Pets For Dinner

[LuFins Dad]

The PA State Senator that just accidentally admitted that the Haitians are renting housing from the staffing agency and that the buildings were dilapidated.

[LuFins Dad]

So what happens to the Charleroi and Springfield factories that have spent the last month calling the local workforce worthless and drug addled when the Temporary Protected Status is lifted? I mean, that’s what temporary means, right? So what happens when their cheap labor force leaves?

[Jolly]

@LuFins-Dad said in Pets For Dinner:

So what happens to the Charleroi and Springfield factories that have spent the last month calling the local workforce worthless and drug addled when the Temporary Protected Status is lifted? I mean, that’s what temporary means, right? So what happens when their cheap labor force leaves?

Their cheap labor can't afford to leave and Harris won't make them. Depending on how they immigrated, nobody may be able to make them leave.

[LuFins Dad]

So a Union in Colorado just blew the lid on the same thing happening there. Frozen Food processing pants is a running theme, here.

[LuFins Dad]

Nomani’s latest piece is up.

https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/375369/exclusive-in-a-game-of-springfieldopoly-king-george-built-an-empire-with-estimated-revenues-of-180m-and-feds-and-state-ag-now-expand-human-trafficking-probe-int/

[Horace]

Thanks for those links to Nomani's reporting, LD. Interesting stuff.

This is a story of unchecked greed and cruelty, committed not by the immigrants, but to the immigrants, with local residents of Springfield also a casualty.

Once they arrived in Springfield, the migrants were packed into dilapidated houses owned by one of Ten’s many companies. I have mapped 45 such properties around town, including at least three homes that were purchased on the same day, Sept. 10, 2020, for $20,000, $28,000 and $32,000. These homes are overcrowded, often shared in shifts among the migrants, some of whom had no stable place to stay and carried all their belongings in backpacks.

In the morning, drivers in the white vans would pick up the men at their homes or at the First Diversity offices at the E. High Street mansion, painted a muted tan, and deposit them at the far end of town in the distribution center, where companies like Dole Foods hired them at cheap rates.

One Haitian man I interviewed asked to be anonymous for fear of retaliation and recalled how he was picked up by a driver for one of Ten’s vans on a street corner near a Winn-Dixie grocery store in Immokalee, Florida. After the long journey to Springfield, he was dropped off at a rundown home on Rice Street, infested with cockroaches. He soon found work through First Diversity at Jefferson Industries Corporation, earning $12.50 an hour; he didn’t know how much George skimmed off his wages. The home he lived in had no working heat, and he bought an electric heater to survive the cold Ohio winter, the heater barely heating his room.

To connect this back to other reporting, I would love to know the histories, living situations, and employment logistics of the workers for that metal shop where the owner is so happy with his Haitian workforce, as compared to the locals.

But it's probably important to be aware that these workers are happy for these opportunities just the same, even if this reporting wants us to feel like they are being taken advantage of. I'm not sure what is supposed to happen to make their lives even better. More tax dollars would seem like a necessary part of whatever we would do to give asylum seekers better lives than this.

[Mik]

@LuFins-Dad said in Pets For Dinner:

So what happens to the Charleroi and Springfield factories that have spent the last month calling the local workforce worthless and drug addled when the Temporary Protected Status is lifted? I mean, that’s what temporary means, right? So what happens when their cheap labor force leaves?

I can't speak to Charleroi, but I can tell you for certain that the Springfield employers will go back to the local drug addled workers. Springfield has been a depressed economy since the early 70's when we moved there. Jobs - any jobs - were hard to find and paid bare minimum with high work expectations from the massas managers. That has only gotten worse over the years and then crack and meth hit. I suspect now opiates have been added to the mix. The entire south half of town is a war zone. Guess where the Haitians live. It may not be textbook slavery, but it's damn close.

[Jolly]

Though the Trump comment had legs. We're still talking about Springfield 20 days down the line.

Wonder if the situation in Springfield actually penetrated the national conscience?

[Horace]

@Jolly said in Pets For Dinner:

Wonder if the situation in Springfield actually penetrated the national conscience?

The lion's share of public attention continues to be devoted to laughing at how dumb the Magats are to believe the pet eating stories. Added to this mix is performative concern for how the Haitians are being hated now due to those racist memes.

But alongside all that, one would hope is more attention to the actual issues involved here, which seem pretty complicated.

If the reporting LD linked to gets widely discussed, it will turn into an anti-capitalism talking point, even if that's not the intention of the reporter.

[Mik]

I’m still in contact with old friends who live in Springfield. I never hear them talking about it.

[LuFins Dad]

All I know is putting Haitians in slavelike conditions has NEVER turned out well.

[LuFins Dad]

[Horace]

That metal shop owner might end up being branded as a modern slave holder. That would be a shame.

When he was making those remarks about how awesome his Haitian workers were, he probably felt confident that he was self-identifying as an inclusive, progressive person.

[taiwan_girl]

Gosh darn Haitians white US males!!!!

A 64-year-old white man in Springfield, Ohio, was accused of illegally hunting geese at a golf course pond

[Jolly]

Hey, if it's good enough for the Haitians...

[George K]

@taiwan_girl said in Pets For Dinner:

Gosh darn Haitians white US males!!!!

A 64-year-old white man in Springfield, Ohio, was accused of illegally hunting geese at a golf course pond

Canada Geese are flying rats.

Though killing them is illegal, I celebrate the demise of every single one.

[LuFins Dad]

@taiwan_girl said in Pets For Dinner:

Gosh darn Haitians white US males!!!!

A 64-year-old white man in Springfield, Ohio, was accused of illegally hunting geese at a golf course pond

And you don’t see the problem with it, do you?

[LuFins Dad]

Let me give you a hint, the Haitians with geese/ducks HAS been documented and not really cared about, even though it is illegal.

[Renauda]

Yes it’s called poaching. An unlawful practice not exclusive to foreigners.

[George K]

I know someone, I dare not name who that is, who had a Canada Geese problem at his vacation home in a nearby state. They shit all over the pool deck, intimidated his 4 daughters and were aggressive about anyone walking on their turf.

Said person, and I am implicating no one, purchased a CO2 powered BB gun to ... discourage the geese from nesting and hanging out around his pool. Though none of the geese were injured, the "plonk" of a BB hitting one of the flying rats was a strong disincentive for them to move to a different location.

Not naming names...