The latest line from proponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) implies that President Obama threatened long-standing national security relationships in his negotiating of the TPP. These proponents are not pushing the economic merits of the TPP, but rather arguing that its rejection by Congress would jeopardize longstanding ties between the United States and Asia. The claim is that if Congress is not prepared to approve the TPP then countries like Japan and South Korea will no longer be able to rely on defense commitments that have been in place for more than half a century.
As Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, commented on a trip to Washington:
It [rejecting the TPP] hurts your relationship with Japan, your security agreements with Japan, ... And the Japanese, living in an uncertain world, depending on an American nuclear umbrella, will have to say: On trade, the Americans could not follow through; if it's life and death, whom do I have to depend upon?
Other proponents of the TPP have made similar comments. The idea is that if the U.S. won't follow through on a trade pact that is has spent almost eight years negotiating, then how can it be counted on to honor its defense commitments to the countries of the region.
If this claim is taken at face value, it implies that President Obama was unbelievably irresponsible in negotiating the TPP. He knew that many aspects of the deal would be highly controversial. For example, the deal includes no enforceable provisions to prevent the sort of currency management by China and other countries that have been the major cause of the country's $500 billion (2.8 percent of GDP) annual trade deficit.
The deal also includes provisions that make patent and copyright protection longer and stronger. These provisions will lead to higher prices for prescription drugs and other protected items in other countries, and possibly the United States as well. In addition, more money for the drug companies and entertainment industry in royalties means that our trading partners will have less money to spend on U.S. manufactured goods.
In addition, the TPP provides for the creation of investor-state dispute settlement tribunals - extra-judicial bodies that give special privileges to foreign investors - including foreign subsidies of U.S. corporations. These tribunals will be able to over-ride U.S. laws at all levels of government.
For these and other reasons, President Obama surely knew that the TPP would be highly controversial when it was debated before Congress. Is it really plausible that he did not make it clear to our negotiating partners that he couldn't guarantee approval of the final agreement?
The proponents of the TPP would have us believe that President Obama told our trading partners that approval of the TPP was a slam dunk. That they could count on Congressional approval in the same way that they could count on Congress to honor its military commitments in the region. That one doesn't sound very likely.
In the lack of plausibility department we are also asked to believe that the governments in the region are incredibly ignorant about the state of U.S. politics. The TPP has been a hot item for debate long before Congress voted to grant fast-track authority in the summer of 2015. It has continued to be a major issue in the presidential primaries of both parties. Is it plausible that the staffs of the Japanese, Vietnamese and other embassies of the TPP countries somehow missed these debates or failed to report back to their governments on how contentious the pact is?
That one hardly passes the laugh test. Surely these embassies are staffed by competent and intelligent people. It is precisely their job to follow debates like the one on the TPP and to report back to their governments. While the governments of the other countries in the TPP may be disappointed by the decision of Congress not to approve the pact, it is inconceivable that they would be surprised by it.
There is an alternative hypothesis that makes far more sense. The Obama administration, along with other supporters of the TPP, doesn't feel it can sell the deal based on its merits as an economic pact. Therefore they are inventing a national security rationale for the TPP that does not exist. It's not a pretty story, but as they say in Washington: you throw it against the wall and see what sticks.
Ride-hailing services want to make sure Grandma Betty can get to bridge club just as easily as her 22-year-old grandson travels to and from ... whatever it is young folks are doing these days.
Once the domain of 20-somethings who might have a drink or two and need a safe ride home, companies like Lyft and Uber have set their sights on a different age range entirely: senior citizens.
Lyft announced Tuesday it has partnered with GreatCall, a mobile phone company that specializes in providing cell phones to seniors, to extend its ride-hailing services to those who ― like the elderly ― may not have a smartphone, much less want to learn how to use an app on one to hail a ride.
Instead of an app, GreatCall customers dial “0” to talk to an operator, who can provide a cost estimate and book a ride. The fare is tacked onto the customer’s monthly cell phone bill.
The L.A. Times notes Uber struck up a similar arrangement with a company called 24Hr HomeCare last week.
Several third-party ride-hailing services also specialize in giving lifts to older adults who don’t have smartphones, including GoGoGrandparent, a newer entrant that adds additional features like meal and grocery delivery options.
