Supply chain issues, the war in the Ukraine, COVID, and even Jor Biden these are just a few excuses American’s had to deal with amid surging oil and gas prices in 2022. But was it really these things that caused it or just good old fashioned greed and gouging.
Via OE.com:Flush with cash, BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and TotalEnergies also delivered shareholders unprecedented returns through dividends and share buybacks last year. These firms are expected to post a combined profit of $199 billion for 2022 when they report final quarterly results later this month and in early February.
In the before times this was called “price gouging”.
After the January 6th insurrection terrorist attacks, more than two thirds of Americans’ corporations announced they would no longer support members of Congress who refused to certify Trump’s loss are once again giving to the Sedition Caucus again.
Corporate and industry group political action committees have donated more than $44 million directly to the campaigns and leadership PACs of the 147 members of the Sedition Caucus. Koch Industries ($626,500), American Crystal Sugar ($530,000), Home Depot ($525,000), Boeing ($488,000), and UPS ($479,500) have contributed the most money to members of the Sedition Caucus through their corporate PACs. In the days after January 6.
AT&T donated to election objector Jim Banks’ leadership PAC just a month after pledging to cut off donations to seditionists. The company offered the flimsy excuse that the leadership PAC promised not to use AT&T’s donations to support the Sedition Caucus.
American Crystal Sugar said explicitly that they would support the Sedition Caucus to protect their business interests and Home Depot refrained from giving for nearly a year until December 2021. The company has since opened the floodgates of contributions, quickly becoming the third biggest corporate donor to the Sedition Caucus.
On June 27 Disney’s board unanimously voted to extend CEO Bob Chapek’s contract by another three years until 2025. “The board has full confidence in him and his leadership team,” Disney’s board announced on Wednesday. (Despite the fact that he/they helped set gay rights back in Florida 40 years.
For those of you who aren’t in the know Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek and Disney remained silent during the weeks and months leading up to the passage of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Law. Disney and Chapek would not take a public stance on the bill that harkens back to the era of Anita Bryant when homophobia and hate ran rampant in Florida. And to make matters worse, it was discovered that Disney had also donated to many of the Florida Republican politicians responsible for the heinous law. “Bob is the right leader at the right time for The Walt Disney Company, and the board has full confidence in him and his leadership team,” board chair Susan Arnold said of the vote.
Some hypothesized that Chapek gets to remain simply because there’s no immediate alternative while a lengthy hunt would also hurt the company. Others think it’s because of metrics like subscriptions and park attendance are likely superseding everything else. And that is what’s pushing Disney to extend his contract despite the massive harm caused to and blowback from the LGBT community.
Where’s Mary Poppin’s when you fucking need her?
You can read a recap of Disney’s Don’t Say Gay Debacle at the following links.
Amazon has bowed to pressure from the United Arab Emirates and restricted search results for LGBT related products such as books, videos, and rainbow-colored flags on its website in the country.
Amazon decided to restrict the searches after being threatened with penalties by the UAE government, according to the New York Times .
As a company, we remain committed to diversity, equity and inclusion, and we believe that the rights of LGBTQ+ people must be protected,” an Amazon spokesperson told the BBC. NEWS. However, they added: “With Amazon stores around the world, we must also comply with the local laws and regulations of the countries in which we operate.”
Amazon claims to be a staunch LGBT ally and has a HRC Equality Index rating of 100%.
Working with One Magical Weekend (They Gay Days Circuit Party around Disney, ) The KindRED Pride Foundation which wanted to expand on the traditional Gay Days and ask that all LGBTQ visitors wear RED t-shirts to identify each other are BOTH going ahead with this years Gay Day’s and sending out emails telling attendees to ignore all calls for boycott despite the fact that the Walt Disney Company threw the states LGBTQ kids under the bus and helped set gay rights back more than 30 years in Florida.\
BOTH groups should be utterly embarrassed and ashamed to be holding such an event after Disney turned it’s back on our community. But it seems greed trumps civil rights to the money hungry vapid queens who run Gay Days and those gays who have too much money, have no empathy, and no respect for others or themselves.
A NYC sex party called “ANONYMOUS,” takes place at a secret location in Brooklyn is facing a botoom rebellion for charging TOPS a smaller admission price than BOTTOMS because they need a “huge ratio of tops to bottoms” and the bottoms are not taking it all that well.
Like most sex parties in the new Disneyland called New York, sex parties are advertised discreetly, with interested customers invited to email the organizer for further details.
But some took umbrage with the latest flyer for the sex party states entry as $25 for tops and $65 for bottoms.
