text:
The Same Bosses

Fighting corporate trade deals requires uniting with immigrants and foreign workers — not scapegoating them.

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One of the standard media frames for the 2016 election is the idea that both the racist billionaire Donald Trump and the self-declared socialist Bernie Sanders are “populists” — and nowhere is their supposed populism more pronounced than on the issue of trade.

It’s true that both Trump and Sanders have spoken out against free-trade agreements — like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada, and Mexico — and at certain US economic competitors, most of all, China.

Sanders’s opposition to trade deals that Hillary Clinton has defended throughout her career may have helped him pull off a stunning upset to win the Michigan primary on March 8. Exit polls of voters in the primary showed that 58 percent thought trade deals cost US jobs. Among that group, Sanders beat Clinton by ten percentage points.

This effect may have been more limited than Sanders hoped. He got walloped by Clinton a week later in Ohio and North Carolina, which have both seen huge declines in manufacturing jobs due to offshoring and competition from overseas.

For his part, Trump has called attention to the plight of hundreds of workers at a Carrier air conditioner factory in Indianapolis. In a video that went viral on social media, Carrier executives were caught on tape telling workers that they would be laid off and their jobs shifted to the company’s plants in Mexico. Amid boos and catcalls from workers, the bosses can be heard justifying the layoffs as strictly a business decision.

Trump has claimed that if he were president, he’d give Carrier executives twenty-four hours to reverse their decision — or to suffer a huge increase in tariffs on their products imported from Mexico.

For a billionaire who has stated openly in the past that offshoring jobs is a smart business move, Trump’s bluster about Carrier may be hard to take seriously.

But applause lines like “Let’s make America great again” (from Trump) or “American workers should not be forced to compete against people in Mexico making 25 cents an hour” (from Sanders) pack a punch.

It’s obvious that Donald Trump’s scapegoating of immigrants and China is designed to galvanize supporters in the US against foreign bad guys — an us-versus-them competition where “Americans,” from the bottom of the economic ladder to the top, are in it together. This is straight-up economic nationalism that anyone on the Left will recognize as identical in logic to military nationalism.

Sanders, on the other hand, is a passionate opponent of corporate greed and the “billionaire class.” But he weakens his own case against corporate America by accepting elements of the us-versus-them logic of economic nationalism.

The truth is that the victims of free trade and neoliberal policies are working people around the world, not just in the US. To build an effective resistance, we need a left and a labor movement that understands its biggest enemy is corporate America itself, not unfair trade from abroad — and its biggest potential ally is the working classes of other countries, organized in solidarity against the corporations that rule over all of them.

The Effects of NAFTA

Trump and Sanders have distinct bases of support among voters — something the media routinely ignore. Nevertheless, the two candidates, in different ways, are tapping into a social and economic reality that the ideological defenders of free trade ignore — that the mass of American workers have seen their incomes stagnate and their living standards decline throughout the era of the rise of globalization and free-trade policies since the 1980s.

As economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, a partisan of Hillary Clinton, admits;

Much of the elite defense of globalization is basically dishonest: false claims of inevitability, scare tactics (protectionism causes depressions!), vastly exaggerated claims for the benefits of trade liberalization and the costs of protection, hand-waving away the large distributional effects that are what standard models actually predict.

In the heyday of the economic boom in the decades after World War II, high school–educated workers with good union jobs could expect to buy a home, take vacations, send their kids to college, and have a secure retirement.

But as a recent Pew Center study showed, the storied American middle class has eroded to the point where, for the first time, it represents less than half of US households.

The groups that have experienced the greatest downward mobility, according to Pew, are all people without four-year college degrees. Non-college high school graduates are more than twice as likely as in 1971 to be in what Pew defines as “lower-income” households.

Most of the occupations associated with the greatest declines in living standards are traditionally thought of as “blue-collar” or “pink-collar” jobs: sales, administrative services, mechanics and repairers, operators, and transportation.

Traditional manufacturing-sector jobs were on a long-term decline in the US economy for decades before NAFTA went into effect in 1993 and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2000 — two milestones cited by Sanders and Trump.

But there’s no doubt that the decline accelerated in the 2000s, when what the Bureau of Labor Statistics calls “production, transportation, and material moving occupations” dropped from 17 percent of all jobs to about 13.5 percent from 2000 to 2009 — a decline of 4.2 million overall.

A number of researchers associate this decline with trade, especially related to China joining the WTO. But there’s more than one factor at work, as former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explained:

There’s a lively debate among researchers as to whether trade or technology is more responsible for the decline in factory jobs. In reality the two can’t be separated. Were it not for technological breakthroughs, we wouldn’t have the huge cargo containers, massive container ports and cranes, and satellite and Internet communications systems that have created highly efficient worldwide manufacturing systems.

These “worldwide manufacturing systems” form supply chains that run from factories in Asia to Walmart shelves in the US — with US-based manufacturers, retailers, shippers, and financiers holding ultimate control over the whole process.

As Dhanjoo Ghista and Apek Mulay explained, US multinationals, or MNCs, “realized that if US goods could be manufactured abroad in China, imported back to the United States without import duties and sold to American consumers, the corporate profits of MNCs would increase exponentially.”

NAFTA has created an integrated manufacturing system in the auto industry, in which parts manufacturing, trade, and assembly is conducted in Mexico, the US, and Canada. Companies shift production between the three countries based on calculations about what is most profitable.

Even after NAFTA went into effect in late 1993, employment in US auto parts and manufacturing increased from 1.1 million to 1.3 million by 2000. The number of jobs then dropped to about 1 million by 2005-6 — before falling off a cliff in the onset of the 2007-8 Great Recession.

Employment in this sector hit bottom at around 623,000 in mid-2009, before the Obama administration’s auto bailout plan and the onset of an office recovery. Auto parts and manufacturing now employs about 925,000, about 50,000 workers below January 1990 figures, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These figures don’t mean that NAFTA had no effect on the jobs and conditions of US autoworkers. But it is clear that auto employment didn’t simply take a one-way nosedive from the moment NAFTA was passed.

What else was involved? This period in the auto industry has been one of declining union membership, speedup, two-tiered wages, and greater subcontracting across North America.

In 2009, the Obama administration’s bailout plan for the industry tore up union contracts, enforced two-tiered wages, and required the surrender of a generation’s worth of work rules. It was the US government under a Democratic Party president that demanded these concessions, not the Mexican or Canadian governments.

Meanwhile, auto manufacturers from Europe and Japan have opened plants in right-to-work Southern states within the US, where unions are at their weakest. As socialist author Kim Moody wrote in his book In Solidarity:

Shrinking membership in industries with growing employment can be partly explained by a geographical restructuring of several industries, notably automobiles, meatpacking, trucking and construction. In these cases, it was the unions’ inability to follow work to new sites, often in the South, that led to declining membership.

One drastic effect of NAFTA has been the destruction of small farming in Mexico when that sector was forced into an unfair competition with US agribusiness. By some estimates, more than one million farmers have been driven from the land. Many of the victims moved to Mexican cities or crossed the border into the US without documents to find work.

This example illustrates a couple of critical factors about free trade in the neoliberal era.

First, free-trade agreements like NAFTA are engineered for the benefit of US business, as levers to pry open sectors of other countries’ economies to investment and services. Second, they allow for the free movement of capital across borders, but not the free movement of labor. In fact, the era of NAFTA coincided with a huge increase in border security and repression that produced a record number of deportations — more than two million — under the Democratic Obama administration.

Two conclusions should flow from this: first, it’s a distorted picture to focus on NAFTA or other free-trade agreements purely or even primarily in terms of their effects on US workers. And second, socialists and labor activists won’t successfully challenge the impact of neoliberal free-trade policies on workers of any nation by pitting US workers against “people in Mexico making 25 cents an hour” — instead, they must organize initiatives to promote cross-border solidarity and legalization of Mexican workers, who are a de facto part of the US labor force.

In stark and obvious contrast to Trump’s scapegoating of all immigrants, Bernie Sanders’s powerful ad in support of immigrant workers in Immokalee, Florida, shows that he understands one part of this picture.

But Sanders’s solidarity with immigrant workers clashes with his rhetoric blaming trade agreements or China for the deteriorating living standards facing US workers.

That rhetoric points in the opposite direction of solidarity by accepting the competition between workers of different countries — and in that sense, there is a connection with the nationalistic scapegoating of Trump.

