How not to do customer service

It’s also interesting to see how incompetence permeates through every aspect of an organization. From Peter King’s weekly NFL column, to which I’m not going to bother to link because it is very long and mostly unrelated to the excerpted section:

Spike Lee has been a season ticket holder to Knicks games for about 30 years. He is America’s Sporting Masochist. He has evidently been entering Madison Square Garden through the media entrance for a while, and the Knicks wanted him to enter through the VIP entry gate instead. The Knicks picked last Monday night, when Lee was on a crowded elevator, to enforce the rule that he should be entering through the VIP entrance. According to Spike, he was asked to leave the building and re-enter through the proper gate. Lee said no. Which led to a fight, and Lee going on ESPN to lay waste to the Knicks, and the Knicks issuing a press release to rip Spike. As only it could, the New York Post hilariously labeled the brouhaha “Gategate.”

Now, I am definitely not a subscriber to “the customer is always right” theory. Some customers are morons. Some are a massive pain in the posterior, so much so that one is better off without them as customers. As our valued supporters of the Replatforming know, I tend to prefer the “just RTFM, please” approach. But this sort of thing is stupid because it is so pointless and unnecessary. It obviously isn’t an actual problem, it’s just some autistic gamma in the organization sperging out about the fact that a category is being misapplied.

The correct thing to do is fire the autistic gamma for failure to be human, not publicly attack your best customer because his broken perspective of the world was offended.

The big shutdown

Definite le nuove misure nazionali di contenimento dell’emergenza. Nell’articolo 1 della bozza del nuovo decreto del governo compare il divieto di ingresso e di uscita dalla Lombardia e da altre 11 province, e l’estensione delle zone controllate a Piemonte ed Emilia-Romagna. Nel dettaglio, le province diventate “zona rossa” sono le seguenti: Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Pesaro e Urbino, Venezia, Padova, Treviso, Asti e Alessandria. Tutte le nuove disposizioni sono valide da oggi marzo fino al 3 aprile.

No travel into or out of Lombardia and a number of other provinces until April third, which is a quarantine of 16 million people. Good thing we’ve got the wine cellar well-stocked through September, at the very least! Seems like a bit of an overreaction to me, but we’ll see. In the meantime, I anticipate most Italians will consider this to be a grand holiday of sorts.

And no, I’m not particularly concerned despite the drastic measures being taken. The country with the largest known test sample, South Korea, is seeing a mortality rate of 0.6 percent, which is only four times more lethal than the average flu. And while the 4 percent death rate based on the official numbers in Italy looks bad, the fact is that most people who have been infected don’t know they have it and have not been counted as an official case.

I strongly suspect something that we simply don’t understand is taking place, and that we’ll eventually be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together. In the meantime, get plenty of sleep, drink plenty of fluids, and take vitamins C and D.

Besides, it’s still not a pandemic, right?

UPDATE: While the government has announced the quarantine of Lombardia as well as parts of the Veneto, Emilia Romagna, and Piemonte, they aren’t shutting down the roads or the airports yet. They haven’t even closed the borders with France or Switzerland at this point.

Mailvox: Ignoring is not passive-aggression

An emailer reveals a number of assumptions:

Emails. The gamma can’t help but type novels. So, help me understand this about the hierarchy: I’ve always thought that most people ignore emails out of passive-aggressiveness, to control conversations, and because they’re cowards.

Clearly though, there’s a time to ignore people. However, I hate to do it, because I don’t want to be the above mentioned things. I’m fine being an asshole, but a coward… no.

How do you choose when and who to ignore? You obviously engage annoying people privately at length. Why?

I’ll leave it to the readers here to point out the obvious ironies here, but I will correct a misapprehension and point out that I do not engage annoying people privately at length, ever. Most of my private replies are very short and I very seldom respond to a second email. The only place I provide longer responses is here on the blog.

And for any even modestly public figure, the correct time to ignore emails is every single freaking day. You know those people who say that although they don’t respond to every email, they do read all of them? Rest assured, most of them don’t even do that.

