Calmer than you are

Somebody likes this weather anyhow. Arpad, security chief at Goat Rope Farm, is something of a snow bunny. (Photo credit: Spousal Unit)

Storm edition

OK, this is the 2016 Snowpocalypse edition. Of, if it's a really bad winter a Snopocalypse edition. I'm anticipating losing most things any time now so this'll be brief. I know I've used this King Lear quote more than one time before but it really fits now, with the WV legislature's currently leadership engaged in trying to beat down unions and poor people:

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,
That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your loop'd and window'd raggedness, defend you
From seasons such as these? O, I have ta'en
Too little care of this! Take physic, pomp;
Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou mayst shake the superflux to them,
And show the heavens more just.

A new low

The WV legislature hit a new low today, which is kind of an accomplishment these days. The Senate voted along party lines by a margin of one to support right to work for less. That was bad enough, but one Republican senator felt obliged to insult the working people who were watching the spectacle. Meanwhile, the House moved closer to abolishing the state's prevailing wage for construction workers working on public building projects.

On other fronts, this may be the last post for a while. WV is about to get hit hard by a winter storm if predictions are right. Around here, that usually means no phone, electricity, internet or water for several days.

Stay safe!

Apropos of nothing again

For some reason, a quote attributed to Walter Benjamin keeps coming to mind: "Every rise of Fascism bears witness to a failed revolution."

Modern paraphrase: a lot of shipwrecked hopes for a better day gave rise to the current political climate, in WV and the nation at large.

Some words of Dr. King to consider in WV

 (Image by way of wikipedia. Circa 1963.)

“In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.

Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining by which unions have improved wages and working conditions of everyone…Wherever these laws have been passed, wages are lower, job opportunities are fewer and there are no civil rights. We do not intend to let them do this to us. We demand this fraud be stopped. Our weapon is our vote.” —Martin Luther King, speaking about right-to-work laws in 1961