9/26 News Roundup – Puerto Rico In Crisis, Target Announces A $15 Min Wage & More
Happy Tuesday friends, thanks for visiting TPW! If you are not currently a member and would like to be, please email the tpwhelpdesk@gmail.com and I’ll get you set up (or you can try your luck with the automated system…).
Starting off with some good news:
‘Our Momentum Is Unstoppable’: Workers Celebrate as Target Announces $15 Minimum Wage
In what is being described as a huge victory for the tens of thousands of workers across the country who have for years organized, rallied, and gone on strike for higher wages, Target on Monday announced that it plans to raise the company-wide minimum hourly wage to $11 by next month and $15 by 2020.
“Five years ago, when 200 New York City fast-food workers first walked off the job for $15 an hour and union rights, nobody gave us a shot. Since then, we’ve spread this movement to every corner of the country and beyond fast-food. We did what they said we couldn’t: we won. We won in the states, in the cities, with the big politicians and with the big corporations,” Steven Suffridge, a Minneapolis McDonald’s Worker and Fight for $15 organizer, wrote in an email reacting to the news. “And today, we won $15 an hour for all Target employees.”
In celebration, Fight for $15 and other groups began circulating a graphic that echoes Suffridge’s message: “When we fight, we win!”
Breaking: @Target to raise wages for all 323,000 employees to $15/hour by 2020. Never underestimate the power of organizing! #FightFor15 pic.twitter.com/2ZHtlKkltn
— Fight For 15 (@fightfor15) September 25, 2017
Immediately upon seeing the news of the Target wage boost—which will affect over 320,000 workers throughout the U.S—activists and lawmakers immediately began raising the question: if Target can pay its workers a decent wage, why can’t Walmart, McDonald’s, and other profitable low-wage corporate giants?
“C’mon McDonalds, Walmart, and everybody else,” wrote Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), who recently celebrated Minneapolis lawmakers for overwhelmingly voting to raise the city minimum wage to $15 by 2024. “Pay your workers right!”
The rest of the days news/videos/etc will be in the comments, including:
*Voting machine concerns have states eyeing return to paper ballots
*Tony Blair Says Bernie Doesn’t Have the Answers (Public Opinion Says Otherwise)
*Bernie Sanders’ Graham-Cassidy Debate Quotes Will Inspire You To Fight For Health Care
*National park ban saved 2m plastic bottles – and still Trump reversed it
*Candidate Updates (Stephen Jaffe, Joe Cunningham, Jack Love, Abdul El-Sayed, Cathy Myers & more)
*Corbyn is a changed man – and he’s forging a path to power
& much more.
Tips, Comments, Complaints, Etc!
PS: Do me a favor and at least click candidate diaries even if you are not going to read them! It helps in regards to search rankings if anyone happens to be googling a particular candidate, etc.
Also a big thanks to those who liveblogged the CNN ‘debate’. I was well past asleep by that point and will have to catch up later… but I’ll have plenty of articles telling us all about it before I get the chance.
CNN of course does not have the debate up on its youtube page that I can find so heres a couple bootlegs. If I missed that theres a real copy floating around somewhere… please point me in its direction!
CNN TOWN HALL DEBATE – LINDSEY GRAHAM, BILL CASSIDY VS BERNIE SANDERS, AMY KLOBUCHAR
or
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Oops, guess this is an obvious enough headline that I should have caught:
WATCH: Bernie Sanders Debates Graham-Cassidy Health Care Bill [FULL VIDEO REPLAY]
Calls for More Relief Intensify as Puerto Rico Descends Into Humanitarian Crisis
Trump declares Puerto Rico is in ‘deep trouble’ as questions mount about his commitment
Trump finally responds to Puerto Rico crisis, saying island has ‘massive debt’
WTFrack does having debt have to do with being in dire straits and desperately needing help after a hurricane? Oh, I forgot, only people who have money, no matter how they got it, are worthy of living. Silly me.
Once again its ok if youre in massive debt if your name is Donald Trump and its because of your own bad decisions, but if you’re brown people at the mercy of Wall Street disaster capitalism.. bunch of sons of bitches.
Speaking of which, why was a bigger deal not being made about that being an insult to women and not just Kirk himself. He’s literally calling the guys mom a bitch. If we cant get impeachment, wouldn’t a censure be somewhat appropriate?
After the Puerto Ricans bailed out his failed golf resort. He doesn’t mention that.
Tony Blair Says Bernie Doesn’t Have the Answers (Public Opinion Says Otherwise)
Bernie Sanders Is Just as Bad as Donald Trump, Former British PM Tony Blair Suggests
The answer to Blair involves a jail cell for war crimes. But instead… interviews with Politico.
Tony Poodle Blair certainly knows a thing or two about working with terrible Republican presidents.
It was difficult during the aughts watching Blair and then having to remember that he was the Labour leader!
But now I’m a little more savvy (with a long way to go), and see the neoliberal scourge afflicting our planet more clearly. The whipholders aren’t done with us yet either, of course.
This is all you need to know what people think of Tony Blair.
https://yougov.co.uk/opi/browse/Tony_Blair
In other words your typical neoliberal like the Clintons.
Sanders: America must guarantee healthcare ‘as a right for all people’
Bernie Sanders’ Graham-Cassidy Debate Quotes Will Inspire You To Fight For Health Care
Chelsea Manning says she has been barred from entering Canada
I know people who have been denied entry into the U.S. from Canada for things as mild as a pot possession conviction.
Sadly theres a couple shows on Netflix that I put on as background noise about border control (both us and Canada). It’s pretty crazy some of the reasons they don’t let people in. Then again its also pretty crazy the insane type of (non-drug) items that people also try and smuggle in. Theres been quite a few episodes where someone with a pot conviction 20 years ago gets denied a chance to go to a parents funeral, but all these superstars with conviction after conviction get to do as they please.
Of course, that’s all an entirely different situation than Manning. Wonder how long they’ll go to make her life miserable, whether its random smears, Harvard disinvites, etc… its not going away. Remember how long they harassed ‘innocent’ people like Lennon or Ali.
Yes on Manning. She seems quite strong, maintains a cheery countenance on Twitter, but one wonders how much she can take.
They know she has been suicidal in the past. They’ll trigger her every chance they get, and I have not a doubt about it.
National park ban saved 2m plastic bottles – and still Trump reversed it
Plastic Debris Found on One of World’s Most Inaccessible Sites
Facebook’s underclass: as staffers enjoy lavish perks, contractors barely get by
LeBron James joins NFL in hitting back at Trump: ‘The people run this country’
This is the first time in my life Ive ever had anything good to say about Jerry Jones
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones kneels with Dallas players before anthem in Arizona
Trump: ‘Great anger’ at Dallas Cowboys for taking a knee last night
Actually, Jones’ daughter deserves some credit here. I heard on one of the cable networks that she thought Trump had gotten out of line by doubling down, and Jones’ daughter is one of the VP’s in charge of the Pokes’ organization. She convinced Jones (who earlier was not in favor of any protest) to lock arms with his team. The difference is that they did this before the national anthem, but I thought (from looking at the tweets) it was effective because it separated the issue of the flag from Trump.
Moreover, Jerry Jones, as the ultimate capitalist, he wasn’t going to be told what to do as an owner.
Corbyn is a changed man – and he’s forging a path to power
Bali volcano eruption could be hours away after unprecedented seismic activity