Fox Analyst's Position On War Powers Act Depends On How He Can Attack Obama

MATT GERTZ/Media Matters For America:

Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano is criticizing President Obama for seeking congressional authorization for a military strike on Syria after previously criticizing Obama for not seeking congressional authorization for a military strike on Libya.

Obama said he would seek Congressional authorization for a military strike on Syria during a September 1 speech. He stated that he believed the nation's power is rooted "in our example as a government of the people, by the people, and for the people," adding: "[W]hile I believe I have the authority to carry out this military action without specific congressional authorization, I know that the country will be stronger if we take this course, and our actions will be even more effective. We should have this debate, because the issues are too big for business as usual."

Napolitano criticized Obama for seeking legislative approval of military action in Syria during a September 3 appearance on Fox & Friends, calling his actions "mystifying legally why the president is asking Congress for authority to do something that it has already given him authority to do," citing the executive power granted under the War Powers Act to use U.S. forces in some circumstances for 90 days without congressional authorization. Napolitano and co-host Steve Doocy agreed this indicated Obama was treating Syria as a political issue.

While Napolitano is now criticizing Obama's effort to seek congressional authorization for a military strike, he previously criticized Obama for preparing a military strike without that authorization. In March 2011, when President Obama was considering military action against Libya without seeking congressional authorization, Napolitano warned that Obama could use "a terrible law called the War Powers Act," asking Sen. Mike Lee whether Obama was "planning to do something like that, whether the American people or the Congress wants it or not? Even though the Constitution says only Congress shall declare war?" 

From the March 7, 2011, edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck: 

NAPOLITANO: Senator Lee, it's interesting that Senator Paul said that he's reluctant to vote. You know as well as I that under a terrible law called the War Powers Act, the president can commit to us a land war, or an air war, whatever he wants to do, for 90 days and then renew it for another 90 days and there's nothing the Congress can do about it.

Is he planning to do something like that, whether the American people, whether the Congress wants it or not? Even though the Constitution says only Congress shall declare war?

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Michigan Welfare Program For Poor Families Tied To Kid’s School Attendance

by Progressive Populist/Progressive Populist

As we kick off the school year, folks in the state of Michigan will have to deal with another example of a draconian law passed by a Republican majority. This time, it was the Republican-majority Michigan House and Senate, and their Republican governor, Rick Snyder.

This past spring, the state passed a law, formally called House Bill 4388, that ties welfare assistance to school attendance for families with school-aged children between the ages of 6 and 15. There was already a similar policy in place for just kids 16 to 18 years old. So essentially, all school-aged children are now included.

Specifically, the law would make families of children who miss 10 or more days of school ineligible for the state’s Family Independence Program, which provides an average of$400 a month to needy families in the state.

This bill was tied with another Republican-sponsored bill (House bill 4118) that requires drug testing of welfare recipients who are suspected of doing drugs. If they fail the test, they lose the benefits from the Family Independence Program.

So here we have a double-dose of laws aimed at ostracizing poor people. There are several reasons why kids may have to miss school. They could have a contagious illness, be involved in an accident, their means of transportation to school could be disabled, and a whole host of other reasons. Why punish a financially struggling family even more, and box them further into a corner, by implementing a bill that ties school attendance to welfare?

And what about families who do not qualify for welfare, but who have children that miss 10 or more days of school? Why are they not punished financially?

Basically, this law is saying that if you are poor, it’s all your fault and due to your own personal choices. There are more reasons why families are poor than could fit into this article, but suffice to say that just because a family is poor and receives welfare does not mean that they are too irresponsible to send their children to school.

And it is a very distinct possibility that this law is motivated by federal dollars funding public schools being tied to school attendance.

So shame on Michigan Republicans (and the Democrats who voted for it) for passing this draconian law.

North Carolina University Student Beats the GOP’s Vote Suppression Road Show

By: Adalia Woodbury/politicususa

For years, the chairman of Pasquotank County’s Republican Party, Richard Gilbert went out of his way to challenge as many voters as possible at the historically black public college Elizabeth City State University.   More recently, Gilbert challenged ECSU student Montravius King’s candidacy for city council based on the argument that he has always used. Gilbert claimed that since King lives in a dorm, he doesn’t meet the residency requirement. King who has resided in Elizabeth City since enrolling at Elizabeth City State University in 2009, would be the first student elected to the council, if he is elected.

