Trump Fires TVA Chair, Cites Hiring of Foreign Workers (apnews.com) 267
schwit1 writes: President Trump announced the removal of Tennessee Valley Authority's chair James Thompson and board member Richard Howoth and called for the removal of their CEO Bill Johnson. This was in response to the company laying off employees and hiring H1-B visa holders. [TVA announced it would outsource 20% of its technology jobs to companies based in foreign countries, which could cause more than 200 highly skilled American tech workers in Tennessee to lose their jobs to foreign workers, according to the White House.] During the round table discussion, it was announced the company is willing to reverse course and rehire previously laid off employees. The president also said he would not ban the TikTok app if Microsoft or another company bought it before September 15th. "The TVA is a federally owned corporation created in 1933 to provide flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing and economic development to the Tennessee Valley, a region that was hard hit by the Great Depression," reports The Associated Press. "The region covers most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky as well as small sections of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia."
Trump said the new chief executive officer must "[put] the interests of Americans first," adding: "The new CEO must be paid no more than $500,000 a year. We want the TVA to take action on this immediately. [...] Let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board: If you betray American workers, you will hear two words: 'You're fired.'"
The announcement was made as Trump signed an executive order to require all federal agencies to complete an internal audit to prove they are not replacing qualified American workers with people from other countries. According to the White House, the order will help prevent federal agencies from unfairly replacing American workers with lower cost foreign labor.
Trump said the new chief executive officer must "[put] the interests of Americans first," adding: "The new CEO must be paid no more than $500,000 a year. We want the TVA to take action on this immediately. [...] Let this serve as a warning to any federally appointed board: If you betray American workers, you will hear two words: 'You're fired.'"
The announcement was made as Trump signed an executive order to require all federal agencies to complete an internal audit to prove they are not replacing qualified American workers with people from other countries. According to the White House, the order will help prevent federal agencies from unfairly replacing American workers with lower cost foreign labor.
So, Why were you fired? (Score:3, Funny)
"Well, the incumbent President was attempting a Hail Mary from his glory days as a reality TV star."
.
Re: So, Why were you fired? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they were fired/removed by Trump administration for violating federal law - as I understand it, using H-1B workers to replace American workers is expressly prohibited.
Remember when people used to rail against employers that did that, saying it had to be ended? That was before "Orange Man" co-opted their anger and acted on their complaints.
Re: So, Why were you fired? (Score:5, Informative)
I think that you will find that the TVA didn't replace American workers with H1B workers.
Instead, the TVA outsourced the jobs to another company.
Functionally, the effect was the same, but I think that what the TVA did was legal. I am more doubtful that what the outsourcing company did was legal.
Re: So, Why were you fired? (Score:5, Insightful)
Functionally, the effect was the same, but I think that what the TVA did was legal. I am more doubtful that what the outsourcing company did was legal.
It's completely legal. H1b allows companies to hire workers who will work on contracts with third-parties. This is incidentally the most abused part of H1b, exploited fully by shitty consultancies like Tata.
Re: So, Why were you fired? (Score:4, Insightful)
So this is a loophole that this company exploited?
You can't replace your own workers with your own H-1B workers.
But you can replace your own workers with outsourcing, which itself can add the necessary workers to support you via H-1B.
If that is the situation, then the law needs amending.
Re: (Score:2)
I agree here. A smart president would have at least had an investigation first to determine facts. Maybe Trump did this too, but it is so unlike his normal style of acting impulsively. Even if it was an election tactic, at least get some press out of it first, build up some outrage among the voters for a week or two, and then fire them. Even when Trump does something right he still looks incompetent.
Re: (Score:3)
You think Trump makes his decisions randomly? All this stuff will have been brought to his attention by staff and officials, and then he makes the decision and the press PR fanfare.
I'm sure many see only the fanfare and think that's all there is to it.
maybe though, he read previous slashdot stories about this happening to IT workers, back when it was considered a bad thing. You never know!
Re: So, Why were you fired? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Trump looked at the day's to-do list, and it said "fire someone at random."
