Posted by Tantumblogo in Basics, Domestic Church, foolishness, General Catholic, It's all about the $$$, sadness, scandals, Society, suicide.
Many readers will recall that I was laid off from my job of 8 years (12, actually, but in two different stints) earlier this year. I have described my not only finding a new job, but one that actually allowed me to get a little uptick in pay, as miraculous. Not only did I find that job in record time (5 weeks), but the fact that I didn’t have to take a pay cut after leaving an unusually high paying employer (Fujitsu) was beyond amazing. Your prayers, I am convinced, made all the difference. I shall forever pray for you – I pray.
One thing I was frustrated by during my job search – and I’ve kept looking around just a tiny bit since – is how little salaries in my profession had gone up since the last time I was on the market in 2006. They had remained totally flat, if not decreased a bit. I found many companies unwilling to pay a senior, highly skilled mechanical engineer, with very strong CAD and analysis skills, more than the same amount a year they were offering 10 or 15 years ago. I had a lot of contacts with HR people or hiring managers that got positively peeved when I told them my salary requirements, and I fired back more than once that they were basically paying under $50k a year in 2006 dollars for that $75k salary they were so proud of (when you factor in inflation).
So I was fairly interested to see this news report, and especially the attached graph, that shows how salaries among computer programmers and IT types have actually FALLEN since 2002 in constant dollars, and I can say that software engineers and IT folks have it better than more “old school” engineers like mechanicals.
Meanwhile, barely 2/3 of those with STEM degrees are actually using their degree in their present employment, and the unemployment rate of STEM types has nudged upwards over the years.
All of which proves that the much vaunted STEM shortage is really a fabrication. Or, they never quite finish the sentence…….many corporations, including ones headed by astonishing wealthy individuals (Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc), do have a shortage of STEM workers…..at the very low salaries they want to pay.
That is why, as the article below notes, H-1B visas tend to go to very young, inexperienced workers, making them cheaper still.
Leaching off last week’s DNC Convention, tech industry-behemoths Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon hosted a mini-conference amidst the gathering elite aimed at building awareness of the supposed lack of tech-education among America’s youth. The policy-push comes off Microsoft’s ‘National Talent Strategy’ hatched a few years back; an initiative which the company’s own general counsel apparently admitted was nothing but a ‘![]()
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manufactured crisis’ really geared to serve the industry’s H-1B immigration agenda. Indeed, if America really did have an ‘education crisis’ in the STEM-fields, why do so many of the hundreds of thousands of H-1B professionals imported here every year come from places that do far worse educationally than we do?
The H-1B program was ![]()
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created in 1990 following claims from the then-brand new tech lobby that American professionals with sufficient tech-skills were in short supply. Twenty-five years on, that labor market-shortage has apparently still not been corrected with the industry spending ![]()
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hundreds of millions of dollars a year lobbying Congress to import more and more tech-professionals from abroad. …….
……..Recently, the ![]()
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Immigration Reform Law Institute obtained ![]()
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government records showing that between FY2013 and May of this year, almost one million H-1B petitions for imported white collar-workers were approved by DHS officials. And of all those successful petitions, a whopping 70 percent went to white collar-workers from India. This isn’t exactly surprising. BigTech loves Indian workers; not only because English is India’s national language, but because the workforce there is young (and therefore cheap). Unsurprisingly then, ![]()
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according to DHS-data almost three-quarters of petitions awarded to professionals in 2011 went to those aged between 25 and 34—Gender discrimination’s also likely. Although DHS says it doesn’t track gender-data, one labor association’s ![]()
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estimated that at least 80 percent of H-1B petitions go to men.
For a very long time, I shied away from believing that corporate titans and captains of industry were really as greedy as they are often portrayed as being. But that reticence is becoming harder and harder to maintain.
