If I were to write a post today, the subject would be how mediocre lawyers who don’t understand their client’s business lash together inapplicable boilerplate into shitty contracts, causing many revisions and wasting everyone’s time.
But that would be even more tedious than the experience itself. So, open thread.
JoyceH
If I were to write a post today, it would be about how dogs wearing cones and sleeping on the bed because they don’t fit in their crates make for a restless night’s sleep.
Botsplainer
Welcome to the wonderful world of “fix it” lawyering.
Sometimes, the fix is unpossiible, much to the consternation of all involved.
dmsilev
From the NewsMaxOTron: “Disney’s ‘Frozen’: A Gay Conspiracy?”
The Gays(tm) are evidently *everywhere*.
Bob
Open thread? Okay then, http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2014/03/benghazi.html
cleek
if you’re billing at $300/hr, why not make a little extra work for yourself?
the Conster
Still no info on the missing plane. The Chinese satellite image was nothing. WTF. It went into a wormhole.
Eric U.
@the Conster: I’ve seen the remnants of planes that hit the water, it does seem like there should be flotsam from an airliner, and there probably is, just not where they have been looking.
My experience with lawyers hasn’t been that great recently. Hopefully the new one I found is better.
beth
Does anyone here work for a credit card company? Can someone explain to me how a company that charges my card $12.03 and has pages upon pages of Google search results showing that it’s a scam going back a few years (using the same company name no less) is still able to access my credit card and put a charge through? When I called the bank about it the guy says “yeah, we know about that”. Well then why are they still allowed to do it? Is it because the bank makes a commission from the charges that people either don’t notice or don’t dispute? Now I have to go through the aggravation of cancelling the account, changing all my recurring charges and getting cash to see my through until they send me my new card. And this is the second time this has happened to me – can you tell how pissed off I am?
Poopyman
@the Conster: And what’s the deal with the engine data? Malaysian authorities say the data stopped at 1:07, but reports in the local (to RR) paper say otherwise.
different-church-lady
When you get right down to it, 90% of the people employed in this country are somewhere in the neighborhood of mediocre, and really doing nothing beyond taking up space in a generic fashion.
I know this is going to sound a bit Galtian, but being a freelancer I’ve interacted with a lot of companies where there’s basically one competent person in any given department who’s competence allows all the other useless space-taker-uppers to hold on to their jobs, because that person is the only thing allowing that department to have any productivity.
Most everywhere you look, it’s a bunch of sheep doing what they think they ought to do because someone told them that’s how it ought to be done.
piratedan
@beth: you see Beth, it’s business, its not personal, like if you were late with your card payment…….
different-church-lady
@beth: Let me guess: you’re with Bank of America?
Gin & Tonic
@different-church-lady: Way to extrapolate. Maybe, the companies that are staffed with competent people don’t need to outsource their requirements to you, because their staff can do the work they are hired to do.
IowaOldLady
Just watched Chris Hayes from last night and Amani was on, saying smart things.
Re mediocre people, I had a prof in undergrad who said if you just did what you were taught to do in school, did what you were supposed to, you were outstanding.
Belafon
@Gin & Tonic:
Irony: It’s not just what you do to your clothes.
different-church-lady
@Gin & Tonic:
Other than that, it’s a fair point.
brettvk
@beth: Are you talking about a card you have through a credit union? If not, have you considered transferring your financial business to a CU?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@the Conster: Looking for a 5000 square foot object that’s fallen somewhere in an area that, at a minimum, is 14000 square miles, almost all of that ocean or tropical rainforest.
I doubt they’ll find it in my lifetime.
beth
@brettvk: It wouldn’t matter. The Google results pages show hundreds of postings about this company on all different types of cards by all different banks. I just can’t see how this company keeps its merchant number and ability to post charges. There are some postings from people who’ve gotten them on the phone and managed to have the charges reversed although most people just go through their bank and dispute them. It’s been a while since I worked in a place where we charged people’s credit cards but I thought there was a limit to how many chargebacks you could have before they yanked your merchant number.
IowaOldLady
Now I’m listening to Rachel from last night. She’s talking about disappearing air planes and, sweet cartwheeling Jesus, I may never fly again.
feebog
Or shitty lawyers who don’t understand the difference between direct and hearsay evidence. Or shitty lawyers who don’t understand that you need to put on witnesses to prove your case, not argument in your closing brief. Or shitty lawyers who suddenly want a recess in the middle of cross examination because their client is shitting the bed with their testimony. Or shitty lawyers who ask the same question over and over, despite objections that the question has been asked and answered.
Mandalay
@different-church-lady:
Elitist drivel from someone who is arrogant and self-important, and takes time out to be condescending about the rest of the population, and how they are not as good as her.
Take your shit to michellemalkin.com where it will be appreciated.
