I think the book store on Rainier South is the one by the Radical
Women's meeting hall. At least that was where it was a few years
back, when my elder sister was active. My dad used to frequent a
couple of book stores in down town Seattle, one was on Pike Street.
The woman who owned the one store used to pop in on my folks whenever
she was in Spokane. I'd know her name if I heard it, but...she'd be
over 110 by now.
But as far as wandering around town, we plan to get to the hospital
close to 9:30 A.M., and head for home once Don is safely out of
surgery and Jennifer's nerves are stroked and settled. She's a
worrier...don't know where she picked that up from. If traffic is
decent(Hahahaha) the trip takes a little over two hours each way.
With a stop for lunch we'll be lucky to be back home by 2:30 or 3:00,
about time for Cathy to take care of the horses. This is one very
real drawback to being blind and living just past the end of nowhere.
When we built the house here in the forest, Cathy promised that all I
needed to do was give her a little lead time and she'd take me
anywhere, at least as far as the Ferry. She's only faltered once. I
was invited to the wedding of a young woman who had worked for me for
a time in the Training Center. Now she was a up and coming attorney
with some serious connections in Olympia. Both of her parents were
Administrative Law Judges, her mother actually was the Director.
Since I was still quite active in "Adventures of the Blind", working
to promote several legislative bills, I had hopes of "mingling" with
these people.
Cathy was deathly sick , and by morning it was quite clear that my
plans of brown nosing were ought for not. But I am careful to never
abuse her promise, and asking to take the time to browse among the
political book stores creates additional problems. Like, Cathy is not
into all of my political meanderings, and it would be she who would
need to provide the eyesight for my browsing. She is an avid reader,
but try as I did, she never read Howard Zinn's, A People's History of
the United States. Besides, for some while now I have been off all
the Boards and Committees that once took me into Seattle and Olympia.
Good thing, too. My creaky old hip probably would never make it from
the Ferry, up four steep hills to Third Avenue and the number 7 bus.
Life is full of compromises. I am very fortunate to have a Life's
Partner who would go that extra mile for me. And I want to be certain
that I never need to ask her to make the trip.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/31/17, Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx> wrote:
It sounds like your priorities and responsibilities have your time in
Seattle all tied up, but just in case you find the time and as long as
you are in Seattle you might want to drop in on one of the radical
bookstores. Try the one at 5418 Rainier Ave. South. I understand that
there are some other radical bookstores in that vicinity too.
On 7/31/2017 5:27 PM, Carl Jarvis wrote:
Miriam,
Interesting. I saw that there were videos, but only had time to copy
the text. I'll go back and take a longer look...time permitting.
Life is never dull. Tomorrow morning we'll be at Seattle's Swedish
Medical Center, where our eldest daughter's husband will undergo brain
surgery. Don has Parkinson's and has already had one rod inserted in
his brain. This will be the same surgery, only on the other side. He
will then have two remotes with which to alter each side separately.
It's about a two hour surgery, if all goes according to plan, and we
don't like the idea of Jennifer sitting all alone in the waiting room.
Both her boys work, and their youngest daughter-in-law is driving
across the Cascades to Ellensburg to dog sit for the two days Don will
be in the hospital. Swedish has neat hotel-like rooms for family
members to rent, at very reasonable rates. But Jennifer's insurance
also covers that cost. On 9-11 Don will turn 59. He's been dealing
with Parkinson's for at least 10 years. coincidentally, 9-11 is also
our youngest daughter's birthday. And my best friend's wife has the
same misfortune. I say "my best friend", although Dick died from
cancer back in 1990. One of those rare humans who never said, or
thought, a negative word about anyone. He was a believer in the old
adage, if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all.
So Dick did have silent moments.
And last but not least, we, here in the Great Northwest, are going to
have a heat wave. It is to begin tomorrow and last until Saturday.
Temperatures will zoom up to 95 degrees on Friday, but Tuesday through
Thursday will be moving up through the 80's. Most of America would
welcome a "cooling down" stretch in the 80's. Still, it's what ones
body is acclimated to. I get any heavy work out doors done in the
morning. And of course we once again have air conditioning in our
truck. That's because we finally retired the old 2003 Ford Sport
Trak, with its dead air conditioner, and bought a 2017 Toyota Tacoma,
with everything working. It's not as comfortable as the Ford, but
Ford quit making the Sport Trak a couple of years ago. Our last three
vehicles were Ford trucks, and all of them were dependable to the end.
Of course the new vehicles have "on-screen" touch controls for things
like CD player and radio.
Take care and stay cool.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/31/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Interesting. You get transcripts. I got this in a podcast, but also as a
video. There's a terrific series of three discussions that Paul Jay has
with
members of the Working Families of Maryland. Most of them, one way or
another, are supportive of, or making excuses for, the Democratic Party
because the Working Families actually is an arm of the Democratic party,
although it doesn't admit to it. Paul Jay is arguing with them because
in
many cases, most of them seem to be making excuses for corporate
Democrats.
