Archive for 2019

TRUMP’S LINGUISTIC KILLSHOT: “Mini Mike” Bloomberg.

NO. DHS wants to expand airport face recognition scans to include US citizens.

Related: China Takes Another Step into ‘1984.’ “Every Chinese who updates his cellular service will have a 3-D mathematical model of his face uploaded into China’s massive surveillance system. Combined with ‘social credit,’ it will be damn near impossible for anyone to get away with anything. Worse than sci-fi notions of jailing people for ‘precrime,’ the Chinese system reduces people’s private space to virtually nil. Everything is recorded, and the algorithms connecting individuals to actions will be unbeatable for a regime as brutal as Xi’s.”

That’s from my latest VIP column for PJMedia. If you’ve been thinking about becoming a member, the promo code VODKAPUNDIT is good for a nice little discount.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Cops Should Do a Wellness Check on Woman In Peloton Christmas Ad. “Honestly, after weeks of nothing but impeachment news, Peloton may have just saved America’s collective sanity by letting this be the focus of a post-long weekend Monday. This fictional frightened woman’s yearlong journey to lose the 14 ounces of water weight that her husband the good Doctor Mengele insists she musts is the Christmas miracle that a news-weary world needs.”

I just watched the ad, and the creep factor is off the charts.

BRICKS & MORTAR: Retailers Revamp Staffing as Fewer Shoppers Visit Stores.

Some chains, including Target, Walmart and Best Buy Co., have posted strong sales in recent years by adapting to the shift to online shopping. They use their stores to handle deliveries or convince shoppers to pick up orders rather than wait for an Amazon.com Inc. package.

Target says it now sources 80% of its online orders from stores, not warehouses. At the Brooklyn store around 80 workers handle internet orders, collecting products from shelves or putting items into boxes in the backroom for delivery.

Target retrained the bulk of its 300,000 year-round U.S. workers over the past year, giving them new titles and responsibilities. The Minneapolis, Minn.-based retailer hopes to mold each into an expert for a specific area of the store such as the beauty department, toys or online fulfillment to offer better customer service and use labor spending more efficiently.

Keeping staffers in the stores smartly avoids a common death spiral. Stores cut back on staffers because fewer people are coming in, but fewer people come in because there’s no one there to assist them.