Insanity Wrap: McDonalds Wants HOW Much for a Big Mac?

Before we get to today’s big story, here’s a short video to make you lose whatever little faith you might still have in humanity.

This Is Not a Sane World, Exhibit #1,000,006

Because there’s very little I won’t endure for you, gentle reader, here’s the VodkaPundit Quick & Dirty Transcript for your reading and sharing pleasure:

I think it’s very important… for us at every moment in time and certainly this one, to see the moment in time in which we exist and are present and to be able to contextualize it — to understand where we exist in the history and in the moment — as it relates not only to the past but the future.

Amen, and don’t bogart that joint.

I Tried to Order a McDonalds Big Mac but Then Escrow Fell Through

Consumer confidence is slipping into recession territory and McDonald’s has jacked up prices to levels that have some diners “pushing back,” according to CNBC.

McDonald’s is still showing growth at most locations and their stock is up 10% this year. But is that growth sustainable when, as CEO Chris Kempczinski admitted on Tuesday, customers are “adding fewer items to their orders,” resulting in a 2% decline in volume last quarter?

I was doing my research for this column when curiously — or perhaps not — the McDonald’s website wouldn’t reveal local prices. Instead, I was instructed to download their official app to my phone. Corporate must know they’re already testing the top end of what consumers are willing to pay for the most average food in the industry.

I’ll say: $9.19 for a Big Mac meal. That’ll be closer to $10 with taxes, and if you have to ask about super-sizing, you can’t afford it. For a couple bucks more I can get a much better burger — and a friendly waitress or waiter — at my corner sports bar.

And a beer. McDonald’s won’t serve you a beer at any price.

This isn’t just me being an Old Man Grumpus about how, when I was a kid, we could buy two Big Macs for a dime, get 11 cents back in change, and play Pac-Man all afternoon with two nickels and a penny. When you’re a fast food chain and your prices are butting up against sit-down restaurants — that are under the exact same inflationary pressure — it’s no wonder that customers are pushing back.

Consumers, according to Kempczinski, are still buying plenty of Quarter Pounders and McNuggets. But with prices so high, you have to wonder how much of our buying habits are just that: habits. When you do the math, a visit to McDonald’s starts to make less sense than ever.

With middle age making it a battle for the first time to control my waistline, I don’t eat at fast food places much anymore. But when I was taking two tweens and a teenager through the drive-thru last week, three burger meals upgraded with two milkshakes and a thing of nuggets set me back almost $45. That wasn’t at some downtown Denver location sitting on pricy real estate. This was in the less-nice part of an I-25 bedroom community called Castle Rock.

Instead of rushing through a drive-thru, we could have — should have — sat down at the Denny’s across the way, and everybody (including Old Man Grumpus here) could have enjoyed a better meal with better service and not paid all that much more.

Crazy, right?

Before We Continue, Here’s a Short Video to Restore Your Faith in Everything…

How hard emotional support dogs try pic.twitter.com/TQ47nDq9ZE

— B&S (@_B___S) April 26, 2023

True story.

Friends of mine raise service dogs. They take the puppies in at two months old, train them in service etiquette and all the rest, and then — this is the hard part — give the dogs back at 18 months. These people are saints, I’m telling you.

One of their dogs proved too lazy to work as a service dog, but proved just right for what I found out is called a facilities dog. Diamond lives and works at a children’s hospital, loving on sick kids, and in exchange, getting to eat birthday cake off their faces.

Dogs are the best.

Recommended: Who Is Biden Kidding?

Your Weekly Dose of Mostly Peaceful Protest

CNN insiders say this is the REAL reason Don Lemon was FINALLY squeezed out the door

So at first, we thought Lemon was fired for telling Indian-American Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, “When you are in black skin and you live in this country, then you can disagree with me.” It’s bad enough for a so-called newsman to play the race card against a guest, but to play it so badly? Enough!

But it turns out, that might not be what convinced CNN execs to give Lemon the heave-ho:

Watch the [Ramaswamy] interview closely — and you will hear Lemon appear to rudely cut off his colleague, as she tries to move things along from the confrontation and wrap up the interview.

‘Ok, can we move on now please,’ he interjects, leaning back and buttoning his jacket.

Poppy – seemingly exasperated – turns to Lemon.

‘Thank you,’ she says shortly, and carries on.

‘That is what he was accused of doing over and over again,’ a CNN source said. ‘That was the pattern – dismissing, cutting off, big footing.’

All this drama, and for what?

Lemon should have been fired years ago because he isn’t very good at his job (drawing viewers to the network) and he’s rude (at best) to his coworkers.

I’m sure Lemon will do just fine at whatever no-budget podcast he ends up hosting for perhaps scores of half-listeners.

A Special Note

There’s a bit of transgender insanity this week that is so awful, not one of your PJ Media writers has touched it — and even with my reputation for diving off the deep end here, I just can’t on this one.

So if you’re aware of the news that came out of Holland on Monday and were hoping the Insanity Wrap would take it up, I’m sorry, but I really just can’t.

But I Will Share This Story of Trans-Insanity

AUSTRALIA: A transgender predator who attempted to force a child to touch his genitals in a mall bathroom was handed a 2 year sentence for the crime.

Court records repeatedly refer to the man as "female" and his genitals as "her penis."https://t.co/rlYBzsNWxy

— REDUXX (@ReduxxMag) April 26, 2023

A couple of years ago when I read someone referring to their “lady penis,” I figured two things. The first was that things were going to get worse before they could get better — including what would probably be an ugly backlash. And things have certainly gotten crazier. Whether we can turn it around remains to be seen.

The second is that I’d better dramatically increase my already substantial liquor budget. On that score, folks, it’s Mission Accomplished.

A quick little something before we get to the closing meme…

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Exclusively for our VIPs: UKRAINE WAR: So Where Is That Counteroffensive We Were All Promised?

One More Thing…

OK, who did this?

That’s a Wrap for this week.

Come back next week for another Insanity Wrap — assuming we make it that long.