The Trump Impeachment Thread

Quote: Evenbob

We are, we're giving him four
more years. Thanks for being
on board the Trump Train.

The only train here is the one being run on the American public, and the only support I'd give is the gallows with which to hang him.

Quote: Face

The only train here is the one being run on the American public,

Tough to sell that around here where
jobs are booming and businesses
have more jobs than people to fill
them. Did you see the video of the
Black leader summit? Even Blacks
love them some Trump, and the Dems
are going crazy over it.

UAW is on strike for the 4th week.

Quote: petroglyph

UAW is on strike for the 4th week.

I'm not really sure what you are trying to imply by this post which followed EB's post which said "jobs are booming and businesses
have more jobs than people to fill them'. What I do know is that those UAW workers have jobs.

In a few minutes of looking I found the following:

More than 200 insurance job openings available in Missouri

Aerospace parts supplier to expand Butner plant, create scores of jobs

Solar tax exemption passes in California, POWERHOME hiring and expanding in SC: pvMB 9/10/19

Manufacturing in recession? Not so far in this factory hub.

I have little doubt I could find many more examples.

Quote: fleaswatter

I'm not really sure what you are trying to imply by this post which followed EB's post which said "jobs are booming and businesses
have more jobs than people to fill them'. What I do know is that those UAW workers have jobs.

In a few minutes of looking I found the following:

When I posted that about the strike, I was thinking about the economy not jobs per se. During the cold war, everyone in Russia had a job as well, everyone. When I go out to Lowe's, I see a bunch of middle age men, or women who haven't worked there long, that should be nearing polishing off their working careers someplace.

Then I go down to the local WM, hate to admit it. But the cashiers there are mostly in their 60-80's, that isn't the picture of a good economy, that is the picture of a collapse. The fed has been loaning [printing] to tbtf banks [who they won't give the names of] between 75 and 150 billion dollars per week. The banks should be making money hand over fist in a good economy rolling out of 2007 and the trillions they got for nothing or near nothing. What are they doing back at the trough?

So I took a look at your links here, and this is briefly how I see them:

Quote:

More than 200 insurance job openings available in Missouri

Positions in sales will be there forever and ever. That looked like Allstate is wanting to sell basically franchises in the insurance biz. My wife was an agent for awhile, at the very top there is some money, but toward the bottom is a lousy wage.

Quote:

Aerospace parts supplier to expand Butner plant, create scores of jobs

<creating 126 jobs,>
<will invest $2.7 million>
<salaries of the new positions could reach $55,149,> Not terrible, but those jobs are " replacing jobs at "produce a portfolio of more than 6,500 older aircraft parts that have been licensed or acquired from major manufacturers, such as Honeywell, UTC Aerospace, Safran, Curtiss-Wright, GE Aviation and Thales."

So they are basically doing what Boeing wanted to do, is move really good manufacturing jobs to a low wage state and do the same for less. That's life, I know, just the way the world turns. But that isn't a net gain for the economy.

Quote:

Solar tax exemption passes in California, POWERHOME hiring and expanding in SC: pvMB 9/10/19

I didn't go into that one, but the state forcing new homeowners into putting solar on their roofs? I have reservations about solar, having worked in the electric business. The guys I talk to say, solar panels start breaking down the day you install them. I think it's another taxpayer subsidized fiasco, that will benefit friends in high places. Az. was doing that, and it sucks all the way around except the installer makes a buck.

Quote:

Manufacturing in recession? Not so far in this factory hub.

I disagree with the author's premise that manufacturing isn't going down. From the link: <the outlook here in this battleground county in a battleground state is softening.>
<2019 is proving to be the year of the slowdown nationally, >
<The weak unemployment growth is particularly noticeable in the blue-collar industries >
<if current trends continue and two others will see growth in those industries cut by 75% or more.>

Quote:

I have little doubt I could find many more examples.

Good point about the striking workers, they do have jobs. When I posted about the strike though, I was thinking about the economy. Not trying to cast shadows on Bob.

As far as GM goes, I believe they are having a really bad year? I read Ford's bonds were recently rated as "Junk" by Moodys.

Whenever over the decades I have heard someone say, " I have jobs and I can't find anyone to fill them", I always think that they didn't finish their sentence. What they mean to say is, "they can't find anyone to fill them" at this price. I've told more than one, try raising the pay 20% and you will have a line of applicants around the block. It's always about the money.

