Free Republic

14 December 2020 Washington, D.C. Yon-Genre, unedited mind dump: This is intended for journalists -- the few still on the field -- and peaceful people. I spent all day Saturday, 12 December 2020, with various protest groups in Washington, D.C. I believed the probability for violence was 90 percent. And it happened. Numerous stabbings, beatings, large fireworks, pepper spray, arrests, etc. Long time readers know that I spent years in serious wars, and more years in serious conflicts short of war but that were often as violent as war. And yet more time in lower-level conflict. This stuff is second...

A Texas waitress who claimed she was stiffed on a mystery diner’s $2,000 tip will take home the money after all — now that her employer has agreed to cut her a check. Emily Bauer, 21, will be given the money by the owner of Red Hook Seafood and Bar in San Antonio after the joint claims the diner’s credit card transaction didn’t go through, news station KENS reported. “It’s Christmas time, and everybody is struggling,” owner John Cheng told the outlet Wednesday. “I’m ready to give it to her as a Christmas gift.” Cheng reportedly wrote Bauer a check...

Cruising is easy. Or so cruisers will tell you. For starters, you only have to unpack once, even as you travel from place to place. You also don’t have to go hunting for a restaurant every night. There usually are a bunch just steps away from your cabin, and they have tables waiting for you. And you’ll have no trouble finding entertainment. But even in its simplicity, cruising still can be daunting for a first-timer. What should you bring? What should you plan on doing in ports? What is the best way to book? As The Points Guy’s cruise writer,...

I have an idea I would like to float past Freepers as to how to get the word out about how we are being hoodwinked on COVID-19. This idea involves using “tipcards” when giving tips to service workers, such as waitresses/waiters/food servers, delivery people, etc. I don’t know about you, but I try to tip these people more than the usual 20%, mainly because they have to wear masks all day long and I feel sorry for them. I am also rather impressed by how surly they have not become because of this. Many years ago, when I was a...

Safe Boating Tips No matter how much experience you have, it’s always a good idea for everyone to review boating safety rules before departures. Below you will find 10 basic boating safety tips to help you stay safe: 1.Be Weather-Wise Always check local weather conditions before departure; TV and radio forecasts can be a good source of information. If you notice darkening clouds, volatile and rough changing winds or sudden drops in temperature, play it safe by getting off the water. 2.Follow a Pre-Departure Checklist Proper boating safety includes being prepared for any possibility on the water. Following a pre-departure...

In late March, Instacart worker Annaliisa Arambula accepted a grocery order that came with a big tip: $55. The store was just down the street, everything the customer wanted was available, and the order seemed to go off without a hitch. But an hour later, Arambula checked her earnings on the Instacart app and the entire tip was gone, with a message saying the "customer modified the tip post-delivery." She ended up making just $8.95 from Instacart on the order. "I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe it," Arambula told CNN Business. Demand for grocery delivery is surging amid the Covid-19...

[snip] For workers regularly making more than $30 a month in tips, employers can currently pay as little as $2.13 an hour. That subminimum wage has been frozen at this level for decades. Should the Raise the Wage Act pass the House, it will mark the first time that either chamber of Congress has moved to eliminate the subminimum wage, which not only deepens economic inequalities but also happens to be a relic of slavery. You might not think of tipping as a legacy of slavery, but it has a far more racialized history than most Americans realize. Tipping originated...

Safe Boating Tips No matter how much experience you have, it’s always a good idea for everyone to review boating safety rules before departures. Below you will find 10 basic boating safety tips to help you stay safe: 1.Be Weather-Wise Always check local weather conditions before departure; TV and radio forecasts can be a good source of information. If you notice darkening clouds, volatile and rough changing winds or sudden drops in temperature, play it safe by getting off the water. 2.Follow a Pre-Departure Checklist Proper boating safety includes being prepared for any possibility on the water. Following a pre-departure...

Use bookmarklets for your online productivity. Simply drag and drop the ones you want into your bookmarks bar and you can do a wide variety of things. Get around paywalls for MSM sitesModify online formsAnalyze imagesReverse Image searchUse fancy text effects on Facebook or other sitesSend text messages to US Mobile phones from your computer.Grab all kinds of content easily! Drag and drop the bookmarklet of your choice as shown!

