• HIGHER EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT SHOULD ALWAYS BE AN OBJECTIVE OF MANAGERS, and many presume that engineering worker friendships is part of their role. But many studies suggest this is a mistake when Managers wade into the business of friend-making, for reasons including: (1) The defining characteristic of friendship is that it’s voluntary, with employees neither needing nor wanting their bosses to arrange play-dates; (2) Workplace relationships are double-edged and can quickly become messy, lessening the likelihood for optimal results when power dynamics change; (3) This can also look to others like cronyism, impacting trust in any purported system of performance-based growth in responsibilities & compensation. Companies are better served by “facilitating interactions between employees – particularly in today’s business world of hybrid & remote working – with social gatherings and buddy-systems to encourage colleagues to meet each other and foster a culture for respecting competence, a level of trust, and desire to reach the same goals. Then, if individuals want to take it further, it’s entirely up to them.”  [ECONOMIST – 9/23/23]
  • ‘TEMPORARY PROTECTIVE STATUS’ allowing avoidance of deportation and right-to-work permits for illegal migrants “rewards the Left with insurmountable electoral power for endorsing lawlessness at the border” (presently some 10,000 daily). Since the Biden Administration took office in January 2021, with a stated goal of unlimited illegal migrants: (1) Millions have been housed, fed, bussed & flown across the country – without verification of their names, departure countries, health or criminal status – by NGOs & non-profit organizations collecting billions of dollars in federal grants through numerous Departments including Homeland Security/ Health & Human Services/ State/ & Justice; (2) Once transported, “migrants are left to fend for themselves, with horrific results in terms of human devastation, death, sex trafficking, forced child labor, National Security and Public Safety threats, as well as local governments forced to expend billions of dollars in resources and displacement of local community resources including shelters, schools & hospitals; (3) Meanwhile cartels trafficking people into the U.S. are making some $100 million weekly. The illegal immigration industrial complex is getting rich.”  [TOWNHALL – 9/22/23]
  • AMERICANS TODAY HAVE A DISMAL VIEW OF THE NATION’S POLITICS. Pew Research did a broad survey this summer to find “majorities unrelentingly negative, 90% having little hope of improvement on the horizon, believing the process is dominated by special interests, mired in partisan warfare for power control, with elected officials widely viewed as self-serving and ineffective.” Punchlines: (1) Eight-in-ten believe that conflicts between the Parties receive “too much attention, with little focus on important issues facing the country, and partisan polarization being the biggest problem with our system; (2) Six-in-ten expressed little if any confidence in the future of our system and 85% said they don’t trust the federal government most of the time”; (3) Over a quarter do not feel well-represented by either party, three-quarters are dissatisfied with quality of candidates, and over half feel ‘angry’; (4) Majorities back age limits for federal elected officials, Supreme Court justices, term limits for Congress, and support eliminating the Electoral College. Sad, sad situation, as we literally witness the country imploding, a result of intentional political philosophies.  https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-dismal-views-of-the-nations-politics/      
  • “THE ‘END OF HISTORY’ WAS PROPHESIED when the USSR collapsed over 30 years ago, which bred complacency among leaders of the Western democracies and, instead, sowed the seeds for the current global anti-democratic chaos. The world is in turmoil, challenged not by socialism as an alternative global and universalist vision, but by an atavistic retreat to nativist, nationalist and populist politics. The result has been both a rise of authoritarian regimes, and the decline of multinational coordination among countries now more likely to stress the primacy of the nation-state as the focus for formulation of practical policies – while chauvinist autocrats are now working together (remarkably effectively) in order to sidestep or undermine international liberal norms and institutions. The emergent dictatorial systems are more alike than they are different, since tyrannies of a feather flock together.” [NATIONALINTEREST.ORG]
  • THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:

 Singapore Airlines refunded their full $1,400 ticket price (after rejection of two $73 gift certificates, then vouchers each worth $200) when their 13-hour flight experience “went from premium to pungent, resulting from the next seat passenger service-dog’s flatulence during the trip, which continued to worsen as the dog began cutting the proverbial cheese during the flight.”  Scientists often name a new species after famous people in hopes they’ll be picked up by the Media, but a particular rare beetle is cause for current debate about a name change. Nearing extinction, the bug is found only is some 15 caves of Slovenia, is valued above $1,400, and specimens have been stolen from the Bavaria State Collection of Zoology. The beetle: Anophthalmus hitleri – aka A.Hitler – and is a favorite collection of neo-nazis. [FUTURISM]

HOW is a card trick like this possible? https://biggeekdad.com/2013/08/best-card-trick-ever/