From Hell's Heart, Manchin and Sinema Stab at Thee
With their politically dying breaths, the duo shaft millions of workers
Dec. 12: Manchin, Sinema hand key federal agency to Trump … Health-care exec “Wanted” posters … Warren warns people can only be pushed “so far” … How AARP helps UnitedHealthcare prey on old people …
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We’ll get to Sens. Joe Manchin (I-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), but first, the stakes.
Lauren McFerran’s nomination for another term as chair of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was defeated in the Senate yesterday.
If McFerran had been confirmed, the NLRB would have had a Democratic chair throughout Donald Trump‘s presidency (assuming he didn’t illegally fire her). And it would have had a Democratic majority through August 2026.
Instead, corporate America just captured the single most powerful ally workers have had. Republicans will now control the agency charged with protecting workers’ legal rights for the entirety of Trump’s presidency.
And the story’s buried except in a handful of progressive outlets. Good luck finding it on TV.
Former Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris this spring called McFerran “a quiet but powerful force in restoring the NLRB to its core mission of safeguarding workers' rights to organize and bargain collectively after a disastrous period under President Trump."
The AFL-CIO’s top lobbyist said in July that McFerran “has worked to uphold and effectuate the rights promised by the National Labor Relations Act while treating all parties fairly.”
But probably the best measure of a public official’s effectiveness is who hates them how much.
The National Federation of Independent Businesses (“FIB” is right in the name!) blasted McFerran because … businesses don’t like her.
She was also criticized because “the NLRB has been embroiled in numerous contentious decisions and legal challenges.” That critique came from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the corporate front that embroils the NLRB in numerous contentious decisions and legal challenges.
Bloomberg reports that the NLRB issued almost 20 precedent-setting rulings during McFerran’s term, protecting workers’ rights on the job and shielding them from corporate attempts to thwart them from unionizing.
Some of the NLRB’s changes in the last four years include barring companies from forcing workers to attend anti-union propaganda meetings. And ending non-compete agreements which prevent workers from moving to better jobs (and which also block companies from hiring those people).
All of these policies are now likely dead meat. So if you wanna compete, workers, you better fucking do it in the next month.
Same thing for you Amazon and Starbucks workers still trying to form unions. You’ve got about a month left until the NLRB joins the fight against you.
You can imagine what the rate of union membership is going to look like in four years.
So what happened? Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) brought the McFerran nomination up for a vote. (Prepare yourself for a flood of unseemly hatred.)
Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS), a relatively labor-friendly Republican, interestingly wasn’t around. Republicans didn’t have the votes to block McFerran.
Then Sinema voted against her. Until yesterday, Sinema hadn’t bothered to cast a vote since Nov. 21.
That made the vote 49-49, with Vice President Kamala Harris on standby to break a tie.
The clock ticked on for more than an hour after the vote opened. And then, more than 90 minutes into the vote, stuck at 49-49, hark, who goes there?
‘Tis the Manchin, children. Run for your lives.
Manchin showed up. And voted “No,” handing the NLRB to Trump and the MAGA Republicans.
It’s tempting and not necessarily wrong to ascribe these no votes to the money that the Chamber (of Horrors) and NFIB members firehose at Manchin and Sinema. But that risks overlooking the abject stupidity at play here, too. And contempt for fellow Americans.
Don’t forget — like, ever — that Manchin’s the fuckin’ idiot who blocked a tax credit for poor families with children because the parents would use the money on drugs. Y’know, like Elon Musk does with his federal contracts.
He told Newsweek he voted against McFerran to help workers. Because workers thrive when businesses thrive. (In Makebelieveville.)
And what did Schumer say afterward?
It is deeply disappointing, a direct attack on working people, and incredibly troubling that this highly qualified nominee — with a proven track record of protecting worker rights — did not have the votes.
No mention of Manchin or Sinema by name. Because comity. Of errors.
This is the kind of story a serious news ecosphere would’ve/should’ve made a big deal for the last several weeks if not months.
And, yes, your not-easily-embarrassed TFN is embarrassed not to have known about it until yesterday. And even when it actually happened yesterday, your news-spotting TFN was lucky to spot it and is guessing even some of you diligent, most-nerdish Newsfuckers missed it, too.
But last month, the American Prospect, which is great at flagging this kind of shit, did flag it in a broader piece on appointments Pres. Joe Biden could make to lock in some degree of non-Trumpian governance.
