Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to say about their ongoing economic ruin except, “Hit me! Please, hit me again!” You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more time before you repossess. Take my job and I’ll just slink off somewhere out of sight. Oh, and take my health insurance too; I can always fall back on Advil.
Then, on April 1, in a wave of defiance, truck drivers began taking the strongest form of action they can take: inaction. Faced with $4-per-gallon diesel fuel, they slowed down, shut down and started honking. On the New Jersey Turnpike, a convoy of trucks stretching “as far as the eye can see,” according to a turnpike spokesman, drove at a glacial 20 miles per hour.
Outside of Chicago, they slowed and drove three abreast, blocking traffic and taking arrests. They jammed into Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; they slowed down the Port of Tampa, where fifty rigs sat idle in protest. Near Buffalo, one driver told the press he was taking the week off “to pray for the economy.”
The truckers who organized the protests–by CB radio and Internet–have a specific goal: reducing the price of diesel fuel. They are owner-operators, meaning they are also businesspeople, and they can’t break even with current fuel costs. They want the government to release its fuel reserves. They want an investigation into oil company profits and government subsidies of the oil companies. Of the drivers I talked to, all were acutely aware that the government had found, in the course of a weekend, $30 billion to bail out Bear Stearns, while their own businesses are in a tailspin.
But the truckers’ protests have ramifications far beyond the owner-operators’ plight–first, because trucking is hardly a marginal business. You may imagine, here in the blogosphere, that everything important travels at the speed of pixels bouncing off of satellites, but 70 percent of the nation’s goods–from Cheerios to Chapstick–travel by truck. We were able to survive a writers’ strike, but a trucking strike would affect a lot more than your viewing options. As Donald Hayden, a Maine trucker put it to me: “If all the truckers decide to shut this country down, there’s going to be nothing they can do about it.”
More importantly, the activist truckers understand their protest to be part of a larger effort to “take back America,” as one put it to me. “We continue to maintain this is not just about us,” JB–which is his CB handle and stands for the “Jake Brake” on large rigs– told me from a rest stop in Virginia on his way to Florida. “It’s about everybody–the homeowners, the construction workers, the elderly people who can’t afford their heating bills… This is not the action of the truck drivers, but of the people.” Hayden mentions his parents, ages and 81 and 76, who’ve fought the Maine winter on a fixed income. Missouri-based driver Dan Little sees stores shutting down in his little town of Carrollton. “We’re Americans,” he tells me, “We built this country, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to lie down and take this.”
At least one of the truckers’ tactics may be translatable to the foreclosure crisis. On March 29, Hayden surrendered three rigs to be repossessed by Daimler-Chrysler–only he did it publicly, with flair, right in front of the statehouse in Augusta. “Repossession is something people don’t usually see,” he says, and he wanted the state legislature to take notice. As he took the keys, the representative of Daimler-Chrysler said, according to Hayden, “I don’t see why you couldn’t make the payments.” To which Hayden responded, “See, I have to pay for fuel and food, and I’ve eaten too many meals in my life to give that up.”
Suppose homeowners were to start making their foreclosures into public events–inviting the neighbors and the press, at least getting someone to camcord the children sitting disconsolately on the steps and the furniture spread out on the lawn. Maybe, for a nice dramatic touch, have the neighbors shower the bankers, when they arrive, with dollar bills and loose change, since those bankers never can seem to get enough.
But the larger message of the truckers’ protest is about pride or, more humbly put, self-respect, which these men channel from their roots. Dan Little tells me, “My granddad said, and he was the smartest man I ever knew, ‘If you don’t stand up for yourself, ain’t nobody gonna stand up for you.’” Go to TheAmericanDriver.com, run by JB and his brother in Texas, where you’re greeted by a giant American flag, and you’ll find–among the driving tips, weather info, and drivers’ favorite photos–the entire Constitution and Declaration of Independence. “The last time we faced something as impacting on us,” JB tells me, “There was a revolution.”
The actions of the first week in April were just the beginning. There’s talk of a protest in Indiana on April 18, another in New York City, and a giant convergence of trucks on DC on April 28. Who knows what it will all add up to? Already, according to JB, some of the big trucking companies are threatening to fire any of their employees who join the owner-operators’ protests.
But at least we have one shining example of defiance of the face of economic assault. There comes a point, sooner or later, when you stop scrambling around on all fours and, like JB and his fellow drivers all over the country, you finally stand up.
If you would like to help support the truckers in any way, go to Truckers and Citizens United.com.
* * *
Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of Nickel and Dimed (Owl), is the winner of the 2004 Puffin/Nation Prize.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
Gosh, why didn’t this come up in the MSM?
Oh, right, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.
I hope this was just the beginning. I hope …
If the truckers manage to slow down the speed at which corporations rob us, then I see that as a huge positive!
Way to go…………past time! THEY, GET IT!
Bad timing tho, I am about to drive from Downeast Maine to Fla. in my ‘83 dsl rabbit, because my Mother ia having surgery! I guess I’d better find a bumper sticker that shows solidarity.
(Would I set foot on a plane? NO WAY!
Besides who knows Nancy Oden danced with my son at a contra dance 3 years ago and I TALKED to her, I may be on the no fly list!
The article is excellent, & I hope the truckers will succeed in bringing the consumer economy to its knees. There are many groups, in fact — comprising most of the population — who should be making common cause with them.
I’d like, however, to draw attention to one weakness in Ms Ehrenreich’s piece (because it’s a mistake that many left/liberal writers are consistently making). To wit: it’s wrong to imagine that the victims of the ongoing mortgage/credit scam are just the home-buyers who are losing their homes. Sure, they’re victims too — in a more direct & obvious sense than the rest of us. But in a very real sense, every single citizen who pays taxes is also a victim.
The scam was designed to fleece ALL of us. It transfers the financial risk & burden to the entire taxpaying public — that’s a central feature of its ingeniousness. It picks on the peculiar vulnerability of those who can’t make their mortgage payments, in such a way that once they’re forced to admit they can’t pay, the entire public Treasury is obliged to come to the rescue. This was a fundamental aspect of the scam — something the boys in the back room saw coming from the get-go. The plan was to create time-bomb “securities”, then sell them downstream in the feeding chain, so that by the time the bomb went off, the loan originators would be safely out; while so many banks & pension funds would be left holding the sludge, that the pressure for a massive taxpayer bailout would be irresistible.
In other words, the nexus between the Wall St swindlers & their whores from both parties in Washington was such that in effect, the scheme amounted to a deliberate looting of the entire financial system. It’s a lot bigger than just a matter of “the children sitting disconsolately on the steps and the furniture spread out on the lawn.”
We should all join in solidarity by not buying anything but essentials and calling in sick to work!
If the independant truckers can get it together to call a one week long nationwide strike by all independants, I will make a mortgage payment for one of them. I will gladly put my money where my mouth is.
RichM - “But in a very real sense, every single citizen who pays taxes is also a victim….The scam was designed to fleece ALL of us. It transfers the financial risk & burden to the entire taxpaying public…” -
OoooOOOOooo, it’s even better than that, RichM. To pay for their indulgences, the govt’s must allow the ballooning of the money supply. This causes price increases by decreasing the purchasing power of the currencies. The amount of money people need to earn to stay above the poverty line then increases - at a quicker rate than the rate of pay of all but the most fickle and nimble freelancers and major CEO’s. So everyone gets to work harder, for a lower standard of living, even (and especially) if they earn so little that they don’t pay taxes.
That makes sense Rich M, and rather than put the real criminals in jail (they should be serving time), they take their reward and run. But what the truckers are doing could easily have a snowball effect, because they are the heart of what this economy is presently mostly about: outsourcing and having goods transported from other places.
Taken to an extreme, this leaves cheap Chinese crap at the docks (where it belongs?). On the other hand, this could bring about food shortages as well and, if and when this happens, who will the people blame? Will they attack the truckers, or the real culprit of corporate greed itself? Stay tuned, things will no doubt get interesting very soon.
I don’t want to get into something here that sounds like I think the “independent” truckers are responsible for and deserve their own financial problems. They aren’t and they don’t. The freight industry should have remained regulated all along as to pricing of various classes of freight, so that the owner-operator was never required by his next truck payment to bid for loads against the next guy–one similarly situated–to a point where they canibalize each other for the cash flow to stave off losing the truck for one more month (losing money all the way by any real accounting of all expenses including depreciation and deferred maintenance.)
BUT, and it’s a significantly large BUT, I’ll bet you that more than half of these guys have been going down the roads for years feeding at the “intellectual” trough of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck (not to mention country singer, Toby Keith) on their radios. It’s hard to know or even remember anything sensible after you do that for a while. They’ll have you flying a flag while you also invite corporations to eat your own lunch (and the lunches of your wife and kids too). That very thing has now happened to independent truckers and they loved their military-kick-butt Republicans all the way to their own irrelevance and destruction. The same phenomenon, of course, is not limited to truckers. It’s been a “man” thing in a lot of blue-collar cultures, and we need to turn it around.
This is the most significent story that is presently playing, though not on Corp Media, as one blogger pointed out. As the story states, most of the goods we see are trucked from one point to the other. We don’t buy directly at the port of entry, whether by ship, plane or train, so we are dependent on trucks and the people who drive them. Watch the movie, Network, again, and you will get an idea of what is going on. I’d like to see the Teamsters get hold of this one, and force the “candiedates” to take a stand and address this issue. EVERYONE is affected. While Daniel David has a point as to the partisans who drive truck, it is time to reconsider what changes peoples’ minds: it is when they are personally affected by circumstances. Let us know that this is the defining moment, and the Limbaughs and the others are about to lose they influence simply through the real issues of human beings.
As a side note, if you have a chance, read or listen to Oprah and Eckhart Tolle on A New Earth; Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. This is a global phenomena which has already attracted millions of people, of all political, social and religious/spiritual persuasions.
I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation.
peace,
st john
Daniel David, you are terribly prejudiced.
I know a number of independent truckers, and I am offended on their behalf by your comments. They listen to classic rock and modern jazz and the CBC and NPR and wouldn’t stand the Limbaugh formula for a second. I drove a truck for 3 years long ago - what the heck does that have to do with my political leanings, or me “asking for” what I get? I worked as a mechanic, too - was I “asking for it”?
Hey, I happen to like Bourbon - does that make me worthy of being tarred with one of your blinkered self-righteous brushes?
John, it has been said that once the ‘darkness’ becomes extreme enough, the shock waves resulting from it will either lead to awakening or plunge those, who are unable or unwilling to hear, deeper into the abyss of denial. The only real choice anyone has is a conscious one. And presently this world is ruled and ruined by unconsciousness. People often forget that all we have is NOW, and that all opportunities for transformation lie within the present moment, not a future time where some reform or other will bring utopia to mankind.
Amen, Daniel David.
Big_Money (11:18 am) - Sure, that’s exactly right. Both inflation & currency debasement will result from the Fed’s response to the mortgage/credit scam. (These processes are of course already underway.) So in these ways too, EVERYONE is being fleeced in order to protect the Wall St. swindlers.
Again — it’s not just a matter of the unlucky people whose houses are being foreclosed upon. It’s ALL of us.
James Hoffa, PLEASE — come home…all is forgiven!
Big Money,
I’m glad you knew and know some truckers, mechanics, and other real workers who do not believe the corporate Republican spin on things. To answer your question, middle class people do not “deserve” anything bad because of what work they do. They may, however, be culpable for some bad results based on how they VOTE. Limbaugh (and others) have very big audiences composed of mostly workers who can listen to them during the middle of the day while they are working. The audiences are more male than not, including truckers. Limbaugh and others have helped convince many listeners to vote stupidly against their own economic interests. Having enough sense to realize the bad effects of this talk-em-all-day-into-being-kick-butt-Republicans radio problem is not “prejudice”. It’s just an observation that happens to be true. And truckers everywhere as well as many others are now paying a big price for having supported Reagan and the Bushes (the deregulators).
Daniel David:” know a number of independent truckers, and I am offended on their behalf by your comments. They listen to classic rock and modern jazz and the CBC and NPR and wouldn’t stand the Limbaugh formula for a second.”
Daniel, thanks for making your point. Interesting thing, this same article appears on Alternet also, and the same comments were made about truckers listening to Limbaugh, etc.
Frankly, I think we owe these guys a round of applause for initiating their actions in protest of the gouge we are getting from big oil while the frigging idjit Bu$h Administration gives them (big oil) $15 billion in tax breaks! The actions taken by these truckers will make a whole lot more of a statement than writing a letter to the editor or posting on the internet.
Truckers…thanks for speaking out for all of us!!!
Sounds like the rebellion is starting. Great comments, Big_Money, RichM and st john. Maybe what’s happening will contribute to the awakening of consciousness.
I was just thinking this morning that no matter how much the elite take from us, we just run faster for less, and that at some point, it won’t work anymore. Maybe people will wake up and refuse to continue to be fleeced.
kathyodat
Oooops….sorry Big Money and Daniel David! Got the statements and those who made them mixed up!
Independent truckers make up about 9% of the truckers on the road. The corporate trucking companies can more easily pass on the higher fuel costs and I’ve yet to see them slow down. Score one more for the corporations.
Speaking of trucking, there’s something I don’t understand. When I travel on the interstates there are miles and miles of trucks lined up, each running on separate diesel engines, while just a half mile from the interstate are perfectly good rail lines, essentially dormant. You can see this in every part of the country. More oil and gas lobby victories?
The only label that should be put on these truckers is PATRIOTIC. They are protesting for a better America, and they are angry at the whole system, not just the cost of their fuel. They see and understand that their government is more interested in saving a Wall Street corporation than a blue collar worker.
Hoa binh
good point, rebelnow. Moving stuff by truck is grossly, obscenely inefficient and entrenched in the North American Model. Indeed, more lobby victories that are ripe to be undone.
Daniel, no. Soccer moms buy into it. Farmers buy into it. Retail clerks buy into it. Receptionists, teachers, ambulance drivers, ministers, janitors, men, women, whites, yellows, reds, browns, blacks, geezers, yuppies, rednecks, all buy into it. Everyone has access to a radio and a head full of opinions. Tarring a group with a brush like that is not part of the solution, it’s part of the problem. Truckers are not “them”, they’re “us”. As for Rush - well, yes, he’s “them”.
I am really surprised that this trucking industry friendly article is appearing on Common Dreams. Since peak oil supply is behind us it is natural that oil prices are going up. I recently read a similar article where truckers were demanding than ANWR be opened up for oil exploration. How Nice! How about truckers for electric vehicles or truckers for increased fuel efficiency. Truckers for cheap oil and dead caribou is not sympathetic. Making a point by clogging up the highways is not sympathetic.
If the true cost of oil (a destroyed planet, for one) was reflected in the price there would be more railroad jobs, and less trucking jobs.
I’m happy to see truckers taking the lead here. One thing I’d also like to see is more of the grassroots organizing that gave their strike its numbers. We all need to start taking direct action against all of the corporate bullshit that is fleecing us as citizens and taxpayers and the government bullshit that has been handing the reigns of power to the rich for the last several hundred years.
Questions worth asking might include:
Will bankers repossess our homes and businesses in the face of a neighborhood set against them? (complete with a locksmith to let the family back in and a block party to reinstall their furniture)
Can we start producing more of the things that we need (like food, clothing, etc.) where we live so they don’t have to be shipped in?
Can we organize a national solidarity movement to tell the owning classes to go to hell?
jstevens - “If the true cost of oil (a destroyed planet, for one) was reflected in the price there would be more railroad jobs, and less trucking jobs.”
Abso - f-ing - lutely. It’d be much more like Sweden, where small-scale hydroelectric powers trains that carry everything as close to the final destination as they can. However, to quote Fillmore in the movie Cars, “It’s a conspiracy, man! The oil companies have a grip on the government, and they’re feeding us a bunch of lies, man!”
since1492 Said: “The only label that should be put on these truckers is PATRIOTIC”
I wouldn’t label ANYONE Patriotic as that term has lost all meaning. In fact, patriotism is the club wielded by the rich/elite to keep the common man in line.
Trucker courtesies - please add -
When a trucker passes you on the highway and signals to reenter your lane Flash your headlights to let em know the space is good. You get red wink thank you in return.
I no longer drive a car because of the oil question - but if these guys are applying themselves to get the government to listen - I’m behind them 100%!
No matter how much we hate the oil dependency these are neighbors and who knows… maybe the core and leaders of a new public transport coalition.
Hey you folks behind the wheel of the big rigs… what kind of support would it take to get you to throw your weight behind a major shift? Is it possible? How big can we dream???
See, we as a people have lost our revolutionary spirit… There was a time when the common people would rise up in the face of tyranny and take matters into their own hands…
“By 1787 there was not only a positive need for strong central government to protect the large economic interests, but also immediate fear of rebellion by discontented farmers. The chief event causing this fear was an uprising in the summer of 1786 in western Massachusetts, known as Shays’ Rebellion.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shays‘_Rebellion
Don’t flash your high beams, if you want to signal, just flick your lights off and on once, or hit the right turn signal once. That’s especially beneficial if it’s a double or triple trailer and then don’t tail gate them.
