UAW hits Musk, Trump with federal labor charges over union-busting comments

AUG 13 202411:32 AM Rebecca Picciotto@BECCPICC

KEY POINTS

• The United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against Donald Trump and Elon Musk for their comments applauding the practice of firing employees who threaten to strike.

• Under federal law, it is illegal to fire workers who threaten to strike.

• Trump has been vying for the labor vote in the presidential race against Vice President Kamala Harris, though the UAW has already endorsed the vice president.

The United Auto Workers union on Tuesday filed federal labor charges with the National Labor Relations Board against former President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk for publicly applauding the practice of firing employees who threaten to strike. “I look at what you do,” Trump said to Musk during a two-hour interview Monday night on X, the social media platform Musk owns. “You walk in, you say, ‘You want to quit?’ They go on strike,” Trump said to Musk, who also is CEO of the EV car maker Tesla and of SpaceX.

“I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s okay, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone,’” Trump said. Trump was referring to the 2022 gutting of Twitter staff after Musk took over the social media business and renamed it X. It is illegal to fire workers who threaten to strike, because the right to strike is protected under federal labor law.

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean,” UAW President Shawn Fain said in a statement Tuesday on the new charges. “When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean.” Neither the Trump campaign nor Musk replied to CNBC’s request for comment on the UAW action.

Trump’s praise of union busting is notable because the Republican presidential nominee is currently fighting to win support from organized labor in a tight race against Vice President Kamala Harris. The UAW, which represents more than 400,000 autoworkers, has already endorsed Harris. But another major U.S. labor union, the Teamsters, has yet to make an endorsement.

A spokesman for the Teamsters did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Trump’s support for union busting. In July, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien delivered a speech at the Republican National Convention. He said his attendance was intended to underscore that the union’s powerful political endorsement was still available to whichever candidate pledges to champion workers’ interests.

“Companies fire workers who try to join unions, and hide behind toothless laws that are meant to protect working people but are manipulated to benefit corporations,” O’Brien said at the RNC in Milwaukee. “This is economic terrorism at its best,” said O’Brien.

Musk is no stranger to labor battles. Tesla has clashed with union proponents for years, and Tesla workers remain without a union. In 2021, the NLRB found that Tesla violated labor laws when it fired a union activist.

The board had made the same finding after Musk wrote on Twitter in 2018, “Nothing stopping Tesla team at our car plant from voting union. Could do so tmrw if they wanted.But why pay union dues & give up stock options for nothing?”

SpaceX has also been accused by the U.S. labor board of illegally firing eight employees, this time in retaliation over their internal, open letter criticizing Musk and his public conduct. In response, SpaceX filed a suit claiming the NLRB’s authority and administrative proceedings are unconstitutional.

(Shawn Fain is a lackey of the Clintons, he's pissed a lot of his union support PDJT)

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/13/musk-trump-uaw-labor-union-x-interview.html

Dissension, ‘Toxicity’ Plagued Trump’s Secret Service Detail Before Assassination Attempt

1/4 By Susan Crabtree - August 12, 2024 This article is 8-9 pages long, I’m just posting 4 pages

Rancor, recriminations, and serious formal misconduct complaints have plagued all levels of the Secret Service detail assigned to protect former President Donald Trump over the last year, distracting the team from its core mission of securing Trump from physical harm and preventing an assassination.

Trump’s regular detail team, a force of 60 employees – special agents and support staff –has been beset by internal division, long workdays and weeks, and constant stress.Last year, the team lost one of its members to suicide.

Among the allegations are accusations of improper sexual relationships or fraternization within the team, debilitating mental health issues, non-merit-based promotions, conflict of interest issues, unfair retaliation and the creation of inappropriate memes and social media posts.

On May 15, the top two leaders of Trump’s detail sternly dressed down the entire 60-member staffin a virtual meeting, announcing formal investigations into what they argued were serious misconduct violations, several sources in the Secret Service with direct knowledge of the online meeting tell RealClearPolitics. (all Trump’s agents as Pres were replaced by newbies)

Sean Curran, the detail leader and top boss of Trump’s regular 60-member protective team, and his deputy, Matthew Piant, complained of “rumors, innuendo and toxicity” among the detail, as well as “selfishness and immaturity.”

They reminded all employees that they had worked to mentor and train them, and, up to this point, had refrained from referring agents and support employees for discipline even though there had been violations that they could have reported to agency headquarters for investigation. (If they have to train them, all of them were new)

Curran and Piant complained that they were not getting the same treatment in response from the team.Over the last year, the two leaders have been the target of formal complaints, and some members on the team viewed the all-hands lecture as an effort to turn the tables and retaliate on those complaining about their leadership.

