On today’s BradCast: All too predictable voting problems in the state of Wisconsin and in St. Louis, MO today; MSNBC responds to our request for comment on why Bernie Sanders received short shrift on Rachel Maddow’s show last night, on the eve of the crucial Badger State primary; And we debunk wingnut nonsense concerning the minimum wage as $15/hour victories come to California, New York and elsewhere. [Link to audio for complete show below.]
First, while voters wait on line to try and obtain new Photo IDs so they can vote at all today under the GOP’s new voting restrictions in WI, many St. Louis County voters showed up for local elections in MO, only to find no ballots at all to vote on. Then, we explain what happened last night on Maddow’s show to suggest that Hillary Clinton was polling ahead of Sanders in WI by 6 points, when the vast majority of pre-election polls in the state suggest the exact opposite. MSNBC responds to our query late today, to tell us that the issue was due to a technical error later corrected for the Midnight re-run and online versions of her show. Full details on that in today’s program.
Then, in the wake of bills signed into law this week by the Governors of both NY and CA to raise the minimum wage to $15, we speak to financial journalist David Dayen about the Right’s feigned concern about job loss (but only when it comes to raising the Minimum Wage), as well as the real concerns about the increase, and activists have had an extraordinary impact on the entire conversation about the decades long wealth gap between the rich and everyone else in the U.S.
Dayen explains why the new law, in CA alone, as he also reported at Salon last week, is a very big deal: “1 in every 8 workers in America is a Californian. Under this proposal, over 33% of them are going to get a raise at some point along the way between now and 2022. And thereafter, because after 2022, the minimum wage gets tied to inflation, so it keeps going up.”
“It’s really a testament to the power of activism. Before the ‘Fight For 15’ inaugurated in 2012, nobody would have believed that you could get a $15 an hour living wage, minimum, in a state as big as California. So, really, hats off to the #FightFor15 workers, who really pushed this,” he says, offering kudos at the same time to both the Occupy movement and the Sanders campaign. “All of this is rumbling forward and moving Democrats who control states like California and New York into places that they were uncomfortable to go previously. And that is a testament to how this issue of inequality has become the functional, primary issue in American politics today.”
Dayen, author of the upcoming book, Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud
, also responds to the “hand-wringing on the part of economists and business leaders,” when it comes to potential job loss in the wake of raised wages.
“We see all kinds of experiments” with the economy, he argues. “We see workers used as guinea pigs all the time by businesses” in all matter of schemes that may benefit those businesses, but not their workers. “These same economists are so worried about the fate of workers with this experiment with the minimum wage have never said a darn thing about all of these experiments that hurt workers — that we knew were going to hurt workers at the time — because it was literally about cutting their wages and getting rid of their benefits and putting them in hazardous workplaces. Spare me this rhetoric that you care about workers when you’ve sat by idly over 40 years as work has become more and more and more devalued.”
But will raising the minimum wage, in fact, cost jobs? And, if so, does it even matter? Tune in for his answers to that and much more in a fascinating conversation on today’s show — one which you won’t hear, for some reason, on Fox “News” or CNN…
MSNBC = Comcast
Comcast executive VP David Cohen hosted a $2,700-a-plate dinner for Hillary Clinton.
Comcast is MSNBC’s parent company,
As Bernie aptly observed, “the media is an arm of the ruling class.”
I say
Don’t rag on comcast, (a network carrying msnbc, along with other cannels) rag on MSNBC (a specific channel) all ya want
ha ha Also it’s on CABLE so no FCC to whine to like over the air broadcast. But I am sure like the internet moar progressive dummies can get it so that the FCC saves “over the Air Neutrality” or what ever new FRAUD that is going to be called. It’s a POWER GRAB.
Onto the topic, min wage. I go with my gut, it’s a disaster in the end. I predict many layoffs and more destruction to the economy. Jerry Brown should have said, “NO.” Hopefully there’s something in there ( I didn’t read ) that can sunlight this puppy when all the fraud comes out. Meanwhile kiss many jobs goodbye.
I worked basically for free most my life. I got to tell you most people ain’t worth $15 an hour. They simply suck. I hired people several times, *every time* it’s BIT ME IN THE ASS. not to mention this government, I refuse to run a business and make TAX for their agenda. So no more, I don’t need it. I am not the only one thinking this way, and you can pretend you have all manner of support behind your movement until you realize you don’t and that you don’t even have clothes on either.
Lets talk about AIPAC money and payments to ISRAEL. how does that work out in the bigger picture. And why isn’t AIPAC registered as a FOREIGN AGENT?!
I tell you why.
they don’t obey the rule of law
I can not support any of these people if they don’t defend the RULE OF LAW — ALL OF IT EQUALLY!
I once got accused of losing something in the military, they scared the **** out of me, I thought I was seriously *******, I did not forget what they said, nor how they behaved, but I learned what I would do to HILLAARY if I was authorized to roll up this treason show.
You see. I do know how to PLUG security leaks this oath breaking DOJ refuses to deal with.
I won’t HIRE anyone at $15 in 2016.
Unemployment, and Prices are going up, profits and business going down and closing.
We can also get into the borders SECURITY and Jobs and TREASON.