The old guard of Democrats need to be pushed out of power; the Chuck Schumers of the world aren't going to yield it. Zohran Mamdani. AOC. Bernie Sanders. Those are the ones who need to be the voice of the party. That's the required energy.

There is a lot to mock here, for sure. But also quite a bit to learn from. I can't disagree with their comments about the lack of leadership and messaging from the Democrats.

We're in the "Starbucks closing stores/laying off workers" part of the cycle: * STARBUCKS CORP - ESTIMATES $1 BILLION IN RESTRUCTURING COSTS - SEC FILING * STARBUCKS -DECISION TO ELIMINATE APPROXIMATELY 900 CURRENT NON-RETAIL PARTNER ROLES AND CLOSE MANY OPEN POSITIONS @reuters.com

That fundie rapture stuff would be a lot more convincing if they also saw Donald Trump as the man of lawlessness and son of perdition instead of treating him like some second-rate savior

I am physically and mentally kinda cooked today. Sales have been slow but not as embarrassingly so as last Wednesday and Thursday. Barring a disaster of a late afternoon I'll beat last Thursday's numbers but it probably will be our deadest day this week.

As someone from Seattle, Washington living in Japan, I just saw the most perplexing t-shirt. It said Washington DC 1999-00 State Engrish t-shirts don't faze me. But confused geography will sure get a second glance.

Embarrassingly chaotic from 11 to 12 something. My part timer didn't wake up until about noon. Hiromi came in as I was kind of catching up. The part timer came after that. Net sales were not good but about double last Wednesday's embarrassing numbers.

The regime's prescription Less Tylenol More guns Obey dear orange leader Do not taunt happy fun ball

In spite of 4 business days in a row of sustained decent sales (and on our day "off" on Monday we even did ok during the roughly 2 hour clearance sale), I am lethargic and unmotivated today. And my part timer is apparently still asleep or her meds are hitting her hard. So I'll be solo and sluggish.

Better sales than anticipated today. Though not quite business-sustainable numbers. But it does prove my wife was right when she said I should open on anomalous Tuesday holidays (I swapped the 定休日 this week just because she said so). Relatively low bread inventory remaining. But dead since 6pm.

Republicans are terrified the voting public will hold them accountable for their unpopular actions so they're gonna sabotage voting Democrats are afraid of being called socialist so they're gonna sacrifice us

If only our elected officials had the power to do somethimg to fix that instead of, say, telling us things we already know, then rolling over and sending fundraising emails

On my day "off" i got a late start, but dealt with a gaikokujin problem with my corporate Amex (they want my permanent residence card and locled my accounf to show it), then baked this week's brown butter cakes and a bunch of cheesecakes. But now I'm coming home late.

Just barely set the holiday hours on UberEats, Rocket Now and Menu in time to avoid accidental orders/cancellations today. I had never even logged into the latter ones on my personal phone before today, but I remembered the time I accidentally got an order on a day we were closed.

Apropos of nothing in particular, here's Walt Disney's testimony to HUAC in 1947, where he named employees he believed were communists, condemned labor unions, and accused "commie" groups, including the League of Women Voters, of smearing him. 🗃️ archive.org/details/walt...

Shop has been good-busy today. Not quite the sales I need to survive, but solid, steady traffic. The cafe filled up a few times. If I was doing today's numbers on weekdays I'd be a lot more confident about our future.

Have been having trouble with ubereats deliveries recently. Lots of "oh i forgot about that order we prepared 45 minutes ago, they finally showed up?" incidents. We finished an order 1 minute ahead of commitment today and my staff noticed 30 minutes later no driver was assigned. I called support.

Today we had a few expected dinner customers, two unexpected onrs, and a few evening cafe guests (wbo had to wait an unforgiveably long time for their hot chocolates while I tried to make progress on a dinner order ahead of them). Not sure the math is favoring dinner hours yet but numbers are up.

The government and media oligopoly shouting "you're fired" into a crowded theater when government approval for an M&A deal is at stake

Republicans (and Charlie Kirk): school shootings are an acceptable price to pay, just ignore that well-regulated militia part of tbe 2nd Amendment People talking about Kirk and his assassin with irreverance, cynicism or honesty: free speech has limits

After last year’s US election, people liked to point out that almost every OECD country saw the party in power during the post-covid inflation lose office in the next election. With one big exception: Mexico. There may be a reason for that. www.dissentmagazine.org/article/the-...

Last night I closed up shop at almost exactly 19:30 and was home by 8pm. I grabbed a few small cheese almond okaki, sat down on the couch, nibbled while doomscrolling or whatever, and was asleep within minutes. Woke up about midnight, showered and went to bed reading. woke up around 8. Near death?

I may be wrong in some aspects, but most of the research I've heard of suggests relying on technology for tasks that once depended on memory or analytical skill yields less effective cognitive function? Like muscle, the brain is more effective when you use it.

What would Orwell think about a huge face on a gigantic screen telling a crowd of people they should wage war on foreigners and dissidents? No way of knowing, I guess.

I never thought conservatives would ever care about a school shooting incident until this whole thing happened with that right wing grifter

I was Lee Harvey Oswald’s trans roommate. Taking interviews at this time @wsj.com @newyorkpost.bsky.social

I'm starting to feel like I'm in a rut because I keep dealing with everyday minutiae instead of thinking strategically about how to get more people in the shop. I am honestly too tired to think creatively about the big picture. Even when I have ideas I don't have the energy or time to execute.

"Healthy debate" = when I criticize you "Cancel culture" = when you criticize me

Word. Entirely too many people? Their politics are strictly vibes-based. Completely irrational. A staunch refusal to draw any lines from Policy A to Result B.

I used to buy a bunch of books on Kindle because they were usually impulse buy price points. But now they're approaching $15 even for mass market popcorn fiction that I might read once, twice if it rubs me the right way. This seems much harder to justify than $2-5.

“Don’t you DARE call us Nazis.”

A very long day today. I've had better sales involving fewer hours on weekdays, but this was still better than most weekdays in recent memory. The beef stew sold at a reasonable clip but all 7 portions ended up being takeout. One woman reserved ahead of time and brought her own Tupperware.

Persuaded @jason.jagaimo.com to let me take the new beef stew with bread and cream cheese dinner plate at #Nokucheese 🍽️ away as takeout! It heated up beautifully.

Lots of people post pictures of quirky Japanese t-shirts with decorative English that seems a bit odd to native speakers as if it's funny but what really perplexes me isn't Engrish, it's people wearing shirts that just have minor city names like "Wichita" on them

My wife is complaining it's cold. Is this that thing in Japan where the calendar overrides the actual weather?

I had a rough day today, the second rough day in a row. But I count myself lucky because a Mexican (by way of San Diego) joint my acquaintances run down the street a bit literally flooded in today's rain.

I had a post taken down by Bluesky for mimicking the structure of the leopards eating faces party but with the actual applicable weapon and verb in quotes between his first and last name. There was nothing violent implied, certainly less than what actually happened. But that was the excuse.

Starting a business is terrifying. Starting a business largely unrelated to one’s profession of the last 30 years or so in an industry known to be both capital intensive and barely profitable when things are going well, well, that’s a bit reckless.

You guys put podcast hosts in charge of the FBI and fired all the competent agents because you thought they were woke.

I hate how up and down the last few weeks have been. I ended up sending home a part timer early today because the rain has kept people away. Sales barely enough to cover the electricity bill so far.

Leopard guns eating my face party

MAGA 3 days ago: Chicago is about to find out the meaning of WAR MAGA today: the left needs to stop condoning violence

Charlie Kirk thought the deaths of children and other preventable gun deaths were an acceptable cost of his version of freedom. He shall not be mourned.

Last night my head turned after seeing a woman in a single-strap little black dress pass me on the way to Mizonokuchi station. I tend not to notice, especially as tired as I have been. But then I witnessed the most rapidly aborted nampa attempt I've ever seen as a young man rushed after her.

My older kid's 15th birthday was yesterday, so I tried to close the shop slightly early. I was asked to provide pizza and Mac & cheese. Hiromi arranged for ice cream cake and salad. Today I had the urge to use some leftover Mac & deep fried it. Kid says it's even better that way. Still American.

*walks past much more successful bakery than mine* *Mona Lisa smile* Wow other shops fuck up their pan de mie/shokupan/Pullman loaf shape sometimes too

Every customer today so far has been here for our café offerings (sandwiches, drinks) rather than bread. Not big numbers but trending well ahead of last Monday (our first Monday open full-service). One takeout order. The Salus article finally told the story that we're more than a bread shop.

The large loaf, you say? Wait, hold my bread.