Law And More

Ghosts of the Puritans - Sin Taxes, Laws, Wellness Restrictions, and More

Famous artist David Hockney is fleeing his life in Los Angeles and relocating to Normandy, France. His beef is that in the U.S. pleasure is verboten. He wants, for example, to be able to enjoy a cigarette in a restaurant when dining. 

His exodus raises the very old issue: Do Americans feel barred from embracing life as a good experience versus the drudgery of work, save (invest), and showing off success? For instance, it's obvious myriad prominent lawyers seem unable to relax and just be. Workworkwork seems their ethos.

So much of that goes back to the Puritan founders of America.

Their world view was that human beings were on planet earth to honor God. That was to be through hard work. Their outsides reflected their insides. That is, they would exhibit wealth and status in their society if their inner life had been virtuous. Enjoyment? Maybe on a few designated holidays.

Those who veered from this mindset were punished in public ways. From high school English class, many recall the novel about the scarlet letter the sexually loose had to wear. But, being held in the stocks was no fiction. And, no, if you were part of the Puritan community, you didn't want to wind up there. As we all know, being shamed is a brutal emotional ordeal.

So many taxes, laws, wellness restrictions, and other aspects of American life seem embedded in that Puritan value system. Those who rebel against being in that box will be punished - in public. That can take the form of simple criticism for not being engaging in wellness to arrest for walking along the street tipsy from alcohol.

The irony about the latter is this: As Susan Cheever documents in her book "Drinking in America," the founders were a bunch of drunks. Getting really wasted on booze was perfectly okay unless the happy soul started vomiting a lot under the table. Then, that was it, for that night. But usually there was no it. Intoxication was woven in the fabric of life. In addition, with food not plentiful, the necessary number of calories had to come from boozing. 

Can America ever shake its Puritan heritage?

That's unlikely as long as it is totally committed to capitalism. It had been the Puritans who had created what had been for a long time the most powerful economy in the world. Professional success is the informal religion.

To achieve that no one can risk being observed buying into a pleasure ethos. Just bear witness how activists are railing against the hedonistic members of the 1%. The assumption is that they should be working hard at sharing their expertise and wealth. 

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Dollar Stores - Targeted by Law Enforcement, et al.

The message is out: The dollar store in your neighborhood is not your friend.

Soon enough, through word of mouth as well as media coverage, there could be an unofficial excommunicado against all dollar stores, as there had been in film "John Wick 3."

When the dollar store first entered neighborhoods, both affluent and low-income, its branding was on the side of the angels.

This phenomenon was positioned and packaged as saving everyone money. Often discounts were (and still are) significant. A well-designed mug that would have cost more than five bucks in the traditional household goods retailer could go for a buck in one type of the dollar tree niche.

That was then.

Now, as BusinessInsider reports, the aura is off the brand. 

The biggest problem it has created is that its presence has de-motivated full-service grocery stores from staying or moving in the neighborhood.

That has stranded those in low-income areas from having easy access to fresh produce. Yes, dollar stores sell food but not much in the way of fresh vegetables and fruits. What is there ranges from what would be classified as "unhealthy" to frozen. Increasingly, researchers are documenting the link between nutrition and health.

In addition, lawsuits contend that dollar stores sell expired merchandise. That includes over the counter drugs and edible products.

Also, there have been allegations about defective products such as motor oil.

It's likely that an excommunicado could take the form of a neighborhood boycott with the activists providing free transportation to traditional grocery stores. 

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Costa Rica: It Was the Methanol in the Alcohol

Brand Costa Rica got hit hard.

The numbers are in. The Ministry of Health in Costa Rica announced that since June, 25 have died from consuming alcohol tainted with methanol. In addition, another 34 became ill. Methanol increases the volume of the liquid and intensifies its effects.

This tragedy generates flashbacks of death and serious medical problems from illegally brewed booze during Prohibition. Those might have helped persuade to re-introduce alcohol as legal so that its production could be regulated. Also, the government became quite aware of the tax revenue it was losing from that that DIY grassroots initiative.

In response to the tainting outbreak in Costa Rica, the Ministry of Health closed down 10 businesses and seized more than 55,000 containers of alcohol laced with methanol. Here are more details from USA Today.

Reputation restoration will be tough for Costa Rica tourism. 

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Branding, Investing & Political Campaigning - Bring on Ice Cream Cone Meme

Institutions, such as the British royalty, corporations, and individuals now have to factor eco into their brand management.

The focus on the impacts of climate change has ceased to be a fringe movement.

Money is (almost) everything. And the investment world already is paying attention to how to build, preserve, and scale wealth as temperatures on land and sea rise. A severe 2019 hurricane season will reinforce that. Expect Election 2020 to bundle in eco matters. 

