https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Klc2RX3Ed-8&ab_channel=TheHumanistReport
Monday, November 9, 2020
Lame-Duck Trump Freezes Frontline Workers’ Wages
After the last polls closed in the 2020 election, Trump’s Labor Department issued a rule freezing farmworkers’ wages, even as his administration predicts a big increase in agribusiness profits.
Julia Rock
After the last polls closed, but before the final votes had been tallied, Donald Trump’s administration quietly issued a rule to help corporate interests deny pay hikes to frontline farmworkers who help maintain America’s food supply. The rule follows a Trump administration report forecasting a steep rise in agribusiness profits.
On Nov. 5, the Department of Labor (DOL) published a rule to freeze wages for farmworkers who are working under H-2A visas until 2023. The H-2A visa program allows foreign farmworkers to access temporary visas to work in the United States for approved employers.
The American Farm Bureau Federation, the agriculture industry’s major lobbying group, welcomed the new rule, saying it provides “stability during the uncertainty created by the pandemic and trade imbalances.”
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue praised the wage freezes in a press release: “This rule shows once again President Trump’s commitment to America’s farmers by delivering lower costs when they need it the most.” He added that, “Over the past several years farm wages have increased at a higher pace than other industries, which is why this DOL rule could not come at a better time.”
The move to slash workers’ wages follows Perdue’s department in September reporting that “net farm income, a broad measure of profits, is forecast to increase $19 billion (22.7 percent) from 2019 to $102.7 billion in 2020.”
Perdue is personally invested in agribusiness, and watchdog groups recently demanded the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspector general investigate whether Perdue violated the ethics agreement he signed when he joined the Trump administration.
Essential Workers
H-2A visa holders work under precarious circumstances, and have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic despite being deemed essential, said Daniel Costa, the Director of Immigration Law and Policy Research at the Economic Policy Institute.
“Despite the fact that wages are going up a little bit, there’s still a labor market where almost half of farmworkers are undocumented,” Costa told The Daily Poster. “Ten percent of them are on [H-2A] work visas that don’t allow them to switch employers, so they are very exploitable. And there are lots of cases of wage trafficking.”
In FY2019, the Labor Department documented 5,000 cases of wage theft among H-2A workers. The H-2A wage freeze is projected to cut the wages of more than a quarter million foreign farm workers by a total of $178 million per year over the next decade –– a number that doesn’t account for the adverse effect the wage freeze will likely have on U.S. workers’ wages.
In April, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was temporarily amending the H-2A visa program to make it easier for workers with those visas to renew or extend their stays. The purpose was to “provide agricultural employers with an orderly and timely flow of legal foreign workers, thereby protecting the integrity of the nation's food supply chain and decreasing possible reliance on unauthorized aliens, while encouraging agricultural employers' use of the H-2A program, which protects the rights of U.S. and foreign workers,” according to the published rule.
Even before the pandemic, farmworkers toiling in the U.S. on H-2A visas faced poor working conditions. Workers typically pay recruiters to help them find placements with employers, which can cost a couple thousand dollars, according to Costa.
“They’re already in this position where they are in danger of being in debt bondage, to recruiters, because employers work with recruiters to find the workers,” Costa told The Daily Poster.
While the Trump administration has restricted other visa programs as part of its anti-immigrant agenda, the H-2A program has grown under his presidency, with nearly 225,000 people being approved for these visas in the first three quarters of 2020.
In order to employ H-2A workers, employers must first attempt to recruit U.S. workers who are U.S. citizens and fail, and they must provide housing to their H-2A workers and pay them what is known as an Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR), a wage that varies by state and is set based on USDA data about how much farmworkers are paid.
Since the visa is tied to a specific employer, workers are vulnerable to abuses.
“Because their work is tied to their visa status,” Costa said, “they become instantly deportable. They have a lot of incentive not to complain when things go wrong.”
Farmers have exploited this vulnerability during the pandemic, despite collecting record amounts of government agricultural subsidies. COVID-19 outbreaks among H-2A workers have been reported across the country, in California, Washington, and other states.
