#poll worker recruitment

[whenweallvote]

Florida needs poll workers, especially in Duval County, Orange County, and Palm Beach County! 🍊☀️

Visit weall.vote/recruit to become a poll worker in your community.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Iran is now a “legitimate target” for Israeli missile strikes, one of the country’s most senior ministers has told the Telegraph, raising the prospect of an all-out war with Tehran.

In a wide-ranging interview, Nir Barkat, Israel’s economy minister, also said Palestinians from the West Bank would never be allowed to work in the country again and would be replaced by more than a quarter of a million imported foreign workers.

He also complained that the war in Gaza had not been fought aggressively enough.

Mr Barkat, who is favourite to succeed Benjamin Netanyahu as leader of the ruling Likud party, said Israel could afford to keep fighting and open up a new front with Lebanon, despite the billion shekel (£200 million) a day cost of the conflict.

He said that as “big as the crisis is, it is also a really big opportunity”, with governments around the world needing Israel’s technical expertise to combat global jihadism.[...]

The risk of the war spreading to Lebanon and as far as Iran will alarm Western leaders, with Mr Barkat becoming increasingly influential in the ruling party.

Polls suggest the economy minister would win five more seats than Mr Netanyahu if he replaced him as Likud’s leader.

Mr Barkat, 64, said: “Iran is a legitimate target for Israel. They will not get away with it. The head of the snake is Tehran. My recommendation is to adopt the strategy that President Kennedy used in the Cuban missile crisis. What he basically said then was a missile from Cuba will be answered with a missile to Moscow.[...]

Israel is edging towards a full-blown war with Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, having evacuated the north of the country. Mr Barkat said a second war was affordable while “the threat of Hezbollah must be eliminated”.

“Whatever it takes,” he said[...]

The economy is expected to grow by two per cent this year, down from five per cent forecast prior to the war.[...]

As the country lurches to the Right in the aftermath of October 7 and with Mr Netanyahu’s personal ratings plummeting, Mr Barkat appears to be making a play to replace the prime minister as party leader.[...]

Mr Barkat rejected any suggestion that Palestinian labourers, who previously came into Israel daily to work in the construction and other industries, would be allowed to return. Daily crossings for labourers into Israel from the West Bank have been on hold since October 7.

He likened the Palestinian Authority running the West Bank to the Hamas leadership in Gaza.

“You know what the difference is? Nothing,” said Mr Barkat. [...]

Israel has long been reliant on workers coming into the country from Gaza and the West Bank, but Mr Barkat, whose ministry is responsible for the construction industry, said: “We are done with Palestinian employees. The rationale behind it is very simple: we only want foreign employees from peaceful countries. We don’t want employees from enemies.[...]

India is the likeliest target for a recruitment drive with the promise of wages seven to ten times higher than at home. “Everybody wins,” said Mr Barkat.

“If you don’t do what I proposed, it’s as if we didn’t learn the lessons of October 7.”[...]

On the conduct of the war in Gaza and in the face of international condemnation of Israel’s tactics, Mr Barkat said: “Israel is being very cautious[...]

The reality is at certain points in time I prefer a much more aggressive approach.”[...]

["]This is a religious war.” [he said]

24 Jan 24

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A survey of Canadians’ health care concerns reveals nearly three-quarters of Canadians think health care in their province is in a state of crisis, and the majority think governments aren't doing enough to fix workforce shortages.

The poll was commissioned by the Canadian Health Coalition ahead of the annual meeting of the 13 provincial and territorial leaders in Halifax this week.

"Voters have a message for their premiers when they meet in Halifax for the Council of the Federation,” said Canadian Health Coalition chairperson Jason MacLean. “Canadians want provinces and territories to work with the federal government to improve public health care for everyone."

About eight in 10 Albertans said they support stronger cooperation between the provinces and the federal government to develop and implement a plan to recruit and retain more health care workers, and 79 per cent said they want the province to work with Ottawa on a national pharmacare program.

While survey respondents from across Canada backed collaboration on health care, premiers have shown reluctance to get behind some federal initiatives.

In a letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sent last week, the premiers urged the federal government to "refrain from unilateral actions in areas of provincial and territorial jurisdiction, particularly in health care, education, and housing."

Continue Reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @abpoli

[whencyclopedia]

Sturmabteilung

The Sturmabteilung (SA or Storm Detachment), popularly known as the Brownshirts for their uniform, was the paramilitary arm of the German Nazi party led by Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). The SA was formed in 1921 and led most famously by Ernst Röhm (1887-1934) with the purpose of intimidating rival parties and attacking those identified as enemies of Nazism.

Hitler grew wary of the growing power of the SA, and, embarrassed by its lawlessness after he became chancellor of Germany in 1933, he had Röhm and key SA figures assassinated on 30 June 1934, an event known as the Night of the Long Knives. The functions of the SA, such as running concentration camps, were taken over by another Nazi paramilitary group, the SS (Schutzstaffel)

The SA's Function & Leadership

Hitler had become the leader of the Munich-based NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) in 1921. The party was neither socialist nor at all interested in workers, but Hitler had chosen the name to give his ultra-nationalist party as wide an appeal as possible. Known as the Nazi party, it was also vehemently anti-Semitic and against the German establishment.

The SA or Sturmabteilung paramilitary group was officially formed in 1921. As Hitler had said, "We must struggle with ideas, but if necessary also with fists" (Hite, 116). He might have added, too, the traditional weapons of the SA: the rubber truncheon, metal piping, and knuckleduster. The SA men were not given firearms since this would make them a rival to the army, which Hitler needed the support of if he was ever to take power. In 1921, Hitler himself led one vicious SA attack on a rival politician who was giving a speech in Bavaria. Hitler was arrested and spent one month in prison for the assault. With his popularity unharmed by the incident, Hitler remarked that "The Nationalist Socialist Movement will in the future ruthlessly prevent – if necessary by force – all meetings or lectures that are likely to distract the minds of our fellow countrymen" (Shirer, 43).

