DL Open Thread: Sunday, June 18, 2023
This Is How You Run A Government: Assuming the 2000 tons of lightweight recycled glass nuggets hold steady, the Rethugs can cross Pennsylvania off their list of competitive states for 2024:
“We are going to get traffic moving again, thanks to the extraordinary work that is going on here,” Shapiro (D) said during remarks at Philadelphia International Airport after the flyover, which included members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation and the city’s mayor. “We will have I-95 reopened within the next two weeks.”
Biden said the federal government would fully reimburse the state for the first phase of the reconstruction, then contribute 90 percent of the cost after that.
“There’s no more important project to the country right now as far as I’m concerned,” the president said, noting that the work crews are unionized. “The people of Philadelphia, I want to say that we’re with you. We’re going to stay with you” until the work has been finished.
Going out on a limb here–this wouldn’t have been Trump’s response.
Texas Governor Axes Water Breaks For Construction Workers. Lest you wonder, yes, Texas temperatures are hardly temperate. Abbott apparently wants to prove he’s a bigger asshole than DeSantis:
Supporters of the law have said it will eliminate a patchwork of local ordinances across the state that bog down businesses. The law’s scope is broad but ordinances that establish minimum breaks in the workplace are one of the explicit targets. The law will nullify ordinances enacted by Austin in 2010 and Dallas in 2015 that established 10-minute breaks every four hours so that construction workers can drink water and protect themselves from the sun. It also prevents other cities from passing such rules in the future. San Antonio has been considering a similar ordinance.
Texas is the state where the most workers die from high temperatures, government data shows. At least 42 workers died in Texas between 2011 and 2021 from environmental heat exposure, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Workers’ unions claim this data doesn’t fully reflect the magnitude of the problem because heat-related deaths are often recorded under a different primary cause of injury.
HB 2127, introduced by state Rep. Dustin Burrows, R-Lubbock, is perhaps Texas Republicans’ most aggressive attempt to curb progressive policies in the state’s largest, liberal-leaning cities. Under the new law, local governments would be unable to create rules that go beyond what state law dictates in broad areas like labor, agriculture, business and natural resources.
Driving migrant workers out of Florida has been one contributing factor in declining citrus harvests. Driving predominantly Latino construction workers out of Texas will have a similar impact. Don’t think that’s a long-term blueprint for success.
Highly-Secret Billionaires’ Club Screws Workers. I know, ‘dog bites man’, but read it. It’ll get your dander up:
I have said for many years that the primary employers of the migrants are far right Republicans whose greed over rides their hatred of POC. Now DeSantis sends a shot across the bow of this happy hypocrisy. Cool, no migrants and it’s back to Reagan’s “crops rotting in the field” monologue. Will be interesting to watch from more then a few angles. If memory serves the last time the game was played it was a disaster and a howling chorus of farmers quietly begged for all to be forgiven and let the migrants come back. Notice that in the intervening 40 years no one, no state has tried this. There is a reason why.
Yep. It’s already happening:
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/30/1177657218/florida-anti-immigration-law-1718-desantis
A snippet:
“There’s been a wave of videos on social media showing images of vacant construction sites and fruit and vegetable fields where harvests remain unpicked and are rotting. According to the videos’ narrators, the job sites have been abandoned by people who fear the new bill’s E-Verify requirements.”
Hmm.. Seems to be way more inclusive then I thought, the proverbial “red meat” for the haters including curtailing government humanitarian services. As noted the stage is set for the famed “Crops rotting in the field” speech, wonder if they’ll run the Gipper’s plea for agricultural sanity?
“the job sites have been abandoned by people who fear the new bill’s E-Verify requirements.”
This is the beginning of a positive evolution in the labor market. The missing part, the part that makes it all work, is the part where we provide a legal path for those migrants who want to work.
Migrants are great, but why do they have to be “illegal migrants?”
Migrants are undeniably essential to the economy, but only if they are kept illegal so they can be exploited for lower wages and sub-standard working conditions. If they were suddenly made citizens the right-wingers would lose interest in employing them at competitive wages, with their pesky “rights.”
Using press gangs to deceptively transport southern migrants to unsuspecting liberal cities is a cruel stunt. But De Santis and Abbott do have a point, that the Federal Government should be massively assisting the border states with the inflow, and providing a well-planned Federal program to redistribute asylum applicants elsewhere in the US with their consent.
Nice, but try to remember America allows more legal immigrants then the rest of the world combined, also notice that Americans in general do not support the entirety of the third world coming here. Canada and Australia have dealt with the problem by asking the simple question “What can you do for us other then coming here to live?”. Then notice that the same game goes on in Europe with boatloads of migrants drowning along the way. In addition stop pretending these people are refugees, all they are fleeing is the poverty of a failed state and nobody is trying to kill them.
Republicans have resisted all attempts so far to modernize the immigration system to deal with the situation on the ground. Abbott and DeSantis should pressure Republican senators if they want the federal government to move — if you want a deal, you don’t pressure your opponent, who isn’t inclined to give you what you want. You pressure your ally to find a solution. Republicans never do that, because they don’t want a solution.
The Republican approach to governance is simple — why solve a problem when you can fundraise off it indefinitely?
I don’t think citizenship is necessary to accruing a reliable agricultural work force. It is necessary to create safeguards so that their legal status cannot be questioned, and they feel unhampered working in American agriculture. Conservative thinking is so irrational as to deny even reasonable solutions for foreign workers and American farmers.
No human being is, or should be, illegal.
Platitudes aside, what word or phrase do you use for those who remain in the US illegally? I mean, one that distinguishes them from those here legally.
Courageous.
Uh trump is definitely illegal
I bet that greater than 50%of those union operators rebuilding the bridge have FJB stickers on their hard hats and maga/punisher decals on their 80k tricked-out monster trump-trucks.
The trade unions need to be put in their place. You can count on the bosses for $$ (for now) but good luck of getting the votes from the membership. PA is far from being a lock for ‘24
Your comment sounds a bit reactionary to my “ear”…
Maybe more cynical. Every time I hear a report about the rebuilding work they always underscore the use of union labor, like they are looking for a pat on the back. The old alliances don’t mean as much as they used to, and are sometimes at direct odds with progressive interests
I must have missed this bill in your latest roundup:
https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=140644
It would give me the right to vote again, so, yeah, I’m kinda in favor of it. Thank you Senator Gay for this piece of legislation.