AFL-CIO invites MSNBC hosts to meet with unhappy NBC workers

By DYLAN BYERS

12/18/13 10:28 AM EST

The AFL-CIO sent a letter to Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and other top MSNBC hosts on Wednesday requesting that they meet with NBC production workers who have spent more than a year trying to form a union.

The letter, signed by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and other members of the executive council, comes as workers at Peacock Productions have protested what they say is union busting by the liberal cable network.

"Since July 2012, producers and associate producers have worked with the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) in order to organize a union and bargain with Peacock Productions. They have expressed real concern about access to affordable health insurance, declining pay rates, long hours and an overall feeling of job insecurity among even the most talented and qualified," Trumka, et al., write in the letter.

"Today those workers do not have a voice on the job to express their concerns," they continue.

"Unfortunately, Peacock has not acted in good faith, as its parent company NBC has in the past. Instead, Peacock has fought against its workers’ rights, jeopardizing the livelihoods of the workers."

Last week, MSNBC host Chris Hayes met privately with Peacock workers after the AFL-CIO posted a petition to MoveOn.org Civic Action asking him, Maddow, Schultz, Al Sharpton and Lawrence O'Donnell to “please meet with these workers and take a public stand to support their right to organize."

Only Hayes attended the meeting. In an email to Salon regarding the MoveOn.org petition, Schultz wrote that Moveon.org "has never been an ally of Ed Schultz." Maddow, Sharpton and O'Donnell did not comment.

The labor dispute is especially significant for Schultz, given that he has frequently championed unions on his MSNBC program and his radio show. Schultz has also been paid hundreds of thousands by organized unions for speeches and advertising. As POLITICO reported last week, Schultz was paid $252,000 by unions over the last two years.

However, AFL-CIO spokesperson Josh Goldstein said the federation was not just focusing on Hayes and Schultz: "The bigger personalities like Maddow, Sharpton, [and] O'Donnell aren't off the hook."

In Wednesday's letter to MSNBC, Trumka, et al., accuse Peacock Productions of forcing workers to attend mandatory anti-union meetings and employing legal maneuvers "to impound the ballots the workers cast in a June election."

"These actions are wrong, and we hope that you will stand with your colleagues to denounce them," write Trumka, et al. "Millions of viewers across the country look to your shows as a platform for progressive ideas and advancing workers’ rights. The workers at Peacock respect your work, as do we, and have seen the influence you have on many issues important to working people. We urge you to take the time to meet with these producers and associate producers to hear their concerns first-hand. We would be glad to join you. We know you will be moved, as we have been."

Salon's Josh Eidelson has more on the workers' dispute with MSNBC here, here and here.

Fascinating? Yes. Far enough left? Maybe not.

Hillary Clinton may be Barbara Walters most fascinating person, but Gov. Brian Schweitzer isn’t impressed during a speech in Iowa. Ed Schultz & panel discuss.

What's Going on with Chinese Chicken Processing?

By Lydia Zuraw 
December 20, 2013

Many people have had something to say about chicken and other poultry destined for U.S. tables potentially coming from or through China.

The latest concerns come from 14 members of the House of Representatives who wrote to the chairmen and senior Democrats of subcommittees responsible for funding the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Since the issue is a complicated one, Food Safety News wanted to offer a primer on poultry slaughtered and processed in China.

Was my chicken slaughtered in China?

No. In November, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced that its audit of China’s poultry slaughter system found that it’s not equivalent to America’s. This means that poultry slaughtered in China is not allowed to be imported to the U.S.

Is China allowed to process U.S. chicken?

Yes. In August, USDA reaffirmed that China’s processing system in equivalent to ours. This wasn’t exactly news since China’s processing had been established as equivalent back in 2006. But, regardless of the timing, it means that poultry raised and slaughtered in the U.S. or another approved source (Canada or Chile) could be shipped to China where it’s processed and then shipped back to the U.S.

Then was my chicken processed in China?

No. China has to certify plants to process chicken for export and give a list of them to FSIS. The country hasn’t done this or signified that they intend to. In addition, U.S. companies have not expressed the desire to have China process their poultry.

If, in the future, our chicken is processed in China, will we be able to tell?

USDA says the products would have a label reading “Product of China,” but there are a number of loopholes to existing labeling rules that could leave consumers in the dark on this one.

If our chicken is ever processed in China, will it be in school lunches?

Maybe, but not through USDA. Food that comes to schools through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is required to be 100-percent domestically grown and produced. But schools don’t get all their food from NSLP, and, if China ever did start processing our chicken, there would be the possibility that private vendors could sell it to schools.

