Yesterday I endorsed Ron DeSantis for President of the United States, Today Don Surber endorsed him as President of Disney while asking this question
How do you not make money when you can offer just about anyone in the world access to the most storied collection of family-friendly fare in the world? The company has 80 years of high-quality material produced by Disney, plus the Muppets, plus Pixar, plus just about everyone else who wholesome entertainment for kids.
Easy, because the goal of Disney today is to avoid wholesome family fare.
At Instapundit today there is a bit of a quip on a post concerning Assisted suicide in Canada:
All of this can be summed up with one simple sentence:
“Your like sucks so would you care to commit a mortal sin as the last act of your life before you meet your maker?”
That’s the truth in advertising for assisted suicide that nobody wants to say aloud.
Tucker Carlson had the former head of the capital police on his Twitter / X show yesterday redoing an interview that he had done at Fox but was never aired.
People seem shocked that it was never aired, I don’t see why, after all does anybody really think that the folks who gave the signal that the fix was in (the Arizona call) would not do all they can to preserve the narrative?
Oddly the first thought I had when hearing about this was it’s exactly the type of thing that got Drudge started, when the MSM passed on the Clinton Dress story. I guess that means in 2043 Tucker will sell out and go left.
The American Spectator has a piece going over all the lies of the left during this administration. Again I don’t understand the shock. When you’re stealing elections, imprisoning people for prayer and prosecuting your political enemies lying is pretty small potatoes.
What’s more I suspect a lot of folks who support them know that they are lying but consider power more important than truth, just like the left knew Barack Obama was lying about opposing Gay marriage but pretended otherwise for the sake of the narrative.
US paper mills are scaling back production as big-box retailers buy less cardboard, signaling a slowdown in consumer spending.
This tells me the worst is yet to come, I’ve already seen part of the worst as this week my 40 hour week was only 30 hours, last week it was 36, the week before it was 32 and I suspect I won’t see a 40 hour week at my job any time this month and it would not surprise me if that’s true for next month too.
Oh well, it beat getting laid off and I suspect a lot of folks will be seeing that soon.
Blogger with a Soviet-made Volga sedan in Sece, Latvia. Behind the car is a newly-built tractor barn.
By John Ruberry
Late last month I traveled to Latvia, where Mrs. Marathon Pundit was born and raised, for the first time in 25 years. I had also visited with her in 1994.
I expected a different Latvia, and indeed that was the case.
First, a little history. A series of nations ruled Latvia, the last being czarist Russia, until 1918. The Bolsheviks recognized Latvian independence in 1920.
But along with neighboring Estonia and Lithuania, while most of the world was focused on Nazi Germany’s aggression in western Europe, Latvia was forcibly annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. The Nazis attacked the USSR a year later, but the Soviets recaptured the Baltic States later in the war.
Three months before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Evil Empire recognized the independence of the Baltic States.
When Latvia regained its independence, the population as just 52 percent Latvian. Russians, many of them brought to Latvia to replace Latvians deported to Siberia in the 1940s, made up about a third of the population in the last days of the Latvian SSR. Many of them quickly left after independence, but Russians still make about one-quarter of the population of Latvia. Riga, Latvia’s capital and largest city, has a Russian population of about 35 percent. Russians are a clear majority in Daugavpils, Latvia’s second city.
The Latvia I saw in the 1990s was poor, my guess is, without the abject poverty, economically speaking it was on the level of Mexico.
But in 2004, the Baltic States joined the European Union, also that year they became members of NATO.
Since then, it’s been full steam ahead for Latvia, notwithstanding the 2008-09 recession.
What I saw in Latvia in June was a prosperous European nation. Gone are the gray–literally, they were gray–retail stores. They have been replaced by colorful and brightly lit retail outlets. Many of these stores, as well as hotels, utilize English-language names. Instruction in English began in Latvian schools after independence was achieved. All Latvians under 35 speak pretty good English.
I’m a runner, and I was one of the few when I hit the roads for a workout. Now there are many running, or if you prefer, cycling trails.
