Author: Mark Alexander

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The 4th Reich Is At Your Cervix, Ladies!

From Mock Paper Scissors:

Republicans: "At your cervix, Madame!"

"We will support baby booms and we will support baby bonuses for a new baby boom. I want a baby boom." — Adjudicated rapist, convicted felon and career criminal The Orange 🤡

The GOP's corporate overlords need more underpaid children to work in their future factories? Sure, we'll go with that.

White House Assesses Ways to Persuade Women to Have More Children

Baby bonuses and menstrual cycle classes are among the ideas pitched to Trump aides as they consider plans to try boosting the birthrate.

The White House has been hearing out a chorus of ideas in recent weeks for persuading Americans to get married and have more children, an early sign that the Trump administration will embrace a new cultural agenda pushed by many of its allies on the right to reverse declining birthrates and push conservative family values.

One proposal shared with aides would reserve 30 percent of scholarships for the Fulbright program, the prestigious, government-backed international fellowship, for applicants who are married or have children.

Another would give a $5,000 cash "baby bonus" to every American mother after delivery.

A third calls on the government to fund programs that educate women on their menstrual cycles — in part so they can better understand when they are ovulating and able to conceive.

But none of these ideas seem to address the elephant in the OBGYN: why do they want women want to have more children? (emphasis mine)

The coalition of people who want to see more babies born is broad and diverse. They are unified in their concerns about the U.S. birthrate, which has been falling since 2007, warning of a future in which a smaller work force cannot support an aging population and the social safety net. If the birthrate is not turned around, they fear, the country's economy could collapse and, ultimately, human civilization could be at risk.

So they want more kids for a future workforce, but they don't want women to be in the current workforce because they should be incubating the next generation? Do I have that right?

But many in the movement have different reasons for wanting people to have more kids — and often disagree on how to get there. Many Christian conservatives see declining birth and marriage rates as a cultural crisis brought on by forces in politics and the media that they say belittle the traditional family, encouraging women to prioritize work over children. They are pushing for more committed marriages and large families, while some who identify strictly as "pronatalists" are interested in exploring a variety of methods, including new reproductive technologies, to reach their goal of more babies.

The secondary issue is of course culture wars stuff. The wimmins are working, and the  'mos won't procreate, so those marriages are not real marriages, did I get that right, too?

So, come-on ladies, quit your jobs, get hitched, and start pumping-out white, cis-gendered, Xristian babbies or the theocrats will chain you up to the tree out back during rutting season. It's your patriotic duty to Hair Füror!

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The Leopards Are Coming For Their Faces Eventually

From Steven Hackett:

Corruption Is Winning

On Friday's episode of The Vergecast, there was an exchange that really caught my attention. David Pierce mentioned the photos of all the tech CEOs at Trump's inauguration in January, to which Nilay Patel replied:

The thing that kills me at that is the expectation they had going into that photo was corruption. Right? Tim Cook is going to personally donate a million dollars to Trump's library and that will take the DOJ case away from Apple. Naked corruption. That is a nakedly corrupt thought.

That's fine in the sense that a lot of people believe the government is corrupt, and so Trump being even more corrupt does not offend them. But it's not fine in the sense that like even when we were covering the Google case today, people on Bluesky were replying to me being like, "they'll just buy him off." What? That means that the system is collapsed. Like you don't believe in it anymore. And maybe you didn't before, but the level to which we have accepted that just naked corruption is how this works is a little more dangerous than I think people are giving it credit for.

If you believe that Google can be like, ah, screw it, write them a check and it'll go away. Maybe you don't think that's right, but you think that is possible, it's gone. You have to not believe that's possible. You have to actually hold everybody to account and say, actually, that's corruption. […] If you give into nihilism that the corruption is already won, you've just given in. You should not feel helpless; you should feel outraged that the expectation of that photograph was corruption.

I am sure if we were to poll the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, Sergey Brin, and Tim Cook, they would say that they are just trying to find ways to work with this administration. With Trump, that means money. That collection of dudes doesn't like to think pay-for-play is a corrupting force, but it is.