Whole Foods Phasing Out Chobani Yogurt

By News Desk 
December 19, 2013

Whole Foods Market, Inc., announced on Wednesday that it plans to phase out Chobani Greek Yogurt from its stores early next year to focus on organic and non-GMO products.

“As the national demand for Greek yogurt has grown, the number of conventional Greek yogurt options has multiplied,” the Austin, TX-based grocery firm said in a statement. “Whole Foods Market challenged its Greek yogurt suppliers to create unique options for shoppers to enjoy – including exclusive flavors, non-GMO options and organic choices.”

“At this time, Chobani has chosen a different business model, so Whole Foods Market will be phasing Chobani Greek Yogurt out of its stores in early 2014 to make room for product choices that aren’t readily available on the market,” the statement continued.

Chobani yogurt is not organic, and critics say it uses milk from cows fed GMO animal feed. Chobani officials stated Wednesday in a blog post that its yogurt production requires a “high volume of milk and the necessary amount of organic milk is simply not available to support our broad consumer demand.” Chobani is the number-one seller of Greek-style yogurt in the U.S.

Chobani voluntarily recalled some of its Greek-style yogurt cups in September after customers complained about bloated cups and foul-smelling or off-tasting yogurt. At the time, the company blamed the situation on “isolated quality concerns” at its Idaho facility, which it said affected less than 5 percent of production. The problem was attributed to a common mold, Mucor circinelloides.

Whole Foods announced this past spring that it will start requiring labels on all genetically modified food (GMO's) by 2018.

Questlove Awkwardly Plugs His Now-Closed Restaurant on Top Chef

By Mariella Mosthof 12:35 pm, December 18th


Oof. This supremely awkward Top Chef: New Orleans Quickfire Challenge, guest-judged by fried drumstick connoisseur Questlove, could easily have been made a hell of a lot less awkward with the simple editing of one line.

Unfortunately, tonight’s drumstick challenge serves as an cringe-inducing plug for Quest’s now-closed New York City fried chicken joint Hybird (RIP). Check out a sneak peek below, and reclaim some of your dignity reading Quest’s beautiful postmortem on the restaurant here.

The Long, Expensive History of Defense Rip-Offs

A timeline of more than 230 years of military waste, from gouging George Washington to ditching $7 billion worth of stuff Afghanistan.

—By Eric Wuestewald

Wed Dec. 18, 2013 3:00 AM GMT

 

It didn't start with the F-35 or even the $640 toilet seat. Military overruns and rip-offs have a long (and expensive) history, starting in the earliest days of the republic:

1778	General George Washington decries the suppliers overcharging his army: "It is enough to make one curse their own Species, for possessing so little virtue & patriotism." George Washington Wikipedia
1794	The Navy's first order for frigates faces shipyard delays, and its cost shoots up to more than $1.1 million. USS Constitution Wikipedia
1861	A House committee exposes fraud, favoritism, and profiteering in Civil War contracting. Its findings, writes the New York Times, "produce a feeling of public indignation which would justify the most summary measures against the knaves whose villainy is here dragged into daylight."
1941	"Investigator Truman" Time/Wikimedia Commons Sen. Harry S. Truman kicks off a dogged investigation of wasteful war production. The Truman Committee, which runs into World War II, is credited with saving as much as $15 billion (more than $230 billion in today's dollars).
1975	Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire calls out the Pentagon for maintaining 300 golf courses around the world. (Today it has 200.) Golfing at a DoD course US Department of Defense
1983	President Ronald Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative, a.k.a. "Star Wars," a system of ground- and space-based lasers that will stop incoming nuclear missiles. Still unrealized, the program has cost more than $209 billion. President Ronald ReaganThe Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Library
1985	Pentagon profligacy makes headlines with reports of $640 toilet seats, $660 ashtrays, $7,600 coffee-makers, and $74,000 ladders. "Our attack on waste and fraud in procurement—like discovering that $436 hammer—is going to continue," Reagan says, "but we must have adequate military appropriations."
2001	No-bid Pentagon contracts explode after 9/11, jumping from $50 billion in 2001 to $140 billion in 2010.
2001	Halliburton subsidiary KBR takes over a contract to feed soldiers in Iraq. It raises the price of a meal from $3 to $5 while subcontracting the services back to the previous contractor.
2009	F-22s Wikimedia Commons After safety problems and cost overruns, the Pentagon cancels the F-22 Raptor fighter jet (estimated price tag: $412 million per plane) and puts the money toward buying F-35s.
2010	The Government Accountability Office finds that the Defense Logistics Agency is sitting on $7.1 billion worth of excess spare parts.
2010	An anonymous congressional earmark sets aside $2.5 billion for 10 C-17 aircraft the Air Force says it does not need.
2011	Boeing charges the Army $1,678 apiece for rubber cargo-loading rollers that actually cost $7 each.
2012	One-quarter of the $1.6 trillion being spent on major weapons systems comes from unexpected cost overruns.
2012	The Air Force scraps a new logistics management system that has shown "negligible" results—after spending $1 billion on it.
2012	Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) slams $68 billion in frivolous Pentagon spending: "Using defense dollars to run microbreweries, study Twitter slang, create beef jerky, or examine Star Trek does nothing to defend our nation." The Starship Enterprise Paramount
2012	The House oversight committee finds that the Swiss contractor that fed troops in Afghanistan was overpaid by $757 million. The company claims it's still owed $1 billion.
2013	The military and VA are found to have spent $1.3 billion on a failed health records system for vets. That's after the Pentagon already spent $2 billion on an unsuccessful upgrade of its electronic medical records system.
2013	The Army announces plans to replace its camouflage pattern, which was introduced in 2004 and cost $5 billion to develop. The new one will cost $4 billion. US Army uniforms Wikipedia
2013	Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) decries the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as "one of the great national scandals that we have ever had, as far as the expenditure of taxpayers' dollars are concerned."
2013	The Pentagon plans to scrap more than 85,000 tons of equipment in Afghanistan, part of $7 billion worth of gear being left behind as the troops come home.

