NEWS ROUNDUP

Mass arrests and camps ● NAFTA 2: more of the same ● Where the tax cuts went

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

OUR NATION OF IMMIGRANTS

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump vows mass migrant arrests starting next week — In tweets, Trump appeared to reference a plan in preparation for months that aims to round up thousands of migrant parents and children in a blitz operation across major U.S. cities. Trump and his senior immigration adviser, Stephen Miller, have been prodding Homeland Security officials to arrest and remove thousands of family members whose deportation orders were expedited by the Justice Department this year as part of a plan known as the “rocket docket.” In April, acting ICE director Ronald Vitiello and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen were ousted after they hesitated to go forward with the plan, expressing concerns about its preparation, effectiveness and the risk of public outrage from images of migrant children being taken into custody or separated from their families.

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump’s threat of mass arrests stinks of weakness and failure (by Greg Sargent) — This threat of mass arrests looks more than anything else like doubling down on a failing strategy — both substantively and politically.

► From Esquire — An expert on concentration camps says that’s exactly what the U.S. is running at the border — History is banging down the door this week with the news the Trump administration will use Fort Sill, an Oklahoma military base that was used to detain Japanese-Americans during World War II, to house 1,400 unaccompanied migrant children captured at the border. Japanese internment certainly constituted a concentration-camp system, and the echoes of the past are growing louder.

► In today’s Seattle Times — A travesty then and now: Don’t reopen Japanese American internment camps to hold Central American refugees (by Shirley Ann Higuchi) — Our government lied during World War II to argue before the Supreme Court that alleged national-security reasons justified the incarceration of Japanese Americans. We are reliving that lie with the Trump administration’s misrepresentations about adding a question about citizenship on next year’s Census. This is happening again with those driven by threats of death and destruction from their homes in Central and South America to find sanctuary in the United States. Too often, however, that intended sanctuary turns out to be a detention center.

► In today’s Seattle Times — How the 2020 Census could miss 4 million people living in America, and 1% of Washington’s population — If a citizenship question is included on the 2020 Census, more than 4 million Americans could be missing from the final count, according to a new report. Washington’s population could be undercounted by about 1%, or more than 75,000 people.

AEROSPACE

► In the (Everett) Herald — Washington a world leader in aviation, aerospace (by Rep. Rick Larson and Lisa Brown) — As public officials, we will continue to lead state and federal efforts to invest in the aviation and aerospace industries to support Washington’s employers and workers. Without this talented workforce, the technological advances happening in Washington would not be possible. Aviation and aerospace are woven into the fabric of Washington state. At the Paris Air Show, we will share a simple message with manufacturers, suppliers and service providers: There is no better place in the world to build the future of aviation and aerospace.

PREVIOUSLY at The Stand:

Washington ranked #1 (again) for aerospace manufacturing (Sept. 13, 2018) — In June, an internationally respected aerospace analyst released the most comprehensive data-driven aerospace competitiveness study ever performed. It found that Washington state is — by far — the best location in the United States to design, manufacture and ensure a successful launch of Boeing’s next airplane. But some officials from other states competing for the New Middle-Market Airplane (NMA) scoffed at the study’s conclusion because it was funded by Washington state. This month, a new analysis released by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a multinational business and tax consulting firm based in London, finds that Washington state is the best location in the world for aerospace manufacturing. Its analysis of “aerospace manufacturing attractiveness” found the United States to be the best nation and Washington to be the best state.

► From Reuters — Airbus and Boeing bag $17 billion of deals in Paris Airshow battle — Boeing gained a much needed lift after a slow start to the show on Monday as Korean Air committed to buying 20 of the U.S. company’s 787 Dreamliners, worth $6.3 billion at list prices. Air Lease Corp also committed to buying five 787s, worth about $1.5 billion.

► In today’s Seattle Times — A question at the Paris Air Show: Will Boeing CEO Muilenburg survive? — One of Boeing’s biggest 737 MAX customers sharply criticized the company’s handling of the crisis resulting from two recent crashes, and raised the stark question of whether Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg will be forced out as a result.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Boeing open to changing the name of grounded 737 Max — Boeing is open to dropping the “Max” branding for its latest 737 jetliner, depending on an assessment of consumer and airline responses to an aircraft name that’s been tarnished by two fatal crashes and a three-month grounding.

► From the AP — Lawsuit: Black Boeing worker harassed, found noose at desk — A black man who has worked for a decade at a Boeing plant in South Carolina says he’s been routinely subjected to racist harassment. News outlets report that Curtis Anthony is suing the company, saying his complaints about racist treatment were met with retaliation.

