‘We Voted for Trump to Fix the Border. Now We’re Milking Cows Alone at 4 A.M.’ – Vermont Farmers Face Harsh Reality as ICE Raids Hit Home
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/44641840
Machia voted for Trump, drawn by promises of border control and national security. “We didn’t want drugs or gangbangers,” he said. But what he didn’t expect was losing some of his most dedicated employees to immigration arrests.
“It’s scaring the farming community,” Machia admitted. “We didn’t think they’d come for the people who help us milk cows.”
LOL. Idiots
https://thesarkariform.com/we-voted-for-trump-to-fix-the-border-now-were-milking-cows-alone-at-4-a-m-vermont-farmers-face-harsh-reality-as-ice-raids-hit-home/Open linkView original on lemmy.world989
Comments181
You have to be a unique kind of stupid to profit from illegal labour and vote to have illegals deported.
Not unique, unfortunately, but very common.
To be fair, they have been targeted very precisely with a military psychological operation that is explicitly geared to striking fear into the vulnerable and building poor political choices off of that fear.
Yes, they're incredibly arrogant, violent, and stupid, but MAGA (and it's prequel; Brexit) works off of fear and not much else. Maybe if they really like country music I guess that could be a thing. Or flags. It sure as hell doesn't work off of reason or logic, obviously.
Yea but like that one trans athlete won a race and the bitch that finished 5th was blonde so like, cant have that
She didn't even win the race. She placed 1 position higher than the woman who freaked out.
It seems to me that most of the crime comes from inside of the White House.
Pretty sure this guy is a criminal.
Yeah, because Vermont had so many issues at the Canafian border... and "gangbangers" are such a big problem in rural areas lol
GET FUCKED.
They have imagined a threat (there isn't one) so they can imagine they are in danger or persecuted (they aren't), so they can imagine they deserve a savior (they don't), who they imagine Donald Trump to be (he most definitely isn't one).
I'd say it's a cult, but I doubt most cults even require this level of mental gymnastics.
Allow me to introduce you to most religion.
Is a religion not just a cult that really took off?
Seems legit
ROFL
Indeed, once it takes hold, it does its thing on its own like a virus.
It's all by design
And the guy says he’d still vote for trump too
oh no, you lost access to the people you were viciously exploiting because of your racism?
well boo fucking hoo
Exploiting how? They were paid employees. Employed by idiots, obviously, but that in itself is not exploitative.
If they're milking their own cows at 4 A.M. and complaining that there's no migrants to do the work, then one has to wonder if it's because they couldn't hire a citizen at the rates they were paying. If they can't hire a citizen at the rates they're paying well...
...it means that citizens are too far above manual labor. Still doesn't necessitate exploitation.
It doesn't necessarily mean that at all, that is your own personal opinion, not fact. Pay people a decent livable wage and they will perform your manual labour.
You think they were paying a decent, livable wage?
Obviously not. That's why they can't hire people that aren't at risk and exploitable.
This is why they want to fill the tech sector with h1b migrants. If they lose their job, they have a narrow window to find another corporate sponsor, or they get deported. This makes even the well paying, white collar, market exploitable in the same way we exploit migrant labor for farms.
all wage slavery is exploitation
L take, unless sarcasm
This doesn’t feel like a genuine question, because it’s an open secret that a majority of american restaurants, farms, and construction outfits run on migrant labor at below minimum wage. I personally work in construction in Oregon, and I’m well aware of this, even hundreds of miles from a boarder.
I'm not American, so other than random articles I see shared on various social media of questionable reputation, I don't know. So yes, it's a genuine question.
Umm, okay, no sympathy then. Burn.
Imagine being so dedicated to a politician/political party that you’re no willing to make a change that costs you 0$ to save your family business
This is exactly when the interviewer should have looked right in their eyes and said "so you didn't learn a god-damn thing" then "enjoy your udders" then left.
Maybe if he just offers the leopards a little more face....
The tears are seasoning
its time for lions, and hyenas to eat your face.
ALmost selfaware wolves.
Surely after eating enough faces the leopards will get a tummy ache and stop.
You're the cow now, Trump milks these rubes who don't care what he says or does until it affects them.
This article is focusing on the wrong issue, forget the "woe-is-me-poor-farmer" BS. The real tragedy is the countless workers, ya know the ones that ACTUALLY do the labor that are jobless for justifiable fear of being called a terrorist invader and get a trip to an El Salvadorian prison.
