The last two weeks were each about a year long in subjective time. I'm not sure why. Part it is the addition of Physical Therapy to my schedule, with Exercises (blogger won't allow me to correct a spelling mistake. Doesn't this Violate ADA Regulations?) anywway the exercises make me so dizzy I want to throw up. And it was HOT! I tried to use AC as little as possible, (utility bills are a Major part of my budget) but did use it some, mostly at night so I could sleep. Every time I tried to use just the Fan part of AC I got sick from the mold.
It was also another birthday without Ann, and at the end of the month. I was sad And broke. Cat got sick for a $100 vet bill and I'm Hoping to make it to Wednesday without an overdraft. I Was saving money in June to by "fair Trade" items from a group of artisans with disabilities in Jordan. That country is So Overwhelmed with refugees, from Chechnya, Palestine, and Iraq and Syria, that I figure Anyone helped there might relieve a bit of the strain on the whole nation.
All day on my birthday people kept saying (you've got to do Something Special" It was a Work Day and our Buddhist group met in the evening, then the garden needed attention afterwards.
But I had a blast when my sister took me to the best Mexican food meal I think I've ever eaten in Nixa, Mo. She gave me coffee and almonds for a birthday present in addition, two of my Favorite things. I woke up Friday morning thinking "Man that was fun, I'm glad I'm alive." And I realized how Long it had been since I had felt that way.
Once I looked up my numerology chart, according to Glynis Mcanth McCanth just for fun. She includes a proverb to summarize each major number. Mine was, "If you get up one more time than you fall then you will win." Damn, it Fits!
Having trouble with computer, which delays website launch.
31 dolls with two outfits each and matching gear ready to go. 49 pairs of earrings from a jewelry maker with a disability and some gorgeous "fair trade" clothing for 18 inch dolls. So I say to myself I'll keep trying, "getting up".
This week is lovely and cooler!
This is Obscene! I would think some organization like the ACLU could contend that McDonalds is either violating Federal Minimum Wage law or has some unfair arrangement with the debot card company.
I urge all minimum wage workers and those who make Less to sign this petition, if no other.
McDonald's restaurants are forcing employees to accept payment on fee-laden debit
cards, in some cases pushing their pay below minimum wage.
Tell McDonald's to stop cheating its workers now.
Sign the Petition
When single mother Natalie Gunshannon went to get her first paycheck from her new
job at McDonald’s, she was in for a shock --
McDonald’s gave Natalie her salary on a debit card that came with ridiculous hidden
charges
, like forcing her to pay $5 every time she withdraws her money at her bank.
What’s more,
when Natalie asked for a check, McDonald’s refused, saying she had to take the card
-- and the charges -- or not take any money at all.
This scheme allows her local franchise operator to save a few dollars from the cost
of cutting checks by making deals with big banks that force employees to use fee-ridden
cards. In many cases, the high costs push workers below minimum wage.
Tell McDonald's to ban the practice of forcing employees into fee-laden debit cards.
The practice of replacing checks with expensive cards is gaining ground with employers
around the country -- and in some cases has even been used for food stamps. This
practice saves businesses money and
allows banks to charge ridiculous sums -- Natalie was forced to pay $15 to replace
her card if she ever lost it
-- because employers know that they won't have to pay the high fees, their employees
will be the ones charged.
This is abuse of employer privileges, pure and simple, telling workers that they
have no choice but to accept unfair charges or go hungry. Employers are forcing this
upon their workers because in a bad economy,
they don't think workers have a choice to speak up -- even though the practice is
illegal.
Sadly this story is far from unique.
Not only do workers in the service sector face poverty wages, they're frequently
exploited in other, often illegal ways.
A report last month found that nearly 90 percent of fast food workers in New York
City had had their wages stolen by their bosses. Meanwhile business has been booming
for fast food restaurants, retail chains, and other low-wage employers --
profits and executive pay have never been higher
.
But now workers are banding together to fix our broken economy and make sure that
all workers are getting a fair deal. This year,
thousands of retail and fast food workers have gone on strike demanding a living
wage and fair treatment at work
.
If we
band together to call out businesses that engage in this horrendous practice
, we can send a powerful message to anyone who tries to push outlandish charges onto
their employees that this will not be tolerated. Together, we can stop this before
it becomes widespread. Please join today to stand together with workers, before the
effects of high unemployment and employee abuse trickle up to hurt us all.
Sign our petitions to McDonald's: get rid of these exploitative debit cards.
Thank you.
Taren, Claiborne, and the SumOfUs team
**********
More information:
ABC News:
McDonald's Worker Says She Was Forced To Receive Pay on Fee-Laden Debit Card
, 17 June, 2013
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations
accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.
You can follow us on
Twitter
, and like us on
Facebook
Last weekend Walmart fired 12 brave workers
who just returned from a strike protest intimidation.
Now those workers need us to get their backs, so executives see consumers won't let
Walmart silence workers who stand up for their rights.
Tell Walmart to hire them back now!
Sign the petition
Once again, Walmart is trying to terrorize its workers into silence -- this time,
by
illegally firing 11 workers who went on strike
for fair pay and respect at work.
