[00:00.000 --> 00:02.340]  I hope this is not the way we want to start again.
[00:02.500 --> 00:04.280]  We've had a chance to rebuild, to renew.
[00:04.660 --> 00:05.780]  Mitchell adds...
[00:05.780 --> 00:09.040]  Let's start by making our courts a little bit more honest.
[00:09.460 --> 00:12.380]  For FSRN, I'm Melinda Tuhus in New Orleans.
[00:13.400 --> 00:19.540]  Free Speech Radio News is produced at Pacifica Stations, KPFA in Berkeley, and KPFA in Los Angeles.
[00:19.880 --> 00:23.120]  Free Speech Radio News is an independent, worker-run collective.
[00:23.520 --> 00:29.160]  For more information, check out our website at www.fsrn.org.
[00:29.160 --> 00:31.760]  In Los Angeles, I'm Aura Bogado.
[00:37.230 --> 00:42.630]  And you're listening to radio station WBAI in New York, where it's 6.59.
[00:43.190 --> 00:44.130]  And you know what?
[00:44.170 --> 00:46.770]  We're going to take an extra minute for Off the Hook.
[00:53.520 --> 00:57.960]  The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
[00:58.940 --> 01:03.480]  I cut myself while shaving, now I can't make a call.
[01:04.120 --> 01:11.730]  We couldn't get much worse, would, But the best is back the worst.
[01:12.490 --> 01:14.250]  I hope that's understood.
[01:14.590 --> 01:17.670]  And that
[02:27.370 --> 02:31.350]  extra time allows us to hear a little bit more of the theme, which some people request.
[02:31.590 --> 02:34.450]  In fact, some people request to hear the theme instead of us.
[02:37.150 --> 02:38.950]  So, this might make you a little bit happy.
[02:42.090 --> 02:47.110]  But now it's time for Off the Hook, and boy, what an exciting time we've had of it.
[02:47.470 --> 02:59.750]  I have to apologize for the people who live in other parts of the world and people who are listening in the future and things like that, because this is going to be primarily a New York radio type of a show tonight, because we're living in kind of an extraordinary period.
[02:59.990 --> 03:05.870]  As we foretold last week, the transit strike has hit us here in New York City.
[03:06.010 --> 03:06.550]  It's hit us hard.
[03:06.650 --> 03:07.230]  There are no buses.
[03:07.510 --> 03:08.270]  There are no subways.
[03:08.530 --> 03:10.550]  And, of course, there are exceptions to both of those statements.
[03:12.770 --> 03:16.730]  How was the train ride at midnight last Friday?
[03:17.210 --> 03:18.290]  Well, yeah, okay.
[03:18.490 --> 03:19.590]  That didn't go so well.
[03:19.590 --> 03:24.590]  You see, I wanted to be on the subway train when it actually stopped running to see what would happen.
[03:25.110 --> 03:30.070]  And, sure enough, they decided to wait and not have the strike right then.
[03:30.070 --> 03:34.590]  They decided to wait until a time that was more inconvenient for me to be inconvenienced on the train.
[03:34.870 --> 03:35.890]  So, I missed that.
[03:36.010 --> 03:37.910]  I wasn't able to actually be on the train.
[03:38.210 --> 03:38.810]  I don't know.
[03:38.810 --> 03:41.810]  Was anybody here on the train or on a bus when the strike was announced?
[03:42.070 --> 03:42.830]  Well, let's go back a little.
[03:42.990 --> 03:45.230]  You were upset that you weren't inconvenienced?
[03:45.390 --> 03:46.110]  Well, let me explain, Jim.
[03:46.110 --> 03:46.610]  That's unique.
[03:46.810 --> 03:46.930]  Yeah.
[03:47.010 --> 03:54.350]  Well, the thing is, I see myself as somebody who has to witness certain historic events so that I can talk about them here on the radio.
[03:54.510 --> 04:02.450]  So, oftentimes, I put myself in the line of fire so that I can report on what happened later on and be the eyes and ears of our listeners.
[04:03.170 --> 04:03.490]  Okay.
[04:03.570 --> 04:05.210]  It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.
[04:05.530 --> 04:09.730]  But, unfortunately, I couldn't make it on Tuesday when the strike actually started.
[04:09.990 --> 04:13.950]  But I did have quite an adventure getting in here, which I'll talk about.
[04:14.610 --> 04:17.270]  Let's see who actually made it here, first of all.
[04:17.330 --> 04:19.590]  Bernie, you had no trouble making it, but then again, you were in Philadelphia.
[04:20.070 --> 04:20.590]  That's right.
[04:20.590 --> 04:25.710]  But we had a transit strike here a few weeks ago, and it was probably not as bad as New York because it's a smaller city.
[04:25.870 --> 04:26.790]  But still, it was no fun.
[04:27.830 --> 04:30.070]  No, it's not really meant to be fun, that's for sure.
[04:30.250 --> 04:31.190]  But, you know, it's also...
[04:31.190 --> 04:36.010]  I don't think it's meant to be a crippling thing so much as a lot of people are making it out to be.
[04:36.050 --> 04:37.070]  And I'll get into that in a little bit.
[04:37.690 --> 04:39.170]  But how was your strike settled?
[04:41.110 --> 04:43.990]  It was actually settled amiably between...
[04:43.990 --> 04:46.010]  Actually, the governor seemed to be the pacemaker.
[04:46.010 --> 04:51.570]  He sat in on talks between the union and the striking workers.
[04:51.810 --> 04:57.830]  I'm sorry, the union and the INSEPTA, the Southeast Pennsylvania Transit Association, Transit Authority.
[04:58.190 --> 05:05.450]  And the workers conceded to paying 1% of their salaries towards their health care insurance.
[05:06.670 --> 05:09.890]  So that was what it was all about, how this is going to be settled in New York.
[05:09.890 --> 05:10.990]  I have no idea.
[05:11.090 --> 05:12.810]  It doesn't sound like they're close to settling.
[05:12.990 --> 05:15.910]  Well, you know, the whole thing is a lot of posturing.
[05:16.510 --> 05:20.770]  And I, you know, I got to lay a lot of the blame on this.
[05:21.970 --> 05:23.390]  On not so much...
[05:23.390 --> 05:26.070]  I mean, the TVU obviously is responsible to some degree.
[05:26.410 --> 05:34.070]  But I have never seen such crybaby attitude as has been coming from Bloomberg in the last couple of days.
[05:34.370 --> 05:36.010]  I mean, we have a difficult enough situation.
[05:36.010 --> 05:41.850]  But he's fostering up all kinds of resentment and hate and just childishness.
[05:42.170 --> 05:45.570]  You know, this whole thing could be settled rather quickly with a...
[05:45.570 --> 05:49.490]  Just a couple of gestures of respect, which I think is what they're after to start with.
[05:49.730 --> 05:57.690]  You know, this whole pension thing that actually is the biggest reason why the strike happened in the first place.
[05:57.770 --> 06:06.230]  The whole pension plan where they had to pay into their pension, it would save the MTA something like $20 million over the course of three years.
[06:06.230 --> 06:07.910]  That's according to today's New York Times.
[06:08.750 --> 06:11.990]  Now, by everybody's account, so much more has been lost already.
[06:12.610 --> 06:17.450]  I guarantee if the mayor or the head of the MTA just simply said, Okay, you know what?
[06:17.450 --> 06:18.370]  That's off the table.
[06:18.490 --> 06:19.490]  Please go back to work.
[06:19.630 --> 06:20.590]  Let's start talking again.
[06:20.590 --> 06:23.210]  I'll bet that would be enough to get the strike over by tomorrow.
[06:23.390 --> 06:26.490]  But they'll never do that because to do that, they'd have to lose face.
[06:26.610 --> 06:29.670]  And, you know, you can never lose face in these things.
[06:30.950 --> 06:35.810]  Okay, but let's continue with our adventures on getting here in the first place.
[06:37.130 --> 06:38.050]  Who wants to start?
[06:38.170 --> 06:38.770]  Jim, how about you?
[06:39.550 --> 06:40.630]  I was lucky.
[06:40.630 --> 06:45.130]  I had a friend offer a ride last week, that friend being Walter.
[06:45.370 --> 06:51.310]  And Walter went greatly out of his way and drove me in, which was an experience in many, many ways.
[06:51.310 --> 06:52.610]  But we'll discuss that a little later.
[06:52.710 --> 06:54.630]  So, Walter, you actually drove in right now?
[06:54.790 --> 06:55.790]  Yeah, we just got in.
[06:55.850 --> 06:57.330]  I just found parking a few minutes ago.
[06:57.330 --> 07:00.730]  Okay, and any big deals driving in at this hour?
[07:01.550 --> 07:03.030]  You know, traffic wasn't so bad.
[07:03.030 --> 07:05.850]  It was kind of normal when I was picking up Jim in Brooklyn.
[07:05.850 --> 07:07.430]  Maybe a little heavier, but it was moving.
[07:07.650 --> 07:11.790]  But coming back down from the East Village, I actually dropped someone else off in the East Village first.
[07:11.970 --> 07:13.530]  Wow, regular shuttle service running here.
[07:13.610 --> 07:13.770]  Yeah, yeah.
[07:13.850 --> 07:14.750]  I'm making plenty of dough.
[07:14.850 --> 07:15.690]  Uh-huh, yeah, I can imagine.
[07:15.890 --> 07:20.350]  Coming back down from the East Village on the way, you know, where you hit the bridges, Manhattan and Brooklyn.
[07:20.550 --> 07:22.650]  It was very, very tight, very slow.
[07:22.930 --> 07:23.070]  Yeah.
[07:23.430 --> 07:26.350]  And so, you know, it wasn't too bad.
[07:26.350 --> 07:27.050]  It was an experience.
[07:27.710 --> 07:28.810]  There was one time...
[07:28.810 --> 07:29.110]  There was...
[07:29.110 --> 07:32.610]  Right before I got here, most people, most of the drivers have been good.
[07:32.790 --> 07:33.910]  They've been polite.
[07:34.610 --> 07:37.090]  And the people let you in when you're stuck, you know.
[07:37.190 --> 07:39.190]  You know, people have been generally nice about driving.
[07:39.350 --> 07:42.290]  But there was one guy in an SUV, like a few blocks away from here.
[07:42.610 --> 07:46.150]  I was trying to get into the lane because I had nowhere else to go.
[07:46.270 --> 07:46.430]  Right.
[07:46.430 --> 07:52.210]  And he actually, like, pushed his SUV slowly into my car to, like, prevent me from nudging in in front of him.
[07:52.210 --> 07:53.010]  He physically touched your car?
[07:53.110 --> 07:54.090]  Yeah, he physically touched my car.
[07:54.290 --> 07:55.490]  Would you physically touch his face?
[07:55.650 --> 07:58.030]  I, you know, we were...
[07:58.870 --> 08:00.410]  I'm an understanding guy.
[08:00.710 --> 08:01.490]  And we had a bad day.
[08:01.490 --> 08:02.430]  You should repeat what you said.
[08:02.890 --> 08:03.630]  Well, no.
[08:04.110 --> 08:04.950]  Not on the air.
[08:05.030 --> 08:06.070]  I'm an understanding guy.
[08:06.210 --> 08:06.390]  No.
[08:06.610 --> 08:08.190]  About how he...
[08:08.740 --> 08:12.550]  In effect, the SUV driver gave himself a nice paint mark from Walter's paint.
[08:12.550 --> 08:15.110]  He had a really nice, brand-new white SUV.
[08:15.270 --> 08:19.530]  And I have this, like, 20-year-old, over 20-year-old car that has red paint.
[08:19.610 --> 08:22.530]  And he kind of got a lot of my paint on his brand-new car.
[08:22.850 --> 08:24.230]  So he was obviously frustrated.
[08:25.570 --> 08:31.010]  Well, it's just, you know, it's a typical thing where everybody has to get exactly what they want, when they want it, or they freak out.
[08:31.230 --> 08:33.490]  That's what I think we're seeing a lot of here.
[08:33.570 --> 08:34.530]  Well, people are generally good.
[08:34.630 --> 08:36.750]  That was the one guy that gave me a hard time.
[08:36.890 --> 08:37.150]  Mm-hmm.
[08:37.910 --> 08:40.410]  Okay, so you got in, no problems.
[08:40.410 --> 08:42.770]  Any other adventures yesterday or anything like that?
[08:45.150 --> 08:51.390]  Well, you know, the lines that you see on the, you know, near the Long Island Railroad stations are pretty impressive.
[08:51.650 --> 08:52.650]  Oh, yeah, they sure are.