Piant spoke first, accusing someone on the detail of stealing from another. But he quickly shifted to harshly condemning an incident in which a teammate took cellphone photos of two members of the support staff sleeping in a command post while guarding Mar-a-Lago and circulated those to others on the detail.

The No. 2 on the detail deemed the prank a betrayal of the team for the purpose of “humor and gossip,” according to detailed accounts. Those encountering the sleeping individuals should have simply held the team members accountable by waking them up with a nudge, he said.

Piant also argued that taking the photos of individuals who fell asleep and circulating them among the other staff made those team members less safe and endangered the mission. He told the entire team that the pranks and the divisiveness showed a “lack of basic human decency” that had drawn the attention of headquarters “at the highest levels,” according to the sources familiar with the meeting. He then announced an inspection investigation for potential policy violations and promised consequences for those exercising “bad judgment.”

Yet, some rank-and-file members of the detail team familiar with the sleeping incident said the real outrage was that the individuals who fell asleep while guarding Mar-a-Lago were, to their knowledge, never disciplined.They noted that at least one was the daughter of a retired former Secret Service leader who remained influential among the agency’s top brass.(???)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/08/12/dissension_toxicity_plagued_trumps_secret_service_detail_before_assassination_attempt.html

>>21406886

2/4

Sleeping on the job at Mar-a-Lago this spring, the critics said, was especially egregiousbecause of a series of recent security breaches across the Secret Service, including one in which a drunken intruder entered Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan’s home in the middle of the night. That incident occurred in April 2023 even though Sullivan has 24/7 Secret Service protective detail because of the high-profile and highly sensitive nature of his job.

Curran spoke after Piant, expressing deep disappointment in the team, echoing the contention that the pranksters had put their teammates’ safety in jeopardy just for a laugh.

Toward the end of the virtual meeting, Curran said he was issuing a final warning to the entire team. Though he didn’t want to alert headquarters to the violations of a handful of people, he said he might have to do so if everyone didn’t start supporting one another.

The detail leader also acknowledged that theteam, which has been solely dedicated to protecting Trumpfrom the beginning of his reelection campaign,likely carries more stress than any other division in the Secret Service, and he admonished the pranksters for adding to the tension.

During his remarks, Piant obliquely referred to the team member’s suicide last year, arguing that all members of the team should be especially attuned to mental health problems and risks involved with ridiculing people.

Over the last two weeks, theSecret Service inspections department, which investigates employee misconduct, ishoming in on allegations against an agent on the Trump detail who played a key role during the Butler rally and is partially responsible for developing the security plan, which contained egregious mistakesthat left an opening for shooter Thomas Crooks. (it was a woman)

An official briefed on the matter but not authorized to discuss it publicly told RCP that the Secret Service Office of Professional Responsibility also investigated the allegations of sexual impropriety and fraternization within the Trump detail and found the allegations to be “unfounded.”

The allegations against the site agent are a separate matter.The agent is now under the microscope not only for her role in devising the security plan for the rally. She’s also facing internal scrutiny for posting videos and photos from her protective assignments to social media. The Secret Service discourages the practice, especially while standing watch on protective duty because it can pinpoint to would-be assailants exactly where the Secret Service positions its assets, risking the protectee and fellow law enforcement agents and officers, according to several sources within the Secret Service community.

The agent in question served as the official site agent for the July 13 Butler eventthat ended in an assassination attempt wounding Donald Trump in the ear and killing rally-goer Corey Comperatore in front of his family. RealClearPolitics isnot naming the agent out of concern for her personal safety.

As a member of Trump’s 60-member regular detail,the agent was responsible for helping formulate the security plan for the event, although she was mostly focused on the inner perimeter. She also joined forces with the event’s lead agent, a woman from the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office, in conducting a walk-through of the security with supervisors. The lead agent typically oversees security at the entire event from airport arrival to event to hotel stay to airport departure.

An RCP analysis of the Butler rally site agent’sFacebook accountnoted a photo that appears to betaken from Mar-a-Lagolooking across the intercoastal waterway.“A sunset to be grateful for …” the post states, including a heart and sunset emojis and the hashtags “#nofilter #southflorida #thankful #workmode …”Sources familiar with the videos said most appeared on theagent’s Instagram account, which is marked private. Sources within the Secret Service say the site agent wasinexperienced for such a critical security role but noted that the position is rotated throughout the Trump detail, not routinely assigned based on merit or experience. (whoever told Susan that it’s absolutely not true and has never been true according to Bongino)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/08/12/dissension_toxicity_plagued_trumps_secret_service_detail_before_assassination_attempt.html

>>21406893

3/4

There isnow concern within the agency that the site agentfor the Butler rally will take the fall for the event’s egregious layers of security failures – that Rowe will fire her over her social media posts,but not for any security failures at the July 13 event.

