Posted On: Friday - March 15th 2024 1:07PM MST
In Topics: Liberty/Libertarianism
A couple of weeks back in this post I mentioned in the 2nd (**) footnote a must-post follow-up based on the video clip embedded therein. Below, I've got the same clip, but it should (initially) play only the portion that I want to write about. You'll see what my problem is, if you noted the the title here.
It's been a while since Peak Stupidity has gotten into the long-term stupidity of the US having lost its Libertarian principles, both as a people and in the Government. (I suppose the latter follows the former, mostly, but then there's that slow-boiling frog thing...) We broach the subject of the loss of our rights, but most of our writing on the specific subject here is from 6 years back - "Papiere bitte!" - "Your papers, please!" and memories of Mr. Vin Suprynowicz - - "Papiere bitte!" - "Your papers, please!" - Part 2 and "Papiere bitte!" - "Your papers, please!" - Stories from the real deal.
As I noted in the first post discussing this video, it was good to see decent sounding, reasonable black people refute the stupidity* of the lefty White Berzerkelyites of earlier in the video by stating that, no, it's not so hard - they can easily get an ID and all do. I note people mentioned driver's licenses most, but not all of the time, a small bugaboo that I'm sure commenter Adam Smith would have something to say about. He has regaled us of his stories of holding his Constitutional ground on the lack of a requirement for this in the comments before. (Some of us get in plenty of legal trouble trying to get down the road even WITH these things.)
I did not like seeing that brainwashed mindset in everyone who responded to interviewer** Ami Horowitz with "everyone knows you have to carry your ID with you" bit. It wasn't his point, but I guess the responses would have been mostly the same even if he'd broken out that question - carrying it vs. being able to obtain one in order to vote.
I shouldn't have expected anything different out of that crowd. Black folks are not known to be Libertarian. There's no African version of the Magna Carta - they're just doing good not going full Haiti. OTOH, how many White, especially young White, Americans would have made it clear to Mr. Horowitz that, other than for voting security, "I don't neeeeed no steeenking IDs!"? Other races/ethnicities? Nah. As we noted (also long ago), we're not importing the kind of people who will be pushing their kids to obtain their Citizenship in the Nation merit badges. The whole thing is #SAD.
I've had a wallet "on my person", as they like to say, for many years, well most of the time, for driving. However, I'd carry nothing but my keys and whatever cash I had for a number of years when I was already driving. During the dozen or so times I'd been pulled over already, the cop was satisfied with a DL # he could call in. Then, one day, after having done NOTHING wrong, I got the "papiere bitte!" treatment at a DUI traffic stop. That is, of course, a complete violation of Amendment IV that has had no Americans riled up about it for 3 decades***.
The fine of 80 bucks for not having my driver's license on my person was $250 in '24 BaiDienBucks, I'd reckon. Also, it was a lot more to me then due to my circumstances. I put a nasty note in the memo field of the check I sent in. It was sent back to me for that with a note about the bad language - I kid you not!
Here's the relevant part of that video:
* ... or maybe it was lying excuses, if that's what they were really up to. It's not always stupidity, I know.
** ... not really surveyor, as he may seem to be.
*** That was Part 1 of When did the Feral Government get OUT OF CONTROL? There's a Part 2.
Comments:
Hail
Saturday - March 16th 2024 12:11PM MST
PS
"did you see the story about the long-term Q/A guy who "shot himself" right after giving some testimony about management's having let flawed work get through?"
There are a lot of strands here as if lifted from a poorly written movie-script, but of what genre I don't know. Including the spy-intrigue genre where witnesses who know too much turn up dead, the exact final moments and the "who's, how's, and wherefore's" left off-screen.
Boeing is in serious trouble, not (only) from a technical standpoint but really because people are now "primed" to look for any airline problem with any airline or flight or anything, see if it's a Boeing, and then run headlines and do commentary about "there Boeing goes again..."
"did you see the story about the long-term Q/A guy who "shot himself" right after giving some testimony about management's having let flawed work get through?"
There are a lot of strands here as if lifted from a poorly written movie-script, but of what genre I don't know. Including the spy-intrigue genre where witnesses who know too much turn up dead, the exact final moments and the "who's, how's, and wherefore's" left off-screen.
Boeing is in serious trouble, not (only) from a technical standpoint but really because people are now "primed" to look for any airline problem with any airline or flight or anything, see if it's a Boeing, and then run headlines and do commentary about "there Boeing goes again..."
Hail
Saturday - March 16th 2024 11:58AM MST
PS
Addendum No. 2 from Fischer King:
"A lot of people have trouble with reading comprehension so a clarification on the DEI point that is making people apoplectic.