Quote: petroglyph

Whenever over the decades I have heard someone say, " I have jobs and I can't find anyone to fill them", I always think that they didn't finish their sentence. What they mean to say is, "they can't find anyone to fill them" at this price.

THANK YOU!

It's been ever since the recession. I had just became GM of a truck stop and gas went up to $4+. Our prices exploded. I was on all the way through $4.50 and was still on when it came back to $2.50. But when it got back to $2.50, nothing else followed.

Ever since then, life's been f#$%ed. That's when I went to the casino. I walked in to ~$22/hr with no experience. Today, 10yrs later, that job requires a 4 yr degree and tops out at $14.XX. My old GM job still has the same salary as it did in 2002.

"5mm jobs added!" Glad it makes you feel good. I got 3 of em, no restrictive debt, and still have no hope of buying a house. It f#$%ing sucks d#$%.

Richest goddamn nation on the planet and I'm working harder than my parents ever did with little hope to ever reach their level of security. FOH.

Quote: Face

Richest goddamn nation on the planet and I'm working harder than my parents ever did with little hope to ever reach their level of security. FOH.

Oh my, I don't know where
to start. You're kidding, right?

Quote: Evenbob

Oh my, I don't know where
to start. You're kidding, right?

Not at all. Pick a place and start, show me where I'm wrong.

My g-pops had a 9th grade education. Walked right into town and started working at 14-ish. By the time he was in his 30's he was pulling what I pull now, only in 1963. Bought his first house at 23. Never had a thought about outsourcing, "reorganization", wage slashing, hiring freezes, loss of work, or any of the myriad issues that are SOP for us youngers today.

Mom and pops? State jobs. High school diploma. Pension. Union. Started out of high school, both long retired already. I remember as a child the row caused by delaying COLI. COLI! We didn't get our $0.35 raise on time! I remember in the mid 80's asking how much they made. $30k each. We bought this house for $58k in 1985.

30 years later I make $48k working 1,100hr of OT a yr, and my house goes about $110k in its current state. Pop's new custom ordered truck in '98? $27k. Comparable truck today? $54k. Gas in '98? $0.97. Gas today? $2.59. Two burgers, two fries, $2. Today, $6. Milk? Beef? Produce?

Where am I wrong?

I'm sure it's an urban legend trope, but there's a saying that "the first use of the lightbulb was to keep factories open at night." It's a commentary on how tech advances that allow extra don't ever seem to make it across all peoples. I use this re: USPS all the time. Look at all I posted about the automation, the sheer crushing volume of s#$% we can push out these days thanks to machines. We are paid to deliver. If deliveries go up, our income goes up. We are encouraged daily to find more customers, as more = better. But where's the better FOR ALL? USPS is more efficient, bringing in more money than ever. More customers than ever. More deliveries than ever. So why in the f#$% am I doing more than twice the work and still making less than my elders?

This trend is EVERYWHERE. You know where the trend was heading in 1993 re: the internet? The trend is such that every person in the country today, in 2019, should have access to d/l speeds of 40Gb. 40mf'in GEEBEE! Instead this bounty was handing to the telecoms, who not only pocketed $40,000,000,000 intended for coast to coast fibre and then just kept it without installing s#$% with no recourse, but are further given the options to throttle, bottle, and generally f#$% you over for their profit. I have for the last 8 years paid $75 for 2Mb. TWO f#$%ing EMM! Incredible abilities to manufacture with quality, instead we design planned obsolescence, because f#$% your "buy it once, buy it for life" when I can make a buck off you and yours.

Seriously, EB, point it out. There's probably not an area I'm less educated on than economics, so maybe the answer is right in my face and I'm just too stupid and self absorbed to see it. But I remember my aunt taking off at 18 to go live by herself. I know I am still "living with my parents" at 38, along with millions of other millennials (yeah, we're all grown up now; not "kids" but genuine adults, and we're f#$%ing dying out here). "Go to college" is all I heard as a genuine yute. Turn adult and suddenly it's "college is a rip off!", and all my peers that finished school are in debt, and I know exactly ZERO of the 12 or so dudes I rolled with are in their field of study, and now college is seen as a joke or worse.

