This is fine, everything's fine

Things aren't that bad if people aren't revolting. I hear this said by a lot of people and frankly they're wrong. They spin this notion that everything is fine and we should just wait it out. That's fine with them as they're comfortable living the American dream. Things aren't so bad or else the people would revolt, and so long as that doesn't happen things are tolerable. They acknowledge there is still suffering in the world but there is nothing they can do about it and the peasants aren't revolting so whatever. They acknowledge the problem and employ milquetoast tactics to solve the problem.

Except that ignores several major logical loopholes. Namely the government has a huge force monopoly. Greater now than ever. To challenge them is to court death. Even in great numbers. So revolt? No one's going to revolt unless they know they themselves are going to die. Oh AND they're already here. See capitalism kills millions globally, corruption even more.

It'd be mighty hard to keep to the assertion that it's "not that bad" when it's your kid dying because some CEO took the minimum safety standards to up profits. Take Tylenol. The recommended dosage is not that far from what doctors say is a dangerous dosage. Roughly 150 people a year die from this. It's been said if the drug was discovered today it would never be available OTC. But capitalists have to make a profit and who cares about 150 people? That's an acceptable sacrifice right? So long as me and mine are comfy in our suburban homes? That's what every American is basically saying. Again they'll make milquetoast attempts at reform and shrug off defeat so long as they are unaffected.


That's the same mentality as fortune 500 CEOs. And you know what? That's okay. Yes you are greedy and want the best for your family first before we think about the lives of others. Sounds horrible but that's human nature. It is precisely why we need socialism. Socialism installs an economic safety check against greed. And greed not altruism is the primary human quality. Altruism for your genes can override greed, that's why humans are capable of it in the first place evolutionarily speaking. But we can stop saying things aren't that bad so long as people aren't revolting. They're bad real bad. But it's understandable that you don't want to disturb your comfy life in the suburb, just from time to time tink of the little guy, maybe donate your time or money to helping solve the problem, or dont if you really don't care about the suffering of humanity. But be honest with yourself and society, and we'll all be better for it. Because revolt is useless against the might of the government, and while milquetoast reform might be letting people die out of comfort, it can eventually maybe work. Things aren't okay, but that doesn't mean people are or should revolt. But it does mean we need to act if we actually care.

Nothing is true, and everything is permitted.

Nothing is true and everything is permitted. A meaningless video game quote right? Well actually it’s attributed to a 12^th century muslim missionary. But beyond  that  it’s been used in many places. But lets look at the statement itself. Seven short words, and yet through the magic of linguistics, they convey so much wisdom. To explore, we’re going to have to break this down a little bit.

               First we’ll start with the first part, nothing true. Well this can’t possibly be true can it? I mean Hitler was evil, It’s 4:42PM EST here in ohio, and this chair is blue. I know these things to be true, and likely you know a similar set of things, though the details may vary.  But lets look at them individually. Was Hitler evil? I think pretty much everyone reading this save for the random neo nazi (hi bob), can agree with that. Well, what is evil? Something that is immoral…. What’s that mean? Well Miriam webster defines it as:

“Violating Moral Principles; Not conforming to the patterns of conduct usually accepted or established as consistent with principles of personal and social ethics”

               Hmm… That’s a lot of vauge conditionals. Personal ethics? Those are different for each person, and not everyone has every situation clearly and neatly defined ethics. What does it even mean to conform? To do what everyone or the majority is doing? Well no two other people are ever doing EXACTLY the same thing. In hitlers case he lived in a society that elected him…. Not by a majority of the people, but a plurality. So he was conforming to the largest group…. How is he then evil? Are we holding him to western American standards? Modern standards? The answer is we’re holding him to OUR standards. Well that hardly seems rational when he was a world away. What even gives us any authority to do that? Force? That just means we can kick more ass. No we decided to judge him based on our own standards of our own volition and decided what was right. Nothing ever actually made it so. There exists no mechanism by which nature determines who is right in an ideological debate.

