From mensch commentor and cat-rescuer Marc:
Here is Miri and her five (5) little ones.
She started giving birth on Friday, just before noon, and the last one arrived a little after 10pm. Looks like she is a fine mother, even though this is her first and will be her only litter. I’m keeping an eye on mom and kitts, but so far everyone seems happy and healthy!
Just two months ago, Miri was a scruffy homeless teenager; just last month, Marc discovered he would be taking on a little more responsibility than he intended. Those babies are adorable, and I’m sure they’ll have no trouble finding new homes once they’re old enough. Can’t blame Miri for looking a little pleased with herself!
***********
Apart from wishing health & prosperity to the new family, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
J R in WV
Good morning, A-L. Miri does look a little smug, doesn’t she?
But such a family portrait~! And she should be a little satisfied, giving birth to a whole group of descendants that look so much like she does.
Wonderful to distract us from the continuous babble of politics, also, too!
Steeplejack
@Anne Laurie:
Picture goes upside down if you click to enlarge it (at least for me—Firefox on Windows 7).
I knew if I stayed up late enough I’d catch the early-morning post.
Having said that, I’m beat after a busy Sunday, and I’m going to bed in a few minutes. Nothing much planned for today (Monday). Some desk work, some housecleaning and rearranging. Must check to see if there’s an EPL match in the afternoon.
ETA: Ah, Liverpool vs. Bournemouth at 3:00 p.m. EDT. The Premier League version of Monday Night Football.
raven
@J R in WV: I keep trying to ask you a question and you keep not seeing it!
Keith G
Miri seems deep into the breastfeeding endorphin rush. I am grasping a different rush as I finish off my french press extracted coffee.
Patricia Kayden
Such a sweet way to begin a new week! That’s a lovely photo. Thanks to Marc for taking on mummy and her kittens. Hope they all find forever homes soon.
sm*t cl*de
Oxytocin is a helluva drug.
PaulW
KITTEHS!
Oh, I miss Ocean’s litter right about now… Except for Mal. I kept him and he’s been driving me crazy. …Should have kept River…
JPL
Kittens are so cute. Marc, Keep sending pictures so we can see how they progress.
MomSense
Well done, Miri and Marc. What a sweet photo to start the day.
danielx
She does look seriously blissed out.
JPL
Jay Carney is going to be on CBS to defend Amazon. I didn’t realize that is where he landed after his stint at the White House.
OzarkHillbilly
Kittens. Aaacckkk! Cuteness overload.
Meanwhile, In our nation’s northwest, it’s a great time to be a firefighter, but maybe not for long:
The only way to fix firefighting in a nation that will, in the future, need more of it is increased spending. On Friday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the US Forest Service was spending about $100m a week fighting wildfires and will exhaust its firefighting budget next week.
This may be the year an annual regional problem crosses the threshold, and becomes a perennial national emergency.
bystander
I finally realized how evil Amazon is when their dupes on ABC News waxed orgasmic over Amazon’s announcement that it was going to use drones to deliver orders. Of course, no thought or word to the concept that just maybe, perhaps the air isn’t the property of Amazon to use like a factory conveyor belt.
JPL
Amazon’s answer seems to be, it doesn’t describe the Amazon I know. Carney was asked if there was something factual wrong with the article, and he said that yes because the article didn’t say most of the practices, i.e. no paternity leave was practiced by a lot of companies. He also talked about turnover being in line with most companies. In other words, they got nothing.
ixnay
Only about 15% of orange cats are female – has to do with the genes for color being on the sex chromosomes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_coat_genetics
Way too much information, except for those of us who love cats and have a scientific bent.
satby
Beautiful kittens! Baby animals always make me want one. Then I remember how many animals I already have and come to my senses
They will find homes fast, they’re adorable.
Elmo
@ixnay: And even fewer calicoes are male, right? I thought I heard that somewhere.
Iowa Old Lady
Congrats to Miri and Marc.
ETA: Does that sound…wrong?
Elizabelle
@JPL:
Glad to see the Amazon dystopia story making the airwaves. Needs a good hard look. This is not the “success” story you want to see for your kids or future employees, and it’s way beyond a few disgruntled bad apples. You do not want these workplace practices rewarded, and coming to your employer.
It’s badmouthing each other, in public and to supervisors, sweatshops with keyboards, heavy turnover, and a form of indentured servitude (give back the bonus and relocation expenses if you leave before a year or two of 85-hours per week workloads, including long conference calls on federal holidays).
Here is the NYTimes version, with 3,500+ comments and they’re still open for more. Way after midnight Sunday, started to see some weak tea pushback by Amazon-supporting commenters (employees, PR, trolls, you be the judge).
Here is the same NYTimes story, republished in the Seattle Times, with 446 PNW commenters (and a few Amazon trolls) weighing in.
Some provide a bit more local color, about the “Amholes” effect on their city and economy. But for the Koolaid drinkers, the Seattle folks say the story tracks with what they’ve heard and observed, for some time now.
ixnay
@Elmo: Male calicoes have a chromosomal anomaly: they are XXY (in humans, it’s Klinefelter syndrome). In nigh-on 30 years of veterinary practice, I have seen two.
ixnay
@efgoldman: I’m not gonna go there.