The Book of the Month

This month’s Replatforming book is timely, in light of the global pandemic taking place just as spring approaches. It is, of course, GROW OR DIE: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening by David the Good. Now you can acquire it for as little as $1 and join the Replatforming in one fell swoop.

What if everything collapsed tomorrow? What if the shelves on the supermarket were empty? What if you couldn’t get gas for your tiller? What if you didn’t stockpile fertilizer… or water? What if you’ve never even planted a garden in your life… and your life depended on growing your own food?

Don’t panic!

GROW OR DIE: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening has the answers. From hand tools that will till the ground better than a tractor to plans for growing all the calories you need in a crisis to easy-to-follow crop rotations that will beat the pests, this book is the cheapest insurance you can own against the crash we all know is coming sooner or later.

You’ll discover how to scrounge for seeds in unlikely places. How to till without a tiller. How to preserve your harvest. How to beat pests without poison. How to convert a lawn into a food factory. How to garden to survive in emergencies and crises.

Join the Replatforming here. Ebook, audio, and paperback. If you’re already a Replatformer, please note that today is the last day you can redeem your coupons and download WARDOGS INC. #1. The February paperbacks will go out next week.

Mailvox: maybe I do have a point

A critic apologizes for assuming my nonexistent heresy:

I wrote you a letter concerning the trinity of God and I want to apologize for scolding you. I have come to understand the revelation of The Bible better these past few days and I admit I jumped the gun in criticizing your argument about the trinity. There are apparent contradictions between The Bible and the teaching about The Trinity like many believe it. I think this stems from the wrong interpretation that the catholic church presents about God. I also went over your argument again and admit that there is a contradiction between The Word of God and this belief in The Trinity as it is many times taught in different circles.

Accepted. As I frequently point out, any time an argument is reliant upon an observable falsehood or deception, it is usually being made in defense of a false position. The mere fact that I am frequently and erroneously criticized for not subscribing to “the Nicene Creed” when I am in fact the one subscribing to the actual Nicene Creed of 325 as opposed to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 that most Christians wrongly believe to be “the Nicene Creed” should be sufficient to give the average critic pause.

It is also worth noting that the third Ecumenical Council of 431 reaffirmed the original 325 version of the Nicene Creed and rejected the later pseudo-Nicene version. And finally, you may wish to consider the fact that Sir Isaac Newton independently came to the same conclusion that I did. As for me, I could not care less if all the modern theologians from all the modern sects and churches and denominations declare otherwise. Given their assertions on various other theological matters, I tend to rather like our odds of being the party more in line with the truth.

Operation Spring Shield

The recent Turko-Russian war you didn’t hear about:

Over the course of a week, from February 27 through March 5, Syria’s Idlib province transitioned from being ground zero for a war between the Syrian army and allied forces, and heavily armed groups opposed to the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad, into a geopolitical powder keg that threatened to pull the Turkish and Russian militaries into direct conflict with one another. On March 1, Turkey, following up on threats previously made by President Erdogan to drive the Syrian Army and its allies back to the line of demarcation set forth in the original Sochi Agreement, unleashed a major offensive, dubbed “Operation Spring Shield” and involving thousands of Turkish troops fighting alongside anti-Assad formations.

This operation soon fizzled; not only was the Turkish advance halted in its tracks, but the Syrian Army, supported by Hezbollah and pro-Iranian militias, were able to recapture much of the territory lost in the earlier fighting. Faced with the choice of either escalating further and directly confronting Russian forces, or facing defeat on the battlefield, Erdogan instead flew to Moscow.

The new additional protocol, which entered into effect at midnight Moscow time on Friday, March 6, represents a strategic defeat for Erdogan and the Turkish military which, as NATO’s second-largest standing armed force, equipped and trained to the highest Western standards, should have been more than a match for a rag-tag Syrian Army, worn down after nine years of non-stop combat. The Syrian armed forces, together with its allies, however, fought the Turks to a standstill. Moreover, the anti-Assad fighters that had been trained and equipped by the Turks proved to be a disappointment on the battlefield.

