Another fine "lifestyle" song!
Relaxing, huh?!
Yep... I was made for relaxing... and partying!
Yes, indeed... a man of contradictions is your beloved bloghost Bill.
You guys know what today is, right? Today marks the 50th anniversary of...
(*SHRUG*)
Moi!
Blessings upon faithful reader (and best friend!) Carl David VanDemark who gifted me with a bottle of Dom Perignon vintage 2002!
(Folks... believe me... he'll be grinning ear to ear when he reads this!)
Anyway... enjoy the day, folks - I sure plan to!
6 comments:
http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/asia-pacific/227035-lawmakers-largely-silent-on-chinese-takeover-of-us-bank-branches
U.S. lawmakers have been unusually silent about federal regulators' decision to allow a Chinese bank to take over 13 bank branches in New York and California...
* ONE... MORE... TIME: O*L*I*G*A*R*C*H*Y!
Wednesday's decision by the Federal Reserve to certify a Chinese bank acquisition for the first time was met by near-universal silence.
(*NOD*)
[F]oreign ownership of Chinese banks is limited to 25%...
* AND YET WE'RE LETTING CHINA OPERATE THEIR BANKS IN AMERICA. IT'S INSANE!
Wednesday's decision allows Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which is 70% owned by the Chinese government...
* MEANING THE COMMUNIST DICTATORSHIP... (OR FASCIST DICTATORSHIP IF YOU'D RATHER...)
...to take an 80% stake in a Hong Kong-based bank with 13 branches in the U.S.
The Fed also allowed two other Chinese banks to open branches in New York and Chicago.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/us/huge-new-shortfall-predicted-in-california-budget.html?_r=1&hp
The state budget shortfall in California has increased dramatically in the last six months...
* REPEAT AFTER ME: J*E*R*R*Y B*R*O*W*N.
...forcing state officials to assemble a series of new spending cuts that are likely to mean further reductions to schools, health care and other social programs already battered by nearly five years of budget retrenchment, state officials announced on Saturday.
* HEY... GOTTA PAY THOSE UNION PENSIONS! GOTTA "PRIORITIZE!"
(*SMIRK*)
Gov. Jerry Brown, disclosing the development in a video posted on YouTube, said that California’s shortfall was now projected to be $16 billion, up from $9.2 billion in January.
* OOPS! (HEY... WHAT'S A $6.8 BILLION "MISCALCULATION" AMONG FRIENDS... RIGHT?
(*SNICKER*)
Mr. Brown, in taking office last year, pledged to end what he said were the tricks lawmakers regularly used to paper over budget shortfalls.
(*GUFFAW*)
* AND YET...
[California's] state controller reported that the state had exceeded spending by $2.1 billion... At the same time, the deficit projections — which have been increasing since Mr. Brown and the Democratic-controlled Legislature approved a budget last summer — suggest that the state may have been overly optimistic in estimating what kind of revenue it would take in.
* FOLKS...
(*SIGH*)
* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/05/13/148607/hefty-salaries-perks-for-union.html
First-class travel.
Six-figure salaries for half the 132 officers and staffers.
Plenty of plum jobs for family members.
Life is good at the top of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers and Helpers. The union, with its headquarters in Kansas City, Kan., represents about 59,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada who make and repair boilers, fit pipes and work on ships and power plants.
(*SMIRK*)
* THOSE WHO ARE STILL EMPLOYED, THAT IS! READ ON...
The recession has hit their trade hard, reducing union membership.
At the same time, the [union] president’s salary has surged 67% in the past six years, not counting a recent raise.
(*SNORT*)
Add in travel and some other expenses, and Newton B. Jones received more than $600,000 last year, putting him at the absolute top of the presidents of the dozen biggest unions in the country.
* NICE...
Many relatives of union officers also ride the payroll. Totaling the pay to just the families of Jones and two other executives, the union and its affiliates gave them more than $2 million in annual salary, according to the most recent financial reports filed by the organizations.
