Category: Amazon Needs To Clean Up Its Labor Relations Nationwide Pay Living Wages And Humane Working Scheduling August 3 2021

As We’ve Long Said, 95% Of Tangerine 2.0’s “Orders” Are Fatally-Flawed. His “No DEI” Effort Is Now… D.O.A. YAWN.

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Ruling that a preliminary injunction was warranted here, the able USDC Judge Abelson, sitting in Baltimore, Maryland said at a minimum — Trump’s order attempts to infringe free speech, based on content — without imminent lawlessness afoot. People are allowed to advocate for, and openly discuss inclusion, without any order restricting it. On that grounds alone… the at right is and was a dead letter.

But he went on to hold much more: primarily that Trump’s Black Sharpie lacks the authority to do it, without the Congress. As is true of just about every one of them he’s signed so far. Here’s the full 63 page overnight opinion, and a bit from NPR, this morning:

…In addition to the mayor and the Baltimore City Council, the plaintiffs include the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which represents restaurant workers across the country.

Their attorneys claim the groups are already suffering the effects of the executive orders as Trump encroaches on the powers of Congress and seeks to suppress views he doesn’t agree with.

“But the President simply does not wield that power,” they wrote in the complaint. “And contrary to his suggestions otherwise, his power is not limitless….”

To be clear, this is a nationwide but temporary order — but the plaintiffs have made a compelling showing that Trump’s “theories” of the law surrounding executive orders (if they may even be called that) are… BUNK.

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In Order To Work This Malign And Duplicitous Farce, Musk Needs To “Lobby” Non-Trumpians In Government. He’s Stuck.

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Thesis: the federal ethics in government laws do mean something. By way of contrast, Elon Musk thinks simply by saying he holds no “employee” role at DOGE (i.e., not a federal employee), he is no longer subject to the conflict of interest disclosure rules of the LDA of 1995.

Not so.

Moreover, by saying under oath that he is merely an advisor, but employed in the West Wing, every time he speaks to someone outside his own MAGA cult who is an administrator or elected representative in the federal government… he violates the LDA’s disclosure rules.

He has not registered to lobby the Democratic Congress-people, most directly — and it is beyond dispute that his business interests conflict into the hundreds of billions of dollars — with those of ordinary Americans (and the platforms the majority of Democrats seek to advance). He has not disclosed, in any cohesive, statutorily-required written manner, how his vast business desires are antithetical to the peoples’.

So — each time he cajoles or implores the Non-MAGA folks in government — he commits a new LDA violation. The world’s richest man may not care about the $200,000 per violation fine — but the two year prison stint — now that it is a “knowing violation”… should wake him up.

These sworn statements were filed last night in DC, in the suit by New Mexico and other states, against his usurping the roles of statutorily mandated agencies and review processes. Musk’s lawyers believe they offer him refuge. They do not.

That is a power Tangerine 2.0 needs new legislation to even begin implementing.

Onward.

Out.

The Hard Right Press Misunderstood NYC Judge Merchan’s Ruling — Entirely.

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Y A W N.

Faux and the NY Post have so badly distorted the actual Merchan ruling, this morning… I have to wonder whether it is intentional disinformation.

This is the story of “quasi-fictional” reporting… that leads people without high school level educations (mostly Tangerine / MAGA voters) to say he’s been fully acquitted.

Poppycock.

All the able judge has ruled… it that he will hear argument on whether Justice Roberts’ ruling here applies.

It. Does. Not.

These are state level felonies, not federal ones. For predicate acts prior to any time in public office. This cannot be “activity” of a executive elect. Per the NYT:

…The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Mr. Trump, then asked to pause decisions in the case until Nov. 19 so it could weigh how to respond. And the judge overseeing the case, Juan M. Merchan, promptly granted the pause, effectively freezing any progress for the next week….

That is all. Now — onward. But don’t believe the carny barkers at the NY Post or Faux.

Out.

John Lies Voraciously, On Aussie Hard Right Tee Vee… Yawn.

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Here this afternoon, Hinderaker shamelessly toots his own horn — about the fringe hard right TV network in Australia, where (as we’ve mentioned before)….

He more than occasionally spouts such nonsense that most Aussies must wonder just how senile all Americans in his age bracket are.

Again about the bugs, John? Really?!

And about NY prosecutor?! Damn. But you didn’t bother to mention the fact that Tangerine is threatening a Black NY prosecutor with a… baseball bat?

Color me not… at all… surprised.

Damn.

A Tangent, From Our Other Properties: Merck Ready To Complete Its “Move Back Home” — To Rahway, New Jersey — And The Original HQ (For Nearly 75 Years)…

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When “Fast” Fred Hassan was running legacy Schering-Plough (circa 2004-2006), the company spent lavishly on a gleaming HQ in Kenilworth. Then came the Vytorin® debacle we reprised, below. Merck had to bail its partner Schering out, and merged into it — renaming the final entity Merck again (for what turned out to be ineffectual J&J Remicade® distribution rights / arbitration moves). So, Hassan was out, and Merck held three very large HQ “white elephant” properties in New Jersey, by late 2010. [And to be sure, Hassan’s Kenilworth palace was the least marketable — and most over priced — of these assets. So surviving Merck moved in, figuring it could more easily sell the others, as mixed use HQ/science facilities.]

