#State labor law posters in Illinois

[creepingsharia]

A Month of Islam in America: June 2019

Another month, and another step forward for sharia in America as more censorship was exposed. A whistleblower leak confirmed that @Pinterest protects Muslims and censors any reference to “creeping sharia,” and many other non-liberal topics.

Click any link below for more details and link to original source.

Jihad in America in June

Brooklyn: Muslim Immigrant Sentenced to 20 Years for Attempting to Join Islamic State (ISIS) Mohamed Rafik Naji was sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment by United States District Judge Frederic Block for attempting to provide material support or resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a foreign terrorist organization.  Naji pleaded guilty to the charge in February 2018.

Brooklyn: Muslim Woman Who Helped ISIS Gets 4 Years, But Will Be Out in 18 Months

With credit for time served, Sinmyah Amera Caesar will end up only serving about 18 months in prison after pleading guilty to charges accusing her of using social media to help recruit IS fighters under the nom de guerre “Umm Nutella.” She had also admitted violating a cooperation agreement with the government a — betrayal that infuriated prosecutors.

Illinois: Bosnian Muslim refugee and mother of 4  jailed for sending money, supplies to ISIS

Mediha Medy Salkicevic, a/k/a Medy Ummuluna, a/k/a Bosna Mexico, 39, was sentenced to 78 months in prison for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

Salkicevic, aka Medy Ummuluna and Bosna Mexico, espoused the ISIS philosophy that infidels should be killed and once said that unbelievers should be buried alive.

At the time of her arrest, she was working for an air cargo company at Chicago O'Hare Airport...

Illinois: Two Muslim converts convicted of aiding Islamic State (ISIS)

Joseph D. Jones and Edward Schimenti proudly waved a terrorist flag during a photo at a Lake Michigan park in Zion, had plotted to attack the Navy’s main U.S. training center near North Chicago and once had their eyes on planting an ISIS flag atop the White House.

Now Jones and Schimenti, both 37, have been found guilty of providing material support to ISIS.

Indiana: Yemeni Muslim who tried to join Islamic State terrorists gets 8 years in prison

U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Evans Barker handed down the 100-month sentence Friday afternoon in the case against 21-year-old Akram Musleh, U.S. Attorney Josh Minkler announced.

He admitted in the plea agreement that from about April 2016 through June 21, 2016, he offered himself to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, also known as IS, knowing it was a “designated foreign terrorist organization.”

Pittsburgh: Syrian Muslim Refugee Arrested for Planning Jihad Attack on Christian Church

Mustafa Mousab Alowemer, 21, a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was arrested today based on a federal complaint charging him with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and two counts of distributing information relating to an explosive, destructive device, or weapon of mass destruction in relation to his plan to attack a church in Pittsburgh.

“Court documents show Mustafa Alowemer planned to attack a church in the name of ISIS, which could have killed or injured many people...”

Ohio: Jordanian Muslim Immigrant Sentenced to 15 Years for Trying to Join Islamic State (ISIS)

A Dayton, Ohio man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court to 180 months in prison and 25 years of supervised release for attempting, and conspiring, to join the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). 

Laith Waleed Alebbini, 28, was convicted following a bench trial in November and December 2018 before U.S. District Judge Walter H. Rice.

Alebbini attempted, and conspired, to provide material support and resources to ISIS in the form of personnel, namely himself.

Alebbini, a citizen of Jordan and a U.S. legal permanent resident, was arrested by the FBI on April 26, 2017, at the Cincinnati/Kentucky International Airport, as he approached the TSA security checkpoint.

South Carolina: Muslim - twice convicted for attempts to join ISIS and kill Americans - gets 20-year prison sentence

A federal judge has sentenced a South Carolina man who tried to join ISIS to 20 years in prison.

Zakaryia Abdin, 20, pleaded guilty in September 2018. The Ladson man was arrested in March 2017.

New York: Bangladeshi Muslim immigrant arrested in Times Square terror plot

Ashiqul Alam was arrested Thursday after arranging through an undercover agent to buy a pair of semiautomatic pistols with obliterated serial numbers, prosecutors said. Police Commissioner James O’Neill said that development was “a clear indicator of (Alam’s) intent to move his plot forward.”

The defendant, a legal resident born in Bangladesh, moved to the U.S. as a child about 12 years ago...

He talked about wanting to “shoot down” gays, referring to them with a slur; using a “rocket launcher, like a huge one,” to cause havoc at the World Trade Center; and obtaining an enhanced driver’s license so he could walk onto a military base and “blow it up,” the documents said.

Illinois: Muslim Arrested for Threatening to Bomb Aurora Casino for Allah

A recently released affidavit and search warrant claimed that 30-year-old Musatdin M. Muadinov,  while detained by police on Feb. 12, vowed to “pray to Allah” to “destroy the casino.” He further demanded to meet with President Donald Trump, saying that if his demands were not met, “we would all meet Allah,” according to the affidavit obtained by the Daily Herald.

Muadinov — who was dressed in what police described as “Muslim attire” when arrested — waived his right to remain silent.

More Jihad in America in June

Florida: Suspect sent bomb threats to judges ‘for cause of Islamic State’

Nebraska: Heavily armed Marine arrested trying to enter Air Force Base

Arizona: Muslim shared terror propaganda before attacking police officer

Brooklyn: Muslim in Jail for ISIS Support Pleads Guilty to Slashing Correctional Officer

South Carolina: Man who pledged allegiance to ISIS hid explosive device in teddy bear

Arizona: Witness in probe of 2015 Islamic jihad attack on free speech event convicted of lying to FBI

Libyan National Found Guilty of Terrorism Charges in 2012 Attack on U.S. Facilities in Benghazi

Iraqi Muslim who orchestrated jihad attack that killed 5 U.S. troops gets 26 years prison, then release to Canada

Immigration Jihad in America

Minnesota’s first Somali Muslim cop gets 12 years for murdering Australian woman

Minnesota: St. Paul’s first Somali Muslim city council member says criticizing his homophobic comments is… Islamophobic

New York: Brooklyn Mosque Blasts Islamic Call to Prayer to 20 Block Radius (VIDEO)

Somalis have Changed Minneapolis

New York: Thousands of Muslims take over two city blocks in Brooklyn to pray in the streets

Four Muslim ISIS suspects arrested in Nicaragua, likely headed for US

Islamization of America

Pennsylvania: 167-year-old Catasauqua church will become Islamic mosque

Pennsylvania: Former Easton church is now a Sunni mosque

Pennsylvania: Former daycare in residential Salisbury to become Muslim “community center”

Virginia: Residential home in Annandale to become a Muslim funeral home

Education Jihad in America

New Jersey Public School District to Students: “May Allah Continue to Shower You Love and Wisdom”

Maryland school fails Christian student for refusing Islamic prayer

New York: Cornell Univ. Muslim Students Demand More “Prayer Rooms”

Stanford administrators say advertising for conservative event threatens Muslim students

The Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim Students Association: What Americans Need to Know

DOE Investigating Elite Colleges For Hiding Saudi, Qatari Cash from Regulators

Islamic Slavery & Sexual Jihad in America

Virginia: Three Muslim family members arrested for conspiracy, forced labor, and document servitude 

Detroit Imam: Wife-Beating Serves to Remind Her That She Misbehaved (VIDEO)

Dhimmitude in Elected Office

Trump Admin Sues Greyhound for Banning Muslim Driver from Wearing Full Length Islamic Robe 

Democrat majority passes defense authorization bill that funds transfer of remaining Gitmo jihadis to U.S.

Minnesota: City of Bloomington allows terror mosque to flout local laws (VIDEO)

Minnesota city council votes 5-0 to ditch Pledge of Allegiance (to avoid offending Muslims)

Diversity is our Strength Alert

Minnesota’s first Somali Muslim cop gets 12 years for murdering Australian woman

Minnesota: St. Paul’s first Somali Muslim city council member says criticizing his homophobic comments is… Islamophobic

Boston Police Dept’s First Muslim Captain Put On Administrative Leave Amid ‘Anti-Corruption’ Investigation

Minnesota: First Muslim congresswoman Ilhan Omar fined by state for unlawful use of campaign funds

Minnesota Muslim Rep. Ilhan Omar filed joint tax returns before she married husband

Fraud for Jihad

Connecticut: Muslim Grocery Store Worker Pleads Guilty in $3.2M Federal Food Stamp Fraud

Massachusetts: Muslim Restaurant Owner Pleads Guilty to Tax Fraud Conspiracy

That’s just what we had time to compile for just the month of June.

Far too many steps forward for the sharia, and only a few pushbacks, but worth noting:

New Jersey: School District Scraps Posters Calling upon “Allah” to “Shower” Students with Blessings After Threat of Lawsuit 

Rather Than Go to Trial, Terror-linked CAIR Settles with the Victims They Defrauded 

Tunisian Muslim who swore allegiance to ISIS removed from U.S.

New York: Albany mosque imam convicted of terrorism is deported back to Iraq It’s almost midnight and Americans are losing their first amendment rights to sharia supremacists and the big technology, media and politicians who support them.

Please share this report before it’s too late.

[kemetic-dreams]

How One Boy Grew Up African In Nazi Germany — And Survived

By Katie Serena

Published October 10, 2017

Updated December 18, 2017

Due to a loophole in Hitler's laws, Hans Massaquoi was able to survive as a african child in Nazi Germany. However, it wasn't easy.

He’d been called out to the schoolyard with his classmates for an announcement by the school’s principal. Herr Wriede announced to all of the children that the ‘beloved Fuhrer’ was there to talk to them about his new regime.

Like all of the other children in his class dressed in small brown Nazi uniforms with little swastika patches sewn onto the front, he was persuaded by the Nazi leaders charm and signed up for the Hitler Youth as soon as he could.

But, unlike all of the other children in his class, he was african .

