Lisa London

The Accountant Beside You, novelist, and loving life!

[Lisa London @LisaLondon3]

Thanks for updating and finding us a plane!

[Lisa London @LisaLondon3]

@AmericanAir I know weather is bad in CLT but could you up date flight 5547 to Ewn
Supposed to be boarding per the app but no plane nor gate agent

[Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays]

A Final Message From Scott Adams

[Lisa London @LisaLondon3]

@AvisRental_Desk why do I bother with Avis Preferred if I have to stand in a ridiculously long line in Austin

[Lisa London @LisaLondon3]

@mattvanswol Laugh together and assume anything “ugly “ said by your spouse was misstated or misinterpreted 🥰

[Alastair Hilton @London_W4]

Since I took this photo at the unite the kingdom march yesterday, it’s taken on a bit of a life of its own. Many large accounts just stole it and used without credit which is always a terrible thing to do. A credit costs nothing and makes a big difference to me as a photographer. Thanks to my many followers who called them out. Really appreciate that. People have also asked grok to see if it’s ai. Apparently grok said it was. Well grok, it isn’t. It’s exactly as it appeared. Really love that you all liked my photo. Thank you so much once again for all your lovely messages.

[Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives @dom_lucre]

🔥🚨BREAKING: Marvel Avengers star Chris Pratt just randomly uploaded this video to pray for his followers and supporters because he felt like this was the right time to do so. Something powerful is happening in America right now.

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

🚨#BREAKING: Three North Carolina teenagers rescued a woman whose car fell 30 feet off an into a river, landed upside down, and began filling with water.

The boys jumped into the water and saved the woman's life, pulling her out of the car and onto dry ground.

HEROES!

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

🚨#BREAKING: Over 10,000 flower bulbs donated by Dutch Grown, a floral company in the Netherlands, have started to bloom in a once-destroyed park in Swannanoa NC.

The company said, "To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow. That belief is our gift to Western North Carolina."

[Holden Culotta @Holden_Culotta]

Mike Rowe: “For every five tradespeople that retire this year, two replace them.”

“It’s been that way for 12 years.”

“I don’t need to be a mathematician, this is bad arithmetic.”

“7.2 million able-bodied men today, in their prime working years, are not only unemployed … they’re not even looking.”

“What are they doing?”

“2,000 hours a year, on average, on screens.”

“I got a call from a company called BlueForge Alliance … in charge of something called the maritime industrial base.”

“The maritime industrial base consists of 15,000 individual companies, all of whom are tasked with delivering thermonuclear-powered submarines to the US Navy—three a year, two Virginia-class, one Columbia.”

“BlueForge Alliance calls me and they say, we need to hire some tradespeople, and we were wondering if you and your foundation could help.”

“I said, I’ll try, as you probably learned, it’s pretty skinny out there … how many do you need?”

“They said 100,000.”

“100,000 tradespeople for one industry that most people don’t even think about.”

“They said, we’ve looked everywhere … do you know where they are?”

“I said, yeah I do, they’re in the eighth grade.”

“That’s 100,000 building submarines. There’s 80,000 in the automotive industry alone for technicians. Right now … 80,000 openings.”

“You start to go down the list and you begin to realize our workforce is wildly out of balance.”

@mikeroweworks @momsforamerica

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

🚨#BREAKING: Struggling farmers in Western North Carolina received an unexpected gift this week...

Trucks from hundreds of miles away surprised local farms with MILLIONS of pounds of nutrient-rich topsoil for farmers who lost everything in Hurricane Helene.

THIS IS AMERICA!!!

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

🚨#BREAKING: Hundreds of college students from across the country are using their Spring Break to rebuild homes in Western North Carolina.

Teenage students are traveling from as far away as New Mexico to put on Tyvek suits, clean up, and rebuild dozens of homes.

AMAZING!!!

[9News Australia @9NewsAUS]

James Harrison OAM, an Australian blood donor who saved 2.4 million babies by donating his rare plasma, has died aged 88.

