At a conference last week at the Dallas Fed, the corporate leaders onstage declared that the era of across-the-board raises was over, and would never return.

Troy Taylor CEO of the Florida Coke franchise put it succinctly: "It’s just not going to happen. [A general raise is] absolutely not in my business."

The moderator asked the panel whether there would be broad-based wage gains again. "It's just not going to happen," Taylor said. The gains would go mostly to technically-skilled employees, he said. As for a general raise? "Absolutely not in my business," he said.

John Stephens, chief financial officer at AT&T, said 20% of the company's employees are call-center workers. He said he doesn't need that many. In addition, he added, "I don't need that many guys to install coaxial cables."

It was once the standard that firms that performed well would give all their employees an annual raise, in part to acknowledge workers' contribution to the business's fortunes, in part to ensure that wages kept pace with inflation (otherwise workers would be suffering a real-terms pay-cut every year).

American firms are more profitable than ever, and enjoying never-seen low rates of taxation, but the new profits and retained earnings are being diverted to financial engineering schemes like stock buybacks that enrich shareholders, while workers' wages have suffered from decades of stagnation.

https://boingboing.net/2018/06/02/are-there-no-workhouses-5.html

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/06/poll-stunner-majority-with-trump-want-wall-built-migrant-families-deported-or-detained/

>The CBS News 2018 Battleground Tracker Poll conducted by YouGov June 21-22 during the midst of the controversy over migrant families and unaccompanied children flooding the southern border shows a shift toward President Trump’s views since a March CBS poll by SSRS showed 60 percent opposed a wall.

>Now 51 percent support a wall being built but they are split on whether it can be completed. 32 percent say the wall is a good idea and can probably be completed while another 19 percent say the wall is a good idea that should be tried even if it can’t be completed.

>As for migrant families who enter the U.S. illegally, 48 percent believe they should be returned to their countries as a unit. 11 percent think the parents should be arrested and their children detained with them. 4 percent said the parents should be arrested and their children kept in a separate facility. A total of 63 percent either want the migrant families deported or detained.

>Only 21 percent think the family should be released into the U.S. with a promise to appear for a hearing at a later date.

Teen actress Jenna Ortega cares, and says Melania Trump should do the same.

Ortega wore a green, hooded military jacket reading "I do care and u should too" on the red carpet at the Radio Disney Music Awards Friday night, countering the "I really don't care, do u?" jacket the first lady wore as she left Washington to visit detained migrant children this week.

The 15-year-old, whose credits include "Jane the Virgin" and "Iron Man 3," told The Associated Press Trump's jacket showed poor judgment, and she couldn't believe her advisers allowed her to wear it. Ortega says she cares about migrant children, "and as first lady of the United States, she should too."

Ortega says she had the jacket made the night before especially for the awards show.

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/teen-actress-wears-care-jacket-protest-lady-56110960

I honestly didn't believe this at first. But follow closely:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2018/06/21/melania-trump-steps-again-migrant-kids-crisis-surprise-trip-texas/721814002/

2nd image in that article. Note the green jacket.

https://nouw.com/anb/i-really-dont-care-do-u-24949756

Yes, this is a real coat, made by Sara.

http://crazylovesfashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/004-2-e1490131563436.jpg

I doubt it was intentional, or that she wore it to the camp itself. Still...

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB2965
https://legalinsurrection.com/2018/05/california-may-offer-free-healthcare-to-illegal-immigrants/
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/health/20180530/a-scaled-back-bid-to-care-for-undocumented-californian

>Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The federal Medicaid Program provisions prohibit program prohibits payment to a state for medical assistance furnished to an alien who is not lawfully admitted for permanent residence or otherwise permanently residing in the United States under color of law.

>This bill would extend eligibility for full-scope Medi-Cal benefits to individuals of all ages who are under 26 years of age and who are otherwise eligible for those benefits but for their immigration status. The bill would delete provisions delaying eligibility and enrollment until the director makes the determination described above. The bill would require the department to provide, indefinitely, the above-described monthly updates to the legislative committees. Because counties are required to make Medi-Cal eligibility determinations and this bill would expand Medi-Cal eligibility, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2018/06/23/woman-detained-in-us-for-2-weeks-after-accidentally-jogging-across-canada-border.html

>A French citizen visiting Canada said she was detained for two weeks after she accidentally jogged across the U.S.-Canada border in May.

>The woman said she did not see any signs that informed her she was crossing into the U.S. but the officers said they captured her entering illegally on security cameras.

