SOCIAL PROBLEMS: HOMELESSNESS IN THE UNITED STATES IS AN EPIDEMIC

(BillyBuc, John Wihbey, Burt M. Aron, E.L. Bassuk)

(United States Department of Housing & Human Development)

(Martin Donohoe M.D. FACP, Coalition for the Homeless, Lee Stringer)

(Bruce Vladeck, David Wagner, Megan Wollhouse, Jenna Worthham, John Quigley)

(Peter Moskowitz, Al Jazeera, Heidi Sommer, Jessica Ilana Katz, Charles Hoch, Frazer Chronicle)

 

A problem that won’t go away and a problem that Americans absolutely won’t deal with, and in some cases won’t even acknowledge. Knock on wood, I’ve never been homeless, and hopefully never will, so I don’t have any practical experience. I don’t think that I even know anybody who’s been homeless, although I’m sure that a few of the people that I’ve met in my life have experienced the horror of not know where he would sleep at night.

 

I’ve been lucky, it’s the only way that I can explain why I’m still a virgin with regards to being homeless, and I want to stay a virgin…..thank you very much. I say that “I’ve been lucky,” because I never quite got the jest of a dollar bill and why it was so damned important. I’ve had very good people bail me out of sticky situations, and have been fortunate to have such good friends, and family members.

 

The weather throughout the Midwest and the East Coast has been brutal over the past six or seven days, causing shelters to struggle to keep beds open during this extreme cold. Frostbite and even death can be the result of a homeless person not finding suitable shelter before the sun goes down.

 

The cold temperatures that oozed its way down from Canada through most of the upper Midwest, bringing some of the coldest weather for years has been kicking our collective butts for several days in a row. For me it has been an inconvenience, I hate the cold weather, but for people who sleep in their cars, under a bridge, or on a park bench, the cold has brought a threat of untreatable illness, or death to the estimated 800,000 and more.

 

Overnight, January 6, 2014, every state in the continental U.S. saw temperatures dip to the freezing mark, a first since those kinds of records have been kept. Cities that are used to cold temperatures, and can offer warm food and a bed have been overwhelmed, but cities like Atlanta, Memphis and New Orleans have been socked…..and they aren’t set up to handle any kind of extended cold snap.

 

Smaller communities across the country do not have the where-with-all to handle even their limited homeless problem. Doorways or lightly heated entryways serve some of these people, but there usually isn’t any warm food, or organized places for the homeless to stay for a night or two in a warm environment to catch 40 winks.

 

The real culprit is the wind chill value that rides in with the wind, where the usual blanket would be enough to withstand a southern winter cold spell can be almost useless when temperatures hover around 32 degrees, but a 15 to 20 mile an hour wind makes it feel like 15 degrees…..the results can be dire.

 

DO YOU SEE THEM, CAN YOU SEEM THEM, WILL YOU SEE THEM

An estimated 600,000 homeless people in the United States…..a national embarrassment, an atrocity, when one considers that the United States is the most powerful country possibly in the history of the world. How can this be, what are we missing, and exactly where are our collective priorities? Homeless people span the entire spectrum of the population; white, black, Indian and Hispanic; men, women, and children. No race or creed is exempt; homelessness is an equal opportunity social issue, and it’s alive and well in every major city in the United States, and in many smaller communities as well.

 

In any given year, as many as 3,500,000 people are homeless in the United States, approximately 1% of the entire population. During any given week as many as 840,000 people are homeless. The numbers will never be accurate due to the difficulty of finding all the homeless, a shifting population that is never in one place long enough to count. You see, the homeless don’t have mailing addresses, they don’t have land phone lines, nor do they have cell phones, they check out…..but very seldom check in.

 

The fastest growing segment of the homeless are families with children, which makes up 23% of the homeless population. 51% are single males, 24.7% are single females, and 5% are minors unaccompanied by adults. 39% of the total homeless population are children under the age of 18. 49% are African American, 35% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 2% Native American, and 1% Asian.

 

22% of the homeless have serious mental illnesses, 30% have substance abuse issues, 46% have chronic health problems, and 58% have trouble finding enough food to eat. 38% have less than a high school education, 34% have a high school diploma, 28% have more than a high school diploma, and 43% are veterans of the Armed Forces.

 

Homeless people in 2014 aren’t seen because they are an accepted socio problem in our society, and more or less have become invisible to the average American citizen. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the leading cause of homelessness are as follows: The change in mental health systems since the 1960’s, a shift towards community-based treatment of mentally ill rather than long term institutional commitment. Redevelopment and gentrification of neighborhoods in cities, demolished low-income neighborhoods. The economic crises in the late 1970’s and 80’s, and the 2008 bubble. Failure of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide effective mental health care for veterans, and foreclosure or eviction of homes or apartments. Do you see them, can you see them, will you see them?

 

HOMELESS BY STATE, 2013, AND THE ROOT CAUSES

California leads the nation with an estimated 136,826 (more than the population of Green Bay, Wisconsin), New York State, 77,430 (more than the population of Pontiac, Michigan), 47,862 in Florida, (at least it’s warmer there…..usually).

 

States with the least homeless, Delaware, 946, Wyoming, 953, and South Dakota with 1,094, one sparsely populated, Wyoming, one small in size, Delaware, and a state that leads the country in numbers of employed, South Dakota.

