Let Them Eat Electric Cake

[merh]

Dec 3, 2021 14:41:48 GMT abbey1227 said:

Dec 3, 2021 6:40:53 GMT merh said:

I don't even disagree with that............with the exception of it necessarily being a problem.

THAT's the life lesson you're supposed to pick up on.

You work harder and smarter when you're younger and more able to........so that you don't have to keep working til you're body has nothing left to offer.

MOST people are able to do that........despite all of the anecdotal excuse making I've been flooded with for years.

You know it's true. You've seen it again and again. Criminals have all sorts of energy and motivation to commit crimes......but be productive? and plan better for the future? THAT's too tough a task? More tough than dealing with the Govt? and going to prison?

But crimes are easier than work.

My husband spoke with a prostitute who said she preferred doing that to playing secretary 8 hours a day. Hopefully she had an IRA because one can secretary longer than hooking.

Its like my husband swap meeting.
He saw he could make $80-$300 in 5 hours selling. 
He didn't count 3 hours loading & unloading the truck or the hours spent cruising yard sales,  much less money spent buying crap. He was proud of the $5 item he sold for $100, but forget the stuff he bought that he took a loss on or just threw out.

They want to get away with something-like the cheating on taxes thing.

But my clients working construction, bodies breaking down, unable to do it do they wind up on disability...

Last night my news 6 said problem is fewer people want you work construction these days so the wage went up which us affecting the building costs.

We are seeing more & more apartment complexes evict everyone to raise rents remodeling.

[abbey1227]

Dec 3, 2021 18:06:56 GMT merh said:

But crimes are easier than work.
My husband spoke with a prostitute who said she preferred doing that to playing secretary 8 hours a day. Hopefully she had an IRA because one can secretary longer than hooking.
Its like my husband swap meeting.
He saw he could make $80-$300 in 5 hours selling. 
He didn't count 3 hours loading & unloading the truck or the hours spent cruising yard sales,  much less money spent buying crap. He was proud of the $5 item he sold for $100, but forget the stuff he bought that he took a loss on or just threw out.

They want to get away with something-like the cheating on taxes thing.
But my clients working construction, bodies breaking down, unable to do it do they wind up on disability...

Last night my news 6 said problem is fewer people want you work construction these days so the wage went up which us affecting the building costs.
We are seeing more & more apartment complexes evict everyone to raise rents remodeling.

There's always a portion of society/people that wanna get by the easy way.......or to take the shortcuts. That's why lottery does such good business, too.

I still have more respect for a hooker that actually earns an income. I hope they plan for early retirement, as well.

That sounds an awful lot like the gamblers that only remember their winnings, but conveniently forget their losses, too.

Again, just like that hooker..........how does a construction worker NOT realize that they will likely not be able to perform that job from 20 all the way up to retirement age?

No minimum wage hike required. DEMAND drives what the reality of a wage should be.

Do you blame them? Demand is only going up for rentals. Why should they make a smaller percentage........when they can invest a little, remodel, and then command a higher rent/profit?

[abbey1227]

Dec 3, 2021 18:06:56 GMT merh said:

But crimes are easier than work.

one more thought on wages/work/compensation......... you mentioned people working on railroads or Vets or whatever........and it struck me that for the most part THAT's how it's supposed to work.

If I hire you to build a home for me, we negotiate a price, agree to the terms and upon completion, we're done.....unless we decide to go into another project together. The builder doesn't get to come back years later and lay some sorta claim to my property now having a higher market value, right? So why would a railroad worker or anyone else expect it to be any different?

You get hired to be a cog........and that's what you ARE.

If you don't wanna be a cog, get a better education, acquire more skills, or invent some kind of product or service that other people wanna pay you for.

[merh]

Dec 4, 2021 14:43:04 GMT abbey1227 said:

Dec 3, 2021 18:06:56 GMT merh said:

But crimes are easier than work.

one more thought on wages/work/compensation......... you mentioned people working on railroads or Vets or whatever........and it struck me that for the most part THAT's how it's supposed to work.

If I hire you to build a home for me, we negotiate a price, agree to the terms and upon completion, we're done.....unless we decide to go into another project together. The builder doesn't get to come back years later and lay some sorta claim to my property now having a higher market value, right? So why would a railroad worker or anyone else expect it to be any different?

You get hired to be a cog........and that's what you ARE.

If you don't wanna be a cog, get a better education, acquire more skills, or invent some kind of product or service that other people wanna pay you for.

We talk about the American Dream. What all these migrants are coming here for. Work hard at a job, & live a decent life.

Of course you don't get that.

The broken promise that you work hard & get a decent retirement at the end.

[merh]

www.ajc.com/news/this-has-been-happening-for-a-long-time-modern-day-slavery-uncovered-in-ga/SHBHTD

‘This has been happening for a long time’: Modern-day slavery uncovered in South Georgia
2021/12/3 19:05 (EST)
© TheAtlantaJournalConstitution

ATLANTA — A yearslong human trafficking operation trapped migrant workers in “modern-day slavery” on South Georgia farms, according to a federal indictment unsealed last week.

