The abortion pill argument was a surreal one for me, as I graduated in the same small high school class as Erin Hawley, who argued the case. And unlike a lot of the current GOP grifter class (such as her husband), she's been 100% pro-life going back to middle school days when we would go back and forth on the issue in the school library. The abortion pill argument was always going to be a tricky one to make (as we saw with the questions posed by the justices yesterday), but I can't think of anyone who has been preparing more (her whole life in this case) to present those arguments.
What's going to be interesting to watch is to what extent Lucas Kunce (the Democrat running against Josh Hawley for the Missouri Senate seat) is able to make Erin's efforts a campaign issue, while Josh is trying to moderate his stance on the issue a bit. Should make for an interesting Senate race this fall.
Jobs that Americans won't do. What the heck. If there are jobs than need to be done in the USA that citizens will not do, maybe we need to put work requirements on welfare handouts, reduce earned income credits and SNAP benefits, and make government dependence a generally unpleasant experience for those in good health. I'm sure there are plenty of deadbeats in the Baltimore area who could do the job.
I employed engineers 25 years younger than me who had summer jobs in college and high school repairing potholes and working on built up-roofing crews. I can remember doing construction surveying from 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. for utility construction that the City of Atlanta would not allow during normal working hours.
Time and again employers tell us that they can’t find Americans willing to do some jobs at any price.
It’s easy to say impose a work requirement, but that would require Congress to actually compromise enough to pass a bill. Even then, I’m not sure it would solve the problem. We depend on immigrant labor for a great many things.
Maybe but I see no evidence of that. The metro Baltimore population is about 2,350,000 with a labor participation rate of about 60% and an unemployment rate of about 4%. That means there are roughly 56,000 unemployed workers in the vicinity who are subsisting by some means other than work.
There are also about 32,000 prisoners incarcerated in Maryland, about 20,000 in Baltimore. Surely there are enough of them that aren't extreme escape risks to fill a few potholes.
4% unemployment is typically considered a pretty darn good number. Note that that number is from January, after holiday temp work ended (there's always a bump in January).
In December 2023 it was 2.8 percent.
And I don't know about you, but: if I was unemployed temporarily I wouldn't be filling pot holes - I'd be looking in my area of expertise for a comparable position.
My guess is that almost everyone who has a desirable skill set is employed. There might be a small percentage who are temporarily between jobs or who are demanding more than they are worth and haven't yet accepted reality.
The remainder, including unemployed seasonal workers and prisoners, could be used for public works.
We do rely on immigrant labor. We also rely on imports from China. I'm just saying it doesn't have to be that way. We are screwing ourselves. Almost no one is willing to take charge. The few that will are attacked for being for being authoritarian. We do not have a democratic government; we have a constitutional republic. Some degree of responsibility should be required for voting privileges unless authority reserved for the states is restored to the states.
Republic and democracy are similar terms with different language roots: the correct term is that we are a representative democracy, with a mix of direct democracy (local/state level) and representation (federal level).
The abortion pill argument was a surreal one for me, as I graduated in the same small high school class as Erin Hawley, who argued the case. And unlike a lot of the current GOP grifter class (such as her husband), she's been 100% pro-life going back to middle school days when we would go back and forth on the issue in the school library. The abortion pill argument was always going to be a tricky one to make (as we saw with the questions posed by the justices yesterday), but I can't think of anyone who has been preparing more (her whole life in this case) to present those arguments.
What's going to be interesting to watch is to what extent Lucas Kunce (the Democrat running against Josh Hawley for the Missouri Senate seat) is able to make Erin's efforts a campaign issue, while Josh is trying to moderate his stance on the issue a bit. Should make for an interesting Senate race this fall.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/23/erin-hawley-abortion-pill-supreme-court-00142493
I can think of one bridge a Ukrainian would want to ram with a ship - but it's in Ukraine, not in the USA.
Jobs that Americans won't do. What the heck. If there are jobs than need to be done in the USA that citizens will not do, maybe we need to put work requirements on welfare handouts, reduce earned income credits and SNAP benefits, and make government dependence a generally unpleasant experience for those in good health. I'm sure there are plenty of deadbeats in the Baltimore area who could do the job.
I employed engineers 25 years younger than me who had summer jobs in college and high school repairing potholes and working on built up-roofing crews. I can remember doing construction surveying from 7:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. for utility construction that the City of Atlanta would not allow during normal working hours.
Time and again employers tell us that they can’t find Americans willing to do some jobs at any price.
It’s easy to say impose a work requirement, but that would require Congress to actually compromise enough to pass a bill. Even then, I’m not sure it would solve the problem. We depend on immigrant labor for a great many things.
We already have work requirements for many/most benefits.
Maybe but I see no evidence of that. The metro Baltimore population is about 2,350,000 with a labor participation rate of about 60% and an unemployment rate of about 4%. That means there are roughly 56,000 unemployed workers in the vicinity who are subsisting by some means other than work.
There are also about 32,000 prisoners incarcerated in Maryland, about 20,000 in Baltimore. Surely there are enough of them that aren't extreme escape risks to fill a few potholes.
4% unemployment is typically considered a pretty darn good number. Note that that number is from January, after holiday temp work ended (there's always a bump in January).
In December 2023 it was 2.8 percent.
And I don't know about you, but: if I was unemployed temporarily I wouldn't be filling pot holes - I'd be looking in my area of expertise for a comparable position.
My guess is that almost everyone who has a desirable skill set is employed. There might be a small percentage who are temporarily between jobs or who are demanding more than they are worth and haven't yet accepted reality.
The remainder, including unemployed seasonal workers and prisoners, could be used for public works.
We do rely on immigrant labor. We also rely on imports from China. I'm just saying it doesn't have to be that way. We are screwing ourselves. Almost no one is willing to take charge. The few that will are attacked for being for being authoritarian. We do not have a democratic government; we have a constitutional republic. Some degree of responsibility should be required for voting privileges unless authority reserved for the states is restored to the states.
Republic and democracy are similar terms with different language roots: the correct term is that we are a representative democracy, with a mix of direct democracy (local/state level) and representation (federal level).
Except the Feds have usurped the authority reserved for the states by the constitution.