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findingtheperfectcharacter · 5 years ago

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Logan’s Lowdown’s Typed

A complete collection of Logan’s Lowdowns from the episode. Now in a format that I tried to make readable, but since I threw it all on one post it’s probably still not great.

(13:26) "It would be" directly after Patton says that it'd be unethical to buy frogger when he could be giving money to the homeless

(13:30, said aloud) "It's just me, Logan. I have taken this form because I did not want to be too invasive. (Thomas asks what he's doing) "Well determining what feels right or wrong for you isn't really my area of expertise. Seeing as how there's not much left at stake at this juncture and that regret is unfortunately not an experience that can be expedited. I decided that I need need not expend too much energy on this matter.

(13:50 cont from 13:30) However I felt like it would behoove all parties if I provided relevant information to serve as supporting evidence to any of the arguments that are made during today's discussion

(14:08, after Patton suggested his 'factoids' were optional.) *Facts, factoid was a term coined by Norman Miller to describe false facts invented by magazines in order to manipulate the readers And yes I suppose they could be viewed as optional, those two options being informed or ignorant (14:35) "Thank you Thomas It-

(14:49-14-50 cont from 14:08) It would be an estimated annual cost of 20 billion dollars to eliminate homelessness in the United States according to Mark Johnston, the acting assistant housing secretary for community planning and development. Americans spend more than 20 billion dollars on Christmas decorations and flowers every year. So it would seem that many Americans do have the currency to spare to end homelessness in America forever

(15:16 cont from 14:50) Similarly if every US household were to give up just 1% of their wealth, than that would be enough to end homelessness in the United States for the next 50 years

(17:18, Roman talking about saving Leslie Odom Jr from the Scute bellied beast) Scutes are the short, wide, rung-like scales on the underside of a snake

(18:38, The difference between helping people out for the sake of it and saving people for a reward.) A study was conducted at Berkeley that looked at the correlation between an individual's happiness and the amount of selfless acts they preformed. This was done by comparing three groups.

Group A was not instructed to preform any acts of kindness, while group B was instructed to meet the quota of 5 acts of kindness within a week. Group C, however was required to preform all 5 acts of kindness within one day. It was found that groups B and C (both of which preformed acts of kindness) saw an increase in how they rated their own happiness. But the most significant increase was in group C (5 acts of kindness in 1 day.)

(20:43 After the trolley problem scene) That scenario was an illustration of the classic philosophy dilemma, the trolley problem. "Trolly problem" is a term coined by Judith Thompson, who also devised its two most famous variants. The "Footbridge" and the "Switch " (the latter being the version that was just demonstrated.)

(20:55 cont of Trolley problem) The Trolley problem is intended to raise questions about our moral priorities: is it more important to minimize causalities or is it more important to strictly adhere to ethical rules? (The notion that it is wrong to kill another human being in particular).

(21:06 cont of Trolley problem) Furthermore the Trolley Problem asks us to examine the distinction between actively killing someone, and passively letting someone die.

(21:57 Patton says the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ of flipping the switch matters) What Patton is saying here ties into the principle of Deontology. Deontological ethics prioritizes specific duties above anything and everything else. A value system that is perfectly summed up in expressions such as, "duties for duties sake" and "let justice be done through the heaven's fall."

One of the duties that Patton's appealing to (which I already mentioned earlier as it is the most common argument leveled against redirecting the train in the trolley problem) is the aforementioned ethical rule that one should not murder another human being, even if one finds oneself in a n extremely specific set of circumstances in which homicide preserves more lives than terminated.

There is a natural tension between deontology and consequentialism, as deontology determines whether an action is right or wrong without much consideration of the ends of said action. Furthermore, the deontologically inclined might concern themselves with the intention behind a given action a given action. (a factor that would be completely disregarded by a consequentialist)

Deontological perspectives were first defined by 18th century German -

(23:08 Patton asks what real Philosophers would have to say about his viewpoints. Said aloud) Well, Freidrich Niezsche really wouldn't have been thrilled with anything you've had to say. Primarily because Pity seems to be at the center of your idea of "putting good into the world". Niezsche famously rejected the idea notion that pity was a virtue. He once claimed that pity 'runs counter to the instincts that preserve and enhance the value of life.' So Thomas is-

{Everything under this point is Janus disguised as Logan.}

(26:54 After Patton suggests that Thomas shouldn’t dedicate too much of his time to frivolity. Said aloud) I have a difference of opinion on this one, Patton. I’m sure we’re all somewhat familiar with the tired metaphor for self care you must put on your own oxygen mask before helping fellow passengers. An analogy that warns against the practice of helping others with their personal issues when you yourself are in need of help.

It is ironic that that illustration’s so overused at this point because it has almost become as easy to tune out that advice as it is to tune out the actual safety instructions on a flight. Easy, and very dangerous. In the event that a plane cabin becomes depressurized, you do not have long to secure your oxygen mask before you risk your oxygen saturation levels dropping too much leading to hypoxia (which is just insufficient oxygen for life functions.)

Hypoxia’s symptoms can include: an inability to communicate, confusion, unconsciousness and possible death. Having heard a piece of information before does not give you licence to ignore it in the future. Especially when the consequences of forgetting are so perilous.

(28:16, Patton talking about how he’d totally let Thomas self-care in that sort of extreme situation. Said aloud) And just like all of the moral dilemmas we’ve been discussing, it can seem easy to confidently state what you would do in a difficult situation, without knowing how you’d legitimately behave when your instincts take over.

In theory you believe Thomas can and should take some time to care for himself, but every point you’ve made in this discussion has contradicted that sentiment.

(28:44 after Roman asks how Patton’s points have been contradictory to Thomas taking care of himself. Said aloud) Nearly every answer Patton has given to moral questions throughout this discussion has suggested that a moral life is a life without spending surplus capital and time on leisure activities.

Dr. Robert A. Stebbins defined leisure as “... activity engaged in during free time which people want to do and... actually do in either a satisfying or fulfilling way (or both).” Leisure means freedom, its your time and you do what you want with it, which in turn contributes to a feeling of control and improved self-esteem.

A lack of control, and self esteem are two factors that you all now understand can worsen Thomas’s relationship with intrusive thoughts-- and they have. Additionally, doctors Iwasaki Messina and Hopper wrote that leisure time promotes a joyful life, and if that wasn’t enough pleasurable activities stimulate the production of neurotransmitters which can than improve one’s physical health.

Leisure is something Thomas needs more of in his life in order to feel like he has a life and Patton is essentially suggesting that Thomas isn’t being as good of a person as he’d like him to be if he doesn’t sacrifice himself for others.

(29:56, after Patton says that isn’t true. Said aloud) Oh, is it not? Please correct me if I’m wrong (Patton says that he’s wrong) So if it was between Thomas’s life or another’s you don’t think Thomas should give his life up? Oh and this other person is an innocent little lamb. Or how about a group of innocents?

(30:40 Patton’s breakdown about not knowing in that kind of scenario what’s right or wrong. Said aloud) You don’t know? Earlier you said that all people naturally understand right and wrong. So? Should Thomas die so that others may live?

(31:32 while Patton’s offering a new Trolley problem with Thomas on one track and Lee and Mary Lee on the other. Said aloud) ENOUGH! This isn’t working. This entire conversation has become so muddled due to a constant misleading, misues of “conscientious” language. You’ll need a sharp side to cut through all this conscientious bull-frog.

{Logan’s back in these lines}

(36:24, Logan’s back! Said aloud) Not that any of you care, but I’m unharmed, and I don’t want to talk about it. I’m just here to deliver you one last fact than I will do you all a favor and spare you my company.

Peter Singer is an Australian Philosopher and activist who champions the movement known as ‘effective altruism.’ The primary feature that differentiates effective altruism from other moral philosophies is its practicality. It employs the heart AND the mind so that effective altruism can earn its namesake and actually... Be effective.

The aim is to help as many people as possible while maintaining a ‘perfectly adequate standard of living.’ So a poor, sick person giving 5 of their last 15 cents to an aid organization, while incredibly altruistic is not effective altruism because that money won’t go very far. And the act would only harm that person’s already unacceptable standard of living.

Fellow effective altruist Williams Macaskill recommends people who can and are inclined to should go into fields like banking or finance because more money earned means more money to give. (After Thomas adds that he needs to give himself a buff) And you need to maintain an adequate standard of living. You can’t forget that part. If the variety of generosity in your life is leaving you depressed, or like your life isn’t your own than you need to reevaluate things.

#ts spoilers #SVS redux #Patton sanders #Logan Sanders #Janus Sanders #Roman Sanders #Selfishness Vs Selflessness redux #long post

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solarpunk-gnome · 7 years ago

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Ask any advocate for bicycling in the United States about important recent advancements in bike infrastructure, and you’re sure to hear about the rise of cycle tracks (also called variously “protected bike lanes” and “separated bike lanes”). From New York to Seattle and many places in between, cycle tracks have achieved notoriety due to their visibility and also for their near-universal success. Seville, Spain, for example, made a major investment in a full network of cycle tracks and saw a massive boom in the number of people riding bikes. Closer to home, U.S. and Canadian cities of all sizes have experienced significant and sustained increases in bike ridership on newly-installed cycle tracks.

Given all the recent fanfare, you might be surprised to know that cycle tracks have a much older history in the United States. That history reveals major fault lines that continue to influence transportation policy and have interesting connections with some of the themes we talk about here at Strong Towns.

A Brief History

Our story begins In the early 1970s, when the United States and other industrialized nations were rocked by severe petroleum shortages. As fuel became scarce and costs skyrocketed, more and more people explored transportation options besides private automotive vehicles. Due at least in part to the circumstances surrounding the oil crisis, bicycling saw something of a renaissance as a serious mode of transportation. As numbers increased, officials at all levels of government moved to provide more adequate facilities.

The pressure for guidance on safety improvements for people on bicycles led the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) — a partnership of state transportation agencies that develops roadway standards and has enormous influence over transportation policy — to give serious consideration to bicycle facilities for the first time in their history. By 1974, AASHTO had developed the first edition of the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities (Bike Guide), which brings us to their first statement on cycle tracks. It may surprise many of you to learn that AASHTO—and, by extension, federal, state, and local transportation officials across the United States—gave their stamp of approval to cycle tracks and so-called "protected intersection designs" in the very first edition of the Bike Guide.

It doesn’t require unusual powers of observation to note that cycle tracks didn’t catch on in the United States in the wake of the 1974 Bike Guide. There’s no single explanation for this, but one powerful influence was undoubtedly the rise of an ideology commonly called "vehicular cycling". Based on principles set forth by a California man named John Forester, vehicular cycling was a movement that mounted fierce opposition to cycle tracks and virtually any other form of bicycle-specific infrastructure. There’s a lot of history that we can’t cover here, but I’ll try to be fair in summarizing the essence of the vehicular cycling movement:

Building bicycle facilities as part of the roadway effectively redefines bicyclists as obstacles to be removed from motor vehicle traffic. (Of note, some jurisdictions had laws on the books forcing bicyclists to use bicycle facilities if they existed.)

Dedicated bicycle facilities are unsafe.

Dedicated facilities, especially those designed to accommodate children or inexperienced bicyclists, create a public perception that bicycles are not a serious form of transportation. Furthermore, their design often hinders travel for more experienced bicyclists who prefer faster speeds.

Mr. Forester was a tireless champion of these ideals. He and other like-minded advocates used their positions within advocacy organizations (as well as within local, state, and federal institutions) to undermine the guidelines of the 1974 Bike Guide. They found a receptive audience among traffic engineers and officials, many of whom were wary of expending resources to build high quality bike infrastructure. So when AASHTO published an updated Bike Guide in 1981 it looked very different from the 1974 document. Not only were cycle tracks dropped as a recommended facility, but they had actually been prohibited!

There have been (and continue to be) bitter disagreements between vehicular cyclists and other bike advocates over dedicated bike facilities, especially cycle tracks. Improved safety research and a slew of highly successful cycle track installations around the country have done much to turn the tide in favor of dedicated facilities.

#SlowTheCars

For our purposes, it doesn’t actually matter whether the claims made by vehicular cyclists are true. What interests me is what these differing opinions reveal about the overall state of confusion around public rights of way.

In a certain sense, vehicular cyclists have a point. The idea of streets as the sole province of motor vehicles is relatively new to human experience. Prior to the rise of the automobile, streets functioned more like public parks than the noxious, dangerous places they are today. It would have been shocking to suggest to your great-great-grandparents that streets were the sole province of the almighty automobile. In that sense, cycle tracks and other bicycle-specific facilities are a capitulation to the idea that streets are for cars except in isolated locations where other users are granted explicit access.

On the other hand, the presence of motor vehicles represents a clear hazard to the health and safety of other road users not likewise enclosed in the giant metal boxes we call cars. If the purpose of a road is to facilitate movement, there’s a certain logic to dividing road users into like groups and treating them differently.

As with so many issues our cities face, the opposing sides appear to be fighting over the answers to the wrong question. If we start from the premise that the purpose of the public right of way is to provide fast, unimpeded movement through a neighborhood or city while also unlocking development potential on the land around it — the way we think of it under our the Growth Ponzi scheme mentality — the dispute makes sense. However, if we reframe our thinking to focus on city streets as platforms for building wealth we can have an entirely different conversation.

A Strong Town might use cycle tracks as part of a safe and connected bike network, but it will have first carefully considered how to employ public right of way in a way that adds value to the land around it. In other words, a Strong Town would ask: is this a street or a road? It is our inability to adequately define the core purpose of the public right of way that has led to the disastrous state of bicycling in the United States today.

In light of this, I propose the following heuristics:

Cycle tracks are an appropriate (and even encouraged) accommodation for people on bicycles in a road environment.

Dedicated bicycle facilities are generally inappropriate on a street.

Roads exist to connect one productive place to another at high speed and with unimpeded flow. In this context, separation eliminates safety conflicts from mixing incompatible road uses and maintains the free flow of all people through the corridor. If you’re connecting people on bikes from one place to another, a separate facility such as a cycle track along a high speed road is a reasonable option.

In contrast, streets are valuable for the wealth they generate on the land around them — wealth that is degraded by the presence of lots of cars moving at high speeds. A street done right is, by nature, slow and safe. This is because people outside of cars — the indicator species of a successful place — are not comfortable around fast moving vehicles. The way to make people on bikes feel comfortable on a street is to make it more street-like by slowing cars down and making the space more inviting for people not driving. Separation on a street broadcasts the wrong message about the purpose of that space.

Conclusion

It is possible that some of our cities may have built high quality, connected networks of cycle tracks had AASHTO kept them as a viable option after the 1974 Bike Guide. I find it equally plausible that our loftier visions for comprehensive separated bike networks would have dissipated regardless. No amount of physical separation from cars can overcome the vast distances many Americans must travel to reach even basic daily needs. The implicit and explicit subsidies for “free” parking are sufficient to ensure driving is the default option in most places, and green paint and bollards were never a match for the inexorable decline of neighborhoods on the wrong side of the suburban Ponzi scheme.

Our collective failure to make the bicycle a viable transportation option for most Americans says more about our confused approach to city management than it does about a movement to rid the world of bike lanes. A city that wants to be great for bicycling must first do some soul searching about the nature of its public ways. And then, most likely, they'll need to #slowthecars.

* I’d like to thank Bill Schultheiss, Rebecca Sanders, and Jennifer Toole, three of my colleagues whose recent paper, presented at this month’s Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, provided much of the historical background for this article. You can read a version of the paper here. (See session titled: “A Historical Perspective on the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities and the Impact of the Vehicular Cycling Movement”.)

(Top photo source: Paul Krueger)

#solarpunk #cycling #bicycles #infrastructure #bikes #transportation #walking #pedestrians #cars #roads #streets

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years ago

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Morals Over Margins: A Blueprint for a More Equitable Hospitality Industry

The spring and summer of 2020 brought a reckoning for many Americans, with a global pandemic causing mass unemployment and the murder of George Floyd spurring protesters across the country to decry police violence against Black lives. For the restaurant industry, these events brought every failure and uncomfortable truth to the forefront — and exploited and jobless workers suddenly had plenty of time for such conversations.

Social media was flooded with infographics about the racist origins of tipping and the inequities that have kept the hospitality machine running in America since its birth at the blurry end of legalized slavery in this country. Capitalism itself was under a lens, the unfair concentration of power and profit magnified with every report of another billionaire doubling or tripling wealth. Replacing this economic and political system is a long shot, but anti-capitalist practices have existed in bars and restaurants for years now. So what does this look like, and why should everyone care?

Fair Wages

Capitalism is an economic system wherein the means of production of goods and services is privately owned rather than state-owned, with those private owners reaping the sole benefit of profits. That leaves the “means of production” — bartenders straining your Margarita and line cooks preparing your al dente pasta — in the hospitality industry exposed to exploitation thanks to notoriously slim margins for success. And since the hospitality industry, like most in this country, was built on the backs of Black people, it should be surprising to no one that the mistreatment of BIPOC, immigrant, and undocumented workers remains prevalent, despite their significant majority as employees in restaurants today.

One of the most basic ways an establishment can ensure the safety of its staff is by providing stable pay. Sadly, tipped workers who serve guests in bars and restaurants often make a subminimum wage, which is legal in all but seven states. Organizations like One Fair Wage seek to end this subminimum wage, but so have business owners.

In 2015, the practice of paying restaurant staff a higher but un-tipped wage cropped up noticeably. Prominent chefs like Alice Waters at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., began including service fees in guests’ checks in order to facilitate the change, while now-closed Bar Agricole in San Francisco raised its prices 20 percent to do the same. Chef Amanda Cohen was an early advocate for abolishing tipping in New York City when she adopted the practice at her Lower East Side location of Dirt Candy.

A Level Field

One of the most prominent supporters of the movement was Union Square Hospitality Group’s Danny Meyer, who announced back in 2015 that USHG would gradually end tipping and raise menu prices at all of its restaurants. Citing pay disparities between back- and front-of-house employees, which often fuels an unspoken feud between the two, the move to eliminate tipping at such a large and influential restaurant group convinced others to follow suit. This past summer, Meyer reversed the company’s “Hospitality Included” policy, meaning that servers at Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe (to name just a couple) are once again working for tips.

Where Meyer posited that staff should benefit from guests wanting to tip generously in the wake of an economic crisis, Stephanie Watanabe, co-founder of Brooklyn wine bar Coast and Valley, found the opposite to be true. “We instituted a universal living wage, which was super important for us,” she says. “I think we did that in the summer after realizing that folks were not tipping.”

With tips plummeting, Watanabe and her partner Eric Hsu began to have the conversation about livable wages with their staff. “It really solidified for us when Covid hit: People before profits, period. It’s non-negotiable,” she says.

Thanks to her background in filmmaking in Hollywood, Watanabe brought outside perspectives to the argument against tipping, too. The “Most Favored Nations” clause utilized in movie contracts for smaller independent projects — paying the A-list celebrities the same amount as the supporting players — inspired her to try something similar. “We saw the dynamic between dining room and kitchen [employees], and it really bothered us,” says Watanabe of the tipped FOH/untipped BOH schism. “So for me, this was a way to level that and say, ‘No. We’re not going to pay this person less because somehow their job is deemed less valuable than the person who is able to go to get their WSET [Wine & Spirit Education Trust certification].’”