Hans Massaquoi was the son of a German nurse and a Liberian diplomat, one of the few German-born children of German and African descent in Nazi Germany. His grandfather was the Liberian Consul in Germany, which allowed him to live among the Aryan population.

Hitler’s racial laws left a loophole, one Massaquoi was able to squeeze through. He was German-born, wasn’t Jewish, and the african population in Germany wasn’t big enough to explicitly codify in their racial laws. Therefore, he was allowed to live freely.

However, because he had escaped one form of persecution didn’t mean he was free from all of them. He wasn’t Aryan — far from it — so he never quite fit in. Even his request to join the Hitler Youth in third grade had been ultimately denied.

There were others that weren’t so lucky. After the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games, during which African-American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals, Hitler and the rest of the Nazi party began targeting African people. Massaquoi’s father and his family had to flee the country, but Massaquoi was able to remain in Germany with his mother.

But, at times, he wished he too had fled.

He began noticing that signs would crop up, forbidding “non-Aryan” kids from playing on swings or entering parks. He noticed Jewish teachers at his school were disappearing. Then, he saw the worst of it.

On a trip to the Hamburg Zoo, he noticed an African family inside a cage, placed among the animals, being laughed at by the crowd. Someone in the crowd saw him, called him out for his skin tone and publicly shamed him for the first time in his life.

As soon as the war began, he was almost recruited by the German Army but was luckily rejected after being deemed underweight. He was then classified as an official non-Aryan, and while not persecuted to the extent of the others, he was forced to work as an apprentice and laborer.

Once again, he found himself caught in the middle. While he was never pursued by the Nazis, he was never free from racial abuse. It would be a long time before he found his place in the world again.

A racist Nazi propaganda poster comparing African people to animals.

After the war, Massaquoi began thinking about leaving Germany. He had met a man at a labor camp, a half-Jewish jazz musician who convinced him to work as a saxophonist at a jazz club. Eventually, Massaquoi emigrated to the United States to continue his music career.

On the way, he made a stop in Liberia to see his father, whom he hadn’t seen since his paternal family fled Germany. While in Liberia he was recruited to join the Korean War by the United States, where he served as a paratrooper for the American army.

After the Korean war, he made it to the United States and studied journalism at the University of Illinois. He worked as a journalist for forty years and served as a managing editor for Ebony, the legendary African-American publication. He also published his memoirs, titled Destined to Witness: Growing Up African in Nazi Germany, in which he described his childhood.

“All’s well that ends well,” Hans Massaquoi wrote. “I’m quite satisfied with the way my life has turned out to be. I survived to tell the piece of history I was a witness of. At the same time, I wish everyone could have a happy childhood within a fair society. And that was definitely not my case.”

Enjoy this article on Hans Massaquoi? Next, read about the men who perpetuated Hitler’s rise to power. Then, take a look at these photos of life inside the Hitler Youth.

[ammg-old]

When today’s activists talk about the problem of trafficking, knowing exactly what they’re referring to can be difficult. They cite statistics that actually offer global estimates of all forms of labor trafficking. Or they mention outdated and hard-to-parse figures about the number of children who go “missing” in the United States every year—most of whom are never in any immediate danger—and then start talking about children who are abducted by strangers and sold into sex slavery.

While stereotypical kidnappings—what you picture when you hear the word—do occur, the annual number hovers around 100. Sex trafficking also occurs in the United States. The U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline has been operated by the anti-trafficking nonprofit Polaris Project and overseen and partially funded by the Department of Health and Human Services since 2007. In 2019, it recorded direct contacts with 14,597 likely victims of sex trafficking of all ages. (The average age at which these likely victims were first trafficked—“age of entry,” as the statistic is called—was 17.) The organization itself doesn’t regard its figure for direct contacts as one that should be used with too much confidence—it is probably low, but no more solid data exist.

There is a widely circulated number, and it’s even bigger than the one Laura Pamatian and her volunteer chapter publicized: 800,000 children go missing in the U.S. every year. The figure shows up on T-shirts and handmade posters, and in the captions of Instagram posts. But the number doesn’t mean what the people sharing it think it means. It comes from a study conducted in 1999 by the Justice Department, and it’s an estimate of the number of children who were reported missing over the period of a year for any reason and for any length of time. The majority were runaways, children caught up in custody disputes, or children who were temporarily not where their guardians expected them to be. The estimate for “nonfamily abductions” reported to authorities was 12,100, which includes stereotypical kidnappings, but came with the caveat that it was extrapolated from “an extremely small sample of cases” and, as a result, “its precision and confidence interval are unreliable.”

Later in the report, the authors noted that “only a fraction of 1 percent of the children who were reported missing had not been recovered” by the time they were counted for the study. The authors also clarified that a survey sent to law-enforcement agencies found that “an estimated 115 of the nonfamily abducted children were victims of stereotypical kidnapping.” The Justice Department repeated the study in 2013 and found that reports of missing children had “significantly decreased.”

Plenty of news outlets have pointed out how misleading the 800,000 figure is. Yet it has been resilient. It appeared on colorful handmade posters at hundreds of Save the Children marches that began taking place in the summer of 2020, many of which were covered credulously by local TV news. Narrating footage of a march in Peoria, Illinois, a reporter for the CBS affiliate WMBD did not mention the QAnon hashtags on some of the signs and passed along without comment information from the organizer, Brenna Fort: “Fort says her research shows that at least 800,000 children go missing every year.” The segment ended by zooming in on a plastic baby doll wearing a cloth diaper on which someone had written NOT FOR SALE in red marker.

– The Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic

[redlightreflux-blog]

Resistance/protest imagery in NCT’s Limitless MV: graffiti, Muhammad Ali, surveillance, arrest, complicity [analysis pt 1]

Man, so I’ve long thought the Rough version gets misunderstood as a faux-street, too-ugly-to-watch piece of low-res crap without either meaning or storyline. but I believe the MV and lyrics are full of nods to revolution, protest, and “fighting the unjust status quo” – let’s get started.

1. street graffiti as protest speech

What does protest look like? The “civil,” squeaky-clean-legal type can be voting in elections, donating to political parties, and in some countries and U.S. states, mass-assembling in public for “peaceful” demonstrations. Except sometimes people feel disenfranchised by all institutional modes of political participation. Resistance can also be illegal: violence, riots, obstructing traffic, trespassing on private property...and vandalism.

The MV begins with a blurry close-up horizontal pan across a wall of graffiti, and the boys are shown with aerosol spray cans again and again until the end – shaking them, painting with them, chilling with them in the background.

Right away, we’re faced with the puzzle of whether NCT are swaggering revolutionaries...or just angsty, privileged youths defacing public space to “rebel” against their "boring” lives. On one hand, it’s implied by the shabby warehouse littered with cheap goods – pizza boxes, a jumbo cheetos jar, posters taped over un-wallpapered walls- that they’re poor, maybe college students. Yet we see expensive luxury goods that look completely out of place: a glittering chandelier, iMacs, Sony camcorders, guitars, pro lighting kits, Doyoung’s audio mixing panel, the iPhones that they get caught on.

Are NCT 127 a gang that splurges on luxuries? Privileged college students who transplanted dorm items into an abandoned warehouse to film, edit, and produce an indie film? Or maybe they’re a resistance movement using graffiti “writing” as the only alternative media in a censored press, as El Salvador’s FMLN guerilla rebels used graffiti for recruitment, criticism of regime violence against protesters, and commemoration of their fallen from the 70s through the 90s against their brutal (US-backed) right-wing government?

I found NCT’s recurring use of camcorders to be strongly in favor of the (I think) intriguing resistance movement theory...but we’ll get to that later.

Graffiti can be a tool to alleviate boredom or gain fame (or a design career lmao), it can "beautify” urban spaces, and it can serve as gangs’ territory markers. But political graffiti is often the voice of the oppressed in cities where systemic poverty, economic and racial segregation, unemployment, crime, and police brutality ravage communities. In 1989, New York City and Los Angeles each spent over $50 million on graffiti cleanup, and other countries like Peru, Argentina, and Spain are also covered in graffiti that reflect the civil unrest among marginalized indigenous, labor, and student groups.

So is NCT hijacking or co-opting the protest speech of the oppressed? Or are they representing the resistance against injustice in the Limitless MV? I believe they’re consciously paying homage to revolutionaries and activists, as I’ll try to show below, despite the cocky Supreme outfits and sleek, pricey consumer tech.

2. homage to Muhammad Ali: the Greatest (1942-2016)

Who’s that on Mark’s shirt? Called “the Greatest,” the legendary Muhammad Ali was ranked the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time by Ring Magazine and The Associated Press, and the greatest athlete of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated. Ali won gold at the 1960 Olympics at age 18, and is still the world’s only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He was also a civil rights activist, anti-Vietnam War protester, and a prolific philanthropist.

Muhammad Ali is famous for his 1966 refusal to fight in the then-popular Vietnam War, which he was arrested, stripped of his boxing titles, and charged with draft evasion for – the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971, even though my President hilariously offered to pardon him just days ago. Ali publicly stated:

Today, Ali has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, two Academy Award-winning films based on his achievements, and has graced Time Magazine 5x, and Sports Illustrated 37 times. But his activism antagonized wealthy white America long before he became the mainstream icon that he is today.

Muhammad Ali’s protest to a then-popular war cost him 4 of his prime years as an athlete and landed him in jail, so it’s maybe not surprising to learn that the NSA’s “Minaret” program and FBI’s COINTELPRO operations had been illegally spying on him for years. In 1971, an (also illegal lmao) civilian raid on a Pennsylvania FBI office exposed over 1000 FBI records of surveillance, disinformation, and infiltration plans against civil rights and anti-war activists, and most damningly, of their 1969 assassination of 21-year-old Illinois Black Panthers chairman Fred Hampton in our boy Johnny’s hometown, Chicago.

I mention Fred Hampton and the FBI’s COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram) because the whole Limitless MV is steeped in this...unsettling, sinister, you’re-under-surveillance discomfort that many civil rights activists felt in their resistance activities through at least the 50s and 60s. In many shots, NCT look like deer frozen in the headlights, caught off guard by the camera.