 

The single biggest reason for homelessness in the United States today, at the beginning of 2014 is affordable housing. There is also a failure of urban housing authorities nationwide to provide safe, secure, and affordable housing to the poor. There is also a redevelopment and gentrification activities instituted by cities across the country through which low-income neighborhoods are declared blighted and demolished to make way for projects that generate higher property taxes and other revenue, creating a shortage of housing affordable to low-income working families, the elderly, poor and disabled.

 

The problem here is simple…..the above are the root problems that cause homelessness in the richest and most powerful country in the history of mankind. Call a spade and spade, for the most part, people who aren’t homeless understand but for the grace of God, there go I. There also is an element greed connected with the problem of affordable housing that helps to generate the homeless.

 

We examine, study statistics and demographics, and make assessments in annual reports on the homeless and the problems that they cause. Yet there is no study, or assessment on how to eradicate the problem from the fabric of our society. That is the $64,000 dollar question, what to do, and for homelessness to continue to be such a social problem for us really, really needs to be solved…..right away.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

NO PAYIE, NO PLAYIE

NO PAYIE, NO PLAYIE

(USATODAY, Brian Spurlock, Jonathan Mahler)

(Bloomberg Businessweek, SI.COM, Seth Davis, Click 2 Houston)

(Parade, Karl Heintzelman, Bruce Heggie, Michael Williams, Frazer Chronicle)

 

“Pay for play,” I’ll bet you can’t figure out the problems that today’s blog is highlighting, so I’ll come right out and tell you, whether to pay college athletes for playing college sports. I’m not in touch with college campuses, or college athletic programs and departments. It’s been more than 30 years since I coached College baseball, so I had to bone up on information a bit.

 

Pay for playing a college program, like basketball, football, or the lesser income wise sports like baseball, track and field, and all of the women’s athletic programs. Let’s forget about the spirit of college athletics, that’s been a bunch of bunk for years and years. Coaches come, and coaches go, it’s become the nature of the beast, and to a lesser degree some of the college athletes are following the coaches example.

 

There seems to be a growing debate regarding the question of whether to pay the student athlete, and there’s a growing number of people that favor paying the college players, I suppose in every sport. There’s an argument that college players earn their schools millions of dollars in the major sports, football and basketball, and that they are responsible for the fabulous salaries that head coaches are paid in today’s college ranks.

 

Some say that college athletes are exploited by their respective schools who earn an estimated $775 million dollars annually.  This income comes from television and radio contracts, advertising in printed material and stadium and arenas. Of course the biggest of the income contributors are game day and season tickets.

 

Some of the purist’s fans of college sports say that college athletes are being paid…..unless you figure that a college education isn’t worth thousands of dollars, and can set a young person for life if he/she chooses his educational pathway wisely. The benefits can be incalculable, and to say that a college athlete is being exploited is to diminish what these young people legally receive.

 

Student athletes on what is called a full-ride scholarship, receive tuition, fees, room and board, books, and study table (extra help with classes if needed,) and in 2011, the N.C.A.A. agreed to let college conferences decide whether to pay student athletes an addition $2,000 annual stipend to more closely match the total cost to personal expenses. This stipend can be used for incidental college costs to personal expenses.

 

Cost for this type of scholarship has an annual value of between $30,000 and $50,000 yearly, carrying an overall value of $120,000 to $200,000…..depending of which major is chosen. It is estimated that the value of tuition, fees, room and board, books and addition tutelage would be worth about $75 an hour for the time that a college athlete devote to practice and games…..not a bad gig for part time work.

 

CAREER COUNCILORS AND STUDENT ATHLETE’S DECISIONS

Guiding a young person through the maze that college initially is, needs to be done with care, and a preparedness that is uppermost in a student counselors mind. All too often the future of an 18 or 19 year old is the furthest thing from a student counselors mind…..and it shows in where the young person is steered. Oft times certain classes and career choices are secondary to keeping an athlete eligible for games.

It seems at some institutions of higher learning, that when a particular season is over, usually football or basketball…..players are left to fend for themselves until the next training period or season is opened. It’s during this time of unsupervised living that student athletes are most venerable to all sorts of trouble…..from class failure to trouble with campus police, or local law-enforcement for all sorts of violations like rape, alcohol and controlled substance abuse.

 

In some cases going to a university is the first time that a kid has been away from home, and the usual guidance that is received by parents and family. From idle time, to school homework to diet, and moral character, it all comes from the home support system.

 

From recruiters, to Athletic Directors and coaches and their staffs, an inner city black kid can be overwhelmed with temptations, and the adulation at a mid-major to a major sports program can be unbelievable and plastic (fake) at the same time.

 

The exact same reaction can be expected by a rural white kid with regards to all of the above, there is nothing in a young person’s life that can prepare him/her for all the different ways that he’ll have to resist, or comprehend, and choose what is best for him.

 

A FAIR AND EQUTABLE PIECE OF THE PIE

The National Collegiate Athletic Association, (NCAA) was formed in 1906 as the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States, (IAAUS.) Inter-collegiate sports began in 1852 when crews from Harvard and Yale met in a challenge race in the sport of rowing. Other sports emerged, notably football and basketball, and they adopted many of the rules that rowing had established, eligibility, purpose. The rules and regulations were settled through associations and organizations.

