Clearing up something. Social progressivism is singing Kumbaya, which is so easy even Nancy Pelosi embraces it. Economic progressivism is Bernie, and is not easy since folks like Pelosi and Bloomberg are dead set against it. Have your Kumbaya, but let my fortune alone being the operative mantra so that there really is only economic progressivism since if you honestly balance the money better society will fall into respecting one another since nobody is fucking everybody else too badly. A sidebar item helps understanding:
Elon Musk is not special beyond his risks having paid off, and his choice of having love for innovative risk rather than passive investment, but his politics are special since few hold the set of views he holds - in toto. Except other extreme fascists.
Musk, as an innovater, is technologically progressive. As one taking and enjoying more than a fair share, he is as throwback anti-progressive as they come.
Social progressives lost the last Presidential election. Big time. As if insincere, since they have done zippo for economic reform when having power. They pose, but deliver nothing but token insult and disdain for those wanting something real that you can take to the bank.
Economic progressives have never had a chance, FDR being best they ever got, and FDR's primary goal was to save capitalism from collapse for the evil that it spawned since social conservatives and in-poitics social progressives want the bulk of the people fucked over to better serve accretion of wealth by the few - but a few large enough to include themselves.
Pelosi trades her shares while having insider information. Musk throws his weight around. Only the economic progressives really matter, since they are universally opposed by money whereas social progressives, who really gives a shit besides tattooed Hegseth and like minded bent-mind bigots, or other poseurs.
Fairness over money is why Luigi pulled the trigger and unfairness over money is why what's-his-name, the pirate, caught fire and died. And what some hoped for in voting Trump-Vance into office. Good luck for them so voting if they were right and Trump-Vance delivers something besides Kash Patel.
For every blue collar vote you lose, you have two suburban jobs lost to H-1B.
You give an award. It's Hillary's turn.
Nancy's turn next. Give her a medal. Harris too. Nothing has fundamentally changed except who's gotten the spoils. After Obama, people take turns and the earth still turns on its axis so we are doing metal deserving stuff voters reject, from time to time, majority being fickle. It's Rham's turn coming up. Isn't it? Carter just died, and it's really been something since Carter served. Since LBJ had his turn. Rham got no medal. Yet. Trump gave Mariam Adelson one of those. She also wore red to contrast with the blue ribbon. Friendships seem a factor. Alliances even more a factor. Elon's turn next, perhaps? The working people used to vote Democrat. Rham and Bill fixed that. Short term. Two terms. Now to where Elon might get a medal. One he could put into space to circumnavigate the sun, and get a second one. What does one of those things cost? Nothing fundamentally changing being the cost? Bernie, AOC, medal-less for being meddlesome. Daring to question.
Bannon, War Room, adamant and unequivocal. End it.
Bernie, if he can force a Senate vote and has the votes is willing to fix a few rules, where rules can be followed or ignored. And - JD insights:
With that "boiler room" image, are they replacing jobs American citizens would want? In Oct. 2022, Vance, the Ohio candidate now silent, had something to say, then:
CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Republican J.D. Vance says a
new Congress must reverse a policy that allows corporations to replace
American professionals, often in high-paying STEM jobs, with cheaper
foreign workers on the H-1B visa program.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News on Saturday, the Ohio Senate candidate blasted a plan
by OhioHealth where nearly 640 American tech and finance employees are
being laid off and having their jobs sent to Accenture — a Fortune 500
multinational corporation notorious for importing foreign H-1B visa
workers to replace Americans in white-collar jobs.
[...] The Buckeye State Republican was making a swing through the southeast part of the state to channel his Appalachian roots
with two weeks left in the race. [...]
On the OhioHealth layoffs, set to occur early next month [Nov.] and continue
through the beginning of 2023, Vance said federal law must be
overhauled to ensure corporations like OhioHealth are not allowed to
replace their American employees via third-party outsourcing firms like
Accenture.
“Generally speaking, a lot of the H-1B abuse we see is in the
interests of the people hiring the [foreign visa] worker, who can
undercut the wages of Americans, but is it in the interest of the 700
Ohioans who lost their jobs? Absolutely not,” Vance told Breitbart News.
“This is one of these issues where you actually need public policy to
solve this problem because they’re taking advantage of a visa system
that’s meant to ensure that American companies have the workers that
they need, it’s not meant to undercut the wages of American workers in
this country,” Vance continued. “Unfortunately, that’s what the H-1B
visa is just being used to do right now.”
Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH), whom Vance is running against, has for years voted to increase foreign competition in the labor market that working and middle class Americans are forced to compete against.
[...] The outsourcing-offshoring business model has proven extremely lucrative for Fortune 500 companies like
Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Apple, JP Morgan Chase, and others
as they often contract with “body shop” firms like Cognizant, Tata
Consulting Services, Infosys, Accenture, IBM, and Capgemini to lay off
their American employees and replace them with tens of thousands of
foreign H-1B visa workers primarily from India.
Accenture, for instance, sought to import more than 3,800 foreign H-1B visa workers this year alone. In 2021, Accenture sought to bring 6,200 foreign H-1B visa workers to the U.S. to take white-collar American jobs.
While being laid off, Americans are often forced to train
their foreign H-1B visa replacements. If they do not, in most cases,
their employer withholds their severance package. There are about
650,000 foreign H-1B visa workers in the U.S. at any given moment.