               Still the vagueness of what is evil and not is just one example. Surely It’s still 4:42. NOPE, as of the time I’m writing this it’s 5:09… but it was 4:42 when I was writing it above right? Well more like 4:42 and some number of seconds. But we could measure that right? Well the smaller and smaller time frames you get you start needing more advanced clocks… to a point that you can’t be exactly sure. But it was still between 4:42 and 4:43 right? According to my clock yes. Is my clock accurate? Maybe. And that’s if I remember correctly, if it didn’t change between the time I looked at the writing and the clock. But assuming we had an ultra advanced perfect clock, instantaneous ability to measure we could be right about the time right? If time doesn’t follow the laws of quantum mechanics, maybe.

               Okay the chair has to be blue, you know what color you’re looking at right? What is color, is the chair really there?  Color is a construct interpreted by your brain. Are you sure the blue you see is the same blue everyone else sees? Are you sure the chair is there? Well no no it isn’t.  at least not exactly where you perceive it to be. According to the quantum nature of matter, actually pinning down where something is, isn’t as dry cut as you might believe. Things don’t really …. Exist in any one place, they can be measured to be in a place but they’re more waves than things. You don’t measure a wave as being the crest do you? No it has a size as immeasurable as that might be but it’s bigger than just the tip. Matters the same way, where you perceive something to be is likely the crest. The statistical average of where that something is located.

               Nothing is true is true though making nothing is true false right? (kudos if you followed that sentence). Correct. 1+1=2 ….kind of. See even a concept as simple as the number 1 has an elaborate logical underpinning. 1+1=2 is true because we DEFINE it to be true.

               Still, I think hitler was evil, because I believe it to be so. 4:42 was a good enough estimate when I wrote it (now 5:22), and there was never any chair. The chair was a thought experiment. Approximations, guesstimates, that’s all we have to work with, and sometimes they help. But nothing is EVER completely 100% undeniably true. The universe simply does NOT work on such a pedantic binary system. Perceptions, self definitions, these things matter. The great wisdom of the phrase tells us to not accept things at face value, to look deeper and in the end, determine what is true for ourselves. But only after internal reflection upon listening to the evidence. Sure Hitler was an evil guy, I believe this, because he was not working for the greater good of all.  That is my own definition of what is right and wrong. Yours can be different, hell MINE is vague and open to interpretation from day to day about what constitutes greater good. Hell the definition itself is self referencing.

               So what about the other half, everything is permitted. I can’t go and rob a convenience store can i? that’s not permitted? Have you tried? I guarantee you if you tried you could have some chance of actually doing it. Nothing is true, remember. That applies to the almighty power of laws. They are simply words on paper. They mean nothing unless we make them mean something.

               Say there’s a law: you can’t sell ice cream on Saturday. Absurd but no cop is going to enforce it. Is it illegal to do so? The law says it is but people keep doing it. Well the law has no power, does that make it cease to exist? It’s still on the books. What if I shoplift some small bauble from a store? And no one finds out? It’s certainly normally enforced, but I get  away with it. Is it illegal then? If so why am I getting away? Even if I don’t the act still happened.

               Sad fact is that laws have no power. The laws of the universe, may be unbreakable but the laws of man are transmutable, fleeting, changing and weak. They exist no where but in our minds, and to each of us they have a different interpretation.

               So in conclusion, what the phrase simply teaches us, is to open our minds, and be not bound to anything. We are free, but that freedom comes at the cost of responsibility and consequences. So go live your life, live free but understand that you simultaneously know nothing and everything. That you have to make decisions based on incomplete information, and that’s okay because you will never have all the answers, and because of that, you should listen even to your worst enemy, because everyone else may have some knowledge you do not, as no one is omniscient , but you can decide only for yourself.

The Keymaster Build

The Keymaster

Keymaster Sheet:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3oQlB72acoIcjFjejFXbm5STzQ/view?usp=sharing

The Keymaster build

Here’s a super special build, and to be honest I’m not entirely sure Hero Lab has calculated everything quite right because the stats are insane and could probably be made better with more min maxing. 35 ac total of 131 HP. It’s nice but if you go down, you’re going to die, do not pass go, no stabilize check, you’re dead. So lets get started ZUUL MOTHERF*****

Class

Synthesis Summoner: Theres something special about being able to call forth the heavenly hosts and wear an outsider like so much of a suit of armor. Long story short here is that you get to fuse with your eidolon and pretty much, for the most part, stay that way. Substituting your phys attributes with theirs and your mental attributes onto theirs. So essentially this makes Str, Con, and Dex your dump stats. Note that this is only going to be the case 99% of the time. There are situations where you lose your eidolon and have to deal with being str con and dex 5 so keep that in the back of your mind.

