Fractions: What's Labor Got to Do With It?
Thou shalt love thy labour.
Happy Labor Day to all, and to all, a happy Labor Day today.
÷ The Future of Labor Day
But let us start with the past. The holiday’s origins date back to the late 19th century as a day to celebrate the contributions of laborers to the health and prosperity of society. Trade unions and organized labor had managed to extort some level of dignity from the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers of old and felt uppity enough to pat themselves on the back for it.
Today, truckers, farmers, and coal miners are far-right extremists opining for when fascism rules the land and the lowly tech executive is lauded for their yeoman’s work.
In a brighter future, Labor Day will no longer revere the bricklayer, the carpenter but the middle manager. God save the spreadsheet.
÷ The President Never Worked So Hard
The IDF recovered the bodies of six hostages from Hamas tunnels this weekend. Evidence shows that all six were executed by their captors as Israeli forces closed in on the terror network.
One of the victims was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American-Israeli citizen.
At some phony public outreach event, Tim Walz was asked for his remarks on the deaths of hostages. In a similar fashion to how he retired from the military just before the going got tough, he promptly waved goodbye and fled the scene with his ice cream treat.
The official White House press statement reported that the President has ‘worked tirelessly’ to rescue the hostages. ‘President’ Biden has spent the last two weeks on vacation at a billionaire’s ranch in California and the sandy beaches of Delaware.
It’s crazy how ‘tirelessly’ looked exactly like he couldn’t be bothered. There is no limit to the contempt this administration and its possible heirs deserve.
÷ Fontaines DC’s Romance
The band’s fourth full-length record debuted on August 23rd and I’ve spent the weekend spinning its pink vinyl in my living room.
The group from Dublin, Ireland has managed to produce another fine effort that references Massive Attack, the Smiths, and the 1990s in general.
Romance soundly has answered ‘yes,’ to the question of whether or not someone from my generation can make an original piece of art in 2024. You just may have to be from somewhere else to do so.