Today was a horrible day for the CRA (whatever the heck is left of it, I should add). In a move not foreseen by anyone in either this organization or the Tea Party; Senator Theodore Cruz R-Tejas has endorsed President Donald J. Trump for re-election in 2020. There you have it ladies and gentlemen….shut it down. Cruz2020.com is now a worthless domain name. For those of you who think there may still be Hope…sorry she left the White House a month ago. As the Blog Father and I have stated all along, Donald is here for 7 more years, get over it.
Oh, true believers may want to help Lyin’ Ted to make sure he gets re-elected first, he is barely edging out a liberal democrat in early polling for his senate race in November; otherwise CRA will be Can’t Re-elect Anyone.
CRA President Thomas N Hudson, has moved to declare today a National Day of Mourning for the organization. Note: the spelling of MOURNING, not to be confused with MORNING, like “Its morning again in America.” CRA flags should not be flown at all (actually this has been the case for many years, but I digress), endorsement meetings scheduled for the rest of the month will cease to take place, and all should tune in to CNN to be sure this is not fake news.
I was aware that the organization was losing members, but now I hear entire units are shutting down and may never meet again. This news is a huge blow to CRA’s moral. Both a crisis prevention hotline and suicide prevention hotline are being made available to all members free of charge.
Speaking of suicide prevention…
Never Trump media figures lamented Cruz’s support for Trump’s campaign. Glenn Beck, a fervent Cruz supporter during the 2016 primary, described himself as “profoundly sad” following Cruz’s endorsement of Trump, whom Beck strongly opposed. Beck later described America as a “petulant child” worthy of divine punishment for making “the wrong choice” in nominating Trump.
For the sole purpose of impeaching President Trump, CRA leadership is mulled over a proposal to allow endorsement of democrats running for Congress in the People’s Republic of California. Since most voted for anyone but Trump in the last election, this effort will likely prove just as futile.
Good luck, hopefully you will find the strength to overcome this setback.
Unless you are a CRA member, living under a rock, voted for Hillary, or have any Park Family Genes in your DNA, you have likely heard Toys R Us is liquidating their business here in the United States and all over the globe. What caused a giant big box that controlled 20% of the toy market to collapse you may ask? Well a combination of things, but the internet, Amazon.com and high prices were none of them.
First some background on Toys R Us. The company was founded in 1948 by Charles Lazarus who interestingly died the same day the company decided to liquidate all stores. The company had sustained success and was even referred to as a “category killer” which is similar to how people view Amazon.com today (a company that is almost impossible to compete with).
Editor’s note: As a child, the highlight of every Christmas was receiving the Sear’s Christmas catalog. In my youth this was Christmas. We only wanted to get toys from Sears because it was literally a one-stop shop for everything. From their catalog, our parents could order anything and have it waiting for us under the tree. Seemingly out on nowhere, along came Toys R Us and stole Christmas from the oldest and most well-known retailer in the country.
Retail icon, Toys R Us, fades into oblivion
The company prospered for many decades but in the late 1990’s Toys R Us started having issues competing with Target, Wal-Mart, and Amazon.com. In 1998 it fell behind Wal-Mart in market share. This is when the chain’s issues started. They tried Kids R Us, a clothing discount chain, and it failed badly and was liquidated after 5 short years. They began growing their Babies R Us chain, to essentially focus on commodities like diapers and bottles, this was also a bad decision. Even more costly was the expensive remodeling of all stores in 2000 by former FAO Schwartz CEO John Eyler. This predictably didn’t change the competitive landscape so in 2005 with the stock struggling on Wall Street, it was sold in a leveraged buyout to 3 private equity firms. This further exasperated the problems facing Toys R Us. The buyout to take Toys private was 6.6 billion dollars, led by Bain Capital (After Mitt Romney had left) Vornado Realty Trust, and Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts.
Leveraged buyouts are not always bad things, there are benefits to being private and you do not have to answer to public investors on Wall Street and can work out corporate and company issues behind closed doors. In N Out and Chick-fil-A are both private and the lines are out the door, down the street, and in most cases backed up to the freeway! Michael Dell—yes that Dell—took the company he founded, Dell Computer, private. Dell Computer had been struggling for many years but taking it private has allowed it to turn around. Typically, after these types of buyouts, private equity firms wind up taking the company public again (more on this later).
So how do these buyouts work? When a public company has a major drop in stock price and has fundamental issues like Toys did, then in come the White Knights saying they can fix everything and will offer to buy the shares of the entire company. In the case of Toys, the private equity guys offered a price 67% higher than what the shares were trading for on Wall Street; banks are happy, stockholders are typically happy, everyone gets paid and then the company is private. In the case of Toys, it was 6.6 billion. So, did the private equity guys have to pay 6.6 billion for Toys? No, they borrowed the money from investment banks—think Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, etc.—and used the company’s cash flow as collateral. Truth be told, the private equity guys in this case likely put up only about 10% of that 6.6 billion.
So, from the start, Toys had a debt load of 6 billion to pay back, at interest rates likely in the 8-9% range! Banks extract large fees from these loans and add it to the debt load—think the housing crisis circa 2008. The banks just rolled the expenses into the loan then sold it to an unsuspecting group of investors. In this case Toys was now controlled by 3 large companies that didn’t know how to run the toy business at all. However, one thing these 3 companies know a lot about is how to extract money from their investment, (more on this later as well).
So after the dust settled, Toys was saddled with 400 million in annual interest payments to satisfy the terms of their loan. Think about that, 400 million in annual revenue goes first to paying off debt interest, not keeping the lights on or paying salary, just debt. Then the private equity companies charge a “management fee” of usually 2-3% of revenue every year, further straining cash flow to pay bills. Then they pay themselves a dividend every year of around 5-8% on their “investment” once again straining cash flow even further.
With sales falling, Toys began to run low on cash. As a result, cuts had to happen across the company because no way would the private equity companies take a cut in fees. In such circumstances, the research and development department gets cuts first, then other sales, general and administrative expenses are slashed next, followed by a hiring freeze, then changes to the accounts payable department. What used to be 30 or 45 day terms are changed to 60 or 90 day terms. After that benefits are cut/eliminated and salaries for new hires are slashed to minimum wage. This is all being done to pay interest and dividends to private equity companies.
The result of this ultimately led to the death of the company. Because of financial constraints, Toys can’t innovate much. For example, toys are only made by a couple different companies—Hasbro and Mattel being the big ones—so in a sense you are limited by their innovation in that space. On price, Toys only had about 800 stores in the United States compared to Wal-Mart and Target which have 800 in the western U.S. alone. This hurt the negotiation power Toys had with suppliers. For example, Toys wants to buy one million GI Joe toys from Hasbro, and Hasbro sells them to Toys for $10 a unit. Wal-Mart orders three million GI Joe toys and Hasbro cuts them a volume discount based on $7 a unit. As a result Toys sold GI Joe for $14 and Wal-Mart could sell for $10. Toys then agreed to price match the competition, so now on that same GI Joe instead of making $4 per unit, they were breaking even; such a business model is not sustainable.
Also, there was no money being re-invested back into the business. Toys used to be known as a huge demonstration and interactive place for children to visit, try out the toys, and then scream and cry until mom or dad bought it for them. Those demo areas disappeared. Toys became a big box store and worse yet couldn’t compete on price with other big box stores like Wal-Mart. In a world where price is now everything, Toys had an advantage at one time. The child could play with and decide they want the product and unfortunately for the parents, they couldn’t wait two days for Amazon Prime because little Mike wanted it NOW.
Even as the business declined, Toys still controlled 20% of the market. Finally, the private equity guys turned to turnaround artist David Brandon, you may recognize the name, he turned Domino’s Pizza into the company it is today and brought it back from the dead. The problem for Toys was that it was too late. Toys remodeled several hundred stores, brought back the demo areas, improved their website, but the damage from private equity had been done. The flow of money away from operations led to customers opting for other big box stores or internet websites. They couldn’t attract top talent anymore and began to close stores several tranches at a time.
This spooked suppliers and as a result; Hasbro, LEGO, and Mattel changed the terms under which they would sell products to Toys. The result, Toys ran out of inventory during the Christmas shopping season! With unsustainable debt, the company could not pay its bills and as a result the only option left was bankruptcy protection. A big store like Toys—similar to Sports Authority and Sport Chalet—no way the creditors would allow them to go through a restructure, they would need to liquidate. Thus, the end of Toys R Us. But don’t feel bad for the private equity groups. They collected fees and dividends for over 15 years and then during bankruptcy sold the inventory and everything else to liquidation firms. Additionally the lack of profitability also gives tax advantages to these groups since they tend to own many companies. The employees? They got nothing, except a pink slip of course.
Could Toys have been saved…I think so; there is room for a toy store chain in the United States. This is what I would have done. I would have run the stores similarly to Best Buy or a grocery store. I would have found a tenant or two to sublease floor space, so they could demo their own products. I would have set up an area to host children’s birthday parties, and maybe reached out to LEGO to see if they wanted to create a LEGO Land in the stores. This would give predictable cash flow every month and given you a way to spruce up your business to make it more appealing to customers. Have you been to a Best Buy lately? I don’t even think Best Buy owns much of its own leased stores; Pacific Sales, Sprint, T-Mobile, Magnolia, Google, and HP/Apple lease a ton of floor space from them. As far as price match goes, that’s a battle big box stores win by attrition. I would have focused on making the stores into a place both parent and child want to go to because I don’t think anyone admits publicly to wanting to go to Wal-Mart. But alas, a large part of most people’s childhood is gone with the wind.
Faithful followers, your humble correspondent intercepted a communique from the Elk Grove Teachers Association by facsimile at the beginning of this month regarding a student led walkout protest in regard to the recent shooting in Florida. As a note to the CRA readers and the occasional Park offspring that read this blog, we do not condone any part of the shooting in Florida, this is merely to point out that fault lies with parents, teachers, and the students during these subsequent walkouts nationwide.
First of all, to the teachers and parents of this country, you are both directly responsible for this radical walkout, let me explain. When William and I were young lads many moons ago, if us students planned a protest or demonstration we would be instantly shot down, by said teachers and parents. The words, “sit down, shut up”, or “life isn’t fair” were uttered constantly. If we didn’t obey, a subsequent trip to see the principal and a phone call to your parents and likely a suspension was warranted. Yes, these were the days that a parent (or educator) could spank you so hard you couldn’t sit down for a day or two.
Oh, the good ole days…
Fast forward twenty some odd years and we get to the current political climate. Now you have a generation of 40 to 55 year-old parents whom after having their feelings and voice suppressed want their children/students to do their bidding for them. My reasoning, someone explain to me why a local K- 8 grade school had a massive walkout here? When I was in Kindergarten through 8th grade school I was more worried about whether we would be playing football or basketball during recess and hoping I wouldn’t get cooties from girls, hence I find it very hard to believe these same students today could decide to walk off campus in a protest! I didn’t know who the president was and definitely didn’t know much about gun violence. But wait; what about social media? No K-8th grade student is that plugged in; sorry to say, these protests were all led by their parents and teachers; sorry.
