American Culinary Dominance

As the resident food snob here at The Platz it is noteworthy that the price of Rao's pizza and pasta sauces have near doubled in the last year.  How do I know this?  I am the chief grocery shopper and resident Pantry Warrior in our household.  I am also a fan of imported Italian bottled sauces as a consequence of their quality ingredients (San Marzano tomatoes) and unlike American manufacturers their scorning of sugar and preservatives in their recipes.  

Some of the cost increase is a consequence of Donald Trump's taxes on imported goods and the rest is a consequence of inflationary pressure on raw materials, packaging, logistics and labor.  Some of it is what I attribute to the 'Snobbery Premium' or the cost of high demand for a quality reputation and the balance to the $2.7 billion acquisition of Sovos Brands by Campbell's.    

Which leads to this walk down memory lane.   

This image is a print advertisement from 1964-1965 for Chef Boy-Ar-Dee Spaghetti Sauces that were part of a mid-century marketing campaign that ran during the 1950s and 1960s.

Not surprising is the emphasis placed-upon the slow-simmered, hand-stirred, 'Old Italian Way' of authentic Italian sauces directly from Nonna's kitchen stove in Naples to your own kitchen from an American tin can.  Mind you, the theme is that this is a recurring 'secret' as no self-respecting American housewife would dare reveal the ease of which such gourmet results could be obtained simply by opening a can and rewarming the contents on a stove top and pouring it over boiled noodles.  Microwave technology improved-upon the concept by the 1980s.

Chef Boy-Ar-Dee was a real person - his name phonetically spelled so salesmen could pronounce it correctly - Ettore 'Hector' Boiardi (1897-1985) was a honest-to-goodness world-renowned chef. Born in Piacenza, Italy, he immigrated to the states at age 16 and was employed at the prestigious Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Striking out on his own he opened his own restaurant in Cleveland in 1924 - Il Giardino d'Italia.  His sauce was such a customer favorite that he bottled it in repurposed milk bottles for customers to take home. Due to high demand he and brothers Paul and Mario opened a small canning operation in 1928 producing a Ready-To-Heat Spaghetti Kit.  Included was a small can of grated Parmesan cheese making Boiardi the largest American importer of the product at the time.  By 1938 operations had outgrown the Cleveland facility and moved to Milton, Pennsylvania where it could grow its own tomatoes and mushrooms to keep up with national demand.   

In 1942 Chef Boiardi transformed his highly successful commercial pasta business located in Milton into a massive 24/7 operation supporting the war effort producing beef ravioli and other canned pastas for C rations.  At its peak the operation employed 5,000 workers producing roughly 250,000 cans of food per day.  This immigrant chef encouraged his employee with the patriotic slogan: Keep 'em flying! Keep 'em rolling! Keep 'em well-fed!  In 1946 the War Department awarded Hector Boiardi with the Gold Star Order of Excellence - one of the highest honors a civilian can receive from the military. 

Post-war Boiardi faced a dilemma: his factory was too large for civilian demand and he did not wish to lay-off the thousands he hired for the war effort.  He sold the company to American Home Brands in 1946 and remained the public face of his brand until his passing in 1985.  

Immigrant child laborer, chef, entrepreneur, patriot and promoter of affordable canned pasta and sauce.  This is the stuff that made America great!

How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

A funny thing happened on the road to the White House.  The president who turned-up isn't the same guy as the candidate.

The US war against Iran is unpopular and becoming more unpopular as it continues; furthermore, the latest Economist/YouGov Poll also finds few Americans support deploying ground troops to the conflict.

Or do other Americans see it differently?

Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper - Dr. Strangelove

It depends-upon whom you ask.

Only 30% of Americans strongly or somewhat approve of President Trump's handling of the Iran war with 60% disapproving for a net approval of -30.

Almost all Democrats (88%) oppose the war while independents oppose it by a 3-to-1 ratio.  

But there is this: Collectively, most Republicans support the war (62%) yet there is a huge gap in support between MAGA Republicans and non-MAGA Republicans (70% support vs. 33%).  Inasmuch as there are more than twice as many MAGA supporters as non-MAGA supporters among the GOP, MAGA opinion is basically settled science.   

Furthermore, a recent CBS News poll found that 92% of MAGA Republicans expressed support for military action against Iran, compared with only 70% of non-MAGA Republicans.

Amongst my MAGA acquaintances, and mostly on account of my unwavering support for arming Ukrainians in defending their country from a Soviet invasion, I have been characterized as everything from an armchair general to a warmonger.  

Naturally, beginning three years ago and following Vladimir Putin's unprovoked assault on Ukraine these same individuals reminded me at most every opportunity that supporting Ukraine's defense was distinctly at odds with candidate Trump's America First platform.  I quote:  'No foreign entanglements', 'We haven't won anything since WWII', 'Donald Trump is the greatest patriot ever' and 'You like war too much'.    

Candidate Trump may have ridden to reelection with a pledge to avoid forever wars yet systematically blowing alleged drug-running vessels and crews out of the Gulf of Mexico, a birthday military parade, deploying the military on America's streets, Houthis in Yemen (Operation Rough Rider), 529 air strikes across the middle east, Africa and central Asia, aerial strikes against Iranian sites last summer including ISIS in Iraq, threats to take Greenland by force, masked and unidentified federal paramilitary forces killing three American citizens, a military toppling of Venezuela's government, seizure of Venezuelan oil at the point of a gun, threats against Cuba, the current Iran war and recent musings to ditch NATO suggest that America First pretty much means whatever President Trump says it is; on any given day.  My impression is it is exceedingly warlike.

I had always figured that MAGA supporters preferred candidate Trump's populist pitch while bemoaning old-school Reagan neocons and their propensity for an assertive foreign policy.  Deservedly or not it is a fact I have been derisively called a neocon; yet the polling seems to suggest that MAGA world agrees-with and, only a short fourteen months into a second term, seems to have developed a powerful thirst for Trumpian military adventurism - both domestically and abroad.  

Just as with the CBS poll, if you dig thru the data, MAGA world is overwhelmingly in favor of mounting a war with Iran; and, when specifically asked if the war counts as an America First policy, only a mere 9% of the president's loyalists say it does not.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute's 2025 National Defense Survey reveals that self-identified MAGA supporters were also the most supportive of all sorts of interventions in Taiwan with two-thirds supporting 'committing US forces in defense of Taiwan.'  That doesn't sound like isolationism does it?

Speaking for myself I happen to think that the Iranian Mullahs are a dangerous collection of twisted religious revanchists who would represent a threat to a peaceful world order if they had nukes and the capacity to deliver them.  I generally lose no sleep over dealing with bad actors by means of force.

Nevertheless, dealing with security threats deliberately and with forethought is not the same as impulsiveness.  And the world has no shortage of bad actors.  Most days I think the president has stepped in it this time and unleashed a cascade of destabilizing events that have dangerous consequences for global stability, security and the world's economy.  Let there be no misunderstanding, it is in my own self interest that things somehow work out for the best.  I'm also smart enough to know that five weeks into this the president's excursion is nowhere near a forever war.  Oh; and we don't have the highly-enriched stuff in our possession either.  Yet anyway.  There is that as a denouement.  

I have yet to hear what the exit strategy is.  You?

So for now I think we might be in for a stretch of rising energy costs, inflation and possibly some economic stagnation or contraction.  Only the passage of time will write the end to that chapter.

Meanwhile, there's a pile of the US population becoming grumpy over rising gasoline and diesel, increasing grocery prices due to supply chain disruptions and escalating transportation costs.  I'm beginning to believe that post-election MAGA world doesn't really care about that as much as they did a couple-three years ago.  Nobody's bitching about it at all on social media and not a single sole Trump supporter I speak with on a daily basis has yet to bring it up.  Loyalists are called that for a reason after-all.  Which is just fine; and it is perfectly OK to own what you have wrought.

It has occurred to me this might have something to do with ideological principles; dictated by whatever president Trump tells us to believe and the possibility that the beliefs of some reading this might be insincere.  Which is fine too; people are disingenuous all day long.  I understand that sometimes it is difficult to admit making a mistake.  I get it.  I make mistakes too.  Get over it.  Own it.

Or perhaps at its core the principle is to agree with the president in every respect; even if his actions contradict what he promised in order to get a voter's support.  No matter it damages their business and costs them the actual farm.  On that matter I can only speculate.

So, for any of my MAGA acquaintances reading this; if you want to call me an armchair general or a warmonger; have at it.  Throw neocon my direction for good measure.  I have a thick skin and since you're doing it from the warming glow of your device and not personally to my face I understand the context. Water off a duck's back.  Das macht nichts aus.  

Polling is science.  With growing awareness the rest of the world is learning that MAGA world likes war; and way the heck more than me.  Does MAGA like it too much?  That's hard to know as we're only fourteen months into President Trump's military adventurism.  I think we ain't seen nuthn' yet.  But I'm perfectly happy to be wrong.

I'm old enough to remember back to 1965 when a certain general famously pledged to eschew ground troops and use naval and air power to bomb the Vietnamese - Back into the stone age.  In his April 1st address to the nation it was fascinating to see and hear President Trump invoke the very same oath - verbatim.  Curious about from whom the president is taking his cues? 

A general splendidly associated with ruthless scorched-earth tactics against civilians.

Stay-tuned..... 

American Culinary Dominance

The TV dinner represents a major shift in our 20th Century lifestyle - the moon shot  moment the aluminum-plated frozen meal met the living room.  To be clear, I haven't had a TV dinner in more than five decades; however eating in the living room persists as a cultural shift.

Believe it or not, this uniquely American gastronomical contribution to our rich culture heritage has an origin story involving C.A. Swanson & Sons.  Seems that following Thanksgiving in 1953, the company found itself with 260 tons of unsold frozen turkey sitting in ten refrigerated rail cars.  

Gerry Thomas, a Swanson salesman, inspired by the tiered aluminum trays used by airline commissaries envisioned a complete frozen meal that could be heated and consumed smack dab in front of a television.  In 1954 Swanson launched the TV Dinner and sold 10 million turkey dinners that year.  The original price was 98 cents. 

Naturally, this coincided with the launch of the space race and all things aluminum and before too long menu offerings included entrees like fried chicken, Salisbury steak, meatloaf and eventually a fourth compartment featuring a dessert such as a brownie or fruit cobbler.  Swanson ditched the 'TV Dinner' name from their packaging by 1962; nevertheless, just like Kleenex tissues the name stuck as part of our vast genericized American cultural lexicon.

With the proliferation of microwave ovens, by the mid 1980s plastic and paperboard packaging conspired to deliver your frozen gourmet feast in less than ten minutes!  

Sure, I'm being modestly snarky because I'm a food snob but I admit that this mash-up of industrialization and frozen food technology was a boon to working families struggling to get dinner on time and on the table.  Trust me, I've eaten my share of frozen Banquet turkey pot pies served at the temperature of molten lava on the surface of the planet Mercury.   You might have too.

Anyway, the Chopped Sirloin of Beef (hamburger) swimming in a ubiquitous brown gravy highlighted a partnership between Swanson and Pepperidge Farm featuring a blueberry muffin in the fourth compartment thus elevating the culinary experience to the level of festive celebration.  Mad Men advertising brilliance!

Between you and me the inclusion of crinkle-cut fries and buttered peas is a monument to the pinnacle of American industrial processed food know-how, sodium content and poor food pairings.  The birthday candle and even the smiling cat screams domestic tranquility.

Dammit; this is the Right Stuff.  This is what Made America Great!  

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Price At The Pump

While out running errands today I gassed-up the Missus' Honda and paid a whopping $2.299 per gallon for unleaded regular.  Full disclosure, I used a BP/AMOCO rewards card saving 15 cents a gallon at the pump and also good for all sorta cash back on other purchases like groceries, Fleet Farm, restaurants or Costco stuff.  The card is free and everyone should have an rewards program in their gas fueling protocol to bring the everyday price per gallon even lower.

You're probably thinking, why are prices lower anyway?  It depends who you talk to.  If you speak with an economist the answer is supply.  The world oil market is awash in crude oil and as a consequence the price at the pump has fallen.  If something were to change; either on the supply side or on the demand side it will impact the price for good or bad.  

If you talk to a MAGA idolater it is because the president controls the price at the pump.  Just like magical wishful thinking the president can dial it up or down at will.  I'm not making this up.  I can think of six people I am acquainted-with on a personal basis who believe this like it was an article of faith.  Oh well.

The bottom line is this is a great time to be a consumer and not so much if you operate an oil services company or energy company.  Persistent low prices over extended periods of time create a disincentive to exploration and drilling which catches-up to supply, eventually.  

Learn more about the risks and opportunities here...  

More Agricultural Surrealism

President Trump announced yesterday a $12 billion bailout for struggling farmers as he looks to shore up the finances of some of his most loyal supporters whose financial fortunes have been hurt by his trade war.

During his first term, Mr. Trump directed more than $20 billion in economic support to farmers after China boycotted U.S. products in response to Mr. Trump’s tariffs.  Everything Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is enumerating are higher in price today largely as a consequence of import taxes.  You know - tariffs. 

 

This bailout is not a rescue. It is the predictable outcome of a policy cycle that begins with tariffs, produces retaliation, and ends with federal money used to shield a loyal constituency from damage the administration created.  This is absolutely exhausting. 

 

Tariffs were sold as strength. They functioned as economic self-harm. China responded exactly as every trade economist predicted, and farmers absorbed the shock. Now public money is used to steady a group valued for its political loyalty while other sectors harmed by the same policies are left to navigate the fallout alone. 

 

This selective insulation needs to be called-out. When government protects one constituency from the costs of its own decisions while allowing others to bear the full impact, accountability collapses. Policy becomes performance. Consequences become optional for some and unavoidable for others. Neither an economy or a democracy can function for long on that kind of asymmetry.

Create a problem, then drop $12 billion on the people who voted for this problem. Then blame Biden.

After all the wailing and gnashing of teeth over NYC Mayor-Elect Zorhan Mamdani; Trump and MAGA are going full on socialist. 

Surreal.

 

Of course, we've been to this rodeo before.... 

 

 

Asleep At The Switch

May you live in interesting times - frequently referred-to as an ancient Chinese curse is likely of 19th-century British origin; possibly from speeches by Joseph Chamberlain.  Nevertheless, we're living in the midst of an interesting period of time.

The results of last Tuesday's elections were interesting.  The extent to which president Trump's on-again, off-again messages and policies played a role is open to speculation.  For the left there is presently an air of glee.  For MAGA world the president is blameless.  For independents (including myself) arguing that prices are coming down while prices are obviously rising rings hollow.  Trust me; I do the grocery shopping in our household and everything from coffee, to orange juice, to beef is soaring as a consequence of import duties.  For my household this extra tax burden is an expensive annoyance.  For working families not so much.

It is easy to say you are concerned about economic worries in the homeland.  Juxtaposed with foreign travel, lavish Mar-A-Lago parties, jetting-off on Air Force One for a round of golf, gilded White House renovations book-ended by demolition of the east wing contradicts the feigned concern.  It's bullshit.     

It is hard to argue you care about the working poor and elderly while simultaneously arguing to defund SNAP benefits. 

The bottom line is blaming Dems for the government shutdown while you have absolute and complete control of the White House, both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court is nonsensical.  See paragraph three, above.

Don't take my word for it; Donald Trump's approval rating is beginning to slip even among his own supporters.

Some days I wonder if maybe the lunatics have taken over the asylum; then I am reminded that we've been to this rodeo before.   In case you haven't noticed; I'm still waiting for the administration to improve your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  Along with making the world a safer place.  You snooze you lose....

Getty Image 

Embrace The Cult

In an alarming trend - MAGA supporters by the thousands - are demolishing the east side of their houses.....

Exhausting

Depending on your priorities a lot can be done with $30 to $40 billion.

President Donald Trump has prioritized his friendship with the president of Argentina.

Javier Milei, nicknamed El Loco for his eccentric manners, is one of the few world leaders who attended Trump’s inauguration. Now, with his country facing a dire economic crisis, Trump is sending El Loco $40 billion in a not-at-all subtle effort to help him win reelection later this month.  Given the fact that Argentina's credit rating is basically junk you can kiss our money good bye.

