(Matt Davies via GoComics.com)
From the NYTimes:
The Country’s Most Republican Company? The Makers of Wonder Bread
The most Republican-leaning company in the country, based on political donations, isn’t Koch Industries. It’s the company that makes Wonder Bread.The political action committee of Flowers Foods, a Georgia company that produces the pillowy sandwich bread, Tastykakes and Nature’s Own baked goods, has given more than 99 percent of its political contributions since 1979 to Republicans. Only three Democratic congressional candidates have gotten money from its PAC since 1984, and not one in the past 20 years…
There are other companies that lean heavily toward Republicans: The Cracker Barrel Old Country Store PAC routinely gives them more than 80 percent of its contributions…. But none of those companies have given as much money as Flowers has, and over as long a period of time…
***********
Apart from the easy pigbladdering, what’s on the agenda for the day?
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
I will be calling in to a regional Mental Health Advocacy Coalition steering committee at 8:15 to deliver my committee report. It’s a local meeting but I’m enjoying lumbar spasms that preclude auto travel, even as a passenger. M. Q. will be heading to the store where such items are sold for a med refill.
So, a pretty quiet day after that.
gene108
Interesting.
TastyKakes seem to be a regional brand of prepackaged cakes in the Philadelphia area and seem to be a part of the regional identity here for some folks. I did not know they are a “Republican Front Group”.
gene108
To motivate myself a bit to get in shape, I just want to post that I am getting better about exercising regularly, but bringing my diet around to eating right is a real challenge.
I’m not bad all the time, like I was before, but it is so damn easy stop off at a Dunkin’ Donuts and get a doughnut, while initially just wanting a cup of coffee that I really do not know how to combat it.
I almost feel like I should live in a monastery or something, where everything is regimented because once the day begins and I’m out and about, it is so easy to slip on eating right.
Oh well, baby steps. One healthy meal a day is better than no healthy meals a day.
Randy P
@gene108: The Weight Watchers technique of writing everything down that goes in your mouth works pretty well. If you go through the day thinking “I’m doing OK” but don’t record, you can fool yourself pretty easily. If you actually record and then work out calorie counts (or, in Weight Watchers, points which are not quite equivalent to calories) you can find out that one order of fries with glop on them cost you basically 3 days calories.
Once you find out the real cost of some food items and know you’re going to write them down if you actually eat them, it becomes easier to not eat them.
I lose when I record and gain when I don’t. It’s completely repeatable and predictable. And I haven’t recorded in weeks so…
PsiFighter37
@Randy P: My main rule of thumb is to not snack, period, especially during the workweek. It’s also come to where constantly eating makes me feel bloated, so I have no interest in eating extra between meals.
OzarkHillbilly
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): OWOWOWOWWW… My sympathies. First time I had back spasms I thought I was dying. They literally paralyzed me. Not good as the wife I were floating on a river in near flood conditions miles from the take out point.
Good luck and don’t move.
JPL
When my son was two, he’d visit relatives who had wonder bread, and ask for a cookie. He thought wonder bread was cookies. He’s in his thirties now, and fortunately stays away from the stuff.
What’s next for the John Doe investigation? Will Randa decide it’s frivalous, which will stop it? Illegal campaign contributions are okay now.
WereBear
Very true.
I know it doesn’t seem like it, but you do give yourself permission to do this. (The coffee is just the excuse.) Our brains are like whiny two year olds when we try to pry them off their usual rails and onto new ones.
Decide that you won’t have donuts until “the weekend” and when the weekend comes, make it “next weekend.”
The point is to put new rules in the brain so the more grownup parts can a rule of the own to follow.
beth
@Randy P: Great advice. I use an app called Lose It! that lets you track your food intake and exercise. It even has a barcode scanner for packaged food. When you get in the habit of recording every bite you put in your mouth, it makes a big difference.
WereBear
In my deepest novelist heart, mobs of climate change victims loot and pillage Republican strongholds for their sustenance.
Though I hope it does not come to that.
Remember the Twinkie Crisis? That was the bakery company going into bankruptcy to fire all their union employees and steal their health care and pensions. Then they reconstituted with all minimum wage or something.
It’s vile stuff, anyway. You think they regard their ingredients with any higher respect? Or their customers?
Schlemizel
@WereBear:
My guess is the republicans will get theres like the rest of us. The ‘doomsday’ folks, particularly those with guns will out last most then turn on each other. It won’t matter. Eventually the living will envy the dead.
