Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity, COOP The person you called Is on vacation No one can help you

I SEEM TO BE GETTING A LOT of “Sorry, the only person who can help you/answer the question is (pick one) on vacation, out of the office, in a meeting. Call back when the person returns and can take your call.”

I get this from banks.

I get this from health care organizations.

I even get this from hospitals.

 

IT SEEMS TO MY EDWARD BEAR mind that if a position is critical sufficient to staff it, it should be considered critical enough to have someone trained to “fill in” if the person normally in the position is absent.

This is especially true if the position is “client facing.”

Except for (U.S.) presidents and their vice presidents, most executives are smart enough to have someone able to fill in when they are unavailable.

Presidents, at least up through FDR’s reign, made a point to keep their vice presidents in the dark as much as possible.

Perhaps it is lack of confidence in themselves that keeps some critical personnel from training a stand-in.

Perhaps the critical person feels he or she is invincible; that they will live forever.

Fred Rose and Hank Williams were on the mark when they wrote "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" ^{https://tinyurl.com/mzjj6kz9}

Even sans the Grim Reaper at the door, people are absent. People go on vacations. They tend to others. They are promoted. They are transferred.

”Things” happen. ”Things” change.

Admittedly, not everyone is able or ready to “step into another’s shoes.”

But, I suspect, with encouragement and training, most people can be confident that they can fill in for another “in a pinch.”

Besides, it seems to me it is just good business sense to have someone who can step in as needed.

I once worked for a PBX manufacturer. The company moved across town and the new switchboard was temporally unattended.

Having once used a plug board (think Lily Tomlin (right) as Ernestine the Telephone Operator) I rashly manned the switchboard (console). Not my job, but I wrote the operator’s manual so I figured I could “get by.” I did (but was relieved to be relieved).

Granted, my stint on the switchboard was not planned, but I was capable.

If anyone thinks a receptionist job is less important than, say, a general manager, let them call into a business when the receptionist is on a break.

One ringy dingy, two ringy-dangies . . .

The responsibilities are different, but I suggest that the receptionist’s job is at least as important to the organization’s success as the GM’s.

Filling in for an absent coworker is not something normally to be “thrust” upon a person.

In other words, it is something that should be planned and implemented in stages, before the task needs to be performed.

Likewise, several people can — perhaps should — be trained to “assume the position” when it become necessary.

In the military, they call it “cross-training,” being able to function in another job.

Perhaps, as with this scrivener, not as well as the regular receptionists answering calls, but “good enough” to keep from losing a customer for lack of a response.

C-levels who are afraid to train someone to confidently fill in for a brief period need to be replaced; they are a detriment to the organization.

As an Enterprise Risk Management practitioner, I know I’m right.

I also know that people who fear for their jobs are people who ignore my warnings and admonishments.

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Out of office

Opuscula Is Afghanistan ‘Nam over again?

IMAGES OF AFGHANS TRYING TO LEAVE Afghanistan before the Taliban assumes full control. Afghanistan’s former president earlier abandoned his country to avoid “transition issues.” Something unique in U.S. foreign policy history? Hardly.

Dry Bones cartoon

Is it any wonder the U.S.’ “allies” are suspicious of Washington’s promises? Rhetorical question.  

San Diego Union-Tribune Image by Neal Ulevich - AP (https://tinyurl.com/3k7nerdw)

The Print Twitter screengrab (https://tinyurl.com/zru98mu8)

 

AFGHANISTAN SEEMS TO BE VIETNAM all over again.

Aside from the fact that the U.S. never had a policy to win a war in Afghanistan — or Vietnam, or Korea, or Iraq, or Cuba, or — there are many similarities with earlier excursions on behalf of “democracy and the American way.”