The Pasquotank County Board of Elections accepted Gilbert’s argument and disqualified King’s candidacy.  Interesting to note, when Gilbert challenged King’s candidacy, Sue Myrick of the John W. Pope Citivas Institute found time in her schedule to attend the meeting.

After the decision, Montravius King appealed  to the state board of elections. Aside from King’s candidacy there was much more at stake with this decision.

Since the qualifications for candidacy on the city council and for voting are the same, this decision was seen as a first steptoward disenfranchising all students living in ECSU dorms.

Richard Gilbert has extensive experience challenging the voting rights of ECSU students.  He was behind previousattempts  to disenfranchise Elizabeth City State University students by arguing they don’t really meet the residency requirement.  Gilbert got 56 ECSU students dropped from the voting rolls earlier this year based on this very argument. That makes Myrick’s attendance at the meeting especially curious.  Obviously, she wasn’t there to guide Gilbert through the process.  The Institute for Southern Studies  has a more plausible explanation.

Myrick’s presence at King’s hearing has raised questions about Pope’s involvement in efforts to roll back voting rights in North Carolina, which had made great strides in boosting turnout in recent years.

Fortunately, the State Board of Elections unanimouslyreversed the county’s decision on Tuesday.

Montravius King had every reason to be confident the State Board would reverse Pasquotank County’s decision because the question of whether a dorm room meets the residency requirement was already settled law in North Carolina. At the same time, Republicans in North Carolina have a special way of looking at laws protecting voting rights and for that matter any other rights that benefit people beyond the Tea Party/Republican base. If given an opening, right wing ideologues will run with the opportunity to restrict certain votes as much as possible.

That was exactly what Richard Gilbert wanted to do with the earlier decision.  He told the AP that he intended to “take this show on the road“,  following the county board’s decision.  Of course, Gilbert’s road led to ECSU but never has made it to the predominantly white and private Mid-Atlantic Christian College.  Perhaps Gilbert believes that white students living in dorms are some how different from black students living in dorms when it comes to the question of residency.

Now that the state board has reversed the ruling, eligible voters who are students living in dorms at public colleges and were therefore on Richard Gilbert’s radar can breathe a little bit easier. Voting remains a challenge because of restrictions ranging from the sort of ID that’s accepted, to reduced voting hours and in some cases out of the way voting precincts.

And don’t be surprised if Gilbert and the John W. Pope Civitas Institute find yet another act to take on their student vote suppression road show.

McCain caught playing poker on his phone during Syria hearing

By Arturo Garcia/Raw Story

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) had a flippant response on Tuesday to getting caught playing games on his phone during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing concerning a U.S. military strike against Syria.

The Washington Post posted a picture of McCain playing poker on his phone in the midst of the hearing, prompting him to respond on Twitter, “Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3+ hour Senate hearing — worst of all I lost!”

McCain, who earlier in the day mocked conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, also joked with Secretary of State John Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, before the hearing began, telling her, “Sorry for what I’m about to do to John.”

Watch The Fast Food Strikes Spread Like Crazy

BY ALAN PYKE AND ADAM PECK/Think Progress 

Last Thursday, workers in nearly 60 separate cities walked off their fast food restaurant jobs to protest for better wages and the right to organize unions, the largest number of such strikes in a day. Organizers and workers hope the August 29 strikes marked a tipping point in a campaign that kicked off last November in New York City. Watch the strikes spread across the country in this map created by ThinkProgress:

The strikes have spread rapidly throughout the country: first to northern cities, then to the midwest and the south. Fast food workers represent both a huge potential opportunity to organize workers, with millions of people who feed tens of millions of Americans every day, and a compelling economic cause, as their wages have stagnated despite constantly accelerating profits for fast food companies. The strikes come at a time when the labor movement has watched its membership sag and its power weaken for decades. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is committing “substantial resources and manpower into growing the spontaneous fast food strikes from a local phenomenon to a national campaign,” MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff wrote on Labor Day.