[08:52.790 --> 08:57.710]  That first day, they wrapped around, near Woodside, where I am, they wrapped around a block, an entire block.
[08:58.970 --> 09:02.510]  And it didn't look like it was being handled very efficiently.
[09:02.510 --> 09:07.490]  But, again, you know, people were, you know, people were doing the right thing, and they were waiting.
[09:07.590 --> 09:08.870]  I think people generally are great.
[09:08.870 --> 09:11.650]  People really, you know, they get together on these things.
[09:12.430 --> 09:13.990]  Jim, you had some other commentary just moving?
[09:14.130 --> 09:14.270]  Okay.
[09:15.030 --> 09:19.010]  Next, let's hear from Redhacked, who is not yet here.
[09:19.170 --> 09:21.270]  Okay, so he still is having trouble, apparently.
[09:22.510 --> 09:23.370]  Definitely not here, right?
[09:23.430 --> 09:23.670]  Okay.
[09:23.850 --> 09:24.790]  I see the empty chair.
[09:25.250 --> 09:26.590]  He's attempting to get here, though.
[09:26.690 --> 09:29.390]  He has been attempting since about 4 o'clock to get here from Uptown.
[09:29.610 --> 09:29.950]  Either.
[09:29.950 --> 09:32.770]  And there are different methods of getting there.
[09:32.850 --> 09:33.710]  You have a story, Matt?
[09:33.730 --> 09:39.110]  I'm just wondering, either he's not here, or he's lost so much weight from the exercise that we can't see him.
[09:39.250 --> 09:40.370]  No, no, I don't think...
[09:40.370 --> 09:41.930]  No, I think he's genuinely not here.
[09:42.010 --> 09:42.890]  But I know he's trying.
[09:43.350 --> 09:48.670]  Because I heard from him, and there's apparently a bus that you could take from Columbia University to get to Penn Station.
[09:48.890 --> 09:53.670]  And then from Penn Station, you can take the PATH train via New Jersey to get to World Trade Center site.
[09:53.670 --> 09:54.910]  And then from there, you can walk.
[09:55.110 --> 09:57.350]  Of course, you could also walk from all kinds of other places as well.
[09:57.450 --> 09:59.410]  But that seemed to be the most efficient way.
[09:59.870 --> 10:01.970]  So hopefully, he'll get here before the show is over.
[10:02.430 --> 10:02.930]  We'll see.
[10:03.870 --> 10:05.710]  Okay, so who would like to go next?
[10:06.310 --> 10:06.630]  Mike?
[10:06.790 --> 10:07.170]  I guess.
[10:07.330 --> 10:07.590]  Okay.
[10:07.750 --> 10:08.670]  I've done a lot of walking.
[10:08.910 --> 10:09.570]  Done a lot of walking?
[10:09.650 --> 10:10.190]  A lot of walking.
[10:10.290 --> 10:11.230]  Okay, how much walking have you done?
[10:12.270 --> 10:16.610]  Since yesterday, including today, maybe a total of 20, 25 kilometers.
[10:17.690 --> 10:18.910]  You have to be metric, huh?
[10:18.930 --> 10:19.570]  Just to be cool.
[10:20.010 --> 10:20.490]  Okay, fine.
[10:20.570 --> 10:22.270]  It makes for a bigger number, you see.
[10:22.510 --> 10:23.070]  That's true.
[10:23.070 --> 10:23.810]  Definitely true.
[10:24.630 --> 10:28.450]  So no problems at all as far as getting to where you need to go?
[10:28.770 --> 10:29.930]  It takes a lot longer.
[10:30.130 --> 10:34.050]  And actually, yesterday, I took a cab home because it was 11 o'clock.
[10:34.050 --> 10:36.350]  I wasn't going to walk another couple hours.
[10:38.430 --> 10:40.810]  But it takes a long time.
[10:40.970 --> 10:44.170]  But fortunately, my workplace hasn't minded that I've been late.
[10:44.170 --> 10:45.090]  So it's okay.
[10:45.230 --> 10:46.430]  And it hasn't been snowing.
[10:46.590 --> 10:48.430]  If it were snowing, I don't know what I would do.
[10:48.910 --> 10:51.490]  Yeah, well, we are lucky in some regards.
[10:51.490 --> 10:53.110]  It has been rather cold, but it's getting warmer.
[10:53.110 --> 10:55.450]  So I don't think we have weather issues to worry about.
[10:56.550 --> 10:57.710]  Okay, Redbird, you're next.
[10:58.270 --> 11:01.050]  You didn't have much of a...
[11:01.050 --> 11:03.710]  No, I think I was the least affected out of everyone here.
[11:03.750 --> 11:04.470]  Well, you're in New Jersey.
[11:04.470 --> 11:06.950]  I was coming from Hoboken, and I really didn't have a problem.
[11:07.070 --> 11:11.910]  The path from Hoboken to the World Trade Center was relatively unaffected.
[11:11.990 --> 11:15.370]  I didn't notice any significant increase in volume.
[11:15.950 --> 11:23.710]  But I did notice when I got to the World Trade Center station that there was a lot of chaos there because they have trains running up to 33rd Street now.
[11:23.870 --> 11:27.010]  And they don't usually do that direct from the World Trade Center site.
[11:27.310 --> 11:29.350]  Now, they go into New Jersey and then they come back.
[11:29.450 --> 11:30.590]  But you don't have to switch trains.
[11:30.690 --> 11:31.130]  I don't know.
[11:31.230 --> 11:31.990]  I don't know how that works.
[11:31.990 --> 11:34.730]  I didn't take one, but the lines were incredible.
[11:34.950 --> 11:38.870]  I mean, I've never seen so many people waiting for a train on that platform before in my life.
[11:39.970 --> 11:44.590]  Okay, so not too majorly affected here so far.
[11:44.990 --> 11:54.170]  Now, I wasn't very severely affected, but I was kind of annoyed by just the way this whole thing played out because I had it all planned very well.
[11:54.430 --> 12:05.050]  I was going to come into the city in the middle of the night to avoid any traffic so that I could just, you know, park my car downtown and go about my business and leave later tonight.
[12:05.130 --> 12:06.370]  And that would be that.
[12:06.830 --> 12:07.890]  Well, guess what?
[12:09.210 --> 12:11.070]  I left at about 3 in the morning.
[12:11.350 --> 12:13.850]  I got to the Queensborough Bridge at 4 in the morning.
[12:13.950 --> 12:20.570]  Now, you might know about these restrictions that have been put into place where you have to have four people or more in a car after 5 a.m.
[12:20.570 --> 12:35.110]  Would you believe I was not able to get onto the Queensborough Bridge for the hour that I was right next to it because there was everybody in apparently the surrounding area all decided to rush to get there before that deadline.
[12:35.270 --> 12:38.090]  Now, keep in mind, there are no cars usually at that time.
[12:38.090 --> 12:44.930]  So what the administration has basically done with this crazy restriction is create a second rush hour.
[12:45.530 --> 12:49.350]  And what happened was, and you really, it's almost worth getting up to see this.
[12:49.450 --> 12:50.290]  Go to Long Island City.
[12:50.430 --> 12:52.170]  Go to where the Queensborough Bridge comes into Queens.
[12:52.310 --> 12:55.910]  You will see people breaking every traffic rule there is.
[12:55.990 --> 13:01.310]  I saw people going at highway speeds down sidewalks and not just one or two, but dozens.
[13:01.650 --> 13:11.190]  I saw people driving full speed the wrong way down one-way streets, going through red lights, cutting each other off, no traffic enforcement whatsoever, nobody on site.
[13:11.310 --> 13:12.090]  But do you know where they were?
[13:12.230 --> 13:17.770]  They were all at the bridge with those stupid orange cones keeping anybody from getting on.
[13:17.870 --> 13:21.050]  Even people with four people, they weren't letting anybody on.
[13:21.130 --> 13:24.710]  They closed the bridge at something like 4.55 in the morning.
[13:25.010 --> 13:33.070]  And what that resulted in was everybody simply driving all around Queens for hours trying to get people to get in their cars, which there aren't any of at that time of day.
[13:33.610 --> 13:35.070]  And the bridge was empty.
[13:35.190 --> 13:36.290]  The bridge was completely empty.
[13:36.470 --> 13:43.490]  From your description, it seems like those cones should have prevented the people from entering the bridge just as much as the red light would have prevented them from entering the intersection.
[13:43.550 --> 13:45.750]  No, you see, they had all the traffic cops standing there.
[13:45.870 --> 13:46.630]  That's where they were.
[13:46.790 --> 13:47.090]  Okay.
[13:47.350 --> 13:49.430]  And it's just...
[13:50.070 --> 13:53.910]  I understand what they're trying to do, but it makes no sense.
[13:54.130 --> 13:56.230]  Because first of all, this is a transit strike.
[13:56.390 --> 13:58.070]  It's not a Long Island Railroad strike.
[13:58.170 --> 14:00.530]  It would make sense then because then everybody would be driving in.
[14:00.530 --> 14:08.410]  I don't know of many people who, because they can't take the subway from Penn Station, however many blocks they have to go, are going to substitute a car for that stretch.
[14:08.830 --> 14:11.410]  Because, you know, nobody likes to drive into the city.
[14:11.530 --> 14:14.750]  And especially if you're used to taking the train, you're going to offer something else.
[14:14.870 --> 14:16.030]  Maybe you'll take a cab instead.
[14:16.130 --> 14:16.510]  But you know what?
[14:16.610 --> 14:19.190]  They're not letting cabs into the city either unless they have four people.
[14:19.370 --> 14:23.490]  And good luck getting four people into your cab at 4.55 in the morning.
[14:23.590 --> 14:24.350]  Nobody was doing it.
[14:24.350 --> 14:26.330]  There were just taxis every place.
[14:26.810 --> 14:30.430]  And what was created was just simply a snarl all throughout Queens.
[14:31.250 --> 14:36.230]  And when I got to New York finally, and I'll explain how I did that, the streets were empty.
[14:36.830 --> 14:37.910]  Literally empty of cars.
[14:38.090 --> 14:40.030]  Because first of all, there are fewer cars.
[14:40.150 --> 14:40.730]  There were no buses.
[14:41.010 --> 14:42.410]  You know, there's a lot of room.
[14:42.550 --> 14:43.030]  That's great.
[14:43.310 --> 14:44.110]  Yeah, it's great.
[14:44.110 --> 14:47.170]  But it's not great when it just gets transferred to another borough.
[14:47.250 --> 14:53.430]  And when you have all these frustrated people who can't get around at 5 o'clock in the morning when there really shouldn't be that much traffic.
[14:53.430 --> 14:58.690]  Well, because they're trying to, like, be selfish and be in one-person vehicles, and they think they have to.
[14:59.130 --> 15:05.810]  Well, I think that the rule, generally speaking, would have been a good thing, you know, to have to have that many people in your car to enter the city.
[15:05.930 --> 15:06.590]  Because think about how...
[15:06.590 --> 15:07.990]  It doesn't make sense for the subway strike.
[15:08.090 --> 15:09.970]  It makes sense for a commuter rail strike, yes.
[15:10.050 --> 15:12.530]  But it just makes things worse for this particular thing.
[15:12.710 --> 15:14.230]  I think they should keep it when there's no strike.
[15:14.570 --> 15:18.790]  Well, that's the only way you're going to have, you know, some kind of predictable behavior.
[15:20.130 --> 15:23.550]  But, you know, instead what they've done is they've created mass panic.
[15:23.670 --> 15:26.210]  They have nobody enforcing anything at a particular time.
[15:27.130 --> 15:28.370]  And it's really unfair.
[15:28.570 --> 15:32.150]  You know, they created much worse of a traffic problem by doing it this way.
[15:32.170 --> 15:32.890]  They really did.
[15:33.030 --> 15:37.490]  And, okay, and I drove my smart car in thinking that that would actually, you know, be the smart thing to do.
[15:37.670 --> 15:39.470]  A nice economical car, a small...
[15:39.850 --> 15:42.490]  Would you know those automatrons, they don't even...
[15:42.490 --> 15:44.190]  They say, oh, you have to have four people in your car.
[15:44.250 --> 15:45.290]  It's a two-seater car.
[15:45.510 --> 15:47.190]  How do you get four people in a two-seater car?
[15:47.190 --> 15:48.470]  You don't bring it into the city.
[15:48.610 --> 15:50.570]  You don't drive in the city when there's a transit strike.
[15:50.570 --> 15:52.410]  Oh, so I should drive something with more seats.
[15:52.470 --> 15:53.090]  Is that what you're saying?
[15:53.090 --> 15:54.270]  No, I'm saying you shouldn't drive.
