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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 7:53:14 GMT -8
Lance is an uncommon name nowadays. But in medieval times people were named Lance a lot. Gov. DeathSentence Continues His Attack on Florida Business.A newly-signed bill by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that sharply cracks down on the ability of immigrants to work is setting off alarm bells in the state's agriculture industry which relies heavily on immigrant labor, reported Scripps News West Palm on Monday. "From farming to construction, the law is expected to have a wide-ranging impact on a number of industries vital to Florida's economy," said the report. "Some farm workers are already too scared to go to work and are considering leaving the state, which could cause a huge staffing crisis for Florida agriculture." Among other things, the bill institutes new state-level penalties for transporting undocumented immigrants to Florida, imposes new requirements on certain companies to check immigration status, and renders out-of-state driver's licenses issued to undocumented immigrants void in the state. It also adds another $12 million to the "migrant relocation" program that DeSantis controversially used to round up migrants in Texas and fly them to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. "'I've been hearing that probably they will not be sending their kids to school, and they are afraid to go to work, and it's sad,' Denise Negron, the executive director of the Farmworker Coordinator Council of Palm Beach County," said in the report. "'This is the people that we have to thank because thanks to them we have food on our tables,' Negron said. 'Agriculture and farm work is a job that nobody wants to do.' During a Thursday fundraiser gala for the Farmworker Coordinating Council, Negron said she worries for the organization's future as they work to provide social and human services to farm workers." 'Everybody is in a panic': New right-wing Florida bill threatens 'huge crisis' for industryGet the Truck Out of FloridaTruck drivers called for boycotts over the weekend against Florida's tough new penalties and restrictions on undocumented immigrants in the state, which include requiring employers to verify if workers are authorized to work in the United States. Social media "exploded" with reports of Latino truck drivers threatening to stop delivering to and in Florida, according to independent journalist Arturo Dominguez. "Don't enter Florida," one trucker said in a TikTok video. “My truck will not be going to Florida at all. I’m pretty sure we can all come together as a Latino community and boycott Florida as a whole because what they are doing to our brothers and sisters out there is not fair,” a truck driver said in another TikTok video. |
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 7:59:27 GMT -8
A Sonic Worker Was Killed by A 12 Year-Old. Guess Which State, Guess Which Weapon.
According to police, this started when 20-year-old Angel Gomez of Fort Worth arrived at the Sonic with others in his vehicle. Gomez allegedly began urinating in the back parking lot, so (32 year-old Matt) Davis came outside speak to him.
There was a fight between the two, and that’s when police say the 12-year-old shooting suspect, a passenger, grabbed the AR-15 rifle from Gomez’s vehicle and shot Davis multiple times. He later died at the hospital.
Police say Gomez ran away with the AR-15 but then returned and was arrested. The 12-year-old also took off.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:01:24 GMT -8
It's a Busman's Holiday
Organizers are calling it a first for autonomous transportation: computer-driven buses operating on a real route with real passengers navigating through real traffic.
But don’t call Edinburgh’s new autonomous buses, which begin their service today, “driverless.” They’re staffed by not just one, but two transport employees — twice the number required for a conventional bus in Scotland’s bustling capital.
It’s why this bold step toward the future of public transportation remains very much an experiment — a yearslong trial aimed as much at assuaging the public as testing new technology.
“When the technology is completely signed off, and we’re allowed to take the driver out of the cab, he’ll be able to move around the saloon, engage with passengers, check tickets, keep the service successful, that kind of thing,” said Steven Russell, 34, an innovation manager for Stagecoach Scotland, one of Britain’s largest bus operators. The company outfitted the fleet of five Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV vehicles with autonomous driver technology.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:02:47 GMT -8
The Mistake By Lake Is Still At It
A judge has rejected a bid by election officials to throw out the last remaining election misconduct claim by Kari Lake, the 2022 Republican candidate for Arizona governor, setting up a three-day trial over the former TV anchor's challenge of her defeat to Democrat Katie Hobbs.
In a ruling issued Monday night, Superior Court Judge Peter A. Thompson refused to throw out Lake’s claim that centered on signature-verification efforts of early ballots in Maricopa County.
Thompson said Lake should have the chance to present testimony about whether Arizona's most populous county properly verified signatures on ballot affidavit envelopes.
The trial is scheduled to begin Wednesday.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:05:19 GMT -8
Ronald Reagin Didn't Say This First. Harry Truman Did: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job; a depression is when you lose yours.”
Since December 2021 the U.S. economy has added almost six million jobs while the unemployment rate has fallen from 3.9 percent to 3.4 percent, a level not seen since the 1960s. And no, unemployment isn’t low because Americans have dropped out of the labor force: The percentage of adults either working or looking for a job has declined, but that’s almost entirely a result of an aging population, and labor force participation is right back in line with prepandemic projections.
But inflation, while still elevated, has come way down. The inflation rate over the past six months was 3.3 percent, compared with 9.6 percent last June. The price of gasoline, a major political talking point last year, is now more or less normal compared with average earnings.