The friction between staff, coupled with the usual caveats of tipping — tipped workers experience higher rates of sexual harassment and people of color are tipped less than their white coworkers — led to a discussion with staff about experimenting with a fixed wage. “We understand the deep roots that tipping has and how ultimately, it’s incredibly, incredibly harmful and racist, and that doesn’t sit well,” Watanabe says. “Every single person, including the owner, gets paid $25 an hour.” This anti-capitalist strategy, which values humans over money, brings her staff equality and stability. It is not, however, an easy way to run a business in America.

“Every month, we’re losing money. But we’re like, ‘and?’” says Watanabe. “Then so be it, then our business can’t survive. Period. And that’s a shame, but it’s also a function of capitalism and society and these systems and structures that exist.”

With profit margins hovering around 1 percent at places like Coast and Valley right now, most investors would be hesitant to risk it all, but many of Watanabe and Hsu’s backers are friends and family who truly believe in their vision. The team recognizes the real struggle that most bars face. “There are good folks out there, and the problem isn’t [that] owners don’t want to pay their people. Some of the time, it’s that they can’t,” Watanabe says.

Even for the big players, a seemingly minimal loss in income might come with strings attached. “Who knows if they’ve got investors and people that they’re beholden to that don’t share their commitment to those things?” Watanabe says. “Then oftentimes, you don’t have a lot of control over it. And that’s where capitalism kind of just comes in and wreaks havoc.”

Nobody is saying that flouting our capitalist tendencies is painless. “To do the right thing is really, really, really hard in this world that we live in,” Watanabe says. “I think it’s like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. But for Eric and I, … we can’t violate our own integrity, and so maybe that means we’re bad business people. And at the end of the day, I’d rather be a bad business person than a bad person.”

A High Road

Andrea Borgen Abdallah, owner of Barcito & Bodega in Los Angeles, was once a general manager at Union Square Hospitality Group’s Blue Smoke in Battery Park City, Calif. “I became really interested in that model and what it hopes to achieve — especially when it came to dealing with the inequity between kitchen staff and waitstaff,” she says. Borgen Abdallah followed USHG’s lead and did away with tipping less than a year after Barcito’s September 2015 opening.

Thanks to the restaurant’s proximity to the L.A. Convention Center, Borgen Abdallah noticed business was very cyclical. “[On a] Monday, I would out-sell a Friday night, and there was no method to the madness,” she says. But eliminating tipping created stability for her employees, ensuring that shifts would be predictably fruitful on any given day. “I was also able to introduce healthcare as a result of that,” Borgen Abdallah says — no small feat, given that the Affordable Care Act only requires insurance to be offered if an establishment has a larger staff of 50 or more full-time employees.

In March of 2020, with the shutdowns brought upon by the rise of Covid in the U.S., Borgen Abdallah closed her restaurant and made two important decisions. First, Barcito would continue to pay for the health insurance of its furloughed employees. Second, it would keep jobs available for anyone lacking a solid safety net. In this way, even though the restaurant was unable to provide the same hours, it was able to keep its doors open and its vulnerable staff cared for.

Last year, Barcito was also one of the first restaurants to participate in High Road Kitchens — a group of restaurants working to provide food on a sliding scale to low-wage workers, healthcare workers, and others in need. One Fair Wage, which fights to end subminimum wages nationwide, oversees the program through RAISE (Restaurants Advancing Industry Standards in Employment). Participating High Road Restaurants like Barcito commit to advocating for fair wages and increased racial and gender equity through hiring, training, and promotional practices.

Borgen Abdallah’s dedication to the fight for better wages began while working directly for One Fair Wage in the past, even making trips to Washington, D.C., and her commitment doesn’t seem to be waning. “I think this pandemic certainly exacerbated a lot of the issues that we’ve had for a really long time,” she says. “And I think a lot of people wanted to sweep [them] under the rug and finally were forced to reconcile.” Now, with all that is known about the instability of a life reliant on tips without guaranteed access to healthcare, paid leave, and other benefits, real change could be on the horizon.

The Hope

It has been one year since the start of the pandemic, and the cry of the overworked and underinsured is once again becoming just a murmur. An increase in vaccine availability quiets much of the fear of going back to a job where contracting Covid remains a danger, but bar and restaurant workers are still far from safe. Returning to work during a national emergency can be confusing, adding new ways for management to exploit staff such as through unsafe Covid practices, unexplained pay changes, and denial of federally required paid sick leave. After so much loss and disruption, mental health is suffering, and affordable insurance is often still tied to employment. One look at the long list of resources put together by the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, a nonprofit created by and for restaurant workers, gives some insight into just how vastly workers’ lives have been and continue to be affected.

With the passing of President Biden’s latest Covid relief package, small restaurants received access to $28.6 billion in grants, but a $15 federal minimum wage amendment failed. “I think people kind of started to talk about [issues for restaurants],” observes Watanabe, “but it was just like ‘bailout bailout bailout!’ But … that’s not going to cut it anymore.”

Last month, Barcito was able to get all of its employees vaccinated against Covid. As eligibility opens up to the rest of the public, a new normalcy feels within reach. But the sense of urgency to repair broken systems within hospitality threatens to dwindle. “I feel like it has kind of started to fall to the wayside,” Borgen Abdallah says. “The light at the end of the tunnel gets brighter and brighter, and I think it’s just important that we [have] those conversations and that that continues to feel really urgent.”

Anti-capitalist methods can actually work well within our capitalist society, even beyond championing workers’ rights through ensuring stable wages, paid time off, health care, or shared ownership opportunities. American bars and restaurants will need to look at sustainability and minimizing harm not just to people, but to the environment. Ambitious bar programs that are eliminating plastics — eco-friendly paper, metal, bamboo, and even hay straws have become standard — tackling water usage, and targeting waste by focusing on the creative use of what most might toss out have a real chance to lead the way as well.

“I’m hopeful, but I also am disappointed in the industry,” says Watanabe. “I feel like we’ve had a year where we could have addressed some really deep problematic systemic problems in this industry.” Businesses must look frankly once again at where they are lacking in response to the racism, sexism, and ableism that has pervaded hospitality since its early beginnings in this country. If capitalism benefits from white supremacy, then now is the time to challenge them both. “Ultimately, it’s not just about hospitality,” Watanabe says. “This is happening all over the place, and there’s a lot of reckonings happening. It’s really about changing the way we do business to be more conscious, to be more people-centered, to be more thoughtful.”

2020 may have broken us down with its harsh realities, shuttering more than 110,000 bars and restaurants nationwide, but as long as we can keep the momentum of learning and reimagining a better future for this industry — one where it values lives over profits — there is hope. “It’s been a tough year,” says Borgen Abdallah. “I think a lot of it could have been avoided had we done things differently, and I don’t think reverting back to the old way of doing things is the answer.”

The article Morals Over Margins: A Blueprint for a More Equitable Hospitality Industry appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/anti-capitalism-hospitality/

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johnboothus · 4 years ago

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Morals Over Margins: A Blueprint for a More Equitable Hospitality Industry

Fair Wages

A Level Field

A High Road

The Hope

The article Morals Over Margins: A Blueprint for a More Equitable Hospitality Industry appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/anti-capitalism-hospitality/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/morals-over-margins-a-blueprint-for-a-more-equitable-hospitality-industry

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trinamcmichaels01 · 4 years ago

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Americas True Blessing of Flexibility & Hope

Where is your family from as well as why did they pertain to America?

Have you ever before checked out the communist countries of China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, or Vietnam?

I've had the honor of taking a trip to lots of parts of the world, and also fell in love with the people of almost every nation. My heart made those that were incapable to appreciate the freedoms of choice and also self direction that Americans take for given daily.

What do you provide for a living? Whether you are a medical professional, instructor, mechanic, IT individual, or full-time parent; I would envision you picked that path for your life since you appreciated specific facets of that work, as well as you are able to be made up for it.

What if you had no say towards your life, as well as your future was only dictated to you by the federal government?

I can not think of a faster way to snuff out the trigger of life in one's eyes than completely eliminating their own agency from their lives. Unfortunately, that is what occurs in communist/socialist nations America Politics.

Do you intend to relocate there permanently and also quit your American liberties as well as chances?

Do you want to make America into one more China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, or Vietnam?

Your prospect for President in America need to have 2 goals:

1) Dedication to growing the security as well as strength of their nation.

2) The candidate needs to devote to protect as well as defend their residents' rights.

Why do individuals leave a country?

- Worry of safety on their own and their family members from violence.

- Concern of oppression for their beliefs.

- Remarkable destitution and also no opportunities for altering it.

- Federal government corruption and overreach that stifles individual options as well as development and pressures consistency.

Are you and your family aiming to import where they originated from to America?

What are the distinctions in between their house country and America?

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 goals?

1) Be devoted to expanding the security as well as strength of their nation.

2) The candidate ought to commit to protect and safeguard their citizens' civil liberties.

Obtain the facts, believe meticulously prior to you act as well as choose President of the United States on Nov. 3, 2020!

I have actually delighted in visiting, mentor, and also executing on my violin and also viola throughout the globe. This includes communist countries. I have actually always enjoyed as well as thrilled ahead back home to America and also our lots of blessings and liberties! It is a true eye opener to see exactly how lucky we remain in America.

We have numerous opportunities right here to start a company, select the job we would love to do, to own residential or commercial property, pray as we pick, protect our legal rights to cost-free speech, shield ourselves and also our home and also residential property, the right to think and also share our ideas with others.

We have excellent sanitation, plumbing, drinkable running water, electrical power with washrooms that function which allow you to wash your hands with soap and also water to keep germs as well as health issues from going through whole cities America National politics.

After going to these international areas, I was always so happy for the true blessings and also liberties of living and operating in America.

" In Communism the government possesses all home and pays its residents equally. Citizens possess absolutely nothing. The government picks your job and informs you what to do. They own you! There is no free will!"

Communism/Socialism is regularly thought of in academic as well as media circles as an "every little thing is totally free since it is a right". There is no freedom when you depend upon the government to determine what you are entitled to.

The American Change has actually stood the test of time because we are advised that our liberties come from God, not man.

Communism eliminates all your legal rights, your home, your possibilities, your choices, and also your flexibilities. This includes thinking, worship, association.

Birds Eye Sight on Communism in Russia:

The movie, Moscow on the Hudson" (1984) was written as well as routed by Paul Mazursky as well as starred Robin Williams, as Vladimir Ivanoff, a saxophonist with the Moscow Circus that is carrying out and also going to in New york city City. He chooses to defect while buying at Bloomingdale's in New york city City. Supervisor Mazursky stated the idea for the movie came from his own grandpa emigrating to the USA from Russia.

He claims, "Most Russians, are just trying to survive. Yet, all Russians who leave their country, leave behind something they treasure and love. It's a horrible problem for them, so the act of valor is overwhelming."

The movie opens with Vladimir in Russia living "in a congested apartment or condo with his extended family." Then "he stands in line for hours to purchase bathroom tissue and also shoes." It takes so long to buy the bathroom tissue and footwear that he's late to wedding rehearsal. Boris, the communist party participant, KGB,

" slams Vladimir for being late to practice session and also suggests Vladimir might miss the coming close to journey to the USA.". Vladimir immediately hands over to Boris, the shoes from the shop that made him late. After practice session Vladimir goes with his friend to buy gasoline for his vehicle from a "black market dealership."

After Vladimir issues he has numerous American people who have actually instantly agreed to help him. They offer him a location to stick with their family members, help him in finding work, and also a recent American person from Cuba who his legal representative.

Blessings of America: America is not excellent, yet it is our last sign of hope!

America was improved Judeo/Christian worths, law and order, nonpartisanship, capitalism, entrepreneurship, and free markets. America is a land of chances. Our USA Constitution secures our flexibilities. The framers of our Constitution were wise enough to realize that our unalienable civil liberties did not originate from federal government or male; they originated from God. They were likewise wise adequate to produce the Constitution and Expense of Rights to be exclusionary (describing what Government can refrain, as opposed to all things it could do).

The very flexibilities that the majority of us consider provided like the quest of life, freedom, and the quest of happiness, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of journalism, flexibility of setting up, and also freedom to request the federal government to appropriate wrongs are what make this country great. It is likewise why this excellent country of ours is a magnet for people from around the globe that answer the "battle-cry of their hearts to be free by looking for citizenship."

Your candidate for Head of state in America should have 2 purposes?

1) Commitment to expanding the stability and toughness of their nation.

2) The candidate should commit to protect as well as defend their people' rights.

What is Kristallnacht?

Kristallnacht, (also called the Evening of Broken Glass). On November 9-10, 1938, Pogroms, fierce riots, (strikes, looting, arson, mass apprehensions, and fatality) were performed versus the Jews by SA paramilitary pressures (storm troopers) and civilians throughout Nazi Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Slovak, Bohemia, Poland, as well as Moravia. These rioters destroyed, attacked, looted, and demolished Jewish organizations, houses, schools, medical facilities, as well as Synagogues with sledgehammers. After the strikes smashed glass was left on the streets.

" British chronicler Martin Gilbert wrote that no occasion in the history of German Jews between 1933 and also 1945 was so extensively reported as it was occurring, and also the accounts from international journalists working in Germany sent shockwaves all over the world."

The Times of London observed on November 11,1938: "No foreign propagandist bent upon smudging Germany before the globe can outshine the tale of burnings and also poundings, of blackguardly attacks on defenseless as well as innocent individuals, which disgraced that nation the other day."

Communism is total federal government control. Breaking down of order, robbery destruction, arson, death. Pogroms, Kristallnacht, eradicating statues (removing history), inculcating the young, (brain washing), no responsibility, versus independent reasoning, versus self-sufficiency, against household worths, against religious beliefs, against human spirit. Tramples on constitution. Takes all your civil liberties and liberties away America National politics.

Where is my family from?

My household is from Russia and also Hungary where there were no rights, no choices, no opportunities, no free speech, no right to a reasonable trial. You did what the government officials informed them to do. There was no freedom of speech. No owning of property. There was no selection in anything. The government decided what your career would be. When you suggested to attempt and secure yourself, they would certainly toss you behind bars as well as eliminate you.

America is the only location you can go from cloths to treasures. In other nations if you were birthed poor you remain this way permanently. Mark J. Quann, writer, said in 2017, "Immigrants Are Four Times Most Likely to Become Millionaires in America."

The number of immigrants get here in the United States each year? "More than 1 million immigrants arrive in the U.S. annually. In 2017, the top native land for brand-new immigrants coming into the U.S. was India, with 126,000 individuals, complied with by Mexico (124,000), China (121,000) and Cuba (41,000)." https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/

Ages 18 or Older: What happens if what you are being told is Not 100% true? Do you examine what you are informed as well as look for to examine the fact? Do you enlighten on your own? Are you answerable for your activities? What is your objective or desire?

Just in America will certainly you be provided the chance to pick your dream and also help it!

Rebecca Walser, skilled writer of "Wealth Unbroken", says, In America "you are empowered to take control of your life, your destiny, and that is something billions of people do not have."

Communist China in 2016 had a population of 1.4 billion. "Their people had just an ordinary per capita disposable revenue of $3,469 in 2016." Contrast this "to 320 million Americans who had $43,536 per head disposable yearly earnings that exact same year." (Walser, Wide Range Unbroken).

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 purposes?

1) Be committed to growing the stability and also stamina of their nation.

2) The candidate needs to devote to shield and defend their residents' rights.

Why have many countless individuals involve America? America is Not Perfect, but it has opportunities and also impressive possibilities that communism does not have!!!!!

These immigrants from Russia, China, Laos, and also other countries who have come to be residents of America are "Not asking" to go back to the countries they have gotten away from!

These 5 plus months of the pandemic and also being homebound has brought stress and also anxiousness to America with civil discontent, rioting, robbery, and also murder. This is a tip of pogroms in Russia and also Kristallnacht, (Evening of Broken Glass) in Nazi Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Slovak, Bohemia, Poland, as well as Moravia America Politics.

Believe and also obtain the true truths, before you elect Head of state of the USA on Nov 3, 2020!

Your prospect for President in America should have 2 purposes?

1) Be dedicated to expanding the stability and stamina of their country.

2) The prospect needs to commit to secure and defend their citizens' legal rights.

Remember what President Ronald Reagan stated, "Liberty is never ever greater than one generation far from extinction ... It should be defended, safeguarded, as well as handed on for them to do the exact same.".

Assume and get real truths prior to you vote on Nov. 3, 2020.

Do you want to maintain your civil liberties and also benefits in America or provide up?

History of American Voting Rights.

One of the remarkable points regarding staying in the United States of America is that we do not undergo half as many battles to vote as recently autonomous nations. Although now it may seem that ballot is nearly considered given, the background of American voting legal rights is not so quite. This article will take a look at the development of the American ballot civil liberties from the birth of the country until now.

Initially of American background, just white men over the age of 21 might join the vote. Additionally, the president as well as vice president were elected separately, and senators were not straight elected at all. Remember the selecting university's vote in regards to the presidency, too. Nevertheless, there were a number of adjustments that took place throughout our history to put the elections extra in the hands of the people-all individuals.

After the Civil War finished, the recently reunited nation passed numerous amendments allowing the newly launched slaves much more legal rights than ever, allegedly equivalent with those of white people. Initially, the 13th Amendment abolished slavery, along with required thrall, and also continues to prohibit these practices. Second, the 14th Change made slaves and also their descendents full residents of the United States, and gave them the very same rights as every various other citizen in America. Finally, the 15th Amendment prohibited voter discrimination based upon race, color, and also heritage. Together, these were referred to as the Repair Modifications.

You may have noticed that although people can not legally protect against others from electing based upon color, there was absolutely nothing included concerning sex. Even after African-American males obtained the right to vote, ladies of both shades were unable to do so. Lastly, in 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women suffrage. This sought straight political election of senators was offered to the people (17th Change, 1913) America Politics.

The Vietnam Battle was a time of great civil unrest. First, the 26th Amendment reduced the ballot age to 18 because 18-year-olds were being dispatched to battle without even obtaining the chance to choose their leader. This took place in 1971. Previously, yet additionally during the long period of time of the Vietnam War, the little ways people impaired African-Americans from voting involved nationwide interest.

Individuals disenfranchised black voters by setting up survey tax obligations, literacy examinations, and grandfather clauses. Due to the fact that these were unreasonable and borderline prohibited, individuals rebelled against these techniques, which cause Head of state Lyndon Johnson signing the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act made the discrimination versus black voters totally unlawful.

An Elect Capitalism Or Corporatism.

A home window of chance will remain in the political election of 2011. This home window will certainly permit you to cast your vote, for or against corporate America. While I must admit, that the corporate impact is healthy on both sides of the island, it is dominate to one side. You absolutely do not require me to tell you which side has actually dropped totally in bed with the opponent of capitalism.