[15:54.550 --> 15:55.370]  I shouldn't drive.
[15:55.470 --> 15:59.310]  Well, yeah, but what you don't understand, Mike, is that there are no trains at that time of the night, okay?
[15:59.370 --> 16:03.070]  So if I wanted to come in at that time of the night, I would have to drive a car, all right?
[16:03.110 --> 16:03.750]  And the other thing is...
[16:03.750 --> 16:04.950]  The only reason you were coming in...
[16:04.950 --> 16:06.130]  You've got your logic backwards.
[16:06.290 --> 16:09.990]  The only reason you were driving at that time was because you thought you could get your car in.
[16:10.230 --> 16:11.590]  I always drive at that time.
[16:11.710 --> 16:13.970]  You could have taken a train at some other time.
[16:13.970 --> 16:18.590]  Well, you do have a very... I mean, you have a very skewed standpoint because you live in Manhattan.
[16:19.110 --> 16:19.570]  That's true.
[16:19.690 --> 16:22.210]  A lot of people don't have that ability.
[16:22.350 --> 16:24.090]  But I'll get to the mass transit part of this.
[16:24.210 --> 16:29.690]  First of all, I just think it's... If you're going to have this carpool rule, okay, make it across the board.
[16:30.070 --> 16:32.850]  But when you have these ridiculous 5 a.m.
[16:33.110 --> 16:40.150]  cutoffs and no exceptions and just ridiculous, illogical rules.
[16:40.150 --> 16:47.670]  You had an empty bridge, no cars on the bridge, yet all these cars were piled up throughout Queens because nobody could get people in their cars.
[16:47.850 --> 16:50.210]  People were begging to have pedestrians get in their cars.
[16:50.370 --> 16:52.410]  It would have been nice if it actually worked, but it didn't.
[16:52.970 --> 16:54.550]  And you have to admit when it doesn't work.
[16:54.910 --> 17:02.490]  And this is an opportunity for our college-age listeners with the Christmas-slash-Hanukkah-slash-Kwanzaa winter break coming up.
[17:03.130 --> 17:10.950]  Go to your nearest bridge or tunnel with a foldable cardboard sign that says something like, Warm body for four-body minimum, $5.
[17:11.530 --> 17:12.970]  You know, you can make a few bucks.
[17:13.090 --> 17:15.290]  You go across the bridge and you walk back.
[17:15.410 --> 17:16.950]  You go across the bridge and you walk back.
[17:17.170 --> 17:17.490]  Yeah.
[17:17.770 --> 17:24.210]  But, you know, it's particularly stupid to keep the taxis out because the taxis are the ones that are going to help people in Manhattan get around.
[17:24.330 --> 17:30.070]  And they're keeping them in Queens and Brooklyn because they don't have enough people to get in because there are no people out to get in at that time of night.
[17:30.450 --> 17:31.710]  So the whole thing was really silly.
[17:31.810 --> 17:35.670]  So I had to drive all the way back to Woodside and park there.
[17:36.470 --> 17:42.790]  And then I got to experience the other genius of the MTA through the Long Island Railroad.
[17:42.950 --> 17:46.670]  Of course, they want to make sure they make as much money off this as possible.
[17:46.690 --> 17:49.130]  So they're not just letting people onto the trains.
[17:49.130 --> 17:50.530]  You've got to buy a ticket.
[17:50.790 --> 17:52.810]  And you can't buy a ticket in an efficient way.
[17:52.850 --> 17:55.810]  You have to stand on a line that stretches for an entire block.
[17:55.930 --> 17:57.670]  I think, Walter, you said it stretched even longer than that.
[17:57.670 --> 18:01.470]  Yeah, the first day of the strike, it went around the entire block, basically.
[18:01.830 --> 18:06.870]  So then you have to buy a ticket from no more than two people.
[18:06.990 --> 18:12.190]  They only have two people selling tickets to like a thousand pedestrians that are waiting.
[18:12.930 --> 18:15.550]  And of course, that takes like an hour to get a ticket.
[18:15.830 --> 18:16.350]  All right.
[18:16.410 --> 18:19.090]  And then you have to wait for the train, which doesn't always stop there.
[18:19.170 --> 18:20.910]  A lot of trains pass by and hardly any stop.
[18:21.070 --> 18:23.630]  And then once you get on the train, it's extremely crowded.
[18:24.030 --> 18:25.050]  Not enough trains running.
[18:25.430 --> 18:26.870]  You know, they didn't think this thing through.
[18:26.870 --> 18:28.170]  They had plenty of time to think it through.
[18:28.270 --> 18:36.350]  I mean, they had huge signs that you could see from, say, four blocks away, except there were signs for people walking right in front of them.
[18:36.430 --> 18:39.730]  So everybody had to stand back to read the sign that said, you must buy a ticket here.
[18:40.150 --> 18:42.690]  But the signs weren't meant for people standing right next to them.
[18:42.830 --> 18:44.010]  They didn't think this through.
[18:44.010 --> 18:45.910]  And it was just very poorly organized.
[18:46.410 --> 18:48.530]  How's about the TW not striking?
[18:48.970 --> 18:49.410]  Oh, yeah.
[18:49.430 --> 18:49.990]  I'll get to that.
[18:50.090 --> 18:50.910]  I'll get to that as well.
[18:51.230 --> 18:54.350]  I mean, the strike is pretty well organized, if that's what you're asking.
[18:55.310 --> 18:56.110]  But, um...
[18:56.110 --> 18:57.170]  No, no, not really.
[18:57.390 --> 18:57.590]  Okay.
[18:57.730 --> 18:58.470]  Well, fine.
[18:58.570 --> 18:58.770]  Fine.
[18:59.290 --> 19:05.470]  Um, so anyway, uh, the one people I think who had it together were the PATH people, the PATH train.
[19:05.610 --> 19:14.410]  Because when I got onto the PATH train at 34th Street, and this is what people need to know about New York, we have a second subway system that is run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
[19:14.630 --> 19:17.190]  It goes from 34th Street downtown a little bit.
[19:17.370 --> 19:19.190]  You know, it's only one line, but it's something.
[19:19.190 --> 19:20.030]  It is something.
[19:20.510 --> 19:26.450]  Well, those people, they actually had this garbage pail, and they said, okay, just throw $2 in and get on the train.
[19:26.650 --> 19:27.590]  It was that simple.
[19:27.750 --> 19:28.530]  That's what you have to do.
[19:28.590 --> 19:34.110]  You don't have people snaked around blocks to pay two people, you know, just to get on the train.
[19:34.730 --> 19:35.370]  It's still...
[19:35.370 --> 19:36.310]  And I think I got ripped off, too.
[19:36.350 --> 19:37.150]  Look at this ticket I got.
[19:37.630 --> 19:41.330]  They told me, you know, buy as many tickets as you can.
[19:41.770 --> 19:43.150]  That way you don't have to buy tickets again.
[19:43.310 --> 19:51.110]  But I read now, after I bought the ticket, on the back of this thing, which actually says alternate bus service, on the back it says, valid only for date of purchase.
[19:51.490 --> 19:55.490]  So it's quite possible that I got totally ripped off here and have a worthless ticket.
[19:57.210 --> 19:58.590]  It's utter madness.
[19:58.890 --> 19:59.410]  Utter madness.
[20:01.310 --> 20:04.510]  So, yeah, you know, and of course I did a fair share of walking as well.
[20:04.590 --> 20:05.370]  Walked down here tonight.
[20:06.510 --> 20:10.330]  The thing is, you know, my point is, people can get through this.
[20:10.330 --> 20:11.970]  It's not that difficult.
[20:12.630 --> 20:19.910]  But, you know, when met with stupidity, bureaucracy, and intolerance, it makes it a whole lot more difficult.
[20:20.330 --> 20:23.790]  And, you know, I just think this could have been handled by the city so much better.
[20:24.750 --> 20:26.330]  Now, you had a question about the strike.
[20:26.450 --> 20:27.710]  Yeah, I mean, it's a strike, you know.
[20:27.970 --> 20:31.230]  Who shouldn't have the right to strike over something that's unfair to them?
[20:31.370 --> 20:33.050]  I don't understand this whole...
[20:33.050 --> 20:38.470]  Okay, well, there's a lot of things that are unfair to a lot of people, but you can't shut down a city because, you know...
[20:38.470 --> 20:41.730]  Sure you can if you work for the city and you feel you're being treated unfairly.
[20:42.110 --> 20:42.970]  It's a very...
[20:42.970 --> 20:43.550]  Anybody can go on strike.
[20:43.670 --> 20:44.710]  Cops should be able to go on strike.
[20:44.870 --> 20:46.070]  Soldiers should be able to go on strike.
[20:46.210 --> 20:51.350]  Anybody who feels they're being oppressed in some way and not being treated fairly should have the right to object.
[20:51.510 --> 20:55.150]  And I just think it's incredibly unfair to say you don't have that right.
[20:55.290 --> 20:56.690]  Well, then how do you express yourself?
[20:57.650 --> 21:00.990]  It's affecting a lot of people in a very negative way.
[21:01.150 --> 21:04.590]  It's costing the city, you know, whatever the statistics were, $500 million per day.
[21:04.590 --> 21:10.950]  And, you know, it's not fair to, you know, the people who they are serving.
[21:10.950 --> 21:15.250]  And it's not a very efficient way of getting stuff done, as we can see.
[21:15.310 --> 21:16.230]  Oh, no, of course it's not.
[21:16.290 --> 21:29.090]  I'm just saying we can get things done a lot easier if we simply are imaginative, you know, a little ingenious, willing to put up with a little bit of hardship and, you know, are nice to one another, all right?
[21:29.170 --> 21:30.570]  And for the most part, that is true.
[21:30.950 --> 21:32.310]  So we will get through this.
[21:32.310 --> 21:33.510]  It's not something that's crippling.
[21:33.950 --> 21:37.210]  Imagine, you know, what was the mayor saying when the blackout was occurring?
[21:37.250 --> 21:38.870]  He was saying, okay, we got to stick together.
[21:39.010 --> 21:39.690]  We can get through this.
[21:39.790 --> 21:40.890]  He's not saying that now.
[21:40.990 --> 21:45.030]  He's basically making it as bad as possible, making people feel almost panicking.
[21:45.890 --> 21:47.110]  And that doesn't help.
[21:47.290 --> 21:48.170]  It doesn't help the situation.
[21:48.270 --> 21:49.310]  It doesn't help resolving anything.
[21:50.110 --> 21:51.270]  What's the head of the MTA?
[21:51.470 --> 21:52.210]  That guy's name?
[21:52.370 --> 21:52.830]  Peter something?
[21:52.830 --> 21:53.390]  Peter Calico.
[21:53.550 --> 21:54.170]  Peter Calico.
[21:54.290 --> 21:57.510]  He could end the strike in probably an hour if he really wanted to.
[21:58.110 --> 21:59.050]  I guarantee you.
[21:59.130 --> 22:05.110]  And if you're listening out there, Peter, just say, okay, we're taking the pension thing off the table and please come back to work.
[22:05.290 --> 22:06.170]  We'll start talking again.
[22:06.330 --> 22:07.590]  I'll bet that's all they want.
[22:08.410 --> 22:09.370]  It seems to be.
[22:09.510 --> 22:11.470]  It's a little unclear, but it seems to be.
[22:11.470 --> 22:13.210]  $20 million in three years.
[22:13.310 --> 22:14.450]  That's all they're saving from that?
[22:14.670 --> 22:15.930]  You know, it's silly.
[22:16.050 --> 22:19.790]  I mean, the MTA is so poorly run.
[22:19.930 --> 22:22.650]  I mean, they have a billion dollar surplus this year and they were crying.
[22:22.650 --> 22:27.210]  They're going to be crying poverty tomorrow and they've got the two sets of books.
[22:27.370 --> 22:30.310]  I mean, who knows what their financial situation really is.
[22:30.430 --> 22:30.530]  Yeah.
[22:31.030 --> 22:34.650]  And seeing how they run the LIRR today was just...
[22:35.650 --> 22:37.810]  I mean, at no point was I upset.
[22:37.830 --> 22:39.390]  I was having the time of my life.
[22:39.490 --> 22:41.550]  I could not believe what I was going through.
[22:41.710 --> 22:47.690]  I could not believe that I had to sit by a bridge for an hour and watch people driving on sidewalks and things like that.
[22:47.770 --> 22:49.090]  And nobody seemed to care about that.
[22:49.090 --> 22:51.830]  But when the five o'clock hour came, oh, it's the rule.
[22:51.970 --> 22:54.630]  We can't possibly do anything about that.
[22:54.630 --> 22:58.430]  And you must create even more problems, even though the bridge is wide open.
[22:58.990 --> 23:04.050]  You know, I realized how ridiculously bureaucratic and silly people can be in situations like this.
[23:04.150 --> 23:06.690]  We have to let go of that instinct that that's what it is.
[23:06.870 --> 23:08.170]  You didn't have anywhere to be.
[23:08.270 --> 23:09.810]  There are many people whose jobs...
[23:09.810 --> 23:10.510]  Of course I had somewhere to be.
[23:10.590 --> 23:15.510]  You had somewhere to be, but it wasn't as imperative as getting to your job by the morning.
[23:15.590 --> 23:17.350]  A lot of people have jobs who...
[23:17.350 --> 23:18.750]  How can you judge what's imperative and what's not?
[23:18.750 --> 23:22.310]  First of all, at that time of night, there aren't very many people trying to get anywhere.
[23:22.470 --> 23:25.070]  What they did was create a rush hour in the middle of the night.
[23:25.210 --> 23:32.330]  Because you're comparing, you know, you're comparing what the consequences of not showing up to work for some people may be, as opposed to...
[23:32.330 --> 23:33.310]  Okay, you know, that's another thing.
[23:33.370 --> 23:34.450]  And that really gets me too.
[23:34.670 --> 23:39.750]  I've heard that Macy's, for instance, will fire anybody who is late because of the transit strike.
[23:40.090 --> 23:41.470]  You know, what kind of nonsense is that?
[23:41.650 --> 23:43.850]  As a company, you have to be a little bit flexible.
[23:43.990 --> 23:45.110]  You have to be a little bit imaginative here.
[23:45.110 --> 23:48.770]  How about staggering some hours so everybody's not traveling at the exact same time?
[23:48.770 --> 23:51.310]  How about being a little bit, you know, creative?
[23:51.630 --> 23:52.770]  No, it's silly.
[23:52.790 --> 23:57.910]  But from the perspective of the worker who has to be there, otherwise, you know, lose the job.
[23:58.490 --> 23:59.750]  It's, you know, what can you do?
[23:59.890 --> 24:02.750]  Well, I mean, nobody should be losing their job because of the transit strike.
[24:02.850 --> 24:03.490]  That's insane.
[24:03.490 --> 24:06.490]  Obviously, it's an inconvenience and people are going to be delayed.
[24:06.630 --> 24:08.930]  I think we all have been delayed by some degree.
[24:09.090 --> 24:09.210]  Right.
[24:09.250 --> 24:13.430]  But it's happening, which is, you know, and what can the workers do about that?
[24:13.550 --> 24:15.210]  From, you know, from their perspective, it's happening.
[24:15.330 --> 24:16.310]  They have to be there on time.
[24:16.470 --> 24:19.690]  And, you know, some people don't have to necessarily be at a job.
[24:19.690 --> 24:21.990]  You know, you're just looking to get to your apartment or wherever you have to go.
[24:22.170 --> 24:22.550]  And other people...
[24:22.610 --> 24:28.630]  Well, I think, you know, I thought I could easily make it by leaving earlier than I usually do, and I could not.
[24:29.210 --> 24:37.270]  It wasn't because of, you know, it wasn't because of the people so much as the rules that don't make sense at that particular time.
[24:37.390 --> 24:37.770]  No, I agree.
[24:38.030 --> 24:38.970]  I, you know, but...
[24:38.970 --> 24:42.110]  So, you know, I think we just need to balance this.
[24:42.250 --> 24:43.630]  It's not that difficult.
[24:44.130 --> 24:55.050]  But you can see what the consequences for other workers are when, you know, the people who are on strike are looking for, you know, solutions to their pension problems or the raise problems or whatever they're looking for.
[24:55.230 --> 24:56.390]  Yeah, I mean, there are always effects.
[24:56.390 --> 24:58.330]  I remember when I was a kid, there were strikes all the time.
[24:58.450 --> 24:59.550]  I remember there was a milk strike.
[24:59.770 --> 25:01.450]  There was a newspaper strike, you know.
[25:02.450 --> 25:04.070]  And, yeah, you know, it's inconvenient.
[25:04.670 --> 25:07.530]  You know, people have to get through it somehow.
[25:07.750 --> 25:09.010]  And that's, you know, there's no choice.
[25:09.070 --> 25:09.670]  You don't have a choice.
[25:09.730 --> 25:10.870]  You have to figure out how to get through this.
[25:11.030 --> 25:12.330]  You're going to have to walk around a bit.
[25:12.430 --> 25:14.130]  You're going to have to figure out alternative ways of getting around.
[25:14.690 --> 25:16.150]  You know, that's just, that's what it's all about.
[25:17.330 --> 25:19.350]  I remember the air traffic controller strike.
[25:19.890 --> 25:21.830]  Yeah, that was an interesting one, wasn't it?
[25:22.170 --> 25:22.590]  Mm-hmm.
[25:23.010 --> 25:24.250]  And that didn't turn out too well.
[25:24.810 --> 25:25.090]  No.
[25:26.910 --> 25:33.310]  For those people who don't know, Ronald Reagan ended up firing their traffic controllers when they refused to come back to work.
[25:33.710 --> 25:34.430]  All of them.
[25:34.790 --> 25:35.590]  Every single one.
[25:35.750 --> 25:39.630]  And there's a lot of talk for this to happen with the TWU.
[25:39.870 --> 25:40.610]  What Bloomberg...
[25:41.270 --> 25:46.170]  I think that's an excellent idea, because what will happen is that the subways will not run for months.
[25:46.390 --> 25:49.630]  And people will be saying, rehire the TWU workers.
[25:49.830 --> 25:59.510]  What Bloomberg has done is basically whip up a lot of hatred against these people who are simply, you know, doing what they feel is within their rights to do.
[26:00.010 --> 26:01.370]  And, you know, yeah, it's inconvenient.
[26:01.410 --> 26:07.150]  But, you know, that's what the whole worker, you know, union thing is about.
[26:07.370 --> 26:25.670]  I will surprise everyone here and many listeners by saying, there was actually a commentary earlier today on WBAI that I agreed wholeheartedly with, which was essentially that Bloomberg clearly, as a billionaire, understands the plight of TWU workers.
[26:26.550 --> 26:32.790]  Things that, to them, are very important, ranging into the thousands, to him are mere trifles.
[26:33.330 --> 26:49.690]  And furthermore, when he says that their demands are selfish, things that are selfish to them are to an entrepreneur, such as Michael Bloomberg, considered bold initiatives, taking advantage of a market opportunity.
[26:49.690 --> 26:55.110]  But when someone on the lower end of the economic scale wants it, it's being selfish.
[26:55.510 --> 26:56.670]  There's no difference.
[26:56.970 --> 27:01.190]  It's selfishness on both ends, but it's perfectly acceptable in a capitalist society.
[27:01.310 --> 27:10.530]  Well, the latest thing I've heard is that the MTA employees are very well paid, that you have all these people, and I've heard this quote repeated many times, but I think it started with Bloomberg.
[27:10.830 --> 27:16.510]  You have people being paid $60,000 a year that are preventing people who are getting half that from going to work.
[27:17.030 --> 27:22.250]  And as somebody who used to work for the MTA, can you tell us if that's an accurate statement?
[27:22.470 --> 27:26.630]  Well, first of all, as of 2001, I was making just over $40,000.
[27:27.150 --> 27:39.410]  And secondly, that's a fascinating argument, in that what you're saying is that we're suffering, we're poor, we're making $30,000, and you should not be making more than us.
[27:39.410 --> 27:41.850]  We should drag you down to our level.
[27:42.010 --> 27:50.330]  And what the TWU is saying, no, silly people, you should be out trying to get more money, trying to get closer to our level.
[27:50.890 --> 27:51.950]  We have it.
[27:52.050 --> 27:53.670]  We've successfully hung on to it.
[27:54.310 --> 27:56.370]  You should try to do the same.
[27:56.590 --> 28:19.870]  Instead of, you know, envy of the proletariat, the, God, I hate this, being a Republican, using these socialist terms, but they fit very well here and now, that you should try to join together with your brothers-in-arms, your comrades in labor, and try to improve the general state of the working man,
[28:20.010 --> 28:31.070]  and get more money for your job, rather than dragging the TWU workers down to your, unfortunately, impoverished and oppressed level.
[28:33.630 --> 28:36.430]  Oh, the shock in this room is palpable, people.
[28:36.610 --> 28:37.330]  Oh, I guess so.
[28:37.490 --> 28:38.130]  I guess so.
[28:38.190 --> 28:39.390]  It's a shame we're not on TV.
[28:39.590 --> 28:46.530]  The stunned faces, the slack jaws, the people have their heads down on the desk in stunned silence.
[28:46.750 --> 28:47.470]  Is that it?
[28:48.290 --> 28:50.130]  Is that your take on it?
[28:50.270 --> 28:51.670]  I, well, tell me otherwise.
[28:51.830 --> 28:53.050]  Mr. Marks would be very proud.
[28:53.190 --> 28:54.910]  Well, it is, you know, we live in interesting times.
[28:55.050 --> 29:09.770]  I was just going to point out, in response to the earlier comments about firing people that in the 1966 strike, there was a law on the books, the Condon-Wadlin Law, which stated that public employees would be fired, and if they were, for whatever reason,
[29:09.850 --> 29:14.970]  reinstated, they can't get a pay increase for three years and remain on probation for five.
[29:15.270 --> 29:28.330]  And so what the Transport Workers Union did in 1966 was said, all right, we're going to stay on strike until the state legislature comes and retroactively gets rid of this law because it's so stupid.
[29:28.490 --> 29:28.790]  Do you hear that?
[29:29.070 --> 29:29.990]  What is that noise?
[29:31.570 --> 29:32.950]  Oh my God, do you know what that is?
[29:33.530 --> 29:35.510]  It sounds like a, uh, should I say?
[29:38.130 --> 29:39.290]  It's a ghost, isn't it?
[29:39.710 --> 29:41.850]  The ghost of a DC subway train?
[29:42.010 --> 29:43.070]  The ghost of Subway Pass.
[29:44.270 --> 29:45.330]  Wow, listen to that.
[29:45.990 --> 29:47.210]  You can actually hear it, can't you?
[29:47.290 --> 29:48.030]  It's not just me.
[29:48.370 --> 29:50.790]  I hope I can actually hear it, otherwise I'm hallucinating.
[29:51.090 --> 29:52.030]  Oh, let's just listen to this.
[29:52.090 --> 29:52.550]  Let's just listen.
[29:52.670 --> 29:53.270]  This is so nice.
[29:53.270 --> 29:54.190]  Let's just listen to this, Frank.
[29:57.930 --> 29:58.650]  Welcome to the DCO.
[29:58.810 --> 29:59.470]  We'll be back to that.
[29:59.630 --> 30:00.730]  I'll take this, don't you?
[30:09.360 --> 30:09.760]  Wow.
[30:12.620 --> 30:26.000]  Well, I certainly speak for everybody in the studio when I say that tears are welling up in our eyes and we're feeling just a bit sentimental there as the train pulls away.
[30:28.440 --> 30:28.840]  Wow.
[30:30.140 --> 30:36.920]  I don't quite know how this is happening, but I guess if you think about something hard enough, you can basically make it appear.
[30:38.060 --> 30:39.820]  Maybe trains will appear again someday.
[30:40.760 --> 30:42.720]  Okay, we'd like to hear from...
[30:42.720 --> 30:44.140]  I'm going to speak over the train.
[30:44.360 --> 30:49.560]  From our listeners at 212-209-2900.
[30:50.460 --> 30:50.900]  Goodness.
[30:51.240 --> 30:54.320]  You know, the city has been a whole lot quieter since these things stopped running.
[30:56.320 --> 30:58.220]  You know, ironically, they haven't.
[30:58.420 --> 31:05.860]  As Walter and I were on the Golanus Expressway just past the Prospect Expressway, we looked over to the...
[31:06.580 --> 31:07.960]  Somebody quiet that train!
[31:08.120 --> 31:09.220]  Yeah, good luck with that.
[31:09.700 --> 31:10.500]  I can hear you.
[31:10.560 --> 31:10.780]  Go ahead.
[31:10.920 --> 31:11.760]  Okay, somebody...
[31:11.760 --> 31:16.980]  We looked over to the Smith & 9th Street station of the F-Line And what did we see?
[31:17.120 --> 31:21.700]  A real, not a ghost, at least we don't think it was a ghost, subway train riding along.
[31:22.060 --> 31:25.380]  I saw a subway train at 4 in the morning.
[31:25.840 --> 31:27.640]  It was, I think, the number 7 line.