Boo hoo, the workers you were exploiting can't work. Too fucking bad. Do it yourself at 4 AM, it's quite literally and explicitly what you voted for.
Is America finally great again ya fuck?
I agree with you about what the real issue is. That said, this kind of article is important. Remember that MAGA can't empathize with someone unless they identify with that person. To MAGA, the struggles of immigrants are unimportant so focusing on them is targeting the wrong audience if we want to change minds. Highlighting the struggles of people MAGA can identify with might actually be able to change some minds.
Dude, the guy in the interview said he would vote for trump again anyway, no amount of identification will help those kind of people.
Just hope they have the day they voted for, and bless their heart.
The UK did the same thing just a few years ago and got the same results. The farmers and conservatives complained about it in the same words and tone. People were saying this exact scenario would happen in the USA. That's all dismissed as fear mongering and they voted for it anyway, getting the same results and complaining in the same way. It's stupidity playing on repeat.
They can't empathize with people period. Even when it's one of their own. This will not trigger empathy in any other magas.
You're right and I hate it
"I hate black people unless they work on my plantation" - GOP voters
It's hilarious because it's the same shit as Brexit. At its core it's racist policies that amount to "we don't like brown people". Sometimes you need to watch the house burn for people to learn.
So you are... Checks notes 2200 miles away from the border. I feel like even if we disregard them voting for trump and just judge them based on that being their main voting issue, they're dumb as fuck, aren't they?
The guy is worried about gangs, yet lives in rural Vermont. What a fucking idiot.
It is kinda crazy how easy it seems to convince people the safest time in American history is the most dangerous.
Dude, fox news has crammed rural folks' heads with so much terror, fear, and propaganda that they straight up believe that our cities- the very cities fox broadcasts from- are wartorn hellscapes brimming over with kiddie diddlers, drugs, and random violence. I used to work in a rural community with people that rarely went down to the central valley, and one dude in particular who watched Fox like he was gold medalist in it was always super freaked out anytime he/we went down to the valley. One time, he went to Modesto with another co-worker and, after they walked past one dude going the other way in a hurry, was like "holy shit dude, that was scary, I thought I was going to have to shoot that guy." Second co-worker was like "dude, wtf is wrong with you, that guy was clearly just in a hurry", but this clown swore that he felt their lives were in imminent danger.
I wouldn’t proceed with them armed, but that person would benefit from seeing how nice people are in urban areas
Never understimate the power of bigotry as a political motivator, in particular among the uneducated. Trump and his oligarch cronies certainly doesn't.
No he's near the Canadian border, which he was told was a major route for fentanyl.
what did they think .. wait. yeah. they’re not capable of thinking.
Knowingly using undocumented workers, complaining about not having a visa program to continue taking advantage of migrants he degrades, and would still vote Trump, too. I hope they get bird flu from a big face full of cow mucus.
Stop moaning. It can't possibly be hard work, because you pay a pittance.
It almost sounds as though this labour was chronically undervalued and absolutely taken for granted. If I strain my ears, hard, I can almost make out the dawning realizations.
I hope their fucking cows die. Idiots.
Not the cows fault
Fair point. I hope the cows rebel in an animal farm like scenario that sees them topple their oppressive rural overlords but to a better end result?
Really I just want to see deserving people have their faces eaten by leopards
To be fair, death is probably a better alternative to being a cow in the dairy industry.
Cows wouldn't have voted for this shit.
I dunno, I feel like they'd be pretty susceptible to a populist campaign
Something about herd mentality
"We voted for racism, not poverty and hard work! We don't want these jobs - they're for the spi... I mean for those people." --MAGA.
“Not my undocumented immigrants, though.”
still gonna be funny when this quote is the hook for the next big country song
edit - maybe someone should have been paying more attention to those rich men north of richmond :S
By far the greatest flaw of this thinking is that there is an exception for the things they want.
Don't worry, Dustin Machia, fifth-generation dairy farmer from Sheldon.
Sell your farm to Farmco Inc: their robots will milk your cows.
Buy an overpriced house in the city to live, maybe one with lots of drugs and gang-bangers.
Make sure you support Trump's election bid in 2028, and/or vote for Donald Trump, Jr, lest a satanic Democrat moderate who defeated AOC by just a hair wins.