3. surveillance of activists & revolutionaries

Besides the general feeling of paranoia about being watched, there’s also shots that look straight-up taken without NCT’s consent or knowledge, as if by a secret camera, spy drone, or informant.

Which leads to the question: if NCT are just poseur revolutionaries partying with camcorders and Supreme streetwear in a warehouse, what are they so terrified of? Why do the members look scared out of their minds, as if for their lives? What danger are they constantly on the lookout for? what are they trying to hide?

I actually think this is the most important pattern to catch from the Limitless MV, even more important than the recurring imagery of resistance and protest that I’ve been writing a whole long-ass post about. If NCT fans remember nothing else about this MV, I hope they’ll remember the members’ reactions of fear, defensiveness, and hostility upon suddenly sensing the camera’s presence in each scene. Limitless is an MV with lots of “swagger” and lots of moments where NCT smiles knowingly for the camera, but there’s also these moments where they’re freaked out by the sudden presence of the camera.

Even if you don’t buy the “revolutionaries” theory, it’s still clear that there’s something profoundly, deeply wrong and disturbing going on in much of the VHS camcorder clips.

4. civil disobedience & riots –> arrests

Alright, so I’ve always thought the YouTube thumbnail for the Rough version looked like Taeil, Jaehyun, Doyoung, and Johnny getting arrested or “frisked” by police, and not just showing off their sculpted side profiles lmao. The image of an apprehended person being told to “put your hands up!” or “get on the ground!” or “put your hands up against the wall!” is burned into public consciousness.

Police want to check that the person is unarmed, or unable to reach for a weapon, hence the order to keep palms spread in plain sight.

As you can guess, unpopular peaceful protests are often labeled “riots” and result in arrests, like in the Sir William George “riot” of 1969 in our boy Mark’s own Canada, even if participants only started throwing objects to prevent their forcible removal by armed police upon their arrival.

Several other scenes also struck me as drawing heavily from the imagery of arrested protesters: while I can’t catch the hangul in the background signs (can you?), I get the vibes of police photo lineups and “mugshots” from this shot:

At least, I get that vibe from Doyoung and Taeil on the right. It’s made more discomforting because why the hell is Jaehyun upside down? he looks like he’s being...tortured? and why is Johnny holding him in that position? The boys look like they’re aware they’re being photographed, then catalogued.

In the final few shots, NCT are shown huddled together in poor lighting and throwing sparkler fireworks in arcs that remind me of “armed” protesters throwing rocks, bottles, gas canisters, or molotov cocktails at riot police.

The pose struck by someone throwing a long-range projectile looks the same no matter what the protest is against: a right-wing government, settler colonialism, locally harmful infrastructure like pipelines or military bases, strike-breaking, austerity, police violence, martial law, a verdict, state corruption, high-profile arrests and convictions, food shortages and unemployment under a left-wing government, an inauguration, etc. Anonymous graffiti artist Banksy even produced this meme-famous piece riffing on this iconic pose:

The images above are from Gaza, the Stonewall Inn in New York City, Paris, and Athens – and there’s plenty more to show from Baltimore, Standing Rock Indian Reservation, and outside of the U.S. too. But back to the act of NCT throwing ~lit~ fireworks into the air: how do we know if they’re punks who are celebrating or protesters who are rioting?

Since there’s never anyone else shown in the MV except NCT, we can’t tell for sure. But I’m inclined to take the maybe-protesting shots along with the maybe-arrested scene and the maybe-police-photo-lineup scene as belonging to one theme that also explains the graffiti, Muhammad Ali / boxing references, and the pervasive fear of being watched: the theme of resistance.

Also, intriguingly, remember how it was Taeil, Johnny, Doyoung, and Jaehyun who were maybe-arrested and maybe-photographed in a police lineup? Earlier, these guys jostle each others’ shoes in a circle, as if sealing a mutual pact with a secret handshake. Later, the same four are shown arrested.

By the way, there’s a couple of secret handshakes in this MV: gang signs? college boys antics? the identification codes of a legit resistance movement? no one knows.

If we believe Limitless to be the (sketchily told) story of NCT’s resistance, we might speculate that TI, JN, DY, and JH took mutually agreed-upon actions that resulted in their arrest and detention. Still, all of NCT lights their sparklers together, and all of NCT throws them into the air. What do you think?

It also makes you curious: what could they have done? Staged a sit-in? a walkout? a strike? a march? a riot? sprayed graffiti and got caught? or maybe, as I’ll half-seriously propose in Pt 2, they organized a forbidden film screening?

4. 🙈🙉🙊 & “monkey see, monkey do”

There’s a couple of old sayings about monkeys, human behavior, and morality. In the above shot, Yuta records as Mark arranges his body into the gold gorilla statue’s crouching position, and we’re shown this footage in the next scene.

That gold gorilla statue...can actually connect us to more meaningful interpretations of the MV. We see Mark bizarrely, weirdly, almost disturbingly, mimicking the position of the primate with great sensitivity to detail – why is it so unsettling? For me, it’s because he looks almost brainwashed or exploited while doing it. Mark is meticulously copying the example of an inanimate object, and he doesn’t laugh or show signs of having fun either. In fact, he looks almost anxious about messing up.

Later on, we see a highly symbolic shot of all nine boys placing their hands over their eyes, covering their sight as if to say, “see no evil.”

There’s no practical reason for all of NCT to cover their eyes indoors, so it’s not literal, it’s a metaphor. In Western culture, the act of deliberately impairing one’s sight evokes the idiom “to turn a blind eye.” That is, when a person knows evil is happening but doesn’t want to fix it, they can pretend the evil doesn’t exist by covering their eyes so they “see no evil.”

By the way, Kim Namjoon recently shared in a Billboard interview that BTS’s Fake Love choreo references the old “three wise monkeys” saying: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

Here, Winwin covers Taeyong’s mouth while they both steadily meet the camera’s gaze. Their stillness and the camera’s smooth zoom in HD, in such contrast from previous low-res scenes that had almost spastically shaky camera motion, emphasizes this setup as another metaphor, instead of a literal action taken by characters within the story of Limitless.

NCT is trying to send us a message in this scene, it seems: that leader Taeyong, and thus maybe all of them, are being silenced for whatever reason and can’t speak the truth. They can look us dead in the eye, but there’s certain things they can’t say out loud –maybe because of the offscreen danger that keeps them living in fear.

I’ll add that I believe the “see no evil” part is meant to evoke the unsettling idea that people, especially youth, are ignoring the present-day evil or injustice in their own countries – the complicity of their willful blindness. The recurring lyrics “wake me u-up” and “open your eyes”( 눈을 떠 봐 오) in the chorus reinforce this association. Back to Mark mimicking the gold gorilla, the old pidgin saying “monkey see, monkey do” refers to the act of learning or mimicry without either knowledge or concern for the consequences.

Is this a critique of youth uncritically adopting the beliefs of their parents and mainstream society without thinking about the systemic injustices they condone and perpetuate? I think the answer depends on the viewer’s interest in politics and comfort with interpreting works that haven’t been explicitly explained by a creator lmao.

conclusion & lyrics.

I think I’ll stop Part 1 here lolol, since there’s still so, so much left. The plan is for Part 2 to introduce the origins of Third World Cinema and the Korean Independent Filmmakers Association (KIFA) as possible influences but, most definitely, amplifiers for the images of resistance used in the MV. Part 2 will address the...uh, limitless cinematic storytelling styles used in the Rough version, and the effects of editing them together into one MV to tell one story.

I also super-duper recommend @seasquared​‘s “Direct Address” essay for a more complete idea of the viewer’s gaze as intruder into NCT’s world – though I sort of interpret the boys’ unpreparedness for the camera’s presence as more of a metaphor for resistance movements’ existential paranoia at being “caught” by the establishment than as a critique of fans’ objectification of idols:

Oh baby it’s you It’s only the beginning, the limitless me || 이제 시작이야 무한의 나 From the start of the East to the end of the West || 동의 처음과 서의 끝 쪽부터 The light gets stronger || 빛은 암흑 속 퍼질 As it spreads through the darkness || 수록 강해져 가 Open your eyes || 눈을 떠 봐 오 My song is getting louder || 점점 커져가 나의 노래가 Did you see? That hot and explosive world? || 봤니 뜨겁고 터질듯한 세계 Can you hear? We have become one || 들리니 우리는 하나가 돼 Baby I don’t want nobody but you

[trans from colorcodedlyrics.com]

If we choose to interpret “the light” as a revolutionary movement, which my eagerly politics-following ass thinks is a meaningful exercise, the lyrics and MV might suddenly start to paint a story of NCT as underground revolutionaries who meet and fall in love with a new friend, eventually begging the friend to join them in the resistance.

I absolutely love it – Limitless then simultaneously becomes a greasy recruitment message (”baby I don’t want nobody but you 😘”) and a desperate plea for a fellow citizen to join the cause against oppression. (”open your eyes”) But it’s also a passionate love song, and I’m a total hoe for the scorchingly intimate hunger the lyrics convey. The obvious “thirsty, thirsty, f-or love” bit aside, the speaker in the lyrics is urgently seeking intimacy: both a personal connection, and a sense of belonging within something greater than himself.

I need a connection, I want it like crazy I need you I need something to make us feel each other completely I need you

Help me so I can do well Sometimes, I get lost Eventually, we are all connected You know this Like finding a big ocean At the end of a desert Your existence is limitless

Change the heavy world Look how free we are, so free Inside, only you are allowed The one to take my heart, that is you

I think it’s interesting to ask: is Limitless more of a love song that borrows its ferocity from the metaphor of revolution, or a revolutionary manifesto that amplifies its fervor with the universal passion and frustration of youth?