In Ohio, alone, firms and corporations including Cognizant, Tata
Consulting Services, Accenture, and JP Morgan Chase were allowed to fill
more than 9,700 American white-collar professional jobs with foreign H-1B visa workers this year.
Vance said “the first principle” of national immigration policy ought
to “be about defending the interests of America and America’s workers”
rather than corporate special interests.
Musk? He likes the visas, and Trump conforms. Interesting!
[...] Economic Policy Institute research has shown that most corporations importing foreign H-1B visa workers are making significant savings in wages paid by doing so.
[...] Though Vance is one of only a couple of Republicans to speak on H-1B
visa abuse this [2022] election cycle, the GOP base, swing voters, and a
majority of Americans — for years — have said U.S. employers should
boost wages and offer better benefits to attract Americans for jobs
rather than being allowed to import foreign visa workers whenever
possible.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey
on the issue shows that 57 percent of American adults, 65 percent of
Republicans, and nearly 6-in-10 swing voters say companies should raise
their pay and try harder to recruit Americans for blue-collar and
white-collar jobs over the federal government subsidizing them with
foreign labor year after year.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
Well, MAGA voted Trump into four years of Musk fascism, or that it is how it looks; which seems amenable to Trump in any event. We get what they voted for.
And don't take my word for it. JD Vance sez so. Or said so, an election cycle ago. The winds of change blow, MAGA facing a headwind; Bannon saying, stay the course. Deport them. Musk? Well, the GOP-lite Democrats have an answer - not a very good answer, but it seems to be how they think and lose. Bless their losing souls.
"Strange bedfellows" is an overused term, but Bernie-Bannon co-usage of a term in the Constitution to fuel the debate is noteworthy.
There are two web searches readers can call up and review returned items. One search about BERNIE. One search about Bannon.
And JD? Now, a studious silence. On record as an Ohio Senate candidate, 2022, with a position stated here and here, (the latter Axios post noting that in building his fortune JD used H-1B labor), where the stated policy position then was contrary with what Musk/Trump now say.
Bernie's position is that H-1B has merit, but reform is needed to forestall abuse; see e.g. his Senate site essay on the issue. FOX reports:
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.,
is taking aim at the controversial H-1B visa program, arguing that it
replaces "good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants
from abroad" — just as the program is at the center of a debate within
the Republican Party
[...] Sanders cited statistics to show that in 2022 and 2023, the top 30
corporations using the program laid off over 85,000 American workers,
while hiring over 34,000 H-1B workers, and that 33% of new IT jobs are
filled by foreign national guest workers. He also pointed to layoffs at
Tesla, one of Musk’s companies.
A source close to his office told me that the senator is
drafting several amendments to improve the program radically – including
raising income levels for foreign workers taking jobs through the H-1B
visa and hiking the application fees for corporations utilizing the
program. The push is a reprisal of similar 2007 amendments Sanders
offered during the debate over the Bush immigration bill. During that
period, he worked closely with his Republican colleagues.
The
new amendments will be attached to major legislation offered over the
coming weeks — essentially forcing lawmakers to go on the record.
Sanders
is currently in talks with potential cosponsors and expects to bring a
unique pro-American labor coalition of Democrats and Republicans
together to crack down on H-1B abuse.
[...] Grassroots supporters of
Trump have noted that the H-1B visas have been exploited in the past to
suppress American wages and view the efforts to “uncap” the program as a
violation of President-elect Donald Trump’s America First principles
and promises to end the program.
In 2016, Trump cited
the controversy over Disney forcing laid-off American workers to train
their H-1B replacements. He promised to get rid of the program. “I will
end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program, and institute
an absolute requirement to hire American workers first for every visa
and immigration program. No exceptions,” Trump said in a statement.
Trump, however, has taken a complete reversal and now sides with his Silicon Valley allies.
"I
didn't change my mind. I've always felt we have to have the most
competent people in this country,” Trump told reporters at his New
Year's Eve party earlier this week in response to a question on H-1B
visas. “We need smart people coming into our country. We need a lot of
people coming in,” he continued.
[...] The Economic Policy Institute and other credible researchers have
found that major American corporations have long exploited the H-1B
visa program. Though intended for skills-based temporary migration,
evidence strongly shows
that H-1B workers are tapped to bring down American wages. H-1B visa
workers also have less ability to bargain for better working conditions,
given that they are tied to their employers.
In
2007, during the debate over the Bush immigration bill, Sanders played a
similar role, partnering with Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen.
Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to reform the H-1B visa program. The
Grassley-Sanders amendment, for instance, was designed to prohibit
companies engaged in layoffs from hiring H-1B workers. The amendment was
backed by the AFL-CIO, the Programmers Guild and the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers and opposed by many of the major
corporate lobby groups, including organizations represented by Wal-Mart,
Dell and Microsoft.
That 2007 amendment was voted down. Otherwise this would be less an issue now. But with the current daylight on the question Sanders might at least get a voice vote in the Senate where each Senator's vote would be of record. Hoping for better, the amendment now might pass.
Yes, I voted lesser evil, in my mind, and that was Harris and why I encouraged others to vote for Harris. Yes, lesser evil sucks. Hence, the headlining is that used by DWT in its recent posting, here. Read it. DWT has been posting good New Year content.
