A growing number of Democrats in battleground districts are retiring or leaving to seek higher office, imperiling the party’s slim House majority and President Biden’s expansive agenda.
WASHINGTON — With 18 months left before the midterms, a spate of Democratic departures from the House is threatening to erode the party’s slim majority in the House and imperil President Biden’s far-reaching policy agenda.In the past two months, five House Democrats from competitive districts have announced they won’t seek re-election next year. They include Representative Charlie Crist of Florida, who on Tuesday kicked off a campaign for governor, and Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who will run for the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.Three other Democrats will leave seats vacant in districts likely to see significant change once they are redrawn using the data from the 2020 census, and several more are weighing bids for higher office.An early trickle of retirements by House members in competitive districts is often the first sign of a coming political wave. In the 2018 cycle, 48 House Republicans didn’t seek re-election — and Democrats won 14 of those vacancies. Now Republicans are salivating over the prospect of reversing that dynamic and erasing the Democrats’ six-seat advantage. …
SEATTLE – As the power couple of giving splits, Melinda French Gates’s global influence in philanthropy could grow even further, reflecting her own values and interests.
She has long shared the spotlight with her husband, Bill Gates. But the Gateses on Monday announced they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage. In simultaneous and identical tweets, they pledged to continue to run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission is to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.
At the Gates Foundation, French Gates, who now prefers to be referred to by her maiden name, has frequently spearheaded efforts focused on women’s empowerment, an area where some philanthropy experts say she could expand her giving. Women’s issues have always been a part of the foundation’s giving, although it is best known for its initiatives to address global health and, more recently, to end the coronavirus pandemic.
Bill Gates has long cast the largest shadow at the foundation. He cemented his fortune, which Forbes pegs at $130.4 billion, by co-founding the software giant Microsoft. When Gates directed his focus to philanthropy two decades ago, he also seized attention, wielding outsize influence in the areas where the foundation gives due to the enormity of his wealth. …
Bill and Melinda Gates are divorcing after 27 years of marriage, raising questions about the fate of their vast fortune. Their split could yield the biggest divorce settlement on record, according to Forbes’s calculations, surpassing the $35 billion breakup of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott. Given the likely sums involved, what happens with the Gateses’ extensive investments and charity work will be monitored at the highest levels of government, business and the nonprofit sector.
What’s at stake: Mr. Gates is the fourth-richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with wealth estimated at $124 billion. The family is the largest owner of farmland in the U.S. His personal investment firm, Cascade Investment, owns big stakes in assets like the Four Seasons, the Canadian National Railway and the AutoNation chain of car dealerships.
The Gateses are believed to have a prenuptial agreement, but its details aren’t publicly known. The divorce petition notes that there is a separation contract in place.
The two have faced relationship struggles in recent years, Andrew, David Gelles and Nick Kulish report in The Times. Mr. Gates stepped down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway in part to spend more time with his family.
What will happen to the Gates Foundation? The $50 billion nonprofit is one of the biggest philanthropies in the world, giving away about $5 billion each year to causes like global public health and childhood education. Most recently, it was instrumental in forming Covax, the global coronavirus vaccination program. For now, the foundation says little will change in how it is run day to day, but people in its orbit worry that an acrimonious split by its founders could cloud the nonprofit’s plans. “Together they have assured me of their continued commitment to the foundation that they have worked so hard to build together,” the foundation’s chief executive, Mark Suzman, told employees in an email.
When the Gateses created the Giving Pledge, an effort to get wealthy people to donate a majority of their money to charitable causes, they said they would commit to donate “the vast majority of our assets” to the foundation. Much of that money has not yet been donated.
