How utterly Progressive...

USS Peleliu (LHA-5) to be used as a homeless shelter in San Francisco?  

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2016/09/07/former-san-francisco-mayor-proposes-using-mothballed-aircraft-carrier-to-house-homeless/ 

Hey, I’ve got an idea.  

We can use the USS Missouri (BB-63) as an outreach center and youth hostel for the transgendered, and for LGBTQI pride celebrations (it can be re-painted with rainbow colors, instead of that tacky boat-gray). 

And, we can use the USS Iowa (BB-61) as a methadone dispensary and Opioid Treatment Center.  And, we can use the USS Yorktown (CV-10) as a Syrian Refugee processing center, like Ellis Island, but only with much smaller doors.  

The USS Intrepid (CV-11) can be used as a 'safe space' for those who are easily triggered and constantly offended by thoughts and speech which differ from their own.    The USS Midway (CV-43) can be used as a re-education Gulag for those in the population who deny the Global Warming Orthodoxy (the hull will have to be renamed the USS Torquemada).   

Just think “out of the box.”  

SECDEF Ash Carter

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has said many times that the majority of enlisted military recruits come from just six states, and he would like to see a more diverse and inclusive recruitment pool.  Southern States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Georgia plus mostly-Western States of Idaho, Arizona, Maine, Hawaii and Alaska are screwing the Diversity & Inclusion pooch.  Ash Carter has his eye on Texas and Kentucky, too.  

http://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/925081/force-of-the-future-aims-to-increase-militarys-geographic-diversity 

"We need many more recruits from the Pajama Boy regions of the nation across the Fruited Plain, so that our goals of counteracting deleterious effects of the rampant cis-heteronormative culture in the Military can be accelerated.”   

"We will be immediately be sending our Armed Forces recruiters into the Bath Houses of San Francisco, Coffee Bistros in Seattle, and the Blood Plasma-for-Ca$h locations in Milwaukee to offset this geographic bias polluting the enlisted makeup of these US Armed Forces.”  

CNN

CNN Reporter Brianna Keilar's feed was cut when she departed from 'The Narrative’

http://ijr.com/2016/07/657157-cnn-reporter-spilled-the-beans-about-hillary-during-live-broadcast-right-and-then-the-feed-gets-cut/ 

CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC-LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM, FOX, NPR, CNBC - they all have a narrative to push, and most newspapers are in bed with one or both political parties, too.  The WikiLeaks from the DNC demonstrate the coordination to manipulate the “news.” 

Crowdstrike reports that the DNC leaks have the fingerprints of the Russian FSB and / or GRU (not a Bulgarian hacker), and it appears that Russia has chosen their candidate: Trump.  

From Foreign Policy Magazine:

Larger implications. Last month, the DNC and security firm CrowdStrike reported that hackers likely working on behalf of two Russian intelligence agencies had broken intoDNC servers and made off with opposition research and email messages. After that report, a hacker calling himself Guccifer 2.0 stepped forward and took responsibility for the hack, saying he had nothing to do with Moscow’s intelligence services. But Guccifer is most likely a fiction created by the GRU, Russian military intelligence, and the FSB, the successor group to the KGB, to mask their role in the hack — and the subsequent attempt to influence the U.S. election.

The hackers. One group, FANCY BEAR or APT 28, obtained access in April, while the other, COZY BEAR, or APT 29, first entered the network in the summer of 2015. A good place to start to get a handle on all this is the New York Times’ Adrian Chen’s June 2015 in-depth look at Russian troll and hacker factories.

Politics. The Clinton campaign has taken the opportunity to tie the Trump campaign as closely as possible to the Kremlin, with Clinton’s campaign chief, Robby Mook, tellingABC News Sunday that “it’s troubling that some experts are now telling us that this was done by the Russians for the purpose of helping Donald Trump.” The Trump campaign rejected such accusations.