– I am always a cheery MF’er
Mr. Longform
Open thread, so I will relate my thought experiment. I listened to Gregory Peck read most of the the New Testament while I was painting a couple of rooms, and I tried to approach it as if I had never heard of any of this before (not really possible, I know.) I wanted to see what the main themes would be if one came in with no baggage. And, really, it was amazing to me how much of it was: people worrying about money are the biggest pains in the ass and cause the most problems, and we really need to take care of sick people. There was other stuff, or course, but those two things came up all the time. Funny how the people who make the most noise about following these words miss most of that.
Cassidy
@gene108: I work out so that I can eat what I want. Sine you’re doing one of the Beach Body routines, you should be burning a lot, so consuming calories isn’t what I’d be concerned with, just what kind if calories; you gotta have fuel. I always tell people to throw the scale away when they start exercising. It’s a number that doesn’t mean a whole lot in the grand scheme of things.
BruceFromOhio
@Mr. Longform:
…people worrying about money are the biggest pains in the ass and cause the most problems, and we really need to take care of sick people.
Good times haven’t changed in centuries.
MrsFromOhio bakes most of the bread we eat. We’ve never even seen the inside of a Cracker Barrel (ironic twist of a name, n’est ce pas?). The GOP political-industrial complex is truly an amazing system for strip-mining resources from the economy to no damned good purpose.
OzarkHillbilly
@Schlemizel: Truth is the Doomsday folks will be the first to go, especially those with guns. They have already demonstrated a decided lack of intelligence by purchasing a bunch of stuff they will never need except in the case of an epic catastrophe that has only a 0.000000000000001% probability of happening. Such stupidity will not be rewarded in either this world or that one.
OzarkHillbilly
Texas cop guns down 93-year-old woman, but police ‘not ready’ to say whether she was armed
Really. Because….
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s Texas. She may well have been packing.
greennotGreen
I ate at a Cracker Barrel just yesterday. (I was driving my mother who’ll be 91 next week, so she got to choose.) A few years back Cracker Barrel earned quite a bit of bad publicity with a stated “no gay employees” policy, later retracted (at least publicly.) So I thought it was somehow appropriate that the young man who showed us to our table was far more effeminate than even Huckleberry Butchmeup (thanks, C.P.) However, now that I know their record on contributions, next time I’ll pick an exit that doesn’t even have a Cracker Barrel.
Keith G
@Baud: She was. And she refused repeated order to put down the gun.
Still did not deserved to die, tho technically this may be a “justified” shoot.
It’s an interesting conflict: Do not call the cops to a domestic issue unless you are willing to see someone die, but if you don’t call the police….?
beltane
I am shocked that a business calling itself “Cracker Barrel” donates overwhelmingly to Republicans.
Botsplainer
@OzarkHillbilly:
My comment to those paranoid enough to put multiple firearms in every room of the house – if shit goes that bad, you won’t survive the encounter, and you may not want to survive the aftermath.
Plus, you’re not going to save Scarlett Johansen (who would reward your heroism with grateful sex).
JPL
@Mr. Longform: Thom Tillis from NC gets it. That’s why he wants to divide and conquer between those sick and those who are just poor. I’m not sure the bible talks about the sick attacking the poor though.
Keith G
As I listen to the news out of Nigeria, I am struck by how once again it is Western powers moving in to offer assistance.
It seems to me that there would be more possible utility if the “helpers” were from states with large Muslim populations. In fact, Muslim powers should be taking the lead on this. Is it the case that they just do not care to confront the crazies in their own ranks (unless they are opponents within their own society – in which case they have no trouble killing)?
Cassidy
@Botsplainer: I call them supply caches.
Poopyman
Something praiseworthy from Politico. Also something (nearly) IMBY.
The county commissioners have totally rolled over on it, and I think we’re pretty screwed.
OzarkHillbilly
@Botsplainer: As a firearm owner (no, I don’t have anything even remotely resembling an AK-47) if the end of the world ever does come, I will be among the first to put the gun to my own head and pull the trigger. That world? No thanx, I don’t want to live there.
Thunderbird
Phone call at 11:00 PM last night. Sure enough, not good news. Grandmother moved to hospice, they’re guessing 24-48 hours. Goddammit.
WereBear
@Thunderbird: Sorry to hear.
JPL
@Thunderbird: Unless you are in your late teens and early twenties, late night phone calls are seldom good. I’m so sorry.
Kropadope
Makers of fake, unhealthy bread, that maintains its form no matter what happens (true believer status) are Republican donors. In other news, sky still blue, water still wet.
Schlemizel
@Mr. Longform:
The people who make the most noise about mostly have not read it. They have had bits of it spoon fed to them. A tiny few have read it but lack the comprehension to understand it. An even tinier minority actually studied it & preach it. They fall into two categories, true believers who can justify everything they read there & con artists who bilk that first group.