You just need to discover, who is attempting to encourage corporate tax evasion, corporate authority, in taking apart lengthy established labor regulations and also who looks for to alter our privileges (social protection, Medicare) into independently run firms that's intention would certainly be to generate income, as opposed to assist those that require assistance. While they are pushing currently, more challenging than they ever before have, they are still unwavering in not allowing the rich to pay at the very least as much taxes as the middle class.

Big corporations pay much less than 15 percent in tax obligations, some really pay none. Some pay no tax obligations and receive totally free cash from the government in addition to that; called subsidies. Warren Buffet (Billionaire) remarks that his personal assistant pays a greater tax rate than he himself does. The millionaire tax bracket is technically 35 percent currently, after the George Bush tax cuts; yet they hardly ever pay this price as they use resources gains technique to submit, as well as this tax obligation bracket is around 15 percent. Considering that President Obama's election, there has actually been a fight to raise the millionaire bracket from 35 percent to the original 39 percent. This was the keystone with the brand-new republican tea party; that they were considered to of held congress captive over not permitting that 4 percent boost. Rather, they pushed extremely tough to make huge cuts, every one of which will come straight out of the pockets of the bad and middle courses.

The Shrub tax cuts took 2.5 trillion bucks out of the US economic climate over ten years. 2 battles one more 2 trillion bucks. The Shrub deregulation of economic laws, allowed greedy banks and also their Chief Executive Officer's to control poor mortgage, which resulted in the financial accident of 2008, that we are still struggling with. All the above, were activities produced by corporate power and also influence via our government, completely as much as the workdesk of the presidency its self. All of this pain to our economy was developed by millionaires, billionaires as well as powerful companies.

With the recent financial debt ceiling situation, we currently discover that it is NOT corporate America who will pay for these outrageous actions, however those that were the victims to begin with; the center class. Corporate wealth has raised 10 layer in ten years, while the middle course has been scaled down with boosting healthcare bills, as well as flat wages. Business America has 2.5 trillion dollars saved up and concealed here in the United States. The economical collapse of 2008 educated them just how to run their companies with much less individuals, raising their revenues, and maintaining unemployment very high. Business America is approximated to have 2 trillion bucks hid in off shore accounts to prevent the little taxes they do pay. This cash, will certainly never flow down to the middle class - not in a million years. In addition, one tenth of one percent of the worlds population owns 55 percent of the globes wide range America National politics.

In these times, its extremely important to not perplex conventional politics with company syndicates in this one respect. Traditional individuals have a legitimate disposition as do liberals. Each party is simply a preferred method of developing the federal government. Actually, all countries worldwide have these two possibilities that are maintained in equilibrium.

Yet the sad thing below is that conservatives have actually had their celebration infiltrated by big business money as well as control; drawing the creature strings of congress, pestering state legislatures with pro business costs. The traditional experts (people that speak about national politics) are paid, as well as paid well by these company teams which have actually invaded the traditional event as a hook worm lives underneath the skin. The firms have glided in under the radar with conservatists, by hiding under the umbrella of conservative concepts, however actually they have actually currently overtaken the conservative activity; as well as to the traditionalists hinderance they have really been educated to protect the same oppressor via the bombardment of the media statements the pundits are paid to project.

A Democratic, Market Issue That Brings completion of America As Forecast by Daniel the Prophet.

Alexander Tyler, a Scottish background professor at the College of Edinburgh, reflected on the autumn of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior. He is credited with saying that a freedom is always short-term till citizens discover that they can vote themselves charitable presents from the general public treasury. From that minute on, the bulk constantly chooses the prospects that guarantee the most gain from the general public treasury, with the result that every freedom will lastly collapse over loose fiscal plan, (which is) constantly complied with by a tyranny.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has actually been about 200 years throughout during which we see this series: "From bondage to spiritual belief; From spiritual faith to wonderful guts; From courage to freedom; From freedom to abundance; From wealth to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to reliance; From dependence back right into bondage." America's Obituary: Born 1776, Passed away 2012.

America, founded as a republic, is currently a freedom where the bulk ballot money for themselves in well-being programs. Demographics are an upcoming issue with amnesty of prohibited aliens, as recommended by Daniel's prophetic book.

Professor Olson includes: "In accumulation, the map of the territory Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying residents of the country.

Obama region mainly incorporated those citizens living in low revenue tenements and also living off numerous kinds of federal government welfare ..." Almost half of the United States remains in the "governmental dependency" phase. If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal intruders called illegals, we can say goodbye to the USA.

Does the Scriptures have any kind of light on this subject? When inquired about the end of the world, Christ said to understand guide of Daniel. Matthew 24:3,15. "During completion" the king of the north "overflows" the king of the south, Daniel 11:40. Who is the king of the north? The Bible is its own expositor-it interprets itself ...

In Ezekiel 26:7, the king of the north is the king of Babylon, however we also see that in the end-time, this is not concerning a city in Iraq, but regarding baffled systems of federal government, health and wellness, eduction, well-being as well as religion (Babylon).

Babylon is redefined in Rev 17:5 where we see images of a church riding the monster of New World Order. The lady (church) is involved with national politics, It's a rich church clothed with gold and also the color of scarlet, being in a city of seven hills, as well as drunken with the blood of saints-historically a maltreating church.

So exactly how does Babylon "overflow" the king of the south? With countless illegal immigrants overruning our southerly boundary having their key allegiance to the pope, it's no mystery just how the king of the north will certainly win in a freedom in which millions vote as told.

A close friend asked a Mexican couple that he satisfied in Montana why they relocate there. They responded, The priest told us to move below.

The pope states he has no problem with a Marxist label, (Google it) but he would certainly not agree with Marx that faith is "the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the imaginary joy of individuals is needed for their real happiness.".

Yet maybe Marx is right when it comes to Catholicism. Many assume they can live as they please through the week, yet reach paradise by paying the clergyman on Sunday.

The pope intends to see a redistribution of riches. Why not confess the clergyman can not forgive wrongs (Mark 2:7) and return the cash to the inadequate that, sometimes, offered the priest their last cow to get papa out of purgatory (a word not found in the Bible).

Unlike every various other country south of our border, America was established by Protestants taking the chance of stormy seas, bitter wintertimes as well as malnourishment to leave the Vintage Order injustice tht we can be welcoming under New World Order, Rev 13:15 -17.

Pioneers offered us a Constitution different from every various other country in its provisions for self-government and separation of church and also state so that Congress need to make no laws favoring a religious facility (like they performed in the institution coupon program preferring parochial schools of which the great majority are Catholic as are the High Court Justices, etc

. Before Voting, Consider Your VIEW Of America!

Today, we seem to be experiencing a time period, when there is even more rivalry, division, as well as polarization, as we have actually observed, in current memory, as well as, maybe, the bigger amount of people, that seem to be, resistant, to seek any commonalities, in order to safeguard, a far higher chance at getting to, a meeting - of - the - minds, than, this nation has seen, because our Civil War! No doubt, there are numerous reasons for this, consisting of, financial, racial/ ethnic, etc, yet, much of this, may have been, brought - to - a - head, because of the unusual nature of Head of state Trump, and, the means, he frequently seems, to appeal, to disgust and divisiveness, as opposed to bringing individuals with each other! Why do many, who oppose Trump, fall short to be able to see, anything, positive regarding his leadership, while Trump advocates, stay committed to him, and also absolutely nothing, he seems to say, or do, modifications that? Wouldn't it make good sense, before voting, each people, should, seriously, take into consideration, our SIGHT of what this nation stands for, has stood for, is today, and also what we expect, into the future? Keeping that in mind, this write-up will certainly attempt to, briefly, consider, take a look at, examine, and go over, using the mnemonic approach, what this suggests and also stands for, as well as why it matters America Politics.

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What the Hell Is Going on at Trader Joe’s?

Like other grocery stores, Trader Joe’s has been inundated with customers amid the pandemic. | Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Trader Joe’s employees attempt to unionize amid increasingly stressful (and in some cases, dangerous) work demands brought on by the coronavirus pandemic

On April 6, a Trader Joe’s employee with underlying health conditions died from COVID-19, prompting a temporary closure of the worker’s store in Scarsdale, New York, to give other employees “time to process and grieve.” It marked the first known novel coronavirus death for Trader Joe’s, and one of several recent coronavirus-related grocery worker deaths, as cashiers, stockers, and other essential workers on the front lines face increased exposure to the highly contagious virus — often without adequate personal protective equipment, paid sick leave, or hazard pay.

The dearth of such protections or compensation has emerged as a critical sticking point around which some essential workers are seeking to organize — including Trader Joe’s employees. In late March, a coalition of Trader Joe’s workers called for a boycott of the grocery chain, citing multiple reports of employees testing positive for COVID-19, with store managers allegedly “keeping stores open despite [a] sick crew.”

“For your own safety, the only ethical and actionable solution is to stop shopping there and tell any high risk friends and family you know to do the same,” the coalition tweeted.

For fans of the cult-favorite grocer, the current furor surrounding Trader Joe’s and its workers may be surprising. After all, the company — which has grown from a California neighborhood store into an Aldi-owned chain with more than 500 locations — has always prided itself on being a cut above other supermarkets, with high-quality products and friendly customer service that appeal to shoppers, a business model that is studied in MBA programs, and a reputation for being a good place to work, with above-average compensation, medical, dental, vision, and retirement plans, and annual salary increases, per the Associated Press.

But as Kim Kelly wrote for the Daily Beast, “[b]ehind all the cheery decor and novelty baked goods, the workers who keep the shelves stocked and cash registers ringing are suffering.” In recent weeks, BuzzFeed News, the New York Times, and Bloomberg Businessweek have documented the experiences of Trader Joe’s workers at this singular point in time, when the grocery chain is caught in a unionization effort and a public-health crisis. The coalition behind the Trader Joe’s union — which only went public on March 1 — quickly found itself fighting for immediate coronavirus protections for employees. The pandemic only served to highlight what the coalition has been saying: employers like Trader Joe’s needs to do more for its workers.

The current wave of unionization efforts is not the first in recent Trader Joe’s history. In 2016, an employee in New York City filed an unfair labor practices charge against the grocer after he was reprimanded for displaying an insufficiently “genuine” smile and attitude, and subsequently fired for “what the managers described as an overly negative attitude,” the Times reported at the time. Unionization discussions have bubbled up among employees since then, and were reignited last year after a transgender employee initially wasn’t allowed to wear a pin showing their preferred pronouns, according to the Times.

One former Pennsylvania Trader Joe’s employee — who was recently let go for “job abandonment” after not working any shifts for more than 21 days, due to concerns about the virus — told Eater that there has been chatter about unionizing in a group chat with her coworkers. Pre-coronavirus, she said, the complaints had mostly been about a lack of hours, which prevented employees from getting full-time benefits they needed, such as health insurance. She also expressed frustration over a repeated lack of transparent communication from management, inconsistent policies across stores, and the “red flag” of management’s reluctance to let workers form their own private group chats. The only reason their group chat was allowed, she said, was that a coworker had pitched it as an easier way to trade shifts. Management finally allowed the creation of the group chat, but on the condition that they wouldn’t use it to talk about unions.

Former Trader Joe’s employee Kris King told the Times that he was fired in part because he started a Facebook group for his fellow employees to discuss how the company was handling the pandemic. “We don’t operate by letting crew talk amongst themselves,” a manager allegedly told King before he let go. Trader Joe’s spokesperson Kenya Friend-Daniel did not dispute the details of the firing to the Times, and reiterated in a statement to Eater that employees are allowed to communicate with each other on social channels. “We know our Crew Members use a variety of ways to communicate with one another, including dedicated and closed Facebook pages,” Friend-Daniel wrote in an email. “We understand people want places to talk, and they are certainly welcome to do so.”

As the gravity of the coronavirus outbreak finally seemed to take hold among the American public in mid-March — between the World Health Organization’s official declaration of a pandemic, what seemed like an explosion in reported cases, and cities and states imposing ever-stricter measures to keep people at home — grocery stores became increasingly fraught lifelines. With restaurants largely closed save for takeout or delivery, it seemed like virtually the entire country was streaming into grocery stores for essential goods to stockpile at home. There were multiple reports of bare shelves and lines out the door at Trader Joe’s locations.

The company, to its credit, was early to give employees additional paid sick time, announcing in early March a policy to allow employees who have coronavirus symptoms or who feel ill to stay at home and get reimbursed for up to a week off. But, as some authorities have been sluggish to realize, such a policy ignores the reality of dealing with asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, who can still transmit the virus to unwitting coworkers who may then fall ill. Furthermore, a worker pointed out to Business Insider, there were concerns that the reimbursement was up to individual managers’ discretion, as well as over the lack of health insurance for ineligible employees.

“It is not enough to receive [paid time off] only after being proven sick,” the workers behind unionization efforts tweeted in mid-March, as they launched a petition (which eventually collected more than 20,000 signatures) demanding hazard pay at a rate of time and a half, plus guaranteed wages in the event of a forced store closure. “Trader Joe’s proudly employs elderly and disabled workers, two demographics that are most at risk for becoming critically ill for COVID-19. Yet those workers can’t afford to avoid work and keep themselves safe,” the coalition’s Coworker page read. “Hazard pay and guaranteed closure pay provides security, comfort, and increased morale knowing our company has our backs.”

Within days of the petition launch, Trader Joe’s sent an internal memo announcing plans to pay bonuses to store employees based on recent sales increases. Workers interviewed by the Times and Businessweek allege that the bonuses amount to only $200 to $300, or the equivalent of about an extra $2 an hour. Employees told Businessweek that some stores were breaking records and doing double or nearly triple their usual sales volume. “The bonus is a slap in the face,” one worker said. In a statement to Eater, Kenya-Daniel wrote that sales are now down in comparison, and that all store crew members have received a pay increase of $2 an hour. Currently, she wrote, “there is no end date to the increase.”

Employees have also expressed fears over what they see as a lack of protective measures or regard for safety from the company. Multiple outlets reported that last month, some workers were told by their managers not to wear gloves or face masks to avoid alarming customers. “When we ring people up, we shouldn’t be wearing gloves, because that makes people feel uncomfortable,” the former employee in Pennsylvania told Eater. “However, Crew Members feel unsafe that they are not allowed to wear any form of protection,” she wrote in a subsequent email.

“It is necessary to eliminate all lingering questions or confusion and set the record straight,” a company official wrote in an email to employees in March, according to the Times. “Trader Joe’s official policy on gloves is that we don’t have a policy. We never have.” The confusion is when individual stores have different protocols that are up to managers’ discretion, as has historically been the default for the company; an employee handbook reviewed by Eater states that it is “store management that truly makes all major store operational decisions. At Trader Joe’s the Captain really does run the ship!” Individual store flexibility may be a boon in the best of times, but can quickly turn to chaos during a national — or global — crisis.

Workers also alleged that their stores have been slow to close even after coworkers tested positive for COVID-19. In what is yet again an illustration of the problems with having different protocols for different locations, some stores’ employees told BuzzFeed News that their workplaces remained open with employees expected to come in as normal — without professional cleaning — after a diagnosis, while other stores closed for cleaning soon after a worker tested positive. For the stores that took longer to close or didn’t close at all, there would have been ample time for viral transmission, workers feared. (After BuzzFeed News contacted Trader Joe’s for comment, the company’s website was updated with a running list of stores temporarily closed due to the coronavirus).

Throughout the pandemic, as the Trader Joe’s Union Coalition has ramped up its activity to demand more proactive protections, attempts at union busting have also allegedly intensified. The Times reports that at the end of March, store managers gave anti-union talks to staff, and a regional manager visited multiple locations to tell workers that the hazard pay petition was actually a petition to join the union. In a statement to the Times, Friend-Daniel said: “Because a union has chosen to inject itself into the lives of our crew members during this time of crisis, we have no alternative but to remind and share with our crew members the facts.”

In a March 31 letter sent from CEO Dan Bane to all employees, he calls the unionization efforts “a distraction,” writing that “I am convinced that any Crew Member who critically considers the question will conclude that being a Crew Member at Trader Joe’s beats being a ‘member’ of a union” (neglecting to acknowledge that one can be both). He reminds the recipients that Trader Joe’s already offers higher starting wages, pay raises, and good benefits — all of which have “helped us be named the best company to work for in America.” Bane concludes with a pledge: “When this current period of unrest has settled down, if there are 30% of the Crew Members in any store that tell us they want to have a union vote... we will.”

And what of this “current period of unrest”? Standing demands from the organizing coalition include hazard pay of time and a half, free coronavirus testing for all workers, regular temperature checks, mandatory personal protective equipment, and two weeks of paid precautionary quarantine for anyone who has worked the same shifts as employees diagnosed with COVID-19.

The company, meanwhile, has put into place more measures to protect employees and customers. As of April 9, the list as it pertains to workers’ benefits and safety includes: reduced store hours, increased routine cleanings and sanitation, up to two weeks of additional paid leave for anyone who has symptoms or who is required to quarantine, the additional $2 an hour “thank you wage,” paying employees who are unable to work scheduled shifts due to a store closure, installing plexiglass barriers at registers, limiting the number of shoppers in the store and maintaining social distancing, and providing protective gear such as gloves and masks. These measures, as spokesperson Friend-Daniel pointed out to Eater in an email, are “meeting and exceeding” recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health officials.

“We understand this is a scary and unsettling time and we work hard every day to implement measures aimed at taking care of our Crew Members and customers and keeping them safe,” Friend-Daniel wrote. “We are also aware a union campaign is seeking to capitalize on the current environment in America — one in which misinformation and fear spreads easily. These union advocates rely heavily on mistruths, trying to stoke fear and distrust, and claims that only joining their union would protect the pay and benefits our Crew Members currently enjoy.”

The generous reading is that Trader Joe’s, as a company, may have made some mistakes — that, like the U.S. government, it has been slow to react, but unlike the federal government, it has moved to become proactive in addressing its people’s needs. “Every day, we’re listening to Crew Members and customers and re-evaluating what we’re doing and what we can do better,” Friend-Daniel said. “Our Crew Members are the heart of the company, every day going above and beyond to take care of customers and their communities.”

But some ask aloud if the grocery chain deserves this benefit of the doubt as it dares a third of its workers to call for a union. “The appearance of normalcy has been swapped out for the appearance of compassion. But there’s nothing substantive behind it,” the coalition of workers seeking unionization wrote to Eater in an email. “The company continues dragging their feet rolling out common sense policy that workers have been urgently calling for for weeks … It’s only through public pressure that the company has made minor adjustments, and all through a lens of what will most easily earn them positive media coverage.”

In the words of those workers: “It’s too little, too late.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3ebTuBE https://ift.tt/3a1crUn

Like other grocery stores, Trader Joe’s has been inundated with customers amid the pandemic. | Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Trader Joe’s employees attempt to unionize amid increasingly stressful (and in some cases, dangerous) work demands brought on by the coronavirus pandemic

“For your own safety, the only ethical and actionable solution is to stop shopping there and tell any high risk friends and family you know to do the same,” the coalition tweeted.

In the words of those workers: “It’s too little, too late.”

from Eater - All https://ift.tt/3ebTuBE via Blogger https://ift.tt/2VmPdTl

#Blogger #cooking #Eater #food #recipes

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lukeskqwalker · 8 years ago

Note

what are the women's marches? what's the end goal?