Russian connections. Last week, FP’s Dan De Luce and Paul McLeary wrote that Trump has surrounded himself with advisors who have had direct business ties to Moscow, including campaign manager, Paul Manafort, a onetime consultant to the pro-Moscow former president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych. One of his military advisors, retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, was invited to sit at Putin’s table at a December dinner in Moscow sponsored by RT, the government-funded news network, and Carter Page, a former consultant to Russia’s state-owned gas giant, Gazprom, has suggested Washington is to blame for raising tensions with Moscow over Ukraine. Trump’s surrogates also successfully watered down language in the GOP platform to remove calls for arming Ukraine’s forces against pro-Russian separatists.

You throw on top of this, the little fact that six big companies control 90% of the media in the US, and you once again (in my opinion), have the case where “Big-ism,” or anything with a “big” in front of it (big Government, big Business, big Labor, big Media etc.) is not good for the Republic, or the Body Politic.  Big-ism results in leverage to engage in influence peddling, and the US government and political parties (especially our Maximum Grifters, Hillary and Bill) are harvesting money to provide quid quo pro to whomever greases the machine.  

BREAKING: MA Attorney General Maura Healey bans sale of so-called "assault weapons”

From the Boston Globe

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/07/20/the-loophole-mass-assault-weapons-ban/eEvOBklTriWcGznmXqSpYM/story.html 

"The [Evil, Wicked, Dastardly] gun industry has found a way to exploit our laws, a loophole of potentially horrific proportions. And it’s time we act."  "In the face of utter inaction by Congress, states have a duty to enact and enforce laws that protect people from gun violence. "

The Massachusetts AG reserves the right to expand the definition of "assault weapons” beyond what was enacted into law by the Massachusetts legislature, to include firearms which the AG deems to be copies, likes, similar to or having the same operating system, or somewhat functional nature to that defined in the law.

This closes a “loophole” that allowed guns not defined in the law as “assault weapons” to be sold in the Commonwealth.  

“Assault weapon”, shall have the same meaning as a semiautomatic assault weapon as defined in the federal Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. section 921(a)(30) as appearing in such section on September 13, 1994, and shall include, but not be limited to, any of the weapons, or copies or duplicates of the weapons, of any caliber, known as: (i) Avtomat Kalashnikov (AK) (all models); (ii) Action Arms Israeli Military Industries UZI and Galil; (iii) Beretta Ar70 (SC-70); (iv) Colt AR-15; (v) Fabrique National FN/FAL, FN/LAR and FNC; (vi) SWD M-10, M-11, M-11/9 and M-12; (vi) Steyr AUG; (vii) INTRATEC TEC-9, TEC-DC9 and TEC-22; and (viii) revolving cylinder shotguns, such as, or similar to, the Street Sweeper and Striker 12; provided, however, that the term assault weapon shall not include: (i) any of the weapons, or replicas or duplicates of such weapons, specified in appendix A to 18 U.S.C. section 922 as appearing in such appendix on September 13, 1994, as such weapons were manufactured on October 1, 1993; (ii) any weapon that is operated by manual bolt, pump, lever or slide action; (iii) any weapon that has been rendered permanently inoperable or otherwise rendered permanently unable to be designated a semiautomatic assault weapon; (iv) any weapon that was manufactured prior to the year 1899; (v) any weapon that is an antique or relic, theatrical prop or other weapon that is not capable of firing a projectile and which is not intended for use as a functional weapon and cannot be readily modified through a combination of available parts into an operable assault weapon; (vi) any semiautomatic rifle that cannot accept a detachable magazine that holds more than five rounds of ammunition; or (vii) any semiautomatic shotgun that cannot hold more than five rounds of ammunition in a fixed or detachable magazine. 

You see, the law does not mean what is written into statutes.  The law is a “living and breathing” document, that can mean much, much more than what the words say, and can be interpreted by caring and impassioned public servants with Progressive Values to mean whatever the hell they want it to mean.  

You know, like with a pen and a phone.  

This decree pretty much bans all semi-autoloadinglong rifles from being sold in the state of Massachusetts.  

Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ 3)

In the article, which in my view is not terribly well written, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ 3) speaks to "Right wing extremists” (who he remarkably compares to the Orlando Pulse shooter) and the clear and present danger (my words) to public lands, pointing to the armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon at the beginning of this year.  Mr. Grijalva is the US House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member. 