ANONYMOUS promoter Luke (who asked not to use his full name) revealed he has been inspired to create the event by an attendee at one of his other parties ‘who is a self-identfied cumdump.’
“The way the party works is that bottoms volunteer as a cumdump, they are placed into position for the entirety of the party and stay there as long as they want,” Luke explains. “I’m a big big old bottom, and this has always been a fantasy of mine, but for it to work — and for the experience to be achieved for the cumdump bottoms — we need a huge ratio of tops to bottoms, which means discounting admission for anyone who wants to top.
In terms of policing the event I have staff throughout the space. We do regular check-ins with our bottoms to make sure they are feeling safe, comfortable, taken care of properly and if they need bathroom breaks or to take a time out we can help them do that.”
One source said, “The same party promoters did the exact same thing a few months ago with their spanking/impact play party ‘WELTS’ and tried to charge doms more than subs. And when people called them out they said it was ‘because subs are usually younger and need more financial help.’”
Supply and demand? Or Is this about greedy bottoms or top privilege?
If you can stop laughing sound off in the comments below.
Missouri’s Republican Governor Eric Greitens , at the eleventh hour, signed his first budget into law Friday, June 30, 2017, and announced that the $10 minimum wage increase that St. Louis low-wage workers began to receive two months ago, would roll back to $7.70 on August 28, 2017.
St. Louis originally passed a minimum wage hike two years ago, prompting business groups to sue to stop it in court. The Missouri Supreme Court recently ruled that the St. Louis measure was lawful, but the new state preemption law renders it irrelevant.
After St. Louis leaders raised the wage floor for workers within city limits, the state GOP recently passed what’s known as a statewide “preemption” law, forbidding localities from taking such matters into their own hands.
When asked about the minimum wage increase, Gov. Grietens responded with the usual gloomy economic talking point: “It will kill jobs, and despite what you hear from liberals, it will take money out of the people’s pockets.”
As shown from earlier reports, data from San Francisco and Santa Fe, two cities with the longest history of having a higher minimum wage, revealed no statistically significant negative effects on employment or hours (including low-wage industries).
Sierra Parker, a janitor and member of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Local 1, in a written statement, said:
“Governor Greitens’ announcement shows his decision was never about Missouri’s working families. It was always about lowering wages and making his rich donors happy. The $10 minimum wage has already changed my life for the better. Now, Governor Greitens intends to take money out of the pockets of more than 35,000 St. Louis working families. For me and so many others, that means going back to living paycheck to paycheck. He thinks he can sneak his decision by us over the holiday, but this doesn’t change anything. Working people will keep up the fight to hold him accountable.”
The organizers of Philadelphia’s LGBT Pride weekend have stated that they have no intention of canceling their annual LGBT Pride event because of a planned march mass LGBT March on Washington, D.C. rights that falls on the same date.
In a statement on its website and a follow-up post on Facebook, Philly Pride Presents said that there was no way to change the date of its June festivities, which run from Friday, June 9, to Sunday, June 11th.
Philly Pride said in a statement Wednesday that the march threatens to significantly cut the attendance of its festivities that weekend, the proceeds of which are used to fund other events, like OutFest in October.
“This event was proposed by a single individual without consultation with local Pride organizations, many of which have their events that weekend,” the statement read, claiming that the D.C. pride group has a clear incentive to join forces with the recently planned march since it is likely to increase attendance at its weekend activities.
“Make no mistake about it, this event was spontaneously scheduled without any due consideration of those of us who work so hard to keep our local voices heard,” the statement read.
PhillyVoice columnist Natalie Hope McDonald wrote that Frannie Price, operator of Philly Pride Presents, has already put out a call to action on Facebook asking Philly’s LGBT community to petition Capital Pride (the main organizer of the June march in D.C.) to consider holding the National March on a different date (May, July or September, Price suggests).
Thursday, Philly Pride reiterated on Facebook that it would not alter its plans, despite many people contacting organizers about that possibility.
“Yes, all Pride groups support the concept of a National Pride March, and we have suggested a variety of alternate dates for same wherein we can partner to make the National March much more successful,” the post read. “No, it is simply impossible for us (and other gay pride organizations) to change long existing dates.”
Philadelphia is 2-3 hours from the Nation’s Capital.
After the Charlotte, North Carolina City Council caved this week and repealed their LGBT rights ordinances in a deal with North Carolina’s GOP Senate to repeal the hateful HB2 bill that has cost thee state millions of dollars in revenue from tourism, entertainment profits, and conventions. State Senate leader Phil Berger who is the primary sponsor of legislation filed Wednesday that would repeal the law passed in March dictating which bathroom transgender people must use and limiting LGBT protections has used the old bait-and switch.
