Focused Read in 2 minutes
"White House Praises
Walmart Hours After Company Announces Massive Layoffs
(By
Tommy Christopher)
Companies have been
working overtime trying to give the Trump tax scam a public
relations boost with token bonuses and the like, but one company
exposed that sham with a big assist from Donald Trump and team.
On
Thursday morning, Trump touted Walmart as an example of
“Great news as a result of our TAX CUTS & JOBS ACT!”
At the White House daily
briefing a few hours later, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin echoed
Trump’s comments:
MNUCHIN: I’d also like
to highlight the announcement this morning from Walmart. We want to
thank them. They will be increasing their minimum wages, issuing
bonuses, and expanding family leave benefits for over a million
employees.
But Walmart announced,
just hours before the briefing, that it will be closing 63 of its
Sam’s Club stores and laying off thousands of workers."
*
( You can read a snippet of THAT ⬆ OMG! story here ⬇ :
Walmart
is abruptly closing 63 Sam's Club locations across the US, the
company told Business Insider on Thursday.
Some stores have already
closed; others will close within weeks.
Many
employees were not informed of the closings ahead of time.
Ten
of the closed stores will be turned into e-commerce distribution
centers.
You can read that full
story, courtesy of Business Insider here )
*
"Mnuchin was asked why the
Trump administration deserves credit for the earlier announcement,
but not the layoffs.
Mnuchin danced around the question, before
finally settling on a pretty dismal response:
MNUCHIN: What I’m saying
is that the administration’s economic policies are a function of
what we see, growth in investment. Different companies will do
different things. Some companies will invest capital. Some companies
will return money to workers. Lots of things are going on in the
economy, and we appreciate what Walmart’s doing.
... The fact is that while
companies are publicly crediting the GOP tax scam for
short-term, one-off benefits to some employees, layoffs like those by
Walmart have continued, and job growth under Trump is at a
six-year low. ... "
You
can read more here
( Courtesy of Shareblue media )
Focused Thought in 30 seconds
( You can read more about gaslighting here )
Focused Action in 30 seconds
You can share Senator Wyden's Tweet here
Focused Point of Interest in 2-3 minutes
Note 📎 Written on December 21, 2017, there may have been or will be some changes to the "plan," but the point hasn't and won't change.
“The Koch Brothers Have
a Plan to Make the Tax Bill Popular
By Philip Elliott"
Selected highlights ⬇
"Now, comes the sell.
Hours after
Congress sent a sweeping package of tax cuts to the White
House for President Donald Trump’s signature, the powerful network
of advocacy groups backed by billionaires Charles and David Koch went
into high gear to turn around the bill’s dour poll numbers.
... “Given that the tax
reform bill was just finalized, there’s a lot of work to be done
educating Americans about its benefits,” said James Davis, an
executive vice president at Freedom Partners, the hub that
coordinates Koch-backed political activities. “We will make a
massive push to show how pro-growth policies can revitalize the
economy and open the floodgates to new opportunity, innovation and
prosperity.”
The sales job will be
tough.
Polls find the proposal incredibly unpopular with voters:
a
CNN poll released this week found 55% of voters opposed to
the bill.
And for good reason.
The bulk of the benefits will go to
those who make more than $300,000 a year, according to the
non-partisan Tax Policy Center.
And, by 2027, those earning less
than $75,000 annual will see a tax hike while the cuts for the
ultra-rich remain, according to the Center for Budget and
Policy Priorities.
... Democrats, who stood
unified against the package, now plan to weaponize it against
Republicans next year and beyond.
Republicans grumble that
they had little choice but to pass this unpopular bill. For years,
they’ve promised sweeping tax cuts...Failing to do so would have meant they had
control of all levers of official Washington power and
still accomplished nothing. They had to show they could, in
fact, govern. ...
A multi-million dollar
campaign
The Koch-backed network
spans interest groups, advocacy organizations, think tanks and P.R.
machines. It went in with $20 million to push for these tax cuts and
promised lawmakers that their backs would be covered if they
supported it.
