Judge Michael Kaplan is an '06 Bush appointee, but I gotta say, it tickles me just pink that the rush towards corporatism, plutocracy, oligarchy (whatever you wanna call it) is TO THIS DAY relatively bipartisan. Seems like only the progressive wing of the democrats aren't completely beholden to corporate interests, but, y'know, they kinda are, via the DNC. Even with so much money in politics, the only surefire way to guarantee that the wealthy continue to win this class warfare is throwing out democracy entirely. Is anyone seriously debating this? What is the counterargument, that fascism is secretly hot shit? To de-fang one typical rebuttal: Yes, some wealth inequality is OK. At this point in our species' development, a meritocracy is probably still a good idea, even if it's hella crude. That said, the idea that there's no link between the unraveling of America and record-breaking levels of wealth inequality is hilarious. Also "hilarious" is the notion that there exists a set of skills required to serve as CEO that's on average several hundred times as valuable as the people making minimum wage. "The Market" is not what's allowing the injustice. The neutering of our government by the wealthy is. And (uhhhh see paragraph above) it's only gonna get worse from here unless we form something like superunions and coordinate strikes and demands, probably (regrettably) on social media. LOL, Jan. 6th? Not enough to enact regulatory reforms of big tech, but needing to quash a Labor revolution? Probably insta-reforms. What fun. Zero faith. That's what I have. Zero faith that a single fucking thing will be done. God bless Judd, tho.Plaintiffs suing J&J have challenged LTL Management's bankruptcy filing. In February 2022, a federal bankruptcy judge, Michael Kaplan, ruled that LTL Management's bankruptcy could proceed. Kaplan found "no impropriety in the divisional merger used here to create a special-purpose vehicle to address the talc claims and, thus, perceives no 'absurd or unjust result' produced." Further, Kaplan found that the plaintiffs have not proven "bad faith" because the spin-off of LTL Management was done pursuant to "a long-standing Texas statute."
Both Durbin and Whitehouse said they hope to pursue a bipartisan approach to the legislation. Thus far, no bill has been introduced.
I think we're at a Bonus Army tipping point. Republicans are no longer good for business. Social safety nets are actually better for profits - back in the '90s, Toyota opted to build a plant in Canada vs Tennessee because while labor costs were cheaper in TN, Toyota added up how much they'd be paying in training, absenteeism and turnover (due to shitty schools, shitty medical systems and shitty quality of life) and went Canada all the way, baby. Meanwhile the median income in the United States is $31k and median rent is $1800/mo, up 17% in 12 months. Everyone's leaning into robots and automation. Employers can't afford to pay the rates that would get people out of the house to work - there's a big wall where you cease to be eligible for Medicaid so you have to pay $900/mo for health insurance, where you're no longer living with your parents so you're living with six roommates, where you're suddenly commuting 90 minutes a day and paying $6/gal for gas. There is sound economic data pointing out to the benefit to corporate profits from, to put it bluntly, socialism. This is one thing I think people miss: corporations do not benefit from shareholder capitalism, it's just the system they're working in. Corporations do not benefit from ridiculous CEO salaries, it's just the system they're working in. Piketty and Jon Ronson laid out that from Roman centurions to the Catholic Church, the difference between the lowest compensated employee to the highest compensated employee has historically been two factors of ten. Since 1945 it's been crawling past six in the United States, because a professional managerial class is not something the world has ever seen before. That's all about Chicago School economics, which are rapidly falling out of favor because they break the world. This is a three-hour Frontline documentary about how the global warming crisis was caused by like five people at Exxon-Mobil. The EPA Act didn't go far enough, but it went far. The Americans with Disabilities Act didn't go far enough, but it went far. HIPAA didn't go far enough, but it went far. Obamacare didn't go far enough, but it went far. And we're now in a corporate environment where the Republicans are saying "if you don't do exactly what we want exactly when we want it we are breaking all our deals with you, no matter how old they are, no matter how mutually beneficial, no matter how much it hurts us." I think things move slowly, then all at once, and I am seeing, every day, the effects of the massive lurch we underwent in 2020. I mean, just in Texas - you guys elected people who brought all the bitcoin miners to use a fragile grid that's ready to explode, chased away shipping and commerce so much that they moved a deal to New Mexico and stomped the tech revolution in Austin into the ground by doing the "every sperm is sacred" dance while also pointing your six-shooters at the sky. it wins you points with the base? But at some point the base has diminished to the point where they can't keep you in office. And at some point enough of the base's periphery decides they're sick of your shenanigans. Edited to add fresh shiny graphs from this morning, including this one demonstrating what Maple Leaf Socialism does to hiring conditions:
