Finding My Politics = Losing My Appetite

As you all know by now, I’m not a fan of big business for many reasons. Going to talk about two in particular right now. You already know which two, so let’s get to it.

My issue with the public stances taken by Papa John’s and Applebee’s isn’t their stance toward the ACA. Shoot, anyone in the country can be stupid. Half the country is plain idiotic in their political thinking. That is only a crime against intelligence (transgressions of such nature, I feel should be prosecuted…but that’s another matter). My real issue is the ‘public’ part…and I just read that Darden is on that list too.

Is it me, or are these just places I don’t really care for anyway?

Anyway, the ‘public’ part…I’m going to start with Applebee’s because I want to end with Papa John’s. To the (current) credit of Applebee’s, they have publicly stated that the comments which set everyone ablaze were solely the opinions of one franchisee. They probably realized they had to do it because of what’s happened with Papa John’s and Chick Fil A (oh, I haven’t forgotten about them by any stretch).

Let’s get this straight: these are businesses. Businesses depend on people spending money. When you alienate substantial portions (or in some cases, majorities) of the population, that’s bad for the bottom line. Going back to what I said above, though; people can be stupid. That’s their right.

It’s the blatant politicization that’s just awful. It’s another method of voter intimidation: not quite as bad as the people who said they would – and did – fire people who voted for the president, but scapegoating ACA for the purpose of lowering costs is plain reprehensible. It’s no secret that businesses have been clamoring to cut costs: really, it’s always been true; but it’s especially been the case over the last few years. Fat cats have got to stay fat, even when times are lean.

Back to Applebee’s: at least they’re trying (facetiously or otherwise) to keep things in check.

Now, on to Darden…and I swear if Papa John’s wasn’t so bad I’d go ahead and talk about them here.

Darden – which owns such elegant eateries as Red Lobster, Olive Garden, and Longhorn Steakhouse – is saying they’re going to cut full-time workers to part-time status in response to the ACA. That’s actually not the worst part about it. The worst part is where they’re running the test program: Orlando.

For those not in the know, Orlando is the center of the I-4 corridor: which is the politically moderate Central Florida area where the state’s presidential electoral votes are usually decided. Strategy much? Darden HQ is located in Orlando, but technology has made the world small enough that geography is no excuse for its choice of location. There are three other locations, but I haven’t seen what those locations are. Something tells me they’re not in red areas, though.

*This is getting long enough, but if you want to check out some more of Darden’s despicable deeds; please do so. Did I mention that their staff is 75 percent part-timers to begin with?

And now, the pizzamaker.

These punk [donkey] [female dogs]…so first, over the summer, these [garden tools] say they’re going to have to raise the prices of their pizzas to cover the additional costs they would have to pay due to the ACA. To refresh everyone’s memory, the price hike was no more than 20 cents a pizza. I don’t know how these fools couldn’t have figured out that 20 cents isn’t that big of a deal for a $12-15 pizza…well, other than the fact that they’re Republicans: remember, more educated people tend to be liberal. Anyway, people in large numbers said “cool: we’ll chip in the extra cash because it’s worth it for people to have health care”.

Decency in the face of capitalism: who’d have thought?

Now these fools decide to double down and go with the “cutting workers” nonsense. It’d be one thing if they just went that route from the start, but no…they had to try to weasel their way into public support by saying they’d have to raise prices. That obviously backfired, so now they have to play this other card – with more spotlight on them because they tried a PR stunt and failed miserably – to actually hurt people.

John Schnatter isn’t worth an ounce of [solid excrement]. He can appear on TV with Peyton Manning and give away millions (and millions, to use another Republican’s line) of free pizzas one minute, and then complain about costs and cut people’s hours the next?

I don’t even have a snappy line to finish with. The story should tell itself.