“Incoming acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella will take the helm of the department following the resignation Friday of Alex Acosta, who faced scrutiny over his role in prosecuting alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein more than a decade ago.
But Pizzella, currently deputy Labor secretary, has his own controversial past that will likely come to the fore. Democratic senators and civil rights groups have expressed concern about Pizzella’s prior work with disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the late 1990s and early 2000s to hamper worker protections in the Northern Mariana Islands.When Pizzella worked on Abramoff’s team at Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, the lobbying firm was pushing to prevent Congress from imposing minimum wage laws on the Northern Mariana Islands. At the time, there were ‘maximum’ wage restrictions on the islands of $3.05 per hour for foreign workers, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.
‘Foreign workers pay up to $7,000 to employers or middlemen for the right to a job in the CNMI. When they finally reach the Commonwealth, they are assigned to tedious, low paying work for long hours with little or no time off. At night they are locked in prison-like barracks,’ one government report found.
Abramoff was sentenced to six years in prison on fraud-related charges in 2006. He served four years and was released in 2010 . . .
Pizzella’s history with the lobbyist came up during his confirmation hearings in 2017.‘You’ve been nominated to a position where you’ll be closely involved with enforcing minimum wage laws and other worker protections. Yet, as we discussed in my office, one of the key issues you lobbied on was to block bipartisan legislation for basic worker protections in the Northern Mariana Islands, where garment manufacturers could produce clothing labeled made in the U.S.A. without having to comply with U.S. minimum wage laws,’ former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., told him at the time.
One problem with wondering what someone is going to do is not thinking, “CAN he get away with it?” when you should be thinking, “Does he THINK he can get away with it?” Especially if the one in question does not care what is left if he loses.
Won’t be the last time, four-eyes. Just wait for the next Trump rally, and he’ll have all the sheep bellowing it in unison “GO BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM!!” I mean it, I think it WILL happen!
Hitler supporters wore classier uniforms, were in better physical condition, and could speak intelligently, oh they could lie their asses off and find idiots to believe them/him.
I.e., he should resign the Presidency and return to New York City and show us what a great “businessman” he is, now that no one (probably not even the Russians or Saudis) will loan him money.
( Please spread the meme.)
Oh yeah, and “clean up” Brooklyn, while he’s at it.
If the people at the latest rally were transported to another dimension the collective IQ in North Carolina would jump up by 20 points. Not to mention a considerable decrease in hate crimes.
Hispanic immigrants lie awake at night waiting for the midnight knock on the door and the jack-booted ICE agents hauling them out of their beds into concentration camps. How exactly is that different from Nazi Germany and the Jews pre-war?
“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”
Karl Marx in “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”
Scoutmaster77 almost 5 years ago
It is, unfortunately, an inbred trait.
Radish the wordsmith almost 5 years ago
CNBC reports:
“Incoming acting Labor Secretary Patrick Pizzella will take the helm of the department following the resignation Friday of Alex Acosta, who faced scrutiny over his role in prosecuting alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein more than a decade ago.
But Pizzella, currently deputy Labor secretary, has his own controversial past that will likely come to the fore. Democratic senators and civil rights groups have expressed concern about Pizzella’s prior work with disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff in the late 1990s and early 2000s to hamper worker protections in the Northern Mariana Islands.When Pizzella worked on Abramoff’s team at Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds, the lobbying firm was pushing to prevent Congress from imposing minimum wage laws on the Northern Mariana Islands. At the time, there were ‘maximum’ wage restrictions on the islands of $3.05 per hour for foreign workers, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.
‘Foreign workers pay up to $7,000 to employers or middlemen for the right to a job in the CNMI. When they finally reach the Commonwealth, they are assigned to tedious, low paying work for long hours with little or no time off. At night they are locked in prison-like barracks,’ one government report found.
Abramoff was sentenced to six years in prison on fraud-related charges in 2006. He served four years and was released in 2010 . . .
Pizzella’s history with the lobbyist came up during his confirmation hearings in 2017.‘You’ve been nominated to a position where you’ll be closely involved with enforcing minimum wage laws and other worker protections. Yet, as we discussed in my office, one of the key issues you lobbied on was to block bipartisan legislation for basic worker protections in the Northern Mariana Islands, where garment manufacturers could produce clothing labeled made in the U.S.A. without having to comply with U.S. minimum wage laws,’ former Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., told him at the time.
RAGs almost 5 years ago
One problem with wondering what someone is going to do is not thinking, “CAN he get away with it?” when you should be thinking, “Does he THINK he can get away with it?” Especially if the one in question does not care what is left if he loses.
Ontman almost 5 years ago
What’s the old saying about history repeating itself?
moosemin almost 5 years ago
Nantucket Premium Member almost 5 years ago
Fear drives hatred and there is far too much of it throughout history and today.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/us-government-turned-away-thousands-jewish-refugees-fearing-they-were-nazi-spies-180957324/
Dtroutma almost 5 years ago
Hitler supporters wore classier uniforms, were in better physical condition, and could speak intelligently, oh they could lie their asses off and find idiots to believe them/him.
gammaguy almost 5 years ago
Trump should “go back where he came from.”
I.e., he should resign the Presidency and return to New York City and show us what a great “businessman” he is, now that no one (probably not even the Russians or Saudis) will loan him money.
( Please spread the meme.)
Oh yeah, and “clean up” Brooklyn, while he’s at it.
alc7 Premium Member almost 5 years ago
If the people at the latest rally were transported to another dimension the collective IQ in North Carolina would jump up by 20 points. Not to mention a considerable decrease in hate crimes.
NeoconMan almost 5 years ago
Hispanic immigrants lie awake at night waiting for the midnight knock on the door and the jack-booted ICE agents hauling them out of their beds into concentration camps. How exactly is that different from Nazi Germany and the Jews pre-war?
Lurch almost 5 years ago
test
GaryCooper almost 5 years ago
“Hegel remarks somewhere that all great, world-historical facts and personages occur, as it were, twice. He has forgotten to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.”
Karl Marx in “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte”
William Bednar Premium Member almost 5 years ago
Oh, stop worrying. The Dear Leader is talking about “those other folks”, and not “us”. Right?