Gig, Freelance, Independent Contractor Work Is Doomed If Joe Biden and The Democrats Win In 2020

If you're one of the 57 million or so gig and freelance workers out there you might want to take a good hard look at who you're planning to vote for in the upcoming 2020 elections.

Any of you familiar with the new California law AB5 that took effect on January 1, 2020? That epic mess of a bill that was cobbled together by Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, and endorsed by Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom? The law that is pretty much decimating the gig economy in California for pretty much every independent contractor other than "doctors, dentists, psychologists, insurance agents, stockbrokers, lawyers, accountants, engineers, real estate agents" and some other lucky ones who happen to live in the Golden State? The bill that is basically forcing businesses to switch independent contractors to employees? The bill that could effectively bankrupt many of those companies and small businesses because they can't afford to hire those contractors full time? The bill that is making people prove that they fit the criteria of being an independent contractor through the ABC Test, which entails submitting a myriad of paperwork?

Guess who supports AB5 and wants to make it national- Joe Biden. Yes, the man who some thought was the most palatable and moderate of the sorry lot of Democratic candidates running for president. Joe Biden tweeted his support for the bill  6 days after Gonzalez actually admitted she was WRONG  for believing the bill wouldn't somehow adversely affect gig workers, including musicians. 

“we never intended for a band member to be another band member’s employer if they’re playing on the weekends or here and there..”

People are losing work- many their livelihoods- due to this epic failure of a law. Female home-based business owners (including women of color)- many of whom need the flexibility of freelance work- are being hard hit. Including LGBTQ folk, and those with physical disabilities.

 According to Forbes:

"In recent years, a growing number of women have flocked to self-employment. Given the glass ceiling and gender pay gap in many companies, some women find they earn more as independent workers than in a traditional job. For those juggling caregiving and a heavy load of unpaid household work, running a business from home instead of commuting is often the only way they can get everything done."

And this:

"... many independent workers in California say AB5’s complexity has scared away their clients, who are afraid of getting hit with fines by the state if they misinterpret it. Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2020 budget includes about $20 million for enforcement."

But it's not just California- there are other blue states including Illinois, New Jersey, and New York considering similar job-killing bills. If the Democrats retain Congress, retake the Senate, and win the White House those 57-plus million gig workers can effectively kiss their businesses goodbye.

So which gig workers are being targeted?

-Newspaper delivery workers (exempt for 1 year)
-Rideshare workers (Uber/Lyft)
-Food delivery drivers (Postmates etc)
-Writers (can only submit 35 submissions per year per outlet, Vox Media fired hundreds of independent contractors because of AB5.
-Photographers (can only submit 35 submissions per year per outlet)
-Many musicians (the industry fought back and some will be exempt) but if you're a musician working in theme parks, forget it.
-Film and TV workers not working under a Union Contract (including freelance dubbing and voice-over work, makeup artists)
-Convention workers
-Unlicensed manicurists (exempt for 2 years)
-Health Aides (in Nursing homes and Assisted Living facilities)
-Janitors and housekeepers
-Land surveyors, landscape architects, geologists
-Campaign workers
-Language interpreters and translators
-Strippers
-Rabbis
-Seamstresses
-Commercial fisherman (exempt until 2023)
-Truckers (some)

Some health professionals are also not exempt. Those include:

Audiologist, clinical social worker (licensed), marriage and family therapist, nurse practitioner, occupational therapist, optometrist, physician assistant, radiation therapist, speech therapist, professional clinical counselor (licensed), respiratory therapists.

The fact that Joe Biden and the Democrats support such a job killing bill should have you truly frightened.  Do your research before you vote yourself out of your freelance jobs.


More info:

Facebook Group Freelancers Against AB5
Who's exempt and who's not..
For those in the Arts and entertainment biz.
Some great info.

Pro-Palestinian Group Shuts Down Free Speech At Cal Poly- Video

The pro-Palestinian contingency has no idea of the meaning of dialogue, or respect. Take a look at this video at Cal Poly Pomona where members of American Muslims for Palestine rudely shouted down two Israelis who had been invited to speak on campus.  As the two IDF reservists tried to talk about terrorism and their efforts to save both Israelis and Palestinians, there was a non-stop barrage of invective:  "war criminals" "murderers"  "Nazis" "rapists" "baby killers".

The Dean of Students and VP of Student Affairs have since worked with CPP Hillel and Broncos for Israel to create a chain of command for dealing with protest response and have finalized their policies towards any disturbance in the future.

An open and safe atmosphere for dialogue and ensuring that students feel free to express their love of Israel without being attacked is still uncertain for CPP students, but the future looks brighter.

Stand With Us has posted the video on YouTube.

Video- Muslim Woman Cries After Not Being Allowed To Swim With Her "Islamic" Garb

A Commerce City, California, Muslim woman is complaining about not being allowed to swim with her kids at a public pool because she was wearing full Islamic dress- which included a head scarf, and a long dress over pants and a top. But it's pool policy.  Certain attire is not allowed by the Commerce City Recreation Center because of safety concerns, including street clothes. There's even a brochure that illustrates what is and isn't allowed in the pool.

