Remember how, over the past few years, every time a group of Walmart workers announced they were striking or protesting, Walmart would trot out a spokesperson to scoff at the idea that anyone, least of all Walmart, would ever pay attention to this nonsense? Yeah. About that. Bloomberg’s Susan Berfield reports that:
Internally, however, Walmart considered the group enough of a threat that it hired an intelligence-gathering service from Lockheed Martin, contacted the FBI, staffed up its labor hotline, ranked stores by labor activity, and kept eyes on employees (and activists) prominent in the group. During that time, about 100 workers were actively involved in recruiting for OUR Walmart, but employees (or associates, as they’re called at Walmart) across the company were watched; the briefest conversations were reported to the “home office,” as Walmart calls its headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.
Executives in the home office were sending around emails asking about individual low-paid hourly workers. Defense contractor Lockheed Martin was monitoring social media. Store managers were calling in important info like this:
2:30 p.m., Store 5880 in Fairfax, Va.: “A customer began talking to a cashier about the strikes at Walmart this week, and the cashier responded that maybe she should go on strike. AM [assistant manager] feels the cashier was joking when she made the comment.”
4:19 p.m., Store 3893 in Zion, Ill.: “Three associates made comments surrounding the ‘strikes’ in other stores to Grocery ZMS [zone merchandising supervisor]. Grocery ZMS shared his opinion but didn’t state our philosophy. He will do so the next time the associates are at work.”
If you’ve ever wondered why more workers don’t unionize, or thought that the fact that more workers don’t unionize is evidence that they don’t want to … well, think about the surveillance network Walmart brought to this fight in which workers weren’t even actively trying to unionize, and the fact that the only reason we know the details of Walmart’s efforts is because of a National Labor Relations Board case over whether the retail giant illegally fired or retaliated against worker activists. That should give you an idea of the massive difficulty of forming a union in today’s America.
the phrase “curiosity killed the cat” is actually not the full phrase it actually is “curiosity killed the cat but satisfaction brought it back” so don’t let anyone tell you not to be a curious little baby okay go and be interested in the world uwu
See also:
Blood is thicker than water The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb.
Meaning that relationships formed by choice are stronger than those formed by birth.
Let’s not forget that
“Jack of all trades, master of none” ends with “But better than a master of one.”
It means that being equally good/average at everything is much better than being perfect at one thing and sucking at everything else. So don’t worry if you’re not perfect at something you do! Being okay is better!
It goes to show that conformity isn’t always a good thing. And that just because more than one person has the same idea, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good idea.
what the fuck why haven’t i heard the full version to any of these
We really are getting to scary levels with the rise of this a*hole. As much as you may be tired of “politics as usual” in America, if you want to make a change for our country, this is NOT the change to make.
He’s bringing the whole country down in front of our eyes, and he’s not even the official candidate yet.
In a long-expected development, Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke has been officially charged with first-degree murder in the death of Laquan McDonald, according to a Tweet from local ABC news reporters.
This charge comes after a dash cam photo emerged of Van Dyke shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times last October. An Illinois judge ruled that Chicago has until this Wednesday to release the video.
As a recent tool from the Invisible Institute shows, discipline of all kinds for Chicago police officers, even for sustained complaints, is inconsistent and rare for certain offenses. But murder charges, especially first-degree murder charges, are exceedingly rare. According to The Guardian, this is the first such charge for an on-duty officer in 35 years. More details to come when the video is officially released.
Three masked men opened fire on Black Lives Matter activists late Monday night not far from Minneapolis’ 4th Precinct police station. Approximately 200 protesters have maintained a presence at the police station since November 15th, after the police shooting death last week of 24-year old Jamar Clark. Witnesses say Clark, who was alleging interfering with paramedics who had been called to assist his girlfriend, was restrained with handcuffs when he was shot. The name of the officer involved in the shooting has not been released. Neither have videos that activists and community members say may have captured the shooting.
Police have told media that five people were shot; however, organizers with Black Lives Matter-Minneapolis say they have only heard that the number was four. None of the victims’ injuries are life-threatening.
Two of the protesters, Jie Wronski-Riley and Oluchi Omeoga, told Daily Kos what they saw.
Wronski-Riley says: “[The protesters] discovered some white supremacists in the crowd trying to start stuff, and as we were trying to escort them out of the community space, they turned around as they were running away and shot at us.” Wronski-Riley told Daily Kos that the protesters followed the men about a half block away from the encampment but stopped because “[we knew] that they were trying to set us up and isolate us,” and that four members of the group continued to follow the men and that’s when the shooting started. “… it was so loud but I thought it was fire crackers, and I was like ‘surely they’re not shooting at us, they’re not shooting at actual people.”