[31:27.840 --> 31:28.320]  In Queens?
[31:28.620 --> 31:31.040]  Yeah, it was really bizarre because it was all dark.
[31:31.040 --> 31:32.120]  It was like a ghost train.
[31:32.580 --> 31:35.380]  And obviously somebody was driving it to keep the tracks from rusting.
[31:36.120 --> 31:37.880]  But, you know, it was...
[31:37.880 --> 31:38.900]  I never seen a train like that.
[31:38.940 --> 31:39.620]  It was kind of spooky.
[31:40.220 --> 31:49.300]  Yeah, they're running trains because they're staffed with supervision and they're checking for the things you would check for in a shut-down system.
[31:49.520 --> 31:49.920]  Vandalism.
[31:50.220 --> 31:58.680]  The Long Island Railroad, though, when I got on that train, you know, which passed right underneath the 7, it's weird how it works here.
[32:00.280 --> 32:03.300]  Basically, there are all these trains passing by and they weren't even that crowded.
[32:03.540 --> 32:05.560]  But everybody was, like, mobbed onto the platform.
[32:05.600 --> 32:09.820]  You'd think they'd run an extra train or two to Woodside for all these people that are waiting there in the cold.
[32:10.220 --> 32:14.840]  And then they have these signs that say when the next train is and that it's on time.
[32:15.060 --> 32:21.100]  The train was 10 minutes late and yet it still said on time for the time that it was supposed to be there.
[32:21.240 --> 32:25.860]  And on top of that, I couldn't see a clock anywhere to tell you what time it really was.
[32:26.000 --> 32:26.500]  So it's really...
[32:26.500 --> 32:31.300]  They have this bizarre way of telling you that trains are running and everything is fine.
[32:31.480 --> 32:32.940]  That's, I guess, how the MTA works.
[32:35.080 --> 32:37.500]  Okay, so any other...
[32:37.500 --> 32:39.420]  I guess Redhakt is still in transit.
[32:39.700 --> 32:41.800]  Hopefully he'll make it sometime soon.
[32:41.800 --> 32:45.340]  If he's in transit, he's likely to be arrested for trespassing in the subway system.
[32:45.540 --> 32:46.260]  Oh, that's another thing.
[32:46.700 --> 32:50.240]  I've looked at all the subway entrances and it looks like they all...
[32:50.240 --> 32:50.620]  You've looked at all of them.
[32:50.720 --> 32:52.160]  Well, all the ones I passed.
[32:52.680 --> 32:55.440]  And including the ones that I think I could easily get into.
[32:55.540 --> 32:56.160]  And they all have gates.
[32:56.420 --> 32:57.880]  All the gates seem to be closed.
[32:58.040 --> 32:58.280]  Not all of them.
[32:58.280 --> 33:09.000]  Well, yesterday's Times had an interview with a spokesman for the police department who pointed out that, as I said last week, it was generally just one end of a station that would have gates.
[33:09.160 --> 33:18.280]  The other end would not necessarily have gates and there would have to be some sort of staff or police or transit authority supervision there to keep people from going down.
[33:19.040 --> 33:19.520]  Okay.
[33:19.740 --> 33:22.420]  Well, I guess that's something that we can...
[33:22.420 --> 33:23.700]  Oh, the trains are gone.
[33:23.940 --> 33:28.100]  That's something that we can maybe explore after the show.
[33:28.520 --> 33:28.940]  All right.
[33:29.120 --> 33:30.860]  Shall we take some phone calls?
[33:30.960 --> 33:33.040]  Any other stories of transit or fun like that?
[33:33.120 --> 33:34.520]  Are we allowed to discuss other news?
[33:34.600 --> 33:34.920]  Oh, sure.
[33:35.000 --> 33:35.140]  Yeah.
[33:35.260 --> 33:37.800]  Well, of course, it's the big news with Bush and the NSA.
[33:38.040 --> 33:39.020]  I guess we should touch upon that.
[33:39.020 --> 33:39.880]  I think we should.
[33:40.060 --> 33:40.200]  Yeah.
[33:41.160 --> 33:45.000]  There's this article in the Times on the 16th.
[33:45.060 --> 33:45.680]  What day was that?
[33:45.940 --> 33:47.560]  That's a year later than it should have been.
[33:47.840 --> 33:48.540]  Well, yeah.
[33:48.640 --> 33:49.380]  We'll get to that.
[33:50.200 --> 33:51.600]  Called Bush lets a U.S.
[33:51.760 --> 33:53.420]  spy on callers without courts.
[33:54.360 --> 33:56.920]  And really, the subject line does say it all.
[33:56.920 --> 34:11.840]  But President Bush has secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying,
[34:12.000 --> 34:13.640]  according to government officials.
[34:14.310 --> 34:33.940]  And as you hinted at, the scariest paragraph, I think, in this article is the ninth paragraph, if anyone is following along at home, where it says, The White House asked the New York Times not to publish this article, arguing that it could jeopardize continuing investigations and alert would-be terrorists that they might be under scrutiny.
[34:35.060 --> 34:44.160]  After meeting with senior administration officials to hear their concerns, the newspaper delayed publication for a year to conduct additional reporting.
[34:44.160 --> 34:49.660]  Some information that administration officials argue could be useful to terrorists has been omitted.
[34:49.920 --> 35:04.220]  And what's not in this paragraph, but has been apparently the case, is that the publisher of the New York Times was personally summoned to the Oval Office by our dear leader to ask him to stop this public case.
[35:04.260 --> 35:15.160]  See, this is a very bad road to go down when the press follows these instructions by an administration and just basically kowtows to them because where does it end?
[35:15.400 --> 35:18.300]  You know, they're going to say everything is some kind of violation of security.
[35:18.300 --> 35:24.820]  If the terrorists know this, you know, if the terrorists know the weather forecast, that's something that they probably shouldn't know because then they can plan accordingly.
[35:25.040 --> 35:32.700]  If the terrorists don't already know that their calls could be being eavesdropped on with warrants or secret warrants or no warrants, then they're pretty dumb terrorists, I have to say.
[35:32.800 --> 35:38.780]  What was even scarier was Bush's explanation for this, which went something along the lines of, yes, we did it.
[35:38.840 --> 35:40.840]  It makes things move more quickly or something like that.
[35:40.840 --> 35:41.720]  It took him a while to say that too.
[35:41.840 --> 35:51.060]  At first he wouldn't say anything and then he's like, yeah, because I think he realizes he's in a lot of trouble here and he has to come up forcefully if he's going to have any chance of swaying anybody.
[35:51.200 --> 35:53.320]  But right now he's got a pretty tough sell there.
[35:53.440 --> 35:55.560]  Even the Republicans are calling for blood on this one.
[35:55.600 --> 36:00.740]  It's almost scarier than him lying about it, just admitting it and saying, oh, well, it makes things go quickly.
[36:00.860 --> 36:05.180]  And there was a speech he gave last year, I think in Buffalo.
[36:05.540 --> 36:12.340]  I played it on yesterday's radio show, where basically he says that whenever we are tracking terrorists, we're going through the process.
[36:12.340 --> 36:14.140]  We get warrants.
[36:14.420 --> 36:20.320]  He basically just lied through his teeth, was trying to reassure people about the Patriot Act, about how due process is still going to be followed.
[36:20.460 --> 36:22.240]  Well, technically, this isn't the Patriot Act.
[36:22.320 --> 36:25.720]  This is a directive having to do with the NSA.
[36:26.340 --> 36:28.300]  The fallout here has really been amazing.
[36:28.520 --> 36:30.600]  There was a judge from the FISA court.
[36:30.800 --> 36:34.980]  The FISA court is the secret court that never has denied a warrant ever.
[36:35.160 --> 36:39.760]  And this judge is so offended at the violation of due process going on here.
[36:39.980 --> 36:40.980]  Where's his name?
[36:42.500 --> 36:43.480]  What is his name?
[36:43.580 --> 36:45.480]  Whatever his name is, he resigned in protest.
[36:45.480 --> 36:50.740]  You know it's bad when somebody from a secret court thinks things have gone too far.
[36:51.040 --> 36:52.580]  I mean, my goodness.
[36:52.680 --> 36:54.100]  His name is Robertson.
[36:54.100 --> 37:12.240]  Yes, and the point is why should any of these foreign intelligence surveillance court judges and there's 11 of them, why should any of them stay on the bench when they're staying there now is an endorsement of their own nullification by the president?
[37:12.520 --> 37:13.960]  I mean, they should just go home.
[37:14.060 --> 37:14.800]  They have no jobs.
[37:16.040 --> 37:16.660]  Exactly, yeah.
[37:16.800 --> 37:19.240]  And, you know, how many of us even knew about the secret court beforehand?
[37:19.240 --> 37:21.820]  I think most people just found out about it through this.
[37:21.980 --> 37:24.080]  By finding out it got bypassed, they found out about the secret court.
[37:24.080 --> 37:26.040]  We've mentioned it on this radio program before.
[37:26.320 --> 37:27.940]  We have, but I don't think most people know about it.
[37:30.060 --> 37:33.340]  Okay, shall we take some phone calls because there are a lot of people waiting?
[37:33.340 --> 37:34.480]  Every line looks like...
[37:34.480 --> 37:34.900]  It does.
[37:35.080 --> 37:46.280]  I think a lot of people want to speak out about the transit situation as well and that's, you know, as a local radio station we do have to fulfill that requirement sometimes of giving people a way to vent their spleen or whatever.
[37:46.580 --> 37:49.620]  So let's take a phone call and good evening, you're on the air.
[37:55.260 --> 37:57.760]  Yes, I think the transit worker should be hello.
[37:59.740 --> 38:02.760]  Interesting phrase, I don't know quite what you mean by that but let's move on to this call.
[38:02.820 --> 38:03.540]  Good evening, you're on the air.
[38:04.060 --> 38:04.240]  Hello?
[38:04.520 --> 38:04.740]  Hi.
[38:04.740 --> 38:06.120]  Can you show me the radio off?
[38:06.160 --> 38:06.660]  Yeah, please do.
[38:06.920 --> 38:07.140]  Okay.
[38:07.600 --> 38:15.060]  Yeah, this long, this is, because I'm at a stop on the Long Island Railroad where the trains during the rush hours are not stopping.
[38:15.180 --> 38:16.900]  I have to go one stop further back.
[38:17.220 --> 38:18.360]  that's crazy, isn't it?
[38:18.660 --> 38:19.520]  It's ridiculous.
[38:19.740 --> 38:24.000]  Like yesterday, I left my house at five after five.
[38:24.280 --> 38:24.600]  Mm-hmm.
[38:24.880 --> 38:33.340]  Okay, according to the website and according to, you know, the phone, you know, a shuttle bus or a shuttle train was supposed to run every 20 minutes.
[38:33.900 --> 38:35.100]  They don't know what's going on.
[38:35.240 --> 38:37.040]  I was listening to two radio stations on the way in.
[38:37.120 --> 38:38.700]  I was listening to WCBS and WINS.
[38:39.460 --> 38:46.860]  WCBS was saying that the Shea Stadium parking thing where you're supposed to park and ride, take a train from there is not in effect today.
[38:46.980 --> 38:47.520]  It's starting tomorrow.
[38:47.680 --> 38:48.880]  WINS was saying the opposite.
[38:49.260 --> 38:51.300]  These radio stations are owned by the same people.
[38:51.800 --> 38:53.420]  They're saying completely different things.
[38:53.560 --> 39:02.480]  Yeah, but anyway, so I stood up on the platform for about a good, you know, 10, 15 minutes once I got to the station because I'm only two minutes away.
[39:02.600 --> 39:02.840]  Mm-hmm.
[39:03.340 --> 39:12.300]  And, you know, I went downstairs and there were people asking the chick in the booth, you know, is there a shuttle bus or is there a train?
[39:12.820 --> 39:19.660]  And while that was going on, a train pulled in, it stopped, doors wouldn't open, and it pulled out.
[39:20.320 --> 39:22.900]  People were like, what's going on here?
[39:23.620 --> 39:29.600]  And then the train that normally stopped at 551 was packed.
[39:29.900 --> 39:32.000]  I'm only going one stop to Jamaica.
[39:32.720 --> 39:43.080]  and that, you know, but bus-wise, the only buses that are running in Queens and parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan are the green bus lines.
[39:44.100 --> 39:45.000]  Green bus is running?
[39:45.200 --> 39:46.560]  Yes, that's the only one that's running.
[39:46.720 --> 39:47.180]  I didn't know that.
[39:47.220 --> 39:47.940]  Green bus is running?
[39:48.120 --> 39:48.360]  Yeah.
