every time i hear girls say they’re not feminists bc they haven’t personally experienced any situation that requires feminism i just think 
I’m not afraid of teenagers building clocks. I’m not afraid of women having economic empowerment or sexual freedom. I’m not afraid of weddings with two grooms/brides, trans folks using bathrooms, Latinos making a living or Black people wearing hoodies and playing music.
I’m afraid of an angry white dude with a gun who’s been told repeatedly that HIS country is dying and HE needs to take it back.
![thedailyshow:
“ Craig Mazin, Ted Cruz’s college roommate, on Ted Cruz: “[He] is a nightmare of a human being. I have plenty of problems with his politics, but truthfully his personality is so awful that 99% of why I hate him is just his personality....](https://64.media.tumblr.com/ac18af00a7c237e79cd57fc2a749fc13/tumblr_nz001pWobh1r0ajmso1_1280.jpg)
Craig Mazin, Ted Cruz’s college roommate, on Ted Cruz: “[He] is a nightmare of a human being. I have plenty of problems with his politics, but truthfully his personality is so awful that 99% of why I hate him is just his personality. If he agreed with me on every issue, I would only hate him 1% less.”
Lawmakers Offer ‘Prayers’ For Mass Shooting Victims, Receive Large Checks From The NRA
Following Wednesday afternoon’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, which left at least 14 people dead, numerous lawmakers tweeted their “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the gruesome tragedy. But many of the same congresspeople who were quick to publicly register their feelings about the 352nd mass shooting this year, received thousands of dollars from the National Rifle Association and voted against sensible gun reforms like expanding background checks to more gun purchases.
(As prepared for delivery on November 19th, 2015)
Mr. Speaker. 70 years ago my parents and grandparents were stripped of their possessions and placed in Japanese-American internment camps.
They were not guilty of espionage. They did not commit treason. They simply looked like our enemy — and that cost my family their freedom.
Yesterday, the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, suggested that this country’s treatment of Japanese-Americans during the 1940s is a model for how we should address today’s global refugee crisis.
It does not take courage to condemn such disgraceful comments, nor does it take wisdom to say our World War Two policies were a product of fear and hysteria.
What takes wisdom is recognizing that history is now repeating itself. And what takes courage is sending a message to the world that America will protect innocent people regardless of their nationality or religion.
That’s what my mother and father deserved 70 years ago, and it’s what these refugees deserve today.
Thank you and I yield back.
President Obama after Oregon shooting: “Our thoughts and prayers are not enough.”
Hours after today’s massacre in Oregon, President Obama took the podium for the 15th time after a mass shooting. Sounding stern and appearing frustrated, Obama challenged Americans to respond more forcefully to this shooting. His full, impassioned statement is one every American needs to hear.
Once slavery was abolished in 1865, manufacturers scrambled to find other sources of cheap labor—and because the 13th amendment banned slavery (except as punishment for crimes), they didn’t have to look too far. Prisons and big businesses have now been exploiting this loophole in the 13th amendment for over a century.
“Insourcing,” as prison labor is often called, is an even cheaper alternative to outsourcing. Instead of sending labor over to China or Bangladesh, manufacturers have chosen to forcibly employ the 2.4 million incarcerated people in the United States. Chances are high that if a product you’re holding says it is “American Made,” it was made in an American prison.
On average, prisoners work 8 hours a day, but they have no union representation and make between .23 and $1.15 per hour, over 6 times less than federal minimum wage. These low wages combined with increasing communication and commissary costs mean that inmates are often released from correctional facilities with more debt than they had on their arrival. Meanwhile, big businesses receive tax credits for employing these inmates in excess of millions of dollars a year.
While almost every business in America uses some form of prison labor to produce their goods, here are just a few of the companies who are helping prisoners pay off their debt to society, so to speak.
- Whole Foods. The costly organic supermarket often nicknamed “Whole Paycheck” purchases artisan cheese and fish prepared by inmates who work for private companies. The inmates are paid .74 cents a day to raise tilapia that is subsequently sold for $11.99 a pound at the fashionable grocery store.