Adulation of Hitler, Bad Godesberg

Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H12704 (CC BY-SA)

The SA was given several functions to further the Nazi cause:

to protect Nazi party gatherings and meetings

to distribute Nazi propaganda such as posters and fliers

to rough up rival political parties and rival paramilitary groups

to intimidate voters at polling booths

to terrorise enemies in general (especially Jewish people and rival political activists) through physical attacks in the streets, arrests, and, in secret, to carry out beatings and torture

to make the Nazis look successful, disciplined, and important.

The first leader of the SA was Hans Ulrich Klintzsch (1898-1959), a former naval lieutenant. Hermann Göring (1893-1946), the First World War (1914-18) airforce hero, was selected to lead the SA from March 1923 because Hitler thought his reputation would gain a boost in recruits. From May 1924, the next leader of the SA was Ernst Röhm, a short, stocky, ruthless man, who carried impressive facial scars from wounds sustained in WWI. Röhm had been instrumental in forming the "gymnastics and sports" branch of the Nazi party, which had then morphed into the SA.

Ernst Röhm, 1924

Library of Congress (Public Domain)

Continue reading...

[marvelsmostwanted]

Poll workers needed on Election Day!

Link:

[mariacallous]

"This isn’t a political rally," said Lance Wallnau from a convention hall stage in Monroeville, outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "It’s much different than a revival meeting, it’s kind of a new type of thing. It’s where the people of God, the citizens of heaven, bring heaven to earth."

Wallnau, a former oil industry marketer turned charismatic Christian author and media figure, was there recently on the sixth stop of his swing state Courage Tour. The tour’s goal is to bolster the courage of attendees' to speak their minds politically and recruit them to serve as local election workers and poll watchers.

Over the course of two days, audience members would pray, sway with their hands in the air to swelling worship music, take in lessons on American history, politics and the Bible, and be visited by vice presidential candidate and U.S. Senator JD Vance. Wallnau, along with his wife Annabelle, are just two of several right-wing Christian leaders hosting these revival-style events at which Trump is seen as God’s anointed candidate, according to Matthew Taylor, a senior scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian and Jewish Studies.

"They understand this as a literal spiritual battle between angels and demons. The angels are trying to enact the will of God, which they believe is to see Donald Trump given a second term," said Taylor, who has done extensive research on Christians who were part of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

'Demonic ideas'

On January 6, Wallnau was scheduled to speak at a prayer rally in Washington DC. But before he made it to a microphone, Trump supporters had already broken into the Capitol. So Wallnau went back to his hotel room to stream live on a Christian talk show. Right away, he and his co-hosts made baseless claims that the FBI had bussed in members of antifa to sow violence among the otherwise peaceful crowd.

"They're actually the activists that are working for the Democratic Party that were there in order to create the incident with violence that would smear the president," Wallnau said. "It was the devil’s people at this thing."

"I have been through the social media accounts of many, many of the Christians who were there on January 6th," said Taylor, "and you can find them posting Lance Wallnau videos and Lance Wallnau commentary." He added that one criminal defendant even cited Wallnau’s show as his reason for attending what he believed was a permitted rally.

In his new book, The Violent Take It By Force, Taylor describes Wallnau as "Trump’s most influential spiritual propagandist." He says when many Christian and evangelical leaders had been reluctant to back the brash, twice-divorced, reality TV billionaire’s 2016 presidential run, Wallnau gained a following popularizing biblical rationales for supporting then candidate Trump. God, Wallnau proclaimed, had anointed Trump, imperfect as he was, to lead the country.

Wallnau is well-known in evangelical circles for having popularized a Christian concept called the "Seven Mountains," which calls on the faithful to take dominion over all areas of culture. In person, however, the media-savvy Wallnau can be challenging to pin down ideologically. He’s previously identified as a "Christian Nationalist," but told NPR the term is a label "to create anxiety and misrepresentation." Wallnau also called Taylor’s scholarship "the fantasy narrative of this one guy obsessed with Christian nationalism."

"Nobody’s a demon, but they can be under the influence of demonic ideas," Wallnau said in an interview. "I regret when it sounds like I'm making people evil because I'm in the business of redemption." He still questions the 2020 election results and to this day refers to the events of January 6th as "election fraud intervention."

'A Trojan Horse'

On the Courage Tour, Wallnau and his fellow speakers laid out an updated approach for the coming election.

"Are you guys ready to show the world that Christians will be silent no more?" Joshua Standifer asked from the stage. His nonprofit, Lion of Judah, is helping recruit the folks in the audience to become election workers.

"We all remember 2020 when they bought up the windows, when they closed the doors, when they kicked all the volunteers out. You can be on the inside and be one of the ones making a difference and making sure that nothing nefarious happens," said Standifer, invoking debunked, but still popular, narratives of election fraud.

Standifer also wants these poll workers to send anything they see that could be evidence of fraud. He’s been calling the effort "a Trojan horse," which alarms some observers. He told NPR he didn’t mean the metaphor to extend to the part where the Greeks decimate the city of Troy.

"Do I regret it? I don't know, because it's brought a lot of coverage to us, you know, for better or for worse," said Standifer.

Trust in elections

Even when everyone is working with the purest of motivations, no election runs perfectly, according to Mollie Cohen, who teaches political science at Perdue University.

"But if you are constantly under scrutiny by folks who are looking to catch you in a mistake, certainly, there are mistakes to be found," she said.

The truth, she says, is that most mistakes are caught and addressed very quickly. And since 2020, many election officials have put an even greater focus on transparency.

Mollie also says there’s lots of research showing that working the polls increases peoples’ confidence in elections.

"Something happens when people engage in election administration. It is very boring. It's quite tedious. And you really see everybody in your polling place," she said.

That’s been true for Dina Macey. She drove in before 5am to wait in her car and make sure she could get in to see JD Vance on the second day of the Courage Tour.

"It's the white Subaru, that's all Trumped out. It's got the Trump flags all over it and the bumper stickers, you know, magnets," said Macey.

She’s been an election worker before and was a poll watcher in 2020.

"And I did catch a couple people. Like a kid just walked in, didn't sign in or check in, and he was going to enter that. And I was like, 'whoa, you can't do that, you know?' So I bring it to [election workers’] attention," said Macey.