Girls just wanna have fun(damental human rights).

(and so do many others)

That’s the short answer, but, if you want the four-page document that explains it, here you go.

OVERVIEW & PURPOSE

The Women’s March on Washington is a women-led movement bringing together people of all genders, ages, races, cultures, political affiliations and backgrounds in our nation’s capital on January 21, 2017, to affirm our shared humanity and pronounce our bold message of resistance and self-determination. Recognizing that women have intersecting identities and are therefore impacted by a multitude of social justice and human rights issues, we have outlined a representative vision for a government that is based on the principles of liberty and justice for all. As Dr. King said, “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.” Our liberation is bound in each other’s. The Women’s March on Washington includes leaders of organizations and communities that have been building the foundation for social progress for generations. We welcome vibrant collaboration and honor the legacy of the movements before us - the suffragists and abolitionists, the Civil Rights Movement, the feminist movement, the American Indian Movement, Occupy Wall Street, Marriage Equality, Black Lives Matter, and more – by employing a decentralized, leader-full structure and focusing on an ambitious, fundamental and comprehensive agenda.

VALUES & PRINCIPLES

● We believe that Women’s Rights are Human Rights and Human Rights are Women’s Rights. This is the basic and original tenet from which all our values stem.

● We believe Gender Justice is Racial Justice is Economic Justice. We must create a society in which all women—including Black women, Native women, poor women, immigrant women, Muslim women, lesbian, queer and trans women—are free and able to care for and nurture their families, however they are formed, in safe and healthy environments free from structural impediments.

● Women deserve to live full and healthy lives, free of violence against our bodies. One in three women have been victims of some form of physical violence by an intimate partner within their lifetime; and one in five women have been raped. Further, each year, thousands of women and girls, particularly Black, indigenous and transgender women and girls, are kidnapped, trafficked, or murdered. We honor the lives of those women who were taken before their time and we affirm that we work for a day when all forms of violence against women are eliminated.

● We believe in accountability and justice for police brutality and ending racial profiling and targeting of communities of color. Women of color are killed in police custody at greater rates than white women, and are more likely to be sexually assaulted by police. We also call for an immediate end to arming police with the military grade weapons and military tactics that are wreaking havoc on communities of color. No woman or mother should have to fear that her loved ones will be harmed at the hands of those sworn to protect.

● We believe it is our moral imperative to dismantle the gender and racial inequities within the criminal justice system. The rate of imprisonment has grown faster for women than men, increasing by 700% since 1980, and the majority of women in prison have a child under the age of 18. Incarcerated women also face a high rate of violence and sexual assault. We are committed to ensuring access to gender-responsive programming and dedicated healthcare including substance abuse treatment, mental and maternal health services for women in prison. We believe in the promise of restorative justice and alternatives to incarceration. We are also committed to disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline that prioritizes incarceration over education by systematically funneling our children—particularly children of color, queer and trans youth, foster care children, and girls—into the justice system.

● We believe in Gender Justice. We must have the power to control our bodies and be free from gender norms, expectations and stereotypes. We must free ourselves and our society from the institution of awarding power, agency and resources disproportionately to masculinity to the exclusion of others.

● We firmly declare that LGBTQIA Rights are Human Rights and that it is our obligation to uplift, expand and protect the rights of our gay, lesbian, bi, queer, trans or gender non-conforming brothers, sisters and siblings. This includes access to non-judgmental, comprehensive healthcare with no exceptions or limitations; access to name and gender changes on identity documents; full antidiscrimination protections; access to education, employment, housing and benefits; and an end to police and state violence.

● We believe in an economy powered by transparency, accountability, security and equity. We believe that creating workforce opportunities that reduce discrimination against women and mothers allow economies to thrive. Nations and industries that support and invest in caregiving and basic workplace protections—including benefits like paid family leave, access to affordable childcare, sick days, healthcare, fair pay, vacation time, and healthy work environments—have shown growth and increased capacity.

● We believe in equal pay for equal work and the right of all women to be paid equitably. We must end the pay and hiring discrimination that women, particularly mothers, women of color, lesbian, queer and trans women still face each day in our nation. Many mothers have always worked and in our modern labor force; and women are now 50% of all family breadwinners. We stand for the 82% of women who become moms, particularly moms of color, being paid, judged, and treated fairly. Equal pay for equal work will lift families out of poverty and boost our nation’s economy.

● We recognize that women of color carry the heaviest burden in the global and domestic economic landscape, particularly in the care economy. We further affirm that all care work–caring for the elderly, caring for the chronically ill, caring for children and supporting independence for people with disabilities–is work, and that the burden of care falls disproportionately on the shoulders of women, particularly women of color. We stand for the rights, dignity, and fair treatment of all unpaid and paid caregivers. We must repair and replace the systemic disparities that permeate caregiving at every level of society.

● We believe that all workers – including domestic and farm workers - must have the right to organize and fight for a living minimum wage, and that unions and other labor associations are critical to a healthy and thriving economy for all. Undocumented and migrant workers must be included in our Gui Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles 4 labor protections, and we stand in solidarity with sex workers’ rights movements.

● We believe Civil Rights are our birthright. Our Constitutional government establishes a framework to provide and expand rights and freedoms–not restrict them. To this end, we must protect and restore all the Constitutionally-mandated rights to all our citizens, including voting rights, freedom to worship without fear of intimidation or harassment, freedom of speech, and protections for all citizens regardless of race, gender, age or disability.

● We believe it is time for an all-inclusive Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Most Americans believe the Constitution guarantees equal rights, but it does not. The 14 th Amendment has been undermined by courts and cannot produce real equity on the basis of race and/or sex. And in a true democracy, each citizen’s vote should count equally. All Americans deserve equality guarantees in the Constitution that cannot be taken away or disregarded, recognizing the reality that inequalities intersect, interconnect and overlap.

● We believe in Reproductive Freedom. We do not accept any federal, state or local rollbacks, cuts or restrictions on our ability to access quality reproductive healthcare services, birth control, HIV/AIDS care and prevention, or medically accurate sexuality education. This means open access to safe, legal, affordable abortion and birth control for all people, regardless of income, location or education. We understand that we can only have reproductive justice when reproductive health care is accessible to all Gui Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles 3 people regardless of income, location or education.

● Rooted in the promise of America’s call for huddled masses yearning to breathe free, we believe in immigrant and refugee rights regardless of status or country of origin. It is our moral duty to keep families together and empower all aspiring Americans to fully participate in, and contribute to, our economy and society. We reject mass deportation, family detention, violations of due process and violence against queer and trans migrants. Immigration reform must establish a roadmap to citizenship, and provide equal opportunities and workplace protections for all. We recognize that the call to action to love our neighbor is not limited to the United States, because there is a global migration crisis. We believe migration is a human right and that no human being is illegal.

● We believe that every person and every community in our nation has the right to clean water, clean air, and access to and enjoyment of public lands. We believe that our environment and our climate must be protected, and that our land and natural resources cannot be exploited for corporate gain or greed—especially at the risk of public safety and health.

#hello friend!!#I hope this answers your question #im not usually one to show political opinions #but to me this is more than politics #human rights should not be up for debate #also... while im being honest about my beliefs #love is love is love is love #to my friends: i am sorry that my beliefs arent what you might have assumed... but im also not #i am mainly sorry to those oppressed as i have been silent for so long #i am saddened in that i know i'll most likely lose followers over a post about human rights. it hurts my heart.#i wont be offended. but i hope we can still be friends regardless <3

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kristablogs · 4 years ago

Text

How to evacuate and find emergency shelter during a pandemic

Pandemic or not, it's better to leave before this happens. (Chris Gallagher/Unsplash/)

Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including tips on cleaning groceries, ways to tell if your symptoms are just allergies, and a tutorial on making your own mask.

Storm season is here, but the pandemic doesn’t care.

Emergency preparedness will need to look different this year, but thinking ahead and staying informed will help you stay primed and ready if catastrophe strikes.

Assess your risk ahead of time

Before you make a plan, you’ll need to know exactly what disaster risks you face where you live, says Jonathan McNamara, a spokesperson for the American Red Cross.

By staying vigilant about what may happen and when, you can adjust the intensity of your planning accordingly. Find out which disasters may affect your area and how often people near you have had to evacuate or take shelter. Interactive maps like this hazard map from Columbia University can be a good starting point, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency offers free software for those who want to more comprehensively assess their risks.

Factors other than location can put certain populations in even more danger. “People with chronic conditions or those without access to reliable transportation may be more impacted by a disaster,” says Jennifer Horney, a University of Delaware epidemiologist who specializes in disasters and disease outbreaks.

No matter how much risk you face, it’s important to know your evacuation zone. Your local county or state emergency management department likely has a zone look-up tool on its website.

Build your emergency kit

“We’re really encouraging people this year to build two kits: A two-week emergency supply kit and a three-day evacuation supply kit,” says McNamara. Ideally, you should prepare these long before you need them, checking back only to keep your items up to date and ensure that nothing has expired, he says.

Your two-week supply kit should be kept at home in case it’s not safe to leave. It should include things like non-perishable foods, enough water for each person to drink a gallon a day, and one month’s worth of prescription medications. With the pandemic in mind, you should also pack some disinfectants, hygiene products, and masks.

The three-day evacuation kit is more of a “grab-and-go” bag to take with you as you seek shelter elsewhere. If you need to flee your home with little to no notice, you’ll want to have a bag ready to throw in your car. You’ll want extra clothes, masks or other face coverings, cash, and again, one month’s worth of prescription medications.

McNamara also suggests building a digital preparedness kit. Having extra battery packs, chargers, and power adapters on hand will ensure that you can stay in contact with family members, while also keeping your kids placated on their various devices. Keep your essential files backed up in the cloud and on a flash drive that you can always keep with you—originals should be stored in a waterproof and fireproof document bag, or in a bank safety deposit box. It might be good to pack extension cords and power strips, too—power outlets could be in short supply wherever you end up.

Finally, be ready for gas stations to be closed and keep a full spare gas can in your car or garage to get you to your planned shelter location.

Do not neglect other health factors

Storm season always comes with indirect impacts on community health, Horney says. Children may miss vaccines, people with chronic conditions might not make their appointments, various regulatory checks could be delayed, and medication shortages can occur. All these effects will be exacerbated by the pandemic, she says.

The best thing you can do is be mindful of any medical conditions you or your loved ones have, and know the medications everyone needs, says Schmidt. If you don’t have extra meds on hand, make sure you have a physical list with you so that once you get to a shelter you can communicate your needs to the medical personnel on site. It would be good to have a flash drive with your medical history on hand as well, Schmidt says.

Stay informed and connected

If your phone works, you can use it to keep on top of everything. (Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash/)

Keeping up to date with disaster developments in your area will ensure you are not blindsided by warnings and evacuation calls. “The last thing we want—and we see this year after year—is that people do ignore warnings and then find themselves in a very dangerous situation that could threaten their lives,” says McNamara.

To stay informed, look to your local emergency management department. Check their website or Twitter for updates. The Red Cross, ready.gov, and FEMA have a plethora of online resources and guides to help with preparedness and kit-making. The Red Cross also has emergency apps that can walk you through disaster preparedness and sign you up for local emergency alerts.

“Our focus is putting preparedness information right in the palm of people’s hands,” says McNamara. Making evacuation decisions in the heat of the moment can be overwhelming, but looking to authorities for guidance can remove a layer of complication from your decision-making and eliminate confusion, he says.

Know where you’ll go

It’s important to know ahead of time where you’ll go to take shelter. If the time comes for you to evacuate, you won’t want to be scrambling for a place to stay while anxiety and adrenaline run high. The most typical shelter options for evacuees are hotels, public shelters, or with friends or family.

“If you can shelter at home, or with family or friends, we encourage you to do that,” says Shannon Davis Weiner, director of emergency management in Monroe County, Florida. “That is a safe bet, and that is your best bet.” Her county includes the Florida Keys, a 120-mile-long island chain that’s particularly vulnerable to hurricanes.

Heading to your parents’ or best friend’s house may be preferable in more normal times, but the pandemic has made everything more complicated. If you’re considering staying with people you know, find out whether anyone is particularly at risk of being severely affected by COVID-19, and see how that affects your plans.

If you need to seek out a public shelter, it’s important to know where the nearest ones are and how you will get to them, Weiner says. Monroe County, for example, is arranging shelters within its borders and in neighboring Miami-Dade County, for island residents who need to seek mainland shelter in case of more severe conditions—so county residents will have multiple options to choose from.

When considering hotels, keep several options in mind, as they may not be open when you need them, McNamara says. Understand that having children or pets could affect the locations available to you. The pandemic has put financial strain on many households, too, so know where you have the means to travel to or stay. When in doubt, head to a public shelter. Organizers there can then direct you to available open hotels.

Don’t be afraid to go to a public shelter

Shelters evoke an image of crowds huddled together in shared space, a daunting environment in the midst of a pandemic. But emergency organizers have trained for this and are taking the risks of COVID-19 in stride. So if you’ve been to a public shelter before, know that this year will look different.

The Red Cross and other non-profit organizations know what it takes to handle disasters and disease outbreaks at the same time, says Cheryl Schmidt, an Arizona State University professor who trains nurses in disaster preparedness. Schmidt was with the Red Cross in 2009 and 2015 when the organization had to manage hurricane shelters during the H1N1 and swine flu outbreaks, respectively. Shelters this year will likely implement many of the strategies they adopted then, like handing out masks and hand sanitizer and creating isolation areas for people with symptoms of disease.

“You should absolutely not feel scared to go to a public shelter,” assures Weiner. “If it’s not safe for you to shelter at home or with family, then we want you to come to a public shelter.” Convincing people to use public shelters is difficult, even without an ongoing pandemic, but it may be your best bet during an evacuation, she says.

Every person who comes to a Red Cross public shelter will be screened for COVID-19 symptoms, says McNamara. It doesn’t matter whether you are presenting symptoms, have pre-existing medical needs, or are afraid of getting sick—none of that should prevent you from seeking out a public shelter if you need to evacuate. “We want to ensure that anybody who needs to seek shelter in advance of any type of disaster can feel comfortable knowing that there’s a place for them to go, and that it feels safe for all parties,” he says.

Local governments are preparing, too. As soon as you get to a public shelter in Monroe County, for example, there will be a health screening and a temperature check, says Weiner. The county’s plan includes: a face mask, hand sanitizer, and wipes for everyone; more shelter space; additional staff for disinfecting the area; isolation areas and dedicated staff for anyone with symptoms; and more medical personnel, she says.

Anticipate adjustments

“From the Red Cross’s perspective, I can’t think of a protocol we haven’t had to modify,” says McNamara. For example, shelters previously fed evacuees by sending staffers into crowds to pass out food. This year, he says, meals will probably more closely resemble takeout from a restaurant, with prepackaged single-serve meals delivered at a distance.

Another pandemic-specific challenge will be how to safely provide emotional support in a shelter. When close contact can spread disease, we cannot physically comfort each other, says McNamara—no hugs allowed. People will need to figure out how to comfort each other while still staying safe and distanced.

Managing the pandemic in tandem with disaster relief will be a challenge, especially with limited funds and workforce. “Local public health agencies and emergency managers are always trying to find the right messages and the right resources to fill any gaps in knowledge that people have, but the size of those gaps, given COVID-19, may look very different,” says Horney. This year may expose exactly where our system for protecting people is weakest, so it’s best to be prepared.

0 notes

scootoaster · 4 years ago

Text

How to evacuate and find emergency shelter during a pandemic

Pandemic or not, it's better to leave before this happens. (Chris Gallagher/Unsplash/)

Follow all of PopSci’s COVID-19 coverage here, including tips on cleaning groceries, ways to tell if your symptoms are just allergies, and a tutorial on making your own mask.

Storm season is here, but the pandemic doesn’t care.

Emergency preparedness will need to look different this year, but thinking ahead and staying informed will help you stay primed and ready if catastrophe strikes.

Assess your risk ahead of time

Before you make a plan, you’ll need to know exactly what disaster risks you face where you live, says Jonathan McNamara, a spokesperson for the American Red Cross.

No matter how much risk you face, it’s important to know your evacuation zone. Your local county or state emergency management department likely has a zone look-up tool on its website.

Build your emergency kit

Finally, be ready for gas stations to be closed and keep a full spare gas can in your car or garage to get you to your planned shelter location.

Do not neglect other health factors

Stay informed and connected

If your phone works, you can use it to keep on top of everything. (Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash/)

Know where you’ll go

Don’t be afraid to go to a public shelter

Anticipate adjustments

0 notes

oselatra · 6 years ago

Text

Capi Peck’s “eternal optimism” for the future of Little Rock

City Director Capi Peck, who represents West Little Rock’s Ward 4, wants to consider a change in the way the board is elected, as does Mayor Frank Scott. But unlike Scott, who wants to eliminate the election of at-large directors to the board, Peck would like to seek a blended ward structure and term limits for directors. City Director Capi Peck, who represents West Little Rock’s Ward 4, wants to consider a change in the way the board is elected, as does Mayor Frank Scott. But unlike Scott, who wants to eliminate the election of at-large directors to the board, Peck would like to seek a blended ward structure and term limits for directors. Under Peck’s plan, each of Little Rock’s seven wards would elect a director. But Peck says at-large positions “serve a purpose,” and she would propose that wards would combine — perhaps two or three together — to create “super wards” to be represented by an at-large director. Having at-large directors is “what that prevents is turf wars,” Peck said. “I’m not [this] way, but some of the city directors, they’re really not interested in projects unless it directly benefits their ward. “One of the most important things that’s going to happen in the next few months is creating a way for us to have a community-wide, very thoughtful conversation and study about the at-large directors,” Peck said. Peck, 65, is one of the board’s younger directors. She said the aging board, and the ensuing decades-long tenure of some of its directors, is evidence of the need for directors’ term limits. “I hate that we look the way we do,” she said. “I get how that would piss people off. Get them out. I get that. … I think we have a lot of challenges. I think we all do share something, all of us. We want Little Rock to be a better place for everybody, I just think that there’s a tactful way to go about doing that, and so I hope we proceed with a lot of consideration and patience and respect for each other, even if we don’t agree.” Peck said she supports a time frame of 60 or 90 days for a study with citizen input on the at-large positions, followed by a special election to determine a course of action. “I think that the people selected [for the study] must represent our city,” she said. “I think if we’re 42 percent African American [as a city], I think we need to have 42 percent African-American representation. We need to have some young people and we need to have some older people. I’d love to have a Hispanic person [and] there needs to be equal gender representation. It needs to be a true reflection of our city.” Peck added that she believes Scott is “determined” to deliver on his campaign promise of a more transparent City Hall by the time he gives his state of the city speech, which he must complete by March 31. She said one of these campaign promises manifests in the creation of Scott’s transition board and the citizen-led subcommittees each board member chairs. The subcommittees — on finance and administration, education, mobility, economic development, public safety, inclusion, quality of life and transformation and government reform — will meet with each corresponding city department, board or commission and make recommendations for Scott’s four-year plan for change. “I think that the mayor has given himself a very daunting task to get all of these pieces in place by the state of the city address,” she said. “There’s so many moving pieces, and his vision is grandiose. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with it, but I mean, [there’s a] learning curve.” Peck said she supports Scott’s embrace of the strong-mayor role, and with his recent move to take on direct supervision of six city departments (police, fire, finance, human resources, planning and public works), she said Scott’s hiring of the new police chief will be a crucial decision. “I just hope we don’t get all distracted and bring somebody in that’s maybe had a great history someplace [else],” she said. “I just think it’s so important to find somebody invested in Little Rock, that already gets it. … I just hope we hire a homegrown person, I really do.” Peck said Little Rock Police Department Assistant Chiefs Alice Fulk and Hayward Finks, who have applied for the chief’s job, are qualified for the position. She added that among the responsibilities of the new chief, an external investigation of the LRPD’s no-knock search warrants should be a top priority. “I think it’s very disturbing,” she said. “I think it’s super disturbing. I think that is something we need to move forward on immediately. … I think an internal investigation is BS. I’m sorry, that’s ridiculous. That is ridiculous. It’s very disturbing. I mean, it’s a paramilitary organization.”

