If you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Senators to reject the nominations of Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State and Gina Haspel as CIA Director, then Defending Rights and Dissent still helps you do that. It really shouldn't be too much to ask that folks in our government who support torture shouldn't get promoted, just as it shouldn't be too much to ask that "liberal" media figures who cheered on the Iraq war shouldn't still be "trusted sources of news and analysis." But please don't get cynical and assume that failing upward is just the way the world is now, because it's not the way the world should be, and helping to make the world we've got into the world-that-should-be is an American citizen's solemn duty, one that does not discharge with difficulty or failure. And stopping the Pompeo and Haspel nominations is as good a place to start the day's work as any.
Meanwhile, H.R. 4505/S. 2177, the Restoring Overtime Pay Act, would restore the Obama Administration's overtime pay standard struck down by a federal District court judge -- thus mandating overtime pay for folks making up to about $48,000 annually, rather than $24,000. As you may know, Judge Mazzant ruled that the Department of Labor could not lawfully raise the overtime pay threshold without considering whether workers' job duties (i.e., whether they work in an executive or administrative capacity) exempt them from the threshold, but Sec. 3 (a) of the bill essentially makes the salary threshold an exemption-within-the-exemption, rendering that distinction moot (as I've always said it should be!) for workers below a certain income. So Daily Kos helps you tell your Congressfolk to expand overtime pay for working families by passing the Restoring Overtime Pay Act.
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