 

In 1910 the (IAAUS) association name was changed to the NCAA which has remained to this day, 103 years later. The NCAA is made up of 1,281 schools, conferences and associations, and is presided over by the President, Mark Emmert and an Executive Committee.

 

Currently there are 89 sponsored sports recognized by the NCAA including baseball, gymnastics, swimming and diving, ice hockey, tennis, basketball, bowling, lacrosse, track and field, boxing, rifle, volleyball, cross country, rowing, water polo, field hockey, soccer, wrestling, football, softball and golf.

 

Not every college sports program is successful enough to even consider a pay for play attitude, and only 24 of the top division 1 schools made a profit in 2012. Like those players in the profession ranks, active players have absolutely no interest in either paying a team’s bills, or taking a pay cut when a team loses money.

 

To establish the size of the piece of pie that a collegiate athlete would receive for his play would be next to impossible to determine. Is a quarterback worth more than a defensive lineman; is a place kicker more valuable than a punter? There would have to be a complete alteration of the make-up of college sports…..and should high school seniors be allowed to hire agents?

 

There also is the free market approach in recruiting high school seniors within a framework of a salary cap that would have minimum salaries, and could there be projected underclassmen listed, and be the property the following season.

THE DRAW-BACKS

Drawback…..well let me count the ways, number one, the haves will have more while the have-nots will drop further into the abyss of unequal play, and in fact probably wouldn’t play against the top tier  of schools in the high echelon of collegian sports conferences.

 

The entire system of how the National Collegiate Athletic Association operates would change, or be completely dropped as the representative organization and spokesman for amateur sports in the United States.

 

There wouldn’t be any more Jack the Giant Killers, at tournament time in basketball, and actually there might not be any need for the National Basketball Association, or the National Hockey League, the National Football League, or Major League Baseball…..college sports would completely take over.

 

So there you have it, a jumbled up mess of all kinds of college sports that full-time college student athletes compete in, and it’s done because colleges have a never ending supply of fresh eyed 19 year olds that’ll be ready, willing, and able to compete,

 

The loser here, still the college athlete, he’ll still get exploited by his agent, his high school coach, his college coach, and the school that he’ll attend to chase that diploma that just got harder to gain.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

REINVENTING LABOR UNIONS IN 21ST CENTURY!

REINVENTING LABOR UNIONS IN 21^ST CENTURY!

(Forbes, Adam Ozimek, New York Times)

(Steven Greenhouse, CNN, Gray Television Group)

(Josh Levs, Associated Press, Turner Broadcasting, Phuong Le)

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Georgia Alton, Joseph Weisenthal, Frazer Chronicle)

“We were sold out,” it’s the new labor union slogan, and possible a rallying cry in today’s topsy-turvy work world in the United States. Concessions by workers are common place, as fear and intimidation tactics, rule, and readily are hauled out of an employer’s tool chest whenever increased wages or benefits are on the agenda.  

In many instances union members defy local union bosses and cave in to management’s demands for the same wages and benefits as the old contract had, or that the company wants, wage and benefit concessions by the rank and file.

In today’s economy states are lined up with all sorts of inducements on the bargaining table to lure big business away to their state, and its workers that are willing to take almost whatever a company will offer as a wage to keep their jobs.

There is a movement afoot by powerful elements of management and their political allies to put an end to almost any organized worker collective bargaining power throughout the public sector as well as private. As I’ve said before, “there is a war ongoing between management and labor,” although undeclared, the movement is a war, the object, to completely eradicate labor of any power to bargain, or to have a voice in what happens in the work-place.

In the first decade of the 21^st century, union membership in the private sector has in recent years fallen under 8%.....levels not seen since the early 1930’s. Workers seem almost uninterested in joining, and strike activity for the most part has faded away. Construction trades in cities have suddenly shifted from over 75% to less than 25% membership. The labor force in unionized automobile and steel plants has fallen dramatically. Only the commercial sector of construction has retained about a 50% or greater union representation.

REASONS FOR THE FALL IN UNION MEMBERSHIP

I’ve never been in a union, so I don’t have any idea about the advantages involved with being a member, and yes, I think that there are changes that need to take place with regards to benefits for the worker, the pension plans, and the hourly rates that are paid. But labor has shot itself in the foot when it comes to getting much sympathy for non-union workers in the United States.

Let me put it this way, and I’ll only use one word…..envy, pure and simple, non union workers feel an envy towards those people who work for city garbage collectors and get paid $22 dollars an hour with benefits to do a job that a high school drop-out can do.

For me, it’s not a question of whether a workers wage is fair or not, when a union bargains collectively for wages, if a municipality doesn’t want to pay whatever the wage is…..then don’t settle. If I were to walk into my bosses office and ask for $25 an hour to dig holes, and he agrees and pays me $25 dollars…..exactly who’s at fault…..me for asking for the outrages wage, or my boss for accepting my demand? Chew on that one for a while.

