Author: Tom Fitzpatrick

Life

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While talking with friends the other day, I was reminded of the latest trend in corporate malfeasance. Corporations are moving to this new idea where any day is vacation day as long as you are caught up with your work. You are free to take any day off you want. It is all up to you. We will no longer be tracking vacation days because you are free to take any day off. The company doesn’t have to track, you don’t have to track. All you have to do is make sure your work is caught up. Isn’t this great?

As a matter of fact, it is not great. It is a horrible idea designed to screw employees out of paid time off. There are two mitigating factors to consider here. The first is corporations were having trouble with balancing their books at the end of the year because employees were carrying over paid time into the next year. This meant that the unused time which was budgeted for a specific year wasn’t being used in the that year. This played havoc with the bean counters. They want to balance the books at the end year. In the past, this usually resulted in a message from HR telling you to use your time off in the appropriate year. We want you to use your time off that is why we generously provided you with time off. Don’t you understand how much we care about you and your work/life balance? With this new policy, the company released from their responsibility to track time off, and more importantly their responsibility to pay for unused time, just shrugs their shoulders indifferently. It isn’t their problem any more.

Then the companies claim that they are no longer keeping track. Yeah. I can take off every day as long as I keep my work up-to-date. Don’t believe that for one minute. If you are taking too much time off — your boss will be aware. She will then say to herself either I need to give this person more work or why don’t I can cut this sucker’s job and move her tasks over to somebody else. The bottom line is someone will be aware if you are taking too much time.

On the other hand, they will be conveniently unaware of your time off if you are overloaded with work and don’t feel you can take the time off. Then they are definitely not tracking. Oh you haven’t had a day off in a year, sorry, we aren’t tracking, that’s up to you now. In the past, this was time you were owed. You may not have been able to take the time off when you should have but, at least, you got paid for your time when you left the company. No more. So they are selectively tracking or not tracking which ever is convenient for them. The point is you lose either way.

Finally, what galls me the most is the happy HR introduction of changes like these. HR makes it sound like the company has this wonderful idea that is going to make you so very happy. Nobody believes it. Most people know that when a company makes changes like this, it is acting in its own self-interest. I would rather have blunt honesty over saccharine lies.

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I am beginning to hear something on a regular basis and it is really bothering me. Waiters are ask something to the effect, “Do you want a protein with Your Salad?” I was thrown the first time I heard this question. What kind of question is that. I mocked the waiter and thought what a pompous ass he is, a protein, my ass. After lunch, I never gave it another thought until I heard it again. Then again. I thought this has become annoying. Why don’t they just ask do you want chicken or salmon on your salad? Or just list the proteins that are an option. No, they have to doll it up. Protein.

It is snooty up selling which is about as bad as it gets. The customer hears protein and thinks for a few dollars more I can add some protein to my caesar salad. Protein is good. Salads aren’t protein. I need protein. Throw on a few pieces of chicken on to that caesar salad. I get what the restaurant is doing and can live with the up selling even though I, personally, will say no. I say no to up selling as a habit. I would say no even if I did want some protein on my salad because I want to discourage up selling whenever and wherever I can.

But calling meat and fish protein is pretentious and condescending. It screams a wasted college education and all I got out of it was a job waiting tables but I am still superior to you because you probably don’t even know what I am asking, you uneducated chump.

I live in southern California so I don’t know if this is a trend across the country, or, God forbid, the world. A lot of things that start here never make it past the state line and usually for good reason. I feel using the word protein to describe meat and fish is just one of those good reasons. For thousands of years, people have understood meat and fish. Calling them protein adds nothing to the restaurant transaction and only confuses people who might have slept through their high school biology courses.

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I was reconfirming some flight data yesterday on several different airlines and travel sites. After I completed my task, I went directly to Facebook and there were, in a matter of seconds, at least 7 different ads from airlines or travel sites on my Facebook home page. If I had received just one ad, I might have shrugged this off as a coincidence but 7, come on, somehow Facebook found out about my previous searches and pounced.

