Higgenbotham's Dark Age Hovel

[Higgenbotham]

Thus far, the elites have won out, encouraged immigration, and watched the angry deplorables cause minority pain. Thus far, this has worked roughly well for America, less well for the minorities. The cheap labor has become available, the deplorables inflamed. The object of the progressives is to get rid of the hate, oppression and pain.

This is all theoretical and obviously written by somebody with no experience living or being in inner city war zones, as is your propaganda about "spree shooters going into minority safe spaces," as if the incident in Waukesha, Wisconsin and dozens of others never happened. Here is a small list of my personal experiences:

1. While parked behind a liquor store in an inner city neighborhood, 2 blacks parked next to me and began to harass me. Finally, one of them said, "If that cracker turns his head, I'm going to blow it off." When I didn't turn my head he laughed and said, "He knows better than to turn his head."

2. A pack of blacks on welfare moved in next to me. There was an elderly couple on the other side. One of the black kids broke out the window of their garage so he could steal out of it. He was also caught stealing out of another neighbor's garage. After that, I threatened them and told them to stay the hell away from my property. They had the audacity and stupidity to ask if I had a problem with them, as if I was some kind of racist.

3. I was on the South Side of Chicago and pulled into a gas station where I was the only white person. You had to pay first to get gas at a window with bullet proof glass. I went over and paid her $5. When I went back and turned the pump on it didn't work. I went back to the window and asked her to turn the pump on. She screamed, "It's on," and everyone within about 30 feet turned around and looked at me. Then I went over and pumped my gas and left.

‘Don’t kill me’: Carjacked Amazon drivers want destination before taking gig

Spencer Soper and Jackie Davalos Mar 12, 2022

George Hunt took two bullets in a botched carjacking while delivering packages for Amazon.com in Chicago. Now he's pushing the e-commerce giant to notify contract drivers in advance about the neighborhoods they'll be traveling to so they can decide if $30 an hour is worth the risk.

Hunt left his 2015 Volkswagen Jetta running just before 5:30 a.m. on Feb. 23 to make a delivery on East 87th Place on Chicago's South Side. While running up to the stoop to drop off a package, he was startled to hear his engine revving. He turned around to see a man emerge from his car and point a gun at him. The gunman popped off several shots as Hunt ducked for cover. One bullet struck him in the shoulder and lodged in his back. Another passed through his left thigh and grazed his right leg. Hunt only realized later it was a carjacking gone awry, and the would-be thief most likely abandoned his car because he didn't know how to drive a stick shift.

“While I’m on the ground, I’m not being a hero,” said Hunt, 32, who also owns a car detailing business in Indiana with his brother. “I’m screaming ‘Don’t kill me. I’ve got a baby on the way." He didn't see what happened, he pleaded. "Just go. Just go.'”

His was the third and most extreme incident affecting Chicago contract delivery drivers over two days last month. Hours after the attack on Hunt, a 69-year-old Uber driver was carjacked. The following day, two armed men demanded van keys from a 36-year-old Amazon delivery driver and stole the vehicle full of packages, according to police.

Chicago is the epicenter of a spike in carjackings plaguing big cities around the U.S., leaving gig workers who spend their days ferrying meals, people and packages particularly vulnerable. Vehicular hijackings in Chicago jumped 30% in 2021 from the previous year. The city created a task force to fight the rise, and police have announced a string of arrests. New York, Philadelphia and New Orleans are among other big cities that have reported a rise in carjackings, often used by gangs to test the gumption of young recruits.

Hunt's shooting is galvanizing drivers who want more information about their destinations and caught the attention of U.S. Representative Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, a Chicago Democrat. "Companies like Amazon rely on independent contractors to dodge responsibility for wages, benefits, and workplace protection," he said. "I call on Amazon to do right by its workers and on Congress to fix these oversights in our labor law."

Most drivers working for Amazon's gig-style Flex service receive assignments via a smartphone app that tells them how much they can earn and about how long the trip is expected to take. But drivers don't know specifically where they're being sent until they get to the delivery station to gather their packages. If they decline a route, Amazon penalizes them, which can mean they get less work or no further work at all. The delivery station from which Hunt usually works, in Country Club Hills just south of Chicago, has signs posted to remind drivers that they can't decline routes or ask for new ones.

