Chag urim sameach, to those who celebrate.
(And for those of you giving me side-eye, well, I never claimed to be a good person…)
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Happy Hannukah!Post + Comments (42)
This post is in: Open Threads, Religion
Chag urim sameach, to those who celebrate.
(And for those of you giving me side-eye, well, I never claimed to be a good person…)
Sunday Evening Open Thread: Happy Hannukah!Post + Comments (42)
This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., Open Threads, Religion
congratulations to Kyrsten Sinema, whose name I can spell, on being the first person to make money off MLMs https://t.co/3EbUv4m5RR
— counterfax?? (@counterfax) November 5, 2021
NEW — Kristen Sinema is raking in cash from MLMs—companies derided as pyramid schemes for incentivizing customers to become salespeople. They want her to kill her party’s labor bill. https://t.co/YvUh8hvGhk
via @Hailey_Fuchs
— Sam Stein (@samstein) November 5, 2021
… The political action committee associated with Alticor, the parent entity of the health, home and beauty company Amway, gave $2,500 to the Arizona Democrat in late June, as did the PAC for Isagenix, an Arizona-based business that sells nutrition, wellness and personal care products. Nu Skin Enterprises, another personal care and beauty company, gave $2,500 that month, as did USANA Health Sciences, which sells similar products. In April, Richard Raymond Rogers, the executive chair of Mary Kay, a Texas-based cosmetics company, gave $2,500 to Sinema. Herbalife, which also sells nutritional supplements, gave $2,500 in July. All are affiliated with the Direct Selling Association, a trade group that promotes multilevel marketing.
The donations don’t track usual political alliances. Alticor is owned by the DeVos family, one of the biggest funders of Republicans and conservative causes. And, on some occasions, they appear to be rare forays into national politics for the donor entities. Sinema is the only federal lawmaker that the Isagenix and Nu Skin PACs have given to this year. Utah-based USANA Health Sciences has only given to home state Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), home state Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah), a Republican PAC and Sinema…
Sinema does have a personal connection to the industry: Her own mother was a direct seller. But the bigger incentive for multilevel marketers to give to Sinema appears to be her position on labor organizing. The companies face an existential threat from the pro-union Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would make it more difficult to classify workers as independent contractors. According to one industry source, the bill has become the driving issue since Democrats took control of the White House and both chambers of Congress. And Sinema is one of — if not the only — Democratic allies in the Senate.
Unions have pushed for some of the Democrats’ priorities in the PRO Act to be inserted into the reconciliation bill, but for the most part, the marquee labor bill has languished before Congress since passing the House in March. Sinema’s fellow Senate moderate, Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), has already signed onto the legislation, leaving just three Senate Democrats who have yet to co-sponsor the bill — Sinema, Mark Warner of Virginia and Mark Kelly of Arizona. Warner signaled his support for the PRO Act at a rally in Virginia on Monday. And Kelly has said he supports the bill broadly speaking, though he wants to see some changes, including the provision related to independent contractors, according to a Democratic Hill aide…
The threat of a crackdown from the federal government, however, has become more acute in recent years. There’s been renewed criticism of the industry in pop culture, like a recent and heavily critical docu-series on the fashion company LuLaRoe. In 2016, Herbalife — one of the Sinema donors — agreed to a $200 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission for deceiving customers about their ability to make a profit from their business. Biden’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra advocated for “restitution and penalties against multilevel marketers” when he previously served as an FTC commissioner.
The industry knows that it can only survive through its relationships in Washington, D.C., Keep noted.
“An industry that is literally built on contract employees — which is what the MLM is — would never want to be considered to be, to entertain the notion of having those independent representatives as employees,” he said. Of the industry’s support for Sinema, he added: “I think that she’s demonstrated a flexibility that they think they can capitalize on.”
Amway’s been notorious for decades; the DeVos family are ‘Christian Reformed‘ believers, i.e., Calvinists. But a bunch of the newer MLM mega-businesses — including, I’d bet, the one Sinema’s mom is involved with — seem to be Mormon-based and Mormon-intensive. I’m getting the impression, more and more, that Sinema’s Mormon upbringing may have influenced her thinking just as much as my Irish-Catholic upbringing imbued me with a particular form of Jansenism. We may no longer be ‘of the Church’ in which we were raised, but it’s really really hard to avoid letting those early lessons control your thinking, even when you can see how much harm it’s doing…
sinema is absolutely the kind of person who believes themselves to be far too smart to get fooled by a con job, it's really just perfect
— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) November 5, 2021
Late Night Open Thread: Sen. Sinema, Queen of the Pyramid SchemersPost + Comments (33)
This post is in: Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Religion, local races
Wishing sweets, lights, togetherness, and a year of prosperity to those who celebrate — and I think this year, in particular, we can all use an excuse to start over!
“A year ago, we were headed into a Thanksgiving where public health experts were advising against traveling or gathering with family and friends.