Oluchi Omeoga said that the police, who have been monitoring the protesters and the encampment since it began, did not immediately respond to the situation, even though they were probably eyewitnesses and have surveillance footage of the shooting. “And we called the police, and I asked them did you just hear those gunshots? Because there were police on the ledge and they were just sitting there, someone just got shot, did you not just hear those shots, and they didn’t do anything, they just sat there and did nothing, and they said why don’t you call 911 and I said you’re 911, but they wouldn’t do anything”
Omeoga said that when the police finally came they were heavy handed, using pepper spray and mace, even though the protesters’ attention was on getting medical attention for the people shot.
Members of the group say the suspected gunmen are white supremacists who have been to the encampment before. They also say the men have posted videos saying they were going to shoot protestoes at the 4th precinct.
BLM-Mpls organizers say that this video shows two of the men who showed up at the protest last week. A live streamer named Unicorn Riot was broadcasting from the encampment last week and actually spoke to the two men seen in the video.
One witness to tonight’s shooting said the same men were the ones who shot protesters tonight; another organizer said she was not sure if the men were the same, but there was video taken of the suspects earlier in the evening and they are working to identify them.
Black Lives Matter-Minneapolis has been live tweeting from the encampment since it began.
Miski Noor, an organizer with BLM-Mpls, says that photos and videos of the suspected gunmen were taken by protesters at the encampment and they are going through the footage to identify them.
“There used to be in north Minneapolis, back in the 60s, something called the Soul Patrol, and we were talking about maybe reviving that or something,” said Noor.
“Because we need some type of community safety watch program. Definitely,” Noor said.
what’s the deal with super villains and new york? the world has thousands of cities. “nope let’s just destroy that one”
they were mad because they couldn’t get hamilton tickets
“Lin,” The Falcon says to him. The Actual Falcon. The guy that helped Captain America save the world from HYDRA. Captain America, by the way, is engaged in a sweet, gushing conversation with Chris (no doubt about George Washington). “We need a favor.”
“Uh, sure, whatever you need.” Like he’d actually say no this guy.
“We need two tickets to the show for tonight. Front row, center. This cosmic deity, Thanos, is threatening to take over Earth and enslave on its people if he can’t get tickets.”
Whaaaaaa?
“Yeah, apparently he can’t work PayPal.”
Lin’s gotta admit, it’s hard to rap when your staring at a 20 Foot, Purple, Cosmic Being wearing the craziest bling ever stares you down from the front row. It’s even weirder when he starts weeping during ‘Dear Theodosia’
“I met a really clever reader the other day, and this is what’s wonderful about books; she said to me, I really know what Neville looks like.’ And I said ‘Describe Neville for me.’ And she said, `Well, he’s short and he’s black, and he’s got dreadlocks.’ Now, to me, Neville’s short and plump and blond, but that’s what’s great about books. You know, she’s just seeing something different. People bring their own imagination to it. They have to collaborate with the author on creating the world.”
Ok so first of all that drawing of Neville and Trevor is completely freaking adorable, but that quote of JK’s is super handy to have too. Next time someone freaks out about black Hermione or desi Harry or any of the other amazing POC character canons out there, you can just be like “well JK is down with it so wtf is your problem oh wait I know what it is”
Here is what little girls are being taught at school:
How to treat their bodies as a thing of shame.
How it is an instrument of distraction.
How boys can’t resist the slightest sight of their skin without turning into animals.
How boys bear no responsibility in their conduct towards girls dressed a certain way.
How their education is an obligation, and boys need to be given more consideration.
How testosterone is impossible to keep in check and therefore they must act as the wardens of their bodies.
How a girl’s sex is a prison created at birth.
How it doesn’t matter how intelligent they are, or how kind, or how talented, or how brave.
All little girls are taught from an early age that if they wear a short skirt,or a sleeveless shirt, then they deserve to have their right to an education taken away.
”
- What Little Girls are Taught at School | Nikita Gill (via meanwhilepoetry)
The last few days have been weirdly dark but I’m starting to feel like I’m coming out of the hole. Not quite enough to be funny but enough to shower and read with Hailey and even do a load of laundry. Small victories, but important ones if you’ve ever been in this spot. Luckily, the wonderfully awkwardly mortifying tweets have not stopped flooding in so instead of having to force the funny I can share the things that you’ve shared with me that made me laugh and feel human again.
And maybe you need that too, so I’m sharing the latest. Part 5:
At a rally on Saturday in Birmingham, Alabama, the leader in the GOP presidential contest claimed that on September 11, 2001, "I watched in Jersey City, N.J., where thousands and thousands of people were cheering as that building was coming down. Thousands of people were cheering." Clearly, he meant thousands of Arab and Muslim Americans. Quickly he was challenged on this point—local police denied any such event had happened, no one could find news video of it, and various observers pointed out that this story was a specious internet rumor. Yet on Sunday on ABC News' This Week, Trump stuck to his claim in an interview with George Stephanopoulos:
There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as that building came down—as those buildings came down. And that tells you something. It was well covered at the time, George. Now, I know they don’t like to talk about it, but it was well covered at the time. There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down. Not good.