Pushing the industry’s workers out of poverty would provide huge economic benefits for the entire country. But the economic arguments for bringing the minimum wage back up to the same level of buying power it had 45 years agohave thus far failed to spur Congressional action. Activists and workers hope to continue the momentum of the past nine months, with both federally contracted low-wage workers continuing to strike in Washington D.C., and Walmart employees in 15 major cities planning protests later this week.

Republicans’ Devious Plan To Slow Down Obamacare Enrollment

BY IGOR VOLSKY/Think Progress

Republican lawmakers who had criticized the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for improperly targeting conservative nonprofits for additional scrutiny kicked off an investigation last week into community-based groups who received Navigator grants to help uninsured people enroll in the exchanges established by the Affordable Care Act, demanding that the organizations answer detailed questions and produce thousands of reams of documents.

Fifteen Republican members of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, including Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), are requesting detailed responses and thousands of pages of documents from approximately 60 percent of Navigator-recipients across the country by Sep. 13.

The tactic is reminiscent of the kind of practices Republicans had condemned over the summer, after news broke that the IRS subjected certain groups applying for 501 C4 nonprofit tax status to long, intrusive, questionnaires about their filings. Upton personally called such tactics a “thuggish abuse of power” and “simply un-American.”

But according to the GOP-backed letter, groups scrambling to begin enrolling individuals in coverage on Oct. 1, will have just two weeks to provide detailed written descriptions of their employees and activities, interactions with the Department of Health and Human Services, and “all documentation and communication related to your grant.”

Last month, the Obama administration distributed $67 million in federal grants to more than 100 hospitals, universities, Indian tribes, patient advocacy groups and local food banks “to help people sign up for coverage in new online health insurance marketplaces.”

The effort is just the latest attempt by Republicans to undermine enrollment in the Affordable Care Act. Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee have previously sent letters seeking information to entities tasked with educating the public about the law, opened investigations into public relations companies that had been contracted to promote the law on popular television shows, and warned the National Football League (NFL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) against encouraging enrollment in the law.

An HHS spokesperson strongly condemned the committee’s request to Politico, noting, “This is a blatant and shameful attempt to intimidate groups who will be working to inform Americans about their new health insurance options and help them enroll in coverage, just like Medicare counselors have been doing for years.”

Kerry Wavers, But Eventually Rules Out ‘Boots On The Ground’ In Syria

BY BEN ARMBRUSTER/Think progress

Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday suggested that the Obama administration would not rule out the possibility that American troops would have to used as a consequence of any potential congressionally authorized military action against Syrian government targets in response to President Bashar al-Assad’s alleged chemical weapons use late last month. But Kerry clarified that the administration would welcome a provision prohibiting U.S. troops on the ground in Syria as part of a war authorization resolution.

During a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ, the committee’s chairman, asked Kerry if “a prohibition for having American boots on the ground is that something that the administration would accept as part of a resolution.”

“It would be preferable not to, not because there’s any intention or any desire whatsoever to put boots on the ground,” Kerry replied. But he laid out a scenario in which U.S. troops might need to intervene inside Syria:

KERRY: I think the president will give you every assurance in the world as am I, as is the Secretary of Defense and the chairman, but in the event Syria imploded, for instance, or in the event there was a threat of a chemical weapons cache falling into the hands of al-Nusra or someone else and it was clearly in the interests of our allies and all of us, the British, the French and others, to prevent those weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of the worst elements, I don’t want to take off the table, an option, that might or might not be available to a president of the United States to secure our country.

In making the case for military action in Syria, Obama administration officials have said it does not have any plans to introduce American troops into the conflict. President Obama said as much in his speech on Syria this Saturday.

“In that part of the world, there are ancient sectarian differences, and the hopes of the Arab Spring have unleashed forces of change that are going to take many years to resolve,” he said. “And that’s why we’re not contemplating putting our troops in the middle of someone else’s war.”

During the hearing on Tuesday, Menendez tried to clarify whether troops would be used for combat purposes. “Assuming that in the going to protect those weapons, whether or not they had to answer a shot in order to be secure, I don’t want to speak to that,” Kerry said. But the nation’s top diplomat then steered back to the administration’s pledge to not put U.S. troops in Syria.

