Union busting from the Left, why Biden withdrew, + Easy Money, Monopolies, and Meritocracy
Hootie and the Blowfish + Health update
Can’t Make It Up
Axios - The largest labor union in the U.S. locked out its staff
For nearly a month, about 300 staffers at the country's largest labor union haven't worked or been paid. Their employer, the National Education Association, took the rare step of locking them out of work last month amid contract negotiations.
Catch up fast: The NEA represents about 3 million teachers at all grade levels. The union's staffers are represented by a different union, called NEASO, which has been negotiating since April for a new contract (it expired on May 31).
Damn greedy employers keeping the man down!
Speaking of keeping the man down…
Can’t Make It Up Part 2
In response to workplace conditions, the Crooked Media staff agreed to join the Writers Guild of America East in early 2023, though they have yet to reach a contract agreement with the company.
On July 29, the Guild filed an unfair labor practice charge against Crooked Media over claims of union-busting tactics of excluding some allegedly eligible staff members from the collective bargaining unit.“It’s a shame when a progressive company like Crooked Media fails to live up to its own values and attempts to union-bust," said WGAE President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen. "The Guild fully expects Crooked Media to stop playing politics with its workers' livelihoods and settle this first contract without delay.”
Man down? Let’s check in on Uncle Joe…
President Biden
Any word on WHY Joe Biden actually came down from the ticket?
Nothing? We’re not going to even TALK about it? It’s not his age. NOPE. Bernie Sanders and Anthony Fauci are older.
Q - Who’s older - Joe Biden or Mick Jagger?
A - Biden by 248 days.
Rolling Stones Tour Website for 2024
No one is pinch hitting for Jagger.
Tell us why, Joe. Would be a great story. Maybe the press will cover it. Okay, just kidding. They won’t.
Man, it must be nice to have the ENTIRE Main Stream Media (D) on your side.
Speaking of monopolies…
Google, Easy Money, and Interest Rates
WSJ article ‘Google Is a Monopolist,’ Judge Rules
“Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly,” Mehta wrote in his 276-page decision released on Monday, in which he faulted the company for destroying internal messages that could have been useful in the case.
Speaking of it being about time…
Lead editorial Wall Street Journal : The Easy Money Reckoning Arrives
Since the 2008 financial panic, the U.S. economy has been sustained for the most part by government spending and cheap money aimed at supporting consumers and asset prices.
But cheap money is never free, and it can’t last forever. It builds distortions and excesses that are unsustainable and must eventually be addressed.
More succinctly from our favorite private equity leader:
Too much expansion behind all the free money and assuming that would continue forever while also paying a lot higher labor and input costs. Then some got levered up. Bad mix
Thought provoking op-ed The Case Against Low Interest Rates The dollar is strong, inflation is down, and the average American isn’t calling for cheap money.
Cheap money was supposed to fuel economic growth, but—like most model-driven panaceas, unconnected to empirical reality—it didn’t deliver. Artificially low interest rates retarded the growth they were intended to accelerate. They enabled corporate giants to fend off or buy out challengers, eased the pressure to innovate, diminished incentives to improve productivity, and enabled poorly performing enterprises (and executives) to linger long after they should have been put out to pasture.
Meritocracy Making a Comeback?
The Olympics - Meritocracy Dazzles
Headline - Julien Alfred BEATS Sha'Carri Richardson to win 100m; USA's Jefferson gets bronze
That’s St. Lucia beating the Americans - and it wasn’t close.
St. Lucia has same population as Elk Grove, CA and Cary, NC. Videos available on NBC Sports or You Tube.
Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud
Pete Buttigieg on “White Dudes for Harris” call:
But of course, men are also more free in a country where we have a president who stands up for things like access to abortion care.
Men are more free when the leader of the free world and the leader of this country supports access to birth control and to IVF.
Upcoming Zoom Events:
August 7 - Noon WPA’s Amanda Iovino Latest Polling Slide Deck Update
August 13 2pm - Attorney General Jason Miyares Register Here
Recent tune running laps in my head
Health Update
Good news - Bad news.
It’s never easy hearing that I do, in fact, have prostate cancer.
I do.
However, it is such that we are in what’s called Active Surveillance.
No treatment is suggested.
I could try to replicate the explanation but my grade of cancer is the best possible news one can get if one has it.
So a long quiet road of monitoring with PSA tests, MRIs, and biopsies is my future.
There are zero symptoms. I feel fine.
The level of technology and knowledge that have been gained over the decades is astounding.
We have a great health care industry in this country and I am blessed to have caught this very low risk type of prostate cancer so incredibly early.
For that I thank my dad and the many men who have been part of this journey.
Some have not been as fortunate as I am this day.
Yes, it sucks to say I have cancer. But I am at peace and frankly quite relieved.
MEN - GET TESTED! Please.
Sax