THE MORNING RANT: Boeing’s Ongoing 737-Max Debacle - When Cost Cutting Becomes the Corporate Mission

Boeing was once a well-run engineering company that became very profitable from its well-engineered products. It is now a poorly-run manufacturing company being managed in the manner taught in elite MBA programs, placing an emphasis above all else on cost control and expense reduction.

It is also a company whose current version of its workhorse product, the 737 Max, continues to have catastrophic in-flight failures.

Part of the 737 Max fleet has been grounded, again, this time after a door plug came off the fuselage of an Alaska Airlines airplane while in flight. Back in 2018 and 2019, there were two fatal 737 Max crashes, both apparently related to poorly designed and programmed flight stabilizer systems.

This story from 2019 came out in the wake of the fatal crashes:

It remains the mystery at the heart of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max crisis: how a company renowned for meticulous design made seemingly basic software mistakes leading to a pair of deadly crashes. Longtime Boeing engineers say the effort was complicated by a push to outsource work to lower-paid contractors.
The Max software -- plagued by issues that could keep the planes grounded months longer after U.S. regulators this week revealed a new flaw -- was developed at a time Boeing was laying off experienced engineers and pressing suppliers to cut costs.
Increasingly, the iconic American planemaker and its subcontractors have relied on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour to develop and test software, often from countries lacking a deep background in aerospace -- notably India.

There is so much more that needs to be said about the toxicity of the “slash and cut your way to increased profit” culture that is learned at business schools, but I’ll briefly summarize that putting the “Chief Cost Cutter” at the helm of a corporation is just as ridiculous as putting the Accounts Payable Manager or Facilities Manager in charge of all operations. They’re all important roles, but you would not have the entire company focus almost exclusively on just one of those facets. Yet too many modern executives have a monomaniacal obsession with cutting costs and expenses, which causes neglect of innovation, quality, safety, and new product development, if not outright hostility toward those critical areas. It also causes a loss of important talent whose legacy knowledge has a value that can’t be quantified on a financial statement.

In 2019 there was an exceptional piece in The Atlantic. It discussed Boeing’s new direction in the aftermath of its merger with McDonnell Douglas, and the destructive takeover of Boeing by the cost-cutting executives who ran McDonnell into the ground. Their obsession with cost cutting and their contempt for the engineers and aviators who made Boeing great ultimately destroyed the great company. The relocation of Boeing’s corporate headquarters to Chicago was largely for the purpose of separating the brilliant money men now leading Boeing from those annoying engineering and manufacturing guys back in Seattle.

“How Boeing Lost Its Bearings: A company once driven by engineers became driven by finance” [The Atlantic – 11/20/2019]

Below are some excerpts. The entire piece has been archived and can be read here.

In the plane’s trailing vortices was greater Seattle, where the company’s famed engineering culture had taken root; where the bulk of its 40,000-plus engineers lived and worked; indeed, where the jet itself had been assembled. But it was May 2001. And Boeing’s leaders, CEO Phil Condit and President Harry Stonecipher, had decided it was time to put some distance between themselves and the people actually making the company’s planes. How much distance? This flight—a PR stunt to end the two-month contest for Boeing’s new headquarters—would reveal the answer. Once the plane was airborne, Boeing announced it would be landing at Chicago’s Midway International Airport.

The isolation was deliberate. “When the headquarters is located in proximity to a principal business—as ours was in Seattle—the corporate center is inevitably drawn into day-to-day business operations,” Condit explained at the time. And that statement, more than anything, captures a cardinal truth about the aerospace giant. The present 737 Max disaster can be traced back two decades—to the moment Boeing’s leadership decided to divorce itself from the firm’s own culture.

The shift had started three years earlier, with Boeing’s “reverse takeover” of McDonnell Douglas—so-called because it was McDonnell executives who perversely ended up in charge of the combined entity, and it was McDonnell’s culture that became ascendant.

But Stonecipher was cutting a Dick Cheney–like figure, blasting the company’s engineers as “arrogant” and spouting Harry Trumanisms (“I don’t give ’em hell; I just tell the truth and they think it’s hell” when they shot back that he was the problem.

“There was a little surprise that a guy running a failing company ended up with so much power,” the former Boeing executive vice president Dick Albrecht told me at the time. Post-merger, Stonecipher brought his chain saw to Seattle. “A passion for affordability” became one of the company’s new, unloved slogans, as did “Less family, more team.” It was enough to drive the white-collar engineering union, which had historically functioned as a professional debating society, into acting more like organized labor. “We weren’t fighting against Boeing,” one union leader told me of the 40-day strike that shut down production in 2000. “We were fighting to save Boeing.”

If Andrew Carnegie’s advice—“Put all your eggs in one basket, and then watch that basket”—had guided Boeing before, these decisions accomplished roughly the opposite. The company would put its eggs in three baskets: military in St. Louis. Space in Long Beach. Passenger jets in Seattle. And it would watch that basket from Chicago. Never mind that the majority of its revenues and real estate were and are in basket three. Or that Boeing’s managers would now have the added challenge of flying all this blind—or by instrument, as it were—relying on remote readouts of the situation in Chicago instead of eyeballing it directly (as good pilots are incidentally trained to do). The goal was to change Boeing’s culture.

And in that, Condit and Stonecipher clearly succeeded. In the next four years, Boeing’s detail-oriented, conservative culture became embroiled in a series of scandals. Its rocket division was found to be in possession of 25,000 pages of stolen Lockheed Martin documents. Its CFO (ex-McDonnell) was caught violating government procurement laws and went to jail. With ethics now front and center, Condit was forced out and replaced with Stonecipher, who promptly affirmed: “When people say I changed the culture of Boeing, that was the intent, so that it’s run like a business rather than a great engineering firm.” A General Electric alum, he built a virtual replica of GE’s famed Crotonville leadership center for Boeing managers to cycle through. And when Stonecipher had his own career-ending scandal (an affair with an employee), it was another GE alum—James McNerney—who came in from the outside to replace him.

If I can make a quick side note, the only people more destructive in corporate C-suites than Ivy League business school graduates are General Electric alums. They tend to bring a cult-like fanaticism for the idiotic business fads that ultimately destroyed GE, never understanding that the success of GE in the 1990s was despite those awful gimmicks, not because of them, and that the subsequent destruction of GE as a successful company in the 21st century was largely because of all the gimmicks that came to define GE’s culture.

As the aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia recently told me, “You had this weird combination of a distant building with a few hundred people in it and a non-engineer with no technical skills whatsoever at the helm.” Even that might have worked—had the commercial-jet business stayed in the hands of an experienced engineer steeped in STEM disciplines. Instead McNerney installed an M.B.A. with a varied background in sales, marketing, and supply-chain management.

It wasn’t just technical knowledge that was lost, Aboulafia said. “It was the ability to comfortably interact with an engineer who in turn feels comfortable telling you their reservations, versus calling a manager [more than] 1,500 miles away who you know has a reputation for wanting to take your pension away. It’s a very different dynamic. As a recipe for disempowering engineers in particular, you couldn’t come up with a better format.”

It’s now clear that long before the software lost track of its planes’ true bearings, Boeing lost track of its own.

Right now, there is much well-deserved mockery of Boeing and Alaska Airlines for how their focus on DEI and LGBTQ has distracted them from manufacturing and operating airplanes that don’t fall apart mid-flight. I have no doubt that if Alaska Airlines spent more time inspecting its airplanes rather than decorating them in rainbow colors and putting on drag shows, this latest incident would not have happened.

But neither would it have happened if Boeing was still a company run by engineers, rather than being a company run by MBAs who will gladly sacrifice quality and safety to temporarily goose the bottom line.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:00 AM (Zz0t1)

2 DEI so you can DIE.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:00 AM (Zz0t1)

3 yep

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at January 15, 2024 11:01 AM (R4t5M)

4 If it's a Boeing I'm not going.

Posted by: Next2Nothing at January 15, 2024 11:02 AM (tA1/w)

5
Boeing’s Ongoing 737-Max Debacle - When Cost Cutting Becomes the Corporate Mission

Do not neglect the vital role played by DEI chorus lines! Tik-Tok! Tik-Tok!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:02 AM (xG4kz)

6 20 years ago, we were pushing "zero defects" and "right the first time"....too costly?

Posted by: BignJames at January 15, 2024 11:03 AM (AwYPR)

7 If we don't let Hashia check the engineering specifications for $9/hour then lettuce will cost ten cents more per head.

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:04 AM (+RC1q)

8 Increasingly, the iconic American planemaker and its subcontractors have relied on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour to develop and test software, often from countries lacking a deep background in aerospace -- notably India.

Please note: The Biden Administration went after Musk and Tesla because they didn't have enough H1B visa holders on their payroll.........

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:04 AM (Zz0t1)

9 Windows clack too!

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 11:04 AM (2yu8s)

10 Instapundit linked a WSJ article yesterday that said that a lot of the problem is that Boeing outsources too much to subcontractors, so it doesn't have direct control of the manufacturing process anymore.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:04 AM (9yWhg)

11 Do not neglect the vital role played by DEI chorus lines! Tik-Tok! Tik-Tok!

-

You know, I bet a female Indian engineer who doesn't read or speak english is right up near the top of that pyramid.

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:05 AM (+RC1q)

12 We're doomed.
I have some relatives flying to visit me at this very moment.

Posted by: m at January 15, 2024 11:05 AM (Kr+3r)

13 Where have all the engineers gone
Long time passing
Where have all the engineers gone
Long time ago
Where have all the engineers gone
DEI replaced them, every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Posted by: The Kingston Throuple at January 15, 2024 11:05 AM (R/m4+)

14 I could help that ballclub!

Posted by: Dylan Mulvaney at January 15, 2024 11:05 AM (PiwSw)

15 2 DEI so you can DIE.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:00 AM (Zz0t1)

Mister Bond.

Posted by: m at January 15, 2024 11:05 AM (Kr+3r)

16 Let's be honest, though. There are no Americans interested in doing these jobs.

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:06 AM (+RC1q)

17 That Boeing was warned this would happen is going to create generational wealth for a bunch of lawyers.

I bet everyone on that plane will pocket at least $200,000

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice - Personality Commentator at January 15, 2024 11:06 AM (PFILT)

18 Quality Control is White Adjacent.

Posted by: garrett at January 15, 2024 11:06 AM (RVloE)

19 Ishapore quality.

Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenkoism in solidarity with the struggle to maintain Moron standards at January 15, 2024 11:07 AM (OKkSB)

20
20 years ago, we were pushing "zero defects" and "right the first time"....too costly?
Posted by: BignJames

You mean those dark days when no enterprise could be undertaken without first engaging in protracted and wasteful flustercucks centered around the lofty precepts of DIE?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:07 AM (xG4kz)

21
Are the shareholders happy? Screw everything else.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 15, 2024 11:07 AM (MoZTd)

22 Software development is often seen as a cost and not a profit center with engineers seen as interchangeable.

Experience and an actual interest in engineering is being thrown out in favor of cheaper labor and DEI hires cos-playing as (largely) nerdy white men.

Posted by: Political McGuffin at January 15, 2024 11:07 AM (nGP9S)

23 that's a lot of content...I'll just drive to where I need to go now

Posted by: DanMan at January 15, 2024 11:08 AM (8uzBS)

24 Boeing was once a well-run engineering company that became very profitable from its well-engineered products.
++++
Well, that in combination with the DoD and the Export-Import Bank.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:08 AM (C19Uv)

25
Engineers are a dime a dozen. Finance guys are the gold standard.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 15, 2024 11:08 AM (MoZTd)

26 It's weird to think that the submarine and the airplane both had essentially the same thing happen and for essentially the same reasons.

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:08 AM (+RC1q)

27 Pleased to be assistance of engineering fine aircraftplanes.

Posted by: "Kevin" from the call center at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (4I/2K)

28 Imagine you are over the Pacific Ocean halfway between the US and Australia and a door on the plane blows out.

Your seat ain't that good a flotation device.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (ZLI7S)

29 When I first went to work for GE I was told by a current employee how it works. The first year GE gives you a puppy and the second year they say kill the puppy.

Posted by: MAC V SOG at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (P4Pk9)

30 relied on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour

This just distracts us from the real problem: the "executives"

I've worked with many Indian engineers who made a fraction of what I was earning and most were smart, well educated and hard working. They are not the source of the problems.

