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Florida Lawmaker Declares 16 Year Olds Are ‘Not Children’ But ‘Youth Workers’ Amid Labor Shortage

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In late August Hurricane Idalia, the strongest tropical storm to hit northern Florida since 1896, killed four people and caused up to $20 billion in damage. In September, thanks to Governor Ron DeSantis’ anti-immigrant law that has been called “draconian,” clean-up and rebuilding has been hard. Migrant workers have been fleeing north, to Georgia and other states, terrified of being arrested.

Nationwide, Republicans have been attacking President Joe Biden for what they call the “border crisis,” an influx of undocumented immigrants that not only started before the Biden administration, but was worsened by President Donald Trump according to former top national security, border security, and customs officials. House and Senate Republicans are now demanding any funds to help Ukraine and Israel be tied to funds to “fix” the border.

At the state level, Republicans including Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, have been shipping undocumented immigrants out of their states to points north, to spots like New York City, Philadelphia, Massachusetts’s Martha’s Vineyard, and even the official residence of the Vice President, the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

Last year on Christmas Eve, in 18 degree weather, “busloads of migrants were dropped off in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, DC,” according to CNN. Many were “asylum seekers from Ecuador, Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Peru and Colombia,” not used to sub-freezing temperatures. Some were dressed only in tee shirts.

READ MORE: Highly-Classified Intel on Putin and Russia Went Missing in Trump’s Final White House Days

“Governor Abbott abandoned children on the side of the road in below freezing temperatures on Christmas Eve without coordinating with any Federal or local authorities,” the White House said in a statement.

There are no accurate figures for how many migrants have been shipped from Republican-run states like Texas and Florida, but they number at least in the tens of thousands. In October, Axios reported Gov. Abbott had shipped over 50,000 migrants to points north, including Chicago, NYC, L.A., D.C., and Philadelphia – all run by Democrats. Gov. DeSantis has a $12 million budget to send migrants out of his state, and is believed to have spent $615,000 to fly about 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. He “has vowed to use ‘every penny’ of the $12 million allocated to his administration for migrant transports,” CNN reported.

And now, as unemployment under President Biden continues to remain extremely low – below 4% for nearly a full two years – “the longest such streak since the late 1960s,” and as the COVID-related inflation has plummeted from 9% one year ago to 3.1%, as gas prices continue to drop, media outlets and think tanks are pivoting to reporting on the worker, staffing, and labor shortage.

“We hear every day from our member companies—of every size and industry, across nearly every state—they’re facing unprecedented challenges trying to find enough workers to fill open jobs,” the U.S. Chamber of Commerce reported late last month. “Right now, the latest data shows that we have 9.5 million job openings in the U.S., but only 6.5 million unemployed workers.”

The labor shortage is caused in part by a long-term declining U.S. birth rate and decline in immigrants allowed to work in the U.S. Experts say without immigration, the U.S. population will start to decline.

“The U.S. labor force will shrink, and America risks stagnation and declining living standards without immigrants, according to new research,” Forbes reported in August. “Immigrants can boost the U.S. working-age population and offset America’s falling birthrate and the retirement of Baby Boomers. U.S. elected officials must decide whether to change immigration laws and policies to bolster America’s labor force and prevent decline.”

READ MORE: Florida Bill Puts Decision of Students Advancing to Fourth Grade in Hands of Their Parents

As a result, Republicans across the country have been working to reduce or remove child labor protections to help fill the lack of able-bodied workers.

“While federal agencies are ramping up enforcement of child labor protections in response to increasing violations, industry groups are working to roll back child labor protections via state legislation,” the Economic Policy Institute reported in May. “Already in 2023, seven bills to weaken child labor protections have been introduced in six Midwestern states (Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota) and in Arkansas, where a bill repealing restrictions on work for 14- and 15-year-olds has now been signed into law. One bill introduced in Minnesota would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work on construction sites. Ten states have introduced, considered, or passed legislation rolling back protections for young workers in just the past two years.”