‘Route refusal'

"If you choose to not take a route based on location, it is considered a route refusal and appropriate action will be taken," reads a sign in the station, according to a photo reviewed by Bloomberg.

Amazon spokeswoman Maria Boschetti said the company has a "rigorous process" to evaluate dangerous incidents so it can prevent them from happening again, but she declined to reveal any details. Drivers taking delivery blocks don't know their destinations in advance because the routes haven't been assigned yet, she added.

"We're committed to the safety of drivers and the communities where we deliver, and we work hard to ensure Amazon Flex delivery partners feel safe on the road while making customer deliveries," Boschetti said. "If a driver arrives at the delivery location and does not feel safe, they are not expected to deliver their route and will not be penalized for refusing. At Amazon, safety is our top priority, and we want to ensure all Flex [delivery partners] feel safe delivering their routes."

Amazon isn't the only delivery service providing limited information about destinations. DoorDash couriers can see the minimum pay and distance of a delivery, but not the specific address until the order is accepted. At Lyft, drivers can see the distance to a pickup location, but not a passenger's destination before accepting a trip.

In the lead-up to Proposition 22, a California ballot measure exempting gig companies from a state law requiring them to classify workers as employees, Uber Technologies let drivers set their own prices for rides and see passengers' destinations before accepting a trip. The ride-hailing company later revoked the feature, saying drivers turned down too many rides. Since then, Uber has been experimenting with versions of the policy, giving drivers more visibility again in 24 U.S. cities. Previously, such information was reserved for drivers who accepted a certain number of rides.

Drivers simply want the same information supplied to most independent businesses, said Lenny Sanchez, director of the Illinois chapter of the Independent Drivers Guild, which advocates for drivers' rights and has about 250,000 members around the country. "Allow us to make an intelligent decision on whether we want to accept an assignment rather than making it a big gamble every time we hear a beep on our phones."

Drivers have voiced concerns about being sent to Chicago in the early morning when it's still dark given the number of shootings and robberies in the area, but Amazon hasn't listened, they said. Some drivers have resorted to carrying weapons, even though it's against company policy.

"Amazon intentionally leaves off where you're going because they know if they put up routes for certain neighborhoods, they wouldn't get picked up," Hunt said. "Do I feel bad for the people in those neighborhoods? Absolutely. But not so bad that I should have to go out there and get shot and be expected to go back to the same neighborhood the next day."

Any company that offers to deliver just about anything, anywhere, at any time will struggle to navigate crime-stricken areas. Amazon can stop dispatching drivers to specific addresses if they report aggressive animals or customer harassment. But ceasing or even limiting operations in entire neighborhoods — especially those with large minority populations — can run afoul of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits the withholding of services based on race. If Amazon shared destinations up front, drivers could demand more pay to go to neighborhoods they perceive as dangerous, driving up costs.

"On the one hand, withholding information reinforces the grip algorithmic management has on workers," says Lindsey Cameron, an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "On the other, one of reasons you're able to get drivers into these lower socioeconomic status neighborhoods, is because there's no visibility. I don't know if there's a simple way to regulate this."

Crime statistics

Domino's Pizza in 2000 signed a consent decree with the U.S. Justice Department following complaints that it discriminated against Black people by providing limited delivery in some neighborhoods. The decree required Domino's to base such decisions not merely on an employee's perceptions but on crime statistics that demonstrated certain areas to be dangerous. In 2016, Amazon agreed to expand its same-day delivery service to minority urban neighborhoods in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., after a Bloomberg investigation revealed the company excluded some predominantly Black zip codes in several big cities.

Hunt started delivering for Amazon regularly in January after learning his wife was expecting their first child. His detailing business suffered during the pandemic, and he wanted to earn extra money. He typically took four-hour routes that begin as early as 3:30 a.m. and pay about $120. His destination each day is random, and he can find himself 40 miles in any direction from the delivery station.

