BloggeRhythms

Yesterday, an entry with some historical references about how things used to be received some very positive feedback. So, here's another one. 

At eighteen years old, I was employed in a family business. Shipping manager for Carnival Toy Mfg. Corp., maker of plastic toy instruments such as guitars, ukulele’s and violins, located in Bridgeport, CT at Wordin Avenue, right alongside I 95.

My older brother, Carnival’s General Manager, and I commuted to work together five days a week from our homes in Manhattan. He’d drive up in the morning, I’d drive back. We lived three blocks apart, he with his young family on East 88^th Street, me with Mom on East 91st. Most often coming back, my exhausted brother would spread along the wide back seat and nap the entire time.

Summer was always the busiest season, national chain stores, such as F.W. Woolworth, W.T. Grant, McCrory’s, McLellan’s, Montgomery Ward, Sears and the like stocking locations for the coming “back to school” sales surge, followed soon by the Christmas seasonal rush.

Personnel always brought on several more shipping employees at this time for the business onslaught. Most were tasked with order-filling and shipping preparation, continually loading merchandise on trucks for delivery direct to purchasers or various freight carrier’s terminals. Employee ethnicity was of no particular importance to anyone. Functional capability was.

Early one morning, a late teen-aged newcomer arrived, informing all in earshot that he was an actual, bona fide, living, breathing American Indian. Proud of the fact that he could prove it, albeit a quite rare heritage in our particular, citified, neck of the woods. Soon afterward, a problem arose whereas he spent so much time broadcasting his ethnic status and lineage he not only did no actual work himself, but simultaneously prevented listeners from performing their assigned tasks as well.

Soon taking him aside to explain that we all had work to do, it was confirmed that his job description and responsibilities had been clearly presented. He undoubtedly understood his responsibilities. Non-performance of assigned tasks meant immediate termination whereas that was how the department ran, much less the issue of costly disruption of everyone else around him.

A response came quickly, surprisingly thorough, almost as if rehearsed, as he explained that he, as an American Indian, was a member of a protected working class impervious to the extent that termination was precluded until a thorough situational review had been conducted, such review unequivocally establishing his fault or occupational incapability.

I replied “Okay,” quickly picking him up by his shirt collar and pants seat to toss him off the shipping platform. After he’d landed on the driveway four feet below, I loudly informed him that if he returned to my department, he’d meet a similar fate because I had no time for any kind of slackers, regardless of religion or ethnic heritage. And then, I went back to work as usual.

Later that evening, as my brother sprawled across the rear car seat homeward bound, I told him what had taken place with Geronimo, or whatever his name was. My brother, the GM, sat bolt upright in the back, screaming “You can’t do that, the guy’s a protected hiree.” To which, I replied, “Yeah, but I did it.” He responded even louder, “But you can’t!” And me: “Uh, huh. But I did it.” We went back and forth like that for the next few miles, my brother finally conceding to a circumstance far beyond his control and finally going back to sleep. And to this very day, I’m unaware of anyone in our organization ever hearing again from or about Cochise.

Ps: This incident had nothing whatsoever to do with ethnicity. The guy could have been of any identity on Earth, black, white, red, yellow, even plaid. It didn’t matter. The issue at hand was an eighteen-year-old manager with a busy department to run and the response received from a disruptive straggler. Had he been of any conceivable background or identity and given me that kind of reply, at 18 I’d have thrown anyone just as far and just as high.

In fact, thinking back, his color that night was most likely black and blue.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms

Yesterday, a friend forwarded a YouTube clip in which: “These two guys do a number on the Democrats kneeling with their African scarfs. They make some good points.”

After watching, I responded to my friend. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZUgUNZaWHk

My response: At age 13, I started working summers in the shipping department of a family business. It was on Bruckner Boulevard & 132nd Street in the Bronx, NY. I’m not sure, but I think 150-200 were employed all told.

Employees were Black, White, Puerto Rican, a small percentage of Cubans and who knows what else. All worked at various levels of manufacturing as well as typical managerial positions, office functions and sales. Hiring decisions and job responsibilities were determined by new hire’s experience, knowledge and capabilities. Issues rarely arose due to ethnicity, others being judged as individuals. Capabilities and job performance ordinarily determined who did what without much, if any, thought as to race or religion. Most dislikes, personal issues or avoidances were exactly that, personal, having nothing whatsoever to do with whether those involved were of the same race, religion, ethnicity or any other criteria beyond whatever the specific issues themselves were.