The United States rate of union density is far below that of most western European nations with the exception of France, where union membership is between 20 and 60%. In the U.S. there has been a precipitous drop since the 1960’s from about a 55% union membership to today’s 8%. There are two factors that over the past half century has caused the drop, the disappearance of the blue-collor industrial jobs that spurred union demand…..and globalization.

Political constrains on unions have also become much more inhibiting over the past few decades, starting with the end of the New Deal, and intensifying with the Reagan Administration in 1981, the rules on organizing and the regulatory oversight of the workplace have made it harder to establish and sustain unions. Decentralization in the United State has allowing states to set many of their own rules, regulations and labor laws. States with anti-union laws make it especially hard to unionize the labor force, and attracting new business makes unionization nearly impossible.

HOW BUSINESS KEEPS THE LABOR UNIONS AT BAY

Why no socialism in America…..it’s a good and fair question, and one that scholars’ and economists have labored to answer over the years. The answers that have been arrived at by these people are all over the board and usually are far from what actually has, and is happening.

Answers are perplexing, and sometimes contradict themselves, the easiest way to explain what the American worker is all about…..at least on the lead-up to the 21^st century is fierce individualism, for whatever reason, many people in the work-place feel the need to individualize their work, and hence themselves.

Another myth would be the loyalty that an employee shows to his owner, and the fact that it actually means something….it doesn’t. Loyalty in the American work place goes from your particular work station to the time-clock, once your outside; you owe your boss zero, zip, nada.

Public opinion is somewhat harsh, but nowhere near as harsh as political opinion from the right of the aisle. The conservative Republican Party has afforded restraints on unions that favor business, and whenever Republicans retain power or gain power, one of the first things that they do is to put a muzzle on unions and union practices.

Today at the state and local levels, unions have been forced to attach a critical free rider, making mandatory membership dues obsolete. So whatever benefits unions might gain for paying members, those who have chosen not to pay dues will receive those improvements.

About half of the states in America have successfully outlawed probably one of the most powerful mechanisms that labor unions had in their arsenal to encourage membership, the closed shop, or union shop has been rendered a mote issue and in fact illegal.

The job and efforts of management today is almost complete as labor unions in affect have lost its teeth, and now negotiate with the threat of gumming management. Business really in most parts of the country have no reason to fear or negotiate with their employees, as a fundamental practice is being stripped away…..the right to collectively negotiate for worker concerns.

DROPPING LIKE A ROCK

In 2013, the American work-force that belongs to unions has hit a 100 year low of 11.3% of American workers who hold a union membership card. The federal government in the last few years has worked to replace the unions in worker’s lives with governmental benefits, like health and safety regulations, minimum wages and equal pay.

The 2012 drop in worker participation and membership in unions dropped by half a percent by January of 2012, and the country is far removed from the heyday of unionization in the 1950’s when a 1/3 of private jobs were unionized. In the private sector today, that figure is down to an abysmal 6.6%. Unionized Americans today, in early 2014 are in the public sector, where 35.9% of workers belong to a union.

Labor unions missed the opportunity of coalition; the AFL-CIO embraced both the blue collar, AFL (skilled) workers, and CIO, (unskilled) workers. However that coalition collapsed decades ago, today skilled workers go to college, gain a degree and take a brief case to work.

In today’s work-world, labor organization for the purpose of almost protection against management and business owners isn’t necessary at this time. Government today…..at the present time, has enacted rules, regulations and labor laws that that serve to quell many of labors fears and concerns about work-place safety. In addition that is periodic talk about a living wage…..just enough talk to give low wage earners hope for better days.

The AFL-CIO never reached out to both its skilled workers as well as the unskilled, the meter was running, and the union hierarchy failed to seize the moment. Rumblings by management, local, state and national government levels also went unheeded, and the moment was lost…..and in the end (the long term) there’ll be hell to pay…..you can quote me on this one.    

THE FINAL VERDICT

In the days of John L. Lewis, Walter Reuther, Samuel Gompers, and Coleman Young, the fight to establish unions, membership, and labor rules, regulations and laws, the organizers met business owners almost tit for tat. There was a mentality that if management used clubs, workers and organizers would use knives, and if management used guns, labor protesters would use bigger guns.

Much was gained in those formative years, but what is the usual final outcome, unions got lazy, grew complacent and corrupt, and finally lost sight of their reason for being. There also was an easy alliance with organized crime that set in motion the place where labor unions finds itself today…..a toothless lion, old, kicked in the corner and pretty much useless.

Things for unions looks grim at the present time, clearly management has the upper hand, and a completely new and reinvented union movement will be necessary. It probably won’t happen in my lifetime, but for the labor movement will take more shots before it decides to regroup, and to reinvent itself.

And whenever this reinvention happens it’ll be way past due, and thousands of transgressions will have been endured by the worker of America…..I guess its how we roll as a people.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

A CASE OF THE SAGS

A CASE OF THE SAGS

(Green Bay Press Gazette, Scott Cooper Williams)

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Lydia Mulvany, Kevin Crow)

(Wisconsin Transportation Department, Will Dorsey, Frazer Chronicle)

Those pesky corroded pilings apparently are at it again, this time in northeastern Wisconsin over the Fox River on the I-43 Leo Frigo Memorial Bridge. Anyways that’s the early verdict that is being floated by the investigation team. A spokesman for the Department of Transportation (DOT) said that the problem was a geotechnical issue.

