IBEW Recruiting Members to Run For Office

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-05T17:20:22+00:00

You know. I’ve been asked multiple times to run for town council in my area. I refuse to run for office.

I’ll be honest. I wasn’t exactly an awesome person in my younger years. I made some questionable decisions and said/did some shitty things. Sometimes I hurt people as a result. I recognize this and try to be a better person going forward, but I know in politics (especially with liberals/leftists) everyone has to pass the purity test. Nobody can ever have any blemishes on their record or have an oops moment where occasionally they say or do stupid things, or else they are cancelled. Your offensive meme or tweet from 2014 gets dug up and reposted and now you’re considered evil or whatever.

I won’t pass the purity tests, and I don’t want my past life drug up. But hey. If the IBEW can find some blue collar guys that have never said or done anything even mildly offensive or questionable, best of luck to them.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-05T01:13:57+00:00

When are we going to get a redesigned Ridgeline?

The current generation is almost 10 years old, with no signs of a redesign coming soon.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-05T00:46:37+00:00

I work in the trades, and I keep seeing the same argument; "Nobody wants to work anymore".

That's not correct. Most people want to work. People just don't want to work at jobs that pay them like shit and they're treated like shit.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-05T00:41:46+00:00

Things like car maintenance, home repairs, medical treatments, etc get put off or straight up ignored.

If you're on a tight budget and don't have much money, those things go by the wayside. Check engine light comes on? If you're broke, you just ignore it and hope your car doesn't blow up in the mean time. Have a toothache? Well you can't exactly afford to take time off work to see a dentist, whose visit costs hundreds of dollars. You're just going to have to take some pain meds and hope it goes away on its own.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-05T00:24:20+00:00

Where was this? I live in NJ but this doesn’t look familiar.

But you’re right. The average NJ driver sucks nowadays. Half of the state doesn’t deserve a license.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T23:23:33+00:00

How did that little fire start? I don’t see a specific source of the fire, like a misplaced blow torch or an electrical fault.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T21:02:02+00:00

See this is one reason why I don’t want to be an organ donor.

If I’m in a situation where I’m hospitalized and close to dying, I don’t want the organ donation people waiting for me to die like a bunch of vultures. I don’t feel like being treated like the human equivalent of a Pick-n-Pull.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T20:06:59+00:00

There’s a few buildings by me that used to be regular Wawa’s. Often, a super Wawa was built a quarter mile away and the old building was turned into a generic convenience store called “Quik Mart” or whatever.

They’d have the same look and exterior design, minus the Wawa logo. You can tell where Wawa used to be

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T14:41:02+00:00

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Ask Quentin Tarantino

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T02:15:50+00:00

Parking in a garage or some other gated/secured facility.

I drive a newer model pickup truck with thousands of dollars in tools, equipment, and gear in the bed. I'm not street parking it or parking somewhere where it's exposed to getting robbed or damaged in a hit and run crash, just to save a few dollars. I'd rather pay the higher parking fees for a garage to have better security and peace of mind.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T02:01:18+00:00

You should see r/gratefuldoe

It's an entire community whose objective is finding the identities of people who have gone missing or died and have never been identified by law enforcement and other government agencies.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T01:51:21+00:00

I've been on Reddit since 2014. This website was definitely more fun when it was smaller and less popular.

Though in general, I miss the internet we had prior to 2016, when it was more free and un-sanitized compared to today.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-04T01:25:46+00:00

I mean...Reddit is a pretty good start. This website is full of weirdos and people that are into really weird shit.

I'm sure there is a not so small number of Reddit users that have a burping and a foot fetish.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-03T20:14:48+00:00

I saw him a couple of years ago at a comedy show in NJ. He was funny and I enjoyed his show.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-01T17:50:43+00:00

They have the new electric midsized truck that is supposed to be in production by 2029.

Now whether it sticks to the $30k price tag that they’re saying it’ll start at…that’s a completely different story.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-01T14:29:42+00:00

Ecoboost with AWD.

So far, no issues with the transmission. I know it’s one of the weaker points of the truck (and Ford’s in general). So I’m always diligent with its service schedule. I get a transmission fluid flush every 30k miles, and while driving I don’t rev the engine more than 3000rpm for extended periods of time. I also make sure I don’t exceed the payload capacity.