JPL
@Elizabelle: The push back is weak though. It’s not the Amazon I know.
I was pleased when CBS asked if Carney could point to something in the article that was wrong. His everyone does it response was telling.
It’s time for me to shop elsewhere.
BobS
@Keith G: No other method comes close to French press — it’s worth every second of the extra time it takes.
This is pretty interesting:French press coffee
And this is a good source for fair trade/shade grown/organic beans:Peace Coffee
Elizabelle
Those are some darling cats. All color coordinated and everything.
Quite unlike the Ginger and pups set.
debbie
@Elizabelle:
They’re like a living tableau of Mendel’s Peas.
Elizabelle
@JPL: From Geekwire: Jeff Bezos’ email response to employees re the NYTimes story. He is shocked, shocked, I tell you. Link has the full Bezos text.
Geekwire reporter John Cook’s intro:
From Bezos’ email:
I think that “intentional” in Bezos’ email does a lot of heavy lifting.
Several NYTimes reader commenters have mentioned other area firms steer clear of former Amazon employees who were with the company two years or longer. They absorbed the culture, and it poisons the new workplace.
caroln
@ixnay: Several years ago I was at a cat show and there was a male calico who had fathered 2 litters in his randier days. Apparently they are usually sterile .
Roger Moore
@Elmo:
Almost none. The color gene is on the X chromosome, so only cats with two X chromosomes can have both black and red fur. All females have two X chromosomes (of course) but only males with rare genetic conditions do.
Elizabelle
From the NYTimes Amazon story, on motherhood and electronic backstabbing not mixing:
dedc79
@BobS: ever tried an aeropress? I was skeptical but it makes a really good cup of coffee. I still use the french press on weekends, but the aeropress is much quicker/easier to clean.
bystander
The response to no paternity leave (“well, hardly anybody does that!”) should lead everyone to understand the real Amazon business model. Walmart but you have to provide the lamps for your mining hat.
dmsilev
@Elizabelle: I was reading a discussion thread on the Amazon story on a board that is heavy with IT folks and the like, and there were several people who said that they’ve never given Amazon recruiters the time of day, that the company has had a reputation for years as being a crappy-ass work environment. A lot of their hires apparently are fresh out of college, i.e. too young to know better.
Elizabelle
From the NYTimes story:
[***re the emphasis on disagreeing: from elsewhere in the story: “Of all of [Bezos’] management notions, perhaps the most distinctive is his belief that harmony is often overvalued in the workplace — that it can stifle honest critique and encourage polite praise for flawed ideas. Instead, Amazonians are instructed to “disagree and commit” (No. 13) — to rip into colleagues’ ideas, with feedback that can be blunt to the point of painful, before lining up behind a decision.
“We always want to arrive at the right answer,” said Tony Galbato, vice president for human resources, in an email statement. “It would certainly be much easier and socially cohesive to just compromise and not debate, but that may lead to the wrong decision.”]
BobS
@dedc79: I haven’t — I’ll check it out (probably not on Amazon) for mornings I’m running short on time and can’t lounge around getting lost on the internet.
Elizabelle
@dmsilev: Yeah, lot of comments on that. But I suspect most people have no idea what kind of environment Amazon provides (unintentionally, too, if you believe Chairman Bezos). I shall be making no more purchases from them. A Year without Amazon.
On how they persuade the young to stay (and bear in mind, many of these hires have heavy student loan debt):
khead
Anyone care to share some advice on how to trap (or just catch) feral cats?
BobS
Should we expect something defending Amazon on the opinion page of The Washington Post?
Cervantes
@raven:
Answered it.
Gimlet
@Elizabelle:
Sounds like just the niche for those worker visas that fill jobs Americans don’t have the STEM training for.
BobS
@khead: Havahart live traps. Over the past several days I’ve trapped and released 3 racoons that have been vandalizing the various bird feeders we have out back (it would have been a lot less effort to just shoot them but I always feel like an asshole killing animals that aren’t intended for the table — plus we have miles and miles of woodlands nearby in which to relocate them). The one problem you may run into is that the bait you use for cats is the same bait that will lure skunks — good luck with that.
rikyrah
aweeee, they look so cute.
Blessings to Marc.
rikyrah
Einstein at Lincoln University
During the last twenty years of his life, Einstein almost never spoke at universities. He considered the honorary-degree ceremonies to which he was frequently invited to be “ostentatious.” Moreover, the abdominal aneurysm that would eventually take his life caused him increasing pain and made it difficult to travel. Given the constant stream of university invitations, he found it easiest to adopt a just-say-no rule. In May 1946, he broke that rule to speak at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. Both the year and the choice of school are significant.
About 60 miles from Princeton, Lincoln University was chartered in 1854 as, in the words of its eighth president Horace Mann Bond, “the first institution found anywhere in the world to provide a higher education in the arts and sciences for male youth of African descent.” In 1946, When Dr. Bond invited Einstein to Lincoln, the student body consisted of 265 men. “It was still a small school,” Mrs. Julie Bond, Dr. Bond’s widow, recalls. “But of course, everyone came to hear Einstein. We didn’t have a hall big enough, so we held the ceremony outdoors in the grove.”
