Life "on the waterfront" now incudes 76' yachts and Bentleys, at least for the right sort of people

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Where's my yacht?

In 2005, the Justice Department accused Daggett of being an “associate” of the Genovese crime family – one of the “Five Families” of the US Mafia. Daggett took the witness stand that year after federal prosecutors charged him with racketeering.

He described himself as a target of the mob – though a turncoat Mafia member had testified Daggett was under the mob’s thumb, The New York Times reported.

During the course of the trial, one of Daggett’s co-defendants – Lawrence Ricci, an alleged major mob figure – disappeared. His body was found weeks later decomposing in the trunk of a car outside a New Jersey diner.

But at least his sons’ looting of union coffers is more restrained — at least it’s that.

Dennis, the executive vice president of the ILA, earned $250,156 in the fiscal year ended December 2022, according to ProPublica. John, the general vice president of the Atlantic Coast District ILA, reportedly earned $264,228 in the same period.

Not this close to the election, are you kidding me?

Retailers, auto suppliers and produce importers had hoped Biden would impose the federal Taft-Hartley Act, which allows US presidents to enact an 80-day cooling-off period that forces employees to return to work during certain labor disputes.

But those hopes were swept away when Biden said Monday that he does not “believe” in Taft-Hartley.

As the general population grows furious, Biden’s handlers may lose some of their fear of offending unions and reverse their position on imposing Taft-Hartley, but the Mafiosi is right about this prediction:

Daggett had mocked the idea during an interview in early September. 

“Do you think when I go back for 90 days those men are gonna go to work on that pier?” Daggett said.

He painted a picture of the effects of the strikes over time – signaling he was readying to buckle down for the long run. 

“Everything in the United States comes on a ship,” Daggett said during the September interview.

During the first week of the strikes, media outlets will cover the picket lines, he predicted.

During the second week, car salesmen will struggle to hold onto their jobs as automotive shipments stall, Daggett said. The malls will start to shut down during the third week.

Next, construction workers’ jobs will be at risk, since steel and lumber shipments will lag.

“Everybody’s hating the longshoremen now because now they realize how important our jobs are,” the union head warned.

The longshoremen are “important” now only because they have a stranglehold on our ports, and that will not last. If they succeed in de-automating the industry in America and preventing computers and robots from dragging U.S. forward and out of the 20th Century, then workarounds will be developed: Mexico, for instance, is already far ahead of us, and will eventually offer a far cheaper alternative to the (equally?) corrupt harbor facilities along our coasts.

In the meantime, we’re in for some interesting moments in international trade.