But Sabah Ali was having none of it. The tearful Ali said about the ban:

“Why do I have to be half naked to swim? To enjoy my time with my kids?" “I want to have the same rights as every citizen.”

“I told them I would take off the long dress, if that was their concern, and that I had clothes on underneath." “But they said if they let me, everyone would ask, ‘Why did you let them and not us?'”

What part of 'no street clothes allowed' does she not understand?  If certain Muslims are unwilling to conform, then maybe they should build pools for their overly modest selves.

The spokeswoman for the city, Michelle Halsted, said:

“The city routinely turns away people who don’t have appropriate swimwear — jean shorts, sport shorts, not wearing swim diapers." “We turn all those individuals away because the No. 1 focus for us is safety.”

Let's see how long it takes for CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations) to get involved, and have those rules change to accomodate Muslims.

Video of her sobbing self.

H/T Conservative Infidel

Maria Conchita Alonso Forced To Resign From Play Over Tea Party Ad

Many moons ago I was interviewed by some talk show host who tried to ridicule me for my reasons for remaining anonymous. He refused to believe that conservative actors could lose work over their politics. I tried to explain that perhaps well-known, Hollywood celebs might still get jobs, but that even then, some have complained about less work. And the theatre world is even less tolerant than the film world, so I wasn't surprised to read that Latina singer/actress Maria Conchita Alonso was asked to resign from a Spanish language production of Eve Ensler's "Vagina Monologues." The play was slated to open at the Brava Theatre Center in a mainly Hispanic area of San Francisco, and Conchita made the mistake of filming an ad campaign for would-be California governor Tim Donnelly. Donnelly is a Tea Party favorite, which did not sit well with the theatre producers especially considering his views on immigration.  Then there were the people threatening to boycott the production, and it was bye-bye Conchita.

“We really can’t have her in the show, unfortunately,” Eliana Lopez, the producer of the show scheduled to run in the heavily Hispanic Mission District, told KPIX 5. “Of course she has the right to say whatever she wants. But we’re in the middle of the Mission. Doing what she is doing is against what we believe.”

You can see the ad campaign video on Huffpo.

Yeah, most definitely, conservative politics can get you fired or result in loss of work. Even for those who have a name, of sorts.

UPDATE- Bogus: "Impeach Obama" Peaceful Protesters Arrested In Eureka, CA

UPDATE 8/11/13: It's not often I get fooled by a bogus news report from satire sites like The Onion. The reports are usually so extremely outrageous that a little googling reveals them to be bogus.  I got sloppy on this one. I did question it, but it wasn't so out of the realm of possibility that I didn't bother to research further. I did add "allegedly" and ended with "if this is indeed true," which allows for the possibility the incident did not occur. However, as it turns out, the news site I sourced- National Report- is nothing more than an Onion-wannabee, and a pathetic attempt at satire. My apologies.  The Impeach Obama protests are real.

Six "Impeach Obama" protesters in Eureka, California have allegedly been arrested after being physically and verbally abused. Whether you agree or not with the sentiment, they have a right to peacefully protest. This was part of a nationwide "Overpasses for Obama's Impeachment" campaign, which I was unaware of.

County and city officials in the area have not yet released a statement on the event or the names of those arrested. Communications have been difficult and local media outlets are scrambling for more details.

Passing motorists stated that the arrests took part at the 101/255 exchange just North of downtown at around 7:45pm PST. Local resident Artie Campbell was driving home with his family when 8 police cars drove past him and stopped on the 255 bridge. Artie had this to say of the incident, “I haven’t seen anything like it in my life. The protesters seem to have been minding their business and those police officers did not appear to be local guys.”

 When asked to describe the victims, Mr. Campbell replied “two of them were older ladies and one of them appeared to be a teenage boy. The other three were heavier set middle-aged white men.”

According to Campbell, the officers were taking turns ridiculing the victims and at one point even pepper-sprayed two of the older men before placing them in flex-tie restraints and escorting them to nearby squad cars. Artie referred to the scene as “modern-day fascism” and suggested the officers may have been federal agencts sent directly from the Obama Administration in an attempt to silence opposition.

Source.

If this is indeed true, it's incredibly disturbing.

Food Stamp Leech In La Jolla, California

Meet Jason, an unemployed musician, and beach bum by choice.  He lives in upscale La Jolla, California, owner of a shiny, new-looking black truck, leeches off friends, family and girlfriends, and is the recipient of $200 worth of food stamps per month.  Now, granted, $200.00 per month isn't that much, but there are people who truly need it. Jason does not. And Jason doesn't give a damn that the taxpayer is footing the bill for the sushi and lobster that he buys with his EBT card.



