After a week in the Midwest, I get the anger of middle aged and young white males. They can’t get jobs like they had before the pandemic or they can’t get a job at all that isn’t minimum wage (that is a story for another day).
What is so remarkable is that their anger has been so skillfully redirected away from the corporate greed that did it to them. They actually blame anyone who still has a job even if those people are paid only 76 cents on the dollar and are highly over qualified for what employment they have.
The angry white men do not understand that the people who made the decision to RIF them or not hire them in the first place, did it to meet flawed profitability projections so the share holders would still get their paybacks and the top management would still get their bonuses.
In other words, these men were too expensive to employ, so corporate America threw them away.
“Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
And they ran right back into the burning barn that was lit by the greed of the oligarchs and all their spawn in corporate America, and voted to return them to power.
Well, it looks like the slower Trump folks (the Loomers, etc.) are learning what most of us already knew. Trump is for sale to the highest bidder and, right now, that looks like Elon.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump (as well as some others) talk out of both sides of their mouths. Of course, they want immigrants to work for them when it benefits them but when it doesn’t they will be sent packing! Let the MAGA fighting proceed!
I love it!! Let these idiots fight amongst themselves!! Not a one of them have a brain cell among them!! Hopefully someone might get mad and leave the whole mess behind!!
I spent decades around turn of century working with Pacific Rim clients and recall the growing unease in US about Asian students' testing and academic prowess - which BTW was ferociously driven at the time by those nations' 'Old School' parenting, let alone schooling cultures. To some extent that unease culminated in Bush (II) era-dictated curriculum changes in US public schools - basically an increased emphasis on STEM, sadly to the detriment of liberal arts. (Which, if I may be unseriously wry, might be why every kid nowadays covets a career in software coding whilst history, philosophy & ethics, literature etal - and the life lessons they afford - are increasingly overlooked in our electorate's take on things. Just say'n.)
But back to the TechBros... Just a couple of shirt-tail thoughts:
1. Vivek & Elon are celebrity-level successful in their (non-political) lanes. BUT - what were their own academic records? ... And BTW, how about Donald's? I recall reading somewhere the (no doubt scurrilous) allegation he paid a classmate to take his SAT's for him. In any event I don't believe, Bigly Brained as may be, he cut a swathe academically at Wharton. Had he a more ample liberal arts grounding, perhaps he'd have scammed fewer banks and written better books about it.
2. There is no disputing academic discipline and curriculum need goosing in American public schools and universities. And, a re-think about the distractions - TikTok? ... Instagram? ...Texting? ...gaming ...smart phones!?!!!!! ... permitted formative youngsters by our culture. But - NB, it's doubtful especially Elon would welcome constraints in even that spirit upon eyeballs "X" covets.
3. To repeat my-(earlier)-self... One thing neither Vivek now Elon possess is political acumen. Their otherwise sound enthusiasm for H1B is poisoned by tin-eared or, if you will, ham-handed clumsiness in parrying argument. A disqualifying flaw exacerbated by billionaire hubris... which is to say spoiled impatience, with any defiance or inconvenience. Which is to further say, an arrogance that is sociopathic in its expression.
So lovely to see the internecine fight break out between the ill tempered oligarch faction of MAGA and the “ain’t nothing wrong with our culture you damn foreigner!” faction of MAGA.
Thanks for breaking it all down for us jocks and admirers of prom queens.
Ah, MAGATS. Stupid, ignorant, and evil towards whatever corner of any policy they stumble in to. Expect no coherence. Only bullying. (And stupidity, of course!)
It will be interesting to see who steps up to organize MAGA against the tech-bro’s. We have already seen what an organized MAGA is capable of and willing to do. Lord have mercy on us all.
Trump needed OGMaga only as long as he needed OGMaga's votes to keep him out of jail. He got that, so he doesn't need OGMaga anymore--or really, ever again. Trump still needs money, his one true love. Enter Pres. Musk and the fascist oligarchy; exit OGMaga to do its face thing. Trump happily golfs. The country and world burn.
I’m not convinced that Trump’s ego will allow him to dismiss his adoring followers so easily. Maybe, maybe not. Besides, unpopular dictators can be overthrown.
Charlie, I agree that life is not fair. Egalitarianism will work only so far in life. I have often said that it is good that not everyone is like me because the world only needs so many nerds. We need electricians, plumbers, mechanics, med techs, etc in greater numbers. However, if you have a really hard tech or scientific/ engineering problem then you need a nerd. China & India have millions of them.
Our culture is fine to celebrate ordinary people but I wrote “Mill Hill Scientist” to show what nerds do for us every day!
See: Mill Hill Scientist: A Life Journey from the Edge of Poverty to Fulfillment
You know maybe this shitshow will be worth watching after all! After the election when it seemed everyone was resigned to Trump's cabinet picks, it was getting a bit scary to think where we are headed as a country. Now the cra cra on the right is shining through when it comes to actually governing the country and a good portion of MAGA is gonna have a major reckoning in 2025-- who knew!!!
I recall something Trump said at one of his rallies that has stuck with me. He was addressing his crowd about being retrained for new career directions and he said "You people don't want to be retrained, you just want your old jobs back." The crowd roared as loud as I've heard and I also think that it's true. It's what they want.
They want the better salaries post COVID with prices from 1956. It's not going to happen obviously, but my question is how will they react to the disappointment? Will Trump try to get them to blame Obama?
It remains the case that the average family of four with the breadwinner around 55 years old has a net worth , including their home equity of around $60,000 dollars. If that was me, I'd be F***king terrified yet look to the billionaire's plans. Cut social Security and Medicare!! Kill off the ACA! Import indentured workers as Anne Coulter points out. These are not the programs that the MAGA crowd wanted. Cheap eggs and cheap gas with no brown people seem to me to be the central issues.
So, the credits are still rolling before Jan 20th. Then comes the big disappointment. All we can do now is to watch and see them self immolate. It reminds me of the closing scene in Lawrence of Arabia during the grand council in Damascus. Maybe I'd dead wrong, I certainly was about abortion but there's trouble in River city. We've got Monkeys in the sacred temple.
I think you nailed it. I seemed to have the unique ability to be the sales guy who landed in just about every soon-to-be-obsolete tech career and still managed to make a decent living and survived to retirement. Fax Machines in the late 80's, Magnetic media (remember floppy discs) in the 90's, Optical Media (CD's and DVD's) in the 2000's. Nearly all the manufacturing jobs in those sectors just disappeared. They didn't move off shore they went the way of the buggy whip and a lot of people who had decent paying jobs and good benefits were left with nothing but resentment.
It is about money- I remind myself that the “leaders” in the Republican Party don’t care about the people who put Rump in office, they care only about themselves-about power and money. These MAGA megaphones are going to intentionally find issues that remind the Tech Bros of the clout they have in the party and extort them for money and power. It is all a show.
After a week in the Midwest, I get the anger of middle aged and young white males. They can’t get jobs like they had before the pandemic or they can’t get a job at all that isn’t minimum wage (that is a story for another day).
What is so remarkable is that their anger has been so skillfully redirected away from the corporate greed that did it to them. They actually blame anyone who still has a job even if those people are paid only 76 cents on the dollar and are highly over qualified for what employment they have.
The angry white men do not understand that the people who made the decision to RIF them or not hire them in the first place, did it to meet flawed profitability projections so the share holders would still get their paybacks and the top management would still get their bonuses.
In other words, these men were too expensive to employ, so corporate America threw them away.
“Nothing personal, it’s just business.”
And they ran right back into the burning barn that was lit by the greed of the oligarchs and all their spawn in corporate America, and voted to return them to power.
Well, it looks like the slower Trump folks (the Loomers, etc.) are learning what most of us already knew. Trump is for sale to the highest bidder and, right now, that looks like Elon.
Elon Musk and Donald Trump (as well as some others) talk out of both sides of their mouths. Of course, they want immigrants to work for them when it benefits them but when it doesn’t they will be sent packing! Let the MAGA fighting proceed!
It’s hard to train high tech workers when you’ve brainwashed them that education is bad/liberal bullshit. Good luck
I love it!! Let these idiots fight amongst themselves!! Not a one of them have a brain cell among them!! Hopefully someone might get mad and leave the whole mess behind!!
I spent decades around turn of century working with Pacific Rim clients and recall the growing unease in US about Asian students' testing and academic prowess - which BTW was ferociously driven at the time by those nations' 'Old School' parenting, let alone schooling cultures. To some extent that unease culminated in Bush (II) era-dictated curriculum changes in US public schools - basically an increased emphasis on STEM, sadly to the detriment of liberal arts. (Which, if I may be unseriously wry, might be why every kid nowadays covets a career in software coding whilst history, philosophy & ethics, literature etal - and the life lessons they afford - are increasingly overlooked in our electorate's take on things. Just say'n.)
But back to the TechBros... Just a couple of shirt-tail thoughts:
1. Vivek & Elon are celebrity-level successful in their (non-political) lanes. BUT - what were their own academic records? ... And BTW, how about Donald's? I recall reading somewhere the (no doubt scurrilous) allegation he paid a classmate to take his SAT's for him. In any event I don't believe, Bigly Brained as may be, he cut a swathe academically at Wharton. Had he a more ample liberal arts grounding, perhaps he'd have scammed fewer banks and written better books about it.
2. There is no disputing academic discipline and curriculum need goosing in American public schools and universities. And, a re-think about the distractions - TikTok? ... Instagram? ...Texting? ...gaming ...smart phones!?!!!!! ... permitted formative youngsters by our culture. But - NB, it's doubtful especially Elon would welcome constraints in even that spirit upon eyeballs "X" covets.
3. To repeat my-(earlier)-self... One thing neither Vivek now Elon possess is political acumen. Their otherwise sound enthusiasm for H1B is poisoned by tin-eared or, if you will, ham-handed clumsiness in parrying argument. A disqualifying flaw exacerbated by billionaire hubris... which is to say spoiled impatience, with any defiance or inconvenience. Which is to further say, an arrogance that is sociopathic in its expression.
So lovely to see the internecine fight break out between the ill tempered oligarch faction of MAGA and the “ain’t nothing wrong with our culture you damn foreigner!” faction of MAGA.
Thanks for breaking it all down for us jocks and admirers of prom queens.
Ah, MAGATS. Stupid, ignorant, and evil towards whatever corner of any policy they stumble in to. Expect no coherence. Only bullying. (And stupidity, of course!)
It will be interesting to see who steps up to organize MAGA against the tech-bro’s. We have already seen what an organized MAGA is capable of and willing to do. Lord have mercy on us all.
Trump needed OGMaga only as long as he needed OGMaga's votes to keep him out of jail. He got that, so he doesn't need OGMaga anymore--or really, ever again. Trump still needs money, his one true love. Enter Pres. Musk and the fascist oligarchy; exit OGMaga to do its face thing. Trump happily golfs. The country and world burn.
I’m not convinced that Trump’s ego will allow him to dismiss his adoring followers so easily. Maybe, maybe not. Besides, unpopular dictators can be overthrown.
Charlie, I agree that life is not fair. Egalitarianism will work only so far in life. I have often said that it is good that not everyone is like me because the world only needs so many nerds. We need electricians, plumbers, mechanics, med techs, etc in greater numbers. However, if you have a really hard tech or scientific/ engineering problem then you need a nerd. China & India have millions of them.
Our culture is fine to celebrate ordinary people but I wrote “Mill Hill Scientist” to show what nerds do for us every day!
See: Mill Hill Scientist: A Life Journey from the Edge of Poverty to Fulfillment
You know maybe this shitshow will be worth watching after all! After the election when it seemed everyone was resigned to Trump's cabinet picks, it was getting a bit scary to think where we are headed as a country. Now the cra cra on the right is shining through when it comes to actually governing the country and a good portion of MAGA is gonna have a major reckoning in 2025-- who knew!!!
All those 90's sitcoms seem to have scarred Vivek for life. Hilarious that he's been sitting on his resentment of Zack and Slater since junior high.
Sounds like someone needs a "Very Special Episode."
Ramaswamy is a liar and a thief, right? Pure MAGAT!
I recall something Trump said at one of his rallies that has stuck with me. He was addressing his crowd about being retrained for new career directions and he said "You people don't want to be retrained, you just want your old jobs back." The crowd roared as loud as I've heard and I also think that it's true. It's what they want.
They want the better salaries post COVID with prices from 1956. It's not going to happen obviously, but my question is how will they react to the disappointment? Will Trump try to get them to blame Obama?
It remains the case that the average family of four with the breadwinner around 55 years old has a net worth , including their home equity of around $60,000 dollars. If that was me, I'd be F***king terrified yet look to the billionaire's plans. Cut social Security and Medicare!! Kill off the ACA! Import indentured workers as Anne Coulter points out. These are not the programs that the MAGA crowd wanted. Cheap eggs and cheap gas with no brown people seem to me to be the central issues.
So, the credits are still rolling before Jan 20th. Then comes the big disappointment. All we can do now is to watch and see them self immolate. It reminds me of the closing scene in Lawrence of Arabia during the grand council in Damascus. Maybe I'd dead wrong, I certainly was about abortion but there's trouble in River city. We've got Monkeys in the sacred temple.
I think you nailed it. I seemed to have the unique ability to be the sales guy who landed in just about every soon-to-be-obsolete tech career and still managed to make a decent living and survived to retirement. Fax Machines in the late 80's, Magnetic media (remember floppy discs) in the 90's, Optical Media (CD's and DVD's) in the 2000's. Nearly all the manufacturing jobs in those sectors just disappeared. They didn't move off shore they went the way of the buggy whip and a lot of people who had decent paying jobs and good benefits were left with nothing but resentment.
Good read
It is about money- I remind myself that the “leaders” in the Republican Party don’t care about the people who put Rump in office, they care only about themselves-about power and money. These MAGA megaphones are going to intentionally find issues that remind the Tech Bros of the clout they have in the party and extort them for money and power. It is all a show.