Politics

An open letter to Putin from Roger Waters

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Dear President Putin:

Since the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine on February 24 this year I have tried to use my small influence to encourage a ceasefire and a diplomatic settlement that addresses the security needs of both Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

In that endeavor I have written two open letters to Mrs Olena Zelenska, the the wife of the Ukrainian president. These letters are readily available on the Internet. I am increasingly asked to write to you too, so here goes.

First, would you like to see an end to this war? If you were to reply and say, “Yes please,” that would immediately make things a lot easier. If you were to come out and say, “Also the Russian Federation has no further territorial interest beyond the security of the Russian-speaking populations of the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk,” that would help too.

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Where abortion stands in your state: A state-by-state breakdown of abortion laws

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The U.S. Supreme Court voted Friday to strike down Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion.

In the 6-3 decision, along party lines, the court ruled that “the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion.”

Abortion laws and restrictions vary by state and, now the federal protection has been overturned, abortion will not be accessible everywhere in the U.S.

Some states have trigger laws in place that immediately ban abortion once Roe was overturned. Others guarantee the right to an abortion via laws or constitutional amendments.

Here is where abortion laws stand in each state, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that focuses on sexual and reproductive health, and further reporting.

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Iraqi citizen living in Ohio arrested after allegedly plotting to assassinate former President George W. Bush

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A terrorist plot to assassinate former President George W. Bush in revenge for the Iraq War was uncovered earlier this year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in an unsealed search warrant. Shihab Ahmed Shihab, an Iraqi asylum seeker, described the plan to a paid FBI informant who also drove the suspect around Dallas to … Read more

Here’s what ‘Let’s Go, Brandon’ actually means

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If you’ve heard people chanting “Let’s go, Brandon!” or seen someone with a shirt or hat sporting the seemingly-jovial message lately, you might be wondering who Brandon is and why so many people are rooting for him.

In this case, the phrase isn’t actually supporting a guy named Brandon. Instead, it’s a euphemism that many people in conservative circles are using in place of saying “F*** Joe Biden.”

The origins of the meme go back to Oct. 2, when race car driver Brandon Brown won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race and was being interviewed by NBC reporter Kelli Stavast. In the background, some in the crowd can be heard chanting “F*** Joe Biden,” though Stavast says “you can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’ ” in her broadcast.

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US Debt Passes $28 Trillion for First Time

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How concerned should we be about America’s $28 trillion debt?

America has a problem. Well, almost 28,000,000,000,000 problems.

The national debt has ballooned to an astounding 27.9 trillion dollars. To put in perspective of just how much money that is, consider this.

If you were to stack $100 bills on top of each other, one million dollars would be around the three feet mark – about the height of a chair or a toddler.

And if you keep stacking the $100 bills, eventually past the peak of the world’s tallest building, going a little over half-a-mile into the air, this would be one billion dollars.

But we’re going for a trillion.

This would have you stacking $100 bills into the stratosphere and past the International Space Station. You would have to stack these bills 631 miles above Earth’s crust. That would equal one trillion dollars. Now imagine 28 stacks of 631 mile-high $100 bills.

That’s America’s debt.

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Minimum Wage in America: How Many People are Earning $7.25 an Hour?

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President Biden Proposed raising the Federal Minimum Wage to $15.00/hour as part of his $1.9 billion stimulus plan.

Americans have debated where to set the federal minimum wage for decades. President Joe Biden’s proposed stimulus plan aims to increase the federal minimum to $15 an hour, more than doubling the current wage of $7.25. Currently, wages vary by state, with some cities mandating more than double the federal minimum and other states with requirements below $7.25. Employees covered by both state and federal minimum wage laws are entitled to the higher of the two minimums.

How many people earn the federal minimum wage?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 1.6 million workers, or 1.9% of all hourly paid, non-self-employed workers, earned wages at or below the federal minimum wage in 2019. That year, 82.3 million people were paid hourly rates, making up 58.1% of all wage and salary workers in the United States.

Fewer Americans today make the federal minimum wage or less.
In 1980, when the federal minimum wage was $3.10 ($9.86 in 2019 dollars), 13% of hourly workers earned the federal minimum wage or less. Today, only 1.9% of hourly workers do. The number of federal minimum wage workers has decreased from 7.7 million in 1980 to 1.6 million in 2019. This is partly due to states establishing higher minimum wages than the federal level.

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Ron Paul locked out of managing his Facebook account for violating ‘community standards’

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Former Republican congressman Ron Paul says he’s been blocked by Facebook from managing his account over repeated violations of the social media giant’s “community standards.” “With no explanation other than ‘repeatedly going against our community standards,’ @Facebook has blocked me from managing my page. Never have we received notice of violating community standards in the past and … Read more