I don’t mean to sound like a grousing populist man of the people, but I have recent and direct experience of seeing how wages in my profession, the one I was promised by parents, teachers, professors, and counselors alike would always be in high demand and was a “sure bet,” have stagnated if not retreated in constant dollars. I have seen how many long time professionals of eminent capabilities have not been as blessed as I have been, and are still desperately searching for engineering employement 6, 12, 18, even 24+ months after being laid off. Or if they do find employment, it is most often contract-based with no benefits and at a significant cut in pay. And I have seen far too many companies gut their R&D investment, placing short term profits over long-term viability.
Once again, it is little wonder Trump is as popular as he is. It’s not only the blue collar types that are being crushed, it’s a great many white collar professional types, too.
Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, disaster, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, paganism, rank stupidity, sadness, secularism, self-serving, sexual depravity, shocking, Society, unadulterated evil, unbelievable BS.
……….reports like the one below, which just completely suck the life-force out of me, would strongly encourage me to start imploring God to release me from this life. I’m kidding, but not much. I find these reports so devastating. I think of the little boy, raised apparently by a single mother, perhaps a single mother with a great deal of anger for her ex or men in general, who now wants to become a girl – at age five. FIVE! Think about the trauma that must have occurred for a boy that young to reject his own nature and seek to become something else, something opposite, something more like mommy, so maybe mommy will love him just a little bit more.
You may find the last bit somewhat strong, even unfair, but wait until you read the mother’s own words (my emphasis and comments):
The mother of a 5-year-old transgender child is fighting the Pearland Independent School District in Texas to allow her child access to the girls’ bathroom.
Kimberly Shappley — mom of soon-to-be kindergartner, Kai Shappley — said her fight against the school district started in May. The district allows students to use gender-neutral bathrooms, found in some areas of the school, but the mom says that isn’t enough.
“I went to the campus and approached the school district to try and work with them,” she told ABC News today. “I wanted to make sure Kai wouldn’t be discriminated against and be able to use the girl’s bathroom, but it soon became very apparent that the superintendent has a very strong, prejudiced stance against the LGBTQ community.” [Keep that phrase in mind as you read along]
The Pearland School District issued a statement to ABC News explaining that its “stance on transgender students remains” and all “Pearland ISD kindergarten classrooms have a private, gender-neutral bathroom within the classroom for student use.”
But Shapply wasn’t happy with just a gender neutral bathroom. [Strongly implying an activist bent, otherwise, why would not having the same restroom standard as all other students not work?]
Kimberly Shappley told ABC News today that she was still concerned her daughter, Kai, would feel alienated and discriminated against if she wanted to use the girls’ bathroom during recess, physical education, or assemblies — times she might not have access to a kindergarten classroom where a gender-neutral bathroom is available. [At a minimum, if this was really based in reason, you would wait for the problematic situation to develop, rather than just assume it will off the bat. But an activist, someone looking to fight and win a cultural battle, would make a point of arguing an in extremis situation like this from the start, because they are demanding a desired outcome/seeking cultural change]
[Now get this…….]“I am a devout and conservative Christian and an ordained minister,” she said and explained that she tried to “make” her child behave like a boy when he was a toddler. [Then again, some 12-15% of “conservatives” report they always vote democrat, so……]
“I knew my kid was different before the age of 2,” Shappley said. “My child was very feminine, flamboyant and dramatic. No matter how I tried to punish, reshape or discipline her, she continued being very feminine.” [Uhh huh]
Kai, who is named Joseph on his birth certificate, was suicidal. “Kai was begging the Lord to let her die,” she said. “My child would pray and ask the Lord to let Joseph go to heaven and be with Jesus.”
You buying that a five year old was suicidal because of “gender dysphoria”? You buying there isn’t some really severe mental pressure being exerted on poor Joseph? Where is dad, by the way?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is probably all you need to see of poor Joseph:
That’s a soul that will likely never be right. I have known some “transgender” types. They were amazingly, unbelievably messed up, unstable people. Like driving their car into the NA building because someone said something they didn’t like. Like literally messing their own pants when they didn’t get that last cigarette. Being even more slavishly needy of being the object of male sexual gratification to make up for their own lack of masculinity. Unbelievably narcissistic and screwed up. Which is why they make such nasty opponents, there are no lengths to which they will not stoop in pursuit of whatever it is they want.