The first paragraph explains my opinion on how Boeing got to where it is now. It explains the company's quality problems, and the sort of people running the show. It's this new kind of management that makes it susceptible to DEI.
So while DEI is not the immediate cause of Boeing's current problems, it isn't going to make things better and will almost certainly make them worse. It's people with MBAs, steeped in that university culture -- not aerospace engineers -- who have been exposed to DEI, are susceptible to it, and will implement it.
...The moment you use the acronym "DEI," the hysterics start yelling "racist" without any understanding of what you've said." (End of Addendum)
Addendum No. 2 from Fischer King:
"A lot of people have trouble with reading comprehension so a clarification on the DEI point that is making people apoplectic.
The first paragraph explains my opinion on how Boeing got to where it is now. It explains the company's quality problems, and the sort of people running the show. It's this new kind of management that makes it susceptible to DEI.
So while DEI is not the immediate cause of Boeing's current problems, it isn't going to make things better and will almost certainly make them worse. It's people with MBAs, steeped in that university culture -- not aerospace engineers -- who have been exposed to DEI, are susceptible to it, and will implement it.
...The moment you use the acronym "DEI," the hysterics start yelling "racist" without any understanding of what you've said." (End of Addendum)
Moderator
Saturday - March 16th 2024 11:26AM MST
PS: "A number of people then attacked him for supposedly saying "Boeing's decline is caused by more-equitable hiring of women and historically oppressed minorities," and accused him of the big-bad 'R' word."
I'm glad you put "supposedly" in there. They aren't doing more equitable hiring. That's the problem.
I'm glad you put "supposedly" in there. They aren't doing more equitable hiring. That's the problem.
Moderator
Saturday - March 16th 2024 11:23AM MST
PS: Mr. Hail, I didn't really address the D.I.E. part of this story, which is where it relates to some of this post. I think Mr. King is on the right track. I don't know if the D.I.E. agenda wouldn't have affected a still-more-engineering-oriented Boeing too, though. It's just that this new company let it proceed quickly, as they had more management down with that agenda.
Moderator
Saturday - March 16th 2024 11:20AM MST
PS: Yes, that is of interest to me, Mr. Hail. I know most of this story, but I will add something that Mr. King didn't regarding the outsourcing. This is not to say that it excused the problems that he describes in his short post, but this is an economic thing.
I can't say the same for 2024, maybe this century period, but America had a much closer thing to a free market than about anywhere Boeing and all marketed their airplanes. What that meant is, no matter the price, quality, or specific need, the airlines France, England, and German were going to buy plenty of Airbuses because their countries MADE them. Industrial Policy, one might call it. In the meantime, especially back when McDonnel;l- but really- Douglas was still separate, American (not the airline but the country) airlines would shop around. Northwest, for example bought a big number of Airbuses back in the early 00's Americans didn't make any parts of them (maybe some small items that couldn't be made in those 3 countries of the consortium that is Arbus Industrie.
It really wasn't a fair deal. Therefore, Boeing started shopping out some of the big work. The early part of that was in Japan. The Japanese are known to do quality work, but also, well, they would buy plenty of 747's for that short "fat" routes (lots of people in coach going only a couple of hours) and some international, of course.
This concept went very far with the 787 - fuselages were made in China. I saw the big guppy bird - a 747 that looked like it could swallow a DC-9 whole) fly around in flight testing. They built 3 of those, I think, to carry those fuselages in their bellies to bring to Seattle, and later, Charleston, SC.
That's not the only place used for outsourcing. Those countries would then have an incentive to buy Boeing. You might say "well, they should sell anyway, if they are good quality and economical." No, maybe not. It's more political than that.
There were many problems fitting everything together - I don't care how much CAD software you use!
BTW, as for the workers in Charleston, did you see the story about the long-term Q/A guy who "shot himself" right after giving some testimony about management's having let flawed work get through?
I can't say the same for 2024, maybe this century period, but America had a much closer thing to a free market than about anywhere Boeing and all marketed their airplanes. What that meant is, no matter the price, quality, or specific need, the airlines France, England, and German were going to buy plenty of Airbuses because their countries MADE them. Industrial Policy, one might call it. In the meantime, especially back when McDonnel;l- but really- Douglas was still separate, American (not the airline but the country) airlines would shop around. Northwest, for example bought a big number of Airbuses back in the early 00's Americans didn't make any parts of them (maybe some small items that couldn't be made in those 3 countries of the consortium that is Arbus Industrie.
It really wasn't a fair deal. Therefore, Boeing started shopping out some of the big work. The early part of that was in Japan. The Japanese are known to do quality work, but also, well, they would buy plenty of 747's for that short "fat" routes (lots of people in coach going only a couple of hours) and some international, of course.
