A new report shows the real cost of Walmart’s low wages: a single 300-employee Walmart Supercenter in Wisconsin may cost taxpayers anywhere from $904,542 to nearly $1.75 million per year, or about $5,815 per employee. While taxpayers foot the bill for subsidized housing assistance, the food-stamp program, child-care subsidies, energy assistance, and reduced school meals for Walmart’s low-paid workers, Walmart profits.
LIKE and SHARE if you didn’t agree to subsidize Walmart!
Learn more here: http://1.usa.gov/17zQJot
via American Rights at Work on Facebook
And it’s not like everyone can just boycott Walmart, either.
I mean, obviously, some people can and do, but let’s face it…there a lot of people who, for whatever reason, can’t boycott Walmart. Really low prices are part of it, but what if you live in an area where Walmart is really the only true food source you have access to? Some people have no option other than Walmart, so they wind up subsidizing everything listed above without any true say in the matter.
I guarantee you the head honchos at Walmart know that, too.
^ Excellent point. You should avoid Wal-mart if you can afford to avoid Wal-mart. The executives make it a point to open Wal-marts in poorer areas and push out local businesses. They know what they’re doing. They WANT to make their crap the only option. And for many people, it is. But if you can afford to shop somewhere else, do it. Otherwise? Keep on keepin on.
Don’t worry, Rai! It’s a Double XP weekend, so you’ll be off Taris… eventually.
I seriously love your art.
First Rule of GOP Fight Club: completely f#ck something up, blame someone else.
people keep acting like PBO is a king and not the head of one of the threeeee branches of government
This Is Not Fucking Harmless
I love Kickstarter. I think that’s clear to people who know me by now? I love it. There’s a dude named Brad Muir and he works at Double Fine and I love the games they make, so much. But before Kickstarter, every time a Double Fine game came out I was a little worried it would be their last, and I’d have to worry that if people didn’t buy it, who knows what would happen to that studio. Then they found KIckstarter and now they make games and people like me can front load the development cost for them and it is the absolute best arrangement for creative people who want a tool in the exhausting struggle of art + commerce. A friend of mine is taking a month off her job to write a children’s book because of this platform. It’s GREAT. I love it.
The outcome of this is that I spend a lot of time just browsing Kickstarter looking for something cool to either back or crow about online. I don’t really back much - I don’t have a ton of capitol to toss around, and I’m sure the fact that I have a lot of ideas and no money factors into my love of a platform that gives money to people with ideas - but I like to check it out. So tonight, I found THIS fucking thing.
This is a nightmare.
Watching the video, reading the description, it sounds fairly innocent but a little eye-roll inducing. It’s another book where some nerd, desperate to be liked by women (this is not an insult, we are ALL desperate to be liked by someone we want to have sex with) thinks he’s figured out some cheat code or check-list like routine they can run in a bar to make women sleep with them, as if women aren’t people but a series of subroutines or an obstacle course that they can optimize to get their dick wet as fast as possible. And he’s written that advice down! And he’s selling it! To you! You could learn his cheat codes. This is nothing new for the internet. In fact, a large swath of this book was published already on Reddit. What’s new is that he’s crowdfunding it.And sure, you might think this is sad or dumb or that this guy is just another lonely dude talking to other lonely dudes who’ll head out into the night with their fedoras to failure, right? Not a big deal? Oops, turns out we’re wrong, because here are some excerpts from what he’s already put on Reddit -
”5) Get CLOSE to her, damn it!To quote Rob Judge, “Personal space is for pussies.” I already told you that the most successful seducers are those who can’t keep their hands off of women. Well you’re not gonna be able to do that if you aren’t in close! ”
“All the greatest seducers in history could not keep their hands off of women. They aggressively escalated physically with every woman they were flirting with. They began touching them immediately, kept great body language and eye contact, and were shameless in their physicality. Even when a girl rejects your advances, she KNOWS that you desire her. That’s hot. It arouses her physically and psychologically.”
“Decide that you’re going to sit in a position where you can rub her leg and back. Physically pick her up and sit her on your lap. Don’t ask for permission. Be dominant. Force her to rebuff your advances.”
“Sex
Pull out your cock and put her hand on it. Remember, she is letting you do this because you have established yourself as a LEADER. Don’t ask for permission, GRAB HER HAND, and put it right on your dick.”
- Source
SO. Now I am no longer rolling my eyes.
This guy is no longer just being weird and creepy on the internet. Now he’s writing a book about how to sexually assault women, and he is using something I believe in (Kickstarter) to ask YOU for money to do it. I am offended as someone who believes in the platform, and more importantly I am offended as someone who believes women shouldn’t be treated this way, and that people who say otherwise CERTAINLY should not profit off saying they should.
This isn’t harmless. People come to these boards because they are scared of being humiliated, and they are saying to the world, “Tell me what to do, because I don’t know what to do.” And this guy has chosen to tell them, “You should be a rapist.”
There’s largely nothing we can do about people saying this shit on a place like Reddit - Reddit’s a mess for another time - but let’s get it off of Kickstarter. The project is funded in 10 hours - and unfortunately a lot of those are sleeping hours - but PLEASE report it to Kickstarter, please tweet @Kickstarter asking them to take it down, and PLEASE do not let something cool be used for the UGLIEST thing imaginable.