Posted by: Next2Nothing at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (tA1/w)

31 That Boeing was warned this would happen is going to create generational wealth for a bunch of lawyers.
I bet everyone on that plane will pocket at least $200,000
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice - Personality Commentator at January 15, 2024 11:06 AM (PFILT)

Has the airplane door come open on you when flying? Has the airplane's shitter blown up while you were going number 2? Has the airplane peeled itself open while over the Pacific? Well call me! As the largest law firm in the country size matters!
1-888-666-6969....Call Now! For The People!

Posted by: John Morgan, Fat democrat Super Lawyer at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (R/m4+)

32 "In 2019 there was an exceptional piece in The Atlantic"

--

TRUMP!!!!

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (+RC1q)

33 Great point, but this was a hardware/design problem. How much is DEI destroying our infrastructure. I’m 72. I feel sorry you younger folks who will have to live with DEI doctors in the future

Posted by: Reggie at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (62r33)

34 Get some Diversity engineering on it

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2024 11:10 AM (Qtvgh)

35
I bet everyone on that plane will pocket at least $200,000
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice
---
'Trauma'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:10 AM (XeU6L)

36 But this DIE won't die until insurance companies start negatively rating DIE policyholders.

If red states want to kill DIE, they can easily direct their insurance commission to not approve policies which offer discounts for DIE.

I'll bet the governor could do it by executive orders.

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice - Personality Commentator at January 15, 2024 11:10 AM (PFILT)

37 >> Imagine you are over the Pacific Ocean halfway between the US and Australia and a door on the plane blows out.

>Your seat ain't that good a flotation device.

I'm not worried.

Posted by: Pam Anderson at January 15, 2024 11:10 AM (RVloE)

38

Why do planes fall out of the sky
When we use
D-E-I

Posted by: If I were a Carpenter at January 15, 2024 11:10 AM (63Dwl)

39 Spirit Aero, is a subcontractor on the 737-max. I've posted about them before. The "team" responsible for some of the work done on 737's is all female.

There's a video on X.

Think "dancing nurses" and you get the idea.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at January 15, 2024 11:10 AM (Q4IgG)

40 I was afraid of flying - 20 years ago. I could do it, but I was never comfortable with it. Back then, it could be classed as a phobia.

Now, with Boeing's escapades, and the FAA seeking out deaf, blind, and/or epileptic people for air traffic controllers. I'm still afraid. However, it's now based in reality, and it isn't a phobia anymore.

Yeah, Diversity! (snort)

Posted by: Hour of the Wolf at January 15, 2024 11:11 AM (VNX3d)

41 Same thing at GM
cars dont plummet though

Posted by: DaveA at January 15, 2024 11:11 AM (FhXTo)

42 I bet everyone on that plane will pocket at least $200,000

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice

I think the airline offered $1500/per.

Posted by: BignJames at January 15, 2024 11:11 AM (AwYPR)

43 Now that we have Modular Pedestrian Bridges, why do we even need planes?

Posted by: garrett at January 15, 2024 11:11 AM (RVloE)

44
Hello, this is the Airframe Hotline! Please to be speaking to Daglesh, er, Doug! What is to be the problem?

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:11 AM (xG4kz)

45 Southwest Airlines didn't start Amber Heard'ing until they hired a money guy as CEO instead of a pilot/airline guy.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (Zz0t1)

46 Did you see this:
http://tinyurl.com/mw258jzh

These people are insane.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (t/2Uw)

47 Great point, but this was a hardware/design problem.
------

Hmm. I was under the impression that it was a 'process' problem. That is, the door wasn't fastened properly, as opposed to a material/design failure.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (XeU6L)

48 Having worked as a contractor for various GE entities over most of my career... basically I'm amazed at how GE Aviation ne Aerospace somehow has better (but not by much) QA then Boeing now, despite both taking the same routes of self-destruction.

I'm just happy I haven't had to fly since 2020. Shit's fucked.

Posted by: Gaff at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (jPS2y)

49 IIRC, Boeing was a big booster of the nuclear deal with Iran and the lifting of sanctions because they wanted to sell planes to the Iranian air force.

Screw Boeing.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (9yWhg)

50 Happily, the FAA will work closely with Boeing to fix these issues. Hand in glove. The FAA will assign their best epileptic dwarf with anger issues to the project and Boeing will respond with a Pacific Islander trans-man.

Posted by: Huck Follywood at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (xWSTK)

51
I try to be optimistic and say DEI is another management fad and will go away like eat your own dog food, total quality management and ISO.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (MoZTd)

52
There's a video on X.

Think "dancing nurses" and you get the idea.
Posted by: Martini Farmer

Tik-Tok! Tik-Tok!

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:13 AM (xG4kz)

53 Aside from imagining being on that aircraft. Imagine being in another looking out the window as that thing taxied past you. Uh, honey, look at that...

Posted by: Minnfidel at January 15, 2024 11:13 AM (4p0Xq)

54 I am so glad our family's jet-setting days are over. Which is bittersweet, because my husband was USAF, and I loved flying.

Posted by: pookysgirl, trying not to count the hours at January 15, 2024 11:14 AM (dtlDP)

55 All is proceeding as I have foreseen in my talk The Mrs. Grace L. Ferguson Airline (and Storm Door Company).

Posted by: The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart at January 15, 2024 11:14 AM (4I/2K)

56 Great point, but this was a hardware/design problem.
------

Hmm. I was under the impression that it was a 'process' problem. That is, the door wasn't fastened properly, as opposed to a material/design failure.
Posted by: Mike Hammer

-

I'm looking at it less at the specific failure and more why the failure was acceptable / allowed to exist.

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:14 AM (+RC1q)

57 50 Happily, the FAA will work closely with Boeing to fix these issues. Hand in glove. The FAA will assign their best epileptic dwarf with anger issues to the project and Boeing will respond with a Pacific Islander trans-man.
Posted by: Huck Follywood at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (xWSTK)

And the Lifetime movie will be lit!

Posted by: Showrunners currently negotiating with Peter Dinklage and The Rock (who may not be interested) at January 15, 2024 11:14 AM (PiwSw)

58 But neither would it have happened if Boeing was still a company run by engineers, rather than being a company run by MBAs who will gladly sacrifice quality and safety to temporarily goose the bottom line.
++++
Engineers are usually lousy at running companies. It's one of the reasons why engineer-founded startups so often end up firing their founders. It doesn't always happen, of course. Bill Gates made the transition from engineer to executive beautifully. So did Larry Ellison. But they are unusual.

The problem isn't that the engineers weren't in charge, it's that the executives are bad, their ambitions are bad, their gate-keeping is bad. No company - or country - can survive persistently bad executive management. Boeing - like General Electric and countless others - appears to have descended into self-dealing and incompetence by its executives.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:14 AM (C19Uv)

59 MBA's biggest offense is to put Finance and Purchasing in charge. Those $9 per hour software engineers are cheaper by the hour, but take 15x longer to finish their task and the work product is atrocious.

Posted by: Tennessee Volunteer at January 15, 2024 11:15 AM (SxybG)

60 Aside from imagining being on that aircraft. Imagine being in another looking out the window as that thing taxied past you. Uh, honey, look at that...

I'm pretty sure you can't blame Boeing for little green men on the wing.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:16 AM (CsUN+)

61 I try to be optimistic and say DEI is another management fad and will go away like eat your own dog food, total quality management and ISO.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh
--------
Imagine being a member of the DEI 'Team'.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:16 AM (XeU6L)

62 I bet everyone on that plane will pocket at least $200,000

Posted by: People's Hippo Voice

I think the airline offered $1500/per.
Posted by: BignJames at January 15, 2024 11:11 AM (AwYPR)

And coupon for free checked baggage on a future flight booked in the next 180 days.

Posted by: Count de Monet at January 15, 2024 11:16 AM (4I/2K)

63 A somewhat related issue I saw discussed on X:

@BlaufussB: Anyone else see the problem here and who caused it! #737Max #Boeing I lived in Wichita during CV and watched an entire aviation manufacture workforce of people get their lives ruined by lockdowns. Something like 17,000 people were laid off! Root cause!

@dddchess: Can confirm...Have a relative who works for SPR in Wichita. They hired a few back, including him, but far from the amount they canned.

Posted by: Intercepted X Transmissions brought by the Intrepid AoS Liaison at January 15, 2024 11:16 AM (ycI94)

64 Buy Boeing! Buy buy buy!

Posted by: Jim Cramer at January 15, 2024 11:16 AM (PiwSw)

65 I try to be optimistic and say DEI is another management fad and will go away like eat your own dog food, total quality management and ISO.
Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (MoZTd)

I remember the 1980s and everyone had to mimic the Japs for their managerial style which made them an economic powerhouse. Nobody mentioned that all the Jap companies were in bed with their government for tax/kickbacks/bribes and other types of "quality" management.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2024 11:16 AM (R/m4+)

66 The sad thing is this type of slash and burn down management has been going on in many, if not most, US manufacturing companies.

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:17 AM (J47y1)

67 Thie is on point. Fly the Friendly Skies With Untied!

http://tinyurl.com/3vyrdpn7

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:17 AM (FVME7)

68 Did you see this:
http://tinyurl.com/mw258jzh

These people are insane.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (t/2Uw)

You could say that about every Libs of TikTok tweet.

Posted by: pookysgirl lives with insanity, but not that kind at January 15, 2024 11:18 AM (dtlDP)

69 Engineers are usually lousy at running companies.

This is also true of scientists. At my lab, they promoted all managers from the bench, usually with very bad results. It's a different skill set.

The answer isn't necessarily not to hire MBAs, it's to hire ones that understand that they aren't making blue jeans, where if quality slips, the worst outcome is a split seam or loose belt loop. Levi's, I'm looking at you.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:18 AM (CsUN+)

70 Engineers are usually lousy at running companies. It's one of the reasons why engineer-founded startups so often end up firing their founders. It doesn't always happen, of course. Bill Gates made the transition from engineer to executive beautifully. So did Larry Ellison. But they are unusual.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)

Was Musk an engineer?

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:18 AM (9yWhg)

71
Aside from imagining being on that aircraft. Imagine being in another looking out the window as that thing taxied past you. Uh, honey, look at that...
Posted by: Minnfidel

*pan to Boeing airframes division*

"Does this mean our upgrade to have screen doors installed on our 737s will be scuttled?"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:18 AM (xG4kz)

72 Great point, but this was a hardware/design problem. How much is DEI destroying our infrastructure. I’m 72. I feel sorry you younger folks who will have to live with DEI doctors in the future
Posted by: Reggie at January 15, 2024 11:09 AM (62r33)
++++
We won't. We'll get substandard and infrequent medical treatment until we die a few years - and then several years - earlier than we would otherwise would have had the system not been destroyed through self-dealing corruption, skim and ideological zeal.

Just like everything else. "How will these people design bridges?" They won't. We won't be building bridges. "Who will mine coal or drill for oil?" Nobody. We won't be doing that anymore.

We are, in essence, becoming time travelers. All of us. We're all going back in time to a simpler time. We can no longer afford a high-complexity, narrow-margin system - but more to the point, we can no longer operate it. Even if price were no object, it would still fail.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:19 AM (C19Uv)

73 Did you see this:
http://tinyurl.com/mw258jzh

These people are insane.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

Insane...and winning. 😔

Posted by: Moron Analyst at January 15, 2024 11:20 AM (ycI94)

74 This excellent rant is also the story of Motorola, especially "installed an M.B.A. with a varied background in sales, marketing, and supply-chain management."

Motorola was a prime example of shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations. First one builds it, second enjoys the benefits, third generation loses it.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at January 15, 2024 11:20 AM (Rk17F)

75 We are, in essence, becoming time travelers. All of us. We're all going back in time to a simpler time. We can no longer afford a high-complexity, narrow-margin system - but more to the point, we can no longer operate it. Even if price were no object, it would still fail.

Roman aqueducts have entered the chat.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:20 AM (CsUN+)

76 67 Thie is on point. Fly the Friendly Skies With Untied!

http://tinyurl.com/3vyrdpn7
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:17 AM (FVME7
-----------------------
Incredible!!

UAL actually hired a drag queen as CEO?

Posted by: Huck Follywood at January 15, 2024 11:21 AM (9LOW6)

77 DEI related:

End Wokeness @EndWokeness Jan 13
EXCLUSIVE: UW Health employee sent this from their mandatory DEI training:

White employees are required to check off examples of their white privilege & white fragility.