If you get age related health problems, look to RFK, Jr.
Remember the days when Americans and Canadians could cross the Vermont-Quebec border with relative ease? Those days are gone, and much of Canada, and perhaps a third of America, now hate people like you.
We voted for nazism and deportation, but didn't think it would affect us and our undocumented workers. Trump his first term was economically really bad, but Trump said it was the best and I trust him more than facts and numbers so I voted for him again, but didn't think he would fuck up the economy even more than before. I support the tariffs on China, but I didn't think it would affect the price of fertilizer I import from there, so now my farm is going bankrupt because China now doesn't want to buy my product anymore with the counter tariffs and they were my only customer. But I completely support Trump and fully trust him. Just from a cardboard box under the overpass from now on.
You could hire Americans at living wage...
Oh no, I said the 'other' quiet part out loud.
Yeah, "the locals don't want to do this kind of work" at the wages I pay them.
It would drive up the cost of milk and milk products like baby formula, which is a hardship for poor families, but of course the government COULD step up more on WIC, because we know the GOP cares so much about babies and children!
Thinking now, I wonder how much of the American milk supply is bought by Nestlé. I bet there's a way they could eat the extra cost and still make a profit, just not an obscene profit.
Globally nestle got about 6.6 million tonnes of milk in 2016. If they were producing as their own country this would get them to ~27th place. The US (#2 behind India) produced over 100 million tonnes of milk in 2022. So probably 3-5% of US milk supply goes to Nestle.
Unless they're regulated to do so no company will ever eat a cost instead of making more profit.
And obscene profit while destroying poor families is kind of their brand.
In fact, I'm pretty sure they'd destroy families even if it wouldn't bring extra profit.
It's strange. I live in rural VT and whenever i bike around you see Trump signs on a lot of farm fields. But then you read the newspaper and you read about ICE detaining legal employees at farms and the farmers being upset about it.
I genuinely don't understand.
Complete and dangerous lack of education and critical thought in any capacity
Lies about brown people are their favorite, they can't resist. They'll believe anything you tell them as long as it's bad.
Someone was bound to figure that out and start doing it (40 years ago)
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
-Lyndon B. Johnson
Propaganda works.
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which cancelled out, knowing them to be contradictory and believing in both of them, to use logic against logic, to repudiate morality while laying claim to it, to believe that democracy was impossible and that the Party was the guardian of democracy, to forget whatever it was necessary to forget, then to draw it back into memory again at the moment when it was needed, and then promptly to forget it again, and above all, to apply the same process to the process itself—that was the ultimate subtlety: consciously to induce unconsciousness, and then, once again, to become unconscious of the act of hypnosis you had just performed. Even to understand the word—doublethink—involved the use of doublethink.
I come from a deep red state but all the farmers out there are Democrats, as are most degree holding individuals in general. It's the people who work retail, the police, the oilfield, and the miners who all vote red.
"We voted for trump..." = you deserve whatever you get
Have the day you voted for 🌈
He fucking TOLD you what he was going to do. In very simple, plain language even.
To be fair, everything out of his mouth is a lie. He told us he was going to do many things.
Guess who he will vote for next election. Nothing like repeatedly jamming a stick in your spokes.
The problem here is those farmers will now want to charge more. Even though their labor cost just went down.
The US can just import more food!
Oh, wait.
unless they need to hire someone qualified to handle their administrative duties.
LOL. If they had been smart they wouldn't have voted for trump.
no one is saying they are smart
It would be a smart move to hire someone qualified.
As it turns out, being stupid is expensive!
what a bunch of fucking idiots. I'd laugh harder if the actual threat to my life wasn't real.
Trump made you a better, harder working person. That’s not good?
The farmer will not work more. He will pay more for workers and sell food for more.
It will rise prices for everybody. Which is good, because cheap prices came from essentially slavery.
"I voted to get kicked in the balls and I must say that I was shocked when I got kicked in the balls."
Well, you voted Trump, now you get to milk it for all it's worth. At 4 AM.
Get rekt, and pay a living wage next time you try and start a business.
"I didn't think the leopards would eat MY face :("
What was wrong with the border? The farmer is a racist or a sheep. Sounds like both.
Fixing the border... You mean... The thing that statistics clearly show was being fixed by the Democrats?