Chris
A surgeon, an architect and a lawyer were having an argument about their professions.
The surgeon said that his job was the oldest in the world, since God used one of Adam’s ribs to create Eve.
The architect said that HIS job was actually the oldest, since before Adam and Eve, God built the world out of chaos.
The lawyer smiled and said, “And who do you think created the chaos?”
Eric U.
@beth: I would file a complaint with the attorney general in your state and try to do the same in their state. I would probably do it for both the scammers and the bank. If everyone did this, it would probably result in some action
elmo
@feebog:
Well, waidaminnit. Seems to me that the shitty lawyer’s response would be to keep napping at counsel table, rather than doing everything short of staging a fainting fit in the well in order to get the client off the stand and slap sense into them. I mean, what the hell else is he supposed to do when the client is shitting the bed on the stand? You’re damn right I’m going to try to get a recess rather than watch my case go up in flames…
elmo
@IowaOldLady:
All of this is happening right before I start a jet-setting month of business travel that is going to take me from:
DC to Los Angeles
Los Angeles to Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City to DC
DC to Boston and back
DC to Vegas and back
DC to Denver and back
And possibly all the way to Anchorage.
I have blocked out all discussion of plane disasters from my consciousness.
David in NY
@elmo: Rule in our courts (federal district, SDNY, EDNY) and maybe everywhere, is, you don’t get to talk to your witness in the middle of the other side’s cross. Period. Fainting fit or no.
Amir Khalid
@the Conster:
As I was saying the other night, we should ask the FBI to send us Spooky Mulder. (And Missus Spooky, too.)
Meanwhile, Boeing is saying they kept receiving engine telemetry data from MH370 for four hours after loss of radar contact, i.e. until about 06:00 on Saturday. In that time MH370 could have flown anywhere within 2,200 nautical miles of its last known location, per The Wall Street Journal. Transport minister Hishammudin Hussein, PM Najib’s idiot cousin, denies this. (My own take: who the fuck knows?)
MAS is retiring the flight codes MH370 and MH371, as a mark of respect for the dead.
The CBC has a good summary of the shortcomings in MAS’ and the Malaysian government’s management of this crisis.
Big R
Or shitty lawyers who don’t understand the implications of their actions and continue to insist litigating a case where they’ve already admitted liability.
lamh36
Morning peeps. On my morning break at new job. It’s been almost 3 weeks since I started and I’m thinking this will be a good fit , especially once I completely move to city and I don’t have to go back to BR.
Bout the only thing is this being a teaching hospital you see a lot of Medical residents running around and in the cafeteria. It’s a bit bittersweet for me because I like the job but seeing the young docs always make me a little melancholy thinking what might have been had I made different choices when I was younger
catclub
@the Conster: I am seeing WSJ reports that the engines continued sending data for 4-5 hours after last radar contact. That seems like a very big deal.
ETA: Amir Khalid notes the same point.
Cervantes
@different-church-lady:
90%? Yikes!
Sounding “Galtian” is the least of your problems: maybe what you need is an entirely different country?
elmo
@David in NY: Hm. I don’t recall such a rule in California or in the various CA districts when I was practicing, at least not if the witness is your client (which is the scenario I was assuming). But I have to admit, it never actually came up, so I could be misremembering.
A rule that I can’t talk to my own client, though, would strike me as overreaching in any event.
EDIT TO ADD: The more I think about it, the more I think it really is horribly overreaching. What if the cross extends beyond a single day? I tried a case years ago, where my star witness (who wasn’t my client) was cross-examined for ten straight days of courtroom testimony. If he’d been my client, I couldn’t have talked to him about case strategy, other witnesses, chances of success, possibilities of settlement?
That rule doesn’t make sense to me. But YMMV.
IowaOldLady
@lamh36: Great to hear the job is working out so far.
Suffern ACE
@Cervantes: Yes, she does (he says while taking the time out of the day to post a meaningless comment on a blog while sitting at his desk at work thus kind of illustrating the original point.)
Lay off the mediocre – by not doing anything useful they aren’t doing anything harmful either.
raven
@elmo: When your number is up, it’s up. That is all.
Schlemizel
@different-church-lady:
I have done a lot of consulting work, most of it has been at very large companies but a few medium and small ones. I would say your assessment is not far off but a bit harsh. Depending on the particular group I would say there is 10-20% of the people who actually make things better 60-80% that show up most days and sort of slog through what you tell them to do in whatever way makes it the easiest for them and 10-20% that are less than useless. Those numbers held true in the old days when employment was good and still hold true in these days of “lean and really really mean”. They hold true for corporations and for government also.
The only time I have seen better is at a few small high tech places that attracted people excited to be there & believing they could make a difference.
@Gin & Tonic:
That is exactly why I started looking to get hired by companies I had never heard of hiring consultants/contractors. No luck on getting hired at one yet but a guy can dream. I hope that the key is good places to work don’t need to bring people in but I am prepared to be disappointed.
