PPP poll finds 75% of North Carolinians think their state legislature hasn't done enough about the recent coal ash spill into the Dan River by Duke Energy. It wouldn't be the first time the people were ahead of their nominal leaders, though admittedly getting ahead of the corporatist, reactionary crowd isn't a Herculean task. What a shame that asking Duke to pay for the cleanup is even a question -- I mean, you didn't tell your parents you couldn't clean up your mess because it would kill jobs, did you?
Surprise, surprise: a Tea Party-aligned, putatively "pro-troop" organization Move America Forward funnels an awful lot of donation money away from helping soldiers and toward gilding the wallets of political consultants. Other alarm bells: the organization hasn't had an executive director for over 18 months, uses testimonials out of context and without permission, uses stock photos instead of actual photos (or uses others' photos without permission), and claims nonexistent partnerships with Department of Defense-run hospitals. As an aside, the article's comments are mostly pretty good.
Mike Konczal and Bryce Covert claim that "The Real Solution to Wealth Inequality" isn't necessarily helping working families build more income, but "taking basic needs off the market altogether," in ways like expanding Medicare to cover everyone. I also disapprove of how Democratic and Republican programs "further discredit() the state’s role in regulating markets and providing public social insurance," but I'd rather we look at Social Security and Medicare not so much as programs that take care of us (or even as programs that insure against calamity, which is better), but as programs we build to care for our civilization.
A North Carolina restaurant apparently gives a 15% discount if a worker sees you praying. The owner claims it's a "spiritual" thing, not a "religious" thing, and that if they see you "having a moment" you might get a discount. But in the very same chapter where Jesus tells us what He thinks of people who pray in public, He also tells us what He thinks of people who give alms in public, and I'm not seeing the requisite embarrassment on the restaurant management's part.
Finally, Walgreens' CEO has announced he won't try to reincorporate Walgreens as a foreign corporation, though Walgreens has still bought the rest of the Alliance Boots corporation that would have facilitated Walgreens' "move" to Switzerland. And yes, Walgreens was "mindful of the ongoing public reaction to a potential inversion and Walgreens' unique role as an iconic American consumer retail company with a major portion of its revenues derived from government-funded reimbursement programs," per a company statement. Other corporations still rush ahead with their plans to avoid taxes, but you did good, folks.
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