Raise wages for workers on May 15!
Thursday, May 15, 2014 | Imagine 2050
Fast food workers put it all on the line Thursday to fight for fair wages. Workers in 150 cities in the U.S. and across the world participated in a one-day strike for a $15 hourly wage and the right to unionize. This was anticipated to be the biggest fast food strike ever. The fight for a $15-an-hour living wage in Chicago is in full swing. Workers across the country, from Seattle to Chicago to New York, have been organizing intensely since 2012 to raise wages for fast food and retail workers.
Roy Moore, pilgrim ships and blind justice in Alabama courts
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | Imagine 2050
In a video that surfaced only recently, Alabama’s Chief Justice Roy Moore is shown speaking from a pulpit suggesting that the First Amendment only applies to Christians. He says everybody, including the Supreme Court, misunderstands the Constitution’s use of the word “religion” and that it only refers to those who follow “God the Creator.”
“Buddha didn’t create us, Muhammad didn’t create us. It’s the God of the Holy Scriptures.” Moore told the audience.
Rather than merely affirming his own faith to a crowd of like-minded individuals, he used his speaking time to denigrate and condemn those who practice their religion differently that he does — and those who choose not to practice any religion at all. It is troubling that an elected official in a position would use his or her influence to perpetuate and validate bigotry.
Danish Anti-Muslim writer: Islam biggest threat since Nazi occupation
Tuesday, May 13, 2014 | Imagine 2050
Hedegaard recently gave a speech at a monument honoring Danish resistance fighters who lost their lives fighting in the second World War. A transcript of the event appeared on his digital publication, Dispatch International. In the speech, Hedegaard compared himself with the modern resistance to an ideology he claims makes Nazism and Communism look like “ripples on history’s surface.” This ideology, of course, is Islam.
“A few decades ago this ideology – and the project of conquest for which it stands – gained a foothold in our country,” he stated. “And here it will have the same consequences as in any other place to which it has spread.”
As previously documented, likening Muslims and Islam to Nazis and Nazism is an ongoing phenomenon among far-Right and anti-Muslim activists. Hedegaard’s counterparts in both Europe and the United States unapologetically continue to use such rhetoric.
Anti-immigrant movement brings cynicism to meetings with Homeland Security chief Jeh Johnson
Monday, May 12, 2014 | Imagine 2050
As the Obama Administration currently reviews its deportation policies, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has been holding meetings with many immigration advocates. He continued this practice Wednesday, May 7, when he met with he met with representatives from United We Dream. Later in the day, however, he also met with prominent leaders of the anti-immigrant movement. During the meeting, leaders of that movement continued the cynical practice of upholding tragedy to advance their exclusionary message.
According to Politico, other anti-immigrant organizations present at meeting include the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), NumbersUSA, Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) and the Eagle Forum.
In its continued efforts to paint undocumented immigrants as dangerous criminals, the anti-immigrant groups also invited victims of violence to join them at the meeting at U.S. Department of Homeland Security headquarters. Maria Espinoza was also in attendance to further emphasize this message. As co-founder of the Remembrance Project (RP), Espinoza travels the country regularly turning tragic incidents into anti-immigrant talking points.
Tom Tancredo: ‘If you come here, I want you to speak English’
Monday, May 12, 2014 | Nativism Watch
Former congressman and candidate for Colorado governor Tom Tancredo has once again reiterated and endorsed the extremist, anti-immigrant positions that made him well known in nativist circles during his time in Washington.
“I want to feel comfortable again in my own state,” Tancredo said as he addressed the Royal Gorge Tea Party on May 8. “I don’t want to look at this place as I do now. It’s like a strange environment…it’s not the state I grew up in.”
Rand Paul changes tune on Voter ID laws — several times
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 | Nativism Watch
Those familiar with voting suppression measures were abuzz recently after the New York Times featured a story suggesting that Republican Senator Rand Paul was distancing himself from his party’s efforts to pass harsh voting laws.
“Everybody’s gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing,” he told the Times. “I think it’s wrong for Republicans to go too crazy on this issue because it’s offending people.”