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Waking Up To Reality

Good News

Finally, someone has seen the light:

Bolt CEO fires his entire HR team because they “created problems that didn’t exist”, and “those problems disappeared when I let them go”.

Welcome to the party, pal.

Ryan Breslow, the co-founder and chief executive of US fintech firm Bolt, said the department was scrapped as part of sweeping layoffs aimed at returning the struggling business to “start-up mode”.

The 32-year-old added that HR professionals were more suited to “peacetime” conditions at larger companies rather than a start-up environment focused on rapid growth and efficiency.

In his seminal work, Up The Organization, the late Robert Townsend had a small chapter as part of his plan to make companies more successful:  “Fire the entire HR department.”  (I should point out that his incendiary book — which was and still is one of the best management books ever written — was published back in 1971.  One can only wonder what he’d think of today’s HR.)  Also, for those who don’t remember, Townsend was responsible for taking #2 car rental firm Avis to #1, so he knew what he was talking about.

I used to publish this little comment as a joke, except that it isn’t, really:

What I like is that the BOLT CEO has replaced HR with a small team tasked with “training and employee support” — i.e. the original function of the “Personnel Department” before they adopted the soulless “Human Resources” nomenclature.

Incidentally, Townsend sneered at HR being part of the hiring process, saying that this function should be left to the department managers, who should have a better idea than some third party of the kind of person they’d need.

I bet that Breslow would agree with that, now.

Excluded!

Politics, Traitors / Fifth Columnists

Firebrand CongressTotty Nancy Mace has an idea:

South Carolina GOP Representative Nancy Mace introduced a joint resolution on Wednesday proposing a constitutional amendment that would explicitly bar naturalized citizens from serving in Congress, the federal judiciary, or holding any Senate-confirmed positions.

The proposed legislation seeks to extend the “natural-born citizen” constraint — which currently applies only to the presidency and vice presidency under Article II of the U.S. Constitution — to all members of the House of Representatives, the Senate, federal judges at all levels, and prominent appointed officers such as Cabinet members and ambassadors.

If passed and ratified, the amendment would establish a strict dual-track citizenship restriction, requiring federal lawmakers and officials to have held U.S. citizenship from birth.

Okay, I need to talk about this because I am a naturalized U.S. citizen (35 years, give or take a few months), and of course I would be affected by such legislation.  (Not that I care, because age and inclination would exclude me from any of the above lofty offices anyway.)

Now I can understand why Our Nancy would be suggesting such a thing, because let’s be honest, I bet there are more than a few naturalized U.S. citizens who are bent on overthrowing the republic rather than thanking their lucky stars (as I do, every day) for being allowed to share in the American Dream.

So I can see why she would be interested in such an action.  The words “Quisling” and “fifth column” (a.k.a. Trojan horse) come to mind here, and probably with some justification.

However, allow me to point out that arch-Nazi collaborator Vidkun Quisling was not a naturalized Norwegian citizen, but native-born.  And let’s be perfectly blunt about this:  for every naturalized citizen who may be harboring evil subversive ideas about his adopted country, I can probably point to several native-born citizens who are just as evil (Ocasio-Cortez comes to mind).

However, Mace’s proposed legislation would also rid us of pustules like Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal, to mention just two, who infest Congress like some malignant cancer.

So:  is Nancy Mace’s proposed legislation a Good Thing?  Here’s what else she said, in support of it:

Mace argued that the amendment simply extends the rigorous constitutional standard already required of the president to other critical positions of national trust.

…and mentions Super-Pustule Ilhan Omar specifically as evidence.

This would mean, by the way, that there’d be in essence two kinds of citizenship:  native-born, to whom all things are possible;  and naturalized, who could do anything except run the country.

This would mean that people like me — super-patriots, despite having been born in the wrong country — would be excluded from the levers of power.

In today’s political climate, though, I’m not sure that that’s a bad thing.

Feel free to argue the point in Comments.

By the way, some might ask why I refer to Nancy Mace as a “CongressTotty”.

Q.E.D.

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

“It’s like asking Iron Maiden to play jazz.” — Chef for Prince William’s eco awards, in refusing to prepare a vegan menu.

Now let’s do away with crap like “eco awards” and we can all be happy.

Validation

Travels

Many years ago I made the decision to travel only during off-peak season times — usually during fall and winter — so as to avoid this kind of thing:

Apart from the claustrophobia of crowds such as the above, I decided that there was nothing — no tourist attraction, no museums, no vista — that was worth that kind of hassle.

And I’m not even considering the fact that among those crowds in the pictures are undoubtedly scum like pickpockets and other such wealth redistributionists.

It has bitten me on a couple of occasions, of course, most notably in winter when establishments such as restaurants and hotels will “close for the season” (New England and the French Riviera being the most notable).  So be it.  I make a note, and move on.

I also make an exception for things like Christmas markets — especially in southern Germany and Austria — mostly because I enjoy them more than I hate the crowds that throng them.  Here are Heidelberg, Salzburg and Vienna (in order):

Note that the freezing temperatures didn’t seem to put off too many people — mostly, I suspect, because they’re locals (ergo accustomed to the weather).  Certainly, from memory, German was the most common language I heard in all three places;  Japanese, Chinese and other such diversity:  not so much.

Then of course there are crowds that would be welcomed, such as at the Goodwood Revival*:

…and if you’re not willing to put up with crowds for the last of these pics, I don’t want to talk to you.

Then there’s the Chelsea Flower Show for New Wife (a very keen gardener), which is taking place as I write this:

But being in a summer crowd of thousands at the Spanish Steps in Rome, or waiting to get into the Louvre in Paris?

Pass, with prejudice.

*note that I said “would”, because I have yet to go to the Revival.  One of these days, Rodders…