A blip that barely registered with me…

df411490-98de-11ee-95bb-0900ad5d0fe7_800_420-4005220073.jpegStephen Colbert’s Late Show has been cancelled.

Under normal circumstances this would go un-noticed by me, and from his ratings, a shit ton of other people.

But…

Politicians in Washington D.C. decided to make a thing about it. Stephen Colbert’s Late Show was never funny to me. Colbert himself hasn’t told a “joke” for years that made me laugh. In my opinion, he’s just not a funny guy.

His ratings may suggest that I’m not alone. Democrats in Congress jumped to criticize Paramount / CBS cancelling the show and are predictably trying to make it seem like Trump or his administration had something to do with it. Looking at you, Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren. (Can you say State Run Media? Of course that’s what Schiff and Warren are claiming about the Trump administration isn’t it?)

CBS says it’s a business decision.

It’s possible these Senators watch The Late Show. It’s also possible they like or find Colbert funny. Neither of them seem to have a sense of humor. It makes sense their taste in entertainment would be questionable.

I miss the likes of Johnny Carson. He’d make fun of everyone.

Every time I’ve tried to watch Colbert the “jokes” were at the expense of only one party. Or the jokes were pointedly aimed at people that were more conservative or in favor of common sense, and just came off as mean and hateful.

Comedy in my opinion is something that can make people re-evaluate their positions or beliefs, and should do so by making everyone laugh. Even at themselves.

The Comedian Jeff Foxworthy is a “Redneck” and famously makes a living poking fun at Rednecks with his “You might be a redneck if…” line of questions. Yes, we all laughed, but he made rednecks think about having their new truck up on blocks in the front yard. He asked in a funny way where are your priorities, when you’ve purchased a 60K vehicle but live in a leaky trailer and have to use an outhouse?

Bill Engvall another comedian, asked funny questions about people and their behavior leading the listener down a common sense path, then underscored their beliefs inconsistency or hypocrisy with the punch line, “Here’s Your Sign”

Ron White delivers scathing commentary with a smile and a jingle of ice in his scotch glass.

Ron White:

“People are saying that I’m an alcoholic, and that’s not true, because I only drink when I work, and I’m a workaholic.”


“We’re all gay, it’s just to what extent are you gay.”

He says, “That’s bullshit, man, I ain’t gay at all!” I’m like, “Yeah, you are and I’ll prove it.” He goes, “Fine, prove it.” I’m like, “All right, do you like porn?” He says, “Yeah, I love porn, you know that.”

I’m, “Oh, you only watch two women together?” He goes, “No, I’ll watch a man and a woman making love.” I said, “Oh, do you like the guy to have a tiny, half-flaccid penis?” He said, “No, I like big, hard, throbbing co-“

Screen Shot 2022 04 20 at 3.25.14 PM 4061621748.Colbert on the other hand has focused on pretty much only the political arena with a decidedly anti-Republican, anti-Conservative, rhetoric. Even when one of these groups does something right, he’s critical, mean, and pissy about it. 

Perhaps people are just tired of the nastiness. Perhaps CBS is reading the room and finally understanding that “Trump Time” 24/7 is passé. I suspect that a more fundamental truth is that corporate sponsors are trying to break from what has become seen as the loony left.

Corporate sponsors and their advertising dollars are the only thing CBS is interested in. Corporations, no longer burdened by things like DEI, or the necessity to virtue signal with sponsorship of extreme leftist causes, are probably moving back toward the middle road.

Anheuser-Busch learned the hard way that a significant part of America isn’t interested in a cross dressing “influencer’s” opinion, much less having that person as some kind of spokesperson.

Puretalk Wireless is growing significantly by appealing to “Hard Working Americans” who just want reasonable prices, and functional cell service. They’ve recently partnered with Mike Rowe as their spokesman. (As an aside, they use the AT&T cell network and are significantly cheaper. Why pay AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile prices when you can get the same service for less? I’ve seen zero difference in service since I switched about a year ago.)

People are starting to ask serious questions about what qualifies as “Medical Care” these days. 

More people are thinking along these lines. If a child can’t buy cigarettes, alcohol, or get a tattoo, require their parents permission to get their ears pierced, and this is so they don’t make poor decisions that will affect them the rest of their lives, what about hormone treatments that disrupt their natural development?

On demand abortions are billed as medical care, for whom? The mother? But what about the child. You know, the person that’s being killed during the abortion, the child that can’t buy cigarettes, get a tattoo, drink, or undergo hormone treatments?

The dissonance within these “accepted truths” is fucking painful to process.