“The growing threat of violence and terrorism by anti-government groups is a threat that demands timely congressional attention and action, yet the Republican leadership has willfully ignored that threat in the wake of a deadly attack this weekend in Orlando,” he said. “Americans are against demanding action from Congress to prevent dangerous people from accessing deadly weapons to kill innocent Americans.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/2016/06/20/congressman-public-lands-under-attack-by-right-wing-extremists/?singlepage=true 

And he conflates firearms ownership with public land use and feckless Republicans and “Right wing extremists” a.k.a. terrorists.  That is an awfully large brush he tars many, many people with, especially in the West.  

Also, I suspect perhaps Mr. Grijalva may be wanting to hitch a ride on the Orlando shooting; in the words of Rahm Emanuel, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” 

The feds own 30% of the land in the US, most of it out west.  The article also does not mention changes that have occurred in public land use policy in the last 30 years, and how that may be factoring into lives of private citizens who had prior land use agreements with the government either unilaterally rescinded or modified class-action. 

Also, brutish administrative rule making by the EPA, effective August 28, 2015, is suddenly vastly redefining what landowners can do on their own property.  This is evidenced by the illegal (my opinion) rule making from the Obama EPA creatively “reinterpreting” the Clean Water Act away from statutory language of “navigable waterways” to the new “WOTUS” or Waters of the US, where ponds, lakes, wadis, depressions or ravines where water may temporary collect or flow, temporary wetlands and any stream, culvert natural or manmade, that the EPA deems would have an effect on downstream navigable waters (on both public land and private property).   

This reinterpretation morphing the Clean Water Act into WOTUS pretty much encompasses the whole country in what amounts to a large land grab from landowners and the States who thought they were in charge of managing their lands (why, yes, you my buy your ‘own' property, but you first must solicit from Glorious Bureaucracy permission to, you know, do anything with it - and the State DNR’s, well, you report now to us).  The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on June 1st that private landowners have standing and can join the lawsuit by the States to challenge the legality of this particular expansion of Federal oversight.  

And notably nowhere in the article was any mention of the public land adjoining Mexico, where ,for one example, the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge is posted as off limits to US Citizens, as control has effectively been ceded to the Mexican Drug Cartels.  Other areas include Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Sonoran Desert National Monument, Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and the Coronado National Forest.  

Where is Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva’s commentary on this public land use issue?  Where is the Department of Interior?  

If Mr. Grijalva wants to explore the origins of the problem with “Right wing extremists,” I suggest he and his power hungry colleagues (in both parties) take a long, sober look in the mirror.  

Be afraid. Very afraid

With all of the lugubrious chatter blathering away on TV since the Orlando shooting, I’ve taken to exercising my rights, and hitting the TV kill switch and jumping into my paltry but eclectic collection of books to re-ground myself.  

We have achieved rhetorical apogee, or what I prefer to call “Maximum Orwell.”  The comments from our elected leaders (so-called) give me pause.  Behold.

“We must not use due-process as an excuse to support mass murder,” – Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY)   Ahh yes.  That pesky Fifth Amendment.

“Law abiding citizens just shouldn’t have to carry a gun,” but when asked about armed security in Washington D.C. he [Rangel] said “Well, that’s a little different. I think we deserve… I think we need to protected down here.” – Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY)   Ahh yes.  Animal Farm, where some animals are more equal than others, and laws apply only to the ‘little people,’ and not the impotent people, like Hillary.  

“We have to make sure people are vetted, we got to have background checks, and we have to make sure you aren’t on the no fly list. That’s two very simple principles,” – Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)    I have only one word to describe that statement, “Simply amazing.”  

“After 9/11 we limited suspected terrorists from accessing planes. Doing same [for] guns is common sense,” – Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)  Good point.  There are a lot of black market planes changing hands without background checks.  

“Due Process is killing us,” – Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)   Ahh yes.  ibid. 

