Tag: Minnesota

On the St. Paul Ford Plant Shutdown

The Ford Ranger is by far my favorite vehicle. I’m on my third Ranger and was hoping to someday be on my fourth but that desire was shutdown with news of the Ford Plant in St. Paul, the last plant manufacturing Rangers, being mothballed. While this is a bit sad it just means my next vehicle will likely be a Ford F-150, which will piss off the enviro-nazis even more than my current gas guzzler so that will certainly be an upside. Still it was interesting reading the Star Tribune’s piece because at one point they pondered if there was anything the government of Minnesota or St. Paul could have done to save the plant. Their speculations were amusing to me:

Dziczek said another factor was the recent stripping of job security language in UAW contracts.

“It used to cost companies an arm and leg to close plants in the automotive diaspora because they had to continue to pay those workers,” she said. “Without those protections, it became easier to close regional outposts.”

You know what else hurt the Ford plant? Union wages. Don’t get me wrong, if a group of workers want to get together and form a union in the hopes of fighting for better wages and working conditions I’m perfectly fine with it. I’m also perfectly fine with the owners of a company firing everybody attempting to create such a union because that’s what voluntary association means, if either party is unhappy with the association they are free to terminate it.

Either way union labor laws in the United States are a tricky beast and they are entirely on the side of the unions. Some would consider this fact a great win for workers but workers aren’t the ones who make union policies, higher ups in the union are. Union leaders will often tell you that their job is to represent the workers and thus they will make outrageous demands including insanely high wages, pensions, and requirements that promotions be based entirely on seniority. Even though such things sound great for workers it ends up biting them in the ass as the companies paying these benefits are unable to continue operations and eventually have to make a decision; close plants with expensive union labor or face bankruptcy. In either case the workers end up losing their job.

Regardless of what union high ups believe those “greedy corporate bastards” don’t have an infinite line of money in which to pay workers. Many factories don’t pay employees more for the simple fact the employees don’t provide more value to the company. Somebody who gets paid $22.00 and hour to put windshield wiper blades on trucks all day isn’t really bringing $22.00 and hour of value to the company and therefore is costing the company money every hour. When paying your employees loses money you’re in a slowly sinking boat.

Minnesota’s distance from auto parts makers in the Michigan-Ohio rust belt further doomed the St. Paul plant, as parts had to be shipped from far away. Despite those factors, some experts insist the St. Paul Ford plant could have been saved if state leaders had more manufacturing expertise and foresight.

“It was a gross piece of stupidity for the state of Minnesota to let this plant die,” said Fred Zimmerman, a retired University of St. Thomas manufacturing professor.

He said state leaders could have come up with a plan to build an integrated metal stamping facility, perhaps in the sandstone caves below the plant, and that might have helped solve the costly problem of shipping in parts.

If Ford believed construction of such a facility would have been a profitable way to continue I guarantee you that there would be such a facility at that plant. I agree that the state let the plant die but not through inaction. Minnesota isn’t a very business friendly state, the state government loves to bleed corporations for as much money as they can. When a company is faced with ever dwindling income due to state theft you can bet they’re not going to stay in the state for long. California has this exact issue as big players like Electronic Arts and Adobe have been fleeing the state in the hopes of finding greener pastures. Had the state not continue to syphon funds from productive companies we would likely still have flourishing industry as we did in the old days (I’m still surprised how many companies were started in Minnesota). At least Zimmerman had one piece of common sense:

Now, Zimmerman says, leaving out its agriculture sector “Minnesota is, to some extent, a Greece in the making.” Losing high-wage Ford jobs will hurt a state with mounting unfunded public pensions and other budget challenges.

“You have to make things and export them out of the community to pay the bills,” he said. “It’s a great tragedy to lose one of the best places for employment in the entire state.”

