Message from Representative Katie Porter

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an incredible burden on Orange County. Many people are out of work, and our small businesses are struggling to stay afloat. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have repeatedly said that relief from the federal government needs to match the scope and magnitude of the crisis we are in. That’s why I was proud to vote for the American Rescue Plan, which supports our state and local governments on the frontlines of helping families through the pandemic.

Fully staffed and funded state and municipal governments are key to our recovery. Local governments run our vaccination clinics and keep our first responders on the job.

The American Rescue Plan provides $350 billion in state and local funding to keep essential services operating. This includes $43 billion for California, with roughly $700 million for Orange County cities and $620 million for county-wide efforts. Our city governments lost tax revenue while the cost of health, emergency, and unemployment services soared. The funding in the American Rescue Plan will help our communities close budget gaps, so firefighters and first responders can stay on the job, teachers can be back in classrooms, and our cities can continue to provide necessary services.



Last year, I spearheaded a bipartisan letter with local leaders urging Congressional leadership to better support our communities.

I have been working to get our communities help since the beginning of the pandemic. Last year, I led a bipartisan group of mayors and councilmembers to call on House and Senate leadership to provide relief for Orange County cities. As a member of the House Oversight Committee, I spoke up on the importance of state and local funding in a public meeting.

This week, I hosted a town hall with State Senator Dave Min and Tustin Mayor Letitia Clark for a discussion on how federal, state, and local governments can work together to get us out of this crisis. We discussed how the Fiscal Recovery Funds from the American Rescue Plan will be allocated to local governments and how vaccines will be distributed so that they reach all communities.



Earlier this week, I hosted a virtual town hall with State Senator Dave Min and Tustin Mayor Letitia Clark to discuss state and local pandemic relief.

In addition to supporting our state and local governments, the latest COVID relief package includes key provisions that will help us get through the pandemic. It provides funding for more community vaccination sites nationwide to ramp up vaccine administration. Additionally, this bill invests in our schools, so that our children and educators can return safely. For more information about the American Rescue Plan, you can watch my whiteboard explainer HERE.

I will continue to fight for Orange County families, to help get our communities through this public health and economic crisis. To stay up to date on how I’m representing you and California’s 45th District, please follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @RepKatiePorter.

Biden Boasts About Band-Aids

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH_1DtqzzpM

Fast Food Giant Claims Credit For Killing $15 Minimum Wage

In internal company documents, a private-equity owned conglomerate is bragging to its employees about successfully blocking a boost in pay for low-wage workers.

Walker Bragman, Andrew Perez, and David Sirota
Mar 27






The parent company of some of America’s largest fast food chains is claiming credit for convincing Congress to exclude a $15 minimum wage from the recent COVID relief bill, according to internal company documents reviewed by The Daily Poster. The company, which is owned by a private equity firm named after an Ayn Rand character, also says it is now working to thwart new union rights legislation.

The company’s boasts come just a few months after a government report found that some of its chains had among the highest percentage of workers relying on food stamps.

Inspire Brands — which owns Jimmy Johns, Arby’s, Sonic, and Buffalo Wild Wings, plus recently acquired Dunkin’ Donuts for $11.3 billion in November — on Thursday sent employees and franchisees a review of its government lobbying activity that highlighted its success in keeping the $15 minimum wage out of Democrats’ American Rescue Plan, the COVID-19 relief bill President Joe Biden signed earlier this month.

“We were successful in our advocacy efforts to remove the Raise the Wage Act, which would have increased the federal minimum wage to $15 and eliminated the tip credit,” reads the report.

Further down, the report notes the company’s ongoing lobbying campaign in the Senate against the PRO Act, which recently passed the House and contains a laundry list of organized labor’s goals, such as eliminating right-to-work laws and banning mandatory company-sponsored meetings that are designed to discourage union activity.

“Under this proposed rule, franchisors could be considered the direct employer of the franchise owners in their system, as well as the restaurant workers those owners employ, taking away the independence of small business owners,” the document said.