The U.S. president who got American troops out of the Vietnam quagmire was a Republican (Richard M. Nixon). The president who ended the U.S.’ 20-year involvement in Afghanistan is a Democrat (Jos. Biden), although to give credit where it is due, under a deal signed last year between the militants and then-President Donald Trump, foreign forces were to have left by 1 May. (http://tinyurl.com/27muz8yn)

In both cases, when the troops came home — from a politically unpopular war in the Far East and when they returned from what appeared to be a never-ending conflict in Afghanistan, — the military people returned sans war materiel, left behind for the victors.

When the troops returned to the States, they abandoned locals who supported the war effort.

In Vietnam, some managed to get a flight out — primarily those who worked directly for the U.S. government.

For many of those left behind, the victorious Communists had a place for them: re-education camps. (Such “camps” are popular with the Vietnamese’ masters, Communist China.)

Will the Taliban have “re-education” camps a la Vietnam?

U.S. fails to learn from others

The U.S. failed to learn the lesson the Vietnamese taught the French.

They warred against the French until the French tired of the fighting and left Vietnam.

President (ex-5-star general) Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in a limited number of U.S. troops as “Military Advisory Groups” (MAGs). His successors, Democrats JFK and LBJ massively increased the U.S. presence in Vietnam on a piecemeal basis — as troops were wounded or killed, they were replaced by green personnel.

Vietnam was NOT the first war in which Americans refused to fight. That “honor” goes back to the War for Southern Independence (a/k/a U.S. Civil War) when people could, and did, “buy their way out” by paying for stand-ins.

The Enrollment Act of 1863 provided that a draftee could pay a “substitute” enrollee the sum of $300 (about $5,000 in today’s terms) in order to enlist in his place. Such famous Americans as Grover Cleveland and John D. Rockefeller took advantage of this provision, in effect buying their way out of service. (https://tinyurl.com/9thvtsaw)

Actually, after the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War many new Americans had other things to do rather than engage the English.

In Afghanistan, the U.S. started supporting the Afghans in their effort to oust the Soviets.

 

Revolving door (a la Vietnam)

 

It was very much the CIA’s covert war with a program to arm and finance the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan prior to and during the military intervention by the Soviet Union. (https://tinyurl.com/2t355rsy)

After 9-11-2001 — the day Muslim terrorists flew four U.S. airliners into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and into a field in Pennsylvania; in the the latter high jackers, were overcome by the flight’s passengers and crew — the CIA directed its efforts in Afghanistan to attacking the Taliban and its leader, Osama bin Laden. (https://tinyurl.com/2wbyes84)

According to a New York Times article (https://tinyurl.com/5b9ya9bk), the FBI knew well in advance of 9-11 that Muslims were buying flight training. Anecdotal stories claim that the “students” were not interested in landing the commercial airliners.

They won’t fight

According to Biden, the Afghans lack the will to defend their nation, despite the fact that — with substantial U.S. CIA aid — some Afghanis did take up arms against the former Soviet Union.

An Afghan guerrilla handles a U.S.-made Stinger anti-aircraft missile (https://tinyurl.com/y466xn5m)

Afghan borders Taliban ally Pakistan and the western world’s nemesis, Iran. (See map, below).

All are Muslim countries and while they often disagree, the enemy of my friend is my enemy. In this case, since the western world is deemed by Iran’s despots to be an enemy, Afghanistan is, by default, Iran’s friend (as is Pakistan).

Map of Afghanistan and its neighbors

The Taliban, Afghanistan’s rulers-du-jour, are infamous for being misogynistic.

They demanded women to be covered from head to toe according to their ideas of sharia law.

They banned education for females.

The “new” Taliban

According to reports making the media, the “new” Taliban will treat females with respect and they will allow females to be educated, unlike the “old” Taliban. (https://tinyurl.com/ye8jzawt)

The “new” Taliban promised to respect others religions, unlike the “old” Taliban of 2001 that blew up two statues of Buddah in the Bamyan valley of central Afghanistan. (https://tinyurl.com/qjuwbed)

The Taliban claimed the Buddhas violated Islam's prohibition on idolatry.

