My Honest Take On The Uber Experience!

Being a driver for Uber is fun but it comes with a price.

For the last nine weeks, I've started driving for Uber. I wanted to participate in an experience that would give me an opportunity to make money and interact with people. At first, I loved the opportunity to meet interesting people, but now I am starting to find concern with it.

Uber is the people-friendly ride share service which allows "riders" to get picked up by "partners" willing to help them reach their destination. The flat rate, plus miles and time spent inside the vehicle calculates the fare. During a peak time, Uber advocates a surge rating. The surge rating makes "partners" earn a little extra on nights where the demand for riders is high and the need is great.

The riders uses their smartphone to activate the app. The app gives a description of the "partner" his vehicle and the average rating. The "partner" is called upon if the "rider" selects the option to arrange a pickup. The "partner" is then pinged by the app to accept the pickup. The "partner" has an approximate time to pickup the "rider". Once the "partner" arrives at the pickup, the "rider" enters the vehicle and the "partner" activates the fare.

Once the "partner" makes it to the final destination, the "partner" ends the trip. Once the trip is over, the "rider" will have an option to rate the "partner" if they enjoyed the experience or not. The "partner" can also rate the "rider" if the experience didn't live up to expectations as well.

I have covered over 400 trips in the nine weeks of being a partner with Uber. Out of them 400 trips, I can say that some of the experiences aren't as pleasant.

Uber and rival Lyft are beating the taxi companies in rates. Since Uber and Lyft came to Dayton, Ohio, it's quickly pickup steam around the University of Dayton, Sinclair Community College and Wright State University.

When I pickup the "riders", I offer them water, fruit snacks and crackers. I want to make them feel comfortable when they ride with me. I often ask them if they have a preferred route to their final destination.

I've picked up "riders" from the airport, the mall, the bars and restaurants. I've taken them home, to their jobs and their friends homes. I've also pickup riders who weren't the actual pickup.

I've picked up usually people who are intoxicated. I've picked up over 6 or more passengers in a five seated vehicle. I've taken people to other destinations that aren't the final stop. And I've picked up people from their destinations without them activating their app.

I've picked up people who talked inappropriately. Sometimes, I've said a few inappropriate things as well. I will admit this, I did have a "crush" on one of the "riders". All in the way of relating to the "riders".

But now, I am seeing the negatives of being an Uber driver. Only a few weeks ago, I picked up a rider who masturbated inside my vehicle. I picked up a bachelor's party and the groom ripped off my door handle. I picked up a group of women and one vomited inside the vehicle.

Uber is the ridesharing service.

Not to mention the wear and tear of your vehicle. You're driving your vehicle and it's putting a whole lot of miles on your car. The amount of fuel being placed in your car also adds up.

Even when you are on a pickup, you might find a law enforcement bothering you as you are doing your job.

Since Uber doesn't consider you an employee, you're responsible for the taxes. You're a small business and you have to file a 1099 on your IRS tax form. They petition for Uber to have all "partners" as employees instead of contractors.

Each of these experiences might end my time driving for Uber and eventually Lyft. But I am certain that my opportunities to improve will overcome the negative.

Uber's ratings are determined by how the experience was. By average a "partner" has to at least have a rating between 4.8 and 4.9. Only a few can pass the threshold of 4.95 to a perfect 5.

I am concerned that no matter how good I've done, the "riders" will rate me poor. It's almost discouraging. If you fall behind 4.6 in your ratings, you could have your account deactivated.

Many "partners" are starting to find some discouragement in the way Uber handles things.

I've read some of the articles from current and former Uber drivers and I am kind of on the fence of how I might continue driving. I know that nobody is perfect. But I am determined to do all that I can to be the best.

If I can't be the best, then there's no purpose in being an Uber driver.

Anyway, I want to get a rant off in my random musings.

Conservative Outrage Over Obama Giving Unemployed Workers Overtime Pay!

Job approval is on the rise.

Looks like President Barack Obama bitch slapped the unproductive Congress again.

And it seems like the Republicans and conservatives are having another temper tantrum over this.

The president signed an executive order today signaling that effective December 1, 2016, any worker who is making less than $47,000 a year in wage earnings will be eligible for overtime pay. only 7% of the working force gets overtime pay. Most Americans agree with this idea. Salaried workers will be eligible for overtime.

Cue the conservative outrage.

The unproductive Congress didn't pass any legislation that would help the middle class. The minimum wage hasn't been risen in ten years. If the Congress would have passed legislation that would adjust the cost of living to match the wages earned, things would be better for the working class.

The Republicans sit on their high horses complaining about the economy being in the tank. They complain that the working class isn't working under Obama. And in the same breathe, they don't want to pass any laws to make life better for the middle class.

