As Dagny rides west on the train, she encounters a hobo sneaking a ride in the vestibule of her car. She invites him in. His name is Jeff Allen, and he once worked for the Twentieth Century Motor Company. He tells her that he and the factory’s other employees first phrased the question, “Who is John Galt?” Twelve years earlier, the company owner died and his heirs took over. The new owners put into practice a plan based on the communist slogan, “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” The plan enslaved the most able to the unable. The first man to quit the company was a young engineer who said that he would put an end to such irrationality once and for all — he said he would stop the motor of the world. Years passed, factories closed, production declined, and the motors stopped. Jeff Allen and the factory’s other workers began to wonder if the young engineer had succeeded in his mission. The engineer’s name was John Galt.
The train suddenly comes to a stop, and Dagny learns that the crew members have deserted it. Desertion is becoming a common phenomenon, because men are reaching their breaking points and have no legal way to quit their jobs. Many of Taggart’s trains have been “frozen” in this way — abandoned on the tracks for someone else to deal with.
The above synopsis from Atlas Shrugged is an example of going Galt. This government is going down. Quickly. How do I know? The real question is how do you not know it is going down if you disagree with the premise? Every facet of the economy is collapsing, people cannot afford to buy food or heat their homes. The pandemic, vaccines and endless wars have come home to roost.
As in Atlas Shrugged, gold is the true measurement of wealth. While crypto and the stock markets are going down, gold is up over $50 an ounce in the past two days. I will not rehash all of the bad economic news but the analogies to Atlas Shrugged are clear. Without the people who make this country run, the corrupt government will collapse.
David DeGerolamo
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Senate Passes Bill to Avoid Rail Strike
The US Senate on Thursday voted 80-15 to avert a rail union strike.
The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted 290-137 to avert the rail union strike.
So, CONgress has decided to ORDER the Train Unions to OBEY and WORK with the Agreement CONgress approved?
Is this going to be the American version of Canada’s Trucker revolt?
As much PAIN this will cause myself and the rest of US I hope and pray they tell CONgress to Pound Sand and strike.
“In the name of the general welfare, to protect the safety of people, to achieve full equality and full stability, it was decreed for the duration of the national emergency …” (Refer to Directive 10-289)
Good quote from Atlas Shrugged. I have a copy in my library.
Does sound a lot like current wording in our CONgress’s own legislation, eh?
Are you ready for the grid to suffer brown outs-black outs due to lack of train hauled coal in about a month or so? I understand most coal power plants keep about a month of normal coal needed on hand.
Even if it takes 2 weeks of political posturing and BS to “Solve” the issues and resolve a strike the whiplash effect will cause troubles as you cannot simply haul and deliver coal smoothly to ALL coal power plants in a week or so.
I strongly suggest everybody do a weekend POWER OUT exercise to find out what you really need on hand to deal with real world(tm) blackouts in winter.
We live on the county line at the boundary of three electrical utility companies. We are always last to have power restored after a natural disaster (ice storm, tornado, hurricane).
We learned decades ago to always have 1-2 winters’ supply of dry wood under shelter and enough propane on hand to ration the generator for 15-30 days for our well, freezers and house fans.
I’m not saying we’re prepared for a long term grid-down scenario, but we’ve comfortably toasted our feet and sipped coffee etc. in front of the wood stove for 10 days or more multiple times while the local utility companies worked to restore service for the unprepared who live among us.
Chuckling, the linemen know they can drop in for a warm-up, coffee and biscuits here. Neighbors are always donating jars of homemade jam to me 🙂
My power is seldom off for long, unless a Nor’easter pounds us with several feet of snow.
Thats no shit. Last ice storm I put packages of steaks in the trucks. Ill be damned if they didn’t come right after I called next time…
You laugh….. so I live near a fair sized coal plant. Giant pile next to the elevators, you see it ebb and grow over the year. It was noticeably low this summer, but topped up now. I believe it seasonal. The people that run these things, cannot deviate. Deliveries scheduled years in advance. They are mentally incapable of changing paradigms without direction from superiors. Same as all the home building going on everywhere: if we injected 1/3rd of the country with a killshot, why is blackrock still building neighborhoods? They HAVE to know the curve is being inverted… why the charade?
Not to distract from your point however -- people are going to be very uncomfortable this winter. Texas last year was the trial run dontchaknow? Nobody got lynched, the people will put up with un-elected bureaucrats in the energy services sector telling them to freeze. Everyone throws up their hand, passes the buck, and says its not their fault! Did you see the killer-robot vote in San Fran last night? State reps argued that since some-other-bureaucrat somewhere else said they have to pass this motion, ‘so here we are’, and have to. 3 of the 9 council members had a spine, and didn’t immediately self-immolate, so I have no idea why the other 6 felt incapable of representing their constituents, but “here we are”.
Folks, theres no avoiding the ugly anymore. Fight back, or prepare to die. Get ready. TINVOWOOT.
Although there may be a need for Congress to act, the RR unions will make a note of their decision. The bad part is none of the RR union’s demands were even considered. So what is next? The RR unions will eventually go on strike because Congress just kicks all the cans down the road.
Told ya’……but you’d rather censor my comments, instead of posting them in full, because they clash with the grifting shills, the cultist charlatans, of CONstitutional CONservatism.
No. Some of your comments were deleted because of personal attacks. This “I told you so” comment above contributes nothing to the conversation. If you cannot make valid points, your comments will be deleted.
No comments are edited.
Agreed. I have seen my comments removed once or twice as well. I may not agree, but its not my house, so I try to abide, as a good guest should.
We are all the same here, we come here for the same reasons, and should feel lucky and grateful there still is a place to gather and share (soon there may not be).
Working together towards our common goals should be the directive underlying all of your actions here -- do what you wish in your own house. Here we are brothers and sisters.
