This is a screen shot showing me in an Uber heat zone early during the shift. The Sherpa Share heat map shows where Uber and Lyft are probably charging extra (Surge) for rides. Part time Uber drivers don't chase the cheap fares that Uber charges in most times and places. The full time Uber driver makes next to nothing without the surge prices but they aren't available at all times and places. Passengers hate surge prices and many of them will cancel their Uber if they see a yellow cab or if Arro shows a real taxi nearby. In the map at the top of the page the dark blue dot with b the light blue halo around it is me stopped picking up a passenger who clearly just canceled an expensive app ride.
I'm going to be posting more about Huey Long, Share The Wealth and why knowing about this matters now. Long's program was revolutionary calling for a drastic redistribution of wealth and power downward.
I'm what you call a red diaper baby. That means that my parents were members of the Communist Party at the time of my birth (April 21, 1946). They quit their memberships when I was a little kid. Though I don't know the exact circumstances of their exit I do know that my father particularly remained within the periphery of the Party for decades while not a dues payer and not subject to Party discipline. I could go on about what socialism he imparted to me. If you Google "Jew boy of Queensbridge" you'll find stuff about that if you're interested.
I used to talk with my father about politics, especially the politics of the 1930's and 40's. When it came to Huey Long my dad was clear: Long was a fascist, a demogogue, a racist and a danger to the Jewish people. I more or less accepted his assessment until recently. I now have a completely different view having done more reading.
Huey Long was a radical, even a revolutionary, a fighter for poor whites and Blacks and the scourge of the rich. He actually was my kind of guy. No, he wasn't perfect. It's clear though that he was doing the best that he could do. Probably he paid with his life.
Long did great things for the poor people of Louisiana taxing the oil money being made to build hospitals, bridges, highways and schools. Students got free textbooks. Adults were given night school classes. Black sharecroppers then could read and do arithmetic, making it harder for the heirs of the slave owners to cheat them out of their contractual due money. The plantation owners and Ku Klux Klan hated Long. Poor whites and Blacks loved him.
I don't doubt for a minute that Bernie Sanders studied up on Huey Long and is taking a few leafs from the Long playbook. Long, though wasn't a supporter of United States interventionism. He had the understanding that the US war against Spain at the end of the Nineteenth Century and America's participation in the First World War were wrong (just like my namesake Eugene Debs). Sanders is a supporter of US drone strikes (but on a smaller scale than Obama's drone strikes). Sanders also initially supported the invasion of Afghanistan. He is an emotional supporter of The Jewish State but he was the first member of Congress to boycott Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech to Congress that called for war against Iran. My most optimistic take on Sanders is that he takes the most progressive stances he can while remaining a player in US realpolitik and reducing the chance of ending up like Martin Luther King Jr. and Huey Pierce Long.
Young Bernie Sanders, civil rights activist 1960's.
I am thinking that Bernie Sanders needs a movement that's independent of him but pushing him to be better than he is and keeping the needs of the poor, the workers, the Blacks and World Peace front and center. Something like Huey Long's Share The Wealth Clubs of which there were 2800 of with eight million members.
Since February, when I came back from a three month visit to my wife's homeland, Venezuela I've been thinking about and writing about Uber and its impact on my life. When I left for Venezuela in November 2014 I had been taxi driving basically 6 nights a week. The garage had so many more drivers than cars that I had to commit to that schedule just to assure that I wouldn't be sent home instead of being assigned a taxi to work with.
Shape up at New York City's taxi garages pre the mass Uber recruiting of taxi drivers was like something out of "On The Waterfront " which helps you to understand Uber's initial successful raid on the taxi fleets. Uber pushed their luck though, I think with the fare cuts and boosts in their take. Along with the lower non-surge fares and no tip option policy Uber attracts less desirable customers. These people are ignorant of Uber's dodgy business practices, abuses of drivers and fascistic "Mussolini's March On Rome" approach to political and regulatory impediments or worse, they "get it" and they approve.
Anyhow, the drivers seem to be drifting back to the taxi garages. I noticed some of the Gubers on the Saturday night of the nation wide Uber strike. Drivers outnumbered cars at the garage.
But this past Saturday I had another aha!! moment. I like to listen to classical music radio WQXR 105.7 fm. For the past few weeks no passengers have crudely demanded that I "put on some tunes. "
This weekend Uber drivers threw down the gauntlet.
Travis Kalanick and his backers, venture capitalists hedge fund managers and the world economy wrecking crew at Goldman Sachs are planning their next move.
One guy named Abe Hussein saw that the time was ripe. He pushed and put up his own few thousand dollars to force Uber's exploitation of it's drivers into the world's consciousness. No one expected Uber drivers to respond but the impact was highly visible.
A great first effort !
Heat maps show no Uber cars available.
New York Hilton Hotel. Last week it looked like Uberville. This weekend it was Taxi Town.
This story is about resistance to an oligarch - fascist leviathan that smashes down legitimate government and rule of law. Uber, clearly conceived in the mind of a naziphile, is an ideological movement of oligarchs that mobilizes middle class people like its customer base and middle class part time drivers to beat down the living standard of transport workers and ultimately all workers.
