Happy Labor Day
It’s Labor Day.
But not a good one for labor. Not under Donald Trump, who yelled “jobs” almost as often as he hollered “wall” just a few months ago.
In seven agonizingly long months since Trump became our president, the demise of pro-worker policies has been staggering. He has no major legislation under his belt, but he’s been a whirling dervish with the “delete” button.
Despite all of his baloney about helping the average worker, his rollback of labor rights and his delays of worker protection rules are mind numbing, putting employee safety at risk and guaranteeing many workers will earn less.
“It’s a death by a thousand cuts,” Heidi Shierholz, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told The Nation.
Even last Tuesday, while most of us watched the horror of Hurricane Harvey, the Trump White House zeroed a 2016 Obama-administration ruling requiring companies with 100 or more employees to report pay by gender, race and ethnic background to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Obama’s 2014 Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces order is trashed, as well.
Also gone, thanks to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 21 states and a federal judge in Texas, is an Obama administration revamp of overtime rules that would add about $12 billion to the pay of some 4.2 million workers in the next decade.
And did we mention the continuing threats to the Affordable Care Act that helps the working poor and the Dodd-Frank financial reform that helps all of us little people try to keep more of our money?
But wait, what about all those jobs?
A tweet from CNBC’s John Harwood, who covers the economy and national politics, put it this way in early August: “average monthly job growth in 9 months since Trump’s election: 179K. average monthly job growth in 9 months before Trump’s election: 199K”
Not to worry though. Corporate earnings have soared. “U.S. Companies Post Profit Growth Not Seen in Six Years,” screams a Wall Street Journal headline.
Cheer up, fellow laborers. Have some Labor Day barbecue.
More obstruction fodder
Special counsel Robert Mueller has a letter written by President Trump and senior adviser Stephen Miller detailing the president’s reasoning for firing FBI Director James Comey, according to The New York Times. And that letter reportedly complained that the former top cop wouldn’t publicly say that Trump was not personally under investigation.
The letter reportedly was shown to White House counsel Don McGahn, who blocked it, and the letter was never delivered to Comey. You might recall that Trump ultimately sent Comey a letter citing a Justice Department recommendation for his firing based on Comey’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email scandal, though in days to come, Trump would again and again say publicly that he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation.
Mueller is leading the federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Moscow and collusion to influence the outcome of the presidential election. Mueller also is looking into allegations of obstruction of justice by Trump.
This new first letter could be key. The Washington Post reported Friday “that the multi-page letter enumerated Trump’s long-simmering complaints with Comey, according to people familiar with it, including Trump’s frustration that Comey was unwilling to say publicly that Trump was not personally under investigation in the FBI’s inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.”
More collusion fodder
The plot thickens.
Mueller’s team of prosecutors now is cooperating with New York’s attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, to investigate former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his business dealings, Politico reported. New York State charges against Manafort cannot be pardoned by the president.
And ABC News turned up this jewel: Trump lawyer Michael Cohen confirmed that early in the presidential campaign, Trump signed a non-binding letter of intent to build a tower in Moscow. This despite Trump’s claim during the campaign that he “knows nothing about Russia,” has “no loans” and “no deals” there.
Where, or where, are his tax returns? Well, that’s another thing: Mueller also now is reportedly working with IRS to unearth them.
And The New York Times obtained an email from Felix Sater, a former broker for the Trump organization, to Trump attorney Cohen that in essence says he’ll get Putin on the program to get Trump elected.
“Michael I arranged for Ivanka to sit in Putin’s private chair at his desk and office in the Kremlin. I will get Putin on this program and we will get Donald elected. We both know no one else knows how to pull this off without stupidity or greed getting in the way. I know how to play it and we will get this done. Buddy our boy can become President of the USA and we can engineer it. I will get all of Putins team to buy in on this, I will manage this process.”
Hurry, Mueller. Hurry.