The Algebra of Wealth

[pknopp]

I forgot to add that during the Bush years, in 1999 the government raided something like 400 companies we knew hired illegals. In 2002 I think Bush raided 4. He completely told illegal employers don't worry about the laws. Hire them. Save money. Fuck the middle class. If it saves business owners money great. These are just jobs Americans won't do.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • In this powerful new collection of oil paintings and stories, President George W. Bush spotlights the inspiring journeys of America’s immigrants and the contributions they make to the life and prosperity of our nation.

And for the record, I agree with him. We need them. But we need them to be legal. So they are paying into social security. And not bringing wages down. If we need them fine. But they need to be legal aliens.

And then Obama did nothing just the same as Trump and Biden.

 

[sealybobo]

And then Obama did nothing just the same as Trump and Biden.

Official ICE enforcement guidelines have undergone several iterations under President Biden. Court rulings have repeatedly forced it to alter its stated policies on prioritizing enforcement of criminals and recent border crossers. Nonetheless, ICE has ended workplace raids, and ICE prosecutors have dismissed tens of thousands of cases against low-priority immigrants. But despite the claims of critics that immigration enforcement is too low, ICE activity is increasing steadily and in many cases outperforming its capacities at the end of the Trump era.

Actually, I'm going to give Trump a little credit.

Under the Trump administration, worksite raids have increased in frequency and numbers of arrests over time. These raids began shortly after the president took office in January 2017. In February of that year, a set of coordinated actions targeted multiple Asian restaurants in the Jackson, Mississippi, metropolitan area.

By April 2018, a worksite raid at Southeastern Provision, a meat processing facility in eastern Tennessee, became the largest ICE raid in a decade, with approximately 100 arrests. The National Immigration Law Center and co-counsel filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of workers detained in that raid, alleging racial profiling and unlawful arrests.

During the summer of 2018, ICE conducted multiple raids, including large-scale ones in Ohio and Texas, each resulting in more than 100 arrests. Near the one-year anniversary of the raid in Tennessee, ICE agents arrested 284 workers during a raid on an electronics refurbisher in Allen, Texas. A few months later, raids on a series of poultry processing facilities in Mississippi comprised the largest single-state operation in ICE’s history, detaining nearly 700 workers. The raids and arrests and their ripple effects have engendered fear in immigrant communities throughout the country.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) created, for the first time in U.S. history, sanctions against employers for hiring non–U.S. citizens who aren’t authorized to be employed in the U.S. In theory, IRCA was designed to hold employers accountable for violating immigration law. In practice, however, workplace raids have served primarily to terrorize workers and their communities, with minimal consequences for employers.

 

[pknopp]

Official ICE enforcement guidelines have undergone several iterations under President Biden. Court rulings have repeatedly forced it to alter its stated policies on prioritizing enforcement of criminals and recent border crossers. Nonetheless, ICE has ended workplace raids, and ICE prosecutors have dismissed tens of thousands of cases against low-priority immigrants. But despite the claims of critics that immigration enforcement is too low, ICE activity is increasing steadily and in many cases outperforming its capacities at the end of the Trump era.

Actually, I'm going to give Trump a little credit.

Under the Trump administration, worksite raids have increased in frequency and numbers of arrests over time. These raids began shortly after the president took office in January 2017. In February of that year, a set of coordinated actions targeted multiple Asian restaurants in the Jackson, Mississippi, metropolitan area.

By April 2018, a worksite raid at Southeastern Provision, a meat processing facility in eastern Tennessee, became the largest ICE raid in a decade, with approximately 100 arrests. The National Immigration Law Center and co-counsel filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of workers detained in that raid, alleging racial profiling and unlawful arrests.

During the summer of 2018, ICE conducted multiple raids, including large-scale ones in Ohio and Texas, each resulting in more than 100 arrests. Near the one-year anniversary of the raid in Tennessee, ICE agents arrested 284 workers during a raid on an electronics refurbisher in Allen, Texas. A few months later, raids on a series of poultry processing facilities in Mississippi comprised the largest single-state operation in ICE’s history, detaining nearly 700 workers. The raids and arrests and their ripple effects have engendered fear in immigrant communities throughout the country.

The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) created, for the first time in U.S. history, sanctions against employers for hiring non–U.S. citizens who aren’t authorized to be employed in the U.S. In theory, IRCA was designed to hold employers accountable for violating immigration law. In practice, however, workplace raids have served primarily to terrorize workers and their communities, with minimal consequences for employers.