Who to Blame

Another important point to make is the simple fact that most of the lowest-paid jobs in the US — like those in food service and personal care — have nothing to do with trade.

These are among the types of jobs that have expanded the most since the Great Recession, and they pay below-livable wages of around $20,000 a year. These are the jobs that would benefit most from a $15-an-hour minimum wage and a union.

Writing in a different context in 2000 — at the height of the Clinton “miracle economy” — economics journalist Doug Henwood made a point that holds up well today:

I’m not going to deny that plant relocations to Mexico and outsourcing contracts in China have put a sharp squeeze on US manufacturing employment and earnings, and the threat of those things has greatly reduced the bargaining power of US workers.

How much has this contributed to downward mobility and increasing stress? The econometricians say that trade explains, at most, about 20-25 percent of the decline in the real hourly wage between 1973 and 1994 . . . That still leaves 75-80 percent to be explained, and the main culprits there are mainly of domestic origin.

I’d say an important reason that trade doesn’t explain more of our unhappy economic history since the early 1970s is that 80 percent of us work in services — and a quarter of those in government — which is largely exempt from international competition. What did “globalization” have to do with Teddy Kennedy and Jimmy Carter pushing transport deregulation, or with Reagan’s firing the air traffic controllers, with Clinton’s signing the end-of-welfare bill, or with Rudy Giuliani being such a repressive pig? What does “globalization” have to do with cutbacks at public universities or the war on affirmative action?

While lots of people blame the corporate downsizings of the 1990s on the twin demons, globalization and technology, the more powerful influences were Wall Street portfolio managers, who were demanding higher profits — which they have gotten, by the way, which is one of several reasons why the Dow has done so well.

For racists like Donald Trump, there’s nothing contradictory about spewing filth about Mexicans, immigrants, and Muslims and opposing — not always consistently — free trade. This sort of “America First” politics of combining racism (including antisemitism) with economic nationalism and protectionism characterizes far-right figures from Charles Lindbergh in the 1920s to Patrick Buchanan in the 1990s.

That’s why it’s problematic when left-of-center writers like Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi and author Thomas Frank, in otherwise useful articles on the Trump phenomenon and his anti-working-class agenda, tend to overlook this.

Taibbi, for example, wrote in Rolling Stone, “Reporters have focused quite a lot on the crazy/race-baiting/nativist themes in Trump’s campaign, but these comprise a very small part of his usual presentation. His speeches increasingly are strikingly populist in their content.”

The Nation’s Rick Pearlstein, a longtime analyst of the Right in US politics who attended the same New Hampshire rally that Taibbi was writing about, disputed Taibbi’s read on the rally: “[T]he race-baiting and the nativist themes rained down like dirty dollar bills at a strip joint,” Pearlstein wrote in In These Times.

Trump plays on the anxieties of his supporters — both economic and racial — and tries to direct anger toward a mélange of “thems”: Mexicans, Muslims, and the Chinese, as well politicians and bureaucrats who Trump claims are betraying the nation.

Despite singling out the Carrier layoff video, Trump doesn’t talk about the company’s executives in the same way — he characterizes them as businessmen with whom he can make a deal. Likewise, as left-wing journalist William Greider wrote in the Nation, when Trump talks about corporations seeking tax shelters overseas, he doesn’t blame them, but puts the onus on politicians for not offering them a “tax holiday” — which would mean, in essence, giving in to the corporations’ blackmail.

Our Source of Strength

Of course, it would be foolish to put Sanders in the same boat as Trump. But socialists are right to raise criticisms of Sanders’s nationalism — not just his pro-military foreign policy positions, his attitude on trade. On that issue, Sanders is often in line with leaders of US unions — but that’s one of their biggest problems.

We should have no qualms about opposing pro-corporate monstrosities like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But one of the US labor movement’s Achilles’ heels over many years has been its leaders’ willingness to join with the bosses in “partnership” programs to boost competitiveness against foreign rivals — and even in “Buy America” and protectionist campaigns.

Our opposition to these politics has nothing to do with the pro-free-trade bromides of the corporate elite. Instead, if union leaders turn the focus on foreign bogeymen like China or Mexico — or, worse, directly at Mexican or Chinese workers — they are diverting attention from the kind of action needed to organize workers in the US against US employers.

When Sanders invokes trade as a shorthand for the challenges facing US workers, he’s focusing on only one part of the neoliberal offensive against the working class — and it’s the part that’s probably least in the control of workers and their organizations.

No doubt, Sanders would agree that much more is at stake — from stopping privatization, to raising the minimum wage, to creating a political and legal climate that encourages union organizing. If US workers can make gains in these areas, it will go a long way toward addressing the crisis in working-class living standards.

It’s largely forgotten that free trade became a central part of US foreign economic policy in the 1930s, under the New Deal presidency of Franklin Roosevelt. In the aftermath of World War II, the US used free trade as a means to bind together Western countries behind its leadership in the Cold War.

In the twenty-five-year period after World War II, the US working class, with more than one-third belonging to unions at labor’s high point, experienced a doubling in family incomes.

In other words, the organization of the US working class — its source of strength against the corporations — helped to assure that more of the gains of the US economy flowed to workers than is the case today.

And that brings us back to the real challenges today. To fight the likes of Trump, we can’t accept an intolerable status quo. Defeating trade deals like the TPP is necessary, but this is a defensive maneuver, intended to keep conditions for our side from worsening further — and what’s more, workers of all the countries party to deals like the TPP have an interest in seeing pro-corporate agreements fail.

For the US working class to advance, unions and the Left have to take the fight to the US ruling class — the people who have been the main beneficiaries of free-trade agreements in the last three decades. That means organizing against capital in the US — and showing solidarity with Mexican and Chinese workers who are facing the same bosses.


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Lil Wayne Addresses Drake Rumors, Calls 'The Shots'

When his absence from Lil Wayne’s I Am Still Music comeback tour sparked rumors of dissension between Drake and the Young Money boss, the Canadian MC made a high profile appearance on the tour’s Washington, D.C. stop, announcing that he hopes to be a member of the crew forever.

“When I landed in D.C. and I got off the plane, this n—- looked me in my eyes and he asked me, ‘Did you drop out of Young Money?'” an impassioned Drake told the crowd. “And I looked him right back in his eyes and I said, ‘Boy, are you out your motherf—in’ mind?’ Man, I want this s— ‘Forever!'”

In a recent interview with MTV, Wayne has finally addressed the rumors, saying that his protégé’s absence from the tour, which also features Young Money rapper Nicki Minaj, Rick Ross and Travis Barker, is indicative of Drake’s workload, rather than his loyalty to his team.

Weezy also went on to state that such speculation only serves to spur him to work harder, and ignore the world’s distractions. “Nowadays if you don’t see somebody in the picture, then it’s ‘Oh, he’s leaving’ and he’s this and ‘Oh Wayne, you’re mad at this person’ and I don’t even deal with it man. I just get my money and call the shots.”

In addition to his appearance on the D.C. date, Drake also hopped on stage at the stop in Wayne’s hometown of New Orleans, where he performed ‘Miss You’ and ‘Forever,’ and shared the stage with the rest of Young Money for ‘Bedrock’ and ‘Every Girl.’

Drake is currently hard at work on his sophomore album ‘Take Care,’ which is expected for a fall 2011 release.

Meanwhile, Wayne’s long-awaited ‘Tha Carter IV’ album has been pushed back to June 21.

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Faithful To Each Generation

Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Hebrews 11:16

Do you ever feel like the people that came before you; your parents, grandparents, spiritual giants experienced God in a way that’s impossible to you? It’s a lie that so many people of this era believe.

We know that our God is faithful. Or so we say. But when this comes to our own impossibility do we really trust God the way our forbearers trusted? The covenants and promises that God made to Abraham and Sarah were impossible. When Sarah laughed at the angels who prophesied her son’s conception, it was with bitter grief. Her body was dead to any advent of new life. Sons were a salvation of sorts to women. A son guaranteed a future without shame or poverty. So when this elderly woman gave birth to her baby boy, she named him “Laughter,” or “Isaac.” This time when Sarah laughed, it birthed the promised child.

We often forget that God kept personally visiting this family line. He even visited Hagar, the slave, in the desert. And she wasn’t a part of this particular promise. Isaac, Judah, David, and Solomon…They were a part of the covenant and God visited each. No matter how a sinful people interfered with the plans, God was faithful.

