REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons
SUNDAY
Quote of the Day
May 12, 2013
'More women workers are in minimum-wage jobs than men, yet our minimum wage hasn't kept up. (If it had kept up with inflation since 1968 it would be over $10 today.)
'We've even cut aid pre-natal and post-natal medical care for poor infants and mothers.
'And we have put a five-year limit on aid to single women with children - a limit that the ongoing effects of the Great Recession have already proved to be too limited. Nor have we begun to cope with the reality of stagnant or declining real wages that has caused families to work so much harder and longer. Almost all of the economic gains since the late 1970s have gone to the top 1 percent, but our representatives in Washington refuse to acknowledge this or take steps to reverse the trend.
'The best way to celebrate Mother's Day would be to acknowledge that most mothers are now in paid work - or seek to be - and, as working mothers, deserve better.'
Economist Robert Reich
blog
May 12, 2013
Toon of the Day
Commencement
Brian McFadden
The Strip - New york Times
MONDAY
Quote of the Day
''Watching Downton Abbey would be pure escapism, a simple respite from the grind of work and duties of home. That is, except for the disquieting reality that Downton Abbey's classist mores increasingly intrude on American life. The wealth gap between America's rich and poor has widened to the point where it was in Downton Abbey days. And that is abetted by the GOP practice of continually cutting taxes on the rich while constantly cutting government services that provide opportunity to everyone else.'
Leo W. Gerard
International President,
United Steelworkers
Huffington Post
May 13, 2013
Toon of the Day
Something in the Air?
Tom Toles - Washington Post
TUESDAY
Quote of the Day
'... it is clear that policy makers are seriously worried that millions of frustrated young job seekers pose as much of a threat to the euro zone as excessive government debt or weak banks.'
New York Times
May 14, 2013
Toon of the Day
Empty Calories
Ben Sargent
WEDNESDAY
Quote of the Day
'Numerous studies assume a rise in summer drought periods in North America in the future and an increasing probability of severe cyclones relatively far north along the U.S. East Coast in the long term. The rise in sea level caused by climate change will further increase the risk of storm surge.'
Peter Hoppe, who heads Geo Risks
Research at the reinsurance giant
Munich Re
New York Times
May 15, 2013
Toon of the Day
Outrages
John Coles
THURSDAY
Quote of the Day
'Driven by their fetish of "competitiveness," a part of the European Commission and German Chancellor Angela Merkel . are trying to better position Europe globally by way of reducing hard-fought employee rights and social standards in all countries. Cuts in unemployment benefits, reductions in worker protections, lower pensions, expansions to limited work contractions . and weakening the unions:
Those are just some of the ideas that are on the table. European Union countries are to pledge to reform their social and labor systems so that they conform to the market.
'What should be done to counter such plans? ... So far, alternative models for how to stimulate Europe's economy and fairly tax wealth exist only on paper and must be finalized. When it comes to linking European protest movements and coordinating salary demands ... the unions are hopelessly behind. And European, and particularly German, Social Democrats (and the Greens in Germany) have not emerged as credible opponents to austerity. On the contrary.'
'But if the neo-liberal and post-democratic restructuring of Europe is to be stopped, only frontal opposition will prove effective. The existence of Europe is at stake.'
Die Tageszeitung (Germany)
[left-leaning daily]
May 16, 2013
Toon of the Day
A Better Strategy
Tom Toles - Washington Post
FRIDAY
Quote of the Day
'The joy of living is decreasing, indecency and violence are on the rise, and poverty is becoming more evident.
'...We have created new idols, the ancient worship the golden calf has found a new and ruthless image in fetishism of money and the dictatorship of the economy without purpose nor a truly human face.
'It reduces man to one of its demands, consumption and even worse, the human being is today considered himself as a commodity that you can use and then throw away.
'...Financiers, economists and politicians consider God as manageable, even dangerous because it calls man to his full realization and independence from any kind of slavery.
'... While the income of a minority is growing exponentially, that of the majority weakens," he said, pointing to the growing disparity between the rich and poor.'
Catholic News Service
May 16, 2013
Toon of the Day
Off With His Head
David Horsey - Los Angeles Times
SATURDAY
Quote of the Day
'“What is really, really disturbing to me is how some companies treat the city of Detroit as a dumping ground. Nobody knew this was going to happen.'
Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan state representative from
Detroit, on the three-story pile of petroleum coke
covering an entire city block on the side of the
Detroit River - a byproduct of Canada’s oil sands
boom and put there by a company controlled by
Charles and David Koch, wealthy industrialists who
back a number of conservative and libertarian
causes including activist groups that challenge the
science behind climate change
New York Times
May 18, 2013
Toon of the Day
Meaning of Degree
Mike Keepe
Spread the word