He's becoming another one of my heroes. He makes his position very
clear,
even though he's a journalist. His questions are sharp.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2017 1:10 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Bob Hachey <bhachey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] NLRB: just because Labor Relations is in the
name, don't believe it
Here's another example of what is going forward while we all giggle and
gawk
at Russiagate.
Carl Jarvis
Michael Arria is a reporter who covers labor and social movements.
He's also the author of Medium Blue: The Politics of MSNBC.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
transcript
Trump Stacking The National Labor Relations Board to Favor Corporations
SHARMINI PERIES: It's the Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries, coming
to
you from Baltimore. It would be reasonable to expect that the head of
the
Labor Department and the National Labor Relations Board would be those
who
advocate for working Americans, people who will use the power of the
Department and the National Labor Relations Board to rein in corporate
greed
and to improve the lives of ordinary working Americans. Well, while most
of
Washington and its legislators and its press have been preoccupied with
Russiagate, some fundamental changes are taking place that can unravel
labor
conditions in this country for decades to come. Joining me now to take a
closer look at who's who in labor relations these days and in the Trump
administration is Michael Arria. Michael is a reporter covering labor
and
social movements. He's also the author of Medium Blue: The Politics of
MSNBC. Thanks for joining us, Michael.MICHAEL
ARRIA: Sure, thanks for having me.SHARMINI PERIES: So, Michael, before
we
dive into this topic, let's outline what the Labor Relations Board is
and
what it does.MICHAEL ARRIA: Sure. So, the NLRB is the National Labor
Relations Board, was created in the 1930s, 1933, under FDR. It's a
five-person board which is responsible for interpreting and enforcing
labor
law in the United States. It's had a variety of issues throughout the
years,
but I'd say in recent memory, it had become kind of a joke. Under George
W.
Bush, he had ...
George W. Bush, when president, had refused to appoint some people to
open
seats, and the Democrats controlled the Senate at the time, so they had
refused to confirm some of his appointments. And for a large amount of
time,
I think from December 2007 through June of 2010, the five-member board
only
had two members on it, which led to questions regarding its authority,
and
ultimately a legal challenge. The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that it
...
Not only did the two-member version of the board not have any authority,
but
also, none of the decisions it had made had any authority either.So that
was
kind of the state of the NLRB not too long ago. It was not really
regarded
by many in labor as a beacon of hope, to put it mildly. But I think what
we've seen, really, to the surprise of many, since Obama was able to
fill
out the remaining seats on the board, we've seen the NLRB kind of emerge
as
an effective interpreter of this kind of current economic landscape
we're
in. We have seen them make all kinds of important decisions that kind of
tilt some of the power back to workers. They ... Very important decision
that increased the organizing rights of graduate students, a very
important
decision that increased the organizing rights of employees at charter
school.And perhaps most importantly, in 2015, the Browning-Ferris
ruling,
which kind of chipped away at the legal barrier between a corporation
and
its given franchises. So when we look at movements like the Fight for
$15,
or the efforts to organize fast-food workers and retail workers, there's
been attempts by groups like the SEIU to kind of hold corporations like
McDonald's responsible for the actions of its given stores, and rulings
like
this, I think, have been a real breakthrough, and they've been, if
unexpected, very welcomed by labor. And that might kind of sound like a
long-winded backstory, but I think it's necessary context to the In
These
Times piece I wrote, which is about the fact that the Trump
administration
is now poised to not only tilt the balance of power back to management
on
the board, but also potentially undo a lot of these important rulings
that
have taken place.SHARMINI PERIES: Michael, honestly, last time I saw
anything related to the Labor Relations in the mainstream media is when
Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta was appointed, and some of the
controversy around that. But media has really dropped the ball on
protecting
the interests of ordinary workers, but you have been a unique exception
to
that. Give us a sense of who's getting appointed to the Labor Relations
Board that concerns you.MICHAEL ARRIA: Well, you're definitely right to
say
that it hasn't been covered. I'd say that the ... When we look at the
hearing which took place on July 13th, it took place just 10 days after,
I
believe, the Senate had gone back into session, and ... The Senate
session
had begun just 10 days after the nomination of one of the nominees, and
the
other one just four days after, so there's very little time to
potentially
research or vet these two nominations. It was kind of an unprecedentedly
fast-tracked ... In addition to the two people that were nominated to
the
NLRB board, the GOP also bundled in another nominee to the Labor
Department
in the same hearing, a guy named Patrick Pizzella, who probably deserves
a
hearing of his own. He worked with the disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff
during the 1990s to try to get the North Mariana Islands exempt from
labor
law, kind of a very ugly story there.But this was all kind of rushed.