I have to hand this one to him (Score:5, Insightful)
Cracking down on H1B bs is one of the few things That Guy has got mostly right. I've personally witnessed lots visa worker issues and abuses.
Re:I have to hand this one to him (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, his companies depend on H2B visa holders for hundreds of jobs. In some of his resorts US workers account for less than 1% of the staff. As such he has nearly doubled the number of H2B visas issued each year. These are jobs that a young US citizen could do as a summer job if someone would just give then the opportunity. But it is cheaper to hire an immigrant who will work for nothing.
You have -got- to be kidding me (Score:5, Informative)
Do you -honestly- think that Trump gives a shit about H1B visa abuse? He doesn't have a moral fiber in his body. It's his excuse for sacking Thompson, but I don't believe for a second it's his true reason.
The question begging to be asked is what did Thompson, Howoth, and Johnson do that got on Trump's bad side. After all, Trump nominated Thompson to the position just three years ago. [wkms.org] As we've learned from other firings, Trump keeps those who are loyal, and cans those who tell him he's wrong. I get Howorth, who was an Obama appointee. [oxfordeagle.com] But there's more digging to do.
Remember how Trump named-dropped the TVA back in April in the middle of the pandemic [wbir.com]? Begs the question...why did he care so much about the TVA of all things when his focus should have been elsewhere. Something (or someone) put the TVA in his crosshairs months ago, and he's overhauling leadership in response. Recently, we also witnessed Trump replacing leadership at another federal institution... you know, the one responsible for facilitation the very election he's running for, the one whose head manager donated over two million dollars to Trump's various "charities" and who is now purposefully bottlenecking mail delivery [washingtonpost.com], all while his boss says that voting-by-mail is a corrupt process?
But yea, sure. It must all have to do with the H1Bs. Keep drinking that Kool-Aid.
he only do it for advert (Score:4, Insightful)
that's one year ago but you can find plenty all over the timeover many of his properties/hotels.
Re: (Score:2)
Cracking down on H1B bs is one of the few things That Guy has got mostly right. I've personally witnessed lots visa worker issues and abuses.
If you want to crack down on H1B bs then the correct way to do it is change the way H1Bs are issued instead of punishing companies that dare to employ people who the federal government has certified as being allowed to work in America.
Now in this case there's probably government rules for hiring which were breached, but don't for a second think that the sane way of solving this problem is applying pressure on companies and their hiring policies.
Re: But did he deliver? (Score:5, Insightful)
He has made more happen H1b wise than the previous 3 presidents.
Re: (Score:2)
unfortunately, that includes the category "he did literally the least possible and it had no real impact, so that people would be technically correct in saying that he did something". what's the actual effect? that's the difference between talking points and getting something done. i'd hold anyone to this standard.
Re: But did he deliver? (Score:2)
One of the most beneficial things Trump is doing is that he is stimulating the rest of us, and certainly the rest of government, to greatly reduce the power of the executive.
Those are your own words from about a week ago, then you mock people for bagging on Trump.
Re: (Score:3)
Since he's done nothing else H1B wise, I guess firing 3 people is all it took to take the lead. The result will be tiny, one company will rehire some laid off workers (temporarily). This is too much like his first months in office, where he found some companies and convinced them to (temporarily) keep some American jobs that they planned to get rid of, and then bragged about how great a deal maker he was while ignoring that the companies were still shedding jobs.
Re: (Score:2)
Question is if what he did has made things better or worse.
Has he stopped the abuse while allowing companies that really need skilled immigrants to get them?
Has he improved education opportunities for Americans to get those skills?
As far as I can tell the answer to both is "no".
Re: (Score:2)
Perhaps if you saw something else but CNN and BBC, you would be surprised.
Donald Trump has reduced legal immigration by an estimated 49% (primarily the abusive student conversion - where you come as a student and then get forced into low paying jobs if you want to stay - H1B and worker visas)
Donald Trump has reduced illegal immigration by an estimated 77%
EFS scholarships ($5B) and taking the Federal government out of Education and giving help to local communities to decide on student basis what to do.
