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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 21, 2022 at 12:10 am
Have you noticed how every American employer has suddenly become a “job creator”?
At least, that’s the official Republican line.
But if that’s true:
- Why are so many employers not hiring at all?
- Or, if they are hiring, why aren’t they hiring American workers?
- Why are they hiring mostly part-time employees on a no-benefits basis?
- Why are so many employers shutting down American plants but starting new ones in China, Mexico or the Philippines?
A September 20, 2021 article in Recode—“Why Everybody’s Hiring But No One Is Getting hired”—explains “America’s broken hiring system.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that 6.6 million potential workers are unemployed—and a record 10.9 million jobs open.
Why?
“For some of the jobs available, people don’t have the right skills, or at least the skills employers say they’re looking for. Other jobs are undesirable — they offer bad pay or an unpredictable schedule, or just don’t feel worth it to unemployed workers, many of whom are rethinking their priorities.
“In some cases, there are a host of perfectly acceptable candidates and jobs out there, but for a multitude of reasons, they’re just not being matched.”
Throughout the United States, “help wanted” signs can be seen virtually everywhere. “But just because a bar or restaurant or gas station wants a worker doesn’t mean a worker wants to work for them. The millions of jobs available aren’t necessarily millions of jobs people want.”
And what makes these jobs undesirable?
Low pay, unpredictable schedules, no benefits, no long-term stability—as well as the employer practice of hiring one person to do the work of 10.
Yet countless employers whine to the media: “Nobody wants to work anymore.”
Countless job-seekers who do want to work are locked out of it by the computerized “résumé readers” employed by many companies. Many of the résumés submitted are automatically rejected—because they lack certain keywords that have been programmed into the software.
A classic example: Software scans for registered nurses with computer programming skills—when they just need data entry.
Finally, a lot of employers simply don’t want to hire.
An article in the March, 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest gives the lie to the excuses so many employers use for refusing to hire.
Entitled “22 Secrets HR Won’t Tell You About Getting a Job,” it lays bare many of the reasons why America needs to legally force employers to demonstrate as much responsibility for hiring as job-seekers are expected to show toward searching for work.
Among the truths it reveals:
TRUTH NO: 1: After you’re unemployed more than six months, employers consider you unemployable.
TRUTH NO. 2: It’s not what but who you know that counts.
TRUTH NO. 3: Try to avoid HR. Find someone in the company you know. If you don’t know anyone, contact the hiring manager.
TRUTH NO. 4: Cover letters are often ignored, going directly into “the round file.”
TRUTH NO. 5: Employers judge you on the basis of your email address. Avoid the type that reads: “Igetdrunkandparty.”
![350+ Devil Images [HQ] | Download Free Pictures On Unsplash](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQfdBZW4AJK3RzxdzVZk5WdK0KLxF9CMmyykA&usqp=CAU)
TRUTH NO. 6: You’re not protected against age discrimination. Many employers regularly ignore the law. Are you in your 50s or 60s? Leave your year of graduation off your resume.
TRUTH NO: 7: Just because it’s illegal to discriminate against applicants who have children does not mean you’re safe. Many employers try to screen out parents—such as by checking cars for child safety seats.
TRUTH NO. 8: It’s harder to get a job if you’re fat, since fat people are usually assumed to be lazy.
TRUTH NO. 9: Make sure you give the interviewer a firm handshake. Or he might assume you’re a loser for giving him a weak one.
TRUTH NO. 10: The more you can get the interviewer to talk–especially about himself—the more likely you are to be hired. Ego-driven interviewers love hearing the sound of their own voices and will assume you’re better-qualified than someone who doesn’t want to listen to them prattle.
Millions of Americans blamed President Barack Obama for the nation’s high unemployment rate during his administration. And millions more believe that President Donald Trump created an economic miracle—despite those millions of Americans still desperately searching for work.
The brutal truth is that no President can hope to turn unemployment around until employers are forced to start living up to their responsibilities.
And those responsibilities should encompass more than simply fattening their own pocketbooks and/or egos at the expense of their fellow Americans. Such behavior used to be called treason.
Americans need to recognize that a country can be betrayed for other than political reasons. It can be sold out for economic ones, too.
Trea$on
Employers who enrich themselves by weakening their country—by throwing millions of qualified workers into the street and moving their plants to other countries—are traitors.
Employers who set up offshore accounts to claim their American companies are foreign-owned—and thus exempt from taxes—are traitors.
Employers who systematically violate Federal immigration laws—to hire illegal aliens instead of willing-to-work Americans—are traitors.
And with a new definition of treason should go new penalties—heavy fines and/or prison terms–for those who sell out their country to enrich themselves.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on February 16, 2022 at 12:11 am
The Republican National Committee (RNC) is a secular, political organization that leads the Republican party of the United States.
But on February 4, it acted as the reincarnation of the Spanish Inquisition—a judicial institution which attacked heresy in Spain from 1478 to 1834.
Under its reign of terror, countless “heretical” men and women found themselves sentenced by kangaroo courts to hideous torture and death.
Seal of the Spanish Inquisition
User:Di (they-them), CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On February 4, the RNC’s chair, Ronna Romney McDaniel, “cast out” two fellow Republicans: Representtives Liz Cheney (WY) and Adam Kinzinger (IL).
Their “crime”: Being the only Republicans to serve on the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, otherwise known as the January 6 Committee.
That censure described the deadly riot, where hundreds of then-President Donald Trump’s disciples stormed the Capitol and forced lawmakers to flee their chambers for safety, as “legitimate political discourse.”
Ronna Romney McDaniel
Part One of this series analyzed the first major paragraph of this censure. Part Two will analyze the remaining six.
“WHEREAS, Winning back the majority in Congress, including the United States House of Representatives, in 2022 must be the primary goal of the House Republican Conference (“Conference”) and requires all Republicans working together to accomplish the same….”
- Here, at least, the RNC and its chair, Ronna Romney McDaniel, offers the truth: Gaining absolute power over the legislative, executive and judicial branches of the Federal Government is this party’s “primary goal.”
