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Aug. 21, 2025 - Lionel Nation
33:11
🚨 Cracker Barrel Goes Woke — Bud Light 2.0 Is Here!
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The worst thing you can do is think that somehow these DEI stories aren't important.
You know, Bud Light or changing Land of Lakes or Aunt Jemima, that these things don't mean anything.
It's very easy for you to say that because you can say, you know, in the scheme of things, none of this matters.
In the scheme of things, well, that's why we voted for this guy.
Because remember one thing as to what's going on with Ukraine, nobody knows what's going on.
Nobody knows what's going on.
When they flew back, Starmer turned to Macron and said, what the what was that all about?
But I digress, ladies and gentlemen.
I want to talk to you about a story which is just horrible.
This is Cracker Barrel.
Those of us in the south remember these little places, Cracker Barrel, Cracker, Cracker Barrel, Cracker.
It was a cracker barrel is where they had crackers.
They actually had salt teens.
They had crackers.
It wasn't about cracker, which is the white version of the N word.
It was crackers.
And it was southern and it was they had.
They had, uh, uh, there was a place called Po Folks.
I really like that one.
This was Bill Andrews's.
They had belly washers and all that, which was iced tea.
And I mean, they had this great collar and greens and it was southern fare and it was wonderful.
I remember my father, we we love that stuff.
Po Folks was the best.
But Cracker Barrel was in that genre.
It's always on 75, like 75 and I-4 in Florida.
We also had like Waffle House.
It was always near the interstate, as they say.
But Cracker Barrel was just, they had the front porch, and they had rocking chairs, and they had these wonderful, it was wonderful.
But the point is, you don't have to like it.
And then, little by little, we noticed a couple of things.
Like one time, we noticed one of these butch-cut women with the big arms and the tattoos.
I was like, wait a minute, hold it.
This was years ago when i thought way hmm not good because it catered to older folks and some people actually like to sit on the front porch they had rocking chairs rocking chairs oh my friend, Cracker Barrel apparently is going woke.
And this is Bud Light all over again.
These bastards don't learn, but they're doing it on purpose.
It's not just about Cracker Barrel.
It's to remind you we're not going anywhere.
It's to remind you that they're here.
They're not going anywhere.
This is important for you to understand this, that no matter what you think Trump is doing, whatever you think is happening, whatever this MAGA business is, they're not going anywhere.
They're not going to change.
Period.
We are doing this all over again.
We are in the middle of this right now.
Here we go.
The corporate suicide note has been drafted, signed, and sealed, and this time not by a beer company in St. Louis, but by Cracker Barrel, that American roadside institution that once stood as a symbol of tradition and comfort and Americana and corn pone and just, you know, maybe.
Mayberry and pie and fried chicken and fried green tomatoes and cornbread and a little gift shop.
A little gift shop.
They got corny stuff and it was just great.
You remember Cracker Barrel, right?
Wooden rocking chairs out front, fireplaces crackling inside.
Gift shops stuffed with this nostalgia and country charm.
People love that.
Mrs. L and I this weekend, we were out in a place.
Where's that?
Where's Orton?
Long Valley, New Jersey, called Ort, Washington Township is Ort Farms, ORT.
It's like third, fourth generation picking sunflowers and, and, huh?
Schoolies Mountain.
but we went and we got corn and tomatoes and we were there and they had this it was so funny not funny but there was this muslim family and she's got the veil and the kid it doesn't matter and they had a kid with a bunny rabbit it was just you know brownies and ice cream just it's it's it's america and these bastards hate america These weirdos with the strange glasses,
not like mine, mind you.
They have to change it because you're having fun.
They want to destroy what you believe in.
And it was a place families trusted for things like biscuits and cornbread, memories, but not anymore.
No, no, no, not anymore.
Because the cracker barrel you knew has been hijacked.
stripped of its soul and left with this sterile corporate facade that looks like it was designed by some San Francisco consultant who's never tasted grits in her life.
Who here has never tried grits?
Not how many grits, grits.
White grits with butter and depending upon that, and if they got kind of hard, you could just, I mean, they were grits, man.
Grits.
And make no mistake.
This wasn't an accident.
This wasn't a mistake in branding or some oopsie in the marketing department.
No, no, this was deliberate.
This was absolutely engineered.
This was something that was done, not meant as a mistake or an oversight.