After getting shot, Hunt waited a few minutes on the ground, then jumped in his car and sped off. He parked in front of a drugstore a few blocks away and called the police, then phoned his brother who helped him stay alert until help arrived. He spent about 12 hours in the emergency room, his wife waiting outside due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Hunt wears a sling to help heal a broken scapula and said doctors told him it will be months before he can use his left hand again, which he needs for the detailing business. His lawyer submitted a claim for worker's compensation, and his brother is overseeing the business in the meantime. Hunt hasn't received a hospital bill yet, but said he has insurance and hopes his portion of the bill doesn't exceed a few thousand dollars.

Hunt said he won't deliver Amazon packages again for fear he wouldn't survive another shooting. But he says even if some drivers refuse to accept gigs in certain neighborhoods, Amazon knows hundreds more will take the risk. Once his wounds heal, Hunt plans to visit Washington, D.C., to speak with any lawmaker who'll listen. "We don't have any power," he said. "Amazon's gonna get us killed."

https://www.union-bulletin.com/seattle_ ... 71416.html

[Higgenbotham]

Thus far, the elites have won out, encouraged immigration, and watched the angry deplorables cause minority pain. Thus far, this has worked roughly well for America, less well for the minorities. The cheap labor has become available, the deplorables inflamed. The object of the progressives is to get rid of the hate, oppression and pain.

This is all theoretical and obviously written by somebody with no experience living or being in inner city war zones, as is your propaganda about "spree shooters going into minority safe spaces," as if the incident in Waukesha, Wisconsin and dozens of others never happened. Here is a small list of my personal experiences:

1. While parked behind a liquor store in an inner city neighborhood, 2 blacks parked next to me and began to harass me. Finally, one of them said, "If that cracker turns his head, I'm going to blow it off." When I didn't turn my head he laughed and said, "He knows better than to turn his head."

2. A pack of blacks on welfare moved in next to me. There was an elderly couple on the other side. One of the black kids broke out the window of their garage so he could steal out of it. He was also caught stealing out of another neighbor's garage. After that, I threatened them and told them to stay the hell away from my property. They had the audacity and stupidity to ask if I had a problem with them, as if I was some kind of racist.

3. I was on the South Side of Chicago and pulled into a gas station where I was the only white person. You had to pay first to get gas at a window with bullet proof glass. I went over and paid her $5. When I went back and turned the pump on it didn't work. I went back to the window and asked her to turn the pump on. She screamed, "It's on," and everyone within about 30 feet turned around and looked at me. Then I went over and pumped my gas and left.

NATIONAL
The Waukesha death toll rises to 6, and the suspect faces homicide charges

Updated November 23, 2021 6:37 PM ET



Darrell Brooks Jr. makes his initial court appearance on Tuesday in Waukesha, Wis. Prosecutors in Wisconsin have charged Brooks with intentional homicide in the deaths of at least five people who were killed when an SUV was driven into a Christmas parade.

A child who was injured Sunday when an SUV plowed through a crowd at a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wis., has died, bringing the death toll from the attack to six.

Prosecutors in Wisconsin made the announcement on Tuesday as they outlined charges against the suspect in the attack, Darrell Brooks Jr.

Brooks, 39, was charged with five counts of first-degree intentional homicide. He faces the possibility of an additional charge of first-degree intentional homicide for the child's death.

Bail for Brooks was set at $5 million cash. If convicted on all counts, Brooks faces five consecutive life sentences. Brooks did not enter a plea during Tuesday's court hearing.

"The nature of this offense is shocking," Court Commissioner Kevin Costello said at the hearing. "I've not seen anything like this in my very long career."

Brooks is accused of driving his maroon SUV through barricades and into a crowd of people, Waukesha Police Chief Daniel Thompson said at a news conference Monday afternoon.

Charging documents filed against Brooks say that a total of 62 people were injured. Initially, authorities had said that 48 people were injured.

In a news conference Monday, authorities said Brooks acted alone in the attack, noting that he was involved in a "domestic disturbance" just prior to crashing his SUV into the parade.

