Target Practice

Bear is practicing ^ to join this one guy who is protesting weekdays at Target Corporate Headquarters downtown for the 40-day boycott/fast.
We might go down the block and stand outside the Target store itself though, where there's more foot traffic.
I think we'll go this Tuesday, my next day off.

Sister took me to lunch at the Art Institute yesterday for my birthday (day 3). 
I told her about the Toy Protest in Siberia, and she got all excited:
"The girlettes should do that!"

Yes, but they don't want to.
"We are too short."
 ? ? ?
"The BEARS want to," they volunteered. "They are taller."

I don't know what that's about, but it's true the Bears would be more visible on the ground--and the Bears were indeed on it.
They've been worried about bears in Canada, and they wanted to protest this country, the USA, "being mean".
Not sure where we can do that, so in the meantime, this is a good cause, and it's all interrelated.
Bears agree. "They are not being fair."
No one likes that.

I feel betrayed by Target--"my" Target––dropping their Diversity Equity Inclusion commitments as soon as Trump took office.
Cowards!

So I laughed in recognition to read this--(especially having just read about spite as a motivator for surviving the Soviet gulags):

 "A sense of betrayal can be a significant motivator for customers to take their money elsewhere," said Prof. Americus Reed II of the UPenn’s School of Business.

"One of the ways that you can really upset [consumers] is to claim to be something and then violate that standard that you claim to be...
It lands really poisonous on people....”

––"A 40-day Target boycott began this week. What to know...", AP News

And ya know, it doesn't help that I heard nothing at all in response to the card I sent the Target CEO. 
I didn't expect to, but silence is not a good message.

SIDE NOTES:

1. There's a March in every state for International Women's Day today. My pulled knee ligament precludes me going on marches now, but honestly, I don't much like the hub-bub of marches.

2. I was thinking, it's too bad I'm off Facebook & Instagram or I could post Bear Protest photos there. (Instead?)
But then I thought, it is so much better to SHOW UP in person anyway--and maybe people will take photos and post them on social media, and that will be better!

3. Boycotts work!

Supermarket News reports that the 1-day economic blackout on Feb. 28 hurt Target sales with a 9–14% drop in App & web traffic: supermarketnews.com/grocery-operations/target-hit-hard-by-one-day-boycott-now-faces-a-40-day-consumer-strike

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I was all revved up talking to Sister at lunch yesterday, having spent the morning reading about Nazi & Soviet protests (or lack thereof).
Was I making too big a deal of Mump? I wondered.

Sister said she'd talked to a friend in Paris, telling the friend that people she knows here are losing their jobs.

"We're worried about losing our lives," her French friend said.

 Right. This thing with Mump loving on Putin... It could go so, so wrong.
We're not making enough of a big deal!
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Some of my favorite people are Canadian.
William Shatner!

Wow--Shatner never talks politicals--and says he will block people on his site who do--but look at his Twitter a few days ago:

"I'm going to have to start charging a tariff for my posts since I'm a product of Canada..."

I made this mash-up of Canadian years ago:

ABOVE: James Howlett is Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), left, aka Logan in Marvel Comics.
 Benton Fraser (Paul Gross) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is from the Canadian TV show Due South.
They're both from the Yukon, so I figured they must've crossed paths.
________________

More on Target boycott, here at Unicorn Riot, demonstrating the point about betrayal:

“Target, I used to love you.
I don’t love you anymore.”

––Monique Cullars-Doty, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Minnesota

It's ridiculous to think any corporation is your friend, of course, but  a couple weeks ago I signed up for a membership at CostCo, because their board overwhelmingly voted to keep DEI.

I like Target stores much better, and as a single person, CostCo's giant sizes are too big for me.
But I paid $65 to show my support.
Money talks.

(I didn't need to do that:
for years I've gone with bink every so often and bought stuff in bulk with her membership.)

I talked to a couple of the employees there--including the guy at the membership desk--and they both lit up:
"It really is a good employer."

Mostly I shop at the local food co-op (between home & the thrift store) which is very expensive.
Really, I should eat less, and then good food would be cheaper.
That's a good idea.

The Bears are chiming in:
Buy Canadian maple syrup! (Um. This might be self-interest talking. I can't eat syrup, but they can.)