What do you want people to know about Amazon and Black Friday?
People need to know that their free shipping comes at a human cost. They might be shopping for things that are cheaper and arrive faster, but those packages are artificially cheap. They are being paid for in other ways. People who are watching the expansion of Amazon need to know that it’s not necessarily a good thing. Sure, you’ll get cheaper and faster packages. But Amazon runs on a logistics system that’s based off working people to the bare bones.
………….we knew this shit was an issue that staff has been ignoring for ages but it finally came to bite them in the ass
hey general psa that in the notes theres a bunch of really stupid misinformation bullshit (as i should have expected) abt how this is a fandom thing, about fanart/fanfiction, and i would just like to clarify for as many people as i can that this is not a fandom thing at all, it is an issue targeting IRL minors.
minors have been running “sex work” blogs, selling private snapchats, et cetera, using tumblr as their platforms. there are also adult rings of CP (photographs and videos of IRL minors) distributors on tumblr that have managed to slip by filters. this is the issue being looked into by law enforcement, this is the issue being pursued by tumblr, and it is the reason the purge is being done so hastily and messily (protection of minors being sexually trafficked is generally more important than avoiding Jane Doe #193′s doctor who blog being nuked by accident). reporting fandom blogs to tumblr for written content and fanart is only going to confuse the matter further and make it more likely that minors will be put at greater risk (if fake reports come in massive quantities and drown out the real reports or make alarm fatigue likely).
The National Rifle Association is doing away with free coffee and water coolers for employees at its Fairfax, Virginia, headquarters — a cost-cutting move that has NRA insiders “freaking out,” The Trace has learned.
“The whole building was freaking out,” said one former employee who remains in contact with current staffers. Three other sources familiar with the gun group’s operations confirmed the story to The Trace.
The coffee cutback is the just latest indication that the NRA is hurting for cash. Membership revenue declined by $35 million last year, and the NRA recently rolled out its second dues increase in as many years. In May, the gun group sued Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, claiming that his state’s zealous regulatory efforts against its Carry Guard insurance program had cost the NRA “tens of millions of dollars” in lost revenue, legal fees, and other damages. (A federal judge recently ruled that the suit can go forward.)
Perhaps the most vivid evidence of belt-tightening at the NRA was its drastically reduced spending on the 2018 midterm elections. The group shelled out just under $10 million on House and Senate candidates this cycle — less than half of what it spent on congressional races in 2014 and 2016.
The Carry Guard litigation and midterm spending, however reduced, have drained resources away from day-to-day operations, one former staffer said. “Money is going from the programs to fight the legal battle,” the staffer said. “They’re draining money from general operations to push over to [the NRA’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action]. They want the money to be able to push the agenda.”
Every fall for the past six years, Raise the Rates has challenged participants, including politicians, celebrities and chefs, to live on provincial welfare rates for one week. In 2017, after subtracting rent and other basics like bus fare, that meant $19.
But with recent rent increases, participants this year would have only $5.75 to spend on food for the week.
“This year we can’t possibly ask someone to voluntarily live on $5.75 a week for food,” organizer Kell Gerlings said during a news conference announcing the 2018 challenge.
I feel like the poor people could have told you this one. I know groups like this often mean well, but I feel like there’s a lack of listening to poor people implicit in these events.
“We can’t ask anyone to do this voluntarily but we can sure force them to by necessity.”
I suspect that might be the point, though.
It’s a non-profit advocating for change that’s been doing this for six years so they’ve had pretty much all the kinds of coverage they’re going to get on this event – the same articles every year about how hard it is, the same coverage they’ve always had. Cancelling it because it’s literally impossible to feed yourself for what we expect poor people to feed themselves on is a great way to get new coverage and point up the urgency of the situation.
The article even points out that part of Raise the Rates’ platform is rent control:
Raise the Rates is calling for rent controls to stop landlords from raising rents between tenancies, as well as increases to income assistance.
I mean…I’ve seen more coverage of this issue because of the cancellation than I’ve seen the last few years events like this have been in operation. Once Gwyneth Paltrow spent like half her “eat like a poor person” budget on limes, I feel like that exercise was pretty well over.
Women are constantly and specifically trained out of noticing or responding to their bodily discomfort, particularly if they want to be sexually “viable.” Have you looked at how women are “supposed” to present themselves as sexually attractive? High heels? Trainers? Spanx? These are things designed to wrench bodies. Men can be appealing in comfy clothes. They walk in shoes that don’t shorten their Achilles tendons. They don’t need to get the hair ripped off their genitals or take needles to the face to be perceived as “conventionally” attractive. They can — just as women can — opt out of all this, but the baseline expectations are simply different, and it’s ludicrous to pretend they aren’t.
The old implied social bargain between women and men (which Andrew Sullivancalls “natural”) is that one side will endure a great deal of discomfort and pain for the other’s pleasure and delight. And we’ve all agreed to act like that’s normal, and just how the world works….
Women are supposed to perform comfort and pleasure they do not feel under conditions that make genuine comfort almost impossible. Next time you see a woman breezily laughing in a complicated and revealing gown that requires her not to eat or drink for hours, know a) that you are witnessing the work of a consummate illusionist acting her heart out and b) that you have been trained to see that extraordinary, Oscar-worthy performance as merely routine.Now think about how that training might filter down to sexual contexts….
One side effect of teaching one gender to outsource its pleasure to a third party (and endure a lot of discomfort in the process) is that they’re going to be poor analysts of their own discomfort, which they have been persistently taught to ignore.
it’s fucking wild that this isn’t an Onion article.
“There are many little ways in which our electoral system isn’t even designed (nor prepared) for working-class people to lead,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “This is one of them (don’t worry btw – we’re working it out!)”
bongdanceking 