2020 US Election (Part Two)

[Cloud_Strife]

The national attention on the protests doesn't actually show the reality here. Most people I know think those protestors are idiots who's actions just risk making the quarantine longer.

The people in those protests are mostly conservatives from rural communities that haven't been hard hit yet but population centers like Macomb and Gennessee counties fully understand why she's doing what she's doing.

They're astroturfed.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

The people in those protests are mostly conservatives from rural communities that haven't been hard hit yet but population centers like Macomb and Gennessee counties fully understand why she's doing what she's doing.

That's factually incorrect. Data shows that the "reopen America" protesters are 70% employed and upper middle class. They just want their cooks, cleaners, hairdressers, nail technicians, drivers, masseuses, deliverers, and other service people to go back to work and serve them. They want the working class to sacrifice themselves for their non-essential needs.

https://twitter.com/jimtankersley/status/1254903864702251008

 

[Cloud_Strife]

That's factually incorrect. Data shows that the "reopen America" protesters are 70% employed and upper middle class. They just want their cooks, cleaners, hairdressers, nail technicians, drivers, masseuses, deliverers, and other service people to go back to work and serve them. They want the working class to sacrifice themselves for their non-essential needs.

https://twitter.com/jimtankersley/status/1254903864702251008

Same as it ever was

 

[Ajidica]

They're astroturfed.

Nah, this requires a level of idiocy that can only be 100% Pure Human. No astroturfing needed for this.

 

[Lexicus]

Nah, this requires a level of idiocy that can only be 100% Pure Human. No astroturfing needed for this.

Yeah, I mean I tend to think the same thing but the protests do appear to be organized to some degree by national-level conservative groups in the Koch universe...not that that means all the protesters are being paid or whatever.

 

[innonimatu]

The republicans, some of them and their universe of "think-tanks", will end up outflanking the democrats in the next election. For PR purposes only, sure, but that is what counts. If either group when in power mistreats workers anyway but one gives them some lip service and calls the others hypocrites, my guess is that it'll be effective.

There’s an even darker side to the situation, though. Somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of the meat-packing workforce is made up of undocumented workers from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador as well as immigrants from East African nations. As Smithfield Foods’ statement on the Sioux Falls outbreak indelicately put it, the living conditions of these immigrants are “different than they are with your traditional American family.” Get it? They are in overcrowded houses with inadequate sanitation. “They” aren’t like “us”. Since many — perhaps a majority — of them lack legal status, they are unable to defend themselves against exploitative or coercive labor practices. As recently as last August, ICE agents were rounding them up by the hundreds for deportation.
We need to make up our minds on a number of issues. On the one hand, we shower praise on “essential workers” in hospitals, grocery stores, sanitation and other occupations. On the other, we engage in acts of economic coercion with vulnerable populations who do some of the dirtiest, most difficult, and most dangerous work around. We build a fence along our southern border to keep out illegal immigrants but then seek to force those who are already here to do jobs American citizens simply will not do.
There’s an unsavory tendency towards “work as we say, not as we work” in the disconnect between those making the policies and those living with their consequences. The meat packers — like the doctors, nurses, and janitors who heal our sick and clean our hospitals — are essential workers all the time, not just during a crisis. We need these workers, and it is time we started treating them that way.

 

[Bugfatty300]

The republicans, some of them and their universe of "think-tanks", will end up outflanking the democrats in the next election. For PR purposes only, sure, but that is what counts. If either group when in power mistreats workers anyway but one gives them some lip service and calls the others hypocrites, my guess is that it'll be effective.

Lip service isn't really lip service if it's hidden away in an editorial on a think-tank site. Lets see this "undocumented/illegal immigrant meat packers are essential worker heroes who are being exploited by greedy capitalists" sentiment being proclaimed on Fox News or a White House press release, or a Trump tweet. I know of at least 2 popular Democrats who would say this proudly and openly if they haven't already.

Ironically the quoted section is more than lip service; it's actually spot on. I worked in my home town's Tyson Foods plant and the above is true.