An NBC News investigation from August reported that in addition to rising documented labor violations of H-2A workers, “Workers are often reluctant to speak out against employers who are responsible for their housing, transportation and paychecks — and who control their ability to stay in the U.S. — workers and labor advocates say.”
“Many Workers Will Suffer Increased Debt, Lower Wages, Worse Housing Conditions”
And yet, even as the Department of Homeland Security was relaxing visa requirements to ensure that enough agricultural workers were working through the pandemic, the Department of Labor was attempting to undercut their wages.
The wage freeze is the Trump administration’s second attempt this fall to cut wages for H-2A visa holders. On Sept. 30, Secretary of Agriculture Perdue published a one-page notice announcing that the USDA was suspending the Farm Labor Survey, a data collection tool that has been used for over a century to calculate wages for migrant workers, known as Adverse Effect Wage Rates (AEWRs). AEWRs are supposed to protect U.S. farmworkers, by requiring that employers pay foreign farm workers the prevailing wage in each state so that their employment doesn't drive down wages for U.S. workers.
Without the survey, wages for H-2A recipients and other farm workers would fall by a projected 5 percent in California and up to 46 percent in Idaho, according to a lawsuit that the United Farm Workers filed against Perdue and the USDA to block the suspension of the survey. A federal judge granted a restraining order halting the suspension of the survey, finding compelling evidence that farmworkers would suffer irreparable economic harm as a result.
Less than a month later, the Trump administration came back with a second attempt to cut the wages of H-2A workers, enacting a rule to freeze wages for H-2A workers. The DOL rule had first been proposed on July 26, 2019, and received widespread opposition from farmworker advocacy organizations. A coalition led by worker advocacy group Farmworker Justice and including 42 other organizations, wrote in a lengthy public comment on the rule, “If the proposed rule is adopted as drafted, many workers will suffer increased debt, lower wages, worse housing conditions, and more uncertainty regarding job terms.”
The rule that was published last week only included the wage aspects of the rule that was initially proposed. The new rule will raise the AEWRs for a small number of H-2A workers in more specialized or supervisory roles, but will lower the rate for the vast majority of H-2A workers.
According to Costa, the Economic Policy Institute director, it might be hard for a Biden administration to reverse the rule change, even if it has the will. “Maybe it can get fixed right away when Biden comes in, but maybe it gets stuck in the courts and takes a long time to fix,” Costa said.
He added that “since it has already gone to notice and public comment, it’s not that easy to just get it enjoined as a procedural violation,” the way other Trump administration immigration rules have been blocked.
“The fact that they're issuing it now is absolutely tied to the fact that [Trump was not] reelected and they want to get it out,” Costa said.
The Communal Narcissist: "Trust Me, I'm Really On Your Side"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDVZHASEwn4&ab_channel=SurvivingNarcissism
Our fight just got a little easier
Amjad Iraqi | Editor
When news broke on Saturday that Joe Biden had defeated Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, the +972 team — like millions of others worldwide — were swept by relief. Though Biden is hardly a candidate for progressives to be ecstatic about, his ousting of a man who has brazenly enabled the legitimization of white supremacy, mainstreaming of all forms of racism, and upending of fact-based discourse to unprecedented levels is a victory worth celebrating.
The approaching end of Trump’s presidency is more than just a political change. For four years, the narcissist who is currently refusing to concede the Oval Office has invaded and warped our global culture. Hardly a day went by in which our news cycles, our social media feeds, even our entertainment programs did not feature Trump’s words or image. Hopefully, the election can begin the process of extricating Trump from our personal and political lives — even though the devastating legacies of his tenure will be felt for years to come.
For those fighting for justice in Israel-Palestine, Biden’s victory is bittersweet. While his administration may offer some respite to the Israeli right’s worst impulses — which the Trump administration was only too happy to indulge — Biden is no ally to the Palestinian rights movement. If anything, he threatens a reversion to the old ways of Middle East policy, in which rhetoric favoring Palestinian rights is often little more than quotes in the newspapers, with no meaningful action.