- Punishing those who engage in treasonous attacks on Constitutional government is not a priority—so long as the perpetrators are Fascistic Right-wingers.
“WHEREAS, The Conference must not be sabotaged by Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger who have demonstrated, with actions and words, that they support Democrat efforts to destroy President Trump more than they support winning back a Republican majority in 2022….
DESTROYING PRESIDENT TRUMP:
- It was Trump who tried to destroy Constitutional government by stripping every potential challenger to his authority—or his version of reality—of legitimacy with the public. Had he succeeded, there would have been:
- No independent press to reveal his failures and crimes.
- No independent law enforcement agencies to investigate his abuses of office.
- No independent judiciary to hold him accountable.
- No candidate—Democrat or Republican—to challenge him for remaining in office in 2020—and thereafter—as “President-for-Life.”
WHEREAS, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger have engaged in actions in their positions as members of the January 6th Select Committee not befitting Republican of Congress, which include the Committee’s disregard for minority rights, traditional checks and balances, due process, and adherence to other precedent and rules of the U.S. House and which seem intent on advancing a political agenda to buoy the Democrat bleak prospects in the upcoming midterm elections….”
WINNING BACK A REPUBLICAN MAJORITY IN 2022:
- This, for the RNC, takes precedence over investigating a treasonous plot to overthrow democratic government and establish a one-party (Republican) state, presided over by a lifetime criminal and proven traitor.
Liz Cheney
Adam Kinzinger
“WHEREAS, Congressional Republicans bear ultimate responsibility for their own success or failure and the RNC supports their efforts by denouncing those who deliberately jeopardize victory in November on which the future of our constitutional republic depends at this critical moment in history….”
DELIBERATELY JEOPARDIZING VICTORY:
- Once again, the RNC admits that gaining absolute power for itself takes precedence over investigating and punishing those who sought to overthrow American democracy.
“WHEREAS, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger purport to be members of the Republican Party….”
“PURPORT” TO BE REPUBLICANS:
- Liz Cheney has been a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Wyoming since 2017. She voted in line with Trump’s policies 93% of the time, according to the data journalism site Five Thirty-Eight.
- Heritage Action, a Right-wing policy advocacy organization, gives her a “lifetime score” of 80%.
- Adam Kinzinger has been a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Illinois since 2011.
- According to Five Thirty-Eight, he voted in support of Trump’s agenda 90% of the time,
- Thus, the “crime” committed by Cheney and Kinzinger was to investigate the treasonous attempted coup of a lifelong criminal and would-be tyrant.
“WHEREAS, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes, therefore, be it
“RESOLVED, That the Republican National Committee hereby formally censures Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and shall immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.”
* * * * * * * * *
The RNC’s action was one worthy of the Spanish Inquisition.
And it serves as a warning to democracy-loving Americans of the fate awaiting them if Republicans’ revenge fantasies come true.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 15, 2022 at 12:10 am
On February 4, the Republican National Committee (RNC) officially endorsed the use of violence on behalf of the party.
It described the January 6, 2021 attack on the nation’s Capitol—a violent and treasonous attempt to prevent the orderly and legal transition of power from one President to another—as “legitimate political discourse.”
This is no private opinion of a single Republican—or even a fringe group of Republicans.
The RNC is described on Wikipedia as:
“A U.S. political committee that leads the Republican party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising, election strategy, and a ‘party brand.’ It is also responsible for organizing and running the Republican National Convention.”
The endorsement came during an official censure of two of the Committee’s fellow Republicans—Reps. Liz Cheney (WY) and Adam Kinzinger (IL).
Their “crime”: Being the only Republicans to serve on the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, otherwise known as the January 6 Committee.
That censure described the deadly riot, where hundreds of then-President Donald Trump’s disciples stormed the Capitol and forced lawmakers to flee their chambers for safety, as “legitimate political discourse.”
Predictably, the statement opened with a series of grotesque lies:
“WHEREAS, The Biden Administration and Democrats in Congress have embarked on a systematic effort to replace liberty with socialism; eliminate border security in favor of lawless, open borders; create record inflation designed to steal the American dream from our children and grandchildren; neuter our national defense and a peace through strength foreign policy; replace President ‘Operation Warp Speed’ with incompetence and illegal mandates; and destroy America’s economy with the Green New Deal….”
To address these lies:
REPLACING LIBERTY WITH SOCIALISM:
- It was Donald Trump—not Joseph Biden—who said that he and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un “fell in love.”
- It was Trump—not Biden—who attacked American Intelligence agencies for their unanimous conclusion that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin interfered in the 2016 Presidential election.
- It was Trump—not Biden—who never once attacked nor even criticized Putin, although he has viciously attacked literally hundreds of others, verbally and on Twitter.
Donald Trump
ELIMINATING BORDER SECURITY:
- Attacking Hispanics—both those who are United States citizens and those who wish to become citizens—is a potent weapon for Republicans. It’s the single most galvanizing issue for their base, and the one guaranteed to win and retain Right-wing votes.
- The Biden administration—like every previous administration—is trying to stem the flow of illegal aliens on the southern border. But it’s a never-ending struggle marked by legal and logistical complications.
CREATE RECORD INFLATION:
- Biden—like every other President—has few weapons to use in controlling inflation. Much of this is now being caused by COVID-19 and the resulting slowdowns and/or shutdowns in employment it has produced.
- As a capitalist nation, the United States does not often intervene in what is euphemistically called “the free enterprise system”—even though much of that is dominated by predatory corporations.
- Biden could propose legislation making price-gouging a Federal crime, punishable by a lengthy prison term. But this—modeled on the anti-extortion provisions in the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act—would never gain Republican Congressional support.
NEUTER OUR NATIONAL DEFENSE:
- It was Trump—not Biden—who tried to extort a “favor” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: Investigate presumed 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Joseph Biden and his son, Hunter, who had had business dealings in Ukraine.
- Clearly implied in the call: Produce “dirt” on Biden—or you won’t get the Congressionally authorized $400 million in military aid.
