Influence This

The Schloss-Blog is noticing influencers this week, and they are everywhere.

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But not her...

Am I the only one who thinks Kaitlan Collins did not do such a great job of moderating the Trump Town Hall event?

She was a wimpy pushover for the arrogant former president, who shamed her and for all intents and purposes the network on which the town hall was broadcast.

Stop giving her a pass, liberal media pundits. She tried hard, yes, but she flopped.

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Speaking of influencers, for those of you scratching your heads about the potential of and scope of AI, here's a sample of that.

Snapchat influencer Caryn Marjorie made more than $71,000 in one week after releasing an AI version of herself, CarynAI, and charging fans $1 per minute for CarynAI to be their virtual girlfriend, or so Fortune reported. 

As of last week, CarynAI had more than 1,000 “boyfriends” (aka, paying subscribers) and Marjorie estimates she could eventually bring in $5 million/month from her chatbot.

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Speaking of influence, Phoenix's rank of No. 110 on the 'best places to live' list, according to US News, puts it below cities such as Birmingham, Alabama, and Youngstown, Ohio. Tucson ranks 96th.

The rankings include "quality of life" and the prospects of the "job market."

Phoenix is one of the fast-growing metropolitan areas on the country. Too bad that its "qualify of life" apparently isn't keeping up.

Behind Youngstown, Ohio? Really?

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Congressman Gerry Connolly's office in Virginia was attacked by a man wielding a baseball bat. Connolly was not there but two staffers were hurt, including an intern on her first day there.

My first observation is, WTF is going on in America when a man walks into a congressman's district office and starts using staffers there for batting practice?

More disturbing was a trend identified by former Homeland Security staffer Miles Taylor. In an appearance on MSNBC, he noted that this attack was not random, but rather was purposefully targeted.

Like the Jan. 6 insurrectionists crying out to hang Mike Pence and kill Nancy Pelosi.

Or the attacker who broke into Pelosi's house, specifically looking for her but instead encountering and injuring her husband.

Random? These people were sought out by the invaders.

Be careful, America, be careful.

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Quick takes:

• Happy birthday, Jocelyn. Hope you had as much fun at Grand Canyon as I did taking you there.
• Congratulations, Conner Sheehan, on your wedding. Really, really happy for you.
• Jay Bird Gaynor, sorry I will miss your celebration of life. It has been so rewarding being back in touch with you. You were genuine.
• I thought coaches were supposed to get fired when they screwed up. So how come Mike Budenholzer, Nick Nurse and Monty Williams are unemployed?
• Welcome back, Brittney Griner. After what you've been through, I don't know that anyone can ever appreciate you enough.
• Happy anniversary, Trevor and Candice. Great of you to meet us for brunch at the super-trendy MartAnne's in Flagstaff. Candice, all the best in your recovery.
• Pickleball friends, I love you all, but now I've got a sore knee and need a break.
• The Durham investigation, after 4 years, flamed out. The Comer investigation in Congress is in the process of doing the same. Republicans are lame.
• Congrats to Martha Stewart. Sports Illustrated will never be the same, just like the federal prison cell she occupied.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Martha Stewart. More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

Mothers, Morons, Murders ...

Before we do anything... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY Erin and Jocelyn.

The Schloss-Blog is on a new roll. Sourdough. It's as good as gluten free, which I need. Meanwhile though...

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...did you notice that Republicans, for the most part, want lyin' George Santos to go away, to just sunset himself.

But not lyin' Donald Trump, $5 million liability verdict not withstanding Hmm...

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Not even struggling @CNN wants Trump to go away.

To try to bolster sagging ratings, they gave him an hour to rant, spread lies and conspiracy theories, threaten to pardon the insurrectionists who have been hunted down and convicted and excused himself on the E. Jean Carroll jury's $5 million finding against him (which will stand up on appeal).

Poor Kaitlan Collins, the CNN anchor: Trump trampled on her, insulted her and basically removed her from the stage in front of the MAGA audience CNN assembled at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire.

She never had a chance. For this event, CNN needed to have a more-assertive, more-dominant and more-persistent moderator from its stable of reporters (Chris Wallace? Harry Enten? John Avlon? Alisyn Camerota?). Where's Don Lemon when you need him, huh, CNN?

An event that never should've happened, happened. I'd bet that an embarrassed and insulted Kaitlan Collins has her agent reaching out to MSNBC already after CNN's new boss, Chris Licht, by way of heaping praise on her, more likely threw her under a bus, by saying her disaster of a performance was actually success.  

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According to a study from Stanford and MIT, generative AI makes you 14% more productive than you would be otherwise. The study was conducted at a major corporation's customer-service operations in the Philippines. The company is a Fortune 500 enterprise software firm.

AI is coming to your workplace too, one way or another. Lean into it before it pushes you out the door. At least 14% of you.

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A seventh-grader walked into his school in Belgrade, Serbia, and killed 7 classmates and an adult. Just like that. On May 3.

