Good news, everyone! our Federal Trade Commission (or FTC) has outlawed non-compete agreements in most employment contracts, so now good Americans can quit their jobs a lot more easily. Our FTC did something so obviously good that even Matt Gaetz called it a “vindication of economic freedom and free enterprise,” but even though, as Matt Stoller says, “it just feels icky to stand up for the right to prevent someone from quitting and getting a new job,” bad actors are still throwing tantrums about it. Former Trump Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia made four arguments in a suit against the FTC rule, but, well, I’ll let Mr. Stoller summarize again: “(i)t’s not clear how any of Scalia’s points are relevant.”
More good news, everyone! the Biden Administration Labor Department has extended overtime protections to all workers making as much as $58,656 annually, or some $23,000 above the ceiling set by the Trump Administration, and over $11,000 above the ceiling set by the Obama Administration that a Texas judge struck down in 2017. Oh, and about that: I wonder how including managers and supervisors – an act spurred by employers inventing BS “supervisory” job titles just to avoid giving their workers OT – will play in court. Still, most arguments against this rule change are horsedoodle. Sen. Cassidy (E-LA) says this is “the exact wrong time” for such a “drastic” increase (it phases in over the next year-plus, but whatever); do you get the sense that, for Bill Cassidy and his kind, there’ll never be a “right” time for it?
And we’re still going! Our Department of Transportation has issued new regulations mandating transparency about junk fees and faster refunds for wronged airline passengers. I’d prefer an end to junk fees, but once airline passengers have everything they’re paying for itemized, airline corporations will begin to end junk fees on their own. Oh, and airlines used to be able to determine for themselves what a “significant” delay is; now it’s going to be three hours for a domestic flight and six hours for an international flight, so no more pretending sitting in an airport for seven hours isn’t “significant” enough for a refund. Pete Buttigieg still isn’t the best Transportation Secretary we could wish for, but he’s gotten better over the last year or so. Maybe all that negative publicity taught him a few lessons.
Arizona grand jury indicts 18 individuals – including former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former Trump lawyer/hanger-on Rudy Giuliani – for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in that state. Those who are tempted to decry TEH WEAPONIZATIONZ OFZ TEH JUSTICEZ!!!!!! would do well to note that would-be election-overturners went zero for eight in their lawsuits about the 2020 election; only one of these lawsuits figures in this case, but the folks who filed that suit then went on to sign a document “certifying” Mr. Trump’s “victory” in Arizona in 2020. They must think they can just do whatever they like and then BS everyone about it until they get tired of fighting. They underestimate us.
Factcheck.org provides another update on “Biden’s Numbers” – no, not his poll numbers, which are horserace horsedoodle anyway, but his economic numbers, which befit the Best President of My Lifetime Even If That’s Not a High Bar to Clear. Seriously, much of this information could very easily be made into an ad targeting independent voters – 15 million jobs, oil production up, crime down, deficits down, carbon emissions down, food stamp use down, more Americans with health insurance, record highs in the stock market. I’d add that wages didn’t rise faster than inflation at first, but have done so every month since February 2023. The next ad they run: Joe Biden breaks up monopolies that raise your prices – but Donald Trump would let them do whatever they want to you!
Finally, because we can’t, we don’t, and we won’t stop, our Federal Communications Commission (or FCC) has reinstated the net neutrality provisions the Trumpholed FCC repealed in 2017. I’m wary of the next Republican-dominated FCC simply overturning them again, but not so wary as to demand that Congress pass a law that corporate hacks will just water down anyway, since nobody but the politicians listen to corporate hacks. Don’t believe the hype that “nothing much will change on the internet,” because the only reason for that is the six states, including California, that passed their own net neutrality laws over the last half-decade-plus. Those six states represent nearly 60 million Americans; it’s hard to do things one way for one state and another way for the other 49, let alone six and 44. And net neutrality – like corporate crime and antitrust policy – actually unites liberals and conservatives in America, and gosh, shouldn’t that count for something?
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