[39:48.560 --> 39:49.240]  Command also.
[39:49.680 --> 39:52.040]  You know, if I had known that, that would have made things a lot easier.
[39:52.140 --> 39:53.440]  No one said, I know Command was running.
[39:53.500 --> 39:54.960]  I know some bus in Queens.
[39:54.960 --> 39:58.060]  I didn't know it was green, But you can take a green bus line across the Queensborough Bridge.
[39:58.240 --> 39:58.800]  Right, yeah.
[39:59.060 --> 39:59.560]  My goodness.
[39:59.800 --> 40:07.420]  But then when it gets to Jamaica, when it gets over, when all the green bus, most of the green buses run past the Long Island Railroad in Jamaica.
[40:08.560 --> 40:18.740]  And all the streets surrounding the Long Island Railroad are blocked off, you know, Southern Boulevard is blocked off from Jamaica to 94th Avenue.
[40:18.740 --> 40:27.000]  And then Archer Avenue is blocked from 150th Street to, you know, the Van Wick, which is like a half a mile the other direction.
[40:27.360 --> 40:27.660]  Okay.
[40:27.800 --> 40:28.760]  We've got to move on to the call.
[40:28.840 --> 40:29.920]  So is there a final point you want to make?
[40:30.120 --> 40:30.420]  Okay.
[40:30.840 --> 40:32.720]  This system is ridiculous.
[40:33.040 --> 40:33.320]  Okay.
[40:33.480 --> 40:34.120]  I agree with you there.
[40:34.120 --> 40:34.960]  And I can't wait for it to be over.
[40:35.100 --> 40:35.300]  Okay.
[40:35.380 --> 40:35.680]  Thank you.
[40:35.800 --> 40:36.340]  Thanks for calling.
[40:36.500 --> 40:37.840]  I just felt a gust of wind.
[40:37.880 --> 40:38.020]  Yeah.
[40:38.060 --> 40:39.500]  Red Hack just came running in.
[40:39.700 --> 40:40.740]  You made it.
[40:40.820 --> 40:41.180]  Congratulations.
[40:41.480 --> 40:45.140]  Three-hour transit time and a tenfold increase in hatred for New Jersey.
[40:45.820 --> 40:47.360]  Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
[40:47.360 --> 40:52.200]  You know, I have to say, and I said this before, the path part of my journey was the one that made the most sense.
[40:52.300 --> 40:54.700]  The path part of my journey was the most insane part of my journey.
[40:54.700 --> 40:54.900]  Okay.
[40:55.000 --> 40:55.880]  Tell us what happened to you.
[40:55.940 --> 40:56.120]  All right.
[40:56.220 --> 40:56.660]  Let's see.
[40:56.820 --> 40:57.480]  You know...
[40:57.480 --> 40:59.760]  I started... Can I tell my story?
[40:59.840 --> 41:03.600]  I was just going to say, you know that a computer, you could have walked in two and a half hours.
[41:03.720 --> 41:07.360]  So if it took you three hours by transit, we know for a fact that something is wrong.
[41:07.460 --> 41:07.640]  Okay.
[41:07.740 --> 41:07.900]  Okay.
[41:08.160 --> 41:17.660]  So I started my voyage at 116th in Amsterdam, waiting in line for an hour for a shuttle bus to Penn Station, courtesy of Columbia University.
[41:17.660 --> 41:18.580]  Which you're very lucky to have.
[41:18.800 --> 41:19.860]  Most people don't have shuttle buses.
[41:20.060 --> 41:20.320]  Yeah.
[41:20.320 --> 41:21.740]  So that was fun.
[41:21.900 --> 41:25.460]  I had to wait for another bus to come by because it was rush hour and everyone wanted to leave.
[41:26.920 --> 41:30.980]  And so I got on that, and that was actually pretty normal.
[41:31.480 --> 41:33.020]  That trip was maybe 40 minutes.
[41:33.160 --> 41:35.780]  I got to Penn Station at about 6.20.
[41:37.120 --> 41:38.900]  At this point, I walked...
[41:38.900 --> 41:44.040]  Well, because I never traveled to New Jersey, I had no idea where the path train was.
[41:44.120 --> 41:48.060]  So I walked around Penn Station for a while and found out that it was nowhere to be found there.
[41:48.160 --> 41:49.500]  I was actually at 6th Avenue.
[41:49.780 --> 41:51.160]  So I walk over to 6th Avenue.
[41:51.340 --> 41:51.920]  I go downstairs.
[41:52.340 --> 41:53.700]  I know that I can use my Metro...
[41:53.700 --> 41:55.880]  Or theoretically, I can use my MetroCard to get on the path.
[41:55.880 --> 41:58.260]  So I'm worry-free, happy-go-lucky.
[41:58.480 --> 42:00.600]  I get to the turnstile, stick my MetroCard in.
[42:00.600 --> 42:04.600]  And it chews on it for a second, spits it out, and says that it can't read it.
[42:06.260 --> 42:09.600]  That was the MetroCard that I've been using to get around.
[42:09.640 --> 42:11.300]  And so I didn't have...
[42:11.300 --> 42:17.380]  And I didn't have any other money because I'd come straight from something to trying to get here.
[42:17.720 --> 42:17.860]  Right.
[42:18.080 --> 42:18.320]  All right.
[42:18.560 --> 42:20.340]  So I go...
[42:20.340 --> 42:21.560]  I say, okay, well, I'll just buy a ticket.
[42:21.880 --> 42:29.900]  I find out that with my ATM card, the only ticket I can buy is 11 trips, which me, in the next 20 years, is probably not going to take 11 trips on the path train.
[42:29.900 --> 42:30.280]  Uh-huh.
[42:30.560 --> 42:30.880]  So...
[42:30.880 --> 42:31.820]  But you can transfer that ticket.
[42:33.040 --> 42:33.360]  Whatever.
[42:33.560 --> 42:34.180]  Transfer it over here.
[42:34.360 --> 42:35.860]  So I go...
[42:35.860 --> 42:38.000]  I get out of the train station.
[42:38.100 --> 42:41.140]  Now I have to find an ATM because I have no way to get on the path train.
[42:41.400 --> 42:42.920]  I walk back to 34th Street.
[42:43.040 --> 42:49.760]  I find a city bank, get money, go to a store, make sure to buy a soda to ensure that I have $1.50 to get on the path train.
[42:49.880 --> 42:54.600]  You see, I paid $2, and I realize now that they kept the 50 cents because I had to drop $2 in the bucket.
[42:54.860 --> 42:54.980]  Right.
[42:55.040 --> 42:59.240]  I'm happy I did it that way, but, you know, it would have been nice if they told me, by the way, we're ripping you off.
[42:59.320 --> 42:59.440]  Yeah.
[42:59.900 --> 43:00.520]  Well, I get...
[43:00.520 --> 43:02.900]  So now, finally, I get back to the path train.
[43:03.080 --> 43:05.080]  It's about 10 to 7 at this point.
[43:05.120 --> 43:05.380]  Mm-hmm.
[43:06.000 --> 43:06.900]  I get on.
[43:07.120 --> 43:11.280]  I get on the World Trade Center path train, which goes to New Jersey and then comes back.
[43:12.420 --> 43:16.360]  I get to New Jersey, to the Newport stop, and they say, this train is now out of service.
[43:16.460 --> 43:17.240]  Everybody go off the train.
[43:17.320 --> 43:17.740]  Oh, nice.
[43:17.940 --> 43:18.120]  Yeah.
[43:18.680 --> 43:24.020]  So now I'm standing in New Jersey waiting for another train to come to finally take me the rest of my trip.
[43:24.180 --> 43:25.020]  Was it an Amtrak train?
[43:25.200 --> 43:27.080]  No, it was another path train.
[43:27.080 --> 43:30.260]  Those high-speed Amtrak trains, you ever see them go by at 120 miles an hour?
[43:30.340 --> 43:31.540]  And then we all got on that train.
[43:31.760 --> 43:32.440]  A sight to behold.
[43:32.560 --> 43:33.520]  Got to the World Trade Center.
[43:33.720 --> 43:35.100]  I walked east.
[43:40.760 --> 43:44.280]  Is this something I'm missing out on that I missed here?
[43:44.600 --> 43:45.220]  No, not really.
[43:45.400 --> 43:45.660]  Okay.
[43:45.760 --> 43:46.840]  No, you're right up to speed.
[43:47.040 --> 43:47.140]  All right.
[43:47.140 --> 43:47.360]  Continue.
[43:47.940 --> 43:54.000]  And so then I walked from the World Trade Center east until I saw things I recognized, namely South Street Seaport, and then walked downtown.
[43:54.380 --> 43:54.600]  Okay.
[43:54.740 --> 43:55.500]  Well, congratulations.
[43:55.980 --> 43:56.520]  It took three hours.
[43:56.700 --> 43:57.620]  It was not fun.
[43:57.620 --> 43:59.940]  I said it was going to be easy, but the important thing is you did it.
[44:00.000 --> 44:01.080]  The important thing is you made it.
[44:02.220 --> 44:03.860]  Because of New Jersey, you made it here.
[44:03.860 --> 44:07.220]  But you should give thanks to New Jersey for being there.
[44:07.460 --> 44:10.000]  All I'm saying is without New Jersey, you could have walked, it would have been faster.
[44:10.120 --> 44:10.460]  Probably.
[44:10.920 --> 44:13.240]  You know, I don't know why people are so averse to walking.
[44:13.560 --> 44:14.580]  You know, walking is good.
[44:14.740 --> 44:15.520]  It feels good.
[44:15.600 --> 44:18.200]  And you should be happy that you can walk places.
[44:18.640 --> 44:20.640]  I feel so much more relaxed when I walk places.
[44:20.640 --> 44:21.760]  I see things along the way.
[44:21.840 --> 44:22.400]  I meet people.
[44:22.480 --> 44:22.940]  I smile.
[44:23.060 --> 44:24.360]  I wave occasionally, you know.
[44:24.540 --> 44:26.460]  I think it would have taken me a while to walk here.
[44:26.580 --> 44:36.240]  Although I did hear from a friend of mine, there are final exams at Columbia University right now, and someone in his class walked from Williamsburg to Columbia for their final, and then back to Williamsburg.
[44:36.340 --> 44:36.740]  Good for them.
[44:36.920 --> 44:37.200]  Four hours.
[44:37.240 --> 44:37.640]  Good for them.
[44:37.760 --> 44:40.580]  If everybody did something like that, we'd feel much better.
[44:40.680 --> 44:41.220]  We'd be healthier.
[44:41.820 --> 44:43.460]  And we'd get through this thing a lot faster.
[44:43.720 --> 44:43.900]  All right.
[44:43.920 --> 44:44.680]  Let's take some more phone calls.
[44:44.740 --> 44:46.420]  212-209-2900.
[44:47.020 --> 44:47.680]  And good evening.
[44:47.760 --> 44:48.140]  You're on the air.
[44:48.700 --> 44:48.900]  Okay.
[44:48.980 --> 44:49.840]  Well, you blew it.
[44:50.880 --> 44:51.380]  Patience, people.
[44:51.460 --> 44:51.680]  Good evening.
[44:51.740 --> 44:52.200]  You're on the air.
[44:53.140 --> 44:53.620]  How are you doing?
[44:53.720 --> 44:56.300]  I think I was on the same train as Red Hat.
[44:58.220 --> 44:58.540]  Probably.
[44:59.000 --> 45:01.400]  Did they kick you off at Newport and then make you get on the next one?
[45:01.540 --> 45:01.620]  Yeah.
[45:01.720 --> 45:02.340]  Yeah, exactly.
[45:02.700 --> 45:03.680]  I have a question.
[45:03.780 --> 45:03.880]  Ready?
[45:04.660 --> 45:05.080]  Go ahead.
[45:05.420 --> 45:10.980]  Is the premise behind the Taylor Law, you know, that says that the transit can't strike because it's a necessity?
[45:12.060 --> 45:16.580]  And if that's true, didn't the Civil Liberties Court against the Vegas start to say, no, it's not a necessity.
[45:16.580 --> 45:18.100]  It's a privilege to ride the train.
[45:21.000 --> 45:27.020]  The Taylor Law is in existence because the government writes the laws and the government is the employer in this case.
[45:27.180 --> 45:32.600]  If private industry were capable of unilaterally writing laws, I'm sure we'd have something similar in the private sector.
[45:32.760 --> 45:32.920]  Yeah.
[45:33.020 --> 45:37.120]  You know, it's also great how they pretty much get whatever they want through the courts.
