Daily Archives: January 30, 2017

Judiciary, Politics

Acting AG Replaced

President Trump, not one to accept insubordination by someone refusing to do their job for obvious political reasons, fired Sally Q. Yates, the acting Attorney General appointed by President Obama.

Dana J. Boente, who was appointed by President Trump this evening to serve as acting Attorney General, tonight issued the following guidance to the men and women of the department:

On January 30, 2017, Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates issued a memorandum barring Department of Justice Attorney’s from presenting arguments in defense of the President’s January 27, 2017, Executive Order entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into the United States.” At approximately 9:00 p.m., I was asked by the President to serve in the capacity of Acting Attorney General. After having dedicated the last thirty-three years of my life to this Department, I am humbled and incredibly honored to serve as Acting Attorney General. Based upon the Office of Legal Counsel’s analysis, which found the Executive Order both lawful on its face and properly drafted, I hereby rescind former Acting Attorney General Sally Q. Yates January 30, 2017, guidance and direct the men and women of the Department of Justice to do our sworn duty and to defend the lawful orders of our President.

Link: DOJ Press Release

Media, Organized Labor, Politics

Organized Labor Declines

The Dept of Labor released their report on Union Membership last week. Not surprisingly, the AP had a cow and came way far from reporting what the report means and what the report shows.

The only national number the AP used was comparing Wisconsin’s union membership, 8 percent, to be below the national average of 10.7 percent. There’s not a word about the serious overall national decline in union membership. Let alone the performance during the last eight years of the Obama administration. Those are facts the AP, whose journalists are mostly if not entirely members of the News Media Guild, doesn’t like. So it didn’t report them.

The AP then blamed right to work legislation as the reason for that shortfall without offering any “proof” that right to work legislation caused any part of Wisconsin’s union membership decline in 2016. Overall, Wisconsin’s union membership dropped by only 4,000 in 2016 to 219,000.

The situation for organized labor goes way beyond Wisconsin. Florida dropped 90,000 members since 2015, representing 5.6 percent of workers compared to 6.8 percent the previous year.

And this is what the labor union membership looks like after eight years of the Obama administration.

What else happened last week? The XL Pipeline and Dakota Access Pipeline projects got the go-ahead from President Trump. All union  jobs. And, Labor Union leaders met with President Trump in The White House to talk jobs. Reminds me of a question often raised in the 2016 presidential campaign. What have you got to lose?

Links: Union Membership (Annual) News Release  |  AP Ignores Falling Obama-Era U.S. Union Membership, Takes Aim at Wisconsin