And people have noticed. In October, 20 percent of Americans named inflation as the most important problem facing the nation; that’s now down to 9 percent.
So what’s going on? The general rule seems to be that Americans are feeling good about their personal situation but believe that bad things are happening to other people. A Federal Reserve study found that in late 2021 a record-high percentage of Americans were positive about their own finances while a record low were positive about the economy. We don’t have results for 2022 yet, but my guess is that they’ll look similar.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:08:50 GMT -8
"nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public" -- Attributed to H.L. Mencken
Many economists and budget experts predict that a default would trigger significant interest rate increases, a fall in the stock market, instability throughout the financial system, and the weakening of the dollar’s leading role in the global economy. Still the people don’t believe them, at least not yet. When a recent Economist/YouGov survey asked voters whether a failure to raise the debt ceiling followed by a default on the national debt would be a crisis, only 37% answered in the affirmative. Forty percent thought it would be a major problem but not a crisis, and the rest regarded this prospect as at most a minor problem.
One possible interpretation: many people don’t yet understand the link between the debt ceiling and debt default. A recent CBS News poll informed voters that “the debt ceiling is the legal limit the federal government can borrow to pay its current debts” and then asked whether Congress should raise the ceiling. Forty-six percent said that Congress should do so; more (54%) said that it should not. But when informed failing to raise the ceiling could result in the U.S. defaulting on its current debt, only 30% continued to say that the ceiling should not be increased.
But the Ignorance of the American Public Will Lead to a Lot of People Going Broke.
Spending at US retailers rose in April following two months of declines, showing the US consumer is still fueling the economy.
Retail sales, which are adjusted for seasonality but not for inflation, rose by 0.4% in April from the prior month, the Department of Commerce reported on Tuesday. That’s a weaker gain than the 0.8% increase that economists were expecting, according to Refinitiv.
The April increase was driven by spending at car dealerships, restaurants, online, and at “miscellaneous” stores such as floral shops and pet supply stores. Americans curbed their spending on sporting goods, furniture, electronics and at gas stations that month.
Retail sales fell by a upwardly revised 0.7% in March, in part due to lower gas prices and lower spending on durable goods.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:13:22 GMT -8
This High School Is Teaching an Important Lesson. Don't Be a Snitch.
Mary Walton thought her teacher repeatedly saying a racist slur in class last week was wrong, so the 15-year-old sophomore at Glendale High School in Springfield, Mo., pulled out her phone and started filming, the student’s lawyer said.
She recorded him saying the n-word twice before he appeared to notice what she was doing.
“Put your phone away,” he told her, according to video reviewed by The Washington Post.
“No,” Mary said.
“Then go to the office,” he responded.
Days later, she was suspended for making the 55-second video, according to her lawyer. Mary and her mother, Kate Welborn, 44, are challenging the punishment and demanding the district apologize. Mary’s lawyer, Natalie Hull, said that the sophomore was essentially acting as a whistleblower by collecting evidence of an authority figure’s wrongdoing and that punishing her will have a “chilling effect” on students inclined to do so in the future.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:16:25 GMT -8
"Pardon Me." -- "That Will Be $2 Million"
Rudy Giuliani offered to sell presidential pardons for $2 million during his time as then-President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, according to a lawsuit a former Giuliani aide filed Monday in New York.
Noelle Dunphy also alleged the former New York mayor pressured her into having sex with him and still owes nearly $2 million for her work as director of business development for Giuliani’s companies and as his executive assistant from 2019 to 2021.
Dunphy alleged Giuliani tried to rope her into a scheme to sell presidential pardons.
“He also asked Ms. Dunphy if she knew anyone in need of a pardon, telling her that he was selling pardons for $2 million, which he and President Trump would split,” her 70-page lawsuit stated.
“He told Ms. Dunphy that she could refer individuals seeking pardons to him, so long as they did not go through ‘the normal channels’ of the Office of the Pardon Attorney, because correspondence going to that office would be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act,” she continued in the suit.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:17:35 GMT -8
The Biggest Loser Wants to Lose Again
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis called on a federal judge to reject efforts by former President Donald Trump to dismiss her from an investigation into his alleged interference in the 2020 election.
Willis said that Trump's arguments that she is politically biased and should be removed from the investigation lacked merit and were procedurally flawed, requesting that they be dismissed without a hearing.
"Most of the arguments are barred by lack of standing, untimeliness, and other procedural flaws, and any remaining arguments are without merit," Willis and one of her deputies, Donald Wakeford, wrote in a 24-page court filing Monday.
Willis' filing also disputed claims by Trump's attorneys that Georgia's law allowing for a special grand jury was unconstitutionally vague.
"They refer vaguely to violations of their own due process rights arising from a 'tainted grand jury process without making a showing demonstrating the existence of either," the motion states.
Monday's filing came in response to a motion filed by Trump in March to remove Willis and also block the release of the report from the special grand jury. Cathy Latham, a former chair of the Coffee County GOP and one of more than a dozen people who allegedly made false claims that they were official electors for the state in December 2020, reportedly filed a motion in step with Trump's.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:28:05 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:31:44 GMT -8
I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening? "Bankruptcy".
