MAKE IT STOP!

The usually peaceful town of Duncan, Oklahoma, where I've lived for 15 years, today has become part of the growing list of places where lack of sufficient gun control has taken its toll. According to reports, 3 people were fatally shot this morning at the Walmart store here.

Senator Chris Murphy, in 2012, wrote important words, quoted in full in my post HERE - including:

"None of this is inevitable. I know this because no other country endures this pace of mass carnage like America. It is uniquely and tragically American. As long as our nation chooses to flood the county with dangerous weapons and consciously let those weapons fall into the hands of dangerous people, these killings will not abate.

"As my colleagues go to sleep tonight, they need to think about whether the political support of the gun industry is worth the blood that flows endlessly onto the floors of American churches, elementary schools, movie theaters, and city streets. Ask yourself – how can you claim that you respect human life while choosing fealty to weapons-makers over support for measures favored by the vast majority of your constituents.

"My heart breaks for Sutherland Springs. Just like it still does for Las Vegas. And Orlando. And Charleston. And Aurora. And Blacksburg. And Newtown. Just like it does every night for Chicago. And New Orleans. And Baltimore. And Bridgeport. The terrifying fact is that no one is safe so long as Congress chooses to do absolutely nothing in the face of this epidemic. The time is now for Congress to shed its cowardly cover and do something."

Guest Post: Have You Ever Wondered What Happened To Vlasic Pickles?

Guest Post (or mild rant) by "anyjazz", my husband:

Walmart has had its own “house brand” lines of products as far back as 1993; "Equate", "Dr. Thunder" and "Sam's Choice" to name just three. There are several products from cheese to canned beans now merchandised in their “Great Value” label. That is not so unusual; Homeland has “Best Choice”, Costco has “Kirkland”, Target has “Up and UP” and Safeway has “Lucerne” and others. I read recently that Amazon is expanding their own “Elements” product line, into food items. Do the retailers do this because they want to make less profit on their sales? Of course not.

So Walmart’s “Great Value” line is not a new thing and really not a problem with me.

But there is a problem.

While we shop at Homeland or our local independent grocer as much as possible, there are times we find ourselves in the crowded aisles at our Walmart Superstore. During these shopping visits, I believe I have seen an emerging pattern that annoys me.

The “Great Value” product is packaged similar to the name brand packaging in size and color and design. And worse, there’s more of it. Sometimes the stock of the name brand product you might be looking for has been allowed to deteriorate to nothing, while the “Great Value” product can be found in prominence.

For an example, I went looking for a light bulb for a small night lamp. I found a six foot section of display almost depleted of the Sylvania, Westinghouse and GE brands, while next to it was a fully stocked section of “Great Value” light bulbs.

I found examples where a name brand product had been moved to another location in the store, and in the usual location, instead, was the "Great Value" brand of the item you went to buy. Since the house brand packaging is designed and printed in colors to approximate the name brand, you may not even notice you are getting a house brand.

So the clever Walmart merchandisers are in a deliberate campaign to get their “Great Value” line into the shopping carts by sleight of hand or chicanery or whatever method works. If you pick up their brand by mistake or out of desperation because you can’t find the brand you were shopping for, they don’t care.

No. They do not accidentally, unintentionally run out of anything. Walmart (as do many large retailers) has the most sophisticated perpetual inventory system one can find. They know without visiting each shelf, how much of each product, in each size, color and flavor they have in stock at any given moment. A low stock situation automatically triggers an ordering system to bring the item back to established stock limit conditions. Some stores receive DAILY stock trucks to maintain their inventory.

Walmart ran out of something? Not unless they wanted to.

Sears and Roebuck, the big merchandiser of the past, used to buy huge amounts of stock from a smaller manufacturing company. They would maintain orders for a period and then cease ordering suddenly. The smaller company often went bankrupt because of the loss of projected revenue. Sears would step in and buy the smaller company and resume manufacturing under one of their own brand names like Kenmore, Craftsman, Jaclyn Smith and Country Living.

Now, you don’t suppose Walmart, the world’s largest company, does the same thing? Here is an article describing Walmart’s activity:
“The Walmart You Don’t Know”.

So my problem is, I guess, I am not comfortable with being tricked into getting something I had not intended to purchase.

