Obama, garnished checks, and Amazon.
it'sssssss wednesddayyyyyyyyayyyyyyy. Somehow.
Hey there! We’re halfway through the week although you may not have even realized because, if you’re anything like us, you’re too numb to feel the passing of time anymore! OK, we’re kidding, we’ve got some news.
Obama endorses Biden: and quite the timing on it, too! This comes on the heel of Bernie endorsing Biden, which we broke down yesterday, and as it turns out, Obama may have had more of a hand in that than previously realized.
Coronavirus checks may end up getting garnished: regulators have let banks know, hey, you know that $1,200 everyone is getting? That’s not exempt from private debt collection. Go ahead, leave those poor saps who have stacked up some past-due fees with nothing for food or rent.
Amazon: love ‘em or hate ‘em (and they’ve done quite a lot to deserve hate), they’re huge. During this pandemic, they can’t seem to stop firing employees for organizing.
Saddle up, we’re riding into news territory.
ELECTION 2020
Obama Endorses Biden and It Turns Out, That’s Not All He Did!
President Obama endorsed Biden, which isn’t surprising if you’ve paid attention whatsoever. With Sanders, the last primary combatant, not only out of the race but actively on-board with the program, Obama was free to drop his endorsement video and unify the whole dang party! Is that really what it looked like, though?
Obama and Biden: What’s the Deal?
Biden was in a unique position, having been Vice President under President Obama, who people generally really admire. Obama having too heavy of a hand on the pulse of the primary could (rightfully) upset people. What’s Obama’s role been thus far?
Reportedly, Obama made it clear that he “had not lifted a finger” on Biden’s behalf when the primary was still just heating up. That said, Obama also consulted with Biden’s team on strategy and privately said that he would work to stop a Sanders presidency.
Some in the Biden camp actually wished that Obama and his former staff had done more. They were notably upset about David Axelrod’s criticisms of Biden, which included saying Biden was “Mr. Magooing his way through” debates. Yeah, we laughed when we read that, so what?
In March, Obama reached out to Sanders—and they continued to have conversations at least three times after that. Part of this was spent reassuring Sanders that he had already accomplished what he sought out to do, helping ease Sanders into suspending his campaign.
Obama, for the most part, played a distant and minimal role in this primary. That said, his influence is obviously massive, many candidates sought his advice, and he ultimately had a hand in how things played out.
If This Makes You Feel Weird, That’s Fair
When institutions are as strong as they are, it’s kinda hard to get away from issues like this. Having political “dynasties”—and letting one candidate whose status with a former administration get them ahead—seems undesirable. There’s also not really a viable alternative. If people wanted to vote for Biden because they associate him with Obama, what can ya do?
Bottom line: it’s good that Obama was largely uninvolved with this past primary. However, there’s no denying that what involvement he had is going to leave some folks feeling a little weird. If Obama is using his legacy to sell books and influence an election, instead of being a leader when it comes to current issues, we can’t help but feel a bit disappointed.
CORONAVIRUS
Garnished Checks and We’re Hardly Surprised
Coronavirus checks. For the more fortunate of us, those $1,200 CARES Act payments are going to give us a bit of nice wiggle room when budgeting. For many, though, it’s going to be a lifeline, helping people get through April able to pay for food, utilities, or other necessary expenses.
And unfortunately, it may not end up in the hands of those who need it the most, due to Congress not exempting the CARES Act payments from private debt collection. Instead of winding up paying for bills, it could be used to pay off delinquent loans and go straight into the hands of creditors.
Just Truly Awful
If this sounds unfathomably evil, it’s because it is.
Banks would likely be first up to snatch those checks and use them to pay off private debt.
David Dayen broke the story and included audio of Ronda Kent, the chief disbursing officer with the Treasury’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, indicating that “there’s nothing in the law that precludes that action” when asked if the payments could be subject to collection from the banks they’re posted to.
This could happen even if you believe you’ve closed your account but have actually been accruing overdraft charges.
In some states, payday lenders have access to bank accounts, too, and could seize the money.
People are desperate. Taking these payments away could put some people in very scary, very real positions.
What Should Have Happened
In a more-fair world, this wouldn’t be the case.
Congress could have deemed the payments as federal benefits, like disability or Social Security, which prevents debt collectors from capitalizing on the benefits.
Senators Sherrod Brown, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Josh Hawley teamed up to make demands from the Treasury to write those rules in.
Earlier this week, 25 state attorney generals asked for the same thing.
Thus far, no protections have been put in place.
AMAZON
Amazon Continues to Fire Employees Amid COVID-19 and Workplace Organizing
Amazon. Not so long ago, it’d be hard to imagine a retail giant touching so many aspects of our lives, but they’ve become ingrained in our culture.
They’ve also worked up a bad reputation of being not-so-worker friendly. In the age of coronavirus, workplace safety is a big deal—and Amazon has now fired four employees who have spoken out against the company’s response to the virus.
Four Total Firings
Two weeks ago, we saw the first instance of this, when Amazon terminated Christian Smalls for, according to them, breaking social distancing and putting coworkers at risk. Smalls didn’t see it that way. He had spent the past week trying to convince his supervisors to close down warehouses to sterilize them after multiple cases of coronavirus developed and then began the protests. He was soon let go.
On Tuesday, a Minneapolis-based employee, Bashir Mohamed, was let go. Amazon’s reasoning: he refused to speak to his supervisor. Mohamed, on the other hand, believes it’s because he advocated for better working conditions, cleaner facilities, and began organizing with his coworkers.
Last week, two Seattle-based employees were also fired. Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa were both leaders of the Amazon Employees for Climate Justice group, which is a thing we wouldn’t have ever guessed existed. The two were also supporters of better conditions for warehouse workers. Amazon claims they repeatedly violated internal policies.
Let’s Hope Organizing Continues
It’s an incredibly terrifying thing to be told to either take off work without pay or show up and risk getting a terrible disease, particularly when you feel your workplace conditions aren’t up to par. It’s no wonder that it’s causing people to organize, but Amazon has a history of being particularly terrible in the first place, so let’s hope this could at least be the catalyst for some real, positive change.
Employees in Chicago, Detroit, and New York have all engaged in walkouts or protests of some kind.
Over 70 Amazon facilities have had at least one positive case of COVID-19. It seems clear that there is more that can be done.
Bottom Line: give those employees a break if you can; try to stay out of the Amazon bubble for a bit. It might be tempting given all your time spent indoors to buy from Amazon, especially considering they’re one of the major retailers still largely doing business as usual, but if they continue to ignore worker demands, they don’t deserve our backing.
END OF THE LINE...
That’s it for today.
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Have a good one,
The Bread Line
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