then are abandoned.  The Blogosphere is replete with the abandoned floating remnants of good intentions ignored.

BZ Beard Avatar 1But, in my 60+ years on the planet, never have I encountered times such as these, where the 180-Paradigm is so completely embraced.

That is to say: if something is good, wonderful, fantastic, honest, clear, loyal, brave, powerful, proud, supportive of the United States, you can be assured that the current administration will do or embrace the complete reverse.

I am so done with that.  I am done with receding, with subsuming, with parsing my words, with taking care, with hesitating, with trying to acquire a readership, with attempting to appeal to more readers.  I am in my 60s, my days are numbered, I am done with tolerance, with acceptance, with any form of political correctness.

Let me make this plain.  I have “mine.”  I purposely purchased food for me and my wife to continue living.  I have a water source.  I have a defensible cabin far away from population centers.  I have a bangstick and one bullet.  I have the mindset and the training and the education and experience to utilize all of these things when necessary.  Further, I have a modicum of fiscal security.  I may have been a cop, but I was not a stupid cop.

I planned for my retirement when I was only in my single digits.  Shame on you if you haven’t planned for your retirement.  It’s not my responsibility to take care of you, that you haven’t had the insight I had or if you’re stupid.  Which reemphasizes: I have “mine.”  If you weren’t equally smart then shame on you.  Which translates to: if I advocate against the GOPEE or take certain stands, it’s because I don’t so much mind if the nation collapses.  I am better off than 99% of the rest of the US.

I don’t have to equivocate or worry about what anyone thinks about me.  That, frankly, is rather liberating.  And, as The Realist, it’s time to yank the covers off the national bed and expose the soft white underbelly of politics.  Because I am done.

This nation is not going to survive “compromise.”  It is not going to survive “bipartisanship.”  It is not going to survive communal thoughts or bicameral decisions or deconfliction or Progressives or Socialists or Demorats or Leftists or the SEIU or illegal immigrants or Muslims or open borders.

It’s time to be a Realist.  It’s time to realize what can be done and what must be done.  It’s time for me to fish or cut bait.  It’s time to be even more plain than ever before.  Because, in my estimation, the literal life of this nation, this great nation, is literally on the line.

There are elements, many elements, that wish to see this nation go down in flames.  They exist from without but way too many of these elements exist from within the nation.  I must identify them, call them out, be Politically INcorrect, and use plain and coarse language.

It’s not about me.  As I said, I have “mine.”  I can survive when pushed against the wall.  Too many Americans cannot.  And too many Americans are stupid and dull and groomed for extinction.  They don’t realize that they are the frog in the boiling pot.  They are dulled by their television and their news and their indifference to life around them.  They cannot see two inches in front of their faces.  They have been groomed and petted and coddled to be the dullards they have turned out to be.  The Millennials are the worst.  And they are in for a massive shock.  They are the least prepared for it.

There is a huge societal “thump” coming.  It may be revealed in a physical sense, in a geographic sense, in a fiscal sense, in a budgetary sense, in a stock sense, in an internet sense, in a viral sense, in a technological sense.  Or all of these.

But there is a major “thump” coming and oh-so-very-few people are prepared.  With that in mind, I have to ratchet up my rhetoric because ratcheted-up rhetoric is about to be banned.

You doubt me?

Just you wait and see.

Hence: I am now The Realist.

I must be more clear than ever before.

BZ

 

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Future of $15 an hour “minimum wage” demands

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So here is your $15 an hour minimum wage future, idiots:

MINIMUM WAGE FUTUREGet used to it.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a nuclear physicist to push the CHEESEBURGER icon at McDonalds.  All it takes is another automated kiosk.  Translated: if you lack skills you’re easily replaceable by automation, human morons.

Anyone even remotely understand the word “margin” in terms of business?

BZ

 

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$15 points to ponder:

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Living Wage NowPeople across the United States seem to want a $15 per hour “minimum wage.”  This is literally twice the current federal minimum wage.

They don’t just want it, they are protesting (bankrolled by organized labor) and in some cases being arrested for it.

These persons believe that working at, say, a McDonald’s should be offered what is termed a “living wage.”  That is, a person should be able to possess a job at a McDonald’s and live on that wage, raise a family.

I suppose, in a world dotted with purple skies, a $15 “minimum wage” is a good place to start, coupled with free health care and various forms of additional welfare.

The problem becomes three-fold, however:

1. Few consider the actual consequences of various acts, and
2. Who pays and how much?
3. What are the societal results?

In terms of unintended or unforecasted consequences, they may already be occurring.  From the BusinessInsider.com:

Wal-Mart suddenly closed 5 stores and laid off thousands of workers and no one knows why

by Hayley Peterson

Wal-Mart suddenly closed five stores in four states on Monday for alleged plumbing problems.

