All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[Tami]

Immigrant kids fill this town’s schools. Their bus driver is leading the backlash.

WORTHINGTON, Minn. — It was the first day of school, so Don Brink was behind the wheel of his bus, its yellow paint glistening in the drizzling dawn. Wearing jeans and a John Deere cap, he turned the radio to an oldies station and, with hands callused thick by 50 years of farming, steered the vehicle toward the edge of town.

He stopped in front of familiar farmhouses surrounded by fields of soy and corn, where blond children boarded the bus, chatting in English.

“Morning,” the 71-year-old Vietnam veteran said.

This was the Worthington he knew.

But then Brink headed back into town, past the meatpacking plant that was the area’s main employer and into the neighborhood he called Little Mexico, even though most of its residents were Central American.

This was the Worthington he did not know — the Worthington he resented.

The divide can be felt all over Worthington, where “Minnesota nice” has devolved into “Yes” and “No” window signs, boycotts on businesses and next-door neighbors who no longer speak. A Catholic priest who praised immigrants was booed from the pews and has received death threats.

The driving force behind the defeats has been a handful of white farmers in this Trump-supporting county, including Brink, the bus driver.

Even as he earns a paycheck ferrying undocumented children to and from school, Brink opposes the immigration system that allowed them to come to Worthington.

“Those kids had no business leaving home in the first place,” Brink said. “That’s why we have all these food pantries, because of all these people we are supporting. I have to feed my own kids.”

Now he pulled up to the same high school where he and his wife had walked arm-in-arm as teenage sweethearts, and watched his passengers step down into a stream of dark-haired children, among them a pregnant 15-year-old from Honduras and a 16-year-old girl from Guatemala who’d arrived months earlier.

For the two unaccompanied minors, their first day of school was an opportunity.

For Brink, it felt like an affront.

[Tendrin]

You also have to make changes if you really do want world to get better..

Let’s assume climate change is primarily driven by relentless growth of human population, and understandable desire of people to improve material living standards...particularly understandable in those many areas of world where standards are way below USA standards.

If you regard limits on flights as unacceptable...you can hardly expect anybody else to give up their own luxuries.

It’s all back to “magic wand time”...

Flying accounts for two percent of global emissions. If we were ALL to give it up tomorrow, the impact on climate would be negligible. We have to make changes but that requires a hugely data-driven approach to deal with what the massive contributions are on large scale and also in aggregate but, hey, why talk about that when we can yuk it up about activists still needing to take a plane?

Really, this talking point serves no useful purpose except to try to discredit activism in service of denialism, more often than not.

[JackDaw]

The obvious answer is to increase public transport and business having their own mini bus system with a restructuring of shifts accordingly.

I’d guess in general terms the countries where people fly the most have the best public transport infrastructure.

Stuff like that helps to slow the increase in carbon emissions, not put it in reverse.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Fox News Poll Shows America Is ‘Exhausted’ And Wants Trump Gone

A Faux News poll? Seriously? Well now, that's surprising. Look for Trump to whine about his personal propaganda network stabbing him in the back.

[Robotman]

Immigrant kids fill this town’s schools. Their bus driver is leading the backlash.

“Those kids had no business leaving home in the first place,” Brink said. “That’s why we have all these food pantries, because of all these people we are supporting. I have to feed my own kids.”

When people say things like this it always reminds me of the adage “a billionaire, a worker, and an immigrant are standing in front of a dessert table with 1000 cookies on it. The billionaire takes 999 and tells the worker ‘watch out, the immigrant is going to take your cookie”

[GOLGO 13]

“Those kids had no business leaving home in the first place,” Brink said. “That’s why we have all these food pantries, because of all these people we are supporting. I have to feed my own kids.”

When people say things like this it always reminds me of the adage “a billionaire, a worker, and an immigrant are standing in front of a dessert table with 1000 cookies on it. The billionaire takes 999 and tells the worker ‘watch out, the immigrant is going to take your cookie”

Eat the rich.

[Malvolio]

“Those kids had no business leaving home in the first place,” Brink said. “That’s why we have all these food pantries, because of all these people we are supporting. I have to feed my own kids.”

When people say things like this it always reminds me of the adage “a billionaire, a worker, and an immigrant are standing in front of a dessert table with 1000 cookies on it. The billionaire takes 999 and tells the worker ‘watch out, the immigrant is going to take your cookie”

I love that adage. I always heard as the billionaire taking 11 out of 12 cookies, but starting off with 1000 cookies and the billionaire taking 999 is actually closer to the reality of the situation.

I've also heard a version of the adage with a union organizer instead of the immigrant.

[Jack Dracula]

Nevermind. Nothing more to add.

[Farealmer]

Anyone else thinking Trump is seeming more and more like this guy.

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[Jack Dracula]

Nevermind. Nothing more to add.

[Celgress]

Flying accounts for two percent of global emissions. If we were ALL to give it up tomorrow, the impact on climate would be negligible. We have to make changes but that requires a hugely data-driven approach to deal with what the massive contributions are on large scale and also in aggregate but, hey, why talk about that when we can yuk it up about activists still needing to take a plane?

Really, this talking point serves no useful purpose except to try to discredit activism in service of denialism, more often than not.

That doesn't tell the whole story, for example -

"A special characteristic of aircraft emissions is that most of them are produced at cruising altitudes high in the atmosphere. Scientific studies have shown that these high-altitude emissions have a more harmful climate impact because they trigger a series of chemical reactions and atmospheric effects that have a net warming effect. The IPCC, for example, has estimated that the climate impact of aircraft is two to four times greater than the effect of their carbon dioxide emissions alone."

https://davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can...limate-change/

The above is also why volcanic emissions can cause devastating climate effects if the plume reaches a high enough altitude. Oh, and how the ozone hole formed.

[PaulBullion]

Republican Bill Weld (who is one of Trump's primary challengers) went on TV and said this about Trump's call to Ukraine:

"That is treason. It’s treason pure and simple, and the penalty for treason under the U.S. code is death.
That’s the only penalty.”

I do believe he is legally wrong as there hasn't been a declaration of war between the US and Ukraine. Treachery, yes, but not legally treason.

[Michael Watkins]

A Faux News poll? Seriously? Well now, that's surprising. Look for Trump to whine about his personal propaganda network stabbing him in the back.

he's already introduced the narrative. he said that there was "something wrong" at Fox news; that all of his worst polls are at Fox. but he made sure to single out the good journalists there (translation: his toadies). there's about to be a news civil war. Shepard Smith better keep his head down.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

he's already introduced the narrative. he said that there was "something wrong" at Fox news; that all of his worst polls are at Fox. but he made sure to single out the good journalists there (translation: his toadies). there's about to be a news civil war. Shepard Smith better keep his head down.

And watch his back. Between Sean Hamhocks, Fucker Carlson and Laura Ignoramus, Smith is bound wind up with a knife in same. But yeah, I’m down with Faux News imploding.

[Gray Lensman]

And watch his back. Between Sean Hamhocks, Fucker Carlson and Laura Ignoramus, Smith is bound wind up with a knife in same. But yeah, I’m down with Faux News imploding.

I'm afraid that the result will be OANN taking over Fox's role and the former Fox viewers will prefer it that way.