= new reply since forum marked as read
So we can rule some things out. At the same time it's a sort of fundamental of belief that Trump lies and spews gibberish and has no clue. Except when he's a damned maven and speaks precisely, accurately, unambiguously. Oddly, the conditions for the latter are always predetermined: When the obvious and clear explanation (whatever the surface ambiguity) is outrageous.
Trump's favorite prelude to supper is word salad. Still, as a literature grad student, linguistics student, avid reader of literature in various tongues and a former professional translator, my base assumption is that if a person produces an utterance that utterance makes sense, in context, and imparts some sort of meaning--emotive, attitudinal, propositional, or merely phatic. (Yeah, there's a word I don't get to use more than once every ... uh ... 10 years.)
I think "owner responsibility" is ambiguous. I had an "association officer responsibility" long ago, and a "board member responsibility." In both roles I had responsibility for people. As VP, I had 3 employees, shared with a d**k (yeah, "duck"
of a president who told one that he always liked "rice eaters" and that's why he wanted to hire her--and another that he didn't like her because she was "blonde" and probably a "sl*t". I was asked to make sure they were never alone with him again. Done. I didn't like being alone with him. He was considered to be a horrible person with good politics. He'd think the DSA was a bit too centrist. Anyway ... "So YOU tell ME what that sounds like" ... Couldn't, based on a two-word ambiguous phrase stripped of context. It's like "beautiful bill"--sounds great, out of context. Context matters.
So, context. When in doubt, primary sources are primary and fuller context helps dissolve ambiguity.
"The farmers know them [ the undocumented alien workers ]. It’s called ‘farmer responsibility’ or ‘owner responsibility,’ but they're going to be largely responsible for these people, and they know these people. They've worked on the farms for 15 years. … We have a great feeling for the farmer and for others in the same position.Mr. Trump said farmers would be responsible for the immigrant laborers, who would not receive citizenship.
Felt like I should note the context that the BlueSky post excluded right up front. Sounds less ominous, but still ... Maybe. (And is there a short keystroke sequence for "BlueSky" ... I don't like "BS" and while I have basically unused accounts on both, still appreciate the brevity of "X".)“If a farmer has been with one of these people that worked so hard – they bend over all day, we don’t have too many people that can do that, but they work very hard, and they know him very well, and some of the farmers are literally, you know, they cry when they see this happen [ sic ],” Trump said. “If a farmer is willing to vouch for these people, in some way … I think we’re going to have to just say that’s going to be good, right?”"They can be here legally. They can pay taxes and everything. They're not getting citizenship, but they get other things. And the farmers need them to do the work," Trump said. "Without those people, you're not going to be able to run your farm."
NYT summarized it--probably provisionally--as
Teresa Romero [ is ] the president of the United Farm Workers Union, which represents 10,000 field workers in California, Oregon, Washington and New York ... “Unfortunately when there is no policy, it’s difficult to know what he is proposing,” Ms. Romero said of Mr. Trump’s recent comments.
On another site,
The NYT seems to be describing what many here have advocated, a "guest worker program." One, that like Biden's various programs, is entirely Executive constructed and produced and regulated, although Congressional statutes would still apply to living conditions because statute. SCOTUS has imposed a kind of policy-interpretation as to who must receive a FAPE--free and appropriate public education" even if Trump doesn't want to fund it.
I'll go with the NYT as being the most likely meaning but if pushed to the wall ultimately go with UFWU president Ms. Romero on this one. Not with the meaning that provokes the most outrage.
Personally, my poor adrenals have to respond to enough stress without all the added outrage. Trump does enough obviously outrageous things.
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