When the price of diesel rose to $1.60 several years ago, about 1998, there were mass demonstrations by truckers. It dropped 20 cents a gallon almost overnight and then kept dropping a penny a week for awhile.
This last five years it kept steadily going up a penny or two at a time from $1.35 to $1.76, To $2.50 and now is over $4.00 a gallon and no protests. Can’t firgure that one out.
Someone wrote only 9% of truckers are independents?? I do believe that is a very wrong figure. Many of the major truck firms use drivers who own their own rigs, but use the major company colors and name logos. The owner operators are responsible for all vehicle maintenance and fuel costs and the major company pays them by the mile. A husband wife as team drivers could earn six figures a year when fuel was $1.60 a gallon. Of course they never knew where they’d be one week from the next. It ain’t a rosy lifestyle.
Kem. I’ve read that figure of 9% in several places as well as heard it on NPR.
http://blog.mlive.com/saginawnews/2008/03/independent_truckers_groan_as.html
www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/truc-m18.shtml
Rebelnow: While waiting to get loaded in Baltimore (which required bribing the boss) I asked him how come he ships so much by truck when he has boxcars sitting right there. He said it takes him a month to get a boxcar, but a truck can cross the country in a few days. Time is money, as they say.
I wonder how many of these truckers, being businessmen, voted for the Republicans that have screwed them?
Anyway, the rise of interstate trucking exactly parallels the rise of automobile use in this country. I predict that we will soon see anything more than 200 miles away being shipped by train, just like in the good ol’ days.
Could this be the beginning of workers taking to the streets to help wrest our country from the Social Capitalism of the Rich?
Naaah. We’re in America land of the ‘know-nothings (and proud of it)’
You folks MUST read “Deer Hunting With Jesus” by Joe Bageant. It will go a long way toward helping you understand why working people vote republican, thereby voting against their own best economic interests.
As for Rush Limbaugh, why does he even have the slightest credibility? He is a (possibly recovering but probably not) drug addict. Do you folks generally let drug addicts tell you how to vote, what political beliefs to hold. Rush Limbaugh. Oh yeah.
Truckers like almost any other group had too many Republican (especially neocon) votes. The planet can’t stand any more of this philosophy. Don’t cheer too much because MEXICAN TRUCKS and DRIVERS are coming to your neighborhood soon. As soon as those evil regulations on hours of driving and truck maintenance are repealed. This round of deregulation will boost the economy yet again just like Nafta, cafta etc, Bu$h the inferior’s tax cut 1, tax cut 2, Reagan tax cuts, Chinese most favored nation, the Iraq war…………….
Soon the sound of platinum tipped golden walking sticks tapping on the silver sidewalks will be deafening as all us billionaires mosey down to the marina to inspect our 400 foot yachts. VOTE REPUBLICAN
It shouldn’t be too difficult to “monkeywrench” those Mexican big rigs. No harm to the drivers, please!! Just the tractors.
kent…it’s not the Mexicans who need to be “monkey-wrenched”.
The first rule of survival is to know thy enemy and it ain’t the Mexicans. The enemy is the USA CEO/politician. Just follow the money.
The truck drivers might be the driving force that save of all. I hope that they all park their rigs and take a long spring-time nap. Truck drivers can bring the oil companies and other crooks to their knees in no time.
An old American tradition ….
During the great depression, everyone in a community would rally around the farmer or homeowner who’s property was about to be foreclosed on. The Sheriff would find a mob too large for him to deal with when he went to foreclose on the property. Or the auction of the foreclosed property would be jammed with people in the community preventing anyone from bidding on the land.
This goes way back. The American revolution began this way. A year before Lexington and Concorde, citizens of Massachusettes would not let the British control the courts that handled foreclosures then. The King tried to revoke the system where those judges were responsible to the community. The result was crowds of thousands of armed citizens greeting the King’s new judges when they came to hold court, and they were forced to resign. Lexington and Concorde was the King’s attempt later to try to put down this rebellion and seize arms these citizens were gathering for self-defense.
A community gathering together to stop a foreclosure is an old American tradition among patriotic Americans who were proud to claim the title ‘citizen’.
When owner operators contract to drive for Southwest, JB Hunt, Donko, United, Mayflower, Beakins, US freight, and many, many other large fleets, they are not listed as idependent drivers, they are listed as “company” drivers. The 9% is way off as far as being accurate, ~Rebelnow~, for there are many thousands of owner/oprerators not included in that 9%figure.
The train cannot deliver to every grocery store in america. The goods would still have to be transported by truck to a destination.
More people need to speak up to the corporations. The economy is controlled by 60% of buying. That gives us all the power to squash the economy.
People need to speak up an embarass the corporations. A lot of stores ask me for a dollar every time I purchase something for a charity.
I will loudy say “No and are they paying you commission.” Of course this is unheard of in corporate america today and the clerk will say “No, but it is going to a good cause.”
I reply ” A better cause is for the corporation to invest in human capital.”
People look at me in 2 ways -some are scared and the others think I am part of the media.
In China the government substidizes gas. Why doesn’t the gov. do squat in this country to help the working people?
If any think we can rely on trains for moving produce from the Mexican border to New York before it spoils, they better have some drastic changes in how the train fellas operate their schedules.
We’ll always have trucks and they cannot operate at a profit when the price of fuel is higher than the value of the mercandise they carry.
The drivers rules and Federal CDL regulations are very fair and ‘absolutely necessary’ for safety reasons. If they change them to satisfy the Mexican truckers, we are going to see some really nasty accidents. We have far too many as it is with the set CDL rules and regs enforced.
The airline industry is about to collapse due to the price of fuel. (Jet fuel is about $4.50 at the pump for business jets, though the airlines don’t pay that much…yet.)
It’s getting to the point that they are shoveling out cash faster than they can make it. Management has cut staffing numbers, line worker (customer service, mechanics, flight attendants, etc.) salaries and benefits to the bone and they still can’t turn a profit reliably. What do you do when there are no more seats to fill on the plane and it STILL loses money? Damned if I know - I only spent 25 years in that business.
The latest wave of maintenance violations is only a symptom. The cutting has reached into the muscle and bone of the companies and there’s nowhere left to cut. I fear the wholesale collapse of the airlines soon if nothing changes.
Kem, re: the 9% quote, I’m not sure what the distinction is but I’ll take your word for it. I’m not experienced with this area, only quoting what I’ve read (bad idea sometimes).
As per the train topic, (maybe I’m biased cuz my dad worked the railraod in his youth and had some great stories), I do think there were some shenanigans with the oil companies and trucking companies vs the railroads, and the railroads lost out. I need to research this but I think there was a concerted effort to not repair rail lines, or update the system, in a deliberate attempt to make trains inefficient. Same for the the passenger lines.
Question Authority: I agree. The airline industry was left to flounder after September 11. High fuel prices are the last straw. Routine maintenance is performed in countries with questionable standards. Everyday, it seems there are mishaps and close calls.
Evelyna, 99% of the distance could be covered by trains. Only the last few miles would need to be covered by trucks.
I have read that the railroad industry is almost completely booked with the transport of coal, and looking around, that appears to be true. New tracks are incredibly expensive, but if fuel costs are allowed to rise, we will be forced to look at other measures. Although the Alberta tar sands are a notable exception, higher prices could result in cleaner fuel choices.
Low fuel prices are not a basic right. In Europe, gasoline prices are much higher, so there is much less waste than we have in America. While much of the rest of the world is conserving, Americans think they are entitled to fuel so cheap that it is frittered away with obvious consequences for the planet. The purpose of the Strategic Oil Reserves is not to keep prices artificially low. Even if they were released, the solution would only be temporary.
It is very interesting that diesel, while the cheapest to refine, is much more expensive than regular gasoline right now. I can see why the truckers would be angry about the discrepancy.
evelyna: “Why doesn’t the gov. do squat in this country to help the working people?”
Simple Answer: THEY DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THE WORKING PEOPLE. They’re better than you don’t ya know.
The oil barons ruined the train systems.
If you check trucking firms, you will have two books the size of New York city telephone directories. Most are corporations. A mom/pop company with one truck will incorporate, for tax and liability reasons. Many have two rigs, or two trailers for backup, in case of a breakdown. So they are incorporated and don’t show as independent operators.
If diesel were sold by it’s BTU value, it would be $6+ a gallon. Yes, many foreign countries gas prices are much higher than ours, mostly from taxes. We could tax our gas another $3 or more a gallon, but what would that do to our current economy, which is already falling apart becauese of high fuel costs.