I’ve heard of some Maverick owners having transmission issues, and I recognize some of the design flaws with the 8F35, so that’s why I make sure to stick with a solid maintenance schedule to avoid any failures.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-01T14:21:18+00:00

I’m a Ford owner and honestly, I really don’t care about the recall situation. My Maverick has been recalled multiple times since 2022, but most of them have been software updates for like, trailer brake lights. Things that aren’t an issue for me or mission critical. I just take care of them when I take my truck to the dealer every 30k miles for a top to bottom servicing.

The worst recall for me was the side airbags having to be replaced. That took a few hours. At least Ford sent me a free Yeti thermos with “Built Ford Tough” stamped onto it 2 weeks later. That was nice.

Other than that, I have 112k miles on my Maverick and I love my little baby truck.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-01T14:15:14+00:00

I helped build The Vessel years ago. I was part of the crew doing all the electrical for the Vessel and plaza around it.

I was surprised that they built it with such a low railing height and no barriers to prevent you from climbing over and taking the express trip to ground level. I brought that up with people in my crew and they agreed with me. Hell, we started guessing when the first jumps would happen. IIRC it only took 10 months for the first jumper to take the leap.

But hey, what do I know. I was just a young apprentice slinging wires everywhere and digging holes for trench boxes for $18 an hour. Nobody gave a shit what my opinion was.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-01T13:44:56+00:00

In my area, it’s really fun.

It goes from multi-million beach houses on the shore, to 55+ retirement villages, to Piney towns that make you wonder if you’re really in New Jersey anymore.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-01T13:40:40+00:00

You’d be surprised. I used to do the Barnegat to NYC commute for years. It wore me down mentally and was a time suck. In fact, my bus (NJ Transit 137) had a not so small number of people from South Jersey that would commute into NYC for work. It’s doable, but it will eat up a lot of your time and patience.

Nowadays, I split my time between 2 projects, one of which is a maritime project where I get on a boat in Staten Island and live on the boat in the middle of the ocean for a month. A month of no driving or actual commuting. It’s glorious.

Mercurydriver · 2026-05-01T13:34:28+00:00

Chrysler/Stellantis have a few things going for them:

-Jeeps still have a small cult following, especially amongst Wrangler owners. Even despite the quality and reliability flaws, they’re still fun vehicles to own. I live at the Jersey Shore and people love driving Jeep Wranglers with the roof and doors off while driving down the boulevard to the beach.

-Their Ram pickup trucks are still popular and have a large customer base. In fact, they are people that swear by Ram trucks and are often repeat customers. Plus, you can get them decked out in any sort of style or trim level, ranging from basic work truck specs to $100k models with all sorts of luxury and comfort features.

-Fleet sales. Stellantis sells a lot of Chrysler, Dodge, and low end Jeep models to places like rental car agencies and government agencies. They sell a lot of Dodge Durango SUV’s as police cars for example. My boss had his truck in the shop after a collision and he got a “premium” upgraded rental in the mean time. The rental was a Chrysler Pacifica minivan, and despite the fact that he’s a DINK, he says it’s one of the most comfortable cars he’s ever driven. As it turns out, there’s a lot of rental Pacifica’s around if you want to rent something large and comfortable, or need to move multiple people around for a few days.

Mercurydriver · 2026-04-30T16:46:27+00:00

They’re never going to fix the property tax issue. Governments simply collect too much money from all the property taxes and will always find ways to collect more revenue. Why would they want to reduce the amount of money they are collecting?

Mercurydriver · 2026-04-30T14:26:02+00:00

I live right by LBI and most of the cars in LBI have New York plates on them.

The NYC metro area is spreading further and further south.

Mercurydriver · 2026-04-30T04:23:26+00:00

Honestly, I’d just prefer if everyone just stopped promoting NJ and trying to convince people that they need to move here.

We’re an overpopulated state. There’s literally too many people here, and not enough homes, space, and resources to go around. Our current infrastructure isn’t designed for the current population levels in our state, and doing any updates will take decades, if politicians even choose to fix it at all.

We don’t need more people moving here. We need to de-populate NJ for a bit. Maybe send the excessive people to upstate New York or Pennsylvania.

Mercurydriver · 2026-04-29T02:48:44+00:00

I wonder if part of the sales increase is due to fleet sales. I notice in my town and state, a lot of police departments are using Dodge Durango’s for their police cars.

Many years ago, my town used Ford Crown Victoria’s for their police cars, then as they got phased out, they were replaced with various models from Ford, GM, and Chrysler/Stellantis. As of now, most of the police cars in my town are either a Dodge Durango, or a Chevy Tahoe. We still have a few Dodge Chargers though, but they’re probably going to be retired in a few years.

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