***

Like Ward 3 City Director Kathy Webb, whom Peck refers to as her “partner in crime,” Peck is a graduate of Hall High School and avidly supports the restoration of local control to the Little Rock School District, and like Webb, she said she’s frustrated by the city board’s lack of say so on the issue. “We can continue to talk about that, but ultimately, we can’t do a damn thing,” she said. “Public schools are the backbone of our community, and I think that it’s taxation without representation. … I’m not saying that [dissolving the school board] might not have been necessary [at that time], but by God, that was years ago. That was 2015. It’s 2019. It’s time. The charter schools don’t have to be accountable. Look at some of their scores.” Peck said another important issue the city faces is its tight budget, which she hopes will be helped by state legislation that would require Internet merchants to collect sales tax on sales in Arkansas. Peck has owned and run Trio’s Restaurant since 1986, and said her 32 years of experience in the hospitality industry — including her 12 years on the Advertising and Promotion Commission, which governs the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau — have given her a unique understanding of the importance of tourism to Little Rock’s revenue stream. “The tourism impact on the city had always interested me immensely because of quality of life issues [and] because of the fact that when people come into the city, whether it’s for leisure or for business, we have these temporary taxpayers,” she said. “In our trade, we call it getting heads in beds and butts in seats. You’ve got these folks that are here and we have this revenue stream, and through that revenue stream, after we take care of things like managing the River Market and the Statehouse Convention Center; we think [about] investing in attracting more tourists, because we love the temporary taxpayers.” Peck is the fourth person in her family to be in the hospitality business in Arkansas. Her grandparents, Sam and Henryetta Peck, owned downtown’s Hotel Sam Peck — now called the Hotel Frederica — and that history has shaped her outlook on Little Rock. “[Being] that sort of ambassador, making people feel welcome, inviting people into my restaurant like it’s my home: I have that sort of philosophy about not just visitors to Little Rock, but people who live here, too,” she said. According to Peck, Webb talked her into running for Ward 4 city director when former director Brad Cazort didn’t seek re-election for the position. “My first thought was, ‘I’m not qualified,’ ” she said. “I don’t have a degree in political science, and [Webb] said, ‘Are you kidding me? You’re a successful business owner, [and if] you can run a restaurant, then you can do this, because you’re used to listening to your customers, or your constituents, and being diplomatic and getting answers and putting out fires.’ ” After her election, Peck volunteered to work on the Parks and Recreation, Racial and Cultural Diversity, Zoo and Central Arkansas Library System commissions. In addition to her work with these commissions, she said one of her goals is to develop a senior center for the city. When Carelink Fitness and Wellness Center, a senior care facility and fitness center, closed the doors to its Little Rock location in July because of funding issues, the city was left without a dedicated community center for seniors. Peck said she was part of the push to make the Mayor’s Task Force on Aging a formal city commission. The task force will now work to make Little Rock a more “livable city” under the AARP’s Network of Age-Friendly Communities guidelines. Along with her responsibilities as city director and her duties at Trio’s, Peck is involved with the Hunger Relief Alliance and the Arkansas Homeless Coalition. She’s a member of Congregation B’nai Israel, and she recently helped organize Little Rock Cares, a two-day citywide drive to provide food and care packages for furloughed federal employees. Though she is a self-described “dyed-in-the-wool, blueblood, yellow-dog Democrat,” Peck said she wants to use her nonpartisan position on the city board to help unite an increasingly politically divided culture. “I’m a child of the ’60s, so I’m used to protest, I’m used to speaking out,” she said. ‘I’m a longtime feminist, so that’s not new to me. But this climate that we live in now, will it always be this way? Is this going to be permanent even when [President] Trump is gone? How are we going to heal? How are we going to treat each other with respect and have the patience to have a common goal, which is to better the world and better ourselves and help our fellow man? To take care of people that need to be taken care of?” Peck also calls herself an “eternal optimist,” a perspective she said she’ll need going forward. “I’m a dreamer. I continue to be optimistic,” she said. “Otherwise, I would just be so depressed.” Capi Peck’s “eternal optimism” for the future of Little Rock

#Capi Peck’s “eternal optimism” for the future of Little Rock

0 notes

boombergnews · 6 years ago

Link

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Of all of the horrific particulars contained within the Pennsylvania grand jury report on youngster sexual abuse within the Catholic Church, one sentence stands out: “The principle factor was to not assist youngsters, however to keep away from ‘scandal.'”

When sex-abuse circumstances dominate headlines, a well-recognized sample usually emerges. If it came about at a big group — be it a church, a big state college or a gaggle similar to USA Gymnastics — misconduct is commonly lined up in hopes of saving the establishment’s status, and the cash that accompanies it.

Why is the position of establishments so highly effective? As a result of they command emotion. They encourage loyalty. They usually have established methods of doing issues that rev up when issues floor.

Maybe most relevantly, they usually have a group constructed round them, geographically or in any other case. And preserving that group can change into a precedence — even over one thing as seemingly basic as defending the youngest amongst us.

In brief, when unhealthy issues occur inside establishments, the elements are already there to make issues even worse.

“We’ve to cease defending our rainmakers and we have now to carry them to the values we espouse, not simply transfer them round,” mentioned Kim Church buildings, CEO of the American Affiliation of College Ladies.

Take into account the case of USA Gymnastics and physician Larry Nassar, who abused a whole lot of women and girls below the guise of medical remedy whereas employed at Michigan State College.

Nassar is now serving a decades-long jail sentence for molesting sufferers and possessing youngster pornography. Victims had reported Nassar’s conduct to school staff for years, and mentioned they had been ignored.

“They weren’t believed, and weren’t protected in the way in which they wanted to be,” says Natalie Rogers, an organizer with Reclaim MSU, an alliance of scholars, employees, school and alumni advocating for elevated accountability and transparency.

“Institutional tradition right here was what silenced them,” Rogers says.

And bear in mind the 2011 intercourse scandal that gripped Penn State, when it got here to mild that assistant soccer coach Jerry Sandusky molested dozens of boys? A report asserted that famed head coach Joe Paterno and different college leaders had been made conscious of suspicions about Sandusky’s actions however did not take motion to cease it.

The much-debated report unpacking the college’s position, written by FBI Director Louis Freeh, mentioned motion wasn’t taken and information had been hidden at Penn State “with a purpose to keep away from the implications of unhealthy publicity.”

At Ohio State, there is a rising record of greater than 100 former college students and athletes who say they had been groped and in any other case mistreated by Dr. Richard Strauss, a deceased athletic division physician who labored on the college for practically 20 years. There are questions on whether or not Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan knew concerning the abuse when he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State throughout the identical time.

“Sadly, all too usually, we nonetheless see organizations desirous to protect the model and protect the cash, both by transferring alleged perpetrators out of the group to a different space, slightly than eliminating them, or not appearing in a means that is defending the victims,” says Church buildings.

“Victims and survivors then really feel ashamed,” she says. “They do not imagine the establishments they trusted are caring for them.”

Why would that be, although? Why would not an establishment reflexively prioritize the safety of the very folks more than likely to assist chart its future? Alan Salpeter, an lawyer at Arnold & Porter in Chicago, says there’s normally one key purpose why abuse is roofed up.

“It occurs due to weaknesses within the tradition of the establishment,” says Salpeter, a crisis-management skilled who has written concerning the Penn State state of affairs.

These weaknesses may be to guard revenue or energy. The Penn State case, he says, is an instance of a power-based weak point that devolved right into a cone of silence and safety (although it additionally concerned cash, within the type of alumni assist of the soccer program and the college total).

“At Penn State, soccer was king. It was the place all the cash got here in. When there was a scandal, nobody wished to blow the whistle. Nobody wished to problem Joe Paterno,” Salpeter says. “The tradition was tolerant of that and folks seemed the opposite means.”

And the Pennsylvania Catholic circumstances that had been revealed this previous week? There, he asserts, “the motivation was that they wished folks to remain dedicated. As a substitute of getting cash or having energy, (they) wished to maintain their folks dedicated to the church.”

The Pennsylvania grand jury report laid out the methods by which the church tried to hide victims’ tales and prices. “The phrase ‘secret’ “seems again and again within the paperwork we recovered,” the report mentioned.

“Abuse complaints had been saved locked up in a ‘secret archive,'” it says. “That isn’t our phrase, however theirs; the church’s Code of Canon Legislation particularly requires the diocese to take care of such an archive. Solely the bishop can have the important thing. . It is like a playbook for concealing the reality.”

The grand jury discovered that greater than 1,000 youngsters had been molested or raped by over 300 “predator clergymen” in six Pennsylvania dioceses for the reason that 1940s. It mentioned a succession of bishops and different diocesan leaders labored to defend the church from unhealthy publicity and monetary legal responsibility by shuffling abusive clergymen round parishes slightly than reporting complaints to police, allowing a whole lot of identified offenders to return to ministry.

Dioceses throughout the nation have paid greater than $three billion in settlements with victims since 1950, in line with the bishops’ personal research and information experiences. Legal responsibility insurance coverage lined a number of the payouts, however many dioceses have needed to unload main properties to assist cowl prices. A few dozen of the USA’ 197 dioceses have sought chapter safety within the face of abuse claims.

James Campbell Fast, a College of Texas professor who has studied sexual harassment within the office, says massive establishments generally encounter such issues. What issues, he says, is how they’re tackled by the management.

“Sexual deviance is a part of the human situation,” he says. “The questions change into, I feel, ones of how a lot of an issue does it change into in a selected establishment, and the way do you establish and tackle the issue, or handle it.”

Fast and different specialists which have studied such scandals say the tone wants to come back from one place: the highest.

“If that tone is about properly and is wholesome, then the system will likely be wholesome. You need to have methods in place to establish when one thing mistaken, unhealthy or inappropriate happens,” Fast says. “It is actually setting an institutional set of insurance policies that say, ‘sexual assault is unacceptable. Sexual harassment is unacceptable.'”

Provides the AAUW’s Kim Church buildings: “We’ve to take motion as a result of we have now to verify we’re creating the cultures we would like in our society.”

Observe Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush

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sherristockman · 6 years ago

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My Personal Journey on How I Went From Sick to Healthy Dr. Mercola By Dr. Mercola This website was created 21 years ago, in 1997, when I combined my two primary passions in life — health and technology — and made it my mission to share exciting new developments in natural health with a wider audience. Thanks to you, this site has become one of the most visited natural health websites in the world for the last 12 years, with more than 10 million unique visitors each month and more than 80 million unique visitors annually. Because of your loyal support, we've slowly but surely awakened the world to the false promises of the fatally flawed conventional medical view, which claims disease is best treated with drugs, and that the government knows what's best for your health and should be allowed to dictate your health options. In the video above, I discuss my own journey toward health, which ultimately led me to my present-day philosophies and recommendations. This video and article were initially published during three years ago during anniversary week. It was a big hit, and since we've had a significant influx of new subscribers since then, I'm rerunning it for those who missed it. Learning Through Experience Experience is a formidable teacher, and much of what I'm teaching today grew out of the lessons I learned as I tried to get healthier. I made plenty of mistakes, and fell for many of the lies, deceptions and confusion of conventional medicine. Like so many others, I grew up eating cereal for breakfast, and I fully believed margarine was healthy. My diet was high in carbs and sugars and low in fat, and there's little doubt this played a significant role in dental decay, which I struggled with throughout a large portion of my life. By the time I was an adult, I had a mouth full of amalgam fillings. Eventually, I discovered the truth about amalgam — that it's actually 50 percent mercury — and in 2009 I approached Charlie Brown (president of the Alliance for Mercury Free Dentistry) at a Health Freedom Expo in Chicago. At that event, I offered to partner with him to raise awareness about mercury in dentistry and to help get this toxin out of dentistry for good. It's been a highly successful partnership, and on October 10, 2013, a legally binding international treaty to control the use of this toxic metal was signed into action, thanks largely to the work of the Campaign for Mercury-Free Dentistry, the project organized and led by Charlie Brown. The treaty, named the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury, requires the phasing out of many mercury-containing products by 2020. Importantly, the treaty marks the beginning of the end for dental amalgam around the world, as it mandates each nation phase down amalgam use, effective immediately. Since then, I've partnered with a number of select health and research organizations that are true health advocates and educators, including GrassrootsHealth, Fluoride Action Network (FAN), National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), and the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). Together, we've formed a nonprofit coalition known as Health Liberty, dedicated to improving fundamental education to all on important health, food safety, and informed consent issues. A Lifelong Passion for Exercise Got Me Into Medicine My mother instilled in me a passion for reading. In 1968 I picked up Dr. Ken Cooper's book, "Aerobics," which sparked a lifelong passion for exercise as I have been exercising regularly for the last 48 years, never taking more than a few days off at any one time. Cooper actually designed the exercise program for the NASA astronauts, but aside from keeping astronauts fit in an antigravity environment, exercise wasn't viewed very favorably down here on Earth. When I first took up running, people would throw things at me because they thought I was some kind of hooligan or criminal running from the scene of a crime! People simply did not run "for no reason" back in the '60s. I was a freshman in high school when the first man landed on the moon. Along with the rest of the nation, this event captured my attention and I decided I wanted to be an astronaut. The quickest way to do that was to join the Air Force Academy. Unfortunately, it was tough getting a congressional appointment to get in, so in the meantime, I continued my education, focusing on engineering. I later switched to pre-med — in large part because I was so excited about exercise and health. At the very beginning of med school, one of my professors told our class that by the time we graduated, most of what we were being taught would be outdated or obsolete. The key element of our education was really teaching us how to learn, and that has stuck with me ever since. I never reached a point where I thought I know it all and don't need to learn any more. In essence, med school taught me how to become a perpetual student, and that attitude has served me well. Unfortunately, most doctors ignore that message and get stuck practicing what in essence is outdated medicine. Nutrition as Medicine Conventional medicine is excellent at diagnosing disease, but where it fails miserably is in the treatment approaches. It typically focuses on treating the symptoms, not the root cause, and it does so using toxic drugs that frequently cause problems that are more dangerous than the original complaint. The discovery of nutrition as a method of healing was nothing short of revolutionary for me. It really opened my eyes and gave me a whole different perspective on health and healing. I began scouring the medical and lay literature on nutrition, and started attending conferences on alternative healing modalities, typically every month, to acquire the knowledge and skills to help people heal. I would then apply what I'd learned in my medical practice and get tremendous results — so much so I finally reached the point where I said, "This stuff really works!" and with that, I made a commitment to practice medicine without drugs. When I notified my patients of this new direction, 70 percent of them left. They were unwilling to quit using the drugs they were on and to address their health problems with nutrition and other lifestyle changes. This turned out to be a blessing, as the patients I had left really wanted to get better and were willing to do the work. Eventually, word spread about their healing successes, and over the years I ended up treating patients from all over the world. Staying Ahead of the Curve Over the past 21 years, I've often been among the first in the media to communicate commonsense strategies of healing and staying well naturally to the wider audience. The truth is your body has an innate ability to heal. It is designed to move toward health and away from disease, provided you give it the basic support it needs in terms of nutrition, physical movement, exposure to sunlight and myriad other natural health strategies. For example, I began talking about the importance of vitamin D for health beyond rickets back in 2000, and have warned people about the adverse effects of shunning sun exposure for over 18 years. Thankfully, the medical literature has now firmly established that vitamin D is essential for health, and that deficiency plays a role in dozens of chronic diseases. Eighteen years ago I also began blowing the whistle on genetically engineered (GE) foods, warning people to avoid them in order to protect their health. Now, the public discussion about GE foods has finally been brought to the fore, and grassroots efforts have led to ballot initiatives to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in dozens of states, with major media outlets like National Geographic reporting that genetically engineered foods are a dangerous fraud. Fight Against Mercury and Fluoride Continues In 1998, I warned my readers to avoid dentists who still use mercury amalgams in their practice, having learned that painful lesson myself. Amalgams really have no place in modern dentistry. It's an antiquated practice, and it simply makes no sense to place a known neurotoxin inches away from your brain. As noted earlier, the international treaty on mercury now heralds the beginning of the end of mercury in dentistry. Also in 1998, I began writing about the hazards of water fluoridation, pointing out that fluoride is a toxic drug that accumulates in your body and can destroy human enzymes. Since then, the evidence against fluoride as a panacea for dental caries has only gotten stronger, and the fight to get fluoride out of municipal water supplies continues. Here, we're partnered with FAN, which is intent (as am I) to eliminate fluoride from drinking water not just in the U.S., but around the world. As all of these examples show, it usually takes a decade or more to reverse deeply ingrained medical myths, no matter how unscientific their basis. But eventually, the truth does tend to prevail, and I believe it's only a matter of time before water fluoridation is seen for what it really is — one of the biggest public health blunders in U.S. history, opposed to being one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century. Last year, the U.S. government finally admitted Americans have been overexposed to fluoride, and for the first time since 1962 lowered the recommended level of fluoride in drinking water. It's not enough, but it's a move in the right direction. I've also begun working with an organization in Mexico that is developing a low-tech fluoride removal system that even poorer rural communities will be able to use to make their drinking water safer. Early Warnings Issued — Years in Advance In 2006, I began warning about the artificial sweetener aspartame, convinced it was one of the most dangerous additives in the food supply. Since then, the medical literature has become filled with studies demonstrating its harmful effects. Not only do artificial sweeteners actually promote obesity, they also worsen diabetes, and it's fraught with side effects. In fact, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received more health complaints stemming from aspartame than ALL other food additives combined. I was the first in the media to issue a stern warning against Vioxx. In 1999 I uncovered a study that showed people taking this drug were at massively increased risk of dying from heart disease and stroke, and I published this information in my newsletter. I actually issued the first public warning about Vioxx while it was still in clinical trials — a year before it became available by prescription. I predicted Vioxx would be pulled from the market once the increased cardiac deaths were finally recognized and, indeed, that's exactly what happened — but not before more than 60,000 people had died from taking the blockbuster drug. Take Control of Your Health, for Life! I would encourage anyone who feels skeptical to really evaluate the evidence and put some of these healthy lifestyle principles to the test, because the ultimate proof for most people is their own experience. It either works or it doesn't. You feel better and get healthier, or you don't. My mantra is "Take Control of Your Health," and my goal is to teach you how to get off the merry-go-round of drugs, which typically treat only the symptoms while actually deteriorating your health. Drugs can also be lethal, and even when properly prescribed and administered they kill hundreds of thousands of people each year. My message is: There are safer, less expensive alternatives that can truly address the root cause of your disease. Invariably, reclaiming health and treating disease involves addressing your diet, exercise and other lifestyle factors, most of which cost little or nothing.

