Stop Whining and WORK !!!
A few workers at about 100 Starbucks stores went "on strike" yesterday on Starbucks red cup day. (A busy day where Starbucks gives out free reusable cups to all that order a "Holiday Drink") .. The workers are seeking, "better pay, more consistent schedules, and higher staffing levels at busy stores" ...This after there has been a push by many union reps to "Get into" Starbucks store and force unionization votes. ....LOOK...
If you want a "more consistent schedule" get a 9 to 5 job !!! There are more JOB OPENINGS than unemployed people in the USA.. There are almost 2 jobs available for every person looking. .. Or..
Open your OWN coffee shop if you think you can do better. DO IT !! and actually, It's not that hard to get started and overhead isn't too high. Water, Coffee, a few machines, electricity and HARD WORK .. You think you work hard, now? HAHAHAHAH BULL!!!.. Wait til you OWN the business and put in 90-100 hours a week to Keep it afloat!! ..
You "strikers" are complete MORONS
You've read here before how Starbucks is one of the best places in the COUNTRY to work. You think a UNION is gonna get you a better deal? ..
Starbucks STARTS you WAY above minimum wage. They train you for FREE. You get a free drink every shift..Also, you can eat any food that isn't "perfect for display". They have Dental and Healthcare. You can study for a degree online at Arizona State University and they pay 100 PERCENT of the cost (part or full time employees).. Paid Parental leave .. 401k.. on and on..
If you HATE working for a company that treats its employees like THIS.. You don't hate having THIS job.. You hate having ANY JOB. Having to come to work and actually WORK is NOT "physically and mentally abusive" .. It's REALITY!!!
I should say, I don't own SBUX stock, I don't know Howard Schultz, I have NO affiliation with Starbucks and I rarely go there. It's just seeing people be THIS STUPID and "triggered" .... it P*SSES ME OFF..
ATTENTION 18-30 Year olds. You people are LOST .. The world is not "free food and free XBOX is mom's basement". Grow up and get a LIFE. Work, Earn a living, make your life better. or Maybe.. I need to put it in your language:
TBH, you're entitled and lazy AF, Bruh!!! .. Sorry not sorry.. You gotta stop being Salty and Basic.. "Work" ain't only for the Bougie.. The struggle AIN'T REAL.. IRL if you want to Netflix/Chill with your BAE, someone has to BUY the coach and TV and PAY for the NETFLIX subscription!! Your FOMO on what your BAE or Squad are doing is gonna RUIN YOUR LIFE. Better get out there and start Adultin or FOH!!!... BYE Felicia!!!!
Before you say, "OK BOOMER" and go to your SAFE SPACE, Raj was born after 1965 so he isn't a Boomer he's a Gen X.
Now, QUIT YOUR WHINING and make me a Venti triple shot, Double Caramel Macchiato with skim milk, light choc drizzle, Cinnamon Dolce with EXTRA whip.... AND SMILE WHEN YOU MAKE IT !!! (Yes, I copied that from an article. I Don't know what half of that order means)..
Ok.. where was I? .. Oh yeah.. The News...
China is #1 .. at HACKING the USA .. In a hearing about Chinese hacking/data collecting and TikTok, FBI Director Christopher Wray said:
"The greatest long-term threat to our nation's ideas, innovation and economic security, our national security, is from China"... "The Chinese government aspires to equal or surpass the U.S. as a global superpower and influence the world with a value system shaped by undemocratic, authoritarian ideals."
..AND..
"On the cyber front, China's vast hacking program is the world's largest by a mile, and they have stolen more of American's personal and business data than every other nation combined"
Well, THAT'S not good...and..
If you followed the whole "Theranos Fraud" case CEO Elizabeth Holmes is due to be sentenced today. The Prosecution is asking for 15 years in prison then 3 years of supervised release and $800 million in "restitution" .. She wants home confinement and community service. Guidelines allow for life in prison in a fraud this big.. and supposedly "independent" probation officer is calling for 9 years... WE WILL SEE ...
Former Twitter employees think that around HALF of the employees left will take the severance and leave rather than work for Elon... So.. I thought about it.. To keep Twitter running.. You need coders/programmers .. and Sales people to sell ads (commission based) .. Then a few legal people and some secretary/admin people. That's about it, right? Chopping out a few hundred wokesters that sat around and whined and censored stuff won't change the platform at all. Will it?
IN DA SWAMP:
PELOSI OUT .. well.. Not TOTALLY out.. Just out as Speaker.. She will NOT pursue a leadership roll in the next Congress. If you are a Pelosi hater and are doing your Happy Dance, BEWARE. Sometimes the Devil you know is better than the Devil you don't !! (and sometimes the Devil wears Prada... and Goes Down to Georgia, and sometime puts a "Blue Dress On" .. OK, Ill stop) ..
The NEW leadership could be Green New Deal meatheads... Which would be BAD for Democrats. Except in the woke states..
The incoming Republican Majority will immediately begin investigations into Hunter Biden. Rep James Comer of Kentucky wishes to correct my statement. He says, "I want to be clear. This is an investigation of JOE Biden."
Comer says: “We will evaluate the status of Joe Biden’s relationship with his family’s foreign partners and whether he is a president who is compromised or swayed by foreign dollars and influence" ..and..
UH OH Buffalo!!! .. Buffalo NY was hit with bands of snow.. and.. it's not looking like its over.. They are forecast to get another 4-6 FEET of snow by Saturday. Forecasters say some roads will be near impossible to travel as snow will fall 2-4 inches an hour... The Bills/Browns game has been moved to Detroit !!
SPORTS:
GOLF: PGA: The RSM Classic from Sea Island, GA. Cole Hammer shoots 64 and leads after round one..
DP World Tour Championship: Tyrell Hatton and Matt Fitzpatrick share the lead at -11 mid-round 2 and are 3 clear of third place..
NFL: Thursday Night Football: Tennessee Titans 27 - Green Bay Packers 17. Ryan Tannehill had a night. 22 of 27 for 333 yards and 2 TD's in the cold and snow.
CELEBRIDIOTS:
"Strumming my pain with his fingers; Singing my life with his words; Killing me softly with his song ....." Ahhh. The great Roberta Flack.. Sadly, she has announced she has ALS and can no longer sing.. HANG IN THERE ROBERTA!!! .. I hope you are comfortable and with your family.. "The first time...ever I saw your face.... " .. and..
Side note: To all of you are into music and songwriting.. "Killing me softly (With his song)" was actually written by a songwriter named Lori Lieberman. It was a sorta fan girl piece she wrote after going to a Don McLean concert. She recorded it but it didn't chart. Her lover/manager screwed her and Lieberman has none of the rights to the song. Typical of the times......
Singer Harry Styles was hit in the face near the end of his concert in LA. GEEZ peope. WTF?? I am no Harry Styles fan. Don't like that genre of music.. But, if you are at his show, you probably are a fan. Why the h*ll would you clock him in the head? Fcking ridiculous, people.
Cindy Mello -- Would you buy a bikini just because SHE has one? ..HERE.. "Mello the Label" is her line.. HERE.. .. The people at MAXIM think she is good enough to put in their magazine .. HERE..
I keep telling her, "Look, Babe. It's pretty good.. but.. You gotta tweeze those Eyebrows a little. Ya look like Salma Hayek in Frida.. HERE.. "See what I mean, hun??" .. HERE .. Then she yells at me in Portuguese.. which I don't understand.. But, I LOVE !!!
From SeekingAlpha.com
The problems of a post-Elon Musk Twitter (TWTR) could be reaching an existential level as speculation that the company will not continue in its current form grew Friday following another employee exodus.
Hundreds of workers, including many key software developers and engineers, decided to quit on Thursday rather than sign up for Musk's "extremely hardcore" culture at the company, according to published reports citing sources and employee Slack messages.
The new Twitter chief set a 5 p.m. ET deadline Thursday for employees to click a link and commit to Twitter 2.0 and "working long hours at high intensity." Instead, many employees decided to take the three months' severance alternative.
In response to the exodus, Twitter is closing offices, as it did after the initial big wave of layoffs, as it determines who is still with the company.
"Effective immediately, we are temporarily closing our office buildings and all badge access will be suspended. Offices will reopen on Monday, November 21st," the company said in a memo obtained by Bloomberg. "Thank you for your flexibility. Please continue to comply with company policy by refraining from discussing confidential company information on social media, with the press or elsewhere."
Tweeting goodbyes: On Twitter Friday morning, the hashtags #RIPTwitter, #ApparentlyTwitter and #TwitterMigration were trending.
Accounts posted information on what other social media networks they could be found on, such as Mastodon, asked whether work accounts on Meta's (META) Instagram should be created, and tweeted gallows humor farewells such as the "It has been a privilege" meme of the band playing in the movie Titanic.
Twitter employees also said their goodbyes and sent messages of support on the platform. Still, there is little sign of a meaningful decline in Twitter posts.
The inflection point?: The latest exodus comes after Musk initially fired half of the Twitter staff as he looked to make the company leaner and slash costs. A departure of top executives followed, then Musk reportedly fired a number of employees who had been critical of him in the company Slack. Yesterday's decisions were enough for Musk to make moves to retain some staff.
