May 3, 2014

You're welcome, josh..

but, you opened the window.

It's a stunning contrast between putin's Russia and Ukraine.

May 3, 2014

That's a thumbs up!..

I just saw this and liked it from Chips, she!

TOD

May 3, 2014

Congratulations Hawaii! Raises The Minimum Wage For Those Who Need It Most!

"On Tuesday, lawmakers in Hawaii voted to increase the state’s minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2018 and it was signed into law by Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) the next day. While the state is the third to raise its wage to that level this year, it’s unique in one aspect: its wage will apply to tipped and nontipped workers alike.

That means Hawaii will become the eighth state to require businesses like restaurants, nail salons, bars, and barber shops to pay the employees who earn tips the same minimum wage as everyone else. Before Hawaii, Alaska, California, Montana, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington had already done the same. Those seven states have more than 1 million tipped workers that make the full minimum wage."

snip//

"Those seven states that have already eliminated the two-tier system stand out. The federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.13, about 30 percent of the $7.25 wage for all other workers, and it hasn’t been raised in two decades. But among those who did away with the lower wage, the minimum for tipped workers reaches as high as 130 percent of the federal level. And their experience with a higher wage for people who earn tips shows it could have positive benefits for the whole economy.

The low tipped wage leaves many people who earn it struggling to get by. Across the country, workers in predominantly tipped jobs are twice as likely to experience poverty, and restaurant servers have a poverty rate that is nearly three times the rate for everyone else. Servers are also twice as likely to use food stamps to feed themselves. But the situation is different in states with higher tipped wages. In those seven states, the poverty rate for tipped workers has been reduced by a third."

ThinkProgress

Aloha~

May 1, 2014

Speaking of teabagger babies.. I just saw this.. lol

TOD

Thank you, TxT

May 1, 2014

Excellent analysis, MADem!

"Greenwald and Poitras could have met him ANYWHERE. There was no "rule" that they had to meet in HK. Hell, South America would have been far more convenient for GG.

He went to China because it was a hop, skip and a jump from Russia, because he knew he could get a room at the Russian consulate, and he could get help leaving and hiding out in the once-and-perhaps-future USSR. No doubt the room he had at that high end hotel had been swept for bugs--and maybe even bugged anew--by his Russian friends. Who knows, maybe they even rented it for him.


Going to HK (and then saying "Gee, I wanna go to Iceland...no, South America!!&quot gave Russia cover, as though they had no role in the mess until, oh, alas, alack, poor Ed got "stuck" in Russia (of course, his stay at the Russian consulate kinda screwed that plausible deniability)."

May 1, 2014

From you link, PS.. thanks..

"The New York Times reports that Snowden retained prominent Washington defense lawyer Plato Cacheris to negotiate a potential deal with the U.S. government that could bring the 30-year-old American home.

But an agreement is unlikely since Snowden's camp wants leniency for the surveillance debate started by his leaks to journalists, while top Pentagon officials believe Snowden also took military documents. The Justice Department's position is that Snowden is not a whistleblower."

snip//

"To a foreign intelligence service, Snowden is priceless," Robert Caruso, a former assistant command security manager in the Navy and a consultant, told BI. "He can be be exploited again and again."

Interesting.. snip//

"Snowden and his closest supporters contend that Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow on his way to Latin America when the U.S. government stranded him in Russia by revoking his passport. There are several reasons to question that claim, including the fact that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange — who paid for Snowden's lodging and travel in Hong Kong — advised Snowden against going to Latin America because "he would be physically safest in Russia."

Yeah, it's all about saving your neck to assange.

Had you read this?..

One Paragraph Sums Up What Edward Snowden Can Expect From His Life In Russia


A flag for the presidential campaign of Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin hangs out of windows of a house in Moscow March 2, 2012. The flag reads "For Putin. And that's all."

http://www.businessinsider.com/what-snowden-can-during-life-in-russia-2013-7#ixzz30HOuc5gB