And earlier this week, Axios flagged that Manchin and Sinema were both serious question marks — even as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and others pushed Schumer to give McFerran a vote.
Biden nominated McFerran all the way back in May. I’ve beated up Biden before for not making some nominations more quickly, but this time out he gave the Senate months to lock McFerran in for the entirety of Trump2.0. McFerran, the Prospect’s Harold Meyerson wrote last month, “established some long-overdue procedures that protect workers’ rights.”
And, Meyerson warned, retaining the NLRB majority was extra-important because Trump “will surely fire NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo … the most effective pro-worker federal official” in decades. Like, a lot of decades.
So, someone knew this was coming. And, look, maybe a real news focus on it — like Fox would’ve done for a Republican — would’ve just steeled Manchin and Sinema to be ornery.
But, y’know, maybe not! And either way, skipping the fight due to ignorance is horrific and inexcusable.
Progressives don’t have media that crusades to win positions for the McFerrans or Lina Khans of the world the way Fox crusades to win positions for, well, its former staffers. Is there any video-based “progressive” outlet doing that kind of thing?1
Yes, TFN and a handful of others bang the drum about people like Khan (the FTC chair), and races like the upcoming DNC chair, but believe it or not, TFN doesn’t drive the media narrative! (Yet.)
And we don’t even have a political apparatus doing it.
Think about the emails and texts you’ve gotten asking for money. Why is that network never used for shit like this? People. Want. To. Fight!
Hell, it wasn’t even clear that Schumer would bring it to a vote! Sanders and a bunch of wonky, American Prospect-reading policy nerds pushed it. But they pushed it alone. Instead of with millions of voters at their back.
We were told over and over how pro-worker Biden and Harris are. Which, okay, yes, but then why no word on this?
Maybe, in fairness, because they knew the media would ignore it. It’s a vicious circle. And it’s up to us to break it. Support the media and politicians focused on what matters.
“Wanted” Posters Go Up Featuring “Health” “Care” Execs
New York police reportedly warned health insurance companies that someone’s putting up Wanted posters with the faces and names of top executives.
One poster read: “Wanted. Denying medical care for corporate profit. Health care CEOs should not feel safe.”
And on Tuesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told HuffPost that the reaction to Luigi Mangione’s (alleged) murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson — “The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies” – was a warning.
She said, “Violence is never the answer, but people can be pushed only so far [until violence is the answer].”
A non-doctor spokesperson for Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), also not a doctor, responded by declaring that Mangione’s (alleged) actions were not caused by anything UnitedHealthcare did. Warren’s statement, the spokesperson said, “invents a non-existent connection between the insane murderer and United Healthcare, which did not push this rich kid to do anything, even accidentally. He went crazy and killed someone.”
Let’s fix that:
This statement invents [sic] a non-existent connection [clearly non-non-existent in Mangione’s writings] between the [invented non-existent diagnosis of] insane [presumed innocent] murderer and United Healthcare, which [I have no way of knowing] did not push this rich kid to do anything, even accidentally. He went [undiagnosed] crazy and [presumed innocent] killed someone.”
Warren, sadly, walked it back. “I should have been much clearer that there is never a justification for murder.”
Here’s Lee on Monday calling Daniel Perry a hero for killing Jordan Neely.
Look, folks, your empathetic TFN gets it. It’s hard to trumpet Mangione’s (alleged) motives without seeming to condone his (alleged) actions.
But the good news is, TFN is here to help. Because it turns out that the right wing has for decades mastered the art of portraying murderous savagery as noble and laudable…
We’re Not Celebrating Mangione, We’re Honoring Our Heritage
Y’know how Confederate flag fliers and statue idolators assure us that their love for all things CSA has nothing to do with slavery?
They all just really love states’ rights. They’re simply such devoted students of history that they want to preserve this teeny, tiny slice of it instead of, say, the unsung men and women who fought and died for labor rights.
Well, Newsfuckers, their arguments are now available for your Luigi Mangione feelings at the low, low cost of what health care should cost. Mildly retooled from years of rationalizing by Confederate-flag wavers, here ya go:
You’re not pro-murder, you’re pro-patient’s rights!
Mangione was chivalrous, opting not to use a bomb because it “could kill innocents”
And executives are better off under this new system because now they’re getting extra security; they know their boards love them!