I think it’s similar to asking if the MV is more of an “aesthetics” moodfilm that boosts its own glamor by appropriating the imagery of resistance movements (graffiti writers), activists (Muhammad Ali), and hardships (arrest)...or if the MV is itself a story of resistance against oppression, and only dons the gloss of expensive streetwear to add a spirit of youthful cockiness and anti-establishment swagger to the cause.

But in reality, aren’t things more complex than that? The spirit of any revolution and the passions and frustrations of its youth have always fed and strengthened each other, I think. It feels only honest and hard-hitting that a song about youth-led revolution would also be a hungry, impatient love song.

I hope you enjoyed reading this – I’ll die of joy if you decide you want to comment, discuss, message, or interact with me or other fans in whatever way about any of this!

~ masterlist link ~

[illionoisprelawland-blog]

Protests Fuel Fight For Federal Reform Of Police Department And Law Enforcement

By Addison Burns, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Class of 2021

June 26, 2020

As cries rally nationwide, following the death of George Floyd, all part of the catalyst of the movement to reform police forces and victims of police brutality, frustration habitually emerges over lackluster government (state and federal) responses. Police brutality, particularly targeted towards African American and Latino males, is not new- it has been prevalent throughout most of the United States’ entirety. While there have been some changes  to curb police brutality, collective efforts on a national/federal level have yet to happen in regards to reforming the current police system, however, are occurring on a state-level all over the United States.

Police brutality was traditionally an issue dealt with on a case-to-case basis, resolved internally by local police departments and authorities. However, by the mid-twentieth century, the federal government became involved in preventing unconstitutional misconduct by local police departments nationwide. This shift resulted from years of systemic misconduct at the hands of local and state-level police departments, as prior to the involvement of the Federal government, complaints and cases were being dealt with internally, often involving bargaining and pay-offs, (Rushin & Garnett , 2017). The U.S. Attorney General gained the ability to seek reparations against police brutality in local and state police departments in 1994, when the U.S. Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, just one component of the omnibus crime bill designed to reform police misconduct, (Rushin& Garnett , 2017).

Although the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Government became involved in correcting the systemic misconduct at the hands of police officers, it was not until 1997 that the Department of Justice intervened for the first time with 42 U.S.C. § 14141in an attempt to correct the misconduct in response to the beating of Rodney King, (Rushin& Garnett , 2017). The lack in response efforts, and amount of time it took for the Federal government to take action against police brutality after initially passing off cases of police misconduct to state legislatures and authorities (roughly 40-45 years) highlights one of the main problems of the current system in which cases of police misconduct are dealt.

Protests are currently sweeping the United States, ignited by viral footage of the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department and a failed system. Outside of state and federal interventions and involvement with policing officer misconduct and brutality in the United States, activist and protest-groups have been fighting systematic racism and police brutality for decades. Social movements such as the Civil Rights, Chicano, and United Farm Workers movements all received harsh backlash from authorities, police departments, government officials- especially in the form of police brutality and misconduct, (Greenblatt, 2020). The issue of police brutality was present long before Ferguson protests consumed national headlines and news.

The federal government has the power to mandate changes in how police officers are screened, trained, employed, and funded. At many ongoing protests, signs and posters painted: “DEFUND THE POLICE” can be seen, suggesting that one solution to end police brutality would be for police forces to be completely defunded. Entirely defunding the police force in the United States has obvious implications- hence the campaigns 8 Can’t Wait and Campaign Zero have provided eight adjustments police can make to end the cycle of violence.

The campaign, 8 Can’t Wait, a project of Campaign zero founded after protests in Ferguson Missouri in 2014, is devoted to bringing about immediate change and reforming police departments across the United States to reduce police brutality, (Yglesias, 2020). The campaign, 8 Can’t Wait, provides and supports eight policies meant to reduce harm caused at the hands of police officers. The campaign is publicly supported, applauded and endorsed across several platforms and by various celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Ariana Grande, (Yglesias, 2020). The eight policies are as follows, (pictured below):

SOURCE: (Yglesias, 2020)

The goal of the campaign is that by implementing the eight policies, pictured above, police will reduce the amount of force they use by approaching confrontations and methods of force used while training and policing on and off duty. The first policy bans chokeholds and strangleholds, because the likelihood of something going wrong and turning tragic is significantly higher when the latter are used, whereas training officers to utilize alternative restraint methods reduces the amount of deaths resulting from chokeholds and strangleholds, due to alternative methods of restraint being safer options, (Yglesias, 2020). Requiring police officers to warn before shooting, and use shooting as STRICTLY a last resort will reduce the overall amount of people shot by police officers, which will reduce the amount of people killed after being shot by the police. Another policy requires bystander police officers to intervene if they witness police officer misconduct, abuse of power, or any misuse of position. A similar group, the 20/20 Club is an organization with the goal to bring police brutality and criminal justice a primary issue in the presidential campaign platforms to initiate change in the coming presidential term, (Greenblatt, 2020).

While various changes have taken place over the years in an attempt to reform law enforcement, the root of police brutality has not been solved. One law, or policy, takes months if not longer to pass through federal courts, therefore, most cases regarding police misconduct or abuse of power are handled internally in small courts or local departments. In order for widespread change to occur, the reform needs to happen at the federal level. The Civil Rights Movement took years of protests and rallies before segregation in the United States was banned nation-wide, following a federal mandate. For decades people have been fighting police brutality in small courts involving local police to no avail. Thanks to booming social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), and 24/7 access to world news, celebrities, and content- stories such as those of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Trayvon Martin have made national headlines, spreading awareness and demanding change.

________________________________________________________________

Rushin, S., & Garnett, A. (2017). State Labor Law and Federal Police Reform. Georgia Law Review, 51(4), 1209–1227.

http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy2.library.illinois.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=127554208

Yglesias, Matthew. “8 Can't Wait, Explained.” Vox, Vox, 5 June 2020, www.vox.com/2020/6/5/21280402/8-cant-wait-explained-policing-reforms.

Greenblatt, A. (2020, May). Turning Black Lives Matter Protests Into Policy. Retrieved June 16, 2020, from https://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-black-lives-matter-protests.html

Photo Credit: RGB

[fapangel]

MSM is spinning the proposed immigration reform as a reduction of legal immigration from the Obama era but I've been unable to find numbers of whether there was an increase during the Obama administration. Nonetheless, I do think a point based system for entry to allow for more skilled immigrant to come is overall a better move for the US rather than just a simple lottery. Your thoughts?

Before anything else, I want you to see what I saw on NBC News tonight - skip the biased article and just watch the 1 minute clip from NBC News’s August 2nd 6PM broadcast. Note Senator Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, who’s commentary I will transcribe for posterity: 

“The biggest flaw in this proposal is the notion that there are long lines of Americans waiting to pick fruit, work in hospitals, and hotels, and restaurants, and meat processing plants; exactly the opposite’s true.” 

Let me boil that statement down to its essence: “we need those spics to do the scut-work white people are too good for.” This phrase, “immigrants do jobs Americans won’t do,” is a common utterance on the Left, but it’s still shocking to see a US Senator admit to it in as many words on national TV. I know people who live in rural, poverty-stricken Red America, and you know where they work? They often work in restaurants and meat-packing plants. Not that this asshole would know - to him and Democrats like him, Hispanic immigrants are just cheap labor to maintain the lawns of their expensive homes, to bring them food at restaurant, and to do all the other scut work of society - and cheaply. There aren’t any jobs “Americans won’t do,” if you pay them what it’s worth - ever seen an episode of Dirty Jobs? But that, apparently, would “wreck the economy,” according to reliable RHINO Lindsey Graham, (whom most Republicans would like to see right behind McCain on Musk’s Mars to Stay rocket.) Good thing we’ve got all those Mexicans to do the back-breaking labor on the cheap, eh? 

It’s not just Dickface Durbin saying this - ABC News, and New York Times have also published passionate screeds attesting to the necessity of that poor underclass to maintaining our way of life. From the NYT: 

Why? Immigrant workers aren’t a “cheap labor” alternative, as so many Americans think. They are the only labor available to do many unskilled jobs, and if they were eliminated, most would not be replaced. Instead, whole sectors of the economy would shrivel, and with them, many other jobs often filled by more skilled Americans.

If the spics don’t pick our cotton for us, who will? Not those fucking Americans!

In 1960, half of all the native-born men in the U.S. labor force were high school dropouts eager to take unskilled outdoor jobs in agriculture and construction. Today, fewer than 10 percent of the native-born men in the work force lack high school diplomas. But the economy still generates plenty of unskilled jobs, and most unskilled immigrants don’t displace American workers. They fill niches — not just farmhand, but also chambermaid, busboy and others — that would otherwise go empty. And they support more skilled, more desirable jobs — foremen, accountants, waiters, chefs and more — at the businesses where they work and others in the surrounding community.

It’s almost like they knew it was a waste of time to finish high school when they could get a job paying good money down at the sawmill - but only if they started their apprenticeship now. But that world’s over and done with - having a high school degree makes you physically incapable of flipping burgers, digging ditches, or picking fruit. True story. 

Just raise the wage, you say, and an American would take the job? Not necessarily, and very unlikely if it’s a farm job. Farmers have been trying that — for decades. They raise the wage. They recruit in inner cities. They offer housing and transport and countless other benefits. Still, no one shows — or stays on the job, which is outdoors and grueling and must get done, no matter how hot or cold or otherwise unpleasant the weather.

That’s right - American farmers, already laboring in an industry with narrow profit margins, turned their backs on that vast pool of dirt-cheap, asks-no-questions labor and went to the inner city to hire Americans that’d cost them more money, instead. Nostalgia is powerful, but even if the Red South is as racist as Democrats believe, somehow I doubt lots of American farmers were journeying to the inner city and asking the predominantly black youth there if they were interested in picking cotton on their fucking farms. 

And of course, at some point, there are limits to how high a wage a grower or dairy farmer can pay before he is forced out of business by a farmer who produces the same commodity in another country, where the labor actually is cheap. 