Race

Half Elf: Pretty simple here, summoners are charisma based, you get extra evolution from half elves. Asimars make a good choice too with char and wis bonuses and DR for your eidolon.

Abilities

STR:-- Dump stat

DEX:-- Dump Stat

CON:--  Dump stat

INT: 14 More skills is not a bad thing

WIS: 16 For the will save bonus, also you could take a level of monk to boost ac/touch

CHA: 22 Main stat for summoners

Now depending on what you chose for your eidolon your str dex and con might differ but mine have come out to 26 STR, 19 DEX and 17 CON. So that Str26, DEX 19, CON 17, INT 14, WIS 16 and CHA 22. That’s a 79 point buy with str and dex at only 18 (max cap). I told you those stats were insane.

Overall it’s not entirely broken, and still has it’s weakpoints. But everything does in the game. That totally badass dragon? Meet Pistolero or Zen archer monk with energy bow. Oh that mind control socereror looks cool, too bad you just ran up on a monk. Basically there’s a lot of rock paper scissors and this one has two big gaping holes. The first it’s high armor, mostly natural. Very low touch AC, so spell casters will be slinging rays at you and you’ll need to watch out for gunslingers. Second big gaping hole is night. If I recall correctly you do have to unfuse to sleep so you are vulnerable in camp. This is why you take invisibility.

Skills

Perception: Perfect with your wis  bonus

Stealth: helps overcome disadvantages when you don’t have your eidolon

Diplomacy: Always good to have when you have 22 CHA

Fly:  You’ll want your eidolon to fly and this will help

Equipment

Standard Boiler plat equipment, ring of prot, amulet of nat, cloak of resistance…. No armor, and a super buffed greataxe, because you have 26 str and two handed weapons deal 1 ½ times str damage

Feats/Evolutions

Martial Weapon Proficiency: for the greataxe

Extra Evolution: For more evolution. Never a bad thing

Share healing: Eidolon only has so many hit points and you don’t want rely on your HP siphoning too much

Abilitiy increases: Con Str and dex all are good

Flight: never a bad decision, will get you out of pickles

Improved nat armor: 1 Evolution point +2 nat, good economy

Energy Immunity: yes that’s immunity not resistance

Strategy

Enter battle with caution. You’re eidolon can be dismissed, so be careful around spell casters. Other than that get in there and bash away when fused. If you lose your eidolon, greater invisibility and your summons will pick up the slack. Also remember to keep mage armor up, gives a nice boost to AC. 

P.S. if you got the reference to the name, you're awesome. Don't ever change.

character sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3oQlB72acoIeTFHbUM0TnNicnM/view?usp=sharing

My name is inego Montoya, you kill my father, prepare to die. … yes the next build in this series is here, the crit commander

Class

Swashbuckler: The swashbuckler has a few good class features and a Panache pool….It’s a small pool but it refills on a critical hit (and dropping opponents to 0), which is what makes the swashbuckler the perfect candidate for the crit commander build. In addition you get to spend that panache point pool on deeds. Lets take a look at some of the important deeds.

Dodging Panache: lets you as an immediate action, before the results are reveal, attempt to doge an attack by moving 5 feet. This gives you a bonus to ac equal to your charisma modifier. If it misses, you avoid further attacks assuming you have moved out of range.

Menacing Panache: attempt a demoralize check on a successful melee attack? Yes please.

Seems like I’m forgetting something…… oh right!

Precise strike: add your level to damage rolls….. yes you heard that right. Oh and you can double it by spending a panache point. Also you get the base damage bonus without spending panache

In addition there’s a few other bonuses you get while you have at least 1 point of panache, like weapon finess with your swashbuckler weapons and improved critical.

Race

Elf: What elf? Yes. In addition to being one of the core classes, meaning even PFS society chracters can run this build, the favored class bonus is nice, ¼ panache, and when you start out with a base of 3, an extra 2 panache is helpful. The dexterity bonus is nice too.