"We’ve got to make this clear, constant case that Republicans have decided to sell weapons to ISIS,” Murphy said, using an alternative term for the Islamic State militant group. “That’s what they’ve decided to do. ISIS has decided that the assault weapon is the new airplane, and Republicans, in refusing to close the terror gap [emphasis mine], refusing to pass bans on assault weapons, are allowing these weapons to get in the hands of potential lone-wolf attackers. We’ve got to make this connection and make it in very stark terms.” – Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT)  Terror gap.  First there was the Bomber Gap in 1954.  Then the Missile Gap in 1957.  Then in 1969 came The Gap store.  Then came the Gap Band in the 1970’s.  Then in 1980 came Kim Kardashian and her Gap(s).  Today, we have the Terror Gap.  I believe we have enough Terror today, and I personally believe we really don’t need to close this particular gap.  

“We can fix the problem with the innocent person.” – Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)   when talking about the secret government No-Fly, No-Buy ’terror watch list’ being tied to the National Instant Background Check System (or NICS, used to verify firearm background purchases)  

"The Second Amendment only protects the people who want all the guns they can have. The rest of us, we've got no Second Amendment. What are we supposed to do?” – Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)   Please.  Don’t ask.  

"Congressman Giffords' life was saved and so many others' when very valiant folks stood up to defend themselves and protect themselves, and they did it with ballpoint pens.” – CO State Sen. Jessie Ulibarri (D-Adams County) while testifying on Jan. 28th 2011 before the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee that guns are unnecessary for self-defense when so many effective weapons are already handy.   I suppose we now need ballpoint pen control laws?  

"Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.” – US Vice President Joe Biden   I say give the poor man a break - will everyone?  I mean, you would not criticize a Golden Retriever for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, would you?  Besides, I just hang the Jehovahs Witness sign on my front porch, and that seems to work just fine.  

"We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it's legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round, even 150-round magazines.”  Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)    She has a good point.  I’ll have to check the California State DNR bag limit for people next time I’m California.  

"If you ban them in the future, the number of these high-capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won't be any more available.” – Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO)   So, the Colorado magazine ban will cause bullets to deplete?  Fascinating.  

And my personal favorite:

This stuff writes itself.  

References

http://redalertpolitics.com/2016/06/24/7-stupidest-things-democrats-about-gun-control-during-the-sit-in/ 

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/06/16/joe-manchin-lets-mask-slip-due-process-killing-us/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/06/20/chris-murphy-republicans-have-decided-to-sell-weapons-to-isis/

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/06/daniel-zimmerman/comes-anti-gun-political-theater-no/ 

http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gun-shots/2013/07/9-dumbest-gun-control-quotes-politicians-and-celebrities

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2016/06/robert-farago/hillary-clinton-take-gun-rights-away-americans-fbi-investigation/

How to Screen 600 Syrian Refugees a Day: A "Surge Operation"

Question: How do you screen 600 Syrians a day to assure they are not Jihadists?  

http://cis.org/rush/how-screen-600-syrian-refugees-day-surge-operation 

Perhaps a Popiel Pocket-Jihad Dip Stick.  

Judge bans Christian cross from L.A. County seal...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-bans-christian-cross-los-angeles-county-seal-182447666.html 

Silly People: Religion is only to be practiced secretly and privately in the confines of your private residence or at a government-approved religious church property (and only during designated church hours -  with doors closed).  

Question: Does this mean the flag of South Carolina should be torn down for having an Islamic symbol?  

California is lost.  

Glorious Benevolent Federal Government is going after Evil, Dastardly, Ammunition Manufacturers...

This blogger lives in north central Idaho, which leads me to conclude the OSHA action is targeting Speer/CCI.  

http://blog.joehuffman.org/2016/02/04/ohsa-is-going-after-ammo-manufactures/ 

Expect silly warning labels like we now ignore on virtually all products.  

“WARNING: This product is hazardous to your health.  Do not eat, ingest or otherwise insert into other bodily orfices.  The US Surgeon General advises you to wear protective gloves and eyewear when handling or using this product, and to wash hands regularly.  Users are advised to use OSHA/NIOSH approved and professionally fitted personal protective respirators when using this product.  Using this product indoors can result in airborne lead; assure indoor use is only performed in areas properly ventilated and regularly tested.  Contents of this packaging include materials that are explosive in nature.  Do not place in a fire or near a open flame.  Do not disassemble components.  Alternate child tamper-resistant packaging is available through your retailer.  Do not discard the MSDS included with this product.  Read and understand the information included in the MSDS.  The pictures of injured and maimed people affixed to this product are examples of the consequences of incorrect use.”  