Ms. Gates could separately become a big philanthropic force. She has already used her own investment office, Pivotal Ventures, to donate money to causes like women’s economic empowerment, and could use any settlement to amplify her giving to preferred groups. “You could imagine Melinda Gates being a much more progressive giver on her own,” said David Callahan, the founder of Inside Philanthropy. “She’s going to be a major force in philanthropy for decades to come.” …
The PRO act will add some teeth to the toothless NLRA ($50,000-100,000 fines for retaliating against union organizers) and pull some teeth from Taft-Hartley (take down right-to-work laws). Does anybody expect this is going to magically triple union density from today’s 6.5% in private (non-gov) economy to 20% — even while 50% want to join a union? When private union density was 20% McDonald’s, Target, Walgreen’s and Walmart were not unionized. We want them to be unionized by the time we finish this time around, don’t we? *Half the Prime delivery drivers whose opinion I ask about federally mandated, regularly scheduled union elections (cert-recert-decert) at every private workplace cannot even understand what I am talking about. I guess they are the other 50%. They are intelligent; it seems they live in a time and place that has largely forgotten what a labor union even looks like. *The 50% who remember would kill for regularly scheduled cert/recert/decert elections. *Only the promise of mandated cert/recert/decert elections can claw back enough Obama/Trump voters to safely swamp any Republican effort to steal coming elections (by putting the dominant political party in charge of counting votes for instance: the real road to serfdom). New York Times numbers guru Nate Cohn: *“But pinning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)” *https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html *The PRO Act is not going to start any Obama/Trump voter stampede for Republican Party exits. Routine union election cycle is exactly what today’s democracy deprived labor would recognize overwhelmingly that it needs. * * * * * * * * * * * *[cut-and-paste from: Which Side Are You on?: Trying to Be for Labor When It’s Flat on Its Back by Thomas Geoghegan] *First, [Taft-Hartley] ended organizing on the grand, 1930s scale. It outlawed mass picketing, secondary strikes of neutral employers, sit downs: in short, everything [Congress of Industrial Organizations founder John L.] Lewis did in the 1930s. *And Taft-Hartley led to the “union-busting” that started in the late 1960s and continues today. It started when a new “profession” of labor consultants began to convince employers that they could violate the Wagner Act, fire workers at will, fire them deliberately for exercising their legal rights, andnothing would happen. The Wagner Act had never had any real sanctions. … So why hadn’t employers been violating the Wagner Act all along? Well, at first, in the 1930s and 1940s, they tried, and they got riots in the streets: mass picketing, secondary strikes, etc. But after Taft-Hartley, unions couldn’t retaliate like this, or they would end up with penalty fines and jail sentences.[snip] *http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1565848861?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1565848861
The PRO act will add some teeth to the toothless NLRA ($50,000-100,000 fines for retaliating against union organizers) and pull some teeth from Taft-Hartley (take down right-to-work laws). Does anybody expect this is going to magically triple union density from today’s 6.5% in private (non-gov) economy to 20% — even while 50% want to join a union? When private union density was 20% McDonald’s, Target, Walgreen’s and Walmart were not unionized. We want them to be unionized by the time we finish this time around, don’t we?
Half the Prime delivery drivers whose opinion I ask about federally mandated, regularly scheduled union elections (cert-recert-decert) at every private workplace cannot even understand what I am talking about. I guess they are the other 50%. They are intelligent; it seems they live in a time and place that has largely forgotten what a labor union even looks like.
The 50% who remember would kill for regularly scheduled cert/recert/decert elections.
Only the promise of mandated cert/recert/decert elections can claw back enough Obama/Trump voters to safely swamp any Republican effort to steal coming elections (by putting the dominant political party in charge of counting votes for instance: the real road to serfdom). https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/
New York Times numbers guru Nate Cohn:
“But pinning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)”https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html
The PRO Act is not going to start any Obama/Trump voter stampede for Republican Party exits. Routine union election cycle is exactly what today’s democracy deprived labor would recognize overwhelmingly that it needs.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
[cut-and-paste from: Which Side Are You on?: Trying to Be for Labor When It’s Flat on Its Back by Thomas Geoghegan]
First, [Taft-Hartley] ended organizing on the grand, 1930s scale. It outlawed mass picketing, secondary strikes of neutral employers, sit downs: in short, everything [Congress of Industrial Organizations founder John L.] Lewis did in the 1930s.
And Taft-Hartley led to the “union-busting” that started in the late 1960s and continues today. It started when a new “profession” of labor consultants began to convince employers that they could violate the Wagner Act, fire workers at will, fire them deliberately for exercising their legal rights, and nothing would happen. The Wagner Act had never had any real sanctions . . . So why hadn’t employers been violating the Wagner Act all along? Well, at first, in the 1930s and 1940s, they tried, and they got riots in the streets: mass picketing, secondary strikes, etc. But after Taft-Hartley, unions couldn’t retaliate like this, or they would end up with penalty fines and jail sentences.
Cases and deaths have dipped, and vaccinations make scientists hopeful, even as variants mean the coronavirus is here to stay.
