Your guide to D12: Occupiers return to ports for West Coast shutdown; Updated: Back again tomorrow; ILWU official crows “rebirth of the labor movement”
Scroll for updates…Oakland, Portland, Los Angeles mobbed, Occupiers vow to extend shutdown in response to “police brutality”…Update 10:47pm Eastern…Occupiers vow to block 3am shift in Oakland…arrests after trains blocked in Bellingham, WA…
Here we go again.
You remember where the “Day of Rage” 2011 festivities first broke out earlier this fall, don’t you?
If you were paying attention, you know the answer:
The port of Longview, Washington.
Unionized longshoremen stormed the port there and took a half-dozen guards hostage in early September. They damaged railroad cars and dumped grain, smashed windows, cut brake lines, and blocked a train for hours while the ILWU and AFL-CIO cheered them on. Despite violating a judicial restraining order and committing systematically planned sabotage and trespassing, most of the thugs got away with wrist slaps. The International Longshore and Warehouse Union received a $250,000 fine to cover damages from the vandalism. One of the mobsters arrested was this unhinged ILWU guy, who threatened to beat up KGW reporters:
After the fine was dealt, longshoremen’s union bosses threatened to “do what we have to do” and ILWU vowed that “It’s going to get worse before it gets better.” All because a grain importer, EGT, chose a different union for 50 construction jobs on a $200 million grain terminal.
If you were paying attention, you also remember that this initial outbreak of violence and property destruction came right after the Labor Day incitement of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa Jr., who agitated the crowd in Detroit for President Obama.
“President Obama, this is your army,” Hoffa bellowed. “We are ready to march. Let’s take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.”
Obama stood by the violence-prone Teamsters and vice versa. It’s a brass-knuckle bromance sealed with boodle.
On November 2, the Occupiers led by the Oakland contingent went after ports again. My column on the planned riots reminded you of the Bay Area Left’s violent Oakland port shutdown in 2003 and the ignominious Oakland agitator and strike leader Boots Riley — and connected the dots between Riley, Oakland’s Van Jones, Occupy Oakland, and the violent ILWU thugs and their supporters who kicked off the Day of Rage warm-up show in Longview, Washington in September. The Oakland shutdown was:
…an expression of “solidarity with longshore workers in their struggle” against grain importer EGT. In Longview, Washington, wildcat union workers cut train brake lines, smashed windows, dumped grain, and took hostages earlier this fall to protest the company’s decision to employ not non-union workers, but workers from a competing shop. A federal judge fined the ILWU $250,000 after it defied a court restraining order; even Obama’s National Labor Relations Board was forced to issue a complaint against the union’s “violent and aggressive” actions.
Here’s a refresher on how that protest turned “peaceful” protest turned out:
Source: Twitpic
Source: Twitpic
Big Labor has sent mixed public signals over whether it supports today’s coordinated shutdown. See this San Francisco Chronicle article for union leaders playing Hamlet for political viability’s sake.
But the Worker’s World website is crystal-clear on who inspired it, who’s behind it, and who’s providing the muscle:
Battle lines have formed as the West Coast Occupy movements, from San Diego to Alaska, flex their collective muscle against the federally coordinated, brutal attacks targeting the pro-Occupy Wall Street movements across the country. They are organizing for blockades of West Coast ports on Dec. 12 in San Diego; Los Angeles/Long Beach; Port Hueneme, Calif. (central coast); Oakland; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; and possibly more. Solidarity actions have been called by OWS in New York and inland locations, as well.
The pro-OWS movement is aligning itself with labor and the working class, as the West Coast Occupy movements organize to support the struggle of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in Longview, Wash. Longshore workers there are waging a ferocious battle against transnational EGT, controlled by Bunge Ltd., of the grain cartel that controls most of the world’s trade in food products. EGT is trying to break the ILWU in an attempt to drive down wages and destroy the union. (Read “Longshore workers call for anti-racist unity in their ranks” at www.workers.org/2011/us/ilwu_0922)
The West Coast Occupy movements are also aligning with the struggle of port truckers, who are fighting for the right to organize for union representation. Twenty-six of them were fired in Los Angeles for wearing Teamster jackets to work. Occupy LA and Long Beach are targeting SSA, an anti-union port terminal operator, majority owned by Goldman Sachs, the notorious Wall Street investment bank. Teamster president, Jimmy Hoffa Jr., has publicly expressed support for the Occupy movement.
Michael Novick of Anti-Racist Action, one of the main organizers at Occupy LA working on the port shutdown action in Los Angeles, told WW that the strategy will be to shut down three main targets. Novick states, “When we put the resolution through at the General Assembly in support of the port shutdown, it was tied to building a general strike on May 1st of 2012 and building relations to the migrant rights movement.”
Finally, the West Coast Occupy movements are targeting the ports as major commercial centers, showing that they can strike at the institutions which help to aggregate the wealth of the 1 percent by disrupting Wall Street on the waterfront. It’s the history of the militant ILWU which enables this attack to have teeth. The ILWU rank and file have historically supported political struggles such as the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-war movement, in defense of Palestine in the face of attacks on Gaza, in support of the Wisconsin struggle against union busting, etc.
The 1 percent, under the banner of the Port of Oakland, launched the first volley of their assault on Dec. 4, with full-page ads in the San Francisco Chronicle and Oakland Tribune against the planned Occupy port blockade. They know all too well how powerful this movement has become, evidenced by the historic general strike call and blockade of the Port of Oakland on Nov. 2, when the Occupy movement, with the support of the ILWU rank and file and port truckers, shut down the entire port.