Whites are also instructed to take steps like yielding positions of power to non-whites in order to atone for their natural racism.

They are also directed to take courses to unlearn the systemic racism they were inherently born with.

http://tinyurl.com/4a7kk7rp
screencaps

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 11:21 AM (2yu8s)

78 The answer isn't necessarily not to hire MBAs, it's to hire ones that understand that they aren't making blue jeans, where if quality slips, the worst outcome is a split seam or loose belt loop. Levi's, I'm looking at you.
Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:18 AM (CsUN+)
++++
Right. Engineering and executive management are different skillsets. A new assumption of "put engineers in charge" will fail just as hard as "put cost-cutters in charge" - it will just fail differently.

To succeed, you need executive managers who are competent, interested in making money but knowledgeable about the need to continue developing new products, intelligent, etc. Just like engineers, they must be chosen well. The contemporary theme is that they are *not* chosen well. They're cost-cutters and politicians and that is *all* they know. They are not businessmen.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:22 AM (C19Uv)

79 The fact that they found loose bolts on other aircraft is really worrying. I can understand a one time screwup by a super incompetent tech but how did this problem propagate to other aircraft?

The answer to this is the root cause.

Posted by: pawn at January 15, 2024 11:22 AM (fZG0/)

80

If you were just fly with unpressurized cabins, you wouldn't have this problem!

*sniff*

Posted by: Boeing VP of Quality at January 15, 2024 11:22 AM (HRQvT)

81 FAA's "Diversity and Inclusion" hiring goals include people with "severe intellectual" and "psychiatric" disabilities

http://tinyurl.com/2x5dy2c8

-
NTTAWWT

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:23 AM (FVME7)

82 Just like everything else. "How will these people design bridges?" They won't. We won't be building bridges. "Who will mine coal or drill for oil?" Nobody. We won't be doing that anymore.

There will still be bright people with a technical bent who can figure out how to do these things. The problem is, I think, that the system for them to pass on their knowledge and skill to other people will be broken.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:23 AM (9yWhg)

83 I got my MBA back when it meant finding better ways to improve production, not finding sleazy ways to improve quarterly bonuses.

I still fight this battle with newer managers, which explains why I don't get to the top floor.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 15, 2024 11:23 AM (lTGtQ)

84 We're all going back in time to a simpler time. We can no longer afford a high-complexity, narrow-margin system - but more to the point, we can no longer operate it.

If we taxed the rich more, and printed more money, we could afford it all, and more!

Posted by: AOC at January 15, 2024 11:23 AM (ycI94)

85 The FAA is implementing a diversity and inclusion hiring initiative that specifically targets individuals with disabilities, including “severe intellectual” disabilities, psychiatric disorders, and other physical conditions.

According to the FAA, Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring. The targeted disabilities are:

Hearing (total deafness in both ears)
Vision (Blind)
Missing Extremities
Partial Paralysis
Complete Paralysis, Epilepsy
Severe intellectual disability
Psychiatric disability

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at January 15, 2024 11:24 AM (t/2Uw)

86
Read Victor Davis Hanson's take on what life was like in Rome's outlying provinces as the Empire was in the throes of collapse. Simply put, things that one were and worked, simply stopped doing so.

It is coming for all of us; it already is here for some of us.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:24 AM (xG4kz)

87 This is the aftermath of replacing experienced people from a high-integrity culture with cheap labor from a whatever-it-takes-to-get-paid-now culture. My sis's husband was one of the last (American) men standing at a couple companies as their jobs were sent to China and/or India. He was hired (by Delphi iirc) for a job that seemed to consist of dealing with problems that the Chinese office blamed on the Indians and vice versa.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at January 15, 2024 11:24 AM (fxCK2)

88 Corporate struggle sessions are lit as fuck.

Posted by: Mr Aspirin Factory, red heifer owner at January 15, 2024 11:24 AM (R4t5M)

89 If you think Boeing's corporate leadership makes bad decisions, there's also the issue of choosing Chicago (of all places) to be your company's new HQ.

That right there oughta' have kicked off some alarms.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at January 15, 2024 11:24 AM (Q4IgG)

90 There will still be bright people with a technical bent who can figure out how to do these things.

Like Musk ?

They will be hunted down by the ignorant mob.

Posted by: Next2Nothing at January 15, 2024 11:25 AM (tA1/w)

91
The MBAs have no idea about how to grow organically: better products, more efficient processes, etc. They only do what they learned in school. Grow earnings? Buy someone. Reduce costs? Fire people.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 15, 2024 11:25 AM (MoZTd)

92 A prime example of an enterprise where engineers ran everything into the ground is RCA. RCA dominated in radio and television and tubes, but the executives there knew they needed to double down on innovation if they were going to remain relevant.

Enter RCA Labs. It was modeled directly on AT&T's Bell Labs. It was innovative as hell, but developed comparatively few products RCA could actually market as it itself developed into a major power center run by engineers for the purpose of pursuing engineering as an end in and of itself. "Research always pays off, no matter what" underpinned RCA Labs, and it didn't work.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:26 AM (C19Uv)

93 At least whole sections of seating with strapped in passengers didn't get sucked out the hole like in the movies.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at January 15, 2024 11:26 AM (cOq4q)

94 "Research always pays off, no matter what" underpinned RCA Labs, and it didn't work.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:26 AM (C19Uv)

But Nipper was so CUTE!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:27 AM (Zz0t1)

95 If you think Boeing's corporate leadership makes bad decisions, there's also the issue of choosing Chicago (of all places) to be your company's new HQ.

That right there oughta' have kicked off some alarms.

To be fair, Detroit didn't have any large buildings left.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:27 AM (CsUN+)

96 "In 2019 there was an exceptional piece in The Atlantic."

----

Ok, I know I don't know jack about any of this stuff, but I know that statement right there, can't possibly be true.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:27 AM (HFD4k)

97 I worked fpr 14 years as a sub-contractor in a Boeing lab. So did the other four major defense contractors a lot of the horde dislike (with good reaso too). Our government contract originally required candidate engineering staff on that fivecompany team to be documented, vetted, and hired as the top 1% of each of the big five's engineering talent. We had some VERY talented engineers on that team and I'm still proud to have been on it.

Over the years, that team has been broken by multiple influences, among them were cost, DEI, and meaningless flunky dickhead punching an assignment ticket for promotion.

Boeing has broken itself. At least two more of the big five have followed in lockstep. My company put the breaks on that crap. But still has issues with DEI.

Posted by: BifBewalski at January 15, 2024 11:28 AM (3CCua)

98 Hearing (total deafness in both ears)
Vision (Blind)
Missing Extremities
Partial Paralysis
Complete Paralysis, Epilepsy
Severe intellectual disability
Psychiatric disability
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at January 15, 2024 11:24 AM (t/2Uw)

Hmmm, if I take my hearing aids and contact lenses out, I can do a 50/50 on the first two bullet items.

Hand me an application.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at January 15, 2024 11:28 AM (/HDaX)

99 Engineers are usually lousy at running companies. It's one of the reasons why engineer-founded startups so often...
---------
This. The period from, oh, 1979 to 1990 was strewn with the bodies of innovative start-ups which died on the vine because the principals were just certain that since they were bright guys who had come up with a good idea, they were also good managers,

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:28 AM (XeU6L)

100 ...We can no longer afford a high-complexity, narrow-margin system - but more to the point, we can no longer operate it. Even if price were no object, it would still fail.
Posted by: Joe Mannix
-

Yep. I mentioned yesterday that we watched a couple of really interesting train shows. One in Canada, one in Peru that went through the Andes.

There were two engineers in Peru that knew how to drive the route. You could tell that the folks responsible for the train itself barely understood it, and were likely performing tasks based on seeing something done in the past. If anything outside of those past experiences occurred there would be no knowledge available.

The funniest part was when one of the high ups was talking about how they cut down the (ahem) "modern" trains by a foot or so in order to fit through the tunnels, and how he couldn't discuss it because it was a closely held secret that only he and two other people were privy to.

All I could think was "two American hillbilly welders could figure out what you did in 30 minutes."

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:28 AM (+RC1q)

101 It takes a while for destructive management policies to have tangible effects, like 5+ years in a manufacturing environment. But cost cutting gimmicks pay off immediately. The trick is to bail adter four years so you reap the rewards without being around for the consequences.

Posted by: Tom at January 15, 2024 11:28 AM (ZvGil)

102
Like Musk ?

They will be hunted down by the ignorant mob.
Posted by: Next2Nothing at January 15, 2024 11:25 AM (tA1/w)

"He talks like a fag and his shit's all retarded! GET HIM!!!!!"

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:28 AM (Zz0t1)

103 Spot on Buck. I’ve seen this firsthand in my engineering career in aerospace. In the first decade of my career my company replaced a CEO who’d come through the ranks as an engineer with a business type. It didn’t do the engineering any good but that trend persists to this day…

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at January 15, 2024 11:29 AM (cNhiG)

104
My company formed a JV with another. The other one was located in Cincinnati, nowhere near any of its plants? Why? The CEO wanted to live there.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 15, 2024 11:29 AM (MoZTd)

105 Why are "Hearts All Over The World Breaking For Obama's Family" ?

Posted by: BignJames at January 15, 2024 11:29 AM (AwYPR)

106 Ok, I know I don't know jack about any of this stuff, but I know that statement right there, can't possibly be true.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:27 AM (HFD4k)
++++
It can. That was toward the bitter end of when The Atlantic occasionally ran a decent piece, and it was probably accidental.

But remember, it was as recently as Spring of 2015 that The Atlantic published "The Coddling of the American Mind" about the woke disaster that had consumed and destroyed American higher education.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:29 AM (C19Uv)

107 Complete Paralysis, Epilepsy

I can see no way a grand mal seizure would interfere with one's ability to control large numbers of aircraft.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:30 AM (CsUN+)

108 Not even Banks, Stock Exchanges or Financial Management Companies, should have "Finance" types in their CEO chairs.

Because being a "Finance" type, is exactly the opposite skill and talent suite needed for LEADERSHIP, in the dynamic, visionary and instinctual realms.

Donald Trump, while not being an Engineer, could, did and still does, LEAD entire teams of such, to design and execute the BUILDING of his many buildings and properties.

Put a "bean counter" at the top of Trump, Inc., and watch that in about a decade, it decays to the level of a glorified Marriott, at best. (and the entire Marriott chain has the WORST hotel coffee, ever. Mormons don't know good coffee from bad, and theirs is BAD!)

A good Accounting Type is at best, an ADVISOR to the Executive. But should never BE The Executive. It's counter-factual to the purpose of the position.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Posted by: Jim at January 15, 2024 11:30 AM (e6UQI)

109 ...Hmmm, if I take my hearing aids and contact lenses out, I can do a 50/50 on the first two bullet items.

Hand me an application.
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at January 15, 2024 11:28 AM (/HDaX)

Severe intellectual disability
Psychiatric disability

Oh great, all the ladies on The View are going to be Air Traffic Controllers. That'll be fun.

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the real Nikki Haley at January 15, 2024 11:30 AM (PiwSw)

110 >>Why are "Hearts All Over The World Breaking For Obama's Family" ?

Maybe Michele has Prostate Cancer?

Posted by: garrett at January 15, 2024 11:31 AM (RVloE)

111 Why are "Hearts All Over The World Breaking For Obama's Family" ?
Posted by: BignJames at January 15, 2024 11:29 AM (AwYPR)

Mine never will, but I'm guessing it's the wrong family member that died.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:31 AM (Zz0t1)

112 If I told you what I know about Company B (and others i.e. suppliers), what I saw, and what I'm forbidden to discuss- you'd never get on their aircraft again.

The line people and their managers were good. The best. But what happened off the line was a crime.

The hell of it is, the 737 and the people who built it were the best in the world. This was done to them, just as it's been done to the rest of us.

Retired

Posted by: Retired at January 15, 2024 11:31 AM (Ahg10)

113 Why are "Hearts All Over The World Breaking For Obama's Family" ?
Posted by: BignJames at January 15, 2024 11:29 AM (AwYPR)

Couldn't tell you.

I'm not about to take the chance that the 75 slides I'd have to page through would actually pay off with the answer before petering out.

Posted by: Additional Blond Agent, STEM Guy at January 15, 2024 11:31 AM (/HDaX)

114 A good Accounting Type is at best, an ADVISOR to the Executive. But should never BE The Executive. It's counter-factual to the purpose of the position.

Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX

Thank you. Well said.

Posted by: Count de Monet, Countin' dem beans! at January 15, 2024 11:32 AM (4I/2K)

115 Did you see this:
http://tinyurl.com/mw258jzh

These people are insane.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice)

(To the tune of Chim Chim Cher-ee)

Butt Gigitty Butt gigitty Butt Gig Itty
Sec Transportation is queer as can be

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:32 AM (FVME7)

116 White employees are required to check off examples of their white privilege & white fragility.

-

My favorite part of this "there are four lights" approach is the employees are sitting right beside diversity hires that don't do sh*t and what they did do they screwed up so badly - often intentionally - so that they'd never be asked to do it again, and the job was moved over to one of the "fragile" people who actually does his job and then some.

Posted by: Nikki Haley - DeSantis is losing to Nikki and it's Trump's fault at January 15, 2024 11:32 AM (+RC1q)

117 If you think Boeing's corporate leadership makes bad decisions, there's also the issue of choosing Chicago (of all places) to be your company's new HQ.
---------

I know (!). Let's move Bank of America's hq to Boston.

Posted by: Brian Moynihan at January 15, 2024 11:32 AM (XeU6L)

118 I saw 75 Slides open for 400 Blows at Trees in '08.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:32 AM (Zz0t1)

119 Boeing - like General Electric and countless others - appears to have descended into self-dealing and incompetence by its executives.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:14 AM (C19Uv)

I believe that this is largely a result of changes made to corporate tax rules back during the Clinton administration. They capped the amount of cash you could write off as an expense for executives so everyone went to stock. Then, the only thing that mattered was to bump the stock price until you could sell your shares.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at January 15, 2024 11:32 AM (z99Zw)

120 would actually pay off with the answer before petering out.
Posted by: Additional Blond Agent

Heh. You used the phrase 'petering out' when talking about the Mooch.
-- Bevis

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:33 AM (J47y1)

121 They didn't just outsource the programming to "contractors" at 9 dollars per hour. American and European software contractors are top not but they will cost 90-150 per hour. These are low bidding Indian, Pakistani Indonesian or Malaysian programmers with no track record in aerospace I bet you.

Posted by: Lemmiwinks at January 15, 2024 11:33 AM (55dHh)

122 That Boeing was warned this would happen is going to create generational wealth for a bunch of lawyers.

I bet everyone on that plane will pocket at least $200,000
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice - Personality Commentator at January 15, 2024 11:06 AM (PFILT)

Dammit, that just means they're going to have to cut costs, that much more.

It's a viscous cycle!

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:33 AM (PNtr5)

123 If a person is a member of a union, please strike the word "professional" from you vocabulary. We have two Boeing engineers in our neighborhood, they're both assholes.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 15, 2024 11:34 AM (eYF7X)

124 That Boeing was warned this would happen is going to create generational wealth for a bunch of lawyers.

I bet everyone on that plane will pocket at least $200,000
Posted by: People's Hippo Voice - Personality Commentator at January 15, 2024 11:06 AM (PFILT)

Dammit, that just means they're going to have to cut costs, that much more.

It's a viscous cycle!
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:33 AM (PNtr5)

A slippery slope, even.

Posted by: Count de Monet, Countin' dem beans! at January 15, 2024 11:34 AM (4I/2K)

125 We are, in essence, becoming time travelers. All of us. We're all going back in time to a simpler time. We can no longer afford a high-complexity, narrow-margin system - but more to the point, we can no longer operate it. Even if price were no object, it would still fail.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:19 AM (C19Uv)

One of the fascinating aspects of Wheel of Time for me was the idea of regaining knowledge lost. The Age of Legends happens (think modern times but with everything powered by magic instead of electricity), everything goes to heck, and thousands of years later a group of young people start coming up with marvels again (Rand and Mat being assisted by their past lives/memories).

Posted by: pookysgirl bought all of the hardcovers at January 15, 2024 11:34 AM (dtlDP)

126 Michael O'Fallon - Sovereign Nations @SovMichael 21h
Scott Kirby, the CEO of United Airlines (@united ), wants to emphasize that Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) guided racial and gender quotas are the key considerations when determining who will be piloting your upcoming flight.

Seth Dillon @SethDillon 11h
We’re nearing the point where we’ll need Elon Musk to buy an airline, fire most of the staff, and make merit-based hiring and safety its top priorities.

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 11:34 AM (2yu8s)

127 Like Musk ? They will be hunted down by the ignorant mob.
Posted by: Next2Nothing

Musk is a snake oil salesman that has one or two marginally successful companies, along with a slew of major failures. However, he's at least seeing the long-term issues with the culture that are developing, and attempting to slow/stop them.

And, his greatest achievement....getting the best performance out of Amber Heard http://tinyurl.com/27s9v5wh
(I assume he also managed to hit-it and quit-it without getting too entangled in the crazy-hot matrix)

Posted by: Moron Analyst at January 15, 2024 11:34 AM (ycI94)

128 Good post Buck. I note that a few Hordians have pointed out that United Airlines CEO is a transvestite. There's a thread at Twitchy about him. He's big into DEI and hiring based on diversity and equity.

Posted by: Smell the Glove at January 15, 2024 11:35 AM (9vcxV)

129 Why are "Hearts All Over The World Breaking For Obama's Family" ?
Maybe Michele has Prostate Cancer?
Posted by: garrett at January 15, 2024 11:31 AM (RVloE)

Maybe Barack got something stuck up in his bunghole?

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at January 15, 2024 11:35 AM (R/m4+)

130 Heh. You used the phrase 'petering out' when talking about the Mooch.
-- Bevis (sic)
Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:33 AM (J47y1)

Huh... huhuhuhuh.. yeah.

Posted by: Butthead at January 15, 2024 11:35 AM (/HDaX)

131 I believe that this is largely a result of changes made to corporate tax rules back during the Clinton administration. They capped the amount of cash you could write off as an expense for executives so everyone went to stock. Then, the only thing that mattered was to bump the stock price until you could sell your shares.
Posted by: I used to have a different nic

Are you telling me that Federal governmental regulations can unintentionally adversely affect the operation of companies?

Get out!

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:35 AM (J47y1)

132 It's not just the airplane manufacturers like Boeing. It's the airlines as well. They're cutting back on maintenance and their DEI hiring practices are bringing in unskilled workers for jobs where that could be fatal. From what I can gather, Alaska Airlines was also at fault for this disaster.

Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 11:35 AM (iFTx/)

133 Formerly a huge worksite in SE PA, it's both woke and winding down, it seems:

Delco Today, Dec. 2, 2023 - 80 Furloughed at Boeing Ridley Plant Amid Osprey Production Adjustments
In part, "The Boeing Ridley Park plant is furloughing 80 union employees in December, writes Pete Bannan for the Daily Times.

This is the second layoff this year, and more are expected in 2024. Boeing has about 4,100 employees at the Ridley Park facility.

A Boeing spokesman said Bell Boeing, which builds the V-22 Osprey, has adjusted its production lines to accommodate future orders. Schedule changes are a normal part of the program, and adjustments are made to meet order demand, officials said."
...
"In July, the company announced it was awarded a $793 million contract to produce 18 new Chinook helicopters for South Korea and one for Spain at the plant."
-------------
OTOH, Action News, 6/23: Piasecki Aircraft Corporation in nearby Essington, PA, purchased the former Sikorsky (helicopter) facility in Chester County and is turning it into an advanced R&D center.

Piasecki's new PA-890 helicopter, the world's first zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell rotorcraft, will be built and tested there.

Posted by: L - They don't have to outrun the bear. They only have to outrun us - for now at January 15, 2024 11:35 AM (GshMh)

134 Here's the thing: if you're paying $9 an hour for software, you come out ahead with only two deadly crashes.

We've run the numbers!

Posted by: Elite Accountants at January 15, 2024 11:36 AM (S9XeJ)

135 What happened to Obama's family?

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:36 AM (9yWhg)

136 "FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities"

Lord have mercy on us...please

Posted by: sidney at January 15, 2024 11:37 AM (Uy/WF)

137 Maybe Barack got something stuck up in his bunghole?

That only happens on days ending in "y".

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at January 15, 2024 11:37 AM (dZVON)

138 It's the airlines as well. They're cutting back on maintenance and their DEI hiring practices are bringing in unskilled workers for jobs where that could be fatal.

Can't blame the gays for that one. There are none left after filling all the stewardess positions.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2024 11:38 AM (S9XeJ)

139 If a person is a member of a union, please strike the word "professional" from you vocabulary. We have two Boeing engineers in our neighborhood, they're both assholes.

Posted by: Maj. Healey
------

I know one who is a commited Marxist...has been his entire adult life.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:38 AM (XeU6L)

140 But neither would it have happened if Boeing was still a company run by engineers, rather than being a company run by MBAs who will gladly sacrifice quality and safety to temporarily goose the bottom line.
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton

********

Next let's substitute 'hospitals' for 'Boeing' and 'physicians' for 'engineers'.

Posted by: Muldooon at January 15, 2024 11:38 AM (991eG)

141 And now, a word from POTUS . . .

RNC Research
@RNCResearch
Biden says he's "reaching out to the rest of the world and making sure that we demonstrate to the American people that we the people run the government, not a group of wealthy guys, not a group of people who are trying to pit race against race"

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:38 AM (FVME7)

142 Another comment I’d make from inside the aerospace industry. The incentive structures inside the company are all messed up…. People on their way up the executive ladder hold each position only long enough to make a few bad decisions and move on… all incentives are short term so when they cut costs it looks great over 6 months. When things fall apart 18 months later they’re long gone to their next promo

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at January 15, 2024 11:39 AM (cNhiG)

143 Piasecki Aircraft Corporation

I first read that as "Psaki."

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:39 AM (9yWhg)

144 @RNCResearch
Biden says he's "reaching out to the rest of the world and making sure that we demonstrate to the American people that we the people run the government, not a group of wealthy guys, not a group of people who are trying to pit race against race"
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:38 AM (FVME7)

One, why would you need to reach out to the rest of the world for that?

Two, WTF does that even mean?!?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:39 AM (Zz0t1)

145 America breathes easy...

Insider Paper @TheInsiderPaper 23m
JUST IN - US Defense Secretary Austin has been released from the hospital.

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 11:39 AM (2yu8s)

146 It's a viscous cycle!
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:33 AM (PNtr5)

A slippery slope, even.

Stop being thick.

Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (CsUN+)

147 It can. That was toward the bitter end of when The Atlantic occasionally ran a decent piece, and it was probably accidental.

But remember, it was as recently as Spring of 2015 that The Atlantic published "The Coddling of the American Mind" about the woke disaster that had consumed and destroyed American higher education.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:29 AM (C19Uv)

Here's my take, based on nothing but the suspicion that comes with everything else these days: This argument over engineers vs. cost-cutters is a false dichotomy.

And an outfit like the Atlantic is writing a hit piece on one side, for whatever reason. my best guess, coming from a position of knowing nothing about any of these people, is that bean counters are now a quaint, outdated mode in corporate American.

Whatever age-old fight has been happening at corporations forever, the innovators vs. the penny-pinchers, is no longer a thing, because ALL OF IT has been superseded by the globalist cabal, who are pushing DEI, not because they believe in it, but because the destruction of the American corp IS the goal.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (fOQYT)

148
What happened to Obama's family?
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus

No parental vajayjays!

"Then where did we come from?"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (xG4kz)

149 Norms restored!

Elusive Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Released From Hospital

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (FVME7)

150
I first read that as "Psaki."
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:39 AM (9yWhg)

"You just want to date her."

- - - - AoC

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (Zz0t1)

151 It is now a poorly-run manufacturing company being managed in the manner taught in elite MBA programs, placing an emphasis above all else on cost control and expense reduction.
_______

I'm glad to see someone is automatically saying "DEI". Not that DEI doesn't suck, but let's not forget that, through WWII, our military was itself ethnically selective, with WASPs getting preferential treatment. They were not so stupid, however, as to think that was everything.

Throckmorton gets points for not stopping there, looking for contributing causes. And, IMO, identifying one of them. People too easily fall into thinking there is a single cause for things. That can happen only in purely physical events (and not only then); it's virtually impossible in collective human action.

Posted by: Eeyore at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (1bNHn)

152 143 Piasecki Aircraft Corporation

I first read that as "Psaki."
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:39 AM (9yWhg)

Motto: We're circling back! (when the doors fall off).

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (PiwSw)

153 Right. Engineering and executive management are different skillsets. A new assumption of "put engineers in charge" will fail just as hard as "put cost-cutters in charge" - it will just fail differently.

To succeed, you need executive managers who are competent, interested in making money but knowledgeable about the need to continue developing new products, intelligent, etc. Just like engineers, they must be chosen well. The contemporary theme is that they are *not* chosen well. They're cost-cutters and politicians and that is *all* they know. They are not businessmen.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:22 AM (C19Uv)
==
Engineers can be good executives if they have been rotated through enough other disciplines - manufacturing and sales for instance. If they stay in engineering, then I'd have to agree.

The two worst backgrounds are finance and supply chain - because their focus is always upfront costs. They largely fail to see lifetime costs or deferred costs from actions taken to save immediate costs. These blind spots never "re-appear". Once in these spots, you are forever contaminated.

Posted by: Black JEM at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (GZYu7)

154 Biden says he's "reaching out to the rest of the world and making sure that we demonstrate to the American people that we the people run the government, not a group of wealthy guys, not a group of people who are trying to pit race against race"

Where you get this "we" stuff, white man?

Posted by: Archimedes at January 15, 2024 11:41 AM (CsUN+)

155 Benny Hill once had a line "Boeing? Sounds like part of the airplane fell off."

Posted by: Eeyore at January 15, 2024 11:41 AM (1bNHn)

156 Excellent work, Buck. Boeing went from being run by us dumb engineers to even stupider marketing folks.

Now... Add in DEI(I call it DIE)is now taking precedence over ability...

I am driving everywhere now.

Posted by: Danimal28 at January 15, 2024 11:41 AM (klw0w)

157
Piasecki's new PA-890 helicopter, the world's first zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell rotorcraft, will be built and tested there.

Posted by: L
--------

Should have placed the plant at Lakehurst, NJ.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:41 AM (XeU6L)

158 It’s a million times worse in govt. Govt seems to be under the impression that they can override the laws of physics and thermodynamics if only they can force the right policies on the country.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at January 15, 2024 11:41 AM (uKeRS)

159 "... placing an emphasis above all else on cost control and expense reduction. "

How can this be reconciled with DEI? It can't. DEI is exempt from normal budgetary concerns and measures of success. It IS a luxury item with no added value to the company except public relations with the left. If there was DEI program as Boeing it could only have made things worse.

Posted by: Ripley at January 15, 2024 11:42 AM (PTDkx)

160 My spouse is on the AF contracting team working with Boeing on the new Air Force One Planes. It's so bad that they don't see test flights until 2029. And every time they want to make even a minor paperwork change, Boeing says "We will need six months to write a proposal and you'll have to pay us to write the proposal."

Posted by: Victor Tango Kilo at January 15, 2024 11:42 AM (x/s/o)

161
Insider Paper @TheInsiderPaper 23m
JUST IN - US Defense Secretary Austin has been released from the hospital.
Posted by: andycanuck

"You must now call me 'Lollie'", he insisted.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:42 AM (xG4kz)

162 VP Harris Regularly Fleeing DC to Escape Bipartisan Mockery

-
Well, at least she's bringing us together.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:43 AM (FVME7)

163 SDSTFU, Joe,

Thanks,
WEF

Posted by: Ben Had at January 15, 2024 11:43 AM (POc8X)

164 What happened to Obama's family?
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:36 AM (9yWhg)

Someone put a Barak in their fishtank, and it stinks!

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:43 AM (fOQYT)

165 >>> Has the airplane peeled itself open while over the Pacific?

Only happened once... that we know of, and only then because it landed with only one lost.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at January 15, 2024 11:43 AM (cOq4q)

166 "You must now call me 'Lollie'", he insisted.

He's going tp start selling adverbs?

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:43 AM (9yWhg)

167 > According to the FAA, Targeted disabilities are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring. The targeted disabilities are:

Hearing (total deafness in both ears)
Vision (Blind)
Missing Extremities
Partial Paralysis
Complete Paralysis, Epilepsy
Severe intellectual disability
Psychiatric disability
__________________

On one hand, the FAA has jobs other than Air Traffic Controllers. On the other hand the FAA is responsible for safe air travel.

Even an office janitor wouldn't get hired if afflicted with one (or more) of those conditions.

Take-away: I'll never get on an airplane again. Ever. And find out about plane crash insurance on my homes.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at January 15, 2024 11:43 AM (Q4IgG)

168 I worked there in the Aerospace (non-Commercial) side of the company for 5-years at the tail end of the Cold War - it was my first job out of college. The Engineering talent was staggering and Engineers populated the entire management ranks. The merger with McDonnell Douglass started the process of killing the culture and the Company. Boeing transitioned from an Engineering Company to a Finance Company. None of what has happened is a surprise.

Posted by: Little Larry Sellers at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (xaNfJ)

169 Piasecki Aircraft Corporation

I first read that as "Psaki."
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:39 AM (9yWhg)

Motto: We're circling back! (when the doors fall off).
Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes
--------

Got it. But perhaps in this case, 'We're autorotating down' could come into usage.

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (XeU6L)

170 >>What happened to Obama's family?

They can't find a new Chef?

Posted by: garrett at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (RVloE)

171 The GE problem isn't that Welch got lucky. It was that his remedy at the time was just what the doctor ordered. GE was a bloated unwieldy conglomerate that was no longer able to be managed. It needed a chainsaw taken to it, to save it.

The problem was everyone bought his book, tried to apply that template to their own operations and mostly failed (Ford got hit with massive lawsuits that I believe they lost at least 8 or 9 digit settlements. Even Welch's own lieutenants failed to realize it, with Immelt being one of the worst CEOs in American history to show for it.

Posted by: Black JEM at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (GZYu7)

172 "You must now call me 'Lollie'", he insisted.
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:42 AM (xG4kz)

Lollie Lollie Lollie get your adverbs here! — Schoolhouse Rock

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (cNhiG)

173 They capped the amount of cash you could write off as an expense for executives so everyone went to stock.

It's kind of the other way around. In 1994 there was a change to accounting rules. Stock options granted could be priced at full value for tax purposes, but at pennies for SEC purposes. The IRS taxed them at lower profit, the SEC valued them at higher profit. Microsoft were the masters at this. It completely transformed Silicon Valley.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (52pGV)

174 Maybe Barack got something stuck up in his bunghole?

-
Million to one shot, Doc!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:45 AM (FVME7)

175 Hmm. I was under the impression that it was a 'process' problem. That is, the door wasn't fastened properly, as opposed to a material/design failure.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:12 AM (XeU6L)

Well, if I have to fly again, I will be sure to avoid any flight that uses a 737Max. The old 737's were rugged workhorses, the Jet Age counterpart to the DC3.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2024 11:45 AM (tkR6S)

176 166, 172 - Jinx, Bulgaroctonus!

Posted by: LinusVanPelt at January 15, 2024 11:45 AM (cNhiG)

177 two words - mcdonell douglas merger

Posted by: N at January 15, 2024 11:46 AM (RjBju)

178 Well, at least she's bringing us together.
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks
--------

[ponders Venn diagram]

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 11:46 AM (XeU6L)

179 Insider Paper @TheInsiderPaper 40m
BREAKING: White House Swatted - Fake caller reportedly calls 911 to say residence was on fire

Insider Paper @TheInsiderPaper 29m
BREAKING STORY: White House swatted after fake 911 call
Prank caller calls 911 to say White House resident was on fire and someone was trapped inside. A surge of fire trucks and ambulances rushed to the White House...

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 11:46 AM (2yu8s)

180 @72, I think Joe has nailed it. but for a while, cost will be no object, the (freshly printed) money will be spent, nothing will get done. actually, that is already going on ... california high speed rail for instance.

they want the Middle Ages power structure , with modern tech; they're gonna end up with the whole Middle Ages package.

Posted by: sock_rat_eez - these lying bastardi e stronzi have been lying for decades at January 15, 2024 11:47 AM (WsTvr)

181 Should have placed the plant at Lakehurst, NJ.
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc

Zing! Oh, the humanity.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2024 11:48 AM (52pGV)

182 166, 172 - Jinx, Bulgaroctonus!
Posted by: LinusVanPelt

I saw that bit on Schoolhouse Rock more times than I care to recall as a kid.

But I still could never figure out what an adverb was.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:48 AM (9yWhg)

183 >>What happened to Obama's family?

His step-grandmother died in Kenya. Yes, really. She was 99.

He tweeted out a respectful statement, as opposed to when his flesh-and-blood grandmother died.

Posted by: NaughtyPine at January 15, 2024 11:49 AM (fxCK2)

184 >>177 two words - mcdonell douglas merger
Posted by: N

Another two words - Machinists Union
Boeing union employees are some of the dumbest and arrogant people I've ever met. The blue collar town north of us is full of them. We avoid going there at all costs. They're disgusting people.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 15, 2024 11:49 AM (eYF7X)

185
He tweeted out a respectful statement, as opposed to when his flesh-and-blood grandmother died.
Posted by: NaughtyPine at January 15, 2024 11:49 AM (fxCK2)

Did he accompany it with a pic of himself?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:49 AM (Zz0t1)

186 But I still could never figure out what an adverb was.
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus

It's a modifier to a verb.

Like 'very' in 'very tall'.

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (J47y1)

187 Next let's substitute 'hospitals' for 'Boeing' and 'physicians' for 'engineers'.
Posted by: Muldooon at January 15, 2024 11:38 AM (991eG)

And you know as well as I do, one of the major causes of the rot in health care is due to government intervention.

Now, I wonder if that might have been present in the aerospace industry.....

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (UeosB)

188 This busty bikini brunette is sick of the cold and snow and longs for the days of summer:
http://tiny.cc/hxw5wz

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (C19Uv)

189
It's a modifier to a verb.

Like 'very' in 'very tall'.
Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (J47y1)

Tall is a verb?

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (Zz0t1)

190 But I still could never figure out what an adverb was.
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus

It's a modifier to a verb.

Like 'very' in 'very tall'.
Posted by: Tonypete

Yes, I know, now. But I couldn't figure it out when I was a kid.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:51 AM (9yWhg)

191 Texas Has Moved Over 100k Foreign Nationals to Sanctuary Cities - 37k to NYC Alone

-
Yeah? Well, I can't speak Texan.

http://tinyurl.com/ympcmua3

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:51 AM (FVME7)

192 NBC reports the left is plotting to remove the military from civilian control because Trump will use it as a dictator.

They won't allow Trump to be sworn in, Pelosi recently said he will never be president again.

They're going to roll tanks.

Posted by: It's happening at January 15, 2024 11:51 AM (Z4hnK)

193 It's a modifier to a verb.

Like 'very' in 'very tall'.

Or 'chain' in 'chain-smoking'.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2024 11:51 AM (52pGV)

194 > This busty bikini brunette is sick of the cold and snow and....
---

great eyebrows

Posted by: Don Black at January 15, 2024 11:51 AM (geLO8)

195 It's a modifier to a verb.

Like 'very' in 'very tall'.
Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (J47y1)

Tall is a verb?
Posted by: Sponge -

Oops! It can also modify an adjective or another adverb.

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (J47y1)

196 They can't find a new Chef?
Posted by: garrett at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (RVloE)

It's not easy finding someone who can properly put sausage in his crepes.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (UeosB)

197 If I can make a quick side note, the only people more destructive in corporate C-suites than Ivy League business school graduates are General Electric alums. They tend to bring a cult-like fanaticism for the idiotic business fads that ultimately destroyed GE, never understanding that the success of GE in the 1990s was despite those awful gimmicks, not because of them...

Experienced that first-hand when I took my first job out of college in 1999 at Ford Motor Company. CEO Jacques Nasser, hired in 1998, was said to want to diversify Ford Motor Company from being "just an automaker" to being more like GE. He ended up purchasing a number of different businesses as well as penny-pinched on safety and tooling and parts. As a result, quality suffered and that lead to recalls and lawsuits, most prominently the Firestone Tires scandal.

The same bullshit is happening at another Big3 automaker where I now work (not Ford). Since the merger, management tells us we are no longer an auto company, we are a "mobile technology company". And same penny-pinching is going on as well as outsourcing engineering jobs to India.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (AaCDb)

198 There's a good book about Boeing's descent, Flying Blind, by Peter Robison that goes into more detail than that article. It's engrossing and infuriating.