According to The Indian Express (https://tinyurl.com/yfbq8w24), “The Taliban have promised a new era of peace and security, saying they will forgive those who fought against them and grant women full rights under Islamic law, without elaborating. But many Afghans are deeply skeptical of the group, especially those who remember its previous rule, when it imposed a harsh interpretation of Islamic law. “

Still, the “new” Taliban apparently retains elements of the “old” Taliban.

The Indian Express (ibid.) reports that “The Taliban have blown up the statue of a Shiite militia leader who had fought against them during Afghanistan’s civil war in the 1990s, according to photos circulating on social media Wednesday.

“The statue depicted Abdul Ali Mazari, a militia leader killed by the Taliban in 1996, when the Islamic militants seized power from rival warlords. Mazari was a champion of Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazara minority, Shiites who were persecuted under the Sunni Taliban’s earlier rule.”

So much for forgiving those who fought against them.

Some of the “old” Taliban’s actions remain to haunt them.

A video now being circulated of a woman being murdered, apparently by the Taliban on an Afghan street, actually dates from 2015, according to the India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) (https://tinyurl.com/yenpt6yx)

On the other hand, the England’s ITV (https://tinyurl.com/rn2v4ar8) reported on 17 August 2021 that “Abdul Qadir Jalil, an Afghan-born Manchester (England) resident, traveled to Afghanistan around three weeks ago to get married.

“Mr Jalil says the Taliban has ransacked his home in Kabul, and executed people in his street.

"Last night, the Taliban was trying to attack and search every house in the street," he told ITV News. They are searching for smart phones because they are trying to wipe social media evidence.“

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Vietnam again?

Opuscula Media giants invited To assign reporters To Hamas target areas

THIS IS A SPECIAL INVITATION to reporters and photographers employed by The Major Media Outlets, e.g.,

ABC

BBC

CBS

CNN

LA Times

MSNBC

NY Times

The Guardian

Washington Post

to name but a few of the purveyors of half truths and outright lies to come to Israel and set up shop close to the Gaza border.

 

If that is too close for comfort, let them rent quarters in Ashkelon, Ashdod, Holon, even Tel Aviv.

I might even be willing to let a reporter stay in our guest room in Yavne, but he — or she — will not have safe room privileges.

The reporter then can get a feel for what Israelis already know.

The sirens.

The booms.

The falling debris if the Iron Dome takes out a missile, or the explosion as a missile hits if the Iron Dome somehow misses its target.

The terrified children and pets.

The traumatized adults.

The reporter can sit on the balcony and watch for unguided missiles from Gaza.

Perhaps the reporter’s credentials and PRESS vest will offer all needed protection.

An aside.

When I was in elementary school, we had bomb drills because “The Russians are coming” with atomic weapons.

In Indiana, we raced — I tumbled — down flights of stairs to the basement.

In Florida, we hid under our desks, as if THAT would do any good.

We built and stocked bomb shelters where we could.

Later, in Israel I learned that my new pals from the Ukraine were doing basically the same thing because “The Americans are coming.”

In America I was a reporter and editor. When something happened, good or bad, I had to be in the thick of things. Foolish? Perhaps.

But I reported from “Ground Zero.”

That’s all I am asking of the reporters and photographers covering Gaza’s terror attacks.

Censorship

It is my understanding that reporters and photographers in Gaza have their work heavily censored. If they displease the powers that be, they will be prevented from transmitting their copy to “the world.”

I have no doubt that Israeli censors can be as severe, but Israel is not known for abusing media people, even those biased against Israel.

Moreover, a reporter or photographer can trot his or her stuff to an embassy or consulate representing the employer’s country and file from there.

Few countries have a diplomatic presence in Gaza.

Hamas and “friends” have reporters who see Hamas (and Islamic Jihad and …) in action.