One of the major reasons behind the Turkish failure was the fact that Russia controlled the air space over Idlib, denying the Turks the use of aircraft, helicopters and drones, while apparently using their own aircraft, together with the Syrian Air Force, to pummel both the Turkish military and their allied anti-Assad forces. In the end, the anti-Assad fighters were compelled to take shelter within so-called ‘Observation posts’– heavily fortified Turkish garrisons established under the Sochi Agreement, intermingling with Turkish forces to protect themselves from further attack. Operation Spring Shield turned out to be a resounding defeat for the Turks and their allies.

This marks the second time in two years that Russia has orchestrated the defeat of a concentrated anti-Assad military action, and done so without triggering the US-Russian war that the neocons are desperately hoping to spark.

It also offers more evidence that the US military’s capabilities are more limited than anyone presently understands. The US military and its allies have been heavily dependent upon air supremacy since 1944, but that is no longer necessarily the case.

Modernity’s Frankenstein

William S. Lind believes that Corona-chan heralds the eventual end of globalism.

We have to face the fact that in the face of new plagues, Globalism is suicide.  The only thing that works is quarantine. In the Middle Ages, some Italian towns saved themselves from the plague by a policy of immurement: any house where plague appeared was bricked up, with the people inside.

The equivalent for us now is to shut down all international travel.  No one may enter the United States without going through a period of quarantine.  The current wisdom is that a two-week quarantine is sufficient. That may change. With future genetically engineered plagues, the quarantine may have to be longer.  In Thomas Hobbes’ novel Victoria, entry into Europe requires a three-month quarantine on Heligoland Island.  Of course, anyone illegally attempting to enter the country and thereby avoiding quarantine must be shot dead.

In future cases, it may also be necessary to prohibit all imported goods.  It should not be too difficult to create plagues that are transmitted by things: by food imports, by cars or car parts, by anything that an American might end up handling.  The toxins would be designed, at least initially, to come through the skin. With genetic engineering, there is almost no limit on hideous characteristics a disease can be given.  Modernity, meet your Frankenstein.

If he’s right, we’ll all be saying “thank you, Corona-chan!” Eventually…. And remember, by their fruits, ye shall know them. The fruits of globalism are observably evil.

Move away, Swedes

It is their country now:

Two Muslim women with opposing views on a headscarf ban in schools clashed in a fierce TV debate in Sweden. The teacher told the politician that people uncomfortable with the veil should just leave the country.

The heated exchange between Naouel Aissaoui, a school teacher in the Swedish municipality of Skurup, and local politician Loubna Stensaker Goransson was over a ban on veils in public schools, which Goransson and other council officials enacted in December. The decision angered many educators, and Aissaoui is among those leading the pushback.

“Move away if it annoys you,” Aissaoui said during a TV debate after her opponent said she disliked seeing little girls wearing the veil. “This is my country, too.”

Move where? All they are going to do is follow you. Better to sink the ships, reject the refugees, end the subsidies, repatriate the immigrants, and stay where you are.

It is absolutely immoral to allow refugees to settle in your country. And the Bible is one long lesson about the horrific consequences of permitting even moderate numbers of foreigners to live among you, beginning with Egypt and Canaan.

Immigration is rather like free speech. Both are scams that are intended to convince the target to lower its natural defenses until the balance of power is sufficiently altered. Then the vital importance of minority feelings and cultural norms abruptly disappear.

Warren retires to the reservation

Super Tuesday took out Elizabeth Warren too.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts plans to drop out of the presidential race on Thursday and will inform her staff of her plans later this morning, according to a person close to her, ending a run defined by an avalanche of policy plans that aimed to pull the Democratic Party to the left and appealed to enough voters to make her briefly a front-runner last fall, but that proved unable to translate excitement from elite progressives into backing from the party’s more working-class and diverse base.

Creepy Joe vs Socialist Jew. It’s not a contest, since the black vote is much more important in the Democratic primary than it is in the general election. That means Creepy Joe wins the right to be ritually offered up to the god-emperor.

Enjoy the Trumpslide.