Bill-passes-to-push-California-s-minimum-wage-to-$13 an hour

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bill-passes-to-push-California-s-minimum-wage-to-5514974.php

Sam Stark

May 30 at 5:48pm

Dear Raise Michigan Supporters,
As you know, a lot has happened over the last 48 hours surrounding our fight to raise the wage to $10.10/hr. Thank you so much for all you've done to help us get where we are today.
From the beginning, there were people who told us we couldn’t do this. But time and time again, we've proven them wrong. The fight isn’t over yet, but yesterday was a major victory for workers in Michigan.
Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s going on:
On Tuesday, Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bill that raises the minimum wage to $9.25 by 2018 and raises the tipped wage to 38 percent of the minimum wage, which will be $3.51. The increase is also tied to keep up with inflation. This minimum wage increase does not go far enough to help get working families out of poverty and leaves tipped employees with extremely low hourly wages.
Just a few months ago, the Governor said that raising the minimum wage “was not a priority” for his administration. Now, both he and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate are claiming credit for raising the minimum wage through this bi-partisan effort. The truth is that Raise Michigan was the catalyst for their action.
Snyder signed the bill with the intention of stopping our ballot drive, but we cannot be deterred! That’s why on Wednesday we turned in 319,784 signatures to the Secretary of State in Lansing to put our $10.10 question on the ballot. That's over 60,000 more signatures than the 258,000 signatures needed to qualify!
This fight is now about more than simply raising the minimum wage. Michigan lawmakers are trying to silence the voice of the people once again. We’re in this to raise the wage and fight for the integrity of the democratic process. Citizens have the right to petition their government without lawmakers using political tricks to try to derail their effort.
We’re in uncharted legal waters. This type of thing has never happened before. The legislature repealed and replaced the minimum wage law we’re trying to amend in an attempt to stop our campaign, but our resolve is strong and public support is behind our effort. We will have to wait and see if we'll be able to qualify for the November ballot.
It’s important to know that the legislature would have never raised the wage if it weren’t for our campaign putting pressure on them to act. While the new wage doesn’t go far enough, it’s progress that would have never happened without YOU!
We're going to keep educating voters about what's going on and keep pushing our campaign forward to November. No matter what happens, this campaign has demonstrated the power of collective action from the people. Michigan is the first conservative-controlled state to pass a minimum wage hike and it never would've happened without our grassroots campaign.
We earned some great media coverage- here’s just a snippet of what we got:
Time
New York Times
Detroit Free Press
Grand Rapids Evening News
We will keep these issues in the forefront of the political discussion until workers earn fair pay and the democratic process is restored. For now, pat yourself on the back, put that clipboard away for a little while, and know that you’ve helped make history in Michigan.
In Solidarity,
The Raise Michigan Team

 http://laborradio.org/2014/05/judge-rejects-mcdonalds-effort-to-dismiss-wage-theft-suit/

 http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Corporate-Greed/On-Thursday-Let-s-Talk-About-Taxpayers-Subsidizing-Walmart


 http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Corporate-Greed/McDonald-s-Workers-Show-Us-What-Democracy-Looks-Like

"She battled the capitalists tooth and nail for seventy years."

 Continuing the series Mothers of the Movement, Labor Power remembers Mother Ella Reeve Bloor, a Red Mother.

She was one with the 99% ,and fought the 1% on behalf of the 99% for her whole life by struggling to end child labor, to unionize and improve the lot of workers of many trades and industries.  She was a member of the Communist Party ,or a Partisan of the Working Class,  from its beginning in the US.

                                                         

                                                                    

                                                 Ella Reeve Bloor as she appeared in 1910.



"On July 8, 1862, labor organizer and leading communist Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor was born on Staten Island, N.Y.
As a labor activist, she investigated child labor in glass factories and mines, and worked undercover in meat packing plants to verify for federal investigators the nightmarish working conditions that author Upton Sinclair had revealed in The Jungle.
Bloor was an advocate for political prisoners and conscientious objectors as well as an organizer of mining, textile, and farming strikes. She ran for Lieutenant Governor of New York on the socialist ticket in 1918 and participated in the formation of the Communist Party of the U.S.A. in 1919. Two years later, she served as a union delegate to the Second (Third ?) International. Upon her return from the Soviet Union, Bloor hitchhiked throughout the United States while writing articles for the Daily Worker. Bloor returned to the Soviet Union for the twentieth anniversary celebration of the October Revolution. When Bloor returned to the United States she retired to April Farm, Pennsylvania in 1937.
Ella Bloor was a leader in the Communist Party, a member of the party's central committee during the critical years of 1932 to 1948.
At the age of 78, Bloor wrote her autobiography. We Are Many was published in 1940 by International Publishers, with an introduction by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, like Bloor another legendary union organizer and leader of the Communist Party.

The book inspired the Woody Guthrie song, "1913 Massacre," about the deaths of striking copper miners and their families in Calumet, Michigan, at a Christmas party in 1913 that Bloor attended..

After her death in 1951, poet Langston Hughes wrote of Bloor, "She battled the capitalists tooth and nail for seventy years.""
 From:
http://www.peoplesworld.org/today-in-labor-history-labor-organizer-mother-bloor-born/

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Reeve_Bloor


"Ella Reeve Bloor was an adherent of the Left Wing Section of the Socialist Party, which exited that organization to form the Communist Labor Party of America. In 1921 and 1922 attended the second conventions of the Comintern in Moscow. She was also a delegate to the founding convention of the Red International of Labor Unions in July 1921, at which she used the pseudonym "Emmons" and voted on the basis of credentials issued by three locals of the International Association of Machinists.^[10]
She was also a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party USA from 1932 to 1948.
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Bloor became an advocate of American participation in World War II. Later she argued for an early invasion of Europe to create a Second Front."