“On Friday, May 3rd, a very simple man came to Lincoln University,” one student wrote a few days later in the school newspaper:
His emaciated face and simplicity made him appear as a biblical character. Quietly he stood with an expression of questioning wonder upon his face as…President Horace Mann Bond conferred a degree. Then this man with the long hair and deep eyes spoke into a microphone of the disease [racism] that humanity had. In the deep accents of his native Germany he said he could not be silent. And then he finished and the room was still. Later he lectured on the theory of relativity to the Lincoln students.
That night, Albert Einstein went back to Princeton…
Dr. Bond’s son chuckles today when he looks at an old photo of Lincoln faculty members’ children with the famous scientist: “Family lore has Einstein telling me ‘Don’t remember anything that is already written down.’ And although I do not recall this exchange” — he was barely four years old at the time — “I have followed this advice ever since.” (Whether Einstein’s advice helped or not, Julian Bond grew up to become a civil rights activist, State Assemblyman, TV talk-show host and Chairman of the NAACP.)
In accepting the invitation, Einstein clearly intended to send a message to a wider audience. But the media then — like the media since then — had different news priorities. While almost all of Einstein’s public speeches and interviews were widely covered by the major media, in this case, most of the press treated the address by the world’s most famous scientist at the world’s oldest black university as a non-event.
http://www.theeinsteinfile.com/portal/alias__einstein/lang__en-US/tabid__3341/default.aspx
Elizabelle
@BobS: Good point. Let’s watch.
I did think the NYTimes story was a coup on several fronts; highlighting a Dickensian electronic workplace, and a great stab at the owner of a major competitor, The Washington Post.
A lot of us knew about deplorable conditions in the fulfillment warehouses. That the corporate offices were such a rat’s nest, on purpose, came as news.
Big Brother World. We are not machines.
rikyrah
D. J. A. ROSETE, Jr.
@djrosete W.E.B. Du Bois holding Julian Bond’s hand (1942; photo., property, UMass-Amherst): actually not so long ago at all…
https://twitter.com/djrosete/status/631617674817114114
Elizabelle
@rikyrah: Thank you. Fascinating.
Julian’s full name was Horace Julian Bond.
rikyrah
seems as if they brought down the house.
…………..
‘Empire’ Stars Jussie Smollett, Yazz the Greatest Bring The House Down at Teen Choice Awards
Jussie Smollett and Bryshere “Yazz the Greatest” Gray, two of the breakout stars of the hit Fox show “Empire,” took the stage by storm at Sunday’s Teen Choice Awards.
The pair performed “You’re So Beautiful,” a song from the show that holds special significance for Smollett’s character, Jamal Lyon. It is the song he performs when he announces to the world that he is gay in the episode “The Lyon’s Roar.”
Smollett led things off, performing the original lyrics to the song made famous on the show. He then called Yazz to the stage, who dropped a fresh lyric, much to the delight of the crowd.
Smollett and Yazz were originally only backed up by a troupe of dancers clad in white, but were joined onstage about midway through the performance by their co-star Gabourey Sidibe. Sidibe did not sing, but joined in on the dance routine. She plays Lucious Lyon’s assistant Becky on the show. She was also nominated for an Academy Award in 2010 for her performance in “Precious.”
http://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/celebrity-specials/%e2%80%98empire%e2%80%99-stars-jussie-smollett-yazz-the-greatest-bring-the-house-down-at-teen-choice-awards/ar-BBlNrIU?ocid=HPCDHP
khead
@BobS:
Thanks. There’s a momma cat and her three kittens living in a patch of woods behind our house. We’ve been feeding them for a month or two and they are actually trained enough to come out to the back door when we feed them. Hell, they are out there eating right now. But we can’t touch them. No chance. Any sound and they are GONE. Since we feel responsible (we fed the momma, which started this), we want to catch all of them. Preferably at once but I have no idea how hard that would be. And we also have a possum and raccoon somewhere that we keep chasing off so I don’t want to catch them.
We were thinking about just opening the back door and seeing if they will walk in the basement – that’s what our last rescue cat did, it just walked in to get the food – but I am not holding my breath on that idea succeeding again.
OzarkHillbilly
@BobS: I trapped a skunk once. I leave the rest for you to figure out.
OzarkHillbilly
@khead: You won’t get them all at once. Took me 8 days to get all of a family of 7 coons.
sparrow
@Elizabelle: It’s bad. I admit to being a total Amazon addict, and I am now planning to use them very little if at all (only as last resort for books if they can’t be got elsewhere). I got *very* used to getting pretty much anything I want in the mail (I don’t have a car, getting a zipcar is kind of a hassle, not to mention expensive, if you don’t need it urgently). Ah the pain of actually having to live by your principles…
Schlemazel
Just woke up on the left coast & the morning thread is practically dead. Seems like a typical Bay Area morning so far, 101 is a parking lot, 280 is slow and go. I used to love this place but I am grateful I never took that job here.
BobS
@khead: One of our two cats is the last of a litter of 3 we ‘adopted’ when the mother delivered the kittens under a cranberry bush at the side of the house (the two males disappeared when they were 2 yrs and 3 yrs). The second is a feral cat (who could be the twin of the mother in the photo above) who showed up in the middle of winter a couple years ago – he looked pathetic peering in the back door. Initially he was supposed to just get as far as the mudroom to get warm — that plan changed.
BobS
@Schlemazel: I lived in Santa Rosa for a couple years in the mid-70’s. Never got back to northern California until my wife and I visited our son when he was working in the east bay a few years ago — what a difference.
rikyrah
Weekend B.O. Aug 14-16 (‘Straight Outta Compton’ Is One for the History Books)
Shadow and Act
What did I tell you? But did anyone believe me? Maybe one or two did, but some of you thought I had lost my cotton-picking mind.
I’m referring to my prediction two weeks ago when I said that F. Gary Gray’s “the-making-of-NWA” movie “Straight Outta Compton” would gross $40 million in its opening weekend.
Judging from the comments I got, there were those who thought that amount was highly doubtful, and that the film would gross half that much, if it all. You just didn’t see what interest there would be for the film. Well, I saw it, and it was HUGE. People were even texting and posting pictures on their Facebook pages of the tickets for the movie that they bought in advance. How often does that happen for any film?
Well, it seems that I underestimated what the film would do,as it turns out that “Compton” grossed an astounding $56 million this weekend. Furthermore, not only will it go past the $100 million domestic gross I predicted, but with that huge opening, even bigger than “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” that means “Compton” has achieved something that has never been done before.
That $56 million makes it the biggest opening ever for any film with a black cast and a black director, and it’s set to become the biggest grossing black cast/black director film as well. It’s the perfect triangulation of the right film at the right time for the right audience.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/weekend-bo-aug-14-16-one-for-the-history-books-20150816
JPL
@sparrow: It’s time to cut the cord. When work conditions at Amazon’s warehouses, were questioned, it appeared they took the complaints seriously and took steps to improve the conditions. All I heard this morning, was it’s not the Amazon I know. There is not even an acknowledgement that there might be room for improvement.
khead
@OzarkHillbilly:
Yeah, I kinda figured. But that leads to my next dumb question: If I catch the mom first, how long will it take for the kittens come back? I’m guessing not that long since the raccoons kept coming. But the kittens have to come too.
@BobS:
We thought the momma had been fixed because that’s what a neighbor told us when we moved in – but it turns out it was the momma’s momma that was fixed. Heh. They look like twins. Lesson learned.
Edit – I saw the 8 days. I was just wondering if it was any harder to catch them after the first couple of days.
Gin & Tonic
@rikyrah: Thank you for that. I had no idea.
rikyrah
and the difference between Trump and Jeb’s positions?
Jeb tells them, politely in Spanish, you can stay here, but you’ll never be a citizen.
that’s pretty much it.
…………………………..
Trump eyes mass deportations for millions
08/17/15 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
It was just a couple of weeks ago when Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump first raised the prospect of mass deportations for millions of immigrants already in the United States. The GOP candidate quickly joined what the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent calls the “Cattle Car Caucus.”
At the time, Trump made no effort to explain how, exactly, he intends to identify, detain, and deport roughly 11 million people, or how he intends to pay for such a massive undertaking. “Politicians aren’t going to find them because they have no clue,” Trump said. “We will find them, we will get them out.”
As MSNBC’s Anna Brand noted, Trump is now going into a little more detail on the issue that’s helped propel him to the front of the Republican pack.
Donald Trump on Sunday released his detailed immigration reform plan, encompassing the sentiment he expressed in an interview on “Meet the Press” that aired just an hour earlier: Undocumented immigrants “have to go.”
Watching the interview yesterday, the exchange pointed to an apparent contradiction. “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd asked the GOP candidate, “You’re going to split up families. You’re going to deport children?”
“No, no,” Trump responded. “We’re going to keep the families together. We have to keep the families together.”
Todd followed up, “But you’re going to kick them out?” To which Trump replied, simply, “They have to go.”
If this seems like a policy mess, there’s a good reason for that. There are many undocumented immigrants, for example, whose children are American citizens, born in the United States. Deporting every immigrant who entered the country illegally, in practical terms, would mean separating parents from their own children.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-eyes-mass-deportations-millions
Sherparick
Just a comment on Bernie Sanders with Black voters. Bernie has been a politician/activist in Vermont for 40 years. However, Vermont is one of the “whitest” states in the Union with only a 1% demographic of African Americans in its population. Blacks as a group has never been a political interest that Bernie had to interact with and ask for votes as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont’s sole representative in the House, or as a Senator. This has resulted in a tone deafness when dealing with one of the largest and biggest constituent groups in the modern Democratic party.
RIP Julian Bond. I will always remember him from the Democratic Conventions of 1964-1972, when he was the “young radical” just elected to the Georgia State Senate and having his his name put into nomination for Vice-President.
Elizabelle
@sparrow: Some readers were suggesting this site, for cutting the chord. http://www.fleethejungle.com
Sherparick
Also, on uplifting pet news, there is this on the Daily Kos – http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/08/16/1412637/-Superhero-Dog-calls-911-pulls-owner-from-house-fire
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Wonderful, wonderful story. I am going to give this to my kids to read.
Botsplainer
@rikyrah:
Substitute “Jews” for undocumented immigrants, and the modern conservative mindset becomes abundantly clear.