>The officers took her more than 220km (136 miles) south to the Tacoma Northwest Detention Center, a privately run immigration prison in Washington state.

>She was allowed to contact her mother, Christiane Ferne, who came to the detention facility with Ms Roman's passport and work permit.

>But US officials would not let her leave until Canadian immigration authorities first confirmed she was allowed back into the country.

>Both sides eventually agreed she could return to Canada, but only 15 days after Ms Roman first set off on her jog.

I kind-of get the idea of 'play stupid games win stupid prizes', but why the fuck does it take two weeks to process a person who's identity can be easily verified? Especially considering that French citizens don't need a visa to enter USA.

A United Nations report condemning entrenched poverty in the United States is a “misleading and politically motivated” document about “the wealthiest and freest country in the world,” according to the Trump administration's ambassador to the world body.

U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley criticized the report for critiquing the United States' treatment of its poor, arguing that the United Nations should instead focus on poverty in developing countries such as Burundi and Congo. The U.N. report also faulted the Trump administration for pursuing policies it said would exacerbate U.S. poverty.

“It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America,” Haley wrote in a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday. “In our country, the President, Members of Congress, Governors, Mayors, and City Council members actively engage on poverty issues every day. Compare that to the many countries around the world, whose governments knowingly abuse human rights and cause pain and suffering.”

The rebuke comes two days after Haley announced the United States' resignation from the U.N. Human Rights Council over that body's perceived bias against Israel and toleration of human rights abusers.

In May, U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston released a report saying the United States has the highest rates of youth poverty, infant mortality, incarceration, income inequality and obesity among all countries in the developed world, as well as 40 million people living in poverty. Alston accused President Trump and the Republican Congress of deepening poverty and inequality in the country, citing the Republican tax law passed last fall.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/06/21/nikki-haley-it-is-patently-ridiculous-for-the-united-nations-to-examine-poverty-in-america/?utm_term=.931e8c7e9388

>The concept of family separation does remain deeply unpopular. The latest survey, in line with past polling, found that fewer than a third of the public considered separations to be acceptable.
>Those who thought the policy was acceptable were more or less evenly split between the 48 percent who said removing children from their parents was a good thing because it served as a deterrent and the 44 percent who said it wasn’t a good thing but it was necessary to carry out U.S. immigration policy. Among those who found it unacceptable, 79 percent said they were angry that the separations were happening. (The poll was conducted largely before President Donald Trump issued an executive order Wednesday tweaking the policy to detain the children with their parents.)

http://archive.is/20180623193122/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/americans-blame-undocumented-parents-trump-family-separations_us_5b2d4bc3e4b0040e2742cc90?m=false

, Roseanne Barr, went on a vitriolic and racist Twitter rant


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/reliable-source/wp/2018/05/29/roseanne-went-on-a-vitriolic-and-racially-charged-twitter-rampage-now-shes-apologizing/

https://www.thenation.com/article/trumps-allies-are-taking-over-the-media-and-creating-their-own-reality/

On July 17, the Idaho television station KBOI tweeted a story about a would-be robber who allegedly “arrives early at banks to find doors locked.” Even more confusing than the indecipherable English was the photo the station ran: that of Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson being arrested at a protest in Baton Rouge (the robbery suspect was not even black). Having had the mistake called to their attention, KBOI apologized, although another story on its website used the same image of Mckesson beneath the headline “Officer wounded in deadly ambush sues Black Lives Matter.”

That KBOI is owned by Sinclair Broadcasting Group should surprise no one who has ever paid attention to the company—a category, alas, that includes precious few people. Sinclair is a far-right media operation that until recently has flown under the radar of all but the most studious media critics. It received brief scrutiny in December, when it was revealed that Jared Kushner had struck a deal with the company to give it special access to Donald Trump in exchange for a promise to run Trump interviews across the country without commentary. These were especially important to the campaign in swing states like Ohio, where Sinclair reaches many more viewers than networks like CNN. More recently, the station made news when its vice president and director, Frederick G. Smith, whose family owns the company, made a $1,000 donation to Greg Gianforte’s House campaign the day after he assaulted Ben Jacobs of The Guardian for the crime of asking a question about Trumpcare. Now the company is poised to take over Tribune Media in a $3.9 billion deal. Add Tribune’s 42 stations to the 173 that Sinclair already owns, and you’ve got the single biggest conglomerate of TV stations in America, reaching 70 percent of all households in the nation.