From:   Sophia Smith Collection >> Ella Reeve Bloor Papers, 1890-1979
 e Bloor Papers, 1890-1979

Sophia Smith Collection Smith College Northampton, MA Ella Reeve Bloor

Biographical Note "Mother Bloor [Ella Reeve Bloor] speaking at a picnic in Akron, Ohio, 1942" "Ella Reeve Bloor, popularly known as "Mother Bloor," was noted for her energetic organizing work on behalf of labor, communism, socialism, and radical causes from the 1910s to the 1930s. "Mother Bloor" was born in 1862 on Staten Island, New York. She married Lucien Ware in 1881 and gave birth to six children between 1882 and 1892. In 1895, Bloor published Three Little Lovers of Nature. The following year, she divorced Ware and in 1897, she married Louis Cohen. In the brief span of her second marriage, Bloor had two sons and published Talk about Authors and Their Works for young adults. Bloor was an activist in the suffrage movement during the 1880s and 1890s. In 1901, she joined the Socialist Party and approximately a year later she divorced Cohen. Partnered with Richard Bloor in 1906 to investigate Chicago's meat packing industry, Bloor took her colleague's name despite the fact that they were never married. Throughout the 1910s-30s, Bloor was an advocate for political prisoners and conscientious objectors as well as an organizer of mining, textile, and farming strikes. She ran for Lieutenant Governor of New York on the socialist ticket in 1918 and participated in the formation of the Communist Party of the U.S.A. in 1919. Two years later, she served as a union delegate to the Second (Third) International. Upon her return from the Soviet Union, Bloor hitchhiked throughout the United States while writing articles for the Daily Worker. In 1930, she married Andrew Omholt, her third husband. Seven years later, Bloor returned to the Soviet Union for the twentieth anniversary celebration of the October Revolution. When Bloor returned to the United States she retired to April Farm, Pennsylvania in 1937. Three years later, she published her autobiography, We Are Many. In her early eighties, Bloor undertook a campaign against fascism between 1942 and 1945. In 1951, Bloor died at the age of 89." .

              http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss8_bioghist.html


Photo from Peoples' World
                        
                        Mother Bloor with another great forgotten champion  
                                               of Labor, Paul Robeson



                                                           

"I 'd rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan on a horse."

RAINBOW COALITION PREFIGURED  OBAMA'S WINNING COALITION

By Charlie Brown

 "I 'd rather have Roosevelt in a wheelchair than Reagan on a horse." - Jesse Jackson Rainbow Coalition Presidential Candidate
                                                    

  Barack Obama's national electoral coalition majority, his winning Presidential mass of voters, is essentially an actualization of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition idea from the 1984 and 1988 Presidential Campaign. Listen to the speeches linked below. They are politically prophetic in articulating themes that became winners for Obama in 2008 and 2012.

 From this historical fact, progressive activists in 2014 can take heart that the long term grind of building from the grassroots can succeed , can make winning combinations. 

 Our day-to-day struggles on behalf of the 99% executed with voting consciousness can gain election victories, and make change from the bottom up.  Obama himself was a community organizer, like many of us political activists, social workers, legal services workers, union organizers, women's groups, environmentalists, food activists etc.

 Jackson garnered a sizable number of votes in primaries , though less than a majority, for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.  24 years later Jackson's constituency, with community organizing and politicizing, became the majority that elected an African American, to most people's amazement. What a giant step forward for White Americans !  I felt such pride in my fellow Americans who are White, when they smashed the historical scourge of racism by voting in large numbers for Barack Obama for President in 2008 and 2012. 


 Both the Jackson Rainbow and the Obama Rainbow had to be anti-white supremacist at their cores as their candidates were Black. No racists gonna vote for Jackson or Obama. Of course, by the name Jackson gave his Coalition , Rainbow,  he attracted  multi-racial support. Obama's winning majorities were the same : all colors of the Rainbow, and heavy Black, Brown , Yellow and Red support. In 1984 and 1988 , we knew in our hearts that not enough white people were ready to vote for a Black person , for Jackson to win.  Twenty-four years later, White America took a giant step toward Martin Luther King's dream of an integrated, prejudice-free society, by voting in a large enough minority , a majority in combination with the whole Rainbow , to elect a Person of Color President of the United States of America. We had taken a leap over that last barrier to Jackson's winning in 1984 and 1988.

Jackson explicitly included Lesbian and Gay liberation in the Rainbow, at a time when that movement was relatively small compared to today. Interestingly, LGBT activists now have the Rainbow as a symbol. 

Perhaps , Jackson's most memorable line in his speeches is a shout-out for the rights of the disabled:  "I 'd rather have FDR in a wheelchair than Reagan on a horse."

Jackson's speeches are a fairly thorough critique of Reaganism at its roots, the ideology still at the core of today's tea Republican lies and demagogy.  Jackson outlines ,way back then, the program for us to reverse Reaganism and the tea Party's unAmericanism today. Obama's victories mean we can build majorities to reverse Reagan and the tea Party all the way to the America of Martin Luther King's dream.

 And the Obama Rainbow Coalition is a bigger majority than reflected in the elected representation in the States and Congress, as the Snakely Republicans have Gerrymandered to beat the band. When we get around that they are really in electoral trouble

                                                              

Jesse Jackson Speech to 1988 Convention
 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHd6XYMlP4I

Never stop dreaming, never surrender, women deserve equal pay, AIDS, Roosevelt in a wheelchair or Bush on a horse?, I was born in a 3 room house, keep hope a...
youtube.com



    Jesse Jackson: 1984 Democratic National Convention Address ("The Rainbow Coalition")

 http://www.americanrhetoric.com/.../jessejackson1984dnc.htm
   
    Full text and video excerpt of Jesse Jackson - 1984 Democratic National Convention Speech


 https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=794323377279037&set=p.794323377279037&type=1&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=794323377279037&set=p.794323377279037&type=1&theater
I'd rather have FDR in a wheelchair than George Washington on a horse; happy Fourth.

http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/07/what-to-michigander-is-4th-of-july.html

GETTING IT DONE !

                                               

GETTING IT DONE !







