Can the former head of the College Democrats win a seat as… a Republican? At POLITICO Magazi
Should Nicholson survive the GOP primary, he’ll have been hammered plenty already by Democrats on the abortion flip flop. Alberta observes: “Unless the DNC is hanging on to 17-year-old emails containing Nicholson’s original draft, nobody can prove who wrote that line.” Interesting candidate with a tough road! Read the whole thing, as they say.
The Germans are Coming. The Wall Street Journal has a nice sloppy wet kiss on the cheek for German grocer Aldi, which is planning a major U.S. expansion. They’re going to add 1,000 or so stores in the U.S. in coming years. Heck, they’ve already built three within a few miles’ drive of me in Alexandria, Virginia. The article has interesting nuggets about Aldi that I—an amateur payer of attention to the grocery industry—didn’t know.
And while I am a big fan of Aldi, it sort of read like a great PR placement and less like a critical article. Aldi has been in the United States for nearly four decades. My first trip to one was in Florida as a child in the early 1990s. Then, as now, Aldi has always been about limiting choice to save shoppers money. The article represents this as some new strategy, when it has always been Aldi’s strategy. And it’s a great strategy, it’s just not new or novel.
What I found most odd was that there was no mention of its main German competitor, Lidl. Aldi and Lidl have conquered parts of Europe fighting like John Wayne & Victor McGlaglen in The Quiet Man. Lidl has opened up a number of stores in the United States, and while they have an Aldi-like feel abroad and the same cost-cutting model, they’ve tweaked their design for U.S. stores to try and capture a sort of Aldi-Plus demographic. Meaning, Aldi shoppers, plus the next rung on the socio-economic ladder.
“Poor people need us, rich people love us,” is one thing the late Aldi executive Theo Albrecht used to tell people about their business model. One thing is for certain: Those who don’t know about Aldi or Lidl will learn soon enough. And I suspect they’ll be impressed, and their local legacy grocer will be a little bit worried.
Dude, where’s my car? That’s what the North Koreans might be asking at the end of General Assembly week, as VICE reports they haven’t been paying their parking tickets: “t looks like the Hermit Kingdom has been giving a big old “screw you” to Uncle Sam by racking up more than $156,000 in New York City parking tickets and failing to fork over the cash.”
North Korea denies this, of course. What wouldn’t they deny? Hopefully the boys in blue up at the NYPD can help put some more sanctions on Kim Jong-un’s cronies by towing their cars.
The most dominant stretch of baseball ever played? I warned you there would be more Cleveland Indians coverage. Can’t stop, won’t stop, as Taylor Swift says. As we get closer to the MLB playoffs (don’t forget our contest!) the Indians are continuing their dominance, despite the broken streak. In their last 60 games, the Tribe is 48-12. This includes a current run of 26-1. ESPN The Magazine has a worthwhile feature on The Streak:
I’m no Bill James, so I don’t know if it is the “most dominant stretch of baseball ever played.” But at this point it has to be up there. The Streak itself is historic, and there’s a lot of baseball left. The Tribe suffered in clutch innings last season; this year not only have they not struggled, they haven’t had to. (Hats for bats, keep bats warm. Gracias.) Let’s see if Manager Tito Francona and the boys can keep the pedal to the floor.
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