In contrast, the lead agent had decades of experience within the Secret Service but did not have experience on a protective detail, the innermost ring of security for presidents, first ladies, former presidents, and their families, according to sources in the Secret Service community familiar with her background. (Thelead agent is the supervisor of the Site Agentwomen that did the Butler Security Assessment. Not Trump’s head agent)

While the months of rancor and recriminations leading up to the assassination attempt against Trump undoubtedly distracted the Trump detail from its ultimate mission, theButler rally served as a wake -up call and a reset, according to sources close to Curran.“Some agents have referred to it as their 9/11 moment wherepeople are opting back onto the detail,” remarked a source in the Secret Service community. “Morale is high, people are motivated. These agents [protecting Trump] are stiff-jawed with steel in their spine.” (these were agents that served him as President, Rowe removed most of them)

Rowe also plans to address the entire workforce on the 14th and to be present in Chicago for the Democratic National Committee next week.

While many agents are approaching their protective mission with new vigor, lawmakers are demanding the firing of those responsible for the security failures at Butler. After a month, they say, we still don't know exactly who was at fault for failing to man the rooftop where Crooks opened fire.

Sources within the Secret Service, however, argue there was plenty of blame to go around that day.It was the first time counter snipers were assigned to a Trump reelection event, apparently because of an elevated Iranian threat.

But Secret Service leaders at headquarters didn’t provide a sniper team for the rooftop where would-be assassin Thomas Crooks fired off his shots. Nor did they allocate a counter-surveillance unit, roaming agents who work to find and intercept suspicious people or fortify vulnerable areas during a rally.

In addition,supervisors from the Pittsburgh Field Office and the Trump detail were ultimately responsible for evaluating and signing off on the security planand were thereby integral to ensuring that the plans are sound and all vulnerable areas were covered.

During Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe’s July 30 Senate testimony, Sen. Josh Hawley demanded to know the identity of the lead agent for the rally, implying that the person was responsible for the decision to leave the American Glass Research, or AGR, building up to local law enforcement to protect. Hawley, however, erred slightly in his questioning, combining the jobs of site agent and lead agent, two separate roles.

Rowe responded that he couldn’t give Hawley that agent’s name because the person was still “operational, still doing investigations, still doing protective visits.” Hawley then demanded to know why Rowe hadn’t fired the person. Rowe explained that the agent is cooperating with the FBI investigation and with the Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility.

“We will let the acts of the mission assurance and any other investigations play out,” Rowe said. He also objected to Hawley’s efforts to “zero in on a particular agent” instead of the “entire decision process” involving multiple individuals responsible for formulating and executing the Secret Service security plan and allocating assets for the rally. “I want to remain neutral and make sure we get to the bottom of it and interview everybody to determine whether there was more than one person who perhaps exercised bad judgement,” Rowe said.

Both lead agents and site agents are typically involved in walk-throughs with supervisors. The lead agent oversees a whole team of site agents for the airport, the overnight accommodations, and the rally. The lead, considered the point person for the entire trip of a protectee, typically requests the number of post-standers, counter snipers, and other security assets needed for every stop during a visit to a region, including the main event – in this case, the Butler rally.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/08/12/dissension_toxicity_plagued_trumps_secret_service_detail_before_assassination_attempt.html

>>21406906

4/4

An additional member of thePittsburgh team was responsible for working with local law enforcement entities for the planin the outer-most perimeter and likely determined whether local law enforcement needed to be posted on top of or inside the AGR building, from where Crooks fired at Trump and the crowd.

But these same sources argue that the system which simply rotated the site agent role anddidn’t require protective experiencefor the lead agent set both up for failure. Thetop supervisors who had to sign off on the security planfor the Butler rally areTim Burke, special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh Field Office, andNick Menster, assistant special agent in charge of the Trump detail.

Burke is a friend of Rowe’s from assignmentswhen they worked together closely early in their careers. Some critics within the Secret Service community question whether their close ties are impacting Rowe’s decision not to fire Burke or anyone else in the Pittsburgh Field Office. Curran was one of the agents who quickly used their bodies as human shields to protect Trump in the iconic photo of the assassination attempt showing the former president raising his fist, bloody and defiant, against the backdrop of an American flag.