BUILDING BRIDGES,
NEXT STOP SOULS!
THEY GOTTA KNOW THEY'RE DIVINE!
WHO GONNA TELL'EM ?
WHO REALLY KNOW'S  ?
MANY DO, WHILE HAVE NO VIEW, NO STAGE, NO MIC, SOAP BOX, RAG TOP, MOUTH DROPS, EARS RING, FINE THINGS,,,, SHINING, GLEAMING THINGS MEAN A THING OR TWO CENTS, WHAT'S MEANT, WHAT MATTERS (US)! TEETH CHATTER INVISIBLE SHACKLES RATTLE, EMPLOY TO DESTROY HELD HIGH CORPORATE TIE, WE DIE,,, ALL BY THE HAND OF OUR OWN- BEING PULLED BY STRINGS COLORED GREEN, MAD RAGE.
THE STORIES TALE, WHILE HISTORY, LIES! THE LYNCHING IS IN OUR COURT! TRIPLE DOUBLE BABY,,,, CHECK CHIN! PACK A BAG, WHILE NAMING TAGS,,,I HOPE IT'S FULL OF HOPE, INNER-G,,,,,,,, WE ARE THE ONE'S OUR TURN,,,,,, NO BURN-A SMART ECONOMICAL SLAUGTHER OUT THE HOOD, DOWNTOWN WHERE THEY LOOK DOWN. WHY FROWN? SMILE, THEY FEAR, BECAUSE THEY KNOW IF THEY COME NEAR,,,,,,,,,,,HITTING THEM WHERE IT HURT,MATTER ARE WE, IF WE ONLY KNEW THE POWER THAT BE,,, INSIDE OF WEEEEE INNER-G,,,,,,,WHILE SINGING SONGS THAT PROGRAM, NO "SWEET LADY" BLACK BOY SIT'S ON THE BACK OF BUS,,,, BUT' BITCH BETTER HAVE MY MONEY, SONG BY A CITY FULL OF N.W.A'S,,,,, BECAUSE THEY GOT A HUMMER, NO RUBBER,,, BABIES NO DADDIES, WITH $200 PANTS WITH NO LEVERAGE NO KNOWLEDGE NO CLUE,, JUST DUES PAYED THROUGH ABUSE FROM THE AWAKING INTO THE NIGHT-MARES TO THE TAKING OF A WOMB AT 12,,,, LIFE SENTENCE AT 12, INNOCENCE MAKES NO SENSE IN HELL, EVERYONE IS GUILTY, LOOK AT THE NEWS THEY WILL TELL YOU, RIGHT FROM WRONG WHO TO HANG, WE ALL A GANG, BEING CONTROLLED BY THE HEADS OF THE BLOODS AND CRIPS,,,HAAAAAA YOU BETTER GET HIP! AGAIN NO VIEWS NO CLUE, WHILE THEY THINK FOR US, TAKE FROM US, IN THIS NON REPRESENTED TAXING OF A PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE BY THE PEOPLE OR SHOULD I SAY ALL THIS BY THE MAN,,,, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO WHILE HUE-MAN?????
TO BE CONTINUED AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE,,,,,,,,,

TANGELA D. HARRIS

May28,2014

                                                               

Michigan Nurses: ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on Wall Street Can Heal Detroit

 By Charlie Brown      
       
Nurses are political leaders of the 99%, too.

                                             

                                          Robin Hood Tax:  Take from the 1% and give to the 99%



Nurses are an essential group of CARING LABOURERS as WAGE-LABOURERS ( http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/05/free-all-caring-and-re-productive.html). They are by history and custom predominantly women , as we all know.

" Specifically, care work refers to those occupations that provide services that help people develop their capabilities, or their ability to pursue the aspects of their life that they value. Examples of these occupations include child care, all levels of teaching (from preschool through university professors), and health care of all types (nurses, doctors, physical therapists and psychologists).^[3] Care work also includes the array of domestic unpaid work that is often disproportionately done by women.^[4]
Often, care work focuses on the responsibilities to provide for dependents- children, the sick, and the elderly.^[5] However, care work also refers to any work done in the immediate service others, regardless of the recipient’s dependent or nondependent status""


                                   

Michigan Nurses: ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on Wall Street Can Heal Detroit

04.04.2014

 http://www.minurses.org/news-and-events/p/openItem/5502
News from the Michigan Nurses Association
CONTACT: Fran Brennan, (517) 763-1151   

RNs thank Congressman Conyers for co-sponsoring revenue solution

            DETROIT – Michigan Nurses Association members joined RNs in 22 cities nationwide today, on the 46h anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, to push for a small tax on Wall Street transactions that can help heal our communities by raising billions of dollars to invest in programs that address economic inequality and meet basic human needs.
            In Detroit, MNA/National Nurses United members gathered at the office of Congressman John Conyers (D-Detroit) to express their thanks for his co-sponsorship of the Inclusive Prosperity Act. The legislation, also known as the Robin Hood Tax, is widely supported as a way to make Wall Street pay its fair share to repair the damage its greed and recklessness have caused in our communities.
            ““Shortly before he died, Dr. King encouraged striking sanitation workers by telling them they were ‘reminding the nation that it is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages,’” said John Karebian, Michigan Nurses Association executive director. “Nearly 50 years later, our nation’s systemic economic injustice is destroying even more lives and communities.  We see that all too clearly in Detroit. Nurses know that a wound this severe needs more than a Band-Aid. The good news is that a cure is available, right now, and it’s as simple a tiny tax on Wall Street. We need more leaders like Congressman Conyers who are willing to stand up for this solution.”
            A tax of less than one percent on Wall Street activities like stock trades and derivative sales could raise up to $350 billion a year to immediately invest in priorities that will improve Americans’ quality of life. Traders currently pay no tax on these, while ordinary consumers pay sales tax on our purchases.
Those funds would be used to create permanent living wage jobs rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure, providing quality education for all of our children, greatly expanding mass transit, guaranteeing healthcare for all and providing Americans with retirement and housing security.
            “As a nurse, I see every day how problems like poverty, unsafe communities and unemployment hurt my patients’ health,” said LaShon Hart, RN, a nurse at the University of Michigan Health System. “While men in suits working for giant corporations push buttons and move imaginary money around, real human suffering is taking place – and Wall Street should pitch in to help fix it. The Robin Hood Tax will give us the resources we need to heal Detroit instead of letting Wall Street just cast tens of thousands of retirees aside. Fixing this economic injustice will also go a long way toward honoring Dr. King’s legacy.”
            As tireless advocates for their patients at the bedside and beyond, Michigan nurses have pushed the Wall Street Tax to support America's workers and families who are struggling while corporations collect record profits at their expense.
            The Robin Hood Tax as a revenue solution is especially relevant for Detroit as the city works its way through bankruptcy. Contributors to Detroit’s financial woes include reduced revenue caused by the 2008 recession, which was driven by Wall Street’s greed and gambling, and fees and financing costs associated with Wall Street-engineered debt schemes in 2005 and 2006.
            Even now, companies with Wall Street ties – such as Jones Day, which represents Bank of America – are deeply involved in decisions about Detroit’s finances.
            Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Detroit retirees and workers are being made scapegoats for the financial mess and stand to lose much if not all of their pensions in some “grand bargain.” Their average pension: $19,000 a year.
            A minuscule tax on Wall Street is a fair and effective way to raise the revenue needed to rebuild Detroit without destroying the workers who built it.
            “We would be remiss to think only of civil rights when we think of Martin Luther King, because his journey was about making us understand that we cannot have equality without economic equality,” said John Armelagos, RN, president of the Michigan Nurses Association and a University of Michigan Health System nurse. “Make no mistake – Wall Street CEOs and corporations are making record profits on the backs of workers and our schools and cities. The constant demands for austerity couldn’t be more wrong. We don’t need more cuts to services and programs – we need investments, and Wall Street can and should start making them.”

