liberalbutnotpartisan:

workingamerica:

A new report shows the real cost of Walmart’s low wages: a single 300-employee Walmart Supercenter in Wisconsin may cost taxpayers anywhere from $904,542 to nearly $1.75 million per year, or about $5,815 per employee. While taxpayers foot the bill for subsidized housing assistance, the food-stamp program, child-care subsidies, energy assistance, and reduced school meals for Walmart’s low-paid workers, Walmart profits.

LIKE and SHARE if you didn’t agree to subsidize Walmart!

Learn more here: http://1.usa.gov/17zQJot

via American Rights at Work on Facebook

And it’s not like everyone can just boycott Walmart, either.

I mean, obviously, some people can and do, but let’s face it…there a lot of people who, for whatever reason, can’t boycott Walmart. Really low prices are part of it, but what if you live in an area where Walmart is really the only true food source you have access to? Some people have no option other than Walmart, so they wind up subsidizing everything listed above without any true say in the matter.

I guarantee you the head honchos at Walmart know that, too.

^ Excellent point. You should avoid Wal-mart if you can afford to avoid Wal-mart. The executives make it a point to open Wal-marts in poorer areas and push out local businesses. They know what they’re doing. They WANT to make their crap the only option. And for many people, it is. But if you can afford to shop somewhere else, do it. Otherwise? Keep on keepin on.

thepoliticalfreakshow:

The leading Republican candidate in retiring Rep. Michele Bachmann’s congressional district denies climate science, is virulently anti-gay, and sponsored everything from voter ID legislation to a minimum wage law repeal. No wonder he’s already being labeled “Michele Bachmann 2.0.” Former Minnesota State Rep. Tom Emmer (R) was the first candidate to step up when Bachmann […]

The leading Republican candidate in retiring Rep. Michele Bachmann’s congressional district denies climate science, is virulently anti-gay, and sponsored everything from voter ID legislation to a minimum wage law repeal. No wonder he’s already being labeled “Michele Bachmann 2.0.”

Former Minnesota State Rep. Tom Emmer (R) was the first candidate to step up when Bachmann announced last month that she would be retiring from representing the state’s 6th congressional district at the end of her term. He is best known for unsuccessfully running for Governor in 2010, coming close enough to Democratic candidate and now-Governor Mark Dayton (D) to trigger a recount.

Here are a few things voters should know about Tom Emmer:

1. He opposed anti-bullying legislation because he doesn’t “want the government doing that for us.” Emmer voted against the Safe Schools for All bill, which included sexual orientation among fourteen different characteristics, and would have introduced consistent anti-bullying policies and mandated training for teachers and staff. During his 2010 campaign, he promised to veto it if it were to come across his desk as Governor, saying, “it’s up to the parents, Jacquie and I, to educate our children, how they handle that situation. We’re the ones who have to be the front line of defense for our children. I don’t want the government doing that for us.” The bill was proposed after a rash of gay teens in Minnesota committing suicide. Emmer has adopted virulently anti-gay positions throughout his political career.

2. He thinks waiters make too much, proposed cutting their minimum wage. At a campaign stop in 2010, Emmer said he had heard from local restaurant owners that “there are some people earning over $100,000 a year, more than the very people providing the jobs and investing not only their life savings but their families’ future.” He suggested that bartenders, servers, and other hospitality workers should get a “tip credit,” which would functionally lower their minimum wage. Although Minnesota is one of the only states that does not follow the federal minimum wage for tip-earners of $2.13 (it instead requires tip-earners be paid at least $5.25 hourly), the average food or beverage service worker earned an average of only $10.45 an hour in 2010. Emmer introduced an amendment that would have eliminated the state’s minimum wage laws altogether in 2005.

3. He was one of the first conservatives pushing unconstitutional nullification bills to undermine Obamacare. Even before healthcare legislation passed in Congress, Emmer was making the rounds on Fox News, pushing the idea that any form of federal healthcare program would be unconstitutional. In October 2009, he proposed a “Health Care Freedom Act” that would define Minnesotans as “sovereign individuals” in an attempt to prevent federal law or state law from affecting the health insurance of any individual. Soon after the Affordable Care Act passed, Emmer began advocating nullification of federal laws, an unconstitutional theory used by advocates of slavery before the Civil War, in his state.

