This….is….excellent: via Paul Joseph Watson on YouTube:
Category: Corporate Welfare
Where the Covid-19 virus or panic is hurting….The working class!
This is the people that this virus and panic related is hurting; the working class in this Country. The ones who punch a clock and work with the hands and/or back.
Via the LA Times:
As fallout from the coronavirus pandemic hits the economy, it’s slamming the American workforce: Some 18% of adults reported that they had been laid off or that their work hours had been cut, a new poll found.
The proportion affected grew for lower-income households, with 25% of those making less than $50,000 a year reporting that they had been let go or had their hours reduced, according to a survey released Tuesday by NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist of 835 working adults in the contiguous United States.
The poll was conducted Friday and Saturday, just after stocks began their steep plunge and normal life started grinding to a halt, with schools and places of worship closing, concerts and conferences being canceled and sports leagues suspending their seasons.
The same poll found that about 56% of Americans considered the coronavirus outbreak a “real threat,” while 38% said it was “blown out of proportion.”
In recent days, state and local officials have banned large gatherings and ordered bars and theaters to close in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
Ski resorts have shut, as have Disneyland and Universal Studios theme parks. With the outbreak prompting new travel restrictions, airlines, cruise lines and other travel businesses braced for losses, anticipating layoffs, furloughs or voluntary buyouts. A trade group representing U.S. airlines called on the federal government to provide at least $58 billion in grants, loans and tax breaks to respond to the “staggering” economic blow.
L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and California Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered restaurants to halt dine-in service. Those unable to adapt quickly may end up closed permanently, so the L.A. dining landscape could look dramatically different in a few months.
And this via WXYZ.TV:
(WXYZ) — The United Auto Workers union told members they asked the Big 3 for a two-week shutdown of all auto plants. That’s according to a letter from UAW President Rory Gamble that was obtained by 7 Action News.
In the letter, Gamble said he asked the Big 3 for a two-week shutdown to protect members amid the coronavirus outbreak, but that the Big 3 would not shut down. That was on Sunday.
According to the letter, Gamble said the Big 3 asked for two days to put together plans to safeguard workers.
“The 48-hour window is up this afternoon. We will be evaluating what the companies submit today and there will be a meeting this evening at 6 p.m., where the Task Force will review plans for the safety and health of all members, their families and our communities,” the letter reads.
Over the weekend, the UAW and the Big 3 announced a COVID-19 task force for blue collar employees.
UAW President Rory Gamble, GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra, Ford Executive Chair Bill Ford, Ford President and CEO Jim Hackett and FCA CEO Michael Manely will lead the task force.
Others supporting include UAW-GM VP Terry Dittes, UAW-Ford VP Gerald Kariem, UAW-FCA VP Cindy Estrada and the medical stff and labor leadership teams at all three companies.
It’s expected that the task force will hold a conference call at 6 p.m. Monday.
“These companies will be put on notice that the UAW will use any and all measures to protect our brothers and sisters who are working in their facilities. And make no mistake, we have powerful allies who have stepped up to help us,” Gamble added.
Those include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, according to Gamble.
“I know these are very difficult days for all of us. Please know that my #1 priority, and the #1 priority of the entire UAW leadership, is the safety and well-being of our UAW family and our communities,” he wrote.
Gamble did say that Ford did indicate they were willing to rotate down shifts and planned to shut down European operations next week.
The entire letter is below.
Brothers and Sisters,
I’m going to get right to the point. I want you to know exactly where we are with our discussions with the Big 3 leadership and protecting our members and their facilities during this international crisis.
I announced this past Sunday that the International UAW had formed a COVID-19/Coronavirus task force with GM, Ford and FCA to implement enhanced protections for manufacturing and warehouse employees at all three companies.
I want to be very transparent about what happened during our conversation Sunday with the Big 3. The UAW leadership, based on the World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations on how to protect ourselves and our communities, requested a two-week shutdown of operations to safeguard our members, our families and our communities. Your UAW leadership feels very strongly, and argued very strongly, that this is the most responsible course of action.
The companies, however, were not willing to implement this request. They asked for 48 hours to put together plans to safeguard workers in their facilities. (Ford Motor Company has indicated this week that they are willing to rotate down shifts and are planning to shut down all European operations next week.)
The 48-hour window is up this afternoon. We will be evaluating what the companies submit today and there will be a meeting this evening at 6 p.m., where the Task Force will review plans for the safety and health of all members, their families and our communities.
I want to be very clear here: If the UAW leadership on the task force, myself and Vice Presidents Cindy Estrada, Terry Dittes and Gerald Kariem, are not satisfied that our members will be protected, we will take this conversation to the next level.
These companies will be put on notice that the UAW will use any and all measures to protect our brothers and sisters who are working in their facilities. And make no mistake, we have powerful allies who have stepped up to help us. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, despite what you might have heard in some recent erroneous reports, was instrumental in assisting us in bringing the Big 3 to the table, as was U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell.
