Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Zalatix

Zalatix's Journal
Zalatix's Journal
September 26, 2012

Dear Chris Hedges

The time to fight for the true left is not during an election, least of all with an incumbent politician at stake. The time to fight for the true left is during the primary when we're picking a new Democratic politician.

When you push for a third party during an election and enough people follow you, you get a Republican, which is worse than voting Democratic. Remember 2000? If you voted for Nader in 2000, how did you like 8 years of Bush?

Now mind you, you don't have to agree with that - history has already spoken clearly and decisively on that issue. Feel free to have a hearty argument with history!

September 25, 2012

Here's why the Presidential race is going to be close.

Need I say more?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/24/us-usa-campaign-hispanics-idUSBRE88N01I20120924

Voting laws may disenfranchise 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens: study

(Reuters) - New voting laws in 23 of the 50 states could keep more than 10 million Hispanic U.S. citizens from registering and voting, a new study said on Sunday, a number so large it could affect the outcome of the November 6 election.

The Latino community accounts for more than 10 percent of eligible voters nationally. But the share in some states is high enough that keeping Hispanic voters away from the polls could shift some hard-fought states from support for Democratic President Barack Obama and help his Republican rival, Mitt Romney.

The new laws include purges of people suspected of not being citizens in 16 states that unfairly target Latinos, the civil rights group Advancement Project said in the study to be formally released on Monday.

Laws in effect in one state and pending in two others require proof of citizenship for voter registration. That imposes onerous and sometimes expensive documentation requirements on voters, especially targeting naturalized American citizens, many of whom are Latino, the liberal group said.

September 25, 2012

Free traders said that tariffs would drive up import costs. Guess what? They went up WITHOUT tariffs

The decline of the dollar and the rising cost of labor overseas is threatening a complete turnaround in the war against offshoring.

On the downside... fracking.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/made-america-5m-manufacturing-jobs-coming-back-report-123557752.html

Re-Made in America: 5M Jobs Are Coming Back, Report Says

According to analysis by the Boston Consulting Group, manufacturing and supporting jobs will continue to grow by 5 million over the next decade. The firm previously projected a gain of 2 to 3 million jobs by 2020.

Hal Sirkin, a BCG senior partner and co-author of the ongoing series entitled "Made in America, Again" joined The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task to discuss the firm's latest findings and the details behind America's comeback.

What's the main driver behind the rebirth in American manufacturing?

Rising production costs in other industrialized and developing nations, including labor and energy costs, makes manufacturing in the U.S. less expensive for American companies.

Key findings from the report include:
In less than three years, the U.S. will have a cost advantage of 5% to 25% over Germany, Italy, France, the U.K., and Japan in a number of industries, including machinery, chemicals, transportation equipment as well as electrical and appliance equipment.

America's natural gas boom from shale (commonly referred to as "fracking&quot has provided this country with some of the cheapest natural gas prices around the world. For the forceable future, natural gas prices will remain 50% to 70% cheaper in the U.S. versus Europe and Japan.

Labor costs in other developed economies will be 20% to 45% more expensive compared to the costs of hiring U.S. workers.

The U.S. could grab additional exports from the aforementioned nations to the tune of $130 billion annually.
Average manufacturing costs in China will only be 7% lower compared to in the U.S in 2015.

September 24, 2012

Imagine you shot a disabled guy in a wheelchair for threatening you and wielding a pen.

Now try explaining that to the cops.

Hell, it works when the cops do it and then explain it as a "necessary use of force".

The police have become more of a psychopathic threat to society than protectors thereof.

Rotten to the core, rotten all the way to the core...

http://news.yahoo.com/houston-officer-kills-double-amputee-wheelchair-222540280.html

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston police officer shot and killed a one-armed, one-legged man in a wheelchair Saturday inside a group home after police say the double amputee threatened the officer and aggressively waved a metal object that turned out to be a pen.