The investigation at the plant in Mississippi started under Obama. Do you know what was done to those picked up? They were returned to work. Was the business charged with anything despite agents stating the business knew those working for them were illegals? No.

 

[sealybobo]

The investigation at the plant in Mississippi started under Obama. Do you know what was done to those picked up? They were returned to work. Was the business charged with anything despite agents stating the business knew those working for them were illegals? No.

I can't argue with you. I don't hear ANY Democrats talking about illegal employers.

Thom Hartmann: 'It's an Illegal Employer Problem'

Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase 'Illegal Immigration' they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames. The reality is that we don't have an 'Illegal Immigration' problem in America. We have an 'Illegal ...

www.scoop.co.nz

Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase "Illegal Immigration" they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames.

The reality is that we don't have an "Illegal Immigration" problem in America. We have an "Illegal Employer" problem.

Yet it's almost never mentioned in the mainstream media, because to point it out could slightly reduce the profits and CEO salaries of many of America's largest multi-state and multinational corporations - who both own the media and contribute heavily to conservative politicians. Republicans would prefer that the "criminals" covered in the press are working people, and that corporate and CEO criminals not get discussed.

This was written in the 2000's

But Dobbs and his fellow Republicans say the solution is to "secure our border" with a fence like that used by East Germany, but that stretches a distance about the same as that from Washington, DC to Chicago. It'll be a multi-billion-dollar boon to Halliburton and Bechtel, who will undoubtedly get the construction and maintenance contracts, but it won't stop illegal immigration. (Instead, people will legally come in on tourist and other visas, and not leave when their visas expire.)

Before Reagan's presidency, an estimated million or so people a year came into the US from Mexico - and the same number, more or less, left the US for Mexico at the end of the agricultural harvest season. Very few stayed, because there weren't jobs for them.

Non-citizens didn't have access to the non-agricultural US job market, in large part because of the power of US labor unions (before Reagan 25% of the workforce was unionized; today the private workforce is about 7% unionized), and because companies were unwilling to risk having non-tax-deductible labor expenses on their books by hiring undocumented workers without valid Social Security numbers.

But Reagan put an end to that. His 1986 amnesty program, combined with his aggressive war on organized labor (begun in 1981), in effect told both employers and non-citizens that there would be few penalties and many rewards to increasing the US labor pool (and thus driving down wages) with undocumented immigrants.

So how liberal is the media when they never talk about this?

"Illegal Immigration" is really about "Illegal Employers." As long as Democrats argue it on the basis of "illegal immigration" they'll lose, even when they're right. Instead, they need to be talking about "Illegal Employers."

"Mass deportations" and "Fences" are hysterics and false choices. Start penalizing "Illegal Employers" and non-citizens without a Social Security number will leave the country on their own.

Many of them plan to go home sooner or later anyways. When the jobs dry up, they go.

Republicans, however, are not going to allow a discussion of "Illegal Employers." Instead, they will continue to hammer the issue of "Illegal Immigrants," and tie that political albatross around the necks of Democrats (who seem all too willing to accept it).

 

[pknopp]

I can't argue with you. I don't hear ANY Democrats talking about illegal employers.

Thom Hartmann: 'It's an Illegal Employer Problem'

Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase 'Illegal Immigration' they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames. The reality is that we don't have an 'Illegal Immigration' problem in America. We have an 'Illegal ...

www.scoop.co.nz

Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase "Illegal Immigration" they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames.

The reality is that we don't have an "Illegal Immigration" problem in America. We have an "Illegal Employer" problem.

Yet it's almost never mentioned in the mainstream media, because to point it out could slightly reduce the profits and CEO salaries of many of America's largest multi-state and multinational corporations - who both own the media and contribute heavily to conservative politicians. Republicans would prefer that the "criminals" covered in the press are working people, and that corporate and CEO criminals not get discussed.

This was written in the 2000's

But Dobbs and his fellow Republicans say the solution is to "secure our border" with a fence like that used by East Germany, but that stretches a distance about the same as that from Washington, DC to Chicago. It'll be a multi-billion-dollar boon to Halliburton and Bechtel, who will undoubtedly get the construction and maintenance contracts, but it won't stop illegal immigration. (Instead, people will legally come in on tourist and other visas, and not leave when their visas expire.)

Before Reagan's presidency, an estimated million or so people a year came into the US from Mexico - and the same number, more or less, left the US for Mexico at the end of the agricultural harvest season. Very few stayed, because there weren't jobs for them.