Abilities: 10 you won’t need it but you don’t want to be reduced to a cripple lying on the floor by a single str drain.

Dexterity: 20 you’ll be adding your bonus to damage hitting with it, just max it out.

Con: 11 Never a dump stat, but not a core of the build.

Int: 10 also not a dump stat

Wis: 10 Never a dump stat

Cha: 16 used for panache, attack, defense, this is your secondary stat.

Skills

Intimidate: Used in conjunction with menacing panache.

Bluff: useful for feinting. Lying, getting past guards, getting women into bed. Avenging your father.

Acrobatics: because you need to get where you need to be.

Equipment

Katana: 18-20 base crit range and one handed slashing weapon. (what swashbucklers use piercing weapons…. We’ll get to that)

Leather armor: good ac bonus for the buck

Buckler: same

Belt of incredible dex: adds to AC, damage, and Attack rolls….. enough said.

Feats

Exotic weapon proficiency, weapon focus, Slashing grace: turns slashing weapon to slashing piercing for class abilities and adds dex to damage…. Mmmmmmm +5…. Add weapon specialization and +1  weapon that’s +10 then add in your precise strike that’s +19 +29 on a crit or +38 on a crit with using a panache point….. +38…. With improved critical from class bonuses that’s 15-20 ….. welcome to the crit commander.

Strategy

With at least 30 ac most of which is touch, you are looking pretty good in defense even with only 11 con. You can add more and avoid attacks so get in there. Attack, demoralize and maybe occasionally feint when you need it. (remember you don’t have improved feint)  Use panache on crits to double that precise damage (it doesn’t automatically double), and jump out of the way of big nasty bosses. Attack away and don’t forget, you kill my father prepare to die (even though this build uses a katana, and not a rapier) 

The Iron Man Build

9^th Level Sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3oQlB72acoIQlh6d3JxS0RtRVE/view?usp=sharing

7^th level Sheet: Coming Soon

5^th Level Sheet: coming soon

So starting off my series on pathfinder builds is one of my favorites I call the Iron man build. At it’s core this build is the master of all trades. Not really but it gets as close as you can in pathfinder. So without further ado lets take alook at the classes.

Class

Alchemist (Mindchemist) : This is the builds primary class. At it’s heart beats the bomb thrower. This is where you spend most of your levels and energy. Yes spells are important but the main thing you get here is bombs and bomb damage.  So make sure you do everything you can to upp that bomb damage. You’ll want to take alchemist for levels 1-4 and 6+.

As for archetypes there are a lot of good ones for this build but I have chose Mindchemist because it fits the jack of all trades. With Mindchemist your knowledge checks give you a bonus of “yes”. Other good options are preservationist because summons are always useful as meatshields if nothing else. Or if you’re in a giving mood chirurgeon because too much healing is never a bad thing. In fact most of the archetypes of the alchemist get rid of poison use. Which while I thas it’s uses is … still fairly useless.

Gunslinger(Guntank): Gunslinger is the Iron man builds secret weapon. And the one level dip into it accomplishes several important goals.

1^st you are losing a level of alchemist and that can at certain levels mean a d6 less on your bombs. Sounds painful right? Well thanks to Explosive missile you replace that missing D6 with a D8 from your pistol. Not a bad trade off right? Well you get more because at higher levels you can enchant that gun to do more and more damage. So your base damage actually surpasses that of a single bomb from a pure alchemist. The catch? You lose the ability to make use of fast bombs But this build is about an all rounder and an alchemist throwing 2 bombs a turn quickly runs out of bombs.

2^nd is that guntank gives you heavy armor. Heavy armor on an arcane spell caster? Yes. This is one of the coolest things about the alchemist. They have no arcane spell failure. Oh and that mutagen of the mind chemist still gives you a Bonus to AC.

Now it’s possible to go overboard with AC but a lot of people overstate this. AC is very important. When you’re walking up to within 20 feet of that giant extraplanar tree or adult dragon you want to make sure you’re not going to get hit. A barbarian you ain’t and while  with this build you don’t have the worst health, you are going to feel the burn when that tree starts bashing you upside the head. Not to mention the grapple when he does hit you. But you’re not going to be hit because he needs a 17 to hit you.

