In simple terms, on 23 June 2016....a referendum was 'allowed' by the right-leaning government on whether the UK should stay as a member of the EU. When you go back to the early 1970s....as the membership was concreted in.....there wasn't that much of a thrill with the public. The leadership figured this vote would be a 55-to-60 percent 'remain in the EU'. They guessed wrong....it was 52-percent to exit.
The government then spent roughly eight months mostly 'grinning' at folks and trying to find some exit to the referendum. The bitterness shown by the pro-EU Europeans (the French, the Germans, etc)? They went way beyond what you'd expect and that really didn't help matters. On 29 March 2017.....notice was finally given. They would follow the set path that the EU has to exit. Basically, you have a two-year exit period to negotiate all the little pieces to still do business....travel without a visa....handle banking transfers....etc. Along the way, the EU wanted the UK to pay 'damages' (this got into the hundreds of billions of Euro 'talk').
At some point, all of this negotiation chatter went negative, and the treaty product seemed to be worthless. To be honest, this hype about paying the EU some kind of money....made it seem like paying a 'whore' for services.
At this point, a 'hard' BREXIT versus 'soft' BREXIT started to get discussed. This meant that if you reached the deadline (the EU Constitution says you could exit with no treaty and find things very messy if you wanted to conduct trade), you would be screwed. A 'soft' BREXIT meant a treaty existed.
The vote last night in the UK? The Prime Minister had the treaty and folks had a chance to read the requirements. A vast majority (way more than a handful of votes, actually 200 votes more than necessary) said NO.
What happens now? The EU is sitting there and shaking its head. They refuse to give any real deal situation to the Brits. Adding to the EU pain....the election in May for EU representatives across Europe will be affected by this event.
Could another referendum be held? Yes. Some suggest that 55-to-60 percent would vote to stop the BREXIT. Course, it might be another 52-percent in favor of leaving the EU.
How this might end? It is possible that it goes to a messy end, and President Trump arrives in March 2019....to offer up a major trade deal with the US, and engage in some deals that go way beyond what the EU could ever put on the table.
Wednesday, 16 January 2019
Saturday, 12 January 2019
Should McDonalds Be Strictly a Teen-Job Center?
Here's the thing, if you walk into any of the more modern McDonalds....you find a significant amount of automation at work. You don't need counter-help because they've got touch-screens ready to take your order. Enough of the grill and fry business is process-driven and with automation built into it. So what you really need in a 8-hour shift is one real manager type (over the age of twenty-five), a number two guy with experience at the customer and operations level (over the age of twenty-five), and then the 'kids'.
By the term 'kids'....I'm suggesting that the bulk of McDonalds employees probably should be between 16 and 21 years old. By the time you hit the age of 21 to 24....you need to have some real path laid out and procured some type of education or training....to 'move up'. If your ambition is to be the permanent and everlasting French Fry guy at McDonalds....then you've failed. Your entire life is set to a minimum wage situation.....where you will rest from age 16 to age 67. Go do the social security amounts for retirement. I doubt if you can get more than $400 a month if this was your path in life.
This idea that you can reside at McDonalds for your entire life and live off the minimum wage situation? It's a joke. You need to have a path, and the goal of getting some additional training/education, then moving on.
By the term 'kids'....I'm suggesting that the bulk of McDonalds employees probably should be between 16 and 21 years old. By the time you hit the age of 21 to 24....you need to have some real path laid out and procured some type of education or training....to 'move up'. If your ambition is to be the permanent and everlasting French Fry guy at McDonalds....then you've failed. Your entire life is set to a minimum wage situation.....where you will rest from age 16 to age 67. Go do the social security amounts for retirement. I doubt if you can get more than $400 a month if this was your path in life.
This idea that you can reside at McDonalds for your entire life and live off the minimum wage situation? It's a joke. You need to have a path, and the goal of getting some additional training/education, then moving on.
2024: President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
Here's the thing.....she turns 35 in October of 2024. She would be 'of age' to meet the requirement.
So you sit and ponder upon President AOC.....bartender-college student-House member-President. Could a three line resume lead to AOC's presidency?
There are two curious pieces to this idea. First, she's not this mystery character like Barack Obama....who needed to write a book and tell his story. Second, she has a degree in economics and is super-smart (well, people think that).
Here's the problem for the Democrats. If Trump runs in 2020....there is a likely chance that a number of weak GOP guys will view 2024 as impossible to win. So you add in the fact that no one really exists on the Democratic side right now, with 99-percent chance of winning (like Hillary was) in 2020, or for that matter 2024.
Via social media and a dimwit news media....yes, I think AOC can win. And after four years of a goofball adventurist? Most will admit that the system is broke. But it's all really entertainment now....not some political system, and AOC fits well into it.
So you sit and ponder upon President AOC.....bartender-college student-House member-President. Could a three line resume lead to AOC's presidency?
There are two curious pieces to this idea. First, she's not this mystery character like Barack Obama....who needed to write a book and tell his story. Second, she has a degree in economics and is super-smart (well, people think that).
