Let the monster corporations devour whom they please

Scott Simon of NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday talked to Deborah Berkowitz, a former senior official at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA is who a worker contacts when they think their workplace is unsafe. Like now with the coronavirus. Laws give OSHA the clout to enforce corrections to keep workers safe.

But they’re not using it. Workers complain, filing 12,000 complaints. OSHA writes a letter, but lists suggestions and not requirements. Employers respond with we’re doing the best we can. OSHA closes the case. This is a big problem because if OSHA closes the case the worker can’t sue the employer.

The law says the OSHA should be doing a lot of things – conduct inspections and have the worker’s back – and they’re not. OSHA is part of the Department of Labor and Secretary Scalia has said he doesn’t believe the government has a role her. Government should be limited.

Government inaction has cost lives. Government has failed. Voluntary compliance means no compliance. Which is why OSHA was created. Even Roland Reagan, who campaigned on getting rid of OSHA, used OSHA against companies and industries who were harming their workers.

I add: Several years ago I realized a big role of government, at least in a democracy, is protecting the little guy from the predations of the big guy. I haven’t yet talked to a candidate about that idea, though it could be an interesting (or short) discussion. Here Scalia is saying that no, the role of government is not to protect the little guy. Let the monster corporations devour whom they please.

In this time of virus a government that refuses to protect the little guy has one meaning for me: They – the non-compliant employers and the government – want us dead. They’re pleased that the virus can make it look like their fingers aren’t on the trigger.



Mark Sumner of Daily Kos reviews the government inaction on dealing with the virus. I’ve covered much of this stuff as it occurred. I mention it because Sumner includes a chart showing the number of cases in the US and has labeled three sections of the chart as Phase 1: Utter Incompetence, Phase 2: Massive Complacency, and Phase 3: Pure Murder.



Dan Pfeiffer, writing for Crooked, discusses the nasty guy’s plan to get reelected. Well, his campaign’s plan. He, more often than not, undermines the campaign’s message. It probably isn’t a good plan, but we should be aware of what they’re trying to do.

The campaign has released a couple ads. One is aimed at black people trying to tar Biden for the 1994 crime bill. The other is a Spanish language ad that tries to claim that Biden is too old and senile to be president.

Neither will convince anyone to vote for the nasty guy. The goal is to get a few voters to vote instead for a third party candidate or to not vote, to shrink Biden’s lead.

The other part of the plan is the standard GOP playbook – voter suppression. At the moment this is mostly an assault on vote by mail. Pfeiffer wrote:

These suppression tactics are much more dangerous against the backdrop of a lethal virus that has spread fastest in urban areas that drive Democratic turnout. The prospect of waiting eight hours to vote and at increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 could prove to be a powerful disincentive to anyone skeptical of politics.

Yeah, the nasty guy may sabotage this message. Be prepared anyway.



Greg Dworkin of Kos in his pundit roundup included a tweet that underscores the systemic racism in our country. The text (with misspellings):

I’m a Election Commissioner in Jones County. I’m concerned about voter registration in Mississippi. The blacks are having lots of events for voter registration. People in Mississippi have to get involved too. Thank you fir all you do.

Hmm. There are “people” and there are “blacks.” Got it. A racist election commissioner. I’m pleased to see there has been a great deal of pushback.



A new site titled Flood Factor updated the FEMA flood maps. The maps needed updating because they are partly political and they don’t take global warming into account. Flood Factor does and lets you zoom into your neighborhood.

Even though I live near a river I’m enough out of the floodplain that I shouldn’t be affected in the next 30 years, longer than I’ll likely live here. However, when a big one comes I may not be able to get out of my neighborhood and even if I did I wouldn’t get very far in any direction. I’m puzzled by what might be going on at the neighborhood entrance. This area isn’t lower than the area around it. Perhaps there is an underground stream?



My public classical music station plays the program Wind & Rhythm, which features band music. I usually listen to NPR news when it is on, so only hear the end credits as I turn back to classical music. It is through those end credits that I heard that the program did an episode at the end of June in honor of the 51st anniversary of the Stonewall uprising in 1969. Pretty cool that they did that! I’ve now listened to the episode. The first piece was interesting with words about the color of the rainbow flag and a popular music feel. I didn’t care for the other three pieces. They’re more in a jazz idiom. You can listen (or not) for yourself. The whole thing is under an hour.