Thursday, June 20, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013

Twinkie: Whodunnit?

95 comments

Twinkie: Whodunnit?

POSTED: Sunday, November 18, 2012, 10:30 PM

The killer of the Ring Ding is not whom the "lamestream media" would have you believe:

But while headlines have been quick to blame unions for the downfall of the company there’s actually more to the story: While the company was filing for bankruptcy, for the second time, earlier this year, it actually tripled its CEO’s pay, and increased other executives’ compensation by as much as 80 percent.

At the time, creditors warned that the decision signaled an attempt to “sidestep” bankruptcy rules, potentially as a means for trying to keep the executive at a failing company.

The New Yorker has a smart and fair-and-balanced (no, this time, really) take on who killed the Twinkie (h/t Atrios):

The real issue here is that people’s image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U.S., on how common unions are in the workforce. When organized labor represented more than a third of American workers, it was easy for unions to send the message that in agitating for their own interests, union members were also helping improve conditions for workers in general. But as unions have shrunk, and have become increasingly concentrated in the public sector, it’s become easier for people to dismiss them as just another special interest, looking to hold onto perks that no one else gets. Perhaps the most striking response to the Hostess news, in that sense, was the tweet from conservative John Nolte, who wrote “Hostess strikers had pension. PENSIONS! What is this 1962?” It was once taken for granted that an industrial worker who worked for a big company for many years would get a solid middle-class lifestyle, and would be taken care of in retirement. Today, that concept seems to many like a relic. Just as Wonder Bread does.

And finally here's a look inside "the Hostess Bankery."

There's a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving holiday, but I know I'll be thankful for the men and women who fought so hard in the past for a decent middle-class lifestyle, and for the courageous people -- like these workers at Wal-Mart fighting for basic fairness -- who continue the fight today, at enormous risk to themselves and their family. Make a wish and I'll see you next week.

The real issue here is that people’s image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U.S., on how common unions are in the workforce. When organized labor represented more than a third of American workers, it was easy for unions to send the message that in agitating for their own interests, union members were also helping improve conditions for workers in general. But as unions have shrunk, and have become increasingly concentrated in the public sector, it’s become easier for people to dismiss them as just another special interest, looking to hold onto perks that no one else gets. Perhaps the most striking response to the Hostess news, in that sense, was the tweet from conservative John Nolte, who wrote “Hostess strikers had pension. PENSIONS! What is this 1962?” It was once taken for granted that an industrial worker who worked for a big company for many years would get a solid middle-class lifestyle, and would be taken care of in retirement. Today, that concept seems to many like a relic. Just as Wonder Bread does.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/who-killed-the-twinkie.html#ixzz2CdQ4jMOD

The real issue here is that people’s image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U.S., on how common unions are in the workforce. When organized labor represented more than a third of American workers, it was easy for unions to send the message that in agitating for their own interests, union members were also helping improve conditions for workers in general. But as unions have shrunk, and have become increasingly concentrated in the public sector, it’s become easier for people to dismiss them as just another special interest, looking to hold onto perks that no one else gets. Perhaps the most striking response to the Hostess news, in that sense, was the tweet from conservative John Nolte, who wrote “Hostess strikers had pension. PENSIONS! What is this 1962?” It was once taken for granted that an industrial worker who worked for a big company for many years would get a solid middle-class lifestyle, and would be taken care of in retirement. Today, that concept seems to many like a relic. Just as Wonder Bread does.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/who-killed-the-twinkie.html#ixzz2CdQ4jMOD


Will Bunch @ 10:30 PM  Permalink | 95 comments
95 comments
Comments  (97)
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:51 AM, 11/20/2012
    I had to laugh at Rubio's comments about science. He just can't mouth the words that science trumps religion. And he's one of the serious contenders in 2016? Oh Lord!
    chasing history
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:56 AM, 11/20/2012
    "Turns out, the CEO got a 300% pay increase, while asking workers to take an 8% pay cut, plus a 32% benefit cut. Nine executives get pay raises ranging from 66% to over 100% during the time of the second bankruptcy."

    So what's your point? In Republican world, there are a handful of people who count, everybody else is a parasite. Are you saying you disagree with our most esteemed loyal opposition? I have nothing but respect and admiration for them (and I just threw up a little in my mouth).
    Hamlet
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:32 AM, 11/20/2012
    What's even worse, is that we have conservatives on another thread railing against raising the minimum wage. The modern day version of the GOP can't go extinct fast enough.
    wokmaster
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:06 AM, 11/20/2012
    Yeah, ALEC and their wealthy backers are still at it. If slavery was legal, they would argue how much better off (well housed and fed) their slaves are than if they were out making that terrible minimum wage (which the slave owners, themselves, lobbied to keep low).

    Then there is the fiscal cliff and Republican blackmail to keep taxes on corporations and billionaires low or non-existant. "Nice country you got there. It'd be a shame if something HAPPENED to it..."
    Hamlet
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:23 AM, 11/20/2012
    At this point there are only three reasons to back the Republican party:
    1. you are a billionaire and/or a mutinational.
    2. You are, yourself, a Republican holding office (and getting rich doing it).
    3. You are a complete idiot.
    Hamlet
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:42 AM, 11/20/2012
    4. You are a single issue, pro-fetus voter - including those who oppose abortion in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother.
    wokmaster
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:03 PM, 11/20/2012
    Wok, 4 was covered by 3...
    Hamlet
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 4:44 PM, 11/20/2012
    BENGHAZI !!!!!!!!!!!
    Talking point sleuth
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:44 PM, 11/20/2012
    "BENGHAZI!!!!!!!"

    In my opinion, the Benghazi spectacle has become more about preventinging a 2016 Hillary Clinton run for President than trying to create a "scandal" for the Obama Administration. Probably because it's a scandal in search of a crime. Just ask John "What Briefing" McCain.

    Yep. I can see it now...wingnuts will be asking the rhetorical question "what did Hillary know and when did she know it?". Then the birthers of today will formulate conspiracies asking "why did Hillary want Ambassador Stevens killed?". Sounds crazy, right? I know. But if she decides to run, they'll make up with the whys and hows as they go along. Republicans are terrified of Hillary methinks.

    Oh,and remember this little ditty if and when that time comes:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQbzkS3NpI8

    The hypocrisy is ASTOUNDING.
    wokmaster
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 8:44 AM, 11/21/2012
    What? Where's Karl?
    michael_b
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 9:04 AM, 11/21/2012
    Lol. Sounds like michael b has the next "scandal". Might be as big as Benghazi..
    wokmaster
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:54 AM, 11/21/2012
    Nah, no scandal here, Wokkie... just another thieving leftist - it's business as usual.

    Every time you post Karl's avatar you squirm a little, don't you.... tell the truth.
    michael_b
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:38 AM, 11/21/2012
    Sounds to me like it makes YOU squirm. I think I'll keep it up a little longer lol...
    wokmaster
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:05 PM, 11/21/2012
    Sure, why not? When you get tired... just steal some other illustrators' work - no big deal, right?

    And to all of us here in Attytood world... you'll always be known as a thief - no matter what avatar you use.

    You're very much like you avatar - a crying little weenie.

    michael_b
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:07 PM, 11/21/2012
    You're saying that I'm very much like Karl Rove on Fox News after President Obama won re-election??
    wokmaster


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Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.

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