As people age, one thing to go is the ability to drive. That means losing your freedom to get to doctor’s appointments and to stay social with friends.
This is far from either company’s first foray into the senior market, which, judging by recent moves from both Uber and Lyft, seems ripe for disruption.
And it couldn’t come at a better time. The first wave of the so-called “baby boomer” generation turned 65 in 2011, with the number of Americans aged 65 and older projected to keep growing until 2030, when it’s expected to peak at around 71 million people.
Earlier this year, both Uber and Lyft began offering non-emergency medical transport services, specifically targeting customers whose rides would be reimbursed by Medicaid.
And in the Denver suburb of Centennial, where 15 years from now at least 30 percent of the population is projected to be over the age of 65, city officials are exploring replacing current dial-a-ride services with less expensive, more efficient rides via Lyft.
Starting Aug. 17, the city has embarked on a first-of-its-kind, six-month long pilot project, paying for Lyft rides to and from the area’s major light-rail station in a bid to increase mobility.
“We call Centennial the Silver Tsunami,” Centennial Mayor Cathy Noon told The Atlantic blog CityLab. “As people age, one thing to go is the ability to drive. That means losing your freedom to get to doctor’s appointments and to stay social with friends. We really want to help keep the people who started Centennial engaged in it.”
Note: The Huffington Post’s editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington is a member of Uber’s board of directors and has recused herself from any involvement in the site’s coverage of the company.
Three years ago, Fishkill Farms owner and operator Joshua Morgenthau found himself facing a situation that is every farmer’s nightmare.
It was time to prepare his 100-acre fruit and vegetable farm’s cherries and strawberries for harvest, but the workers he’d hired for the job weren’t there to help. His employees were many miles away in Jamaica, waiting for the green light to enter the U.S. and get to work.
Without enough hands to weed and prune the delicate crop, Morgenthau’s berries were at risk of rotting on the vine. Worse, he knew there was little he could do but wait and hope he didn’t lose his whole crop in the meantime.
Each year, Morgenthau employs eight seasonal migrant workers who travel to his farm in New York’s Hudson Valley through the labor department’s H-2A temporary agricultural worker program. The process of obtaining their H-2A visas had been relatively painless for the previous five years. But this time, he says the department changed the file number of his application without any warning.
That meant he had to refile all the applications, creating “hours and hours and hours of more paperwork and hassle for us” and delaying the workers’ arrival by more than a month.
As a result, the farm’s cherry and strawberry production took a hit that season. His team of migrant and domestic workers were unable to make up for the decreased harvest preparation time.
“We managed to get it picked, but it was still kind of a mess,” he told The Huffington Post.
Despite setbacks like this one, the visa program is essential to Morgenthau’s farm. He works with the same employees each year and described them as “part of the farm family.” He credits them with being experts at operating the machinery specific to the crops he grows.
The H-2A program was created in the 1990s to help agricultural employers bring temporary foreign workers into the U.S. to do seasonal work that domestic workers cannot or are not willing to do. As part of the program, employers are required to offer certain wages, plus transportation and housing when necessary. The H-2A visa holders live and work in the U.S. for several months at a time but are not considered immigrants, and the program is not seen as a pathway to citizenship.
This so-called guest farm worker program is far from perfect. It has been criticized for being easy to abuse, with some employers neglecting worker safety and stealing wages while facing little recourse. However, those familiar with the visa program describe it as the industry’s sole legal option for getting temporary farm work done.
The farming industry still relies heavily on undocumented workers, who are estimated to make up about half of the country’s 2.5 million hired farm hands, according to the Labor Department. The temporary visa program is responsible for just a fraction of the overall agricultural workforce.
Yet the program is growing increasingly popular ― due to the domestic labor shortages ― forcing more farmers to contend with a chaotic and heavily bureaucratic system that puts their crops in jeopardy. At the same time, calls to improve the program are being sounded by farmers and immigration reform advocates alike.
Credit: Gosia Wozniacka/APIn this Oct. 12, 2011, file photo, a crew of farmworkers harvest and package cantaloupes near Firebaugh, California.
