All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
This was the funeral that Trump attended.
Here’s where the real toll from the blue city madness impacts the innocents. You can bet that the families of the police aren’t the ones voting Democrats into office. But as long as the majority of NYC voters are Democrats that city will continue its descent into lawlessness and violence.
“I had to deal with the newer engineers that, in my opinion, didn’t have the skills needed to design quality work.”
Don’t get me started!
But, here’s a news flash: a just-out-of-school EIT or brand new engineer isn’t really expected to have any sense, just like a just-minted 2nd Lt. There are supposed to be competent superiors to mentor them through the know-everything-but-understand-nothing phase. Problem is that, increasingly, the mentors are non-existent.
I see so many plans where it is blatant that the designer hadn’t a clue for practicality, cost or effectiveness.
One of the my main gripes is that engineers used to be primarily involved with engineering. 90% of their time is currently used in government guidelines, government forms, government bureaucracy and government compliance.
I’m retired now but still have a few clients that I do things for on an hourly basis. One of the things is reviewing a US Gov grant for a public works storm drainage project to alleviate hurricane flooding. The multi-million dollar grant is coming from a covid money distribution to the State I live in. Other than being a legit public project, there is just so much wrong with that.
Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.
William Somerset Maugham
Arthur has dissected the NYT leftist’s screed complaining that Trump is not being persecuted enough!
Good long form analysis of all the Left’s talking points against the man they love to hate.
https://arthurincali.substack.com/p/the-left-burns-down-every-institution
My favorite line:
“Keep in mind that you do not have to be a fan or even a supporter of Donald Trump to be able to see the different set of standards currently being deployed against him, and how that is a danger to the entire faith and allegiance to our political system and institutions.”
One of the contributing factors for my retirement was the lack of competent human resources. With the Covid fiasco, and the availability of a steady paycheck of unemployment benefits, it was much easier for many to just stay home, not pursue work, and in many situations, the amount of money received was more than could be made due to weather affecting construction. To aggravate the problem, suppliers faced the same problem, which could lead to expensive delays. Although the problems I faced were gradually becoming more apparent before Covid, everything snowballed and even good employees became less interested in performing quality work. The younger generation that was needed to be trained to replace the older craftsmen were woefully unprepared for the environment that construction demands, and I found I was more of a babysitter than a superintendent.
In my later years of construction, I had to deal with the newer engineers that, in my opinion, didn’t have the skills needed to design quality work. Plans wouldn’t fit site conditions, pointing out anticipated problems could lead to either bad decisions, or avoiding decisions. In one situation, even though the specifications demanded additional work, the engineer refused to pay for the work. I did it anyway to prevent an accident and bigger problems. Their ridiculous reason for not paying for the work only proved they were not only a coward, they had no integrity.
Is it too late to demand excellence, honesty and a good work ethic? I don’t know. I do know things won’t change much until DEI, EEO and other bizarre ideas of equality are abandoned. Nobody is equal, and pulling everyone to the lowest level of competence with policies only makes things worse.
It’s asking a great deal that things should appeal to your reason as well as your sense of the aesthetic.
William Somerset Maugham
My absurd schedule continues to leave me perpetually scrambling to keep up with the website. But even after putting up that sarcastic post on the FSK Bridge collapse I feel I must make some comments on it. Whether the crash was the result of equipment failure, sabotage or somebody doing something unbelievably stupid, we can’t ignore the fact that our country seems to be slipping into disorder. The systems and protocols that allow a complex society to function are no longer functioning correctly. Jet planes are falling apart in mid-air. The power grid is failing over large swaths of the country because of too much rain or too little rain or no reason at all. Things are beginning to break down.
And it’s not as if people in positions of responsibility haven’t noticed these things. For the last ten years safety has been one of the holy words in corporate America. I was involved in a Fortune 100 company’s engineering planning and all they ever talked about was multiply redundant systems. The planning was scheduled twenty years in advance to replace and enlarge all the important equipment and systems. These weren’t people who ignored the big picture. But what they seemed oblivious to was the human factor.
They had built up this highly complicated, highly precise way of producing very valuable materials but what they ignored was who they had running these systems. They had felt no compunction about shedding the people who built up this machine and replacing them with diversity hires who really didn’t get the job done. And slowly over the course of a dozen years they hollowed out the human capital they had working for them. Then the pandemic threw a monkey wrench into the works and all hell broke loose. Suddenly their competition was poaching what was left of their upper management and even the few diversity hires who were halfway competent left for big signing bonuses and salaries.
And as they scraped the bottom of the barrel serious problems began to erupt. Key production personnel called in sick during critical operations and the people left were essentially useless and caused the loss of millions of dollars of product. The C-suite was not amused. Diversity is our strength but if local management starts losing money, heads must roll and it won’t be the CEO’s.
So a hatchetman will be despatched to punish the innocent, promote the guilty and declare victory. But once the rot is too far advanced the parent company will probably prefer to shut down the operation and buy a new smaller company whose IP and human capital is sufficiently attractive and valuable to raise the quarterly dividend and allow them to forget those losers they fired out in the sticks.
So that’s how it works in corporate America. But what about just plain America? All those blue cities are beginning to discover that allowing the complete breakdown of law and order is really, really bad for business. Today I went through a run down New England mill town. It’s a depressing place where police cars are always clustered like angry wasps around some local affront to normal life. There used to be an enormous Rite Aid store in the middle of a strip mall in that place. All the other stores have long ago closed down. Now they have removed the sign letters from the side of the Rite Aid building and the big windows looked in on nothing. And that’s blue city America 2024. Hollowed out and dead.
Adam Smith allegedly said “there’s a lot of ruin in a nation.” That may be true but we’ve reached a tipping point in a lot of these places. Companies are abandoning leases and even mortgages on buildings in places like San Francisco and New York. Certainly, even the captains of industry may be wondering if it’s time to pull the plug on the progressives. And that may be the only reason why Donald Trump might be allowed to regain the White House strictly on the grounds of self-preservation.
But is it too late?
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity……”
(The Second Coming
BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS)
Impropriety is the soul of wit.
William Somerset Maugham