Schlemizel
@OzarkHillbilly:
The freeze dried food & guns will get them a long way into the apocalypse. The fun will be when they turn on each other.
Betty Cracker
@Mr. Longform: What a fascinating experiment! And Gregory Peck is the very person I would choose to read it; I love his voice.
JoyfulA
I’m a Nielsen Family starting today, and I have my TV viewing diary ready to go.
I don’t have a TV, and I told Nielsen that fact when they called. I thought maybe I’d see some TV at a doctor’s office or a relative’s home, but it’s supposed to be TV from my house only.
Be ready to see a drop in TV viewership coming up shortly.
Thunderbird
@WereBear: Thanks. Took the one suit I own to the cleaners this morning. Tried to remember the last time I wore it, and then it came to me: It was my other grandmother’s funeral. Again, goddammit.
@JPL: Thanks. I’m 32 now, so yes the late night phone call has transitioned into bad news.
Schlemizel
@Cassidy:
You better be better armed & just a tad crazier than they are then. My guess is even innocent people accidentally approaching them will be shot first & frisked later.
Lurking Canadian
@gene108: one piece of advice: you don’t have to cut treats completely out of your life. I’ve lost about twenty pounds in the last three months, and I had one donut per week (when waiting for my son to finish dance practice) and ice cream probably three times a week, in very small quantities. Try just eating what you would normally eat, just less of it.
Definitely keeping track of what you eat is a good idea, but you don’t need to become ascetic.
JoyfulA
@gene108: TastyKakes must have been sold off to a GOP outfit. I bet they’ve introduced crap ingredients, too.
Oh well, peanut butter TandyTakes were always too high-calorie to eat anyhow.
Thoughtful David
@Botsplainer:
Yup, the doomsday preppers will be the first to go. They’ll form a circular firing squad and blaze away. Unfortunately, a lot of decent people will be collateral damage.
One thing we non-wingnuts have going for us that could get us through is the ability to cooperate. It has gotten us to where we are over the last 150,000 years (probably much longer). This is something the doomsday preppers don’t get: it’s not, and it can’t be, every man for himself. When we work together, we can overcome much. But you, alone with a gun? You’re short-term at best.
Southern Beale
This Libertarian tech paradise on a boat out in “international waters” where they can be freeeee of burdensome regulations is a hoot.
Schlemizel
@Thunderbird:
Sorry to hear that. I hope you can only remember the good times.
Schlemizel
@Thoughtful David:
Cooperation will only get us so far, particularly when faced with armed crazies. I think they will hunker down in the bunkers & only venture out to appropriate food they can take by force of arms. They won’t be shooting each other at first because there is no need to when there are soft targets around. But eventually supplies of both food and soft targets will dwindle and then it will be interesting.
Of course humanity has no hope of survival based on a prepper mentality but the preppers will do the job of eliminating the cooperative types and the earth will go on without us.
Thunderbird
@Schlemizel: Thanks.
JoyfulA
@BruceFromOhio: I’ve eaten in a Cracker Barrel once, 9 years ago. I had to wait in a large “gift shop” filled with junk for an hour before my large party, prebooked, entered the dining room.
The deep-fried okra was interesting, but I won’t be back.
Ash Can
@gene108: How about finding a different place to get your coffee, one that doesn’t sell hard-to-resist treats? Or you could make your own coffee. If you don’t already have a coffee maker you could treat yourself to a nice new one, and if those are too pricey you could scout the local garage sales and thrift shops for one (tip for garage sales: look for ads that say “we’re getting married and combining households”). Then you can treat yourself to a nice to-go cup (which you’ll be able to afford with the money you’ll save making your own coffee) and make your coffee exactly the way you like it on top of it — as strong or as weak as you like it, with whatever kind of grounds you like best. And if you take your Dunkin’ with cream you can use 2% at home or even skimmed instead and avoid a whole lot of fat over the long run.
Ash Can
@Thunderbird: Condolences to you and your family.
Southern Beale
Sorry for the dupe post. That happens to me a lot here, I don’t know why. Damn internet.
Schlemizel
@Southern Beale:
I have narrowed my double posts to a single device I sometimes use. It is looking like when I tap the submit button it is actually double tapping. It only happens to me from one device & only occasionally so I have not be able to narrow it down to anything else.
aimai
@gene108: I second the suggestion of weight watchers which is a really wellthought out program. But I’d also say that if coffee is a trigger for you you may need to avoid triggering yourself by substituting something else. I definitely find that drinking an unsugared drink with a sugary treat is a way that I end up eating more dessert than I want. If I cut out the coffee but allow myself the treat I generally eat less than half because its actually too sweet for me. There is an entire diet that is formed around the theory that you need to stop stimulating your taste buds with contrast, btw. So you might stop “washing things down” with coffee or letting yourself have a sweetcoffee and no treat.
