A More Perfect Union

Attribution: PRESIDENTIAL PICKET PLOYS by Randall Enos, Easton, CT

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Author: patd

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked. "Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad." "How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice. "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn’t have come here.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

17 thoughts on “A More Perfect Union”

  1. European Union | The Guardian

    The European Union must begin a major wave of change to prepare for the arrival of Ukraine as a member state, the leader of its parliament has said, with “nothing off the table”, including removing trade tariffs and giving Kyiv access to internal markets before full membership.
    Speaking exclusively to the Guardian, Roberta Metsola, an MEP from Malta who became the European parliament’s youngest ever president last year, said she expected member states to begin formal negotiations with Ukraine as soon as December.
    “If they are going fast, we should match that speed,” she urged.
    Metsola was the first political leader to visit Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, meeting the country’s president, President Zelenskiy, in Kyiv on 1 April 2022, when the capital was still under curfew and surrounded by tanks.
    She has made the images of that encounter a symbol of her presidency: a poster of the pair in military green, shaking hands, hangs over the Parliament courtyard.
    Defying caution and outright antagonism from some member states, she has given unequivocal support to Ukraine’s attempt to join the EU, a process which has advanced even as the country’s attempts to join Nato have stalled.
    Ukraine is one year into a what many expect will be four or five year journey. But Metsola reflects fresh thinking among some EU leaders that the bloc needs to accelerate access to Ukraine- and the Balkan states that have also applied- in order to curb the risk of Russian interference in these former Soviet territories.
    “Pushing the can down the road” on enlargement will only fuel nationalism and the far-right, she warned. “It increases the extremes on the political spectrum, the Euroscepticism. Campaigns in accession countries are fought, and lost or won, on the basis of the dream and hope of the EU.”
    Metsola wants formal talks to begin before Christmas. The decision rests with EU ministers, who will meet formally in December after a public report in October on Ukraine’s progress in reforming its judiciary, curbing corruption and opening its markets.
    “I expect a concrete outcome because the worst signal could be that we have given these people targets and deadlines which we can’t meet ourselves,” said Metsola.

    [continues]

  2. SAG-AFTRA video game actors authorize strike in negotiations with major companies – NBC Los Angeles

    The SAG-AFTRA has voted 98.32% in favor of authorizing a strike with the ten major video game companies as the two sides remain at odds over a new contract, the actors union announced on Monday.
    The union said it has been in negotiations with ten signatory video game companies since October 2022, and they still do not have a deal as they enter a new round of negotiations this week. The companies potentially impacted are Activision Productions Inc, Blindlight LLC, Disney Character Voices Inc., Electronic Arts Productions Inc., Formosa Interactive LLC, Insomniac Games Inc., Epic Games, Take 2 Productions Inc., VoiceWorks Productions Inc., and WB Games Inc.
    “It’s time for the video game companies to stop playing games and get serious about reaching an agreement on this contract,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, according to the union’s press release. “The result of this vote shows our membership understands the existential nature of these negotiations, and that the time is now for these companies — which are making billions of dollars and paying their CEOs lavishly — to give our performers an agreement that keeps performing in video games as a viable career.”
    […]
    The SAG-AFTRA video game actors appear to be dealing with similar issues as TV and movie writers and their fellow actors, which include demands for pay increases and regulations when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence.
    “After five rounds of bargaining, it has become abundantly clear that the video game companies aren’t willing to meaningfully engage on the critical issues: compensation undercut by inflation, unregulated use of AI and safety,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, according to the union’s press release. “I remain hopeful that we will be able to reach an agreement that meets members’ needs, but our members are done being exploited, and if these corporations aren’t willing to offer a fair deal, our next stop will be the picket lines.” 
    In a statement to Variety, a spokesperson for the video game companies said “We will continue to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement that reflects the important contributions of SAG-AFTRA-represented performers in video games. We have reached tentative agreements on over half of the proposals and are optimistic we can find a resolution at the bargaining table.”