Vice Media — saddled with liabilities of up to $1 billion — has filed for bankruptcy.
It's far from alone. Six other large companies threw in the towel within a recent 48-hour span, the most active such period for bankruptcies since 2008, according to Bloomberg data looking at companies with at least $50 million in liabilities.
The reason is relatively straightforward: the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes — designed to rein in inflation — have laid bare the market's weak hands. A credit crunch is here, and it's spreading quickly, crippling companies with large, cumbersome debt loads. For those looking to refinance, the ship has sailed.
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Post by mhbruin on May 16, 2023 8:33:39 GMT -8
Who Could Imagine That They Could Freak Out on Charlie Rose's Show?
"when the dogma becomes legislation that’s when you have the danger. I have this horrible fear that the United States could wind its way toward being a fascist theocracy!"
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Post by sagobob on May 16, 2023 13:37:02 GMT -8
Lance is an uncommon name nowadays. But in medieval times people were named Lance a lot. Gov. DeathSentence Continues His Attack on Florida Business.A newly-signed bill by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that sharply cracks down on the ability of immigrants to work is setting off alarm bells in the state's agriculture industry which relies heavily on immigrant labor, reported Scripps News West Palm on Monday. "From farming to construction, the law is expected to have a wide-ranging impact on a number of industries vital to Florida's economy," said the report. "Some farm workers are already too scared to go to work and are considering leaving the state, which could cause a huge staffing crisis for Florida agriculture." Among other things, the bill institutes new state-level penalties for transporting undocumented immigrants to Florida, imposes new requirements on certain companies to check immigration status, and renders out-of-state driver's licenses issued to undocumented immigrants void in the state. It also adds another $12 million to the "migrant relocation" program that DeSantis controversially used to round up migrants in Texas and fly them to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. "'I've been hearing that probably they will not be sending their kids to school, and they are afraid to go to work, and it's sad,' Denise Negron, the executive director of the Farmworker Coordinator Council of Palm Beach County," said in the report. "'This is the people that we have to thank because thanks to them we have food on our tables,' Negron said. 'Agriculture and farm work is a job that nobody wants to do.' During a Thursday fundraiser gala for the Farmworker Coordinating Council, Negron said she worries for the organization's future as they work to provide social and human services to farm workers." 'Everybody is in a panic': New right-wing Florida bill threatens 'huge crisis' for industryGet the Truck Out of FloridaTruck drivers called for boycotts over the weekend against Florida's tough new penalties and restrictions on undocumented immigrants in the state, which include requiring employers to verify if workers are authorized to work in the United States. Social media "exploded" with reports of Latino truck drivers threatening to stop delivering to and in Florida, according to independent journalist Arturo Dominguez. "Don't enter Florida," one trucker said in a TikTok video. “My truck will not be going to Florida at all. I’m pretty sure we can all come together as a Latino community and boycott Florida as a whole because what they are doing to our brothers and sisters out there is not fair,” a truck driver said in another TikTok video. What is Ron up to? My guess is that he's building a resume for 2024. A "looky at what I've done" to save you MAGA hats' places in line and protect your government entitlements. In this country there's another Pandemic in the making and it's one of the mind, and there doesn't seem to be any effective treatment for its major symptoms, ignorance and gullibility. |
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Post by mhbruin on May 17, 2023 6:46:03 GMT -8
What is Ron up to? My guess is that he's building a resume for 2024. A "looky at what I've done" to save you MAGA hats' places in line and protect your government entitlements. In this country there's another Pandemic in the making and it's one of the mind, and there doesn't seem to be any effective treatment for its major symptoms, ignorance and gullibility. Santos is clearly worried about 1) getting headlines and 2) appealling to QOP primary voters. At this point he thinks he can win the nomination by being more Trump than Trump. He doesn't seem to understand that the Trump pheonomenon isn't about policies. It's about keeping the rubes entertained, while finding people to hate and blame. Meanwhile, in Florida, Jacksonville, the largest city run by the QOP, just elected their first Democratic mayor in decades. Is even Florida getting tired of this act? |
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Post by sagobob on May 17, 2023 12:07:08 GMT -8
What is Ron up to? My guess is that he's building a resume for 2024. A "looky at what I've done" to save you MAGA hats' places in line and protect your government entitlements. In this country there's another Pandemic in the making and it's one of the mind, and there doesn't seem to be any effective treatment for its major symptoms, ignorance and gullibility. Santos is clearly worried about 1) getting headlines and 2) appealling to QOP primary voters. At this point he thinks he can win the nomination by being more Trump than Trump. He doesn't seem to understand that the Trump pheonomenon isn't about policies. It's about keeping the rubes entertained, while finding people to hate and blame. Meanwhile, in Florida, Jacksonville, the largest city run by the QOP, just elected their first Democratic mayor in decades. Is even Florida getting tired of this act? "It's about keeping the rubes entertained, while finding people to hate and blame." An explicit summation of Trump's appeal in a single sentence. He's a perfect fit for an era when "news" went from being informative to entertaining. |
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