Police spokeswoman Jodi Silva said the man cornered the officer in his wheelchair and was making threats while trying to stab the officer with the pen. At the time, the officer did not know what the metal object was that the man was waving, Silva said.

She said the man came "within inches to a foot" of the officer and did not follow instructions to calm down and remain still.

"Fearing for his partner's safety and his own safety, he discharged his weapon," Silva told The Associated Press.

September 21, 2012

"In God We Trust" taken off the dollar bill. NOT a time to rejoice.

It doesn't mean a blow for religious freedom. It means that Ayn Rand has taken over and the Christian conservatives her minions used to put her ideas in power, have been cast aside.

Will they notice they've been screwed by the Plutocracy yet, or will they blame it on Obama again?

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/1-silver-certificate-still-looking-pretty-sharp-175434007.html

[img]http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/yU9maB0ZxJ3_.xq51zLkfw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/[/img]

September 21, 2012

Why I don't make fun of Mormons or Mormonism, or any other religion.

There's plenty about Mitt Romney to attack without going there.
[img][/img]

September 21, 2012

Why are American and French voters rebelling against Globalism? Because Globalism is exactly THIS.

http://www.filmsforaction.org/News/Worlds_richest_woman_would_prefer_to_pay_her_miners_2_an_hour/

Meet Gina Rinehart. Born Georgina Hope Hancock, Rinehart is heir to her father’s fortune built at Hancock Prospecting in Australia, where Rinehart remains as executive chair. Hancock Prospecting holds the rights to the world’s largest iron ore deposit and has made Rinehart the richest woman in the world, sitting on a fortune of almost $30 billion USD.

Yesterday, Rinehart lost her cool.

Asia’s richest woman, mining magnate Gina Rinehart, warned on Wednesday that Australia was becoming too expensive for mining firms which she said could hire workers for under $2 a day in Africa.

Rinehart’s comments, promptly denounced by Prime Minister Julia Gillard, coincide with growing concern about the strength of Australia’s mining boom in the face of weaker demand from main customer China and tumbling prices of iron ore, its single biggest export earner. …

“The evidence is inarguable that Australia is becoming too expensive and too uncompetitive to do export-oriented business,” Rinehart told the Sydney Mining Club in a rare public appearance. A video of her address was posted on the club’s website.

“Africans want to work, and its workers are willing to work for less than $2 per day,” she said in the video. “Such statistics make me worry for this country’s future.


And that is not anecdotal, either. The destructive effects of Globalism upon the working class is being felt in countries around the world... starting with the United States.

http://businessfinancemag.com/article/economic-amp-business-focus-global-labor-arbitrage-resets-wages-0401
Offshoring will flatten wages in the United States and other advanced economies.
Global labor arbitrage -- the practice of constantly replacing expensive labor in one location with cheaper labor in another -- has been a cornerstone of corporate strategy for more than a century. This strategy matured over the past decade as technology and higher levels of development in the low-wage nations enabled their workers to take on service jobs and knowledge work; no longer is the practice limited to low-level production jobs. As developing countries provide an increasingly skilled workforce, developed nations' ability to differentiate themselves is dissolving, and the companies operating in those countries no longer need to pay their workers a premium. The most widespread and lasting impact of the maturation of global labor arbitrage is the decline in real wages in the developed nations. CFOs of U.S. companies can prepare now for a permanent resetting of wages for many workers in the upper salary ranges.

Increased global competition and low pricing power are driving the more aggressive forms of arbitrage: overseas sourcing, offshoring and foreign direct investment. In the IT industry, these practices are already moving into their second generation; Indian companies that took work from the United States and Europe are now offshoring less-skilled jobs to lower-cost locations such as China and Malaysia. IT wages in the United States dropped by an average of 3 percent in 2004.


Globalism is useful for exactly one thing: destroying the livelihood of America's working class, and apparently also the working class of France. Europe ain't far behind. Look what China is doing to Germany's solar energy market. Cheap labor is eroding at Germany, too.


