animaltobacco11

This is a good post and reminds of a conversation I had with a family member who works for Toyota, which is staunchly non-union. There is a big debate at Toyota corporate with all the white collar workers there who support manufacturing (finance, accounting, services, etc.) and they are flies on the wall to some of the internal slack channels and internal facebook group discussions. In order to keep unions at bay, Toyota goes above and beyond in certain things. They are known for never doing layoffs for one. When Covid-19 happened, they kept folks on and when things slowed down, they took that opportunity to clean/maintain presses and machines, re-tool, re-train on kaizen, etc. They keep wages very competitive for their sector, have great insurance and benefits, and retirement. And they do this not out of the kindness of their hearts, but to beat into their employees heads "you can't have all this with a union-- unions will cost you and we can't give you all these great things if you unionize" Even with all that being said, people are people. Blue collar people can be short-sighted and when they see initial reports of 40%+ wage raises and initial reports of old-school style pensions, they start to think, hey-- I want that!

You'd just get companies shifting to paying dividends, if buybacks weren't allowed (which we are seeing this year, btw). Investors/Shareholders want a return on their capital. What is the point in investing in something that won't increase in value? Why would you want to invest your money into a company that does not return any profit, by way of stock buy back which helps stock price go up, or paying a dividend? If you argue that you invest in the stock for long term growth, rather than a short or medium term return, how is that defined and quantified? I think what you don't like is the market economy and America's flavor of capitalism, but TINA. There truly isn't.

Saw this posted on Linedin. Not sure if it’s true or not (there was no link) but it’s from a reputable account. It’s interesting because Netflix has a reputation for cancelling a ton, but it's not the worst offender by any means. Percent of shows cancelled between 2020 and 2023 by streaming service. Max 27% Disney+ 21% Paramount+ 17% Hulu 15% Netflix 10% Peacock 10% Prime Video 9% Apple TV+ 5%

This one killed me.

Deion is putting on a masterclass in rebranding and rebuilding in record time. He's like a natural born CMO who was great at football and knows X's and O's. Good for him.

Finally doing the Hook 'em correctly, I see.

I dont know, it's obnoxious to me to play human frogger trying to grocery shop when it's the actual employees running around in everyone's way like elves on christmas eve, as if you are in their way.

Wow....

Had to google Doug Dimmadome.

Does that mean no more Josh Smith?????

Buzz's girlfriend Thursday Night Football; WOOF!

Is it just me, or does HEB seem just overly staffed to the point where the employees are in everyone's way and don't seem to care? I get they have to go pick items since the BOPIS and e-store model has absolutely exploded, probably along with like instacart and those other services, but it's been pretty extreme and obtrusive the last few times I've gone inside.

Oh, our pitching is Torbush'ed, no doubt. But we can be an agent of chaos and Leroy Jenkins as deep into the playoffs as possible if our offense is hot and hopefully ruin someone's year.

Rangers to the Astros (checks notes: .5 game back):

I was literally waiting the second the last out was called and you still somehow beat me to it! #respek

Huge K!

I honestly think the Prime Prep Academy stink still lingers for some folks and colors opinions on his motives and ethics. By all accounts he's a great guy and cares about kids, etc. but that old saying about how you can be a great guy for 20 years and do 1 thing and you are always known as that 1 thing, I think is at play. Full Disclosure: A family friend had a kid (and to be fair, the kid was a punk and n'erdowell) go to Prime Prep in Dallas and it was an unmitigated disaster that I got to see second-hand. Lots of folks in Dallas remember and remember it as pure grift and hanging kids out to dry.

I dare someone on this thread who knows baseball and the Texas Rangers to try and even attempt a defense for why Josh Smith is in the major leagues. Not even a defense of why he's in our starting line up as much as he is (as that is not fair and defensible) but how is he not getting at-bats in Round Rock this year? He. Sucks.

Mr. Josh (.192 actually up from .185 to start this series). You get some RBI's here and I'll not hate you outloud anymore. edit: Of course he hits into an inning ending dp with two men on.

Talking crap about CU and Deion, subliminally or explicitly, is stupid and the coaches should be reprimanded in a backroom somewhere by the adults in administration. It shows a lack of impulse and emotional control and is a no-win, high-risk gambit that just exposes your own insecurities and weaknesses. Especially when unprovoked. Deion's team will want more of that sort of crap for oxygen as they get into the middle of their schedule. CSU coach should have taken his own advice and been a responsible adult and kept his non-germane sports opinions to himself.

Did the Blue Jays put together a nepo baby team on purpose? Biggio, Bichette and Guerrero. Was Larry Walker or Adres Gallaragas kids not available as well?

Not to get ahead of ourselves from tonight and assume the W, but; Texas plays CLE who is all but done-- we need to win the series at a minimum but ideally sweep. Seattle plays a very good and hot LAD team-- they need to lose the series at a minimum but ideally be swept. Houston plays the worst team in the majors, I expect them to sweep, against KC. The goal is to win enough (in combination with SEA losing enough) that the last 7 of 10 against them aren't existential. I see a WC as the likely scenario. We'd need to remain white hot and have the Astros continue to struggle and in that case us beating the crap out of Seattle in 2 of the next 4 series actually helps the Astros if they are middling.

Thinking about this and trying to relate it to my kids/parenting-- do you wrestle with any residual...guilt, I'll call it for a lack of better term? As in, yea BoyA might not be doing as great as BoyB but BoyA got dealt a bad hand at a pivotal point in life and I'm not gonna be too hard on the fella about XYZ, heck some of it might have been my fault, had I not been traveling for work or so stressed about the big case, etc. etc. Because I can tell you that is how my Irish guilt mind would torture me.

Been getting my butt kicked all week, finally got my hooks into an easy one and dominated it. Feels good: