Merge Left

PCCC:

Here’s how you can help stop the Republican war on working families

Step 1: If you’re from Wisconsin, call your State Senator at 1-877-753-5578

Step 2: Sign up to join PCCC and DFA’s ongoing Wisconsin campaign for working families

Step 3: Donate $3 to keep this powerful new TV ad on the air in Wisconsin — click here

Chris has the details at his new digs, whatever that place is called. There are various actions associated with this as well, particularly if you live in Wisconsin, where signatures will be required.

Jill Richardson | La Vida Locavore:

The Corn Refiners Association, no doubt upset by the consumer backlash against high fructose corn syrup, has a simple solution to their problem. They want to rename HFCS “corn sugar.” That way, all of those silly consumers will read the label, see no HFCS, and they won’t know that they are eating HFCS even though they don’t want to.

This is, of course, outrageous, as it only serves to confuse people and to take away their ability to choose what foods they put in their bodies. If you want to make a comment to the FDA (which I hear is going to begin reviewing the comments soon), go here. If the link does not work, the docket ID to search on is FDA-2010-P-0491-0001.

Attached is a listing of all the Koch brands. Since they are a conglomerate, it is hard to keep track. The key brands average people use include:
Gas: Union, Union 76, Conoco
Paper: Angel Soft, Brawny, Dixie, Mardi Gras, Quilted Northern, Soft ‘n Gentle, Sparkle, Vanity Fair, Zee
Other: Somerelle bedding, Stainmaster carpet and more…
Read the rest of this entry »

While it is obviously impossible to boycott every corporation led by conservatives (unless you live on a commune with its own farm, I guess), it is important to send a signal that Aristocrats throwing their weight around cannot be accepted. Internet guerrillas ‘Anonymous’ are promoting a boycott of all things Koch.

“We are actively seeking vulnerabilities, but in the mean time we are calling for all supporters of true Democracy, and Freedom of The People, to boycott all Koch Industries’ paper products. We welcome unions across the globe to join us in this boycott to show that you will not allow big business to dictate your freedom.”

In the US, those products were listed as Vanity Fair, Quilted Northern, Angel Soft, Sparkle, Brawney, Mardi Gras and Dixie. For Europe, they were Demak’Up, Kitten Soft, Lotus / Lotus Soft, Tenderly, Nouvelle Soft, Okay Kitchen Towels, Colhogar, Delica, Inversoft and Tutto.

All were produced by the “Georgia-Pacific” company, and all bear the logo seen above.

It’s tricky recognizing products made by Koch, but worth the effort. Also see the Facebook group Boycott and Defeat Koch Industries

In a Bizzaro World version of “bite the hand that feeds you”, newspapers and broadcast media loves to love social networking.  Watch any newscast for 10 minutes and you’re guaranteed a reference to either the Twitter account or Facebook fan page for whichever bobblehead is gabbing at you at the moment.  Newspapers are also quite enamored with the social networking fad.

As you may have noticed (if you haven’t, simply search Google News), most mainstream outlets are attempting to completely ignore the massive wave of actions that took place today nationwide- both the US Uncut actions against Bank of America (the DC protest reportedly caused the branch to close early) and the solidarity actions arranged by MoveOn.org and other liberal groups.

How can the movement for social justice use this to our advantage?  Simple- scream at old media over the internet until they notice.  Of course, by “scream”, I mean “politely point out”.  There are still many in the traditional media (shout out to Dan Rodricks here in Baltimore) who are at least willing to hear out those who support the cause of the working people.

For starters, here’s a list of news organization Twitter accounts.  Simply searching “[news organization] Twitter” or the name of the news organization on Facebook will almost always garner results.  The best part of social media (especially Twitter) is that (as long as everyone is well mannered), the access to the person on the other end is instant AND public.  Add your city’s hashtag to a tweet asking why there’s no US Uncut coverage (i.e. “Hey @NewsChannel88, why no coverage of #USUncut here in #Springfield?”) can alert other like-minded users in your town that a question’s been asked and needs an answer.  If you’re somehow unfamiliar with Twitter or Facebook, guides for both can be found here and here.

Whenever a story (such as the two major ones developing today) appears to be going un-noticed, feel free to gently remind your local news media that, in fact, things are happening and they should mention it.  The more local the outlet, the better.  Local talk radio hosts tend to be all over Twitter, as do local NPR affiliates.

The concurrent (and one hopes, soon to be merged) movements against the plutocracy will only gain momentum if enough people are made aware of them.  Local traditional media outlets are one excellent way to spread the word.

In case you didn’t see this from Democracy.com (among other groups):

In Wisconsin and around our country, the American Dream is under fierce attack. Instead of creating jobs, Republicans are giving tax breaks to corporations and the very rich—and then cutting funding for education, police, emergency response, and vital human services.

On Saturday, February 26, at noon local time, we are organizing rallies in front of every statehouse and in every major city to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin. We demand an end to the attacks on worker’s rights and public services across the country. We demand investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work. And we demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.

Bring your cheese heads. If you’re not doing anything this Saturday, why not show up in numbers? Invite your family, kids, friends, neighbors?

This is promising. It’s one more means of pushing back against the predators.

Despite ruining the economy with their reckless greed, Bank of America has consistently avoided any form of accountability to the American taxpayer. In fact, in 2009, Bank of America actually received a net tax benefit. Yes, last year, the federal government gave Bank of America $2.3 billion. That money alone could almost completely cover the proposed $2.5 billion cuts to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), which helps low-income families pay their heating and cooling bills and affects 34 million households. Bank of America is the largest bank and 5th largest corporation in the country, holding over $2.2 trillion in assets, and yet it pays less in taxes than the average American household, which made between $35,400 and $52,100 and had an effective tax rate of 14.2%.

We pay our taxes, why don’t they?

On February 26th, citizens across the country will be targeting Bank of America branches and peaceably but forcefully showing them that they can’t get away with such egregious tax-cheating.

Actions are taking place all over the country.  Find one near you here.

An internet petition to Unfriend The Dictators:

We acknowledge the extraordinary role that Facebook is playing in facilitating communications across the globe, and we call upon you to take immediate steps to protect your users’ privacy and security. Specifically, you should secure your entire platform with HTTPS, allow users anonymity in high risk areas, protect human rights defenders with special security measures, and resist the handover of users’ information.