- It was Trump who repeatedly defended Vladimir Putin while attacking America’s longstanding allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
Vladimir Putin
Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
REPLACE “OPERATION WARP SPEED” WITH INCOMPETENCE, ILLEGAL MANDATES:
- Trump learned how deadly the virus was in January, 2020. But he publicly denied this and attacked mask-wearing and social distancing.
- He attacked governors who issued stay-at-home orders to contain the virus—and incited his followers to defy those orders.
- He secretly got vaccinated before leaving office and has only reluctantly acknowledged the importance of vaccinations.
- His legacy of defying science continues to live on in his millions of Stormtrumper followers—who refuse to mask up, social distance and, most importantly, get vaccinated. The vast majority of those now flooding hospital ER and ICU rooms—and graveyards—are unvaccinated.
- Biden instead launched a nationwide campaign to persuade Americans to wear masks, socially distance and, above all, get vaccinated.
DESTROY AMERICA’S ECONOMY WITH A GREEN NEW DEAL:
- Despite Right-wing lies to the contrary, global warming is an established fact.
- If there is to be any chance of halting—let alone reversing—the planet-threatening dangers this brings, it must come through the elimination of fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
- But corporate CEOs—such as West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin—have a vested financial interest in continuing the sale of fossil fuels.
- And they have the backing of corrupt Right-wing politicians and millions of their voters who refuse to accept science.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 14, 2022 at 12:10 am
On February 16, 1981, President Ronald Reagan issued a stark warning about the lethal morality of the men who ran the Soviet Union:
“The only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat.”
Forty-one years later, were he alive, he could give the same warning—about the men and women who run the Republican party.
Ronald Reagan
But since he isn’t alive to do so, other Republicans have unintentionally done so for him.
One is House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (CA).
On January 10, he vowed that, if Republicans capture the House of Representatives in November, he will remove three prominent Democrats—Eric Swalwell (CA), Adam Schiff (CA) and Ilhan Omar (MN)—from important committee assignments.
Kevin McCarthy
McCarthy made his threat after House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi removed two Republican members of Congress—Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA) and Paul Gosar (AZ)—from their committees.
Greene and Gosar had made a series of inflammatory comments that demonstrated their general unfitness for office.
Gosar had posted an anime video online that showed him attacking President Joe Biden with a sword and appearing to murder his colleague, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY).
Greene had supported the QAnon lie that Democrats are tied to a child sex ring; made anti-Semitic comments; and blamed California wildfires on Jewish space lasers.
“The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who could be on committee. Never in the history have you had the majority tell the minority who could be on committee,” McCarthy told the Right-wing Breitbart News.
A second Republican threat-maker: Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich.
On January 23, he threatened imprisonment for members of the January 6 Committee investigating the attempted coup at the Capitol Building in 2021.
“You’re gonna have a Republican majority in the House, a Republican majority in the Senate [in January, 2023, following the November 8 elections]. And all these people who’ve been so tough and so mean and so nasty are going to be delivered subpoenas for every document, every conversation, every tweet, every email.”
Newt Gingrich
Significantly, he made that prediction on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. Fox is the network dedicated to advancing Republicans’ increasingly Fascistic agenda.
Accusing the Committee of being a “lynch mob” that is “pursuing innocent people,” Gingrich added:
“I think when you have a Republican Congress, this is all going to come crashing down. The wolves are gonna find out they’re now sheep, and they’re the ones who are, in fact, I think, going to face a real risk of going to jail for the kind of laws that they’re breaking.”
Gingrich did not specify which laws he believes the committee has broken.
Gingrich accused the January 6 Committee of acting like “a lynch mob.” But he he neglected to note that among those being investigated are people who literally built a gallows to hang then-Vice President Mike Pence—and probably House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
As if these warnings weren’t enough, the Republican National Committee (RNC) issued its own on February 4.
It came during an official censure of two of their fellow Republicans—Representatives Liz Cheney (WY) and Adam Kinzinger (IL).
Their “crime”: Being the only Republicans to serve on the United States House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, otherwise known as the January 6 Committee.
That censure described the deadly riot, where hundreds of then-President Donald Trump’s disciples stormed the Capitol and forced lawmakers to flee their chambers for safety, as “legitimate political discourse.”
Specifically:
“WHEREAS, Representatives Cheney and Kinzinger are participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse, and they are both utilizing their past professed political affiliation to mask Democrat abuse of prosecutorial power for partisan purposes, therefore, be it
“RESOLVED, That the Republican National Committee hereby formally censures Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and shall immediately cease any and all support of them as members of the Republican Party for their behavior which has been destructive to the institution of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Republican Party and our republic, and is inconsistent with the position of the Conference.”
Thus, according to the RNC, a violent and treasonous attempt to prevent the orderly and legal transition of power from one President to another has become “legitimate political discourse.”
This is no private opinion of a single Republican—or even a fringe group of Republicans. It bears the official stamp of the Republican National Committee.
The RNC is described on Wikipedia as:
“A U.S. political committee that leads the Republican party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising, election strategy, and a ‘party brand.’ It is also responsible for organizing and running the Republican National Convention.”
It counts as no less than the official Republican endorsement of violence on behalf of their party.
Or, as Ronald Reagan put it: “The only morality they recognize is what will further their cause, meaning they reserve unto themselves the right to commit any crime, to lie, to cheat.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 9, 2022 at 12:12 am
In 2016, “reality show” host Donald Trump—with major assistance from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin—was elected President.
Throughout his four-year term, the Right enthusiastically supported him despite a record of unprecedented infamy—which included:
- Repeatedly and viciously attacking the nation’s free press for daring to report his growing list of crimes and disasters, calling it “the enemy of the American people.”
- Publicly siding with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin against American Intelligence agencies—such as the FBI, CIA and National Security Agency—which unanimously agreed that Russia had interfered with the 2016 Presidential election.
- Praising Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen.
- Using his position as President to further enrich himself, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
- Attacking and alienating America’s oldest allies, such as Canada and Great Britain.
- Firing FBI Director James Comey for refusing to pledge his personal loyalty to Trump—and continuing to investigate Russian subversion of the 2016 election.