OTOH Maybe We’re All Crazy … Because Corporations Are Gaslighting Us
The more complicated and rigged our systems get, the more our situations feel like fate. We invent bullshit narratives like Calvinism to explain our fuckednesses.
But it often turns out that things are the way they are because people made them that way. Knowingly or not. In concert or not.
To wit, how is it that UnitedHealthcare both preys on people and is picked by so many to be their predator of choice?
In a(nother) fantastic piece at the American Prospect, Robert Kuttner explains one reason for UnitedHealthcare’s success: An organization that markets itself as an advocate for old people is fronting for UnitedHealthcare.
That would be the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), which anyone over 50 can and usually does join because of freebies ‘n’ shit. Almost 38 million members … who trust AARP for guidance and advice.
But as Kuttner reports, AARP recommends to them UnitedHealthcare and only UnitedHealthcare. Because UnitedHealthcare is aawesome? Nope. Because UnitedHealthcare pays the AARP.
From Kuttner:
UnitedHealth kicks back 4.95 percent of premium income from AARP subscribers to AARP. And the numbers are staggering. …AARP made $289.3 million from member dues, but $1.134 billion from kickbacks from insurers, of which the lion’s share, $905 million, was from health insurers.
Got that? AARP makes from “health” insurers more than triple what it makes from members. As Kuttner puts it: “AARP is basically an insurance marketing scheme masquerading as an advocacy group for the elderly.”
And it’s that masquerade — attended by so many masked nonprofits and “business” groups and government agencies — that not only preys on us, but leaves us oblivious to why or how it’s happening. So we end up blaming stupid shit and electing stupid people for stupid reasons.
(AARP members can share their thoughts here. Tell ‘em TFN sent you!)
Three Quickies
Inflation is ticking back up again. The Consumer Price Index rose 2.7% from November 2023 to last month. That’s higher than the October number, so what the fuck, President Trump? What’re you gonna do about all this fucking Trumpflation? Maybe raise prices more with dumb tariffs?
The Albertson’s supermarket chain yesterday dropped its bid to merge with the Kroger supermarket chain in an effort to enchain shoppers. The decision followed recent judicial rulings against the merger deal. The two chains denied that the merger would reduce competition and raise prices — but now they’re suing each other and calling each other liars, so that tells you all you need to know about their claim that merging would’ve helped you even more than the AARP does.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is leaving office with an apology. In a summit Tuesday for still-alive CEOs, Yellen said, “I am sorry that we haven’t made more progress” on reducing the deficit. Not for letting millions of people fall into poverty with the child tax credit’s expiration. Not for the obscene growth of wealth disparity. Not for the continued, knowing degradation of the planet’s atmospheric shield against the unimaginably vast nuclear fireball cooking our oceans. Yeah, pretty fuckin’ sorry, alright.
TCB
No idea why no less than three (3) of Substack’s auto-generated in-email subscription appeals got into yesterday’s TFN, but my apologies for the overkill!
SUPPORTING TFN In my head — where I’m an idiot — I still believe in meritocracy. Stupid, I know. But due to that idiocy, I tend to assume that good reporting or analysis will magically produce donations or new paid subscribers. And sometimes they do — because Newsfuckers are nothing if not discerning.
But also, as I counsel everyone but my own idiot self, people should say what they want, and ask for it. I’m still not comfortable doing that here at TFN, but I did it yesterday and you responded, with a good number of you Newsfuckers signing on as paid subscribers, moving TFN ever-closer to the goal of real sustainability.
I asked. You responded. Physics! Thank you.
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Go get ‘em, kids.
A diligent, well-read Newsfucker notes in the comments that Thom Hartmann has done this and there are probably others, so I regret any slight. A lot of leftie online media focuses on bashing right-wing outrages. And what we definitely don’t have is a leftie media ecosphere capable of elevating real issues into the mainstream media bloodstream.
Thanks Jonathan, the UHC-AARP kickback scheme was new TFN to me!
I did read about Sinema and Manchin and the NLRB yesterday, but I forgot on which site.
Also, my mother was a member of AARP and got her supplemental Medicare insurance from United Healthcare. It even said so on her policy. I didn't know about the kickback scheme until just now. I have been over 55 for a long time and I refused to join AARP for other reasons. I'm sure glad I refused after reading your important revelation.
Thanks much!