Meanwhile, the 3^rd advantage, even though you only have a dex of 12 you are also still hitting against touch (guns and bombs both hit on touch). So yes you don’t have that extra +3-+4 you’d have by maxing out dex….  But you hit on touch. And not many creatures or opponents you run into will have anything less than 3-4 armor, nat or regular armor.

Race

Tiefling: Now you can decide what you want based on what is available, but I have chosen tiefling. Mainly because as a favored class bonus you can add +1/2 bomb damage Bomb diggity dog. Meaning your minimum bomb damage should be in 13-17 range depending on your level (3-5 D6’s 6 int 4-5 favored class bonus at a minimum.)

Abilities

Strength: 14 You’ll need it to carry all that gear

Dex: 12 you’ll want to match the max dex mod of your armor but obviously no more.

Con: 12 Repeat after me “I am still squishy”. Iron man is not afraid to get up close and personal but a front line fighter you ain’t You want to stay 10-20 feet back from the action.

Intelligence: 22 (20 without level bonuses) Int gives  you spells, spells per day, bomb damage, and knowledge checks (these are important)

Wisdom: 10 Standard minimum (you don’t want to be slinging bombs at your buddies when you get your mind scrambled.

Charisma: 5 Dump stat hard HARD

Important Spells

·        First Level Spells

o   Shield – you won’t be using shields. You get lots of lvl 1 spells and this lasts 1 minute per level. You want this.

o   Cure Light- Because you are still squishy.

o   Jump – see fly below.

o   True strike – for when you see monks. Or anything else with high touch.

·        Second Level Spells

o   Barkskin- 10 mins/ level? Yes. Just all the yes.

o   Cure moderate- Because you are still squishy

o   Invisibility- still helpful

o   Restoration, lesser- always helpful

o   Ablative barrier – Lesser form of damage resistance, important if you want your character to live against all odds.

·        Third level Spells

o   Herosim-  Multiple bonuses that last for an hour per level. Great spell.

o   Resinous skin- Straight up Damage Resistance Enough said.

o   Fly – you are wearing heavy armor, you might need to get out of some pits.

o   Protection from energy- you don’t have the best saves, so energy resistance helps.

o   Cure serious wounds- Because you are still squishy.

Skills

Knowledges- all of them, just all the knowledge, know all the things.

Feats

Point Blank shot – Prereq for precise

Precise shot – You’ll be assiting your buddies in CC

Extra bombs – More boomage

Discoveries

Explosive missile – Core of the build

Precise bombs – Allies get testy when you burn them in splash damage

Force bomb – because whats immune to force damage?

Equipment

Full Plate- for that bonus to AC

Pistol - +1 this, then add damage modifiers like flaming and corrosive, start with corrosive and frost

Headband of vast intellect-  Because why the hell would  you not want more damage to  your bombs

Crossbow

Strategy

Okay so now that we’ve gotten all that out of the way, lets talk strategy. What does this build do? First and foremost is the knowledge checks. They basically let you identify anything with a knowledge check of “yes” and plan accordingly. Does my foe have touch attacks? Yes, okay pull out the cross bow and back the hell up. Immune to fire? Okay force bomb time. Other than that it’s fairly straightforward, get within 20’, blast in the face with the gun/bomb combination laugh as the boss flails ineffectively against your 32 ac.

Confessions of a petite Bourgeoisie

Confessions of a petite bourgeoisie

so for the past few years I have been employed in what you could call a petite bourgeoisie. No I am not a small business owner, however I am lower to middle management so New petty bourgeoisie. Now I won’t say who I work for, but it’s a telecom company, and I oversee installations. Before that I was a supervisor at a call center babysitting the proletariat for the bourgeoisie. And there’s a few things I’d like to confess, but keep in mind, these are all based on my personal experience:

1.      Our Job is actually very hard: Wait don’t go! This isn’t that kind of article I swear. What I mean is there is a stereotype of management as being lazy lumpards that do nothing all day long. Well that’s only half true. Good employees are invaluable, but not half as invaluable as a well organized team that knows what it’s doing. Here’s the problem: No one does. Processes change at a whim or more often than not, there is no process, or when there is it’s ignored. Remember this quote from Pirates of the Caribbean? “the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.” Well this is how corporations, at least the ones I’ve been at, have been run for the most part. The rules that ARE enforced strictly…. They are those rules that you don’t know why they’re there….. here’s a secret, neither do we.  Half of our job involves learning new processes that make no sense, ostensibly make no difference and help nothing. When we’re not beating our heads into a wall getting some problem employee to do their job, we’re trying to make heads or tails of the rats nest of procedure.