Who bears the costs? Small business owners, independent truck drivers, and taxpayers trying to make ends meet, of course:
The mobilization of over 60,000 people that shut down the Port of Oakland on Nov. 2 is being used by organizers as the model for the West Coast efforts this Monday.
However, some independent truckers at the Port of Oakland told the Huffington Post they were dismayed by the plan.
“It’s going to have a snowball negative effect. I depend on the port to feed my family. Why should I have to be put in a predicament because these people lack the skills to get a job?” said Vladimir Torres, an independent trucker who is based out of Long Beach, CA, and comes to the port of Oakland on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Torres is an owner-operator who said he would be dually affected because he works at two West Coast ports.
Josh Thomas, a spokesman for the Port of Portland, told the Columbian that 88% of the exporters who call the port home are small and medium-size businesses. “We see this as hurting working people,” Thomas said of the Occupy movement’s port initiative.
“We consider it no laughing matter when there’s a large group of people threatening to either block or enter the terminal,” Thomas said, “and we’d have to work closely with local law enforcement agencies and our own marine security officers and potentially (the U.S) Coast Guard, if it came to that.”
Way to go, Occupiers:
The Alameda County Building and Construction Trades Council’s secretary-treasurer, Andreas Cluver, said many of his union’s workers were recently hired at port building projects after long stretches on unemployment. Given that, a port shutdown aimed at punishing the 1 percent “makes no sense,” he said.
…Nearby, changing a tire on his rig before he also left with a load of paper, Hai Ngo 0f San Leandro said he resented the loss of income.
“The Occupy people handed out flyers to us, but never asked what we thought before they planned this,” Ngo said. “I will lose about $350, and at holiday time that hurts. It’s just a waste of our time and money, and won’t accomplish anything.”
The “battle” over power at the ports has been building for months. And the progressives are only going to escalate from here. From the socialists’ website:
EGT is planning to bring a huge grain ship to the Port of Longview, sometime in December or early January, to unload the grain piled up there with the use of scab labor. That isn’t going to happen without a major fight. Plans are in the works for phase two of this struggle. Caravans will be heading up to Longview to support the ILWU’s fight to keep their jobs and maintain their union…The battle is on!
Like they said: “It’s going to get worse before it gets better”…
…and it’s all being brought to you with explicit support from teachers’ unions, Democrats, and the White House.
Remember in November.
***
9:40am Eastern…The Oakland agitators are up bright and early. ABC News 7 in the Bay Area reports that trucks have already been stopped as hundreds descend.
Occupiers in Portland and Vancouver are already congregating. Occupy Los Angeles is tweet-whining about police brutality already, setting up for a telegraphed “extension” of the port shutdown. Anti-police/anti-captialist agitator Boots Riley is spearheading the Oakland shutdown.
Livestream of mob at Port of Los Angeles.
Flash mob at the NYC World Financial Center, where shutdown sympathizers are protesting Goldman Sachs.
A few sign-holders at Port of San Diego.
More livestreaming here.
Don’t buy the ILWU double-talk.
Update 10:41pm Eastern #OccupySeattle and #OccupyOakland shut down their ports. Disruptions in LA, San Diego, Houston, and elsewhere, according to Occupy flacks.
Occupiers vow to do it again tomorrow.
ILWU Local 21 official Dan Coffman calls in to praise the Occupiers in Oakland and reportedly declares “rebirth of the labor movement.”
Oakland thugs say they’ll try and block 3am shift.
In Portland, late word is that occupiers have helped shut down Schnitzer Steel, which a KXL news radio producer, Jim Ferretti, points out supplied food to the occupiers.
In Bellingham WA, the Occu-morons chained themselves together with bike locks and blocked trains. Arrests and photos here.
I leave you with this What The Hell image of the night. Click if you dare.
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As soon as we’re ready to work for the $1.20 an hour the Chinese are getting.
Saw this over at Doug’s site:
Let me see if I understand the logic of this.
The union-backed OWS crowd wants to shut down the union controlled ports that provide the taxes to pay the union govt. workers who collect taxes from the non-union private sector workers because one company wants to use another union to process their shipments. What happened to their “fair share” and “spread the wealth?”
Obummer going to church….I wonder if he listened to the sermon a la Jeremiah Wright…
Was also wondering IF the government would have ever announced the missing Stealth drone IF Iran had not gone public with the information???? Look at the timeline.
I rest my case.
On December 12th, 2011 at 1:35 pm, Truesoldier said:
I cannot understand why a Drone, with a ground link extablished, could not have been destroyed in flight. The only other thing is this was a pilotless drone on a preprogrammmed flight but still – in the event of a failure that thing should have been programmed to vaporize if landing any place other than the place it took off from.
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HI CONSERVATIVE_HISPANIC–#80. I also had a WTF moment when I watched Comrade Obama’s video comment on the U.S.A. needing “a domestic security force as large and as well armed as the U.S. Military”! I wondered at the time if it would be called the S.A. or the S.S., or the NKVD. Hitler, Stalin, and Saddam Hussein set up similar forces to help them take over and enslave their own people.
***
The American Pravda Media cleaned up The Messiah’s statements–many clips do not include these anti-American statements. The original can still be found on the internet. Sometimes His mask slips off and His true intent on how He wants to “fundamentally transform” the U.S.A. into His dream of the new United Socialist States of Amerikka are obvious to anyone with half a brain. Aka half of the electorate.
