jimmydoreisalefty @ jimmydoreisalefty @lemmy.world

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I don't trust any governments or politicians; we must always be critical of those with power and influence. 

Biden was forced to cave to their demands due to the backlash on breaking the railroad strike and this being an election year.

The working class must continue to unite against the owner class; a general strike would help force the government and the corporations to listen to working class struggles instead of the same old crumbs we reicve from the duopoly; many grassroots movements have arisen for this occasion!

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” ― Frederick Douglass

Dockworkers strike suspended, tentative agreement includes 62% pay raise over 6 years [Max Zahn, Meredith Deliso, and Soo Youn | October 3, 2024 | abcnews.go.com] https://abcnews.go.com/US/dockworkers-strike-suspended-sources/story?id=114445386

The tentative agreement would increase workers’ wages by 62% over the life of the 6-year contract, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.

This represents a significant increase from the shipping industry group’s offer of a 50% wage increase earlier this week. The union had been pushing for a 77% pay hike over six years.

The tentative agreement would bring the hourly wage for a top dockworker to $63 per hour at the end of the new contract, up from $39 per hour under the expired contract.

"I want to applaud the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) and the United States Maritime Alliance for coming together to reopen the East Coast and Gulf ports. Today’s tentative agreement on a record wage and an extension of the collective bargaining process represents critical progress towards a strong contract," Preisdent Joe Biden said on the agreement.

Tens of thousands of U.S. dockworkers had walked off the job early Tuesday morning, clogging dozens of ports along the East and Gulf coasts.

Amid the strike, USMX said Wednesday it remained "committed to bargaining in good faith to address the ILA's demands and USMX's concerns."

A prolonged work stoppage of several weeks or months could have rekindled inflation for some goods and triggered layoffs at manufacturers as raw materials dried up, experts said.

In 2002, a strike among workers at West Coast ports lasted 11 days before then-President George W. Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act and ended the standoff.

This is just a picture.

Quick search...

Here are the main points form their program:

END CAPITALISM BEFORE IT ENDS US

1. Seize the Biggest 100 Corporations, Create A New Economy for the People
2. Overthrow the Dictatorship of the Rich -- Build a Democracy That Serves the Working Class
3. End the Rule of Money and Lock Up the Corrupt Elite
4. End All U.S. Aid to Apartheid Israel. End the Genocide and Free Palestine
5. Cut the Military Budget by 90% -- Peace, Not War with China & Russia!
6. End the War on Black America!
7. Defend Women's Rights, Full Equality for LGBTQ People
8. Save the Planet from Capitalism^[[1] https://votesocialist2024.com/our-program]

We must not let our government stop another major strike.

The working class must stay united against the owner class.

Biden signs bill to block U.S. railroad strike [David Shepardson and Nandita Bose | December 2, 2022 | https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-signs-bill-block-us-railroad-strike-2022-12-02/]

The U.S. Senate voted 80 to 15 on Thursday to impose a tentative contract deal reached in September on a dozen unions representing 115,000 workers, who could have gone on strike on Dec. 9. But the Senate failed to approve a measure that would have provided paid sick days to railroad workers.

Eight of 12 unions had ratified the deal. But some labor leaders have criticized Biden, a self-described friend of labor, for asking Congress to impose a contract that workers in four unions have rejected over its lack of paid sick leave

Railroads have slashed labor and other costs to bolster profits in recent years, and have been fiercely opposed to adding paid sick time that would require them to hire more staff.

Teamsters President Sean O'Brien harshly criticized the Senate vote on sick leave. "Rail carriers make record profits. Rail workers get zero paid sick days. Is this OK? Paid sick leave is a basic human right. This system is failing," O'Brien wrote on Twitter.

Without the legislation, rail workers could have gone out next week, but the impacts would be felt as soon as this weekend as railroads stopped accepting hazardous materials shipments and commuter railroads began canceling passenger service.

The contracts cover workers at carriers including Union Pacific (UNP.N), Berkshire Hathaway Inc's (BRKa.N) BNSF, CSX (CSX.O), Norfolk Southern Corp (NSC.N), and Kansas City Southern.

Edit: added quotes below

In the first strike, all East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, in almost 50 years, dockworkers from Maine to Texas walked out on strike at midnight this morning. The International Longshoremen’s Association represents some 40,000 dockworkers at 36 ports who are demanding higher wages and guarantees that jobs won’t be automated.

AMY GOODMAN: On Sunday, President Biden said he would not intervene to stop the strike, which will disrupt trade and potentially lead to high prices just weeks before the presidential election.

At the same time, the dockworkers, who have very dangerous jobs — they’re very physically rigorous jobs; they are highly paid, but their position is, “We’re entitled to that as compensation” — their wages have actually flatlined. They’ve stagnated compared to inflation. And so, they’re seeking what looks like a very substantial headline increase, you know, 70-plus percent, it’s been reported, though there’s a lot of — there’s not a lot of open discussion of these terms, over the next several years. And overnight, it seems like the port operators tried to bridge the distance with a package that they say would be about a 50% raise. The dockworkers say that’s not enough.

The rail system, by the way, has really been depleted by a version of just-in-time known as precision scheduled railroading, which is essentially a fancy way of saying, “Let’s fire lots of workers. Let’s stick the remaining workers with extra jobs.” They’ve diminished service. They’ve made trains longer than ever, so accidents tend to be much more dangerous. And it’s really about boosting returns for shareholders at the expense of the operational capacity of the rail system. So the idea that rail will pick up the burden is really dubious.

AMY GOODMAN: The president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Harold Daggett, endorsed Biden in the 2020 election, but, more recently, accused Biden of, quote, “not fighting for us.” Last November, Daggett said he had a productive meeting with former President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. He spoke in a video released by the union last month.

AMY GOODMAN: A $4 billion bonus for the boss. That’s president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, Harold Daggett. Peter Goodman, can you talk about what he said —

PETER GOODMAN: Sure. It’s a very strange dynamic, because, of course, traditionally, labor, key Democratic constituency. Biden is very reluctant to wade in and end this strike, because he faced a backlash when he used a different law to shut down the railroad strike two years ago without getting paid sick leave for traveling maintenance crews and other rail workers. So he’s very reluctant to be the guy who steps in, takes away the leverage for the union. I mean, this is a time of labor mobilization in this country. And, of course, we saw that the UAW did very well with a militant strike. The ILA is doing likewise.

Here’s the irony, though. So, you’ve got all these business groups that are lobbying the Biden administration to act, because, of course, the economy writ large is going to get hit by a long strike. Factories that are dependent upon imported components and parts are going to get hit. Retailers waiting for products to come in, often from Asia, will get hit. Consumers could face shortages, inflation. Here’s the one group that probably won’t get hit: the shipping carriers.

So, the one move for the union is, “Well, we’re going to monkeywrench the economy as a way to generate pressure for a settlement,” but that could actually be good for the people they’re trying to get greater leverage for. That could increase the pressure on the Biden administration, really reluctant, again, to intervene in a labor dispute, to put an end to this thing, because it will hit the real economy. And I don’t have to tell you that we’re only weeks away from a presidential election that could very well hinge on economic sentiments and unhappiness over inflation.

Coming up, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has broken his silence, addressing the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. We’ll play some of his comments. And then, it’s the last day of the presidency of Mexican President AMLO, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. We’ll talk about his legacy and also immigration. Stay with us.

That would require increasing government regulations on the major companies in the world; the owner-class would not allow that to happen; that would cut into their profits too much.

There is a reason lobbying is 'legal'.

The Green New Deal was created by the Green Party, then watered down for a Democrat version.

The duopoly is bought by these corporations.

Every time I hear about Uyghurs, I get reminded of the good work independent journalists do.

Specifically this article, Max Blumenthal | April 30, 2021: https://thegrayzone.com/2021/04/30/xinjiang-forced-labor-china-uyghur/

The Grayzone: Independent news and investigative journalism on politics and empire.

The editor-in-chief of The Grayzone, Max Blumenthal is an award-winning journalist and the author of several books, including best-selling Republican Gomorrah, Goliath, The Fifty One Day War, and The Management of Savagery. He has produced print articles for an array of publications, many video reports, and several documentaries, including Killing Gaza. Blumenthal founded The Grayzone in 2015 to shine a journalistic light on America's state of perpetual war and its dangerous domestic repercussions.

The additions to the entity list under the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act marked the first time a China-based steel company or aspartame sweetener business had been targeted by U.S. law enforcement, DHS said.

The federal law that President Joe Biden signed at the end of 2021 followed allegations of human rights abuses by Beijing against members of the ethnic Uyghur group and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. The Chinese government has rejected the claims as lies and has defended its practice and policy in Xinjiang as fighting terror and ensuring stability.

The new approach marked a shift in the U.S. trade relationship with China to increasingly take into account national security and human rights. Beijing has accused the U.S. of using human rights as a pretext to suppress China's economic growth.

Since June 2022, the entity list has grown to 75 companies accused of using forced labor in Xinjiang or sourcing materials tied to that forced labor, Homeland Security said.

Iran has not received $100 billion in unfrozen assets under the Biden-Harris administration

Walz overstates the cost of insulin before cap

Vance links unaffordable housing to immigrants who have come into the country illegally

Walz wrongly claims Project 2025 creates pregnancy registry

Vance overstates immigration numbers

Vance distorts Minnesota abortion law

Vance on Trump and Jan. 6, 2021

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in a message on X that the attack targeted "solely military and security sites" involved in what he said was the Israeli "genocide in Gaza and Lebanon" and was conducted by Iran in "self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter."

"Our action is concluded unless the Israeli regime decides to invite further retaliation. In that scenario, our response will be stronger and more powerful," Araghchi said.

Hezbollah is both an armed group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon. It is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, although the European Union has only blacklisted its armed wing.

As the UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting on the Middle East for October 2, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the attack "a big mistake" and said Tehran "will pay for it." He added: "Whoever attacks us, we attack them."

U.S. President Joe Biden said he would discuss a response with Netanyahu. Asked what the response would be, Biden replied: "That's in active discussion right now. That remains to be seen."

The number of ballistic missiles fired was about twice as many as were launched in an attack on Israel earlier this year, Ryder added in a briefing with journalists. The attack in April was in retaliation for a deadly Israeli air strike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus.

World leaders urged Iran and Israel to step back from the brink and negotiate a cease-fire.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also called for an immediate cease-fire and condemned Iran's attack "in the strongest terms," while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the attack was "totally unacceptable" and should be condemned by the entire world."

There are many competitions that are open to people outside the US, so I would check others out if you are interested in rockets!

Here is another: https://www.soundingrocket.org/sa-cup-home.html | https://www.soundingrocket.org/2024-sa-cup.html

Teams that competed last year from outside the United States:

1. Mexico
2. Philippines
3. Canada
4. Thailand
5. United Kingdom
6. Turkey
7. Algeria
8. Brazil
9. India
10. Argentina
11. Romania
12. Germany
13. Australia
14. Spain
15. New Zealand
16. Poland

2024 Team List (Last updated 6-11-24 acb): [https://www.soundingrocket.org/uploads/9/0/6/4/9064598/published_team_list_061124.xlsx_-_for_output.pdf]

Join in on your school clubs and research projects, or start some with friends!

There are many great competitions where previous programming experience would come in handy.

One competition that takes place in the U.S.:

NASA Student Launch

It actually IS rocket science! Student Launch is a 9-month long challenge that tasks student teams from across the U.S. to design, build, test, and launch a high-powered rocket carrying a scientific or engineering payload. It is a hands-on, research-based, engineering activity and culminates each year with a final launch in Huntsville, Alabama home of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The activity offers multiple challenges reaching a broad audience colleges and universities as well as middle and high school aged students across the nation.^[[1] https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/nasa-student-launch/]

Culminating Event Dates: April 30 – May 4, 2025

Culminating event location: Huntsville, AL

Eligibility: Open to U.S. Students

Grade Levels: Grades 6-12, College and University

TIL.

Thanks for sharing!

Edit: added quote below

By design, WebExtensions is more limited than the promiscuous extension mechanism. By design, it also works better. Most of the Firefox development tax has disappeared, as only the WebExtensions API needs to be protected, rather than the entire code of Firefox. Most of the maintenance tax has disappeared, as the WebExtensions API are stable (there have unfortunately been a few exceptions). It is also much simpler to use, lets add-on developers share code between Firefox and Chromium add-ons and should eventually make it easier to write extensions that work flawlessly on Desktop and Mobile.

We must not fear using our critical thinking muscles, or else we will lose them.

There should be no need to ask, but I guess some still need to...

The normal route would be to check profile information and history; then it becomes really easy to figure out, for some.

Edit5: fixed [1][2] format

We may be dead inside, yet we keep on going.

Death gotta be easy, 'cause life is hard^{[[1] https://genius.com/50-cent-many-men-wish-death-lyrics]}[[2] Alt. Link: https://archive.ph/IERUg]

AOC would never hate "Mama Bear!"

ITT: Blue MAGA and preaching to the choir.

Dr. Jill Stein has improved the Green Party; y'all just believe anything the duopoly and owner-class media spit out when it agrees with your thinking.

Muslim support is at an all-time high for Dr. Jill Stein; that is why AOCPelosi, the new attack dog of Blue MAGA, started up again.

I suggest getting out of the echo chambers and checking out independent journalists instead of continuing the self-censorship.

And we will continue to support them 100% of the way, so as to keep the duopoly and the status quo of supporting genocides all over the world.

More forever wars where the working class continue to be killed off, while the owner-class and their lackeys rake in their profits and natural resources.

You should see what happens when political tribalism takes place in the United States. 

Strong emotions and financial strain with the working class at an all-time high, disdain towards other groups, and fights break out.

Assassination attempts and murder of activists and politicians due to disagreements.

I think it goes back to dividing the working class and keeping us entertained so we don't pay attention to the status quo.

Sadly, not the only billionaire pushing for more surveillance.

Another big one is Peter Thiel.

"Neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business," Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said in a statement.

He added, "We sought commitments from both [former president Donald] Trump and [Vice President Kamala] Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries—and to honor our members’ right to strike—but were unable to secure those pledges."

The Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, freight workers and others, held similar meetings with Trump and President Joe Biden when he was still seeking re-election.

On Wednesday, the union released the results of their survey, which was conducted after Biden dropped out of the race. It found that almost 60% of rank-and-file union members preferred to endorse Trump, while 34% backed Harris, according to an electronic member poll. A phone poll indicated similar margins, with 58% supporting Trump and 31% supporting Harris.

"While the Teamsters Executive Board is making no formal endorsement, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear— they want President Trump back in the White House!" said campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt in a statement. "These hardworking men and women are the backbone of America and President Trump will strongly stand up for them when he’s back in the White House."^[[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/teamsters-union-declines-endorse-presidential-election-breaking-decade-rcna171711]