2.      We don’t really like management as much as you do: No really, all those changes we talked about about, normally come from managementand every nonsensical illogical plan comes down from them. No one consults the lower level employees about what should be done they just act based on what they THINK should be. Worst of all they’re always calling for reports we know they don’t look at.

3.      We’re really on your side, when management lets us: look we really don’t want to be a dick, really we don’t. We really do care about the employees and the customers. Small problem there are times when management decides they want to tie our hands.

4.      Ego Then profits then people: big secret to the corporate world? Ego matters most. It comes before profits and if you bruise a big shots ego, kiss your chance at promotion good bye.and from the perspective of management profits matter most, just not more than their ego. We in middle management are constantly told to fear upper management and walk on egg shells and obey without question the orders of the directors and we hate it, especially since they’re not as smart as they think they are.

5.      It pays to treat people well: here’s the thing the reason corporations don’t totally fuck over everyone, or at least their customers is because it pays to treat people well, from customer loyalty to word of mouth advertising. Too bad no body told that to management. There are decisions and directives that come down from the director level to keep inventory safe from a 0.00001% chance event or save 0.000001% of total costs for a budget that create havoc for the workforce and headaches for the customer. Now obviously those numbers are exaggerations as I don’t know the exact numbers but trust me they aren’t far off. Point is they create more hassle than their worth. But the director has to prove his usefulness. Too bad when they present their findings they leave out the part where the NPS scores just dipped double digit percentages… and seriously who thought it was a good idea to hold shipping the customers equipment until the VERY end?  Those shipments are never on time…

6.      The squeaky wheel gets the oil: through both of my jobs I’ve learned one thing, and that is that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. No matter how much we want to help every customer it’s the one that complains the loudest gets the most attention. Yes this is annoying. No, it isn’t fair. Yes, we hate these assholes as much as you do. But it works… why? Because we have our plates full enough as is and at times we have to choose our battles and if we have to choose we’ll choose to get rid of the screaming pain in our ass first.

7.      Push push push: We are pushy assholes, maybe not by nature, we are told and trained to be.  We can even face disciplinary action if we’re not. And those are the exact words used “pushy” we are constantly told to push our employees at every opportunity like they don’t think everyones doing their job…. Which actually often the case. Don’t get me wrong, I’m on the side of the proletariat but jesus if there aren’t a few of the peons that deserve the label “peon”. Oh by the way, there’s two types of lazy peons, the kind that are smart and coasting by, and the stupid lazy ones. Both find excuses one is better at it, and they get promoted to director level.

8.      Not everything is about the bottom line, Can someone please tell that to management: yes companies need to make money, but I’ve seen customers threatened with a $50,000 cancellation fee if they canceled an order. No one batted an eye to this. It was only after that sales rep was caught stealing office supplies that he got fired…. Threats? Cool so long as they’re for more money. Stealing? That’s bad. If you’re thinking that sounds ridiculous and totally counterproductive … well it is.

9.      Inside joke? Logic: yes in every management job I’ve had using logic is an inside joke. “oh we can’t do that, that would make fucking sense” is a phrase , an exact phrase that gets said around the workplace a lot. All those stupid illogical process changes yeah, we know how stupid they are you can quit telling us “this is stupid” because we know they’re stupid, we know that nothing that would make sense is actually going to pass muster with management…. Because management doesn’t listen. Upper management lives in their own world. And we’re told to trust them, because like god “upper management works in mysterious ways”. Well none of us actually believe that but upper management does. Part of it is their ego, and part of it is they have to justify their existence and pay check. Which if any of them got down in the trenches with us they might actually could do. But that is way above upper management’s pay grade.