Victims include over one hundred laborers smuggled from Mexico and Central America into “brutal” and “inhumane” working conditions. Under the threat of gun violence, some were allegedly forced to dig for onions with their bare hands, earning only 20 cents for each bucket harvested. At least two people died on the job. Another was allegedly repeatedly raped.

When not out in the fields, workers were detained in work camps surrounded by electric fencing, or held in cramped living quarters, including dirty trailers with raw sewage leaks. There was little to no access to food or safe drinking water.

Twenty-four accused members and associates of the criminal enterprise that perpetuated the exploitation now face a slew of felony charges, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia. The multi-agency cooperation that yielded the indictment – dubbed “Operation Blooming Onion” – may be one of the largest-ever human trafficking and visa fraud investigations in the country, VICE News reported.

Only two of the defendants are described as South Georgia business owners in the indictment; most were labor contractors or recruiters. Their alleged criminal mistreatment of workers took many forms.

According to the indictment, laborers were charged unlawful fees for transportation, food and housing. And though they were putatively hired for agricultural work, some migrants were illegally used for lawn care, construction, and repair tasks. To prevent escapes, members of the accused crime ring unlawfully confiscated workers’ passports and documents. Conspirators also sold and traded workers amongst themselves, per the indictment.

“The American dream is a powerful attraction for destitute and desperate people across the globe, and where there is need, there is greed from those who will attempt to exploit these willing workers for their own obscene profits,” David Estes, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, said in a statement.

“Thanks to outstanding work from our law enforcement partners, Operation Blooming Onion frees more than 100 individuals from the shackles of modern-day slavery and will hold accountable those who put them in chains.”

The crimes chronicled in the indictment were alleged to have occurred in the South Georgia counties of Atkinson, Bacon, Coffee, Tattnall, Toombs and Ware, where local farmers paid the defendants to provide contract laborers.

The crime ring that orchestrated the human trafficking operation reaped over $200 million from the illegal scheme. Conspirators are facing charges including mail fraud and mail fraud conspiracy, forced labor and forced labor conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and witness tampering.

Solimar Mercado-Spencer is a senior staff attorney at the Farmworker Rights Division of the Georgia Legal Services Program, a nonprofit law firm that represents low-income farm workers in Georgia with issues related to their wages or working conditions. Among the division’s current set of clients are victims of the criminal enterprise uncovered by Operation Blooming Onion.

Mercado-Spencer said the revelations inside the federal indictment were no surprise.

“This has been happening for a long time in Georgia. … And these people that were arrested are not the only ones doing these things,” she said. “I hope (law enforcement) keeps busting these operations because that’s not the only one going on in Georgia.”

Because it’s happening in rural areas, nobody sees the victims, Mercado-Spencer said.

“All you see is, you know, your onions at Kroger. You can go buy them. You don’t know where they came from. But this is happening and nobody notices it. And these are essential workers that have been keeping us fed through the pandemic.”

Per the indictment, the exploited foreign workers were admitted to the U.S. through fraudulent use of the H-2A guest-worker visa program, which has been booming in Georgia as farmers struggle to find domestic sources of labor. According to the federal Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Georgia had 27,614 H-2A positions certified in fiscal year 2020, up from roughly 5,500 in fiscal year 2010. Georgia is second only to Florida for most H-2A workers in the nation.

Under the H-2A program, worker’s legal status in the U.S. is contingent on remaining under the employment of the party that sponsored their visa. Mercado-Spencer said that structure can put workers at disadvantage, with limited worker protections included in the program being overlooked.

“It’s not like they can just leave and go work for another employer because the visa is tied to that one employer. So that is the problem with the H-2A visa program, is that it gives too much control to the employer over the worker. And once the workers are here, they are kind of stuck.”

Sometimes, Mercado-Spencer added, employers “want to cut corners and make as much profit as possible … and that’s how they do it, by exploiting these workers.”

Among the federal agencies involved in uncovering the South Georgia trafficking ring was Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), which is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In a statement released Monday, ICE said that Operation Blooming Onion is the first investigation brought to a close under the agency’s new “labor exploitation model.”

In October, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced a shift in priorities for immigration enforcement. Instead of targeting unauthorized workers through mass raids on workplaces – as was the norm in past administrations – authorities are now taking aim at “exploitative employers” and business that violate labor laws.

“We will not tolerate unscrupulous employers who exploit unauthorized workers, conduct illegal activities, or impose unsafe working conditions,” Mayorkas said in a memo.

Mercado-Spencer said she welcomes the change in policy established by Mayorkas’ directives, with reservations.

“It’s not something permanent. It is not established law. With a different president, things could shift again in the opposite direction. What immigrants need is legislation to protect them.”

[merh]

Isn't this what you always say, ABBEY?

[merh]

I assume you get this one

[abbey1227]

Dec 5, 2021 6:35:47 GMT merh said:

I assume you get this one

and yet, science has told us that Neanderthals and others actually had a lot more brains than previously given credit for.

IF anything, I think modern day humans are given far too much credit for being brainy. Sure! Some of them are.........but the majority? 

[merh]

This reminds me of you.

[abbey1227]

Dec 6, 2021 8:42:05 GMT merh said:

This reminds me of you.