And now, Florida.

Contributing to Florida’s labor shortage are Governor DeSantis’ policies during the COVID pandemic. Florida had the 18th-highest per capita COVID death rate in the U.S. 92,520 people reportedly died, ranking the state third in total COVID deaths.

But also, DeSantis’ immigration laws are scaring workers into fleeing the state.

Now, one Florida Republican lawmaker sees a solution: children. And she has a bill to put them to work more.

“The Republican-backed bill, fed to Rep. Linda Chaney by the right-wing Foundation for Government Accountability — a think tank that wrote the bill — would gut the state’s current restrictions on child labor for older teens, which were originally established to prevent work from interfering with a child’s health, safety and education,” Orlando Weekly reports. “Backed by industry groups representing restaurant and hotel owners, the proposed bill would get rid of state guidelines on when 16- and 17-year-olds can work and would limit local governments’ ability to enact stronger regulations in their communities. The bill, for instance, would make it legal for employers to put older teens to work on overnight shifts, even if they have school the next day.”

State Rep. Linda Chaney on Wednesday explained her legislation to weaken Florida’s child labor protections.

“This bill is not about children,” the Republican lawmaker told her colleagues. “This bill is about 16- and 17-year-olds. These are youth workers that are driving automobiles. They are not children.”

Rep. Chaney went on to explain that under her bill, a child could legally work the overnight shift, perhaps midnight to 6 AM, at a gas station or 7-Eleven, for example, on a school night, and could do so without parental consent.

READ MORE: ‘Thoughts and Prayers’: Moms Group Releases ‘Devastating’ Ad on Sandy Hook Anniversary

She said, “it is up to the individual and their parent how they choose to work and again, there’s no mandate in this bill of when or where they work, they may choose to work 35 hours. There is also school choice,” she said, of Florida’s massive school voucher program. “There’s a lot of differences of children in youth schedules now. So they may not be going to school during typical school hours. So for them to choose, they have the right now to choose what best fits their individual situation.”

When asked if the child has to “get parental consent to take that job if they’re 16 or 17?” Chaney answered, “No.”

Chaney “said she filed the legislation in part to provide more labor for Florida’s tourism industry,” Florida-based reporter Jason Garcia wrote at Seeking Rents. “Being in a tourist area of Florida and knowing the needs of the hospitality industry…I felt this was a common-sense bill.”

Watch the videos of Chaney’s remarks above or at this link.

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‘She Kills People’: Trump Amps Up Attack on Cheney After Violent ‘Nine Barrels’ Rhetoric

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Donald Trump has extended his attack against one of his top political critics, Liz Cheney, falsely alleging late Friday afternoon the Republican former U.S. congresswoman “kills people.”

“She kills people. She wanted to, even in my administration she was pushing that we go to war with everybody and I said, ‘If you ever gave her a rifle and let her do the fighting, if you ever do that, she wouldn’t be doing too well,’ I will tell [you] right now,” Trump said during a campaign stop in Michigan, Politico reported (video below). “She’s a war hawk.”

The ex-president, whose rhetoric, critics say, is growing increasingly violent as Election Day approaches, also charged Cheney “wants to go kill people unnecessarily” and called her “a disgrace.”

There are no reports that Cheney, who also served as vice chair on the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, and has crossed the aisle to endorse and campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, has ever killed anyone.

RELATED: ‘How Dictators Destroy Free Nations’: Trump Slammed for Suggesting Firing Squad for Cheney

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrel shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it,” Trump had said Thursday, speaking on a stage with far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic presidential opponent, denounced the ex-president’s remarks Friday afternoon.

“This must be disqualifying,” she told reporters, CBS News reports. “Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.”

In addition to Harris’s remarks, Trump has been widely condemned on the left for his violent remarks, which some claimed were a call for Cheney’s execution. The state attorney general in Arizona has opened an investigation into the ex-president’s comments to determine if it was a death threat, according to CNN.

