Brian Nguyen, photographer for UC Davis’s student newspaper The Aggie, captured the events of yesterday’s protests from beginning to end, and was kind enough to submit them for publication here at The Political Notebook. Above are a selection of photos capturing the police in riot gear, arresting and pepper spraying the student protesters. What an intense group of shots.
You can follow Nguyen’s Flickr stream or follow him on Tumblr.
It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
What.
"Tea Party Nation sent to their members today a message from activist Melissa Brookstone urging businesspeople to “not hire a single person” to protest the Obama administration’s supposed “war against business and my country.” Brookstone writes that business owners should stop hiring new employees in order to stand up to “this new dictator,” the “global Progressive socialist movement,” Hollywood, the media and Occupy Wall Street."
—
Tea Party Nation Urges Businesses To Stop Hiring In Order To Hurt Obama
Translated: “Screw the poor and the middle class; the important thing is to sabotage the economy and help get a Republican president elected in 2012!”
(via ryking)
Walmart Could Easily Pay Its Workers $12 An Hour | Fast Company
Walmart is plowing through its global responsibility goals, cutting down on plastic waste, improving energy efficiency in factories, and reshaping the crop diversity of entire U.S. regions. But it’s doing a less-than-stellar job when it comes to doing right by its workers. According to a new report (PDF) from the University of California, Berkeley, Walmart could significantly raise the wages of its employees without affecting its low prices. Chronically underpaid people around the country could benefit.
When Walmart inevitably moves into cities like New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco (all places where it wants to expand this year), its cheapskate policies could actually lower the local average wages. And since the costs of living a comfortable life march inexorably upward (especially in big cities), this is a problem for all of us.
According to UC Berkeley’s report, Walmart employees earn 14.5 percent less than other workers in large retail companies. Depressing stuff, but there is any easy enough fix: If Walmart implemented a $12 per hour minimum wage for all employees, it would cost the company $3.2 billion. That is a lot of money, unless you’re Walmart, in which case it’s just 1% of your overall annual $305 billion in sales. Even if Walmart passed on the entire burden of the wage increase to customers, it would only average out to a cost increase of 46 cents per shopping trip. That’s surely something that most Walmart shoppers can afford.
But they wouldn’t even have to. Remember Walmart’s exceptional energy-saving plans? Perhaps it could take some of the money it will inevitably save from energy and materials efficiency and pass it on to workers.
"The death penalty is grotesque and immoral and should be repealed."
— From a New York Times editorial: An Indefensible Punishment - NYTimes.com (via atlampa)
"I’m afraid the word justice has fallen out of the American Christian lexicon. That’s how people can worship God on Sunday and break out in applause the next week when they hear how many people have been executed."
— The Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which previously was Martin Luther King’s church, quoted in Ebenezer pastor continues fight against dealth penalty | ajc.com (via greatspeckledfish)
8:09 PM
“I pay taxes because I’m an adult and that’s part of the deal”.
Vote Democrat in 2012!
5:16 PM
Vote Democrat in 2012!
STFU, Conservatives: STRANGE PATRIOTS
These three Republican Party candidates for president are displaying their patriotism in a way the media can immediately understand and disseminate.
Yet it’s a strange patriotism they effect. They claim to love their country while despising its government. They…
September 24th
3:37 PM
3:37 PM
Palin/Voldemort 2012!
Both Democrats and Republicans are out to fuck you over, it’s just that Democrats use a little “lube” first!
