Peter Eisler, Jason Szep, Linda So and Sam Hart, Reporters - Reuters
Stephan: Imagine, you are a retired woman, maybe a school teacher, maybe a widow, who is civic minded, and you volunteer to work at you precinct polling place on election day. A reporter from your local paper or television station happens to come by your polling place and interviews you. Then you go home and a week later you start getting multiple phone calls threatening your life. MAGAts park outside your home and scream at you. How would you react?
Reuters did a deep dive into the issue of MAGAt citizens threatening election workers, men and women who work to assure that our democracy functions properly. These are the MAGAt citizens who elected Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louis Gohmert, Matt Gaetz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, Ted Cruz, and others like them. These are the citizens and Congress members who want to destroy American democracy and replace it with a White supremacist, male dominant, christofascist authoritarian system.
The only thing that is going to defeat this cold civil war is you, your family and friends. So what are you doing?
The messages collected by Reuters are only a sample of all threats to election workers nationally, taken mostly from states, counties and cities where officials were specifically targeted with false fraud allegations by Trump and his allies. Nearly a quarter of those hostile messages suggested the targets should die. Some called for executions. Many less-violent messages take a legal tack, for instance alleging treason and calling for the target to be investigated, prosecuted or jailed. Dozens of messages use sexual or misogynistic language. A smaller number use racist or anti-Semitic terms.
Crimes or protected speech? A challenge for U.S. law.
Building a criminal case for threatening messages is notoriously difficult.
The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment provides sweeping freedom-of-speech protections, even for statements that advocate violence. The Constitution does not, however, protect direct threats to a person’s life or safety, legal scholars say.
The problem: the U.S. Supreme Court has not clearly defined a “true threat,” scholars say. That makes it difficult for police and prosecutors to know where to draw the line. Law enforcement officials often look for language or […]
Stephan: This is an example of how the collective intent of people changes culture. America's wealth inequity has become a major consideration for workers who are barely getting by while their bosses are flying around in their private jets. Minimum wage in the U.S. ought to be something like $20 an hour and large social systems like healthcare should be nationalized and based on fostering wellbeing not making the maximum profit.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — The pandemic has been a wake-up call for America’s job market.After decades of relying on low-paying services jobs that come with few benefits, the coronavirus has made clear the nation needs to take care of its workers.
Hazard pay, paid sick leave, remote working options have all became hotly debated topics during the first wave of the pandemic. Companies like Amazon (AMZN), which also owns Whole Foods, grocery store chains Kroger (KR) or Albertsons temporarily provided hazard pay for their workers, for example.
Nearly two years into the outbreak in the United States, the conversation has shifted to a labor shortage — businesses just can’t find enough workers. Meanwhile, lawmakers and economists are trying to figure out what’s still keeping people on the sidelines.
It’s a complicated puzzle that includes pieces like child care and early retirement, but one lesson from the pandemic is that workers have had it with bad jobs.
Stephan: Here is an assessment of the cost of EVs and gas vehicles. It is a question more nuanced than one might initially imagine.
With gas prices up over 58% compared to last year, you might be thinking about switching to an electric car to save money.
But considering that electric vehicles tend to be more expensive than gas-fueled cars, and that electricity has its own costs, is it actually cheaper to go electric? The short answer is yes — although it also depends on your driving habits, where you live and the type of vehicle you buy, too. You may even want to consider a hybrid vehicle that has both a gas and electric engine.
Here’s a look at how the costs of electric vehicles compare to gas-only cars.
Electric vehicles have a higher upfront cost
The average transaction price for an electric vehicle (EV) is $56,437, according to Kelley Blue Book — roughly $10,000 higher than the overall industry average of $46,329 that includes gas and EVs. In terms of pricing, an EV is equivalent to an entry-level luxury car.
To save time charging EVs and extend battery life, many drivers also install what’s known as “Level […]
Stephan: Marjorie Taylor Greene, is as incompetent a nut case and publicity hound as as ever served in Congress. It is hard to believe the voters of the 14th District of Georgia chose her to be their Representative in Congress. I'm not sure who is more contemptible Greene, or the people who voted for her. What is clear is that neither the Congresswoman nor her voters give a damn about preserving democracy or the unity of the United States
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene called it “wise” to temporarily limit voting rights for people who move from Blue to Red states. Credit:D.C. Kevin Dietsch/Getty
If red states and blue states were to “divorce” each other, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene called it possible that people who move from a Democratic state to a Republican state would be barred from voting for a temporary “cooling off” period.
California’s seen an influx in people moving out of the state and many have opted to go to Texas and Florida, where residents can get more bang for their buck. However, some, including Greene, have complained that those who are leaving California are bringing their political beliefs with them and potentially shifting the political landscape.
On Wednesday, the Georgia congresswoman posted on Twitter that “brainwashed people” who move from California and New York need a “cooling-off period.” Her comment was in response to a Twitter user who wrote he supports discriminating against Democratic transplants, including restricting their ability to vote for a period of time. He also wrote that they should have to “pay a tax for their sins.”
Stephan: Here is an attempt to calibrate a kind of minimal wellbeing, centered on a living wage, as well as a very interesting history of the thinking about this.
Credit:Universal History Archive/Getty
The idea of a living wage is an old dream, with origins in the work of thinkers as ideologically diverse as Adam Smith, St. Thomas Aquinas and Karl Marx. While its exact meaning is often left conveniently vague, Theodore Roosevelt offered a basic definition in a 1912 speech: A living wage should let workers “secure the elements of a normal standard of living,” including education, recreation, child care, a cushion for periods of sickness and savings for old age.
Roosevelt was making a moral claim, not just an economic one. He saw paying workers enough to meet these basic standards as a matter of justice.
More than a century later, millions of working Americans are still paid too little to afford the modest elements in Roosevelt’s vision. Such low wages are not inevitable; they reflect political and moral choices about what defines a “normal standard of living,” and who deserves to enjoy one.
Defining a meaningful living wage is a two-part challenge. There’s the moral imperative of framing a generous definition […]
