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Comments
I noticed that
There's a subtle message hidden somewhere in that ad.
I know! It's an invitation to try the fresh Douchebag Mogulfish!
Baked in rubber tree bark ...
and poached in water and balsamic vinegar.
actually, no
Most people hate the T, and most people see T employees for what they largely are: a bunch of fat, lazy slobs who are bilking the transit system for insane benefits and as a result strangling it financially.
The story about the whole escapade with Legal Seafoods is great conversation fodder, especially with people who don't ride the green line (aka the people on the "right" side of the river.)
A little whine with your fish?
I don't think you have a very good handle on what most people think, or you'd not likely be posting such arrant nonsense.
For you and other people not familiar with Boston, the city of Boston is (mostly) on the south side of the Charles River, and the cities of Somerville and Cambridge are on the north. That, it seems, is what you think is the "right" side of the river.
The Cambridge / Somerville side is endowed with a grand total of six of the Red Line's eighteen stops. Throw in Lechmere Square and Bunker Hill CC, and you've got a whopping four out of nineteen Orange Line stops plus one out of 66 Green Line stops.
The relatively privileged area of Boston served by the Green Line trolleys has the highest density of public transportation outside downtown.
And just because the trolley is not as speedy as your daddy's SUV doesn't mean other people here don't like it.
He hit the nail on the
He hit the nail on the head.
Pushing a peddle or pulling a lever for 50K a year and early retirement, all while being rude, unaccommodating, or downright negligent isn't helping the T's problems. It's a sweet deal for what it is, so why are most T employees so sour?
(disclaimer: like stereotypes it's not always the case, just in the majority of instances. My local bus driver couldn't be nicer / better)
But the ones you don't know, they're different
Typical ignorant remark. Do you feel the same way about other groups you don't belong to? They're all a bunch of lazy scum ... except for the one you know?
I'm wondering what you do that's so much harder than driving a bus. I think it would really suck to drive a bus, and I make a lot more than that, so I'm not terribly jealous of their compensation.
Make a Special Request next time at DD!
Ask them for the Decaf next time you order
coffee. Try it, you may like it. And the
rest of us will surely appreciate it.
(Disclaimer: I make more than Bus Drivers too,
and think it would really suck to drive a bus as
well. On the other hand, would love to be able
to retire from Mister Bulgers Transportation
Authority after 23 years with full pension and
health. That compensation I am terribly jealous of.
Ask Bulger's kid, who just "retired" with full pension
from the MBTA and immediately picked up his next
career at another state "job".)
Driven to Death
This may not be so true of today's drivers, but my FIL died of lung cancer shortly after retirement from the T. He had been driving 33 years and inhaled a lot of diesel exhaust, and his compensation papers and physicians listed this as a likely cause of such an early demise of a man who didn't smoke.
Having to deal with narrow streets, massholes, schedules designed to be on time only at midnight at Christmas, sitting for long hours, ergonomic exposures, back problems, etc. They can have their pay and their pension, hopefully in good enough health to enjoy some retirement time.
Why do people always attack those at the lowest levels for what they get? These people earn their pay. Bargain for your own better deal, don't deny them theirs! Go after the people at the top who are patronage hires and sucking the life out of the system - even though they aren't visible, they are still there and their jobs need to be justified far more than a driver's pay!
The riot act
Chapter Two of the Riot Act:
Something really disgusts me about people picking on bus drivers. Talk about a sitting target. I don't know whether it's class prejudice - upper middle class people trying to kick the blue collars back down the ladder - or republiscum privateers blindly attacking anything publicly supported on dogmatic grounds, but these people are working much harder than I am, for less pay, and trying to hold on to what used to be a middle class existence, and if someone out there thinks it's so damn easy, they should try to drive a mile in the bus driver's shoes.
Sure, some of them can seem haughty, but you know those creepy people you see on the bus some times? You get off, and they stay. The bus driver has to deal with them all day long. The commute is the worst part of many people's days; the bus driver gets it all day long. You know that relief you feel when you get off the bus? Think about that relief being eight hours away still. The last thing I'd want to do is drive a bus.
If you're pissed off about waste in the system, don't attack the people who actually do the work, go after the the dozens and dozens of directors of desk toys who make twice as much.
Busting on bus drivers looks especially bad if you're a multi-millionaire chain restaurant mogul flogging crappy seafood to tourists.
It ain't the bus drivers
Pointing out waste, nepotism, and fraud at
the T is an attack on bus drivers and makes me
a "republiscum privateer"?
Agreed that the bus drivers have a tough job.
So do I, and likely you too. Boo hoo.
And Berkowitz is a jerk who's playing their
union like a fiddle.
But a system where the ex-Senate president's
kid can "retire" with pension and benefits
after 23 years to move on to another state
job (and pension) is broken. That's where
the problem is.
More fun facts from last August, for you
to interpret as an attack on Bus Drivers:
Former MBTA general manager Michael Mulhern, 48, takes a salary of about $225,000 and a
pension of about $130,000.
James Rooney, 49, a former deputy manager at the MBTA, now makes $255,000 as executive director of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, while drawing an MBTA pension of more than $70,000.
source:
boston.com...retirement_plan_pays_off_for_two/
Different subject
Don't change the subject by saying things I agree with. That makes it harder to ridicule you.
If you scroll up a little, this all started because Roger Douchebagwitz posted ads insulting trolley drivers. This was followed up on this site with a chorus of anonymice calling MBTA drivers things like "a bunch of fat, lazy slobs" and "rude, unaccommodating, or downright negligent."
No part of insulting trolley or bus drivers is pointing out waste, nepotism, or fraud. It's just knee-jerk blathering with suspicious motivation.
If you want to point out waste, nepotism, and fraud, more power to you. I notice that you have started somewhere other than the trolley and bus drivers. I take that as an acknowledgement that you found no basis for further attacks on the drivers, and I am satisfied by that.
(BTW, you should look into how public pensions work; you'd find that retirement after 20-25 years is common across the board in all states and federally.)
Anonymice?
I ain't them, and I didn't insult (gasp!)
the Bus Drivers. I simply pointed out that a blanket
23-year vesting period for a full pension is
an invitation to abuse. And provided three
solid examples of the same. Who are not
MBTA bus drivers.
So you can drop the wounded working class hero shtick
with me on this one and redirect it where it belongs.
And you are right about one thing: I don't know
nothing about how public pensions work. Waiting
for former UMass President Bulger to offer the
deinitive seminar on that topic.
Details, details
You're the one who jumped in (with an irrelevant tangent), so I'm responding to you. If you didn't want a response, you shouldn't have put in your two bits. So you can drop the 'oh it's so unfair the mean mean man is arguing with me' schtick.
As for vesting periods, you've got that one wrong. The vesting period at the MBTA is 10 years, which is substantially longer than it is most places (my pension vested in 5 years). What that means is that anybody who works for the T less than ten years gets nothing. The vesting is also not complete; MBTA workers who leave with less than 20 years service at less than 55 get no pension at all.
When you bring up 23 years, what you're referring to is the years of service requirement for full-pension retirement. Typically a public sector pension involves either a retirement age, or a service years requirement, or both. The MBTA rules are fairly typical for public pensions, although they're better than other MA state workers get.
In comparison, my (private sector) pension vested fully at 5 years, and if I left today, a fair stretch short of retirement age, and after only nine years at my company, I'd still get a partial pension. Is that an invitation to abuse too? If 23 years of driving a bus is the easy way to get a pension, I prefer the hard way.
The point here is that the exploits of well-connected creeps like Billy Bulger are no reason to go after all state workers, any more than Neil Entwistle is a good reason to hate the English.
Try this..it's like Professinal Wrestling
I don't hate the English because of Entwhistle.