- Shutting down the Federal Government on December 22, 2018, because Democrats refused to fund his “border wall” between the United States and Mexico. An estimated 380,000 government employees were furloughed and another 420,000 were ordered to work without pay.
- Trying to coerce Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to smear former Vice President Joe Biden, who was likely to be his Democratic opponent in the 2020 Presidential election.
Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans supported Trump’s actions or refused to actively oppose them.
On April 27, 2020, “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough offered an important insight about why most Americans ignored Trump’s crimes and outrages for so long:
“I’ve said from the very beginning: You can lie about independent counsels, people won’t listen. You can lie about former FBI directors—“
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: “It doesn’t impact their lives.”
JOE SCARBOROUGH: “They’re still going to work, the kids are doing fine, they’ve got enough money to pay their rent, to pay their mortgage. You can even lie about the Ukraine call—they don’t really care.”
Then-White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders provided strong evidence for this when she bragged, on June 4, 2018:
“Since taking office, the President has strengthened American leadership, security, prosperity, and accountability. And as we saw from Friday’s jobs report, our economy is stronger, Americans are optimistic, and business is booming.”
Donald Trump
Many Congressional Republicans echoed this: The American people care only about the economy—and how well-off they are.
But COVID-19 changed all that. Suddenly, millions of Americans found themselves stuck at home with their children. Many of them couldn’t go to work—because they were sick or their jobs had disappeared. Their 401Ks suddenly became worthless.
Had COVID-19 not intervened, Trump would still be President. And he wouldn’t have had to call on aid from Vladimir Putin. Millions of Right-wing, “I’ve-got-mine-so-screw-you” Americans would have happily returned him to office as “President-for-Life.”
During his 12-year reign, Adolf Hitler was the target of at least 42 overthrow plots. The most famous of these occurred on July 20, 1944.
So far as is known, Donald Trump was not the target of even one.
- No Cabinet members dared to invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution to remove Trump for office as “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”
- House and Senate Republicans rubberstamped his every infamy. When he praised North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Un or attacked Vietnam POW John McCain or falsely charged massive voter fraud, Republicans stayed silent or loudly parroted his lies.
- On February 5, 2020, the Republican-dominated Senate—ignoring the overwhelming evidence against him—acquitted Trump on both impeachment articles: Obstruction of Congress and abuse of power.
- Just hours after Trump incited the deadly January 6, 2021 coup attempt at the United States Capitol, 147 Republicans lawmakers in the House and Senate voted to overturn Trump’s 2020 election loss—following months of his baseless claims that the November election had been stolen.
- At the Pentagon, American generals stood mute as Trump repeatedly abused their ability and integrity, while pursuing policies calculated to aid Russia.
- Although they regularly met with Trump, none of them plotted his removal.
- No FBI agents—steeped in Federal criminal law—built a case for Trump’s indictment and prosecution. This despite his attacking their integrity and even firing their director, James Comey, for investigating Russia’s subversion of the 2016 election.
Trump knows he cannot win office in a free election.
So notorious was the role played by Russian trolls and hackers in winning Trump the 2016 election that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was determined to prevent a repetition in 2020.
Chris Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, revamped the department’s cybersecurity efforts and increased coordination with state and local governments.
By all accounts—except Donald Trump’s—the November 3, 2020 election was virtually free of fraud. As a result, Trump lost.
That’s why legislators in Republican-controlled states are trying to corrupt election machinery at state and local levels—to nullify the votes of millions of Democrats in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
If they can restore a lifelong criminal to absolute power in 2024, Joseph Biden will be the last democratically-elected American President.
And Donald Trump will live out his dictatorial fantasies as “President-for-Life.”
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 8, 2022 at 12:10 am
In his January 19 press conference, President Joseph Biden said: “I actually like Mitch McConnell. We like one another.”
In reality, McConnell refused to acknowledge Biden’s legitimacy as President-elect until December 15, 2020—more than one month after Biden’s election on November 3.
Additionally, at least 147 Republicans sided with Donald Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. And even after the treasonous attempted coup of January 6, 2021, many of them still refuse to accept the legitimacy of Biden’s win.
January 6, 2021’s attempted coup
Tyler Merbler from USA, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Republicans have enthusiastically embraced Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him—despite overwhelming evidence that it wasn’t.
Legislators in Republican-controlled states are now working furiously to corrupt election machinery at state and local levels so they can nullify the votes of millions of Democrats in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Their ultimate goal: Restore a lifelong criminal and Russia-appeasing traitor to absolute power as “President-for-Life.”
In 1996, Newt Gingrich, then Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, wrote a memo entitled “Language: A Key Mechanism of Control.” It encouraged Republicans to attack Democrats with such words as “corrupt,” “selfish,” “destructive,” “hypocrisy,” “liberal,” “sick,” and “traitors.”
Republicans learned long ago that most voters aren’t moved by appeals to their rationality. Instead, what counts with them are emotions. And Republicans have become experts at appealing to these—especially the baser ones.
For Republicans, the Big Three emotions are: Hatred, Greed and Fear.
This has enabled Republicans to repeatedly score impressive electoral victories: Out of 17 Presidential elections since the end of World War II, Republicans have won 10.
But it’s not enough to see Republicans for what they are. Americans need to be seen for what they are.
Historically, the United States has always been a highly conservative nation. Going from “conservative” to “Fascist” is a relatively easy step—as millions of Donald Trump’s supporters have proven.
Since the end of World War 11, Republicans have regularly hurled the charge of “treason” against anyone who dared to run against them for office or think other than Republican-sponsored thoughts.
Republicans had been locked out of the White House from 1933 to 1952, during the administrations of Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.
Determined to regain the Presidency by any means, they found that attacking the integrity of their fellow Americans a highly effective tactic.
During the 1950s, Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy rode a wave of paranoia to national prominence—by attacking the patriotism of anyone who disagreed with him.
Joseph McCarthy
The fact that McCarthy never uncovered one actual case of treason was conveniently overlooked during his lifetime.