None of this is new — just look at the army of paid lobbyists who make a living charging these companies a zillion dollars a year — but seeing it so nakedly (as Patel put it) is sobering. Tech CEOs may think they are doing what's in the best interest of their companies and shareholders, but their actions do the rest of us — and the country — a disservice. They may be able to get what they want out of Trump (for now, at least) by writing checks and putting on a show, but the leopards are coming for their faces eventually.

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It's General Mills This Week, Boys

General Mills Companies

Annie's

Now available at more than 35,000 locations, Annie's started with macaroni and cheese products sold from the back of a car in 1989. In 2014, General Mills acquired Annie's for approximately $820 million. Outreach projects include agricultural scholarships, Grants for Gardens, and diverse donation initiatives.

Autumn's Gold

Autumn's Gold makes paleo-certified, grain-free granola products and is considered by some to be a "stealth small brand," made to look small while being owned by something very big.

Betty Crocker

The "First Lady of Food" has enjoyed more than 100 years in the business, which surprisingly began with a 1921 Gold Medal Flour ad and mail-in pincushion promotion.

In 1921, around 30,000 letters arrived, many with cooking questions. Over the next few decades, the partially fictional Betty Crocker persona received a name, voice, face, test kitchens, radio and TV shows, consumer products, and a loyal following.

Today, Betty Crocker is worth an estimated $8.1 billion.

Bisquick

A staple of American pantries for nearly a century, the Bisquick formulation was discovered aboard a train car in 1930.

After missing dinner, one hungry General Mills salesman received a plate of biscuits from the train chef, who promptly whipped them up using his pre-mixed lard, baking powder, flour, and salt. From there, Bisquick was born.

Blue Buffalo

General Mills company acquired pet food purveyors Blue Buffalo in 2018 for $8 billion. Founded in 2002 and inspired by a beloved Airedale named Blue, Blue Buffalo humanizes pets by creating conscientious, natural treats.

General Mills' pet segment generated $2.3 billion in sales in 2022.

Bugles

In the mid-1960s, Bugles and two forgotten chips — tube-and-scoop shaped chips — began General Mills' snacking journey. According to Statista, of 38 million Americans surveyed, more than 21 million consumed 1-3 bags of Bugles in the past 30 days.

Fun fact: Their disappearance in Canada has left many Bugles fans scrambling for replacements.

Cascadian Farm

The seed for Cascadian Farm was planted in 1972 in the Cascade Mountains of Washington. The first crops were grown by volunteers and sold from the back of a VW.

Since its founding, the brand has practiced mindful farming. In 2022, the brand's granola bars had nearly $15 million in sales.

Cheerios

Cheerios has sold over 139 million boxes with an annual revenue of $436 million. Originally CheeriOats, the crunchy breakfast treat hit the scene in 1941 and was nominally shortened in 1945.

Honey Nut Cheerios, the nation's second-favorite cereal and third-best-selling at 129 million boxes, debuted in 1979 and brought in an annual revenue of $421.7 million.

Chex Cereal

General Mills agreed to buy Chex in 1996 to keep pace with rival Kellogg. Chex traces its lineage to 1937 and has become a scion of domestic snack mixes nationwide.

Chex Mix

Also, under the Chex umbrella, Chex Mix is owned by General Mills.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Cinnamon Toast Crunch is favored by kids and adults alike worldwide. Introduced in 1984, the cereal has sold 105 million boxes with an annual revenue of $344 million.

Cocoa Puffs

People have been going coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs for over 60 years. In fact, a survey from Statista found that 13 million people consumed 1-4 portions of the sweet treat over the last seven days.

Cookie Crisp

Introduced in 1977, Cookie Crisp was acquired by General Mills in 1997. Cookie Crisp condenses big cookie flavor into a breakfast-table-topping treat.

Dunkaroos

A star among afterschool snackers nationwide, Dunkaroos debuted in 1990, vanished in 2012 (except in Canada), and were brought back in 2020. The recipe remained, but new flavors and cookie and pancake mixes, frosting, and even cereal were released.