Larry Klayman's On-Air Fight With Don Lemon And Jeffrey Toobin

By John Amato December 18, 2013 12:30 P.M.

Crazy Larry Klayman dukes it out with Don Lemon and Jeffrey Toobin on CNN over the recent court ruling on NSA surveillance - which quickly turns personal. 



Wild man Larry Klayman, who routinely calls for Obama to put down his Koran, got into a shouting match on CNN with Jeffrey Toobin and Don Lemon over his victory in a lawsuit challenging NSA surveillance.

Conservative legal activist Larry Klayman got into an argument on CNN with host Don Lemon and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin when he was brought on to discuss his victory this week in a lawsuit challenging NSA surveillance, resulting in Lemon cutting him off the screen and Klayman comparing Lemon to disgraced former MSNBC host Martin Bashir.

Klayman’s appearance Tuesday night on CNN was preceded by a profile of him that included a quotation from a former George W. Bush staffer saying his lawsuits were about “fighting for himself and his own, in my opinion, delusions of grandeur.”

When Klayman was brought into the conversation, he came out firing.“I think it is important to note that you’re a big supporter of Obama,” Klayman said to Lemon. “That you have favored him in every respect. You have to try to do a hit piece to diminish a very important decision.”

Lemon interjected to clarify that Klayman was speaking about him personally, saying, “None of that is true, but go on.”

“Well, it is true. I’ve watched you for many years. You’re an ultra-leftist and you’re a big supporter of Obama,” Klayman said. “Let’s talk about the NSA, let’s not talk about Larry Klayman. This victory is for the American people. It wasn’t for me. And you, as somebody from the left … should appreciate that you don’t have a police state in this country that’s going to be able to intimidate Americans to chill their free speech rights.”

Lemon again protested the characterization, saying that only he knows his political affiliation, over interruptions from Klayman, prompting the host to threaten to cut Klayman’s mic. He then brought on Toobin, CNN’s legal analyst, who slammed Klayman as a “lunatic.”

This segment got personal and turned ugly from the get-go. I do always enjoy when a real lunatic like Klayman calls somebody else a lunatic. Here's a quick round up of some of Klayman's recent remarks:
 
In July, he called for the military to overthrow him.

In September, he vowed to force the "evil tyrant Obama" from office by November 16th.

Then he slid the date to November 19th.Just last week, he sadly announced that he believed violent revolution was imminent.

He used the very same language today that he used in mid-September, except then he added some rhetorical flourishes:

“[Obama] will finally know that his time has come to leave his perverted, Islamic concept of Mecca, our nation's hallowed capital,” Klayman concludes. “I do not advocate violence, but it is time we show Obama that we mean business. He would be well advised to ride off into his Islamic sunset, link up with 72 virgins and party on at his expense – not ours!”