Macey is clear she hasn’t been pleased with everything about the elections she’s worked, but ultimately, the process she saw felt secure. That trust, though, doesn’t extend to the rest of her state, or the country.

Traveling shows like Wallnau’s Courage Tour are likely to reinforce suspicions like those.

Fears about the post-election period

"We don't trust the government on vaccines now. We don't trust them on laptops. We don't trust them on elections. And that's not a good place for a country," Wallnau told the audience on day two of the Pennsylvania stop.

This election cycle, the Trump campaign has focused heavily on legal challenges to voting rules. They’ve also geared up to dispute election results in the courts. That’s a big part of why Matthew Taylor is concerned about Wallnau and others like him.

"Part of what happened in 2020 was, there was no evidence of election fraud," said Taylor. "The Courage Tour is one component of this multi-pronged effort to stage the aftermath of this election as a season of contestation, that the results of the election are not the results of the election."

A contentious election will also help sustain right-wing and religious media circuits Wallnau is part of.

"By the time that the 2020 election happened, there were hundreds of charismatic prophets who were all prophesying that Donald Trump was God's chosen candidate and was destined to win the election," said Taylor.

When Trump lost, Taylor says those leaders pivoted to support the false narrative that the election was stolen, through more prophecies about demonic plots and divine motivation to fight back. Taylor believes those narratives posed a serious threat to democracy then, and he says it’s not looking much different this year.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Rick Pidcock at Baptist News Global:

Growing up as an independent fundamentalist Baptist, the highlight of each year for our church was the weeklong revival meeting, where we began each night with songs that prepared our hearts for a sermon by a fiery evangelist who then gave an altar call to get us to commit our lives to the cause. So, imagine if that same formula were applied to the 2024 election by a group of conspiracy theorists who openly admitted their plan was to be a “Trojan Horse” at polling stations in order to “make history this November.”

What might the worship look like? What would the sermon be about? What would the altar call be for? And how concerned should the rest of us be? Unfortunately, we don’t have to imagine because that’s exactly what is happening at The Courage Tour, which is branded as a “revival in seven key states … marking the dawn of our nation’s Third Great Awakening.” The Courage Tour has been organized by Lance Wallnau, an independent charismatic apostle who is popular in the New Apostolic Reformation and a promoter of the Seven Mountain Mandate call for Christians to dominate every part of society. According to Matthew Taylor, author of The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, Wallnau is “Donald Trump’s most effective spiritual propagandist.” In addition to Wallnau, the Courage Tour also features speakers such as Lou Engle, Allen West, Marjorie Taylor Greene and many others. Meetings this year have targeted Michigan, Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin, with additional swing states slated in the coming months.

[...]

The sermon

With hearts prepared to celebrate kingship, resistance to demons, a God who fights, victory and enemies drowning, the worshipers listened to the likes of Wallnau, who took the stage with the power and authority of a traveling evangelist.

The promo video includes clips of speakers saying:

America is under a spirit of delusion.

America has abandoned God.

Women are being used as pawns, which is exactly what the Left does.

We’ve given the keys to our church to the government and said: “Government, you run this church. You make the decisions for me.”

When we vacate the public square and leave that to chance, something fills the void.

When liberty hangs in the balance, and your children, your grandchildren, your nieces and nephews come to you and they say, “Where were you when tyranny knocked on our door,” what are you going to tell them?

What’s it actually going to take? Seriously, what kind of trigger point will cause the church just to come out of this zombie stupor and say: “OK that’s it. I’ve had it”?

The church shouldn’t be in a bunker waiting on the rapture, but it ought to be invading the mountains of influence for the glory of God.

We have to save our nation. We have to save our children.

We don’t have the luxury of disunity.

Fighting for liberty and freedom is difficult. It is hard. Choose your hard.

When the mothers suddenly see and perceive the organized threat against their little boys and their little girls, then they will rise up.

You’ve got a nation to save. You’ve got grandchildren to save.

Remember, those are the comments they were willing to highlight in their promo video. One wonders what may have been said they weren’t willing to highlight.

Common themes include spreading conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election and the January 6 insurrection. At one of the events, Wallnau said: “January 6 was not an insurrection. It was an election fraud intervention.”

[...]

The ‘Lion of Judah’ election workers

But perhaps the most concerning call to action at the Courage Tour is their recruitment of election workers through Lion of Judah, an organization that assists Christians to register as election workers with a cause. “Just imagine. It’s election night. Chaos is happening. The polls are closing. They go and the volunteers are getting kicked out,” Lion of Judah’s founder Joshua Caleb Standifer told the Courage Tour crowd. “But what if we had Christians across America and swing states like Wisconsin that were actually the ones counting the votes and making sure it was happening?” Lion of Judah is composed of election deniers who say, “What happened in 2020 can never happen again!” This is precisely why they were so popular at the Courage Tour. Taylor noted, “I was present throughout the Courage Tour event on Monday, and it was rife with 2020 election denialism from the stage, in conversations among attendees and in the literature at the booths.”

Rick Pidcock writes for Baptist News that far-right election denial and conspiracy theories linked to Christian nationalism are a big concern, such as The Lion Of Judah outfit whose goal is recruitment of election workers in support of subverting fair elections.

[odinsblog]

Back in 2001, Senate Bill 1 passed the Texas state legislature and banned Harris County - that's Houston - from keeping polls open late into the night, or overnight, so that shift workers could vote, while expanding early voting in rural counties. It lets the state throw away absentee ballots that don't come in with the voters drivers license number attached, without telling people that their vote hasn't been counted. It makes it a felony for any state employee to mail out an unsolicited absentee ballot. It requires election officials to do monthly purges of voting rolls, without notifying voters that they'll no longer be able to vote.

It provides new legal protections for so-called, non-partisan poll watchers.

They're actually recruiting Proud Boys down in Texas to be poll watchers, and it makes it a one year in prison offense if you try to stop them or confront them.

And it maintains the state's lack of convenient online voter registration, making it the most difficult state in the union to vote in. That was two years ago to set up Greg Abbott's election victory in the election of 2022.