Yet, we have almost constant trans this, trans that, demonstrations and assurances that grooming a 6 year old to be transitioned is “Life Saving Medical Care”. The suicide data doesn’t appear to be backing up the claims.

The medical profession burned their credibility down in recent years, much like Colbert has done by parroting a narrative and appearing to stand for nothing except doing as they were told. 

Colbert may be another “personality” that ends up on the trash heap of discarded leftist bad ideas. His problem is that he’s made a living being angry at anyone that questioned leftist ideas, and he’s been at the forefront of virtue signaling. 

I think Americans have grown tired of constant outrage performances and are starting to move more toward balance. I may be naive, but it’s my hope at least.

Colbert wasn’t “reading the room”. If he can change or more properly, come up with something new, prior to his last show in May 2026 Colbert might be able to save his career.

I’d say it’s up in the air. He said some really nasty things about those who were vaccine hesitant. Now that more studies and data is coming out about side effects, and those people, he and others, said should be put in concentration camps are being proved right, Colbert may have terminated his career the way Kathy Griffin did.

Why does the left always go to concentration camps? The fear mongers among the LGBTQIA2 blah blah community said, if Trump gets re-elected he’s going to put all the LGBTQIA2 blah blah folks in Camps. The Leftists said put the unvaxed and vaccine hesitant into camps to die. Now they’re saying Trump is going to put all migrants into camps. (Okay, that last one, I’ll admit is a little close to home. On that, I have to ask was “Alligator Alley” the plan, or did it become necessity because judges and leftist Democrats found ways to obstruct deportations?)

ABC is, I suspect considering cancelling The View as well. The harridans on The View refuse to consider the possibility that they could be cancelled, but I think the networks are waking up to a new reality…

America is weary of “rage bait,” and they’re turning off their televisions.

Gunsmoke James Arness as Matt Dillon Amanda Blake as Miss Kitty Russell Ken Curtis as Festus Haggen Buck Taylor as Newly OBrien and Milburn Stone as Doc Adams 202267152.According to the latest Nielsen streaming report, Gunsmoke is one of the top 10 most-watched acquired series across all measured streaming services.

What does that say about American’s mood?

Scammers to the left of me, Scammers to the right of me

Indian job search assholes!

First off, they’re really hard to understand.

Second off I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that they’re all scammers.

After dicking around with some company out of Austin, TX for 3.5 weeks it turns out that they’re just interested in selling me their training. 

I applied to a position they’d advertised that I was qualified for and they tried the old bait and switch.

For those who may be interested the company name is Ace IT, they’re based in Austin, TX and they’re posting job openings that may or may not be real. I believe, based on my experience with them, they’re posting these openings in an effort to engage with potential workers then sell that worker on buying their training courses. 

Trouble is, the person searching for a job is looking for employment, not to purchase another set of training courses to put on their resume.

I’m looking for a position NOW, not three months from now. I’m not in a position to spend a shit ton of money on some bullshit “training”. I don’t need to be screwed with, and I don’t need to have my time (and money) wasted in endless “mock” interviews that go nowhere.

Is the job available or not? Are you interviewing me for the job I applied for? If either of those two questions is “No,” then we have nothing more to discuss.

They may really be helping some people, but the fact of the matter is the way they go about their business is slimy. 

Be honest! Be direct! Be useful!

Cut the bullshit!

I should have trusted my instincts.

They claim to have gotten 2000 people jobs in the past four years. 55 People per month… Somehow that just doesn’t seem like a lot.

Another LinkedIn bullshit company to muddy the waters. This is why I cancelled my LinkedIn account years ago, and probably why I’m going to cancel it again. What a waste of time!

Now I’m going to get on with the rest of my day, but first an aspirin for the headache, then I’ll block all Ace IT email and phone numbers. They’re obviously not a serious company.

Okay, this has simply gotten out of hand…

As I’ve written throughout this blog the job search process is horribly broken.

So broken in fact that companies are appearing whose sole job is to deal with the HR departments of companies that are hiring.

I got this email yesterday offering a service.

Notice what they’re offering, all for a subscription. 

Really? 

So now, for every position you apply for, apparently HR departments expect a customized resume and cover letter. The cover letter I understand, but the resume? 

Doesn’t that muddy the waters? Just how many resumes must one have floating around in the aether? If all of those resumes are consolidated might it not appear that a candidate was lying, (perhaps a better term would be overstating,) their capabilities?

I’ve paid for a resume rewrite. What I got back was almost completely a lie and it was certainly not something I would, or indeed could defend in an interview.

Do I really want 50 variations like that per week?

But there’s another thing, Something like this adds another layer to the already hyper layered hiring process.