  4. Biden is headed to Michigan to join the UAW picket line. He’s all-in on showing his union bona fides – ABC News (go.com)

    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s decision to stand alongside United Auto Workers picketers Tuesday on the 12th day of their strike against major carmakers underscores an allegiance to labor unions that appears to be unparalleled in presidential history.
    Experts in presidential and U.S. labor history say they cannot recall an instance where a sitting president has joined an ongoing strike, even during the tenures of the more ardent pro-union presidents such as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman. Theodore Roosevelt invited labor leaders alongside mine operators to the White House amid a historic coal strike in 1902, a decision that was seen at the time as a rare embrace of unions as Roosevelt tried to resolve the dispute.
    Lawmakers often appear at strikes to show solidarity with unions, and during his 2020 Democratic primary campaign, Biden and other presidential hopefuls joined a picket line of hundreds of casino workers in Las Vegas who were pushing for a contract with The Palms Casino Resort.
    But sitting presidents, who have to balance the rights of workers with disruptions to the economy, supply chains and other facets of everyday life, have long wanted to stay out of the strike fray — until Biden.
    “This is absolutely unprecedented. No president has ever walked a picket line before,” said Erik Loomis, a professor at the University of Rhode Island and an expert on U.S. labor history. Presidents historically “avoided direct participation in strikes. They saw themselves more as mediators. They did not see it as their place to directly intervene in a strike or in labor action.”
    […]
    The Biden administration has no formal role in the negotiations, and the White House pulled back a decision from the president earlier this month to send two key deputies to Michigan after determining it would be more productive for the advisers, Gene Sperling and acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, to monitor talks from Washington.

  7. absolutely no union or joy in critterville today

    Attribution: Dealing Among Ourselves by Pat Byrnes, PoliticalCartoons.com

  9. https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/25/newsom-desantis-debate-fox-00117959

    “Following months of taunting challenges between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over a head-to-head debate, a date has officially been set.”

    “The two governors will debate in-person on Nov. 30 in Georgia, the network said Monday. Fox News anchor Sean Hannity will moderate, as the 90-minute-long show will air during the 9 p.m. ET time slot of his show, “Hannity.”

    “We’ve agreed to the debate — provided there is no cheering section, no hype videos or any of the other crutches DeSantis requested. We want a real debate — not a circus,” Newsom spokesperson Nathan Click told POLITICO.”

    “A Fox News spokesperson on Monday declined to say whether Hannity agreed to Newsom’s terms of no live audience and said that more details on the debate will be available later on.”

    Does Seanny want to help Orange Adolf by having Gavin destroy DuhSantis? Gavin gets a foothold to run next time out of this deal.

  11. So the NY judge overseeing the Letitia James fraudsuit grants summary judgment against Dumbass and pounds on the bench at Dumbass’ lawyers’ attempts to justify his massive fraud on the State and lenders. I’da loved to be a fly on the wall. 

    NEW YORK — A judge overseeing a $250 million lawsuit against Donald Trump ruled the former president and his company committed fraud by inflating his net worth in business transactions, narrowing the scope of what the state’s attorney general must prove at an upcoming civil trial.
     
    New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron also ordered the cancellation of Trump business certificates and imposed sanctions on attorneys representing him, two of his adult children, two other company executives and the business for repeating arguments that failed multiple times previously and were called “borderline frivolous.”

    The judge’s ruling represents a significant setback for Trump by revoking his company’s authority to do business in New York, where the Trump Organization is headquartered and where Trump has major real estate interests. It also represents a victory for Attorney General Letitia James (D), who had asked that Engoron simplify the upcoming trial by deciding in advance that fraud was broadly committed so the state would need to prove only specific illegal acts.
    *****

    Wapo 

    BAM!!!

  15. “The Alabama AG’s office took a loser case to the US Supreme Court, and then they demanded a do-over after they already lost. …Plaintiffs sued. And plaintiffs won — at every single step, including the white marble steps, mined from Sylacauga, at the U.S. Supreme Court building in Washington.“

    https://www.al.com/news/2023/09/somebody-should-get-fired-for-this.html?fbclid=IwAR0xTQAGXewEzKYaK_h3t9h_Z1nRQ4rbKuYTTTAjh3E5O9cf9jiTQpye-9c_aem_AR8gY6PuSRiblyKxVy0jM4WzUr0ZhK7zdcE0LeIvsAzojvmWlgar8YxxlXHwp9dNCV4
     

    “I use the word Alabama above loosely. It wasn’t Alabama that refused to yield. It was public officials. It was people with names. Let’s name names.”

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