The Department of Labor is finalizing a rule to update overtime protections so they can help millions more Americans.  The final rule, which takes effect on December 1, 2016, doubles the salary threshold—from $23,660 to $47,476 per year—under which most salaried workers are guaranteed overtime (hourly workers are generally guaranteed overtime pay regardless of their earnings level).  Additionally, this new level will be automatically updated every three years to ensure that workers continue to earn the pay they deserve.

Increasing overtime protections is another step in the President’s effort to grow and strengthen the middle class by raising Americans’ wages.  This extra income will not only mean a better life for American families impacted by overtime protections, but will boost our economy across the board as these families spend their hard-earned wages.

This new rule takes into account input from 270,000 public comments and extensive outreach meetings with employers, business associations, small businesses, workers, worker advocates, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and state and local government representatives.  It will:

Raise the salary threshold from $23,660 to $47,476 a year, or from $455 to $913 a week.  This doubles the current salary threshold while being responsive to public comments regarding regional variations in income by setting the salary threshold at the 40th percentile of full-time salaried workers in the lowest income Census region (currently the South).  Tying the salary threshold to the lowest-wage region of the country has strong historical precedent in previous rulemakings.

Raise Americans’ wages by an estimated $12 billion over the next 10 years, with an average increase of $1.2 billion annually.  At the same time, employers retain considerable flexibility in how they comply with the new rule, such as increasing salaries to at least the new threshold to keep positions that are primarily executive, administrative, or professional exempt from overtime pay; paying overtime for hours worked in excess of 40 in a week; or reducing overtime hours.

Extend overtime protections to 4.2 million additional workers who are not currently eligible for overtime under federal law.  Others who may already be eligible for overtime will also benefit as the higher salary threshold will serve as a useful bright line test for workers—and their employers—to understand whether they are eligible for overtime.  The number of workers in each state who will benefit from the rule can be found HERE.

Update the salary threshold every three years.  The updates will ensure the threshold is maintained at the 40th percentile of full-time salaried workers in the lowest income region of the country.  Based on projections of wage growth, the threshold is expected to rise to more than $51,000 with the first update on January 1, 2020.

Raise the “highly compensated employee” threshold – from $100,000 to $134,004 – above which only a minimal showing is needed to demonstrate an employee is not eligible for overtime.  This upper threshold was designed to ease the burden on employers in identifying overtime eligible employees since it is more likely that workers earning above this high salary level perform the types of job duties that would exempt them from overtime requirements.

Respond to employers’ concerns by making no changes to the “duties test” and allowing bonuses and incentive payments to count toward up to 10 percent of the new salary level.  Workers earning more than the salary threshold are still subject to the duties test to determine eligibility for overtime.  In their comments to the proposed rule, employers argued that changing the duties test would be difficult and costly to implement, and the final rule leaves the existing duties test in place.  Additionally, for the first time, employers will be able to count bonuses and commissions toward as much as 10 percent of the salary threshold.

It seems like Republicans rather see you work your ass off for little or no overtime pay. It seems like Donald Trump will probably speak out against it. It's likely Bernie Sanders will not mention this huge news to his trolls. It seems like Hillary Clinton will credit her husband for allowing Obama to come up with this idea.

Again, the Congress is unproductive. The three candidates running for president are too polarizing.

The opinions of most lawmakers is extremely low.

Conservatives are getting outraged over the most trivial things.

Who Wants To Be The President Of A Do-Nothing Congress?

No one wants them. 

The most nastiest election year ever. This is the most unproductive Congress ever!

Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are very bad. If one of them becomes the 45th President of the United States, they will have the most unproductive Congress ever.

The presidential candidates are extremely negative. The American public isn't inspired to vote for these guys. Bernie Sanders finally got his share of negative exposure. His supporters acted a fool at the Nevada Democratic convention, and he didn't condemn the ignorance. The public is starting to turn on Sanders.

Trump is the frontrunner in negativity. Clinton follows closely behind and Sanders is gaining on her.

The Republican controlled Congress is extremely bad. They have stall the nomination of Merrick Garland, they wasted over $7 million investigating Benghazi and now calling Facebook to face harsh criticism

And yet, no media coverage of President Barack Obama's rising job approval ratings. At present time, the president is enjoying 56% job approval in his final year.

Besides who wants to be the president of a do nothing Congress?

Megyn Kelly Faces Trump Without The Knives Out!

Fox News's ambulance chase gets Tuesday night to premiere Megyn Kelly Presents....

Her special on tonight had a featured guest that once called her a "bimbo".

Donald Trump become one of Kelly's guest and they actually had a decent sit down.

Megyn Kelly Presents is featured on Fox. It's the first primetime debut on the network. It provided filler for the now canceled sitcoms Grandfathered and The Grinder.

This was a secret meeting at the time. Kelly was reportedly heading to Trump tower for an apparent truce with Trump.

Trump was fired up with Kelly. When Kelly asked the question about his offensive comments towards women at the first debate in Cleveland, she got hit up with death threats and attacks on her professionalism.

Trump devoted his social media to trashing her, the Fox News network and his old foe Rosie O'Donnell.

Trump is playing out of Roger Stone's dirty playbook. Trump is using the "guilt-by-association" nonsense to defeat Hillary Clinton.

Clinton Pulls A Win In The Bluegrass!

A small victory is a still a victory!

The Kentucky Democratic primary goes to the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She ended up beating Bernie Sanders in a nailbiter.

If Clinton would have face another defeat, it would have made the race more complicated.

Sanders didn't pour a lot of money into this race. He figured that her comments about coal country would have doomed her chances at winning the state.

Given the state elected a right wing bigot governor named Matt Bevin and the Kim Davis fiasco, Democrats would have not supported either Clinton or Sanders.

The Sanders campaign was hoping for an upset. Hopefully the Oregon primary could be a victory for Sanders.

Clinton has also invested time and money in the bluegrass state in an attempt to blunt Sanders' recent surge of primary victories and strengthen her position in the general election if she's nominated. Her 300-strong lead in pledged delegates, along with an advantage among party officials and superdelegates, almost assure her the nomination.

Clinton isn't expected to win in Oregon's Tuesday primary, which will be decided by an electorate that's mostly white, liberal, and seemingly pro-Sanders. The Oregonian reports on voters coming up to the polls saying they prefer Sanders because he focuses on income inequality or because, says one, Clinton is "criminal." Oregon is actually holding Tuesday primaries for both parties, with 61 Democratic delegates and 28 Republican delegates up for grabs, but hasn't posted any returns yet. Like all Democratic primaries, Oregon and Kentucky will divvy up delegates proportionally, so Sanders isn't likely to make much of a dent in Clinton's delegate-lead, Five Thirty-Eight notes. Follow the latest results at the New York Times.

The Trolls Are "Bern'n" Bridges With The Dems!

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is still in the race and Democrats are getting frustrated with his supporters.

Democrats are starting to get annoyed with the supporters of Bernie Sanders. They seriously believe that Sanders is starting to act like a "sore loser" and the party is getting behind Hillary Clinton.

The supporters believe that the system is rigged and they threatened to vote against Clinton if she becomes the nominee. The line has been crossed! There's a huge rift within the Democratic Party.

We're seeing a same folks who once trolled failed Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul now troll the Democratic Party presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The so-called Bernie Bros. are the newest version of trolls underneath the bandwidth bridge.

While it looks like Sanders may pull off a win in Oregon and Kentucky, party leaders are starting to get concerned that presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton will to the convention weaken by the onslaught of the Bernie Bros.

Sanders who is an independent U.S. Senator from Vermont. He caucuses with the Democrats on crucial policies that help the middle class. He made it top priority to focus on helping the middle class and stopping the greed of is popular among the young and well educated.

Well almost well educated.

On Saturday, the supporters of Sanders went batshit crazy over the delegates being handed to Clinton.

Some of the Sanders delegates weren't registered on time and the rules were to have it done before closing date. Of course, the memo was ignored and the supporters were none to happy about it.

Roberta Lange, the Democratic chairwoman for the Nevada Democratic Party was getting hit with death threats and sexist voicemails.

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), the Minority Leader in the Senate said that Sanders's needs to control his crew. Reid also condemned Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) for being the "Ted Cruz of the left". Reid said that he rather see Grayson lose badly and leave the House for good. Reid said that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Grayson are unaccomplished lawmakers who run their mouths than pass legislation.

Bernie supporters are trolling the Democrats.

Grayson who is facing ethics investigation is a longshot for the nomination for the open seat being vacated by failed presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-FL) is the most suitable choice for the Democrats and Grayson promised to stop the coronation.

There are real concerns about the party platform and the superdelegates. Some believe that the superdelegates gives Clinton a leg up. It's also not helpful that some of the Sanders supporters are getting their advice from AM agitators (i.e. liberal and conservative shitkickers).

Bill Press, Thom Hartmann, that old fart Rush Limbaugh and even that annoying conservative agitator Softball Hannity are causing the rift between the Democrats.

I got so annoyed listening to the left agitators Press and Hartmann spin the hypothetical bullshit about how Sanders could beat Trump in a matchup. Sanders is not recognized by most Americans. Sanders has proposals that wouldn't even make it through a stubborn and lackluster Congress.

To make this clear for everyone here, Clinton and Sanders aren't strong candidates. They could  be defeated by Trump. Trump has dirty politicos like Roger Stone who could distract the public with baseless allegations and stupid hearsay. The message about improving the lives of Americans will be wasted on the fear of socialism and the 2012 Benghazi tragedy.

Donald Trump isn't a strong candidate either. He's too goddamn polarizing. He's negative and he is an embarrassment to the country. His rhetoric could hurt relations with allies.

The ignorance of voters and a tad bit of racial angst is driving the controversial billionaire into the spotlight. Barack Obama's presence in the White House is a driving factor to Republicans pushing forth this hostility and Trump's candidacy. Trump is being covered in  4:1 ratio. Sanders gets 2:1 ratio of coverage and Clinton gets 2.4:1 ratio of media coverage.

I've even got tired of liberal agitator Stephanie Miller defending Clinton and constantly name dropping Donald Trump in every sentence. She is starting to be as annoying as Softball Hannity with the word vomit of names.

Not one of the liberal agitators focused on the lackluster Congress, the president's push to getting Merrick Garland appointed to the Supreme Court and the economy. All I heard from these agitators on AM is "TRUMP", "CLINTON" and "MEDIA".

Sanders and his campaign team said that the behavior is inappropriate but the frustration is legitimate.

They defend some of the tactics and said that if things don't change expect more. They warned that they'll run this Philadelphia. Sanders needs 85% of the delegates to clinch the nomination.

Don't worry folks! It's not over for the #NeverTrump people. Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) isn't supporting Trump. The Republicans are willing to accept Trump as the nominee (as long as he's capable of beating Clinton).

Softball Hannity Picks A Fight With GOP Senator!

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Sen. Deb Fischer (R-NE). Sasse is the most vocal opponent of Donald Trump. He said that he will not support the Republican nominee and it riled up the country's most annoying conservative agitator.

The most annoying conservative agitator on radio and cable news once again has another orgy over Donald Trump. Softball Hannity once again give the notion that America's biggest asshole is capable of being the President of the United States.

He's clearly obsessed once again with this "guilt-by-association" nonsense. He's been on this fixation that former president Bill Clinton went on private trips with Jeffrey Epstein, a billionaire who was convicted of unlawful sexual conduct. The annoying agitator said that he's got a whole list of issues that could damage Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton.

He's gleefully playing repeats of Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) getting booed by Bernie Sanders supporters at the Nevada Democratic Convention. Boxer who endorsed Hillary Clinton for president said that she loves Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) but feels that a viable path to victory belongs to Clinton and the trolls started booing.

Sanders is still a formidable foe. He's hoping to upset Clinton in Kentucky. After all, the coal comments did hurt her in the West Virginia primary. Clinton is hoping to seal the deal and move on to facing the controversial media mogul.

Now you know I am no fan of Ted Cruz, but I do have a bit of sympathy for the country's most hated politician. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was the Republican's last hope of stopping Trump.

Trump best buddy, Roger Stone laid out the grenades and Cruz stepped on them.

Cruz refuses to support Trump after the bombshell story of Cruz having numerous affairs became public. His last attempt at winning an ounce of attention was to go on Softball Hannity's show with his running mate Carly Fiorina.

Cruz's defeat clears the path for Trump to become the nominee. Cruz was the candidate that Democrats wanted to face. With Trump in this race, it's pretty unpredictable.

Most pollsters say Clinton will beat Trump. The chances for her to defeat him are not as high as they once predicted. Clinton has a 54% chance of beating Trump in a general election.

Republicans aren't so ready to support Trump. There are a handful of Republicans devoted to defeating Trump before he creates more havoc.

Sean Hannity admits that he gives softball interviews to Republicans. So he should be referred by the public as Softball Hannity. 

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) is a vocal opponent of Trump. He said he will not support either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump in the general election.

He said that given the possibility of Trump being the Republican nominee, Sasse said that the party is on the verge of being extinct.

That caught the attention of Softball Hannity. In October, the agitator went on to bash Sasse as being a "spoiled brat" who just upset the public isn't looking for the status quo. He said that Sasse might as well be a Democrat. He said that any Republican threatening to support a third party candidate or Clinton isn't a Republican.

Sasse confronted Softball Hannity at CPAC and told him that he's full of shit. Sasse was close to knuckle rolling that fool in the face.

Sasse says he's gotten death threats to his office because of this agitator's rhetoric.



Mitt Romney and many other Republicans are talking about a third party candidate and may recruit Ben Sasse as their nominee. Romney's former running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) caused a shitstorm when he said he's not ready to endorse Trump. The House Speaker met with Trump over the weekend and they didn't work out their differences.

The annoying agitator is saying that he would rather see Democrats fight and riot in Philadelphia.

He confident that Republicans won't fight and riot in Cleveland.

Anyway, do you believe that Softball Hannity's rhetoric will cost the Republicans the election?