Klayman's funding comes from billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who has some serious legal problems right now. Adelson seems to have no problem with this kind of dangerous and violent rhetoric from Klayman, especially if it means he can duck federal charges.

The highly-educated working poor: Adjunct professors

Posted by Jim Hightower

Listen to this Commentary

There's a growing army of the working poor in our US of A, and big contingents of it are now on the march. They're strategizing, organizing, and mobilizing against the immoral economics of inequality being hung around America's neck by the likes of Walmart, McDonald's, and colleges.

Wait a minute. Colleges? You go there to get ahead in life. More education makes you better off, right? Well, ask a college professor about that – you know, the ones who earned PhD's and are now teaching America's next generation.

The sorry secret of higher education – from community colleges to brand-name universities – is that they've embraced the corporate culture of a contingent workforce, turning professors into part-time, low-paid, no-benefit, no-tenure, temporary teachers. Overall, more than half of America's higher-ed faculty members today are "adjunct professors," meaning they are attached to the school, but not essentially a part of it.

It also means that these highly-educated, fully-credentialed professors have become part of America's army of the working poor. They never know until a semester starts whether they'll teach one class, three, or none – typically, this leaves them with take-home pay somewhere between zero and maybe $1,000 a month.

Poverty.

Adjuncts usually get no benefits, no real chance of earning full-time positions, no due process or severance pay if dismissed, no say in curriculum or school policies… sometimes not even office space. Like their counterparts at Walmart and McDonald's, adjunct college professors are not treated as valuable resources to be nurtured, but as cheap, exploitable, and disposable labor.

Unsurprisingly, this contingent of the low-wage army is organizing, too. For information, contact New Faculty Majority: www.NewFacultyMajority.info.

"Adjunct Project Reveals Wide Range in Pay," www.chronicle.com, January 4, 2013.

"Adjunct Project," www.adjunct.chronicle.com 2013.

"Adjuncts at ACC face cut in hours School seeks to avoid paying health care for some faculty," Austin American Statesman, November 26, 2013.

"Adjunct professors in dire straits with low pay, lack of full-time jobs," www.aljazeera.com, October 15, 2013.

"Adjunct professors are the new working poor," www.cnn.com, September 25, 2013.

Half of America strips religion from Christmas

By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times

Nine out of 10 Americans do Christmas and three-quarters believe in the biblical account of Jesus' birth — but only a little more than half actually regard the holiday primarily as a religious celebration.

More than one-third say it's more a cultural holiday, a new poll from Pew Research's Religion & Public Life Policy found.

The poll also found that generational differences in how Christmas is celebrated abound. Younger adults generally see the holiday through less religious lens than older Americans. And those under the age of 30 are far less likely to attend a religious service as part of the holiday celebration.

Still, tradition plays a major role in how Americans celebrate the holiday. Eighty-six percent of adults say they will celebrate with friends and families — and the same number say they'll trade gifts.
Ninety percent say that's how they celebrated in their growing up years.

But not so many are sending out Christmas cards or greetings — and that's a deviance from what was normal in past generations. Meanwhile, caroling is on the decline, too.

By the numbers: About 74 percent said they attended religious ceremonies during their growing up years to celebrate Christmas. Only 54 percent say they will do so now.

The survey was conducted Dec. 3-8 and included a representative sample of 2,001 adults.

Tea Party Embraces Racist, Anti-Immigrant Poster From Bioshock Infinite

By Nathaniel Downes

A Tea Party group’s use of a piece of zealous propaganda from the video game Bioshock Infinite could underscore the flawed dogma at the movement’s heart. – Mural of deity George Washington expelling ‘foreign hordes’ from Bioshock Infinite

The above picture graced the Facebook page of the National Liberty Foundation not too long ago, joining their rather anti-minority photo-stream. However, as noted, this is not some patriotic symbol of years past, or cherished words of wisdom. Instead, it is art from the video game Bioshock Infinite.

Its use by the Tea Party affiliated group was intended to be some kind of rallying point, but instead it revealed how accurate the depiction of the fusion of politics and religion within Bioshock Infinite truly is.

Bioshock, The Series Which Cast A Spotlight On The Darkest Corners Of Utopian Thought.

Bioshock Infinite was released to much fanfare in March of this year. With years of anticipation, this continuation of the hugely successful Bioshock series sold millions of copies since release, and is considered a huge success. The Bioshock series has been part of popular culture since the original title was released in 2007, with references to it found in popular culture.

