Five Things: GOP, Amazon, Ukraine, Worcestershire Sauce, Converse
It's Sunday Morning, so just grab a coffee and read this newsletter and the five articles mentioned here.
The highlight of this week was our oldest daughter returning home from university for the next couple of weeks. And she had a great idea for me to take on a as challenge for February, after doing Dry January. So I’ll now do a meatless February and so far it has been going just fine. And yes, fish is allowed as I need my dose of Omega 3 fatty acids.
The lowlight of the week was the reaction of the stock market to the quarterly reports of the big tech firms who just fired tens of thousands of people and got rewarded with big gains on the stock market. The message was clear: fire people, talk about efficiency and you get rewarded. Also, you make sure that your blue-collar workers will be frightened they get fired and work more. That’s how big tech gets more efficient. No wonder unions are getting popular again in the US.
What really annoyed me this week was the discussion about our federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, who wants to win the state elections in Hessia in October to become the first female Prime Minister of that state. The conservatives argue that she cannot campaign and do her job at the same time and they also want her to declare that she would take over as leader of the opposition if she would not win the election. This is a classic conservative spin to make sure that the topics of the campaign won’t be discussed but instead a female candidate would be seen as not fit for the job. This is straight out of the conservative playbook and there are lots of examples where conservative politicians have done just the same thing: campaign for a political office while holding a political office. This time it has an added misogynist twist to it and it really annoys me that they get attention for this, instead everybody should point out how ludicrous their accusations are instead of discussing them.
I have picked five awesome articles for you to read. Enjoy!
The GOP Is Just Obnoxious
I would argue that conservative parties always want power and then don’t get anything done other than redistributing money to those who already have plenty and therefore are obnoxious by design, but the author does have a point that the GOP got even worse in the last few years. And has been losing ever since Trumpists got a hold of the GOP, which I see as a good sign.
The Junkification of Amazon
Amazon is an amazing platform and at the same time it sucks more and more. All the weird Chinese brands that populate the marketplace make sense for the sellers and for Amazon, but it really creates a weird shopping experience.
How to Get a Breakthrough in Ukraine
The war is still going on and the West is now trying to find enough tanks to send to Ukraine, but that can only be the beginning if we want the war to end quickly. A year ago I would not have thought that I would ever be in favor of sending tanks and ammunition into a war zone, but Russia’s war on Ukraine changed everything.
The Murky, Salty Mystery of Worcestershire Sauce
You don’t even want to try to imagine how Germans try to pronounce Worcestershire Sauce. It’s one of those pantry staples everybody seems to have, but do you actually know what the sauce is made out of? See, neither did I.
Inside Converse’s innovation lab, where future Chuck Taylors come to life
I don’t know how many pairs of Chucks I’ve worn in my life, but I assume most of you also had a few pairs, right? Getting a little peak into their innovation lab is kind of cool, but I’m so old school, I like the good old Chucks best.
That’s it.