While investigators say local police were not engaged in a chase of the suspect at the time of the incident, they noted that one officer did fire several times at Brooks' vehicle as he drove through the parade.

Authorities say there is no clear motive as to why Brooks drove through the crowd.

In 2020, Brooks was charged with recklessly endangering safety and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to documents from the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office provided to NPR.

The documents also indicate that Brooks previously used his vehicle to cause harm.

This month, Brooks confronted a woman outside a motel, knocking her phone out of her hand and driving off. According to the documents, Brooks then returned, punched her in the face and ran her over with his vehicle.

The report notes that the woman had tire marks on her pants in addition to other injuries from the incident.

Brooks was charged on Nov. 5 in that incident. His bail was set at $1,000. He posted bail on Nov. 11 and was released from police custody.

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/23/10586828 ... ell-brooks

[Higgenbotham]

Healthcare in the New Dark Age - Part I

Nobody can afford this and it's on its way out, in my opinion.

Woman who died after waiting seven hours in ER told husband she thought she was dying

Why nurses say they are striking and quitting in droves

More than 7,000 union nurses went on strike in New York City this past week over concerns about understaffing and patient care. Workplace tensions are boiling over around the country this winter.

By Lauren Kaori Gurley
January 14, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST


This flu season, Benny Matthew — a nurse at the Montefiore Medical Center emergency room in the Bronx — has often been responsible for 15 to 20 patients at a time.

By 3 p.m. most days, the emergency room is often exploding with patients, Matthew said. Hospital gurneys stand inches apart. When beds run out, patients squeeze into tightly packed chairs. When the chairs run out, patients must stand. Wait times to see a doctor can be up to six hours. At the same time, the hospital is advertising more than 700 nursing positions.

“We go home feeling like failures,” Matthew said. “There are times when you can’t sleep because you’re thinking: ‘Did I do anything wrong today?'”

Matthew is one of more than 7,000 union nurses who went on strike in New York City this past week, protesting staffing levels, which led to two of the city’s largest nonprofit hospital systems to agree to strengthen staffing ratios at some hospitals. On Thursday, hundreds of health-care workers from around the country protested understaffing at HCA Healthcare, the nation’s largest hospital system. That included one worker from El Paso who recently admitted herself into her own emergency room for dehydration and exhaustion after working four 12-hour days in a row, her union said.

These tensions have continued to play out over the past month, as nurses have also protested, gone on strike or threatened strikes in California, Oregon, Michigan and Minnesota.

While understaffing has plagued some hospitals and medical centers nationwide for years, the pandemic added new layers of stress, as nurses worked through consecutive coronavirus outbreaks that killed and disabled thousands of health-care workers. The upswing of flu and respiratory diseases in the past several months has only worsened the situation.

With no end in sight, legions of nurses have left the field, retired early, or switched jobs. Some 100,000 nurses left the industry between 2020 and 2021, according to an industry trade-journal estimate. Although there were 4.4 million registered nurses with active licenses as of 2021, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, only 3 million people were employed as nurses, according to the Department of Labor.

Those who have remained have faced increasingly heavy workloads. They also gained more leverage in the tight labor market, leading nurses to organize new unions and even walk away from jobs to join the ranks of traveling nurses who parachute in from out of town to fill staffing gaps and tend to be paid more.

For other health-care workers who typically earn less than nurses — such as health-care technicians, dietitians and nursing assistants — the impacts of understaffing are just as bad.

“There is no morale left,” said Gregorio Oropeza, an admitting representative who registers patients at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Marina del Rey, Calif. Oropeza has colleagues who have had to drop out of the workforce after suffering severe symptoms from covid. “Everyone is there because they need a paycheck. They’re terrified of getting sick, but it is a job and they have to uphold a household.”

Oropeza and 400 of his colleagues went on a five-day strike with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West in December over understaffing and pay concerns, but union contract negotiations have continue to stall.