“Trump’s use of violent language dates back to his first presidential campaign, in 2015 and 2016, when he suggested a heckler deserved to be “roughed up” and said he’d like to punch another in the face,” CNN also reported. “Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper wrote in his memoir that while in office, Trump raised the idea of shooting protesters who took to the streets around the White House after the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

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“’Can’t you just shoot them? Just shoot them in the legs or something?’ Trump asked, according to Esper.”

Earlier on Friday after massive condemnation Trump appeared to try to clarify his comments, a rare response when under fire.

Despite telling supporters in Michigan that Cheney “kills people,” on his Truth Social website he wrote: “All I’m saying about Liz Cheney is that she is a War Hawk, and a dumb one at that, but she wouldn’t have ‘the guts’ to fight herself.”

Watch Trump’s remarks from Michigan below or at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Embarrassing’: JD Vance’s Story About How He Responded to Trump Shooting Sparks Concerns

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‘Showing Up’ and ‘Coming Together’: Harris Talks ‘Enthusiasm,’ Campaign Highlights ‘Momentum’

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Vice President Kamala Harris is expressing cautious optimism in the final days of the 2024 presidential race, saying voters are “showing up,” and she is “seeing an incredible amount of enthusiasm from people of every walk of life.”

“What I’m enjoying the most about this moment is that in spite of how my opponent spends full time trying to divide the American people, what I’m seeing is people coming together under one roof who seemingly have nothing in common, and know they have everything in common,” the Democratic presidential nominee told reporters Friday afternoon (video below). “And I think that is in the best interest of the strength of our nation.”

Vice President Harris and her campaign have been focused, deliberate, and on-message since she began running for president just 103 days ago. Earlier this week, campaign manager and co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillion sought to tamp-down fears and anxiety from Harris’ supporters in a three-minute video acknowledging that the “race is going to be extremely close,” and “we still have a lot of work to do,” while saying, “we’re on track to win a very close election,” and “we feel really good with what we’re seeing.”

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Early Friday afternoon the campaign became a bit less tight-lipped, appearing to “leak” to reporters a somewhat more optimistic view of the election.

“Senior Harris campaign staff say their internal data shows Harris winning battleground state voters who have made up their minds in the last week by double-digit margins. They say that Trump’s MSG [Madison Square Garden] rally was the ‘last straw’ for late-breaking undecided voters,” TIME’s Charlotte Alter reported.

“Top Harris brass says their organizing operation has knocked on 13 million doors across the battleground states. In October, they made 100m [100 million] calls into battleground states,” Alter wrote. “In PA alone, their team is on track to knock 5m doors and have 1m conversations with voters by election day.”

“Top campaign staff believe Harris’s momentum is [because] of the work they’re putting in, but also [because] Trump’s MSG fiasco has broken through to late-breaking undecided voters. The MSG rally has sharpened the contrast and reminded voters what Trump is like.”

Meanwhile, Harris campaign senior advisor David Plouffe, who ran Barack Obama’s successful 2008 presidential campaign and became his White House senior advisor, offered additional insight.

“It’s helpful, from experience, to be closing a Presidential campaign with late deciding voters breaking by double digits to you and the remaining undecideds looking more friendly to you than your opponent. Close race, turnout and 4 days of hard work will be key. But good mo,” he wrote, appearing to mean “momentum.”

Former journalist and retired pundit Craig Crawford responded with data from Gallup:

“Voter enthusiasm is high, with Democrats more enthusiastic than Republicans,” Gallup reported Thursday. “Democrats maintain elevated election enthusiasm, at 77%, compared with 67% among Republicans.”

“Momentum” appears to be the key word for the Harris campaign and supporters as Election Day fast approaches.

READ MORE: ‘How Dictators Destroy Free Nations’: Trump Slammed for Suggesting Firing Squad for Cheney

Harris campaign surrogate, Illinois Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, talked about “momentum” on CNN Thursday night:

Neera Tanden, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council noted on Thursday, “Lots of interesting endorsements today. You can feel the momentum.”

