Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Allan from Fallbrook
Participant[quote=CardiffBaseball]
Of course the shit is about to hit the fan as the Islamists aren’t going to go quietly but that was a wonderful scene the other night.[/quote]
Cardiff: If things in Egypt continue to spiral out of control, it will turn into a full-blown civil war.
In turn, that will probably cut into SecState Kerry’s windsurfing schedule.
Participant[quote=urbanrealtor]
What more is going on that other see and I don’t?[/quote]
Dan: Well, if you weren’t actually there, you probably didn’t see the fireworks display.
Participant[quote=no_such_reality]Suspected hollywood panhandling killer arrested 46 times in last eight years[/quote]
NSR: We should outlaw knives.
And being crazy.
June 22, 2013 at 9:57 PM in reply to: Another excellent Economist Mag article on the terrible state pension issues #763148ParticipantIn a somewhat related note, Matt Taibbi has written an article exposing fraud at the various ratings agencies. It’s available online at http://www.rollingstone.com.
I think the point about chasing ever-larger returns is a good one and none of that would have happened without the duplicity/complicity of Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, etc.
June 20, 2013 at 10:22 AM in reply to: Another excellent Economist Mag article on the terrible state pension issues #763074Participant[quote=no_such_reality]No, how’s it compare to Cadillac Desert, basically the building of the West through the water programs.
Incredible DVD if you can find it, originally done by PBS I think. The documentary had interviews with the then surviving key players in the Bureau, etc.[/quote]
NSR: Book is essentially complementary to “Cadillac Desert”, which I have seen. “W&P” has a strong focus on the politics, especially how controlling LA’s water supply led to an incredible concentration of power.
I don’t remember the author, but there’s an excellent bio on William Mulholland that also details the levers of power that took LA from a cow town to major metropolis.
June 20, 2013 at 9:32 AM in reply to: Another excellent Economist Mag article on the terrible state pension issues #763069Participant[quote=no_such_reality][quote=The-Shoveler]
Any repeal or whatever is going to have to be voted on (there is no King of L.A. to ordain new taxes last I checked).[/quote]It’s name is DWP.[/quote]
NSR: Have you read William Kahrl’s book, “Water and Power”? It’s about LADWP and it’s a great read.
June 19, 2013 at 9:25 PM in reply to: San Diego City Council passes prevailing wage ordinance for city contractors #763056ParticipantBG: First off, you’re equating a lack of prevailing wage with unlicensed contractors. This isn’t correct. I work plenty of projects, largely Commercial with Merit (non-union) labor, that are successful, in terms of on-time and on-budget. The majority are GMP (guaranteed maximum price) or Cost Plus contracts in a Design/Build project. All costs, including Design (architects & engineering), Labor and Materials, are completely transparent – the owner/client knows going in what they’re looking at in terms of project costs. You add a reasonable Contingency that contemplates Change Orders and everyone involved adopts a good faith approach to contract delivery.
The key element is good faith. You work with unions you find out about bad faith dealings right from the jump. I’ve worked dozens upon dozens of jobs using labor from the union halls and have yet to work on a single project where the union(s) didn’t try to screw us. Between work stoppages for arbitrary “changed conditions” (this tactic is used to try and jam Change Order after Change Order down your throat), to calling in OSHA for “unsafe conditions” (one notable case involved a single dead rat onsite that was deemed a “health and safety hazard” to a work crew of large, burly carpenters), to having a shop steward idle a crew of welders because the temp inside the building was “excessively high” (it was 74 degrees).
These guys go into every single project with the attitude of how much of a shakedown can they perform. They could care less about delivering a well-constructed building that’s on schedule and on-budget. In the major metro markets, like Chicago, SF and NYC, they’re politically connected and have been pulling this shit for years. We actually have a budget line for “Asshole Tax”, which is the premium you attach when you work in these markets.
BTW, I am not anti-union by disposition. My grandfather on my mom’s side was a union shop steward for Ford Motor out of Dearborn.
However, you work more than a few projects with these guys and the scales fall from your eyes pretty quick.
June 19, 2013 at 5:23 PM in reply to: San Diego City Council passes prevailing wage ordinance for city contractors #763044Participant[quote=bearishgurl]
Tom Lemmon of the San Diego County Building and Construction Trades Council said costs will be held down because the pool of bidders will increase. He said 500 to 1,000 contractors won’t bid on city work now because they pay prevailing wages and don’t want to be undercut by companies that give less money to employees…
SD Squatter, it this actually newsworthy or is it an attempt to incite folks to jump on the bandwagon in the race to the bottom?
As it should be. Are these reputable licensed contractors all bad because they pay a “living wage” in a town where there is are undocumented immigrants available everywhere to undercut them who have NO workers comp insurance, little to no tools of the their own and no formal training whatsoever? How is a well-trained Joe6P American Journeyman supposed to make a living? They have rent/mortgage to pay and have to eat and put gas in their truck, just like YOU![/quote]
BG: This is a pretty knee-jerk response on your part. It isn’t as though there are only two choices here: “Living wage” or “undocumented illegals”.