Further reassuring words came from Kim Rudat, who stated that there was “that they (DOT) didn’t believe that the bridge was in any danger of collapse. “Pilings, which go about a hundred feet below the bridge, don’t usually fail.” There aren’t any bridges that the DOT is aware of where the pilings failed.

I’m gonna tell you, I’ll sleep better tonight knowing that bridge pilings don’t usually fail because they get rusty. I’ve poured enough cement in my lifetime to understand that rebar, or screen, or other such reinforcement materials rarely fail…..it would take water and weather elements, the right and left hand men of Mother Nature to cause such a sagging failure.

I’m not too sure when I’ll be using the Leo Frigo, but I can guarantee you that I won’t be one of the first to traverse the Fox River using that memorial crossing. I’ll be waiting to see if other pilings fail because the reinforcement steel got wet and rusted away.

THE FRIGO…..FORMERLY THE TOWER DRIVE

Some facts about the Leo Frigo/Tower Drive bridge, construction begin 1979, completed and opened in 1981, steel through arch type, 120 feet above Fox River, length of largest span, 450 feet, 2 inches, deck width 80 feet, vertical clearance above deck, 18 feet 8 inches, elevation, 577 feet above sea level, last inspection and grades, (8-2008,) deck condition, 6 out of 9, satisfactory, superstructure 7 out of 9, good, arch conditions, 6 out of 9, satisfactory, sufficiency rating, (91 out of 100.)

Bungee jumping and several suicide jumps have occurred on the structure, the bungee jumpers were fined, and the suicides have been unsuccessful, they needed first aid and rest for their failed attempt. Another accident occurred in 1979 when the bridge was still under construction when the Finnish cargo ship delivered a load of special paper to the Port of Green Bay.

Safety netting was hanging well below the bridge and caught on the superstructure of the freighter, causing extensive damage to the radar. However nobody was injured and the ship was repaired up at Washington Island and there was no damage to the bridge.

Because the bridge’s height and slope, it is prone to being shut down from high winds, heavy fog, icy conditions and snow-storms. Extensive deck restoration had taken place recently, and I’m wondering if there was any additional weight added because of it.

BRIDGE FAILURES

From wood to steel to concrete, bridges in the United States have used all sorts of materials and suffered all kinds of failures. Hundreds of lives have been lost, thousands of injuries have occurred, and millions of dollars in lost revenue and repairs have been incurred.

The Hyatt Regency Walkway in Kansas City, Missouri caused the death of 114 and the injury of 200 in July, 1981. Although the dynamics were the same as an outdoor bridge, the Regency walkway was an indoor facility, overloaded weak joint construction error was the cause, and the same problem has been sited on regular bridge construction.

The Silver Bridge collapse in December of 1967 took 46 lives and injured 9 as the road bridge and chain-link suspension between Point Pleasant, West Virginia and Gallipolis, Ohio collapsed destroying the bridge and 37 vehicles, claiming the dubious title as the worst bridge disaster (in terms of lives lost) in the United States.

Bridge disasters are more common here in the United States then one might think, as just in 2013 there have been two major accidents, one in Mount Vernon, Washington where an oversized semi-trailer clipped an overhead steel girder causing 167 feet of the bridge to collapse. No deaths resulted from the mishap although three people were injured.

In Scott City, Missouri a Union Pacific train T-boned a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train outside Scott City, causing numerous rail cars to hit a support pillar of a highway overpass causing two sections of the bridge to collapse leaving two injured.

WITH THE SAGS GONE…..THE FRIGO WILL REOPEN IN TIME FOR PACKERS

Repairs on the Leo Frigo Bridge are done, the bridge construction company, Zenith Tech Inc., is happy and why not, they got a $750,000 bonus for finishing the project early, the bonus on top of the $7.7 million repair contract.

Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt is happy, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is happy, Will Dorsey, regional director for the state transportation department is happy, the Packers are happy, and dozens of area businesses are happy. Everybody’s happy, happy, happy, so why am I not going to be using the Frigo anytime soon, easy answers…..nobody has pinpointed the cause of the sag.

It isn’t old age, hell the bridge is less than 25 years old, it can’t be the weight, can’t be the weather, and there wasn’t a terrorists bomb. Even the state of Wisconsin is happy, didn’t have to pick up a ton of the cost, estimated at between $18 to $20 million, which will be mostly covered by federal funding…..why am I still not satisfied with a speedy reopening of the Frigo weeks ahead of the scheduled finishing date.

I like all my T’s crossed, and my I’s dotted, whenever something comes in ahead of schedule…..and governmental funds are involved, I kind of worry, so until the final word comes out about exactly why the Frigo got the sags, I’ll hold off judgment on the completion of the project ahead of schedule…..I’ll drive some different way.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

THE DILEMMA FOR RETIRED AND RETIRING MILITARY PERSONNEL

THE DILEMMA FOR RETIRED AND RETIRING MILITARY PERSONNEL

(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jim Myers. Military.com)

(Joint Chief of Staff, Chief of Navy Operations, Commandant of Marines)

(Army/Air Force Chief of Staff, Commander of Unified or Combatant Military, Frazer Chronicle)

“We’ve been screwed.” At least that’s what 23 year Army veteran Steve Dykes is saying about a bipartisan budget co-written by U.S. Representative, Republican Paul Ryan and Democratic Senator Patty Murray. Absolutely, whenever anything is co-devised in today’s political world…..you can pretty well bet the baby’s milk money that it’ll pass right through the Senate and Congress on its way to the president’s desk for his signature.

