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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 1h

Wait a second, Porter stayed and answered 20 more minutes of questions after the viral video snippet? Then outside of everyone who talks about politics online being frustrated theater critics, why are we having this conversation? www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

Her campaign spokesman, Nathan Click, pointed out that Ms. Porter answered questions from Ms. Watts for another 20 minutes after the viral exchange. A CBS spokesperson said on Wednesday that Ms. Porter stayed for the full interview.

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Will Bunnett @willbunnett.bsky.social · 9h

Perfect execution on the idea of turning away from "defund" — while turning toward funding non-police intervention in mental health calls and *framing it as something to help out the police.*

This guy has political skill lightyears beyond the Chesa Boudins and Pamela Prices of the world.

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 10h

Interesting dynamic in NYC where Zohran Mamdani is blunting opposition from patrol officers by taking their poor job conditions seriously. Bob Kuttner has this one:
prospect.org/blogs-and-ne...

Mamdani Courts the Cops

He is doing a lot better than you might think.

prospect.org

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 10h

Interesting dynamic in NYC where Zohran Mamdani is blunting opposition from patrol officers by taking their poor job conditions seriously. Bob Kuttner has this one:
prospect.org/blogs-and-ne...

Mamdani Courts the Cops

He is doing a lot better than you might think.

prospect.org

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 10h

The clear split on Dem shutdown strategy is between:
a) the political folks who thing moving the conversation to health care is an electoral win
b) people whose eyes are wide open to extreme authoritarianism and think the main way out is Congress reasserting itself

Sahil Kapur @sahilkapur.bsky.social · 10h

Another reason Democrats are eager to talk about health care: they win when this is a top issue for voters

LEFT: 2018 exit polls (D+52)
RIGHT: 2020 exit polls (D+25)

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 14h

Private equity firms and and giant insurers like Delta Dental have been rolling up dental practices. On Organized Money we talked to a dentist who has been fighting this, and why it should matter to anyone with teeth. Check it out wherever you get podcasts.
www.organizedmoney.fm/p/who-contro...

Who Controls Your Dentist?

Welcome to the podcast Organized Money.

www.organizedmoney.fm

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Sarah Taber @sarahtaber.bsky.social · 16h

Important farm labor update: Trump DOL is now planning to massively expand the H2A program.

Their logic? "Gee, all the farm workers are gone now. It's causing a food crisis. We just HAVE to run a crash-expansion of our slavery-prone H2A program."

prospect.org/politics/tru...

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 15h

For more, read the entire special issue we did about this last year.
prospect.org/coldcivilwar

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

Minnesota allowed the sale of one of its electric utilities to a consortium led by BlackRock. Our James Baratta was there to witness the proceeding, and he explains how it's the beginning of a private equity roll-up to cash in on the AI data center boom.
prospect.org/environment/...

BlackRock Just Bought a Minnesota Utility

On Friday, state regulators voted unanimously in favor of allowing private equity to take a Duluth-based utility holding company private. The Prospect takes you inside the room where it all went down.

prospect.org

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

Trump wants credit for boosting the funding of HBCUs. But he's doing it by taking money from "Minority Serving Institutions," which enroll significant numbers of students from historically underrepresented groups. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. From Naomi Bethune:
prospect.org/education/tr...

Competing for Crumbs

While adding funding for historically Black colleges and universities, Trump’s Education Department is simultaneously cutting funding to colleges that primarily serve minorities.

prospect.org

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

I literally say in the excerpt that American citizens work as farm laborers in large numbers.

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Third Summers Brother @hugetinymistake.bsky.social · 16h

Imagine that. The terror inflicted on immigrant workers is now being used to lower wages.

The rule seeks to bring in guest workers through the H-2A program at lower wages, potentially reducing wages across the spectrum for all farmworkers, regardless of legal status. But in order to do so quickly, Trump’s Department of Labor is surprisingly citing the downside risks of its own president’s mass deportation program, arguing that it is causing “immediate dangers to the American food supply.”

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

The document is filed though, it's an official document of the Trump administration bashing Trump's immigration enforcement as dangerous to the food supply. Read it here:
www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...

Adverse Effect Wage Rate Methodology for the Temporary Employment of H-2A Nonimmigrants in Non-Range Occupations in the United States

The Department of Labor (Department or DOL) is issuing this interim final rule (IFR) to amend its regulations governing the certification of agricultural labor or services to be performed by temporary...

www.federalregister.gov

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

It came out last week. Also essential workers have to keep working and I guess "pretend that Trump's immigration policy is causing mass food shortages to justify bringing in foreign workers at lower wages" is essential!

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

You obviously don't have the big brain of our emperor king.

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Lars @lpeds.com · 17h

😬

A paragraph from a news article discussing a new rule affecting H-2A farmworkers. It reads: “In addition, the new rule allows farm employers to charge H-2A workers for their housing, which was not allowed before. ‘It’s a way for employers to continue to house workers and also charge them, and bring down effective wages,’ said Marcos Lopez of the Labor and Community Center at the University of California, Davis.”

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the Mountain Goats @themountaingoats.bsky.social · 17h

this is wonky stuff and is also really important

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

I see no flaws with this plan

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 16h

Yes my Econ 101 book tells me that you always respond to labor shortages by cutting wages

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Mike Sacks @mikesacks.bsky.social · 17h

Our government’s official policy is “hurt and exploit workers to enrich their bosses.”

Only one of two things can be true: Either Trump's Labor Department actually believes that Trump's immigration enforcement is destroying the agricultural sector and threatening food security, or they are pretending this threat is real in order to crush wages for both foreign and domestic agricultural workers. Neither look particularly good.

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17h

Yes this is just a ruse to cut the wages of effectively indentured servants who are brought over to pick crops.

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Scott in Montreal🇨🇦 @scottinmontreal.ca · 17h

<snip>“We call it the ‘Deport and Replace’ strategy,” De Loera-Brust said, “which is defined above all to make it easier for corporate agribusiness to exploit its workers, whether terrified undocumented residents or an unlimited pool of cheap foreign guest workers.</snip>

David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17h

So this is funny.
The administration just issued a rule slashing foreign agricultural worker wages. And to justify it, in a public filing, Trump's Labor Department alleges that Trump's immigration enforcement has devastated the Ag workforce and caused a "risk of supply shock-induced food shortages."

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17h

I was going off this chart of "farm laborers, graders and sorters," which may be a larger category than crop workers.
www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-...

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17h

But yes, cutting wages is sure a strange economic response to a labor shortage!

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17h

I think agribusinesses are secure in the belief that the indentured servants they bring over and house (and now charge for that housing) will get to cycle in and out, just as Trump's Mar a Lago guest workers did.

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David Dayen @ddayen.bsky.social · 17h

This is all bullshit, by the way. There is no imminent risk of rotting crops, according to experts and farmworker unions. It's a ploy to cut wages (even below state minimum wages) for foreign workers, which will eventually hit U.S. workers too.
So much for America First!

Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis

In a filing in the Federal Register, the Labor Department argues there are “immediate dangers to the American food supply” due to a lack of migrant agricultural workers.

prospect.org

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