Axios AM: Mike's Great 8 — Happy Labor Day! — 🚨 Cash crunch for Trump — Roger Angell @ 100

1 big thing: At Labor Day, new stress for workers | Monday, September 07, 2020

View in browser   Presented By Facebook   Axios AM By Mike Allen ·Sep 07, 2020 🇺🇸 Happy Labor Day! Thanks for the company this summer. Our vacation and leisure rituals, some going back to childhood, were all upended as we navigated on the fly. People who are big planners (definitely not me) suddenly got more spontaneous. I hope this hard reset, amid all the tragedy, has spurred some new and healthy routines for you and yours — and a keener appreciation for what matters.     1 big thing: At Labor Day, new stress for workers Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios   The collision of three unprecedented events — the pandemic, its economic toll and an uprising against racial injustice — is causing extraordinary angst among workers, Joann Muller and Courtenay Brown write. Why it matters: High anxiety levels are touching employees in nearly every industry, and labor unrest could be bubbling beneath the surface. 43% of Americans in last week's Axios-Ipsos coronavirus survey reported that they were concerned about their job security. 44% said they were worried about their ability to pay their bills. The big picture: There's been a tremendous downward shift in worker power in record time. This time last year, the unemployment rate was near a 50-year low. Jobs were plentiful and corporations were bending over backwards to get employees to work for them. The unemployed are unsure if their jobs will ever come back. The $600 boost in unemployment benefits shoring up their finances has expired — and is unlikely to return. Some workers furloughed at the onset of the pandemic are still in purgatory, but signs are cropping up that job losses may become permanent. At the end of August, MGM Resorts laid off 18,000 workers who had been furloughed in March. Those who do have jobs wonder how much longer they'll have a paycheck. Airline workers got a six-month reprieve from job cuts under the federal CARES Act, but travel demand remains low and isn't expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. Without more federal aid, tens of thousands of employees will be furloughed Oct. 1. "Keeping people in this state of uncertainty is a certain kind of cruelty all in itself," Sara Nelson, president of the flight attendants union, told Axios. Some workers face a previously unfathomable tradeoff: quit their job or keep it, but at the risk of potentially contracting the virus. "I hear a lot of trepidation, a lot of fear, a lot of anxiety," Randi Weingarten, the head of the American Federation of Teachers, told Axios. "There are no good choices right now." Share this story.     2. 🚨 Trump faces surprising cash crunch President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Latrobe, Pa., on Thursday evening. Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images   President Trump's campaign faces money concerns — an unusual predicament for a sitting president, and one that worries veteran Republican operatives, with Trump behind in top swing states as the race climaxes. Why it matters: The campaign's view is that Trump will get his message out, and he depends less on paid media than normal politicians. But the number of states Trump has to worry about has grown, and Joe Biden's massive August fundraising haul has given his campaign a lift as early voting begins. The New York Times leads today's paper with a Labor Day scene-setter (subscription), reporting that Trump "appears to be facing a significant financial crunch," and that light TV spending in some key states has "mystified allies": Trump "is expected to increase television spending next week, but several Republicans said that Bill Stepien, Mr. Trump's campaign manager since July, was taking a cautious approach after the former leadership spent huge sums on television and digital ads earlier this year, to no discernible effect." Stepien told The Times "that a surgical approach to television ads was the right move for now, focusing on states where early and absentee voting are starting." The context: Biden and DNC raised a stunning $365 million in August, breaking the record for one month of presidential fundraising. At the end of July, before the announcement of Sen. Kamala Harris swelled Biden's fundraising, Trump reported slightly more cash on hand.     3. Russia exploits racial reckoning In Portland on Saturday, a protester's feet caught fire after a Molotov cocktail exploded on him. Photo: Nathan Howard/Getty Images Russia is exploiting America's divide over racism and policing as part of sowing social chaos ahead of the election, AP's Mary Clare Jalonick writes. "Cop Injustice in Kenosha" is the headline on a video posted by an online news organization with ties to Russia. A video from the Kremlin-backed outlet Redfish shows Trump supporters driving aggressively through protesters in Portland. Why it matters: The Senate Intelligence Committee concluded after 2016 that "no single group of Americans was targeted by [Russia's Internet Research Agency] information operatives more than African-Americans."     A message from Facebook Facebook supports updated internet regulations     We support updated regulations to set clear rules and hold companies, including Facebook, accountable for: Combating foreign election interference. Protecting people's privacy. Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms. Read our call for updated internet regulation     4. Pic du jour Photo: Jennifer Lorenzini/Pool/AFP via Getty Images The Italian Air Force Aerobatic Team Frecce Tricolori perform ahead of the Italian Grand Prix, a Formula One race, in Monza yesterday.     5. Jacob Blake: "Change y'all lives out there" Jacob Blake answers questions from his hospital bed during a court hearing Friday. Photo: Kenosha County Court via AP Jacob Blake, 29, paralyzed from the waist down after being shot in the back seven times by a Kenosha police officer, released a video message from his hospital bed, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports: I just want to say, man, to all the young cats out there, and even the older ones — older than me: There's a lot more life to live out here, man. Your life [snaps fingers], and not only just your life, your legs — something that you need to move around and move forward in life — can be taken from you like this, man. [Snaps. ] And I promise you, the type of [stuff] that you'll go through ... I got staples in my back, staples in my damn stomach — you do not want to have to deal with this [stuff], man. 24 hours — every 24 hours, it's pain. ... It hurts to breathe, it hurts to sleep, it hurts to move from side to side, it hurts to eat. Please, I'm telling you: Change y'all lives out there. We can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out here, man, because there's so much time that has been wasted. See the video.     6. Peloton boom Photo: Scott Heins/Getty Images   Enjoying a boom with so many gyms closed, Peloton "is preparing to launch a cheaper treadmill and a new high-end bike," Bloomberg reports. "The new treadmill, called Tread, will cost less than $3,000, compared with $4,295 for the current model." "The new stationary bike will be a premium offering called Bike+, and will likely cost more than the current $2,245 version. Peloton will then drop the price of the existing machine to less than $1,900."     7. ⚾ Dept. of Hoopla: Roger Angell @ 100 Roger Angell at the 2009 New Yorker Festival. Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images   The New Yorker's Roger Angell, one of the most renowned baseball writers ever, turns 100 on Sept. 19. In "The Talk of the Town" in the new issue, Mark Singer visits Maine for an early birthday party for the legend, "born five years before the founding of this magazine, and a contributor for the past seventy-six": Although Angell spent five-plus decades as a fiction editor and is best known for his matchless œuvre of baseball writing, ... his most widely read essay for the magazine was "This Old Man," a ninety-three-year-old's unflinchingly intimate account of what one discovers, savors, bears, rues, and forgives in the late chapters of a very long-lived life. Maine Gov. Janet Mills joins the party to proclaim "Roger Angell Day": "He writes about winning and he writes about the pain of loss and regaining life again." Keep reading. Read an interview from February, "Baseball, Fiction, and Life: Roger Angell's Era-Spanning Career at The New Yorker."     8. 🎾 Ejection du jour Courtesy N.Y. Post Novak Djokovic, the overwhelming favorite, was kicked out of the U.S. Open in New York after he angrily smacked a ball, accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat. Details.     A message from Facebook It's time for updated regulations to prevent election interference     We support updated internet regulations to combat foreign election interference. We've more than tripled our security and safety teams to 35,000 people, added 5-step political ad verification and expanded partnerships. But there's more to do. Read our call for updated internet regulation   📱 Thanks for starting your holiday with Axios AM. Invite your friends to sign up here!   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? 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