I have posted my rules on comments several times. If a comment is off topic, contains personal attacks, foul language or makes the commenter look foolish, they are deleted. I believe if people saw some of these comments, they would understand how these rules came about.
I agree, as Joe said we are brothers and sisters, let us move forward and put aside our petty differences.
Agreed and understood Sir. I didn’t pay to participate here, ergo I am a guest, and try to use my good manners. I’ve no quarrel with how you choose to keep your house.
I hope they walk off anyway
They won’t…it would have already happened.
https://www.axios.com/2022/12/02/biden-rail-agreement-strike-law
Thats the answer. This is the way.
Through all of this, the last couple years, I have found our language, errr, my command of our language, insufficient to describe what is going on. I studied English in college even, but search for words and phrases to fit: literature has given us examples of concepts that take chapters and books to describe, and distill it into a few words: “going galt” is one such turn of phrase.
Sadly I don’t think many understand it. Like the concept of “grok”, until you’ve read Heinlein’s book, you don’t get the term. When I use it here, some readers are able to “wrap their head around” what I am saying (see what I did there?)
So, short of violent revolution, and most likely leading up to just that, this is the way. I am one of these people. I am not an engineer nor scientist. I am a do-er, a manager, a leader, a worker, a hard sum-bitch who knows how to get it done by the end of the day, and have the scars to prove it. And I am currently classified as unemployed. My kids are utilizing the state health care resources. Oh, I work… for cash under the table helping people in my community get their homes improved, or fixed up, ready for winter, etc. My garden never looked better and I’ll eat next fall. Me and mine are fine. Fedgov does not benefit from my existence, however. If anything, I cost them. And I make every effort to be as expensive as possible.
I cannot fix the problem at hand (that is not to say I cannot contribute to one side or the other, merely that this matter is beyond my means to fix as an individual). But I can do my part to starve the beast. Do you still shop at amazon or your local brick and mortar store? Hone Depot or corner hardware store? Do you give to the Church food bank or a state run…. seeing the difference yet? Pay cash or flash your card? You know thats next, right? Did you see they enacted credit card codes for gun sales? Use an FFL or private party? Ahh, you’re starting to grok now!
Here we are preaching to the choir, the minds that need awakening are not here, but out there. We need to come here for supporrt, fellowship, amd ideas, which this is! Do as much as you can to starve the beast -- not everybody has the means to go underground as a handyman, and the day is coming I will have to list my rates in silver, and barter, too. Grok that folks, its coming, all of it. Everything that they said was going to happen, has. They are telling you what is next. Do you seriously doubt them?
Awesome comment. You are exactly correct sir.
There are looters and producers. Going Galt is different from the Muslim strategy or Cloward-Piven strategy of bankrupting a government by stealing from it using social services. I render to Caesar what is Caesar’s but I make sure it is the least amount that is possible. Barter is taxable but I do not know of anyone who pays tax on a trade in goods. Working under the table and not paying taxes is looting. Living off of the government using welfare or workfare is looting and not Biblical.
People justify whatever they want but that does not change morality or virtue. I went Galt and still pay property and sales taxes. I make most of what I need (which is minimal) and pay in cash. I do not vote and I will NEVER vote for the lesser of two evils even if we had fair elections. How was I able to Go Galt? I worked, saved and sacrificed for 44 years. I am not complaining, I did what I believed the Lord wanted me to do. I am off to build something but I want people to ask themselves tonight if they were content with what they did today.
That’s two points of view. Here’s another. Jack Spirco over at Survival Podcast once said he’d take everything he could get from the government until he reached the point that he’d recovered everything they have stolen from him.
Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s. OK. I earned my wages with my hands. Caesar had nothing to do with that. So at what point do my wages, or any part of them, become the property of Caesar? I had no voice in establishing tax laws. Taxation, without my consent, is theft. Pure and simple. Taking my property against my will. How is that any different than the Mafia extorting protection money from a shopkeeper? I doubt anyone on this site would disagree with the idea that FedGov is criminal. There’s different ways to interpret Scripture. One of the Commandments is ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’. What of that?
Caesar was an emperor. His likeness was on the coins. The USA is, or is supposed to be, a Republic. The Republic’s face is not on our money. That would be the Federal Reserve. When did they replace our Republic? When is stealing what is mine (taking without my consent) virtuous or moral? Regardless of who does it?
Agree 100% Malachi.
I’ve considered sending the county a tax bill and demanding payment from them with the promise that failure to pay will result in forceful action. Hey, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander as the old saying goes.
Just think I’d people did that en mass and stood their ground and extracted the payment if necessary.
If only people would STOP believing force on the part of dot gov is legitimate.
Hit the mark Joe, I believe what they say because it is happening in real time.
I see a lot of transportation delays as rail workers half ass it. Either that or people start quitting in mass.
[…] on the comments on Time to Freeze the Trains, there is no consensus on what Going Galt means. I have an idea in my mind but that is not fixed in […]
How about we hear from a railroad worker/engineer/union organizer (despite the interviewing source), as that’s something sorely missing from all sides discussing, posting, reporting on this labor dispute.
Two things to consider, and if I am wrong, please correct me, as I am going from memory. I seem to remember that there was a RR strike when Truman was president. He had the Army run the trains, until it was sorted out. Second, and not quite the same, was the air traffic controllers strike, while Reagan was president. But those were government employees.
When Truman “used” federal military personnel to keep rail service operational nationally, it was done to prevent railroad employees from wielding any leveraging POWER, during contract “negotiations,” making striking a moot point.
Truman didn’t give a damn about trains running on time, the transportation of goods, or railroad workers. It was done for the benefit of railway corporations. And as everyone knows, other than the dimmest bulbs, the (D.C.) Uniparty political-class is a government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations.