|
 Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
 
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
 Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home  [Re: akira_akuma]
#24558428 - 08/16/17 03:09 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I'm in the process of reading it, but here's the article from business insider.. it's pretty long though
Paul Manafort
Paul Manafort. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Newly reported emails show a campaign foreign-policy adviser's efforts to set up a meeting between Donald Trump, then a candidate, and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Paul Manafort, the campaign chairman, expressed concern about the proposal and rejected the request.
Experts say the emails could pose a "devastating" legal entanglement for Manafort.
The ongoing investigation into whether President Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Moscow during the 2016 election gained new traction on Monday when The Washington Post reported that a foreign-policy adviser, George Papadopolous, sent at least six emails during the campaign offering to set up meetings with Russian leaders.
Papadopolous sent the first email to seven campaign advisers in March 2016 with the subject line "Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin." His requests were reportedly met with hesitancy from multiple campaign officials, including retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, who voiced concerns about violating both US sanctions on Russia and the Logan Act, a law forbidding US citizens from negotiating with foreign governments without authorization.
Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign chairman and a current subject in the Russia investigation, also expressed concerns about the proposal and rejected Papadopoulos' request for a meeting between Trump and Russian officials in May 2016, according to The Post.
Manafort's rejection stands in contrast to his willingness to accept a meeting with a Russian lawyer weeks later in June, a point that Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, raised after the story broke.
Mariotti wrote in a series of tweets that perhaps the most important implication of the news was that "everyone on those emails was aware of the concerns expressed in the emails about meeting with Russians, including Admiral Kubic's concern about the legality of meeting with Russia."
"If anyone on those emails later met with Russians or accepted aid from them," Mariotti continued, "the prior emails about concerns could be used to indicate that they knew that the meeting was problematic and potentially illegal but nonetheless persisted."
The meeting Manafort attended in June included Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. Also present were Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin; Rinat Akhmetshin, a Russian lobbyist and former Soviet military intelligence officer; Anatoli Samachornov, a translator; and Rob Goldstone, the British music publicist who arranged the meeting at the request of Aras and Emin Agalarov, a wealthy Russian family.
Trump Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. AP
The legal issues 'are very similar, if not the same'
What may account for Manafort's rejection of one meeting and acceptance of the other is that Papadopoulos' was "pitched as a Trump-level meeting," said Andrew Wright, an associate professor at Savannah Law School.
In one email in April 2016 to Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager at the time, Papadopoulos said he had gotten "a lot of calls over the past month" about how "Putin wants to host the Trump team when the time is right," according to The Post.
Papadopoulos followed up on May 4, sending Lewandowski and Sam Clovis, the campaign cochairman, a message he'd received from Ivan Timofeev, a senior official at the Russian International Affairs Council, that Russian officials were open to Trump visiting Moscow.
Clovis replied, "There are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen," according to the report.
Papadopoulos forwarded the message to Manafort right after he was named Trump's campaign chairman.
"Russia has been eager to meet with Mr. Trump for some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss," Papadopoulos said, according to The Post.
Manafort forwarded the email to an associate and said, "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips," The Post reported. They then agreed to have someone else handle the response, indicating that it did not require a reply from a senior official like Manafort.
The proposal of a Trump-Putin meeting by Papadopoulos — a lower-level campaign aide who told campaign officials he was acting as an intermediary for the Russian government — is "a very different calculus" than the president's son suggesting a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Wright said, and that may have factored into Manafort's decisions about whether to accept the meetings.
Still, he added, the legal issues about possible violations of the Logan Act and US sanctions against Russia "are very similar, if not the same."
'Devastating evidence in a trial'
A spokesman for Manafort, Jason Maloni, told The Post that Papadopoulos' email chain was "concrete evidence that the Russia collusion narrative is fake news."
"Mr. Manafort's swift action reflects the attitude of the campaign — any invitation by Russia, directly or indirectly, would be rejected outright," Maloni said.
Paul Manafort
Manafort at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July 2016. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
However, the meeting Manafort attended in June 2016 was described in an email to Trump Jr. from Goldstone as "part of Russia and its government's support for Mr. Trump." Trump Jr. forwarded Manafort that email chain, in which Goldstone provided more details of the meeting.