[45:37.360 --> 45:43.020]  Like, for instance, we're going to fine you a million dollars a day and tomorrow is going to be a billion dollars and a trillion after that.
[45:43.160 --> 45:44.840]  Whatever they want, they seem to get.
[45:44.840 --> 45:48.380]  But finding workers $25,000 a day, individuals...
[45:48.380 --> 45:49.700]  They have not been able to get that.
[45:49.840 --> 45:51.200]  It would have prevented the strike at least.
[45:51.320 --> 45:52.380]  I'm actually in favor of that.
[45:52.440 --> 45:54.300]  I wish that this whole strike thing hadn't happened.
[45:54.460 --> 45:54.780]  I agree.
[45:55.040 --> 45:55.900]  Well, okay, fine.
[45:55.960 --> 45:57.980]  But you're speaking as people who are inconvenienced.
[45:58.120 --> 45:59.160]  Now try speaking as people...
[45:59.160 --> 46:01.080]  Wait, you're speaking as people who aren't even inconvenienced.
[46:01.540 --> 46:04.440]  How about speaking as a worker as I used to be able to do?
[46:04.500 --> 46:11.940]  Yeah, I think you have to have some understanding of what it's like to work in the MTA, what it's like to actually not have something that you believe is fair.
[46:12.160 --> 46:14.000]  What are your options if you're not allowed to strike?
[46:14.400 --> 46:16.300]  Well, this is present in every job, though, you know.
[46:16.520 --> 46:16.820]  Oh, right.
[46:16.900 --> 46:19.620]  Now, do you think you should have the right to, you know, to organize?
[46:19.840 --> 46:21.720]  When people don't go to work, they don't get paid.
[46:21.780 --> 46:22.780]  It's not like, you know...
[46:22.780 --> 46:25.960]  Okay, let me give you an example of some of the charming working conditions.
[46:25.960 --> 46:27.720]  I was telling Walter these on the way in.
[46:28.760 --> 46:35.560]  I had the booth at Vernon Jackson once for a while, and I accidentally kicked the then-emergency phone off the wall.
[46:35.860 --> 46:37.520]  And it was a regular telephone.
[46:37.600 --> 46:40.160]  How did they accidentally kick a phone off the wall?
[46:40.160 --> 46:41.680]  It's a long story, okay?
[46:41.680 --> 46:42.160]  It was an accident.
[46:42.160 --> 46:43.040]  We only have an hour.
[46:43.120 --> 46:44.140]  I was putting my feet up, okay?
[46:44.140 --> 46:45.280]  It was a very slow station.
[46:45.380 --> 46:47.380]  I actually had no trains, all right?
[46:47.880 --> 46:48.600]  But anyway...
[46:48.600 --> 46:50.380]  So you're going to defend the...
[46:50.380 --> 46:50.940]  No, I'm not defending...
[46:50.940 --> 46:53.460]  By talking about how you put your feet up and kicked the phone off the wall.
[46:53.560 --> 46:54.700]  No, what I'm getting...
[46:54.700 --> 46:57.200]  The point I'm getting to will be obvious when I get there, if you want me.
[46:57.960 --> 46:59.620]  It was an old-fashioned phone.
[46:59.620 --> 47:04.860]  In other words, it's an electromagnet that alternates that causes a clapper to go between two bells.
[47:05.000 --> 47:05.900]  That's how the phone rings.
[47:05.900 --> 47:12.640]  Kicked it off, and there were inches upon inches of steel dust stuck to the electromagnets.
[47:12.740 --> 47:19.880]  The type of stuff that also was filtered badly through the air conditioner and the type of stuff I was breathing eight hours a day plus.
[47:20.720 --> 47:21.380]  All right?
[47:21.500 --> 47:22.800]  So the conditions are not optimal.
[47:22.860 --> 47:24.580]  The conditions are way suboptimal.
[47:24.820 --> 47:26.760]  I'm six foot four and three quarters inches.
[47:26.760 --> 47:33.780]  The interior dimensions, height-wise, of a token booth are six foot two inches.
[47:34.300 --> 47:42.240]  With the temperature probe for the Halon fire suppression system, in some points, it's under six feet.
[47:42.480 --> 47:48.220]  I can't begin to tell you how many times I've stood up and hit my head being fully aware that this thing exists.
[47:48.340 --> 47:59.200]  But still, I don't care how aware you are, you are going to hit this thing because the booth is a full-size booth, two windows, six steps by a step and a half wide.
[47:59.380 --> 48:04.200]  Six steps long, a step and a half wide, and not tall enough for a tall man to stand up in.
[48:04.340 --> 48:07.220]  Well, I think this is one of the issues that has not been raised with the...
[48:07.220 --> 48:07.620]  It should.
[48:08.720 --> 48:13.800]  But, yeah, no, I mean, there are all kinds of things, all kinds of things that, you know, you can complain about.
[48:14.000 --> 48:14.920]  But, you know, there's...
[48:15.340 --> 48:19.120]  The main ones, though, are just, you know, fair wage, respect, that kind of thing.
[48:19.240 --> 48:23.540]  And, you know, if this many people think they're not getting it, there must be something to that, I think.
[48:24.300 --> 48:25.440]  Anyway, let's take some more phone calls.
[48:25.480 --> 48:27.040]  212-209-2900.
[48:27.940 --> 48:28.660]  And good evening.
[48:28.820 --> 48:29.300]  You're on the air.
[48:30.360 --> 48:30.860]  Hi, hello.
[48:31.160 --> 48:31.820]  Hi, what's on?
[48:31.940 --> 48:32.440]  What's on your mind?
[48:33.400 --> 48:46.200]  Well, I basically want to say, you know, one of the generalists that was talking on the phone basically said that they should remember, the union people should remember that they were working for public.
[48:46.620 --> 48:50.160]  Actually, it's the MTA people who was working for the public.
[48:50.160 --> 48:53.080]  And, you know, union people, they're just workers.
[48:53.560 --> 48:56.500]  You know, I mean, that's something that, you know, should have carried out.
[48:56.680 --> 48:57.820]  People should know about it.
[48:58.380 --> 48:58.740]  Okay.
[48:59.980 --> 49:00.340]  Okay.
[49:00.500 --> 49:00.900]  Thanks for calling.
[49:01.280 --> 49:01.520]  Bye-bye.
[49:02.460 --> 49:03.580]  Let's take another phone call.
[49:03.640 --> 49:03.880]  Good evening.
[49:03.980 --> 49:04.400]  You're on the air.
[49:05.380 --> 49:05.740]  Okay.
[49:05.900 --> 49:06.300]  Thanks for calling.
[49:06.300 --> 49:07.240]  That's me.
[49:07.460 --> 49:08.260]  Let's hear from you now.
[49:09.200 --> 49:09.800]  Go ahead.
[49:10.300 --> 49:10.700]  Yes.
[49:11.040 --> 49:14.080]  Actually, I thought this strike has been wonderful for bicyclists.
[49:14.520 --> 49:19.160]  I haven't actually seen this much open space on the streets of New York in a long time.
[49:19.280 --> 49:19.440]  Yeah.
[49:19.560 --> 49:20.520]  You know, I agree with that.
[49:20.620 --> 49:21.680]  There is a lot of open space.
[49:21.900 --> 49:24.140]  But, you know, the bicyclists really should stay off the sidewalk.
[49:24.460 --> 49:25.020]  Oh, definitely.
[49:25.040 --> 49:27.780]  I always yell at bicyclists when I see them on the sidewalks.
[49:27.800 --> 49:29.680]  I personally ride every day throughout the year.
[49:30.040 --> 49:36.380]  And I definitely agree that there's quite a few bicyclists who are disobeying laws riding on the wrong side of the street.
[49:36.620 --> 49:46.060]  But speaking to your point earlier about these kind of HOV4 rules and all this stuff, it completely cleared out the streets of Manhattan other than some areas around Wall Street and like Midtown.
[49:46.520 --> 49:49.160]  But it's also clogged up the streets of Queens and Brooklyn.
[49:49.320 --> 49:57.540]  That's what I'm, you know, complaining about because I don't think it's very, very well thought out as far as like what the, you know, what the effects of this policy are going to be.
[49:57.620 --> 49:59.220]  Yeah, you should limit traffic.
[49:59.400 --> 50:02.000]  There are ways of doing it, but there are sane ways and there are crazy ways.
[50:02.220 --> 50:05.740]  I'm just telling you from a bicyclist perspective, this has been a dream come true.
[50:05.900 --> 50:08.920]  We've not seen the city been so friendly to bicyclists in a long time.
[50:08.980 --> 50:11.840]  I don't know if you've followed kind of the news about the critical mass ride.
[50:11.840 --> 50:12.420]  Oh, of course, yeah.
[50:13.180 --> 50:15.140]  I mean, the police have just been very friendly.
[50:15.420 --> 50:26.840]  Today, for the first day, they didn't do this yesterday, but today they've been making sure that pedestrians on the Manhattan Bridge use the dedicated pedestrian lanes on the south side of the bridge, leaving the north lanes free and open and safe for the bicyclists.
[50:26.940 --> 50:27.540]  It's just been wonderful.
[50:27.660 --> 50:29.280]  Yeah, this is a very positive thing.
[50:29.280 --> 50:30.260]  I totally agree with that.
[50:30.740 --> 50:31.800]  Okay, that's my comment.
[50:31.940 --> 50:32.180]  Thank you.
[50:32.180 --> 50:33.200]  Thanks for calling.
[50:34.020 --> 50:37.200]  Is the problem with Queens and all that that they're turning people away?
[50:37.300 --> 50:37.780]  Is that what's going on?
[50:37.780 --> 50:51.440]  The problem is that they're basically creating this time in the middle of the night where they cut off even though there's no traffic to speak of and they're creating huge backlogs and they're not allowing two-seat cars in, which I could not believe.
[50:51.440 --> 50:54.940]  I never thought for a second, even if I got a passenger, I wouldn't be allowed in.
[50:55.000 --> 51:00.160]  I wonder if I got two people to sit on their laps, if somehow that would fulfill the requirement.
[51:00.160 --> 51:03.520]  They were just being really bureaucratic and literal-minded.
[51:03.680 --> 51:05.100]  I saw one of those backups today.
[51:05.200 --> 51:18.140]  I was actually bringing someone to the airport with a friend in his car and we were driving to LaGuardia and we were just looking on the other side and saying, there's no way we're coming back through that because I mean, it was miles and miles and miles of backups,
[51:18.200 --> 51:19.520]  I guess from that.
[51:19.900 --> 51:21.440]  But we ended up finding a way around it.
[51:21.500 --> 51:29.120]  We took the Williamsburg Bridge and then went through the Bronx and all these roundabout ways and eventually we got back and it only sat in traffic for maybe 20 minutes.
[51:29.120 --> 51:43.900]  In a way, I think this is designed to incur the wrath of people by making people stand on lines for an hour to buy a ticket from two people, only two people selling tickets for trains, by creating huge traffic jams in different boroughs.
[51:44.100 --> 51:47.120]  Boy, people are getting angry at those transit workers for going on strike.
[51:47.120 --> 51:48.140]  It's all their fault.
[51:48.840 --> 51:52.500]  You know, I sense sabotage here but not necessarily from the TWU.
[51:52.720 --> 51:57.040]  Huge lines of people trying to get onto the LIRR as I was going through Penn Station.
[51:57.780 --> 52:03.100]  I mean, they basically had four people punching tickets and just kind of holding people back who were trying to like push through.
[52:03.300 --> 52:05.060]  It was like a mob trying to get through to the trains.
[52:05.060 --> 52:05.200]  Uh-huh.
[52:05.340 --> 52:06.800]  Yeah, it's really unsafe too.
[52:08.720 --> 52:09.940]  Okay, I was taking a phone call.
[52:10.500 --> 52:11.140]  Good evening.
[52:11.320 --> 52:11.840]  You're on the air.
[52:14.020 --> 52:14.620]  Go ahead.
[52:15.780 --> 52:16.360]  Oh, yes.
[52:16.540 --> 52:16.940]  I want to...
[52:16.940 --> 52:18.120]  Sorry, you've got to talk faster than that.
[52:18.140 --> 52:18.460]  Good evening.
[52:18.580 --> 52:19.060]  You're on the air.
[52:20.120 --> 52:20.720]  Speak up.
[52:21.060 --> 52:21.440]  Yes, hi.
[52:21.580 --> 52:22.680]  Thanks for taking my call.
[52:23.080 --> 52:40.760]  I just wanted to bring up a point that the reason why I think Bloomberg went ahead with this against the unions request is that he just got elected and he thinks because the people in New York City elected him, which I don't know why that was the reason why they did.