            The Michigan Nurses Association is the state’s largest and most effective union and professional association for registered nurses, representing nearly 11,000 RNs statewide and advocating for them and their patients.

Background
HR 1579, the Inclusive Prosperity Act, would set a small fee, similar to the sales tax most Americans pay on consumer goods, of just 50 cents on every $100 of stock trades, and smaller amounts on transactions involving bonds and derivatives.
It would raise approximately $350 billion a year, which would be used for priorities such as jobs, health care, education, and housing and retirement security.
 Major sponsors of HR 1579 include National Nurses United and more than 150 national and local community organizations. The legislation is endorsed by business leaders such as Warren Buffett and Bill Gates; Nobel Prize winners Desmond Tutu and Paul Krugman; and more than 1,000 economists worldwide.
HR 1579 is patterned after a similar tax being implemented by 11 European countries, and already in place in every major financial world market except the U.S.  It targets the wealthiest of the wealthy, the bankers and brokers whose gambling broke our economy, and the top 1 percent who own most of the nation’s stocks and bonds.

Mlive:Michigan minimum wage: House panel cuts increase, removes inflation language

Here is an update on the minimum wage struggle against Snake Snyder and his band of Republican Thieves:
                                                             

Michigan minimum wage debate: House panel cuts increase, removes inflation language

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2014/05/minimum_wage_increase_michigan.html#incart_river

   By Melissa Anders | manders@mlive.com

, updated May 27, 2014 at 12:20 PM

LANSING — "Michigan's minimum wage would increase to $8.50 per hour under the latest proposal up for debate in the state Legislature. The House Government Operations Committee on Tuesday approved a substitute version of Senate Bill 934 that implements smaller wage increases than the version passed by the full Senate. It also removed the Senate provision that would have tied future increases to the level of inflation. The substitute bill would gradually raise the minimum wage from $7.40 to $8.50 per hour by Sept. 1, 2017. The rate for tipped employees, which is currently $2.65, would be 38 percent of the regular minimum wage. That would amount to $3.23 by September 2017." Commenters on this article on Twitter: Mad Mann That "tipped" employees thing really needs to go. It's supposed to be a gratuity, not part of their wages. 7 hrs · Kevin Cline yes! Tips shouldnt count for the above reason...if they are counted, they essentially allow businesses to pay less than minimum wage and the government subsidizes employers costs... 12 mins · Mad Mann It also means it's possible for the end customers to determine that someone isn't worthy of minimum wage. "Deserved" or not.... how would you like it if whoever YOUR customers are could just decide one day that you only get half your paycheck? #raisethewage michigan petition turnin #occupydetroit occupydetroit 1 day ago via Bambuser for mobile 28 May 15:46 EDT http://bambuser.com/v/4660982

Labor Power has blogged on the minimum wage struggle  "Change from the Bottom Up :Minimum Wage Hike Petition in Michigan" http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/05/change-from-bottom-up-minimum.html  and here: The Minimum Wage is a Gender Issue, Fellas http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-minimum-wage-is-gender-issue-fellas.html  Marty Townsend on Snake Snyder the Thief: http://take10marty.blogspot.com/  For absentee voting in Michigan: http://www.michigan.gov/sos/0,1607,7-127-1633_8716_8728-21037--,00.html Sam Stark 5 mins Michigan voters favor raising minimum wage but split on how, poll shows By Kathleen Gray 9:42 AM, May. 27, 2014 | Raising the minimum wage from its current level of $7.40 per hour gets widespread support among Michigan voters, but the final amount and means of getting there has people split, according to an exclusive poll done for the Detroit Free Press, WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) and our statewide media polling partners. A proposed ballot initiative to gradually raise the minimum wage to $10.10 per hour by 2017, and to $10.10 per hour for tipped workers like bartenders or waitresses by 2023, got support from 56% of those surveyed while 39% opposed the hike and 5% were undecided, according to the poll of 600 likely voters done May 17-20 by EPIC-MRA of Lansing. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. The Raise Michigan coalition, which is spearheading the petition drive, plans to turn the signatures they’ve gathered over to the Secretary of State on Wednesday. They need 258,088 valid signatures from registered voters to qualify for the ballot and will have a significant cushion of signatures beyond the required amount, said Frank Houston, state director for the Restaurant Opportunities Center, one of the members of the coalition. “The biggest thing we’re hearing out on the street is that there are so many people who are telling us they’ve already signed the petition,” he said. “There is very strong support out there for the issue.” If the pay hike option is a proposal currently before the Legislature to raise the hourly rate to $9.20 per hour for traditional minimum wage workers and to $3.50 per hour for tipped employees, the poll shows support is still there, but lower with 49% supporting it, 42% opposing and 9% undecided. The legislative proposal would also tie the wage to the rate of inflation, meaning the hourly rate could go up higher. That measure has already passed the Senate and will go before the House Government Operations committee at 8:30 a.m. today. But state Rep. Pete Lund, R-Shelby Township, chairman of the committee, would like to see the link with the rate of inflation taken out — a measure that could cause it to lose support from Democrats and ultimately kill the bill. What the poll respondents didn’t support was the method used by Republican lawmakers to put the measure before the Legislature. The legislative proposal repeals the existing minimum wage law, which would pre-empt the ballot initiative because the law the Raise Michigan coalition wants to change would no longer exist. “There is such a fear among Republicans of having a (minimum wage) ballot proposal in November, that they’re trying to figure out a way to avoid that from happening,” said Bernie Porn, president of EPIC/MRA. “The blatant way they’re dealing with it — by eliminating the law — is meeting with great disfavor, even among Republican (respondents). “They could pay a price this election by trying to get it off the ballot.” All demographic groups opposed the legislative tactic, with 54% of the people surveyed against the move, while 29% approved of the deal that could scuttle the ballot proposal. Some 17% were undecided. Republicans have reason to fear the ballot proposal: Support for the $10.10 wage hike was strong from Democrats (83%), African Americans (97%), Independents (56%) and women (61%). And the GOP is trying to court many of those groups this election season. Those surveyed who identified themselves as Republicans really didn’t like the proposal, opposing it by a 68%-25% margin. Respondents who identify with the tea party were even more opposed with 73% against the hike and 24% supporting it. The top reasons for opposing the minimum wage hike was that the hike would increase the cost of all goods and services and would hurt Michigan’s economy. Linda Ahnert, 68, of Grayling said she doesn’t want to see the wage hiked because it will have an impact on the cost of just about everything she buys. “It seems like every time they raise it, everything else goes up, too. I just don’t see how we’re supposed to get ahead,” said Ahnert, who stayed at home, raising five kids, describing her work as “unpaid labor.” “It’s not that I’m against people getting ahead, but it just seems that we’re working twice as hard for the stuff that we need,” she added. If the people surveyed had to choose between the two different proposals, support was pretty evenly split with 39% supporting the $10.10 ballot proposal and 38% supporting the legislative option to raise the minimum wage to $9.20 per hour. Some 18% preferred neither option and 5% were undecided. But Houston said the group’s internal polling shows similar results to the strong support for the $10.10 proposal. “People think the minimum wage needs to be raised,” he said. “And regardless of the shenanigans going on in Lansing, they want to sign the petition. They get that our proposal does a better job of rewarding hard work with fair pay.” Opposition from business for the $10.10 proposal is almost universal. And there is little support for the Senate proposal to raise the rate to $9.20 from the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, small business owners and the Michigan Restaurant Association, primarily because the minimum wage would be tied to inflation rates. “It’s a win-win for Democrats to get it on the ballot because there’s such an intensity of support, it could drive turnout,” Porn said. “But it’s a real loser for Republicans if it’s on the ballot, which provides even further reason why the Republicans are trying to come up with some sort of agreement that will get it off the ballot.”  Paid political advertisement, approved by Farid Khavari, N.P.A., for Governor. Paid for by the Khavari for Governor Campaign Committee. Contributions to the Khavari for Governor Campaign Committee are not tax deductible. A $10.10 or higher minimum wage will boost Florida’s economy, create more jobs and reduce government social costs. A $10.10 or higher minimum wage will boost Florida’s economy, create more jobs and reduce government social costs. Independent Florida governor candidate, economist Farid Khavari says conservatives should love higher minimum wages even more than liberals do. Holding down wages has vastly increased government’s costs of corporate welfare.   http://khavariforgovernor.com/minimum-wage-2/#.U4alobHpf8Y

