Kinda too old for that

I put myself in a soccer league and played last Friday night.  Played well, against younger guys, scored a goal.  But fell at one point, hard… bruised my side…. and am sore in general, have dead legs.

Then I got kind of hammered on Saturday night.  I do that about twice a year and it had been about six months, I was due.  One of the tap rooms with some people.  Kind of a pre- 30 year reunion (that’s this summer…).  Had about four big tap room beers.  They were Castle Danger actually, tasty.

Anyway, I have been sore from the soccer and totally screwed up from my latent hangover.  Have been terribly zombified and out of balance, literally, for about a week.  I feel normal this morning finally.

ACA, apparently here to stay

Could be true, as Boehner says:

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/23/14714282/john-boehner-obamacare-repeal

Here’s a thing… all the Republicans have to do to declare victory is get rid of the individual mandate and the Cadillac tax.

The fake individual mandate is so lenient that it isn’t doing anything to achieve the ACA’s fake budget neutrality.  It can go away with zero affect.

The Cadillac tax is going to go away, it’s a foregone conclusion

After that…. Ya know, fine, keep the market places for subsidized insurees with chronic health issues.  That’s what was accomplished with ACA, there is nothing else.  Ya keep that and move on.

I have my doubts this ends up having the blowback that townhall liberals think it will.

I need a gig, 2017edition, day 21: The ‘how do you get experience if no one will give you a job’ paradox

Still unemployed, quite enjoying the time off, but I do need a job.

So, the ‘how do you get experience if no one will give you a job’ paradox…  I’m not 22, I’m not suffering from it all that much.  But there are sizable demands for certain skill sets in my employment ecosystem, not enough candidates for those demands, and I’m otherwise attractive as an experienced pro with discernable aptitude…. But these hiring manager guys won’t give me a one of these jobs…. One of these coder jobs that is sort of harmonious with what I’ve been earning.

Just did a phone thing with some guys at EHG who wanted someone who has done heads down coding with this language thing for 2-3 years.  I said, “I don’t have that, but I am basically a creature of that world, would pick it up quick.”

Nope, no dice.  Wants some who codes ‘day 1’ on the job, wasn’t convinced I could.  Which is fine, but I think short shrifts the reality that no coding pro writes out code free hand…. They leverage existing written code from the library, you copy it and alter it to make it work…. And I can do that, now, probably.

Ya know, fine…. It’s curious that they gave me the interview though, because my res says what I just expressed.  It tells me, given the shortage / demand for people with these skill sets, they are digging deep for superficially experienced technicians, but then they jettison most of them because they don’t meet their high bar for the specific skill set.  It’s kooky.

Jots w/ Dots: Presidents Day 2017

Trump stock market rally: Vox says its real, but might not last.  http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/20/14655732/trump-rally-economy-stocks-record-highs-dow-markets  Kinda an obvio-piphany there.  Ya know, the Trump rally ostensibly goes on until it prices in whatever deregulation and tax reform that we might get.  After that, ya need growth, plain old growth… and maybe dereg and tax reform augments that over what it otherwise would have been.  But there’s always a limit to the upside at any moment…

Knowing inspector Amy is on the case wouldn’t exactly make me tremble   http://www.startribune.com/klobuchar-state-s-democrats-want-open-investigation-of-trump-russia-ties/414211633/

Eye on Sweden  http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/320341-trump-media-trying-to-justify-large-scale-immigration-in-sweden  Ya know, with the ‘Bowling Green’ and the ‘Sweden’, I think the worst you can say is Kellyann Conway and Trump are guilty of malaprop -ing in some way.  Liberals are taking too much enjoyment from this kind of mistake, and not doing much to damage the larger narrative.

Analysis: true http://theweek.com/articles/680571/americas-spies-are-playing-dangerous-game-against-president-trump  I think the deep state would be wiser to just sit back and allow Trump to fuck up somewhere and not be re-relected.

I’m actually going to miss the Sunday line at Casanova’s in Hudson.  https://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2017/02/its-not-just-sunday-liquor-sales-lawmakers-look-revamp-bevy-minnesotas-booze  Kind of a bummer for business like that, they’ll make less money, have a business that’s not worth as much….  But ya know, they’ll probably get by.