LOCAL

► From the Seattle P-I — Bob Simmons, stellar KING-TV pundit, RIP: A life to appreciate — Simmons, 88, died Saturday at home in Bellingham, on the 62nd anniversary of marriage to beloved wife Dee. Simmons was one of the cerebral but fearless pundits who defined KING-TV in the last years of ownership by its founding family, the Bullitts.

EDITOR’S NOTE — After he retired from KING-TV, some may recall that Simmons briefly hosted “Washington Works,” a public-affairs program created by then-WSLC Communications Director Karen Keiser and produced at Tacoma’s Bates Technical College in the early 1990s.

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

► In today’s Pittsburgh P-G — AFL-CIO president says current NAFTA deal is unenforceable — “We need something that benefits all Americans, not just those at the very top,” Trumka said. “Something better for our working people. Something better for our economy. Something better for everyone.”

► From Politico — AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka laughs at Trump’s suggestion unions love new trade deal — “I don’t have a clue” where Trump gets that from, Trumka said, “because we’re pretty united.” Unions in the U.S., he warned, will not support the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement in its current form.

► From Daily Kos — NAFTA old and new: Deals by the rich for the rich (by USW President Leo Gerard) — Mick Mulvaney, a millionaire who is President Trump’s acting chief of staff, awarded himself another job last week: spokesman for labor. Referring to the proposed new NAFTA, he said, “We know that labor supports it.” That, right there, is the problem with NAFTA, old and new. One percenters like Mulvaney, self-dealing corporate honchos and fancy-pants corporate lobbyists negotiated the deals. Those fat cats claimed they spoke for labor. But when they opened their mouths, only the word profit emerged.

► In today’s NY Times — Businesses plead to stop more China tariffs. they expect to be ignored. — Companies say more tariffs would hurt businesses and consumers, but many have become resigned to the idea that president will do what he wants.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From The Guardian — Bosses pocket Trump tax windfall as workers see job promises vanish — Sudden mass layoffs have become increasingly common for workers at AT&T and many other big firms. But it was not meant to be that way. AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson, promised in November 2017 to invest $1 billion in capital expenditure and create 7,000 new jobs at the company if Trump’s hugely controversial tax cut bill passed. AT&T’s benefit was a tax windfall of $21 billion and an additional estimated $3 billion annually. But instead of creating jobs and increasing investment into the company, AT&T has eliminated 23,328 jobs since the tax cut bill was passed, according to a recent report by the CWA. The CWA also said AT&T reduced their capital investments by $1.4 billion.

► In today’s Washington Post — A caravan for insulin demonstrates how the American health-care system is failing us (by Helaine Olen) — Lija Greenseid, the mother of a 13-year-old daughter with Type 1 diabetes, organized a caravan of people to drive to Canada to purchase insulin for themselves or their loved ones. The people on the trip say they are all but forced to take this action by the surging and unpredictable price of insulin in the United States. If this isn’t a powerful condemnation of American society’s values, I don’t know what is. It’s the opposite of a feel-good story. In other developed countries, access to high-quality, low-cost health care is considered a right. Here in the United States, on the other hand, the ill remain primarily a profit center for rapacious corporations.

► From Politico — Number of workplace safety inspectors fall under Trump — “This is a sign of erosion in OSHA’s ability to inspect workplaces,” said Peg Seminario, director of health and safety at the AFL-CIO. “Acosta has committed to strong enforcement, but their ability to do so is being hobbled and crippled by losing experienced staff.”

► From The Hill — Supreme Court hands Virginia Democrats a win in gerrymandering case — The court has ruled against the Virginia House of Delegates in a racial gerrymandering case that represents a victory for Democrats in the state.

NATIONAL

► From PR Watch — Koch-backed tech group behind tool used to push union opt-out campaigns — The Lincoln Network, a group started with seed money from the Charles G. Koch Foundation, is behind online technology called “Edunity” that is being deployed by the corporate-funded State Policy Network (SPN) to encourage teachers and other public sector union members to leave their unions… The benefits to union members who quit their union using Edunity, would include “discounts to useful major retailers, from Target to Microsoft.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — The Washington state-based Freedom Foundation is an SPN member, part of this network of right-wing billionaires and CEOs trying to weaken unions by convincing public employees to quit them.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Freedom Foundation keeps spending, failing — One year after Janus, the Freedom Foundation’s plan to destroy unions in Washington and along the West Coast is a complete failure. In fact, its backfiring on them.

► From Splinter — BuzzFeed staffers walk off the job as union fight escalates — BuzzFeed staffers across the country walked off the job Monday afternoon, the latest escalation in a months-long effort to push CEO Jonah Peretti to recognize his newsroom employees’ union, which is represented by the NewsGuild.

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.