So what can’t you believe today? What is impossible for you? What makes you laugh bitter tears? The God of our spiritual fathers sees you. He hears your pain. God promised Abraham, thousands of years ago, that all nations of this earth would be blessed through him. That promise is for you. Father God was thinking of you as this patriarch tried to count the stars while smelling tired camels and lamb roasting on the communal fire. “For unto us a son is born.” Our salvation. Our guarantee. He’s here. And you can believe Him.

Heavenly Father, Forgive me for trying to syphon off my parents’ faith. Someday I will stand before you alone. Give me hope that You will make a way for my future. Amen

Read the accounts in Genesis when God spoke to Isaac and Judah.

What did God promise them? Where they always faithful?

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Ludwig 14 x 22 White Marine Pearl Wrap Bass Drum

Blue/olive badge model features "thick" maple shell, large size Classic lugs, factory "slide in" spurs, newer black lacquer finish wood hoops and generic claws. Factory rivet seams have stretched; otherwise this drum has excellent chrome, wrap, & shell.

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Confessions of an Artist

Dearest Dreamwalkers, this lovely article by Margaret Kellermann — first published in Senior News, Eureka, California — is Dreamwalker gold. Can you relate?

Admitting: The First Step

Hi, I’m Margaret, and I’m an artist.

I’ve had this… addiction … for 50-some years. It started in my family of origin. My mom — a recovering kindergarten teacher — started me on my habit. I was 5. She taped waxy white paper to the kitchen table and produced dazzling fingerpaints, encouraging my brother and sister and me to make a mess. It was weird at first, hearing that from her. But soon I just went wild.

(Janet fingerpainting age 3)

My siblings washed the paint off their fingers, hopped down from their chairs, and went on with their non-addicted, “normie” lives. But I stayed long after the primary colors had turned gushy brown-green, the color of land from space. I kept mashing paint onto paper, scraping it away. It was like playing in mud, but indoors, with music on the hi-fi. I was singing along, creating the earth again.

Soon after, Mom asked what I wanted for my birthday. “I don’t think there’s a w-word,” I stammered pleadingly. “Something I can use to m-make stuff.”

“You mean, art supplies?” she asked.

Ahhhh! I heard angels singing. Art supplies! Yes. I wanted color. I wanted to express the beauty I saw in all creation. I wanted to put my hands into everything Art Supplies. My obsession raced along. In my teens, I retrofitted kits of beads and strings for my own designs. By my 20s, I was weaving blankets on my 36-inch floor loom, with wool yarn I’d carded, spun and hand-dyed.

From there, I went on to the hard stuff. Art workshops. International conferences. Degree programs. Through the years, friends and family responded to my relentless gifts of art with quiet despair. They saw how habitual it had become for me, yet they couldn’t stop a runaway train.

When I was 40, a well-meaning relative admonished me, “I knew you liked art as a child, but I didn’t know it was going to take up your life.” By then I was throwing and dipping raku pots, firing them in garbage cans on city streets during art nights. Finally, I admitted it. I’m… an artist.

Since then, wherever I’ve lived, I’ve created a dedicated space to paint. Sometimes when I’m deep into my painting, I toss aside tools and get into the paint with just fingers, swirling colors around, as when I first found my compulsion, my passion. By admitting I’m an artist, well, that’s the first step. Except I’m not going to quit.

Margaret has shown her work throughout Northwestern California, including Strawberry Rock Gallery, Redwood Art Association Gallery, and Ferndale Arts Gallery.
Learn more at bluelakestudio

(Paintings “An Hour Before Sunset” and “August Afternoon”)

(Ferndale Arts Gallery current MK show through September. And bowl “It’s time for a conversation”)

(“Waiting for News” painted just this week!)

Click HERE for Margaret’s latest book, Annie California

7 comments on “Confessions of an Artist

    1. LW—yes, I have a wonderful mom who still asks, “Are you painting these days?” Go buy some art supplies for yourself today. Blessings

  1. My favorite gifts as a child were crayons and paper, o other things where I could craft. “well meaning” friends and relatives always thought my penchant for art and books was charming, but not worth pursuing as a livelihood. Glad you stuck to your childhood passion.

  2. Little Willow, Laura, and Margaret
    I love seeing the cross-pollination on Dreamwalks. Little Willow – author and actress, Laura Moe – author (who might pick up some art supplies soon). Margaret -painter – author – songwriter. We are all well met.

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What is the difference between these sentences?

What is the use of で particle?

インドでの格好のまま来てしまったのです →

インドの格好のまま来てしまったのです →

  • 1
    Would you mind including the English answer as well? I think that this question will be a good resource for other users who are just beginning their Japanese study, and it would be a shame if they were unable to read this answer. – ajsmart Nov 5 '18 at 16:24

インドでの恰好 means "outfit/appearance when (someone was/is) in India", which only refers to whatever someone was wearing in India. This で is a location marker, and the function of の after で is explained in this question: using の with と,で, から, まで On the other hand, インドの恰好 is ambiguous, and it may refer to traditional Indian costume such as turban and sari if there were no context at all.

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PHP: Check if Start of each word in a sentence is uppercase or any part of a word is UPPERCASE

When working with strings, occasionally we would want to check if any part of a word is uppercase or start of a word is an uppercase letter. This post provide a generic function that can be extended to match your needs.

For this post I will use the string below as my reference string

Now let’s define our function that precisely checks a word for an Uppercase regardless of its position

preg_match() returns 1 if the pattern matches given subject, 0 if it does not, or FALSE if an error occurred.

Now let’s modify above function just to check if the first character is an Uppercase letter

Now let’s utilise the function we wrote above

I hope that in someway will be helpful to you, If you come across better method, I would like to know that,

  1. Way to complicated.

    $words=explode(‘ ‘,$sentence);
    foreach( $words as $word ){
    if( ucfirst($word) !== $word ) ===> no capital

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You Call This a Pied-à-Terre?

Pied-à-Terre: a small apartment, house, or room kept for occasional use; from the French, literally, “foot to earth”.

In New York City real estate, a pied-à-terre is an apartment to be used on weekends or short periods as a vacation home or a “non-primary residence.” Such a place provides access to the city on weekends for theater, museums, and restaurants for those whose primary residence is outside the city. It may also offer a way to be closer to a child who could be attending college in the city.

I’ve always liked the word, pied-à-terre, as well as the idea of having one. And I’ve also always associated the word “small” with such a place.

Well, I guess “small” truly is a relative term.

A story in today’s Wall Street Journal noted that billionaire hedge-fund investor Daniel Och just paid about $95 million for the penthouse unit at 220 Central Park South in New York City.

Mr. Och recently relocated to South Florida to save on taxes and plans for the New York City home to be a pied-a-terre, according to people familiar with the matter.

And what does he get for $95 million?

A brand new four-bedroom apartment that is about 9,800 square feet.

You read that correctly; not 980 square feet, which would seem to be the right size for a pied-à-terre, but 9,800 square feet. That’s more than four times the size of my house, and I’ve never thought of myself as living in a pied-à-terre. But apparently I’m living in something that’s even smaller than that. Can you imagine what his place in Florida must be like?

In addition to the penthouse, Mr. Och also gets a smaller apartment on a lower floor, as well as condo amenities such as private dining rooms, an athletic club, a juice bar, a library, a basketball court, a golf simulator, and a children’s play area.

That’s quite the pied-à-terre.

I just don’t think it’s what the French had in mind.

All of this is just further proof that the rich are indeed different than the rest of us.

*image from Pinterest

15 thoughts on “You Call This a Pied-à-Terre?

  1. You must feel sorry for the poor man, can you imagine what it is like living in such a big place – cup of coffee sitting looking out those huge windows? A major expedition to the kitchen to make the coffee and bring it back, then you realise you have left that good book you were reading in your bedroom, another long trek, only to recall you left your book in Florida!

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Tag Archives: yellow shoes

Hot and Cold: Jovovich Hawk Dress

I’m getting good use out of my floral Jovovich-Hawk dress. I recently wore it to work and styled it with orange tights and yellow shoes. I got the color inspiration from a kids’ painting easel that I saw in a children’s store in a mall.