To protest the high cost of fuel, we should all petition the BIG OIL COMPANIES to help out. They can afford to give a price break to the independent truckers. God knows big oil doesn’t pay their share of taxes. While the OIL COMPANIES are at it, the airlines that are suffering from inflated fuel prices should get oil companies to bail them out too. If oil companies would freeze their profits at, say last year’s level, they could pass their excesses back to the economy. Those who don’t want government regulation should “privatize” the solution to this economic mess by takig a little less profit. It’s the RIGHT thin to do!
I love what these truckers are doing! I remember when this happened in the ’70’s. But the outcome is going to be a whole lot different this time.
The problem is us; each and every one of us. We have become consumers instead of citizens. The only time we seem to become outraged is when something hits us personnaly in our own pocket books. And don’t let us even discuss the fact that we are all wage slaves to the Master. Or our addiction to credit (free money?). Or our addiction to consumption and unsustainable life style.
Look, I’m not blaming here. I’m just as guilty as anyone else. I didn’t think about peak oil or climate change. It just never really registered that my exorbandent lifestyle was on the backs of slave labor in other countries.
But the chickens of my ignorance are now coming home to roost. I’m having to rethink this whole thing I have call “life” in America. I know there is no future in trying to maintain what has been. It can’t be done. I have to look at what is actually realistically possible in the not so distant future. And that future is post-carbon. And that means that everything I take for granted today will be gone. Forever. Gone. Never to come back.
Hard working Americans are up to this task. We can do this. But first we ALL have to let go of what has been. We have to envision a different future before we can put our shoulder to it. Together.
This would be a great time to switch to BioWillie diesel.
http://www.biowillieusa.com/
I applaud the truckers for taking up the cause of waking up America. This is a start.
My own revolution is to support the truckers and also perhaps put a skull and crossbones on my foolfuel tank.
When we talk about the profits to big oil given the bloated gas prices, we don’t factor in the debt for this war which is obviously of direct advantage to the oil industry.
Reading about the truckers slowing down on the New Jersey turnpike, my sci fi imagination pictured hundreds of truckers storming the American Bastille, that is, The White House. What could security guards do if a bunch of truckers literally drove down the walls and showed a real protest by the working class citizens to the policies of DC that have essentially re-invented a new (if invisible) “Enclosure system.” The wealthy elites are their own gated communities with direct access to US domestic & foreign policy with the rest of us silenced and left outside the invisible gates.
“If any think we can rely on trains for moving produce from the Mexican border to New York before it spoils, they better have some drastic changes in how the train fellas operate their schedules.” Kempatrick
Not true. Trains move produce coast to coast all the time. Our Price Chopper supermarket chain in upstate NY has a train running produce from Washington State every week to their warehouse in Rotterdam, NY.
http://www.railexusa.com/
Freight railroads are booming, making tons of money. I know. I work for one. Unfortunately years of neglect in the cheap fuel era mean that now railroads must rebuild track and lay new track to keep up with the demand. One demand is from the trucking companies who have more vans they want to put on rail than can be accomodated.
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/04/railroads-are-expanding-record-clip
If you want to help the planet, support more money to Amtrak, which is pitifully underfunded. The freight railroads are doing just fine.
That is good to hear that ~J__Flanders~. Now if they can get their act together in the southern routes, it would be very good. Freight by rail is far more cost effective and uses far less fuel energy than a hundred or so refrigerated tractor trailer rigs.
I guess that’s why Halliburton has built all those Teamster Detention Camps, and why Blackwater gangs are strolling the empty-shelf streets of the once-great US of A. The Hopi were right, all hell’s gonna break loose before 2012.
jstevens April 8th, 2008 1:35 pm
Since peak oil supply is behind us it is natural that oil prices are going up.
Exactly. Well, the Peak of oil production might still be 2008 or 2010, you can only know for sure in hindsight. But it is damn close, and $4 diesel is just the beginning. I noticed that trucks switched over to those above-cab aero shields pretty quickly, when was that, the late 1990’s ? If my livelihood depended on the cost of diesel, I think I would have looked into what was driving cost increases a bit before Peak Oil hits.
Similar to those above-cab aero shields, they have flaps for the end of rectangular trucks, and underbody skirts, that can reduce the coefficient of drag about 11%. Also, commercial diesel/electric hybrid trucks are coming out.
Seems like the ones who plan ahead and get their rigs ready for the coming price storm just might survive. As to petitioning the U.S. Government to save them from Peak Oil, good luck with that. They might get some subsidies on trucker diesel fuel for a couple years, till the depth of the crisis becomes apparent. I agree with many posters here, get the trains in better order. Also, start improving the trucker fleet; at least get trucks that turn off the damn motor when they are stuck in traffic for 3 hours waiting for the Port of Los Angeles, for instance.
Once the lithium-ion batteries are perfected for next generation plug-in hybrid cars and electric cars, they would be a natural for big, heavy duty hybrid trucks, too.
Not a moment too soon. Won’t be ready till about 2010.
Hate to tell you this, but the greed of the Railroad Barons ruined the rail system. Long before there was big oil, or big trucking, or an airlineindustry, the Railroads had figured out how to get the tax-payer to build their systems, grant them monopolies and donate free land while they were at it.
Every 50 miles, they built a town - pulled in as soon as the rails were down, unloaded the material and the immigrants who paid for both transportation and land, and Voila! There was Cheyenne, or Laramie, or some other godforsaken hole in what was then known as the Great American Desert.
These Corporations are still in business, Weyerhauser? That’s Jim Hills old company, and the great forests they logged were on the land we gave them for the right-of-way. Leland Stanford was a Railroad Baron - Ever heard of him?
All those steel mills and textile companies that had a direct railroad siding at the plant had money ties to the Railroad Barons. I think, if I remember right, even J.D. Rockefeller cut a fat hog off the railroads.
And, once we gave them half the continent [or so it seems], and tax breaks and you name it, they quit maintaining the road bed, because then it was a ‘business expense’. That’s why you don’t see high speed rail here, they’d have to put in a whole new system, and who could afford that kind of a boondoggle now - Although there are a couple of firms rebuilding Iraq who’d probably apply.
Amtrak? Remember that? 1968, 0r ‘69 Congress agreed to let the railroads off the hook for carrying passengers - It was in the original charters, as common carriers, and in return for all the goodies, they would provide transportation to people, not just goods. Anyway, Congress set up a Government Corporation to provide rail service to people and gave the railroads the money making cargo business.
Too bad for the public wanting to take a train trip: seems the unmaintained roadbeds can hardly be kept operating with all the cargo trains running on them - and cargo has the right-of-way over passenger trains, so Congress has just kept paring away at Amtrak, like they want to do with Social Security. Why keep it around at all? Hardly anyone uses it…
So, don’t waste any sympathy on the robber barons running the railroads. They are the same guys that are on the Board of Directors of the trucking companies and airlines.
What’s the statistic? 200 people sit on the boards of the biggest Corporations in the country? The same 200, that is.
Read your history, before there was George W and the current economic disaster, there was the Panic of 1874 [Jay Gould cornered the gold market] The Crash of 1893, another Panic in 1907 followed, of course, by 1929. All of them in Republican Administrations. Most of them following rumors of graft and corruption and the give-away of the public’s money to the fat cats.
And who can keep track of the ‘recessions’ we’ve suffered in the past 40 years? Now that they own the MSM lock, stock, and barrel, and have cooked the books so statistics are meaningless until they are history, the only sure sign of a financial crash is a giant Corporation going belly up, stranding thousands of penniless pensioners.
I have news for the author as well as “JB” who’s quoted here. This is about more than just “the homeowners, the construction workers, the elderly people who can’t afford their heating bills.”
It’s about the 33% of Americans who have been shut out of the housing market because greedy buyers drove up the price of housing by overpaying their homes.
And now us taxpaying renters are expected to help bailout the predatory borrowers who put us in this situation in the first place. What’s up with that?
It’s interesting to note that renting is so demonized in our culture that we find it to be a national tragedy that irresponsible borrowers may lose their homes and become renters instead. No wonder even the author and “JB” don’t include us non-elderly, non-constructing working renters to be part of “everybody.” We hardly even count as human.
Just got back from France where gas was about $8/gallon. We are still so far behind paying the true costs of burning fossil fuels. I love the solidarity and resolve demonstrated by the truckers, but if they get what they want, the short term gains will only prolong the inevitable. Sort of like drug addicts going on strike to lower the price of their next fix. At some point, we need to give up on this addiction to oil and actively pursue better solutions. I wish they would shut the place down and insist on that. But that’s a lot to ask and easy for me to say when my home and family aren’t depending on it.
i went to their website. there are some very interesting comments on the ‘bitchboard’……………
Rebel Farmer notes:
I’m having to rethink this whole thing I have call “life” in America. I know there is no future in trying to maintain what has been. It can’t be done. I have to look at what is actually realistically possible in the not so distant future.