Every Bioshock title has picked on a radical element of society, and cast a cold spotlight on to it. The original Bioshock was heralded for its dissection of Ayn Rand Objectivism with its depiction of the final and ultimate expression of Objectivism in the dystopia of Rapture.

Bioshock 2 turned this on its head, with a harsh critique of Altruism and Communism, and its expression of their own impossibility in the wreckage of Rapture. In both games, it was not the root philosophy at fault, but that both philosophies requiring a super-human level of perfection in order to work. Their systems fail not because of the philosophy, but because those who are to implement and manage the systems are flawed, imperfect humans.

Much as with the earlier titles, Bioshock Infinite picked a segment of society, in this case those who bring religious fervor to politics. Set in the flying city of Columbia, Bioshock Infinite deals with a society in which a fanatical religious cult controls all, with the base of their tenants being that the founding fathers are akin to saints or gods, and the Constitution is religious scripture. One could point out the similarity of this deification of the founding fathers, with the fusion of religion and politics, to the Tea Party and their absolute dogma that this nation is one for theocratic rule and not democratic.

And as with the earlier titles, while a theocratic state works in theory (who would not love a nation ruled by the love and kindness of Jesus or the peace and harmony of Buddhism?) they are being managed by people, and the human element always destroys the utopian society in which the player finds themselves.

In Bioshock Infinite, a radical religious group based on the idea that America was divinely created as if god itself reached down the drew the lines on the map, has seceeded from the Union. They view the founding fathers as gods or saints, and worship them. They call those who do not follow their narrow view of the nation as heretics, those who are beneath contempt. The ideals of democracy and freedom are perverted, replaced with blind loyalty and a slavery to their fanatical leader.

Sounds like the Tea Party to me.

The launch trailer for Bioshock Infinite.



Should the Tea Party reach their pinnacle and reach the utopian future they imagine, the results would be as tragic as the closed cities found within the Bioshock games. That the National Liberty Foundation took a prime piece of that failure and promoted it on their wall, complete with its stated desire to eliminate any non-Anglo-Saxon from the continent, speaks poorly of the group and their mission. The other photos on their site show an ignorance for democracy, and the United States form of government as found in the US Constitution.

Once they realized that they had used a piece of video game propaganda which was criticizing their movement, the page took it down. However, here is the evidence, preserved for us:


The Bioshock series is an excellent dissection of the insanity which grips the fanatics across this nation. For the National Liberty Foundation to confuse this dissection with reality is, at the least disturbing. Or, do they honestly believe in the divinity of the founding fathers, as the Latter Day Saints have proclaimed? Do they believe that the US Constitution a divine document, given by god?

Bioshock Infinite explored the dangers of such a utopic vision. It would do the National Liberty Foundation, and all Tea Party groups in fact, to learn from it.

Elizabeth Warren Proposes A New Bill Aimed At Eliminating Credit History As a Metric For Employment

By Chris Lazare

Photo by Tim Pierce

Many Americans are still afflicted by the damages created by the financial downturn in 2008.

Millions of Americans were put out of work, lost their savings, and had their homes foreclosed. One of the most prominent side effects stemming from the recession is a growth in poor credit ratings.

Americans are now trying to get back on their feet, however, being denied jobs because of poor credit ratings is all too common. Elizabeth Warren has just introduced a bill in the Senate which would bar prospective employers from checking and denying employment based on credit scores.

The Equal Employment For All Act would help millions of poor Americans who were disproportionately affected by the financial crisis. According to research, roughly 47 percent of employers check credit history in order to judge the competence and character of job applicants.

However, the credit rating of individuals doesn’t necessarily predict the potential productivity of their labor.

Let’s consider the logic used to deny Americans jobs based on their credit ratings.

A potential employer refuses to hire an individual because they have shown an inability to pay their credit card bills, healthcare bills or their mortgages. However, the credit report doesn’t explain why the individual wasn’t able to pay their bills. Perhaps, like many Americans, they are suffering from chronic unemployment since 2008. It is also possible his/her home was foreclosed on improperly, which can hurt credit reports by 250 points!

Now the individual is disqualified from employment because they didn’t have the means to pay their bills, presumably because they didn’t have a job in the first place. These metrics are unfair and unjust. Clearly, low wage workers and the middle class are disproportionately afflicted by such policies. Utilizing credit checks only exacerbates the issue of chronic joblessness.