They might even see missiles being removed from UN schools and hospitals and fired from heavily populated civilian areas.

They might even report on these things assuming they get out of Gaza with their stories and photos and assuming they won’t have to go back into Gaza.

It is bad enough when people who never have BEEN to Israel repeat lies about the country, but when reporters and photographers fail to report accurately what is transpiring — they may as well be on Hamas’ payroll.

Some reporters and photographers try to be fair, but editorial boards often demand that material be slanted to suit management’s political point of view.

Hitler (left) and Goebbels (right): infamous liars

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Media invitation

Opuscula Put consulate In RamallahFor PLO/PFLP/Hamas

AMERICA’S POLITICIANS ARE S-T-U-P-I-D

U.S. President Biden and his VP, Harris-Emhoff, along with the U.S. State Department — apparently staffed by people with less brains than either Winnie the Pooh or the Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz — are trying to force Israel, an independent country and ally to set up a consulate for an enemy non-state (run by the PLO/PFLP and Hamas) in Israel’s capital, Jerusalem.

It is not enough that the U.S. repeatedly has interfered with Israel's elections, NOW the U.S. powers-that-be want Israel to accommodate people sworn to obliterate Israel and slaughter its Jewish citizens (and maybe some Arab and other citizens as well)

 

C-H-U-T-Z-P-A-H !

 

The Biden/Harris-Emhoff State Department, despite empty words pledging support for Israel, is doing everything it can to prove its loyalties — as much as the U.S. government has loyalties, albeit with little trust value — to Israel’s sworn enemies: PLO/PFLP, Hamas, Hezbollah, and their master, Iran.

Why would a sane person or government insist that another, independent government — allegedly an ally — demand that the ally’s government host a consulate for — again — an entity sworn to the ally’s destruction?

The PLO/PFLP and Hamas do not have a state.

The PLO/PFLP and Hamas DO have a central government center.

The center is Ramallah.

In order for a person under the PLO/PFLP or Hamas’ thumb to reach ANY U.S. facility in Jerusalem, that person must pass through Israeli/PLO, etc. check points and have permission to enter Israel.

If the U.S. in its “wisdom,” wants to put a consulate someplace, let that place be Ramallah — and being generous, in Gaza City (since the PLO/PFLP and Hamas barely communicate with each other).

Granted, there used to be a U.S. consulate in eastern Jerusalem, an area heavily populated by Muslim Israeli residents — vs. citizens — loyal to the PLO/PFLP and Hamas; in other words, people sworn to Israel’s destruction.

That consulate was assigned to JORDAN that, until Jordan attacked Israel in 1967, “owned” what now commonly is called “The West Bank and East Jerusalem,” or more properly, Yehuda and Shimron, or Yesha. Jordan lost that land as the price for attacking Israel — even after Israeli leaders pleaded with Jordan’s king to stay out of the war. Jerusalem was again united after the war and open to people of ALL religions.

Apparently, much like Egypt and Gaza, Jordan did not want the land returned in a peace deal with Israel. (There is more or less quiet between the two countries.) Egypt, despite appeals from Israel, refused to accept Gaza in its peace deal with Israel. ) Think about THAT for a minute. Neither Egypt nor Jordan wanted the “Palestinians” Israel inherited following Muslim wars of aggression.

Legally, a host country (e.g., Israel) may refuse to host a consulate for another entity — “Palestine” is not a state despite Abu Mazen’s pipe dreams.

It is not likely that Israel will accept the U.S. fiat, even with a government leaning to the left.

Allowing a U.S. consulate for “Palestinians” in Jerusalem divides Israel’s capital both de facto and de jure essentially telling the world that the U.S. recognizes “Palestine” as a real, legitimate nation.

There IS a “Palestine.” On the map it is shown as “Jordan.”

That Jordan attacked Israel and lost land to Israel does not make a nation of the lost land.