Non-citizens didn't have access to the non-agricultural US job market, in large part because of the power of US labor unions (before Reagan 25% of the workforce was unionized; today the private workforce is about 7% unionized), and because companies were unwilling to risk having non-tax-deductible labor expenses on their books by hiring undocumented workers without valid Social Security numbers.

But Reagan put an end to that. His 1986 amnesty program, combined with his aggressive war on organized labor (begun in 1981), in effect told both employers and non-citizens that there would be few penalties and many rewards to increasing the US labor pool (and thus driving down wages) with undocumented immigrants.

So how liberal is the media when they never talk about this?

"Illegal Immigration" is really about "Illegal Employers." As long as Democrats argue it on the basis of "illegal immigration" they'll lose, even when they're right. Instead, they need to be talking about "Illegal Employers."

"Mass deportations" and "Fences" are hysterics and false choices. Start penalizing "Illegal Employers" and non-citizens without a Social Security number will leave the country on their own.

Many of them plan to go home sooner or later anyways. When the jobs dry up, they go.

Republicans, however, are not going to allow a discussion of "Illegal Employers." Instead, they will continue to hammer the issue of "Illegal Immigrants," and tie that political albatross around the necks of Democrats (who seem all too willing to accept it).

I've been saying that for years.

 

[marvin martian]

You can even get late term abortions now thanks to overturning RvW.

You must be thrilled.

 

[pknopp]

You must be thrilled.

Not me. I'm pro-life.

 

[marvin martian]

Not me. I'm pro-life.

NO you're not.

 

[pknopp]

NO you're not.

That's it. Lash out. Make you feel better?

 

[sealybobo]

It's going nowhere.

Keep telling yourself when for 40 years they've been telling you it's coming and we know the program is going broke in 10 years. Austerity cuts are coming. And you voted for it.

But, you'll convince yourself "both sides" are responsible for the cuts so no backlash for the GOP when it happens. You'll blame Obama. Or Freddy Mack.

 

[pknopp]

Keep telling yourself when for 40 years they've been telling you it's coming and we know the program is going broke in 10 years. Austerity cuts are coming. And you voted for it.

But, you'll convince yourself "both sides" are responsible for the cuts so no backlash for the GOP when it happens. You'll blame Obama. Or Freddy Mack.

There will be no cuts.

 

[sealybobo]

NO you're not.

I'm pro choice.

You know what's funny? Women are getting fixed so they can't get pregnant. If you allowed them to abort, they would abort the mistake at 20 but have the baby when she's 30. Now she'll never have one. Happy? Pro Life?

Yes, more women are getting sterilized, especially among young people, since the Supreme Court's June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a person's constitutional right to an abortion:

• Tubal ligations
  Between June 2022 and September 2023, tubal ligations, which remove the fallopian tubes, doubled. Among women and nonbinary people ages 18–30, the rate of permanent sterilization increased by 58 procedures per 100,000 person-months after the ruling.
• Vasectomies
  Vasectomies also increased, more than tripling during the same time period. However, the rate has leveled off at the higher level, while tubal ligations continue to increase.
  
  
  

Some doctors say the increase in requests for sterilization may be due to politics, with patients deciding that the risks of surgery no longer make sense for their health care. For example, Dr. Matthew Wollenschlaeger in Orlando, Florida, saw his number of sterilization consultations increase from one or two patients per week to about a dozen after the Dobbs decision leaked. His patients now include people from Georgia

 

[sealybobo]

There will be no cuts.

Yea and Republicans said abortion was off limits. We see that was a lie.

You're wrong. Of course I can't prove it. But you're doing what Republicans hope you'll do. Don't believe them.

 

[marvin martian]

That's it. Lash out. Make you feel better?

I'm merely pointing out the fact that voting for the most pro-abortion administration in American history makes you pro-abortion.

 

[pknopp]

Yea and Republicans said abortion was off limits. We see that was a lie.

You're wrong. Of course I can't prove it. But you're doing what Republicans hope you'll do. Don't believe them.

Anyone that wants an abortion in the country can get one.

 

[pknopp]

I'm merely pointing out the fact that voting for the most pro-abortion administration in American history makes you pro-abortion.

I have no idea what you are rambling about. I've not had anyone I voted for win in a very long time.

I will note, that access to abortion has expanded since the overturn of RvW. You voted for that, right?