A seventh-grader!

Greg Abbott wants to give him a medal. And a pardon. And a scholarship.

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Greg Abbott thinks that if there were more guns in schools, in malls, at households across rural Texas, then Uvalde, Cleveland and Allen, Texas, respectively, would not have happened nor been so bad.

That's right, Greg, because they would've been worse.

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Can't watch @CNN anymore. Just can't.

Not after Anderson Cooper berated everyone for not getting out of their silos and welcoming Donald Trump into their living rooms, like @CNN did.

In that case, Anderson, when is the town hall for Asa Hutchinson? For Nikki Haley? For Tim Scott? Dare we say, for Ron DeSantis?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Used to respect you, Anderson. Now I can't stand the sight of you. Who wrote that copy for you, Chris Licht?

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Kouri Richins wrote a children's book about her late husband so her kids would always remember him.

Then she allegedly killed him with a lethal dose of fentanyl.

They allegedly had argued over the possibility of her having had an affair and allegedly argued even more over prospectively buying a $2 million home.

Sorry, but I'm going to take the liberty here of calling her a bitch.

Sex. Money. Death.

And you thought it was just death and taxes.

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E. Jean Carroll's wardrobe was apparently just as contributory toward the $5 million she was awarded from Donald Trump as was her testimony and Trump's "wack job" statements about her.

She presented herself as anything but that person in her apparel at the trial and it paid off, according to a NY Times story in which attorneys not associated with the case were interviewed.

Yes, it paid off for her to dress as professionally and properly as she did during the trial. As that person who would never be Trump's first choice.

Unfortunately or fortunately.

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Robert Sarver lost the Phoenix Suns over the "toxic workplace" he allegedly created there.

Now the guy who bought the team from him, Matt Ishbia, in a transaction hastened to close the Kevin Durant deal expeditiously, is having his company, Detroit-based United Wholesale Mortgage, investigated for the same thing.

Racial disparities, bullying by management and sexual harassment are among the charges being looked into.

Ishbia reportedly paid $4 billion for the team, which got blown away by the Denver Nuggets.

Looks like Daniel Snyder is not in a class by himself, is he?

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Tucker Carlson will do his racist, white-nationalist thing on Twitter.

Good thing Elon Musk believes in "unvarnished" free speech, huh?

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, E. Jean Carroll.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

Work Ethic vs Work Ethically

The Schloss-Blog is looking at the 20 skills absolutely necessary on your resume, or so says a Fast Company contributor.

Be flexible. 

• Hey, I do yoga.

Be a problem-solver. 

• Uh, I was actually a problem creator, complaining about the slackers and non-flexible people.

Have hard skills. 

• I'm not gonna' touch that.

Be a critical thinker. 

• How about, just be a thinker?

Communicate well. 

• I always knew when to tell my boss to shove it.

Be a team player. 

• I am, except too many slackers always find their way to my team.

Be creative. 

• Hah! I have the testimonials from ex-girlfriends to prove it.

No, wait - that was a bit too much critical thinking, wasn't it?

These "necessary skills" think pieces bore me. They always leave out one thing: work ethic, which my parents instilled in me at a very early age.

I once worked someplace where I always made deadline, in fact, I was always ahead of deadline, every edition. All that earned me was 'the privilege' of getting asked by my boss to help out slackers who always missed deadline.

I learned my lesson. From there on, I still finished my work ahead of deadline, but didn't turn it in until deadline and that way avoided helping out slackers while getting a jump start on my next deadline. Our next deadline.

To 'protect' the leadI'd established, I'd take a vacation day, or a sick day or maybe even be lucky enough to arrange a business trip out of town to avoid being asked to pick up after the slackers.

You can call that unethical and not being a team player. I call it having my own back, because nobody else did.

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Hey, did you hear the one about Russia always being considered to have the second-best army in the world.

Now it's considered to have the second-best army in Ukraine.

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While @CNN and @MSNBC were reporting exclusively on the multiple verdicts handed down on Thursday in the Proud Boys Seditious Conspiracy trial relative to the Jan. 6 insurrection, @FoxNews was talking about Joe Biden's age and mental acuity.

Why they're allowed to call themselves 'News' is a mystery.

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Are you a fan of the band the Pixies? And do you have a Google phone?

According to Morning Brew, the Pixies, because they use a spoken “stop!” at the beginning of the song, “Where Is My Mind?” they've been shutting off alarms on Google phones. 

What happened? Well, Google Pixel phones allows users to turn their alarms off by saying “stop” or “snooze.” It doesn't happen though when one of those words is played with music beneath it.

Hey, don't stop believin'.

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Newton Minow, the former FCC Commissioner and visionary, once said of watching television straight through all day:

"I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling and offending."

Minow died yesterday at 97. If you're watching television straight through, whether it's over-the-air, cable, satellite or streaming, that's pretty accurate to this day.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabacsh. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio /Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

Biltmore Courts 2 and Camelback Health & Racquet Club pickleballers, I salute you and have a special set of music for you tonight.

The Schloss-Blog is watching sports change before our very eyes. We've also got our eyes on Daniel Snyder's $6 billion windfall, Karol G (do we ever!) and how to get your friends to define your life.

And remembering glory days as a Shea Stadium hot dog vendor.

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Sports is changing, but is it for the good?

Baseball has a time clock that is supposed to lift it out of the home run-or-strike out era it which it is stuck. Because that's all it is - a home run or a strike out.

Now, though. the game moves along so much more quickly that fans in line for a hot dog and a beer are likely missing something - like another home run - or more likely, a strike out. But instead of leaving Dodger Stadium after the 7th inning to beat the traffic, they're leaving after the eighth inning. 

In response, the stadium is serving beer until after the 8th inning instead of until after the seventh because the game is moving along so quickly that Budweiser was losing prospective revenue.

Sorry, but I don't feel sorry for 'em.

Basketball, meanwhile, has become a game of 3-pointers and slam dunks. That's all you see on the ESPN Top Ten on Sports Center. Anyone remember layups, picks and mid-range jumpers?

Finally, speaking of the ESPN Top Ten, can't they do better than nightly slam dunks, home runs and strikeouts? 

I actually turn off Sports Center when they go to the Top Ten. Been there, seen that.

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On another note, if you've had an armed IRS agent come to your door to collect taxes, as Republicans said you would, please raise your hand.

And call Marjorie Taylor Greene and tell her.

To shove it up her ass.

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If you watch Morning Joe, maybe you see John Della Volpe, Harvard's director of its Institute of Politics, report that Gen Z'ers (born between 1997-2013) and youths in general are not comfortable in America today and are particularly distraught about their physical safety.

They fear for their safety in school. They fear for their safety at the mall. They fear for their safety at houses of worship. And they fear for their safety at movie theaters as well because of the rash of scary, devastating mass shootings going on in this country.

They will make a difference in the next presidential election, as they lean toward the positions that Democratic politicians back on gun safety, like deep background checks and red-flag laws.

More importantly, they are the future of this country and if politicians don't respond to their preferences on safety and abortion, they will not reward them with their votes.

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Dan Snyder is getting a $6 billion reward for building a toxic workplace at the Washington Commanders', nee Football Team's nee Redskins' headquarters.

Josh Harris, a partner in the NHL's New Jersey Devils and NBA's Philadelphia 76ers, is paying that amount to take the team off of Snyder's hands.

Snyder is still facing investigations into alleged sexual harassment and "financial improprieties."

And I hope they nail his ass,

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Iowa, where a law is pending that would ban abortions outright, has 12 counties on disaster status because of pending Mississippi River flooding.

Y'know who's gonna' come to their rescue with emergency-disaster aid?

The federal government.

Y'know who's running the disaster-aid delivery?

Yeah, the liberals to whom Iowa legislators would deny abortion rights.

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'Microstress' moments, as Fast Company calls them, add up and eventually spill over into ineffectiveness for so many managers.

Or do they?

If you're a manager, would you rather have a series of 'micro-stress moments' or just one big one (like getting canned, which is what a lot of little micro-stress moments could add up to).

Or could they? Or can you manage your way through them?

I don't know either. So ask Tucker Carlson. Most significantly, even more than what his messaging said about Trump, Sidney Powell, et. al., ask what he said about his bosses at Fox. He thought it all added up to his being bigger than the network.

Sure added up, huh? About 787.5 million micro-stress times.

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Back to sports, and I'm qualified to comment on this being a former hot dog vendor at Shea Stadium when the Jets won the Super Bowl, so, IMHO, the Jets made a pretty good trade to get Aaron Rodgers.

Gave up their No. 13 pick, a second-rounder and sixth-rounder this year, plus a conditional second-rounder next year if Rodgers participates in 65 percent of plays this year.

They also got Green Bay's No. 15 pick this year along with their fifth-rounder.

For a 39-year-old QB. The last five years, the Jets' starting quarterbacks were Zach Wilson twice and Sam Darnold three times.

Yeah, good trade for the 39-year-old guy.

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My beloved Knicks (well, mine and Spike's), finally won a playoff series this week behind Jalen Brunson, who was signed when they couldn't acquire the outstanding Donovan Mitchell.

Who they just beat, along with his Cavalier mates.

That in mind, memo to Knicks owner James Dolan: when you get out of your GM's way, he can build the team the right way, regardless of Steven A's diatribes about not being able to acquire Mitchell.

As a bonus, the Knicks now get Miami, which upset Milwaukee. 

Fun times - and Coach Thibs gets to go against Jimmy Buckets, for whom he traded in Minnesota.

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Want to know how you're doing? Ask you friends:

• ...when did they see at your happiest
• ...what do you come to them for;
• ...and where do you stand versus your peers.

Fast Company says that will add up to how you're doing. If they answer honestly, that is.

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Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Karol G.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.