About Me

Name: AfterShock
Biography
Loading...

Create Your Own Blog Find Other Townhall Blogs

Comments

Blog Roll

 
[Click to edit me]

Star Trib Puts the Screw(s) to News Carriers

I can't speak for all independent contractors, but in this editorial I can address an independent contractor class known as news carriers, knowing several personally. The recent bad economy combined with declining tolerance for print media's opinionated reporting and tacit endorsement of (far) left of center politics has led inexorably to declines in circulation. As a for instance, the Minneapolis Star Tribune has lost near 25% of it's suburban readers in the past 36 months. For years Minnesota talk radio hosts as well as consumers of such products have referred to the Star Tribune as the Star and Sickle, or PRAVDA Minnesota.  The incapacity of newspapers such as the Star Tribune to divorce themselves from leftist political commentary and reportage has cut into their circulation as much if not more than those free online news sites upon which they commonly lay blame. The Star Tribune used bankruptcy to restructure their debt in attempts to survive.  They've cut costs in every imaginable and ruthless way possible, but they have not returned to the one avenue of self promotion that might begin to increase circulation -- they have not sworn off their liberal/leftist bias. Of course I wouldn't endorse a right wing or conservative bias either. How about no particular bias in reporting the news and a balanced approach to the editorial page. What ever happened to "point counterpoint" editorials and to the separation of editorial opinion and unbiased reporting? It's the same argument as seperation of church and state -- isn't it?

Long considering themselves champions of the little guy, companies like the Star Tribune demonstrate more consistently that they could care less about the "little guys" working on their behalf. Though many in the newspaper industry are losing their jobs to streamlining and budget cuts, bankruptcy has been used as an excuse to cut the most vulnerable of Star Tribune circulation operations -- the independent news carrier/delivery contractors without whom their newspaper is just so much wasted paper and ink. Among the ways the Stribune has cut costs has been to stop negotiating contracts with individual carriers, favoring instead to insulate themselves with "agents".  By creating an agency and contracting with an individual agent, the Star Tribune has been able to pretend that the end of their delivery responsibility rests with the several agents operating Star Tribune depots located around the state of Minnesota. The Star Trib has been condensing delivery areas into fewer and fewer depot locations while simultaneously cutting per paper delivery rates paid to the carriers and forcing carriers to drive up to 45 minutes just to pick-up the product they're delivering. Amazingly, individual Star Trib agents having had their areas of circulation increase make as much or more money on the increased volume through their depot than they did prior to Star Trib rate cuts.  The little guys -- carriers that actually deliver the paper to the customer's door -- are left to suffer the economic damage of per-paper rate cut and declining circulation.  Most carriers have long accepted they will make less due to fewer customers, and have taken on additional routes to compensate, but suffering such steep per-paper rate cuts on top of it has been devastating.

To date since the same time one year ago, the Star Tribune has effectively cut the independent carrier's per-paper rate by 40%. That means that a carrier who may have been making 18 to $20.00 per 100 papers delivered is now receiving about $12.00 per hundred. Making matters worse, many carriers are forced without contract negotiation to deliver the Wall St Journal, Independent Business Daily, the London Financial Times, The New York Times and USA Today for as little as .08 cents per copy.  These are publications that have more than  1$ to $1.75 retail value per copy. I am also told that additional items for which carriers have traditionally been compensated for delivery such as Star Tribune bills to customers, advertising flyers, bags with samples...  are no longer being paid. Many carriers have been delivering newspapers for decades as a living, and have gotten crushed by the rate cuts and policies which force them to deliver added products without compensation. 