 

“Move the Money” to “Full Employment/Green Jobs”

from Sam Stark

“Move the Money” to “Full Employment/Green Jobs”
This Bulletin’s 300-word (or less) Full Employment/Green Jobs Statement comes to us from Rev. Richard Peacock, chairperson of Peace Action of Michigan:

"The rough winter cost me $211 due to a pothole. Potholes may have cost you more, and you may have lost wages by missing work. That is just one reason to Move the Money from unnecessary Pentagon spending to fixing potholes, rebuilding roads, insulating houses and more.

"Move the Money is a project of Peace Action in Michigan and across the country. Congress, presidents, lobbyists and corporations have skewed the budget priorities in favor of Pentagon spending and wars. The core Pentagon budget grew almost 50% over the last decade. In addition, making war on and occupying Iraq and Afghanistan is costing us trillions.

"Pentagon spending is a very poor job creator. For every $1 billion spent on the Pentagon, 11,200 jobs are created. That same $1 billion would create 16,800 jobs in clean energy or 26,700 jobs in education. Investing in Full Employment/Green Jobs is possible because the Pentagon can spend smarter and less.
                                                           

"Diverse organizations such as the Progressive Democrats of America and the Republican Liberty Caucus have many ways to make Pentagon spending smarter and less. There are bills in Congress to reduce the amount of our taxes we pay for “modernizing” unnecessary nuclear bombs. We can lobby our elected officials to support wiser Pentagon spending. Plus, we must ask candidates for federal offices: (1) “Will you support auditing the Pentagon?” and (2) “Will you cut the unnecessary number of nuclear weapons of mass destruction?”

"Jobs with Justice and Peace Action can continue to use the vocabulary of: “Full Employment/Green Jobs,” “Move the Money” and “Make Pentagon spending smarter and less.”

Peace Action wants to share a “Move the Money” presentation with you and your friends. Which of your favorite groups could use suggestions for moving the money from the Pentagon to the People?
Contact Rev. Rich Peacock, Peace Action of Michigan
248-321-7480, rjpeacock@wowway.com
____________________________________________________________
Join the Full Employment/Green Jobs Campaign:
Local unions, community organizations and religious groups groups can pledge to talk about “Full Employment/Green Jobs” and promote it as a city, state and federal policy. Don’t stop or change what you are already doing around your primary issue(s) of concern. Just add “Full Employment/Green Jobs” to your conversation, fliers, signs, discussions, actions, and emails.
Once your group pledges to talk about “Full Employment/Green Jobs,” send us a 300-word (or less) statement, explaining how your group's issue interconnects with “Full Employment/Green Jobs” and share One Good Idea you have for creating jobs, especially Green ones.
Email your group’s Full Employment/Green Jobs Pledge and 300-word (or less) statement to: fullemployment.greenjobs@gmail.com


                                                     

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 Solidarity Economy

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/9149038282/requests/?notif_t=group_r2j

 The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement hosted the conference in Jackson, Mississippi for activists organizing for economic democracy, and also honored the legacy of activist and late Mayor of Jackson Chokwe Lumumba


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RlPfgzIHto

Yes, Another Gun Massacre WILL happen again very soon

By Jay Diamond

Yes, Another Gun Massacre WILL happen again very soon and So will people with full time jobs living in poverty, so will tens of millions without access to health care, so will the Empire, so will ten of millions losing their homes to fraud banks, and so will tens of millions of people how lost their jobs to those same banks and corporations who made killings by denuding the USA of jobs.
Face it, there is a huge dumb and vicious faction in the USA that insists we live according to the precepts of the Old Regime.
And they will not go away willingly.
How much money that could go to mental health treatment goes instead to maintain The Empire and its 800+ Military Bases straddling the globe.
The Old Regime Revived by Reagan and perpetuated by immoral, lying, low brow, ignorant, and vicious right wing media devils will not go away again because you ask them in a nice way.
The sad truth is that what is euphemistically referred to as The American People include a gigantic mass of easily gulled, uneducated, chumps who the Money Power know full well can be reliably manipulated through appeals to “patriotism” and military pageants at every professional sports event in the USA

Jay Diamond

·

The second amendment says exactly this:
"“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.””
A "well regulated” militia means that it will be organized under law, and that means that certain individuals will be found either mentally or physically unfit to own or wield weapons. If the militia is to be "well regulated", it goes without saying that some people will be judged qualified to be in the militia and others will be found un-qualified.