I put on my dress added a brown belt. When I left the house, I realized how cold it was! It’s almost summer, but it’s still chilly in Seattle in the mornings. Seems strange since the rest of the country is in the middle of a heat wave. I grabbed my go-to safari jacket and warmed up the outfit, proving that this Jovovich-Hawk dress is a three-season number.

Dress: Jovovich-Hawk for Target
Belt: Wet Seal
Tights: Target
Shoes: Aerosoles

hawk with jacket

Jacket: Mossimo for Target

Filed under Fashion, Hot and Cold

Weekend day trip

I’ve been really into moss lately. I know that sounds weird, but I love it. The color, the texture. It’s nature’s velvet. Fortunately, in the Pacific Northwest, there’s no shortage of moss. So today, on my mini road trip, I took pictures of mossy things. Here’s what I wore, followed by the pictures I took.

wagon wheel

velvet jacket

Jacket: Doki Geki
Scarf: Street vendor in Seattle
Jeans: Citizens of Humanity
Shoes: Aerosoles

I wore a purple velvet jacket and a denim-blue and white scarf. To brighten up the outfit (and not have everything matchy-matchy), I contrasted the look with bright yellow shoes. If you had told me at this time last year that I’d be the proud owner of yellow shoes, I wouldn’t have believe you. I love these heels! They’re comfortable and cheery and go with a lot.

mossy trees

Mossy trees near Duvall

tree art

A surprising art installation in the woods

mossy wagon

An old mossy wagon near Woodinville

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Advent 2019: To You Christ is Born

Welcome to our Advent Bible Study for 2019!

Our next Bible Study will be Thursday, December 19, at 7:30 p.m. in the church library.

Our Bible Study Advent theme will be “To you Christ is born.” We will be studying what it means for Christ to be born in each of us. Tonight we meditate on the example of Mary, and her Song of Praise from Luke 1:46-56

“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,” Luke 1:46-47

Please contact [email protected] for more information.

Our Advent series schedule will be Tuesday, December 10th, Thursday, December 12th and Thursday, December 19th.

Date(s) - Dec 19, 2019 until Dec 19 2019
7:30 PM - 9:00 PM

Jeffersonville Presbyterian Church


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Sold! The Lord of Summer

I just signed the contract for the publication of my first erotic romance novella, The Lord of Summer.

There’s been a bit of going back and forth on this one – should it be a standalone e-novella or part of a print anthology? If print, it needed to be a good 4000 words longer, and finished pretty damn quick to make deadline. But it was also a great opportunity… and so I took it.

I love this story, and the characters, so it wasn’t exactly a hardship to spend another 4000 words with them. The novella feels better rounded, more balanced, for having those extra words to explore in.

I don’t have full release details to share just yet, but trust me, as soon as I do I will!

The most exciting part for me is that, after years of writing, I get to see the other side of things – the part that’s not just me sitting at my desk writing words and collecting rejections. At the end of this process, there’ll be an actual book with my story in. People will read about my characters.

And before that, I get to learn about the publishing process. And share it with you guys, right here.

Won’t that be fun?

(photo by Johan J.Ingles-Le Nobel)

  1. Pingback: London Book Fair – ROW Check in 5 « Too Much Temptation - April 18, 2012

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Stories by Jenna

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Erotica for All

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Season Finale Recaps: Once Upon a Time and Arrow [Spoiler Alert]

Once Upon a Time and Arrow are two of my favorite shows, but one ended stronger than the other. I’ll start with Once Upon a Time because that one I found to be aggravating.

The focus for the second half of this season has been on keeping Emma from going dark. Everyone acted as though Emma was pure of heart, which all you have to do is look at her past to see she has a dark side. Granted, she’s turned her life around, but still she angers easily and isn’t trusting.

Before the finale, we saw Emma successfully fight off going dark. She wouldn’t let Gold win. Here comes the annoying part. In the end, he did.

I’ll skip the first half of the finale. While entertaining, the only major thing to come out of it is that Henry is now the author.

In the second half, Belle finds out the darkness is completely taking over Gold. She gets help and the wizard takes the darkness out of Gold and puts it into the hat. But it is too much darkness for the hat to hold. The darkness escapes and eventually surrounds Regina. I thought for sure Regina was going bad again. A bad Regina is so much fun.

But would I get my bad Regina back for next season? No. Emma, ever the hero, saves Regina by sticking the dagger into the darkness and allowing it to claim her. Emma is now the Dark One.

After wasting half of a season on keeping Emma light, she ends up dark anyway. I’m annoyed and wonder how long I’m going to have to watch Emma as the Dark One. I hope it’s only for the first half of the next season.

Now, it’s time to discuss Arrow, which was awesome. Oliver’s plan to take out the virus and Ra’s al Ghul before getting to Starling City fails. He returns to his lair with Nyssa where he’s greeted by an angry Diggle and Felicity.

Despite the anger, they all work together to come up with a plan to stop Ra’s before he can release the virus. Unfortunately, the plan fails, but it leaves a clue as to the next season’s villain — Damien Darhk, a former member of the League of Assassins.

Malcolm and company are able to contain the virus threat and Oliver has a final battle with Ra’s. Oliver beats Ra’s only to be shot by the police. He goes over the bridge and Felicity, in Ray’s Atom suit, flies in and saves him.

The last few minutes gave us a new hero and a new Ra’s. Thea becomes known as Speedy. I love that she is part of the team keeping Starling City safe.

As part of an agreement with Malcolm, Oliver gives Malcolm the Ra’s ring, making Malcolm the head of the League of Assassins. I figure nothing good can come of that.

It looks like Diggle will have a costume next season and Ray will be getting his own show, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Also, we finally have Olicity. Oliver gave up the Arrow to drive off into the sunset with Felicity. I don’t expect his retirement to last, but it’s nice to see Felicity and Oliver together for now.

What did you think of these finales?

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Dr. Jennifer W. Shewmaker

Parent, Teacher, Author

Gender Stereotypes and The Ambition Gap

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 28JAN11 - Sheryl Sandberg, ...

Image via Wikipedia

In this insightful article, Samantha Ettus draws a connection between the gender stereotypes that are constantly presented to girls in children’s media and product marketing and the ambition gap that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg discusses in this video from the World Economic Forum.

Sandberg Sees Global `Ambition Gap’ for Women – Video – Bloomberg.

Sandberg talks about the ways that girls are taught by our culture to have different expectations of themselves. When they are being bombarded by products that promote “hanging out” and “getting ready for parties” such as what you see in this new LEGO Friends commercial, this is what our girls believe is important. We see products for girls that say things like “I’m too pretty to do math” and the ubiquitous “sassy” and “flirty” splashed across even infant clothing. Even girls who want to achieve and succeed in areas beyond their appearance feel the pressure of going against this stereotype, and it affects their performance academically. For more on this phenomenon, which is called, Stereotype Threat, see this post.

Lego Friends commercial

What do we think is going to happen when girls are constantly being told that their goal in life, their value, lies primarily in how they look? Today I went to an “Invention Convention” held in my 7-year-old daughter’s 2nd grade classroom. Each child either chose an inventor to talk about or made their own invention. Both boys and girls were excited to be learning, to be challenged, to think about being inventors who could create something wonderful for the world. But these are the same girls who I heard not long ago talking about how eating ice cream makes you fat. 7-year-old children were worried about eating ice cream! Now, if some of them had been overweight already, I might have thought perhaps they had heard this from their doctor and were on an eating plan for better health. But no, these were all healthy young girls. Where are they getting these messages? Likely these messages are coming from home, peers and media. And this appearance monitoring affects them, and becomes even stronger and more distracting as they get older. Middle school girls lose interest in STEM areas in droves and begin focusing more on their appearance and romantic relationships.

We are sending our daughters ridiculously mixed messages. We tell them, “you can be anything!”  but darn it you better be beautiful and thin while doing that. We have commentators on news channels discussing the appearance of our female politicians. Hillary Clinton gets criticized for being “too masculine” and “haggard” while other female politicians or political nominees get asked if they’ve had plastic surgery. Really? What about asking about where they stand on political issues? What does this say to young girls? That no matter how smart they are, no matter how creative, no matter how kind, what really matters at the end of the day is how they look.

