45,000 International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) dockworkers now on strike,

[guyfriday]

This article is hilarious:
https://ilaunion.org/ilas-big-jack-penni...-best-way/


A pseudo-newsy update about a Facebook rant.  I think these guy's real job is to be as much of a stereotype as possible.  Grr automation bad!  They're trying to stick it to the working man!  We's got your back!

From that story I linked to above:

Along his rise to power, Daggett has been dogged by allegations that he benefited from mob support in various ways. Two decades ago, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn accused him of benefiting from a mob conspiracy to elect him head of the ILA, which he was not at the time. He was acquitted.
 
During the trial, Daggett denied wrongdoing and said he rose through the ranks because of worker support. Daggett testified that a hit man who was cooperating with the government in the case had put a gun to his head years earlier because Daggett was intent on moving the union from Manhattan to New Jersey, where many of his members work. They also relied on a star witness — the hit man who co-founded the gang the Jets and was clinically deaf so could only read lips — who wasn’t considered credible by the jury.
 
One of the co-defendants in the case was missing during the trial and later found dead in the trunk of a car outside a diner in New Jersey — also acquitted but dead.
 
Still, even after that case fell apart, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn continued to describe Daggett as “an associate of the Genovese family” in a separate but related racketeering case that has been lingering in court for nearly a decade.

Daggett sees himself as some kind of Mafioso union boss and doesn't want to back down, he also wants his kid to replace him as such and might be willing to go a little nuts about this. 

Here's what I see, and I don't like Biden.

This Daggett guy is doing this for political reasons hoping to hurt Biden and Harris before the elections. I say that's "Election Interference". He also is willing to damage the US economically for his own personal gain of having his kid replace him, that smells like Treason and self-enrichment to me. So why hasn't the DOJ or FBI gone after this guy yet? I mean if he was a small business owner that supported Trump, he would be locked away already. Kind of makes one wonder if the Genovese Family has some shadowy deal with the D'Alesandro Family, and that's why Biden and his administration hasn't done crap on this. 

Could Pelosi be behind this strike to ensure that Trump has to deal with a completely wrecked economy when he heads into office?

[UltraBudgie]

He doesn't exactly seem like a national political mastermind. More like a guy who knows how to play his game within the power structure he's learned. More likely, he's intuited that the time is right to make a move, raise a stink, present a problem, knowing that the big-league politicos will have to react, will want to make hay, will use the opportunity.  That increases his relevance, his power, makes him important, lets him be a bigger player.  He knows his role. I don't think he gives a flip about political ideology.

[StevieRay]

This guy doesn’t seem like anything special when you look back at the era of John Gotti and Jimmy Hoffa. Those guys were real mobsters and killers.
This jamoke is just pretending he’s those guys. Like saying lines from Goodfellas.

This is where you need Trump in the WH. He would tell this guy to get lost, nobody will have a job in a week. Reagan did it, and he didn’t have half the street smarts or savvy of Trump.
Biden will drool and Harris will zone out. I guess Bootyjudge will be busy nursing his baby.

[Maxmars]

I would like to opine here.

We can, and will, apply our local political theatrical flavor on this.  That's normal. 

People often fall back to the talking heads when any larger-scale event impacts everyone across a large swath...

The talking heads - in a world not driven by bank think-tanks and 'business' marketers - could enlighten us, if they didn't have a fixed framework defining their ideas. 
Most of them have that element of bias. 
They can't speak to the issues without supporting their base, and or attacking their antagonists. 
So we get public narratives of drama, hyperbole and emotions.

Most of us can only assume that we "know" what the dockworkers gripes truly are.  "We" don't really know how they have had to deal with rampant inflation, unyielding resistance to pleas for relief, the never-ending push driving them into "more" productivity for equal 'cost to employers,' not to mention their own limitation of having to endure their 'collective leadership' choosing exactly how to represent them. 

It's not just 'similar' to political theater, it's eerily 'identical.'

A strike is a form of aggression. It's a line drawn in the sand... a formal declaration hiatus to resolve conflict of interest. 
And the end of a strike is always characterized as a 'surrender' or 'victory' by public militant types. 

Ideally, resolution of a strike is a compromise.
A compromise is a guarantee that both sides of a disagreement are dissatisfied with the result, where neither side is unacceptably victimized by it.

These are two businesses fighting.  The two businesses are those of 'collective bargaining representation' and the business of 'representing for-profit enterprise.' 
Their fight is leveraged against pain and suffering inflicted on mostly consumers, tax-payers, and citizens. 
Isn't that convenient for them? 
For the Union, it's about "their collective supporting them"... for the business it's about "not making as much profit as they could otherwise."

