Florida Construction Sites Vacant After Immigration Bill - NewsBreak

In Florida it's construction, in the Midwest it's food processing.

Totally agree. When I was stationed on the border in the 60s people came across daily looking for work. Some found it locally and many found it out of state. Those people haven't changed, our view of them is what's changed.

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - I feel you are a bit more experienced than I and I am curious, has the view of immigrants changed by the Democrats? Clearly they have no concerns about the people the coyotes bring across the border to die in the desert and they certainly are not concerned with the refrigerator truck deaths in 2017 and 2022. Did they care at one point or have they always been cheap, disposable labor. El Paso is the most blue city in Texas and the way they treat these people keeping them only speaking Spanish and on the bottom end of the income ladder, they clearly do not care today.

MAJ Byron Oyler I don't think it's party related. It's profit related and that's always going to be the case. Society always needs some group to be at the bottom rung of their workers. Funny, when I was stationed in Turkey it was the Turks who went to Germany illegaly to get work. They did the menial jobs until discovered and deported back to Turkey.

That perception has changed tremendously in the last many decades. Our border is getting exploited, far too many people from far beyond Central and South America are coming here, and criminals / foreign threat actors are taking advantage of it. I am all for building on the diversity of cultures and people in this nation, but we have to do it in a controlled and legal manner. What we have here now is chaos (and I’ve been close to the border going on over 13 years). I’ve even travelled down the Pan-American highway, all the way to Panama, which is something we cannot do anymore, due to the dangers encountered in north Mexico to start. I’ve also lived in Central and South America for over 13 years and even served a period at Southern Command (where I also grew up). This region has been ignored for far too long by the US, enabling China to roll in and push their influence into the region. We would do well to focus more on our neighbors in an effort to build them up and negate their desire to come to the US illegally.

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Sir, Florida just sent the ENTIRE STATE Congressional delegation Republican. Gerrymandering doesn't do that.

He won the statewide 2022 election by 20 points. Gerrymandering doesn't do that, either.

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen I apologize. I typed off memory without checking. They did not send the entire state Republican. There are still blue pockets.

But he DID win by 20 points, which is not a result of gerrymandering.

SFC Casey O'Mally You need to check the facts on who gerrymandered the districts. Desantis

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen - Sir, that does not explain his 20 point margin of victory in the statewide election.
A typical gerrymander creates a few districts of concentrated opposition and a large number of districts with moderate spread of support. The goal is 8 districts of 54/46 victory and 2 of 90/10 loss. But when there is ONE district - the entire state - gerrymanders don't work.

And if you look at the voting results for 2022....
Republican wins...
+35
+19
+21
+26
+75 (no Democrat)
+17
+29
+28
+41
+8
+17
+28
+25
+75 (no democrat)
+36
+27
+41
+15
+27

Democrat wins...
+7
+21
+13
+45
+11
+5
+43
+10

We can see ONE Republican win in the single digits, and TWO Democrat wins. Additionally, there are only three lopsided Democrat districts (20 points or more) compared to 14 for Republicans.

Put another way, Democrats had 37.5% lopsided, 37.5% safe, and 25% toss-up.
Republicans had 70% lopsided, 25% safe, and 5% toss-up.

The point of a gerrymander is to pack as many opposition as you can into as few districts as possible. A gerrymander would show a high concentration of the opposition in as few districts as possible - a small number of highly lopsided seats. Additionally, you want a bunch of safe seats for your side.

By the numbers of the 2022 election, it does look highly gerrymandered - in favor of the Democrats!