10.   Good Management is invaluable, and rare: There are a handful of people in upper management who to a point “get it” these people are excessively invaluable. I would say to the degree that without these handful of heroes most American corporations, would go under. At least from the perspective of the few places I have worked. They still don’t get down in the trenches, but they’re open to actually listening to middle management. They still have egos, but they’ll let yours in the room with them. These people are not people you can afford to let go of. They make life better for me, they make life better for workers, and they make life better for the customers…. And truth be told they are essential to the lives of share holders.

11.   Ass kissing Vs Getting the job done: Unfortunately as I stated, such directors are RARE. And if you aren’t adept at kissing their ass, you will go no where. Take my co worker … I’ll call her Mrs. T for now. Mrs. T taught me more than anyone else in the company about how to do my job. She has 5 times the experience of any of us. And she has the same title as me. When opportunities for advancement came up guess who got the promotion? Some other ass kisser with less experience and knowledge. So kiss ass, make lists of friends and enemies (just like the Clintons) …. That’s how you actually get promoted.

12.   We aren’t all rich: Fact of the matter is, if you are one step removed from the proletariat you get paid like the proletariat, why because we’re expendable. We can be tossed aside and replaced…. Sort of.

13.   We don’t know what we’re doing: I was thrown into my current position after a 1 week “training class”…. Note that when I worked as a call center trainer there were programs for phone agents that lasted longer than a week. I’ll help you with that math there, yes middle management is undertrained and those people like Mrs. T help keep things afloat… or will until they get tired of being  passed over and leave…. At which point…. Good luck, and may god have mercy on your souls.

14.   Middle Management’s natural Enemy: I’ve spent a long time talking about the problems associated with upper management, but truth be told our constant battle, our mortal enemy? Is sales. Sales teams lie. Sales teams are lazy. Sales teams promise things we can’t deliver and then bolt the instant the contract is signed. The problems from sales are not complicated but they add considerably to the difficulty of our job, and to the customer and employee headaches. They are also undertrained.

15.   Back to politics, the team comes first: yes the team comes first, supervisors all over the world will protect their team like rabid den mothers. Always trying to divert blame like some kind of weird ping pong game between teams. Teams are like mini families, even teams that have to work together can sometimes have Hatfield and McCoy like feuds. It’s counter productive and does lead to workplace stress. But the sales teams deserve it.

16.   Apparently we’re too expensive: hiring new middle management is a hastle and not one upper management likes. Even with just a week training they aren’t willing to fork out the extra dough … even if that means overloading the ones they have.

And there you have it. Just a few of my confessions and observations. I hope this has been eye opening. Remember folks, you can’t use logic, kiss ass, grease the squeaky wheel and did I mention kiss ass?  

In defense of campaign finance reform.

In defense of  campaign finance reform.

So this article is in response to: http://red-party.com/beyond-money-in-politics/ by a friend of mine. First I want you to read this:

“I’m not saying campaign finance or lobbying reform is bad or that it wouldn’t help us at all, but the transformative effects touted by organizations like Move to Amend and Represent.Us is totally unfounded. It starts from a false premise – that if we restrict big corporations’ ability to buy elections or legally bribe elected officials, we’ll open up space for politicians to be more representative to their voters. But the people who would be doing the regulating are the very same people who serve the ruling class of this country – the capitalist class, the 1%. This is why the Federal Elections Commission is such a toothless body. Our national politics were dominated by corporate interests before the 2010 Citizens United ruling. With strict financing and lobbying laws, these interests would turn their attention to court challenges, watering down enforcement or simply flouting the law altogether. Then there are the other, more traditional mechanisms of ruling class control.

They would still have their parties, the Democrats and Republicans. They would still have control over the economy, able to threaten capital flight in the face of any reforms that threaten their interests. Entire countries have been brought to their knees this way.

And of course we would still have a situation where ninety percent of American media is owned by just six companies – GE, Disney, News Corp of Fox News fame, Viacom, Time-Warner (think CNN) and CBS. With or without clean election reform, that’s a powerful arsenal. And then there is the most entrenched obstacle of all: the U.S. Constitution.”