Trump has repeatedly praised the members in that inner security ring, including Curran and a female agentwho also appeared in the photo, placing her body across the president’s torso. The woman has been ridiculed on social media by Elon Musk and many others for being too short to fully shield Trump from additional bullets.

“There was great bravery displayed … Every one of them. There wasn’t one that was slow,” Trump told the crowd at a rally in late July. “There was a woman to my right shielding me. A beautiful person. She was shielding me with everything she could.” Despite the clear bravery of several Secret Service agents and the professionalism of the counter sniper who killed Crooks,a month after the assassination attempt critical questions remain unanswered, including why no one was occupying the AGR rooftop when Crooks opened fire.

Rowe, during Senate testimony July 30, said he could not defend the decision not to have anyone posted on that rooftop but wouldn’t say who made the decision. Instead, he blamed local law enforcement. “Why was the assailant not covered when we were told that building was going to be covered?” Rowe angrily demanded during his testimony. “That there had been a face-to-face that afternoon – that our team leads met.”

Aside from the Butler rally, there has been a string of security lapses or improper activity across the Secret Service as a whole.The latest, which came to light late last week, involved a bizarre July 27 intrusion orbreak-in of a Pittsfield, Massachusetts salon, allegedly by the Secret Service covering Vice President Harris’ first fundraiser.

It’s still unclear whether the Secret Service or local law enforcement is responsible for picking the salon door lock to allow emergency medical services agents and local law enforcement officers, and possibly others, to use the salon’s bathroom.

A woman in what appeared to be Secret Service special agent attire covered the salon’s front-door Ring camera with duct tape, in what knowledgeable sources tell RCP is a common practice at event sites to guard against any camera possibly capturing Harris or other protectees in private moments.

The salon owner has said she was left with a messy bathroom and felt violated by the incident. The head of the Boston-based field office called her to apologize for any role the agency played in entering the salon without the owner’s permission.

Several other instances of bizarre behavior and serious security lapses have occurred over the last year and a half… (continued go to link)

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2024/08/12/dissension_toxicity_plagued_trumps_secret_service_detail_before_assassination_attempt.html

>>21406941

Bongino and many other long term SS say it's leadership hiring incompetent people, Cheatle and Rowe are the worst. Rowe is responsibility for all of Trump's security, including Butler because he with her approval removed the well trained, and reduced the number of PDJT's security. They wouldn't give them the agents they needed and asked for 2+ years.

Then they sent newbies and poorly trained, immature women and men, that has a threat level almost as high as Bidan himself.

Rowe sent 12 agents to Jill Bidan's talk with 200 people, and only 2 fully trained SS to Butler.

This was a set up by them, this was not an accident or a mistake.

They both bear the guilt for him almost being killed. Dan said he approved everyone that was there, and there was only 1 SS there, all the rest were HSI (Homeland Security Investigators, they are not trained in Protective Services, they had no idea what they were doing.

>>21406790

He will never be invited, he'll be in jail or passed recently

The nation’s best hackers found vulnerabilities in voting machines — but no time to fix them

Organizers and participants at the DEF CON Voting Village found cyber vulnerabilities in everything from voting machines to e-poll books, but there is no time before the November elections to fully implement their findings.

Election Day security is under particular scrutiny in 2024. | By MAGGIE MILLER 08/12/2024OF COURSE

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LAS VEGAS — Some of the best hackers in the world gathered in Las Vegas over the weekend to try to break into voting machines that will be used in this year’s election — all with an eye to helping officials identify and fix vulnerabilities.

The problem? Their findings will likely come too late to make any fixes before Nov. 5.

In one sense, it’s the normal course of events: Every August, hackers at the DEF CON conference find security gaps in voting equipment, and every year the long and complex process of fixing them means nothing is implemented until the next electoral cycle.

But Election Day security is under particular scrutiny in 2024. That’s both because of increasing worries that foreign adversaries will figure out how to breach machines, and because President Donald Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations of widespread fraud in 2020 undermined confidence in the vote among his supporters.

As a result, many in the election security community are bemoaning the fact that no system has been developed to roll out fixes faster and worrying that the security gaps that get identified this year will provide fodder for those who may want to question the results.

“As far as time goes, it is hard to make any real, major, systemic changes, but especially 90 days out from the election,” said Catherine Terranova, one of the organizers of the DEF CON “Voting Village” hacking event. She argued that’s particularly troubling during “an election year like this.”

