$18.67: What the US federal minimum wage would be if it "had kept up with the growth of workers' productivity. ...And if it had matched the wage growth of the wealthiest 1%, it would be more than $28."
From AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka's and National Employment Law Project Executive Director Christine Owens' op-ed for CNN, "$7.25 an hour is not a living wage."
And neither is $10.10 an hour, which is the currently proposed federal wage that would take effect in two years.
This is indecent. This is class warfare.
Number of the Day
Question of the Day
What did you want to be when you grew up? Was it always one specific thing, or did it change throughout your childhood? Did you become that thing, or are you working toward it? If not, do you still think you might go for it someday?
So Many Movies
Via Aphra_Behn: "Here is a list of 75 of the 200 most popular films of 1980-1995 according to IMDB—how many have you seen?"
Of course I have seen every single one of them. A better question would be: "How many of these films have you seen at least 5 times?" LOL.
This is what happens when you grow up in a cornfield with nothing else to do and your family's solution to not having air conditioning is going to the movies.
And when you regularly have Bad Movie Nights with your pals.
Mail Carrier Shot and Killed
[Content Note: Guns; racism.]
Last Saturday night, US postal worker Tyson Jerome Barnette, 26, was shot and killed while delivering mail in suburban DC. Barnette, who had been a mail carrier for six years, was a black man.
Police said that around 7:20 p.m. officers were called to the 1600 block of Reed Street for reports of a shooting. When they arrived, they found Barnette suffering from apparent gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Officials said detectives are working to identify the suspect or suspects and a motive in this case.Let's see if we can piece together a possible motive, shall we?
One resident of the street said he was returning home just as the carrier had finished placing mail into the letter box at his house.It's entirely possible in this vast universe of infinite possibilities that there is some other explanation for a black postal worker being shot and killed on his route, followed by locals reporting that he didn't respond to hollers and media diligently reporting he wasn't "the regular carrier," besides rank racism. But I'm not particularly interested in playing a game of Occam's Big Paisley Tie. The most likely explanation is violence resulting from racism.
He said the worker was not the regular carrier, and when he called to him, he did not respond.
The man took his mail and went into his house. Within minutes, the man said, he heard two or three gunshots.
When I start hearing people talking about how a person of color failed to respond to them in their expected way, and about how a person of color wasn't the "regular" person they expected to see, what I see are narratives that neatly fit into a pattern of lived segregation. Racial segregation and/or class segregation. That person wasn't supposed to be here.
That is a story that we hear over and over in racist slayings. Neighborhood watchmen. Police. Old white men on their front porches. That person wasn't supposed to be here. Or: That person wasn't supposed to be acting like that.
Othering. Lack of belonging. Judgment. Scrutinized behavior found to be suspicious. Standing your ground against the interloper.
This shit is part and parcel of living in segregation from one another. I am not scared or suspicious or filled with explosive urges toward vigilantism when I see someone who is not the same color, or not precisely the same socioeconomic class, as I am walking down the sidewalk, because I don't live in a place where everyone is the same.
There are people who sneer at the idea of diversity "for diversity's sake." Those people don't understand that diversity is never for its own sake. Integration and visibility translate into safety for marginalized people. Belonging can be a matter of life and death in a kyriarchy rife with guns.
[H/T to Elle.]
Healthcare.Whoops
Saturday, I went to pick up a prescription at a local pharmacy, which we'll call Schmalgreens. I've been picking up prescriptions at Schmalgreens for many years without incident—although, recently, I've had to twice phone my primary care physician's office to ask them to call Schmalgreens, because the pharmacy has said I don't have any refills on an ongoing prescription when I am supposed to have at least one refill left.
This is annoying. But whatever.
Anyway. So, I picked up my prescription via the drive-through pharmacy window, and the pharmacist on duty read me name of the drug with the right dosage, and I said, "Yep, thanks!" and checked the attached instructional sheet stapled to the outside of the scrip bag, which had the same correct name and dosage, and then I drove away.
When I went to take my meds last night before bed, however, the pill bottle inside had the wrong medication. It was my name on the label, but the meds were an anti-nausea drug, which has never been prescribed to me. Whoops.
So, this morning, after missing a day of my meds, I drove back to Schmalgreens and explained to the (different) pharmacist on duty that I'd been inadvertently given this anti-nausea medication instead of my prescription. Immediately, she was exasperated with me, clearly assuming that I was: 1. Confused; 2. Stupid; and 3. Wrong.
After being tacitly accused of being confused, stupid, and wrong, I gave the bottle of incorrect meds to her. She scrutinized the label. "This is dated August of this year. You can't have picked it up on Saturday."
"Well, I did," I replied, calmly. "I was told it was [X], and the outer label read [X], but when I got it home, it was this anti-nausea drug instead."