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Mussolini promised to make the trains run on time. The Good Comrade promised to “make the seas recede and the temperature increases reverse course”. Birds of a feather. The Manchurian Candidate is POTUS now.
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John Bibb
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So how does this work?
The Dept. of Homeland Security orchestrates a national crackdown of this movement.
And you people claim Obama supports this movement.
How could he support it while having Homeland Security crackdown on it?
Maybe Truesoldier can answer – he/she once said that liberals attack people they suspect are Muslim, even though liberals put a man named Barack Hussein Obama in the white house.
Another thing that is interesting in the drone case is that from my understanding of the drones (I could be wrong)is that if it looses “connection” with the pilot it circles for a time to try to re-establish connection. If that fails it is supposed to either return to base or self-destruct (probably based on the whether or not it can make it back to base or not). If this is the case, then it begs to question how it landed, intact, in Iran.
Just like a typical liberal trying to twist what a Conservative said. In case you forgot I only pointed out that the area in which the attack occured was a liberally dominated area not a conservative area.
You on the otherhand accused me and friends of mine of actually doing the attack. To this day I still do not know why you have not been banned for the many false claims and charachter assasinations you have attempted. It is clearly in violation of the terms of use aggrement, but for some reason MM and the moderators have decided to let you continue to make false claims and to attempt to assasinate other posters charachter.
We see enough of it in the liberal media, I do not understand why we should have to see it on a Conservative site.
On December 12th, 2011 at 1:43 pm, Ilovemyownsputum said:
Back to your crib diaper boy, and wipe your face before you talk.
***
HI TRUE_SOLDIER–#108. Failure of destruct mechanisms aren’t unusual. Any design or construction failure in a missile or aircraft may not show up until the system is exposed to takeoff “G” or vibration forces. It’s known as the “wheels up” syndrome–checks out great on the ground and fails in flight.
***
On board electric power failure can also cause poor designs to fail to destruct. Some older missile designs charged up a capacitor prior to launch. After a short delay–if power was lost a relay connected the cap to the destruct charge–no on board power needed.
***
Later designs used the on board electric power to simplify the design. We did have some failures where the guidance power failed and the “bird” just kept flying. One left the range and crashed into a forest. The fire lookout ranger heard some noise from the woods near his mountain peak observation post–he thought it was a bear going through the woods.
***
Later some thin smoke started rising in the area. Guess what–our errant missile! Which had overflown a nearby town. This failure kept us from firing for more than a year while changes and added safeguards were incorporated into the newer “improved” destruct systems.
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Every so often the best laid plans of men (and engineers) get a real world “reality check”! Hindsight and a track record are a lot more accurate than any planning and design can be.
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John Bibb
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Thanks for the insight on that. Makes sense.
rambler,
+100 on Comment #100!
Capitulate first… ( ‘solutions’ later… maybe? ) We just want to be in charge for awhile! Things will turn around for the better. You just have to trust us? See how well we’ve done w/ public education?
Oy vey!
rocketman #106:
Gird your loins. Next year can, and may be, bloody. “Fundamental transformation” is another way of saying “revolution”, and if history has taught us anything, is that they’re not peaceful. Obowtome will not go quietly into the night, even if it means taking the country down on his way out. Kinda like Hitler. THERE, I SAID IT!!!! Now go report me to Big Sis, Daily Kos, etc., you trolls.
Voted PRESENT
In the grand scheme of things, aren’t we all drones?
How does it work? Oh, ILMC you are so mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence. DHS will use the same operations plan they use for enforcing the border.
They will deploy DHS resources to all of the hot beds of OWS activity in December and January; Minot, ND; Duluth, MN; Maquette, MI; Butte, MT, etc. etc. etc.
All OWS activity will cease in those locations and Big Sis will claim victory.
Your are correct. You can be certain that if Obama and his party decide that the 2012 election is likely lost to them, they won’t go peacefully at all and they have little time to lose. The Occupy movement may be seen as a dress rehearsal.
It’s not inconceivable that the stage is being set for a catastrophic economic downturn before summer, sparking major disturbances which will be coordinated and spread nationwide giving Obama the justification to declare martial law, suspend the elections and seize permanent power.
In the minds of our statists/marxists/leftists, yes we are.
Drone’s tend to the queen, we’re workers.
Liberals are drones.
Don’t forget that hotbed of radical activity VanHorn, Texas. I stayed overnight there once, in a Holiday Inn Express, and let me tell you, those protesters sounded just like a herd of crickets. Something will have to be done with them.
Very well put, Flyoverman. ILMC is incapable of seeing anything resembling a strategy. Of course, there is a fine line between careful strategy and blind stupidity.
Let’s not forget that Obama instructed NASA to help bring the Islamic countries into the Space Age. Down payment from the Closet Muslim?
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HI AGAIN CONSERVATIVE_HISPANIC–#114. I took an oath “To defend and protect the Constitution of the U.S.A. against all enemies–both foreign and domestic” long ago when I was drafted into the U.S. Army. This oath didn’t have any expiration date. And the promise was not made to the President of the United States either.
***
The U.S. Military bought us our freedom long ago–at a terrific cost in lives. And has defended it in the Civil War and other wars. They are the real guarantors of our freedom and liberty.
