Author: susie

Will he resign?

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

One can only hope, since he has no credibility and it would help defuse the tense situation in Ferguson:

Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) — Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed teenager Michael Brown on August 9, is in the final stages of negotiations with city officials to resign, according to people close to the talks.
Wilson maintains he hasn’t done anything wrong, and the resignation talks have hinged on whether a grand jury returns an indictment against him in the death of Brown, people close to the talks said.

Wilson has told associates he would resign as a way to help ease pressure and protect his fellow officers. Wilson has expressed concern about resigning while the grand jury was hearing evidence for fear it would appear he was admitting fault.

Wilson could announce as soon as Friday his plans to resign, the same day a St. Louis County grand jury meets to deliberate and possibly decide on an indictment.

Rep. Ben Ray Luján is a surprise pick to chair DCCC

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

jim and benray
Here’s DFA director Jim Dean with Ben Ray Luján.

This is certainly a pleasant surprise: Rep. Ben Ray Luján is a really good guy, a solar power activist and a strong progressive in a state that needs more. He was Democracy For America-endorsed when he first ran in 2008, and won; he’s a product of DFA’s candidate training. That’s what Howard Dean talked about, folks — getting involved and running for office. I look forward to seeing him in action:

New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Luján has been tapped to serve as the next chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced Monday.

Luján, who is 42 years old and completing his third term in the House, will succeed New York Rep. Steve Israel, who is departing the committee after two cycles. Influential liberals, including union leaders and wealthy donors, reacted with a mix of surprise and mild approval to the Luján pick, which came after many of them had quietly mounted a campaign to pressure Pelosi to select Maryland Rep. Donna Edwards, a favorite of the party’s progressive wing.

As his party’s chief political strategist in the lower congressional chamber, Luján will have a hard task. After losing at least 12 seats in the 2014 midterms, Democrats are deeper into the House minority than at any point since 1931, when Herbert Hoover was president. Democrats last wielded the speaker’s gavel in 2010.

Luján, a leader in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, is the son of the late Ben Luján, a onetime speaker in the New Mexico state House of Representatives. Prior to winning a seat in the House in 2008, Luján was a member of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission.

Luján has a “bold vision and determined leadership to deliver wins in difficult districts,” Pelosi said during a news conference Monday.

The newly selected chairman, meanwhile, described the moment as “joyous” and said he “couldn’t get momma off the phone.”

Wall Street wants your pension plan

~ susie ~ 3 Comments

Bull Wall Street

Via the Intercept, a story we should all be watching:

Coverage of the midterm elections has, understandably, focused on the shift in political power from Democrats toward Republicans. But behind the scenes, another major story has been playing out. Wall Street spent upwards of $300M to influence the election results. And a key part of its agenda has been a plan to move more and more of the $3 trillion dollars in unguarded government pension funds into privately managed, high-fee investments — a shift that may well constitute the biggest financial story of our generation that you’ve never heard of.

Illinois, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island all recently elected governors who were previously executives and directors at firms which managed investments on behalf of state pension funds. These firms are now, consequently, in position to obtain even more of these public funds. This alone represents a huge payoff on that $300M investment made by the financial industry, and is likely to result in more pension money going into investments which offer great benefits for Wall Street but do little for the broader economy.

But Wall Street’s agenda goes beyond any one election cycle. It has been fighting to turn public pensions into private profits for quite some time, steering retirement nest eggs into investments that are complex, charge hefty fees, and that generate big profits for management firms. And it has been succeeding. Of the $3 trillion in public assets currently in pension funds throughout the country, almost a quarter of that has already found its way into so-called “alternative investments” like hedge funds, private equity and real estate. That translates to roughly $660 billion of public money now under private management, invested in assets that are often arcane and opaque but that offer high management and placement fees to Wall Street financiers.

A rape on campus

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

I’m glad I didn’t have girls, and I’m glad neither of my sons would have dreamed of joining a frat. Because this shit has always gone on, and people have always punished the women who report it. Rolling Stone:

Sipping from a plastic cup, Jackie grimaced, then discreetly spilled her spiked punch onto the sludgy fraternity-house floor. The University of Virginia freshman wasn’t a drinker, but she didn’t want to seem like a goody-goody at her very first frat party – and she especially wanted to impress her date, the handsome Phi Kappa Psi brother who’d brought her here. Jackie was sober but giddy with discovery as she looked around the room crammed with rowdy strangers guzzling beer and dancing to loud music. She smiled at her date, whom we’ll call Drew, a good-looking junior – or in UVA parlance, a third-year – and he smiled enticingly back.