I know these are very difficult days for all of us. Please know that my #1 priority, and the #1 priority of the entire UAW leadership, is the safety and well-being of our UAW family and our communities.
I will be sending another update very soon on what we see from the Big 3 today.
I’d like to ask that we all remember that we are all in this together.
In Solidarity,
Rory
Good for the UAW for standing up for workers and keeping them safe. What I worry about is the non-unionized companies. What are they doing?
From the “You gotta be kidding me” file: House just voted on 2 bills that would undercut new financial regulations
This one somehow snuck past me.
I happen to read on Populist Jim Hightower’s website about this one here and I went and looked it up and sure enough; there it was in black and white:
The story:
WASHINGTON –– To Wall Street, this town might seem like enemy territory. But even as federal regulators and prosecutors extract multibillion-dollar penalties from the nation’s biggest banks, Wall Street can rely on at least one ally here: the House of Representatives.
The House is scheduled to vote on two bills this week that would undercut new financial regulations and hand Wall Street a victory. The legislation has garnered broad bipartisan support in the House, even after lawmakers learned that Citigroup lobbyists helped write one of the bills, which would exempt a wide array of derivatives trading from new regulation.
The bills are part of a broader campaign in the House, among Republicans and business-friendly Democrats, to roll back elements of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, the most comprehensive regulatory overhaul since the Depression. Of 10 recent bills that alter Dodd-Frank or other financial regulation, six have passed the House this year. This week, if the House approves Citigroup’s legislation and another bill that would delay heightened standards for firms that offer investment advice to retirees, the tally would rise to eight.
Both the Treasury Department and consumer groups have urged lawmakers to reject the bills, warning that they could leave the nation vulnerable again to excessive financial risk taking. The House proposals stand little chance of becoming law, having received a much chillier reception in the Senate and at the White Ho
via House, Set to Vote on 2 Bills, Is Seen as an Ally of Wall St. – NYTimes.com.
You believe those greedy bastards? Jim Hightower is not amused and rightly so:
Audio:
[podcast]
Partial Quote:
On the day before Halloween, the ethically-challenged members of our lobbyist-haunted House of Representatives did a perverse imitation of “Profiles in Courage,” turning that body into “Profiles in Spinelessness.”
In particular, they cravenly caved in to an outrageous and dangerous demand by Wall Street whiners. Such financial powerhouses as Citigroup just hate having their profiteering recklessness restrained by the regulatory reforms passed after their 2008 financial meltdown. Even though the shockwaves from that Wall Street collapse continue to devastate America’s middle class, the banking elite have completely recovered – including recovering their swaggering arrogance and ability to sway money-hungry congress critters with rich campaign donations. — Read the rest at Jim Hightower’s site
I am shocked that more Conservatives are not swinging from the trees on this one here! To their credit, there are some Democrat Party house members that are opposed to this bill and rightly so. This is the same idiotic crap that brought down the stock market and killed our economy; thank goodness there is some semblance of sanity up on the hill.
Sure enough the Bill passed the house, But it is not expected to make it through the Senate and the White House has said that they would veto the thing, if it made it to the President’s desk. Which in this instance is a very good thing. However, this is not the point. What is the point is this: Those same bastards who caused the great meltdown of 2008, are now lobbying our Government to put things back as they were, so that this sort of thing could happy again. That my friends is enough to make an economic populist, like myself, to want to bite a nail in two! 😡
The people that caused the Wall Street meltdown and downturn in our economy ought to be brought up on treason charges, and lined up against a wall and shot! 😡 But, instead, they are trying to buy their way back to lawlessness. This my friends, is an outrage.
Good Reading: Bipartisan Corporate Welfare by Veronique de Rugy
This is some seriously good stuff here:
On June 7, the Senate Banking Committee voted to back Fred Hochberg’s second term as president of the U.S. Export-Import Bank without bothering to ask the Obama administration about the future of that expensive, inefficient New Deal–era agency. The vote, in which 28 Republicans joined 54 Democrats in supporting Hochberg, was not a good sign for anyone hoping that the GOP’s latest promises of fiscal restraint would prove more trustworthy than all the broken promises before.
The bank, also known as “Ex-Im,” provides taxpayer-backed loans, loan guarantees, and insurance to foreign companies, such as Air China, to buy products from some of the richest U.S. exporters, such as Boeing. It is a textbook example of Washington’s bipartisan corporate welfare. Yet only two Republicans, Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), voted against Hochberg. In an online statement Toomey explained his reasons for withholding support. “I opposed his nomination due to serious concerns that the Ex-Im Bank is using taxpayer-backed loan guarantees to help some companies at the expense of other U.S. companies,” he said. “The way to help U.S. exports is to reduce the tax and regulatory burden on businesses, not to pick winners and losers.”
Read the rest at: Bipartisan Corporate Welfare – Reason.com.