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The Trial Of Amazon’s Labor Practices, At JFK-8, Is Underway All This Week, In NYC — Before An NLRB ALJ… Will Report What’s Available…

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We will warn up front, that since it is not a full USDC trial, the documents arrive on a delayed basis, and minute orders are more than slightly delayed, in the electronic records. Even so — we will cover it.

Here is the background reading: the consolidated complaint, as filed by the trial attorneys of the NLRB. Here is the order setting this week for trial. And here is Amazon’s answer, such as it is. These are as rare now, as hens’ teeth, in the last half century.

That is to say, this is the first facility — at which Mr. Smalls got a union vote win — after being fired by Amazon. He won by almost two to one, even with the alleged violations already sworn out in a complaint by the NLRB. That’s no mean feat.

And later this year, the charges at the Alabama facility, and at the other Staten Island facility will likely go to trial.

A resounding loss for Amazon here, in these next two weeks, might encourage executives to shift their thinking, and take the Microsoft route, to work the problem collaboratively. We shall see. But I do think Amazon will lose here. So we will cover it. Here’s a bit of the news coverage, so far, from yesterday:

…In a complaint filed in February, Kathy Drew-King, a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board alleged Amazon was “interfering with, restraining and coercing employees….”

Drew-King said the company threatened employees telling them it would be “futile” to vote for a union, called union organizers “thugs,” interrogated workers about their union activities, confiscated union literature and surveilled workers — part of a series of incidents that occurred at the JFK8 warehouse between May 4th, 2021 and October 31st 2021….

In passing, I should note that the Starbucks / Ithaca NLRB complaints were filed yesterday — but as I say, we will have to wait a few days to get the redacted versions. That case was mentioned over the weekend. Onward — “mess with the bull; get the horns….” Smile.

नमस्ते

12th Dip Into A Very-Near Solar Orbit — Now Complete: Parker Flying “Supa-Fast”, As Ever…

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NASA’s team running Parker reported that the lithe golden craft has completed its twelfth dip, near our home star — dashing along (in blur-mode!), covering about 100 miles in every second, on its gracefully bending arc, now.

Here is that story, in full:

…Matching its own records for speed and distance to the Sun, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its 12th close approach to the Sun on June 1, coming within 5.3 million miles (8.5 million kilometers) of the solar surface.

The close approach (known as perihelion) occurred at 6:50 p.m. EDT (10:50 p.m. UTC), with Parker Solar Probe moving about 364,660 miles per hour (586,860 kilometers per hour) – fast enough to cover the distance between Los Angeles and London in under a minute. The milestone also marked the midway point in the mission’s 12th solar encounter, which began May 27 and continues through June 7….

Onward, smiling — as we will get to drop onto the Venusian surface, by about 2031, now — if the federal funding lasts.

नमस्ते

McCloskey Denouement: St. Louis Attorneys / Anti-BLM / Gun Nuts’ Appeal Will NOT Be Heard By Supremes…

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These drunk morons will now rightly be relegated… to the ash-bin — of US history. [My backgrounder, here.]

You’ll recall that the married pair drew an AR-15 and a handgun, fingers on triggers, and aimed them at peaceful BLM marchers walking in the public street, by their house (a gated community). But the public streets… are… the public’s.

Moreover, no one entered their property, or threatened them.

And they appeared to be… drunk — waving automatic weapons — weapons of war, one of them good only for the mass slaughter of human beings [an AR-15, but (in a preposterously obvious display of lack of basic training in firearms) Mr. McCloskey held a left handed weapon in his right hand, thus with the ejector-port flush against his belly, had Mr. McCloskey fired, he would have lacerated his own liver. Charming.].

The Missouri bar authorities censured them both — with six month suspensions each, for “moral turpitude“.

But the Mizzou Governor (GOP) ultimately pardoned them.

Even so, they took an appeal all the way to the Supremes. Yesterday the Court denied them the right to complain about their six month suspensions from the practice of law, in Missouri, and the one year of probation (see page 3, fifth line from the top of the page), without any other explanation.

None needed, actually.

Each Of These Seditious Conspiracy Felony Superseding Indictment Counts Against Tarrio/Proud Boys Carry… Decades, In Federal Prison.

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Well — you may presume that once convicted, so-called “Proud Boy” leader Tarrio will be very gray before he leaves prison. He was 38 the day before his stack / tactical teams, in a coordinated effort, attacked the Capitol, in what is now newly-indicted as a felony sedition (attempt). He tried it, against his own still-sitting Veep, and the duly-elected 116th Congress, as each carried out what were clearly constitutionally-prescribed duties.

Here is today’s just filed superseding (more serious charges) indictment of 32 pages, against the lot of these traitors.

Goodbye, all of you pieces of garbage.

You are going to be in your late sixties, if/when any of you get out — and large chunks of those decades, will potentially be in a Super Max facility….

Suck on that, traitor(s).

Young Mr. Grimes Moves To Escape A Joint Felony Trial, With Trump Donor Barrack. He Will Get It.

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Just a quick note, here — as the instant motion lines out quite succinctly, and helpfully, the depths to which Mr. Barrack sank, according the the able AUSAs… and according to his co-defendant, a young underling.

The underling is rightly worried that the considerable stank, from Mr. Barrack’s alleged felonious deeds, will cause him to be convicted, on an improper “guilt by association” bias in the jurors’ minds. He is right to be so concerned. Take a look, but here is the full 17 pager, a motion young Mr. Grimes will win:

…Mr. Grimes is charged with a novel statute applied to him in an unprecedented fashion (i.e., a young assistant carrying out the directions of a US boss). He is presently to be tried alongside that former boss, Thomas Barrack, a sophisticated international businessman with long standing business and government connections. Mr. Barrack is also being charged with seven additional counts for obstruction of justice and making false statements. During the predecessor investigation to this indictment, led by the Office of Special Counsel (“OSC”), Mr. Grimes fully cooperated and [several words redacted, under seal] and an interview to federal prosecutors….

Mr. Barrack also gave interviews, and statements he made therein form the basis of the additional counts against him. The statements that each defendant made in the past, no doubt, would likely be introduced by the government in the case. In addition, the government has indicated that it will call witnesses in its case from Mr. Grimes’ former employer, whom counsel for Mr. Grimes can question, perhaps differently, than Mr. Barrack’s counsel.

In a joint trial with Mr. Barrack, there is a real possibility that Mr. Grimes’ defense would be impaired and his right to a fair trial threatened….

Mr. Grimes was a 22-year-old assistant to Mr. Barrack, the Executive Chairman of Colony…. There is no evidence that Mr. Grimes ever agreed to be an agent of the UAE or that Mr. Grimes knew or would have known that his alleged activities on behalf of Colony rendered him an agent of the UAE…. Despite their vastly different roles, the actions of Messrs. Barrack and Grimes are often blended together both in the indictment and in the filings the government has made in motions practice….

Look, whatever role Mr. Grimes played here, he is entitled to a jury free of the infected slop-over, from Mr. Barrack’s soon to be proven undisclosed, and malign deeds, against the interests of his nation, the United States of America.

Onward, grinning, now… will have to stop by his joint, next time I am up valley in Aspen, this summer. Heh. Just to say… “hello”, of course.

नमस्ते

Japan’s JAXA Proves That Amino Acids Float, In A Rich Diversity, On Many An Asteroid, Throughout The Universe: Building Blocks For… Life.

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Not entirely surprising, here a year and a half since we last checked in on this story. And… it does confirm what exo-biologists have long posited: that complex ingredients for life, as we know it, may have been transported to Earth via collisions with ancient meteorites.[One of several backgrounders on the JAXA mission, here.]

What may be most striking is the relative diversity of the amino acids, all in one small sample, from one asteroid. This would at least suggest… an “embarrassment of riches” — an entire Universe, positively awash in these building blocks from which life may evolve. Here’s the latest, from the local Japanese papers:

…More than 20 types of amino acids have been detected in samples Japan’s Hayabusa2 space probe brought to Earth from an asteroid in late 2020, a government official said Monday, showing for the first time the organic compounds exist on asteroids in space.

With amino acids essential for all living things to make proteins, the discovery could hold clues to understanding the origins of life, the education ministry said.

In December 2020, a capsule that had been carried on a six-year mission by Hayabusa2 delivered more than 5.4 grams of surface material to Earth from the Ryugu asteroid, located over 300 million kilometers away….

Kensei Kobayashi, professor emeritus of astrobiology at Yokohama National University, said the unprecedented discovery of multiple types of amino acids on an extraterrestrial body could even hint at the existence of life outside of Earth.

“Proving amino acids exist in the subsurface of asteroids increases the likelihood that the compounds arrived on Earth from space,” he said.

