RANTINGS OF A FORMER TRIMET BUS DRIVER: Mar 7, 2011

Monday, March 7, 2011

The costs of trying to run the world are unsustainable, and we simply don't have the money. Morally, it is inexcusable for the US to pick sides in such conflicts overseas, no matter how odious either side may be. Financially, it is no longer possible. The 2012 budget request from the administration for "international affairs," which is code for "foreign aid", is two and a half times larger than it was just nine years ago! As our economy shrinks at home, our obligations increase abroad. As our infrastructure crumbles at home, we continue to spend billions expanding infrastructure in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. If the interventionists have their way, no doubt we will be soon pay to reconstruct the infrastructure we destroy in a Libyan military operation. It does not take a genius to see that we are going broke, but Washington remains in denial and intent on business as usual. I fear that if we continue this way we may soon be out of business altogether.

http://www.thedailybell.com/1834/Ron-Paul-Buying-Friends-Creates-More-Enemies.html

SO THESE PEOPLE, NONE OF WHOM ACTUALLY DRIVE A BUS OR TRAIN...WILL CHANGE THE CULURE HUH?

CLICK HERE!

TRIMET THROWS MONEY AWAY WITH IMPUNITY

Job posting for the Director of Safety position:

http://agency.governmentjobs.com/trimet/default.cfm?action=viewclassspec&classSpecID=765399&agency=1292&viewOnly=yes

Notice the salary range: $85,986.00 - $128,977.00 Annually

Now go back to Joe Rose's story about Saporta's hire, which is now updated with Mary Fetsch's quote on his salary:

"Saporta will be paid $155,00 annually. He begins work in late March."

So... that's an extra $26k/year they're paying this guy over what was listed as the top of the salary range. What strings were pulled to make that deal happen?

Farmers Launch Tractorcade in Solidarity with Wisconsin Public Employees

Farm Tractors to descend on Madison Click here for full story

This Time We’re Taking the Whole Planet With Us

Civilizations rise, decay and die. Time, as the ancient Greeks argued, for individuals and for states is cyclical. As societies become more complex they become inevitably more precarious. They become increasingly vulnerable. And as they begin to break down there is a strange retreat by a terrified and confused population from reality, an inability to acknowledge the self-evident fragility and impending collapse. The elites at the end speak in phrases and jargon that do not correlate to reality. They retreat into isolated compounds, whether at the court at Versailles, the Forbidden City or modern palatial estates. The elites indulge in unchecked hedonism, the accumulation of vaster wealth and extravagant consumption. They are deaf to the suffering of the masses who are repressed with greater and greater ferocity. Resources are more ruthlessly depleted until they are exhausted. And then the hollowed-out edifice collapses. The Roman and Sumerian empires fell this way. The Mayan elites, after clearing their forests and polluting their streams with silt and acids, retreated backward into primitivism.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/this_time_were_taking_the_whole_planet_with_us_20110307/

u will like this 1...some passenger thot Rico had been smoking weed so they sent the supervisor to btc to check him out!...wut a bunch of idiots! haha..

A recommendation being overlooked?

A quick observation about today’s announcement by TriMet that they’re creating a new citizens’ safety committee: TriMet says the the new committee was a recommendation of last year’s safety task force. This isn’t true.

http://portlandafoot.org/2011/03/a-recommendation-being-overlooked/

TRIMET SAFETY STUFF

Might as well participate in this process, trinet account holders only.

https://trinet.trimet.org/expressline/posts/close-calls-tracking-system-additional-operator-supervisor-feedback-sought

FAMOUS QUOTES

“Harry is the right person to help make safety the focus throughout our organization and transform the organization’s culture where safety is not just a priority but a value,” said TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane. “We are very fortunate to have such a gifted and dedicated professional join us.”

It is very curious indeed how they actually think that hiring an executive will change a "culture"!

Unless of course this new safety guy plans on spending his days with the rank and file, not in an office talking to other white collar honchos.

The only true way to change a culture is from the minute a new employee walks in the door.

It starts at the screening process, continues with the training, and is nurtured by the management.

So far Trimet has failed at all three levels.

Another bus driver beat up, this time in Milwaukee

Original here!

Who needs good health insurance in a job like this?

TRIMET HIRES BACK THE SAME GUY WHO CREATED THE ORIGINAL SAFETY PROGRAM HERE

Hmmmm?
Seems a little odd that Trimet would hire back the same guy who put together our "unsafe" system doesn't it?

http://trimet.org/news/releases/mar7-harry-saporta.htm

Left-hand Turns and Buses

There is a 2008 federal study that found bus-pedestrian collisions are more than twice as likely to happen during left turns. The danger is so much greater that several transit agencies have eliminated left-hand turns including Des Moines,Iowa and Cleveland, Ohio.
Rantings of a Regular C-Tran Rider

GRIEVANCE HEARING MOVED

The lords of the Trimet have canceled today's hearing and have rescheduled it for the 17th.
They originally wanted it this Friday but I am off and I want to be there!
This warning letter I have received is so bogus, so full of distortions and downright falsehoods it is hard for me to actually believe I have to appeal it.