Years ago while I was still the Police Chief, I made a terrible mistake. I told a citizen and fellow city staffer that realistically, it is nearly impossible for police officers driving cars at night to catch people in the act of vandalizing our city or her home. In fact, in my quarter century- I could only think of one kid we had ever caught in the act of vandalizing anything. (with the exception of the unintentional damage that skateboarders inflict)
She was upset because her house got toilet papered. After meeting her, I understood why the vandals did it. I only wished they had called me so that I could have helped. At any rate...
She got this screwed up look on her face and shortly thereafter, fled my office. Years later she told me that I should have lied to her. She disliked my answer and added that she disliked me. By the way, she is a flaming liberal and it was one of the first times I made the connection between the liberal thought process and bona fide mental illness.
Liberals love to lie. In fact, they have no means of imposing their agenda without lying. It is simply not possible. Proof of that was the great lie of 2013.
Q. If you tell an un-refuted and false narrative over and over again, does it eventually become true?
The great lie told by the Obama administration for 2013 was that the deficit fell to 650-680 billion for the fiscal year. I must have seen this number heralded 100 times at Huffington Post. However, just recently, the Government Accounting Office has said that the actual deficit was officially another trillion. The government spent 3.8 trillion on revenues of 2.8 trillion. The real deficit was reported by Dave Kranzler (The Golden Truth Blog) months ago.
So who are you going to believe? The President or a blogger in Colorado? From Zerohedge:
But that’s not the case for the US government.
Despite the Obama administration touting a budget deficit
of “only” $680 billion in 2013, the GAO’s more accurate accounting shows
a total government cost of $3.8 trillion on total revenue of $2.8
trillion.
In other words– the administration wasn’t exactly honest
with the American people– the deficit was more like $1 trillion, not
$680 billion. But it gets worse.
Here's the link to the GAO's report. Despite all of the doom and gloom, sequestration was only going to slow the budget down 109 billion or less than 4%. http://gaonet.gov/assets/670/661444.pdf
The Federal Reserve Bank is the greatest lie of all. It is so very simple.
The Federal Reserve Bank was created so that politicians or government, could borrow as much money as they needed without EVER asking the citizens permission. Think about it. Without a Federal Reserve Bank willing to finance every ridiculous war or project, politicians have no means of funding all of their wealth redistribution efforts unless citizens approved more taxes and larger budgets. Congress would actually be forced to ask the citizens for more tax money every year when they budgeted expenses. Sooner or later, citizens would not fund those ridiculous expenses. They would say no and the politicians would soon get voted out of office. The Federal Reserve Bank is how the politicians can exercise complete dominion over our money. Unlimited borrowing with nothing as collateral except the ability to tax it's citizens. It's how they keep their jobs forever. It is the proverbial blank check.
CONGRESS LOVES THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK
Now bear with me- because the real important part of this piece isn't that Congress found a way to outflank it's citizens, which they did...but that they rendered the American voter absolutely powerless and useless in the process.
Politicians, with the help of bankers, found a way to wrestle all control of our government away from citizen stewardship. Government would no longer be constrained once politicians had the power to borrow unlimited funds without asking permission.
It was quite simply, the slickest trick ever pulled on the American public. To this day- the sheeple still don't know they've been had. And those few who knew back in 1913- well they are all dead and forgotten.
All of this brings us to present day America.
People have grown so spiritually sick- that they would rather be lied to than told the truth. The truth it seems- has become so painful and so inconvenient to the liberal majority that they simply cannot accept it.
Or in a superficial America that has to be constantly entertained- people simply don't care about the truth. It takes reading comprehension and critical thinking skills to determine the truth. Americans don't have time for that. They don't understand the incremental loss of their freedoms and their money. They just like all the free stuff and they could care less who pays for all of that- or who goes bankrupt in the process.
They like the lies better.
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Friday, March 21, 2014
The Liberal Paradise
For
those who believe that government can provide everything and create
utopia, here is a quote from the man with more common sense than most folks.A
"Liberal Paradise " would be a place where everybody has guaranteed
employment, free comprehensive healthcare, free education, free food,
free housing, free clothing, free utilities, and only Law Enforcement
has guns. And believe it or not, such a place does indeed exist …… It's
called prison.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Phoenix , Arizona
Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Maricopa County Sheriff's Office
Phoenix , Arizona
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Obamacare Is Dying? It Never Lived
The most salient page I have read in two years regarding the "Obamacare" reforms. Denninger refers to it as financial rape.
Finally someone nails it. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=228851
Finally someone nails it. http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=228851
Al Qaeda Spy Gets Cushy Job at the I.R.S.
You cannot make this shit up.
This dude was actually a cop who helped obstruct an investigation and aided in the destruction of evidence.
Please read this link and scream out the window after the neighbors have left for work.
http://allenbwest.com/2014/03/convicted-al-qaida-spy-works-irs/
This dude was actually a cop who helped obstruct an investigation and aided in the destruction of evidence.
Please read this link and scream out the window after the neighbors have left for work.
http://allenbwest.com/2014/03/convicted-al-qaida-spy-works-irs/
Sunday, March 16, 2014
Black Privilege and The Free Shit Army- The Sunday Collage
If harsh truth bothers you, you might not want to continue on here.
We're gonna talk some taboo subjects, some racism, examine some history including my own, throw in a little profanity, and predict the future.
Growing up in Montana offered a few advantages for a kid like me. One of them was my utter and nearly complete lack of racism. It's hard to form an opinion about a race or a culture if you are never exposed to one- other than your own. The nearest I came to a culture different than old, white, European miners were the local Indian tribes and their members. Oh don't get me wrong. I used the "N" word a few times over the years but I got over that. I'm not a saint but I'm not Mark Fuhrmann either.
Many Indians still hold a serious grudge over "manifest destiny." It seems the European settlers didn't explain that concept to the Indians very well. The broken treaty- reservation thing- is still pretty fresh in many Indian minds. A victim mentality. We gave the Indians a lot of free shit- trying to make nice. This hasn't worked out too well.
As a kid, I did a little back and forth name calling with some Indian kids and while it didn't seem to do much damage- it probably helped cement a little animosity for ol man whitey.
Today, I mostly limit my name calling to little old men with hats on who drive- and women who text and drive. I can't explain why but women who text and drive seem to be worse than men who text and drive. I narrowly averted getting sideswiped off the road the other day when a young female decided to change lanes while texting. Thankfully I have learned over 35 years of motorcycle riding to anticipate these near death experiences. Yesterday at the mall, young girls were texting while walking and bumping into people. Mostly I want to slap the shit out of these girls but that's just not part of the new spiritual FG- also and unfortunately, slapping the shit out of young girls will land you in jail and I understand the necessity of that. Absent a law, there would be hordes of kids with lumpy heads. So..
Mostly I obey the law. Not because it's convenient...but get ready for this...but because very often it is the right thing to do. Imagine what happens when the guy in charge of enforcing laws simply quits doing so...
I wrote a piece on here one time which was entitled, "We Should Have Picked Our Own Cotton" which chronicled the fallout of American slavery. That would be black slavery and the ensuing victim class which continues to this very day. This is the same mentality I observed in Montana's Indians as a child. Part of that mentality is making the oppressing class feel guilty as well. That's how you get free shit.
Now if you are new to this site, you might be asking yourself- how do all of these subjects tie together?
In America, we screw up. Now whether that's killing Indians, enslaving blacks because plantation owners were greedy and thus saw fit to waste 600,000 lives on Civil War battlefields, or sticking hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans in internment camps and ruining their lives or more recently- dropping bombs on people with drones. This is mob rule democracy in action- and that is precisely what the founding fathers hoped to avoid.
You just can't make things right when you set about the task of enslaving, imprisoning, and killing a minority class of people and violating their rights. People remember.
From the God of the Machine- “Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.”
I'm not sure we screw up on purpose but I do know this- sometimes there is nothing you can do to make things right once you do and I've learned something else. When you victimize a class of people- there has to be a statute of limitations on the act. We must make amends immediately and finalize the act in writing. Otherwise we get hundreds of years worth of pity, an entire victim class that wants reparations forever, and ultimately a black President that thinks he can do anything he wants to do and so far- he has used the Constitution as ass wipe.
Things have gotten so absurd that members of Congress are now mulling over an act compelling the President to obey the law. Why? Because our legislative body- comprised mostly of criminals themselves- haven't got the stones to impeach our first black President. Can you imagine the backlash of that? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-15/pretty-much-sums-sad-state-us-constitution
I am in awe at the number of people who know that President Obama ignores the law, breaks the law, abuses the law, avoids established law, and rules by executive order. He picks and chooses the winners and losers, wantonly sics the IRS on his enemies, refuses to cooperate in any Congressional investigation, dodges scandals Fast and Furious and Benghazi, refuses to limit spending and submits ridiculous budgets, drops bombs on people, eavesdrops on everyone, and then get this- blames everyone else including Congress for our problems!
He's got America by the balls. They wouldn't dare do anything to him. Why? Because we still have this ginormous subculture of American blacks and other minorities who are still pissed at this country for the perceived evils of old man whitey on the plantation. That victim class grows- it does not decline. They pass on that history to their impoverished children who do not have jobs- and when they tell that story they make sure and tell those kids that ol man whitey is to blame. President Five Iron, because he is half black, is absolutely immune from blame or responsibility of any sort. He has an entire party and a complicit media enabling his terrible performance. Mob rule democracy.
Think about what Kanye West said about George Bush after Katrina if you need proof. Thousands of blacks, warned about the size and strength of Katrina refused to leave New Orleans before the storm. The greatest national pity party of my lifetime ensued after that storm. Kanye publicly blamed Bush because Kanye concluded... "he doesn't like black people."
Maybe it's just part of the reparations.
That's the privilege Barack Obama enjoys. He can do essentially anything he wants and he just dares you to try and stop him. That level of arrogance, contempt, and passive aggressive behavior are the hallmarks of this administration. An administration whose very members continue to quit (Jay Carney is apparently in need of an exit strategy) at alarming rates- falling on swords to keep the democratic party's facade alive and well at least until the elections this fall.
I get all of this. In fact, I accept all of this. You should too- because it's far from over. I've never seen one man take a country hostage up until now. Three more years until any possible rescue attempt- but more than likely- the free shit army will stay in charge after this administration leaves and Obama begins the usual corporate largesse gathering that makes ex Presidents rich. In the meantime...
It seems we're going to continue to make reparations for the foreseeable future. Buy em Obmacare or pay extra taxes... there might not be any stopping the free shit army.
We're gonna talk some taboo subjects, some racism, examine some history including my own, throw in a little profanity, and predict the future.
Growing up in Montana offered a few advantages for a kid like me. One of them was my utter and nearly complete lack of racism. It's hard to form an opinion about a race or a culture if you are never exposed to one- other than your own. The nearest I came to a culture different than old, white, European miners were the local Indian tribes and their members. Oh don't get me wrong. I used the "N" word a few times over the years but I got over that. I'm not a saint but I'm not Mark Fuhrmann either.
Many Indians still hold a serious grudge over "manifest destiny." It seems the European settlers didn't explain that concept to the Indians very well. The broken treaty- reservation thing- is still pretty fresh in many Indian minds. A victim mentality. We gave the Indians a lot of free shit- trying to make nice. This hasn't worked out too well.
As a kid, I did a little back and forth name calling with some Indian kids and while it didn't seem to do much damage- it probably helped cement a little animosity for ol man whitey.
Today, I mostly limit my name calling to little old men with hats on who drive- and women who text and drive. I can't explain why but women who text and drive seem to be worse than men who text and drive. I narrowly averted getting sideswiped off the road the other day when a young female decided to change lanes while texting. Thankfully I have learned over 35 years of motorcycle riding to anticipate these near death experiences. Yesterday at the mall, young girls were texting while walking and bumping into people. Mostly I want to slap the shit out of these girls but that's just not part of the new spiritual FG- also and unfortunately, slapping the shit out of young girls will land you in jail and I understand the necessity of that. Absent a law, there would be hordes of kids with lumpy heads. So..
Mostly I obey the law. Not because it's convenient...but get ready for this...but because very often it is the right thing to do. Imagine what happens when the guy in charge of enforcing laws simply quits doing so...
I wrote a piece on here one time which was entitled, "We Should Have Picked Our Own Cotton" which chronicled the fallout of American slavery. That would be black slavery and the ensuing victim class which continues to this very day. This is the same mentality I observed in Montana's Indians as a child. Part of that mentality is making the oppressing class feel guilty as well. That's how you get free shit.
Now if you are new to this site, you might be asking yourself- how do all of these subjects tie together?
In America, we screw up. Now whether that's killing Indians, enslaving blacks because plantation owners were greedy and thus saw fit to waste 600,000 lives on Civil War battlefields, or sticking hundreds of thousands of Japanese Americans in internment camps and ruining their lives or more recently- dropping bombs on people with drones. This is mob rule democracy in action- and that is precisely what the founding fathers hoped to avoid.
You just can't make things right when you set about the task of enslaving, imprisoning, and killing a minority class of people and violating their rights. People remember.
From the God of the Machine- “Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.”
I'm not sure we screw up on purpose but I do know this- sometimes there is nothing you can do to make things right once you do and I've learned something else. When you victimize a class of people- there has to be a statute of limitations on the act. We must make amends immediately and finalize the act in writing. Otherwise we get hundreds of years worth of pity, an entire victim class that wants reparations forever, and ultimately a black President that thinks he can do anything he wants to do and so far- he has used the Constitution as ass wipe.
Things have gotten so absurd that members of Congress are now mulling over an act compelling the President to obey the law. Why? Because our legislative body- comprised mostly of criminals themselves- haven't got the stones to impeach our first black President. Can you imagine the backlash of that? http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-03-15/pretty-much-sums-sad-state-us-constitution
I am in awe at the number of people who know that President Obama ignores the law, breaks the law, abuses the law, avoids established law, and rules by executive order. He picks and chooses the winners and losers, wantonly sics the IRS on his enemies, refuses to cooperate in any Congressional investigation, dodges scandals Fast and Furious and Benghazi, refuses to limit spending and submits ridiculous budgets, drops bombs on people, eavesdrops on everyone, and then get this- blames everyone else including Congress for our problems!
He's got America by the balls. They wouldn't dare do anything to him. Why? Because we still have this ginormous subculture of American blacks and other minorities who are still pissed at this country for the perceived evils of old man whitey on the plantation. That victim class grows- it does not decline. They pass on that history to their impoverished children who do not have jobs- and when they tell that story they make sure and tell those kids that ol man whitey is to blame. President Five Iron, because he is half black, is absolutely immune from blame or responsibility of any sort. He has an entire party and a complicit media enabling his terrible performance. Mob rule democracy.
Think about what Kanye West said about George Bush after Katrina if you need proof. Thousands of blacks, warned about the size and strength of Katrina refused to leave New Orleans before the storm. The greatest national pity party of my lifetime ensued after that storm. Kanye publicly blamed Bush because Kanye concluded... "he doesn't like black people."
Maybe it's just part of the reparations.
That's the privilege Barack Obama enjoys. He can do essentially anything he wants and he just dares you to try and stop him. That level of arrogance, contempt, and passive aggressive behavior are the hallmarks of this administration. An administration whose very members continue to quit (Jay Carney is apparently in need of an exit strategy) at alarming rates- falling on swords to keep the democratic party's facade alive and well at least until the elections this fall.
I get all of this. In fact, I accept all of this. You should too- because it's far from over. I've never seen one man take a country hostage up until now. Three more years until any possible rescue attempt- but more than likely- the free shit army will stay in charge after this administration leaves and Obama begins the usual corporate largesse gathering that makes ex Presidents rich. In the meantime...
It seems we're going to continue to make reparations for the foreseeable future. Buy em Obmacare or pay extra taxes... there might not be any stopping the free shit army.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
We're All Going To Become Criminals Soon- The Sunday Collage
Many years ago in Moonbat Valley, the rich folks donated a bunch of money to build a skateboard park. The community wanted the park.The Chief of Police wanted the skateboard park. So did I. Year after year, we received hundreds of calls from local merchants complaining about skateboarders loitering, tearing up private property- chipping concrete and wood benches- and being smart asses when merchants asked skateboarders to "beat it." Skateboarders countered with the great "skateboarding is not a crime" campaign.
After we built the park, the park became an area of drug dealing, bullying, vandalism, and littering. Petty crimes mostly. Complaints began to rise again. There was no way to effectively police the park. I learned several important lessons from the skateboard park experiment.
Kids are a pain in the ass. People break laws. The more laws you pass, the more laws will get broken. Enforcement costs a lot of money and at some point- a point we have passed already- laws become unenforceable and only arbitrarily applied when it is convenient.Those are just the "good" laws. What about all of the bad and unjust laws- laws that demand that we do something we simply cannot afford to do? Are we going to allow government to spend us into oblivion and then demand that we turn over all of our money via tax law so that they may redistribute it to their banker buddies, defense contractors, and health care providers?
Of course not. At some point, we are all going to become criminals. We are going to cheat on our taxes, work for cash and barter, and do what we need to do to survive. We are going to break laws, unjust laws, and I see that as a good thing. I'm not the only one either. You might say Howard Zinn saw the dangers of becoming the society of sheep that we have become.
“Civil disobedience, as I put it to the audience, was not the problem, despite the warnings of some that it threatened social stability, that it led to anarchy. The greatest danger, I argued, was civil obedience, the submission of individual conscience to governmental authority. Such obedience led to the horrors we saw in totalitarian states, and in liberal states it led to the public's acceptance of war whenever the so-called democratic government decided on it...
In such a world, the rule of law maintains things as they are. Therefore, to begin the process of change, to stop a war, to establish justice, it may be necessary to break the law, to commit acts of civil disobedience, as Southern black did, as antiwar protesters did.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
Zinn was against the Vietnam War before it was fashionable to be against war. His story is pretty fascinating. Our government did everything they could to label him a criminal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn
In Idaho this past week, we had a great statewide debate over whether college kids would be allowed to carry guns on college campuses. They were debating a law which was constitutionally guaranteed to us 240 years ago. The right to bear arms. Like they had the authority to nullify the Constitution.
Several years ago, while living in the great shooting gallery known as New Orleans, I routinely carried a gun. I did not even attempt to comply with whatever local laws they have in New Orleans. I didn't care. I remember an old cop adage from decades before.
It is better to be judged by 12 than buried by 6.
The great temptation of all legislative bodies is to pass laws. That's what they do. They show very little restraint because it is much more difficult to tell constituents that a new law will be ineffective, unenforceable, and costly. And rarely, if ever, do legislative bodies go back and remove outdated or ineffective laws. To this day in Idaho- we still have sex laws that prohibit oral sex between a man and his wife and liquor laws that prohibit merchants from stating the brand name of a beer on exterior advertising. A typical marquee sign here reads, "premium beer, 12 pack, 9.99."
One of my favorite examples of the wholesale fleecing of people occurs in the insurance industry as that industry has managed to pass laws making it mandatory that you buy their products. Auto insurance, homeowner insurance, health insurance, mortgage insurance. Insurance companies have been granted a virtual monopoly by the state while pretending to offer competitive pricing. It's all quite laughable.
I don't get too worked up anymore by all of this law passing. It's beyond ridiculous. I have simply resigned myself to the following parameters. I am not going to break any laws that potentially harm someone else. That's it. I am drawing the line. I am not going to submit to some ridiculous law (ACA) while our leadership consistently demonstrates a complete dereliction of duty and no respect for the rule of law. Obama, Holder, and Clinton should all be criminally charged for any number of things- the least of which was their failure to prosecute thousands of criminal bankers and the worst which was their lies and cover up of the deaths of Americans in Benghazi.