After introducing the bill, Elizabeth Warren highlighted the unfairness of credit checks:

“A bad credit rating is far more often the result of unexpected medical costs, unemployment, economic downturns, or other bad breaks than it is a reflection on an individual’s character or abilities. Families have not fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis, and too many Americans are still searching for jobs. This is about basic fairness—let people compete on the merits, not on whether they already have enough money to pay all their bills.”

Using credit scores for hiring is already frowned upon.

More than 40 citizen advocate organizations support the bill. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington currently have laws, barring or limiting the use of credit checks for prospective employees. There isn’t a justifiable reason to place more barriers in front of individuals searching for a job.

Many Americans who possess poor credit ratings have them due to unforeseen circumstances. Although there hasn’t been any federal jobs bill passed in Washington, measures like the Equal Employment For All Act can help millions of Americans looking for work.

Bad budget deal for all those out of work

Paul Ryan’s budget deal heads to the House floor, while unemployment insurance remains missing from the negotiation. Ed Schultz and congressional panel discuss.

The Appalling Stance of Rand Paul

By CHARLES M. BLOW

I don’t put much past politicians. I stay prepared for the worst. But occasionally someone says something so insensitive that it catches me flat-footed.

Charles M. Blow 

Damon Winter/The New York Times

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, said Sunday on Fox News: “I do support unemployment benefits for the 26 weeks that they’re paid for. If you extend it beyond that, you do a disservice to these workers.”

This statement strikes at the heart — were a heart to exist — of the divide between conservatives and liberals about whether the social safety net provides temporary help for those who hit hard times or functions as a kind of glue to keep them stuck there.

Whereas I am sure that some people will abuse any form of help, I’m by no means convinced that this is the exclusive domain of the poor and put-upon. Businesses and the wealthy regularly take advantage of subsidies and tax loopholes without blinking an eye. But somehow, when some poor people, or those who unexpectedly fall on hard times, take advantage of benefits for which they are eligible it’s an indictment of the morality and character of the poor as a whole.

The poor are easy to pick on. They are the great boogeymen and women, dragging us down, costing us money, gobbling up resources. That seems to be the conservative sentiment.

We have gone from a war on poverty in this country to a war on the poor, in which poor people are routinely demonized and scapegoated and attacked, and conservatives have led the charge.

They paint the poor as takers, work averse, in need of motivation and incentive.

Well, that is simply not my experience with poverty. I have been poor, and both my parents worked. I grew up among poor people, and almost all of them worked. The problem wasn’t lack of effort, but low pay. Folks simply couldn’t make enough to shake the specter of need.

In fact, the poor folks I knew growing up were some of the hardest working people I have ever known — rising before dawn to pack lunches and sip coffee, trying to get the mind right for a day of toil and sweat that breaks the body but not the spirit.

They were people who wanted what most folks want — to earn an honest wage for an honest day’s work; to live a happy, meaningful life that leaves a mark on the world when they are gone from it; to raise bright, healthy children who go further in life than they did; to be surrounded by family and friends and neighbors — a village — where people support and cared for one another.

That is why I have such a hard time with the conservative argument that helping those in need diminishes their desire to do for themselves, that it suckles them to passivity on a government teat. Hogwash.

To buy into this destructive lie about the character of the poor means you’ve either had no experience being poor, or have no capacity to empathize with their plight.

Being poor is a job unto itself. The daily juggle of supplying the most basic needs — food, shelter, medicine — and the stress of knowing that you are always just one twist of fate away from calamity.

James Baldwin put it best: “Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”

Most people want to work. But sometimes, bad luck comes calling. Sometimes you have a job, but you lose it. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, a new one proves elusive.

And following the Great Recession, that is a particular problem. Maybe you are older and employers are less willing to take a chance. Maybe your industry is shrinking and becoming more efficient, getting by with fewer employees. Maybe the jobs you can find are farther from your house than you can travel and you can’t afford to move. The problems are plenty.

But what we shouldn’t do is to tell people who had jobs and lost them, people who want work and can’t find it, that to help them does them a “disservice.”

That is the height of arrogance and callousness. And it’s disrespectful.

YouTube suddenly begins flagging game-related videos

By Jeffrey Grubb

Something is going down on YouTube that is causing a headache for many of the channels that upload video game-related footage. The automated Content ID system that finds copyrighted material in the massive amounts of content uploaded to YouTube every day suddenly began flagging videos that feature games like Dead Space 3, Metro: Last Light, and more.

And this flagging could cost YouTubers potentially millions in lost ad revenue.

Total Biscuit

A content claim on Metro: Last Light from a company that does not own the rights to the game.