During the 1992 Presidential campaign, Republicans tried to paint Bill Clinton as a brainwashed “Manchurian candidate” because he had briefly visited the Soviet Union during his college years.
After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Republicans lost their “soft on Communism” slander-line. So they tried to persuade voters that Democrats were “soft on crime.”
When riots flared in 1992 after the acquittal of LAPD officers who had savagely beaten Rodney King, President George H.W. Bush blamed the carnage on the “Great Society” programs of the 1960s.
George H.W. Bush
After losing the White House to Clinton at the polls in 1992 and 1996, Republicans tried to oust him another way: By impeaching him over a tryst with a penis-loving intern named Monica Lewinsky.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach, but the effort was defeated in the Democratically-controlled Senate.
The 2008 election of Barack Obama pushed the Republican “treason chorus” to new heights of infamy.
Barack Obama
Almost immediately after Obama took office, he came under attack by an industry of right-wing book authors such as Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh.
Consider the vocabulary Right-wingers use to describe their political adversaries:
“Liberals,” “radicals, “bankrupting,” “treason,” subversion,” “slander,” “terrorism,” “betrayal,” “catastrophe,” “shattering the American dream,” “leftists,” “Communists,” “government takeover,” “socialism,” “power grab,” “secularism,” “environmentalism.”
And while the Right lusts to constantly compare Democrats and liberals (the two aren’t always the same) to Nazis, its propaganda campaign draws heavily on Adolf Hitler’s own advice.
In Mein Kampf, the Nazi leader laid out his formula for successful propaganda: “All effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials.
“Those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotypical formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp the idea that has been put forward.
“[The masses] more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”
Thus, Republicans spent the eight years of Barack Obama’s Presidency repeating the lie that he was born in Kenya—not Hawaii, as the long-form version of his birth certificate attests.
The reason: To “prove” that he was an illegitimate President, and should be removed from office.
To Republicans’ dismay, their slander campaign didn’t prevent Obama from being elected in 2008—and re-elected in 2012.
In 2016, “reality show” host Donald Trump—with major assistance from Russian dictator Vladimir Putin—was elected President. Throughout his four-year term, the Right enthusiastically supported him—despite a record of unprecedented infamy.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Military, Politics, Social commentary on February 1, 2022 at 12:12 am
After holding office little more than a year, President Joseph Biden finds himself under unrelenting assault by Republicans for his domestic and foreign policies.
Although he no doubt believes otherwise, many of his current problems are self-inflicted. But they can be resolved—and he can still be re-elected in 2024—if he breaks with his longtime attitude of: “Can’t we all just get along?”
In Part One of this series, three such remedies were listed. Here are the remaining two.
WEAPON #4: REASSURE VOTERS THAT HE IS ATTACKING INFLATION IN A WAY THEY CAN UNDERSTAND
When people are frightened and angry, they look for simple answers and solutions—and scapegoats. That is how Republicans deal with crises.
Republicans learned long ago that most voters aren’t moved by appeals to their rationality. Instead, what counts with them is emotions.
And Republicans have become experts at appealing to these—especially the baser ones. For Republicans, the Big Three are: Hatred, Greed, Fear.
President Biden should do the same in combating rising food prices, which are frightening and angering millions.
Instead of accepting the conventional explanation of “supply chain difficulties,” he should blame rising prices on the entrenched greed of corporations. In many cases, it no doubt happens to be true.
This will be widely accepted and divert criticism of the President.
More importantly, Biden should propose a bill to make price gouging a national crime, punishable by a lengthy prison term. It can be modeled on the anti-extortion provisions in the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
No matter what happens on the bill, the President faces a win/win situation.
If it passes, he can rightly take credit for it and reap the popularity certain to result. And if Republicans block its passage, he can rightly blame them, thus ensuring that he and Democrats are seen as “the people’s champions.”
WEAPON #5: ACCUSE REPUBLICANS OF SUPPORTING DICTATORSHIP
Republicans have enthusiastically embraced Donald Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him—despite overwhelming evidence that it wasn’t.
Legislators in Republican-controlled states are now working furiously to corrupt election machinery at state and local levels so they can nullify the votes of millions of Democrats in the 2022 and 2024 elections.
Their ultimate goal: Restore a lifelong criminal and Russia-appeasing traitor to absolute power as “President-for-Life.”
Donald Trump
In 1968, Richard Nixon ran for President on the slogan: “This time, vote like your whole world depends on it.”
Democrats should make this their slogan for 2022—and 2024: “This time, vote like your whole democracy depends on it.”
* * * * *
Millions of Americans believe that only liberals can be Communist sympathizers and traitors. This is the direct result of decades of Republican propaganda dating back to 1946.
Republicans, having lost the White House from 1932 to 1948, furiously sought a return to power. And they found their remedy in attacking the patriotism of their fellow Americans—ushering in the infamous era of Joseph McCarthy, Richard Nixon and the Hollywood Blacklist.
Democrats need to similarly damn Republicans with the charge of “Traitor.” The difference: There is plenty of evidence—much of it on video—to document its truth.
For example:
- On Right-wing Fox News Network, its popular broadcaster, Tucker Carlson, asked: “Why is it disloyal to side with Russia but loyal to side with Ukraine?”
- Arkansas’ Republican United States Senator Tom Cotton has blamed Putin’s aggression against Ukraine on Biden: “It is a result of a year of Joe Biden’s impotence and incompetence towards Russia in particular and in foreign policy more generally.”
- More than 60% of Democrats view Putin very unfavorably, but only 30 to 40% of Republicans do.
As a whole, Democrats have shown themselves indifferent to or ignorant of the power of effective language. They have also refused to see most of their fellow Americans for what they are.
Historically, the United States has always been a highly conservative nation. Going from “conservative” to “Fascist” is a relatively easy step—as millions of Donald Trump’s supporters have proven.
On April 27, 2020, Joe Scarborough offered an important insight about why most Americans ignored Trump’s crimes and outrages for so long: “I’ve said from the very beginning: You can lie about independent counsels, people won’t listen. You can lie about former FBI directors—“
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: “It doesn’t impact their lives.”