And that’s why these clowns in government haven’t the slightest ideas of how they’re perceived by those in minorities they’re trying to convince of their solidarity. The individuals comprising various races and ethnic groups make up strata within just like Whites or any other race; good, bad, educated or non, politically motivated, perhaps not. And so on.

All of which filters down to the fact that these cowtowing outsiders in politics actually understand less than nothing about those they’re trying to bamboozle with their pandering. Leading to the logical conclusion that while making lots of noise and very big waves, the actual number of ethnic minority voters buying the moronic Democrat leadership hype probably adds up to practically nothing. While those who really are “in the know” most likely just sit back and laugh at them as does the rest of the “silent majority.”

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms

Following up on yesterday’s response to Arcadia University’s president, further thoughts clarify why the reaction was so quick and deeply disturbing.

Back when employed in the real world, the profession was equipment leasing and financing sales. Hard work, experience, and considerable good fortune permitted employment by three of the industry’s most gifted entrepreneurs. These brilliant individuals significantly helped create, build and sustain an incredible marketplace. For myself, first came Saul Steinberg at computer leasing forerunner, Leasco. Then Harvey Granat, builder of two remarkable enterprises, Granite Equipment Leasing Corp. and Sussex Leasing Corp., while Paul Gass created and developed an entire industry segment at Eaton Financial Corporation: Small-ticket Leasing.

According to the 2019 Equipment Leasing & Finance Industry Horizon Report, “Total equipment and software investment continued to grow in 2018, with nominal investment expanding by 5.9% to $1.8 trillion. Based on the results of the Foundation’s end-user survey and analysis by Keybridge, approximately 50% of this investment (and 55% of private sector investment) was financed, resulting in an industry sizing estimate of about $900 billion.”

While the marketplace has become huge over time, competition within has as well. Competitive intensity now -and from inception- could be unquestionably referred to as fierce. As one holding personal sales production combined with sales management positions in that marketplace, eventually reaching the top of that ladder, the Arcadia president’s capitulation letter struck me personally.

As texted to a friend, reading the Arcadia presidents plans for supporting minorities, a flashback occurred about competition faced in the real world. Imagine telling industry builders Saul Steinberg, Harvey Granat, or Paul Gass that business was being lost because prospects were personally prejudiced. Would any of them have said, “We’re going to invest in prospective customer sensitivity training, Mike, we don’t want your feelings hurt. Until people are willing to recognize you for what you are as a person, we’ll enroll you in sales-loss support groups, and if that’s not enough, we’ll demand that customers respect you at all times regardless.” Or would they have fired my tail on the spot and found someone else to get the rent paid?

Don’t get me wrong here. As individuals these three are humane, upstanding, caring and generous as could ever be imagined. At the same time, however, business takes place in a very, very real world. Sustenance, growth and development costs are huge. That means the need for continued advancement and success isn’t arbitrary, negotiable or simply desirable, its unequivocally mandatory. Sink or swim, no if’s, no ands, no buts, no stories. Grandiose rhetoric doesn’t pay bills; productive skills, focused effort and closed deals do that.

That’s why specific education predicated on formulating copouts and alibis, as promoted by Arcadia’s president, not only rubs across the grain, it relights competitive fires.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms

Yesterday, Nicki received a letter from the President of her Alma Mater, Arcadia University formerly Beaver College in Glenside, PA. Reading the text myself, finding the apologetic drivel and acquiescence fundamentally moronic, I asked her permission to submit a reply on her behalf, to which she agreed. 

A link to the President's writing follows, not requiring full reading to grasp the context. A random scan will suffice. What's most frightening about the matter, however, is that if is truly representative of what higher academics has become and the education of today's students are in the hands of sniveling, spineless cowards like these, the future of our nation is well on it's way to total subversion of it's original founding and purpose, individual freedom and opportunity.