It uses mob mobilization tactics to intimidate duly elected officials worldwide. These oligarch - fascists have underestimated their own drivers.
Aug 19, 2015 - Prosecutors in California said Wednesday that Uber's background checks had "systemic failures" and missed the criminal histories of drivers ...
Aug 19, 2015 - This driver joined Uber in 2014, and the company's background checkfailed to turn up his criminal record, largely because he gave a fake ...
Jun 27, 2014 - [Uber's] background check is done through a third party called Hirease. It consists of filling out your name, address, DL & SSN online. That's it.
@EWeixel Also, there's good evidence that Uber's background checks are superior to those of the FBI's. http://t.co/oHeQ0YrRvr.
Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing service drivers are now covered by the company’s liability insurance at all times when they’re on duty — but could still be saddled with costly collision damages. (Courtesy Sarah, a Lyft driver)
You’re a driver working for Uber or Lyft. You have the app (or both apps) on, but haven’t been matched with a passenger. You’re cruising around and you hit another car. Both cars are damaged. Are you covered?
The answer is both yes and no, though many drivers mistakenly think they are fully covered. A driver’s liability — damage to others — is taken care of, but damage to their own car is not.
In response to new laws going into effect in 19 states Wednesday, Uber and Lyft both recently bumped up their liability insurance coverage to primary — meaning it steps in first, before other policies — for that on-duty-but-unmatched period, a no-man’s-land they had resisted covering for years.
That’s good news, but it still leaves many drivers partially uncovered. That new insurance is only for liability and doesn’t cover collision or other damages to the driver’s car. (Drivers themselves are also not protected if they are hurt in an accident that is their fault, though the companies’ policies cover bodily injury to passengers and others.) And under a new California law, a driver’s personal policy is expressly prohibited from paying for any claims that happen when a driver is logged into a ride-hailing app, so their personal policy won’t cover collision either.
The only way to have collision coverage during that pre-ride period — dubbed Period 1 by lawmakers — is to buy a new, special insurance policy that explicitly allows for work on Uber, Lyft or a similar platform and agrees to cover accidents during personal driving and Period 1.
Insurance companies across the U.S. are starting to offer these poli....
And so, drivers boast on the internet about beating Uber's driver background screening, and only a few months ago , under legal pressure, did Uber and Lyft start offering almost adequate insurance coverage in nineteen of the fifty states of the United States.
Here's freeloader Aaron Tao speaking up for "freedom of choice. " I call Aaron a feeloading conscience - free cheapskate because he understands the issues surrounding Uber and he chooses to take advantage of the situation. In most jurisdictions Uber completely evades fees associated with the ground transportation business. It encourages insurance fraud. It resists having its drivers drug screened and FBI fingerprinted. Perhaps Aaron, you are fully equipped and capable of defending yourself in the physical sense.
Unfortunately many people who seek what would appear to be publicly regulated ground transportation (but isn't in fact) are not as fortunate as you, Aaron are. How about freedon of fully informed choice? That passengers know that the driver is insured correctly or not? What about free choice for pedestrians and other third parties who might be maimed or even killed by app distracted and effectively uninsured Uber drivers? Where is their free choice, Aaron? Are you advocating that people not willing to brave this possibility stay inside their homes?
And then there is the issue of transportation for wheelchair and walker bound passengers. Uber says that it's an app and not a taxi company, and so no regulator can force it to carry cripples. Fine, Aaron doesn't appear to be a cripple. So if Uber actually wipes out taxi businesses in any given jurisdiction, it's no skin off of Aaron's nose, and we know that the universe is here to serve Aaron.
Uber recruits drivers through immoral and unethical bait - and switch tactics that ought to be illegal if indeed they aren't. Drivers may have signed up to Uber and taken on the responsibility of a high interest auto loan or lease only to see their fares reduced and Uber's take out increased. Tough luck, right Aaron? Problem is, Aaron, that some of these desperadoes are going to continue pushing their un maintained wrecks until someone gets hurt or killed. Tough noogies, right Aaron?
The taxi bosses organized a march across the Brooklyn Bridge yesterday, October 12. I didn't go. I couldn't find any mention of it on the Internet. Did it happen? I don't know. Here's what I do know: A group of Uber drivers are trying to pull off a nationwide strike this weekend, October 16-18. I also know that there are medallion taxis that will be sitting parked as usual for lack of drivers on those days. I also know that many Uber drivers are licensed taxi drivers. Couldn't they be incentivized to drive yellow during the strike?
Some of them are renting Uber cars by the week. What's to lose for the fleet owners?
Maybe it's too late to get it together for this strike? Something is telling me that we're not looking at the one and only Nationwide Uber Strike, but rather the first. Maybe the notion of this proposal will sink in and become real the next time, and there is going to be a next time.
PS- It's a good time to let your drivers know about the free Sherpa Share heat map. It directs drivers for Uber to the zones where Uber is likely to be charging passengers surge prices. This is a war, right?
Bernie Sanders campaign operatives call cops on pro Palestinian students in Boston.
That's pretty bad stuff. Fortunately Sanders' campaign has said that the action by the operatives was an error. Presumably then, supporters of Palestine will be able to carry signs and give out literature at Bernie Sanders' campaign events.
The world is in a terrible bind, and a major reason is that the United States population supports, either passively or actively, the notion that the United States is "Exceptional" and has the right, even the duty, to tell the world how it needs to behave.
"We" twist arms of other countries to get them to do what "we" need them to do.
One cannot participate in real politics in the United States opposing this consensus. One cannot take office in the United States without pledging allegiance to the Constitution that was written by slave holders and merchants connected to slavery.
So really what needs to happen is a breakout from this consensus. Otherwise the United States will continue trying to rule the world, and stupidly at that.
Bernie Sanders is inside the consensus, as close to the edge as he can be while remaining inside.What his heart of hearts tells him is not mine to guess. There is a long tradition of "Socialists" who support imperialist wars. What we have though is a presidential candidate who is credibly in the race who says that diplomacy is preferable to war, and while the headline says he supports Obama in Syria the subtext is he is opposed to a US imposed "No Fly Zone" that Hillary Clinton advocates and that would push an open confrontation with Russia not too unlike the Cuban Missile Crisis.
One thing you can count on is that Travis Kalanick, boss of Uber, doesn't cancel or postpone his war against taxis, buses, the automobile industry and just about anyone who works for a living. So the New York taxi driver march is set for last week got canceled, but then reset.That's good. Truly I don't think it will change things much.
The new taxi app called Arro has been on the road for a few weeks. Honestly I don't think it's going to change much either. It's set up better for safety than Uber and than the old dead app called Hailo that completely failed. I knew it would fail.Taxi apps like Hailo create danger to the public Arro is not nearly as bad, but I just don't think apps and New York Yellows mix.
Still we should be fighting Uber / Goldman Sachs
UBER DRIVERS ARE ORGANIZING A STRIKE FOR OCTOBER 16 TO 1
That is good for yellow taxi drivers and green too. Even if only a small number of Uber X drivers strike it will mean a little less competition on those days. And if they make any progress in forcing Uber to give them more money it will be good for everyone who drives for a living.
There is a free app that shows us where Uber will probably charge extra for its rides. The public hates it when Uber raises its fares and Uber drivers need these raises, because the ordinary fare after all the expenses leaves them with not much to put aside to take care of their cars and replace them when they are all worn out.
Sherpa Share Heat Map
We can use this map. It tells us where there is probably more business. It's free from Google Play and i Store and it's easy to use the map.
I've got to say that I have been feeling extra stupid for being had by the official Venezuelan story of its deportations of around 1500 Colombians awhile back.
Two Venezuelan soldiers and a Venzuelan civilian had been shot by Colombian paramilitaries while the Venezuelans had been engaged in an anti smuggling operation near the Colombian border. It's beyond argument that there was and is a serious problem for Venezuela's policy of providing cheap subsidized food, toiletries, medicines and gasoline to its people. Subsidized goods were and are being diverted and resold for higher prices in Venezuela and lots in Colombia too. Venezuelans contend with standing in long lines as they try to find milk, chicken, medicine and famously toilet paper. Drivers slept in their cars and trucks while waiting to get gasoline - this happening in oil producing regions of the oil exporting nation.
So President Nicolas Maduro decided to take strong action. He closed busy border crossings. He ordered deportations supplementing his recently initiated crackdown on violent crime.
The narrative went like this: Over a thousand Colombian illegal residents were deported on a lawful case - by - case basis from the squatter settlement located a stone's throw away from the Colombian border known as La Invasion.
Venzuelan authorities had uncovered a dungeon where kidnapped victims were held for ransom, a brothel staffed with underage girls, and other evidence of massive lawlessness.
So, being sympathetic to Venezuela and its travails and being no friend of Venezuela's right wing US backed opposition, I blogged about it and I defended the deportations. Imagine my surprise, chagrin, and embarrassment when I read in Venezuela Analysis that the deported Colombians are coming back, courtesy of the same government that had deported them and said such nasty things about them. Yes, they're coming back to apply for legal residency in Venezuela. 😠😲🙉🙈🙊
I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas or information about a new club drug that might be making the rounds in New York City, possibly a rape drug.
I picked up a young woman passenger who was put into the taxi in the financial district by a young man. I will tell you that she is the third such "case" that's been put into my taxi within the past few days. I am used to outer borough passengers who prefer to give turn -by turn directions to a taxi driver, and so I was not alarmed until, close to the exit of the Brooklyn Bridge she would only tell me what neighborhood she was going to, also telling me to bring her home. She had no information to add. By chance I came upon a cop car and got some help.
Enjoy the video.
PS I DIDN'T RECORD THE POOR WOMAN'S FACE AS I HAVE NO INTENTION TO HUMILIATE HER. I DO FEAR THAT SHE NEEDS AT LEASE TO BE SEEN IN AN EMERGENCY ROOM BUT THE COPS WE'RE SET ON PUSHING THE SITUATION ONTO ME.
Aaron, honestly could you set me straight here? 