An economy that buys but doesn’t sell is one that will be facing failure in quick time. This is a problem in the United States as a whole. The government makes doing business in the United States more difficult with every rule, law, and regulation. Why would a company build a manufacturing plant in the United States when they have to spend millions of dollars on idiotic regulation compliances when they can just contract with a Chinese manufacturer for a fraction of the cost? Who will start a company in the United States when they will be facing huge corporate income taxes where as they’ll face little or none in Hong Kong? You can’t continue to steal from people and expect them to gladly take it. So what’s to be done with the plant? Ford is hoping to sell it to somebody for new development but it seems the mayor of St. Paul wants to hinder that development:

“We still hope to develop this into a little jewel for the metro area, but it’s not going to happen overnight,” said Bill Klein, a business attorney and task force co-chairman who lives two miles away. “It’s going to be a long process.”

Added Coleman: “We’re not just going to take the first operation that comes in and says they’ll take the whole site and create 200 jobs. That’s not acceptable to anyone.” Among his concerns: replacing Ford’s diverse workforce. “I’ve always been impressed by the number of women of color working in that plant,” he said.

They’re not “going to take the first operation that comes in.” No, instead they’ll likely turn down numerous productive ideas in the hope of finding a developer who will build some fancy looking building that ultimately generate nothing of value. Perhaps Toyota will desire the location, only to be turned down because they don’t have a plan to build some fancy looking tourist attraction. The state (in general, not Minnesota) is the single largest hinderance to business.

Either way so long Ford Plant. I’ll always have fond memories of the Ford Ranger and wish it wouldn’t have to end like this but fully understand continued development of such a vehicle in a hostile business environment isn’t a sustainable possibility.

Thanks Minnesota Senators

I would like to take a moment out of my day to thank senators Franken and Klobuchar for voting in favor of indefinite detention of American citizens without charge. It’s good to see such staunch defenders of government power representing the fine state of Minnesota.

In case either Franken or Klobuchar have staff members that are paid to browse the Internet for mentions of their names let me make my position clear in case the sarcasm is missed; if either Franken or Klobuchar have any decency they’ll immediately resign for their failure to defend the rights of the American people. Of course I realize that they’re both politicians and therefore have no decency but alas I like to make my opinion well known.

90,000 Permit Holders and Counting

I’m pleased to report that Minnesota now has over 90,000 carry permit holders and so far we’ve not had any trouble with the fabled “blood in the streets” foretold by the anti-gunners. This fine state even allows carry in establishments that serve alcohol, hell a person carrying a firearm can have a blood alcohol level of .04%, and we still haven’t had any increase in the number of drunken shootouts at our local watering holes (which remains at zero as far as I know).

Either we’re doing something wrong in Minnesota or the anti-gunners are incorrect when claiming more people carrying guns leads to more gun violence.

Hiring Police to Stand Around is Expensive

Anybody who has wandered down to the Government Plaza since the occupiers showed up has likely noticed there are a lot of police officers patrolling the two blocks that make up the Plaza. While those officers aren’t doing anything it sure is costing the taxpayers a great deal of money:

The cost to Hennepin County for security and management of the Occupy Minnesota protests has hit $152,295. The county board is seeking a transfer of funds to cover the cost.

$152,295 just to hire a bunch of cops to walk around? There is no reason the police presence should cost that much. For crying out loud the Plaza is right across the street from the mother fucking police station! It’s not like they even need officers walking around the Plaza as they could just ask one of the officers working in the police station to look out the window from time to time.

Some people I’ve talked to have blamed the occupiers for this burdon on the taxpayers. No, that’s bullshit! The only blame here lies on Hennepin County because there is no reason it should cost that much to hire officers to stand around and do nothing. Hell Minneapolis has deployed three of their $29,000 mobile camera rigs that probably suck enough fuel to power a couple police vehicles. Why do both police officers and those camera rigs need to be used? According to the Minneapolis Police Department those cameras are supposed to magically make crime go away so either those things don’t serve the purpose they’re supposed to or the police aren’t necessary.

Perhaps Hennepin County should hire me to do the security. I can promise adequate security for a fraction of the cost they’re paying right now. Pack up the cameras, send the cops home, and hire a couple of retired individuals to walk around with radios in hand. If the retired guys see something they can call the police who can walk all the way across the street to deal with the situation. There you go, I just saved the country a ton of money while giving some work to retired individuals looking for some income.

Occupy Minneapolis Being Handed an Eviction Notice

It was bound to happen sooner or later but Hennepin County has decided that it’s time for the occupiers at the Government Plaza to pack up an leave, at least during the evening:

According to a memo issued by the county, once snow falls and temperatures fall below 25 degrees, overnight sleeping on the plaza will be prohibited, portable toilets will be removed and a canopy shelter taken down.

County officials announced that winterization of the plaza will begin Friday. That means not only blowing out irrigation system lines but “consolidation” of items left in the plaza, storing sleeping bags during the day and removing all non-county signs.

A copy of the actual notice can be downloaded here [PDF]. To summarize Hennipen County isn’t going to let anybody sleep at the Plaza between the hours of 22:00 and 6:00 and all portable toilets will be removed once the mercury falls below 25 or the first “significant” snowfall occurs (what defines a significant snowfall is never defined).

Now comes the interesting part, what will Occupy Minneapolis’s response be. I’ve been hanging out in the chatroom periodically to see what is being planned but so far there is no generally accepted plan. Unlike many of the other occupy events, the Minneapolis crew is pretty few in numbers meaning they won’t be able to put up much resistance if the police decide to roll in and remove the occupiers by force. Thus civil disobedience is probably out leading the only other option being to plead with a government that has thus far been unwilling to provide much in the way of favorable rulings (although they’ve thrown the occupiers a few crumbs here and there for keep them disillusioned that the county is trying to help them).

Another idea that seems to be floating around is getting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) involved to bring a lawsuit against Hennepin County although I’m not sure how well that’s going to fly (knowing the ACLU, whom are pretty decent at fighting for free speech and right of assembly, it is likely that they will take the case). This may be the only interesting thing to watch regarding Occupy Minneapolis since the whole tent confiscation occurred on its second weekend.

Wisconsin Right-to-Carry Law Takes Effect Today

Congratulations Wisconsin, today is the day you finally allow people within your borders the right to self-defense. People within the state can finally obtain carry permits while those living outside of the state may have their permit recognized. I posted Wisconsin’s reciprocity list a while ago and am happy that Minnesota’s permit made the cut.

First there were 50, but now there is only one as Illinois stands alone as the only state that doesn’t afford people living within its borders to carry the most effective means of self-defense.

Minnesota Permit Holder Facing Charges for Chasing Muggers

Most advocates of armed citizenry strongly warn those who hold or are seeking carry permits do so for the right reason, and that reason is for the protection of you and yours. Due to various complexities it is not advised that carry permit holders involve themselves in situations that don’t involve them or their loved ones. A Minneapolis permit holder tried being a good samaritan and things could be getting very dicy for him soon:

Just before 10 p.m., police got a 911 report that someone had been shot in a parking area behind the Super Grand Buffet restaurant about a block west of Cub Foods near the intersection of Lake Street and Minnehaha Avenues, according to police spokesman Sgt. William Palmer. When police arrived, a man with a gun who said he had a valid concealed-weapon permit told them he had interrupted the robbery of a woman in her 60s. The man said that he chased the robbers, a male and a female, exchanged fire and killed the male robber.

While I will personally commend the man for getting involved during the mugger his failure was chasing after the muggers after they attempted to flee. From what I understand the state of Minnesota has laws allowing for citizen’s arrests, but only for felony level crimes. In conversation with various carry instructors I’ve learned that while the initiation crime may have been felony level and thus warranting a citizen’s arrest it was no longer a felony crime, but a property crime, when the muggers attempted to flee.

Pursuing a fleeing attacker is dangerous for legal and personal reasons. Legally most state laws will put you in murky water if you attempt to chase after an attacker which exposes you to legal ramifications for doing so. On the personal side of things by chasing after a fleeing attack you’re increasing the window in which you may suffer bodily harm. As the good samaritan learned in this case the muggers were armed and by pursuing he placed himself at a greater risk of being shot by increasing his exposure time to armed criminals. The latter reason alone leads me to believe chasing after a fleeing attack is seldom a good idea (I say seldom because it may be necessary if the attackers have abducted somebody or another similar extenuating circumstance).

In any event this will likely be an interesting case to keep an eye on, especially for a Minnesota resident holding a carry permit.

Dayton Wants to Give Money to the Needy Millionaires

It’s a good thing Mark Dayton was voted in as the governor. If we would have had a Republican governor he would have ensures the rich would benefit from taxpayer money while the poor received nothing, but the Democrats always ensure that won’t happen… wait a minute, this doesn’t fit the narrative:

Convinced the Minnesota Vikings could leave the state if they don’t get a new stadium, Gov. Mark Dayton is determined to keep them here.

On Wednesday, he convened a series of rapid-fire, closed-door meetings with Ramsey County officials, team owners and even a group that wants to build a downtown Minneapolis casino that could help pay for the new stadium.

“The ball’s in our court,” Dayton said after the meetings, vowing to prepare his own stadium proposal by Nov. 7.

His recommendations will include such details as where the new stadium should be, who should run it and how the state should pay for its $300 million share. Dayton and his top staffers and commissioners have been racing to see what could work and what won’t in a final stadium deal.

Huh, it’s almost as if both parties act exactly the same and ensure their big millionaire buddies are treated right with taxpayer money. Perhaps there’s corruption afoot? Could it be?

Seriously why the fuck should taxpayers have to foot any part of the Viking stadium bill? They haven’t even done anything to warrant keeping them in the state. I don’t follow sports at all but even I know the Vikings suck ass. If they want to go I say let them go, hell let’s kick them out for being whiny bitches who are demanding the people of this state give them more than millions of dollars every year in merchandise and ticket sales. When we toss them out let’s send Mark Dayton with them, we don’t need a prick raising taxes during an economic recession to further enrich millionaires. This quote is also golden:

The Vikings owner emerged from the closed-door meeting with Dayton and briskly walked away from reporters. Wilf answered just one question: Are you happy with the progress?

So Dayton is having closed door meetings with the owner of the Vikings but won’t stand around and take a few questions from us mere peasants? At the very least you would think the people of Minnesota would get a chance to vote on the matter.

Occupation of the Hennepin County Government Plaza

Minnesota’s branch of the Occupy Wall Street movement kicked off on Friday. I hit the event up on both Friday evening and Saturday afternoon with several of my libertarian friends to see what was actually going on. I can say with certainty after conversing with many attendees that a great deal of diversity exists in those attending which is the opposite of what many media outlets are reporting. Regardless of what you’ve heard these events aren’t made up entirely of unemployed Marxists. With that said a large majority of those in attendance certainly subscribe, at least in part, to the failed philosophy put forth by Marx.

Both days I attended there were quite a few people there with shirts and signs saying, “End the Fed.” The people there to protest the Federal Reserve make up the second largest faction after the Marxists. It was interesting to see two groups who are usually in direct opposition of one another existing in the same place peacefully. I had the pleasure of meeting several other voluntaryists whom I had not previously known along with a couple of guys up on Austrian economics (in fact one guy was wearing a shirt with Ludwig von Mises on it).

The variety of people attending this event puts further credence in my theory that these occupations are basically bring your own grievance protests. It could be best summed up by saying the one unifying aspect at these occupations is that everybody in attendance is pissed off about something. Some are there merely to portest American’s wars, others are there to protest the banks, and others are there to protest the entire corporatocracy we currently live under.

I’m sure it’s pretty obvious that, with such a diverse group in attendance, organization isn’t evident. While there is good organization as far as having good, water, and sanitary needs on site there is little in the way of determining overarching goals of the occupation. Each night there is an event called a general assembly which is basically a big collectivist circle jerk. Like most collectivist ideas, these general assemblies are great at taking up a ton of time and accomplishing very little. As an individualist I have no problem with this as it prevents the collectivists from establishing complete domination over the occupation. What makes the general assemblies so ineffective is the fact they are trying to please everybody which is impossible. Minor topics, such as decided how things will be voted on, can take an hour or more. Once the attendees of the general assembly have voted on how they’re going to vote other topics are discussed and decided. While many topics can be discussed and voted on quickly as there is an overall consensus other topics can take an apparently endless amount of time. Personally I prefer my individualist system of deciding things which can be summed up as, “I’m going to go do whatever the fuck I want and you’re welcome to join me. If you don’t want to join me that’s fine, you can go do your thing.”

