Thoughts On A Sunday

We had mid-summer-like weather over the Memorial Day weekend and the week that followed, but that changed over this weekend as daytime temps plummeted from the upper 80’s and low 90’s to the lower and mid-50’s. We also went from sunny skies to clouds and rain showers. It’s supposed to ‘warm up’ into the mid-60’s through the coming week. We might see 70’s and sunny skies come next weekend, something that will be good since it is the opening weekend of the 100th Laconia Motorcycle Week up here in New Hampshire. (Oh, and despite a news report that the 100th Laconia Motorcycle Week would last 100 days to celebrate the 100th anniversary, it isn’t true...even though it sounds true.)

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Here’s one thing Anheuser-Busch wishes would go away: A new term that adequately describes consumer boycotts aimed at corporations that “that cater to various ‘woke’ causes, particularly transgender issues,” that term being “Bud Lighting”.

The term derives from the spectacular implosion of Bud Light in the wake of their decision in March to enlist transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote the brand. Bud Light’s sales have plummeted, averaging weekly declines of about 25 percent. Parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev has lost more than $15 billion in value. Sales of rival brands have soared, even as many retailers have slashed prices for Bud Light. Some stores are even giving Bud Light away for free—or trying to.

I am very skeptical that the Bud Light example can be replicated over the long haul, but I’m convinced that we are entering a new era of Bud Lighting on the right and left.

First, some background. The most remarkable thing about the Bud Light boycott is that it worked, because boycotts usually don’t—if your definition of success is actually affecting sales and stock price in a significant way.

I remember Gillette’s misstep with its ad campaign pushing a ‘woke’ view of toxic masculinity, insulting a majority of their customer base, leading to a loss of over $8 billion in sales and about $5.24 billion in valuation in a single quarter.

This was one of the first examples of boycotts against ‘woke’ corporations having a measurable effect. The people are sick and tired of agendas being rammed down their throats that they see as sick and degenerate. Boycotting these same businesses is one way to make them realize they are vulnerable.

Another corporation that’s made the mistake of going ‘woke’, angering their customer base and motivating them to take their money and go elsewhere – Disney. They’re losing billions in revenues, have angered Florida’s governor and legislature to the point where they removed Disney’s special tax district, all while trying pushing the LGBTQWERTY agenda in their movies, TV shows, and theme parks. Did they honestly think there wouldn’t be consequences from kowtowing to a small percentage of their customer base and slapping their main customer base in the face?

“Bud Lighting” appears to be a growing phenomenon, one that may be able to humble the ‘woke’, if not make them duck for cover.

Will Six Flags be the next corporation to learn the power of Bud Lighting?

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From the “Just When I Thought They Couldn’t Get Any Stupider” Department comes this from Stacy McCain:

Chicago Group Hired Gangsters to Be ‘Peacekeepers’ and It’s Working Out Just About the Way You Might Expect

Hiring foxes to guard the henhouse doesn’t make sense. The reasoning used to justify hiring these foxes seems seems logical...on the surface. But once you dig deeper you realize it’s a just so much mumbo-jumbo and won’t have the effect proponents say it will.

In 2016, with money from Steve Jobs’ widow, [Arne] Duncan started a group called Chicago CRED (Create Real Economic Destiny). Duncan has said that Chicago CRED “proceeds from the belief that the surest way to stop gun violence is engaging directly with those most at risk of shooting or being shot and giving them a reason to put down their guns.”

--snip--

So they’re paying people not to shoot each other, and hey, it’s a “comprehensive approach,” which explains the excellent results!

Those “excellent results” meant a rise in murders to over 700 per year. It also led to the murder of one of those working to reduce violent crime in Chicago.

A man who worked to stop gun violence was killed Wednesday in a shooting outside a community outreach center. Chicago police said they are looking for two people involved.

Police said 28-year-old Ronnie Roper was in a South Side parking lot at about 12:16 p.m. when two people walked up and shot him in the head.

The shooting occurred just outside Chicago CRED’s outreach center in the Roseland neighborhood. The victim was a member of that group that works to stop gun violence. . . .

Irony writ large.

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Oh, noes! It looks like the world is going to end in nineteen eighteen seventeen days!

So says Saint Greta The Green…

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Now that the latest round of “If we don’t allow the Feddle Gummint go deeper in debt Grandma won’t get her Social Security check next month” drama has been mostly concluded, we have to ask the question why this keeps happening.

Why does our government think it can keep spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need? I know the gazillions of bureaucrats think their particular bureaucracy is vital to the nation’s continued survival/operation/existence when anyone outside the Beltway knows that it is the opposite that’s true.

Do we really need the Department of Education? No. As best I can tell it serves no useful purpose.

Do we need an overbearing EPA that seems to have no problems creating administrative laws that conflict with federal law and the Constitution? Maybe in a severely trimmed back form.

I can keep going on, asking about federal agencies and departments and whether or not they are necessary to the efficient running of our government, but this post would be hundreds of pages long...and I would getting angrier with each one I listed.

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And that’s the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where summer weather has fled for now, Motorcycle Week starts next Saturday, and where the hated Monday once again intrudes on yet another weekend.