***
During the Civil War many of the best leaders sided with their states–their allegiance was state first. I trust that any unconstitutional orders given by an out of control President will be ignored by the Military. And our 3 branches of government were set up to keep us from ever having a Hitler or Stalin type of government. George Washington and the Founding Fathers had enough bad experiences with Kings!
***
At present the Nov. 2012 election and voting Comrade Obama out of office are our “weapons of choice”–ballots–not bullets. I pray to God that we never have another revolution or civil war in our country. And that our Military will never have to decide which side to back again.
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John Bibb
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Quite right. Just call us proles.
I really, really hope a ‘mob’ of drunk Seahawks fans kick some of these OWS character’s a*$ if they interupt things down by the stadium tonight.
I don’t know why, but I imagine the exchange went like this:
Obowmao: Can I have my drone back?
Tehran: ESAD!
Obowmao: Er..um..okay.
I disagree. I think it went something like this:
Obowmao: Did you ask Tehran if we can have our drone back?
Hillary: Yeah they said ESAD.
Obowmao (in corner rocking in the fetal position): Make the mean men stop Hillay.
Now if it were my drone, I would like to have Tehran meet my Sergeant At Arms, Ed-209!
[for demonstration, Mr. Tehran points a pistol at ED-209]
ED-209: [menacingly] Please put down your weapon. You have 20 seconds to comply.
Dick Jones: I think you better do as he says, Mr. Tehran.
[Mr. Tehran drops the pistol on the floor. ED-209 advances, growling]
ED-209: You now have 15 seconds to comply.
[Mr. Tehran turns to Dick Jones, who looks nervous]
ED-209: You are in direct violation of Penal Code 1.13, Section 9.
[entire country of people in full panic trying to stay out of the line of fire, especially Mr. Tehran]
ED-209: You have 5 seconds to comply.
Tehran: Help me!
ED-209: Four… three… two… one… I am now authorized to use physical force!
[ED-209 opens fire and shreds Mr. Tehran]
Start with rubber bullets and fire hoses then escalate to whatever level is necessary to get that scum out of the streets and open the ports. Enough of this crap.
Of course, escalation should be over a period of time, to allow the anarchists time to reflect on their decisions and course of action. They need a chance to back down gracefully.
I recommend: 30 seconds.
or whatever they’d get in North Korea.
I’m just having fun here, Aloha. Forget the lowly wage for a minute, if the Chinese can’t get their products to their largest market, who they gonna call? Strikebusters?
{Sigh} Guess I’m getting soft in my old age.
Something’s funny about that drone…..contains a Stuxnet II virus perhaps?
One could only hope that we were that smart.
About that explosion in Isfahan….analysts say there’s no strategic or military reason to attack that site.
Except, perhaps as a psy-ops, sending a message to the people of Isfahan.
Iran locating its’ nuclear programs using its’ people as human shields could end up badly for those people, that would be the message.
Occcupy Wall Street targeting Golman Sachs?
Finally it gets interesting.
The Occupy crowd tried to shut down the Port of Houston by sitting in the right hand main traffic lanes of the east 610 loop southbound to stop all truck traffic from entering the port (since they couldn’t get in without a TWIC card.) HPD dragged their asses off to the pokey.
hawkeye54 #118:
Ten years ago, I would have sent you to the loony bin for spousing that theory. That was the same crap that the left was saying about Bush. Now…..with the Marxist-In-Chief in a panic, and his minions spoiling for a fight, and willing, ready and able for some bloodshed, it isn’t just probable, but maybe even highly likely, that something very nasty is in the works for next spring/summer. You, my friend, might end up being a prophet.
rocketman #123:
You took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution-not TEH WON- therefore YOU’RE THE ENEMY.
The fact that you so blatantly say that your oath has no expiration date and that it wasn’t made to the President makes you a dangerous subversive.
Seriously, Mrs. CH has a relative in the military, and at a recent family reunion we talked at lenght about what would happen if Obowtome got out of control. Just the fact that he was so open about it, and that we even had to discuss it, should scare the crap out of you. The gist of it is that if the worst comes to pass, basically it would be the political animals (mostly the high brass) and the raw soldiers, against the junior officers, the NCOs and the combat veterans. Also, I believe that most, if not all the National Guard and Reserves and local law enforcement would follow their oath, TO THE CONSTITUTION, NOT THE GOVERNMENT. I pray to God it doesn’t come to that.
Keep your eyes on the Generals, not the foot soldiers.
is that near the hoosegow?
From what I remember hearing from a Marine, its the NCOs that really operate the military.
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HI AGAIN CONSERVATIVE_HISPANIC–#138. Thank you for the complement–a man is defined by his enemies. And I’m in very good company. Most of my friends served in the Military. My Dad and Uncle were WW2 Navy vets. My brother was Air Force. Most of my co-workers were ex Army types. Most of the guys in my Church are ex Military. Not very many like Comrade Obama’s actions and thoughts–or those whom surround Him in our government.
***
We do know which end of the rifle the bullet leaves from. And we served while others hung back and ran for Canada and Europe during the Vietnam era. And most of us have a pretty good understanding of our country’s Constitution, Laws, History, and Government. As do a lot of the posters on this site.
***
John Bibb
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HI SPACEY_CAKES–#140. Close enough for Gubmint work. Hoosegow comes from a bad English spelling of the Spanish (Mexican) word JUEZGADO–roughly translated as judgement place.