As the "hardcore" deadline approached, Musk's team held an in-person and videoconference meeting with key undecided employees, but as the deadline passed some began hanging up while the Tesla (TSLA) founder was still speaking, The New York Times reported.
He also appeared to soften his stance on remote work, saying in an e-mail he would no longer make the final decision personally on who could work remotely. But that may have backfired as he put manager jobs on the line for an employee's remote performance, adding another level of job insecurity.
"Any manager who falsely claims that someone reporting to them is doing excellent work or that a given role is essential, whether remote or not, will be exited from the company," he said. (8 comments)
Worse than Enron
John J. Ray III, the new boss of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, criticized the "unprecedented" management of ex-CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried that ultimately led to the once-mighty firm's demise, according to a court filing.
“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here,” said Ray, who has more than 40 years of legal and restructuring experience, including overseeing Enron's high-profile bankruptcy in 2001.
“From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented,” he added.
Ray mapped out a number of poor management practices that took place within Bankman-Fried's crypto empire, including FTX's failure to "keep appropriate books and records, or security controls, with respect to its digital assets." It also used unsecured group email accounts to access private keys, Ray noted, and used software to hide the misuse of customer funds.
U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) have demanded the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX provide information to shed light on its practices and finances from 2019 to present.
"New revelations continue to shed light on what now appears to be an appalling case of greed and deception," the lawmakers wrote in a letter. “The public is owed a complete and transparent accounting of the business practices and financial activities leading up to and following FTX’s collapse and the loss of billions of dollars of customer funds.” (4 comments)
OPEC on top
OPEC is "back in the driver's seat" as the world's top swing oil producer while U.S. shale growth has slowed, Hess (HES) CEO John Hess said. Hess told an investor conference in Miami that he sees U.S. oil production reaching ~13M bbl/day in the next few years before leveling off, as shale output is ticking lower due to inventory depletion, inflation and investor pressure to focus on returns over growth.
"Shale was thought of as a swing producer … the Saudis and the OPEC have waited this out. Now, really OPEC is back in the driver's seat where they are the swing producer," Hess said, even as OPEC lacks spare capacity to easily increase its production. The CEO expects U.S. oil output will rise by ~500K bbl/day this year and next, but many companies "have already hit the wall" with only about a decade of life remaining. (12 comments)
Hawks hit back
James Bullard, president of the St. Louis Fed, said that even with his "generous" assumptions that tend to favor a more dovish policy, "the policy rate is not yet in a zone that may be considered sufficiently restrictive."
"To attain a sufficiently restrictive level, the policy rate will need to be increased further," he said at an event hosted by Greater Louisville Inc. The central bank has increased its key interest rate by 375 basis points this year and has been shrinking its balance sheet in its fight to lower inflation. He said in remarks after the speech that he sees 5%-5.25% as a minimum level for rates.
Meanwhile, the yield curve inversion between the 2-year (US2Y) and 10-year (US10Y) Treasury notes deepened to its widest level in four decades. The spread between the 2-year and 10-year extended to a mark of -66 basis points, marking the deepest inversion since 1982. An inverted yield curve is usually a sign of recession. (3 comments)
Today's Markets
In Asia, Japan -0.11%. Hong Kong -0.29%. China -0.37%. India -0.12%.
In Europe, at midday, London +0.64%. Paris +0.79%. Frankfurt +0.75%.
Futures at 6:30, Dow +0.18%. S&P +0.31%. Nasdaq +0.39%. Crude +0.13% to $81.75. Gold +0.23% to $1766.95. Bitcoin +1.58% to $16,780.3.
Ten-year Treasury Yield +3 bps to 3.80%
Today's Economic Calendar
10:00 Existing Home Sales
10:00 E-Commerce Retail Sales
10:00 Leading Indicators
10:00 Quarterly Services Report
1:00 PM Baker-Hughes Rig Count
Companies reporting earnings today »
What else is happening...
Mortgage rates tumble to 6.61%, biggest drop since 1981.
Meta Platforms (META) has fired dozens for hijacking user accounts.
Amazon (AMZN) CEO says role eliminations will extend into 2023.
Binance CEO says he 'may have been the last thing that poked' FTX (FTT-USD) into collapse.
Goldman Sachs boosts terminal Fed rate forecast, still sees no recession.
Alibaba (BABA) jumps despite Q3 sales miss.
Ross Stores (ROST) stock rips higher on big earnings beat, bullish guide.
Regards,
Roger “Raj” Searing
rajsearing@gmail.com
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