I don’t believe for a moment this boy arrived at this choice on his own, truly independent volition. What a devastating tragedy.
Posted by Tantumblogo in asshatery, Basics, disaster, error, foolishness, General Catholic, horror, rank stupidity, sadness, scandals, Society, suicide.
Via Rorate, a really interesting post by Dalrock, examining how conservative elites (well, two prominent ones, anyway) now chastise blue-collar whites for falling into the moral morass the self-anointed elites of both parties themselves created. From serial divorce and concubinage to casual drug use (leading to addiction) to contrabortion and now redefining marriage, wealthy elites have by and large been able to escape the painful economic and social effects of the immoral culture they have created. Meanwhile, they castigate blue collar folks “failure” to uphold the very standards the elites themselves have successfully destroyed. Trump’s success is a sign of the peons revolting against those who view themselves as masters:
Love him or hate him, Trump has managed to bring the Republican elite’s seething contempt for the working class to the surface. Back in March, Kevin D. Williamson at National Review wrote that white working class communities deserve to die:
If you spend time in hardscrabble, white upstate New York, or eastern Kentucky, or my own native West Texas, and you take an honest look at the welfare dependency, the drug and alcohol addiction, the family anarchy—which is to say, the whelping of human children with all the respect and wisdom of a stray dog—you will come to an awful realization. It wasn’t Beijing. It wasn’t even Washington, as bad as Washington can be. It wasn’t immigrants from Mexico, excessive and problematic as our current immigration levels are. It wasn’t any of that…
The truth about these dysfunctional, downscale communities is that they deserve to die. Economically, they are negative assets. Morally, they are indefensible…[I have liked a great deal of what Williamson writes, but never saw this before. As someone who visits these kinds of locales regularly, several times a year, and has family scattered throughout them, I find this gravely offensive and about as backwards as one can get. What is the greatest predictor of economic disadvantage, tendency towards crime, and drug addiction? Growing up in a single parent (mom only) household. But it wasn’t the working class whites of Muleshoe or Watertown or Harlan County that clamored for divorce on demand, it was the white upper and upper middle classes. The working class have embraced the false freedoms imposed by the sexular pagan elite, to their shame and great self-injury, but they didn’t create this mess, in fact, in many cases they were some of the most stalwart opponents of the agenda the elites insisted on imposing, and yet now they are being blamed for it as is it were their own. Surely there is enormous blame to go around, I’m not giving those folks a pass, but I will say that, even to this day in the small towns I visit regularly, there is far less divorce, concubinage, and drug addiction than there is in the “sainted” big city.]
Trump’s focus has been on the elite’s policy of driving down the wages of the working class through lopsided trade deals and flooding our economy with cheap foreign labor. Williamson ironically disregards the economic crisis faced by the working class by accurately noting that our elites have done even more damage by creating a new family model that only works for the upper middle class. [It doesn’t even work for them, the children are devastated and eventually enough will be brought low by this that whole families will sink from “upper-whatever” to “lower-whatever” class. But the upper classes generally have the financial wherewithal, the reserves, to weather the devastation of frivorce and other ails better than the lower classes]
The callousness on display here is breathtaking, yet it is commonplace amongst Republican elites. [Is it? My gut says yes, certainly, Republican elites have always been disdainful of social conservatives and our concerns, preferring to please the donor class. Not sure how much more evidence there is, however, of a bias specifically against icky lower middle class blue collar types] Much of the contempt for Trump stems from the contempt the elite have for the segment of society that he is reaching out to, a segment the Republican elites have done their best to ignore for decades. This shines through even when members of the elite try to learn from Trump’s example…….
[Now another damning quote from another conservative writer]………They will have to go to the Fishtowns of America, to the forgotten and shuttered places, and by word and deed show the people there, however backward they might be, that they can rebuild their lives and their communities, and that they aren’t alone anymore…..[Wow]
………This attempt by the Republican elites to minimize the plight of the white working class is not only foolish politically, but is also built on moral quicksand. It is true that the dysfunction we observe typically involves poor choices by all involved. But it is also true that these same elites have reworked marriage to a model that only works for the elite.