No surprise, tabloid The Sun castigates Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for traveling in a private jet. Media knows what it is doing. Timing is everything. Shade has already been thrown on the royals because of the Prince Andrew-Jeffrey Epstein association. For future travel, the royals should go commercial - and coach. Their future is in play. 

Obviously, strategists in public relations, marketing, and politics have to include the eco implications of all their clients' mindsets and actual behavior. That can't be positioned and packaged as a force fit. 

For example, the fast food industry will be compelled to disrupt their distribution system.

No longer will all those paper cups and food wrappers be tolerated. Expect worldwide boycotts.

Instead they will have to go to the drawing board and invent the analogue of the ice-cream cone for the no-waste, no trash way for serving and consuming food.

Politicos can make it their core messaging at state fairs to down plenty of ice cream cones. 

The ice cream cone can become the universal symbol of eco hope.

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Depressed Lawyers - Relocate Where There's Still a Neighborood Bar (but you have to hurry)

It is really happening: Folks no longer look forward to bellying up at the neighborhood bar. Or, as it had been called in the old days "tavern" or "saloon."

For years, churches and reformers of all sorts have been praying for that.

Remember when kids were instructed to shake down dad for the paycheck before he headed into the bar?

And there were also those buckets of blood on Saturday night when fights broke out.

Usually women, at least the respectable kind, had not been welcome. In Hudson County, New Jersey, back then, nice woman had to sit at tables. They weren't allowed near the bar. 

In Boston Magazine, Gabriel O'Malley documents that the neighborhood bar is fading as an institution in the culture of the U.S., Britain, and Ireland.  

Essentially, "neighborhood bar" is defined as hosting regulars, allowing casual dress, and having no theme. In the U.S. alone, Nielsen found that between 2004 and 2014 one in six shut down.

The reasons include:

•  Less drinking in general
•  More excercise
•  Struggling to connect through digital devices
•  More at-home with Amazon Prime, Netflix, and HBO
•  Breaking open a bottle of wine at home.

Sure, that development seems good. Yeah, demon alcohol destroys families. 

But, actually, eliminating the neighborhood bar can push a community and individuals deeper into loneliness - a growing international epidemic.

In America, from the get-go, neighborhood bars functioned as third places. Even in Puritan times, there was plenty of socializing that way. Getting intoxicated wasn't a reason for censure. The drunk was only tossed out of the bar when aberrant behavior got really out of hand. In her amazing book "Drinking in America: Our Secret History" Susan Cheever chronicles how Americana boozing is. Or, was.

And English majors know all about how pubs had been part of the social fabric in Britain and Ireland. 

Could any other form of third place spring up to fill that void?

If it does, singlehandedly it might reduce the loneliness-related clinical depression and suicidal ideation.

But, until it does, lawyers losing their emotional footing might find a place to live with a neighborhood bar. The more run-down it is, the better. And if you do, Law.com can put a halt to all those articles about mental illness in the legal sector. 

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Election 2020 Just Got Fun: Grab a Drink with Elizabeth Warren Contest

U.S. presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren hears so many times from supporters: I'd love to grab a beer with you.

Well, she has heard them.

She had established a contest, sort of like a sweepstakes drawing, for a person and a companion to, yes, have a drink with her.

The winner and the companion will be flown free to any destination to do that and also enjoy two nights of free hotel accommodations. 

Here is the entry form. No, it's not complicated. All you have to input is your email address and your zip code. No purchase or donation is required.

However, and this is part of the genius of this campaign move, after you submit those two bits of data, another screen comes up. Yes, it does request a donation. However, a donation isn't required to participate in the contest.

Of course, whoever the winner is will bring in tons of fun media coverage for the Warren campaign. And, Warren would be smart to disclose, also in a fun way, how much in donations the contest brought in. 

You bet, I entered. 

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Uber: Bad Business Model, Lousy Management, or Both?

Growth in market share/revenue no longer cuts it with investors. Not without any sign of profits.

Amazon did pull that off.

But that was then.

The world of investing has changed.

Uber is a public company and it's come under the scrutiny of traditional kinds of shareholders. That wild west of hopes about making a killing investing in digital startups has been tamed. And it isn't only in traditional public markets. It is also among venture capitalists.

After a disappointing IPO last month and a Q1 multi-billion-dollar loss, investors essentially are asking: What the hell is going on at Uber? It was a negative sign that so soon after an IPO, there had been a large layoff. About 400 marketers at Uber were cut loose.

As The Guardian reports, the major issues are:

Is the business model flawed (or maybe just out of date)?

Or, is the management not competent?

Or, both?