I’d like to get one thing straight and crystal clear right here, military men and women don’t serve their country out of a sense of patriotic duty, they have chosen a career in the military, and are rewarded handsomely at the pay window, with the benefits that they receive, and a rock solid retirement plan that’s as good as anyplace else in the United States.

Anybody that reads my blogs understands that I detest war, there’s nowhere in the world where it, war, decides any debates, misunderstandings or shoddy treatment. People make war because they want something, usually what isn’t theirs, and if they can’t get whatever through diplomatic sources, they’ll resort to war and aggression.

Every country of any consequence needs a standing military presence for all different kinds of reasons, natural disasters, border debates, and as a deterrent to aggressive attitudes. This military force needs to be paid for the jobs that they do, and the services that they provide.

Does paychecks on the first and fifteenth of the month for $708.50 gross sound pretty decent for a first year private first class? Included with the paycheck is three square meals a day, a place to live, issued clothes to wear, and modern medical care that is second to none in the world.

 Adding this all up, “oh ya, you also get cable television,” it comes out to around $2,567 a month, or $30,804 a year gross…..not bad for a high school drop-out, or a young person who doesn’t know what he’ll be doing with his life.

And there are incentives in the pay area, a three year veteran who has achieved a rank of an E-5 Sergeant can expect $1,220 twice a month, with all of the above amenities, or a gross pay of around $45,640 a year…..not bad for a professional soldier.

Living off base, or in the economy as they call it, there’s a whole slew of additional benefits, a cost of living benefit, or COLA, home ownership, military life insurance, family support services transitional health care program, or TAMP, and off base benefits at the military’s country store.

The housing allowances program for military members and their families can be as much as $1,913.70 per month for a Sergeant Major, or $511.50 for a (buck-private.) There’s also a clothing allowance for enlisted members only which ranges from initially $1,850.14 to $1,490.92, and a replacement allowance from $349.20 to as much as $604.80. Civilian family members can receive as much as $989.28 for a clothing allowance, and $329.76 to replace clothes…..I’m assuming lost, stolen or damaged attire during duty station changes.

WHERE DOES THIS MONEY COME FROM

The short answer is me…..while the long answer is also me, the taxpayers of the country. I gotta tell you I never figured that the pay to be a career military person could be so lucrative. This pay scale information is easily accessible; it’s all over the internet, I just wonder how many people actually look it up?

An E-9 sergeant with 16 years of service can make $5,247 a month, or more than $62 grand a year, when you factor in the additional benefits involved, this guy can be making close to $85 thousand dollars a year…..now that’s a decent amount of cash.

We now have a critical argument going on within the military, and like Steve Dykes says, “We’re getting screwed,” well hello Mr. Dykes, welcome to the real world, everybody gets a bit of a ramming every day…..in every way.

I’m 70 years old, just had open heart bi-pass surgery and will be paying into the wee hours of my life…..and I’ve got insurance. Wonder how much Steve Dykes would pay for the same procedure at one of the VA facilities around the country?

We have an up front budget of over $500 billion dollars for our military…..and now this joker (Dykes) is complaining about getting screwed by the same government that he served so faithfully, kind of like a dog. I’m really sorry Mr. Dykes…..(NOT) but you chose your profession, and without discontent…..you’d have been doing some of the same work that most of us have done…..and you’d have to worry about where you’d live, how you’d make your monthly bills…..and when you got married, you’d be worried about your kids health.

I’m sorry Steve Dykes, but I can’t find any feelings of sadness for you, and you’re getting a screwing by the same government that you worked for, for 23 years of your life. At the end of the road…..when you retire, you’ll still make out better than well over 50% of retirees…..now chomp on that one for a while Stevie, and then count your lucky stars.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

NORTH AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT

(Associated Press, Mark Stevenson, Edward J. Chambers, Peter Smith, Red Abbott)

(Jeff Faux, Lee Hudson Tesilk, Economic Policy Institute, Robert E. Scott, Carlos Salas)

(Bruce Campbell, Josh Bivens, Bob Davis, John J. Audley, Demetrious G. Papademetriou)

(John Audley, Jared Bernstine, Bob Blecker, Dave Ratner Edward J. Chambers, Frazer Chronicle)

Twenty years and a day has come and gone since the North American Free Trade Agreement, (NAFTA) was enacted. I suppose there’s been some good that has been realized from the trilateral (U.S. Canada and Mexico,) agreement, but right out of the gate, back in 1992 one word made the success of the agreement a tough row to hoe, that word, FREE, absolutely nothing is ever free especially when connected to governments.

Governments aren’t in business to favor other countries; they are in whatever project might be on the table to garner the best deal for their people, constituents, their industries, and their personal interests. These multi facetted arrangements always favor the most powerful country, kind of like a pecking order.

NAFTA had been in the works diplomatically since 1986, and was completed with the signing of the formal agreement on December 17, 1992. President George H.W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, and Mexican President Carlos Salinas, each had been responsible for spearheading and promoting the agreement and ceremonially signed the document.

