The preceding is necessary to explain how I finally got an APL programming job at an IBM facility in north Irving, just off the loop. I did not work for IBM but for a smaller software services company supplying subcontractors. In a past post I explained that APL is interpretive, powerful language often used in prototyping and actuarial applications, and I had gotten my IT break as a self-taught trainee working for the property actuary department at a well-regarded insurance company. My manager's given name was Maureen. She was one of those people who don't handle stress well and tended to use managerial authority in a very intimidating and inappropriate/ineffective way; she also had what I would call an ideological feminist chip on her shoulder--if you objected to something, she was quick to jump to "it's because I'm a woman, isn't it? You wouldn't be saying this to a man, would you?" Actually, I push back on bad ideas whatever the source. My best AND worst managers happened to be men.
Maureen used to meet weekly with each of her small staff of programmers: in my case, it was Tuesday. We all knew and joked about Maureen's bad people skills and temperament. Usually when I came in, she would just dump on me; it was typically judgmental, presumptuous, threatening, condescending--and usually simply wrong on the facts. So you were on the defense the minute you stepped in the room. You had to wait out her rant just to set the record straight. Usually she would calm down by the end of the session, but as an employee subjected to her abusive behavior, it was hard to take.
So a few months into the job I came back to my work area and jokingly said in effect to my colleagues, "It's like she goes through PMS every Tuesday." Everybody else laughed, including the woman sitting closest to me. I of course had more than my fill of ideological feminist nonsense during my 8 years in academia. But for me, the joke was just a coping mechanism for dealing with Maureen's abusive behavior.
The next Tuesday I went to my meeting, and it turns out Maureen had something new to discuss: "What's this, your saying I have PMS all the time?" I tried to object that's not what I said, but she was having none of it. I was confused; I knew where it had to come from, and I couldn't figure out, knowing her personality and how she would react to the joke, why one of my co-workers, likely the female one who laughed the hardest out of the group, would have done this to me. Probably a week or so later, I was gone from the project. And it took a while to find another job. To be honest, I didn't like the job (it was a way to pay my bills until I could relaunch my career), and I would get a job offer directly from IBM a dozen or so years later doing DBA work. To me, if I had been Maureen hearing that joke, I would have taken it as feedback on how I'm being perceived by the people working for me. If I don't change, I may find myself losing workers--and no company likes to see that. It means retraining costs, doing new searches, etc. There weren't a lot of APL coders around--they had to recruit me out of Illinois. But, yes, I lost a job due to political correctness.
And I'm one of the least "sexist" guys I know. I have a Mom and 4 little sisters, 3 goddaughters (no godsons). I mentioned when I was a resident student at OLL when a group of coeds (maybe a dozen or so) at the cafeteria invited me to join the table. The first lady said, "Ron, we've heard you treat women just like you treat men." I almost choked on my food. ''Dear God, I hope not. I'm attracted to women..."
Now I've made my feelings about Donald Trump known, especially in my Facebook Corner feature: I find him amusing on television, but I don't want him to be President.
In this week's "Top 10" GOP Presidential debate, FNC host/moderator Megyn Kelly mentioned that Trump as a celebrity had a track record of saying demeaning things about individual women. Now let me rephrase Kelly's point better than she did: "Half of the electorate is women. This coming election, women will likely have their first real shot of voting for a woman President, in the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. In addition, the Dems have been arguing the GOP has been engaging in a War on Women. Given your track record of making disparaging public comments about women, tell me how are you going to convince women that they should vote for you instead of Hillary Clinton?"
Now, really, everybody has known for years Hillary Clinton would be running for President in 2016, and every male candidate should have devised some response to this predictable question, except maybe the part of disparaging treatment of women.
Personally, if I had to respond in place of Trump, I would have admitted that I had made some past mistakes in judgment and want to apologize sincerely to those women for what I said. I might have pointed out women executives in his companies, charitable organizations he's funded. In response to why vote for him vs. Hillary Clinton, I might say that I'm an outsider, not an unaccomplished establishment professional politician like Clinton; that women and mothers want a more robust economy for themselves and their children, and he knows better than anyone what is takes to grow an organization, how meddlesome government inhibits job-creating capital investment, etc.
Unfortunately, Trump always has to have the last word. And it's usually a cheap shot. A classic example is when Sen. Graham recently criticized Trump's boorish attack on John McCain. Trump responded by giving out Graham's cellphone number and calling him stupid. In essence, Trump responds to his rivals, calling them hypocritical ungrateful bought-and-sold politicians who didn't think he was such a bad fellow when they wanted campaign contributions or other favors. This can be atrocious and misleading, including at one point during the debate when Rand Paul derided his cronyism, and Trump responded that he gave Paul a lot of money, too. What Trump didn't tell the audience was the money Paul got was to help fund his volunteer eye surgery efforts.
It shows that even rich folks like the Trumps couldn't raise a spoiled brat schoolyard bully punk Donny with manners and common courtesy. Do the American people really want someone with Trump's lack of temperament to have his finger on nuclear launch button? I don't think so. We can't afford 4 years of petty, spiteful behavior every time he doesn't get his own way; it'll make Nixon's and Hillary's enemy lists look like amateur hour. Apparently when you're a billionaire, you don't think the same social norms apply to you. Trump surrounds himself with yes men who have no testicular fortitude to tell their boss when he's doing crazy shit.
However, Trump's decision to go after Megyn Kelly after the debate crossed the line:
The outspoken billionaire criticized Kelly for her line of questioning during Thursday night’s televised GOP presidential debate, saying her questions were “ridiculous” and “off-base.”Okay, does anyone not think that Trump was suggesting Megyn Kelly was menstruating in explaining why Megyn was allegedly in such a foul mood in questioning him during the debate? He later said anyone inferring such was a "pervert". No, you knew exactly what you were saying. Your thin-skinned nature is growing. We know exactly what you are--not the next American President.
“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes,” Trump told CNN’s Don Lemon on Friday night. “Blood coming out of her wherever.”