(amazon link) http://tinyurl.com/47b8pcej

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (f6YJh)

199 Indeed, the Mac Dac merger changed the management culture at Boeing.

I’ve seen this a couple of times when a large company squires a smaller company sand all of a sudden the smaller company management starts calling the shots

Posted by: pawn at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (3981M)

200 Apparently our new moon lander that just launched has failed and will crash.

Another grim milestone for the Biden admin.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (uKeRS)

201 http://tiny.cc/hxw5wz
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)

Face is kinda Sofia Vergaraesque.

Boobs aren't, though.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (9yWhg)

202 anybody here have knowledge on humidifiers? It's 15% humidity in here, and my skin is turning to paper

Posted by: Don Black at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (geLO8)

203 >>They won't allow Trump to be sworn in, Pelosi recently said he will never be president again.

They're going to roll tanks.
Posted by: It's happening

Please do. The retribution times will be glorious.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (eYF7X)

204 This busty bikini brunette is sick of the cold and snow and longs for the days of summer:
http://tiny.cc/hxw5wz
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (C19Uv)

Pretty.

Posted by: Count de Monet, Countin' dem beans! at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (4I/2K)

205 His step-grandmother died in Kenya. Yes, really. She was 99.

He tweeted out a respectful statement, as opposed to when his flesh-and-blood grandmother died.
Posted by: NaughtyPine at January 15, 2024 11:49 AM (fxCK2)

Has someone done a compare/contrast with how the media reacted to Melania's mother dying?

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (UeosB)

206 DC_Draino @DC_Draino 18h
They can’t legally shut down the airline industry but they’re going to make the traveling experience so deadly & chaotic with DEI mandates that the industry implodes from within

Remember, the Green New Deal wanted to ban commercial flights

Why?

They want us all in 15min cities

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (2yu8s)

207 How can this be reconciled with DEI?

DEI is tolerated by the elite because are like the inbred retarded royalty of Europe - they know a rutabega can be placed in the top slot and enjoy all the perks of royalty. IF they have competent people really running the show (deep state). So they have no issues throwing a few top slots to fat purple haired lesbo minorities...
Problem is the 'elite' no longer know what 'competent' support isand are flooding those with DEIs too. And Deep State/Corporate they have taken for granted are being filled with DEI and corrupt mandarians....
Look at the Georgia AG and prosecutor - both dolts who only know that they are in charge... and everybody always has rided the treaury for bump ugly vacays...

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (cOq4q)

208 There are good mergers and bad mergers. I don't know which one was worst, the UP-MoPac merger or Time-Warner-Earthlink merger. Literal lives were not at stake as with the Boeing merger, but three perfectly good and functional companies and Earthlink employing thousands went into the toilet.

I worked at a downtown bookstore, so I heard a lot of screaming hysterics. UP got the physical HQ, but MoPac got the administrative leadership. And it wasn't just the UP people in an uproar; the MoPac people bitched and whined, too, maybe even a little more because they all had to relocate from St. Louis to Omaha.

And we all know what a disaster the Time/Warner - EarthLink merger was. To this day, I cannot figure out how Time/Warner managed to merge with EarthLink just as Earthlink, like a roller coaster, reached the very top then plunged like a rock. As a publishing house, what the hell business did Time/Warner have to do with an internet company?

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin -- I stand with Israel and all Jews everywhere at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (6TzTY)

209
This busty bikini brunette is sick of the cold and snow and longs for the days of summer:
http://tiny.cc/hxw5wz
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)

A cursory examination of that photo suggests that she's not cold at all.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (xG4kz)

210 Posted by: Clyde Shelton at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (AaCDb)

The tires scandal unfortunately predates Nasser by a few years, going all the way back to 1989 when they were creating the Explorer off of the Ranger platform.

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (f6YJh)

211 I work for a bigly yuge company that employs a lot of hindu contractors to cut costs. It's gotten so bad that many are going to get laid off before they sink the company.

I work with several now and while most are nice, many are book smart and lack no drive or common sense at all. We have to meticulously give them step by step instructions and due to the nature of the job, if even one detail of a project changes they get completely lost, rather than engage any critical thinking skills.

Far from me noticing this, even my mom noticed this working a completely different field from 10 years ago.

Prior to hiring so many hindus we employed workers from Singapore who were AMAZING, but also expensive so off they go to unemployment land they went.

We work with a software vendor that has hindus coming out of their ears and the result is a software that literally breaks catastrophically on a weekly basis.

So i would suggest if there's any hindus involved in the making of a project, stay the fuck away as far away as you can.

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - National Divorce NOW at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (VTu1l)

212 End Wokeness
@EndWokeness
DA Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

-
"Stumble"? Bitch, you face planted and took justice down with you all on the taxpayers' dime!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (FVME7)

213 NBC reports the left is plotting to remove the military from civilian control because Trump will use it as a dictator.

It already is removed from civilian control, because Joe can never seem to get Austin on the phone (among other reasons).

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (52pGV)

214 anybody here have knowledge on humidifiers? It's 15% humidity in here, and my skin is turning to paper
Posted by: Don Black

Yeah, I know this one intern...Oh, wait. You said "humidifier." Never mind.

Posted by: William Jefferson Clinton at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (9yWhg)

215 Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2024 11:44 AM (52pGV)

Thanks for the correction.

Posted by: I used to have a different nic at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (z99Zw)

216 The same bullshit is happening at another Big3 automaker where I now work (not Ford). Since the merger, management tells us we are no longer an auto company, we are a "mobile technology company". And same penny-pinching is going on as well as outsourcing engineering jobs to India.
Posted by: Clyde Shelton

Right before I left JPMorganChase, Dimon insisted JPMC was not a financial service firm but rather an international IT company.

Ho Boy. . .

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (J47y1)

217 Next let's substitute 'hospitals' for 'Boeing' and 'physicians' for 'engineers'.
Posted by: Muldooon
--------

Look, bub, we're producing record profits.

Posted by: Big Healthcare Inc. at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (XeU6L)

218 Tall is a verb?
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 11:50 AM (Zz0t1)

It is when you do it right.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (UeosB)

219 When a company moves its headquarters to Chicago, it's a sign the executives have given up and only intend to loot it.

See also Caterpillar.

Posted by: Rob Crawford at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (ubmVV)

220 What happened to Obama's family?
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus

Someone went for a swim all by themselves with other people present?

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at January 15, 2024 11:56 AM (Rk17F)

221 >>This busty bikini brunette is sick of the cold and snow and longs for the days of summer:
http://tiny.cc/hxw5wz
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)

Beautiful but, I get a soul sucker vibe.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 15, 2024 11:56 AM (eYF7X)

222 Lolly Lolly Lolly get your adverbs here.

Didn't any of morons get some knowledge from Schoolhouse Rock?

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2024 11:56 AM (ZLI7S)

223 And we all know what a disaster the Time/Warner - EarthLink merger was. To this day, I cannot figure out how Time/Warner managed to merge with EarthLink just as Earthlink, like a roller coaster, reached the very top then plunged like a rock. As a publishing house, what the hell business did Time/Warner have to do with an internet company?
Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin -- I stand with Israel and all Jews everywhere at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (6TzTY)
++++
It was AOL, not Earthlink.

And AOL bought Time-Warner because it wanted to diversify and maximize its value at the top of the bubble. In that respect, it worked - AOL acquired real assets and exchanged little other than the toiler paper called, "AOL common stock" in exchange for it. The amount of total shareholder value destroyed through that debacle is staggering, but from the standpoint of the corporate structure, it was successful in that the enterprise *does* still exist, whereas it likely wouldn't had the merger not taken place. But the Time-Warner shareholders got skull-fucked. The TW board of directors should never have authorized that takeover.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:56 AM (C19Uv)

224 Piasecki's new PA-890 helicopter, the world's first zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell rotorcraft, will be built and tested there.

Posted by: L - They don't have to outrun the bear. They only have to outrun us - for now at January 15, 2024 11:35 AM (GshMh)

Location of the first crash site TBA.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2024 11:57 AM (tkR6S)

225 It can be a cold lunch time

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2024 11:57 AM (Qtvgh)

226 212 End Wokeness
@EndWokeness
DA Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

-
"Stumble"? Bitch, you face planted and took justice down with you all on the taxpayers' dime!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (FVME7)
_______

Yea, "stumble." She threw herself off the side of mountain, hit every tree on the way down, and landed face-first in a pile of moose shit. I hope this cunt is sucking dicks for $15 a pop at Atlanta truck stops in 2 years.

Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 11:57 AM (iFTx/)

227 The same bullshit is happening at another Big3 automaker where I now work (not Ford). Since the merger, management tells us we are no longer an auto company, we are a "mobile technology company". And same penny-pinching is going on as well as outsourcing engineering jobs to India.
Posted by: Clyde Shelton at January 15, 2024 11:52 AM (AaCDb)
++++
Nissan was the first to go down this road, at least in their advertising. Nissan ads make it clear what you're buying: a smartphone with wheels. It is what the entire industry apparently now aspires to be.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:58 AM (C19Uv)

228 "I can do degenerate shit because I'm black, it's just what we do".

.... da fuq? Not only a lame excuse, but fantastically racist as well.

Well done, ma'am. We'll done.

Posted by: Warai-otoko at January 15, 2024 11:58 AM (74R0S)

229 If we are relying on black women to save the world we are in deep shit.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2024 11:58 AM (ZLI7S)

230 I made a mistake at my job recently, but as a white Christian male, you cannot expect me to always be perfect and save the world. I need to be allowed to stumble now and then.

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - National Divorce NOW at January 15, 2024 11:59 AM (VTu1l)

231 Beautiful but, I get a soul sucker vibe.
Posted by: Maj. Healey

As if that would stop any one of us from proceeding. . . .

Posted by: Tonypete at January 15, 2024 11:59 AM (J47y1)

232 Problem is the 'elite' no longer know what 'competent' support isand are flooding those with DEIs too. And Deep State/Corporate they have taken for granted are being filled with DEI and corrupt mandarians....
Look at the Georgia AG and prosecutor - both dolts who only know that they are in charge... and everybody always has rided the treaury for bump ugly vacays...
Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at January 15, 2024 11:53 AM (cOq4q)

I think that's basically it. Whatever the original intent, keeping government and others happy, the competents didn't see this coming, where they'd all be replaced.

The rot is too thorough for any of this to survive. And as I suggested upthread, I think that was the ultimate goal.

Kill the American corporation. From within. To be replaced with......

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:00 PM (UeosB)

233
Location of the first crash site TBA.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon
-------

The fireball should be interesting.

BTW, did you get your mouse working?

Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 12:00 PM (XeU6L)

234 Next let's substitute 'hospitals' for 'Boeing' and 'physicians' for 'engineers'.
Posted by: Muldooon
--------

Look, bub, we're producing record profits.

Posted by: Big Healthcare Inc. at January 15, 2024 11:55 AM (XeU6L)
==
That we pay no tax on because we are not-for or non-profit entities.

Posted by: Black JEM at January 15, 2024 12:00 PM (GZYu7)

235 They won't allow Trump to be sworn in, Pelosi recently said he will never be president again.

She gave us the playbook four years ahead of time when she said the President would have to be dragged violently out of the White House.

Posted by: t-bird at January 15, 2024 12:00 PM (dNbzX)

236 If we are relying on black women to save the world we are in deep shit.

*************

I watched a short clip of a black female pilot complaining that nobody looked like her in the airplane industry.

Well let me tell you, I work with a bunch of white males and none of them look like me either.

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - National Divorce NOW at January 15, 2024 12:00 PM (VTu1l)

237 @EndWokeness
DA Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble" ...
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (FVME7)
++++
Interesting.

First, this isn't what the expectation was. Nobody expected her to "save the world," they expected her to run a major enterprise. She failed. This is diversionary language, and obviously so.

Second, she's right. She should have been "allowed to stumble" - and taken out of her unearned executive position when it became clear that she was incompetent. The problem is in fact the *opposite* of this. She was indeed protected from "stumbling" - by her side and her crew. She was propped up and defended until Harvard's board blinked and forced her to resign.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:01 PM (C19Uv)

238 DA Fani Willis is the archetype for our new overlords.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at January 15, 2024 12:01 PM (cOq4q)

239 Saw Fanny went to a church and blamed her dilemma on racism yesterday

Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2024 12:01 PM (Qtvgh)

240 This excellent rant is also the story of Motorola, especially "installed an M.B.A. with a varied background in sales, marketing, and supply-chain management."