Before the agreement became law, Bush had been replaced by President Bill Clinton, and Kim Campbell, short term, in Canada, and before the agreement became law, Jean Chretien had taken over as Prime Minister in Canada.

Initially the proposed Canada-U.S. trade agreement, which was including Mexico, had been very controversial and divisive in Canada, and actually cost Prime Minister(s) Mulroney and Campbell their political seats and careers. However after the smoke and talk had cleared…..and stopped, cooler heads prevailed, and the agreement became the law of the three countries with regards to trades, tariffs, duties, and hopefully creating jobs, and better pay.

The goal of NAFTA was to eliminate barriers to trade and investment between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The implementation of the law on January 1, 1994 brought the immediate elimination of tariffs on more than half of Mexico’s exports to the U.S. and a third of U.S. exports to Mexico. Within ten years of the agreement, all U.S.-Mexico tariffs would be eliminated except for some U.S. agricultural exports to Mexico that were to be phased out within fifteen years. Most U.S.-Canadian trade was already duty free.

NAFTA also seeks to eliminate non-tariff trade barriers and to protect the intellectual property right of products. Chapter 52 provides a procedure for the interstate resolution of disputes over the application and interpretation of NAFTA.

THE CENTRAL THRUST OF THE AGREEMENT IN LAYMENS TERMS

Complicated is a word commonly used to describe relationships between two countries, however more than two countries, and the word complicated takes on a whole new meaning, and becomes much more, like byzantine, arduous, knotty, labyrinthine, or the old can of worms. NAFTA was no different, as the agreement in its simplest form was to eliminate the vast majority of tariffs on products traded among the United States, Mexico and Canada. The agreement mapped out a schedule of when these tariffs would be taken out of the business equation between all three countries by 2008.

NAFTA was designed to promote economic growth by spurring competition in domestic markets and promoting investment from both domestic and foreign sources and that part has worked. Trade blocs are relatively new in North America, but have worked out well in other parts of the world over the long haul.

However, measuring the impact of specific trade deals on a country’s labor market, namely the United States, wages have not kept pace with labor productivity and that income equality has risen over the past ten years or so. This fact in part here in the U.S. is due to pressure on the U.S. manufacturing base, and to some extent, trade deals have hastened the pace of lower wages that have been reinforced by the globalization of the American economy.

Some economists say that job loss, and lower wages here in the U.S. are part of a structural shift of the U.S. economy away from a focus on heavy manufacturing and towards a focus on light manufacturing and high-end services.

Mexico has realized more jobs created from NAFTA, but there too, wages have lagged way behind product manufacturing numbers. Canada of the three nations has fared the best, although few jobs have been created, those jobs that have been established are usually at the higher end of that country’s pay scale.

The simple thrust of the act…..NAFTA, has actually worked not only in the area that it was meant to accomplish, (lower or no tariffs) and create a competitive trade bloc, but there’s been a bonus, almost a million jobs in Mexico. 90% of these created jobs are lower than low pay, many of these jobs have driven Mexicans across the border into the United States to work as illegal immigrants, and further deplete American jobs.

What NAFTA absolutely has done here in the United States is to displace some 660,000 manufacturing jobs, and about 1.1 million manufacturing related jobs. Export growth since 1994 supported an additional 1 million U.S. jobs, while imports displaced domestic production that would support 2 million jobs. All told, the U.S. had been gouged out of close to 3.5 million jobs.

There are times that statistics do not lie, no matter how you weld them around the room, and this is one of those times. NAFTA has worked…..for major manufacturers, but not so much for the little guy, who’s backs industry has used once again to attain their profit margins.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

TRAIN CRASHES AND DERAILMENTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY!

TRAIN CRASHES AND DERAILMENTS IN THE 21^ST CENTURY!

(Reuters, David Sheppard, Jeffrey Jones, Rory Johnston)

(CNBC, James Burgess, Oilprice.com, Green Bay Press Gazette)

(Dave Kolpack, Japan Times, Tokyo Times, NTSB, Frazer Chronicle)

The southeast North Dakota town of Casselton, about 2,400 residents, narrowly escaped a tragedy when a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded on Monday, December 30, 2013. Luckily nobody was killed or even injured…..but it got me to wondering, what’s the deal with train accidents, and how many are there a year not only in America, but the world,  the short time that I spend researching, and the information that I got thunderstruck me

I never would have thought that rail service in the United States would be as accident prone as it apparently is. Now remember we’re talking about a behemoth vehicle with the power of thousands of horses that can be more than 5,000 feet in length, and carry thousands of ton of freight, solid as well as liquid. There are usually not hair-pin curves, and speed should never be a factor…..although sometimes it is. And with little exception human error should never need to be factored into a train wreck incident…..but sometimes it is.

The reason I say that speed, hair-pin curves and human error shouldn’t be a factor in train wreaks is because, no matter the power or length, trains travel on fixed steel tracks, and it seems to me that if properly maintained, they should last fifty or a hundred years…..minimum.

The operation of a freight train, or for that matter a passenger train, should be routine…..it would seem to me. Of course I’ve never operated a train, ridden only a handful, and don’t understand the finer points of the industry…..but I’m ready, willing and able to learn.

