Time to take this great nation back from... umm... people who aren't me! Vote for me and I'll make this country great again. Not that it isn't great now, since it is the greatest place on earth, even better than Disneyland. But we can make it greater. So, I'll make this country greater again! And we'll get rid of deviants, we have to get rid of them because our democracy isn't greater enough to deal with contrary ideas.
Remember that in the south, the Democratic party was the staunchly conservative party for a long time. It only changed when the Democrats as a whole refused to support segregation, so the Republicans picked up the disaffected southerners (after a brief stop in the short lived Dixiecrat party). But not all of them switched over.
Plus, it's frankly a stupid artifact of American politics that a political party is used to stereotype someone on the entirety of their political views. You are allowed to be anti-abortion and pro-union at the same time, or pro-life and anti-gun. So yes, you will find evangelical Democrats.
The new Tea Party plan is to dismantle government. This has long been a strategy of small government advocates, if you shut things down or defund departments they hope that people learn that they never needed the government anyway. So they are actually doing what they think they were elected to do, no matter how irresponsible it is.
And this was rather silly, since the entire point of going into Afghanistan was to get Osama and punish those who helped him. So Bush was moving the goal posts (a sports analogy, I apologize to our regular slashdot readers).
Politics used to be called a horse race. I think it's more relatable these days to call politics a sports game. The fans have to pick sides, root for their side and boo at the other side. Doesn't matter if you like either one, you have to pick one side or another. You spend most of the time moving some ball back and forth, then occasionally tell an interviewer "we did good out there tonight, gained some ground, we'll see what happens in the second half."
Trump's goal is to deport Obama and trick Mexico into building a wall. Carly wants to sell off the unprofitable parts of America and focus on the core business of ink cartridges. Marco Rubio wants his own head to explode. Ted Cruz wants to invent a time machine. Ben Carson I'm not sure about because he was hard to understand with his foot stuck in his mouth. Jeb Bush just wants his older brother to stop teasing him. Rick Santorum wants something frothy. Mike Huckabee wants a name that isn't so funny. Lindsey Graham wants people to stop calling him a rhinocerous. Rand Paul wants to have a good drawn out argument. John Kasich just wants people to know he's still in the race.
Remember, it was George H. W. Bush who termed the phrase "voodoo economics" in order to disparage Reagan's ideas. This was before he was selected to be a running mate.
I think it was originally called Obamacare in order to discredit it. On the far right this works, since "Obama" is synonymous with pure evil. But on the left it's not seen that way. Those in the middle tend to just shake heads over the craziness of the partisans.
Ya but that's such a minor part of the law making process. That's like saying Steve Jobs designed and built the iPhone. But here in California we recalled one governor because he failed to renew a tax break and thus was accused of raising taxes.
The most you get with the men's side of contraception is free condoms in the schools, and far right conservatives are often opposed to that.
(but not all, I know a far right conservative that is an OB/Gyn nurse who's all in favor of it because kids have low self control and high hormone levels, so if they're going to have sex anyway then why not have a condom)
As far as the Planned Parenthood video, there's so much word of mouth about it unrelated to what was actually on that full video or what actually happens. There is no profit here. At all. Or wait, is factcheck.org now a lefting mouthpiece? Because selling body parts doesn't sit right with *anyone* no matter what party.
(and I'm not in any party, they're all evil in my book)
It's a blessing. And a curse. We have support groups about this. But generally the meetings fall apart because we all argue about which of us is the smartest person in the room.
For the boards, they generally don't make decisions about how to run the company. They're there to keep the CEO in check and make sure the financials are ok and get a return on investment. If you want someone technically savvy that makes big decisions then that needs to be at the C-level.
In a lot of ways, IT sets itself up to be outsourced. I have seen a trend where they seem to retreat into their own group, not get involved in what the company does elsewhere, hire people based on certificates and the ability to be interchangeable, etc. So they sometimes appear to be just like an outsourced firm except that they sit in the building. If they want to appear indispensible and worth the extra money, then they should be making efforts to attain that appearance.
But boards are not only at financial institutions. At a technology company it would help if the board understood technology. At a guitar making company, it would help if the board understood guitars.
But IT is just a side issue. It's low down on the things that a board needs to know about. Maybe the CEO needs to know about IT but not necessarily the board. Of course I suspect every department wishes they were better represented on the board.
Boards don't understand much of anything usually, except finance. As far as technology goes, IT is at the bottom of the list of things that they should know about with technology. I'd be happy if the boards understood what the companies actually produced or supplied.
What's wrong is that the standard for trucks is more lax than for autos, even though both are used by commuters and urban cowboy commuters.
Though I agree the US will go light on VW, except on procedural fines perhaps, because the US always goes light on big corporations. In other countries they're probably going to be a lot less forgiving of VW.
But that was only in the US. The justice department here is pretty lax on punishing large corporations. Let's see what happens when EU, Japan, Australia, etc, start litigating.
And they are opening investigations of whether similar vehicles are being sold in Europe and other countries. This scandal isn't stopping at the US borders.
This goes beyond the EPA. These defects are very likely in cars sold in other countries. Including countries where they claim their inspection system is better than the US system.
(that claim is suspicious though as they tend to test during auto manufacturing by having an inspector do spot checks in the plant, rather than testing the vehicles after they're purchased, and it's a lot cheaper to bribe those inspectors than to bribe every local gas station in the US)
VW diesels are a very small market segment in US and Canada. But it's a large market segment in Europe, and in Europe the DO care about emissions and it is a part of their marketing.
Slashdot Mirror
Time to take this great nation back from... umm... people who aren't me! Vote for me and I'll make this country great again. Not that it isn't great now, since it is the greatest place on earth, even better than Disneyland. But we can make it greater. So, I'll make this country greater again! And we'll get rid of deviants, we have to get rid of them because our democracy isn't greater enough to deal with contrary ideas.