Flynn Flam: I really doubt it’s Trump’s Watergate

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/14/us/politics/russia-intelligence-communications-trump.html

I think for this to not be just the typical, dissonant noise that is going to be the ambiance of the Trump years, there needs to be a quid pro quo not just proven, but articulated… and I’m not seeing it.  Flynn’s conversations with the Russians about the sanctions could very well be just a bunch of shit talk by a guy (Flynn) who didn’t have authority to pro quo anything…

Flynn is pro quo-ing in December right, when he says the Wikileaks / FSB sanctions will go away…. Pro quo-ing for what?  It assumes that Trump asked the Russians for the whole DNC Wikileaks thing, and were thus obligated to make a payback.  I just don’t think that’s the explanation for DNC Wikileaks.  And… it actually doesn’t stand that Trump would pay the Russkies or anyone else back for anything it was implied he owed, if he didn’t want to pay them back…  That’s how he rolls, he feels entitled, he doesn’t pay people back, doesn’t reciprocate.  So the fallback for people who think Trump owes them, the collateral, its supposed to be blackmail right.  Ya know, KOMPROMAT…  The man can not be embarrassed, it doesn’t work.

It is a great curiosity to me that there’s all this wiretapping and cable intercepting going on at various points since the election.  Ya know, I know the government is way beyond having to actually have warrants, but usually a mitigating explanation is required.  In the absence of probable cause, the potential for terrorism.  That would all seem to be completely absent.

So, say there is a quid pro quo proven.  And I’m amenable to the notion, sure.  He’s not being impeached, alright.  You’re not getting the Republican congress to do that, deserve-d or not.

Updated to add:

OK, the assumption is, all correspondence between Americans and Russian diplomats is monitored to the extent it can be.  So, the CIA et al picked up the Flynn conversations and someone is leaking a rough outline of them to damage Flynn and Trump.

https://reason.com/blog/2017/02/14/pro-snooping-gop-rep-claims-shock-at-fed

Which is totally fine.  But the ambiguity is sending lefties to the conclusion of “it’s worse than Watergate!” when it may very well fall short of that.

I need a gig, 2017 edition, day 15: Funemplyoment

I didn’t have a job to go to yesterday, I’m on funemployment furlough.  If my recent personal history is to be a guide, I’ll get a job this week or next, at which point it will have been really cool to have been off for a week or two, just doing stuff that has languished.

We’re in good shape, I got another paycheck coming and I have my tax refund money coming.  Gig workers like me are eligible for unemployment, but it’s a max of $512 a week or something.  Not as if that isn’t a useful amount, but if you can only draw for a week, which I expect to be the case with me…. It just adds complexity to my tax return in ways that I’d rather not bother with.  So I haven’t looked at it and may not.

EHG continues to have open reqs on the vendor systems out there, and I am submitted, but have not been called.  I’m weak in a desirable skill set common to a lot of job reqs, and one EHG seeks in particular.  I have a lot of vendors trying to submit for the same jobs at EHG, it has some appearance of being the only game in town at the moment.

There is a “test score processor” in town that has contract needs.  I had a sit down with some people to discuss that.  Its fine, but they aren’t starting their project until end of March.  I expect to be able to take a gig by then.

One of my old vendors will straight up call me and give me a job at a “mining and manufacturing company” here in town if he gets a signature on a bid for work… which he seems likely to get.  It’s just a matter of timing.

Gig economy article, about the white collar sector in particular.  Reporter expresses this all as if it’s a new thing, which it isn’t.  https://www.minnpost.com/good-jobs/2017/02/minnesotas-gig-economy-not-just-artists-and-uber-drivers-anymore

 

FFS: Nordstrom’s and Ivanka

FFS = For Fxxxx Sake

Nordstrom’s is right to drop the Ivanka trade. Has nothing to do with them being a right or left company or who’s pressuring them. They are a store operation; they don’t need the distraction of politics.

This seems clear cut, Conway is across a line. http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/02/kellyanne-conway-says-to-go-buy-ivankas-stuff.html

Is anyone going to prosecute her? I doubt it.