My response follows the link.

http://arcadia.imodules.com/controls/email_marketing/view_in_browser.aspx?sid=1912&gid=2&sendId=1454114&ecatid=4&puid=f8c897a7-cf61-4669-83b7-3133b2b7e5ee

Dear President,

It is a curiosity as to what the background, history and education is of one writing this pathetic condemnation of the greatest nation on Earth. Nowhere on this planet does a more free, open society exist, providing opportunity of all and any type that any individual elects to seek.

For those wishing entrance legally, willing to properly attain citizenship as did millions and millions of others respecting the nation in which they wish to reside, the doors have been open wide for generations. Regardless of color, creed, ethnicity, religious belief or any other significant criteria. Despite what untruths any fact-altering subversives may attempt to purvey.    

However, what is most incredible is that when a hostile foreign government brought this nation to its knees by inflicting man-made disease, permitting subversive groups advantage at attempting overthrow, gullible fools in responsible governmental positions predominately at state levels, immediately acceded all responsibility.

Business builders, owners, employees and their customer bases, those who built this nation were abandoned to rock-throwing, fire-starting, thieving, worthless thugs bulwarked by funds from subversive’s intent on destroying what’s been built for years. The singular goal of these anarchists consistently being mass destruction of the freest society extant.

The only question remaining then, if the end goal is submission and abandonment of any kind of free American dreams requiring true competition, why is any type of education needed at all?

Monica Berke

BloggeRhythms

Yesterday, a concerned friend sent a link to an article by talk show host Dennis Prager, establishing four reasons that American civilization is doomed to destruction, it's simply a matter of time till the end. After finishing a reply, the result seemed worth the posting.   

Prager writes:

"It takes a lot to build a civilization, and though it is much easier to destroy a civilization, it takes a lot to do that, too.

"But now we have four roots of evil that are guaranteed to do so.

"No. 1: Victimhood.

"The first is victimhood. The more people who regard themselves as victims — as individuals or as a group — the more likely they are to commit evil. People who think of themselves as victims feel that, having been victimized, they are no longer bound by normal moral conventions — especially the moral conventions of their alleged or real oppressors.

"No. 2: Demonization.

"The second of the four ingredients of this civilization-destroying witches’ brew is demonization — demonizing a group as inherently evil.

"That is being done now with regard to the white people of America. All — again, all — whites are declared racist. The only difference among them is that some admit it and some deny it. The notion that whites are inherently evil has long been associated with Louis Farrakhan. But it has apparently migrated out from his relatively small following to many blacks, even those who might consider Farrakhan a kook. Former President Barack Obama, hardly a Farrakhan follower, described America as having racism in its DNA. That is as close to inherently and irredeemably evil as it gets; you cannot change your DNA.

"No. 3: A Cause To Believe In.

"People need something to believe in. The need for meaning is the greatest human need after the need for food. Leftism, with all its offshoots — feminism, environmentalism, Black Lives Matter, antifa — has filled that vacuum. In Europe, communism, fascism and Nazism filled the hole left by the demise of nationalism and Christianity. Here it is leftism and its offshoots.

"No. 4: Lies.

"The fourth and most important ingredient necessary for evil is lies. Lies are the root of evil. Ironically, slavery itself was made possible only because of the lie that the black was inferior to the white. Nazism was made possible thanks to the lie that Jews were not fully human. And communism was built on lies. Lenin, the father of Soviet Communism, named the Soviet communist newspaper “Truth” (“Pravda”) because truth was what the Communist Party said it was.

"The New York Times, CNN and the rest of the mainstream “news” media are becoming our version of Pravda.

"Objective truth doesn’t exist on the left. The universities have already declared “objective truth” as essentially an expression of “white privilege.” See what happens to a student who says in class, for example, that “men cannot give birth.”

"The public self-debasement demanded of anyone who differs with the left — like New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees just did when he said not standing for the national anthem desecrated the flag and those who have died for it — happens almost daily. The only difference between this and what dissidents underwent during Mao’s Cultural Revolution is that the self-debasement here is voluntary — thus far.

"Last week, when this Jew saw a store in Santa Monica with a sign reading “black-owned business” so as to avoid being destroyed, it evoked chilling memories.

"That’s how bad it is in America today."

