Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Another Exciting Episode Of Mr. Obvious

BOSTON (Reuters) – As U.S. companies shed millions of workers during the recession, the CEOs who laid off the most people brought home pay that was significantly higher than that of their peers, a study released on Thursday found.

The CEOs of the 50 U.S. companies that laid off the most workers between November 2008 and April 2010 were paid $12 million on average in 2009, or 42 percent more than the average across the Standard & Poor's 500, according to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington think tank.

The companies in the list range from ones that were hard hit by the slump, such as General Motors and Citigroup Inc, to better-positioned businesses including Verizon Communications Inc and Caterpillar Inc.

The cuts also came at a time when the companies were increasing profit -- 72 percent of companies announced planned layoffs even while earnings were rising, the study found.

"There is still this general notion that when CEOs slash a lot of jobs they are being the tough guy, making the hard decisions necessarily to make their company lean and mean and that it's going to be a good thing for the bottom line," said Sarah Anderson, global economy project director at IPS and the study's primary author.

"We are trying to encourage people to think long-term, that there are all kinds of costs to mass layoffs, in terms of morale problems with remaining workers, in terms of when you may have to rehire and train workers if conditions improve ... It was more a way to boost their profits in the short terms and line the pockets of their CEOs," she said.



Who's your daddy now bitches?

Seriously, they had to commission a study?
Does the study's author really believe that CEOs aren't aware that there are "all kinds of costs to mass layoffs?"

Do they print these articles for the same reason Wal-Mart has 20 check-out lanes but only opens 3 at a time? So we can silently stew in our own juices?


On a lighter note, it looks like my old neighborhood hasn't lost any of its charm:

Two arrested in Lawrenceville drug bust
Thursday, September 02, 2010
By Moriah Balingit, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Two people were arrested last night after Pittsburgh police said they discovered $9,000 worth of heroin in their Lawrenceville home.

Police said Freddrick Gravely, 31, and Malika Roebuck, 35, will be charged with possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver and criminal conspiracy.

Plainclothes detectives from the Zone 2 police station executed a search warrant at the pair's home in the 100 block of Almond Way around 5 p.m. Wednesday. There, they found 900 stamp bags of heroin with an estimated street value of $9,000, three cell phones and $526 in cash. They also found evidence that tied the two to the residence.

Both were being held at the Allegheny County Jail Wednesday night awaiting arraignment.


That would be 1/2 block from my mom's house/my brother's house/soon to be Bank Of America's house. I hope the BOA folk enjoy it there as much as I did.

23 comments:

Morocco Bama said...

There, they found 900 stamp bags of heroin with an estimated street value of $9,000, three cell phones and $526 in cash.

Fucking cowards. That's small potatoes and they know it. They busted those low level lowlifes, no doubt, because they were infringing on another dealer's territory without paying proper homage and tribute. The police are nothing more than an enforcement and protection racket for the big kingpins. We're supposed to pretend they don't know who the kingpins are and aren't in league with them. Okay.

SCUMBAGS!!!!

Morocco Bama said...

Does the study's author really believe that CEOs aren't aware that there are "all kinds of costs to mass layoffs?"

CEOs don't even consider them costs.

ericswan said...

This is a transcript of a radio conversation between a US Naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland. I understand that there’s actually a full transcript of this conversation lurking about somewhere. If anyone has is, send it to me!

US SHIP: Please divert your course 0.5 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

CANADIAN REPLY: Recommend you divert YOUR course 15 degrees to the South to avoid a collision.

US SHIP: This is the Captain of the US Navy Ship. I say again, divert YOUR course.

CANADIAN REPLY: No, I say again, divert YOUR course!

US SHIP: THIS IS THE AIRCRAFT CARRIER USS MISSOURI. WE ARE A LARGE WARSHIP OF THE US NAVY. DIVERT YOUR COURSE NOW OR WE WILL TAKE APPROPRIATE AND DRASTIC MEASURES!!!!

CANADIAN REPLY: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

ericswan said...

Wow, an interesting observation. Wallmart is the American Way. I wonder if they plan on a pay it forward for the quick exit? All right. Shrub weigh in here. Why so many tills and only 2 open?

ericswan said...

When I pick up the phone I don't necessarily say anything. If the person calling doesn't have a name for the person they want to talk to, I hang up and usually within 3-5 seconds. When I take that little trip to work, I usually don't encounter other fellow travellers. If I do see a lineup, I can take the highway (transcanada) which will get me to my destination in 4 minutes. If it's quiet out there I take the scenic more direct route which is a lower speed and takes me 6 minutes. Fortunately for me, my favorite coffee shop is on the property. I leave my office/warehouse and drive to the takeout in 1 minute and back to my parking spot for the remainder of my break. This is the middle of the night so the lineup for coffee is negligible. My problem is viewing the world as over populated. From my truck window, I look out over the western horizon while I sip coffee and conjecture that no single human foot has ever touched the ground in much of what I can see.