4. He denies climate science is real. In addition to calling green jobs a “fancy marketing campaign“, pledging to withdraw Minnesota from a regional climate pact, and telling supporters of the EPA to vote against him, Emmer has publicly denied climate science, saying, “the empirical evidence does not support this and the other reps that have talked. There is another side. Just because we make these chambers available to Will Steger and the crowd that wants to rely on Al Gore’s climate porn doesn’t mean that that’s the way it is. … Folks, there is another side.”

Emmer’s views keep him in good company in the 6th district – Michelle Bachmann is also a climate denier.

5. He wanted to make English the official state language because of the supposed high cost of translating. In 2008, Emmer co-sponsored a bill that would have made English the official state language of Minnesota, in addition to imposing strict immigration status checks for renters and buyers of homes. The Star Tribune asked him about his support of the language component of the bill two years later, reporting, “Emmer said he co-sponsored the 2008 measure because his home county said the cost of producing signs in multiple languages ‘was killing them.’”

Emmer has also sponsored legislation that would have, if passed, imposed sweeping and restrictive voter ID laws in Minnesota, asserted that there is “no constitutional right to abortion“, and allowed for forced castration of sex offenders.

Wow, it’s hard to tell which of these is the most egregious. Proposing a cut to waiter pay is pretty uniquely awful.

newsweek:

The reporter died Tuesday morning at 33. His friend and bureau chief remembers an era that shaped him.

Most definitely worth a read. RIP, Michael.

Michael Hastings was a friend of mine. (He was a frequent guest on a show I used to work on.) He died less than a mile from where I live. Shocking, saddening, and a true loss to the journalism community. Rest in piece, Michael.

The headline is “allegedly” because the evidence is a video that the National Enquirer says they have, but it would be… less than surprising… to find out that it’s true.

Bonus racism: She says the ideal Southern wedding would involve having Black people dress like slaves and wait on the guests! It’s the Apartheid Wedding all over again!

(Source: drunkonstephen)

ourownstoriesproject:

Why we still need feminism

andirach:

Our 16 yr. old lesbian foster child was removed from our home due to our sexual orientation. We are fighting to get her back. Can you help? The homophobic birth mother of our 16 year old lesbian foster daughter went to the state of Kansas and fought to have her removed from our home solely due to our sexual orientation. Our foster daughter wants to be in our home and has flourished with us. We love her like she is one of our own and we want to fight to whatever lengths we can to get her back. This is about equality and it’s about doing what is in the best interest of this child. Due to confidentiality, I can’t include a picture of our foster child; the picture I am using is a picture of myself, my partner, and my daughter.

PLEASE - if you can’t help, reblog. These ladies are awesome parents, and they deserve to continue to be the safe, nurturing home that this young lady has needed.

Signal boosting!

courage86 asked: For what it's worth, I think Jesus would have totes supported this tumblr. I know I sure do.

Dude, Jesus was a socialist hippie who gave away free healthcare, hung out with prostitutes, and could turn water into booze. Jesus and I would be BFFs. (And thank you!)

zenjamaican:

topsidepress:

DONATE HERE

Cathy Brennan, radical “feminist” terrorist, has set her sights on a young black activist in Baltimore County, MD. Phylicia Sampson is being taken to court by Brennan, a notorious harasser of trans women and their supporters. Sampson is a recent college grad with few resources, no car and no way to fight back without your help.

As a community, we’ve suffered Brennan’s assaults for a long time—her blog is the best known for outing trans women’s personal information. She believes trans women are men who are infiltrating the feminist community and expends her resources fighting them. The idea that she is now taking her harassment to a legal venue is horrifying. That she has selected a young black woman with few resources to fight back is repugnant.