[52:40.900 --> 52:41.580]  I live in Westchester.
[52:41.980 --> 52:49.240]  I think that's one of the reasons why he went ahead with this strike thinking that just recently I got elected he has a mandate and that he can go ahead and pull this.
[52:49.600 --> 52:50.560]  Thanks a lot for taking my call.
[52:50.560 --> 52:50.860]  All right.
[52:50.920 --> 52:51.640]  Thanks for calling in.
[52:52.460 --> 52:53.960]  And boy, we have a full switchboard here.
[52:54.060 --> 52:54.980]  Let's continue.
[52:55.100 --> 52:55.360]  Good evening.
[52:55.460 --> 52:55.820]  You're on the air.
[52:56.340 --> 52:56.720]  Yeah, hi.
[52:57.200 --> 52:59.160]  I want to thank you guys for taking my call.
[52:59.280 --> 52:59.680]  I'm a transit.
[52:59.900 --> 53:00.020]  Welcome.
[53:00.460 --> 53:00.840]  Oh, great.
[53:01.500 --> 53:02.300]  What job title?
[53:03.560 --> 53:04.860]  We work for the telephone division.
[53:05.500 --> 53:05.860]  Okay.
[53:06.400 --> 53:10.960]  Yeah, we, I mean, I want to thank you guys for actually supporting us.
[53:11.080 --> 53:18.660]  I mean, what you're saying, the gentleman was saying about the token booth is actually a true thing.
[53:18.820 --> 53:21.860]  I mean, that's one of the transit dirty little secrets is the steel dust.
[53:22.660 --> 53:26.300]  I mean, a lot of track workers have to walk on that track.
[53:26.400 --> 53:29.440]  The longer you stay in the system, the most steel dust you're breathing in.
[53:29.820 --> 53:36.620]  And I don't think there's no really long-term study has been done on the effects of steel dust and they're looking to cut back and help benefits.
[53:37.000 --> 53:38.040]  And he is right.
[53:38.040 --> 53:40.800]  We just want a little bit of respect from this mayor and the governor.
[53:41.340 --> 53:43.600]  And I don't feel as though we're getting it from the governor.
[53:43.780 --> 53:46.580]  And that's one of the reasons why we out there if he was to...
[53:46.580 --> 53:49.460]  like Tucson had said, if he just take the...
[53:50.880 --> 53:51.320]  that...
[53:51.320 --> 53:56.560]  the pension give back off the table, I mean, we would go back to work.
[53:57.080 --> 54:01.760]  But the governor and the mayor, they're just posturing, like you say.
[54:02.080 --> 54:03.180]  They're not...
[54:03.180 --> 54:05.180]  they're not budging at all.
[54:05.860 --> 54:09.200]  And it's just a matter of just trying to save face now.
[54:09.540 --> 54:14.340]  Yeah, I mean, I think everyone's gotten it right from the beginning where they say this is mostly about respect.
[54:14.900 --> 54:19.880]  And I just don't see that respect being being expressed towards the union in any way.
[54:20.940 --> 54:22.380]  Yeah, and then that's what we feel.
[54:22.460 --> 54:24.300]  We don't feel as though we're not getting the respect.
[54:24.420 --> 54:24.840]  We don't...
[54:24.840 --> 54:30.060]  I mean, we don't want to play the race card or any such thing.
[54:30.200 --> 54:37.240]  But it's just an overall general respect, not just to PW, but to all the unions throughout New York.
[54:38.060 --> 54:41.280]  Because you have Metro North hasn't been working with a contract for three years.
[54:41.280 --> 54:42.620]  Yeah, you know, that's the thing.
[54:43.020 --> 54:44.320]  They keep holding this up.
[54:44.360 --> 54:47.900]  Bloomberg keeps holding this up that the teachers worked without a contract for years.
[54:48.140 --> 54:50.500]  Well, didn't the teachers kind of get screwed by that?
[54:50.960 --> 54:54.320]  That's because Randy Weingarten is an idiot, but that's another story.
[54:54.600 --> 54:55.480]  The head of the teachers' union.
[54:55.600 --> 54:59.940]  But the point is, you know, working without a contract is not necessarily something you should aspire to.
[55:00.580 --> 55:04.220]  I want to say something about what the caller said, which I was going to bring up anyway.
[55:04.720 --> 55:06.860]  He says he doesn't want to play the race card.
[55:07.920 --> 55:08.840]  But I will.
[55:09.740 --> 55:15.140]  I've noticed that Bloomberg's invective is surprising, if not shocking.
[55:15.440 --> 55:21.340]  He doesn't miss an opportunity to call the strike an illegal and selfish strike.
[55:21.500 --> 55:22.660]  Have you seen Fox 5?
[55:22.760 --> 55:25.960]  Fox 5 has taken this and is putting this on the logo.
[55:26.160 --> 55:29.260]  It's not the subway strike, it's the illegal subway strike.
[55:29.340 --> 55:37.640]  There have been two strikes previously, 1966 and 1980, and more in the 30s when the subways were private or at least partially private.
[55:38.100 --> 55:43.440]  But in 66 and in 1980, they did not go that far.
[55:43.640 --> 55:49.480]  In those days, the union and the workers were predominantly Irish and to a lesser extent Italian.
[55:49.880 --> 55:55.840]  Now they tend to be Jamaican, Trinidadian, from the Carolinas, and a whole lot darker.
[55:56.080 --> 55:56.720]  All right?
[55:56.940 --> 56:06.740]  I think that it may be wrong to say it's racial, but it's not wrong to be suspicious that it is.
[56:06.880 --> 56:09.860]  I think this is the first time I've ever seen you play the race card, Jim.
[56:10.120 --> 56:11.420]  Well, you know, I'm a white guy.
[56:11.600 --> 56:12.580]  I like being white.
[56:12.940 --> 56:15.380]  I think white is better because I am white.
[56:15.500 --> 56:18.680]  Not because I think white people are superior, but because I'm white.
[56:18.840 --> 56:19.520]  I think black people...
[56:19.520 --> 56:20.040]  You really should have...
[56:20.040 --> 56:21.780]  Stop, stop, stop.
[56:22.400 --> 56:24.080]  You were going so well there.
[56:24.180 --> 56:28.160]  No, I was going to say, if a black guy thinks he's better because he's black, that's fine too.
[56:28.180 --> 56:31.460]  When we said stop, it was really good advice.
[56:32.280 --> 56:32.640]  Okay.
[56:33.040 --> 56:33.740]  You guys still there?
[56:33.840 --> 56:34.900]  Yeah, final words from you.
[56:35.080 --> 56:43.980]  Yeah, I just want to say, man, you guys, it's not like the rest of the media because it seemed like when Bloomberg cracked the whip, all the media in New York just stand in line.
[56:44.160 --> 56:44.840]  Yes, thank you.
[56:44.960 --> 56:47.620]  And just spouting out exactly what he wants to say.
[56:47.880 --> 56:50.380]  But you guys are actually saying it as it is.
[56:50.440 --> 56:59.380]  A lot of you guys, the points you're making is right on the money, especially the gentleman who talked about the token booth and the way he described the token booth is accurate because we work in the token booth.
[56:59.500 --> 57:07.620]  We take care of all the fire alarm and foot switches, the gooseneck mic, the PA system, all that stuff we take care of.
[57:07.920 --> 57:11.260]  And when he talks about it, I mean, we've stayed in the system for a long time.
[57:11.340 --> 57:12.800]  You're breathing in a lot of steel dust.
[57:13.060 --> 57:16.900]  You're in the system where there's rain, cold, snow, whatever it is, you're working there.
[57:17.020 --> 57:18.080]  And we're not rich.
[57:18.080 --> 57:20.300]  We're just barely touching middle class.
[57:20.640 --> 57:22.400]  We're not making $60,000 a year.
[57:22.400 --> 57:23.900]  I don't make $60,000 a year.
[57:24.020 --> 57:26.120]  And I know where these people are getting these figures from.
[57:26.120 --> 57:27.560]  We're making $60,000 a year.
[57:28.060 --> 57:29.500]  I mean, we work really hard.
[57:30.740 --> 57:31.020]  Absolutely.
[57:31.520 --> 57:32.020]  Sir, I'm sorry.
[57:32.080 --> 57:32.680]  We're out of time.
[57:32.820 --> 57:34.180]  But best of luck to you.
[57:34.300 --> 57:38.020]  And of course, we'll be updating people on this radio station next week as well.
[57:38.040 --> 57:38.240]  I appreciate it, man.
[57:38.320 --> 57:39.220]  Thanks a lot, guys.
[57:39.340 --> 57:39.880]  Keep up the good work.
[57:39.900 --> 57:40.100]  All right.
[57:40.140 --> 57:40.500]  Hang in there.
[57:41.580 --> 57:43.020]  And that is going to do it for us.
[57:43.060 --> 57:44.360]  Of course, we don't all agree on this.
[57:44.460 --> 57:45.300]  We have different views.
[57:45.340 --> 57:47.120]  But I think that's part of what it's all about.
[57:48.420 --> 57:49.520]  So tell us your stories.
[57:49.640 --> 57:50.080]  Write to us.
[57:50.080 --> 57:53.100]  O-T-H at 2600.com.
[57:54.000 --> 57:54.020]  Okay.
[57:54.740 --> 57:56.000]  We're back again.
[57:56.560 --> 57:59.500]  And of course, you're listening to WBAI New York.
[57:59.700 --> 58:01.260]  And this program is Labrish.
[58:02.020 --> 58:03.660]  My name is Hapte Selassie.
[58:03.660 --> 58:06.100]  And we're speaking with Baba.
[58:06.540 --> 58:07.820]  Or maybe Ras Baba.
[58:08.300 --> 58:09.680]  Can I give a message?
[58:10.460 --> 58:11.040]  Hello?
[58:11.420 --> 58:12.500]  Go ahead, man.
[58:13.960 --> 58:17.000]  Yeah, I'd just like to say let's have some music now, huh?
[58:17.360 --> 58:17.620]  Okay.
[58:17.960 --> 58:18.220]  Okay.
[58:19.080 --> 58:19.620]  Thank you.
[58:19.980 --> 58:20.360]  You're right.
[58:22.260 --> 58:28.680]  Okay, not only is that a cool clash song that mentions WBAI, but it's also a song all about strikes.
[58:29.440 --> 58:31.580]  Lightning strikes to be specific.
[58:31.720 --> 58:34.300]  But they mention the transit strike of 1980 in this song.
[58:34.380 --> 58:39.680]  It's the only song I could find that actually mentions the transit strike, walking across bridges and things like that.
[58:40.080 --> 58:41.080]  So, Manuel Goldstein for Off The Hook.
[58:41.220 --> 58:41.960]  See you again next week.
[58:42.040 --> 58:42.180]  Good night.
[01:00:15.390 --> 01:00:15.910]  We'll be right back.
[01:00:16.050 --> 01:00:18.610]  Peter's feet are caught apart around
[01:00:26.380 --> 01:00:27.460]  on her feet.
[01:00:27.700 --> 01:00:29.860]  I wish everything could be as sweet.
[01:00:30.580 --> 01:00:31.240]  Ow!
[01:00:31.980 --> 01:00:32.300]  Strike!
[01:00:32.640 --> 01:00:32.860]  Ow!
[01:00:36.750 --> 01:00:38.410]  Okay, so wrong!
[01:00:43.140 --> 01:00:44.120]  Yo!
[01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:46.820]  Serious!
[01:00:49.890 --> 01:00:50.550]  Yo!
[01:00:56.650 --> 01:00:58.610]  Strike one!
[01:01:00.350 --> 01:01:00.870]  Strike!
[01:01:03.510 --> 01:01:05.730]  One of the sharp two-pen-out blocks!
[01:01:06.030 --> 01:01:07.830]  Every star I already knocked!
[01:01:08.030 --> 01:01:09.930]  Wasn't anybody that I didn't even know?
[01:01:10.070 --> 01:01:11.990]  Don't trust my light under every stone!
[01:01:14.060 --> 01:01:14.180]  Me!
[01:01:14.420 --> 01:01:16.160]  This is a bad act of government!
[01:01:16.640 --> 01:01:18.480]  That puts good of the take our seats!
[01:01:18.760 --> 01:01:20.540]  Chicken and the boot that's a barry!
[01:01:20.980 --> 01:01:21.180]  Yo!
[01:01:47.310 --> 01:01:49.510]  And welcome to the Personal Computer Show!
[01:01:49.690 --> 01:01:55.710]  This is Joe King, and I hope you all have had no problems getting to wherever you're going here in New York.
[01:01:55.870 --> 01:01:56.810]  We are in the midst of...