Category Archives: Current Affairs

A continuum from Stand Up to being president

Americana, Current Affairs, Politics, Psychological Musings

Last week, two guests on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart were especially illuminating. Tony Blair and Tim Kaine. Jon Stewart started out as a Stand Up comic and, from what I read, he still does Stand Up. In Stand Up, the feedback is instant. If a joke is good, he knows, instantly, if it is bad, ditto.

By doing Stand Up, Stewart knows what is happening in the world. Not so much the facts of what is happening, but people's reaction to those facts. He has a direct feel for what is going on. 

I first saw that when I worked for Shapell Homes in the 1970's. When the market crashed – I guess mini-crash would be more accurate when compared to today – the Sales People knew the first weekend. The Sales Manager who was slightly out of it saw the same facts, but didn't quite believe them; but, after two or three weeks, he got the drift. I was Director of Operations and didn't believe it for another couple of weeks but I still couldn't convince Nathan Shapell who thought it was a blip – or something other than a crash.

Our banker, who only got his information from us, was blissfully happy.

Both Tony Blair and Tim Kaine – the head of the Democratic Party – are not only out of the loop, they are  constantly surrounded by sycophants. Every day, they have people giving them good news. So, when they showed up on the Daily Show, they were shocked by Stewart asking them questions that they should have expected but was, really, out of their world view.

Stewart asked Blair something about Iraq that assumed what we all know – that they war was misguided at best, and, more realistically, an epic disaster – and Blair just didn't even get the question. He answered it as if the war had been a huge success. 

When Stewart asked Kaine how he was doing, Kaine answered Great, I'm having a lot of fun. Stewart was surprised and said something like, Really, the Democrats are getting their asses kicked. Kaine tried to brush it off as if Stewart didn't know the real story.

But, of course, Kaine and Blair don't know the real story. And, I am afraid, Obama is even worse informed. Not to the facts, maybe, but to the tenor of what is happening in the country. People are pissed, but I don't think Obama is in a position to see it. 

Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms…Churchill

Current Affairs, Obama, Politics


Dictatorship2 


This is a picture, released by the White House, of the principal players in the Palestinian – Israeli peace talks walking out of a meeting. That is Hosni Mubarak – the "president" of Egypt – on the far left. Below is how the picture was printed in the Egyptian newspapers. After all, it would be unseemly for Mubarak to be following anybody else.

Dictatorship1
 

Disney is in the teaching English biz in China

Americana, China, Current Affairs

Disney-china

According to the Economist, in an article titled Middle Kingdom meets Magic Kingdom, Disney has ten English schools in Shanghai and five in Beijing. At first, I found that pretty surprising because it is such small small potatoes for Disney.Teaching English is like a classic cottage industry.

But I was reminded that we live in a time when nothing is considered too small if it makes money for the Mother Corporation. Maximizing profit is now considered the highest ideal. Banks charge fees for any service they can; including parking. The avowed goal of any company is to make as much money as possible. In 2007, before everything fell apart, General Electric made one and half times more profit in lending than any other GE division.

My childish fantasy is that – when I was young – General Electric made stuff, banks made loans, and Disney made cartoons and had Disneyland. Sure, they all made money, but that was a byproduct of their raison d'etre which was the service they provided. I think that this same childish fantasy was held by Obama, Geithner, et al when they bailed out the banks.

If they just got the banks – who were in trouble over their greed – some money, they would lend it to needy borrowers to get the economy going again. Of course, that is not what happened. The banks took the money and loaned it back to the government – in the form of safe government bonds – and started making even more money. This new, safe, profit was then used to pay themselves nice big bonuses. 


I am stunned, this is so far out of my age group

Americana, Current Affairs, Food and Drink, Travel

Shots 

A couple of years ago, Michele and I were in Greenville Mississippi drinking and listening to blues in a local bar when a wedding rehearsal party sort of wandered in. Soon they started drinking vodka-Jello shots and – of course – offered us a couple. I was underwhelmed. Probably because I was about fifty years past the optimum age for any sweet alcoholic drink, let alone a very, very sweet shot of Vodka.

Now I read that a former Wall Street analyst has started a company that provides the modern equivalent of the old time bargirl. These women sell weak vodka-Jello shots and flirt in bars in New York. I was not a bargirl kind of guy the first time around – even in Korea – and this seems even less appealing, but – it seems – there is something for everybody.

As an aside. In Greenville, they served not only the vodka-Jello shots in teeny-tiny plastic cups; but our "bourbon, straight" the same way. When I asked the bartender why they didn't use glasses, he looked at me like I had just asked him to vote for a black guy for president. A sort of What planet are you from. look. Now it seems that the teeny-tiny plastic cups are catching on in the Big Apple. End aside.  

If you still find this improbable, check out the slide show at The Wall Street Journal. To directly quote from Gawker, you could look at photo number three in the accompanying slideshow, and then maybe turn your computer off and think quietly for a while.