Now they're coming back with a brand new piece of legislation that would allow the Republican Secretary of State to throw out all the votes in any county with over 2.7 million people, if the secretary of state believes there are any “irregularities” in the count. Now interestingly enough, the county that has Dallas has 2.6 million people and it votes Republican. The county that has Houston, which votes Democratic, has 2.7 million people. It has over 2.6 million, so in the law they made it only apply to any county with over 2.6 million people.

This is just one small piece of a much larger effort.

As the Texas Civil Rights Project noted, in just the first four years after five corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Texas Republicans closed 1173 polling places in mostly Black and Hispanic counties that had previously been protected by the Voting Rights Act, but none of that was enough for them.

As the Houston Chronicle noted two days ago, the effort is now to be able to throw out election results in Houston, and then say, “now the state has to have a new election that has to be paid for by the county,” or “now the county has to have a new election that has to be paid for by the county.”

And of course they want to do this because they know that special elections have very low turnout, and low turnout always favors Republicans, because the people who can most easily vote are the people who are salaried, upper middle class — white people mostly, and people who are retired. You know the aging Republicans in Texas, and you know it's pretty straightforward stuff.

Out of the 254 counties in Texas, only Harris County, only Houston was selected for this. And this is, you know, a county now that is led by people of color, as the Harris County attorney pointed out.

And Republican Secretaries of State across the nation were vigorously purging people from the polls. Over 17 million, more than 10% of America's active voters were purged off voting rolls in just the two years leading up to the 2018 elections, according to NBC News.

In North Carolina, now this again after the Voting Rights Act was gutted by five Republicans on the Supreme Court, in North Carolina 158 polling places were permanently closed in the 40 counties with the largest African-American populations leading up. This was just before the 2016 election, the Donald Trump election. This led to a 16% decline in African-American early voting in that state.

An MIT study found that nationwide, Hispanic voters wait 150% longer than white people do in line.

Black voters wait 200% longer in line.

In Indiana when then Governor Mike Pence passed a rigorous new Voter ID law, it produced an 11.5% drop in African-American voting in Indiana. This is why we didn't get President Al Gore or President Hillary Clinton. We would have gotten both of them if it wasn't for voter suppression.

Down in Florida, Jeb Bush knocked 90,000 African-Americans off the voting rolls so that his brother could win by 537 votes. Or we would have had President Al Gore, if it had been illegal for Jeb Bush to throw those people off the voting rolls.

And the same thing in 2016: an 11.5% drop in African-American voting just in Indiana, because of a law that Mike Pence passed.

Well, it was happening all over the country. By 2016, the Republican Party had really fine-tuned this voter suppression machine.

The New York Times reports in 2017 that just in Wisconsin, this is in the 2016 election, about 17,000 registered votes were turned away from the polls because of a new Voter ID law from Scott Walker.

In 2018, Greg Palace sued a number of Republican Secretaries of State and got his hands on purge lists that included 90,000 people in largely Democratic parts of Nevada, and 769,000 people in Colorado.

Keep in mind this is when Colorado was run by Republicans. 340,000 people in Georgia, and 469,000 people purged in Indiana.

In the dissent, in the Huston v. Randolph case, this was the case in 2018, where five Republicans on the Supreme Court said, “Yeah, it's fine. You can keep purging people from voting rolls.”

This was the Ohio Secretary of State, Stephen Breyer pointed out in his dissent, and I quote, “the record shows that in 2012, Ohio identified 1.5 million registered voters, nearly 20% of its 8 million registered voters as ineligible to remain on the voting rolls because they changed their residences,” and he points out that's 20% of the state's voters - who were kicked off for moving, when on any average year, about 4% of Americans move. How do these numbers come in while they just, you know, hey, Brown people, Black people, college towns, let's just purge them.

Calling the findings disturbing, the Brennan Center said, almost 4 million more names were purged in the rolls between 2014 and 2016. This led up to the Trump election.

Then between 2006 and 2008, this growth in the number of removed voters represented an increase of 33%, far outstripping growth of both total registered voters, 18%, and total population 6%.

This has been their strategy for years and years and years, to throw people off the voting rolls. Now on top of that, they're waging their culture wars, but the culture wars are not all that popular among most Americans.

—Republicans cry “Voter Fraud!” while enacting massive Voter Suppression laws

[ukrfeminism]

Women in the public sector are quitting their jobs due to being blocked from working flexibly with three in ten seeing their requests rejected, according to a major new study.

Researchers at Unison, the UK’s largest trade union, who polled just over 44,000 women working across the public sector, found three in ten working in hospitals, schools, care homes, town halls, police stations and other key services had pleas to work flexibly denied.

Some women said employers told them to leave their job or use annual leave if they want to work flexibly, while others report their requests were immediately blocked on the same day they were put in. Struggles to access flexible working meant some women had quit their jobs, researchers warned.

Christina McAnea, Unison’s general secretary, said: “Too many employers are still turning down flexible working requests, which means the right to request is pretty meaningless for many women. The right to work flexibly from day one would be beneficial for staff and employers alike, and help bring workplaces into the 21st century.”

Helping women juggle work with childcare and caring for loved ones can enable workplaces to recruit for jobs which are tricky to fill and likely boost the quality of public services, she added.

Ms McAnea said: “It’s disheartening to see many employers continuing to deny their staff the opportunity to work flexibly. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

"But sadly many women who find they need to inject some flexibility into their working lives are coming up against employers with inconsistent, rigid and unimaginative attitudes. While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, some form of flexible working is achievable in most workplaces.”

A quarter of those women who were informed they could not change their working conditions say their requests were rejected on a number of occasions.

Researchers also found more than two fifths of women were told they could not work flexibly because doing so would harm the service being provided, while almost three in ten were informed there would not be enough colleagues to cover for them. 

A fifth had their request rejected due to managers saying doing so would result in colleagues making similar pleas, while around one in seven were not provided with a reason by their employer.

New flexible working legislation comes into force in April which gives employees a statutory right to ask for flexible working from day one at a new job. While this is an improvement on the current wait of six months to ask, Unison warn employers are too easily able to block flexible working requests.

