Nothing About The Bakken -- Entirely Political, I Suppose -- Just Idle Chatter -- If You Came Here For The Bakken, Scroll Down Or To The Sidebar At The Right -- October 20, 2016

Updates

October 22, 2016: right, wrong, or indifferent; whether you agree with the thesis in this Huffington Post article, it is interesting how easy it would be to amend Hillary's quote at the very end of the article. For better understanding, it's best to read the entire article at the link, the original post below, and then focus on this line from Hillary:

"I will not cut benefits,” Clinton said Wednesday night. “I want to enhance benefits for low-income workers and for women, who have been disadvantaged by the Social Security system.”

It would take little to change this to:

"I will not cut benefits. I want to enhance benefits for low-income workers, for women, and for African-Americans, who have been disadvantaged by the Social Security system and by the legacy of slavery.”

Original Post

 

Folks may or may not be paying attention, but the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for African-Americans is "reparations." (It came up recently in a column in The New Yorker.)

Some years ago, African-American think tanks brainstormed on a strategic path to "reparations."

A "strategic" plan is generally a plan for some outcome 25 to 30 years down the road. Think tanks put up easels and whiteboards and smart boards with "where we are now" to the far left, and an "our goal" in a speech bubble at the far right.

Some years ago, before Barack Obama was elected president, African-American think tanks held conferences to work out strategic plans to finally "get" the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Along that continuum, probably near the center, from the far left easel in the room ("where we are now") to the smart board at the far right with the speech bubble "reparations" was one stepping stone titled "a movement."

The think tanks realized that for their goal of reparations "a movement" was needed. At the time, no one had any idea of what that movement might be or what that movement might look like. But is was a spaceholder, an empty speech bubble looking for an opportunity.

Fortuitously for anyone who can claim to have a slave in his or her past, including some of Thomas Jefferson's descendants, I suppose, along came #BlackLivesMatter. The movement.

I was reminded of that when reading this story from The Seattle Times: 2,000 Seattle teachers wear "Black Lives Matter" shirts to class.

Major stepping stones along the path of a strategic plan have offshoots. The movement bubble had lots of empty bubbles that would need to be filled. One of the bubbles was labeled "Sports." Again, no one knew how that would play out, but the "Kaepernick phenomenon" is likely to replace "Pink - Breast Cancer Awareness" in the NFL as the next big "charity" to support. Instead of "pink socks" and "pink ribbons" NFL players will be wearing black hashtags (#) and black bandannas. 

The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow came very, very close to becoming a talking point this presidential campaign season, and perhaps only because of overreaching (Ferguson, Baltimore, and Cleveland) was the topic put on the back burner, but it will be moved back to the front of the stove sooner or later.

The method of paying out reparations will not be an issue. Most likely, the first step will simply be an increased allotment in social security for all seniors who are African-American (major voting bloc). Done. This is not rocket science. Newborns will be given "starter-amounts" in IRA-like accounts, most likely managed by Goldman Sachs.

It's very possible that some second grader whose teacher wore one of those "Black Lives Matter" shirts to school in Seattle this week, will grow up to be president and will find herself in the second to last speech bubble on one of those easels at one of those think tanks campaigning for that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Because if Black Lives Matter, reparations matter. I can already see the SNL skit.

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The Apple Page

IBM: Macs are up to $453 less expensive than PCs over four years.

There were assumptions early on that Macs would be significantly more expensive than PCs, but over the last year, IBM has found that it's actually PCs that are more expensive. Over a four-year lifespan, Previn says IBM saves up to $543 per Mac compared to a PC.

But isn't it expensive, and doesn't it overload IT? No. IBM found that not only do PCs drive twice the amount of support calls, they're also three times more expensive. That's right, depending on the model, IBM is saving anywhere from $273 - $543 per Mac compared to a PC, over a four-year lifespan. "And this reflects the best pricing we've ever gotten from Microsoft," Previn said. Multiply that number by the 100,000+ Macs IBM expects to have deployed by the end of the year, and we're talking some serious savings.

At last year's Jamf conference, Previn made similar comments. At the time, it had been only months since IBM deployed the Macs, but already, IBM had been noticing savings because Macs required less management and setup efforts than PCs, despite costing more up front. 

"Every Mac that we buy is making and saving IBM money," Previn said last year, and at this year's conference, that remained true. "Every Mac we buy is in fact continuing to make and save IBM money," he reiterated.

Macs are continuing to grow in popularity with IBM employees, and 73 percent say they want their next machine to be a Mac. To keep up with demand, IBM is deploying 1,300 new Macs each week, using Jamf and Apple's Device Enrollment Program to get new users set up quickly.