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Appropos my above comment, Obama's new Supreme Court nominee supports Citizens United. How much more will Hillary's appointees?
Hillary is as sociopathic as any of them, she is bound by NO ethical consideration, whatsoever. She just may be a good bit smarter than any of the Republican clowns - but all the more trechearous for that.
Bernie supporters were rightly outraged in Nevada. That's a nice strategy, blatantly cheat against your opponent then when your opponent's supporters get angry accuse them of thinking about violence.
Hillary works for every vote, Bernie works hard for every voter - and even those who don't vote. Hillary will sell out every voter, take their vote and "So long suckers!"
If you think she won't appoint Supreme Court Justices who will uphold and defend Citizens United you're batty and Roe v. Wade won't be overturned regardless of who is president and appoints which judges.
Republican voters and Hillary voters are equally suckers.
Thom is missing a whole lot by giving Pelosi some free - and unwarranted-- progressive promotion ( strangely , 'cause he usually is on top of stuff - I have learned lots from him; is this an expression of Thom's new - but QUITE premature -- love of party unity? Party Unity AFTER CLinton earns party unity and she has been nothing but dismissive to Sanders / supporters so far)....
Anywho --- The fact that Pelosi is locked in a primary w/ a bernie like anti establishment populist means EVERYTHING here. She is a rank establishment politician. For example, sHe initially SAID she opposed TPP , then she made the change that wd make the Fast track get legs to be approved. in other words, she is a full shite. THis was all covered by Thom - Pelosi's support of TPP Fast track ,
The State of Illinois recently passed a new Eavesdropping Law to get around the Supreme Court decision that ruled the old law with regard to recording police and other public officials performing their duties in public unconstitutional. The new law allows police to declare a "right" to privacy to prevent recording. That declaration is made by the individual officer, without any supervision, and the recording device may be confiscated and the recorder arrested.
I was wrong on when the 2 consecutive periods of 1am-5am during a 34 reset were in effect before. It was in effect between 2013-2014. Not 2010. It was rolled back to the previous rule of taking the 34 hr reset at any point during the day that was in effect before. The FMCSA is doing a study on these and other resets, and other time schedules. The proposed amendment would reinstate an unpopular, and unstudied ruleset.
We are already capped at 70 hours a week, and have been for at least 15 years. Keep in mind that 70 hrs a week boils down to a usable 10 hrs a day. Truckers do not just work Mon-Fri in strict business hours. If we did, that 70 cap would be ridiculous. That, and the 2 days off in a row is a bit of a misnomer. We can reset our 70 clock by taking 34 hrs off. The amendment would force us to include to 1am-5am periods of time before that reset counts. It does not change the 34hr requirement. And to only be able to take 1 reset in a 7 day period. As it stands now we can do a reset every other day if there was no freight or if needed. This was actually implemented between 2010-2014 and caused a lot of issues, and was reconsidered and rescinded at the beginning of 2015. The FMCSA has been doing a study on this ever since, and this legislation ignores that the study even exists.
As for driver pay, that really hasn't increased since the 80's and is an issue in itself. Even still, driving truck is one of the better paying jobs one can get with just a High School education. That is if you can swing the $4-5 thousand for training after working min wage jobs.
Not so incidentally, even though our liberal bourgeoisie avoid this issue, these successful Nordic nations each have a welfare system. Yes, democratic socialism does, indeed, include a welfare system. Americans want more for the middle class, and want assurances that nothing will trickle down.
Silly. America soundly rejected the whole democratic socialist notion. We did try a measure of it, from FDR to Reagan. We had implemented policies and programs that reduced poverty and actually took the country to its height of wealth and productivity. It wasn't utopia, still a work in progress, but was much better. Still, we realized that we could not tolerate living with the anxiety that someone, somewhere, was getting a crumb more they deserved.
Democrat Bill Clinton ended actual welfare, and still had time to begin similarly "reforming" Social Security, working to root out those elements of democratic socialism. The Clinton wing in Congress continued to whittle away at Social Security. Democrats kicked off 2015 with agreeing to virtually end food stamps top the elderly poor and the disabled (cut monthly allotments from roughly $115 down to $10), and everyone seems fine with this. For years, liberals have waved the banner for the middle class. The media indicate that the worst-off people can be today, in this land of wealth and opportunity, is minimum wage workers, with incomes roughly double our former welfare aid. Hurray, no more poverty! And if this is true, what would be the logic of changing anything? Stay the course!