Thoughtful David
@Schlemizel:
I didn’t say the cooperative types would be unarmed. Yes, there would be bad times, but there have been previously. Over all, the cooperative types have won in the long run. And will again.
beltane
@Schlemizel: Cooperation doesn’t equal being “nice”. Organized crime gangs are a prime example of this. In fact, I’d be very confident putting my money on the mob over a bunch of paranoid, trigger-happy wingnuts any day.
beltane
@Thoughtful David: You beat me to it.
Thunderbird
@Ash Can: Thanks.
beltane
@aimai: I have found that if I have one cookie (not a doughnut or anything big like that) with my coffee in the morning, I have absolutely no desire to eat or dink anything sweet for the rest of the day. Without that cookie, I’m always craving sweets of some kind for the entire day even if it’s just honey in my tea.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@OzarkHillbilly: Same here. During the Cold War I was fine with living next to a major target because it meant I didn’t have to go threw dying slowly from starvation and radiation poisoning if it happened. Why anyone would want to live in kind of world described in games like Metro is beyond me.
WereBear
I, too, prefer to avoid the Zombie Apocalypse scenario entirely. It’s not the squirrel eating and river bathing that bothers me so much as it is the sudden upward jump of unavoidable assholery that would ensue.
I have enough trouble getting through the day as it is.
Schlemizel
@Thoughtful David: @beltane:
But the preppers will be much better armed & tend to shoot first. You are still imagining a world like todays minus government. Climate change will ensure that the world will not be hospitable to humans. Imagine the cooperative group attempting to farm. That will take a lot of time & a bunch of people( and it is going to take a lot more food to keep our cooperative unit going the preppers can make it stretch because they will kill the weak members of their team). They will be raided by the preppers who will not demand food but shoot first because they can’t think long-term. Then the weather turns to shit and the crops fail/underperform and you are dealing with constant raiding from the crazies. Our cooperative unit does not have to be nice, just not crazy and not as well armed & supplied with ammo.
If the shit went down today I have a most of a box of 12 Ga shells and about 10 round for my dear rifle – what do you have? How long could we hold out against two crazies with AK47s and 5000 round cases stored in their bunkers?
Betty Cracker
@Thunderbird: That sucks. I’m sorry.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Southern Beale:
It’ll never happen because libertarians always expect someone else to pay for and build big things.
MomSense
@gene108:
Loseit and webmd both have exercise and food tracking programs that are online and available in apps for mobile devices. I like them because you can track your calories and also see the nutritional breakdown of your food choices. Loseit subtracts the exercise you do from your calories consumed and webmd has you stick with the lower calories and the exercise. Both let you set goals for weight loss.
Thunderbird
@Betty Cracker: Thanks, Betty.
Belafon
@gene108: I’m trying to eat a little better, but gawd, oatmeal is awful.
rikyrah
Rachel Maddow 05/07/14
Right’s anti-tax dream an economic nightmare
Dave Helling, columnist for the Kansas City Star, talks with Rachel Maddow about the economic damage inflicted on the state of Kansas by radical tax cuts following a right-wing takeover of the state government and similarities to developments in Missouri.
http://on.msnbc.com/1fQGalK
Betty Cracker
@aimai: We’ve been trying to eat healthier since my hubby’s cholesterol is a bit elevated. Instead of taking a lot of foods off the table, what we’re doing is eliminating processed crap altogether. Our mindset is, we can have anything we want, we just have to make it ourselves. Someday I’ll want an eclair badly enough to make it from scratch. But not today! ;-)
Morzer
@Southern Beale:
I quite like the idea of living on a boat out on the ocean blue. I just don’t want to share that space with greedy little Ayn Rand cultists. Which, no doubt, makes me the REAL BIGOT.
Svensker
@Thunderbird:
So sorry. It’s a tough thing. I hope her hospice experience is filled with love and peace and that you are able to feel some of that, too.
bemused
I’m glad HGTV woke up and decided not to go forward with a fall production Flip It Forward with NC twin guys who are very public bigots, racists, homophobes, etc, What I want to know is how this potential production even got this far without HGTV realizing what a monumental stupid idea it was.
In a thread last night Rikyrah linked to a video of an old racist guy telling a black woman to go to the “black” of the bus in NY. Wow, people feel so free to show their inner ugly these days.
Thunderbird
@Svensker: Thanks.