Amir Khalid
@elmo:
If it’s any comfort, only very rarely do aeroplanes disappear as completely as MH370 seems to have done.
Eric U.
@IowaOldLady: I used to do engineering work on aircraft. I went through a stage where you didn’t want to sit next to me on an airplane, because I know some hair-raising aviation stories. Got over that though. The bad stuff simply doesn’t happen very often, in fact your chances of an airplane you are on vanishing are vanishingly small.
My experience with companies is that they do have a lot of mediocre people, but those people generally get the job done when they have to. If they hire me to do freelancing, it’s because I’m a lot better than the people they have at that particular task. I have no way of judging their competence otherwise. Sometimes the things I see make me wonder, but as long as the bills get paid I don’t really care how they run their business. Sometimes I have had to make noise until the guy that knows how things work gets called
raven
@Amir Khalid: I hate doing this but Lang’s site has a very good discussion:
maya
@elmo: Those are all piece-o-cake flights, West -East, East-West. Long, but easy. You’d really shit your pants if you had some West Coast commute flights, like SF, or LA, to Seattle in your itinerary. Lots of jet stream turbulence crossing your path. Usually referred to as White-Knucklers. Of course any airport landing or takeoff has its risks.
elmo
@Amir Khalid: Oh, I know. Safest form of transportation, etc etc. But like many people, I have a much greater horror of falling out of the sky than I do of being T-boned at an intersection or wiped out on the interstate.
I drive 55 miles each way to and from work – 110 miles every day – and a big part of the commute is on some of the most congested roads anywhere. MD-5 in Maryland, connecting with the Beltway. I know where the true risk is. But emotionally I don’t evaluate the risk rationally, because I am totally unafraid of driving to and from work every day and I hate, hate, HATE taking off in an airplane.
I’m a barely rational monkey, after all.
raven
And then there is Ask the Pilot.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Is Hishammudin a son of Hussein Onn? I remember the latter’s time as Prime Minister. In the context of Malaysian politics, he seemed to be a great leader (Mahathir and those who have come after him cannot even be compared). Is his son really an idiot? That’s too bad.
Oh, wait — is this the idiot who waved a keris around a few years ago? If so, never mind and thank goodness his father was not alive to see it. (Or is he?)
Schlemizel
@feebog:
Last jury I sat on the plaintiff lawyer played a taped conversation of the plaintiff speaking with the defendant. It clearly proved the defendants case for him. I always wondered if he had been paid off or was just stupid.
I have seen lawyers bring up questions after they lost a dispute & usually assume its a trick to plant the information into the jury despite the jury being instructed to ignore it.
catclub
For an open thread, I remember in 2009 and early 2010 that the Democrats won all the speciall elections. They stole one in NY and I think somewhere else as well. Nonetheless, the 2010 midterm was a disaster. So Special Elections have even less than usual predictive value.
elmo
@maya: I’ve done those too. I’ve also flown in a little two seater Cessna over and around the Sierra, where high-mountain air pockets can slam a plane straight to the ground before the pilot can react.
It’s all the same to me. I hate takeoffs. The rest I don’t mind at all. “No modern jet has ever been taken down by turbulence,” sez me to myself, and I can deal. But takeoffs? Ugh.
Cervantes
This reminds me of the discussion I skimmed here yesterday about programmers.
raven
@elmo: Flown on the deck in a huey down a river?
elmo
@raven: No, but the rhythm of the sentence makes me wonder if that’s a line from a movie? And if it’s from “Apocalypse Now,” or “Full Metal Jacket,” I do NOT feel guilty for not recognizing it!
Amir Khalid
@Cervantes:
Yes, he’s Hussein Onn’s son. Yes, that was him brandishing a keris during his speech at the UMNO General Assembly a few years back. Hishammudin’s grandfather, Onn Jaafar, was the former UMNO president who left to form a multiracial party, Gerakan, because UMNO decided to remain a strictly Malay party. Najib’s dad Tun Razak and Hussein Onn, to say nothing of Onn Jaafar, would probably be disappointed in the kind of politician that Najib and Hishammudin have become.
raven
@elmo: Maybe 84 Charlie Mopic! (It’s all mine)
GregB
@raven:
My resident dimwit Face Book friend has gotten to the bottom of this caper.
He noticed that the missing plane has bumped Crimea off of the top story list.
We can clearly then conclude that Obama is behind the missing plane.
raven
@GregB: Benplani!
Cervantes
@GregB:
But if so, then the plane isn’t missing. Unless Obama is, too.
raven
@GregB: BTW Russia is massing troops near the Ukraine border.
Amir Khalid
@GregB:
Does your dimwit Facebook friend also believe that Obama is in cahoots with the aliens who carried out the abduction of the plane?