MattF
@Elizabelle:
Remember the Amazon ‘Fire Phone’? It was the first real Amazon failure, and it’s pretty clear that Bezos was responsible. And it has to be noted, specifically, that Amazon’s various dysfunctions all go back to Bezos– he’s not a disinterested observer.
Paul in KY
5 is a lot for 1st litter. Glad they are all OK.
Paul in KY
@Elmo: A male calico is very rare.
Elizabelle
@debbie: Indeed. And the pink blankie brings out their coloring.
Did you all notice that Miri is in somewhat the same pose as Thurston, from the post immediately below?
Now I think Thurston’s caption should be “why are you looking at me? I am not nursing.”
Elizabelle
@MattF: Down the memory hole, but you are right.
Look out WaPost: commenter over the weekend informed that Bezos might have to take a more active role in managing the newspaper — like 500 hours of work (annually) and up — if he wants to maintain his tax dodge.
Also: Before hearing about the sh*tshow at corporate, I was thinking about Amhole’s Fire stick. Looked like cost efficient entertainment.
Not now, though.
Paul in KY
@khead: Use one of those cage traps with the kick plate. Put some tuna in it as bait & put a blanket around whole thing, to give it a cave like entrance. Will probably also catch raccoons & skunks.
Paul in KY
@khead: Might be harder to catch the last ones, if they are smart & witnessed what went down with the others.
Joel
@Elizabelle: Anyways, like I said the other day, I’m still a bit skeptical on this.
Joel
I just got a Jared Fogel Subway ad on the BJ feed.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
@rikyrah:
I’m not surprised at all. The studio really got behind it and the trailers were AMAZING. Out here in La-La Land, even the alternative rock station had a “Straight Outta Compton” afternoon because a lot of the deejays had grown up with NWA, seen early shows, etc.
Steeplejack (phone)
@khead:
Alley Cat Allies. The “Get Help” link on their front page leads to a lot of good resources. I have some friends in Atlanta who were able to capture, neuter and release a whole colony of ferals that were living in the woods behind their house. They found Alley Cat Allies invaluable.
Southern Beale
SO CUTE!
WANT want WANT want WANT want WANT.
Not really. We’re down to 6 cats now. Hoping to eventually get down to a manageable 2. Someday.
Mnemosyne (tablet)
A fly got into the apartment and Charlotte is in seventh heaven at the prospect of having something she can kill. She’ll probably get it, too — she is a mighty huntress.
Joel
@rikyrah: Considering the Biggie hagiography (Notorious) grossed $36 million for its entire run, that is pretty surprising.
Elizabelle
@Joel: You did mention that. What makes you skeptical? (I mean, besides the fact that it’s the NYTimes taking a whack at the business practices of a guy who just happens to also own The Washington Post?)
I shared the story because it sounded well-sourced to me; Bezos has not really addressed the specifics; and because I have a horror of electronic Big Brother intruding even further into the American workplace.
We are humans, not robots. And technology was supposed to aid us, not enslave us. This is capitalism unregulated, and it usually does not end well.
PaulW
I know there are people dissing Amazon, but right now the ebook anthology my writers group published is only available as Kindle download, so ppplllleeeeeaaasssseeeeee be considerate of the small self-publishers and thank ye.
Paul in KY
@Southern Beale: Am down to 3. Do not want to ever go above 3 again.
Joel
@Elizabelle: My skepticism generally arises from my experience with folks working at Amazon — they’re generally pretty happy and good family folks. I know plenty of people working excessive hours with little reward, working in academic science, patent law, biotechnology, so it’s not like I don’t have a frame of reference.
I will say that I’m impressed by the large volume of interviews — apparently over 100 — in that piece. There could be a different culture for people higher up the ladder than those lower down.
WereBear
@PaulW: I went through something similar a couple of years ago, when my husband’s Facebook feed was filled with dire shares about how horrible Apple’s Chinese manufacturing practices were. As Apple people whose small business runs on tech, this was disconcerting.
Only it turned out PC Chinese manufacturing was far worse, and it was a campaign designed to smokescreen that.
I also put my book (soon to be books) out through Amazon e-publishing, and it’s a tremendous relief to do so after decades of getting just-this-close to being published back when I had an agent, and more recently, getting outright ignored by publishing houses who have also fired all their copy editors and take a year to reply… while you are not supposed to submit it anywhere else. And the slush pile is a thing of the past.
I try to be ethical with my consumer buying. But at the same time I have to do things where sometimes there’s only one place for me to go. I have a white hot hate for the way our modern pharmaceutical companies do business, for instance, and do all I can to avoid putting coin in their pockets.
But when I was writhing on the floor from my shingles pain, I took a prescription drug.
Because it was the only one that worked.
WereBear
@Mnemosyne (tablet): Our indoor cats are thrilled when a fly gets in, as they not only get to hunt it down, but eat it, too.
Roger Moore
@Elizabelle:
The recent NY Times piece on the nail salon business should serve as a warning about sensationalistic journalism. They portrayed the whole industry as incredibly abusive but were unable to substantiate some of their strongest claims; the biggest one was their inflation of a couple of ads offering below minimum wage rates to trainees into the Chinese language newspapers being full of ads for below minimum wage rates for regular workers. It’s possible that the piece on Amazon could be similar: treating abusive tendencies in a few places in the company as proof that the whole company is awful.
