axlotl9

[axlotl9]

No captive audience meetings, huh? I can think of at least one company that is going to have to change its new employee orientation because of this. (Home Depot includes an anti-union segment in its onboarding video. This is not surprising, given that Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank started Home Depot after being fired from Happy Dan’s Hardware (where they were CEO and CFO, respectively) for creating an off-the-books slush fund for anti-union activities. It’s also the reason the company was incorporated in Georgia, a “right to work” state, despite the fact that they were resident in California at the time.)

🗣️THIS IS WHAT INCLUSIVE, COMPASSIONATE DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE

Minnesota Dems enacted a raft of laws to make the state a trans refuge, and ensure people receiving trans care here can't be reached by far-right governments in places like Florida and Texas. (link)

Minnesota Dems ensured that everyone, including undocumented immigrants, can get drivers' licenses. (link)

They made public college free for the majority of Minnesota families. (link)

Minnesota Dems dropped a billion dollars into a bevy of affordable housing programs, including by creating a new state housing voucher program. (link)

Minnesota Dems massively increased funding for the state's perpetually-underfunded public defenders, which lets more public defenders be hired and existing public defenders get a salary increase. (link)

Dems raised Minnesota education spending by 10%, or about 2.3 billion. (link)

Minnesota Dems created an energy standard for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040. (link)

Minnesota already has some of the strongest election infrastructure (and highest voter participation) in the country, but the legislature just made it stronger, with automatic registration, preregistration for minors, and easier access to absentee ballots. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded the publicly subsidized health insurance program to undocumented immigrants. This one's interesting because it's the sort of things Dems often balk at. The governor opposed it! The legislature rolled over him and passed it anyway. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded background checks and enacted red-flag laws, passing gun safety measures that the GOP has thwarted for years. (link)

Minnesota Dems gave the state AG the power to block the huge healthcare mergers that have slowly gobbled up the state's medical system. (link)

Minnesota Dems restored voting rights to convicted felons as soon as they leave prison. (link)

Minnesota Dems made prison phone calls free. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed new wage protection rules for the construction industry, against industry resistance. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a new sales tax to fund bus and train lines, an enormous victory for the sustainability and quality of public transit. Transit be more pleasant to ride, more frequent, and have better shelters, along more lines. (link)

They passed strict new regulations on PFAS ("forever chemicals"). (link)

Minnesota Dems passed the largest bonding bill in state history! Funding improvements to parks, colleges, water infrastructure, bridges, etc. etc. etc. (link)

They're going to build a passenger train from the Twin Cities to Duluth. (link)

I can't even find a news story about it but there's tens of millions in funding for new BRT lines, too. (link)

A wonky-but-important change: Minnesota Dems indexed the state gas tax to inflation, effectively increasing the gas tax. (link)

They actually indexed a bunch of stuff to inflation, including the state's education funding formula, which helps ensure that school spending doesn't decline over time. (link)

Minnesota Dems made hourly school workers (e.g., bus drivers and paraprofessionals) eligible for unemployment during summer break, when they're not working or getting paid. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed a bunch of labor protections for teachers, including requiring school districts to negotiate class sizes as part of union contracts. (Yet another @SydneyJordanMN special here. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a state board to govern labor standards at nursing homes. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, which would set price caps for high-cost pharmaceuticals. (link)

Minnesota Dems created new worker protections for Amazon warehouse workers and refinery workers. (link)

Minnesota Dems passed a digital fair repair law, which requires electronics manufacturers to make tools and parts available so that consumers can repair their electronics rather than purchase new items. (link)

Minnesota Dems made Juneteenth a state holiday. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned conversion therapy. (link)

They spent nearly a billion dollars on a variety of environmental programs, from heat pumps to reforestation. (link)

Minnesota Dems expanded protections for pregnant and nursing workers - already in place for larger employers - to almost everyone in the state. (link)

Minnesota Dems created a new child tax credit that will cut child poverty by about a quarter. (link)

Minnesota Democrats dropped a quick $50 million into homelessness prevention programs. (link)

And because the small stuff didn't get lost in the big stuff, they passed a law to prevent catalytic converter thefts. (link)

Minnesota Dems increased child care assistance. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned "captive audience meetings," where employers force employees to watch anti-union presentations. (link)

No news story yet, but Minnesota Dems forced signal priority changes to Twin Cities transit. Right now the trains have to wait at intersections for cars, which, I can say from experience, is terrible. Soon that will change.