After weeks of coronavirus patients flooding emergency rooms in Michigan, the worst Covid-19 hot spot in the nation, hospitalizations are finally falling.On some recent days, entire states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia, have reported zero new coronavirus deaths — a brief but promising respite from the onslaught of the past year.And in New York and Chicago, officials encouraged by the recent progress have confidently vowed to fully reopen in the coming weeks, conjuring images of a vibrant summer of concerts, sporting events and packed restaurants revving cities back to life.Americans have entered a new, hopeful phase of the pandemic. Buoyed by a sense that the coronavirus is waning, in part because of vaccinations, more people are shrugging off masks, venturing into restaurants and returning to their prepandemic routines. Mayors, governors and other local officials — once the bearers of grim news about the virus’s toll and strict rules for businesses — have joined in the newfound optimism, rapidly loosening restrictions. …
The American public’s willingness to get a Covid vaccine is reaching a saturation point, a new national poll suggests, one more indication that achieving widespread immunity in the United States is becoming increasingly challenging.Only 9 percent of respondents said they hadn’t yet gotten the shot but intended to do so, according to the survey, published in the April edition of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Vaccine Monitor. And with federal authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents ages 12 through 15 expected imminently, the eagerness of parents to let their children be vaccinated is also limited, the poll found.Overall, slightly more than half of those surveyed said they had gotten at least one dose of the vaccine, a finding that matches data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.“We’re in a new stage of talking about vaccine demand,” said Mollyann Brodie, executive vice president of Kaiser’s Public Opinion and Survey Research Program. “There’s not going to be a single strategy to increase demand across everyone who is left. There will be have to be a lot of individually targeted efforts. The people still on the fence have logistical barriers, information needs, and lots don’t yet know they are eligible. Each strategy might move a small number of people to get vaccinated, but all together, that could matter a lot.” …
Why Democratic Departures From the House Have Republicans Salivating https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/us/politics/democrats-house-retirements.html?smid=tw-share
WASHINGTON — With 18 months left before the midterms, a spate of Democratic departures from the House is threatening to erode the party’s slim majority in the House and imperil President Biden’s far-reaching policy agenda.In the past two months, five House Democrats from competitive districts have announced they won’t seek re-election next year. They include Representative Charlie Crist of Florida, who on Tuesday kicked off a campaign for governor, and Representative Tim Ryan of Ohio, who will run for the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.Three other Democrats will leave seats vacant in districts likely to see significant change once they are redrawn using the data from the 2020 census, and several more are weighing bids for higher office.An early trickle of retirements by House members in competitive districts is often the first sign of a coming political wave. In the 2018 cycle, 48 House Republicans didn’t seek re-election — and Democrats won 14 of those vacancies. Now Republicans are salivating over the prospect of reversing that dynamic and erasing the Democrats’ six-seat advantage. …
When philanthropy’s power couple splits, Melinda French Gates’s influence could grow
Washington Post – May 5
SEATTLE – As the power couple of giving splits, Melinda French Gates’s global influence in philanthropy could grow even further, reflecting her own values and interests.
She has long shared the spotlight with her husband, Bill Gates. But the Gateses on Monday announced they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage. In simultaneous and identical tweets, they pledged to continue to run the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, whose mission is to enable all people to lead healthy, productive lives.
At the Gates Foundation, French Gates, who now prefers to be referred to by her maiden name, has frequently spearheaded efforts focused on women’s empowerment, an area where some philanthropy experts say she could expand her giving. Women’s issues have always been a part of the foundation’s giving, although it is best known for its initiatives to address global health and, more recently, to end the coronavirus pandemic.
Bill Gates has long cast the largest shadow at the foundation. He cemented his fortune, which Forbes pegs at $130.4 billion, by co-founding the software giant Microsoft. When Gates directed his focus to philanthropy two decades ago, he also seized attention, wielding outsize influence in the areas where the foundation gives due to the enormity of his wealth. …
—–
The Big Stakes in the Gates Divorce
NY Times – May 4
Bill and Melinda Gates are divorcing after 27 years of marriage, raising questions about the fate of their vast fortune. Their split could yield the biggest divorce settlement on record, according to Forbes’s calculations, surpassing the $35 billion breakup of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott. Given the likely sums involved, what happens with the Gateses’ extensive investments and charity work will be monitored at the highest levels of government, business and the nonprofit sector.
What’s at stake: Mr. Gates is the fourth-richest person in the world, according to Forbes, with wealth estimated at $124 billion. The family is the largest owner of farmland in the U.S. His personal investment firm, Cascade Investment, owns big stakes in assets like the Four Seasons, the Canadian National Railway and the AutoNation chain of car dealerships.