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Yes, that was a bright future lost.
Was it Hussein Onn’s failing health or Mahathir’s plotting that took it away? Or both?
Schlemizel
@GregB:
OF COURSE!! It was there staring us in the face all along. I am sure his sleeper cell from that Indonesian madras he attended could make this happen in a heart beat.
Gawd I hate humanity. Between jury duty, the way work has been going (on of the useless 10% around here is my boss who is badly hungover most days) and the course of politics I really have reached the end of my rope. Why can’t we get that gotammed meteor? NOW!
Cervantes
And re MH370, I probably should know better than to ask but: by any chance was there another Mongolian model/translator/mistress on that flight to China?
GregB
@Amir Khalid:
Apparently you haven’t seen the evidence of Obama’s alien roots.
hildebrand
Wish me luck, everyone. I have been nominated by my university for the University of Texas Board of Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award. I just submitted my 137 page nomination file. Now I wait, should hear something by late May or early June. It would be a very nice line on the Vitae, and there is a decent cash award to go along with the honor.
catclub
@raven: Planeghanzi
Villago Delenda Est
@catclub: Well, certainly if Democrats win special elections, they have no predictive value. However, our “liberal” MSM will be sure to trumpet any Rethuglican victory as a sure harbinger of midterm triumph for America’s Own Fascists.
IowaOldLady
@hildebrand: Congrats on the nomination and best wishes for the win.
raven
@hildebrand: Way to go!
Amir Khalid
@GregB:
Okay, I’m convinced now.
Villago Delenda Est
@GregB: In that photo at your link, it’s difficult to tell who is more delighted to meet the famous person.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: And have reportedly fired at an unarmed Ukrainian patrol aircraft, in violation of another treaty.
Villago Delenda Est
@hildebrand: Outstanding! Best of luck in seizing the prize!
Amir Khalid
There are MH370 conspiracy theories in this sampling that even the Lone Gunmen wouldn’t have printed in their newspaper.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@raven: I suspect that you have, sometime toward the late 60s. The only way I’m getting in a helicopter (while conscious) is at gunpoint. My dear late father, who flew a great deal (fixed wing), including in WWII, despised them. He was not a wussy guy, and his view has colored mine.
@eemom: They are always fun (for some people), or at least popular it seems. Sorry you’re having a rough time on the practice front. Damn, I only sort of miss it.
eemom
A lawyer bashing thread….splendiforous. Could not be better timed. On the brink of suicide this week over hatred of my job.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Lol, once or twice.
The recent info so kindly linked by commenters above reminded me of the crash of golf pro Payne Stewart’s Learjet back in 1999.
For the link-averse. Stewart’s Learjet departed Orlando. During the climbout from Orlando the pilot acknowledged heading and altitude instructions from ATC. The aircraft was 12,000 feet above sea level at that time.Six minutes later ATC attempted to contact the aircraft and received no response. The aircraft was then at an altitude of 36,000 feet. ATC subsequently asked the USAF to intercept the Learjet to determine its situation by visual inspection. The AFB sent fighters twice and both flights reported no visible damage to the aircraft, but that the cockpit windshields appeared to be frosted over from the inside and there was no visible movement of the control surfaces The aircraft finally crashed at a high angle and near supersonic speed near Mina, South Dakota, after a flight time of nearly four hours. The subsequent investigation concluded that the flight crew had been incapacitated by oxygen deprivation caused by a leak of unknown origin.
raven
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Seawolves!
GregB
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
That is what has been going through my head too.
If this is the case.
The question is if it was caused by mechanical failure or by sabotage.
Amir Khalid
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
I remember reading about that one at the time.
raven
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: Here’s a nice shot of your AO from the air.
Big R
@eemom: Maybe next week will be better. There’s only one way to find out.
Cacti
@Gin & Tonic:
And have reportedly fired at an unarmed Ukrainian patrol aircraft, in violation of another treaty.
Bob will be here soon to tell you that it was actually a plane full of nazis, and then go off on a tangent about the Mexican War.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Hal-3, Baby! B-model Hueys; heavy armament and young (So we knew that we couldn’t be killed) crews made them rather effective.
MomSense
I was reflecting this morning about Paul Ryan’s comments and how angry they made me and how the Republicans seem to thrive on perpetuating a never ending cycle of anger and resentment. I came to the conclusion that I have to just opt out of this anger loop. Even if the anger that decent human beings feel in response to their words and deeds is justified, doesn’t it just help them in the end?
I was thinking about that long term Republican staffer who left his job and wrote an anonymous expose about how the Republican strategy is to make government inefficient and dysfunctional because the public will just hate government and not actually blame the Republicans for their sabotage. This seems to work maddeningly well and all of the “but Republicans wouldn’t….” responses we can muster don’t counteract the damage.
