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[SalmonGod]

Sorta' reminds me of that old naivety that workers would be paid more as they became more productive. Industry has been laughing long and hard on that subject for a good while now. When folks pay more in or put more out and get little to nothing from it, we tend to start pulling out pretty negative descriptors, ha.

Here's where I actually pivot on my normal stance, and give the benefit of the doubt to stupidity.  I've noticed that executives love to boast about the success of the company to employees.  Quarterly "town halls" and such where they distribute a promotional video (at big corporations) or teleconference or do in-person tours to all the offices and talk about the growth the company has experienced.  Just how goddamn much money they're making.  And they don't talk about it like they're proud of themselves or bragging or anything.  They talk about it like they genuinely expect the employees to feel proud and get excited hearing about it.  I think the disconnect is completely lost on them.  Like they honestly don't realize that most of us have the thought running through our heads that it means absolutely nothing to us, other than a little relief that we won't be facing trouble for not meeting budgetary goals.  They don't realize just how much they live in a different world from us.

[Lord Shonus]

This is quite true. Where I work, most departments are far, far below authorized strength, because the pay is very low to begin with (we're talking "Wal*Mart looks nice by comparison" levels)even before you take the absolutely horrid (and unavoidable) schedules into consideration. They seem to have no conception why they can't attract people, and any complaints about pay are brushed aside.

Yet they parade us all through a series of meetings once a year, where they provide the financials and tell us about all the exciting ways they're going to use that money to expand in the next year. Never noticing that they're handing us concrete proof that they can afford to pay much, much better.

In our case it just might bite them in the ass soon. We're a union shop with a contract coming up, and a large percentage of the employees are quite literally impossible to replace due to licencing issues.

[Frumple]

Eh... not so much CEOs or whatev' explicitly laughing (though one could totally talk about that and what leads them to spew out HR management/business communication 101 junk), as industry trends causing reality to laugh at the concept. You don't have to squint much to see stuff like per worker production rising while wages functionally stay static as suspiciously similar to a con job (I.e. give me more money and what you're going to get back isn't going to change, _{also we're going to spend this on hookers and blow and you're not even invited to watch just throwing that out there}), which is, y'know. Not the sort of economic interaction we tend to speak of in particularly shining terms

Not healthy or good business or whatever, basically. More stuff that ends up causing people to maybe not question too hard about how the critter running the con ended up in a shallow grave, some time after they left your grandma too poor to fix their roof and led to her dying of pneumonia. _{The societal equivalent thereof tending to involve guillotines or somethin' which we prolly wanna' avoid and not just because even the lead up to it sucks giant donkey scrotum.}

Definitely not a particularly one to one analogy, though. Just something that struck me as fairly structurally similar to the problems with money what ain't moving (much).

[Maximum Spin]

Okay, I see the problem, there's a bit of typical-mind fallacy here. Insofar as there's a coherent 'most', most people still do feel pride in the success of their company, just like with their sports team or country. The growing inability to feel pride in belonging to a community is still a pretty restricted phenomenon. And lest you misunderstand, I don't have it either, but I work hard to learn to recognise these things in others. So the reason they expect you to be excited about the new things the company is doing is because it usually works.

[wierd]

Hmm..

I see it as shameless indoctrination, in the same vein as nationalism.

The difference, is that a corporation can, AND WILL, forcibly expel you if you aren't exactly what they want-- especially in an "at will" state. This is not true for citizenship of a nation.  As such, the idea that an employee should feel swellings of belonging, pride, and "nationalist like" loyalty are absurd; Any such devotion is entirely one sided-- demanded, but not reciprocated.  Only an idiot would fall for it.

[Pancakes]

There are rumors that Jeff Sessions is going to end the policy which has allowed pot to be legal in some states (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/04/jeff-sessions-marijuana-policy-us-attorney-enforcement-324020)

I don't smoke pot, but I think that it should be legal

[MetalSlimeHunt]

This is one of those things where no matter what happens, you're gonna see that the government does not actually have absolute power. There is no fucking way you can rebag this cat with over 60% public approval, sympathies even higher than that, and long established norms over most of the country.