From Friday to Sunday, Voting Village hackers clustered around tables with all shapes and sizes of voting machines and equipment to verify voters’ identities or tabulate ballots, trying to get past firewalls or other security measures. Nearby, secretaries of state and other election officials gave talks on misinformation and disinformation threats facing the upcoming election.

Unlike most of the other events at the conference though, the Voting Village was not on the main show floor. It was a decision organizers said was necessary in order to ensure security following years of hatred flung at the event online by those who see the hackers as undermining democracy. In recent years, individuals associated with election denialism showed up at the Voting Village to harass organizers and speakers.

The findings, at times ignored or resisted by the manufacturers of voting machines, have increasingly been accepted in Washington, and the event is often seen as key for boosting the security of machines.

And just like every year since the Voting Village began almost a decade ago, attendees found problems. Organizers of the Voting Village intend to put out a full report in the coming weeks detailing the vulnerability findings from this cycle, and according to Voting Village co-founder Harri Hursti, these vulnerabilities ran “multiple pages” as of Saturday afternoon. While Hursti would not comment on the exact problems found, the amount was fairly consistent with previous years.

Those discoveries come amid ongoing foreign and criminal targeting of U.S. elections. In 2016, Russian hackers both targeted the campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and compromised voter registration databases in multiple U.S. states. It’s affecting this election cycle already, as POLITICO first reported Saturday that the presidential campaign of former President Donald Trump was hacked, a breach the campaign attributed to Iran. (LIES AGAIN, BLAMING RUSSIA)

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/12/hackers-vulnerabilities-voting-machines-elections-00173668

>>21407208

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While there’ve been no foreign cyberattacks taking wide swaths of voting machines offline on election day or evidence of hacks that affected results, the risk is always there.

“If you don’t think this kind of place is running 24/7 in China, Russia, you’re kidding yourselves,” Hursti said, gesturing around the room of voting equipment. “We are here only for two and a half days, and we find stuff…it would be stupid to assume that the adversaries don’t have absolute access to everything.”

Any issues found in these machines — most of which are used in at least one jurisdiction around the U.S. — would need to go through a complex process to be fixed, and that takes much longer than the two months until the November general election.

Voting Village organizers are frustrated that, despite years of security findings, voting machines vendors aren’t moving more quickly to make fixes.

“There’s so much basic stuff that should be happening and is not happening, so yes I’m worried about things not being fixed, but they haven’t been fixed for a long time, and I’m also angry about it,” Hursti said during a break in the day.

While there is a robust system in place for certifying voting systems, it’s a long one.

“Even if you find a vulnerability next week in a piece of modern equipment that’s deployed in the field, there’s a challenge in getting the patch and getting the fix out to the state and local elections officials and onto the equipment before the November election,” said Scott Algeier, executive director of the Information Technology-Information Sharing and Analysis Center. The group serves as a way for companies in the IT space to share threat information.

Algeier, who also runs the organization’s Elections Industry Special Interest Group, said the process involves getting sign off from the machine manufacturer, then getting the system recertified by relevant authorities, then going in and updating each device. This complex series of steps is complicated even more by most election machines behind locked down weeks in advance of the elections.

“It’s not a 90-day fix, It’s not a Microsoft every Tuesday, issue your patch and everything works fine,” Algeier said. “It’s a pretty complicated process.”

There are some proposals to speed up the process so election officials aren’t scrambling to update voting machines every time DEF CON happens in an election year. For example, some argue that depending too much on one annual event at a private conference is not the best approach.

One option to speed up the process? Bring voting machine vendors together with hackers in a more formalized setting. The Elections Industry-SIG hosted an event last year in Washington that did just that, and helped to build bridges between a typically suspicious industry and security researchers.

“We want to build a program where we can work in partnership with the security researchers, under the principles of coordinated vulnerability disclosure,” Algeier said.

Until then, for those who packed the Voting Village this weekend, with lines spilling out in the hallway, the event serves a higher purpose.

“We may not be able to fix everything about our election system in the next 90 days, but we can start by getting some of our facts straight and by understanding how our election systems work,” Terranova said.

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/08/12/hackers-vulnerabilities-voting-machines-elections-00173668

How do the hackers think the Election machine companies are going to work with them?

Look at he picture of the journalist next to WAPO Cleve Wooten, LOOK, when he asked KJP can the WH shut down this talk with Trump and Musk, (he tries not to look shocked, but he looks shocked, like slightly WTF? dude) Yesterday.