NATO

From Foreign Policy magazine…

Continental drift. Deterring Vladimir Putin is job No. 1 in U.S. European Command (Eucom), according to its latest theater strategy, but the combatant command says it’s having a few resource problems in the meantime. In the 12-page document, commander of Eucom and NATO forces Gen. Philip Breedlove laments that the 65,000 U.S. troops in Europe just aren’t enough to counter Russian aggression, and rotating more units in on a temporary basis to make up the shortfall doesn’t quite cut it.

“The size of the military presence requires difficult decisions on how best to use limited resources to assure, stabilize, and support the...mission in the new European security environment,” the paper says. Breedlove also calls for a “reformulation of the U.S. strategic calculus” on the continent.

Translated: NATO members are spending less and less (presumably the reduced spending is to use instead on domestic social programs).  If the US cannot carry the load should hostilities erupt, then do not bet on NATO as a whole to charge to the rescue. 

Russia is not what it once was during the Cold War.  And with the current Russian operations in Crimea, Eastern Ukraine, and now Syria, combined with the economic distress from revenue fall off from lowered oil prices, I think Russia is not likely to start something - now. 

My concern is that the bar is so incredibly low with conventional forces that the decision point to use nuclear forces (to counter a Russian campaign into NATO countries) is pulled too far forward in any potential conflict, for example should Russia decide to move on the Baltics or Poland. 

And current US political ‘leadership’ would not use nuclear forces to defend the Baltics (who are part of NATO).  With Poland however, this calculus is not so clear in this regard. 

During the Cold War, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) kept a metaphorical ‘doomsday clock' with the minute hand just a hair away from midnight, signifying Nuclear Armageddon.  When the Berlin wall came down, they should have moved the clock hands to 8:45 pm, but instead, have pivoted, and moved the clock back to three minutes to midnight because of… "Concerns amid continued lack of global political action to address global climate change…” among other “things” (I’m sure cisgendered heteronormative white privilege and rampant microagressions and hate speech are also indicated here). 

While I don't think the clock has any use today, it is moving closer to midnight, albeit not like the UCS say it is. 

Davos, Switzerland

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, told the rich and influential in Davos Switzerland not to believe the negative "hype" from nay-sayers; the world is changing for the better!!

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-22/kerry-says-don-t-believe-the-hype-world-changing-for-the-better-ijppq8al 

Russia is pilfering territory, and the Baltics are next in their sights, should they decide to poke NATO in the eye.  

Non-US NATO (excluding Poland and the UK) is spending just north of 1% GDP on Defense, less than half of what is required for membership.  

China annexed the South China Sea, and is building a military to make that stick.  

Israel distrusts us - fully.  

Germans (not the German elites), but Germans are deeply distrustful of the US because of the unfettered SIGINT of all things in Germany (counter to strict German privacy laws).  

Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia do not see a steadfast ally in the US, and are moving to realign the tectonic power shift underway with an ascendant Iran / Hisbollah / Quod’s / Republican Guard.  

Iran has thumbs in both our eyes, and I just know they are no longer pursuing a nuclear bomb.  

There is a thing called a “Caliphate” in Iraq, Syria, and now about 10,000 ISIL jihadists in Libya.  

Africa and the Middle East are exporting millions of countrymen (not so many women) to the West.  

Our border control is a joke, and there are 22-25 million foreign citizens in the US (not the 11 million that is part of the Party Line).  

The morale of the military has substantially declined, as we convert it into l lean, green, lesbian non-white cis-hetero-patriarchal pajama boy collective.  

Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia are unstable.  

We are fighting undeclared war “kinetic operations" in Libya, Syria, Iraq, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Afghanistan, and Waziristan, using a thing called a “kill chain” and “special forces"  

Western Europe ingested a slug of jihadists that make it a tinder house for terrorism rivaling the 1970’s.  

We made “nice” with Cuba, and Cubans are fleeing for the US in droves; no one is asking whether the prison population on Cuba has suddenly gone to zero.  

