You can't bullshit an old bullshitter

The world's toughest job?  Being the public relations guy for a bank.  This was a tiny little article in today's paper:

Greece offered universal health coverage until an agreement with its international lenders (banks) stipulated the unemployed must pay for their own treatment.

Isn't this just bringing the unemployed into line with the banking policy of charging customers a hefty fee for bouncing a check?  They're just charging you more of what they already know you don't have any of.  Duh!

A close second might be the PR guy representing Foxconn, the huge Chinese electronics contractor who employs hundreds of thousands of low-wage workers to assemble iPads for Apple.  (Their motto...."The beatings will continue until morale improves.") 

"They actually like working 18 hour days, on account of there isn't anything to do back in the dorm with their 250 roommates."

The Feds are suing Bank of America, accusing them of making home loans without ever even checking borrower credentials, a policy known mockingly within the company as "the Hustle".  They then sold the loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, where they mostly went straight into default.  

The taxpayers had to assume the loss when Fannie and Freddie failed, and now the Feds are going back on B of A.  How might the bank's PR guy possibly spin this?  "Ahh....umm....the Hustle?....that was just a dance contest we had on casual Friday's, that's all.  We're good."

Another tough one....the PR guy for bankrupt American Airlines.  "If we don't give big bonuses to our senior executives we'll lose our top talent to our competitors."  

Dude, you're BANKRUPT.  You don't HAVE any top talent.  That's why you're BANKRUPT!

You can't bullshit an old bullshitter.  ;)

S

"It's deja vu all over again"....

....At least that's what the legendary Yogi Berra would call it.  Only after I'd left the store did it dawn on me that I must be entering my second childhood.  I can just barely remember it, but I felt like the ultimate 1st grade stud when I got my first big boy tablet:

Now here I am many birthday candles later with another new "tablet":

It's a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0). 

We're breaking ground tomorrow on a new custom home and it looks like I'll be spending a fair amount of my semi-retired time on-site.  From what I'm told a "tablet" is the new clipboard, the universal symbol that says, "Don't ask me to actually DO anything.  I'm just a supervisor."

So far my impression is it's very intuitive, which is good because if it wasn't, this old Neanderthal would simply be the proud owner of a Samsung Rock.  I had an early iPad and didn't care for it because it was too big to lug around.  This is about the size of a Kindle.....juuuuust right.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you're on the waiting list for a new iPhone 5 your wait just got a little longer.  It seems that last night there was a big riot at one of the Foxconn factories in China that makes components for Apple:

The plant employs 79,000 workers and it took 5,000 riot police to restore order.  The facility is closed for at least today.  If there's a silver lining in this (for the US) it's that Chinese workers are getting restless and demanding better pay and working conditions.  Maybe we'll see a few of those outsourced jobs start to come back home?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The TV news (?) this morning was all abuzz about who wore what to the Emmy Awards last night.  What caught my eye/ear was they kept saying "....and it looked like she was wearing Jimmy Choo shoes."

So how can you tell?  Is there some identifying logo on there somewhere?  I mean, if you're wearing the shoes, and your foot is covering the name, how would anyone know?  I guess in glitzy Hollywood this is a big status symbol, but where I'm from this just screams, "Look at me!  I just dropped a THOUSAND bucks on a pair of shoes.  How dumb am I?"  I wanna know who Jimmy Choo's VP Sales/Marketing is.  He's good.  Really good!

Guess I'd better go do something constructive.  Have a good day everyone.

S