***
Most of the newcomers to Texas didn’t speak Spanish–and it was still part of Mexico when legal immigration was allowed. Spain imprisoned and executed lots of illegal immigrants from the U.S. before Mexico took over and wanted more people to help fight against the Indians.
***
John Bibb
***
rocketman; yes, I remember the etymology–I like words
…reminds me of the little river that the cowboys called ‘Picketwire’ in Colorado–it was actually named by the French fur trappers as Purgatoire.
rocketman:
Sorry to correct you, but the correct spelling is JUZGADO, and it has several meanings:
-Past tense of JUZGAR,or to judge. FUE JUZGADO. He was judged.
- JUZGADO, or judgement place.
- JUZGADO DE PAZ, or justice of the peace (the place, not the judge itself).
Glad I can help. And yes, ALL OWS PUNKS DESERVE TO GO TO THE HOOSEGOW, AND GET THE HOSE!!!
-
Apparently, in this case, Murphy’s Law trumped the CIA. I also heard on the news there was a possibility of a fuel shortage problem. Lack of planning? Should they experiment with air-to-air refueling capabilities prior to flying over ‘Indian territory’? Never the less, our Agitator-in-Chief called Ahmadinnerjacket and begged to get the aircraft back. What I don’t get is this… if it was stealth capable in the radar sense, how was the aircraft found in the first place? Did some Bedouin sheepherder stumble across it while chasing his favorite ewe? I really haven’t heard all the details but think CIA acted stupidly /O’Mulligan.
I’m sure there was some MAJOR a$$hole puckering there!
And you STILL haven’t presented any response as to what contributions YOU made to remedy the situation.
Whirled Peas:
I must have really hit hard when you’re still so riled up about a comment that wasn’t even directed at you. But what contributions can I do to remedy the situation? Short of asking God to lend me some of His power so I can slain the bunch of you, like He did with the Sodomites, not much. I mean, what chance do I have against 70+ million, the mayority of whom are certifiable?
You people have already bankrupted this country morally and spiritually, and are about to bankrupt it fiscally. You’re already on GIMME GIMME GIMME mode, and can’t wait to get your hands on SS and Medicare. And on top of that, we now have to contend with your hellspawn, the OWS bunch. All I have to look forward to is higher and higher taxes, less and less freedom, and more and more insults when I protest about the injustice of it all. All because a generation of narcissists decided to ignore their history and threw their lot with the godless statist/socialist/marxist elite.
Wow.
I’d mix it up here but I’ve got better things to do. Like get up in the morning & work to pay taxes into a sysytem that will already be bankrupt before I ever see a dime (having paid into it my entire life.)
Not to mention having to endure the Vietnam War, fighting and winning the Cold War, resisting the rise of Islamic extremism, the rise of the Chinese threat of global domination, the invasion of a Mexican culture that refuses to be assimilated but demands rights and welfare, & various and sundry other puke ideas, like global warming and “social justice”, a corrupt and schizophrenic political system, a vulgar media and entertainment elite and a greedy and manipulative financial system.
Thanks for the ringing endorsement.
Maybe it is time to go Galt.
Southpaw:
That is exactly what burns me up. All I have to look forward to is working another 25-30 years, and unless I can save enough money, end up in the poor house, because the welfare state will eat my salary. Nice, eh?
I agree 100%
I’ve been working 30 years and anticipate working another 30 years, or unitl I drop.
Meanwhile, government workers younger than me are already retired with $90,000 per year pensions and health benifits. Teachers, firefighters and policemen expect me to continue working to support them with cushy retirements when I’ve worked just as hard in the private sector?
F**k that.
There’s more:
You union workers…..what are you gonna do when your pension fund dries up because they are underfunded or been ripped off by the Wall Street con artists? What are you gonna do when you’re rioting in the streets and facing a phalanx of unionized cops in riot gear, billy clubs and tear gas?
I’m an architect. We’re not allowed to unionize (unless employed by the state).
We’re not even allowed to advertise. When was the last time you heard an architect or enigineer on the tv or radio. You hear plenty of ads from ambulance chaser and class action lawyers, doctors handing out prescriptions like candy from the big pharmaceutical companies. You don’t see architects and engineers selling their professional souls for the almighty dollar.
Look around you. Every building and structure you see was designed by engineers and architects. Al Gore can’t even build an outhouse on his luxurious Santa Barbara property without our help.
What if architects and engineers unionized and went on strike? All construction in the United States would grid to a halt within a week. And yet I’m expected to walk on any construction site without a union card….
Going Galt.
I still prefer the Magnum Poo Gun, preferably loaded with fresh hog and chicken poo, warmed to 120F.
Exactly my feelings. I’ve been paying into SS for 35 years and still have about 15 to go. From the beginning I was always convinced that I would never see any of that money and now, 35 years years later I am even more convinced of that. I’m self-employed as an engineer so I pay the full 15% and believe me it hurts.
One method I have found useful to wake people up is to tell them I would gladly forfeit every penny I have paid in if I could opt out now. Every. Single. Penny. Just let me out and I’m 100% certain I would have a better retirement if they would just leave me alone for the next 15 year or so. That is how bad I view the SS and general financial situation.
Being self employed one has the pleasure of sending your money to the govt, instead of it being confiscated and a some part generously handed back if you meet all the govt criteria. Every time I think of the well paid bureaucrats (with benefits I can only dream of) processing my return to see if they can squeeze a few more dollars out of me to help pay for their “public service” or send off to some govt dependent I start thinking about Going Galt. I have land is South America where I met my wife and every year the thought of escaping to a remote corner of South America looks more appealing than dealing with the Nanny State and the hordes of gimmee voters that grow every year.