While some nurses are organizing, many have dropped out of the field entirely or plan to leave the industry. A 2022 survey by the staffing agency ShiftMed found that two-thirds of nurses say they are inclined to leave the profession within the next two years.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... 8fa1a1bac4

[Higgenbotham]

[aeden]

https://en.topwar.ru/204892-plan-androp ... -krah.html

Remove from important party, state, military posts people who could oppose the forthcoming radical restructuring.
Just changa a few names and the white garbed hopelessly past stupid as the harbinger's are and will be ignored.

Anyways. https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/ge ... Cold-Event
We know what and how as the pair of dimes are just barely Iyi.

The move is on right under their noses so this late marker will serve notice they are over years behind of sogo flows.
The investment in final expansion phase, from 2022 to 2025 as $780 million. Including the first and second phases regional hedges.
The third final phase added new upstream units and a splitter.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com ... 18GL078126

[Higgenbotham]

Does the best person get the job? No.

And it's gotten much worse since this article was written in 1987. I think nowadays the standard is for 9s to hire only 5s or less.

The Art Of Hiring '10s' Why your new recruits may not be as sharp at the people you used to hire

BY I. MARTIN JACKNIS

Have you noticed that the high level of enthusiasm and talent that characterized your organization when you started out is no longer the norm? If your answer is yes, you may find it puzzling. After all, you recruited first-rate talent, and you assume that your people continue to hire only the best.

Chances are your company has fallen victim to what I call the "law of diminishing expertise." It's an organizational weakness that's particularly virulent in fast-growing companies. And as I found from my own experience, it can be deadly if left unchecked.

Here's how it works. A hard-driving, creative person decides to start a company. By any standard, he'd be considered a natural "10." He's resourceful and enthusiastic, a dynamic self-starter who's determined to make his own venture a winner. He's such a strong 10, in fact, that he generates too much business to handle alone, and he has to bring in others to help him out.

That's a critical juncture in the growth of this imaginary new company. Will this 10 hire other 10s to work for him? Or will he hire 9s or even lower? It's obvious, you might say, that if he wants to maintain the momentum of his success, he shouldn't settle for anyone who doesn't meet or exceed the standards he personifies. Yet I maintain that, in most cases, a company founder like this wouldn't hire another 10 to work for him -- even if another 10 were willing to do it.

Like most 10s, he probably worked very hard to get where he is today. He has talent, drive, a well-developed ego, and likes to exercise a lot of control over his work environment. In fact, that's one of the main reasons he wanted to start his own business. So it's not likely he's going to bring in people who'll challenge his opinions or his authority, and other 10s might do just that. Besides, even if he wanted to hire others who could match him in every respect, most other 10s in the marketplace have their own egos and ambitions. They might consider working with another 10, but they certainly wouldn't want to work for one.

At the very best, then, this 10 will hire a few 9s, maybe with the potential to become 10s. So at this stage of its development, the growth chart of this company might look something like figure 1.

Well, there's nothing wrong with an organization that looks like that. A small business consisting of an exceptionally talented 10 and a crew of 9s can be a powerful team. So before you know it, the company will probably enter another growth curve, and still more talent will have to be brought on board.

At this point in the growth of his business, it's only reasonable that our founder is going to want the team members he's chosen to do their own hiring. After all, they're the ones who'll have to supervise the new recruits and work closely with them on a day-to-day basis. But here again, we have to ask the question we asked before. Will a 9 hire another 9? And, again, I contend that the answer generally is no. At best, a 9 will hire an 8 with potential, and the growth chart of the company now looks something like figure 2.

What's begun to happen in this organization is something that happens to many rapidly growing companies. Buoyed by the fresh ideas and enthusiasm of their founders, they seem to do well in their early stages. But then they reach a certain level of growth -- in my experience, usually around the $10-million mark -- at which they begin to lose their cohesiveness and sometimes even self-destruct. Let me tell you how I first discovered the law of diminishing expertise.

Several years ago, I helped start Creative Output Inc. We grew from 2 employees to around 130 in a little more than three years, and in 1984 we reached #6 in the INC. 500 rankings. In the beginning, I handled all the marketing, sales, public relations, and advertising for the firm. But as the business flourished, I added new staff members in a fashion similar to what I described above.