"If you're Paul Manafort and your defense is to say, 'I didn't think taking this meeting was a problem,' and then you have the prosecutor showing the jury emails that were sent a month earlier where people are raising precisely those same legal concerns — that's such devastating evidence in a trial," Wright said.
Mariotti agreed.
"I expect those earlier emails to be used against Manafort, who is already in the hot seat after the FBI executed a search warrant at his home," he wrote, referring to Papadopoulos' correspondence. "Although Manafort's lawyer suggests that the emails exonerate him, they appear problematic in light of the later meeting."
Manafort has come under increased public scrutiny after The Post reported last week that the FBI conducted a predawn raid on his home in July.
Agents working with Robert Mueller, the special counsel leading the bureau's Russia investigation, left Manafort's home "with various records," according to The Post.
Manafort has been cooperating with investigators' requests for relevant documents. But the search warrant obtained by the FBI in July indicates that Mueller managed to convince a federal judge that Manafort would try to conceal or destroy documents subpoenaed by a grand jury.
--------------------
Rate me here
|
 The Ecstatic
Chilldog Extraordinaire
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 33,816
Loc: 'Merica 
Last seen: 49 minutes, 26 seconds
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: akira_akuma] 1
#24558451 - 08/16/17 03:20 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
left wing thinks it has the answers to improving society, but it takes people in society, living, by whatever meager means, out of their equations of "a better society".
What? How did you arrive at this conclusion?
Quote:
i approve of the freedom of opportunity. you're wrong to say that that freedom is more-or-less not worth it- and that society would be better off nationalizing (methinks that's your position?) the means to production, making it public, and proposing a new plan for the economy. thing is, some of what you say can be employed, and is fine and dandy
So you cant have opportunity in a socialist economy? How did you arrive at this conclusion? Leftist policies directly correlate with rises in median income, class mobility, wages, etc. What about workers controlling the economy rips away opportunity?
Quote:
the crux of your arguments against the right, though, are
...
I have dozens of critiques against the right before i need to even bring up race. But seeing as how white supremacy is the hot button issue, it forces its way to the top.
And no i dont think socialism is a magic potion that will cure everything wrong with society. But im sure you knew that.
I disagree with your conclusion that the best choice is in the middle. But Im not gonna tally up the negatives between the two, wont change any minds.
--------------------
|
akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ
Registered: 08/28/09
Posts: 82,455
Loc: Onypeirophóros
Last seen: 4 years, 3 months
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: The Ecstatic]
#24558479 - 08/16/17 03:30 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
So you cant have opportunity in a socialist economy? How did you arrive at this conclusion? Leftist policies directly correlate with rises in median income, class mobility, wages, etc. What about workers controlling the economy rips away opportunity?
here is the thing: the workers controlling THEIR economy, does nothing bad to anyone, presumably, in a conscientious manner of doing business. the "workers controlling the economy" is a different matter, though. i am for the practice of democratized shareholding strategies within businesses. but you can ask Enlil, let's just say, what he thinks about controlling someone else's economy, their work/business...and i'm sure i'd mimic him in saying that i wouldn't approve. America is about equal opportunity. not taking opportunity away, and one would be doing just that, if one wanted to hand the "control of the economy" to...well, you. or whomever else you want to control the entire economy.
that's just...not a position i can espouse. it brings up constitutional problems out the wazoo.
Quote:
I have dozens of critiques against the right before i need to even bring up race. But seeing as how white supremacy is the hot button issue, it forces its way to the top.
And no i dont think socialism is a magic potion that will cure everything wrong with society. But im sure you knew that.
I disagree with your conclusion that the best choice is in the middle. But Im not gonna tally up the negatives between the two, wont change any minds.
ok. the right has imperfect thinking, all the same. i know that.
ok. i'm glad you realize there isn't a "magic" solution that i consolidated in one fucking political position.
ok. you can disagree, but the thing is, i'm not in the middle. i'm actually inside that which is the extant of the truth. aside from obvious truisms, everything else (the mobile army) is a means to an end...the end being the empty truth of nothing.
Quote:
What? How did you arrive at this conclusion?