If Biden/Harris-Emhoff et al want to create a three “state” arrangement:

Israel

PLO/PFLP plus Jordan

Gaza plus Egypt

good luck.

A “two state” solution, i.e., Israel and “Palestine,” will not work.

There is no land connection between the area controlled by the PLO/PFLP and the area controlled by Hamas (Gaza).

When Hamas finally takes over the area currently controlled by the PLO/PFLP, as seems inevitable, the seat of government will be in Ramallah; still no land link to Gaza.

Even if the U.S. succeeds in browbeating Israel into allowing a consulate in the eastern part of Jerusalem, Gaza residents and those outside of Jerusalem still will need Israeli permission to access the consulate.

If the U.S. insists on putting one or more consulates for “Palestinians,” the proper location(s) are Ramallah and Gaza City, NOT Jerusalem.

If the PLO/PFLP loyalists in residence of Jerusalem need U.S. services, they can go to the U.S. embassy (without crossing any borders) or a consulate in PLO/PFLP or Hamas-controlled areas. That this means border crossings are an easily surmountable non-issue.

Language is not a problem. Many in the embassy speak Arabic or Hebrew (or both) and English.

“East Jerusalem” is no more.

It is history.

Jerusalem is whole.

The U.S. administration and State Department should wake up, smell the coffee, and act accordingly.

It is, after all, supposed to be a “woke” administration — whatever THAT means.

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Consulate

Opuscula Democrat Beggars: Dumb and dumber

TODAY I RECEIVED A NICE EMAIL with Reaching out to you personally, John... as the Subject line.

I do not recall giving license to address me so informally, but

The email was from marketeers for Florida U.S. Senate candidate Val Demings (info@electdemocraticwomen.org) who is running (assuming she survives the primaries) against incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio (assuming he survives the primaries).

Ms. Demings is not the first dumocrat to seek my vote.Previously, candidates in Ohio and Michigan ask for my vote and begged for my money.

I am a registered Republican in Florida.

At least Ms. Demings is running in Florida.

 

I’LL GIVE Ms. Demings marketeers credit (no cash): they get right to the point, i.e., my wallet.

Screen capture from dumocrat candidate’s begging email

Because I am a nice guy, I wrote Ms. Deming a nice letter explaining that I never support leftists/socialists in the mode of (Hillary) Clinton/Obama/Harris-Emhoff.

I suggested that the people of her party (it was her marketeers, but as the last decent Democrat said¹, “The Buck Stops Here” so it is her responsibility to monitor the marketeer’s actions)

Were they “(a) too lazy to check voter registration lists? I am a registered Republican.

Or (b) to ignorant to READ the registration lists?

Or (c) just too stupid to know asking for donations from a long-time Republican is a waste of bits and bytes.

Or (d) -- as I suspect. -- ALL OF THE ABOVE.”

I wonder if the dumocrats would beg for my dollars if they had to waste postage. (Ms. Demings, who currently represents Florida’s 10th Congressional District has franking — free postage — privileges.)

The Response

In response to my email (in response to the begging letter), I received in short order the following auto-response (right).

My comments should be obvious.

On 8/6/2021 7:29 AM, Info Elect Democratic Woemn

– This is an automated response -

Thanks for reaching out!

Elect Democratic Women is a grassroots organization committed to taking back Congress for Democrats by electing more pro-choice women. Elect Democratic Women was formed by Democratic Congresswomen who understand that Congress cannot and will not address the urgent needs facing women and their families by a Congress where less than one in five representatives are women. 

If you’d like to support our movement, please consider making a contribution. Just $1 goes a long way:
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ms_edw_fr_2018_homepage  WORKS OK

If you'd like to receive less emails and only our most important emails, please use this form
https://go.electdemocraticwomen.org/page/s/less-emails   DOES NOT WORK

If you’d no longer like to receive emails about our mission, you can unsubscribe from our list here:
https://go.electdemocraticwomen.org/page/unsubscribe  DOES NOT WORK

If you're having an issue with an online donation you've made or are trying to make, please contact ActBlue immediately:
info@actblue.com  DOES NOT WORK

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I tried each of the links.