If Obama wins in 2012 there is a very good chance this producer will be planning his escape from the looters and moochers. And if I’m forced into this I don’t plan on letting them off their SS obligation they have promised me my entire working life. It will be either that or start planning very ugly civil violence as that is where Obama/liberalism is leading us.
These bums are Obama’s people . . . they were motivated by his support and continue with his blessings.
“If Obama wins in 2012 there is a very good chance this producer will be planning his escape from the looters and moochers.”
Me as well, almost done paying off all bills – what I have left I can cover by working at Wal-mart and other PT Jobs. It is either that, or work till I am dead but I will not give the looters and moochers the satisfaction of my tax dollars any longer than i have too.
Should read …”planning for very ugly civil violence as that is where Obama/liberalism is leading us.”
I’m not the Bill Ayers type.
Explain to me the explicit right a group of individuals have to band together with the express intent to attack and do harm to individuals or organizations?
Get it from the taxpayers, like always.
Maybe someday the taxpayers will become smart enough to realize they are getting screwed, but I doubt they ever will.
You can’t fix stupid.
Just how stupid is the American Voter? In the last 20 years we have spent trillions of dollars and thousands upon thousands of the lives of our best creating, strengthening and stabilizing Islamic States, from Kosovo to Iraq to Pakistan to Indonesia.
American blood and treasure is building the Caliphate. That is stupidity of Biblical proportions.
So are the same slack jawed, drooling People going to realize they are getting jammed up the … by the unions?
Washington is my home state. I grew up there and I hate that this Anarcho-Socialist disease has infected her to such a toxic degree. This is a far cry from the Magnusen/Jackson era of my mom and dad. I’d love to see the good people of Washington kick the degenerates to the curb and back down south to California. The way you do that is to deny them unfetterd access to the pig trough that the public treasury has become.
I can vouch for that. I moved to Chattanooga from Jacksonville after being there 20 years. I personally know a fire captain who retired at 55 with an $80k+ pension and a quarter million lump sum payout. The crap will certainly hit the fan in thousands of cities around the country when they start going belly up.
All the problems were well hidden as long as we were in the salad days. No more. Many “conservatives” work in these systems but wil go ballistic if you challenge the fairness and solvency of their gravy train.
Unfortunately, the rot in WA ST did not just come from California. It grew there organically, too.
My leftwing relatives in WA (we go back to the 1800′s there) bellyache about all of the ‘crazy rightwingers’ who fled north from California to escape California’s more ‘enlightened’ government and to escape having to ‘pay their fair share’ under California’s more ‘enlightened’ tax system.
Exactly mine, too.
Been paying in for just shy of 35 years.
Was self-employed for 15 years.
Gotta work full-time for at least another dozen years; and part-time indefinitely after that, until I start to slow down.
That’s partly because I don’t want to just sit in a chair all day; but that’s immaterial for this discussion.
that’s what I tell people. But you should see the looks of disgust on their faces! They usually scream “I paid in–I WANT BACK!”. Then I casually tell them there won’t be anything to get back, and it would be really nice to get out now.
Off topic but hilarious:
One major problem is many/most people have no idea how SS is funded and of those that do many believe in the fiction of the SS trust fund. The reality is that money is gone. As most people here know, it was looted for years to cover the true size of the deficit. No longer. In fact it will be making the deficit worse every year (and very fast) as the only way to cash in those special SS treasury bonds will be for the govt to borrow more money. I’m not even sure this is included in the already disastrous deficit projections as I believe an accounting gimmick is used to create money out of thin air to replenish the Trust Fund. It really is spiraling out of control and very few people understand how badly. I don’t care what any of the experts say. They all missed the housing/financial disaster we are in and have blinders to the demographics and overall decline that is driving this.
People need to wake up fast as to what is coming so they are not caught completely unprepared. Screaming “I want my money back!” isn’t going to change anything as there simply will not be enough to cover all the obligations. I’ll stand by my offer to forfeit my SS benefits and accept an opt-out if it were ever offered. Only other option is to keep paying and in 15 years receive a pittance of what I was promised or have it destroyed by inflation.
I still contend that what is there now is far more extreme than in the 50s and 60s when I grew up. Maybe it was covert but the virulent secularist anti-American poison was nowhere to be seen then. Nevertheless, the class warfare card was always out and played with vigor. My parents were big-time FDR Democrats and were steeped in that depression-era narrative. Even then, Republicans were political dim bulbs who just played the role of the spoiler.
The horrifying thing in WA ST is that the Dem machine is rich beyond imagination and skilled at stealing elections ala Gregoire and Franken (MN). It’s unlikely that sanity will take hold anytime soon short of a taxpayer revolt. Those WA ST Liberals are smart enough though to back off their chokehold on the golden goose before it dies, unlike Obama and the DC Democrats who wanted it all now.
It also certainly does not help to have rich Liberals like Buffett and Gates constantly lobbying for more Socialism. Gobsmacking insanity.
Republicans were founded to oppose slavery.
As a group, they have had a mission problem ever since.
The “party of smaller government” doesn’t mean anything when the only point of comparison is the Democrats.
