Apr 9, 2024
Apr 8, 2024
Let's Get This Straight
These assholes are not hostages.
They're insurrectionists, thugs, and terrorists. They're scummy little go-bots who've been bamboozled into thinking they're the good guys, and they're doing something patriotic.
Today's Ryan
I don't know that we're paying enough attention to this. The Russians' Facebook campaign in 2016 kinda sneaked up on us, and it's more than a bit probable that the same thing is at work across the social media universe.
Apr 7, 2024
Tomorrow
Tomorrow (April 8, 2024) is the eclipse.
Apr 6, 2024
Today's WTF
In WW2, the B17 brought air crews home safe with battle damage so bad there was nearly as much airplane missing as there was airplane.
In the 1950s, when a lot of people figured Lockheed had commercial air travel sewed up with their Constellation, boom - here comes the Boeing 707, and the Jet Set was born.
Meanwhile, Boeing's B52 has been in service since the mid-1950s, and is expected to keep flying for another 25 or 30 years.
I say all that because the company has been run pretty badly for the last 10 years or so. Badly enough to have killed about 350 passengers because of poor quality assurance measures - software glitches that took down 2 of their 737 MAX airplanes, and most recently, a door blew off another airplane in mid-flight, and various other little mishaps that make me very glad I almost never fly anywhere anymore.
Anyway, it's pretty indicative of a fucked up situation here in USAmerican Inc, when the business culture allows for a guy who's been runnin' the joint (kinda into the ground, so to speak) gets a nice fat paycheck on his way out the door.
April 5 (Reuters) - The 2023 pay package of Boeing's CEO, who recently announced his departure in the midst of a safety crisis, rose about 45% to nearly $33 million, the U.S. planemaker said on Friday.
Boeing said much of CEO Dave Calhoun's compensation is in deferred stock that has fallen in value following a January mid-air panel blowout.
The adjusted value of Calhoun's total 2023 compensation is $24.8 million, the company said in a regulatory filing. Boeing shares have tumbled nearly 30% this year as the company wrestles with quality concerns from regulators and customers following the Jan. 5 blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX 9 jet.
The proxy does not mention an exit package for Calhoun, who announced on March 25 that he will step down from the top job by year-end. In 2022, he received $22.6 million in total compensation, according to the filing.
Calhoun's potential retirement payouts were valued at more than $44 million as of year end 2023, the filing showed.
Production of Boeing's strong-selling 737 MAX has slipped in recent weeks as U.S. regulators step up factory checks and the planemaker seeks to boost quality. European rival Airbus has extended its lead in the market for single-aisle jets.
The crisis led to a broad management shakeup with Boeing board chair Larry Kellner and Stan Deal, head of the commercial planes business, also leaving. Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Pope has replaced Deal.
The board's new chair, Steve Mollenkopf, told shareholders in Friday's filing: "I promise that I personally, and we as a board will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to get this company to where it needs to be."
Calhoun took home $5 million in pay in 2023 after declining to be considered for his $2.8 million bonus, compared with $7 million in 2022. Earlier filings show Calhoun did not receive a bonus over the last three years.
Deal earned $2.6 million in actual pay in 2023 and his total compensation jumped 42% to $12.5 million, although Boeing estimates the current value at $9.7 million.
Boeing's board also decided this year that the value of long -term executive officer awards would be reduced by the percentage decline in the company's stock price since the blowout and the 2024 award date.
Due to that reduction, Calhoun will receive an award of $13.25 million in 2024, compared with a target of $17 million. A year earlier, the award was $21.25 million.
After two separate 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed a combined 346 people, Boeing had revamped its executive compensation policies to emphasize product safety and quality.
In 2024, for Boeing's commercial airplanes, safety and quality will be assigned a weighting of 60% when deciding annual incentives, compared with a 40% weighting for financial performance.
Yeah, hey - I'm sure all those dead people feel quite a bit better now that the company has been more or less forced to make the executive committee's bonuses dependent on whether or not THEIR AIRPLANES FALL OUT OF THE FUCKING SKY.
Long-term incentive awards for Boeing's executive officers will also include new metrics, such as mandating an employee culture survey to assess safety management.