That is, one not built around the father-provider and mother-nurturer, but basically eliminating the father from the family and replacing him with Uncle Sugar, the surrogate provider of the state. That method denies an increasing number of children, tens of millions of them, a father, almost insuring future poverty, joblessness, poor education, and a profound tendency towards crime. It gravely wounds society from a moral standpoint, of course, but also produces young people of weak moral fiber and with little work-ethic, helping insure the economic malaise Williamson, et. al., claim to find so damning.
I’m still not terribly down with Trump, but I have zero problem understanding why so many are. I’m far from certain he’s the right answer to the problems crises so many face, but I can understand why folks would be willing to take a shot on the perceived outsider, no matter how dubious that perception may be.
It’s amazing how far we’ve fallen. Can you imagine Ronald Reagan, or William Safire, arguing to just write off all the small towns and rural districts of America? THEY ARE YOUR NUMBER ONE BASE!!!!!! No group votes more consistently “(R) than rural whites. What kind of idiot would think something like that, let alone write it?! What an amazingly tribalistic, classist notion.
But that’s where we’re at. I really fear this country is way beyond any political savior at this point, the moral rot is too deep, the evil too widespread. The center cannot hold, the best lack all conviction, and all that. Perhaps I’ll be surprised, however. We’ll see.
Posted by Tantumblogo in awesomeness, Basics, catachesis, different religion, episcopate, error, Francis, General Catholic, persecution, Restoration, Revolution, scandals, SSPX, the struggle for the Church, Tradition, true leadership, Virtue.
An interesting addendum to the already widely reported interview of Archbishop Pozzo of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei; after previously opining that a breakthrough with the SSPX is perhaps tantalizingly close, he also made some very revealing comments regarding Vatican II, arguing that some or even most of the documents are not-doctrinal or non-dogmatic in nature and are not binding on conscience.
Of course, many, many Catholics, most all attached to the traditional Mass, have argued this for years. There are entire books on the subject (see Msgr. Brunero Gharardini’s books) In fact, even Paul VI at least once described Vatican II as a strictly pastoral council. Of course, where Vatican II repeats dogma already solemnly defined, it is dogmatic in that sense. But in the novelties – which is of course where the crisis has always laid (lain?) – its binding authority on conscience has always been at least highly debatable, if not non-existent.
Archbishop Pozzo seems to argue for the latter, relevant excerpts from One Peter Five below, I add some comments:
There is a section in the interview that is especially worth noting, inasmuch as it may facilitate proper doctrinal discourse among a wide range of conservative and traditional Catholics. In it, Archbishop Pozzo explains why it may be possible for the SSPX to be fully integrated into the structures of the Catholic Church without their previously accepting some of the documents of Vatican II, namely Nostra Aetate, about interreligious dialogue; the decree Unitatis Redintegratio, on ecumenism; the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae, on religious liberty; and, finally, other texts relating to the question of the relationship between Christianity and Modernity. [Such as, say, Guadium Et Spes, especially #12] While saying that “the Council is not a pastoral superdogma, but part of the completeness [sic]of tradition and the continuous Magisterium,” Pozzo makes clear that there are some texts of the Council that are not doctrinal and are thus not binding on the Catholic conscience. Pozzo stresses that “the Church’s tradition is developing, but never in the sense of a novelty – which stands in contrast to the previous teaching – but which is a deeper understanding of the Depositum fidei, the authentic deposit of the Faith.” Pozzo continues, by saying that
In this [same] sense, all [the] Church’s documents have to be understood, also those of the Council. These preconditions, together with the obligation to affirm the Creed, the recognition of the Sacraments and of the papal primacy are the basis for the magisterial declaration which the Fraternity has been given to sign. These are the preconditions for a Catholic, in order to be in full communion with the Catholic Church……….