Earlier this month, hundreds of striking
Walmart associates descended on Walmart's shareholders' meeting, to protests Walmart’s
aggressive campaign of intimidation
against workers who have demanded decent conditions, fair pay, and respect at work.
Walmart's bosses have insisted that they're not trying to intimidate workers and
that any associate can bring their concerns to management at any time -- but if this
is true, then why did Walmart fire 12 of the key strike leaders since Friday?
The workers aren't scared -- they've spent the past week confronting Walmart's board
members. Now, as they step their campaign up,
we need to let the workers know that thousands of people are standing with them!
Tell Walmart: End intimidation of workers now. Re-hire the workers you fired.
Since their historic strike last Black Friday, Walmart workers have done an amazing
job raising awareness about Walmart's exploitative policies and the consequences
of those policies for all of us. They even provoked Congress to release a report
showing that
each Walmart superstore costs taxpayers around $1,000,000 each year.
Why? Because workers are so poorly paid that they have to rely on Medicaid, food
stamps, and other public assistance just to make ends meet.
Walmart says the workers were fired for violating its attendance policy. That's ridiculous;
the workers were on strike, which is a
legally-protected activity.
But with the National Labor Relations Board hamstrung by business interests in Congress,
it can take an eternity for labor law to actually be enforced. Thankfully, we don't
have to wait for the NLRB to hear the case. We can remind Walmart now that it can't
bully workers and break the law without consequences.
In the past 12 months,
Walmart has lurched from one PR disaster to the next.
Walmart’s brand has been hammered by worker protests, deadly factory disasters in
Bangladesh, and a massive bribery scandal in Mexico. Its sales have plummeted in
the last quarter, and opinion polls show Walmart’s favorability ratings amongst key
demographics that the company is courting have plummeted 50 percent in 2012. Walmart
is desperate to win back the public's favor, so we need to
send it one clear message:
respect your workers, respect our communities, and respect the law.
Click here to demand that Walmart re-hire all the striking workers it fired last Friday.
As Walmart's sales and favorability ratings in opinion polls plummet, it's clear
that decades of unethical behavior are catching up with the world's largest retailer.
But
instead of changing its ways, the company is trying (and failing) to silence its
critics.
Let's show the excutives that consumers like us are standing side-by-side with workers
against the company's thuggish behavior.
Thanks for all you do,
Rob, Kaytee and the team at SumOfUs.org
***************************
More information:
"Firing of Five Walmart Strikers Condemned by Rep. Ellison: 'Completely Unjust and Illegal"
The Nation, June 22.
SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations
accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.
You can follow us on
Twitter
, and like us on
Facebook
I don't know where Bei Bei is originally from. But one of the hard things some women have to learn in the U.S. is that sex doesn't equal either commitment or marriage. I had a friend from an Asian nation who dated an American man. She did not know this and when the relationship ended she was devastated. If her family knew how intimate she had been she would be dishonored. She wasn't from a nation which believed in so-called "honor killing" but she would have to be forced to bear a definite stigma.
Change.org
My friend Bei Bei's daughter died in the hospital shortly after childbirth - now Bei Bei is being tried for murder. Sign my petition asking the prosecutor to drop the charges.
Sign Brooke's Petition
—
When my friend Bei Bei found out she was pregnant, she was excited to start a family.
But things took a turn for the worse. Her boyfriend abruptly left her and said he
didn't love her anymore, and she fell into a spiral of depression. It got so bad
that she tried to kill herself on Christmas Eve.
Luckily, a friend found Bei Bei and rushed her to the hospital. Bei Bei survived,
but after an emergency C-section, her baby -- whom she named Angel -- didn't survive.
It gets worse: now an overzealous prosecutor is putting Bei Bei on trial for murder.
Bei Bei lives in Indiana, which has a law that was meant to criminalize people who
attack pregnant women. This law has never been used to convict a pregnant woman of
harming herself -- and suicide is not even illegal in Indiana.
Bei Bei went through a personal tragedy, and now she could face 45-65 years in prison.
I started a petition on Change.org calling on prosecutor Terry Curry to drop charges against Bei Bei. Will you click here to sign?
I am terrified for my friend, and also for the precedent this trial could set. What
if a woman like Bei Bei was struggling with suicidal thoughts, but then was too afraid
to seek help because she knew she could be prosecuted?
After Bei Bei tried to kill herself, she did everything doctors recommended to save
her fetus, taking rounds of medication and consenting to emergency surgery. When
doctors told Bei Bei that Angel had to be taken off life support, Bei Bei was so
devastated she had to be sedated.
Bei Bei has already been through so much -- it seems like Terry Curry is the only
person in Indiana who wants to prosecute her. I hope that if thousands of people
sign my petition, we can bring enough attention to his cruel vendetta to get him
to drop the charges and let Bei Bei finally move forward with her life.
Click here to sign my petition demanding that prosecutor Terry Curry drop all charges against my friend Bei Bei Shuai.
Thank you,
Brooke Beloso
Indianapolis, IN
Sign Brooke's Petition
Address: Change.org · 216 W 104th St., #130 · New York, NY 10025
excer