Sooner or later, this administration will be forced out. They represent the worst possible leadership- a Republic gone awry. Or maybe they represent what happens when you have too many laws and nobody enforcing them. Somebody is gonna have to pay for this shit show and Uncle Sugar is going to come looking for you. Remember...
Everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
After we built the park, the park became an area of drug dealing, bullying, vandalism, and littering. Petty crimes mostly. Complaints began to rise again. There was no way to effectively police the park. I learned several important lessons from the skateboard park experiment.
Kids are a pain in the ass. People break laws. The more laws you pass, the more laws will get broken. Enforcement costs a lot of money and at some point- a point we have passed already- laws become unenforceable and only arbitrarily applied when it is convenient.Those are just the "good" laws. What about all of the bad and unjust laws- laws that demand that we do something we simply cannot afford to do? Are we going to allow government to spend us into oblivion and then demand that we turn over all of our money via tax law so that they may redistribute it to their banker buddies, defense contractors, and health care providers?
Of course not. At some point, we are all going to become criminals. We are going to cheat on our taxes, work for cash and barter, and do what we need to do to survive. We are going to break laws, unjust laws, and I see that as a good thing. I'm not the only one either. You might say Howard Zinn saw the dangers of becoming the society of sheep that we have become.
“Civil disobedience, as I put it to the audience, was not the problem, despite the warnings of some that it threatened social stability, that it led to anarchy. The greatest danger, I argued, was civil obedience, the submission of individual conscience to governmental authority. Such obedience led to the horrors we saw in totalitarian states, and in liberal states it led to the public's acceptance of war whenever the so-called democratic government decided on it...
In such a world, the rule of law maintains things as they are. Therefore, to begin the process of change, to stop a war, to establish justice, it may be necessary to break the law, to commit acts of civil disobedience, as Southern black did, as antiwar protesters did.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
Zinn was against the Vietnam War before it was fashionable to be against war. His story is pretty fascinating. Our government did everything they could to label him a criminal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn
In Idaho this past week, we had a great statewide debate over whether college kids would be allowed to carry guns on college campuses. They were debating a law which was constitutionally guaranteed to us 240 years ago. The right to bear arms. Like they had the authority to nullify the Constitution.
Several years ago, while living in the great shooting gallery known as New Orleans, I routinely carried a gun. I did not even attempt to comply with whatever local laws they have in New Orleans. I didn't care. I remember an old cop adage from decades before.
It is better to be judged by 12 than buried by 6.
The great temptation of all legislative bodies is to pass laws. That's what they do. They show very little restraint because it is much more difficult to tell constituents that a new law will be ineffective, unenforceable, and costly. And rarely, if ever, do legislative bodies go back and remove outdated or ineffective laws. To this day in Idaho- we still have sex laws that prohibit oral sex between a man and his wife and liquor laws that prohibit merchants from stating the brand name of a beer on exterior advertising. A typical marquee sign here reads, "premium beer, 12 pack, 9.99."
One of my favorite examples of the wholesale fleecing of people occurs in the insurance industry as that industry has managed to pass laws making it mandatory that you buy their products. Auto insurance, homeowner insurance, health insurance, mortgage insurance. Insurance companies have been granted a virtual monopoly by the state while pretending to offer competitive pricing. It's all quite laughable.
I don't get too worked up anymore by all of this law passing. It's beyond ridiculous. I have simply resigned myself to the following parameters. I am not going to break any laws that potentially harm someone else. That's it. I am drawing the line. I am not going to submit to some ridiculous law (ACA) while our leadership consistently demonstrates a complete dereliction of duty and no respect for the rule of law. Obama, Holder, and Clinton should all be criminally charged for any number of things- the least of which was their failure to prosecute thousands of criminal bankers and the worst which was their lies and cover up of the deaths of Americans in Benghazi.