This does not mean our struggle is trapped by the past. Unlike Trump’s authoritarianism, a Biden administration is susceptible to the pressure rising from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and grassroots movements like Black Lives Matter, which have placed Palestinian rights at the forefront of their agendas. The taboos that have long silenced Palestine activists in the United States are slowly cracking, while Israel’s footing in Washington slips under the weight of its own rightward trajectory.
In the end, however, the fight to rebuild U.S. politics cannot be centered around Palestinians or Israelis. It is, first and foremost, about the millions of Americans who are confronting the pandemics of COVID-19, racism, capitalism, and oppression of all kinds. It is about centering the voices of Native and Black Americans, poor and working class families, the ill and uninsured, and many more who deserve equality and social justice — just as Palestinians do.
In the same way that we call for support in ending apartheid here, so too must we offer the same in ending oppression in the United States and elsewhere. As of Saturday, that arduous fight became just a little bit easier.
Anti-Netanyahu protesters celebrate Biden victory in Jerusalem
An unholy alliance — from AIPAC to American evangelicals
Palestinian Americans vote in droves. But why not from the West Bank?
Dozens displaced in Israel's largest W. Bank demolition in a decade
Remembering Reuven Kaminer, the godfather of Israel’s radical left
In US and Israel, the left’s next battle is with the moderate right
American discontent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=731PpBoFAM0&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=RTAmerica
Biden Needs to Deliver to the Working People Who Delivered for Him
Biden and Democrats in Congress now have an opportunity to win a generation’s long-term loyalty, but only if they deliver the big changes young Americans demand.
by
Nina Turner
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/11/08/biden-needs-deliver-working-people-who-delivered-him
As the dust settles, pundits, political operatives and party insiders are already swarming to tell the story of what really happened in 2020. They’ll zero in on the smallest margins, the most unlikely Trump-to-Biden swing voters, the affluent white suburbanites. But that’s not the story of this election.
The exit polls are still being finalized, but as of now they show that working people — Black, brown and White families making under $100,000, along with the vast majority of young people — delivered Biden his victory. Not only did they vote for him in overwhelming numbers, they also knocked on doors, made calls and carried out the hard work of democracy during a pandemic. These voters are the heart and the future of a massive progressive movement inside and outside of the Democratic Party, and it is to them that Joe Biden and Kamala D. Harris must answer.
After all, it was working people’s organizations that had millions of conversations with voters this year. It was not the political operatives at the Lincoln Project or the Third Way who knocked the doors, who spoke to the voters, who heard their concerns. It was laid-off union members in South Phoenix; African American community organizers in Kenosha, Wis.; Latinx zoomers in Reading, Pa. None of us intend to let the far-right of the Democratic coalition claim a mandate for status-quo politics.Trump has been a disaster for poor and working people, so they used voting as a tool to fight back. Hammered by a government by, of and for the one percent, brutalized by covid-19 inaction and economic disaster, pummeled with racist rhetoric and white supremacist violence, the people have delivered a rebuke to President Trump. But the result was also a warning for Biden: In the midst of overlapping national crises, his administration has a critical window to deliver for the working people and young people who got him elected. If he fails to meet the moment — if he seeks instead to return us to a “normalcy” marked by corporate handouts and extreme inequality — then the next Trump might be far more dangerous than the one we just defeated. We can see hints of this already in the way voters of color — perennially taken for granted by the Democratic Party — shifted marginally toward Trump in 2020. Though they still carried Biden to victory by a 46-point margin, the lesson is clear: The Democratic Party ignores its base at its own peril.
This goes for Wall St. Democrats as well as Never-Trump Republicans. The latter in particular spent decades using dog-whistle racist appeals and inflaming culture-war fights to throw red meat to their base. We’re glad they finally had their “come-to-Jesus” moment, but that doesn’t mean we are going to invite them to take the pulpit. The people who should lead our country forward are the people who have been building the country all along: the multiracial working class who have helped carry this country through a pandemic and now demand real reform.
Young people in particular showed up this year in historic numbers, increasing their turnout by eight percentage points. This generation is the most racially diverse generation in the history of our country and the most progressive. That’s no surprise: Their future hangs in the balance — economically, politically and environmentally. They turned out this year in force more to defeat the unique threat of Trump than out of love for Biden or the Democratic Party. Biden and Democrats in Congress now have an opportunity to win a generation’s long-term loyalty, but only if they deliver the big changes young Americans demand.
