Tag: LBO
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SOE and Studie
Here’s a new thought after rereading the history of Studebaker for the 100th time. Albert Erskine took over as CEO in 1918. Under his rule Studie prospered and handed most of the prosperity to shareholders. Erskine believed in paying the stock criminals first and letting the company (facilities, workers, development) have the leftovers. Some of…
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Big things don’t hit the news.
Reading some railroad-related items on Quora. Three years ago, a Canadian insider mentioned that Canadian Pacific was about ready to buy Kansas City Southern, forming the first complete north-south railroad across all of the continent. Sure enough, the merger was completed in 2023 and fully running this year. This is BIG news for both countries…
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The biggest divide
Aside from the obvious male vs female, the widest and most permanent divide is risk takers vs risk avoiders. This divide started LONG before humans or mammals, so in the grand scheme it’s deeper than male vs female. Every life form including bacteria has bold and timid types. Men and women can often understand or…
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The value of flips
Elon’s sudden flip from fake environmentalist to fake Trump cultist seems to have awakened a few of his Gaian fans. When a cult leader joins the other side, the followers split three ways. Some will continue with the same ideology and generate new leaders. Some will follow the person no matter where he goes. And…
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Localize, localize, localize
An old song has been popping in my mental jukebox lately. I’m convinced it’s a railroad song. You can hear the locomotive chugging and a dopplered whistle, similar to Chattanooga Choochoo. The last two lines seem to be: Riding on the __ __, Riding on the __ __ line. There’s a two-syllable railroad in the…
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Fucking up everything
In previous item I mentioned that the Hudsons Bay Company had been the first explorer of the Columbia basin around here. Now it turns out that Trump is fucking with the Columbia along with every other damn thing. The Columbia starts in BC and flows into Wash, then turns west toward the ocean. Water is…
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This is what happens
Headline: Columbia funding cuts set dangerous precedent This is what happens when you let politicians sponsor your research. The truly dangerous precedent was set in 1946, not 2025. Dependence on federal money started in 1946, and the danger was already obvious by 1958. My dad saw it, and a much more famous dude named Eisenhower…
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Poor Canada! It’s awful!
CBC features a split town, half in Quebec and half in Vermont. The library and opera house straddles the border. I remember hearing a Ripley item about the opera house, saying that the American audience clapped for the Canadian performers on stage. The building is now a library, and the border simply runs through one…
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Not astonishing at all
Trump is NYC. Trump is Wall Street. Trump is a gangster. Those are permanent unchanging facts. Everything he does is gangster style, Roy Cohn style, Wall Street style. Everything he does enriches Wall Street and destroys real business and real humans. Latest perfect example. Trump sent Rubio to convey a gang-style blackmail note to Panama.…
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The answer is work
This 1935 Ford promotional film starts with a long florid speech by a pompous grandiose announcer, introducing an important address by Henry Ford himself! Mr Ford will announce the company’s way of countering the Depression. After the long highly “grammatical” intro, we hear a long florid verbose oration by Henry himself: The answer is work.…
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New meaning for old acronym
We know how the LBO predators work on corporations. Old-fashioned protection racket. They barrage the company with lawsuits and obstacles and “accidents” and low-priced competition until the company finally gives in and sells cheap. We’ve seen the same thing with the “global warming” racket, which gives insurers a “protective” reason to cancel coverage, again driving…
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Same reason as before
Continued thought about Tiktok, Rednote, etc. As I noted yesterday, the net provides REAL opportunities for people in different countries to get to know each other. This has been happening for years, especially on video-oriented media like Youtube. It shouldn’t be a surprise that American and Chinese youngsters are meeting and talking and learning about…
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RTO = LBO
This article at MSN tells the truth about the push for returning to the office. Elon also tells the truth when he proposes forcing federal workers to RTO. The purpose is to fire all workers without going through the trouble of actually firing them. Properly firing them would COST MONEY for unemployment insurance and severance…
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Misdirected
Big Entertainment is fading. The tech tyrants who bought it know it’s fading. They’re happy to let it fade. That’s why they bought it. LBO. The Hollywood unions acquired solid contracts from the dying dinosaur, but the contracts don’t mean much. The contracts will help the dinosaur to fade, and the tech tyrants will be…
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Classic Mach
There are two bright spots in the current horrendous landscape: Jerome Powell and Unions. After 50 years of collaborating with the corporate demons, SOME unions are regaining their proper anticorporate gumption. (Or Gomption.) The Hollywood writers have achieved a remarkable victory, getting everything they really wanted. Earlier I was unsure of their tactics and destination,…
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