Out d’Coup | GA Voter Suppression; Amazon Piss Bottles; Amazon Union; Columbia Grad Strike; NYU Grad Strike Vote; H’Burg Mayor Race; Pennridge TPUSA; Sisters of the Night Caucus; Ingenuity; Free Will
Georgia Republicans pass a slew of voter-supression measures. As reported in The Guardian, the new legislation “requires voters to submit ID information with both an absentee ballot request and the ballot itself. It limits the use of absentee ballot drop boxes, allows for unlimited challenges to a voter’s qualifications, cuts the runoff election period from nine to four weeks, and significantly shortens the amount of time voters have to request an absentee ballot.”
According to an explosive new article in The Intercept, Ken Klippenstein obtained internal documents showing that Amazon managers and executives have been fully aware that drivers often resort to peeing in bottles and even pooping in plastic bags due to the pressure to meet package quotas and an intense schedule.The report drops as Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama enter the last week of voting on unionization.
In a failed attempt at witty snark, Amazon Executive Dave Clark also took to Twitter to respond to news that Bernie Sanders would be travelling to Bessemer to join workers on the picket line. The tweets landed like a brick.
Oh, and we should mention that Amazon workers in Italy went on strike over labor conditions this week.
Speaking of strikes, Columbia University graduate workers continue their strike for a second week. Key demands in the more than two-year negotiations for their first contract include a neutral arbitrator in harassment cases, union coverage for more student workers and a pay increase.
And, graduate student workers at NYU began voting on their own strike authorization on Tuesday. The strike authorization vote was called after more than 9 months of negotiations in which the graduate student union made significant concessions.
Rutgers University says that all students must be vaccinated to return to in-person classes in fall 2021. Rutgers is one of the first universities in the nation to begin to roll out vaccination and prevention protocols for the next academic year.
It’s time to take a deep dive into the shit-show that is the Harrisburg Mayoral race. Republican Charter School grifter turned Democrat, Otto Banks, had his residency challenged in court this week and is allowed - for now - to stay on the ballot. Banks bought a house in Harrisburg in August 2020 to run for mayor, but never used his utilities, which raised questions if he was actually living in the city. The judge presiding over the case sided with Banks.
Dr. Rachel Levine was confirmed as the Assistant Secretary of Health by the United States Senate this week and made history by being the highest ranking transgender official in United States history.
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases have begun to surge again in Pennsylvania and New Jersey as both states move quickly to open up businesses and return kids to in-person classes. The surge is being attributed in part to the spread of the more contagious variants of COVID-19
Cyril Mychalejko, the new progressive columnist for the Bucks County Courier Times & The Intelligencer, shines a spotlight on how the white supremacist-adjacent Turning Point USA has made inroads it the Pennrigdge School district. Cyril Michalejko will be out Out d’Coup LIVE on Monday, April 5. We’ll dig in.
PASSHE Chancellor Dan Greenstein feels the heat.
Sean gets snubbed on State Street. We’ll talk about that later on.
DO NOT WAIT to head on over to Twitter and follow Sisters of the Night Caucus, “bewitching political talk from your favorite PA witches!”
NASA gets ready to launch its Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, in early April. Ingenuity is attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover. The Rover dropped the debris shield covering the little helicopter. NASA has identified a 33 x 33 foot patch of the red planet for Ingenuity’s airfield. This will be the first attempt at powered flight on Mars.
Ingenuity is carrying a postage sized piece of fabric from the Wright Brothers’ aircraft that made its historic flight at Kitty Hawk, NC.
Lego announces its biggest and most detailed Space Shuttle set, yet.
I got my first vaccine shot.
Free Will Brewing releases
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free