Anybody,please explain how this is sustainable:
My great-uncle will be 90 next year. He’s been retired from the Post Office since the late 70s, after 25-30 years of work there. Adding pension, SS and Medicare, he’s received several times what he put into the system. Multiply by millions, and again I ask: how is this sustainable without confiscatory tax rates (60-80%)?
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HI JSR–good analysis of the Social Security scam. I can’t even call it a Ponzi Scheme since you can elect to not join Ponzi schemes–the Gubmint “mandates” your money into their pockets. Any private company trying to set up this type of plan would be in jail in short order for fraud and extortion. Official Gubmint fraud is O.K. and is protected by law.
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Civil service sets up a different plan for their workers–as does Congress. They own their retirement funds and can leave them to whom they want. They are not penalized by increased taxes and reduced payouts for other income. And instead of the maximum SS payout of over $2000 a month–they get $4000 or more.
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Those pushing SS are just crooks who want to prevent losing their gravy train for wild federal spending with our “savings” for the future. Just ask someone if they would like $2000 a month or $4000 a month–a real no brainer.
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John Bibb
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My younger sister and brother in law retired from the Connecticut state police when they were 50 about 9 years ago. They had put in about 25 years each. He collects $6000 a month, she gets about $4000 a month. They have lifetime medical benefits. They lived in a mcmansion in CT and now live in a bigger one in FL. When my father was alive I used to tell him, if I had known law enforcement was so lucrative I would have gone into it too.
As it is in California. California elected Ronald Reagan Governor in 1966 and 1970. The intellectual and moral rot is a nationwide phenomenon, just advancing more aggressively in some states than in others.
The rot came from extraordinary wealth. It is a cycle, and we topped out with the massive wealth making it possible for many millions of people to live lives completely disconnected from ordinary rules of responsibility and consequences.
Just how badly we are going to have to crash and burn to relearn life’s lessons is an open question.
Stupid. Both sides.
And since people respond to incentives (si, se puede) government gets HUGE as everyone wants on the gravy train. NO more defined benefits in the public sector. SS and 401ks. For all. Oh, and insider trading for all too – thanks…
On December 13th, 2011 at 12:04 pm, Roland said:
Those of us that are preparing for the worst and at the same time hope for the best have a vary bad feeling about all this.
In the many discussion on the budget I constantly hear various experts, analysts, Dems etc… state how popular SS is. This is always a given in their minds and mentioned as something everybody knows to back up their position (usually more spending). My question is, if its is so popular why is it mandatory? Let’s put in some opt out provision and we’ll see just how popular it is. Of course that will never happen without a life and death fight as it would expose more of the lib/progs lies.
love the “what the hell” pic of those two self-absorbed red commie wannabees on top of the truck… this photo encapsulates exactly what fuels the OWS movement… young people who have never been called upon to accomplish anything in their lives who see the “movement” as a way to validate their long-held (and never countered) inflated opinions of themselves…
in their minds, these OWS kids really do believe that they are cut from the same cloth as the brave chinese protester who stood in front of the tank in Tianamen Square. They trotted that stupid photo of their little lineup being pepper sprayed by the CAMPUS SECURITY GURAD (although the vast majority of Mainstream media outlets identified the chubby gurad as a “police officer.” I don’t believe that’s accurate, he was a damn campus cop for Pete’s sake!
these kids make me sick, as they should nauseate anyone with half a brain…
BeachBum:
Yikes! Unbelievable!… and unsustainable, IMHO.
I never believed in SS. I thought it was a stupid idea and had many arguments with my mother about the subject. Anything I can’t control, won’t be there for me. SS was designed to be another tax on people who were supposed to die before ever needing it. Thank you all powerful morons in the gov!
Ha!!! I LOVE poetic justice!
Cavuto yesterday had a young girl, in her 20′s who came on to “discuss” the OWS viewpoint. She was pretty well-spoken. However, she wasn’t interested in discussion, only telling her side. Whenever Neal interjected a common sense argument, she just went right back to her talking points. This is a huge difference between regressives and the real world. WE want to debate the issues. THEY have their minds made up and no debate is necessary or possible!
Cavuto finally threw up his hands and told her off and said buh-bye. The poor kid, in her “smugness”, made a fool of herself on national TV.
I agree!! The reason his is so high is because his last 2 years it was “his turn”..meaning he got an unbelievable amount of overtime as he was nearing retirement. He worked every single holiday and night to bump up his salary so his retirement would reflect it. It nauseates me.
Interesting comment from Big Government:
They weren’t necessarily supposed to die before needing it. Based on life expectancy at the time SS began, many were expected to die before getting to the qualifying age to get it and also not expected to live more than 5-10 years after they started receiving it, and the morons who conceived of SS, fully expected to continue to have more workers contributing into the system than more living longer receiving the benefits and most SS beneficiaries and contributors devoted to making sure they continue to have that benefit and voting against anyone proposing to radically change SS as needed.
Those who conceived SS were short sighted because they wouldn’t live to see the consequences of their actions decades later, and were happy to make that unforseen tradeoff for the future political support of the SS beneficiaries.
They all know how to work the system. The older teach the younger and it spans all political ideologies. I have a number of “conservative” friends on the same path. They acknowledge that it is insane, but it is like gold fever.
Ironically, the only way to save their bacon in the short run is to get the Democrats totally out of power which assumes that a free enterprise growth policy will follow. That would generate the higher property values and tax revenues necessary to paper over the cost of the massive benefit outlays.