And I didn't "go after all state workers." I
cited three specific cases of current pension
the system being gamed. Sorry about introducing
some documentable facts to the thread.
Are you actually defending these guys?
Right now, the MBTA pension system is like professional
wrestling--it's a rigged game.
I'll write it slow this time
The fact that Rooney has a pension he doesn't deserve proves he is a well-connected scam artist.
What this fact doesn't prove includes:
-That MBTA employees are all lazy and overcompensated;
-That they look like halibuts or that it's really funny to say so, or to tell them "Eat Me;"
-That the entire MBTA pension system is rigged.
Understand yet?
Defend it, then.
Here's the documented facts in three
cases:
* Michael Mulhern at 48, MBTA Pension $130,000
* James Rooney at 49, MBTA Pension $70,000
* Patrick Bulger 43, MBTA $41,424
All three "retire" and immediately
move to a public sector job.
Stop trying to jive the argument
with halibuts and misdirection.
Three specific cases, with specific
numbers. Defend your system on
the specifics.
Defend what?
You busted into a thread with some tangential and barely relevant factoids and now you want to have an argument about them? GYOFB. And then we won't come.
This thread is about Roger Douchebagowitz' insulting ad campaign. Reminding you of this fact is not misdirection.
And the plural of anecdote is not evidence.
You can't
Three specific instances
of abuse, with names,
ages, and annual amounts
from me.
One non-answer from you.
Thanks for proving my point.
Do me a favor
Scroll up to the top of the screen and see what this thread is about. And then buy yourself a clue. Man, you're dumb.
It's tough
When you both have to be right. Please let it go.
Yes
Before we run out of space here. Hurry!
Mothball sized comment
space!
Hah!
Dope!
Bah
Ugh
what the?
Easy, bowser. I said "especially for people who don't ride the green line", because they haven't seen the poster and thus haven't followed it.
I said "most people" based on my personal experience- a lot of people I talk to *do* hate the T. It's one of those "can't live with it, can't live without it" things. I didn't realize I had to provide citations or conduct a study.
And, "right side of the river" was a poke at those who live in Cambridge et al, in line with "wrong side of the tracks". Lighten up.
I forgot
Some slobs don't even read the newspaper so this would all be a surprise to them. I guess you've done a great survey of illiterate slobs. So y'all tilt up another one and bitch some more about people who actually work for a living.
WTF is your problem, sir?
WTF is your problem, sir?
Idiots
My problem is idiots.
Why? Are you an idiot?
Correct response
I think it's:
Dark Helmet: "How many assholes do we have on this ship?"
Whole Crew: "YO!"
Dark Helment: "I knew it! I'm surrounded by assholes!"
"Most people"? Citation,
"Most people"? Citation, please.
Wait...
So, he's offered members of the union's gift certificates and he's mean?
Uhhhhh... What?
Sorry, as much as everyone is spinning this as "mean old Roger" he's handling this brilliantly and (correctly) milking this for all it's worth.
What he's doing is very clever
He's using the Delta House-esque blinding rage of the head of the carmen's union to his commercial advantage - and getting far more attention than he would have otherwise (like, when the ads were on taxi tops - who was talking about Legal advertising then?). That the carmen's union is no doubt trying (and failing) to play him for their own reasons (the whole fatal-crash thing was absurd) doesn't mean the whole thing isn't a bit past its freshness date.
War's over, man. Berkowitz Dropped the big one.
Carmen's Union: Over? Did you say
"over"? Nothing is over until we
decide it is! Was it over when the
Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
...
Carmen's Union: And it ain't over now.
'Cause when the goin' gets tough...
[thinks hard]
Carmen's Union: the tough get goin'! Who's
with me? Let's go!
Still has some freshness left...
I'm not sure there's an expiration date on self promotion if it's working.
If I see Bernie & Phyl try and use this "Eat Me" angle I'm going to toss my lunch.