Emily*, who works in the energy sector, said she only managed to get her flexible return to work from maternity leave agreed just before she was due to return to work. 

“The process was horrendous,” she said. “I had to submit several requests and they were all turned down within days. I was stunned. I was caring for my baby and having huge levels of anxiety simply trying to get some flexibility at work. I was scared I’d lose my job. It dragged on so much I couldn’t sort out childcare. The process left me traumatised.”

While Nadia*, a local government worker with a disability, was blocked from working flexibly even though she had medical notes written up by her doctor. 

“I had a very supportive manager during the pandemic and we all worked well during that time,” Nadia, a single mother of two, added. “But as the situation eased, my new manager suddenly wanted everybody in the office all the time. Daily attendance then worsened my condition and I had to go off sick for a few months to recover. Being able to work from home on the days I’m struggling would make a huge difference, and also make it easier to look after my children.”

Helen*, a specialist nurse and single mother of three, explained she was repeatedly blocked from working flexibly.

She said: “I had to go down a pay band to get some flexibility, which put me and my family in financial difficulty. I was told if they allowed me to work flexibly they’d have to do the same for others. But others aren’t in my situation. 

“I'm a survivor of domestic violence and have no family support. The process was awful and I was made to feel like a massive inconvenience. Now I don’t want to be a nurse any more and am looking for a new job in retail. I’ve had to take time off because of the stress and anxiety I experienced. It shouldn’t be like this as I do love my job.”

*Names changed

[hillbilly---man]

Apparently it's Poll Worker Recruitment Day!

(appropriate, given what I'm doing all day today)

If you are in the US, go to this site and learn more about how you can help your community by working on Election Day:

If you're on Tumblr, you likely have all the skills necessary to be a poll worker.

Plus you get training, and (depending on where you are) you can get paid!

The precinct I'm working at today is about half staffed; we have a huge shortage of poll workers. It's not a big deal today since voter turnout is so bad for this primary, but we'll need all the help we can get for November.

We need relatively tech-savvy (as in: can you figure out how to use a simple iPad app?), civic-minded people who can be neutral and follow the laws.

[whenweallvote]

Our democracy needs YOU! 🫵🏽

Across the country, poll workers help their communities vote, keep polling places open, and make sure every voter has access to the ballot box. Serving as a poll worker is a fun and nonpartisan way you can help protect our democracy — and you can even get paid!

In honor of #PollWorkerRecruitmentDay, sign up to be a poll worker now at weall.vote/recruit. 🗳️

[dosesofcommonsense]

From the Election Wizard Telegram channel

SPECIAL REPORT: Pres. Trump’s Election Integrity Program at the RNC has:

-Engaged in about 100 lawsuits in 25 states

-Stopped 800k non-citizens from voting in New York City.

-Caught Appleton, Wisconsin not hiring Republicans as Poll Workers to assist voters in nursing homes (Special Voting Deputies) and forced them to do so by suing.

-Sued and won after catching Michigan’s Democrat Secretary giving election officials illegal instructions in secret to ignore mail ballot protections. Now MI must verify that signatures on mail ballots are accurate.

- Protected mail ballot safeguards in Pennsylvania.

- Sued the Biden-Harris admin for using tax tax dollars for partisan voter registration.

- Had 90,000 inactive voters removed from the rolls in Clark County, Nevada.

- Fought and won Georgia’s ballot application deadline, which is 11 days before the election.

-Vigorously defended Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Florida, and Georgia’s election integrity laws through multiple lawsuits in each state.

-Hired election integrity staff in 18 states.

-Recruited tens of thousands of poll watchers, poll workers, and lawyers.

-Hosted numerous training sessions for poll watchers and poll workers in the swing states.

https://x.com/electionwiz/status/1822228907455586694?s=46&t=MRsSpiGJq0d9cgNcH7cVqA

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 8.1

Holidays

African Emancipation Day (Trinidad and Tobago)

Air Force Day

Armed Forces Day (China, Lebanon)

Azerbaijani Language and Alphabet Day

Basil Day (French Republic)

Battle of Athens Day

Bitcoin Independence Day

Caribbean Day

Chopsticks Day

Clergy Sexual Abuse Awareness and Prevention Day

Cross-Quarter Day

Cycle to Work Day (UK)

Day of Azerbaijani Language and Alphabet

Day of Pachamama (Peru)

Day of the Rear Services of the Armed Forces (Russia)

Day of the Telephone Operator (Mexico)

DOGust

Earth Overshoot Day 2024 (a.k.a. Ecological Debt Day)  [ website ]

Ectopic Pregnancy Awareness Day

801 Day

Emancipation Day (UK; British Commonwealth)

Freedom Day (Belize)

Freedom to Marry Day (Minnesota)

Friendship Day

Gold Star Children’s Day

Girlfriends’ Day

Good Sportsmanship Day

Grain Marketing Freedom Day (Canada)

Guca Brass Bands Day (Serbia)

Harriet Quimby Day

HitchBOT Remembrance Day

Homowo (a.k.a. Hooting at Hunger; Ghana)

Indigenous Peoples Day (Taiwan)

International Adaptive Activity Day

International Can-It-Forward Day

International Childfree Day

International Mahjong Day

International Marine Protected Areas Day

International Sri Lankan Leopard Day

International Woo-Ah Day

Jerry Day

Laa Luanys (Isle of Man)

Laughter Day (Southern California)

Led Zeppelin Day

Liberation of Haile Selassie Day (Rastafari)

Memorial Day for the Victims of World War I (Russia)

Minden Day (UK)

Minority Donor Awareness Day

MTV Day

National Alpaca Day (Peru)

National American Family Day

National Andrew Day

National CBD Day

National Girlfriends Day

National Huddle Ledbetter Day

National Mahjong Day

National Minority Donor Awareness Day

National Mountain Climbing Day

National Non-Parent Day

National Poll Worker Recruitment Day

National Promise to Care Day

National Spritz Day

National Waifu Day

National Warsaw Uprising Remembrance Day (Poland)

National Wedding Day (UK)

