MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ‐ The bus carrying dozens of Central Americans from the Texas border arrived in this northern Mexican city late at night and pulled up next to the station. Men and women disembarked with children in their arms or staggering sleepily by their sides, looked around fearfully and wondered what to do.
They had thought they were being taken to a shelter where they could live, look for work and go to school. Instead they found themselves in a bustling metropolis of over 4 million, dropped off on a street across from sleazy nightclubs and cabarets with signs advertising for "dancers."
The Associated Press witnessed multiple such busloads in recent days carrying at least 450 Hondurans, Guatemalans and Salvadorans from Nuevo Laredo, across from Laredo, Texas, to Monterrey, where they are left to fend for themselves with no support on housing, work or schooling for children, who appear to make up about half the group.
Mexico has received some 20,000 asylum seekers returned to await U.S. immigration court dates under the program colloquially known as "remain in Mexico." But there had been no sign of such large-scale moving of people away from the border before now, after the program expanded to Nuevo Laredo in violence- and cartel-plagued Tamaulipas, a state where the U.S. State Department warns against all travel due to kidnappings and other crime.
#1
They had thought they were being taken to a shelter where they could live, look for work and go to school.
Downgrade from ambitions of gilded gang limos and congressional seats. Yeah, they can live and eat and sleep in Mexico. Which is yet more than they ran away from.
#4
Maybe if knowledge of this gets back to the home country, people will be disinclined to come here. I've thought for a long time that enforcement would have an effect.
[MattStoller] For the bulk of the 20th century, Boeing made miracles. Its engineers designed the B-52 in a weekend, bet the company on the 707, and built the 747 despite deep observer skepticism. The 737 started coming off the assembly line in 1967, and it was such a good design it was still the company's top moneymaker thirty years later.
How did Boeing make miracles in civilian aircraft? In short, the the civilian engineers were in charge. And it fell apart because the company, due to a merger, killed its engineering-first culture.
WHAT HAPPENED?
In 1993, Clinton's Deputy Secretary of Defense, Bill Perry, called defense contractor CEOs to a dinner, nicknamed "the last supper." He told them to merge with each other so as, in the classic excuse used by monopolists, to find efficiencies in their businesses. The rationale was that post-Cold War era military spending reductions demanded a leaner defense base. In reality, Perry had been a long-time mergers and acquisitions investment banker working with industry ally Norm Augustine, the eventual CEO of Lockheed Martin. Clinton saving military dollars. Who would have suspected?
Perry was so aggressive about encouraging mergers that he put together an accounting scheme to have the Pentagon itself pay merger costs, which resulted in a bevy of consolidation among contractors and subcontractors. In 1997, Boeing, with both a commercial and military division, ended up buying McDonnell Douglas, a major aerospace company and competitor. With this purchase, the airline market radically consolidated.
Unlike Boeing, McDonnell Douglas was run by financiers rather than engineers. And though Boeing was the buyer, McDonnell Douglas executives somehow took power in what analysts started calling a "reverse takeover." The joke in Seattle was, "McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeing's money."
The merger sparked a war between the engineers and the bean-counters; as one analyst put it, "Some of the board of directors would rather have spent money on a walk-in humidor for shareholders than on a new plane."
Bad procurement is one reason (aside from more and more high-ranking military officials going into defense contracting work) why military products are often poor quality or deficient. For instance, the incredibly expensive joint strike fighter F-35 is a mess, and the Navy's most expensive aircraft carrier, costing $13 billion, was recently delivered without critical elevators to lift bombs into fighter jets. Much of this dynamic exists because of a lack of competition in contracting for major systems, a practice enhanced by the consolidation Perry pushed in the early 1990s. Monopolies don't have to produce good quality products, and often don't. See also - Facebook, Google, and Twitter.
In defense production, subcontractors were chosen to influence specific Senators and Congressmen; in civilian production, Boeing started moving production to different countries in return for airline purchases from the national airlines.
