brainiac conspiracy

Sunday Night Music Blogging

Because the weather here today was like a summer down South. It can give you a case of the blues!

---Baron V

Today's Worst Persons

The corporate persons who brainstormed this.

This should remind us, however, that there is no reason on earth why so-called fast food has to be so heinous. If you serve sensible portions, use fresh ingredients, or limit your menu to a few kick-ass items, you can produce low-buck cuisine with gourmet flavor, or nutritional value, or even a bit of both. I've had plenty of street food/truck food that was both delicious and wholesome! These practices, however, can eat into the bottom line---quality food costs real money---and that's likely the reason why this industry has been so slow to respond to changes in consumer behavior. Or, it could simply be that they see no urgent need to change their business model, given their rapidly expanding customer base. Perhaps some policymakers would consider doing something about that?

---Baron V

Small Favor to Ask

Gestures of generosity are always welcome from our leaders---it's not like they happen every day!---but would it be too much ask that they consider pledging $7 billion to create some fucking jobs here before they throw the money elsewhere? Not that the Africans aren't in genuine need of assistance, but hey, so are lots of other people. Just a thought.

---Baron V

Midday Music Blogging

Because it is, after all, the Lord's day. And because we really could use some rain around here!

---Baron V

Ahead of All The Glowing Tributes

All of which will be richly deserved, a let's take a little stroll down memory lane, shall we?

For nearly 28 years the U.S. government has harbored an increasingly embarrassing secret: A CIA tip to South African intelligence agents led to the arrest that put black nationalist leader Nelson Mandela in prison for most of his adult life [...]

The former official, now retired, said that within hours after Mandela's arrest, Paul Eckel, then a senior CIA operative, walked into his office and said approximately these words: "We have turned Mandela over to the South African security branch. We gave them every detail, what he would be wearing, the time of day, just where he would be. They have picked him up. It is one of our greatest coups."

Because the man espoused terrorist principles. Just listen for yourself!

And if we stroll back even further, we can see the historical origins of those terrorist principles.

Not sure while I'm prattling on about this, except to say that while we're paying homage to the great man's long walk to freedom, we shouldn't forget about the people who labored so diligently to ensure that he was forever deprived of it, and how much of their work was financed on the taxpayer's dime.

---Baron V

Ambition

It has taken your humble blogger a long time to reach this conclusion, but I'm of the mind that it is a quality most prevalent among people who really don't know what the hell they are doing. Because people who do know what they are doing find a profession they're good at and stay there, (a) because they know they're good at their jobs, and (b) that knowledge provides them with satisfaction with their lot in life. By contrast, people who don't know what they are doing are rarely ever content, which leads them to strive for positions for which they are wholly unqualified but which allow them to disguise the fact that they really don't know what the hell they are doing:

Much of the astronomically expensive specialist 'advice' was copied from existing books for other clients. How I know? Because in spite of the 300 revisions they had failed to replace all the names! Frequently they'd lift stuff straight from the client company's own publications. I often saw emails going round: 'stop feeding clients their own material'. Never made any difference.

"Page Two of all books advising clients on their deals contained a disclaimer that 'nothing in this document can be interpreted as advice'. So the client is paying millions for your brilliant advice which has to be prefaced by a disclaimer.

---Baron V

The Shareholders Don't Care

They want their money now, and that's the only investment outcome that matters to them. And as long as they're getting it on a quarterly basis, they don't care how much money the CEO makes or even how well the enterprise is being run. There are means at our policymakers' disposal to make short-term profit-taking less, well, profitable, and to steer shareholder behavior in other, more productive, directions. But relying on a bunch of greedy investors to solve a problem that's largely of their own making guarantees that the problem never gets solved.

---Baron V

The Animal Kingdom

One thing we've learned about it is that if a particular species of critter comes to dominate a given ecosystem, and it has no known predators to control its numbers, it will reproduce to a point where it literally eats its way out of its habitat, which will trigger a mass die-off due to starvation and disease, and this condition will persist until the critter's population can again be sustained by its habitat. Nature self-corrects, in other words, and we're about to see once again how this scientific principle works in actual practice---this time, with us.

---Baron V

Saturday Night Music Blogging

Because, like, what else is Saturday night for?

---Baron V

Random Thought

Not to minimize the corrosive influence of racism in this country, but it might be wise if we could turn this sorry incident into a truly teachable moment by providing some needed context to it. To do that, however, we'd have to move beyond our fixation on personal slurs and N-words and embark upon a thorough examination of the American restaurant/food-service industry, and how well it treats its employees. I am guessing we'd discover that the answer is, not very.

---Baron V

Today's Worst Persons

Chinese worst persons.

I honestly don't blame the people who shoot these critters half as much as I blame the rich entitled assholes who purchase the contraband in the belief that it will bestow them with power, prestige, perpetual wood, or whatever. As mentioned in the last post, when you incentivize evil, evil becomes a viable business model, and some job creator will rush in to deliver the goods.

---Baron V

Got an Easy Answer For That

Yes.

But it could only have failed because the policymakers and regulators of the developed world failed to shield their own citizens from its predatory worst practices. So in that sense, maybe half-failed, because there is no reason why capitalism has to be evil. But when you incentivize bad behavior in the market, the market will behave, well, badly. This ain't rocket surgery, people.

---Baron V

Light Blogging Afternoon

Been out doing stuff. Doing more stuff later. So, stuff.

---Baron V

Midday Music Blogging

Because it's gettin' hot out there! We can, however, still be funky and cool.

----Baron V

Credit Where Due

They exploit their workers, give them crappy benefits and steal their wages, but every now and then, in spite of themselves, America's job creators actually do something constructive. Of course, in this case, it's also a smart business decision, but regardless of their motive, they deserve a smidgen of credit when they do the right thing. Now how about a raise for the kids back home?

---Baron V

Snowden

He's a dangerous man and a traitor who has irreparably damaged our national security and put the lives of thousands of Americans around the world at risk. Unless we were only kidding.

---Baron V

The Darkies, They Have Too Much Freedom

And someone needs to do something about it:

The racial breakdown of those stopped is "not a disproportionate percentage of those who witnesses and victims describe as committing the murder. In that case, incidentally, I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little," he said Friday on "The John Gambling Show."

Racist? Perhaps. Authoritarian? Sure. But he really should be our President. Because a nation with the most freedoms ever needs leaders who don't believe in freedom for anyone but themselves.

---Baron V

Greatest. Nation. Ever

Because freedom:

In June, the Labor Department reported that the nation had more temp workers than ever before: 2.7 million. Overall, almost one-fifth of the total job growth since the recession ended in mid-2009 has been in the temp sector, federal data shows. But according to the American Staffing Association, the temp industry’s trade group, the pool is even larger: Every year, a tenth of all U.S. workers finds a job at a staffing agency.

Several temp agencies, such as Adecco and Manpower, are now among the largest employers in the United States. One list put Kelly Services as second only to Walmart [...]

“I think our industry has been good for North America, as far as keeping people working,” said Randall Hatcher, president of MAU Workforce Solutions, which supplies temps to BMW. “I get laid off by Employer A and go over here to Employer B, and maybe they have a job for me. People get a lot of different experiences. An employee can work at four to five different companies and then maybe decide this is what I want to do.”

On the plus side, it is only a matter of time before the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians et al start outsourcing their semi-skilled labor jobs to the U.S. because of cheaper labor costs. This will help alleviate our unemployment problem, but won't do much to address our growing poverty problem. Will our leaders do anything to correct this imbalance, or do we proceed directly to bonfires and barricades?

---Baron V

Priorities

Lawbreaking deserving of punishment:

Comedienne/actress Roseanne Barr, who ran for president in 2012, may not be laughing at this: the Federal Election Commission has fined her campaign $550 [...]

The FEC fine is for failing to file her financial reports on time.

Meanwhile, not lawbreaking.

Yes, it's apples to oranges, but our political leaders' ability to manufacture outrage over stuff that doesn't matter while ignoring stuff that really does is a marvel to behold. Too bad millions of people end up being rendered homeless because of it, though. But things don't have to be this way!

---Baron V

Friday Night Music Blogging

Because opinions differ over nearly everything. I read it in The Post!

---Baron V