The Daily Drift

Hey, wingnuts, yeah we're talking to you ...!  

 

The Truth Be Told is read in 203 countries around the world.

 
Well, that leaves the Republicans out - they wouldn't know honesty if it bit them in the ass... !

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Forgotten Resistance

Forgotten resistance: The Italian freedom fighters who battled Fascists and Nazis

President Obama Wins: Boehner Admits Republicans Don’t Have The Votes To Stop Iran Deal

John Boehner is privately admitting that Republicans don’t have the votes to stop President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.

Bloomberg View reported:

The top-ranking Republican in Congress privately acknowledged this weekend that his party doesn’t have enough votes to overcome a veto of any resolution disapproving the nuclear-weapons deal President Barack Obama hopes to reach with Iran.

Speaking at an off-the-record event Saturday at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s meeting in Las Vegas, House Speaker John Boehner told the audience that he didn’t expect that more than two-thirds of Congress would vote to overturn a veto from Obama if Congress voted against a nuclear deal, according to four people who were inside the room for the private talk.

All of the angst over President Obama agreeing to a sign a bill that gave Congress the ability to vote on the Iran deal was for nothing.

It turns out that President Obama didn’t cave or yield. President Obama knew that he had the votes in Congress to sustain his veto of any Congressional resolution that disapproves of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program.

Sure, Congress will get to voice their feelings, but their feelings won’t change the final outcome.

Boehner and McConnell dug their own grave when they made the Iran nuclear deal a partisan issue.

Speaker Boehner salted the Earth when he disrespected President Obama by ignoring protocol before he invited Netanyahu to address Congress. Mitch McConnell added to the damage by signing and supporting the infamous letter that 47 Republican senators sent to the Iranian government.

The fate of any deal on Iran’s nuclear program may have to go through to Congress, but President Obama has the votes to make sure that Republicans can’t kill the deal. Boehner and McConnell set themselves up for defeat by trying to sabotage President Obama on foreign policy.

There was no way that enough Democrats would go against their President to kill a deal with Iran. Republicans made two big mistakes.

Boehner and McConnell made the issue partisan, and they supported leaving the military option on the table. The discussion became about diplomacy or war, and when Democrats were left with that choice, a path to peace was the most logical option.

John Boehner is already admitting defeat as President Obama is on the cusp of achieving a historic deal to make the world a safer place. A successful deal to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon will add another accomplishment to a presidency that has been loaded with achievements.

Senate Republicans Plan New Treasonous Sabotage Of Obama On Global Climate Change Talks

Not content with undercutting the President and sabotaging America’s foreign policy, Senate Republicans are planning a new treasonous act of sabotage against an Obama led potential global change agreement.

The Wall Street Journal reported, “The White House considers the agreement with nearly 200 nations a historic opportunity to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions world-wide. But some GOP senators view it as executive overreach, and they are quietly considering ways to warn other countries that the president doesn’t speak for them and may not be able to deliver on his promises to slash emissions.”

The only lesson that Senate Republicans appear to have taken away from their letter to Iran is that they need to keep their plots to undercut the President quiet. Look for the Senate Republicans to avoid releasing a public letter. They may use the same strategy and issue a letter, but they will try to sneak it a bit more under the radar.

Senate Republicans are setting themselves up for an even stronger backlash since they will be not only sabotaging President Obama, but also defying the global scientific consensus.

As if it wasn’t bad enough that climate change denying Republicans embarrass their fellow Americans at home, they are now considering humiliating the entire nation on a global scale.

Opposing an international agreement on climate change has nothing to do with the actual science. The Republican opposition is rooting in protecting corporate polluters who are destroying the planet combined with a desire to politically damage and embarrass a president that they irrationally despise.

Any Senate Republican plan to undercut Obama on climate change will backfire. It is also an unwise strategy to make climate change denial an issue in the 2016 election. Republicans need to attract moderates to win back the White House, and science denial only serves to reinforce to these voters why they should support Democrats.

The big message is clear. Senate Republicans will continue their campaign of treasonous sabotage until President Obama leaves office.

White House Hits Back At the shrub, Says He Created ISIL

The White House calmly reminded the shrub that ISIL was created because of military action in the region.