Let’s face it, sadly we live in a world that has become very politicized, and filled with breaking news, not correct but being the first to break it. This political climate started during the end of the Bush II administration and has progressively gotten worse since the election of CRA enemy Donald J Trump.
Let me take a couple of steps back and try to make sense of this for you. It used to be that a teacher’s job was to teach, and this job didn’t pay well, but the benefits and having summers off coupled with the love of children and joy of teaching outweighed the salary part. Currently, teachers believe they should be paid north of 100k to start, and get the same great benefits, coupled with no accountability at all. Actually, this is not far off, some school districts start at 75k, have great perks, and most importantly grant tenure after just 2 years of teaching! Yes folks, they get a “you can never be fired pass” after just 2 short years!
(Editor’s Note: while technically two years, the administration approves and submits the tenure paperwork when the new teacher is about 18 months into their teaching gig.)
It used to be if you wore a Reagan/Bush/Clinton shirt you were sent home or told to turn it inside out. Now you can wear a “F**k Donald Trump” or “Kill a Cop” shirt and if you’re a teacher, you’ll be eligible for sainthood and if you’re a student you are accounted as “a forward thinker.” The problem is people who have no business teaching are now in the classroom because they view teaching similar to being a doctor or a lawyer, it’s a money making career. Go to a local school, look at most of the teaching talent, I wouldn’t hire most to work the till at your local Burger King let alone teach my child! Don’t believe me? Go complain to the principal or the school board about this, you would be labeled as a racist or a homophobe or a bigot. Speaking of school board, WTF has happened to that group, it used to be they fought over should we teach sex-ed to 7 graders or eighth graders, now it’s should we give condoms out to students in 4th or 5th grade? Or we need to pass a school bond to make gender neutral bathrooms, or to create a safe space or best summed up at a local charter school out here a “Peace Pole.” Well I guess a peace pole is better than a stripper pole, seeing the number of teachers arrested for having a sexual relationship with students so far this year already…but I digress.
Politics has no place in our schools or class rooms, however all that has changed as well. These classrooms have become a propaganda machine for left leaning groups looking for lambs to lead to the slaughter later in life. I don’t want you to believe me; just ask one a question to see for yourself. Ask who the President is, you will likely get a very serious response of “He isn’t my president” “He was helped by Russia” “He is a racist”. The answers run the gamut. Then ask about Barak Obama, the answers will be completely different; they have been fed propaganda by their teachers in order to create a permanent voting class for dependent liberals.
So now I will tie this all into the protest, point by point as taken from this intercepted communique from Elk Grove Education Association. Click here for EGEA Memo
1. Do NOT advocate certain political positions or encourage students to participate in a non-authorized student demonstration.
Well this is fresh, so they can pander all they want on any other day, but don’t you dare state or advocate a political position during the protest? Heck why not play the Anthem of our Country, you have probably already conditioned your sheeple to take a knee during that! Additionally, non-authorized? What the actual heck, if you’re under 18 and something wasn’t authorized as stated above, sit down, shut up, and learn.
2. You should not be perceived to be participating in the activity. Instead, your role during such activities should be supervisory.
Again, what the heck! You should participate, you should supervise? Please explain the difference to me between don’t participate but supervise? So, I can walk off as a teacher but hide behind the excuse that I need to supervise little Mike on his way off campus? What about the other students? Is Mike 18? Why is he allowed to leave without parent consent and being present with said child? Hell, supervise; 7/9ths of teachers can’t supervise properly during yard duty let alone a protest!
3. Follow instructions and plans of your site administrator. Some sites may be planning activities during this event.
Site administrator? What are we talking about here a website? As far as activities being planned, there is an activity planned that day it’s called a faux Donald Trump Protest, these kids don’t know anything about the circumstances of the shooting they just hate Donald Trump, because their teachers and parents told them too. Additionally, was there a permit pulled for this protest because they took place on public property, or was it exempt because Donald Trump?
4. Do NOT prevent a student from leaving your class who wants to leave. Follow your site procedures about reporting this behavior. Do NOT question or draw attention to a student’s participation or choice not to participate.
If a student wants to leave, especially one under 18, fine they can do so if accompanied by a parent (except when going to the local abortionist and then it’s illegal to tell the parents). As far as reporting the behavior goes, give little Mike an A for the day as far as properly following protocols.
So yeah, that’s pretty rich; but it’s right there in black and white. The teachers who tell our students complete untruths regarding Donald Trump, now want to be seen as neutral?That’s preposterous. The real sad thing about all this kerfuffle is most students and even adults have no real idea what happened during and leading up to that shooting. As far as where that lunatic got the gun, or what his motive was, who cares? The SOB is gone from this earth. Maybe we should discuss cyber bullying? The internet is a place where people can be anonymous and bully or troll anyone they please. Maybe we should discuss banning bump stocks and conversion kits, but should we also ask why it is that during an Antifa or Occupy Wall Street rally law enforcement usually recovers a cache of weapons including; rocket launchers, grenades, tommy guns, etc.? Those are far more capable of ending human life than a legally purchased AR-15. Maybe we should discuss arming a few personnel on campus, not open carry but concealed carry. How come these protests didn’t happen during the Obama presidency? Why has the older generation been allowed to ruin America’s future generations for the sake of having their children/students be social justice warriors?
Let me begin by saying Mark Cuban is a very recognizable figure lately; he is the owner of the NBS franchise in Dallas, the Mavericks, he is a guest on Shark Tank on CNBC, and is also known as a Donald Trump hater. As a NBA owner he was very vocal about officiating gaffes, and has been fined millions over the years, on Shark Tank he sits to the left of the screen and is basically known for striking a deal about once a week with an entrepreneur. Lastly, he despises everything about Donald J Trump, from endorsing Hillary over him in the election to threatening to run against him in the primary in 2020. Seems like he would be welcome by the CRA and the tea party groups nationwide!
Mark Cuban
Cuban’s quest for publicity at every turn actually could lead to his demise. On February 20th of this year Sports Illustrated, (mostly known for their famous Swimsuit edition rather than actual journalism by the way) put out a strange tweet saying they had finished an investigation into sexual harassment with the Dallas Mavericks. Not to be outdone, the Mavericks quickly went in to spin mode:
The Dallas Mavericks have received information about behavior in our workplace that appears to have violated the organization’s standards of conduct. It has been alleged that a former officer of the organization engaged in various acts of inappropriate conduct toward women over a period of years. This individual left the employment of the Mavericks nearly three years ago and the Mavericks have only learned of the scope of these complaints in the past days.
This is to be expected. Mark Cuban likes to control the narrative, however it is a very weird response to the tweet put out by Sports Illustrated. What came next was a bombshell even Cuban couldn’t have anticipated. The investigation goes all the way back to 1998; when Cuban bought the team! Terdema Ussery was the team President and CEO at the time and prior to Cuban’s purchase, he had been investigated for sexual harassment by the team, after several female employees complained about him. Cuban kept him on the job, but “every employee of the organization received a revamped employee handbook with a new sexual harassment policy.” It was 1998 and at the time this was passable behavior from a new owner, keep the crew but make sure they know about new policies. Problem was Ussery continued his behavior. Here is a firsthand account:
At this meal, with ESPN crew members seated nearby, Ussery struck up an unusual conversation. As the woman recalls the exchange, Ussery claimed that he knew what she was going to do over the coming weekend. When the woman asked, confusedly, what Ussery meant, he smiled.
“You’re going to get gang-banged,” he asserted, “aren’t you?”
“No,” the woman responded, caught off-guard. “Actually, I’m going to the movies with friends.”
Two women claimed to SI that Ussery harassed them for years. These incidents ranged from inappropriate remarks to requests for sex to touching women’s calves and thighs during meetings. One of the women says she made [head of HR Buddy Pittman] aware—“countless times … I ‘leaned in’ so much I fell over”—of Ussery’s behavior; the other chose not to, frustrated by what she deemed to be Pittman’s unhelpful response to an unrelated complaint she had raised. “I felt trapped, frozen, scared,” says one of the women. “This was the CEO of the organization … and it was clear he wasn’t going to get fired.”
How was this bozo kept on the payroll? That question remains unanswered. In 2015 he left the Mavericks and joined Under Armour. He lasted 2 months at that company. Anyone want to take bets that his hands-on management style got him terminated?
Let us shift gears to another employee, Earl Sneed. Sneed was a freelance writer who got a full-time gig with the Mavericks in 2010-2011. Let’s look at how much this guy respected women:
Midway through that season, Sneed was involved in a domestic dispute with a girlfriend. According to a Dallas police report, Sneed “sat on top of her and slapped her on the face and chest.” At one point he told the woman, “I’m going to f——— kick your ass. Today is gonna be the worst day of your life.” Sneed, according to the report, “fled before the reporting officer arrived.” The woman, according to the report, suffered a fractured right wrist and bruises on her arms and chest in the altercation.
Earl Sneed
But wait, there is more. Sneed, in 2014, hit a female co-worker whom he was dating. The women reported the event to her supervisor and then to Buddy Pittman, the Head of Human Resources. Keep in mind almost every company has rules about dating co-workers, yet somehow Sneed was able to retain his job yet again, but with an unusual caveat; he could not be alone with any female at any time. Strange. Honestly that is a bizarre policy right there, especially coming from Human Resources who probably would have recommended termination for this employee. Was the HR supervisor overruled by Cuban? Impossible to tell right now. Also another female reported that a co-worker watched porn at his desk all day on a company workstation no less….sounds like a frat house more so than a place of work.
Cuban, looking to control the narrative did what any other lowly President of a corporation does, he claimed plausible deniability. In English that means someone who can safely deny that he knew anything about the situation. If you’re thinking of a CEO or government official being questioned by congress or the SEC you are on the right track.
Here is the problem for Cuban or anyone else that is a frequent twitter/media user…Cuban on multiple media formats has said/tweeted “I know so much about my company and the inner workings you can’t B******T me!. I purposely did not screen shot this tweet because of the vulgar language used, but will say this to prove my point, social media is a platform where you stand to win very little and stand to lose quite a bit. That little tweet has come back to rear its ugly head quite a bit the last couple weeks. Hard to claim you have intimate knowledge of everything in all your companies then come out and say you are so distant you have no clue. However, believe it or not this story gets even stranger.
Back in 2014 when disgraced former LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was on the verge of the NBA taking his team away, Cuban made some very strange remarks. Saying, “I think taking someone’s team away over comments they said or things they did were creating a very, very, very slippery slope.” I found this statement odd because Sterling was a very racist and bigoted man who had damaged the brand so badly that I felt he needed to lose his team. Now it makes sense as Cuban likely has several skeletons in his closet, including a recent report that back in 2011 he groped/penetrated a women at a bar. This report was corroborated by the bartender working that night describing Cuban as very intoxicated and very touchy feely with female guests. Luckily for him, the police “investigated and decided to close the case.”