Here's the problem for the Democrats. If Trump runs in 2020....there is a likely chance that a number of weak GOP guys will view 2024 as impossible to win. So you add in the fact that no one really exists on the Democratic side right now, with 99-percent chance of winning (like Hillary was) in 2020, or for that matter 2024.
Via social media and a dimwit news media....yes, I think AOC can win. And after four years of a goofball adventurist? Most will admit that the system is broke. But it's all really entertainment now....not some political system, and AOC fits well into it.
Thursday, 10 January 2019
Could Marvel's 'Black Panther' Win an Oscar?
A year ago....folks would have generally laughed over that suggestion. But this weird year has occurred where there is no five-star movie leading all of the others, and some suggest that the dialog/script, along with the acting....might have carried the movie far enough. In roughly ten days, the announcement will be listed on the nominees. Some suggest it will be there as best picture nominee.
Was it that good of a movie? Around eight months ago, I sat and watched it in a theater. On the big screen, it really does well. The dialog and story that unfolds? To have thought that this comic book creation could go through several decades, and deliver itself in such a complete package....is difficult to believe.
The funny thing here....is that Stan Lee and the Marvel team gave so much great storyline....that the studios have over twenty years of material available. You could be looking at a dozen oscar winners over the next two decades, and a hundred movies....making literally billions upon billions.
Was it that good of a movie? Around eight months ago, I sat and watched it in a theater. On the big screen, it really does well. The dialog and story that unfolds? To have thought that this comic book creation could go through several decades, and deliver itself in such a complete package....is difficult to believe.
The funny thing here....is that Stan Lee and the Marvel team gave so much great storyline....that the studios have over twenty years of material available. You could be looking at a dozen oscar winners over the next two decades, and a hundred movies....making literally billions upon billions.
Wednesday, 9 January 2019
A Writer's Story
F. Scott Fitzgerald sat down and wrote the Great Gatsby in the early 1920s....getting it published in 1925.
High school literature teachers like assigning the book to students but generally....students wake up about fifty pages into the novel, then start whining about the woes of the chief characters and that everyone seems to be 'lost' (unable to fix any problem within their life).
The book kinda lingered around in the 1920s and 1930s, and 'suddenly' caught on fire as GI's read it in off-duty time for 'entertainment'. So then it took off on a roller-coaster ride as everyone felt it was some great piece of literature.
In some ways, I see modern lifestyles in America to be something of the 'script' that Fitzgerald wrote. A bunch of lost young people....on some great adventure without any compass or map....begging people to recognize them via their social media commentary, and falling into some dramatic emotional pit when someone criticizes them (seeking a safe-place).
Fitzgerald in the WW I period, ended up as a young Lieutenant in the Army, and stationed in Alabama. He ends up marrying some Alabama local gal who was the daughter of a Supreme Court judge, and takes her off to New York after the war. It's safe to say that Zelda (the wife) was a bit of a nutcase, and in today's world.....she'd be on medication, featured on some reality TV show and would be freaking people out weekly over her behavior.
Fitzgerald and Zelda had a nine-year period of 'stability' and by 1930....there was no doubt about Zelda and her schizophrenia issues. To some degree, dealing with Zelda was a problem unto itself, and throughout this period.....Fitzgerald was drinking heavily.
It was this love-hate relationship I think. Zelda was one of those people who attended parties....got gossip...and wrote these into a diary. Some folks argue that a lot of the rich material that Fitzgerald put into his books....really came out of Zelda's flamboyant lifestyle. After she got shipped off to a mental facility? This becomes interesting.
Zelda went into some recovery phase, and decided in 1931.....to write her own book. Fitzgerald got an advance copy. It was basically a novel which carried a lot of the history between them and painted Fitzgerald in a negative light. The publisher actually went and made up roughly 3,000 copies and they went out, but barely half of them actually sold.
From the mid-1930s on (till her death in 1948), she stayed mostly in mental facilities.
Fitzgerald? Well....he went out west to California and was a script writer for movie studios. Most will say that his alcoholism simply got worse, and he died in 1940. His best stuff? There is this argument that there was the with-Zelda writing, and the after-Zelda writing....that he wrote best when around Zelda.
High school literature teachers like assigning the book to students but generally....students wake up about fifty pages into the novel, then start whining about the woes of the chief characters and that everyone seems to be 'lost' (unable to fix any problem within their life).
The book kinda lingered around in the 1920s and 1930s, and 'suddenly' caught on fire as GI's read it in off-duty time for 'entertainment'. So then it took off on a roller-coaster ride as everyone felt it was some great piece of literature.
In some ways, I see modern lifestyles in America to be something of the 'script' that Fitzgerald wrote. A bunch of lost young people....on some great adventure without any compass or map....begging people to recognize them via their social media commentary, and falling into some dramatic emotional pit when someone criticizes them (seeking a safe-place).
Fitzgerald in the WW I period, ended up as a young Lieutenant in the Army, and stationed in Alabama. He ends up marrying some Alabama local gal who was the daughter of a Supreme Court judge, and takes her off to New York after the war. It's safe to say that Zelda (the wife) was a bit of a nutcase, and in today's world.....she'd be on medication, featured on some reality TV show and would be freaking people out weekly over her behavior.
