kpete
kpete's JournalSeattle set to approve $15 minimum wage in 'historic victory' for workers more
Source: The Guardian
Seattle set to approve $15 minimum wage in 'historic victory' for workers
• Plan would more than double federal minimum wage
• Move will benefit 100,000 working people in Seattle
Seattle council is expected to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour on Monday, the highest in the US. The move will benefit about one quarter of the city’s workforce, particularly women and minorities, as it lifts the lowest paid to more than double the federal minimum wage over the coming years.
It is also likely to boost local campaigns across the US, from San Francisco and Chicago to New York state, to raise the incomes of minimum wage workers after Republicans in Congress blocked President Obama’s proposal for a national increase.
But Seattle’s law will be closely watched for its economic impact and for threatened legal action by local franchises of fast-food corporations, such as McDonald’s and Subway, some of the largest employers of low-paid workers in the city, seeking to be classified as small businesses in order to win more years to implement the increases.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/02/seattle-plan-minimum-wage-hike-workers
KRUGMAN: I’m liking Obama more and more as he slogs through his second term. (Me Too!)
Coal ComfortI just hope the president sticks to his guns — and the good news is that I’m starting to believe that he will.
Paul Krugman
Of course you’re disappointed if you believed that soaring rhetoric could transform our political life, or if you believed that Obama could, by sheer force of will, turn crazy right-wingers into centrists. But I never bought into all of that. In fact, I was always exasperated by the inspiring speeches, which suggested to me that Obama didn’t understand what he was facing.
What mattered instead were concrete achievements, things that would shape America for the better over time. And in the end, Obama has delivered. Health reform is working, and the repeal crowd is slinking slowly away. And now, the environment.
The power-plant proposal isn’t enough, by itself, to save the planet; and like heath reform, it could be undone if enough justices on the Supreme Court decide that their partisan loyalty trumps the law and sound policy. But if the plan does go into effect, it could have huge implications. Climate diplomacy could resume; and if something like cap and trade is actually implemented, it will prove far cheaper than the doomsayers claim, undermining anti-environmentalists in much the way that the success of the ACA has undermined enemies of universal coverage.
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MORE:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/coal-comfort/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_php=true&_type=blogs&module=BlogPost-Title&version=Blog%20Main&contentCollection=Opinion&action=Click&pgtype=Blogs%C2%AEion=Body&_r=1&
CA Baptist congregation changes view on homosexuality after pastor’s son comes out
CA Baptist congregation changes view on homosexuality after pastor’s son comes out
By David Edwards
Monday, June 2, 2014 11:56 EDT
A church in California has decided to reject the Southern Baptist Convention’s official position on homosexuality after a pastor told members that his son was gay.
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“I couldn’t help but think that my 15 year journey was in preparation for that moment,” he wrote. “If it wasn’t for this 15 year journey and my change in theology, I may have destroyed my son through reparative therapy.”
After telling his congregation that he no longer believed homosexuality was a sin, the congregation voted on May 19 not to dismiss Cortez. Instead, the church members elected to become a “Third Way” church that withholds judgement against LGBT members.
“So now, we will accept the LGBT community even though they may be in a relationship,” he explained. “We will choose to remain the body of Christ and not cast judgement. We will work towards graceful dialogue in the midst of theological differences.”
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MORE:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/02/ca-baptist-congregation-changes-view-on-homosexuality-after-pastors-son-comes-out/
http://canyonwalkerconnections.com/pastors-kid-comes-out-and-family-stands-with-him/
The lethal confluence - by Tom Tomorrow
?1401480109
please keep this thread respectable,
PLEASE,
kp
They hate this President more than they love the troops.
Every Time the Sun Comes Up, I’m In Trouble
Posted by constitutional mistermix at 8:48 am
Jun 02 2014
So let me get this straight. A young soldier who was clearly having a hard time with the most awful thing human beings do, war, should not be rescued because: (a) it’s not crystal clear how he was captured, or (b) he sent a few emails home questioning the war, or (c) the people we are fighting are “terrorists” so we can’t negotiate with them as we would in any other POW situation, even though we call what we’re doing a “War on Terror”?
And this is coming from the people who still support a war where we wasted, squandered, frittered away and otherwise burned up $6 trillion?
MORE:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/01/bergdahl-afghanistan-taliban-speaking-english-release
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/mixed-reaction-to-bergdahls-recovery-by-service-members-who-consider-him-a-deserter/2014/06/01/3713e3ce-e9c5-11e3-b98c-72cef4a00499_story.html?hpid=z1
"no, you're wrong and this is why" ...
https://twitter.com/stevesilberman/statuses/472409425198596096
Speaking of who really spits on the troops:
:large
https://twitter.com/leftleaningec/status/473204771214462979/photo/1
"Everything that we know about the war we were told by men."
War's Unwomanly Face
by Svetlana Alexievich
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We usually think of wars as something that men do. Boys play with toy soldiers and toy guns, and play with real things when they get older, right? But women have been fighting in wars throughout history. We just don't know their stories. We know the stories of men. The women remain in the background, mostly silent, occasionally telling the stories of the war from the accepted 'manly' perspective. Until now.
"Everything that we know about the war we were told by men. We are the prisoners of "manly" impressions and "manly" experiences of war. "Manly" words. Women always remain silent, and if they suddenly begin to speak they tell not about their war but the war of others. Adjust to the language that is not theirs. Adjust to the unbreakable canon of men[...]
We think we know everything about the war. But listening to these women - from villages and cities, simple and educated, those who saved the wounded and those who wounded the others - I can attest that this is not true. A big misconception. There is another war, unfamiliar to us. I want to write the story of that war. The story of women's war... "
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Much MORE (older post, but relevant due to New Warmongering:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/239281694
Obama's global warming rule leaks early, plans to cut carbon emissions by 30%
The Environmental Protection Agency will debut draft regulations on Monday to cut carbon emissions from existing power plants by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The agency will seek a 25% overall reduction in power plant emissions by 2020 and ratchet up the requirement to 30 percent by 2030. EPA plans to set varying percentage reduction standards by state, however, in recognition of the fact that each state has a different energy and electricity mix.
States will be given a deadline of June 2016 to create state implementation plans to comply with the rule, which is expected to be finalized in June 2015.
The administration will allow states to chose from a menu of options to comply with the standard, including adding additional renewable power generation, spurring gains in energy efficiency and crafting cap and trade programs.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/energy/obama-s-global-warming-rule-leaks-early-20140601
"Something's wrong here." & "Now six innocent people are dead."
THIS IS NOT A COINCIDENCE
?1401653546
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It's by Laci Green, and it's called: "Elliot Rodger: More Than A Madman". She tackles the topic with humor, anger, and insight.
.......
Perhaps my favorite bit was this:
"Something's wrong here."
So they called in law enforcement, and the sheriff was like, "Well, he seems kinda timid and not very violent -- nothing to see here." Beside the fact that he was, you know, posting his plans to slaughter his peers on YouTube -- "nothing to see here."
The fact that Elliot was dismissed was partially because we've normalized this idea of violent masculinity. This stuff didn't raise enough red flags because the sheriff thought, "Hey, he's got a lot of aggressive feelings, just like any other guy. It's nothing to be concerned about."
The emasculation that Elliot Rodger felt eventually amounted in him following the manual written for boys: "Don't be a pussy. Do what it takes to take back control." And that's exactly what he did.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/06/01/1303607/-I-urge-everyone-to-watch-this-video
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