The Gateses are believed to have a prenuptial agreement, but its details aren’t publicly known. The divorce petition notes that there is a separation contract in place.
The two have faced relationship struggles in recent years, Andrew, David Gelles and Nick Kulish report in The Times. Mr. Gates stepped down from the boards of Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway in part to spend more time with his family.
What will happen to the Gates Foundation? The $50 billion nonprofit is one of the biggest philanthropies in the world, giving away about $5 billion each year to causes like global public health and childhood education. Most recently, it was instrumental in forming Covax, the global coronavirus vaccination program. For now, the foundation says little will change in how it is run day to day, but people in its orbit worry that an acrimonious split by its founders could cloud the nonprofit’s plans. “Together they have assured me of their continued commitment to the foundation that they have worked so hard to build together,” the foundation’s chief executive, Mark Suzman, told employees in an email.
When the Gateses created the Giving Pledge, an effort to get wealthy people to donate a majority of their money to charitable causes, they said they would commit to donate “the vast majority of our assets” to the foundation. Much of that money has not yet been donated.
Ms. Gates could separately become a big philanthropic force. She has already used her own investment office, Pivotal Ventures, to donate money to causes like women’s economic empowerment, and could use any settlement to amplify her giving to preferred groups. “You could imagine Melinda Gates being a much more progressive giver on her own,” said David Callahan, the founder of Inside Philanthropy. “She’s going to be a major force in philanthropy for decades to come.” …
The PRO act will add some teeth to the toothless NLRA ($50,000-100,000 fines for retaliating against union organizers) and pull some teeth from Taft-Hartley (take down right-to-work laws). Does anybody expect this is going to magically triple union density from today’s 6.5% in private (non-gov) economy to 20% — even while 50% want to join a union? When private union density was 20% McDonald’s, Target, Walgreen’s and Walmart were not unionized. We want them to be unionized by the time we finish this time around, don’t we? *Half the Prime delivery drivers whose opinion I ask about federally mandated, regularly scheduled union elections (cert-recert-decert) at every private workplace cannot even understand what I am talking about. I guess they are the other 50%. They are intelligent; it seems they live in a time and place that has largely forgotten what a labor union even looks like. *The 50% who remember would kill for regularly scheduled cert/recert/decert elections. *Only the promise of mandated cert/recert/decert elections can claw back enough Obama/Trump voters to safely swamp any Republican effort to steal coming elections (by putting the dominant political party in charge of counting votes for instance: the real road to serfdom). New York Times numbers guru Nate Cohn: *“But pinning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)” *https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html *The PRO Act is not going to start any Obama/Trump voter stampede for Republican Party exits. Routine union election cycle is exactly what today’s democracy deprived labor would recognize overwhelmingly that it needs. * * * * * * * * * * * *[cut-and-paste from: Which Side Are You on?: Trying to Be for Labor When It’s Flat on Its Back by Thomas Geoghegan] *First, [Taft-Hartley] ended organizing on the grand, 1930s scale. It outlawed mass picketing, secondary strikes of neutral employers, sit downs: in short, everything [Congress of Industrial Organizations founder John L.] Lewis did in the 1930s. *And Taft-Hartley led to the “union-busting” that started in the late 1960s and continues today. It started when a new “profession” of labor consultants began to convince employers that they could violate the Wagner Act, fire workers at will, fire them deliberately for exercising their legal rights, and nothing would happen. The Wagner Act had never had any real sanctions. … So why hadn’t employers been violating the Wagner Act all along? Well, at first, in the 1930s and 1940s, they tried, and they got riots in the streets: mass picketing, secondary strikes, etc. But after Taft-Hartley, unions couldn’t retaliate like this, or they would end up with penalty fines and jail sentences.[snip] *http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1565848861?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1565848861
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Comment by Dennis Drew
The PRO act will add some teeth to the toothless NLRA ($50,000-100,000 fines for retaliating against union organizers) and pull some teeth from Taft-Hartley (take down right-to-work laws). Does anybody expect this is going to magically triple union density from today’s 6.5% in private (non-gov) economy to 20% — even while 50% want to join a union? When private union density was 20% McDonald’s, Target, Walgreen’s and Walmart were not unionized. We want them to be unionized by the time we finish this time around, don’t we?
Half the Prime delivery drivers whose opinion I ask about federally mandated, regularly scheduled union elections (cert-recert-decert) at every private workplace cannot even understand what I am talking about. I guess they are the other 50%. They are intelligent; it seems they live in a time and place that has largely forgotten what a labor union even looks like.
