US Politics - A Society in Meltdown

Why the fuck should she? She worked for a government contractor. They have every right to fire her if they find her public behavior offensive. It’s not like they fired her because she was a woman or a racial minority.

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Virginia has “at will “ labour laws. People can be fired for any or no reason. What a bizarre country.

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What happened to that free speech shite you lot are always on about?

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We’re getting down to brass tacks here.

The ultimate civil rights issue for @anon7035031 is the right of an employer to fire somebody for literally anything, or nothing, and to do whatever the fuck they want.

Michael Colgan did, alright.

I’m not sure why this has to be continually explained to people, but here we go once again:
The first amendment protects individuals from being penalized by the government for what they say. I can stand in Times Square with a megaphone and call Trump a cunt all day and the government cannot take any action against me. The only exception is I cannot make threats of violence directly against someone.
In the workplace, the employer decides what is appropriate or not. In this instance the employer’s customer is the government, so if you cannot see how making an obscene gesture at the president and putting an image of it on social media as your profile could be harmful to the employer’s business, then I can’t help you any further.

All states, with one exception, have “at will” employment. Most states have exemptions to the rule, implied contract and covenant of good faith, which says that termination must be based on “just cause”, like acting against company policy, a company downsizing, etc. In effect though, which is why I used the term “effectively”, a company can terminate an employee for any reason as long as it does not break any federal or state laws (discrimination the most obvious). The simplest example of “just cause” which companies use is we are eliminating a position for business reasons.

Yeah I saw that when I googled it as well.

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[quote=“Sidney, post:2334, topic:10941, full:true”] The ultimate civil rights issue for @labane1917 is the right of an employer to fire somebody for literally anything, or nothing, and to do whatever the fuck they want. [quote=“labane1917, post:2120, topic:10941”]

Employers cannot do, not should they be allowed do, whatever they want. They are subject to the law, both federal and state, as it applies to civil rights and employment law which protects people from unfair dismissal.

Clearly you think free speech is a sacking offence.

Clearly you know nothing about employment, and how could you.
The right to free speech is a right to prevent the government taking action against you for expressing your opinion. That right does not extend to the workforce, or at least the private sector, nor should it. If for example you insult the customers of the company you work for, expect to get fired.
People who actually work for a living would understand this concept.

Your reply proves that what I said about your opinions in my previous post is true.

Nice “work”.

My opinions are based on facts. Your opinions are based on emotion, which we know leads to faulty logic.
It’s easy to get emotional about the “free speech” rights of workers when you don’t have a job.

My previous post factually identified that you feel free speech should be a sacking offence.

You disputed this.

I proved you wrong, factually.

My opinion that you are a raving lunatic and an idiot is based on the fact that I have read around two years’ worth of your reactionary, illiberal, idiotic posts.

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Sorry, the only idiot here is your good self.
What I feel or believe is as irrelevant as what you feel or believe.
The facts are that in the US free speech protection does not extend to the private sector workplace, and what employers deem as unacceptable behavior, including speech, is a sackable offense. Only a nutcase who lashes out at everyone who disagrees with them, and who never worked in his life, would argue that an employer should not have that right.
Those are the facts, carry on…

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Wow, what a comeback. Do you give classes in debating techniques, by any chance?

Oh, what you feel or believe is irrelevant alright.

Again, you prove my point.

You keep proving yourself to be quite the little fascist.

Glimmer of hope maybe, in the Virginia elections a real common sense talking decent democrat Ralph Northam beat out a ridiculous populist campaign by a old school republican Ed Gillespie who went trumpish with scare tactics on latino gangs and crime. Also in the state senate Americas first transgender senator is elected, defeating a republican who proudly called himself a bigot and campaigned on bathroom access. Just heard her interviewed there. Very inclusive, not a bit of gloating. She campaigned on local issues, as all politicians should.

Might be a ten point margin which would be a democratic record in Virginia, yes the DC suburbs have turned it blue but this is a massive loss for Bannon and his ilk. This rameis about repealing the ACA will do in the GOP yet.

Considering that he ran a pretty limp-dick campaign the margin of victory is a bit surprising. Not a fan or Northam really but good to see Gillespie lose so badly given his complete embrace of Trump tactics. Seeing those work for anyone beyond Trump would be a worrying development. Especially for someone who is as much of a Washington insider as Gillespie is.

Without a doubt, the highlight of the night was the most aggressively homophobic politician in America losing his seat to a transgender candidate.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/danica-roem-will-be-vas-first-openly-transgender-elected-official-after-unseating-conservative-robert-g-marshall-in-house-race/2017/11/07/d534bdde-c0af-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html

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:smile: