by Noah
And then the man who lived by his words died by his words.
For the record, the name of the assclown CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, pictured above, was Stockton Rush. I say this because Mr. Rush's magic tourist submarine/submersible/amusement ride named Titan set out to sea on Sunday with Rush and 5 idiot billionaire passengers who paid $250,000 each to visit the 1,500 dead that sadly drowned when the Titanic went down in April of 1912. As I write this on Thursday morning, Rush and his customers have not been heard from since. The little sub that couldn't began its voyage to the North Atlantic bottom with a 96 hour supply of oxygen. You do the math. Such a totally unnecessary horror.
Here's an additional not so fun fact: Stockton Rush's little submersible contraption, run with the aid of a video game joystick (Really), was designed for depths up to 1300 meters. The planned dive was for 4000 meters. Genius!!! Mixed with a whole lotta hubris and corporate arrogance, too! Can you say rivets popped and windows caved in from the pressure? Does the dumbass, arrogant corporate mindset kill people? When does it not? But so obviously and directly? This particular disregard for safety seems even more immediately dramatic than when CEOs laugh about dumping massive amounts of carcinogens into our water supplies or telling us there's nothing wrong with their Pintos or self-driving electric deathmobiles. And yes, in case you were wondering, when one of Rush's employees raised serious concerns about his toy, well, he was, you guessed it, fired!!! Safety rules? We don't need no stinkin' safety rules!
Damn, not to be cynical or anything, this whole sad story has given me a marvelous and very constructive idea for my next business venture! In fact, I've already started building my own submarine out of canvas, plexiglass, and balsawood right in my own backyard! And my little mini-sub will hold up to 12 billionaires plus their pilot, not just 5. Not only that, but I will offer visits to the Titanic for just a nominal fee of $7,700 to cover the unshielded nuclear fueled engine that I've constructed out of a couple of old microwave ovens I found on the curb outside. I've also started my list of passengers and I've approached Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel with the idea of holding the first Republican primary debate parked in my NoahSub 1 on the deck of the sunken Titanic. I won't be going along of course, but my NoahSub 1 is totally robotic and I can control it with some old Sony Playstation gear that I found at Goodwill. What could go wrong? And, realizing the marketing advantages of my proposal, she seems very open to the idea. Such a smart lady!
Meanwhile, dozens and hundreds of would-be immigrants are dying at sea every day and week as their boats capsize in rough waters and the media barely pays attention, at least not in comparison to this story. Yeah, it's a human interest drama, but what about all those other humans? How sad it is that the lives of billionaires and corporate asswipes seem to matter more. Ah, but who owns the media outlets?
Addendum: But wait! There's more. It seems that Stockton Rush's wife is the great great granddaughter of Isador and Ida Strauss who perished in the original Titanic catastrophe. Isador was a co-owner of Macy's. You can read about it here. Damn, that's some irony!
Update: Shortly after I sent the above post to Howie, the predictable horror was confirmed as the news reports of a debris field being found started coming in. To me, this horrible story is an allegory for our times. What taste for adventure is worth the lives of those who put their faith in you? If they want to gamble at Russian Roulette, let them all do it alone in the privacy of their own homes.
if there ever was a story clearly reflective of our times, it is that this guy COULD say it out loud and not have to worry that anyone... ANYONE would *DO* "merrick garland" about it... even after several were killed.
If ever a story was a metaphor for our times, this one is it. The mindset that led these passengers to their doom is essentially the same mindset that has governed our society since the days of St. Ron the Simple. As this epic 2010 quote from our only fully functioning president of this century shows, it's a truly bipartisan mindset:
the latest in a long line of profit over safety. the corvair with real glass, no seat belts, and that rear engine that would snap its mounts in a frontal crash -- crushing whomever was in the car; pinto; GM pickups with side-saddle tanks; tires that came apart; the boeing lawn dart 737... just to name a few that killed ... at least hundreds.
I suppose if y'all cared about government making sure you wouldn't turn into a pink puddle because of corporate greed, y'all would have been voting for it since at least the corvair. but you don't. so... who cares?
having been a mechanical engineer for 30 years (1992 - 2022) i can verify this is "business as usual" in almost every company that does not have a deliverable to the US military industrial complex.
I cannot count the number of times management (CEO, C-Suite sales execs) forced me to send a product to production w/o adequate testing and verification. And this was on product that was no where near as complicated as a submarine.
Its allot more risky to cut corners in engineering design when you are selling products to the US military for a variety of reasons.
But when its a commercial products there is almost no reason not to cut any corner that can be cut for…