We must be about more than this! As adults, we must be teaching ALL children that they are more than their physical appearance. Their worth comes from their internal qualities that can be developed like their talents, their intelligence, their kindness and character. Adults must start pushing back on these ridiculous stereotyped ideas that teach our girls to value their appearance above anything. We can do this in some specific ways:

  • Start at home by sending a different message. Keep fat and appearance talk at a minimum. Don’t criticize your own body, your child’s body or other people’s bodies. Instead, talk about health and fun when you talk about moving your body and eating healthy foods. Let the kids in your life hear you promoting the idea that people are valuable for who they are on the inside. Openly express your admiration for their talents and good qualities.
  • Talk openly about the stereotypes and appearance related messages that the kids in your life are getting. Ask them, “What do you think about that?” Engage in media with your child, and when appearance related messages come up, point them out and discuss them.
  • Push companies to provide healthier messages. Refuse to spend your money on products that promote narrow, gendered ideas of value. To get change from industry, consumers must put our money where our mouth is.

There are incredibly powerful women like Sandberg pushing this issue, and there are child experts and activists asking parents and companies to think more closely about the  messages that we are sending girls about their value. We must stand up and be willing to push this issue or there will continue to be an ambition gap. Children learn in context, and if they are being told that female value lies in appearance, that is what they will learn. Let’s stand up and teach them a different lesson, the lesson that female value is so much more than how they look, that it is about who they are.

4 comments on “Gender Stereotypes and The Ambition Gap

  1. changetakestime
    March 4, 2012

    I couldn’t agree more! I would add that if you have a cable TV deal where you pick your channels, put your money where your mouth is (like you said) and don’t buy anything with Entertainment Tonight, or any of the hyper-masculine (women-objectifying), or hyper-feminine (stereotyping) shows. And steer clear of tabloid magazines, of course!

  2. Mary Es Townsend
    February 5, 2012

    I grew up in a world where my father’s aspiration for me was to be an astronaut (seriously). When I came home from school after changing schools at age 10 and they said they were going to put me in the advanced math class, he sat down to try and teach me solving two simultaneous equations with two unknowns. In my graduating class 8 of the top 10 were women and nearly all of them had taken AP Math as well as AP English. My first few years in the work world, I was the only woman on the shift or on the team, but within 10 years women were getting to be common in my career field, namely “high tech”. I can’t say that I’ve ever suffered from a gender pay gap or a limitation in my career because I was a woman. Beyond that my mother retired with a higher salary than my father retired with. I realize that there is a good portion of the world that does have these “glasses” on, but I guess I self-select to people and experiences where my intelligence and capability are rewarded and encouraged. It is possible to live this way.

    • Jennifer Shewmaker
      February 5, 2012

      What an inspiring story you have! My hope is for more girls to be able to tell this story in the future.

  3. Pingback: Shaping Youth » Lego Friends: Please Build on Possibility, Brain Plasticity

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Following Carmen Miss17 Around Athens

There really is nothing better than traveling and finding that Miss17 has been there and there and there and there and well, everywhere! My trip to Athens was extra special because she left me a present. So, we went on an adventure and followed her around the city. I made a cheesy video from photos cause I couldn’t help myself and my partner Scott slapped together some video footage. Now you can see what it looks like when I absolutely geek out. 🙂

Let’s Be Clear: Aiko and Faith47 ARE NOT “female Banksys”

I have a Google Alert set up so I know when anything with the terms “Female graffiti writers” appears on the Internet. As you might expect, it’s not that active but it does populate something every now and again. Today, it notified me about an article posted a few days ago on The Independent: “In search of a female Banksy: Aiko and Faith47 take on a male-dominated street art world.”

Now, I don’t generally make it a habit to have public “ugly feelings” about problematic media stories with really good intentions (especially when they are centered on those who are often marginalized). I guess I live by “all press is good press” because at the very least, even with bad press, conversations are sparked. But from the moment I read the title of Daisy Wyatt’s piece, my pulse quickened.

I’m not going to go into the semantics of “graffiti writer” versus “street artist,” because that is not only controversial, but also highly subjective—there’s a lot at stake socially in relation to street credentials and respect for bombers, not to mention the financial stakes of who gets paid to do what where and when. Miss17 and I get into a debate about these stakes almost daily, and my favorite role is devil’s advocate. But, the distinctions and overlaps between these classifications are not my main concern. And don’t even get me started on her brief account of a “female” aesthetic. Because honestly, #icant.

What I want to know is: Why would an article highlighting women’s work in a male-dominated field write about them through men’s work?

I mean. Have we learned nothing from decades of works by feminist artists specifically responding to this??

I digress: I would usually hyperlink to something here, but THERE ARE SO MANY it’s almost impossible to choose. Check out my go-to from late ‘70s Linda Nochlin for a broader critique and peep the Guerilla Girls (for that reader out there who doesn’t know about their spectacular work.)

Because “‘male’ does not have to be present to exert its power” (thanks Trinh Minh-Ha circa 1989; 27) we already have to qualify these artists as “female” artists. I’m still figuring out ways to maneuver this necessity in my own writing. But the way the qualifications are made in this piece goes further, and cuts deeper. Aiko and Faith47 are presented only through their relationship with a specific male artist!! The insult goes beyond the title of the piece: “After collaborating with Banksy,” Wyatt writes, Aiko gained fame. Shouldn’t we be thinking critically about why that might be the case, if that’s actually the case (I argue, it is not)? How is “fame” defined here? I knew about her before that film, and so did others.

In the very first issue of COP Magazine (at that time “Crimes of Passion”), contributor Cameron McAuliffe asked readers to seriously consider how we engage street art and what we read into it before knowing anything about it; he asked a question that made us think about how gender biases exert themselves, specifically in relation to Banksy: “What makes this a man’s work?”…“is Banksy a woman?”…“Is there something we can find that is male or female about graffiti?”

Let’s get something straight here. Aiko and Faith47 ARE NOT “FEMALE BANKSY’S.” (Neither are Bambi or Princess Hijab). They are Aiko and Faith(F*ing)47…sorry for the expletive, but DAMN. These women don’t need to be lifted into the light of media attention by some dude who won’t even show his face (not that I expect all street artists to do so, but the point is Aiko and Faith47 aren’t manipulating desire through mystery). Ya know, perhaps the “light of media attention” metaphor doesn’t even work. In a lot of ways the way they are portrayed here leaves them in the shadows.

They made their own ground, have their own light. They move through the streets painting masterpieces as they go…without Exiting Through the damn Gift Shop.

Come on Daisy, do your homework! I appreciate that you had the impulse to write this piece, and interviewed Martha C and the artists themselves. But the end result seems like a transparent ploy to pick up on the “Banksy in NYC” hype.

These artists deserve better.

Video Mania!!

Here are just a few of the videos in my bookmarks:

Mugre & Cerok “Lucha libre”

Anarkia Boladona “Piece of Mind”

Boosted Films Claw Money

Claw and Miss17 Interview

Few & Far X Ironlak Road Trip Tour 2012

Few and Far Miami Art Basel Behind the Scenes with AGANA

Girl Power movie Trailer

Indie x Karmaloop TV

Injah Painting

Janinné Nuz

Lineas // ZuriK Graffiti

Maripussy Crew 5PTZ 5.28.2011

Miss Van Sao Paulo 2013 VNA

Miss17 Graffiti

MRS Graffaholiks

Nish Cash

Turronas Crew

Xalapa Sede del FEMINEM


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*All images by IPRD, Jharkhand

Home Minister Rajnath Singh was today in Dumka as the chief guest at the Garib Kalyan Mela, organized on 1000 days of completion of the state government.

Speaking on the occasion,he said that the Chief Minister of the state has done wonderful work in 1000 days. The responsibility of the state government was properly discharged. The dream with which the separate state of Jharkhand was envisaged is now being realized. He further added that there has never been shortage of human resources & natural resources in Jharkhand, what has been lacking was implementation of work in a planned manner. He optimistically said that in the coming days, Jharkhand will stand in the category of developed states of the country.

Speaking on the issue of Naxalism in the state, he said that Naxalism should not create constraints in development work, or mislead tribals in picking up guns.  He also said that the support base of the Maoists is shrinking and Naxalism would end soon no matter what. He urged the Naxals to give up their arms under the states Naxalite surrender policy and join the main stream of the society.

The Home Minister said that India is among those handful nations whose economy is developing rapidly. India is no longer a weak nation. India's head is high in the whole world and it all happened in the efficient leadership of the Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He warned Pakistan that if it dares of any wrongdoing on the border, then India would not hesitate to give apt reply.