The Kickstarter - Report Button is on the bottom of the page
Please Tweet at @Kickstarter
Casey
SIGNAL BOOST: Help Navigatethestream get to Starr King School for the Ministry
The Imam Dream:
I’ve been admitted to Starr King School for the Ministry to pursue a double Masters in Divinity and Masters in Social Change degree for the 2013-2014 school year. Starr King is a Universalist Unitarian divinity school committed to theological education that is multi-religious and rooted in anti-oppression praxis. They are one of the few Christian divinity schools in the United States committed to training non-Christians to become spiritual leaders. Their faculty is composed of people from a wide range of faith based traditions, most notably Ibrahim Farajaje and Ghazala Anwar, two well know queer Islamic studies professors.
I have been given the incredible opportunity to attend Starr King School for the Ministry in the fall and work with Ibrahim, Ghazala, and other members of the Starr King family.
My ultimate goal for attending Starr King is to become an imam. I want the ability to lead prayers, hold spiritual space, and spiritaully support LGBT Muslims in a variety of ways. I’ve already started to do this via the queer muslims tumblr that i moderate, but I want the ability to do this in more than just an online capacity (and improve the online capacity that i do it in currently). I also want the ability to create more resources for LGBT Muslims that are spiritually affirming and are located in an anti-oppression praxis.
This isn’t an easy goal to accomplish. Many people believe traditional Islam maintains that Muslim women are not suited for spiritual leadership, let alone a queer Muslim woman like myself. Subsequently, finding people who are willing to train women and LGBT identified Muslims to have the necessary bodies of knowledge and skill sets to become an imam is a hard road to come by.
So finding faculty at Starr King who believe in support women’s spiritual leadership and queer spiritual leadership has been nothing short of amazing.
Yet making this dream come true has become complicated financially. After waiting two months for a financial aid package, I only received $5500 worth of institutional grants to put toward my $20,058 yearly tuition. I’m also not guaranteed work study because Starr King has a limited amount of work study grants to distribute.
This means I am left to take out loans for the cost of tuition, plus the cost of housing (Starr King doesn’t have on campus grad housing), and other non-tuition related expenses until I can find a job after relocating to the Bay Area.
The Breakdown:
Tuition at Starr King for a double Masters in Divinity and Masters in Social Change is $20,058 per year for four years. After receiving $5500 in intitutional aid with no guarantee of getting a federal work study grant, I still need $14,558 for the first year’s tuition.
The $14,000 will be going to helping fund my first year’s tuition.
The remaining 6,000 will help me put a down payment on an apartment and pay rent until i find a job in the bay area.
Why you’re nothing short of amazing for helping me out:
My family has no ability to help me finance my graduate school education ever since my grandmother’s apartment burned down in January.
Since my grandmother’s apartment fire my family has been pooling their resources together for the cost of her medical care related to carbon monoxide poisoning and the cost of restoring her apartment. On top of helping my grandmother get back on her feet my mother is already paying $100,000 in loans related to my undergraduate education at Hampshire College.
Whereas usually I can count on my family to help me off set the cost, that is not the case this time.
By donating to my campaign, you’re helping me achieve my dream in the wake of financial hardship and familial tragedy.
By donating to my campaign, you’re saying you believe in the power of women’s spiritual leadership and queer spiritual leadership. You’re saying LGBT Muslims deserve spiritual leaders who are committed to creating radically affirming, anti-oppressive spiritual spaces.
On Monday, during a parliamentary commission hearing to determine if he was a fit for the top court, he was asked whether the death penalty should be applied in cases of rape. His response?
“Consideration needs to be taken thoroughly for the imposition of death penalty for a rapist because in a rape case both the rapist and the victim enjoy it.”
“NOPE” i scream from the top of Mt. Everest as i jump off and qwop into the fucking sun
(Source: vaspim)
If you are going to learn from other writers don’t only read the great ones, because if you do that you’ll get so filled with despair and the fear that you’ll never be able to do anywhere near as well as they did that you’ll stop writing. I recommend that you read a lot of bad stuff, too. It’s very encouraging. “Hey, I can do so much better than this.” Read the greatest stuff but read the stuff that isn’t so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging.
—
EDWARD ALBEE
I’ll add to this: few things have been as inspiring to me as reading or watching something that is just a giant pile of crap, so I know that if *this* crap got published/made/released, whatever I’m working on is certainly worthy of the effort.
(via wilwheaton)
(Source: kadrey)
ATTENTION TUMBLR ARTISTS
SICK AND TIRED OF PEOPLE STEALING YOUR GODAMN ART?
Can’t find the godamn ask to tell the blogger to kindly take your art down?
NO MOAR!
Email support@tumblr.com with links to your originals and the repost, and they’ll take it down.
NOW REBLOG THE SHIT OUTA THIS AND SPREAD THE WORD!PRAISE THE TUMBLR GODS~!
Re-blog if you used to watch any of these shows!
//I remember all these shows…is that weird?//
EVERY SINGLE ONE
The hell is The Jetsons doing in this mix?? GOD, this makes me feel so old! XD
