- Is anyone noticing a trend developing in the long-running
dispute between a German train drivers' union and national
railway Deutsche Bahn? The union is unhappy with the latest offer from the
railway, goes on an über-short-term strike and then gets back to work, only to
strike again a few weeks later. It’s happened twice before and now it’s
happening again after the GDL union’s latest round of talks with the country's
main railway operator over the weekend failed to produce an agreement. Union
officials announced that they will stage another strike, saying that freight
train drivers would go on strike Tuesday and passenger train drivers would
follow Wednesday. This strike may be a bit more effective than its
predecessors, which were for short, predetermined amounts of time. Union head
Claus Weselsky says the strike is not open-ended but gave no specific timing,
saying only that it would be "somewhat longer" than the five-day
walkout in May. The May work was stoppage the longest strike
so far in an increasingly bitter dispute between the union and Deutsche Bahn, with
the rail drivers demanding both a 5-percent pay increase and shorter hours. The
central problem remains the union’s demand to negotiate for other staff,
including conductors, who are traditionally represented by a larger rival
union. Sadly, no one involved seems to be learning or upping their negotiating
game as this struggle drags on, so the odds of a resolution any time soon
appear lower than the percentage of raised pay the striking drivers are
demanding from their employer……..
- Congrats, Los Angeles. You’re getting a new football team
and a modern new stadium too…..wait….make that a futbol team, the kind that America really doesn’t give a damn
about. But hey, at this point you can't be picky and so maybe it’s just best to
celebrate the fact that Major League Soccer's expansion Los Angeles Football Club
is planning a $250 million stadium that would be built on the site of the
Sports Arena next to Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It’s no NFL team or
stadium, but this gem of a 15-acre complex in Exposition Park would include a
conference center, restaurants and a soccer museum. Right in the center, a
monument to the fact that there are still delusional people out there who
believe that soccer matters in the United States, r would be a 22,000-seat
venue, home to the new MLS team when it makes its debut in 2018. The new club's
leadership decided to go forward with the project last week and with the
historic Coliseum serving as a backdrop, Henry Nguyen, who serves as the head
of LAFC's ownership, said, "Today is a great milestone for us to have at
least publicly stated where we want to be." He noted that the ownership is
“excited to be a part of this historic sports area and this historic Exposition
Park museum campus” and in that sense, he’s totally right. Soccer doesn’t belong
anywhere near America’s storied sports history and if someone foolishly offers
an MLS team a spot at the kids’ table near the real sports, it would be foolish
not to grab a tiny plastic chair and enjoy the view. "Building a new
stadium in south Los Angeles will create a lot of good jobs for people who live
here, also construction jobs as well," minority owner Magic Johnson added.
Oh no. They done brainwashed an NBA Hall of Famer into being involved with this
joke……….
- Chris Christie isn't really into shrinking the size of
things. Clearly, dude has never shown any interest in shrinking the portion
sizes on his dinner plate or in reducing the girth of his state-supported food
budget and it appears that he’s likewise a fan of bloated government surveillance tactics. The likely Republican presidential
candidate delivered a spirited defense of post-Sept. 11 intelligence-gathering
capabilities to kick off the week, backing existing programs and calling for an
expansion of such programs even as Congress seeks ways to rein in the programs.
The scandal-minimizing New Jersey governor spent seven years as the U.S.
attorney in New Jersey before he was elected governor and is of the opinion
that the government needs to strengthen its anti-terror and surveillance laws.
"We need to toughen our anti-terror and surveillance laws to give our
services the legal mechanisms to do their job," he said before zeroing in
on former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who in 2013
leaked thousands of documents to journalists. Snowden clued Americans into the
fact that the National Security Agency had for years been secretly collecting
data about millions of their landline phone calls. "When Edward Snowden
revealed our intelligence secrets to the world in 2013, civil liberties
extremists seized that moment to advance their very own narrow agenda,"
Christie said. "They want you to think that there's a government agent
listening in every time you pick up the phone or Skype with your grandkids.
They want you to think our intelligence community are the bad guys — straight
out of the 'Bourne Identity' or some other Hollywood thriller.” First off, you
keep Jason Bourne’s name out of your fat mouth, Christie. Secondly, Jason
Bourne would rip that third toaster pastry of the morning out of your chubby
hands, smack you across your portly face and demand that you stop following him
and listening to his phone conversations too. If 300 House members voted to end
the NSA's bulk phone records collection program and replace it with a system to
leave the data with telephone companies and allow the NSA to search the data on
a case-by-case basis, maybe the government actually got something right for a
change………
- Everyone’s favorite neurotic sitcom OB-GYN lives on. Even though Fox pulled the plug on Mindy
Kaling’s “The Mindy Project” earlier this month, the show will live on
thanks to the place that defunct shows with a cult following go to stay alive
these days, Hulu. The video streaming service, which already owns the streaming
rights to the show's existing episodes, ,has ordered a 26-episode fourth season
of the series and sounds legitimately excited about bringing the former “The
Office” actress aboard. "Mindy has been a beloved member of the Hulu
family, so this deal is a natural extension of our relationship," Hulu's
Craig Erwich said in a statement. Kaling is likewise sunny and rosy and
believes Hulu is a natural new home for her creation. "I am thrilled ‘The Mindy Project’ has found a new
home on Hulu, where so many of our fans are already watching the show,"
Kaling said. “The Mindy Project” debuted on Fox in 2012 and recently completed
its third season on the network, but declining ratings led Fox to decide it
could find another, cheaper sitcom to churn out the same crappy ratings.
Critics largely love Kaling and co-stars Chris Messina and Ed Weeks, but the
numbers for a show about obstetrician/gynecologist Mindy Lahiri as she tries to
balance her professional life co-managing a small medical practice in New York
City with her pratfall-riddled personal life simply don’t point to a ratings
juggernaut. Sure, big-name guest stars such as James Franco, Seth Rogen, Tyler
The Creator, Moby and Laura Dern have drawn some temporary buzz, but there are
only so many famous friends you can work into story arcs……..
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