I’ve been doing Military/Federal construction since the late 1980s and I can tell you that Prevailing Wage (Public Works projects) and Union Scale (Commercial/Metro projects) are some of the most overpriced, poorly done and corrupt projects going – the SF Bay Bridge “retrofit” following the Loma Prieta quake being Exhibit A.
These projects are larded with pork, kickbacks and all sorts of “giveaways” to family members, political supporters, etc.
As to “living wage”, well you haven’t lived till you’ve spent $125/hr on a union welder (+ fringes!), whom you don’t even get for a full eight hour work day (due to union work rules, union-mandated breaks and safety meetings).
Costs here, like Chicago and NYC, will skyrocket.
ParticipantSK: Would strongly concur that nothing is as simple as it seems. However, I’d also opine that, if one were to look at the larger picture, it certainly seems that opacity and not transparency are the order of the day.
No, I’m not speaking of the federal level and the various and sundry secrecy and privacy issues consuming the present administration.
I’m speaking at the state and local levels. Everything from the excessive fees that Detroit continues to pay investment banks to Chicago’s “sale” of parking meters to Wall Street (and, if you’ve recently parked in downtown Chicago, you’ll know exactly what I mean about excessive costs).
The average American citizen is being sidelined by government at every level. Whether by a president that tells us “trust me, it’s for your own good” (NSA) and “you wouldn’t understand the complexities (Syria)”, to state officials busily selling out to the Prison-Industrial Complex (California), to local officials who’ll plead they’re simply following the new law and why don’t you go and stick that request where the sun don’t shine.
It’s all of a piece.
Participant[quote=SD Realtor]damn republicans….[/quote]
SDR: There are still Republicans in California?
Where?
Participant[quote=no_such_reality]Wow, right out of 1984
Obama: NSA secret data gathering “transparent”
[quote]WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obayma defended top secret National Security Agency spying programs as legal in a lengthy interview Monday, and called them transparent — even though they are authorized in secret.
“It is transparent,” Obama told PBS’s Charlie Rose in an interview to be broadcast Monday. “That’s why we set up the FISA court,” he added, referring to the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that authorizes two recently disclosed programs: one that gathers U.S. phone records and another that is designed to track the use of U.S.-based Internet servers by foreigners with possible links to terrorism.
The location of FISA courts is secret. The sessions are closed. The orders that result from hearings in which only government lawyers are present are classified.[/quote][/quote]
NSR: This shit would be funny as hell, if it weren’t so fucking terrifying.
Gotta love the balls on Obama, though. This dude has mastered the art of outright lying into the camera. His feigned outrage over the IRS kerfuffle was priceless. As was his assertion that he found out about it whilst reading the newspaper. Shoulda known that was BS right there. Who friggin reads the papers anymore, anyway?
Brave New World, baby. This shit is as much Aldous Huxley as it is George Orwell.
ParticipantDave: I’m Catholic. We’re still trying to get out of the 16th century.
Kidding aside, I grew up inside a culture that was the epitome of hypocrisy. People who were hugely judgmental and yet were drunks, drug abusers and philanderers.
My dad always cautioned that, as soon as someone started spouting off about their piety, check to make sure you still have your watch and wallet.
And don’t even get me started about the Mormon girls I knew in high school…
Participant[quote=KIBU]
Your delusion is proven twice on this thread, without a doubt.[/quote]KIBU:.I gotta tell you, that quote above sounds just like something I’d get in a fortune cookie.
Kidding aside, nothing has been proven. You’ve provided no evidence to support your position (and linking to random stories constitutes neither argument nor evidence).
You’ve made hysterical claims about “proguns” being “self-delusional” and “screaming” (and, for the record, I don’t scream, I bellow), but have offered absolutely nothing in terms of a plan or a program that YOU would implement to solve the problem.
As I’ve stated from the outset, you don’t know how to mount a simple argument, let alone a compelling one.
I’ve stated without equivocation that we have a problem.
I’ve made my position on gun safety, universal background checks and registration crystal clear.
You, on the other hand? I have no idea what your thoughts on any of these things are. Why? Because you’ve hidden behind snark, sarcasm and lies.
So, my delusion has been “proven” twice without doubt? Um, yeah, not so much. I would strongly recommend that Mommy and Daddy write the college you went to and demand their money back. Stat.
Participant[quote=KIBU]Thanks Mike, but I remembered reading some of these back in 2012. Thanks for reminding these news.[/quote]
Yeah, Mike, cuz there haven’t been any similar stories since 2012…
And, yes, “thanks for reminding these news.”
KIBU, are you employed by the People’s Republic of China? It would explain the distinctly Marxist tone and verbiage you use, as well as the contorted and strangled grammar.
-
AuthorPosts