In February, an expert panel reviewing safety management found a "disconnect" between Boeing's senior management and employees on safety culture.
Rosanna Weaver, director of wage justice & executive pay at shareholder advocacy organization As You Sow, said she thinks Boeing is doing the right thing in rewarding safety, although such efforts should have been there "in the first place."
Apr 5, 2024
And Plenty More To Do
So there's lots and lots we need to do yet. The article below points out some of the glitches.
But when the number of jobs overtakes the number of people available to fill those jobs, the labor market should tip in favor of paying people a better wage (eg). Plus, with a president who stands with unions and wage-earners in general, employers should start to feel some heat to bring back some of the benefits we used to be able to count on.
It's appalling to me when I remember my days as an hourly guy and compare it with what youngsters are going through now.
- It was a given that we'd work 40 hours a week
- We got overtime pay for anything over 40 hours
- We had 10 days paid vacation time
- We got 10 paid holidays a year
- We got paid 2½ times our regular rate for working a holiday
- Healthcare insurance
- The company matched dollar-for-dollar whatever you put into your retirement plan
The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent
Employers in the United States added 303,000 jobs in March, soaring past expectations and reflecting renewed strength in a labor market that continues to prop up the broader U.S. economy.
The unemployment rate fell to 3.8 percent last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday, extending the longest stretch of unemployment below 4 percent in five decades.
The jobs market is charging ahead in 2024, churning out more jobs per month on average than before the pandemic. The March job growth was notably higher than the average monthly gain over the past year, which was around 231,000, according to the agency.
“This was a very strong jobs report across a variety of metrics,” said Nick Bunker, economic research director at the jobs site Indeed. “It gives really positive implications for the short-term of health of the labor market and labor market’s capacity to bounce back from the pandemic.”
President Biden has been making an election-year case that economic gains made during his administration help all voters, and he trumpeted Friday’s jobs report.
“Today’s report marks a milestone in America’s comeback,” Biden said in a statement about the job gains. “Three years ago, I inherited an economy on the brink. With today’s report of 303,000 new jobs in March, we have passed the milestone of 15 million jobs created since I took office.”
Recent data indicates that Americans’ gloomy mood about the economy, consumer sentiment in March was up 28 percent from a year earlier, but those better vibes have yet to translate into political enthusiasm. Biden is trailing former president Trump in six of the seven most competitive states in the 2024 election, according to a Wall Street Journal poll from late March, due in part to voter dissatisfaction with the economy.
Major stock indexes all edged up after markets opened Friday, as investors cheered on the good news.
Workers benefited in March from rising wages and more work hours. Average hourly earnings accelerated in March to $34.69 per hour, which is up 4.1 percent from the previous year. Wages have consistently beat inflation since last May 2023, after years of falling behind.
Service-related industries continue to prop up the greater economy and contribute to low unemployment that has benefited workers.
Health-care job growth accelerated, adding 72,000 jobs in March largely in hospitals and residential care facilities and nursing homes in a reflection of surging demand from the aging baby boomer population. Government payrolls expanded by 71,000, mostly in local and federal government, as the sector has remained flush with cash.
And leisure and hospitality also grew by 49,000 jobs, and in a major milestone, finally caught up to its February 2020 pre-pandemic levels, as demand for dining out and other experiences has continued to swell.
Job growth has also begun to spread into industries that had gone slack over the past year.
Construction added 39,000 jobs in March, more than double its monthly average gain of the past 12 months, surprising experts because that industry tends to be sensitive to higher interest rates. Nonresidential specialty trade contractors led gains. Retail added 18,000 jobs mostly in general merchandise employers, such as big box stores.
“There’s a pocket of strength in the U.S. labor market right now,” Bunker said. “Part of it could be some sectors have slowed down from 2022 to 2023 and are starting to grow again. They’re working through some of the constraints of higher interest rates.”
Still, many rate-sensitive industries appear to remain cautious about hiring as they wait for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year. Employers in manufacturing, wholesale trade, warehousing and transportation, information, professional and business services, which includes parts of tech, and financial services saw little or no growth in March.