The new legislation would repeal HB2 but would also block local governments from passing ordinances regulating LGBT employment practices or public accommodations related to restrooms, showers or changing facilities for six months.
No other city or county in North Carolina other than Charlotte has any form of LGBT protection law on the books.
The six months’ delay, really, is probably a tactic to give the Republicans more time to think up other ways to discriminate against North Carolina’s LGBT community and get tourism back on track. Also to stop Charlotte from re-voting for LGBT protections as soon as possible. But now LGBT North Carolinian’s will be left with no legal protections in a state that has proven to be hostile and discriminatory to them.
Even though the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of North Carolina, Lambda Legal and the law firm of Jenner & Block were challenging H.B. 2 in federal court but now that Charlotte, North Carolina has caved mostly because of the states loss of income more than anything else, LGBT ‘s in that state are left with no protections at all at the very least for 6 months.
If HB2 would have gone to the Supreme Court to battle as planned and the court found the measure was born of animus, it would have been struck down. HB2 is a constitutional monstrosity.
One of Anthony Kennedy’s favorite legal maxims comes from The Common Lawby Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: “Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.
And North Carolina you have been kicked repeatedly.
*UPDATE
After recessing much of the afternoon, it seems lawmakers might be abandoning any attempt to pass anything. It seems that without the support of Democrats, there were not enough Republican votes to actually pass the repeal bill that includes a “cooling off period.” If that holds true into the evening, the NC GOP will have not only failed to pass a shoddy HB2 repeal bill; they will have failed to pass any repeal bill at all…
…At 6:20 p.m., the Senate approved an amendment to the repeal bill extending the six-month moratorium on local protections until the end of the 2017 legislative session. In other words, the deal got worse, because North Carolina Republicans refuse to vote for a bill that will still allow cities to protect LGBT people from discrimination.
*UPDATE II: The ACLU and Lambda Legal condemned lawmakers:
“The General Assembly and Governor McCrory are playing political chicken, and North Carolinians continue to lose for it. It is an outrage that North Carolina’s lawmakers could not follow the mandate of the voters and repeal H.B. 2,” said Simone Bell, Southern Regional Director at Lambda Legal. As long as H.B. 2 is on the books, thousands of LGBT people who call North Carolina home, especially transgender people, are being discriminated against and will never feel safe. This was a counterproductive exercise in reaffirming to the rest of the country that North Carolina wants to remain mired in this divisive dispute.
“It is a shame that North Carolina’s General Assembly is refusing to clean up the mess they made. The support for the LGBT community from political leaders, faith leaders, businesses, and everyday people that has emerged this year will not fade. These attempts to expel transgender people from public life will not be tolerated,” said James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT & HIV Project. “The legislature may not be willing to undo their unconstitutional overreach and respect the rights of LGBT people, so we’ll just have to see them in court.”
After the North Carolina GOP controlled Senates shameful behavior and lies. Back2Stonewall.com calls for the boycott of the state of the state of North Carolina to continue and be escalated.
In a promising first step for a gay man fighting to keep the Village home he shared with his late partner for 53 years, a Surrogate Court judge has blocked the property’s sale by the dead man’s relatives and ordered them to show cause why Tom Doyle, as their uncle’s “surviving spouse,” should not be declared the “sole heir.”
On Nov. 1, Judge Nora Anderson issued a temporary restraining against four nieces and nephews of William Cornwell selling the 69 Horatio St. townhouse he bought in 1979. Anderson’s order gave them until Nov. 18 to “show cause.”
As Back2Stonewall reported last month Cornwell and Doyle began their relationship in 1958. Cornwell bought them wedding rings after New York legalized same-sex marriage in 2011. According to Doyle, Cornwell’s declining health kept them from going to the city Marriage Bureau before Cornwell’s death in 2014.
Cornwell left Doyle the building in his will, but it had only one witness, not the required two. But Cronwell’s family refused to honor the will and instead claimed that the two men were “just good friends” and entered into contract with a buyer to sell the brownstone for more than $7 million, the cousins offered to let Doyle, 85, stay there for five years and pay him $250,000 from the building’s sale.
Attorneys Arthur Z. Schwartz and Jamie L. Wolf filed suit claiming the men’s vacations in Pennsylvania made them common-law spouses there.
“The temporary restraining order by the surrogate,” Schwartz said, “indicates that, at least, based on our papers, she believes we have made a plausible legal case that they were married.”