Which we could handle easily with import/export controls, if not for those fucking free trade proponents - like most Democrats, eh? Of course that doesn’t do you any good when the cheap labor is already in the country and being used by your own domestic competitors.

But worst of all would be the jobs lost for Americans. According to economists, every farm job supports three to four others up and downstream in the local economy: from the people who make and sell fertilizer and farm machinery to those who work in trucking, food processing, grocery stores and restaurants. 

A harvest-season fruit picker isn’t a fucking farm job. A farm job is a year-round thing, and there aren’t many of them. I live in rural Michigan, a very agriculture-heavy state, and I have a pony. An actual, living, breathing pony, who eats hay, hay that we purchase from a local farmer. He and his wife run a huge farm and they run it alone, as their sons are too young to do any of the serious work. He does this via automation - the shed under which he stores the hay that we buy also shelters two massive farm tractors, three bale wagons, a combine, and various other attachments and heavy equipment. In our own barn we have a Farmall Cub and a Farmall Super C, two crop-row tractors from yesteryear. They’re about one-quarter the size of those modern New Holland tractors. In fact you can watch the size progression, from the Farmall C to the beefier Farmall H to the imposingly large Farmall M. Tractors increased in size as farms got bigger and more corporatized, and as smaller farmers had to reduce labor and increase automation to stay competitive. For those crops that aren’t harvested en-masse by combines, I’m sure we’ll find some way to pick the fruit. That Farmall Super C in my barn was owned by my great-grandfather - the 3-point implements it used to haul around his farm are still in our possession. My mother picked fruit - for a dime a bushel basket - so she could earn money to buy hay for her own pony. Somehow, they managed. Hell, I managed - I was 12 years old when I was helping my folks put up hay we cut and baled off our own property to help feed our animals. 

Arguments so facile that even someone with third-hand knowledge can see through them is one thing, but this is so obvious that the fucking Washington Post, of all places, has a relatively level-headed and informed article covering the matter that perilously resembles actual journalism. It both acknowledges the miserable conditions and low pay of the workers, and dismisses the sweeping claims of absolute economic necessity with actual numbers, provided by subject matter experts.

In absence of established economic necessity, how else are we to interpret statements like Dickface Durbins, but as endorsing class-based systems of oppression? The phrase “jobs Americans won’t do,” the NYT columnist’s equating having a high school diploma with the willingness to do unskilled labor, and Dick Durbin’s own commentary all speak to the same basic hubris: that Americans find these jobs beneath them. I have a 4 year college degree - but I’ve worked manual labor myself, and I never considered burger-flipping to be beneath my dignity. I guess the elite class, the ones that grow up in fabulously wealthy communities and adore their Nature Hikes in the National Parks but let the poor people mow their lawns on a hot day, see things differently. When you combine the Left Wing’s passionate and frequent arguments to the necessity of unskilled, underpaid immigrant labor to supporting our way of life, the inherent elitism that colors their tone and worldview of Americans who “won’t” do these jobs, and above all their unstinting efforts to inhibit the enforcement of immigration law or any initiative to halt illegal immigration, it’s impossible to see their position as anything but encouraging the formation of a permanent underclass of second-class citizens. What happens when those immigrants, or their children, get educated? Get those high school - or even college degrees - that so inhibit their willingness to work menial labor jobs? What happens to our economy then, if we have no cheap, miserably desperate people to exploit for the labor that our economy apparently depends so heavily upon? By their own logic, it would be bad for the country if those poor Hispanics ever worked their way out of the poverty ghetto. 

This is the true import of what Dickface Durbin openly stated on national prime-time television. It’s also the strongest argument I can possibly make in favor of Trump’s proposed immigration reform - it is anathema to the class-based exploitation the “progressive left,” self-anointed champions of the poor and down-trodden, argue for so passionately. 

[anntyler3]

An Employee's Guide to Federal and State Minimum Wage Laws

Labor Day is right around the corner,  a welcome day off from work (for many of us) and a time to reflect on the rights of workers won by the labor movement, like the 40-hour work week and minimum wage. Minimum wage laws, in particular, have been getting a lot of attention recently as states and cities continue to raise the floor of what employers must pay. With federal, state, and local laws overlapping, it may be difficult to determine what the minimum wage is where you work.

So, here's a primer on current minimum wage laws, and how they might apply to your job.

The Federal Wage Floor

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the minimum wage from coast to coast lays out the rules for overtime pay. That wage is $7.25 per hour for covered nonexempt employees, and applies to any employer that has at least two employees and either "an annual dollar volume of sales or business done of at least $500,000," or "hospitals, businesses providing medical or nursing care for residents, schools and preschools, and government agencies." There are a few exceptions and exemptions, like students in retail or service establishments, agriculture, or institutions of higher education, and certain service industry workers.

The FLSA also mandates "time and a half" overtime for work over forty hours per week. However some workers (like executive, administrative, and professional employees; farm workers and seasonal employees; and casual babysitters and some elder care workers) are exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay statutes .

State and Local Labor Laws

As the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division points out, "Federal minimum wage law supersedes state minimum wage laws where the federal minimum wage is greater than the state minimum wage. In those states where the state minimum wage is greater than the federal minimum wage, the state minimum wage prevails." Therefore, states can set their own minimum wage laws, as long as they are higher than the federal minimum.

A total of 29 states -- plus D.C., Guam, and the Virgin Islands -- have minimum wage rates higher than the federal minimum wage, and many of them have scheduled annual adjustments to raise wages. Five states, however, don't have a state-mandated minimum wage, so they must adhere to the federal statute. State minimum wages range from New Mexico's $7.50/hour to Washington's $12/hour and the District of Columbia's $14/hour.

Several cities and counties have enacted minimum wage ordinances higher than that set by their respective states , from Berkeley ($15.59), Los Angeles ($14.25), and Sunnyvale ($15.65), California to Seattle ($16.00), Washington, and Chicago ($13.00) and Cook County ($12.00), Illinois. In response, 25 states have passed minimum wage preemption laws, prohibiting local governments from setting their own wage laws higher than the state minimum.

Employers subject to minimum wage laws are required to display a poster detailing their wage and hour requirements where employees can readily see it. To find out whether and which federal, state, or local minimum wage laws apply to your job, or if you think your employer is violating wage laws, contact a local wage and hour attorney for help.

Related Resources:

Find Wage & Hour Lawyers Near You (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)

5 Things a Wage & Hour Lawyer Can Do (That You Probably Can't) (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

Which States Increased Their Minimum Wage This Year? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

A Labor Law Primer for Employees (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8246803 http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2019/08/an-employees-guide-to-federal-and-state-minimum-wage-laws.html

[totalconservative]

New Post has been published on Total Conservative News

New Post has been published on http://totalconservative.com/illinois-democrat-governor-we-must-teach-our-kids-gay-history/

Illinois’ Democrat Governor: We MUST Teach Our Kids Gay History!

Gay history. One might wonder if there aren’t more important things for Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) to be worried about, but we suppose there aren’t any concerns more paramount than indoctrinating the next generation of children into the progressive doctrine. Thus it was that Pritzker signed into a law a new bill that will force public schools to incorporate “a study of the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country and this State” into their American history textbooks.

Oh. Goody.

We are particularly eager to hear all about the many contributions transgender people have made to the formation and sustainability of the United States. Should be extremely instructive.

“Each public school district and State-recognized, non-public school shall, subject to appropriations for that purpose, receive a per-pupil grant for the purchase of secular and non-discriminatory textbooks,” reads the legislation. “In public schools only, the teaching of history shall include a study of the roles and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in the history of this country and this State. The teaching of history also shall include a study of the role of labor unions and their interaction with government in achieving the goals of a mixed free enterprise system. No pupils shall be graduated from the eighth grade of any public school unless he or she has received such instruction in the history of the United States and gives evidence of having a comprehensive knowledge thereof.”

Wow, when you combine a mandate of gay history with a mandate of labor union history, you’re being just a little bit obvious, are you not? Why not just add in: “Each textbook will come with a full-color poster of Barack Obama, which every student will hang in their respective lockers (mandatory).”

“One of the best ways to overcome intolerance is through education and exposure to different people and viewpoints,” said Illinois State Sen. Heather Steans in a statement. “An inclusive curriculum will not only teach an accurate version of history but also promote acceptance of the LGBTQ community. It is my hope that teaching students about the valuable contributions LGBTQ individuals have made throughout history will create a safer environment with fewer incidents of harassment.”

Sorry, but we find it rather difficult to believe that teaching kids about the first gay slave or the transgender woman who invented an electric can opener for birds is really going to do anything about rates of harassment in the school hallways. We’re sure, though, it will set the stage quite nicely for the LGBT movement to spring their next agenda surprise on the country, whatever kookery it may turn out to be.

[ncmagroup]

By Laura Handrick

  A new hire checklist helps to ensure that you don’t miss any important steps when you add new employees to your team. If you’re adding an employee to your business for the first time, you may be unsure of what’s required. To help you, we’ve provided a free downloadable checklist that includes these important hiring tasks that you can check off as you complete them.

If you want to ensure a smooth onboarding process, use an integrated HR management software like Zenefits. Employees can complete 100% of their onboarding online—including signing offer letters, filling out I-9 and W-4 forms, and enrolling in benefits—all before their first day. Zenefits automatically populates this information to its payroll, benefits, and time-tracking tools so your employees can get set up in minutes.

  New Hire Checklist Template

Using the 10 checklist steps we’ll describe below, we’ve created this simple template you can download and customize. Use it to ensure you’re prepared for your first employee. If you’re hiring a 1099 contractor instead of a W2 employee, read our article on using an employment contract to hire a contractor instead.

Download the New Hire Checklist Template as a DOC or PDF

Once you’ve set up your employer identification number (EIN), taxes, and workers compensation’ (steps one through five below), you can modify the template above by omitting most of what’s in the first section since you’ll already have completed those first few steps.