PS: explained above. the left takes the opinions and considerations of the right out of consideration for the left's own ends.
this is not freedom in a representative democracy, as i've said before, as well.
|
keyser_soze
Truth Bomber
Registered: 03/04/16
Posts: 1,417
Last seen: 6 years, 6 months
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: The Ecstatic]
#24558626 - 08/16/17 04:45 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
The Ecstatic said:
We cant do that much better.
The left wants to improve society.
The right wants to make it worse.
I say we meet in the middle and do absolutely nothing. Notice how intelligent I am.
you do realize the right says the same things about the left. and the right wing won the election.
what does that tell you?
it should tell you across the country people are tired of the left wing bullshit.
sure, you will point to central locations of democratic voters and claim the popular vote....again, let me remind you...people across the country are tired of the left wing bullshit.
if ya'll keep it up it will be round 2 for the republicans in 2020.
--------------------
People in my Fan Club: Masked (President), Ballsalsa (VP), The Ecstatic*don't waste your time "debating" with him, he uses 3rd grader tactics (Director of Bullshit), Koods (Fake News Anchorman), Falcon - Devout Communist
*Word your posts carefully if they contain right wing values. The moderators here like to keep it left leaning, they will use every excuse to ban you but not the others. You've been warned.
Edited by keyser_soze (08/16/17 04:57 PM)
|
The Ecstatic
Chilldog Extraordinaire
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 33,816
Loc: 'Merica
Last seen: 49 minutes, 26 seconds
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: keyser_soze] 2
#24558752 - 08/16/17 05:35 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
What you think is left wing bullshit is things like not calling gay people faggots and people having health insurance.
You're woefully uninformed.
--------------------
|
The Ecstatic
Chilldog Extraordinaire
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 33,816
Loc: 'Merica
Last seen: 49 minutes, 26 seconds
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: The Ecstatic]
#24558753 - 08/16/17 05:35 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
The right wants to go backwards. Its literally their slogan.
MAGA
--------------------
|
keyser_soze
Truth Bomber
Registered: 03/04/16
Posts: 1,417
Last seen: 6 years, 6 months
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: The Ecstatic]
#24558809 - 08/16/17 06:16 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
The Ecstatic said:
autistic screeching like that is high on the list of reasons.
you may not think people like you are saying that, but to normal working folk every time you bring up racism in some ungodly way or protest during working hours or bring up the idea o them giving up 60% of their pay for single payer healthcare and expansive government services, that is what they hear.
Election day was the shroomery poll.
--------------------
People in my Fan Club: Masked (President), Ballsalsa (VP), The Ecstatic*don't waste your time "debating" with him, he uses 3rd grader tactics (Director of Bullshit), Koods (Fake News Anchorman), Falcon - Devout Communist
*Word your posts carefully if they contain right wing values. The moderators here like to keep it left leaning, they will use every excuse to ban you but not the others. You've been warned.
Edited by keyser_soze (08/16/17 06:28 PM)
|
The Ecstatic
Chilldog Extraordinaire
Registered: 11/11/09
Posts: 33,816
Loc: 'Merica
Last seen: 49 minutes, 27 seconds
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: keyser_soze] 3
#24558865 - 08/16/17 06:45 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
I'm done debunking your ignorance. Enjoy wallowing in it. You seem pretty blissful.
--------------------
|
keyser_soze
Truth Bomber
Registered: 03/04/16
Posts: 1,417
Last seen: 6 years, 6 months
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: The Ecstatic]
#24558946 - 08/16/17 07:18 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
The Ecstatic said:
I'm done debunking your ignorance. Enjoy wallowing in it. You seem pretty blissful.
Hey, who's the president again?
--------------------
People in my Fan Club: Masked (President), Ballsalsa (VP), The Ecstatic*don't waste your time "debating" with him, he uses 3rd grader tactics (Director of Bullshit), Koods (Fake News Anchorman), Falcon - Devout Communist
*Word your posts carefully if they contain right wing values. The moderators here like to keep it left leaning, they will use every excuse to ban you but not the others. You've been warned.
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: The Ecstatic]
#24558966 - 08/16/17 07:29 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Well, I think the US can see how ineffective the republicans are at leadership now that they have majorities in both houses and the presidency?
That's why I didn't vote. They've been running for president for the last 8.6 years and I for one was ready to hear them stop complaining. They didn't stop complaining but I think we can saythat they're incompetent, no?