Some interesting things to note about the Minneapolis occupation are the lack of electricity and shelters and an overall desire to do everything within the rule of law. While many participating in the occupation use the phrase civil disobedience I don’t thing those words mean what they think they mean. Civil disobedience is showing disregard for the law and doing what you want to do. For example the county has ordinances against erecting tents on public property, which the Government Center Plaza is considered, so the people sleeping overnight are doing so without shelter. Were the participants performing acts of civil disobedience they would just erect tents and give a big middle finger to the police surrounding the Plaza. In fact the regard for obeying the law is so strong that several of my friends who were going off to protest the Federal Reserve met with some resistance from the occupation organizers. The organizers stated that they made an agreement with the police to inform them of any marches so the police could escort the march participants. My friends, being the individualists they are, questioned why they are being hassled for going off and doing what they want to do (which was walk the distance from the Plaza to the Federal Reserve Building in Minneapolis).

I mentioned the lack of electricity and this is entirely due to a dirty stunt pulled by the city. The Plaza has openly accessible electrical outlets available that were fully operational Friday but sometime during Friday night the city cut them leaving the occupants without any source of power. The organizers questioned why the city would pull the plug on the electricity when taxpayers are footing the bill and I have to agree, those in attendance or taxpayers and should have access to the electrical power on public property. In luie of working electrical outlets the occupations have erected a couple of solar panels but as we know solar panels are incapable of providing much in the way of power. Currently the organizers are trying to obtain some bicycle generators as the city will not allow any form of fuel-powered generator to be in the Plaza (against the words civil disobedience do not apply to this occupation).

The lack of shelter is also a notable issue. As I state the country has an ordinance against erecting tents on public property and the attendees of the occupation have been unwilling to give the law a nice big middle finger. Since they are unable to erect tents some people have resorted to covering themselves with tarps which are legal so long as they’re not propped up by any type of structure. While some of the participants are petitioning the country board to get permission to erect tents I believe their concerns will go unheard as the country would like nothing more than getting the protesters out of there. Without any form of basic shelter I doubt this occupation will last much after the temperature starts dropping.

Free food is being provided to the protesters but another ordinance prevents anybody from preparing hot food on site. Thus all of the food being provided is in the form of sandwiches, previously baked goods, and food heated offsite and brought to the Plaza.

From what I saw during the weekend it seems Minnesotans are again earning their title of Minnesota nice (which should actually be called Minnesota passive-aggressive). The number participating in this occupation is fairly unimpressive and the numbers seem to be dwindling with each day. Those who are actually there have been very good at obeying every law on the books instead of performing actual acts of civil disobedience. I’ve been checking in on the live stream periodically to get an estimate of the number of participants and I’m noticing a definite surge during the evening hours. When I checked in this morning there were, I estimate, a little less than 100 people. Tonight when I checked it it seems there could be close to 200 people (but as I’m checking the live stream I can only see what the camera is focused on to make my estimates, hardly accurate data).

I’m glad to see people have finally gotten pissed off enough with our current corporatocracy to start demonstrations. I wish a large number of participants had working knowledge in the field of economics and history. If the majority of Marxists attending these occupations understood both economics and history they would know socialism can only lead to decimated economies and high death tolls (the latter isn’t a guarantee but the first is with time).

Many participants also seem to believe the government is going to listen to their grievances and thus change will occur but I believe they need to reconsider this belief. Our “representatives” rarely listen to the people and prefer to enact legislation that benefits their large campaign contributors. Instead of pleading with these “representatives” the participants of these occupations should simply ignore the state as much as possible. A good amount of peaceful civil disobedience combined with agorism is going to do far more to change society than appealing to the better nature of our so called “representatives.” Stop worrying so much about getting group consensus and instead promote the individualist ideal, have each person bring their own thoughts, actions, and strategies to the table. Competition is good so having competing ideas and actions to enact social and economic change is going to work far better than getting everybody to sign onto one single method.

After all we should remember that American was founding on the individualist ideal while the Soviet Union was founded on the collectivist ideal. Look which of the two is still around and consider that fact.