ESED s
Re: (Score:3)
Donald Trump has reduced legal immigration by an estimated 49% (primarily the abusive student conversion - where you come as a student and then get forced into low paying jobs if you want to stay - H1B and worker visas)
You understand that the number of H1B visas has NOT changed under trump. It was 85k/year before him, and it's still 85k today. So how would reducing student conversion to H1B contribute to the reduction of legal immigration?
Re: (Score:2)
What does "more happen" even mean? The number of H1Bs issued hasn't changed under Trump. Every year 85000 H1Bs are issued. This has continued under Trump just as it was done under previous presidents.
Mind you Trump has fucked up the country to the point that fewer people want to move to the USA, so applications to H1Bs are down, but they are still way higher than the number of visas issued.
But I have to hand it to Trump and his marketing team, he's certainly good at suckering people into believing he's made
Re: (Score:3)
This year H1bs were suspended (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/us/politics/trump-h1b-work-visas.html).
Even a pile of rotting garbage (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Even a pile of rotting garbage (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Even a pile of rotting garbage (Score:5, Informative)
> If mass mail-in voting happens it will make 4 years of Trump seem like heaven.
There are at least 4 US states where all voting is mail-in. Including my state of Oregon. We have been doing it for over 15 years.
The amount of effort someone would have to put in to try to commit vote fraud even for a single vote would be quite enormous. And there are enough checks and balances in the system that they will likely get caught. There aren't many people who are willing to risk jail time for it. The ROI is too low.
Re: Even a pile of rotting garbage (Score:5, Insightful)
What these people that are saying "OMG the post office can't handle it" are missing, is that if you mail out the ballots a few weeks in advance, the Postal Service doesn't have to handle all the damn ballots on one day. And in any case, they take the easily identifiable ballots (they're in envelopes marked as official election mail and you're getting buried in fines if you screw with them) and put them in a big bin at each mail sorting facility, and then put those bins in a truck and drive it to the county election office. Repeat again, each day until election day.
Wow, that was a hard problem to solve. Because the Postal Service knows absolutely nothing about driving trucks full of envelopes from one place to another. There's a reason why Oregon hasn't had any problem with it. Or Washington. Or the other 5 or so states that do vote-by-mail exclusively.
Re: (Score:3)
Is it really wise to end in your ballot weeks ahead of time? What if you send it in before a debate that might change your mind? Or one of the candidates dies or gets caught in bed with dead boy scouts on the first of November?
I see voting as a civic sacrament. A unifying rite in which we all come together on one day to choose our future. I don't think it should ever be diminished by turning it i
Re: (Score:3)
Well, the other 43 States have no experience in mass mail-in voting, and hardly enough time to prepare.
Are you suggesting the postal service in those 43 states doesn't know anything about driving trucks full of envelopes from one place to another? Or that opening mail-in ballot envelopes is so different from opening polling-place ballot envelopes is so different that the poor poll workers will get confused? Or that it's going to be a lot harder to hack mailed-in pieces of paper than it is to hack DRE voting machines? Oh, wait...
Is it really wise to end in your ballot weeks ahead of time? What if you send it in before a debate that might change your mind?
If you're really undecided, you can wait until election day to mail your ballot.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Nice attempt at a strawman argument, but every state has had absentee ballots for decades. This isn't some rush to implement new systems. The only thing that's changing is the percentage of people that are eligible to use absentee ballots.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
And the 7 states that already do vote-by-mail elections have just run right into the iceberg, right?
No wait, they all beat standard polling turnout, and the level of election fraud is still so insignificant as to be not worth mentioning.
It turns out that when you give easier access to voting, and people can do it when they have time because they have a couple weeks instead of a few hours in the middle of the week, they might actually vote. And that's what Trump is afraid of, because statistically there are
Re: (Score:2)
It's not just how many people vote, it's who votes. Some states are very close, and anything that affects turnout of some demographics a bit more than others can change the outcome.
The election day is not a federal holiday in the US - people still have to work, and sometimes they can't make it to the polls because of work. A problem that affects people in low-income jobs more - they are less likely to be able to book leave. People working low-income jobs are more likely to vote Democrat.
Right now we also ha
Re: (Score:2)
"USPS canâ(TM)t handle it at all"...wut?
I did a search on "USPS trials show that they can't handle" and got no hits.
And, here's the scale we're talking...
Last year, UPS delivered a lot of pieces - millions of pieces!
Last week, the postal service delivered more than UPS, FedEx, and DHL, combined, in all of last year.
Re: Even a pile of rotting garbage (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Even a pile of rotting garbage (Score:5, Informative)
I haven't heard of him selling uranium or missiles to our enemies that end up shooting our guys down... thats another plus.
Since none of that happened, it's no wonder. Then again, he didn't sell arms to our enemy [wikipedia.org], in violation of the law, and had our enemy hold American citizens hostage until after the election, then used money from the sale of the illegal arms sale to fund terrorists.
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't heard of him selling uranium or missiles to our enemies that end up shooting our guys down... thats another plus.
Nah, he just sold the country wholesale. Haven't you read how Trump asked Xi to use Trump's resorts for official purposes?
Failed leadership. Again (Score:5, Informative)
The draft dodger talks about putting the interests of Americans first, yet refuses to hire American workers [salon.com] at his [cnn.com] failing businesses [foxnews.com]. Even when multiple illegals are found to be working for him [nj.com], he doesn't hire Americans.
The same thing with his name brand clothes. They're made in China [cnn.com] rather than by Americans. In fact, most of his products are either made in China or foreign countries, not the U.S [nbcnews.com].
Once a con artist, always a con artist.
Re: (Score:2)
Remember (Score:5, Insightful)
President Trump announced the removal of Tennessee Valley Authority's chair James Thompson and board member Richard Howoth and called for the removal of their CEO Bill Johnson. This was in response to the company laying off employees and hiring H1-B visa holders.
Remember when there was unanimous agreement that this is exactly what should happen in these situations, that the 'suits' making these decisions should pay for their offenses?
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's true. If Trump was doing this sort of thing before, or did it to multiple companies, or had attempted at least some H1B reform in the past. But now it's very close to the election, he sees a distinct possibility of being a lame duck pretty soon, and he felt he had to make a token effort. Yes, it was good that he did this, but it's a lot like congratulating your child for procrastinating on the homework and finally doing it the morning it was due.
One of the rare occasions (Score:2)
When I agree with something the Trump administration has done. And they didn't do it in a completely ham-handed way either!
Cheap attempt at scoring some points (Score:5, Informative)
This is a ridiculously transparent cheap attempt to score points with voters, and an insult to anyone's intelligence at that.
If Trump really cared one bit about the American workers, he could have issued any number of executive orders to limit H1B entry, decrease numbers or require more stringent hiring conditions - all of that is directly under control of the Executive branch.
After all, he had no problem issuing such orders to ban entry of immigrants from majority Muslim countries, shut down the "Dreamers" program or deny transgender people ability to serve in the military. All of those were not, actually, fully in the Executive scope, and had known legal hurdles - unlike the H1B, which is entirely clear cut and fully in the Executive purview.
Yet for 4 years, Trump was chafing against all of those people - and nothing about the H1B hires. Probably because that might hit bottom lines of those who pay for his "presidency". And now - he wants to show Americans that he cares? And yet, even now - what he does is a childish tantrum, firing a CEO of one company, that hires those H1Bs - all the while 100s of other companies hire 100s of thousands of H1Bs because the current USCIS rules allow them to.
If he cared one bit (and was not a cheap show off clown) - we would see an Executive Order with some substance. But that would be too much to expect.
3 more months of this shit left. Don't you let it slide, people.
Re:Cheap attempt at scoring some points (Score:5, Informative)
But... he did sign an executive order about H1B visas. Its called teh Buy Amercan and Hire American Executive Order. https://www.uscis.gov/laws-and... [uscis.gov]
Its impact is noted here: https://www.investopedia.com/n... [investopedia.com]
And following the pandemic he has suspended all H1Bs until December: https://economictimes.indiatim... [indiatimes.com]
Now, maybe he could have done more and there might be loop holes, Im sure there are. But this is a far cry from doing nothing and not caring.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh he's doing something. It's called window dressing.
