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This is a test of LibreOffice word processing.

I have been obsessed with customer satisfaction lately.

I don’t like shopping at my local Safeway anymore and last Friday I let them know it. There are seldom enough checker or baggers and the woman at self-checkout is snarly (an employee complained about her too), and that usually doesn’t operate at full capacity either. So just leave me alone, it is a good company with good products and prices, and I’ll be fine…

It almost never works that way. Some of the items or specials you can’t just scan as they have coupons or codes or something, so an actual person helps. But the biggest problem is things ringing up wrong, and it almost never happens in a customer-favorable way. Usually they are items with significant savings and I have more than one. The bad/undependable checkout staffing means, maybe half the time, I don’t notice it. Even if I do, I am tired of the arguments. If I don’t notice it immediately, I have to go back, first I have to re-check the shelf, then go and wait and argue… There is never anyone staffed there. Maybe I have to wait while they go check the shelf.

And then something is supposed to be free or credited, no? What, for the store/manager, is the incentive to correct it otherwise? And for the customer/me, this was all so I could get it at the displayed price anyway? It is so common it could be called intentional, or allowed.

(A bit more on the if it rings up wrong it is free thing. I heard that from employees at this store before, until they were corrected. Stores do it and customers expect it. Preach.)

Unemployment is down… At one point, maybe two or three months ago, they had a big sign saying they’re trying to hire. It is a company-owned store and Denver is big and growing. It appears that, overall, it is just not a big enough concern.

“You can pick it up next time you are in the store,” the manager said. It does make me think about the community presence and the assumption that I’ll be back. Me too. I do not enjoy berating these women—they are all women—who are the same people I often see in the store. Now I am known as “the grape juice guy.”

I also do not like not having control over what goes on my credit cards.

So maybe it is not a nice place to work. What did the assistant manager say, they are “minus 17.”  Perhaps it is a bit of a tough labor market, but I bet there are people at Safeway who know how to staff a store. I think it is like a lot of things—you have to find people who want to do it.

Next, the scam internet seller. Bank of America. Tanga. I heart consumer behavior!

(more…)

Those who know me know I am a student of gender roles.

This is one of the most amazing phenomena I have seen.  How one can screen out terrorists or anyone who could commit such an act is probably the most obvious problem associated with it.  The refugee situation in Europe is going to blow up.

There is a severe and growing rape problem.  New Year’s eve in particular, hundreds of women were groped or otherwise accosted by gangs, Muslims, or refugees.  Certain (Scandanavian/Norway) countries are providing “lessons” on how to treat women.

There is a culture clash over the treatment of women by these younger males.  There are contributing issues, such as the make-up of the immigrants (80% male), shelter, treatment, etc.

There is even an undercurrent to cover it up.  All the tough decisions on the refugees, Muslims, and terrorists could be revisited.  Individuals too, who want to be tolerant, could be in a bind while others will certainly fight back.

The events in Cologne are stunning.

Now it is turning to, and it may become about, crime.  Crime.  You just can’t defend it.

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6527/migrants-rape-germany

http://www.examiner.com/article/pro-refugee-merkela-mulls-deportation-after-1-000-muslims-sexually-attack-women

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/01/07/muslim-male-refugees-are-raping-women-in-europe-n2100918

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/08/cologne-attacks-hard-questions-new-years-eve

“Golfing is not a verb.”

Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci, and Billy Crudup are excellent.

Mark Ruffalo and Michael Keaton (stage name!) are a little contorted playing Bostonians; Rachel McAdams’ character is a cliche’; there’s the colleague who is the family guy; the church boosters are predictable too.

It is a massive story (albeit one that is slightly old).  The movie speaks a bit to the role and responsibility of major newspapers but that too is dated.  Still, the role of a muckraker…

(more…)

“The news is watching my fb and the man on the moon so I love u but I’m out for a while,” he wrote.

The apartment in Quincy.

Salinas, Redding, and finally Quincy.  Quincy looks isolated.

The brother is charged with arson.  A sister died two years ago in a car accident and the youngest children were hers.  The ex-husband is begging for money on Facebook so he can be there–the three oldest children are his–even though he is “out for a while.”

The mother is only 39, the boyfriend 17, and the twins are almost teenagers.

I don’t know why this sticks in my mind.  It is like crooked cop, a cry for help, he or she wants to get caught.

Who are these people?  Was the woman capable–mentally, financially, and otherwise–of raising five kids?  Who is the 17-year old and was he in it to become a father to this family?  And the father of the three surviving…  Who is providing apartments for this group?  (Answer:  probably the anonymous caller with the questions about the very young kids.)

It looks like the writing was on the wall.  Apparently, the woman just could not do it.

But still, plastic storage containers.  Apparently she just rented the storage unit “Friday.”  She has been with the 17-year old a year.

Monterey County Weekly.  Really fascinating journalism.  Meth?  Listen to what he has to say?  What could he possibly have to say.  $400 a month.  Restraining order dismissed; maybe you can’t make that up; perhaps you could make it up.  Neighbors said it and everyone knew.  Isn’t Salinas a wealthy area?

http://www.redding.com/news/local/police-try-to-piece-together-possible-double-murder-case-26f41e38-1520-7fdf-e053-0100007f8b7b-362557391.html

(more…)

Flint is an interesting city.  State police have to help there because the city cannot support a proper police force.  Now it is the water from the Flint River.

The shooting of the federal judge and the 13 robberies targeting senior citizens was in Detroit.  Was the encounter on the porch random?

Flint water.  Preparing for developmental problems.

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/CommentView.aspx?guid=dbd3071f-3f33-4526-97cb-30324d4ffd0c#commentstart

Thank you to my many fans.  Or I should say fan.  I’m going to try and tell the elk story, and all that is related, here from now on.

It is pcpfeiffer.co.

This site is for more and other things.

“What a Justice Department investigation of police can actually do”

I know, I know, Jeffco is immune.

“It is the pattern,” I said to the two deputies who recently came to my home, unannounced.  Actually, I specifically told them not to come to my house.  This was four days after I opened the case, and I called as a reminder.

This time they gave me business cards (INSERT IMAGE).  In the past, usually (and in one alarming instance), I have been told “There will be no cards.”  Anyway, the two women were really just trying to do their job.

“Patterns and practices.”

And then there is the time I stopped off at the district attorney’s office to talk specifically about “force.”  (INSERT IMAGE OF CHIEF INVESTIGATOR’S BUSINESS CARD.)

“Arrogance” really is not the right word.  Denial, or lack of it, is a big part of the problem.  Somewhere, somehow, someone has got to take responsibility.  Organizations do not make decisions, people do.

Here’s another word:  “conspiracy.”

And this too just has to be mentioned.  There are other departments within Jefferson County that operate this way too.  More another time.  It is sort of like the “We pay the invoice after the third call” thing.  Only even then it may not be paid.

P.S.  William Robirds?  This was originally written before this.  Honest.  Arrogant would be one interpretation; “completely unable to work with” would be another.  The whole thing is a giant distraction–you cannot investigate yourself.  Damn it!  It says that in my original email also, and the whole thing was only 4-5 paragraphs long.  Did you only read half of it?

EDIT:  This is talking about the 1994 Violent Crime and Law Enforcement Act.  It goes back to slavery and…  that’s a Section 1983 claim (Enforcement Act of 1871); color of law is mostly the way I have been looking at the local problems.

In 1994, Congress empowered the Justice Department to look at — and force — systemic changes in local police departments, and in some cases courts approved and managed binding reform agreements.

I believe he is the shooter.

33 years

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13974464

“Peterson, who walks with difficulty but no longer uses a wheelchair, spent 10 weeks in the hospital recovering from two fractures in his upper neck; a broken pelvis, femur and hand; and broken ribs.”

http://archive.9news.com/news/story.aspx?storyid=121703&catid=339

mike peterson

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-peterson-25525415?trk=seokp-title_posts_secondary_cluster_res_author_name

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27396405/jeffco-sheriff-shoplifting-duo-threatened-employee-had-child

They keep showing this Carpenters documentary on PBS.  “Gives me chills.”  Still, it can be sappy.  Paul Williams:  Thanks Mr. Trashcan.