#VitalityPath

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greenlifestylemarket · 7 years ago

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State Vaccine Legislation in America 2015 to 2017: What the Media, Medical Trade and Pharma Don’t Want You to Know

(Dr. Mercola by the NVIC Advocacy Team) State vaccine laws and the legal right to vaccine exemptions are hot topics in America. Between 2015 and 2017, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), a nonprofit charity, closely monitored state legislation and analyzed and issued positions on 454 vaccine-related bills through the NVIC Advocacy Portal (NVICAP).

The NVICAP is a free online vaccine choice advocacy network launched by NVIC in 2010 to protect and expand the legal right to exercise informed consent to vaccination in the U.S. NVIC’s mission since 1982 has been to prevent vaccine injuries and deaths through public education and to secure and defend informed consent protections in vaccine policies and laws, including protecting flexible medical, religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions.

In 2015, the NVICAP team responded to more vaccine-related bills than were filed in any previous year: 160 bills across 41 states. This record was shattered two years later in 2017 when NVIC tracked and published information on an all-time record of 184 proposed vaccine bills filed in 42 state legislatures.

Mainstream media continues to cite the passage of two 2015 bills, California SB277, which eliminated the personal belief and religious vaccine exemption, and Vermont H98, which removed only the philosophical exemption, as evidence that public support for vaccine exemptions is waning.1 This is a myth easily refuted by looking at the real evidence.

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Related: Doctors Against Vaccines – Hear From Those Who Have Done the Research

Bias and Misdirection by Mainstream Media

Over the last three years it has been easy to find biased articles and newspaper OpEds in favor of “no exceptions” forced vaccination laws. Articles featuring individuals advocating for the removal of vaccine exemptions and opposing the expansion of exemptions are portrayed in a positive light.2,3 There is also a distinct trend to portray individuals who oppose bills that eliminate vaccine exemptions and support bills expanding exemptions in a negative light.4,5

However, this clear media bias fails to tell the truth about what really occurred in state legislatures around the country since 2015, when only two states removed personal belief vaccine exemptions. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which has adopted and actively promoted through their state chapters the extreme position to “eliminate nonmedical exemptions for school entry,” acknowledges the backlash caused by pushing bills that propose to strip public health laws of vaccine exemptions.6

At a debate held at the AAP’s annual conference in September 2017, there was discussion about the fact that the position of outright elimination of personal belief exemptions may “embolden” parents.7 A recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association admits there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of policies to remove a parent’s ability to obtain a religious or conscientious belief exemption so a child can attend day care or be educated in a public or private school.8

Neither of these medical trade associations accurately depicts the extent to which passage of the two bills eliminating exemptions in California and Vermont have inspired grassroots vaccine informed consent advocates in every state to become even more active and effective.

The medical trade and Pharma lobby, as well as public health officials promoting heavy-handed implementation of the federally recommended childhood vaccine schedule, do not want to acknowledge there is a strong growing backlash against inflexible implementation of vaccine laws.

Related: How To Detoxify and Heal From Vaccinations – For Adults and Children

Follow the Money

While it is rare to find registered lobbyists for vaccine manufacturers directly testifying in favor of a bill eliminating vaccine exemptions, Pharma’s fingerprints are all over lobbying efforts to influence the outcome of proposed vaccine bills severely restricting or removing vaccine choices.

There are a number of vocal advocacy organizations promoting forced vaccination which receive financial contributions and support from pharmaceutical corporations that make big profits from mandatory vaccination laws requiring all children to get federally recommended vaccines.

The Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) childhood vaccine schedule of 69 doses of 16 vaccines alone is worth billions of dollars to drug companies marketing vaccines. Every vaccine that a state mandates guarantees vaccine manufacturers liability-free profits under the 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2011 that effectively eliminated all product liability for vaccine injuries and deaths caused by government licensed vaccines recommended for children.9,10,11

Every Child By Two (ECBT) identifies multiple vaccine manufacturers among sources of funding, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer and Sanofi Pasteur.12 A nonprofit organization, ECBT actively lobbies in state legislatures and in Congress to promote mandatory vaccination and the elimination of vaccine exemptions, as well to secure increased funding for the CDC and other government agencies developing, licensing, making policy for and promoting universal use of federally recommended vaccines.13

Who Are Behind the Removal of Personal Belief Exemptions?

An ECBT board member, who is executive director of the California Immunization Action Coalition, was instrumental in lobbying efforts in the California legislature to pass the bill (SB277) that removed California’s personal belief vaccine exemption in 2015.14,15

The California Immunization Coalition is a network member of the nonprofit Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), which is funded by Astra Zeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur and the CDC.16,17 Among members of IAC’s Advisory Board are vaccine developers and current or former CDC officials and mandatory vaccination proponents, including developers of Merck’s rubella and rotavirus vaccines, Dr. Stanley Plotkin and Dr. Paul Offit.18,19,20,21

Related: The MMR Vaccine – A Comprehensive Overview of the Potential Dangers and Effectiveness

Voices for Vaccines, which has lobbied in Colorado, Virginia and other state legislatures for the removal of vaccine exemptions, is an administrative program of the Atlanta-based nonprofit Task Force for Global Health (TFGH), which was founded in 1984 by a former director of the CDC to raise childhood vaccination rates globally.22

Among TFGH funders are Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer and the CDC, the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.23 Scientific Advisory Board members of Voices for Vaccines include the founder and director of the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), Plotkin, Offit and a former CDC director of immunization. 24

The Immunization Partnership (TIP) is a Texas-based coalition dedicated to eradicating diseases through the universal use of vaccines facilitated by electronic vaccine tracking registries and implementation of mandatory vaccination laws.

TIP is funded in part by Merck, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer and counts as one of its biggest accomplishments that it “screened more than 50,000 immunization records and recalled more than 14,000 patients back into clinics to get up-to-date on their vaccines through the Immunization Champions project.”25

Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccine developer and well-known forced vaccination proponent, serves as a director for TIP.26,27,28 During the 2017 legislative session in Texas, TIP representatives directly gave testimony and lobbied for bills that would make it harder for families to decline vaccines or choose to vaccinate their children using a schedule that differs from the CDC’s recommended schedule.29,30

Contrary to what the corporate and government dominated media are reporting and would like the public to believe, many enlightened state legislators are listening to concerned constituents. They are supporting parental rights and the ethical principle of informed consent, which are protected in vaccine laws that contain flexible medical and personal belief exemptions.

What has largely been ignored or misrepresented by the media, medical trade and Pharma during the 2015 to 2017 timeframe is a growing public awareness about vaccine risks and failures and the increasing number of well-informed Americans who are advocating for vaccine freedom of choice because they understand the need to protect informed consent rights by securing and protecting vaccine exemptions in public health laws.

The Truth by Numbers

NVICAP TRACKED 2015 2016 2017 TREND NVICAP OPPOSE 117 (73.0 percent) 71 (67.0 percent) 116 (63.0 percent) Decreasing BAD BILLS PASSED 22/117 (18.8 percent) 8/71 (11.2 percent) 7/116 (6.0 percent) Decreasing NVICAP SUPPORT 19 (11.8 percent) 18 (17.0 percent) 45 (24.0 percent) Increasing NVICAP WATCH 24 (15.0 percent) 17 (16.0 percent) 23 (12.5 percent) Neutral TOTAL BILLS 160 106 184 Increasing STATES AFFECTED 41 33 42 Increasing

In 2014, the NVIC Advocacy Portal tracked 91 bills across 28 states. Over the course of the 2015 to 2017 legislative sessions, the number of vaccine-related bills for which NVIC issued position statements and the number of states affected by bills proposing to restrict or eliminate vaccine freedom of choice dramatically increased.

However, the numbers also clearly show that as the grassroots vaccine safety and informed consent movement grows, a lower percentage of bad bills require opposition because a higher percentage of good bills are being filed by legislators that deserve support.

Most importantly, the numbers and percentages of bills passing that negatively affect vaccine exemptions and threaten informed consent rights are significantly decreasing because more legislators are resisting aggressive lobbying efforts by medical trade and Pharma to make the vaccination system more oppressive than it already is in the U.S.

In a nutshell, slowly but surely as a result of years of hard work, grassroots vaccine education and informed consent advocacy in the U.S. are achieving tangible results.

To keep this trend moving in the right direction, everyone needs to get involved and continue to educate and personally communicate with his or her own legislators. The best way to get real time accurate information about what actions you can take to help protect vaccine informed consent rights in your state is to register as a user of the free online NVIC Advocacy Portal.

The Real Story: Few Bad Vaccine Bills Passed

What happened in 2015:

In 2015, there was a significant increase in state legislative action to add more vaccine mandates and attack the legal right to make voluntary vaccine decisions. Bills were introduced to:

Eliminate or severely restrict vaccine exemptions

Add and expand vaccine mandates for both children and adults in the school or workplace settings

Expand police powers related to vaccination during government-declared public health emergencies

Expand intrusive electronic vaccine tracking and medical records data sharing without consent to more easily enforce use of government recommended vaccines

Publish and publicly post detailed information about vaccine exemptions and vaccination rates in much smaller geographical boundaries like individual schools

In some states, legislation was passed allowing pharmacists to administer more vaccines. Spurred on by reports of a measles outbreak in Disneyland, much of the media attention focused the loss of the personal belief and religious exemptions in California and the loss of the philosophical exemption in Vermont, and there was no acknowledgement of the strong pushback by citizens that thwarted multiple attacks on vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights in many other states.

During the 2015 legislative cycle, the following states derailed legislative attempts to outright eliminate the conscientious/philosophical vaccine exemptions: Maine, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington.

Additionally, the following states came out on top of attacks on freedom of conscience and religion that would have eliminated or severely restricted the religious exemption: Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont.

Bills to mandate vaccines for child care employees passed in California in 2015. However, bills to require vaccination of health care workers in Connecticut, Missouri and New Jersey and to require vaccination of school employees in Texas all failed.

Taking a closer look at the bills NVIC opposed that did pass, there was one Illinois bill in 2015 that weakened vaccine freedom of choice. Illinois SB 1410 added the requirement for parents to complete state approved vaccine education and secure a physician’s signature prior to filing a religious exemption for children to attend school.

Oregon passed SB 895A, which required schools to publicly post vaccine exemption rates. New vaccine mandates became law in Illinois for children attending day care, as did new vaccine mandates for school children in Indiana, Louisiana and Montana.

It was clear that 2015 marked a turning point, both for pharmaceutical and medical trade lobbyists pushing for more oppressive vaccine laws and for citizens who support informed consent and the legal right to flexible medical, religious and conscientious belief vaccine exemptions.

What happened in 2016:

There was a sharp decline in 2016 in the total number of vaccine-related bills filed in state legislatures compared to the previous year: from 160 bills filed in 2015 down to 106 bills filed in 2016, but, again, this was still more bills than were filed in 2014. It is very significant that in 2016, NO bills were passed by state legislatures that restricted or eliminated vaccine exemptions.

The NVIC Advocacy team helped families and enlightened health care professionals defeat bills proposing to restrict or eliminate vaccine exemptions that were filed in Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, South Dakota and Virginia. Bills in three states tried to completely remove the religious exemption, and bills in four states tried to eliminate the personal, philosophical or conscientious belief exemption.

In Virginia, where NVIC has been headquartered since 1982, a bill was proposed to gut the medical exemption by confining it to CDC vaccine contraindications only and to eliminate the religious vaccine exemption for all school aged children, including home schooled children.

This assault on freedom of conscience and religion was met with strong opposition from hundreds of parents, grandparents, health care professionals and allied health freedom groups, who responded to NVIC’s call to action and attended Joint Commission on Health Care public hearings with their children and flooded the legislature with emails, phone calls and personal visits to legislators’ offices.

NVIC prepared a 90-page referenced report defending the religious and medical vaccine exemptions and NVIC’s co-founder and president gave an oral presentation in the legislature defending freedom of religion and conscience, which was defined in the Virginia Constitution and Bill of Rights by authors of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights.31,32 The bill did not pass out of committee.

This nationwide rejection by state legislatures of lobbying attempts to take away more vaccine exemptions was a strong and definitive response by citizens and legislators to the attack on and loss of personal belief vaccine exemptions in two states in the 2015 legislative session.

In 2016, only eight vaccine bills passed out of the 71 bills that NVIC actively opposed on the NVIC Advocacy Portal. Colorado SB 146 proposed to allow minor children to receive vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases, such as hepatitis B and HPV vaccines, without their parents’ knowledge or consent.

Through well-organized grassroots action using the Advocacy Portal network and NVIC talking points, this offensive provision was stripped from the bill before final passage, pushing it into a “win” category for supporters of parental rights and informed consent. Of the seven remaining bills that NVIC opposed but went on to pass in 2016, three added meningococcal vaccine requirements in Delaware, Iowa and South Dakota.

The remaining four bills were not as threatening: HB 313 in Virginia expanded categories of medical workers who could give vaccines; S 1294 in Idaho lowered the age of children who can be vaccinated by pharmacists; SB 512 in New Hampshire expanded vaccine tracking of flu shots for health care workers, and SB 5143 in Washington state added mandated vaccine education for expectant parents before birth of a child.

In 2016, people around the country contacted NVIC and expressed concern that they did not want to see what happened in California happen in their state too, and committed to actively educating their legislators.

Many became users of the NVIC Advocacy Portal to learn more about becoming an effective vaccine choice advocate and how to network with legislators and community leaders. The excellent numbers coming out of the 2016 legislative session show just how committed and effective they were. NVIC supported 18 bills in 2016 including:

Massachusetts S 317 to add a personal belief vaccine exemption

Michigan HB 5126 to remove restrictions placed on vaccine exemptions by the Department of Health through rule making authority

New Hampshire HB 1463 to offer protection for employees against being forced to get an annual flu shot as a condition of employment

Ohio HB 170 to prohibit an employer from taking punitive action against an employee who chooses not to get an annual flu shot

While these positive bills did not pass, opportunities to educate legislators about vaccines and informed consent rights gained momentum, with some of these bills being carried through to 2017.

What happened in 2017:

2017 was a record-breaking year on many fronts starting with NVIC’s Advocacy Portal team tracking an unprecedented 184 vaccine-related bills across 42 states. The great news coming out of 2017 was that there was very little progress made by forced vaccination lobbyists during this year’s legislative session. Of the 116 bills that NVIC opposed, only 16 bills passed and, out of those 16, only seven had elements that were targeted for strong opposition.

Indiana took the hardest hit with a total of three unwanted vaccine bills passing: HB 1069 mandated meningococcal vaccinations for college students; HB 1540 allowed for quarantine and isolation of children with personal belief vaccine exemptions during a declared public health emergency involving disease outbreaks, and SB 51 added new vaccines that pharmacists can administer under standing orders and expanded medical records data sharing with the state’s electronic vaccine tracking registry.

Arkansas also passed a bill (SB 301) to expand medical records data sharing with the state’s electronic vaccine tracking registry. Tennessee passed the only other bill (SB 393) affecting vaccine mandates, which required college boards and the state Department of Health to adopt rules concerning vaccine requirements that effectively delegated the authority to add new vaccine mandates for college students to the health department.

The only state to pass a bill (HB 308) restricting existing vaccine exemption rights was Utah, which added the requirement that parents either complete a vaccine education module to obtain a vaccine exemption form online or attend an in-office consultation at the local health department if an exemption form for a child to attend school is picked up at a health department office.

The original statute only required the local health department to make the exemption form available to parents on request, but some parents reported that there were local health departments making that process too difficult for parents. Adding any additional codified restrictions to obtaining a vaccine exemption is a position that NVIC has consistently opposed.

In Washington State, a bill (HB 1641) was passed that significantly undermined parental informed consent rights by authorizing school nurses to give consent for vaccines to be administered to children whose families were homeless.

Of the remaining nine bills that NVIC opposed but were passed in 2017, none of them affected vaccine exemptions. In Alabama (HB 381), Georgia (HB 198), Nebraska (HB 1481) and Tennessee (HB 388 and SB 598), laws were passed to require vaccine promotion and marketing by schools or health care providers.

Hawaii (SB 514), Kansas (HB 2030) and Montana (HB 177) authorized pharmacists to give vaccines or expand the types of vaccines and ages of children pharmacists could vaccinate.

On the positive side, New Hampshire scored a huge win with the passage of a bill (HB 362) that prohibits school vaccine requirements for diseases that are not transmitted from person to person in a public setting, basically gutting hepatitis B vaccine requirements and putting a road block in the way of any future rule to mandate HPV vaccine or other vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases.

Parental rights in Texas were affirmed when a bill (HB 7) was passed protecting families from having their children vaccinated by Child Protective Services (CPS) without parents’ informed consent. Of the 184 bills that the NVIC Advocacy Portal team tracked in 2017, 23 were in Texas.

Among the Texas bills NVIC opposed, there were three bills proposing to use tax dollars to promote vaccination; one bill removing parental consent by allowing minor children to consent to HPV vaccination; four bills mandating public vaccine exemption disclosure resulting in shaming of schools with high vaccine exemption rates; two bills removing the right to opt-in informed consent for personal medical information to be entered into the vaccine tracking system; two bills to restrict vaccine exemptions; and one bill to eliminate conscientious and religious exemptions.

All of these bills trampling on parental and informed consent rights FAILED, thanks to the work of NVIC’s volunteer state directors, supporters and allied groups in Texas.

2017 Bill Analysis by Category

Because of the record number of vaccine bills filed in 2017, it is useful to look at trends across the states. The four main areas that NVIC focuses on when tracking proposed bills are: (1) vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights; (2) new vaccine mandates; (3) electronic vaccine tracking and reporting registries and (4) vaccines in general.

The breakout and analysis of bills in these different categories is interesting and can serve as a guide to those who want to become active in educating their legislators and community about protecting vaccine informed consent rights in 2018.

Exemptions and Informed Consent (81 related bills)

The majority of vaccine bills filed in state legislatures in 2017 affected vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights: 81 related bills. NVIC opposed 42 of these bills and supported 39 bills. Some of the position statements NVIC posted on the Advocacy Portal were listed as bills to “WATCH” because our analysis indicated they were unlikely to move forward; however, NVIC stated opposition to all of the bills in the “watch” category that negatively affected vaccine exemptions and informed consent rights.

This year, 2017, was a big year for vaccine choice advocates: ALL lobbying attempts to eliminate vaccine exemptions failed in every state where bills were proposed to do that. Bills were filed in Arkansas (HB 1043), Iowa (H 261), New York (A 1810), Pennsylvania (SB 217) and Rhode Island (H 5681) to eliminate vaccine exemptions.