This concept went very far with the 787 - fuselages were made in China. I saw the big guppy bird - a 747 that looked like it could swallow a DC-9 whole) fly around in flight testing. They built 3 of those, I think, to carry those fuselages in their bellies to bring to Seattle, and later, Charleston, SC.
That's not the only place used for outsourcing. Those countries would then have an incentive to buy Boeing. You might say "well, they should sell anyway, if they are good quality and economical." No, maybe not. It's more political than that.
There were many problems fitting everything together - I don't care how much CAD software you use!
BTW, as for the workers in Charleston, did you see the story about the long-term Q/A guy who "shot himself" right after giving some testimony about management's having let flawed work get through?
Hail
Saturday - March 16th 2024 10:25AM MST
PS
Roughly on the same theme as this PS post ---- I thought I'd repost the below here. Worth your attention, given your interest in aviation and your probable interest in Boeing's mounting problems and what explains it (a topic that is, so far, seldom mentioned at Peak Stupidity):
________________
A SIMPLE THEORY ON BOEING'S DECLINE
.... by Fischer King (@FischerKing64)
.... March 2024
I can explain Boeing quickly.
It attained a market dominant position in the USA following the merger with McDonnell Douglas. This made it lazy.
It then got new management, which emphasized financial chicanery over top flight engineering, symbolized in its move of its corporate HQ from Seattle to Chicago. The financial geniuses then worked to break the union, shift production away from its trained Seattle work force to places like South Carolina, and outsource production of most plane components abroad -- the American work force was left to assemble all these disparate parts rather than produce them here. Software was also outsourced.
The end result was lower quality of aircraft, delays in development and production, and even fatalities from crashes. But rest assured, the management in Chicago did very well.
Meanwhile, by focusing on MBAs and JDs rather than engineers, top management fell victim to all the pathologies coming out of top schools. This is where the DEI nonsense comes from, which would have been much harder to impose if management were more focused on building good planes than stock buybacks.
So the outsourcing, cost cutting, diminishing the original work force -- all this is now working in tandem with the sort of diversity/DEI dysfunction visible all over corporate America. It’s a feedback loop that could be fatal to Boeing, and has already been fatal to someone airline passengers.
This is basically it. It’s not an elaborate conspiracy. It’s a tale of greed and dysfunction that you can see all over America.
Addendum: To the folks with affinity for South Carolina -- you’re misreading this post if you view this as a dig on you. I mention South Carolina only as part of the broader narrative of Boeing management working to cut costs without serious concern for quality and safety.
Maybe the South Carolina workers are the best in the world -- but the management in Chicago did not know or care.
(End of essay by Fischer King).
https://twitter.com/FischerKing64/status/1768750379242807425
(A number of people then attacked him for supposedly saying "Boeing's decline is caused by more-equitable hiring of women and historically oppressed minorities," and accused him of the big-bad 'R' word.)
Roughly on the same theme as this PS post ---- I thought I'd repost the below here. Worth your attention, given your interest in aviation and your probable interest in Boeing's mounting problems and what explains it (a topic that is, so far, seldom mentioned at Peak Stupidity):
________________
A SIMPLE THEORY ON BOEING'S DECLINE
.... by Fischer King (@FischerKing64)
.... March 2024
I can explain Boeing quickly.
It attained a market dominant position in the USA following the merger with McDonnell Douglas. This made it lazy.
It then got new management, which emphasized financial chicanery over top flight engineering, symbolized in its move of its corporate HQ from Seattle to Chicago. The financial geniuses then worked to break the union, shift production away from its trained Seattle work force to places like South Carolina, and outsource production of most plane components abroad -- the American work force was left to assemble all these disparate parts rather than produce them here. Software was also outsourced.
The end result was lower quality of aircraft, delays in development and production, and even fatalities from crashes. But rest assured, the management in Chicago did very well.
Meanwhile, by focusing on MBAs and JDs rather than engineers, top management fell victim to all the pathologies coming out of top schools. This is where the DEI nonsense comes from, which would have been much harder to impose if management were more focused on building good planes than stock buybacks.
So the outsourcing, cost cutting, diminishing the original work force -- all this is now working in tandem with the sort of diversity/DEI dysfunction visible all over corporate America. It’s a feedback loop that could be fatal to Boeing, and has already been fatal to someone airline passengers.
This is basically it. It’s not an elaborate conspiracy. It’s a tale of greed and dysfunction that you can see all over America.
Addendum: To the folks with affinity for South Carolina -- you’re misreading this post if you view this as a dig on you. I mention South Carolina only as part of the broader narrative of Boeing management working to cut costs without serious concern for quality and safety.