The VAST majority of all of my energy revolves around work. Even on comp, there has not been and will not be a single day where work and money doesn't take up the majority of my time and energy. I got kids. I got dreams. I got wants and desires outside of being some f#$%wits beast of burden. The one thing I don't have is a choice. And that, in 2019 in the richest country in the world, is a f#$%ing joke.

Quote: Face

Not at all. Pick a place and start, .

OK. Ever been unemployed for
any length of time? On some
kind of assistance, hurt and
couldn't work for any period
of time. In between jobs, out
of a job? On unemployment,
on disability?

My parents never were for even
a minute. For even a millisecond.
Both of them were always employed,
right till they retired. If they even
had a sick day, I don't remember
it.

Quote: Evenbob

OK. Ever been unemployed for
any length of time? On some
kind of assistance, hurt and
couldn't work for any period
of time. In between jobs, out
of a job? On unemployment,
on disability?

My parents never were for even
a minute. For even a millisecond.
Both of them were always employed,
right till they retired. If they even
had a sick day, I don't remember
it.

'Course. Haven't worked a day of '19 and still have so far got all my checks. And you know I'll just f#$% off a job and walk, so yes, been on these types of assistance several times. Disability twice, unemployment about... 6 times, including winters when I was a carpenter.

I hope you're not missing my point. I don't mean to say there's been no progress, and I will in fact say there's been tons of tons. I am very aware that g-pop's Golden Ticket factory job was spent almost entirely out of the oversight of OSHA, because his employment predated it. This in an adhesive factory that is now a Superfund site. That is an experience that, for all intents and purposes, I will never have to realize, and I give thanks for that.

But retirement... that's part of what's got me f#$%ed up. G-pops did, thanks to company pension. Parents did, thanks to state pension. What's coming down the pipe for millennials? What do WE have to look forward to? Pensions are damn near archaic these days, save the few industries still unionized. Tax law and finance is so GD complicated... how do you "make a plan" when you can't understand the material? And you can't understand the material without education, and cant get education without funds... good friend of mine owns his own financial planning company, it's $1k - $2k for a plan. We ain't got that. What you pullin' in on SS checks and how likely is it that you're going to lose them? All I hear on my end is "All that money you're paying out ain't gonna be there when you get there!"

G-pops had his factory and the other 7 of my extended family all worked for the state. Just show up and set for life. Me? I do have one of those jobs, but I won't be able to finish. We have the same trucks as our parents did (literally lol) but with FIVE TIMES the load. 5 times the labor, 5 time the wear and tear on our bodies. And we're doing it for less money, full stop. My cousin had a kid at 18 so followed g-pops example. Walked into town and got a job. He's just now finishing his 20th year at that same job. No pension waiting, no 401k, no company retirement plan. My PT doc is self employed. In her 60's. JUST heard her sigh out "I should have gotten a state job. I'll be working until I'm dead." Not even $80k a year can free you from perpetual servitude, apparently.

But even that's only a part, EB. Things just aren't the same. There's no sense of community, no sense of team, of family. Gone are the days of ground pounding, knocking on doors, asking for the owner, handshake and eye contact, the areas in which I excell. Gone are the days of investing in employees and viewing them as a crucial part of your organization. Nowadays you send pieces of info electronically and hope your info ticks enough boxes, sight unseen. Nowadays you need connections, you need degrees. You're not an invested part of the team, you're a f#$%ing cog that's as easily replaced as an actual broken cog, just two days on Prime. What am I thinking, scratch that. We just won't replace it all, shift the load onto the remaining, and one person will pocket the savings. Wee!

Please don't read this as a bitch about just money. My bitch is about SECURITY. The idea that what you need to "make it" is within your reach. That you don't have to fear lack of food, loss of home, lack of medical attention. That I can buy something for my kid and know that all I have to do is work, instead of fearing that I'll be chucked on my ass and won't be able to find something else and now that purchase wrecked me. To know that my investment today into my future tomorrow is guaranteed, instead of constantly eliminating pensions, reducing 401k matches, freezing salaries and raising prices to the point that your one room shack in the woods may not be a dream but your only choice.

WTF am I supposed to tell my kid? The only advice I have for him now is to save his bootstraps, cuz if he's anything like his dad he's gonna want to hang himself by 30.