LukeAF

The Walton family (who own Walmart) are worth over $400 billion, yet many of their employees are on SNAP.

Bezos is worth over $400 billion, many Amazon employees require SNAP.

The people who need help are not the problem.

It’s corporate greed. It’s an unwillingness to pay a living wage.

I sometimes think that being a competent writer actually hurts your career prospects as a reporter because editors and publishers at major outlets consider clear, crisp descriptions of Republicans' actions more biased than muddled, passive-tense argle bargle.

FLORIDA'S STATE ACADEMIC STANDARDS FOR SOCIAL STUDIES SS.912.HC.9.3 Describe the emergence of modern Marxist thought in education and media. Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes the influence of the Frankfurt School on the modern education system (c.g. Critical Theory). Clarification 2: Instruction includes Antonio Gramsci, Paulo Freire and Howard Zinn and their work (e.g., the oppressor vs. oppressed dichotomy, historical revisionism). Clarification 3: Instruction includes the repackaging of Marxist ideology using modern terminology and concepts to disguise the underlying Marxism (e.g., Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States as a recasting of William Z. Foster's history books, Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals, James W. Loewen's Lies My Teacher Told Me). Clarification 4: Instruction includes the dangers of pro-communist propaganda in entertainment and media industries. SS.912,HC.9,4 Identify propaganda and defamation utilized to delegitimize anti-communists and anti-communist movements. Benchmark Clarifications: Clarification 1: Instruction includes campaigns to shut down the House Committee on Un-American Activities by communists and communist sympathizers, including protests in San Francisco in 1960 to. disrupt the meeting. Clarification 2: Instruction includes a change in policy by President John F. Kennedy's administration, forbidding explicitly anti-communist speeches in the military. Clarification 3: Instruction includes using "McCarthyism" as an insult and shorthand for all anti-communism. Clarification 4: Instruction includes slander against anti-communists, such as red-baiter and Red Scare.

Florida’s Social Studies standards are getting another update next month.

No, those terrible African American History standards will stay, but there’s a huge update to our Anti-Communism education.

This is just one page.

@1lukeaf.bsky.social

"We need better democrats" - @jeremymatlow.bsky.social (at an FSU Dems event) speaking on the failures of Tallahassee Democratic leadership.

Matlow is they type of progressive leadership Tallahassee needs, he's not just another Democrat.

All I want in life is to persuade everyone, when encountering politics & culture, to ask, "why are we talking about this?" I mean that very literally: anything you encounter on your screens reflects a choice. Someone covered that, talked about that, rather than the many other things out there. Why?

Parent needs a hand coming up with a fantastical story at bedtime whose details may resemble fact but are impossible to verify?

Congratulations, Nature has already filled this void: what you're looking for is 'an uncle''

The most important thing to remember about Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl is that Puerto Rico is a colony whose residents are US citizens and pay taxes but don't get to vote for the president, have no voting representation in Congress,

Well up until a few seconds ago it was Chobani...

Let’s be real: the struggle isn’t about avocado toast. It’s about billionaires hoarding power and keeping wages flat—all while costs rise.
Workers aren’t the problem. Billionaires are. Until we flip that script, nothing changes.

Fascinating!

Folks, you can't report the United States to its manager. There's no superhero coming to save us.

We don't need one giant act of heroism. We need millions of small acts of solidarity. Help one person in your community for nothing in return. Then, do it again. And again.

That's the revolution.

Since Antifa isn’t really an “organization”, this is just carte blanche to arbitrarily declare people terrorists.

A photo of Fred, our recently adopted back porch stray. He’s a short-haired brown classic tabby with white paws. He’s laying down on the bed facing and looking directly into the camera. His left front paw is crossed over his right like a little gentleman. The end of a furry “cat fishing” toy is laying next to him.

@1lukeaf.bsky.social: “It should be illegal to be that handsome.”

#Caturday #CatSky #CatsofBlueSky

Fred’s First #Caturday!

This morning Fred graduated from the guest bathroom to the guest bedroom! He has already mastered his SureFeed microchip feeder that is activated by his collar (which is a super-fast learning curve). Once he gets chipped, he won’t even need the collar.

@1lukeaf.bsky.social

Stormy volunteers to complete the hat trick.

When our working families are strong, Minnesota is strong.

That’s why we’ve established paid leave, expanded the right to collectively bargain, and why we’re investing in the projects creating the union jobs of the future.
 
Happy Labor Day, Minnesota.

Yes. Once you start seeing this (Institution X probably wanted do this conservative thing anyway but now can blame it on Trump), it's everywhere. It's not capitulation, it's agreement. "We can stop doing this thing we started doing from 2014-2020 because of woke/progressive/anti-racist pressure."

“If you’re too far left you can’t win conservative voters” is the kind of thing that sounds sensible - until you see the “too far left” guy win 23% support from them

I once thought the point of a business was to create a product or provide a service that people liked so much they paid for it and told others about it.

But that's not American-style capitalism. The point of American capitalism is simply to extract wealth from consumers by any means necessary.

The state’s tool (which comes at a much higher price tag for taxpayers) is just about ready. The description of the tool no longer includes that it will allow access to review materials in their entirety - noting it is “protecting publisher rights.”

www.tegtech.io/success-stor...

No One is Coming to Save Us Building collective power in the age of individualism.

"The right wins when people believe that a hero is coming to save them.

If the left is going to win, we have to provide an alternative: one that empowers people through collective struggle, rather than the false promises of powerful men."
graceblakeley.substack.com/p/no-one-is-...

🎥 Watch as Carole breaks down why the Pay Teachers Act is urgently needed. (Pt. 2)

FEA Vice President Carole Gauronskas joined @sanders.senate.gov, Sen. Edward Markey, @aft.org, and @neatoday.bsky.social for a powerful town hall today on teacher pay and the fight to save public education.

🎥 Watch as Carole breaks down why the Pay Teachers Act is urgently needed. (Pt. 1)

Thinking about this piece from yesterday as I read the news of Columbia's breathtaking cowardice.

scatter plot comparing average age of lawmakers vs. median age of population across a bunch of contemporary democracies, showing that the United States is a real outlier, with lawmakers averaging almost 60 years old vs. a median age of the population of just 38. South Korea and Japan come closest with average lawmaker ages around 55, but their populations are older, and most countries on the chart cluster in the 40s.

Lots packed into @adambonica.bsky.social's new On Data and Democracy post, but I haven't seen this chart getting the attention I think it deserves. US lawmakers are remarkably old, and the gap here between population age and lawmaker age is exceptional.
data4democracy.substack.com/p/on-data-an...

My basic response to the question of pronouns defaults to, "Why would I speak to someone in a way that hurts them on purpose?" A lot of people - maybe most people - in this country apparently don't feel that way, and I guess I'll just never understand that.

I encourage everyone to read this letter.

Please then realize the president is imposing a tax on American consumers to leverage a foreign nation into making a domestic political decision that will help one of his political allies.