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Lauren Boebert accused a fellow lawmaker of trying to 'incite a riot' -- and it blew up in her face
Reacting to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) encouraging protesters to stay on the streets and demand justice for Black Americans killed by police, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO accused the Democrat of trying to "incite a riot" which led to a flood of commenters noting her part in the Jan 6th Capitol siege that had lawmakers fleeing for their lives.
According to Boebert, "Why is Maxine Waters traveling to a different state trying to incite a riot? What good can come from this?"
Twitter commenters were quick to remind Boebert of her tweets on Jan. 6thn that seemed to be directing insurrectionists as to where they could find House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
You can see some comments below:
@laurenboebert Like this? https://t.co/SQeQ3HdSnn— TheAtcoGhost🥶 (@TheAtcoGhost🥶)1618754502.0
@laurenboebert Why did @laurenboebert conspire with the Capitol Rioters by giving them a tour right before the… https://t.co/zGFgwNm90i— GaryAtty (@GaryAtty)1618754956.0
@laurenboebert Hey, Lauren is still tweeting the whereabouts of the members of congress she doesn't like.— Lonely Indiana Democrat (@Lonely Indiana Democrat)1618756596.0
@laurenboebert Difference between a protest and a riot. Hoping DOJ will be informing you soon, Mrs 1776— Lady Liberty says Wear a mask 😷🗽 (@Lady Liberty says Wear a mask 😷🗽)1618755269.0
@laurenboebert Why did you travel from Colorado to Washington D.C. to do the same thing on January 6th of this year… https://t.co/i06N51IDdC— parishkl 🏳️🌈🌊 (@parishkl 🏳️🌈🌊)1618756149.0
@laurenboebert Are you really going to try and use “riot” after what you helped do to the Capitol?? Get real.— Johnny AppleWeed (@Johnny AppleWeed)1618754816.0
@laurenboebert Another on the list of dumb fucking statements that sounded like a good idea in your head but your h… https://t.co/qDcvBoo9Zk— LumberJake (@LumberJake)1618755505.0
@laurenboebert No different than doing it on Twitter, Qbert.— Not SAYN Just SAYN (@Not SAYN Just SAYN)1618756073.0
@laurenboebert Why were you giving rioters the location of Speaker Pelosi on Jan 6, 2021?— Janice ThaBusy Bee (@Janice ThaBusy Bee)1618754629.0
@laurenboebert Says the woman who incited insurrection because her guy lost AND tweeted the location of duly electe… https://t.co/JBwqtU9o8V— DiscordiaIII (@DiscordiaIII)1618754834.0
@laurenboebert Why did Lauren Boebert tweet the location and movements of the Speaker of the House while Lauren's b… https://t.co/quCCAdDmou— Daniel Nicolae Dubei (@Daniel Nicolae Dubei)1618754645.0
@laurenboebert Oh, they're black. Now you're scared.— Rick Riley (@Rick Riley)1618756735.0
@laurenboebert Now do Kyle Rittenhouse https://t.co/1A4YPMWs8C— Shaka Smith (@Shaka Smith)1618755757.0
@laurenboebert Yes... inciting anything isn’t good... right Lauren? We will always remember January 6.— Tammy H (@Tammy H)1618754554.0
Republicans are having limited success turning the public against the Biden administration's $2 trillion infrastructure plan by claiming the proposal is too wide-ranging.
A new NPR poll shows solid support not only for the provisions relating to roads and bridges but also for spending on modernizing the electric grid, achieving universal broadband coverage and even expanding long-term health care.
Given the sweeping scope of the proposal, it is not possible for pollsters to ask about every component. I suspect there also would be high support for a portion of the plan that has received little attention.
That is the provision to strengthen the capacity of federal departments responsible for enforcing workplace protections.
The federal government [needs] the tools to ensure employers are providing workers with good jobs – including jobs with fair and equal pay, safe and healthy workplaces…
Biden is proposing that $10 billion be spent to beef up agencies such as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Wage and Hour Division. The plan states:
"President Biden is calling on Congress to provide the federal government with the tools it needs to ensure employers are providing workers with good jobs – including jobs with fair and equal pay, safe and healthy workplaces, and workplaces free from racial, gender, and other forms of discrimination and harassment."
Before the Pandemic
It makes sense to push for improvements in job quality at the same time the country is striving to bring the number of jobs back to the levels seen before the arrival of Covid. Workplace abuses predated the pandemic. In some ways abuses worsened during the past year. Job safety waned in industries such as meatpacking especially. Such damage will be with us long after the health crisis abates.
Congress perennially fails to fund these agencies adequately, leaving them with insufficient numbers of inspectors and investigators.
For example, the most recent edition of the AFL-CIO's Death on the Job report notes that the number of workplace safety inspectors declined steadily during the Trump years both at federal and state levels. These staffing shortages create a form of de facto deregulation as many workplace abuses go undetected and unprosecuted.
Biden's plan briefly addresses another problem with workplace enforcement: artificially low penalty structures, especially at OSHA. The administration calls for increasing these penalties, but it does not provide specifics.
Not So Stiff Penalties
The penalty situation at OSHA is not as bad as it used to be. Changes made during the Obama administration, including 2015 legislation that extended inflation adjustments to workplace safety fines, helped raise penalty rates. The maximum for a serious violation is $13,653 and the maximum for a willful or repeated violation is $136,532.
These maximum amounts do not tell the full story. As the Death on the Job report points out, the average penalty for a serious violation in fiscal year 2019 was only $3,717. The average for willful violations was $59,373 and for repeat violations, it was $14,109. Even in cases involving fatalities, the median penalty was just $9,282.
The cumulative effect of low OSHA penalties can be seen in the data in Violation Tracker, which only includes fines of $5,000 or more. OSHA accounts for 37 percent of the cases in the database but less than 1 percent of the total penalty dollars. Numbers such as these cause too many employers to conclude that their bottom line is best served by skimping on workplace safety and paying the meager fines that may or may not be imposed by OSHA.
The Biden infrastructure plan could begin to change that.
'Is that helpful?' Chris Wallace battles John Cornyn over tweet suggesting Biden not in charge
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) on Sunday insisted that he did not mean to disrespect President Joe Biden when he suggested that someone else is in charge of the federal government.
Fox News host Chris Wallace asked Cornyn about the tweet during an interview on Fox News Sunday.
"My question," Wallace asked, "is that helpful to be sending out a tweet questioning President Biden's mental faculties?"
"Well, Chris, thank you for the question," Cornyn replied. "Because I think there's been a lot of confusion in the Twitterverse about that. That actually was a quote from a Politico story that I pasted into a tweet and then I simply asked a question."
"What I'm trying to do is reconcile the Joe Biden we heard from on Jan. 20th, the Joe Biden that many of us know from his previous service in the United States Senate from the Joe Biden we're seeing now jamming through $1.9 trillion of spending bills," the Texas Republican added. "I've learned in Washington, you not only need to listen to what people say, you need to watch what they do. And so far, there's a conflict I'm trying to reconcile and I bet I'm not the only one."
Wallace pressed: "Do you have questions as to whether or not Joe Biden is really in charge and whether, frankly, he's up to the job?"
"That tweet was not meant to suggest anything about the president's competency -- physical or mental," Cornyn insisted. "I know some people have suggested that and that certainly wasn't my intention. I simply tried to reconcile the rhetoric with the reality. And we need the reality to match the rhetoric and it's not matching right now."
Watch the video below from Fox News.
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