EPIC

EPIC Provisions started in 2013 and produces animal-based protein snacks, such as bars and bites, to reduce emissions associated with raising beef. It was acquired by General Mills in 2016.

Fiber One

Fiber One is created for the nine in ten Americans who don't get enough fiber. It started as a cereal in 1985, but the introduction of bars, brownies, and other items supercharged the fiber-powered company.

Gardetto's

The Gardetto's culinary empire began in 1932 with a Milwaukee corner bakery. General Mills acquired the company in 1999, believing in the prolonged love for salty snacks. In fact, salty snacks are on the up after a pandemic slump, and Gardetto's had nearly $150 million in revenue in 2022.

Gold Medal

"Gold Medal" is bestowed upon the finest flour. And, given its birth as an accumulation of milling operations, it might be the most iconic brand under the General Mills umbrella. Surviving 19th-century censure, tech revolutions, and more, Gold Medal won best in show in its 1880 debut.

Golden Grahams

Honey-hued Golden Grahams were introduced in 1976 and boast 11 grams of whole grains per serving, a sprinkling of vitamins and minerals, and a lack of artificial flavors, colors, and high fructose corn syrup.

Good Measure

Launched by General Mills in 2021, Good Measure is a line of blood-sugar-friendly foods for a healthier lifestyle. They're rich in nutrients and low in glycemic impact, providing stress-free snacks for the 38 million people with diabetes.

Green Giant

The Green Giant brand started in 1903 as the Minnesota Valley Canning Company. The titular giant, inspired by a huge pea, appeared in 1925.

In 2015, behind lagging sales, B&G Foods acquired Green Giant and Le Sueur for $765 million. B&G recently sold a part of Green Giant to Seneca Food Corporation.

Häagen-Dazs

Started in 1960 by two Polish immigrants from the Bronx, Häagen-Dazs doesn't mean anything in any language. But it does mean big money, with 900 global locations and estimated annual revenue of $420.7 million.

Jus-Rol

Making food easier, frozen-dough distributor Jus-Rol was founded in 1954. It's suffering some turmoil in Europe; General Mills sold assets to the French company Cérélia, but UK regulators seek to undo the deal to restore market competition.

Kix

Kix was born during the Great Depression to boost sales, and it introduced something new: the first puffed corn cereal, made with an equally fresh invention, the puffing gun, a revolving steel barrel that heats and presses puffs into crispiness.

Larabar

LÄRABAR was born in 2000 to marry junk food flavor with natural ingredients. General Mills acquired the brand for about $55 million in 2008. Recently, LÄRABAR had $147 million in sales.

Latina Fresh

Latina Fresh is an Australian brand founded in Melbourne in the 1980s, producing pasta, sauce, and quick-and-easy chilled meals.

Liberté

Liberté, originally Liberty Dairy Products, was inspired by the Statue of Liberty and began in 1936 in Montreal as a kosher dairy-maker. The company started making yogurt in 1964 and became part of Yoplait in 2010 and General Mills in 2021.

Lucky Charms

A favorite among cereal lovers, Lucky Charms was formulated in 1964 with the goal of using an existing General Mills cereal as its base: Wheaties or Cheerios. The latter was chosen and then mixed with pieces of circus peanuts.

Lore-wise, each shape imbues the eater with specific powers.

Monster Cereals

The Monster Cereals debuted in the early 1970s on the coattails of monster-movie-mania. They were then uniquely flavored and available year-round but are now Halloween specials. The recent adoption of Carmella Creeper was the first addition in 35 years.

Muir Glen

In 2000, General Mills acquired the privately held Small Planet Foods, a leading organic food producer, along with its Muir Glen and Cascadian Farm brands. Muir Glen, founded in 1991, makes organic, sustainable canned tomatoes, pasta sauces, and salsa.

Nature Valley

A mainstay at convenience stores and in lunchboxes, the sweet, crumbly Nature Valley was created in 1973 to make granola convenient. It's the most popular granola bar in 2023, with sales valued at $667 million.

Old El Paso

After a strong tortilla year, Old El Paso enjoyed an annual revenue of $448.2 million this year, an increase of 10.1% from 2022.

Old El Paso is the child of the Mountain Pass Canning Company, founded in 1917, which launched the Mexican-food-inspired company in 1938.

Oui

General Mills solidified its yogurt profits by adding the artisanal Oui, a branch of Yoplait, in 2017.

The move was spurred by the past decade's shift toward Greek-style yogurts. Oui is cultured in individual glass jars atop a layer of fruit. Oui exceeded expectations by 30% and achieved a first-year revenue of $101.5 million.

Pillsbury

The doughy Pillsbury originated in 1869 in flour mills on the banks of the Mississippi River. In 2001, Diageo sold Pillsbury to General Mills for $10.5 billion. The acquisition of Pillsbury vaulted General Mills to the upper echelons of consumer packaged goods manufacturers, boosting its top line from $7.9 billion to $13.5 billion.

Pillsbury Atta

International and national audiences alike adore distinct, worldly flavors like Pillsbury Atta. Atta is an Indian flour, and this brand provides age-old tradition by using 100% whole wheat stone-ground grains offering extra protein, fiber, and minerals.

Progresso

Soup masters Progresso joined General Mills during the Pillsbury acquisition of 2001. Progresso was founded in the early 1990s, and by the '30s, it was famed for its tomatoes and tomato paste. By the '50s, it extended sales across the U.S. By the '80s, it became known for canned soups.

Raisin Nut Bran

Among the cereals aimed at adults, Raisin Nut Bran supplies 28 grams of whole grain per serving and heartiness for long-lived satiety.

Ratio Food

Another General Mills brand focused on healthier eating, Ratio has keto-friendly options, including yogurts, dairy drinks, bars, and granola.

Reese's Puffs

Reese's Puffs embraces modern maneuvering, including collaborations with various artists (one limited edition collab sold out in 30 seconds) and the design firm AMBUSH. Media partnerships have also encompassed an AR game and an AR music-making app.

Total

Who says cereal has to be super sugary? Nutritional totality is the founding philosophy behind Total, which provides 100% of the daily recommendation of 11 vitamins and minerals.

Totino's / Jeno's

In late 2022, Totino's pizza rolls became General Mills' ninth billion-dollar brand. Totino's began as a full-size pizzeria, established on a $1,500 loan. The mini-pizza giant was bought by Pillsbury for $20 million in 1975.

Trix

The tricolor Trix became the first fruit-flavored cereal when it debuted in 1954.

General Mills resurrected Trix's fruit shapes after abandoning them for a decade. The brand also revived Cinnamon Toast Crunch using a winning marketing tactic: nostalgia.

Wanchai Ferry

General Mills' global Chinese food brand was once a dumpling cart at a Hong Kong ferry pier in the late 1970s. In 2007, Wanchai Ferry dinner kits became General Mills' first intentional foray in the U.S. market.

Wheaties

The whole-grain, B-vitamin-laden Wheaties are General Mill's first modern cereal, released in 1921. Initially named Washburn's Whole Wheat Flakes, Wheaties are an accidental creation: wheat bran spilled into a hot oven and quickly crisped into toasty flakes.

Yoki

Yoki is a Brazilian alimentary company making over 600 food items across nine brands, including family-forward snack foods. It was founded in 1960 and then acquired for approximately $853 million in 2012 by General Mills.

Yoplait

Yogurt titan Yoplait is the union of six French dairy co-ops, which joined powers in 1965. History is hidden in the logo, with each co-op represented by a petal in the Yoplait flower.

Yoplait was sold by the Michigan Cottage Cheese company in 1976 and teamed up with General Mills in 1977. In 2021, Yoplait's annual sales were $927 million.

Does General Mills Own Any Other Companies or Brands?

Major offshoots include Gold Medal Ventures, the "disruptive innovation arm" of General Mills. It's focused on early-stage startup investments, pairing "deep market research with agile experimentation" and effecting growth equity for promising brands. The investment portfolio includes pet wellness, health foods, and sustainable industry practices.

Additionally, General Mills company announced a $15 million investment in 301 INC, its venture capital arm. The funding promotes racial and gender equality and equity in food entrepreneurship at the intersection of food, culture, and technology.

Who Are General Mills' Competitors?

General Mills and Kellogg have slugged it out in grocery stores worldwide, but General Mills is currently top dog. General Mills' market share is 34.2% with $3.1 billion in sales (+9.4% over last year) compared to Kellogg's 25.3% and $2.3 billion in sales (-5.2%).

Both companies, as well as rivals Quaker and proprietary store brands, saw a decrease in total unit sales in 2022. Only rival company Post Consumer Brands notched an increase in unit sales.

Other competitors include:

    • Nestlé*
    • Quaker Oats
    • Tyson Foods
    • Conagra Brands
    • Kraft Heinz Company

*subject to its own boycott

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Trump, Dementia, and The Duty To Warn

From Raw Story:

To ensure that the United States will always be led by a coherent, functioning President, the Twenty-Fifth Amendment provides for the prompt, orderly, and democratic transfer of executive power in the event the president is incapacitated, physically or mentally. Trump's tariff debacle, where he thrust out his chest, flung economic incoherence at the world, then flip flopped only two days later, was the strongest evidence yet- in a roiling sea of evidence- that he is mentally incapacitated.

Despite inheriting the strongest post-covid economy in the world, Trump keeps insisting that the US economy is broken and in need of saving.He insists global trading partners who sell us more than they buy from us- even countries that are a fraction of our size- are "taking advantage."

Trump's tariff drama was so asinine, he's either self-dealing or insane. Frankly, although they are not mutually exclusive, I'd prefer the former. I only wish that rumors swirling in the media today, suggesting Trump's tariffs were a hustle, an insider scheme meant to enrich his backers, were true. Trump being a self-dealing crook poses less danger to the world than him making than no sense at all.

Dementia and the Duty to Warn

Leaders of the EU are too intelligent to sneer out loud at Trump's flip flop on tariffs. Aware of his deranged lust for revenge, they are reluctant to utter the truth about his economic ignorance. But the world is aware, even if Americans aren't, that our president is deranged.

Because Trump's administration hasrefused to release his medical records, other mental health professionals have come forward with their own assessments. The emerging consensus is that Trump, showing cognitive decline, is presenting signs of advanced dementia.

Psychotherapist Dr. John Gartner, former Johns Hopkins University Medical School faculty, is so alarmed about Trump's cognitive impairment that he circulated a petition addressing it among thousands of psychiatrists, psychologists and other credentialed mental health professionals. Gartner wrote last year that Trump shows "progressive deterioration in memory, thinking, ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills," adding that he felt an ethical "obligation to warn the public, and urge the media to cover this national emergency."

Trump struggles to "even finish a sentence," Gartner explained in an interview with MindSite News, elaborating that, "When we're diagnosing dementia, what we need to see is a deterioration of someone's own baseline of functioning. What we see that a lot of people don't appreciate is that when Donald Trump was younger in the 1980s, he was actually quite articulate. His thoughts were logical and related: now they're tangential. He goes off on these ramblings where he is confabulating things – weird things in which he'll talk about Venezuelans and mental hospitals, and then he'll talk about sharks and batteries or the late, great Hannibal Lector and Silence of the Lambs."

Dr. Gartner notes how Trump is "losing his capacity for coherent speech," identifying "dozens and dozens of Trump's phonemic paraphasias, in which you use sounds in place of an actual word (a hallmark of brain damage and dementia)." Trump will say something like 'mishiz' for missiles, or 'Chrishus' for Christmas, because he can't complete the word. Then we see also a lot of semantic paraphasias, in which he uses a word incorrectly, as in 'the oranges of the situation' because it rhymes with 'the origins of the situation.'"

Mental health professionals, mainstream media, sound the alarm

Main stream media, including the New York Times, have also questioned Trump's mental state. In October 2024, the NYT reported that Trump now uses more "negative words than positive words compared with 2016, which can be another indicator of cognitive change." And he curses far more often than he did when he first ran, "a trend that could reflect what experts call disinhibition," another sign of dementia. They cited a study by health care news outlet, Stat, that reports similar findings.

Newsweek's article, "Donald Trump Dementia Evidence 'Overwhelming," cites New York psychologist Suzanne Lachmann. Lackmann describes how Trump "seemingly forgets how sentence began and invents something in the middle" resulting in "an incomprehensible word salad"—a behavior she argues is observed "frequently in patients who have dementia."

The Dementia Society notes that "forgetting names and dates is normal for people who are aging. But "confusing people and generations" is a sign of advanced dementia. During the campaign, Trump confused Nikki Haley and Nancy Pelosi on eight separate occasions, and said he was running against Obama. He said his father was born in Germany, when it was his grandfather who was born in Germany.

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

With the assistance of other psychiatrists and credentialled mental health professionals, Dr. Bandy Lee wrote, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President near the conclusion of Trump's first presidency. In the book, psychiatric experts came forward due to what they saw as their professional moral and civic "duty to warn" America about Trump's dementia.This duty, they argued, supersedes their competing professional duty of neutrality.

Since then, more than 3000 credentialed mental health professionalshave added their signatures to a petition concluding that the president has probable dementia.

They write, "Donald Trump is showing unmistakable signs strongly suggesting dementia, based on his public behavior and informant reports that show progressive deterioration in memory, thinking, ability to use language, behavior, and both gross and fine motor skills…. his vocabulary is impoverished, he often has difficulty finishing a thought, sentence or even a word. Typical of dementia patients he perseverates and overuses superlatives and filler words…"

Congress needs to act before Trump gets red-button happy

Trump, who caused global destruction with his mindless tariff wars, now has the sole authority to launch nuclear weapons as the Commander in Chief.

Evidence of his cognitive decline is everywhere. Mental health professionals have sounded the alarm, and met their professional duty to warn the world about Trump's dementia.

Congress now has a duty to listen to the professionals. Republicans, on the whole, have a duty to act.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment allows the Vice President and either the Cabinet, or a body approved "by law" formed by Congress, to jointly agree that "the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Democrats need to proceed under this clause, and frightened republicans need to join in before Trump commits another, potentially world annihilating, blunder.

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A Note About Embedded YouTube Videos

It appears that while YouTube still allows embedding of their videos on other websites, you can't actually watch them there any more. (At least that's been my experience both here on VoenixRising as well as on numerous other blogs. If it's just me drop a comment and let me know if you're having the same issue.)

The workaround seems to be clicking on the Watch on YouTube link that will take you directly to the video's YouTube page.

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The Orange 🤡 Wants To Send Us All To The Cornfield

The Anthony Fremont Files

I keep seeing pundits —mostly on cable teevee— trying to read the tea leaves to understand what The Orange 🤡's strategy is on, well, everything. They keep searching for some rational, unifying theory to explain all the chaos of the 4th Reich, and they are searching for some Rosetta Stone to translate his chaotic thoughts into coherent policy. Sane washing his inchoate brain farts is only empowering him. Pundits think that they are being wise, but instead they are enabling a madman.

Those panel shows will be the death of all of us.

Pudits: save your breath: there is no thought, no plan, no philosophical perspective. The Orange 🤡 doing it because he can and no one is stopping him, certainly not you. His end game is unquestioned and total authority in all domains (the economy, trade, immigration, culture, whatever else that there might be); he is Anthony Fremont.

MPS has been saying pretty much since the beginning of this site: Conservatives hate America, and no one hates it more that Hair Füror. He hates and fears this country. He hates the MAGA rubes who've sucked-up to him in the administration, and he hates all the elite institutions that have rejected and laughed at him; he hates and disrespects Possum Hollar for letting him squash them like insects, and he hates the Christfascists for blessing him; he hates the weak, the rich and the poor; he even hates Putin because Putin make him feel inferior.

Hair Füror is simple to understand in this light. Look to see who he is trying to dominate and ask yourself: Does he hate them? Is he afraid of them? The answer is always yes.

If there is one consistent thread in his return to the White House, it is The Orange 🤡's deep and enduring hatred of everyone and everything out side of his thin orange skin. That's it. That's the Rosetta Stone.

[source]