**************
Rebel, you are most perceptive and discerning. On one level the truckers action is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: a pointless exercise.
However, on another level the indy truckers are leading the way for the rest of us by committing the greatest blasphemy against the devout fascist disciples of Mammon that can be done–not allowing “business as usual”.
If we all did that on some level–stopped shopping, stopped driving, refused to be programmed by commercial or “Public” TV, etc. we could start some serious changes happening in the country. The cry,”power to the people” is not now and never has been a demand-it is a revelation. That’s because we always have had the power–now we must learn hows to and not fear to use it.
Rebel, you would find much of interst at the website of James Howard Kunstler–he too understands what you do and has been writing about it for close to a decade–
http://www.kunstler.com/
Do any remember when the National speed limit was reduced to 55 max? ____ What happened?
We can blame the Neo-Cons for a lot of things, but when the speed limit was 55, “WE THE PEOPLE” __ and especially the truckers rebelled. We didn’t LIKE it, we wanted to drive 65, 75, or more. Now the new Corvette is out, with close to a 200 mph top speed, Nisson has a new toy that hugs the road better than a Porsche at 186 mph. ___ We “are” Lemmings.
Now that gasoline is over $3.25 a gallon, when I’m on a two lane road with a 65 mile an hour speed limit, and doing 65, I’m tail-gated until the tail-gaters can pass me. Usually it’s large vehicles, a SUV or 3/4 ton pickup with one passenger. Ten miles later, we’re all sitting at the same traffic light together.
Lord help me if I drive along at 55 on that road to town. ___ Checking out that new Vette, or a Harley, I’m in second stage male menapause.___Gals have hot flashes and gain big butts, the guys buy Harleys and chase the gals with big boobs.
I have read nothing about the truckers’ actions in the news nor seen anything on TV. It is great that the truckers are taking action. They are in a powerful position to make their message heard. Thank goodness someone is doing something, and I hope it gets so bad the TV news cannot ignore it. Truckers!
In France, gas may be $8 a gallon, but the railroads are state of the art. In the long run,I think we have to go to railroads to handle more freight. We took a trip this summer via RR and found that for long stretches of the country there is only one track. A train broke down and all traffic for hundreds of miles in both directions was stopped for many hours. It would not be that hard to put in another track parallel to the first. It looks like the RRs are deliberately neglected and mismanaged. Not sure why. Maybe oil lobby? Anyone have specifics?
Kem Patrick, I was a child when the limit was 55, but I remember it well. I also remember that people drove a lot less in the 70’s than they do now. The higher speed limit makes people want to travel more. A 400 mile trip is easily a day trip now. Also, I remember when almost everything was closed on Sundays, and there was hardly any traffic. If stores were still closed on Sunday, Americans would be forced to find some form of entertainment aside from shopping, and we would be a few years farther from climate catastrophe (for whatever that is worth.) Looking around, at least half of the vehicles on the road are trucks, semis or SUV’s. That is the legacy of cheap oil. I am ready for the era to end. Once we made a commitment to reducing oil usage, infrastructure and attitudes would fall into place around it. People would carpool or walk or use the bus without feeling strange. In my town we have a bus, but it is a huge contraption with only a few passengers. If riding the bus became commonplace it would follow that there would be more routes, more options etc. I would so much rather see this than the attitude this article lends credence to : “We deserve cheap oil!! The government needs to give us cheap oil so we can haul all that Chinese crap to Walmart.!”
jclientelle: A good book that addresses the topic is “Big Coal” by Jeff Goodell. The very limited service and track infrastructure gives the railroad complete control over the industry. Because lying (laying?) new track is prohibitively expensive, the railroad industry can hold its customers hostage. Since their customers are coal plants, I don’t care that much, but obviously the system is ripe for reform. I am sure it is very difficult to ship most goods by rail with the current system, but that can change.
Kem - get a used Gold Wing, full fairing, am/fm-mp3 - and you don’t have to wrench on it (not one of the juggernauts, a 1200cc is fine). Harley’s used to come in grocery carts, you’d build them with “acquired” parts (the ones without the numbers) in somebody’s garage, go put-put with boys and see what makes the young girl’s eyes go bright. Now, it’s “civilized” fortysomethings spending what, $12000, $15000, $20000 for a motorcycle? Gimme a break. Buy some Viagra and some porn.
I’m glad the truckers are hot. These are not nancy-boys. If it comes to a crunch these guys know that heads are gonna get beat - will America turn it’s face away - will they blame “the bad” truckers? Class, race, and gender, the fracture lines of American society - divide and conquer/fragment and rule absolutely.
The avalanche has begun.
Peace.
jstevens - thanks for the book recommendation. True, most of the trains we passed were piled high with coal. I was amazed at the amount of coal being shipped.
About the tracks - our country is considering manned voyages to Mars, diapers and all. I don’t think that laying track bypasses would be so hard it you skipped tricky places like mountain passes or tunnels.
Hi ~JSTEVENS~ how ya doin? Well in the 70s, I retired, after serving 23 years in the service. I remember it like it was only yesterday. Don’t know where you grew up, but the stores weren’t closed on Sundays anywhere I lived. The bars were closed in Philly.
I began a new career of driving tour buses then, so I traveled all over the west, from northern Califorina to Texas, Colorado, and all the states in between. There was lots of very heavy traffic and lots of semi’s. Traffic was not near as bad as today, I’d say a 25% increase.
Now in 1955, we newly-weds drove from the north end of the New Jersey Turnpike to the exit for the Philly area one afternoon and saw exactly FOUR other cars, ZERO tractor trailers. One of the four was a Jersey State Trooper driving a two door Chrysler 300-C. I was doing 95 in our new Studebaker President Speedster, and as he flew on by, he waggeled his finger at me to slow down. The wire wheeled studie would top out at 160, the very first of the Detroit muscle cars. Pure luxury too, leather bucket seats and a dozen engine gages to read.
I was in my first stage of menapause then. I slowed to 80. Didn’t need any Viagra then. First time I ever tried THAT stuff, the pill stuck in my throat and I had a stiff neck for three hours. Now I powder it and put in my mixed drinks. __A true high ball.__ BTW ~Lucky~, my first Harley was a used 48-45, paid $125 for it, couldn’t join the Tucson, AZ. Hell’s Angels club, because my mother and dad wouldn’t sign for me to have a tattoo. ___ That’s a true story too.
Interesting stories, Kem. I grew up in the Bible Belt, which probably explains why stores were closed on Sunday. The Interstate I traveled most, I-29 to Kansas City- was all but empty in the 70’s. Today it is packed, even at 2AM. I recently took a trip to DC and I-70 East from Philadelphia on was so full of trucks even at about 3AM that I started to panic thinking I was on a semi-only stretch. After an hour I saw one other car.
jclientelle, You’re right. We could definitely lay railroad track if we wanted to. It certainly looks like people will be needing the jobs, too.
KEM PATRICK
now you’re in the 2nd stage male ‘men-o-paws’ do you have a tattoo?
I was drawn to this article because I once had a client who was an independent truck owner-operator. Research about his business and how best to handle his taxes and listening to his stories, I learned a lot I had not known before. The article brings back memories.
And the comments. Wow! There’s a wealth of fascinating material covering all sorts of transportation related subjects and American history, not just the inspiration of the independent truckers’ revolt.
Thank you to all the contributors!
Poet: Kunstler has been on my daily list for well over a year. Just finished reading his new book “World Made by Hand”. Excellent! Haven’t finished “The Long Emergency” yet. Thru Kunstler I have gotten involved with the “Relocalization” movement, which is really an outgrowth of my concept of “Community Sovereignty”.
There has to be a paradigm shift by the American people about consumption. The whole concept of “just in time” inventories has to stop. Living more simply and locally has to start NOW. Our current way of life in America is, and has been for the past 70 years, unsustainable. And Mother Nature has a way of getting rid of unsustainable activities.
It’s all about balance. We don’t need cheaper oil. We don’t need more growth. We don’t need more stuff. We must move towards balance with the planet as a whole. And every individual action counts.
My mother made me promise to never have one ~CoCo~, and I don’t want to end up being a skin-tight lampshade for Cheney or Rove, when we CD bloggers are all herded into the Fema prisons.
My youngest daughter has two though, and she doesn’t want me to know about it. ___ So I don’t. She has pierced ears too. ___God will get her for it.
