Did You Know
Did You Know
Here's How Much Money America's Biggest Corporations Have Stolen From Their Own Workers
Branko Marcetic: How do the biggest corporations earn such massive profits? They’d like you to think it’s the result of delivering a superior product or service. But one part of that story is years of wage theft from their employees. ... Grand Theft Paycheck: the Large Corporations Shortchanging their Workers’ Wages, are eye-opening: 4,220 cases since the turn of the millennium with penalties totaling $9.2 billion. ... No industry is exempt. There’s freight and logistics (FedEx, second behind WalMart in total penalties with $502 million); pharmaceuticals (Novartis); health services (Tenet Healthcare); telecommunications (AT&T, Comcast; Verizon); food and restaurants (McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola); tech (Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet), even amusement parks (Six Flags). Arguably best represented is the finance sector, with five of the top twelve violators being banks and insurance companies. Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase (third, fourth, and fifth respectively) have alone paid out around $746 million in penalties...
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Jun 13, 2018, 3:36pm
Did You Know
Supreme Court Hands Vote Suppressors Another Tool
Daniel Moritz-Rabson: Under the state’s (Ohio) contentious “supplemental process,” if registered voters don’t cast a ballot for two years, the secretary of state’s office mails them a prepaid notice, seeking to confirm that the individual still lives at the same address. If voters don’t return the mailing or don’t cast a ballot over the subsequent four years, they are removed from the state’s rolls and prohibited from voting unless they re-register. ... “This supplemental process of purging people, I believe, is a form of voter suppression,” said Andre Washington, the Midwest Regional Representative of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, which is the plaintiff in the lawsuit...
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Jun 12, 2018, 4:47pm
Did You Know
OAS Facing Call for New Probe into RFK Murder
Dr. William Pepper and Andrew Kreig: Robert Kennedy was shot on June 5 and died June 6, 1968 ... A new examination of evidence is forcing human rights organizations — including the OAS— to consider probing the case. ... Many other researchers such as filmmaker, author and professor Shane O’Sullivan have shown that Sirhan’s role was to perform a distraction so that the real assassin could do his work and put three bullets into RFK’s body at much closer range while Sirhan was always three to five feet in from of the senator, according to eye witnesses. ... This challenge is particularly acute for the Inter-American Human Rights Council (IAHRC) of the 35-nation Organization of American States (OAS). ... Last July, Sirhan acting through his attorneys, filed a 200-page petition to IAHRC seeking the first real evidentiary hearing ever on his case. This would address for the first time the scientific and other evidence showing that he could not have fired the shots that killed Kennedy ...
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Jun 8, 2018, 1:53pm
Did You Know
9 Ways Authoritarianism Is Taking Hold Under Trump
Thom Hartmann: 1. Lie Often — Lie Big. ... 2. Consolidate Power While Challenging or Co-Opting Institutions That Enforce Accountability. ... 3.Attack the Press. ... 4. Vilify Protesters, Minorities, and Political “Enemies” to the Point of Provoking Violence. ... 5. Scapegoat Minority Groups to Rile Up a Mob Mentality. ... 6. Elevate One Religion That You Can Control (and Reward) While Trashing Others. ... 7. Co-opt and Make Institutions of Military and Police Power into Loyal Sycophants. ... 8. Ignore Competence and Incompetence; Only Loyalty Matters—and Is Richly Rewarded. ... 9. Foster a Sense of Helplessness Among the Opposition...
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May 30, 2018, 12:51pm
Did You Know
How Trial by Skype Became the Norm in Immigration Court
Lauren Markham: Teleconference hearings save time—but they also put pressure on vulnerable asylum-seekers. ... Twice a month, Tess Feldman, a senior immigration attorney for a Bay Area legal nonprofit, serves as the counsel of the day for detainees at Mesa Verde and other facilities. She has two hours to interview approximately 18 inmates—six minutes each. Because Mesa Verde is a five-hour drive from San Francisco, home to one of the nearest major immigration courts, almost all these detainees will never actually go in person, but will instead appear before judges—and meet their pro bono lawyers—via video teleconference. ... A study published in the Northwestern University Law Review found that “detained televideo litigants were more likely than detained in-person litigants to be deported.”...
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May 21, 2018, 3:58pm
Did You Know
The Dept. of Greed, Sleaze and Shakedowns
Lance Selfa: At the top sits a man whose pre-White House career was less that of a business genius than of a con man ... most of the outrageous fleecing of the public by the Trump administration is accomplished through perfectly legal means that don't make the headlines. ... Trump has installed as many as 187 former corporate lobbyists in positions in which they are able to rewrite government policy in favor of their industries. ... "normal" is still a place where right-wing billionaires can buy politicians and policy, and where the two major political parties implement versions of neoliberalism that continue to erode ordinary Americans' living standards and quality of life. It's also a place where a government structure dating from the 18th century empowers conservative and unrepresentative minorities, even when they lose the election...
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May 18, 2018, 12:17pm
Did You Know
Aided By Palantir, the LAPD Uses Predictive Policing to Monitor Specific People and Neighborhoods
Maha Ahmed: Police stops in Los Angeles are highly concentrated within just a small portion of the population, and the Los Angeles Police Department has been using targeted predictive policing technology that may exacerbate that focused scrutiny. ... That’s according to a report put out this week by the research and activist organization Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which draws from the testimony of city residents and newly released police documents to paint a picture of a “racist feedback loop” where a “disproportionate amount of police resources are allocated to historically hyper-policed communities.” ... the LAPD has been using technology from the data-mining firm Palantir that may amplify that concentration, as part of a predictive policing program that targets and surveils specific individuals within select neighborhoods based off their recent history with the criminal justice system...