The data you linked showed it perfectly, the number of H1B visas issued is completely unchanged. Suspending H1Bs until December also won't change that given that the entire allotment of H1Bs is usually gobbled up within hours. He can block the process until Christmas and there will be just as many new H1Bs as always.
Re:Cheap attempt at scoring some points (Score:4, Insightful)
You have to understand the power of executive orders - they're only instructions how the state will manage the law, they don't change them.
for that, you need Congress to take their thumbs out of their butts long enough to do something useful.
so, basically you've ignored 4 years of news? (Score:5, Insightful)
Trump has issued order after order, and asked for a number of policies to be included in laws over his whole time in office trying to reign-in the foreign worker abuses.
He has repeatedly been thwarted by a combination of Democrat-appointed judges of the sort that bent over backwards to protect Obama's blatantly illegal DACA program (which even Obama is on video saying he cannot legally do in the months before he did it), and "establishment" Republicans who get bribes...err "campaign contributions"... from big businesses using those foreign workers.
Trump called ONE woman (Rosie O'Donnell) a pig (AFTER she'd been insulting him) and his critics have for years insisted that "he calls women pigs!", but the guy tries repeatedly to stop the H1-B visa abuses and his critics claim each attempt is "the first time" and only to try to get re-elected.
If he announces some tariffs on China next week will that also surprise you as a first-time thing and probably timed for his re-election?
Re: (Score:3)
If Trump really cared one bit about the American workers, he could have issued any number of executive orders to limit H1B entry, decrease numbers or require more stringent hiring conditions - all of that is directly under control of the Executive branch.
I don't think that is within his power to do. Executive orders mainly focus around how the federal government will or won't enforce existing laws. For example, an executive order could say that the federal government won't enforce anti-marijuana laws under certain conditions, or it could do the opposite and make strict enforcement of those laws a top priority. He couldn't adjust any numbers with H1-B, though he could adjust how it is enforced. He could try to adjust the numbers, but I doubt it would last in
The TVA turned things around for us (Score:3)
I remember back during the depression growing up a farm boy in the 1930s South was tough .. then one day Momma got sick and Daddy got down, the county got the farm and they moved to town. Pappa got a job with the TVA, he bought a washing machine and then a Chevrolet.
I would have liked to have seen more of this (Score:5, Interesting)
Last I heard Trump *still* hadn't rescinded Obama's executive order allowing spouses of H1-B recipients to work in the country (effectively doubling the number of H1-Bs). And I know the plural of anecdote isn't data but I haven't seen or heard any reduction in their numbers where I'm at.
Re: (Score:2)
He's been working on it for 3 years. (H4 visas, for the spouses)
The courts are fighting him.
Its ongoing : https://www.am22tech.com/h4-ea... [am22tech.com]
I think you're link is saying the opposite (Score:3)
It looks worse. I thought Trump had just not revoked Obama's executive order. In fact a group of Americans who've lost jobs to H1-Bs (which in theory isn't possible) has sued to get the rule revoked and Trump's DHS is fighting them. That's the polar opposite of what Candidate Trump promised...
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I just saw that.
There is allot of conflicting info.
I read about a dozen articles on how he's been trying to rescind the obama executive order, and the courts are fighting him, and than this one that you posted...
In the article itself (yours above) it says how it the DHSs latest pleading is at odds with what the administrations position on H4...
Either there is powerfull political pressure, or there is some technicality preventing them from implementing it.
Re: (Score:2)
in the last 3 1/2 years.
You wanted to see even more pointless lip service in the past 3.5 years? He didn't prevent a single American job from going to a H1B. The number of H1Bs issued remains unchanged. He simply stopped those employees going to TVA.
To be clear the government's job is to decide if an immigrant is allowed to work. The government's job is not to micromanage each company for choosing a policy to employ people the government have declared fit to work.
Now in this specific case being a government owned company there's l
This is just campaign season pandering... (Score:3)
... in the larger scheme of things two-hundred workers is nothing. Why didn't the idiot do something about all companies doing this? Because this is for show - employment theater, if you will.