Texas (HB120) attempted to remove the words “conscientious” and “religious” from vaccine exemption language in state law and refer to exemptions only in medical terms (i.e., “nonmedical”). The Arkansas bill was withdrawn by the sponsor and the rest of the bills failed to move forward. This is very good news.

On the other side, there were 17 bills filed in Hawaii, Iowa, Mississippi (4), New Jersey, New York (3), Rhode Island (3), Tennessee and West Virginia (3) that NVIC supported because they proposed to expand vaccine exemptions. Unfortunately, none of those bills passed but their introduction provided an excellent opportunity for citizens to educate legislators about vaccine science, policy and law and informed consent rights.

Of the 15 bills filed in Connecticut (2), Iowa, Minnesota (2), New Jersey, New York, Ohio (3), Oklahoma, Texas (2) and Utah (2) that attempted to restrict vaccine exemptions, only one bill in Utah passed (HB 308). Utah parents now must obtain a vaccine exemption form after completing an online educational module or having in an “inperson consultation” with a health official or other designated person at a local health department office, where parents can be charged up to $25 to do that.

In Mississippi and Texas, there were proposed bills to expand the types of medical workers who could sign a medical vaccine exemption, but they did not pass.

Many more bills in 2017 were filed that tried to mandate the public disclosure of vaccine exemption rates for individual schools. This type of law serves to publicly shame schools with higher student vaccine exemption rates and creates a climate of fear and stigmatization of children attending school with vaccine exemptions.

There were bills attempting to do this filed in Arizona, Connecticut, Nevada, New York, Oklahoma, Texas (4) and Virginia. NVIC opposed every one of these bills and we are happy to say NONE of them passed.

This was the second session in a row that a legislator in Texas was unsuccessful in passing this type of legislation and users of the NVIC Advocacy Portal fought hard to stop it from passing. There was a lot of media attention generated by pro-forced vaccination groups in advance of the 2017 legislative session in Texas to try to sway public opinion and persuade the legislature to pass coercive vaccine bills, but those efforts failed.

There were six bills filed in the states of Minnesota (4), New York and Texas that attempted to remove vaccine informed consent rights from parents and delegate them to the minor children themselves. Fortunately, NONE of these bills passed. However, Washington State did pass a bill (HB 1641) that allows school nurses to give consent to vaccinating children whose families are homeless.

Being “homeless” does not mean children don’t have parents who care for them and are legally responsible for their welfare. School nurses should not be given the power to vaccinate children for whom they are not legal guardians. NVIC is urging families in Washington State to contact legislators to repeal this law, which sets a bad precedent and threatens parental informed consent rights.

A new category of legislation that emerged in 2017: Six bills were filed in Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, Oregon and Washington that highlighted the urgent need to rein in overzealous government agencies where officials are appropriating authority they do not have by ignoring current statutes and adding erroneous restrictions and forms to vaccine exemptions.

Although none of the six bills passed that would have expressly limited state agency actions where government officials are overstepping their authority, the efforts still yielded wins in two states: Colorado and Oregon. In Colorado, a bill (SB 250) proposed to clarify that parents can submit a signed letter requesting a religious or philosophical exemption to vaccination for children to attend school and parents are not required to fill out a state health department form.

This bill was filed because the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and schools were telling parents they must use the CDPHE forms, even though Colorado State Law 25-4-903(2)(b) has been in force since 1978 allowing parents or legal guardians to submit to schools a signed statement requesting a vaccine exemption on behalf of a minor child.

While the bill did not pass, the parents’ right to submit a vaccine exemption statement to the school was publicly affirmed in a joint letter signed by the departments of health and education.33

Oregon SB 687 proposed to clarify that the definition of parental child abuse does not include delaying or declining vaccination for a child. While the bill did not pass, the Oregon Department of Human Services issued a memo, which states that not vaccinating a child by itself does not constitute medical neglect. It is likely there will be more clarification bills filed in the future as more families and legislators grow frustrated with state agencies that don’t follow the law.34

Texas made strides in 2017 in creating legislation to protect parents, whose children have not received all federally recommended and state mandated vaccines, from overreach by Child Protective Services (CPS) and the courts. Already armed with protective language passed in a 2003 bill, which amended the government code with “Prohibition on Punitive Action for Failure to Immunize,” the passage of Texas HB 7 in 2017 took this protection to an even higher level.

HB 7 provided for a sweeping revamping of the CPS system and was amended to include protective language for parents filing a conscientious/religious vaccine exemption for their children. Sections 10 and 11 of the bill prohibit a court from ordering the termination of parental rights, and sections 17 and 18 prohibit the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) from taking possession of a child based on a parent “declining immunization for a child for reasons of conscience including a religious belief.”

Threatening language also was removed from Texas HB 1549 that targeted innocent parents, who CPS officials believe are “at risk” of committing child abuse or neglect at some point in the future.

The original bill contained no qualification that families would have to already be under investigation for child abuse or neglect to be labeled “at risk” of becoming child abusers. Rather, the bill would have allowed CPS officials to visit the home of any family they believed displayed “risk factors” and CPS could schedule monthly visits to that family’s home.

Under the bill’s original language, a “risk factor” could be anything that CPS believed would make a child susceptible to abuse or neglect. NVIC sent an action alert to oppose the bill. We are grateful to all the organizations that worked together in Texas to remove offensive language from the bill that could have led to labeling parents who do not vaccinate their children as potential child abusers.

Seventeen bills in Hawaii, Iowa, Mississippi (4), New Jersey, New York (3), Rhode Island (3), Tennessee, and West Virginia (3) were filed to expand vaccine exemptions and bills filed in Minnesota, Oklahoma (4), Oregon (3), Texas (2) and Washington State proposed to expand vaccine informed consent rights. Two bills in Mississippi and Texas were filed to expand which type of medical workers can sign medical exemptions, plus Texas had a bill to prohibit doctors from refusing to provide medical care to patients for declining vaccinations.

While none of these proactive bills passed, they advanced education efforts in the legislature about vaccine exemption and informed consent issues affecting families, which ultimately helped stop some of the bad vaccine-related bills from passing.

Vaccine Mandates (35 bills)

Twenty-five bills were filed across 11 states to add new vaccine mandates, including in Connecticut (2), Illinois, Indiana (3), Kansas, Kentucky, Maine (2), Missouri, New Jersey (5), New York (5), Tennessee (2) and Virginia (2). The majority of these bills attempted to require influenza, meningococcal or HPV vaccines for either health care workers or children attending school.

NVIC opposed all of these bills and the only two that passed were Indiana HB 1069, which mandated meningococcal vaccinations for college students, and Tennessee SB 393, which required college boards and the Department of Health to adopt vaccine requirement rules.

No elementary or secondary school mandates were passed by any state legislature. However, there has been an increasing trend for legislatures to allow public health officials in state health departments to add school vaccine mandates by using the administrative rule making process that bypasses the legislative process, which effectively reduces active public participation and scrutiny of these policies.

NVIC tracked four bills that proposed to protect employees from vaccine mandates as a condition of employment: one in Mississippi, one in Ohio and two in Oregon. While the bills in Mississippi and Oregon died, in Ohio a bill (HB 193), which provides protections for employees who refuse an annual flu shot, is still moving. The bill passed out of the Economic Development, Commerce and Labor Committee and, as long as it is alive, Ohio residents should continue to monitor and urge legislators to support this bill.

There were five proactive bills filed in Mississippi, New Hampshire (2), New Jersey and Rhode Island to restrict vaccine mandates. Four of the five bills restricted hepatitis B vaccine mandates. The only one of these bills to pass was in New Hampshire (HB 362), where there is now a prohibition on school vaccine mandates for diseases that are not transferred from person to person in a public setting.

This bill went into effect on August 15, 2017. That victory came after dedicated education efforts in the legislature by NVIC’s volunteer New Hampshire state advocacy director and Advocacy Portal users in the state.

Vaccine Tracking and Reporting (28 bills)

The largest group of bills under the category of vaccine tracking and reporting were 17 bills in 12 states that proposed to expand electronic vaccine tracking systems: Arkansas, California, Connecticut (3), Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York (2), Ohio and Utah. The only two bills that passed were Arkansas SB 301 and Indiana SB 51.

The next largest category was vaccine tracking bills that were filed in Montana, Oregon, Texas (2) and Utah to remove opt-in informed consent to vaccine records tracking so the vaccination status of individuals can be tracked without their knowledge or consent by state health officials. Fortunately, none of these bills passed.

Maryland HB 1481 proposed to not only require all primary health care providers to push federally recommended vaccines for adolescents, such as hepatitis B and HPV vaccines, it would have required the documentation of parental refusal of vaccinations in the child’s permanent medical record. Fortunately, this bill stalled and failed to move out of committee.

A good bill in Massachusetts (H 1179) proposed to give individuals a way to avoid automatic inclusion in the state’s electronic vaccine tracking system without consent, but the bill did not pass. A bill in Vermont (H 247), which requires the state health department file vaccine adverse reaction reports to the General Assembly, is still active for the upcoming 2018 session. If you live in Vermont, you can encourage your legislators to support H 247.

Vaccine Promotion (47 bills)

Vaccine advertising, promotion and marketing should not be funded by taxpayers and, yet, there were bills filed in 10 states, including Alabama, Florida (3), Georgia, Illinois (2), Louisiana (2), Maryland, Nebraska, Oregon, Tennessee (2) and Texas (3) to require the promotion of vaccine use by schools, medical facilities and places of employment.

Schools should not be legally compelled to promote vaccinations. Yet, bills in Alabama (HB 381), Georgia (HB 198) and Tennessee (HB 388 and SB 598) all passed and require schools to provide information on influenza and flu shots to children and their parents. A bill in Nebraska (LB 267), which also passed, requires nursing facilities to offer employees and residents influenza vaccines.

There were bills filed in 11 states proposing to authorize pharmacists to administer more vaccines, including in California, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland (2), Maine (2), Montana, New York (3) South Dakota and Texas. Four of these bills passed and some of the bills broaden the ages of individuals who can be given vaccines, while others broaden the types of vaccines that can be given.

Hawaii (SB 514) passed a bill allowing pharmacists to administer HPV and other vaccines to children that became effective July 3, 2017. Indiana (SB 51) added new vaccines that pharmacists can administer under standing orders, effective July 1, 2017. Kansas (HB 2030) now allows pharmacists to administer a vaccine to children as young as 12 years old and this went into effect on July 1, 2017.

Finally, Montana passed HB 177, which allows pharmacists to give pneumococcal vaccines to everyone and this law went into effect March 1, 2017. California passed a bill (AB 443) that allows optometrists to give vaccines, effective Oct. 7, 2017.

There were nine bills in six states proposing to expand vaccine and public health programs, including in Florida (3), Georgia, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas and Washington (2), and two of these bills passed. While two bills in Florida to promote vaccination of pregnant women died, there is a new bill (HB 41) that has already been pre-filed for the 2018 legislative session. This bill makes influenza and tetanus vaccines (most tetanus containing shots also contain diphtheria and pertussis vaccines) part of pregnancy wellness programs.

NVIC will continue to oppose this bill and encourage Florida residents to contact their legislators and share with them the results of a new study signaling an association between influenza vaccine and miscarriage.35 There were also three bills, all filed in Missouri, which proposed to limit certain ingredients in vaccines, but none of them passed.

Government Agencies Abusing the Rule Making Process to Circumvent Legislators

As citizens in many states have become more effective informed consent advocates and are successfully blocking coercive vaccine legislation, officials in government agencies are increasingly attempting to use and stretch the administrative rule making process, which avoids legislation, to try to get away with putting restrictions on or adding more requirements to the vaccine exemption process.

Citizens have little recourse when administrative rules are adopted by government agencies that increase restrictions or add extra requirements not set forth in law because, unlike elected legislators, voters cannot hold unelected government employees accountable at the polls. In the 2015 to 2017 time frame, NVIC issued action alerts to oppose proposed administrative rules in Illinois, Pennsylvania and Vermont that affect vaccine exemptions and, in New Hampshire, we urged opposition to a vaccine tracking system proposed rule.

A local health department in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, tried to mandate HPV vaccines for school children, which is yet another example of government overreach that was fortunately stopped. These administrative rules issued by government officials all had one thing in common: They went beyond the authority given to government employees in the state laws they were supposed to responsibly implement.

For example, the Illinois Department of Public Health adopted administrative rules that went into effect on February 27, 2017 related to the passage of SB 1410 by the legislature in 2015. SB 1410 required the signature of a medical professional that verified the parent was given vaccine education, as well as required new religious vaccine exemption forms to be filled out by parents of children entering kindergarten, sixth and ninth grades.

The final rule that was adopted by the health department went beyond the scope of what was authorized in the bill, requiring ALL children in day care, nursery schools, pre-K, special education and entering other grades to file new religious exemption forms. The health department rule also failed to implement a section of the bill clarifying that state designated medical workers giving vaccines may write a medical exemption for a child without restrictions.

In 2017, NVIC issued an alert in Kentucky opposing a proposed rule by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to restrict vaccine exemptions by requiring the use of a state issued form that would require additional parent education and a notary signature.

An increasing number of public health officials working in state health departments are growing bolder by taking action outside the scope of the laws for which they write rules. It is very important to hold public health officials accountable with legislators who control their funding, and call them out for going beyond their authority when it comes to promoting and enforcing vaccination.

Parents should be very cautious about signing government forms that contain statements about diseases and vaccines that they do not agree with, especially if coercion is involved, which is called “compelled speech” and is unconstitutional. Make sure that the forms you sign are legally required and do not include additional information requests or attestations that are not required in state or federal law.

Informed consent advocates in every state, who want to expand or protect vaccine exemptions, should actively monitor proposed rulemaking notices published in their state by health agencies and respond with written or oral public comment, as allowed, as well as contact legislators and express concerns.

Taking action will help stop government officials from abusing rule making authority for the purpose of coercing individuals into using all federally recommended and state-mandated vaccines rather than respecting informed consent rights. Links are posted to state proposed rulemaking on each state vaccine law page at NVIC.org to assist the public in providing oversight on and holding government agencies accountable for legally administrating the rule making process.

What Can You Do?

NVIC expects many more vaccine-related bills to be filed in the states in 2018, so please become a registered user of the NVIC Advocacy Portal and check in often to learn about ways to educate legislators when vaccine bills moving in your state, and encourage all of your friends and family to do the same.

Clearly your efforts are making a much more significant difference than the media and those pushing “no exceptions” forced vaccination policies and laws are willing to admit, and your participation is vital to protecting informed consent and vaccine choices in America.

Also, if you see inaccurate information in the media, take the time to respond by a making a comment online. You can also email the journalist or media outlet and provide accurate, well referenced vaccine information, which you can find on the “Ask 8 Vaccine Information Kiosk” on NVIC.org.

NVIC’s updated 2017 illustrated and fully referenced Guide to Reforming Vaccine Policy and Law is a good vaccine education tool for legislators and friends and family, too. NOTE: Every bill discussed in this report is linked on the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Protect Your Right to Informed Consent and Defend Vaccine Exemptions

With all the uncertainty surrounding the safety and efficacy of vaccines, it’s critical to protect your right to make independent health choices and exercise voluntary informed consent to vaccination. It is urgent that everyone in America stand up and fight to protect and expand vaccine informed consent protections in state public health and employment laws. The best way to do this is to get personally involved with your state legislators and educating the leaders in your community.

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY.

National vaccine policy recommendations are made at the federal level but vaccine laws are made at the state level. It is at the state level where your action to protect your vaccine choice rights can have the greatest impact.

It is critical for EVERYONE to get involved now in standing up for the legal right to make voluntary vaccine choices in America because those choices are being threatened by lobbyists representing drug companies, medical trade associations, and public health officials, who are trying to persuade legislators to strip all vaccine exemptions from public health laws.

Signing up for NVIC’s free Advocacy Portal at www.NVICAdvocacy.org gives you immediate, easy access to your own state legislators on your smart phone or computer so you can make your voice heard. You will be kept up-to-date on the latest state bills threatening your vaccine choice rights and get practical, useful information to help you become an effective vaccine choice advocate in your own community.

Also, when national vaccine issues come up, you will have the up-to-date information and call to action items you need at your fingertips. So please, as your first step, sign up for the NVIC Advocacy Portal.

Share Your Story With the Media and People You Know

If you or a family member has suffered a serious vaccine reaction, injury, or death, please talk about it. If we don’t share information and experiences with one another, everybody feels alone and afraid to speak up. Write a letter to the editor if you have a different perspective on a vaccine story that appears in your local newspaper. Make a call in to a radio talk show that is only presenting one side of the vaccine story.

I must be frank with you; you have to be brave because you might be strongly criticized for daring to talk about the “other side” of the vaccine story. Be prepared for it and have the courage to not back down. Only by sharing our perspective and what we know to be true about vaccination, will the public conversation about vaccination open up so people are not afraid to talk about it.

We cannot allow the drug companies and medical trade associations funded by drug companies or public health officials promoting forced use of a growing list of vaccines to dominate the conversation about vaccination.

The vaccine injured cannot be swept under the carpet and treated like nothing more than “statistically acceptable collateral damage” of national one-size-fits-all mandatory vaccination policies that put way too many people at risk for injury and death. We shouldn’t be treating people like guinea pigs instead of human beings.

Internet Resources Where You Can Learn More

I encourage you to visit the website of the non-profit charity, the National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC), at www.NVIC.org:

NVIC Memorial for Vaccine Victims: View descriptions and photos of children and adults, who have suffered vaccine reactions, injuries, and deaths. If you or your child experiences an adverse vaccine event, please consider posting and sharing your story here.

If You Vaccinate, Ask 8 Questions: Learn how to recognize vaccine reaction symptoms and prevent vaccine injuries.

Vaccine Freedom Wall: View or post descriptions of harassment and sanctions by doctors, employers, and school and health officials for making independent vaccine choices.

Vaccine Failure Wall: View or post descriptions about vaccines that have failed to work and protect the vaccinated from disease.

Connect With Your Doctor or Find a New One That Will Listen and Care

If your pediatrician or doctor refuses to provide medical care to you or your child unless you agree to get vaccines you don’t want, I strongly encourage you to have the courage to find another doctor. Harassment, intimidation, and refusal of medical care is becoming the modus operandi of the medical establishment in an effort to stop the change in attitude of many parents about vaccinations after they become truly educated about health and vaccination. However, there is hope.

At least 15 percent of young doctors recently polled admit that they’re starting to adopt a more individualized approach to vaccinations in direct response to the vaccine safety concerns of parents.

It is good news that there is a growing number of smart young doctors, who prefer to work as partners with parents in making personalized vaccine decisions for children, including delaying vaccinations or giving children fewer vaccines on the same day or continuing to provide medical care for those families, who decline use of one or more vaccines.

So take the time to locate a doctor, who treats you with compassion and respect, and is willing to work with you to do what is right for your child.

#Flu vaccine #Vaccine Legislation

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trinamcmichaels01 · 4 years ago

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Americas Blessing of Freedom & Hope

Where is your family from and also why did they pertain to America?

