"Nothing has prepared us for the baby boomers’ return to infancy."

I'm leading with this photo of Luna because communing with our three cats is much more fun than contemplating my status as a baby boomer. It annoys me tremendously to belong to this cohort, but if the youngest of the boomers are 54 and I'm 59, nothing much can be done about it apart from my ongoing efforts to stay out of simplistic boxes.

Consequently for some boomers, this opinion piece might seem overly harsh. Unfortunately for them (for us), it's largely spot-on. Scrooge-like deathbed conversions, anyone?

What the Hell Are We Going to Do About the Boomers?, by Bernie Bleske (Medium)

Nothing has prepared us for the baby boomers’ return to infancy

... The boomer generation’s youngest member is now 54, and as a group, they are 65 million strong, the largest generation in U.S. history. They are the children of the late 1940s, the ’50s, and the early ’60s, who came of age in an era of unprecedented prosperity and hard-earned luxury. No wars, no famines, no economic disasters occurred their entire lives. (The hardships they endured pale to what had come before.) The one great threat, the fall of capitalism to communism, never happened. (Like almost everything else in their lives, they exported the violent part of that conflict to Asia and South America and other places where the people weren’t white, even in their own country.)

They grew up with massive infrastructure projects — the U.S. interstate highway system, the power grid, and the water supply — which were all completed while they were still young. Their parents were forged in a time that saw two world wars, the Great Depression, and pandemic disease; a generation who vowed that their children, the boomers, would never suffer as they had. Hardened like steel by their experiences, the Greatest Generation succeeded. Universities were state-funded. The government was greatly expanded to include Medicaid and Social Security. Peace was built through diplomacy and U.S. dollars. The environment was protected. Parks were built and waterways cleaned.

So, what have the boomers done as they have aged?

Solidarity with the Communications Workers of America union members picketing AT&T on Spring Street.

I was walking up Spring Street earlier and stopped to chat with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) union members who are on strike and picketing AT&T. I'm not positive, but I think they're from Local 4703.

It was a pleasure to hear their case, and I wish them the best. Lots of passing drivers were honking in solidarity.

This post from May 11 explains the issue.

CWA Authorizes Strike Against AT&T

The CWA takes action to speed up contract talks while filing an Unfair Labor Practice Charge against the Company

This week, CWA filed unfair labor practice (ULP) charges against AT&T and NABET-CWA employer Nexstar Media Group for refusing to provide information about each company's plan to use its tax windfall to invest in its workforce.

Before the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed, AT&T promised that corporations would use their massive gains from the bill to raise wages and create "7,000 good jobs for the middle class." Instead, just days after the tax bill became law, the company announced more than 1,500 layoffs, and has continued to stonewall workers fighting to protect U.S. jobs at the bargaining table – despite receiving $20 billion as a result of the tax bill.

The charges are the latest escalation of efforts to hold corporations accountable at the bargaining table for the tax bill promises they made. In recent months, CWA and other unions have filed information requests to find out if increased corporate profits from the tax bill are really going to raise wages and create jobs.

CWA's Executive Board has voted to authorize a potential strike by 14,000 workers covered by AT&T’s Midwest and Legacy T contracts, an action that gives CWA President Chris Shelton the go-ahead to set a strike date if an agreement can't be reached. Workers voted on April 10 to authorize a strike.

As AT&T faces scrutiny for paying $600,000 to Trump attorney Michael Cohen, the company continues to stonewall workers at the bargaining table over the need for good, family supporting jobs.

"AT&T paid six-figure sums to a shady consultant who provided nothing of value to the company but is unwilling to commit to family-supporting jobs in the communities that it serves," said CWA District 4 Vice President Linda L. Hinton. "If AT&T refuses to protect the good jobs that support our families and communities, our members will take action. AT&T promised to invest in its U.S. workforce if the GOP tax bill passed. We're going to hold them to that promise – even if it means going on strike."

"AT&T's claims that Michael Cohen did 'real work' for the company are laughable," said Lisa Bolton, Vice President of CWA Telecommunication and Technologies. "We know who does the real work at AT&T – our members. It's time for the company to agree to a fair contract that provides good jobs with affordable benefits."