The rest of the template can be used for each additional new hire to make sure you don’t miss a critical hiring step.

The 10-step New Hire Checklist

There are five essential things you need to do before you hire your first employee, from obtaining an EIN to setting up taxes and insurance. Then, there are another five tasks like obtaining I-9 forms and other documents that you need to complete with your first and all subsequent new hires.

If you have already started that first new employee, you really need to get these done before your first payroll. We’ve documented these 10 tasks into a step-by-step checklist template that you can download and customize.

For Your First New Hire

Step 1: Obtain an Employer Identification Number

EINs are used by the IRS for tax administration. Before you hire your first employee, you’ll have to apply for an EIN on the IRS website. Due: Before you hire your first employee

Step 2: Register for State Taxes

If you haven’t already, make sure your business is registered for state and local taxes. Your state will likely provide you with an ID or number that you will need later when submitting payroll taxes. Due: Before your first hire (in most states)

Step 3: Obtain Workers’ Comp Insurance

Most states require businesses with one or more employees (besides owners) to purchase workers’ compensation insurance. This can typically be purchased through the state or through a private carrier. To find your state’s policy and agency, check out the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB). Payroll software or a PEO can help you set up your workers’ comp. Due: Before your first hire (in many states)

Step 4: Post Required Notices and Posters

Depending on the state you’re located in and your industry, you’ll likely be required to post labor law notices around the workplace. These are called labor law posters and include things like at-will employment, minimum wage rates, and anti-discrimination laws. Most federal and state agencies will provide these posters for free (or at least give you PDFs to print out). The United States Department of Labor has an interactive questionnaire that will help you figure out which federal poster you need. You’ll also want to check with your state office for other required notices. Due: On or before your employee’s first day

Step 5: Determine the State Unemployment Tax Rate

Your state unemployment insurance (SUI) tax rate often varies from year to year, depending on salaries or wages. You should be given your SUI tax rate each year in the mail, or log into your state tax registration website to find it. New businesses will use a default rate. Due: Before your first payroll

For All Subsequent New Hires

Step 6: Conduct Any Pre-screening or Background Checks (Optional)

While not required, it’s a good practice to ensure the employee you’re hiring has been truthful during the application and interview process. Therefore, consider conducting post-offer, pre-hire background tests or drug screening (if legal in your state), so there are no surprises. Due: Post-offer and pre-employment

Step 7: Obtain Signed Federal W-4 Form

Have your employee fill out and sign a Federal W-4 form on or before his or her first day of work. The W-4 is where an employee specifies his or her tax withholding preferences. You can find the form here on the IRS website. You do not have to submit this to the IRS but should keep a copy on file. Due: On employee’s first day

Step 8: Obtain Signed State W-4 Form (If Required in Your State)

This is relevant only to states that collect income tax (such as California, New York, and Illinois). You can find your state’s W-4 form or equivalent on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. Due: On employee’s first day

Step 9: Have Employee Complete Form I-9

The Form I-9 verifies an employee’s eligibility to work in the U.S. You do not have to submit this to the government, although you do have to keep it on file for three years after the date of hire (or one year after an employee’s termination, whichever is later). Due: Within three days of hiring

Step 10: Register with the New Hire Reporting Program

All businesses need to report their new employees to their state’s New Hire reporting program. The purpose of this registry is to help the government enforce child support payments, among other purposes. Each state has its own center, which you can find on the U.S. Small Business Administration’s (SBA) website. Due: Within 20 days of hiring

A Final Step: Document Storage

As a final step in our new hire checklist, you’ll also want to designate a safe place to store personnel files. In particular, I-9s and W-4s need to be kept on-hand. We caution against storing paper files in an unsecured location for confidentiality purposes, so we recommend using a secure electronic provider like Zenefits to house all of your employee files.

Other New Employee HR Resources

As your business is starting to grow, you may want to consider looking at a few other employee-oriented resources in our HR section, including:

New Hire Employee Forms

Offer Letter Template

Non-disclosure Agreement

Non-compete Agreements

Employee Handbook Sample

Employment Agreement Template

Best HR Software Comparison Guide

Outsourcing HR

Best Payroll Software Comparison Guide

Federal Labor Laws Every Small Business Should Know

The Bottom Line

The 10 steps of our new hire checklist with the template above may feel overwhelming for the small business owner who is just beginning to hire staff. However, go through these steps in sequence to ensure you don’t violate any state or federal labor laws. Once the employee is hired, you can move forward with onboarding and training your new employee.

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

New Hire Checklist & Free Template By Laura Handrick A new hire checklist helps to ensure that you don’t miss any important steps when you add new employees to your team.

[ecompaniesusa]

Checklist for Forming a Corporation in Illinois

Illinois Incorporation and company registration.

Contact the Illinois Secretary of State to determine if the proposed corporate name is available for registration. The proposed name of your corporation must be “distinguishable upon the records” of the secretary of state. A name is not considered to be distinguishable from another name if the only difference is:

a) reversing of words (e.g., Fast Copy, Copy Fast);

b) use of Arabic numbers or Roman numerals (e.g., Jim’s Sales I, Jim’s Sales II);

c) use of possessives (e.g., Thompson Auto Body, Thompson’s Auto Body);

d) phonetic spelling (e.g., Quick, Kwik).

2) Determine the availability of the proposed corporate name in any other states in which the business will operate.

3) File the articles of incorporation with the Illinois Secretary of State, Business Services Division.

1) The name of the corporation must end with “Company,” “Co.,” “Corporation,” “Corp.,” “Incorporated,” or “Inc.”

2) The articles must indicate the corporation’s principal office—city, village or township, and county.

3) The articles must state the number of authorized shares that can be issued and their express terms. NOTE: The number of shares authorized determines the filing fee.

4) If the corporation plans to have an initial stated capital, it must be included.

5) You may appoint the initial board of directors in the articles.

6) The articles must be signed by all incorporators.

4) Incorporators, or the directors if named in the articles, should start a corporate minute book by acknowledging the filing of the articles and including the original of the filed articles.

a) Incorporators, or the directors if named in the articles, should authorize the issuance of shares.

b) The investors should sign a subscription agreement, the agreement in which the investor agrees to buy the shares for a given price.

c) The incorporators, or the directors if named in the articles, may set the value of noncash assets in payment of the subscriptions.

d) The incorporators, or the directors if named in the articles, accept the subscriptions.

e) The incorporators must give notice of the first shareholders’ meeting.

5) Consider electing a “Subchapter S” corporation status for federal and state tax purposes. See Sections 1362 et seq. of the Internal Revenue Code.

a) Use IRS Form 2553. File with the Internal Revenue Service Center, within the 16th day of the third month of the beginning of the tax year.

b) Shareholders and the corporation must file a notice of the subchapter selection with the Illinois Department of Taxation.

6) If the business will operate under a name other than its corporate name, a fictitious name must be filed with the Illinois Secretary of State.

7) Make sure your business complies with the Illinois securities laws. The most common exemption from the Illinois registration requirements for small businesses is a small business equity investment to ten or fewer investors. To comply with this exemption, the subscription agreement must include statements that:

1) the purchaser is aware that no market may exist for resale of the securities;

2) the purchaser is aware of any restrictions on the transfer of the securities, and

3) the purchaser declares that the purchase of equity is for investment purposes and not for redistribution. If there are non-Illinois investors, check with their resident state security regulator.

8) Make sure your business complies with federal securities laws. Registration is required unless an exemption is available. Following are the two most common exemptions for small businesses:

a) Intrastate exemption

b) Private placement exemption

9) Obtain the taxpayer identification number from the Internal Revenue Service. Submit Form SS-4. See the procedure set forth on the IRS website: www.irs.ustreas.gov. Note that any person filing a Form SS-4 other than a corporate officer must be designated as the Third Party Designee on the Form SS-4. To handle any other tax matters for the corporation, a person must also file Form 2848 with the IRS.

a) By filing the Form SS-4, the corporation is automatically pre-enrolled in the Electronic Tax Payment System.

b) By filing the form SS-4, the corporation will receive the IRS Circular E Employee’s Tax Guide – Forms for Payroll.

10) Take the following action at the first shareholders’ meeting or by written consent of all

shareholders.

a) Elect directors.

b) If the directors named in the articles have not done so, the shareholders should adopt

the code of regulations for the internal government of the corporation.

c) Consider adopting a close corporation agreement

d) Set value for any non-cash payments by investors to the corporation.

e) Consider adopting a shareholder’s buy and sell agreement.

f) Set the fiscal year for the corporation.

11) Take the following action at the first meeting of the board of directors or by written consent of all directors.

a) Elect officers.

b) Set up a bank account by adopting a bank-provided resolution.

c) Consider adopting benefit plans.

d) Consider adopting a group term life insurance plan (see Internal Revenue Code Section 79).

e) Consider adopting accident and health insurance plan (see Internal Revenue Code Section 105[b]).

f) Consider adopting medical reimbursement plan (see Internal Revenue Code Section 105[b]).

g) Consider adopting a death benefit plan (see Internal Revenue Code Section 101[b]). h) Consider adopting a Section 1244 plan. This allows the stockholders to take an ordinary tax loss rather than a capital loss if the business fails and the stockholders lose their investment (see Internal Revenue Code Section 1244).

i) Adopt a resolution for leasing business space.

j) Adopt a resolution for the purchase of any real estate.

k) Set compensation of key employees

12) Consider requiring key employees to execute employment agreements with covenants not to compete.

13) Issue stock certificates or transaction statements for paid shares.

14) Consider adopting policies about the following issues to protect the company, the directors and the executives:

a) sexual harassment;

b) non-discrimination;

c) trade secret protection;

d) company ethics (e.g., corporate gifts, anti-kickbacks);

e) email, computer and Internet use;

f) compliance with environmental laws;

g) compliance with the anti-trust laws;

h) compliance with the worker safety rules;

i) development of procedures to prevent the hiring of illegal aliens, and

j) political contributions.

