The record of the MBAs who continue to run Boeing into the nearest wall continues. Further proof that the financialization of everything leads to the destruction of everything, and that people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing - i.e., MBA grads - should never be allowed to make decisions more important than whether or not to order Chinese takeout for lunch.
We're now down to three aerospace companies after all the M&A over the past 30+ years - and like how good bookstores like Borders went under, leaving the terrible B&N as the sole surviving brick & mortar bookstore, or how the awful CVS swallowed up all the good drugstores - Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop are all run by MBAs who never learned that the pointed end goes in front. People like William Allen (legendary CEO of Boeing in the great days), Donald Douglas (founder of Douglas, now part of Lockeed), Dutch Kindelberger (North American, now part of Boeing) Kelly Johnson (Lockheed) - guys who prided themselves on "getting it right" because they were "airplane guys" would take these MBAscum and throw them out of the C-suite office windows if they came back.
Tell me, what is/was so "terrible" about Barnes & Noble? And CVS is on the verge of bankruptcy according to some reports - so much for them "swallowing" anything.
Personally, I don't care what these corporate idiots do. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk will eventually own everything, which has been their goal for years.
Among other things, and this is primarily of concern to authors like myself whose books get sold there, B&N finances much of their operation with "return credit" - they order too many books then return them for credit with the publisher for new books. The problem here is that the money the publisher credits them with is deducted from the author of the returned book's royalties. thus B&N is ripping off authors to maintain their failing brick and mortar stores. On another level, my publisher did a deal with them to promote one of my books a few years back. When I went to the local store and identified myself and asked if they'd like to do a promotional book signing, they said "Sure, give us the names of your friends and we'll invite them." Since my friends already buy my books, that does me no good in reaching people who are not my friends who might be interested in buying one of my books.
And then there's the fact they delay payments on books they do sell, which also adversely affects author income.
All in all, you may dislike Amazon, but as an author, I love them: they sell every book they order, there are never any returns, and they always pay on time.
With respect, David, but I consider Junior to be "flavor of the day", as the "endorsement" story had rather weak legs, with only the Beltway media
doing its usual nonsensical wheel-spinning on "what it all means"...essentially nothing, other than of course boosting the weirdness quotient of the tRump ticket.
"But in another sign of the changed dynamics of the race, the Harris campaign is now the one haggling over its terms, arguing that the candidates’ microphones should stay on throughout the debate."
This is absolutely the worst advice that campaign staff have given a candidate since a Nixon flunky said, "Hey, Dick, you really need some more pancake make-up to cover that five o'clock shadow." And I should know, because I was around for Kennedy/Nixon. I understand that Kamala's advisers want Trump to either reopen his bloated bag of buffoonery to gain sympathy for Kamala or actually tone down his interruptions, which would give her more room to slaughter him on substance. The problem is this: Trump will definitely return to his bullying even though HIS staffers are totally against it, first because it's the only way he knows to communicate and second because it's his way of showing them that he's in charge. His thinking will go something like this: "I bullied Hillary, and that worked out just fine; I think I'll do it again!" But the result won't necessarily be what Kamala's staff thinks. In Trump's mind, his only hope to reinvigorate his campaign is not to appeal to the "undecided" 5%, but to reinvigorate his base, which has been slowly drifting away from boredom or intolerance. The way to win some of them back will be to once again bully a woman mercilessly, especially a woman of color. I predict that another debate full of cross-talk will see a shift (perhaps not a huge one) to Trump in the polls. Then the NYT can run a whole bunch of op-eds about Trump regaining the edge.
Thought I was finished, huh? No way! In a recent conversation my wife pointed out another reason for Kamala to Keep Trump's mike off during her answer time. By hoping that Trump will fall back on his usual bullying, her staff thinks that she will benefit from the audience's PITY. Kamala doesn't need pity; she needs to BE HEARD. She must remind her audience of all the wonderful policies she will support. With Trump interrupting and overriding everything she says, she won't be able to get her message across in the limited time periods in a debate. Don't listen to your staff, Kamala!
I don't understand all the implications of the Kansas verdict. Can companies and private individuals start selling fully automatic weapons there now? Calling a machine gun 'bearable' is stretching things. You can fire them that way, but they are not designed to be fired without ground support. Perhaps we shall see a real life version of the 1984 James Garner film, 'Tank.'
"If it's Boeing, I ain't going."
The record of the MBAs who continue to run Boeing into the nearest wall continues. Further proof that the financialization of everything leads to the destruction of everything, and that people who know the price of everything and the value of nothing - i.e., MBA grads - should never be allowed to make decisions more important than whether or not to order Chinese takeout for lunch.
And yet the Pentagon continue to reward this failing outfit with defense contracts...how not to "Just say NO".
