Love the way Kamala takes a definite stand on any questions she’s asked.

Democratic Party spent $44 million to promote pro-Trump fascists in Republican primaries” [WSWS]. “According to the campaign finance tracker Open Secrets, Democratic Party-aligned political action committees (PACs), political groups and nonprofits have spent at least $44 million on political ads designed to boost Trump-endorsed promoters of the ex-president’s ‘stolen election’ lie and fascist politics in primary contests across the country for the US House and Senate, as well as for top positions in state governments. In a number of cases, the Democratic Party has spent significantly more on ads for these candidates than the candidates themselves. Typically, the ads present the candidates as ‘too close to Trump,’ an ostensible criticism that is actually intended to make them more attractive to Republican primary voters. The cynical calculation behind this strategy is that in the targeted states, Trump clones will be easier to beat in the November general election than less extreme Republican primary contestants. Much of the money has come from PACs like the House Majority PAC, which has close ties to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Its distribution for Republican primary Congressional races has been sanctioned and coordinated by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Many of the Republican candidates aided by the Democratic ads have long histories of extreme far-right views, while their more traditional Republican rivals have included the few incumbents who either voted to impeach Trump or supported investigations into the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Among the Republicans boosted by the Democratic ads are known coup plotters, including a number of candidates who were present at the January 6 coup attempt.” • Doubling down on the “Pied Piper” strategy…. I wonder if the DNC gives money to Putin? The same logic would seem to apply. And a profile in courage from Harris:

Biden and Pelosi have spent years griping about republican election deniers and yet they have spent over $40 million on propping up those same election deniers. More than they spent on their own candidates.

On top of the nurses and rail strikers the people who work at the ports are also going on strike as are many teachers. Biden recently spoke about the importance of unions and yet he interfered with the railroad strike and made them postpone it.

This site covers all the ongoing and upcoming strikes.

https://www.wsws.org/en

labor actions are repressed an disrupted by company and/or government violence up to and including gunfire. This isn't and shouldn't be news. They need a large admixture of medics and camera-persons and when asked why should clearly explain that attacks by goons and police are sufficiently regular as to be expected and provided for.

be well and have a good one

It's nuts for nurses. I am a retired nurse. I am still of working age, but I don't think I will ever go back to it. I was a "prn" employee. This means that you get top pay but no benefits, and you have to schedule a minimum amount of shifts per month. I was able to do that bc my husband has great benefits at his job and I didn't need insurance. I worked most recently in post-partum area. My tier for shifts was 3/month and 1 had to be on the weekend. I always scheduled myself for 1-2 shifts per week bc it was rare for me to get all the shifts I signed up for anyway. Prn nurses are the first cancelled if you are not needed for a shift (ie: overstaffed). This happens a lot working post-partum bc it is really random when you will have lots of babies born In addition, there is a sign up sheet to request 1st cancel. I often signed up for first cancel bc I didn't really have to work (money wise, THANK YOU husband), and I knew there were others who needed the shift more than I did.

Anyway, I had been working there for a couple years when I got pregnant (oopsie). I was 39 and working 12 hour night shifts. I am not a good/happy pregnant person, and working like that was physically very hard for me. There were a couple times I had to call in sick due to nausea etc. Well, there are strict rules for sick calls and if you had more than 3 in a 6 month period, they could put you on probation-so if you had any more sick calls, they could fire you. Here's the kicker, if you have to call in for a holiday shift, you get charged for 2! missed shifts. Well, I was scheduled to work for Thanksgiving that year and 7 months pregnant. On Thanksgiving I totally overdid it with cooking and being on my feet (not smart, I know) and I ended up having to call in. I was feeling really weird ie: heart racing, light headed, and my ob advised me to lay down, drink lots of water, and if it didn't get better, I needed to go to the ER. So I called in and relayed what was happening and it was no big deal really bc they were overstaffed and going to cancel someone anyway. Since a holiday counts for 2, that put me at 4 sick calls in 6 months.

2 weeks later I get a call from the manager saying hey, if you have any more sick calls you might get fired and if you get fired, you will never be able to work for any hospital in our system again. If you think you might have to call in again, you might want to go ahead and use your fmla leave now. Now I'm thinking, a large amount of the hospitals in our area are in this system so I didn't really want to get fired. I've never been fired from any job in my life! So I went ahead and used my FMLA leave thinking, I'll deal with this after the baby is born. I get a call from the manager 1 week before I'm due saying hey, your leave is up now and you need to give me your upcoming schedule. I told her I couldn't obviously since I was about to give birth and then I had to quit.

I haven't been back to work since. It's not worth it bc child care (especially infants) is insanely expensive. I am glad that I wasn't working during the pandemic, and after how nurses were treated re: PPE etc, I have no desire to go back.