The only link that worked was the one to make a donation.

Being a nice guy, I returned the email with the boldface comments shown above.

If anyone cares to try, cut-n-paste the links in your favorite browser and see if anyone
Read my response (probably not)
Acted on the response (fixed the links) — again, probably not.

What is “ActBlue”?

Just for “kicks” I did a web search for “actblue.”

According to its self-identification on Twitter (which, unlike former President Trump is not banned), We're a nonprofit fundraising platform for campaigns and organizations and the small-dollar donors who support them! #IamASmallDollarDonor (https://twitter.com/actblue)

There is a caveat for actblue that Contributions or gifts to ActBlue are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. (https://secure.actblue.com/signin)

I did not see this disclaimer on Ms. Demings’ beg missive; perhaps it does not apply to political contributions.

It is, for me, a non-issue.

Actblue advertises itself (ibid.) As a nonprofit, we’re driven by the belief that our democracy works better when more people participate in civic life and when our campaigns and nonprofits are powered by the people they serve. That’s why we’ve built a powerful online fundraising platform for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, progressive organizations, and nonprofits. Our tools make it possible for anyone to build a grassroots campaign or movement and give donors an easy and secure way to support their favorite candidates and causes

On the other hand . . .

Axios Media (https://www.axios.com/) reports Dem fundraising platform ActBlue boots Cuomo (https://tinyurl.com/wypjszk)

The Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue has removed a donation page that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign committee used to solicit contributions, the company confirmed to Axios.

Driving the news: ActBlue is the lifeblood of grassroots Democratic fundraising. Its decision to cut off Cuomo following damning allegations of sexual harassment and assault deals a body blow to what's left of his political future.

ActBlue donation pages for Cuomo's campaign and PAC were no longer active on Thursday afternoon.

Apparently, if the beggar falls out of grace with the company’s philosophy, ActBlue, drops the client like the proverbial hot potato.

Granted Cuomo fils has been facing complaints of indiscriminate behavior toward women for several years. Cuomo called for the investigation leading to the cited report.²

The Cuomo flap suggests — at last to this scrivener — that Ms. Demings probably is the mold of Clinton/Obama/Harris-Emhoff, a mold that won’t work for me.

I just wish the dumocrats would remove my email from their beggars’ lists.

I complain, but apparently ignoring people of a different point of view is a growing dumocrat trait.

That bodes ill for America.

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Sources

1. Harry S Truman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman)

Harry S Truman and “The Buck Stops Here” desk plaque.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_S._Truman)

2. NPR: Sexual Harassment Charges Against Gov. Cuomo Are Detailed In Scathing 165-Page Report (https://tinyurl.com/dpurzeyf)

 

 

 

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

Comment on Democrat Beggars

Opuscula Will Unilever learn Boycotting Israel Is a risk to business ?

IT STARTED SIMPLY ENOUGH, Ben & Jerry’s social conscience board, led by “I am not an anti-Semite” Anuradha Mittal wanted to boycott Israel.

Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s current owner — it bought Ben & Jerry’s AND the social conscience board from Nestle — was agreeable to boycotting only Ben and Jerry products in what the social conscience board calls “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” a/k/a OPT.

Ben & Jerry’s Israeli franchise owner intends to continue selling his product wherever there is a market, and that includes all of Israel.

Unilever intended to cancel the contract with the Israeli franchise in December 2022, but due to the various boards’ actions, the franchise may be terminated sooner rather than later.;

Ben and Jerry, the original owners, are fine with “not an anti-Semite” Anuradha Mittal’s proposal to boycott all of Israel.

 

THE PROBLEM for Ms. Mittal and England’s Unilever is that boycotts are less and less popular.