National York Day

Odaiba Day

Oxygen Discovery Day

Parents’ Day (Democratic Republic of the Congo; Zaire)

Planner Day

Play Ball Day

Pod Body Day (Portland, Maine)

Respect For Parents Day

RNA Day

Rounds Resounding Day

San Francisco Cable Car Day

Scout Foundation Day

Scout Scarf Day

Social Resistance Day (North Cyprus)

Spider-Man Day

Sports Day

SSN 801 Day

Startup Day Across America

Swiss National Day

Technical Support Worker Day (Russia)

Treida de Santo Domingo de Guzmán (Nicaragua)

Thoroughbred Birthday (Southern Hemisphere)

Victory Day (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam)

White Rabbit Day

Wipe the Slate Clean Day

Woman Astronomers Day

Women’s Day (Thailand)

World Breastfeeding Day

World Day of Joy

World Fintech Day

World Lung Cancer Day

World Middle Finger Day

World Naked Sailing Day

World Scout Scarf Day

World Wide Web Day

Yaoi Day

Yorkshire Day (England)

Food & Drink Celebrations

Belgian Frites Day (a.k.a. International Day of Belgian Fries)

Homemade Pie Day

International Albariño Day

International Can-It Forward Day

Mars Bar Day

National Nutritional Yeast Day

National Raspberry Cream Pie Day

Old Vine Day

Independence & Related Days

Benin (originally Dahomey; from France, 1960)

Colorado Statehood Day (#38; 1876)

Guadalcanal Province Day (Solomon Islands)

Jennytopia (Declared; 2019) [unrecognized]

Switzerland (a.k.a. Confederation Day; from Holy Roman Empire, 1291)

Toku (Declared; 2014) [unrecognized]

Vodopol (Declared; 2021) [unrecognized]

1st Thursday in August

August Thursday (Anguilla) [1st Thursday]

Emancipation Day (Bermuda; 1st Day of Cup Match) [Thursday before 1st Monday in August]

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

National Dash Cam Day (UK) [1st Thursday]

National IPA Day (f.k.a. International IPA Day) [1st Thursday]

Weekly Holidays beginning August 1 (1st Week of August)

Brat Days (Sheboygan, Wisconsin) [1st Thursday thru Sunday]

Carnaval del Pueblo (London, UK) [1st Week]

International Assistance Dog Week (thru 8.7) [1st Week]

International Clown Week (thru 8.7)

International Mathematicians Week (thru 8.9)

National Albariño Week (thru 8.5)

National Cleanse Your Skin Week (thru 8.7)

National Fraud Awareness Week (thru 8.7) [1st Week]

National Minority Donor Awareness Week (thru 8.7)

National Scrabble Week (thru 8.7) [1st Week]

National Video Game Week (thru 8.7) [1st Week]

Satchmo Days [begin Thursday nearest 8.4 thru Sunday]

Simplify Your Life Week (thru 8.7)

World Breastfeeding Week (thru 8.7) [1st Week]

Festivals Beginning August 1, 2024

American Cured Meat Championships (Omaha, Nebraska) [thru 8.3]

August is Maine Lobster Month (Statewide, Maine) [thru 8.31]

Bear Lake Raspberry Days Festival (Garden City, Utah) [thru 8.3]

Castlefest (Lisse, Netherlands) [thru 8.4]

Clam Festival (Highlands, New Jersey) [thru 8.3]

Denver Burger Battle (Denver, Colorado)

Eden Corn Festival (Eden, New York) [thru 8.4]

Empire Farm Days (Pompey, New York) [thru 8.3]

Estherville Sweet Corn Days (Estherville, Iowa) [thru 8.4]

Gen Con (Indianapolis, Indiana) [thru 8.4]

Green Gathering (Chepstow, United Kingdom) [thru 8.4]

Houston Restaurant Weeks (Houston, Texas) [thru 9.2]

Katahdin Sheep Show (Mexico, Missouri) [thru 8.3]

Klamath County Fair (Klamath Falls, Oregon) [thru 8.4]

Lollapalooza (Chicago, Illinois) [thru 8.4]

Mammoth Festival of Beers & Bluesapalooza (Mammoth Lakes, California) [thru 8.4]

Mile of Music (Appleton, Wisconsin) [thru 8.4]

Minnesota Fringe Festival (Minneapolis, Minnesota) [thru 8.11]

Mobile Motion Film Festival (Zurich, Swizterland) [thru 8.31]

Official Star Trek Convention (Las Vegas, Nevada) [thru 8.4]

Outer Banks Watermelon Festival (Nag's Head, North Carolina)

Owensville Watermelon Festival (Owensville, Indiana) [thru 8.3]

Phelps Sauerkraut Weekend (Phelps, New York) [thru 8.4

Pol’and’Rock Festival (Woodstock Festival Poland; Czaplinek, Poland) [thru 8.3]

Saint Dominic Days (Managua) [thru 8.10]

Saskatoon Fringe Festival (Saskatoon, Canada) [thru 8.10]

Spicemas (Grenada Carnival; St. George’s, Grenada) [thru 8.13]

Sumner County Fair (Caldwell, Kansas) [thru 8.4]

Toronto Caribbean Carnival (Toronto, Canada) [thru 8.5]

Twin Cities Vegan Chef Challenge (Minneapolis, Minnesota) [thru 8.31]

Washington Wine Month (Washington State) [thru 8.31]

Wisconsin State Fair (West Allis, Wisconsin) [thru 8.11]

World Lumberjack Championships [thru 8.3]

XIT Rodeo & Reunion (Dalhart, Texas) [thru 8.3]

Zanzibar International Film Festival (Zanzibar City, Tanzania) [thru 8.4]

Feast Days

Abgar V of Edessa (Syrian Church)

Alan Moore (Australian War Artist; Artology)

Aled (a.k.a. Eiluned or Almedha; Christian; Martyr & Virgin)

Alphonsus Maria de' Liguori (Christian; Saint)

Æthelwold of Winchester (Christian; Saint)

Bernard Võ Văn Duệ (Christian; One of Vietnamese Martyrs)

Betty Lou’s Dad (Muppetism)