Motorola was a prime example of shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations. First one builds it, second enjoys the benefits, third generation loses it.
Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at January 15, 2024 11:20 AM (Rk17F)

I worked there for decades. It was built by an entrepreneur and smart engineers, inverted cellular technology, and destroyed by MBA jagoffs and salesmen especially the asshole grandson.

Posted by: Roy at January 15, 2024 12:02 PM (z+ik4)

241 My daughter, chem E, is working her way through and up the drug design pharmaceutical industry upper management ranks.
I will email her a link to this.
I will also tell her to stay away from the comments.

Posted by: From about that Time at January 15, 2024 12:02 PM (4780s)

242 If blind people aren't allowed to pilot airliners, are any of us truly safe?

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 12:02 PM (FVME7)

243 239 Saw Fanny went to a church and blamed her dilemma on racism yesterday
Posted by: Skip at January 15, 2024 12:01 PM (Qtvgh)

politicking in a church... Take away their non-profit status STAT

Posted by: It's me donna at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (n2vyf)

244 NBC reports the left is plotting to remove the military from civilian control because Trump will use it as a dictator.

It already is removed from civilian control, because Joe can never seem to get Austin on the phone (among other reasons).
Posted by: t-bird

Already done - January 2017.

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (cOq4q)

245 DA Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

-
"Stumble"? Bitch, you face planted and took justice down with you all on the taxpayers' dime!
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (FVME7)

Summary: Mistakes were made. Did we take liberties with taxpayer dollars? We did. But I'm not going to stand here and listen to you badmouth the United States of Black America!!!

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (UeosB)

246 And AOL bought Time-Warner because it wanted to diversify and maximize its value at the top of the bubble. In that respect, it worked - AOL acquired real assets and exchanged little other than the toiler paper called, "AOL common stock" in exchange for it. The amount of total shareholder value destroyed through that debacle is staggering, but from the standpoint of the corporate structure, it was successful in that the enterprise *does* still exist, whereas it likely wouldn't had the merger not taken place. But the Time-Warner shareholders got skull-fucked. The TW board of directors should never have authorized that takeover.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 11:56 AM (C19Uv)
_________

It was a wishcasting merger, but as such it wasn't that uncommon at the time. The post-merger company wasn't helped by vicious management in-fighting and back-stabbing, either. There was also a string of dubious post-merger acquisitions if I recall.

Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (iFTx/)

247 >>The same bullshit is happening at another Big3 automaker where I now work (not Ford). Since the merger, management tells us we are no longer an auto company, we are a "mobile technology company". And same penny-pinching is going on as well as outsourcing engineering jobs to India.
Posted by: Clyde Shelton

I hope it's not Stellantis. Their on the hook for billions due to their Cummins diesel emissions problems. $2B settlement with the government so far. Millions of recalls.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 15, 2024 12:04 PM (eYF7X)

248
"FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with ‘severe intellectual’ and ‘psychiatric’ disabilities"

One crashed into the cuckoo's nest.

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at January 15, 2024 12:04 PM (63Dwl)

249 It was a wishcasting merger, but as such it wasn't that uncommon at the time. The post-merger company wasn't helped by vicious management in-fighting and back-stabbing, either. There was also a string of dubious post-merger acquisitions if I recall.
Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (iFTx/)
++++
The whole thing was a catastrophe defined by cynicism from all sides.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:04 PM (C19Uv)

250 >>First, this isn't what the expectation was. Nobody expected her to "save the world," they expected her to run a major enterprise. She failed. This is diversionary language, and obviously so.

I think many on the Soros payroll like Fani and Letitia think they are saving the world by getting Trump no matter the cost.

When have you ever heard the kind of apocalyptic language you do around Trump and his supporters? If things started going even more pear shaped for them they will amp up the violence. Bank on it.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2024 12:04 PM (ZLI7S)

251 Whachoo talkin' 'bout, Fanny?

Posted by: Willis from Different Strokes at January 15, 2024 12:04 PM (NBVIP)

252
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"

No but I can expect them to act ethically....

Posted by: It's me donna at January 15, 2024 12:05 PM (n2vyf)

253 Motorola was a prime example of shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves in three generations. First one builds it, second enjoys the benefits, third generation loses it.

****************

Motorola is full on woke now, employing only DEI hires and recently using that satan worshipper tranny non-binary as their influencer in a marketing push last year.

Never buy Motorola

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - National Divorce NOW at January 15, 2024 12:05 PM (VTu1l)

254
DA Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

Claudine Gay weighs in:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

Reporter: "... and those are your words?"

CG: "Yep, every single one!"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 12:06 PM (xG4kz)

255 237 @EndWokeness
DA Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble" ...
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM (FVME7)
++++
Interesting.

First, this isn't what the expectation was. Nobody expected her to "save the world," they expected her to run a major enterprise. She failed. This is diversionary language, and obviously so.

Second, she's right. She should have been "allowed to stumble" - and taken out of her unearned executive position when it became clear that she was incompetent. The problem is in fact the *opposite* of this. She was indeed protected from "stumbling" - by her side and her crew. She was propped up and defended until Harvard's board blinked and forced her to resign.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:01 PM (C19Uv)
______

The tweet was about Fani Willis. I think you are talking about Gay. Easy to get them confused. Not a good month for idiotic incompetent black women!

Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 12:06 PM (iFTx/)

256 So I can expect a black woman to save the world? From what ?

Posted by: Smell the Glove at January 15, 2024 12:06 PM (9vcxV)

257 Summary: Mistakes were made. Did we take liberties with taxpayer dollars? We did. But I'm not going to stand here and listen to you badmouth the United States of Black America!!!

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (UeosB)

Delta Tau Chi+ comment

Posted by: Jeff Weimer at January 15, 2024 12:06 PM (f6YJh)

258 245 DA Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"
------------

That's quite a statement.

Posted by: WisRich at January 15, 2024 12:07 PM (G0vdT)

259 >>So I can expect a black woman to save the world? From what ?

From us.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 15, 2024 12:07 PM (ZLI7S)

260 Biden Calls Designated Terror List Irrelevant

-
One man's genocidal racist terrorist group is another man's political action committee.

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 12:07 PM (FVME7)

261 Delta Tau Chi+ comment
Posted by: Jeff Weimer at January 15, 2024 12:06 PM (f6YJh)

Lambda, Lambda,Lambda

Posted by: It's me donna at January 15, 2024 12:07 PM (n2vyf)

262 For anyone who worked with and loved airplanes Boeing's disintegration is tragic.

Posted by: creeper at January 15, 2024 12:08 PM (cTCuP)

263 >"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
---

WAIT
I was told black women landed men on the moon

Posted by: Don Black at January 15, 2024 12:08 PM (geLO8)

264 249 It was a wishcasting merger, but as such it wasn't that uncommon at the time. The post-merger company wasn't helped by vicious management in-fighting and back-stabbing, either. There was also a string of dubious post-merger acquisitions if I recall.
Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (iFTx/)
++++
The whole thing was a catastrophe defined by cynicism from all sides.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:04 PM (C19Uv)
________

AOL made out like bandits, though. They traded paper for real assets. Had they not done that, I highly doubt the company (AOL) would have survived, at least not as the major player it was at the time.

Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 12:08 PM (iFTx/)

265 BTW, did you get your mouse working?
Posted by: Mike Hammer, etc., etc. at January 15, 2024 12:00 PM (XeU6L)

No, still using the scroll arrows on the keyboard for now. I will take it apart and clean it. Maybe I have another one here. not certain.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2024 12:08 PM (tkR6S)

266 I've had three Motorola phones. No complaints. Typing this post on one in fact.

Posted by: Quarter Twenty at January 15, 2024 12:08 PM (NBVIP)

267
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

Kamala Harris is raging at her staff right this moment: "That should have been ME saying that!"

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 12:09 PM (xG4kz)

268 Identity gamesmanship is a cancer. Just saw an idiotic commercial from Colorado Quits (cigarettes) highlighting a gay dude who supposedly quit because of the quit lines sensitivity to the LGBT community. What?

Posted by: Cheri at January 15, 2024 12:09 PM (FGQ5G)

269 I've seen control wheels from WW2 B17s (Anna Puma stuff) that proudly had the Boeing logo in the center, I guess to show the boys they were flying a quality American made product and the folks back home had their back. Nowadays it would be "please don't remind me".

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at January 15, 2024 12:09 PM (0EOe9)

270 Iran Regime Close to Producing Atomic Bomb Despite Biden’s Iran De-escalation Strategy

-
Boy, it's almost like appeasement never works!

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 12:10 PM (FVME7)

271 Fani Willis breaks her silence on the scandalous affair and improper use of taxpayer funds:
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"
------------
And room to riot!

Posted by: Itinerant Alley Butcher at January 15, 2024 12:10 PM (cOq4q)

272 Summary: Mistakes were made. Did we take liberties with taxpayer dollars? We did. But I'm not going to stand here and listen to you badmouth the United States of Black America!!!

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:03 PM (UeosB)

I had to read this comme t multiple times. My dumb a$$ was seeing liberties, but thinking libraries. HTF does a library get involved, Bif?

Posted by: BifBewalski at January 15, 2024 12:10 PM (3CCua)

273 256 So I can expect a black woman to save the world? From what ?
Posted by: Smell the Glove at January 15, 2024 12:06 PM (9vcxV)
_____________

"We black wimmins certainly can too very well in fact suck the world. Oh wait . . . ."

-- Kamala "Kneepads" Harris

Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 12:11 PM (iFTx/)

274 Second, she's right. She should have been "allowed to stumble" - and taken out of her unearned executive position when it became clear that she was incompetent. The problem is in fact the *opposite* of this. She was indeed protected from "stumbling" - by her side and her crew. She was propped up and defended until Harvard's board blinked and forced her to resign.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:01 PM (C19Uv)

Methinks you are doing a little misc***flating there, Joe. Fani Willis =/=Claudine Gay.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2024 12:11 PM (tkR6S)

275 Boeing was once a well-run engineering company that became very profitable from its well-engineered products. It is now a poorly-run manufacturing company being managed in the manner taught in elite MBA programs, placing an emphasis above all else on cost control and expense reduction.

i blame agile. not that i'm bitter or anything.

Posted by: anachronda is an old greybeard at January 15, 2024 12:11 PM (edU/H)

276
"You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

Dani's "Stronk Wahmyn" card just combusted spontaneously.

Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 12:12 PM (xG4kz)

277 I kind of remember an issue with Boeing back in the early 2000's where they had somehow acquired propriety documentation on Lockheed Martin (who they were bidding against on a launch project). All I remember about it was the potential for about a $500 Million fine and Jamie Gorlick being hired to defend them....which tells me they were swinging towards bean counters and away from quality way back then.

Posted by: Orson at January 15, 2024 12:12 PM (dIske)

278 Living with a mouse can be dangerous-hantavirus-especially in the desert.

Posted by: Sylvester at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (V5BDR)

279 Methinks you are doing a little misc***flating there, Joe. Fani Willis =/=Claudine Gay.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2024 12:11 PM (tkR6S)
++++
Whoooops

Yup. You're right. I got my "dishonest con artists caught in controversies related to gross corruption and incompetence but then leaning on hollow cries of racism" all mixed up.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (C19Uv)

280 "You cannot expect black women to be perfect and save the world"
"We need to be allowed to stumble"

-
Out: Wonder Woman

In: WTF Woman

Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (FVME7)

281 I've had three Motorola phones. No complaints. Typing this post on one in fact.
Posted by: Quarter Twenty at January 15, 2024 12:08 PM (NBVIP)

I've used them for years. I hate that the industry has tried to turn this into one maker vs. the other. And when I switched, I did so, because I was tired of Googly having that much control, knowing full well that has been turned into a two company thing too. Is Apple better than Googly? Hell if I know, so I guess now I'm all up in both their databases.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (C6EnM)

282 But I still could never figure out what an adverb was.

*******

Really?

Posted by: Muldooon at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (991eG)

283 @263

>>I was told black women landed men on the moon

It's a well known fact that a black woman invented the slide rule.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (XV/Pl)

284 It's a well known fact that a black woman invented the slide rule.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (XV/Pl)
++++
And before that, the abacus.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:16 PM (C19Uv)

285 Sigh. I will not be taking my walk this afternoon. Instead, I will get exercise through a task I haven't had to do for a few years: shoveling snow.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:17 PM (C19Uv)

286 From 2001

Long before the harrowing Alaska Airlines blowout on Jan. 5, there were concerns within Boeing about the way the aerospace giant was building its planes. Boeing, like so many other American manufacturers, was outsourcing more and more of the components that went into its complex machines.

