JERRY WOLKOFF BLOG-IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY SON STEVEN NATHANIEL WOLKOFF, MY FATHER SAMUEL WOLKOFF, AND ALL THE OTHER VICTIMS OF INJUSTICE, EVIL IN THIS WORLD.THEY DIMINISH YOUR RIGHTS,THEN THEY DIMINISH YOUR EXISTENCE, THEN THEY LIE ABOUT IT, SAY YOU NEVER EXISTED, AND THE PROBLEM IS PEOPLE FORGET THE SUFFERING THAT LASTS FOREVER, NEVER KNOWING THE TRUTH BY WHOSE HANDS, OR HOW YOU WERE KILLED.
Ladies and gentlemen, wear sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
Than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind
You will never understand the power
And the beauty of your youth until they've faded
But trust me, in twenty years
You will look back at photos of yourself
And recall in a way you can't grasp now
How much possibility lay before you
And how fabulous you really looked
You are not as fat as you imagine
Don't worry about the future or worry that worrying
Is as affective as trying to solve an algebra equation
By chewing bubble gum
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things
That never crossed your worried mind
The kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday
Do one thing every day that scares you, sing
Don't be reckless with other peoples' hearts
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours,
floss
Don't waste your time on jealousy
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind
The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults
If you succeed in doing this, tell me how
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements, stretch
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what to do with your life
The most interesting people
I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't
Get plenty of calcium
Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone
Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the "Funky Chicken"
On your 75th wedding anniversary
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much
Or berate yourself either
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's
Enjoy your body, use it every way you can
Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own, dance
Even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room
Read the directions even if you don't follow them
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly
Brother and sister together will make it through
Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you've been hurting, but I've been waiting to be there for you
And I'll be there just helping you out, whenever I can
Get to know your parents, your loved ones, you never know when they'll be gone for good
Be nice to your siblings, they are your best link to your past
And the people most likely to stick with you in the future
Understand that friends come and go
But a precious few, who should hold on
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
For as the older you get, the more you need the people
You knew when you were young
Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard
Live in northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft
Travel, accept certain inalienable truths
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old
And when you do, you'll fanaticise that when you were young
Prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
And children respected their elders
Respect your elders, don't expect anyone else to support you
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse
But you'll never know when either one will run out
Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're forty
It will look eighty-five
Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of
Wishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off
Painting over the ugly parts and recycling for more than it's worth
But trust me on the sunscreen
Oh yeah
Someday a spirit will take you and guide you there
I know you've been hurting, but I've been waiting to be there for you
And I'll be there just helping you out, whenever I can
While there are multiple major horrible events taking place daily all over the world, people dying of famine, war, injustices of every type, there is one event that has gripped Americans, overshadowed the other misery happening to human beings.
It says a great deal about American citizenry and their ability to become unusually proactive when it comes to recognizing their own survival is at stake if they don't get involved with what many perceive as the most important event in decades that will affect their lives.
Yes, I am talking panic in the streets kind of involvement, awareness that knows no bounds. Americans have learned that Hostess Brands, Inc. is going out of business and is liquidating its business after striking workers with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union didn't return to normal work levels as the company management had demanded.
Panic in America in the past few days has resulted in a stampede of citizens who know what is essential to their lives as they cleaned out the food stores and bakeries yesterday of all Hostess products.
Do Americans really care about the 18,500 workers who will lose their jobs at Hostess? Nope, not much, this is really about the personal munchies, cravings on the level of a crack addict cut off from their supply, a heroin addict facing cold turkey. This is about life altering, diabetic causing, cardboard tasting artificial flavored little cakes of fat that people must have or they will surely die.
Screw hurricanes, wars, fiscal cliffs, rapists, murderers, politicians, homeless, poor people, climate change, or anything else that may get in their way of prioritizing this Twinky, Hostess cakes holy grail of life. Good-bye Yodels.
Good-bye Twinkies.
Good-bye Ho Hos.
Good-bye Ding Dongs.
Good-bye Sno Balls.
Good-bye my favorite Wonder Bread that "helps build strong bodies
12 ways," according to the advertising slogan for the brand of soft,
white bread introduced in 1921,the 12 ways referring to 12 nutrients
the owners of the company thought were worth talking about.
Oh if only Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan had known the real push button issue on the minds of Americans, its not the economy, stupid, it's sugar, Twinkies, cake.
Mitt could have used his Bain Capital Company to take over Hostess and bought the votes of fellow Americans by with the slogan "vote for me and I promise you a free carton of Twinkies and other Hostess cakes in every American's home".
His dreams to be in the White House would have come true by buying the votes of the Twinkie junkies in scoring a mere hand full, perhaps, a box, or even a carton.
Mitt had failed to follow his history lessons in which"Upon being informed that the citizens of France had no bread to eat,
Marie Antoinette, Queen of Louis XVI of France, exclaimed "let
them eat cake".
Although she was eventually beheaded when the people of France revolted, no such fate would have befallen Mitt and the GOP here in a strung out America, if only he could get a do over, the poor guy, it was that easy.
Twinkie addiction is formed in early childhood by habit, as parents introduced preschool children to the sugary cakes, and it affects several generations since early childhood. It's the white flour, sugar, and marshmallow cream filling that makes people come back for more. The flavor of the sugar makes the brain light up with hormones that eventually develop into a habit, a familiarity, if not a craving to come back for more and more of it.
See the You Tube video, Howdy Doody Hostess Twinkies Commercial 1950s.
Four generations of Twinkie eaters has had this type of brand loyalty
so much so that some supermarket's own brand of cakes similar to
Twinkie's were left on the shelf this week at numerous
supermarkets.
A lot of dentists for several generations made plenty of money as a result of children wolfing down plenty of Twinkies and changing the ratio of calcium to phosphorous in their bloodstream from eating all that sugar and white flour.
French doctor, Serge Ahmed, of Bordeaux, has been working with rats and giving them the choice between cocaine and sugar. Guess what wins, time and again? Sugar.
Sugar produces dopamine in the brain which in turn makes kids feel good for a few minutes. For some true sugar addicts, they need this to feel better. When kids and parents eat sugar, they feel good for a few minutes until the insulin surges kick in. When the happy feeling wears off, they need more.
Eventually when sugar is cut out of the diet, human brains will begin to produce dopamine on their own, but who has the time to wait for that to happen.
Most snacks such as cream-filled cakes that parents buy for themselves and their kids is high in refined sugar and simple carbohydrates. But soon withdrawal symptoms kick in. This keeps many sugar addicts trapped in their addiction to processed cakes made with white flour and sugar or even bread coated with jam and a fatty substance such as cream or butter.
The sweet taste of sugar is more rewarding than the high of cocaine to some people. That's what makes people come back to buy and eat more foods made with sugar, especially heightened when mixed with white flour, as in a cake with a sweet filling that tastes creamy or even fatty. Some parents even give kids processed sweet foods to get them to behave or even quiet down. But the reaction often is craving and crashing.
Kids grew up eating Twinkies instead of fresh fruit.
Familiarity doesn't breed contempt when it comes to sweet foods. Instead familiarity breeds habit, and habit breeds tradition to come back for more. Americans were introduced in early childhood not only to Twinkies but also to Ho-Hos and Sno-Balls. Most kids whose parents aren't nutrition and natural foods enthusiasts grew up with Twinkies.
Many are young and some are over age 65 and grew up in the 1950s and early 1960s when processed foods dominated the TV ads, as today, a time when sugary foods were advertised on children's TV shows such as the Saturday morning cartoons. The parents and grandparents passed on the Twinkie habit to their own children, and they passed on the Twinkies as soon as the kids could eat solid food, in turn to the next generation of Twinkie addicts.
By Saturday afternoon, online seller eBay was hosting more than 17,000 active listings for Twinkies. Bids and prices varied wildly." Amazingly, one seller's listing asked for $10 million for a box of 10 Twinkies. Since there were no takers by Saturday night, it didn't matter much that the seller promised to deliver the box of Twinkies in a van that displays the buyer's company logo, with $1 million to be donated in the buyer's name to a charity of the buyer's choosing.
