DL Open Thread: Saturday, November 13, 2021

The Real Supply Chain Issue:  Long-Haul Truck Drivers Don’t Get Paid Shit:

The industry has also long relied on “low wages and bare-minimum staffing” to boost their profits, Johnson told Insider. When the pandemic hit and a large number of drivers were laid off, many saw little reason to return, and Johnson said he saw no signs that trucking companies would raise wages to bring workers back.

“You can go make $20 an hour at McDonald’s with no benefits, or you can make $4 an hour driving a truck with no benefits,” Johnson said, referring to how many drivers are paid per load, not by the hour. “I don’t blame them for leaving.”

More Proof Redistricting Commissions Can’t Work.  All three Rethug nominees in Virginia were Rethug political operatives, directly contradicting the mandate put forward in the legislation.

A Sleeper Senate Race?  Could be a case where there is a cost-effective difference between Rethugs:

A few days before the 2020 election, Senator Mike Lee paced across a red, white, and blue stage in Goodyear, Arizona, microphone in hand, rhapsodizing about the president’s many virtues while he looked on. Lee’s talking points were mostly familiar. But then he arrived at a novel line of flattery, pitched to his coreligionists: He compared Trump to a figure from the Book of Mormon.

“To my Mormon friends, my Latter-day Saint friends, think of him as Captain Moroni,” Lee bellowed, pointing to the president. “He seeks not power, but to pull it down. He seeks not the praise of the world or the fake news, but he seeks the well-being and the peace of the American people.”

The backlash was swift. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints aren’t used to seeing their sacred texts so brazenly politicized on the stump, and many members—including even some Donald Trump voters—regarded the invocation of a scriptural hero at a MAGA rally as blasphemous. Lee’s social-media feeds lit up with outraged constituents, the national media piled on, and the senator hastily backpedaled, apologizing to those he’d offended. But among an influential contingent of political, business, and religious leaders in Utah, the episode surfaced long-simmering frustrations with the senator.

RWNJ’s Want To Fix DC’s Jails.  Why?  Because they locked up some white insurrectionists.

McKibben: We Can’t Rely On Governments To Combat Climate Change:

Most of the world’s biggest countries are now beyond the reach of protest, and to a large degree unresponsive even to international pressure. China issued a joint statement with the US vaguely pledging future action, but it also made clear that it didn’t look forward to the annual revisions of its climate targets that activists – and scientists – have demanded. And no one really has an idea how to counter this, any more than they know how to counter the fact that American polling finds Republican voters even more resistant to the reality of climate change than they were a few years ago. Since there’s a very good chance that Republicans will control Congress by the time of next year’s Cop in Egypt, it’s hard to see what leverage there will be to move the process forward.

My guess is that movements will adapt to the blockages in the Cop process, and powerfully. I think there’s going to be ever more attention on the financial industry, in part because it’s crucial to the fossil fuel machine, in part because it’s located in places like New York and London, where protest of all kinds can still be carried out. And as Covid recedes, that rejuvenated activism will combine with the continuing horror of the climate crisis to produce more pressure for change. It had better – Glasgow’s finish makes clear that when activists aren’t able to push as hard as we need, inertia and vested interest remain powerful forces. The idea that the world’s governments will simply do what needs to be done is just a fairytale.

What do you want to talk about?