A Boeing aerospace engineer presented a controversial white paper in 2001 at an internal technical symposium. The engineer, John Hart-Smith, warned colleagues of the risks of the subcontracting strategy, especially if Boeing outsourced too much work and didn’t provide sufficient on-site quality and technical support to its suppliers.

“The performance of the prime manufacturer can never exceed the capabilities of the least proficient of the suppliers,” Hart-Smith wrote. “These costs do not vanish merely because the work itself is out-of-sight.”

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 15, 2024 12:17 PM (lwOKI)

287 And before that, the abacus.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at January 15, 2024 12:16 PM (C19Uv)

And the corn roll

Posted by: It's me donna at January 15, 2024 12:17 PM (n2vyf)

288 Verily, Muldoon.

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 12:17 PM (2yu8s)

289 > Instead, I will get exercise through a task I haven't had to do for a few years: shoveling snow.

got your Life Alert thingy?

Posted by: Don Black at January 15, 2024 12:17 PM (geLO8)

290 I had to read this comme t multiple times. My dumb a$$ was seeing liberties, but thinking libraries. HTF does a library get involved, Bif?
Posted by: BifBewalski at January 15, 2024 12:10 PM (3CCua)

Hmmm... inflation?

It used to be binders full of women, now it's libraries full of black women, saving the world?

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:18 PM (C6EnM)

291 Harry Stonecipher

———

He was only part of McDonnell Douglas for 3 years before the merger. To say he was a McDonnell alum is a bit disingenuous.

I always laugh at the libertarian take that the best and brightest rise to the top. Those billionaire cocksuckers don’t know anything.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at January 15, 2024 12:18 PM (cMXNt)

292 Black women invented counting on their fingers

Posted by: Elric Blade at January 15, 2024 12:18 PM (iFTx/)

293 A strong Black Woman General sent the men of the all Black 108th Screaming Mofos into harms way during Operation Wassup Whitey Kraut , winning WW2.

Posted by: bill in arkansas, not gonna comply with nuttin, waiting for the 0300 knock on the door at January 15, 2024 12:19 PM (0EOe9)

294 I have to say Fani that saving the World is not exactly what you and yours are doing

Posted by: It's me donna at January 15, 2024 12:19 PM (n2vyf)

295 “The performance of the prime manufacturer can never exceed the capabilities of the least proficient of the suppliers,” Hart-Smith wrote.

Mission accomplished!

Posted by: Boeing Accountants at January 15, 2024 12:19 PM (kD8q1)

296 NOODlum.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at January 15, 2024 12:19 PM (Zz0t1)

297 nood budget deal

Posted by: andycanuck (2yu8s) at January 15, 2024 12:19 PM (2yu8s)

298 When we started getting the newer F-16C/D models in the mid eighties, they had a lot of wiring problems. Not good with a fly-by-wire system. The story was that the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth had outsourced the wiring harness manufacture to Mexico. The F-16 has miles of wiring in hundreds of bundles going through every inch of it, even inside fuel cells.

Posted by: I M Simpleton at January 15, 2024 12:20 PM (cwq7b)

299 I've used them for years. I hate that the industry has tried to turn this into one maker vs. the other. And when I switched, I did so, because I was tired of Googly having that much control, knowing full well that has been turned into a two company thing too. Is Apple better than Googly? Hell if I know, so I guess now I'm all up in both their databases.
Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:15 PM (C6EnM)

YouTube cyber security pundit Rob Braxton say that Apple is worse. Check out some of his videos, they can be very interesting. He is a good presenter.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 15, 2024 12:20 PM (tkR6S)

300 149 Norms restored!

Elusive Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Released From Hospital
Posted by: Anonosaurus Wrecks, Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter 2024 at January 15, 2024 11:40 AM (FVME7)

I miss Norm.

Posted by: m at January 15, 2024 12:20 PM (Kr+3r)

301 Preen, you are talking about the birth of ULA. Air Force got tired of the corporate shenanigans and had both companies divest there rocket making divisions into a special company to make rockets for them.

Posted by: pawn at January 15, 2024 12:20 PM (FHL7X)

302 Kamala Harris is raging at her staff right this moment: "That should have been ME saying that!"
Posted by: Krebs v Carnot: Epic Battle of the Cycling Stars (TM) at January 15, 2024 12:09 PM (xG4kz)

In all seriousness? I don't think she would ever mouth.... words that suggested she's made a mistake.

Posted by: BurtTC at January 15, 2024 12:21 PM (C6EnM)

303 Your seat ain't that good a flotation device.

I'm not worried.
Posted by: Pam Anderson at January 15, 2024 11:10 AM (RVloE)

Me either.

Posted by: Dolly Parton at January 15, 2024 12:21 PM (iODuv)

304 From the paper:
The purpose of this paper is to describe and explain some highlights associated with the contemporary business practice of out-sourcing more and more of a companies’ activities in the belief that doing so will increase profitability. A strong case is made that it will not always be possible to make more and more profit out of less and less product and that, worse, there is a
strong risk of going out of business directly as a result of this policy. The point is made that not only is the work out-sourced; all of the profits associated with the work are out-sourced, too. The history of the former Douglas Aircraft Company is cited as a clear indication of what these policies have done – and as a warning of what more may be done.

The subcontractors on the DC-10 made all of the profits; the prime manufacturer absorbed all of the over-runs.

Posted by: rhennigantx at January 15, 2024 12:23 PM (lwOKI)

305 You can see this cost cutting (people cutting) in so many businesses. There is no more customer service, even on line. Bots "answer" questions.

But the CEOs are making jillions of dollars and hobnobbing at Aspen on our dime.

Posted by: PJ at January 15, 2024 12:28 PM (G1dq6)

306 I worked at an airline which just after a merger (you know, that one) much of the software development went to India. I wasn't working on any "critical" systems thankfully, but the code we got back from "offshore" was a terrible mess and needed much reworking and fixing to make it production ready. Sure they could crank out the code, but it sucked HARD and many wasted hours were spent fixing it all.

Posted by: Zippyslug at January 15, 2024 12:29 PM (/jFSs)

307 Engineers are usually lousy at running companies.

...

I have a bias here, but seems like engineers do a heck of a lot better at it than the finance/HR folks.

Posted by: TexasDan at January 15, 2024 12:30 PM (z/ifB)

308 My MBA program did not teach you to slash and cut your way to profits. This sounds like a bad caricature from people who never went to an MBA program. I actually think what they learned wrongly at MBA programs, and what is actually a closer root cause of the issue, is woke DEI crap. Cost-cutting isn't the strategy, reducing wasteful spending isn't evil, and it doesn't have to lead to safety problems. Making your core mission to hire and promote "marginalized" people regardless of competence is what is promoted at MBA programs and is destroying these companies.

Posted by: Mad Max in VA at January 15, 2024 12:37 PM (4+3qm)

309 From what I understand, the problem with the MAX goes well beyond lowest-denominator outsourcing; it goes to the basic aerodynamics of the plane. In order to accomplish what they wanted in the last iteration, bigger engines without changing the basic structure of the airframe, they had to overcome the very nature of the configuration. Namely, that it is now an unstable platform. The software and sensors are just the symptom of the bigger problem: that the plane doesn't want to fly as built. It wants to pitch up or down radically, and it's only the sensors and software that manage the instability. It's like the old X-29 with the reversed wings -- pointy parts forward. It could handle like nothing else, but only due to the computer control of inputs. It was otherwise sketchy beyond the ability to fly. From what I read, the MAX is similar. That's a stupid way to build a passenger plane. It should want to gravitate toward stability. Add to that the unprepared roster of the latest generation of pilots, and you'd be better off driving.

Posted by: red speck at January 15, 2024 12:39 PM (0Id0S)

310 Late in the summer of 1997, two of the most critical players in global aviation became a single tremendous titan. Boeing, one of the US’s largest and most important companies, acquired its longtime plane manufacturer rival, McDonnell Douglas, in what was then the country’s tenth-largest merger. The resulting giant took Boeing’s name. More unexpectedly, it took its culture and strategy from McDonnell Douglas—even its commercial aviation department was struggling to retain customers.

In a clash of corporate cultures, where Boeing’s engineers and McDonnell Douglas’s bean-counters went head-to-head, the smaller company won out. The result was a move away from expensive, ground-breaking engineering and toward what some called a more cut-throat culture, devoted to keeping costs down and favoring upgrading older models at the expense of wholesale innovation.

Posted by: SMOD at January 15, 2024 12:40 PM (RHGPo)

311 From a former heavy-jet pilot and engineer:

I would have thought engineers would be too smart to join a union. But alas, they're not. And the "engineers union" is screaming that the problem is that Boeing is "relying on temporary workers making as little as $9 an hour."

Obviously the engineers' union wants Boeing to fire the overseas engineers and hire more union engineers at $100 an hour. Sure. But this is NOT the problem--it's Boeing's "executives."

Let me explain: I was an Air Force pilot, heavy jets and lots more. All big jets have autopilots, and they all have a big switch (usually two or three!), usually on the "yoke," so that if the autopilot does anything the pilot doesn't want, you can turn it off--instantly and easily.

The Boeing 737 is an old and very well-proven design. But when they did the "Max" version they added a new "stability system"--essentially a second autopilot. But for some dumb reason (and it was REALLY dumb!) they didn't wire this one thru the existing "kill" switches for the regular autopilot.

In case you're a Democrat, what that means is that pilots **couldn't turn the damn thing off.**

So the inevitable happened.

Posted by: sf44 at January 15, 2024 12:42 PM (YC43X)

312 Um, wouldn’t you agree that, to a point (key phrase), cost cutting can be good?

(Of course, there IS such a thing as too much of a good thing.)

Posted by: Catch Thirty-Thr33 at January 15, 2024 01:27 PM (rSl/w)

313 I work for a bigly yuge company that employs a lot of hindu contractors to cut costs. It's gotten so bad that many are going to get laid off before they sink the company.

I work with several now and while most are nice, many are book smart and lack no drive or common sense at all. We have to meticulously give them step by step instructions and due to the nature of the job, if even one detail of a project changes they get completely lost, rather than engage any critical thinking skills.

Posted by: The Unvaxed and Unmasked Ranger - National Divorce NOW at January 15, 2024 11:54 AM

This has been my experience working with the outsourced engineers from India for the past 2 years. Nice people, but very lacking in common sense and I sometimes wonder if they are even engineers, as they lack basic engineering critical thinking skills. Also, very sloppy in presentation skills, lacking in grammar and spelling and don't seem to follow basic instructions regarding setting agendas for meetings or writing up meeting notes for meetings. In 2021, I worked with a local college student who was an engineering intern and she had better attention to detail and critical thinking skills.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at January 15, 2024 01:46 PM (AaCDb)

314 208 -- Sorry, guy, the memory function is heavily over loaded. All I could remember was Eartlink. No AOL.

And I was looking at the TW/AOL merger from a different angle. As a bookseller, I had to deal with their post merger crap, which was a shame since Little,Brown was a very respected book publisher. (Warner owned Little, Brown.)

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin -- I stand with Israel and all Jews everywhere at January 15, 2024 02:22 PM (6TzTY)

315 There should be a post about Spirit AeroSystems, as Martini Farmer mentioned. Subcontractor of the unsecured door plug. Their video could be straight from Babylon Bee. I didn't think it was real when I first saw it.

Posted by: InspiredHistoryMike at January 15, 2024 02:29 PM (4eQ7W)

316 The same bullshit is happening at another Big3 automaker where I now work (not Ford). Since the merger, management tells us we are no longer an auto company, we are a "mobile technology company". And same penny-pinching is going on as well as outsourcing engineering jobs to India.

Posted by: Clyde Shelton

I hope it's not Stellantis. Their on the hook for billions due to their Cummins diesel emissions problems. $2B settlement with the government so far. Millions of recalls.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 15, 2024 12:04 PM

I can neither confirm nor deny...

Posted by: Clyde Shelton at January 15, 2024 03:15 PM (AaCDb)

317 Back when the DeHavilland Comet came out after WW II it had a defect which caused a Couple of Crashes which was traced to its Passenger Window Design it would be replaced with the 707

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