Union is better than non-union. Please read that carefully. I did NOT say unions are perfect in every measurable way. I said union is better than non-union. Right now, we have a corporate media trying to control our thoughts, feeding us misinformation that serves the One Percent whether that harms the rest of us or not. Right now, our society is awash in failed, outdated thinking and just plain bad concepts – because the One Percent want us to believe this really is the best way, even though it clearly is not.

It works a lot. They made huge inroads in false narratives people believe. But it’s heartening to see that it doesn’t work all the time. I’m referring to the fact that, despite the false story-on-repeat that unions are ineffective, corrupt, and serve only to take hard-working people’s money, unions are making a comeback, and it’s about time. The most recent story I’ve heard about is a Whole Foods in Philadelphia filing for a union vote.

A long, long time ago, I realized that the thing that MADE the “good jobs” the good jobs was that they were UNION jobs. It was one of the things corporations used to bust unions – just send the job to some foreign country and let a captive child (or adult) do the work for pennies a day. Great for the corporation’s bottom line, bad for American workers.

We became a “service economy” and the thing about service jobs is that they HAVE TO BE done here. How do you get a fast food worker to hand you your fries from China? Most of the service jobs in America had not been unionized. Of course, they were seen as low paying jobs and people accepted it for a long time. But ends gotta meet. Life keeps getting more and more expensive (because corporations don’t know the meaning of the word “enough.”) and something has to give. Finally, people are starting to realize that the “something” that has to give has to be the corporations that have all the money, and unions are the way to get that done.

To be sure, with this last “election,” the One Percent has pretty much unwound this once-great nation to pre-New Deal days. (We’re going to have to re-fight nearly ninety years worth of gains.) THAT means the fight for unions is going to look like the old fights. That commonly meant physical fights. It means the companies involved will do any and every underhanded and sneaky thing they can do to stop the unions. Because we’re now a fascist nation (the marriage of big business and government), the government will help the rich.

But – not to put too fine of a point on it – the workers are, well, the workers. WE generate the money they keep. How many Amazon orders did Bezos personally ship last year? He doesn’t get to BE the self-described genius if he has to ship all the orders himself. He needs workers and, really, he needs them more than the workers need him.

Yes, our society is largely built around getting a job but that can change if it has to and the working class will do better than the upper class. We’re not afraid of hard work and we work together better. (We have practice at that.) Besides, there’s nothing stopping a working class person from starting a business. It’s just that right now, thanks to conservative driven deregulation (and the aforementioned fascism), it’s harder for small businesses to compete.

Really, the only power the working class has IS as workers and if we collectively decide not to do their work, what do they do? Take our homes? Hell, they’re doing that anyway. Make things more expensive? Well under way. They harm us with the money WE generate for them and a union is the perfect, non-violent way to force a little equity. I did NOT say equality. Equity. Fairness.

I’ll tell you this: I hope to see this union movement keep moving forward. You want to talk about taking our country back? How about if the working class takes the country back from the New Robber Barons by managing our labor?

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There’s a guy, Boris Epshteyn, who works for Trump. He stands accused of trying to extort money from people who want to work in the Trump maladministration in exchange for putting in a good word with the boss. He’s not asking for petty cash or small change. He asked one guy for $100,000 dollars – every month! (It seems they expect these office holders to generate huge incomes from their positions and the boss needs his vig.)

Epshteyn says it isn’t true and dismisses the charges as “false and defamatory” (because of course he did), but several people have come forward to tell similar stories. I know, this is probably some left win propaganda, right?

Well, the story is compiled by lawyers working for Trump so, maybe not. It should be noted that as of this writing, the internal investigation that generated this finding has been concluded and there doesn’t seem to be any actions contemplated for Epshteyn beyond a kind of “probably not” denial. Apparently, this is the way the boss wants it.

Consider: if people who aren’t willing to pay aren’t getting the jobs, what does that say about the people who ARE getting them?

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I don’t know much about Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, but I like what I do know. Trump has been threatening a 25% tariff on Mexico if they don’t do something to stop the flow of immigrants across our so-called “open border.” So, she shared a little truth with him. Mexico IS doing something to stem the tide. They have an entire program dedicated to sending people back home before they ever get to our southern border – and it’s working.

Donald certainly won’t admit this, but apprehensions are down. In fact, in recent months we’ve seen fewer apprehensions than we saw during Trump’s own effort, meaning there are fewer people trying to cross illegally. In short, the problem has been addressed by Biden without tariffs and the programs in place on both sides of the border are having the desired effect. At this point, my biggest question is: why is this information coming out only now, AFTER the “election?”

But Donald doesn’t want to confess Biden’s success. Yet. Oh, he will. On January 22, 2025, he’s going to announce all the wonderful and awesome control we have on the border, now. He’ll cite numbers to prove it from 2024, when he wasn’t president but because he’ll be the ostensible president when he says it, MAGA will believe it was all him, all the time. Is there another way to say that? Oh, yeah. Trump will, as usual, take credit for other people’s work.

Oh, President Sheinbaum also pointed out that the flow of guns from America to Mexico is one of the main things supporting the illegal drug trade that flows back from Mexico. She suggested that if we did something about that, they could more readily do something about the drug problem. In short, she hit him with facts. I’m sure MAGA hates her now. You know their motto: if the facts don’t support us, kill the finder of the facts…

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The new year looms and it promises to be something of a rough ride, but we have today. I hope we can set aside differences and enjoy the day together. Have a little turkey. Watch a little football. Hang with the family, maybe. Enjoy the day. So, from My Bacon Press to you, I want to wish all my reader a very heartfelt, Happy Thanksgiving!