JOE SCARBOROUGH: “They’re still going to work, the kids are doing fine, they’ve got enough money to pay their rent, to pay their mortgage, You can even lie about the Ukraine call—they don’t really care.”
But COVID-19 changed all that. Suddenly, millions of Americans found themselves stuck at home with their children. Many of them couldn’t go to work—because they were sick or their jobs had disappeared. Their 401Ks suddenly became worthless.
Suddenly, “the happy time” for Americans was over—just as it had ended for Nazi Germany after Adolf Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.Had COVID-19 not intervened, Trump would still be President.
And he wouldn’t have had to call on aid from Vladimir Putin. Millions of Right-wing, “I’ve-got-mine-so-screw-you” Americans would have happily returned him to office as “President-for-Life.”
Democrats have powerful weapons to use against their sworn Republican enemies. But first they must recognize Republicans as their enemies.
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In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Social commentary on January 31, 2022 at 12:10 am
President Joseph Robinette Biden is a decent, well-intentioned man.
Yet, holding office little more than a year, he finds himself under unrelenting assault by Republicans for his domestic and foreign policies.
Unfortunately, many of his current problems are self-inflicted. And they can be resolved only by his taking ruthless action against his sworn Republican enemies.
According to Niccolo Machiavelli, the father of modern politics: A man who wishes to make a profession of goodness in everything must inevitably come to grief among so many who are not good. And therefore it is necessary for a prince, who wishes to maintain himself, to learn how not to be good, and to use this knowledge and not use it, according to the necessity of the case.
Niccolo Machiavelli
For example, in his January 19 press conference, Biden said: “I actually like Mitch McConnell [the Kentucky Republican and Senate Minority Leader]. We like one another.”
In reality, McConnell refused to acknowledge Biden’s legitimacy as President-elect until December 15, 2020—more than one month after Biden’s election on November 3.
Biden is convinced that his low ratings have resulted from being in Washington, D.C., so much: “I find myself in a situation where I don’t get a chance to look people in the eye, because of both COVID and things that are happening in Washington, to be able to go out and do the things that I’ve always been able to do pretty well: connect with people, let them take a measure of my sincerity, let them take a measure of who I am.”
President Joe Biden
This is a fallacy. Americans facing high prices at the supermarket and a continuing COVID-19 plague don’t want Biden to “feel your pain,” as Presidential candidate Bill Clinton assured voters in 1992.
Voters want to buy groceries at an affordable price—and to walk streets and enter stores without wearing a mask. And they want Biden to give them concrete reasons to believe that these can become reality.
Biden does command powerful weapons that will enable him to do this. But to use them he must be willing to abandon his “can’t-we-all-just-get-along” nature.
Among those weapons:
WEAPON #1: STOP THINKING OF REPUBLICANS AS “OUR FRIENDS”
The President should stop referring to “our Republican friends.” He has no friends among men and women dedicated to overthrowing Constitutional government and imposing a lifelong criminal and tyrant in his place.
Just hours after the deadly January 6, 2021 coup attempt at the United States Capitol, 147 Republicans lawmakers in the House and Senate voted to overturn then-president Donald Trump’s election loss, following months of his baseless claims that the November election had been stolen.
January 6, 2021 attempted coup
And more than a year after that treasonous attempted coup, many Republicans still refuse to accept the legitimacy of Biden’s win.
Would Franklin D. Roosevelt have referred to his Right-wing enemies as “our Nazi friends”?
WEAPON #2: BLAME DONALD TRUMP AND HISTORMTRUMPERS FOR COVID-19 DEATHS
Trump learned how deadly the virus was in January, 2020. But he
- Publicly denied this and attacked mask-wearing and social distancing;
- Attacked governors who issued stay-at-home orders to contain the virus;
- Incited his followers to defy those orders; and
- Secretly got vaccinated before leaving office and has only reluctantly acknowledged the importance of vaccinations.
His legacy of defying science continues to live on in his millions of Stormtrumper followers—who refuse to mask up, social distance and, most importantly, get vaccinated. The vast majority of those now flooding hospital ER and ICU rooms are unvaccinated.
As a result, countless victims of crime, accidents, heart attacks, strokes and other debilitating conditions find their surgeries/treatments canceled or indefinitely postponed. And doctors and nurses treating these patients are nearing the breaking point of exhaustion.
President Biden and the health officials of his administration should blame the unvaccinated for their egotistical selfishness in causing this crisis. This will put Republicans on the defensive and divert attacks on the President.
He should also propose a national law allowing hospitals to stop admitting unvaccinated anti-vaxxers. These people need to face the consequences of their own irresponsible behavior. Only then will hospitals be free to care for those who deserve medical treatment.
WEAPON #3: BLAME TRUMP AND REPUBLICANS FOR THE CURRENT CRISIS IN UKRAINE
Republicans are blaming President Biden for Vladimir Putin’s latest aggression against Ukraine. They claim that Biden has been weak and confusing in his foreign policy.
In July, 2019, Trump tried to extort a “favor” from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: Investigate presumed 2020 Democratic Presidential Candidate Joseph Biden and his son, Hunter, who had had business dealings in Ukraine.
Clearly implied in the call: Produce “dirt” on Biden—or you won’t get the Congressionally authorized $400 million in military aid.
Biden should cite this incident—and incidents where Trump groveled before Putin. Example: Siding with Putin against the FBI and CIA when they agreed that Russia had interfered in the 2016 Presidential election. The words “traitor” and “treason” should be routinely used when he discusses these incidents.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on January 27, 2022 at 12:47 am
There are five reasons why millions of Americans refuse to wear masks during a deadly pandemic:
- A feeling of solidarity against authority.
- “If liberals do it, it’s fascistic.”
- Rejection of the death-toll caused by COVID-19.
- Disdain for education in general—and science in particular.
- Religious fanaticism.
To these must be added:
Sixth: Hypocrisy. Since the Supreme Court legalized abortion in 1973, the Right has demanded that even women who are pregnant due to rape or incest carry the fetus to term.