Sooner or later, this administration will be forced out. They represent the worst possible leadership- a Republic gone awry. Or maybe they represent what happens when you have too many laws and nobody enforcing them. Somebody is gonna have to pay for this shit show and Uncle Sugar is going to come looking for you. Remember...
Everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
The New Plantation- The Sunday Collage
Something really odd happened at work yesterday. It borders on insane
and I'll tell you this- it makes no sense to me. The company that I
work for, deep in the heart of America's first right to work state, gave
us a 20% raise. From 10 dollars an hour to 12.
They did not have to do this.
I am still in a state of shock. I didn't have to beg anyone, get some glowing review or show up daily and kiss anyone's ass. This is a company that will work you 14, 16, 19 hours a day without paying overtime and does so frequently.
Perhaps they have acquired some level of corporate shame. I'm not sure. I didn't give our team a 5% chance against the corporate oligarchy.
One of the reasons government "work" has become so popular is that it shelters you from the reality of life in private, corporate America. In Idaho, the corporate oligarchy is at it's strongest. Not only are we in a right to work state, but employers in Idaho can fire you without cause, explanations, or due process. There is no recourse either. Your former employer will fight tooth and nail at the unemployment hearing also.
Oh how I miss government "work." I can't go back because the great Satan, the public retirement system here, will stop your checks. PERSI has a strangle hold on guys like me. You have to leave the state to find government "work" elsewhere. That option, for family reasons, just isn't open to me right now.
(I put government "work" in quotation marks for my father who still maintains that government and work are mutually exclusive terms)
And the good jobs in Boise, those are the ones that pay 20 bucks an hr. and up, those jobs are reserved for the insiders. I don't care how well your qualifications stack up, or that your resume' was written by Tony Robbins, or that your cover letter was crafted by Ernest Hemingway. Everyone has some friend or shoestring relative that needs a leg up and if you know the right people here- that's how you get hired. Ohhh... they advertise the job and pretend that the hiring process is competitive- but it isn't. Posting a well paying job in Boise is simply a legal formality. The hiring or the completion of the short list- that has already been done well in advance of the job posting.
That's how the new plantation operates. It is always "who you know" that gets you hired for the good jobs. On the lower rungs or the jobs that nobody really wants, you become a part of the employer grist mill. Work your ass off for chump change and no benefits, allow management to violate half of the employee manual without ever complaining, and keep your mouth shut or suffer the consequences. It's like a sheep factory here.
Now I guarantee you that some smug person out there will think they are immune to this or "There's no way this could happen to me, I am too (insert smug adjective here: smart, valuable, ambitious) to have that happen to me."
Until reality gives you a swift kick in the ass. If you haven't received this whopping dose of reality yet- chances are very good that you are simply lucky or too young. Both of those things will change.
Now I don't need to work and that is something I am truly grateful for. That is freedom. That's what 25 years worth of government work gets you- at least for now. Don't think for a second that I am unaware of the millions of taxpayers who are pissed off at the government sector. When I signed on back in 1982- it wasn't that way. In fact, I worked most of my first year for free. Did you?
So walking away from some nine or ten dollar an hr. job is an option for me and I like to keep my options open. I am in awe of what I have encountered since I "retired." We have a corporate mentality in Idaho where the employer is always right, due process is some ridiculous concept, and management will can you on a whim.
What corporation would not want to come here and operate under those conditions? Even if you have an escalating pay structure to lure employees, you can simply wait until they all reach the top rung and replace them with cheaper workers. What robber baron could not exploit that situation? Idaho is a dream come true for the corporate oligarchy. I am surprised Boise is not the size of Seattle yet.
I had planned on quitting my job in the next month or so. Pushing 500 pound gun safes up narrow stairways for 10 bucks an hr. isn't exactly a dream come true nor is it a job that 50ish type people should probably be doing. Ibuprofen and I have formed a strong partnership. People aren't exactly beating down the door trying to get hired here.