The 50% who remember would kill for regularly scheduled cert/recert/decert elections.
Only the promise of mandated cert/recert/decert elections can claw back enough Obama/Trump voters to safely swamp any Republican effort to steal coming elections (by putting the dominant political party in charge of counting votes for instance: the real road to serfdom).
https://onlabor.org/why-not-hold-union-representation-elections-on-a-regular-schedule/
New York Times numbers guru Nate Cohn:
“But pinning Mrs. Clinton’s loss on low black turnout would probably be a mistake. Mr. Obama would have easily won both his elections with this level of black turnout and support. (He would have won Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin each time even if Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee had been severed from their states and cast adrift into the Great Lakes.)”https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/23/upshot/how-the-obama-coalition-crumbled-leaving-an-opening-for-trump.html
The PRO Act is not going to start any Obama/Trump voter stampede for Republican Party exits. Routine union election cycle is exactly what today’s democracy deprived labor would recognize overwhelmingly that it needs.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
[cut-and-paste from: Which Side Are You on?: Trying to Be for Labor When It’s Flat on Its Back by Thomas Geoghegan]
First, [Taft-Hartley] ended organizing on the grand, 1930s scale. It outlawed mass picketing, secondary strikes of neutral employers, sit downs: in short, everything [Congress of Industrial Organizations founder John L.] Lewis did in the 1930s.
And Taft-Hartley led to the “union-busting” that started in the late 1960s and continues today. It started when a new “profession” of labor consultants began to convince employers that they could violate the Wagner Act, fire workers at will, fire them deliberately for exercising their legal rights, and nothing would happen. The Wagner Act had never had any real sanctions . . . So why hadn’t employers been violating the Wagner Act all along? Well, at first, in the 1930s and 1940s, they tried, and they got riots in the streets: mass picketing, secondary strikes, etc. But after Taft-Hartley, unions couldn’t retaliate like this, or they would end up with penalty fines and jail sentences.
‘Turning the Corner’: US Covid Outlook Reaches Most Hopeful Point Yet https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/us/covid-case-hospitalizations-update.html?smid=tw-share
After weeks of coronavirus patients flooding emergency rooms in Michigan, the worst Covid-19 hot spot in the nation, hospitalizations are finally falling.On some recent days, entire states, including Wisconsin and West Virginia, have reported zero new coronavirus deaths — a brief but promising respite from the onslaught of the past year.And in New York and Chicago, officials encouraged by the recent progress have confidently vowed to fully reopen in the coming weeks, conjuring images of a vibrant summer of concerts, sporting events and packed restaurants revving cities back to life.Americans have entered a new, hopeful phase of the pandemic. Buoyed by a sense that the coronavirus is waning, in part because of vaccinations, more people are shrugging off masks, venturing into restaurants and returning to their prepandemic routines. Mayors, governors and other local officials — once the bearers of grim news about the virus’s toll and strict rules for businesses — have joined in the newfound optimism, rapidly loosening restrictions. …
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/06/health/vaccine-children.html?smid=tw-share(A) new survey … found only 9 percent of adult respondents hadn’t gotten the shot but planned to do so, suggesting the country is nearing the limit of people planning to get immunized.
$100 as Incentive to Get a Shot? Experiment Suggests It Can Pay Off. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/upshot/vaccine-incentive-experiment.html?smid=tw-share
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/07/business/economy/jobs-report-april-2021.html US added 266,000 jobs in April, as hiring slowed U.S. employers added 266,000 jobs in April, the government reported Friday, far below what economists had expected and a dramatic slowdown from March’s rapid hiring pace.The jobless rate rose slightly to 6.1 percent. … https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/05/07/business/stock-market-today/millions-are-unemployed-why-are-jobs-going-unfilled Millions are unemployed. Why are jobs going unfilled? This week the Republican governors of Montana and South Carolina said they planned to cut off federally funded pandemic unemployment assistance at the end of June, citing complaints by employers about severe labor shortages.That means jobless workers there will no longer get a $300-a-week federal supplement to state benefits, and the states will abandon a pandemic program that helps freelancers and others who don’t qualify for state unemployment insurance. (Montana will, however, offer a $1,200 bonus for those taking jobs.)“What was intended to be short-term financial assistance for the vulnerable and displaced during the height of the pandemic has turned into a dangerous federal entitlement, incentivizing and paying workers to stay at home,” declared Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina. …