I am not the most tech savvy person so maybe one of you can determine what I did to connect Facebook with my previous data searches. I was on Facebook but on a completely different browser. My Facebook page was open in the Safari browser however all of my travel searches occurred on Google Chrome. To my naive eyes, there is no connection. The different browsers shouldn’t be sending information to each other. Then, on Google Chrome, I logged into Facebook — and the travel and airline ads poured in one after the other. I am speculating that somehow Google Chrome sent Facebook my searching information when I logged into Facebook.

Now, I am not a fool. I have given up on privacy when using the Internet. I know the different companies are selling my information to each other but this is the first time I witnessed the rapidity with which this occurred and the blatancy of their approach. Numerous companies know I am interested in travel and they are going to get their sales pitch out to me as quickly as possible so that they can nab my cash while it is still up for grabs.

I am told I can fight this annoyance by fiddling with my settings. I used to try this but it seems the ad sellers can figure away around these restrictions, once they do, they share with other companies and changing my settings becomes a moot point. They simply don’t work for long and I don’t have enough energy to devote to learning new setting restrictions every time they figure out how to circumvent these setting. Send me the damn ads to me.

Now, the volume of ads is overwhelming on every platform I use. For instance, I used email a lot when it first came out. Now, I’ve pretty much given up on using email because almost every one I receive is an unsolicited ad for something I don’t want. When I open email, I spend a great deal of time just deleting emails. Why fight it? Marketing departments will figure out how to contact you, they will contact you — be it US mail, texts, email, Facebook. They will figure it out and you will get their pitch. And, since they are working together to get your cash, you can be sure that there is no way to effectively stop it. So get those credit cards ready.

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Let me get this out of the way first. White people still can use the n-word. If they are by themselves or with like minded people, they can say the n-word to their hearts content. They, however, must face the consequences if they say the word among people who disagree with how they are using the n-word. To give you a concrete example of what I mean, I will use another word that I hope will illustrate what I mean. I can call my boss an idiot on the way home from work. I can call my boss an idiot with like-minded employees although there is a danger that I might be wrong about them being like-minded. On the other hand, it would be foolish of me to call my boss an idiot if I was in a meeting with him and other employees. If I was so idiotic to actually call him an idiot in this situation, I, also, would have to be willing to face the consequences of my actions.

But wait why can rappers use the n-word and I can’t. Rappers get grammies for using the n-word and I get in trouble. That isn’t fair. I would argue that rappers are criticized for using the n-word. Indeed, whenever, someone points out that rappers are using the n-word, there is an implicit criticism of their actions. The difference is that the rapper’s audience still are willing to buy the rapper’s records and there is no consequence for his action. It isn’t fair. But, as we are constantly being reminded, life is unfair. Just because rappers continue to use the n-word, doesn’t mean, out of fairness, that white people are free to use the n-word without consequence.

Most white people over a certain age know this and rightfully avoid using the word. They also know why we shouldn’t use the n-word. For hundreds of years, white people used the n-word publicly and without repercussions to belittle and demean blacks. It was intended to be hurtful to blacks and, because of this history, most people, white and black, don’t utter this word in public discourse. If they do, they also understand that there might be pushback from anyone who hears it. If they don’t like it, they are free to complain about it, ask for apologies, and demand some form of consequences.

To feign ignorance or to demand people look at the context of how the n-word was said is more than a little disingenuous. Everyone knows that the n-word is unacceptable in public discourse including the rap stars who continue to use it. The bottom line here is that anybody can use the n-word in a public forum but, if they do, they risk consequences. The n-word carries so much racial animus, the risk of pushbacks for a white person who uses it are high. It seems easy enough to avoid using the word. I have written four paragraphs without using the n-word once. Everyone who reads this blog understands what word I am talking about. So, if you are a white person who wants to continue to say the n-word, by all means, continue. You are free to do so, but then, be prepared, you will have to explain yourself.

