LibsEatPoop

Link to tweet

Article on Literacy Tests.

Presented as a means for assessing whether voters were educated enough to vote, literacy tests and other methods were designed for a single purpose: to stop Black Americans from voting.

During the Reconstruction period that followed the war, enfranchised Black men gave Ulysses S. Grant his narrow victory in the popular vote. Before that period ended, 2,000 Black Americans would be elected to office in the South.

But by the dawn of the 20th century, all the progress that was made to expand the rights of formerly enslaved Black Americans was severely crippled by the institution of state-specific voting laws that were designed to exclude Black voters from the ballot box. Southern states created elaborate voter registration procedures or “voting literacy tests” that determined whether the voter in question was literate enough to cast their ballot.

Of course, these voting literacy tests were administered largely to voters of color and were scored by biased judges. The tests were intentionally confusing and difficult and one wrong answer meant a failing grade. Even Black voters with college degrees were given failing scores.

In the mid-1960s, a professor of law at Duke University, William W. Van Alstyne, conducted an experiment in which he submitted four questions found on the Alabama voter’s literacy test to “all professors currently teaching constitutional law in American law schools.”

Alstyne’s professors were told to answer all submitted questions without the aid of any external reference, just as any voter would be required to do when presented with the test. Ninety-six respondents sent Alstyne their answers; 70 percent of the answers given to him were incorrect.

As Alstyne had demonstrated, passing a voting literacy test was virtually impossible. The questions were intentionally written to confuse the reader, and one wrong answer would result in automatic failure.

If you got letters/packages, make sure they can be delivered before Friday.

Also, I wonder how this guy is doing.

Twitter link

Article mentioned

Keith Creel is president and CEO of Calgary-based railway company Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd.

Railways. Airlines. Ports. Seaways. All have experienced significant labour disruption in the past 18 months. Canada has experienced 62 work stoppages in the transportation sector alone in 2023 and 2024, involving close to 20,000 workers.

This month, Canada’s two largest ports (Vancouver and Montreal) have been completely or partially shut down due to labour disruptions. In September, a strike by grain handlers at the Port of Vancouver disrupted exports during peak shipping season. In August, the country’s two largest railways, including Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC), came to a halt due to labour work stoppages. Before that, a strike shut down one of the nation’s largest airlines and threatened to shut down another. That was after the St. Lawrence Seaway was forced to close a year ago, which happened months after the previous B.C. port shutdown that went on for two weeks in July, 2023.

These are self-inflicted harm to our supply chains. A work stoppage of any duration or even the threat of a work stoppage causes serious disruption to Canada’s supply chains and harms the country’s reputation as a stable, dependable trading partner.

The dispute at the Port of Montreal is the third in four years. Canadian labour instability has become a chronic problem. The pattern of disruption is forcing global shipping companies to look elsewhere and ship through alternative U.S. ports. Canada needs a reliable method to resolve economically damaging labour disputes; one that respects the collective bargaining process, while avoiding disruptions when negotiations fail.

As a country we place a high value on collective bargaining and firmly believe that the best deals are found at the bargaining table. But while CPKC has an excellent track record of reaching negotiated agreements with the vast majority of our unions, we have repeatedly faced bargaining with certain unions where it has become clear that a negotiated agreement is simply unachievable.

While CPKC did lock out Teamsters workers back in August, that had come after the union issued a strike notice. The company had little choice in the matter. This is not our unique problem but one faced by companies across the country.

In such situations, Canada needs a mechanism to maintain industrial peace that does not repeatedly disrupt and damage the supply chains Canadians depend on every day. Other countries do this effectively. It can – and must – be done in Canada.

The federal government must step in to protect the clear national interest by putting an end to the frequent disruptions and mandating the parties to resolve their differences through binding arbitration when deadlocked. While this did happen with CPKC less than 24 hours after the labour disruption, there had been no certainty of that. And that one day is costly. One day of stoppage is three to five days of recovery.

Canada must prepare for the USMCA review by addressing its chronic labour instability now. It should start by rapidly resolving the current port strikes. Then, there needs to be a serious national conversation about improving the legal tools the federal government has available to prevent – or rapidly end – a labour disruption that is threatening Canada’s national interest.

Decent article for the more pro-Israel family members (unless they’re Islamophobic). A lot of information that others that are more focused on the riot itself don’t go into, simply by providing a lot of context for things happening in Israel.

Inshallah, you shall attain your freedom.

I know this seems like baby numbers for some of y’all. It is baby numbers for some of my coworkers who’ve been doing what I’ve been doing for a lot longer - I’ve somehow managed to not get my two jobs to schedule me on the same day so I haven’t had to work too much on a given day. Everyone else I know does that tho.

I finally have a couple days off. But I have so much pending shit to do during then. I don’t have energy for anything.

Revolution soon pls.

Its analysis found around 44% of verified victims were children and 26% women. The ages most represented among the dead were five to nine-year-olds.

Archive link.

Why must you put the rest of the world through this bullshit again.

I feel for everyone who’s gonna be struggling - queer, poc, undocumented, women. I fear for the global south. I fear for the earth.

It seems like young men are being men. Dipshits. Also, looks like suburban white women hate minorities more than want abortion. Cool. Cool cool cool.

Not like is much better. PP is probably gonna get a boost from this - hopefully our Libs and NDP see this as a warning sign and coalesce like the French did to keep the fascists out.

But maybe I’m just in denial. Everyone I talk to hates Trudeau and Singh - and while I hate them for good reasons (they’re both libs - one a neoliberal, the other a sucdem) others hate them for wrong reasons - Trudeau for so many, Singh cuz racism. Which is very worrying. And annoying.