Trump Wants (Non-Rapey!) Foreign Workers To Pick His Grapes

Trump voter sucker alert!

Federal ethics experts for former Democratic and Republican administrations warned Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump is creating a major conflict of interest by allowing his Virginia vineyard to seek special temporary visas for foreign workers. 

Trump, who is president of the Charlottesville vineyard that applied this month for H2 visas for six foreign workers, will soon run the U.S. government, which determines whether to grant those visas. [snip] 

Trump Vineyard Estates LLC filed a request Dec. 2 with the Labor Department for six H2 visas, which permit U.S. employers to hire foreigners for seasonal jobs such as pruning grapevines, which is what the request said. The request was posted online by the Labor Department on Wednesday and first reported by BuzzFeed News. 

The workers are needed to prune the vines on the estate, the Labor application said, and they would be paid $10.72 per hour for a 40-hour, six-day week. The jobs are anticipated to last from January to June.  

Trump, whose transition team and press office did not respond to requests for comment on the matter, consistently argued during the presidential campaign that the federal government should limit immigration to protect American jobs. The visas his business seeks do not allow workers to permanently reside in the United States.

Various Trump brand products are made in 12 foreign countries.  He staffs his clubs with foreign workers. He hires foreign workers at his hotels. He fills his cabinet with plutocrats and Ayn Rand acolytes who oppose the minimum wage. Should anyone be surprised that this shallow, sociopathic narcissist has one set of rules he wants to apply to himself and another that applies to "the Forgotten Man?"  How long before the suckers figure it out (if ever)?

Rump Set To Screw Labor With DOL Pick

For the millions of blue collar "economic anxiety" voters for neo-fascist demagogue Donald "Rump" Trump, their purported main issue was the economy, a canard promoted by the Rethugs and repeated by our broken Beltway media and discredited. Perhaps some of the more delusional among them thought that some of Rump's scamming money making success would magically transfer to them if he were President.

Those Rump voters who were banking on a bright (white) new day might want to look at the views of his likely Labor Secretary, a plutocratic Social Darwinist named Andy "Putz" Puzder, the CEO of the parent company of the Hardee's and Carl's Jr. burger chains. Putz is an anti-union,  trickle-down true believer who is adamantly opposed to any minimum wage hike or expanded access to overtime pay. If selected, he'd oversee the dismantling of thousands of regulations covering everything from collective bargaining to occupational safety and health, and he'd go after the task with a vengeance. Of course, Putz's main "qualification" is that he was a Rump fundraiser. He's been a key voice for supply-side economic quackery, arguing that paying higher wages destroys jobs (a lie disproven in cities like Seattle that have a $15 minimum wage in effect). This economic predator makes more in one day than a full-time minimum wage worker of his makes in a year, but he clearly believes that's not enough of a gap.

Sadly for them, Rump's anti-worker policies as implemented by Putz will come down hardest on the same hourly wage workers who have scapegoated immigrants and minorities for their lack of progress, with Rump leading the bigot parade. Welcome to Trumpland, suckers.