And here is another article showing the insidious power of the world’s largest company.

http://www.businessinsider.com/wal-mart-suddenly-closes-stores-2015-4

THE WEEK THAT WAS

Still playing out: several sites carried casting suggestions for what is an inevitable outcome of the Petraeus Affair and attendant misdemeanors: a movie. Suggestions for "King David": Daniel Craig or Nicholas Cage. Ms Broadwell, Ms Kelley (interchangeable brunettes): Marisa Tomei and Sandra Bullock. General Allen: Bruce Willis. Mrs Holly Petraeus: Judi Dench.

Twinkies, a "delicacy" to which I was introduced briefly by my husband eager to display the dubious delights of his US childhood to a newly arrived Brit - are no more. Texas-based Hostess, makers of Twinkies, and other, equally dubious delights, is reported to be shutting up shop. The shut-down will put 18,500 workers at 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers out of work. The company blames a bakers' strike. Cynical others (myself included) suspect the following 4-point plan:

1.Ensure company will soon be on the rocks.
2.Force a strike by threatening a variety of unacceptable changes to worker conditions
3.At a moment politically ripe (Democrat returns to White House) file Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings
4.Blame union.

Without a union, Walmart staff are once again cranking up action in readiness for a huge walk-out on Black Friday - the day after Thanksgiving.
More power to them !

In today's Huffington Post: Walmart's Internal Compensation Documents Reveal Systematic Limit On Advancement.

AND an excellent post at Cannonfire What to do about Walmart

A CEO, John C. Metz, who owns numerous franchises - most in the restaurant business in Florida - best nationally-known being several Denny's diners has decided to
levy a 5% surcharge on his menu items, tell customers it is to cover the increased costs of the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. Not a hanging offence and understandable in one way, if a rather excessive amount. But then he also intends to decrease many of his his employees' hours, so as to avoid having to provide health care cover and pay those costs for which he is charging his customers.

"If I leave the prices the same, but say on the menu that there is a 5 percent surcharge for Obamacare, customers have two choices. They can either pay it and tip 15 or 20 percent, or if they really feel so inclined, they can reduce the amount of tip they give to the server, who is the primary beneficiary of Obamacare," Metz told The Huffington Post. "Although it may sound terrible that I'm doing this, it's the only alternative. I've got to pass the cost on to the consumer."

Metz is the franchisor of Hurricane Grill & Wings, which has 48 locations, five of which are corporate owned, and president and owner of RREMC Restaurants, which runs approximately 40 Denny's and several Dairy Queen locations. He planned to use the 5 percent surcharge tactic in all his restaurants starting in January 2014, when Obamacare is fully implemented.

Interesting comment under the HuffPo article:

I have no problem with these right wing fools pushing this BS. This has the potential to push us in two directions. One is of course a push towards a single payer (health care)system, a system that will be much better for the vast majority of our country. The other less obvious one is a push towards working class solidarity that could really lead to the fundamental changes we need to see in our entire economic system. Perhaps even a push to replace the current capital driven system with a worker owned and worker driven system. Look if we get rid of these non-producers at the top of these organizations, people who earn their living off of doing nothing other than exploiting the sweat and effort of others and put the producers (i.e. the employees) in charge then we can get rid of this exploitation cost and put that money in the pockets of the working people of this country, people who will be much more concerned about social outcomes than these current financiers that care only about how much money lines their pockets

Walmart Strikers: "A tiny ripple of hope.."

Bravo to the striking workers of Walmart, who have never been allowed to unionize, a fact that has led to poor working conditions, inadequate pay, and retaliation from the employer if workers dare to speak out against conditions. Enough is enough, they've said - and not before time!
(Photo:Matt Hamilton)

Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope. 

~ Robert F. Kennedy

Trades unions have been de-fanged by conservative governments and weak-kneed liberal administrations have failed to bring back balance to the situation, leaving "The People" - ordinary people - without recourse to right any wrongs perpetrated upon them. What other avenue did, and do, we The People have? What power do ordinary people now hold? None. Our votes at election time can be easily manipulated by the power of money and bought media.

