Happy Friday everyone. Welcome to Friday Night Photos your once a week escape from the day to day insanity of the world we live in. Post any photos, memes, music or whatever else you find of interest that helps tune out the madness.
Went to Dog Beach Tuesday for this month's camera club outing.
Sam's Doppelgänger
Federal politics in America has always been about class warfare. The Founding Fathers were, for the most part, rich land owners. In most states only white male land owners over 21 could vote. This persisted through the early 1800s, but by the 1820s was no longer common. North Carolina was the last state to remove the property requirement in 1856.
Senators were elected by the legislatures of their respective states until 1913 when the Seventeenth Amendment was ratified. This was another way that the wealthy retained power. After the ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment Senators were elected by the constituents of the states. This was a good step towards equity, but there were other ways to twist the system in favor of the monied class.
It was set up as a good old boy's club and pretty much remains that way to the present with the addition of some good old girls as well. Sure, some less than wealthy candidates occasionally get elected, but by and large, they don't remain that way for long. We've all seen how some elected officials come into office with a modicum of wealth and within a few years have accumulated a rather large nest egg, much more than what their annual salary justifies. The longer they serve the larger the larder.
Here is wiki's thumbnail account of the strike:
1985–1986 Hormel strike
Date August 17, 1985 – September 13, 1986
(1 year, 3 weeks and 6 days)
Location Austin, Minnesota, United StatesCaused by
Unsafe working conditions
Decrease in hourly wages from $10.69 to $8.25Goals
Return to $10.69 hourly wage
Improved working conditions
The Fed
I have never paid much attention to the Fed, what it is, how it worked, whatever. It's something that none of us, at least in almost all of my lifetime, could control. It seems to me to be an entity that makes things better for the rich, especially bankers, and 'bleh', on average, for the rest of us. It's 'politically independent' which means... means that TPTB rule it without any input from the lower classes. But it wasn't always like that as I learned recently from a good article by Matt Stoller 'Federal Reserve Independence Is Bad' with the subheading - 'Donald Trump wants to fire Fed Chair Jay Powell. He should be able to do so. The Fed needs to be controlled by elected leaders, not Wall Street. Even if those elected leaders are bad.'
I didn't at first agree with the subheading at all, except for the part about some elected leaders being bad. But then I read the article, and learned that up until the late 1970s the Fed was controlled by elected leaders, which is why it did a decent job for most of the country's people before that.
From The Week.
I know the President of the United States does not rule.
There are more powerful forces that pull his strings, or at the very least, manipulate everything he does. Through threats, deceit, and/or cunning use of greed and ego stroking, they manage him. The only thing they cannot control his mouth.
Ten years ago, as I was working for IATSE, I was negotiating with a company called Tegna, the corporate successor to Gannett, which had bought Portland TV station KGW. At the first union contract negotiation with its unions, Tegna demanded that we agree to allow any of God's children to do our member's jobs. I was able to get both the other unions to join us in a coalition.