Some employees believe that the stores were closed because of worker protests for higher pay.

Employees of the Pico Rivera store were among the first to hold Black Friday protests in 2012.

“This is the first store that went on strike,” an employee told CBS Los Angeles. “This is the first store in demanding changes for Walmart.”

I would tend to place this article into the “unintended consequences” portion of my story.

I don’t doubt for a moment that Walmart is closing these stores because they’re uninterested in catering to those persons seeking to fleece the company, by either wages or unionization.  They are of sufficient size that they can take the fiscal hit.  For a time.

Walmart is the largest single employer of persons in the United States, at 2.2 million.  Leftists despise “big” and they despise “corporations,” but fail to make the links between Capitalism, profits and freedom.  They fail to understand the concept that, as costs increase, businesses either pass these costs on to the consumer or they fail.  When businesses fail they stop providing jobs.  To you and me, this is a simple and obvious concept.  Not to Leftists, who believe that businesses have an obligation to lose money if such loss “benefits” certain strata of persons, as a societal onus.

Further, unionization is a desired outcome.  When unions flourish, the first thing they do is enable a closed shop and force union dues.  When you’re an undersea welder making $26 to $50 an hour, or a port crane operator making $82.15 an hour in NYC, you can pretty much afford your dues.  But with a cheeseburger icon prodder or a burger wrapper making the desired $15 an hour, dues are going to hurt.  And you’re not going to get a choice.

In Seattle, a bastion of Leftism, businesses are shuttering doors in anticipation of the minimum wage boost.  Why?  Because small businesses can’t, literally, afford it.

Further, just why is it that commuter airline pilots make roughly $15 to $20 an hour and — yet — unskilled workers pushing the CHEESEBURGER icon at McDonald’s expect to be paid a similar wage rate?  I find that a ridiculous disparity on any number of levels.

Let’s be frank for just a moment, shall we?

Minimum wage positions were meant to be nothing more than introductory jobs, easing new workers into the ranks of the employed, getting them used to punching a time clock, appearing for work on time, being dependable, responsible, answerable to a higher authority, learning a preliminary skill, basic societal and business competence.

Let us also admit that not everyone was issued precisely alike from the factory.  Some persons — and I’m sure you know your fair share — simply don’t have the inclination or the capability to perform certain jobs.  In other words, they’re blithering idiots.  Perhaps it’s your brother, your nephew, a co-worker or even your boss.  You wouldn’t trust them to clean your toilet reliably and with acumen, much less what they’re doing now.  Unless they are doing nothing.

Therein lies another rub.  Actors ask: what is my character’s “motivation” in a certain scene, movie or play?  There exists a strata of human clotted clag that simply lacks motivation, goals and aspirations.  They are perfectly satisfied with doing nothing,  accomplishing nothing, and expect to be paid and comforted for it.  These people are drones.  Their numbers are increasing daily because, for no other reason, various governments encourage such behavior — such as the federal government and your state government.  In my case, Fornicalia.  Fornicalia is a Drone’s and Illegal’s Paradise.  It is also a psychologically-damaged and developmentally-disabled magnet.

Many people now say, however, that these unskilled workers are working two or three like jobs in order to provide for their families.  Taken off these jobs or kept at a lower wage, these workers would actually cost the taxpayer more than if businesses would simply ante up to a $15 per hour scale.

This is a false argument.

Minimum wage jobs were meant to be introductory jobs only, not jobs for life.  The wages for these jobs were and are commensurate with the skills and education necessary to perform them.  I made $5.79 an hour as a deputy sheriff in Fornicalia in 1978, putting my life at risk every day.  I considered myself lucky to have the job at all.  And yet, at the time, the minimum wage was $2.90.  There was no way I could afford a house in that coastal county — they were beginning at $100,000.  Way over my capability to purchase.

So guess what?  I didn’t purchase a house.  I didn’t purchase an ATV, a motorcycle, a recreational vehicle, a motorcycle, and I didn’t carry a balance on my credit card.  And yet, oddly enough, I survived and then thrived because I stuck it out.  Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I stuck it out.  I refused to extend myself and place myself into a budgetarily-precarious position.

Self control.

What a concept.

So pass that $15-per-hour minimum wage, Leftists, and let’s just see where it gets those workers it was meant to “protect.”

It is not business’s job to lose money.

BZ

 

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Do you know Barack Hussein Obama II?

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Information you likely did not know.

And you ask: “why does it seem as though Mr Obama sympathizes with Muslims and dislikes Israel, Jews, and Benjamin Netanyahu?”

I think you may have formulated your own answer.

BZ

 

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