But I'll tell you something. That two bucks an hr. raise just might have bought some goodwill and loyalty from me- if for no other reason- because they didn't have to do it. That's the kind of goodwill that makes me think- maybe I should explore other options with this outfit. Maybe they have developed a conscience, maybe some corporate shame. On the new plantation, things like that don't happen every day.
They did not have to do this.
I am still in a state of shock. I didn't have to beg anyone, get some glowing review or show up daily and kiss anyone's ass. This is a company that will work you 14, 16, 19 hours a day without paying overtime and does so frequently.
Perhaps they have acquired some level of corporate shame. I'm not sure. I didn't give our team a 5% chance against the corporate oligarchy.
One of the reasons government "work" has become so popular is that it shelters you from the reality of life in private, corporate America. In Idaho, the corporate oligarchy is at it's strongest. Not only are we in a right to work state, but employers in Idaho can fire you without cause, explanations, or due process. There is no recourse either. Your former employer will fight tooth and nail at the unemployment hearing also.
Oh how I miss government "work." I can't go back because the great Satan, the public retirement system here, will stop your checks. PERSI has a strangle hold on guys like me. You have to leave the state to find government "work" elsewhere. That option, for family reasons, just isn't open to me right now.
(I put government "work" in quotation marks for my father who still maintains that government and work are mutually exclusive terms)
And the good jobs in Boise, those are the ones that pay 20 bucks an hr. and up, those jobs are reserved for the insiders. I don't care how well your qualifications stack up, or that your resume' was written by Tony Robbins, or that your cover letter was crafted by Ernest Hemingway. Everyone has some friend or shoestring relative that needs a leg up and if you know the right people here- that's how you get hired. Ohhh... they advertise the job and pretend that the hiring process is competitive- but it isn't. Posting a well paying job in Boise is simply a legal formality. The hiring or the completion of the short list- that has already been done well in advance of the job posting.
That's how the new plantation operates. It is always "who you know" that gets you hired for the good jobs. On the lower rungs or the jobs that nobody really wants, you become a part of the employer grist mill. Work your ass off for chump change and no benefits, allow management to violate half of the employee manual without ever complaining, and keep your mouth shut or suffer the consequences. It's like a sheep factory here.
Now I guarantee you that some smug person out there will think they are immune to this or "There's no way this could happen to me, I am too (insert smug adjective here: smart, valuable, ambitious) to have that happen to me."
Until reality gives you a swift kick in the ass. If you haven't received this whopping dose of reality yet- chances are very good that you are simply lucky or too young. Both of those things will change.
Now I don't need to work and that is something I am truly grateful for. That is freedom. That's what 25 years worth of government work gets you- at least for now. Don't think for a second that I am unaware of the millions of taxpayers who are pissed off at the government sector. When I signed on back in 1982- it wasn't that way. In fact, I worked most of my first year for free. Did you?
So walking away from some nine or ten dollar an hr. job is an option for me and I like to keep my options open. I am in awe of what I have encountered since I "retired." We have a corporate mentality in Idaho where the employer is always right, due process is some ridiculous concept, and management will can you on a whim.
What corporation would not want to come here and operate under those conditions? Even if you have an escalating pay structure to lure employees, you can simply wait until they all reach the top rung and replace them with cheaper workers. What robber baron could not exploit that situation? Idaho is a dream come true for the corporate oligarchy. I am surprised Boise is not the size of Seattle yet.
I had planned on quitting my job in the next month or so. Pushing 500 pound gun safes up narrow stairways for 10 bucks an hr. isn't exactly a dream come true nor is it a job that 50ish type people should probably be doing. Ibuprofen and I have formed a strong partnership. People aren't exactly beating down the door trying to get hired here.
But I'll tell you something. That two bucks an hr. raise just might have bought some goodwill and loyalty from me- if for no other reason- because they didn't have to do it. That's the kind of goodwill that makes me think- maybe I should explore other options with this outfit. Maybe they have developed a conscience, maybe some corporate shame. On the new plantation, things like that don't happen every day.
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