... Koch organizations knocked on more than 33,000 doors to tell
voters about the tax bill’s potential,
reached more than 16 million
people via digital ads online and ran 111 different digital
campaigns.
... To build on that, the Koch
network on Friday"
(December 22, 2017 while the rest of us were getting ready to celebrate the holidays with our families!)
"plans to let members of Congress know that the team
will be organizing town halls, seminars and workshops in their
districts and states to try to re-frame the talk on the tax bill.
At
the same time, the advocacy groups, such as Americans for Prosperity,
will incorporate the pro-tax cuts message into their phone calls and
door knocks.
Finally, there will be
television, radio and digital ads to promote the bill and, in some
cases, the lawmakers who cast votes that made it possible.
All told, they’re
eyeballing several million dollars to defend the bill and to try to
take some of the sting off the vote backing it.
... They plan to cast the bill’s
critics as tax-loving liberals who are sour that they lost a
political fight.
... “That means activating our grassroots
infrastructure in 36 states to get the word out ... "
You
can read more here
The meme is courtesy of "I agree to see"
.
.
.
→ Direct sources for Democrats:
* ( Personal favored and most informative follows are shared here with the understanding that readers will always apply their own critical thinking to any information provided anywhere by anyone. #StrongerTogether does not share sources of information lightly but -- no one is perfect! -- so always #DistrustAndVerify I am using a star rating that is strictly based on my situational experience with the work of the media personality specifically in relation to issues of interest to me. )
The Democratic Party Website
Also
C-SPAN (a good place for speeches & hearings direct source (s))
→ Fact checking organizations courtesy of the Society of Professional Journalists
in alphabetical order...
→ Some of my favorite, most informative
follows on Twitter include:
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ US Intelligence | Author | Navy Senior Chief | NBC/MSNBC
⭐⭐⭐ Federal Government Operations | Vanity Fair | Newsweek | MSNBC Contributor | Author
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Voting Rights/Voter Suppression | Author | Mother Jones
→ Some of the most credible media -- at the moment:
📰📰📰 Mother Jones
📰📰📰 The Washington Post
📰📰📰 The New York Times
💻💻💻 News And Guts on Facebook
→ Some of the most credible Talking Heads -- at the moment -- and their Twitter handles:
📺📺📺 Rachel Maddow on MSNBC
📺📺📺 The Beat With Ari on MSNBC
( ⬆⬆⬆ Wallace is new to the job but for right now
her work on Trump GOP has been credible, IMO )
...for Networking for Democrats today!
.
.
.
(Linked) "...is our 2016 platform...a declaration of how we plan to move America forward. Democrats believe that cooperation is better than conflict, unity is better than division, empowerment is better than resentment, and bridges are better than walls.
It’s a simple but powerful idea: We are stronger together."
( #its2018now )
In honor of women leading the American Resistance ~
" ... Susan, a Quaker, came from a background where girls were valued and educated just as Quaker boys were, but Susan began to see the real world when she became a teacher and was routinely paid about one-quarter of the salary she would have received if she had been a man.
Elizabeth was from a well-to-do family where boys were favored. Elizabeth married and began having children ... At that time, women had little opportunity to control whether or not they became pregnant, and it frequently happened that just as Elizabeth was about to attend a new round of meetings or take on a new push for voting rights, she would find herself pregnant and more or less homebound again. Despite this, Elizabeth attended everything she could and when she was needed at home, she served their team effort by writing speeches that Susan could use at conventions or on the road. ... "
You can read more about this power friendship here
*
Curated by Gail Mountain, with occasional personal commentary, Network For #StrongerTogether ! is not affiliated with The Democratic Party in any capacity. This is an independent blog and the hope is you will, at a glance, learn more about the Party and you will, with a click or two, also take action on its behalf as it is provided!
( You can also find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/GKMTNtwits )
*
See the League of Women Voters website:
Vote411 here
Thank you for focusing!
g., aka Focused Democrat
✊ Resisting "Fake News"
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