California is on the verge of banning all semi-autoloading firearms.  

We are in the 8th year of stagnant growth.  

Our US Federal public debt load has doubled in four years while the Federal Reserve has printed trillions of dollars, prompting the other central banks to do the same.  

China pilfered most of our manufacturing jobs, and all of out trade secrets, intellectual property, and the classified personnel security records of everyone connected to the US Government.  

Yep.  Things are peachy there John.  

Midshipmen

Now, in the last year of the eight year 'Reign of Enlightened Socialist Truth’, Glorious Benevolent Imperial Maximum Dear Leader and the compliant servile DoD PowerPoint apparatchiks have concluded that the language, nomenclature, lexicon, titles and traditions used in the military are an anathema to Progressive Progress (also known as Прогрессивная Прогресс).  

Therefore, the services are under strict orders to enact Gleichschaltung across the military, and scour the language of non-compliant instances where there exists white supremacist cis-hetero-patriarchal imperialistic oppression, endemic in US society.  

The venerable term, Midshipman, in use since the 1600’s, is a wretched anachronism which harbors everything wrong with America.  The mere existence of the term Midshipman is a blight on the US Naval Service, and has been identified as derogatory to female service personnel (we can also no longer call these people "service members" as this term has phallic connotations, and is therefore a virtual-pejorative).

Further, non-white and LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM service personnel see the oppression of the male-gender-normative titles and nomenclature, and are therefore in-turn "vicariously oppressed" (in sympathy), and thus this also interferes with their ability to self-actualize and professionally achieve in a diverse and inclusive work and social environment.  

The search for an androgynous replacement to the retrograde title ‘Midshipman' is now underway.  So, what are we to call Midshipmen now?  

Omnes Alienus? 

Gustatus Similis Pullus? 

I invite you to comment.  

Economics

6 Big Cities Find Out What Happens When You Hike Up the Minimum Wage

http://www.ijreview.com/2016/01/511635-6-big-cities-find-out-what-happens-when-you-hike-up-the-minimum-wage/ 

FYI - Minimum wage in Wisconsin is a paltry $7.75 / hour - enough for a high school student to make some spending cash, but not a job for an adult of need.  The $7.75 / hour is commensurate with the costs locally - in more expensive markets (NYC, SFO) the Wisconsin minimum would not fly.  

This article calls to mind recent strikes and protests by worker’s unions and fast-food workers clamoring for a $15.00 / hour national “living wage.”  My local Dane County passed a referendum in 2014 asking for the State of Wisconsin to  move minimum wage to $10.10 per hour.  

Interestingly, Panera Breads locally is currently preparing to implement "ordering Kiosks” reportedly in anticipation that minimum wage will increase (which is not currently likely in Wisconsin), and to maintain the profit margins (and not to attempt a price increase to cover the looming increased labor costs) Panera's will apparently either axe employees or reduce current hourly employee's hours downward once the Kiosk’s are on-line.  

My take on the sudden appearances of Ordering Kiosk’s at chain restaurants:

The NLRB issued a controversial ruling in 2014 that makes independent franchisers for McDonalds subject to union organization (for example, by the SEIU) and other workplace rules through the new legal concept of “Joint Employment.”  How “Joint Employment” will work is still being litigated, and whether it will apply to large corporation’s exclusive supply chain partners is an open question.  

At the time of the ruling, McDonalds did not even know the names of the franchisee’s employees, and has been moving to comply with the NLRB FATWA, and is developing a system of record keeping of the franchisee’s employees, which will in-turn be made available to the SEIU when they file to organize McDonalds through the corporate entity.  

Like it or not, the market is like a balloon - you squeeze on one area, and it pops out the other side.  Raise food prices, loose revenue, layoff employees, close stores - or, put automation in to avoid the labor increase.  They are all interrelated, and people change their behavior accordingly as the market reprices products in response to regulatory changes.  

Everyone should read Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics.   

It’s a free country.  If $7.75 / hour workers can convince the legislature to raise minimum wage to $15.00 / hr (or more), then more power to them - but don’t be gobsmacked when the total number of jobs decrease (just blame it on George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Halliburton, and 'alien probing').