245 Comments

Can we start calling the Republican Party a Death Cult now?

Expand full comment

That moniker belong to Christians

Expand full comment

It doesn't have to be exclusive

Expand full comment

If my back of the brain math is correct, 57 under 15s plus 68 over 15s since 2008 works out to roughly *two kids dying every month* while on the job somewhere in America. I guess that doesn't compare to the amount who mightve seen a drag show, or maybe a cartoon weiner somewhere, tho. And besides, I bet a bunch of em aren't even white. That must be why the Save the Children brigade is strangely silent on this.

Expand full comment

This kid was white, which I’m sure makes it coincidental that his death in particular has been prosecuted.

Expand full comment

"Can't get a job cuz I ain't got a gun.

So I'm looking for a girl with a dog and a boner."

- Axl Cooper, lost in amerikkka

Expand full comment

Sounds like he might have been referencing Don Johnson in "A Boy and His Dog"

Expand full comment

"Blood, get me some ammo and Viagra. We're going to the movies."

Expand full comment

I could have died at my job before I was 15, if I had been run over by a truck doing my paper route. It could happen!

Expand full comment

Hell I could have died before I was 14, if there was some jackass drive-by shooter, as I was reading a book on our front porch glider. Never happened due to a hell of a lot fewer guns around except for bb guns and hunting rifles, and a lot less traffic since there were a lot fewer cars especially not owned by teenagers. Harder to do a drive-by shooting if you are walking past the house (and had to respond to me saying "Hi" ) or riding a bike while trying to use your rifle.

Expand full comment

What I would like to hear from the Department of Labor is that the plant manager was been arrested for employing an underage worker, failure to train workers and failure to properly supervise said worker. I'd like to also hear that the owner of the sawmill being arrested and charged with negligent homicide. Until managers and owners are sent to prison these kind of things will continue to happen.

Expand full comment

I heard corporations are people, so I want the corporation to go to court and then jail. Failure to show up will have all their assets seized. And since corporations don't have bodies to walk into the court room, they will always have their assets seized.

Expand full comment

I approve of the death penalty for corporations.

Expand full comment

There are children working at dangerous jobs in the saw mills of Wisconsin for less than minimum wage? Are there no illegal aliens in Wisconsin??

Expand full comment

They got stopped before they got there by Marsha Blackburn"s Tennessee southern border troops. /s

Expand full comment

Unfortunately, "that OSHA fine" is just a cost of doing business, which I believe can be expensed to reduce the guilty company's taxes.

Expand full comment

Johnny Cash's brother died working in a lumber mill as a child.

I remember watching that and being thankful for progress.

Fuckers.

That shit should be history.

(TERRIBLE LINK! JOHNNY"S BROTHER HURT IN SAW MILL!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mqid_w3WJ0

Expand full comment

Asked about this tragic industrial accident, Nikki Hayley's Vomit said government is about freedom and letting people do what they want, even at risk of [other people's] life and limb.

Expand full comment
Dec 28, 2023·edited Dec 29, 2023

Why does it seem like we’re constantly having to refight battles that were settled generations ago? We’re already at the point where some on the right are saying “slavery wasn’t so bad.” How much further can we slide?

This is not the future I signed up for.

Expand full comment

Well I try to take comfort in the fact the local coal industry is dead, so no need to have modern breaker boys.

Expand full comment

When you say "child bartenders" I assume you mean they're actually making drinks, not just a workaround to allow under-21s to carry drinks from the bar to the table in a restaurant? Because good gravy. First of all, I don't care if my TGI Fridays Megarita is just coming straight out of the can pre-mixed, I still don't want my drink made by someone who's not allowed to have one themselves!

Expand full comment

It's possible in Illinois. I was surprised by this; my daughter, then 17, wanted to get bartender training so she could tend bar. I said, "But you're underage!" With a chuckle she replied, "Not to tend bar." I don't remember talking her out of it -- something I had only limited success with -- but I do know she didn't tend a bar until she was 21.

Expand full comment

Do they not think the teenage bartenders would sneak a nip?