Ergo, there should be zero controversy about mandatory background checks for mental illness when it comes to buying guns.
So who the hell are they kidding !!!

Tangela Harris breaks down 50/50 Love

Labor Power Blog interviewed Detroit Activist Journalist, Tangela Harris


                                                   

                                                          Tangela Harris


about the Rhythm and Blues modern classic by singer Teddy Pendergast
THAT 50-50 LOVE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsNGqy-BBao

Teddy Pendergrass - When Somebody Loves You Back

TheWayIHearMusic24/7

youtube.com

Labor Power: Tangela , what is special about this cut for you ?

Tangela Harris: This is a 14:45 version of "When
Somebody Loves You Back" By Teddy Pendergrass, a song that has special
meaning to me,
because of the love my family had for Teddy Pendergrass, and this
song in particular. I have as an adult listened to this song while
driving, cleaning
& partying.

  I played it over and
over trying to get the just right interpretation of his words. I have
listened to these
words for many years.  But I felt like I needed to listen to it some
more before I
could even fathom writing about it !

Labor Power: What is unique about this song ?

Tangela Harris:
 I decided to try to take it
out of a jamming perspective ,and listened from the creators ears! I
found it to be a breakdown on how men feel about LOVE! And I got a
little scared! It's not often you hear a grown and mature man speak on the
subject openly and honestly. Often when you do, their sentiments
are weighed down by ugly past experiences that do the topic no good. Experiences that
deflect thought from the the truth, the heart, the way men really feel
about love!

Labor Power : Oh poor men. We fall down and we get up, though.

When listening to the song, the main words that you hear
over and over are "IT FEELS GOOD WHEN YOU LOVE SOMEONE AND SOMEONE
LOVES YOU BACK"" IT'S SO GOOD WHEN YOU NEED SOMEBODY AND SOMEBODY
NEEDS YOU BACK"

Labor Power: Ok yes, yes

Tangela Harris:
I tried over and over to break that verse down but I
found myself wasting time because Teddy with the rest of the song had
already broken it down to its lowest denominator!

Teddy puts
emphasis on  the need to find that one woman! That one woman who
could understand him, while being a very sensuous woman  showing him
exactly what it is he needs. While he knows his wants, she would be
able to show him  his needs! But mostly as a man he needs someone he
can trust!

 A friend of mine, Kori Mo,
 pointed out that there is no air play on the radio signifying
this kind of love from a man, and it's as if love is a joke now! And
it's unheard of! To have or be in-love is now a disgrace!

But in this
song Teddy points out in the very beginning that to be loved in return
is his heart's only desire, with appreciation from the things he did ! He
point blank says the woman is the one who has him inspired ,and the
woman is the one who keeps lifting him higher!

Throughout the song he
talks about a 50-50 love that should be shared and carried by the two,
and how he sees himself and his queen building a world of love, a life of
joy AND TOGETHER MAKING THEIR GOALS EACH OTHERS' HAPPINESS! THAT 50-50
LOVE,,,,,

She can hold her place like no other
on earth, that cream of the crop, that nurturer of 50-50 love that
makes the world go round in harmony! She would be a game changer!

 At
this moment in history, we are caught up in a divide, because it's easier
for us to fall! But if we could get back to that love the greats sang
about, lived through, if we could stop trying to be individualistic, and
stood strong with our support for one another, division would be no
more than a math problem!

There is no way we will ever be able to
build without true love! The sooner we realize that, that sooner we
will wanna give our all so that we may be apart of the solution, the
sooner we know who we are, we will be able to start loving our selves
again so that we may love others,,,, and be that great inspiration to
lift each other up! Love encompasses compassion, determination,
tolerance, endurance, support, faith,

 IF THE PEOPLE COULD JUST LOVE
EACH OTHER AND EACH OTHER LOVED EACH OTHER BACK,,,,,,,IF WE COULD
REALIZE WE NEED EACH OTHER AND EACH OTHER NEEDED US,,,,,,,, WE WOULD
ALL BE INSPIRED----------
 PEACE AND LOVE

Labor Power: Thank you ,--Tangela D, Harris, for those wise words about love.

Further wisdom from Tangela Harris:

Tangela Harris

44 secs ·

We should try to elevate their minds and the pants will automatically come up................... THERE'S A REASON WHY MALE'S SAG! IT HAS BEEN ENCODED INSIDE OF OUR FAKE CULTURE INSIDE OF THIS FAKE ILLUSION CREATED BY FAKE IMPOSTOR'S,,,,, SO NOW OUR MALES LIVE FAKE REALITIES,,, DOING FAKE THINGS THAT REPRESENT FAKE DREAMS! THEY TOOK OUR IMAGINATIONS AWAY FROM US, SO NOW ALL WE HAVE IS WHAT THEY GIVE US,,, THEIR DESIGN, OUR MALES DON'T HAVE THE EQUIPMENT THEY NEED TO DREAM THEIR OWN DREAMS (IMAGINATIONS) JUST THE THINGS THEY HEAR AND SEE ON RADIO AND T.V --- NO TANGIBLE EXAMPLES TO RIDE OR DIE BY! NO FATHERS, UNCLES, GRANDS,,,,, JUST CHANCE! AND FOOLISH FOLKS CALL IT A CHOICE! THEY SAY "THEY HAVE A CHOICE" AND I SMMFH WHILE ASKING WHO CARES?,,,,,,, NO.... REALLY WHO TRULY CARES?...... STAND UP!

Michigan Republicans violate freedoms celebrated on Memorial Day

By Charlie Brown


A main slogan of the American Revolution was "taxation without representation is tyranny". Michigan Republicans have imposed tyranny on citizens of cities throughout the state with institution of emergency managers who usurp elected representatives' powers to steward the citizens' tax money.

Memorial Day celebrates the sacrifices of troops for the very American liberty that the Michigan tea Republicans have taken from Detroit and other cities.