Morocco Bama said...

Shrub weigh in here. Why so many tills and only 2 open?

Walmart does nothing for chance. They dot every tee and cross every eye, so they built in that excess capacity for a reason. Sure, the American Way is excess capacity.....overkill, but that's not the Walmart way when it comes to their cost structure. All expenditures on their part must be rationalized....and then rationalized again, so the excess check-outs have some purpose, it's not poor planning. Perhaps they know something we don't....like a Soylent Green scenario unfolding within the next decade.......we all have to go to Walmart to eat each other with our ration cards....those excess check-out queues will come in handy then, won't they? They'll have two products......funky tasting and smelling biscuits and loin cloths.

Walmart is a freaky mixture of Communism/Fascism.....Totalitarian to the core.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/103756/cnbc-originals-the-new-age-of-walmart

Morocco Bama said...

I was curious and decided to do some google sleuthing on my old moniker, shrubageddon. Very odd what I found. Type in shrubageddon and go to the 3rd, 4th and 5th page of the results. What the fuck is this all about? Is this some sort of bot using my former namesake.....and associated it with porn? I found one that mixed my name with Eve, even. Very odd. Any ideas?

Oh, and here's our friend Dream's End. Apparently, in his paranoid opinion, I was one of Eve's posse. Alrighty then.

http://dreamsend333.wordpress.com/tag/andy-stephenson/

Morocco Bama said...

This one's even freakier. What the hell is this all about?

http://psicoterapiaorganismica.info/psychotherapy-networker-convention

ericswan said...

I don't remember posting there. They are my words and deeds but..it's only been 4 years. The cuttlefish was as opaque as he ever was.

just_another_dick said...

Shrub, while I knew we were sharing the same body at one point, I didn't know we had a whole thread on the forum discussing that fact.

By the way, do you think you can hook me up with the teen web cam site? Don't feel bad, every time I google "Dick" all I get are porn sites.

Didn't Dream eventually begin to think everyone friendly with Eve was
"in on it?"
I would bet Dream still spends too much time obsessing over that bullshit.

The last one was a bit odd. Some RI lurker hijacking your name perhaps?

Morocco Bama said...

Here's a blast from thew past. Remember the Satanic Squatters at RI.....Sabrina/Sabina et al? Take a gander at the comments to this historic post. The Kelly to whom Sabrina/Sabina refers was me. I pretended I was a young teenage girl looking for Satanic Lesbian sex and Sabina/Sabrina jumped on it like a lion on an antelope.

http://rigint.blogspot.com/2007/02/shock-of-awe-part-one.html

just_another_dick said...

I remember that one Shrub. You're a naughty naughty boy for channeling your inner schoolgirl.

Morocco Bama said...

I still have the uniform. I keep it locked away in the trunk with The Gimp....for those special occasions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMTEefxUxVk&feature=related

Bigfoot said...

Hey Richard & co, big earthquake here in New Zealand, I'm in another city outside its rumble zone but it sure makes me wonder what the hell I'm doing living on a giant, long overdue fault line.
And I dont want to hear any sheep humour from you lot.

ericswan said...

I have no forum experience and really don't know all the perps that you go on about but I did like Sabrina/Sabina and think I might have pounced on her/ myself (at least on RI). Now, if you don't mind, could you please identify "Surrender" as yet one more of your play things?

Morocco Bama said...

And I dont want to hear any sheep humour from you lot.

BF, there's nothing to be ashamed of...really. Sometimes you get so lonely.....that's understandable. Not to mention that sheep can be very comforting in so many ways at anxious times like these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-7kXnfXyXc

Bigfoot said...

Anyone else get the sneaky feeling our 'Beyond Petroleum' future is already beyond us? A script already typed up and playing out like the 'green revolution', its engineered birth corrupted and controlled from conception?

globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7529

seattleglobaljustice.org/2010/08/for-immediate-
release-gates-foundation-invests-in-monsanto/

ericswan said...

This blog is really starting to degenerate. Just kidding.


I tried desperately to find the Aleister Crowley "feces is a sexual multiplier" story when that was the hot topic here but I guess it wasn't bookmarked or at least not in the appropriate place. I suppose I will have to create one for future reference.

Speaking of floculation, is it really necessary to add alum to drive the tds (total dissolved solids) to the bottom. That stuff just makes me pucker thinking about it.