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Even Fox News Calls Out ‘Clinton Cash’ Author For His Lies And Lack Of Evidence

When Fox News calls you out for lack of evidence against Hillary Clinton, you might want to reevaluate what you’re doing.

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Anti-Gay Republican Outed As Gay Blames Gay Agenda Smear Campaign

An anti-gay crusader has been outed as gay; now gets to personally face the consequences of his bigoted voting record.

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Wingnut Media Busted For Spreading False Story About Harry Reid’s Accident

A Las Vegas man who concocted the story about Harry Reid getting injured in a brawl with his brother came forward over the weekend to confess that he made the whole story up. Larry Pfeifer, a convicted felon and former entertainment industry consultant, told reporters for the Las Vegas Sun that he invented the story to demonstrate the lack of credibility in the partisan media.

Pfeifer, using the pseudonym Easton Elliot, pitched his fabricated story to a number of media outlets. Pfeifer alleged that Harry Reid’s brother, Larry, showed up drunk at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Henderson, Nevada with an injured hand, claiming he had just beaten up a relative.

John Hinderaker, who writes for the right-wing blog “Powerline”, posted the story on April 3rd. The fabricated story quickly gained momentum in right-wing circles with Laura Ingraham, Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, all spreading the phony account of how Harry Reid sustained his injuries.

Although Hinderaker did make a half-hearted disclaimer when he first published the bogus story, he quickly pivoted to chastising the mainstream media for not pursuing the story. In his blog he presented the information, in part, as follows:

That is Easton Elliott’s account. I can’t vouch for it, of course, but if what he says about the AA meeting is accurate, the inferences he draws seem reasonable.

Someone attacked Harry Reid on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day; that much seems clear from photographs and from the nature of his injuries. So far, to my knowledge, no one has investigated to try to find out what really happened. My “investigation” consisted of answering my telephone. Perhaps those reporters who were so eager to dig through Sarah Palin’s dumpster and track down Mitt Romney’s high school classmates will now swing into action, carry out an actual investigation, and either confirm or refute the events described by Mr. Elliott.

From there, the account spread like wildfire through the right-wing media universe, catching hold with right-wing talk radio icons like Limbaugh, Beck and Ingraham. Apparently none of them showed much concern for vetting the source, or for verifying the accuracy of the fabricated “eyewitness account”. After all, it fit a narrative they were all too happy to promote. Therefore, it didn’t matter whether it was actually true or not.

Pfeifer also acknowledged over the weekend that several media outlets acted more responsibly than the right-wing sites that spread the story. For example, he pointed out that the Las Vegas Sun requested that Pfeifer provide them with his real name and a copy of his driver’s license so they could run a background check and confirm his identity. That proved a wise decision on their part, as unlike many of the partisan right-wing sites, the Las Vegas Sun escaped the whole fiasco without getting “egg on their face”.

Pfeifer’s actions certainly should not be condoned since he spread damaging lies about both Larry and Harry Reid that amount to character assassination. However, Pfeifer does not bear that responsibility alone. Right-wing media outlets that were overeager to slander the Nevada Senator also should be ashamed that they promoted his story without verifying any evidence to determine if the story were reasonably likely to be true. By failing to apply even the flimsiest of journalistic standards or ethics, the right-wing media has demonstrated once again that they are far too willing to sacrifice the truth, as long as it furthers their extremely narrow and petty partisan agenda.

Illinois' Rauner Projects His Hypocritical Conflict of Interest on Democrats and Unions

Over the past weekend, Illinois Republican Bruce Rauner assailed state legislators who accept campaign contributions from public employee unions for being guilty of a "conflict of interest."…

When a public official who contrary to their duty to act for the benefit of the public exploits the public or political relationship for personal financial gain, they are guilty of a conflict of interest and violating the public’s trust. Over the weekend, Illinois Republican Governor Bruce Rauner assailed state legislators who accept campaign contributions from public employee unions for being guilty of a “conflict of interest.” As is usually the case with any Republican, Rauner is guilty of psychological projection as well as gross hypocrisy.

Republicans hate public sector unions as a matter of course and Rauner railed against Democrats he claimed were under the influence of organized labor in determining state workers’ salaries and benefits. Organized labor, or unions, represent public sector workers in negotiating labor contracts according to the will of the workers; they do not determine state workers’ salaries or benefits any more than state legislators do. Rauner likely understands that bashing unions is very popular among the cognitive challenged in Illinois.