The latest job figures will shape Federal Reserve’s review of how the economy is performing. For the past two years, the central bank’s overwhelming focus has been on fighting inflation, namely through an aggressive interest rate campaign that brought borrowing costs to the highest level in more than 20 years. But officials are also keeping close watch for any signs that their moves have put too much pressure on the economy, like if the job market starts to weaken, or employers pulling back fearing tougher times ahead.
Inflation has come in higher than expected since the start of the year. If that turns out to be a lasting trend, the Fed may end up changing their plans for three possible interest rate cuts this year, which markets expect could start in June.
Consistently, the message from Fed leaders is that they need more time to see how the data unfolds. Friday’s report was no exception.
“There is no weakness in the job market which would impel the Fed to quickly cut, but no tightness which would prohibit a cut either,” Preston Caldwell, chief U.S. economist at Morningstar, wrote in an analyst note. “Fed decisions in upcoming meetings will hinge mainly on the inflation data.”
Lately, Americans have been spending big on vacations, dining out and entertainment. And that demand is driving employers to hire in those sectors.
Hiring in the leisure and hospitality sector is vastly outpacing the overall labor market. Employers made the most hires on record in arts, entertainment and recreation in February, according to a separate report by the Labor Department released Tuesday.
The leisure and hospitality industry has added 458,000 jobs in the past year, accounting for nearly 1 in 6 new jobs across the country.
More than 53,000 restaurants opened last year, up 10 percent from 2022 and exceeding pre-pandemic levels, according to data from online review site Yelp. That has helped boost hiring across the board, in entry-level positions as well as managerial roles.
Restaurateurs say it is finally becoming easier to find employees, after years of worker shortages, relieving the pressure to raise wages. A major pickup in immigration has also helped fill many long-standing openings, with 3.3 million immigrants arriving in 2023, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Brent Frederick, who owns five restaurants in Minneapolis and St. Paul, has hired 40 people in the past month.
“There have been pullbacks in tech and other industries, and we’re noticing that a lot of people are landing back in hospitality,” he said. “There’s been influx in the pool of people available to us.”
Franco Campilongo, a restaurateur in the Bay Area, has hired seven new workers, including servers, cooks and dishwashers, in the last few weeks. Recent layoffs at tech firms and downtown cafeterias rocked by work-from-home norms have made it easier to recruit employees, he said.
“When Google and Apple started laying off, we got more people,” he said. “We used to have to negotiate — people would say ‘Facebook gives me $35 an hour’ — but that’s changed. Now I have a stack of applications.”
The industry has also been changing, with restaurants following remote-work customers who moved to suburbs from cities.
That shift to the outskirts of town is expected to fuel brisk hiring in hospitality this year. Che Fico, one of San Francisco’s top restaurants, recently expanded to Menlo Park. Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, which has 21 locations nationwide, is heading to Vernon Hills, outside Chicago. And Old Ebbitt Grill, a D.C. institution near the White House, is opening its first spinoff in Reston, Va.
“We’re calling it our ‘sexy sister in the suburbs,’” said Jeff Owens, chief financial officer at Clyde’s Restaurant Group, which operates 11 Washington area restaurants. (Clyde’s is owned by Graham Holdings, which owned The Washington Post until 2013.)
Last month, Jaime James of Minnesota picked up a second job as a bartender on top of her day job in health care. The single mother said she hadn’t worked in the service industry in a decade but that she needed the extra cash. She rents a $2,000-a-month apartment in a safer and cleaner building than her previous mice-infested one.
“As a single mom, it’s very tough to survive right now on one income for two people,” James said. “The service industry appealed to me because of the possibility of immediate cash after every shift with tips.”
But James struggled to find an employer that would schedule her around her day job, as well as child-care needs. She applied for 24 restaurant jobs between November and March and got only two callbacks before she landed her current position.
And in case you're one of those hard-ass jerks who loves to piss on anybody you think doesn't measure up to your phony standards:
If you want people to suffer
because you suffered,
and you turned out OK,
I've got news for you:
You did not turn out OK
Overheard
In the cities where
asshole Republican governors
shipped immigrants,
crime has continued to fall.
What They Are Now
The Republican Party has completely degenerated. They're not good at anything but being assholes and making enemies.
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