In the 1950s workers found their strength in the union movement. They took things a tad too too far though, and lessons must be learned from that. Downfall of the unions at the hands of the dreadful Margaret Thatcher in Britain, and conservative administrations in the USA followed. Trades unions: the only tool of The People are effectively supressed, but events such as these Walmart strikes, small as they may be, could light a spark which will could spread to a blaze in a fairly short span of time.

Piece by Adil Ahmed at Policymic.com

While presidential candidates are fighting over accurate jobs numbers, Wal-Mart's associates are striving to address income inequality and depraved working conditions.

The first retail worker strike against Wal-Mart has spread from Los Angeles, where it began last week, to stores in a dozen cities, a union official said Tuesday. According to the Huffington Post, Wal-Mart workers walked off the job in Dallas, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay area, Miami, the Washington, D.C., area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Chicago and Orlando, said Dan Schlademan, director of the United Food and Commercial Workers' Making Change At Wal-Mart campaign. Workers also went on strike in parts of Kentucky, Missouri and Minnesota, he said.

Tuesday's walkouts included 88 workers from 28 stores ... a fraction of the 1.4 million who work at Wal-Mart, the world's largest private employer. Until Friday, when about 60 Wal-Mart employees walked off the job for a day in LA, no Wal-Mart retail workers had ever gone on strike, the union said.

The workers are protesting company attempts to "silence and retaliate against workers for speaking out for improvements on the job," according to a United Food and Commercial Workers news release. Walmart workers, who are not unionized, have long complained of low pay and a lack of benefits.

These workers must be heard. Here are 9 reasons why:

1) In under a week, a strike that started out of a Los Angeles warehouse has spread to over 12 cities across the country. Clearly, the workers’ issues of poverty-wages, horrendous working conditions, and unaffordable health care policies are widely and deeply felt. Moreover, they are specific and can be addressed directly with management.

2) 90% of Americans live within 15 minutes of a Wal-Mart. As the walk-outs persist, Wal-Mart associates will be able to educate more customers about their employer’s abusive working conditions. Flyering at a Wal-Mart can potentially have the reach of a major Super PAC ad buy.

3) As the general public engages the strikers, so will the media. As the press investigates, the truth will unfurl. The last time this happened, it was discovered that Wal-Mart de Mexico had allegedly been involved in a bribery campaign to open new stores. This seems like the tip of an iceberg. Who knows what will come out next?

4) As the workers’ issues gain more press, straddling politicians will get off the fence...............(See the rest at link above)

WEEKEND WINKS

I look on it as a daily necessity to check "People of Walmart" to make sure nobody has presented a shot of me or himself or both of us (chuckles!) It could happen. We must remember, from now on, never to go shopping in our jammies, and his dinky lion's head slippers.

I saw these two photographs earlier in the week (29 September) and thought:

"Could that barcode on the guy's head be his astrological data - scan it and a beautiful natal chart appears in hologram?" It might be a thing of the distant future - a prediction waiting to happen.


"And is the tall guy in the other photograph an astrologer?" With a tie like that he ought to be, either that or he should be arrested by the fashion police. To be honest, I do quite like that tie, he's brave to wear it, and I'm brave to admit to liking it. Wonder if he has Sun in Aquarius?






After discovering "The Funny Times" the other day I decided to subscribe. A monthly dose of cartoon humour could be a useful antidote to newspapers, on-line and off, which tend to raise blood pressure. We impatiently await our first issue, but in the meantime I hope the paper's publishers and the author of this cartoon strip, Eric Per1in will allow my inclusion of this example. It's from from sometime in 2008, I think. Threre's a point embedded in it, one which could vary depending on one's own point of view....:


BASELESS BELIEFS by Eric Per1in





PS~~~~ My desktop computer crashed on Friday morning, I'm using the laptop until techs at our local computer shop can diagnose what went wrong, and whether or not I've lost everything on the hard drive. Typographical errors and other nonsensities might emerge more often than usual now, so - apologies in advance!

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT

A trio of light-hearted links to accompany the morning coffee, or your Sunday tipple of choice.




