The U.S.Navy is scrambling to spend the billions of dollars in extra spending that the Trump administration and Congress lavished on it as part of the Pentagon's 2018 budget. For many of the roughly 5,000 workers at a major aircraft-repair facility in San Diego, that means overtime -- lots of it. In a mandatory effort to spend the entire 2018 budget and justify equal or higher spending in 2019, some workers at the North Island naval air facility are browsing the Internet, socializing with co-workers, and even sleeping on the job. Many workers have little choice but to kill time while on the clock. Even before the new overtime requirement -- supervisors had warned employees that not working at least 15 percent overtime could face "an appropriate penalty... for an act of employee misconduct" -- some North Island employees were only working at half-capacity due to bottle necks in other parts of the Navy's aircraft-maintenance process.
So-called budgetary burn-offs are not confined to the military, because it is general knowledge in government agencies that it's important to "use it or lose it." Not only does the federal government require agencies to return any unsent money at the end of the fiscal year, administration officials and congressional appropriators tend to adjust budgets upward or downward depending upon how fully a given agency spent its previous allocations.
The mandatory overtime at North Island, which began on March 11, could continue until the facility spends every dollar the administration requested and Congress appropriated for 2018. This year the Navy asked for $1.4 billion for aircraft maintenance at depot facilities including North Island -- a $200 million increase over 2017. Congress appropriated $640 billion for the Defense Department for 2018, a nearly $40 billion boost compared to 2017.
When President Trump began to speak about a "hollowed-out" military and many Republican lawmakers joined in that out-of-tune chorus, the major priorities were identified as training for military personnel to meet their mission, and replacing military hardware used up in the many military conflicts the U.S. has been engaged in after 9/11. Trump revealed how false were these justifications when he asked for $25 billion to be taken from the Pentagon budget and used to help finance a border wall. Then, when Trump was schooled on the proposition that money appropriated for one purpose cannot be expended for another purpose, he decided to have the military help guard the border between Mexico and the United States. With his usual lack of precision and detail, Trump wants 2,000 to 4,000 National Guard troops to perform largely undefined functions. And, of course, the money to pay for the National Guard will come from the Pentagon's apparently starved budget.
The U.S., with about five percent of the world's population, now accounts for almost 40 percent of the world's military spending, and with the very large additions to Pentagon spending over this year and the next, that percentage will undoubtedly climb well into the 40s. We spend more on the military than the next nine nations combined, which include China and Russia. Military spending now accounts for 55 percent of discretionary spending, and will undoubtedly climb into the 60s with the two-year spending increases.
When House Speaker Paul Ryan announced his retirement, he mentioned as his two most important accomplishments, the passage of the tax plan and building up the U.S. military. The money that has been shoveled to the Pentagon has been a major cause of the huge budgetary deficit and the subsequent starving of the domestic economy.
ADDENDUMS:
* Kellyanne Conway's tweet of October 29, 2016: "Astonished by the all-out assault on Comey by Team Clinton. Suggesting he is a partisan interfering with the election is dangerous & and unfair."
*After Nikki Haley promised that new sanctions on-Russia would be imposed the next day, President Trump put on the brakes.
*Number of Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S.: 2016 - 15,479; 2017 - 3,024; and 2018 - 11.
* Andrew Wheeler, former coal mining lobbyist, was confirmed by the Senate as deputy administrator of the EPA. He served as an adviser to Sen. James M. Inhofe (R- Okla.), a high-profile critic of climate science.
*More than 70 meetings between Trump staffers and Russian operatives have taken place, many of them initially denied.
* Trump signed an executive order strengthening work requirements or low-income Americans who receive government assistance through programs such as Medicaid, food stamps and welfare.
Tuesday, April 17, 2018
Monday, April 16, 2018
Restaurant Workers' Low Wages and Sexual Harassment Exposure
In a 2014 survey of 688 recent and former restaurant employees, the Restaurant Opportunities Centers (ROC) United and Forward Together found that about 80 percent said they had been harassed by co-workers or customers. Another two-thirds said they have been harassed by managers. Sixty percent of female and transgender workers said that sexual harassment was an uncomfortable aspect of their daily work lives, while about a third said that being inappropriately touched was a common occurrence.
The accommodation and food-service industry -- including bars, restaurants, and fast-food joints -- was responsible for the largest share of private-sector harassment charges filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2005 to 2015.
In most of the country, servers and bartenders can be paid a lower wage if their tips make up the difference between their pay and the federal minimum wage. The federal floor is just $2.13 per hour for tipped workers, versus $7.25 for everyone else. In a recent report, the National Employment Law Project found that tips account for nearly 60 percent of servers' earnings and more than half for bartenders.