I-29 is the new “Jesus” road ~Jstevens~. Saw that on TV last month. Yeah, actually since the 70s, traffic has probably doubled and it does not stop. At 3am, you can sit a-top a mountain and watch the traffic on I-10 in Texas or Arizona and it’s solid headlights and tailights forever, as far as the eye can see. We are nuts.
Wish I still had that 48 Harley 45. They are worth about $80,000 now. I sold it after my third crash for $125. Never rode one again
Way, way off of the subject, but this is a fact.
The average American driver looks only (40) feet ahead when driving in traffic and seldom use their mirrors. Many act as if they are in their living room watching TV. Truckers love the “hanging hand”, flopping backwards from the drivers open window, that’s a big caution to beware of, the DOUBLE __D,__ a “dufus driver”. Truckers even have dummny arms and hands they hang from their window for laughs.
If you want to drive DRUNK and have a rear-ender, or ram a guard rail, run over a kid, or T-bone a light post, and STILL pass the breath-alizer, or blood alcohol test in a hospital emergency room. Just drive and use your “cell phone” or monitor the global positioning screen. __ Don’t believe it, keep it up if your an expert at it, eventulaly you’ll have the opportunity to find out it’s also a fact.
Where is any talk about Windfall Profits Tax?!!
I was around in the 70’s when the first oil embargo happened. Shortly there after once prices went up (in many cases doubling overnight from $.38 to $.76 per gallon) we all got used to paying it, and when the per barrel price came down the gas at the pump price didn’t our congress levied a windfall profits tax on the oil companies.
Where is this today? Where are the permit requests for new refineries that we were told was supposed to happen when the prices go up like this?
The real answer is that who wants to build a refinery when we’re at the point of peak oil extraction in the world. Nobody wants to invest in building a plant to refine the raw materials that you won’t be able to get your hands on long before that plant has seen the end of its service life! We haven’t been finding oil in this world at the rate we did 30 years ago (since Hupper’s peak, that peak of discovery) and no new refineries are being built. And the profitability of what we do find isn’t close to what it was when the oil pushed itself out of the holes at such a high rate that it had to be slowed down. Now we have to pump 3000-5000 PSI gas into these holes to get the thicker nastier stuff from the bottom of the holes. Third world countries are consuming like we did in the 70’s, so the 50% remaining won’t last as long as the first half did.
A windfall profits tax on oil companies is the only solution to our present dilema, and that is only if we invest it in renewable energy sources. Corn ain’t one of them!
I support truckers, and will continue to do so. Come on out to Arizona and stop our traffic on I-10 through Tucson. Oh wait, with all the freeway construction that’s already being done.
“Who knows what it will all add up to? Already, according to JB, some of the big trucking companies are threatening to fire any of their employees who join the owner-operators’ protests.”(from the article) If you want to include those big fleet drivers in the protest, block the truckstop fuel islands, especially the main ones that the management has accounts with such as Pilot & TA..without fuel they wont be able to drive around the protest, reguardless what their cheating, lieing, slavedriving managers demand of them. Do it for your own good, because anything less than that, the zombies will continue to deliver. hahhaa
KEM PATRICK, It happened again. I wrote a long comment on this articl this morning and by using the two words the power elite fear the most…Gen. Str… (fill in the blanks) I got the “your comments are awaiting moderation” thing and I don’t see my post on this computer. Maybe I hit their “Achilles Heel” with the two words.
COCO,
Was in Europe over the xmas season and think about relocating there next year. I’m bad at learning languages and at my age, learning anything is a challenge, but I think it would be worth it.
I really felt at home in every country I visited.
Go to Itlaly ~COCO~, they talk with their hands. If you go to England, take your own food supply.
Yep, can’t write those two naughty words ~Peaceman~ The edit computer has a shit-fit. ~Riverman~ is still
in a straight jacket in his padded cell and can’t help there.
Blocking the fuel pumps makes a lot of sense. But with radio comm, the ones who don’t suport it, would probably leave the interstates and go to service stations. Could block exit ramps though, breakdowns and such. As soon as the police arrive, you get it started just fine and a few minutes later another breaks down in the same place. By blocking twelve places with twelve rigs, it can shut down all entry to Manhatten, Staten Island and Brooklyn. ninety mile long Traffic jams from New York to Philly, Newark, La Guardia and JFK airports. Be a mess at 7am, might get someTV coverage.
Of course I don’t recommend truckers or anyone else do those type of things, because it would cause a lot of serious problems for so many others and it may not be even be legal.
funny KEM — AS IF attempting to obtain one’s rightful justice and pursuit of happiness, were dozens of times worse than ritualized genocide and torture of innocents.
Namaste
KEM,
I believe you’re right about those two naughty words. Man, it was a long post, and you know I only use one finger to type…remember the ‘Declaration of Independence’ I typed a few months ago?
In Europe and South America, the truckers bring things to a halt. Sort of like you described above, but hey, our government or big businesses haven’t violated any laws these past eight years, have they? Wait untill it goes to ten bucks a gallon. It could be worse. At least we don’t need a wheelbarrel full of dollars to purchase a loaf of bread…yet
Funny, we can write the word ~FUCK~ though. Even Cindy wrote it once. ___ Naughty girl. ___ Hi there ~NAM~ you’ve been pretty quiet this last week.
When the depression hits, there won’t be any need for strikes or demonstrations. There will be so much anarchy and mayhem going on, it will be unbelievable. Katrina magnified 10,000 times, all across the country. There won’t be any gas or diesel to buy, or money to buy anything.
Don’t expect news of the trucker’s protests, or anything else that might upset the Corporate Fascists to show up in the daily newspaper or TV news reports. These things have a way of vanishing into the mist, just as Kucinich and Edwards did in the early Primary states. [Off-subject, but has anyone else noticed that Hillary is getting about 4 headlines to 1 for Obama in the MSM lately?]
In 1994. I happened to be driving from Seattle to LA on Earth Day. I spent the night in the Bay area and woke up to a huge power outage.
Earth Firsters had climbed the Bay Bridge and hung their banners [no arrests, btw]. While some worked on that project, the highly skilled guys had gone out in the wilderness and dismantled 2 or 3 of the high tension power high rises from the nuclear power station down there. The news in Oakland said it had been done with skill, and the electrical disconnects had been managed safely, if not per code.
Anyway, when I reached San Jose the power was on in the south Bay area, and when I got to LA that afternoon, no one knew what I was talking about. [Oh, I don’t drive slowly, but I’m notorious for taking god-awful shortcuts if I spot one on the map - seen a lot of unusual country that way, and not many semis]
I felt like I was one of those guys who visits a flying saucer and no one will believe him…
Hillary’s lead in Pennsylvania is now 7%, from 16% three weeks ago. She’s getting TV coverage, but it ain’t good coverage,___ all negative. Obama is outspending her on TV ads in Pa. by over a million bucks. She came across far better questioning Betrayus, than either McCain or Obama. Hillary came across by far as the most presidential.
Obama raised some excellent points however, but McCain was pitiful, he left early after some serious gaffs and Liberman not there to coach and whisper corrections to him. He should get a job driving a school bus on a lighthouse island, with no school or any kids.
KEM,
I never use that F word in my comments. I don’t even say what Rhet Butler said to Scarlet O’Hara at the end of ‘Gone With The Wind’ but when you threaten the ruling class with the general strikaroonie (let’s see if the software/hardware picks that up) they become concerned.
I’m beat. Think I’ll call it a night. Peace and Harmony for the world.
But you are a swell person and very decent and nice ~Peaceman~, and you have a great sense of humor. I’ve used the “F” word here on occasion, but always later wished I hadn’t. Yeah Rhett Butler was a vulgar guy like me. Damn, damn, damn.
But Scarlett was a fuckin bitch.
Hey Peaceman, if you come back. I have a trick I now use with every comment I type in. I copy it before I post it. Just highlight your entire comment and then hold down the clrl key (control key)while hitting the letter “c” key. I found this very handy when the edit function wipes out a long comment. By the way, I’m still not convinced that there is an automatic filter or censor on our comments. They are monitored and sometimes held up for a long time. Sometimes they just seem to disappear into the ether somehow. When it happens to me it doesn’t seem to have much to do with the content of my comment. It’s all very weird.
And, KEM, I’m pretty broad minded (in more ways than one), but I really don’t like the term you used in reference to Scarlett. Maybe it has something to do with how old I am and being female and all. I know you didn’t mean to offend, but just be aware that you are treading on pretty thin ice with this one.
KEM,
Thanks for your kind words but others haven’t felt the same way. I’ve been called almost every name or thing in the book over the years. Some accusations might be true but most aren’t, but I try to follow The Golden Rule as much as my personal development at this point in my life has evolved.