“You get the impression that they’re actively spitting in our eye, saying ‘Yes, we worked to suppress wages of our employees and we’re just going to brazenly tell you,’” one Inspire Brands worker told The Daily Poster. “I really do think that a line was crossed. You’re just going to brazenly tell your employees, ‘not only did we work to kill wages, but going forward we’re also going to make sure that the PRO Act doesn’t pass either.’”

Inspire Brands did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Government Report On Low Wages Spotlighted Inspire Brands’ Companies

During the 2020 campaign, Democrats pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, which would boost the wages of 32 million workers nationwide, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

However, efforts to include a $15 minimum wage in Biden’s pandemic aid bill failed after the Senate parliamentarian advised Democrats such a hike should not be passed by budget reconciliation and Vice President Kamala Harris declined to use her authority to override the decision.

Inspire Brands’ success in eliminating the minimum wage hike from the bill follows Dunkin’ Brands’ then-CEO Nigel Travis saying in 2015 that a $15 wage would be “absolutely outrageous.” At the time, unions noted that Travis was being paid more than $4,000 every hour.

The minimum wage defeat also follows an October 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office finding that low-wage workers at Dunkin’ Donuts, Arby’s, and Sonic were among those relying most heavily on food stamps in states where those franchises operate. In 2019, some Sonic workers walked off the job in Ohio in protest of low pay.

While paying many of its workers below $15, Inspire Brands’ franchises are generating $26 billion in annual revenue and enriching top executives. The founder of Jimmy John’s — which has been accused of busting worker union drives — recently boasted on his website that he was named one of the planet’s wealthiest men.

In the year before Inspire acquired his company, Dunkin’ Brands’ CEO was paid millions and then made millions more when the deal closed.

In government filings that year, Dunkin’ Brands warned investors about the prospect of low-wage workers being paid better.

“A significant number of our franchisees’ food-service employees are paid at rates related to the U.S. federal minimum wage and applicable minimum wages in foreign jurisdictions and past increases in the U.S. federal minimum wage and foreign jurisdiction minimum wage have increased labor costs, as would future such increases,” the company wrote. “Any increases in labor costs might result in franchisees inadequately staffing restaurants. Understaffed restaurants could reduce sales at such restaurants, decrease royalty payments, and adversely affect our brands.”

The company also bragged that “none of our employees are represented by a labor union, and we believe our relationships with our employees are healthy.”
“Our Name Signifies Our Admiration For The Qualities Embodied By Howard Roark”

Inspire Brands is majority owned by Roark Capital — a $23 billion private equity giant named after the self-centered protagonist of Ayn Rand novel The Fountainhead, which is considered a foundational conservative text for the defense of billionaires and economic inequality.

“Our name signifies our admiration for the qualities embodied by Howard Roark,” the firm says on its website. “We are committed to being a good partner in good times, and an even better partner in bad times.”

Donors from Roark-linked companies delivered more than $800,000 of campaign contributions in the 2020 election cycle, mostly to Republicans, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets.

Several state and local retirement systems have invested public employees’ retirement savings in the Roark funds involved in Inspire Brands’ takeover of Dunkin’ Brands last year, including the Oregon State Treasury, the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System, and the Los Angeles City Employees' Retirement System.

In its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Roark advised investors that “portfolio companies of the type targeted” by the firm can be “adversely affected by changes in governmental policies” including the minimum wage.

Wolff Responds Biden's Infrastructure Plan: A Critique

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AoH229MT3s

Breaking from the exploitative ride-hailing model in NYC - All Things Co-op Clip

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWO_mQfQF7k

Marx says we must change material conditions in order to change ideas - David Harvey

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzQLi-ZnNLs

WESTERN MEDIA: PROSECUTING COUP LEADERS IS WORSE THAN LEADING A COUP

By Joe Emersberger, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

March 25, 2021




https://popularresistance.org/western-media-prosecuting-bolivian-coup-leaders-is-worse-than-leading-a-coup/




One can imagine an editor of the London-based Guardian (3/17/21) shaking her head sadly as she typed the headline: “Cycle of Retribution Takes Bolivia’s Ex-President From Palace to Prison Cell.” The subhead told readers, “Jeanine Áñez’s government once sought to jail the country’s former leader Evo Morales for terrorism and sedition—now she faces the same charges.”

