They raised the minimum wage to $15.00 and….

This isn’t the first time this has happened, although I won’t say that it’s universal. It may be that the Seattle economy is expanding anyway, and if you’re politically conservative you might argue that it would be expanding more quickly but for the living wage amount.

The problem is that the opposition to minimum wage increases on an economic basis is simplistic. The argument is that businesses will not be able to afford the increase and will lay off workers. And initially, there are some layoffs. But it’s based on a very static analysis of economy.

First of all, the layoffs are never what free marketers project because minimum wage positions tend to be essential to the business, as contra-intuitive that seems. There isn’t a lot of flexibility on the demand/supply curve. The businesses hiring minimum wage workers are generally operating at close to bare minimum. So basically they either retain the workers or they go out of business. And the latter rarely happens because the economies are dynamic.

The consumers at the bottom can’t save. They can’t invest. Maybe they pay off some debt with increased wages, but mostly they spend. If they have more to spend, they spend more. And the economic multipliers (the cycle of spending – you buy a sandwich and then the business buy’s bread, tuna, lettuce, and then those businesses hire workers, etc.) are localized and the increased business ultimately metabolizes the increased labor, and often without significantly increasing prices because the market won’t bear all of the increases. Basically the increased wages generate a Keynesian result by increasing the volume of business.

This isn’t always a good thing. It’s inflationary, but inflation hasn’t been a problem in this country since prior to the Crash. And in an economy like Seattle’s – the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country (and no, I don’t think that’s a good thing), the wages have been increased and have provided some small improvement in the standards of living of those at the bottom of the wage scale. This has happened before, and hopefully will again.

Mind you, I don’t think it’s a panacea. We need a thorough restructuring of the national economy and I’m concerned that Seattle will face the economic cleansing of the SF Bay area. But this experiment represents a ray of light. Call me a socialist.

Seattle experiment pays off for lower income workers.

Gofundme for Presbyterian Church

I can’t even count how many events I’ve attended in that sanctuary – mostly music recitals.  Food is also distributed from the building.  There is no other hall quite like it in Garberville proper especially with the Masonic building gone.   Let’s not make this thread about poverty bashing if we can avoid it.

You can donate through here.

Fat Shaming in Paradise

Seriously, master race exemplary Steve Bannon is fat shaming?  His own comrade?  You can’t make this stuff up!

Meanwhile, Spicer won’t confirm whether Trump believes Russia interfered with the election.  I mean, we’ve messed with so many other nations’ elections over the years, I think the righteousness is over the top whether from Democrats or Republicans.  Still, I think if the Russians did in fact attack elections online systems in 39 states, it’s a matter of concern.    But seriously, did the media really wait this long to ask the question?

Klamath Recreation Connection meeting tonight

Anybody living in northern Humboldt County or Del Norte should attend if at all possible.

All Things Reconsidered tonight – critical thinking in ethical choices

All Things Reconsidered tonight – Bob Froehlich will join me to discuss the use of critical thinking in making moral choices. What is the criteria? What is useful data to consider? What are the considerations to be balanced? We will probably emphasize social policy, but also address individual decision making. 7:00 as always.

Archived.

It’s Official

The President is under investigation for obstruction of justice.

Sanders on the actions of one of his volunteers

Note – he didn’t offer to pay the man’s attorney fees.

“Violence of any kind is unacceptable in our society and I condemn this action in the strongest possible terms,” Sanders said. “I am sickened by this despicable act.”

Would that the President would learn from the Senator’s example.

Forget his lame evasive testimony – Sessions wants to revive the war on drugs

Letter to Congress asking for leave to go after medical marijuana.

“I believe it would be unwise for Congress to restrict the discretion of the Department to fund particular prosecutions,” Sessions wrote, “particularly in the midst of an historic drug epidemic and potentially long-term uptick in violent crime. The Department must be in a position to use all laws available to combat the transnational drug organizations and dangerous drug traffickers who threaten American lives.”

The letter—dated May 1, 2017, and addressed to Sens. Mitch McConnell and Charles Schumer and Reps. Paul Ryan and Nancy Pelosi—was obtained by Massroots.com’s Tom Angell. It specifically asks that Congress not renew the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, passed in 2014. Barack Obama’s Justice Department challenged the amendment last year, and it lost in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That means if Sessions wants to go after medical marijuana, he’ll need Congress to remove Rohrabacher-Farr from the next appropriations bill.

 

As for his testimony,  Sessions says that he only recused himself solely because of his role as advisor to the Trump campaign, but it happened on the day after his meetings with Ambassador Kislyak were first reported. That’s quite a coincidence!

And he’s still whining about Franken’s question in January, which by the way was not the question he answered.

“Certainly, I can assure you, nothing improper, if I’d had a conversation with him, and it’s conceivable that occurred. I just don’t remember,” Sessions said. “I guess I could say that I possibly had a meeting, but I still do not recall it, and I did not in any way fail to record something in my testimony or in my subsequent letter intentionally false.”

So he f—ing shows up for this testimony without his appointment calendar?

Apparently he had denied such a meeting in opening statement, which I missed.

And of course, any question of substance – “executive privilege.”

This is a joke.

“The Republican National Committee tweeted that “Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak met with Obama staffers 22 times between 2009-2016.” As former Obama staffer Tommy Vietor noted, that’s different — Obama was president at the time.””

Ya think?

It looks like Democratic Party senators are pressing him on his refusal to answer questions – seems like he’s claiming executive privilege on the hard questions while waiving it on the softball questions from Republicans.

And Burr cut off Sen. Harris – again!  Sessions was definitely afraid of Harris, who has a prosecution background.

She asked about his calendar!  Lol!

Well, anyway, there it is.

You can read the Huffpo live updates here.

 

Special counsel to be fired???

The Republicans are gearing up for firing Robert Mueller, after singing his praises just a couple of weeks ago. They’re turning on him now, and I have to wonder what’s been said in closed session which is freaking Republicans out.  Newt Gingrich is leading the charge – naturally he doesn’t hold public office.  And a Trump confidant told PBS that Trump is seriously considering firing Mueller.

Would they really do this?  I mean, we’re talking Saturday Night Massacre all over again, only about a year ahead of schedule.

All of the sudden Sen. Kamal Harris’s grilling of Rosenstein last week becomes extremely pertinent.

Trump’s weird suck-up session and Schumer parody

 

I mean WTF??

Sen. Schumer held his own. The last comment which had them all crack up was a direct quote from Priebus.