Fitzgerald and Zelda had a nine-year period of 'stability' and by 1930....there was no doubt about Zelda and her schizophrenia issues. To some degree, dealing with Zelda was a problem unto itself, and throughout this period.....Fitzgerald was drinking heavily.
It was this love-hate relationship I think. Zelda was one of those people who attended parties....got gossip...and wrote these into a diary. Some folks argue that a lot of the rich material that Fitzgerald put into his books....really came out of Zelda's flamboyant lifestyle. After she got shipped off to a mental facility? This becomes interesting.
Zelda went into some recovery phase, and decided in 1931.....to write her own book. Fitzgerald got an advance copy. It was basically a novel which carried a lot of the history between them and painted Fitzgerald in a negative light. The publisher actually went and made up roughly 3,000 copies and they went out, but barely half of them actually sold.
From the mid-1930s on (till her death in 1948), she stayed mostly in mental facilities.
Fitzgerald? Well....he went out west to California and was a script writer for movie studios. Most will say that his alcoholism simply got worse, and he died in 1940. His best stuff? There is this argument that there was the with-Zelda writing, and the after-Zelda writing....that he wrote best when around Zelda.
Trump-Pelosi-Schumer
Few folks realize it, but Lincoln's Gettysburg address was roughly 200 words, spoken over a 2-minute period. That was it. One of the most impressive moments in speech-history....over in two minutes.
So I watched the Trump eight minute piece, and then the four minute piece with Pelosi and Schumer. As you match to some grading system against Lincoln's speech.....neither speech would rate more than a five on the Lincoln scale of one to ten.
Pelosi and Schumer? What exactly were they going to deliver in terms of dynamics and countering the President's problem with migration and issues attached? If they did have some big negative about his program.....they gave a marginalized speech, and it was worthless to have the two on the camera for the four-minute piece. As sales-pitch-folks, they are lousy.
Should they have used Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Yes. I wouldn't have allowed her to write the speech, but she would have been ten times better than Pelosi or Schumer at giving the speech.
If this were some sports team competition....I'd suggest that the Democrats go and rebuild their theme/message, and work on convincing working-class people of their intentions. In Trump's case, I'd go and suggest that hinging all of this repair of the immigration business just on the Wall....fails to address a dozen other immigration issues, and we need more practical answers.
As for the CNN crowd wasting hours and hours of 'chatter' after the two speeches? Well....that was a total waste of time. I think most people turned them off after about twenty minutes of worthless chatter.
So I watched the Trump eight minute piece, and then the four minute piece with Pelosi and Schumer. As you match to some grading system against Lincoln's speech.....neither speech would rate more than a five on the Lincoln scale of one to ten.
Pelosi and Schumer? What exactly were they going to deliver in terms of dynamics and countering the President's problem with migration and issues attached? If they did have some big negative about his program.....they gave a marginalized speech, and it was worthless to have the two on the camera for the four-minute piece. As sales-pitch-folks, they are lousy.
Should they have used Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Yes. I wouldn't have allowed her to write the speech, but she would have been ten times better than Pelosi or Schumer at giving the speech.
If this were some sports team competition....I'd suggest that the Democrats go and rebuild their theme/message, and work on convincing working-class people of their intentions. In Trump's case, I'd go and suggest that hinging all of this repair of the immigration business just on the Wall....fails to address a dozen other immigration issues, and we need more practical answers.
As for the CNN crowd wasting hours and hours of 'chatter' after the two speeches? Well....that was a total waste of time. I think most people turned them off after about twenty minutes of worthless chatter.
Garbage Story
This morning, I read through a piece where a couple of California Democrats....all hyped-up and negative about the National Park shutdown.....are collecting up garbage from the parks, and bringing it to dump at the White House.
So I paused over the idea.
First, how do you transport it from California to DC? Are you putting this in two suitcases and just sending 'Jimmy' and 'Wanda' to DC with the garbage as they travel via the airlines? Are you sending it via Fedex or UPS? Are you mailing it to DC?
Second, is it real California garbage.....or fake garbage that you picked up in Fairfax, Virginia? Can you prove it's real California garbage?
Third, even if you were upset with the shutdown business and garbage piling up around the National Parks....what exactly will this accomplish? Does anyone really care? To be honest, out of a thousand people living around Nashville.....probably less than fifty might be hyped-up over the publicity gimmick. The rest would ask what the address is for the California Democrats involved, and just start mailing their garbage out to California.
So I paused over the idea.
First, how do you transport it from California to DC? Are you putting this in two suitcases and just sending 'Jimmy' and 'Wanda' to DC with the garbage as they travel via the airlines? Are you sending it via Fedex or UPS? Are you mailing it to DC?
Second, is it real California garbage.....or fake garbage that you picked up in Fairfax, Virginia? Can you prove it's real California garbage?
Third, even if you were upset with the shutdown business and garbage piling up around the National Parks....what exactly will this accomplish? Does anyone really care? To be honest, out of a thousand people living around Nashville.....probably less than fifty might be hyped-up over the publicity gimmick. The rest would ask what the address is for the California Democrats involved, and just start mailing their garbage out to California.
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