ROC United found that female restaurant workers who live in states were employers can pay them a lower minimum wage if they work for tips are twice as likely to experience sexual harassment as those in the seven states where all workers are paid the same wage.
Sexual harassment is a fact of life for far too many women across the economy, with about 60 percent saying they've experienced it. But the food-industry is in a category all its own. In interviews with "The Nation," many industry veterans struggled with how to describe the harassment or even where to begin, given how pervasive it was.
There is a price to pay for employers to consider by high turnover, as staffers flee an abusive environment.
Sexual Harassment in the Food Industry
From 1997-2015 there were 23,570 charges but only 364 cases.
EEOC Sexual Harassment Cases
There were 268,610 charges filed from 1997-2017 for all industries. 24,544 charges, or 9% of total charges, were made against food-industry employers.
In 2017, the EEOC had a backlog of 61,621 complaints and an average wait time of 295 days.
The EEOC litigates only a small fraction of all charges brought to the commission. In 2000 it was 22 cases out of 15,000 filed; in 2005 it was 38 out of 12,000 filed; in 2010 it was 16 out of 11,000 filed; and in 2015 it was 5 out of 10,000 filed. (Source: "The Nation," March 5, 2018.)
The accommodation and food-service industry -- including bars, restaurants, and fast-food joints -- was responsible for the largest share of private-sector harassment charges filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from 2005 to 2015.
In most of the country, servers and bartenders can be paid a lower wage if their tips make up the difference between their pay and the federal minimum wage. The federal floor is just $2.13 per hour for tipped workers, versus $7.25 for everyone else. In a recent report, the National Employment Law Project found that tips account for nearly 60 percent of servers' earnings and more than half for bartenders.
ROC United found that female restaurant workers who live in states were employers can pay them a lower minimum wage if they work for tips are twice as likely to experience sexual harassment as those in the seven states where all workers are paid the same wage.
Sexual harassment is a fact of life for far too many women across the economy, with about 60 percent saying they've experienced it. But the food-industry is in a category all its own. In interviews with "The Nation," many industry veterans struggled with how to describe the harassment or even where to begin, given how pervasive it was.
There is a price to pay for employers to consider by high turnover, as staffers flee an abusive environment.
Sexual Harassment in the Food Industry
From 1997-2015 there were 23,570 charges but only 364 cases.
EEOC Sexual Harassment Cases
There were 268,610 charges filed from 1997-2017 for all industries. 24,544 charges, or 9% of total charges, were made against food-industry employers.
In 2017, the EEOC had a backlog of 61,621 complaints and an average wait time of 295 days.
The EEOC litigates only a small fraction of all charges brought to the commission. In 2000 it was 22 cases out of 15,000 filed; in 2005 it was 38 out of 12,000 filed; in 2010 it was 16 out of 11,000 filed; and in 2015 it was 5 out of 10,000 filed. (Source: "The Nation," March 5, 2018.)
Monday, April 9, 2018
Stats on Mass Shootings, Teacher Strikes and a Nuke Game Changer
Mass Shooting Numbers/Percentages
100 - Number of mass shooters (defined as individuals who indiscriminately kill three or more victims in a public place) in the United States since 1982, according to "Mother Jones."
97% - Percentage of mass shooters who have been male.
57% - Percentage of mass shooters who have been white and male.
69% - Minimum percentage of guns used by these shooters that were purchased legally.
816 - Number of people killed by mass shooters since 1982.
1,275 - Estimated number of people injured by mass shooters since 1982. (Source: The Nation, April 2, 2018).
Striking Teachers' Numbers/Percentages
34,000 - Approximate number of public-school employees who went on strike for nine days in West Virginia.
+5% - Amount by which teachers' pay will increase a a result of the strike (in addition to a freeze on health-insurance costs).
-8.6% - Amount by which, prior to the strike, teachers' pay in West Virginia had decreased over the past 15 years.
-3% - Amount by which teacher pay has fallen nationwide over the same 15 years.
29 - Number of states that now provide less school funding per student than they did before the 2008 recession, according to 2015 data. (Source: The Nation, April 9, 2018).
President Trump's Nuclear Posture Review as Game Changer
Trump's Nuclear Posture Review is a game changer because it repudiates the logic that had governed nuclear weapons under President Obama -- whose stated goal was to limit their use to retaliation for an enemy's nuclear assault -- and instead envisions their use for a wide range of purposes, including to blunt a Russian advance on NATO forces or to retaliate against a cyber assault on critical U.S. infrastructure.
President Vladimir Putin has signaled Russian determination to counter U.S. attempts to incapacitate Russia's retaliatory capacity by installing antimissile systems, deploying nuclear-powered cruise missiles and unmanned submarines.
This tit-for-tat assertions of weapons development "inevitably [sparks] reciprocal action in a perpetual arms race."
Michael T. Klare tells readers that they can help forestall precipitous action by urging their members in Congress to support the No Unconstitutional Strike Against North Korea Act. (Source: Michael T. Klare, "The New Cold War," The Nation, April 2, 2018).
100 - Number of mass shooters (defined as individuals who indiscriminately kill three or more victims in a public place) in the United States since 1982, according to "Mother Jones."
97% - Percentage of mass shooters who have been male.
57% - Percentage of mass shooters who have been white and male.
69% - Minimum percentage of guns used by these shooters that were purchased legally.
816 - Number of people killed by mass shooters since 1982.
1,275 - Estimated number of people injured by mass shooters since 1982. (Source: The Nation, April 2, 2018).
Striking Teachers' Numbers/Percentages
34,000 - Approximate number of public-school employees who went on strike for nine days in West Virginia.
+5% - Amount by which teachers' pay will increase a a result of the strike (in addition to a freeze on health-insurance costs).
-8.6% - Amount by which, prior to the strike, teachers' pay in West Virginia had decreased over the past 15 years.
-3% - Amount by which teacher pay has fallen nationwide over the same 15 years.
29 - Number of states that now provide less school funding per student than they did before the 2008 recession, according to 2015 data. (Source: The Nation, April 9, 2018).
President Trump's Nuclear Posture Review as Game Changer
Trump's Nuclear Posture Review is a game changer because it repudiates the logic that had governed nuclear weapons under President Obama -- whose stated goal was to limit their use to retaliation for an enemy's nuclear assault -- and instead envisions their use for a wide range of purposes, including to blunt a Russian advance on NATO forces or to retaliate against a cyber assault on critical U.S. infrastructure.
President Vladimir Putin has signaled Russian determination to counter U.S. attempts to incapacitate Russia's retaliatory capacity by installing antimissile systems, deploying nuclear-powered cruise missiles and unmanned submarines.
This tit-for-tat assertions of weapons development "inevitably [sparks] reciprocal action in a perpetual arms race."
Michael T. Klare tells readers that they can help forestall precipitous action by urging their members in Congress to support the No Unconstitutional Strike Against North Korea Act. (Source: Michael T. Klare, "The New Cold War," The Nation, April 2, 2018).
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Pompeo Nomination and a Look Back at CPAC
Statement on Pompeo Nomination
In response to news of Rex Tillerson's firing and C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo taking his place as Secretary of State, Jon Rainwater, Executive Director of Peace Action, the nation's largest peace and justice grassroots organization, released the following statement:
"By tapping Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State, Trump is handing over the reins of U.S. diplomacy to one of the most hawkish members of his administration. For all of Tillerson's flaws, he served as a check on Trump's more hawkish positions. With Pompeo, Trump' worst instincts on Iran and North Korea will be reinforced. Pompeo [has] not only said his goal is 'rolling back' the 'disastrous' Iran nuclear deal, he earlier suggested military strikes as an alternative to diplomacy.
"In 2014, as part of his efforts to block President Obama's diplomacy, Pompeo promoted a military approach. Pompeo made clear that he preferred military strikes to the diplomatic efforts that had already resulted in an interim agreement, saying 'In an unclassified setting, it is under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces.'
"North Korea is likely the most high stakes diplomatic issue facing the U.S., but Pompeo's approach to North Korea is far from diplomatic. Pompeo recently said that 'there will be no concessions made' during negotiations. Pompeo has also signaled his interest in a policy of regime change in North Korea. Threatening regime change while ruling out the normal give-and-take nature of negotiations is a surefire strategy to kill the otherwise promising diplomatic progress on the Korean Peninsula in its crib.
"Secretary Tillerson presided over a shameful erosion of the diplomatic capacity of the United States. Critical positions remain vacant and morale among those left at the State Department is as low as ever, While Pompeo could end up being a more competent administrator, his extreme policy views threaten to gut U.S. diplomatic capacity further by making war the go-to option rather a last resort."
The U.S. military is certainly preparing to carry out a presidential order for war. Besides undertaking a host of war games with South Korea over the past year, it has moved long-range B-52, B-1, and "stealth" B-2 bombers to Guam, from which they can strike North Korea with nuclear or conventional bombs. The Defense Department has also been testing the world's most powerful non-nuclear bomb, the 30,000 GBU-57, which has the capacity to plow through hundreds of feet of earth to destroy "hardened" weapons silos.
A Look Back at CPAC
Despite the Trump administration succeeding in implementing a hyperconservative agenda, CPAC favorites Ted Cruz and Ben Shapiro acknowledged that they had no substantive disagreements with Trump. Nevertheless, the entire event was defined by victimhood and paranoia. The enemies are everywhere: Democrats, socialists,college professors, regulators, black athletes, reporters, "fake news," the FBI. "They try like hell, they can't stand what we've done," Trump said ominously.
Trump's speech was the climax of a CPAC defined by seething, spastic vitriol from nearly every featured speaker. National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch declared "many in the legacy media love mass shootings." Wayne Lapierre, the executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, claimed Democrats were conspiring to "eradicate all individual freedoms." Ben Shapiro, the right-wing polemicist who recently received a glowing profile in "The New York Times," repeated his familiar anti-transgender bigotry, to the delight of the audience. The anger was even more pronounced in the wake of the Parkland shooting, which was referenced regularly over the course of the conference.
Trump repeatedly warned the crowd that if Democrats were elected they would repeal the Second Amendment, and at one point asked the attendees to cheer if they preferred the Second Amendment or tax cuts. It was a bizarre moment, one of many, but suffice it to say that the Second Amendment received very loud support. That defensive posture in the midst of a seeming sea change in the gun-control debate was not a coincidence, and a clear sign that the CPAC doesn't see itself as responsible for the prevalence of mass shootings.
In response to news of Rex Tillerson's firing and C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo taking his place as Secretary of State, Jon Rainwater, Executive Director of Peace Action, the nation's largest peace and justice grassroots organization, released the following statement:
"By tapping Mike Pompeo to be Secretary of State, Trump is handing over the reins of U.S. diplomacy to one of the most hawkish members of his administration. For all of Tillerson's flaws, he served as a check on Trump's more hawkish positions. With Pompeo, Trump' worst instincts on Iran and North Korea will be reinforced. Pompeo [has] not only said his goal is 'rolling back' the 'disastrous' Iran nuclear deal, he earlier suggested military strikes as an alternative to diplomacy.
"In 2014, as part of his efforts to block President Obama's diplomacy, Pompeo promoted a military approach. Pompeo made clear that he preferred military strikes to the diplomatic efforts that had already resulted in an interim agreement, saying 'In an unclassified setting, it is under 2,000 sorties to destroy the Iranian nuclear capacity. This is not an insurmountable task for the coalition forces.'
"North Korea is likely the most high stakes diplomatic issue facing the U.S., but Pompeo's approach to North Korea is far from diplomatic. Pompeo recently said that 'there will be no concessions made' during negotiations. Pompeo has also signaled his interest in a policy of regime change in North Korea. Threatening regime change while ruling out the normal give-and-take nature of negotiations is a surefire strategy to kill the otherwise promising diplomatic progress on the Korean Peninsula in its crib.
"Secretary Tillerson presided over a shameful erosion of the diplomatic capacity of the United States. Critical positions remain vacant and morale among those left at the State Department is as low as ever, While Pompeo could end up being a more competent administrator, his extreme policy views threaten to gut U.S. diplomatic capacity further by making war the go-to option rather a last resort."
The U.S. military is certainly preparing to carry out a presidential order for war. Besides undertaking a host of war games with South Korea over the past year, it has moved long-range B-52, B-1, and "stealth" B-2 bombers to Guam, from which they can strike North Korea with nuclear or conventional bombs. The Defense Department has also been testing the world's most powerful non-nuclear bomb, the 30,000 GBU-57, which has the capacity to plow through hundreds of feet of earth to destroy "hardened" weapons silos.
A Look Back at CPAC
Despite the Trump administration succeeding in implementing a hyperconservative agenda, CPAC favorites Ted Cruz and Ben Shapiro acknowledged that they had no substantive disagreements with Trump. Nevertheless, the entire event was defined by victimhood and paranoia. The enemies are everywhere: Democrats, socialists,college professors, regulators, black athletes, reporters, "fake news," the FBI. "They try like hell, they can't stand what we've done," Trump said ominously.
Trump's speech was the climax of a CPAC defined by seething, spastic vitriol from nearly every featured speaker. National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch declared "many in the legacy media love mass shootings." Wayne Lapierre, the executive vice president and CEO of the NRA, claimed Democrats were conspiring to "eradicate all individual freedoms." Ben Shapiro, the right-wing polemicist who recently received a glowing profile in "The New York Times," repeated his familiar anti-transgender bigotry, to the delight of the audience. The anger was even more pronounced in the wake of the Parkland shooting, which was referenced regularly over the course of the conference.
Trump repeatedly warned the crowd that if Democrats were elected they would repeal the Second Amendment, and at one point asked the attendees to cheer if they preferred the Second Amendment or tax cuts. It was a bizarre moment, one of many, but suffice it to say that the Second Amendment received very loud support. That defensive posture in the midst of a seeming sea change in the gun-control debate was not a coincidence, and a clear sign that the CPAC doesn't see itself as responsible for the prevalence of mass shootings.
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