H/T Black and Right

No Health Benefits For Half The Employees At Obamacare Call Center

Companies that said they would need to cut workers' hours because of the prohibitive costs of health care if Obamacare was implemented were excoriated for that decision, and calls for boycotts forced many to reconsider.  So it's rather interesting that about half of the 200 or so people being trained to answer questions about Obamacare at a call center opening soon in Concord, California will be part time with no benefits. That's right, those poor individuals who aren't full time will have to pay anywhere from $600 to $1,200 per month if single, and $1,400 to $2,900 if married with a family, for the privilege of making a whopping $15.33 to $18.63 per hour. If a person is lucky enough to get 30 hours a week, you do the math. What's worse, it was understood that all those jobs would be full time, including those who were hired.

"The battle for the call center was over jobs with good working wages and benefits; I never dreamed they would be part-time," said Karen Mitchoff, who has heard from complaining constituents and expressed her "extreme displeasure with how it was handled" to call center supervisors.

One recent hire, who last week learned the job would be part-time, said the new "intermittent" employees feel like they've been used as a political tool, and many now regret applying for the positions.

"What's really ironic is working for a call center and trying to help people get health care, but we can't afford it ourselves," said the worker, who asked for anonymity out of fear of losing the job. The county says it had been telling the public and supervisors all along that some positions would be full-time and some part-time. However, portions of staff reports list all 204 jobs as full-time, and a job posting said the same.

It's the latest controversy involving the call center, one of three created statewide to help citizens enroll in various new health care options under President Obama's Affordable Care Act when it goes live at the start of next year.

The rest here.

Will the liberals be outraged? Nah.

Saif Mohamed Moussa Jailed For Attempting To Abduct SoCal Teen From Barnes and Noble

In broad daylight, 29-year-old Saif Mohamed Moussa tried to abduct a 17-year-old girl from a popular Barnes and Noble book store in Aliso Viejo, near Long Beach, California. According to Jim Amormino, Orange County Sheriff's spokesman, Moussa said "he intended to marry her." She was shopping at the store on Saturday with her father, who happens to be a police officer, when Moussa allegedly grabbed the girl.

"Once the two got near the front door, the girl managed to get free and find her father, an Orange County sheriff's deputy who was off duty at the time, inside the store. [snip]The deputy restrained the suspect until other deputies provided backup and took Moussa into custody, Amormino said."

Moussa is currently in jail,

"..on suspicion of kidnapping and child annoyance."

He could just be some lunatic, since this isn't his first encounter with the law.

A defendant by the same name pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of lewd conduct in a public place on April 2 and was sentenced to 52 days in jail and put on probation for three years, according to court records. 

That is, if they are indeed one and the same.

If he's not some wacko, it will be interesting to see if this story has any legs. Forced marriages are not uncommon.

Source: Long Beach Press Telegram

H/T LB

Pro-Taliban Man Tries To Blow Up Bank To Set Off Civil War

Matthew Aaron Llaneza, the 28-year-old former marine and Muslim convert who calls himself  "Tarq Khan" who was arrested by the FBI for planning on bombing a Bank of America in Oakland, CA,  was a Taliban sympathizer.

The FBI press release states:

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, on November 30, 2012, Llaneza met with a man who led him to believe he was connected with the Taliban and the mujahidin in Afghanistan. In reality, this man was an undercover FBI agent. At this initial meeting, Llaneza proposed conducting a car-bomb attack against a bank in the San Francisco Bay Area. He proposed structuring the attack to make it appear that the responsible party was an umbrella organization for a loose collection of anti-government militias and their sympathizers. Llaneza’s stated goal was to trigger a governmental crackdown, which he expected would trigger a right-wing counter-response against the government followed by, he hoped, civil war.
The complaint further alleges that Llaneza subsequently selected the Bank of America branch at 303 Hegenberger Road in Oakland as the target for the attack. Llaneza ultimately specified a spot next to a support column of the bank building as a good location for the bomb, expressed a desire for the bomb to bring down the entire bank building, and offered to drive the car bomb to the bank at the time of the attack.

According to the complaint, in January and February 2013, Llaneza and the undercover agent constructed the purported explosive device inside a sport utility vehicle (SUV) parked inside a storage facility in Hayward, California. As part of the process of assembling the device, Llaneza purchased two cell phones to be used in creating and operating the trigger device for the car bomb. One of these cell phones was incorporated into the trigger device itself. The other was reserved for use on the night of the attack.
The criminal complaint alleges that on the evening of February 7, 2013, Llaneza drove the SUV containing the purported explosive device to the target bank branch in Oakland. He parked the SUV beneath an overhang of the bank building where he armed the trigger device. He then proceeded on foot to a nearby location a safe distance from the bank building, where he met the undercover agent. Once there, Llaneza attempted to detonate the bomb by using the second cell phone he had purchased to place two calls to the trigger device attached to the car bomb. Federal agents then arrested him.

According to the San Jose Mercury News, he also happened to have a history of mental illness. Mental illness + Islam = Lethal combination.

It will be interesting to see what unfolds as more information is gathered.