And here’s the conundrum:  during Trump’s first term in office he started a trade war with China. When China responded by buying soybeans from Brazil instead of American farmers the resulting bailout cost all of us more than $35 billion.

Now, Trump’s doing it again, and another ginormous bailout will follow. 

America’s soybean crop is worth at least $30 billion. And once again, China pulled back and hasn’t bought any of our soybeans. Not a single, solitary, bean; much less the $12.6 billion they would have purchased from us at this same time a year ago.

So, where did China get their soybeans? 

Argentina.

The country now getting $40 billion from us.

Trump might have used that $40 billion to reinstate health insurance premium tax credits he insists on letting expire. So the government is shut down, Americans are seeing skyrocketing health insurance bills and farmers are hoping for a bailout check because the president wants to help a friend in a country that’s taking our spot in the global marketplace.

If you're still convinced this puts America First or if Argentina is ever going to pay us back you might just be El Loco. 

I don't see how any of this advances your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  For you readers who are Trump devotees I'm waiting for the explanation.  Meanwhile, all this winning is exhausting....

Warrior Ethos

Recent travel to visit with family found us in Mobile Alabama for a week with an opportunity to become temporary Mobilians and soak-up the history, food and ambiance of this coastal city.  A boat ride of the delta estuary provided an opportunity to take-in the waterfront, port facilities and Austal Shipyard up-close and personal; including these vessels in the shipyard for routine scheduled maintenance.

The USNS Medgar Evers (T-AKE-13) is a Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo and ammunition ship of the United States Navy.

USNS Medgar Evers

USNS ships, also known as United States Naval Ships, are owned by the U.S. Navy.  However, they are operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC) with civilian crews. While these ships are civilian-manned, some may also have a small military complement for specific functions

Several US Navy vessels have been named after civil rights activists, and some of these names are currently under review for potential renaming. Ships like the USNS Harvey Milk, USNS John Lewis, USNS Thurgood Marshall, USNS Ruth Bader Ginsburg, USNS Medgar Evers and USNS Harriet Tubman are among those being considered for name changes. 

The John Lewis-class of oilers are designed to refuel and resupply other Navy ships at sea and are specifically named after prominent civil rights leaders.  The proposed name changes are part of efforts by the Trump Administration to expunge what they believe are prior diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the military.  

USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206) is the second of the John Lewis-class of underway replenishment oilers, operated by the Military Sealift Command.

USNS Harvey Milk

The potential renaming of these ships has sparked controversy; some of these assets have been deployed for five to fifteen years with sailors and members of the public viewing this as a symbolic erasure of the contributions of these individuals to American history and civil rights. 

Moreover, renaming a ship can be fraught. In naval tradition this practice is widely considered bad luck.  This stems from the belief that a ship has an identity and spirit, which renaming can anger or confuse. This superstition is rooted in ancient Greek mythology, where Poseidon, the god of the sea, was thought to keep a record of all ship names in his "Ledger of the Deep". Changing a ship's name was seen as disrespecting the sea gods and risking their wrath and incurring possible misfortune at sea. 

In further back-and-forth developments Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted just this past Wednesday that military veterans and active-duty troops urged the Trump administration to rename American military bases after Confederate traitors who took up arms against the government to defend the enslavement of Black people — a move the secretary claims is “important for morale.”

In his testimony to the Senate Armed Services committee, Hegseth defended the president’s decision to restore the names of several military bases in the South that were first named in honor of Confederate generals, despite Congress mandating their removal five years ago. 

Time will tell where this all ends-up.  Seems the MAGA movement itself has embraced its own version of Political Correctness and Woke.  

Drama, reality television theatrics and a waste of resources.  Jeesus; anybody else been to this rodeo before?

Still waiting for measurable improvement in your and my prosperity and general lot in life.  And maybe make the world a safer place.  Good thing I am a patient sort.....

Housewife School

Today's music has been replaced with a lesson in Cooking Terminology.

The staff here at The Platz is working double overtime to make America great again....