Last year, I was sitting there and watching a German documentary. It was an interesting 15-minute episode where 'Martin' (the German journalist) had gone off to Peru and was going into a local prison.
So the folks there have this interesting concept. The judge sentences you to a year or three years of prison, and your family basically moves into the prison with you. You get a little one room studio room, with the bare essentials, for you, your wife, and your kids. The government gives them enough food to 'make things right'.
This 'Martin' guy goes around and talks to the wives and kids....trying to get some understanding of how this works. The problem he saw....there's men there in the jail, for rape and violent assault. So it doesn't make any sense to put the family into the middle of this jail business.
Toward the last third of the documentary, 'Martin' is sitting there and discussing this terrible wrong with the jail-house boss. And the manager of the jail can understand 'Martin's' feelings, but he always says....it's better to keep the family together. 'Martin' later leaves the prison....feeling happy that he's out of the facility, and just wanders off with German frustration that you really can't fix this mess.
I sat last night looking at some CNN piece trying to explain the immigration episode and the evil Trump-camp atmosphere. Basically, they were going to help create this mindset with Americans that it was a fine thing to have a family situation in a jail-camp deal, with dangerous people interacting with the kids but it was good for the family to stay together.
I'm guessing in a year....this German journalist....'Martin'....will show up in Texas and try to find the logic in the way this works, and condemn the Democrat's solution as being pretty damn stupid.
Wednesday, 20 June 2018
The PBR Story
From where I grew up as a kid in rural Alabama, we had a number of folks in the dry county area, who were particular about the beer they drank. A couple were 'addicted' in some way to Pabst Blue Ribbon beer.
I have a list of twenty-odd beers (some even German) which I consider to be sub-standard beers. They lack taste, character or the 'magic' ingredient. I include Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) on that list.
So I noted this morning via a CNBC report....that there is the potential for a worldwide shortage of PBR.
How this would happen? Well....the folks who own PBR had a deal with Miller-Coors to make PBR in bulk. No one talks about the financial side of this or the profits for either company. What they do talk about is that Miller-Coors doesn't want to make the beer any longer (after well over 30 years).
Somewhere on the paperwork agreement, there is an option to continue on, and Miller-Coors does not appear to be willing to move to the option. They just want some type of end-date. Naturally, the PBR folks are talking about some legal course, with half-a-billion mentioned in the news piece.
So you come to the 'end' discussion?
There are basically three problems here.
First, I would have doubts that some judge would go and order Miller-Coors to produce something beyond the contract date.
Second, you would think that PBR would have realized this less-drinking-trend five years ago, and had some plan 'B' in existence already. You could have easily gone and bought some brewery or worked out some deal with a Mexican brewery chain.
Third, is it possible that people just woke up and realized that PBR is just lousy cheap 1-star beer? Is it perhaps time to retire PBR and just admit it was an bad beer?
So here's my suggestion. Typically, when you've fallen this far, you get up and rebrand your item. Why not go out and refreshen the recipe of PBR, make a brewery out of a warehouse in Huntsville, Alabama, and sell it only in bottles. Make it into a decent three-star beer. In one single move, you'd make it into a premium beer, and charge 50 cents more per bottle.
I have a list of twenty-odd beers (some even German) which I consider to be sub-standard beers. They lack taste, character or the 'magic' ingredient. I include Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) on that list.
So I noted this morning via a CNBC report....that there is the potential for a worldwide shortage of PBR.
How this would happen? Well....the folks who own PBR had a deal with Miller-Coors to make PBR in bulk. No one talks about the financial side of this or the profits for either company. What they do talk about is that Miller-Coors doesn't want to make the beer any longer (after well over 30 years).
Somewhere on the paperwork agreement, there is an option to continue on, and Miller-Coors does not appear to be willing to move to the option. They just want some type of end-date. Naturally, the PBR folks are talking about some legal course, with half-a-billion mentioned in the news piece.
So you come to the 'end' discussion?
There are basically three problems here.
First, I would have doubts that some judge would go and order Miller-Coors to produce something beyond the contract date.
Second, you would think that PBR would have realized this less-drinking-trend five years ago, and had some plan 'B' in existence already. You could have easily gone and bought some brewery or worked out some deal with a Mexican brewery chain.
Third, is it possible that people just woke up and realized that PBR is just lousy cheap 1-star beer? Is it perhaps time to retire PBR and just admit it was an bad beer?
So here's my suggestion. Typically, when you've fallen this far, you get up and rebrand your item. Why not go out and refreshen the recipe of PBR, make a brewery out of a warehouse in Huntsville, Alabama, and sell it only in bottles. Make it into a decent three-star beer. In one single move, you'd make it into a premium beer, and charge 50 cents more per bottle.
Ten Questions Over This Hyped-Up Kid-Border Business
For several days, I've pondered upon all this reactionary news media talk, and come to these ten questions:
1. I read today that Sessions wants to force all of these situations into a mandatory DNA test. DNA tests typically require at least three weeks in the lab....so the family will be sitting idle in some center before the results come back. Then you get to the important question...if ‘Juan’ isn’t the father...just how quick do you dump ‘Juan’ into the single men’s center and then hustle the kids back into a kid’s only center?
2. What if ‘Juan’ has been led by his wife to believe both kids are his, for the past twelve years, only to be told by ‘Jerry’ (the US border patrol dude) that no...the kids are not his. Yeah, we could actually make this into a TV show and see some might curious events going on.
3. What if ‘Juan’ refuses to take a DNA test? Can you legally force some foreign guy to take the test? You can’t even do that to an American guy.....so how can you force ‘Juan’ to do this?
4. What if kid number one is 'Juan's' kid but number two is not? Can 'Juan' claim this was his wife's first kid with another guy?
5. All of this relates to a law which President Trump is simply enforcing. This law? It goes back to the 2004 era, under President Bush, and it was mostly passed via the Democrats. Who voted on this method? Did Nancy Pelosi vote for this?
6. Will you use the same method upon finding American runaway kids, and force them to return to their parents, but only after a DNA test resolves if that parent is the real parent of the kid?
7. Where will all this DNA info on foreign folks be kept? Who in the government will have access?
8. If you put 'Juan' and his two kids into a family center which is approved by the Democrats.....and 'Juan' happens to rape some 12-year old girl from another family at the center about ten days into this....will this lead folks to create a man-only center and a kid's only center? You know....like they have now.
9. What if the kids are fearful of 'Juan' and says that he beats them? Will you force the kids back to 'Juan'?
10. If this DNA testing business cost $300....will you force 'Juan' to pay for it?
It just seems to me....the more you think about this....the worse it gets. What if four kids (all age 13) made their way from Panama to Texas, without a 'Juan'? What does that say about security of four different borders and the fact that no one said a word in Mexico or such?
1. I read today that Sessions wants to force all of these situations into a mandatory DNA test. DNA tests typically require at least three weeks in the lab....so the family will be sitting idle in some center before the results come back. Then you get to the important question...if ‘Juan’ isn’t the father...just how quick do you dump ‘Juan’ into the single men’s center and then hustle the kids back into a kid’s only center?
2. What if ‘Juan’ has been led by his wife to believe both kids are his, for the past twelve years, only to be told by ‘Jerry’ (the US border patrol dude) that no...the kids are not his. Yeah, we could actually make this into a TV show and see some might curious events going on.
3. What if ‘Juan’ refuses to take a DNA test? Can you legally force some foreign guy to take the test? You can’t even do that to an American guy.....so how can you force ‘Juan’ to do this?
4. What if kid number one is 'Juan's' kid but number two is not? Can 'Juan' claim this was his wife's first kid with another guy?
5. All of this relates to a law which President Trump is simply enforcing. This law? It goes back to the 2004 era, under President Bush, and it was mostly passed via the Democrats. Who voted on this method? Did Nancy Pelosi vote for this?
6. Will you use the same method upon finding American runaway kids, and force them to return to their parents, but only after a DNA test resolves if that parent is the real parent of the kid?
7. Where will all this DNA info on foreign folks be kept? Who in the government will have access?
8. If you put 'Juan' and his two kids into a family center which is approved by the Democrats.....and 'Juan' happens to rape some 12-year old girl from another family at the center about ten days into this....will this lead folks to create a man-only center and a kid's only center? You know....like they have now.
9. What if the kids are fearful of 'Juan' and says that he beats them? Will you force the kids back to 'Juan'?
10. If this DNA testing business cost $300....will you force 'Juan' to pay for it?
It just seems to me....the more you think about this....the worse it gets. What if four kids (all age 13) made their way from Panama to Texas, without a 'Juan'? What does that say about security of four different borders and the fact that no one said a word in Mexico or such?
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