“Later this month, our tables and our hearts are going to be full thanks to the vaccines,” Biden says at the White House. pic.twitter.com/Urd1AJoXTc
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) November 3, 2021
One year ago this hour pic.twitter.com/mJmo5BpwEH
— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) November 4, 2021
America's new history-making mayors https://t.co/MrdrTXfqRZ pic.twitter.com/EluP9hkocq
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) November 3, 2021
Dems lost Va Gov in 2009 and then passed Obamacare
let’s stop pretending Biden’s presidency ended last night
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) November 3, 2021
Thursday Morning Open Thread: Happy Divali!Post + Comments (144)
This post is in: Religious Nuts
The always excellent Adam Serwer:
Last month, Justice Samuel Alito insisted that the Supreme Court’s critics are wrong. The Court is not “a dangerous cabal” that is “deciding important issues in a novel, secretive, improper way, in the middle of the night, hidden from public view,” he said. Reading aloud from a piece I wrote in the aftermath of the Court’s recent ruling on an abortion law, Alito insisted that it was “false and inflammatory” to say that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision had been nullified in Texas.
Alito’s speech perfectly encapsulated the new imperious attitude of the Court’s right-wing majority, which wants to act politically without being seen as political, and expects the public to silently acquiesce to its every directive without scrutiny, criticism, or protest. (As if oblivious to the irony, Alito’s office set ground rules barring media outlets from transcribing or broadcasting in full the speech at the University of Notre Dame, in which he delivered his complaint.)
Last month, that conservative majority allowed Texas’s most recent restrictions on abortion to go into effect. Without exceptions for rape and incest, the Texas law bars abortions after six weeks, before most women know they are pregnant, and deputizes citizens to sue those who “enable” abortions after that period for a $10,000 bounty. At midnight on the day after the law took effect, the Republican appointees on the Court, except for Chief Justice John Roberts, insisted that a procedural scheme adopted by anti-abortion activists for the precise purpose of avoiding judicial review had tied their hands.
At some point people will see what the court is doing and revolt, right? Or are we that far into the creation of our very American Reich that it is too late? At any rate, in case there are still idiots out there who think all of this is just about saving the babies, here’s the Guvna of Texas spilling the beans:
EXCLUSIVE: Last night I told Governor Greg Abbott I was concerned about birth control and the morning after pill incentivizing women to be promiscuous.
Abbott appeared to support outlawing both contraceptives, and said that “basically, we’ve outlawed abortion in Texas.” pic.twitter.com/cWWnnIP9wz
— Lauren Windsor (@lawindsor) October 12, 2021
It’s not about abortion. It never was. The Christianist right didn’t even care about abortion until the 80’s when St. Ronnie decided it was good electoral politics. It’s about control. They are coming for birth control, same sex marriage, anything that the bible thumpers want.
There Has to Be a Backlash at Some Point, Right?Post + Comments (146)
This post is in: Open Threads, Religion
Shana tovah to those who observe.
And for all of us, may this autumn be an improvement over the last few months!
(ETA: Leaving this up, so that folks have a place to chat / unwind while the post immediately below remains dedicated.)
Monday Evening Open Thread: Rosh HashanahPost + Comments (52)
This post is in: Open Threads, Religious Nuts, Republican Stupidity
i can’t stop thinking about this. imagine meeting the supreme pontiff of the world’s largest christian faith and being big sad because he doesn’t know your book. this is unbelievably sad hours here. this is a deeply broken human being. it rules. pic.twitter.com/rzEa5kygc4
— World Famous Art Thief (@CalmSporting) August 28, 2021
Blarts from the past — remember ‘Crunchy Con’ Dreher?
Convert to & then from Catholicism uses Pope as marketing tool for his book. https://t.co/kHm3fL3y9Z
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) August 28, 2021
The Benedict Option — Dreher argues for the formation of virtuous Christian communities in response to an increasingly secular culture — was influential enough to rate a Wikipedia stub before it faded like a sparkler. Dreher was so mad about the Pope’s refusal to embrace his theory of withdrawal from our fallen world (which: pretty much the opposite of everything Francis had endorsed) that he stomped off to join the Greek Orthodox Church. Unless he’s found an even more ‘rigorous’ faith since then…
Rod omitted the part where he ranted at the Holy Father about Oreos until the Swiss Guards tased him. pic.twitter.com/iP9DndQ2jy
— OneHitPopehat (@Popehat) August 28, 2021
oh jesus mary joseph pic.twitter.com/1YyI2WFKKa
— kilgore trout, horse paste suppository (@KT_So_It_Goes) August 28, 2021
I grew up ‘in The Church’, and IMO this is pretty much an adequate guidepost:
Dreher trending always reminds me of this absolute banger of a post https://t.co/1SyeRXXhWC
— The Mall Krampus (@cakotz) August 28, 2021
Late Night Open Thread: *Less* (Small-C) Catholic Than the PopePost + Comments (54)
This post is in: GOP Death Cult, Open Threads, Religion
Pat Robertson says critical race theory is "a monstrous evil" that is urging people of color to "rise up and overtake their oppressors" so that once they've "gotten the whip handle," they'll then "instruct their white neighbors how to behave." https://t.co/Qum8HzeS96 pic.twitter.com/fgeOEVzrfj
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) June 25, 2021
When a professional magician reveals how a magic trick is accomplished:
Is this a prophecy or a confession https://t.co/DuhpZ0REDq
— Ragnarok Lobster (@eclecticbrotha) June 25, 2021
Because, when you’re a Repub, it’s *always* projection…
folks,,, when he's right, he's right https://t.co/MJmJ2jy1gw pic.twitter.com/Frq05fQjZa
— Gorilla Warfare (again) (@MenshevikM) June 27, 2021
<del>Protestant</del> GOP Venality Open Thread: Tipping the GaffPost + Comments (86)