Reading an article about Sears decay and how their pension plan is one of the thing  killing the company when I run into this:

Many other analysts have blamed Lampert himself for Sears’ misfortunes. They say he made bad decisions about marketing, didn’t invest enough in stores and didn’t commit to selling online.
Americans’ increasing preference to buy online, and at big-box stores rather than malls, is a major problem for the company. Sears has lost $11.7 billion since its last profitable year in 2012

Selling online is just a very modern and very efficient version of the old mail order catalog sales: You chose what you wanted/needed at home, send payment and get your stuff delivered. The irony is that Sears was, for many years, the biggest catalog seller in the world. Many young ones won’t even know about it, but the Sears catalog started in 1,888 and was integral part of the American Household for decades (and outhouses too) till the 1980s and finally quit in 1993.

Many old school companies are blaming Amazon for their own reduction in sales, but that Sears is taking it in the chin when Bezo’s baby is nothing more than a very modern version of the Sears catalog is very ironic when you are supposed to have over a century’s worth of experience.  And they even sold guns and houses!

Economic Darwinism is as ruthless as the regular one.

So yesterday we have the “shattering” news of Kavanaugh’s sexual misconduct via a letter that Dianne Feinstein had been holding for over a month, and which fizzles rather fast after it is leaked that the impropriety was a high-school silliness.

And the next day, we have 65 women coming out to defend Kavanaugh in an open written letter.

I know political operatives may be good and fast, but nobody can collect and make 65 people agree on something, redact it and have it out in less than 24 hours. My take? The Republicans knew about the accusation and prepared the response to embarrass the living daylights out of the Democrats.  And on a Friday afternoon, knowing it will make every political talk show in the weekend.

I would say they succeeded.

So the Maduro government once again changed the local currency to a new name and new “value” and assigned the minimum wage that all employers must follow. But the forgot to tell employers how much people must make at higher levels.

If you are confused, let me explain. If you work in Venezuela, your salary is regulated by the Government according to a scale they came up with. So, if you are in custodial services & basic stuff like that, you get minimum wage. If you are a doctor, you make more than the custodian, but only what the government says you can make. It does not matter if your medical expertise sucks or you are the future Nobel prize: you make the same.

Now, any variations from the scale are severely penalized. They rely on workers to keep the company “honest” and not allow the owners to give special bonuses to the good workers because it would be unfair to others in the same bracket.

But when the government changed the currency and its value, they forgot to issue the new salaries. So, the companies in order not to be accused of unfairness and be sent to jail, they came up with a rather Solomonic solution: Everybody gets paid the same minimum wage.

As expected, a bunch of people are a bit upset, but there is little they can do. Their only hope is that the Government wakes up and produces the table and orders the companies to pay retroactively. And that has its possible consequences as the minimum wage was set too high for the economy and the government risks having companies shut down because they cannot make payroll.

And if you are asking why companies cannot downsize personnel to adapt, the answer is another great piece of Socialist solution: You cannot fire people unless very extreme circumstances. And they can appeal to a government ministry and you still have to keep them in the payroll till a decision is made.

And that is why companies rather shut down than deal with the increasing madness.

You will never see or be involved in stuff like this.

I have been in IDPA sanctioned matches with close to 300 competitors plus the significant others and kids and the only loud voices you hear come from the Safety Officers issuing the range commands. The hardest physical interaction between people constrained to hard back slaps between friends who had not see each other for a while.  And if you think we don’t have highly competitive individuals, you would be very wrong.  I am sure it is the same thing for all other shooting sports, from clays to Cowboy Action.

Armed society is a polite society.

Article 11 would require internet companies to pay news outlets for hosting their content on their platforms. While this has been welcomed by some news corporations, others suggested that this would force social media companies such as Facebook, Google and Twitter to pay news organisation in order to feature as little as two words — or a hyperlink — from their news stories.

…

Article 13 is — if possible — even more controversial, earning itself the reputation of a “meme killer.” It would require web giants to automatically filter copyrighted material — songs, images, videos — uploaded on their platforms, unless it has been specifically licensed. Despite its divisiveness, the piece of legislation passed by 438 votes to 226 with 39 abstentions in the European Parliament.

The EU has passed Article 13, but Europe’s meme war is far from over

It is not for information control for the masses, right?

Imagine millions of assholes deciding on one day to just link as many news stories from everywhere in the world in Twitter and Facebook so they would have to pay for it as payback for all the censorship measure they have taken.

They are effing insane in Europe.

I know, the season ends in November 30 and I just jinxed it.

PS: Yes, I noticed the title late. I took something for my back and I need a nap.

With 2.3 million (so far) Venezuelans that have left to seek food and medicines, the welcome mat is rapidly wearing out across the sister nations in South America.

They are lynching them in Brazil (He got caught stealing, killed a grocer and the locals literally beat the crap out of him) and Colombia (stealing a cell phone, wait Am I detecting a pattern here?) Peru recently restricted the entry of Undocumented Venezuelans and accepting only those with passports.

In the meantime, if ICE catches and deports an illegal alien with a criminal record, they got called all kinds of names and Democrats want to get rid of them.

Interesting the rules do not apply the same, wouldn’t you say?

Cui Bono.