Being a typical Republican, Rauner not only accused organize labor, and the legislators they support, of everything except committing human sacrifices, he claimed they were including manipulating elections; more Republican projection. He also hypocritically dismissed questions about his own glaringly monumental conflicts of interest in taking very substantial campaign contributions from millionaire executives at the financial firms that manage state pension money. Rauner lied and said the millionaires funding his campaign and profiting from controlling state employees’ pensions “are just taxpayers. They don’t do business with the state.” The only thing he did not say was that those millionaires work for free which is the case if they are not doing ‘business’ with the state.

Rauner is very Republican-angry at unions and took out his rage on Democrats for accepting campaign donations from labor organizations representing school teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and every other public sector employee from janitors to animal control officers. Rauner implied that union officials were manipulating the election process to rob taxpayers to pay public employees. He said public workers were guilty of taking taxpayer money and then using it against taxpayers’ best interests. Rauner believes taxpayer money belongs to him and his rich friends, so he is on a crusade to transfer pension funds to the wealthy elite to cover their, and his, outrageous tax cuts.

In fact, during his tirade against Democrats and organized labor, Rauner specifically cited a state pension shortfall despite the lion’s share of his substantial fortune was made from fees charged to institutional investors in public employee pension systems. Rauner said that police officers, teachers, firefighters, and other public workers have taken too much taxpayer money and then used that money as a weapon against Illinois’ residents that includes school teachers, police officers, public workers, and firefighters. He also said they are doing it because organized labor contributes to the wrong party; Democrats.

Rauner said, “When a government union leader can sit across the table from an elected official after contributing to their campaign and say we will negotiate what our pension is going to be, what our work rules are going to be, what our healthcare is going to be, it is a fundamental conflict of interest.” The problem with Rauner’s assertion is that legislators do not negotiate with teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, or public employees for wages, pensions, work rules, or healthcare plans and Rauner knows it. Negotiations are between the workers themselves and school districts, city councils, and county supervisors; legislators are not involved in negotiations at all, much less with their campaign donors because that would be a conflict of interest; something Bruce Rauner certainly knows more about than most, at least in Illinois.

For example, in his gubernatorial bid last year, and continuing, Rauner accepted over $140,000 in campaign contributions from his high-paid executive friends at the firms contracted to invest Illinois pension money; money he is now attempting to rob from public employees. Rauner also accepted millions more from his wealthy executive friends at other financial firms that invest and charge exorbitant fees for managing public employee pension funds. Rauner’s donors are liable to state regulation and oversight from various boards overseeing Illinois pension investments that Rauner  controls. While Rauner was railing on Democrats’ organized labor donations, he failed to mention that as Illinois governor he appoints the members of those boards that oversee and manage state public pension investments. It is what any reasonably intelligent human being would label a gross conflict of interest.

What is even more astonishing about Rauner’s hypocrisy is that he was chairman, and according to Securities and Exchange documents, still holds a partnership stake in GTCR; the financial firm overseeing not one, but two separate state retirement systems. That means that as governor he wields significant control over Illinois public employees’ pension money that he has a considerable personal financial stake in. It is beyond a shadow of doubt that Rauner is a walking, talking epitome of conflict of interest; and a lying hypocrite of the first order.

He is also a typical Republican; albeit an uber-rich Wall Street Republican who is screeching about employee pensions he claims is wreaking havoc on Illinois’ economy. Rauner is slashing employee pensions in a budget move to maintain his own tax breaks as Illinois’ governor amounting to $750,000 annually; something he refuses to end for himself or his super-wealthy cohort no matter how threatened with demise he claims Illinois’ economy or budget is.

Like every Republican, whether a governor or state or federal legislator, Rauner is making truly Draconian budget cuts affecting most Illinois’ residents, but particularly the least fortunate; including drastically reducing public employee pension funds. Rauner, like all  Republicans, continues rejecting calls to raise taxes on the extremely rich to bring in much-needed revenue because he will be affected.  Instead of continuing a temporary 1.25% income tax surcharge on the richest Illinois residents that expired last year, Rauner is eliminating funding for organizations providing services for the disabled, autistic children, the homeless, safe school initiatives, breast and cervical cancer programs, and cutting 31.5% from education.

Rauner is also moving state employees’ who make middle class salaries ($45,000) or less to pension plans with substantially lower benefits than they have paid for throughout their working lives; likely to teach organized labor and Democrats a lesson. There is a multitude of other truly inhumane budget cuts totaling over $6 billion in Rauner’s budget, but none of them will affect his personal $750,000  a year tax break.

Rauner uses the typical Wall Street Republican line and says that in tough economic times “everyone must come together to address the reality that everyone can’t get everything they want;” unless they are the uber-rich hypocritical governor who hates unions and knows how to rob public employees’ pensions. There is little doubt that Bruce Rauner is the most glaring example of a conflict of interest in recent memory, and for what he is doing to the overwhelming majority of Illinois residents he is evil incarnate.

Bernie Sanders Torpedos Republicans By Revealing GOP Budget Kills 2.3 Million Jobs

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) dropped a bomb on Senate Republicans by revealing that their budget would kill more than 2 million jobs.

Sanders sent letters to the governors of all 50 states that broke down the cuts and job losses that each state would face if the Republican budget is enacted. The low-light of the letters is that the Republican cuts to transportation, education, and other programs would kill more than 2.3 million jobs across the country.

In a statement, Sen. Sanders said:
The Republican budget moves this country in exactly the wrong direction. At a time of massive wealth and income inequality, it gives huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires while making devastating cuts to education, Medicare, affordable housing and prescription drug coverage.

Instead of creating jobs, it will lead to the elimination of more than 2 million jobs. Instead of making college more affordable, it will increase the cost of college for millions of Americans. Instead of eliminating hunger in America, it will add to the financial problems of low-income families with children and will create more hunger. This budget is the Robin Hood principle in reverse. It takes from the poor to give to the rich.

Some of the hardest hit states would be those that have Republican governors. Texas would lose 193,000 jobs. Florida would lose 141,000 jobs. Ohio would lose 84,000 jobs. Georgia would lose 70,000 jobs. North Carolina would lose 68,000 jobs, and Wisconsin would lose 46,000 jobs.

It is important that the American people understand exactly what the Republican budget does. Not only does the Republican budget lower taxes for the wealthiest people while raising them for everyone else, it also kills millions of jobs.

Republicans in Congress don’t want to talk about many services will be cut, and jobs lost because of their budget. Republicans especially don’t want to discuss the number of jobs that will be lost in red states due to their budget.

Sen. Sanders was put in the top Democratic seat on the Budget Committee for this exact reason. Sanders is exposing the things that Republicans don’t want to talk about. He is revealing the ugly truth behind the GOP’s economic ideology, and in the process, he is destroying any potential support for their economic ideas outside of the Republican Party.

Sanders has become the tip of the left’s spear that is striking back against failed Republican economic policies and income inequality.

Harry Reid Shreds The GOP: ‘They Can’t Accept The Reality Of Obamacare’

Harry Reid issued a scathing attack on Republicans for their arrogant stubbornness to accept the fact they were wrong about Obamacare.

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They Can’t Accept The Reality Period

Anti-Obamacare Lawsuit Would Invalidate Reagan Tax Law If It Succeeds

Oops!

Both Thomas Jefferson and Ronald Reagan think the latest legal attack on Obamacare is garbage.

Republican Religio-Wingnut Fanatics Pose A Much Bigger Threat To Our Country Than ISIL

by Allen Clifton

Let me preface this by saying I’m in no way trying to downplay ISIL as a threat, nor am I attempting to say the behavior by Republicans is as barbaric and monstrous as the group wreaking havoc in Syria and Iraq.
That being said, while Republicans would have Americans believe that we’re facing an imminent threat of some sort of radical Islamic takeover here in the United States (we’re not), what we’re actually seeing is a huge push by the evangelical religio-wingnuts to insert their dominance into our government and turn the United States into a theocracy.
If it were up to many Republicans, this country wouldn’t be governed by our Constitution, but by the Bible. Hell, not too long ago potential GOP presidential candidate and Fox News host Mike Huckabee literally said that Americans shouldn’t have to follow laws they felt were “ungodly.” In other words, if our Supreme Court rules that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional, it’s okay for Americans to ignore that ruling – because the bible says so.
Their whole premise on same-sex marriage is based off the belief that the bible dictates what is or isn’t a marriage. These are people who are literally trying to pass laws that makes discrimination against homosexuals legal.
Then there’s always the issue of abortion and the control they want over what women do with their own bodies. As if pregnant women suddenly relinquishes her rights the moment she’s impregnated. Not only that, our Supreme Court has said that a woman has the right to have an abortion. This is yet another area of the private lives of Americans where these religious radicals feel they can force their religious views on those who do not share them.
Even when you look at climate change, a good portion of those who deny it’s being caused by humans do so because they don’t believe we have the ability to cause such changes to our climate. To many of these people, any change in our climate is controlled by dog, therefore it’s pointless for us to do anything to try to prevent the catastrophic disasters that will occur if we don’t start taking much better care of our planet.
But the truth is, this is just the beginning. I don’t doubt for a moment that if our Supreme Court was comprised of wingnuts, with Republicans controlling both Congress and the White House, that these religio-wingnuts would be taking even bigger steps to interject more and more of their religious dogma onto the rest of us.
That’s how all of this works; it starts with gay marriage and abortion, then it grows into other areas of the bible. They’re already trying to interject religion into education, and Fox News is basically just the talking arm of the religious right, so it wouldn’t take much before they slithered their way into other areas of our lives, adding more and more theocratic rule, backed by an ultra-religious Republican party and a highly conservative Supreme Court.
In fact, there’s been a plan for this in place for many years called the “7 Cultural Mountains.” Basically it’s a plan by religious fanatics to seize control over seven key areas of our society:
Arts and Entertainment Business Education Family Government Media Religion
Looking at that list, aren’t we already seeing this “plan” starting to evolve? I’ve never been one to push conspiracy theories, and I don’t think I’m pushing one now. It’s my opinion that we’re already seeing this plan take shape every single day in this country.
It’s like peeling an onion. If they go slowly, one layer at a time, they’re hoping most people won’t notice. But over time, as they continue to peel back layer after layer, eventually more and more of that onion begins to vanish until there’s basically nothing left.
Well, that’s what these religio-wingnut delusional radicals are trying to do with our freedom of religion. They’re slowly trying to peel back each thin layer at a time hoping we won’t notice, with their ultimate goal being to place the bible atop the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
So, while there’s no denying that ISIL is a religiously-driven threat to which we must pay attention, the more immediate threats we face in this country are the christian fanatics trying to chip away at our freedoms and our Constitutional rights, as they continue trying to turn the United States into a religio-wingnut theocracy built on bigotry, ignorance and oppression.

Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Are So Bad That Radio Stations No Longer Want His Show

The ratings have gotten so bad for Rush Limbaugh that radio stations no longer want to carry his show.

The advertiser boycott of Rush Limbaugh brought public attention to the sewer that conservative talk radio has become, but as Republican Daryl Parks wrote when rumors of Limbaugh getting moved to a smaller station in Chicago surfaced, radio station executives don’t want Limbaugh, but literally can’t give him away, “The Chicago rumors come as no surprise to me, as three different Cumulus executives have told me on different occasions they wish they could get rid of Limbaugh’s show and they can’t sell it.”

Parks also explained why these stations are stuck with Limbaugh, “Premiere Networks and its owner Clear Channel Media + Entertainment iHeart Media has crammed down Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck on its talk stations, not allowing local stations to make needed changes to their programming, changes that could provide some hope of staying relevant. It was a great business model…in the 20th century! In business speak it’s called “vertical integration.” The company produces the product and then uses its distribution arm, its radio stations, to broadcast the shows. Guaranteed clearance, plus in Limbaugh’s case and some of Hannity’s stations, the local stations have to pay a “rights fee” in addition to the barter commercial inventory they broadcast from the network. There was no negotiation whether to broadcast the show or what fee was to be paid. Here’s the number you pay was the only conversation during the budget process. This, as you can imagine, affected cash flow and coupled with the increasing demands for talk stations to generate more profit, it forced local stations to lay-off other talk hosts, producers and gut news departments. Talented people left the radio business and the death spiral for talk radio began. It began years ago.”

The radio stations don’t get a choice. They are being forced to carry Limbaugh while paying for the privilege of giving three hours of airtime to a host whose audience is even older than those who watch Fox News.

Radio stations in big markets have seen their ratings plummet thanks to Rush Limbaugh and conservative talk radio. The reality is that sports talk radio passed conservative talk radio in popularity years ago.

Younger people across the political spectrum don’t listen to talk radio. Stations that carry Limbaugh are losing both listeners and money. Rush Limbaugh doesn’t care about any of this. You’ll notice that Limbaugh still gets paid no matter what station he is on.

Limbaugh’s ratings data is guarded like a state secret, but it was revealed that his show is drawing fewer listeners than Spanish language stations in New York and Los Angeles. The biggest sign that Rush Limbaugh is on the decline is that he has fallen off of the political map. Limbaugh was at the center of the Republican Party during the early days of President Obama’s first term, but the Sandra Fluke scandal and advertiser boycott that followed has cost him dearly.

Many will never admit it, but the left played a key role in helping America move forward by tuning out Rush Limbaugh.

Setting evolution aside, even basic geology disproves creationism

The creationist model doesn’t square with what you can see for yourself. And this has been known since before Darwin.

Basic geology disproves creationism

Australian News Anchor Congratulates Fair-skinned Biracial Twin For ‘Looking White’

Even her co-host cringed while listening to this train wreck.
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Republican Dream: Russian Lawmakers Want To Criminalize Unemployment

Republicans can’t criminalize unemployment, so they are trying to criminalize being poor.

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$70,000 minimum pay turns out to be good for business

Remember Dan Price, the CEO who cut his own pay to raise the minimum annual pay at his company to $70,000? Turns out, that wasn't just a morally good thing to do, and Price doesn't have to wait for the longer-term payoff of increased productivity and reduced staff turnover-he's seeing an immediate payoff for Gravity Systems, his credit card processing company:

Price said the news has brought in dozens of new clients, making it the best week for new business in the company's 11-year history.

The firm has about 15,000 clients and handles about $10 billion in payments every year.
If the burst of new clients continues, it could create new jobs-new good jobs-and let other businesses know that treating workers well can pay off. But it's important to remember that workers shouldn't have to get lucky with an amazingly good boss to make a decent living and be treated well. Good bosses go viral, but for more workers, this is the reality:

While Price is cutting his own pay, most chief executives are continuing to see hefty compensation hikes. CEO pay rose more quickly in 2014 than in other recent years, with median compensation rising 6.9 percent to $12.2 million, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, American workers have been suffering from stagnating and, in some cases, declining wages.
That's a reality we need to fight to change.

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Full-service restaurant chains pay poverty wages, too

It's Not just fast food ...

Fast food isn't the only part of the restaurant industry where workers are seriously underpaid. A recent report from the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United shows that many workers in full-service restaurants are also paid so little that they need and get nearly $9.5 billion in public assistance each year. And as in fast food, we're talking about large, profitable chains: Darden, the parent company of Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Capital Grille, and more; Dine Equity, the parent company of IHOP and Applebee's; Bloomin' Brands, the parent company of Outback Steakhouse, Carraba's Italian Grill, and more; Brinker International, the parent company of Chili's; and Cracker Barrel. Workers at these five chains need an estimated $1.4 billion from programs including the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and heating and housing assistance.
These five companies spend millions on lobbying-with one key priority being to keep the tipped worker minimum wage at $2.13 an hour, where it's been stuck for decades. Meanwhile:
[...]
The ROC report frames public assistance to workers at these restaurant chains as taxpayer subsidies for the chains' low wages; it's a powerful argument, but one that the respected economist Arindrajit Dube is arguing doesn't hold up as applied to programs that aren't tied to labor force participation or hours worked.
I'm not sure I'm 100 percent on board with Dube's argument, but in any case we don't need the taxpayer subsidy argument to see the hundreds of millions of dollars in public assistance needed by workers at these profitable chains as an indictment of their wages and labor practices. It's as simple as this: If a profitable company is paying its workers hundreds of millions of dollars a year less than they need for the most basic medical care, food, and housing, that company is a driving force in the low-wage economy. You don't need to believe that the public assistance going to their underpaid workers is a direct subsidy to the companies to see something wrong with that.

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Audi Just Created Diesel Fuel Using Water And Air – And It’s Twice As Efficient As Fossil Fuels

Exxon-Mobil is probably freaking out. Good.
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