I complimented everybody this morning on Barbara’s article before I went to work and left with the “moderation” thing on and when I arrived back at the shop, I clicked on this article and jumped to the bottom, reading the comments up instead of down. I’m thinking to myself (I’d be lying if I said the EGO wasn’t involved) “wow, nobody commented on my post.” (But the heck with me, just a grain of sand on the beach with never a humble opinion) Fine! The other posters, including your posts, on the trucker strike did a terrific job presenting their opinions which trumped mine anyway and are all filed with facts. But still, as I read up from the bottom, no comments on the peaceman’s posting??? Was my history lesson so bad? I finished reading from where I left off this morning on all your comments and realized CD took it off the screen because of those two words. I remember you, JConrad, Rtdrury and somebody else telling me about an electronic sensor a couple of months ago on three Common Dreams deletions on my postings within a two day period. I forgot to “codify” the GS words this morning, so no use crying about it now.
I’m worn out, KEM, worrying about this government, the Pentagon, the corporatists, the mad scientists with their GMO black magic bag of hubris, the international bankers, and too many of our fellow citizens perfecting the technique of somnambulism while awake. Maybe it’s me. Maybe my axis is off kilter.
Remember all the comments on the “clothesline” article? That one was fun. Hard to get off this computer, sometimes.
Pleasant Dreams
Good night good man.
Hey Rebel, I’m sorry. I was joking and it seemed to be very funny to me at the time. Still does actually.
I never seriously call any female a bitch. __NEVER.__ I don’t approve of it either. I think women are the greatest thing on our planet. Scarlett was a rather mean and spoiled B—–rat character of the novel and a beautiful and swell gal played her part so well. ___ Please forvive me for being crude and vulger.
WOW! KEM, you devil you (LOL). I’m still sitting here, the green tea with honey and ginger juice didn’t cheer me up, no beer in the fridge, I’ve got a bottle of vino from organically grown grapes, but once I pop the cork, it stays off until the peaceman is stinko. Remember that term? Not in the mood tonight. Too much to do tomorrow. So, let me take one more look from KEM, who, when he’s on a roll, is unbeatable, before I call it a night, and lo and behold, you’re on again. Now, Rebel Farmer joins in, and I’m still despondent over the deletion of my post, but I’m actually cheerful right now and the heck with what I said this morning. Scarlett was less than honorable, and Rhet admired and respected Melanie and probably would have married her if Ashley wasn’t in the novel and I apologize to Margaret Mitchell. (no need for the wine or beer. You got my spirits up, but it was an informative comment KEM.)
Hello, Rebel Farmer; I’d be lying if I called myself a Luddite, but technology is not one of my strong points. I do appreciate the concern. I’ll write your instructions down and try it.
And you also get my imprimatur on your posts on this article by Barbara. Well said.
Just wanted to see if it would work
Oops, I notice those two words got me a, “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” tag. Funny (odd rather), this past week I made a comment that got the modreation tag, but it still showed up as posting, HOWEVER, when I e-mailed KEM to look it wasn’t showing up. I posted it again, and he still couldn’t see it. Ain’t technology grand? It’s a two edged sword, though.
I believe more than trucks it was autos & auto manufacturers that caused the almost demise of rail traffic. Combine auto maker & oil company collusion and the true picture emerges.
Now we are so spread out (because of autos) in suburban communities it will be difficult to effect a contraction. Perhaps we need numerous spur rail lines radiating out from our cities, and long haul trains dropping supplies off at central depots, then to be shuttled (by smaller electric trains?) to pick-up depots out in the ‘burbs’. Applying our minds to more efficient logistics (while keeping them open & free of corrupting influences …$$$) can maybe not cure our ills, but forestall the grim reaper in what looks like another depression planned by the central bankers (Rothschild, Rockefeller, JPMorgan, Warburg planned crashes before and their ilk are still at it). The scenario is exactly the same as the planned orchestrated crashes of 1907 & 1929. Create a banking crisis, drive down the value of assets, make margin calls due (read mortgages), then swoop in and buy up all those assets at pennies on the dollar (think JPMorganCo buying Bear Sterns). The fix is in again, and the only way to avoid it in the future is to dismantle the Federal Reserve.
Just the hundreds of billions the private banks in the FED system soak the taxpayer for yearly in interest due would completely re-vamp/upgrade our whole rail system.
Hello Paul. It’s funny with the “awaiting moderation” thing. Sometimes the tag will stay on the post for a long time before dropping off and other times the entire comment will disappear. What happened to you in regards to KEM happened to me several times a few months ago and now the same problem with this mornings post.
Nice hearing from you again.
Paul,
Good post above. Here’s a quick video for you. Go to
http;//www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19705.htm
I think you’ll like it.
I’m signing out for the evening.
Yes the French pay $8/gallon for gas and they pay high taxes, but they get free education through college, free health care, free preschool childcare and 80% subsidized day care for older children. The childcare programs are government run with well trained and well paid providers. At the rate we’re going, we will be paying $8 gallon for gas and all the above out of our own pockets as well. Here in the land of the free, we pay more and get less.
But hey. our richest are richer than your richest!
kathyodat
PEACEMAN
glad you enjoyed europe. but if you are really considering moving here, whatever you do, don’t choose france. they are xenophobic (and they hate foreigners too) like KEM says, italy is good (although i’ve never been) spain is ok. but will be 2/3 desert in a few decades. forget eastern europe: languages are really difficult and there’s a lot of crime and cold weather. i guess you know all this though, having been here………
REBEL FARMER
i’m sure KEM was joking when he made those disparaging remarks about scarlett. haven’t you appreciated his ‘wild and wonderful’ sense of humour yet? when are you going to canada? i left a reply for you on that other thread……………..
We not only need separation of church and state in this country, we also need a separation of the state and corporate money which is at the base of all of our problems. These days, a corporation can invest a million or two in political influence and reap a billion in profit.
Daniel David, I can only say that I know a retired trucker and he listened to Limbaugh, et al, sometimes, but just to laugh at him. I think the stereotype of the trucker you sketched is about 30 years out of date. Similarly, the media-hyped ‘Reagan Democrat’ is obsolete — my friends in the Pipefitters Union tell me that in 2000 there was a large number of conservative ‘moral values’ voters at their monthly union meetings, but by 2004 — after the rank-and-file noticed what had been happening to their jobs and the economy under the Bush Republicans — they were all solidly for Kerry. These days, even that paragon of long-haul truckers and shot-and-beer union guys, country singer Merle Haggard, is voting Democratic, and Toby Keith has lately soft-pedaled his support of Bush’s Iraq War. Regardless of the daily flash polls the media pumps that show McCain and the two Democrats nearly even in national support, I think we’re on the verge of a social and cultural-shifting landslide against the GOP comparable to 1932. It’s that bad in this nation, especially in Fly-Over Country.
Rebelnow (April 8th, 2008 1:11 pm), good point. We could have a high-speed rail system in this country, as they do in Europe, which would not only carry passengers but freight as well, if not for the airlines and the oil lobby.
Actually, Kathyodat, when you add the hidden costs to a gallon of gasoline ($4 a gallon or so to support a bloated military industrial complex) we pay about the same as they do in Europe. Nobody gets a free lunch and the myth about gas being cheap in America is just that…myth. This is the hidden truth few people realize and of course the corporate controlled media is not about to spread this information around.
The irony of it, call it hypocrisy if you will, is the CONservatives, extolling the virtues of less government & lower taxes, have swollen the size of the government immeasurably by creating the Dept of Homeland Security, and through illegal warmongering imposed the largest tax increases on the populace of this country EVER. We are now getting what they call ‘double banked’, taxed for the war & taxed by the outrageous greed of the oil companies, and it’s all being put on an overseas credit card. The national debt is going through the ceiling, but the private entity with the misnomer ‘Federal’ Reserve could care less because the higher the debt goes the more these private owners/bankers of the Federal Reserve System rake in. (hundreds of billions yearly ‘made’, but not ‘earned’)
Frankly, give me a ’so called’ tax & spend democrat any day rather than a borrow & spend Republican. I don’t have all the answers, but a great place to begin is getting rid of the FED, and returning control of our monetary policy back into public hands instead of private.
In the short run we must put pressure on congress to once again demand the M3 money supply numbers be published regularly again. Bush had it stopped in 2005, and without scrutiny of this vital statistic we have no idea how much the FED is inflating our money supply by putting more useless paper money into circulation (a major cause of inflation).
Truckers are traditionally considered to be blue collar conservative & Republican because of less than a quality sustained education, many rural roots given to bible thumping brainwashing, and an unthinking belief their government works at their duties in their best interest. Don’t try going into a truck stop diner and putting down the military either. Maybe I’m a bit into profiling & cliches here, but I believe they are more into hookers than gays, preferring to be thought of as manly men doing a manly necessary job to keep America functioning. I’ve known many in my life, and just like some of the Hell’s Angels I’ve also known, get the same respect I give. One thing you will rarely (if ever) see is a rowdy DRUNK truck driver making trouble somewhere.