In other words, Trump saw something that did not occur. And the fact-checkers pounced. Politifact.com awarded Trump a "Pants on Fire" rating for peddling this false anecdote. The Washington Posthit him with four Pinocchios—the lowest (or highest) mark a politician can receive for lying—for his "outrageous claim," and it noted, "Trump has already earned more Four-Pinocchio ratings than any other candidate this year."
It's hard to figure out what this episode says about Trump. Is he delusional? Is he merely unable to admit any error? (Trumpites and other conservatives often respond to accusations of GOP fabrications by noting that Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign told a false story about landing in Bosnia in 1996 and coming under sniper fire. At least, Clinton, after being called out on this, acknowledged she had committed a "mistake.") Or is Trump consciously making stuff up to play to nativist GOP voters? As two GOP strategists working against Trump noted in a recent memo, "Trump voters are exceedingly low-information voters. They do not read The Washington Post or Politico or even conservative blogs. They do not watch cable news rigorously." To put it less politely, Trump voters are susceptible to his BS that reinforces their own assumptions and biases.
But if Trump really did see thousands of Americans cheering the traumatic demise of the World Trade Towers and the horrific deaths of thousands of their fellow citizens—which, of course, he did not—this did not seem to affect him greatly at the time. Two days after 9/11, Trump granted an interview to a German television station. With the smoke still rising from the remains, Trump was…well, completely sane. He described the horrors he had seen at Ground Zero. He noted that he was sending over 200 workers to help with the removal and rescue operation underway. He called for the rebuilding of a "majestic" project on the site. And when asked how the United States ought to respond, Trump calmly replied, "I think they have to respond quickly and effectively. They have to find out exactly what the cause was, who did it. And they have to go after these people because there is no other choice."
You can watch here:
Notice what's missing from Trump's reaction? He says nothing about witnessing thousands of Americans celebrating the attack. True, he wasn't asked directly about this. But had he actually seen such activity, he could have been expected to be seething about it, and he certainly did not bring it up here.
All of this is a reminder that once upon a time Trump was merely an arrogant, bombastic, celebrity real estate magnate, not a loony arrogant, bombastic, celebrity real estate magnate. Yet now he routinely says crazy crap that isn't true and doubles or triples down when challenged. And sorry, fact-checkers, but so far none of this appears to register with his "low-information" fans. This fabulist remains the Republican front-runner.
This year, they’d made a pact: appreciate what they had – stop being ashamed. At first, it was hard to talk about Thanksgiving (the tiny apartment, the mac-n-cheese buffet, cheap beer, cheap wine, old movies, family you didn’t have or [in the interest of self-preservation] you left well enough alone), but it got easier. People were kind and then kind of interested and, before long, a few had asked if they could come. “Absolutely!” they responded, surprised, telling people not to stress about what to bring – an extra box of mac-n-cheese was more than sufficient (and less than fifty cents). It felt strange to be so honest, but both sheepishly agreed they should’ve started long before.
Oh, dear god, tumblr has infected me, I'm posting hamilton lyrics.
“Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson said in an interview that aired Sunday that Thomas Jefferson wrote the Constitution. But in reality, the founding father was the lead author of the Declaration of Independence.”
I’m eagerly looking forward to hearing Carson’s explanation for this. The safe money is on the question being somehow unfair, and something something political correctness.
Oh, and for those of you keeping score, this is the guy that the majority of Republicans wanted to be president until they rallied behind Trump again. Just let that sink in for a moment.
Viola Davis has never shied away from harsh truths. On Tuesday, Davis spoke to the Stuart House (a nonprofit for sexually abused children) about trauma in her own family. Through her speech, she explained how abuse changes survivors’ lives and what she wishes she could say to her sister now: “I wish I could tell my sister …”
“The next time you hear me attacked as a socialist—like tomorrow—remember this: I don’t believe government should take over the grocery store down the street or own the means of production, but I do believe that the middle class and the working families of this country who produce the wealth of this country deserve a decent standard of living and that their incomes should go up, not down.
I do believe in private companies that thrive and invest and grow in America, companies that create jobs here rather than companies that are shutting down in America and increasing their profits by exploiting low-wage labor abroad.
I believe that most Americans can pay lower taxes if hedge fund managers who make billions manipulating the marketplace finally start paying the taxes that they should.
I don’t believe in special treatment for the top 1 percent, but I do believe in equal treatment for African Americans who are right to proclaim the moral principle that Black Lives Matter.
I despise appeals to nativism and prejudice of which we have been hearing a lot in recent months, and I do believe in immigration reform that gives Hispanics and others a pathway to citizenship and a better life. I don’t believe in some foreign “ism”, but I believe deeply in American idealism.
I’m not running for president because it’s my turn, but because it’s the turn of all of us to live in a nation of hope and opportunity not for some, not for the few, but for all.”
