Tag: initiative

Subtweeting #521

liam neeson meme from imgflip https://imgflip.com/i/49hzjyI’ve been refraining from writing for a long time. The world got a little bit crazy, and my writing is and always had been intended an outlet of importance only to myself. But this year…2020…it has sucked more than anything has sucked before. Seeing so many people hurt, so many people sick, and so many people left without any real help, it’s kind of lit the fires again (so to speak.) This is me just dipping my feet back in the pool. No citations, no extra research because honestly I don’t have time for it. But who knows, maybe I will start making more time for writing again.

So…here it goes. My subtweeting is usually to avoid the crazy mob of pundits’ fans and their socks. Maybe someday I’ll shift a focus to being an influencer, but right now most of what I see is people using their powers to rile up their fans with shit-poor information.

The bigger problem with this, is that it is inspiring conflict, not resolution. Inspiring people to act and protect is beautiful. Inspiring people to suppress, to harm, or do violence, by word, inference, or gesture…that makes one part of the problem.

If the response is violence, suppression, or harm, it means that the system is either incapable of addressing the problem, or there is an agenda that specifically seeks to condone/promote the disparity.

If you’re wondering why there isn’t more oversight, simply look at everyone not voting for it. That’s literally all that is necessary. Vote them out, and vote representatives in that support term limits.

It might take a decade, but the end result will be all of the old good-ol’ boys will be gone, and younger, less corrupted representatives will only get 8 years(or whatever) to make their difference. The old guys will not be able to maintain their status quo.

We would also see quickly, a more diverse representation. Is the majority still white? Yep, but not for long. By creating/supporting initiatives that lessen the strength of minority votes, institutional agendas remain entrenched.

I hate to say it, but look at Russia. Putin’s playbook was a long long game, and it worked. Ignore that he’s scary as hell, but he systematically realign most of Russia to his agenda. I think honestly that’s the same playbook we’re seeing from the political institution now.

A small change in policy now nudges demographics to a more controllable voting situation. Think of it as non-geographic gerrymandering. And here we are, letting it happen, year after year, letting the same people do the same things to us.

Vote them out…vote them out and for heaven’s sake, don’t let them stay and continue to do harm.




No More Overtime?! Really?!

tonytow tony hunt gets angsty

Some things just absolutely tick me off.

So today an interesting string of articles came up on my radar: an initiative to abolish overtime pay for hourly laborers. I know a lot of you are like “WHAAAT?!”

Initially, I was even like “OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!!!”

Why? Because that money I like to have when I’ve been working for over 40 hours a week.

That was my initial line of thinking because as an individual, overtime pay has helped me through a lot of rough spots. It allowed me to avoid having to get a second job more often than not. But now that I am running my own company, I see immediately where the government (de)regulation here will remove an absolutely HUGE burden on many many employers here in the U.S. and allow a LOT of staffing opportunities to occur.

This type of legislation will definitely rock the boat, but not necessarily in a bad way. At first I was skeptical because of the impact it has on workers that rely on overtime. Then I realized that this only applied to employees who actually get to work over 40 hours a week (with a few exceptions). Those hit the worst on this type of legislation are union workers, whose inflated salaries are a HUGE drain on employers. Followed up by contractors used to gouging on time over 40. After that…well…it’s not actually that bad.

Here’s the kicker though. This potentially saves employers a TON of money. The reason companies dont like overtime in their service process is because it literally throws profitability in the shitter. Work-related accidents happen more often to employees working over 40 hours per week than those that dont. This affects disability, and workmans comp insurance. Immediate affects are seen in shared tax and compensation responsibilities. Essentially, businesses that dont have to pay overtime are far more likely to be able to employ their staff more, or allow for more staffers based on this (de)regulation.

Dont get me wrong, I love overtime, but to be honest it causes more pain to employers that it’s worth to the employees getting the extra pay, and allows companies to staff better.

Are there arenas where this may be a catalyst to working overworked people even more? Absolutely, but this tactic is already used and a TON of companies already dodge the overtime bullet by deliberately misrepresenting positions as exempt job types when they are nothing of the sort.

Anyhow, I am really curious if this is just another smokescreen platform to get us riled up while something else is pushed through or if it’s like SOPA/CISPA.

Article from the Daily KOS
Opposition Article from PoliticusUSA
HR 1119