Daily Archives: January 2, 2017
Jan Got A Gate . . .
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Jan Got A Gate. Though it looks like it’s only for one day.
But still she’s happy about it.
This morning about 7:25 Jan got a text from Todd wanting to know if she wanted a gate. So she woke me up to check it out. (I had only been asleep for about an hour and a half.) Turns out that it’s for the the day shift guard on my night shift gate.
This morning when I was relieved, it was by someone I’d never met, but knew of. Then sometime later in the morning he told Todd he needed off the gate for some reason. So Todd needed someone pretty quickly.
Todd had apparently forgotten that I was already the night shift guard on this gate, but it really didn’t matter. So Jan had her shower and got dressed and we out the door in about 20 min. And 15 minutes later we were leaving the HEB McD’s with breakfast and a full tank of gas.
I had thought that the day guy might have gotten sick or something, but he seemed fine when we got to the gate. So who knows.
More money for us.
After dropping Jan off at the gate and getting her square away, I headed back to the rig to get some sleep. Then I relieved Jan at 5pm when I came on my shift, and then she took the truck home. Of course this means she’ll have to pick me up at 5 AM tomorrow morning.
In one of his texts about this gate, Todd said we could use one of the company trucks that’s left at the park just for this purpose. But I was so groggy at first that it didn’t click until we were almost at the gate that she could have driven our truck out here while I followed in the company truck.
Jan was a little leery of driving out here by herself for the first time which is why I would have followed her. But either way I could have then driven the company truck out to relieve her this afternoon so she wouldn’t have to pick me up at 5 AM.
I’ll know better next time. Or at least be more awake, maybe.
As we left the rig, Jan had grabbed a TV dinner from the fridge to have for lunch, quick and easy with the shack’s fridge and microwave. But her lunch was not to be.
When we first came in the guard shack, she put her dinner in the freezer section of the fridge, as the day guard was gathering up his stuff. But what we didn’t catch was that when he got his stuff from the fridge he also took Jan’s TV dinner. She was not a happy camper, or guard, around lunch time. Luckily she’d had breakfast, and had some snacks in her bag.
The day guard also brought a Winegard Satellite Dome and a DirecTV receiver with him, as well as a bunch of other stuff, so it took him awhile to pack up.
I thought I had a lot of stuff with my laptop and aircard/antenna, but I guess not.
And my aircard didn’t do me much good tonight. About 8pm everything died, phone service, 3G, and 4G. Zip, Zero, Nada, Nyet. All gone.
This gate is no fun anymore. And it’s still down at 11pm.
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Under the heading of You Snooze, You Lose, when Jan got back to the rig this evening our next door neighbor came over to ask about Jan’s day gate. Turns out that they didn’t get up until after 8am so they missed Todd’s text when he tried to give the gate to them first.
More money for us.
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Every shack has a flyswatter as part of its equipment, as well as paper towels, Lysol wipes, Windex, garbage bags, a broom and a sponge mop. But I’m not too sure about the flyswatter.
The only thing I can think of is that this is the PETA version, so as to give the flies a somewhat better chance. Kind of like catch and release when you’re fishing, I guess.
Now for more of Greg’s Musings – Stirring Up Trouble Since 1948.
Several readers asked me about the Ronald Reagan quote that was my Thought for the Day a few days ago. It goes like this:
“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.” – President Ronald Reagan
They wondered what he meant by it.
He was saying that often there is a simple solution to a problem, but the solution may not be easy to implement for various reasons, maybe either political or societal.
Here’s an example.
One of the prime issues of the past election was immigration – Build the Wall, Sanctuary Cities, Round’em up, etc.
And one of the main memes of this was, even if you do build the wall, how are we ever going to deport the 10 million, 12 million, 20 million, or 40 million (take your pick) illegals that are already here?
And here’s the Simple Solution I came up with a few years ago.
