Author Archives: Editor (Retired)

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About Editor (Retired)

Newsman, blogger, editor, writer (and no longer young).

Mitt Romney Clarifies the Economic Divide in America

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Mitt Romney is to be commended for finally bringing into focus the economic divide emerging in America.

Mitt Romney Steve Pearce event 057

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the Winner’s Camp are people who own and control the wealth. It starts with the very richest, a tiny sliver at the top, less than one percent.  This camp also includes the affluent classes, the bankers, accountants, lawyers, executives, innovators and politicians who preside over the modern economy. They provide the brainpower to monitor, preserve, and increase the wealth.

You also find in the Winner’s Camp a large number of people who are crucial for the operation of the economy.

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Survive, Charlie Brown

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Yep.

Live & Learn's avatarLive & Learn

Lucy - Linus - Charlie Brown - Have a good day

Related “I love Charlie Brown” Posts:

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Violence

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American ambassador killed in Libya. As century follows bloody century, does humankind learn anything? The cycle of violence and war never ends. It seems, in fact, to accelerate.

Austerity Is A Lead Brick in Elections

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Takeaways from the provincial election in Quebec last week, in which the separatist Parti Québécois ousted the Liberal Party from control of the Quebec government:

  1. Voters don’t like “Austerity.” Not in Europe, and not in North America.
  2. If  there’s some friction or resentment along generational lines, the cost of college education might be a flash point, both in Europe and in North America.

You could see Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate for president, distancing himself from the dreaded Austerity on Sunday, Continue reading →

Student Protest Against Tuition Hikes Helps Bring Parti Quebecois to Power in Quebec

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Remember the “Arab Spring?”

In Canada, something has just occurred  that might qualify as the “Quebec Summer.” South of the border, the U.S. media is totally unaware.

Seems the Quebec provincial government, run by the Liberal Party, imposed a huge tuition increase on college students. I know next to nothing about Canadian politics, but it would appear that the tuition increase was a foolhardy and arrogant decision. The right to a college education has long been a cause celebre in Quebec, a French province in an otherwise English-speaking country. You might say the right to a college education is a cause with “class” overtones. I recommend an analysis by Richard Seymour, “Quebec’s students provide a lesson in protest politics,” in today’s UK Guardian.

Quebec students, having a long history of organizing and protest,

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“WordPress Rules the Web”

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WordPress

Adriano Gasparri photo

An amazing “business” story is on Forbes:  “WordPress Rules the Web.”  It’s the story of WordPress; its founder, Matt Mullenweg; and his unusual and counterintuitive approach to software, blogging, and profit.

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Parti Quebecois Wins Election in Quebec

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UPDATE QUEBEC: One man was killed and another injured in a shooting outside a victory celebration for Pauline Marois, the Associated Press is reporting. Ms. Marois, leader of Parti Quebecois, was not injured. Police arrested a 62-year-old businessman, who will be charged today.

The MSM is definitely irrelevant!

They held an election in Quebec this week, and the Parti Quebecois won with 33 percent of the vote, enough to form a coalition government and run the province. The only reason I know all this is because of a post and a thread of comments on Clarissa’s Blog. Blogging beats MSM, again.

Français : La chef du Parti québécois, Pauline...

Pauline Marois. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Seems to me the Quebec election ought to be newsworthy in America, if only because the Parti Quebecois allegedly advocates separation of Quebec from the rest of Canada. Possibly many U.S. citizens would need  a map to find Quebec, or even Canada. Hint: Canada spans the continent from Atlantic to Pacific, directly north of the U.S.

Hard for me to say how serious Parti Quebecois is about separation, since the myopic U.S. media totally ignored the election. The consensus appears to be: It ain’t going to happen. Howsoever, the French-Canadian party apparently has some interesting positions, not limited to preservation of the French language. Their platform makes many Canadians downright distraught. Continue reading →

Factory Girls and Boys

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This post, “Factory Girls and Boys,” documents child labor in the early years of the 20th century. The photos make me extremely angry. Not long ago, I wrote a post titled, “Austerity, The New Slavery.”  More and more, I become convinced that modern capitalism depends for its existence on the exploitation of cheap labor.    “Business ethics” really is an oxymoron. In America alone, we had widespread slavery and child labor, out in the open, in broad daylight! And not in the distant past. American industry has always supported immigration for a steady supply of cheap, expendable labor. The White House and the Capitol were built by slaves, the railroads were built by immigrants, and the industrial sweatshops were operated by women and children. After slavery and child labor were abolished, unions gained a toehold. Minimum wage laws and occupational safety laws were enacted over the objections of business. Not surprising that in the second half of the 20th century, industrialists began to move American factories to any faraway land where labor is cheap, plentiful, and unregulated. Thanks to historian and blogger Donna Seger and photographer Lewis Wickes Hine for opening my eyes.

— John Hayden

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daseger's avatarstreetsofsalem

I always feel a bit sorry for myself on Labor Day weekend, as it’s back-to-school time and usually I am engaged in a mad dash to get my course syllabi done.  Of course this is ridiculous, as I have the cushiest job ever and most of the summer I’ve been free to do as I liked.  It’s good to remind myself what labor really is, and nothing does that better than the photographs of Lewis Wickes Hine (1874-1940), who transitioned from educator to social activist, all the while armed with a camera.  In 1908 Hine became the official photographer for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) and began his life’s work:  documenting child labor across the United States. This was a time when one in six children between the ages of five and ten worked outside the home in “gainful occupation”, and the percentage increases dramatically for children over the…

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On A Less Serious Note

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Princess Lola guards the back deck while I’m away at work.

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