I’m bitter.

I’m bitter about the idiot who calls himself president.  He’s sent our country well on it’s way to third world status, and I’m bitter about it.  There’s no good humor, or "wait ‘til next year" in my mood.  When I watch the news (and I have worked in the TV business for over 35 years) I constantly yell back at the talking heads.

I’m bitter that my son spent four years in the Marines, including one tour in Iraq, and came out a racist.  I can’t believe a son of mine is racist, the ultimate in stupidity and selfishness, but it’s true.  He also keeps guns in the house.  I hate that too.  He’s afraid, and the Marines made him thus.

It has happened.  As of 10am today, most of Broadway is shut down due to a strike by Local One of the IATSE.  

I get the feeling that this isn't a big deal here at Dailykos, after all Local One is a very small union (about 3,000 members), with fewer than 500 members working on Broadway.  However, I think that we may be seeing the canary in the coal mine.  The League of American Theaters and Producers represents the rich and powerful owners of the entertainment industry.  Local One represents working class men and women who just want fair pay and good working conditions.  This is really a fight about whether or not we can be workers, and still be middle class in this country.  The middle class grew with the union movement, and as union membership declined in the last 30 years, so did the middle class.

The Great White Way may be headed into the darkness due to the failure of the League of American Theatres and Producers to continue bargaining with Local One of the IATSE.  The League plans to implement"some parts" of its last and final offer on Monday.

Local One president James J. Claffey Jr. previously stated why the union rejected the League's final offer: "The union addressed nearly every item on the producers' list and offered imaginative solutions that met the producers' requests... What the producers failed to do was recognize our suggestions with exchanges of its own. What they failed to understand is what I said publicly and privately in the last year: Local One is open to exchanges on work rules and other areas, but would not make a concessionary agreement of any kind. Local One will not accept cuts."  

more.....

On Thursday, Mayor Jerry Sanders of San Diego made a dramatic speech in which he explained his decision to sign a resolution in support of same sex marriage. (Link.)
This reminded me of a similar example of courage in 1970.

The man who saved the legal abortion bill from defeat, with his single vote.