“The bottom line is that the president has no intention, we do not want to put American troops on the ground to be involved in the fighting of this civil war,” Kerry said, later clarifying further that “[t]here is no problem in our having the language that has zero capacity” for U.S. troops in Syria.

Fox's Year-Long Attack On Organized Labor

ALBERT KLEINE & COLEMAN LOWNDES/Media Matters for America

Fox News devoted a significant amount of negative coverage of organized labor since last Labor Day, ranging from misleading reports about right-to-work legislation to outright smears against union workers.

Here's a look at some of the network's worst offenses:

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The Most Worker Friendly President Since FDR

by Spandan C/The People's View:

In his Labor Day message, the president once again renewed his call to raise the minimum wage, saying that no one who works full time in America should have to live in poverty.

Labor day isn't just for bar-b-ques and a long weekend. Labor Day is the day we dedicate to people who are working hard for themselves, for their families, and for their communities. Things like the minimum wage, the 40-hour workweek, the right to a safe work environment, and even the weekend were all hard won victories by organized labor, while laws to protect workers from discrimination came when organized labor fought side by side with civil rights groups.

The labor movements proudest achievement in American history, without a doubt, is FDR's New Deal, which continued progress with LBJ's Great Society. But in the intervening years since then, corporate interests colluded with the country's political leadership (when they didn't collude, the corporate interests outright bought the political leadership) to try to walk that progress back. 

Whether through "free trade" deals that globalized the rights of corporations but not the rights of workers, or through union busting, or through nefarious political strategies to make one group of American afraid that another group would take their crumbs - I mean, jobs - or through the Supreme Court's absurd pronouncements that women couldn't sue for pay discrimination, the basic fairness for American workers - and with it the great American middle class - seemed in danger.

The working folk of America needed a champion - we needed a fierce advocate, if you will. And we elected one in 2008. If by some miracle of happenstance, President Obama didn't have to work twice as hard to get half the recognition, even from "liberals" in the media, it would be patently obvious to everyone that the man presently occupying the Oval Office is the most worker-friendly president since Franklin Roosevelt. Barack Obama is a president who has more than kept his word to always make the best decision for people who work for a living.

The first bill this president signed into law was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, a law that reversed an injustice perpetrated by the Supreme Court that said that women couldn't sue their employers for pay discrimination if they found out about the discrimination too late. It's a bill the previous president hadthreatened to veto.

Entering office at the height of the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, this president fought for, and got enacted, the largest economic stimulus in American history, saving or creating up to 3.6 million jobs. It is the law that kept the United States from going into a second Great Depression, and the world's economy from a complete and utter disaster. That stimulus was supplemented by other smaller bills that kept teachers, police officers and firefighters working in states, and extended unemployment insurance benefits as a lifeline to the victims of the economic calamity caused by conservative policies.

Against a blistering political wind, the president held fast in his resolve to rescue and remake the American auto industry, saving and creating another 1.5 million jobs, and giving auto workers a direct stake in American auto companies. Thanks to his leadership and the hard work of the people who make American cars, GM is once again the world's top auto manufacturer, and people no longer look at American cars as gas-guzzling vanishing giants of the past. Thanks largely to the revival of the American auto industry, American manufacturing is on a slow upward tick instead of its recent precipitous decline.

This president, facing fierce opposition from the apoplectic Right and the self-aggrandizing Left, got done something that presidents have tried and failed for the better part of a century: health care reform that established a public responsibility to help pay for health insurance for those who can ill-afford it.

The Affordable Care Act wasn't just the president's key domestic policy accomplishment, it was probably the last half century's most significant worker-friendly legislation. It outlaws discrimination on the basis of pre-existing conditions, mandates quality coverage, creates both individual and employer responsibility, makes preventive care free of copays, forces insurance companies to spend 80-85% of premiums on actually paying for health care, and provides peace of mind to working people and families. Because of the Affordable Care Act, young adult children can now stay on their parents' health care plan up to age 26.

Because of Obamacare, children already cannot be denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions, and this becomes the reality for everyone next year. Because of Obamacare, insurance companies can no longer drop you because you get sick. And because of Obamacare, working people will no longer have to worry about losing health care if they switch careers or start their own business.