But what about another day, when those addicted to Twinkies so much will pay big money for their sweet fix, to satisfy the monkey on their back type of addiction for marshmallow creme.
If the federal government can bail out the banking and auto industries,
why can’t it do the same for Twinkies.
Over at White House.gov,
more than 350 hardworking Americans have already taken time out of all
that working hard to put their name to a petition asking President Obama
to nationalize the Twinkie industry and “prevent our nation from losing
her sweet creamy center.”
So if you believe that Twinkies are too sweet to fail, feel free to put your name on the petition.
There's a box of Twinkies. Not just any box of
Twinkies, the last box of Twinkies that anyone will enjoy in the whole
universe. Believe it or not, Twinkies have an expiration date. Some day
very soon, there will be none left, as time does not age these cakes well.
I am holding out hope for those afflicted that some other company sees the profit value in
Twinkies (and Ho Ho’s, and maybe even Drake’s Cakes) and saves the
government from having to answer years of questions about how it let the
U.S. slip farther back in the international snack cake race.
In the meantime, sites like Hoard The Hostess are already documenting today’s disastrous news. You can go here and mourn, sniff, get an online high off of the photos.
The video clip below from Ghostbusters sums it all up, because in the words of the
great Winston Zeddemore, “That’s one big Twinkie.”
There have been many stories told about the recent storm that destroyed so many parts of the East Coast. In the New York metro area where I live many of these stories are about bad people who looted, others who took advantage by price gouging everything that we needed to survive, incompetent power Companies that had no clue how to restore the electrical service for their customers who pay the highest rates in the United States to maintain.
The area bordered on anarchy, with a cascading mountain of shortages from gasoline to food, water, lack of public transportation, sewage treatment plants broke down, pumping millions of gallons of raw sewage into the ocean and are continuing to do so at this very minute.
People were shot by others for a can of gasoline and Snake Pliskin was ready to protect decent citizens. "Yes, sir! Those Crazies'll kill you and strip you in ten seconds flat! In the Escape from New York movie, 1988, the crime rate in the United States rises four hundred percent. The once great city of New York becomes the one maximum security prison for the entire country. A fifty-foot containment wall is erected along the New Jersey shoreline, across the Harlem River, and down along the Brooklyn shoreline. It completely surrounds Manhattan Island. All bridges and waterways are mined. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped around the island. There are no guards inside the prison, only prisoners and the worlds they have made. The rules are simple: once you go in, you don't come out."
We just had a taste of what is to come if the Country doesn't wake up fast.All of this is rooted in the problem that America has a failed, crumbling infrastructure and refuses to deal with the reality that climate change is here, right now. Denial not new ideas, meaningless words not deeds, incompetence not innovation, disrespect of one another not respect, all contributed to one's life not being worth a nickel when it's every person for themselves in order to survive.
All of this despite previous storms, lessons that should have been learned, yet no realistic plans were in place by the local, State and Federal Governments.
All the politicians from both Parties were/are falling all over themselves to blame this fiasco on someone, anyone, anything, find scapegoats but not themselves.
There was no electricity and in some places there still is none. No phone service, no cell towers working, no way to get help if you needed it. Yet these inept politicians using their robo call fancy machines called telephones, spoke on Television, patted themselves on the back in the fashion of the President Bush "job well done Brownie" during the Hurricane Katrina disaster. None of us could hear them or see them, probably a good thing, but it was all they could do since they were full of shit.
Many volunteers from all over came to help or sent donations. This was wonderful to witness.
There is one particular story that won't get much media attention. You may not understand all the words spoken but you will feel the emotions.
A victim of the recent storm that devastated the New York metropolitan area said these simple words when speaking about the Jewish community of volunteers that come every day to help him and his neighbors. He said "I am proud to be a Jew". It is a heart wrenching video below of what happened to his community and the selfless response of strangers from other nearby Jewish Communities who have come to help. It is a lesson in how a culture, religion, and ethnic group have been able to survive from the beginning of time by sticking together and being there for each other.
A lesson that the rest of America needs to learn before it is too late.
We all need to get out and vote today. People have died fighting to protect your freedom of having the right to vote for the candidate of your choice. Sadly there are many States that are totally disorganized in organizing the voting process. Even more disturbing is that many election boards in states, local counties are even deliberately suppressing the ability of registered voters to cast their ballots today. They are trying to steal the election for whatever candidate they are politically affiliated with by disenfranchising voters with this chaos. In any of the 50 States, if you become aware of any voting irregularities or are a victim of someone trying to keep you from voting at your local polling place, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and a human being will answer who will try to provide immediate help so that you can vote.
This is a non partisan, not affiliated with any political party, not for profit organization whose goal is to make sure that the election process is done in a fair manner. It is administered by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.
A common voter suppression action being deliberately done in States (I just saw it happen in my voting place here in New York State) is that after you fill out your ballot, none of the election officials at your voting location direct you to the correct scanning machine that you are supposed to use, therefore creating your vote to potentially not be counted.
At most voting centers there are several ballot scanning machines, but you can only vote at the specific machine that corresponds to your particular streets voting district. Once you finish filling out your ballot, make sure you ask one of the voting officials at your voting site which scanning machine you should use BEFORE you actually insert your ballot to be scanned.
If you have problems or see problems at the polls, be sure to report them to 866-OUR-VOTE, or at OurVoteLive.org/
Catch any problems at the polls on photo or video? Upload it to YouTube and social sites, and tell VideoTheVote.org! Also tag it with the #VideoTheVote hashtag.
Be at the polls when they close and photograph and video
tape the results tapes that are printed out from electronic systems.
Results have a way of changing between the time they're printed out at
the close of polls and the time they show up on the web. Your photographic evidence could help save an election!
Watching results on the web throughout the night? Take screenshots,
save them as you go, and include a timestamp in the file name when you
do. Those web results also have a way of changing, sometimes in the
wrong direction, throughout the night. Your evidence could help save an
election!
Vote on a Paper Ballot!
In some places, it may be too late to vote on paper ballots. In
others, know your rights and whether you are entitled to vote on a paper
ballot if you wish, even if they try to direct you towards an
electronic voting system. For example, in OH and CA every voter may vote
on paper if they wish and if they know to ask for one. So (politely)
demand a paper ballot! Check with your County Clerk or Sec. of State if
you're not sure.
A touch-screen system with a little paper printout is NOT a paper ballot! Those paper printouts are never counted and your vote will be 100% unverifiable.
If You Must Vote on Touch-Screen and Your Vote Flips...
Try to capture it with your cell phone camera
Call poll supervisors to observe the problem.
Fill out a problem report.
Refuse to vote on that machine.
Request that the machine be taken out of service.
Get the serial number of the machine if possible (may be difficult in some cases).
Tell other voters in line which machine it was and that they should NOT vote on that machine!
Report it to county/town election office.
Report it to the Secretary of State.
Call local reporters and tell them the story.
Call 866-OUR-VOTE and tell them.
Contact bloggers and Election Integrity websites.
Raise holy hell.
Also you can call the FBI Voter Intimidation Hotline at 202-514-1888 or 1-800-253-3931.Voter Intimidation Is A Crime!
Other Useful Stuff to Keep in Mind
Make sure you have the exact type of ID you'll need to be
able to vote before you leave for the polls. If you're unsure what type
of ID is needed, check with your Sec. of State or County Clerk.
Be prepared for disgracefully long lines, particularly in swing states. Your vote definitely won't get counted, much less accurately, if you leave the line before voting.
If you're challenged by a poll watcher, take their picture with your cell phone, get their name, and then report it to 866-OUR-VOTE. But do NOT
leave without voting, at the very least on a provisional ballot. But
try to vote on a normal ballot, not a provisional ballot, if you
possibly can.
If you're in line when the polls close, you still get to vote. Period.
Help others stay in line. If you can offer water, folding chairs, a
snack, etc., to those in line fighting to cast their vote, you're doing a
great public service for what's left of our democracy.
Share this list and/or this blog item with others. Print it out, share it via social networks, etc. to help spread the word.
Election protection begins with you! Good luck! You may need it!