Of course, you have to be careful about going too far the opposite direction. The piece on nail salons did show some pervasive problems with improper treatment of nasty chemicals, which, IIRC, the city is now dealing with. Similarly, the Amazon piece did show there were some practices (e.g. locking employees in by requiring them to reimburse moving expenses if they quit) that are undoubtedly abusive and are clearly implemented at the corporate level.
Elizabelle
@Joel:
@Roger Moore:
Thank you both. I look forward to seeing the Amazon workplace practices story play out, and to having a longterm discussion on what capitalism and technology owes its employees, clients, and society. Amazon looks like a canary to me.
Elizabelle
@Joel: PS: are you in the Seattle area? Or another location? Just curious if there’s a corporate HQ vs. field offices difference.
Thanks.
raven
I worked at the post office for about 7 months in the early 70’s. There is a reason for the phrase “going postal”. It was the most oppressive and hostile environment I’ve been in outside of bootcamp. I got fired and never looked back but some of my buddies made it a career. I think Joel is onto something.
WereBear
Oh, there’s no question that modern corporate practices tend to be sucky. That’s why I’m skeptical of tactics that target this or that offender, when they ALL need to shape up.
For instance, I have yet to hear of high level jobs that are really understanding of the pull or responsibility of family life. From CBS giving Meredith Viera a hard time because she wanted to pull back to part-time when her boys were little — part time being 40 hours a week.
To the high powered financial executive who felt forced to board a helicopter for a big meeting… leaving behind her son, who was having seizures from a high fever. Mortified that she had chosen work in such a circumstance, she later quit.
A lot of corporate attitudes were formed when executives had a wife who took care of such things. And a single paycheck could pay for such things.
JPL
@Roger Moore: Hopefully, Amazon addresses the problems better than they did on the morning shows. It’s not acceptable to say well other companies have high turnover, too and it’s not the amazon, I know.
Another Holocene Human
Arrrgh! So pissed at Gawker and Jezebel commenters today. AFAIC they can FOADIAF.
Pro-tip: if you’re not gay or trans and know literally two things about that, stop jumping in the comments trying to “help”. You’re not helping.
And, no, you’re not pro-LGBT if you get very specifically skeptical and trample all over gender non-conforming people when they dare to open their mouth and talk about it
IT SOUND WEIRD TO YOU BECAUSE THEY’RE DIFFERENT FROM YOU. That’s the point.
/rant
Elizabelle
@WereBear: How are you feeling? Spiffier, I hope. Have you been viewing some good flicks, or reading any good books?
(FWIW, the Amazon dustup reminded me to pull down free online versions of 1984 and Brave New World. Got to read up on my dystopias.)
Another Holocene Human
@Roger Moore: I believe everything said about Amazon at this point given how they’ve treated their warehouse workers, whether they were direct hires or contract.
There have been a couple of years of labor actions and litigation around this. (And, sadly, our corrupt SCOTUS handed the Amazon workers and all workers a devastating defeat on one of them.) You can’t have been unaware of it.
Perhaps you think the company that kicks its blue collars in the pants may draw a firewall around its white collars and treat them differently?
Possible … but my experience says otherwise.
Another Holocene Human
@WereBear: Heh, my kitty too.
Sadly, when a roach got in, she let it get away. It managed to wriggle out of her mouth.
And yet we feed this deadbeat anyway!
Another Holocene Human
@PaulW: Amazon is still the place in the book space. I’m kind of sad about what happened to the rest of their business, though. They’re competing with EBay as a clearing house for legit and questionable online retailers to connect with customers. It makes buying from Amazon super confusing and troublesome. It’s also hard to find shit because it’s SEO’d up. At least EBay divides everything into smaller and smaller categories.
WereBear
@Elizabelle: I am guardedly better, thanks. Fell in love with Blacklist on TV/Netflix, and in books, read Neverland, a truly haunting, true tale about the writer behind Peter Pan.
Elie
Thank you for such a nice beginning to the week…
Busy week for me with a lot of work issues that do not have easy resolution…
Looking forward to celebrating my anniversary and birthday at end of the week in a nice cabin in British Columbia… (have to check the fire status again before we leave) — Crossed fingers…
Happy end of summer to all B-Jrs!
Another Holocene Human
@rikyrah: Fascinating.
It has always bothered me how Einstein’s image has been used, co-opted*, and sanitized by various groups of Americans.
Much like Helen Keller …
*quite literally–here is a Jew who had fled the German-speaking world due to prejudice, and some people have the gall to spread the fiction that he converted to Christianity before he died
Elie
@Another Holocene Human:
Totally agree…
The corporate work environment these days is a different kettle of fish that even 10 years ago. I used to like my work a lot lot more than now. It has infected hospitals and health care as well (I am a nurse working as a health care consultant on IT and related products). We used to have fun and enjoy innovation and creativity. Now, innovation and creativity are “demanded” without the wrap around culture to support it — the owners do not really want to take risk or make mistakes so your ideas had better work perfectly out the gate…
Another Holocene Human
@Elizabelle: Why not just investigate and educate????