After the passage of the ACA, another heavy lift for the president was Wall Street reform - once again with the screeching Left and the furious Right accusing him of being a corporate sellout and a pinko commie, respectively. But that law too was focused on helping working people and protecting them from the deceptive practices of banking and financial giants. Not only did it provide for new mortgage and banking regulations, it for the first time in the nation's history created a federal agency dedicated to protecting the average consumer, who is also the average worker - an agency that is creating a simple mortgage form, putting debt collectors on notice, and more.

Consumer protection cannot be separated from worker protection, and this president understands that. A key part of protecting workers and their families and their financial security is to make sure that they do not fall victim to loan sharks, unscrupulous business practices and financial giants who decide to gamble with your money.

Throughout the first two years, and even after the Republicans took over the House, President Obama has instituted several tax cuts for working people and families, and many of them remain in effect today, while the president kept his promise make the richest Americans pay a fairer share of their wealth to rebuild our commonwealth.

The above is just a list - and an incredibly limited one at that - of the president'slegislative accomplishments and advocacies for working Americans. This president had penned trade deals that are actually benefiting American workers. In a deal with South Korea, he actually opened the South Korean market to American cars more than the other way around. With South American countries, the president penned a deal that is adding to American exports and American jobs.

Administratively, this administration's labor department and the National Labor Relations Board has been the most labor-friendly in modern history, and the progress would be even greater if corporation friendly courts weren't trying to block the NLRB's decision to fast track union elections.

In fact, a look at basically all of the president's domestic policy - from bills that became law to bills that were blocked by Republicans, from legislation to administrative rulemaking - has been focused on one thing and one thing alone: helping America's workers regain a footing in this economy. His job has not been easy, to put a severely mild point on it. But if on this labor day, we're looking for a best friend of the American worker in government, the man behind the presidential seal is a pretty good pick.

Conservative editor: Republicans are losing because of Family Guy

By Eric W. Dolan/Raw Story

Republicans are losing to Democrats because pop culture in the United States is dominated by liberal thought, according to conservative writer and TV editor Bill Whittle.

At the RightOnline Conference in Orlando on Saturday, Whittle singled out the TV show Family Guy with particular disdain.

“Any audience of people that grew up with classical Superman automatically love this country because Superman is about the best America we can be, and when Superman was all over the pop culture we were a nation that loved this country,” he remarked. “Now, 20 years after the peak ofSuperman‘s popularity along comes Gilligan’s Island. That’s pretty neutral in terms of politics. Really about the only message you can get from Gilligan’s Island is if you want to get off the island all you have to do is kill Gilligan.”

“But if you’re a young person out there today and you can finish the theme song from Family Guy, then all the anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-Christian, anti-morality messages of Family Guy are in your head as completely and thoroughly as that theme song is.”

The example of Superman and Family Guyillustrated how conservatives needed to construct narratives that exemplified their belief system.

“You’re programmed by the pop culture. You’re programed by story,” Whittle said. “It’s all about stories, and if we’re the villain in all of the stories that are told we’re never going to win another election again.”

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below:

The full speech can be viewed here.

Fox News Quotes Syrian Propaganda To Suggest Obama Emboldened Assad And Iran

BY IGOR VOLSKY/Think Progress

Fox News’ Chris Wallace referenced Syrian propaganda to suggest that President Obama handed a victory to the Syrian regime by asking Congress to authorize military action against President Bashar Assad’s alleged use of chemical weapons.

During his interview with Secretary of State John Kerry for Fox News Sunday, Wallace quoted “officials in Damascus” and a Syria state-run newspaper — Al-Thawra — to argue that the administration has shown weakness in failing to unilaterally strike Syria after presenting evidence that the regime carried out a chemical attack against its own people last month. “Haven’t you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory,” Wallace asked:

WALLACE: You talk about this is going to make it worse for Assad. After the president announced his decision, officials in Damascus were saying that the president had flinched. Had made a joke of the American administration. A newspaper out in the streets of Damascus calls this, “the start of the historic American retreat.” Haven’t you handed Syria and Iran at least a temporary victory?

KERRY: I don’t believe so at all and that is in the hands of the Congress of the U.S. The president has made his decision. The president wants to stand up and make certain that we uphold the international norm…. I think the Assad regime needs to recognize that they have refocused the energy of the American people on him, on his regime.