* SWEET!
(*SNICKER*)
Attempts to reach rank-and-file union members for comment were unsuccessful. But rumbles of discontent are sometimes felt.
In April, an anonymous letter, mailed purportedly by boilermakers members and obtained by The Kansas City Star, sharply criticized union leaders. “While members and their families struggle to make it through this recession, our IBB (International Brotherhood of Boilermakers) leaders have been living high off the hog at members’ expense,” the letter said. “We regret that we have to be anonymous at this time because we fear retribution from a leadership that regrettably values its own personal and financial interests above the rank and file’s.”
* YEP. SOUNDS PAR FOR THE COURSE.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* THREE-PARTER CONTINUED... (Part 2 of 3)
In membership, the Boilermakers are a mere 5% the size of the Teamsters union. Yet which president received more in total disbursements from their unions last year — Teamsters President James P. Hoffa or the lesser-known Newton B. Jones? Jones by more than $200,000.
(*STILL JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Jones’ total disbursements also are more than double those of Richard Trumka, head of the powerful AFL-CIO, a federation of national and international unions with 11.6 million members.
The compensation and perks in the Boilermakers headquarters stunned Marcus Owens, a Washington, D.C., attorney who once headed the division of the IRS that oversees nonprofit organizations. “Those kinds of benefits seem extraordinarily high,” Owens said. “That’s just over the top.”
Taxpayers have a stake in the Boilermakers’ spending, he said. The union, like most, is structured as a nonprofit organization, which means it qualifies for exemption from federal income tax. But the law prohibits union officials or key employees from benefiting from the tax-free money they raise. “They’re not paying income tax,” Owens said. “So in a sense, we’re all supporting them… I don’t mind tax-exempts that are doing what they’re supposed to do, but if they aren’t, I’d kind of like them to pull on the oars, too.”
* WHY ARE UNIONS ALLOWED TO BE STRUCTURED AS NON-PROFITS...?!?! THE WHOLE POINT OF A UNION IS TO PROFIT THE MEMBERSHIP...!!!
* OH... AND GET THIS, FOLKS...
While their union pay may seem comfortable, some officers get a second hefty paycheck, thanks to a bank the union controls.
The union is principal shareholder of Brotherhood Bank & Trust. Three of the bank’s 11 board members are union officers, and one is a retired union officer. The bank’s chairman? Boilermakers President Newton Jones. In calendar year 2010, Jones received $52,945 as chairman of the bank’s board of directors in addition to his union pay, according to the most recent report he filed with the Labor Department. The previous year, Jones earned $79,775 as bank chairman and $260,000 as the bank’s chief executive officer and interim president. In 2008, he received $230,000 from the bank.
“Those both sound like full-time jobs,” Owens said of Jones’ union and bank positions in 2008 and 2009. “It’s certainly full-time compensation.”
* YOU'D THINK, HUH...?!?!
Other union executives on the bank board received compensation as well. International Secretary-Treasurer William Creeden reported earning $258,650 from the bank in 2009, the last year he filed. He also received $252,098 in salary from the Boilermakers union in fiscal 2010.
* KEEP READING... KEEP READING... YOU'RE GONNA LOVE THIS NEXT BIT!
And officers who retire from the Boilermakers union get more than a watch — each gets to keep his company car[!]
In 2010 the union “gifted” a vehicle to retiring international vice president Sammy May. The vehicle originally cost $73,998 with a book value of $51,388 when the union gave it to him, the union’s annual report said.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
According to its annual reports, the union has a long-standing policy of giving vehicles “as gifts to retiring officers.”
(*SNORT*)
International vice president George Rogers retired in 2008, taking with him his company car that cost $53,380. That same year, the union gave a vehicle that cost $58,959 to the widow of an officer who had died.
* OH... AND GET THIS...