15) Obtain the following posters to be placed conspicuously in the workplace:

a) Illinois Civil Rights;

b) Fair Labor Standards Act – Minimum Wage poster;

c) Employee Polygraph Protection Act – poster advising employees of federal rights when confronted by a request from an employer to undergo a lie detector test;

d) rights of employees under the Family and Medical Leave Act poster;

e) posted notice of the company’s anti-discrimination policy and anti-harassment policy (sex, race, national origin, etc.);

f) Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) poster (states the rights of employees under OSHA);

g) Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission poster;

h) Illinois Wage and Hour requirements poster

16) Apply for an income tax withholding agent. File Application for Registration as a withholding Agent, with the Illinois Department of Taxation.

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The post Checklist for Forming a Corporation in Illinois appeared first on Ecompanies USA.

from Ecompanies USA http://bit.ly/2vjBmAs

[phooll123]

The Latest: Tens of thousands in Argentina mark Women's Day

The Latest on International Women's Day: Tens of thousands of people marched in Argentina's capital on International Women's Day to condemn violence against women and to demand equal rights and legalized abortion. The demonstrators Thursday banged on drums, chanted slogans and carried flags and banners along the streets of Buenos Aires, marching in front of the Congress building. Many women wore green handkerchiefs symbolizing the abortion rights movement. Argentina allows abortion only in cases of rape or risk to a woman's health. But dozens of Argentine lawmakers from several political parties presented a bill Tuesday that would legalize elective abortion in the first 14 weeks of pregnancy. Some demonstrators lay on the streets motionless while wearing white shirts stained with red paint to look like blood. The banners next to them read: "While you debate, we die." ___ Hundreds of Brazilian women are marching to demand equal rights and protest gender-based violence to mark International Women's Day. Marchers in Sao Paulo on Thursday were drawing attention to issues as varied as the wage gap, abortion rights, sexual harassment in the workplace and sexual assault on the streets. Groups are also marching in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has one of the world's highest homicide rates for women, and stories of sexual assault against women on public transport frequently made news in the past year. Christiane Correia de Souza derided the fact that many stores were handing out flowers to their female customers on Thursday. The 31-year-old factory worker said the practice glossed over the serious issues facing women, like unequal salaries and sexual assault on buses. ___ Google is highlighting 12 female artists in its "doodle" to commemorate International Women's Day, and the online search leader launched a new tool that makes it easier to find local businesses that are owned, led or founded by women. The new tool will be a permanent feature, and is also available for people who want to find businesses friendly to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning and/or queer (LGBTQ) community. The company also hosted a discussion with Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, the actresses Storm Reid and Gugu Mbatha-Raw and director Ava DuVernay to talk about their new film, Disney's "A Wrinkle in Time," on YouTube. That said, Google, like other tech companies, has been criticized for hiring too few women, especially in technical roles, and is the subject of a lawsuit alleging that it underpaid women compared with their male counterparts. ___ New York City's "Fearless Girl" statue, a tourist attraction for the last year, is donning a new outfit Thursday: a cape of blue flowers. The cape, courtesy of retailer Old Navy, is part of the worldwide events for International Women's Day. Meanwhile, a replica of "Fearless Girl" was installed in Oslo, Norway. The statue's creator, Kristen Visbal, says she's excited we have a piece "on the other side of the world." The New York statue is staying put for now while city officials figure out where it's going next to spread its message of female empowerment. A spokeswoman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that she expects "to announce (the) next steps very soon." The statue's owner, investment firm State Street Global Advisors, says the company is working with the mayor's office "to determine a permanent solution." ___ U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the world is at "a pivotal moment for women's rights" and is urging men and boys to join in making gender equality "a reality for all." The U.N. chief told a start-studded event at U.N. headquarters marking International Women's Day on Thursday that "for decades, women have been calling for the equality that is their right." "Today, they are shaking the pillars of patriarchy," Gutteres said. "They are insisting on lasting change. This is what women and girls want. And that is what I want." And to loud applause, he declared: "It is what every sensible man and boy should want." ___ The White House used International Women's Day to announce that first lady Melania Trump will present State Department courage awards to women from around the world at a March 21 ceremony. The award recognizes women who have shown courage and leadership in pressing for women's rights worldwide. "Their courage only furthers my belief in the powerful impact women can make through solidarity and support of one another," Mrs. Trump said. "Our strength is something to be celebrated." Rallies and other events were being held around the world Thursday to mark International Women's Day. ___ Thousands of women are taking over the central arteries of cities across Spain for evening marches to protest against wage gaps and gender violence and to demand an end to glass ceilings for female workers. "If we stop, the world stops" has become the slogan opening more than 300 protests. They come after a full day of striking on Thursday to mark International Women's Day. Some 5.3 million people participated, according to two of the country's main workers' unions. The March 8 Commission, a platform of feminist organizations that organized the marches across the country, said that women working at home, unpaid caretakers and students were a main focus of this year's protests. Strikes were especially noticeable in media, with prominent female anchors and journalists absent from television screens and radio programs. Nearly 7,500 female journalists have signed a manifesto calling for equal pay and opportunities. ___ Chanting "Women power!" and "We are defending women's lives!" a few thousand women marched through downtown Warsaw on Thursday to mark International Women's Day. The demonstrators were protesting violence against women and demanding equal pay with men. Some carried black umbrellas, a symbol of their successful, massive protest in 2016 that blocked plans by the right-wing government to further tighten Poland's strict anti-abortion law. Similar marches were held in other cities across predominantly Catholic Poland, as well as around the world. ___ Kroger says it will light up its Cincinnati headquarters for International Women's Day, another example of how corporations are honoring the day. The supermarket operator, which also owns the Ralphs, Owen's and Roundy's chains, says the 25-story building will be illuminated with the female Venus symbol Thursday night. Many companies are trying to spotlight women for the day. McDonald's, for example, flipped its Golden Arches logo on its website to look like a "W." ___ Black glasses covering part of her badly burned face, a victim of an acid attack joined hundreds of activists who rallied in Pakistan's port city of Karachi on Thursday to denounce violence against women and mark International Women's Day. Acid attacks are not uncommon in Pakistan, where men sometimes assault women for refusing to marry them. At Karachi's rally, held amid tight security, hundreds of Muslims and minority Christian women stood up as a sign of respect when the acid attack victim joined them. Victims of acid attacks tend to avoid public gatherings. They are often treated at hospitals with financial assistance from non-governmental organizations. ___ McDonald's has temporarily flipped its famous Golden Arches to look like a "W'' — a move it says it made to recognize International Women's Day. The upside-down logo appeared Thursday on the fast-food giant's website and social media accounts. It also flipped the arches at one restaurant in Lynwood, California. McDonald's says that at about 100 of its 14,000 restaurants, packaging and worker uniforms will have the flipped logo. McDonald's also says six out of 10 of its restaurant managers are women and it wanted to honor their accomplishments. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based company says it's the first time it has flipped its Golden Arches logo since they debuted at a restaurant six decades ago. ___ Hundreds of women have protested in Kosovo's capital to commemorate International Women's Day. Some posters held up during the demonstration in Pristina said "We march, we do not celebrate" and "Job for me." Luljeta Aliu of the nonprofit Justice and Equality organization says that "we fight for our rights as women. We want our rights at the workplace. We don't want to be sexually harassed." Kosovo's ombudsman has acknowledged that women are still discriminated against in the property and job markets. ___ Three current and former French ministers have performed in a play about women's sexual experiences amid the French government's push to highlight gender inequality. The state secretary for women's rights, Marlene Schiappa, performed in the Vagina Monologues alongside Roselyne Bachelot, health minister under conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy, and Myriam El Khomri, labor minister under Socialist president Francois Hollande. Schiappa is currently championing a new bill targeting sexual violence and harassment. Theater producer Jean-Marc Dumontet, who organized Wednesday's performance in Paris, stressed the three politicians took a risk. Dumontet told The Associated Press that "it brings women's issues to a very prominent position. They are really speaking out." Bachelot said she agreed to perform the play with Schiappa because the fight for gender equality goes beyond political divides. ___ Catholic women are challenging Pope Francis to give women a greater voice in Catholic Church decision-making, warning that they are leaving the church in droves because its all-male leadership refuses to change their entrenched second-class status. Former Irish President Mary McAleese, an outspoken advocate for women's ordination and gay rights, was the keynote speaker Thursday at an International Women's Day conference that was moved off Vatican territory this year because a cardinal declined to sponsor it due to McAleese's participation. In her speech, delivered at the Rome headquarters of Francis' Jesuit order, McAleese said "The Catholic Church has long since been a primary global carrier of the toxic virus of misogyny. Its leadership has never sought a cure for that virus though the cure is freely available: Its name is equality." ___ French President Emmanuel Macron says his government is going to name and shame companies that don't respect the law on gender equality. For International Women's Day, Macron has visited a property company awarded for its efforts toward gender equality. He said that pointing the finger at companies that don't comply with the law "will make them change, because no one wants to be the worst student in the class." Prime Minister Edouard Philippe unveiled Wednesday a government plan to push for gender equality in the workplace. One measure would sanction companies with more than 50 employees, if there is an "unjustified" gender wage gap, with a substantial financial penalty. Statistics show at the same age and equivalent job, there is a 9 percent gap between the wages of men and women in France ___ Asia Argento, an Italian actress who helped launch the #MeToo movement, is launching a new movement, #WeToo, which aims to unite women against the power imbalance in favor of men. Argento told Radio 24 on Thursday that her aim was "to finally change the patriarchal system so rooted in our culture, not just in Italy." She called on women to join her at a women's march in Rome later in the day, and participate in a strike to illustrate the contributions of women at home and in the workplace. Argento helped give strength to other women to report sexual assault and harassment when she accused Harvey Weinstein of rape in an expose by The New Yorker. The accusations drew a backlash in Italy for having waited 20 years to come forward. ___ Hundreds of women have marched in Pakistan's capital and elsewhere on International Women's Day, demanding more rights and denouncing harassment, which is common at homes and in work places. Chanting slogans, they rallied in the capital Islamabad, Pakistan's largest city Karachi, and in the cultural capital of Lahore. At Thursday's rallies, women denounced violence against them in Pakistan, where nearly 1,000 women are killed by close relatives each year in so-called honor killings. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi earlier addressed a gathering of women and assured them full protection. Women in Pakistan have a reasonable presence in the parliament but they have to rely on fellow male lawmakers to amend discriminatory or flawed laws. Pakistani women have largely been deprived of their rights since the country gained independence in 1947. ___ Prince Harry and his fiancee Meghan Markle have met female students studying science, technology, engineering and math as part of celebrations marking International Women's Day. Some 90 students met the royal couple on Thursday at Millennium Point in Birmingham as part of an event to inspire young people to take part in science and tech careers. Markle seemed impressed by the aspirations of the students, many of whom wanted to be doctors or surgeons. Harry and Markle are touring the country to introduce the American actress to the people of Britain before their marriage at Windsor Castle on May 19. ___ South African President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africans must work together to improve the status of women who face discrimination and disadvantages "at home and in the workplace." Ramaphosa, who took office last month, said Thursday that his compatriots should use International Women's Day to decide what they can do to advance gender equality. Ramaphosa says South Africa has made progress toward equality since the end of apartheid in 1994 in building an equal society. He said "patriarchy has no place in the South Africa we are building today." South Africa has a high rate of violent crime, including rape. ___ German Chancellor Angela Merkel says on International Women's Day that while much has been achieved, the struggle for more equality for women in Germany and worldwide must continue. Merkel, considered one of the world's most powerful women, said Thursday in a video message that "many women before us have made sacrifices and fought persistently so that women would have more rights ... but there's still a lot to do." The chancellor said that, "there are also new tasks for men" — but she didn't elaborate further. Merkel added, "Therefore today is not only a day to look back at what has been achieved, but also a day on which we say — the struggle for equal rights of women continues." ___ Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is urging men to stop physically abusing their wives, in official remarks Thursday while marking International Women's Day. Domestic violence is common across in Uganda, although victims rarely report perpetrators to the police for fear of being stigmatized or thrown out of their homes. "If you want to fight, why don't you look for a fellow man and fight?" Museveni said, calling domestic abusers cowards. Museveni said lifting women up economically, through education and entrepreneurship, can help bring an end to rampant domestic violence. He said: "If the girls are not economically empowered, they will remain vulnerable to these bully men." ___ A leading French newspaper has found a novel way to mark International Women's Day — by upping its price for men, to mimic the pay gap. The all-red front page of Thursday's edition of the left-leaning daily Liberation wrote in bold letters "For Women 2 euros, normal price." The paper added that for one day only, men would pay 50 cents more, a reflection of the 25 percent less that women in France are paid than men, on average. Liberation said it wants to "highlight this injustice" with its price increase for men. "A punishment? No. A contribution!" the paper wrote on the front page, saying the extra money recovered from men on Thursday would go to the Laboratory of Equality, which has long fought for gender equality. ___ U.S. national soccer team striker Alex Morgan and Brazil forward Marta are among the players chosen for the FIFPro Women's World XI. The team was announced Thursday to coincide with International Women's Day. Goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl of Sweden is joined by defenders Nilla Fischer of Sweden, Lucy Bronze of England, Irene Paredes of Spain and Wendie Renard of France. Midfielder Dzsenifer Maroszan of Germany, Camille Abily of France, Pernille Harder of Denmark and Lieke Martens of the Netherlands round out the 11. Morgan says having a Women's World XI team "helps female footballers recognize the talent among their peers and I'm really happy to encourage and be a part of that." ___ Opposition presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak has conducted a solo picket outside the lower house of the Russian parliament to demand the resignation of a prominent lawmaker whom several female journalists accuse of sexual harassment. The allegations against Leonid Slutsky, head of the Duma's foreign affairs committee, include sexual groping and making demeaning comments. Parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin has dismissed the complaints, saying that journalists who feel unsafe covering the Duma should get other jobs. Sobchak held her demonstration on Thursday, International Women's Day, which is observed as a public holiday in Russia. She held a placard reading "Deputies -- we don't want you." President Vladimir Putin, with approval ratings of some 80 percent, is seeking a fourth term in the March 18 election. ___ Spanish women are marking International Women's Day with the first-ever full day strike and dozens of protests across the country against the wage gap and gender violence. Under the slogan "If we stop, the world stops," women working both in and outside their homes, unpaid caretakers and students are called to join the 24-hour strike by the March 8 Commission, a platform of feminist organizations that also demands equal opportunities for working women. CCOO and UGT, two of the main workers' unions in Spain have called for morning and afternoon 2-hour work stoppages. In Madrid, a massive demonstration was expected later in the evening. In Barcelona, protesters who disrupted traffic into the city center were seen in social media videos being pushed by anti-riot police agents. ___ During Taliban rule many would have been afraid to leave their homes, but hundreds of women gathered in the Afghan capital Kabul on Thursday to commemorate International Women's Day — and to remind their leaders that plenty of work remains to be done to give Afghan woman a voice, ensure their education and protect them from increasing violence. The head of the Independent Human Rights Commission, Sima Samar, directed some comments at women in Afghanistan's security forces. "Your safety represents the safety of all Afghan women," she said, reminding women in uniform to report any abuse by superiors to the rights commission. She said no one has the right to comment on their physical appearance or to speak to them disrespectfully. ___ This item has been corrected to show that the women gathered in Kabul but did not march. ___ Hundreds of women have held street plays and marched in the Indian capital to highlight domestic violence, sexual attacks and discrimination in jobs and wages on International Women's Day. They carried placards reading, "Unite against violence against Women," ''Man enough to say no to domestic abuse," and "My body, My choice." Violent crime against women has been on the rise in India despite tough laws enacted by the government. Office workers, school teachers and sex workers were among those participating in the 2-kilometer (1.25 mile) march, which ended near Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: "India is moving from women development to women-led development. Through their exemplary deeds, several women have left an indelible mark in the history of humankind." ___ Hundreds of South Koreans are staging a protest in support of the #MeToo movement on International Women's Day. Protesters, many wearing black and holding black signs reading #MeToo, gathered in central Seoul. They called for bringing alleged sexual offenders to justice, as well as action on other issues such as closing a gender pay gap. Since a female prosecutor's revelation in January of workplace mistreatment and sexual misconduct, South Korea's #MeToo movement has gained major traction. The list of women who speak out is growing daily. Several high-profile men have resigned from positions of power, including a governor who was a leading presidential contender before he was accused of repeatedly raping his secretary. ___ Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi says peaceful democracies make good use of women's strength in political, economic and social fields. In a speech marking International Women's Day, she said, "A country's human rights values will be enhanced when women are granted their rights." Thursday was the third year the annual event was celebrated under a civilian government in Myanmar, where the military that long ruled the country is still powerful. Suu Kyi leads the political party that won by a landslide in 2015 elections but the constitution bars her from becoming the president. Though Myanmar has a woman leading its civilian government, a profound gender gap remains in the country of 52 million people. ___ Students at China's prestigious Tsinghua University are celebrating International Women's Day with banners making light of a proposed constitutional amendment to scrap term limits for the country's president. One banner joked that a boyfriend's term should also have no limits, while another said, "A country cannot exist without a constitution, as we cannot exist without you!" Photos of the banners were shared on Chinese social media Wednesday night before they were scrubbed by censors. Several online commenters also said the posters appeared to have been swiftly removed. China's ceremonial legislature is poised to pass a constitutional amendment that will allow President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely during its ongoing annual session. Despite heavy censorship, the move has been criticized by liberal intellectuals as a return to dictatorship and satirized online. ___ Marches and demonstrations in Asia are kicking off rallies around the world to mark International Women's Day. Hundreds of women activists in pink and purple shirts protested Thursday in the Philippines against President Rodrigo Duterte, who they said is among the worst violators of women's rights in Asia. Protest leaders sang and danced in a boisterous rally in downtown Manila's Plaza Miranda. They handed red and white roses to mothers, sisters and widows of several drug suspects slain under Duterte's deadly crackdown on illegal drugs. A rally for the rights of female workers was scheduled for later Thursday in central Seoul in South Korea, where a rapidly spreading #Metoo movement is galvanizing support for women's issues. Other events are planned across Asia, the Mideast, Europe and the Americas.