The U.S. has cracked down on the use of undocumented laborers coming into the country, resulting in a widespread labor shortage in agriculture and ballooning demand for H-2A visas. This has also meant more administrative delays in processing visa applications.
Delays of even a week can result in major crop losses for farmers. Delays of a month or more can be devastating.
Morgenthau was able to save his harvest in 2013, the year his workers were delayed, but he knows just how easily things can fall apart. “We’re lucky to have never lost an entire crop,” he said.
Others aren’t so fortunate.
A number of farmers in Georgia reported six-digit losses this year due to delays in visa processing. Another farmer, in California, watched as one-third of his Napa cabbage rotted in the field while he waited for the H-2A workers to arrive.
Last year, a State Department computer glitch delayed workers on the West Coast, causing millions of dollars of lost revenue. Elise Bauman, executive director at Salem Harvest, a food recovery group that partners with dozens of farms in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, saw the fallout of this glitch firsthand. She and her team worked with just three strawberry farms in 2015, but she estimated seeing some 100 acres of the wasted berries with her own eyes.
“They have to be handled and harvested at exactly the right time, otherwise you get a pile of mush,” Bauman said. “Very delicious-tasting mush, but it’s not attractive.”
These issues will only compound as the visa program continues to grow. Visa applications increased by 40 percent over the past five years, according to NPR. Last year, 140,000 H-2A visas were granted. In the first half of this year, visa issuance is up another 17 percent over 2015.
Related
Farm Workers Are Taking On Poor Pay And Conditions -- And Winning
The Slow-Moving Disaster Happening At Farms Around America
New Federal Rules Will Better Protect Farmworkers From Harmful Pesticides
We Waste An Insane Amount Of Food. Here's What You Can Do About It.
The H-2A program’s issues have sent the farming industry into crisis mode, vocally criticizing the program’s backlog of visa applications and emerging as a somewhat surprising proponent of immigration reform.
In an April news release, the American Farm Bureau Federation warned of rotting fields of crops resulting from H-2A delays. Those delays, the organization says, could be avoided if the program were revamped.
So far, there hasn’t been much action on that advice.
In June, a bipartisan group of Congress members calling for H-2A reform sent a letter to the Labor Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services leaders, asking them to streamline the guest worker visa process. Their effort has yet to gain traction.
In a media call organized by the pro-immigration reform Partnership for a New American Economy earlier this month, AFB president Zippy Duvall called for a more flexible and efficient visa program for migrant farmworkers. One solution Duvall has offered would be filing paperwork for the program electronically. Currently, paperwork must be processed through standard mail.
Failure to act, Duvall warned, would threaten the nation’s food supply.
“We’re coming to a point where the American people need to make up their mind if they want to import their food or import their labor,” Duvall said.
Other voices are calling for bigger changes.
Tom Nassif, president and CEO of Western Growers, which represents farmers in California, Arizona and Colorado, took his call for reform a step further. Beyond streamlining the H-2A program, he would like to find a way to keep some of these temporary farm workers in the U.S., instead of sending them back to their home countries when their visas expire.
“We want to take care of the workers who are with us,” Nassif said. “They have experience, families and roots here. We want to keep those people [here] and protect them. We want some sort of legal status for them.”
In 2013, Nassif backed legislation sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that proposed a new “blue card” program that would make temporary workers in good legal standing eligible for a legal status, allowing them to stay in the country and granting them a path to citizenship. The bill passed in the Senate but did not come up for a vote in the House after being blocked by Speaker John Boehner.
In the absence of action in Washington, some believe employers in the industry should be doing more to offer better wages and conditions to their farmworkers, Bruce Goldstein, president of the Farmworker Justice advocacy group, argues.
“If employers want to retain their workforce and attract workers to their jobs, they collectively need to improve their reputation,” Goldstein told HuffPost.
Due to many farmworkers’ undocumented status, Goldstein argues, they silently endure subpar working conditions and pay, fearing that they’ll be reported or fired if they complain.
The average seasonal migrant farmworker is paid between $12,500 and $14,999 a year. Most lack health insurance and many work far more than 40 hours a week. (By contrast, someone working full time for the federal minimum wage earns $15,080 a year.)