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A year or so ago, my partner and I began to notice that when night scenes in television shows were too dark for us. Not dark in the mood sense but in the light sense. We would see absolutely nothing for minutes at a time. I mean maybe the whites of the person’s eyes and that is it. At first, I thought it was an isolated incident. The production budget was too small to cover the electric bill. But this year we began to notice that night scenes in a number of high budget television shows (Ozark, Midnight Mass, Archieve 81, Chapelwaite) would plunge us into complete darkness. The screen would be black with only the sound to keep the story going as we strained to see what was going on in the shadows.

I noticed that this problem is restricted to movies and television shows made in the past few years. Old movies are lit in such a way that I know that the scene is happening at night while also allowing me to see the action in the movie. I find this is preferable to me asking my partner, “What are they doing now? Can you see whatever it is that is scaring the shit out of the actor?” I am guessing that the problem is that modern cameras are so sophisticated that directors want the authenticity of the actual darkness to set the mood they are trying to create. They think that everyone can see all the dark details on the screen. I can’t. But I sure would like to.

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Amir Locke’s death has brought to light again the troubling practice of no knock warrants. https://www.startribune.com/amir-lockes-killing-prompts-new-scrutiny-of-states-no-knock-warrant-laws/600144103/

I am finding it difficult to understand why such a practice is much of an advantage to the cops. In fact, no knock warrants seems like an inherently dangerous practice for all parties involved. When police barge into a person’s home in a country where a significant portion of the population has a gun, the situation is rife for overreaction. Police are nervous to begin with. A no knock warrant is being used for a reason. The cops anticipate a potential difficult situation and hope to avoid that outcome by not knocking. I am assuming that one of the situations they are worried about is potential violence. But what is the reasonable reaction to having your house broken into in the middle of the night? You are waking up to chaos, people screaming, loud noises. You don’t know who is entering your house. You might feel threatened and pull out your weapon.

From the start this is a dangerous situation, how does not knocking give the cops any advantage. Yes, the person is surprised and will have a more difficult time escaping, but when the surprised person has a loaded gun that doesn’t seem all that helpful to me. At the very least, it gives the person a moment or two to wrap their heads around the fact that they have cops at their front door and to do the right thing. If the cops think the person is dangerous or might flee, then the cops should prepare for these situations. To not give this knock is an invitation for disaster as the Amir Locke incident has proven.

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I am disappointed that Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema are still struggling with supporting President Biden’s recovery bills but I am no surprised. I am actually surprised that so many important people are. If they had ever said yes I am supporting the final bills whatever they are, I just need to iron out a few details. Neither of them ever did. I admit they have been cagey throughout the whole process but I don’t remember them doing anything that would make me think they publicly committed to supporting the bills.

Which sadly brings me to President Biden. I have never been wild about the man but, I have to also admit, that aside from Obama I haven’t really been wild about any of the Democrats running for president. I do vote for them and I will vote for him again if I am given the same choice we had in 2020. This is, however, embarrassing. Someone should have known long before December that Manchin was uncommitted to the deals. Nobody did.

The Democratic Leadership also bear some responsibility in this. It is December, for Christ’s sake. Why are we still messing with these bills? There is a very narrow majority in the Senate – the Vice President’s vote is it. They needed Manchin and Sinema from the beginning. Everyone knows it. There is no point in talking to Republicans so that leaves the two renegade Democrats. The bill had to make these two people happy or it was doomed. Once they committed, then, to show that they indeed backed the bill, Biden and the Democratic Leadership could have tasked them with publicly supporting the bill, going on television, talking about it with reporters. This way if either of them backed out there might be a remote chance that they would be concerned about how this makes them look.

But this isn’t how it happened. The White House allowed the negotiations to drag on for more than a year only to learn at the last minute that Manchin will oppose the one bill. Why are they still dotting i’s and crossing t’s here? It sounds like the bill became weighed down with pork that senators kept adding to the bill because they knew this bill would pass. Now, I like pork as much as the next man but there should be time limit on how long the BBQ continues particularly if you are framing the bills as an urgent matter necessary for the recovery of the country.