The Guardian article by Tom Phillips wants us to lament an alleged incapacity of Bolivian governments to stop persecuting opponents once they take office. We are told that Áñez’s government did it, and that now the government of President Luis Arce (elected in a landslide win on October 18, 2020) is also doing it.

The article’s premise is a lie, and the liberal Guardian has hardly been the only outlet spreading it, with help from Jose Miguel Vivanco, Americas director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), whom Philips quoted. A team effort between Western media and NGOs like HRW often reinforces the views of the US government (FAIR.org, 8/23/18, 8/31/18, 5/31/2o, 11/3/18).

Áñez was a US-backed dictator installed after a military coup sent democratically elected President Evo Morales fleeing Bolivia for his life on November 10, 2019. Once in power, Áñez immediately promised security forces legal immunity as they massacred dozens of protesters. She is now charged with terrorism (in addition to sedition and criminal conspiracy) over her attempt to keep power by terrorizing the public. Her arrest is good news to people who support democracy and human rights.

But now, as when the coup took place in 2019, the most obvious conclusions are evaded when they are incompatible with US foreign policy (FAIR.org, 11/11/19). It should surprise nobody that US officials have made statements depicting her arrest as political persecution.
Fighting To Spring An Ex-Dictator

In downgrading the coup that installed Áñez to a mere allegation made against Áñez, Reuters (3/13/21), the Financial Times (3/13/21), the Washington Post (3/13/21), CNN (3/15/21) and Canada’s National Post (3/13/21) have all run articles quoting HRW’s Vivanco criticizing her arrest. CNN quoted him:


The arrest warrants against Añez and her ministers do not contain any evidence that they have committed the crime of “terrorism.” For this reason, they generate well-founded doubts that it is a process based on political motives.

The Washington Post article, whose headline alleged a “crackdown on opposition,” used a shorter version of the same quote from Vivanco.

While all the articles described the coup as an allegation, CNN stands out for getting the most ridiculous with its denialism:


Then-head of the Bolivian Armed Forces, Cmdr. Williams Kaliman, asked Morales to step down to restore stability and peace; Morales acquiesced on November 10 “for the good of Bolivia.”

But political allies maintain he was removed from power as part of a coup orchestrated by conservatives, including Áñez.

Did Kaliman need to be filmed putting a gun directly to Morales’ head for CNN to admit it was a coup?

Adding to the disinformation loop from his own platform on Twitter, Vivanco spread an Americas Quarterly op-ed by Raul Peñaranda (3/16/21) that denounced the arrest of Áñez. Peñaranda once said that Bolivia’s democracy was “saved” the day Morales was overthrown, and his recent op-ed depicts the November 2019 coup as a legal transfer of power.

In 2019, the military publicly “urged” Morales to resign, as both the military and police made clear they would not protect him from violent right-wing protesters, some of whom ransacked his house. Áñez, a right-wing senator whose party received only 4% of the national vote in the 2019 legislative elections, had the presidential sash placed on her by military men, while lawmakers from Evo Morales’ party (Movimineto al Socialismo, or MAS), the majority in the legislature, were absent: some in hiding, others refusing to attend without guarantees of their safety and their families’.

Ignoring all that, the Guardian article by Tom Philips refers to “claims the former senator [Áñez] was involved in plotting the right-wing coup that Bolivia’s current government claims brought her to power.” (My emphasis.) Editors are usually big fans of concision. The highlighted words should have been deleted. An added benefit would have been accuracy.

