Leaderboard

In 1888, two friends started the Pearl Milling Company, a flour mill in Missouri. They soon faced a flour glut and started selling extra flour as a "self-rising pancake mix" sold in big paper sacks. In 1889, they added the Aunt Jemima trade name to conflate their product with the "Southern Mammy" stereotype; a vaudeville carciature of an obese Southern slave woman who was happy to be a slave. (The original image for Aunt Jemima actually came from a Vaudeville poster.) She was referred to as "Aunt" since honorifics like "Miss" were prohibited for slaves - and later freed slaves. People were, by comtemporary accounts, amused by the name. At the 1893 World Exposition in Chicago they hired a former slave, Nancy Green, to play Aunt Jemima at their booth. She didn't look much like the picture on the product, although they were both black women. After time went by the image of Aunt Jemima changed. One change recast the image based on an obese black actress named Anna Robinson. The next change was based VERY loosely on cook Rosa Washington Riles. In 1968 a spin made her into a composite of several women. She was made thinner and more stylish, less cartoonish. In 1989 it was revamped again, with the scarf removed completely and a plain white collar with lace. Again this was not based on any specific woman. In 2020 Quaker Oats (the new owners) decided to change the branding away from the Vaudeville woman to a simpler Pearl Milling Company logo. When Pepsico bought THEM out, they continued with the change, for several reasons: 1) They thought that sales would increase, which as always was the primary consideration. 2) They wanted to avoid the "happy slave" stereotype which was becoming more problematic. 3) Conservatives were beginning to use "Aunt Jemima" as a racial epithet. Conservative talk show host John Sylvester had started calling Condoleeza Rice "Aunt Jemima" and Colin Powell "Uncle Ben" - and they didn't want to sell a breakfast product synonymous with a racial slur. (Later republican mayor Barry Presgraves would call Kamala Harris "Aunt Jemima" during the 2024 presidential campaign.) This caused an almost unbelievable amount of outrage among conservatives. Liberals were "cancelling history" and the government was "woke" - and were destroying a beloved icon. Several memes cast this as a government decision - "I can't believe that changing a pancake box didn't end COVID for Biden!" - and other such memes that conflated it with government action. What was odd about this is that it was a decision purely based on corporate bean counters and lawyers, who felt they would just plain make more money (and lose less to lawsuits) with the rebrand. I noticed this recently when the US government actually DID start deleting historical records of black people. As a single example, Charles C. Rogers was a highly decorated Army officer and the highest ranking black soldier to receive the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam war. During an attack by the North Vietnamese, Rogers was wounded three times but continued directing artillery fire and leading counterattacks until the enemy was repelled. He was awarded the Medal of Honor in 1970 for his extraordinary bravery. The DoD set up a web page to honor this man and his accomplishments. It was deleted about two weeks ago in the "DEI purge" under the current administration. On Facebook, I noted several conservatives defending this, opining that he probably only got the MoH to begin with because he was black, and how glad they were that the real heroes would now be honored. It is both remarkable and sad that conservatives will vociferously defend depictions of fictional black people that show them as willing servants, but condemn any depictions of actual black people as heroes. It exemplifies how conservatives want minorities to be seen (and used) in the US.

Doesn't it bother you that a legal US resident can be arrested and possibly deported just for expressing opinions that Trump doesn't like? To the best of my knowledge he hasn't been convicted of, or even charged with, a crime. Once you start restricting the scope of the 1st Amendment, where do you stop?

Nigel shot me an email letting me know where it moved. Happy to be back!!

Bigun is significantly to the right of me (but, I suspect, getting less so). However, he is not a knee-jerk MAGA warrior like some who post here, and his positions are always well thought out even if I disagree with them.

One of my favorite signs from the local protest.

@13.44 minutes into the video, he specifically says, the authors did not lay out a plan, it was more like a cookbook with recipes. Tariff chaos is not a negotiating tool. And, let's not forget that it was American businessmen who shipped the jobs overseas for lower wages to increase their profits. I doubt they'll bring jobs back for $3,000/month when they can maintain a $100/month workforce and no HR headaches. The only thing we'll see (are seeing) here is a recession and a "We're winning HUGELY."