During my first visits I saw many Russian-made cars on the Latvian streets and highways. My wife and I traveled hundreds of miles during my nine days there–she will be in Latvia for another week—and I saw just two Russian-made cars, both Ladas. I’m pictured with an old Volga above. That make was discontinued in 2010. Volkswagen, Audi, and BMW are the most popular cars in Latvia.
Mrs. Marathon Pundit and I spent a lot of time in rural communities. She grew up on a collective farm in Sece, which is pretty much at the center of Latvia. They grew an assortment of crops, mostly potatoes, beets, and cucumbers, and while driving thru Latvia in the 1990s, the look of the land betrayed that odd lot cultivation. While Latvia doesn’t look like Iowa–there are few cornfields and about half of Latvia is forested–it’s becoming a nation of mega-farms. Wheat, canola, oats, are the major crops. And potato growing is hanging on.
My wife attended her high school reunion in Sece, she was one of three in attendance from her graduating class of seventeen. One our hosts was another, and the third, almost certainly the wealthiest man in Sece, has been buying, one by one, parcels of land that were part of those old collective farms that were divided up after independence, in Sece, from people to old to tend to the soil, or who have no interest to do so.
The prosperous farmer is the owner of that Volga in the photograph.
The graduating class sizes of my wife’s old school is now roughly 10 students per year. Rural Latvia, just like rural America, is shrinking.
Only rubble remains of the farmhouse where my wife grew up. Thousands of Latvians can attest to the same situation.
Scattered throughout Latvia are the ugly white-brick buildings, poorly built, that are long-abandoned. “That used to the community creamery in Sece,” Mrs. Marathon Pundit said to me. “That used to be the tractor motor pool, the tractors parked next to them haven’t moved in years.” She could have said the same to me every dozen miles or so when we drove past similar structures. Nearly every one of these collective farm buildings have been long abandoned. They are miniature Pompeiis that were never buried, sad monuments to the failure of communism, an economic and political system that never should have been implemented. Sadly, after over a century of proven failure, there are still people falling for Marxist nonsense.
In the cities and the small towns, khrushchevka apartment buildings, known in the West as “commieblock” structures, are still omnipresent. Most of them utilize those same unpleasant white bricks.
And in the cities, especially Riga, you’ll find many abandoned buildings that were Soviet-era factories.
Yes, I know, we have abandoned buildings in our American cities. But Riga has many new buildings–beautiful ones. I’m particularly fond of the National Library of Latvia.
Yes, but what about Donald Trump?
Okay, that was an abrupt transition, but most Latvians don’t like him. With the war in Ukraine showing no sign of ending, and when I was in Latvia when the apparent Wagner Group attempted coup occurred, his name, and that of Vladimir Putin, was brought up many times.
Oh, Joe Biden is viewed in Lativa as an ineffective old man.
But wait, what about Trump?
To a person, Latvians are pissed off about Trump’s compliments of Putin. For instance, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, he called Putin’s move “genius” and “savvy.” I explained that Trump is running to regain the White House, and the former president, dating back to his career as a real estate mogul, is the consummate negotiator, Trump, in my opinion, could be simply playing mind games with Putin. He used a similar strategy with Kim Jong Un. Trump’s flattery is analogous, I tried to reason, to entering a store and being complimented on the shirt I am wearing by a flirtatious saleswoman. Suddenly, my guard is dropped. True, Putin is likely made of tougher stuff than I am. I think.
Only the Latvians I spoke to weren’t buying my explanation. Don’t forget, Russia borders Latvia on the east, and Putin’s puppet state of Belarus is on Latvia’s southeast. In spite of their nation’s membership in NATO, it’s understandable that Latvians are quite nervous about Russia. Dual invasions from Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave and from Belarus into Lithuania could quickly isolate all three Baltic nations.
Latvia faces challenges, a declining population is the biggest one. While life is better now in Latvia, it’s even better in Scandinavia and Germany. European Union membership presents a dilemma for Latvia.
My son sent me this link concerning a kickstarter campaign here is a screen shot of it’s progress:
With 15 days to go this project is funded nearly 5x beyond what it needs.
Of course in fairness the original Groo dice game was not only hilarious but easy and fun to play so a revival makes sense. I still have my copy from when I owned a comic book store in the 1980’s I remember it fondly and highly recommend it. Based on the response there are plenty of other people who think the same so I suspect this will be a moneymaker for Steve Jackson games.