I discuss some of the history of these Michigan emergency "dictator" laws here: http://michigancitizen.com/state-takeovers-have-failed-the-people/

 http://peoplesworld.org/state-takeovers-of-cities-and-schools-are-un-american/    


"The state's takeover actions and laws violate the fundamental American liberty of the right not to be taxed without being able to elect those who steward one's tax money in the government coffers.
This is one of the main American liberties our troops defend. The state takeovers are profoundly anti-American."


 Michigan Republicans are a disgrace to our country on this Memorial Day 2014

                                                           

The American Revolutionaries made no exceptions from the principle of no taxation without representation for governments with fiscal problems.

Voting is synonymous with DEMOCRACY in the American vocabulary.  Michigan's dictatorial takeover of Michigan cities is UNAMERICAN.

Among the Michigan Republicans' political crimes in the course of establishing tyrannical dictatorships on mostly African American majority cities and school districts ( school districts have taxes stewarded by elected officials ) was passing again essentially the same emergency manager law that the People of Michigan repealed by referendum ! I still can't believe the in-your-face arrogance of these so-and-so's in Lansing when they , with a straight-face, claimed that passing a new law with the emergency manager-dictator still in it does not violate the most fundamental principle of democracy : We, the People rule ! In the face of a command from the highest American political authority, the People voting in referendum to repeal the Emergency Manager law, the unAmerican, tyrannical Michigan Republican majority legislature and Governor, passed a law that still provides for the imposition of a dictator who usurps the powers of the elected representatives of the citizens the city; while making other superficial changes to pretend that it is a different law , not the one repealed by the People.

On Memorial Day, we celebrate those who gave the ultimate sacrifice or made grave sacrifices to defend the Freedoms established by the United States Constitution and Revolution. Voting is one of the major Freedoms and Liberties of America.

 Michigan Republicans are a disgrace to our country on this Memorial Day 2014 


 Somebody said in response to this blog piece : "It's not Labor Day"

• Response from Charles Brown Memorial Day is one of the many Labor Day's . Your saying it is not Labor Day is wrong and anti-Labor. I didn't say anything against veterans. I said something in favor of veterans. I have several greatgrandfathers, my father, my son as all veterans. I'm blood related to Veterans. My grandfather was in WWI and WWII . He was active in the American Legion.

  
  
• 

  Charles Brown Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Labor Day go together. The Michigan Republicans are violating American, voting and labor rights, the most basic American rights that Memorial Day celebrates the supreme sacrifice for. It is a a disgrace on the flag what the Michigan Republicans are doing in imposing taxation without representation on cities, the most fundamental theme of the American Revolution.

   Putting Labor with Memorial Day is a natural.
  
  
  
  

  Michigan is home to 642,000 veterans, of whom 31,000 are unemployed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. And Michigan ranks LAST in their treatment of Vets
  http://www.freep.com/article/20140526/BUSINESS06/305260019/veterans-jobs-employment-unemployment-workplace

  
  
• 
  

                                         

                                  First Memorial Day celebration by slaves
The 1st Memorial Day was actually started on May 1, 1865 by former slaves in Charleston, South Carolina (see photo above) to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated. photo: 1st Memorial Day participants http://bit.ly/1stMemorialDay more of the story http://open.salon.com/.../the_first_memorial_day_when... whole story more Peace & Justice history here http://bit.ly/WeekInPeace


 Bread and Roses 1912-2012
2 hours agohttps://www.facebook.com/341113802569909/photos/pcb.843262605688357/843262265688391/?type=1&theater
STRIKER REMEMBERED: The last week of January 1912 was chaotic in Lawrence, MA as the Bread & Roses strike heated up. On the 29th and 30th strikers died, ANNA LOPIZZO by a bullet and JOHN RAMEY from a bayonet wound.

                                                         

 In addition, three strike
leaders falsely accused of murdering LoPizzo were tossed in jail while dynamite planted at the orders of a mill boss to discredit the strikers was found. Yet as the calendar turned into February worldwide support for the strikers grew! (Image is of workers decorating LoPizzo’s grave on Memorial Day 1912.)
From James Heaton, “Legal Aftermath of Lawrence Strike,” The Survey, July 6, 1912: “Joseph Caruso is held in the Lawrence jail as a principal in the murder of Anna LoPizzo who was killed during a clash between strikers and policemen. The state's claim, so far as it is known, is that Caruso aided Scuito who, it is alleged, did the actual shooting. The more important case of Ettor and Giovannitti, whose trial, originally set for May 27, was postponed at the request of counsel for the defense, involves far-reaching issues as to strike leadership and responsibility. The prisoners, who are charged with being accessories to the murder, were not present when Anna LoPizzo was shot.
The Commonwealth contended at their arraignment before Police Magistrate Mahoney, in Lawrence, February 9, that the defendants had spread ‘a propaganda of violence’. It was this propaganda, said the district attorney, which inspired the person actually guilty of the murder to fire at the police. According to the state's witnesses the shot missed its mark and killed the woman. Witnesses for the defense, mostly strikers, declared that Policeman Benoit fired the fatal bullet, and that at least one other officer also used his revolver. The police absolutely denied that they did any firing. Because it was dark it was difficult for outsiders to see just what happened." https://www.facebook.com/.../Bread-and.../341113802569909

Sunrise Memorial Day service NAN military veterans will place flowers on Belle Isle bridge to honor Black World War II veterans beaten and killed during 1943 Detroit Riot

(Detroit, MI 5/25/14) - U.S. Military veterans of Michigan’s National Action Network will place flowers at the entrance of the McArthur Bridge of Detroit’s Belle Isle at sunrise on Memorial Day tomorrow morning at 7 AM to honor Black American World War II veterans that were held hostage on Belle Isle June 20, 1943 when a rabid crowd of racist whites numbering in the thousands blocked the bridge preventing Blacks from leaving Belle Isle.

Reverend Charles Williams Sr., a Vietnam-Era veteran, is chairman of NAN military veterans said the brutality of June 20, 1943 must never be forgotten; “Black veterans that sacrificed so much for our nation fighting in wars abroad have returned to America too many times to find that the real battlefield is here in America for human rights,” said Reverend Williams. 

“The Belle Isle McArthur Bridge should be considered holy ground for the wholesale slaughter of Black Americans, including some World War II veterans’ fresh from the battlefield, began on that Detroit bridge as America failed the most vulnerable of her citizens on June 20, 1943,” said Sam Riddle, political director Michigan NAN and an Honorably Discharged Vietnam-Era veteran.