My advice to Cuban is stay in private life, do a few deals on Shark Tank and enjoy owning the Dallas Mavericks and a movie theatre. Keep your head down and hope that this will all blow over. Claiming you’re a hands-on owner in this climate won’t be viewed favorably by most voters. Running against Donald Trump in a primary in 2 years would be one of the dumbest things you can do. Trump didn’t just beat his competition at every level of the race, he mortally wounded them; look at Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Lyin’ Ted Cruz, and look no further than crooked Hillary. Mark, any other skeletons in your closet will be outed, beware.
A headline caught my eyes this week and I knew I had to do more in depth research, “JM Smucker Company announces global pet food recall.” Ummm, why is a jam and peanut butter company recalling pet food I wondered aloud? I’ll get into this a little more later. As I continued reading the article I figured the dog food may not have been heated/mixed/prepared correctly…wrong, they added pentobarbital….yeah as in the lethal injection death penalty drug. For those of you in Soviet California, other states use lethal injection to wipe clean the earth of scum, you guys just let them out of jail with a slap on the wrist. But back to my point, how in the world does pentobarbital get introduced into the food supply of a huge company? I mean I thought the point of buying dog food was to keep Fido alive not kill him/her or if you’re in California your gender neutral dog. The brands recalled were; Ole Roy, Kibbles n’ Bits, and Gravy Train, all wet dog food products only. Besides the fact that wet dog food is basically processed diarrhea I still honestly wonder how in the world pentobarbital was introduced to the supply chain. What was it even doing in the factory? I will explain below.
The FDA has this to say regarding ingesting pentobarbital “Consuming high levels of pentobarbital can cause coma and death. However, pentobarbital present in the withdrawn products is at a low level unlikely to pose a health risk to pets.” You should feel much more assured now, it was just a low dose so likely nothing would happen to your dog. What a line of crap.
Editor’s Note: Our readers in the Orient should understand that this FDA pronouncement does not consider the cumulative effect of consuming dogs or canine products over a long period of time. Participants in the recent Winter Olympics were unlikely to have been exposed to enough canine products during their time in South Korea since each athlete was issued 37 condoms by the International Olympic Committee and thus are presumed to have been too occupied doing other things to suffer ill effects of canine exposure.
Smucker had an even better one, get a load of this “We take this very seriously and are extremely disappointed that pentobarbital was introduced to our supply chain,” Barry Dunaway, President of Pet Food and Pet Snacks said in a statement. “We will continue to work closely with our suppliers and veterinarians to ensure the ingredients used in our products meet or exceed regulatory safety standards and our high-quality standards,” Dunaway continued. “Above all, we are a company that loves pets and understand the responsibility we have in providing high quality food for the pets our consumers love.”
Literally this Dunaway has admitted nothing other than they are embarrassed; yeah like a child sorry they got caught, not sorry for what they did. Then he goes on, but don’t worry we will work closely with our suppliers (sounds like you should terminate the contract), veterinarians (But notice not the Vet you will be taking your sick dog too) and they still love your dog (they love your $$$ and hope their ignorance doesn’t kill it). Clearly Smucker’s legal team wrote the press release and Dunaway signed his name. The kicker is this waste of human flesh is a president of the pet food division, like he actually has major responsibilities. Apparently, there is no brain cell requirement to hold a high-ranking position at JM Smucker Co.
The over laying issue here is about 10 companies control 90% of the market on most food and other essential products we use in our lives. Best examples; you hate Pepsi because they are evil and their soda causes diabetes, so you reach for Aquafina or Quaker Oats instead…PepsiCo makes those products. Gatorade, Tropicana, or Lays….yup all owned PepsiCo. Coca-Cola makes Coke, but did you know they make Dasani bottled water? Or Fairlife milk? Campbell’s Soup tastes awful, so I will grab a V8 instead…both owned by Campbell’s. MARS, the maker of M&M’s also owns Banfield Pet Hospital…yeah. I am attaching a graphic to show the depth of this. The point I’m trying to make isn’t about a monopoly or anything it’s that the Stock Market/Wall St. are so demanding that companies have no choice but to buy other brands. As William has said, it’s a 90 day cycle you need to beat last quarters numbers, or the same quarter from last year’s numbers and if you don’t there are consequences. These consequences sometimes result in buying of other brands, most often though layoffs occur.
You may remember the old Campbell Soup plant in Sacramento, its closing had nothing to do with productivity, it was closed because it was old and the County wouldn’t pony up major tax breaks so they left. Mondelez International moving Oreo production from Oregon to Mexico had nothing to do with streamlining of the company it had to do with the input costs are less in Mexico then the USA. These are done to appease Wall Street investors and big banks and investment firms. Uncle Pennybags and his brethren want their quarterly divided or there will be hell to pay.
Back to my point, when one of these conglomerates buys a brand, they destroy it in the name of saving a few dollars. Look at Annie’s, it’s an organic line of food designed for children, it was bought by General Mills, they stripped out the natural ingredients and now the product is trash. Look at McDonalds, what used to be an all-beef patty, is now a frozen hockey puck of mystery meat, and a bad tasting one at that. These examples underscore that when you live in a 90 day cycle and anything necessary to drive profits can and will be done. Look at what Coke did years ago, replaced cane sugar with corn syrup, the effect has been great, it was more addictive and tasted the same, and sales soared.