“Want to go upstairs, where it’s quieter?” Drew shouted into her ear, and Jackie’s heart quickened. She took his hand as he threaded them out of the crowded room and up a staircase.

Four weeks into UVA’s 2012 school year, 18-year-old Jackie was crushing it at college. A chatty, straight-A achiever from a rural Virginia town, she’d initially been intimidated by UVA’s aura of preppy success, where throngs of toned, tanned and overwhelmingly blond students fanned across a landscape of neoclassical brick buildings, hurrying to classes, clubs, sports, internships, part-time jobs, volunteer work and parties; Jackie’s orientation leader had warned her that UVA students’ schedules were so packed that “no one has time to date – people just hook up.” But despite her reservations, Jackie had flung herself into campus life, attending events, joining clubs, making friends and, now, being asked on an actual date. She and Drew had met while working lifeguard shifts together at the university pool, and Jackie had been floored by Drew’s invitation to dinner, followed by a “date function” at his fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi. The “upper tier” frat had a reputation of tremendous wealth, and its imposingly large house overlooked a vast manicured field, giving “Phi Psi” the undisputed best real estate along UVA’s fraternity row known as Rugby Road.

Jackie had taken three hours getting ready, straightening her long, dark, wavy hair. She’d congratulated herself on her choice of a tasteful red dress with a high neckline. Now, climbing the frat-house stairs with Drew, Jackie felt excited. Drew ushered Jackie into a bedroom, shutting the door behind them. The room was pitch-black inside. Jackie blindly turned toward Drew, uttering his name. At that same moment, she says, she detected movement in the room – and felt someone bump into her. Jackie began to scream.
Continue reading “A rape on campus” →

‘Come to work on Thanksgiving or get fired’

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Kmart - store team photo (20.11.2014)

If this keeps up, I won’t have anyplace left to shop!

Kmart will open its doors at 6 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day this year and remain open for 42 hours, meaning that many employees will have to come to work to staff shifts. While the company says it tries to fill the slots with volunteers or seasonal hires, workers are reporting that the reality on the ground is very different.

Jillian Fisher, who started a petition on Coworker.org asking Kmart to give her mother and other employees the flexibility to take the holiday off, surveyed 56 self-identified employees from more than 13 states. Of those, just three said they had the option to ask to take the holiday off. In a press release from the petition organizer, one employee said human resources has told them, “if you do not come to work on Thanksgiving, you will automatically be fired… I made the request to work a split shift on Thanksgiving and was denied.” Another said, “Our manager stated at a staff meeting: ‘Everyone must work Thanksgiving and Black Friday. No time off.’” At one location, an employee says signs have been posted in the break room saying workers can’t request time off on Thanksgiving or Black Friday and that everyone has to put in at least some time on both, while at another signs have been posted saying no one can request time off between November 15 and January 1.

“I am a lead at a Kmart and it is mandatory for me to work on Thanksgiving,” another employee said. “If I were to call out I would be terminated, and requesting off is not allowed.”

Only seven surveyed employees said their stores had given employees the chance to volunteer for a holiday shift. “[A]t my store, they scheduled workers who aren’t seasonal and who DIDN’T volunteer to work on Thanksgiving,” one said. Another said, “I didn’t volunteer to work on either of these days they just pretty much scheduled me regardless if I had plans or not on Thanksgiving.”

Sure gonna miss her

~ susie ~ 2 Comments

Michele Bachmann, Corn Dogger
But at least we’ll have wacky Joni Ernst to make up for it!

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) told the Washington Post that the immigrants given new protections by President Obama could become “illiterate” Democratic voters.

Said Bachmann: “The social cost will be profound on the U.S. taxpayer — millions of unskilled, illiterate, foreign nationals coming into the United States who can’t speak the English language. Even though the president says they won’t be able to vote, we all know that many, in all likelihood, will vote… It’s a wink and a nod, we all know it’s going to happen.”