SunSeeker
SunSeeker's JournalIf California is such a hostile business climate, why is it kicking everyone else's ass (like Texas)
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California job growth has more than doubled Texas, even though the state isn’t twice the size of Texas (more like 31 percent more populous).
Now Texas was more resilient during the last economic recession, with its high energy prices keeping its energy sector fat and happy. But with the collapse of oil prices, Texas isn’t soaring during these times of economic growth. And with increased global emphasis on renewable resources, Texas will have to further diversify its economy, like California’s, if it’s to thrive and prosper in future years. (Of course, given that the GOP is funded by oil money, predominantly from Texas, good luck with trying to shift away from that. ...)
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But the point here isn’t that Texas sucks and California (or New York) is better. The point is that as much as conservatives claim California is a dysfunctional communist dystopia, the reality is that it continues to be the global driving force in entertainment and technology, is one of the world’s premier agricultural producers, and there is no slowing this juggernaut. Heck, if Detroit doesn’t evolve quickly, California will be the future of the auto industry as well (Apple, Google, Tesla, Future Faraday, and Uber)!
And it accomplishes all that despite its high cost of living, taxes, and regulations. Apparently, there is more to a positive “business climate” than low taxes. Otherwise, that unemployment map above would look a heck of a lot different.
http://m.dailykos.com/stories/1463424
It Took Just One Woman Calling Out Sexual Harassment To Take Down A Top Progressive PR Boss
Pedraja's decision to tell several FitzGibbon staffers what happened triggered other female employees at the firm to start sharing their stories of what they say also happened to them by their boss. They hadn't realized they weren't alone in what they had experienced.
Eventually, staffers reported more than half a dozen incidents of sexual harassment and at least two involving sexual assault to management and human resources, triggering the sudden closure of the firm Thursday.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/56743a0ce4b0b958f6566358
This firm represented such progressive organizations as NARAL and MoveOn.org. It took a lot of guts for her to speak up because, like most workplace sexual harassment victims, she feared no one would believe her and it would ruin her career.
Norway Offers Migrants a Lesson in How to Treat Women
The first such program to teach immigrants about local norms and how to avoid misreading social signals was initiated in Stavanger, the center of Norway’s oil industry and a magnet for migrants, after a series of rapes from 2009 to 2011.
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Mr. Kelifa, the African asylum seeker, said he still had a hard time accepting that a wife could accuse her husband of sexual assault. But he added that he had learned how to read previously baffling signals from women who wear short skirts, smile or simply walk alone at night without an escort.
“Men have weaknesses and when they see someone smiling it is difficult to control,” Mr. Kelifa said, explaining that in his own country, Eritrea, “if someone wants a lady he can just take her and he will not be punished,” at least not by the police.
Norway, he said, treats women differently. “They can do any job from prime minister to truck driver and have the right to relax” in bars or on the street without being bothered, he added.
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http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/12/20/world/europe/norway-offers-migrants-a-lesson-in-how-to-treat-women.html
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We could use some of those classes at our college campuses.
Sanders campaign's Clinton data searches appear to violate federal law.
Some of these voter lists were saved into a folder named "Targets," according to the logs. Uretsky's deputy appeared to focus on pulling data on South Carolina and Iowa voters based on turnout and support — or lack of support — for Clinton.
The Sanders campaign employees who accessed the Clinton voter information without authorization appear to have run afoul of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, said Jason Weinstein, a former supervisor of the Justice Department's computer crimes section.
Those employees "have reason to be concerned about legal exposure," he said, for what appears to fit the definition of illegal hacking.
http://bigstory.ap.org/article/da7e5f2765814506a2519ea03055c1e6/dnc-barring-sanders-team-accessing-data-after-breach
The U.N. Sent 3 Foreign Women To The U.S. To Assess Gender Equality. They Were Horrified.
The delegates were appalled by the lack of gender equality in America. They found the U.S. to be lagging far behind international human rights standards in a number of areas, including its 23 percent gender pay gap, maternity leave, affordable child care and the treatment of female migrants in detention centers.
The most telling moment of the trip, the women told reporters on Friday, was when they visited an abortion clinic in Alabama and experienced the hostile political climate around women's reproductive rights.
"We were harassed. There were two vigilante men waiting to insult us," said Frances Raday, the delegate from the U.K. The men repeatedly shouted, "You're murdering children!" at them as soon as they neared the clinic, even though Raday said they are clearly past childbearing age.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/566ef77de4b0e292150e92f0
The Bible Tells Us A Fetus Becomes A Living Being When It Draws Its First Breath
Some Bible quotes for the next time someone says they oppose abortion because the Bible says it's murder:
After God formed man in Genesis 2: 7, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and it was then that the man became a living being”. Although the man was fully formed by God in all respects, he was not a living being until after taking his first breath.
In Job 33:4, it states: “The spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
Again, to quote Ezekiel 37:5&6, “Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
In Exodus 21:22 it states that if a man causes a woman to have a miscarriage, he shall be fined; however, if the woman dies then he will be put to death. It should be apparent from this that the aborted fetus is not considered a living human being since the resulting punishment for the abortion is nothing more than a fine; it is not classified by the bible as a capital offense.
http://www.thechristianleftblog.org/blog-home/the-bible-tells-us-when-a-fetus-becomes-a-living-being
PPP: Hillary Won the SC Dem Candidate Forum
Just saw on Rachel Maddow that PPP just released a poll of Dem primary voters taken Nov. 7-8 that found 67% said Hillary won, 16% said Bernie won, 6% said O'Malley won and 11% were not sure.
Cuban Peers Dispute Ted Cruz’s Father’s Story of Fighting for Castro
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The elder Cruz, 76, recalls a vivid moment at a watershed 1956 battle in Santiago de Cuba, when he was with a hero of the revolution, Frank País, just hours before he was killed in combat.
In fact, Mr. País was killed seven months later and in a different place and manner.
In interviews, Rafael Cruz’s former comrades and friends disputed his description of his role in the Cuban resistance. He was a teenager who wrote on walls and marched in the streets, they said — not a rebel leader running guns or blowing up buildings.
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http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/us/politics/cuban-peers-dispute-ted-cruzs-fathers-story-of-fighting-for-castro.html
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Like father like son.
Clinton Cracks Up At The Most Awkward Q Of The Benghazi
Love this exchange where Hillary showed her sense of humor and the Republican's utter lack of it.
"Who else was at your home, were you alone?" Roby asked.
"I was alone, yes," Clinton replied.
"The whole night?" Roby asked.
"Well, yes, the whole night," Clinton said, bursting with laughter.
"Well, I don't know why that's funny," Roby said.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/hillary-clinton-laughs-benghazi-testimony
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Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA
Current location: Southern California
Member since: Sun Mar 20, 2011, 12:05 PM
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