I saw that one, too..........and agreed.

People usually are the problem

[merh]

And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at oppression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on.

[merh]

[abbey1227]

Dec 9, 2021 23:39:47 GMT merh said:

And the great owners, who must lose their land in an upheaval, the great owners with access to history, with eyes to read history and to know the great fact: when property accumulates in too few hands it is taken away. And that companion fact: when a majority of the people are hungry and cold they will take by force what they need. And the little screaming fact that sounds through all history: repression works only to strengthen and knit the repressed. The great owners ignored the three cries of history. The land fell into fewer hands, the number of dispossessed increased, and every effort of the great owners was directed at oppression. The money was spent for arms, for gas to protect the great holdings, and spies were sent to catch the murmuring of revolt so that it might be stamped out. The changing economy was ignored, plans for the change ignored; and only means to destroy revolt were considered, while the causes of revolt went on.

And some actually claim to not be commies with crap like that floating about and receiving nods of approval?

[abbey1227]

Dec 9, 2021 23:57:00 GMT merh said:

Nobody is starving in the US........quite the opposite in fact.

And you supposedly voted for more War

[merh]

[merh]

Dec 10, 2021 2:27:51 GMT abbey1227 said:

Dec 9, 2021 23:57:00 GMT merh said:

Nobody is starving in the US........quite the opposite in fact.

And you supposedly voted for more War

How did I vote for more war?
Did Biden say he was starting any wars.
He got us out of Afghanistan. 
Messy, but it was never going to be clean & notice the screaming about it. (Politicians & military)

Obvious_Armadillo858•2 days ago

Well they can't be the same because the 1920s also saw the world trying to recover from a worldwide pandemic which killed millions, wiped swathes of workers from the labour force, tanked national economies and caused massive supply chain issues and inflation. And luckily we don't have anything like that

steezefabreeze•2 days ago

Written Jan 01, 2020. If they only knew.

That tweet was written New Years Day 2020

We apparently have to separate our trash next year.

[merh]

Dec 10, 2021 2:26:53 GMT abbey1227 said:

Dec 9, 2021 23:39:47 GMT merh said:

And some actually claim to not be commies with crap like that floating about and receiving nods of approval?

Never took a stab at The Grapes of Wrath?
That quote not in the image was from Steinbeck's novel.

Damned commies who survived the Dustbowl!

www.goodreads.com/quotes/369907-and-the-great-owners-who-must-lose-their-land-in

[abbey1227]

Dec 10, 2021 3:15:15 GMT merh said:

How did I vote for more war?
Did Biden say he was starting any wars.
He got us out of Afghanistan. 
Messy, but it was never going to be clean & notice the screaming about it. (Politicians & military)

Obvious_Armadillo858•2 days ago

Well they can't be the same because the 1920s also saw the world trying to recover from a worldwide pandemic which killed millions, wiped swathes of workers from the labour force, tanked national economies and caused massive supply chain issues and inflation. And luckily we don't have anything like that

steezefabreeze•2 days ago

Written Jan 01, 2020. If they only knew.

That tweet was written New Years Day 2020

We apparently have to separate our trash next year.

History is not enough of a lesson for you?

He kinda screwed up that 'withdrawal'.

Let's do a real comparison between the 1918 flu and this slight one today.......by percentages. 

[abbey1227]

Dec 10, 2021 3:17:15 GMT merh said:

Dec 10, 2021 2:26:53 GMT abbey1227 said:

And some actually claim to not be commies with crap like that floating about and receiving nods of approval?

Never took a stab at The Grapes of Wrath?
That quote not in the image was from Steinbeck's novel.

Damned commies who survived the Dustbowl!

I should care one bit where that kinda thinking came from?

Karl Marx or John Steinbeck?    The end result is the same.

[merh]

Dec 10, 2021 3:18:59 GMT abbey1227 said:

Dec 10, 2021 3:15:15 GMT merh said:

How did I vote for more war?
Did Biden say he was starting any wars.
He got us out of Afghanistan. 
Messy, but it was never going to be clean & notice the screaming about it. (Politicians & military)

That tweet was written New Years Day 2020

We apparently have to separate our trash next year.

History is not enough of a lesson for you?

He kinda screwed up that 'withdrawal'.

Let's do a real comparison between the 1918 flu and this slight one today.......by percentages. 

You think Donnie would have done better?
It was a mess. It was always going to be a mess.

They were told we were leaving by what, May? Whatever date Donnie originally signed up for. Why the hell were people not out of there? 
Comfortable?
Figured it would get delayed?

The 1918 Spanish flu was the first of three flu pandemics caused by H1N1 influenza A virus; the most recent one was the 2009 swine flu pandemic.The 1977 Russian flu was also caused by H1N1 virus, but it mostly affected younger populations.The ongoing pandemic of COVID-19, which began in December 2019 and is caused by SARS-CoV-2, is the deadliest respiratory virus pandemic since the Spanish flu.

In the US, about 28% of the population of 105 million became infected, and 500,000 to 850,000 died (0.48 to 0.81 percent of the population).

Number wise we have hit the death numbers we did back then.