Keep in mind that she was, as late as 2019, saying that she had no regrets, but claims that everyone should have sympathy for what she has been through. Otherwise, she has shown no remorse.
Her biggest regret is that she can’t watch Friends or the Kardashians.
I do agree that your country shouldn’t be able to remove your citizenship without a fair shot at a hearing. Instead of exile, they should allow her to return and face charges of treason and terrorism. If convicted, then the penalty should be life in prison. If it is proven that she directly supported the war by providing material support or by actually taking up arms, she should be put to death.
I am in Las Vegas. Just a few minutes ago (1230 Pacific time) a pair of Blackhawk helicopters (the variant with the refueling probe on the front) flew from the west and made a left to fly north, directly above the Las Vegas strip. Altitude was less than 300 feet, as they were below the level of my hotel.
The ransomware attacks continue. There are several hospitals (at least five) that are rumored to have been attacked by ransomware in the past two weeks. They are trying to keep it quiet, but the attacks were largely successful in at least a few of the attacks. Two hospitals are known to have been without computer support for over a week. I know, because one of them is the one where I work.
Some systems were not affected because they were on different servers, but the common thread here is that all of the hospitals that were attacked used the same medical record reporting software. That may or may not be important. At any rate, the loss of this server affected everything: medical records, prescription tracking, payroll, scheduling, email, you name it, it has all been down for over a week. They can’t even make people pay for food from the cafeteria because the POS system isn’t working. No cash register means that they are letting us eat for free.
Payday is Thursday, and we are already wondering if we are going to get paid. We can’t issue new account numbers to patients, and everything is being done on paper. We are tracking patient location and status by writing on windows with dry erase markers. everything has been reduced to using pen and paper. My unit alone has three people per shift, and we are generating over 800 pieces of paper during every 12 hour shift. That works out to each of us filling out one form every 23 seconds. Every second for 12 straight hours. We aren’t administrative- we are a clinical unit. Those papers are there to document what we are doing. I don’t even know how we are getting anything done with patient care because we are so buried in paperwork.
Some people are being furloughed because their jobs are completely dependent on computer technology. Other departments (mine included) are working overtime to handle the additional workload. I suggested that it would be cheaper to send people with nothing to do up to the departments that need help with paperwork, rather than pay people overtime. That suggestion was ignored. The extra paperwork doesn’t require technical or medical training, it simply needs hands and a functioning brain. Instead, my unit is working overtime. I worked 60 hours last week, and 60 hours the week before. So yeah, I really hope that we DO get paid.
That has cut into my personal time, as well as into my blogging.
The other thing that I wonder is why are all of these ransomware attacks happening all of a sudden? In this case, the hackers are demanding $5 million from EACH hospital that has been hacked. Is it money? Some other motivation? Why now? Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. The question is: Who is the enemy? Are we at war? Is this China? Russia? Iran? Or is it the Democrats trying to sow confusion? All of those sound farfetched, but what events of the last two years haven’t seemed even more unlikely?
We have already seen a bioweapon unleashed on the world, only to find out that our own government not only knew about the virus, they instructed us on countermeasures that they KNEW were untrue, but also that the guy in charge of responding was part of the team that developed it, and that our own government sponsored it. Then a part of our government used it as cover to rig a national election. I don’t thing anything is impossible at this point.
So that was quick. The job that I applied for two days ago? They called me while I was at work on Thursday morning and had a telephone interview. Nothing like interviewing for a job while you are at work.
Two hours later, they called and offered me the job. The offer was laughable. The woman said “We are making this offer in consideration of your four college degrees, as well as your 22 years of experience.” Then she told me what they were willing to pay: $16 per hour.
I told her that this was FAR too low. An entry level job running a cash register at a convenience store in this area pays more than that. I know, because my high school students were getting jobs at that rate of pay. I don’t know what kind of medical employee you think you are getting for that, but it won’t be me. I would sooner not work at all.
This guy likes airplane food so much, he has been cooking food that imitates it at home during the lockdown. I thought it was unusual that he liked airline food that much, until I read the article. Now I know that he his idea of a good mouthful isn’t the same as mine.
Amazon announced that they will increase their minimum wage to $15 an hour. The people pushing for such a wage are already using them as an example, saying if Amazon can do it, anyone can. Let me explain why that assumption is wrong, and how increased wages actually HELP Amazon.
First, the vast majority of the products sold by Amazon are produced by slaves, or people so close to being slaves that there is no real difference. Yep, most of the stuff sold by Amazon is made in China. Second, most of the things sold by Amazon that are NOT made in China are actually being sold by other companies and Amazon is the agent, not the seller. I know, I used to sell lots of stuff on there. Third, many Amazon warehouses are subcontracted out. A company owned by my brother provides services to some of those locations. Fourth, Amazon has more robots working in its facilities than it does employees. Lastly, Amazon doesn’t employ many workers for the amount of goods sold, compared to most retail sellers.
All of this adds up to $15 an hour hurting Amazon’s competitors more than it helps the workers at Amazon. In fact, Amazon’s purchase of robotics manufacturer Kiva Systems for $775 million is a bargain. When you divide that amount by the 200,000 robots they have, the cost works out to less than $4 thousand per robot.
Amazon sends about 7 billion packages a year with annual revenue of around $100 billion a year.
This warehouse near Orlando covers 59 football fields, has 800 human and several thousands of robotic workers. Every bit of it is controlled and optimized for efficiency by computers.
This is the future of the American worker. Just like Henry Ford’s invention of the assembly line made manufacturing more efficient, robotics will do the same for most other industries. Fifteen dollars an hour won’t matter when three quarters of the workforce has been replaced by machines.
“They don’t care about the associates [entry-level employees such as cashiers] at all. They just want more money for themselves,”
Of course, Amazon has half as many employees. Their physical locations are in rural areas with lower costs. They have less employee theft. All of this means that, in order to compete and keep prices low, costs (including wages) must also be kept low.
If, as an employee, a person wants to make more money, you have to produce more value than any potential employee who could replace you. Why should you expect a raise just because you have been working for an employer for 20 years, if you are still the same employee they hired 20 years ago? What skills have you picked up in the past two decades? Have you gone to school? Learned new skills? Made yourself more valuable? If not, they why would your employer want to pay you more, when they could hire someone with the same skills and education for less?
Punches are not harmless. I don’t allow people to attack me. Period. The fact is, more people are killed every year by fists and feet than are killed by so-called ‘assault weapons’.
In his defense, the employee is claiming that the customer used a racial slur. Even if the man did so, that isn’t an excuse for violence. It especially not a crime punishable by death.