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING THREE-PARTER... (Part 3 of 3)
Some retiring officers continue to receive union pay by working as a consultant. Rogers made $600,000 over two years, annual reports indicate. Along with the $300,000 in consulting fees he received in fiscal year 2008, the year he retired, Rogers earned $400,871 in salary as a union vice president, Department of Labor documents show. In fiscal year 2009, records show Rogers received another $300,000 in consulting fees.
Being a boilermaker executive can be a family business. Newton Jones, 58, took over the president’s office when his father, Charles W. Jones, retired in 2003 after 20 years. Among Newton Jones’ family members: His brother, Charles, is director of the Boilermakers’ History Preservation Department and assistant to Newton. His salary in 2011 was $150,091, with total disbursements of $187,641. His sister, Donna, earns $98,802 as an executive secretary. His relative, Michael Peterson, is an aide to Jones and until last year worked for the Boilermakers National Apprenticeship Program, earning $132,746 in 2010, according to the program’s most recent tax document, and $127,252 from the union, according to its annual report for fiscal 2011. He told The Star he is now an international representative for the union as well as an aide to Jones. Jones’ son, Cullen, is a video communications technician who lives in North Carolina, earning $68,482 salary with total disbursements of $173,288 last year. He is 23, according to a court filing.
* FOLKS...
(*SIGH*)
The union in 2009 paid $43,000 to send Cullen to the Vancouver Film School in British Columbia. The school describes itself as “Canada’s premier entertainment arts institution and one of the most distinguished worldwide.”
Several members of the Creeden family also make a good living working for the Boilermakers, totaling $624,000 in salary.
That is only a sampling of the family ties involving union officers.
* FOLKS... I MISCALCULATED! THIS IS ACTUALLY GONNA BE A FOUR-PARTER!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* NOW CONCLUDING...! (Part 4 of 4)
When the union’s officers get away, they do it in style. The union has an 18.75 percent ownership in a Piaggio airplane, which holds up to nine passengers. Today, a new one sells for about $6 million. The Boilermakers also have a 6.25% share in a second airplane, according to its Labor Department filing.
* TWO AIRPLANES...! TWO FRIGGIN' PRIVATE PLANES...!!!
In 2011, the Boilermakers paid $521,160 to Avantair, its aviation service provider, for maintenance and other fees associated with the planes.
(*SNORT*)
Union watchdog groups say few unions have ownership in planes. The Machinists union has a Learjet, but the Teamsters union — which used to own several private jets — sold them years ago because of criticism.
Union officers and their relatives also are allowed to fly first-class on commercial airlines, the union’s tax documents show. [And] once they’re on the ground, officers make sure their stays are memorable. About a year ago, members of the union’s International Executive Council treated themselves to at least one gathering at a renowned hunting lodge in Gettysburg, S.D. The council — the president and eight other officers — listed the trip as a council meeting. The lodge, called Paul Nelson Farm, is a favorite hunting spot of former Vice President Dick Cheney and Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway. It’s a luxurious resort that “attracts 700 hunters a year who are prepared to pay for the very best,” according to a 2009 review in the magazine Business Jet Traveler. The Paul Nelson Farm website offers a package that includes three days of hunting with guides and dogs, pheasant cleaning, and meals and beverages. For a group of six or more, a three-day package runs $4,595 per person. The Boilermakers paid a total of $163,000, according to Labor Department reports they filed.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The union also paid $12,854 in 2010 to Alaska Fly Fishing Adventures in Sterling, Alaska, but it is unclear who enjoyed the service, described as an “outfitter and tour guide.”
(*SNORT*) LET ME GUESS... IT WASN'T A UNION WELDER.
That year, the union held an Alaska conference at which union officials met with contractors and owners. In France, where officers went in fiscal 2009 to negotiate contracts, the union paid $5,232 to Yachts de Paris, a “dinner cruise service provider.”
* AGAIN, FOLKS... THIS IS A NON-PROFIT! THESE BASTARDS AREN'T EVEN PAYING TAXES...!!!
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