Both the House and the Senate versions of this legislation would block the Obama administration from enforcing a regulation that requires workers to take two days in a row off per week, and caps truck drivers' hours at 70 hours a week.
The only problem with a 70 hr work week for Truck Driver is you will not have any truck drives,
They are not paid enough now, What do you think will happen if you decrease the number of hour he or she can work, and they are making even less?
I would never vote for Trump. I'm even most reticent to consider voting for Hillary. Nice to dream of a Bernie Sanders' presidency; An actual voice in the running of Government. Social programs for the proles will come from neither party...Yup, As long as the Nation's Corporatists have their finger on our elections, We can only hope for benevolent despots.
I will not watch any shows with Horace Cooper on it.
As a current truck driver, I would like to address a couple of issues with this article, and give a comparison to what is in place now. Also there are a couple of conflicting amendments being proposed. You usually have a plethora of facts to back up your arguments, and the truck industry ones here are a little weak.
First, to give a little background. The truckers HOS (hours of service ) as they stand now. We have a revolving 70 hour clock. That means we have a total of 70 hrs, over a 7 day period. I repeat, spread over 7 days, not 5 like most other jobs. Everything we do has to fit into those hours. On any particular day, once we clock on, we can be On Duty for 14 hrs, anything over that, massive fines. In those 14 hrs, we can only drive up to 11. Once we clock off for the day, we are then required to rest 10 hrs before we can clock back on. Currently, and this is the important part for the amendments mentioned, we have a 34 hr reset. At any point, we can stop for 34 hrs, and it will reset the 70 hr clock. Keep in mind there are some studies currently being done about changing them, they were changed between 2010-2014 and changed back. Electronic logging on all hours in the truck and off is being instituted, and is a big to do in the industry. That doesn't stop a person from pulling an all nighter after they get off work and stupidly getting behind the wheel the next day, but most companies out here would can him fast if they caught him doing so.
Here are the amendments right now;
1: (Senate) An amendment to keep things as they are. (This is the one more popular in the trucking industry )
2: (House) An amendment to make the 34 hr reset only take effect if it includes two consecutive 1am-5am periods of time. As a lot of drivers stop in the afternoon, this has the effect of forcing a 40-45 hr reset, and thowing off most drivers regular drive time. (I personally pefer to start 3am-4am to skip traffic ), this amendment would only alow 1 reset per week, not allowing for more days off later in the week. This is what was in place between 2010-2014 and caused a lot of issues in the industry, and delays and problems with shippers and customers. This would also have the effect of forcing many drivers into rush hour traffic straight away when they clock back on.
3: I don't remember if it is house or senate, but I believe the proposed hrs increase was from 70 to 73 for the weekly clock. Not the 83 mentioned in the article. This would give us a little more time to find parking at the end of each day.
Keep in mind, even with the max that trucker CAN work in a day, few go to that extreme. Personally, I rarely go over 9 - 9 1/2 hrs in a day. Less on days that I am delivering or picking up. Even if it does bump up to 83 hrs, I do not see them relaxing the 11 hr drive time in the slightest. All that 83 hr limit would do is increase the buffer for sitting in the shippers/receivers dock. Truckers generally do NOT get paid per hr like most everyone else, we get pat pennies to the mile.
There is another amendment in this bill to force a ruling on speed limiters being imposed on all trucks in this mess as well. There is a study that was mandaded in the last spending bill to look into this and is currently being conducted and no where near done.
Another amendment that Barbara Boxer is against, is one that would restrict driver pay to only miles driven. Some companies offer pay if you have a break down, or while waiting 6-8 hrs for a shipper to load, and other incidentals. This one would get rid of those incentives.
Thom, I would suggest contacting almost any of the shows on the SiriusXM Road Dawg channel for more in depth information on this. I agree that adding all these nonsense amendments to a combined transportation / defense bill is nuts, then tossing in the Zika issue into this as well is crazy. This spending package is overstuffed.
I am very conflicted on this one. I will never vote for Trump. I am going to have to wait to make a decision based on events up until the convention
Time for the line item veto, folks! Also time to reconsider rail travel as one engine can pull many truckloads of stuff vs the Truckathon we now have. Remantling the railways might inconvenience the Rail to Trail people, but imagine the safety savings in general.
Thom, I know your article is about the corruption in Washington, but I would like to address a problem I see in the trucking industry and the CDL licensing regulations.