Yet now that Right-wingers are being asked to wear masks in public—to protect themselves and others from a deadly plague—they’ve suddenly discovered the mantra: “It’s my body!”
Seventh: Identifying with Donald Trump. Trump has made it clear that his followers don’t wear masks. And they have fallen into line, refusing to mask up even in crowded, indoor arenas where infection is most likely.
The following states require their citizens to wear masks when in public: California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington.
The following states still refuse to order their citizens to wear masks when in public: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.
Yet even in states where wearing a mask is mandatory when venturing out in public, many people refuse to do so. Fights have erupted before mask-less and mask-wearing customers—and sometimes store employees—who asked them to put on a mask before entering.
- Two men were arrested for felony battery after starting a fight with employees at a Los Angeles Target store over wearing masks inside the store.
- A woman entered Curbside Eatery in La Mesa, California, without a mask, pulling her T-shirt over her face. When the owner told her to mask up or leave, the woman yelled: “This is ridiculous! You’re discriminating against me!’ and threatened a lawsuit.
- In a Costco in Fort Myers, Florida, a masked man asked an unmasked customer to wear a mask. The unmasked man screamed that he was being harassed: “I feel threatened!”
On February 2, 2021, the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) required all airline travelers to wear masks. By December, the TSA had logged more than 4,100 mask-related air-rage incidents.
So: How should those who refuse to wear a mask—and thus present a clear and present danger to others—be dealt with?
Ideally, President Joe Biden could issue a mandatory emergency order requiring everyone to wear a mask when in public. But the President lacks the legal authority to do so.
Governors, mayors and business owners should issue emergency orders mandating the wearing of masks in public. And these orders should be forcibly backed up by the following:
- Stop stressing that a mask will protect others from “you.” Most people don’t care about strangers. Emphasize that wearing a mask will protect “you and your family” from others.
- Don’t give tickets to mask-evaders. They will simply ignore them—or consider them a cheap price for going without a mask.
- Major retailers should hire professional guards to arrest mask-evaders—and turn them over to police.
- Police should arrest everyone not wearing a mask in public and jail them—without bond—until the plague is over.
- Create tip hotlines for reporting mask-evaders.
- Offer rewards for tips that lead to arrests.
- Police and prosecutors should publicize these arrests and jailings—to warn other potential mask-evaders.
- Arrest, prosecute and imprison Right-wingers who openly display and/or threaten unarmed civilians with firearms.
- Above all: Stop admitting the unmasked and unvaccinated to hospitals. Forcing them to pay the price for their irresponsible behavior will end hospital overcrowding.
It was the failure of German police and courts to abort Right-wing violence during the Weimar Republic that led to even greater violence through the rise of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party.
This is how United States authorities dealt with “Typhoid Mary” Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938).
Mary Mallon
An Irish-born cook, she was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever and is believed to have infected 53 people, three of whom died. Because she persisted in working as a cook, she exposed others to the disease.
As a result, she was twice forcibly quarantined by authorities, and died after a total of nearly 30 years in isolation at Riverside Hospital on North Brother Island, in New York City.
Laws are useless if citizens believe they are unfairly or unpredictably enforced. As Niccolo Machiavelli warns in his classic work, The Discourses:
All those who have written upon civil institutions demonstrate…that whoever desires to found a state and give it laws, must start with assuming that all men are bad and ever ready to display their vicious nature, whenever they may find occasion for it.
If their evil disposition remains concealed for a time, it must be attributed to some unknown reason; and we must assume that it lacked occasion to show itself. But time, which has been said to be the father of all truth, does not fail to bring it to light.
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In Bureaucracy, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Medical, Politics, Social commentary on January 26, 2022 at 12:11 am
Not only did President Donald Trump refuse to wear a mask, but he suspected the loyalty of his staffers and Republican allies who didn’t follow his mask-less example.
On April 28, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence toured the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Pence, who led the White House task force on the virus, refused to wear a mask, even though all the officials and medical personnel clustered around him did.
Pence even visited with a patient who had survived the Coronavirus and was going to give blood.
Mike Pence at the Mayo Clinic
Few White House aides wore masks, although they claimed that Trump hadn’t told them not to wear them. Some Republican allies asked Trump’s campaign how they would be seen by Trump if he saw them wearing a mask.
“It’s a vanity thing, I guess, with him,” Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives, said. “You’d think, as the President of the United States, you would have the confidence to honor the guidance he’s giving the country.”
By refusing to wear a mask, Trump convinced untold numbers of Americans—mostly Right-wing males—that ignoring the dangers of Coronavirus was the manly thing to do.
(On July 20, 2020, he tweeted an image of himself wearing a mask and called it “patriotic” to wear one. Hours later, however, he appeared without a mask at a fundraiser at the Trump International Hotel in Washington.)
Meanwhile, former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for President, often appeared in public wearing a mask. During a June 26 television interview he said that, if he were elected President, he would require wearing face masks in public to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus.
“The one thing we do know—these masks make a gigantic difference,” Biden said. “I would insist that everybody out in public be wearing that mask.”
Yet even in states such as California and New York, where this is required, many people still refuse to do so.
From May 5 to May 12, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveyed 4,042 adults throughout the country on wearing masks. The agency found that 60.3% of respondents said they always wore a mask when out in public. Another 13.8% said they often wore a mask in public.
But 17.1% said they either rarely or never wore a mask in public.
The CDC found that women were more likely than men to say they always wore a mask in public.
CDC headquarters in Atlanta
There are several reasons why people refuse to wear masks.
First: A feeling of solidarity. According to David Abrams, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at NYU School of Global Public Health: People who don’t wear masks may see it as a sign of solidarity, as if they are taking a stand against authority.
Second: “If liberals do it, it’s fascistic.” Many mask protesters accuse those who wear masks of being fascists. This is a hallmark of Right-wing politics—accusing their opponents of being what they are themselves.
Third: They have utterly rejected the rising death-toll caused by the virus. They claim stories of such deaths are mere “fake news”—the term Trump uses to dismiss any news stories that highlight his mistakes and criminality.