"You were prescribed this in August," she informed me.
"No, I've not been prescribed that drug," I replied, calmly.
"Well, then why does this label have an August date on it?" she snapped.
I paused, and breathed, and chuckled. "I have no idea," I said.
She turned away and disappeared for awhile. Another pharmacist, or assistant, joined her at a computer. They stared at it. They whispered. They looked at the computer screen and looked at the pill bottle. Finally, she returned.
"There's nothing we can do with this," she said to me, crossly, holding up the pill bottle with the wrong meds. "You need to take it."
"Okay," I said with a shrug.
She returned the pill bottle along with my correctly filled prescription. I opened the bag, to make sure I'd gotten the correct pills this time before I left. She gave me a look like I was trying to be an asshole. And that was that.
Now, this was a pretty dreadful customer service exchange, during which I received no apology for having to drive across town again for Schmalgreens' mistake and was spoken to from the get-go as though I couldn't possibly be telling the truth, but, you know, I get that people have bad days and I know that people try to pull shenanigans with prescriptions (even though my prescription has no value whatsoever to someone seeking to get high).
But I'm fairly disconcerted by my being asked to take with me a drug that I was not prescribed, and by Schmalgreens' comprehensive lack of concern that I was given the wrong prescription (in a mislabled package, no less) by one of their pharmacists. I was not asked what time I originally picked up my prescription so they could determine who made the mistake, or why.
I am relieved it was not the first time I was taking this drug, so I knew what it didn't look like. Schmalgreens, a place that boasts in its ads how their pharmacists will be vigilant about possible drug interactions for their patients, didn't seem too concerned.
Welp.
The Monday Blogaround
This blogaround brought to you by noodles.
Recommended Reading:
The Feminist Griote: [Content Note: Food insecurity; classism] The Humanity & Reality Behind #StrugglePlates
Trudy: [CN: Misogynoir, violence, harassment, sexual abuse] #FastTailedGirls: Examining the Stereotypes and Abuse That Black Girls Face
Rachel: [CN: Anti-fat bias] Worried About the Effectiveness of Emergency Contraception Pills? Here's an Alternative.
Aaron: [CN: Racism; guns] SB 1342 Will Criminalize Black and Brown Bodies
Chris: [CN: Fat hatred; food policing] Restaurant Receipts Now Tell You What You Should Have Eaten Instead
Angry Asian Man: [CN: Racism] Hey, Kids! Aren't the Japanese Totally Weird and Wacky?
Daniel: [CN: Racism] We Rise Together: Resisting White Institutional Culture in Publishing
Laura: [CN: Misogyny] Why Is Everyone Pointing at Me?
Leave your links and recommendations in comments...
Daily Dose of Cute
This weekend, our friend N came to visit with his miniature dachshund, Lottie. This is their second visit since N rescued Lottie, and she fits right in to the menagerie at Shakes Manor:
Small, Medium, and Large.
I mean.
It was nearly impossible to function with the ridiculous amounts of cute going on.
As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share pix of the fuzzy, feathered, or scaled members of your family in comments.
The Walking Thread
[Content Note: Violence; image of zombie below. Spoilers are lurching around undeadly herein.]
NO ONE WINS! EVERYONE LOSES! ESPECIALLY US!
Welp, last night was the mid-season finale of AMC's The Walking Dead, so, in typical Walking Dead fashion, after an entire half-season of fuck-all happening in excruciatingly slow increments of nothingness, ALL THE THINGS HAPPENED in one jam-packed episode of nonsensical tumult!
We knew it was coming down to the big Patriarchy Prize Fight between Sheriff Rick Grimes in the grayish-brown corner and Captain Murder in the brownish-gray corner, and, without so much as a LET'S GET READY TO RUUUUUMBLLLLE, the two Power Patriarchs of the Zombiepocalypse were going toe-to-toe in a spectacular display of blood-soaked WHAT THE FUCK!
Last week's episode ended with Captain Murder coming upon Hershel and Michonne jerking around with the corpsemobile and pointing his gun at them. This week, we find out that he's taken them hostage (really? one guy with one gun and Michonne doesn't find a way to take him out? NOPE.) and he's going to use them to blackmail Grimes into handing over Grimes Jail to the Captain Murder Gang.
He gives a rousing speech full of lies and half-truths and some truth-truths to his new peeps about how Grimes Gang is full of terrible people, and how they need to kick them out and claim Grimes Jail for themselves. Some members of the Captain Murder Gang are dubious, but the guy with the tank is pretty pumped about it. Go figure.
SpaghettiOs Sister is really not on board with this plan. She says she doesn't even know who Captain Murder is, WHICH IS CORRECT. You do not know who he is, and you are about to find out. SORRY YOUR BOYFRIEND IS A TERRIBLE MURDER-MONSTER!
