john maddente | midwestern clarity

CAUTION : The fast food wage debate is heating up.   Consider recent actions undertaken by labor unions and community organizers  against McDonald's  and then... Big Mac Wikipedia image read Al Lewis' WSJ column, ( "Let Them Eat Burgers" September 1, 2013).  Mr. Lewis concludes that a super-sized minimum wage increase is justified on the basis of a single data point (average age of minimum wage workers has increased) and comparison to an Australian business model.   Mr. Lewi s' account of a recent protest demonstration reminds me of the danger I've been talking about since 2008 .  Here's the story... A vocal group is demanding a doubling of the minimum wage to $15 an hour in front of a Denver-area McDonald's which had to shut down because of the ruckus.  Lewis interviews a  twenty-six year old  man  working at McDonald's who's protesting and had this to say about his employer,...

T hese days, some want to dismiss charges of government abuse as conservative cynicism, but 40 years ago, Dems and some Republicans made similar charges stick because there was criminal behavior called, Watergate.  Although we don't yet know where the IRS activity in question began and who knew about it before the election, a comparison to Watergate was inevitable. In the early 1970s, the abuse targeted high level political enemies of President Nixon.  This time, it's hundreds of ordinary citizens who were targeted by the IRS.  Those individuals flagged by the service; just happened to disagree with the direction of our country. Some Pols are trying to tamp down the significance of what could become a sad chapter in American politics.  Notably, George Will made this observation in the Washington Post (May 13, "In IRS Scandal, Echoes of Watergate"), "Jay Carney , ... calls...

Microsoft Clip Art T his post by a Rabbi in Teaneck, NJ is a stark reminder why America is in trouble and how polarized we've become as a nation.  Rabbi Pruzansky obviously feels the frustration many of us feel about this election outcome.  I've added  blue italics   for emphasis of key passages. By Rabbi Steven Pruzansky   " The most charitable way of explaining the election results of 2012 is that Americans voted for the status quo - for the incumbent President and for a divided Congress. They must enjoy gridlock, partisanship, incompetence, economic stagnation and avoidance of responsibility.  And fewer people voted.     But as we awake from the nightmare, it is important to eschew the facile explanations for the Romney defeat that will prevail among the chattering classes. Romney did not lose because of the effects of Hurricane Sandy that devastated this area, nor did he ...

I t became clearer after President Obama’s re-election that we're two Americas.   Has our country been this divided since the Vietnam War, or perhaps the Civil War?  Mr. Obama captured just fifty-one percent of the popular vote.   L ast November, I anticipated more reaction from voters in the Center,  due in part to the now infamous, “ You didn’t build that ” quip.  I believed it validated deep  concerns held by many Americans  that President Obama remains anti-business and anti-free market.  I  also believed t here was no way to take such a gaffe out of context (as claimed by the  President and his defenders) and that the ripple effect would devastate the President's campaign.  I was obviously wrong about the fallout as f ar fewer swing voters in the Center cared about the issue than I'd imagined.   Setting aside the unpredictable American Center, the tw...