Have you ever before visited the communist countries of China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, or Vietnam?

I've had the honor of traveling to many parts of the globe, and also loved individuals of virtually every nation. My heart made those who were incapable to appreciate the liberties of choice and also self direction that Americans consider given each day.

What do you provide for a living? Whether you are a physician, educator, auto mechanic, IT person, or full time parent; I would imagine you selected that course for your life since you appreciated specific facets of that work, and you have the ability to be compensated for it.

What if you had no say towards your life, and also your future was exclusively dictated to you by the federal government?

I can not assume of a faster method to off the trigger of life in one's eyes than completely eliminating their own firm from their lives. Sadly, that is what happens in communist/socialist nations America National politics.

Do you want to move there completely as well as give up your American flexibilities and also opportunities?

Do you want to make America into an additional China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, or Vietnam?

Your candidate for Head of state in America need to have 2 goals:

1) Dedication to expanding the stability and also stamina of their nation.

2) The prospect needs to dedicate to shield as well as safeguard their residents' civil liberties.

Why do people leave a country?

- Anxiety of safety and security for themselves as well as their family members from violence.

- Anxiety of oppression for their beliefs.

- Extraordinary destitution as well as no possibilities for altering it.

- Federal government corruption and overreach that stifles private options as well as development as well as forces conformity.

Are you and your household looking to import where they came from to America?

What are the differences in between their residence country as well as America?

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Be committed to expanding the stability and strength of their nation.

2) The candidate should dedicate to safeguard and also protect their residents' civil liberties.

Obtain the facts, assume meticulously prior to you act as well as vote for Head of state of the USA on Nov. 3, 2020!

I have appreciated seeing, mentor, as well as carrying out on my violin as well as viola throughout the globe. This consists of communist countries. I have always mored than happy as well as delighted ahead back residence to America as well as our many true blessings and also freedoms! It is a true eye opener to see how privileged we remain in America.

We have lots of chances right here to begin a business, choose the job we wish to do, to have property, pray as we pick, protect our legal rights to totally free speech, protect ourselves and our house and property, the right to believe and also share our thoughts with others.

We have great sanitation, plumbing, drinkable running water, electrical power with washrooms that work which permit you to wash your hands with soap and also water to keep germs and sickness from running through entire cities America National politics.

After checking out these foreign locations, I was constantly so grateful for the true blessings and liberties of living and also operating in America.

" In Communism the government owns all property and pays its residents similarly. Citizens possess absolutely nothing. The government chooses your job and also tells you what to do. They have you! There is no free choice!"

Communism/Socialism is often considered in scholastic and also media circles as an "every little thing is free because it is a right". There is no liberty when you depend on the government to determine what you are worthy of.

The American Revolution has actually stood the examination of time because we are reminded that our liberties originate from God, not male.

Communism removes all your rights, your property, your chances, your options, and your flexibilities. This consists of thinking, prayer, organization.

Birds Eye View on Communism in Russia:

The flick, Moscow on the Hudson" (1984) was created and also guided by Paul Mazursky and also starred Robin Williams, as Vladimir Ivanoff, a saxophonist with the Moscow Circus who is carrying out as well as going to in New york city City. He decides to problem while shopping at Bloomingdale's in New york city City. Director Mazursky stated the concept for the film originated from his very own grandpa emigrating to the USA from Russia.

He states, "A lot of Russians, are just attempting to survive. Yet, all Russians that leave their country, leave something they prize and also love. It's a terrible dispute for them, so the act of valor is frustrating."

The movie opens up with Vladimir in Russia living "in a congested apartment with his extended family." After that "he stands in line for hrs to buy toilet paper and also shoes." It takes as long to acquire the toilet tissue and also footwear that he's late to rehearsal. Boris, the communist event participant, KGB,

" slams Vladimir for being late to practice session and also suggests Vladimir may miss the approaching journey to the USA.". Vladimir immediately hands over to Boris, the footwear from the shop that made him late. After wedding rehearsal Vladimir selects his friend to buy fuel for his car from a "black market dealership."

After Vladimir flaws he has numerous American residents that have actually promptly agreed to assist him. They give him an area to stick with their family members, help him in locating work, as well as a recent American person from Cuba who his lawyer.

True blessings of America: America is not excellent, however it is our last beacon of hope!

America was improved Judeo/Christian worths, order, sanctity, capitalism, entrepreneurship, as well as free enterprises. America is a land of possibilities. Our United States Constitution safeguards our freedoms. The of our Constitution were smart enough to understand that our unalienable legal rights did not originate from federal government or male; they originated from God. They were likewise smart adequate to develop the Constitution as well as Expense of Rights to be exclusionary (clarifying what Government can refrain from doing, rather than all things it can do).

The very liberties that a lot of us consider granted like the search of life, freedom, and the quest of joy, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and liberty to petition the federal government to ideal wrongs are what make this nation wonderful. It is also why this excellent nation of ours is a magnet for people from throughout the globe that answer the "battle-cry of their souls to be free by looking for citizenship."

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Dedication to expanding the security and strength of their nation.

2) The prospect should commit to shield and also protect their citizens' rights.

What is Kristallnacht?

Kristallnacht, (additionally called the Evening of Broken Glass). On November 9-10, 1938, Pogroms, violent troubles, (strikes, looting, arson, mass arrests, and fatality) were performed against the Jews by SA paramilitary forces (tornado troopers) and also civilians throughout Nazi Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Slovak, Bohemia, Poland, and also Moravia. These rioters damaged, struck, robbed, and also knocked down Jewish organizations, homes, schools, hospitals, and Synagogues with sledgehammers. After the assaults smashed glass was left on the roads.

" British chronicler Martin Gilbert wrote that no event in the background of German Jews between 1933 and also 1945 was so widely reported as it was occurring, and also the accounts from foreign journalists working in Germany sent out shockwaves around the world."

The Times of London observed on November 11,1938: "No international propagandist curved upon blackening Germany before the globe can outshine the tale of burnings as well as poundings, of blackguardly attacks on helpless and also innocent people, which reproached that nation the other day."

Communism is total government control. Damaging down of order, robbery destruction, arson, death. Pogroms, Kristallnacht, eliminating statues (eliminating history), instilling the young, (mind washing), no responsibility, versus independent thinking, against self-sufficiency, against family members worths, versus faith, versus human spirit. Tramples on constitution. Takes all your rights and freedoms away America National politics.

Where is my family from?

My family is from Russia and Hungary where there were no civil liberties, no selections, no possibilities, no complimentary speech, no right to a fair test. You did what the federal government authorities informed them to do. There was no freedom of speech. No owning of residential or commercial property. There was no selection in anything. The government determined what your profession would certainly be. When you said to attempt as well as safeguard yourself, they would toss you behind bars as well as eliminate you.

America is the only place you can go from cloths to treasures. In other nations if you were birthed bad you remain that way permanently. Mark J. Quann, writer, claimed in 2017, "Immigrants Are 4 Times More Likely to End Up Being Millionaires in America."

The number of immigrants show up in the United States each year? "More than 1 million immigrants show up in the U.S. each year. In 2017, the leading country of origin for brand-new immigrants entering into the U.S. was India, with 126,000 individuals, followed by Mexico (124,000), China (121,000) and also Cuba (41,000)." https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/

Ages 18 or Older: Suppose what you are being informed is Not 100% real? Do you question what you are informed and seek to inspect the reality? Do you inform yourself? Are you responsible for your activities? What is your goal or dream?

Just in America will certainly you be provided the chance to pick your desire and help it!

Rebecca Walser, skilled author of "Wide range Unbroken", states, In America "you are encouraged to take control of your life, your fate, and that is something billions of individuals do not have."

Communist China in 2016 had a populace of 1.4 billion. "Their people had just an ordinary per capita disposable revenue of $3,469 in 2016." Compare this "to 320 million Americans who had $43,536 per capita non reusable yearly income that same year." (Walser, Wide Range Unbroken).

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Be dedicated to growing the security and also stamina of their country.

2) The candidate ought to commit to secure as well as defend their citizens' rights.

Why have numerous people concern America? America is Not Perfect, but it has opportunities and also remarkable possibilities that communism does not have!!!!!

These immigrants from Russia, China, Laos, and other nations that have ended up being residents of America are "Not begging" to go back to the countries they have actually run away from!

These 5 plus months of the pandemic and also being homebound has actually brought tension and also anxiousness to America with civil unrest, rioting, looting, and also murder. This is a suggestion of pogroms in Russia as well as Kristallnacht, (Night of Broken Glass) in Nazi Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Slovak, Bohemia, Poland, and also Moravia America Politics.

Assume and obtain truth realities, before you elect Head of state of the USA on Nov 3, 2020!

Your candidate for Head of state in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Be devoted to expanding the stability as well as toughness of their nation.

2) The candidate needs to commit to shield and also protect their people' civil liberties.

Remember what President Ronald Reagan claimed, "Flexibility is never ever more than one generation away from termination ... It should be fought for, secured, and handed on for them to do the exact same.".

Assume and also obtain the true truths before you vote on Nov. 3, 2020.

Do you intend to maintain your legal rights as well as privileges in America or provide up?

Background of American Ballot Rights.

Among the wonderful points concerning living in the USA of America is that we do not undergo fifty percent as several struggles to vote as newly democratic countries. Although now it might seem that voting is virtually considered approved, the history of American voting civil liberties is not so quite. This write-up will check out the development of the American voting civil liberties from the birth of the nation previously.

Initially of American background, just white males over the age of 21 might take part in the vote. In addition, the head of state and vice president were chosen separately, and legislators were not directly chosen in all. Remember the selecting university's enact concerns to the presidency, too. Nonetheless, there were a number of modifications that occurred throughout our history to place the elections much more in the hands of the people-all individuals.

After the Civil Battle finished, the newly rejoined country passed numerous amendments permitting the newly launched slaves a lot more legal rights than ever before, allegedly equal with those of white citizens. Initially, the 13th Amendment eliminated enslavement, in addition to forced servitude, and also remains to ban these techniques. Second, the 14th Modification made slaves and their descendents total citizens of the United States, and also gave them the same rights as every various other resident in America. Lastly, the 15th Amendment banned voter discrimination based on race, shade, and heritage. With each other, these were known as the Restoration Modifications.

You may have observed that although people can not lawfully stop others from electing based on color, there was absolutely nothing consisted of about gender. Even after African-American males got the right to vote, females of both shades were not able to do so. Ultimately, in 1920, the 19th Modification provided females suffrage. This wanted straight election of senators was given to the people (17th Change, 1913) America Politics.

The Vietnam Battle was a time of great civil discontent. Initially, the 26th Modification reduced the voting age to 18 due to the fact that 18-year-olds were being dispatched to battle without also obtaining the chance to choose their leader. This happened in 1971. Previously, yet also during the long period of time of the Vietnam War, the little ways people handicapped African-Americans from electing concerned national focus.

People powerless black citizens by instituting poll tax obligations, proficiency examinations, and also grandpa stipulations. Because these were unreasonable and also borderline unlawful, individuals rebelled versus these methods, which cause President Lyndon Johnson signing the National Voting Civil Liberty Act of 1965. This act made the discrimination versus black voters completely prohibited.

A Vote For Capitalism Or Corporatism.

A window of opportunity will be in the political election of 2011. This window will enable you to cast your ballot, for or against business America. While I need to confess, that the business influence is healthy on both sides of the island, it is dominate away. You absolutely do not need me to inform you which side has actually fallen totally in bed with the enemy of industrialism.

You just need to see, that is attempting to empower corporate tax obligation evasion, company authority, in taking apart lengthy established labor laws and that looks for to alter our entitlements (social safety and security, Medicare) into independently run business who's motive would be to earn money, rather than assist those that need aid. While they are pressing now, harder than they ever before have, they are still steadfast in not permitting the rich to pay at least as much taxes as the middle class.

Big corporations pay much less than 15 percent in tax obligations, some really pay none. Some pay no tax obligations and also receive cost-free money from the federal government on top of that; called aids. Warren Buffet (Billionaire) remarks that his personal assistant pays a greater tax price than he himself does. The millionaire tax obligation brace is practically 35 percent now, after the George Shrub tax cuts; yet they hardly ever pay this rate as they use funding gains technique to submit, and also this tax obligation bracket is around 15 percent. Given that Head of state Obama's political election, there has actually been a battle to raise the millionaire brace from 35 percent to the original 39 percent. This was the keystone with the brand-new republican tea party; that they were regarded to of held congress captive over not permitting that 4 percent boost. Rather, they pressed really tough to make massive cuts, every one of which will certainly come directly out of the pockets of the bad and also middle classes.

The Shrub tax obligation cuts took 2.5 trillion dollars out of the United States economic climate over one decade. Two battles an additional 2 trillion bucks. The Bush deregulation of monetary laws, permitted hoggish financial institutions and their CEO's to control negative home mortgage, which resulted in the financial collision of 2008, that we are still suffering from. All the above, were activities developed by corporate power and impact through our government, right up to the desk of the presidency its self. All of this pain to our economic situation was developed by millionaires, billionaires and also powerful companies.

With the recent debt ceiling crisis, we now find that it is NOT corporate America that will pay for these horrendous activities, however those that were the targets to begin with; the center course. Corporate wide range has raised 10 layer in 10 years, while the middle class has actually been downsized with enhancing healthcare expenses, as well as level wages. Company America has 2.5 trillion bucks saved up and stashed here in the US. The affordable collapse of 2008 taught them how to run their firms with less people, raising their earnings, as well as keeping unemployment extremely high. Business America is estimated to have 2 trillion dollars stashed in off shore accounts to avoid the little tax obligations they do pay. This cash, will never flow down to the center course - not in a million years. In addition, one tenth of one percent of the globes population possesses 55 percent of the globes wealth America National politics.

In these times, its very important to not perplex conservative national politics with business monopolies in this one regard. Traditional individuals have a legitimate disposition as do liberals. Each party is merely a preferred method of establishing the government. Actually, all nations all over the world have these 2 possibilities that are maintained in balance.

Yet the sad point here is that conservatives have actually had their party penetrated by big corporate money and control; pulling the puppet strings of congress, bombarding state legislatures with pro corporate expenses. The conservative experts (individuals who discuss national politics) are paid, and also paid well by these company teams which have attacked the conventional party as a hook worm lives below the skin. The firms have moved in under the radar with conservatists, by hiding under the umbrella of conservative concepts, yet in truth they have actually currently overtaken the conventional motion; and also to the conservatives hinderance they have really been educated to safeguard the very same oppressor through the bombardment of the media statements the experts are paid to project.

A Democratic, Market Issue That Brings completion of America As Projection by Daniel the Prophet.

Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history teacher at the College of Edinburgh, assessed the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior. He is credited with saying that a freedom is constantly momentary until citizens discover that they can elect themselves generous presents from the general public treasury. From that moment on, the bulk constantly votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the general public treasury, with the result that every freedom will lastly fall down over loosened fiscal plan, (which is) constantly complied with by a dictatorship.

The typical age of the world's greatest people has actually been about 200 years throughout which we see this series: "From bondage to spiritual belief; From spiritual confidence to great guts; From courage to freedom; From freedom to abundance; From wealth to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From lethargy to reliance; From reliance back right into chains." America's Obituary: Born 1776, Died 2012.

America, started as a republic, is currently a freedom where the bulk ballot money on their own in welfare programs. Demographics are an upcoming issue with amnesty of prohibited aliens, as recommended by Daniel's prophetic publication.

Teacher Olson includes: "In aggregate, the map of the region Romney won was primarily the land possessed by the taxpaying people of the country.

Obama territory primarily encompassed those citizens living in reduced revenue tenements and living off various kinds of federal government well-being ..." Almost fifty percent of the US is in the "governmental dependency" stage. If Congress grants amnesty as well as citizenship to twenty million criminal intruders called illegals, we can say goodbye to the UNITED STATES.

Does the Bible have any light on this subject? When inquired about completion of the globe, Christ said to understand guide of Daniel. Matthew 24:3,15. "Throughout the end" the king of the north "overflows" the king of the south, Daniel 11:40. That is the king of the north? The Scriptures is its very own expositor-it interprets itself ...

In Ezekiel 26:7, the king of the north is the king of Babylon, but we also see that in the end-time, this is not about a city in Iraq, however regarding baffled systems of federal government, health, eduction, well-being as well as religious beliefs (Babylon).

Babylon is redefined in Rev 17:5 where we see images of a church riding the beast of New Globe Order. The female (church) is entailed with national politics, It's an affluent church dressed with gold and the shade of scarlet, being in a city of 7 hills, and also drunken with the blood of saints-historically a persecuting church.

So exactly how does Babylon "overflow" the king of the south? With numerous illegal aliens overruning our southern border having their key allegiance to the pope, it's no secret just how the king of the north will certainly win in a freedom in which millions elect as informed.

A pal asked a Mexican couple that he met in Montana why they move there. They responded, The clergyman told us to relocate here.

The pope states he has no problem with a Marxist tag, (Google it) yet he would not concur with Marx that faith is "the opium of the people. The abolition of faith as the illusory happiness of the people is needed for their genuine happiness.".

However maybe Marx is right when it involves Catholicism. Numerous believe they can live as they please via the week, yet reach paradise by paying the priest on Sunday.

The pope intends to see a redistribution of riches. Why not confess the priest can not forgive sins (Mark 2:7) and repay the cash to the inadequate that, in many cases, provided the clergyman their last cow to get papa out of purgatory (a word not found in the Bible).

In contrast to every other country south of our border, America was started by Protestants taking the chance of stormy seas, bitter winters and also starvation to run away the Vintage Order injustice tht we might be inviting under New World Order, Rev 13:15 -17.

Leaders offered us a Constitution various from every various other country in its stipulations for self-government as well as splitting up of church and also state to ensure that Congress ought to make no laws favoring a spiritual facility (like they did in the institution voucher program preferring parochial institutions of which the wonderful majority are Catholic as are the Supreme Court Justices, etc

. Prior To Ballot, Consider Your VIEW Of America!

Today, we seem to be experiencing a time period, when there is more quarrel, division, and also polarization, as we have experienced, in current memory, and also, maybe, the larger quantity of people, that appear to be, reluctant, to look for any commonalities, in order to secure, a far greater opportunity at getting to, a meeting - of - the - minds, than, this country has seen, because our Civil War! No doubt, there are a number of factors for this, including, economic, racial/ ethnic, etc, but, a lot of this, might have been, brought - to - a - head, due to the unusual nature of Head of state Trump, and also, the way, he typically appears, to appeal, to disgust and also divisiveness, as opposed to bringing individuals together! Why do several, that oppose Trump, fail to be able to see, anything, positive concerning his management, while Trump advocates, stay dedicated to him, and absolutely nothing, he seems to claim, or do, adjustments that? Wouldn't it make good sense, before voting, each people, should, seriously, think about, our VIEW of what this nation represents, has represented, is today, and also what we wish for, right into the future? Keeping that in mind, this write-up will certainly try to, briefly, think about, take a look at, review, and also go over, using the mnemonic method, what this implies and stands for, and why it matters America National politics.

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