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easyrider16 wrote: ↑Mar 3rd, '21, 15:57 Quick google seems to suggest that blaming union contracts with COLAs for the runaway inflation of the 1970's is debatable.

The great inflation was blamed on oil prices, currency speculators, greedy businessmen, and avaricious union leaders. However, it is clear that monetary policies, which financed massive budget deficits and were supported by political leaders, were the cause.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/e ... lation.asp

See also:
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/e ... -inflation
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/18/upsh ... 1970s.html

But I do concede that a direct tie to inflation might not be such a great idea if we get runaway inflation like we had in the 1970's. Nonetheless, an annual increase is warranted because otherwise, minimum wage gets entirely eroded by inflation over time. That's the situation we find ourselves in today. A $7.25 minimum wage is a joke. Even ANGUS has trouble hiring unskilled yokels in the back woods of New Hampshire for $15. My suggestion would be start at $15, and add 1-2% annually.

easyrider16 wrote: ↑Mar 3rd, '21, 19:25 Because not everyone is in the priviledged position of the yokels ANGUS is trying to hire. Many have no choice but to work for minimum wage. They have almost no bargaining power. Why would anyone with any level of bargaining power work for 7.25 an hour? Yet many do. It's a free market failure in many areas of the country.

Just not backwoods NH, apparently. Probably because you have to pay a competitive wage to get the yokels out of the forests where they subsist off the land, or something.

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"At 1:49 p.m., I [DC National Guard Commander] received a frantic call from then-chief of U.S. Capitol Police, Steven Sund, where he informed me that the security perimeter at the Capitol had been breached by hostile rioters," Walker testified.

"Chief Sund, his voice cracking with emotion, indicated that there was a dire emergency on Capitol Hill and requested the immediate assistance of as many guardsmen as I could muster."

Walker said he "immediately" alerted Army senior leadership of the request. He was not informed of the required approval from then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller until 5:08 p.m., he said — "3 hours and 19 minutes later."

The Army major general testified that the day before the insurrection, he received a letter with an "unusual" restriction on deploying any quick-reaction force service members unless granted explicit approval by then-Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy.

"I found that requirement to be unusual, as was the requirement to seek approval to move guardsmen supporting the Metropolitan Police Department to move from one traffic control point to another," Walker said.

“If the forces . . . were ready to go as part of the preparatory stuff, then I’d say, okay, that’s a fair assessment. But this is the D.C. National Guard that went from a cold start, and they had troops there in two and a half, three hours,” Milley told reporters traveling with him on Monday during a visit to Colorado. “They reacted faster than our most elite forces from a cold start.”

easyrider16 wrote: ↑Mar 4th, '21, 09:02 The assumption by Miley is that it was a "cold start" but the national guard commander testified before Congress that he had already made preparations for deployment of a quick reaction force that was ready to go and sitting around for hours before he got approval. It clearly was not a cold start.

easyrider16 wrote: ↑Mar 4th, '21, 07:07 Back to the original topic, this flew under the radar yesterday:

"At 1:49 p.m., I [DC National Guard Commander] received a frantic call from then-chief of U.S. Capitol Police, Steven Sund, where he informed me that the security perimeter at the Capitol had been breached by hostile rioters," Walker testified.

"Chief Sund, his voice cracking with emotion, indicated that there was a dire emergency on Capitol Hill and requested the immediate assistance of as many guardsmen as I could muster."

Walker said he "immediately" alerted Army senior leadership of the request. He was not informed of the required approval from then-acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller until 5:08 p.m., he said — "3 hours and 19 minutes later."

So SECDEF took 3 hours and 19 minutes to respond to a distress call at the U.S. Capitol building. That's either criminal negligence or acting on orders from the top. Also, this is suspicious as hell:

The Army major general testified that the day before the insurrection, he received a letter with an "unusual" restriction on deploying any quick-reaction force service members unless granted explicit approval by then-Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy.

"I found that requirement to be unusual, as was the requirement to seek approval to move guardsmen supporting the Metropolitan Police Department to move from one traffic control point to another," Walker said.

https://www.npr.org/2021/03/03/97329252 ... ommander-s

Restrictions were placed on him the day before the riot? That timing seems way too coincidental. Something smells, here.

Clyburn’s second-floor office, with his name above the door, remained untouched during the destruction and violence last week. But a more private office, which is unmarked on the third floor, was targeted.

“There are many members of the United States Congress right now who could not tell you where that office is and could not find that office if they needed to,” the South Carolina Democrat told MSNBC.

“Yeah, but they found it. Nobody touched the door where my name is,” he said.

He said a thorough investigation is needed, and he questioned how the insurrectionists knew how to find an unmarked office of one of the top members of the House.