But you can do something this November. Vote. One party is doing everything they can to prevent you from doing this - even to the point of slowing down the postal service so that ballots cannot be mailed to voters in time and returned to be counted in a timely manner. So vote early. Make sure you're registered to vote right now. If your jurisdiction is going to use vote-by mail, make sure the elections division has a correct physical mail address for you. If you are going to send in your ballot by mail, do it at least two weeks before election day. If you're voting in person, make sure you know where you're supposed to vote - do not assume it will be the same place you've always done it. Wear a mask and a face shield to be safe, but get to your polling place and vote. Don't let the bastards steal your vote. Happy democracy...
In general... (Score:3)
Should be Even tougher -- Also, Help Train America (Score:2)
First --There are lots of great Indian developers who are great people, in the United States. And I certainly don't blame them for seeking better opportunities.
However yes, the H1B visa program has been horrendously abused for some time now. I, also, have witnessed this and multiple recruiters I've talk with told me about it, as well -- they cost 14% less even at the same rate of pay, it's hard for them to leave on their own and yet easy to fire them. This abuse makes perfect business sense.
Many highly s
Not a thing Biden would do... (Score:2)
This is a great move for Tech workers. We need the H=1B eliminated. There is no need for this visa.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Re: (Score:3)
On the flip side you might be less incentivized to make risky decisions. But I do not think this kind of company needs to be making that ki
Re: (Score:2)
Except there's not much evidence that the decisions made by someone paid $1 million are better than someone paid $100,000. In fact, I can think of a reason why the higher paid person would be worse... because if you've stashed away millions you don't need the ongoing job to continue making money. On 100k you really need the company to do well and perhaps justify a raise.
Decisions about what? Your statement is not only extremely vague, but also suggests that a lack of evidence is evidence of absence, in addition to being poorly thought out. Nobody ever built a big business without taking a big risk.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Wait for the budget blow-out (Score:2)
Isn't there a regulation that requires all federal workers to be paid less than the President?
Isn't the TVA a federal organization?
Re: (Score:3)
Isn't there a regulation that requires all federal workers to be paid less than the President?
No.
Re: Wait for the budget blow-out (Score:2)
Why does budget need to be increased? The American workers were already on the job, they simply go back and get their old pay, zero pay increase if all 200 workers brought back.
Re: (Score:2)
Actual studies [cooleypubco.com]show an inverse correlation between CEO pay and performance. The lower paid guy is likely to be a better CEO.
No, they pay them more in the expectation that the
Re: (Score:2)
There's a problem with that study. First, it's entirely about share price, and it found that companies with low-paid CEOs had faster share price growth. however, companies with faster share price growth may be smaller and newer companies, thus had lower-paid CEOs. They're not adjusting for those differences. Large, established companies may have higher paid CEOs who's value is in maintaining the company's competitiveness, and they may just naturally have a more stable share price. The study is not comprehen
Re: (Score:2)
continuing: since the only variable that paper sees as valuable is the return on investment to shareholders, it could be as simple as that companies which are only concerned with maximizing shareholder value don't want to pay their CEOs as highly as other companies, since that money is coming out of the shareholder's profit. So for a better view, I'd want to see things like CEO pay vs job growth in the company for example.
Re: (Score:3)
Are you sure about that?
Highest paying US governement jobs.
https://www.thestreet.com/pers... [thestreet.com]
https://www.federalpay.org/emp... [federalpay.org]
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
When I read your comment I get. This is awesome news but my TDS is so bad that I cannot admit that Trump did something I like.
I'm certain you saw many similar comments between Jan 2009 and Jan 2017
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:4, Insightful)
Just keep telling yourself..."Even a broken clock is right twice a day."
Then question why it took him until his polls were sinking into the swamp he didn't drain but fill before doing this.
Re: (Score:2)
... Trump did something I like.
Mandating that all federal agencies must hire the most expensive workers so he can say "America First!" on TV in an election run-up?
Sounds like swamp-filling to me.
he's actually doing something we approve of? (Score:2, Troll)
I'm not sure whether I should be shocked or suspicious? He's tanking pretty badly in the polls, maybe he's stooping so low as to do his job at the last hour, in a desperate bid to get re-eleced?
But I don't think he can run around and kiss enough babies prior to the election to get my vote, he spent most of his term IN that baby buggy, throwing tantrums and breaking al lof our toys.
Re: (Score:2)
Although this is the sort of thing to really annoy the few remaining corporate Republican backers of his. Pro-union Democrats are probably pretty happy with this though, even if they don't admit it.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Only if he wasn't on fire...
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:5, Insightful)
That's because each thing Trump says doesn't exist in a vacuum— it all exists in the maelstrom of runny dogshit that makes up the Trump governance ecosystem. Why it the world would the parent commenter give him kudos for the 1 good thing he does among 20 others that are solely intended to inflate his ego or punch down the almost 60 percent of the population that disapproves of his performance?
Re: (Score:2)
Why it the world would the parent commenter give him kudos for the 1 good thing he does among 20 others that are solely intended to inflate his ego or punch down the almost 60 percent of the population that disapproves of his performance?
I assume this isn't one of the "good" ones.
He basically just mandated using taxpayer money to buy jobs so that he looks good on TV saying "America first!".
In fact, all of his job creation schemes seem to amount to using taxpayer money to
pay
for the jobs and it's all money that will have to be repaid one day.
Re: (Score:2)
This.
TVA was doing this because it was cheaper which in turn makes their operation cheaper which benefits either the tax payer or the people who use their services.
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:4, Insightful)
At the cost of being called a NAZI and a Trump supporter, I am going to quote some facts. I know, quoting facts is controversial, especially if someone could interpret them to be in support of Trump. I also understand that part of the new normal is the religious practice of group self deception, so please just consider me antiquated because of my preference for the truth.
The H-1 visa system was created to bring in foreign workers who are "of distinguished merit and ability and who is coming temporarily to the United States to perform temporary services of an exceptional nature requiring such merit and ability." The H-1B visa was extended to those in "an occupation that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge, and attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States."
Also included is the requirement to pay the visa holder the prevailing wage for the job they were doing, and to ensure "no American workers were displaced" by the visa holder.
Instead we have run of the mill individuals without particular merit being paid less than the prevailing wage and specifically replacing American workers. All for the same justification you gave, it saves money.
Notwithstanding the problems inherent in having foreign workers monitor, operate, and infiltrate a civil works plan that provides power for a large part of the country, the contradictions in the intended use and actual use of the H-1B visa workers are egregious enough to stop the practice.
If making things cheaper was the only goal, I am sure China could round up 300 million dissidents and pay them to run America as a virtual machine, all for less than each of us costs.
Re: (Score:2)
Jeez, I'm not sure what happened to the formatting on that one.
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:5, Insightful)
. Why it the world would the parent commenter give him kudos for the 1 good thing he does
Because in a sane world they'd assess the policy and not the person behind it.
Something that half of America is fundamentally incapable of doing for the past four years.
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:4, Insightful)
Something that half of America is fundamentally incapable of doing for the past four years.
FTFY: Something the vast majority of American voters have been incapable of doing since at least the 90s, if not longer.
Republicans see no good in Bill Clinton's presidency, but Clinton had some unquestionable successes and positive policies regardless of what your politics are. So did Dubya, so did Obama, and so has Trump, and their partisans tout their successes, while pretending their failures don't exist, and their opponents do the opposite. Our entire system of politics has devolved to ad hominem, and it's NOT just "half."
Re: (Score:2)
He may have had the box upside down and took the W pills by mistake.
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:5, Interesting)
This isn't Democrats. Anti-Trump is anyone with a brain. He's done nothing good for the country, and yet his fans are fawning all over him for what he hasn't done.
Yep. What has he actually done that's going to be a benefit in the long term? I'd like to see that list.
The one thing that he promised to do that would have been beneficial was "draining the swamp". He's actually done the complete opposite of that.
Re: (Score:2)
Wrong: he has drained the swamp but into the Whitehouse.
Re: (Score:2)
So it doesn't matter that he sounds like a deranged 5 year old, because if he didn't sound like a deranged 5 year old, we would still criticize him?
Aren't you effectively saying that it's never appropriate to criticize Trump no matter what he does?
Re: (Score:2)
Half true: The footage did leak, yes. But your description tells me only that you have not actually watched it. If anything, it just makes the the officers' conduct appear even worse
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
George Floyd was a regrettable accident was he? I've seen some of the footage (I decided not to watch to the end) and it looked pretty much like he was murdered to me.
Re:This would be awesome news... (Score:4, Insightful)
it looked pretty much like he was murdered to me.
Maybe. Wasn't the officer in question charged with 2nd degree murder or manslaughter? That's how these things are supposed to go: if anything like this happens, it should be thoroughly investigated. And if it turns out the officer intended no harm and did in fact follow protocol and his training, then a review of those would be in order. Call that a regrettable accident, or the deadly result of flawed policy, but murder it ain't.
If the officer did intend harm or acted beyond his brief, then that's on him (and he should be found guilty as charged). Based on what I can see in the video and what little I know of US law enforcement (pretty much nothing), I'm in no position to judge this particular case, but I stand by my statement: if you resist arrest and fail to follow instructions, you should expect an appropriate response. And if you push it far enough, that response will carry a risk of injury or even death. That's on you. What constitutes an "appropriate response" is up to the legislators.
Re: (Score:3)
Maybe. Wasn't the officer in question charged with 2nd degree murder or manslaughter? That's how these things are supposed to go
How it is supposed to go is that officers should be trained sufficiently and behave such that these things pretty much never happen. It might happen in cases where the person being arrested is particularly fragile, and that might be a regrettable accident, but other than that it represents a failure somewhere, systemic or otherwise.
Re: (Score:2)
All too frequently it has, especially in the USA it seems.
Trump did nothing. (Score:5, Interesting)
The folks with Marxist leanings (there actually are some in both parties) have been injecting government into more and more of the society as the years go by, and that just ramped up a bit more steeply under 8 years of Obama. When you inject government into something, you inject politicians into it since they are the ones who run government. When you inject politicians into something, you make it political. Therefore, when you grow government and inject it into stuff that stuff gets political. When stuff gets political, people with political agendas argue and fight about it, particularly if money or power are involved.
This has been a long-growing trend. People under 30 have no clue about how massive and intrusive our government is compared to what it used to be. People under 50 might think they are aware, but they are equally clueless about how big the government they were used to was compared to what their parents were used to. The thing that's made the past 4 years so toxic is not actually Trump himself....he's basically a sorta patriotic carnival barker. The thing that's so whacko is that the Democrats were so convinced they had achieved permanent total political power under Obama and that Demographics had made a Trump (or any other Republican ) presidency completely impossible - they thought "their side" would have control of all that government power, and now they are freaked out that the power is there but it's in the hands of somebody they HATE (in a peaceful, inclusive and openminded stop-the-hate sorta way...).
To reduce all the politics, all we have to do is reduce the size and scope of government. Any thing that NO politician controls will automatically no longer be a matter of political argument. Back when government had no regulatory role in computing, we computer folks never used to have political arguments with each other.
Re: (Score:3)
Please do not use the word 'Marxist' until you have looked up the definition. It's become far too generic a political insult these days - people are tossing it around without concern for what it once meant as a way to denigrate anyone further to the left than themselves.
Re: (Score:2)
The prez knows how to hook 'em!
That's a given but with Michael Cohen in jail who'll pay them off?
Re: (Score:2)
Nonsense. The man is a regular church goer. He shows up in church every time he gets remarried!
Re: (Score:2)
I feel sorry for you, because you clearly didn't read any of the comments before coming here and posting the same tired drivel. Lots of people saying he got this one right despite it being an obvious 90-days-from-the-election stunt.
Just because it's a stunt doesn't mean it's the wrong move. The 200 or so people getting their jobs back don't give a shit what the motivator was.
It would seem you have TDS-DS: Trump Derangement Syndrome Derangement Syndrome.