Minnesota Dems provided the largest increase to nursing home funding in state history. (link)

They also bumped up salaries for home health workers, to help address the shortage of in-home nurses. (link)

Minnesota Dems legalized drug paraphernalia, which allows social service providers to conduct needle exchanges and address substance abuse with reduced fear of incurring legal action. (link)

Minnesota Dems banned white supremacists and extremists from police forces, capped probation at 5 years for most crimes, improved clemency, and mostly banned no-knock warrants. (link)

Minnesota Dems also laid the groundwork for a public health insurance option. (link)

I’m happy for the people of Minnesota, but as a Floridian living under Ron DeSantis & hateful Republicans, I’m also very envious tbh. We know that democracy can work, and this is a shining example of what government could be like in the hands of legislators who actually care about helping people in need, and not pursuing the GOP’s “culture wars” and suppressing the votes of BIPOC, and inflicting maximum harm on those who aren’t cis/het, white, wealthy, Christian males. BRAVO MINNESOTA. This is how you do it. 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿

👉🏿 https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1660846689450688514.html

[axlotl9]

Definite mood.

[axlotl9]

And, of course, under the Hays Code (written by a Catholic priest and enforced by Joseph Bremen, a board member of the Catholic League of Decency), homosexuality was *forbidden* to be portrayed in a positive way.

It was banned under two rules (no positive portrayal of criminal acts/criminal acts must always have consequences, and no positive representation of “perversions”.

So for 30 years, there was literally no way to get any positive gay representation in Hollywood movies unless it was heavily, heavily obscured in symbolism. And even after the Code was scrapped and the modern ratings system put in place, the old attitudes held over within the studio system.

So yeah, “Kill Your Gays” was pretty much a product of the Hays Code.

and what about it.

[axlotl9]

At first glance I thought that said PENDEJO and I figured that was appropriate.

I'm worried about the next electricity bill bound to come in the next couple of weeks 😃 folks are getting charged like $9000 per megawatt. Fuck the Texas officials who got us into this mess

[axlotl9]

American person here. I had no idea that there were “breadsticks” other than the grissini type.

Then again, I’ve never been to an Olive Garden.

The breadsticks thing to me is hilarious I think it must be another Europe/America thing bc my whole life ‘breadsticks’ have been these hard crunchy thin stick things you buy them at the supermarket and it says breadsticks on the box Never in my life has anyone around me referred to an actual stick of bread as a breadstick lmao But then we don’t have Olive Garden either

[axlotl9]

That car was an early-60s kustom that made its way to Hollywood. NOT made by George Barris, unlike the Batmobile. Here it is in Star Trek:

It was called the Reactor, and was built by Gene Winfield.

And in Bewitched:

Gene Winfield was primarily a model maker and produced a lot of the props for Star Trek.

Fully and utterly obsessed with every single aspect of this scene

[axlotl9]

Well, what’s it to ya?

[axlotl9]

So if I’m reading what was laid out correctly, this “official” taxi squad is supposed to be in lieu of call ups from the AHL. They will be in the NHL bubble but being paid either an AHL salary (if on a two-way contract) or NHL minimum (if on a one-way contract). Any call ups from AHL would have to quarantine before entering the NHL bubble.

Can someone explain the whole Taxi Sqaud V. AHL Team set up ?

Are we not allowed to call guys up from Wilkes?