[Lord Shonus]

There are rumors that Jeff Sessions is going to end the policy which has allowed pot to be legal in some states (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/04/jeff-sessions-marijuana-policy-us-attorney-enforcement-324020)

I don't smoke pot, but I think that it should be legal

Fixed your link.

This is going to hurt in the 2018 elections. The pro-legalization crowd was a pretty solid force with libertarians in 2016, and it has been something of a rallying point for states rights activists as well. Both of those groups have a lot of GOP ties, and alienating them is not a good idea.

[Frumple]

This is one of those things where no matter what happens, you're gonna see that the government does not actually have absolute power. There is no fucking way you can rebag this cat with over 60% public approval, sympathies even higher than that, and long established norms over most of the country.

It being blatantly racist bullshit doesn't exactly help when we're creeping towards a minority-majority population, either, heh.

[wierd]

Also, the fact that medicinal pot is totally a thing makes classifying it as schedule I totally nonsensical, by definition. (because YES, it totally does have an established medical use. You have to reclassify it as at least schedule II, but IMHO, it should be schedule III.  The problem is that these asshats DO NOT want to reclassify weed, because that would detract from their dogmatic beliefs about the stuff.)

[smjjames]

Meanwhile, right about the same time as Sessions does that, top conservative House Republicans are saying that Sessions needs to resign because reasons.

One big problem that I can see with him resigning is that it'll set up a massive fight in the Senate since Democrats will be even more suspicious of anybody Trump appoints (unless maybe he puts Rosenstein up). Not to mention that it's an election year and the GOP majority just got slimmed down by one.

Also, the year has barely begun and theres a third Republican saying they won't run for re-election. There was another guy who had said they won't run for re-election on the same day Orrin Hatch said the same thing. I forget what the average was for total, 27 I think? So, it's not far beyond the average atm.

[smjjames]

In something that is even bigger news than the other stuff, Trump is setting himself up for a massive environmental fight by aiming to open up the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts to offshore oil drilling. TheHill article with some other details.

There have been some Republicans opposing it and the Governors of Florida (a Republican), Virginia, North Carolina, and the Gov-elect of New Jersey have opposed it as well. Gov. Brown of California hasn't said anything yet, but I fully expect him to oppose it. I've also seen some stuff about possibly off of Hawaii.

The west coast is a particular problem for oil drilling because it's a seismically active region (California especially) and it's going to become a massive fight locally.

[Frumple]

Heh. Yeah, buncha' folks in florida remember at least the good ol' BP spill we're still feeling the effects of in places. More coastal drilling is one of those, "this might get you lynched if you don't oppose it" things. Potentially literally. We're only so far off from the cohort that was still doing that...

'Course, GOP being GOP it won't be surprising if it's bark loudly and then roll over supine and actively help the constituency get reamed, again. Still. Probably going to need another generation or two (with few to no cockups by relevant entities) before on the ground apprehension starts fades out most of the way. American electorate may have goldfish memories, but that shit that wrecked your (friend's, neighbor's, whatever) job is forever.

[Loud Whispers]

In something that is even bigger news than the other stuff, Trump is setting himself up for a massive environmental fight by aiming to open up the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts to offshore oil drilling. TheHill article with some other details.

There have been some Republicans opposing it and the Governors of Florida (a Republican), Virginia, North Carolina, and the Gov-elect of New Jersey have opposed it as well. Gov. Brown of California hasn't said anything yet, but I fully expect him to oppose it. I've also seen some stuff about possibly off of Hawaii.

The west coast is a particular problem for oil drilling because it's a seismically active region (California especially) and it's going to become a massive fight locally.

“This is a clear difference between energy weakness and energy dominance,” he said. “And under President Trump, we’re going to have the strongest energy policy, and become the strongest energy superpower. And we certainly have the assets to do that.”

So pursue short term hegemony, fuck your own environment, a future president will have to deal with it?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

The post-Regan GOP mantra per excellence.