As I pointed to workers rights earlier, sucks they can be fired for being at the protest huh? Right to work laws, weakened worker rights. Your employer can fire you for no reason, your side espouses that. Health care, you couldn't do anything about that.
If you think America is happy with the last 6 months I can't agree with you on that but we are seeing what republican leadership is.
--------------------
Rate me here
|
keyser_soze
Truth Bomber
Registered: 03/04/16
Posts: 1,417
Last seen: 6 years, 6 months
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X]
#24558974 - 08/16/17 07:31 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
the reason why republicans cant get shit done is because there are some republicans who arent republicans and simply on the republican ticket.
not to mention politicians are only worried about re-election.
--------------------
People in my Fan Club: Masked (President), Ballsalsa (VP), The Ecstatic*don't waste your time "debating" with him, he uses 3rd grader tactics (Director of Bullshit), Koods (Fake News Anchorman), Falcon - Devout Communist
*Word your posts carefully if they contain right wing values. The moderators here like to keep it left leaning, they will use every excuse to ban you but not the others. You've been warned.
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X]
#24558976 - 08/16/17 07:32 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Keys what are you proud of that the right has accomplished?
--------------------
Rate me here
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: keyser_soze]
#24558984 - 08/16/17 07:34 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
keyser_soze said:
the reason why republicans cant get shit done is because there are some republicans who arent republicans and simply on the republican ticket.
not to mention politicians are only worried about re-election.
How do you feel now that you've vote against workers rights?
--------------------
Rate me here
|
starfire_xes
I Am 'They'
Registered: 10/24/09
Posts: 21,590
Loc: Dallas with all the assho...
Last seen: 9 months, 17 days
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X]
#24559074 - 08/16/17 08:14 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Citizen X said:
Quote:
keyser_soze said:
the reason why republicans cant get shit done is because there are some republicans who arent republicans and simply on the republican ticket.
not to mention politicians are only worried about re-election.
How do you feel now that you've vote against workers rights?
Who is against workers rights????? 
|
starfire_xes
I Am 'They'
Registered: 10/24/09
Posts: 21,590
Loc: Dallas with all the assho...
Last seen: 9 months, 17 days
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X]
#24559091 - 08/16/17 08:22 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Citizen X said:
That's why I didn't vote.
That's is one big problem of this country. You don't vote, and you don't contact your representative.
You are the problem.
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: starfire_xes]
#24559130 - 08/16/17 08:41 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
starfire_xes said:
Quote:
Citizen X said:
That's why I didn't vote.
That's is one big problem of this country. You don't vote, and you don't contact your representative.
You are the problem.
You're certainly welcome to your own opinion but not your own facts. I didn't vote because 1. I wasn't in the country and 2. I wanted the republicans to win. I'm quite pleased to see what republican leadership looks like, aren't you?
Quote:
starfire_xes said:
Quote:
Citizen X said:
Quote:
keyser_soze said:
the reason why republicans cant get shit done is because there are some republicans who arent republicans and simply on the republican ticket.
not to mention politicians are only worried about re-election.
How do you feel now that you've vote against workers rights?
Who is against workers rights?????
You're confused? Right to work laws for one, if I'm wrong about that please let me know. If you know of some legislation put forth by republicans that protects workers, I'd love to be schooled on that.
If we have to get into the 40hr work week, etc I wouldn't mind that but if we do I'd like to it elsewhere, I don't want to jack this thread
--------------------
Rate me here
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X]
#24559133 - 08/16/17 08:44 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
Quote:
Citizen X said:
Keys what are you proud of that the right has accomplished?
If you're going to jump in on someone else's question please take on this one as well please.
Thanks
--------------------
Rate me here
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X] 1
#24559148 - 08/16/17 08:51 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
“Right to work” is the name for a policy designed to take away rights from working people. Backers of right to work laws claim that these laws protect workers against being forced to join a union. The reality is that federal law already makes it illegal to force someone to join a union.
The real purpose of right to work laws is to tilt the balance toward big corporations and further rig the system at the expense of working families. These laws make it harder for working people to form unions and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits and working conditions.