Globalism is all about three things and that's it:
* Punishing American workers for earning a living wage
* Building walls to keep American workers out of the global labor force
* Reducing GLOBAL wages to as close to Gina Rinehart's dream of $2 a day as possible


Why else does practically EVERY corporation lobby for more Globalism and more foreign outsourcing? Because it's the PRIMARY WEAPON they use to cut workers' wages.


Fortunately the revolution against globalism is growing.
http://www.industryweek.com/public-policy/made-america-gets-strong-backing-voters
Listen up, Ralph Lauren. A survey of 1,200 Americans shows that 97% have a favorable view of goods manufactured in the United States. Moreover, there is a high level of support across the electorate for strong Buy America programs for public works.

Republicans (87%), Democrats (91%) and independents (87%) all favor Buy America policies, according to the survey released Monday by the Alliance of American Manufacturing.Even when presented with arguments from critics of Buy American about higher costs and increased taxes, voters supported Buy American policies by a wide margin.

The survey found that 53% of voters rate manufacturing as the industry "most important to the overall strength of the American economy."


http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/11/us-france-globalisation-idUSBRE83A18K20120411
Vast majority of French against globalization: poll

(Reuters) - A majority of the French favor protectionist measures and see globalization as bad for jobs, a poll showed, suggesting support for a trend in France's presidential campaign that has pushed President Nicolas Sarkozy to advocate a "Buy European" policy.

The survey by pollster IFOP and due to be published on Thursday in La Croix daily showed that eight out of 10 French people saw globalization as hurting employment, while nearly seven in 10 said it helped to increase public deficits.

Of the 1,052 people questioned by IFOP between April 6 and 10, only 22 percent saw globalization as a "good thing" for their country, while seven in 10 said France should increase taxes on products imported from emerging countries.


It's time to end Globalism and tear down the walls that are being built up to block Americans out of the labor market.

Globalism: the next best thing to outright slavery.
September 20, 2012

Senator Scott Brown is trying too hard.

Criticizing Rmoney's 47% madness, saying Rush Limbaugh's comments about Sandra Fluke is inappropriate, now he goes against the GOP and votes for money for military Veterans.

Anyone want to bet that he's either going to get Dick Lugar'd, or revert when the pressure is no longer on him to differentiate himself from the Far Right? This guy doesn't give off moderate vibes. He's been under pressure since he won office. I get the feeling things will change after he's secured himself the Senate seat for a full 6 years. IF he wins a full 6 year term...

September 20, 2012

DUers, which do you think is more worthy of scorn?

Which one would you protest about first?

Innocence of Muslims, or World Wrestling Entertainment?

See and compare:
Innocence of Muslims:



Clips from WWE:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021380581

September 20, 2012

Pacifiers negatively affect baby boys, but not girls?

Damn. I'm glad I don't have any sons, for yet another one of many reasons. DAMN. I wouldn't have survived without my girls needing pacifiers as babies. Imagine if they'd been boys, I'd have ruined them.

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/pacifiers-may-stunt-boys-8217-emotional-development-163700328.html

Popping a binky in a baby's mouth is a quick way to stop them from fussing, but for boys, it may also short-circuit their emotional growth.

Before a baby can talk, he or she relies on non-verbal cues, especially facial expressions, to communicate. Babies also mirror those cues, and in so doing, discover the emotions the cues are attached to. In a recent study published in the Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology researchers from the University of Wisconsin scientists evaluated over 100 kids and found that that six and seven-year-old boys who had heavily used pacifiers were worse at mimicking emotions expressed by faces on a video. They also interviewed more than 600 college students and discovered that college-age men whose parents reported they had relied on pacifiers scored lower on tests measuring empathy and the ability to evaluate the moods of others. For girls and young women, the researchers found there was no difference in emotional maturity based on pacifier use.

Profile Information

Member since: Fri Dec 16, 2011, 10:30 PM
Number of posts: 8,994

About Zalatix

I'm a liberal looking to make a difference in politics.
Latest Discussions»Zalatix's Journal