The Emerald Rose

          Sorry but the “news ” got to me yesterday so I had to blog on it , …of course.

          We love to be a mysterious society, particularly our business society. The new buzz word is “branding” and enough books and articles have been writen to fill a good sized Barnes & Noble book store. Let me tell you about a magazine I subscribe to called “The Week” first. It is virtually ad free, comes once a week by mail and costa about a buck ($1) a week, but it is by far the absolute best magazine I’ve ever seen! It covers international and national news in the most objective way I’ve ever seen. It’s format is to give a brief , direct format “capsule” of the news item, and then follow it with National and International comments by respected commentators, newspaper and editirial writers, and experts. From start to finish, cover to cover it takes less than 20 minutes to read completely a,d you are completely up to speed on national, international, political, arts & entertainment, and any other major components of news. If you have to get something , much like a business or military “briefing report” then this is your ticket to being totally informed and entertained as well. It has a “Noteable Quotes” section, and another section I love called “It was a good /bad week for,…) with just enough oddities to keep you interested, and as I said it’s only about 46 pages long. I mention it to everyone I know and surprisingly find out that virtually every “sharp” person I know already has a subscription!

          Anyway back to business “branding”. A recent “blurb” called into question the conduct of business with regards, “re-branding” to wipe away bad press, a stigma of bad, or any other “hiccup” that would hurt or blemish a business. It cited name changes as a primary example of “re-branding”. Some times we completely miss the “hiccup” or the “bad things” because of this process. Here’s a couple of examples, (and trust me, look them up, they are 100% true, and I’ll let you guess why they were able to “fool all of the people” into thinking clean. wholesome thoughts)

       1. There used to be an airline called “Valuejet”, until it dumped a plane in the Florida Everglades killing 110 people. Within weeks after the accident the company became one of todays “darlings” for low fares, great routes, and “good” airlines,….Oh yeah, it’s now named “Air Tran”.

       And what about the company that almost brought down the entire econ0my and sent 8.4 level seismic readings through out the whole world economy,  “AIG” or “American International Group”? Well they ain’t out there any more, or at least under that name,…now they are “American International Underwriters” or “AIU”. Underwriters inspires more confidence and comfort in the company and the system,…right?

      And the other “evil spawn” that , aggain almost took the U.S. economy and real estate market to the depths of hell with “credit default swaps”,… “Countrywide Financial”,…gone! But scrape the surface and the same cast of characters is now “Bank of America Home Loans”. And General Motors long time finance arm “General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC)”,….gone but the same desks are manned by the shiney new cheery “Ally Bank”. (Used to be when a company went bankrupt all of it’s debts and bills owed to it went away, “poof” all gone,…not so with GMAC. Everyone that owed them still owes them under the shiney new Ally Bank moniker.

        Or the really “evil” tobacco Giant “Phillip Morris”,…gone but now “Altria Group” pockets the same profit on “cancer sticks” only the checks are made out to “Altria Group”

      Oh, and who could forget that “private contracting” clandestine little  mercenary business called “Blackwater” in Iraq, you remember them, the firm whose 5 employees were accused of killing 17 Iraqi civilions,….badda-bing, badda-bang now they are “Xe”, still doing the same thing and saving money on printing the letterhead and other “brand named” items.

           Maybe we deserve what we get for being stupid people. Perhaps we can be led around like one of those yappy little dogs at the National; Kennel Club show,…..then again if that is the case perhaps we deserve it.

        Wonder what would have happened if Adolph Hitler simply changed his name to Hans Derfner in 1944, or maybe Joe Stalin became Vladimir Chosky,….well you get the drift.

       We’ve risen to the occasion in demonstrating our gullibility, and the next big “re-branding” is the replacement of our Constitution and Bill of Rights  with the “Change we can make happen” Agreement with our government.

       Can’t wait to redistribute the wealth, with what I’ve made in my lifetime I must have a really big readjustment check coming my way!

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      (Back to my “Bucket list” next blog. Incidentally I was looking at the stats on my blog and the June 14th blog drew 101 readers, keep it up gang I need you to be there when my new book comes out, “How to exercise your Right to Free Speech and rants”), maybe it was the title, “Time is a fleeting commodity” that tripped search engines.)