--------------------
Rate me here
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X] 1
#24559152 - 08/16/17 08:55 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
--------------------
Rate me here
|
Citizen X
Buzz Killinton
Registered: 01/19/14
Posts: 7,854
Loc: Djibouti
|
Re: FBI conducts predawn raid at Paul Manafort home [Re: Citizen X]
#24559194 - 08/16/17 09:17 PM (6 years, 7 months ago) |
|
|
How President Trump and congressional Republicans are undercutting wages and protections for working people
We are nearly 100 days into President Donald Trump’s administration, a benchmark that gives us a chance to take stock of what the president and new Congress have accomplished and what their priorities are. We have seen a flurry of activity—from legislation and executive orders, as well as actions taken (or not taken) by the administration—that, sometimes subtly, shift power away from working people and towards corporations and the 1 percent. Some of these actions have been high profile, but others have gone almost unnoticed. Taken together, they undercut wages and protections for working people.
EPI’s Perkins Project tracks actions by the administration, Congress, and the courts that affect people’s wages and their rights at work. Here are the top ten things the president and Congress have done that affect working people. For more, see our Worker Rights and Wages Policy Watch, which is continuously updated with information on the steps taken that affect workers.
Protecting Wall Street profits that siphon billions of dollars from retirement savers. At President Trump’s behest, the Department of Labor has delayed a rule requiring that financial professionals recommend retirement investment products that serve their clients’ best interests. The “fiduciary rule” aims to stop the losses savers incur when steered into products that earn advisers commissions and fees. The rule was supposed to go into effect April 10. For every seven days that the rule is delayed, retirement savers lose $431 million over the next 30 years. The 60-day delay will cost workers saving for retirement $3.7 billion over 30 years.
Letting employers hide fatal injuries that happen on their watch. The Senate approved a resolution making it harder to hold employers accountable when they subject workers to dangerous conditions. The March 22 resolution blocks a rule requiring that employers keep accurate logs of workplace injuries and illnesses for five years. This time frame captures not just individual injuries but track records of unsafe conditions. President Trump said he would sign the resolution. If he does, employers can fail to maintain—or falsify—their injury and illness logs, making them less likely to suffer the consequences when workers are injured or killed. Blocking this rule also means that employers, OSHA, and workers cannot use what they learn from past mistakes to prevent future tragedies. If the rule is overturned, more workers will be injured, and responsible employers will be penalized.
Allowing potentially billions of taxpayer dollars to go to private contractors who violate health and safety protections or fail to pay workers. The federal government pays contractors hundreds of billions of dollars every year to do everything from manufacturing military aircraft to serving food in our national parks. The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule required that companies vying for these lucrative contracts disclose previous workplace violations, and that those violations be considered when awarding federal contracts. The rule was needed, as major federal contractors were found to be regularly engaging in illegal practices that harm workers financially and endanger their health and safety. On March 27, President Trump killed this rule by signing a congressional resolution blocking it. This will hurt workers and contractors who play by the rules, while benefitting only those contractors with records of cutting corners.
Undermining important regulations that protect workers and consumers. On January 30, President Trump issued an executive order mandating that for every new regulation issued, at least two prior regulations be identified for elimination. This “2-for-1” executive order requires federal agencies to assess whether a regulation is worthwhile based solely on costs—regardless of the benefits of the regulation. For example, an EPA regulation issued in 2015 that prevents dumping toxic pollutants into streams and wetlands could certainly represent a higher cost to companies that will need to take additional steps to properly dispose of their waste. But the obvious benefits—keeping toxic waste out of our major water resources—far outweighs the costs to businesses. (The Trump administration has already ordered the EPA to rescind or revise this rule.) This emphasis on costs threatens regulations that protect workers, consumers, and the environment.
Allowing employers to penalize employees who don’t want to reveal their private medical information. In March, the Republican chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce introduced a bill that would allow employers to penalize employees who opt not to share private genetic or medical information with their bosses. North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx’s pleasantly named Preserving Employee Wellness Programs Act (H.R. 1313) claims to promote innovative employee wellness programs and a healthy workforce. But it actually takes aim at the Equal Opportunity Commission’s efforts to ensure that “employers can only obtain or request protected genetic and medical information when the employee voluntarily provides it.” The bill would allow penalties of up to thousands of dollars a year for employees who choose not to share this information through employee wellness programs, clearly coercing them into divulging. Nearly 70 consumer, health, and medical advocacy organizations signed a recent letter opposing this invasive bill.