Engineers immediately recognized this offshoring as a disaster in the making. In 2001, a senior Boeing engineer named L. Hart Smith published a paper criticizing the business strategy behind offshoring production, noting that vital engineering tasks were being done in ways that seemed less costly but would end up destroying the company. He was quickly proved right. 737Max root cause explained at the link.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/25/2019 00:00 ||
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#2
A proof that the bean counters took over Boeing is in the fact that Boeing headquarter moved to Chicago but left the engineering in western Washington.
I knew that something like this would happen once I heard that management moved to Chicago.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/25/2019 8:31 Comments ||
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#4
Boeing had a clear miss on the 737, agreed. But to hack like this on the company is just bull. Politics driving defense companies to team is a disaster, and a horrible call by out defense department. Boeing is still very mush an engineering company, They produce the finest and safest aircraft in the world, always have. And for the bean counters, 30 months ago Boeing stock was at $130.00 and now its at $350., even with the entire fleet of 737s on the ground. I challenge anyone to name a company that would not be going under with such an event in their face. As for the offshore argument, he blends commercial with defense, and double speaks. The reason he claims they team is to influence congressmen as work will hit their district. So how does that work in defense if they are outsourcing out of the US, it don't. Its the commercial that does, and for a number of reasons. The first being offset requirements, an complicated and pain in the ass issue of forced investing in the nation that spends the billions on aircraft. Boeing has a lot of faults, if the author wants to point them out, get it right, otherwise its just crap.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/25/2019 12:04 Comments ||
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#5
49 Pan, you'll have to admit that Boeing screwed up big time with the 737 Max program.
#6
Prediction: when all is said and done, the dust fully settled, some poor schmuck of a junior engineer or a near-retirement production management type will take the fall for this debacle and the top level guys will quietly scurry off to some deep hidey-hole. There have already been a couple of 'reassignments.'
COupled with the 767 FOD desiater, and cutting qa types, the Whole Damn Red Barn Bill built is falling down
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐Robert Mueller was being criticized for seemingly answering questions slowly, not recalling key details of his investigation, and appearing to be confused throughout his testimony Wednesday.
After a brief recess, Mueller insisted he was entirely lucid.
"I hear a few murmurs out there that I've lost it," he said. "Well, I haven't lost it. I've still got it. In fact, I'm still sharp as a tack."
Before testimony could resume, however, Mueller interrupted the proceedings, appearing to reach for his cell phone. "I really have to take this," he said apologetically as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a banana. "Yeah, go for Bob."
Mueller proceeded to have what appeared to be a five-minute conversation on the fruit as bewildered congresspeople looked on. "Well, tell them I don't want to be there this Friday. Matlock's on, you know that. You know I don't go out when Matlock is on." He shrugged apologetically at those in the room, mouthing "sorry."
"Look, if the consulate has a problem with that, tell them they can call me themselves," he concluded, slamming the banana back down on the table.
watch the shoveling behind the shit-show parade hearings today. "How dare you pick on this impaired man?
[NY Times] WASHINGTON — Soon after the special counsel’s office opened in 2017, some aides noticed that Robert S. Mueller III kept noticeably shorter hours than he had as F.B.I. director, when he showed up at the bureau daily at 6 a.m. and often worked nights.
He seemed to cede substantial responsibility to his top deputies, including Aaron Zebley, who managed day-to-day operations and often reported on the investigation’s progress up the chain in the Justice Department. As negotiations with President Trump’s lawyers about interviewing him dragged on, for example, Mr. Mueller took part less and less, according to people familiar with how the office worked.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/25/2019 00:00 ||
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#1
Maybe The Slimes is working up to a theory his advancing dementia clouded the investigation. So it needs to be redone, obviously!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/25/2019 10:31 Comments ||
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#2
No, they're anticipating and trying to counter the obvious truth, which is that Hillary's people led by Andrew Weissman drove the clown car.
