ILA Union Chief wants our roadways to be run like U.S. Ports again

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Back to the future: remember tollbooths? 

Union boss Harold Daggett rages against E-ZPass for costing union jobs in video weeks before strike shut down ports

Harold Daggett, the union boss who shut down 14 US shipping ports, went on a wild rant about technology just weeks before dockworkers went on strike Tuesday – and even took aim at E-ZPass. 

The head of the International Longshoreman’s Association decried the loss of toll booth workers because the shift to E-ZPass allows motorists to zip through “like it’s nothing and then get billed in the mail,” according to an interview last month.

“All those union jobs are gone,” he said in the Q&A posted to ILA’s YouTube channel on Sept. 5.

The foul-mouthed boss also fumed over the proliferation of self-checkout kiosks in retail stores.

“Someone needs to go to Congress and say, ‘Whoa, time out,’ this world is going too fast for us. Machines have got to stop,” he said during the 17-minute video.

Daggett, who has led the union since 2011 and rakes in nearly $1 million in salary, has demanded a nearly 80% pay increase for ILA’s 45,000 workers from Maine to Texas and an end to automation projects by port operators. 

Needless to say, Mr. Daggett has the full support of the Harris-Biden administration.

Here’s the video — begin at 4:45

Who here remembers COVID? Same people. (UPDATED)

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Politicians Are Hindering Rescue Efforts in North Carolina, and One Rescuer Has Had Enough

One Florida entrepreneur who has been trying to rescue people for several days vented his frustrations in an Instagram video on Tuesday. Jonathan Howard has been working on rescue efforts since over the weekend, and he didn’t hold back in explaining what’s going on. You can watch the video here, but I didn’t embed it because of the profanity.

“I try not to cuss but I am just so mad at the lack of Government support and I need people to hear how desperate this situation is,” Howard wrote in his caption. “I don’t have time to be nice or gentle right now. People are literally dying by the day here and it can all be fixed with Helicopters. It’s like our Government wants these people to die. They’re so incompetent, disorganized, and dishonest it’s disgusting.”

Related: Parts of Georgia Are Struggling After Helene Powered Through the State

Howard is a member of the Florida State Guard Special Missions Unit, and he has been working with a non-profit called Aerial Recovery to help save lives. But he’s running into infuriating bureaucratic brick walls.

“I'm gonna tell you everything that's happening from the ground, what I'm actually seeing because what they're telling you is complete bulls**t on the news, and these politicians don't have a f***ing clue and they’re lying,” he began.

Howard emphasized the need for helicopters in the air to help search for people. Chainsaws and trucks aren’t enough. He said that people are “10 miles in, 20 miles, 40 miles in the mountains. There's no way to get with them or even communicate with them. I am literally flying around in a civilian helicopter looking for SOS messages carved in the mud or paint on the ground, and we're dropping down and saving them.”

He related how he and his friends rescued an 11-day-old baby, yet government entities were using the media to claim credit for the rescue. They rescued an older woman who was on oxygen and only had one day left in her supply.

Howard pointed out that he has only seen two Blackhawks engaging in search and rescue. On the other hand, he has counted around 40 civilian helicopters trying to find people and save them from the devastation.

“I have my entire team up here from Florida right now, and they have no ability to go rescue these people other than what they can drive to,” he lamented. “The people that are in dire need, they're out in the mountains. They are completely cut off.”

Howard said that his congresswoman was able to get two contracted helicopters for search and rescue, but he also pointed out that local authorities are stopping even the media from seeing how bad the destruction is. He related a story that sheriff’s deputies in the Lake Lure area wouldn’t let CNN video the devastation.

He also gave an example of the buck-passing that’s going on in North Carolina:

I should also say, when I flew here on Sunday, they actually stopped us from going in, the sheriff’s department. And it was because of a bunch of politics that they were claiming was the Speaker of the House of North Carolina that was preventing us from even going in and trying to kick us out, which I have clarified today with North Carolina politicians that reached out to me — good on them — and they were like, “That's complete bulls**t. Speaker of the House has nothing. He wants you guys there.”

But this is the kind of political BS that is happening here right now. Like, everyone's trying to be in charge without taking any type of action. Nobody wants to coordinate with anybody. Everybody wants to pretend like they're being a hero while these people are literally f***ing dying in the mountains. And these people, like I'm saying, these people are on limited medication. They're running out of oxygen, and there's no one going to get them.

“The most effective way I have found to go find these people is by getting in a helicopter and flying down the rivers and roads and looking for SOS messages or people waving us down, and then we drop down and get them,” he added.

Howard pointed out that some of his colleagues are funding their rescue missions out of their own pockets. At the same time, Air Force helicopters are grounded and personnel aren’t working because they’re awaiting Title 10 orders that aren’t coming from above.

“There's military helicopters all over here sitting on the ground, and they can't do nothing,” he vented. “Even my JSOC boys in Fayetteville, they can't get orders if they're not here. It is just the most disgusting thing, and they're killing these people. And I don't know why they're doing it.”