And the crafty staff at the Star Tribune have found yet another ruthless means to profit at carrier expense, which is to charge the individual newspaper carrier 10 times the face value of the newspaper or $5.00 per each customer complaint/service error received, which can be particularly egregious when errors beyond the carrier's control occur such as weather conditions: rain, snow, gale force winds etc; or maybe something innocent like one spouse picking the paper up from the driveway on the way to work leaving the other to believe it wasn't delivered, or plain old newspaper theft. Adding to their assault, the Star Tribune has determined that newspaper carriers should not make more than an arbitrarily determined dollar amount "per hour". I'm told they -- the Star Tribune -- utilize a computer software program that lets each Star Trib agent know how many miles are traveled on each route under their control and how long it should take to deliver each route so as to keep the amount paid to the carrier at or below the Star Tribune's specified dollar per-hour amount.  This software program does not apparently factor in terrain, special customer requests, traffic, weather, drive time to pick-up and load papers from the depot, waiting for late Star Tribune trucks, nor any other delivery costs incurred by the carrier/contractor. The Star Tribune offers this skewed data to their agents as a means to be sure they aren't paying the carrier more than the target dollars per-hour. But independent news delivery contractors are not supposedly paid by the hour, they are contractually paid by each piece delivered. Hence the system being utilized by the Star Trib ensures there will not be a good faith negotiation for rates paid on any route regardless of circumstances. paper routes are not created equal, some have geographical, demographic and zoning differences that greatly impact the time and efficiency of delivery.

News carriers have expenses too.  They are, for starters, very affected by the price of gasoline.  Since 2000 gasoline costs have risen 250% and at times even more and in that time the actual delivery carriers have seen little or NO increase in per-paper payment, in fact just the opposite is true. Carriers are paying more for tires, a set of tires usually lasts one year due to the stresses of delivering routes. Carriers are paying more for brake jobs, a typical carrier will use two sets of pads and rotors a year. Carriers pay more than ever for oil changes.  Carriers wear suspension parts and transmissions out faster than with normal driving. Carriers receive no health-care benefits, no retirement/pension, no matching 401k contributions etc. Carriers are given no time off, no holidays, no vacations, no sick days, nothing.  If an emergency comes up carriers are expected to have a substitute available to deliver their route, however, delivering a newspaper route is not all that simple. The carrier is usually asking someone with no experience to find hundreds of addresses in the dark up and down unfamiliar streets and to place each paper where the customer desires or suffer the consequences of the $5.00 per customer complaint/service-error charged unscrupulously by the Star Trib or under its auspices by Star Trib agents. And all this must be accomplished by 5:30 A.M. each day. 

How many people know where 30, 40, 50 or more individual streets are? Most know the ones they travel frequently and not too much else.  Carriers wanting to vacation must find someone willing to deliver their papers and pay them out of pocket. Of course the carrier loses that money as there is no paid leave for independent contractors. It's just a myth that there's anyone out there willing to substitute someones newspaper route. Who would do so for so little pay, with little idea where they're going and with the potential to lose more money for the carrier paying them than they can expect to make? Carriers simply don't make enough money to afford a staff employed to deliver their routes should they need it done for any reason, they are the last link in the chain that gets the newspaper to the customer. 

The net result is that the independent contractor who wants to keep their job especially in this depressed economy, where jobs and income get more scarce by the day, are enslaved to a system that does not negotiate in good faith, in fact it does not negotiate period.  A system designed cynically with a take it or leave it policy towards the newspaper carrier, who is forced by economic conditions to "take it" in the keester. So this may be the best time ever to remember the newspaper carrier who quite literally braves rain, sleet, snow, traffic and a collapsing economy to bring the news of the day to your doorstep.

Happy Holidays!


Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (14) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Don't Let 'Em Pass Mandatory Coverage

We need to keep the pressure up.  Here's why I didn't support so called conservative Mitt Romney during the '08 elections:  He doesn't "get it", he promoted and then finally signed a bill in Massachusetts that required every citizen there to obtain health insurance coverage.  It doesn't work and has resulted in sky rocketing premiums with decrease in the quality of available care.  Forcing the citizens of Massachusetts to purchase health care, or into a public assisted plan, created a monopolistic environment.  Once insurers know you have to have their products, it removes a key element of competition.  They're no longer competing to make coverage affordable based on volume of participants, they're setting prices at whatever level they feel they can get away with knowing you have little choice. Moreover, once the insurer becomes "required" to provide government mandated coverages to all comers, that also drives premiums up.  Such government mandates have a deleterious effect on free enterprise capitalism and are violations of our constitutional protection from arbitrary regulation by reactionary bureaucrats. 