And the architect of this disaster, CEO Julie Fells Massino, three names, John Wayne Gacy, serial killers, and these DEI wokesters.
Massino, who was the latest corporate executive to climb her way up, not by honoring tradition, but by pandering to this ESG DEI nonsense, the woke gods.
She ordered the scrapping of cracker bar Barrel's beloved rustic logo tossing away decades of hard earned identity that resonated with Middle America.
She replaced it with something that looks like a generic app icon for a grocery delivery service.
I don't know what it is.
It took the dude away.
Some guy is sitting there.
I don't even know what the problem is.
He's sitting next to a barrel.
That's no good.
But she wanted to change it.
Sterile, corporate, soulless, no roots, no feel, no character, nothing.
Nothing that says home, nothing that says America.
Remember, Trump, the rules have changed, my friend.
It's Bud Light all over again.
First, they laughed off customer backlash.
Then they sneered at their own base.
Then they learned the hard way.
Americans are done funding companies that hate them.
The DEI regime, ladies and gentlemen, it's back.
But see, the rebrand isn't just about a logo.
It's part of a bigger, uglier story.
Cracker Barrel has gone all in on the DEI agenda.
The company brags about its regime too.
to identify, recruit, and advance employees based explicitly on race, not merit, not performance, not character, race.
It's illegal.
It's discriminatory.
And it's insulting to every hard-working American who just wants a fair shot.
It's not simple.
We've been through this.
You would think they would, they would, and now Cracker Barrel is facing the heat.
America First Legal has filed complaints with the EEOC.
The Tennessee Attorney General is circling.
Civil rights laws are being tested and Massino, instead of backing down, doubles down.
You see, what happened to the America where the goal was equal opportunity, not equal outcomes.
I don't know where it went.
Where the idea was to hire the best person for the job, not to check a box for diversity spreadsheets.
Cracker Barrel once represented main street values.
Now it's a corporate lab experiment in identity politics, identitarian nonsense, and then there's the blackmail factor.
See here's the part the media won't say.
When companies cave like this, it's not just ideology, it's pressure, it's coercion.
These corporations live in fear of activist investors, Wall Street funds and ESG score keepers who hold them hostage that's why they do this it's modern blackmail change your logo change your hires change your culture or we'll tank your stock price that's exactly what happens it's the same playbook we've seen at budlight target disney and now cracker barrel and they all forgot the most basic law of capitalism respect your
customers instead they bend the knee to i guess people who don't eat there don't drink there don't shop there never will this is my friends this is the death of americana cracker barrel's tragedy isn't just corporate, it's cultural.
This was one of the last places where Americana was preserved.
You could walk in and feel like you were stepping into another time, another place.
It was comfort food and comfort identity in a world gone insane.
And Massino, Massino rather, I should say, decided that had to be destroyed.
Kids loved it.
Families loved it.
Little kids loved it.
It was fun.
It was fun.
There were very few places like this.
Places like, did you know, honey, did you know this?
You know what the number one, number one tourist site in the nation is?
Number one beats everything in terms of whatever the metrics are.
Dollywood.
Dollywood.
The rocking chairs, wood-burning fireplaces, checkerboards, old-timey feel, Petticoat Junction.
Drucker's General Store, Sam Drucker.
There's Uncle Joe moving kind of slow at the junction.
These weren't accidents.
They were deliberate signals of tradition, permanence and belonging.
And by erasing the logo, by imposing DEI, by corporatizing the brand, Messina was trying to tell you that America is over.
The globalist ESG approved America, that's here to stay.
Well, I don't buy it, and neither should you, and we're not buying it.
Now there are consequences.
We've seen how this movie ends.
Butlely didn't just lose sales, they lost their place in culture.
They became a punchline, a cautionary tale.
Do you think Cracker Barrelrels customers overwhelmingly traditional, conservative, southern, middle class families?
You want to say white?
Go ahead.
Say white.
Go ahead.
It's okay.
You're afraid to say it, aren't you?
White.
I would venture to say, now maybe you don't know this because I know this, being from the South, son of the South, I can tell you this.
Black folks and white folks.
Hillbillies, black folks got along.
Same food, same everything.
Soul food is country food.
Country food, they're the same.
They're interchangeable.
Interchangeable.
But here, we look at this as white.