There
was a letter sent to Lamar Alexander, who's the head of the HELP
Committee,
who held the hearings, to ask him for an extension of time to take a
closer
look at these nominations, and that was not granted, so the entire
process
was kind of sped up. And the two nominees to the NLRB, the first one is
a
guy named William Emanuel, who's a management-side attorney based in Los
Angeles. He comes from a firm called Littler Mendelson, which has been
notoriously connected to union-busting for decades. He authored an
amicus
brief on class action waivers; class action waivers have actually been
deemed illegal by the NLRB. And when he was nominated, as is customary,
he
handed over a list of clients that he'd worked with that he said he
would
recuse himself from if they had cases come up in front of the NLRB, and
the
list is full of corporations which have clashed directly with the NLRB
in
recent
years: J.P. Morgan, Nissan, probably most prominently Uber.So that's one
of
the nominees to the NLRB, and the other one is a guy named Marvin
Kaplan,
who served for the Republicans on the House Committee on Education and
the
Workforce, which held hearings during his tenure scrutinizing many NLRB
decisions, and he was also instrumental in developing a piece of
legislation
called the Workforce Democracy and Fairness Act, which is trying to
increase
the amount of time between when a board authorizes a workplace
unionization
vote and when that vote actually takes place. So, since 2014, that space
of
time has been
11 days, but many people, anti-labor forces are trying to extend that to
at
least
35 days so that management can have a little more time to potentially
stomp
out any organizing or attempts at creating a union. So that's the
history
and backstory of the two people that were nominated. They both have long
careers connected to anti-labor policies, I'd say.SHARMINI PERIES:
What kind of effect,
or how will the dynamics change with existing members and these new
appointments, as far as you can foresee?MICHAEL ARRIA: Well, it's
difficult
to say for sure. I think this is part of a much wider plan by the Trump
administration to crack down on labor. I mean, you mentioned the new
Labor
Secretary earlier.
It was just announced a couple days ago, I think, that he is moving ahead
at
undoing the overtime legislation that Obama passed shortly before
leaving
office that would potentially increase the pay of, I think, 4.2 million
Americans. We see some of these OSHA rules have already been folded
back,
and we see the ... Trump's budget, which he had revealed, which calls
for
deep cuts to the Labor Department, and cuts to these work training
programs.So it's hard to see how this shakes out, but this is kind of
like
the last piece, I think, to the Trump administration's assault on labor,
because up until this point, they have really not had control of the
NLRB,
and these ... You know, we're talking about how the process was kind of
sped
up, and there wasn't much time. These nominees are expected to get
confirmed, obviously, with the Republicans in control. The final vote in
the
committee was
12 to 11, down
party lines, so everybody, I think, is expecting them to control this
agency
soon.SHARMINI PERIES: And on the part of workers and ordinary citizens,
families of working poor and so on, what can they actually do to protect
their rights, especially if these nominations go through? I just don't
think
people are aware and conscious of these changes that are taking place
that
can dramatically change their lives in the years to come.MICHAEL ARRIA:
Yeah, I mean, I
think it's different with every situation, but I actually ... It's
interesting, I think, as the NLRB has kind of changed, and we're talking
about this story being under-reported, but I'm not sure if any of those
Obama-era advancements were reported very much. There has been a few
calls
in various places for some in labor to focus a little more, maybe, on
what's
referred to on the right sometimes as "judicial activism," and maybe try
to
take some of what the NLRB does a little more seriously, and push for
new
types of enforcement of these rules.So it's going to be very interesting
to
see it play out, and I think it's especially interesting because Trump
has
had a very ...
You know, on one hand, it's easy to say that he's leading this assault
on
labor; on the other hand, he courted labor during the campaign in a way
that
we really haven't seen from a Republican since Ronald Reagan, and for
all
the talk about how he ran a campaign with no investment in polling and
he
really didn't know what he was doing, I think that when we look at labor,
it
definitely paid off. I mean, he got more labor votes than Mitt Romney,
or
John McCain, or George W. Bush, or George W. Bush's dad. So we're looking
at
a kind of a ...
Like everything with the Trump administration, there's kind of a huge
gulf
between the rhetoric and the actual policy, and we see a lot of focus on
the
rhetoric, but I think this is just one of the many examples where we see
the
policy kind of passing by without much comment or reporting.SHARMINI
PERIES:
All right, Michael Arria, thank you so much for joining us today and
giving
us a snippet of what's going on in the ... As far as the Trump
appointees
and the changes that are taking place in the area of labor. Love to have
you
back to discuss more. Thanks so much.MICHAEL ARRIA: Sure, thanks for
having
me.SHARMINI
PERIES: And thank you for joining me here on The Real News Network.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