The proposed penalties for not having insurance are just another tax, whatever they call it.  No conservative should ever attempt to abridge the sovereignty of the people by an operation of law which converts the Citizens of the the United States to wards of the state. Conservatives in congress -- if indeed any exist -- need to get the message out that forced participation is wrong, exceeds government mandate and violates the spirit as well as letter of the Constitution for the United States. And don't give us the "general welfare" clause as an excuse to force participation. Get hold of your representatives and Senators, let them know there will be hell to pay should they pass or even lend tacit support to passage of government mandated health insurance and accompanying IRS penalties.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (7) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

All Power to the... U.N. ?

The Marxist model for governance has failed every time tried, but mention that fact that to any committed communist or other extreme left lunatic -- Jeff Jones, Mark Lloyd, Van Jones come to mind -- and you're likely to hear how there's never been a fair analysis or critique of the Marxist model because it's never been properly and "fully" implemented.  For the purpose of this post, whether or not the analysis has been flawed is not important. I believe the extreme left which is now increasing their grip on our own political process, expects to find out whether their properly and fully implemented assertion is true.  Recently President Obama has taken unprecedented steps to bolster U.N. prestige and authority.  He's the first US prez to chair the security council; he has in the past proposed global taxes to be levied through the U.N., imposed on all nations. Obama has proposed a set of "world regulations" to protect consumers and to arrest or prevent future economic free fall.  Presently set to head up the G20 meeting Obama just floated a proposal for a "new world economic order". The list of Obama's affairs with the U.N. goes on and on.  We know Obama supports the world court; we know Obama's policies and political background are at the extreme left from center -- yes, even Marxist.  We know he has been surrounded by players from the extreme political left most of his life; and we know neither he nor his wife Michelle were "proud" to be Americans until Obama became president. Obama believes he's a transformational president. As messiah, he wouldn't be here just to transform America, he'd have come to transform the world.
 
The whole health care debate, allegations of racism and our focus on town hall meetings has helped President Obama in two ways, (1) it has kept public debate away from his overtures to the U.N. and (2) it has served to set the stage for a truly tragic economic crisis yet to come, one which will, of course, require that the president and the congress take theretofore unimaginable steps to save the nation and by extension the rest of the world.  It's not about health care or the environment, it never was.  The leftist elites could care less about your health or how much carbon you expel unless there's a revenue stream  from  you -- taxpayers -- that transfers wealth to parts unknown through the government. Whether it's the passage of another massively expensive and inefficient health care bill, or the cap and trade legislation or whatever other spending spree they might concoct to spend and tax Americans and American sovereignty into oblivion, is irrelevent, because one way or another the left has been marching us to economic ruin since the '06 elections. But why?  Getting Marxism right, that's why.
 
The obstacle most often cited by the left when discussing the virtues of Socialism (Marxism) -- after they get done whining about talk radio, the alternative media - cable/satellite,  the internet that is -- is that the "rich" and their manufacturing industries can just close up shop and move to a less economically opressive nation to avoid excessive regulation and taxation.  What Marxists want is a set of global, whole-earth regulations that do not allow safe haven to any business or for that matter any taxpayer anywhere in the world. It becomes essential then to have a global governing body to which all nations, their industries and their people will be subordinated.  They also require a global means of enforcement and punishment.  It makes sense that so many of Obama's efforts and policies are seen as being economically and militarily destabilizing to the hot spots of world -- eastern Europe, Asia,  the Middle East.  The crisis needed to implement global Marxism must also be global in its effect and solution. Far from thinking Obama might condem an attack by Israel on Iran, I think that's exactly what he'd like to have happen. The price of oil will hit astronomical heights and the global economy as we used to know it will, like the core of a super red giant, collapse into the economic equivelant of a black hole.
 
For their ideal of Marxism to work, the old paradigm of nation states, individual sovereignty, standing armies and competing economies must be transformed into a one-world order. There must be a single currency or system of credits just like with cap and trade.  There can't be superpowers or 10 or 50 or 100 seperate Governments, one potentially a threat to another; there can be just one government to administer and regulate the activity of an entire world. The mechanisms of capitalism and free enterprise will be wrenched from the private sector and placed into the hands of global regulators.  Just like current plans to mandate health care insurance for all, in their perfect socialist republic of PLANET EARTH everyone will be required to serve the collective; local governing bodies will determine what compensation and what amount of compensation every one should receive, according to need and "social justice".  We will not be free.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (43) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

Obama's Accomplishments Are Manifold

In Eight months Obama has effectively bankrupted the country, we're now surviving on printing presses at the US Mint; he's destroying our NATO alliance; he's given tacit support to banana republics and their dictators in our hemisphere; he's sold out our allies in eastern Europe as well as Israel and Iraq in the middle east; he's stymied our ability to extract our own oil, coal and natural gas resources; he's bowed down to the Kings of the world and kissed their hands; he's about to force cap and trade on us which will carry with it -- by his own administration's estimates -- about $1700.00 a year in new taxes for every household while fat cats like AlGore and George Soros profit wildly; he's disgraced the office he holds by his continued associations and lies about his associations with known criminals, domestic terrorists and racists; he's ignored the constitutional limits on executive power by empowering some 46 unelected, unvetted and unconfirmed Czars to run rough shod over every aspect of public policy; he's kept hidden any records or transcript of who he is; he has created racial tension by repeatedly playing the race card then insisting he is a post racial post partisan president; he's divided this country like it has never been divided before, so much so that it has forced the political middle to choose sides;  he's only been in office eight months and he's not finished yet.  He's become the first ever US president to chair the UN Security Council; he has his sights set on forcing a plan for "peace" on Israel that will create a nation within a nation -- truly a covenant with death; He's refused to condemn Iran for the crimes they commit against humanity, theirs and that of the rest of the world; He's downgraded the war on terror, to a police action and he has blamed America for every conceivable problem suffered in the world until his arrival on the scene. The disconnect between Obama's actions and rhetoric is vast.  Even though at this point many believe Obama's  presidency might have sustained mortal wounds, don't count him out; the world may yet marvel as the wounds heal and he rises, again.
Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (15) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

There Are No Constitutional Rights


Ya can't  count on the constitution to protect your life, liberty and property  because ya can't count on the courts.  And for the record, there  ain't no such a thing as constitutional rights. The only rights you  have or have ever had for that matter, are those you're willing  to personally enforce. That's the primary reason for the second  amendment. Elitists control us when they're allowed to dictate  what rights and limitations we shall have.  Ironically, any number  of rights held by extreme left minorities have been found to exist  by our courts especially when those rights stem from the debauchery  of a Marxist, atheistic society; and I might add,  not one of those rights will  be found or implied to exist within the declaration of Independence  or US constitution.  In contradistinction, those few rights actually  referenced and protected within the US constitution, rights held  that sacred by the founders of this nation, are under constant  attack by the same courts.  

It takes an uncommon courage  to stand against the corruption of our courts and of our government.   In so doing, many a good patriot has come to personal ruin. One  might live a longer healthier more peaceful life just standing  quietly on the sidelines, where your rights and rewards will be  determined by political masters.  But what good will come of such  government granted rights and rewards if in their acceptance we  sacrifice our eternal souls?  

When Obama's private  volunteer army of community organizers come to your door, what  will you say?  What will you concede to them? What will you deny  them?  Who will determine your rights and how will those rights  be enforced?

Only you can answer those questions, and  the time to answer draws near.

 

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (2) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive

the Sovereignty of "We the People"

A good  plaintiff's attorney can  tell you that contracts  were made to be broken.  The constitution for the united States of America is a contract, which has been broken many times. Understanding that contract and its makers  is necessary to appreciate American Citizenship.