We looked at Uncle Ben as some kind of a disparaging, because it's a Rorschach test.
It's a Rorschach.
Aunt Jemima was, why is she, why is it?
It says, it almost says, oh, you can't do that.
Why all that?
Because anytime you show a picture of a black woman, she's got to be a slave.
Wait a minute.
This is the racist, the most racist thing in the world.
the most racist thing in the world because what they're doing is by virtue of this weird kind of collection, this connectivity that they do let me tell you something the question you got to ask is do you think cracker barrels customers again traditional conservative southern middle class families in
a world right now where we're going back to southern traditions like rushing and fraternities and sororities and Sydney Sweeneys sweenies and blonde haired blue-eyed cheerleader types.
You know what I mean?
Barbie.
Remember when Barbie, oh, Barbie drove the Barbie kind of went under the radar, but Barbie was this.
Do you think these middle-class families are going to stick around and clap for this?
Not a chance.
They'll walk.
They'll take their money, their families, and their loyalty elsewhere.
And that's exactly what's going to happen.
And when they do, shareholders are going to ask, Who made this decision?
Who thought this was smart?
And the answer will be one name, Julie Thelce Massino.
And she'll say, well, I did it because they told me to do this.
Now, what's the solution?
There's only one way out for Cracker Barrel.
Massino needs to resign immediately, not next year, not after the next earnings call, not after some meaningless listening tour with customers.
Now, today, she has betrayed the very base that built the company into a cultural staple.
She has chosen Wall Street over Main Street.
She's chosen woke politics over American tradition.
I'm going to say this again.
American tradition.
American tradition.
There was somebody said Eskimo pies.
RC Cola and a moon pie.
Key lime pie.
Key lime pie is always white.
Not green.
The Target CEO stepped down, right?
The Target CEO stepped down.
Good.
This one.
See, this is ridiculous.
You're bringing us back to America.
You're making me, who never cared for this.
You never meet, by the way, just see that poor judge, that nice judge, a beloved reality TV judge, Frank Caprio died at 88 after his cancer battle.
I liked him.
NYPD welcomes nearly 1100 recruits to the academy, the largest class in almost a decade.
Things are turning around.
Meanwhile, New York is looking to have this Zoran Mamdani.
That's another story.
I don't want to get into that right now.
Cracker Barrel's board needs to restore leadership that understands the brand's roots, that cherishes its aesthetic and that respects its customer base.
It's that simple because you've got to bring back the old logo, recommit to Americana, scrap this DEI bureaucracy nonsense and hire on merit, hire on merit, return Cracker Barrel to what it was, a place for families, for comfort, for tradition.
This is simple.
Because here's the truth.
Americans don't want sterile corporate ESG compliant restaurants.
They want authenticity.
They want something that feels like it belongs to them, not to BlackRock.
And closing a closing word on this subject.
This fight isn't about a logo.
It's about whether tradition still matters.
I'm dead serious about this.
Whether companies are going to stand with their customers or sell out to woke ideology.
Whether the soul, I'm going to say it, whether the soul of America.
can survive the globalist cultural purge.
So Julie Felce Massino, you chose the wrong side, Missy.
You're the Bud Light CEO of the Cracker Barrel disaster.
And if Cracker Barrel's board has any sense, they'll send her packing because the rocking chairs out front are empty now for good, thanks to you.
Because let me tell you something, the American people have had enough.
We're not funding our own cultural destruction anymore, and we're not subsidizing DEI lunacy, that's a give it.
And we're certainly not going to sit quietly while an institution like Cracker Barrel is gutted in broad daylight.
And the customers built Cracker Barrel.
I keep thinking about my parents, they love that.
And the customers can tear it down if they need to.
but Massino should resign.
Absolutely.
Tradition has to be restored.
And the message to every corporation in America right now is very, very simply this.
Betray your base and you will pay.
You will pay for this.
You think I'm overreacting?
Do you think I'm overreacting?
Do you think I'm what?
I'm looking at this.
For the first time in 48 years, the Cracker Barrel will be text only with no images.
Since 1969, they had this very simple.
I'm trying to look.
It's like, why is it?
It was just old country store.
That's it.
It's just incredible.
It's so, it is so.
This is where, this is suicide.
Look at this cinnamon roll skillet.
Look at these things they've got.
And they've got some new things.