Enough rambling, back to Smucker; the problem now is companies used to actually make their products now they just mix ingredients together and package them. A good example is Campbell Soup, I used to know an employee there, and he told me the ingredients were all locally sourced (within 5 hour drive) and were mixed and cooked at the plant. That practice ended a decade ago. I’m sure it is the same at Smucker, their ground meat is from one country, the gravy from another, the bits from another, they show up on a flatbed truck, in unlabeled boxes, you throw them into a mixer and voila! Ole Roy wet dog food is created, can it, label it and it’s off to the local market. Not sure where the pentobarbital gets mixed in but it’s in there somewhere. The bigger issue is corporations like this have numerous suppliers for the same product so there could be 5 that supply the gravy mix, and it all comes in unmarked boxes making it impossible to know what supplier/country of origin it came from.
The point of this article isn’t to scare you, most all corporations make food that is completely healthy and safe to eat, but “hitting the numbers” causes corporations to use lower quality ingredients or layoff the food safety inspectors, and this is where these problems lie. Conagra Foods, maker of Chef Boyardee, laid off most of their food safety inspectors, and hmmm 2 months later issued a global recall of 100k cans of pasta, just saying.
Til next time,
X
PS Mark Cuban had a bad week…….maybe time to dance on his grave!
Loyal readers your humble correspondent has finally found a piece of legislation with which he agrees and it’s coming from New York nonetheless. Yes, a bill moving through the legislature there will force Tide’s manufacturer, Proctor and Gamble, to redesign their Tide Pod product.
If you’re a Tea Party or CRA member (are there any left?), live in your parent’s basement, or just have bad hygiene then you might not know or care that Tide started making laundry pods about 5 years ago to simplify the laundry process. Rather than measuring a cup of liquid or powdered detergent you could simply throw a pod into the wash and Voila, your clothes were magically clean and nice smelling.
All was well, until it was discovered that children were trying to eat the pods since they looked similar to candy and smelled good as well. Tide has responded by coming out with child proof bags, etc. but they’re not working because…well, parents are dumb. Once they reap the consequences of a biological act of momentary gratification, these parents are not interested in watching over their offspring. Instead, they allow their young ones to fend for themselves and some eat these toxic little pods. Said offspring are then rushed to the ER seeking medical attention.
So yeah, go ahead CRA members; tell me how I am in favor of big government (or anti-business) because I want Tide to change the color and scent of their pods, so they are not as inviting to children. If the pods tested like broccoli or cauliflower, think of all the lives that would be saved. Just remember that there are some parents out there who are irresponsible enough to leave these poison packets around within reach of their children and in such cases, government can make a difference.
If you are under 10 and eat a Tide Pod, I feel bad because you were brought into this world by horrible parents. Such parents should even be prosecuted for child endangerment. (I know CRA folks; I’m a big government guy.) Face it, some people in this world, (it’s a very large and growing number) have no business having children at all, let alone at an early age.
However tragic pods may be for young children, the news about them does not stop once they are old enough to know better. Let me turn my fire on to a new, disturbing, and flat out ridiculous new trend among the youth in our country, the Tide Pod Challenge. In this “challenge” you eat/ingest a Tide Pod, then film the aftermath. Apparently, these videos are very viral on YouTube and other sites like Facebook. Essentially you film yourself-foaming at the mouth, choking up blood, or even better…dying!
Why do I say even better dying? Remember the old axiom of journalism, if it bleeds, it leads. In a world where popularity is measured in hits, clicks, and views such videos are a measure of your success. Too bad you won’t be around to see how it turns out.
In closing I will say this, I don’t understand this Tide Pod challenge thing, I likely never will. It’s very sad but I believe legislation is required to get the company to change their packaging for the sake of protecting young children from their parents. It’s even sadder I’m considering visiting my local Costco and buying these in bulk to sell on the streets late at night because this sounds like a legal means by which to make extra money. What happened to the good old-fashioned trying to eat 10 saltine crackers in 5 minutes challenge or hold ice cubes in your hand for 5 minutes challenge? Now the challenges are deadly or worse case could leave you with debilitating side effects for the rest of your life.
Reminder, Tide takes grass stains out of clothes, it is highly toxic, and warns about it being ingested. Doesn’t sound too appetizing to me.
Welcome back loyal readers, sorry for the long hiatus but I was convinced of a CRA led Coup-de-tat to take over the Presidency of this country so I had to batten down the hatches and look for shelter. Well, IM BACK! And suffice to say my rage is now firmly directed at the DA of San Francisco County, one George Gascon, who will now be referred to as George Gascan. Gascan the DA that “prosecuted” and I’m using that term very loosely; Jose Zarate, the illegal 5 times deported, 7 time convicted felon, and still on probation in Texas at the time of murdering Kate Steinle. Gascan lost the case on all serious charges, thankfully CRA hated, President Donald J Trump is having his justice department charge him federally. It is of the opinion of William and X that Gascan never wanted to try, charge or convict Zarate, thus a half assed trial occurred, with Zarate being only found guilty of 1 lesser charge. This blog post is not to focus on Zarate. It will focus on the policies recently enacted by the chief law enforcement officer in San Francisco County, George Gascan.