Affectionately known as the ‘Man with the Golden Arm’, Harrison became the world's most prolific blood and plasma donor thanks to his rare and precious antibody, Anti-D. #9News

FULL STORY: https://t.co/wBpNdYiPh3

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

During Hurricane Helene, 5 staff members of the Equestrian Center at the Biltmore Estate chose not to go home, but camp out with the horses.

They had no contact with the outside world for 4 days and had to haul water from a fresh spring.

They saved every single horse that day.

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

🚨#BREAKING: A group of 13 engineering students have been using their college classes to design bridges for victims of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina.

Every student has a goal to complete at least 1 bridge before the end of the school year.

INCREDIBLE!!!!!!

[Cameron Burnett @CameronABurnett]

Farmers in Kiowa, Kansas lined a highway on Saturday to honor Bob and Lori Schrock, a beloved couple who died in the January 29 Black Hawk helicopter and Flight 5342 collision, as their families returned from DC.

Video by Ashley Unger

[Andrea S. James @AndreaSJames]

Gently, softly, calmly, let’s talk about what’s happening in DC right now.

Friends, have you ever been through a ZBB process? If not, let me give you my take. So, in a corporation where expenses are out of control, you have to put the entire company through a zero based budgeting process. It is one of the most painful things that people in a company experience.

You basically have to justify every. single. expense. And you also cut a bunch, and then only add back after you’ve gone through a proper ZBB cycle.

The US government is going through a ZBB right now. And that is necessary because spending is out of control. The complexity is so vast that I expect it will take AI to decipher.

You cannot tell me that a government that accidentally wires hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban has its finances in order. That signals an underlying disaster. That signals bad stewardship of resources.

In fact, it is a disaster. Over the last 20 fiscal years, the US government has made ~$2.7 trillion in "improper payments," according to the US Government Accountability Office. Trillion! With a T!

That financial management disaster was not caused by @elonmusk. And there is no painless way to clean it up.

Elon is doing what any executive would do walking into a giant mess. You ZBB and then build back.

So, I don’t believe that America is going to be on the wrong side of global right and wrong, as some are saying. I don’t believe that America is going to be permanently isolationist. I do believe that unwatched finances will get out of control in any human system, and that the GAO has been trying to ring this bell for years, and that scaled complexity requires scaled financial management.

Because the US has the largest budget in the world, it will now go through the single most complex ZBB ever undertaken in the history of the world.

Some states do ZBB, but it's never been done at the federal level. President Jimmy Carter tried, but the bureaucratic systems were too complex, and President Ronald Reagan abandoned the attempt.

So, if there is one person in the world chosen to lead this Grand Canyon of projects, we would hope for the president to choose one of the best capital allocators on the planet. Better if that human is also one who can leverage AI and technical talent to manage the massive complexity.

Anyone who has lived through a ZBB at the corporate level will tell you that it’s hell and everyone hates it. This is why I feel really bad for federal workers -- I have a lot of empathy for civil servants and people doing a great job every day for the United States. No doubt, the uncertainty is trying and stressful for many. It's an unfortunate situation.

So, that's my take. I don't want to speak beyond what I know and can observe from the other side of the country. I've worked both in the private sector and the public sector -- the cultures are different. And an Elon-Musk-style culture is going to be the most hard core of them all. No doubt, it's jarring. It's gonna be a lot.

But what I also know is that every time I have ever doubted Elon, I ended up being the one who was wrong.

[Lisa London @LisaLondon3]

@matt_vanswol Love this!

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

🚨#BREAKING: Thousands of children in #WNC woke up to Christmas presents outside their homes, motel rooms, or RVs this morning.

The non-profit, Beloved Asheville confirms it handed out over 3,000 presents overnight to children impacted by Hurricane Helene.

[Lisa London @LisaLondon3]

@ElonMuskAOC Would prefer you focused on government efficiency first! 😀