It also means amino acids can likely be found on other planets and natural satellites, hinting that “life could have been born in more places in the universe than previously thought,” Kobayashi added….

We are now… as we were, then — brimming with good cheer — for a whole host of unrelated, and partially related reasons. Again very proud of my people, across the Pacific, and across the smaller pond… smile. Onward.

नमस्ते

And — I’m Overdue On This, But Microsoft Proves That Big Companies Can… “Learn To Read The Room”.

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This is from Friday past (in Fortune), but it encapsulates all the essence of my advice — from the prior three months on this topic.

Microsoft is waking up. This is the way to adapt; to show respect for talent — and to keep these elusive tech workers… engaged and committed — beyond the paycheck. Go read it all:

…Microsoft president Brad Smith announced, in a Thursday blog post, a “new set of principles” for the tech giant’s approach to organized labor that “will make it simpler, rather than more difficult” for employees to form or join a union.

Both Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz have said their companies are better off without unions, but Smith struck a different tone, saying, “We know that we have a lot to learn.” He pointed to his own experience directing European and corporate legal affairs as evidence of the company’s past collaborative experiences with work councils and unions outside of the U.S.

Smith said the company has talked with labor, business, and academic leaders in recent months as it formed a “new set of principles.” He emphasized that Microsoft recognizes “we have far more learning ahead of us than behind us….”

When you know better — you may do… better. Word — g’night. . . .

नमस्ते

Watching The Barsoomian Winds Spin Up Daily “Mini-Haboobs”, Over 40 Million Miles Off, Into The Black Skies…

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Above, we see some pretty incredible .gif – footage. And so, we will close the weekend, with a time lapse letterbox render of a series of dust devils, shot on Mars, by Perseverance.

Pretty impressive — and here is the full story from NASA | JPL. It was shot at Jezero Crater, near the Octavia E. Butler landing field:

…During its first couple hundred days in Jezero Crater, NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover saw some of the most intense dust activity ever witnessed by a mission sent to the Red Planet’s surface. Not only did the rover detect hundreds of dust-bearing whirlwinds called dust devils, Perseverance captured the first video ever recorded of wind gusts lifting a massive Martian dust cloud.

A paper recently published in Science Advances chronicles the trove of weather phenomena observed in the first 216 Martian days, or sols. The new findings enable scientists to better understand dust processes on Mars and contribute to a body of knowledge that could one day help them predict the dust storms that Mars is famous for — and that pose a threat to future robotic and human explorers….

“Jezero Crater may be in one of the most active sources of dust on the planet,” said Manuel de la Torre Juarez, MEDA’s deputy principal investigator at JPL. “Everything new we learn about dust will be helpful for future missions.”

The study authors found that at least four whirlwinds pass Perseverance on a typical Martian day and that more than one per hour passes by during a peak hourlong period just after noon….

The more you know, right? Right! Onward, smiling into the warm night, as a hot red coal rises to the southeast now, with… a moan….

नमस्ते

Cornell University Area Starbucks — An Update On The Three, Now Two Union Shops: One Closest To Campus Shuttered, By Company.

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Whether one thinks an overflowing grease trap (as an environmentally unfriendly matter) is worthy of a one day strike by the union at a given Starbucks shop… is immaterial.

What is completely novel in the last 75 or so years… is that such a headline appears, at all. This is vast evidence of large public company / corporate… mis-calculations (just as at Amazon and Google). The regular team-mates’ concerns could certainly have been handled far short of unionization. They. Just. Weren’t. And now these jokers will ride the whirlwind (per NPR):

…The coffee giant gave the employees at the College Ave. location near Cornell University a one-week notice of the closure, the union says, with the store slated to permanently close on June 10.

The coffee giant has said the decision to close the store was unrelated to the unionization effort. The store was one of three Starbucks locations in Ithaca that voted to unionize on April 8….

“This is clearly retaliation for our small grasps at dignity as workers, but our strike showed them what power we have,” Benjamin South, an employee at the College Ave. location, said in a statement.

A union committee says it’s filing an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that Starbucks is closing the store to retaliate against worker activities that are protected by labor laws….

Onward… the sea really has changed here (thus the Jolly Roger style image in my graphic at upper right — good on ya’, Capt. Jack Sparrow!). Regardless of whether one believes all the union alleges, the fact that it is even happening (unionization) — is new, to the last 70-some years, in America. And it finds me… grinning.

नमस्ते