Indeed, at one point in 2016-17, Google was a rumored potential buyer of the gorgeous Whitehouse Station campus. But that fell through.

Here over 13 years later, it seems Merck finally has a buyer for Hassan’s Kenilworth palace. And so, Merck has returned to the place George Merck picked out, in the then woods near Rahway, New Jersey about three-quarters of a century ago. All the old buildings have been plussed up, to be sure — but it has. . . returned to “Dad’s” (sorta’ On Walden Pond)… home.

And that, it strikes me, is fitting. Here’s that Saturday “slow news day” story — from FirecePharma, sounding more like a local outlet:

…Three years after Merck & Co. unveiled a headquarters pivot back to its old stomping grounds in Rahway, New Jersey, the company is bidding goodbye to its previous Garden State home base.

Merck has reached a deal with real estate business Onyx Equities to sell its 108-acre campus in Kenilworth, New Jersey, where the drug behemoth relocated its main digs back in 2015. For 23 years before that, Merck was based in nearby Whitehouse Station….

[All as] Merck [departs] Kenilworth in phases. . . [as it now] completes an expansion at its [newly renovated] headquarters in Rahway, the company explained in a release….

Of course, each of these three recent moves had rather significant effects on the local public schools — and so on, since the tax base either shot upward, or dropped off a cliff — as Merck arrived, in full… or decamped. In addition, local lunch spots, gas stations and the like will either proliferate or… die out. Onward, smiling — but now you know.

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Scott Lamely Hopes Andy McCarthy’s Take Buttresses His Own Insipid One… It. Does. Not.

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I do not intend to spend many electrons on what a guy who thinks the US president is a king… thinks.

US Presidents are… pretty much the opposite of kings. [We actually held a little tea party / set of skirmishes… to resolve that… it was in the Hartford Courant, and such.]

Anyhoo — just because this guy McCarthy is the favored establishment GOP talking head on matters criminal… means very little — in fact, perhaps less than zero, even if he is not a Trump fan. [He’s not.]

His stepping off point is that he (in direct opposition to the Supremes) thinks the president is bound by nearly no “ordinary” law. But 18 USC § 793 was written specifically to apply to… yep… presidents.

It has never been challenged as unconstitutional, primarily because we the people… never had need of it — to use it against any current- or former- president, for stealing nuclear weapons secrets. [That statement alone refutes all either or both of these two (plus John Hinderaker and Steve Hayward) wrote — or will ever… write, in opposition.]

Thus, assuming that 18 USC § 793 is constitutional (it is, else-wise no traitorous, corrupt president could ever be reined in), all of McCarthy’s remaining claims amount to just sound and fury, signifying… nothing.

McCarthy is right about one thing, though — any salient documents recovered by these subpeonas and/or warrants, WILL be evidence in both the J6 matters, and Thomas Barrack’s September 2022 felony trial. Stay tuned.

There is noting Tangerine (or Barrack) can do about that.

See ya’ Scottie.

It Has Been At Least Five Decades Since A Union Vote Was Re-Run By An NLRB Order. Will Amazon See One, In Alabama?

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These cases mostly arose in the middle of the last century, or earlier. But they are instructive — and some of Amazon’s alleged labor policies here a half century later — for its Alabama drivers and warehouse workers, in particular. . . harken back to those awful, and oppresive days. [Most of the cases were during a time when civil rights marchers hadn’t yet safely crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge — to Selma, in truth.]


Here is what we know: a preliminary finding suggests that the NLRB staff review will lead to the full NLRB being asked to order a new election — in Alabama, due to Amazon’s open, egregious misconduct (creating a privately-[company]-controlled mail-in ballot box, on site — and capable of being monitored by management, to see who was voting):

“. . .Throughout the NLRB hearing, we heard compelling evidence how Amazon tried to illegally interfere with and intimidate workers as they sought to exercise their right to form a union. We support the hearing officer’s recommendation that the NLRB set aside the election results and direct a new election,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU, in a statement Monday.

In response to Monday’s news, an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement: “Our employees had a chance to be heard during a noisy time when all types of voices were weighing into the national debate, and at the end of the day, they voted overwhelmingly in favor of a direct connection with their managers and the company. Their voice should be heard above all else, and we plan to appeal to ensure that happens.”

Several of the union’s objections centered on the mailbox that Amazon installed earlier this year in the parking lot and urged employees to use to mail their ballots. While union elections are typically done in-person with NLRB officials present, due to the pandemic the NLRB allowed for voting by mail, over Amazon’s strenuous objections. ​The ballots, which were mailed to the homes of eligible employees, could be cast at any USPS mailbox. The union had cried foul over Amazon’s new mailbox ahead of the results.

According to the recommendation report, the officer said Amazon’s “unilateral decision to create, for all intents and purposes, an onsite collection box for NLRB ballots destroyed the laboratory conditions and justifies a second election. . . .”

We will follow this one — as it is. . . disheartening that here in the second decade of the 21st Century. . . such shenanigans still hold sway. Shame on Mr. Bezos. This is a “tone at the top” problem. Onward, smiling — in spite of myself. . . be excellent to one another. . . .

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