Fourth: Republicans disdain education in general—and science in particular. In March, 2020, an NBC News poll found that only 30% of Republicans said that they would actually listen to the advice of doctors to stay away from large, crowded areas to avoid Coronavirus.
These are the same people who get their version of reality from Right-wing sources like Fox News Network and radio broadcaster Rush Limbaugh.
Rush Limbaugh
On his March 27, 2020 show, Limbaugh dismissed Coronavirus as “the common cold,” then added: “We didn’t elect a president to defer to a bunch of health experts that we don’t know.
“And how do we know they’re even health experts? Well, they wear white lab coats, and they’ve been in the job for a while, and they’re at the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and they’re at the NIH [National Institutes of Health] and they’re up, well—yeah, they’ve been there, and they are there.
“But has there been any job assessment for them? They’re just assumed to be the best because they’re in government. But, these are all kinds of things that I’ve been questioning.”
In 2015, Limbaugh said: “Firsthand smoke takes 50 years to kill people, if it does. Not everybody that smokes gets cancer. Now, it’s true that everybody who smokes dies, but so does everyone who eats carrots.”
Six years later, on February 17, 2021, Limbaugh—a longtime and heavy cigar smoker—died from Stage Four lung cancer.
Fifth: Religious Fanaticism. Many fundamentalist Christians believe that their faith in Jesus will protect them against COVID-19. They continue to attend services indoors in defiance of CDC warnings by meeting in large numbers indoors.
A female member of the Solid Red Rock Church in Monroe, Ohio, told CNN: “I wouldn’t be anywhere else. I’m covered in Jesus’ blood. I’m covered in Jesus’ blood.”
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THE EMPLOYER IS THE ENEMY: PART ONE (OF SEVEN)
In Bureaucracy, Business, History, Law, Law Enforcement, Politics, Social commentary on February 21, 2022 at 12:10 amHave you noticed how every American employer has suddenly become a “job creator”?
At least, that’s the official Republican line.
But if that’s true:
A September 20, 2021 article in Recode—“Why Everybody’s Hiring But No One Is Getting hired”—explains “America’s broken hiring system.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) says that 6.6 million potential workers are unemployed—and a record 10.9 million jobs open.
Why?
“For some of the jobs available, people don’t have the right skills, or at least the skills employers say they’re looking for. Other jobs are undesirable — they offer bad pay or an unpredictable schedule, or just don’t feel worth it to unemployed workers, many of whom are rethinking their priorities.
“In some cases, there are a host of perfectly acceptable candidates and jobs out there, but for a multitude of reasons, they’re just not being matched.”
Throughout the United States, “help wanted” signs can be seen virtually everywhere. “But just because a bar or restaurant or gas station wants a worker doesn’t mean a worker wants to work for them. The millions of jobs available aren’t necessarily millions of jobs people want.”
And what makes these jobs undesirable?
Low pay, unpredictable schedules, no benefits, no long-term stability—as well as the employer practice of hiring one person to do the work of 10.
Yet countless employers whine to the media: “Nobody wants to work anymore.”
Countless job-seekers who do want to work are locked out of it by the computerized “résumé readers” employed by many companies. Many of the résumés submitted are automatically rejected—because they lack certain keywords that have been programmed into the software.
A classic example: Software scans for registered nurses with computer programming skills—when they just need data entry.
Finally, a lot of employers simply don’t want to hire.
An article in the March, 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest gives the lie to the excuses so many employers use for refusing to hire.
Entitled “22 Secrets HR Won’t Tell You About Getting a Job,” it lays bare many of the reasons why America needs to legally force employers to demonstrate as much responsibility for hiring as job-seekers are expected to show toward searching for work.
Among the truths it reveals:
TRUTH NO: 1: After you’re unemployed more than six months, employers consider you unemployable.
TRUTH NO. 2: It’s not what but who you know that counts.
TRUTH NO. 3: Try to avoid HR. Find someone in the company you know. If you don’t know anyone, contact the hiring manager.
TRUTH NO. 4: Cover letters are often ignored, going directly into “the round file.”
TRUTH NO. 5: Employers judge you on the basis of your email address. Avoid the type that reads: “Igetdrunkandparty.”
TRUTH NO. 6: You’re not protected against age discrimination. Many employers regularly ignore the law. Are you in your 50s or 60s? Leave your year of graduation off your resume.
TRUTH NO: 7: Just because it’s illegal to discriminate against applicants who have children does not mean you’re safe. Many employers try to screen out parents—such as by checking cars for child safety seats.
TRUTH NO. 8: It’s harder to get a job if you’re fat, since fat people are usually assumed to be lazy.
TRUTH NO. 9: Make sure you give the interviewer a firm handshake. Or he might assume you’re a loser for giving him a weak one.
TRUTH NO. 10: The more you can get the interviewer to talk–especially about himself—the more likely you are to be hired. Ego-driven interviewers love hearing the sound of their own voices and will assume you’re better-qualified than someone who doesn’t want to listen to them prattle.
Millions of Americans blamed President Barack Obama for the nation’s high unemployment rate during his administration. And millions more believe that President Donald Trump created an economic miracle—despite those millions of Americans still desperately searching for work.
The brutal truth is that no President can hope to turn unemployment around until employers are forced to start living up to their responsibilities.
And those responsibilities should encompass more than simply fattening their own pocketbooks and/or egos at the expense of their fellow Americans. Such behavior used to be called treason.
Americans need to recognize that a country can be betrayed for other than political reasons. It can be sold out for economic ones, too.
Trea$on
Employers who enrich themselves by weakening their country—by throwing millions of qualified workers into the street and moving their plants to other countries—are traitors.
Employers who set up offshore accounts to claim their American companies are foreign-owned—and thus exempt from taxes—are traitors.
Employers who systematically violate Federal immigration laws—to hire illegal aliens instead of willing-to-work Americans—are traitors.
And with a new definition of treason should go new penalties—heavy fines and/or prison terms–for those who sell out their country to enrich themselves.
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