We're now down to three aerospace companies after all the M&A over the past 30+ years - and like how good bookstores like Borders went under, leaving the terrible B&N as the sole surviving brick & mortar bookstore, or how the awful CVS swallowed up all the good drugstores - Boeing, Lockheed and Northrop are all run by MBAs who never learned that the pointed end goes in front. People like William Allen (legendary CEO of Boeing in the great days), Donald Douglas (founder of Douglas, now part of Lockeed), Dutch Kindelberger (North American, now part of Boeing) Kelly Johnson (Lockheed) - guys who prided themselves on "getting it right" because they were "airplane guys" would take these MBAscum and throw them out of the C-suite office windows if they came back.
Tell me, what is/was so "terrible" about Barnes & Noble? And CVS is on the verge of bankruptcy according to some reports - so much for them "swallowing" anything.
Personally, I don't care what these corporate idiots do. Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk will eventually own everything, which has been their goal for years.
Among other things, and this is primarily of concern to authors like myself whose books get sold there, B&N finances much of their operation with "return credit" - they order too many books then return them for credit with the publisher for new books. The problem here is that the money the publisher credits them with is deducted from the author of the returned book's royalties. thus B&N is ripping off authors to maintain their failing brick and mortar stores. On another level, my publisher did a deal with them to promote one of my books a few years back. When I went to the local store and identified myself and asked if they'd like to do a promotional book signing, they said "Sure, give us the names of your friends and we'll invite them." Since my friends already buy my books, that does me no good in reaching people who are not my friends who might be interested in buying one of my books.
And then there's the fact they delay payments on books they do sell, which also adversely affects author income.
All in all, you may dislike Amazon, but as an author, I love them: they sell every book they order, there are never any returns, and they always pay on time.
For some reason "a three hour tour" started playing in my head.
Imagining how I might have packed differently for an 8 month stay than a 8 day stay in space 😂. All jokes aside…prayers for their safe return
I'd wanna make sure I brought along another four or five tubes of toothpaste!
This is a bracing and vivifying way to start the day here. Thank you!
With respect, David, but I consider Junior to be "flavor of the day", as the "endorsement" story had rather weak legs, with only the Beltway media
doing its usual nonsensical wheel-spinning on "what it all means"...essentially nothing, other than of course boosting the weirdness quotient of the tRump ticket.
Good Monday morning David.
Thanks for a great read.
Janky is a term that should also be applied to the MAGA campaign.
Maybe Trump is running out of venues that will still do business with him:
https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/trumps-campaign-still-owes-el-paso-over-500k-for-2019-rally-other-cities-also-unpaid
Trump is the ultra-deadbeat who thinks RFK Jr. is his new running mate.
tRump also owes a small city in NW WA tens of thousands of dollars from his 2016 (!!!) campaign already...and Lyndon, WA is heavily pro-tRump.
And yet his fans think he's just a great guy who's always being victimized.
I’d think the telegram dude getting busted in France would deserve a headline here.
"But in another sign of the changed dynamics of the race, the Harris campaign is now the one haggling over its terms, arguing that the candidates’ microphones should stay on throughout the debate."
This is absolutely the worst advice that campaign staff have given a candidate since a Nixon flunky said, "Hey, Dick, you really need some more pancake make-up to cover that five o'clock shadow." And I should know, because I was around for Kennedy/Nixon. I understand that Kamala's advisers want Trump to either reopen his bloated bag of buffoonery to gain sympathy for Kamala or actually tone down his interruptions, which would give her more room to slaughter him on substance. The problem is this: Trump will definitely return to his bullying even though HIS staffers are totally against it, first because it's the only way he knows to communicate and second because it's his way of showing them that he's in charge. His thinking will go something like this: "I bullied Hillary, and that worked out just fine; I think I'll do it again!" But the result won't necessarily be what Kamala's staff thinks. In Trump's mind, his only hope to reinvigorate his campaign is not to appeal to the "undecided" 5%, but to reinvigorate his base, which has been slowly drifting away from boredom or intolerance. The way to win some of them back will be to once again bully a woman mercilessly, especially a woman of color. I predict that another debate full of cross-talk will see a shift (perhaps not a huge one) to Trump in the polls. Then the NYT can run a whole bunch of op-eds about Trump regaining the edge.
Thought I was finished, huh? No way! In a recent conversation my wife pointed out another reason for Kamala to Keep Trump's mike off during her answer time. By hoping that Trump will fall back on his usual bullying, her staff thinks that she will benefit from the audience's PITY. Kamala doesn't need pity; she needs to BE HEARD. She must remind her audience of all the wonderful policies she will support. With Trump interrupting and overriding everything she says, she won't be able to get her message across in the limited time periods in a debate. Don't listen to your staff, Kamala!
I don't understand all the implications of the Kansas verdict. Can companies and private individuals start selling fully automatic weapons there now? Calling a machine gun 'bearable' is stretching things. You can fire them that way, but they are not designed to be fired without ground support. Perhaps we shall see a real life version of the 1984 James Garner film, 'Tank.'