Walmart - Sam Walton's brainchild grown into a somewhat obnoxious adult, has become the store many people love to hate. Some, with camera in hand, find it a source of good natured (I hope) fun. Some of these photos (and the captions) are precious! Note: the pages date back to August, when the site originated. When I first stumbled on the site I wondered if the whole concept was simply mean, cruel even. According to the site's rules, it seems that the subjects have given permission for the publication of these photos - bless 'em, they probably even laughed at themselves. You have to love the oddness of life in the raw - it's what makes it all real, and gives the lie to overdone perfection.

PEOPLE OF WALMART



Then there's CRAFTASTROPHE......"because handmade isn't always pretty".


AND...I found Leeuna Foster's blog only recently, but will be a regular reader from now on: "MY MIND WANDERED....and it never came back." The post titled "I shaved my Legs For This" had me laughing out loud, several times. I can relate closely to the writer's experiences at her doctor's office.

Sam Walton, his Walmart, his astrology.

Sam Walton - the founder of American supermarket giant Walmart was born this week in 1918, on 29 March.

On the night I first arrived in Oklahoma with HeWhoKnows, after fighting my way for many months through visa and immigration red tape, house sale, and a variety of other obstacles, my very first experience(at 2am!)was a trip to Walmart to fill up the fridge.

Since that night I've grown to realise that though Walmart has many benefits, especially for the inhabitants of small towns in rural America, it has grown into a monster.

Sam Walton was born in Oklahoma, in a small town called Kingfisher. After reading a little of his biography I was struck by a similarity between Sam Walton and Earl P. Halliburton (about whom I wrote HERE). Both men rose from poor backgrounds and through sheer hard work and determination became owners of two of the biggest companies America has known, companies which in later years, after the deaths of their founders, have become two of the most hated comapnies, in America, and in the world. Walmart is accused of using virtual slave labour in developing countries to produce goods to sell at low prices in America, of treating its staff abysmally, not providing adequate health cover for them, and generally acting like the big bully in the world of retail.

From Answers.com
"Sam Walton, with his brother Bud Walton, founded Wal-Mart, the chain of discount variety stores that in the 1990s became the world's largest retailer. Sam Walton went into the retail business in 1945, and by the time Wal-Mart first opened in 1962 he owned a chain of 15 variety stores in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Walton's savvy marketing skills and attention to detail led to Wal-Mart's expansion throughout the United States. By 1990 Wal-Mart was the nation's top retailer in terms of sales, and Walton was one of the richest men in the world. After his death in 1992 the company continued to expand, including online commerce and stores around the world. By 2001 there were more than 4,500 Wal-Mart stores worldwide.
Since Walton's death the chain has come under fire for its labor practices and aggressive marketing tactics. Arguing that Wal-Marts drove out other merchants, many local communities fought to keep new stores from opening, and in June of 2004 a lawsuit was filed on behalf of 1.6 million women, charging that Wal-Mart discriminated against female employees".

ASTROLOGY:
Sam Walton was born with Sun and Mercury in Aries. Again and again in various biographical articles he is referred to as "a pioneer in the retail industry" - very appropriate ! "Pioneer" is a standard keyword for Aries.
Venus and Uranus are conjoined within 2 degrees in Aquarius, from which placement, no doubt came his drive towards implementing massive change in the retail industry, in the form of supermarket merchandising. Venus/Uranus sextile Mercury and form a "Yod", which is an arrow like configuration formed by two inconjunct aspects from the sextiled planets,to Mars in Virgo. I'd read this as signifying Mr Walton's ability to combine his Aries pioneering with Aquarian foresight and innovation and to channel them through a dynamic and service oriented Mars in Virgo. We cannot know for certain the position of the Moon or ascendant in his chart as birthtime is unknown. At noon Moon was at 1* Scorpio, so there's a possibility that it could have been positioned in Libra had he been born early in the day - I'd guess that he DID have Moon in Libra, for with Sun in Aries he'd have two main bodies in cardinal signs (the initiators), as well as Pluto in Cancer, another cardinal sign. I'm surprised not to see business-oriented Capricorn figuring in Mr Walton's chart. Perhaps his ascendant was there. Had he been born around 2 or 3 am his ascendant would be Capricorn and Moon in Libra - I like that!

Both Earl P. Halliburton and Sam Walton personified "The American Dream" in those early days. Their dream gradually, over many years, has grown into a nightmare. I often wonder how these two men would now view their 'progeny'.