Yes, as Amazon had and has, Uber also has big plans. Not only are its eyes big about its food delivery service (that's even though the niche is increasingly competitive). It also has on the drawing board a driverless car, robotic trucks delivering freight, and much more. Ah, the vision thing.

But, capital through public markets has become impatient. Will investors allow Uber to continue to focus on growth versus profits? Or, will they concede, as do disappointed salespeople of a highly touted product or service: This dog don't hunt.

Meanwhile, marketers from other businesses have pitched in to help the laid-off Uber marketers land work. On LinkedIn, PR Week's Diana Bradley flagged us about that touching development. Reflection: Is there a softening in conventional capitalism? Are colleagues reaching across industrial silos to help those cut off from their ability to make a living? BTW, Harvard Business School has an elective: Reimagining capitalism.

Let's recall John Donne's meme: For whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee - that is, the innerconnectedness among all those who have to search for income in this disruptive time in global capitalism. Those include, of course, Uber contract drivers. 

Here, free to click open, is my book about how those at any age can keep working Download Outwitting ageism. The threat of poverty especially tolls for those over-50.

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Older & Drunk: Targets

A recent New York University research project found that one out of 10 of those 50 years of age or older is a binge drinker. That means, for males, five drinks in a sitting. For females, it's for four drinks.

Of course, the researchers classify that as risky behavior. They explicitly mention falls and developing alcohol-related health problems.

But what they don't hammer is that an older person who has consumed too much alcohol becomes a target for crime.

The aging are vulnerable any way. Predators recognize they usually can be easily overtaken. Their reflexes are not those of a young person. But, also, at any age, an intoxicated person looks mighty attractive to the bad guys - and bad girls.

My aging uncle was stumbling home from a bar in pre-gentrified Jersey City, New Jersey. Soon after he died of the head injury he suffered during the robbery.

A 50-something relative through marriage died immediately in a hotel, also from a head injury. He was celebrating a settlement he had received from a work accident. In addition to his life, all his money and jewelry were gone. 

No surprise, into the meetings of recovery groups are coming more of those 50 and older. A large number of them have been victims of crimes. No, it's not a DUI which was their bottom. It was the reality that older-and-intoxicated puts out the welcome mat for criminals to get busy.

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Jeffrey McIntyre, former Husch Blackwell Partner - What Could Play Out

Unlike many lawyers who self-destruct, Jeffry McIntyre sill has a license to practice law. He can start over in that line of work, if he chooses that path. 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court only reprimanded him. He had had guilty pleas for battery and a DUI. 

Unfortunately, though, as Law.com reports, he and the law firm where had been a partner - Husch Blackwell - have parted company. His profile is no longer on the website. 

The world might view McIntyre's situation as bleak.

But it's a different mindset in the rooms of recovery. Those are full of hope and one of the promises is that members will not regret the past or wish to shut the door on it.

After three DUIs, getting caught up in a physical altercation, and losing a big job, McIntrye could be willing to change. That's the first step toward a new life. 

Some day, McIntyre may get up before the recovery group and proudly tell his story. The past few years he could describe as his bottom. 

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New Form of Domestic Violence & BigDrama: Serina Wolfe's Revenge Tip

Given the media coverage Serina Wolfe's $5,000 "revenge tip" has received, this new form of domestic violence is bound to have plenty of copy cats. Who hasn't become enraged with a soulmate at some time? And this whacks that man or woman right in the wallet. 

Everywhere, service personnel will have to review unusually large tips on small credit-card purchases. The whole transaction could be delayed as the security folks at the credit card company verify the amount of the tip with the person whose name is on the credit card.

Obviously, arrests could be made right on the spot. Look forward to BigDrama at public facilities. 

As the world knows, Wolfe and her boyfriend Michael Crane had a verbal altercation. The issue was if he would allow her to put the flight from Florida back to her hometown Buffalo, New York on his credit card. 

That could have resulted in a physical assault or even death. Matters of the heart are wild cards.

Instead, the rage seemed to motivate Wolfe to push back in a monetary way. A punch right to the budget - and FICA score - of the man she (supposedly) cared about in a romantic way.

Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be an effective way to channel her anger. Crane reported that $5,000 on his credit card to law enforcement. Wolfe now faces charges of grand larceny.

Caught in the middle is Clear Sky Beachside Cafe.

It had paid out the tip to the server. She had been despondent about the death of her dog.

Now, the burden is on the dining facility to resolve this financial matter.

Will it ask the waitress to return the tip?

Will it swallow the payout?

Will it crowdfund for strangers to help both the business and the waitress out. Those pitching in funds can receive, for instance, a 15% discount on all meals at Clear Sky. Doesn't everyone go to FL at one time or another?

Reflection: Should romantic relationships, like the privilege of driving a car, require licenses? Part of the licensing process would be mandatory training in anger management.

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