The good part of the day....

Was the local news. There was an item so good, I had to call Peter. Because it concerned someone both he and I despised. He was the former head of a local soccer team. And he was crass, and uncouth, and 'successful'. Which meant he had a mess of hangers on, your basic lower intestinal acrobats, basking in his 'glory'.

Try to think Ahnuld, but REALLY sleazy... a parvenu, and it never went away.

Well there were always rumours of graft and corruption as far back as I can remember, and he was just crass. And they finally GOT him, and he got a five year prison sentence and a 6.6 million Euro fine to boot.

I am willing to bet... ten Euros, even... that tomorrow, his most devoted sycophants are going to deny knowing him. I even called Peter with this news, he hadn't heard it yet. He was half-way cogent, and I don't know if he remembered it by suppertime, but he sure had him a moment of schadenfreude.

The bad news of the day involved General Motors.... because, you see, they bought Opel. And they aren't doing well, and now, it seems, what conglomerates did to the US... they will do to the idjits who trusted them, and all of a sudden, oh, the manufacturing here is too expensive, the unions, upteenth verse, same as the first. So there are intimations of cuts in Germany. Riiight. Union busting? Probably. Scaling back? Most likely. So they 'might' close the plant in Bochum, in Germany, and a mess of people will lose their livelihood.

If I were naive, I would think they are getting on board and bringing jobs back to the US... but being global... well there is only so far you can extend yourself, and so if you increase in one place, it will certainly be to the detriment of another. It sucks. But that's 'business'.