We can’t let Cathy Brennan get away with this! Share Phylicia’s campaign on Facebook, twitter, tumblr and instagram.  Here are some things you can do TODAY to help:

• Tell your friends why it is important that they donate to this campaign. 
• Donate what you can.
• Write to your favorite feminist blog and ask them to cover this campaign

DONATE HERE

This is downright appalling.

nadija asked: My boyfriend is saying that he is thinking about starting to vote Republican for fiscal reasons. He talked about several valid reasons, but the one that angered me was welfare fraud. I'm trying to find info to send him on how that's largely a myth and i know you've posted about it before. Help me out with some citations?

First of all, I’d ask him which fiscal policies proposed by Republicans have resulted in tangible, long-lasting, not-only-applying-to-rich-people economic benefits. Because things like “trickle down” and “privatization” have not. I would looooooove to hear his “valid reasons” for voting for short-term gain over long-term solutions.

Second, I’d send him to this PDF on welfare myths and stereotypes, followed by this reality check about how little we spend on welfare TOTAL (around 5-6% of the total federal budget). The Wikipedia page on welfare fraud also has some enlightening sources.

sacred-fox asked: Jesus, am I the lone dissenting voice on your piece-of-shit blog or something?

No, kitten, just the only extremely persistent Nazi cosplayer. Cute that you think you’re the only person on Tumblr who ever disagrees with me though.

culturite:

I’m excited and honoured to be guest editing a new issue of Decolonization on Indigenous Art, Aesthetics and Decolonial Struggle. Here’s the CFP. Get in touch if you’re interested in contributing.

Call for Submissions: Volume 3, Issue 1. Indigenous Art, Aesthetics, and Decolonial Struggle

[June 13, 2013] Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society invites submissions from scholars, artists, and activists for a new issue of the journal exploring Indigenous art, aesthetics, and decolonizing struggle, guest edited by Jarrett Martineau (University of Victoria, Cree/Dene), in conjunction with the Editors of Decolonization.

This issue invites us to consider the role of cultural production in decolonization, and to rethink Indigenous and decolonial art and aesthetics as creative action nurtured by community and closely connected to the decolonization of self, society, and land. The issue will explore and challenge colonial conceptions of art and power, and ‘ground’ decolonial aesthetics and creative praxis in both the physical lands and imaginative spaces of continued Indigenous presence.

As always, we are interested in papers that connect theoretical discussions with active decolonization work by engaging the intersections of theory, art and practice. We encourage submissions that draw from personal, experiential, and subjective locations, as well as submissions that focus on contemporary forms of creative expression including, but not limited to: visual art, performance, literature, new media/internet art, music, film, and design.

This issue invites contributors to consider the following questions:

- What are the connections and relationships between art, activism, resurgence, and resistance?

- What is the role of cultural production in decolonization? (And/or how might art contribute to the revitalization of Indigenous nationhood?)

- How can art be used to disrupt normative orders and political status quo?

- How is Indigenous artistic creation connected to history, land, and community? How might art be seen as decolonization, particularly in light of the challenges brought forth by Tuck & Yang (2012) around decolonization and its incommensurable meaning/goals?

- How might art and aesthetics, born out of particular locations, Indigenous communities and nations, enable practices of solidarity and alliance to be forged in creative ways?

- What are the intersections between gender and decolonial or Indigenous art and aesthetics?

- How does art create, speak to, and emerge from alternative spaces that contest global capitalism, colonial violence, and imperial expansion?

- How is art used to challenge, unmake, or reconstruct borders?

- How can artistic production contribute to Indigenous and decolonial futures?

- In what ways does art occupy or create contested spaces of ambivalence, between aesthetic production and politically contentious creativity?

Contributions are to be submitted at www.decolonization.org no later than December 6th, 2013. Selected articles will be published in our May 2014 issue.

Articles should follow our journal style guidelines, which can be found here. Scholarly articles are subject to a double-blind peer review and details can be found here. Submitted contributions may also include papers, visual art, audio, video, poetry or personal narratives that challenge the boundaries of scholarly production, either integrated with/in an article or as stand alone pieces.

Beyond this specific call for papers, Decolonization is also accepting general submissions at this time. If you have a submission that fits our general goals and guidelines, please feel free to submit it for review.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at editors@decolonization.org.