Guest farm workers are supposed to earn more under the temporary work program. H-2A wages are set by the Labor Department and vary from state to state ― between $10.59 and $13.80 an hour ― based on state minimums and typical wages for domestic farm workers in the region. In Washington state, for example, the minimum wage for H-2A workers is $12.69 an hour. That’s significantly more than the state’s minimum wage of $9.47.
Some research has raised questions about whether visa-holding guest workers fare much better than unauthorized workers, however. An Economic Policy Institute study released last year found no significant difference in pay or conditions between the two groups.
As of now, farmers are able to get away with this. While advocates like Goldstein believe some employers are treating their workers fairly, the ones who aren’t continue to hinder their progress. And they need to be held accountable.
“There are many employers that comply with the law, but they are being undermined by the companies that want to reduce their cost and increase their profitability by cheating workers,” Goldstein said. “We need to create a law-abiding agricultural sector to benefit both the farmworkers and the employers that comply with the law.”
BuzzFeed has reported that the H-2A visa program and its sister program for short-term non-farm workers (H-2B) suffer from a host of other abuse problems. The Labor Department found that between 2010 and 2014 almost 1,000 companies had violated H-2 laws; however, fewer than 150 employers were banned from hiring guest workers through the program.
Still, some farmers believe the H-2A program is overburdened with regulations and expenses.
Dan Fazio, president of the Washington Farm Labor Association, connects farmers with migrant workers. He, too, described the H-2A program as flawed, but said he’s seen its popularity with participating farmworkers firsthand.
“Is it ideal to take a person from one country and bring them to another country to work? I don’t know,” Fazio said. “But I do know that the people coming to Washington state love the program and when their six months here are done and they go back, they make sure they’re on the list to come back next year.”
A lack of alternatives might have something to do with this popularity — and there’s no sign of that changing anytime soon.
But the lack of progress doesn’t mean the industry has to start from scratch to arrive at a solution, said Luawanna Halstrom, an agriculture consultant who previously served as president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers and has worked with a number of national and state organizations.
She’s hopeful that a fix is on the horizon — and it may not be as complex as it might initially seem.
“People are working with this old horse because it’s all they’ve got,” Halstrom said. “It can be a good program if we could reformulate it and figure out how to make it work.”
A revamped program would be welcomed by Morgenthau, too. Another delay like 2013’s might not turn out as well next time.
“The system should be streamlined,” he said. “When you have the whims of a bureaucracy and a heated political debate that could determine pretty quickly a positive or negative outcome in terms of being able to work with the qualified employees you have been working with, it’s just one too many variables to stomach.”
―-
Joseph Erbentraut covers promising innovations and challenges in the areas of food and water. In addition, Erbentraut explores the evolving ways Americans are identifying and defining themselves. Follow Erbentraut on Twitter at @robojojo. Tips? Email joseph.erbentraut@huffingtonpost.com.
More stories like this:
Restaurants Officially Have No Excuse Not To Donate Leftover Food
A Whole New Kind Of Grocery Store Is Coming To The U.S.
This Guy Spends $2.75 A Year On Food And Eats Like A King
Genius Solid Shampoos Use No Plastic Packaging By Leaving Out Water
Meat Eaters Should Have Been Listening To Vegetarians All Along
Farmer Forced To Dump Insane Amount Of Gorgeous Cherries
Al Capone’s Brother May Have Invented Date Labels For Milk
CLARIFICATION: The headline on this story has been amended to better reflect the systemic problems with the H-2A program.
Social media has been the game changer in almost everything that surrounds us. With the birth of social platforms, custom targeting of prospective customers is easier than ever. One of the greatest innovations of technology is social media, not just in our ability to communicate but in our ability to market directly to those we want to reach.
At my company, we are so specific with whom we target that we even identify our prospect by the books they are reading, the movies they are watching, and the industry experts they are a fan of. We guide our clients on how to significantly expand their reach to those that best match their customer profile. One of the best features social media marketing has for businesses today is its low barrier to entry. Gone are the days where a business is required to spend thousands of dollars on advertising to reach its prospect. You can now reach your audience spending as little as five dollars per week!
But which platforms are the best for businesses to use? In order to create a successful social strategy, you have to be familiar with how they work. We've provided a list of our favorite platforms for marketing our business and acquiring new clients.