For more than a year, a group of Hollywood actresses waving the banner of the Time’s Up movement have been pressing Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to apply New York’s minimum wage to workers who earn tips, arguing that it would make waitresses less vulnerable to sexual harassment. Among the celebrities weighing in are Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Williams, Amy Poehler and Amy Schumer. Not surprisingly, the restaurant industry is pushing back, saying the proposed change would spell doom for many businesses. But it has also created an unexpected divide: Waitresses and other servers are resisting the proposal, saying they can...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) responded Tuesday to criticism from Ivanka Trump by suggesting Trump's daughter learned about working "for tips & hourly wages ... 2nd-hand." "As a person who actually worked for tips & hourly wages in my life, instead of having to learn about it 2nd-hand, I can tell you that most people want to be paid enough to live," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted, with a link to reports of Ivanka Trump slamming Ocasio-Cortez earlier in the day. "A living wage isn’t a gift, it’s a right. Workers are often paid far less than the value they create," she continued. Rep....

I believe in happy endings. Do you? The biggest political story in America today is AOC (Alexandria Ocasio Cortez). And I know how to produce a happy ending- at least for President Trump, the GOP and capitalism. I believe I can end AOC’s political career, as quickly as it began. For all intents and purposes, AOC is now the face and brand name of socialism. That means if we end AOC, we can end America’s dangerous flirtation with socialism. Democrats love to ask for the tax returns of high profile Republicans. Think Trump. Democrats demand his tax returns all day...

The wife and I are planning a trip down to southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas in late September/early October. We're planning on hitting some national parks along the way - Fort Scott NHS, George Washington Carver NM, Wilson's Creek NB, etc. It's gonna be a leisurely "We'll leave from Kansas City and start driving and see where we end up" kind of trip. There's no set itinerary other than we'll be down that way for about 5 days or so. I've requested the usual travel guides - state of Arkansas, state of Missouri, Springfield Mo CVB, etc. But I'm looking...

DC City Council Chairman Phil Mendelson announced Monday that he along with several other council members would introduce a bill during Tuesday's session to repeal Initiative 77, the city's newly-passed $15 an hour minimum wage. (Snip) "I don't believe the law that Initiative 77 would put into place is good for our city, good for our restaurant industry or good for our workers," Evans told a local ABC affiliate. Evans and others on the city council as well as Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser have long been critical of the initiative.

“Servers, and in particular women, can receive larger tips if they touch their customers, call customers by name, smile, crouch next to the table and engage in other similar behaviors. This puts workers who depend on tips in a difficult position when faced with inappropriate customer behavior,” ROC wrote. Chaisson called ROC “the Scientology” of the restaurant industry and supports the government proposal. “It is a pragmatic and sensible plan,” he said. The Trump administration’s pending policy change would reverse an Obama administration rule, which holds that tips are the exclusive property of waiters.

The Department of Labor (Department) is proposing to rescind portions of its tip regulations issued pursuant to the Fair Labor Standards Act that impose restrictions on employers that pay a direct cash wage of at least the full federal minimum wage and do not seek to use a portion of tips as a credit toward their minimum wage obligations. This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) seeks the views of the public on the Department's proposed rescission of those portions of the regulations.

Anyone have trouble with MRIs being too confining? I couldn't get through my first one....but, today, used Klonopin and a lavender washcloth to cover my eyes and breathed in the aroma. Worked great. No panic. Have upper back pain I needed diagnosed. What are your tips and tricks?

"Drinking ice water just before your drug test does not explain why your urine sample is cold"...The life of a lawyer is an insane one. Or at least that's the case for this West Virginian lawyer who has been posting hilarious advice drawn from his actual life experience on Facebook for years now. Check out some of his posts...for all future "legal advice."

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Salvation Army said donations for its Red Kettle campaign are way down from last year. On Tuesday, The Salavation Army said donations were down by nearly $2 million dollars in Northeast Ohio. Last year, the agency collected nearly $4.8 million over the holiday season. "Thousands of people in our community are hurting and we are committed to doing all we can to raise the necessary funds to support those needs," Major Evan Hickman, Divisional Commander for The Salvation Army's Northeast Ohio Division said in a news release. Video at source

The federal government is worried that America is too stressed out to deal with Thanksgiving dinner safely so at least two departments have entered to help everybody live through the uniquely American holiday while also curbing global warming. "This week millions of Americans will gather family and friends around the dinner table to give thanks. But for those preparing the meal, it can be a stressful time. Not to mention, for many it is the largest meal they have cooked all year, leaving plenty of room for mistakes that could cause foodborne illness," warned the Agriculture Department. As a result,...