Re: Let the truth be known
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Re: Let the truth be known
Biden is making a huge mistake.
Democrat Representatives Say Latinos Oppose Biden’s Migration Flood
Democrat legislators fear Latino voters will blame them for the wave of migrants who are accepting the Democrats’ offer to share Americans’ jobs, healthcare, schools, and citizenship, according to a Politico report.
Under the headline, “‘Recipe for disaster’: Dem fears mount over immigration overhaul,” Politico reported February 18:
“The way we’re doing it right now is catastrophic and is a recipe for disaster in the middle of a pandemic,” said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, one of the three Texas Democrats who represents part of the border most affected by spikes in migrant arrests and arrivals.Numerous polls show that American Latinos oppose mass migration because migration threatens their jobs, wages, neighborhoods, and schools. In April 2020, 69 percent of Hispanics said yes when they were asked by a Washington Post pollster: “Would you support … temporarily blocking nearly all immigration into the United States during the coronavirus outbreak?” Just 30 percent of Hispanics opposed the shutdown.
“Our party should be concerned. If we go off the rails, it’s going to be bad for us,” Gonzalez said. “Biden is going to be dealing with a minority in Congress if he continues down some of these paths.”
In contrast, 67 percent of whites backed the shutdown, partly because 45 percent of “liberals” opposed the policy. Rep. Henry Cuellar, (D-TX), told Politico:The focus for them is on jobs, the economy, the raise I got at work, the cost of health care and if I can take a loan out for my business. We gotta be careful that we don’t give the impression that we have open borders because otherwise the numbers are going to start going up. And surely enough, we’re starting to see numbers go up.The Wall Street Journal reported Feb. 18 evidence of a thirteenfold-increase in the number of migrants being released:
DEL RIO, Texas—Throughout the pandemic, this border city’s Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition has typically assisted about 25 migrants a week who enter the U.S. illegally with their families and seek asylum.
In the last week of January, 341 migrants passed through its center, quickly overtaxing the organization’s resources and leaving it nearly out of supplies, said its director of operations, Tiffany Burrow. Del Rio briefly turned its civic center into an emergency shelter last month to help 50 people who had to wait overnight for buses to depart the border city.
Texas employers already use many foreign workers, including legal immigrants, illegals, and foreign contract workers — such as H-1Bs and OPTs — instead of paying decent wages to Americans. For example, one pro-migration group, the American Immigration Council, reported in 2020 that one-quarter of all Texas workers were born outside the United States and that “undocumented immigrants comprised 8 percent of Texas’s workforce in 2016.”
The result is widespread poverty in Texas, especially outside the major cities. In March 2020, the Bureau of Labor Standards reportedWhen all 254 counties in Texas were considered, all but 32 had wages below the national average. … The counties with the highest average weekly wages were concentrated around the larger metropolitan areas of Dallas, Houston, and Austin, as well as the smaller areas of Midland, Odessa, and Amarillo. Lower-paying counties tended to be located in the agricultural areas of central Texas, the Texas Panhandle, and along the Texas-Mexico border.Indeed.com reports that the average monthly wage for new graduates in Pennsylvania is $4,114. Texas’s monthly wages for a new graduate are just $2,397.
In the November election, President Donald Trump’s American pocketbook policies won many additional votes in American Latino districts. Politico reported:ZAPATA, Texas — Of all the results from the November 3 election, few drew as much attention from national political observers as what happened in a quiet county on the banks of the Rio Grande. Donald Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate to win Zapata County’s vote in a hundred years. But it wasn’t its turn from a deep-blue history that seemed to be the source of such fascination but rather that, according to the census, more than 94 percent of Zapata’s population is Hispanic or Latino.
Zapata (population less than 15,000) was the only county in South Texas that flipped red, but it was by no means an anomaly: To the north, in more than 95-percent Hispanic Webb County, Republicans doubled their turnout. To the south, Starr County, which is more than 96-percent Hispanic, experienced the single biggest tilt right of any place in the country; Republicans gained by 55 percentage points compared with 2016. The results across a region that most politicos ignored in their preelection forecasts ended up helping to dash any hopes Democrats had of taking Texas.