There is a SEVERE shortage of truck drivers in this country (US). Part of the cause is there are fewer people who want to be out on the road for weeks at a time. Some trucking companies are addressing this problem by offering very high pay ($150,000+/year) or by providing more home time for drivers, limiting trips to one week or less.
Another cause of the driver shortage is the difficulty in getting AND KEEPING a CDL (Commercial Drivers License). When the CDL program was first implemented 30+ years ago, any driver who could prove they had been working commercially for at least 2 years was automatically qualified for a CDL, no tests required. Additionally, the CDL would be required ONLY if driving across state lines, intrastate driving did not require a CDL unless the state made it a requirement.
Now a CDL is required even if operating within a single city; the testing requirements are almost ridiculus (you have to back through a serpentine - like you're ever going to have to do that on the highway), and you have to be a perfect physical specimen. New regulations that went into effect last summer (2015) require that any driver with ANY physical deformaties must be examined be an orthepedic surgeon (or other appropriate medical professional) who must certify that the deformity will not affect the drivers safe handling of the vehicle and does not require any special accomadation; and the driver must take and pass a "special" driving test, at additional cost.
I personally have been denied a CDL because of the minor deformities in my hands and feet (most people mistake it for arthritis).
When I went to truck driving school in 1984, the regulations were fairly simple: a driver was not allowed to drive more than 10 hours in a 24 hour period; was not allowed to have more than 14 hours of "on-duty" time in any 24 hour period; was required to have a minimum of 6 hours of sleep time in any 24 hour period; was not allowed to drive more than 480 miles in any 24 hour period; and was not allowed to be on-duty for more than 6 days in any 7 day period.
Some companies are forcing drivers to violate the newer, laxer rules because they can't hire enough drivers.
Congress thinks that making a CDL harder to get or keep will make the roads safer.
Unfortunately, it's having exactly the opposite affect.
Trump as President? Yikes!!
{… a limerick and a PS …}
Our heads and our tummies spin
that The Donald might actually win.
What are they thinking?
America’ll be sinking,
his supporters too in chagrin.
…
PS:
His supporters’re the fiasco’s Cause,
a fact which oughta give them pause.
=============================
Senator Cotton
{… a rhyme …}
Poor Senator Tom Cotton:
His brains were forgotten
by the angels who arranged his birth. …
… Among the DUMBest senators on Earth,
he exemplifies Republicans’ dearth
of savvy, of smarts,
of governing’s arts.
===============================
Me too, objecting to Thom’s rightwinger panelist Horace Cooper {and to some Other rightists who too often flat-out Destroy potentially-useful conversations}. … I fast-forward when the screen shows these people’s mouthings starting up. … But it’s fun to hear Thom’s ripostes, such as {re Cooper’s remarks}: “There’s so much BS in that, I don’t know how to unwrap it” and “Let me finish my sentence”.
I know not think but this Black conservative places us black people in a terrible position because he is racist and hate himself. You need a balance on your show. Get someone who can shut him down. It is white people who speak in good favor of the black race. Incarceration is nothing but a money making venture. Blacks need more programs to help them. They are the hardest hit in being homeless and jobless. He is nothing more but bought.
Thom: Who is responsible for inserting that rider?
I am truly saddened that Trump and Hillary are, apparently, the best that we can do in our quest to find a president. Both choices are profoundly unacceptable to me.
If Hillary is the choice of the left, it tells me that the left is comfortable with the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, that the left does NOT believe that the core concept of healthcare for corporate profit is immoral, and that the left supports the continued expansion and projection of our military around the world, among other things.
As a country, I believe that we fully deserve what is happening to us. For a few moments, I thought that we could be better. I was wrong.
Thom - I wish you would not say FREE, as in "basic services such as healthcare, childcare, and education are all free." It isn't true. There are costs (salaries, buildings, infrastructure, ..), and in those countries, the costs are covered by taxes (income, sales, estate, etc.). Hence, the public pays for them, and the benefits redound to the public good. "Public" could includes people and companies. You already know all this, but I fear that the word "free" can ignite resentment in people from the right wing, as another welfare give-away.
Bernie Sanders has the same problem using the word, free. For example, he says that college tuition should be free. I would rather he said that college tuition should be fully funded by public funds. And the justification is straightforward, because the benefits ultimately come to the entire country.
Looking at stark reality, the system is based on money and will remain so
for many years.
So while a mass movement may eventually change this, we must beat them
at their own game in the intervening years or decades.
Raise more money than the trucking industry to buy more prostitute congressmen.
"money talks and BS walks"
ct
watch... zika at gmo mosquitos release points