Gutting the strength of labor organizing by forcing unions to represent and protect non-dues-paying workers. In February, Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Steve King (R-Iowa) introduced a bill to bar unions from requiring the workers they represent to pay the equivalent of union dues. The bill would establish a federal “right-to-work” law, which is a deceptive name for legislation that forces unions to drain their resources representing non-dues-paying workers. The law would not make life better for hard-working Americans. “Right to work” laws are already on the books in 27 states and the results are clear: lower wages and less bargaining power for working people. Wages are 3.1 percent lower in so-called “right-to-work” states, for union and nonunion workers alike, even after accounting for differences in cost of living, demographics, and workforce characteristics. Rather than further degrading the power of working-class Americans to bargain for decent wages and benefits, Congress and the president should be addressing wage stagnation and inequality.
Cutting pay for construction workers on federally funded infrastructure projects. On January 30, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced the Davis-Bacon Repeal Act. The Davis-Bacon act requires that construction workers engaged in federally funded construction projects be paid no less than the local prevailing wage. Careful research has shown that the act protects both the living standards of construction workers and the competitiveness of local construction firms bidding against transient contractors who might win federal contracts by using less-skilled workers. Repealing Davis-Bacon would save taxpayers money purely by taking a chunk of construction workers’ wages. It would not actually make projects to build roads and schools and other public goods more efficient.
Putting the brakes on overtime pay for the middle class. The administration has made no move to support a 2016 rule that would extend overtime pay protections to millions of workers. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, most salaried workers making less than a given annual salary are automatically entitled to overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours per week. The threshold aims to protect low- and moderate-earning salaried workers from being required to work excessive hours without compensation. Over the years, the threshold has been eroded by inflation, and the current threshold of $23,660 is below the poverty line for a family of four. In 2016, the Department of Labor raised the threshold to $47,476. While this rule is on hold under a court order, the administration has made its priorities clear. President Trump’s first nominee for Secretary of Labor, Andrew Puzder, opposed the rule. And after Puzder withdrew from consideration for the post, in his confirmation hearing the new nominee, Alexander Acosta, declined to assert support for the rule or even the department’s authority to raise the threshold. Raising the overtime salary threshold would directly benefit a broad range of working people, including 4.2 million parents and 7.3 million children.
Slashing the budget for the Department of Labor, hindering its ability to enforce wage theft and worker safety laws or provide job training programs. The “skinny budget” released by the White House on March 16 includes a 21 percent cut to the Department of Labor’s budget. Indifference or worse about the plight of U.S. workers is the message sent by cutting a fifth of the budget of the key agency that protects workers from being killed or injured on the job, safeguards workers’ pay and benefits, and provides displaced workers with job training and unemployment benefits.
Declining to raise the minimum wage and lift pay for low-wage workers. As of January 1, 29 states and the District of Columbia have a minimum wage that is higher than the federal minimum wage. In 2017 alone, minimum wage increases in 19 states will provide over $4.2 billion in additional wages to nearly 4.3 million affected workers in 2017 and will make a real, although modest, difference in the lives of workers and their families. But the federal minimum wage of $7.25 has not been raised since 2009 and is worth 25 percent less than its peak value in 1968. This decline in purchasing power means low-wage workers have to work longer hours just to achieve the standard of living that was considered the bare minimum almost half a century ago. On the campaign trail, President Trump spoke favorably of raising the federal minimum wage. It’s time to see bold action on this sentiment that could lift pay for the bottom quarter or more of the workforce.
--------------------
Rate me here
Edited by Citizen X (08/16/17 09:30 PM)
|
|
Threaded
Previous
Index
Next
Kratom Capsules for Sale, Red Vein Kratom 
Unfolding Nature: Being in the Implicate Order 
Buy Bali Kratom Powder, Maeng Da Thai Kratom Leaf Powder
Edit 
Reply 
lonestar2004
Catalysis
PGF
Visionary Tools
StroFun
whiterastahippie
1 2 3 all )
David_vs_Goliath
Bridgeburner