On Wednesday Harris spokesperson Ian Sams also talked about “momentum.”

Watch the video of Harris below, additional videos above, or all at this link.

READ MORE: ‘Embarrassing’: JD Vance’s Story About How He Responded to Trump Shooting Sparks Concerns

 

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‘How Dictators Destroy Free Nations’: Trump Slammed for Suggesting Firing Squad for Cheney

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In an escalation of his violent threats, Donald Trump has now suggested a top critic from his own party, Republican former U.S. Congresswoman Liz Cheney, face a firing squad. Outrage from the left was swift, and Cheney herself has responded.

“I don’t blame him for sticking with his daughter, but his daughter is a very dumb individual, very dumb,” Trump, speaking about former U.S. Vice President and Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, and his daughter, Liz Cheney.

“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump continued, speaking on stage in Arizona with far-right podcaster Tucker Carlson, who labeled Cheney “repulsive.”

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrel shooting at her, okay? Let’s see how she feels about it,” Trump said, in what some, including the Drudge Report say is a call for Cheney’s “execution.”

CNN anchor Kasie Hunt Friday morning noted that “violent rhetoric is not new for Trump, but this stark imagery represents an escalation at a tense moment when the country is on edge heading into Tuesday, seven in ten Americans saying they feel anxious or frustrated about the election, according to a new AP poll.”

READ MORE: ‘Embarrassing’: JD Vance’s Story About How He Responded to Trump Shooting Sparks Concerns

“It comes after Trump has raised the specter of using the U.S. military on Americans he calls ‘the enemy within,'” she added. “Throughout the last nearly 10 years with Trump on the national stage, the public rhetoric has gotten darker and more violent with time.”

“This is the final battle, he says,” Hunt continued. “He’s talking about the election happening four days from now.”

Liz Cheney, who also served as the Vice Chair on the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, wrote: “This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death. We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

Former Trump White House Director of Communications Anthony Scaramucci responded to his former boss’s attack on Cheney: “Trump should be taken into custody. He is a convicted felon and just violated the conditions of his bail agreement by threatening someone’s life. He needs to be sent away.”

Constitutional law professor and political scientist Anthony Michael Kreis remarked: “This is not the rule of the law. This is not respect for our constitution. This is fascism.”

Sarah Longwell, a Republican and publisher of The Bulwark, wrote: “If you claim to be a leader in any way—political leader, thought-leader, business leader, religious leader—and you don’t stand up and say clearly that America must keep this man away from power, then you’re no kind of leader at all.”

READ MORE: ‘Nauseous’: Trump’s Refusal to Grasp ‘Consent’ Revives ‘Access Hollywood’ Scandal

David Rothkopf, a foreign policy, national security and political affairs analyst and commentator, offered a wider view:

“Trump is his own October surprise: The Kelly/Milley revelations, the hate rally, the ‘whether women want it or not’ comments, the garbage truck self-own, planning to turn health care over to a lunatic, violent musings about Liz Cheney and so much more. He is self-destructing.”

Former U.S. Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (D-AZ) issued a statement, saying in part: “Declaring that a person should be shot and killed simply for supporting a different candidate is un-American. Any Republican who claims to respect the constitution and rule of law has a responsibility to speak out against Donald Trump’s dangerous comments immediately. My family holds this country close to our hearts. I was shot and nearly killed for serving the people of Arizona. My husband has dedicated his life in service as a Navy pilot and astronaut who continues to serve his country in the Senate. Those who serve this country know that truly loving America requires opposing all forms of political violence.”

The Harris campaign weighed in, with spokesperson Ian Sams calling Trump’s remarks “dangerous, violent rhetoric,” and saying, “You have Donald Trump talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad. And you have VP Harris talking about sending one to her Cabinet.”

Watch the video of Trump’s remarks below, additional videos above, or all at this link.

READ MORE: ‘I’m Not Hitler’: Trump Insists He’s Being ‘Demonized’ Despite Remarks

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