…..With regard to the earlier-mentioned documents above – Nostra Aetate about interreligious dialogue; the decree Unitatis Redintegratio on ecumenism; and the Declaration Dignitatis Humanae on religious liberty – Pozzo explicitly says:
They are not about doctrines or definitive statements, but, rather, about instructions and orienting guides for pastoral practice. One can [thus legitimately] continue to discuss these pastoral aspects after the [proposed] canonical approval [of the SSPX], in order to lead us to further [and acceptable] clarifications.
When asked by the journalist as to whether the Vatican has now come to the idea that the varied Council documents have different dogmatic weights, Pozzo very importantly states:
This is certainly not a [later] conclusion on our part, but it was already clear at the time of the Council. The General Secretary of the Council, Cardinal Pericle Felici, declared on 16 November 1964: “This holy synod defines only that as being binding for the Church what it declares explicitly to be such with regard to Faith and Morals.” Only those texts assessed by the Council Fathers as being binding are to be accepted as such. That has not been [later] invented by “the Vatican,” but it is written in the official files themselves. [In point of fact, numerous histories present this – and I fully believe the facts bear this out – as being a critical selling point in gaining approval for documents like Nostra Aetate and Dignitatis Humanae, even with the other shenanigans that went on, like losing the 400-odd petitions submitted on time to further amend DH in order to get the document approved as it was. Paul VI put very heavy pressure on the Council Fathers to gain those near unanimous approvals he so coveted, but, to do so, he had to confirm on various occasions the pastoral nature of these documents. That the liberals would turn even pastoral documents into all-conquering super-dogmas should perhaps have been foreseen, but it’s easy to say that in hindsight.]
In response to a possible critique that important Council declarations such as Nostra Aetate could thus be more fully and openly denied, Pozzo declares:
The secretary for the Unity of Christians said on 18 November 1964 in the Council Hall about Nostra Aetate: “As to the character of the declaration, the secretariat does not want to write a dogmatic declaration on non-Christian religions, but, rather, practical and pastoral norms.” Nostrae Aetate does not have any dogmatic authority, and thus one cannot demand from anyone to recognize this declaration as being dogmatic. [This is the key. And I would certainly agree. Unfortunately, most of the hierarchy does not, and continues to treat every document of Vatican II as a super-dogma trumping everything that came before. There remains bitter division among cardinals, bishops, etc., as to what degree of authority these documents have.] This declaration can only be understood in the light of tradition and of the continuous Magisterium. For example, there exists today, unfortunately, the view – contrary to the Catholic Faith – that there is a salvific path independent of Christ and His Church. That has also been officially confirmed last of all by the Congregation for the Faith itself in its declaration, Dominus Jesus. Therefore, any interpretation of Nostrae Aetate which goes into this [unfortunate and erroneous] direction is fully unfounded and has to be rejected. [my emphasis added]
Well, tragically, tell that to Cardinals Koch, Marx, Maradiaga, Schoenborn, and many others, all of which have tried to pretend that Jews still have a valid covenant and path to salvation outside of Jesus Christ.
As gratified as I am to see Archbishop Pozzo’s comments, and certainly agree with them, the fact remains, they remain in the distinct minority in the Church today. Most high-ranking prelates and local ordinaries hold strongly to the belief that every document – every jot and tittle, so to speak – of Vatican II is not only dogmatic, but supersedes and replaces all that came before.
The ONLY way this matter will ever be settled, as a good local priest said recently, is for a future pope or pope/council to settle it. That’s the only way to overcome the division and endless argument that has been the status quo for 50+ years.
Even then, it will be a bitter struggle to overcome the deeply entrenched, deeply erroneous views held by so many in the Church today, from the “lowest” lay person to the most powerful cardinal. It will require a pontiff who is a truly great Saint, a Pius V or someone similar, with the enormous depth of faith and clarity of vision to overcome the resistance that will surely develop.
But, in human terms, we seem light years from that at present. In fact, we seem headed away from Restoration fast, and deeper into the endless darkening maze of Revolution. God does have a way of working tremendous surprises and unprecedented comebacks, however. Prayer and penance remain our most important weapons in this struggle.
h/t reader TT. Many thanks for all the good leads.
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