And the same Tyson Foods is being kept open despite being ground zero for all of the C19 cases in town. Lot's of locals have quit or striking and I can't help but think that the burden is now entirely on the non-US citizen workers, legal and non-legal, who don't have much of a choice in the matter.

 

[Socrates99]

That's factually incorrect. Data shows that the "reopen America" protesters are 70% employed and upper middle class. They just want their cooks, cleaners, hairdressers, nail technicians, drivers, masseuses, deliverers, and other service people to go back to work and serve them. They want the working class to sacrifice themselves for their non-essential needs.

https://twitter.com/jimtankersley/status/1254903864702251008

Factually incorrect is probably the wrong phrase. I agree with what you said but I never said they were poor or WWC or whatever. Just that they're not from the communities that have been hard hit and definitely not representative of the state at all. Whitmer has relatively high approval considering these partisan times and especially considering the state was one of three states that won Trump the election.

J's assessment is way off. I don't know if I'd back the astroturfing claim but it doesn't take a majority to raise some hell. Just a vocal few.

 

[Lexicus]

J's assessment is way off.

Just quoting this for posterity as you can basically just copy-paste it any time J posts anything about politics

 

[Ferocitus]

Michigan looks like a safe place to hunker down during this crisis.

 

[Takhisis]

They're astroturfed.

As Ajidica says, there really are people that stupid. See post #2630 for an example.

 

[Ajidica]

Michigan looks like a safe place to hunker down during this crisis.
View attachment 554175

Looks like they broke out their urban guerrilla costumes!

 

[Ferocitus]

At least the US media caters for stupid people. Imagine how bad the situation would be if they had to figure out stuff for themselves!

 

[Cloud_Strife]

Michigan looks like a safe place to hunker down during this crisis.
View attachment 554175

Just imagine how different the police response would have been if they were black instead of white.

I'm betting at least one would be injured, in jail or dead.

That's white priviledge for you

 

[Bugfatty300]

I say we nominate another elderly white man who's a raging pervert who can't keep his hands to himself.

Fight fire with fire.

Alas, if only there was a popular democrat who fits that description...

 

[Zardnaar]

Just imagine how different the police response would have been if they were black instead of white.

I'm betting at least one would be injured, in jail or dead.

That's white priviledge for you

Black Panthers used to do it.

They were fine but it was also the last time NRA supported gun control.

Best way to lobby for gun control. Have blacks carry them in groups.

 

[Ironsided]

The republicans, some of them and their universe of "think-tanks", will end up outflanking the democrats in the next election. For PR purposes only, sure, but that is what counts. If either group when in power mistreats workers anyway but one gives them some lip service and calls the others hypocrites, my guess is that it'll be effective.

I have given up. I will shudder at the American election from afar. I know Trump is worse for us in the rest of the world, but he may be the same or better for average Americans. That is how uselessly I see the Dems progressing.

 

[Lexicus]

I know Trump is worse for us in the rest of the world, but he may be the same or better for average Americans.

He absolutely isn't.

 

[Socrates99]

Michigan looks like a safe place to hunker down during this crisis.
View attachment 554175

Have to hand it to them, at least they're all wearing masks.

 

[Ferocitus]

Bats, Huawei, Coronavirus, Zoom, Chinese researchers in Texas, dirty money(?).
This has got it all!

The Education Department has asked the University of Texas System to provide documentation of its dealings with the Chinese laboratory that U.S. officials are investigating as a potential source of the coronavirus pandemic.

The request for records of gifts or contracts from the Wuhan Institute of Virology and its researcher Shi Zhengli, known for her work on bats, is part of a broader department investigation into possible faulty financial disclosures of foreign money by the Texas group of universities. The Education Department's letter, reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, also asks the UT System to share documents regarding potential ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party and some two dozen Chinese universities and companies, including Huawei Technologies Co. and a unit of China National Petroleum Corp. The department is also seeking documents related to any university system contracts or gifts from Eric Yuan, a U.S. citizen who is the chief executive officer of Zoom Video Communications.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-pr...-lab-scrutinized-over-coronavirus-11588325401