Elvis left the building while they were blathering about Roger entering it.
Seems like itās time to recall this prophetic article from The Onion in 2001:
ā¦ Though the coffee chainās specific plans are not known, existing Starbucks franchises across the nation have been locked down with titanium shutters across all windows. In each coffee shopās door hangs the familiar Starbucks logo, slightly altered to present the familiar mermaid figure as a cyclopean mermaid whose all-seeing eye forms the apex of a world-spanning pyramid.
Those living near one of the closed Starbucks outlets have reported strange glowing mists, howling and/or cowering on the part of dogs that pass by, and electromagnetic effects that cause haunting, unearthly images to appear on TV and computer screens within a one-mile radius. Experts have few theories as to what may be causing the low-frequency rumblings, half-glimpsed flashes of light, and periodic electronic beeps emanating from the once-busy shops.
In addition, newly painted trucks marked with the nuclear trefoil, the biohazard warning symbol, and various mystic runes of the Kaballah have been spotted rolling out of Starbucks distribution warehouses. ā¦
ā¦ Remaining Starbucks employees earmarked for re-training are being taught revised corporate procedures alongside 15,500 new hires recently recruited from such non-traditional sources as the CIA retirement program, Internet bulletin boards frequented by former Eagle Scouts, and the employment section in the back of Soldier Of Fortune magazine. ā¦
ā¦ Starbucks management has been tight-lipped regarding the upcoming changes. No upper-level executives have been seen in public since the first of the month, and no details seem to be forthcoming. Visitors to the Starbucks web site, however, are greeted with a letter from Starbucks founder Howard Schultz reading in part:
āTo our valued Starbucks customer: Just wait until you see the exciting changes weāve got in store for you as part of our new Phase Two. When you finally see what weāve got brewing here at Starbucks, youāll have no choice but to love it.ā
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Yeah, Iāve heard of him. Not interested.
I think UBI is a neat idea, and weāre going to need something like it in the future as more jobs are lost to automation and AI despite the growing workforce. IIRC, I didnāt think Yang chose the right strategy to fund his UBI, and I also believe I found his other beliefs odious.
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Iām not interested either, just pointing out the example of a non-billionaire who is not covered whatsoever.
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Schultz was so eminently unimpressive on NPR this morning. Wants ātax reformā but couldnāt/wouldnāt say what that means. Thinks we canāt afford nice things because deficit. Inskeep pressed him on what he thinks is the remedy for the deficit, raising taxes orā¦ and Billions Boy gave this vague answer about economic expansion that will happen because āIām an entrepreneur.ā
Trickle-down economics all over again.
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Oh, geez. Thatās really weak.
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And totally expected!
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Do we have any dirty tricksters on our side? We should get the Chick-Fil-A guy to run third party. 
We have an effing incompetent, narcissistic grifter in the White House who also happened to have no political experience.
Even though the grifter and the narcissist part didnāt help, the lack of valuable political experience sealed his fate and ours.
No more. Sounds like heās doing a fine job of killing his chances though.
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Maxwell House or Folgers or even Wal-Mart Generic Colombian is fine by me. It is not the hardest thing in the world to brew a pot of coffee. Even when my drip coffeemaker breaks down, I can always use my French coffee press to tide me over until I can by a new one (with a timer, of course. How can anyone buy a coffeemaker without a timer? When I wake up at 5:30 AM, dammit, I want my java ready to pour!).
Itās like Subway. I mean, I can see why someone would want to get fried chicken or pizza or even a hamburger and fries for lunch during work, because who in the hell has time to go home to batter and fry a batch of chicken? But how many PhDs does one need to make a sandwich out of some lunchmeat, a roll, and some toppings and condiments?
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I tended to think Schultz was just toying with the idea of running because he has a book to sell. But hiring Burton?
Disappointing that Burton is so obviously in this for the $. But thatās how some operatives work (Tad Devineā¦Paul Manaforteā¦)
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Cāmon, man! Does anyone really believe that professional campaign operatives care about actually getting people elected? Itās all about the grift! A billionaire and his campaign cash are soon partedā¦
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According to you we didnāt deserve to win the last time because we were insufficiently whatever? Howād that work out for the country?
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So we have no free speech rights to attack his stupid proposal to run?
You donāt understand power dynamics very well, do you? So how much effort do those slackers in the House have to put in order to light a fire under McConnellās ass? Any proposals about how that works?
First, he is such an egotist, that he will run. He is paying folks real $$$ (steve Shmidt, etc) who are perfectly willing to stroke his ego for $$$$ā¦
Second, given what he has already said/called for (cuts to social security, medicaid, opposing a 70% marginal tax on those making more than $10M/year, anti-Medicaid for all) and his general carelessness/cluelessness, I think the CW on him may be wrong. He is running as the āanti-democratā in an era where Trumpās core support is about 25% of the electorate, and the āstrong-disapproveā crowed is close to, if not over 50% of the electorate.
Trump has roughly 15% of the electorate who is willing to support him because he is NOT a democrat, or they agree with some of the stuff he has done (mostly deregulation, tax cuts, etc). This is the traditional main street/business/āgrown up partyā group. They think they are really voting for Trump to support āfree enterpriseā. This is a vastly larger group than the group that is anti-Trump, but will vote for a āreal republicanā even if it means Trump gets reelected.
Put another way the soft anti-trump support is a much smaller group than the soft-pro Trump group. Given the available pool of persuadable voters, it is very well possible that Schultz will act much more like Ross Perot than Jill Stein/Ralph Nader.
P.s. to update the numbers a little, the Post poll (https://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2019/01/25/National-Politics/Polling/question_21172.xml?uuid=O7qbcCDPEemnWSuFQbu-IA) Has Trumpās (registered voter) āstrong approvalā at 29%, his āsomewhatā support at 9%, while the āStrong disapprovalā number is 49%, the āsomewhatā number is 9%.
If Shultz runs like a republican (see a slightly less appealing John Kasich, but who is likely pro-choice) he is unlikely to peal away the 49% who strongly disapprove of Trump, and will be fighting for the 18%. Yet, Trump is stuck at 29% āstrong approvalā (folks who will stick with him). Assuming anyone votes for him (a big if), those votes will simply push Trump out of contention in some states as he needs to get to (at least) the mid 40s to win, even in a three way race.
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- Barack Obama loves the United States.
- Burtonās proposed course of action is damaging to the United States.
- Obama presumptively has more influence with his former staffer than most people do.
Obama is not responsible for what Burton chooses to do but that does not mean that he should not exert whatever influence he has.
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Spin gets it.
I think heās probably rational enough to note the overwhelming disinterest/hostility and bow out early. Not clear yet. But I find peopleās certainty that it would be to our disadvantage to be at best premature, and at worst kind of silly.
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You can bet that Putin and the Russians are already lining up their program to help Billionaire right winger Schultz to help Trump win a 2nd term. Hopefully, Schultz gets run over by a coffee bean truck.
This is why NO MORE BILLIONAIRES is a must for the US to have any chance of surviving. We used to tax incremental income over $ 1 M at 90%ā¦when the middle class was the envy of the world and we had a top public education system. Since then, itās been Republican tax cut for the rich one after the other.
Reagan + Bush I + Bush II + Bush II + Trump = huge spending on military and corporate subsidies + huge tax cuts for the rich + huge government deficits. Republicans are bankrupting Americaā¦and the rich Billionaires are laughing all the way to the Cayman Islands banks!
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