Anyway this is a roundabout way of saying that I am going to focus on being positive, inclusive, fun, welcoming, and kind. I’m not going to feed their hate loop anymore with my own angry responses. I’m not any less disgusted by their words and deeds. I’m just going to respond differently. I do wonder if we on the left will attract more people just by being more fun to be with. Let the Republicans be like that house where none of the kids’ friends want to play.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@raven:
Thanks. And damn! I don’t even know the person anymore who saw sights like that on a daily basis for a year.
hildebrand
@raven: @IowaOldLady: @Villago Delenda Est: My thanks. Nice to know that my work has been recognized by a few folks around the old uni. Perhaps they could see fit to opening up a tenure track line for which I could apply. That would be the best news possible. If not, winning the award would certainly be something to trot out early and often in application letters.
MomSense
@eemom:
Sending a hug. Jobs suck sometimes.
JPL
@Amir Khalid: You better be nice
link
eemom
@Big R:
@MomSense:
thanks
Villago Delenda Est
@Amir Khalid:
The last one includes some additional thoughts of the poster:
The theory is that a micro nuclear weapon was detonated that created a magnetic black hole that vaporized the plane.
Uh-huh.
Villago Delenda Est
@JPL: Ah, taking a page from the deserting coward malassministration’s guidance to Americans about discussing the utterly illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, are they?
raven
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: 5×5
Cervantes
@hildebrand:
Good luck with the teaching award.
Re mentioning it, though, I don’t know where you’d be applying but I presume you know there are places where you might not want to call attention to it at all, never mind “early and often.”
chopper
@Cacti:
commie nazis. “you’ll never get this shipment of UNICEF pennies!”
Villago Delenda Est
@MomSense:
Sort of like the justification John Kerry and Hillary Clinton gave for their votes on the AUMF. “The President wouldn’t lie about this sort of thing just to start a war”.
Again, uh-huh.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
Or the government will do what? Tell mommy? A lot of the criticism is coming from outside Malaysia, where no one is afraid of Ahmad Shabery Cheek. And a lot of it is well-founded, so fuck him and his “don’t criticise us” bullshit.
gogol's wife
@eemom:
Hi — I’ve missed you lately.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Er … Hire Joshua Treviño again? Fart in our general direction?
But I repeat myself.
Suffern ACE
@Cacti: Actually, I think Bob is the ghostwriter for Patrick L. Smith at Salon.
I’m actually starting to look forward to the day where the PermaGov stuffs some ‘blowback’ up some liberterian leftie asses. Blowback = Justice I tell you. Blowback = Justice.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@raven: My dad’s a pilot. I keep thinking about the ValuJet crash in 96. Seen to go down and they knew the exact spot; they’d have never found it otherwise.
The entire plane, contents, passengers and everything was compacted into a hole about the size of a decent sized master bedroom – about 20×20 feet. A few small pieces visible; no slick, no fire.
What isn’t rainforest in SE Asia is swamp. I’ll say what I said earlier – I doubt this plane gets found in my lifetime.
Villago Delenda Est
OT, but this is an open thread, so what the hey, but Noisemax is at it again:
Sheriff Joe: I Could Replace Gov. Brewer
Well, the crazy is there, but it’s not tempered by the last remnants of common sense, so there’s that…
Botsplainer
@elmo:
Yep, my thought, too.
raven
@CONGRATULATIONS!: That was a weird day. I got bitten by a dog riding my bike down the street. I called animal control and they said they couldn’t do anything (the they told me not to swear at them). I talked to other folks in the area and they said it wasn’t the first time. I stormed down to the house, banged on the door and one of the frat rats answered. I jumped in his shit big time and he looked at me and broke into tears. “It’s not my dog and my best friend just got killed in the Value Jet crash”. Damn
Botsplainer
@David in NY:
Hence one of my patented “talking objections”, wherein valuable clues are stated to the bench loudly, so the witness may hear the colloquy.
JPL
@Amir Khalid: When do you sleep?
CONGRATULATIONS!
@raven: Most aviation accidents, somewhere along the line, were avoidable. The ValuJet crash was utterly avoidable, would never had happened had ground crew not been explicitly told by company management to ignore FAA rules as to what could be loaded on a passenger jet. A bunch of management folks should have gone to jail, but we all know how that goes here in America.
Botsplainer
@raven:
That is some talented, agile dog, feet reaching the pedals and all.
Villago Delenda Est
OK, it’s time to contact the men in the White Coats, via Noisemax (of course):
Ben Carson: America Resembling Third Reich
I guess this explains all those FEMA camps that Rethuglican scum are languishing in right now, guarded by gay men in FABULOUS uniforms.
MomSense
@Villago Delenda Est:
I think that Kerry voting for the war was, tragically, a political calculation. Clinton strikes me as being genuinely more hawkish. Much of both of their statements seemed like cover my ass sorts of disclaimers.