In a a world where 'for-profit' is literally expected to shunt their increased costs to the consumer, it will always lead to opportunistic profiteering... here come the retailers, and associate service providers... smacking their lips, and licking their chops... this is GOOD for them... it happens every time.

I would suggest jettisoning the impulse to attribute the problem to individual 'personalities of the political persuasion' and theatrical assignments of "those people."

We ALL need food, materials, products that we get from trade. 

Dockworkers ostensibly chose to stop working because they are at the end of their patience with the status quo "business." 
I really don't know how that 'reasonable,' nor can I say the employers "collective" practices in managing this are "reasonable.'

Whatever the Union says about management... don't listen.
Whatever management says about the Union... don't listen.

If we had journalists anymore we could expect them to provide the facts... but we don't... they only provide theater now.
If we had a sober government we could expect them to provide facts... but we don't... they only exploit theater now.

All I know is that the price of goods is very likely to rise, and the economic noose of survival will be tightening.

You can be sure politicians will "use this" on their stage.

PS - If you practice Christmas... start early this year.

[KKLoco]

Should we be surprised the Biden administration couldn’t facilitate a deal? 
They’ve got plenty of resources to send to the Ukraine, Israel, and the illegal migrants coming over the border. But they’ve got nothing to help our own infrastructure.

Right at a time of a hurricane and the holiday season to boot. Well guys, buckle up, the rise of inflation is BACK! It’s never been more obvious that our government doesn’t just not like us — they fucking hate us!

And the guy in the video is clearly an incredible douchebag. So screw him too!

[Maxmars]

Should we be surprised the Biden administration couldn’t facilitate a deal? 
They’ve got plenty of resources to send to the Ukraine, Israel, and the illegal migrants coming over the border. But they’ve got nothing to help our own infrastructure.

Right at a time of a hurricane and the holiday season to boot. Well guys, buckle up, the rise of inflation is BACK! It’s never been more obvious that our government doesn’t just not like us — they fucking hate us!

And the guy in the video is clearly an incredible douchebag. So screw him too!

I think it is a strange posture... to value international support over a crisis in the actual state.

I fear that way lies discussions about globalism, cronyism, syndicate rule, and other vectors.
And the public servants intentions aren't really suppose to "rule over" the citizens will in any case... so how is that this isn't a "major" consideration (given our own national economic circumstances?)... 
It's all a tangled web of discrete 'deals', international 'contracts', and 'allegiances?' How about not having that be a "real" thing?  Is that too much to ask?

I disagree with you... I don't think it's a 'hatred' of our nation... I think it's worse... I think they don't care.

The citizens are "of use," they use "us." 

The body of citizen is treated like an employee you want to keep happy, so they never learn how much you're ultimately exploiting them.

(It is the politician's explicit role to make you think they really do... and they are "just like you." - They're pretty good at it, you gotta give them that.)

[guyfriday]

Well now that it's getting talked about more:
Biden won't force ports to resume operations by invoking labor law (msn.com)

As dockworkers strike at seaports on the East and Gulf Coasts, the Biden administration has affirmed it will not use a federal labor law known as the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike. 
 
"We have not used Taft-Hartley, and we're not planning to," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told FOX Business' Edward Lawrence on Tuesday.

The main point here is this,

President Biden, whose administration has tried to facilitate talks between the two sides, has said that he won't use a federal labor law known as the Taft-Hartley Act to intervene in the strike. Under that law, Biden could take action that results in an 80-day "cooling off" period for negotiations to resume while workers are back at work.

That 80 day cooling off period would take us to late December and allow the end of the year Economic Boom that happens near the Holidays to continue. Without the Biden using this we now have a grid-locked harbors once again. 

As I stated above;
"Could Pelosi be behind this strike to ensure that Trump has to deal with a completely wrecked economy when he heads into office?"

seems to be panning out as the way things are moving behind the scenes.

[Maxmars]

My brain must be broken.

I just can't get my head around why anyone should be able to "make this happen." 

I get this it can happen... but being able to "make it happen" eludes me.

The "cooling off" law was created to at least attempt to avoid the consequences of the conflict.  But initially, the administration didn't want to invoke this law... is the reasoning more than a political platitude, or was it something else?

Is this "remote control government" by "unaccountable committee?"

[Maxmars]

Strike over...

FoxNews: Dockworkers' union reaches tentative agreement, will suspend port strike until January

Or at least until January...

[FlyingClayDisk]

This delay can only be political in nature.  Short of the federal government subsidizing longshormen wages, the government is powerless to do anything related to their union contracts.

What a bunch of bullsh!t!

If elected, Trump should fire them all. 

These people are just as critical to the American economy and functioning of society as the Air Traffic Controllers.

Get to work...or get fired!  Period.