Even now, the odds of getting your resume in front of someone that can actually make a hiring decision are extremely remote.

Job search site AI
Corporate HR AI
Corporate HR committee
Multiple “Interviews” with the equivalent of a Prom selection committee most of whom have no idea what the candidate actually does, or is talking about.
Then a Hiring manager gets a crack at the candidate.
The Hiring manager’s choices are sent back for review to HR and goes through committee again.
Then only on approval from the committee based on arbitrary data points like personality, gender identification, hair color, skin color, equal opportunity quotas, and all the rest of the bullshit that’s “important” today does the Hiring manager get to actually have a new employee. Probably not their first second or even third choice.

(HR and Hiring practices have almost reached the level of Douglas Adams Vogons from “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”)

Vogons: They are one of the most unpleasant races in the galaxy. Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious, and callous. They wouldn’t even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the ravenous Bug-Blatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, lost, found, queried, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters. On no account should you allow a Vogon to read poetry to you. –– The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Now, along comes this company wanting add another layer of bullshit only they’re selling it to prospective employees as a valuable service for a weekly subscription.

Really?

There have always been professional job search corporations. Some of them charged the candidate upfront, and collected a percentage of the candidate’s starting salary on the back end. Others just relied on the backend fee.

This company seems like their model is to collect the subscription from desperate candidates, bleed them dry, keep them busy with do nothing, go nowhere interviews, and they have zero incentive to actually find a candidate a job. Without the backend percentage why would they? The subscription stream would be more lucrative.

I’m also not sure that I want someone creating resume variants for me that become a game of “Telephone”. This might work for a sales/marketing department, or a director position dealing with “Soft Skills”. But a technical position? The last thing you want is non-technical people writing a technical resume. 

There is ample evidence why that’s a bad idea in the job listings themselves. Tons of jobs listings are filled with technobabble that means nothing and is used just as filler to make the job description “Look” important or impressive to other non-technical reviewers.

Ouroboros icon detailed symbol of snake eating its own tail 2483017822.

I get that these folks are taking advantage of an opportunity. They’re filling a niche that has been created by the hiring process. I don’t begrudge them their business model.

What I do question is the need for this business model. How much of the hiring process has become a “Do Nothing” (Meaning no added value) series of hands in the pot? When did HR itself become an industry and what is fueling this behemoth?

When does the HR hiring mess reach the bureaucratic level of the Ouroboros?

Learned something interesting, call this a PSA

I was working on the front of the house. I also happened to be precariously balanced on a ladder when an Amazon delivery driver stopped to deliver something to me.

The driver did absolutely nothing wrong. She walked into the driveway and said, “Excuse me” It was all very proper and respectful, she’d correctly judged that if she startled me I could fall from the ladder. I really appreciate her being aware and thoughtful.

The problem was, that my back was to the street, and I was wearing my Apple AirPods listening to music while I was working. This too is all fine. Where the difficulty happened was that I had the Conversational Awareness feature turned on.

When she said “Excuse me,” the AirPods dutifully amplified her voice and I swear to you, it sounded like she was literally right behind me. I dang near threw myself off the ladder trying to turn around. It startled me.

After a good laugh from both myself and the Amazon driver, and me not falling off the ladder all was well.

It wasn’t until about 1/2 hour later that I realized what happened.

So, in the interest of public safety, if you’re working on a ladder that’s precariously balanced it might be a good idea to turn off conversational awareness. This is especially true if you’re focused on what you’re doing instead of your surroundings.

I suppose I’m still a little twitchy after years of “Crazy Pants” marching up into my yard to scream obscenities, or as in the last incident raise hands to me. “Crazy Pants” is gone but I’d gotten to the point that I wouldn’t even work in the front yard with my back to the street, much less wearing anything that could impair my hearing.

Just a friendly safety tip…

I hope your holiday weekend is going well.

God, I hate time wasting people & processes!

Had a first interview yesterday.

Indian woman, who pushed my translation matrix to the max.

And to boot, setting up the interview, she couldn’t commit to an actual time she instead chose to act like a cable TV installer. Will call between 8AM and 3PM. Fanfuckingtastic!

When she did call she actually asked if I remembered that we had an appointment. DUH!

Then there’s a spiel about training and all kinds of other bullshit and Oh, this wasn’t an interview. She’s going to set me up with their HR department to have a “Mock” interview.

But the real kicker was that she didn’t have my resume in front of her and she didn’t have the ability to get my resume in front of her. So this was essentially a cold call.

What the actual fuck?!?

At least I got someone’s attention. So there’s that.

But for fucks sake, I’m supposed to appear or be available for an interview prepared. I’d at least expect that of the interviewer.