It’s good they are finally using their heads and waking up to the threats caused particularly by this administration that are endangering them, their families, and everyone else. When push comes to shove the only way we can beat the monster with such a grip on our freedom is have people like these truckers, and a returning military, thoroughly pissed off at being used, abused, & neglected, on our side.
Welcome to the fight against the internal terrorists of MIC, MSM, corporate America, & Bushco, truckers!
Rebelfarmer says: The problem is us, each and every one of us. We have become consumers instead of citizens.
So true. And it is true especially about elections. At election time we pick and choose between Coke and Pepsi. We complain and / or settle. But between elections we do too little.
The truck drivers are acting like citizens. More power to them.
COCO,
I loved France and got along very well with the people. I wish I could speak the language. I love the Netherlands and could easily live there. Spain is a progressive country and anybody shunning organized religion is fine with me. I spent time in Greece when I was in the service and got along with the Greeks, but man, those and for a vegetarian like me, it was paradise! The mosquitos in the summer were a real problem. Hope their not into the GMO stuff we export around the world. Everybody I know that’s been to Italy loved it. I read an article on the ‘International Herald Tribune’ saying some of the small farming villages in the Tuscany region have very small populations as the younger folks are moving to urban areas. That might be a possibility. The Italians are fairly progressive and independent, and unlike we Americans, continually change governments which is almost every year, trying to get it right. Still, the country functions. In fact, the ‘Slow Food Movement’ started in Italia and have chapters in different countries including the US. I need to join one and learn to relax while savoring the food rather than not taking the time to chew but swallow everything like a snake. Thanks for the travel tips COCO.
PAULMAGILSMITH,
Were you able to see the ten minute you tube of Jim Rodgers on CNBC about “Helicopter Ben” and the un-Federal Reserve?
I gotta run. Everybody stay happy. No need for impeachment, the economy is fine, American Airlines cancelled 1000 flights because of “maintenance problems,” gas hasn’t reached 5 bucks a gallon yet, and we don’t need a wheelbarrel full of US monopoly money to buy a loaf of bread as in 1923 Germany, the “escalation of cannon fodder” oops, I mean the “surge” is working, unemployment is increasing, more and more Americans are becoming destitute, so what should I say. Viva La France!
Peace and Harmony for EVERYBODY all over this planet.
Ah, this thread has been a waste of time. The truckers aren’t doing anything. I watched every TV news channel last night and read three different city newspapers and not a word of any truckers protesting. It’s a sham. Kinda of a fun thread though and really good and informative posts in regards to our economy by so many good people like Paul Smith, Coco, Kathy and Peaceman and a dozen others.
Europe was brought up too. If I had the opportunity and the money, I’d spend the rest of my days living on a yacht in the Greek Islands and have a bunch of you there with me to enjoy it with no thin ice to tread upon. ___ Jackie Kennedy was smart. ~Pretty too~.
Good comment, PaulMagillSmith. I’ve long observed that while Republicans talk about smaller government, the Federal bureaucracy always grows at a record pace under their watch. Of course, what they really mean is less supervision of business. You know, like contaminated food, dangerous toys, doors falling off planes, employees injured and dying on the job, executives running off with the loot. Regarding the above, government is supposed to mind it’s own business, which is to be the world’s cop and protect the rich from the riffraff and rescue failed businesses - but only if they are too big to fail. Small business is held in the same contempt as the working slobs.
I grew up in a mixed household. My mother was a Democrat, my father was a closet Socialist. I was raised to never cross a union picket line and I don’t. Actually I don’t understand how any union can endorse Hillary. What do they think she was doing on the WalMart board? The most union-busting company in the country. The Democratic party used to be the union party. But it has also become the enemy, thanks to Bill and Hillary and their DLC. I know many on this board and Ralph Nader think it can’t be taken back, it’s too entrenched in corruption. I’ve stayed away from it for many decades, but now I’m drawn to make a Hail Mary pass. Why not? It might work, and if it doesn’t, what have I lost? The reason the corporatocracy doesn’t care who I vote for is because there aren’t very many of me. But this time the mass of voters is uneasy and restless. And the youth of our country are paying attention and bringing their energy with them.
I remember the tractor rebellion. The media may be ignoring the trucker rebellion but that doesn’t mean they won’t have an impact if they keep it up. You know, those unacceptable words, g - strike.
kathyodat
KEM PATRICK
you know, about a week ago (maybe 10 days) there was another article relating to this and one poster who was a truck driver said then that this would come to nothing. he said it was all talk but no action would be taken. i guess he was right…………………
Yeah I remember COCO. Of course if they are making any progress or creating some problems, we likely won’t hear about it. If they strangle New York city or Washington DC for a couple of days or more we will. Those high dollar call girls have to eat too.
I’m encouraged by the guys who hang out in my corner bar. Most of them are vets of WWII, Korea or Vietnam, and most of them are working men and women. Cab and bus drivers, truckers, plumbers, electricians, landscapers, bus boys, waitresses, maids — all blue-collar jobs. These folks may not pay much attention to the news, but they have a good ear for BS and, this year, they know the Republicans are full of it.
Many of them supported Bush and the Iraq disaster at first; fewer supported Bush in 2004; now, it’s almost impossible to find anyone who will stick up for Bush and the GOP. In fact, when he or Cheney appear on the TV they shout out for a quick channel change, and their language isn’t polite.
Many like Obama, a few Hillary, and even fewer McCain but, even those who like him think he’s too old to survive one term in office. And all of them carp about the economy more than anything else.
If these folks are any gauge of what the blue-collar former ‘Reagan Democrats’ are thinking, the GOP, and everything they represent, is sunk in 2008.
BeForKids,
Good for you for not crossing a picket line. I believe the writer, Jack London described a “scab” in the best possible terms, which is a person who crosses a picket line to work, as the lowest form of life. If anybody’s interested, I’ll find the quote and post it tonight. Got to get ready for Green Party meeting now.
KEM, I’m game for the life on the yacht. Sounds good.
For all of you, I’m in a hurry, but I’ll tell you our organizing effort with owner-operators tonight. (I’ve been a Teamster for 33 years).
I heard American Airlines cancelled more flights today.
COCO, Are you a travel agent?
I’ll be darned ~Peaceman~, I was a Teamster shop steward for five years. Now I’m a retired card holding lifetime member. My father was a friend of Jimmy Hoffa Sr, back when my dad owned a Checker cab and Jimmy was just a tough teenager and a runner for the Purple Gang in Detroit.
I want COCO, Kathyodat and Rebel Farmer on that yacht too. We can relax and watch the world news to see who is running for the president in the states and bet who will win. Fraid we’ll instead be workng to find enough food for our kids to survive on when the depression hits.
I don’t think COCO is a travel agent, I think she’s a beauty, both in looks and mind, who should be writing books or novels.
RSJ said:
“If these folks are any gauge of what the blue-collar former ‘Reagan Democrats’ are thinking, the GOP, and everything they represent, is sunk in 2008.”
The only problem with these greedy psycho bastards is if they can’t have everything they can’t stand to see anyone with anything, and will try their best to make sure ‘a falling tide sinks all boats’. Don’t forget these are the same people who have bought into the mythological fiction of the “Rupture”…oops! I mean rapture
Peaceman…yes I did watch the “Helicopter Ben” and a few more, but here is where the whole crooked mess starts (if you aren’t familiar with it already):
http://iamthewitness.com/doc/RothschildsTimeline-filer/frame.htm
KEM, my brother lives on a 52′ Sail. That could get us (coco, kathy, peaceman, Rebel Farmer, et al) to the Aegean, but we’d have to arm because there will be a lot more pirates than even now.
KEM, Great! A fellow shop steward. I was one for about eight years. Hoffa Sr. was something back then. I didn’t know he was a runner for the Purple Gang in Detroit
Be careful KEM. The way we are, Coco, Kathyodat, and Rebel Farmer might make us walk the plank on the yacht. Are there any sharks in the Mediterranean?
Just got in and I’m beat. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.
PAUL,
I’ll look at the link in the am, I’m tired right now. Glad you saw the one from last night.
PEACEMAN
no i’m not an agent. but i have travelled to many weird and wonderful places for which i am very grateful. (one of them being dallas, texas.)
and if i were you i’d think about moving now……….
KEM PATRICK
i’v already written one book (not published) and have another two i’m working on. having said that, i’ve a tapestry i’