Gascan, for those of you in the CRA, or related by blood or incest to Aaron Park, has extreme amounts of voter given power. For example, run a red light or get caught speeding, a police officer gives you a ticket, and you will pay a hefty fine in court. Gascan on the other hand, has latitude to overrule police officers, and sheriff deputies. Kill someone in cold blood, instead of murder 1, you could get manslaughter charges, charges can be enhanced or dropped all together. I am of the belief power of law enforcement should be given to 1 elected partisan, and Gascan’s next move will prove my point.
On Tuesday, while the unwashed masses were watching President Trump give his brilliant State of the Union speech, Gascan issued an edict saying all prior marijuana convictions will be set aside if they are misdemeanors, and reclassified if they are felonies. Setting a conviction aside means removing it and sealing it from their record. Reclassifying a felony as a misdemeanor is far more troubling in my eyes. With my background in Human Resources I can tell you, if you had a misdemeanor in your background, you check letters of recommendation and you could hire the person in some circumstances, a felony was the electric third rail and was never even considered. This changes everything, because there is no way to tell if the misdemeanor was a reclassified felony, and for what the felony was for. Example, felony narcotic trafficking, could be reclassified as misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance. See how Gascan is making a serious crime look very petty? Word to the wise, a felony conviction almost always carries significant jail time, now these crimes are being labeled as not serious.
I would not have as big of a concern if Gascan implemented this retroactively to when the initiative qualified for the ballot (recently passed in November) but he is going back all the way to 1975! Circa the time the war on drugs was being fought. This is why I have a strong dislike for executive type orders, it takes one do-gooder like Gascan to wipe records clean and create a new liberal voter universe. Orders like these should be voted on by the people, not enacted by an elected partisan hack looking for higher office down the road. Think about it, if you’re Gascan, you are instantly a hero to the anti-police, pro-drug, pro-crime liberal base of the party. Looks great on your resume if you desire to be Governor, or Mayor, or Supervisor in the near future.
However the future of your state/city will look bleak. The downside about San Francisco is what was a flourishing nice tourist mecca, has turned into a crime and filth ridden skid mark on the underpants of society. Seriously, would you go visit San Francisco? Does it even matter if during the day or at night? San Francisco is great if you are into crime, drugs, prostitution, the smell of human waste and urine, and apparently now anarchy is allowed. Remember it’s a sanctuary city now.
Now thanks to George Gascan in addition to prop 47 letting criminals out of jail early and de-criminalizing certain crimes, now we are retroactively removing convictions from people’s criminal records.
Til next time,
X
PS if you’re a member of the CRA you shouldn’t like Gascan, but I heard he might be against smart meters so I guess there is that.
Editor’s Note: When applying for employment with the State of California (STD Form 678), all questions related to criminal convictions have been purged from the job application form.
Question 10 used to read: “Have you ever been convicted by any court of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence? ”
Question 11 used to read: “Have you ever been convicted by any court of a felony? ”
Also in the last few weeks, any information on salary history has been forbidden on the form. It has been replaced with the words, “No Longer Required”.
The GOP convention took place in southern California this past weekend and what a doozy it was! Steve Bannon—the former Trump advisor—did a keynote dinner which is surprising due to the number of people in the CAGOP that hate everything about him and President Donald J Trump. This led to some interesting developments.
Former CRA President, Jon Fleischman did a full 180 on Trump. He put out an email to all of his “readers” saying Bannon was on fire, and on point lighting up the establishment!
Wait, full stop, isn’t this the same guy who skipped the Convention in Cleveland, Ohio as a delegate because he hated Trump? Didn’t he spout off over and over again about how conservative “Lyin’ Ted” Cruz was? He also basically quit the party and wanted to punt the election to Hillary Clinton so we could try again in 2020? Wasn’t he a ringleader of the Never Trump faction of the Republican establishment? So now this same Fleischman wants us to believe that he supports the President?
In short ,Fleischman and others in the CRA like to pick winning horses after the race is run. This is not a principled stand. The truth is that Trump has proven more conservative than any candidate backed by Fleischman or CRA. It reminds me of the saying “Success has many fathers but failure is an orphan.” Jon is piling on the “Me Too” Express long after the train left the station. Where else could he go? There’s no way he can back the Republican Congress for advancing their agenda.
This is not an isolated example. How many times did the CRA endorse Kevin McCarthy? He is no conservative. However, every time he’s in front of a microphone McCarthy calls himself a conservative. He proudly said so on many occasions this past weekend. Truth is that Keven has never met a conservative that he wasn’t more than happy to throw under the bus to advance himself.
Fleischman and CRA endorsed John McCain and Mitt Romney, because they would rather jump on the bandwagon than stand for any principles. The CRA and Fleishman were so cocksure Trump would lose the Presidential contest that most didn’t even vote in the November election; Fleischman proudly admitted this on his blog! The CRA—like Fleishman and the CAGOP—are trying to act as if they were behind Trump from the get go but they weren’t unless they mean behind Trump the way the Roman Senate was behind Julius Caesar one March 15th many years ago.
Trump did exactly what he said he would do in DC, drain the swamp; I—just like William—believe he is shining a light on the swamp! Trump is exposing the liars and the charlatans that claim to be conservatives, but are frauds. The whole Republican establishment is running like cockroaches that were caught in the light when asked to enact their campaign promises into law. Talk about duck and cover! Notice that not a single congressperson from the Orange County area—where the convention was held—showed up? The four of them know their careers are in peril and wanted no part of Bannon calling them out in front of convention attendees.