Morocco Bama said...

Someone posted this over at RI and I thought it worthy of discussion because it's been happening more frequently, or so it seems.....and it segues nicely with the Walmart excess check-outs discussion.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/traffic/2012783992_everett02m.html

While law-enforcement officials searched for the suspect, I-5 was fully to partially closed, causing northbound traffic to back up as far as five miles at one point.

Couple that with this:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/asiaview/2010/08/great_chinese_traffic_jam

IF YOU are tempted to grumble about the rigours of your own daily commute, spare a thought for the poor souls caught up in this month’s monster of a traffic jam on China’s National Highway 110 and its tributaries in the north-western outskirts of Beijing.

State media have reported extensively on a sprawling blockage that stretched for 100 kilometres. It lasted nearly two weeks, and was expected to last into September. Almost as remarkable as the scale of the congestion is the seeming suddenness with which it has broken up. By the morning of August 26th, journalists traveling the affected highways reported that the tie-up had vanished into thin air—perhaps with a whoosh, trailing behind a plume of evil-smelling smoke?—and that vehicles were moving again.


A couple of years ago I was caught up in a similar event in Atlanta. The fucking shit head cops blocked I-75 South and essentially held us captive for 5 hours as they searched cars with an electronic tracking device for stolen cash from a bank heist. If you got out of your car they ordered you back in it....and my guess is, if you didn't, they would make your life a living hell. I couldn't help thinking about how tens of thousands of people would allow these cocksuckers to hold such sway over them for something as insignificant as property theft. It's what makes me think there's more to it than that, and they're just looking for a pretext to practice for something more that's coming.

Morocco Bama said...

I guess that last comment of mine also ties in nicely with the sheep current running through this anarchic thread.

Even popular themes which attempt to capitalize on the anti-establishment (anti-sheep) trend are themselves vomited from the same vat of anti-creativity. Like this one. The wife and I tried to watch this last night and made it about five minutes before we both turned to each other and said "Is this a joke...this can't be for real." We promptly shut it off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZWPyNBuOBs&feature=related

ericswan said...

I have to wonder why the constitution of the United States is considered sacrosanct. Do you really think the second amendment is a good thing in light of the hardware you face should you ever decide to throw off the shackles of a two party system?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuyENSnUxn8

Morocco Bama said...

A census worker going door to door after 9pm? No, nothing suspicious about that, is there? A message to all those in non-compliance with the Census. Obeisance is mandatory, and the 2nd Amendment won't protect you because we have overwhelming force on our side.

We didn't comply with the Census except to tell the census stooge how many occupants lived in our home. I'm convinced the whole Census project is an exercise in limits of cooperation. We know they already have all this information readily available, so why the redundancy? It has to be to test your compliance. Think Nazi Germany and the incremental steps they instituted in gaining compliance for a mass killing machine. Even the Jews complied til the bitter end.

I hear you, Eric, about a pea shooter versus a surface to air, or air to surface missile. What about the right to bear those dandy weapons......the latest technology? That would be the equivalent these days, yet I don't see anyone carrying those around readying themselves for a potential invasion.....and that was the intent, allegedly, of the 2nd Amendment. The pea shooters are only going to help The Unwashed Masses kill each other...not the real enemy...and that's why they will feign to protect that portion of the over-rated Constitution...because they want to convey the illusion of rights and freedom, all the while knowing full well the pea shooters will, 99.9% of the time, be used to kill each other rather than an organized effort to destroy the Plutocratic Oligarchy.

just_another_dick said...

Shrub, did they ever explain how that Chinese traffic jam vanished so quickly?

I found that a bit odd.

Did you see the RI thread about Afghani men & their predilection for young boy toys?

I seem to remember reading an incredibly similar article right before the Afghanistan invasion began.

Maybe the disinfotainers are getting lazy these days.

Or maybe they're so sure the sheep(sorry BF) are memory challenged that they just reuse the same stories over & over.

Or maybe Disinfotainment, much like Infotainment, generates a backlog of stories just ripe for rerun syndication.

Eric, I wonder why the entire Constitution is treated, at times, like it was brought down from Mt. Shasta engraved on stone tablets.

While folk like Hannity wax rhapsodic about "the inspiring words of our Founding Fathers," the armed forces publish endless reams of unread documents planning for a future of dwindling resources, dwindling energy supplies & increasing unrest amongst the have not sheep(see above BF).

With the oodles of "support the troops" bullshit America wallows in, I can envision a day when the sheep(look BF, what did you expect from a Dick?) thank soldiers as they're shot by them.

That will be a PR coup to top all PR coups, don't ya think?