It's like, okay, that's all right.
This is so stupid.
So stupid.
I don't know, I do not understand it.
There comes a time, my friend, when there comes a time when we have to recognize a couple of things here.
And sometimes you gotta ask yourself, when tradition means something, and traditional means not stayed and stodgy and does it mean that?
It means something else.
It means something different.
It means just like with country music or blues or something that's authentic.
It goes back to the way it was, something really serious.
The Brad says, oh, Al Roker, 71.
Robert Plant, 77.
Connie Chung, 79.
Ron Paul is 90.
Don King's 94.
Love the Cracker Barrel.
Thank you, Brad.
Absolutely.
There were things that are just, you know, we have in New York, we have a place, we have a couple of candy stores, like candy.
There's one soda fountain.
There's a couple of places still around.
The old time deli, we're losing delis because of different, because of rents going up.
But there's some New York stuff, the idea of the automat we don't have anymore.
There are certain things, certain things need to change.
But you should let the market decide.
Sometimes things are not the same.
Do you know, by the way, you know what killed the automat, believe it or not?
Horn and Harder and others.
People coming in and just saying, the homeless.
Homeless people who just stayed there and just wasted there, really frightened people.
That's what did it.
Certain things don't, here in New York, there's this classic, there's something that is so huge.
Used to be a dollar slice pizza.
Now it's about 50.
Everywhere.
It's the biggest thing.
New York now, at least Manhattan, I should say.
But there are some things that are old-fashioned places that are wonderful in anybody if you're from Tampa or the South., especially around West Tampa, they had these Chinito Criollo, Chinese Creole, Chinese Cuban, Chinese Cuban, Chinese Cuban food.
Think about that one.
I love that one.
Chinese Cuban.
It's the most incredible thing in the world.
Chinese Cuban.
You would get like an egg roll and black beans and yellow rice.
And they had it was it was like really they had one in Tampa called El Gran Dragon de Oro, the big golden dragon.
It was Chinese.
There is a place we went to.
Remember the old-fashioned, original kind of...
What was that place in...
Not Ruby Foose, but what's in New York?
It was a great...
One of these great...
Like the place you go to in Denville.
Like the Szechuan Palace.
There are these old-fashioned, pagoda-looking...
Not Ruby Foos or something like that, but we go to this place in Denville.
And it looks like a scene.
What is that called?
Sichuan, something or other?
I don't know what it's called.
Hunan Taste.
There you go.
and it reminds me of what original old-fashioned kind of not gaudy but 60s style traditional and the reason why I like it is traditional and there was Chinese that was really interesting but they had chop suey and egg fu yang and stuff like that there's something to be said for this Xunli Palace on the west side has that Those are just classic places.
Another thing too that nobody will ever talk about.
In the South, and I know that what I'm talking about.
If you want authentic ribs, you would go to barbecue.
You would go to a black provider, a black restaurant, if you will.
And it might be in a parking lot.
It might be next to a church.
It might be in the projects.
And you would get basically paper.
They would give you a white, red, the ribs on top, sauce always on the side.
They would lather it.
There were some nominal sides.
And they probably didn't have a health certificate to their name.
And there was this huge man dripping, sweating, with a big mop.
And it was 100% black.
Black owned, black patrons.
And that's where you went.
would stop that nobody would stop that and you went there because they were black just like if you go to Chinatown you want to see Chinese people That was their cuisine.
That was authentic.
Nobody had a problem with that.
But if it's the opposite, if it's southern and considered white, well, that's a different story.
I'm tired of this.
I'm tired of this.
I mean, I am tired.
And please, I want to say this again.
Do not think for a moment.
Please, do not think for a moment.
And I mean this.
Do not think for a moment that this is something that we just tolerate, that we have no say over.
Please don't think that.
We want America.
And America, by the way, is everything.
There are places when it comes to food and the like.
Those of you who have been, because remember in Tampa, my hometown, Cuban was it.
La Terracita, the longest counter, I think, ever, where you would go with real Cuban folks.
Real Cuban folks, you don't have cafe with leche in the morning with the bread and the, oh, authentic.
Morros and Christianos.
White rice and black beans.
Black and white.
The Moors and the Christians.
Hello.
Real.
Legit.
It's exactly what you wanted.
And that's what this was.
But for some reason, the white Southern culture, that's wrong.
That's racist.
That's the Klan.
That's racist.
We've had enough of this.
We've had enough of this.
So what I'm saying, ladies and gentlemen, do not think I'm overreacting.
When I saw this today, I had to jump on and talk to you about that.
This just absolutely insults me to no end.
It's one of those things that I just find to be absolutely horrible, horrific, beyond horrible, beyond terrible.
And there's something, I'm serious.
There's something about it which is just, it goes to show you, it goes to show you how we have lost our minds.
Now, next.
Everybody, did you know that man who died, the judge, did you?
you ever watch him anybody watch him well he had a very interesting judge frank caprio and he had uh i guess he was in new england somewhere boston or road island or i don't know where he was and he was very nice and he let people go and he would just dismiss tickets.
Just, I mean, he was really kind of like a, he was a terrible judge because you just don't, you don't dismiss something because you like somebody, you know, but anyway, but that was fine.
But you know what he did?
He was nice and he gave a kind of a, in this era of judge, you know, Judy, that, that bitch, you know, that, ugh, horrible Harrod and those, these stupid judges that were mean.
He was somebody who was nice.
John Feeney says, I bet Waffle House market share will increase also.
I hope so.
Waffle House, anybody been to a Waffle House, they have a thing where if they miss the addition, they didn't even have, they had some guy adding it up, you get a free steak dinner or whatever it was.
Anthony Bourdain talked about Waffle House.
Waffle House, there was something to that.
There was, I like places that are traditional.
I like places that were known for something.
There was something in New York, excuse me, in Newark, many people, I think Dickie Deez is one, I think the White house or white it's called the italian hot dog very few people know about it very few have you who's heard of it it's called you ever heard about an italian hot dog honey you're a jersey girl and it's this thing called a pizza roll first time i said what's a pizza roll i don't know what it is but
it's probably only in newark and in it they have two Frankfurter's hot dogs kind of like Rutz hot maybe fried but with it potatoes green peppers potatoes green peppersppers on this roll and ketchup.
It's the wildest thing.
It is an institution and a couple of people do that.
In Jersey, they have this place, Rut's Hot, these poppers.
They take hot dogs, they throw them in this fire and they pop them.
It's the same as.
And it's a little hole in the wall.
It's a little joint that, you know.
Remember that place at Belmont Tavern?
They talked about this little place wherever.
I don't care where it is.
I would love to go on pizza tours.
You know.
You gotta watch this.
Well, anyway, Detroit versus Chicago versus New York versus, anyway, that's America.
That's diversity.
That's it.
I'm telling you.
And if you want Greek food, Astoria, Queens, Queens is it.
And in Florida, Pinellas County, Tarpon Springs.
So what I'm trying to tell you, my friend, is simply this.
I don't like nostalgia for the sake of nostalgia.
That's not my thing.
I'm not, I'm not, what makes this country great is heterogeneity and classic.
Classic.
Everybody.
Everybody has the right to enjoy something that they like.
And I'm telling you right now, the reason why it's called Cracker Barrel and it was associated with white people.
Don't kid yourself.
Sounds stupid, doesn't it?
And if it sounds stupid, it must be true.
All right, dear friends, have a great, great, and a great and a glorious day.
Thank you so much.
watching misses L before for her Lynns Warriors live I appreciate this don't forget subscribe here to Lynel Nation also tonight one aM wonderful 1-5 on WABC overnights.
I'm going to talk about this as well.
This is a very serious deal for me.
This is a very Brewster's Chicken in Tampa and Clearwater.
Look at that.
Remember when Moses White, Big Tim's BBQ in St. Pete, Sat Man's on Bush Boulevard, member of the Lupton family?
Everybody go on and on.
All right, dear friends.
Don't forget.
The rules have changed.
And by the way, you still don't know what happened regarding Trump and the White House.
Still don't know.
Regarding Ukraine, I have no idea.
All right, my friends, have a great and a glorious day.
You've been terrific.
Thank you so much.
And for our dear friends, thank you for The Brad and John Feeney.
Thank you for your kindness and your support.
And everyone who supports Lionel Nation, your contributions and your support mean the world to us.
We never, ever, ever take you for granted, ever.
All right, dear friends, have a great and a glorious day.
We'll see you later.
Don't forget The Monkey's Dead.
The show's over, Suya.
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