Ash Can
@Betty Cracker: When the husband got his diagnosis of high cholesterol last year, we stopped frying and sauteeing with butter altogether and substituted light olive oil instead. It has virtually no flavor (as opposed to extra-virgin OO), so it can be used with just about anything. We also cut back on bacon, eggs, cheese, sausage, and steaks by about 80%-95%. Combining that with him walking several miles 5 times a week has lowered his cholesterol by 110 — yes, 110, no that’s not a typo — points.
Belafon
@Keith G: She was. This is the second time in the less than 2 years the officer has been with the police department that he’s shot and killed someone. He does have prior police experience in other police departments.
Morzer
@Ash Can:
Out of curiosity, has his weight also dropped dramatically? Or is this information classified?
ericblair
@Schlemizel:
My half-assed guess based on historical cases of social collapse is that we’d end up with warlordism pretty quickly. The hippie farmer commune will end up paying protection money/supplies to the local gang. Some local prepper may come out of his spider hole and cause trouble to the hippies, who will report it up to the gang, who will send out some technicals and go medieval on the prepper. And, of course, appropriate whatever’s left for the trouble. Said preppers tend to believe that their trouble with gangs will be with mindless desperate disorganized mobs, but not organized and prepared militia groups, which will give them a little bit more trouble.
Anyways, maybe these preppers should spend more time either doing things that make their pet disaster less likely to happen in the first place, or strengthening the preparedness of the local, state, and federal government to ensure that we as a whole can deal with it. But that wouldn’t be as much fun, I guess.
Ash Can
@bemused: I too was surprised that HGTV didn’t vet these guys any better than they did (or at all), but not surprised that they dumped them when they discovered the truth. HGTV has been on the cutting edge of familial diversity, showing non-traditional families frequently and in a very matter-of-fact manner. Being a homebody occurs across the board, regardless of color, gender, size, shape, orientation, marital status, whatever, and HGTV is obviously well aware of this. Anti-gay, anti-miscegenation, and other bigots have long since stopped watching HGTV, I’m sure, and HGTV doesn’t seem to be too worried about its bottom line over it. Alienating a major chunk of its current viewership, however, would be a different story, and HGTV evidently realizes this.
Betty Cracker
@Ash Can: Damn, that’s amazing!
I think my husband’s high cholesterol must be genetic; he’s not overweight, and he gets plenty of exercise. It’s not super-high, but it’s a bit over 200.
One high cholesterol thing he ate way too much of was eggs (due to the chickens!), so I’ve been cutting back on the yolks in his omelets, etc.
Also, we used to eat a fair amount of processed meats like salami and bacon, which we’ve stopped doing to help him lower his cholesterol. We tend to favor olive oil for cooking anyway, but I hope that our cutting out processed breads, muffins and crap like that will help too.
Morzer
SE Cupp has jumped aboard the ignorant bigot as victim train and is heading towards the Palinville junction:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/se-cupp-bill-nye-climate-change-bullies
I am sometimes amazed by how little self-respect “conservatives” must have to act this way.
Ash Can
@Morzer: He wasn’t terribly obese to begin with, so I don’t know if I’d characterize his weight loss as “dramatic.” But he’s definitely lost a not-insignificant amount. Heck, I’ve just been riding the coattails of his new regime, and I’ve dropped 20 pounds over the past year myself.
beth
@Betty Cracker: Some people just have high cholesterol no matter what. My mom had it and after her first heart attack she religiously cut out anything that contributed to it out of her diet, exercised like mad and took cholesterol lowering drugs. All this had very little impact on her levels. It was very frustrating for her.
@Ash Can: Yeah, unfortunately same dear sweet old mom used to call it Homo and Gay TV. She loved the channel but would always complain “why does everyone have to be gay”. I’m not sure she had any problems with gay people, she wasn’t that type so I could never figure out why it bothered her so much.
Morzer
@Ash Can:
Congratulations to both of you. I think that if he’s lost significant weight without being obese to start with, you could legitimately say his weight loss was impressive, if you didn’t care for the word “dramatic”.
bemused
@Ash Can:
I was shocked too and very puzzled. It seemed so incongruous when, as you said, many non-tradtitional families are featured plus show hosts. How did vetting the twins get overlooked? It’s not as if they were hiding their bigotry, pretty darn easy to research. Lack of vetting or turning a blind eye gets a lot of groups into big messes.
bemused
@beth:
Ha, ha. There is some gay folks on HGTV here and there and suddenly “everyone is gay”.
MomSense
@beth:
I have high cholesterol despite being vegetarian, thin, working out every day, and pretty much only using olive oil and grape seed oil. The only positive thing is that my good cholesterol is very high.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: I think my husband’s high cholesterol must be genetic; he’s not overweight, and he gets plenty of exercise. It’s not super-high, but it’s a bit over 200.
It’s definitely a genetic thing. Close friend of mine is very athletic, slim enough that he can wear his wedding tuxedo after 40 years, and had cholesterol over 300. I’ll never be called slim, can’t even dream of wearing the clothes I wore in my 20’s, eat pretty much whatever I feel like eating and have never topped 200.
WereBear
I actually had a bizarre incident with my hair stylist. She’s a genius and I’ve been going to her for over a decade without hearing a bad thing out of her mouth, but this time she mentioned how much she enjoyed a WWII era show about young women who worked in a bomb factory.
I would assume irony, but that would not fit her pattern, either, so I just went on chatting about tv shows.
But geeze, the second time in as many weeks I wonder how many seemingly normal people are Foxbotty or something. It’s like They Live.
Ash Can
@Betty Cracker: Cutting out processed foods can always help. My own cholesterol was creeping up over 200 too, so I was happy to make dietary changes along with M-80. I used to love to snack on cheese and hard salami. I never went too crazy with the butter, but I’d add it to olive oil for sauteeing and I’d also melt a little over cooked vegetables. And if I saw nice-looking little NY strip steaks on sale at the supermarket, I’d get them and put them in the grill pan for supper. I don’t do that any more. We’ve cut way back on meat altogether, really, although I keep a close eye on what Bottle Rocket eats — he doesn’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, on the same diet we’re on, so I make sure he gets the meat, dairy, eggs, etc. that he should be eating. In general, though, we eat a lot more rice-and-bean-type things. Also, both M-80 and Bottle Rocket like tofu, so I use that in place of meat for stir-fry.
Different things work for different people, of course. M-80 is fortunate that his was the kind of cholesterol situation that could be remedied just by diet and exercise. But our dietary changes really have made a difference.
RSR
@gene108: Tastykake went on a huge early aught’s expansion after the former Chamber of Commerce head became CEO. Built a huge new factory, probably with lots of tax incentives. Pretty much all the neo-lib/repub/CoC playbook moves.
And then they couldn’t or wouldn’t sustain the bottom line necessary to survive. so they got sold off.
Basically vulture capitalism, but without the grace and tact of pro’s like Rmoney.
http://www.phillymag.com/articles/the-fall-of-tastykake/
Of course, executives like CEO Pizzi cannot fail, they can only be failed. The guy “serves on a variety of civic, educational, charitable and other boards, including the boards of Drexel University, Franklin Square Energy Fund, PHH Corporation and Independence Blue Cross. Mr. Pizzi served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia from 2006 through 2011, including as Chairman from 2010 through 2011”
I forget which local education foundation I recently saw his name attached to, but I immediately thought of how the guy who ran a 100+ year old local company into the ground is now
griftinghelping the education system of Philadelphia.http://www.forbes.com/profile/charles-pizzi/
PurpleGirl
In light of comments about food and Doomsday preppers… Marie Osmond does commercials for Nutrisystem diet food and an outfit called Wise Company which apparently makes food to hold you through disasters. (You reconstitute the pre-portioned food package with water.) I have my TV for long periods and see a lot of commercials — some make me laugh and/or cringe.)
Morzer
@WereBear:
I don’t know if this makes me Foxbotty or not, but I could live without the gratuitous pornification of Game of Thrones. I’d prefer it if they just got on with the story.
Botsplainer
@bemused:
I was more surprised at the strength of the flow of the right wing puke funnel when I learned that those two assholes are the sons of Flip Benham, of Operation Rescue.
It doubly confirmed my belief that Eric Rudolph’s sweet deal and lack of serious questioning regarding aiders and abettors of his terrorist acts and avoidance of capture was orchestrated on high, so as to eliminate the possibility of revelation of uncomfortable truths.
Hal
Saw a post on Facebook today from an old high school friend warning that every tyranny began with taking guns from it’s citizens. I’m no historian but that just seems factually incorrect. Unless guns have existed a lot longer than I realized.
WereBear
@PurpleGirl: The idea of a reconstituted hamburger, bun and all, makes me shudder.
But then, over the last decade, I’ve moved from not-cooking to full blown foodie.
PurpleGirl
@JPL: Or very early morning, i.e. 4 AM. Call from a friend that his wife died that night. Another call at 8 AM from my sister that my mother had died that morning.
Thunderbird: So sorry for you.