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson promised to create 7,000 jobs if the GOP tax plan passed. Instead, despite a $20 billion windfall as a result of tax cuts in the bill, AT&T announced thousands of layoffs. The layoffs come as the company continues to eliminate good, middle-class jobs and rely increasingly on low-wage contractors overseas, devastating families and communities across America.

Before the Republican tax bill passed, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson promised that every $1 billion in tax savings would create “7,000 good jobs for the middle class.” Instead, just days after the tax bill became law, the company announced more than 1,500 layoffs – compounding workers’ concerns about the company’s practice of shifting work to low-wage overseas contractors, which many believe is hurting the quality of service and damaging AT&T’s brand. The company’s touted investment of just $1 billion on capital projects and one-time $1,000 bonuses to employees is equivalent to just 7% of its expected annual profit from the cuts. Overall jobs numbers at AT&T are down 29,000 from two years ago.

While AT&T refuses to release details about plans for its $20 billion in tax savings, a recent report from CWA found that AT&T has closed 44 call centers and eliminated 16,000 call center jobs in the last seven years. The report reveals the devastating impact of recent call center closures across the Midwest, an area that has been particularly hard hit by closures and layoffs. Meanwhile, the company’s latest quarterly earnings report reveals $4.7 billion in profits and indicates that AT&T is spending more than ever on dividends and buybacks.

The AT&T Midwest contract covers workers in Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, while the Legacy T contract covers workers nationwide. Both contracts expired on April 14, 2018.

Disneyfication ... "We define our worth not by our independence or our character but by the material standards set by capitalism—personal wealth, brands, status and career advancement."

Thursday, May 4 will be remembered as one of those auspicious "more power to the powerful" type of days, but of course local newspaper coverage centered on Star Wars Day and National Day of Prayer.

I'm betting that House members voting yesterday in their messianic hope of dismantling health care weren't even aware of the existence of children's holidays. Rather, they were engaged in adult pursuits -- nasty and vile pursuits, to be sure, but ones undertaken in the reasonable expectation that the Disneyfication of America would provide them sufficient cover.

This is a depressing article, though worth it for the "Disneyfication" coinage, selected for emphasis below.

Reign of Idiots, by Chris Hedges (Common Dreams)

Donald Trump. King of the horrifingly dumb and dangerously greedy.

... Magical thinking is not limited to the beliefs and practices of pre-modern cultures. It defines the ideology of capitalism. Quotas and projected sales can always be met. Profits can always be raised. Growth is inevitable. The impossible is always possible. Human societies, if they bow before the dictates of the marketplace, will be ushered into capitalist paradise. It is only a question of having the right attitude and the right technique. When capitalism thrives, we are assured, we thrive. The merging of the self with the capitalist collective has robbed us of our agency, creativity, capacity for self-reflection and moral autonomy. We define our worth not by our independence or our character but by the material standards set by capitalism—personal wealth, brands, status and career advancement. We are molded into a compliant and repressed collective. This mass conformity is characteristic of totalitarian and authoritarian states. It is the Disneyfication of America, the land of eternally happy thoughts and positive attitudes. And when magical thinking does not work, we are told, and often accept, that we are the problem. We must have more faith. We must envision what we want. We must try harder. The system is never to blame. We failed it. It did not fail us.

"Sometimes, marketing enables a pickpocket to steal a wallet--and be thanked for it."

Ground control to Doctor Tom: Do you have a dog in this fight?

The perfect crime, by Seth Godin

Sometimes, marketing enables a pickpocket to steal a wallet--and be thanked for it.

Marketers are responsible for what we do, it's not an activity without effects.

Last year, just one of the big fast food companies made more than $1,300,000,000 in profit (billion with a 'b'). They've also paid their CEO nearly $200 million in salary in the last five years. Sometimes, a big profit is the sign that you're doing something right, creating real value for people able to pay. Sometimes, though, it means you're exploiting a weakness in the system.

The big food companies are brilliant, relentless, focused marketers. Marketing works. It gets people to take action, to change their minds, and most of all, to do more of what they might have had an inkling to do in the first place. Sometimes a lot more. When the ideas of marketing (and the products are part of the marketing, optimized for high consumption) are weaponized like this, they are extraordinarily effective at achieving their goals.

The side effects of this marketing are obvious: both short-term satiation and long-term health degradation.