"Aaron Zebley" is a nobody. Weissman is a major swamp creature. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, etc.
#3
He delivered the best long stall in modern political history over a weak cover story for massive malfeasance and sedition by the deep state and Brennan. Once Barr showed up, the scam was played out and exit stage right. If you didn’t want to ever,ever be asked to testify again in the eternal dog and pony show that is the Pelosi House, what would you do differently than this splendid display of thespian genius?
#1
No shit. Every country's majority will say the same thing.
It's true not just for the Israeli security establishment but every home/domestic/law department everywhere. Except maybe States that don't subscribe wisely so to the great modernist "ethic of arbitrary humanism."
It's why I say democracy is a con. You can't claim to be democracies without carrying out the will of the majority. Blood ! I voted for blood ! Governments the world over are too politically correct and deliberative, they give too much weight to considerations of 'humanism' and 'sanctity of life' and 'rights'.
Law enforcement (higher) bureaucracies have no clear standards, just a bunch of hypocritical, ambivalent and amorphous guidelines for preserving the enemy's right to co-exist and leaving conditions more or less as they are. There is an unstated shying away from aggressiveness and the stress is on devising strategies to rather alter oneself. Security agencies and military is used in order to make the enemy 'realize the wrongness of their actions' or the futility of continuing the fight. This is not called fighting for what's rightfully yours. It's like even you aren't convinced yet.
The enemies of society on the other hand, are unbound by these timid conventions. Their gloves are always off.
Terms like 'combat this menace', 'dealing with', 'strict action', etc need to be replaced with 'neutralize', 'liquidate' and 'terminated'. What the world needs is more kill orders and renditions, mysterious suicides and state sponsored drive-bys.
'Everything is right until it's wrong. You'll know when it's wrong.' - Hemingway, I think.
Why can't the duvdevan be diversified into hit-squads that strike tagged targets within the Paleo quarters and scatter ? Or outside talent, proxies of Arab and mixed decent be used to eliminate larger numbers ? IEDs be used to make their UN donated civilian infrastructure harmful to Paleo lives ? Of course the military can do it, maybe even itching to, but will the legislatures let them ?
The same goes for India, Myanmar, China, the Philippines, even the US and all EU countries who have realized who their enemies are but find themselves at a loss for measures against their rising tide and ferocity. All democracies, all helpless because of self-neutered policies of reformist law enforcement and faux-humanist conventions of accommodation and appeasement.
'You can tame the four-footed beast by making it respect you. For the beast who walks upright, you must become what he fears.' - Some ancient wise guy.
Dron64066, the Israelis have been out almost every night arresting Palestinians and Arab Israelis either for plotting attacks or for having attacked, which is why the number of knife and car attacks, bombings, and shootings have dropped so significantly since the start of the current effort. Yes, some of them do it for street cred or to get the PA to pay money to their families — or are attempting suicide by IDF — but even so, it is certainly a step in the right direction. And, after having spent their hothead years locked up, many have become ready to settle down with a wife and a job, not continue causing trouble.
As for the rest of your rant, it seems to me that the current trend of electing more conservative governments shows that the common folk of much of the world are heading in your direction.
[Guardian] Residents in the town of Reserve, Louisiana have been diagnosed with cancer at "highly unusual" rates, according to a new academic study, which is set to further embolden local residents in their fight against toxic emissions from a nearby chemical factory.
The report, released Wednesday by the University Network for Human Rights (UNHR), provides residents with the most detailed and comprehensive evidence to date that they are at an especially pronounced risk of cancer and other negative health effects due to toxic chemicals in the air.
Reserve is the focus of a year-long Guardian series, Cancer Town, chronicling the fight for clean air in the predominantly black town, as well as other communities in the area between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, often referred to as Cancer Alley due to a concentration of toxic pollution from petrochemical factories.
The toxic emissions in Reserve, a town in St John the Baptist parish, primarily come from the Pontchartrain Works facility, the only place in America to manufacture the synthetic rubber neoprene. The US government considers chloroprene, the primary constituent of neoprene, as likely to be carcinogenic to humans.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Medicare could save $1.57 for every dollar spent delivering free healthy meals to frail seniors after a hospitalization, according to a new study that comes as lawmakers look to restrain costs by promoting patients’ well-being.
The report Thursday from the Bipartisan Policy Center addresses ways that Medicare can do a better job coordinating care for chronically ill patients, who account for most of the program’s $650 billion annual cost. There’s a growing recognition that practical services like meal delivery can make a difference helping older people avoid health flare-ups that can send them to the hospital .
"If you were going to offer meals to every Medicare beneficiary, it would be cost-prohibitive," said Katherine Hayes, health policy director for the center. "By targeting it to a very, very sick group of people is how we were able to show there could be savings."
Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the committee that oversees Medicare, said lawmakers recognize the value of providing additional support services for patients and he’d be interested in expanding such benefits for seniors in traditional Medicare.
The Bipartisan Policy Center asked health policy consultant Ananya Health Innovations to analyze the potential impact of a narrowly tailored meal benefit for Medicare.
Using 2016 billing data that reflected actual cases, the consultant focused on patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart failure, Alzheimer’s and osteoporosis. Patients had to have two or more such conditions, along with limitations doing daily tasks such as bathing, cooking or getting dressed. Most were 75 or older. Some were living alone.
The study found more than 575,000 patients with about 1 million hospital stays. Using other established research as a guide, the consultant estimated that providing seven days of healthy meals could avoid nearly 10,000 return trips to the hospital resulting in admission.
Medicare would have had to spend about $101 million a year to provide meals, but it would have avoided more than $158 million in bills from return trips to the hospital. The net savings would be about $57 million.
#2
Replace foodstamps with this. Deliver them pre-made Government Approved™ prepared meals that are frozen and can be reheated in a microwave. If its good enough for Medicare and the frail or sick, its good enough for the Foodstamps people.
Just contract it out to local airline kitchens, or companies like SODEXCO, or local/regional companies that provide food services to nursing homes and hospitals.
Conservatives will like the savings and making sure the food stamps arent trade or diverted to improper use, progressives will love enforcing their nutritional standards on the poor for their own good.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) ‐ The bus carrying dozens of Central Americans from the Texas border arrived in this northern Mexican city late at night and pulled up next to the station. Men and women disembarked with children in their arms or staggering sleepily by their sides, looked around fearfully and wondered what to do.
How did Boeing make miracles in civilian aircraft? In short, the the civilian engineers were in charge. And it fell apart because the company, due to a merger, killed its engineering-first culture.
Bad procurement is one reason (aside from more and more high-ranking military officials going into defense contracting work) why military products are often poor quality or deficient. For instance, the incredibly expensive joint strike fighter F-35 is a mess, and the Navy's most expensive aircraft carrier, costing $13 billion, was recently delivered without critical elevators to lift bombs into fighter jets. Much of this dynamic exists because of a lack of competition in contracting for major systems, a practice enhanced by the consolidation Perry pushed in the early 1990s. Monopolies don't have to produce good quality products, and often don't.
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.‐Robert Mueller was being criticized for seemingly answering questions slowly, not recalling key details of his investigation, and appearing to be confused throughout his testimony Wednesday.
[Guardian] Residents in the town of Reserve, Louisiana have been diagnosed with cancer at "highly unusual" rates, according to a new academic study, which is set to further embolden local residents in their fight against toxic emissions from a nearby chemical factory.
WASHINGTON (AP) ‐ Medicare could save $1.57 for every dollar spent delivering free healthy meals to frail seniors after a hospitalization, according to a new study that comes as lawmakers look to restrain costs by promoting patients’ well-being.