[axlotl9]

Ducky day care

Favorite image of the day: A photo taken by Brett Cizek of a common merganser with a massive brood of over 50 ducklings trailing after her. Biologists guess that she picked up at least a couple dozen who got separated from their mother, and maybe a few more pre-hatching since ducks often lay a couple eggs in other ducks’ nests as a way of not…er…putting all their eggs in one basket. So big broods are not uncommon, but this is definitely larger than usual.

Apparently since this photo was taken, she’s picked up another two dozen and is now wandering around Bemidji, MN, with over 70 ducklings in tow.

[source] [source]

[axlotl9]

Personal anecdote:

My maternal grandfather never finished high school. (He had to drop out and get a job when my great-grandfather ran out on the family.)

My mother is the youngest of six children, born over a ten-year span.

Grandpa didn’t fight in World War II although he tried to enlist, to the point of obtaining a fake birth certificate claiming he was younger than his actual age (33 in 1941.) Because he worked in a steel mill (and already had five kids - my mother was born during the war) he was considered an “essential worker”. The mill he worked for was one of the primary suppliers for the Kaiser shipyards in Richmond (now part of Rosie the Riveter National Park), so he made his contribution to the war effort.

My grandparents were never what one would call rich (grandma’s family had been wealthy but lost it all in the Depression), but they still:

Owned a large home (four bedrooms, one 1/2 bathrooms - the half bath being constructed by Grandpa after they moved in, as eight people in a house with one bathroom didn’t fly.)

Owned two cars at a time when most families had just one (Grandma was a good driver - the year before she married Grandpa, she and her sister drove across the United States to visit their grandparents in Boston. And by “they” I mean “she” - according to my mother, her aunt never learned to drive.)

Were able to take two weeks vacation every year - mostly within California while the kids were at home, and always driving, but still...

Admittedly, my mother was the only one of her siblings to go to college without government aid (all five of her siblings did some form of military service to fund college), yet all of them did go to college. Despite not finishing high school, Grandpa was a voracious reader who had a personal library almost as large as my paternal grandparents, both of whom were college professors.

Were there things that reflected the fact that they were careful with money? Certainly. At Christmas it became a running joke among my cousins as to how many times a given piece of wrapping paper might reappear, as they saved the wrapping every year. The last new car they bought was in 1964. (If I’m recalling correctly, they only ever bought two new cars - most of the cars my mother remembers from growing up were used cars that Grandpa fixed up.) Grandpa had his shop in back of the house where he could repair just about anything (his first job as a high school dropout had been as a mechanic.) and would do so until something was so worn that no amount of repair could fix it.

Could someone under those circumstances end up living in the same level of comfort today? I very much doubt it.

[axlotl9]

“Move fast, break things.”

HOW DO YOU LET THIS HAPPEN LOL

[axlotl9]

Pretty good response to tonight’s political circus.

[axlotl9]

Reblog if you’re 30 or older

This is an experiment to see if there really are as few of us as people think.You can also use this to freak out your followers who think you’re 25 or something. Yay!

[axlotl9]

Of course, if you’ve ever seen photos or newsreel footage of the Liberation of Paris (76 years ago today!), you won’t see a single African or Arab soldier in the victory parade.

Why? Because the US Army was segregated, and the Powers That Be were worried that if the Black soldiers in our army saw black soldiers fighting as equals in the French army, they might mutiny. (There were also concerns about how such footage might be received on the home front, especially in the South.)

So Eisenhower browbeat de Gaulle into leaving all the colored troops out of the victory parade, instead dressing white US and British soldiers in French uniforms and having them parade for the cameras.

[axlotl9]

GNU Pterry

every few months someone explains to me what “GNU Terry Pratchett” means and then I immediately forget

it’s a vicious cycle

[axlotl9]

So... it was gmail.garfield.com, they never registered a domain gmail.com.

Kind of funny this post going viral today, given that it’s Garfield’s Birthday. The strip has now been running for 42 years.

Just a sec. Gotta log into GMail

[axlotl9]

Of course, New Zealand just started letting people who were abroad when the pandemic started getting bad back into the country, and they still have to be quarantined for two weeks. Tourism isn’t happening anytime soon, either.

Still, good job, Kiwis!