- McDonald’s. The world’s most successful fast food franchise purchases a plethora of goods manufactured in prisons, including plastic cutlery, containers, and uniforms. The inmates who sew McDonald’s uniforms make even less money by the hour than the people who wear them.
- Wal-Mart. Although their company policy clearly states that “forced or prison labor will not be tolerated by Wal-Mart”, basically every item in their store has been supplied by third-party prison labor factories. Wal-Mart purchases its produce from prison farms where laborers are often subjected to long, arduous hours in the blazing heat without adequate sunscreen, water, or food.
- Victoria’s Secret. Female inmates in South Carolina sew undergarments and casual-wear for the pricey lingerie company. In the late 1990’s, 2 prisoners were placed in solitary confinement for telling journalists that they were hired to replace “Made in Honduras” garment tags with “Made in U.S.A.” tags. Victoria’s Secret has declined to comment.
- Aramark. This company, which also provides food to colleges, public schools and hospitals, has a monopoly on foodservice in about 600 prisons in the U.S. Despite this, Aramark has a history of poor foodservice, including a massive food shortage thatcaused a prison riot in Kentucky in 2009.
- AT&T. In 1993, the massive phone company laid off thousands of telephone operators—all union members—in order to increase their profits. Even though AT&T’s company policy regarding prison labor reads eerily like Wal-Mart’s, they have consistently used inmates to work in their call centers since ’93, barely paying them $2 a day.
- BP. When BP spilled 4.2 million barrels of oil into the Gulf coast, the company sent a workforce of almost exclusively African-American inmates to clean up the toxic spill while community members, many of whom were out-of-work fisherman, struggled to make ends meet. BP’s decision to use prisoners instead of hiring displaced workers outraged the Gulf community, but the oil company did nothing to reconcile the situation.
From dentures to shower curtains to pill bottles, almost everything you can imagine is being made in American prisons. Also implicit in the past and present use of prison labor are Microsoft, Nike, Nintendo, Honda, Pfizer, Saks Fifth Avenue, JCPenney, Macy’s, Starbucks, and more. For an even more detailed list of businesses that use prison labor, visit buycott.com, but the real guilty party here is the United States government. UNICOR, the corporation created and owned by the federal government to oversee penal labor, sets the condition and wage standards for working inmates.
One of the highest-paying prison jobs in the country? Sewing American flags for the state police.
NERDS UNITE IN SUPPORT OF BOY GENIUS, AHMED MOHAMED
Police in Texas have arrested a 14-year-old boy for building a clock. Ahmed Mohamed, who lives in Irving and has a keen interest in robotics and engineering, put the device together on Sunday night. When he took it to school the next day, he was pulled out of class, interviewed by police officers, and taken in handcuffs to juvenile detention, after being told by teachers that his creation looked like a bomb.
The people and institutions that care about technology, science, and social justice are correct to rally in support of Mohamed because we need every talented and curious kid with thick glasses we can find.
Gay marriage declared legal across the US in historic supreme court ruling
Read about the ruling in The Guardian
Married Same-Sex Couples: Share your photos from your wedding day!
YES
Please don’t spread the name and face of the Charleston shooter, call him a white terrorist because that’s all he is, don’t give him the respect of learning his name or recognizing his face. All he wants is to be famous, now he will be infamous. He only deserves to be known as a white homegrown terrorist and imagined as a monster because that’s what he is. Instead learn the names and faces of the victims, they deserve to be remembered not the monster.
Remember:
Clementa Pinckney
A Democrat state senator who was also the pastor at the Emanuel African Methodist Church.
Cynthia Hurd
A librarian at the Charleston County Public Library. She’d been working there for 31 years and was a manager as St. Andrews Regional Library.
Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
She was a revered and a mother of three, she was also the coach of the track team.
Tywanza Sanders
A recent graduate from Allen University in Columbia. He was recently working as a barber. It is said that he died trying to save one of his family members.
Please, if you hear about more of the victims, add their names and a little about their life.
Go to this link to learn more about these victims. What I posted is only a short summary.
Also if anything like this happens again, do this instead of showing the shooter/terrorist. This is a tragedy and I will do my best to raise awareness, I hope you will too. Thank you.
antique-romantic