Captain Murder instructs SpaghettiOs Sister to stay behind with Megan, and he'll come get them once they've assumed control of Grimes Jail. GEE I HOPE MEGAN DOESN'T GET BITTEN BY A ZOMBIE, thinks no one, because we all know that is definitely what's going to happen.
Meanwhile, at Grimes Jail, Grimes tells Daryl about Carol's banishment, and, for real, it is so anticlimactic after TWO GARBAGE EPISODES about goddamn Captain Murder's Magical Journey or whatever. I wanted it to MEAN SOMETHING when Daryl found out about Grimes exiling Carol, which, in retrospect, was a foolish expectation, since nothing ever means anything in this show, because it is garbage the end. So the reveal for which we were all waiting was about as exciting as a wet fart, as Daryl juts looks vaguely annoyed and says they have to tell Tyreese. Okay. Sure.
So Grimes and Daryl wander off to tell Tyreese, and they find him examining a super neat science project of what I will describe as a crucified rat. Tyreese says that whoever did that disturbing shit was the person who killed Karen and Rick from Accounting (AND HE IS ALMOST CERTAINLY RIGHT!), but Grimes and Daryl start to tell him no siree because Carol said she did it and Grimes is such a shitty investigator that he figured a child's handprint was hers and such a shitty person that he unilaterally decided to hand down a virtual death sentence, but they are interrupted by a huge blast that shakes the entirety of Grimes Jail.
BOOM THERE HE IS.
Comment Delays
It's not just you: Comments appear to be disappearing from the page after you post them. They're not being lost, I promise. What's happening is that comments are being registered in Disqus' system, but then there's a lag time in their being posted to the page.
It only looks like they're disappearing because they're visible to the author right after posting. They do, however, show up on the page once Disqus shoots them out of the database, and there's about a 10-minute lag time at the moment.
I'm sorry for the inconvenience. But be assured your comments are there! They're just taking a few minutes to post to the page.
Disqus knows we're having an issue, and they thought they'd fixed it over the weekend, but we're still having the same problem. Hopefully it'll get fixed soon.
In the News
Here is some stuff in the news today.
RIP Paul Walker, who was a very handsome actor in some movies, most of which I haven't seen. Also RIP Roger Rodas, who was driving the car in which he and his friend both died. They had just left an event for Walker's charitable organization Reach Out Worldwide. My condolences to their families, friends, and colleagues.
Hawaii's law legalizing same-sex marriage goes into effect today, and dozens of couples have already been married. Yay!
[Content Note: Derailment; death] Four people have died and 63 others were injured after a passenger train in NY derailed on its way to Grand Central Station. An investigation is underway.
[CN: Crash; death] Nine people have died and at least 12 others were injured after a helicopter in Glasgow lost power and crashed into a crowded pub. Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, said it was a "black day for Glasgow and Scotland," as investigators continue to search through the wreckage.
Actress Maria Bello wrote a lovely essay about her modern family for the New York Times.
Paul Krugman argues for Better Pay Now.
In related news, fast food workers are reportedly to stage a one-day strike in 100 cities later this week.
[CN: Hostility to agency; disablism] British social services secured an authorization from the Court of Protection to sedate a pregnant Italian woman and deliver her child via c-section without her consent, while she was being restrained at a mental healthcare facility after suffering a panic attack during a business trip to the UK for a training course. Her child, now 15 months old, remains with British social services, and a British judge has recommended adoption "because of the risk that she might suffer a relapse." This is incredible. Breathtakingly indecent.
[CN: Hostility to agency; racism; classism] Meanwhile, in the US, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and the Center for Reproductive Rights have released a report finding that "Latinas in Texas—where more than 60 reproductive health clinics have closed since 2010—face such severely restricted and limited reproductive health care that their human rights are violated." Fucking hell.
[CN: Racism] Whoops: The Republican National Committee had to "clarify" a tweet which they credited Rosa Parks with "ending racism."
It's a brave new world, or whatever: Amazon Is Experimenting with Autonomous Flying Delivery Drones. Sure. Perfect. Definitely not terrifying.
People Are Getting Insured
Devastating news to the Affordable Care Act haters: Obamacare Website Sign-Ups Said to Reach 100,000 in Month.
About 100,000 people signed up for health insurance through the online federal exchange last month, a roughly four-fold increase from October even as a team of U.S. government and contractor programmers was fixing the troubled Affordable Care Act website, said a person familiar with program’s progress.In October, I wrote, of the widespread criticisms with the rollout:
...While far from the original goal, the jump in enrollment may be an encouraging trend for the administration and could signal that consumers are keeping an open mind about the new $1.4 trillion health law amid criticism from both Republicans and Democrats over the site's technical failures.