Cartoon Day (Pastafarian)

Chantal Montellier (Artology)

David Gemmell (Writerism)

Day of the Dryads (Macedonia)

Dormition Fast (Orthodox Church) [thru 8.14]

Drug Side-Effects Day (Church of the SubGenius)

Ethelwold of Winchester (Christian; Saint)

Eusebius of Vercelli (Christian; Saint)

Exuperius of Bayeux (Christian; Saint)

Faith, Hope, and Charity (Christian; Virgin Martyrs)

Feast of Faith, Hope, Charity, and their Mother, Wisdom (Christian; Martyrs)

Feast of Kamál (Perfection; Baha'i)

Feast of Ninlil (Sumerian Goddess of the Grain)

Felix of Girona (Christian; Saint)

Festival of Lugh (Celtic here god)

Festival of Xiuhtechuhtli (Aztec God of the Calendar)

Gerhard Hirschfelder (Christian; Blessed)

Herman Melville (Writerism)

The Holy Maccabees (Christian; Saint)

Imps Charity Scramble (Shamanism)

Isobel Lilian Gloag (Artology)

Jackie Ormes (Artology)

James Henry Govier (Artology)

Jan van Scorel (Artology)

Kalends of August (Ancient Rome)

Lammas (a.k.a. ... 

Feast of Bread (Neopagan)

Feast of First Fruits (England, Scotland)

Feast of the Wheat Harvest

Festival of Albina (Irish White Barley Goddess; aka Alphito)

Festival of the First Fruits

Gule of August (England, Scotland)

Imbolc (So. Hemisphere; Neopagan)

Lady Day Eve (Neopagan)

Lammas, Day 2 (Celtic, Pagan) [5 of 8 Festivals of the Natural Year]

Lammas Eve (a.k.a. Lughnassad Eve)

Lammas Sabbat

Luanistyn (Manx Gaelic)

Lithasblot (Norse Harvest Festival)

Loaf Mass

Loki and Sigyn’s Day (Norse)

Lugh (Celtic Book of Days)

Lughnasa

Lughnasadh (Grain Harvest) [Ends on Samhain]

Lúnasa (Modern Irish)

Lùnastal (Scottish Gaelic)

Sexon Hlafmaesse

Lobster Boy Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)

Mati-Syra-Zemlya Day (Slavic Goddess of the Earth)

Pachamama Rayni (Festival Celebrating Mother Earth) [Ecuador; Peru]

Pellegrini (a.k.a. Peregrinus), Hermit (Christian; Saint)

Peter Apostle in Chains (Christian; Saint)

Procession of the Cross and the beginning of Dormition Fast (Eastern Orthodox)

Quarter Day (Scotland)

Richard Wilson (Artology)

Rose Macaulay (Writerism)

Sebastiano Ricci (Artology)

The Spanish Romancers (Positivist; Saints)

Vhrsti (Artology)

Warsan Shire (Writerism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Dismal Day (Unlucky or Evil Day; Medieval Europe; 15 of 24)

Egyptian Day (Unlucky Day; Middle Ages Europe) [15 of 24]

Fatal Day (Pagan) [15 of 24]

Tomobiki (友引 Japan) [Good luck all day, except at noon.]

Unlucky Day (Grafton’s Manual of 1565) [35 of 60]

Unlucky Monday (when Eve gave birth to Cain; Philippines) [1st Monday] (3 of 4)

Premieres

Alfred, by Thomas Arne (Opera; 1740)

Alice the Peacemaker (Disney Cartoon; 1924)

American Graffiti (Film; 1973)

Bargain Daze (Heckle & Jeckle Cartoon; 1953)

Being and Time, by Martin Heidegger (Book; 1927)

Big Chief No Treaty (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1962)

The Big Money, by John Dos Passos (Novel; 1936)

Burning Love, by Elvis Presley (Song; 1972)

Cape Kidnaveral (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1961)

Charley’s Aunt (Film; 1941)

Cook and Stagger (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1956)

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, by Judi and Ron Barrett (Children’s Book; 1978)

Concert for Bangladesh, hosted by George Harrison (Charity Concert; 1971)

Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti, by Squeeze (Album; 1985)

Cowardly Watchdog (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1966)

Crazy with the Heat (Disney Cartoon; 1947)

Crusader Rabbit (Jay Ward Cartoon TV Series; 1950)

The Dog Show (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1950)

Driven to Extraction (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1963)

Dune, by Frank Herbert (Novel; 1965)

The Dusters, featuring the Mighty Heroes (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1971)

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, by Tom Wolfe (Novel; 1968)

Eric, by Terry Pratchet (Novel; 1990) [Discworld #9]

Everybody’s Rockin’, by Neil Young (Album; 1983)

The Fabulous Firework Family (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1959)

The Final Countdown (Film; 1980)

Flebus (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1957)

Flight of the Navigator (Film; 1986)

The Four Musicians of Bremen (b Iwerks Cartoon; 1922)

A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin (Novel; 2000) [A Song of Fire and Ice #1]

Gangsta’s Paradise, by Coolio (Song; 1995)

Generals and Majors, by XTC (Song; 1980)

The Genie with the Light Touch (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1972)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, by Stieg Larsson (Novel; 2008) [Millennium Trilogy #1]

Give Me Liberty (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1967)

Golden Egg Goose (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1951)

Guardians of the Galaxy (Film; 2014)

Heaven Can Wait (Film; 1943)

The Highwayman, by Alfred Noyes (Poem; 1906)

The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Arthur Conan Doyle (Novel; 1901)

House Busters (Heckle & Jeckle Cartoon; 1952)

Howard the Duck (Film; 1986)

How to Catch a Cold (Disney Cartoon; 1951)

Jeremy, by Pearl Jam (Music Video; 1992)

Judo Kudos (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1968)

King Tut’s Tomb (Heckle & Jeckle Cartoon; 1950)

The Littlest Bully (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1960)

The Lyin’ Lion (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1949)

Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey (Children’s Book; 1941)

Meat, Drink and Be Merry (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1961)

