Overheard at Table 3: Well, Now ...

Well, they now have the White House, SCOTUS, and both houses of Congress.  How will they ever blame their failure on the Democrats?

Oh I'm sure they'll find a way.

Overheard at Table 3: The Decline of Starbucks

https://hbr.org/2024/06/how-starbucks-devalued-its-own-brand?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

 

Very interesting article.  Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that it doesn't mention coffee, but further supports what I had noticed decades ago, which is that Starbucks does not really sell coffee, it sells an image - the image of "cool" & "hip" 

Starbucks was a Millennial place... and GenXers went there to feel like they were Millennials.  But now the Millennials have aged out and spend more time at home or at work (not in this "third place" as Schultz called Starbucks), and perhaps if Starbucks had originally focused more on good coffee at a good price, there might be something for it to cling to - a core commodity.

But instead, it focused on image (the article calls it "experience") and as the company made more money and strove for more profits, the experience suffered.

 

 

Overheard at Table 3: Why People Are Not Having Babies

So many scientists trying to figure out why birth rates are declining these days.  They keep thinking that it's lack of finding a suitable mate. I kinda disagree with that, because people throughout history have popped out kids with people they think are complete losers.

Then, they think maybe it's economics.  There might be some truth to that, I mean, babies are hella'expensive, and who wants to be spending one full paycheck on diapers when you could still be dropping it on concert tickets or weekends out nightclubbing, amirite?

What no one is saying is that it might be confusion.  I mean, seriously, who wants to create a human being who, in five six seven eight years, you're gonna have to go through trying to figure out if they're a boy or a girl and whether you should dump your entire life savings and paycheck into genderblockers or reassignment surgery?   'Cuz in this culture, if you DO then some Republican will report you to CPS for child abuse, but if you DON'T then the Liberals will shame you as an intolerant scumbag.

Or it might just be simple Existential Dread.  Everyone sees everything going to shit right now in the world and nothing's getting better.  In America this year the only choices for President is a dottering old fool and a rapist old xenophobic grifter.   Oh yeah ...and we had a third guy with a dead worm in his brain, don't forget that!

So yeah, if I were still of the age to be makin' babies, I'd sure be like, "No effin' WAY!"

Overheard at Booth 4: Truth and Pain and Light

2024-0419
 

He sang “Start a fucking revolution” to the tune of “Glory Glory Hallelujah” in his car and fed it to his Instagram.  He had driven up from Florida the day before and was now sitting in New York City, a place filled with congestion and people and pamphlets and fences and he could feel the conspiracy crushing him with every breath.
 

He had a box of pamphlets that he’d printed.  The people needed to be told that they are being duped, led, controlled, and ultimately, would be abandoned.  If only the people would listen, but they never seemed to listen.  The people only wandered around in their own worlds, their own little minds, marching back and forth from their jobs to their homes to restaurants and high school football games like ants.  Like mindless ants.
 

They would have to pay attention.  The jury selection for the trial was underway and there were so many media cameras, he would get a perfect shot.  He would light up like a beacon on their cameras.  The media wasn’t good for much anyway, sending out nothing but lies and foam to keep the brains in fog, but at least today they were on a live feed, and they wouldn’t be able to pull away from the light.  
He got out of the car, with his box of pamphlets and the liquid fire.  He was Prometheus.  The bringer of fire the bringer of light the voice crying in the wilderness, “I am come to bring you light, to awake all you who are sleeping in darkness!”
 

He walked to the center of the small square, threw the pamphlets in the air, and doused himself in the liquid fire and lit the spark and suddenly he was light and with light there was pain and such pain it was such exquisite pain and he screamed and in the pain of the scream there was truth, naked truth, and now at last, everyone would awake to the Truth and the Pain and the Light

Overheard at Table 1: 2024 - American Purge

Going to call this year "American Purge"

As of this date, 23rd of January, Texas Governor Greg Abbott told the Texas Military to deny the US Border Patrol access to the region.

the Supreme Court ruled that it is Constitutional Law that the the Border Patrol have access to the region to cut the wire.

Today, Abbott ordered the Texas Military to defy the SCOTUS ruling and continue to put up razor wire.

In defiance of Constitutional authority.

So ... in short - the argument against immigrants is that "they are coming here illegally and we are a nation of laws"

Yet, when the third co-equal branch of government rules that THIS is the law, because anti-immigrants don't LIKE the law, they will IGNORE the law.

The only logical conclusion is that this is NOT about legality.

It is about humanity.

It is about who we consider "worthy" and who we do not consider "worthy"