Image by Kent Buckley

Hello,

Unfortunately, due to very limited space, we are unable to accommodate your request for a credential for this event. You can view the event at www.whitehouse.gov/live.

So we were informed by White House Media Affairs, whose flacks also tried to tell us that the above snub is “off the record.” We’re not sure if the problem is our ongoing commitment to push the minimum wage toward $15 an hour, or if the national Democrats take issue with our columnists and writers putting people before businesses, and exposing companies that call in cops to beat their striking workers. Or maybe we ran afoul of the establishment by catching the backs of fast food forces. Whatever the reason, DigBoston was denied credentials for President Barack Obama’s Labor Day soiree at the Park Plaza Hotel.

None of this should surprise you, and it sure as hell doesn’t surprise us. With political season in full swing though, we’d be negligent in fulfilling our duties as an alternative publication if we missed an opportunity to remind readers that Democrats, like Republicans, are business-friendly hardons who barely give a drop of piss for those who toil on the lower rung. Obama’s better than a lot of politicians, sure, but he also hobnobs with oppressive capitalist goons. No conspiracy theories needed; just scan his campaign finance records, and see what gods he prays to.

We use the term “neoliberal” quite a bit in these pages, and this seems like an appropriate time to further explain what that means to us. In this case, it means someone who appears to be progressive, particularly standing next to general GOP depravity, but who in reality fuels his or her campaigns with money earned on the backs of hard-working Americans. As Obama unveils his executive order for more paid sick leave for federal employees in Boston today, the poorest of the poor who hustle outside of the government’s exclusive employment ranks remain neglected.

Of course this is a case of sour grapes. We really hoped to get inside the presser so that we could ask the POTUS something important, like why he won’t go out on a limb and back a significant hourly boost for minimum wagers. Instead, everybody from Republican Governor Charlie Baker to any number of organized reporters who nevertheless resent unions will get to rub elbows with Obama, while the latter posse exchanges embarrassing wet softballs for prescribed rhetorical embellishments about the administration’s love for the working class. In any case, Americans can feel safe knowing that mainstreamers like CNN are on the job. With labor coverage like theirs, we’ll all be digging holes for shrapnel any day now …  

President Barack Obama on Wednesday called Walmart CEO Doug McMillion to applaud him for raising wages for his workers $1.75 above the federal minimum wage … by next February, their hourly wages will increase to $10.

In remarks to an AFL-CIO town hall in 2007, then-Sen. Obama said that he wouldn’t shop at Walmart stores, because, “as profitable as they are, there’s no reason they can’t afford to pay” higher wages to their workers.

But he’s since come around to Walmart, touting the store’s commitment to green energy practices and efforts to hire veterans in recent years, and a Wednesday statement from the White House lauded its salary move as an example for other companies to emulate.