News of the Day III

[BurnTHalO]

What does Biden have to do with gas prices? I guess I didn't realize he ran OPEC. And the pipeline? F the pipeline. What about the people who live near the pipeline, what about those who rely on water which is threatened by the constant leaks, what about the affect on the environment and the plants and animals? That pipeline is for moving product from Canada to Texas to sell on the global market. And as with all corporate propaganda the number of workers affected is greatly exaggerated too. Maybe they should be retrained in new technology that actually has a future. And executive orders are a problem now but they weren't for the past four years? Did anything Trump do show that he gave a flying f about all of those who didn't vote for him in 2016? One of my coworkers is a staunch Fox News watcher and literally every point you just tried to make she tried to bring up at work over the last week. Pathetic.

Let me add studies showed the net loss of jobs if the pipeline went through was huge. The idea that we lose all these jobs based for the pipeline is based on the idea that jobs don't exist for the sand tar if the pipeline doesn't go in. That's false. They are at this moment pulling those oils and sending to Texas. The pipeline eliminates some of those truck and train jobs who currently move that product. But something tells me gp won't come back and respond to that.

[RSchmitz]

It's also contra to the interests of American businesses the way that they exploit the cheap labor. THAT is why nobody has "secured the border". It's because there are whole swaths of the American economy (construction, agriculture, hospitality) that would have to change their business models if it were.

That's why you can't "secure the border" before you do immigration reform or vice versa. For that and many other reasons the two have to be linked.

I-9 compliance was in full force under Trump. Some fringe businesses may profit from exploiting cheap labor under the table but it's definitely Democrats who are ok with it if it means they can stay here and scratch out a living.

I don't think I can accept an argument that these businesses need to act illegally to survive but also somehow have enough power to lobby politicians away from what their vastly larger base of constituents want.

Both Democrats and Republicans want to end the status quo on the border, one of my big hopes with Biden is that he can act on the campaign promise Obama forgot about on his first election tour. Why Obama abandoned it and why we haven't heard a peep from Biden about it has me feeling like Democratic leadership is ok with the status quo though

[ChaseSpace]

I know gas in Maine has gone up from 2.05 to 2.80 real quick.

You're either 13 years old or deliberately dense if you haven't understood that gas prices always spike in the spring and in the fall as supplier switch to their summer mixes and their winter mixes.

[BurnTHalO]

You're either 13 years old or deliberately dense if you haven't understood that gas prices always spike in the spring and in the fall as supplier switch to their summer mixes and their winter mixes.

Or when people start driving and traveling more, like, maybe after a full year of a pandemic where they were stuck close to home, but now are seeing vaccinations and cases drop?

[ChaseSpace]

Or when people start driving and traveling more, like, maybe after a full year of a pandemic where they were stuck close to home, but now are seeing vaccinations and cases drop?

Both explanations involve deeper thinking than "Dems hate gas!!!" so I understand GP not being able to realize those factors.

[pete]

I-9 compliance was in full force under Trump. Some fringe businesses may profit from exploiting cheap labor under the table but it's definitely Democrats who are ok with it if it means they can stay here and scratch out a living.

I don't think I can accept an argument that these businesses need to act illegally to survive but also somehow have enough power to lobby politicians away from what their vastly larger base of constituents want.

Both Democrats and Republicans want to end the status quo on the border, one of my big hopes with Biden is that he can act on the campaign promise Obama forgot about on his first election tour. Why Obama abandoned it and why we haven't heard a peep from Biden about it has me feeling like Democratic leadership is ok with the status quo though

Walk around a construction site with me sometime and tell me if you still believe Trump stopped businesses from exploiting cheap labor from Latin America.

[RSchmitz]

Walk around a construction site with me sometime and tell me if you still believe Trump stopped businesses from exploiting cheap labor from Latin America.

There are 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, of course it is still happening. If we are being honest though, it’s being allowed to happen because the alternative is shipping families back out of the states

[pete]

If we are being honest though, it’s being allowed to happen because the alternative is shipping families back out of the states

If we're being honest, like I said, businesses don't really WANT them shipped back, nor do they want to completely shut down immigration as a whole. Even in the white collar industries, H1B visas are critical to the American workforce.

[RSchmitz]

If we're being honest, like I said, businesses don't really WANT them shipped back, nor do they want to completely shut down immigration as a whole. Even in the white collar industries, H1B visas are critical to the American workforce.

Right, both sides are complicit and too pussy to take the steps needed to be done

[pete]

Right, both sides are complicit and too pussy to take the steps needed to be done

Or maybe immigrants/immigration isn't a terrible thing and the United States has always leaned on immigrant labor to build itself up? Because not too long ago the Irish were the so-called invading horde. Maybe, maaaayyyyyyybe, we should back away from our xenophobic attitudes about immigrants and recognize they can make valuable contributions to the country and we need to therefore build an immigration system that is not just strict for the sake of being strict, but also fair and humane.

[RSchmitz]

Or maybe immigrants/immigration isn't a terrible thing and the United States has always leaned on immigrant labor to build itself up? Because not too long ago the Irish were the so-called invading horde. Maybe, maaaayyyyyyybe, we should back away from our xenophobic attitudes about immigrants and recognize they can make valuable contributions to the country and we need to therefore build an immigration system that is not just strict for the sake of being strict, but also fair and humane.

Not too long ago? Irish immigration to the United States peaked in the early/mid 1800’s with the Irish potato famine, that was 200 years ago. Lewis and Clark had barely finished coming back from their expedition, and the United States was begging for bodies to populate the Western frontier and to throw into meat grinding wars that were to come. They needed immigrants then.

Now? The situations are not comparable, the need for immigrants from some zombie companies in some dying industries which should be eliminated through normal economic processes does not mean that the United States needs immigrants. If you are advocating for immigration because of the cheap labor they bring, aren’t you also advocating for the continued exploit of that cheap labor?

We can both be on the right side of this debate but if you start blurring the lines between wanting controlled legal immigration with a secured border where everyone is accounted for, and xenophobia for all immigrants, than we can not be friends in this debate.

[RSchmitz]

How do you feel about the Obama campaign pitch from 2008? I thought that was a perfect balance of alleviating immigration concerns while also bringing all current illegal immigrants into the fold. We have to put a cap on immigration somewhere though

[RSchmitz]

What a relief it is to have a President where it’s considered a busy news day when the President trips

[Puckhead]

What a relief it is to have a President where it’s considered a busy news day when the President trips

I’m sure this was wall to wall on Fox and the other two media cesspools....”everybody knows” he’s got onset dementia and he’s basically in a physical decline. He’s merely a puppet for the radical, socialist left.

[Flycoon]

I’m sure this was wall to wall on Fox and the other two media cesspools....”everybody knows” he’s got onset dementia and he’s basically in a physical decline. He’s merely a puppet for the radical, socialist left.

He's a blue dog in progressive disguise. The "no weed, ever" move is disappointing.