Bonus Material:

Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you the President of the United States

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Pot, meet kettle:

Convenient memory lapse here, even if it’s probably authentic:

And what about the $42 billion for the broadband initiative to help rural areas? The Biden-Harris team hasn't connected anything yet. 

Why Has Joe Biden's $42 Billion Broadband Program Not Connected One Single Household?

The senior Republican FCC commissioner blames progressive politics, while lawmakers and telecom companies blame bureaucratic red tape.

"In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans," Brendan Carr, the senior Republican commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) this month. "Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest."

In an April 2023 letter to Davidson, 11 Republican U.S. senators warned that "NTIA's bureaucratic red tape and far-left mandates undermine Congress' intent and would discourage participation from broadband providers while increasing the overall cost of building out broadband networks."

Among several examples, the senators noted that NTIA's BEAD proposal "requires subgrantees to prioritize certain segments of the workforce, such as 'individuals with past criminal records' and 'justice-impacted […] participants.'" The infrastructure law that authorized the program merely required contractors to be "in compliance with Federal labor and employment laws."

The previous year, in a letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Republican senators warned that the NTIA's proposed BEAD rollout "creates a complex, nine-step, 'iterative' structure and review process that is likely to mire State broadband offices in excessive bureaucracy and delay connecting unserved and underserved Americans as quickly as possible."

In practice, this is exactly what's happening: Multiple representatives from the telecommunications industry told MinnPost this week that they had no interest in applying for a piece of Minnesota's $652 million in BEAD grants. Brent Christensen, president and CEO of Minnesota Telecom Alliance, which represents 70 Minnesota telecom companies, said, "None of them would bid for the federal grants because of the regulations that would come with it—especially the requirement to provide low-cost services to low-income households in exchange for grants that would allow internet providers to build out their networks."

And so on.

“Government isn’t the answer to the problem, government IS the problem”

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Ronald Reagan, Inaugural Address January 20, 1981

photo credit: Gavin Newsome, Governor CA

  • And:

  • And:

State and Federal Governments Impeding Hurricane Relief

Almost all the aid that flowed into North Carolina and Georgia came from private individuals. The helicopters were privately owned, the Starlink terminals were donated and flown to the area by civilians, and locals were helping each other out as the state and federal governments were slow to respond. 

  • And:

Elon Musk: Lawfare cost lives.

FCC denied Starlink the funding last year over doubts in the company supplying fast enough speeds.

One of the FCC commissioners called out the 2023 vote as “political” in his dissent of their decision.

“Today’s decision mirrors many of the same missteps that the Biden Administration is
making in its implementation of other, multi-billion-dollar infrastructure initiatives. The Biden
Administration is choosing to prioritize its political and ideological goals at the expense of connecting Americans. We can and should reverse course,” FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr wrote at the time.

FCC reportedly rejected the claims that their Starlink vote was “politically motivated.”

Uh huh.

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Doubtless we will see the media whores give this story the same prominence they accorded the 51 spymasters' and REMFS’ own letters*

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200+ fmr. generals, admirals endorse Trump

In a letter released on Monday by Flag Officers 4 America, more than 200 retired military leaders announced they were endorsing Trump for president, claiming he is “a proven leader who will secure our border, repulse our adversaries, revitalize our economy, and keep America safe and strong.”

The retired military leaders described the upcoming November election as the “most important election” since the founding of America.

The retired generals and admirals warned, “We are at a historic crossroad where we must either choose to stand for our Constitution and its underlying traditional values which have made America great, or we continue down the path the current administration’s top leadership is taking into the deadly abyss of socialism and authoritarian cultural Marxism.”

In Monday’s letter, the retired military leaders argued that the Democratic Party has divided Americans through a “cultural war,” while foreign enemies have promoted anti-Semitic and anti-American actions on college campuses across the country. The retired military leaders also warned that the United States could soon be “drawn into a war across multiple theaters with peer and near-peer adversaries, and it could lose.”

The endorsement letter added, “As the Administration imposes divisive social engineering programs embodied in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the expense of warfighting readiness, China, Iran, Russia, North Korea, and global terrorists are rapidly expanding their capabilities and aggressiveness. This did not happen during Donald Trump’s presidency.”

In Monday’s letter, the retired military leaders listed multiple political policies and actions that they claimed have left the United States in a “perilous situation,” including the southern border crisis caused by open border policies, the poor condition of the economy caused by inflation and other policies, and the physical and mental condition of the commander-in-chief, which they claim Harris “deliberately concealed” from the American people.

The retired military leaders suggested that the current national security threats facing the United States can be reversed by new policies. As a result, the retired generals and admirals wrote, “We endorse Donald J. Trump for president based on his proven national security track record. His policies, coupled with his ability to implement them in the face of opposition, worked before and will work again.”

*Why Harris’ support from retired U.S. military leaders matters

Job opportunities for American college kids — should we start a GoFundMe page to pay their airfare?

