Caption: a stew of many mixed ingredients; a medley or miscellany
Caption Photo: Jules favors the margarita as a refreshing libation. She is okay with picking up a blended six-pack at a drive-through that must be consumed immediately to keep them from going bad. It’s the benefit of finding a wet county as you tour America.
Bullet Points:
** Can you identify the fan favorite blogger (right)? Yes, it’s the lovely, mischievous, and talented Jules. “You can tell a lot about somebody by what they wear. They’re fun if their arms are tied in the front and the buckles are in the back.” – Jules Smith
** “Try to work with people more useless than you are. It makes you look spectacular.” – Jules
** I may be old but saw the world before it went to hell.
** I know that the Democrats have vowed to repeal it if they make it into office this year, but just for the record, it’s the law of the land now. Amendment I—Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
** I sat beside Kris Kristofferson in Anaheim Stadium in 1985 during the David Bowie Golden Years performance. Oingo Boingo opened for Bowie that night. It was quite something. (RIP Below)
** (Below) Jules composing “Out West,” which, for reference, doesn’t mean “Wales.” Today is Jules Smith Day on VM!
** (Gateway Pundit) Musk – “Very few Americans realize that this will be the last election if Trump is NOT elected. Far from being a threat to democracy, he is the only way to save it! Let me explain: if even 1 in 20 illegals become citizens per year, something that the Democrats are expediting as fast as humanly possible, that would be about 2 million new legal voters in 4 years. The voting margin in the swing states is often less than 20,000 votes. That means if the “Democratic” Party succeeds, there will be no more swing states!
** Boating with EdB—Though I blame EdB (with some justification) for everything, up to and including the price of tea in China, I don’t know that I can blame him personally for this one. However, I don’t rule out guilt and responsibility for the gross overloading of a ferry in Thailand.
Joe-Ho and the Dockworkers Strike
(WSJ) Your humble correspondent understands that if Ms. Harris wants an example of people using their market leverage to raise prices, she may not find a better one. The cost of labor at America’s ports is about to surge, which means higher prices for many goods.
The Journal’s Paul Berger reports on the dockworkers strike at U.S. ports from Maine to Texas:
‘Members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, representing 45,000 dockworkers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, began picketing early Tuesday at cargo terminals that handle more than half of American import and export volumes as the contract with port employers expired.
“This is going down in history what we’re doing here,” Harold Daggett, the head of the union, told hundreds of dockworkers on the picket lines at the East Coast’s busiest port at New York-New Jersey. “Nothing is going to move without us.”
Daggett rejected an offer late Monday of a 50% wage increase over six years, an increase from an earlier proposed 40% increase in wages, and other benefits improvements.
According to a person familiar with the negotiations, the ILA is seeking a 77% wage increase over six years as a condition for meeting with maritime employers.
That would raise the base hourly rate for a dockworker to $69 from $39.’
Wouldn’t we all like to lock in 77% pay hikes over the next six years? Good for the dockworkers, though they may not be the most sympathetic characters to U.S. consumers.
Mr. Berger notes:
‘Dockworkers are among the best-paid blue-collar workers in America. Neither the ILA nor the port employer group, the United States Maritime Alliance, disclose comprehensive wage data. Still, the base hourly rate of $39 commonly translates into a six-figure annual salary because of work rules and overtime requirements.’
Some readers might think that Vice President Harris will undoubtedly view the demand for another spike in compensation as price gouging.
But the Journal account continues:
‘The White House, which pressed the employer group on Monday to raise its offer, is trying to push the parties to reach an agreement on wages as business groups and Republican lawmakers have stepped up calls for the administration to invoke federal law to keep the ports open.’
Wait a minute. Is the Biden-Harris regime pressing for a dramatic increase in the price of labor?
It’s almost as if “price gouging” is just an undefined term Ms. Harris will arbitrarily use to attack businesses and blame them for Washington-created inflation.
***
He Gets By – As best he can
“Harold Daggett — the union boss who has vowed to “cripple” the US economy if ports don’t ban automation and raise dockworkers’ wages sharply — had a Bentley convertible parked outside his sprawling mansion in New Jersey this week, exclusive photos obtained by The Post reveal.
Photos taken by a drone on Tuesday show the British luxury car parked with its top up outside what appears to be a five-car garage attached to his 7,136-square-foot, Tudor-style home located on a 10-acre property in Sparta, a leafy enclave 50 miles west of New York City.
The hulking, two-story mansion and its garage encircle a spacious backyard patio with an amoeba-shaped pool and a separate guest house next to what appears to be a massive brick pizza oven.”
