Obama labor board comes down hard on McDonald’s

Brian Mahoney Politico
In a significant victory for fast-food demonstrators, the Obama administration filed 13 legal complaints on Friday against McDonald’s USA, LLC, alleging 78 instances in which it violated federal labor law by punishing workers for taking part in fast-food protests.

Bay Area Public Defenders Rally to Show Black Lives Matter

CBS/San Francisco
Hundreds of Public Defenders from Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Solano counties held unprecedented Black Lives Matter protests at their county courthouses December 18th. They demanded body cameras for officers; the investigation of police-involved shootings by outside agencies, not District Attorneys; and no grand juries for police-involved shootings. “We need those three things,”Alameda County Public Defender Brendon Woods said.

There Is Nothing Natural About Gentrification

Tom Slater New Left Project
Given the pressing worldwide realities of disinvestment, land grabbing, rent increases, evictions and displacement; a class analysis applied to housing and urban issues is more urgent than ever. Gentrification is the neighborhood expression of class inequality. Its positives are only felt by those who profit from the loss of housing opportunities of others. And there is nothing remotely natural about it.

The Secret to the Uber Economy is Wealth Inequality

Leo Mirani Quartz
The so-called Uber or “on-demand” economy is a rerun of the oldest sort of business: middlemen insinuating themselves between buyers and sellers. The vital ingredient, without which this new economy would fall apart, is inequality. All that modern technology has done is make it easier, through omnipresent smartphones, to amass a fleet of increasingly desperate jobseekers eager to take whatever work they can get.

How Foreign Imams Have Radicalized Syria's War

Edward Dark Al-Monitor
When eastern Aleppo fell to rebel factions in 2012, well-organized radical Islamic preachers from abroad quickly moved in and began proselytizing extremist views to the local population. It is an example of methodically planned Islamist radicalization in the chaos and turmoil of war. And it raises fears that the effects of this extremist phase in Syria's civil war will linger for years to come.

Friday Nite Videos -- December 19, 2014

Portside
Millions March NYC (Time Lapse). Best of the Colbert Report. Stormscapes 2. Samuel L Jackson: 'Call Out Racist Police Violence.' Top 10 Cutest Animals of Science of 2014.

Millions March NYC (Time Lapse)

The view from 6th Ave and 29th Steet of the #MillionsMarchNYC. Approximately 90 minutes of footage in 30 seconds. 

Samuel L Jackson: 'Call Out Racist Police Violence'

Actor Samuel L. Jackson has issued a call to action -- aimed especially at his fellow celebrities -- similar the ice bucket challenge, but for police. "I can hear my neighbor cryin’ ‘I can’t breathe' "