I don’t see the connection between what I was trying to say and that particular vote. I’m not suggesting that we become naive and believe Republican talking points. Right now we are locked in a cycle where Republicans sabotage functioning government in order to elicit feelings of anger and frustration at the government by the people so they will then vote for the Republicans pushing anti-government messages and policies. It is a constant anger loop and reasonable and fact based messaging don’t break through very well. Responding to them with anger doesn’t break through, either. The people we need to vote this cycle just tune that out as well.
Amir Khalid
@JPL:
I’ve been asked this quite a few times. I do appear to comment here 24/7, don’t I?
gbear
@different-church-lady:
My experience is that there’s always one person in any work group who thinks that the other 90% are freeloaders and sheeple and that he (usually a he) is the only one with the intelligence and vision to make the department work right. This person tends to fuck up everyone else’s contribution to projects when forced to do actual teamwork.
Villago Delenda Est
@MomSense:
Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that you were suggesting that we, for a nanosecond, take the stance that Rethuglicans would never do such a thing.
We know they would. Our task, then, is to convince others that Rethuglicans would, absolutely, do everything they could to sabotage government, mainly to get it out of the way to allow their vile masters a totally clear playing field to enslave the 99%.
Schlemizel
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
My wife strictly forbade our son to get in a helicopter when he joined the Army. You know that was not likely to work to start with. When he went to get his Helicopter assault badge (or whatever the hell they called it) he made me promise not to tell her what he was doing or what the new bling was for.
Damndangerous things!
raven
@Schlemizel: Yea, mom forbidding stuff in the Army always works out well.
raven
@Botsplainer: I’m watching the Illini play the hated Hoosiers, Englich is not a big concern.
Villago Delenda Est
@raven: Mom is way over there on the other side of the country.. Your squad leader is in your face.
It’s pretty easy to tell who’s going to win.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Schlemizel:
Young man, military, something exciting and dangerous and status enhancing. There was no way that ever would have… Belay that last.
Schlemizel
@raven:
Yeah, we laughed about that – I told her to write a letter to his commanding officer telling him that her son did not have permission to get on a helicopter. We all laughed about that. Mostly she didn’t want to know when he did it. Had he not gone into combat he probably would have stayed & tried to get into HALO school – that would have been a forbidden subject around the house for sure.
MomSense
@Villago Delenda Est:
I wish I knew how to convince people that Republicans are trying to sabotage the government. The problem is that people who don’t hate the government and believe it has a role to play seem to already be persuaded and vote for democrats. After 30 years anti-government messaging and dysfunction, too many seem to have accepted sabotage.
raven
@Villago Delenda Est: Tell mom to get her card punched.
Schlemizel
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
It all changed for him when it became real & not just a game. Dad tried to tell him there was a chance that could happen but the Army recruiter knew more & he would never lie. He actually enjoyed his work and had come to accept how things get done in the military. But then he found out what the DoD actually values soldiers for & how much the government appreciates their service. Add in the stress of combat and dealing with wounded buddies he lost his taste for it very rapidly. He told me a couple of years ago “I wish I had listened to you.” Its the worst I have ever felt being right.
shortstop
I know many, many lawyers. Between half and three-quarters of them despise their jobs. Not just have a lot of bad days or feel meh about their work — hate hate hate their jobs with undying fervor.
In my highly unofficial, remarkably unscientific poll of friends, clients and acquaintances, the happiest lawyers are (in no particular order) trial attorneys, members of the judiciary and people doing public-interest law.
raven
@Schlemizel: It reminds me of how my old man muct have felt. He signed for me to go in on my17th and, when I came home from Korea, he was so relived I wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam. I fooled him!
Paul in KY
@raven: If for some reason the plane was out of fuel & went almost vertically into the jungle, you might not hardly find it/see it from the air.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@shortstop: My happiest law job was as a municipal prosecutor. I’ve wished many times I’d never quit that one. Trials most days, mostly easy, just enough juries to keep in interesting, and aside from presenting felonies at preliminary hearings, rarely any serious injuries.
Paul in KY
@hildebrand: Way to go! Great honour just to be nominated.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: One could substitute in the name of virtually any profession, trade, or job.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@gbear: LOL. In the process of giving one of those a rocket ride to the unemployment line right now. Coulda strung that out into a career. Instead, she decided to take that attitude with company management as well. The union has signed off – apparently she’s been telling them how to do their jobs as well – and the paperwork is piling up in her personnel file even as we speak.
Paul in KY
@Botsplainer: I was surprised Raven could catch up to the dog, given that the dog was riding a bicycle at time.
? Martin
It seems to me we’re right on the cusp of being able to reliably solve problems like this in the future. I previously pointed to this, the first HD video of the ground from space. The first satellite went up a few weeks ago, and there are plans for a dozen or so more.