Chief Minister Raghuvar Das said that his government completed 1000 days due to the blessings and cooperation of the people."I bow to the people of the state to provide this feat" - he said.

On the occasion, a book 'Badalta Dumka, Dazzling Dumka' was released and Mayurakshi Silk Village was inaugurated by Hon'ble Home Minister, Chief Minister and others.

must read


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Bernie Sanders

My Headline Was Published By The Babylon Bee

Recently Bernie Sanders has taken some flack in the media for a 60 Minute interview in which he praised Cuban communist dicator Fidel Castro for his literacy program. Sanders then defended this during a recent presidential debate. Inspired by this...

Jimmy’s Table Podcast


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Shedding Some Light On The Polished Turd

Stuart Read
20 Apr
Reading time: 3 minutes
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So the award for the most entertaining blog post of last week goes to The Written Reference’s Craig Watson for ‘Polishing The Turd…’. I mean if nothing else, what a title!

In the post, Craig boldly likens recruiters trying to repackage bad candidates as good ones to the act of polishing a turd. Come to think of it, is there any better way to describe it?!

When faced with pressure from all sides as recruiters are on a daily basis – in the form of clients, competitors, candidates and managers – he points out that the easy option is to “whip out the turtle wax” and just recycle a bad candidate.

Craig identifies a few common problems that all recruiters face and we couldn’t help notice that JobAdder is well-positioned to help solve them.

Firstly, the main issue – polishing turds – which stems from a lack of good candidates.

At times every recruiter feels like they’re moving within the same pools of talent, hoping to find that extraordinary candidate before anyone else does.

JobAdder Anxious RecruiterGIF source: GIPHY

When feeling less than inspired on the candidate front, JobAdder’s ‘Top 10 Similar Candidates’ search function is heaven sent. Recruiters simply select one promising candidate’s profile and run a search in JobAdder that will produce 10 candidates with profiles similar to theirs. Unlike a standard keyword search, this search performs a comprehensive comparison of candidate resumes as a whole in order to help recruiters uncover those hidden gems within their own database.

JobAdder also recently made enhancements to PeopleAdder, a feature that is designed to broaden and diversify a recruiter’s pool of resources by creating candidate profiles from social media sites. An effective platform to reach passive candidates, PeopleAdder allows recruiters to utilise social media for recruitment with ease.

The other big issue for recruiters that Craig identifies is their dislike of the follow up process after a candidate is placed. He points out that the only thing recruiters like less than this process is reference checking.

Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix solution to checking a job seeker’s references. Yes it can be tedious and repetitive, but it’s worth doing to make sure the candidate in question is just as outstanding in real life as they are on their CV.

As for the follow up process however, we may have just the solution. HROnboard, employee onboarding software, is the most recent addition to JobAdder’s partner marketplace. Recent, as in last week recent!

HROnboard is dedicated to simplifying the processes involved with onboarding new candidates after they’re successfully placed, i.e. during the follow up period, and to making sure that new staff have an awesome first impression of their new workplace.

With a ton of savvy recruitment solutions in its marketplace, JobAdder helps put an end to sh*tty situations and make polishing turds a thing of the past!

Image source: Pixabay

Keep reading from JobAdder Blog

JobAdder plus Zapier integration blog header
Charlotte Jackson
Dec 4, 2020
David Pagotto
Aug 3, 2020


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Nampak Recruits Regional Sales Manager

Posted on :

19 Dec, 2013

Category :

Sales Jobs in South Africa

Job Description
Managing the regional sales office and staff

Gaining market intelligence and actively seeking market opportunities to grow Nampak Glass’s share in desired market segments

Negotiating pricing and contracts with customers

Attainment and measurement of sales targets

Development of the sales operations plan and monthly forecasts

Facilitating the resolution of constraints to ensure optimal supply to customers

Job Requirements
Have good experience and established relationships in the wine industry

A relevant sales management qualification

Have extensive packaging sales experience of which at least a substantial proportion been at an account management level

Have exposure to supply chain management and JDE

Proven ability in problem solving and analytic skills to interpret sales performance and market trends information

Demonstrate excellent communication, presentation & people management skills

Date Needed By 1/2/2014

Click here to apply online

Closing date: 31/12/2013

Anybody asking you to pay money to schedule your interview or offer you job may be a scam

Jobs in South Africa | SA Jobs | Companies | Jobs in SA


text:
1+ months

Care Coordinator - Telecommute in Honolulu, HI - 2000 Sign On Bonus for External Candidates - 899761

Honolulu, HI 96813 Work Remotely
Apply Now
Apply on the Company Site
  • Job Code

You push yourself to reach higher and go further. Because for you, it's all about ensuring a positive outcome for patients. In this role, you'll work in the field and coordinate the long-term care needs for patients in the local community. And at every turn, you'll have the support of an elite and dynamic team. Join UnitedHealth Group and our family of businesses and you will use your diverse knowledge and experience to make health care work better for our patients.

In this Health and Social Services Coordinator role, will be an essential element of an Integrated Care Model by relaying the pertinent information about the member needs and advocating for the best possible care available, and ensuring they have the right services to meet their needs.

If you are located in or near Honolulu, HI, you will have the flexibility to telecommute* as you take on some tough challenges.

Primary Responsibilities:

  • Assess, plan and implement care strategies that are individualized by patient and directed toward the most appropriate, least restrictive level of care

  • Identify and initiate referrals for social service programs; including financial, psychosocial, community and state supportive services

  • Manage the care plan throughout the continuum of care as a single point of contact

  • Communicate with all stakeholders the required health-related information to ensure quality coordinated care and services are provided expeditiously to all members

  • Advocate for patients and families as needed to ensure the patient's needs and choices are fully represented and supported by the health care team

Expect to spend about 80% of your time in the field visiting our members in their homes or in long-term care facilities. You'll need to be flexible, adaptable and, above all, patient in all types of situations.

You'll be rewarded and recognized for your performance in an environment that will challenge you and give you clear direction on what it takes to succeed in your role as well as provide development for other roles you may be interested in.

Required Qualifications:

  • Current, unrestricted RN or Social Worker license in the state of Hawaii

  • 4+ years of experience working within the community health setting OR in a health care related role

  • Experience working directly or collaborating services for long-term care, home health, hospice, public health or assisted living

  • Intermediate experience working with MS Word, Excel and Outlook

  • Ability to travel in assigned region to visit Medicaid members in their homes and / or other settings, including community centers, hospitals or providers' offices

  • Current access or ability to obtain internet access via a landline

  • Once appropriate to go back into the field, you will be provisioned with appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and are required to perform this role with patients and members on site, as this is an essential function of this role

  • Employees are required to screen for symptoms using the ProtectWell mobile app, Interactive Voice Response (i.e., entering your symptoms via phone system) or a similar UnitedHealth Group-approved symptom screener prior to entering the work site each day, in order to keep our work sites safe. Employees must comply with any state and local masking orders. In addition, when in a UnitedHealth Group building, employees are expected to wear a mask in areas where physical distancing cannot be attained

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Bachelor's degree or higher

  • CCM (Certified Case Manager)

  • Background in managing populations with complex medical or behavioral needs

  • Background in mental health or experience working with serious mental illness

  • Case Management experience

  • Experience with or exposure to discharge planning

  • Experience with utilization review, concurrent review and / or risk management

  • Experience with electronic charting

  • Experience with arranging community resources

  • Experience as a Public Health Nurse

  • Prior field-based work experience

  • Bilingual in Cantonese or Mandarin

Careers at UnitedHealthcare Community & State. Challenge brings out the best in us. It also attracts the best. That's why you'll find some of the most amazingly talented people in health care here. We serve the health care needs of low-income adults and children with debilitating illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, HIV/AIDS and high-risk pregnancy. Our holistic, outcomes-based approach considers social, behavioral, economic, physical and environmental factors. Join us. Work with proactive health care, community and government partners to heal health care and create positive change for those who need it most. This is the place to doyour life's best work.(sm)

*All Telecommuters will be required to adhere to UnitedHealth Group's Telecommuter Policy.

**PLEASE NOTE** The Sign On Bonus is only available to external candidates. Candidates who are currently working for a UnitedHealth Group, UnitedHealthcare or a related entity in a full time, part time, or per diem basis ("Internal Candidates") are not eligible to receive a Sign On Bonus.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: UnitedHealth Group is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

UnitedHealth Group is a drug-free workplace. Candidates are required to pass a drug test before beginning employment.