Al-Thawra, “which as a government outlet reflects regime thinking, also claimed that Obama’s reluctance to take military action stems from his ‘sense of implicit defeat and the disappearance of his allies.’”

During his appearance on all five Sunday political talk shows, Kerry stressed that Obama believes that he has the “right” to launch military action against Syria, but argued that Congressional authorization would only strengthen the U.S. response. He predicted that Congress would vote in favor of military strikes.

On Sunday, the Syrian opposition issued a statement urging lawmakers to approve military action. “If the free world fails to respond to such an outrageous breach of international norms, dictators around the world will be encouraged in their efforts to follow the example set by Assad,” it said.

Anti-Muslim Activist: Republicans Can’t Attack Obama Because ‘The Color Of His Skin Is Black’

BY TARA CULP-RESSLER/Think Progress

At a conservative conference this weekend that drew several GOP presidential hopefuls, one of the speakers told the crowd that Republicans have been too nervous to criticize Obama “because the color of his skin is black.” The comments came just two days after the nation commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have A Dream” speech.

David Horowitz — a right-wing operative who heads a think tankthat works to discredit the Islamic faith — was one of the most passionate speakers at the Koch-backed “Defending the American Dream Summit.” In his address, Horowitz called the president “the most brazen and compulsive liar to ever occupy the White House” and said there’s an “obvious” reason that his opponents are hesitant to attack him.

“No one will say it out loud. I will: It’s because the color of his skin is black,” Horowitz told the predominantly white crowd on Friday. “It is because Obama is a minority that nobody will hold him to a standard or confront him with what he has done.”

This weekend’s conference was funded by Americans for Prosperity and attracted a number of influential conservative activists. Along with Horowitz, several potential Republican contenders in the 2016 presidential election — including Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) — also spoke at the event. As the Washington Post reports, the GOP lawmakers considering a presidential run likely hoped to take the opportunity to make their pitches to the Tea Party base.

Although focusing on the color of Obama’s skin may be an effective tactic among Tea Party conservatives, it’s not exactly the strategy that the mainstream Republican Party has been attempting to emphasize recently. Afterconsistently losing the minority vote in the last several election cycles, Republicans have attempted to pursue a better minority outreach strategy to expand their voter base beyond white, male Americans. So far, that hasn’t been going very well for them — partly because of conservatives’ consistent use ofracially insensitive language.

Despite what Horowitz claims, Republicans haven’t actually been shy to attack Obama because of his race; in fact, many of the president’s opponents have repeatedly used racist dog whistles when speaking about him. From deriding him as the “welfare president” and the “hip-hop president,” to suggesting hewasn’t actually born in the United States, to claiming he’s “race baiting” when he speaks about his personal experience as a black man, conservatives have had no shortage of criticisms rooted specifically in the color of Obama’s skin.

The One Video (And Three Charts) That Explains Why Unions Matter

BY ANNIE-ROSE STRASSER/Think Progress

The sad reality this Labor Day is that many American workers aren’t enjoying the basic tenets of the American dream: a livable wage and benefits to match. Income inequality is skyrocketing, while worker wages stagnate and more and more people leave unemployment for low-wage, part time jobs.

There’s no coincidence here. As this video from the Economic Policy Institute outlines, the trend of declining unionization and rising income inequality mimic each other :

Another chart from the Center for American Progress backs up that point, showing how the income of the richest one percent has risen, as middle class incomes drop:

Across the country in the last few weeks, strikes by fast food workers have illustrated that fair workplace treatment is still out of reach for some Americans. The strikes have become a massive rallying cry for a union and a wage raise in a time when labor disputes and walk-outs are at an all-time low.

This chart illustrates just how rare it is to see a strike like the fast food workers’:

But, like many workers, fast food employees could greatly benefit from the ability to collectively bargain. After all, their minimum wage jobs have actually become worth even less as time goes on. While those one percent of top earners are seeing a great spike in their incomes, the low-wage worker is feeling deflated. Their wages haven’t kept up with the US inflation rate, as this chart from Bloomberg News illustrates:

CREDIT: Bloomberg News

This evidence all amounts to a sad status quo for some American workers. And it’s something to remember on Labor Day, a day meant to celebrate the back-breaking work that makes this country run.