It would be nice if the various agencies/carriers set up a contract with them to have FlightAware or some similar system automatically task SkyBox with tracking a plane if the transponder stops during flight (or manually by some indication from ATC, etc). That could happen within a minute or so of it happening and give us a video record of what’s happening with the craft. I’m sure the service is ungodly expensive, but there aren’t so many incidents globally for this to be an expensive proposition overall. Even in the event of a structural failure, it usually takes several minutes for a plane at 30K feet to reach the ground (or at least all of the plane). The video would give you precise coordinates and perhaps some additional evidence as to what happened even if it didn’t orient itself to the target until a minute after it happened.
elmo
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q):
@shortstop:
When I burned out on the practice of law, I did what a lot of lawyers do, and tried to parlay my ability to write clear English into a freelance career.
Then I realized that, even more than reading, eating is fundamental. So I decided I had to go back to work.
Took a job as a proposal writer for a mid-sized Govt contractor. You’d be surprised how many lawyers move into that work.
Paul in KY
@Schlemizel: The bling looks alot like the front view of a helicpter with wings sticking out of it. Did he have a story for if she asked why that doohickey looked like a helicopter?
Paul in KY
@raven: Especially if you tell your DI all about it ;-)
raven
@Paul in KY: What was crazy about it was that he was sitting on their lawn, I made a little dog noise at him and he went all the way around the bike and bit me on the leg!
catclub
@raven: ” I got bitten by a dog riding my bike down the street. ”
GET THAT DOG OFF YOUR BIKE!
Paul in KY
@MomSense: Pretty logical: They run against government doing anything & try their damdest to ensure it can’t do anything.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, and maybe that will cheer some people up.
Cervantes
@catclub: Or at least give it a helmet.
raven
@Paul in KY: My DI was the gentleman with the .45!
raven
dupe
shortstop
@elmo:
No, I wouldn’t. ;)
? Martin
@different-church-lady:
In my experience 60% or thereabouts of employees are competent, hardworking, and motivated enough to do the job well. That turns into 10% after management crushes their soul by punishing them for being proactive, making them jump political hoops, refusing to support them when conflicts arise, failing to reward them for working well, but mostly for treating them like cost centers that need to be eliminated. You’ll get 10% that are too stubborn to back down and smart enough to navigate the political waters, or are so exceptional that management can’t risk fucking with them. Everyone else sees management’s attitude, and gets in line and does the quiet, nonconfrontational, but ultimately fairly incompetent job that allows them to continue to collect their paycheck with a minimum of harassment.
shortstop
@Cervantes: Only nanny blue states like mine require dogs on bikes to wear helmets. In the red states they’re all woofing about FREEDUMB!
raven
GO ILLINI!!!!! YES!
Paul in KY
@raven: I have done alot of bike riding & so far have never been bit. Been close a few times & had to kick a couple in the face, but I can usually just intimidate them into backing off (or outrun them while on the bike).
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@hildebrand: That’s terrific for you. Thinking good thoughts, and recognizing the honor that your place nominated you.
Paul in KY
@raven: Looks like a cheerful fellow!
raven
@Paul in KY: Dallas A Pinkney III. He was a grunt with the 7th ID in the Korean War and a great DI. He was rough on us but at the end he sat with the whole platoon and said “the politicians are sending you to war and we did our best in 8 weeks to get you ready. Do what you are told”. He was sure he’d be killed in Vietnam but he’s not on the Wall.
raven
@Paul in KY: Here’s the Stars and Stripes article about him from 1961.
catclub
@Paul in KY: “but I can usually just intimidate them into backing off (or outrun them while on the bike)”
yes, always the dilemma between pedaling ass fast as you can, or slowing to lean over and yell at them,
NO!
Schlemizel
@Paul in KY:
I have seen it, she never mentioned it but that may just be her ignoring the obvious.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Schlemizel:
What a sobering day for him. What a sad day for you.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Schlemizel:
What a sobering day for him. What a sad day for you.
Another Holocene Human
@different-church-lady: Companies don’t train the people in between the top guys, who got to management seminars, and the bottom folks, who get the bare minimum of training so the customers don’t literally kill them.
So it’s not surprising to see people above the level of their competence and who either through their personality disorders, ignorance, having given up, ignorance, boredom, whatever, are not performing well or contributing much. In this environment there is strong pressure to crush anyone who is competent or dynamic and sticks out. That or send them upstairs where they too will eventually be Peter Principle’d.
I don’t know why companies do this but I assume it’s the cheap, lazy choice.
At this point I’ve watched very smart, curious, capable people turn into office-space-taking slugs.
It doesn’t help when the work is repetitive and boring with sporadic oversight and frequent stressors.