Memorial Day Military Veterans of National Action Network lay flowers honoring 1943 U.S. military veteran victims of Detroit Riot
Monday May 26, 2014 @ 8:00AM
Where: Entrance to Belle Isle On McArthur Bridge
East Jefferson/East Grand Boulevard Intersection
Detroit, Michigan





Retirees’ Press Conference Friday, May 16 at 4 PM Outside Federal Courthouse
City of Detroit Retirees Condemn “Grand Theft Pension” – Urge “VOTE NO!”
May 14, 2014
Contact: Stop Theft of Our Pensions Committee, 313-680-5508, David Sole
The Stop Theft of Our Pensions Committee urges pensioners to “VOTE NO!” to the “Grand Theft Pension Bargain”. There is no reason for even one penny of pensions to be stolen for this bankruptcy. Here’s why:
The Michigan Municipal League reported in March 2014 that the State of Michigan illegally kept $6.2 billion of revenue sharing funds from cities across the state. This includes $732 million kept from Detroit.
Over $120 million of Detroit funds were looted from the treasury to pay for “professional fees” of consultants and lawyers who only sought to enrich themselves.
The biggest banks are paying tens of billions of dollars in fines to the Federal government for their criminal, fraudulent and racist mortgage scams that led directly to over 100,000 foreclosures in Detroit from 2005 – 2012. Reparations should be paid Detroit from these funds.
The banks that foreclosed on so many homes have refused to pay property taxes to the city – to the tune of around $50 million a year for the past 7 years. Go after the banks for these unpaid taxes.
Detroit should be going after the biggest banks that swindled the city with high interest “bond swaps.” Instead of paying Bank of America and UBS $85 million, EM Orr and Judge Rhodes ought to have gone after them to recover $300 million in excessive interest, fees and termination penalties already paid out.
Governor Snyder and other high officials refused to use $500 million of federal funds that were supposed to “Help Hardest Hit Homeowners.” Instead they sat on these funds and now are outrageously handing tens of millions to their rich friends to tear down the same houses they were supposed to save. The remaining funds should be used to hire and train youth in Detroit to rehad homes across the city.
The “Grand Bargain” documents admit that the funds set aside for health care (already slashed to the bone as of March 1, 2014) will not be enough to maintain these benefits.
There is no guarantee that the funding promised by the State and the charitable foundations will be paid now or in the future. If they fail to come up with their share, pensions will be cut even further. State funding also will require that Detroit be under a colonial dictator for the next 20 years, further destroying our democratic rights.
It is unfortunate that some officials and groups feel it necessary to accept the “lesser evil” choice just at the time that retirees around the country are waking up to the danger the Detroit bankruptcy case holds for all public pension funds. The California Public Employee Retirement System, AARP, the Texas Public Employee Retirement System and the National Conference of Public Employee Retirement Systems have all recently filed amicus briefs in the constitutional appeals. Now is the time for a broad national fightback to demand “Make the Banks Pay! Not Retirees.”
The Stop Theft of Our Pensions Committee is calling for a national mobilization of active and retired workers, unions and retiree associations in Detroit at the start of the bankruptcy trial set for July 24. Weekly demonstrations are held every Friday at 4:00 P.M. outside the Federal Courthouse (231 W. Lafayette St.) called “Freedom Fridays” to protest all the proposed cuts and denial of democratic rights.
Activist retirees in the Stop Theft of Our Pensions Committee are demanding that the Pension Boards, unions and retiree associations convene mass meetings to allow a full discussion of this rotten Grand Theft Pension. Retirees must be mobilized to fight in the courts and in the streets for our rights to our deferred income called pensions – for security in our retirement. Human beings must be placed above greedy bankers, insurance companies and other corporate interests.
Tens of thousands of City of Detroit retirees and their survivors have been sent ballots this week to vote on an unacceptable “Grand Bargain” that either way will cause severe hardship to most of them. Pensioners are being pressed to vote “Yes” and agree to cuts to our monthly benefits amounting to about 30% - on top of medical, dental and vision cuts already forced on us. A “yes” gives up the legal appeals on the constitutionality of the Emergency Manager Law and the issue of the Michigan Constitution’s specific protection of public pensions.
Retirees are threatened that a “no” vote will result in much deeper cuts. The many pages of legalese details enclosed with the ballots will add to the confusion and terror accompanying either choice. The ballots will be counted by a firm in California selected by the same Emergency Dictator pushing these cuts. A mass movement can defeat these schemes.



 Straight talk about War , in Memory of those who lost their lives to, War,  this institution of civilization ( The original human nature was peaceful: http://take10charles.blogspot.com/2014/05/is-human-nature-social-or-selfish-i.html)
:
In 1935, Smedley Butler, Hero U.S.Marine, Most Decorated, wrote a book entitled War Is a Racket, where, amazingly, and in a complete turnabout from his historic career as a soldier in combat,  he described and criticized the workings of the United States in its foreign actions and wars, such as those he was a part of, including the American corporations and other imperialist motivations behind them. After retiring from service, he became a popular activist, speaking at meetings organized by veterans, pacifists, and church groups in the 1930s.

                                                         

                                               http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

Shad Walker‎Occupy Wall St.

2 hrs ·

Lessons from a Veteran on Memorial Day:
Major General Smedly D. Butler; 2 time recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, Marine Corps Brevet Medal, Army Distinguished Service Medal, Navy Distinguished Service Medal
“I spent thirty-three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle-man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”

He was also recruited to lead a coup during the FDR years. He outed the treasonous leaders of the coup before Congress, who included the Bush Family, J.P. Morgan, Singer (Sewing Machines, millionaire family), General Motors, U.S. Steel, DuPont.
They used the name the American Liberty Group and were founded on the premise of Protecting the Constitution, a highly conservative, corporate group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMEI8bnbw1o

Occupy Traverse City shared Rashida Tlaib's status.

5 hours ago

They have lost their mind. House Republicans are pushing a bill (House Bill 5558) this week to amend the Michigan Consumer Protection Act to prohibit a claim against an insurance company if they lie to you. This is because an injured veteran (yes a veteran) won a case where she was lied to about what services she could receive under her insurance contract. This veteran proved successfully in court that the company was deceptive (hard to prove) and received $2 million to cover the over $4 million costs incurred when she was lied to years ago. And hold up, that's not all of it. They are making this change retroactive, so she and others who won their court case has to pay it all back. #crazy