It’s Tough Being the Center of the Universe These Days

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve probably cursed Microsoft more than most normally well-adjusted adults.

And I think that Microsoft defines the situation antitrust laws were written to address. Still, there’s a reason Corporate Boards run public companies not employees. And this is it: Microsoft Workers' Letter Demands Company Drop $479 Million HoloLens Military Contract.

The workers object to the company taking a $479 million contract last year to supply tech for the military’s Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. Under the project, Microsoft, the maker of the HoloLens augmented reality headset, could eventually provide more than 100,000 headsets designed for combat and training in the military. The Army has described the project as a way to “increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy.”

“We are alarmed that Microsoft is working to provide weapons technology to the US Military, helping one country’s government ‘increase lethality’ using tools we built,” the workers write in the letter, addressed to CEO Satya Nadella and president Brad Smith. “We did not sign up to develop weapons, and we demand a say in how our work is used.”

My advice to these workers: read your contract. Employees seldom, even in tech, get the right to proceeds from the work they perform and are paid for by their employer. Nor have I ever seen an employment contract that allows the employee to determine what work their employer is allowed to do. But never mind that, these techy snowflakes, because of their very special skills (they code) believe they have the right to determine what their employer does for a living:

“Intent to harm is not an acceptable use of our technology,” it reads. The workers are demanding the company cancel the contract, stop developing any weapons technology, create a public policy committing to not build weapons technology, and appoint an external ethics review board to enforce the policy.

Life among the snowflakes is not easy.

Snowflakes: they think - despite all evidence to the contrary – they will not melt in the ever-expanding, over-heating universe they believe in

I guess these employees (I wonder how many of them are here on a H-1B visa) would prefer to leave such technology development to China and Russia, places unhindered by utopian technology standards. I would also like to remind the Microsoft snowflakes that they do have the ultimate say in “how their work is used.”  They are not indentured servants, they are free to seek employment elsewhere, someplace that embraces their high moral and ethical standards.

Damn, it’s tough being the center of the universe these days.

You’re Not Doing It Right

Note to Nike: You Had One Job

Zion Williamson’s shoe blowout on Wednesday night is the most high-profile incident of shoe failure ever. Here you had the likely No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft, playing in the biggest game of his college career, in a contest hyped for weeks as being the must-watch game of the college basketball season — then, just 33 seconds into the game…as Williamson drove the ball into the teeth of the Tar Heel defense, his left foot busted out of his shoe and he went down clutching his right knee. – SBNation

Adding injury to insult, Williamson suffered a right knee sprain and had to leave the game.

Nice shell, questionable integrity

In the final analysis ability and performance are all that matter. Everything else is just hype and doesn’t count when the rubber hits the road.

Inferior quality will ultimately fail; superior performance Trumps® value signaling every time.

Believe in something. Even if it means lying about everything.

Note to Jussie: you’re not doing it right.

Love Trumps® Hate

I see Jussie has finally turned himself into Chicago police. Not sure, but I think he was charged with a hate crime.

“Empire” actor Jussie Smollett is under arrest and in the "custody of detectives" Thursday morning, Chicago police Chief Communications Officer Anthony Guglielmi said.

So I guess it’s not true that Jussie was attacked with every racist/homophobic stereotype on the books? Man, what does it take these days to get you people to #BeWoke?  Apparently Fake News is no longer adequate.

This isn't some third-world country where this is happening. This isn't in some dystopian young adult fiction, where I get most of my political ideas. It's here. It's now. Every day, a gay person somewhere in this country hires a couple of Nigerian guys to make it look like he's hated and oppressed. – Babylon Bee

Maybe Jussie should have stuck with this sentiment that he shared on Instagram just last month:

View this post on Instagram

Every word, every action still stands today. On what would’ve been your 90th... Happy birthday Dr. King. Grateful for your life. #MLK #KING ✊

A post shared by @ jussiesmollett on Jan 15, 2019 at 6:06am PST

Please, everyone  quick text Jussie and remind him how Love Trumps® Hate.

Not Everything Is About Fashion

Old man takes his final bow. No, not Karl Lagerfeld,

Karl as a young man

I was talking about Bernie:

I’m afraid Bernie is about to discover just how fickle the Millennials and post-Millenials are. (The world has yet to settle on a name for the newest generation – born in 1997 and later- even though they are already entering adulthood. “Gen Z” and “iGeneration” seem to be the leading contenders.)  Who needs another old white guy when they’ve got such a diverse array of bright and shiny morons from which to choose?

Should be fun. But getting back to Karl, the world has lost a fashion genius. And an enduring one at that.

Karl, in 1954 with model wearing his winning coat design:

Karl, 1977, Japan

With Anna Wintour, 1993

Reinvented, after losing 100 pounds, in 2006

He may be the last person alive allowed to get away with saying outrageous things. Like this recent criticism of Angela Merkel for offering refuge to refugees:

"One cannot -- even if there are decades between them -- kill millions of Jews so you can bring millions of their worst enemies in their place."

And this old criticism of Michelle Obama’s bangs, when nobody else was allowed tor criticize her for anything:

I love her. But there is a news reader ... which has this haircut," he said. "Frankly, this doesn't suit her. The fringe was a bad idea, it's not good."