The Army is smart to rotate people in and out. But most civilian workplaces aren’t run that way. Sometimes unions actually make it harder by fighting over work rules, although the reason they fight over fucking work rules is because of labor law and hostile management, so it’s a little cute to blame the union for doing what they perceive to be their job. (The fight over workrules is really a fight over speedups and pay.) But the result is that people are only doing their own, one job, and don’t understand what others need from them to complete the mission. Even non-union workplaces do this. I mean it’s one thing if you have a CPA and need them to do that specialty but there are lots of opportunities for cross training.
Not hiring enough ppl to do the job is also very popular here in the states, both private and public sector. Basically, managers are rewarded for understaffing. So that is what they do. It’s kind of shocking in Europe and Asia to see these armies of employees, and they’re fucking proud of it. The US used to be like that. If you are understaffed, forget about cross-training, training, planning meetings–nope, pressure all the time. And white collar employees have their own version of the slowdown. I don’t think anyone who sits at a desk all day is at their most productive anyway. it’s bad for your heart, brain, etc. People work better in quiet rooms in spurts. But the US white collar workplace is often a cube farm with constant annoying noises, too many people rolling up on you to distract you, and a culture of “the more you sat at your desk the more loyal you were” (East Asia also suffers from this disease) even though research shows adding hours to the day doesn’t make coders produce better code, just more bugs, for one example. People who can’t take pride in their work stop caring. It’s just a paycheck.
Even in a good workplace you have dead weight, but the dead weight is eventually shed. In a more average or bad workplace the dead weight has an amazing power to stick around and keep collecting paychecks. Probably that’s when they bring in consultants because management is flailing and they think a consultant will help them nut up or they need to consultant to finish projects their staff can’t handle.
Schlemizel
@raven:
I bet I saw those guys on Sullivan. I was pretty young but I vaguely remember an Army drill team – I might have been 5-6 at the time, it seems likely.
little world, little world
raven
@Schlemizel: It was a shock to me that I found that article. I always appreciated what he did for me and wondered what happened to him.
Paul in KY
@raven: Sounds like a great DI. Glad you had him to try & get you ready.
Paul in KY
@raven: Great article. You know those garands they are flinging around aren’t the lightest weapons in the world.
I was in PRs at UK for awhile. Happened to have some real weirdos in it at time (weirder than me, so pretty damn weird), and they and I never clicked so I left em.
Paul in KY
@catclub: I would actually veer towards them while growling & snarling. Tends to surprise them. The worst times are when you are heading up a big hill.
Paul in KY
@Schlemizel: Well, thank God he is out now. I think anyone who gets in a helicopter or fixed wing aircraft to jump out of it (in any way) has alot of cojones. The airborne pukes though (some of them) used to call that air assault badge ‘airborne wings with sissy bar’. Ole Paul wasn’t gonna get either one of them!
elmo
@shortstop: Ha!
Paul in KY
@Another Holocene Human: One of the biggest laughs in Back to the Future I is when Marty sees someone drive up to a gas station & an army of attendents jump out to work on the car. It was sorta gallows humour back in 1983.
Gin & Tonic
NBC’s Richard Engel was detained by armed militias, but later released, in Crimea today.
Omnes Omnibus
@Paul in KY: The Air Assault Badge has also been called the Bullwinkle Badge because of its vaguely moose antler shape. I don’t have one. The Parachute Badge does not look like moose antlers; I do have one.
Amir Khalid
An example of uninformative and unhelpful journalism about MH370, from The Daily Beast. What could the dozens of poorly regulated small airlines in Indonesia possibly have to do with Malaysia’s national carrier? Why is Irving talking about poorly trained pilots, when the captain of MH370, a 33-year veteran pilot, was one of MAS’ most experienced? When he touts Singapore’s modernity in this regard, is he aware that MAS and SIA are the successors of Malaysia and Singapore’s joint national carrier? That Singapore is too small to have its own domestic flights? (It’s way smaller than the Klang Valley, the larger urban area that KL is part of.)
Paul in KY
@Omnes Omnibus: I meant ‘pukes’ in only the most respectful way :-)
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid: They don’t report accurately on things happening right here in the US, as you know.
Anyhow, you’re alluding to MSA!
I do remember that airline, and Malayan Airways, too, before that.
I sometimes reflect on what pilots from that era make of today’s cockpits.
Suffern ACE
@Amir Khalid: Well, if you’re ever thinking of going into a fake business scam, you know that you can always sell American investors on the idea that Singapore needs a domestic carrier.
Gin & Tonic
A 22-year-old pro-Ukrainian demonstrator was stabbed to death in Donetsk today by a pro-Russian mob. At least one other unconfirmed death in the same location.
schrodinger's cat
@Gin & Tonic: Where is Comrade Bob?
Amir Khalid
@Cervantes:
No Mongolians on the passenger manifest. Maybe she was travelling on a stolen passport.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid: And in the cockpit.