1. Facebook
With more than 1.59 billion users, Facebook comprises of the largest blend of demographics of any social platform. It provides an extraordinary medium for your business to connect with your prospective customers all around the world. And from an advertising perspective, it's the easiest to manage and allows for the best possible targeting. We use Facebook Ads to match our current buyers with over two million similar prospects who possess similar characteristics. We then push them to an opt-in page where we can capture their name and email.
2. Twitter
Twitter's value lies in its ability for your posts to go viral: the more people share your posts and "retweet" your content, the more followers you will attain. We post recent news, updates and articles we have in major media. Hashtags make a big difference in building momentum for your posts, so pay attention to what is trending today and include relevant hashtags. We also retweet people who have many followers to increase the likelihood of them following us back.
3. LinkedIn
If you are working in a B2B field, this is the social media network for you to focus on. Connecting with business professionals in any industry is easiest with LinkedIn as it allows you to target them by industry, job title, etc. As with all social media, LinkedIn prioritizes relationship building more than any other. Don't lead with a sales pitch; start by building a connection. One of the best features for businesses are LinkedIn Groups. Businesses should establish Groups in your target niche or industry and invite others in your target market to join.
At my company, we focus on building new relationships with key prospects whose professional titles we've identified. For example, we'll search "CEO Speaker" to find people who are the heads of their companies and who also are active speakers.
4. Instagram
We use this popular photo-sharing platform at events and tradeshows. Whenever we're hosting events, we always have an incentive for the attendees to post photos to Instagram using our event hashtag. We'll also offer a free giveaway or raffle for those who participate.
5. Pinterest
Only use this channel if you have great images to share. Quality images are likely to go viral on this site due to its visual nature. If your image is pinned by a highly-followed member, it has the potential to be viewed by millions. It's also great for promoting products. We post photos of book covers and images with quotes accredited to our authors to promote their books. Adding the Amazon link to their books also helps boost sales.
6. YouTube
Aside from being the second largest search engine, YouTube is owned by Google. So when it comes to search engine optimization, videos are more likely to appear in search results than other websites. With Google's acquisition of YouTube, we use Google Hangouts On Air to do interviews with our authors and industry leaders. Then our interview is automatically posted to YouTube under our account for added visibility.
7. Yelp
Yelp is critical for businesses today. If you don't have an active strategy to build reviews on Yelp, your customers may do it for you soon enough. All it takes is one poor review to harm your abilities to build your social platform. Asking your customers to review your business on Yelp prevents any negative review from standing out. We hold campaigns to get our authors to post reviews about us on Yelp in return for a reward. For example, if they post a review, we'll offer them 10 percent off their next order or give them an added service.
It's up to you which among these platforms will likely be a marketing paradise for your business. Just remember that it is not just the social media site that you have to check, but the compatibility it has for your business.
Justin Sachs is a highly-sought-after business and marketing expert and CEO of Motivational Press, an industry-leading book publishing company.
A meal at a Howard Johnson was once as much as part of a road trip as the car itself. Now, one of the last two remaining restaurants is closing.
The location in Bangor, Maine, is shutting down next month, leaving a single restaurant in Lake George, New York, to carry the once-iconic name.
While the restaurant once served meals late into the night, it had more recently started closing at 2 p.m. daily. As business dropped off, rumors of its closure began circulating, the Bangor Daily News reported.
Robert F. Bukaty/APCustomers dine at the Howard Johnson in Bangor.
“It’s bittersweet, but it’s nothing to be sad about,” waitress Kathe Jewett, who has worked at the restaurant since it opened in 1966, told The Associated Press. “I’ve been here for 50 years ― and it’s time.”
The restaurant’s last day will be Sept. 6.
Howard Johnson opened his first location, a “small, orange-roofed soda fountain” in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1925. According to HoJoLand, an unofficial website, Johnson opened a second location but couldn’t afford to expand further on his own so he entered into franchise agreements.
Portland Press Herald via Getty ImagesCars pass a Howard Johnson location in South Portland in the 1950s. This location, built in 1938, closed in 1985.
By the end of the 1930s, there were more than 100 locations along the East Coast. There were 400 HoJo by 1954, and that’s when the company started to open motels along with its restaurants.
