Apple avoids taxes, then complains US schools are lousy

[cascadiance]

34. Thanks! I did post one the other day...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022882761

Hoped to get more attention than it did. But its had to really get this more visibility when it only affects a certain segment of the work force, and many others can't understand the dynamics of how we've been getting screwed by this program for over two decades, so it's not like its anything new. What is new is that they want to ramp it up at a time when it should be ramped down, and it's going to make this profession that much more of a graveyard, and take away what was once a beacon for the American workforce to have leadership on the world scene. If you keep out kids from being a part of this profession, we will be doomed to not be its leaders any more, which is sad. One more group of jobs that's pushed aside so that more of us can work a couple of jobs at fast food restaurants.

I also called my senator, Senator Merkley's office, who's been great at doing things like this with his effort to expose and give visibility to the chicanery that pushed through legislation for Monsanto. I'm hoping that he'll take up the challenge of also exposing this as well, though it would be harder to go after a bill that has a lot of good parts of it that should be split out from it, and he'd be painted as standing in the way of good immigration reform. He's up for reelection in 2014, so I can't blame him too much for not doing more on this, but if he does, I'll be so behind him and encourage more to do so, as I did earlier this week at a local meeting of Democrats here.

I also called the AFL-CIO to thank them for their help in this too, even if it loses in the end. Tech workers really need to start getting organized in to unions, etc. if this bill passes. I think this event would perhaps be the impetus for the launching point for that sort of thing. Perhaps a new SIG for ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) like SIGLabor or something like that.

There's too many tech workers who are Libertarians who see this sort of "sell out" and wonder how the Democrats will support them, when they as I noted before "Rob Peter to pay Paul", and don't want to be the "Peter" of the Democratic Party. If Democrats stood up more for tech workers here, I could really be more empowered to encourage more of them to join it later. Democrats need to understand these dynamics in this industry.