The weather has precluded some activities like painting our decks here at The Manse, but nice weather is forecast for most of the week and into next weekend. Hopefully we can get the last of the outdoor painting done over that time.
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If you need yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences biting someone in the ass, then all one has to do is look at San Francisco and the effect of the $15/hr minimum wage has taken on the restaurant industry there. There has been a wave of restaurant closures that have a lot of San Franciscans pissed off. But what did they expect when they greatly increased the cost of one of the biggest commodities that affects restaurant profitability?
In a note that we'll file away under the definition of 'irony', Bloomberg wrote today that the fun-loving, free-spirited socialists of San Francisco are suddenly really pissed off that their liberal economic policies have resulted in a wave of restaurant failures, making it nearly impossible to find good food at an 'affordable' price.Hmm, I don't know. Maybe anyone who has run a business or understand real economics, not the marxist economics that so many of the Left have pushed all these years?
We would be pissed too...who could have guessed that artificially raising wages well above market supported rates would result in business failures?
Anyone paying attention to the debate understands why fast food chains like McDonald's and Wendy's have been installing ordering kiosks all across the US. Why pay a human being an overly inflated wage to do something an ordering kiosk can do for a fraction of the cost? Kiosks don't goldbrick, they don't show up late for work, and they don't need time off.
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Speaking of McDonald's, it seem corporate HQ is doings its best to make sure McDonald's will lose more market share by moving farther away from its core products and focusing on the fringes of the market. Any business that does that will eventually fail as their core customer base will abandon them and go to a competitor that still provides those amenities.
As I have mentioned before, I recall a recent experiment (recent being within the past year or so) where a McDonald's franchisee went back to the menu choices from the 1970's. They had lines out the door. They had nothing fancy on the menu, used beef tallow to fry their french fries, and they couldn't keep up with the demand. Then corporate stepped in (of course) and forced them to go back to the approved menu and the lines disappeared. That right there should have been a lesson corporate should have embraced, but they ignored it and continued to embrace their Progressive ideals. In this case it boils down to “We know what's best for you and that's what we're going to give you. The customer is always wrong.”
That will end up being a pitiful but fitting epitaph for a once fine business giant.
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One has to wonder if the NFL will learn the lesson that McDonald's has chosen to ignore, seeing how quickly their TV ratings, game attendance, and merchandise sales have been contracting. If I had to guess I'd say the odds are 50:50. But the damage may have already been done and the NFL may doomed to become a minor sports organization once all of its fans have abandoned it.
Maybe it's time for Trump to work towards re-establishing the USFL or create the IAFL (International American Football League) to bring in franchises from the CFL and perhaps some teams in the UK. Just make sure no political BS will be allowed on the field as part of the franchise agreements.
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Did Governor Moonbeam really think the feds wouldn't hit back after he signed the legislation making the Land of Fruits and Nuts a sanctuary state? Or perhaps he was hoping they would, giving more impetus for Calexit?
In any case I think he and the state assembly may have grossly underestimated the consequences and it's going to come back to bite them, hard. Yet another fine example of the Law of Unintended Consequences coming into play.
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I fond little to disagree with in regards to how technology is “highjacking our minds”, specifically when it comes to thinks like smart phones.
As I have mentioned a small number of times in the past, I have seen the phenomenon of “phubbing”, defined as snubbing the people around you because you have you nose buried in your smart phone. Your only social interactions are through your phone. You rarely speak to people face to face, even when you're in the same rook with them.
What's worse is when folks using their smart phones become “dumb”, meaning the only way they know anything is by looking it up online. They retain nothing and will look up the same thing again and again. This is not a good thing.
David Starr adds his 3¢ worth on the subject.
People laugh when I pull out my trusty flip phone, but it does what I need it to do, does it reliably, and is very difficult to hack. (Then again why would anyone waste their time?) Call me a Gibbsian throwback, but I don't care. At least I don't get lost in the digital abyss like too many of my friends and acquaintances.
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So Antifa wants to start a civil war on November 4th?
I say “Bring it on.”
I doubt the war would last long, between most of us non-antifa people being well armed, knowing how to use firearms, and a lot of us having had military training and combat experience.
The only advice I can offer these nitwits is to make sure they have some form of ID on them to make it easier to identify their remains. Better yet, use a sharpie to write that information on an arm, a leg, and one other location on their body just to make sure we'll be able to get their remains back to their families.
These assholes have no idea what real war is like. They assume that just because they can rough up and beat people during a demonstration/protest/riot with little consequence means that they're capable or competent enough to get involved in a real shooting war. Once the bullets start flying and the bodies start hitting the ground I think they'll find out they're wrong.
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Real or parody, this video is funny. If it is real, then that just reinforces my comment in the piece just above this one.
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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the weather is a bit weird, Columbus Day and the fall foliage approaches, and where the boating season continues.