Howard Johnson would become ubiquitous along highways, especially toll roads. The company was a pioneer in opening locations just off exit ramps, according to Roadside Fans, a website dedicated to diners and classic chains.
“When the motorist spotted a Howard Johnson’s, he knew exactly what to expect,” the website noted. “With standardized menus and building designs, a Howard Johnson’s miles away felt as familiar and comforting as the one back home.”
I C Rapoport via Getty ImagesThe HoJo in New York City's Times Square became one of the company's most famous locations. It closed in 2005.
Howard Johnson would have more than 1,000 locations at its peak in the 1970s, with regulars enjoying the company’s famous 28 flavors of ice cream and popular meals, such as fried clam strips and pancakes. The company’s empire even included a line of frozen meals sold in supermarkets.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, the company went through a series of ownership changes and parts of it were split up. Today, there are hundreds of HoJo hotels operated by Wyndham, but just two restaurants bearing the name ― each independently owned ― and in a couple of weeks, there will be just one.
“I’m devastated,” Christopher Leek, who has been dining at the Bangor location since his childhood, told AP. “It’s my favorite breakfast place. It’s a homey place.”
The modern-day cover letter is your introduction—of any kind—to the employer.
A cover letter has three goals, which you can accomplish in four sentences. Check out the video along with the highlights.
Click here to download my free 4 Sentence Cover Letter with the exact format!
There are essentially three (non-verbal) means to introduce yourself to an employer:
Cover Letter
Email (with attached resume)
Applicant Tracking System (ATS)
Your “cover letter” has three goals:
Explain why you’ve contacted the employer.
Provide insight on who you are and what you offer.
Show enthusiasm and interest in hearing (back) from the employer.
You can accomplish these three goals in four sentences, which I discuss in the video. Grab this free 4 Sentence Cover Letter to see the exact format!
If you have haven’t seen How To Build the Ultimate Professional Resume, check it out because some of the cover letter content references your resume.
You can also get the Interview Intervention Book Experience FREE, which has much more and includes an eBook, audio, chapter note, guides, and many aids related to job interviewing!
About the Author
Andrew LaCivita is the Founder & Chief Executive of milewalk and the milewalk Academy. As an internationally recognized executive recruiter, award-winning author, speaker, and trainer, Andrew has dedicated his career to helping people and companies realize their potential. He frequently serves as a trusted media resource and is the author of Interview Intervention, Out of Reach but in Sight, and The Hiring Prophecies (the eLit Gold Award Winner for Best Business/Careers/Sales Book for 2016).
Andrew’s passion is serving as a coach and trainer via his top 100 HR and Careers Blog, Tips for Work and Life®, and his online training site, the milewalk Academy. On a daily basis, he circulates his Today’s Line to Live By™, which is a self-developed inspirational quote. You can find these daily dispatches of inspiration on his blog and social media platform.
To learn more about Andrew and get the many free resources, books, and other helpful aids he offers, see his full biography and resources page.
Quote from The 4 Sentence Cover Letter That Gets You the Job Interview. http://bit.ly/2bsiT9R
As reported by Reuters, "Swiss bank UBS is leading a team of four of the world's biggest banks developing a system to enable financial markets to make payments and settle transactions quickly using blockchain technology.
UBS has developed a "Utility Settlement Coin" (USC), which is a digital cash equivalent of each of the major currencies backed by central banks, such as the dollar or euro, rather than a decentralized new digital currency such as bitcoin.
The USC would be convertible at parity with a bank deposit in the corresponding currency, making it fully backed by cash assets at a central bank. Spending a USC would be the same as spending the real currency it is paired with, UBS said."
Other banks involved in the project are BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, and Banco Santander, as well as a brokerage.
Watch our interview with Santander's blockchain chief John Whelan below. Mr. Whelan explained that even though the project uses Ethereum technology, it is not exposed to the public Ethereum blockchain. London-based blockchain lab Clearmatics, involved with the settlement coin concept, started with a flavor of Ethereum but this project is likely to end up being rather proprietary in nature.
Disclosure: Not financial advice. At time of publication, I hold some bitcoin, ether, gold, and U.S. dollars in my long term portfolio.