The point of this post is that next time you see or hear a CRA member or CAGOP member talking up their conservative credentials; don’t believe them, they are just wolves in sheep clothing. Actually better yet, they are lambs in wolves clothing. This group will always run from their conservative talking points and endorse or back someone who has no credentials at all such as Ted Cruz. It’s over for CAGOP and CRA. They should just pack up their tent and go home. And Fleischman, do everyone a favor next convention, have a flip-flop party for Trump on your own dime, or even better change your blog from the “Flash Report” to beliefs you can change in
…in a flash.
First of all to let our loyal readers know your humble blogger has returned as internet and power have been restored to the underground bunker here at the X residence. No word about a hurricane at a local tavern taking place, but a hurricane at a commode did take place; but on to the point of this post.
The NFL has had a disastrous first couple of weeks and it has only gotten worse from there. The games have been entertaining—even decent I would say—but the shenanigans surrounding the national anthem are a disgrace. Ratings are down over 10% from last year; this sounds like a fledging cable channel (ESPN) right? This past weekend over 100 players refused to stand for the national anthem, and in my opinion that’s ok I guess, because we believe in freedom of speech. Taking a knee is very disrespectful do not get me wrong; but even worse is holding a fist in the air a la the Black Panther symbol, or sitting on a bench eating. Both of which have been demonstrated last couple weeks.
Perhaps even more disturbing, the NFL plays a couple games in London a year apparently, and the players continued to kneel for the national anthem, yet stood for God Save the Queen! So let me get this straight, protest a democracy, respect a monarchy? Just for the information of many, these protesting players make more money in one year than most Americans will ever earn over the course of their entire lifetimes! Also anyone take notice that they have never said what they are protesting, also notice the time that protests started? Both coincide with the rise on one Donald J Trump as both a candidate and nominee for President. Protesting President Trump, I think that’s okay, but totally contradictory to the stance many of you took when Barack Obama was President! Remember if anyone said anything bad about him we were racists, etc. Interesting, we were told to fall in line under Obama, under Trump we are told we have to co-exist!
The NFL is just beginning to feel the brunt of this protesting, and it’s going to get far worse before it gets any better! Did anyone see the fans demonstrating during and after the games, as well as throughout the week? Fans ripped up their season tickets (These are not cheap I may add) torched their jerseys (Just like the CRA torched their principles) and have stopped tuning in to the games themselves. AT&T subsidiary DirecTV is offering a full refund to anyone who purchased their product NFL Sunday Ticket due to the protests. This is unheard of from a cable company! Two sponsors of the NFL have pulled their ads from appearing during the games and more are likely on the way. One of X’s spies, let’s call her a FOX (Friend of X) has even told me the NFL owners are panicking to the point they wanted players to wear a patch that said “Team America” on their jerseys last weekend!
NFL Team America: Putting the F in you
This shows a ship with no captain heading straight for the proverbial iceberg; much like the CRA (Which I left 3 years ago, because I knew this meltdown was coming).
This became a problem with the NFL—just like it has with ESPN—because neither know the temperament of either their audience or fans. NFL fans tend to be more conservative; which is why I am not sure why the NFL didn’t do more to address these protests before they became an issue. The fans booed the protesting players and the NFL and the players came back saying they were praying… sounds bogus to me. One former NFL player was given a segment on ESPN saying how standing for the national anthem is not any different from wearing the flag as a shirt or bikini. My rebuttal to that player is I don’t think anyone considers a shirt or a swimsuit an act of disrespecting the flag, kneeling is.
Anyone notice the players never defined their protest? Was in police brutality? Black Lives Matter? Donald Trump? Inequality? The problem when you do not define your movement, the public, or the powers that be; will do that for you. Donald Trump did, after it appear the owners and the commissioner had become squishy, Trump labeled the protest as disrespecting the flag and the country—which it does. Since Trump’s comments, the tables started to turn, the players never reacted and now Jerry Jones and Stephen Ross, two powerful owners; have said to their players “Stand for the anthem or you won’t play.” The players didn’t define their movement, so others did it for them!
Maybe the CRA should consult with these players since they hate Donald “the dictator” Trump as well. Trust me I was at the endorsing convention, Cruz had no chance to be nominated, yet was overwhelmingly endorsed. Also, concerning two members from the local Sacramento chapter, I would love to debate anything I have written on this blog with you, but I’m sure you’re still busy working on your “resolution to admonish the cap and traitors.”
ESPN, and its group of wanna be hosts are at it again this time from the reliably wrong Jemele Hill.
Hill who has some serious issues with white people in this country went on a Twitter rant in regards to President Donald Trump the other day. I am going to embed all the tweets for your viewing pleasure.
Now let’s have a look at the response from ESPN:
I’m not going to address Jemele Hill and her worthless, useless political rant, frankly it doesn’t disturb me. Hill isn’t smart enough to think for herself so she gets her news spoon fed to her by any outlet willing to do so. Because truth has become negotiable in this country Hill is entitled to her opinion I guess. What I am more bothered by is the response from her employer ESPN.
Notice it says nowhere about any discipline to be faced by Hill, it says they are handling it internally. So a radio host (Rusillo) gets wasted and he is off the air for a week and a half, yet a politically fueled disaster of a Twitter rant gets…..well nothing apparently. This is because Disney doesn’t like Trump either so as a result this will go unpunished. Also no apology from Hill, which tells me Disney said nothing to her. No real surprise here, political bias is only allowed if a Republican is in office.
Unsolicited advice to Hill, next time you get wasted or just feel like spewing random baseless hate maybe try to avoid Twitter.
“X”
PS I’m going hard after Equifax this week, be warned!