Sometimes Karl’s comments were blunt but calculatedly so, other times you had to read between the lines. Like this “endorsement” of Barry I documented in this post from 2012. When asked if Barry deserved to win a second term he said:

Yes he does, especially because of Mrs. Obama. I'm a big fan of Mrs. Obama – and her face, I think, is magical.

He would not be there without her. There was an article by some stupid woman, I forgot who, and she said she [Mrs. Obama] was poorly dressed. Mrs. Obama is not a fashion statement, she has other things to do.

Such as potato sack races with Jimmy Fallon

So I want Mr. Obama who I think is very okay— because there is nothing better anyway — [to be re-elected], especially because of her."

With that in mind, I helped launch Barry’s 2012 winning campaign:

So rest in peace Mr. Lagerfeld. And thanks for your fashion designs and political commentary. But as it turned out there was something better after all.

Not everything is about fashion. Or the hair.

Michigan: At Least We’re Not All Detroit

I know the frock Governor Gretchen Whitmer wore for her first State of the State address was discussed briefly around here the other day. She in turn has criticized the FOX2 Detroit for doing a story on the social media commentary about it. Maybe it’s not fair, but hey, that’s the way it goes; if you don’t want people talking about your clothes don’t wear clothes that scream “LOOK AT ME!”

My mother always told me that if you wanted to be taken seriously, dress accordingly. Gretchen’s mother must have told her not to hide her talents under a bushel.

I only mention this again because Gretchen’s back in the news, this time wanting to be taken seriously. She blocked the sale of a prison in Ionia that had been shuttered for more than a decade to a private company that was going to convert it to a facility to detain immigrants waiting to be processed. The sale was authorized by her Republican predecessor but Whitmer put the decision under review. Her spokesperson said that since the facility owners could not guarantee that it would not be used to detain adults who had been separated from their children the Governor decided to nix the deal. That mothballs the facility back to the Michigan Land Bank – because that’s a better use of State assets than creating 250 good jobs and keeping potential criminals off the streets.

"The governor believes that building more detention facilities won't solve our immigration crisis, and she also believes that separating families doesn't reflect our Michigan values."  Detroit News

I wonder if she’s aware that Michigan voted for President Trump? On the other hand, with the help of all of the state’s illegal immigrants, it did turn around and voted for Whitmer in 2018. So who knows, maybe the state will  vote for newly announced socialist candidate Bernie Sanders in 2020. Then we can all be Detroit again. Yay!

At least we’re not Cleveland.

Save the Whales. Or Whatever.

USA Today reports a wave of protests have been planned from New York to California and Texas to oppose the president’s national emergency declaration.

Seriously, is there any organization more misnomered than MoveOn.org? 

Founded in 1998 to protest Bill Clinton’s impeachment at the hands of the evil Republicans, they’ve never gotten over it, never moved on. They exist to protest, and they decide when and what you will protest.

Sadly, this protest was cancelled, due to the government not being shut down on January 29th, 2019

They are much better funded now (shoutout to George Soros!) and can afford to exist just to disrupt. That’s their claim to fame, and 501(c)(3) status. They proudly proclaim on their website that “since the 2016 election, we have formed a pillar of the Resistance to Trump.”

So MoveOn knew there would be Resistance Protests on President’s Day 2019 – because Trump! - and have been planning them for months, they just didn’t know what the nature of the protest would be until PDJT issued his National Emergency declaration last Thursday. Don’t you love it when a plan comes together?

“Donald Trump has declared a #FakeNationalEmergency—an illegal power grab from an unhinged man to push his racist, dangerous policies,” MoveOn.org states on its site for protests taking place on Presidents Day. 

So consider this a public service announcement: you’ll want to avoid the areas in your city where these gnats normally convene to conduct their “resistance.” Because after 20 years they’ll still be on the same corners, in the same squares, still occupying the same plazas, still protesting the same old problems that they love to kvetch about and have cultivated with such love and care.

 Whether it’s supporting a candidate, passing legislation, or changing our culture, MoveOn members are committed to an inclusive and progressive future. We envision a world marked by equality, sustainability, justice, and love. And we mobilize together to achieve it.

So let’s get out there people, and SAVE THE WHALES! Again. Or whatever.

A Special Kind of Moron

Nobody can smack down corporate greed like a good little Democratic Socialist:

She doubled down on her opposition to evil corporate capitalists on Saturday:

“We need to create dignified jobs in New York City,” Ocasio-Cortez said at a ceremonial inauguration ceremony Saturday in the Bronx. “We don't have to settle for scraps in the greatest city in the world.”

Well here’s the deal honey, we can’t all be lucky enough to land a job as a bartender were we ply our economics degree into a 6-digit income at the public trough.

And I guess all those people who are “unwilling to work” having a “guaranteed income” provided by those few who will remain “willing to work” is more dignified than earning an honest wage paid by an evil capitalist pig like tech-genius Jeff Bezos?

Honestly Oh-Cee, it takes a special kind of moron to make a Cher tweet look smart:

I wonder if Cher could comment on Elizabeth Warren as well. Because there’s another moron who could stand a little exposure.

“My grandma had high cheekbones too.”

In related news it is with much sadness that I report the death of the last honorable Democrat: RIP Patrick Caddell, 1950 - 2019. The only man on Fox’s political talk shows too gentlemanly to continue talking when someone interrupted to talk over him. He will be missed.