The odd thing is that YouTube Content ID is naming companies in these complaints that do not hold the copyrights to many of these games, as first reported by YouTube news site Tubefilter. For example, one uploader got a notice for publisher Deep Silver‘s Metro: Last Light (a horror-themed first-person shooter) from a company called 4GamerMovie, which is some kind of Japanese gaming website.

A representative for Deep Silver has since confirmed that the publisher fully permits YouTube creators to monetize videos featuring their games.

YouTubers: If you are experiencing flagging issues with @deepsilver please get in touch with us! RT me!
— Stephanie Schopp (@AgentTinsley) December 10, 2013

We’ve reached out to YouTube to ask why this is happening, and we’ll update this post with any new information.

YouTube’s Content ID rampage is affecting some of the largest creators on the site. Popular YouTube gameplay channel TheRadBrad, which has nearly 2 million subscribers, is getting hit hard.

“YouTube is crippling gaming channels with third-party claims,” TheRadBrad posted to Twitter.

“Every video I’ve uploaded since 2010 is slowly being taken away from me.”

The issue is that once a video is flagged in YouTube’s copyright system, the creator who uploaded it can no longer earn money from the ads that show before the content. For TheRadBrad, someone who does this for a living, that is devastating.

Well unfortunately this cripples my channel at the moment. I wish I could upload but it seems as if I won’t be able to until this is fixed.
— theRadBrad (@thaRadBrad) December 10, 2013

TheRadBrad, among others, are under the impression this is part of YouTube’s recent attempt to crack down on affiliates within multichannel networks (MCN). The way YouTube works is that if a video gets enough views, Google will begin sharing revenue with the creator if the content passes a check for copyrighted material. If a YouTube user joins an MCN, however, they can bypass that check and immediately begin earning from their videos.

Machinima is a popular and massive MCN that splits revenue with tons of creators. In January, however, YouTube plans to start randomly pre-screening affiliates’ uploads for copyrighted content.

It’s possible that this wave of Content ID conflicts is a part of that.

For now, people that create game-related content on YouTube are wondering if the site even wants them around. Gaming continues to make up a huge part of YouTube’s traffic. The site’s most-subscribed channel is the game-playing PewDiePie … who plays games while screaming. He has more than 17.6 million subscribers, which is 3 million more than the next closest individual channel, Smosh, which also runs a lot of gaming content.

Invisible Child - Girl in the Shadows: Dasani’s Homeless Life

By ANDREA ELLIOTT

As New York has been reborn, children like Dasani have been left behind.

Pat Robertson's Latest Jawdropper

Posted by: dave-dr-gonzo

Is it just us — or has Pat Robertson been on a roll lately? By roll, we mean he’s saying the sort of outrageous things one would expect from, say, Rush Limbaugh, Hunter Moore, or my senile 92-year-old Uncle Ernie. His latest jawdropper came in response to a woman who had been through two very bad marriages:

TV preacher Pat Robertson this week advised a woman that she wasn’t “marriage material” because her “character” made her choose abusive men.

On Thursday’s edition of The 700 Club, a woman asked Robertson if God would classify her as an adulteress and send her to Hell if she got married for a third time after her first two husbands were alcoholics or refused to work.

“You’ve got a serious problem,” Robertson told the woman. “And I don’t think marriage is for you. You have picked a selection of losers. There’s something in your character that draws you to these men who are indigent or abusive. You don’t need to get married again.”

The televangelist said that the woman was probably not going to go to Hell but she was “making your own hell here on Earth.”

There’s nothing like bringing hope and inspiring to a caller in emotional need, Pat! Feel the warmth in this clip, courtesy Crooks and Liars.

Right-wing author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza sets off Twitter storm with outrageously racist tweet

The man who brought the world "2016: Obama's America" tries and fails to be funny on Twitter
 
By Elias Isquith

Disgraced far-right polemicist and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza sparked an outcry on Twitter on Tuesday with a racist tweet comparing President Obama to Trayvon Martin. D’Souza eventually deleted the tweet, but here’s a screen grab via MSNBC’s Adam Serwer:

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D’Souza, who was the president of the small evangelical school the King’s College until he was asked to resign after being caught engaging in an extramarital affair, is no stranger to controversy. His pseudo-documentary, “2016: Obama’s America,” while popular among right-wing audiences, nevertheless earned poor reviews and multiple charges of racism. The book on which the film was based, also by D’Souza, fared little better. It even garnered a negative review in the right-wing Weekly Standard.

Considering the source, then, D’Souza’s tweet is less than surprising. Still pretty terrible, though!