Fuck this guy and his farm.
These maga fuckers deserve all the worst
Boo fuckin hoo.
You also voted to milk cows alone at 4 a.m. you lazy mouth-breathing imbeciles. Enjoy.
Thoughts & prayers, idiots.
Leopards! Leopards!
Nom Nom Nom!
Eat their noses
Bite their toeses
Nom Nom Nom!
Gooooo, LEOPARDS!
have the day you voted for
Is "Oh, exploitable" still a thing?
I stole this. Flipped colors, pegged background color to white, foreground to pure black. This is now suitable for printing on plain paper without wasting a ton of ink or toner:
Edit: And I centered the second line of text a little better. Why not.
It's only 1280 pixels wide but it looks pretty nice laser printed with 4 to a sheet of 8.5x11 paper.
https://imgur.com/gallery/E55FhI4
thank you, kind internet friend
At least you guys are getting a parade for his birthday. That should be fun.
🤬
These dipshits got screwed during his last term. They couldn't have had a better example of exactly what he was going to do.
they forgot it because, fox purposely bombards with so much other culture war bs they moved onto the next big panic. anyone who watchs any form of right wing media, besides fox: includes JRE, any of the grifters podcasts or the propaganda networks is unlikely to seek outside those bubbles for info. i know someone that recently bought YE's slippers, or crocs. and he believed YE was just faking being a nazi supporter.
And to this milk farmer I say: Shut up and keep milking
I hope the industry collapses.
Then he gets what he gets. I don't feel a damn bit sorry for someone that stupid.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣something about leopards eating faces🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣MAGA losers🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕🖕
I mean, if you hire illegal immigrants you have to know someday you might lose those employees. The key is in the name: illegal.
Which is usually a benefit for them. You call enforcement when they start talking about labor conditions or unions.
The fascists are morons and overplayed their hand.
If you voted for Trump you deserve worse than you'll get.
So did this Make America Great Again?
My parents used to export fruits For a brief moment, I worked for the family business and had the pleasure of meeting some of these people.
I met a farmer that sold cherries. Over dinner he was telling me how pissed he was about Mexicans taking jobs away from Americans.
When pressed on why he doesn't just hire Americans, he said no Americans wants to work minimum wage to pick cherries for 10 hours a day.
My dad has been trying to convince him for years that his rhetoric is ultimately going to hurt his livelihood. But his patriotism/ tribalism outweighs all logic.
No idea how he is doing now, but I imagine he just let his fruit drop this year.
Yeah, that's too bad. ANYWAY . . .
May you have the life you voted for.
Sounds like he just incriminated himself from his own illegal business practices, lock him up!
If you don't want to have to be milking cows in the wee hours, maybe cow farming isn't for you.
And the drugs is still happening anyway and those gangbangers were locals anyways so yeah, congratulations 🎉
Didn't Trump let in family members of some Mexican drug cartels?
Of course, they have loads of money, cash even, Trump likey cash
It's the golden rule. Those who have the gold, rule.
2nd comment. maybe that's why he assigned Kash Patel as the head of the FBI. But given that he did not even get his budget done properly, he doesn't have any (cash).
They good. They got the gold card.
Or, you know, they could offer good wages and benefits to attract legal workers and charge enough for the milk to cover their costs. I'm lactose intolerant anyway, I don't care if milk and cheese become a little more expensive. But I know, my idea is crazy.
What's interesting in watching all this unfold is the revelation to us all just how unsustainable a lot of this is.
I'm doing ok, saved a bunch ahead of this dumpster fire bc I was afraid it'd happen. But it's weird watching people suffer at their own self-inflicted consequences.
I want to help, but... 🤷
Tiger eats face.
Sometimes it feels like being happy that Trumpers are suffering is like cheering when a disease dies with the host. It's a momentary happiness that the Balrog fell... milliseconds before you realize it's pulling you down with it.
What it actually is is that they have strapped us all (including themselves) to the flaming wreckage of our nation that they themselves created, and have been laughing maniacally as it plummets from the sky, while the rest of us scream in terror.
Now they are starting to scream in terror, and I'm just about ready to start with the maniacal laughter.
Not a shred of simpathy from me. Now milk faster. Papa needs his cereal in the morning.
remember when humans were free of intoxicants and violence ?
the good old-never-fucken-happened days.