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Ross Barrera, a retired U.S. Army colonel and chair of the Starr County Republican Party, put it this way: “It’s the national media that uses ‘Latino.’ It bundles us up with Florida, Doral, Miami. But those places are different than South Texas, and South Texas is different than Los Angeles. Here, people don’t say we’re Mexican American. We say we’re Tejanos.”
Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: Let the truth be known
I know about 20 families and friends that are LEGAL Hispanics.
They too object to the illegal migrants. They worked hard to become Legal Citizens via the old rules. They are PISSED at the government pushing illegals before the ones following the rules.
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Re: Let the truth be known
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Re: Let the truth be known
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Re: Let the truth be known
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Re: Let the truth be known
This is one of the big issues with privatization. When it's all about profit maintenance takes a back seat.
Road maintenance here was privatized and now holes aren't fixed right away and the plows don't come out right away after a big snow. When the municipality provided the service things were done much quicker.Comment
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Re: Let the truth be known
Interesting discussion about what works best....private companies vs. government.
Here's one example: Healthcare for veterans: For years and years the government let our veterans down. There were long wait times and shitty care. Private was definitely better in that case.
There's also much more waste any time the government is involved. Whatever the government tells you its gonna cost, you can double or triple it.Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: Let the truth be known
In my opinion, you really shouldn't participate in political discussions. It's out of your scope...entirely. No offense.
The government is responsible for this:
230,000 U.S. Bridges Need Repair, New Analysis of Federal Data Finds
- 46,000 Are “Structurally Deficient” and in Poor Condition
- NYC’s Brooklyn Bridge and D.C.’s Theodore Roosevelt Bridge Make List
- National, State and Local Data Available: artbabridgereport.org
WASHINGTON – Nearly 231,000 U.S. bridges need major repair work or should be replaced, according to an American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) analysis of the just released U.S. Department of Transportation’s 2019 National Bridge Inventory (NBI) database.
That figure represents 37 percent, or more than a third, of all U.S. bridges.
If placed end-to-end, the length of these bridges would stretch over 6,300 miles—long enough to make a round trip across the country from New York City to Los Angeles and back again to Chicago. American drivers cross these bridges 1.5 billion times per day – representing one-third of all daily bridge crossings, according to the data.
More than 46,000 of those bridges are “structurally deficient” and in poor condition. They are crossed 178 million times a day.
An additional 81,000 bridges should be replaced, says ARTBA Chief Economist Dr. Alison Premo Black, who led the team conducting the analysis. One third of Interstate highway bridges (18,177 spans) have identified repair needs.
The report comes as Congress and the Trump administration continue working on measures to respond to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. ARTBA says once policy makers shift from a rescue focus to economic recovery, robust transportation infrastructure investments have comprehensive benefits.
“Economic recovery from coronavirus begins with strategic road and bridge improvements,” ARTBA President Dave Bauer says. “Increased transportation investments support direct job creation and retention, while putting in place capital assets that will enhance U.S. productivity for decades to come.”
Bauer notes the transportation construction industry is not seeking federal assistance, but it should be part of the solution. He says the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee’s July 2019 unanimously approved five-year highway reauthorization bill should be the starting point for discussions.
“The sooner we invest in robust new transportation improvements the sooner the American people will experience the economic benefits,” Bauer says.
ARTBA estimates the cost to make the identified repairs for all 231,000 bridges in the U.S. at nearly $164 billion, based on average cost data published by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA.)
The number of structurally deficient bridges declined by 900 compared to 2018.
“At the current pace, it would take more than 50 years to repair America’s structurally deficient bridges,” Black, the chief economist, says. “Our bridge network is underfunded and should be modernized. State and local government just haven’t been given the necessary financial resources to fully address the problem.”
Rankings
States with the most structurally deficient bridges as a percent of their total bridge inventory, are: Rhode Island (22.3 percent); West Virginia (21 percent); Iowa (19 percent); South Dakota (17 percent); Pennsylvania (15.3 percent); Louisiana (13.2 percent); Maine (12.8 percent); Puerto Rico (12.3 percent); Michigan (10.8 percent); and North Dakota (10.7 percent).