That means passing a Green New Deal to lift our economy out of recession, create millions of jobs and address the climate crisis head-on. It means passing Medicare-for-all to prevent thousands of Americans from dying (or going bankrupt) due to covid-19 and other illnesses. It means making the wealthy pay their share of taxes and reversing the massive tax giveaway that was Trump’s crowning legislative achievement. And it means electoral reform to ensure our government actually reflects the will of the majority.
These and other policies represent not only what Biden should do, but also what he must do. Politically, a return to “normalcy” is simply a circuitous route back to Trumpism. So-called normalcy has never worked if you are poor or among the barely middle class and it will not work now. Being better than Trump is a low bar. This moment demands — and the citizens of this nation deserve — leadership with a vision to provide for the people. Anything less is unacceptable. The Democratic Party’s future and the future of America depend on it.
'Concede and Get the Hell Out': Anger Grows as Trump Refuses to Admit Defeat
"You lost, you miserable self-entitled infantile f**ker," said famed American novelist Stephen King.
by
Jon Queally, staff writer
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/08/concede-and-get-hell-out-anger-grows-trump-refuses-admit-defeat
Mixing with the jubilation shared by tens of millions across the U.S. and the world generated by President-elect Joe Biden's declared victory this weekend, increasing levels of anger and frustration were voiced Sunday as President Donald Trump continued his refusal to accept the election results that show he was soundly defeated.
Even as Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris delivered acceptance speeches Saturday night, Trump bucked the tradition of congratulating the winners and instead spent the evening tweeting out false claims that he "won the election" and making evidence-free allegations of fraud.
As CNN reports:
Trump so far has refused to accept the election results, waging a legal strategy to contest them in courts and issuing false allegations of fraud. There are currently no plans to invite Biden to the Oval Office for the traditional meeting between the incoming and outgoing presidents, a historic sign of the peaceful transfer of power. Aides instead are working to craft ways for the President to feel validated even in loss, including through more rallies.
But after claiming publicly and falsely that he won the election, sources say Trump is not denying the outcome privately. And two people said Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser who oversaw his campaign from the White House, has approached Trump about conceding the election.
On Sunday, as the lies and deceit by the president continued, many Trump critics began to lose their patience.
"It is obscene for a president of the United States to talk of a stolen election when he has not put up any meaningful evidence of anyone stealing the election," said Steven Greenhouse, former labor reporter for the New York Times in a Sunday morning tweet. "The President needs to stop putting his narcissistic selfishness over what is good for our nation and our democracy."
Stephen King, the famed novelist and an avowed Democrat, was even more blunt in his proclamation. "You lost, you miserable self-entitled infantile fucker," King declared. "Concede and get the hell out."
In a letter to editor at the Guardian on Sunday, reader Pete Dorey in the U.K. said he fears that Trump's "disputing of the validity of the election result is much more insidious than him simply being a bad loser." Dorey wrote:
By repeatedly denouncing the accuracy of the outcome, even before it has been confirmed, [Trump] is giving his supporters a green light to spend the next four years blatantly defying a Biden government, and generally causing public mayhem, on the grounds that the Democrats "stole" the election from Trump, and that the new government thus has no democratic authority of mandate.
As such, I fear that mass protests, the occupation of public buildings, and intimidation (especially of black communities) by gun-toting Trump supporters, will become a routine occurrence, justified on the grounds that ignoring the "undemocratic" Biden government is the duty of true "American patriots."
If tough punitive action is taken against them, they will claim that democracy and liberty are being suppressed by "radical leftists" in Washington. But if their mayhem is ignored, they will claim that law and order is being undermined due a weak government in thrall to "political correctness" and "snowflake liberals."
Or am I just paranoid?
Ahead of Biden being declared the projected winner by nearly every major news outlet in the country on Saturday, his campaign spokeperson Andrew Bates on Friday said their team was not ultimately worried if Trump—when defeated—refused to leave the White House voluntarily.
"The United States government," said Bates, "is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House."
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