First you gotta be over 21, (I qualify) and you need a load full of experience which comes from hours of practice, and then there’s the different types of trains, freight, passenger, or hazardous materials. There are computer trains as well in various cities that help reduce the amount of traffic on their roads.

There’s the usual background check, (I’d pass that…..I think) and show that they are citizens of the United States (I’d also pass that requirement). Of course there’s the extensive and complete annual health examination…..(oh, oh, I’d need to circumvent this requirement somehow) have really good eyesight, (I used to umpire baseball games) and be able to hear a pin drop in a roomful of people, which I can do.

You have to understand the English language both in the written and verbal forms, however, according to the information that I’m reading on this subject there are many different types of crew members on a train, so maybe they should understand, read and write the English language as well. It also talks about the train engineer being in charge…..so maybe he should be bi-lingual, (which I wouldn’t be qualified for) hell I have enough trouble with the English language.

The train engineer’s job is tough, takes loads of training and education, but doesn’t require a formal education, and pays a starting wage of around $61,000 annually. Attention to detail is by far the biggest part of a train engineer’s job…..and communication skills are also vital to the success of being a train operator.

Of course we read about train accidents several times a year, usually ones that involve multiple deaths and double digit injuries. But after a little research for this blog I was flabbergasted at the numbers and the amount of deaths and injuries.

2013 WORLD-WIDE TRAIN DISASTERS

According to the information that I read for this posting, there were 53 recorded world-wide train accidents that took the lives of at least 247 people and injured well over a thousand commuters and rail employees. However either commuting, or as an employee, these weren’t the only people injured, trains crashed into parked train cars, hit bridge supports, depots and even a row of toilets.

The worst of the disasters in terms of deaths occurred on July 6, 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, Canada where 72 freight cars containing crude oil that runs away while unattended. Several cars explode resulting in 47 confirmed deaths. Over 30 buildings in the town centre, roughly half of the downtown area is destroyed.

The Lac Megantic disaster and the facts surrounding it seem a bit strange to me, here’s a train that Is 4,701 feet in length, weighing 10,287 long ton, which is 2,200 pounds, or a total weight of more than 2.2 million pounds, and all on its own it moves, gaining enough speed to become a run-away, strange indeed. Later in this post there might be some interesting info regarding this accident!

In Egypt, the Badrshin railway accident claimed 29 lives and left 230 injured as the train derailed at Giza and collided with a parked freight train. The 12-carriage train was carrying more than 1,300 Egyptian soldiers, and according to reports had to stop several times during the journey to fix apparent technical problems. The same stretch of railroad was the site of a head-on collision that took 40 lives in 1992.

Of course there are unrecorded train accidents…..like 2012 when more than 12,000 train accidents were reported, and that’s in the United States only. Of course there weren’t casualties or even injuries, but nonetheless they were fender benders.

World-wide the numbers of train accidents is astronomical, in excess of a million each and every year with hundreds of deaths and probably hundreds of thousands of injuries. There isn’t a data-base or web-site that catalogs these numbers in total, just the worst of them.

European countries rely on rail service much more then the United States, rail travel is almost the norm over there. Believe it or not the Middle East also uses rail service more than the U.S. and therefore is used to more injuries and deaths resulting from rail companies.

CASSELTON, NORTH DAKOTA AND LAC-MEGANTIC DERAILMENTS

I really can’t wrap my mind around a disaster like what happened in Casselton, or in Lac-Megantic, Canada. I drove a truck professionally off and on for more than forty years, I’ve seen the most horrific accidents that I believe can be witnessed. But in every instance there was a plausible and obvious reason for what happened. Speed, incorrectly loaded trailer, and driver error, I swear that 99% of all semi-trailer accidents were solved right at the scene.

But train accidents, to me are a completely different breed of cat, speed does play a role in some train mishaps, but it seems collusions and derailments are the far greater causes of train disasters. And that’s the part that I can’t figure out.

Every train, every rail stretch…..and more are controlled by computer read-outs that let engineers and rail trackers understand where every train is, and how that train is operating. You simply can’t lose a mile long freight train filled God only knows what kind of cargo.

There is one interesting sidelight to this post…..both the accidents, Casselton, North Dakota, and the one last summer in Canada, Lac Megantic, were carrying crude oil, making both a threat to other forms of transportation that carry petroleum products, namely the Enbridge and TransCanada pipelines.

LIKE A VINTAGE MOVIE…..THIS COULD BE

II remember an old Humphrey Bogart movie where he drove a milk truck for one company who was just starting out, and the established did everything to drive the upstart company down including shootings, accidents, and of course intimidation.

Could the same thing be going on in the oil fields of the Dakota’s and Canada, would you be surprised, would I, well hell no, stranger things have happened in the world of business. I do know this, crude tar sand pipelines are going to be worth $60 or $70 billion dollars, and will employ thousands of people with well paying jobs.

Liquid freight cars hauled by locomotives belching diesel exhaust employ hundreds, the roads are already basically there, and it won’t cost $60 or $70 billion dollars for the rail service. Now I ask you, which way would you want to go if you were looking to corner the transportation market?

HAVE A NICE DAY!