FYI:  Keep these four definitions of  the words united, states and America in  mind. They are:  1) the several states -- refers to the original 13 states as  well as the fifty states today; 2) the united states of America -- a generic term referring to any grouping of American states;  3) the United States of  America -- the proper name of our country  i.e.the fifty states of the union, and; . 4) THE UNITED  STATES   OF AMERICA -- the corporate nam e of our government not of our country. note: the use of all upper case letters is common  to the  spelling of artificial persons or entities such as corporations.

Contracts create relationships and artificial entities. Our constitution is a contract by which we, the people -- Citizens of the several states -- created a national government, an artificial entity named  THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (not to be confused with  the United States  of America). THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is a foreign jurisdiction relative to our several states,  existing  physically and geographically upon a 10 mile by 10 mile parcel of land named Washington D.C., ceded by the several united  states of America to the UNITED STATES  to serve as its seat of governance.  It is within that jurisdiction  that the UNITED STATES conducts our business and wields a delegated portion of our collective sovereignty in order to -- among other specified duties -- defend  our borders, manage international agreements as well  as make laws related to the interactions between the several states of  our union pursuant  to the terms and restraints of the Constitution.

This foreign jurisdiction is in effect a place quarantined from the private Citizens of the several states under the terms and provisions  of the Constitution. In most instances Citizens of the several  states of the union entered the corporate UNITED  STATES OF AMERICA thus becoming subject to the jurisdiction thereof, only by extraordinary means.

In addition to securing our lives, liberty and property (pursuit of happiness)  from assault by foreign powers such as England, Spain, Mexico or today from the likes of China, Russia or the "Axis of Evil" -- the constitution was also intended to ensure that our lives, liberty and pursuit of happiness would not be abridged arbitrarily by the enactments of our own governments State and Federal. It provides for our right to redress of grievances, for the preservation of our sovereignty, and it represents the expressed will of  "we the people". The Constitution for the United States is the uniform fabric by which the several states and the people thereof are bound and can expect equality of treatment under the laws of the land.

John   Jay, first  Chief Justice  of the Supreme Court of the United States, summed up the right relationship of we the people to our government in this opinion  from an early case: Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. (U.S.) 471, 1 L.Ed. 440(1793); wherein the Chief Justice  stated in pertinent part:


". . .at the [American] Revolution, the sovereignty [exercised   by the King England over the colonies] devolved upon the people; and  they are truly the sovereigns of this country [the United States of America], but they are sovereigns without subjects. . . with none to govern but themselves;  the citizens of America are equal as citizens, and as joint tenants  in the sovereignty".

 

We  became kings of our own castles, sovereigns over our lives, liberty and property, diminished only to the extent that we formed governments to handle certain limited but necessary duties for our common good.

Federal and State governments are corporate entities created by we the  People, subject to our will via the ballot box and as limited by the precisely stated duties and authority granted by their  respective constitutions.   We are the shareholders so to speak, and those individuals operating at our behest within the framework of the Federal and State Governments are our servants.  State  and Federal Governments of  themselves  own nothing. Whatever   property, land or power they acquire represents an asset belonging   to the shareholders - We the people of the United States of America  and of the several  states.

Somewhere along the line that right relationship  between we the people and the republican form of government we created, has taken  a sharp  left into a South American banana grove.

How did we go from that to this: Trillions of dollars in government created debt to fund socialist medicine a.k.a. "national health-care" and assorted government bailouts; redistribution of our property via the welfare safety net to virtually any liberal/leftist that asks; instituting a mafia-like organization known as the Internal Revenue Service intended to strong arm of  threaten the lives and liberty of American Citizens should they protest too vigorously the legalized theft of their hard earned  property;  how about nationalizing industries like banks, automobile companies   and now perhaps news papers; or refusing to protect our borders  from foreign invasion, in fact castrating our national security mechanism by releasing half truths about CIA interrogation  tactics;  becoming a place where the Federal Government, our servant, suggests that we may be required to serve it through some form or other of mandatory national service; and becoming a place where all governments local,  state and federal use the so called provision of eminent domain to  steal our land and give it to the highest bidder in the name of generating tax revenues for the general welfare of the collective . . .