Job Keywords: Clinical, Home Health, Registered Nurse, RN, CCM, Medicaid Waver, Medicaid, MDCP, Social Worker, Social Work, SW Field Based, Home Care, Home Health, Complex Case Management, Managed Care, Bilingual, Mental Health, Behavioral Health, Case Management, Case Manager, Home And Community Based Services, Care Manager, Long-Term Care, LTC, Hospice, Public Health, Assisted Living, Medicare, Medicaid, Waiver, Healthcare, Managed Care, UHC, UHG, Unitedhealth Care, Unitedhealth Group, Telecommute, Telecommuting, Telecommuter, Work From Home, Remote, Hawaii, Honolulu, Oahu, HI, Hawaii

Posted: 2020-11-28 Expires: 2021-01-28

UnitedHealth Group is the most diversified health care company in the United States and a leader worldwide in helping people live healthier lives and helping to make the health system work better for everyone.

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text:
How to love deceivers and other difficult people – 2nd John, Part 5

Photo by Tim Marshall on Unsplash

In the previous post, John warned the Christians in the church about deceivers in their midst. But who was he talking about? Open a Bible or read online in 2nd John verses 10-11 to see how John describes them. Some scholars believe that he is talking about itinerant teachers who believed false doctrine.  There were many traveling preachers in that day.  It could be that John is only prohibiting people from investing in the work of those who were heretics, but John would have been okay with Christians in the church conversing with the false teachers and trying to win them over to faithfulness.  It is hard to know how much John covers through the words “do not take him into your house and welcome him.”

What we see for certain is a healthy caution, a guardedness, a yellow alert of sorts.  In his epistle in 1 John 4:1, he talks about this as well when he says “test the spirits”.  Testing the spirits means that we ask the question of them: are they teaching true doctrine about Jesus?  Just like the false traveling preachers, we have people in our day and age who have all kinds of views about God.  While we have a caution and do the work of “testing the spirits,” we don’t have to overreact in fear. Instead we choose to love them. Loving them doesn’t mean buying in to what they are teaching. In fact loving them means we treat them how God would want us treat them, and if their teaching is false, that means seeking to help them see the truth.

John then concludes his letter in verses 12-13 with some greetings, mentioning that he looks forward to visiting with them.

So what have seen in this letter called 2nd John?  John teaches the principle of walking in love, which we is not by feelings or emotions, but by obeying God no matter how it affects you.

God calls us to obey him out of love.  He doesn’t want force us to obey him like a drill sergeant does.  Instead he wants us to choose to love him.  Risky of God, isn’t it?  And yet wonderful because he wants us to have real relationship with him!

Christians, therefore, consider how they are walking in love.

It could be a spouse that gives their life to many years of caring for a debilitated spouse.

Or a couple that is dating and one partner develops cancer and rather than break-up, the other partner sticks with them, gets engaged and married, even knowing they might only have months or a couple years together married.

It is a movement from selfishness to selflessness that is very similar to dating.  Dating starts with “what do I like,” “what is attractive to me” and moves to “how will I give care to the other?”  This same attitude can and should happen among people in a church family. Christians should be that loving community with one another.

I’m convinced that this is what Christians need to focus on in our post-Christian world.  We need to be known as the most loving people around, first and foremost to each other.

That means getting to know new people.  Investing quality time in them.

It means looking for people every single Sunday morning in a church’s gathering who might seem disconnected or new and reaching out to them.

It means pushing past your own insecurities or weaknesses and connecting with people.

It means sharing your resources with those in need.

It means a willingness to be inconvenienced for them.

And it is rooted in Jesus, who is the embodiment of love.  Start there, with Jesus, whose Spirit lives in you, who loves you, and get to know his love, and then show your love for him by obeying his commands, one of which is to love those around you, even those who are difficult to love.

Walk in love.

Published by joelkime

I love my wife, Michelle, and our four kids, Tyler, Connor, Jared and Meagan. I serve at Faith Church and love our church family. I teach a course online from time to time, and in my free time I love to read and exercise, especially running,

2 thoughts on “How to love deceivers and other difficult people – 2nd John, Part 5

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Märkisches Landbrot

The best organic bread produced in Berlin. Can be found at organic / bio grocery stores in Berlin like Bio Company and KaDeWe.

5 thoughts on “Märkisches Landbrot

    1. In addition to local German bread, they also use recipes from all over the world; like Tibet, Austria, Italy, it changes every year. Some have chunks of vegetables inside like pumpkin, carrot etc and yes, they’re very good.

      1. Oh wow that is amazing, I never tasted recipes from Tibet and Austria. If ever I travel to Germany, I’ll know where to stop! 😊

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text:
I broke in…

Lewis Café doesn’t look like much from the outside. It sits on Main Street in downtown St. Clair under an old 1930s-looking awning in an old 1930s-looking beige brick building. But in the restaurant world, the homely facade means there’s a good chance to find home cooking inside. As soon as I entered, I knew Lewis Café was a keeper. Hardwood floors. Chrome-plated chairs with vinyl seats pushed up to tables that had local business ads laminated inside. Real pictures on the walls.

And I was right about the home cooking. The onion rings are homemade. The coconut cream pie is homemade. The chili is homemade. The beef is home grown. I was at home on the road, a rare feeling. I counted the booths. Seven. Across from booth row, seven squatty stools stood at the low counter. The place radiated good vibes. Daniel, the server, was the owner’s son. He was enthusiastic, with no hint of preacher’s kid attitude. More important, when he said that today’s blue plate special was outstanding, I believed him.

Virgil Lewis started this café in 1938. Back then, Lewis Café featured the same seven booths, same seven stools at the counter, same dedication to homemade pies and home-grown beef.

I ordered the special, a country fried chicken breast smothered in homemade gravy and surrounded by peas. Daniel recommended homemade poppy seed dressing for my salad. Outside the storefront window, the snow came down in flakes the size of Frisbees. It made the restaurant even cozier. An elderly couple came in from the blizzard and took a seat. The woman was distressed by the weather, and further distressed by her dead cell phone. She couldn’t call her destination to report their travels had been interrupted. I loaned her my cell phone.

Daniel arrived with my meal, and I ate as the snow piled up outside. When I finished, I asked Daniel for directions to the St. Clair Historical Museum.

“Easy,” he said. “Go down Main Street one block and make a right. Can’t miss it.”

Sure enough, I saw the big painted museum sign above the door of an old house on the corner. Through the falling snow I could read the museum’s business hours: “Open 1 – 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.” I was in luck. It was 2 p.m. Saturday. So I pulled to the shoulder and stepped out into four inches of fresh snow. As I walked to the museum entrance, I noticed that my tracks were the first upon the front porch. I tried the door. It was unlocked. So I entered.

No answer. The lights were turned off, and it was apparent that no curator was present. That’s understandable. Who would expect a visitor to a small-town museum on a snowy afternoon like this?

I fumbled around in the darkened room for a light switch as a staccato beep began to register in my ears, soft at first but getting louder with each successive beep. The burglar alarm! I hesitated, and considered looking around the museum for a bit while waiting for the police to show up. I’d just explain to the cops that I came to see the museum, that the sign said it was open.

Then I envisioned handcuffs and delays and fingerprints and lengthy explanations and 18 coats of paint on the iron bars across the front of the cold confines of a rural jail cell I’d be sharing with some sobering-up wife beater. So I calmly exited the house, shut the door behind me, and waited for the cops. Nobody showed up, even though I could see the police station from the porch. The beeping intensified, blaring from a loudspeaker above the museum’s old farmhouse door. I slowly walked toward Erifnus, allowing plenty of time for the authorities to respond to the alarm.

But nobody showed up. I scraped an inch of new snow off Erifnus’ windshield, climbed in the cockpit and backed onto a side street. I took my time turning Erifnus around, leisurely driving back up to the main street, and looked for a policeman. But nobody. They must’ve been busy attending to a dozen fender benders on the slick streets. I drove around town, taking pictures of an old Frisco caboose and the old International Shoe Company, a big empty brick building that dominates the eastern end of downtown. We circled back to the museum. The alarm was turned off. Nobody was around. We made tracks out of town. — A Road Trip Into America’s Hidden Heart

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3 Comments on “I broke in…”

  1. Wonderful tale John. Wesley and I have been going to Lewis cafe for many years. It’s on the way to our favorite winery. Gorgeous town with the most wonderful shops. Glad you shared your story.

  2. John anytime you come by St. Clair and want to see the new Museum you just drop me an email or give me a phone call. We will get someone there on the fastest notice we can. BTW…we’re cross posting this to our FB page. The best we can do. And if you have the time, and they are open, we’ll treat you to Lewis’s too.
    St. Clair Historical Museum Vice President for 2019. — Jo Schaper

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text:
McAleen family histories

AuthorTitlePublisherPlaceDateCommentSample refSample location
[Unknown] The Allens of Lisconnan in the County of Antrim (manuscript) None Ms 32543 National Library of Ireland
Allen W.E.D David Allen: the history of a family firm, 1857-1957 London 1957 Ir 9292 a 8 National Library of Ireland
Allen Lester M. The Allen family : descendants of John and Amy Cox Allen with Allied Lines Lester M. Allen, Greensboro, N.C. 1987 524 p. Ir 9291 a 5 National Library of Ireland
Allen Pierre Les Allen se souviennent : une histoire de famille the author], St-Anselme : [ 1980 104 p. GO 521 National Library of Ireland
Denny H.L.L An account of the family of Alen of St Wolstan's, Co. Kildare, 1903 Ir 9292 a 1 National Library of Ireland
Streeter Allen R Descendants of James and Anna Bella (Sterritt) Allen of County Down, Ireland, second in descent from Richard and Martha Allen. A.R. Streeter, Saginaw, Mich 1988. 32 p CS499 .A45 1988 Library of Congress
Swanzy Rev. H.B. The family of Nixon of Nixon Hall, Co. Fermanagh, and Nixon Lodge, Co. Cavan : with a short account of the families of Erskine of Cavan and Allin of Youghal, by a descendant Thom, Dublin: 1899 45 p. GO 513 National Library of Ireland
AuthorTitleJournal or bookReferenceSample locationSample call no.
Mac Giolla Easpaig Fergus 'Gaelic families of Co. Donegal' Donegal History and Society National Library of Ireland Ir 94113 d 12
Sadleir T.U. 'Ladytown and the Allens' Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society IX, 1918, 60-9 National Library of Ireland Ir 794106 k 2

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text:
The achievement gap opens in the earliest years, the period when children’s brains grow fastest. By age three, children of low income families know only half the words of children in more advantaged families. As a result, disadvantaged children can be 18 months behind their peers by the time they start kindergarten.

From ReadyNation conference, Atlanta, Ga. 2013

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JERRY ROBERTS Income management by the Cashless Debit Card

The Cashless Debit Card when seen in the context of robots and drug testing at Centrelink, tax cuts for the comfortable, religious protection laws, the Witness K trial and open slather for financiers adds to the impression that our country now resembles more closely Margaret Atwood’s Gilead than Ben Chifley’s Australia.

In the Summer 2018-19 edition of the Journal of Australian Political Economy Elise Klein and Sarouche Razi report on their 13 month study under the heading “Contemporary Tools of Dispossession: The Cashless Debit Card Trial in the East Kimberley.” The card trial commenced officially on 26 April 2016, originally for a year in the East Kimberley of WA and in Ceduna in South Australia. The Federal Government extended the trial for another two years in March 2017 in those areas and added the West Australian Goldfields to the programme in February 2018. The card restricts the amount of cash that can be withdrawn to 20 percent of the total money received. The remaining 80 percent is quarantined to purchases of restricted items with the goal of reducing gambling and consumption of alcohol and drugs.

Klein and Razi quote an earlier government-commissioned study by Bray et al who reported in 2014 on the original income management programme that followed the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response, known as The Intervention, when our government used our armed forces against our people. The Bray report concluded: “A wide range of measures related to consumption, financial capability, financial harassment, alcohol and related behaviours, child health, child neglect, developmental outcomes and school attendance have been considered as part of this evaluation …. Despite the magnitude of the programme the evaluation does not find any consistent evidence of income management having a significant positive impact.”

Klein and Razi examined the current Cashless Debit Card Trial from the lived experience of people on the card, whom they interviewed, and from political, economic and sociological perspectives. They conclude that the project is “disconnected” from the lives of those on the card. “The trial of the Cashless Debit Card in the East Kimberley is perverse contemporary policy. Not only did the trial bring material hardship through limiting the amount of cash to people in receipt of most social security payments, but it also further disempowered those marginalised by relational poverty.”

We should always pay attention to people working at the coal face, one of whom is Sydney psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed who sees every day the results of alcohol and drug dependence and is sympathetic to government policy. In the Australian Financial Review of 10 September he wrote: “Long-term welfare dependency is often linked to drug use. Asking people to take a test before receiving taxpayer money is not unreasonable. The debate around Newstart, drug-testing and expanding the use of Cashless Debit Cards all overlap this issue.” Generations of home-makers would have welcomed a card to buy groceries after their husbands had donated their wages to publicans and bookmakers.

My personal view is that the Northern Territory Intervention was a mistake and the Cashless Debit Card compounds the error and is dangerous. Aboriginal affairs is a purely academic field for the great majority of Australians who live in our capital cities where they are far more likely to encounter a native of Somalia than they are to meet a traditionally-oriented Australian Aborigine. It is a different story in northern and inland outback towns where Aboriginal people often constitute a significant percentage of local populations.

Officially the card is not aimed specifically at Aboriginal people but they know they are the primary targets. They know they are being put down. People don’t like being put down. Klein and Razi were on the spot when the trial commenced in the East Kimberley and they report that the card within weeks was called “the white card” by its Aboriginal users. This is not a reference to the colour of the plastic, which is silver. It is white as in “whitefella.” This exercise in electronic paternalism may just be the spark that ignites serious racial tensions. This could get ugly. Governments are bullies sucking up to the rich and famous, comforting the comfortable and putting the boot in to the poor and dispossessed.

There has been talk even from the Prime Minister himself of extending the use of the cashless card. Before going down this path legislators would want to study the performance of the project to date, including the research of Klein and Razi and the audit discussed by reporter Rick Morton in the 14 September edition of The Saturday Paper. People interviewed by Klein and Razi were under the impression that fees were charged against the card. If so, who receives the fees?

Legislators would want to study the original design of the card programme, the tendering process, the issues of intellectual property, the cost of the programme to the government and the workings of the programme in practice all the way down the chain to the beneficiaries, which are the businesses accredited to receive the card, some of them in monopoly positions in one-horse towns. Particular attention should be paid to the role of the private company Indue Ltd, the Commonwealth Bank and the Minderoo Foundation.

When it has looked at the evidence I expect the Parliament to wind back, not extend the use of the Cashless Debit Card. Linda Burnie has provided a face-saving solution for Canberra with her suggestion that the use of the card should be voluntary. Linda is to be congratulated for reminding her colleagues of the reason for their Party’s existence at a time when Labor is under pressure to slide to the right and be yet another insipid cheer-leader for the financial establishment, settling into the comfortable club that Murdoch’s smug commentators condescendingly call “the sensible centre.”

In Canberra we saw a joyous awakening of our Parliament on 19 September when Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar brought the Currency (Restrictions on the Use of Cash) Bill 2019 to the House. The Opposition Parties gave him short shrift and sent this tawdry piece of financial fascism to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee where experts can demolish the Government’s lamentable excuses that this set of riding instructions from the money power has something to do with curbing the black economy, tax evasion or organised crime. The $10,000 cash limit came out of the blue at a time when governments and reserve banks around the world are resorting to unprecedented radical measures in a sure sign of desperation. Any Australian who does not smell a rat must be a heavy smoker who has lost his olfactory senses.

As the political parties struggle to decide whether they are Arthur or Martha our best hope for the immediate future is that the Parliament will do its job, examine legislation and investigate the motives of the Executive with its links to vested interests and their lobbyists ….while ignoring the antics of Scomo and Albo, of Boris and the Donald.

Jerry Roberts is a former parliamentary reporter and a member of the ALP

Jerry Roberts, born and raised in Mid-West USA, trained as a newspaper reporter in Perth and has covered politics, manufacturing, and Aboriginal Affairs. He has spent the second half of his life in outback Australia.

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