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[leroyanitaus]

Federal Labor Law Notices Solicitation?

Federal Labor Law Notices Solicitation?

Lately I’ve received a series of notices that seem to state that I need to buy some OSHA like posters to hang in my “new business”. However I’m not so sure these are legitimate and seem like third party solicitations.

Earlier this year I created a DBA within the state of Illinois. I do not have an LLC, S-Corp, EIN, etc. I’m simply a dude who wanted to get checks sent to a “business name” rather…

from Fanning Plumbers http://ift.tt/2uBl1UW via http://ift.tt/19pTFXB

[fanningplumbers]

Federal Labor Law Notices Solicitation?

Federal Labor Law Notices Solicitation?

Lately I've received a series of notices that seem to state that I need to buy some OSHA like posters to hang in my "new business". However I'm not so sure these are legitimate and seem like third party solicitations.

Earlier this year I created a DBA within the state of Illinois. I do not have an LLC, S-Corp, EIN, etc. I'm simply a dude who wanted to get checks sent to a "business name" rather…

[buylaborlawposters-blog]

2017 Illinois Labor Law Poster $16.87 & Free Shipping

2017 Illinois Labor Law Poster $16.87 & Free Shipping

2017 Illinois labor law poster that meets all Illinois state posting requirements for employers workplace. Free shipping. 30 day money back guarantee.

Please note that both state & federal posters are required by law. We recommend our customers to buy state & also a federal poster. Failure to post both can result in heavy fines up to $17,000.

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