Elias Isquith is an assistant editor at Salon, focusing on politics. Follow him on Twitter at @eliasisquith, and email him at eisquith@salon.com.

Pizza Hut Employee: I Was Fired For Defending Thanksgiving

By Michael Hunt

With many stores staying open during Thanksgiving this year thereby forcing workers to miss out on spending the holiday with their families, one store manager decided to take a stand on behalf of his employees — and was promptly terminated.

Tony Rohr had held various position at the Pizza Hut in Elkhart, Indiana, since starting out as a cook there some ten years ago.

He was eventually promoted to general manager of the franchise, but his decision to refuse an order to open the store on Thanksgiving ultimately cost him the job.





"I said why can't we be the company that stands up and says we care about our employees and they can have the day off," he told local CBS affiliate WSBT.

According to Rohr, the store, owned by the franchise behemoth Franchise Management Investors US, has typically been closed on Thanksgiving to give employees time off to spend with loves ones.

When he was told to either open the store or sign a letter of resignation, Rohr opted for a third option: Sending his bosses a letter of protest.

"I am not quitting. I do not resign however I accept that the refusal to comply with this greedy, immoral request means the end of my tenure with this company," Rohr wrote in his letter. "I hope you realize that it's the people at the bottom of the totem pole that make your life possible."

WSBT says the franchisee's director of operations insists Rohr quit, but also acknowledged that the decision to keep doors open on Thanksgiving came from corporate in response to other companies doing the same.

Pizza Hut's corporate offices have so far remained mum on the matter, but its Facebook page has been inundated with angry posts from customers unhappy with Rohr's termination.

Dumbest Cops In America

MILVALE, Pa. — The conduct of the Millvale police is being questioned after a video surfaced of a cuffed man being TASERed at Allegheny County Jail.

Thomas J. Smith, 27, is seen in the video cuffed on the floor, and slamming his head against a wall before an unnamed officer uses a TASER to stop him.

Smith was arrested in September and charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, aggravated harassment and public intoxication.

Smith's family asked a lawyer, David Shrager, to speak on their behalf after seeing the video, claiming the suspect has mental health issues, and TASERing him was unnecessary.

"It's easy to armchair quarterback people, and I get that, and people have to make split second decisions, but in light of the entire part that I found; I did find it to be disturbing," said Shrager.

Workers Gain The Upper Hand Against Walmart

By Nathaniel Downes

Walmart is turning toxic. With workers on strike in 12 states and sharp scrutiny from the National Labor Board, their CEO stepped aside this morning. – Photo of striking Walmart workers from OUR Walmart.

This is a bad week for Walmart. Not only have workers in 28 stores spread across 12 states gone on strike, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has announced the result of its probe, which went against the Benton, AK-based retail giant.

So it was no surprise when the CEO, Mike Duke, stepped aside this morning, ahead of the shareholders meeting on Tuesday, and just before the holiday shopping season begins on “Black Friday.”

Workers Gain The Upper Hand Against Walmart.

The company is under heavy fire for the billions it receives in corporate welfare. On top of all the tax breaks, our government covers health care, food stamps, and more for Walmart’s underpaid workers.

This costs US taxpayers several billion per year, and the GOP keeps slashing those benefits, which in turn is putting the squeeze on Walmart workers. The company will need to pay more to prevent more turnover from angry workers.

Already, Walmart suffers from the failure of temporary workers to make up for the lack of full-time workers, a policy they began to avoid footing the bill for workers’ benefits. Walmart has even had to resort to running a food drive for its own workers.

Of bigger concern for the company are the findings by the NLRB. In the NLRB’s statement, they found that:

“During two national television news broadcasts and in statements to employees at Wal-Mart stores in California and Texas, Wal-Mart unlawfully threatened employees with reprisal if they engaged in strikes and protests on November 22, 2012.” It also ruled that “Wal-Mart stores in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Washington unlawfully threatened, disciplined and/or terminated employees for having engaged in legally protected strikes and protests.”

Fired Walmart Strikers May Get Their Jobs Back.

From La Mina Circle

After the NLRB decision, Walmart is facing the chance that it will have to rehire workers that they fired — and pay them back wages — for last year’s thwarted strike. On top of that, the Labor Board can force the company to inform workers of their rights to unionize, and the process by which they can bring unions into to the stores. This would be a bitter pill for a company that has fought against unions for decades.

Mike Duke’s departure may signal the closing of this dark chapter in Walmart history. Doubtful, but one can hope.