Expand full comment

I got my first paying job at 16 yo, working as an administrative assistant for a local environmental company. My main duties were typing (on an actual typewriter!), photocopying, filing, etc. I did go out into the field once with one of the engineers, just so I could learn more about the business, which was testing and remediation of leaking underground storage tanks, or LUSTs (that acronym always made me giggle). Because the last period of my school day was ”study hall,” I got out of school early and worked 2:30 - 5:30 PM, M-F, which was plenty of time for me to get home for dinner, complete my homework, etc.

The next summer I had a paid research internship at one of the state universities, where I tested the beta glucan content of various strains of oats (the component having hypocholesterolemic effects). I also did my own separate research project on the beta glucan content of various commercial oat cereals (pro tip: plain Cheerios had the highest content). I suppose that job was slightly more dangerous than typing, but I was well-supervised and not working with particularly dangerous chemicals.

My point is that after-school & summer jobs can provide useful and even educational experiences for older teens.

But kids working at sawmills or meatpacking plants? NOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Expand full comment

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘳 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 69 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯. 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘶𝘦, 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵, 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘭𝘶𝘹 𝘪𝘯 𝘮𝘪𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴, 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴.

And the reason for that is, thanks to the thoroughly fucked-up immigration system in this country, unaccompanied minors are the only ones almost guaranteed to gain entry to the U.S. This means that a desperately poor family that needs remittances from the U.S. to survive will rely on a 14- or 15-year-old kid to work in a sawmill, or a slaughterhouse, or God knows where, and send money back.

There is a simple, obvious solution: LET THE PARENTS IN. Let THEM do the hard, dangerous jobs that should only be done by adults. There are tons of people beyond our borders who are ready and eager to do such work, and there are tons of businesses eager to hire them.

Just get out of the fucking way and let it happen already. It's not brain surgery.

Expand full comment

Some think it’s inhumane to deny everyone seeking it entry to the ‘richest country on earth’. I think it’s inhumane to take a child OR adult who has just made an arduous trek with only the tropical zone clothing on their back & drop them homeless, jobless, penniless & clueless in some frost belt metropolis. U.S.has not had a coherent immigration policy for generations. At one time, asylum seekers were admitted to the care of a sponsor - a relative, an employer, a religious/charitable organization - who would see to their needs while they got established. Today, the richest among us don’t pay their fair share, the non-profits are stretched to the limit, the relatives themselves are struggling to stay afloat, and the employers? As ever, eager to exploit the newcomers’ labor with zero responsibility for their well-being.

Expand full comment

Jim Risch, the richest man in the Senate even though he didn't start out rich, is introducing a bill to allow more kids to work at sawmills. He claims that his goal is to stop government from disallowing kids to work at their family's sawmills. MEAN GOVERNMENT! Of course, that is not the reason. If their lips are moving, they're working for a lobbyist. Especially an asshole like Risch.

Expand full comment

I can't stand that little gnome. Every once in awhile when I'm bored, I go on his social media and remind him that even dead, Cecil Andrus is still his better.

Expand full comment

It makes me so angry reading the fate of these kids. That it's even a double-digit number of *children* as a death toll from working in hazardous environments enrages me further.

America is a horrible place to raise children. And it's like the "Pro-life" people want to make sure it's awful.

Expand full comment

Preach.

“Are there no workhouses?”

Expand full comment

Undocumented kids are the reason for this sudden push for more expansive child labor.

We had previously glibly said that when a White American kid got hurt it would matter but Micheal Schuls shows that it doesn't...it's just too profitable..

Expand full comment

I posted about how last Friday, my uncle (early 70s) was doing a woodworking project, didn’t pay close enough attention, and got smacked in the abdomen with a board. Aunt drove him to closest rural hospital where they diagnosed him with internal bleeding, but they didn’t have the resources to treat. So off he went to a bigger hospital by ambulance, where they removed his spleen, but kept the incision “open” with uncle under sedation and on a vent, so they could do a 2nd exploratory surgery.

He just got out of the hospital yesterday, and apparently he’s really mad at himself because he knew better.

Most teens just don’t.

Expand full comment