States with the largest actual number of structurally deficient bridges are: Iowa (4,575 bridges); Pennsylvania (3,501); Illinois (2,407); Oklahoma (2,352); Missouri (2,147); California (1,797); New York (1,745); North Carolina (1,714); Louisiana (1,701); and West Virginia (1,531).
While these bridges may not be imminently unsafe, they need attention. Over 69,500 bridges across the country are “posted for load” which means there are weight restrictions or other measures in place to reduce stress on the structure.
Over the last five years, Pennsylvania has reduced the number of its structurally deficient bridges by 1,200. Other states with large decreases: Oklahoma (753); Indiana (467); Ohio (412) and Virginia (391). In 12 states, the number of structurally deficient bridges increased over the five years, including: West Virginia (plus 472); Illinois (260); Florida (131); Missouri (80) and Montana (77).
Structurally Deficient Bridges
Notable structurally deficient bridges include New York City’s Brooklyn Bridge; Washington, D.C.’s Theodore Roosevelt bridge; the San Mateo-Hayward bridge crossing San Francisco Bay – the longest bridge in California; Florida’s Pensacola Bay Bridge; and the Vicksburg Bridge in Mississippi.
State and congressional district-specific information is available: ARTBA Bridge Report
Established in 1902, the Washington, D.C.-based ARTBA advocates for strong investment in transportation to meet the demand for safe and efficient travel.
Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: Let the truth be known
Death rates, bedsores, ER wait times: Where every VA hospital lags or leads other medical care
A USA TODAY analysis of Veterans Affairs data provides the broadest picture of how each of 146 VA medical centers compares with non-VA care.
John Kelly, Jim Sergent and Donovan Slack, USA TODA
Published 5:00 AM CST Feb. 7, 2019 Updated 1:03 AM CST Dec. 16, 2019[/COLO
When Navy veteran Phyllis Seleska, 66, arrived at the emergency room at the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital in Loma Linda, California, in August 2017, the waiting room was crowded with dozens of veterans, some in wheelchairs lined up to the entrance.
Seleska suffered throbbing pain after shattering her wrist but received no medication and had to wait more than seven hours to see a doctor, records show. By then, the orthopedics staff had gone home. A nurse strapped a Velcro splint on her wrist and told her to come back in the morning.
“I don’t know why it took so long to get back there to be told, 'We can’t do anything to help you,' ” said Seleska, who worked on the flight deck of aircraft carriers in both Iraq wars.
The USA TODAY analysis provides the most comprehensive picture of how 146 VA medical centers compare with other health care facilities on an array of factors. The analysis is based on scores of spreadsheets the VA posted online in recent years containing comparisons of its medical centers with non-VA averages on everything from the ER wait times to infection rates and patient-survey results.
Veterans are enduring longer emergency room wait times
A USA TODAY investigation into VA Medical Centers shows that veterans are enduring longer emergency room wait times than those at non-VA facilities.
[COLOR=var(--secondary-font-color,hsla(0,0%,100%,0.6))]USA TODAY
VA spokesman Curt Cashour said certain veterans may have conditions that make them more susceptible to complications, and “caution should be exercised” when drawing conclusions from the comparisons.
He said the VA “does recognize the need to improve the speed by which it can admit veterans to the inpatient unit,” but he said non-VA hospitals also struggle with long waits.
“VA provides some of the highest-quality health care available today,” Cashour said.
Story continues below graphic
Death rates, ER waits: Where every VA hospital lags, leads other care
The analysis produced some positive findings for the VA. As of June 30, a majority of VA hospitals reported lower death rates than other facilities. Many VA medical centers stacked up better on prevention of post-surgical complications such as blood clots.
At the same time, dozens had higher rates of preventable infections and severe bed sores – a sign of potential neglect. Nearly every VA performed worse than other medical providers on industry-standard patient satisfaction surveys.Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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Re: Let the truth be known
In my opinion, you really shouldn't participate in political
discussions. It's out of your scope...entirely. No offense.
Failed Again and again. RookieComment
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Adversity temporarily visits a strong man but stays with the weak for a lifetime.Comment
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