1. Mandate the use of E-Verify for all jobs.
The E-Verify system is already in place and many companies already use it. But it’s voluntary. Make it mandatory through the IRS reporting system. You would have to give the E-Verify transaction number for each employee you paid and reported wages for.
2. Then if an employer is caught hiring illegals –
a. $ 1,000 fine per illegal for the first offense.
b. $ 50,000 fine per illegal for the second offense.
c. $100,000 and 5 years in jail per illegal for the third offense.
3. Next mandate the use of E-Verify for all housing, sales and rentals.
4. Then if an seller/rentor is caught dealing with illegals –
a. $ 1,000 fine per illegal for the first offense.
b. $ 50,000 fine per illegal for the second offense.
c. $100,000 and 5 years in jail per illegal for the third offense.
Many/most rental agencies already run background/credit checks on prospective tenants. Just add E-Verify.
5. Then with nowhere to work and nowhere to live, the vast majority will leave on their own, or in other words, self-deport.
Think self-deportation won’t work? It already has.
Back around 2007 or so, Arizona passed a new strict immigration law. And although much of it was later struck down by the US Supreme, while it was in effect, illegal immigrants were literally ‘streaming’ out of Arizona. Check this article from CBS News in 2010.
Illegal Immigrants Leaving Arizona Over New Law
Yes, some of them went to other, less strict states, but many went back to Mexico.
Ironically, the Arizona law that was mostly struck down by SCOTUS was modeled on the US immigration laws that were not being enforced, mostly just substituting State of Arizona for United States Government.
And the reason the Arizona law was overturned was that SCOTUS said that states do not have the right to enforce immigration laws, only the Federal Government.
But if the Federal Government isn’t enforcing them . . . ?
E-Verify is quick and simple to use. And free. (Well, except for your tax dollars)
Each employer/rental agency, etc., is given an ID and a password to the system. They just log in, enter the person’s name and SS# and a few other bits of information. Within a few seconds they get verification of the person’s identity and a transaction number for the person that is entered into the paperwork showing that E-Verify had been checked. If it turns out later that the person really was illegal, the employer is off the hook as long as E-Verify has been checked.
So that’s the stick, now the carrot.
Although you would probably want to set a deadline, maybe three years for them to all leave, set it up so that the quicker they leave, the better chance they have to be allowed to come legally. When they pass through US Customs on the way out of US, they would register at the border and get pushed to the top of the list for a green card.
So First Out, First In.
Now there are a few additional things might want to implement, like maybe bounties for turning in employers/rentors/illegals who are violating the law.
Despite some of the bad historical connotations of this, it’s already done a lot. Whistleblowers can receive rewards for reporting government theft and corruption. And individual citizens can get bounties for the IRS for turning in tax cheats.
And I don’t know if it’s still done, but a number of years ago, employees could receive a reward if they turned in their employer, anonymously of course, for using bootleg computer software in the business.
So there’s certainly both the legal and moral precedent for it.
So here’s my quick, cheap, simple solution to most of the illegal immigrant problem.
But due to political and societal pressures from both sides, how easy would it be to implement it?
And while we’re on this subject, here’s a few thought questions.
How many is too many immigrants, illegal or otherwise?
At what point do you lose your country?
If you don’t enforce your borders, do you really have a country?
Discuss among yourselves.
Wrapping up, what ever happened the fabled ‘Melting Pot’ that we all heard about?
It seems like we do less and less to integrate immigrants (legal) into our society. Back when I was growing up, you had be able to pass a test on American History given in ENGLISH to become a US citizen.
Now I’ve read that New York City prints up ballots in over 100 languages. What’s up with that?
And remember when every January you’d see the public service announcements on TV about how every ‘alien’ (that’s the term they used) must register at the PO by January 31st. What happened to that?
In fact Mork and Mindy did a great episode with Mork down at the PO trying to register as an ‘alien’.
So let me know your thoughts on all this.
Thought for the Day:
From Scott Adams of Dilbert fame.
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