Comments

1

So Dan Newhouse and his pals want to create a class of disenfranchised agricultural workers, tied to the land? That's what they used to call a "serf"

2

@ 1, The Republinazis are just holding on until they can reinstate slavery.

3

@1: I hate to break it to you, but that is what has already been happening for years. I mean, that did you think it meant when you heard the argument "If we don't allow illegal immigration, who will pick the crops?"

Farmers have been relying on cheap illegal labor for way too long, but as long as we let them and do nothing to stop the flow of illegal labor, this will always happen. If the farmers are not forced to modernize or pay decent wages, they are always going to hire illegal workers for illegal wages.

Contrary to bumper sticker logic, Americans will pick crops and dig ditches. They just won't do it for slave wages like illegal immigrants will.

4

So just to recap, the Republinazis stole that Supreme Court seat and that Kangaroo KKKourt has now:

Upheld the travel ban and greenlit openly bigoted public policy driven by hate.
Upheld purging voters in order to disenfranchise racial and ethic minorities.
Upheld blatant gerrymandering to keep Republinazis in power and deny the majority of Americans a fair say in choosing their representatives.
Gutted antitrust laws.
Enforced arbitration clauses in order to deny people their right to a trial.

This regime is an illegitimate fraud and will not stand.

6

The state trooper got caught flying his far-out freakkk flag?
He shouldda had it painted atop his prowler
to let certain people know whose side he was on
lettin' 'em know they just might be better off running away
and hopin' he's not a crack shot.

Crack shot.

7

@5,
She'd be forced to get an abortion. Afterwards, she'd be detained and then deported for the crime of having an abortion.

8

@3: What, what, whaaat?! Farmers have been dependent on exploiting undocumented workers?! No! The hell you say!
Hey everybody did you all know this? No! It's true! Thank GOD Theodore is here to let us in on this heretofore ENTIRELY secret piece of information!

10

@3 Well forsooth to that. It just seems to me particularly grotesque to want to establish the injustice in law - this idea that they would be legal as long as they stay in their camps and off the street is a bit of a novelty. But I guess that's the Republican shtick these days.

11

@8: And how many people do you believe needed to see you whining and throwing a tantrum?

Despite your anger, if you look at comment #10, they actually don't know.

@10: It is already law. These visas has existed for a long time now.

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/us-h-2a-seasonal-or-temporary-agricultural-work-visas-2064315

12

Mike Leach was fired from Texas Tech for mistreating a player with a concussion. Now one of his players develops CTE and kills himself. I'm tired of paying this piece of shit's salary.

13

@11 Then why bother passing new legislation? It seems self-evident that they want to change something. Maybe I've mis-characterized the precise nature of the injustice?

The point stands that if you keep bringing in dis-enfranchised, alienated workers for this one segment of the economy, then conditions in that segment will never improve for workers. Sure as hell they'd never let these people organize or bargain collectively or anything like that.

Would Trump actually sign a bill like Newhouse is proposing? It would sure cast a bright light on the insincerity of the Administration - the pretense that all this is about protecting American workers. Instead of merely putting on a show of brutality for the benefit of the Trump Show's target demographic.

14

@Teddy

I believe we should impose stiff penalties on employers who hire undocumented workers, including jail time.
If Farmers knew they would face jail time for hiring undocumented workers then they would stop hiring undocumented workers, and if there are no jobs for undocumented workers they will stop coming.

"Americans will pick crops and dig ditches. They just won't do it for slave wages like illegal immigrants will."
I completely agree.
Here in Michigan, where minimum wage is a little over $9 an hour, there are plenty of US citizens working in Landscaping, and that work seems about as hot, dirty and unpleasant as agricultural work.

15

@13

Trump has no interest in protecting American workers.
Trump is only interested in telling his base what they want to hear, or as they put it "telling it like it is".
The perfect example of this is Trump's trade war.
It's actually going to hurt American workers and American farmers, but it's the kind of tough talk that his base loves.

17

@16. Correct. But they do share a plethora of characteristics: arrogance, deceit, concealment, ostentatiousness, shallow, petty, etc.

18

@13: Don't get me wrong, I in no way believe that this bill exists to improve anything, or that it is necessary.

Only that it is really nothing new, and it shows how the reliance of low paid foreign workers in our agriculture industry is a driver for both illegal immigration and illegal labor, both things that harm the American labor force in the aggregate.

19

@11:LOL "tantrum" Looks like somebody's nose is a wee bit out of joint for having his pomposity poked!
No Theodore everyone not living under a rock is, and has been, fully aware that farmers have been exploiting undocumented workers for a very long time. Your comment @3 was the immigration/farm worker equivalent of posting "I hate to break it to you but the sky is blue"
But! Credit where credit is due, thank you for the link in your follow up comment here @11, as that is actual useful information. Next time try leading with that, and you'll appear marginally less of a blow hard in love with their own voice.

Marginally.

20

@17: I don't give a SHIT about whose personality is more likable in a politician, I care about policy. This is a lesson we should all as a nation have learned after the results of the W administration. "Who would you rather have a beer with?" is an utterly meaningless consideration unless you actually expect to be doing this on a regular basis, and even then it's wildly selfish and short-sighted.

21

I thought tantrum was a weird word choice but it is part of his MO of pretending his critics are unreasonable.

22

@21: Oh he's just one of those guys, disingenuous, thin skinned, pompous, etc. But what'cha gonna do? That's our Teddy!


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