Morzer
@Hal:
In the ancient world, a tyrant’s first step was often to get the people to vote him an armed bodyguard against “assassination”. No guns, but definitely an interest in making sure your supporters were as weaponized as possible. That said, many tyrants took the people into partnership against the old nobility/oligarchs, which is why tyranny was often a steppingstone to democracy of sorts once the tyranny fell.
bemused
@Botsplainer:
Yes, the twins aren’t just run of the mill rightwingers. HGTV should have caught on right from the get go.
Punchy
@Southern Beale: So they work in the ocean…shall I assume they will live in Idaho’s fortress-compound (“The Citidel”)? Or is that also “on hold, waiting for
grifteesinvestors” as well?ruemara
@Schlemizel: you don’t know what you’re talking about. I work with someone who produced the doomsday preppers show. The highest survivability rating anyone earned was about 73%. Why? Those ignorant morons spent so much time and money on guns and freeze-dried, but they went without practical knowledge of mechanics for safe water, backup systems, medicines, good shelter construction etc. Your love of your own pessimism is blinding you.
My condolences to Thunderbird. Even when you know they’ll go soon, it’s still never time to go.
Gene108, do what I do. See the treat and decide. The coffee is ok but the donut isn’t. Which do you want more? A skinnier ass or to eat something sweet that will be their when you’re at your goal? It is your body and you decided to eat it. You can decide to not eat it, too. Once you make a choice, it becomes easier.
Mike in NC
Wonder Bread? Cracker Barrel? Who in their right mind eats that shit?
WereBear
@Mike in NC: Asked, and answered.
PurpleGirl
@WereBear: I actually looked up the company online and found they have lots and lots of pasta and rice dishes with cheese and sauces. I didn’t look further to see if they had meat meals. The idea just hit me as not very appetizing.
Chickamin Slam
But the makers of Wonder Bread, the Flowers Foods you mention, donated once to a Democrat and in a few years that won’t cut the mustard on the purity test, 100% or else. Donald Sterling gave money to a Democrat or two so he practically is a dyed in the wool socialist hellbent on hurting the Freedoms of this country, or something.
chopper
@PurpleGirl:
The call I got that my dad died happened at 4 am. Never a good time for a phone call.
Thunderbird
@PurpleGirl: Thanks.
Thunderbird
@ruemara: Thanks.
RandomMonster
The people who make the most perversely bleached white bread contribute heavily to Republicans? The jokes write themselves.
Mnemosyne
@gene108:
Everyone else has given really good advice, but I’ll add in just one more piece: “willpower” is bullshit. Telling yourself that you “can’t” or “shouldn’t” have something is pretty much guaranteed to make you buy it.
What does work is telling yourself that you choose not to have it, at least not right then. Make a conscious decision to not buy it, and you won’t. It sounds a little woo, but it does work.
And, as someone else said, either bring your coffee from home or buy it somewhere other than Dunkin Donuts for a while. If you can’t resist the temptation, don’t even put yourself into the situation. Alton Brown did a whole episode of “Good Eats” on how he lost 50 pounds, and one of the things he had to do was stop drinking milk. Completely. Because in his mind, milk was so intimately associated with cookies that he literally could not drink milk without also having a cookie. So he substituted soy milk or almond milk because it didn’t trigger the same craving.
Morzer
@Mnemosyne:
I am a believer that you can’t get rid of habits and cravings root and branch – but you can replace them/overlay them with other habits over time. Not easy, but doable, bit by bit. Hell, I’m down to one pizza and eight cups of coffee a day!
Another Holocene Human
Nature’s Own always smelled funny to me.
Of course, “natural” is a meaningless term of art. Arsenic is perfectly natural, as are Technicium and Americium, short half-lives though they may be. BHT is every bit as natural as vital wheat gluten.
But it’s hard to explain that to somebody who has been raised with the doctrine of dualism. Confusion breeds more confusion.
Another Holocene Human
@Schlemizel: Out of all the “holy” books in the world, well, IMO the Chinese pretty much killed it with that Taoism stuff. And Zen Buddhism is pretty interesting in its own way. The Christian Bible is a ridiculous snorefest which has been slayed over and over by other literature in the Western tradition. In terms of a miserable read I’d put Hindi religious texts right up there as well. (Ugh.)
It’s a lot of weight to put on one book to hold it up as the be all and end all and because people today are literate and there are so many other options it becomes more of a thing to put that book on the shelf. Haven’t you noticed how Xtian book stores are all about tchochke’s and popular apologies written by mega-church pastors?
I mean, you can go back and read Marx or Adam Smith or Darwin. But try reading the Pentateuch. Or Marcion’s dipshit religious fanatic “Paul” letters. So you put that on the shelf because it’s more convincing in absentia than in reality.