The reply to my friend follows:

Prager’s point makes sense, but I think he’s a few days late and a couple of dollars short. The uprisings, riots, shootings and the like are all reflective of a population locked in their homes with no firm idea of when, if ever, they’d get out and return to earning incomes and living their lives as usual. But as of today, 73% of those that were in isolation are now out.

Most importantly regarding the general public, as reflected by the Dow Jones and Nasdaq, Trump the magician has unexpectedly already begun turning the country around. And as said by Clinton’s guy Carville in 1992, “It’s the economy, stupid." 

So, if anything is irreparably lost, it’s going to be the likes of New York, Los Angeles, Detroit and Chicago along with considerable numbers of other leftist strongholds that have gone the chute and very well might stay there. While damage to them all has been incredible, huge numbers of middle-class taxpayers have already left.

So, not only is Prager likely wrong about any kind of national destruction, its’ going to be the Democrat party, or what’s left of it, that will be shredded because most of the membership including Blacks and Hispanics will be too busy working again to listen to Soros’s thugs, Pelosi, Schumer and whatever’s left of Biden.

That's it for today folks.

Adios

BloggeRhythms

New York Times readership began while still in high school, back in the 50’s. The paper always in our home, though admittedly when younger significant time spent on sports, plenty of “news” was absorbed as well.

During my twenties, for whatever reason, the Sunday puzzle became a ritual, completion in ink a habitual challenge for years and years to come. Then one Sunday morning, poolside in Great Neck in 1986, content by correspondent Richard L. Berke leaned so far left, the entire paper was shredded, retaining only the magazine and its puzzle.

The subscription maintained for some time afterward, a Sunday morning routine was repeated weekly: Remove the magazine, shred the rest of the paper (sometimes peeking at sports), read William Safire’s “On Language" column, complete the puzzle.   

Then just yesterday Michael Goodwin headed his column in the New York Post "Leftists are in firm control at The New York Times “

He writes, "In a lecture at Hillsdale College last year about the erosion of standards at The New York Times, I borrowed a memorable exchange from Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises.”

“How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asks. “Two ways,” Mike responds. “Gradually and then suddenly.”

“For the Times, “suddenly” has arrived. Its standards are now bankrupt.

“The revolt of the paper’s newsroom over the publication of Sen. Tom Cotton’s op-ed and the craven surrender of management marks the end of any semblance of basic fairness. The gradual metamorphosis of the Times from a great newspaper into a leftist propaganda sheet is complete.

“Stick a fork in the Gray Lady.

“Her obituary is a sad day and not just for journalism. Because the Times is a singularly powerful institution in terms of shaping public opinion, its cult of conformity is a dark day for America.”

The objective here not being any particular criticism of Mr. Goodwin, an extremely perceptive, insightful, generally well-informed columnist, but the question does arise as to how a position firmly established 34 years ago seems "sudden" in any context whatsoever.

In fact, over those past 34 years all anyone desiring knowledge regarding political leanings of the Times need do was open the publication to any page and read it.  

After completing Mr. Goodwin’s article, a confirmation search was done regarding Richard L. Berke, results as follows:

“A longtime correspondent and editor at The New York Times, from 1986 to 2013. A graduate of the University of Michigan and Columbia.

“Oct. 24, 2013 Richard L. Berke, a longtime political correspondent and senior editor at The New York Times, was appointed executive editor of Politico on Thursday, in what Politico described as a testament to its influence and growth.

“Mr. Berke joined The Times in 1986 as a Washington bureau reporter and editor. He covered four consecutive presidential campaigns and held one of the highest-profile reporting posts at the newspaper, national political correspondent.

“In 2005, after a period as Washington editor, he moved to New York and joined the senior leadership of The Times; for several years, he was the assistant managing editor who helped produce the front page each weekday. More recently, he was national editor; an assistant managing editor with oversight of features and politics; and, for the last eight months, senior editor and director of video content development.”

A Google search produced the following regarding Politico.

“Is Politico a liberal website?

“Politico is a leftist website. In the old days we would've called them a "liberal rag" like the New York Times. Anyone with any real sense of political acumen would peg POLITICO as definitely leftist in their political orientation after even a cursory scan of their articles.”

As the old saying goes, you just can’t make this stuff up.

That’s it for today folks.

Adios