Fight for $15? We may be about to lose $7.25 per hour

Supreme Court could make filing wage-theft claims much more difficult:

On Monday, the day that kicks off the Supreme Court’s new term, the justices will hear arguments in three consolidated cases with far-reaching implications for wage-earners. The cases—Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris, and National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.—are all about whether employers have the right to compel workers go through onerous individual arbitration proceedings in order to bring labor law claims. If the justices answer that question in the affirmative, then the affected workers will—as a practical matter—find it nearly impossible to win back pay in cases involving wage law violations.

This feels eerily similar to what has been going on in the healthcare debate. While many Democrats have been pushing adamantly for Universal healthcare or Medicare for all, fantastic ideas that have little chance of being implemented, Republicans have been scheming to repeal the ACA and deeply slash funding for Medicaid. Truthfully, we've been lucky as hell the GOP has failed to do these things (so far). By the same token, while we've been arguing over whether a moderate increase in the minimum wage (actually, $11 per hour is like a 45% increase) is a "lame" effort, and any Democrat that doesn't shoot for at least $15 per hour is a corporate stooge (or something), Republicans have been helping companies pay workers like $3-$4 per hour. And now the Gorsuch-tainted Supremes are about to give those companies a free hand in stealing from their own workers:

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Saturday News: "Fixing" something that isn't broken

COURTS COMMISSION PUSHES BACK AT BURR'S JUDICIAL GERRYMANDERING BILL: Judges who work in the court system and see the tangle of child custody cases, divorces, low-level crimes and complicated murder cases issued a common refrain on Friday as a 30-member Courts Commission reviewed a plan to overhaul election districts for judges and district attorneys across North Carolina. “If it ain’t broke, please don’t come and try and fix us,” Susan Dotson-Smith, a district court judge in Buncombe County, said. The Courts Commission was established by state law in the 1960s to evaluate proposed changes to the court system and advise the General Assembly on such issues. Comprised of members from all branches of government as well as from the public, the commission serves largely as an adviser to the lawmakers and has no independent authority of its own.
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Grand Theft Auto: Private contractors "misplace" hundreds of seized vehicles

Rep. David Lewis got a lot more 'splainin' to do, Lucy:

Private contractors responsible for towing, storing and auctioning off cars seized from impaired drivers and people accused of fleeing police cannot account for 234 vehicles, valued at nearly $634,000, according to a state audit report released this week.

Under a state program, vehicles operated by drivers who were arrested for repeat driving-while-impaired offenses or speeding to elude arrest were to be seized, maintained, stored, and sold by two contractors.

You know, aside from the apparent corruption and pay-to-play politics exposed here, I have a big problem with the seizure of private property associated with *all* criminal activity, but especially something as mundane as traffic offenses, even those as disgusting as drinking and driving. The criminal justice system is punitive and costly enough as it is, and government taking private property just seems excessive, and probably unconstitutional. But that's just me. Here's the pay-to-play part:

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Mark Walker’s truth

If it weren’t for Mitch McConnell, Mark Walker would be having the worst week in Washington. McConnell’s week has been rough because of events caused by forces bigger than him like the failure of another repeal-and-replace bill and the loss of his chosen candidate in the Alabama Senate primary runoff. Walker’s week has been bad […]
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US DOJ argues LGBT employees can be fired for having sex when off work

Republicans sticking their noses into bedrooms, again:

Why does President Donald Trump care about what gay people do in the bedroom? The question came up this week, when a lawyer for Trump's Department of Justice argued that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 does not protect LGBTQ Americans from being fired because of their sexual orientation—a complete reversal of the government's position on such matters under previous presidents.

The agency inserted itself, even though the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had already sided with Zarda, arguing that LGBTQ employees are protected by Title VII of the landmark Civil Rights law.

Bolding mine, because that is a critical aspect of this issue. The DOJ should be defending the rights of citizens treated unfairly, or prosecuting those who violate Statutes designed to protect those citizens. But instead, the DOJ is acting like a private defense lawyer for a company who engaged in workplace discrimination. Exactly the opposite of what they should be doing. And even worse, this is not just an isolated incident, it's part of a pattern of legal assaults on LGBT rights:

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Friday News: Comrade Trump

RUSSIAN MEDIA OUTLET RT SPENT HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS ON TWEETS DURING ELECTION: The disclosures are the first in what Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has said appears to be the “tip of the iceberg” in Russia’s use of social media to carry out a broad cyber offensive aimed at helping Donald Trump win the White House. U.S. intelligence agencies said in a declassified report in January that Russia Today and Sputnik, another Russian broadcast outlet tied to the Kremlin, were central players in a propaganda attack aimed at damaging Trump’s heavily favored Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, in the race. The House and Senate Intelligence Committees and a Justice Department Special Counsel are conducting parallel investigations into the extent of the Russian operation and whether Trump’s presidential campaign may have collaborated with it.
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Senate race in Alabama epitome of good vs. evil

But it's also (very likely) a lost cause for Democrats:

Democrats have not seriously contested an Alabama Senate race since 1996, but they think they have a credible candidate in Doug Jones, a former U.S. attorney who successfully prosecuted members of the Ku Klux Klan who bombed a black church in Birmingham in 1963, killing four girls. Several progressive groups think they have a clearer shot at winning the general election in December than they would have if Sen. Luther Strange, the establishment candidate who lost resoundingly to Moore on Tuesday, had won.

Just to give you an idea of how steep this hill is to climb: The last Democratic Senator from Alabama is Richard Shelby, and that boll weevil flipped to Republican to keep his ass in office some 23 years ago. What's my point? When this effort does fail, before all the progressive purists start bashing the DSCC and the DNC (and probably when they get around to it Hillary for some reason), they need to take a step back and understand that some Red states are just impossible to crack:

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