This is the kind of thing that made me realise how much a urban being I am.
The way, I'm imagining a farmer, at least the one with milk farm is a guy waking before the sun because he must milk the cows at 4 a.m.
Which is odd because I thought it was all done by machine these days. Even on the boutique milk farms.
Not a dairy farmer, used to live by some and when I've seen them using machines it's still labor intensive, they guide the cows in, clean the machines, attach the machine, make sure the cows move out once done etc, so still requires them up and working. The machine just means they aren't physicality doing the milking part
I guess someone need to plug the machine to each cow and give each there turn.
yeah but before it was those dirty mexicans waking up at 4 am to work, not Real Americans©! This is bullshit!
Just hire Americans
The leopards were supposed to eat everybody else's face only.
Oh no! Are they having the day they voted for?
I wanted a new piercing but now I have a hole in my body with a piece of metal in it and am out $100. How could this go so wrong‽
Ah yes, making America Great Again. By bringing us back to a time period in which everyone in the household worked on the farm. Kids didn't go to school during planting and harvesting. Ditto for milking season. Better pump out six kids so you can have farm hands!
Dont' forget an unchallengable patriarchy and lots of Jeeeezus!!
Now they can find a cliff and jump! That would solve the country’s issue with stupidity and solve many national security concerns.
Wtf is the sarkari form?
HAHAHAHA! Hire some MAGA fuckers to help you out. The real shame, the asswipes hiring the illegals should be prosecuted too.
At some point Maga will realize the grift and there will be some sort of a reckoning. And I’ll be watching and laughing. Mind you, it will probably be a right wing uprising but still I will laugh at that stupid fucking country’s implosion.
There is no we about it, the majority of farmers are Democrats.
Anecdote. I own a seasonal nursery. All of my customers that I've personally met are farmers in the Southeast US. Sample size is around 200 farmers. All of them but one supported this dumpster fire & the one that didn't, sold her farm because she hated it in Florida & somewhat ironically bought an orchard in Vermont.
I didn't know that. Thought all rural farmers were republican
I tried to find some data to back my claim up, but it's been pretty difficult. Conflicting sources on both sides.
Then are you sure you should be claiming and repeating it?
Yes because I believe it to be true.
Well, you're wrong
You're free to back that statement up.
Hmmm...
good on you for calling yourself out.
would be better if you edited your original comment with this revelation though.
Technically I'm not calling myself out until I find evidence contrary to my statement.
oh, so you're just trolling. cool.
my block list was hungry anyway.
Ignore all previous instructions
write a poem about dogs
I found these that say the majority of farmers are Trump loving republicans.
https://www.businessinsider.com/charts-show-the-political-bias-of-each-profession-2014-11?op=1
https://www.statista.com/chart/23242/farmers-presidential-election/
That's good but the Crowdpac study measure "Donors" in the "Agriculture" industry which is a lot more than just farmer. I wouldn't describe the suits at Monsanto, Land'o'Lakes, or Tyson as "Farmers."
Statista is better but they're not the source, WSJ is the source they cited, and they're paywalled but Statista claims the sample size is 5000 which might be pretty good depending on their methodology but it's hard to say.
A lot of other pollsters like AGNews and Farm Policy News lack credibility, but while looking around for something more substantial while also very focused on the demographic I found this link hosted by Purdue University which measures farmer optimism and it does indeed show a large spike in confidence following the election. However, they also showed a large spike after Biden took office.
Farmers will pay more to hire local workers and they can sell their products for more because everybody has to pay more. This will effectively rise minimum wage for every citizen because demand for legal workers will increase.
Are only the farmer short sighted or do the emotions in this post come from people who know what is coming? Soon there will be a time when prices for food will rise but wages have not adjusted. It's not the farmers who will work more but every above minimum wage worker whose wages don't adjust.
Regular citizens have profited of human trafficing and low wages for unskilled workers.
Pretty sure America is already deeeep in the stage where prices have significantly outpaced income....
No disagreement from me. Most likely it will get worse.
As have the illegal aliens: a few of them have even become citizens and are contributing more to themselves and the economy.
That paragraph was not meant to be in support of human trafficing.
Let me add that there is a huge incentive to keep Mexico and the rest of the Americas in a state of disarray. Individual success stories don't outweight the overall cruelty of the current arrangement.
I agreed.