Of course, it’s easier to deny that Áñez was involved in plotting the coup that put her in power (hardly a stretch) if you do not even accept that a coup took place. Reuters placed scare quotes around the word “coup” in headlines about Áñez’s arrest: “Bolivian Ex-President Áñez Begins Four-Month Detention Over ‘Coup’ Allegations” (3/16/21); “ Bolivian Ex-President Áñez Begins Jail Term as Rights Groups Slam ‘Coup’ Probe” (3/14/21).

Reuters (3/14/21) and CNN (3/15/21) also uncritically reported the thoroughly debunked pretext for the coup. CNN reported, “Though an international audit would later find the results the 2019 election could not be validated because of ‘serious irregularities,’ [Morales] declared himself the winner, prompting massive protests around the country.” (The “international audit” is the OAS’s widely debunked report.) Reuters simply stated that the Organization of America States (OAS) “was an official monitor of the 2019 election and had found it fraudulent.”
Cycle Of Dishonesty

The coup was incited by transparently dishonest claims repeatedly made by OAS monitors about the presidential election won by Morales on October 20, 2019. Three days after the election, they claimed there was a “drastic,” “inexplicable” and “hard to explain” increase in Morales’ lead in the vote count (FAIR.org, 12/17/19).

The Washington, DC–based Center for Economic and Policy Research immediately pointed out that this was utter nonsense. But in the crucial months following Morales’ ouster, outlets like Reuters constantly shielded the OAS from devastating criticism. Eventually, expert criticism of the OAS continually mounted and disrupted the media silence. Details from the election results in 2020, in which Evo Morales’ party triumphed by an even greater margin than in 2019, further exposed OAS dishonesty.

Like Reuters, the widely quoted Jose Miguel Vivanco of HRW spread fraud claims when it mattered most in 2019. The day after the election won by Morales, Vivanco tweeted in Spanish that “everything indicates that [Evo Morales] intends to steal the election.” As late as December 2019, HRW executive director Ken Roth was also promoting OAS claims without the slightest trace of scepticism. Months into the murderous illegitimate rule of Áñez, Vivanco explicitly referred to Bolivia as a “democracy.” He did so in a Spanish-language interview with BrujulaDigital (5/15/20), an outlet edited by Raul Peñaranda, the coup supporter whose Americas Quarterly op-ed Vivanco recently promoted on Twitter. Meanwhile, on Twitter, Vivanco constantly refers to the governments of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, and President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua–two democratically elected presidents the US government wants overthrown–as “dictaduras” (dictatorships).

The New York Times editorial board openly supported the coup that ousted Morales in 2019:


The forced ouster of an elected leader is by definition a setback to democracy, and so a moment of risk. But when a leader resorts to brazenly abusing the power and institutions put in his care by the electorate, as President Evo Morales did in Bolivia, it is he who sheds his legitimacy, and forcing him out often becomes the only remaining option. That is what the Bolivians have done, and what remains is to hope that Mr. Morales goes peacefully into exile in Mexico and to help Bolivia restore its wounded democracy.

So predictably enough, a Times article (3/12/21) about the recent Áñez arrest referred vaguely to the utterly debunked OAS fraud claims (“a contested vote count”) and took the same kind of dishonest stance as HRW and other Western media by equating a US-backed dictatorship to a democratically elected government whose ouster the US supported: “Both Mr. Morales and Ms. Añez used the judiciary to go after their critics.”

The Washington Post editorial board (3/18/21) came out with a wild defense of Añez, headlined: “The Bolivian Government Is on a Lawless Course. Its Democracy Must Be Preserved.” Most ominously, the editorial said, “The Biden administration should lead a regional effort to preserve democratic stability in this long-suffering country, lest crisis turn into catastrophe.” Informed people may laugh at this for a few seconds–until they remember that Bolivia’s people could eventually face lethal US sanctions for daring to hold murderers to account. Left unchallenged, that’s the catastrophe that propaganda like this could bring about.

Brutal dictators supported by Washington have no reason to doubt that establishment journalists and big NGOs will try very hard to keep them out of jail. Removing the threat of US -backed coups from the world will involve a constant struggle against Western media and the sources they present to us as reliable.