Modern Man in Search of a Soul, by C.G. Jung (Philosophical Book; 1933)

Money (That’s What I Want), by Barrett Strong (Song; 1959)

The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey (Novel; 1975)

Mrs. Jones’ Rest Farm (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1949)

MTV (Cable Network; 1981)

MySpace (Social Media App; 2003)

96 Tears, by ? and the Mysterians (Song; 1966)

North Dallas Forty (Film; 1979)

Nothing in Common (Film; 1986)

Oil Through the Day (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1964)

Open House (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1953)

Paul Bunyan (Disney Cartoon; 1958)

Porky the Rain-Maker (WB LT Cartoon; 1936)

Pride of the Yard (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1954)

Rain Dogs, by Tom Waits (Album; 1985)

Rear Window (Film; 1954)

Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier (novel; 1938)

The Road Not Taken (Poem; 1925)

Robots in Toyland (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1965)

Rule Britannia, by Thomas Arne (Song; 1740)

Señorella and the Glass Huarache (WB LT Cartoon; 1964)

Shadows on the Rock, by Willa Cather (Novel; 1931)

Shootin’ Stars (Modern Madcaps Cartoon; 1960)

Shotgun Shambles (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1962)

Sick, Sick Sidney (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1958)

The Snows of Kilimanjaro, by Ernest Hemingway (Short Story; 1936)

Steel Wheels, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1989)

Superiority, by Arthur C. Clarke (Short Story; 1951)

A Swiss Miss (Mighty Mouse Cartoon; 1950)

The 39 Steps (Film; 1935)

Tot Watchers (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1958)

Trouble in Baghdad (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1963)

Truant Officer Donald (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

The Trumpet of the Swan, by E.B. White (Children’s Book; 1970)

Turning the Fables (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1960)

The Twist, by Chubby Checker (Song; 1960)

Video Killed the Radio Star, by The Buggles (Music Video; 1981)

A Wedding Knight (Modern Madcaps Cartoon; 1966)

The Wiggles, by The Wiggles (Album; 1991)

Wild and Woolly Hare (WB LT Cartoon; 1959)

Witchy Woman, by The Eagles (Song; 1972)

Today’s Name Days

Alfons, Kenneth, Peter (Austria)

Alfonz, Jonatan (Croatia)

Oskar (Czech Republic)

Maira, Maire, Mairi, Maris (Estonia)

Maire (Finland)

Alphonse (France)

Alfons, Kenneth, Peter, Uwe (Germany)

Efkleos, Elesa, Markelos, Solomoni (Greece)

Boglárka (Hungary)

Alfonso, Giacomo (Italy)

Albīna, Albīns, Dags, Jarmuts, Spekonis (Latvia)

Almeda, Bartautas, Bartautė (Lithuania)

Peder, Petra (Norway)

Brodzisław, Justyn, Konrad, Konrada, Nadia, Piotr (Poland)

Božidara (Slovakia)

Alfonso, Caridad, Esperanza, Fe, Pedro (Spain)

Per (Sweden)

Charissa, Charity, Chasity, Cheri, Cherie, Cherry, Cheryl, Esperanza, Faith, Faye, Hope, Nadia, Nadine (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 214 of 2024; 152 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of Week 31 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Tinne (Holly) [Day 27 of 28]

Chinese: Month 6 (Xin-Wei), Day 27 (Ding-You)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 26 Tammuz 5784

Islamic: 25 Muharram 1446

J Cal: 4 Purple; Foursday [4 of 30]

Julian: 19 July 2024

Moon: 8%: Waning Crescent

Positivist: 17 Dante (8th Month) [The Spanish Romancers]

Runic Half Month: Thorn (Defense) [Day 9 of 15]

Season: Summer (Day 43 of 94)

Week: 1st Week of August

Zodiac: Leo (Day 11 of 31)

Calendar Changes

August (Gregorian Calendar) [Month 8 of 12]

[nodynasty4us]

A summary of the report:

This analysis examines the role that election denial played during the midterms and makes an early assessment of how it will continue to evolve ahead of the 2024 election. It does so by outlining 14 tactics deployed by election deniers throughout the 2022 election cycle: (1) election deniers’ bids for office, (2) election deniers’ refusal to concede, (3) counties’ refusal to certify election results, (4) efforts to discredit voting machines, (5) efforts to tamper with sensitive voting data and equipment, (6) massive public records requests, (7) efforts to recruit election deniers to serve as poll watchers and workers, (8) threats against election officials and workers, (9) voter intimidation, (10) mass challenges, (11) election police forces, (12) anti-voter lawsuits, (13) anti-voter legislation, and (14) disinformation.

And the conclusion:

Congress should strengthen our democratic guardrails by enacting baseline standards that safeguard voting and the administration of federal elections. In the absence of congressional action, states can and should strengthen their laws to protect against the spread of false information, strengthen their laws to safeguard election administration and voting rights, counter election subversion, and prevent intimidation and violence against election personnel and voters.A thorough state legislative agenda to promote election security and protect against election subversion should include, among other things, legislation that gives election officials more flexibility to count mail ballots faster (and thereby avoid the mistrust that comes with reporting delays), establishes restrictions to protect election systems from tampering and unauthorized access, and expands physical security and privacy protections for election officials and workers. This agenda should also ensure that adequate legal mechanisms exist to thwart efforts to subvert elections, including measures to clarify that certification is a ministerial and nondiscretionary duty, mechanisms for moving certification forward in the face of obstruction, and provisions empowering state courts to swiftly resolve election disputes. And it should prioritize adequately protecting voting rights and establishing clear standards for guaranteeing a clear and accurate count.

(Via an unrebloggable post by @crazyworldhuh.)

[laurelindebear]

Hey there fellow Americans!

If you have the time and you believe in democracy and the democratic process, you might consider becoming a poll worker or election official. Given what happened in 2020, there will almost certainly be more challenges and controversies this year. We need ethical people to help ensure the process is smooth and secure and to act as witnesses for challenges to certification, etc.

This website has resources on how you can check your eligibility, search for recruitment, and find out details for your state and county. If it's not possible for you, maybe you can circulate the info to others.