Look, I am not a huge fan of the Affordable Care Act. And I am not an irrepressible Obama cheerleader. (#understatements) But I have had it with this bullshit. People's lives are at stake. President Obama is trying to do something about that. It's a major undertaking, and there are problems, and he is acknowledging them and trying to get them fixed. Can we give him and his team, oh, I dunno, a couple of months or so to try to insure millions of people before we declare the project a failure and start impeachment proceedings? Jesus Jones.And so it goes. The problems are getting fixed. People are getting insured.
Let's have a little fucking perspective. Goddammit.
This weekend, I spoke to an old friend who, once he gets enrolled in Obamacare, will have access to preventative healthcare for the first time in his adult life. He's in his 30s.
As I've said previously, it isn't relevant, on an individual interest level, how flawed the Affordable Care Act is (and, in my opinion, it's deeply flawed), because uninsured people's choice isn't between the more desirable universal socialized healthcare and the less desirable Affordable Healthcare Act. Their choice is between the Affordable Healthcare Act and no health coverage at all.
That makes it a pretty damn attractive option, given the actual, practical, immediate options.
This will save people's lives.
The conservative critics of the ACA aren't proposing any alternative that would save people's lives. So they really just need to STFU, unless they want to apologize with their filthy mouths for not doing everything they can to support the best option going at the moment.
Rick Santorum: Controlling Women's Reproduction Is My First Amendment Right! So Phhhbbbbbt!
[Content Note: War on agency; Christian supremacy.]
Yes, yes you are. The grossest and the worst.
Former Republican presidential candidate and constant despicable dipshit Rick Santorum is real indignant about the Affordable Care Act requirement that mandates contraceptive coverage, vociferously and typically mendaciously defending the Supreme Court's decision last week to hear arguments that Christian-owned Hobby Lobby had its rights violated by the requirement to cover contraception in its employee helathcare benefits:
[Santorum] on Sunday insisted that President Barack Obama was imposing his beliefs on corporations and preventing them from exercising their "right" to deny women contraception coverage in health care plans.Let us all take a moment to appreciate the hilaritragic irony of Santorum's argument: Telling a company that they cannot pick and choose what healthcare access to offer but instead must provide comprehensive healthcare to their employees, that those employees might use the coverage in whatever way they see fit, according to their own personal beliefs, is "imposing values," but denying coverage to women and other people who might have a basic healthcare need for contraception is somehow not "imposing values." Neat!
...In a Sunday interview on CNN, former Gov. Howard Dean (D-VT) pointed out that he viewed the Vietnam War as "immoral" but had continued to pay his taxes throughout the conflict.
"This is one country, we all have to live by a set of things that are passed in Washington and are agreed to by the court," Dean said.
But Santorum asserted that employees knew that Hobby Lobby's owners were "very clear about their religious content."
"I mean, the idea that the First Amendment stops after you walk out of church, that it doesn't have anything to do with how you live the rest of your life, I don't know very many people of faith that believes that their religion ends with just worship," Santorum explained. "It ends in how you practice and live that faith."
"And President Obama is saying, 'No, once you step outside that church, I get to impose my values on you, your religious values don't matter anymore, it's my values that I can impose on you,'" the Pennsylvania Republican continued. "I don't think that's what the First Amendment stands for. And I don't think that's what the court will say."
Dean, however, argued that the First Amendment allowed the "free exercise" of religion but did not allow companies to make health care decisions for others.
"It can't enable you to force your religious views on other people," he said.
See, here's the thing: No one is forcing anyone at Hobby Lobby to use contraception, if use of contraception is not compatible with their religious beliefs. But Hobby Lobby is seeing to deny contraceptive access to people whose beliefs do not restrict their use of contraception.
Someone is indeed imposing their values on others, but it ain't President Obama.
Hobby Lobby doesn't—and shouldn't—have any control over how their employees spend their paychecks. And they shouldn't have any control over how their employees use their comprehensive healthcare coverage, either.
Employees are not companies' property. A lot of companies seem to have forgotten that.
Open Thread
This week's open threads have been brought to you by Doctor Who. Happy 50th anniversary!
The Virtual Pub Is Open
[Explanations: lol your fat. pathetic anger bread. hey your gay.]
As tomorrow is Thanksgiving in the US, many of our contributors and mods will be indisposed for part or all of the next few days, so we're all going to take a long weekend. We'll be back full-time next Monday, and there will continue to be moderated daily Open Threads in the interim.
To everyone who will be marking Thanksgiving in any way...Happy Thanksgiving!
To everyone who won't be...have a nice weekend!
And in acknowledgement of the part of this holiday which is worth celebrating—that is, taking a moment to give thanks for that for which we are grateful—I would like to say that I am thankful for you, Shakers.