Then one day I decided to go on a sales call with a 9 I had hired and one of his 8s. I sat back, relaxed, and watched attentively while the 8 gave his presentation to a prospective client. Afterward, when I asked him how well he thought he had done, he proudly told me that, on a scale of 1 to 10, he firmly believed his performance was a solid 9. Then I asked my 9 how well he thought his 8 did, and he told me the presentation was really no more than a 7.

When I got back to my office, I felt like crying. The salesman's presentation, in fact, was barely a 5 compared with what we had been doing in the past. And I realized that if this pattern continued, our company wouldn't be able to survive for very long, much less prosper. What really bothered me was that our 8 had characterized his performance as a 9. What if we were to allow him to hire what he considered a 7? Then that person's perception of an outstanding job would be the equivalent of what I would judge to be a 2!

I suspect that the law of diminishing expertise is universal.

https://www.inc.com/magazine/19871001/1614.html

[John]

Wednesday, January 25th, 2023.

the above is interesting because it provides a top down explanation of what's going on. The bottom up explanation is the Peter principle, which says that very employee rises to his level of incompetence .

[Higgenbotham]

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE: SHW) reported results for its fourth quarter of 2022 Thursday morning, with earnings per share slightly better than analysts estimates and revenue slightly below what was expected. Sherwin-Williams also issued earnings per share guidance for 2023 that was well below what analysts were expected, sending shares lower by about 9%. The lower-than-expected guidance reflects a “very challenging demand environment in 2023.”

Sherwin-Williams reported fourth quarter EPS of $1.89, $0.03 better than the analyst estimates of $1.86. Revenue for the quarter came in at $5.23 billion versus the consensus estimate of $5.26 billion. The company guided 2023 adjusted EPS of $7.95-$8.65, lower than the analyst estimate of $10.14.

“…we will not be immune from what we expect to be a very challenging demand environment in 2023,” explained Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, John G. Morikis. “Visibility beyond our first half of the year is limited. On the architectural side, U.S. housing will be under significant pressure this year. Slowing existing home sales and continued high inflation also will be headwinds. On the industrial side, we have already seen a slowdown in Europe, and the same is beginning to appear in the U.S. across several sectors. In China, COVID remains a factor and the trajectory of economic recovery is difficult to map.”

Sherwin-Williams also thinks the U.S housing slowdown also will impact some of its industrial businesses, namely Industrial Wood and Coil.

"Against this backdrop, we expect 2023 first quarter consolidated net sales growth to be flat to up a mid-single digit percentage compared to the first quarter of 2022. For the full year 2023, relying on indicators we see at this time, we expect consolidated net sales to be down a mid-single digit percentage to flat compared to 2022. With annual sales at this level, we are introducing diluted net income per share guidance in the range of $6.79 to $7.59 per share, including acquisition-related amortization expense of $0.81 per share and restructuring expense of $0.25 to $0.35 per share. Full year 2023 adjusted diluted net income per share is expected to be in the range of $7.95 to $8.65 per share compared to $8.73 per share in 2022.”

https://www.streetinsider.com/Guidance/ ... 16324.html

Analysts had been expecting earnings of $10.17 per share for 2023. Don't expect this forecast to sober up Wall Street any time soon.

[Higgenbotham]

I drew the excess out Friday and took it back down to the baseline. I don't have any positions now but have a couple strategies in mind for my next attempt to be a winner in the lottery economy. Paying close attention to and understanding manipulation and fraud seems to be my best strategy lately for cashing in on the lottery economy. I may show some examples as they come up. There was a good one on Friday; well, probably more than one but one that I saw.

My equity is up slightly since posting this. I'm a bit short from an average of 3995 on the S&P. I'm operating as if the S&P will move somewhat higher, but the stock market likes to turn down on the 26th of the month sometimes.

[aeden]

Being liquid enough to buy after the crash will assure fresh Hamburg from the young bulls that sprinted into this clear current maelstrom
as the dumb money indicator screams at them.