Remember that in the south, the Democratic party was the staunchly conservative party for a long time. It only changed when the Democrats as a whole refused to support segregation, so the Republicans picked up the disaffected southerners (after a brief stop in the short lived Dixiecrat party). But not all of them switched over.
Plus, it's frankly a stupid artifact of American politics that a political party is used to stereotype someone on the entirety of their political views. You are allowed to be anti-abortion and pro-union at the same time, or pro-life and anti-gun. So yes, you will find evangelical Democrats.
The new Tea Party plan is to dismantle government. This has long been a strategy of small government advocates, if you shut things down or defund departments they hope that people learn that they never needed the government anyway. So they are actually doing what they think they were elected to do, no matter how irresponsible it is.
American politics has proven that no one can remember anything that's more than five years old.
And this was rather silly, since the entire point of going into Afghanistan was to get Osama and punish those who helped him. So Bush was moving the goal posts (a sports analogy, I apologize to our regular slashdot readers).
Politics used to be called a horse race. I think it's more relatable these days to call politics a sports game. The fans have to pick sides, root for their side and boo at the other side. Doesn't matter if you like either one, you have to pick one side or another. You spend most of the time moving some ball back and forth, then occasionally tell an interviewer "we did good out there tonight, gained some ground, we'll see what happens in the second half."
Trump's goal is to deport Obama and trick Mexico into building a wall.
Carly wants to sell off the unprofitable parts of America and focus on the core business of ink cartridges.
Marco Rubio wants his own head to explode.
Ted Cruz wants to invent a time machine.
Ben Carson I'm not sure about because he was hard to understand with his foot stuck in his mouth.
Jeb Bush just wants his older brother to stop teasing him.
Rick Santorum wants something frothy.
Mike Huckabee wants a name that isn't so funny.
Lindsey Graham wants people to stop calling him a rhinocerous.
Rand Paul wants to have a good drawn out argument.
John Kasich just wants people to know he's still in the race.
Remember, it was George H. W. Bush who termed the phrase "voodoo economics" in order to disparage Reagan's ideas. This was before he was selected to be a running mate.
I think it was originally called Obamacare in order to discredit it. On the far right this works, since "Obama" is synonymous with pure evil. But on the left it's not seen that way. Those in the middle tend to just shake heads over the craziness of the partisans.
Ya but that's such a minor part of the law making process. That's like saying Steve Jobs designed and built the iPhone.
But here in California we recalled one governor because he failed to renew a tax break and thus was accused of raising taxes.
Reagan and Jesus, just two bleeding heart liberals trying to tear this country down!
The most you get with the men's side of contraception is free condoms in the schools, and far right conservatives are often opposed to that.
(but not all, I know a far right conservative that is an OB/Gyn nurse who's all in favor of it because kids have low self control and high hormone levels, so if they're going to have sex anyway then why not have a condom)
As far as the Planned Parenthood video, there's so much word of mouth about it unrelated to what was actually on that full video or what actually happens. There is no profit here. At all. Or wait, is factcheck.org now a lefting mouthpiece? Because selling body parts doesn't sit right with *anyone* no matter what party.
(and I'm not in any party, they're all evil in my book)
It's a blessing. And a curse.
We have support groups about this. But generally the meetings fall apart because we all argue about which of us is the smartest person in the room.
For the boards, they generally don't make decisions about how to run the company. They're there to keep the CEO in check and make sure the financials are ok and get a return on investment. If you want someone technically savvy that makes big decisions then that needs to be at the C-level.
In a lot of ways, IT sets itself up to be outsourced. I have seen a trend where they seem to retreat into their own group, not get involved in what the company does elsewhere, hire people based on certificates and the ability to be interchangeable, etc. So they sometimes appear to be just like an outsourced firm except that they sit in the building. If they want to appear indispensible and worth the extra money, then they should be making efforts to attain that appearance.
But boards are not only at financial institutions. At a technology company it would help if the board understood technology. At a guitar making company, it would help if the board understood guitars.
But IT is just a side issue. It's low down on the things that a board needs to know about. Maybe the CEO needs to know about IT but not necessarily the board. Of course I suspect every department wishes they were better represented on the board.
I'd be happy if IT themselves started having a quest to bring the best technology to their department.
Boards don't understand much of anything usually, except finance. As far as technology goes, IT is at the bottom of the list of things that they should know about with technology. I'd be happy if the boards understood what the companies actually produced or supplied.
What's wrong is that the standard for trucks is more lax than for autos, even though both are used by commuters and urban cowboy commuters.
Though I agree the US will go light on VW, except on procedural fines perhaps, because the US always goes light on big corporations. In other countries they're probably going to be a lot less forgiving of VW.
But that was only in the US. The justice department here is pretty lax on punishing large corporations. Let's see what happens when EU, Japan, Australia, etc, start litigating.
I'm still waiting for the day when an exec tries to open the golden parachute only to find that it's jammed. "Open damn you! Aarrgh..."
And they are opening investigations of whether similar vehicles are being sold in Europe and other countries. This scandal isn't stopping at the US borders.
That's because some people actually work for the government.
(it's a joke!)
This goes beyond the EPA. These defects are very likely in cars sold in other countries. Including countries where they claim their inspection system is better than the US system.
(that claim is suspicious though as they tend to test during auto manufacturing by having an inspector do spot checks in the plant, rather than testing the vehicles after they're purchased, and it's a lot cheaper to bribe those inspectors than to bribe every local gas station in the US)
VW diesels are a very small market segment in US and Canada. But it's a large market segment in Europe, and in Europe the DO care about emissions and it is a part of their marketing.