You will always be a skydiver. No one can take that from you. Please check in on occasion. You'll always be a part of this community.

Hi folks, Now that we know Trump is going to try to run for a 3rd term, my daughter thinks we should just run Obama against him. Sounds good to me, Jerry Baumchen

I'm sort of assuming you're graduating this spring... Good time for reflection. You've made a life for yourself. It doesn't have room for skydiving -- that's not a problem. And your malfunction really wasn't a beginner malfunction. The correct answer is the one that has to surviving, and that you did. I wish you well, really. Maybe your involvement in skydiving helped you to decide to really buckle down in school -- if so, that's not an entirely negative consequence. But yeah, things can have life-changing consequences. And don't generate a long bucket list -- as you can, do the things that interest you, don't save them up, because they'll keep your life interesting, and the best way to meet interesting people is to have your own interesting life. Enough lecture from the senior auntie Wendy P.

Yep. Now tell us again why Trump is a better choice than Harris. "Well, yeah, Hitler is pretty bad - but that Hindenberg guy! He's a socialist. And have you heard his laugh?"

Montgolfier was a scientist. He observed that smoke, unlike water, rises. Reagan just combined that smoke with mirrors,

Rich, the reason you don’t get moderated is because you don’t do personal attacks or make jokes about pedophilia. But do understand, no one watches the videos suggested by someone who can’t seem to have two sentences in a row make sense. By and large, I don’t watch videos anyway; they’re almost always narratives designed to convince, they’re not information Wendy P.

No worries then. Jan 22 2020: "We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It's going to be just fine." Jan 24: "China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!” Feb 2: "We pretty much shut it down coming in from China.” Feb 10: "I think the virus is going to be—it’s going to be fine.” Feb 10: "Looks like by April, you know in theory when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away.” Feb 24: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA… the Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Feb 25: "I think that's a problem that’s going to go away… They have studied it.” Feb. 26: “The 15 (cases in the US) within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero.” Feb 27: "It's going to disappear. One day — it's like a miracle — it will disappear." Mar 5: "The United States… has, as of now, only 129 cases… and 11 deaths. We are working very hard to keep these numbers as low as possible!” Mar 6: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.” Mar 7: “You have to be calm. It’ll go away.” Mar 7: "It goes away….It’s going away. We want it to go away with very, very few deaths. Mar 11: "for the vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low" And that turned out fine.

For example, the color line that is terminating every female or non-white person from senior levels of command in the US military, and replacing them with white males. MAGA begs the question: when you say "make America great again", when exactly do you want to return to? When was America "great"? What year do you have in mind? 1950? 1925? 1850? It certainly seems that for a large number of MAGA devotees that was a time when women and minorities knew their place, which was far from any position of leadership. When even being able to vote was a bridge too far. When medicine consisted of leeching and cod liver oil, not vaccines or any science-based elitist crap. Maybe back when real leaders like Andrew Jackson (who Trump so admires) were willing to force the Cherokee off their land, to die on the Trail of Tears on their way to some God-forsaken patch of semi-desert in Oklahoma. Except of course when that land turned out to have a lot of oil, that had to get taken from them too. When, exactly, was America "great" in the eyes of MAGA? What is the destination? Because as you go back, and you don't have to go back far, it might look better for white males but it sucked for everyone else. That's what all this anti-DEI bullshit is about, a desire to return to the past when all those "other people" knew their proper place.

Can we not do the R's are Nazis and Dems are communist crap. Let's stick to discussing policies. Please.

Too bad things are far more complicated at the level of international relations than simple tit for tat by a simpleton will fix. Better might have been to adopt a tax policy that penalizes US companies for the jobs they create in other countries so as to sell their products at inflated profits here in the US. Apple really doesn't need to be a Trillion dollar company, for example, with gross margins of 47% to be an investable success.

Hi Keith, Quite a few years ago, I had occasion to call Skratch Harris on a legal issue in California. He is an attorney in San Diego & a 'former' skydiver. I introduced myself & said that I was a former skydiver. He immediately replied that no one is a 'former' skydiver, you will always be a skydiver. Jerry Baumchen

Sorry for the late reply! Thanks for all the incredibly kind and warm messages. Absolutely. If anything, the whole experience, although short, has been deeply influential and has only made me cherish my life more. I got a second chance and actually recovered reasonably well (not 100%, but that's the price of surviving, which I accept). I know a lot of people didn't get the same chance. I'm truly incredibly lucky and I'm thankful for that daily. Although I may not physically be in the sky anymore, I'm determined to make the most out of this life. I will always remember. You guys nudged and pushed me to the right direction and gave me a lot of life advice. Some hard opinions too, but I probably needed to hear them at that time. I couldn't understand everything that was said back then, but now I've gained more perspective and understood more. I have made the best decisions for myself. Time is really powerful. It allowed me to heal and process things at my own pace. Skydiving has shaped me and is always a part of me now. I'm at peace with not jumping again and am ready to move forward. I have. She is happy. I understand her more now. She really loves and cares about me, and she desperately wanted to protect me back then.

I have NEVER, nor will I EVER tolerate racism. Bending the knee and accepting it is what got us here. Fuck racism and fuck those who insist on it.

Our constitution should remain intact. Just as I advocate no changes to the first ten amendments, so too, the 22nd amendment. There are plenty of dictatorial regimes under the guise of free elections. Feel free to choose one and head out.

Your emotional dislike of her is not a good reason to conclude that she is an idiot. Comments like that are just blowing smoke. Stupid is as stupid does and the current clown show in DC makes it pretty clear who the idiots are. And you can be sure of one thing, the Trump regime will not decrease the debt, rather it will increase the debt as right wingers always do.

https://youtu.be/G4zrA8Knnk8?si=quXgu8EvBbdfHHcg Brian talks about how Musk is talking rubbish as nobody can access GPS data at scale. Not only is Brian wrong, I remember a university showed that they could identify the home address of a senior pentagon official by correlating public device location data. They took the data and pattern matched finding that one device from a home went to the pentagon and the other to a university where the wife worked. I can’t find that article but there are a number of others. https://www.wired.com/story/phone-data-us-soldiers-spies-nuclear-germany/ The biggest concern is that it is likely that everyone who is going to these rallies are being monitored and on a “watch list”. It’s scary to think that based on freely available information that doesn’t require warrants and other legal due process, you could be identified. The possibilities of abuse are sobering. A couple that come to mind. Being individually targeted for IRS or other increased scrutiny, being doxxed, if in a high density of “protestors” possibly having your neighbourhood funding and services targeted, targeted political ads. Maybe the price of Facebook and our smart phones is higher than we realised.

There are two primary factors in measles: 1. Based on population density. 2. Based on population density. Don't be number two.

Damn the shit available these days crosses the line. It used to be we'd need to fetch mushrooms out of cow patties to get to your side of reality. Anyway it's oars, rudders, and sextants. Please note: illiteracy and ignorance are not virtues, they are embarrassments to all except the illiterate and ignorant. It's just too bad that what you offer here isn't seen as equal to trolling.

Hi John, I could not have said it better. Keith, you keep right on with what you are doing. You are truly an asset to this place. Jerry Baumchen

It'll probably miss the first attempt. Damn DEI hires. Wendy P.

No argument from me there. But to be clear if it's one of those confused biological situations where parents and medical doctors are trying their best to make an early on decision for a child that avoids a psychological disaster later, and there are never guarantees, you are good with the efforts?

Ahhh - one of those that thinks Trump is playing long range 4d chess, rather than simply trying to have vengeance on anyone who has slighted him. Enough said.

I agree with the sentiment expressed by everyone that snarky comments and labelling people is unhelpful. Biguns point about black and white thinking (psychology term, not race) is bad. The problem with your posts is that Trump/Musk can do anything and you shrug it off as “just …” and go onto to rationalise it is for the greater good, while making sure to mention that it’s better than Biden etc. I’m not sure how any American can support people who do nazi salutes, car sales from the Whitehouse, deliberate lies and deception, celebrate the pain of immigrants and the disadvantaged. the thread about white power in the US has many examples of where this administration has stepped well past the line of racist behaviour. If you honestly believe sexism and racism is bad, how come you’re not as vocal about this administration covering/removing the names of non white and female people who lost their lives fighting for your country? I forget the agency (NSA or CIA). A vast number of American citizens speak Spanish, yet it’s not racially driven that this administration has declared English the official language and removed Spanish language versions of important government websites? I’m sorry but your posts show no evidence that you’re against racism and sexism.

I'll be damned if I kneel before your color line.

The argument being made is that given our history DEI is a pathway to Equality, Merit and Integrity. Sure it's messy but outside of white suburbia there are a few otherwise nice but pointy hat wearing folks who need a solid framework jammed down their throats to quit being assholes.

Once upon a time that would have been an Onion post

Paying while in training and child care are huge. They certainly were in the 1970's, when I worked for the Food Stamp office. Believe it or not, virtually every parent I dealt with was responsible, and trying to think of how best to provide for their children. Nowadays housing and medical care are much more expensive; section 8 can only go so far, especially when it's probably next on the chopping block. Along with all the subsidized insurance plans. No matter what, we really don't want to get back into the business of building poorhouses and workhouses. I'd rather have an individual abuse the system, than systematic abuse of individuals. Wendy P.

Re-attachment to the instructor's harness. Sounds like a good idea to do prior to burying another toggle in the clip.

Except the assholes are happy about it: collateral damage is all the poor bastard is and the clear message in this and all else they do now is be careful and stay quiet or you could be next.

Or to put it another way, they didn’t.

What made Hillary so evil? Obviously you're not concerned about her emails, since, well, Signal and all that... Or is it just a matter of assuming the best for your guys, and assuming the worst for everyone else? Wendy P.

Installing DUI candidates is working out soooooo much better for us as a nation. /s

I'd like to know what Trump voters here (if any are brave enough to admit they did it) think about stuff that's happened in the past 2 months: Pardons that bless and invite insurrectionary violence, the purges of career lawyers at the Justice Department and in the Southern District of New York, inspectors general across the government, and senior FBI agents. The attorney general’s command that lawyers obey the president over their own understanding of the Constitution, the appointment of people such as Kash Patel who view their loyalty to the Emperor as more compelling than their constitutional oath, the emperor’s declaration that he and the attorney general are the sole authoritative interpreters of federal law for the executive branch. The transformation of ordinary spending responsibilities into tools to punish perceived enemies, the stripping of security clearances from opponents including the previous president, the threat of criminal prosecutions for speech deemed unfavorable, and the verbal attacks on judges for enforcing the law. Among other things.

It's all disturbing, but that is what I find most distressing of all.

Hi Nigel, Elon needs to get with the modern world; he can work from home in South Africa. Jerry Baumchen

However it may seem to you, they're literally not so you legally can't. But I can see why just ignoring the details and simply pretending black is white instead is appealing to you, you've never been good with complex concepts.

The puerile and denigrating name calling must top the list. Now it's Maggot Hagerman. He's the President of the United States of America and his skin is so thin that he needs to name call like a 5 year old. We are an embarrassment internationally and that is too sad to digest some days.

I think those ideas sound reasonable. Of course, you’d be excoriated for failing to militarize the border. Wendy P.

I’ve certainly never heard of a US citizen being caught up in a Canadian ICE prison system with no rights or access to legal representation.

You be nice to Keith, ain't his fault he's all fucked up!

I think you may have missed the sarcasm there.

This is what I find surprising about the American right, that they are surprised by something that was spelled out in glowing neon letters during the campaign. Trump during the campaign: Says repeatedly he will do something outrageous when in power. Republicans: You libs should stop being so hyperbolic, you’re not supposed to take him literally! Trump in office: Does exact outrageous thing he said he would do. Republicans: If only someone could have warned us this was going to happen!

Hi folks, Sometimes you just get lucky: He broke his hand on the tail section and his parachute failed to open, with the chute catching on the branches of a tree. John Hemingway: Last surviving Battle of Britain pilot dies aged 105 Jerry Baumchen

An unelected billionaire ordering mass firings of federal employees. The elevation of conspiracy theorists to key government posts in healthcare and security services. The rejection of climate science and dismantling of basic environmental protections. The abrupt abandonment of liberal democratic allies and embrace of authoritarian governments across the world. The targeting of dissenters at home for constitutionally protected speech. Hard to remain optimistic!