How is a bunch of people playing out their worst narcissistic impulses supposed to help a business succeed? If it ever worked it would be the first time.
And all that nasty destroys the comity and ability to collaborate and communicate that you’re going to need to EXECUTE your stupid plan once you’ve decided on it!
Yeah, groupthink and consensus decision making don’t always make sense in a profit-seeking venture. That’s why most such firms gravitate towards hierarchical command structures and supposedly pay C-levels all that dosh to make the “hard decisions” and the board is supposed to “hold them accountable” (fire their ass) if their decision is wrong. Sounds like Bezos never wants to be responsible for a mistake. Speaks of some serious Narcissistic Personality Disorder issues.
Another Holocene Human
Beginning to sound like Survivor: Amazon Edition.
“I’m sorry Mr. Humphries … you’ve been voted out of the tribe.”
kc
They are adorable! Marc, you’re the best. Thanks for giving Miri a home.
Another Holocene Human
@Elie:
No kidding, and there’s plenty of research on this.
Sounds like when my boss hauled a bunch of us into a room. “Why did you give us such poor scores on the culture survey?”
Um….
WereBear
Kittehs! Massive SQUEE.
And a reminder that if you fall in love with any of the kittens, think seriously about keeping them.
Because in such circumstances people tend to regret letting them go…
MazeDancer
Have spent most of the morning trying to figure out what to do about Amazon. Read the happy guy’s post on LinkedIn. Read reviews on GlassDoor.
What is true in this report? What is different at Amazon than all the other insane tech places? What is different at Amazon than the rest of wretched corporate America? At least Amazon likes the idea of innovation and change, not the hallmark of every large company.
There are things I can’t easily get anywhere else other than Amazon. Their deliveries are the lifeline for many of us working in lovely rural places where there are no shopping options. Amazon has made life as creative sole proprietor possible for many just as much as the internet has.
Some of the items I need are obscure supplements required for my health. So I spend 30% more and spend vastly more time? What about supplies for business I can’t get without a 40 minute drive? Fine, if that is justified because Amazon is a soulless monster. But what if they’re not?
Interestingly, prices fell deeply on some of these items today. So tempting to stock up, so hard to do that as well.
Just for context: I only buy cruelty-free milk/yougurt from local dairies who keep their calves because I refuse to support the horrid practices of what happens to the poor newborn calves sent off at birth to become veal. It’s not like I don’t want to do the right thing. But what is that?
Another Holocene Human
@MazeDancer: Sometimes I have to shop at Walmart. Union busting, nasty, fired-my-friend-wrongly Walmart.
I think it’s yet another wakeup call that all workers need more support at the federal level. We need a better Supreme Court, a president who’s going to be at least as supportive as Obama (he has been very good, actually, given the restrictions he’s under, says I), and a new frigging House.
Paternity leave. Paid parental leave. Minimum standards for Worker’s Comp without a Red State loophole. More funding to OSHA. EFCA. Repeal of the “Right To Work” (Orwellian title) law.
Little digression. I am in a right to work state and I am dealing with a person who has all licenses and qualifications, clean work history and no disciplinary actions but was fired because of supposed medical reasons which multiple providers dispute. Where is the “right to work”? But this person’s coworkers cannot stage a walkout in protest over this treatment. This is no “right to work”.
shell
Sounds like they’re talking about Dr.Evil.
NotMax
Currently downloading the entire season of Outlander in anticipation of a trip back to the mainland to see Mom (keep telling her we saw each other only last year, yet she’s still insistent).
Think it’ll be right up her alley as something we can view together.
schrodinger's cat
@Elizabelle: Corporations owe their employees and customers nothing, their rationale for existence is to maximize shareholder returns. That’s not my philosophy but the way most corporations are run.
Paul in KY
@Another Holocene Human: I also shop at the fuckers from time to time. Too convenient at times…
schrodinger's cat
Next step for multinational corporations is to start amassing armies. It has happened before.
* Currently I am on Indian colonial history kick, reading up on the exploits of the Honourable East India Company.
Elizabelle
@schrodinger’s cat: Do blog about it! With or without kittehs.
Another Holocene Human
@Paul in KY: Well, they honestly suck to shop at more and more.
Just like sometimes I am forced to do the Lowes and Home Depot thing. Both corps are evil in their own way. (One is RWNJs and the other is a fucking laundry list.) I shop Ace but they don’t carry everything. (But if you want hardware, Ace is the place.)
Another Holocene Human
@schrodinger’s cat: Pinkertons.
Hire one half of the working class to shoot at the other half of the working class.
MazeDancer
@Another Holocene Human:
Having to shop at WalMart is, for sure, a hardship. Have been able to not do that for decades, so lucky there. But I was happy to see them support Marriage Equality.
Thinking of compromising on Amazon. Cut my purchasing at least in half. On the theory that reality is somewhere between NY Times and Happy Employee posts. Which could be lying to myself, but I have no way of knowing what’s real in this story.
I am a heavy user of Amazon. Giant boxes of recycled paper towels and recycled toilet tissue kind of orders. Going to pay more for those or try and watch for sales at stores far away by checking their web sites more. Supplements on which my health depends and are difficult to get otherwise, I’ll keep ordering.
