photo by pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>By Stephen Ryan<\/strong><\/p>\nLast Christmas season, Starbucks CEO sought to protect Americans from \u00a0the potentially offensive\u00a0\u2013 even \u201cdangerous\u201d\u00a0images of snowflakes and reindeer.<\/p>\n
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is back \u00a0again \u2013 like Batman \u2013 swooping \u00a0in to\u00a0\u00a0protect us from ourselves. \u00a0This time \u00a0Howard \u201cBatman\u201d Schultz is warning Americans that we can\u2019t make up our own minds about the election, that we cannot be trusted and that we should listen to his fatherly advice.<\/p>\n
Mr. Schultz says:<\/p>\n
Voters are embracing \u201cfool\u2019s gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Politicians have failed the country.<\/p>\n
There are moments when I\u2019ve had a hard time recognizing who we are and who we are becoming.<\/p>\n
The presidential election will be a test of Americans\u2019 morality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Enough already, Mr. Schultz.<\/p>\n
I have a real problem with a businessman who feels obligated to tell me I should have better manners. \u00a0I love Starbucks coffee but I may need to rethink my loyalties because of the potentially disturbing culture Mr. Schultz is trying to create.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s \u00a0begin with the fact the man is a total suffocating bore.<\/p>\n
We buy his coffee because it is really good, but let\u2019s be honest: we go into the store because there are usually interesting people in line who are often engaged in stimulating conversations. \u00a0Coffee and interesting conversation are like pants and a shirt \u2013 the whole thing works best when they are combined.<\/p>\n
I enjoy having coffee with friends who want to engage in animated, dynamic, conversation. We want to share our thoughts and views. We want intellectual stimulation. However, if we listen to the Starbucks CEO closely it seems he wants us to do nothing more than sing \u201cThe wheels on the bus go round and round\u201d \u00a0and embrace the great philosophical words of Rodney King \u00a0who asked the world \u201cCan\u2019t we just all get along?\u201d \u00a0Schultz \u00a0really does not want us to have opinions that differ from his.<\/p>\n
Howard Schultz has clearly spent waaaaayy too much time in training sessions with his employees. Starbucks workers are fantastic \u201cemployees.\u201d They are polite, energetic and always aim to please, but then so are trained seals.<\/p>\n
I have to believe there may be no company in America that so resembles the dystopian world of \u00a0\u201c1984\u201d \u00a0with its carefully mandated \u00a0mindspeak.<\/p>\n
But here is the real problem I have with all of this: Howard Schultz is blaming the victim, the American people, \u00a0when the real root cause of \u00a0the \u201cdivision\u201d in the United States is the mainstream media. Nobody watches CNN or Fox of MSNBC unless somebody is yelling or they are talking about Donald Trump and THEY know it.<\/p>\n
It is almost now unwatchable having to see Anderson Cooper \u00a0drone on about the \u201cdangers\u201d of Donald Trump, pretending he really wants to talk about something else. \u00a0Go head, Anderson Cooper, start talking about the water in Flint Michigan. \u00a0TV is a business that, like the newspaper industry, is getting crushed by the Internet. CNN has no choice but to talk about Trump. The great irony is Trump is CNN\u2019s lifeboat to profits and sustainability.<\/p>\n
Howard Schultz warns Americans (he is warning you and me because we need his \u00a0brilliant insights) that the country is witnessing the decline of America politics. The inconvenient truth is politicians, back in the day, used to \u00a0shoot each other.<\/p>\n
Things are not nearly is bad as Chicken Little Howard Schultz thinks they are.<\/p>\n
The Starbucks CEO should listen to what Obama had to say in a speech and maybe he will feel better about his country.<\/p>\n
President Obama said (paraphrasing) \u201cToday we have two Cuban Americans running for president in the Republican Party, who are seeking the office that is currently headed by a Black American. And to win the presidency they are going to have to beat a woman or a 74 year-old Jewish socialist. We\u2019ve come along way from the 1950s\u201d<\/p>\n
Howard Schultz should \u00a0have a little more faith in the American people. \u00a0Keep making your great coffee. Mr Schultz and stop telling me what to do.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Stephen Ryan Last Christmas season, Starbucks CEO sought to protect Americans from \u00a0the potentially offensive\u00a0\u2013 even \u201cdangerous\u201d\u00a0images of snowflakes and reindeer. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is back \u00a0again \u2013 like Batman \u2013 swooping \u00a0in to\u00a0\u00a0protect us from ourselves. \u00a0This time \u00a0Howard \u201cBatman\u201d Schultz is warning Americans that we can\u2019t make up our own minds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2537,"featured_media":1797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medjugorje"],"yoast_head":"\n
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