In the U.S., where Unilever has a major presence, a number of states have laws banning investment by boycotting companies as well as banning products from those boycotting companies.

As for Israel, it has enough local ice cream producers to keep it’s citizens happy, plus it also imports ice cream — including other Unilever products (see table, below).

What is Unilever risking?

Unilever lists all its products at https://www.unilever.com/

A good many of the products are sold in Israel and in the United States.

The following table lists a sampling of Unilever’s products.

Product	Product	Product
Ben & Jerry's	Helmann's	Day 2
Breyers	Knorr	Dove
Carte d'Or	Lipton	Lifebouy
Klondike	Popsicle	Lux
Magnum	Alberto Balsam	Q-tips
Viennetta	Axe	Camel
Cornetto	Brut	Winston

Unilever seems to invest in a lot of tea and ice cream companies. The first six in Col. 1 all are ice cream. (I thought about including Popsicle, but “real” Popsciles are frozen flavored water on a stick — I happen to LIKE Popscicles.)

Interesting that the English company also invests heavily in soaps and deodorants.

The table is just a partial list of Unilever products; many are found only in Europe.

A number of stores around the world have pulled Ben & Jerry’s ice cream from their shelves.

If the stores extend their discontent to all Unilever products, image the impact on the company and its stockholders.

Will Unilever stockholders tolerate a Ben & Jerry’s dictatorship on the value of their shares?

Diner’s choice: Skimpy burger or Filling Swarma (Internet images)

Gold plated arches

Meanwhile, Israeli media (and maybe elsewhere, too) “discovered” that the so-called OPT also lack a McDonalds.

The McDonald’s franchisee is an Israel leftist who may avoid putting Golden Arches in all parts of Israel, but, apparently McDonald’s HQ limits where the Israeli can open stores. According to Israeli media, the hamburger chain fails to include all of Israel in the Israeli’s franchise.

There are about 180 copies of the Golden Arches in Israel, of which less than a third are under Kosher supervision.

While I do not dine at McDonalds, even “kosher” McDonalds, I have seen Ronald’s hamburgers; small nothings. One of my son’s, visiting Israel, tried the McDonald’s in Bet Shean; it was a novelty — a kosher McDonald’s — nothing more. He did not return.

There are better burgers everywhere.

Burgers are not the typical Israeli’s fare. Shwarma, even falafel is more often the choice for a quick meal. McDonald’s advertising beings in the kid’s business once or twice, but as their diets expand, the Golden Arches prove less and less appealing.

Should McDonald’s be avoided? Is Burger King a better option for a chain burger? What about other possibilities in the neighborhood?

The question for the places that want to punish companies for boycotting all or parts of Israel: is the boycott blatant, a la Ben & Jerry’s, or concealed as in the case of McDonalds.

Israeli’s problem

Foregoing — dare I write “boycotting — Ben & Jerry’s in Israel, or McDonalds in Israel means that Israelis — Arabs, Jews, others — will be out of a job.

The Israeli Ben & Jerry’s franchise employs about 160 Israelis.

Add to those employees the organizations that sell raw materials to Ben & Jerry’s; local dairy farms lead the list of providers.

Israel, while ahead of most of the world, still is recovering from the Chinese virus and its latest variation.

The national budget has been hard hit. Putting more people on the dole puts more strain on the budget.

Whether it is Ben & Jerry’s or McDonalds, Israelis cannot afford to boycott Israeli enterprises, regardless of corporate misbehavior.

Such “I am not an anti-Semite” behavior must be punished by places that won’t put people on the unemployment line.

Misbehavior also can be punished by fund managers who refuse to accept the offender’s money; who remove the offenders from retirement funds (and similar) and their benefits.

As for this scrivener, I will enjoy better ice cream and shwarma elsewhere.

 

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

Web sites (URLs) beginning https://tinyurl.com/ are generated by the free Tiny URL utility and reduce lengthy URLs to manageable size.

 

 

 

 

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