The LuLac Edition #2268, November 19th, 2012
THE TWINKIE CONTROVERSY
Hostess, the makers of Twinkie and Ho Hos is going out of business. The reason on the surface is that union workers would not cave in to the company’s threat to close up if 18,000 workers did not submit to their business plan. This was a business plan that increased the company’s debt to over a billion dollars, up from the 450 million they were in a hole prior to being taken over by a Bane Capital type mechanism. The workers are told to pound sand but the CEOs and top managers (who ran the company into the ground) want their bonuses. Hostess made a good product. Even in these diet conscious times, the product was made well. The workers did everything asked of them. Did you ever hear of a product recall from Hostess? No. So the only logical conclusion is that the CEO’s blame the workers for the plant shutting down. Yep, those big bad bakers trying to make a living wage were all to blame. In the meantime, some other company will come in and get Hostess at a bargain price, free of the debt that was owed the workers through their pension plans that they worked for. God Bless big business and damn the worker.
SUGAR NOTCH SANTA SHUFFLE
The late Terry McNulty from WARM used to refer to the “Sugar Notch Shuffle” in his radio program. At Sunday’s Sugar Notch Santa Parade, Council member Mario Fiorucci took a holiday flag. Bought from his favorite shopping venue and marched through the streets beckoning the adults and children that Santa was on his way. The performance was so energetic and convincing , that people thought Fiorucci was the Grand Marshall. That of course was impossible because everyone knows in a Santa parade, the man with the bag, and not the flag holds that title. But much to the delight of the crowd, Fiorucci could’ve been a close second if he had a Santa suit.
posted by David Yonki @ 9:22 PM
14 comments
14 Comments:
Question for the Yonk: Have you ever worked in a union shop?
The only problem w/hostess is that the product these merchants of death, Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, have produced will remain on the market killing more and more people each day.
"CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns."
Gas, Food, Coal, Guns and now email. Why do that people that SAY they stand FOR our freedom keep trying to take them away.
I don't need this cr@p - but this is what the kids voted for.
Yonk: Those big bad Hostess bakers are only trying to make a living!
Some other facts you might want to consider. At the time of this bankruptcy, Hostess with a dozens of plants had 372 collective bargaining pacts, 80 health and benefits plans, 40 pensions plans and $100 million in retiree health benefits. They also payed ZERO for their health costs.
Do you know anyone any more that pays ZERO for their health costs?
This was the union that struck in 2009 rather than accept concessions that would of kept Stella d'Oro baking cookies at its Bronx plant. Now they're made in a nonunion shop in Ohio. Hope they make concessions
for their jobs, but if not,welcome to the real world!!!!
Good Morning Students,
First of all, regarding Hostess Twinkies, legend has it that if you bought a pack (say in that disgusting year of 1967) and still had it in your cupboard today; opened it; and ate it, it would still be fresh. My question being----what on Earth are they putting in these awful confections!?!! And we wonder why there has been a surge in diabetes and obesity over the past years. Giles, the chef at my club makes a fabulous Citrus Souffle from scratch, of course. Again, and I cannot stress this enough, the human body is a very delicate, yet fascinating piece of machinery; it’s true inner workings only completely known to our Creator. You take care of your cars by waxing them each season; you maintain your furnace for the Winter months to come; you treat your backyard deck for the Summer to come. Yet, when it comes to your own body, you destroy it by ingesting greasy foods, alcohol, cigarettes and Twinkies. Then, one morning when you become seriously ill from a heart attack or a stroke brought on by those years of abuse—YOU WANT ME TO PAY FOR IT????? Well, since Obamacare is the law of the land now, I guess I am becoming personally responsible for you ingrates.
The business of this classroom goes forward……
Students, I would like to commend Mr. Yonki on his excellent paper of yesterday, “Fixed Income”. Young man, I have admired your work in this classroom but even I was not prepared for the eloquence of what you submitted yesterday. Congratulations.
I have from time to time complained about the whining of the older generation as well as the younger generation. We are in fact, a nation of whiners. It is important that we understand that in order for America to be great once again we all need to learn to live within our means and stand on our own two feet. Last but not least, we need to stop depending on the government to fix every single problem. I have often referred to (as one student in class noted) the amount of so called “struggling” seniors who spend endless hours at the Mohegan Sun throwing their money away in hopes of becoming millionaires. I do not decry the value of hopes and dreams, however if one wishes to dance they ought to be prepared to pay the piper, or words to that effect. I hope that in the upcoming budget negotiations that Social Security is cut, that Medicare is cut and all entitlements are cut (some even put into extinction). I equally hope that the entrepreneurs , the job creators are not punished by being taxed through the roof. The Bush tax cuts need to stand! For if they are eliminated, we shall see an economic disaster that would make the situation we are in now look utopian.
IN closing, I would like to return to the Twinkie subject. The owners of the company have every right to conduct it as they wish. The workers have an equal right to quit if they do not like what the owners are doing. That is the best way to run a free society. Unions throwing scrambled and crippling regulations into the mix is one of the reasons we are in the present economic calamity to begin with. I must say, I miss Willard Mitt Romney and the promise he held for each of us every day. I think I always will.