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May 11, 2018, 10:29am
Did You Know
Chicago Mayor Pushing for Surveillance Drones
Gene J. Koprowski: Emanuel and his legislative team are trying to push a bill through the state’s General Assembly that would allow the city to deploy surveillance drones to keep an eye on peaceful protesters during rallies, or any other time the police deem public assemblies of interest. ... Drones would be equipped with digital cameras to take photos of individuals walking about, and would be linked to facial recognition software. ... Chicago is one of the most heavily surveilled cities in the world. Some of the technology is purchased with funds seized from narcotics dealers. ... In some cases these funds are seized from citizens only suspected of criminal wrongdoing — citizens not convicted in court...
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May 10, 2018, 5:20pm
Did You Know
GOP Voter Suppression: A Bigger Problem Than Russian Meddling?
Dan Engelke: Voter suppression has worsened over the last decade ... Most obviously by state legislatures who made it more difficult for some Americans to exercise their right to vote. ... the most common tactics in 2017, and continuing into 2018, were cutting early voting, enacting voter ID laws, purging voter rolls, and making voter registration more difficult. ... Electronic voting machines have come under further scrutiny lately, as several reports have recently emerged indicating their vulnerability to hacking. To underscore concerns about the vulnerability of the current system, several states also are looking at adding a paper ballot trail to audit votes, and at upgrading voter machines so that votes can be effectively audited...
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May 8, 2018, 2:12pm
Did You Know
Meeting the Definition of Terrorism: Big Pharma, Big Oil, and Big Banks
Paul Buchheit: Various definitions of terrorism have been proposed in recent years, by organizations such as the FBI, the State Department, Homeland Security, and the ACLU. Some common threads persist throughout the definitions: violence, injury or death, intimidation, intentionality, multiple targets, political motivation. All the criteria are met by pharmaceutical and oil and financial companies. They have all injured and intimidated the American public, and caused people to die, with intentionality shown by their refusal to acknowledge evidence of their misdeeds, and political motives clear in their lobbying efforts, where among all U.S. industries Big Pharma is #1, Big Oil is #5, and Securities/Investment #8...
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May 1, 2018, 10:37am
Did You Know
It’s not just Facebook – surveillance is the business model of the internet
Michael Kandelaars: Computers are becoming part of almost everything we use daily: cars, fridges, phones, televisions. And they all produce enormous amounts of data. For example, walking out of your house each morning produces data; your mobile phone sends location data along with your speed and direction of travel. ... Our phones are constantly listening. ... “If you’re not paying, then you’re the product”. ... Profiling and misusing data is Facebook’s business model. ... This level of spying is not limited to the online world. ... If you go into a shopping centre, you’re producing more location data ... The more you look at big data and how it is used, the more the line blurs between private surveillance by corporations and surveillance by states...
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Apr 27, 2018, 12:35pm
Did You Know
Chemical Madness!
Robert Hunziker: All of humanity currently risks exposure to toxic chemicals all over creation in a similar vein to the Mad Hatter of Alice in Wonderland fame. And, maybe, as a result, goin’ kinda looney and getting horribly, dreadfully sick! ... Unwittingly, society is poisoning itself. ... Anecdotal evidence alone is reason enough for alarm, but of more concern, several scientific studies show real, actual, direct links of pesticides to human chronic diseases. Regrettably, chronic disease is already at severe epidemic levels never before witnessed! ... When using chemicals to kill specific pests, does it also make sense to collaterally kill bees, earthworms, butterflies, and other wildlife that form and create the backbone of ecosystems vital to human food, health, and well being?...
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Apr 23, 2018, 3:17pm
Did You Know
This App Can Tell You the Indigenous History of the Land You Live On
Chelsey Luger: Enter your ZIP code into the Native Lands App and an interactive map will tell you the area’s original language and tribal ties. ... You cannot find a corner of this continent that does not hold ancient history, Indigenous value, and pre-colonial place names and stories. And every place we occupy was once the homeland for other people, most of whom didn’t leave willingly. ... Whose land are you on? Start with a visit to native-land.ca. Native Land is both a website and an app that seeks to map Indigenous languages, treaties, and territories across Turtle Island...
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Apr 18, 2018, 4:58pm
Did You Know
Revealed: Secret Rightwing Strategy to Discredit Teacher Strikes
Ed Pilkington, Guardian UK: Manual provides ‘dos and don’ts’ for how to smear the strikes A nationwide network of rightwing thinktanks is launching a PR counteroffensive against the teachers’ strikes that are sweeping the country, circulating a “messaging guide” for anti-union activists that portrays the walkouts as harmful to low-income parents and their children. ... The new rightwing strategy to discredit the strikes that have erupted in protest against cuts in education funding and poor teacher pay is contained in a three-page document obtained by the Guardian. Titled “How to talk about teacher strikes”, it provides a “dos and don’ts” manual for how to smear the strikers....
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Apr 14, 2018, 10:50am
Did You Know
Lying Is a Fundamental Part of American Police Culture
Kali Holloway: Police officers lie under oath in court so often that they’ve even given the practice a nickname. “Behind closed doors, we call it testilying,” New York City police officer Pedro Serrano told the New York Times. “You take the truth and stretch it out a little bit.” ... “Every lawyer who practices in the criminal courts knows that police perjury is commonplace,” former New York State criminal court judge, U.S. attorney and NYU law professor Irving Younger wrote in the Nation in 1967. ... And even if his lies are exposed in the courtroom, the policeman is as likely to be indicted for perjury by his co‑worker, the prosecutor, as he is to be struck down by thunderbolts from an avenging heaven.”...
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Mar 27, 2018, 11:45am
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