Maybe, Manchin pulled a fast on. That’s certainly possible but the senator covered his tracks in such a way that Biden looks like a chump. Now if the Democrats want to pass a bill, they will have to ask Manchin and Sinema to tell the what they want and they will do whatever it is they want to get the bill passed. This would have been far less humiliating for Biden earlier in the year and, more importantly, would have been a much less visible capitulation and done primarily behind closed doors.

If things weren’t bad enough, the White House called Manchin a liar. He may very well be a liar. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least. But if you still need 51 votes to pass your bill, and Manchin is one of the two people you can hope to corral to your side, you might be a bit more judicious in your comments.

It is discouraging to see Biden flailing because I really don’t know where we go from here.

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Firstly, I am talking about the link below.

I love this Onion video. It shows the average Trump voter after he has read some writer who was an expert on Feminist Lesbian Theory. This white 50ish factory worker changed his mind completely after reading this treatise. He only wishes he read it before he had voted for Trump.

Since this comes from the Onion, I am pretty sure this is satire. I fear though that some people might mistake this for truth. If only people would read my obscure academic theory, a light will go off in their hand, they will understand what I am saying and change their mind. I can only give you my humble opinion on this matter but I can assure you when people start dropping names like Foucault or start talk about gender theory, I generally have the same reaction — why can’t I understood a single word this person is saying? Its like they are speaking a foreign language or something. Followed quickly by figuring out an exit strategy so I can leave this idiot and go to where the fun is.

The big problem with this kind of talking is it comes off as condescension. Often, when the speaker sees the glazed eyes of his listeners, he will say something like — to really understand what I am saying you need to read this book by so and so. Of course, the underlying message in such a statement is you are uneducated yokel. An incomprehensible message is a pointless and alienating one. How can you expect to win voters when you can’t make yourself understood? How are you going to compete with foreigners are taking your jobs, or your cities are being overrun by lawless hooligans?

The Link: https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=917787202212037

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A scene in a Succession episode jarred me the other night. Succession is intelligent, witty, and funny television. I enjoy it immensely. In this particular scene (see link to scene below), however, the writers are trying too hard to show their intelligence and I came away annoyed with them instead. The show would have us believe that gruff self-made billionaire Logan Roy would use the word fungible while having conversation with someone he is incredibly angry with.

It struck me as out of sync with his character and a distraction from the plot. It didn’t help me that I had to look up the word to make sure I understood it correctly. Sometimes using big, unknown words is unavoidable and important for the plot. If it seems right, then I am all for using big words that may be unknown to me. In this scene, it seems completely gratuitous. Thrown in to the episode simply as evidence on how smart the show actually is. It was jarring particularly since the character who says it is more know for his profanity laced insults than using 50 cent words. I might believe him saying you are a dime a dozen or I can hire a recent college graduate off the streets who can do the job as good as you. But fungible never.

Worse still, it felt like contempt. Yes, we are using the word fungible. If you don’t know the meaning of the word, then look it up. We are not here to make it easy for you.

What concerns me is that it reveals just the elite condescension that right wing apologists complain about. It is unnecessary and unhelpful. Succession is great at showing the moral rot of the wealthy capitalists who run the world economy but, unintentionally, it shows the contempt that the media elites have for their own audience. This might cause some viewers to determine that these media elites are fungible with the capitalist elites so why exchange a new boss that is just as bad as the old boss.

Link to Fungible Comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4ByzXJHDJ4

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I love this guy.

His boss hassled him whenever his company’s Instant Messaging software told the boss how long he has been gone. You know what I mean. Every employer uses some form of instant messaging software that always narcs you out — think Microsoft Lync that tells people how long you have been gone with the green light/yellow light red light gizmo. This tool fights the boss who needlessly monitors your work time when they are happy as a clam with you work otherwise. This guy’s device moves your cursor while you are away from your desk which tricks Microsoft Lync into thinking you are at your PC. Green light instead of yellow light or red light — if you know what I mean. And image what your boss will think with all of those nine and ten hour days. And, really, who gets harmed in the deal.

Here is the link. https://slate.com/technology/2021/12/mouse-movers-market-corporate-productivity-tracking.html