Maybe the South Carolina workers are the best in the world -- but the management in Chicago did not know or care.
(End of essay by Fischer King).
https://twitter.com/FischerKing64/status/1768750379242807425
(A number of people then attacked him for supposedly saying "Boeing's decline is caused by more-equitable hiring of women and historically oppressed minorities," and accused him of the big-bad 'R' word.)
Moderator
Saturday - March 16th 2024 6:23AM MST
PS: Yes, Alarmist, the nice ladies at the polling station would feeeel bad harassing a newcomer for ID. I think one of those pieces of paper given out by ICE would probably suffice.
Moderator
Saturday - March 16th 2024 6:21AM MST
PS: O.S., as much as "stop and frisk" does work, and as would checking people randomly for IDs and looking up their histories, I'm against that stuff. The real problem, is, as you wrote about, normal law enforcement - and that includes punishment - is not allowed to occur. (That is, unless you of the wrong color - White - and/or political persuasion - Conservative). Indeed, it's just one of the many ways they have to destroy society.
Going back to the Constitutional (actual) civil liberties, the Left had the country fooled back 50-60 years ago. They were the ones bringing up technicalities in court - relying heavily on the Bill of Rights - to get out of the trouble they'd get into raising hell against the system. I'm not saying all of their work along these lines was wrong either. However, I've come to realize that they were never actual Constitutionalists. They just wanted the system to help them out, until they got control of it all.
Now, when Trump is being harassed by a prosecutor in Georgia in a totally corrupt, Banana Republic style, because he's of the right (ostensibly), all those Constitutional rights that should have this case long ago thrown out of the system are ignored. That leftist judge (McAfee) doesn't care about no civil rights. (I wonder if he's been threatened or blackmailed too.)
Going back to the Constitutional (actual) civil liberties, the Left had the country fooled back 50-60 years ago. They were the ones bringing up technicalities in court - relying heavily on the Bill of Rights - to get out of the trouble they'd get into raising hell against the system. I'm not saying all of their work along these lines was wrong either. However, I've come to realize that they were never actual Constitutionalists. They just wanted the system to help them out, until they got control of it all.
Now, when Trump is being harassed by a prosecutor in Georgia in a totally corrupt, Banana Republic style, because he's of the right (ostensibly), all those Constitutional rights that should have this case long ago thrown out of the system are ignored. That leftist judge (McAfee) doesn't care about no civil rights. (I wonder if he's been threatened or blackmailed too.)
The Alarmist
Friday - March 15th 2024 3:04PM MST
PS
Meh! Just tell the cops you’re a refugee. They might even give you cash.
Meh! Just tell the cops you’re a refugee. They might even give you cash.
Old Soldier
Friday - March 15th 2024 2:55PM MST
PS Democrat tactics opposing law enforcement from doing their jobs comes in many forms but it all comes down to this with Democrats - Democrats believe that criminals should be allowed to ply their trade at will, unopposed by anyone especially including law enforcement or armed citizens, and all law enforcement activities must be stopped. Police tactics such as asking for ID (to verify no warrants), running vehicle plates to identify license/registration/insurance, 'stop and frisk', etc work and work very well at reducing crime...and Democrats know it. This is all part of Democrats' bigger plan to destroy America at all costs as evidenced by their "Defund police movements", encouraging BLM riots, looting and murder, etc.
RE: Fischer King's theory on the tie-in of the Boeing HQ move to Chicago.
I read that 2001 is the year Boeing abruptly moved its HQ from Seattle to Chicago. It is said they announced the move mere months before instituting it. Announced: early 2001; put into effect, mid-2001. That decision was a few years after the McDonnell-Douglas merger (1997).
Then, in 2022, Boeing abruptly moved to Washington D.C., giving up on Chicago. The new HQ is very close to the Pentagon. From what I can tell, the Pentagon funnels billions to Boeing for various projects and may be key to keeping Boeing profitable nowadays (??).
When did Boeing start to really have these problems? Roughly late 2010s, right? That is about 15 years, +/-, after the 2001 move identified as a landmark-moment by Fischer King.
The numbers say that Boeing fell behind Airbus sometime ca. 2017-2019. Since then, Boeing has been consistently behind Airbus in terms of orders and deliveries.
In 2023 and 2024 so far, Airbus has taken nearly 2x as many orders for new aircraft as has Boeing! The historical average is for Boeing to edge out Airbus by 1.5x. So the tables have really turned.
On the other hand, some of the higher-profile accidents and such, like the blown-out emergency-exit a few months ago, might be problems not with Boeing at all, but with poor maintenance. These are the subtle kinds of problems that do come with Third Worldization. See also: The South African power-grid...