And I’ll send a letter, which at Amazon, they will at least read. They do have remarkable customer service. So we should all send letters – that will be another data point for them.
NotMax
@Paul in KY
People here tell me that since Target opened up a huge, spiffy store just down the street from them a few months ago, the Walmart (which resembled nothing so much as a grimy, rundown communal mess hall in a gulag) is being remodeled and refurbished top to bottom.
Riley's Enabler
Living in the rural ‘burbs means a 30 minute drive to the nearest Megastore, bit further to anything “specialized”. Amazon has been the go-to for the past few years. Sure, lazy but also gas / car just to get out. I’m going to re-think how to acquire all the things – combine trips, piggyback errands – which means better list-keeping and probably some ESP – while keeping an eye on the development of the Amazon story. Bigger question is do I need all the things?
In brighter news, spent the afternoon yesterday bingeing on “Wet Hot American Summer, The First Day of Camp” which was awful and funny and the very definition of a guilty pleasure. Bonus points for being on Netflix. Triple bonus points for the first rain we’ve had in weeks. Hurray!
Paul in KY
@Another Holocene Human: We used to have a Home Depot, but Lowes sent them out of business.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: We have a Target too, but it is not like your super-Target (I imagine).
scuffletuffle
@WereBear: Very true, i had a litter of four babies and gave two away to my everlasting regret. Wish i had kept them all.
Elizabelle
@MazeDancer: Is it possible to order some of your supplies, via mail, from Costco? It might be worthwhile to call the nearest Costco and explain your plight and what you particularly order. This is an opportunity for them, and you will be supporting a company with far better work practices.
And maybe follow some of your products back to the manufacturer; ask if they can ship or if there’s another avenue?
I feel for you, and support your making the effort to change.
Agree that there are a LOT of shitty companies out there, but word does get around, and money does talk. You have a strong voice as a consumer.
Your bud,
Elizabelle the suburban hypocrite
(I live a 25 minute walk from corner with 2 shopping centers, both with major grocery and drugstore chain. Starbucks, the whole nine yards. Also, well-heeled Fairfax County residents drop barely used current books into the library sales constantly — $1 to $2.00 for excellent books in great condition. But rural life and peaceful drives rock too!)
NotMax
@Paul in KY
Gotta give this particular Target props. Building is nearly twice the size of Walmart. Cheery, well-lit, well-stocked, wide aisles, extensive selection, a full supermarket inside with some excellent values. And noticeably clean, really clean. The several times have been there, no less than a dozen registers manned and open.
J R in WV
@raven:
Well, I went back to bed. Sorry!
What’s the question?
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
@Joel:
When you have a huge behemoth corporation, a lot of times the difference is between divisions. I work at a Giant Evil Corporation, but my experience in my division may be totally different than that of someone in another division. A different division of the GEC had a similar article written about them lately because they fired all of their programmers and brought in a group of H1B contractors. IMO, it’s pretty rare for a large company to be rotten top to bottom, but that also doesn’t mean that my good experience is necessarily more typical than someone else’s bad experience.
And IIRC, most companies (like Microsoft) dumped the “ranking” system years ago, because it sucked for both morale and teamwork. It’s one of those theories that looked great on paper but is unworkable for more than a year or two.
Paul in KY
@NotMax: Glad you have one. Sounds really sweet.
MazeDancer
@Elizabelle:
Thanks for the CostCo idea, since never lived near one, hadn’t thought about that. The closest one is 45 miles. The prices online for stuff like recycled paper towels and tissue not really any better than same on sale at health food type stores 25 miles away. Some of the environmentally sound dishwashing and laundry stuff just the same as grocery store and more expensive than on sale at health food spots. But I will keep them in mind. And next time I might be in the area where a CostCo exists, go see one inside.
Yes, there is another avenue for supplements. (iherb.com, VitaCost.com) But the odd supps I take will add up to about 30 bucks more a month. And can’t get them overnight/2 day delivery in case of emergency. So think I’m going to go with the compromise plan on the broad range of things I’m used to having just show up on my door. Thus, sometimes pay more, don’t order from Amazon just for convenience anymore, and continue ordering stuff from Amazon I can’t really get anywhere else, or absolutely require overnight/2 day.
Elizabelle
@Mnemosyne (iPhone): Meant to ask you: have you seen other signs GEC took a hit from consumer protests in wake of the IT department firings? (Why yes, that was a major NY Times story too.)
Always curious how many people really do change their shopping and vacay plans… and if large corporations attribute lack of business to news of poor employment conditions getting out …
Elizabelle
Ha ha. WSJ blog re the NYTimes story and Bezos statement. Their “Digits” tech blog.
Some bashing of NYTimes and liberals by one-note commenters, but a lot of confirmation the story was accurate too. The tech community knows.
Another Holocene Human
@NotMax: Monopolies suck, chapter eleventy hundred and three.
Another Holocene Human
@Riley’s Enabler: Hurrah for the USPS!
They do portions (especially last mile) on a lot of UPS and FedEx Ground, so matter the name on the label, they probably got paid.
satby
@shell: that was SOP at my former company for 10 years. The Amazon disclosures sound like the culture at my former tech job in most respects. I just hope people realize lots of those practices have been used in corporate America for years.