Something to think about this morning………
Class Dismissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Either the union leadership was (a) utterly incompetent, or (b) was willing to sacrifice its members’ jobs at Hostess in order to send a message to other firms that it would play hardball and they should not ask for concessions. Either way, it was not looking out for its members at Hostess.
I'm for Tastykakes first last and forever! Nothing compares and I think its a Pennsylvania brand. Dont know what their union status is but they are for damn sure GOOD!
I'm gonna go get me some right now.
IN RESPONSE
Question for the Yonk: Have you ever worked in a union shop?
NOPE. I SUSPECT F I DID I WOULDN'T BE LIVING IN THE NORTHEND OF WILKES BARRE!!
Yonk: Those big bad Hostess bakers are only trying to make a living!
YEAH I KNOW. I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THEM, I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE BIG SHOTS TRYING TO SCREW THEM!
I'm for Tastykakes first last and forever! Nothing compares and I think its a Pennsylvania brand. Dont know what their union status is but they are for damn sure GOOD!
MY FAVORITE ARE THE BUTTERSCOTCH KRIMPETS. WHEN I WAS A KID GROWING UP, THEY WERE A REAL TREAT. WHEN I WAS HELPING TO CARE FOR MY LATE MOTHER IN LAW, HER FAVORITES WERE THE COFFEE CAKES. AND I ONCE HAD THE GIRLFRIEND WHO FROZE PEANUT BUTTER TANDYCAKES. I ALSO REMEMBER TASTYCAKE SPONSORING THE FIGHTIN PHILS.
Frozen Peanut Butter and Chocolate Kandykakes, YES! Smart Dame you were dating! I dont even like Butterscotch but loved the Butterscotch Krimpets. Tastykakes from Philly, PA.
Tastykake also makes a pretty good brownie!!!
Since the Professor brought up Mitt I must raise the question (and hope for a reasonable answer):
When Mitt spoke to his major donors and was subsequently vilified for saying what he said, I ask: Was Mitt right?
2:22
Mitt was always right just not far enough and No in this case he was WRONG. Wrong Man, Wrong Time, Wrong Country. Apparently the only one who really supported him was the so called professor who also was Wrong!
Consider America's largest, fastest-growing minority.
Hispanics constituted 10 percent of the electorate, up from 7.5 in 2008. But Mitt got only 27 percent of that, the lowest of any Republican presidential candidate.
This, we are told, was because of Mitt's comment about "self-deportation" and GOP support for a border fence and sanctions on employers who hire illegals. If only we embrace the Dream Act and provide a path to citizenship — amnesty — the GOP's problem is solved.
The Republican capacity for self-delusion is truly awesome.
Set aside the idealized Hispanic of the Republican consultants' vision. What does the real Hispanic community look like today?
Let us consider only native-born Hispanics, U.S. citizens.
According to Steve Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which analyzed Census Bureau statistics from 2012:
More than one in five Hispanic citizens lives in poverty.
One in four Hispanic-American men 25 to 55 is out of work.
More than half of all Hispanic women 25-55 are unmarried.
Half of all Hispanic households with children are headed by an unmarried woman, and 55 percent depend on welfare programs.
These numbers do not improve with time, as they did with the Irish, Italian, Polish, Jewish and German immigrants who poured into the United States between 1890 and 1920. Third-generation Hispanics do worse than second-generation Hispanics in all the above categories.
This is a huge community being sucked into the morass of a mammoth welfare state. Consider a typical Hispanic household with children.
It is headed by an unmarried woman who receives food stamps and public housing or rent supplements to feed and house her children.
Her kids are educated free from Head Start to K-12 and fed by school breakfast and lunch programs. Should they graduate high school, Pell Grants and student loans are there for college.
For cash, mom gets welfare checks. If she takes a job, she will receive an earned income tax credit to supplement her income. If she loses her job, she can get 99 weeks of unemployment checks.
For health care, there is Medicaid and Obamacare. And like 45 percent of all Hispanic households, she has no federal income tax liability.
Why should this woman vote for a party that will cut taxes she does not pay, but reduce benefits she does receive?
Rename Romney's gifts "government services," writes Aaron Blake citing a Washington Post poll, and one discovers that 67 percent of Latinos favor "a larger government with more services."
These are big government people. And why should they not be?
According to Heather Mac Donald, writing in National Review, a 2011 survey found that California Hispanics by four to one objected more to the GOP on class-warfare grounds — the party "favors only the rich," Republicans are "selfish" — than to the GOP stand on immigration.
Nor is this unusual. Populist programs to stick it to the rich have always had an appeal south of the border.
There are 50 million Hispanics in America today. California is lost to the GOP. Nevada and Colorado are slipping away. Arizona and Texas are next up on the block.
With the U.S. Hispanic population in 2050 projected to reach 130 million, the acolytes of Karl Rove have their work cut out for them.
Dave, a quick comment on Fiorucci. He is truly community minded and his heart is in the right place. If only his head would follow along he'd be fine.
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