Notice how the fundies have plunged into Bible rewriting projects because the Bible is not ideologically correct. Part of a bigger project to tell followers exactly how to interpret everything. It’s all meta meta meta these days.
That said, there is a concern for social justice through much of the Bible which is pretty much ignored and dismissed by the loudmouth “Christians” of today. Usury is condemned 300 times so naturally the #1 concern of any Christian is abortion.
Another Holocene Human
@JoyfulA: Tastykake was hyperlocal, but sold in 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tastykake
I saw them for sale in Florida and thought it was cool; stupid me.
Another Holocene Human
@bemused:
Overall bus cameras have been a good thing for the industry but the bad side is that ya can’t toss a racist, troublemaking jerk off the bus by their collar any more without drawing a 30 day suspension!
Another Holocene Human
@ericblair:
Not being able to game out how humans really work in groups is probably what leads to them being social outcast preppers who fantasize about dominating those who rejected them in the the first place.
Another Holocene Human
@Morzer: Sippy Cupp has been driving that train. She never had any self-respect to start with.
Her shtick is thin, anyway. She’s no Ann Coulter.
Morzer
@Another Holocene Human:
Man, that’s the cruellest of all reviews – less convincing than Ann Coulter!
Paul in KY
@Keith G: Wonder if she actually heard the orders? My 90 year old father is deaf & my 88 year old mother is heading in that direction.
All I do is mumble too much…
Paul in KY
@OzarkHillbilly: I’d probably try Mad Maxing it for a bit. Would have some less painful way (20 vals & a bottle of wine) to end it.
You sir are a true gun owner. Using your weapon to off yourself.
Paul in KY
@Thoughtful David: I like how they show where they are & how much stuff they have. Makes it easier for people to come gte their stuff when they know your layout/defenses, etc.
Paul in KY
@Morzer: You would soon find out that you are on a mighty small boat, in a mighty big ocean.
Friend of mine was on a 423 foot ship in North Sea one time in Winter. Said the waves were hoorendous. Scared him 1/2 to death, & he’s an old salt.
Thought his ship wasn’t big enough.
Paul in KY
@WereBear: In WW II USA, adultery & gayness were given up by citizens as those were needed for troops overseas.
Morzer
@Paul in KY:
I said I liked the idea, not that I was actually investing in planks and sail cloth.
I blame Patrick O’Brian. And, of course, Obama.
Come to think of it, Arthur Ransome has much to answer for as well.
Paul in KY
@Hal: Back under the hegemony of Thraxtos the Assyrian, they came for everyone’s rocks.
Morzer
@Paul in KY:
A tyrant who focuses on getting other people’s rocks off could be a political vote winner….
Paul in KY
@Morzer: I’m just trying to get you to not like the idea.
Paul in KY
@Morzer: We’d have had more tyrants if they went that route :-)
Morzer
@Paul in KY:
Mind you, the teabaggers would start hollering about how big gubmint was trying to steal their oh so precious seminal fluids which is ABORTION BY PROXY!
Morzer
@Paul in KY:
“I must go down to the sea again
To the lonely sea and the sky…”
At which point I shall think that the wind is excessively cold and seek out the nearest source of warmth and coffee.
Paul in KY
@Morzer: Col. Ripper was an early teabagger, methinks.
Jebediah, RBG
@Thunderbird:
Shit. Sorry…
Ian
Wonder Bread may be awful, but it’s better than those lousy bras they make.
John M. Burt
@WereBear: The last time I saw a work of fiction set among female war workers, it was a Lesbian romance.
Ruckus
@Morzer:
You develop habits, you can undo them. May not be easy but it is doable. How you do it works differently for each of us. Some can just make themselves walk away. Others have to sort of trick themselves. Something in place of the thing you want to stop or start doing. Something to act as a catalyst as @Mnemosyne: pointed out.
I think about it this way, there are acrobats who stuff themselves into a small box. They don’t learn to do this all at once, it takes practice and limbering up. A lot of limbering. You didn’t put on the 10, 20, 50 lbs in one setting, it took time. You can’t lose it all in one week either. Baby steps. Look for rewards for each move in the right direction. Maybe it’s a donut a week instead of 5 or 6. Figure out a trigger for whatever it is that you want/like and want to change and change the trigger. Will power works, some of us just don’t know how to use it.
Walter Nottingham
Back in the Seventies, IT&T got into a spot of trouble for giving illegal contributions to the Nixon campaign. Boy, THOSE were the days. Remember Dita Beard being grilled in a Congressional hearing? Well, at the time, the Wonder brand was owned by a subsidiary of IT&T, and boycotting Wonder Bread got to be a “thing” for a while.
It’s been pretty easy not to go back.