Those are fully stocked store shelves of this merchandise, as if no one had touched them for weeks. Nobody wanted a Pride chew toy for their pet, nobody wanted Pride children’s wear, or transgender-themed children’s toys (I had to look up what Kidd Kenn was in the blue and pink box on the last in the sequence — a rap star), nobody wanted a Pride baking kit, nobody wanted LGBTQ+-themed liquor, or LGBTQ+ cups to put them in. Notice that the liquor is already on sale. Nobody wanted rainbow kid boots.
That’s shelf space that could have been used for merchandise that people wanted to buy, and in retail, efficient use of shelf space for things that sell is the name of the game. They pay people to determine those things. These items at Target Kearny Mesa were all displayed prominently at the front of the store, no back of the store decision for them. You’ve heard of “dead-naming”? Well, this was “dead-spacing.”
UnexpectedlyTM of course.
The reality is that both of these items are dealing with a niche market. The difference is that the makers of the Groo game aren’t pretending that their market is bigger than it is so they will show a profit. These guys at Target, not so much.
Jon Sable:I get twenty five percent of anything I recover
Sherman: That’s kind of steep isn’t it?
Jon Sable:Depends on how you look at it. I figure 75% of something is better than 100% of nothing
Jon Sable Freelance Issue 8 1984
I’ve been watching headline after headline over the last several weeks about Bud Light’s sales down 10, 15 25% or more and for a lot of conservatives like me I find it very satisfying. The hit they have taken and will continue to take has resulted in headlines that are even more important, like this one:
In interviews with various executives, it is made clear that these companies are calculating all the costs and benefits of speaking out on a given topic. At least one company “uses an internal scoring system to determine if, and when, it makes sense for the company to comment on matters that may offend some of its customers and employees or affect its brands.” In light of recent events, though, this company “reexamined an older evaluation process.”
This is all to the good and if your goal is to stop companies from jumping onto the left’s bandwagon it’s a welcome development.
But if you are thinking this is going to cause Bud light to apologize or actually go under, forget it.
There is no way they are going to do so because they rightly figure all this will do is bring down the wrath of the left establishment who while smaller are relentless and supported by traditional and social media.
Secondly they’re not sure that this will get them back the customers they’ve lost. Bud light has become a symbol of something a vast swath of the population hates and too much time has passed for this to change.
But the third reason is the biggest one, and that’s the math.
Let’s assume that Anheuser-Busch is selling 25% Less Bud light then they did a year ago, that still means that they are selling 75% of the beer they were selling.
Now that 25% drop is a big deal when all that beer is already in the loop, but now enough time has passed so AB could cut production so you don’t have 1 out of every four bottles of Bud Light going bad.
Does that mean less profits, well sure. When you sell 75% of what you were selling a year ago that hurts your bottom line. Particularly if you’re producing 25% more of a product then you need.
But if you’re selling 75% of what you were a year ago and PRODUCING 75% less then you’re still making that profit on that 75% and not taking the loss on excess production and labor.
Would they rather be selling what they were before? Sure they would , but I think these guys aren’t going to take chances and let’s face it there are plenty of companies who would kill to have the level of sales that 75% of Bud Light’s former sales are.
The cousins founded Appalachian Mountain Brewery (AMB) in 2011 in their early 20s. They entered a partnership with the Craft Brew Alliance and eventually became part of Anheuser-Busch’s craft beer portfolio. AMB became known as the first brewery in Boone.
Recently, AMB became the first craft brewers to ever buy themselves back from Anheuser-Busch in a move that signals a win for the little guy in the beer circuit and another step forward for the state’s beer scene. Asheville has one of the highest amounts of breweries per capita in the U.S.
But the reality is that Bud Light as a brand isn’t going to die, it will be smaller and make less than it did, but it will still be alive and make a profit, just not as big as they used to.
As Ace Rothstein said at the end of the Movie Casino:
But in the end I wound up right back where I started. I could still pick winners and I could still make money for all kinds of people back home. So why mess up a good thing? So That’s that.
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