In effect what the author is saying here is correct, the power of the media, CEO’s and the rest of the powerful bourgeoisie is immense and that getting campaign finance reform won’t do a whole lot. Not on it’s own. The article then launches into a myriad of fixes that would fix this situation or at least do so in part, which is really good and I encourage you to read the rest of the article as it does have some quite good points. However these are all things that today need to pass the political process. One part I want to focus in on is this:

“There is no silver bullet here. Single-issue campaigns aren’t fit for purpose. They limit themselves to one core reform in the name of being broad enough to attract as many people as possible in the short term, but this robs them of the perspective needed to actually develop and sustain a mass movement. We need a holistic approach – anything less is lying to ourselves, lying to those we say we want to empower. In the Marxist tradition we call this a democratic-republican program.”

But recalling back to the previous Quote about the power of the media, we know that the power of the media is strong. It is in fact to the level of brain washing, it can drown out a message to the point that creating that holistic approach is impossible.

But lets assume for a minute that it is not. Let us assume for a minute that roughly half of the largest demographic of americans are socialists (this is actually roughly true) and Americans are ready to accept socialism…. Now what? Well Marxism is an economic system but the people lack the first tool at the negotiation table, capital and money, to buy out their mastes. We’ve long relied on government to regulate business capital but as we’ve already established that’s near impossible. So what then? I have already spoken on the nature of leverage once before but for those that have not read it I will briefly quote the relavant parts.

“It is easy to understand why the democrats haven been unable to affect change, they are the reserve army of the upper class. what is less easy to understand, however, is the inability of the people and their champions to affect any change. To understand this one must first understand the nature of people and change. To get someone to do something requires leverage. This can be societal pressure, threat of force, money, position, or any number of things. The important part is that the party you wish to persuade either has something to gain by obeying you, or lose in not.

The Inability of the people to affect change, stems from the loss of their leverage. They have lost their first form of leverage in the vote, due in part to the wealthy using their monetary leverage to influence the process. The proletariat simply cannot keep up with the bourgeoisie in disposable income per capita and therefore the bourgeoisie win. Now, I know you know this and it's been said a hundred times before. The real question is why do we continue to play these games, to fight on an uneven playing field against a team that uses dirty tricks on their homefield? Remember gaining votes with money is the bread and butter of CEO's and boardmembers, it's what they do everyday. We aren't just fighting an opponent that has more resources but more experience using those resources. So why play their game? Why do we submit to playing the game on their terms?”

You see in order to change anything, we are going to need leverage. We don’t have money, we have the vote and force. So we start by getting the vote to mean something again. I’m not saying it is the end all be all but that it is the first step and an very high hurdle to clear in a battle that will last a long, long time. It is a crack in the foundations of the system that lets future victories happen. We get this passed and someday we will be able to pass laws that clean up campaign oversight, and maybe someday end the electoral college after that. Starting with small things and using a workers movement to keep people engaged in the political process and informed. But you start that by making them feel their vote counts again. People are not going to be inclined to give a shit if they think it won’t matter, but give them a reason to believe that and you get them involved again, which starts a snowball effect.

But without this, without this critical cornerstone, everything we can possibly do will be blackballed and shutdown by the media, the government and economic power the bourgeoisie hold. “but wait” I hear you say “the bourgeoisie will use the other powers to block any change even after this is done!”

Yes, yes they will, or they will try. But the American people woken from their hopelessness won’t give two shits. First of all with campaign finance reform they cannot stop the influx of non approved ideas. They have no legal way of doing so, if the money is good, and being from the government, it will be. So they will HAVE to let Stewart Alexander and Alan Moore onto the ballot box, they will HAVE to let them on the air at least in commercials, and given equal screen time and budgets, who wins the guy lying through his teeth or the guy who’s in it for the people? The guy who’s for the people. Sure they can refuse to interview them but even bernies getting press time because he’s no longer ignorable because he has the fame and money to challenge them.

“but this process is fragile and will take many many years” I hear you say. Yes. Yes it will, The alternative is what? I’ve searched for one but all I can find is picking up a rifle and sticking it to the bourgeoisie, which frankly doesn’t win you a lot of friends. But hey, force has been used to great effect before in history, just keep in mind it’s been used to great detriment on behalf of the instigators as well.