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'We're Hiring!' Exclusive Interview with Hezbollah's Chief Recruitment Officer

Free Beacon’s Andrew Stiles managed to snag an interview with Mr. Jarad Fayad, Hezbollah’s new recruitment officer, and it’s enlightening. Excerpt:

There has never been a better time to apply for a job in the Hezbollah organization, as we are in the midst of a bold restructuring program that has created a number of enticing advancement opportunities for new and existing employees. We are currently seeking applicants to fill dozens of recently vacated roles on Hezbollah's senior leadership team—including the secretary general position. Rest assured, the application process is a mere formality at this point given the 100 percent acceptance rate for new hires in the month of September. Motivated individuals are already being promoted at an unprecedented rate.

That's fantastic! Can you talk a little more about what you're looking for in a prospective Hezbollah employee? 

First and foremost, we're looking for people who are alive. It's something many of our older and most senior executives have struggled with of late, so that alone will get you in the door and moving up the ranks in no time. An intense hatred of Jews is preferred, as is proficiency in Microsoft Office programs, but it's not a dealbreaker. Hezbollah is committed to fostering an inclusive workplace environment while also striving to root out and eliminate infidel collaborators whose nefarious influence threatens to erode our core competencies and undermine our ability to leverage intentionality in pursuit of cross-functional returns.

Can you describe some of the challenges facing your organization? 

At the moment we are currently facing a lot of Jewish-related challenges, although ironically our media coverage has been mostly positive. Brain drain, so to speak, has also been an issue. Like most organizations, Hezbollah has faced a number of setbacks involving communications technology. Regrettably, we had to issue an urgent recall notice affecting a large number of personal communication devices earlier this month. I think I already mentioned the problem of nefarious collaborators, which is terribly annoying.

That sounds awful. Again, I'm so sorry this is happening to you. What can you tell me about the Hezbollah headquarters? What's it like to work there? 

Well, our headquarters in Beirut is undergoing significant renovations at the moment, so we are pleased to offer a flexible work-from-home policy for new and existing employees. We'll do our best to sponsor some happy hour events in the near future. We at Hezbollah are laser-focused on maintaining a joyous vibe within the organization. The way we see it, "terrorism" is just another word for hanging out with the guys. One of the things we like to stress is [loud bang, sound of man screaming like a bitch].

What the hell was that? Hello? Jafar? 

[hissing, gurgling]

RELATED:

Not so much lies, perhaps, as abject ignorance

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Expert Calls Out VP Debate Moderators’ Climate Lies

Climate alarmists, despite what CBS debate moderators asserted, “can't demonstrate that emissions are really having any effects on anything other than maybe they're helping the planet get greener, which means there's more life,” Junk Science’s Steve Milloy told PJ Media.

The CBS vice presidential debate moderators, Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan, tried to tie Hurricane Helene to “climate change” and pressured both Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz to endorse government climate action. But “the notion that this is a man-made or -enhanced or -caused weather event is just without a foundation,” Milloy explained.

Milloy, a Senior E&E Institute Legal Fellow and former Trump EPA Transition Team Member, insisted that there’s “been no increase in strong hurricanes. There's been no increase in the frequency of hurricanes. The sort of storm that hit the Big Bend of Florida has happened before.” Indeed, as of Jan. 2023, data indicated major hurricanes were becoming less frequent.

In terms of “observational data,” Milloy continued, the theory that “emissions have somehow warmed the ocean water is completely faulty, because it's physically impossible for the atmosphere to warm the ocean. So it's impossible for emissions to warm the ocean.” While Helene “may be a record weather event … that's not really going to be unexpected, because we've been through a pretty extraordinary past year, which is not explainable by emissions. It was an El Nino year. There are other factors.” Helene wasn’t caused or intensified by human actions.

Alarmists assert storms are “made more likely by climate change. I have no idea what they're talking about,” Milloy told me. “Storms have always happened. They always will happen. The ocean water … has warmed recently. But once again, the atmosphere cannot warm the ocean.” Rather, “the primary warmer of the ocean is the sun, and the other is [that] water can be warmed from beneath. That's probably how El Nino has developed. So both of these things are natural, have nothing to do with humans.”

Milloy cited an “ironic” article he found from last year saying people were moving to Asheville, NC, which has since been devastated by Helene, “because they thought it would be … safe climate wise. And of course, you know, climate is a ridiculous reason to do anything. They should have been thinking about the weather.” After all, “those mountains get storms,” Milloy pointed out, “it's a flood-prone area. And this time they got a really big one, and no one was ready for it, because I guess they're imagining that emissions are a problem.”

When you make decisions based on what climate alarmists say, disaster is sure to follow; not a single climate doom prophecy has come true in many decades.

There are certainly liars out there, and they’re lying about global warming for a variety of reasons, including profiting from the results of the hysteria they’e producing, and controlling the masses, but I don’t credit “journalists” with the wit to be among those profiteers; they’re just simpleminded mebers of the flock, mindlessly repeating what they’ve been told.