What about wasteful and hypocritical politicians that abuse our property such as Presidents that might use Air Force One to do fly overs  at 1500 ft  above sea level in the proximity of the Statue of  Liberty and Manhattan Island -- for freaking photo ops and joy  rides,  at  a cost of $350,000.00  a pop? Just remember one thing: that's your airplane, these government bloodsuckers are your employees  capriciously wasting your money and stealing your property. AND As if that weren't enough we have an  administration  apologizing  for our arrogance  and insensitivity throughout the world, because we've had the  temerity to defend our own interests and people against foreign attacks and invasions.

Our federal servants are individuals engaged in the "trade or  business" -- 26 USC §  7701(a)(26) -- of performing the functions of public office,  and use that sacred  trust to spend trillions of your money,  your children's money, your grand children's  money,  your great grand children's money your great great great great. .  . All  in the name of a change  you can believe  in. Translation: change  from  a capitalist, free  enterprise  market economy to a socialist authoritarian  state  that uses the emense size and power of government to control what you  can say, where you can live, what you must  like, what you can't  dislike, what kind of car you can drive,  what you are allowed to own, how you will be allowed to use  or dispose of what you  own . . .  Worst of all, these rulers show respect to our enemies and utter contempt for "We the People" .

We're now governed by public policy, derived from media-manufactured public opinion, regardless of constitutional restraint. Our ability to seek redress is all but destroyed by the sheer expense of bringing suit and by political activism within a judiciary that routinely overturns the will of the people. Our corrupted rulers are simply the result of historically predicted moral decay. It's  akin to the laws of thermal  dynamics. Politicians have used  our self inflicted apathy and ignorance to defeat  us. Political  opinion polls indicate to them that on the whole we're sufficiently dummyfied. So they feel confident  they can  get away with implementation  of their socialist, anti-American authoritarian agenda. This is our fault, their corruption was always predicted, but we gave our tacit consent to this agenda by voting for candidates that declared openly what we should expect -- a change we can believe in. Remember Obama vs. Joe the plumber? We've long let the powers that be choose our candidates; we've stuck our heads in the sand whenever the winds corruption came blowing through our political system -- leaving it for someone else to deal with. 

Today congress, the President and our courts operate outside the authority and circumscribed limits of the Constitution, thus threatening our lives, liberty, property and American way of life more than any foreign army. Government is by nature a consumer of the people's wealth, it produces nothing and can not add a penny to our Gross National Product. It's a beast   devouring our productivity and property.  The so called and  much demonized wealthy people in this country got there  -- Thank  GOD -- by working hard all their lives, innovating, inventing, starting businesses large and small that have employed hundreds, thousands even millions of people. In a dumbed down stupor of envy and resentment we fail to grasp that businesses, be they big or small, and the profits they seek, add greatly to all our wealth. Their pursuit of life, liberty and property (wealth) creates jobs  and opportunity for hundreds of millions of people. It's the beautiful  byproduct of investment, risk and profit.

Soon -- absent a free market economy, under crushing national debt, high inflation and increasing taxation -- we'll be left with a form of government that is truly a fascist/socialist highbrid which, to maintain power and control, will enslave every citizen  economically if not physically.  We will exist only to serve the State within a third world style   economy. Subjects not  sovereigns.  Our Great Country will be reduced to making Yugos not Cadillacs, to importing the staples of life  needed to survive instead of producing, manufacturing and exporting  them, subject to a world government and world court system; we will  follow and never again lead. Our individual freedom, liberty and prosperity will  be a memory of the very old, a memory unknown to our grandchildren, who themselves will be just another asset of the STATE, mere human resources.

May GOD help us

2 help ourselves out of this MESS b4 it's too late

 

 

Email ItEmail It | Print ItPrint It | CommentsComments (2) | TrackbacksTrackbacks (0) | Flag as offensiveFlag as Offensive
« Previous1Next »