The longer term solution obviously is to restructure the plans for retirees and radically curtail plan commitments for current workers. But does anyone believe that will happen, especially if we are back into a healthy economy? It’s almost better to let them collapse first so as to force reform.
It’s popular because everyone has been forced to pay into it and now they are vested. I don’t want it to go away until I get my money back out of it when I retire.
It’s also popular to people who never put anything into it but reap the rewards. Free money is always popular.
By the way, I wonder how the aging illegal population wil deal with not having contributed toward any social security or other retirement plan. They don’t pay taxes or if they do, they are under false names so they can’t get any benefit.
I don’t see them saving a lot of money since it is hard for them to even get bank accounts. Who are they going to steal from when they turn 65 or will they all of a sudden feel like they shouldn’t break laws anymore?
If you expect to retire more than five years from now, good luck with getting any of your money back.
For most, probably the time honored tradition of living with one of their children, or other younger family members. Children were the social security for the aged of past generations.
Honor goes out the window when there is free money to be had. All you have to do is demonize gringos and poof, lots of payola available. They do it now. Why would I think they would change?
Of, course, there is that Honor Among Thieves rule but I haven’t seen much honor from illegal aliens breaking our laws and flaunting it in our face on May 1st every year.
rebirth… of the one that died in the 1940′s and 1950′s and was officially interred in the late 1980′s and early 1990′s with the fall of the largest attempt at socialism ever, the USSR?
What was that about the definition of insanity?
My prediction is that in 15 years anyone with a 401k plan will not be allowed to collect SS or will have a much reduced benefit.
Those who never saved their entire lives will not have any money when they are too old to work and will need a safety net. Since there will not be enough in SS at that time to cover everyone, the government will pick winners and losers and each will receive according to their need.
I will be deemed not needy as I saved my entire life. I did without to prepare for my old age. The person who spends without regard to their future will be deemed needy and will get my money.
One caveat is that the government may have to swoop in and take all my 401k money before I retire so they can pay for all the current lot of vagrants and to pay for insolvant government pension plans. Thie answer to me will be, well you should have joined a Union to get all these great benefits. I will be outvoted at the ballot box by 70% to 30% as more and more people vote for the freebies just like what happened in Ohio.
Might very well be sooner than 15 years. Already, for those who paid into Social Security and later retired on a government pension, SS benefits are reduced by two-thirds for those getting government pensions.
So its not a stretch at all with SS in dire straits to think that those with 401k plans will be affected similarly in the near future.
That is, as you’ve mentioned, the government just doesn’t decide to seize and manage all 401k plans itself which is still up for consideration. Too much money in the hands of private citizens just isn’t good for our statist wealth redistributors.
Ain’t gonna happen. Should it happen, Boomers in powerful places will get statehouses to lock down the Federal Government until they capitulate and move money from the “grifter/entitlement” accounts.
Keep in mind that the Obamacistas have been floating a plan to confiscate all 401k and pension plans. Think that wouldn’t create a major sh*tstorm? As it is they will reduce benefits and keep bumping the retirement age until the attrition due to death slows the cash outflow to “manageable” levels without pain to their entitlement crackheads. And voila! Solvency. Never mind that it is still the poorest performing and most criminal elderly benefit plan in the history of man.
I still believe that politicians need to be made to feel the pain of their bad decisions. They must be held accountable in a very severe way. That people like Barney Frank, Jamie Gorelick, and Chris Dodd can skate is unconscionable.
Government pensions is a good place to start. On the front end or the back, they need to forfeit $$$. No double dipping.
Right you are! Complete overhaul on government pensions is long overdue, including doing away with the defined benefit plan with COLAs built in. You should only get back what you and your employer put in, plus the ROI. Getting a fixed amount for 30 years+ for working 20 years is insane.
Exactly. Disconnecting what people getting the retirement funds get from the rate of return on the funds managed by the managers of the retirement funds is a direct path to the kind of financial catastrophe we are in now.
I’ve got a newsflash for ya… I’ve been paying into SS ponzi scheme for the last 46 years and in the near future you can rest assured YOUR tax money will keep me in the lifestyle I’ve been accustomed to.
I have no use for Medicare but will be forced into it so your argument of the GIMME GIMME GIMME crap is unfounded. I will stay with TriCare (which I pay for, even though it’s gubmint subsidized) for as long as possible.
Also, your tax monies will be paying my monthly military retirement check so when the time comes I can scale back the hours I put into my business and live off you. Thank you very much.
Also, I took offense to your broad generalization of EVERYONE that was in the “Boomer” generation as being degenerates, etc.
And to echo Southpaw:
THESE are also the contributions I made to society and your lack of listing your contributions other than your sanctimonious THREAT below speaks volumes. BTW, threats like that can land you in hot water.
Another newsflash for ya. I didn’t have kids. I was too busy with my military career securing freedom for people like you to show your ignorance publicly with no regard to how you look ranting about someone you know absolutely NOTHING about. Stereotyping makes people look like an ass. I could do some stereotyping of my own but what good would it do? You’d STILL be the prejudiced ingrate you show yourself to be.
THIS is why I took offense to your over-reaching statement about the “Boomer” generation. Not everyone born in the ‘Boomer’ time frame is the scumbag you imply they are.
On December 12, 2011 at 11:54 am, Hiraghm said:
Just remember, wounds can’t heal without scabs.
Mom: if you picket, it won’t get better!
“…acidification of the oceans,”…
Need an “edit” function…
ECS