As far as one might say “all administrations break the small laws and don’t get prosecuted”, I suggest this is kind of analogous: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jul/19/obama-wont-punish-castro-violating-hatch-act/

Merchandising, celebrity merchandising…. Jordan Kushner has like a $1m w2 job at the family REIT and gets a profit distribution from the family REIT, Ivanka, same from the Trump REIT. That’s how they live, that’s how their rich people household expenses are met. The merchandising money from Nordstrom’s, it may be in the low 6 figures a year say (and I think that’s a generous guess, probably too high), but its mad money nonetheless… it’s an afterthought, they could give it up and should.

Ya know, I like Gorsuch, I like the war on fake global warming, I think Devos is okay…. But I am properly embarrassed by the Trumps. They are very small people. Lucky for them I guess, quite a lot of people are not embarrassed.

Jots w/ dots 2/8/17

Cooper http://www.startribune.com/bill-cooper-builder-of-tcf-and-minnesota-s-republican-party-dies-at-73/413166943/ I learned about a week ago his boat on Minnetonka is named ‘Overdraft’. I thought that was pretty douche-y. He’s well regarded though.

This is the thing: not fascism, but a time killer http://theweek.com/articles/678650/president-trump-wasting-time

Trump may very well be right on this though http://www.startribune.com/trump-says-he-would-have-won-minnesota-with-1-more-visit/413077033/ Would have fit neatly and proximately among newly red IA, WI, and MI.

Because darn it, he’s good enough. http://www.businessinsider.com/media-pundits-think-al-franken-is-democrat-to-take-on-trump-2017-2 He strikes me as a credible candidate, a guy who’d have a shot at winning. Because of his celebrity and because he’s got enough gravitas generally. Not that I’d vote for him.

Bannon

The left thinks he’s Rasputin amirite. That’s the analog, Rasputin. Whatever he is, the right found identical Rasputins around Obama in 2009 (Valerie Jarrett, Van Jones). Same, identical phenomena. The party out of the WH sees Rasputins.

http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/2/8/14525228/president-bannon-steve

I discern:

Bannon is superficially qualified enough to be a “Presidential advisor”, has done enough things in life.

Bannon is superficially qualified to be on NSC, has done enough things in life.

Bannon is a bomb-thrower, not temperamentally qualified to be either.

Him and this cabal he comes from are not anti-Semites in the standard way people think of anti-Semites. They are mawkishly philo-Semitic actually, but have a bent about liberal Jews and Jews & liberalism. Which is a thing, its a spot on the creep/bigot conspiracy theory continuum no doubt.

You look at Bannon’s biography and it’s noted that formatively he was a Navy officer. These people, these guys, the military officers… there is an automatic high-regard in this country for their character, astuteness, and decisiveness….. ummm, that’s just never been a notion reinforced by the ones I’ve met. The ones I’ve met have been consistently jerky and prone to foibles we’ll say. They talk about Mattis as kind of a Samurai right… well maybe you do need people like that on the wall, as Nicholson said in “A Few Good Men”, but… these guys are often a bit kooky.

I need a gig, 2017 edition: Day 8

Last week in this space I mulled the curiosity of being a rare-ish middle aged white guy technical practitioner in the world of IT consulting, where the wages are not low to the point it’s a ‘job Americans won’t do’. Then days ago in this space I lamented that the rates on requisitions presented to me were kind of low. Well, there’s a macro intersection of these phenomena….

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-h-1b_us_5890d86ce4b0522c7d3d84af Pullquote: “Another dirty little secret in all this is that the H-1B program is an enabler of rampant age discrimination in the tech industry. Age is actually one of the core issues in H-1B. Mind you, we are talking about age 35 as being “old” here, not 55. Almost all the H-1Bs are young, and younger is cheaper. And young H-1Bs are even cheaper than young Americans.”

Now, I’m not bitter about the basic phenomena…. At all. I think it’s kind of always been thus, someone is always undermining someone else’s rate. One would best just keep getting more skilled to be in demand, etc. And I don’t contemplate the proposition of ‘fairness’ etc, I’m not owed anything. But there is this irritation I have in observing that companies will keep a requisition open for months at say $48/hr rather than fill it at $55/hr. And also an irritation at the absurdity of the skill sets they think they can procure at $48/hr, IE, programming engineers with a basket of niche, expert abilities. With both things, the companies are enabled by the wealth of well-educated technologists coming in from India on H1-B.

Is what it is though.