RIP Kris – Feeling Good was Good Enough.
Caption this:
Tucker on the VP Debate
Identify the Aircraft
1
Also known as the Queer 6 – which wouldn’t be acceptable today. Maybe you could call it the Democrat 6?
2
Identify the Vehicle
3
Which Marder?
Identify the Feature Film
A
B
Two pictures to aid your ID
Parting Shot – From El Presidente
End
(1) EA-6B
(2) P-36
(3) Marder III, Sd. Kfz 139… I think it’s the one with the Soviet 76mm.
*
IDK movies well, but those look like Grumman Panthers.
*
– Kle.
Reconsider the Marder, but you’re on the right track. (pun intended) – Yes to 1 and 2. Yes, they’re Panthers.
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Grumman EA-6B Prowler
2. Curtiss P-36 Hawk
Identify the Vehicle:
3. Marder III Ausf. M with unusual road wheels.
Identify the Feature Film:
A. You got me. The actor on the left looks like Broderick Crawford and the actor on the right reminds me of Burt Reynolds.
B. The Bridges at Toko-Ri
A – Think of Wells and Heston – Yes on B.
Touch of Evil
Ah yes!
Caption This:
“They all knew” alternate- Diddy Didn’t Kill Himself.
Daggett is proof you can be 78 and effective at your job. Of course being “On the Waterfront” one might be inclined to check that house for cash and gold bars under the seat cushions. I mean it can’t only be Democrat Senators from NJ who just happen to have a few hundred grand worth of both lying around the house. (At least Daggett has a salary to cover his lifestyle, unlike a Senator)
Good caption!
Daggett didn’t survive that long as a Longshoreman boss to be rolled by Pedo Joe & Ho.
I’m sure he’s got the goods on all of Joe’s family and a lot of other NE pols
Maybe he has an Epstein style fantasy island?
Maybe he only knows the bag men, and who is preserved in concrete under which building.
The Swamp has a LOT of skeletons.
ID feature film-
Touch of Evil( great movie by the way)
Bridges at Toko-Ri
Exactly!!
Well, I’m truly honoured! Though, I must be honest, not before time. I’ve been a long time in this game and it’s about time I won an award! Do I get a key to the White Wolf Mine? Free margaritas for life? A free unicorn destroyer?
I appreciate you greatly, LL, you’ve aided my journey through words and events more than you know! I am currently in Norfolk so I shall find a suitable place to celebrate with the Norfolkians! 💗
Happy Jules day! I’ll eat some a on in your honor today.
Hate “bacon” … gads.. the auto correct turned that into “a on” … geez.
Jules is addicted to American bacon (quite different from English bacon).
I am. I eat it by the jar.
I hate it when that happens, Al. Have a triple decker on me, or Paul, he’s paying. I only had to hear that once, being a Brit, we don’t miss golden opportunities like that.
Jar of Bacon? What hell spawned that? Is that the only way you can get bacon in England?
–
I am very happy because my lovely wife is in the mood for daily Bacon Lettuce and Tomato sandwiches. So daily bacon fix. Yay me. Though being Southern I am rapidly being overloaded with bacon grease and it is illegal and immoral to throw away bacon grease in the South.
Happy Day, Jules!
I’m thinking the port strike lasts long enough to hurt, but , just before the election, the DEI candidate miraculously finds a way to fix the problem, leading to massive peans by the MSM, widespead joy amongst the sheeples, and convenient cover for the massive fraud necessary for her to win the election .
Hope I’m wrong !
kamel fae saves christmas! film at 11….yep, you might be on the right track.
That would be a great title for a new film by Netflix!
It’s been postponed till January 15th, so if Trump gets elected the Powers-that-Be will leave him with a giant flaming pile of poop for him to have to deal with. Assuming, of course, that we even have the elections (still waiting on the election being suspended due to emergency or for cause or something. Of course I also fully expect Tater-Joe to be declared dead 2 weeks before the election.)
Couldn’t even image the VM blog without you Jules. Keep up the great writing, hauntingly beautiful cover art and being the foremost authority on Margarita’s! STA beautiful Ms. Smith.
-HogSS
That’s so lovely, H. Thank you.
An amoeba shaped pool. Of course. “Form follows function.” Frank Lloyd Wright.
Spot on.
By the way, drive thru daquiris are a thing in Louisiana. Might work in a pinch, IDK.
You can’t blend the contents of a hip flask easily with crushed ice, and rim the flask with the right kind of salt – so yeah, a drive-through.
Happy Jules Day. She certainly deserves the honor.
Ahhh, thanks, Jim. Paul says you can have what you want from the bar!
I appreciate that Jules and Paul. I like something old and smooth.
Old and smooth…Kamala is available.
Pass.
Daggett- A Joisey thug straight out of a Sopranos episode. Tyranny by and through the White House to further hamstring the voting public. The enemy within is our government.
***
Thuggery Part 2: FEMA will “give” – by their wonderfully sympathetic hearts, how nice of them while illegal criminals get all manner of freebies – $750 to flood disaster victims…according to the Vacuous Veep reading a script. Scumbags of the highest order. Someone overlayed Ukraine over affected states with the caption, “Just need to self-identify as Ukraine and you’ll get billions not a measly $750.” We know TPTB priorities (flood victims don’t do money laundering paybacks).
***
Jules Day! – Well deserved! Texas-sized steaks and rootbeer floats and VM prizes for all! I’m buying. (cashing in my VM digital largess)
That kind of talk will get you a harem!
Thank you, Paul!
That’s funnier than you could ever know.
You old charmer, PaulM!!
I get weak-kneed by female British accents. (heh)
caption this: birds of a feather, in more ways than one. ….still, no one has stated the obvious: kamelface was there, diddy had vids.
The Ho was present and available at MANY parties thrown by black rappers. She enjoyed a certain popularity until she timed out and moved on to being Willie Brown’s sidepiece, which led to her present situation.
Shutting down the ports is a bad move. One toilet paper run at the stores will lead to a bounty on longshoremen.
Thanks, Jess. I need to make a Costco run and hoard toilet paper while it lasts.
* if China owns a large number (a majority?) of U.S. ports and China owns a large number (a majority?) of Democrats (and/aka Socialist-Progressives), do they own ILA President Harold J. Daggett as well?
* should the Democrat party be seen as being responsible for ending the port strike, they will be provided with huzzahs (interesting word: “Used as a call for coordinated physical effort, as in hoisting.” Wik’y) by the NYT and ilk (ilk being celebrities), cheered on by the sheeple who won’t notice the effect since it’s spread over a large number of years
The Arabs had to divest themselves from US Port ownership post 9/11. The West Coast longshoremen have not gone out in sympathy for their East Coast brethren, so Chinese goods will continue to land uninterrupted, Boron. You may need to return to Oregon from your manse in Florida.
The Bridges at Toko-ri was a painful book to read. I’ve only seen a little of the movie. Less upbeat than Flight of the Intruder, but both of them are good counterpoints to some of the “thrill and glory of combat flying” stuff.
The reflections of armchair warriors are often colored by a lack of the horror that was there at the moment.
Daggett has to scrape by on $900K a year… Gotta cut him a break, right? Re the Queer A-6, those folks in the pic, Marine squadron VMAQ-4 the “Seahawks” went downrange and had the highest FMC rate and mission completion rate (94%) of ANY squadron in theater for six months of their deployment! Outstanding!!!
And yes Jules is outstanding too!
$900K reported to the IRS. I doubt that Daggett would dodge an owed debt to Uncle Sam.
I have had power for about 24 hours here in SE Georgia and the Longshoreman strike was big news to me. Back in 93 a technician that worked for me in my Air Guard unit got his Logistics BS and got a management job at the Savannah port. As a SATCOM Tech in that guard unit he was required to have the big forklift license. He made good money at the Ports Authority as a manager where he was salaried and worked about 50 hours a week. He switched jobs to run a forklift. He almost doubled his take-home pay working the same hours but he was paying union dues. He is a crane operator now at the top of the pay scale because he had the BS. He built a big house on the beach in Bluffton 20 years ago and has a place in the Virgin Islands. His 3 kids were in the top private school in the area and then college that he paid for. He could retire but the money is too good so he pulls a 40 hour week and will until they force him out. Longshoremen are the best paid blue collar jobs out there. To get a job on the docks you have to know somebody with some pull. I have seen their demands, this strike needs to be busted.
It’s a difficult strike to bust because other unions will go out in sympathy for the sake of longshormen’s support when they go on strike. They’re paid well and want more. They know that Joe/Ho don’t have the stroke to take them on. Once Trump is in office in January, they’ll go with the concessions they can get (likely considerable).
Start shooting them and they’ll get back on the job pronto.
–
Damn, I’m getting even more grumpy lately. The News is doing nothing to lighten my disposition.
Jules Smith. Those dude boots are a bit over the top.